Tuesday, August 25, 2020

Is the Search for Extraterrestrial Life Doomed to Fail? Essay

The quest for extraterrestrial life isn't bound to fizzle. Antiquated Egyptians, Chinese, Babylonians, Indians, and Sumerians had all had confidence in the presence of extraterrestrial life, regardless of whether they were mainly centered around holy messengers and evil spirits in their conviction. The Jewish Talmud expressed that there are at any rate eighteen thousand different universes. Hindu conviction likewise spun around numerous universes in contact with one another. The Muslims’ Qur’an says, â€Å"All acclaim has a place with God, Lord of all the worlds† other than referencing blessed messengers and jinns (â€Å"Extraterrestrial Life†). In this manner researchers have enough help from recorded and strict conventions of mankind to continue scanning for extraterrestrial life. This hunt may go on until humankind takes a quantum jump, or hits the purpose of an achievement in its undertaking. All things considered, the vast majority of the logical disclosures and jumps didn't happen without industrious endeavors and firm confidence in the way that we will in the end endure. Moreover, researchers are probably the most persevering and sure people on earth today, who realize that they will endure. James F. Kasting composed, â€Å"Habitable planets are probably going to exist around stars not very not quite the same as the Sun if current hypotheses about earthly atmosphere advancement are right. A portion of these planets may have advanced life, and a portion of the possessed planets may have developed O2-rich atmospheres† (291). We are accepting that different species on different planets in our universe might be living in conditions fundamentally the same as our own. As such, in human understanding extraterrestrial life must include the utilization of water, daylight, air, and so on. Notwithstanding, in the event that we have confidence in blessed messengers and jinns of the chronicled and strict conventions, we are instinctually mindful that these species don't depend on the sorts of earthly conditions that we depend on. Henceforth, we may need to change our center IS THE SEARCH FOR EXTRATERRESTRIAL LIFE DOOMED TO FAIL? Page # 2 on earthly conditions so as to discover confirmation of extraterrestrial life. We may find, for instance, that various employments of focal points to twist light or to utilize it in an alternate manner †would permit us to see holy messengers. Our reality has spoken enough about Unidentified Flying Objects or UFO’s. In spite of the photos and onlookers of UFO’s, a great many people in established researchers will not trust in UFO’s and furthermore encourage general society toward skepticism, in light of the fact that most of researchers looking for extraterrestrial life have not up to this point had the chance to catch and analyze outsiders coming out of the UFO’s. But, there is discussion about outsider catch from Area 51 in California. There are endless reports, actually, about the presence of UFO’s. In the event that all researchers were to have confidence in the wonders of UFO’s now, one of the necessities to validate their conviction would be a sure degree of authority over the extraterrestrial life. Seeing that researchers have not so far figured out how to practice authority over UFO’s and outsiders, the manner in which they have command over their spaceships, a large portion of them guarantee that UFO’s and outsiders might be a deception. By and by, this is simply because outsiders and UFO’s have not exposed themselves to human examination the manner in which individuals surrender to human science tests. NASA’s Chief Historian, Steven J. Dick has composed that one of the most significant undertakings of NASA embraced since the start of the Space Age has been the quest for life past earth. Indeed, in the year 1962 the Space Science Board of the National Academy of Sciences had proclaimed that NASA’s early space science endeavors had the quest for extraterrestrial life as the prime objective. Additionally, composes Dick, NASA accepts that â€Å"Without natural particles, the structure squares of life, life can't exist. † To put it another way, the most IS THE SEARCH FOR EXTRATERRESTRIAL LIFE DOOMED TO FAIL? Page # 3 significant logical dare to scan for extraterrestrial life doesn't think about extraterrestrial life being anything not at all like life on earth. In scientists’ see, extraterrestrial life must be founded on conditions that are fundamentally the same as those for life on earth. For instance of its logical triumph in the quest for extraterrestrial life, NASA accepts that it has discovered proof of water streaming on Mars. Alex Stone composes that the nearness of water enormously improves the probability that living life forms once blossomed with the planet, maybe still occupy Mars today. Thus, Stone states: Pictures taken by the camera on NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor propose that rivulets of fluid water were streaming on the Red Planet inside the previous barely any years may at present be streaming today, gushing from underneath the Martian surface and spilling down gorges along the slanting dividers of effect holes. †¦. Be that as it may, is the fluid streaming down these ravines truly water? Most likely, state specialists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, however more proof is expected to seal the case. â€Å"You can never be sure from orbit,† says Ken Edgett, an individual from the exploration group that made the revelation. â€Å"But this is the best proof yet of fluid water being available on Mars right now† (20). On the off chance that we are just scanning for extraterrestrial life that takes after what we have on earth, it could conceivably take a long effort to discover extraterrestrial life. The inquiry would not be purposeless still, for we will assemble a lot of proof about different parts of our universe simultaneously. No different, IS THE SEARCH FOR EXTRATERRESTRIAL LIFE DOOMED TO FAIL? Page # 4 as indicated by chronicled and strict conventions of mankind, holy messengers are made of light and jinns are made of fire. It would maybe be best for researchers to take a stab at discovering life that depends on light and fire for sure. At the end of the day, researchers need to think about how conceivable it is that extraterrestrial life might be founded on a boundless number of components. Water, air, and daylight may not be important to help different types of life. Seeing that we have not at this point found all that we can about our universe, we additionally should accept that we have neglected to consider the potential outcomes of different components making up extraterrestrial life. Consequently, researchers must be more open to investigation than previously, considering both the verifiable and strict customs of extraterrestrial life, all together for their insight base to be finished. All things considered, they despite everything banter about the sources of life on earth †about God versus Darwin. In both of these conviction frameworks, our comprehension of life is fragmented. Neither God nor advancement has disclosed to human personalities everything to think about the universe. Hence, suppositions are essential. In addition, it is significant for researchers to free themselves up to substitute speculations of life. They may choose to begin by attempting to see blessed messengers of light and jinns of fire basically on the grounds that these creatures are alluded to in the recorded and strict customs of humankind. In the long run, we will undoubtedly discover extraterrestrial life, regardless of whether it implies that our earth might be devastated by a space rock before researchers can catch for an enormous scope pictures of holy messengers and jinns. All things considered, we as a whole may experience the encounters of the individuals who have been close to death, that is, there would seem a heavenly attendant of light to every single one of us and mention to us what we had to know. IS THE SEARCH FOR EXTRATERRESTRIAL LIFE DOOMED TO FAIL? Page # 5 Works Cited 1. Dick, Steven J. â€Å"The Search forever. † NASA (2005, June 26). Recovered from http://www. nasa. gov/mission_pages/investigation/whyweexplore/file. html. (28 February 2007). 2. â€Å"Extraterrestrial Life. † Wikipedia (2007). Recovered from http://en. wikipedia. organization/wiki/Extraterrestrial_life. (28 February 2007). 3. Kasting, James F. â€Å"Habitable Zones Around Low Mass Stars and The Search for Extraterrestrial Life. † Origins of Life and Evolution of Biospheres, Volume 27, Numbers 1-3 (1997, June), pp. 291-307. 4. Stone, Alex. â€Å"Like Water For Mars. † Discover (2007, February), pp. 20.

