Revision Rich Essay -- essays research papers fc

Revision      In Adrienne Richs essay "When We Dead Awaken Writing as Re-vision", the author compiles about her personal hold as a woman writer in a male dominated society. Her essay consists of poems, which she had written throughout different times in her life, to express the transformation in her writing. As a woman writer in a male dominated society, Rich begins writing in the traditional style, "the mans way," yet as she continues writing, Rich modernises from these traditional styles to form her own. Like Freire, Rich believes people should break from society and be able to think and question things for themselves. While Freire wants to kind the educational system, Rich wants to change writing. Both Freire and Rich want to break from the traditional ways of the past. Rich believes that women need to break from the enduring attitudes of traditions which society has placed upon them. Rich is upset with the limitations placed on women in society, particularly in marriage. It is for this reason that the themes of many of Richs poems are advice for women to live life for themselves, listening only to what their police wagon tell them. The three poems "Aunt Jennifers Tigers," "Snapshots of a Daughter-in-Law" and "Planetarium" are analyzed to demonstrate the changes in Richs way of writing.      Rich wrote "Aunt Jennifers Tigers" in 1951, while she was a student. At this time in her life she conforms to tradition in her writing, and tries not to identify herself as a female poet. Rich does not identify herself as a female poet by detaching herself from her character and allowing her character to accept the life that man has placed upon woman. Richs writing is constrained by man because she allows her character to be laden by man and does not make her a conscious being of oppression. In "Aunt Jennifers Tigers", Rich writes about a woman who does not break fro m the accepted roles of society. Aunt Jennifer does not deport the freedom to live for herself because of societys expectations on women. The only way for Jennifer to free herself is by making up a magic world. The author writes about the universal proposition issues involved in the relationship between men and women, in where woman is a slave to man. Rich writes "the massive w... ...s the writer of the essay. Rich criticizes and critiques her own poems to demonstrate the differences in her writing. She transformed language by breaking the traditional views and by writing about mans power over women. At first it prevented her from writing the way she wanted just because she was a woman. Society did not expect a women to have a job as a writer instead writing was considered as a hobby for women. Rich had been taught that society considered poetry to be "universal" meaning non-female. Because Rich had been taught that poetry was "universal" it was very hard for her to write the things that she wanted too. Rich lost herself to society, becoming a mother and a wife and not being able to write as much as she liked. After a couple of years she divorced her husband and found herself again. As a result, Rich is her own teacher. She taught herself to have the courage to rebel against society and become a conscious being.      Works CitedRich, Adrienne. "When We Dead Awaken Writing as Re-Vision". Ways of Reading.      Ed. John Sullivan. Boston Bedford, 1999. 601-615.

Is it Possible to Forecast Financial Schenanigans Essay -- essays rese

IntroductionI undercoat fluids story on the Internet while doing a Google search. As I was reading financial Shenanigans from Horward Schilit to prepare for the level 2 of the CFA examination, I decided to have a closer look at the financial statements of Peregrine Systems Inc. that were published before the shenanigans became publicly kn take in (in May 2002) in cast to detect those shenanigans solely based on those financial statements more specifically on the forms 10K filed by Peregrine amidst 1998 an 2001.Here is a summary of the story, quoted from the motor inn that had to rule on those irregularities1.Peregrine Systems, Inc. (Peregrine) was a computer software comp all head turded in San Diego, California. Peregrine was incorporated in California in 1981 and reincorporated in Delaware in 1994. From its initial public offering (IPO) in April 1997 until it was delisted on August 30, 2002, Peregrine was a publicly held mass whose shares were registered securities traded under the symbol PRGN on the case Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation system (NASDAQ), a national securities exchange that used the means and instrumentalities of interstate occupation and the mails.2. Peregrine developed and change trading software and related services. Software license fees accounted for the bulk of Peregrines publicly reported revenues. Peregrine sold its software directly through its own sales organization and indirectly through resellers such as value added resellers and systems integrators.3. From its IPO in April 1997 through the quarter ended June 2001, Peregrine reported 17 consecutive quarters of revenue growth, always meeting or beating securities analysts expectations. Peregrines lineage equipment casualty soared from its April 1997 IPO price of approximately $2.25 per share (split adjusted) to approximately $80 per share in March 2000. By March 2002, Peregrine had issued over 192 million shares.4. In May 2002, Peregrine disclos ed that its prior public reports had been materially false and that it had employed a variety of devices, schemes and fraudulent accounting practices over an extended period of time in order to portray itself as distant more healthy and successful that it actually was. After Peregrine disclosed its true financial results and condition, its stock price dropped precipitously and directly trades at down the stairs $1 per share... ...the shrinking size of the 10K that went from 1330 pages in 1999 to 154 pages in 2001. That implies that the company disclosed significantly less information on the way it constructed its financial statements.This study overly found some weaker warnings, but failed to find the heart of the gimmicks. I dont think that those warnings could lead to any conclusion by themselves, as at that place may be some noise even in a healthy company.What actually happened?Peregrine blow up revenue by recording sales to resellers that werent finalsSold false invoices to banksImproperly accounted for cash collectionImproperly wrote off receivablesImproperly accounted for stock optionsFailed to maintain adequate books and recordsIt seems that even if they inflated revenue, they had a strong business activity (even if it wasnt as large as what their statements indicated) the other gimmicks didnt involve revenue. Their stock price, which hit a low of $2.25 during the crisis, is now trading in the $20 range Is it Possible to Forecast Financial Schenanigans Essay -- essays rese IntroductionI found Peregrines story on the Internet while doing a Google search. As I was reading Financial Shenanigans from Horward Schilit to prepare for the level 2 of the CFA examination, I decided to have a closer look at the financial statements of Peregrine Systems Inc. that were published before the shenanigans became publicly known (in May 2002) in order to detect those shenanigans solely based on those financial statements more specifically on the forms 10K filed by Peregrine between 1998 an 2001.Here is a summary of the story, quoted from the court that had to rule on those irregularities1.Peregrine Systems, Inc. (Peregrine) was a computer software company headquartered in San Diego, California. Peregrine was incorporated in California in 1981 and reincorporated in Delaware in 1994. From its initial public offering (IPO) in April 1997 until it was delisted on August 30, 2002, Peregrine was a publicly held corporation whose shares were registered securities traded under the symbol PRGN on the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation system (NASDAQ), a national securities exchange that used the means and instrumentalities of interstate commerce and the mails.2. Peregrine developed and sold business software and related services. Software license fees accounted for the bulk of Peregrines publicly reported revenues. Peregrine sold its software directly through its own sales organization and indirectly throu gh resellers such as value added resellers and systems integrators.3. From its IPO in April 1997 through the quarter ended June 2001, Peregrine reported 17 consecutive quarters of revenue growth, always meeting or beating securities analysts expectations. Peregrines stock price soared from its April 1997 IPO price of approximately $2.25 per share (split adjusted) to approximately $80 per share in March 2000. By March 2002, Peregrine had issued over 192 million shares.4. In May 2002, Peregrine disclosed that its prior public reports had been materially false and that it had employed a variety of devices, schemes and fraudulent accounting practices over an extended period of time in order to portray itself as far more healthy and successful that it actually was. After Peregrine disclosed its true financial results and condition, its stock price dropped precipitously and now trades at below $1 per share... ...the shrinking size of the 10K that went from 1330 pages in 1999 to 154 pages in 2001. That implies that the company disclosed significantly less information on the way it constructed its financial statements.This study also found some weaker warnings, but failed to find the heart of the gimmicks. I dont think that those warnings could lead to any conclusion by themselves, as there may be some noise even in a healthy company.What actually happened?PeregrineInflated revenue by recording sales to resellers that werent finalsSold false invoices to banksImproperly accounted for cash collectionImproperly wrote off receivablesImproperly accounted for stock optionsFailed to maintained adequate books and recordsIt seems that even if they inflated revenue, they had a strong business activity (even if it wasnt as large as what their statements indicated) the other gimmicks didnt involve revenue. Their stock price, which hit a low of $2.25 during the crisis, is now trading in the $20 range

Modern Art: An Art of Expression and Freedom :: Modern Art Artists Dance Theatre Essays

I. IntroductionWherever man lives there is art, beca make use of art is anything made or done by man that affects or moves us so that we feel and see beauty. Man uses his imagination to invent a unique beauty. The artists feelings and inspiration affects on how he will express his art. Through the major culture of technologies and social changes that harbor taken place in the 19th century, Modern art flourished during this period and caused a lot movements of modern art to form, some of these nonable movement atomic number 18 cubism, abstract expressionism, pop art, and surreal art. Modern art also become mans inspiration in life because these corking art can express a unique feeling in which a person is attracted to that kind. This also means that a modern artist learns from himself and does not need any major training, a modern artist learns by himself through his experiences and imagination.Modern art runs a very important role in mans life throughout history, because it tha t does not only give us inspiration but also the freedom to express ourselves through the use of different mediums. II. Statement of the problemThis research aims to answer the following questions1.What are the general informations about Modern Art?2.What is the beauty of Modern Art?3.What are the different styles in making Modern Art?III. PresentationA.Definition of Modern ArtParallel to the scientific, technological, and social changes that have taken place in the 20th century are the rich varieties of art styles that have developed. Notable are the number of isms, such as Fauvism, expressionism, cubism, futurism, constructivism, neoplasticism, surrealism, precisionism. Modern Art didnt have a main origin from where it came from. But there is a general agreement that it was first seen between 18th century to 19th century, from the French subversive movement. Art in its broader meaning, however, involves both skill and creative imagination in a musical, literary, visual, or perfo rmance context. Art provides the person or people who let on it and the community that observes it with an experience that might be aesthetic, emotional, intellectual, or a combination of these qualities.Modern Art does not follow any traditional rule, in detail Modern Art breaks this barrier. In the traditional way of painting, you must the true nature of your work you must have the balance in creating it. The rules that are workings on our universe must be applied to the old traditional painting.

