Tuesday, December 24, 2019

Analysis Of The Book Bitter Watters - 921 Words

Bitter Watters was a book over the author’s experiences under Stalin’s Soviet Union. Andreev-Khomiakov (the author) talks about his everyday life during the years of 1935 to 1941. From the point of being imprisoned in a labor camp in till he has to leave Moscow because of World War II. In the book Andreev-Khomiakov talks about how the Stalin system works daily, and expresses his own opinions about it. He explains how controlled he and his coworkers are by the Soviets. This primary source is helpful to feel what it was like under Stalin’s Soviet Union. After reading Bitter Watters, I have realized Stalin’s totalitarian was an actual thing. Using the words from Andreev-Khomiakov himself, you will see how Stalin’s regime was totalitarian. By giving a summary of a section and then dissecting it with facts will help explain the argument. That Stalin’s Soviet Union was a totalitarian run country during his rule. First we need to briefly go over th e beginning of the book to understand the books direction. The book starts out with Andreev-Khomiakov explaining his thought process of being released from the labor camp. What he would do when he was released. He thought he was ready for the outside world in till he was released. Immediately realizing he learned everything in the labor camp and felt lost. â€Å"I walked through the gates and past the last guard, experiencing no happiness or sense of uplift†. (pg.3) Andreev-Khomiakov was put on a train and sent to a small town of his

