Accounting Made Essay

Managerial Accounting refers to the accumulation and preparation of financial reports for internal users only (e. g. management). Managerial Accounting includes all manipulations of financial information for use by managers in performing their specified organizational functions and additionally in ensuring the proper used and handling of an entity’s resources. â€Å"It is the internal business building role of accounting and finance professionals who work inside organizations. These professionals are involved in designing and evaluating business processes, budgeting and forecasting, implementing and monitoring internal controls and analyzing, synthesizing, and aggregation information – to help drive economic value† (IMA). Financial Accounting vs. Managerial Accounting Financial Accounting is primarily concerned with the recording of business transactions and the eventual preparation of financial statements. See more: The Issues Concerning Identity Theft Essay Its purpose is to record the transactions carried out by an organization, principally companies with their environment, in order to summarize at regular intervals their financial position and assets, as well as the net profit or loss on operations. Financial accounting focuses on general purpose reports known as financial statements intended for internal and external users and is subject to reporting according to GAAP (e. g. accrual method of accounting). This financial information is generally for the public, as required by law, and consists of a summary of the company’s past transactions. These all-purpose reports with historical date are prepared for use of different parties and the presentation of the financial statements are done formally, and are still useful even if submitted late. The nature of accounting information is monetary and reports the about the company as a whole. On the other hand, Managerial Accounting is responsible to a lesser degree of financial statement presentations to external users because their reports, which are usually confidential, are primarily for internal purposes or users. Also, it is not subject to reporting according to GAAP (e. g. ash basis). The reports have a strong future orientation, due to the fact that these are used to forecast the company’s health. These, not being required by law, may also be presented informally and timeliness of report is often more important than precision or accuracy and are for specific users only. The nature of its accounting information is both monetary and non-monetary and reports only parts or segments of the company. Other sources refer to Management Accounting as similar to Cost Accounting. However, Cost Accounting is only a subset of both financial and management accounting. This is because management involves many decisions based upon cost information. Accurate product costs must be determined according to the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) and according to decision relevance for internal purposes. Accounting Basics Accounting standards are needed so that an establishment’s financial statements with fairly and consistently describe its financial performance. Without these vital standards, comparisons and evaluations between companies will be quite difficult since financial statements will be based on individual company accounting rules. The activities that are part of managerial accounting include: (a) explaining manufacturing and non-manufacturing costs and how they are reported in the financial statements; (b) computing the cost of rendering a service or manufacturing a product; (c) determining the behavior of costs and expenses as activity levels change and analyzing cost-volume-profit relationships within a company; (d) assisting management in profit planning and formalizing the plans in the form of budgets; (e) providing a basis for controlling costs and expenses by comparing actual results with planned objectives and standard costs; and (f) accumulating and using relevant data for management decision making. Ethical Standards Managerial accountants recognize that they have an ethical obligation to their companies and the public. The IMA has developed a code of ethical standards entitled Standards of Ethical Conduct for Management Accountants. This code divides the managerial accountant’s responsibilities into four aspects: competence, confidentiality, integrity, and objectivity. Competence includes performing duties in accordance with laws, regulations and the like and preparing complete and clear reports and recommendations. Confidentiality refers to refraining from disclosing confidential information and from using or appearing to use confidential information for unethical or illegal advantage. Integrity involves refusing gifts or favors, recognizing and communicating professional limitations, active or passive subversion of the company’s attainment of objectives, communicating both favorable and unfavorable information, and refraining from activities that would discredit the profession. Lastly, objectivity refers to communicating information fairly and objectively and disclosing fully all relevant information that could influence a decision. Management functions involve performing three broad functions, namely planning, directing and motivating, and controlling. Planning requires the management to look ahead and establish their objectives or goals as a company, keeping in mind that these objectives add value to the business under its control. Directing and motivating involves coordinating diverse activities and human resources to produce a smooth-running operation. Controlling, on the other hand, is the process of keeping the form’s activities on track. In controlling operations, management determines whether planned goals are being met and what changes are necessary when there are deviations from targeted objectives, All these management functions become the foundation for the cause of applying management accounting. To be able to properly account for the success or failure of the business, accounting processes are used and standards are imposed. Ultimately, the purpose or goal is to objectively assess the performance of a corporation to be able to help forecast its future health.

Murdered jews of europe

History and Theory Essay: Architecture and Memory: Memorial to the Murdered Jews of EuropeFirst Page Quoteâ€Å" Abstract, unfastened and inclusive commemoration signifiers appear most frequently in cases where states attempt to memorialize their ain offenses. They seem to be capable of leting both the perpetrating state and its victims to show their histories in a individual incorporate memorial, and therefore to encapsulate a new incorporate post-conflict individuality † ( Elizabeth Strakosch )IntroductionThroughout history, states have sought to exhibit societal memory of their past accomplishments whilst conversely wipe outing the memory of evildoings committed during their development. These nostalgic contemplations of historic events have been both literally and figuratively portrayed in didactic memorials, which carefully edify the events into clear word pictures of province triumph and victory. However, displacements in the discourse of twentieth century political relations have given rise to the voice of the victim within these narratives. The traditional nation-state is now answerable to an international community instead than itself ; a community that acknowledges the importance of human rights and upholds moral conditions. These provinces continue to build an individuality both in the past and present, but are expected to admit their ain exclusions and accept blameworthiness for their old exploitations. In this new clime the traditional commemoration does non go disused, but alternatively evolves beyond a celebratory memorial, progressively citing the province ‘s evildoings and function as culprit. This progressive switch in attitude has given birth to a new signifier of commemoration: the anti-monument. These modern-day commemorations abandon nonliteral signifiers in penchant of abstraction. This medium facilitates a dialogical relationship between spectator and capable whilst besides advancing ambivalency. Critically, this new typology allows the narration of the victim and culprit to entwine into a individual united signifier, a alleged move towards political damages. This essay analyses the tradition and features of historic memorials and the post-industrial development of the anti-monument. The essay surveies and inquiries abstraction as the chosen vehicle of the anti-monument, utilizing Peter Eisenman ‘s Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe as a case-study. I argue that despite its success as a piece of public art, basically, it fails to execute its map of memorialization through its abstracted, equivocal signifier.Traditional MemorialsTraditional memorials use nonliteral imagination to organize an intuitive connexion to the spectator. They use linguistic communication and iconography to show the looker-on with the province ‘s idealized perceptual experience of a important event in history. Throughout clip, these memorials have frequently outlasted the civilisations or political governments who constructed them and as a consequence their undisputed specific narrative becomes unequivocal ; all memory of an alternate narration is l ost with the passing of informants who could remember these existent events. This has the negative effect of relieving the contemporary visitant of duty for the past and fails to suit the invariably altering and varied position of the spectator. In this regard, the permanency of the traditional memorial nowadayss an unchallengeable narrative which becomes an active presence to the visitant, who is ever the receptive component.Reasons for the alteration – introduce anti-monumentHowever, events of the 20th century such as the atomic blast at Hiroshima and the atrociousness of the Holocaust altered commemorate pattern. Memorials were no longer militaristic and celebratory but alternatively acknowledged the offenses of the province against civilians. Interior designers were faced with the countless challenge of memorializing ‘the most quintessential illustration of adult male ‘s inhumaneness to adult male – the Holocaust. ‘An event so ruinous it prevents any effort to singularly enter the single victim. The new typology that emerged would subsequently be defined as the anti-monument.The anti-monumentThe anti-monument aimed to chase away old memorial convention by prefering a dialogical signifier over the traditional didactic memorial. This new memorial typology avoided actual representation through nonliteral look and written word in favour of abstraction. This move toward the abstract enabled the spectator to now go the active component and the memorial to go the receptive component ; a role-reversal that allowed the visitant to convey their ain reading to the commemoration. James E Young commented that the purpose of these commemorations: â€Å" †¦ is non to comfort but to arouse ; non to stay fixed but to alter ; non to be everlasting but to vanish ; non to be ignored by passersby but to demand interaction ; non to stay pristine but to ask for its ain misdemeanor and desanctification ; non to accept gracefully the load of memory but to throw it back at the town ‘s pess. † In this manner, James E Young suggests that the anti-monument Acts of the Apostless receptively to history, clip and memory. He besides states: â€Å" Given the inevitable assortment of viing memories, we may ne'er really portion a common memory at these sites but merely the common topographic point of memory, where each of us is invited to retrieve in our ain manner. † It is this point that basically determines the of import and necessary dialogical character of all Holocaust commemorations. ( point could be stronger here )The debut of The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of EuropeAnd so, in 1999 the Federal Republic of Germany passed a declaration to raise a commemoration to the murdered Jews of Europe. This commemoration intended to ‘honour the murdered victims ‘ and ‘keep alive the memory of these impossible events in German history ‘ . An unfastened competition selected American, Peter Eisenman as the winning designer, who proposed an expansive field of 2,711 stelae and ‘the Ort ‘ , a auxiliary information Centre. The commemoration is non merely important for its intents of recollection, but besides represents the first constructed national memorial to the Holocaust with fiscal and political support from the German Federal State.Location and relationship to immediate context.The location of the memorial itself is considered arbitrary by some, as the site has no old intension with the Holocaust or Nazism, but alternatively was a former no-mans land in the decease strip of the Berlin Wall. Whilst the commemorating power of this location may be questioned, the significance of its arrangement lies within its integrating into Berlin ‘s urban kingdom. The edge status of the memorial nowadayss a natural passage between the stelae and the paving. The land plane and first stelae sit flower to each other be fore bit by bit lifting and recessing into two separate informations that create a zone of uncertainness between. The commemoration does non admit the specificity of the site and the deficiency of cardinal focal point intends to reflect the ambient nature of the victims and culprits in the metropolis of Berlin.Feeling created – bodily experience.Within the stelae each visitant senses the memory of the victims somatically by sing feelings of claustrophobia, uneasiness and freak out within the narrow paseos and graduated table of the memorial. It was non Peter Eisenman ‘s purpose to emulate the restrictive status of a decease cantonment, but alternatively, to promote the personal contemplation of the person in their function of transporting memory in the present. â€Å" In this memorial there is no end, no terminal, no working one ‘s manner in or out. The continuance of an person ‘s experience of it grants no farther apprehension, since apprehension is impossible. The clip of the memorial, its continuance from top surface to land, is disjoined from the clip of experience. In this context, there is no nostalgia, no memory of the yesteryear, merely the living memory of the single experience. Here, we can merely cognize the past through its manifestation in the present. † In this sense, each visitant is invited to see the absence created by the Holocaust and in bend, each feels and fills such a nothingness. It can non be argued that this material battle with absence is non powerful ; nevertheless, in most cases the feeling becomes passing. Each visitant walks precariously around the commemoration, hesitating for idea and expecting the following corner. They are forced to alter gait and way unwillingly and face the changeless menace of hit at every bend and intersection of the looming stelae. It is this status, in my sentiment, that instills the feeling of menace and edginess into most visitants as opposed to the perceived connexion between themselves and the victims.Anti-commemorative: maps as art instead than a memorial.The commemoration does non give any infinite for assemblages of people and therefore inhibits any ceremonial usage in the act of memory. The aggregation of stelae is evocative of the graveyards of Judaic ghettos in Europe where due to infinite restraints ; gravestones are piled high and crowded together at different angles. Some visitants treat the commemoration as a graveyard, walking easy and mutely, before halting and layering flowers or tapers at the side of a stele. The presence of these drab grievers and their objects of recollection are one of the lone indexs that clearly place the stelae field as a commemoration. However, the objects discarded at the commemoration are ever removed by the staff, proposing the memorial be experienced in its intended signifier ; a relationship more kindred to public art instead than that of a commemoration.Rigid order – how the memorial suggests the victim and perpertratorIn Eisenman ‘s sentiment, the commemoration is symbolic of a apparently stiff and apprehensible system of jurisprudence and order that mutates into something much more profane. The visitant experiences this first-hand when feeling lost and disorientated in the environment they one time perceiv ed as rational and negotiable from the exterior. â€Å" The undertaking manifests the instability inherent in what seems to be a system, here a rational grid, and its potency for disintegration in clip. It suggests that when a purportedly rational and ordered system grows excessively big and out of proportion to its intended intent, it in fact loses touch with human ground. It so begins to uncover the innate perturbations and potency for pandemonium in all systems of looking order, the thought that all closed systems of a closed order are bound to neglect. † Through abstraction, the memorial efforts to admit both the victims and culprits in a individual, incorporate signifier. The regular grid of the memorial and its delusory portraiture of reason acknowledge the culprits of the offense: the Nazi Third Reich. Whilst viewed from afar, the stelae resemble gravestones in a graveyard, allowing the victims a marker for their life, a marker antecedently denied to them by a Nazi government who aimed to wipe out all memory of their being.How the memorial evokes memory – contrasting experiencesEisenman ‘s commemoration is concerned with how the yesteryear is manifested in the present. His involvement lies non with the murdered Jews the commemoration aims to mark, but alternatively, how the contemporary visitant can associate to those victims. In this regard, the memorial licenses recollection displaced from the memory of the holocaust itself. Eisenman wrote: â€Å" The memory of the Holocaust can ne'er be one of nostalgia. †¦ The Holocaust can non be remembered in the nostalgic manner, as its horror everlastingly ruptured the nexus between nostalgia and memory. The memorial efforts to show a new thought of memory as distinguishable from nostalgia. † The field of stelae does non show a nostalgic remembrance of Judaic life before the holocaust ; neither do they try to encapsulate the events of the race murder. Alternatively, the memorial connects with the visitant through a material battle that facilitates an single response to memory.contrast between stelae and info Centre.The stelae have the consequence of making a ghostly atmosphere as the sounds of the environing streets and metropolis are deadened, overstating the visitant ‘s uncomfortableness. However, the atmosphere is disturbed by the cheering, laughter and conversation of visitants lost in the stelae looking for one another. In pronounced contrast, the subterraneous information Centre has the consequence of hushing its dwellers. The exhibition provides a actual representation of the atrociousnesss of the holocaust, pedagogically exposing the letters, vesture and personal properties of a smattering of victims. Eisenman originally rejected the inclusion of a topograph ic point of information so that the stelae field would go the sole and unequivocal experience. However, his competition win was conditional upon its inclusion. It is my sentiment that ‘The Ort ‘ or information Centre has become the important topographic point of memory and memorialization despite being at the same time downplayed by the designer and German province. The little edifice is located belowground and accessed via a narrow stairway amongst the stelae. As with the commemoration as a whole, there is no recognition of its being or map, and as a consequence must be discovered through roving. It performs memorialization far more successfully than the stelae field by bring forthing an emotional response from the visitant. It is the lone subdivision of the commemoration where the holocaust is explicitly present ; where visitants are non removed from the horrors but alternatively confronted with them. In the dark suites the hurt of the visitant is easy gauged as they walk about solemnly as the world of the holocaust becomes perceptible. The acoustic presence of shouting and sobbing are far removed from the laughter and shoutin g in the stelae above. The exhibition features infinites where the lifes of victims are made hearable longer sentence here will assist the flow. In these suites the smallest inside informations of the victim ‘s disregarded lives are told in a heavy voice which instantly gives substance to the person and corporate loss. The visitant ‘s injury is perceptible here as the impossible statistics are non portrayed as abstract representations, but alternatively are personified. The abstract nature of the stelae and site as a whole have the affect of doing the commemoration a relaxed and convenient topographic point to be. The memorial has transcended the theory that commemorations command regard by their mere being, with the site going a portion of mundane life for Berliners as a topographic point of leisure. Many stumble on the commemoration as an empty labyrinth, a kids ‘s resort area where people walk across the stelae, leaping from one to another. They are faced with conflicting emotions between an inherent aptitude to demo regard and a desire to fulfill a self-generated demand to play. The commemoration ‘s aspiration is to enable every visitant to make their ain decision and determine an single experience, which through abstraction it achieves. However, by the same means, it facilitates a withdrawal between the person and the commemoration ‘s primary map of memorialization. The theoretical narration of the stelae field is an highly co mplex and powerful thought, nevertheless the equivocal, absent design fails to let the visitant to associate to the victims or derive an apprehension of the atrociousnesss of the holocaust. Therefore, whilst experienced in its uniqueness, the abstract stelae field fails to mark, alternatively being dependant on the didactic attack of the information Centre to let the visitant to associate to the holocaust and its victims.DecisionWhen measuring the entries for the original competition Stephen Greenblatt wrote: â€Å" It has become progressively evident that no design for a Berlin commemoration to retrieve the 1000000s of Jews killed by Nazis in the Holocaust will of all time turn out adequate to the huge symbolic weight it must transport, as legion designs have been considered and discarded. Possibly the best class at this point would be to go forth the site of the proposed commemoration at the bosom of Berlin and of Germany empty†¦ † Possibly this attack would hold finally become more pertinent. How does one design a memorial in memory of an event so impossible that in some manner does n't hold the inauspicious affect of doing it more toothsome? Possibly, as Archigram frequently insisted, the reply is non a edifice. Alternatively, the absence of a memorial delegates the duty of memorialization to the person who as carriers of memory, come to symbolize the memorial. Potentially inquiry / remark on the hereafter of the memorial.

