Catch-22 :: essays research papers fc

Catch-What      Catch-22 is one of the most ineffectively developed, and offensive books I’ve ever perused. It’s request of occasions, or absence of request, turns out to be clear after the absolute first section. Actually â€Å"It doesn’t even appear to have been composed; rather it gives the impression of having been yelled onto paper† (Stern 50). By the center of the book it appears to be each character in the book has lost any feeling of ethical quality they may have appeared to have. The tale â€Å"gasps for need of specialty and sensibility† (Stern 50).â â â â â I can't help thinking that the best way to maintain track of the control of occasions all through the book is to focus on what number of missions Colonel Cathcart has alloted. Promptly, considerably after the primary section, sequential request isn't followed. As indicated by â€Å"The Structure of Joseph Heller’s Catch-22† by Jan Solomon the request for occasions appeared to follow two changed timetables. The first, obviously, was that of Yossarian. Yossarian’s course of events follows his â€Å"psychological view of events† (Potts 20). The other course of events that shows up in the book, as indicated by Solomon, is that of Milo Minderbinder. Indeed, even this translation of the book having a request for occasions has several defects in it. The greatest is that Milo and Yossarian are referenced together in the book before they are presented later in the book. The most obvious occasion that rung a bell, was that they showed up together at Snowden’s memorial service in the tree before they were presented later in the book, which is in reality prior in time.      The book shows how close to home ethics are obliterated when confronted with the idea of not being there the following day. â€Å"Many early reviewers†¦ griped that the novel had no good center† (Potts 67). The ladies in the book endure the hardest shot. The names Heller provides for the ladies, on the off chance that he gives them a name by any stretch of the imagination, plainly states how they are depicted, for example, Nately’s Whore, Nurse Duckett, and Dori Duz. Despite the fact that Scheisskopf's better half and Luciana don’t have interesting names, they are depicted like different ladies too. A case of how hostile the ladies were in the book would be when Scheisskopf’s spouse and Dori Duz laid down with all the men positioned in the United States under Lieutenant Scheisskopf. The men in the book, in any case, are similarly as awful as the ladies. Colonel Cathcart shows how he is driven with ravenousness and childish aspiration.

Insanity Defense free essay sample

One of the first craziness barriers is characterized by the M’Naghten Test; it is still as of now being utilized by twenty five states. The M’Naghten Test expresses that a respondent ought not be considered answerable for his activities just if, because of his psychological illness or imperfection, he didn't have the foggiest idea about that his demonstration would not be right; or didn't comprehend the nature and nature of his activities. The Durham/New Hampshire Test is another type of craziness guard. This test expresses that a litigant is can be not seen not as liable if his psychological instability was the explanation behind the wrongdoing. This is otherwise called the Product Test. This test has a lot more extensive standards in regards to the madness resistance; be that as it may, it dealt with the issue of perhaps indicting intellectually sick litigants. This could and happened when utilizing the MNaghten Rule. The Durham standard did anyway draw a ton of analysis because of its extended meaning of lawful craziness and the straightforwardness at which a few litigants had the option to utilize it. The Insanity Defense Reform Act of 1984, in actuality, truly changed the meaning of madness and how it could be utilized by a respondent as well as their lawyers. Essentially it returned the capacity to supplication madness to the Victorian era’s thought of good and bad, after the first M’Naghten case in the homicide of Robert Peel. This demonstration reflects the MNaghten decides aside from that it necessitates that the respondent must experience the ill effects of an extreme mental deformity, and, all the more significantly it puts the weight on the litigant to demonstrate by clear and persuading proof that there is a serious mental imperfection, this is a turn to typical court strategy where the weight of evidence would regularly be on the state. This is a substantially more severe guideline achieved by Congress in light of the John Hinckley quittance and the open shock that followed. Representative Strom Thurmond vigorously reprimanded the madness resistance utilized by Hinckley’s legal counselors for excusing a respondent who clearly arranged and knew precisely what he was doing. There is a case in Texas that includes Andre Thomas, who is as of now waiting for capital punishment for the homicide of his significant other and two kids. After he murdered them he cut out their souls and hefted them around in his pocket. Preceding being put being investigated for homicide he culled out his own correct eye, and from that point forward, waiting for capital punishment he has gouged out his outstanding eye and ate it The Texas courts state that he isn't crazy, nor does he endure any extreme mental inadequacies. An appointed authority on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals wrote in an agreeing forswearing of his allure that Thomas is unmistakably insane, yet he is likewise normal under Texas law. After drug and mental treatment, Mr. Thomas was discovered equipped to stand preliminary, on the grounds that by then he had the option to discuss unmistakably with and help his lawyer with all due respect. At preliminary, he was seen as normal at the hour of the wrongdoing since he realized the distinction among good and bad and will be killed on the off chance that he comprehends what execution means and why he is being killed. In spite of the fact that he was ineffective in his madness request, he ought to be the banner kid for change for the craziness resistance, particularly after the automatic responses that caused the Insanity Reform Act of 1984. For another situation from November of 1978 a previous San Francisco City Supervisor, Dan White, shot and murdered Mayor George Moscone and Harvey Milk. The respondent broke into City Hall through a storm cellar window to maintain a strategic distance from metal identifiers, utilized especially deadly ammo, and reloaded his weapon in any event once during the wrongdoings. White was indicted in 1979 for Voluntary Manslaughter after his lawyers mounted what might get known as the â€Å"Twinkie Defense†. This was a misnomer, since Twinkies were never really raised or alluded to at the preliminary. Martin Blinder, a therapist, affirmed that Dan White was seriously discouraged at the hour of the shootings. A few elements were refered to that demonstrated White’s profound discouragement; he had stopped working and purposely maintained a strategic distance from any contact his significant other and family. White, who was normally spotless cut, was tousled and filthy in appearance, he likewise was recently known as a wellness devotee who had as of late started devouring extensive measures of shoddy nourishment and soda pops. This as per Blinder was a consequence of his profound untreated sorrow. Another specialist, George Solomon, affirmed that White had detonated and was kind of on programmed pilot at the hour of the killings. Resistance lawyers were effective in convincing the jury that White was decreased in his psychological limit with regards to normal idea and legal hearers discovered him unequipped for the deliberation that would be required to get a homicide conviction. In Michigan, in 1977, Francine Hughes slaughtered her better half Mickey by pouring gas all finished and around their bed while he was flushed and dropped, lit the fuel and consumed him to death. At her preliminary she professed to have been beaten for more than fourteen years by a harsh spouse who took steps to kill her various occasions on the off chance that she attempted to leaving him. She and her lawyer asserted that she had been briefly crazy at the hour of the killing and was not liable thus. The jury concurred and she was absolved. Her case was one of the antecedents to the battered women’s condition as a guard, and evidence of a women’s right to self protection in her own home. This is an ideal case model for the utilization of the impermanent craziness supplication. The madness supplication as a protection positively has its place among the courts and the American equity framework. It is appalling however, that some prominent cases get all the media inclusion and will in general eclipse different situations where the litigant is definitely crazy or in any event unequipped for figuring out what is directly from wrong. On account of Andre Thomas who is waiting for capital punishment, I don’t know about anybody that would fight that he is rational. Surely he isn't sufficiently normal to have stood preliminary and be waiting for capital punishment. In the event that we need to powerfully sedate somebody to get them to a point where they can at long last acknowledge what they have done isn't right, how might we say that they were normal at the hour of the wrongdoing when they were unmedicated? How is it conceivable that we need to mightily sedate somebody with the goal that they comprehend that they will be executed and why? On the off chance that they were unmedicated might they be able to get it? Doesn’t this show they ought to be under mental or mental clinical consideration and not under the punishment of death? I am not saying that they ought to ever be let free on the avenues again, at the same time, to kill somebody who was crazy or of lessened mental limit at the hour of a wrongdoing, is considerably increasingly crazy to me, killing them isn't the appropriate response, it’s lamentable.

Blog Archive Monday Morning Essay Tip A Different Optional Essay

Blog Archive Monday Morning Essay Tip A Different Optional Essay In the past, we have advised MBA candidates to exercise caution in choosing to write the optional essay. (See our Monday Morning Essay Tip: The Optional Mistake.) Our philosophy has not changed on this point, but we do want to make MBA candidates aware of certain circumstances, other than discussing a problem area, that may necessitate writing an optional essay. For example, if you have achieved something absolutely extraordinary that is relevant to your candidacyâ€"something that truly strikes at the essence of who you areâ€"but that will simply not fit as an answer to any of the schools essay questions, then you should consider writing the optional essay to illuminate the experience and its importance to you. We would advise a candidate to make  this exception only in the most unique of circumstances and remind applicants that they should still be quite conservative in their use of this space. Again, this is not the place for a 500-word “extra” essay, but a few sentences illustrating the extraordinary experience and its significance would be appropriate. Such an experience should be able to stand on its own, so you do not need to belabor the point and agitate the admissions committee with a long essay detailing a variety of themes and accomplishments. Share ThisTweet Monday Morning Essay Tips