Euro Disney - Analysis of the External and Internal Environment Essay

Euro Disney commercialiseers before entering a market as in this case has been the European market should project s brookned the surround. By scanning the environment they should analyze the mega-environment as well as the task environment for possible opportunities and threats. Yet, a close attention could have been paid to their chroma and weaknesses inside the company. Indeed, the consideration about any hacks should have been incorporated in their environment analysis. In this case there has been a citation of a trend, which is the trend of people going to theme greennesss during the weekends for enjoyment of them as well as their children. Also here is an existing need for entertainment of this kind. Therefore, an opportunity exists in the European market that Euro Disney could have taken advantage of. However, their mishap to pick up signals from the macro environment and microenvironment as well as to position their harvest-feast accordingly, had disconfirming effect s on their operations. A further analysis of their macro and micro environment highlights their malfunction.MACRO ENVIRONMENT (P.E.S.T) The comp unrivallednts of the macro environment are the political-legal environment, the economical environment, the socio-cultural environment, and the technological environment in which Euro Disney operates. Political-legal environment Euro Disneys decision to open its Theme Park near capital of France has caused a negative furtherance in the sight of many French politicians. In occurrence, they have objected the existence of Theme Parks in the center of their French culture since the park has been viewed as a visible symbol of the U.S. culture. Although Euro Disney marketers probably choose this location, in particularly France, due to the fact that is the center of Europe and could most probably be the most well-to-do place for people to arrive and settle in their hotel to be entertained. For instance, people from all over Europe could trav el quickly to Paris due to neat distance and travel convenience like people from Germany or Spain could quickly and conveniently arrive in Paris. However, the ignorance of the politicians unfriendliness and deterrence caused the dire publicity to be open all over France and probably wider. Politicians are usually the most publicly articulated figures. Thus, their opposition view would probably be circularize to many potence visitor... ...were the major reasons for the lower sales. They overlooked the opportunity to profit on the established costumers need for Theme Park entertainment because they did not agnize who in fact were their customers.STRENGHTS AND WEAKNESESEuro Disneys major strength is its well-kn admit and established tradition and brand name. Further, Euro Disney is a conglomerate company comprised of many businesses. The existence of their own television programme is in fact a strength, thus transformed into opportunity to advertise its products and parks. Indeed , its strengths or distinctive competences may have been turned into opportunities to implement a hawkish advantage over its competitors. Obviously, Euro Disney did not used effectively its strength in the European market, thus has overlooked to transform its strengths into opportunities. In addition, one weakness that can be concluded from the case study is Euro Disneys ineffective marketing team up when entering the European market. In fact, it is a failure of its marketing team to quickly react to the threatening environmental signals and especially predicting them before entering and positioning itself in the European market. Euro Disney - Analysis of the External and indispensable Environment EssayEuro Disney marketers before entering a market as in this case has been the European market should have scanned the environment. By scanning the environment they should analyze the mega-environment as well as the task environment for possible opportunities and thre ats. Yet, a close attention could have been paid to their strength and weaknesses inside the company. Indeed, the consideration about any trends should have been incorporated in their environment analysis. In this case there has been a recognition of a trend, which is the trend of people going to theme parks during the weekends for entertainment of them as well as their children. Also here is an existing need for entertainment of this kind. Therefore, an opportunity exists in the European market that Euro Disney could have taken advantage of. However, their failure to pick up signals from the macro environment and microenvironment as well as to position their product accordingly, had negative effects on their operations. A further analysis of their macro and micro environment highlights their malfunction.MACRO ENVIRONMENT (P.E.S.T) The components of the macro environment are the political-legal environment, the economic environment, the socio-cultural environment, and the technologi cal environment in which Euro Disney operates. Political-legal environment Euro Disneys decision to open its Theme Park near Paris has caused a negative publicity in the sight of many French politicians. In fact, they have objected the existence of Theme Parks in the center of their French culture since the park has been viewed as a visible symbol of the U.S. culture. Although Euro Disney marketers probably choose this location, in particularly France, due to the fact that is the center of Europe and could most probably be the most convenient place for people to arrive and settle in their hotel to be entertained. For instance, people from all over Europe could travel quickly to Paris due to short distance and travel convenience like people from Germany or Spain could quickly and conveniently arrive in Paris. However, the ignorance of the politicians unfriendliness and deterrence caused the dire publicity to be spread all over France and probably wider. Politicians are usually the mo st publicly articulated figures. Thus, their opposition view would probably be spread to many potential visitor... ...were the major reasons for the lower sales. They overlooked the opportunity to profit on the established costumers need for Theme Park entertainment because they did not realized who in fact were their customers.STRENGHTS AND WEAKNESESEuro Disneys major strength is its well-known and established tradition and brand name. Further, Euro Disney is a conglomerate company comprised of many businesses. The existence of their own television programme is in fact a strength, thus transformed into opportunity to advertise its products and parks. Indeed, its strengths or distinctive competences may have been turned into opportunities to experience a competitive advantage over its competitors. Obviously, Euro Disney did not used effectively its strength in the European market, thus has overlooked to transform its strengths into opportunities. In addition, one weakness that can be concluded from the case study is Euro Disneys ineffective marketing team when entering the European market. In fact, it is a failure of its marketing team to quickly react to the threatening environmental signals and especially predicting them before entering and positioning itself in the European market.

What influences demand for housing? :: Economics

What influences deal for housing?There are many key factors that impart affect the demand for housingsome of the easy ones to notice are population and price. Thesefactors effect lots of goods as the larger amount of pack the moreconsumers there will be. With price a consumer will always wish to paythe lowest amount for a good. If the price gets to utmost then they willfind a substitute.Looking at population in more detail it isnt as simple as it wouldfirst appear. You could just say the public will grease ones palms a house and themore public there is there is more demand for the good. This in turnwould allow housing companies to charge larger prices and so only therich coffin nail afford it. The puzzle is that people dont have to buy ahouse they can rent one or section one. As well as these factors theycan take out a loan to buy the house and pay it approve over a achievement oftime. Loan companies charge interest and when interest rates are lowmore people take out loans as they dont have to pay back such a largesum of money. With lots of loans companies coming up, it has becomevery easy for anyone to get loan whatever their background is like.Renting a house can be done in lots of ways. Some people make theircareer in it they buy lots of houses and rent them to people who areunable to buy a house. This is good for people who are only in the artless for a short period of time, as you can charge them largeamounts because of the location of your house. Some people dont haveany money at all and are in a bad stinting state and are given ahouse/flat by the council. They still have to pay money to live in thehouse scarcely less than from private rent business. Private rentbusinesses are there to make a profit and will charge higher pricesand have snap off quality goods to match.When looking at price it normally goes on a set pattern that as highprices means less demand and vis versa. The problem was this didnthappen and looking at figure 4.8. This is du e to the low interestrates charged by loan companies mentioned above.When addressing others factors you need to look at the country and isit going through some sort of event. During a depression people arefind it hard to get a job due to high unemployment. With this thedemand for new house with the public wouldnt become a luxury that

The Bicycles Changed America Essay -- Exploratory Essays Research Pape

The Bicycles Changed AmericaThe great changes in American society that came with the introduction bicycle in the late 19th century are often overshadowed by the influence of the automobile in the following decades. Today, bicycles are often seen as an alternative mode of transportation - a cleaner and more environmentally sure form of travel. Because of this, it may be difficult to realize the incredible modernizing effects that bicycles had on American society when they were first introduced. Manufacturing and marketing techniques introduced by the bicycle manufacturing were massive steps towards modern industrial practices. In addition, by making individual travel available to many people for the first time, bicycles changed the speed at which life history flowed in much of America. Bicycles granted a degree of personal freedom of mobility to many for the first time, and their effect on the womens rights movement of the time was notable. Bicycles were use in war, by police, and by the postal service, among others. In countless walks of life, the availability of personal travel offered by bicycles had an incredible impact on American society. concord to Robert Smith, the history of the bicycle goes like this in the late 18th century and early 19th century, a two-wheeled vehicle with a wooden prepare and a saddle, known as the celeripede (fast feet) was developed in France. The celeripede had a fixed cross-bar and no pedals, meaning that it could not be steered very well and it was locomote by running along the ground while straddling the saddle. Needless to say, it never became popular.Around the same time in Germany, Baron Karl von Drais de Savebrun developed a uniform machine, with the difference that his had handle-bars... ...cle caused a massive change in both manufacturing and marketing in America. Bicycles represented a great increase in the speed of life and in the travel options of individuals. Perhaps it is because of their current position in our society as an alternative mode of travel that it is often difficult to imagine what a difference they made on modern life.Sources CitedBotkin, Nancy. Women on Wheels Riding the Freedom Machine. 2003. http//www.sfbike.org/OLD_site/www/news/html/2000/march/01march2000.htmlMaree, D.R. Bicycles in the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902. 2003. http//www.rapidttp.com/milhist/vol041dm.htmlSherr, Lynn. Failure is insurmountable Susan B. Anthony in Her Own Words. New York Random House Inc. 1995 pp 277Smith, Robert A. A Social History of the Bicycle Its Early Life and Times in America. New York American Heritage Press. 1972

The Bicycles Changed America Essay -- Exploratory Essays Research Pape

The Bicycles Changed AmericaThe great changes in American society that came with the introduction bicycle in the late 19th cytosine are frequently overshadowed by the influence of the automobile in the following decades. Today, bicycles are often seen as an alternative mode of transportation - a cleanable and more environmentally conscious form of travel. Because of this, it may be difficult to realize the incredible modernizing effects that bicycles had on American society when they were first introduced. Manufacturing and merchandising techniques introduced by the bicycle industry were massive steps towards modern industrial practices. In addition, by making individual travel available to many pack for the first time, bicycles changed the speed at which life flowed in much of America. Bicycles granted a degree of personal freedom of mobility to many for the first time, and their effect on the womens rights movement of the time was notable. Bicycles were used in war, by police, and by the postal service, among others. In countless walks of life, the availability of personal travel offered by bicycles had an incredible relate on American society.According to Robert Smith, the history of the bicycle goes like this in the late 18th century and early 19th century, a two-wheeled vehicle with a wooden frame and a saddle, known as the celeripede (fast feet) was developed in France. The celeripede had a fixed cross-bar and no pedals, meaning that it could not be steered very well and it was moved by running along the ground while straddling the saddle. Needless to say, it never became popular.Around the same time in Germany, magnate Karl von Drais de Savebrun developed a similar machine, with the difference that his had handle-bars... ...cle caused a massive change in both manufacturing and marketing in America. Bicycles represented a great plus in the speed of life and in the travel options of individuals. Perhaps it is because of their current position in o ur society as an alternative mode of travel that it is often difficult to imagine what a difference they made on modern life.Sources CitedBotkin, Nancy. Women on Wheels Riding the Freedom Machine. 2003. http//www.sfbike.org/OLD_site/www/news/html/2000/march/01march2000.htmlMaree, D.R. Bicycles in the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902. 2003. http//www.rapidttp.com/milhist/vol041dm.htmlSherr, Lynn. Failure is Impossible Susan B. Anthony in Her Own Words. New York Random House Inc. 1995 pp 277Smith, Robert A. A Social History of the Bicycle Its Early Life and time in America. New York American Heritage Press. 1972

Ece 585 Project 2 Spring 13 Ver1 Simulation of Cpu, Cache, Bus, and Memory Datapath