Saturday, August 22, 2020

A Comparison of the Perspectives of the Lost Boys of Sudan with the Term Paper

A Comparison of the Perspectives of the Lost Boys of Sudan with the Typical American Perspectives on Certain Political Concept - Term Paper Example As we comprehend, there is an exceptionally huge contrast between run of the mill Americans and the Lost Boys of Sudan, which make them to see things in an unexpected way. The run of the mill Americans comprehend that it is the motivation behind their administration to guarantee security. Because of this observation, they direct faults to the legislature at whatever point their security is undermined. By and large, the president, who is the head of government, is required to assume liability. The Lost Boys of Sudan, being in a remote nation, don't see this as the motivation behind the legislature. Back in their nation, their administration helped their neighboring networks, the Baqqara, in assaulting and decimating their town (Hecht 20). Because of such things that their legislature back in Sudan used to do, they can't see as the motivation behind an administration to give security to its residents. Back in Sudan, they were controlled by the Sharia Laws, which were not made by govern ment (Hecht 19). These makes the Sudanese not to see that it is the motivation behind government to make laws and guarantee that great arrangements are set up to guarantee legitimate administering of its residents. Americans then again comprehends this well overall. They comprehend their privileges and in this manner necessitate that the legislature doesn't encroach on any of them while making strategies and laws (Lasser 70). They see that it is the motivation behind the administration to guarantee that the laws it makes are not savage to a specific gathering of the network. A few treacheries have been done to these Lost Boys of Sudan by the Sudanese government. Their administration was urging their neighbors to do bad form to them. Thus, these Sudanese don't see as the motivation behind government to guarantee Justice for all. As per Hecht (20) back in their initial time in Sudan, their neighboring network took their assets and their administration failed to address that. Americans through comprehension of their lawful framework and how their judicially functions are careful about their privileges. They see that it is the motivation behind the legal arm of their administration to guarantee that any bad form done to them is rebuffed. The Lost Boys of Sudan see that they don't have capacity to control their political nature. Back in Sudan, they didn't have the ability to choose who they needed to lead them. This was because of the northern predominance and political dangers (Hecht 17). The Americans then again see as their popularity based option to conclude who to have as their leader hence their observation is that they have power over this issue. The Sudanese likewise see that human instinct is loaded with torment and issues. As Dengs and Ajak (1) shows us before he got to the evacuee camp, he was in an edgy circumstance and he was feeling as though he was going to bite the dust one minute from now. He likewise shows that his relatives back in Sudan are endu ring and in this way should be freed. In America, there is small enduring therefore, Americans don't see human instinct from this point of view. They see life as agreeable along these lines not having space for misery. To them just ravenous people incite human instinct with misery. Both see that it is human instinct to help each other in a tough situation. Back in their property in Sudan before the start of the common war, it was their way of life to help. They used to help their neighboring network with water and field (Hecht 20). Americans additionally are extremely kind and larger parts are eager to contribute through helpful associations so as to help the individuals who are upset by war or appetite. They readily helped these Sudanese to settle in their nation (Bixler 146). There is additionally a recognition among the commonplace Americans that an individual to be in freedom to do