Journal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 99

Journal - Essay Example All children believe in Santa Clause and love the magic of Christmas. So Coca Cola used it and built the association array, something like Santa Claus drinks Coca Cola and Christmas is not full without Coca Cola. At least I understood it in this way and asked to buy me a Cola. In this commercial one may also find the image of happy families, celebrating the holiday and enjoying positive emotions. Children like and need such things and these pictures capture childrens attention. Also the authors used the holiday song with very sticking to the memory tune. Eric Schlosser in his essay Kid Kustomers noticed â€Å"The growth in children’s advertising has been driven by efforts to increase not just current, but also future, consumption. Hoping that nostalgic childhood memories of a brand will lead to a lifetime of purchases (...)†. This pattern works in case of Christmas advertisement by Coca Cola. When I found the clip on YouTube I saw comments like â€Å"I dont feel Christmas until I see and hear that advert† (user pwnsauce8) or â€Å"i love coca cola adverts at christmas i always drink coke on christmas day† (user Ste OC). Also I remember the commercial of 7-UP with Orlando Jones. He plays with small dog and accidentally he hits the pet with the can of 7-UP. I was not cruel to animals, I liked dogs and liked to play with them. I imaged that the dog is kidding and pretending dead so it seemed very funny. This clip did not make me want 7-UP but it made me want a puppy. I asked my parents to buy me a dog every time I saw this video. Now I can say these clips contain no information about goods, its features, or price. There are only emotions and associative arrays in these videos. So the ideal audience of these advertisements has to be emotional and have no logical and critical thinking. Like kids. Basically these drinks are not for children as they contain a lot of harmful for childs body

What are the factors which affect the propensity of firms to innovate Essay

What are the factors which affect the propensity of firms to innovate through collaboration with other firms and which affect the outcomes of such interaction - Essay Example Various factors that are perceived to be beneficial to partnering firms cause them to come together and innovate together. Some of the factors that cause firms to collaborate in innovation include reducing the cost of development of the technology, reducing the potential risks that are involved in technological development or entering the market, to achieve the economies of scale, which reduce the cost of production, promoting shared learning between the firms involved, and reducing the time taken to produce and market new products (Tidd, Bessant and Pavitt, 2005, p25-78). The results of the collaborative invention vary significantly according to different companies, and these factors may be beyond or within the abilities of the partnering firms. Some factors that influence the results of a collaborative interaction between firms include: the competitiveness of the partners, the transparency issues, receptivity of ideas, the rate of learning and bargaining power of partners, the intention of the firms when they accepted to enter into collaboration, and sustainability of the deal (Hamel, 1991, p.83-101). These factors determine whether or not the collaboration will continue in order to develop technologies together. If the factors are favourable to the collaborating firms, they continue to develop technologies together. Different companies collaborate in innovation according to different interaction policies. These interactions are determined by conditions that are set by those partners, when joining together as well as those that are related to sustai nability. In order to understand the issues that are related to the collaborative innovation, there is need to explore the factors that influence firms to come together as well as those that influence the sustainability of collaborative innovation interactions. In events where firms collaborate to innovate, they need to put into consideration all the issues that can arise

Employment Law Compliance Plan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Employment Law Compliance Plan - Essay Example Additionally, Stonefield stated that he intends to have at least 25 employees during the first year of business operations. Therefore, this memorandum seeks to identify the most relevant employment laws that Stonefield must be concerned about when creating a compliance plan. The first and most critical employment law that Stonefield must be aware as he seeks to start a limousine business in Austin, Texas is the Texas Payday Law. This is because noncompliance with this law can attract a heavy penalty on the part of Stonefield as an employer. The law provides protection to employees who have not been paid all the salaries due to them. The Texas Payday Law is applicable to all businesses that are conducted in Texas with the exception of public employers. According to this law, any employee who feels that his or her employer has not paid all his earned wages in full can bring a complaint against the employer with the Texas Workforce Commission within 180 days after the date that the wages not yet paid became in arrears for payment. The commission will then takes up the matter and investigate it. As such, in the event that the Commission rules in favor of a worker, the employer can be required to pay up to $1,000 in damages for noncompliance with the Texas P ayday Law (Attorney General of Texas, 2013). Similarly, in the case that the Commission finds that the employee acted in bad faith, then the employee who filed the complained may also be required to pay the same amount as damages. Additionally, the Texas Payday Law also spell out how employers are supposed to compensate employees, which can either be monthly on weekly depending on the method that an employer deems appropriate. According to the Texas Payday Law, it is not a requirement that an employer pay a worker for lunches, vacation, and breaks. Nevertheless, all employers regardless of the size of the business are required by the law to compensate their employees for attending

The Accounting Treatment and Disclosures Related To Three Types of Com Essay

The Accounting Treatment and Disclosures Related To Three Types of Compensation and Other Benefits - Essay Example These services generally have many beneficial impacts on the organization. As such, it is important to reward the employees adequately in the form of compensation and other benefits. The compensation benefits include a set of programs which are aimed at attracting capable employees to a company. The compensation benefits help to motivate the employees to perform better and also help to retain more skills within the organization. A satisfactory compensation will help in reducing the attrition rate in a company and also contribute significantly to human resource management in a business. The three types of compensation benefits considered in this report are share-based compensation which includes stock options and restricted stocks, pension plans and regular base compensation. Share-based compensation is becoming more popular among the local as well as multinational organizations. The benefits of share-based compensation are many. The most noticeable advantage of share-based compensation is that it gives a sense of inclusion to the employees as the share-based compensation is associated with privileges of equity ownership. The main purpose of the share-based compensation benefits is to support the interests of the shareholders, employees as well as the management of the company. If the employees have a stake in the company through the ownership of certain shares, it is highly likely that the employees will perform better to ensure that the sales and profit level of the company is increased. An increase in the profitability and revenue generation of the company would result in an increase in the share prices of the company. If the employees are given share-based compensation benefits, an increase in the share prices would mean benefit for the employee as well. Thus, this acts as a win-win situation for the managers, investors as well as the employees of a business. Share-based compensation is common to both established companies and startup companies.  

Personal Development Portfolio Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Personal Development Portfolio - Essay Example Under the broad topic of organizational change, a presentation was assigned to each group. The presentation discussed the issues of internal and external changes and their influence on organizational change. Our group firstly distributed the work among them and started at an early phase in order to ensure work quality (Anglia Ruskin University, 2013). The major task during the entire preparation of presentation was a collection of the appropriate literature review. In general, the presentation was based on a collection of past evidence in numerous industries, which resulted in organizational change. The first analysis was made on the packaging industry across South East Asia. The market of an aluminum can is extremely competitive and hence, firms operating in this industry, such as Westcan Aluminium, have to keep their prices low as the threat is from both branded and unbranded local firms (Ridgman, 1996). During initial stages of the literature review process, various difficulties arise. A major difficulty was in term of sourcing statistical data for the required industries. PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate) is a small fragment of the packaging industry. Consequently, it was difficult to find appropriate information on its usage, share among different firms as well as a total number of unidentified or local companies selling the material (Cameron and Mitchell, 1993). The next problem occurred in terms of group management. I realized that some of the team members were less participative compared to others. As such, issues and conflicts began to arise between group members. However, I was able to clear the misunderstandings by assigning each member with the particular task with a fixed deadline. As I took on the most difficult task, I was applauded and immediately positioned as the leader of the group. The next issue that occurred was that of assigning parts during the presentation speec h. Conflicts of interest occurred as two or more members wanted to present on similar topics (Ghaye, 2000).