Sunday, December 15, 2019

The Last Dance Chapter Six Free Essays

They went in with a No-Knock arrest warrant and Kevlar vests because from what Betty Young had told them, the dude in here was no cookie-cutter. The trouble with most tenement buildings in many parts of this city was that they hadn’t been designed for close police work. Maxwell Corey Blaine did not live on a ranch in Beaucoup Acres, Louisiana, where the sheriffs folk could drive up a tree-lined, moss-covered driveway and then storm the front door with a battering ram, five cops on either side of it – my how all dee catties was afeard. We will write a custom essay sample on The Last Dance Chapter Six or any similar topic only for you Order Now Maxwell – or Maxie, as he was familiarly called by his once and former rat fink girlfriend – lived in a six-story walkup on a narrow street in Calm’s Point, part of a section that had once been beautiful and civilized, had since become ugly and barbarous, and was currently targeted for gentrification in the next ten years, a cycle that was doomed to repeat itself though no one on the city council had a clue. The building was constructed of red brick dimmed by the soot of centuries. The stairways were steep and the hallways narrow. There were four apartments on each floor, and at this hour of the morning – they had assembled outside at a quarter to two – the sounds of deep slumber rumbled from behind double-locked doors. They felt clumsy in the heavy-duty vests. They were dressed for winter as well, wearing layered clothing under the vests, gloveless now that they were inside the building, all of them carrying AR-15 assault rifles. No room for a battering ram in these turn-of-the-century hallways, stairs winding back on themselves until the men reached the fifth-floor landing and regrouped. These men were colleagues and friends. There were no petty quarrels to settle here, no one was trying to trick anyone else into â€Å"taking the door,† which defined the ten most dangerous seconds in any policeman’s life. Kling simply told the others he would take the door. It was him and Brown, he said, who’d initially caught the pizzeria squeal, so this was their case and officially their bust, z/they made a bust here tonight, so he’ d take the door, with Brown and Carella as flankers, and Willis and Meyer as backups. It was very cold on that fifth-floor landing. His breath feathered from his mouth as he whispered all this to the others. He was holding the heavy Colt carbine in both hands. Inside the apartment here, there was a man who’d maybe committed murder, a man the judge had felt was sufficiently dangerous to merit a No-Knock. The team was a good one. These men had worked together before, and they knew exactly what was coming down here tonight, exactly what they were supposed to do. Carella and Brown would flank the door. Kling would kick it in. The moment the lock was history, all three would rush the room, with Willis and Meyer fanning in behind them. If they were lucky, it would all be over in two, three minutes. Kling put his ear to the wood, listening. He heard nothing. He kept listening a moment longer, backed off the door, and ascertained with little head nods that the others were ready. He took a deep breath, brought up his right knee, the left arm extended for balance, his right hand grasping the pistol grip of the rifle. The force of his kick, combined with his forward momentum and the weight of his body, smashed the wood gripping the lock’s bolt to the striker plate and jamb. He followed the splintered door inward, Carella and Brown peeling off from either side of the doorway and rushing after him into the apartment, Meyer and Willis not a heartbeat behind. â€Å"Police!† Kling shouted and behind him the voices of the others echoed the word, â€Å"Police! Police!† as the men fanned into the apartment, eyes darting. Willis hit a wall switch and a ceiling light snapped on. They were in a small, shabby living room crowded with overstaffed furniture. To their left was a tiny walk-in kitchen. On the right wall, there were three closed doors. They guessed the one nearest the entrance opened on a closet. The bathroom was probably behind the middle door, the bedroom behind the last door on the wall, where it would have windows facing the street. No one commented aloud on any of this. They had been in many similar apartments and they knew tenement layouts. They simply moved behind Kling toward the last door on the wall, no hinges showing on this side of the door, it would open inward. He grabbed the knob, twisted it, again shouted â€Å"Police!,† and hurled the door open, the assault rifle leading him into the room. Kicking in the door, rushing the room, zeroing in on what they expected was the bedroom had maybe taken all of thirty seconds. In that same amount of time, the man who’d presumably been in bed when they arrived had already crossed the room to the dresser, opened the top drawer in it, yanked out what looked like a nine-millimeter pistol, and now turned to point it at Kling. â€Å"Gun!† Kling shouted and hurled himself flat on the floor, rolling away from the shooter as Brown and Carella started into the room. The bedroom was dark. In the faint spill of light from the living room, they didn’t see the girl in bed until she screamed, and she didn’t scream until the giant standing at the dresser in white Jockey shorts and a white tank-top shirt fired two shots in rapid succession, not at Kling, but at the doorway, now filled with Brown’s considerable bulk. Brown hurled himself to the left just as the shots exploded. The first slug missed him, missed Carella as well, who was coming through the door behind him. The second slug buried itself in the door jamb. â€Å"There’s a gun!† Meyer shouted back to Willis, and ran through the doorway, firing in the direction of the muzzle flashes. The girl was screaming hysterically now. The guy in his underwear was blasting away at anything that came through that door, hitting nothing but the door and the doorjamb until Willis, the smallest of the targets, came in like a dancer and took a hit in his thigh where there was no vest to protect it. The slug spun him around. His leg slid out from under him. The guy at the dresser suddenly realized there were five guys with heavy assault weapons here, and only one of them was down. He could keep firing away for the rest of the night, with that crazy bitch on the bed screaming and screaming, or he could call some kind of truce here before somebody riddled him like a polka dot pie. â€Å"Cool it, boys,† he said, and threw down the gun. Brown swatted him with an open hand that felt like a ten-pound hammer. On the floor, Willis was trying to stanch the flow of blood from his thigh. The one thing that could take all the joy out of police work was the sudden realization that it wasn’t all fun and games. The graveyard shift had relieved at a quarter to midnight. The assault team had arrived a half hour later, to begin gearing up in the locker room. Now, at a little past four a.m., almost every detective on the squad came to the building on Grover Avenue, wanting to know what the hell had happened. Men not due to relieve until eight that morning came in because they’d â€Å"heard† something. Men who were supposed to be on vacation or out sick came drifting back to the squadroom, wanting to know all the details. Sergeant Murchison told them Hal Willis had got shot, something all of them already knew or they wouldn’t have flocked back here. What they wanted was details, man, but the only people who had the details were the four other cops who’d been along on the bust. Two of them, Kling and Brown, were locked in with the lieutenant and Maxie Blaine. The other two, Carella and Meyer, were at St Mary’s Hospital with Willis. There was no one accessible who seemed to have any hard information, and so the gathered detectives settled for speculation instead. All they knew was that something had gone terribly wrong in that apartment. And since Bert Kling had been leading the assault, the musing cops began thinking perhaps he was the one who’d done something wrong and was therefore somehow responsible for Willis being in the hospital. On the other hand, some of the detectives began thinking that maybe Willis himself had been responsible for his â€Å"accident,† and this led to the further consideration that possibly he was a hard-luck cop. Because either he wasn’t doing his job right – and this was merely whispered – or else he was jinxed. Either way, he was not a man to be partnered with. Police work was dangerous. You did not want to be riding with a hoodoo jinx of a cop who raised the odds. Or so some of the detectives on the squad began thinking, and a few actually began saying, on that bleak December morning. Loyalty among policemen was somewhat like loyalty among soldiers. When the shit was flying, it was all for one and one for all. But that didn’t mean you had to go out drinking together after the battle was fought and won. Or lost, as seemed to be the case tonight, despite the fact that an arrest had been made. All in all, Willis getting shot cast a pall over the squadroom that made business as usual seem not as musketeerlike as it appeared on television. In the squadroom that early morning, there was the usual collection of miscreants dragged in the night before: your snatch of hookers, your stealth of burglars, your clutch of muggers, your dime bag of pushers. Hookers were normally treated with jolly forbearance, the cops copping an occasional feel when opportunity allowed, the girls engaging in mock barter for leniency though they knew from experience that none was in the offing. This morning, it was different. The girls rounded up the night before were brusquely herded into the wagons that would take them downtown to Central Booking, no Sally-and-Sue banter this morning; they were whores, and a cop had been shot, and there was no time for jovial bullshit. Burglars – unless they were junkie burglars – were usually treated with some measure of respect. For reasons understood only by cops, a burglar was mysteriously considered to be some kind of gentleman, even though he invaded a person’s home, violated his privacy, and ran off with his personal goods. Professional burglars were very rarely violent. Cops appreciated this. They would kick a junkie burglar’s ass six times around the block, but they would treat a pro like an equal who merely happened to be on the opposite side of the law. Not this morning. This morning, a cop had been shot, and there was no Hello-George-When-Did-You-Get-Out familiarity. This morning, everybody was a fucking criminal and everybody was guilty. This morning, the victimizers suffered most. Assault was never a very popular crime, but this morning if you’d beaten up an old lady in the park and stolen her purse, you were in for it, man. A minor assault wasn’t the same as shooting somebody, but to the cops of the Eighty-seventh Precinct, it came damn close on this morning when one of their own had been assaulted with a deadly weapon. But â€Å"if you had to be detained at the Eight-Seven this morning, the worst thing to be was a narcotics peddler. Too many police officers had been shot and killed by men selling dope to school kids, and whereas such criminals were never made to feel welcome in any precinct in the city, this morning the association of narcotics to murder and especially the murder of policemen was very keenly felt here at the Eight-Seven – especially when word had it that the perp being interrogated by Kling and Brown was an enforcer for the Colombian cartel. Even aware of recent screaming headlines and protests and marches to City Hall, even cognizant of a public scrutiny that could escalate minor incidents into federal cases, the cops of the Eight-Seven were a mite careless this morning, if not downright reckless, shoving shackled prisoners into holding cells or vans when a mere invitation might have sufficed, using abusive and derisive language, acting-out all their personal fears, rages, and hatreds, treating criminals of any color or stripe exactly like the scumbags, shitheads, and evil sons of bitches they were, while at the same time themselves behaving like the brutal, detestable pricks the citizens of this city always knew they were. Crime did not pay on this particular Thursday morning. Not with a cop in St Mary’s Hospital. She had known Kling was leading a No-Knock arrest early this morning and when she’d first answered the phone and was informed that there was a cop down and he’d been taken to St Mary’s with what was first reported as a stomach wound, she thought it might be Kling. She was relieved to learn that he hadn’ t been the victim, but any cop shot was a problem for Sharyn