Buddhism, Hinduism, But Still From India - 852 Words

If you did not follow Hinduism, but still from India, you may follow Buddhism. This religion founded in North-eastern India is based on the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama known as the Buddha. In most Buddhist traditions, he is regarded as the Supreme Buddha meaning awakened one or the enlightened one†. Originating as a monastic movement within the dominant Brahman tradition of the day, Buddhism quickly developed in a distinctive direction than Hinduism. The Buddha rejected significant aspects of Hindu philosophy, but also he challenged the authority of the priesthood. He denied the validity of the Vedic scriptures, and rejected the sacrificial cult based on them. Moreover, he opened his movement to members of all castes, denying that a person s spiritual worth is a matter of birth or class. Buddhism analyzes human existence as made up of five aggregates: the material body, the feelings, the perceptions, the predispositions, and the consciousness. A person is only a temporary combination of these aggregates, which are subject to continual change. No one of these aggregates remains the same for any two consecutive moments. Buddhists deny that the five aggregates (our material body, our feelings, our perceptions, our predispositions, and our consciousness), individually or in combination, may be considered a permanent and independently existing self or soul (atman). They regard it as a mistake to conceive of any lasting unity behind the elements that constitute anShow MoreRelatedThe Spread of Hinduism and Buddhism in Southeast Asia Essay1413 Words   |  6 PagesHinduism is a very popular religion in India, being that it could possibly be the oldest religion of all time and originated in India, the Hindu population in India is 80%. With Hinduism being such a popular religion, it competes with Christianity and Islam at 900 million followers of Hinduism worldwide (Miksic, 10). As for the popularity of Buddhism, it is not nearly as prevalent as Hinduism is, even in India. A very important attribute to Hinduism is the caste system. The caste system is comprisedRead MoreHinduism vs. Buddhism Essay627 Words   |  3 PagesHinduism and Buddhism are two of the most interesting religions in the world. To date, people still practice these religions in varying parts of the world. Although originating from the country of India, some have difficulty in differentiating between the two. Although Hinduism and Buddhism share many similarities, they are also different. What is Hinduism? Hinduism, the largest of the eastern religion and one of the oldest in the world. (Curry). Hinduism denotes the religions of majority ofRead MoreThe Origins Of The Harappan Civilization1060 Words   |  5 Pagescentury BCE, cities had reemerged in India. In fact, it was a time of intellectual growth for the entire region of Eurasia. In India, it led to the founding of religions that rejected aspects of the existing Brahmanic teachings. Namely, these religions w ere Jainism and Buddhism. In response to the opposing religions, Brahmanism evolved to please the people of India. The new form of Brahmanism was called Hinduism, and it kept the caste system. Although Hinduism did not ignore the caste system, allRead MoreA Linguistic Term For Indo European And Indian History1164 Words   |  5 PagesWestad 2014a). The Aryans brought to India no culture so advanced as that of Harappans (Robert Westad 2014a). When the Aryans appear writing disappeared and does not come back until the middle of the first millennium BCE. Cities were reinvented by the Aryans, which lack the elaboration and order of the gridded pattern of Harappans (Robert Westad 2014a). When the Aryans migrated into the Indus Valley they brought with them a culture that was very different from any other region (Breyer 2004). TheRead MoreHinduism Vs. Buddhism970 Words   |  4 PagesHinduism and Buddhism are two of the most interesting religions in the world. To date, people still pr actice these religions in varying parts of the world especially in India. Although originating from Ancient India, some have difficulty in differentiating between the two. Hinduism and Buddhism share many similarities and also differ immensely. What is Hinduism? Hinduism, often referred to as Sanatana Dharma is the largest of the eastern religion and one of the oldest in the world. â€Å"HinduismRead MoreHinduism And Buddhism : Diversity And World Cultures1021 Words   |  5 Pages8/12/2015 Introduction I have chosen Hinduism and Buddhism as the two religions for this assignment. With religion being such an intricate part of many cultures, I found these religions most interesting due to their similarity. Both of these religions originated in the subcontinent of India, these religions have had an awkward relationship that can be compared to Christianity and Judaism. The belief is that Buddhism is an off shoot of the Hindu religion. My goal is to addressRead More Religion in India Essay1629 Words   |  7 PagesReligion in India What is religion? Religion has always played an important role in man’s existence. It is hard to define religion because every person has, his or her own way of defining religion. For some of us it might be a way of life, which determines what they ear, who their friends are, and it also makes up what culture they follow from day to day. For others, religion simply means going to church or temple and seeing religious festivals. India is the land of culture. This country isRead MoreComparing The Religions Of Hinduism And Buddhism Essay1459 Words   |  6 PagesExam II #2. Compare and contrast the religions of Hinduism and Buddhism. What were the essential differences between the two? What hope did they give to the common people of India ? Both Hinduism and Buddhism are prominent religions in the ancient and modern world. They are arguably two of the most popular polytheistic faiths as well. Most people make the mistake of grouping them as one uniform religion, but this is inaccurate. Buddhism and Hinduism do split some resemblance, but several aspectsRead MoreHinduism and Buddhism: History and Modern Appeal1696 Words   |  7 Pagesestablished religions, Hinduism and Buddhism have their similarities, as well as differences. Both religions are practiced in Southeast Asia, starting in India and have influenced each other. Hinduism dates back to 5,000 years ago, while Buddhism was created three centuries ago. I will explore what the two religions share and what separates the two from one another covering the origins, number of followers, the texts used, and the belief system followed. Origin of Hinduism Hinduism is one of the oldestRead MoreSiddhartha Gautama, Siddhartha And The Country Of Nepal1464 Words   |  6 PagesBuddha was born in a mountain kingdom, north of India, the country of Nepal. His Birth name is Siddhartha Gautama; Siddhartha is a compound of Sanskrit words, sidd and artha. Sidd meaning Perfection and Artha meaning to have a goal, so the overall meaning of Siddhartha is the one whose goal is perfection. He was born in a second highest caste in a Hindu family. In Buddhism, Siddhartha is not considered to be a god; he is just a person and only is considered to have certain abilities, as an extraordinary

The Vietnam War Was A Significant Moment For Canada

The Vietnam War was a historically significant moment for Canada which followed the First and Second World War. This was due to Canada’s large involvement in helping the South of Vietnam in their war efforts. Canada plays a large roll in this war costs and their manufacturing for war materials. One must first know how the war began before understanding how Canada contributed. Although the start of the Vietnam War had nothing to do with Canada, later events in the war were related to Canada largely. The beginning of the war is a crucial part in how we got involved in the Vietnam War. On May 7th 1954, Viet Minh had finally won the Battle of Dien Bien Phu marking the end of the First Indochina War. This was a breakthrough for Vietnam because this meant that France was no longer involved with Vietnam, and the French would then seize fire. A new government would now rule Vietnam. The North of Vietnam was becoming communist while the South of Vietnam was becoming more ant i-communist. The United States of America feared that if communism took over Vietnam, it would then start to spread to South East Asia. The United States of America feared this possibility because it would then be a much greater threat to them than they thought originally. On the 8th of March 1965 the United States of America decided to take action and form an alliance with South Vietnam anti-communist forces and they sent 3, 500 soldiers to fight in the Vietnam War. This number increased veryShow MoreRelatedThe Cold War During World War II2269 Words   |  10 PagesThe Cold War was a crucial war that took place shortly after World War II. The Cold War was a war between the Soviet Union and the United States. It is interesting to note that two countries that worked together as a team and were allies during World War II goes into war against each other shortly after the end of the greatest war in human history. The defeat of Germany and Japan along with the economic devastation that had occurred in Europe left many of the superpowers in the world during thisRead MoreThe Things They Carried1417 Words   |  6 PagesTim O’Brien tells the tale of not about war, but rather about war’s effect on one’s mentality. Ultimately, this novel is built on a foundation of the items that the soldiers of the Vietnam War carried. Whether it was the way Jimmy Cross uses the pebble to escape from his duties as a soldier or when Norman Bowker realizes that courage comes form within, not from receiving a Silver Star; O’Brien uses baggage as a symbol throughout the book to teach that war does in fact change people. These possessionsRead MoreThe Vietnam War On South Vietnam1496 Words   |  6 PagesThe Vietnam War started on the first day of November in 1955. The main opponents were the United States and South Vietnam against North Vietnam and the Vietcong. The Americans wanted to contain communism in fear of it spreading to other countries while the North Vietnamese wanted to unite both parts of Vietnam. At first, the Americans only trained South Vietnamese troops to do all of the fighting while the North Vietnamese employed the Vietcong to help their military take over South Vietnam. DespiteRead MoreThe Cold War And The Soviet Union Essay1400 Words   |  6 Pages The Cold War began as the World War II ended. This war ended two remaining superpowers, the United States of America and the Soviet Union. Harry S Truman and Soviet premier Joseph Stalin founds themselves on polarized sides of post war, one denounced communism while the other denounced capitalism. Stalin supported pro-Soviet communist governments in Eastern Europe and he wanted to ensure the USSR was protected from future German invasions. Truman’s plans were very differentRead MoreCanada And The Cold War1514 Words   |  7 Pages Canada and the Cold War The Cold War is a time of managed political and military coercion and turmoil between the superpowers. It was a war that actually wasn t your common war. There were numerous military aircraft flying over the nations dropping bombs, no tanks no ground troops, no really organization of rockets, and no ground troops. Then again, there were a stockpile of atomic weapons, cash was being spent like a really war was being battled, purposeful publicity, there were two superpowerRead MoreForeign Policy in the Nixon Presidency Essay2750 Words   |  11 Pagesmajor policies that President Nixon was responsible for was changing the nature of the United States relationship with China. He did this by setting into motion covert diplomatic actions and cultural exchanges between the two countries. Nixon’s reasons for improving relationships with the Communist regime was to force the Soviet Union to be more accommodating to American demands and to also help end the war in Vietnam. Another reas on for improving relations was very personal for Richard Nixon. HeRead MoreThe Cold War2112 Words   |  8 PagesThe Cold War was the name given to the political economic, military and ideological contention that occurred between the United States and its allies and the Soviet Union and their allies after World War II. The two forces never directly engaged in military activity in light of the fact that both had atomic weapons that if utilized, might have had crushing outcomes for both sides. Instead, proxy wars were battled. A proxy war results when contradicting forces utilize outsiders as substitutes forRead MoreThe Things They Carried By Tim O Brien1809 Words   |  8 PagesSoldier, adhere to this warning: the draft brings young men into the action of war but the wretched war surely chews them up and spits them back out as a diabolic mutant grieved with woes. A former marine, Tim O’Brien, wrote The Things They Carried in order to demonstrate this aforementioned warning as well the cryptic reality of Vietnam. By implementing a cataloging technique, O’Brien truly brings the horrifying stories of Vietnam to life further roping in his readers so much that they feel themselvesRead MoreEssay on Dreaming In The 1960s2061 Words   |  9 PagesJr. said his most famous words: quot;I have a dream.quot; He was not the only one who felt this way. For many, the 1960s was a decade in which their dreams about America might be fulfilled. For Martin Luther King Jr., this was a dream of a truly equal America; for John F. Kennedy, it was a dream of a young vigorous nation that would put a man on the moon; and for the hippy movement, it was one of love, peace, and freedom. The 1960s was a tumultuous decade of social and political upheaval. We areRead MoreMost Significant Events in History- 1950-19902242 Words   |  9 Pages1945. Topics such as the Cold War, McCarthyism, Civil Rights and the Vietnam War all put in to place a chain of events that have made our country what it is today. This paper will review a few of the social, economic and political events between 1950 through 1990 that had a powerful impact on the American people and their decade. 1950’s Cold War Ideology, McCarthyism and Eisenhower’s politics Cold War ideology crystallized after the end of World War II. During this war the US had alliances with

