Science and Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Science and Law - Essay Example That is why the scientific theories and dogmas enjoy much higher levels of veracity and credibility as compared to other academic disciplines. So much so, that scientific approach towards research and experimentation has been incorporated within the ambit of other disciplines and fields of enquiry like sociology, history, economics, jurisprudence, psychology, etc. The fact is that science has infiltrated every aspect of life and human existence and today there exists practically no social institution or concern that is devoid of scientific methods and approaches. Especially in the realm of law, science has brought about an unprecedented change and revolution. In the 21st century, scientific evidence is legitimately welcomed and accommodated in all the courts of law and it holds a credibility and veracity about which there exists no doubt. The scientific community has also promptly responded to this new challenge and responsibility by developing new disciplines like forensics that spe cifically cater to the realm of law and the techniques like finger print evidence, DNA fingerprinting, etc hold an almost unchallenged recognition in the courts of law. With the digitization of the economies and scientific orientation of the means and ways of production, the courts of law are often required to contend with the litigations that require considerable amounts of scientific data and inputs. There is no denying the fact that the courts in the West have over the centuries, incorporated certain cardinal instruments within their frameworks and the jury is one such integral aspect of such legal frameworks. For good or for bad, the litigations requiring scientific data and discussion are not devoid of the decisive influence of juries and the concerned scientific evidence furnished in such cases is as much open to analysis by the jury as by judges, lawyers, litigants and other parties involved.The entrance of science in the courtrooms has given way to a plethora of questions, apprehensions and doubts. Infact this new trend has exposed the jury to attacks and aspersions from various quarters of the society and intelligentsia. Such pressure grou ps, while citing the complexity and intricacy involved in the conception and understanding of scientific evidence as a valid excuse claim that the contemporary system of assorting juries that seldom requires and asks for relevant qualifications and scientific knowhow, has literally rendered the institution of jury as totally obsolete, especially in the court cases that involve considerable amounts of scientific evidence and theoretical arguments and discussions.Such claims need to be qualified in the light of the basic objectives that led to the introduction of the institution of jury in the English legal system. It is imperative for the so called champions of science to understand that the jury is essentially a political institution and serves specific purposes in the democratic societies (Edmond and Mercer 331). Leaving the practical aspects of justice aside, a stiff opposition from the so called adherents of science is the biggest problem that the institution of jury faces in the 21st century. The reasons cited by such elements will be dealt with later on in this paper. First and foremost it is important to understand the political and democratic relevance of the jury in the Western legal

Construction Contracts: Omission, Suspension Termination

Construction Contracts: Omission, Suspension Termination An analysis of Omission, Suspension Termination of Construction Contracts under Civil Law of Qatar UAE 1. Introduction Qatar has a well-developed and structured legal system. The origin of the Qatar legal system is found in both ancient and traditional sources. It is based on Islamic law and jurisprudence but has adopted many of the principles of the Napoleonic Civil Code (French Civil Code). In addition, Egyptian philosophy of law and procedure (Egyptian Civil Code) had a great influence on the legal and judicial system of Qatar. The State of Qatar is a traditional country ruled by Al-Thani family and the state leadership being inherited by Al-Thani family since mid-19th century Qatar’s judicial history was influenced by a series of events beginning with the Ottoman occupation of the region in the 19th century. As stated in Background to legal system in Qatar by Qatar Law website â€Å"The Ottoman rulers established a system of justice based on teachings of the Hanafi school of Islamic Law. As the Ottoman Empire started to lose its grip on its rule in Qatar and elsewhere in the Arabian Gulf, Qatar underwent a gradual shift towards the Hanbali school of Islamic Law under the influence of the then emerging regional power, Saudi Arabia† (Partners, 2014). Qatar became a protectorate of Britain after the 1916 treaty and British legal system was established formally after the treaty. The civil courts established by British enforced English laws albeit local courts continued to administer a legal system based on Sharia law (Islamic law) which was the legal system in pre British era. This practice created a dual court system that existed until recent time in Qatar. Modern Qatar legislative process began in 1961, when Law No. 1 for the year 1961 was issued. Subsequently, several modern legislations covering the administrative, economic and social activities were enacted. Qatar passed the new Judicial Law No. 10 for the year 2003 in October 2003 which revolutionized and unified the judicial system in Qatar. This law became effective in October 2004. Qatar enacted a new Civil Law in 2004, providing applicability in respect of limitation of time and territorial jurisdiction. Other important definitions such as of natural and juridical persons principles and legal capacity to sue and be sued were incorporated in to the new Civil Law. Contractual relationships in construction sector were codified as Law No. (22) of 2004 with the passing of Qatar Civil Law. Law No. (22) of 2004 Promulgating the Civil Code was issued by H/H Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani, Emir of Qatar exercising the executive authority vested under the Constitution. As stated in Qatar Law website â€Å"Qatar Civil Code provides guidelines for the establishment of contractual relations and obligations arising therefrom. It specifies basic elements of a contract such as consent, subject matter, and purpose of contracting. It also deals with annulment, construction and binding nature, effect, and cancellation of contracts† (Partners, 2014). The UAE federation comprising seven Emirates namely; Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ras Al Khaimah, Umm Al Quwain, Ajman and Fujairah was established on 02nd of December 1971. The Constitution declares the Sharia is the principal source for law in the UAE and a civil law jurisdiction heavily influenced by the Egyptian law system which was heavily influenced by French and Roman law. Commercial transactions are governed by UAE Federal Commercial Transactions Law ‘Commercial Code’ (No. 18 of 1993). Civil transactions are governed by UAE Law of Civil Transactions ‘Civil Code’ (No. 5 of 1985 No. 1 of 1987) (Whelan, 2011). In the absence of any specific provisions in Civil Code , the Islamic Sharia law will be applied. In matters of procedure, the UAE courts follow the Federal Civil Procedure Law ‘Civil Procedure Code’ (No. 11 of 1992 as amended). Articles 872 to 896 of the UAE Civil Law 1987 (the Civil Law) relating to construction works, as well as general maxims and principles set out in the same law, form the basis of the legal framework relating to construction. Also, UAE Commercial Transactions Law provisions would apply to the degree that the parties to a construction claim could be defined as traders conducting commercial business as per Articles 6 and 11. The general principle of freedom and sanctity of contract is recognized under the Qatar Civil Code and a contract is treated as the law of the contracting parties. Natural and legal persons are free to agree on whatever they desire, provided that their agreement does not conflict with law, public order and morality. Verbal contracts and contracts as a result of conduct of the parties are mostly recognized and are enforceable in court subjected to establishing / proving the contractual-relationship. The Civil Law also deals with interpretation of contracts, contractual responsibilities, liability for personal acts, and responsibility for acts of third parties, ownership responsibilities, surety, unjust enrichment, types of sale, lease, insurance, and rights attached to property, land law, mortgage, wills, legacy, privileges, and gains. It also stipulates performance, compensation and compulsory execution, assignment of rights, innovation and impossibility of performance and statutes of limitation. Contractors are often faced with employer- driven Omission, Suspension Termination of the Construction Contracts due to financial constraints and other difficulties encountered by Clients and Contractors in Qatar Middle East in general. Medium to large scale public works projects procured by Public Works Authority of Qatar (Ashghal) use General Conditions of Qatar (its own spoke form) published by Contracts Engineering Business Affairs (CEBA) which were updated and reissued on July 2007 prepared by either in-house lawyers or external law firms. The Qatar General Conditions of Qatar is a close resemblance of International Federation of Consulting Engineers (FIDIC) Yellow, Silver or Red Book contracts. The other major projects procured by state affiliated organizations such as Qatar Foundation, Qatar Gas, RasGas, Qatar Water Electricity board (Kharamaa), New Doha Aiprt Steering Committee use their own bespoke and â€Å"project specific† forms. Where a project is awarded on a lump sum basis, the 2007 General Conditions of Contract favoured by employers in Qatar places much of the risk for losses on the contractor, except where losses are adequately covered under the amended provisions to the Contract. A reasonably fair assessment of the General Conditions of Contract by many contractors in Qatar is that it heavily favours the employer. While this may be the case, a contractor may also be entitled to claim equitable relief in accordance with the Qatar Civil Law No. 22 of 2004. In the above scenario, it is imperative to analyze the rights and entitlements of Clients Contractors in circumstances arising from Omission, Suspension Termination of the Construction Contracts under FIDIC 1987 revision 4 FIDIC 1999 which are base documents for most of the Bespoke Conditions of Contracts in Qatar and its enforcement under the Civil Law of Qatar U.A.E. 2. Aim Analyze the legal aspects of Omission, Suspension Termination of the Construction Contracts under the Qatar U.A.E Civil Law. 3. Objectives There are four objectives of this study: To identify the limit of a Contractors’ exposure to the Employer in respect of Omission, Suspension Termination of the Construction Contracts. To identify the limit of Employer’s exposure to the Contractor. Analyze the entitlements between FIDIC suit of Contracts and Qatar U.A.E. Civil Code To determine reasonable solutions and precautions. 4. Research methodology The following Literature was reviewed during the initially to ascertain the feasibility of conducting a comprehensive research on the subject dissertation. Binding Force of a Contract – Article 171of Law No. 22 of 2004 – Qatar Civil Code â€Å"A contract is the law of the contracting parties, and it may not be revoked or amended, except by agreement of both parties or for prescribed by the law† (Portal, 2014). Dissolution of a Contract Article 183of Law No. 22 of 2004 – Qatar Civil Code Article 183 states that â€Å"In contracts binding on both parties and imposing reciprocal obligations (synallagmatic contracts), where one of the parties fails to perform his obligation, the other party may, upon formal notice to the former, demand performance of the contract or its rescission, and may claim any damages caused by such failure to perform† (Portal, 2014). â€Å"The judge may,mutatis mutandis, determine a period of grace within which the obligor shall perform his obligation. The judge may also reject the application for rescission if the obligation not performed is insignificant compared with the obligations considered in their entirety† (Portal, 2014). Termination of a Contract of Works under Articles 703, 704 707 of Law No. 22 of 2004 – Qatar Civil Code Termination of a Contract under Articles 892 893 of UAE Federal Law No. 2/87 – The Civil Code Dissolution of a Contract under Articles 185 188 of Law No. 22 of 2004 – Qatar Civil Code Article 185 states that â€Å"When a contract is rescinded, the contracting parties shall be reinstated to the position they were in prior to the date of the conclusion of the contract. If reinstatement is impossible, the court may grant indemnity† (Portal, 2014). Article 188 states that; â€Å"The contracting parties may mutually agree to terminate the contract upon its conclusion, provided that the subject matter of the contract remains in the possession of either party. Where the subject matter of the contract is lost, damaged or disposed of in part in favour of a third party, the contract may be rescinded to the extent of the remaining part and the share of the party† (Portal, 2014) Dissolution of a Contract under Article 273 of UAE Federal Law No. 2/87 – The Civil Code Dissolution of a Contract under Articles 267 268 of UAE Federal Law No. 2/87 – The Civil Code The binding force of a Contract under Article 172 of Law No. 22 of 2004 – Qatar Civil Code The effect of the Contract under Article 246 of UAE Federal Law No. 2/87 – The Civil Code Ruling issued for the year 2006 by Court of Cassation, Dubai Literature study and analytical research are my major learning methods which play an important role in this report. Analytical research involves analyzing existing case law, facts and information. The data will be collected from primary/secondary sources, interviews with industry experts and case studies/laws. Literature study and analytical research have been chosen due to complex laws of the country and its interpretation by the Law experts. However, any analysis contained in this dissertation is the author’s own opinion and shall not be construed as evidence in a court of law. This paper does not have any legal or contractual standing in interpreting a binding Contract Document. 5. Scope and Limitation The building construction contracts stipulate express provisions governing the rights of one or both parties to terminate the contract under certain circumstances. These express provisions are categorized as non-contractual rights and contractual rights to terminate a binding contract. The Non-contractual rights to terminate are defined as; Frustration and this occurs when circumstances rather than the default of contracting parties have intervened to prevent the contract being performed as intended originally. When frustration occurs, further performance of the contract is impossible, illegal or radically changed from what the parties contemplated at the time of signing the contract. The contract is automatically terminated once a frustration event occurs and the parties are absolved from further obligations but accrued liabilities remain with them. The party who is relying on frustration provisions in the contract must be sure of that a frustration event actually occurred when justifying the ceasing of operations under the contract to avoid being in breach (the contract is more expensive to perform is not a frustrating event). It is prudent that the events stipulated under force majeure clauses should not overlap with the frustration events and the events which are provided their consequences are stated in the contra cts shall also not be considered as frustrating events. It is imperative to define Force Majeure events in the contract and clause 19.1 of FIDIC 1999 First Edition state that the definition of â€Å"Force Majeure† as; â€Å"Means an exceptional event or circumstance: (a) which is beyond a Party’s control, (b) which such Party could not reasonably have provided against before entering into the Contract, (c) which, having arisen, such Party could not reasonably have avoided or overcome, and (d) which is not substantially attributable to the other Party† (FIDIC, 1999). Force Majeure events are exceptional events or circumstances as listed FIDIC 1999 below and those satisfy the clause 19.1 of FIDIC 1999 sub-clause (a) to (d) above: â€Å"(i) war, hostilities (whether war be declared or not), invasion, act of foreign enemies, (ii) rebellion, terrorism, revolution, insurrection, military or usurped power, or civil war, (iii) riot, commotion, disorder, strike or lockout by persons other than the Contractor’s Personnel and other employees of the Contractor and Subcontractors, (iv) munitions of war, explosive materials, ionising radiation or contamination by radio-activity, except as may be attributable to the Contractor’s use of such munitions, explosives, radiation or radio-activity, and (v) natural catastrophes such as earthquake, hurricane, typhoon or volcanic activity† (FIDIC, 1999). Repudiation and this occurs when a party to the contract commits a serious breach of contract that entitles the innocent party to consider the contract as terminated with immediate effect and sue for damages due to breach of the contract. The following will be considered as clear repudiation of a construction contract Contractor’s refusal to carry out contract scope; Vacant the site or un-authorized removal of plant by the contractor; Procuring other contractors to carry out the whole or part of the scope of work originally contracted; Employer’s failure to give access to the site (possession of the site). The Contractual rights to terminate are classified as; Termination for Cause and the clauses stipulated in the contract vesting powers/rights to terminate the contract for breaches of specified contractual obligations such as unjustified/ unrecoverable delays attributed non-performance of the works. The parties may exercise their rights to terminate in other circumstances too, such as occurrence of a force majeure event. Termination for Convenience or ‘at will’ clauses may be incorporated in to construction contract vesting powers to one party to terminate the contract without having to establish any cause or breach for termination for the other party. This clause is very useful in the event that the; the employer changes the use of the land (eg. Condominium development to a hotel development) the employer’s inability to secure financing for the whole project or secure anchor tenants the contractor finds the project will be unprofitable or too risky the project has been suspended for a prolong period with no prospect of it being recommenced. There is a very close relationship between suspension and termination and, depending on how the clause is drafted. The end result of a suspension clause may be much the same as a termination clause in that either party will have the right to terminate the contract at the end of the agreed suspension period. The justification for suspension clauses will be broadly similar to termination such as a change of circumstances on the ground that makes continuing with the works impossible in the short term. Notwithstanding the above, suspension may be used by one party to allow it space to consider how to proceed with a project, which should be acceptable to the other party if kept within bounds. The scope of this research is to identify the legal provisions to secure the rights and entitlements provided under Qatar Civil Code and UAE Federal Law in Omissions, Suspensions and Terminations and limited to the construction contracts under the jurisdiction of the subject countries. The main limitation is the Language. The Qatar and UAE Laws are written in Arabic and official translation in English language is not available. The author relies on many unofficial translations of Qatar and UAE Laws for the purpose of this research. Arabic language prevails over the any launage in a Court of Law in Qatar and UAE. 6. Conclusion The Contractor shall be compensated for; Re-measured work done Preliminaries Material delivered / ordered Under- recoveries Costs/increases Removal of Contractor’s equipment Repatriation of staff/labour Loss of damage (loss of profit) Costs resulting from suspension after recovering the following from the contractor Advance Payment Previous payments Employers recoveries All these compensation and recoveries are stipulated in FIDIC Conditions of Contracts (or amended bespoke versions) and enforceable under Law No. 22 of 2004 – Qatar Civil Code and UAE Federal Law No. 2/87 – The Civil Code. The Contractors (and the Employers) as the case shall be able to seek the solace of Law even if the Contract Agreement they entered in to is heavily bias towards the Employer as the Law of land prevails over any contractual relationship between parties. 7. References FIDIC. (1999). Conditions of Contract for Construction. In I. F. Engineers, General Conditions (pp. 56-58). ISBN 2 88432 022 9. Partners, S. A.-A. (2014). Background Legal System in Qatar. Retrieved 08 25, 2014, from www.qatarlaw.com: http://www.qatarlaw.com/background-legal-system-in-qatar Portal, Q. L. (2014, 08 25). Law No. 22 of 2004. Doha, Qatar. Whelan, J. (2011, 07). The Civil Code. Retrieved 08 27, 2014, from http://lexemiratidotnet.files.wordpress.com: http://lexemiratidotnet.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/uae-civil-code-_english-translation_.pdf