Sunday, July 26, 2020

Working on Campus Your Freshman Year Pt.2

Working on Campus Your Freshman Year Pt.2 This past weekend, I attended my companys annual Christmas party, and boy was it a blast! It really got me thinking about how thankful I am to work with such a wonderful company, and how different my college experience would be without my job. Photo Credit: Sweet Lemonade Photography Back in September, I wrote  about working on campus during your freshman year, and mainly focused on how to prepare for the job application process. But now, Id like to talk about why I work as much as I do (and its really not only for the money). Yes, having the money to treat myself to as many BrewLab lattes as I want is great, but its really not the best part of my job. The best things about my job are the friendships I have made with my co-workers, and the connections I will carry with me into my professional career after college. You see, a college education is very important, but having experience in any job field is by far the best advantage you can give yourself for the real world. Photo Credit: Sweet Lemonade Photography That being said, no freshman should be afraid to work. Finding jobs on campus that have flexible hours IS possible, and finding a job in a field that truly interests you makes work not feel like a job, but rather an experience. Get your applications out early, and market yourself well. Dress to impress, and step outside of your comfort zone. Believe me, it will pay off! Rachel Class of 2020 I am studying Middle Grades Education with concentrations in Social Sciences and Literacy in the College of Education. Although I now reside in Champaign, I am originally from Vernon Hills, a Northwest suburb of Chicago.

Friday, May 22, 2020

Financial Reforms Strengthening Financial Stability Worldwide Finance Essay - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 4 Words: 1067 Downloads: 2 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Finance Essay Type Research paper Did you like this example? The banking sector has been always regarded as one of the most regulated industries across the globe. Goodhart et al (2001, p.10) and Llewellyn (1999) identified four main considerations that underpin the rationale for banking regulation: 1.) Banks play a pivotal in the financial system and the economy as a whole through the clearing and payment systems and the transmissions of monetary policy impulses in the money supply process, 2.) It is crucial to mitigate contagion and systemic banking risks to contain economic disasters of financial crises, 3) the necessity to protect small depositors who are unable to monitor their banks risk appetite, 4.) and the control over moral hazard problems created by government financial safety net. Accordingly, Financial Regulators and Central Banks have been bounded with the noble responsibility to safeguard macroeconomic and financial stability. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Financial Reforms Strengthening Financial Stability Worldwide Finance Essay" essay for you Create order By logical deduction, the occurrence of the recent global financial crisis 07/08 is an undeniable proof that banking regulation failed to safeguard the financial stability, Aloko (2010). As a result, over the past three years, the world economy went through the most catastrophic financial storm since the Great Depression. Though the multi-dimensional roots of the crisis were numerous and extraordinary complex, researchers, policy makers, and central bankers underlined macroeconomic imbalances, inadequate risk pricing strategies, poor under- writing standards, weak liquidity and capital buffers, unsound corporate governance practices, altogether combined with exorbitant failings in banking regulations, as the main contributing factors to this global financial mess, Bernanke (2009a), Larosiegrave;re (2009), and Wellink (2008). Regrettably, the failure of financial regulators to timely identify and promptly respond to correct these casual distortions resulted in the worst crisis the world has ever encountered since 1929. Consequently, it has become the primary responsibility of all financial regulatory bodies and central banks to learn from their mistakes and take adequ ate corrective measures to address the shortcomings in banking regulation in order to enhance the future stability of the global financial system. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY Critically matching the main failings in banking regulation with the reforms in progress, there is no doubt that the global financial systems will undergo deep international regulatory reforms which will definitely strengthen financial stability worldwide. This is not the first time a financial crisis is occurring, and it is not certainly the last time. However, addressing the roots of the current one remains an incontestable pre-condition to prevent a potential similar future one. In this research, Chapter II will examine the causes and policy responses of the recent global financial crisis. Far from remaining on the causes and fallouts of the crisis, Chapter III will encompass the main failings in banking regulation, and Chapter IV will critically evaluate the new perspectives for banking regulation post the crisis. What are the main policy actions and global international reforms undertaken by prudential authorities to address failings in banking regulation in the United States an d Europe? Are these reforms in progress strong enough to ensure long-term financial stability? These are some of the most prominent questions underpinning the rational of this dissertation. INTERNATIONAL REGULATORY REFORMS AFTER THE CRISES The financial crisis 07/08 originated from delinquencies in the US mortgage market, escalated rapidly and had a gigantic contagious effect on the entire financial system which spilled over the world economy. As a result of advanced globalization and the interconnectedness of international financial markets, the crisis, which was firstly just the US subprime crisis, spanned out of control at the speed of light and engulfed the global financial system. The crisis seemed to be unexpected by most economics agents and engendered a global panic which destabilized the stability of the international banking and financial system and resulted in drastic damaging economic consequences, Ohler (2010). Subsequent to the eruption of systemic risk trigged by the dysfunction of the banking system over the past two years, government authorities have had an increasing interest on reforming banking regulations and supervision, as well redefining the role of central banks in the reconstruction of a solid and more resilient financial system. Accordingly, as a response to the financial crisis 07/08, there has been an unprecedented appeal for international reforms to strengthen stability, correct failings in financial regulation in order to prevent the world from suffering a future crisis of the same amplitude, Osborne (2009). The call for changes in banking regulation has been at the center of most economic discussions in the United States and in Europe since 2008. Though the crisis is now behind us, its sequels were so disastrous that mitigating the occurrence of a potential future one became the outmost priority of prudential and supervisory authorities, particularly, central banks and international governmental institutions such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Bank for International Settlement (BIS). Not only the crisis reflected regulators inability to prevent and manage such a terrible financial disaster, but it was also a plosive evidence of limitations and flaws of the pre-crisis re gulatory and supervisory framework, Siebert (2008). In the view of shaping the future of banking regulation post the crisis, there has a remarkable effort toward an international consensus of reforms to be undertaken on a global scale. There has been numerous series of meetings, mainly G20 meetings, and an increased collaboration between central banks in the perspective of building up a stronger global regulatory framework. For instance in April 2009, the G20 leaders met to lay down the foundations for measures and actions necessary to strengthen financial regulation and restore confidence. The invaluable cost and consequences of the financial crises 07/08 and the global aspiration of regulators and politicians to reform the architecture of banking regulation for the ultimate goal of restoring confidence and strengthening the stability of the financial system are among the main motivations of this paper. As the complexity of the entire financial system keeps on increasing with developments in financial innovations, there is certainly the need for regulation to adapt and change as well Hildebrand (2009). From a global perspective, the main reforms in progress includes: establishing a comprehensive macro prudential regulatory framework, increasing capital requirements, enforcing a robust liquidity management within financial institutions, supervising and monitoring excessive risk taking behaviors, enhancing risk management, transparency and disclosure, refining deposit insurance and lender of last resort policy to mitigate moral hazard problems, reforming bankers incentiv e systems and putting in place prompt crisis resolution processes to timely address problems relating to systemically important banks, Rochet (2008) and Calomiris (2009a). In the next chapter, the causes and policy responses of the crisis will be analytical examined.