Cooke because she was a deputy chief surgeon in the police department and her job was to make sure any cop injured on her watch received the best treatment this city had to offer. The unfortunate spelling of Sharyn’s first name was due to the fact that her then thirteen-year-old, unwed mother didn’ tknow how to spell Sharon. This same mother later put her through college and then medical school on money earned scrubbing floors in white men’s offices after dark. Sharyn Cooke was black, the first woman of color ever appointed to the job she now held. Actually, her skin was the color of burnt almond, her eyes the color of loam. Off the job, she often wore smoky blue eye shadow and Yfkk!ft.t coo cS.sM^ywS^ ^we,. To ^j otk, stae, ^ ore to makeup at all. High cheekbones, a generous mouth, and black hair worn in a modified Afro gave her the look of a proud Masai woman. At five-nine, she always felt cramped in the compact automobile she drove and was constantly adjusting the front seat to accommodate her long legs. It took her forty minutes to drive from her apartment at the farther reaches of Calm’s Point to St Mary’s Hospital in th e depths of lower Isola, close by the apartment building in which Maxie Blaine had been captured. St Mary’s was perhaps the second-worst hospital in the city, but that was small consolation. A visit to Willis in the ER assured Sharyn that this wasn’t the stomach wound she’d been dreading, but some two to three percent of all fatal bullet wounds occurred in the lower extremities and the bullet was still lodged in his thigh, close to the femoral artery. She did not want some jackass fresh out of medical school in the Grenadines to be poking around in there and possibly causing severe hemorrhaging. She went immediately to the head of the hospital, a nonpracticing physician named Howard Langdon. Langdon was wearing a gray flannel suit with wide lapels that had gone out of style ten years ago. He was wearing a pink shirt and a knit tie a shade darker than the suit. He had white hair and a white goatee. He looked as if his picture should have been on a fried chicken carton. Langdon had once been a very good surgeon, but that didn’ t excuse the way he now ran St Mary’ s. Sharyn herself was a board-certified surgeon – which meant she’d gone through four years of medical school, and then five years as a resident surgeon in a hospital, after which she’d been approved for board certification by the American College of Surgeons. She still had her own private practice, but as a uniformed one-star chief she worked fifteen to eighteen hours a week in the Chief Surgeon’s Office for an annual salary of $68,000. In this city, some twenty to thirty police officers were shot every year. Sharyn wasn’t about to let one of them languish here at St Mary’s. As politely as she could, she told Langdon she wanted Detective Willis ambed over to Hoch Memorial, half a mile uptown – and three hundred light years away in terms of service and skill, which she did not mention. Langdon looked her dead in the eye and asked, â€Å"Why?† â€Å"I’d like him to be there,† she said. Again, Langdon asked, â€Å"Why?† â€Å"Because that’s where I feel he’ll receive the sort of care I want him to have.† â€Å"He’ll receive excellent care here as well,† Langdon said. â€Å"Doctor,† Sharyn said, â€Å"I really don’t want to argue this. The detective needs immediate surgery. I want him ambed over to Hoch Memorial right this minute.† â€Å"I’m afraid I can’t discharge him,† Langdon said. â€Å"It’s not your call to make,† Sharyn said. â€Å"I run this hospital.† â€Å"You don’t run the police department,† she said. â€Å"Either you have an ambulance at the ER door in three minutes flat, or I’ll have him nine-elevened out of here. Say, Doctor.† â€Å"I can’t let you do this,† Langdon said. â€Å"Doctor, I’m in charge here,† Sharyn said. â€Å"This is my job and my mandate. That detective is moving out of here now† â€Å"They’ll think it’s because St Mary’s isn’t a good hospital.† â€Å"Who are you talking about, Doctor?† â€Å"The media,† Langdon said. â€Å"They’ll think that’s why you moved him.† â€Å"That is why I’m moving him,† Sharyn said coldly and cruelly and mercilessly. â€Å"I’m calling Hoch,† she said, and turned on her heel, walked to the nurses’ station, and snapped her fingers at a telephone. The nurse behind the counter handed it to her at once. Langdon was still floating in the background, looking angry and defeated and sad and somehow pitiable. Dialing, Sharyn told the nurse, â€Å"Get an ambulance around to the back door, and wheel the detective out. I’m moving him.† Into the phone she said, â€Å"Dr Gerardi, please,† and waited. â€Å"Jim,† she said, â€Å"this is Sharyn Cooke. I’ve got a cop with a thigh wound, he’s being transferred right this minute from St Mary’s.† She listened, said, â€Å"Tangential,† listened again, said, â€Å"Nonperforating. It’s still in there, Jim, can you prepare an OR and a surgical team, we’ll be there in five minute s. See you,† she said, and hung up, and looked at the nurse who was standing there motionless. â€Å"Is there a problem, Nurse?† she asked. â€Å"It’s just . . .,† the nurse said, and looked helplessly across the counter to where Langdon was standing. â€Å"Dr Langdon?† she asked. â€Å"Is it all right to order an ambulance?† Langdon said nothing for several moments. Then he said, â€Å"Order it,† and walked away swiftly, down the long polished tile corridor, not looking back, turning a corner, out of sight. Sharyn went to Willis where he lay on a wheeled table behind ER curtains, an oxygen tube in his nose, an IV in his arm. â€Å"I’m getting you out of here,† she said. He nodded. â€Å"You’ll be uptown in five minutes.† He nodded again. â€Å"I’ll be with you. Do you need anything?† He shook his head. Then, quite unexpectedly, he said, â€Å"It wasn’t Bert’s fault.† Section 125.27 of the Penal Law stated that a person was guilty of murder in the first degree when he caused the death of a police officer engaged in the course of performing his official duties. Maxie Blaine hadn’t killed anyone, but he’d opened fire indiscriminately on a roomful of cops armed with an arrest warrant. This meant they had him cold on five counts of attempted murder one, a Class A-1 felony punishable by fifteen to life as a minimum on each count. In this city, you didn’t shoot a cop and walk. No self-respecting D.A. would even consider a plea when he had four other police officers ready to testify that ole Maxie Blaine here had repeatedly pulled the trigger of the gun that downed a fellow police officer. If they needed civilian corroboration, they were sure they could get that from the eighteen-year-old girl who’d been screaming in Maxie’s bed, and whose lawyer had advised her to remain silent until he saw which way the wind was blowi ng here. The girl’s lawyer – whose name was Rudy Ehrlich – didn’t yet know the wind was blowing toward lethal injection, the penalty for first-degree murder in this state. So far, all Ehrlich knew was that his client’s â€Å"friend† had wounded a police detective, and that she’d been a possible witness to the shooting. In such cases, Ehrlich’s motto was â€Å"Speech is silver, silence is golden.† As a matter of fact, this was Ehrlich’s motto in any criminal case. He got a lot of money for this advice, which was only common knowledge to any schoolyard kid who’d ever been frisked for a firearm. Maxie Blaine knew instinctively and through bitter experience on his meteoric rise through Georgia’s criminal justice system that â€Å"Silence Is Golden† was really and truly a terrific rule to follow whenever you were dealing with law enforcement types. He also knew that he had just now popped a cop, and he knew in his secret heart of hearts that a month or so ago he had killed a man the media had later identified as a police informer, so long, Ratso. He suspected the reason the cops had come a-rappin on his door at two in the morning was they needed desperately to know had he really done that little rat bastard. Which he wasn’t ready to admit since he wasn’t pining just yet for a massive dose of Valium. In an instance such as this, where they already had him on inadvertently plugging a cop in a moment of panic, the damn girl shrieking like a banshee and all, Blaine shrewdly calculated that maybe there was a deal to be made if he played his cards right. So whereas he asked for a lawyer – no experienced felon ever did not ask for a lawyer when he was in custody – he nonetheless figured he’d answer their questions until he saw where they were going. The minute he figured out what they really had here – he didn’ t see how they could possibly tie him to the pizzeria shooting – why that was when he could maybe squirm his way out of this, maybe talk the D.A. into covering everything he’d done including the Guido’ s thing for a plea that might grant him parole in twenty years, maybe even fifteen. In other words, he thought the way many criminals think: he thought he could outsmart two experienced detectives, a lieutenant who’ d seen it all and heard it all, and even his own attorney, a man named Pierce Reynolds, a transplanted good ole boy from Tennessee, who naturally urged silence. The interrogation started in the lieutenant’s office at six o’clock on that morning of December 2, by which time Blaine’s attorney had arrived and consulted with him, and Blaine had been read his rights and verified that he understood them. To protect his own ass in any subsequent client-lawyer law suit, Reynolds went on record as having advised Blaine to remain silent and Blaine went on record as having been so advised. All the bullshit out of the way, the questioning proper began at six-fifteen a.m. with Detective-Lieutenant Peter Byrnes himself eliciting from Maxwell Corey Blaine his full name, address, and place of employment, which was a pool parlor in Hightown, or so he said, but then again he wasn’t under oath. If Blaine was in reality breaking heads for someone linked to the Colombian cartel, as Betty Young had informed them, he couldn’t very well tell the cops this was his occupation. Not if he hoped to outfox them and cut a deal later. There was no official police stenographer here as yet, and no one from the District Attorney’s Office. Blaine figured the deck was stacked in his favor. The cops figured they could nail him on shooting Willis whenever the spirit moved them. Getting someone to ride uptown from the D.A.’s Office was a simple matter of making a phone call. But they were angling for bigger fish. They were looking for Murder One. Byrnes opened with a laser beam straight to the forehead. â€Å"Know anyone named Enrique Ramirez?† Blaine blinked. â€Å"Nossir,† he said, â€Å"I surely do not.† â€Å"I thought you might have done some work for him,† Byrnes said. â€Å"Is that a question?† Reynolds asked. â€Å"Counselor,† Byrnes said, â€Å"could we agree on some basic ground rules here?† â€Å"What basic rules did you have in mind, Lieutenant? I thought I was familiar with all the rules, basic or otherwise, but perhaps I’m mistaken.† â€Å"Mr Reynolds,† Byrnes said, â€Å"we don’t need courtroom theatrics here, okay? There’s no judge here to rule on objections, there’s no jury to play to, your man isn’t even under oath. So why not just take it nice and easy, like the song says, okay?† â€Å"Does the song say anything about a cop getting shot tonight?† Reynolds asked. â€Å"Which is why my client is here in custody, isn’t that so?† â€Å"Well, Counselor,† Byrnes said, â€Å"if you’d let him answer my questions, we could maybe find out why we’re here, okay? Unless you want to call the whole thing off, which is your client’s right, as you know.† â€Å"For Chrissake, let him ask his goddamn questions,† Blaine said. â€Å"I got nothing to hide here.† Famous last words, Byrnes thought. Reynolds was thinking the same thing. So was Kling. Brown was wondering if the son of a bitch was going to claim police brutality cause he’d smacked him upside the head back there in his apartment. Blaine all of a sudden thought he had to be very careful here because somehow they’d learned about his relationship with Enrique Ramirez, and that was a road that led directly to Guide’s Pizzeria and a lot of spilled tomato sauce. Byrnes was thinking he had to walk a very careful line here because they’d promised Betty Young sanctuary, they’d asked her to trust them, and he couldn’t now reveal her name or how he’d come into possession of the information she’d given them. â€Å"This pool parlor you work for?† he asked. â€Å"Who owns it?† â€Å"I got no idea.† â€Å"You don’t know who the boss is?† â€Å"Nope. The manager pays me my check every week.† â€Å"What’s the manager’s name?† â€Å"Joey.† â€Å"Joey what?† â€Å"I haven’t the faintest.† â€Å"How’d you get this job?† â€Å"Friend of mine told me about it.