ECE 585 Project 2 Spring 13 ver1 Simulation of processor, Cache, raft, and Memory Datapath 1. INTRODUCTION Project 2 is due Thurs Apr 11 EOD. You may work as groups of up to two. Submit your report to the Project 2 folder in the Electronic Black Board for the course. NO OTHE FORM OF SUBMISSION OR new SUBMISSIONS WILL BE ACCEPTED. In this project, you pass on simulate a CPU, squirrel away, transport, and memory complex for a set of instructions with emphasis on the cache operation. The boilersuit block diagram is shown in Figure 1. Bus Cache Memory CPUFigure 1 Overall Block Diagram The goal of this project is to provide you with a more practical hands-on approach to computer architecture design problems. The processor complex you will be designing is a 32-bit version of the million instructions per second processor however, the instruction set will be a small subset of the actual MIPS ISA. You should implement the end to end operation of the complex utilizing the VHDL computer h ardware descriptive language. You may use any constructs within the VHDL language, however, the design must be of your own. Copying of any form from any other student or any internal or external sources is illegal and will non be accepted.The processor supports the three instruction formats R-format, I-format, and J-format as described in the schoolbook book and lectures. Table I Summarizes the core set of instructions for your ISA. The memory is assumed to be byte addressable and each word is 32 bits. Table I Core MIPS Instruction Set to be Designed (with example) OpCode 31 26 100011 101011 000000 000100 Function Field 5 0 100000 -Instruction lw sw add beq (Custom set) Operation lw $s1, 200($t3) sw $s3, 100($t4) add $s3, $t3, $t2 beq $s5, $t6, 400The center set you need to design is the core set as above + a custom set designated for you as follows. Student ID ending in 1. BNE, LUI 2. NOR, SLL 3. ADDI, LUI 4. BNE, LUI 5. NOR, LUI 6. ANDI, JR 7. BNE, LUI 8. NOR, LUI 9. ANDI, JR 0. ADDI, LUI 2. effectuation Details 2. 1 CPU You need to treat the CPU as a block diagram and show only the inputs, outputs and the changes in the Register file. preeminence that all the source values for the instructions are derived from the CPU recitals and immediate value in the instruction itself.The results will also be stored in the register except for the store instruction. For both load and store instructions, ALU operation is needed for address calculation. You need not simulate the detailed internal operation of the CPU complex 2. 2 Bus Used only for transfer of words and blocks. The bus (between cache and memory) has the following specifications Bandwidth of 32 words/cycle. 2. 3 Cache/Bus/Memory Specifications The focus of the report is on the cache operation. The cache has the following specifications 1.Size 256 Byte I-cache, 128 Byte D-cache block size of 8 words word size of 4 Bytes 2. The cache access condemnation is 1 cycle 3. Direct Memory access approach is u sed for cache block placement 4. The parameters for cache operation accommodate IHc (Icache hit), DHc (Dcache hit) and dirty bit set flag for a block to be replaced (dbset) The memory has the following specifications 1. Size 1,024 Bytes Byte addressable 2. Memory port access time is 5 cycles/word for reads 3 cycles/word for writes. 3. Additional memory read time 3 cycles/word, write time 4 cycles/word Additional greens specifications 1.The instruction address is available in the course of instruction Counter (PC) the accessed instruction is placed in the Instruction Register (IR) the data read (for loads) is loaded in the Memory Data Register (MDR) all are 32 bit registers. Additional student specific specifications Last digit of student ID 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 bring out Strategy Write Thru Write back Write Thru Write back Write Thru Write Thru Write back Write back Write back Write Thru Write miss Strategy Write allot No-write allocate No-write allocate Write Allocate Write Al locate Write Allocate No-write allocate Write Allocate No-write allocate No-write allocateGeneral Guidelines 1. All parameters must be defined as variables (or data inputs) so that different parameters can be used for testing your work out. 2. You should annotate your code with appropriate/sufficient comments so that the code is self explanatory. 3. You may use supererogatory meaningful assumptions and state them clearly in your report. 4. Section 5 provides some useful hints for cache operation. 3. Test Program Design a test program to verify the operation of your code. It needs to account for the following variables PC address value range of PCs for the instruction type (e. . 0-500 ALU_BR type 504-600 Loads 604-700 stores) Icache hit flag (1 or 0) Daddr Dcache hit flag (1 or 0) range of addresses (dbaddr1 to dbaddr2) for which the dirty bit is set. Your output should explicitly indicate which type of instruction is complete after completion of the operation. 4. Report You are re quired to turn in a report that describes the design along with the VHDL code. The report should be typed, well written, and well organized. The suggested contents of the report are as follows An overview of your design Appropriate sections to convey your report A discussion on how you tried to optimize your design A discussion on any improvements or additional features made to your design A discussion on what does not work correctly in your design An overview block diagram of your design. A sample simulation of your design that is annotated to show its correct operation. Copying of code will not be acceptable. Any code copied will automatically result in a 0 for your project and may be subject to additional disciplinary action.Start the project right away Good luck and have fun 5 Hint Basic operations are summarized in the following. enliven note that you need to modify it appropriately to account for placement/replacement, dirty bit status, write strategies, write miss s trategies etc. ICache hit PC IAddr bus ICache miss IR mem bus cache IR CPU ALU/branches ALU_BR through with(p) Instr Type, (Daddr) Load (Daddr) MDR Dcache hit (Similar to Icache miss) Dcache miss Dcache hit Dcache Store DONE MDR Load DONE Store (Daddr) Dcache miss bus Mem

Vietnam’s Inflation

Vietnams political science is set to raise electricity prices by 15% on Tuesday, at a time when the population is already struggling with a soaring cost of living. Last week the Vietnamese government likewise raised the retail prices of oil products by as such(prenominal) as 24%. In February, swelling hit a two-year high of 12. 31%. Analysts say despite the governments measures to tighten monetary policy, price pressures are likely to continue. The increases in energy, electricity and petroleum indicate that we are going to see inflation get a little worse despite the shift in government policy, said Christian de Guzman of Moodys Investor Group.Overheating For years the Vietnamese government has unploughed a loose interest rate policy and subsidized lending in order to boost growth. The government expects the economy to expand as much as 7. 5%, up from 6. 8% in 2010. alone the cost of that rapid pace is that the economy has started to show signs of overheating. Credit grade ag encies hop-skip the countrys sovereign-credit rating last year. Inflation fears have also caused a sell-off in Vietnamese markets. Vietnams benchmark stock index has slid 6. 7% in the past year. The Vietnamese government was focused on growth at all costs, said Mr de Guzman. By the middle of last year they had already reached their inflation target but thus they continued to pursue other macroeconomic policy targets like credit growth and gross domestic product growth, he said. Fighting inflation But since the beginning of this year, the government seems to have shifted its policies towards stabilizing prices. Last week the Vietnamese government announced a set of measures to curb inflation.Electricity prices have been raised in an effort to reduce budget spending The primordial bank recently raised the cost of borrowing. It increased the benchmark refinance rate by 2 percentage points from 9% to 11%. The government has also vowed to reduce government debt. To that effect, it cut the budget-deficit target to less than 5% of gross domestic product, from 5. 3%. Reducing government spending on subsidies for fuel and electricity are also part of that plan. In order to stave off inflation, they want to cut back on subsidies.It does alleviate some of the pressure on the budget, said Mr de Guzman. Dong devaluation The other major strain on the Vietnamese economy is the currency. The central bank devalued the dong against the US dollar by 8. 5%. It is the latest in a series of devaluations the government has implemented to reduce the adventure of a shortfall in foreign currency reserves. However, that will lead to higher import costs, which in turn, could again increase inflationary pressures.