Friday, May 8, 2020

Breaking Bad Analysis - 1429 Words

Breaking Bad- Log 1 Vince Gilligan’s ‘Breaking Bad’ is a TV series about Walter White, a chemistry teacher, who starts cooking Methamphetamine to provide money for his family. In an interview with The New York Times, creator Vince Gilligan said the larger lesson of the series is that actions have consequences. He elaborated on the shows philosophy: â€Å"If religion is a reaction of man, and nothing more, it seems to me that it represents a human desire for wrongdoers to be punished. I hate the idea of Idi Amin living in Saudi Arabia for the last 25 years of his life. That galls me to no end. I feel some sort of need for biblical atonement, or justice, or something. I like to believe there is some comeuppance, that karma kicks in at some†¦show more content†¦Douthat went on to say that Walter White and Tony Soprano represent mirror-image takes on the problem of evil, damnation and free will. Walter as a man who deliberately abandons the light for the darkness while Tony is someone born and raised in darkness who turns down opportunity after opportunity to claw his way upward to the light.[31] Gilligan intimated he would inject undertones of black comedy into the fifth season.[32] [edit]Pink teddy bear The pink teddy bear as seen during the second season A recurring motif within the second season is the image of a damaged teddy bear and its missing eye. The teddy bear first appears at the end of the music video Fallacies for Jesses fake band, Twaà ¼ghtHammà «r, which was released as awebisode in February 2009 leading to the second season.[33] The teddy bear can also be spotted on the mural on Janes bedroom wall during the final episode of the second season, further connecting the crash to Jane. It is seen in flashforwards during four episodes, the titles of which, when put together in order, form the following sentence: Seven Thirty-Seven down over ABQ.[34][35][36] The flashforwards are shot in black-and-white, withShow MoreRelatedBreaking Bad Analysis Essay : Breaking Stupid954 Words   |  4 Pages Breaking Bad Analysis Essay A man wearing nothing but his underwear and a gas mask swerving his RV down the sandy highway of the New Mexico desert. In the RV , there is a Teenager with a gas mask passed out in the front seat and two men dead on the floor of the RV. The RV has crashed into the ditch and the driver who is wearing a gas mask,Walter White, climbs out gasps for air. He put on a shirt that was hanging from the side of the window and ran back into the RV to grab a video cameraRead MorePsychological Analysis of Breaking Bad1755 Words   |  7 Pages Breaking Bad Watching the Breaking Bad series helped me understand how ones superego can deteriorate into their id following Freud’s psychoanalytic theory. Walter White, the anti hero, takes us on a journey which vividly illustrates Freud’s thesis. From watching the series and reading critiques on the Freudian aspect, I will develop my own report on: â€Å"How ones selfishness takes over causing them to be driven by their id† ~ Focusing on Walter White from Breaking Bad The balanceRead MoreAnalysis Of The Movie Breaking Bad 1451 Words   |  6 PagesIn the crime-drama television series, â€Å"Breaking Bad† we follow see the inner struggle of good and evil within the main character throughout the entire series to the point where we question which side of his personality we are witnessing. 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Wednesday, May 6, 2020