† â€Å"What’s your friend’s name?† â€Å"Alvin Woods. He’s gone back home to Georgia.† Go find him, he was thinking. Doesn’t exist, Byrnes was thinking. â€Å"Know a man named Ozzie Rivera?† â€Å"Nope.† â€Å"Oswaldo Rivera?† â€Å"Never heard of him.† â€Å"How about a man named Joaquim Valdez?† â€Å"Nope.† â€Å"That wouldn’t be the Joey who pays you your check every week, would it?† â€Å"I don’t know what Joey’s last name is.† â€Å"Rivera had both his legs broken last April. Were you living in this city last April?† â€Å"I surely was. But I don’t know anything about this Ozzie Rivera or both his broken legs. That sure is a shame, though.† Like to smack him again, Brown thought. â€Å"What were you doing on the morning of November eighth?† Byrnes asked. Here we go, Blaine thought. â€Å"November eighth, let me see,† he said. â€Å"Take all the time you need,† Byrnes said. â€Å"Would that have been a Saturday morning? Cause Saturday’s my day off. I sleep late Saturdays.† â€Å"No, this would’ve been a Monday morning.† â€Å"Then Fd’ve been at the pool hall.† â€Å"Doing what? What do you do at this pool hall, Maxie?† â€Å"I’m a table organizer.† â€Å"What’s that, a table organizer?† â€Å"I see to it that there’s a flow.† â€Å"A flow, uh-huh. What’s that?† â€Å"I see to it that the tables are continuously occupied. So we don’t have people waiting for tables or tables not being played. It’s an interesting job.† â€Å"I’ll bet. Did you ever hear of a man named Danny Nelson?† â€Å"Sorry, no.† â€Å"Danny Gimp is another name he went by.† â€Å"No. Never heard of him.† â€Å"Would you be surprised if I told you he’d stiffed your boss on a minor-league dope deal. . .† â€Å"My boss? Who’s supposed to be my boss?† â€Å"Enrique Ramirez. Who owns the pool hall you work for.† â€Å"I don’t know anybody named Enrique Ramirez, I already told you. Nor Danny Gump, neither.† â€Å"Gimp.† â€Å"I thought you said Gump.† â€Å"Gimp. It means a guy who limps.† â€Å"Has all this got to do with some sort of drug violation?† Reynolds asked. â€Å"Two keys of cocaine,† Byrnes said, nodding. â€Å"Worth forty-two large.† â€Å"You know,† Reynolds said, â€Å"I really think you people should either charge my client with a specific crime or else. . .† â€Å"Ramirez paid a man named Danny Nelson to deliver two keys of coke to a dealer in Majesta,† Byrnes explained genially. â€Å"Danny never showed up and neither did the coke. You don’t do that to Enrique Ramirez.† â€Å"I don’t know anything about any of this,† Blaine said. â€Å"I especially don’t know this Enrique Ramirez person, who I guess you’re saying is somehow involved with dealing dope.† â€Å"El Jefe ? † Byrnes said. â€Å"Ever hear him called that?† â€Å"No. Is that Spanish, what you said?† â€Å"We think El Jefe hired you to kill Danny Nelson,† Byrnes said. â€Å"Ooops, that’s it, Lieutenant,† Reynolds said. â€Å"No, that’s okay,† Blaine said, grinning. â€Å"I don’t know any of these people he’s talking about, so just relax, it’s okay. I’ve got nothing to worry about here. Nice and easy, okay? Like you said, Lieutenant.† Smack him right in the fuckin eye, Brown thought. â€Å"On the morning of November eighth,† Byrnes said, â€Å"did you tell a friend of yours you were going out for some pizza?† Kling looked at him. So did Brown. The lieutenant had just come dangerously close to revealing Betty Young’s identity. If Blaine walked out of here today . . . â€Å"No,† Blaine said. â€Å"What friend?† â€Å"Excuse me, lieutenant. . .,† Kling said. â€Å"What friend?† Blaine insisted. â€Å"A friend you told you were going out for pizza, on the morning Danny Gimp . . .† â€Å"Lieutenant. . .† â€Å"Did you tell a friend you were going out for pizza?† â€Å"This is Betty Young, right?† Blaine said. Oh Jesus, Kling thought. The Loot just gave her up. â€Å"Never mind who it is. Did you . . . ?† â€Å"It’s that fuckin bitch Betty, ain’t it? Who else could it be? What else did she tell you?† â€Å"I would suggest. . .† â€Å"If you don’t mind, Counselor. . .† â€Å"Mr Blaine . . .† â€Å"What did you mean when you said you were going out for pizza?† Byrnes asked. â€Å"I meant I was going out for pizza, what the fuck’s wrong with that? Oh, I get it. She spotted me on the tape, right? She’s going for the re . . .† â€Å"What tape?† Byrnes asked at once. Blaine suddenly shut up. â€Å"Are we finished here?† Reynolds asked. â€Å"Unless Mr Blaine has something else he wants to tell us,† Byrnes said. â€Å"We’re finished here,† Blaine said. â€Å"You heard him. In which case . . .† â€Å"Like what?† Blaine said. â€Å"Come on,† Reynolds said. â€Å"Let’s go.† â€Å"No, like what?† Blaine insisted. â€Å"What would I want to tell you?† â€Å"That’s up to you,† Byrnes said. â€Å"You think it over. Meanwhile, we’re gonna hold you here for a few hours while we assemble some witnesses from the pizzeria. Run a little lineup for them, see if they can recognize you a little better in person than on that tape you were just talking about. The law allows us . . .† â€Å"That was it, am I right? She spotted me on the tape, that fuckin bitch.† Kling was staring at the lieutenant. They had asked Betty Young to trust them. But the lieutenant had given her up. â€Å"You want whose name went in with me?† Blaine asked. â€Å"Is that it?† It was contagious. The black man who’d been Blaine’s partner on the pizzeria shivaree was a dark-skinned Colombian named Hector Milagros. They arrested him in a diner at nine that morning, having breakfast alone in a corner booth. Milagros knew there was no sense trying to force his way out of a situation where his back was to a plate glass window and he was looking at three nines as compared to his singleton thirty-eight. He asked them could he finish his eggs before they got cold. They told him they’ d order more eggs for him up at the station house. Casually, he asked, â€Å"Wass thees all abou, anyways, muchachosT â€Å"We’ve been talking to an old friend of yours,† Brown said. â€Å"Old shooting buddy of yours,† Kling said. â€Å"Maxie Blaine,† Carella said. â€Å"Remember him?† â€Å"Mierda! † Milagros said, and stabbed his fork into one of the egg yolks. Yellow ran all over his plate. By the time the network news broke the following day, both Milagros and Blaine had been indicted by a grand jury for the murder of Daniel Nelson. Expecting they would both be held without bail, Betty Young showed little temerity about revealing herself as the person responsible for their arrest. Ever on the prowl for promotional opportunities, Restaurant Affiliates arranged for presentation of the $50,000 reward check (blown up to gigantic viewing size) on that evening’s six-thirty network news. It did not hurt that Betty Young was an attractive woman with a dazzling smile and a blameless bust. Winsomely grinning into the camera, she thanked RA, Inc. for the check she would use to buy nursing care for her bedridden mother in Florida and a new Chevy Geo for herself. She then expressed the fervent wish that those two ruthless killers would receive the maximum penalty – otherwise she’d be looking over her shoulder the rest of her life, she did not say to the televis ion audience. Literary agents all over the city wondered if there was a book and subsequent movie in this. School children all over the United States wept sympathetic tears into their beers and went out to buy a nicer pizza, hopeful they’d accidentally stumble into a Guido’ s killing of their own and glean a fifty-K reward as a result. Watching the show in bed, eating Chinese food with Sharyn Cooke, Kling wondered aloud if Lieutenant Byrnes had done the right thing. â€Å"Because you know, Shar,† he said, â€Å"Pete had no idea Blaine would suddenly open up. No idea at all. He just threw her to the lions, was what he did. After she gave us her trust.† â€Å"She didn’t look so shy accepting that check,† Sharyn said. He watched her manipulating the chopsticks. She worked them like a pro, clamping them onto morsels of food as if she’d been born in Beijing. He was almost hypnotized. â€Å"What?† she said. â€Å"I like the way you do that.† â€Å"Yeah?† â€Å"Yeah.† â€Å"You do it pretty good yourself, Big Boy,† she said. â€Å"I keep dropping rice.† â€Å"Just don’t get it all over the bed.† â€Å"She really does have a bedridden mother in Florida, you know?† â€Å"Reason she needs the Geo,† Sharyn said. â€Å"Drive on down there to visit the old lady.† â€Å"Stop for a pizza on the way,† Kling said. â€Å"Fifty thousand bucks is gonna buy a whole lot of pizza,† Sharyn said, and pincered a mushroom and popped it into her mouth. â€Å"I never won anything in my life, did you?† she said. â€Å"I grew up with my mother playing the numbers every day of the week, most she ever won was five, ten dollars. I never won a nickel.† â€Å"I won a bicycle once.† â€Å"When?† â€Å"When I was twelve. At a street carnival.† â€Å"No kidding?† â€Å"Yeah. One of these roulette-wheel kind of things. I still remember the number.† â€Å"What was the number?† â€Å"Seventeen. It was black with white trim.† â€Å"The number?† â€Å"The bike.† â€Å"Just like us,† Sharyn said. â€Å"But you know,† he said, â€Å"she didn’t win anything. This was a reward.† â€Å"Right, for ratting on him,† Sharyn said. â€Å"We try to discourage that sort of thinking,† Kling said. â€Å"What sort?† Sharyn said. â€Å"And who’s ‘we’?† â€Å"The police. The sort of thinking that equates performing a public duty with ratting on somebody.† â€Å"Gee, is that whut youpo-licemens try to do?† she said, and put her plate and chopsticks on the night table on her side of the bed, and finished her cup of tea and then slid over to him and kissed him on the mouth. She tasted of every black woman he had ever known. Matter of fact, she was the only black woman he had ever known, the only woman of whatever color he ever hoped to know in the near or distant future. He considered it fortunate that she felt the same way about him, that somehow in this troubled tribal universe, two people from very definitely different tribes had met and decided to give it an honest shot. He thought it miraculous, and so did she, that in the face of overwhelming odds, they were actually making a go of it. Just think of it. A little colored girl from Diamondback grows up to be a deputy police chief, and a white boy on a bicycle he won grows up to be a police detective, and in this hurried hating city, they find each other. And fall in love with each other. Go tell that to your Hutus and Tutsis, your Albanians and Serbs, your Arabs and Jews. They both knew that the God, Country, and Brotherhood bit they’ d each and separately had drummed into their heads in school wasn’t quite where it was at today. They were a black woman and a white man living together in the real world. What they shared was not some idealistic democratic sentiment premised on alikeness. They knew that much of what they felt for each other had to do with identical likes and dislikes, yes, but that really wasn’t all of it. They had similar senses of humor, yes, and they were in the same line of work, more or less, and yes, they had the same tastes in movies and books and plays and they both liked basketball and they both voted identically and yearned for a house and three kids if that was in their future somewhere – but this was America, you know, and so they wondered and worried about that future, and were cautious about wishing too hard for it. In the darkness of the night, where there was no color or lack of color, if they ever thought about whether their samenesses had created the strong and unusual bond between them, they each and separately might have concluded that it had also been their differences. They were not color blind. Any white or black person in America who told you he or she was color blind was lying. In fact, Kling had been attracted to her because she was black and beautiful and he was curious, and Sharyn had been attracted to him because he was so goddamn blond and white and good-looking and forbidden. There were differences between them that spanned continents and oceans and spoke of jungle drums and sailing ships and slaves in chains and white men bartering in open markets and blood on the snow and blood on the stars and blood mixing with blood until blood became meaningless. These very differences brought them closer together. In each other’s arms, in each other’s lives, they shared an intimacy each had never known before, Kling not with any other woman, ever, Sharyn not with any other man, ever. â€Å"A black and white bicycle, huh?† she said. â€Å"Black with white trim.† â€Å"You sure it wasn’t white with black trim?† â€Å"I’m sure.† â€Å"You know what trim is?† â€Å"I know.† â€Å"You know what black trim is?† â€Å"I know.† â€Å"How come you know such dirty things?† â€Å"How come I love you so much?† he asked. â€Å"Sweet talker,† she said. â€Å"You love me, too?† â€Å"Oh, yeah,† she said. How to cite The Last Dance Chapter Six, Essay examples

