Deception Point Page 28 Free Essays

Should I consult Sexton? She quickly decided against it. He was in a meeting. Besides, if she told him about this e-mail, she’d have to tell him about the others. We will write a custom essay sample on Deception Point Page 28 or any similar topic only for you Order Now She decided her informant’s offer to meet in public in broad daylight must be to make Gabrielle feel safe. After all, this person had done nothing but help her for the last two weeks. He or she was obviously a friend. Reading the e-mail one last time, Gabrielle checked the clock. She had an hour. 30 The NASA administrator was feeling less edgy now that the meteorite was successfully out of the ice. Everything is falling into place, he told himself as he headed across the dome to the work area of Michael Tolland. Nothing can stop us now. â€Å"How’s it coming?† Ekstrom asked, striding up behind the television scientist. Tolland glanced up from his computer, looking tired but enthusiastic. â€Å"Editing is almost done. I’m just overlaying some of the extraction footage your people shot. Should be done momentarily.† â€Å"Good.† The President had asked Ekstrom to upload Tolland’s documentary to the White House as soon as possible. Although Ekstrom had been cynical about the President’s desire to use Michael Tolland on this project, seeing the rough cuts of Tolland’s documentary had changed Ekstrom’s mind. The television star’s spirited narrative, combined with his interviews of the civilian scientists, had been brilliantly fused into a thrilling and comprehensible fifteen minutes of scientific programming. Tolland had achieved effortlessly what NASA so often failed to do-describe a scientific discovery at the level of the average American intellect without being patronizing. â€Å"When you’re done editing,† Ekstrom said, â€Å"bring the finished product over to the press area. I’ll have someone upload a digital copy to the White House.† â€Å"Yes, sir.† Tolland went back to work. Ekstrom moved on. When he arrived at the north wall, he was encouraged to find the habisphere’s â€Å"press area† had come together nicely. A large blue carpet had been rolled out on the ice. Centered on the rug sat a long symposium table with several microphones, a NASA drape, and an enormous American flag as a backdrop. To complete the visual drama, the meteorite had been transported on a palette sled to its position of honor, directly in front of the symposium table. Ekstrom was pleased to see the mood in the press area was one of celebration. Much of his staff was now crowded around the meteorite, holding their hands out over its still-warm mass like campers around a campfire. Ekstrom decided that this was the moment. He walked over to several cardboard boxes sitting on the ice behind the press area. He’d had the boxes flown in from Greenland this morning. â€Å"Drinks are on me!† he yelled, handing out cans of beer to his cavorting staff. â€Å"Hey, boss!† someone yelled. â€Å"Thanks! It’s even cold!† Ekstrom gave a rare smile. â€Å"I’ve been keeping it on ice.† Everyone laughed. â€Å"Wait a minute!† someone else yelled, scowling good-naturedly at his can. â€Å"This stuff’s Canadian! Where’s your patriotism?† â€Å"We’re on a budget, here, folks. Cheapest stuff I could find.† More laughter. â€Å"Attention shoppers,† one of the NASA television crew yelled into a megaphone. â€Å"We’re about to switch to media lighting. You may experience temporary blindness.† â€Å"And no kissing in the dark,† someone yelled. â€Å"This is a family program!† Ekstrom chuckled, enjoying the raillery as his crew made final adjustments to the spotlights and accent lighting. â€Å"Switching to media lighting in five, four, three, two†¦ â€Å" The dome’s interior dimmed rapidly as the halogen lamps shut down. Within seconds, all the lights were off. An impenetrable darkness engulfed the dome. Someone let out a mock scream. â€Å"Who pinched my ass?† someone yelled, laughing. The blackness lasted only a moment before it was pierced by the intense glare of media spotlights. Everyone squinted. The transformation was now complete; the north quadrant of the NASA habisphere had become a television studio. The remainder of the dome now looked like a gaping barn at night. The only light in the other sections was the muted reflection of the media lights reflecting off the arched ceiling and throwing long shadows across the now deserted work stations. Ekstrom stepped back into the shadows, gratified to see his team carousing around the illuminated meteorite. He felt like a father at Christmas, watching his kids enjoy themselves around the tree. God knows they deserve it, Ekstrom thought, never suspecting what calamity lay ahead. 31 The weather was changing. Like a mournful harbinger of impending conflict, the katabatic wind let out a plaintive howl and gusted hard against the Delta Force’s shelter. Delta-One finished battening down the storm coverings and went back inside to his two partners. They’d been through this before. It would soon pass. Delta-Two was staring at the live video feed from the microbot. â€Å"You better look at this,† he said. Delta-One came over. The inside of the habisphere was in total darkness except for the bright lighting on the north side of the dome near the stage. The remainder of the habisphere appeared only as a dim outline. â€Å"It’s nothing,† he said. â€Å"They’re just testing their television lighting for tonight.† â€Å"The lighting’s not the problem.† Delta-Two pointed to the dark blob in the middle of the ice-the water-filled hole from which the meteorite had been extracted. â€Å"That’s the problem.† Delta-One looked at the hole. It was still surrounded by pylons, and the surface of the water appeared calm. â€Å"I don’t see anything.† â€Å"Look again.† He maneuvered the joystick, spiraling the microbot down toward the surface of the hole. As Delta-One studied the darkened pool of melted water more closely, he saw something that caused him to recoil in shock. â€Å"What the†¦?† Delta-Three came over and looked. He too looked stunned. â€Å"My God. Is that the extraction pit? Is the water supposed to be doing that?† â€Å"No,† Delta-One said. â€Å"It sure as hell isn’t.† 32 Although Rachel Sexton was currently sitting inside a large metal box situated three thousand miles from Washington, D.C., she felt the same pressure as if she’d been summoned to the White House. The videophone monitor before her displayed a crystal clear image of President Zach Herney seated in the White House communications room before the presidential seal. The digital audio connection was flawless, and with the exception of an almost imperceptible delay, the man could have been in the next room. Their conversation was upbeat and direct. The President seemed pleased, though not at all surprised, by Rachel’s favorable assessment of NASA’s find and of his choice to use Michael Tolland’s captivating persona as a spokesman. The President’s mood was good-natured and jocular. â€Å"As I’m sure you will agree,† Herney said, his voice growing more serious now, â€Å"in a perfect world, the ramifications of this discovery would be purely scientific in nature.† He paused, leaning forward, his face filling the screen. â€Å"Unfortunately, we don’t live in a perfect world, and this NASA triumph is going to be a political football the moment I announce it.† â€Å"Considering the conclusive proof and who you’ve recruited for endorsements, I can’t imagine how the public or any of your opposition will be able to do anything other than accept this discovery as confirmed fact.† Herney gave an almost sad chuckle. â€Å"My political opponents will believe what they see, Rachel. My concerns are that they won’t like what they see.† How to cite Deception Point Page 28, Essay examples