Contemporary Issues in Information Systems Research Paper

Contemporary Issues in Information Systems - Research Paper Example Additionally, at the present there are numerous CASE tools which can be used by software development teams. These tools offer rigid policy and standards about implementation and design of the systems (Lamb, 2012; VisualCase, 2012). In addition, a number of the advantages offered by CASE and other similar techniques are that, by making the client element of the software development process (for instance by analyzing the marketplace and focus groups); a product is further possible to convene real-world requirements and features. In view of the fact that software development process heavily relies on redesign and testing, hence the price of servicing an application over its lifetime can be reduced considerably. In this scenario, a carefully established technique to development offers assurance for the code and design reuse, minimizing expenditures and improving value. Ultimately, quality software products are likely to develop a company’s image, offering a competitive edge in the market (Rouse, 2005). This report presents a detailed analysis of two major market leaders of CASE tools. Basically, this report presents an analysis of two major applications IBM Rational Software and Oracle Designer. These tools contain wonderful features and provide an excellent support throughout the software development process. This report will present the comparison of these two applications and specification of major features for more enhanced performance management of the application development. In this scenario, this research will assess these two products on the basis of different features and quality parameters. Analysis This report presents a detailed analysis of two leading CASE tool applications by comparing their features and attributes. In this scenario, I will compare and contrast IBM Rational Software and Oracle Designer on the basis of Repository (it demonstrates how the selected tools is using repository), Forward engineering features, Reverse Engineering feat ures and Modeling tool features. I will assess both applications of above stated characteristics to suggest a most excellent application. Repository IBM Rational The IBM Rational Case tools offer information that is able to improve quality of software development groups to function more efficiently and productively. Additionally, IBM Rational Rose permits development teams to uphold, capture and take benefit of software knowledge by means of a repository available to people through a web and Eclipse interfaces as well as to programming through a RESTful web based interface (IBM, 2012). In this scenario, Eclipse plug-in integrated in Rational Developer for System development connects the software developer to local as well as remote RAA repositories. In fact, it as well scans software application source files from local and remote workplace IDE software development projects into a local RAA system repository (IBM, 2012). In addition, the capability to scan symbols in some kind of fil e scanned by the Rational Asset Analyzer representation scanner, including the results into the Rational Asset Analyzer repository and comprising the data and information in the inquiry and analysis services. Moreover, it integrates information from a wide

My Room Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

My Room - Essay Example My closet is well arranged and the used clothes are in one basket case and not littered all over the place. Â  My bathroom is clean and my personal and grooming materials are also nicely kept in a drawer. Â  Visitors also have hard time guessing whether it is a room of a boy or a girl. Â  It can be a room of a girl because it is clean and tidy but it could be also a room of a boy because it has sports equipments in my room. Â  I have football helmet, basketball, baseball and other sports gear displayed in a cabinet. Â  My study table is also obviously a student’s table because it is made of sturdy wood with just books and other study materials on it but is not gender oriented. Â  I also have a huge TV and speakers in my room that plays my favorite movies and music which could be either for a boy or a girl. Â  It is also difficult to tell whether my room is for adults or for children. Â  In addition to sports gears, my room also has toys, mannequins of cartoon character s and game boards. Â  But the books that I have will also tell that it is for adult because it has history books, hobby books and school books. My room is unusual because I fill my room with the things that I love and not because how people think a room should be. Â  It is my favorite place in the house. Â  It is the place where I study, rest or to enjoy my favorite movies or music. Â  It is also the place where I reflect about things because it feels very comfortable in there.

CRJS420 U1IP Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

CRJS420 U1IP - Research Paper Example To his biggest surprise, my uncle found out that the driver of the vehicle was none other than his beloved father. For a moment he stood there dumbfounded as he contemplated what to do. This clearly is a situation that requires a lot of sobriety, honesty, integrity and morality while handling it. It is such a big dilemma and after my uncle narrated it to me I took myself in his boots. Going by the facts as they stood, I would have not hesitated to arrest my father. It is evidently clear in our legal justice system that a drunk driver is a threat not only to himself/herself but also to other road users. In addition to that, the oath of duty taken by police officers clearly stipulates service to all, and that a police officer should always act with courtesy, honesty as well as with regard for the welfare of other people. Clearly his father was on the wrong side of the law and needed to be apprehended, for the sake of justice. Some of the positive consequences of this decision would be maintenance of safety for other road users, prevention of potential deaths through road accidents and upholding of my morals as well as oath of office as a police office. Creation of bad blood between my father and I would be one of the negative consequences for my action of apprehending him. Based on my decision, the ethical theory that best describes this approach is deontology which basically argues that individuals ought to stick to their duties and obligations while doing an analysis touching on ethical dilemma. This basically implies that an individual will pursue his/her commitments to another person or society since upholding one’s obligation is what is regarded as being ethically correct. A deontologist will, for instance, always maintain the law (Douglas, 2014). Ethics mostly involves principles that are used to determine what behaviors are good, proper as well

Enron-The Smartest Guys in the Room paper Essay Example for Free

Enron-The Smartest Guys in the Room paper Essay Answer the following questions based on the film Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005). 1. (a) Describe the ownership structure at Enron. (b) How did the ownership structure contribute to the Enron scandal? (15 points) When Enron became a publicly traded company, the employees and executives had more incentive to manipulate earnings and financials. With the shift in structure, there were more external stakeholders to satisfy, which caused the company to focus on short-term results, rather than long-term interests. The company went as far as to trade all sorts of things, including weather and broadband, in order to gain support from investors. Enron got a lot of that support. Investment banks put about $25 million each into the company. With high stakes and image on the line, Enron manipulated earnings to drive stock prices up through mark-to-market accounting to please its stakeholders. 2.(a) Describe the following three leaders: Ken Lay, Jeff Skilling, and Andy Fastow. (b) How did EACH leader contribute to the scandal? (20 points) Ken Lay was a very ambitious man. He was the son of a poor Baptist preacher. Because of Lay’s humble roots, Lay worked several jobs as a kid. He always dreamed about being a businessman one day and making huge wealth for himself. Lay believed he could have a better life with more wealth. He also believed in government deregulation. Lay had a PhD in economics. He aggressively pushed for deregulation of energy markets in Washington. His goal was to liberate businessmen from government’s hold. He took advantage of government letting energy prices float with the market, and started Enron Corporation through a few mergers. Jeffrey Skilling, former CEO of Enron, was said to be â€Å"incandescently brilliant† by many at Enron. In reality, he was a risky, danger-seeking gambler. Skilling had a Darwinian view and strongly beli eved in the idea of â€Å"survival of the fittest†. He implemented a group called the Performance Review Committee. The committee was involved in the â€Å"rank and yank† system, in which the bottom 15 percent of the company got fired each year. This ultimately led to numerous unethical actions and turning a blind eye to fraud because of employees’ determination for job  security. Skilling was a former nerd, and went on to change himself. He was very admired at Enron. When he got Lasik surgery, everyone else did too. Skilling was responsible for making energy into a tradable entity and for his advocacy of mark-to-market accounting, which was the main tool for Enron’s earnings manipulation. Fastow was a very greedy man. He served as CFO of Enron. He was responsible for running numerous companies that partnered with Enron. He mainly worked to cover up the financial fantasy land that Lay and Skilling had created. He was hired before age 30 by Skilling to join Enron. He always idolized Skilling and wanted to please him. He ended up hiding about $30 billion in debt through his companies. In addition, he skimmed off many of the deals he made, using Enron stocks as collateral. Fastow did not have a strong moral compass, and would play to the greed of the investment banks. He would offer investment banks accounts for their silence. One analyst, John Olsen, star ted to question the firm, and weeks later, was fired by the investment bank because Fastow paid off the bank with big Enron accounts. 3.(a) Describe the organizational culture at Enron. (b) How did the organizational culture contribute to the Enron scandal? (15 points) The culture at Enron was very cut-throat and filled with greed. Money drove the company and its employees. In fact, even the elevators had displays of the stock prices. The company was overtaken by hubris as well. Everyone was on the bandwagon—the accounting firm, investors, executives, and employees. The entire company thought it was changing the world. Everyone was blinded by arrogance, greed, and money. Enron was always portrayed as a super power in the market. It was said that is someone wanted to be part of the market, they had to go through Enron. In addition, many employees, including Skilling, were former nerds and had something to prove. There was a very macho culture at Enron. Skilling would organize dangerous, macho trips for employees and big clients. The stories from these adventures became legend. One man almost died from a flipp ed Jeep. Stories like that were legendary in the office. The culture ultimately led Enron to scandal because of the ideas it had put into people’s heads—that money drove everything and cash was king. 4.(a) Describe the performance management/reward system at Enron. (b) How did the performance   management/reward system contribute to the Enron scandal? (20 points) The reward systems were big. The executives and employees were all fans of the â€Å"pump and dump† system in which the employees drove the stock prices up, and would them sell the stocks off. The company was consumed by stock prices, as stocks were a large part of the compensation structure at Enron. Even the elevators had stock prices posted, so people could be reminded daily that there was more money to be made. The cash bonuses were extravagant too. In fact, a 25-year-old made a $5 million bonus. Executives were given multi million dollar bonuses. In addition, to prevent anyone from raising any flags, Enron played on the greed of the outside accounting firm, Arthur Anderson, as well as law firms. In fact, in 2001, Arthur Anderson got $1 million a week to keep things quiet and go along with everything. The la w firm was paid off handsomely as well. Analysts at investment banks would never really look into things because of greed as well. Because of all the bonuses, outsiders turned a blind eye, as did employees, which ultimately gave way to the scandal that ensued. 5.(a) Describe the regulatory/oversight weaknesses for Enron. (b) How did the regulatory/oversight weaknesses contribute to the Enron scandal? (15 points) Enron sought to take advantage of the low level of government regulation and the hyper capitalism created by the reigning consumer culture of the time. The company was run by a group of intelligent individuals who recognized they could take advantage of the government failure of low regulation. Early on while working for Enron, Lay founded many friends within Congress, including the friendship of George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush. The government helped in pork barrel legislation for the company, granting it even more power. In addition, Bush senior helped secure millions of subsidies for Enron and helped promote Ken Lay as ambassador of deregulation at large. In addition, even energy-specific regulators turned a blind eye. Pat Wood, chair of FERC, was recommended by Lay as chair, and would work with Enron in lack of government in tervention. Even the power plants in California were working with Enron at one point. Enron could call someone at a power plant and cause rolling blackouts in parts of California,  driving energy prices up. With support from the government and very low regulation and intervention, Enron had a clean path to scandal. 6.Describe three (3) specific ways, which are directly related to the above factors, that Enron-like scandals could be prevented in the future. (15 points) 1. Publically-traded companies should have a strong board of directors that oversees the company and does not have investment in the company. Greed drove Enron to do what it did, but a board of directors who has no stake in the company would be more objective and ethical in decision-making for the company. 2. There should be less compensation tied to stock performance, as that was a large incentive for fraud at Enron. People’s earnings were tied too closely to stock. 3. Analysts should be help more responsible for their actions. The investment banks they worked for got sued, but who’s to say the analysts who turned a blind eye ever got punished? They made the banks lots of money, so they probably kept their jobs and got a slap on the wrist. More consequence in the public eye would deter these actions in the future.