Saturday, December 7, 2019

Dramatic Irony In Oedipus The King Essay Example For Students

Dramatic Irony In Oedipus The King Essay Examine the role of the Inspector in J. B. Priestleys An Inspector calls  By definition, the word Inspector is 1. An official appointed to inspect. 2. A police officer ranking between a sergeant and chief Inspector.  Whilst a normal Inspector is there to find the perpetrator of a crime, the Inspector in this play appears to be there for very different reasons.  The Birlings, Arthur, Sybil, Sheila, Eric and Gerald Croft, are celebrating Sheila and Geralds engagement, everyone is in a happy and joyful mood. Arthur is lecturing them all on how everything will be all right. Youll be living in a world that would have forgotten all these capital versus Labour agitations and all these silly little war scares.  He also says that there will not be a war, the Titanic is unsinkable and that a man has to mind his own business and look after himself and his own. This is dramatic irony as the audiences of this play have probably lived through these events.  Suddenly the doorbell rings and the Inspector enters. This happens at such a crucial point, almost to save Arthur Birling from embarrassing himself in front of the cast and post-war audience of 1945. At first, the Inspector appears to be like any ordinary Inspector of that time,  Stage directions page 11  Ã‚  A man in his fifties, dressed in a plain darkish suit of the period.  He blends in with the Birlings, and does not look unusual. He comes with news of a young girl called Eva Smith, who committed suicide due to swallowing disinfectant. So at first sight, the play appears to be a whodunit genre, in which traditionally the identity of the criminal would be revealed. Here however, each character is shown as an accomplice to murder, though not one of them has done anything to Eva Smith which a court of law would describe a crime. We know Eva Smith has committed suicide, so why is the Inspector questioning the Birlings if there is no criminal? What is he trying to prove? If hes not an Inspector, what is he? There appears to be links between the Inspector and the supernatural, he appears to have some supernatural connotations, his very name suggests this:  The fact that this will sound to the audience like ghoul (meaning ghostly specter) means that they immediately wonder about his origins; the characters on stage may not necessarily pick up on this, especially as he clearly spelt his name out for them, to avoid confusion perhaps. The obvious pun on Inspector Gooles name could portray him as some kind of spirit, sent on behalf of the dead girl to torment the consciences of the characters in the play. Alternatively, he could be some sort of cosmic policeman conducting an inquiry as a preliminary to the day of judgement, or simply as a forewarning of things to come. It seemed that J. B priestly did not want to give away the Inspectors true identity, to have revealed his identity as a hoaxer or as some kind of sprit would have spoilt the tension that makes the play so effective.  There is an air of menace about the Inspector, he is there for a particular reason, and intimidates the other characters. He speaks carefully, weightily, and has a disconcerting habit of looking hard at the person he addresses before actually speaking.  He speaks carefully so that nothing is misunderstood, so he fits in with the upper class and middle class people. He is there to give them all a vitally important message and it can not be confused, he speaks with a sense of authority and his disconcerting habit is very intimidating. If he does not behave in this way, he may not be taken as seriously and so his message will not be noticed.  On the stage, the Inspector must appear real, at first there must be no mistake in his identity, these stage directions ensure this. .uca6724b7603e32b651c53a2c72c22a77 , .uca6724b7603e32b651c53a2c72c22a77 .postImageUrl , .uca6724b7603e32b651c53a2c72c22a77 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .uca6724b7603e32b651c53a2c72c22a77 , .uca6724b7603e32b651c53a2c72c22a77:hover , .uca6724b7603e32b651c53a2c72c22a77:visited , .uca6724b7603e32b651c53a2c72c22a77:active { border:0!important; } .uca6724b7603e32b651c53a2c72c22a77 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .uca6724b7603e32b651c53a2c72c22a77 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .uca6724b7603e32b651c53a2c72c22a77:active , .uca6724b7603e32b651c53a2c72c22a77:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .uca6724b7603e32b651c53a2c72c22a77 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .uca6724b7603e32b651c53a2c72c22a77 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .uca6724b7603e32b651c53a2c72c22a77 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .uca6724b7603e32b651c53a2c72c22a77 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .uca6724b7603e32b651c53a2c72c22a77:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .uca6724b7603e32b651c53a2c72c22a77 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .uca6724b7603e32b651c53a2c72c22a77 .uca6724b7603e32b651c53a2c72c22a77-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .uca6724b7603e32b651c53a2c72c22a77:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Blood Brothers by play write Willy Russell EssayCreates at once an impression of massiveness, solidity and purposefulness.  He seems to fill the whole stage, the characters may not notice him at first, but the audiences certainly do! It is very important that he appears to be real as questions may be asked about his identity and existence before he leaves. He has a job to do, he is there for a purpose, and it is not a social call!  The Inspector questions each of the Birlings and Gerald Croft individually and in very different ways. Not necessarily in the way an Inspector would traditionally ask questions relating to a suicide.  One person and one line of enquiry at a time.  He wants to be in control of the enquiry. If everyone is talking at once, key details may be missed out. The Inspector changes his style of questioning depending on who he is talking to. This is an open question, which requires a detailed answer; the Inspector only uses open questions on Sheila, Eric and Gerald because they are easier to get information out of. He has to use closed questions for Mr. and Mrs. Birling.  Inspector (to Mr. Birling) I think you remember Eva Smith now, dont you?  Mr. Birling must answer yes or no to this question, there is no other way around it.  Mrs. Birling is even more difficult to question.

Saturday, November 30, 2019

Neville Brody Essays - Type Foundries, Communication Design

Neville Brody Neville Brody is an internationally known British graphic designer and typographer, who is best known for his work on magazines, most notably ?The Face.' This magazine transformed the way in which designers and readers approach typography and layout. In addition to his magazine work, he designed record covers for such independent record companies as Fetish, Hannibal, and Phonogram Records in the 1980s. Along with his other work, Brody created a vast amount of type faces throughout his career. A few of these types are Arcadia, Industria, and Insignia. Brody was born in 1957 and grew up in Southgate, which is a suburb of North London. He commented that he does not remember a time in his life when he was planning to do anything other than art or painting. In 1975, Brody attended the Fine Art Foundation Program at Hornsey College of Art. The school was extremely conservative and at this time Brody decided to pursue a career in graphics instead of the Fine Arts. He says why can't you take a painterly approach within a printed medium? In the autumn of 1976, Brody started a three-year BA course in graphics at the London College of Printing. Brody says he hated his time there, but that it was necessary to his development as a designer. I wanted to communicate to as many people as possible, but also to make a popular form of art that was more personal and less manipulative. I had to find out more about how the process worked. The only way possible was to go to college and learn it, His work was often considered too experimental. At one stage he was almost thrown out of the school for putting the Queen's head sideways on the design of a postage stamp. If tutors said they liked something I was doing, I would go away and change it, because suc h approval then made me think there must be something wrong with the work. I think that was a very positive and healthy attitude. Brody's attitude on computers has changed a lot since he first started using them. His view had been that if you could do something by hand, you should not use a machine. In 1987, Brody forced himself to play around with a friend's computer. He says learning to use the Macintosh computer was a slow process. But in the end Brody acquired his skills with the mouse by playing a game called Crystal Quest for hours, instead of working. He realized all the ways that he could manipulate his work on a computer that he absolutely could not have done any other way. Although he still believes that hands on experience is definitely necessary, he realizes that computers open up a whole avenue that would not be possible without their development. Dadaism and pop art have largely influenced Brody's work. Although he says he never sought to copy these styles, he took from them a sense of dynamism and humanism and a non-acceptance of the traditional rules and values of art. These elements can be seen in Brody's typefaces, which are have a very original and expressive design. All along the line, Neville Brody has tried to create and use typefaces that go against the grain of contemporary fashion. Others that have influenced Brody are Man Ray and Lazlo Maholy-Lazlo's photography. Both of these men were able to stretch the limits of their fields, by inventing and manipulating techniques as never before. After his graduation, in the late 1970s, Brody began to design record covers for British punk music companies such as Fetish and Hannibal. The punk music scene then was more concerned with the ideas behind the music than with the actual music. Brody's outrageous cover designs were readily accepted by these companies. Cabaret Voltaire and 23 Skiddo were two bands that he worked extensively for on album covers. In 1981, Brody began working for a magazine called ?The Face.' During this time he questioned the traditional structure of magazine design. Why be inhibited by the edges of the page?says Brody. His main concerns were to encourage people to have to look twice at a page and to make the magazine as visually interesting as possible. Brody worked at

Tuesday, November 26, 2019

Effects of Depressed Mothers on Infants

Effects of Depressed Mothers on Infants In studying disturbed interactions of depressed mothers and their newborns, it has helped us realize the importance of early interactions with infants that can effect later development. Infants who interact with depressed mothers (particularly chronically depressed mothers) have a higher risk for later negative social interaction and behavioral problems. Depressed behavior in mothers is related to affective and disturbances in infants (Abrams, Field, Scafidi, To measure their behavior-state matching the attentive/affective behavior states of three-month-old infants and their mothers were coded on a negative-to-positive scale (Field, 1995). The data suggested that the depressed mothers and their infants matched negative behavior states more often and less positive behavior states less often than the non-depressed dyads. The depressed dyads spent a greater amount of time together in negative states. In contrast, the non-depressed mother-infant dyads spent more time in playful states together. The infants of depressed mothers greater emphasis to their mothers negative behavior imply that the infants may be ...