Oskar Schindlers metamorposis Essay Example For Students

Oskar Schindlers metamorposis Essay In the film Schindlers List, Oskar Schindler undergoes a dramatic metamorphosis. Discuss. The film Schindlers List depicts the transformation of its main protagonist, Oskar Schindler, from an opportunist war profiteer to the saviour of over one thousand Jews. He is originally depicted as a womanizer and a Nazi sympathizer, however he becomes an accidental saviour through his plan to utilize Jewish workers for his own gain. His metamorphosis is triggered by the exposure to atrocities committed by Nazis. Schindler becomes a genuine saviour motivated purely by saving as many lives as he can. His compilation of the list and eventual support of the Schindler Jews in Brinnlitz is evidence of his pure humanitarianism and transformationIn the beginning of Schindlers List, Schindler is portrayed as suave, opportunistic, manipulator whose main motivation is to profit in any way he can from the war. In the first five scenes we see (through the clever use of camera angle) Schindlers assessment o f Nazi officers. He uses money to bribe waiters and changes from an unknown observer of the party to the life of the party. He is able to use social engineering to buy items from the black market, keep Stern from being sent to a camp and also to manipulate Nazi officers into approving his Jewish slavery-based company. He is a womanizer, and enjoys the fine thinks in life. In a discussion with his wife he says, I want to do something extraordinary. He considers this to be coming to Poland with no money and leaving as a rich man. He does indeed accomplish something extraordinary, however it is not what he initially imagines it to be. Schindlers enamel factory, while only a place for Jews to work, creates a safe haven for its Jewish workers, and this only results in Schindler becoming an accidental hero. Schindler is still motivated by money; he hires cheap Jewish labour, which means more money for him. Being an opportunist, the war is in favour of him, as he is only interested in the money. Whilst there is perhaps evidence of a slow transformation occurring, Schindler is still unwilling to take responsibility of the good he has done for the Jews in his factory, like hiring the one armed worker. When Schindler saves Stern from going to a death camp he indicates that it is purely for his own benefit as mentioned with now what would I do without you. When a young girl comes to ask Schindler to take her parents on, Schindler is outraged that his factory is seen as a haven for Jews. However, he does eventually take the parents in, which indicates that a metamorphosis is perhaps taking place. It could be argued that the catalyst of metamorphosis from a materialistic war profiteer to a true humanitarian is his witnessing of the atrocities perpetuated by the Nazi Party. In the liquidation scene, the little girl in red coat is symbolic of Schindlers realisation of the atrocities taking place all around him. She represents the innocent and the suffering of all her people. Schindlers construction of the list demonstrates his change from being a self-confessed criminal to his feelings of regret for not doing more to help the Jewish cause. He is acknowledging that he has played a part in securing some of the lives of the Jewish people through his list. The end of the film sees the end result of Oscars transformation. He changes from a money-hungry war criminal to a humanitarian hero through his realisation of the impact that the war had on him and all those around him. He tells himself that he could have saved more lives, and this completes his metamorphosis from a person who wants material goods to a person who acknowledges that he could have done more to help others. His dramatic metamorphosis is needed to progress to his realisation that he had saved lives, and could have saved more.