herody Free Essay on Homers Odyssey - Odysseus and the Mind of a Hero :: Homer, Odyssey Essays

The Mind of a Hero The ‘American Heritage High-school’ dictionary defines a hero as a man, often of divine ancestry, who is endowed with great courage and strength. Is that what a hero truly is? Does he need only strength and courage? Does a hero not need a mind? Any man can be strong and brave, but does that mean he is a hero? Nay, a hero must have more. He must be quick-witted and always think with his head and never his fear. A man must be clever (mentally bright, superficially skillful or witty) to be considered a hero. A hero has many characteristics but one of the most important is to be able to think his way out of trouble. Not that a hero shouldn’t be physically strong, that’s always good, but sometimes you can’t fight your way out things without getting yourself killed. Odysseus, king of Ithaca, is a very clever man. He shows that quality time and again in ‘The Odyssey’. For example, the Trojan War. The Greeks fought with the Trojans for ten years without success. They had to get over the wall around Troy. No one had any ideas. But then Odysseus and his clever mind thought of a way to trick the Trojans. He ordered the Greeks to build a huge wooden horse in which they could hide. Odysseus figured that when the Trojans wake up to the horse and no Greeks in sight that they’d take the horse as a peace offering and take it inside the city. The Trojans did as Odysseus had guessed and after ten long years the war with Troy was finally over. Another example of Odysseus’ cleverness is when he met a giant, one-eyed monster named Polyphemus. Odysseus and his men went into this giants’ cave and stayed to meet him. What they saw when Polyphemus came home was a huge surprise. Polyphemus liked humans, yes he did. He liked them as dinner, lunch, and breakfast. Odysseus was losing his men rapidly while they were trapped in the cave. He had to do something. Suddenly an idea popped in his head. He and his men sharpened a stick, and shoved it into Polyphemus’ eye while he was sleeping. Plus, when Polyphemus called for help, nobody listened because Odysseus had told him that his name was ‘Nohbdy’. If that doesn’t take a clever mind then I don’t know what dose.