Sunshine Chapter 19 Free Essays

string(56) " way I would have chosen to†¦leave this existence\." And Paulie had taken the early shift this morning. (He’d offered.) Okay. We will write a custom essay sample on Sunshine Chapter 19 or any similar topic only for you Order Now My little excursion through nowheresville must have taken no time at all. One of the standard features of nowheresville, maybe, that made a kind of sense, but you didn’t really expect your very own alarming out-of-this-world experiences to align with the science fiction you’d read as a kid. The science fiction you’d outgrown in favor of Christahel and The Chalice of Death. My eyes wandered involuntarily to the gem-festooned goblet. I had to admit my reading had sort of prepared me for an overheated fantasy like this room. About nowheresville I was on my own. Con didn’t look as if he’d suffered any ill effects from his coma, or whatever it had been. I wondered what passed for a near-death experience in a vampire? A slightly misplaced stake? He’d been able to go out foraging, anyway: the bread and the apples were both fresh. â€Å"I wouldn’t have expected you to†¦choose to sit next to a fire,† I said, at random. Sitting next to a fire seemed like the sort of thing only silly, show-offy vampires would do. Like human kids playing chicken in No Town. He didn’t say anything. Oh, good, we’re playing that game again. I ate another apple. He raised his head and shook his hair back in an almost human gesture. Almost. â€Å"We do not need heat as you do,† he said, and I expertly translated the â€Å"we† and â€Å"you† into â€Å"vampires† and â€Å"humans.† â€Å"But we may enjoy it.† Enjoy. I didn’t enjoy thinking about vampires enjoying things. The things they tended to enjoy. â€Å"I enjoy it,† he said, and, surprising me enormously, added, â€Å"it is the warmth of life and the heat of death.† Life as defined by warmth to a chilly vampire? Death by burning, death by the sun? Or the original death of being turned? Maybe he had been harmed by his coma: it was making him introspective. As being bounced off walls appeared to be doing to me. I took a deep breath. â€Å"I – I have had a – a feeling that all was not well with you – for some time,† I said. â€Å"I think it began the night you – healed me. But it took me a while to – to figure out that that was what I was picking up. If I was. If you follow me.† â€Å"Yes,† he said. He didn’t say anything more for the length of time it took me to eat a fourth apple. Hey, they were small. Was it rude to eat, er, food, in front of a vampire? I’d done it before, of course. But if there was a future in congenial vampire-human relations there were grave (so to speak) etiquette questions to be addressed. â€Å"Will you tell me what happened to you?† I said, half irritated at the need (apparently) to drag it out of him, half astonished at my own desire to know. What was this, friendship? Big irony alert. Here we’re both agonizing over this Carthaginian bond business and maybe it’s only that we’re learning to be friends. I could get into fireside sitting as the warmth of life too, probably. Hey, he was still a vampire and I was still a human and there was some other weird stuff, like transmuting and poisoned wounds and nowheresville. Not to mention going out in daylight. But if we were supposed to be friends, I was going to have to get used to the fact that he wasn’t the chatty type. He said, musingly, as if he was listening to his own words as he spoke them, â€Å"I was more wearied by the effort to heal your wound than I realized at once. I had not, you see, ever attempted anything similar before. As I told you, I had to†¦invent certain aspects. Guess others. I am not accustomed to not knowing what I am doing.† One of the advantages of very long life. Lots of time for practice. â€Å"I was careless after I left you. I permitted myself to be preoccupied. I was†¦sensed. By one of Bo’s gang. I needed to escape, and not to let her trace you through me. Another maneuver I am unaccustomed to is protecting the whereabouts of a human.† I had the feeling he was saying something more than, â€Å"And they weren’t going to get anything out of me other than my name, rank, and serial number.† I wondered what a vampire address book would look like: would it have alignments rather than street numbers? What would an alignment index look like? Could one vampire steal another vampire’s address book? â€Å"The first one called for assistance, of course; and they were very†¦persistent, when they caught the trace of you on me as well. I eluded them eventually. It was not easy. I came here. As you found me.† Naked in a dark empty stone room. Vampire convalescence gone wrong. â€Å"You mean you had been like that over a month? You schmuck, why didn’t you call me before?† He looked up at me, and there was undeniably a faint smile on his face. It looked a little grotesque, but not too bad, considering. Nothing like as awful as his laugh, for example. â€Å"It never occurred to me.† I had said to Yolande: Vampires don’t call humans, do they? He looked back at the fire. â€Å"Even if it had, I do not think I would have done so. It would not have occurred to me that you could assist in any way.† â€Å"You called me. You called my name. Once. I wouldn’t have found you if you hadn’t.† â€Å"I heard you calling me. You asked me to answer you.† â€Å"I called you to call me.† â€Å"Yes. Sunshine, do you wish me to apologize again? I will if you desire it. I could not have rescued myself. I was†¦too far away. But I heard you, and I could still answer. You came and†¦brought the rest of me back with you. I am grateful. I thank you. That is not the way I would have chosen to†¦leave this existence. You read "Sunshine Chapter 19" in category "Essay examples" The balance between us has tipped again.† â€Å"Oh, the hell with the damn balance,† I said. â€Å"What I’m thinking is, if you hadn’t needed to protect me, it would have been a lot easier, right? I weaken you, don’t I? Aside from your having got tired already bailing me out that night.† With the blood of a doe. There were times, like now, when the feel of light and warmth was†¦different too. Different like seeing in the dark was different – but differently different. Different in a way I knew didn’t come from a vampire. Is this simple nowness of awareness some gift from her? For a moment there were three of me: there was the human me. There was my tree-self. And my deer-self. Surely we outnumbered the vampire-self? â€Å"Weakened,† he said thoughtfully. â€Å"I think your interpretation of weakness may be distorted. I am physically stronger than any human. I can go without sustenance for longer than any human. But you can derive sustenance from bread and apples, which I cannot. And you can walk under the sun, which I cannot. How do you define weakness?† I was thinking about my experience of bringing the rest of him back. It was a little difficult not to think about comparative weakness when only one of you could fling the other one across a room and into a wall and you were the one that got flung. Okay, I was not going to pursue that line. I sighed. He had already told me he couldn’t stand against Bo alone. Choosing me as an ally might have made more sense to me if getting calories out of bread and apples and going around in daylight had any discernable relevance to the issue. â€Å"Where am I?† I thought he looked puzzled. Another of those vampire-senses-are-different moments, I suppose. â€Å"This is my†¦home,† he said at last. â€Å"You don’t call it home,† I said, interested. â€Å"No. I might call it my†¦earth-place, perhaps. I spend my days here. I have done so for many years.† â€Å"Earth-place? Then we are underground?† â€Å"Yes.† â€Å"What about the fireplace?† He looked at me. â€Å"Doesn’t the smoke say ‘Someone’s here’?