Washington Irvings Rip Van Winkle Essay Example for Free

Washington Irvings Rip Van Winkle Essay Irvings Rip Van Winkle shows distinct characteristics of romanticism throughout. Irvings unusual and original subject and the descriptions of nature, displays these romantic qualities of originality, connection with nature and an emotional sincerity. Rip van winkle is about a man who goes deep into the woods one day to go hunting. Rip some one calling his name and is led to strange men. What seemed particularly odd to Rip was, that though these folks were evidently amusing themselves, yet they maintained the gravest faces, the most mysterious silence, and were, withal the most melancholy party of pleasure he had ever witnessed. Rip drinks some ale and falls asleep. He wakes up twenty years later not knowing time has passed by. This strange plotline is very romantic. It would be impossible for someone to fall asleep for twenty years and still be living. It goes against the nature of science. Most of the stories of the time written by men were historical. Although Irvings attempts to make his story seem true by referring to historical documents, it is too strange to be real. Another distinct romantic quality of Rip Van Winkle is the detailed descriptions of nature in the story such as the Catskill mountains and the Hudson river. Panting and fatigued, he threw himself, late in the afternoon, on a green knoll, covered with mountain herbage, that crowned the brow of a precipice. From an opening between the trees he could overlook all the lower country for many a mile of rich woodland. He saw at a distance the lordly Hudson, far, far below him, moving on its silent but majestic course, with the reflection of a purple cloud, or the sail of a lagging bark, here and there sleeping on its glassy bosom, and at last losing itself in the blue highlands. On the other side he looked down into a deep mountain glen, wild, lonely, and shagged, the bottom filled with fragments from the impending cliffs, and scarcely lighted by the reflected rays of the setting sun. For some time Rip lay musing on this scene; evening was gradually advancing; the mountains began to throw their long blue shadows over the valleys; he saw that it would be dark long before he could reach the village Irving uses dreamy words such as majestic and lordly which suggest a presence of God. God created nature and is the cause for the cycle  of it. The magnificent description of the nature is almost like a heaven and with the presence of god, again shows the unusual and strange aspect of romanticism in the story. The tale of Rip Van Winkle is mysterious and leaves the reader wondering if it really happened. As Irvings other stories The Devil and Tom Walker and Sleepy Hollow, Rip Van Winkle has an curious plotline and in depth description of nature. It is extremely romantic and one of the first of its kind.

School Building Planning And Construction Physical Education Essay

School Building Planning And Construction Physical Education Essay School buildings are an integral part in the formal education of the student. They are to be designed and constructed in such a way that will enhance the potential of each student and boost the learning process. There are many considerations when designing and building a school. Some of these include: Accessibility Schools buildings must be designed in such a way that will provide equal access to all. It must also be designed to be flexible to increase the probability of being able to provide equal access throughout the life-cycle of the facilities. Aesthetics Focusing on the physical appearance of the school must not be neglected. The school building must be attractive and pleasing to the eye, with a similar context of the neighborhood, in order to develop a sense of ownership and pride among the members of the community, most especially to the teachers/staff and students of the school. In addition, there should be a clear balance between the exterior features of the school and the neighborhood, reflecting the values of the community, while the interior features should develop the learning process. Cost-effectiveness Being cost-effective does not mean that the quality of the school building will be compromised, rather, being cost-effective means that the school should use facilities that can save money over time by balancing the design and constructions costs with the costs of maintaining and operating the facility. Functionality The school must be able to give a high quality formal education to its students as it has promised by creating a learning environment that will enhance and speedup the learning process. Productivity A productive school must be able to provide the students and teachers a comfortable, safe and healthy environment in order to achieve maximum potential. Security A safe and secure school building has always been and is still the most important goal of project managers, engineers and architects. A safe and secure school building must have a fire protection system, must consider the safety and health of its occupants and visitors, must be able to resist natural hazards, and must be able to effectively secure the assets of the school (material assets and human assets occupants and visitors). Sustainability With all the talk on global warming and climate change, the concern for the environment has grown tremendously. Considering that every activity has a direct and indirect impact on the environment, school building construction and operations are not exempt from impacting the environment as it uses raw materials and water and energy resources, and in turn, produces solid and liquid waste and gas emissions. A sustainable school must optimize site potential, energy use and operational and maintenance practices, use environment-friendly products and materials, conserve water and enhance environmental quality within the school building. Community-Centered As a community-centered school, it must be able to serve the community as a whole. Considering all the elements of a school building stated above, this paper will provide a comprehensive planning and design of a school. The school designed and planned in this paper will cater secondary students, which will generally include grades 9 to 12. The total number of students will be approximately 250 to 300 students. Essential Spaces Needed The following are the different spaces that will constitute the school building. Each of it will be discussed in the following section. The Administration Unit The administration unit is particularly important in any type of school as it provides a specific hub for its staff, as well as an area for interaction between the staff, students and parents. The schools administration unit will be located at the main entrance of the school, which is directly accessible to the public and may be accessed after school hours and on weekends. The administration unit will include private offices for the schools principal and assistant principal and open offices for its clerks, a lobby with a visitors waiting area, a small conference room for meetings and small conferences and a faculty room for teachers. The lobby will have writing and seating surfaces used for completing forms and notes. The faculty room will have enough space for administrative activities such as photocopying, assembling and fastening documents needed for their classes. The administration unit will also have spaces for storage of their office supplies, equipments (i.e. computers, print ers, scanners, copiers, telephones, etc.), LAN central location, and mail boxes. This unit will also provide adult restrooms for the employees and its visitors. Lounge for Faculty and Staff This space will be especially designed for the teachers and staff of the school for relaxation, small informal meetings with other teachers and staff, and dining. The lounge will be located near the administration unit. Health Services Unit Located next to the administration unit, the health services unit will provide health services to the students and employees of the school. It should be noted that information taken from the health services unit are private and confidential, and so, the students health records and information will be properly stored and will only be disclosed to appropriate people such as the schools administrators, their teachers and counselors and healthcare aides. The health services unit will include a cot room, an examination area for visiting doctors and other healthcare professionals, a nurses desk, a ten-foot long eye examination lane, a first aid space, patients waiting area and a private storage for medical supplies, equipments and medications. Counseling and Attendance Unit The counseling and attendance unit will serve as an area for guidance and counseling programs and a service center for students arranging their enrolment and transfers, as well as an area for the maintenance of students attendance records and files. Sometimes joined together with the administration unit and located next to the main entrance, the counseling area where counselors administer psychological examinations, discuss exam results and problems with the students and their parents, and keep records and files of each student. This unit will include private offices for the counselors with a working space, guest seating and computer workstation, interview and testing areas, and a waiting area for guests. General Classrooms Probably the central element of any school, the classrooms will be designed for approximately 25 to 30 students per class. There will be a total of ten classrooms in this school with approximately 960 square feet each. The classrooms will be laid out in linear form accessed by internal corridors. They will be situated somewhere that is easily accessible to other essential areas critical for their studies such as the library or media center, PE facilities, administration and health services unit, cafeteria and restrooms. Science Classrooms Science classrooms, which are critical for learning practical applications of scientific theories, will be designed with approximately 1,300 square feet. Situated away from the other rooms, the science classrooms will have ample working spaces for fixed learning stations to perform their laboratory experiments and for lectures. The classroom will have a separate preparation room, which may be directly accessed from the science classroom. This separate preparation room will serve as a space for preparing and storing of supplies and equipments Physical Education Facilities/Gymnasium Physical education, intended to develop the physical and social skills of the students, need a gymnasium for its activities (i.e. individual/team sports, body mechanics, rhythmic lessons, health, safety and first aid sessions). The gymnasium will be approximately 7,500 square feet and will include sports areas, team rooms, showers and lockers. Other essential spaces will be for the lobby, ticket booth, press area, snack bar and laundry areas. The gymnasium will also have private offices for P.E. teachers and team coaches, usually in parallel sight to locker rooms, and public toilets, separate from the shower and locker areas. Situated adjacent to play fields, the gymnasium may be directly accessed by the public for community usage and after school hours. It will have a distinct entrance/exit gates for absolute control of events and will be fully secured from other areas of the school to avoid intrusion of other school spaces during weekend and evening events. Library and Media Center The school library and media center, designed to cater the augmentation of the instructional needs of the students, will be located at the heart of the academic spaces of the school, easily accessed by the students from their classrooms and by the public for community use and after school hours. Similar to the gymnasium, the library and media center will be properly secured from other areas of the school to avoid intrusion of other school spaces during weekend and evening events. This area will be designed to be visually appealing and pleasing to the students to encourage the development of positive attitudes towards researching, reading, studying and learning. This area will include computer stations for student usage (i.e. research/report writing), spaces for multimedia presentations, private office space for librarian and open workrooms for its staff. The library and media center will be fully equipped with technological equipments such as electrical outlets, data network connecti ons, open and closed circuit televisions, and phone extensions. Because the library and media center contains state-of-the-art media facilities and technology, as well as special collections of books and journals, the library and media center will be properly secured with visual supervision from the circulation desk to student work areas, stack space and study spaces and book-theft detection system located at exit points. Special book collections and media and technological equipments will also have a proper secure storage space, wherein students must ask for assistance from staff when they intend to use such books and equipments. Food Services Unit The food services unit will include the kitchen, cafeteria, lunch center and outdoor eating spaces. The kitchen is situated wherein it is directly accessible to the cafeteria and service and delivery vehicles, but is separated from the academic areas of the school. The kitchen will have a food preparation area, a serving area, an office, a changing area, locker rooms and restrooms for the staff, janitor/custodian room (for food services unit only) and storage rooms (walk-in freezer/refrigerator). The kitchen will have serving windows, stainless steel sinks and work surfaces, stainless steel counter tops for its serving areas, a dish shelf, an exhaust air system and a wet chemical fire extinguishing system. The cafeteria will be located where it is directly accessible from the kitchen and to the lunch shelter and restrooms. There will be sufficient space for the waiting line in the cafeteria, with specific orientations in providing a smooth traffic flow. There will be covered sun and rain protection at the waiting line, food serving area and to the lunch shelter. Expecting to have plenty of trash from the cafeteria, there will be sufficient trash and recycling containers throughout the cafeteria and with an adjacent storage room for cleaning supplies. The lunch shelter, while easily accessible to the cafeteria, will also be easily accessible to outdoor eating spaces. It will be designed in such a way that it can provide shelter from sun and rain, but with an open and airy atmosphere. The lunch shelter will have at least two drinking fountains within the vicinity. Lastly, the outdoor eating spaces, which will supplement the schools cafeteria and lunch shelter, will have tables and chairs and some benches. It will be designed in such a way that there is minimal heat reflection and glare, perhaps offering some shade to protect the students from the sun. Restrooms There will be separate restrooms for students and employees of the school. Restrooms for students will be located within 200 feet of all classrooms, while restrooms for the employees will be located near their workstations, also within 200 feet or less. Aside from this, restrooms will also be found in the different areas of the school to cater the occupants of the schools different units mentioned such as the administrative unit, health services unit, library and media center, gymnasium, cafeteria, eating spaces, etc. Drinking Fountains Similar to restrooms, drinking fountains will also be located in the different areas of the school to cater the occupants of the schools different units and other public areas where students will gather together. They may be placed next to the student restroom entries and eating spaces and inside and outside the gymnasium and other P.E. facilities. The drinking fountains will not be made of stainless steel, especially those that are subjected to direct sunlight, to avoid heat upsurge inside the unit. Lockers There will be two types of lockers: books lockers and P.E. lockers. Each student will have one book locker, located in locker recesses in covered walks or in corridors. P.E. lockers will be separately provided for male and female students and P.E. teachers. The lockers will be extremely visible for easy supervision. They will have built-in combination locks, with a master-key for emergency purposes. Public Payphones There will be public payphones located within the schools vicinity in an accessible route in compliance with the accessibility requirements. Other Considerations Aside from the essential spaces provided, there are other considerations in the planning of the school building that will be discussed in this section in order to achieve maximum learning processes. Comfort (Acoustic/Thermal and Visual Comfort) To enhance the learning processes of the students, their comfort will be given priority. The noise levels of the school will be kept at minimum. These include noises from outside the school (i.e. noise from vehicles, aircrafts, etc.), corridors (i.e. conversations and foot traffic), other classrooms, mechanical equipments, and even noise from inside the classrooms. The school will also take note on the thermal comfort of the students and the teachers as it significantly affects their performances. The school will have independent controls in all classrooms to oversee and easily manage the temperature to facilitate the changes in activities, occupancy levels and personal preferences. Visual comfort will also be given consideration in designing the school. With students occupied with a lot of visual tasks in school (i.e. reading and writing), the school will provide a balance combination of natural and artificial lighting systems. The school will also use pastel colors for the walls. Daylighting Modern schools use as much natural daylight as possible, since it provides the best quality source of light for visual tasks. Daylight enhances the appearance and color of the objects, while at the same time research has shown that the proper use of daylight also enhances the performance of the students. Furthermore, the use of daylight as a light source in the school also gives the school much cost-savings from electrical lighting. The school will optimize the use of daylighting, by using daylight in the classrooms and some offices within building, while at the same time, avoiding heat gain, heat loss and glare from the sun. Safety and Security The school will be safe and secured at all times by having a controlled access to the school premises. A secure fence will be built to control access to school grounds. Entrance and exit points will be limited and provided with security guards, with visual surveillance. High-risk spaces will be protected by high security locks. The design of the school will be in such a way that is easily surveyed minimizing spaces hidden from sight, proper lighting outside the school to assist easy surveillance during nighttime and key public areas such as parking areas, drop-off points and entrance/exit points are easily visible from inside the building. Building Materials As part of the sustainability aim of the school, the materials used for construction will be significantly considered. The school will use materials that are durable, but at the same time non-toxic, highly recyclable and made more on recycled materials. HVAC System The HVAC system, which includes the heating, ventilating and air conditioning system of the school, is very important in providing a comfortable and healthy environment for the students, teachers, administrators and visitors. The schools HVAC system will utilize a highly efficient equipment, appropriately sized for the demands of the school and comprise controls that will enhance the performance of the HVAC system. Building Envelope The building envelope, which includes the roofs, windows, floors and walls of the school building, is critical in improve energy efficiency. The school will use an energy efficient building envelope that will put together and optimize the levels of insulation, shading, thermal mass, glazing and air leakage control through the use of shading devices, light colored surfaces and high performance glazing. Flexibility and Adaptability Accepting that nothing is constant except change, the school will be designed in order to cater flexibility and adaptability. The school will use flexible stations for equipment, easily movable and transferred to another area in case of modifications of the area. The different units within the school will be designed to give way to changes in furniture layouts and functions. Resources Used: LA Unified School District. (2010, January). School Design Guide. Retrieved March 25, 2010, from http://www.laschools.org/employee/design/fs-design-guide/download/2010/LAUSD_School_Design_Guide_2010_Version.pdf?version_id=84218872 National Institute of Building Sciences. (2010). Retrieved March 25, 2010, from Whole Building Design Guide: http://www.wbdg.org/ New Jersey Schools Construction Corporation. (2007, May 15). 21st Century Schools Design Manual. Retrieved March 25, 2010, from http://www.njsda.gov/Business/Doc_Form/PDFsForms/DM.pdf