Music Composition Sheet Essay

At the turn of the century, music was characteristically late Romantic in style. Composers such as Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss and Jean Sibelius were pushing the bounds of Post-Romantic Symphonic writing. At the same time, the Impressionist movement, led by Claude Debussy, was being developed in France. The term was actually disliked by Debussy: â€Å"I am trying to do ‘something different—in a way realities—what the imbeciles call ‘impressionism’ is a term which is as poorly used as possible, particularly by art critics† —and Maurice Ravel’s music, also often labelled with this term. Many composers reacted to the Post-Romantic and Impressionist styles and moved in quite different directions. The single most important moment in defining the course of music throughout the century was the widespread break with traditional tonality, effected in diverse ways by different composers in the first decade of the century. From this sprang an unprecedented â€Å"linguistic plurality† of styles, techniques, and expression. In Vienna, Arnold Schoenberg developed atonality, out of the expressionism that arose in the early part of the 20th century. He later developed the twelve-tone technique which was developed further by his disciples Alban Berg and Anton Webern; later composers (including Pierre Boulez) developed it further still. Stravinsky (in his last works) explored twelve-tone technique, too, as did many other composers; indeed, even Scott Bradley used the technique in his scores for the Tom and Jerry cartoons. After the First World War, many composers started returning to the past for inspiration and wrote works that draw elements (form, harmony, melody, structure) from it. This type of music thus became labelled neoclassicism. Igor Stravinsky (Pulcinella and Symphony of Psalms), Sergei Prokofiev (Classical Symphony), Ravel (Le tombeau de Couperin) and Paul Hindemith (Symphony: Mathis der Maler) all produced neoclassical works. After World War 2, composers sought to achieve greater levels of control in music in their pieces (e. g. 12 tone technique and later serialism). The twelve tone technique is a technique ensuring the use of all 12 notes in the chromatic scale, this prevented the unbalanced emphasis on individual notes. In the 1940s and 50s composers, notably Pierre Schaeffer, started to explore the application of technology to music in musique concrete (Dack 2002). The term Electroacoustic music was later coined to include all forms of music involving magnetic tape, computers, synthesizers, multimedia, and other electronic devices and techniques. From the early 1950s onwards, Cage introduced elements of chance into his music. This has resulted in various musical techniques such as indeterminacy, aleatoric music, music, intuitive, and free improvisation. In the 1970s and onwards, new technology was available and used in classical music. This new technology was experimented with and improvised that same key qualities of basic classical music, but had newer and broader styles and techniques (e. g. 12 tone technique). This component in section A of the piece conveys a short list of variety in the musical concepts (bars 6-7). The vivid sway motion throughout this section is due to its branch of late Romanticism (early 1900s). Romanticism was an emotional and expressive period of time where many different cultures, art, architecture and music was impacted by the social status of this time. Music in general was driven by this emotion and hardship that underwent at the time i. e the French revolution. This emotion gave the composers much more expression and diversity, with less formality and structure (a characteristic of music of the classical period). With this new contemporary classical style of music, the ideas and implementations of previous styles and periods had an effect on the way this music was played, i. e. the sway motion and range of mixed dynamics. In this section is phrasing slurs are used to join the notes together to build its melody into being more ‘sway like’ giving it a legato motion. In the harmony a short part of an arpeggio is played and graduated into a whole chord finishing the scale. This repetitive motion of the harmony in the left hand has created a slight question and answer between the melody and harmony in this section. This component from section B of the piece is a variation of the first part, with added techniques, dynamics, notes, and variety to build more expression into the piece (bars 14-15). The expression of the composers of this time period in post-1945 was shown through the sorrow and despair of World War II. Through the devastation and war experienced by the composers at this time, the change in variety and diversity of pitch was minimal, but the feeling experienced were immense. These immense feelings portrayed in the massive output of dynamics and expressive techniques used in these contemporary classical styles, and further developed this category of music. This section uses broken chords in the harmony to build the tempo and texture from the section A. whilst the melody is still similarly structured but further developed in the use of notes values. This component shows the transition of section B into the new section C. In this transition the dynamic change gradually to fit the expression and use of whole (triad) chords in section C. The use of the Crescendo into forte, portrays a wide variety in dynamics throughout the piece (the previous sections were piano and mezzo-piano, from above). Forte in the next section conveys the composers’ anxiety and anger in this time of war, and conveys to the responder through this wide range of dynamics the emotions and distress people went through during this time. This component conveys the transition between section C and section D. Through this transition the dynamics change from a forte (loud) to a pianissimo (very soft), these dynamics give the piece a wider range in terms of dynamics and convey a lot more expression to the responder. The melody however is similar but in a higher octave, this give the piece a sequence and conveys the idea of repetition throughout the piece. The density of section D get thinner, as the harmony is reduced to one note played with longer note values, i. e. semibreves. Composers during this period of post-1945 used a wide range and variety of dynamics to expressive themselves with the troubles and hardships they went through after the war. This variety is vivid in this piece as this section contains that branch from forte to pianissimo. Throughout this composition the ideas, implementations and characteristics of contemporary classical music have been vivid throughout this composition. I believe the use of the six concepts have been diverse through this piece and have truly illustrated the sound and tone of contemporary classical music. Throughout the piece, the dynamics have changed rapidly and shown a large variety of expression and emotion in the composition. The use of one instrument in the composition has shown the audience that the composers for Contemporary Classical music have independence on lots of instruments and thick density, as this does not convey emotion as easy of thin density pieces. The structure of theme and variation, a common structure used in contemporary classical, often used to build and gradually strengthen the motif or chord progression of the piece, this creates suspense and other emotions to the listeners. The techniques used were quite minimal but, strong i. e. the legato, slurs, broken chords. The duration of the notes and piece were quite wide in range, and diverse in created a multiple of different variations of the melody. The tone colour of the piece was very emotional in the way of being sad, spooky, and dark but happy in the sense that the sound was evolving into something brighter with a hint of darkness. Overall this composition created for the ‘annual Young Composers Symposium’ has conveyed the aspects and characteristic of Contemporary Classical music to the audience, and has successfully illustrated the musicological context of the style in developing the use of the 6 concepts in the composition.

Classification essay: Hobbies Essay

We all have hobbies that deal with our specific interests. A hobby is what a person enjoys doing at their own leisure. Many people have hobbies because doing what they love can bring happiness and joy towards their lives. Hobbies lets a person know what they will do next time to occupy themselves when they have a free afternoon or a day to themselves. This could include an interest such as: painting a drawing, reading a novel by their favorite author, playing their favorite sport, learning how to play an instrument and many more. Some say that a hobby is a time for relaxation and pleasure as they pursue an activity during their spare time. However, a hobby is more than means of relaxation and has more aspects and other benefits to it such as: self-improvement, a richer social life, and extra income in time. To start with, a hobby is a means for self-improvement. Hobbies can help a person discover their skills and how to improve them further. The longer a person pursues their favorite activity helps motivate them to work harder. It is a perfect way of learning because they aren’t doing it to please anyone else but themselves which makes the learning more effective. Another learning opportunity with a hobby is time-management skills. A person with a hobby must have  a schedule that helps them get their priorities done but also have time set aside to do what they love. A hobby helps to improve ourselves and the skills we have. Second, a hobby gives a person a better and richer social life. Sharing the same interest with other people can boost up your social life as it would bring a solid context on conversations and socializing. For example, if a  person enjoys dancing then he would probably join a dance group or club and make friends who share the same passion as he does. Having the same hobby as someone can result in a great deal of wonderful conversations. Your hobby can bring you a stimulating social life as you will be able to interact with many people. Finally, a hobby can become a means for extra income in time. There are many people who achieve jobs by doing what they love to do. As their hobby starts to improve and reaches a stage of professionalism, then they will be able to make money out of it. For example, painters enjoy making drawings but to reach the point where they could sell it for income they must’ve practiced their hobby for years. Nevertheless, they love what they do and they are getting rewarded for their hard work in the end. Such people are very blessed to be earning their living by doing what they are passionate about, as that will guarantee happiness and success. In summation, having a hobby helps to improve ourselves, enriches our social network, and may produce future income. If you want to fit more into your life and achieve happiness, joy and success; try to discover what you are attracted to. Find a hobby and stay with it. It will be  worth all the time, effort and money you put into it. You never know, you may become a different person.

computer networks essays

computer networks essays Computers by themselves are useful tools. But once they are interconnected, they surge in usefulness and suddenly become media. One computer is connected into a network which is then patched into a network of networks. Computer networks have the potential to break the monopolies of media institutions. With networks, there is a shift from centralized, one-way media to dispersed, infinite-way communication. Every audience member in the world can at the same time be an information provider. Channels of information creation and distribution become cheaper and broader until we have limitless bandwidth and storage capacity. This technology comes with a cautionary note. Every emergent media technology has been hailed as the harbinger of popular expression. Yet each new media is used for commercial ends by those in control of power. Newspapers, radios, and television have become institutionalized and continue to institutionalize as they are purchased by larger and larger conglomerates. Adver tiser-supported media has become a top-down business. The audience is, after all, not the consumer in television. That role lies with the sponsor. The sponsor purchases advertising time and decides what it is they want to support. Television, and other media forms, are dominated by these sponsors supporting what they perceive is what their consumers want, or what they want their particular product to be associated with. The question is whether computer networks will go this route. Computer networks are prone to some of the same problems as traditional media. Though anyone can place something on the World Wide Web, it becomes increasingly difficult to make that web page known to the general Internet audience. Large media-entities are able to create flashy, innovative sites that make personal sites look frumpy, and quickly passed over. An analogy can be drawn between television and the Internet. Anyone can videotape a subject, and with a little time, edit i...