Operation Paperclip The Secret Intelligence Program

Although the book, Operation Paperclip: The Secret Intelligence Program that Brought Nazi Scientists to America, by Annie Jacobsen, and the documentary film, The Last Days in Vietnam both give insight and awareness to different events in history, they both share a political economic theme in reference to the question, â€Å"what does it mean to be human?† So, what does it mean to be human? There are many interpretations as to how one can answer this question. One answer would be equality. Equality is one of the underlying foundations that make up our society. With a lack of equality, the world begins to break out in wars and conflicts. Because of this, people are treated unfairly and even discriminated against. With equality, we can be assured that no one would be denied anything based on their race, gender, or economic makeup. A second would be fairness. Of course, we all want to be fair and treat all equally. Who wouldn’t love a society where we could reverse all the differences among all people? That would mean that all would have to be â€Å"good† and not â€Å"evil†. Good people have definite traits like kindness, altruism and compassion. Evil people possess characteristics that are more wicked and immoral. If we owned behaviors that were only good in nature, would that help us to be the people we nee d to live up to society’s views. We would be human. The book, Operation Paperclip: The Secret Intelligence Program that Brought Nazi Scientists to America, by Annie Jacobsen, wasShow MoreRelatedOperation Paperclip s Modern Effects1448 Words   |  6 PagesOperation Paperclip’s Modern Effects It was the middle of the 20th century, the world was in disorder yet peace as it did its best to recover from World War II. Nations from both sides of what is still considered one of the greatest outbreaks of war in history were not only competing in the air, in the sea, and on land, but also in the field of science. After the war, America made an astutely tactful choice: they took the German scientists for employment in the states. The outcome of this tacticRead MoreThe Cia Director Allen Dulled Sanctioned The Mkultra Program1461 Words   |  6 Pageswhat they are unfamiliar with is that the U.S. government did the same thing. â€Å"It all started in the 50’s during the Korean War.† Concerned about the rumors of Communist brainwashing of POWs, the CIA director Allen Dulled sanctioned the MKULTRA program in April 1953.Project MKULTRA is one of the most famous activities relating to the CIA’s efforts toward mass mind control. There were many different tests con ducted as a part of the project, including some conducted on volunteers, inmates, and unsuspectingRead More The Space Race: USA vs USSR Essay3784 Words   |  16 PagesThe Space Race was a war of firsts between the United States of America and the Union Soviet Socialist Republics. But it was also the culmination of the dreams of man for many millennia and the team who worked on the space programs were able to discover what so many of the people that came before and after them could only dream of. It was an endeavor that all of humanity was invested in at the time. It was a testament to the power of the human spirit and it showed how nothing was impossible if weRead MoreThe Space Race : A Struggle For Dominance Continued After World War II3096 Words   |  13 Pagesand his colleagues were ready to test their rocket at the army’s artillery range at Kummersdorf, south of Berlin. Even though the rocket veered off course, Von Braun’s knowledge impressed Captain Walter Dor nberger who was in charge of the rocket program for the army. â€Å"By the time he was twenty, while still a student at the University of Berlin, Von Braun was recruited by the army and charged with building a rocket that was superior to the largest guns† (Cadbury 9). Von Braun had already began designingRead MoreThe Space Race : The World War II3096 Words   |  13 Pagesand his colleagues were ready to test their rocket at the army’s artillery range at Kummersdorf, south of Berlin. Even though the rocket veered off course, Von Braun’s knowledge impressed Captain Walter Dornberger who was in charge of the rocket program for the army. â€Å"By the time he was twenty, while still a student at the University of Berlin, Von Braun was recruited by the army and charged with building a rocket that was superior to the largest guns† (Cadbury 9). Von Braun had already began designingRead MoreNew World Order in Conspiracy Theory13987 Words   |  56 Pagesin  p olitics  and  finance  are speculated to be orchestrated by an extremely influential  cabaloperating through many  front organizations. Numerous historical and current events are seen as steps in an on-going plot to achieve world domination through  secret political gatherings  and decision-making processes.[2][3][4][5][6] Prior to the early 1990s, New World Order  conspiracism  was limited to two American countercultures, primarily the  militantly anti-government right, and secondarily  fundamentalist Christians  concerned