Organizational Excellence and Leadership :: Business, Organizational Culture

Organizational culture is the key to organizational excellence and leadership is a function to create and manage culture (Chen 1992). Organizational researchers have become more aware of the importance of understanding and enhancing the cultural life of the institution. "This study is one of a group of companies with high-performance in North America, interest in organizational culture is an important element in organizational success. Tesluk et al (1997). Looking at the" soft "of the organization, the researchers claim that" the organizational culture may be suitable for a means to explore and understanding of life at work, and make them more humane and more pronounced (Tesluk et al, 1997), and the graves (1986) also stressed the importance of corporate culture, and the need for research strategies and methods of investigating the various elements and processes of the organizational culture. He argued the culture that meets the basic needs of belonging and security in an attempt to describe this gathering that culture is "the only thing that distinguishes one company from another gives them coherence and self-confidence and rationalises the lives of those who work for it. Standard that may seem random, is to enhance the life to be different, and safe to be similar, and culture is a concept that provides the means to achieve this compromise (p. 157). Can the effects of cultural misunderstandings can be painful for the individuals, but also for the organization as a whole. Embarrassing situations and inadvertently insults, offenses and failure to achieve individual and organizational goals are among the consequences of the joint. Experience of many managers and researchers in the field of strategy, organization, and the development of the theory of the organization suggests all this ", the study of cultural issues at the organizational level is absolutely essential to a basic understanding of what goes on in organizations, and how it works, and how to improve" (Shin 1990). It was found that the organizational culture to influence the workers' commitment and identification with the group and organization, as well as their sense of involvement with their work tasks (Ruigrok, 1999). The issue of change and culture, and there is solid documentation that overlook the organizational culture and obstructing efforts to change the organizational performance. Study of past failures in development efforts points to the role of organizational culture as a crucial would consider the change (Souza, Bouza et.

Social Traditions in Medea, The Piano, and The Age of Innocence Essay

Social Traditions in Medea, The Piano, and The Age of Innocence Traditions demonstrate a set of social norms that have been followed and adapted to for an elongated amount of time. In each of the plots, Medea, The Piano, and The Age of Innocence, the standard set by society was broken and the consequences imposed took form in varying degrees and shapes of violence. Whether it was outright murder as in Medea, or a more subtle but intense struggle as in The Age of Innocence, these consequences serve as the community's opinion of this breach of its expectations for its members. All societies have many traditions set up, and each of the characters in the books either plays the role of someone who helps to uphold these traditions by following them and imposing consequences on those who don't, or someone who disregards tradition and attempts to point out its pitfalls and shortcomings in modern society. The first role, the person who reinforces tradition, is generally someone who refuses to think outside the box, or does not like the product of going against the tide. This person is comfortable with the way that society has set itself up as far as social norms and expectations. Edith Wharton's character of Newland Archer describes May Welland's innocence as a "helpless and timorous girlhood...she dropped back into the usual, as a too adventurous child takes refuge in its mother's arms." (Wharton 123) May Welland and her family are quite content living within the boundaries that New York society has erected for them, and they fear the changes and consequenc es of acting otherwise. The adventurous spirit of Newland Archer is dangerous to their precious social norms and unwritten rules for how to conduct oneself in society. Howev... ... when his son learns a story of his relations with Ellen and speaks to him about it many years after (Wharton 41). The lesson that he learns is that society is very concerned with the affairs of its members and even his wife had heard the rumors about the two cousins. While May was busy upholding her traditional role as faithful wife, she also was acting within social norms and ignoring his infatuation with her cousin Ellen, and allowing a facade of a strong marriage to continue. The violence presented in this book, while not as obvious as that in The Piano or Medea, is no less intense. May's innocent look but underlying manipulation of Archer's feelings towards her and his feelings of obligation demonstrate a great struggle between the "innocent" May Welland who looks "blankly at blankness" and the "fiery beauty" of Ellen, and both of their desires for Archer.

iPhone Security Essay -- Mobile Technology, Computer Forensics

iPhone Security Nowadays, technology is speeding our way of communication and the way in which we handle our personal lives. Zdziarski (2008) described, â€Å"How the iPhone has quickly become a market leader in technology and has been a big success around the world† (preface.iX). The iPhone has become a very useful tool in many aspects of people lives. However, people should be aware that this device can store a great amount of data in its memory and that if you ever lost or had it stolen all off your personal and professional information can be available to whoever has it in their hand. Today many companies do their business directly from the iPhones. Business people and non-business people alike are using the iPhone in order to achieve most of their office work or maintain contact with their family and friends. For example, in the commercial sectors most employees nowadays execute many of their tasks from anywhere and not necessarily have to go to their office and login into their computers. By using the iPhone employees can create important documents, save important announcements and do important transactions by using the iPhone. On the other hand, people who are not in the business sectors use the iPhone for their personal use. For example, talk with their family, friends, or spend time doing web searching in different areas that they are interested in. Nevertheless, the iPhone contains sensitive information in their memory that belongs to the owner and information that can belong to other people with who the owner of the iPhone had established a conversation or any type of chat in the network. Zdziarski (2008) described, â€Å"that the information saved in the iPhone memory can be e-mails, photos, documents, text messages, phone... ...iminals are getting benefits from the iPhone. Engdahl (2011) described how the police and forensic investigators have to work together in order to find all the complete evidence that the criminals left in the iPhone before they committed their crime (p. 15). With the techniques, the skills, and knowledge of law enforcement officers and forensic investigators they will be able to confidently prosecute those criminals involved in fraud, bribery and other corrupt practices and criminal acts. Judges and prosecutors have to have all the evidence before they condemn any person to jail. The job of law enforcement and computer forensics will never end because the criminals are using new tools to commit their crime. In fact, the job of law enforcement and forensic is to reveal the hiding information of the criminals who commits crimes to those who are innocent people.