Adam Smith Self-interest and The Wealth of Nations free essay sample

In Adam Smith’s monumental work, The Wealth of Nations, he explains how it is generally the inherent human nature of self-love that is pushing the economy to flourish, and a system that allows for people to liberally seek their best interests would actually end up increasing the wealth of the entire nation (Smith). The premise that Adam Smith bases this on is that when people are given the opportunity to do so, their primary instinct is to do what hey perceive is the best action for them (Smith). However, in committing these actions, the person is often found contributing unintentionally as it may be to the benefit of other people (Smith). When a grocer attempts to gain more customers by lowering his prices below those of his competitor, the lower prices benefit his customers. However, there is no altruism in the grocer’s action because his main intention is to gain a better market share than his competitor. We will write a custom essay sample on Adam Smith: Self-interest and The Wealth of Nations or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page As a reaction, the competitor would also lower prices and this creates a system which in the end benefits the consumers the most. Adam Smith then expands this explanation to the scale of an entire nation, where corporations, wanting to create more and more merchandise for its consumers so that it can gain greater revenue, would establish more factories and hire more workers and would divide labor among its workers such that specific groups will only do specific tasks, thereby increasing the production total (Smith). Over time, these actions would create infrastructure, generate jobs, and make the economy run to greater heights, thus increasing the nation’s wealth (Smith). Without the incentive of gain, people would not want to form companies. It is the possibility to gain that drives people to create companies that in turn generate extensive production of goods. What would prevent the capitalists from taking advantage of the freedom is â€Å"invisible hand† (Smith) that guides the market, if the capitalist make a product too expensive, not many would be willing buy it and the incentive to create an alternative for it would increase, eventually forcing the capitalist to lower the prices to acceptable levels.

Significance of Three in Heart of Darkness Essay Example

Significance of Three in Heart of Darkness Essay Example Significance of Three in Heart of Darkness Paper Significance of Three in Heart of Darkness Paper Essay Topic: Heart Of Darkness Devil of Greed, Devil of Hot Desire -three women -three breaks where Marrow Is Interrupted In his story. -dying of fever three a day Outer, Central, and Inner First, notice that the book Is delved Into three chapters. It might be profitable to ask what happens in each of those chapters, and why Conrad chooses to make the breaks where he does. It is also worth noting that Marrow breaks off his story exactly three times?three times the outside narrator comes back to say somethingonce in heaper one, twice in chapter two, and not at all until the end in chapter three. I would like to suggest that it will be worth your while to see what Marrow is talking about in the page or so before each break, and how it relates to what the outside narrator says is happening on the Newly, and to what Marrow says when he starts speaking again. Are there other things that come in threes in Heart of Darkness? How about the three stations of Marrows Journey? Or the three women who frame his journeyhis aunt, Quartzs African girlfriend, and the Intended? And what about the here possible central characters: Kurt, Marrow, and the outside narrator? Im sure if you inspect the book closely you can find other patterns that come in threes. Symbolism of Three The three divisions of time past, present and future. Why Conrad choose to use three -Three narrators = The Trinity, three parts of a human (outer, Inner, and the connector), past/present/future -Three Parts of the book He clearly achieves what he outlines In the preface to another book: My task which I am trying to achieve is, by the power of the written word to make you hear, to make o feel?it Is, before all, to make you see. It Is difficult not to hear, feel, or see this story when reading It. Two Knitting Women (whom Marrow sees at the slung) Did these ladles creep you out or what?

Diabetes Fact Sheet For African American Women Essay

Diabetes Fact Sheet For African American Women - Essay Example A number of factors account for this but most outstanding could be sighted as the fact that there is a high level of disparity in the provision of quality healthcare to all areas of the American population. Records also have it that diabetes is a disease that poses so much health threat to affected persons. Consequently, a refusal by stakeholders, especially the government to address the issue would mean that the human resource base of the country will be jeopardized because the greater part of the United States workforce would be an ailing one. Among the African American women population, there are other critical statistics of facts that are worth elaborating as far as diabetes is concerned. This is because it is a fact that other risk factors such as age and family history can hardly be controlled. Subsequently, African American women who are over the age of 50 are more likely to get diabetes than those of other ages. Again, 45% of African American women are from homes with a histo ry of diabetes. What this means is that 45% are at risk as far as risk factors are concerned.In conclusion, it would be said that preventive primary healthcare delivery must be intensified among the African American population. Policy experts can make good of this fact sheet by ensuring that in their primary healthcare campaigns, African American women are admonished to maintain a healthy weight; eat low-fat, well-balanced diet; make physical exercise a habit; and reduce alcohol intake (Women Health, 2012).