The Cold Case of the Keddie Cabin Murders

The Cold Case of the Keddie Cabin Murders On April 11, 1981, 36-year-old Glenna Sue Sharp, her 15-year-old son John, and his 17-year-old friend Dana Wingate were murdered in Cabin 28 at the Keddie Resort, in Keddie, California. It was discovered later that 12-year-old Tina Sharp was missing. Her remains surfaced years later. Before the Murders Sue Sharp and her five children- John, 15, Sheila, 14, Tina, 12, Ricky, 10, and Greg, 5- moved from Quincy to Keddie and rented Cabin 28 five months before the murders. On the evening of April 11, 1981, Sue had given the okay for Ricky and Greg to have their friend, 12-year-old Justin Eason, over to spend the night. Justin was also relatively new to Keddie. He had been living in Montana with his father, but moved in with his mother and stepfather, Marilyn and Martin Smartt, in November 1980. The Smartts lived in Cabin 26, which was just a short distance from the Sharps cabin. Letting Justin spend the night would not be a problem, but if it became one, Sue knew she could always send him home. Plus the house was fairly empty. Sheila had plans to go to a sleepover at a friends house. John and his friend, 17-year-old Dana Wingate, were going to Quincy that night, then coming back to hang out in Johns bedroom in the basement. Tina was over in Cabin 27 watching television, but came home around 10 p.m. The Discovery The following morning Sheila Sharp returned home at around 7:45 a.m. As she opened the door, she immediately noticed an offensive odor that seemed to engulf the room. When she stepped into the living room, it took her mind a moment to comprehend what her eyes were seeing. Her brother John appeared to be bound and lying on his back on the living room floor. There was blood caked around his neck and face. Next to John was a boy, bound and lying face down. It appeared that the boy and John were tied together at their feet. Her eyes then landed on a yellow blanket that was covering what looked like a body. Gripped by fear, Sheila ran to the neighbors while screaming for help. The investigation into the murders was initially handled by the Plumas County Sheriffs Office. From the start, the investigation was riddled with errors and oversights. To begin with, the crime scene was never properly secured. Even more astounding was the amount of time that it took for the police to realize that Tina Sharp was missing. When the first police officers arrived at the scene, Justin Eason tried to tell them that Tina was missing, but they ignored what the boy was saying. It wasnt until hours later that everyone realized that the 12-year-old daughter of the murdered woman was gone. The Murders Inside Cabin 28, investigators found two kitchen knives, one that had been used with such force that the blade was severely bent. Also found was a hammer, a pellet gun, and a pellet on the living room floor, which led investigators to believe that the pellet gun was also used in the attacks. Each victim had been bound with several feet of medical tape and electrical appliance wires removed from appliances in the home and extension cords. There was no medical tape at home before the murders, indicating that one of the attackers brought it in to help bind the victims. An examination of the victims was conducted. Sue Sharps lifeless body was found under the yellow blanket. She was wearing a robe, and her underwear had been removed and forced into her mouth. Also in her mouth was a ball of tape.   The underwear and tape were held in place with an extension cord that was also tied around her legs and ankles. Both Sue and John Sharp had been beaten with a claw hammer and stabbed multiple times in their bodies and throat. Dana Wingate was also beaten, but with a different hammer. He had been strangled to death. There was considerable blood on the living room floor, and drops of blood on Tinas bed. The investigation pointed to rape as the motivation behind kidnapping Tina, instead of murdering her in the home with the others. More evidence found included a bloody footprint that was discovered in the yard and knife marks in some of the walls of the home. The Investigation While the brutal attacks inside Cabin 28 were going on, Sues sons Ricky and Greg and their friend Justin Eason were sleeping undisturbed in the boys bedroom. The boys were found unharmed in the room the following morning after the murders.   A woman and her boyfriend, who were in the cabin next door to the Sharps cabin, were woken up at around 1:30 a.m. by what they described as  muffled  screams. The sound was so disturbing that the couple got up and looked around. When they were unable to determine where the screams were coming from, they went back to bed. It seems impossible that screams woke the neighbors, but did not disturb the boys that were in the same house where the screams originated. Also perplexing is why the killers chose not to harm the boys when any one of them could have been pretending to be asleep and later identified the perpetrators. A Possible Break in the Case The Plumas County Sheriffs Office questioned anyone who could have heard or witnessed something that could help solve the case. Among those that they interviewed were the Sharps neighbor, Justin Easons stepfather, Martin Smartt. What he told investigators made him a prime suspect in the crime. According to Smartt, on the night of the murders, a friend of his by the name of Severin John â€Å"Bo† Boubede was staying with the Smartts on a temporary basis. He said he and Boubede first met a few weeks earlier at the Veterans Administration Hospital, where they were both receiving treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder. Smartt claimed to suffer from PTSD as a result of his time spent fighting in Vietnam. He went on to say that earlier in the evening of April 11, he, his wife, Marilyn and Boubede, decided to go to the Backdoor Bar for a few drinks.   Smartt worked as a chef at the Backdoor Bar, but it was his night off. On the way to the bar, the group stopped in on Sue Sharp and asked her if she wanted to join them for drinks. Sue told them no, so they left for the bar. At the bar, Smartt complained angrily to the manager about the music that was playing. They left shortly afterward and went back to the Smartts cabin. Marilyn watched television, then went to bed. Smartt, still angry about the music, called the manager and complained again. He and Boubede then went back to bar for more drinks. Thinking that they now had a prime suspect, the Plumas County sheriff contacted the Department of Justice in Sacramento. Two DOJ investigators, Harry Bradley and P.A. Crim, conducted additional interviews on Martin and Marilyn Smartt and Boubede. During the interview with Marilyn, she told the investigators that she and Martin separated the day after the murders. She said that he was short-tempered, violent, and abusive. After the interviews with the Smartts and Boubede were completed and Martin was polygraphed, the DOJ investigators decided that none of them were involved with the murders. Marilyn Smartt was interviewed again at a later date. She told investigators that Martin Smartt hated John Sharp. She also admitted that early in the morning of April 12, she saw Martin burning something in the fireplace. Back to Justin Eason As time went on, Justin Eason began to change his story. He had told the investigators that he was asleep during the murders, as were the other two boys, and that he did not hear anything.   In a later interview, he described in detail a dream that he had where he was on a boat and saw John Sharp and Dana fighting with a man with long black hair, a mustache, and black glasses, who was carrying a hammer. The man threw John overboard, and then Dana, who he said was very drunk.   He went on to describe seeing a body that was covered in a sheet lying on the bow. He looked under the sheet and saw Sue, who had a knife cut in her chest. He tried to help her by patching the wound with a rag, which he ended up throwing into the water. In reality, Sue Sharp did have a knife wound in her chest. Another time, while being polygraphed, Eason told the polygrapher that he thought that he saw the murders. He said that a noise woke him up and that got up and looked through the door into the living room. He said he saw Sue Sharp laying on the sofa and that there were two men standing in the middle of the room. He described the men, one with black and dark glasses, the other with brown hair and wearing army boots. John Sharp and Dana came into the room and began arguing with the two men. A fight broke out, and Dana tried to escape out through the kitchen, but the man with the brown hair hit him with a hammer. John was being attacked by the man with the black hair, and Sue tried to help John. Justin said that this point, he hid behind the door. He then saw the men tying up John and Dana. He also claimed that he saw Tina come into the living room holding a blanket and asking what was going on. The two men grabbed her and took her out the back door as Tina tried to call for help. He said the man with the black hair used a pocket knife to cut Sue in the middle of her chest. Justin worked with a sketch artist and came up with composites of the two men. A Former Neighbor On June 4, 1981, investigators Bradley and Crim interviewed a man who lived in Cabin 28, but moved two weeks before the murders. He said he did not know the Sharps, but that three weeks before the murders he heard Sue Sharp and an unknown man yelling at each other. They continued to fight for another 30 minutes, screaming obscenities back and forth at each other. DOJ Investigators Get a Slap From the Locals When details of the interviews that Bradley and Crim had conducted with Martin Smartt and Boubede came to light, the Plumas County authorities were livid. Bradley and Crim were accused of sloppy work and failing to fact check or to pursue clarification for obvious discrepancies made by Smartt and Boubede. During the initial interview with Crim, BouBede said that he had worked as a Chicago police officer for 18 years, but retired after being shot while in the line of duty. This was an obvious lie which could have quickly been spotted had Crim paid attention to Boubedes date of birth.  Boubede lied about how long he had lived in Kiddie by adding two weeks to the time.  He said Marilyn was his niece, which was a lie. He claimed Marilyn was awake when he and Smartt came home after their second trip to the bar. Had anyone been paying attention, they would have caught that it contradicted what Marilyn said, which was that she was asleep when the two men came home. BouBede said he never met Sue Sharp, which contradicted what Marilyn said about the three of them stopping at the Sharp house and inviting her for a drink. Bradley and Crim showed a similar lack of energy when interviewing Martin Smartt. In one interview, Smartt said that his stepson Justin Eason might have seen something on the night of the murders, adding, without me detecting him at the end of the sentence. The investigators either missed the implications in Smartts slip up, or they werent listening. Smartt talked to the investigators about the hammers that used in the murder, adding that he had recently lost is own hammer. There were no follow-up interviews with Smartt or BouBede, since the investigators believed that the pair had no involvement in the murders. No longer a prime suspect, Martin Smartt moved to Klamath, California. Boubede returned to Chicago where he scammed several police officers out of money, was caught and almost did prison time, but died before being incarcerated. Tinas Remains In 1984, the cranium part of a skull was found about 30 miles from Keddie. Several months later an anonymous caller told the Butte County Sheriffs office that the skull belonged to Tina Sharp. Another search of the area was made, and a jawbone and several other bones were found. Testing confirmed that the bones belonged to Tina Sharp. The Butte County Sheriffs office gave the original and the backup copy of the recording from the anonymous caller to someone in law enforcement. Since then, both the original and the backup copies have disappeared. A Dead Mans Confession and New Evidence Martin Smartt died in 2000, and not long after his death, his therapist told the Plumas County Sheriffs Office that Smartt had confessed to him that he killed Sue Sharp because she was trying to convince Marilyn to leave him. Smartt never mentioned who killed John, Dana, or Tina. He also told the therapist that it was easy to beat the polygraph, that he and Plumas County Sheriff Doug Thomas were friends, and one time he let Thomas move in with him. On March 24, 2016, a hammer was found that that matches the description of the hammer that Marty Smartt claimed was missing two days after the murders. According to Plumas County Sheriff Hagwood, the location it was found... It would have been intentionally put there. It would not have been accidentally misplaced.

10 teléfonos para resolver dudas migratorias en EE.UU.