3-dimensional (3D) packaging technology Essay

Introduction3-dimensional (3D) packaging technology is a method used to provide volumetric packaging resultant in products. This technology uses the height, otherwise known as the third or z-dimension, for achieving higher takes of integration and performance in the products. 3D technology chiefly helps in the space-efficient integration of the multi-media functions in the products.The present trend among the consumers is to look out for products, having the upper limit functionality in the sm e trulyest and lightest possible package. This demand for more functions in the smallest volume, calls for higher memory capacity, which in turn demands more complex and efficient architectures. In addition, the new product designs in digital handbook, cell phones, digital cameras, PDAs and music players, require that these features are merged use innovative technical form factors and architectures.See more Social process essayThe 3D packaging in recent times has been associated with the de livering of the highest level of silicon integration and arena efficiency at the lowest cost, smallest size and best performance. This has resulted in higher growth and brought in newer applications, for the technology.This growth trend in the 3D technology can be seen since the year 1995. Prior to this, the most efficient and economic way to provide more functionality to an electronic system was to blend all these functions onto the individual chips using the system on Chip, SOC. However, this method was becoming costlier and also less efficient, as the number of functions to be integrated in a single chip further increased. In addition, some chips that could be integrated together logically were mechanically incompatible, due to the different cloy materials used.The present twenty-four hours technologies in high density packaging have r apieceed a very advanced stage. Now a single chip system can be very efficiently split into multiple legislates, so as to provide better perf ormance at lower manufacturing costs.Over the past few years, part stacking has emerged as a conditionful packaging option for satisfying challenging IC packaging requirements. It works by integrating chips vertically in a single package. This increases the amount of silicon per unit area, which leads to a smaller package footprint, hence conserving system- be on real estate. In addition, it enables shorter routing interconnects from chip to chip, speeding the signaling between them. multiform devices can also be full-bosomed using this technology. There is an additional benefit of the simplification of surface-mount system-board assembly, due to the lesser number of components being placed on the board.Vias Due to the increasing number of make passs in a stack, the designers are facing the challenge of meeting the temperature design specification. One method to counter this is to provide a caloric path from each individual die to a substrate using caloric vias. These therma l vias can be implemented using several(prenominal) methods. One of the approaches is to have a thermal die that thermally connects each die to the substrate.The waken from each die is conducted rapidly from one end of the board to another, either through the die attach or the vias. Thermal vias are made of copper runs providing the a path of least thermal resistance, and so heat is deportationred through the vias in a proportion much greater than the area of the vias. Usually one end of via is link up to the IC and the other end is attached to a heat sink. Thermal vias work very well with flip-chip devices. With no additional space required for the heat conduction, these are considered as a mini-thermal solution. by Silicon Vias Through silicon vias, TSVs, are vertical structures in between the chips that are used as an interconnection to eliminate the existing wire bonds. These bring home the bacon for the shortest electrical path between two sides of wafers or die, used for 3D die-to-die, die-to-wafer, MEMS wafer level packaging. A TSV, 3-D chip stacking process hence provides a meaning of implementing complex, multi chip systems widely in silicon. TSVs. By the vertical stacking of the blocks using this technology, the wire length of interconnects can fundamentally be reduced.Vias provide both electrical and thermal path. In this paper, the thermal enhancement realized by the vias is discussed along with trying to find out a way to remove heat from the dies. The effect utilize to the dies is between 5-10 watts power. We found that one such method was to use silicon dies.Objective of the StudyThe methodology of the present study will be explained in detail in the next section. The study focuses on the following pointsA study was made on the heat transfer enhancement of the stacked die geometry using Through Silicon vias, TSVs, on the die pad location. Different schemes were studied.The use of the TSVs to reduce the level best occasion temperature accumulated at the wafers was studiedThe critical placement of vias to optimize thermal management, was doneFinally, a study of the thermo-mechanical issues, which occurred when TSVs are used, was made.MethodologyThe figure below explains the methodology used for this study. First, the package components including the vias were created using professional /Engineer Wildfire. After this the material property was defined and the various components were assembled. The entire geometry and the properties were then imported to Ansys workbench. Here, the Boundary conditions were defined and implemented. Finally, the end result, which is the thermal enhancement of the die geometry, was evaluated.Modeling MethodologyAny devices thermal properties can be expressed as a part of an electrical circuit diagram. If, JA is the thermal resistance between junction, and ambience given in /W, then mathematically JA can be expressed as bewlow The geometry is created using Pro-e, as mentioned in the i ntroductory section. Here, every element should be saved in the UDF library. This is done, so as to make it possible to retrace various parts for assembly. In this assembly area, the area contact is done using the mate option, and the vertical and horizontal lines can be joined using the align option.For the analysis, a molded Ball power grid Array, BGA, stacked package has been considered. The package substrate is 99 mm in area and is 0.3 mm thick. A fully populated solder gawk matrix with a ball count of 56 and a pitch of 0.8 mm is used. The stand off height after reflow is 0.2 mm. The thickness of the mold aggregate cap is 1.20 mm with the alike(p) dimensions as the package substrate. The diameter of the thermal vias is 0.20mm and its thickness is 0.86mm. The stacked packages have 16 vias and 9 vias. This paper compares the junction temperature of stacked dice with and without vias.Three different package architectures were modeled, viz. a Stacked with spacers die, b Rotated s tack die, b Pyramid stack die as shown in figure. Three non-volatile dies measure 6.44.8 mm, with a thickness of 0.2 mm, form the spacer die. Die thickness is 0.25mm in rotated die. The hind end PCB is made of a die measuring 3224 mm, with a thickness of 0.6 mm. In the spacer stack die, dummy die is 5.64.0, with a thickness of 0.08mm.For this paper, solderball geometry is modeled closely approximating the real solderball. In solderball geometry, mid diameter is 0.43mm, and eyeshade and bottom diameter is 0.33mm, with a height of 0.33mm. Solderball distance is 0.8mm. These dimensions are not specific to a particular package. They are based on values found in present market for a typical molded BGA stack package. The details of the package dimensions and material properties of the components is shown in the below.Simulation and Case StudiesWhile doing the Simulation using the Ansys workbench, the following boundary conditions need to be apply to all the faces of the modeling and to the PCB. The film coefficient is 10W/m C and the Ambient Temperature is 50C. Also a power of 0.3 W ia applied to each of the three dies. By dividing area 0.3W / 6.54.8 (Die area), we can get a heat flux as 9765 W/m.The of import physics behind the technology is providing a smooth and effective heat transfer path. Due to the high thermal conductivity of the copper i.e. the thermal vias, a proportion of the heat much greater than the surface area of the vias will be transferred.As mentioned in the section above, for the baseline simulation, an effective heat transfer coefficient of 10 W/m-C with 50c ambient temperature was applied on the top of the mold cap, and the top and bottom surfaces of the circuit board. For all the three types of stacks, the result was a junction temperature of 116.2C with no vias. When 9 vias were included, for the equal heat transfer coefficient, the junction temperature was reduced to 111.7C, results in a reduction of around 3.6% of the maximum temperat ure in each of the architectures. By increasing via count to 16 we got the junction temperature to 110.7C effectively reducing the junction temperature by 4.49% of the maximum temperature in each of packaging.The figure below explains the proportional vector plot of heat flux in ANSYS Workbench, where the heat flow path can be seen, which densely collects at the via location. This heat flux is a negative heat flux which is flowing away from the surface and takes away energy out of the consistency in the form of heatVias can also provide a means of customizing the heat transfer process for devices with a highly non-uniform power distribution. This is oddly important for high density interconnects where the device has highly non-uniform power map.Test CasesThere were 12 suit studies conducted on the simulation test tool. As mentioned earlier, each causal agent was tested with and without vias, and the corresponding temperature plot was drawn. In each case the maximum and minimal temperatures achieved were also noted. For one of the cases it was found that the particular test case no 11 gave a lesser temperature, in the range of 60-70 degrees.The following is a description of the 12 test casesCase 1 The first case consisted of the Dies showing the temperature plot at the film coefficient of 200W/mC. The power applied to the top die, die with vias and the bottom die was 6watts, 2watts, and 2 watts respectively. The maximum temperature achieved was 316.459 C and the tokenish temperature was 269.908 C. Applying same conditions without vias gave the maximum temperature as 317.2 C and lower limit temperature as 269.591 C.Case 2 For the second case, the Boundary conditions applied were a film co-efficient of 200W/mc and Power of 2 watts applied equally on all the three dice. The maximum temperature achieved was 216.363 C and the minimum temperature was 169.568 C. Applying same conditions without vias gave the maximum temperature as 217.140 C and minimum temper ature as 169.55 C.Case 3 For this case, copper was used as the substrate mask and the film coefficient was 400 W/mc. The maximum temperature achieved was 178.739 C and the minimum temperature was 144.488 C. Applying same conditions without vias gave the maximum temperature as 179.426 C and minimum temperature as 144.463 C. The Observation of the above results showed that the temperature difference with and without Vias was only 1C.Case 4 For this case, convection was applied on board and top die. The power applied to on top, middle and bottom dies was 4watts, 3watts, and 3watts respectively. The maximum temperature achieved was 93.775 C and the minimum temperature was 36.098 C. Applying same conditions without vias gave very slight transform in the plot, the maximum temperature as 93.911 C and minimum temperature as 36.105 C.Case 5 For this case, the Film co-efficient of 400W/mc on top of the top die and 15W/mc on the Pwb. Also 5watts power was applied to each of the dies. The m aximum temperature achieved was 209.345 C and the minimum temperature was 128.857 C. It was seen that the minimum Temperature occurs at the top die where the vias were present. Applying same conditions without vias gave very slight change in the plot, the maximum temperature as 210.878 C and minimum temperature as 128.739 C, i.e. a drop of only 1.6 C was observed.Case 6 For this case, germanium die was used, instead of silicon die. The maximum temperature achieved was 223.052 C and the minimum temperature was 118.468 C. Applying same conditions without vias gave very slight change in the plot, the maximum temperature as 225.219 C and minimum temperature as 118.286 C, i.e. a drop of 2.6 C in the Junction temperature was observed.Case 7 For this case, the Film co-efficient on board was 300 W/mc, the Film co-efficient on top surface was 400W/mc, and 5 watts power applied on both dies. The maximum temperature achieved was 119.575 C and the minimum temperature was 43.411 C. Applying sa me conditions without vias gave the maximum temperature as 120.076 C and minimum temperature as 43/504 C. The maximum change in Junction temperature, with and without vias was observed.0.5 C.Case 8 In this case, a very high thermal conductive material has been used For the through silicon vias (ie.600 W/mc). The maximum temperature achieved was 119.575 C and the minimum temperature was 43.411 C. Applying same conditions without vias gave the maximum temperature as 95.315 C and minimum temperature as 36.347 C. The maximum temperature between i.e. a drop of 2.6 C in the Junction temperature was observed.0.5 C. Though high conductive vias were used there is no significant drop in the maximum temperature in the dice.Case 9 The following case used TSVs with the application of higher power( 7 watts) on the top die than the Other two dice i.e.., 2 watts on the die with vias and 1 watt on the bottom Die. The maximum temperature achieved was 97.657 C and the minimum temperature was 39.063 C. Applying same conditions without vias gave the maximum temperature as 97.889 C and minimum temperature as 39.032 C. As seen, the TSVs made a vnegligile difference of 0.5 C.Case 10 In this case, the total power on the dice was 5 watts and the power on the die with vias was 5 watts. The maximum temperature achieved was 61.754 C, which was the least temperature, and the minimum temperature was 29.576 C. Applying same conditions without vias gave the maximum temperature as 61.871 C and minimum temperature as 29.55 C.Case 11 In this case, the substrate and substrate mask thickness is drastically reduced to 0.075mm and 0.085mm. The maximum temperature achieved was 93.697 C and the minimum temperature was 36.079 C. Applying same conditions without vias gave the maximum temperature as 93.775 C and minimum temperature as 36.067 C.Case 12 In this case, the simulation was done by applying high power of 6 watts on the top die and 2 watts each on the middle and bottom die. The maximum temp erature achieved was 88.320 C and the minimum temperature was 35.481 C. Applying same conditions without vias gave the maximum temperature as 88.512 C and minimum temperature as 35.445 C.ConclusionIn this paper elaborate study has been done in analyzing the effect of thermal vias on the die and ways to bring down the junction temperature by reduce count. Thermal enhancement was tested by running the thermal simulation with various test cases, and also with / without thermal vias. The Temperature profile of the entire stacked die geometry was plotted in Ansys Workbench.It was found that Thermally Through Silicon vias in this particular package did not give a significant effect on performance because of less area of vias and package construction. The use of silicon die did give a lesser temperature as compared to other materials. proximo studies will focus on doing the stress analysis of this package with vias, using techniques like thermal shocks for profiling the thermal properties this package in further detail.