Friday, November 22, 2019

Business Strategy Essay Example for Free (#2)

Business Strategy Essay In 2006, Starbucks’, the ubiquitous coffee retailer, closed a decade of astounding financial performance. Sales had increased from $697 million to $7.8 billion and net profits from $36 million to $540 million. In 2006, Starbucks’ was earning a return on invested capital of 25.5%, which was impressive by any measure, and the company was forecasted to continue growing earnings and maintain high profits through to the end of the decade. How did this come about? Thirty years ago Starbucks was a single store in Seattle’s Pike Place Market selling premium roasted coffee. Today it is a global roaster and retailer of coffee with more than 12,000 retail stores, some 3,000 of which are to be found in 40 countries outside the United States. Starbucks Corporation set out on its current course in the 1980s when the company’s director of marketing, Howard Schultz, came back from a trip to Italy enchanted with the Italian coffeehouse experience. Schultz, who later became CEO, persuaded the company’s owners to experiment with the coffeehouse format—and the Starbucks experience was born. Schultz’s basic insight was that people lacked a â€Å"third place† between home and work where they could have their own personal time out, meet with friends, relax, and have a sense of gathering. The business model that evolved out of this was to sell the company’s own premium roasted coffee, along with freshly brewed espresso-style coffee beverages, a variety of pastries, coffee accessories, teas, and other products, in a coffeehouse setting. The company devoted, and continues to devote, considerable attention to the design of its stores, so as to create a relaxed, informal and comfortable atmosphere. Underlying this approach was a belief that Starbucks was selling far more than coffee – it was selling an experience. The premium price that Starbucks charged for its coffee reflected this fact. From the outset, Schultz also focused on providing superior customer service in stores. Reasoning that motivated employees provide the best customer service, Starbucks executives developed employee hiring and training programs that were the best in the restaurant industry. Today, all Starbucks employees are required to attend training classes that teach them not only how to make a good cup of coffee, but also the service oriented values of the company. Beyond this, Starbucks provided progressive compensation policies that gave even part-time employees stock option grants and medical benefits – a very innovative approach in an industry where most employees are part time, earn minimum wage and have no benefits. Unlike many restaurant chains, which expanded very rapidly through franchising arrangement once they have established a basic formula that appears to work, Schultz believed that Starbucks needed to own its stores. Although it has experimented with franchising arrangements in some countries, and some situations in the United States such as at airports, the company still prefers to own its own stores whenever possible. This formula met with spectacular success in the United States, where Starbucks went from obscurity to one of the best known brands in the country in a decade. As it grew, Starbucks found that it was generating an enormous volume of repeat business. Today the average customer comes into a Starbucks’ store around 20 times a month. The customers themselves are a fairly well healed group – their average income is about $80,000. As the company grew, it started to develop a very sophisticated location strategy. Detailed demographic analysis was used to identify the best locations for Starbuck’s stores. The company expanded rapidly to capture as many premium locations as possible before imitators. Astounding many observers, Starbucks would even sometimes locate stores on opposite corners of the same busy street – so that it could capture traffic going different directions down the street. By 1995 with almost 700 stores across the United States, Starbucks began exploring foreign opportunities. First stop was Japan, where Starbucks proved that the basic value proposition could be applied to a different cultural setting (there are now 600 stores in Japan). Next, Starbucks embarked upon a rapid development strategy in Asia and Europe. By 2001, the magazine Brandchannel named Starbucks’ one the ten most impactful global brands, a position it has held ever since. But this is only the beginning. In late 2006, with 12,000 stores in operation, the company announced that its long term goal was to have 40,000 stores worldwide. Looking forward, it expects 50% of all new store openings to be outside of the United.i 1. What functional strategies at Starbucks’ help the company to achieve superior financial performance? 2. Identify the resources, capabilities and distinctive competencies of Starbucks? 3. How do Starbucks’ resources, capabilities and distinctive competencies translate into superior financial performance? 4. Why do you think Starbucks’ prefers to own its own stores whenever possible? 5. How secure is Starbucks’ competitive advantage?What are the barriers to imitation here? Starbucks 10K, various years; C. McLean, â€Å"Starbucks Set to Invade Coffee-Loving Continent,† Seattle Times, October 4, 2000, p. E1; J. Ordonez, â€Å"Starbucks to Start Major Expansion in Overseas Market,† Wall Street Journal, October 27, 2000, p. B10; S. Homes and D. Bennett, â€Å"Planet Starbucks,† Business Week, September 9, 2002, pp 99–110; J. Batsell, â€Å"A Bean Counters Dream,† Seattle Times, March 28th, 2004, page E1; Staff Reporter, â€Å"Boss Talk: it’s a Grande Latte World†, Wall Street Journal, December 15, 2003, page B1. States. C. Harris, â€Å"Starbucks beats estimates, outlines expansion plans†, Seattle Post Intelligencer, October 5th, 2006, page C1 Business Strategy. (2017, Jan 06). We have essays on the following topics that may be of interest to you

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Using Buddhism in Todays Modern World Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Using Buddhism in Todays Modern World - Essay Example Many people associate Buddhism with all sorts of things, i.e. incense, bald monks, temples, the figure of Buddha sitting with a benign smile on his face, chanting, vegetarianism, etc. I know this to be the case because these are words and images I get whenever I ask people to free-associate on the word Buddhism. One person even associated Buddhism with liquor because he had just gone the night before to a place called Buddha bar! What all these shows are instances of an average person on the street having all sorts of preconceptions about Buddhism. Even those who have read little about it have all sorts of misconceptions about it, thinking that Buddhism is pessimistic for emphasizing on suffering, or that Buddhism is a religion that regards the Buddha as a god. What I want to do in this paper is to go beyond the rituals and external trappings of Buddhism in order to touch the deeper core of the teachings. This will help me understand how Buddhism could help us cope with life’s struggles in today’s modern world. At the heart of Buddhism is The Four Noble Truths (Hanh 9). This is the very foundation of Buddhist teachings, which differentiate it from other religions. These teachings say that (1) human existence is characterized by suffering, (2) that there is a cause for suffering, (3) that there is a way out of suffering through the elimination of its cause, and (4) that there is a path leading to the cessation of suffering (Hanh 9-11). In most Buddhist texts, it is said that the cause of suffering is trishna or craving (Bercholz and Kohn 64). We suffer because we have too many wants and needs. We own a cell phone but soon grow dissatisfied with it as soon as a new model comes along; we own a car but soon get dissatisfied with it because we desire a better, faster or more luxurious model; we have a perfectly good relationship with someone but then look for someone else because we want something new and more exciting. All these desires inevitably lea d to suffering because we cannot possibly fulfill them all. In the end, we get utterly frustrated. Actually, if we think about it hard enough, there are many causes of suffering, since there are many types of suffering. The suffering that results from viral infection that makes you sick is not due to desire but to the presence of a virus that has infected you. Some other forms of suffering that do not have desire as their root cause would be a headache, a toothache, a broken limb, and various other physical pains. These forms of suffering, which are all physical, are to be distinguished from other forms of suffering which are mental. Examples of mental suffering would be depression, worry, jealousy, regret, anxiety, etc. Between the two general forms of suffering, it is the mental type of suffering that the Buddhism tries to address because they believe that this is the more serious type of suffering. When you are sick with a fever, you can make yourself feel better by changing your attitude about your sickness to a rather positive light. However, if you are suffering from some sort of mental anguish, it does not quite help if you work on the body. In fact, people do not commit suicide because of a toothache, but there are those who would commit suicide because of a heartache. The Role of The Mind What we need to understand at this point is that the mind plays a very big role in human suffering. We need to understand this very clearly if we want to get a glimpse of the heart of Buddhist teachings. Here, we emphasize on the importance of one’s attitude or state of mind with regards to the experience of happiness and suffering (Smith 245). If we think about it close enough, we should also come to the conclusion that our state of mind also affects other people’s happiness or suffering. Here is an example to illustrate this point. Suppose you have just received word that the backpack which you lost in school was finally found with everything intact.

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

America's Post-Civil War Growing Pains Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

America's Post-Civil War Growing Pains - Essay Example The period was also meant to resolve issues caused by reunion of the 11 states which had seceded before the outbreak of the Civil war. The period witnessed a race struggle between the two races i.e blacks and white where the whites attempted to make blacks second class citizens with little involvement of running public issues. The whites had occupied the economic and political power houses until 1890s which witnessed the rise of populist members’ movements. The reconstruction period was also meant to insure the freed blacks from the draconian laws and policies of the white. Worth noting is that during the America Civil war, president Lincoln had declared a state emergency, and consequently assumed most of the congress powers and this had caused a lot of friction between the congress and the presidency. This would later spill in the reconstruction period where the two centers of power would fight over who lead the reconstruction period. Most members of the congress, more so tho se referred as the â€Å"Radical Republicans† vigorously rejected the president’s assumption of the congress powers. ... According to Altbach, P.G and Umakosh T. (2004) another major turning was the adoption of the three constitutional amendments 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments commonly known as the Reconstruction Amendments. The three amendments generally sought to abolish slavery, guarantee all citizens of United States citizenship irrespective of their birth status and a guarantee of federal civil rights. According to Nicholas Lemann, (2007), the passage of the three amendments marked a legacy in the constitutional development of United States as it gave rise to serious and extensive litigation which led to pronouncements of progressive judgments by Supreme Court leading to striking down of discriminatory state laws. These amendments have had an effect to the current America current society, economy, politics, and culture as it has allowed Americans from all corners of the world to have citizenship and participate in its economic and cultural life. Ways in which reconstruction period could have been different if Lincoln had not been assassinated If President Lincoln had not been assassinated, the reconstruction period would have seen more twists and turns than the ones experienced during his successor’s Presidency. Peterson (1995) argues that he would have interacted with Congress in a fairly far less difficult due to his superior political skills, pragmatism and flexibility. On the other hand, Rawley (2003) believes that there would have been attempts by the Radicals to impeach Lincoln and this would have complicated the reconstruction period. Effects of industrialization and urbanization on the average American between 1865-1900 The end of the Civil War provided a great