Simply Intolerant Foods

Question: Discuss about theSimply Intolerant Foods. Answer: Lessons Learnt for Simply Intolerant Foods (SIF) Introduction Organizations are constantly looking at their financial numbers and left to stone unturned to improve the numbers. At the heart of any organization lies its ability to manage operations. Operations management is one such area, which is the most critical for any organizations. Efficient of management have impact on all the downstream and upstream of the supply chains and helps the organization to improve their supply chain and makes it more agile, adaptable and less vulnerable. Poor operations management however has a huge impact on supply chain and may lead to unsatisfied customer (Hill, 2012). The concept of lean management is a powerful concept that helps the organization in manufacturing sector to optimize their cost of operations. Simply defined, Lean management is an approach to running an organization that supports the concept of continuous improvement, a long-term approach to work that systematically seeks to achieve small, incremental changes in processes in order to improve efficiency and quality. It is important that the internal and external stakeholders should realize the importance of lean management (Goetsch, 2014). For instance, Logistics department is internal customer for manufacturing department. Together, both work for satisfaction of end external customers. External customers are not part of the organization. They may or may not buy from the organization as they have a choice (Kennedy, Plunkett Haider, 2013).The development of the philosophy, principles and process of lean in the context of its contribution to manufacturing industries and applicability in the food processing industry can be discussed as: Development of the Philosophy, Principles and Process of Lean One of the basic or fundamental philosophies of lean management is the focus on waste elimination. With the principles of lean management, organizations may want to reduce the waste so that they can save the cost (Kennedy, Plunkett Haider, 2013). In manufacturing industry, this cost is associated with inventory holding and and inventory ordering cost. At the same time, it is important that the cost optimization and waste minimization should not happen with any compromise with the quality. Quality customer service is very important think in this world where competition is growing continuously due to globalization (Santos, 2013). Quality service leads to more credibility and better reputation in the market through word of mouth publicity and hence translates into a better sale. Performance indicators should be identified for manufacturers and suppliers for on-time delivery Contingency time should be built in system to account for any uncertainty in the value chain. It is important that the organizations should realize the stage of their lifecycle before implementing the lean principles. There are four defined stages in the organizational life cycle: entrepreneurial, collectivity, formalization and elaboration. Of the four stages, the entrepreneurial stage is the most important, as many organizations dont ever make it out of this phase. When a business is started the owners are wrapped up in creating or selling whatever it is that made their business possible (Laosirihongthong, 2016).As it gets more successful there are more employees and those entrepreneurs have to become managers, a job for which they may or may not be suited. Organization leaders go through many emotional states during the life cycle of their business.These emotions can lead to the success or failure of their business if they are dealt with properly. It is critical that the basic groundwork for lean management should be established before the entrepreneurial stage. The princi ples of lean management for SIF can be shown as below: It is also important that the management of SIF should have a long-term plan with lean management. The organization may be required to make some initial investment to implement the lean system. However, the return on investment in long-term should justify the investment. The organization should also integrate the lean management with Information Technology systems like ERP system. Implications and Challenges for Implementing Lean at Simply Intolerant Foods The organization, Simply Intolerant Foods, can definitely use the principles of lean management to establish an effective and efficient culture in the organization. It can be inferred from the case study that SIF follows the make to order strategy due to the nature of their products. Each product is unique and can be manufactured after taking specifications from the customers. It is maintaining configure to order bills of material, which can be configured by the customer while placing their order. Therefore, SIF forecasts at subassembly level and manufacture the critical subassemblies before receiving the order, which then can be used in customer order. Sometimes the forecasts are quite accurate but when they are not accurate, it leads to huge work in process inventory at one hand and increased lead time for other products which dont have ready subassemblies required for them to get manufactured. With lean management, the organization should also improve its production planning funct ion (Kennedy, Plunkett Haider, 2013). The inefficiency in production planning department has increased the inventory because production should be scheduled when all the material is available or material is scheduled to reach when it is required in the particular job. The implementation of lean would also require an element of change management within the organization. It is possible that all the employees of SIF would not support the change to lean production system. Therefore, it is important that the management of SIF should introduce the change in an effective manner. There could also be issues with labor utilization. Lot of time is wasted in transporting material from one workstation to another because of the poor layout, which can be improved (Kennedy, Plunkett Haider, 2013). The time spent in transportation is a complete waste since it is a non-value adding activity. SIF is also not effectively utilizing the bottlenecks resources. Bottleneck resources are sometime having huge piles of inventory of jobs in front of them to be processes and sometimes are just sitting idle with no inventory at all (Souza, Sobreiro, Nagana, Manfrinato, 2013). This is a case of very poor production planning. It is because the company output depends on the output of the bottleneck resource and it cannot be greater than that of bottleneck resource. Therefore, in order to improve the output of the factory, it is very important to leverage the bottleneck resource or to use the bottleneck at its maximum capacity. Machines, which are not bottleneck, can be starved but the machines, which are bottleneck, should be starved at any cost (Dugdale, 2013). The company can also face challenges to schedule different jobs in the supply chain network of SIF. Efficient Job scheduling is very important for the organization to control the work in process inventory. Increase work in process inventory is not only a problem in itself but also a root cause of many other issues, which will be, discovered when work in process inventory is reduced (Qrunfleh, 2015). This will help in improving the efficiency of the factory. Recommendations for the Managing Director for SIF It is recommended that the management of SIF should emphasize on understanding the customer needs before taking any steps towards lean management and lean supply chain management. Once customer needs are identified, Pareto chart can be built to priorities the requirements and take actions based on that. The concepts of lean management for SIF should also include the association with different suppliers. Any default on part of supplier or manufactures should attract a penalty, which should be passed on to the customers. It can be in form of cash back, or coupons for discount on next purchase. It is recommended that SIF should have two different teams of customer management and suppliers or vendor management. SIF would be able to practice lean in true sense only when these two teams can collaborate together and work in an integrated manner. While promising order delivery data, customer facing team promises based on the date which is provided by the manufacturer who in turn takes the date given by the suppliers.There should be some contingency time build into the system for accounting any uncertainties or special events in the value chain.Collaboration among different stakeholders would be the key for SIF to move forward. Collaboration is most likely to be used first since it sets the tone on what is expected of everyone and what the goals and objectives are for a positive working environment. Collaboration also promotes communication and trusts among team members and educates each other on their strengths and weakness, which will build a positive and successful working rel ationship. Collaboration must be consistent and purposeful, with resources dedicated to its success. It is also recommended that there should be coordination between all players of supply chain so that appropriate dates should be promised to customers.Factors that contribute to poor customer service are customers are not treated well and no one is ready to listen them and understand their problems. Continuously sending them to different departments and making them explain their problem to multiple people is a high sign of improper customer service. Not only this, even making them wait and unable to provide resolution to their expectation is a sign you will lose business from those customers in the future. The management of SIF should realize that the listening skills are one of the powerful skills to eliminate the waste in the system. The listening skills are the best skill to deal with angry customers and talkative customers. Angry customers want someone who can listen and completely agree with them and ensure them of the best service. Customers get angry or frustrated for a number of reasons. Reasons may be valid or unjustifiable but no matter what, as we are in the business of customer service, we need to provide or help them with appropriate response so that they should continue to do the business with the organization. Our responses can ease the matter or make it worst. It is recommended that the key principles of lean management for SIF should also have focus on the use of Information Technology to track down the various operational activities in the organization. Tracking system should be employed and team should receive reminders set up at appropriate times. In long term, the company should have the policy to provide home delivery to end-customers. For instance, they can have express delivery where material should be delivered real fast but at some extra cost. Incoming materials from suppliers should be properly inspected and only then should be moved into stores if it fits into the criteria. To save this time, customer should define parameters for new suppliers and if they passed, add them into certified supplier lists and should accept those materials without inspection. It should also mention the clause to the supplier that for any poor quality item, there is a penalty. Although supplier may charge high for providing high quality items but it has lot of benefits for the organization (Monczka, Handfield, Guinipero, Patterson, 2015). For instance, first of all, it will save the huge time in inspecting the incoming material every time. Second, there will be fewer cases of poor quality of end items due to raw material. Third, as there will be less customer returns, it will help the organization to build its reputation. In short, correcting this first step ensures the improvement in all the downstream processes. Poor quality material is the entry point of many problems. Self Reflection Introduction I strongly believe that operations management is one of the most important areas for any organization. Since these days, there is a huge competition between the organizations due to globalization; there is also pricing pressures for the firms to reduce the prices of their products or keeping them near to their competitors. At such competitive prices, quality should also be there to build customer trust and reputation. Thus, in such times cost cutting is very important to increase the profits for the organizations in these tough times and make the products available to customer at a competitive price. Efficient management of operations at shop floor and design of supply chain help the organization to save the huge amount of money (Hill, Hill, 2012). I have learned that lean management is a powerful concept that could help the organizations to have effective operations management and efficient supply chain management in place. Here, I would discuss the concepts of lean management for Emerson electric company. A brief organizational background can be discussed as: Organizational Background Emerson electric company is global diversified manufacturing firm headquartered in St. Louis, USA. It manufactures products like regulators, precision instruments for measuring temperature, pressure and density, valves and many other instruments used in different types of industries like Automobile industry, Chemical industry, metal and refining, pulp and paper industry. It has more than 240 manufacturing locations at different locations worldwide to serve the customers globally. It operates in a very competitive industry leaded by giants like ABB, Schneider, and Honeywell. In recent times, it is facing a lot of issues like high rate of product return by the customer, poor-on time delivery, huge increase in work in process inventory, increase in inventory holding costs which is hampering its image worldwide. Discussion Emerson electric is facing many problems. It started discovering the problems as increase in customer returns were gradually going up. Once the product is returned, it is diagnosed properly with the help of serial number and lot number of various components and raw materials that are used in manufacturing that product. There were many problems that were coming because of poor quality of raw materials. This means that material supplied by the supplier is directly used for production without being inspected. If it is inspected and caught at the first stage, it would have save a lot of processing time of machines and other costs (Goetsch, Davis, 2014). Emerson should only use materials directly in production, which is supplied by the certified suppliers. The management of the company realizes that lean management is the solution for the company to move forward. However, the management of Emerson is not able to implement the lean in the system. There are various reasons for this. For ex ample, the leaders of the organization have not got the desired support from employees. The company has also faced difficulty to manage its inventory that has further added to the complexity in the implementation of lean management system. Not only this, there is huge increase in work in process inventory. There were lot of jobs that were started but were left in between to serve the more important demands or hot orders. This inappropriate scheduling has increased the work in process inventory, which is directly increasing the production costs for the company. There were also cases like when the job has been aborted in between because of non-availability of raw materials. I can say that one of the core elements of lean management is that the organization should be able to eliminate or at least reduce the waste in the system. However, Emerson is not able to eliminate the waste in the system. I can say that there the resource utilization is not effective in the organization. In fact, there was lot of time getting wasted in non-value adding activity. Sometime, the machine is already setup for processing a job but then another rush order comes and machine has to be setup again. This lead to two things: machines are poorly utilized and labor utilization is also low. Poor utilization of resources is creating problems for the company and hamper the ability of the organization to fulfill customer orders on time even when while order promising the dates were given according to the software in most of the cases that calculates the lead time of all the sub assemblies and components that are required to build the final product. Frequent breakdown of some of the m achines is another issue which delays the production and factory lost its capacity. Also, sometime sales team promises the aggressive delivery times to their customers to meet their targets. Although there is ERP software implemented that calculates the lead-time of the order quantity by considering the manufacturing time of making the quantity considering lead-time of all its child components and subassemblies. If any raw material required for all that is not available, it also calculate the buy lead time of the item to calculate the order promising dates however sometime the aggressive dates put pressure on production systems and which lead to increase in work in process inventory (Trenteasaux, Pach, Bekrar, Sallez, Berger, Bonte, Barbosa, 2013). I can conclude that there are various benefits of lean management for Emerson. However, the management should have the vision to implement the lean in the system. References Adebanjo, D., Laosirihongthong, T., Samaranayake, P. (2016). Prioritizing lean supply chain management initiatives in healthcare service operations: a fuzzy AHP approach. Production Planning Control, 1-14. Monczka, R. M., Handfield, R. B., Giunipero, L. C., Patterson, J. L. (2015).Purchasing and supply chain management. Cengage Learning Hill, A., Hill, T. (2012).Operations management. Palgrave Macmillan. Goetsch, D. L., Davis, S. B. (2014).Quality management for organizational excellence. pearson. Ruiz-de-Arbulo-Lopez, P., Fortuny-Santos, J., Cuatrecasas-Arbs, L. (2013). Lean manufacturing: costing the value stream.Industrial Management Data Systems,113(5), 647-668. De Souza, F. B., Sobreiro, V. A., Nagano, M. S., de Souza Manfrinato, J. W. (2013). When less is better: Insights from the product mix dilemma from the Theory of Constraints perspective.International Journal of Production Research,51(19), 5839-5852. Dugdale, D. (2013). The theory of constraints.The Routledge Companion to Cost Management, 145. Kennedy, I., Plunkett, A. and Haider, J., 2013. Implementation of Lean Principles in a Food Manufacturing Company. InAdvances in Sustainable and Competitive Manufacturing Systems(pp. 1579-1590). Springer International Publishing. Qrunfleh, S., Tarafdar, M. (2015). Supply chain management practicesIT utilisation alignment: impact on supply chain performance and firm performance. International Journal of Business Information Systems 5, 18(4), 364-389. Roser, C., Lorentzen, K., Deuse, J. (2015). Reliable shop floor bottleneck detection for flow lines through process and inventory observations: the bottleneck walk.Logistics Research,8(1), 1-9. Trentesaux, D., Pach, C., Bekrar, A., Sallez, Y., Berger, T., Bonte, T., ... Barbosa, J. (2013). Benchmarking flexible job-shop scheduling and control systems.Control Engineering Practice,21(9), 1204-1225.