† â€Å"The smoke is not detectable in the human world.† Oh. Vampires would hold a lot more than one-fifth of the global wealth if they patented a really good air filter. The cynical view of the Voodoo Wars is that the Others had done us humans a favor, by killing enough of us off and thus lowering the level of industrial commerce to a point that we hadn’t managed to commit species suicide by pollution yet, which we otherwise might well have. Even if they looked at it this way, which I doubted, this would not have been pure philanthropy. Demons and Weres, whichever side of the alliance they’d been on, need most of the same things we do, and vampires†¦well. Maybe it depends on your definition of â€Å"philanthropy.† I looked around a little more. The only light was from the fire, and my dark vision was sort of half-confounded by something about this place, maybe just the thundering excess. Still, I could see a lot, and it was all pretty bizarre. The fur I was wrapped up in appeared to be real fur, long and silky, in jagged black and white stripes. I couldn’t think what animal it might be. Something that didn’t exist, perhaps, till a vampire killed it. With the slinky black shirt – and the bruises – I felt like something off the cover of this month’s Bondage and Discipline Exclusive. All I needed was ankle bracelets and a better haircut. The buttons on the back of the sofa I was lying on were tiny gargoyle faces, sticking their tongues out or poking their fingers up their noses. Every now and then they weren’t faces at all, but pairs of buttocks. The sofa itself was some kind of purple plush velvet†¦except that the shadows it laid were lavender. Well , if I could travel through nowheresville I suppose I shouldn’t protest about shadows that were lighter than their source, or about furs from animals that didn’t exist. My knowledge of natural history in black and white didn’t extend much beyond skunks and zebras anyway. Maybe it did exist, whatever it was. The fur could have been dyed, but somehow this didn’t suit my idea of vampire chic. Actually Con didn’t suit my idea of vampire chic. This hectic Gothic sensibility was a surprise. â€Å"Interesting decorating principles,† I said. He glanced around briefly, as if reminding himself what was there. â€Å"My master had a sense of the dramatic.† I was riveted both by my master and had. As in used to have, as in dead, rather than undead? â€Å"Your master?† I said experimentally. â€Å"This is his room.† Silence fell. Con returned to staring motionlessly at the fire. So much for leading questions. I sighed again. Con, to my surprise, stirred. â€Å"Do you wish to hear about my master?† he said. â€Å"Well, yes,† I said. There was a pause, while he, what? Organized his thoughts? Decided what to leave out? â€Å"He turned me,† he said at last. â€Å"I was not†¦appreciative. But I was apt to his purpose. As there was no going back I agreed to do as he wished.† Another pause, and he added, with one of those more-expressionless-than-expressionless expressions, like his more-than-stillness immobility: â€Å"A newly turned vampire is perhaps more vulnerable than you would guess. I was dependent on my master at first, whether I wished it or not, and I†¦chose to let him teach me what I needed to know to survive. That was many years ago, when this was still the New World.† Eek, I thought. Three or four hundred years ago, give or take a few decades, and depending on which Old World explorers you are counting from. That can’t be right: if he was that old, he shouldn’t be able to go out in moonlight. â€Å"He wished to rule here, when the Liberty Wars came, at least†¦unofficially.† The standard human slang was below ground and above ground. Unofficially would be below ground: being the biggest, nastiest junkyard dog of the dark side. Officially would still be pretty unofficial: control another two-fifths of the world economy, presumably, and make our global council into a bit of window-dressing. â€Å"He might have succeeded, but he had bad luck, and a powerful and bitter enemy with better luck. There were not many of my master’s soldiers left after the Liberty Wars. I was one. Much of my master’s vitality left him with the ruin of his ambition. He turned collector instead. Those of his soldiers that had survived the Wars left or were destroyed, one by one, till only I remained. When my master also was destroyed, I was left alone.† I was glad of the warmth of the fire. Con’s voice was low and, as ever, dispassionate, and I had no clue whether he’d been, you know, fond of his master in any way, maybe after he’d got over being un-appreciative of having been turned. What purpose had Con been apt for? I was sure I didn’t want to know. Good. One question that probably wouldn’t get answered that I didn’t have to ask. Why had Con stayed when everyone else left? I remembered him saying a month ago: There are different ways of being what we are. His master before the Liberty Wars sounded like your common or garden-variety world-takeover odin vampire thug, and a powerful one at that. So why had Con stayed? Con who didn’t even run a gang now. More questions not to ask for fear he would answer. But I didn’t have much clue about the working range of vampire emotion. Blood lust. What else? (Other kinds of lust? Maybe it had been†¦life lust, earlier. No, I wasn’t thinking about that.) Did Con get over being unappreciative by getting over being able to feel appreciative? No – Con had just told me he was grateful for being rescued. But gratitude might be a human concept, applicable merely to a situation that demanded some kind of courtesy, as pragmatically meaningless as thank you. Well, at least he’d, hmm, felt that courtesy was demanded. And then there was Bo. The inconvenient bond between Con and me that we were trying to, um, strengthen, without, um, intensity, was because of Bo’s threat to both of us. I did not like where this thought was going. â€Å"Your master’s bitter enemy†¦was it Bo?† â€Å"No. Bo’s master.† Oh well that made it all better immediately. I stuffed a handful of fur in my mouth to stop myself from whimpering. Con looked up at me. Perhaps he thought the bread and apples hadn’t been enough and I was still hungry. â€Å"I destroyed his master. It’s only Bo now.† I bit down on the fur. Pardon me, I thought, if I don’t find this information overwhelmingly reassuring. Only Bo. And his gang, which had chained Con up in a house by a lake not too long ago from which he escaped only by a very curious chance. Con might not fall for that one again but no doubt there were other possibilities. Bo could be assumed to be the resourceful kind of evil fiend. Another of those possibilities had almost got Con a month ago, for example. Why didn’t Con want to post an ad in the sucker personals – there had to be hidden vampire zones on the globenet – asking for his old comrades in arms to return for a bit and give him a hand? He could pass out the contents of his master’s old room as reward, since he didn’t seem too interested in them. If those were real gemstones in my absurd goblet, it was probably worth the national debt of a medium-sized country. Why didn’t he just run a gang, like a normal vampire of his age? Who should have to because he couldn’t go out in moonlight any more. There were so many questions I didn’t want to know the answers to. I pulled the fold of fur back out of my mouth again, and tried to smooth it down. Teethmarks, not to mention spit, probably lowered its value. I felt horribly tired, and alone, despite my companion. Especially because of my companion. I picked up the goblet again – it nearly took two hands; two hands would certainly have been easier, I was just resisting the idea of needing two hands – and teetered it toward my mouth. As it had seemed a long time before the wine hit the bottom pouring it in, it seemed rather a while before it touched my lips, tipping it back out. Drinking straight from the bottle, however, didn’t seem like an option. Not in this room. In Con’s room maybe – the empty one with no furniture. And no fire. I wanted mountains of dough to turn into cinnamon rolls and bread, I wanted an unexpected tour group on a day we’re short of kitchen staff, I wanted a big dinner party to ask for cherry tarts, I wanted to curl up on my balcony with a stack of books and a pot of tea, I wanted Mel’s warm, tattooed arm around me and daylight on my face. I wanted to go home. I wanted my life back. I had been here before. I had once had all that, and I drove out to the lake one night to get away from it. â€Å"What is this thing, anyway?