Saturday, November 16, 2019

Child and Young Person Development Essay Example for Free

Child and Young Person Development Essay 1) Describe, using the examples in the case study, the kinds of influences that affect children and young peoples development. Include examples from the family and childrens background, health and environment. (2.1) In the case study there are many influences that affect the children and young peoples development in the family; this can be because of the background of the family, the health and also the environment they live in. The mother and father were both in foster care when they were young, so they won’t have a motherly/fatherly figure to look up to when looking after their own children. Their fridge/freezer is broken so they can’t keep food fresh, so they will have to eat tinned food. The twins, Melody and Michael, were born 14 weeks premature so they will need all the nutrience they can get to help them grow and get healthy. The flat they all live in is crowded because there are 8 of them to share 3 bedrooms and a small lounge and kitchen. The lift in the flat is broken so the children cant go out to play and get exercise. Also when the lift isnt working the twins cannot attend the nursery, so they will not learn all the simple things you learn in nursery. The mother cannot leave the flat to shop for food, so they will have to eat less food for each meal to last them until she can get to the shops. Also their father cannot leave the flat because he has a severe disability and he has to stay in bed. He can’t even work because of it, and the mother cant work because she has to look after the children and Wayne too, so they have to live on benefits. Their flat is right next to an industrial estate where many chemicals are used; it is letting off all the chemicals and polluting the air. Therefore the children cant really go out anyway because of the polluted air, it will make them ill. Nigel, who is 7, has asthma and it gets worse when the weather is overcast. Also it doesnt help when the flat has damp patches everywhere that will make Nigels asthma worse. These are the influences that affect the children and young people’s development in the case study. 2) Describe, with examples, the importance of recognising and responding to concerns about children and young people’s  development. (2.2) It is important to recognise and to respond to concerns about children and young people’s development. To prevent a child or young person being neglected or in risk of harmful situations such as violence, drugs or alcohol misuse you can deliver early intervention. This is a support system for children with developmental disabilities or delays and their families. If someone recognises a child or young person getting hurt/abused by parents/family then they should respond to it by calling the social services. That way they can deal with the abuse, and take the child away from the family. Then the child couldn’t get hurt and they will be able to develop more. If you was a student and have a work placement at a nursery/ preschool and you notice that a child has bruises or is acting in a weird way, like being really quite than usual you may think that something is wrong. There are a couple of things you could do; you could ask the child if there is anything wrong if you get no answer then you could tell your supervisor or another member of staff. That way they could do something about it such as, they can ask the child what’s wrong or they could contact the parents. In the case study the family live in a flat right next to an industrial estate which is letting off lots of chemicals and polluting to air, and the children can’t go out to play because of that, it could make them really ill. The parents could go/talk to the council about getting a council house, and then the children can go out and play to get exercise to help them to develop. These are some ways of recognising and responding to concerns about children and young people’s development.

Thursday, November 14, 2019

The History Of The Industrial Workers of the World :: The History Of The IWW

The Industrial Workers of the World is an ample union who are commonly known as the IWW and the Wobbles. During the time period between 1900 and 1930 the United States focused their attention and was occupied with the Labor Union Movement, which started in the late 1800’s and also World War I which began a later. The IWW stood strong throughout and never gave up for what they were fighting for. This can be seen through their slogan, â€Å"An injury to one is an injury to all.† Their messages were effective and drew a plethora of heads. The IWW accomplished certain goals and acquired a reputation in society during that time even though straight from the start, United States government was not on their side. Founded in 1905 by men with bitter experiences in the labor struggle, the Industrial Workers of the World held their headquarters in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They were based solely on the fact that workers should be united within a single union and the wage system should be abolished as stated in the preamble to their constitution. "The working class and the employing class have nothing in common. There can be no peace so long as hunger and want are found among millions of the working people and the few, who make up the employing class, have all the good things of life. Between these two classes a struggle must go on until the workers of the world organize as a class, take possession of the means of production, abolish the wage system, and live in harmony with the Earth. ... Instead of the conservative motto, 'A fair day's wage for a fair day's work', we must inscribe on our banner the revolutionary watchword, 'Abolition of the wage system'.† The IWW proclaimed a challenge to existing unions and social order that was dominated by the rise of copious monopolies. The History Of The Industrial Workers of the World :: The History Of The IWW The Industrial Workers of the World is an ample union who are commonly known as the IWW and the Wobbles. During the time period between 1900 and 1930 the United States focused their attention and was occupied with the Labor Union Movement, which started in the late 1800’s and also World War I which began a later. The IWW stood strong throughout and never gave up for what they were fighting for. This can be seen through their slogan, â€Å"An injury to one is an injury to all.† Their messages were effective and drew a plethora of heads. The IWW accomplished certain goals and acquired a reputation in society during that time even though straight from the start, United States government was not on their side. Founded in 1905 by men with bitter experiences in the labor struggle, the Industrial Workers of the World held their headquarters in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They were based solely on the fact that workers should be united within a single union and the wage system should be abolished as stated in the preamble to their constitution. "The working class and the employing class have nothing in common. There can be no peace so long as hunger and want are found among millions of the working people and the few, who make up the employing class, have all the good things of life. Between these two classes a struggle must go on until the workers of the world organize as a class, take possession of the means of production, abolish the wage system, and live in harmony with the Earth. ... Instead of the conservative motto, 'A fair day's wage for a fair day's work', we must inscribe on our banner the revolutionary watchword, 'Abolition of the wage system'.† The IWW proclaimed a challenge to existing unions and social order that was dominated by the rise of copious monopolies.