The heat energy produced by propanol Essay Example

The heat energy produced by propanol Paper The energy released by a fuel depends on two things. Firstly the number of bonds to be broken and made and secondly the type of bonds involved. Therefore from the preliminary work I can see that propanol has similar type bonds to ethanol, but it has more of them. This means that proponal will use more energy to break the bonds and; therefore more energy will be released to make more new bonds. Also, the greater the surface area and the greater the force of attraction between the molecules, will make it harder to vaporise. Therefore more energy will be released. Fair Test I would like to gain the most reliable results possible using the equipment and conditions provided; therefore I will have to consider certain factors, which if I do not control, may enforce my results to become less reliable. I will, * Keep a constant water temperature at the beginning. * Keep the distance of the copper can away from the flame at 5cm. * Have a constant water mass. * Keep the temperature from which the experiment is terminated fairly constant. * Stir the water with the thermometer before each temperature reading, which will distribute the heat evenly. Results Fuel Mass of Fuel Used Average Ethanol Analysis I will use the averages for ethanol and propanol to work out the total energy transfer and then I will use this to find the mass of fuel burnt per mole. The workings below show what I found out and what this suggests. Ethanol Q = M x C x t The letter Q is the energy in joules and what I want to find out, M is the volume of water in the copper can, C is the specific heat capacity of water and At is the rise in temperature during the experiment. All of these were kept the same throughout the experiment; therefore, M = 100cm3 C = 4. 2 t = 200C This gives the equation,Heat produced. We will write a custom essay sample on The heat energy produced by propanol specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on The heat energy produced by propanol specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on The heat energy produced by propanol specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer The mass of ethanol burnt is 1. 4g and the relative molecular mass is 46, which I have already worked out previously. In order to work out the number of moles in 8400KJ I will use the equation, Number of Moles = mass/Relative Molar Mass If I put these numbers into the equation to give, Moles of ethanol burnt = 1. 4g/46 = 0. 03 moles. I will then use this to calculate the energy in one mole, 8400/0. 03 = 280000J = -280KJ Propanol I will use the same equation using the same numbers as before as they were kept the same in this experiment as well. This should give,Heat ProducedThe mass of propanol burnt is 1g and the relative molecular mass of propanol is 60, which I again worked out beforehand in my plan. I will use the equation, Number of Moles = mass/Relative Molar Mass I will put the numbers in the equation appropriately to give, Moles of propanol burnt The above figure can be used to work out the energy in one mole0KJ I did not use 0. 4 for the propanol average, because it does not follow the general trend; therefore it is anomalous. If I had included this result it may have affected my results slightly. The results that I obtained clearly show that the propanol did have the greatest energy loss; therefore my prediction was correct and theoretically my preliminary work was very successful in helping me gain the correct prediction. This is shown whereby for ethanol the energy give out per mole is -280KJ, whereas propanol gives out a slightly bigger -420KJ. From this experiment I have learnt that if there are too many carbon atoms present in a fuel then the energy given out as heat through combustion is increased, whereas if there are too few carbon atoms then the energy given out as heat from combustion decreases. If I compare my results with my preliminary work there is an immense difference in figures, whereby for ethanol the energy produced from one mole using the scientific figures is -1031KJ, whereas my results show that there is -420KJ of energy released. Also the scientific results for propanol are -2076, whereas my results show that for proponal -420KJ of energy was released. This significant difference was probably due to the extreme mass of heat loss during the experiment from the copper can, the spirit burner and the water; therefore less heat was transferred to energy. Also average bond energies shown in the data book were taken at 250C, whereas I took my results at a temperature of 200C, which means that a higher temperature the molecules would have had more energy as the bigger the temperature the faster the reaction; therefore more energy would have been transferred as heat after the breaking and making of the bonds. Evaluation I think that my experiment was fairly successful considering the limited equipment and conditions, as I managed to gain a set of fairly reliable results in order to draw a firm conclusion. There was only one anomalous result, which happened when testing the propanol whereby there was a result of 0. 4; therefore I did not include this in my average taking. This could have occurred for a number of reasons these are, The amount of water put into the can may not have been measured completely accurately because of the way the level of the water is seen in the measuring cylinder.   There may have not been a totally consistent height above the spirit burner. The spirit burner was not covered up during experiment; therefore the fuel could have evaporated. The length of the wick varied.   Heat could have escaped out of the sides of the spirit burner during combustion.   The copper can meant that it absorbed and transferred heat well but it lost heat to the air as well. These reasons could have had an slight effect on my results overall, whereby it will have made my results lower than the theretical results, as shown in my analysis. If I were to do this experiment again I would, Weigh the water in the copper can using burette instead of a measuring cylinder. Measure the distance between the can and the sprit burner between each fuel burnt.   Cut the wick to the same length after each fuel is burnt.   Insulate the copper can at the sides. User a Bomb Calorimeter so that draughts can be prevented and so that there is restrictions to the heat lost. The diagram below shows what the bond calorimeter would look like and how it would be set up. I think that despite the problems that occurred I still managed to gain a fairly reliable set of results in order to imply whether the energy loss for ethanol or propanol was bigger. If I were to experiment further I could experiment with a much wider range of fuels to see whether their energy loss is bigger then propanol. Also I could investigate other factors that affect the energy loss from combustion, such as, the length of the wick, the heat source and the heat capacity. In doing this I can broaden my understanding in this section of chemistry. 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James Earl Carter essays

James Earl Carter essays "For this generation, ours, life is nuclear survival, liberty is human rights, and the pursuit of happiness is a planet whose resources are devoted to the physical and spiritual nourishment of its inhabitants. (Carter) Carters political views during his path to the white house brought efficiency to the government, they also included a focus towards human rights. His standing on foreign policy ultimately led him to receiving the Nobel peace prize. Jimmy Carter was born October 1, 1924, in the small farming town of Plains, Georgia, and grew up in the nearby community of Archery. This is where his political background began. According to his bibliography, James Carter was educated in through the publics schools of Plains, then he attended Georgia Southwestern College and the Georgia Institute of Technology. After schooling he joined the navy and received a B.S. degree from the United States Naval Academy in 1946. He accelled himself to great lengths in the navy, he became a naval officer and stayed in the navy for seven more years. In July of 1946 he married Rosalynn Smith.With the news of his fathers death he decided to return home in 1953, so he resigned his naval commission and took his family back to Plains.(Sanger) Carter wasted no time in finding an alternate to the navy. The Jimmy Carter Library noted in their biography that he quickly became a leader of the community, serving on county boards supervising education, the hospital authority, and the library. In 1962 he won an election to the Georgia Senate. In 1962 he entered state politics, and eight years later he was elected Governor of Georgia becoming Georgia's 76th governor. He attracted attention by emphasizing ecology, efficiency in government, and the removal of racial barriers. This ties into the similarity that later becomes his views on Foreign policy during his presidency. According to Brian Baloghs website entitle ...

Financial Strategy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Financial Strategy - Essay Example Thus, a risk-conscious enterprise already has strategic plans in hand to handle any sort of crises prior to its happening and furthermore, it would inculcate such strategies in its daily working environment which would minimize any foreseen risks so as to avoid danger. To begin with a theoretical point of view a firm that does not prioritize and foresee danger points in the ongoing business lacks the power to cope up with any kind of transformation that a potential risk may bring in the long run. It might overrate its focus upon other profit-making strategies than making alternative strategically workable plans to overcome those risks (Ackermann, pp.5-6, 2008). As a matter of fact, potential risks that big firms and organizations may face are divided into three categories which include hazard risks, operating risks and financial risks (Slywotzky, 2007). The case of Toyota is quite obvious in this regards. In the 90s, though the company enjoyed a very good position and had a well know n repute in the eyes of its consumers with leverage over other competitors, they worried about what future could bring to them since; a period of maturity never lives very long. The foreseeing ability of potential threats of the company made the executives plan for the first ever car of the 21st century by Toyota even a decade ago. They penned down unique characteristics of any comfortable car ever and assigned an engineer, who had never worked for a whole new developmental project, to transform the ideas into concrete proposal. The Japanese automaker lived up to its promises when it launched its breakthrough car Prius in the 90s. The strategy was to lend three years to the task force of the new car to analyze each aspect of the internal working of Toyota and to have the company’s first hand knowledge to produce the new generation of the model. This move worked a lot and the assigned engineer made his team from the most talented engineers whose ages reflected maturity yet eag erness in adaptability. The idea was to introduce hybrid engine in the newly-designed car. Nevertheless, the potential risk was that the competitors were experimenting the same sort of experiments. Assessing the risks, Toyota decided to make their breakthrough as fast as possible so as to be ahead of all (Slywotzky, 2007). One crucial move that Toyota took was to bring the Resident Engineers (REs) during the phase of design development who usually work at the manufacturing plants to take care of the problems that arise in the production stage. This move was taken so as to avoid any possible fault that is probable to happen in a stage where everything is in blueprint. One more strategy that it employed was to create alternative options with regards to engine design and the overall car design so that they may end up choosing one which proves to be the best among all. During the whole process, cross-referencing of the experts continued to be taking place to implement the best given ide a in the making (Slywotzky, 2007). Consequently, the world knows how Prius took over the market in a few period of time. In theory, the Competitive Strategy Theory by Michael Porter talks about certain focus points to be made and implemented by any firm to achieve a sustainable ground in any market in the absence of which the company is prone to serious losses. A firm’s risk consciousness is quite visible if it emphasizes upon planning for ‘differentiation, overall cost leadership and focus’

Law Course Work - Case Study Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Law Course Work - Case Study - Essay Example cedures agreements and other alternative methods of resolving disputes about employment rights; to provide for the adjustment of awards of compensation for unfair dismissal in cases where no use is made of internal procedures for appealing against dismissal; to make provision about cases involving both unfair dismissal and disability discrimination; and for connected purposes,† (Crown Copyright. 1998). In Emily Worth’s case, a meeting was set on 17 July 2006, of which Worth was informed about in July 16, 2006. She was later handed a letter hours prior to the meeting signed by Head Teacher Pat Butcher alleging charges against Emily of â€Å"Abandoning your class, swearing and using abusive language, [and] †refusal to co-operate with the legitimate management decisions of the Head Teacher and behaving in an unreasonable and unprofessional manner.† The letter also stated that the alleged offences were if proven would amount to gross misconduct. In fact, gross misconduct which may merit instant dismissal requires acts such as failure to comply with reasonable and lawful instructions, theft, sale or consumption of alcohol, physical assault, breach of duty of confidentiality, sexual or racial harassment, fighting, and willful damage to an employers property, or attending work under the influence of prohibited drugs. The mentioned acts may not be exclusive but it has always been lawful that a proper investigation must be conducted of which the employees may also appeal. Emily’s case will have to be evaluated based on applicable law, rules and regulations and jurisprudence. In this matter, the disciplinary hearing has to prove that due process has been undertaken prior to dismissal of Emily Worth. There are two ways to show that a dismissal was not unfair, of which the employer or its representative must have a valid reason for dismissing an employee or that they have acted reasonably in the circumstances in that an adequate investigation must have been