Institute of Technology Essay

A minor news item featured in MSNBC last month, from which the above excerpt is taken, dialog about a 38-year-old aging nu enlighten advocate plant in the state of Vermont that is still efficient but appears to pose increasing threat to the environment. The local and state authorities want it to be decommissioned, but the owner of the plant, Entergy corp. , intends to run it for another 20 years. The plant meets one-third of the states electricity needs, and the pile of Vermont atomic number 18 truly much dependent on it for the electricity, of course. besides at the same time they earn grown distrustful of the quality of management at the plant and the plants viability. The incoming of this plant may not be a national or international concern, but it is a life-and-death issue for the local people. The fundamental dilemma of the situation here reflects, in microcosm, the vastly larger problem of the future of thermo thermonuclear-generated electricity as such should we en thusiastically embrace it or wisely abjure it?Many of the rapidly maturation countries of the homo, especially, tend to be upbeat about the potential of nuclear antecedent, while in some of the developed countries where nuclear office has been put to engross for generating electricity for several decades now on that point has been an increasing degree of opposition to the continued opinion on nuclear causality, from the point of view of threats it poses to the environment. As in the case of Vermont Yankee causality plant, the basic conflict in the nuclear office staff sector is between the potential and the potential take a chance.The Vermont facility has still the potential to supply a large fraction of the states electricity needs for a couple of decades more which is by no means a mean feat, but there are signs, such as the recent tritium leak sight at the plant, of the decreased reliability and robustness of the plant. The Vermont news story provokes the doubt Can nuclear power plants be robust and reliable in normal? The rewards they pr scissure may outweigh the risks they pose, but even so, do the rewards far outweigh the risks so that the risks to the extent they are present asshole be considered unobjectionable?A number of countries of the world have benefitted from nuclear power for several decades now with only one major chance to speak of so far. But how many closely averted disasters such as the Three-Mile Island incident of 1979 there might have been it is difficult to estimate. Because, as put forward be seen in the case of Vermont facility, there is apparently a widespread culture of leaks and lies in the nuclear power sector, which tends to neatly cover up inefficiencies, mismanagement, breaches, increased risks and so on.The worlds pay off with nuclear-generated electricity so far could be seen as a trial or an experiment, based on which we are compelled to take decisions visualizeing the future of nuclear power. Should the worlds reliance on nuclear power be dramatically expanded, as advocated by many nuclear power enthusiasts and as was initially expect when nuclear power technologies were developing in the 1950s? Or, should we gradually phase out our dependence on nuclear power and switch to much safer alternatives, or should a middle way be adopted?There are many well-informed people who would uniform to see all nuclear power plants shut down how far are their fears valid? Literature Review 1) Massachusetts Institute of Technology. (2003, 2009) The early of thermonuclear Power An Interdisciplinary Study. Retrieved from http//web. mit. edu/nuclearpower/ The experts at MIT conceive in nuclear power and prominently emphasize the chief advantage of absence of carbon emissions in its take. This study takes a comprehensive, interdisciplinary approach to assessing the feasibility of nuclear power.While the basic stance of MIT favors the increased use of nuclear power, the risks are not downpla yed. The issues that the nuclear industry faces are tackled in a clear and detailed way. The study does succeed in inspiring confidence in the potential of nuclear power. Though the fears and concerns are not really eliminated, they are not simply vague forebodings of doom now but are based on actual facts and conditions. The challenges can be dealt with, in principle, with more commitment and initiative. 2) Biello D. (2009). The Future of Nuclear Power An In-depth Report.Scientific American. Retrieved from http//www. scientificamerican. com/report. cfm? id=nuclear-future This is a 4-part in-depth report featured in the Scientific American magazine in early 2009. The first report, Find fissile Fuel, explores the issue of availability of uranium and other raw materials for nuclear power. The second report, Reactivating Nuclear Reactors for the Fight against Climate Change, examines the ongoing escalation in nuclear power production in the U. S. Spent Nuclear Fuel, the third part, de als with the major issue of nuclear ball up management.The final report, Atomic Weight Balancing the Risks and Rewards of a Power Source, asks the question Is it worth the minor chance of a major catastrophe? 3) Department of Trade and Industry, U. K. (2007). The Future of Nuclear Power The Role of Nuclear Power in a Low Carbon UK Economy. Retrieved from www. berr. gov. uk/files/file39197. pdf This is a UK governing body white root word / consultation document on the relevance of nuclear power in addressing the issues connect to global warming and climate change and ensuring continued energy supplies.Though it is a document of advice and information provided to the UK government to help it make decisions, a good will of the particularities of the UK situation can be useful in more worldwide contexts. In the UK, nuclear power is already making a significant region to the electricity generating mix and this paper is inclined to the view that it could make an even more prominen t contribution. 4) Mahaffey, J. (2009). Atomic Awakening A New Look at the narration and Future of Nuclear Power. New York Pegasus BooksMahaffey, a senior research scientist at Georgia Tech Research Institute, has written a phonograph record meant to refer laymen about nuclear power and its possibilities. He wants to show us that nuclear energy is not the monster it is portrayed to be while the risks cannot be alone mitigated it can still be used in a very safe manner. One of the barriers to greater acceptance of nuclear power is the general unfamiliarity of the subject, the degree of alienation between the common man and the tall-standing nuclear reactors.The author seeks to bridge this gap by familiarizing his audience with the subject in an entertaining and engaging manner, largely in a historical perspective. 5) Smith, J & Beresford, N. A. (2005). Chernobyl catastrophe and consequences. New York Springer The public perception of nuclear power has radically changed after th e Chernobyl tragedy. Ever since, people living in the vicinity of a nuclear power plant are naturally beset with fears that their installation does not turn out to be another Chernobyl. And if a nuclear facility is actually having some known problems, as in the case of Vermont, these fears are vastly exacerbated.In this context it is very pertinent to understand what caused Chernobyl and assess how likely is it for a similar disaster to happen again, for broadly similar reasons. Smith and Beresfords detailed yet uncomplicated account of the Chernobyl incident is useful for developing a mental picture of the events that led to the 1986 mishap, what really occurred and how it was handled. Methodology This short paper is built around a minor incident at Vermonts nuclear power plant and the public reaction to it with the aim of examining the broader implications of nuclear power to the future of the world.We propose to survey the works cited in the literature review in articulate to g lean the opinions and standpoint of their authors in regard to the risks and rewards presented by the use of nuclear power. A special focus is laid on the Chernobyl incident. Results The MIT study of 2003, later updated in 2009, is the one of the most authoritative studies in this field. It begins with what would appear like a sad note that despite the great promise nuclear power holds in regard to significantly restricting earths discolour house emissions, nuclear power is virtually facing stagnation.It recommends a tripling of worlds nuclear generating capacity of the world by 2050 in order to turn around the situation of decline. Doing so would help in cutting 25% of the increment in greenhouse gas emissions which would occur if such a resurgence of nuclear power did not take place. The rubber eraser of modern reactor designs is considerably superior to those of the earlier models, and there is very low risk of serious accidents. However, the very low risk associated with mode rn nuclear reactors holds true only when their operation implements best practices. Proliferation is another major concern in regard to nuclear power generation. With increased use of nuclear power, there is increasing likelihood of misuse of raw materials and technology for manufacturing nuclear weapons. The existing international safeguards authorities is far from being adequate, according to the report, to meet the greater security challenges of a global growth in nuclear usage. Especially, the kind of reprocessing system that is used in a majority of nuclear power using countries, including European Union, Japan and Russia, poses unwarranted risks of proliferation.Waste management is yet another major area of concern. shut fuel cycles involving reprocessing are generally considered to offer waste management benefits, but the study is not convinced of their benefits improved open fuel cycles can offer just as many benefits and they present diminished security threats along with decreased costs. The study therefore recommends open, once-through fuel cycles for facing both security and waste management challenges in a better way.However, the international safeguards regime needs to be improved, and greater efforts have to be put in by the government and the private enterprise to develop better solutions for the waste disposal problem. Apart from the safety, proliferation, and waste management concerns, the fundamental issue in regard to nuclear power is the cost, which is not yet competitive with the other conventional modes of power generation. However, even this problem is not insurmountable, and various strategies are suggested to increase the economic feasibility of nuclear power.Finally, forebodings and misguided perceptions among the public present a great barrier for creating a movement to expand the worlds nuclear power capacity. This, the report suggests, can be dealt with by implementing an intensive program of public education. The 4th part of Sc ientific Americans in-depth feature on the future of nuclear power covers many risky scenarios faced by the American nuclear power sector in the past few decades. The report leads us to conclude that the future of nuclear power in the US largely depends on the quality of management of the nuclear installations.So far the US has a rather formidable track record in running the nuclear facilities, and this consistency is likely to continue. A chapter in the UK white paper on the future of nuclear power addresses the specific safety and security risks posed by nuclear installations. It stresses on the additional safety features added to the latest models of nuclear reactors Designers of nuclear power stations have taken this earlier operational experience and learned lessons from previous nuclear events. They have added features to reduce the likelihood of plant failures and to limit the consequences when failures occur.(p. 105) From design to operations and maintenance, compressed p rocedures can be developed, and in fact have been developed, which make nuclear energy one of the best options for meeting the electricity needs of UK and Europe. Mahaffey, in his book Atomic Awakening raises many interesting points. He observes, for example, that Chernobyl caused only 55 to 60 deaths (most of them being fire fighters exposed to lethal doses of radiation), whereas the Bhopal incident which took place in 1984 in India killed over 15,000 of the citys inhabitants.Despite the overblown public fears, the safety record of the nuclear industry world wide is relatively very solid. There is no reason why people should fear nuclear power generation more than they fear many other processes to do with go on technology. Seen from a safety perspective, nuclear power plants are like breedlines a single disaster can create great fear among the public for air travel, but when we look at the statistical record of safety of airlines and compare them with road transport, airplanes t urn out to be vastly safer than cars. In the early hours of April 26, 1986, a massive nuclear reactor accident took place at the Chernobyl Power Plant in Ukraine. A small test procedure that was being conducted went solely out of control, resulting in two non-nuclear explosions that demolished the heavy ceiling of the reactor and expelled the radioactive contents and waste products of the reactors core into the surroundings. Chernobyl is the worst nuclear disaster in the history. It has cast a heavy shadow on the entire nuclear industry which continues to darken the horizons.But we must note that the Chernobyl disaster is a result of bad design compounded by bad management practices and a work culture which flouted all safety considerations. One safety feature after another was deliberately suppressed in order to facilitate the test procedure serious warnings were callously disregarded. The Chernobyl meltdown occurred as a result of operator incompetence on a huge scale, as was ack nowledged by the Soviet official report of the disaster. A group of technicians are directly responsible for this disaster, and they committed six serious violations or errors besides many others.Many of the operators as well as managers in charge at Chernobyl actually knew very little about nuclear technology. Moreover, there were certain high-risk features associated with the RBMK design of the Chernobyl reactors. A Chernobyl can never happen in the westbound world because the minimal industrial standards here are far superior to those that prevailed in the Soviet Union during the last years of its existence. Conclusion Nuclear power plants have been safe and would continue to be safe in the context of advanced nations.But the real problem comes when we consider nuclear energy in the setting of the developing nations of Asia, Africa and Latin America. All the studies we have dealt with so far focus on the U. S. , U. K. and the E. U. How would nuclear power fare in the volatile d eveloping countries is in fact even difficult to outline even in broad terms. The major obstacle for the Third World Countries in embracing nuclear power is the cost. However, in a bid to develop environment-friendly energy sources, Western nations are engaged in bringing down the costs of production of nuclear power.If they succeed, nuclear power production can spread rapidly in the developing countries of the world, and this can have potentially highly adverse consequences. A Chernobyl can never happen in the U. S. or Europe, but it can very well happen in Angola or Pakistan or Columbia. References Associated Press. Vermont Town Halls Want Nuclear Plant Shut. MSNBC. Retrieved from http//www. msnbc. msn. com/id/35687805 Biello D. (2009). The Future of Nuclear Power An In-depth Report. Scientific American. Retrieved from http//www. scientificamerican. com/report. cfm? id=nuclear-future Department of Trade and Industry, U. K. (2007).The Future of Nuclear Power The Role of Nuclear Pow er in a Low Carbon UK Economy. Retrieved from www. berr. gov. uk/files/file39197. pdf Massachusetts Institute of Technology. (2003, 2009) The Future of Nuclear Power An Interdisciplinary Study. Retrieved from http//web. mit. edu/nuclearpower/ Mahaffey, J. (2009). Atomic Awakening A New Look at the History and Future of Nuclear Power. New York Pegasus Books Smith, J & Beresford, N. A. (2005). Chernobyl catastrophe and consequences. New York Springer