10 telà ©fonos para resolver dudas migratorias en EE.UU. En Estados Unidos es una necesidad saber dà ³nde buscar informacià ³n migratoria, verificar el estatus de un caso o encontrar asesorà ­a legal reputada y a un costo asequible. Para ello en  este artà ­culo se indican los telà ©fonos y las pginas web especà ­ficas en las que encontrar la respuesta a las dudas migratorias que puedan plantearse. Telà ©fonos clave para informacià ³n migratoria USCIS: 1-800-375-5283EOIR: para detenidos o asuntos en Corte: 1-800-898-7180Denunciar fraudes migratorios: 1-866-347-2423Buscar abogados: base de datos de AILAReferencias de abogados: Hispanic Federation: 1-866-432-9832 Dà ³nde rastrear informacià ³n con el USCIS El Servicio de Inmigracià ³n y Ciudadanà ­a de los Estados Unidos (USCIS, por sus siglas en inglà ©s) brinda varias posibilidades para obtener informacià ³n sobre asuntos que est tramitando o sobre cuestiones que son de su competencia. Entre ellos destacan: Telà ©fono gratuito para solicitar informacià ³n sobre un caso:  1-800-375-5283Servicio INFOPASS online para cerrar una cita para solicitar informacià ³n Adems, antes de acudir a una cita a una oficina de USCIS es posible utilizar su localizador de ubicaciones de oficinas o de sus Centros de Apoyo a Aplicaciones, donde se toman huellas digitales y otros datos biomà ©tricos a los solicitantes de beneficios migratorios. Adems, si ya se ha presentado la documentacià ³n para una peticià ³n o solicitud, es posible verificar online el estatus de un caso, aunque para ello es requisito indispensable conocer el nà ºmero de recibo del mismo. Asimismo, tambià ©n es posible informarse online de cunto se estn demorando en la tramitacià ³n casos similares. Por ejemplo, si se ha presentado una peticià ³n de familiar, es posible rastrear cunto tarda de media esa gestià ³n en todas las oficinas de USCIS. Informacià ³n sobre requisitos para presentar una solicitud ante USCIS En la pgina oficial de USCIS se puede encontrar informacià ³n sobre trmites como por ejemplo solicitar residencia permanente, naturalizacià ³n, permiso de trabajo, ajuste de estatus, perdones, tambià ©n conocidos como waivers o permisos, etc. Asimismo, esa pgina es el lugar en el que se puede acceder a todos los formularios oficiales para presentar solicitudes al USCIS y descargarlos gratuitamente.  Es conveniente utilizar la versià ³n ms reciente del documento que se necesite ya que USCIS los modifica y actualiza perià ³dicamente y no admite las versiones viejas. Centro Nacional de Visas (NVC, por sus siglas en inglà ©s) En el NVC se tramitan gestiones relacionadas con las peticiones de la tarjeta de residencia permanente cuando à ©stas siguen lo que se conoce como un procedimiento consular. En otras palabras, cuando la fase final se realiza fuera de Estados Unidos y es necesario acudir a una embajada o consulado para ser entrevistado y recibir la visa de inmigrante. Como regla general, el NVC es quien contacta. Pero si surge la necesidad de comunicarse con ellos, tambià ©n es posible. Si bien antes de hacerlo es recomendable verificar el boletà ­n de visas para fechas de procesamiento de green card con cupos mximos anuales, como son las peticiones de ciudadanos para hijos casados o mayores de 21 aà ±os de edad o para hermanos o las peticiones de residentes para cà ³nyuges e hijos solteros. Si se ha pedido una visa de inmigrante en casos en los que hay dichos cupos mximos anuales es imprescindible esperar a que la fecha de prioridad del caso sea ms antigua que la fecha de corte publicada en el boletà ­n de visas. Si no ha llegado la fecha de prioridad para la tramitacià ³n de la visa de inmigrante no se avanza absolutamente nada contactando con el NVC. Informacià ³n relacionada con aduanas Para los extranjeros autorizados a permanecer sà ³lo temporalmente en los Estados Unidos es importante para verificar el I-94, registro de entrada y salida, ya que ese documento muestra fecha mxima de estancia con visa de turista. Tambià ©n sirve esa pgina para obtener el rà ©cord de ingresos y salidas del paà ­s. En la actualidad, el I-94 est digitalizado y en la pgina de oficial de ICE para este registro es posible no solo verificar los datos sino tambià ©n imprimir el rà ©cord. Por otro lado, las personas que siempre tienen problemas cuando llegan a un punto migratorio de los Estados Unidos y son enviados a una segunda inspeccià ³n siempre o frecuentemente puede ser conveniente dirigirse al programa que se conoce en inglà ©s como Traveler Redress Inquire Program, para intentar encontrar una solucià ³n. Ciudadanà ­a de los Estados Unidos Para los ciudadanos de los Estados Unidos es importante conocer las opciones de cà ³mo y dà ³nde pueden solicitar el pasaporte. Para este trmite u otros puede necesitarse copia del certificado de nacimiento, cambio de nombre, matrimonio, pedir una nueva copia de la tarjeta del Nà ºmero del Seguro Social, etc. Para ello hay que dirigirse a la oficina de rà ©cords vitales del lugar donde se ha producido el hecho. Arrestos y detenciones Si se sospecha que un familiar o un amigo puede estar detenido, existe una base de datos para saber si est detenido por la Migra. Si no aparece en una centro de detencià ³n migratorio, hay varias formas de enterarse si se encuentra en una  en prisià ³n federal no migratoria o en una estatal. Informacià ³n sobre un caso en Corte migratoria Se puede marcar al EOIR, es decir, la Oficina de revisià ³n migratoria. Los telà ©fonos son  240-314-1500  o  1-800-898-7180, este à ºltimo es gratuito. Si se desea se puede elegir la opcià ³n de espaà ±ol. Por otro lado, para los migrantes es importante enterarse anà ³nimamente si existe una orden de deportacià ³n  y es posible hacerlo. Este punto conviene destacarlo ya que es totalmente posible que un juez haya declarado la deportacià ³n en ausencia y que el migrante no recibiera la notificacià ³n. En estos casos si por cualquier razà ³n se es detenido, la deportacià ³n proceder automticamente, sin pasar por corte. Dà ³nde reportar fraudes migratorios o felonà ­as Al igual que sucede en muchos otros paà ­ses, en Estados Unidos se puede marcar al 911 para reportar cualquier tipo de delitos o solicitar ayuda. Es el telà ©fono de situaciones de emergencia en todo el territorio nacional. En el caso de violencia domà ©stica se puede, adems, acudir directamente a la là ­nea gratuita que lucha contra esta lacra social. Para ello marcar al  1-800-799-7233. Otra opcià ³n es contactar con la Red Nacional contra el Asalto Sexual, Violacià ³n, Abuso e Incesto, que se conoce como RAINN por sus siglas en inglà ©s. En este caso marcar al  1-800-656-4673. Por otra parte, los migrantes son, lamentablemente, và ­ctimas de fraudes ya que siempre hay personas inescrupulosas que aseguran tener contactos o poder lograr resultados positivos en gestiones migratorias cuando no es verdad. Para estos casos es posible denunciar marcando al 1-877-382-4357. Adems, las actividades delictivas o fraudes relacionados con inmigracià ³n o con aduanas pueden reportarse anà ³nimamente al ICE marcando al 1-866-347-2423, incluidos los casos de matrimonios de conveniencia, es decir, los que se celebran para que uno de los cà ³nyuges obtengan los papeles. Dà ³nde solicitar ayuda o asesorà ­a migratoria No cabe duda de que Estados Unidos es un paà ­s que brinda buenas oportunidades. Pero no es menos cierto que se puede sufrir mucha soledad. Para los casos extremos donde se llega a tener pensamientos suicidas, por favor marcar gratuitamente al  1-888-628-9454, donde se habla en espaà ±ol. Otro de los grandes problemas que afectan a los migrantes es la necesidad de obtener buena informacià ³n sobre leyes migratorias y a un costo no elevado. La base de datos de AILA lista por localidad los abogados de su asociacià ³n especializados en migracià ³n. Adems, la Hispanic Federation puede ayudar con algunos trmites como por ejemplo peticiones de familia, DACA, permisos de trabajo, etc y tambià ©n puede brindar referencias a organizaciones con buena reputacià ³n. Marcar al 1-  866-432-9832. Finalmente, en el caso de mexicanos, siempre se puede marcar al telà ©fono de CIAM que es el y que brinda excelentes servicios gratuitamente. En el caso de los hondureà ±os en EE.UU. existen varios telà ©fonos a los que pueden marcar. Por su relevancia se seà ±alan tres en la zona fronteriza: McAllen, Texas: 214-347-4441Houston, Texas: 713-987-7406Los Angeles, California: 323-283-8623 Este es un artà ­culo informativo. No es asesorà ­a legal.

Working with Adults Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Working with Adults - Case Study Example Erickson tells us that the review of one's life helps the elderly person to increase their well being by looking at the conflicts in their life and comparing them to past experience. He felt this was the stage in life in which the task was to look back and try to integrate the feelings and memories of the past into the present. Sometimes this is a difficult task but if the person is able to do this they will be able to deal with the negative experiences they have had and turn them into integrity and wisdom. May is seventy two years old which would put her in Erickson's's eighth stage of life or that of maturity. She had many conflicts and challenges. She raised three children, two boys and a girl in a small town. She had some difficulty relating to them when they were young and she sees little of them now. She developed breast cancer a couple of years ago and had surgery and chemotherapy. Her tests are now negative. She lives alone, has very little income, and has no transportation. May has many things to deal with to come to the point of coherence in her lifetime. She will need to reflect back on her time with her children and be able to determine in her own right whether the conflicts she had could have been changed or were they just what had to happen at that time in her life.

Local and Federal Courts System (Structure and Jurisdiction) in the Essay

Local and Federal Courts System (Structure and Jurisdiction) in the State of Texas and the Impact of its Structure on the Justice System - Essay Example Immediately before these two courts are the 14 intermediate courts and these handle appeals from trial courts. The Texas constitution has also established the District courts that come below the Intermediate courts of appeal. The district courts are followed below by the county level courts and these include the Constitutional County Courts and two other courts, statutory county courts and the statutory probate courts. These two are established by the legislature. The Texas constitution has a provision for the local courts and these include the justice of peace courts and the Municipal courts (Anderson, 2005). The Supreme Court is a court of last resort for civil and juvenile cases, and original jurisdiction to issue writs in the State of Texas. It is composed of the Chief Justice and eight justices each elected to serve for a period of six years (Anderson, 2005). The court is responsible for the efficient functioning of the Texas judicial system; it has powers to enforce rules of civil trial practice and procedure, evidence and appellate procedure. It is also responsible for the promulgation of rules of administration of justice in Texas. The court also has final authority over involuntary retirement or removal of state judges and has also the authority to transfer cases between the 14 appellate courts under it (Walsh, Kemerer, & Maniotis, 2010). The Court of Criminal Appeal is an appellate court with statewide jurisdiction. It has a final appellate jurisdiction in criminal cases. It hears all death penalty appeals. It also may- but does not have to- review cases which have been decided by the courts of appeals to clear up confusion in the law when it feels the case will affect a number of other cases. The court has the authority to change the decision of the court of appeals if it feels the decision was wrong. The only appeal from this court’s decision is to the United States Supreme court but this is

Healthcare and Health Policy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Healthcare and Health Policy - Essay Example Global standards of healthcare quality also helped developing countries offer more healthcare services. For example, several customers from developed countries like the United Kingdom and Canada make use of the healthcare service offered at Indian hospitals. Many Indian hospitals give quality health care services that are of reasonable cost. Circulation of health professionals is considered to be one of the impacts of globalization in healthcare sector. The movement of healthcare professionals is found to be negatively affecting developing countries. Young professionals from developing countries settle in developed countries. Developed countries lack medical healthcare professionals and recruit professionals from developing countries. The movement of professionals is done through international recognition of professional degrees. The movement of patients is a new trend. The trend is termed as medical tourism. Fertility treatment provided in western European countries attracts people from the United States. The fertility treatment in European countries cost only half of the treatment cost in the United States. The Elective surgery is cheaply provided in highly sophisticated Indian hospitals. The cost is only 20% of the cost of the same treatment in the Western countries. National initiatives are preferred over personal i nitiatives these days. For example, Tunisia had organized a conference in 2004 targeting health care purchasers from different countries. Even the purchasers from public systems would be interested in these types of offers as there is a significant reduction in healthcare costs. The same trend can cause several negative impacts. When certain countries offer healthcare facilities to rich foreigners, they ignore the local population who cannot afford the same expense. Local population will not be benefited by the healthcare service if the service is busy serving the foreigners. Developing countries are thus negatively

Parting the waters Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Parting the waters - Essay Example This led to a number of literatures on Kings Events and occasions (Taylor, 4). One family known as the Rockefeller family created a major impact on King’s early life. It started in 1882, when a plea was raised at Ohio church for donation or a help fund. This plea was made by two women who intended for the Atlanta Female Baptist Seminary and Negro School for girls to be funded. During the event of the plea, the Rockefeller family was present, with the two women being teachers to Mrs Rockefeller. As a result, the family responded positively and agreed to come to the aid. In conjunction with Dr. Henry Morehouse the school was funded and set up and continued to operate. The Rockefeller’s family efforts continued and they saw the need to create a fund that will be able to cater for the needs of the minority group. This witnessed the birth of the Rockefeller fund, which in the later years, become a corner stone to majority of beneficiaries which included King. The fund did su pport King’s early education with a number of other civil rights activists. The foundation became an empowering tool to encourage majority of black Negros to embrace education (Taylor, 11). Years later when Martin Luther King Jr arrived at Crozer theological Seminary, he was amazed by what he found out; there were pool tables on one of the rooms in the basement. This was contrary to his past perception of associating pool social halls and places as scenes for immoral and bad behaviors. Secondly, he found ten Negro students out of a total of thirty five students, which came as a surprise to him as he was expecting a handful of them. One learning activity that surprised him was that there was no lock at the door and students were encouraged to actively participate in any free thinking and sharing of ideas. In the seminary, King’s first year was predominantly occupied with course work which took much of his time and attention and it covered topics like philosophy, the bib le and religious faiths. But the next years saw King being a dominant figure questioning every particular aspect or teachings. The life in the institution provided him with a wider knowledge on Christianity (Taylor, 24). King started to make visits to church leaders, pastors and church functions. One particular day he picked Johns and headed to Montgomery to a particular pastor known as Ralph Abernathy of the First Baptist Church. He was welcomed by Mr. and Mrs. Brooks. This visit was highly beneficial to King as he was able to discuss in details, with his hosts, about the Negro churches and their challenges. It then brought a clear insight on what needed to be addressed or implemented to promote their existence. It is through such findings during the discussion that King, in the later years, used in reshaping the churches. Churches came up and continued discussing about civil rights (Taylor, 35). In the years that followed, it became an unfair scene to see majority of the Negros in Montgomery having to walk for long and impossible walks to and from work as the bus fares were too high and so was racial discrimination. As a result, city taxis cabs emerged and tried to cater for such needs and help out, but this was directly quashed out by the police commissioner who then arrested taxi drivers who overloaded the cabs smoothly