A View from the Bridge Essay Example for Free

A View from the Bridge Essay Explore how Miller creates dramatic tension at the end of act one. Comment on this scenes importance to the play overall. A View from the Bridge by Arthur Miller explores the complicated lives and relationships between a family living in the slums of New York. This particular play is set in a slum called Red Hook which is strongly patriarchal, and where there is a large Sicilian, volatile community where many homes harbour illegal immigrants and the fear of their discovery is high. Within this society, tensions are high because of fear that they would be found hiding illegal immigrants in their home, which is what a lot of the anxiety in the play is based on. Alfieri tells us, the audience, about the importance of justice and how justice is often administrated outside rather than inside the law. This generates fear as we anticipate that people within the society will not necessarily abide by the law. Miller creates tension at the very beginning of the play by demonstrating the fact that the area is prone to violent attacks, we hear of the Vinny Bolzano incident on page 23 in which Vinny snitched to immigration that they were hiding illegal family members in their home. Beatrice describes how three flights his head was bouncin like a coconut after his brothers and father threw him out the house and on to the street. Before the play even starts, we can tell that Miller will aim to sustain a tense atmosphere throughout the play from the way Alfieri says: and watched it run its bloody course. The end of this act centres on Eddie Carbone and his family (Beatrice and Catherine) who are joined by Rodolpho and Marco (illegal immigrants), sitting together after a meal. The story so far has introduced tensions which are later developed and twisted into a devastating conclusion. We have already met Eddie Carbone the tragic protagonist of the play. He is constantly self-interested, wanting to promote and protect his own innocence. We are made aware at the beginning of the play of Eddies protection over Catherine, his niece. He says to her youre walkin wavy, and I dont like the looks theyre giving you in the candy store. This is a clear demonstration of the fact that maybe he feels a little more for her than family love, an issue which becomes inflamed when Rodolpho is introduced to the story. The relationship between Catherine and Eddie shows conflict, which effectively leads to and causes dramatic tension. Eddies possessive and protective nature is channeled through Catherine, and initially an audience may perceive this to be an effect of the male-dominated society in which they live in. This explains why he is so cynical and nervous as well as angry when Rodolpho is asked to dance by Catherine. Tensions have appears to have formed with Catherine. Eddie is becoming increasingly jealous and aggravated by this which is shown before this scene has even started from the way he says to Beatrice, the guy aint right. When Catherine asks Rodolpho to dance, he is immediately reluctant in deference to Eddie who, as it says in the stage directions, freezes, and Rodolpho claims I-Im tired. Tensions have already risen within the past few pages between Marco and Rodolpho and Eddie after arguing about whether they paint oranges and lemons, which leads the audience to believe that Marco and Rodolphos joint defiance against Eddies behaviour will become more of an issue later in the play. Rodolphos initial hesitation to dance with Catherine shows his determination not to annoy Eddie any further, however, Catherine is insistent. Eddie reacts by questioning Rodolphos masculinity, which adds to tensions because in the area where the play is set, masculinity and dominance over others is very significant. Eddies speech Its wonderful. He sings, he cooks, he could make dresses shows that he is clearly trying to mock Rodolpho. He obviously feels as though his dominance in his house is being threatened by him, therefore creating tension. Miller uses powerful symbolism in his writing to portray Eddies character and express his emotions to the audience. We are made aware of Eddies disapproval and anger of the situation, and Miller writes stage directions to express this. For example, Eddie seems to retreat to his rocker when he feels uncomfortable and wants to remove himself from the situation. This is his place, and as a male, he is very protective over his space and it belongs to him and only him. His newspaper is also symbolic. He uses it as his way of hiding away, for example, when the stage directions say Eddie goes to his rocker and picks up his newspaper after being told about Marco and Rodolpho having been to Africa. He later lowers his paper, indicating that he has chosen to engage in the situation. This is another example of his desire to keep himself to himself, which effectively communicates unease to the audience. The use of the pause is also significant in the build-up of dramatic tension. For example, when Eddie has just insulted Rodolpho, there is a silence: Eddie Well, thats all Im asking. Eddie reads his paper. There is a pause, leading to an awkward atmosphere. Now Catherine gets up and puts a record on the phonograph This is an uncomfortable moment of tension. Catherine breaks the silence by putting on Paper Doll, but it creates more tension by increasing the friction between Catherine, Rodolpho and Eddie. Catherine also uses it as a way of provoking Eddie by asking Rodolpho to dance. This scene is a complete contrast to earlier on in the play where Miller showed Catherine to be obedient and respectful towards Eddie. This sudden change in Catherines behaviour is partly due to the conversation earlier on in the play with Beatrice about how Catherine needs to become more independent from Eddie. Miller also uses dramatic devices to create tension such as violence when Rodolpho boxes with Eddie at the end of act one. When the stage directions say, rubbing his fists together, it shows that Eddie is trying to release his anger and frustration on Rodolpho for interfering with Catherine and his relationship with her. This creates tension as they boxing at each other. Soon after, when Marco challenges Eddie and says Can you lift this chair? and he cannot, Marco then does it and holds the chair high above his head, whilst glaring at Eddie. This threatening pose creates very visual tension for the audience, as Marco has upstaged Eddie and robbed him of his male dominance in his own home. When the end of act one arrives and the play has an interval, the audience are left on the edge of the their seats and feel anxious to know the outcome of the events they have just witnessed. The tension build-up up until this point leaves the audience at a great ease, because the play so far has left questions unanswered and problems unsolved, meaning that the audience are spending the interval relating to the characters discomfort in the play. This scene in particular is significant to the climax of the play because it sets up Eddies destiny to fail and lose his self-control. The events that happen at the end of this scene could be described as the beginning of the end, as it is this moment that effectively leads into and foreshadows the escalation of tension and drama right to the end of the play. Eddies frustration at the situation of Catherine and Rodolphos increasingly passionate relationship lead him into his feud with Marco, which in the end is what kills him. Eddie sets himself up for his own downfall, and this is the scene where it all escalates from.

A Trip to the Dentists Office Essay -- Personal Narratives Descriptiv

A Trip to the Dentist's Office The phone rings, and I answer, â€Å"Thank you for calling Enterprise, how may I help you?† The voice on the other end asks for Andrea, and I reply, â€Å"This is she.† The voice says she is calling to remind me of my 11:00 AM dental appointment. I sigh and tell her I will be there on time. I enter the brick building and walk over to the elevator; I push the up button and patiently wait. The elevator door promptly opens, and I get in. I push the button with a number two on it, and the doors close†¦ up I go. Once on the second floor, I exit the elevator. Even before I go into Dr.Taylor’s office, I can immediately smell the mixture of wintergreen-flavored toothpaste and bleach out in the hall. As soon as I open the outer door, a blast of cool air from the air conditioner hits me in the face and makes me shiver all over. I walk in and add my name to the list on the sign-in sheet. Mindy, the gray-hared women behind the frosted glass slide window, sees me and lets me know that the doctor will be ready soon. While I wait for the dental assistant in her crisp white uniform to call out my name, I look at the fish in the large blue tank in the corner of the room. The sleek fish dart about playing hide and seek with the plastic mermaid at the bottom of the tank, while tiny silver bubbles slip to the top of the tank's surface and break silently. I then turn and see a photo album sitting on a coffee table; I pick it up only to see pictures of decaying teeth and...