† I said, heaving the goblet up. I conceded, and used two hands. It could be a loving cup. First prize in vampire league sports. You didn’t fill it with champagne, of course; you cut off the heads of the losing team and poured their blood in. Champagne later maybe when they ran out of the hard stuff. â€Å"It is a Cup of Souls from the ceremony of gathering at Oranhallo.† â€Å"What?† I put it down hastily. Just stop asking questions, Sunshine. No wonder it goddam tingled against my goddam hand. Nobody knows where Oranhallo is. Well, nobody who knows is telling the rest of us. It’s not a big issue on the Darkline but it is one of the things that keeps coming up. Among the people who think it exists somewhere you could describe by latitude and longitude, none of the plausible guesses are anywhere near New Arcadia. But there isn’t any consensus on whether it is a geographic place or merely a part of the rite. It is a big magic handlers’ rite, done by clan. The Blaises probably knew how (and where) to do it, but I didn’t. I didn’t know anything about cups of souls or ceremonies of gathering, but I didn’t want to. â€Å"It is one of the few articles in this room that my master was given,† said Con. â€Å"Usually there was some constraint involved.† I bet there was. â€Å"Why would a magic-handler clan want to give something like this to a master vampire? Especially a master vampire.† â€Å"It was not freely given,† Con said after another of his pauses. â€Å"But it was offered and accepted as payment for a task he had undertaken that was to their mutual benefit. There was some choice about the conclusion to this task. This reward was proposed as persuasion to make one choice instead of another. The Cup carries no taint that might distress you.† And your gracious dining accessories don’t run to wineglasses from Boutique Central. â€Å"Then why does it buzz against my skin?† I said crossly. â€Å"Perhaps because it was the Blaise clan that possessed it,† said Con. I jumped off the sofa, staggered, bumped into the little table, and heard the goblet crash to the floor as I ran off into the darkness. I didn’t get far; Con’s master had been a very enterprising collector, and I wasn’t up to the weaving and zigzagging to make my way through the spoils. I collided with something that might have been an ottoman almost at once, and hit the floor even harder than the goblet had, although I didn’t spill. Further note on vampire emotions, if any: don’t expect a vampire to understand the turbulence of human family ties – including broken ones – or maybe it’s that vampires don’t get it about cowardice, and how a good sound human reaction to unwelcome news is to try and run away from it. I picked myself up. More bruises. Oh good. It wasn’t going to be a mere matter of high-necked T-shirts this time; I was going to need an all-over bodysuit plus a bag over my head. I turned around slowly, balancing myself against some great furled spasm of plaster that might have counted, in these surroundings, as an Ionic pillar. Con was standing up, facing me, his back to the fire, haloed by its light. Maybe it was my state of mind, but he suddenly looked far larger and more ominous than he had since before I knew his name. I couldn’t see his face – maybe my dark vision had been further unsettled by my fall – but there was something wrong about his silhouette against the firelight; something wrong about him being surrounded by light at all. I remembered what I had thought that first time, by the lake: predatory. Alien. He wasn’t Con, he was a vampire: inscrutable and deadly. I made my way back toward the fire. I don’t know if I wanted to reclaim Con as my ally, if not my friend, or if it was that there was no point in running away. I had to pass very close to him to reach the fire; there was only one gap among all the arcane bric-a-brac that would let me through. I knelt on the hearthrug – at least there was a hearthrug, even if the hairy fanged head at one end of it didn’t bear close examination – and held my hands out toward the fire. It felt like a real fire. More important, it smelled like a real fire, and when I leaned too close the smoke made my eyes sting. It spat like a real fire too, and since there was no fireguard a spark fell onto the hearthrug. I glanced down; the hearthrug was unexpectedly unprepossessing, the fur short and brownish and patchy, having had sparks fly into it before. A few new burns wouldn’t ruin its looks because it didn’t have any. I felt hearthrugish. I’d never worried about my looks much; I had always had other things to worry about, like making cinnamon rolls and getting enough sleep. But I was beginning to feel rather too burn-marked. Like I’d been lying too near a fire with no fireguard. Did I hear him sit down near me? You don’t hear a vampire coming: I knew this by experience. But this wasn’t any vampire; this was Con. I’d already promised to help him, if I could, because I needed his help. No. I hadn’t promised. But it didn’t matter. The bond was there. I hadn’t ratified any contract, I’d woken up one morning to discover fine print and subclauses stamped all over my body. If I wanted a signature, it was the crescent scar on my breast. It meant I heard him coming even when I didn’t hear him coming. I waited a moment longer before I turned to look at him. Vampire. Dangerous. Unknowable. Seriously creepy. This one’s name was Constantine. We’d met before. Well. â€Å"What do we do now?† I said. â€Å"I take you home,† said Con. â€Å"Okay, that’s today. What about tonight? Tomorrow?† I said. â€Å"We must find Bo.† My stomach cramped. Maybe it was just the apples. I also had to learn that shilly-shallying was not a vampire gift. I wondered if I could teach him to say â€Å"perhaps† and â€Å"not before next week.† I knew this wasn’t going to be a matter of loading up on apple-tree stakes (or table knives) and knocking on Bo’s front door. â€Å"You don’t know where he, uh, lives.† â€Å"No. I had only begun to search, since our meeting by the lake. He is well defended and well garrisoned.† I glanced up at the invisible ceiling. Given the furnishings the ceiling was probably phenomenal. Or antiphenomenal: like Medusa’s head or the eye of a basilisk. â€Å"I hope you are better defended,† I said. â€Å"I hope so too.† I didn’t like hearing a vampire talk about hope. â€Å"My master specially collected things that defend, or could be turned to defense. He felt that his attempt to win what he desired by aggression had failed, and he wished his subsequent seclusion to be uninterrupted.† Gargoyles and tchotchkes: the vampire arsenal. â€Å"I have always preferred solitude, and have improved on his arrangements. I have some reason to believe that if I never left this place no one would be able to come to me.† â€Å"You are forgetting the road through nowheresville,† I said. Feelingly. â€Å"I am not forgetting,† he said. â€Å"I am assailable by you in a way I am assailable to no one and nothing else.† How to cite Sunshine Chapter 19, Essay examples