Answer the question Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 27

Answer the question - Essay Example This can be achieved through integrating technology with other courses in the curriculum or enabling them to apply technological concepts in their day to day living. When we refer to reforms in the curriculum, this should be one of the most important which is necessitated by the changing trends and innovation. The use of modern technology in education is a motivating factor to the students because they can relate to their daily usage of such applications and also promotes performance, efficiency and accuracy in learning. As a result of these reforms there is excellence movements and academic performance of student in school such as increase in number of teachers graduating, establishing minimal competency standards for both teachers and students and trying teacher accountability to standardize test scores. In my opinion, this was a very creative way of engaging the students to use applications in their assignment. This was a great way for a teacher to incorporate technology into the classroom. Not only did they assimilate technology into the assignments, but they also used technology that students are familiar with and enjoy using. I think incor porating technology and other things students use in the modern society will help them feel more involved and engaged in life and motivate them to do

Zipcars Business Motivational Model for Customers and Partners Case Study

Zipcars Business Motivational Model for Customers and Partners - Case Study Example By introducing the Zipcars, the company helps the customers to save up to seventy per cent of their savings because they only pay for the hours they use the cars. Additionally, the cars are energy efficient and contribute less to the discharge of exhaust fumes into the environment. This motivates customers further. As a means of further motivating customer, the company has collaborated with several other organizations, businesses, and universities through some specific programs. As a way of reducing costs for businesses, Zipcar rents vehicles to them to use during the week when they are needed most. The same thing happens with universities as well. These services motivate the organizations to work harder with the mindset of cutting down on costs. It also aids cities in saving on their parking space. On a scale of 1 to 5, I will give the business a motivation of four while 3 to the universities. The cities’ motivation could be 2.5. 2. As Its Simplest Best The idea behind Zipcar is to help businesses cut down on the costs of running their businesses. Apparently, most business organizations incur huge costs in keeping and maintaining their motor vehicles. The same applies to universities and colleges that face the danger of vehicle wreckages and damages due to student’s responsibilities. Additionally, with as much as $ 1 million going into savings from the Zipcar system, the cities are worth adopting the strategy. With these concepts in mind, potential beneficiaries of Zipcar’s services would be easily convinced to adopt the services of the firm. 3. Figure 6.3 Zipcar’s business model involves the four simple steps. These are â€Å"joining, reserve, unlock, and drive.† In this model, the firm urges its clients to join it through registering as members. The organization has 500,000 members with cards. A person pays a fee of $25 to join. In the reserve, one retains membership with the firm. The person pays an annual membership fee o f $50 to reserve his or her place to restore the membership card. The membership card allows the client to unlock the potentials that come with the company. Then the customer drives away with the car 4. Zipcar’s Rapid Growth and Strength Zipcar is growing at an express rate. This is because ten years after its formation, it was able to offer a whooping 8000 vehicles across the urban areas of Canada, North America, and London. Additionally, the firm has also expanded its operations and penetrated deep into the market by collaborating with other business enterprises to cut down their operating costs and increase the profit margins for the firm. However, the firm has an excellent operational model. Its cars are energy efficient. Nevertheless, by collaborating with several business enterprises, the firm will be forced to use heavy trucks in some cases. Apparently, heavy trucks are key contributors of carbon dioxide emission into the atmosphere. This will jeopardize Zipcar’ s strength of ensuring environmental sustainability. Discussion Questions of Case 4.2 The compelling reason for the successful business plan competition is the strong vision. This is partially attributable to the kind of approach it used in presenting its ideas to the audience. Although it is a business enterprise driven by the need to make profit, it puts emphasis on its humanitarian assistance mission across the disadvantaged populations in the developing world. Apparently, most people are touched by the deplorable conditions that some populations of the world go through. The marketing strategy for D.Light would involve demonstrations to potential clients. As a cofounder, I will seek the approval of the governments of these countries with downtrodden populations and offer some samples to the

Answer the question Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 27

Answer the question - Essay Example This can be achieved through integrating technology with other courses in the curriculum or enabling them to apply technological concepts in their day to day living. When we refer to reforms in the curriculum, this should be one of the most important which is necessitated by the changing trends and innovation. The use of modern technology in education is a motivating factor to the students because they can relate to their daily usage of such applications and also promotes performance, efficiency and accuracy in learning. As a result of these reforms there is excellence movements and academic performance of student in school such as increase in number of teachers graduating, establishing minimal competency standards for both teachers and students and trying teacher accountability to standardize test scores. In my opinion, this was a very creative way of engaging the students to use applications in their assignment. This was a great way for a teacher to incorporate technology into the classroom. Not only did they assimilate technology into the assignments, but they also used technology that students are familiar with and enjoy using. I think incor porating technology and other things students use in the modern society will help them feel more involved and engaged in life and motivate them to do

External Assignment Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

External Assignment - Research Paper Example Simpson was taken into custody suspected as a murderer (Associated Newspapers Ltd., 2012). The prime objective of this research paper is to review the above described case. Moreover, the research paper will also analyze about how the criminalist in this case handled the evidences and determine whether these were positively or negatively involved in the outcome of the case. In relation to the case of "People of the State of California vs. Orenthal James Simpson,† the forensic experts along with the criminalists gathered evidences specifically through DNA analysis techniques. During those days, DNA evidencing technique was quite popular and regarded as effective tool for law enforcement investigation departments in solving murder related crimes (Saferstein, 2010). The concept of DNA evidencing emerge with the idea that every individual possesses unique DNA structures except in the case of identical twins. DNA evidences can be extracted from multiple sources that include bones of victims, hair strands, teeth, blood and saliva sampling (James, 2012). During the trial of the ‘Orenthal James Simpson’ murder case, the first type of evidence, which came forward was about the DNA fingerprinting. This evidence was brought forward almost a year after the death of ‘Nicole Brown’ and ‘Ronald Goldman’ (Fingerprinting, 20 14). Another law ignorance instance came up in front when Simpson refused to turn himself or surrender as per demanded by the local police forces (Hunt, n. d.). Moreover, through DNA analysis, the blood traces found in the crime scene were also confirmed to be similar to the blood traces found on the door of Simpson’s car (Associated Newspapers Ltd., 2012). Apart from these, the blood on the footprints matched with the shoe size of Mr. Simpson and on other articles found at the crime scene. Adding to this, the prosecution also brought forward the case evidence of a 9-1-1 call made by Simpson’s ex-wife as she