Food Insecurities Essay

Have you ever seen a person yell at his colleague or his partner, overreacting on a particular(prenominal) matter that has caused not scarce if the person who got yelled at to feel annoyed, but also third parties who know ab give away it or give witnessed the pellet? For the umteen who do not wish to get into the mess, or has enough logic sense to not judge immediately, they go out closely likely move over out a fair statement and try to reason out that persons overreaction by saying he probably had a high-risk day or he probably has dilemma at home. However, if we place a bit closer and look closely, all of us will finally realise that it all goes down to unmatchable matter peril.Insecurities be not mostthing new and unfamiliar to the human kind. Ein truthone has insecurities, regardless of whether they realise it or not. The Oxford Dictionary defines insecurity as the uncertainty or anxiety about oneself or lack of confidence. Insecurities exist in every living soul on this planet. Till today, it is dumb seen as a negative matter as not many have addressed this issue in graceful ways using proper mediums. Most p arents dont even talk about it and shove it away when their children decide to speak up about it. Little do citizenry know that the slightest things in life are the ones that add up to our insecurities.The amount of insecurity in a person differs from one to the other. The types of insecurities that one possesses also vary. The most honey oil type of insecurity is physical insecurity. Lets heart it human beings are never satisfied. Even when you have all the parts of the form indispensable to sustain and go through your daily routine with ease, you still beg for to a greater extent. Some want healthier and shiner hair, some want to be taller, but most importantly, everyone wants something. It is not just human beings as an individual who face insecurities, but also countries and states.Currently, the world is looking at the issu e of nutriment insecurity, which is also classified as a type of insecurity. Food security may be said as the availability of intellectual nourishment and ones door to it. Hence, the United Nations have defined sustenance security as all citizenry at all times having both physical and scotch access to the basic food for thought they need. For more than 2 billion of people on this planet, they are lucky to not worry about this form of insecurity. However, we qualification not realise this but this matter is more complicated than it seems. Food securities may result from many different causes.It is imperative that we focus on why are the food insecure, and why are the people are food insecure. Among the most common causes of food insecurities are drought and thorough weather changes. This setback, which is very commonly faced by third world countries, usually waves from overnight floods to droughts. In short, the climate changes faced by these countries are extreme. In most Afri derriere countries, like Nigeria, droughts are not new to them. It has been a setback since the time of their ancestors nonetheless, they are helpless at it and have no comeback on closure this matter.In many comparisons throughout time, some of the most severe food crises were all preceded by drought or by other similarly extreme weather events. These extremities result in poor and failed harvests which in turn results food scarcity and high prices of the available food. As mentioned in the Climate and Development intimacy Network report entitled Managing Climate Extremes and Disasters in the Agriculture Sectors Lessons from the IPCC SREX Report, such force of nature causes seismic disturbances which will include not only food insecurity, but changing productivity and livelihood patterns, economic losses, and impacts on the infrastructure.Besides that, the natural resource base for the poor and food-insecure is constantly narrow and, in many areas, fragile. With the except ion of Uganda only 4 to 10 percent of the land area is classed as arable, and just a small area of land suitable for rainfed cultivation. The superlative numbers of poor people are concentrated in the arid and semi-arid ecosystems and on marginal land in the higher pelting parts of the region. It has ferment axiomatic to say that poverty is one of the briny causes of environmental degradation.This can be seen all too clearly in the farming of steep slopes, which takes order as an increasing population is forced to cultivate marginal land. The falling crop yields that characterize the marginal areas are a result of the loss of monumental quantities of topsoil throughout the region, declining soil fertility as fallow systems are replaced by continuous cultivation, reductions in soil organic matter as spread is burnt for fuel, and shrinking holding sizes. However, the poor are also the most vulnerable to environmental degradation because they count on he exploitation of common pro perty resources for a greater share of their incomes than richer households do. In the rangelands, the evidence for long-term secular environmental degradation is ambiguous. The successive cyclical growth and decline of herds reflects cycles of rainfall and rangeland productivity, and is perfectly normal. As animals die in large numbers, the rangelands recover remarkably quickly. However, when there is a major(ip) drop in the number of animals, the people who depend on them for their livelihoods also suffer.Development programmes that have sought to increase animal production on rangelands through water system developing and animal disease prevention have all too often failed to find, at the same time, sustainable ways of increasing animal nutrition, so the resulting increased numbers of animals may playact havoc on the range itself. Many of the available freshwater resources are in river basins and lakes that extend beyond the boundaries of individual nations.Shared water resour ces include lakes Victoria, Albert, Edward, Kivu and Turkana and major rivers such as the Blue Nile, White Nile, Atbara, Awash and Shebele. The potential for developing irrigation from these sources is constrained by the problem of achieving agreement on sharing the resources and avoiding conflict. Although natural climatical factors have played their part in the process of desertification, in general, it is increased population and the related development of unsustainable production systems that have had most negative impact on the fragile natural resource base.Wood and manure have remained the main sources of domestic elan vital, even in urban centres. This situation has contributed to depleting the fo residual and range resources, resulting in an overall decrease in biomass and biodiversity, reduced water infiltration and increased runoff and soil erosion. These factors, which contribute to the impoverishment of ecosystems, have led to a vicious circle of environmental degradat ion, lower system resilience to erratic rainfall, decreased agricultural productivity and increased poverty and food insecurity.Not only that, the cause of food insecurity in these third world countries are also caused by the poor state of development and maintenance of roads and transport, energy sources and telecommunications in the marginal areas of countries in the Horn of Africa makes it difficult for these areas to become integrated into the national and regional economy. As with all other indicators of development, the countries of the region have some of the worst figures worldwide with respect to access to roads and water supply.A recent report suggests that, in terms of access to infrastructure, the gap between Africa and the rest of the world has widened over the past 15 years. The sparse road and communications network hampers emergency relief operations as well as the commercialization of the rural economy. The density of the road network in the countries of the region gives an idea of both how difficult it is to reach people in rural areas with services and the problems such people face in participating in the market economy.For example, in Ethiopia, every kilometre of road serves 72 km 2 and 3 000 people, compared with only 8 km 2 and 850 people in North Africa. Even after strenuous efforts by development agencies and NGOs, access to a clean water supply is still an unobtainable luxury for most rural inhabitants in the Horn. Piped systems are uncommon in rural areas and protected wells and hand pumps are the best that rural communities can expect. The burden of collecting water, as with so many other menial tasks, falls almost exclusively on women in the communities, who must spend many hours each day collecting water from unsafe sources.The statistics on access to water and sanitation reveal wide differences within the region. In three countries, namely Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia, only one-quarter of the population has access to safe water, and in two others (the Sudan and Uganda) the figure is less than 50 percent. Access to sanitation is as low as 13 percent and, except for Kenya, barely exceeds 50 percent anywhere. In addition to that, the indicators of access to social services in the countries that face the setback of food insecurity are also among the lowest in the world.While the average figures are bad enough, they mask fundamental inequalities in access to services within the region. Again, rural areas, especially remote, low-potential areas are the least well served. Nomadic and semi-nomadic pastoralists are the most difficult populations to provide services to and, consequently, they are invariably the ones with the poorest health services and least education. All these indicators, combined with malnutrition and poor access to safe water, have adverse consequences for productivity and for the long-term physical and cognitive development of people in the region.Also, let us not forget the fact that crop and plants as well face diseases. Diseases affecting livestock or crops can have devastating do on food availability especially if there are no emergency back-up plans in place. For example, an epidemic of stem rust on wheat which was spreading across Africa and into Asia in 2007 caused major concern. A virulent wheat disease could destroy most of the worlds main wheat crops, leaving millions to starve. The fungus had spread from Africa to Iran and may already be in Pakistan. A different threat, on the other hand, has attacked the African continents chip biggest crop wheat.In 1999, 50 years since the last outbreak, a contemporary and virulent strain of stem rust attacked the Ugandan crops. Its spores then travelled to Ethiopia and Kenya, originally appearing in Iran last year. The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nation (FAO) has given warning to six other countries in the Central and conspiracy Asia to be prepared and keep an eye for symptoms of this new strain whil e scientists in the United States of America are working diligently in hard-hitting for a resistant that combats this problem.It is important that the remedy for this will be obtained quickly as in India alone more than 50 million small-scale farmers are at risk because they depend on wheat for their food and earnings. Most importantly, we must not overlook that politics and dictatorship also play a role in food insecurity. Many do not realise that politics play a part in something as serious as this. As mentioned by Nobel Prize-winning economist Amarya Sen, There is no such thing as an apolitical food problem. It is more often than not that the administration of the rude that determines its severity, or even whether the famine will occur. If truth be told, the 20th century is full of examples of disposals undermining the food security of their own nations. Let us take a look at Nigeria, Africas most densely inhabited state, where a legacy of corrupted governance and an economy b ased primarily on oil exports has left the agriculture sector significantly undermined, leaving millions of Nigerians in deep hunger.True, the neighbouring countries export food to Nigeria in exchange for money, but remember the people in these neighbouring countries need food too. And they are much poorer than those living in Nigeria. It was reported by the United Nations that thousands of children in countries neighbouring Nigeria died because of malnutrition. These kids paid the price not because of food shortage in their country, but because of food shortage in Nigeria. The distribution of food is often a political issue in most countries.The government will always give priority to urban areas and cities, since most influential and powerful families and enterprises are located there. The ruling government over and over once more for generations overlooks the subsistence farmers and rural areas in general. In other words, the more rural an area, the less likely the government wil l pay attention to solving its needs. Whats more is that the governments of these countries would normally keep the price of basic grain at extremely low levels that subsistence farmers cannot accumulate sufficient capital to make investments to improve their production.Hence, they are prevented from acquiring out of their precarious situation. In addition, food has always been a political arsenal by the dictators and warlords, where they reward their indorseers and deny food supplies to those areas that are against them. Under this condition, food has become more like a currency instead of a basic need that cannot be denied rights of. Food has become the money to buy support and used against the opposition. Even in Guatemala, income inequality is amongst the worst in the world, with indigenous communities at a disadvantage.In some areas, an estimated 75 percent of the children, ranging from infants to children ages six and seven years old, are severely malnourished. And this is a shocking statistic relating food scarcity coming from a country that is merely a four-hour flight away from the USA. Furthermore, it was pointed out in William Bernsteins 2004 publication entitled The Birth of Plenty that individuals without property will lead to starvation and it is much easier to bend the fearful and the hungry to the will of the state.If a farmers property can be arbitrarily threatened by the state, that power will inevitably be used to confine those with different political and religious opinions. It is fundamental and crucial that we understand and be aware of the consequences of this global food scarcity. The effects might be similar to the effects of malnutrition and hunger, where, at the outset, the human population will be affected greatly in the sense where stunted growth may occur. The stunting starts in when the bollocks is still in the mothers womb and happens till the age of three.Once stunting happens, giving proper nutrition to these helpless chil dren will not help in reversing the damage or improving the childs condition. Pregnant mothers who do not receive the correct amount of nutrition needed may risk of having a higher chance of infant and child mortality later on, which is, of course, a very heartbreaking circumstance. Apart from that, severe malnutrition during ones early childhood also leads to defects in cognitive development.Stunted individuals also have a higher chance of getting diseases and illnesses as compared to those who have not experienced stunting. It must also come to the attention that food insecurity is also associated with various developmental consequences for children in the United States. A look into was conducted by Diana F. Jyoti, Edward A. Frongillo, and Sonya J. Jones to prove that food insecurity is linked to specific developmental consequences for children, and whether these consequences may be both nutritional and nonnutritional.

Preparing A Career Development Plan Essay

1. What are some of the possible reasons Scott did non seek or receive advice from her immediate supervisor?Some of the possible reasons Scott did not seek or receive advice from her immediate supervisor are because of the work relation with them. When you look for help and advice it can be hard at propagation to go to a person who is your boss and in charge of you. Most of the times the work relationships between a worker and there boss is not as peers but as a leader. It is hard to seek advice from someone who is not viewed as a peer. It makes it easier for her to talk to Elizabeth Burroughs because she is a manager but not in charge of her. Scott therefore has an easier time seeing Burroughs as a peer. Another reason why Scott could have a tough time expiration to her boss could be because her boss would discourage her from moving on because she is good at her job and her boss wouldnt want to see her leave.2. After reviewing the chapter, intimate all possible ways that Scott c an prepare her-self for career advancement.Scott can prepare her-self for career advancement by, first unwraping career opportunities and requirements. Once that is done she should identify and recognize different career paths. When considering she should think of places with boundaryless career opportunities. This is so she does not get stuck in a position where she can no longer activate up and plateau. Other things that she can do to productively prepare herself are, taking career planning workshops, career counseling and mentoring. One of the most important things that she necessitate to do is network herself to have great support, and connections.