Operation Management - Inventory Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Operation Management - Inventory - Essay Example The top-level management formulates the strategy and modifies it over time, while the other department officers make tactical decisions to assist in executing the strategy. The term â€Å"waste† can be defined as anything used in production process other than the minimum amount of time, materials, tools, people, equipments, and space required to add value to the product or service (Focusing on the waste, 2006).Inventory is commonly regarded as one of the seven wastes of lean manufacturing. Inventory can be piled up at various stages of the production process such as, raw materials, work-in-progress, and finished goods as stock. Organizations often maintain much higher levels of inventory that what is required for the production of goods and services. On the other hand, the customers choose the Just-in-time (JIT) principle to purchase goods and services to fulfill their wants. Every piece of inventory held by the organization has a physical cost connected with it, which must be bore directly by the organization either from the cash balance or from borrowings that carries a rate of interest with it. The essential factor to be remembered in the business operation is that â€Å"cash is king†, and if too many things such as, inventory are tied up with the cash, it may not be available to the organization to use it in elsewhere in its business. Apart from the physical costs, the inventory also has some secondary or less obvious costs. Such costs include cost transportation and movement of inventory from place to another, cost of stores needed to hoard it, cost of containers to preserve it, cost of management for keeping track of it, cost of damage and losses occurring while transportation, cost of writing off materials in case became outdated, and also cost of insuring the inventory. Thus, there are many costs connected with inventory; some of them are more obvious while others are not as evident as others. These costs directly affect the profitability cutting down the profit margin. They cause increasing the organizations’ lead times as well its operating costs, which ultimately results in customer dissatisfaction that provokes them to take their business elsewhere. The essential factor that results in excess production is a mistrust of the organization’s suppliers, production process and even customers. Such suspicions causes the organization to always maintain a â€Å"comfort stock† to enhance a satisfactory buffering if the operations are not going in line with its plans; in fact, the plan often seems failing. When a comfortable stock is in effect, it provides a buffering against such problems that occur in the business, so that the problems fail to impact the operations that they would otherwise. These circumstances force the managers to ignore such issues associated with inventory considering them to be a matter of unimportance. However, these are all costing the organization money. For instance, the lev el of inventory can be exemplified as the sea; if the organization drops the level then it starts to expose the rocks below and have to take actions either to remove them or to reduce their size in order to continue a smooth sail on for the ship of production without getting sunk (Leanman, 2011). As Martin points out, the most

Ethical or social responsibility issue related to aviation Research Paper

Ethical or social responsibility issue related to aviation - Research Paper Example The employees are required to comply with the letters of the guidelines as well as the spirit of the guidelines. The formal codes of ethical documents are important in analyzing the different companies and rating them (Hoppe, 2007). The rating is based on the practical implementation of these codes. It is harder than it seems to implement these codes due to the various inherent limitations on a day-to-day basis. Therefore, the aviation industry has guidelines on how the codes will be followed. The codes cover the major issues that the airlines face on a day-to-day basis and need to be addressed constantly. These issues are under different topics depending on different airlines, but can be summarized in three main parts; conflict interest, asset protection and working together. Conflict of interest arises when employees encounter situations where they have to choose between the airline’s interests and their own interests (Hoppe, 2007). Most airlines can pinpoint the various sit uations where conflict of interest may arise, and have guidelines on what actions the employees should take when such situations arise. An example is a situation where an employee receives gifts and rewards from customers, suppliers or other stakeholders in the company for a job done. It is common for some passengers to give stewards gifts for their services in the plane. If the customer enjoys good services while travelling with a certain airline, and feels the urge to reward the company, they are likely to reward the stewards since they are the people with whom they are in direct contact. If the employees accept such gifts, they may compromise their moral obligations to the employer if they feel obliged to meet the gift givers’ demands instead of the employer’s interests. Most airlines stipulate, in their code of ethics, that the employees should not receive gifts especially when the gifts are excessive or too lavish. Most of the passengers who fly a lot are likely t o be wealthy, and are likely to give expensive gifts. In this case, the employee who receives the reward should talk to the human resource department in the specific airline if they believe that their ethical conduct might be compromised. Another situation occurs when employees request rewards from clients when they realize that they have to work hard in providing services to these clients (Hoppe, 2007). This is in spite of the fact that the employees are employed to provide such services to the clients. The conflict of interest arises because the employees have to choose between asking for these gifts, thereby serving their own interest, or maintaining a good reputation for the airline. Most airlines strictly prohibit seeking rewards from clients. Another situation could be when employees work for a rival airline (Hoppe, 2007).