Social Media Texting And Bad Grammar English Language Essay

Social Media Texting And Bad Grammar English Language Essay LOL and OMG have been the acronyms of the decade becoming a trend in the way people communicate. Social media has expanded so much that people are becoming dependent on the Internet and are creating their own language. Social media is making the generation develop bad grammar. This issue is a problem because it is making society incapable of structuring coherent sentences making the generation dumb. The more hours that are squandered on Facebook, Twitter and other social media outlets, people are spending less time focusing on their education and grammar and the more time is being put into chatting. Social Media and texting is promoting bad grammar because people are adapted to writing slang online and while they text and when they try to write proper, they cannot because they are accustomed to writing colloquially.   Bad grammar has gotten so severe that the news channels have made several appearances talking about Social Media and Bad Grammar. A video that was posted on Channel 19 KYTX that is a local news station in Tyler, Texas that talks about bad  grammar  and how students are trying to use bad grammar not only on Facebook, Twitter and while texting but are trying to use it the classroom in their essays. Living in a Social Media trying to communicate as fast as possible we much keep conversations short, I dont even put periods, question marks or anything. I just type it and go, said Kaylee McPherson. With the generation being based on technology it was bear the happen where people are ending up not just texting in acronyms but also taking them. McPherson states that, Now, they actually start talking it. I hear people talking and Im like you kind of sound dumb. Not only are teenagers using shorthand on scoial media but also in the classroom. Melanie McNeils a High School English teach er says that when she grades papers she sees the lingo in their essays, Ok, this is one I see a lot. B4=before, OMG=oh my, u=you, y=why, said Melanie McNeil. Instead of McNeil giving her students no credit for that type of language used in their essays she also talks to her student about to difference between casual language and academic language and when is it proper to use the two. This Web lingo has increased so much that even the oxford English dictionary has even added the words: Lol, Omg,Tweet, Retweet and even Sext. That there is justification that the world is changing due to Social Media. Ontario Waterloo University in Canada require students to pass and English testing their  English  language skills in order to be accepted into the University and 1/3 are failing and now they are  blaming  social media. Ontario Waterloo is a great example someone trying to do something about the bad grammar problem and thank god it is educational. People should be happy that Univer sities are doing this then maybe at least maybe people will try harder to fix grammar and less on Social Media cites. Bad Grammar and Social Media go hand in hand people are so excited to sent a instant message that they make a shorthand of words and do not use full sentences. This is a server problem that needs to be  addressed  and we need to communicate effectively to change the bad grammar that our generation has developed. Being depend on social media affects one and people stop communicating and it will eventually affect us in the long run when we apply for jobs. Switching from academic to colloquial language is difficult for most getting accustomed to changing the language and it is declining grammar skill. In the article, No LOL matter: Tween texting may lead to poor grammar skills by Pen State Official University News Source this article discuss how  tweens  who are in the age range between nine and fourteen are texting in  acronyms  and according to researches are decline language and   grammar skills(par. 1). Text messaging may be an easy and fast way for one to communicate but according to Drew Cingel who is a Distinguished   Professor of Communications and co-director of the Pen States Media Effects Research Laboratory states that, The use of these shortcuts may hinder a tweens ability to switch between techspeack and normal rules of grammar(par. 5). Teachspeak is when someone uses shortcuts while texting, on a social media site or chatting, such as U for You. Cingel gave middle school children in  Pennsylvania a grammar assessment   test at a 9th grade level to see if everyone up to par she eventually stated after receiving the scores, Overall, there is evidence of a decline in grammar scores based on the number of adaptions in sent text messages(par. 8). The most people text the more they will adapt to that type of style and will not be about to distinguish whether they are writing proper or not. In High School I always experienced teachspeak, when I was in my English class the teacher would tell us to peer review each others essay. I would always notice that in every paper I would peer review I would at least see one or more tachspeak errors where someone would u instead of you .That is why researches have stated that it is affecting childrens  grammar. Some may say that social media has been a way to connect with our lost love ones and some researchers have stated that social media is the downfall of the generation. The Internet is growing rapidly and it and has created many alternative ways from one to get information such as Dictionary.com, where one can look up a definition instead of grabbing a dictionary and instead of reading a book there are books online that you can use on your Ipad or kindle. Social media and texting has have a downfall on our grammar and it is getting harder to multitask. In the article, Yes, People Still Read, But Now Its Social by Steven Johnson it explains how people are reading books on a Kindle but Mr.Carrs who is the author of, The Shallows states, These distraction comes with heavy cost scientific studies show how multitasking harms our concentration(427). Due to social media such as Twitter, Facebook,and YouTube etc. being used all at once people are less likely to be able to focus.  People  w ho multitask more are going to be faced with certain  challenges  in school when they are not able to concentrate in their studies. According to a study they found out that, Heavy multitasking  performed  about about 10 to 20 percent worse on most test than light  multitasking (427). So it is true that Social media is making us dumber, people may read books on Kindle and might be happy that they are reading books but Mr.Carrs concern is that people are not thinking with a high-level mind set and people are reading pages on a screen. I feel like if society is going to depend on the internet eventually people people will stop talking in complete and full sentences and will start using acronyms and that will affect peoples  grammar  when they are trying to write in an educational matter. The statistics for text messages have increased over the years. According to the Chicago Tribute that stated that Pew Research claims, 72% of adults and 87% of teens send and receive text messages(par.2). It is not only the teenagers that are constantly texting but also adults who are texting away. An executive editor of the American Heritage Dictionary named Steve Kleindetr says that when you text you may want to pay close attention to your attention. Kleinder gives us an example, If youre texting a friend who has difficulty with loose grammatical standards, be sure to spell out u (par. 2). This is a great point that Kleinder stated one must always think about the audience if it is either sending a text message or an email. No one will send an email to their boss saying Sup, cant make 2 wrk L8ts and especially if you had a friend who struggles with grammar you would write out everything clearly. Grammar is a huge part of our society and, People will always judge you, so write with that in mind, Kleinedler says. I personally have never wrote in short hand reason being that I struggle in English and I am not a very good speller, and if I were to write colloquialisms I would not help myself. That is why I made a pact with myself to always write in complete sentences if I am either texting on Facebook or Twitter no matter what. This has actually been beneficial to me because I have never written colloquiums in my essays I might still be a bad speller but at least I do not do it on purpose. Our generation will never be the same the Internet will always have some sort of power over us and with the development of technology increasing there is nothing we can do but educate ourselves. Just because everyone is texting and on Facebook sounding illiterate does not mean we have to do it too. We must take a stand and show society that the generation might be powered with technology but we are using it for our education and other beneficial things. Grammar will always be a problem and it can be fixed but with so many Social media outlets using Weblingo there is no way everyone will stop trying to be cool and rebel against it. Some people will not want to do it but they are dumb-ing themselves down. People need to learn how to talk proper and how to communicate instead of through Facebook and over a text. If this issue is not fixed our generation will be destroyed and there will be no way to fix it. Web Cited Austin, Anthony. Special Report: Social Media Bad Grammar. cbs19.tv. Web. 19 Feb. 2013. Hameker, Christian. A Moratorium on Social-Media Grammar?  Rural Telecommunications  31.3 (2012): 8-.  ABI/INFORM Complete.  Web. 20 Feb. 2013. Johnson, Steven. Yes, People Still Read, But Now Its Social. Beyond Words: Cultural Texts for Reading and Writing. Eds. John Ruszkiewicz, Daniel Anderson, and Christry Friend. San Francisco: Pearson. 2010. 427-429. Print. Sunder, S Shyam. No LOL matter: Tween texting may lead to poor grammar skill. Pen State News. 25 July 2012. Pen State. Web. 20 Feb 2013.

Rosa Louise Parks Essay -- Civil Rights Movement Biography History

Rosa Louise Parks   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The woman who earned the title â€Å"Mother of the Civil Rights Movement†, Rosa Louise Parks is an enormous inspiration to the African American race. Rosa was born in Tuskegee, Alabama on February 4, 1913 to James and Leona McCauley (The Life of Rosa Parks). Both of Rosa’s parents were born before slavery was banished from the United States. They suffered a difficult childhood, and after emancipation the conditions for blacks were not much better. Rosa’s mother was a schoolteacher and her father was a farmer (Rosa Parks: Pioneer of Civil Rights Interview). Rosa’s parents separated in 1915, and her mother moved Rosa and her younger brother to Montgomery, Alabama to live with their grandmother (Rosa Parks: The Woman Who Changed a Nation).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The southern states during this period of time were extremely segregated. Confederate Army veterans from Pulaski, Tennessee established the Ku Klux Klan, a secret society in 1866 during reconstruction. Members of the Klan beat and murdered several black people. During election times there would be several occurrences where Klan members would beat, rape, and murder blacks, trying to intimidate the republican representatives. In order to hide their identity, they would where white robes, and white sheets over their faces with only the eyes cut out. They would burn crosses to petrify their victims and their families (The New Encyclopedia of America 133). The Ku Klux Klan was very involved in Montgomery, where Rosa and her family were living.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Rosa’s mother was a very important role model for her and her brother. Because their mother was a schoolteacher, she home schooled Rosa until the age of eleven (Rosa Parks: The Woman Who Changed a Nation). After she was eleven, Rosa attended the all-black school of Montgomery Industrial School for Girls where she cleaned classrooms in order to pay her tuition. After attending the school for girls, she enrolled at Booker T. Washington High School, another black school, until the age of 15. She was forced to drop out of her High School because her mother was ill and she needed to return home to take care of her (The Life of Rosa Parks).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  When Rosa McCauley was 20 years old in 1932 she met and married a barber by the name of Mr. Raymond Parks. Rosa began to sew and to take on several seamstress jobs, and also housekeeping jobs (Rosa Parks: The... ...ry Bus Boycott. Silver Burdett Press, 1991. Freedom Hero: Rosa Parks. AP News Wire. 12 August 2008 http://www.myhero.com/myhero/hero.asp?=rosaParks The Life of Rosa Parks. Troy State University. 25 August 2008 http://www.tsum.edu/museum/parksbio.htm Lopes, Marilyn. The Rosa Parks Story: How One Person Made a Difference. 15 December 2003 http://www.nncc.org/Curriculum/rosa.parks.html NAACP http://www.naacp.org/home/index.htm Rosa Parks: The Woman Who Changed a Nation. Grandtimes. 20 Dec 2003 http://www.grandtimes.com/rosa.html Rosa Parks: Pioneer of Civil Rights interview, June 2, 1995, Williamsburg, Virginia. http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/par0int-1 Smith, Shanice. "American Poetry." The New Encyclopedia of America. 3rd ed. 2003. Spotlight on Mrs. Rosa Parks, Mother of the Civil Rights Movement. Girl Power. 15 December 2003 http://www.girlpower.gov/girlarea/gpguests/RosaParks.htm Stephen Ambrose and Douglas Brinkley. "Witness to America : an illustrated documentary history of the United States from the Revolution to today." Harper Resource 1999 "TIME 100: Heroes & Icons of the 20th Century" Time Warner Publishing, June 14, 1999

Point of View in Bartleby, the Scrivener Essay -- Herman Melville

Point of View is incorporated in to stories to show the readers how the story is told. It includes describing the position and person in the story. Position is how far the narrator is from everything that is going on in the story. Person is way the narrator shows the character and their attitude. There are four different parts that make up the Point of View. These four parts include: Third-Person Omniscient, Third Person Limited Omniscient, First Person, and the Objective. Third-Person Omniscient is when the author of the story, tells the story as a narrator. They â€Å"know ,† â€Å"speak,† and are able to follow every character in the story. Third-Person Limited Omniscient means that the narrator only knows the thoughts and feelings of one character in the story. The author is still the narrator. First Person is when the author chooses one character to tell the story. You will often see the words, â€Å"I,† and â€Å"me,† through out. The narrator will most likely be in the middle of the action, or telling the story from a past perspective. Lastly, the objective is how the author gets the point across without interpreting the character’s feelings. According to our textbook, â€Å"E-Fictions,† it is similar to â€Å"looking at a story as if the audience were watching it through a camera lens.† Herman Melville uses a first person point of view to show the narrator’s first hand fascination with his employee Bartleby, as well as Bartleby’s strange behavior and insubordination. The lawyer hires Bartleby as his scrivener. He is awestruck because Bartleby is so quick and efficient. He asks Bartleby to help him examine papers and Bartleby replies,† I would prefer not to.† Bartleby’s reply surprised the lawyer. The lawyer repeated himself. ... ... these letters speed to death. Ah, Bartleby! Ah, humanity!† Using first person point of view in this story was a good way to show the readers first hand how the lawyer felt. I don’t think the author could have used any other point of view to explain to the reader how the lawyer felt about Bartleby. If he had used third-person omniscient, it would have pulled away from the narrator, and focused on all of the characters more. If he would have used third-person limited omniscient, we would not have gotten how the other characters in the story felt about Bartleby. Objective would not have worked either, because he wouldn’t really get to see what was going on in the lawyers â€Å"head.† In conclusion, point of view is very pertinent to telling the story. It is how the story is told, and who the story is told by. All of these factors go in to point of view.