Criminal Justice Wedding Cake

The criminal judge wedding cake is a diagram to see the importance of a crime and where it would be categorized. There are four layers on the cake that symbolise each of the major suits of crimes (1) misdemeanors, (2) less serious felonies, (3) serious felonies, and (4) illustrious cases. Also, the size of these layers depends on the importance of the crimes, with misdemeanors creation the largest and at the bottom and the celebrated cases being at the top and the smallest layer. The bottom and largest layer of the criminal justice wedding cake pertains to the misdemeanors.A misdemeanor is a lesser crime and the person being punished is given either a fine or a few days of imprisonment depending on the type of crime perpetrate. Misdemeanors range from a number of different things from a possession charge to a churl traffic violation, like a hit and run accident with another persons vehicle. scarcely it depends upon the state that these offenses are listed as misdemeanors. T he next layer would consist of the less serious felonies. These are usually committed by first time offenders. approximately of the cases include small robberies of a low dollar apprise with no weapons involved or something as simple as a fight that ended with round out charges. Most of the time, depending on the severance of the case, these felonies are not dealt with like they should be. The punishments for these types of cases are things like probation or fellowship incarceration. The third layer of the criminal justice wedding cake would include the more serious felonies. Some of these crimes would consist of murders, high dollar robberies that involved weapons, such as bank heists or home invasions, or a probation violation.These felonies are taken very seriously and they often require a minimum condemn of at least one year in prison. At the very top of the cake rests the celebrated cases. These cases are the high-profile cases and they earn a lot of media attention. The people involved in them can include soul famous, or very wealthy, like OJ Simpson, Martha Stewart, and Lindsey Lohan. Celebrated cases can also be someone unknown who committed a very wrongful crime like a serial killer, or simply because they attract the media.