Tuesday, April 28, 2020

Us and Them by Pink Floyd free essay sample

Pink floyd is a magnificent band with poetic words as beautiful as the backing music, their creations are all completely brilliant. The song â€Å"Us and them† is a powerful piece Pink Floyd has a way of writing their music so it can be interpreted and truly enjoyed by everyone. Instead of overanalyzing their lyrics we grow and breathe while listening to their amazing works of art and just soak it up and allow it to truly surround your world. The song gives you this impression of how these differences in between me and you exist and â€Å"up and down† but in the end its only â€Å"round and round†. In the end there is only one thing, and we all together as a whole exists regardless of anything. The way the songs rings in your ears makes you truly believe that we’re all together and anything else doesn’t truly differentiate one from the other, there is no point in any fighting, ever. We will write a custom essay sample on Us and Them by Pink Floyd or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page This brilliant British band had this impact on me telling me that â€Å"black and blue and who knows which is which and who is who?, we are all the same. We are all living, and that it is. The only thing that matters is that we’re all here, forever. People should know that sex, race, gender, age doesn’t change anything about who the person is inside. Who’s on what side of the war shouldn’t be a problem anymore, because their should not be a war, we should just all simply exist and love. Just like this beautiful song explains â€Å"Us, and them and after all were only ordinary men.† Us and them: we are all the same.