Bag of Bones CHAPTER TWENTY

I didn't see them at first, which wasn't surprising; it seemed that half of Castle Rock was on the town common as that sultry Saturday afternoon edged on toward evening. The air was bright with hazy midsummer light, and in it kids swarmed over the playground equipment, a number of old men in bright red vests some sort of club, I assumed played chess, and a group of young people lay on the grass listening to a teenager in a headband playing the guitar and singing one I remembered from an old Ian and Sylvia record, a cheery tune that went ‘Ella Speed was havin her lovin fun, John Martin shot Ella with a Colt forty-one . . . ‘ I saw no joggers, and no dogs chasing Frisbees. It was just too goddam hot. I was turning to look at the bandshell, where an eight-man combo called The Castle Rockers was setting up (I had an idea ‘In the Mood' was about as close as they got to rock and roll), when a small person hit me from behind, grabbing me just above the knees and almost dumping me on the grass. ‘Gotcha!' the small person cried gleefully. ‘Kyra Devore!' Mattie called, sounding both amused and irritated. ‘You'll knock him down!' I turned, dropped the grease-spotted McDonald's bag I had been carrying, and lifted the kid up. It felt natural, and it felt wonderful. You don't realize the weight of a healthy child until you hold one, nor do you fully comprehend the life that runs through them like a bright wire. I didn't get choked up (‘Don't go all corny on me, Mike,' Siddy would sometimes whisper when we were kids at the movies and I got wet-eyed at a sad part), but I thought of Jo, yes. And the child she had been carrying when she fell down in that stupid parking lot, yes to that, too. Ki was squealing and laughing, her arms outspread and her hair hanging down in two amusing clumps accented by Raggedy Ann and Andy barrettes. ‘Don't tackle your own quarterback!' I yelled, grinning, and to my delight she yelled it right back at me: ‘Don't taggle yer own quartermack! Don't taggle yer own quartermack!' I set her on her feet, both of us laughing. Ki took a step backward, tripped herself, and sat down on the grass, laughing harder than ever. I had a mean thought, then, brief but oh so clear: if only the old lizard could see how much he was missed. How sad we were at his passing. Mattie walked over, and tonight she looked as I'd half-imagined her when I first met her like one of those lovely children of privilege you see at the country club, either goofing with their friends or sitting seriously at dinner with their parents. She was in a white sleeveless dress and low heels, her hair falling loose around her shoulders, a touch of lipstick on her mouth. Her eyes had a brilliance in them that hadn't been there before. When she hugged me I could smell her perfume and feel the press of her firm little breasts. I kissed her cheek; she kissed me high up on the jaw, making a smack in my ear that I felt all the way down my back. ‘Say things are going to be better now,' she whispered, still holding me. ‘Lots better now,' I said, and she hugged me again, tight. Then she stepped away ‘You better have brought plenty food, big boy, because we plenty hungry womens. Right, Kyra?' ‘I taggled my own quartermack,' Ki said, then leaned back on her elbows, giggling deliciously at the bright and hazy sky. ‘Come on,' I said, and grabbed her by the middle I toted her that way to a nearby picnic table, Ki kicking her legs and waving her arms and laughing I set her down on the bench; she slid off it and beneath the table, boneless as an eel and still laughing. ‘All right, Kyra Elizabeth,' Mattie said. ‘Sit up and show the other side' ‘Good girl, good girl,' she said, clambering up beside me. ‘That's the other side to me, Mike' ‘I'm sure,' I said. Inside the bag there were Big Macs and fries for Mattie and me. For Ki there was a colorful box upon which Ronald McDonald and his unindicted co-conspirators capered. ‘Mattie, I got a Happy Meal! Mike got me a Happy Meal! They have toys!' ‘Well see what yours is.' Kyra opened the box, poked around, then smiled It lit up her whole face She brought out something that I at first thought was a big dust-ball For one horrible second I was back in my dream, the one of Jo under the bed with the book over her face Give me that, she had snarled It's my dust-catcher. And something else, too some other association, perhaps from some other dream I couldn't get hold of it. ‘Mike?' Mattie asked. Curiosity in her voice, and maybe borderline concern. ‘It's a doggy!' Ki said ‘I won a doggy in my Happy Meal!' Yes; of course A dog. A little stuffed dog. And it was gray, not black . . . although why I'd care about the color either way I didn't know. ‘That's a pretty good prize,' I said, taking it. It was soft, which was good, and it was gray, which was better Being gray made it all right, somehow Crazy but true I handed it back to her and smiled. ‘What's his name?' Ki asked, jumping the little dog back and forth across her Happy Meal box. ‘What doggy's name, Mike?' And, without thinking, I said, ‘Strickland.' I thought she'd look puzzled, but she didn't. She looked delighted. ‘Stricken!' she said, bouncing the dog back and forth in ever-higher leaps over the box. ‘Stricken! Stricken! My dog Stricken!' ‘Who's this guy Strickland?' Mattie asked, smiling a little. She had begun to unwrap her hamburger. ‘A character in a book I read once,' I said, watching Ki play with the little puffball dog. ‘No one real.' ‘My grampa died,' she said five minutes later. We were still at the picnic table but the food was mostly gone. Strickland the stuffed puffball had been set to guard the remaining french fries. I had been scanning the ebb and flow of people, wondering who was here from the TR observing our tryst and simply burning to carry the news back home. I saw no one I knew, but that didn't mean a whole tot, considering how long I'd been away from this part of the world. Mattie put down her burger and looked at Ki with some anxiety, but I thought the kid was okay she had been giving news, not expressing grief. ‘I know he did,' I said. ‘Grampa was awful old.' Ki pinched a couple of french fries between her pudgy little fingers. They rose to her mouth, then gloop, all gone. ‘He's with Lord Jesus now. We had all about Lord Jesus in VBS.' Yes, Ki, I thought, right now Grampy's probably teaching Lord Jesus how to use Pixel Easel and asking if there might be a whore handy. ‘Lord Jesus walked on water and also changed the wine into macaroni.' ‘Yes, something like that,' I said. ‘It's sad when people die, isn't it?' ‘It would be sad if Mattie died, and it would be sad if you died, but Grampy was old.' She said it as though I hadn't quite grasped this concept the first time. ‘In heaven he'll get all fixed up.' ‘That's a good way to look at it, hon,' I said. Mattie did maintenance on Ki's drooping barrettes, working carefully and with a kind of absent love. I thought she glowed in the summer light, her skin in smooth, tanned contrast to the white dress she had probably bought at one of the discount stores, and I understood that I loved her. Maybe that was all right. ‘I miss the white nana, though,' Ki said, and this time she did look sad. She picked up the stuffed dog, tried to feed him a french fry, then put him down again. Her small, pretty face looked pensive now, and I could see a whisper of her grandfather in it. It was far back but it was there, perceptible, another ghost. ‘Mom says white nana went back to California with Grampy's early remains.' ‘Earthly remains, Ki-bird,' Mattie said. ‘That means his body.' ‘Will white nana come back and see me, Mike?' ‘I don't know.' ‘We had a game. It was all rhymes.' She looked more pensive than ever. ‘Your mom told me about that game,' I said. ‘She won't be back,' Ki said, answering her own question. One very large tear rolled down her right cheek. She picked up ‘Stricken,' stood him on his back legs for a second, then put him back on guard-duty. Mattie slipped an arm around her, but Ki didn't seem to notice. ‘White nana didn't really like me. She was just pretending to like me. That was her job.' Mattie and I exchanged a glance. ‘What makes you say that?' I asked. ‘Don't know,' Ki said. Over by where the kid was playing the guitar, a juggler in whiteface had started up, working with half a dozen colored balls. Kyra brightened a little. ‘Mommy-bommy, may I go watch that funny white man?' ‘Are you done eating?' ‘Yeah, I'm full.' ‘Thank Mike.' ‘Don't taggle yer own quartermack,' she said, then laughed kindly to show she was just pulling my leg. ‘Thanks, Mike.' ‘Not a problem,' I said, and then, because that sounded a little old-fashioned: ‘Kickin.' ‘You can go as far as that tree, but no farther,' Mattie said. ‘And you know why.' ‘So you can see me. I will.' She grabbed Strickland and started to run off, then stopped and looked over her shoulder at me. ‘I guess it was the fridgeafator people,' she said, then corrected herself very carefully and seriously. ‘The ree fridge-a-rator people.' My heart took a hard double beat in my chest. ‘It was the refrigerator people what, Ki?' I asked. ‘That said white nana didn't really like me.' Then she ran off toward the juggler, oblivious to the heat. Mattie watched her go, then turned back to me. ‘I haven't talked to anybody about Ki's fridgeafator people. Neither has she, until now. Not that there are any real people, but the letters seem to move around by themselves. It's like a Ouija board.' ‘Do they spell things?' For a long time she said nothing. Then she nodded. ‘Not always, but sometimes.' Another pause. ‘Most times, actually. Ki calls it mail from the people in the refrigerator.' She smiled, but her eyes were a little scared. ‘Are they special magnetic letters, do you think? Or have we got a poltergeist working the lakefront?' ‘I don't know. I'm sorry I brought them, if they're a problem.' ‘Don't be silly. You gave them to her, and you're a tremendously big deal to her right now. She talks about you all the time. She was much more interested in picking out something pretty to wear for you tonight than she was in her grandfather's death. I was supposed to wear something pretty, too, Kyra insisted. She's not that way about people, usually she takes them when they're there and leaves them when they're gone. That's not such a bad way for a little girl to grow up, I sometimes think.' ‘You both dressed pretty,' I said. ‘That much I'm sure of.' ‘Thanks.' She looked fondly at Ki, who stood by the tree watching the juggler. He had put his rubber balls aside and moved on to Indian clubs. Then she looked back at me. ‘Are we done eating?' I nodded, and Mattie began to pick up the trash and stuff it back into the take-out bag. I helped, and when our fingers touched, she gripped my hand and squeezed. ‘Thank you,' she said. ‘For everything you've done. Thank you so damn much.' I squeezed back, then let go. ‘You know,' she said, ‘it's crossed my mind that Kyra's moving the letters around herself. Mentally.' ‘Telekinesis?' ‘I guess that's the technical term. Only Ki can't spell much more than â€Å"dog† and â€Å"cat.† ‘What's showing up on the fridge?' ‘Names, mostly. Once it was yours. Once it was your wife's.' ‘Jo?' ‘The whole thing JOANNA. And NANA. Rogette, I presume. JARED shows up sometimes, and BRIDGET. Once there was KITO.' She spelled it. ‘Kito,' I said, and thought: Kyra, Kia, Kito. What is this? ‘A boy's name, do you think?' ‘I know it is. It's Swahili, and means precious child. I looked it up in my baby-name book.' She glanced toward her own precious child as we walked across the grass to the nearest trash barrel. ‘Any others that you can remember?' She thought. ‘REG has showed up a couple of times. And once there was CARLA. You understand that Ki can't even read these names as a rule, don't you? She has to ask me what they say.' ‘Has it occurred to you that Kyra might be copying them out of a book or a magazine? That she's learning to write using the magnetic letters on the fridge instead of paper and pencil?' ‘I suppose that's possible . . . ‘ She didn't look as if she believed it, though. Not surprising. I didn't believe it myself. ‘I mean, you've never actually seen the letters moving around by themselves on the front of the fridge, have you?' I hoped I sounded as unconcerned asking this question as I wanted to. She laughed a bit nervously. ‘God, no!' ‘Anything else?' ‘Sometimes the fridgeafator people leave messages like HI and BYE and GOOD GIRL. There was one yesterday that I wrote down to show you. Kyra asked me to. It's really weird.' ‘What is it?' ‘I'd rather show you, but I left it in the glove compartment of the Scout. Remind me when we go.' Yes. I would. ‘This is some spooky shit, se?or,' she said. ‘Like the writing in the flour that time.' I thought about telling her I had my own fridgeafator people, then didn't. She had enough to worry about without that . . . or so I told myself. We stood side-by-side on the grass, watching Ki watch the juggler. ‘Did you call John?' I asked. ‘You bet.' ‘His reaction?' She turned to me, laughing with her eyes. ‘He actually sang a verse of â€Å"Ding Dong, the Witch Is Dead.† ‘Wrong sex, right sentiment.' She nodded, her eyes going back to Kyra. I thought again how beautiful she looked, her body slim in the white dress, her features clean and perfectly made. ‘Was he pissed at me inviting myself to lunch?' I asked. ‘Nope, he loved the idea of having a party.' A party. He loved the idea. I began to feel rather small. ‘He even suggested we invite your lawyer from last Friday. Mr. Bissonette? Plus the private detective John hired on Mr. Bissonette's recommendation. Is that okay with you?' ‘Fine. How about you, Mattie? Doing okay?' ‘Doing okay,' she agreed, turning to me. ‘I did have several more calls than usual today. I'm suddenly quite popular.' ‘Uh-oh.' ‘Most were hangups, but one gentleman took time enough to call me a cunt, and there was a lady with a very strong Yankee accent who said, ‘Theah, you bitch, you've killed him. Aaa you satisfied?' She hung up before I could tell her yes, very satisfied, thanks.' But Mattie didn't look satisfied; she looked unhappy and guilty, as if she had literally wished him dead. ‘I'm sorry.' ‘It's okay. Really. Kyra and I have been alone for a long time, and I've been scared for most of it. Now I've made a couple of friends. If a few anonymous phone calls are the price I have to pay, I'll pay it.' She was very close, looking up at me, and I couldn't stop myself. I put the blame on summer, her perfume, and four years without a woman. In that order, i slipped my arms around her waist, and remember perfectly the texture of her dress beneath my hands; the slight pucker at the back where the zipper hid in its sleeve. I remember the sensation of the cloth moving against the bare skin beneath. Then I was kissing her, very gently but very thoroughly anything worth doing is worth doing right and she was kissing me back in exactly the same spirit, her mouth curious but not afraid. Her lips were warm and smooth and held some faint sweet taste. Peaches, I think. We stopped at the same time and pulled back a little from each other. Her hands were still on my shoulders. Mine were on the sides of her waist, just above her hips. Her face was composed enough, but her eyes were more brilliant than ever, and there were slants of color in her cheeks, rising along the cheekbones. ‘Oh boy,' she said. ‘I really wanted that. Ever since Ki tackled you and you picked her up I've wanted it.' ‘John wouldn't think much of us kissing in public,' I said. My voice wasn't quite even, and my heart was racing. Seven seconds, one kiss, and