Bite Me: A Love Story Chapter 15

15. Head in the Clouds and Vice Versa TOMMY It was the words that brought Tommy back. For a week with the clutter of vampire cats, and for several weeks before, while trapped inside the bronze statue, the words had left Tommy. His mind had gone feral, as had his body after he escaped. For the first time since Jody had turned him, he turned to his instincts, and they had led him to the huge, shaved vampire cat Chet and his vampire progeny. Running with them he learned to use his vampire senses, had learned to be a hunter, and with them, he took blood prey for the first time: mice, rats, cats, dogs, and, yes, people. Chet was the alpha animal of the pack, Tommy the beta male, but Tommy was quickly reaching a level of where he would be a challenge to Chet's position. Ironically, it was Chet who led him back to the words, which led him back to his sanity. In the cloud, merged with the other animals, he felt what they felt, knew what they knew, and Chet knew words, put words to concepts and experiences the way a human did, the very thing that had kept Tommy from being able to turn to mist in the first place. As a human, with grammar hardwired into his brain, he put a word to everything, and as a writer, if he couldn't put a word to an experience it had no value for him. But to become mist, you simply had to BE. Words got in the way. They separated you from the condition. Feline Chet had not been a creature of words, as his kitty brain was not wired to file that kind of information, but as a vampire, a vampire sired by the prime vampire, his brain had changed, and concepts carried words for him now. As the cloud of hunters was streaming under the door to attack the Emperor (toward the smell of dog and recognition, for Chet had known the Emperor in life) the word â€Å"dog† fired across Chet's kitty mind, and in turn across the minds of all of the hunters, but for Tommy, it was transformational, as words, meaningless to the cats, cascaded across his mind, bringing with them memories, personality, identity. He materialized out of the cloud in the dark storeroom, where he could see the Emperor in heat signature, huddled in a corner, holding his knife at the ready. Even if the room had been light, Tommy moved so quickly it would have been hard for the Emperor to see what was happening. The vampire scooped up the old man, stuffed him into the barrel, crimped on the lid with a grip that crushed the metal edges, then placed the barrel so the weight would rest on the lid. Instinct and experience told Tommy that the hunters wouldn't find enough space inside to materialize as a whole, so even though the barrel was not air tight, the Emperor would be safe as long as the lid remained intact. There wasn't enough room in there, literally, to swing a cat, and that would save the old man. Tommy melted back into the cloud and moved out of the room, trying to will the concept of danger to the rest of the hunters, putting an image to Chet's word â€Å"dog† that the kitty minds would recognize, and slowly, the vampire cloud, its various tendrils having tested the room for prey and finding none accessible, snaked back under the door and away to look for blood that wasn't sealed so tight or smelled quite so dangerous. They streamed up the elevator shaft, through the building, and out onto the street, where a few cats and Tommy solidified and dropped out of the cloud. Tommy, self-conscious now, looked around, realizing that he was naked. Everything he'd experienced from the time he'd been released from the bronze shell was a sensory blur in his memory, now that he was thinking in words again. But he remembered the Emperor, who had been one of the first people he'd met in the City, and who had been kind to him; had in fact gotten him his job at the Safeway, where he'd met Jody. Jody. Both words and instinct overwhelmed him at the thought of her, memories of joy and pain as pure as the hunter state of mind. He searched in a whirlwind of words and images for a way to contain her. Jody. Need. That was the word. He'd need clothes and language to move in the world where he'd find Jody. He didn't know why he knew that, but he knew it. But first he needed to feed. He loped down the sidewalk after the hunter-cloud, tuned again for prey, and for the first time in weeks, the word blood lit up in his brain. The words brought him back. THE NOTORIOUS FOO DOG â€Å"Your car's all fucked up,† explained Cavuto. â€Å"I know,† said Stephen â€Å"Foo Dog† Wong. He stood aside and the two policemen walked by him into the loft. â€Å"Your jackets are done.† â€Å"Your apartment's all fucked up, too,† observed Cavuto, looking at the plywood fastened across the front of the loft where the windows used to be. â€Å"And full of rats,† added Rivera. â€Å"Dead rats,† said Cavuto, shaking one of the plastic boxes with the lid taped on. The rat inside rolled around like-well-like a dead rat. â€Å"They're not dead,† said Jared. â€Å"It's daytime. They're undead.† Jared wore a SCULL-FUCK SYMPHONY band T-shirt, over skin-tight black girl's jeans, with flesh-colored ACE elastic bandages running from midcalf to the midsole of his black Chuck Taylors. His Mohawk had been lacquered into magenta Statue of Liberty spikes. Cavuto looked at him and shook his head. â€Å"Kid, even in the gay community there are limits to tolerance.† â€Å"I hurt my ankles,† whined Jared. Foo nodded. â€Å"We've had a few rough days.† â€Å"I gathered,† said Rivera. â€Å"Where's your creepy girlfriend?† â€Å"She's not creepy,† said Jared. â€Å"She's complex.† â€Å"Home,† said Foo. â€Å"As was agreed in her black covenant with you,† said Jared, as ominously as he could manage. â€Å"Did you get an English accent all of a sudden?† asked Cavuto. â€Å"He does that when he wants to sound more Gothic,† said Foo. He was trying to stand in front of the ruins of the bronze statue of Jody and Tommy, but since it was twice his size, he only drew attention to it. Rivera pulled a pen from his jacket and ran it over the sawed edges of the bronze shell and pulled it back with the red-brown clot on it. â€Å"Mr. Wong, what the hell happened here?† â€Å"Nothing,† said Jared, without an English accent. Foo looked from one inspector to the other, hoping they would see how hopelessly smarter he was than them, and give up, but they wouldn't look away. They just kept looking at him like he was in trouble. He went to the futon that served as their couch, pushed a bunch of boxes of undead rats to the floor, sat down, and cradled his face in his hands. â€Å"I thought I'd found some kind of scientific bonanza, a new species, a new way for a species to reproduce-hell, maybe I have, but everything's so out of control. The fucking magic!† Rivera and Cavuto moved to the middle of the room, and stood over Foo. Rivera reached down and squeezed his shoulder. â€Å"Focus, Stephen. What happened here? Why is there blood all over that statue?† â€Å"They were in there. Tommy and Jody. Abby and I had them bronzed when they were out during the day.† â€Å"Then they never left town like you said?† asked Cavuto. â€Å"No, they had been in there all the time. Abby said that it wouldn't be bad for them, that when they were in mist form it was like they were dreaming. Mist form! What the hell is that? It's not possible.† â€Å"And you felt bad so you cut them out?† said Rivera. â€Å"No, Jared let Jody out.† â€Å"Totally by accident,† said Jared. â€Å"She was kind of a bitch about it, too.† Foo explained about Jared releasing Jody, Abby and Jody releasing Tommy, Jody throwing Tommy through the windows, and Tommy running off into the night, naked. â€Å"So he's out there,† Foo said. â€Å"They're both out there.† â€Å"We know,† said Cavuto. â€Å"You do?† Foo looked up for the first time. â€Å"You knew?† â€Å"She was seen at the Fairmont Hotel, and we found bags of blood in a room there. We'll find her. But the Emperor saw Tommy Flood, naked, sleeping with all the vampire cats. He said that the one cat, Chet, isn't really a cat anymore. Explain that, science boy.† Foo nodded. â€Å"I figured something like that might happen. The rats are smarter.† â€Å"That helps,† said Cavuto. â€Å"No, what I've found is that the vampire blood carries characteristics of the host species. The further from the prime vampire, the old vampire that turned Jody, or that's who we think is the prime vampire, the less change takes place. Abby said that Chet was turned by the prime vampire, so he's picking up human characteristics. He's going to be stronger, bigger, smarter than any of the cat vampires. He's turning into something new.† â€Å"Something new?† â€Å"Yeah. We found it with the rats. The first ones I turned from Jody's blood are smarter than the ones I turned from those rats' blood. Each generation away from her is less and less intelligent. I mean, we haven't had time to really test them, but in just the amount of time it takes them to learn the mazes, it's clear that the innate intelligence is higher in those closer to the human vampire sire. And they're stronger, because Jody was only one generation from the prime vampire. I thought I'd figured an algorithm that described it, but then they all turned to mist and merged and fucked up everything.† â€Å"Sure,† said Cavuto, â€Å"we'll nod and act like we have some idea of what you're talking about until you tell us what the hell you're actually talking about.† Foo got up and waved for them to follow him into the bedroom. There was a plywood maze that covered the entire bed, with small blue LEDs dimly lighting every intersection. A sheet of Plexiglas covered the top. â€Å"The UV LEDs are to keep them from turning to mist and escaping the maze,† Foo said. â€Å"It's not enough to hurt them, just keep them solid.† â€Å"Oh good, a toy city,† said Cavuto. â€Å"We have time for this.† Foo ignored him. â€Å"The rats who were turned from Jody's blood learned the maze more quickly, and remembered it faster than the ones turned from rat blood. It was consistent, until they all got loose and merged into a single cloud. After that, they all knew the maze, even if we had never put them in it.† Rivera bent down and pretended to be examining the maze. â€Å"What are you saying, Stephen?† â€Å"I think that they share a consciousness when they are together in mist form. What one knows, the others know. After they had merged, they all knew the maze.† Rivera looked at Cavuto and raised his eyebrows. â€Å"The Emperor thought that Tommy Flood was in the same cloud as the vampire cats.† â€Å"We're fucked,† said Cavuto. Rivera looked at Foo for confirmation. â€Å"Are we fucked?† Foo shrugged, â€Å"Well, from what I could tell, Tommy wasn't really that bright.† Rivera nodded. â€Å"Uh-huh, and if your girlfriend didn't have a crush on him, would we be fucked?† Foo flinched a little, then recovered. â€Å"I think they'd be limited by the brain capacity of the species, so the vampire cats would be still be cats, but they'd be very smart. Chet, on the other hand-â€Å" â€Å"We're fucked,† said Cavuto. â€Å"Say it.† â€Å"Scientifically speaking, yes,† said Jared, who stood in the doorway of the bedroom. â€Å"How do we stop them?† asked Rivera. â€Å"Sunlight. UV light will do it,† said Foo. â€Å"You have to find them while they're dormant or they'll just run away. They're not invulnerable to physical damage. If they're dismembered or decapitated it will kill them.† â€Å"You did experiments on that?† asked Cavuto. Foo shook his head. â€Å"We had some accidents when we were trying to get them back in their cages, but I'm basing that hypothesis on Abby's description of the swordsman who showed up in the street.† â€Å"He sounds badass,† said Jared. â€Å"Did you find him?† Cavuto took Jared by a hair spike, steered him into the corner, faced him there, then turned back to Foo. â€Å"So, these jackets you made us, they'll take them out?† â€Å"If you're close enough. I'd say they're lethal to about twelve feet. I suppose I can rig something higher intensity, like a high-capacity UV laser flashlight. You could cut them down from a distance with something like that.† â€Å"Light sabers!† said Jared, his voice going up. He hopped around in excitement, then winced at the pain in his ankles. â€Å"Ouch.† â€Å"That's it,† said Cavuto. â€Å"You're too much of a nerd to be gay. I'm contacting the committee. They'll revoke your rainbow flag and you will not be permitted anywhere near the parade.† â€Å"There's a committee?† â€Å"No,† said Rivera. â€Å"He's fucking with you.† Rivera turned back to Foo. â€Å"What about something that will work on a wider basis-like a vaccine or something?