You Suck: A Love Story Chapter 16~17

Chapter SixteenBeing the Chronicles of Abby NormalCompletely Fucked Servant of the Vampyre FloodOMFG-WOOT I have failed, left my duty und iodin, give c ar so much dog poop on the dusk sidewalk of the tragedy that is my life. Even as I sit here at the Metreon Starbucks, writing this, the bubble slaves calculatem to move desire silver-eyed zombies and my nonfat, soy Amaretto Mochaccino has g matchless as bitter as snake bile. (Which is comparable the bitterest bile you can frig around.) If there wasnt a tot whollyy hot hombre 2 tables away, acting reach show uple he doesnt notice me, I would weep provided real tears make your mascara survive, so Im staying chilly in my despair. Your loss, cute guy, for I have been chosen. Suffer, bitchI had to leave Lord Flood to his knowledge devices last night, but before I left, I confessed my undying manage for him. I am a hopeless hose beast. All I had to do was say good-bye, but no, I unspoilt barked it turn bug out. Its eq uivalent he has this power over me standardized I have an feeding disorder and hes a case of Oreo Double Stuff cookies. (I dont have an eating disorder, Im fair(a) skinny because I enjoy eating mass quantities and then yakking it hindquarters up. Its not a body-image problem. I repressk my system has always treasu scarlet to live on a liquid diet, and until Im brought into my Dark Lords loving embrace, then its Starbucks for me.)I have been stressful to c totally my Dark Lord and the Countess all day on their cells, but I kept acquire voice mail. Well, duh theyre vampires. They wont be answering the phone. Im such a tard neartimes.So I went to the out of date pigeon loft proto(prenominal) this morning, in fact plane before dawn. I should be, like, do a Bronte sister for culmination up with a story to get out of the house that premature, but I wanted to talk to the sweep over before his slumber. Thing was, the scary drunk guy and his huge cat were gone, but so were my overcome and the Countess. Every affaire had been moved except the statue of the turtle and the Countess.So I rolled out, headed for the new loft I rented, when I sight two get the pictures sitting in a POS chocolate-brown car. I knew they were vampyre hunters discipline away. It must be the masters dark powers rubbing moody on me. There was a big fat gay cop and a sharp-faced Hispano-cop.So I was like, Could you guys look any to a greater ex 10t like cops?And they were like, Move a presbyopic, little lady.So I was forced to point out to them that they were not the boss of me and then I proceeded to humiliate them by verbally bitch-slapping them until they cried. What is it about the crusties? Their minds turn over so slowly that you have to, like, prompt them to stand up so you can slap them again until they faint like the little wuss- grasps that they are. I n ever want to be crusty. And I wont be, because my Lord go forth bring me into the fold and I shall stalk the n ight for eternity, my beauty forevermore preserved as it is, except Id like a little bigger boobs.Anyway, I wandered slightly on Market Street and up in Union Square to give the cops enough time to slink off to lick their wounds, then I re morose to the masters street to check the new loft. This time there was this Asiatic guy sitting across the street in a Honda, looking all Manga-cool, but it was self-explanatory that he was watching the loft admittance. He didnt look like a cop, but he was in spades watching, so I stopped and pretended to watch the sculptors work who have the space below the masters old loft. They are these two crusty biker guys, but they do some(prenominal) amazing s impinging. Theyd left the garage doorsill open so I stepped in.They were putting dead chickens on wires and dipping them in silver paint, then intermission them on sticks by the wires.So I was all, What the fuck, biker? What are you doing?And one of them was like, Its almost the year of the cock.And I was all), Dont be gross, you crustacious fuck. You pull that thing out and Ill pepper-spray you until you fry. (You have to be stern with weenie waggers Ive been exposed to on the autobus over seventeen times, so I know.)And he was like, No, its the year of the cock in the Chinese zodiac.Which I knew, of course.Were making statues, said the bigger biker, who was named Frank. (The early(a) ones name was Monk. He didnt talk much, which might explain the name.)So they showed me how they besidesk real dead roosters they bought in Chinatown, ran wires through them to pose them, then dipped them in a thin metallic paint, then put them in this big tank and attached electric clips to them. They pass some current through the clips and the current attracts bronze molecules or something to the metallic paint. Its like instant bronze rooster. I thought about the statue of the Countess on a higher floor and got a little creeped out.So Im all, You ever do a psyche?And they were like, No way, that would be wrong. Youd better go now, because were tail and dont you have school and stuff?So walk out, I saw the Asian guy checking me out and I was like, Hey, its almost the year of the cock. Shouldnt you be out shopping for one?He looked real nervous, but he potpourria grinned. Then started his car and litter off, but he wants me, I can tell, so hell be corroborate. I hope he wants me. He was so cute in that Final Fantasy Thirty-Seven way. What Im saying is, the Sex Fu is strong with this one.So there was no sign of my Dark Lord or the Countess at the new place. I approve if they have crawled under the earth in some park and satisfied their perverse desires with each other among the worms and the tree germs. EwwOh well, almost dark. Id better go suffer to the loft and wait for them.Addendum The lice shampoo didnt work on my sister. Looks like we might have to shave her head. Im dismissal to try to talk her into getting a pentagram tattooed on her scal p. I know a guy in the Haight who will do it for foreswear if you verbally abuse him dapple hes tattooing. More later.Sun worst. Jody awoke to pain and the smell of cooking meat. She rolled away from the rise of the pain and went crashing through the acoustical ceiling tiles to land in a commercial sink wide of dishes and soapy water. A Mexican guy was backing across the dish room crossing himself and invoking saints in Spanish as Jody climbed out of the sink and brushed suds off her detonator and jeans. When she touched the scarecrow of her thighs she nearly leapt back through the ceiling the pain was so sharp.Mother-fuck-that-hurts she said, hopping near on one foot, because that will generally help all manner of pain, regardless of where its located on the body. Her boot heel clicking against the tiles sounded like a limping flamenco dancer.The dishwasher turned and bolted out of the dish room into the bakery.The bakery. When the alarm on her watch had threatened dawn sh e ran down the alley checking doors as she went, and the only one she found unbarred led into the stockroom of a bakery. She commanded a place to hide where shed be undisturbed while she slept, and although she considered hiding under a couple of the fifty-pound bags of dredge, she had no way of knowing if the bakers would be using them today. Shed already awakened in a morgue at once before (when Tommy had frozen her), and finding a large necrophiliac morgue attendant rubbing his hands and other bits over her seminaked body while she thawed had ferment her to the whole morgue experience. No, she had to find someplace more secluded.One of the bakers had been coming into the stockroom, she could hear his voice and footfalls right(prenominal) the door. She looked around for somewhere to hide, then spotted the grimy acoustic ceiling tiles suspended above. She leapt onto the pallet of flour, upraised a tile to see that the ceiling was suspended a full four feet below the struct ural ceiling. Bless old buildings. She grabbed a water pipe, pulled herself through the ceiling, jackknifed her legs up and around the pipe, then used her salvage hand to pull the ceiling tile back in place, all in less than two seconds.She listened as the man moved around below her, then scooped up one of the big bags of flour and left the room. That was a good call.She checked her watch. Less than a minute before shed go out. She spotted four pipes runway together parallel to the floor. They were s hop outly warm, which was wherefore she could see them at all in the darkness, but each was two inches around and braced to the ceiling every few feet. Theyd look into her.She go over to the pipes, squirmed out of her leather jacket, and put it across the pipes, then lay facedown on top of it. This way, even if one of her legs slipped off, it wouldnt pull her off the pipes. She was trying to wedge the toes of her boots into the gap between the pipes when she went out.The problem wa s that the pipes werent used that early in the morning. As the building awoke, hot water began coursing through them, and Jody had been subjected to the heat all day. Her jacket had protected her face and torso, but her thighs had been slow-cooked inside her jeans.She gritted her teeth and bolted through the dish room door into the back room of the bakery. So now its deserted. Of course, bakers work in the middle of the night and the early morning. At sundown the dishwasher would be the only guy still in the building.She found her way to the stockroom, then out into the alley. She could see the entries to both of their lofts from the end of the alley, and fortunately, no one appeared to be watching from the street. There were lights on in the new loft and she made her way to the door, her legs burning with every step.She listened at the door did what she thought of as reaching out. If she focused she could almost hear shapes, depending on the ambient noise. There was someone in th e loft she could hear the heartbeat, industrial music playing in headphones, the shuffling of a body a light body dancing. It was the kid, Abby Normal. Where in the hell was Tommy? He couldnt be far from the loft the sun had gone down only five minutes ago.Jody pounded on the door, but the shuffling sounds upstairs didnt change rhythm, and she pounded again, this time sledding a dent in the metal door. Fuck, the kid has the headphones cranked and cant hear a thing.Jody shivered, although not because of the cold, but because the thirst was rising in her. Her body telling her she needed to feed so she could heal.Shed only done it once before, and wasnt sure she could pull it off again, but she needed to get into the loft and leave a lockable door intact. She concentrated as the old vampire had taught her, and gradually, she felt herself fading going to mist.Monet was no longer robed as the statue guy, no longer in character not that character, anyway. Now he was the masta-blas ta, gansta-rappa, full-ninja-badass and a bag of mothafuckin chips, bi-yatch bent on revenge and whatnot. Hed given up midafternoon on making any money and had gone home to remove his makeup and lick his wounds. Hed crawfishn a vicious ass-whuppin today, even if it was only to his ego. barely now he was rolling with his homies, P.J. and Fly, they would put that bronze muthafucka down if he was still around. If he didnt run away like a little bitch.You strapped? Fly said, adjusting his do-rag as he drove his ten-year-old Honda Civic with rims worth more than the rest of the car.Huh? Monet inquired.Do you have a weapon? Fly said, enunciating all Royal Shakespeare community precise.Oh, yeah. Monet pulled the Glock out of his waistband and showed it to Fly.Nigga, put that shit down, said P.J., who was in the backseat, wearing a Phat Pharm tracksuit that was four sizes too big for him.Sorry, Monet said, tucking the gun back into the waistband of his jeans. Hed borrowed the Glock r ented it, really from a real gangsta in Hunters Point, who needed it back in two hours or hed charge another twenty-five bucks. Before he gave Monet the gun, he made him swear that no one would be wearing gang colors, so nothing Monet did could come back on him. Monet had made the assurance, then, after P.J. did a Google search for gang colors, they settled on orange do-rags, since no gang seemed to claim that one.Highway Safety Posse, yo, Monet had said.Yo, Stone Tangerine Thugs, yo, suggested Fly.Yo, yo, yo, check it out, said P.J., with enough hand gestures that any deaf person watching would have thought he had ASL Tourettes syndrome. Cheesy Goldfish Crew.Yo, dog, thats so stupid its not stupid, Monet said.Is that good? asked Fly.Yo, dog, get in character. Fly was a bad actor. They were all in the same acting class.He should have just hired real gangsters to do this. P.J. was probably going to trip over the legs of his track pants and completely ruin their intimidation.This is it, Fly said, pulling off the street, right up onto the sidewalk of the Embarcadero by the Ferry Building. That him?Thats him, Monet said. There was no one around but the insouciant passing car, but the new statue guy still stood there.Remember, Fly said. Walk. Dont run up. Just walk, like you got all the time in the world. Use your sense memories.Right, right, right, Monet said. He and P.J. got out of the car and quickstepped across the bricks to where the statue guy was running his game. Damn, he was good, didnt even flinch.As he reached the statue guy, Monet raised the Glock and the barrel connected with the statues forehead. Bi-yatch There was a tame clank.Whoa, P.J. said. Nigga really is a statue.Monet tapped the statue, three dull clanks. Yep. except he got all that money in his shoes, P.J. said.Well, take it, stupid, Monet said.Yo, step off, Monet. Im not the one that got upstaged by a statue.Shut up, Monet said.P.J. was grabbing handfuls of bills out of the Big potation forms at the statues feet and shoving them into his pockets. Must be a G here, G.Yo, Monet said. Help me get the statue into the car.P.J. stood and got one shoulder under the statue and tried to lift it, while Monet tucked the gun in his pants and got under the other. They dragged the statue only a couple of feet before they had to set it down and catch their breath.Motherfucker heavy, P.J. said.Would you guys come on Fly screamed from the car, in all out of character now.Fuck this, Monet said. This whole thing was just too embarrassing. Hed paid rent on the gun, hadnt he? He drew the Glock from his waistband and squeezed one off at the statue.Shit, P.J. said, ducking. Are you crazy?Bi-atch need to learn a Monets comment was choked off.P.J. stood up and looked back. There was smoke streaming out of the bullet hole in the statue, and in the second he watched, it had formed into a hand and grabbed Monet by the throat. P.J. turned to run, but something caught the hood of his tracks uit and yanked him back off his feet. He could hear Monet gagging and choking. Then he felt a sharp pain in the side of his neck and he felt suddenly light-headed.The last thing he saw was Fly peeling away in the Honda.Chapter SeventeenBeing the Chronicles of Abby Normal unspoiledly Baptized Minion of the NightBow before me, skeezy mortals, for now I see you for the pathetic little rodents that you are. skim before my dazzling darkness, daysters, for I am your mistress, your queen, your goddess I have been brought into the fold I am Abigail Von Normal, NOSFERATU, bitches fork of.OMG. It was so fucking cool like coming twice with Skittles and a Coke. I was in the loft, spacing into my jams on my MP3 player. I had downloaded the latest Dead Can Dub CD (Death Boots Badonka Mix) at the Starbucks and it was completely transcendent. I was transported to an ancient Romanian castle, where everyone had done X and was dancing totally chill and sensuous (with blameless hair). I was grin ding a free-form booty dance on the armchair perfecting my dance gestalt when I saw some smoke coming in under the door.(I cant wait to dance with Jared to this new CD. Hes so going to love this move I do. Thats what I love about dancing with gay guys. If they get wood during a booty dance, you can just take it as a compliment, not an agenda. Jared said that if I was a guy, he would totally suck my dick. He can be so sweet.)So I pulled out one of my headphones and I was like, Whoa, fire in the staircase sucks to be me. Theres only one exit, so, you know, portentousened Abby coming up.But the smoke formed into a pillar, and then it started growing arms and legs. When I saw it had eye I ran into the bedroom and shut the door. I wasnt trippin or anything, just totally calm. But it wasnt like when your friends hold your hair while you puke and tell you its just the drugs and youll be okay so I went for the upright thing of locking the door so I could assess the situation. Then the door just splodes into split up and theres the Countess, totally naked, standing in the doorway with the knob in her hand. And she was totally hot, except that her legs were all fucked up, like they were destroy or rotted or something.So Im all, You totally wrecked your deposit.And the Countess like grabs my hair and pulls me to her and bites my neck, just like that. It didnt really hurt it was more surprising like you woke up from getting a root canal to find your dentist going down on you. Well, not exactly like that more mystical. But still, surprising. (Okay, it hurt, but not as much as the time Lily tried to pierce our nipples with a compass from geometry class and an ice cube. Youch)She smelled like burning meat, and I tried to push her away, but it was like my limbs were paralyzed or there was a fat guy sitting on me like I was buried alive or something, just watching it happen. And then I started to get lightheaded and I thought I was going to pass out. Thats when the ho dropped me.She goes, Go downstairs and get my c stilthes off the sidewalk. And make coffee.And Im like, Wait a minute, I just lost my mortality virginity, shouldnt I get a cigarette and a fucking towel or something? But I just said, Okay, because where the Countess was all burned was healing while I watched, and it was kind of freaking me out to be looking at her naked, burned-up thighs and her totally red pubes anyway. So I went downstairs and just outside the door there was a stateless guy digging through a pile of clothes. Well, really, he was sniffing her panties. And because I dont belief we always do enough to help the homeless, I was like, Take them, and tell no one what you witnessed here tonight.(I was already impression the superiority of my Nosferatitude, so it only seemed appropriate that I go all noblesse oblige on his ass.) So off he went to sniff the lacy crotch of the undead while I went back upstairs to find coffee filters.So when I get up there the Countess is dressed and hair brushed and shes all, Where is Tommy? Have you seen Tommy? Did you talk to those cops? And wheres Tommy?And I was all, Countess, begging your pardon and shit, but you need to chill. The vampyre Flood was gone when I got here this morning, and so was that bronze statue from the other side. I thought you guys went off to sleep in the better womb of your native soil or something.Yuck goes the Countess. Then she tightens down all of sudden. Make me a cup of coffee, two sugars, and squeeze one of those vials of blood into it and call us a cab.And I was like, Hey, step off, Countess. Im one of you and you are not the boss of me and And she said, I said for us, didnt I?So I did her bidding well, our bidding, really and we took a cab over to the Marina Safeway, but why we didnt transform into bats and fly is beyond me. Anyway, we were there in ten minutes. But as we start to pull in, the Countess tells the driver to keep going.She was all, Its Rivera and Cavuto. Thi s is not good.The POS brown cop car was parked in anterior of the store. I was all, Cops? Their shit is weak.She seemed surprised that I knew the cops, but I told her how I had owned them like the little wussy-boys that they are and I could tell that the Countess was feeling more or less good about bringing me into the dark fold of the coven.Then she was all, Fucking Clint hes telling them about Tommy.But I couldnt even see what she was looking at beyond the big glass front of the Safeway. I guess my powers will develop as time goes on. Five hundred years is a long time to get your vampyre kung fu down.The Countess had the driver drop us at Fort Mason, so we could still see the front of the Safeway, and we stood in the fog like the creatures of the night that we were while we waited for the cops to leave.Then the Countess put her arm around my shoulders and she was all, Abby, Im sorry I, uh, attacked you like that. I was hurt really badly and to heal I needed fresh blood. I wasnt really in control of myself. It wont happen again.No worries, I told her. Im honored to be promoted. Besides, it was kind of hot. Which it was, you know, except for the smell of burning flesh and stuff.And she was all, Well, thanks for looking out for us.And I was all, Pardon, Countess, but why are we at the Safeway? Because its not like we needed groceries.And she was all, These guys used to work with Tommy, and one of them knows that he is, uh, one of the children of the night. I think they might know something about where he is now.Then, over at the Safeway, we saw this goofy-looking guy with nipping hair and glasses unlock the front door and let the cops out. They got in their car and the frizzy guy locked the front door behind them.Showtime, said the Countess. She zipped up her leather jacket, took a pair of sunglasses out of her jacket pocket, and put them on. She goes, Stay back, Abby. Ill be right back. Then she started across the parking lot toward the Safeway, taking big strides and looking all angel of vengeance, with her red hair flying out behind her, and the lights glistening down on her through the fog.I was like, Oh shitShe didnt even slow down. When she got about ten feet from the front window she snatched up one of the steel-reinforced trash cans like it was made of cardboard and flung it through the window. And she just kept walking Little cubes of safety glass rained down on her and she just walked through the front of the store like she owned it and everyone in it which she did.Before I even got in the store, she was coming back around the corner, dragging the frizzy-haired guy by the throat. She threw him up against a rack of wine bottles, which shattered, spilling red all over the floor and splattering the registers and stuff.I was all, Oh, dog, Countess gonna crack open a forty of whup-ass on you now. Oh, you in the shit now, wigga (I am not inclined to use hip-hop vernacular often, but there are times when, like French, it just bet ter expresses the sentiment of the moment.)Just then the whole crowd of guys Id seen in the limo came running around the corner. The Countess snatched a wine bottle off the rack, and without a second of hesitation, she threw it and it hit the first guy, a tall, hippie-looking guy, right in the middle of the forehead and he went down like he was shot.She goes, Back and they all headed back around the corner the way they came, except the hippie-looking guy, who was out cold.Then the Countess picked up the guy with glasses by the throat. And even though he was like a foot taller than her, she whipped him around like a rag doll until he was screaming stuff about Satan and delivery boy and telling her to get behind him and shit. And the Countess was all, Where is Tommy?And he was all, I dont know. I dont know.And the Countess grabbed him by the hair and held his head crocked against the wine rack. Real chilly, she says, Clint, Im going to take your right eye now. Then if you dont tell me where Tommy is, Im going to take your left. Ready. On three. One TwoThen hes all, I didnt have anything to do with it. Shes the spawn of Satan, I told them that. trine goes the Countess.Hes in Lashs apartment on Northpoint. I dont know the number.And the Countess just yells Number? out to the whole store.And the black guy pops up from behind a display of Cheerios and is all, Six ninety-three Northpoint, Apartment 301. And one of the other guys pulls him back down.Then the Countess is all, Thank you. If hes hurt, Ill be back. And she throws the Clint guy through a rack of Doritos, which exploded their nacho inferior goodness all over the place.Then shes all, Well, thats a nice surprise.And Im all, That Lord Flood is in an apartment on Northpoint?I didnt think they would really know. I just didnt know where else to start.Probably your senses attuned to Lord Floods nominal head over the eons, I said, like a total tard.And shes all, Lets go, Abby.And I dont know why, I guess becau se I had like low blood sugar or something from blood loss, but I was like, Can I get some gum?And she was all, Sure. Grab some coffee, too. Whole beans. Were almost out.So I did. And when I caught up with her, she was halfway across the parking lot, headed back toward Ghirardelli Square, and little pieces of safety glass were still shining in her hair and she smiled at me when I caught up and I just couldnt help myself, because that was the coolest thing Id ever seen. Ever And I was all, Countess, I love you.And she put her arm around me and kissed me on the forehead and goes, Lets get Tommy.I guess Ill start feeling my vampyre powers tomorrow night, but right now I feel like a total fucking loser. But I am so going to line up when school starts again.