every system in my body was red-lining. ‘In fact, John wouldn't think much of us kissing at all. He fancies you, you know.' ‘I know, but I fancy you.' She turned to check on Ki, who was still standing obediently by the tree, watching the juggler. Who might be watching us? Someone who had come over from the TR on a hot summer evening to get ice cream at Frank's Tas-T-Freeze and enjoy a little music and society on the common? Someone who traded for fresh vegetables and fresh gossip at the Lakeview General? A regular at the All-Purpose Garage? This was insanity, and it stayed insanity no matter how you cut it. I dropped my hands from her waist. ‘Mattie, they could put our picture next to â€Å"indiscreet† in the dictionary.' She took her hands off my shoulders and stepped back a pace, but her brilliant eyes never left mine. ‘I know that. I'm young but not entirely stupid.' ‘I didn't mean ‘ She held up a hand to stop me. ‘Ki goes to bed around nine she can't seem to sleep until it's mostly dark. I stay up later. Come and visit me, if you want to. You can park around back.' She smiled a little. It was a sweet smile; it was also incredibly sexy. ‘Once the moon's down, that's an area of discretion.' ‘Mattie, you're young enough to be my daughter.' ‘Maybe, but I'm not. And sometimes people can be too discreet for their own good.' My body knew so emphatically what it wanted. If we had been in her trailer at that moment it would have been no contest. It was almost no contest anyway. Then something recurred to me, something I'd thought about Devore's ancestors and my own: the generations didn't match up. Wasn't the same thing true here? And I don't believe that people automatically have a right to what they want, no matter how badly they want it. Not every thirst should be slaked. Some things are just wrong I guess that's what I'm trying to say. But I wasn't sure this was one of them, and I wanted her, all right. So much. I kept thinking about how her dress had slid when I put my arms around her waist, the warm feel of her skin just beneath. And no, she wasn't my daughter. ‘You said your thanks,' I told her in a dry voice. ‘And that's enough. Really.' ‘You think this is gratitude?' She voiced a low, tense laugh. ‘You're forty, Mike, not eighty. You're not Harrison Ford, but you're a good-looking man. Talented and interesting, too. And I like you such an awful lot. I want you to be with me. Do you want me to say please? Fine. Please be with me.' Yes, this was about more than gratitude I suppose I'd known that even when I was using the word. I'd known she was wearing white shorts and a halter top when she called on the phone the day I went back to work. Had she also known what I was wearing? Had she dreamed she was in bed with me, the two of us screwing our brains out while the party lights shone and Sara Tidwell played her version of the white nana rhyming game, all that crazy Manderley-sanderley-canderley stuff?. Had Mattie dreamed of telling me to do what she wanted? And there were the fridgeafator people. They were another kind of sharing, an even spookier kind. I hadn't quite had nerve enough to tell Mattie about mine, but she might know anyway. Down low in her mind. Down below in her mind, where the blue-collar guys moved around in the zone. Her guys and my guys, all part of the same strange labor union. And maybe it wasn't an issue of morality per se at all. Some thing about it about us just felt dangerous. And oh so attractive. ‘I need time to think,' I said. ‘This isn't about what you think. What do you feel for me?' ‘So much it scares me.' Before I could say anything else, my ears caught a familiar series of chord-changes. I turned toward the kid with the guitar. He had been working through a repertoire of early Dylan, but now he swung into something chuggy and up-tempo, something that made you want to grin and pat your hands together. ‘Do you want to go fishin here in my fishin hole? Said do you want to fish some, honey, here in my fishin hole? You want to fish in my pond, baby, you better have a big long pole.' ‘Fishin Blues.' Written by Sara Tidwell, originally performed by Sara and the Red-Top Boys, covered by everyone from Ma Rainey to the Lovin' Spoonful. The raunchy ones had been her specialty, double-entendre so thin you could read a newspaper through it . . . although reading hadn't been Sara's main interest, judging by her lyrics. Before the kid could go on to the next verse, something about how you got to wiggle when you wobble and get that big one way down deep, The Castle Rockers ran off a brass flourish that said ‘Shut up, everybody, we're comin atcha.' The kid quit playing his guitar; the juggler began catching his Indian clubs and dropping them swiftly onto the grass in a line. The Rockers launched themselves into an extremely evil Sousa march, music to commit serial murders by, and Kyra came running back to us. ‘The jugster's done. Will you tell me the story, Mike? Hansel and Panzel?' ‘It's Hansel and Gretel,' I said, ‘and I'll be happy to. But let's go where it's a little quieter, okay? The band is giving me a headache.' ‘Music hurt your headie?' ‘A little bit.' ‘We'll go by Mattie's car, then.' ‘Good thought.' Kyra ran ahead to stake out a bench on the edge of the common. Mattie gave me a long warm look, then her hand. I took it. Our fingers folded together as if they had been doing it for years. I thought, I'd like it to be slow, both of us hardly moving at all. At first, anyway. And would I bring my nicest, longest pole? I think you could count on that. And then, afterward, we'd talk. Maybe until we could see the furniture in the first early light. When you're in bed with someone you love, particularly for the first time, five o'clock seems almost holy. ‘You need a vacation from your own thoughts,' Mattie said. ‘I bet most writers do from time to time.' ‘That's probably true.' ‘I wish we were home,' she said, and I couldn't tell if her fierceness was real or pretend. ‘I'd kiss you until this whole conversation became irrelevant. And if there were second thoughts, at least you'd be having them in my bed.' I turned my face into the red light of the westering sun. ‘Here or there, at this hour Ki would still be up.' ‘True,' she said, sounding uncharacteristically glum. ‘True.' Kyra reached a bench near the sign reading TOWN COMMON PARKING and climbed up on it, holding the little stuffed dog from Mickey D's in one hand. I tried to pull my hand away as we approached her and Mattie held it firm. ‘It's all right, Mike. At VBS they hold hands with their friends everywhere they go. It's big people who make it into a big deal.' She stopped, looked at me. ‘I want you to know something. Maybe it won't matter to you, but it does to me. There wasn't anyone before Lance and no one after. If you come to me, you'll be my second. I'm not going to talk with you about this again, either. Saying please is all right, but I won't beg.' ‘I don't ‘ ‘There's a pot with tomato plants in it by the trailer steps. I'll leave a key under it. Don't think. Just come.' ‘Not tonight, Mattie. I can't.' ‘You can,' she replied. ‘Hurry up, slowpokes!' Kyra cried, bouncing on the bench. ‘He's the slow one!' Mattie called back, and poked me in the ribs. Then, in a much lower voice: ‘You are, too.' She unwound her hand from mine and ran toward her daughter, her brown legs scissoring below the hem of the white dress. In my version of ‘Hansel and Gretel' the witch was named Depravia. Kyra stared at me with huge eyes when I got to the part where Depravia asks Hansel to poke out his finger so she can see how plump he's getting. ‘Is it too scary?' I asked. Ki shook her head emphatically. I glanced at Mattie to make sure. She nodded and waved a hand for me to go on, so I finished the story. Depravia went into the oven and Gretel found her secret stash of winning lottery tickets. The kids bought a Jet Ski and lived happily ever after on the eastern side of Dark Score Lake. By then The Castle Rockers were slaughtering Gershwin and sunset was nigh. I carried Kyra to Scoutie and strapped her in. I remembered the first time I'd helped put the kid into her car-seat, and the inadvertent press of Mattie's breast. ‘I hope there isn't a bad dream for you in that story,' I said. Until I heard it coming out of my own mouth, I hadn't realized how fundamentally awful that one is. ‘I won't have bad dreams,' Kyra said matter-of-factly. ‘The fridgeafator people will keep them away.' Then, carefully, reminding herself: ‘Ree-fridge-a-rator.' She turned to Mattie. ‘Show him the crosspatch, Mommy-bommy.' ‘Crossword. But thanks, I would've forgotten.' She thumbed open the glove compartment and took out a folded sheet of paper. ‘It was on the fridge this morning. I copied it down because Ki said you'd know what it meant. She said you do crossword puzzles. Well, she said crosspatches, but I got the idea.' Had I told Kyra that I did crosswords? Almost certainly not. Did it surprise me that she knew? Not at all. I took the sheet of paper, unfolded it, and looked at what was printed there: d go w ninety2 ‘Is it a crosspatch puzzle, Mike?' Kyra asked. ‘I guess so a very simple one. But if it means something, I don't know what it is. May I keep this?' ‘Yes,' Mattie said. I walked her around to the driver's side of the Scout, reaching for her hand again as we went. ‘Just give me a little time. I know that's supposed to be the girl's line, but ‘ ‘Take the time,' she said. ‘Just don't take too much.' I didn't want to take any, which was just the problem. The sex would be great, I knew that. But after? There might be an after, though. I knew it and she did, too. With Mattie, ‘after' was a real possibility. The idea was a little scary, a little wonderful. I kissed the corner of her mouth. She laughed and grabbed me by the earlobe. ‘You can do better,' she said, then looked at Ki, who was sitting in her car-seat and gazing at us interestedly. ‘But I'll let you off this time.' ‘Kiss Ki!' Kyra called, holding out her arms, so I went around and kissed Ki. Driving home, wearing my dark glasses to cut the glare of the setting sun, it occurred to me that maybe I could be Kyra Devore's father. That seemed almost as attractive to me as going to bed with her mother, which was a measure of how deep I was in. And going deeper, maybe. Deeper still. Sara Laughs seemed very empty after having Mattie in my arms a sleeping head without dreams. I checked the letters on the fridge, saw nothing there but the normal scatter, and got a beer. I went out on the deck to drink it while I watched the last of the sunset. I tried to think about the refrigerator people and crosspatches that had appeared on both refrigerators: ‘go down nineteen' on Lane Forty-two and ‘go down ninety-two' on Wasp Hill Road. Different vectors from the land to the lake? Different spots on The Street? Shit, who knew? I tried to think about John Storrow and how unhappy he was apt to be if he found out there was to quote Sara Laughs, who got to the line long before John Mellencamp another mule kicking in Mattie Devore's stall. But mostly what I thought about was holding her for the first time, kissing her for the first time. No human instinct is more powerful than the sex-drive when it is fully aroused, and its awakening images are emotional tattoos that never leave us. For me, it was feeling the soft bare skin of her waist just beneath her dress. The slippery feel of the fabric . . . I turned abruptly and hurried through the house to the north wing, almost running and shedding clothes as I went. I turned the shower on to full cold and stood under it for five minutes, shivering. When I got out I felt a little more like an actual human being and a little less like a twitching bundle of nerve endings. And as I toweled dry, something else recurred to me. At some point I had thought of Jo's brother Frank, had thought that if anyone besides myself would be able to feel Jo's presence in Sara Laughs, it would be him. I hadn't gotten around to inviting him down yet, and now wasn't sure I wanted to. I had come to feel oddly possessive, almost jealous, about what was happening here. And yet if Jo had been writing something on the quiet, Frank might know. Of course she hadn't confided in him about the pregnancy, but I looked at my watch. Quarter past nine. In the trailer near the intersection of Wasp Hill Road and Route 68, Kyra was probably already asleep . . . and her mother might already have put her extra key under the pot near the steps. I thought of her in the white dress, the swell of her hips just below my hands and the smell of her perfume, then pushed the images away. I couldn't spend the whole night taking cold showers. Quarter past nine was still early enough to call Frank Arlen. He picked up on the second ring, sounding both happy to hear from me and as if he'd gotten three or four cans further into the six-pack than I had so far done. We passed the usual pleasantries back and forth most of my own almost entirely fictional, I was dismayed to find and he mentioned that a famous neighbor of mine had kicked the bucket, according to the news. Had I met him? Yes, I said, remembering how Max Devore had run his wheelchair at me. Yes, I'd met him. Frank wanted to know what he was like. That was hard to say, I told him. Poor old guy was stuck in a wheelchair and suffering from emphysema. ‘Pretty frail, huh?' Frank asked sympathetically. ‘Yeah,' I said. ‘Listen, Frank, I called about Jo. I was out in her studio looking around, and I found my typewriter. Since then I've kind of gotten the idea she was writing something. It might have started as a little piece about our house, then widened. The place is named after Sara Tidwell, you know. The blues singer.' A long pause. Then Frank said, ‘I know.' His voice sounded heavy, grave. ‘What else do you know, Frank?' ‘That she was scared. I think she found out something that scared her. I think that mostly because ‘ That was when the light finally broke. I probably should have known from Mattie's description, would have known if I hadn't been so upset. ‘You were down here with her, weren't you? In July of 1994. You went to the softball game, then you went back up The Street to the house.' ‘How do you know that?' he almost barked. ‘Someone saw you. A friend of mine.' I was trying not to sound mad and not succeeding. I was mad, but it was a relieved anger, the kind you feel when your kid comes dragging into the house with a shamefaced grin just as you're getting ready to call the cops. ‘I almost told you a day or two before we buried her. We were in that pub, do you remember?' Jack's Pub, right after Frank had beaten the funeral director down on the price of Jo's coffin. Sure I remembered. I even remembered the look in his eyes when I'd told him Jo had been pregnant when she died. He must have felt the silence spinning out, because he came back sounding anxious. ‘Mike, I hope you didn't get any ‘ ‘What? Wrong ideas? I thought maybe she was having an affair, how's that for a wrong idea? You can call that ignoble if you want, but I had my reasons. There was a lot she wasn't telling me. What did she tell you?' ‘Next to nothing.' ‘Did you know she quit all her boards and committees? Quit and never said a word to me?' ‘No.' I didn't think he was lying. Why would he, at this late date? ‘Jesus, Mike, if I'd known that ‘ ‘What happened the day you came down here? Tell me.' ‘I was at the printshop in Sanford. Jo called me from . . . I don't remember, I think a rest area on the turnpike.' ‘Between Derry and the TR?' ‘Yeah. She was on her way to Sara Laughs and wanted me to meet her there. She told me to park in the driveway if I got there first, not to go in the house . . . which I could have; I know where you keep the spare key.' Sure he did, in a Sucrets tin under the deck. I had shown him myself. ‘Did she say why she didn't want you to go inside?' ‘It'll sound crazy.' ‘No it won't. Believe me.' ‘She said the house was dangerous.' For a moment the words just hung there. Then I asked, ‘Did you get here first?' ‘Uh-huh.' ‘And waited outside?' ‘Yes.' ‘Did you see or sense anything dangerous?' There was a long pause. At last he said, ‘There were lots of people out on the lake speedboaters, water-skiers, you know how it is but all the engine-noise and the laughter seemed to kind of . . . stop dead when it got near the house. Have you ever noticed that it seems quiet there even when it's not?' Of course I had; Sara seemed to exist in its own zone of silence. ‘Did it feel dangerous, though?' ‘No,' he said, almost reluctantly. ‘Not to me, anyway. But it didn't feel exactly empty, either. I felt . . . fuck, I felt watched. I sat on one of those railroad-tie steps and waited for my sis. Finally she came. She parked behind my car and hugged me . . . but she never took her eyes off the house. I asked her what she was up to and she said she couldn't tell me, and that I couldn't tell you we'd been there. She said something like, â€Å"If he finds out on his own, then it's meant to be. I'll have to tell him sooner or later, anyway. But I can't now, because I need his whole attention. I can't get that while he's working.†Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ I felt a flush crawl across my skin. ‘She said that, huh?' ‘Yeah. Then she said she had to go in the house and do something. She wanted me to wait outside. She said if she called, I should come on the run. Otherwise I should just stay where I was.' ‘She wanted someone there in case she got in trouble.' ‘Yeah, but it had to be someone who wouldn't ask a lot of questions she didn't want to answer. That was me. I guess that was always me.' ‘And?' ‘She went inside. I sat on the hood of my car, smoking cigarettes. I was still smoking then. And you know, I did start to feel something then that wasn't right. As if there might be someone in the house who'd been waiting for her, someone who didn't like her. Maybe someone who wanted to hurt her. Probably I just picked that up from Jo the way her nerves seemed all strung up, the way she kept looking over my shoulder at the house even while she was hugging me but it seemed like something else. Like a . . . I don't know . . . ‘ ‘Like a vibe.' ‘Yes!' he almost shouted. ‘A vibration. But not a good vibration, like in the Beach Boys song. A bad vibration.' ‘What happened?' ‘I sat and waited. I only smoked two cigarettes so I don't guess it could have been longer than twenty minutes or half an hour, but it seemed longer. I kept noticing how the sounds from the lake seemed to make it most of the way up the hill and then just kind of . . . quit. And how there didn't seem to be any birds, except far off in the distance. ‘Once, she came out. I heard the deck door bang, and then her footsteps on the stairs over on that side. I called to her, asked if she was okay, and she said fine. She said for me to stay where I was. She sounded a little short of breath, as if she was carrying something or had been doing some chore.' ‘Did she go to her studio or down to the lake?' ‘I don't know. She was gone another fifteen minutes or so time enough for me to smoke another butt and then she came back out the front door. She checked to make sure it was locked, and then she came up to me. She looked a lot better. Relieved. The way people look when they do some dirty job they've been putting off, finally get it behind them. She suggested we walk down that path she called The Street to the resort that's down there ‘ ‘Warrington's.' ‘Right, right. She said she'd buy me a beer and a sandwich. Which she did, out at the end of this long floating dock.' The Sunset Bar, where I had first glimpsed Rogette. ‘Then you went to have a look at the softball game.' ‘That was Jo's idea. She had three beers to my one, and she insisted. Said someone was going to hit a longshot homer into the trees, she just knew it.' Now I had a clear picture of the part Mattie had seen and told me about. Whatever Jo had done, it had left her almost giddy with relief. She had ventured into the house, for one thing. Had dared the spirits in order to do her business and survived. She'd had three beers to celebrate and her discretion had slipped . . . not that she had behaved with any great stealth on her previous trips down to the TR. Frank remembered her saying if I found out on my own then it was meant to be que ser, ser. It wasn't the attitude of someone hiding an affair, and I realized now that all her behavior suggested a woman keeping a short-term secret. She would have told me when I finished my stupid book, if she had lived. If. ‘You watched the game for awhile, then went back to the house along The Street.' ‘Yes,' he said. ‘Did either of you go in?' ‘No. By the time we got there, her buzz had worn off and I trusted her to drive. She was laughing while we were at the softball game, but she wasn't laughing by the time we got back to the house. She looked at it and said, â€Å"I'm done with her. I'll never go through that door again, Frank.†Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ My skin first chilled, then prickled. ‘I asked her what was wrong, what she'd found out. I knew she was writing something, she'd told me that much ‘ ‘She told everyone but me,' I said . . . but without much bitterness. I knew who the man in the brown sportcoat had been, and any bitterness or anger anger at Jo, anger at myself paled before the relief of that. I hadn't realized how much that fellow had been on my mind until now. ‘She must have had her reasons,' Frank said. ‘You know that, don't you?' ‘But she didn't tell you what they were.' ‘All I know is that it started whatever it was with her doing research for an article. It was a lark, Jo playing Nancy Drew. I'm pretty sure that at first not telling you was just to keep it a surprise. She read books but mostly she talked to people listened to their stories of the old days and teased them into looking for old letters . . . diaries . . . she was good at that part of it, I think. Damned good. You don't know any of this?' ‘No,' I said heavily. Jo hadn't been having an affair, but she could have had one, if she'd wanted. She could have had an. affair with Tom Selleck and been written up in Inside View and I would have gone on tapping away at the keys of my Powerbook, blissfully unaware. ‘Whatever she found out,' Frank said, ‘I think she just stumbled over it.' ‘And you never told me. Four years and you never told me any of it.' ‘That was the last time I was with her,' Frank said, and now he didn't sound apologetic or embarrassed at all. ‘And the last thing she asked of me was that I not tell you we'd been to the lake house. She said she'd tell you everything when she was ready, but then she died. After that I didn't think it mattered. Mike, she was my sister. She was my sister and I promised.' ‘All right. I understand.' And I did just not enough. What had Jo discovered? That Normal Auster had drowned his infant son under a handpump? That back around the turn of the century an animal trap had been left in a place where a young Negro boy would be apt to come along and step into it? That another boy, perhaps the incestuous child of Son and Sara Tidwell, had been drowned by his mother in the lake, she maybe laughing that smoke-broken, lunatic laugh as she held him down? You gotta wiggle when you wobble, honey, and hold that young ‘un way down deep. ‘If you need me to apologize, Mike, consider it done.' ‘I don't. Frank, do you remember anything else she might have said that night? Anything at all?' ‘She said she knew how you found the house.' ‘She said what?' ‘She said that when it wanted you, it called you.' At first I couldn't reply, because Frank Arlen had completely demolished one of the assumptions I'd made about my married life one of the biggies, one of those that seem so basic you don't even think about questioning them. Gravity holds you down. Light allows you to see. The compass needle points north. Stuff like that. This assumption was that Jo was the one who had wanted to buy Sara Laughs back when we saw the first real money from my writing career, because Jo was the ‘house person' in our marriage, just as I was the ‘car person.' Jo was the one who had picked our apartments when apartments were all we could afford, Jo who hung a picture here and asked me to put up a shelf there. Jo was the one who had fallen in love with the Derry house and had finally worn down my resistance to the idea that it was too big, too busy, and too broken to take on. Jo had been the nest-builder. She said that when it wanted you, it called you. And it was probably true. No, I could do better than that, if I was willing to set aside the lazy thinking and selective remembering. It was certainly true. I was the one who had first broached the idea of a place in western Maine. I was the one who collected stacks of real-estate brochures and hauled them home. I'd started buying regional magazines like Down East and always began at the back, where the real-estate ads were. It was I who had first seen a picture of Sara Laughs in a glossy handout called Maine Retreats, and it was I who had made the call first to the agent named in the ad, and then to Marie Hingerman after badgering Marie's name out of the Realtor. Johanna had also been charmed by Sara Laughs I think anyone would have been charmed by it, seeing it for the first time in autumn sunshine with the trees blazing all around it and drifts of colored leaves blowing up The Street but it was I who had actively sought the place out. Except that was more lazy thinking and selective remembering. Wasn't it? Sara had sought me out. Then how could I not have known it until now? And how was I led here in the first place, full of unknowing happy ignorance? The answer to both questions was the same. It was also the answer to the question of how Jo could have discovered something distressing about the house, the lake, maybe the whole TR, and then gotten away with not telling me. I'd been gone, that's all. I'd been zoning, tranced out, writing one of my stupid little books. I'd been hypnotized by the fantasies going on in my head, and a hypnotized man is easy to lead. ‘Mike? Are you still there?' ‘I'm here, Frank. But I'll be goddamned if I know what could have scared her so.' ‘She mentioned one other name I remember: Royce Merrill. She said he was the one who remembered the most, because he was so old. And she said, â€Å"I don't want Mike to talk to him. I'm afraid that old man might let the cat out of the bag and tell him more than he should know.† Any idea what she meant?' ‘Well . . . it's been suggested that a splinter from the old family tree wound up here, but my mother's people are from Memphis. The Noonans are from Maine, but not from this part.' Yet I no longer entirely believed this. ‘Mike, you sound almost sick.' ‘I'm okay. Better than I was, actually.' ‘And you understand why I didn't tell you any of this until now? I mean, if I'd known the ideas you were getting . . . if I'd had any clue . . . ‘ ‘I think I understand. The ideas didn't belong in my head to begin with, but once that shit starts to creep in . . . ‘ ‘When I got back to Sanford that night and it was over, I guess I thought it was just more of Jo's â€Å"Oh fuck, there's a shadow on the moon, nobody go out until tomorrow.† She was always the superstitious one, you know knocking on wood, tossing a pinch of salt over her shoulder if she spilled some, those four-leaf-clover earrings she used to have . . . ‘ ‘Or the way she wouldn't wear a pullover if she put it on backward by mistake,' I said. ‘She claimed doing that would turn around your whole day.' ‘Well? Doesn't it?' Frank asked, and I could hear a little smile in his voice. All at once I remembered Jo completely, right down to the small gold flecks in her left eye, and wanted nobody else. Nobody else would do. ‘She thought there was something bad about the house,' Frank said. ‘That much I do know.' I drew a piece of paper to me and jotted Kia on it. ‘Yes. And by then she may have suspected she was pregnant. She might have been afraid of . . . influences.' There were influences here, all right. ‘You think she got most of this from Royce Merrill?' ‘No, that was just a name she mentioned. She probably talked to dozens of people. Do you know a guy named Kloster? Gloster? Something like that?' ‘Skuster,' I said. Below Kia my pencil was making a series of fat loops that might have been cursive letter l's or hair ribbons. ‘Kenny Auster. Was that it?' ‘It sounds right. In any case, you know how she was once she really got going on a thing.' Yes. Like a terrier after rats. ‘Mike? Should I come up there?' No. Now I was sure. Not Harold Oblowski, not Frank, either. There was a process going on in Sara, something as delicate and as organic as rising bread in a warm room. Frank might interrupt that process . . . or be hurt by it. ‘No, I just wanted to get it cleared up. Besides, I'm writing. It's hard for me to have people around when I'm writing.' ‘Will you call if I can help?' ‘You bet,' I said. I hung up the telephone, thumbed through the book, and found a listing for R. MERRILL on the Deep Bay Road. I called the number, listened to it ring a dozen times, then hung up. No newfangled answering machine for Royce. I wondered idly where he was. Ninety-five seemed a little too old to go dancing at the Country Barn in Harrison, especially on a close night like this one. I looked at the paper with Kia written on it. Below the fat l-shapes I wrote Kyra, and remembered how, the first time I'd heard Ki say her name, I'd thought it was ‘Kia' she was saying. Below Kyra I wrote Kito, hesitated, then wrote Carla. I put these names in a box. Beside them I jotted Johanna, Bridget, and Jared. The fridgeafator people. Folks who wanted me to go down nineteen and go down ninety-two. ‘Go down, Moses, you bound for the Promised Land,' I told the empty house. I looked around. Just me and Bunter and the waggy clock . . . except it wasn't. When it wanted you, it called you. I got up to get another beer. The fruits and vegetables were in a circle again. In the middle, the letters now spelled: lye stille As on some old tombstones God grant she lye stille. I looked at these letters for a long time. Then I remembered the IBM was still out on the deck. I brought it in, plonked it on the dining-room table, and began to work on my current stupid little book. Fifteen minutes and I was lost, only faintly aware of thunder someplace over the lake, only faintly aware of Bunter's bell shivering from time to time. When I went back to the fridge an hour or so later for another beer and saw that the words in the circle now said ony lye stille I hardly noticed. At that moment I didn't care if they lay stille or danced the hucklebuck by the light of the silvery moon. John Shackleford had begun to remember his past, and the child whose only friend he, John, had been. Little neglected Ray Garraty. I wrote until midnight came. By then the thunder had faded away but the heat held on, as oppressive as a blanket. I turned off the IBM and went to bed . . . thinking, so far as I can remember, nothing at all not even about Mattie, lying in her own bed not so many miles away. The writing had burned off all thoughts of the real world, at least temporarily. I think that, in the end, that's what it's for. Good or bad, it passes the time.