† Foo thought for a second. â€Å"Sure, what is it, Tuesday? I'm curing Ebola in the morning, but I can work on your vampire vaccine after lunch.† Rivera smiled. â€Å"People are dying, Steve. Lots of people. And the only people who have a chance to stop it are in this room.† â€Å"Not you,† Cavuto said to Jared. â€Å"Bitch,† Jared replied. â€Å"I'll work on it,† said Foo. â€Å"But it's not as bad as you think it is.† â€Å"Brighten our day, kid,† said Cavuto. â€Å"They can't all handle it. Four out of every ten animals that are turned vampire don't survive to the second night. They either just break down on the spot-sort of decay from the inside, or they go crazy-it's like the heightened senses overwhelm them and they just have sort of a seizure that scrambles their brains and they end up with no survival instincts. They don't feed or hide from the light. The first sunrise after they're turned burns them up. It's like accelerated evolution, taking out the weak the very first day.† â€Å"So you're telling me what?† â€Å"The cat cloud won't grow exponentially. And the only way it will pass to other species is if they bite their attacker during the attack and ingest vampire blood-that's why you haven't had any more human vampires.† â€Å"Then why no dog vampires?† asked Cavuto. â€Å"I'm guessing the cats tear them apart before they change,† said Foo. â€Å"I'm not a behavioral guy, but I'd guess there's no brotherhood among vampires. If you're a vampire cat, you're essentially still a cat. If you're a vampire dog, you're still a dog.† â€Å"Except for Chet,† said Rivera. â€Å"Who is kind of a cat plus something else.† â€Å"Well, there are anomalies,† said Foo. â€Å"I told you, this is very fuzzy science. I don't like it.† Rivera's phone chirped and he flipped it open and looked at the screen. â€Å"The Animals,† he said. â€Å"And?† asked Cavuto. â€Å"They're at a butcher shop in Chinatown. They say they have a way to kill the vampires but they can't find them.† â€Å"We can take them Marvin. Tell them we're on the way.† Rivera held the phone like it was a foul dead thing. â€Å"I don't know how.† Foo snatched the phone out of Rivera's hand, nine-keyed a message, hit SEND, and handed it back. â€Å"There, you're on the way. I thought you said the only people who could fix this were in this room.† â€Å"They are, and now they're leaving.† â€Å"Don't forget your sun jackets,† said Jared. â€Å"We charged the batteries and everything. Do you think you'll be able to turn them on, or should I come along to help?† â€Å"He's a kid.† Rivera grabbed Cavuto's arm. â€Å"You can't hit him.† â€Å"That's it, kid. You're out of the tribe. If I hear you've touched a penis, even your own, I'm sending you to butch lesbian jail.† â€Å"They have that?† Rivera looked past his partner at Jared and nodded, slowly, seriously. KATUSUMI OKATA The burned-up white girl was not healing very quickly and Okata was running out of blood. All he seemed to do was watch her, sketch her, and squeeze his blood into her mouth. While her red hair had returned, and most of the ash had flaked away to reveal white skin underneath, she was still wraith-thin, and she only seemed to breathe two or three times an hour. During the day, she didn't breathe at all, and he thought that she might be dead forever. She had not opened her eyes, and had made no sound except a low moan when he was feeding her, which subsided as soon as he stopped. He was not feeling well himself, and on the second day he became light-headed and passed out on the mat beside her. If she did come alive as a demon, he'd be too weak to defend himself and she would drain the last drops of his life. Strangely, he was not okay with that. He needed to eat and recover and she needed more blood. â€Å"We will have to find a balance,† he said to the white girl in Japanese. He had been talking to her more lately, and found that he no longer flinched at the sound of his voice inside the little apartment that had been without a human voice for so long. A balance. When it was light and she had been still for an hour, he locked up his little apartment, took his sword, and walked into Chinatown, feeling ashamed of the little, old-man steps he was taking because he had become so weak. Perhaps he would actually go into a restaurant and have some tea and noodles, sit until his strength returned. Then he would find a better way to feed the burned-up white girl. He only spoke a dozen words of Cantonese, despite having lived near Chinatown for forty years. They were the same dozen words he spoke in English. He told his students at the dojo it was because Bushido and the Japanese language were inseparable, but in fact, it was because he was stubborn and didn't really like talking to people. His words were: hello, good-bye, yes, no, please, thank you, okay, sorry, and suck my dick. He made it a rule, however, to only say the last three in junction with please and/or thank you, and had only broken that rule once, when a thug in the Tenderloin tried to take his sword and Okata forgot to say please before fracturing the man's skull with the sheathed katana. Sorry, he'd said. It had been over a week since Okata had been to the dojo in Japantown. His students would think he was testing them, and when the time came to face them, he would say through his translator that they should learn to sit. Should learn patience. Should anticipate nothing. Anticipation was desire and didn't the Buddha teach that desire was the cause of all suffering? Then he would proceed to trounce each and every one of them with the bamboo shinai as an object lesson in suffering. Thank you. He didn't care much for prepared Chinese food, but Japantown was too far to walk, and Japanese food in his neighborhood was too expensive. But noodles are noodles. He'd eat just enough to get his strength back, then he would buy a fish, maybe some beef to help replace his blood, and take them home and prepare them. After he slurped down three bowls of soba and drank a pot of green tea at a restaurant named Soup, he made his way to the butcher. Near the old man who sat on a milk crate playing a Gaohu, a two-string, upright fiddle that approximated the sound of someone hurting a cat, the swordsman passed two policemen, who had paused as if considering whether they should give money to the old fiddler or whether it might not be better for everyone if they just Tased him. They smiled and nodded to Okata and he smiled back. They were mildly amused by the little man in the too-short plaid slacks, fluorescent orange socks, and an orange porkpie hat, who they had seen walking the City since they were boys. It never occurred to them that he was anything but an eccentric street person, or that the walking stick with which he measured his easy strolls, wasn't a walking stick at all. It took considerable pointing and pantomime to get the Chinese butcher to understand that he wanted to buy blood, but once he did, Okata was surprised to find out not only was it available, but it was available in flavors: pig, chicken, cow, and turtle. Turtle? Not for his burned-up white girl. How dare the butcher even suggest such a thing? She would have beef, and maybe a quart or two of pig, because Okata remembered reading once that human flesh was called â€Å"long pig† by Pacific island cannibals, so pig blood might be more to her liking. The butcher taped the lids on eight, one-quart plastic containers containing all the nonturtle blood he had, then carefully stacked them in a shopping bag and handed them to a woman at the cash register. Okata paid her the amount on the register, picked up the bag, and was pocketing the change when someone tapped him on the shoulder. He turned. No one there. Then he looked down: a tiny Chinese grandmother dressed in thug-wear that made her look vaguely like a hip-hop Yoda. She said something to him in Cantonese, then said something to the butcher, then to the woman behind the counter, who pointed at the shopping bag, then she said something else to Okata. Then she put a hand on his shopping bag. â€Å"Thank you,† Okata said in Cantonese. He bowed slightly. She didn't move. Being confronted by a Chinese grandmother while shopping in Chinatown was not unusual. In fact, more than once he'd had to push through a dog pile of Sino-matrons to simply buy a decent cabbage, but this one seemed to want what Okata had clearly already purchased. He smiled, bowed again, just slightly, said, â€Å"Good-bye,† and tried to push past her. She stepped in front of him, and he noticed, as he should have before, that a whole group of young men stepped in behind her; seven of them, Anglo, Hispanic, black, and Chinese, they all looked slightly stoned, but no less determined. The old lady barked something at him in Cantonese and tried to grab his bag. Then the young men behind her stepped up. THE ANIMALS â€Å"Have you been washed in the blood?† said Clint, the born-again ex-heroin addict to the detectives as they entered the butcher shop. He grinned over his shoulder. Clint was splattered head to toe with blood. Everyone in the shop was splattered with blood except the two uniform cops, who were trying to keep the three groups-the customers, the butchers, and the Animals-separated. They had the Animals lined up opposite the counter, facing the wall, their hands restrained with zip ties. â€Å"Inspector, these guys say they're supposed to meet you here,† said the younger of the uniforms, a gaunt, Hispanic guy named Muà ±ez. Rivera shook his head. â€Å"He started it,† said Lash Jefferson. â€Å"We were just minding our own business, and he rolled up on us all badass.† Rivera looked at the Asian officer, John Tan, who he'd worked with before when investigating a murder in Chinatown and had needed a translator. â€Å"What happened?† Tan shook his head and pushed his hat back on his head with the end of his riot baton. â€Å"Nobody's hurt. It's beef and pig blood. The butcher says these guys attacked a little old Japanese man, a regular customer, because he had bought the last of the beef blood.† â€Å"We needed it for bait,† said Lash. â€Å"You know, Inspector, like beer for slugs.† He winked. â€Å"You attacked an old man because he bought the last cow blood?† asked Cavuto. â€Å"He attacked us,† said Troy Lee. â€Å"We were just defending ourselves.† â€Å"He had a sword,† said Drew, who turned back around quickly. Officer Tan rolled his eyes at Rivera. â€Å"The butcher says the old man had a stick of some kind. He used it to defend himself.† â€Å"Just because he didn't draw it out of the scabbard doesn't meant it wasn't a sword,† said Jeff, the tall, blond jock. â€Å"It was a battle of honor,† said Troy Lee. â€Å"One little old guy with a stick, seven of you?† said Rivera. â€Å"Honor?† â€Å"He told my grandma to suck his dick,† said Troy. â€Å"Still,† said Cavuto. â€Å"But she said okay,† Troy said. â€Å"That shit is just wrong,† said Lash. Grandma, who was standing with the other outraged, blood-splattered customers across the butcher shop, fired off a volley of Cantonese at the policemen. Rivera looked to Officer Tan for translation. â€Å"She says she misunderstood what he was saying because his accent was so bad.† â€Å"Don't care,† said Rivera. â€Å"Where's the guy with the alleged stick?† â€Å"He ran out before we got here,† said Tan. â€Å"We called in backup, but we put the responding unit on finding the victim, when these guys didn't resist.† â€Å"Resistance is futile,† said Clint in a robot voice. â€Å"I thought you were Christian,† said Cavuto. â€Å"What, I can't love Jesus and Star Trek?† â€Å"Oh for fuck's sake. Rivera, let's just arrest these morons and-â€Å" Rivera held up his hand for silence. â€Å"Officer Tan, I'm afraid I do need them. You have their names if the stick guy shows up and wants to press charges. Have all those people leave their names with the butcher. These guys will pay for their dry cleaning.† â€Å"Yes, sir,† said Tan. â€Å"They're all yours. You want me to clip the restraints?† â€Å"Nope,† said Rivera. â€Å"Come along, boys.† He led the Animals, their hands cuffed behind their backs, out of the butcher shop and into the flow of the Stockton Street sidewalk-a river of people. â€Å"You'd better bring Troy Lee's grandma,† said Lash, rolling to the side as a vendor with a handtruck full of crates bumped by. â€Å"Yeah, Grandma has a secret weapon,† blurted out Troy Lee. â€Å"I heard,† said Cavuto. Jeff, the tall jock, said, â€Å"Hey, did anyone wonder why a little old Japanese guy would need eight quarts of animal blood?†