Night World : Black Dawn Chapter 3

It was raining, of course. Not a terrible storm, justa steady spitting patter that Maggie hardly noticed.It plastered her hair down but it also concealed thenoise of her steps. And the lowlying clouds blocked out MountRainier. In clear weather the mountain loomed over the city like an avenging white angel. I'mactuallyfollowingsomebody,Maggiethought. She could hardly believe it, but she wasreally moving down her own home street like a spy,skirting cars and ducking behind rhododendron bushes. While all the time keeping her eyes on the slender figure in front of her. That was what kept her going. She might havefelt silly and almost embarrassed to be doing thisbut not tonight. What had happened put her farbeyond embarrassment, and if she ‘started to relax inside and feel the faint pricklings of uncertainty,memory surged up again and swept everythingelse away. The memory of Sylvia's voice. The buckle might not have been fastenedright.And the memory ofher mother's hand going limp as her body sagged. I'll follow you no matter where you go, Maggie thought. And then†¦ She didn't know what then. She was trusting to instinct, letting it guide her. It was stronger andsmarter than she was at the moment. Sylvia's apartment was in the U district, the college area around the University of Washington. Itwas a long walk, and by the time they reached it,the rain was coming down harder. Maggie was gladto get out of it and follow Sylvia into the under ground garage. This is a dangerous place, she thought as shewalked into the echoing darkness. But it was simply a note made by her mind, with no emotionattached. At the moment she felt as if she couldpunch a mugger hard enough to splatter himagainst the wall. She kept a safe distance as Sylvia waited for the elevator, then headed for the stairs. Third floor. Maggie trotted up faster than the elevator could make it and arrived not even breathing hard. Thedoor of the stairwell was half open and she watched from behind it as Sylvia walked to anapartment door and raised a hand to knock. Before she could, the door opened. A boy wholooked a little older than Maggie was holding it,letting a couple of laughing girls out. Music driftedto Maggie, and the smell of incense. They're having a party in there. That shouldn't be so shocking-it was Saturdaynight. Sylvia lived with three roommates; they were undoubtedly the ones having the party. But as the girls walked past Sylvia they smiled and noddedand Sylvia smiled and nodded back before walkingcalmly through the door. Hardly the sort of thing you do when your boyfriend's just been killed, Maggie thought fiercely.And it doesn't exactly fit the â€Å"tragic heroine† act,either. Then she noticed something. When the boy holding the door let go, it had swung almost shut – but not quite. Can I do it? Maybe. If I look confident. I'd haveto walk right in as if I belonged, not hesitate. And hope she doesn't notice. Then get behindher. See if shetalksto anybody, what she says†¦ The laughing girls had caught the elevator. Maggie walked straight up to the door and, withoutpausing, she pushed it open and went inside. Look confident, she thought, and she kept ongoing, instinctively moving toward a side wall. Herentry didn't seem to have caused a stir, and it waseasier than she'd thought to walk in among these strangers. The apartment was very dark, for onething. And the music was medium loud, and everybody seemed to be talking. The only problem was that she couldn't see Sylvia. She put her back to the wall and waited forher eyes to adjust. Not over there-not by the stereo. Probably inone of the bedrooms in back,changing. It was as she moved toward the little hallwaythat led to the bedrooms that Maggie really noticedthe strangeness. Something about this apartment,about this party†¦ was off. Weird. It gave her thesame feeling that Sylvia did. Danger. This place is dangerous. Everybody there was so good-looking – or elseugly in a really fashionable way, as if they'd juststepped off MTV. But there was an air about themthat reminded Maggie of the sharks at the SeattleAquarium. A coldness that couldn't be seen, onlysensed. There is something so wrong here. Are they alldrug dealers or something?Satanists?Some kindof junior mafia? They just feel so evil†¦. Maggie herself felt like a cat with all its fur standing on end. When she heard a girl's voice coming from thefirst bedroom, she froze, hoping it was Sylvia. â€Å"Really, the most secret place you've ever imagined.† It wasn't Sylvia. Maggie could just see thespeaker through the crack in the door. She waspale and beautiful, with one long black braid, andshe was leaning forward and lightly touching theback of a boy's hand. â€Å"So exotic, so mysterious-it's a place from thepast, you see. It's ancient, and everybody's forgotten about it, but it's still there. Of course, it's terribly dangerous-but not forus†¦.† Not relevant, Maggie's mind decided, and shestopped listening. Somebody's weird vacationplans; nothing to do with Sylvia or Miles. She kept on edging down the hall. The door atthe end was shut. Sylvia's bedroom. Well, she has to be in there; she isn't anywhereelse. With a surreptitious glance behind her, Maggie crept closer to the door. She leaned toward it untilher cheek touched the cool white paint on the wood, all the while straining her eyes toward theliving room in case somebody should turn her way. She held her breath and tried to look casual, buther heart was beating so loudly that she could only hear it and the music. Certainly there was nobody talking behind thedoor. Maggie's hopes of eavesdropping faded. All right, then, I'll go in. And there's no point intrying to be stealthy; she's going to notice. So I'll just do it. It helpedthat she was so keyed up. She didn't even need to brace herself; her body was at maximum tension already. Despite her sense that therewas something menacing about this whole place, she wasn't frightened, or at least not in a way that felt like fear. It felt like rage instead, like being desperately ready for battle. She wanted to grab some thing and shake it to pieces. She took hold of the knob and pushed the dooropen. A new smell of incense hit her as the air rushedout. It was stronger than the living room smell,more earthy and musky, with an overlying sweetness that Maggie didn't like. The bedroom was even darker than the hall, but Maggie stepped inside.There was tension on the door somehow; as soon as she let go of it, it whispered shut behind her. Sylvia was standing beside the desk. She was alone, and she was still wearing theGore-Tex climbing outfit she'd had on at Maggie'shouse. Her shimmering fine hair was starting todry and lifting up like little angel feathers awayfrom her forehead. She was doing something with a brass incenseburner, adding pinches of powder and what looked like herbs to it. That was where thesickeninglysweet smell was coming from. Maggie had plannedas far as she'd plannedanything at all – to,rush right up and get in Sylvia'sface. To startle her into some kind of confession. She was going to say, â€Å"I need to talk to you.† Butbefore she could get the first word out, Sylvia spokewithout looking up. â€Å"What a shame. You really -should have stayedhome with your .parents, you know.† Her voice wascool and languorous, not hasty and certainly notregretful. Maggie stopped in her tracks. Now, what's thatsupposed to mean? Is it athreat? Fine. Whatever. I can threaten, too. But she was taken by surprise, and she had toswallow hard before speaking roughly. â€Å"I don'tknow what you're talking about, but at least you'vedropped the weepy-weepy act. You were really badat it.† â€Å"I thought I was very good,† Sylvia said andadded a pinch of something to the incense burner.†I'm sure the officers thought so, too.† Once again, Maggie was startled. This wasn'tgoing at all as she expected. Sylvia was so calm, somuch at ease.' So much in control of the situation. Not anymore, Maggie thought. She just admittedit was an act. All that chokey stuff while she was talking about Miles†¦ Fury uncoiled in Maggie's stomach like a snake. She took three fast steps forward. â€Å"You knowwhy I'm here. I want to know what really happenedto my brother.† â€Å"I told you† â€Å"You told a bunch of lies! I don't know what the truth is. The only thing I do know is that Miles would never make a stupid mistake like not buckling his harness. Look, if you did somethingdumb-if he's lying out there hurt or something,and you were too scared to admit ityou'd bettertell me right now.† It was the first time she'd putinto words a reason for Sylvia to be lying. Sylvia looked up. Maggie was startled. In the light of the singlecandle by the incense burner, Sylvia's eyes werenot violet but a more reddish color, like amethyst. They were large and clear and the light seemed to play in them, quivering. â€Å"Is that what you think happened?†Sylviaasked softly. â€Å"I said, I don't knowwhat happened!† Maggie feltdizzy suddenly, and fought it, glaring into Sylvia's strange eyes. â€Å"Maybe you had a fight or something.Maybe you've got some other boyfriend. Maybe you weren't even out climbing on Halloween in the first place. All I know is that you lied and that there's no body to find. And I want to know the truth!† Sylvia looked back steadily, the candlelight dancing in her purple eyes. â€Å"You know what yourbrother told me aboutyou?† she asked musingly.†Two things. The first was that you never gave up. He said, `Maggie's no rocket scientist, but once shegets hold of something she's just like a little bull terrier.' And the second was that you were a complete sucker for anybody in trouble. A real bleeding heart.† She added a few fingernail-sized chips of smoothbark to the mixture that was smoking in the incense burner. â€Å"Which is too bad,† she went on thoughtfully.†Strong-willed and compassionate: that's a real recipe for disaster.† Maggie had had it. â€Å"What happened to Miles? What did you dotohim?† Sylvia laughed, a little secret laugh. â€Å"I'm afraidyou couldn't guess if you spent the rest of yourshort life trying.† She shook her head. â€Å"It was toobad, actually. I liked him. We could have beengood together.† Maggie wanted to know one thing. â€Å"Is he dead?†Ã¢â‚¬ I told you, you'll never find out. Not even whenyou go where you're going.† Maggie stared at her, trying to make sense ofthis. She couldn't. When she spoke it was in a levelvoice, staring into Sylvia's eyes. â€Å"I don't know what your problem is-maybeyou're crazy or something. But I'mtellingyou rightnow, if you've done anything to my brother, I am going to killyou.† She'd never said anything like this before, butnow it came out quite naturally, with force andconviction. She was so angry that all she could seewas Sylvia's face. Her stomach was knotted and sheactually felt a burning in her middle, as if therewere a glowing fire there. â€Å"Now,† she said, â€Å"areyou going to tell me what happened to him?† Sylvia sighed, spoke quietly.†No.† Before Maggie quite knew she was doing it, shehad reached out and grabbed the front of Sylvia's green Gore-Tex jacket with both hands. Something sparked in Sylvia's eyes. For a moment, she looked startled and interested and grudgingly respectful. Then she sighed again, smilingfaintly. â€Å"And now you're going to kill me?† â€Å"Listen, you†¦Ã¢â‚¬ Maggie leaned in. She stopped.†Listen to what?† Maggie blinked. Her eyes were stinging suddenly.The smoke from the incense burner was rising directly into her face. â€Å"You†¦Ã¢â‚¬  I feel strange, Maggie thought. Very strange. Dizzy. It seemed to come over herall at once. There was a pattern of flashing gray spreading across her vision. Her stomach heavedand she felt a wave of queasiness. â€Å"Having a problem?† Sylvia's voice seemed tocome from far away. The incense. It was rising right in her face. And now†¦ â€Å"What did you do to me?† Maggie gasped. Shereeled backward, away from the smoke, but it wastoo late. Her knees were horribly rubbery. Herbody seemed to be far away somehow, and the sparkling pattern blinded her completely. She felt the back of her legs come up against abed. Then they simply weren't supporting her anymore; she was slithering down, unable to catch herself with her useless arms. Her lips were numb. â€Å"You know, for a moment there, I thought Imight be in trouble,† Sylvia's voice was sayingcalmly. `But I was wrong. The truth is that you'rejust an ordinary girl, after all. Weak and powerlessand ordinary. How could you even thinkabout going up against me? Against my people?† Am I dying? Maggie wondered. I'm losing myself.I can't see and I can't move†¦. â€Å"How could you come here and attack me? How could you thinkyouhad a chance at winning?† Even Sylvia's voice seemed to be getting more and more distant. â€Å"You're pathetic. But now you'll find out what happens when you mess with real power.You'll learn†¦.† The voice was gone. There was only arushingnoise in anendless blackness. Miles, Maggie thought. I'm sorry†¦.Then she stopped thinking at all.