Monday, November 11, 2019

Ownership and location of Tesco and McDonalds Essay

There are many different types of business ownership. The four main privately owned enterprises are: Sole traders – owned and run by one person. Partnerships – owned and run by two or more people. Private limited companies – often a business run by a family protected by limited liability. Public limited companies – large organisations whose shares are floated on the stock exchange. In addition there are two other types: Co-operatives – where a group of people run the enterprise together and share the profits or loses. Franchise – where a large organisation allows a person to sell its products and use its name in exchange for a fee and a share of the profits. All privately owned enterprises are able to be divided into two groups: Those with unlimited liability – sole traders and partnerships Those with limited liability – all companies, some franchise and some co-operatives. Unlimited liability means that the owners are responsible for all the debts. They may even have to sell personal possessions to pay them. If this is not possible then they will declared bankrupt. Limited liability restricts the responsibility of being responsible for all you debts. You only have to pay the debts to the limit of what was invested. Not usually do they have to sell their personal possessions. There are many different advantages and disadvantages to all different types of ownership: Sole traders – owned and run by one individual. Advantages: * The owner has full control of the business and all of its profits. * All profits go to the owner. * The owner can make decisions independently without the need to consult anybody else. * Can easily create a report with customer. * Has the ability to exploit niche market. * No Set up for procedures. Disadvantages: * The owner has unlimited liability. * The profits get ploughed back into the business. * To expand the business, financing needs to be found. Partnerships – Owned and run by two or more people. Advantages: * The responsibility of running and managing the company is shared between the two partners. * Access to a wider range of skills. * More ideas and strategies. * Capitals from the partners can bring in more capital and expansion is possible. * Greater ability to gain bank loans/ financial backing. * No need to file accounts for the public. Disadvantages: * Partnerships have unlimited liability. * If a partner leaves or he/ she is not for filling his/ her position it could affect the business. * A decision has to be made a partner can take it upon his/ her self to make the decision and not consult the other partners. Private limited companies – Often a family run business with the protection of limited liability. Advantages: * Shareholders who own the company may have limited liability. * Business finances and the owner’s finances are separate. * Can take more risks due to limited liability * Usually shareholders are closely involved with the running of the business. * Can raise capital more easily. * More professional appearance: more internal structure. Disadvantages: * Shares can only be sold with the permission of the shareholders. * Shares cannot be sold to the public. * Due to their internal structure more formalities arise. * Larger overhead costs of running the companies. Public limited companies – large organisations whose shares are floated on the stock exchange. Advantages: * Shareholders who own the company have limited liability. * Business finances and the owner’s finances are separate. * Shares can be bought and sold on the stock exchange. * Greater ability to raise further capital and expand resources. * Additional shares can be issued for more funding. * More professional appearance. Disadvantages: * There is a danger of being taken over by another company with the trade of shares. * Less flexible in structure. * More formalities when dealing with decision making. * Larger overhead costs of running the company. Franchise – this is a large company who you pay to use the name of. Advantages: For the franchisee * You will own a business that is already running which means it is nearly a guaranteed success. * You will own an already established company. * Capital should be easier to raise because you will be operating under a well known name. * The franchiser will give advice foe the business running and equipment. For the franchisor * They have the possibility to expand very quickly. * It is easier to expand in foreign countries because you would be selling a franchise to somebody that knows the location, language and people. Disadvantages: For the franchisee * Start up cost so you can use the branded name is very expensive. * A set percentage of your profit will go to the franchiser and you will have to buy your equipment and products from them. * You have to stick to the business’ core activities. For the franchisor * They do not have full control over the organisation. Ownership of Tesco. Tesco unlike McDonalds is a public limited company (PLC). Tesco is a PLC because it is on suck a large scale. A group of partners would not be able to afford funding the company and it is highly unlikely they could get big enough loans, because Tesco is a PLC the shareholders fund the company. The shareholders fund the company by simply buying shares. Investors buying shares in Tesco would feel safer buying because they will get limited liability. This means that only money that has been invested can be lost if Tesco fails. The shareholders do not get a profit from Tesco; they make their money buy selling that shares for more than they originally paid. The advantages that Tesco have of being a PLC are; there is a limited liability for Tesco and all shareholders and it is much easier for Tesco to raise funds. The disadvantages are; Tesco cannot make business decisions instantly because they need to confront company directors and major shareholders and the business can be taken over if somebody buy 51% of shares. I think that this type of ownership is the most appropriate for Tesco because they may need to raise capital fast and they don’t need to be making rash decisions. Ownership of McDonald’s. McDonald’s is a franchise company which is completely different to Tesco’s PLC ownership. A franchise company allows people who currently have nothing to do with McDonald’s to buy a restaurant and use the already well established McDonald’s name. This means that McDonalds do not need to fund their own company, the franchisees will do this. McDonalds have limited liability just like Tesco, meaning that McDonald’s and franchisees can only loose investments. The advantages of McDonald’s having this type of ownership for the franchisor are; having the possibility to expand rapidly and the advantage for the franchisee are; you will own a business that is already running which means it is nearly a guaranteed success, you will own a business that is already established, capital should be easier to raise because you will be operating under a well known name and you will have free business advice from the franchisor. The disadvantage for the franchisor is; you do not have full control over the business and the disadvantages for the franchisee are; start up cost so you can use the branded name is very expensive, a set percentage of your profit will go to the franchiser and you will have to buy your equipment and products from them and you have to stick to the business’ core activities. I think that this type of ownership is a good choice of ownership for McDonalds because they do not have to do research on locations because franchisees will do this. Also McDonalds will be expanding rapidly and they do not have the risk of failing their business. They will be making profits when they aren’t even setting up there restraints. Location. Tesco Location. To investigate Tesco’s location I am going to select a small town and a large city to compare how Tesco locate their stores under different circumstances. Some of the different circumstances I am going to look at are; the size of the area in hand and the population. The town I have selected is Pembroke Dock and the city I have selected is London. Populations: Population of Pembroke Dock: Population 8,676 Post town PEMBROKE DOCK Postcode district SA72 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pembroke_Dock] Population of London. Population – Total – Density Ranked 2nd 7,512,400[1] (mid-2006) 4,758/kmà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ (mid-2006) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_London] Tesco locate their stores where there is a good ratio between population and competing stores. This is because it is highly unlikely Tesco could run a successful store next to an Asda store where the population of the town is 500 people. So it is important that Tesco choose their location wisely because building unsuccessful stores can be very expensive for Tesco. Tesco generally locate their stores on the outskirts of towns, as you can see on the below maps. Land in this area can range from à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½60,000 for a plot of land where Tesco would not be able to fit a store on up to à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½250,000 where you still wouldn’t be able to fit a store. Offers in Excess of à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½60,000 Building Plot at Cannons Lane, Pennar, Pembroke Dock, Pembrokeshire, Pembrokeshire à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½250,000 Plot 15 Barnlake Point, Burton, SA73 Because I cannot find land that is big enough for Tesco to build a store on with adequate room for parking as well as loading bays I don’t feel as though I can comment on the cost of land in this area. Another Tesco stores location; when I typed in London on the Tesco store locator it came back with 110 stores. This tells me that Tesco locate many stores in big cities to meet the needs of big populations. McDonalds Location. McDonalds is a franchise so it is not actually McDonalds that choose the locations of all restaurants. But the franchisors will try to locate in busy shopping areas. I am going to pick a good and a bad example of McDonald’s location and explain why I feel they are bad. On the below maps I am showing where McDonald’s have recently set up a new restaurant in Pembroke Dock next to the Tesco store. On both maps on the previous page you can see that the locations McDonalds have chosen both are competitor free. By this I mean that in both locations there are no other competing restaurants. This is good because McDonalds do not have to worry about losing custom to other restaurants. Also on the maps on the previous page the McDonalds stores are in the middle a community. This means it should be relatively easy to find employees. This is because they are in the middle of two large populations. The populations of Haverfordwest and Pembroke Dock are: Population of Pembroke Dock: Population 8,676 Post town PEMBROKE DOCK Postcode district SA72 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pembroke_Dock] Population of Haverfordwest: Population 10,808[1] Post town HAVERFORDWEST Postcode district SA61, SA62 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haverfordwest] The populations of these towns are on a reasonably large scale, so I think that it would be easy for McDonald’s to find employees. As you can see from the maps on the previous page these stores are very close to raw material and have good travel systems around them. I think that they are in prime locations for travelling and raw materials. McDonalds will have a lot of choice for land because of the area in hand. It has a lot of undeveloped areas in the towns. In Pembroke Dock there is now a new plot that already has a building on that McDonalds could take up. I think that this would be a more suitable location because they will be attract the custom that comes across the bridge. The ring on the left of the above map is where McDonalds currently have a restaurant. The ring on the right of the above map is where property has become unoccupied. I think that McDonalds could relocate there restaurant here because there is a lot of traffic that come across the bridge and heads away from where the current restaurant is currently located. Although some traffic heads towards town more heads away. I have conducted my own survey to see how many cars that comes across the bridge head towards Carew and Pembroke and how many head toward Pembroke Dock over a one hour interval. Below is my table of results that I recorded. Towards Pembroke Dock. Towards Pembroke and Carew. [http://www.thedock.org.uk/Council%20Data/Pem_Dock_Traffic_Generators_2008%5B1%5D.pdf] Both Tesco and McDonalds could use this

Saturday, November 9, 2019

Culture and Beliefs Essay

Different cultures and beliefs can have an effect on implementing anti-discriminatory practice. One example of this preventing anti-discriminatory practice is though in a culture saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ to things, where in another culture this may not be normal and so if someone doesn’t say thank you or please to something this may be seen as rude, and could make the person treat the other person differently. Another way culture and beliefs can affect implementing anti-discriminatory practice is that people may understand a person’s situation, or not understanding why someone behaves in that way and then the professionals own views or stereotypes will take control over the way the person treats the individual and then this wont promote anti-discriminatory practice. This may differ depending on where the health care setting is for example if it is in more of a multi-cultural area, beliefs and views may be different. Not understanding the importance If care providers don’t understand the importance of promoting anti-discriminatory practice, they are more likely to not work in an anti discriminatory practice. Care providers should be aware of the active promotion of anti discriminatory practice in order for the service users of health and social care to get the best of the services. If care providers fail to work in an anti discriminatory practice, service users will be not treated fairly and their choices wouldn’t be respected or taken into account, so therefore it is very important for health and social care professionals to work in an anti discriminatory practice. If the care settings fail to promote an anti discriminatory practice, service users will be marginalised and disempowered and this can lead to stress and depression and can trigger challenging behaviour. The way in which anti-discriminatory ractice is promoted may be different in different health and social care setting such as a school will focus more on children where as an residential care home may focus more on elderly or disability. Following the ‘norm’ Both care providers and service users are used to doing what is the ‘norm’ for them. This can cause problems when promoting anti-discriminatory practice because if for example a care provider is used to carrying out certain behaviour then they may ignore new anti-discriminatory practice that has been introduced because it is something they are not used to doing. This can cause loads of problems because it means service users may be neglected and discriminated against because new practice is not being followed. This could also sometimes be down to the age of the care provider. If someone has been working in a care setting for a long time they may be used to caring in a certain way which means that they will not adapt appropriately to new practice where as someone who is new will be fully aware of the new procedures in place so may be more likely to follow them.

Thursday, November 7, 2019

Thomas Saverys Steam Engine

Thomas Saverys Steam Engine Thomas Savery was born to a well-known family in Shilston, England sometime around 1650. He was well educated and exhibited a great fondness for mechanics, mathematics, experimentation and invention. Saverys Early Inventions   One of Saverys earliest inventions was a clock, which remains in his family to this day and is considered an ingenious piece of mechanism. He went on to  invent and patented arrangement of paddle  wheels driven by capstans to propel vessels in calm weather. He pitched the idea to the British Admiralty and the Wavy Board but met with no success. The principal objector was the surveyor of the Navy who dismissed Savery with the remark, And have interloping people, that have no concern with us, pretend to contrive or invent things for us? Savery was not deterred he fitted his apparatus to a small vessel and exhibited its operation on the Thames, although the invention was never introduced by the Navy. The First Steam Engine Savery invented the steam engine sometime after the debut of his paddle  wheels, an idea first conceived by  Edward Somerset, Marquis of Worcester, as well as a few other earlier inventors. It’s been rumored that Savery read Somerset’s book first describing the invention and subsequently attempted to destroy all evidence of it in anticipation of his own invention. He allegedly bought up all copies he could find and burned them.   Although the story isn’t particularly credible, a comparison of the drawings of the two engines Saverys and Somersets shows a striking resemblance. If nothing else, Savery should be given credit for the successful introduction of this semi-omnipotent and water-commanding engine. He patented the design of his first engine on July 2, 1698. A working model was submitted to the Royal Society of London. The Road to the Patent Savery faced constant and embarrassing expense in the construction of his first steam engine. He had to keep the British mines and particularly the deep pits of Cornwall free from water. He finally completed the project and conducted some successful experiments with it, exhibiting a model of his fire engine before King William III and his court at Hampton Court in 1698. Savery then obtained his patent without delay. The title of the patent reads: A grant to Thomas Savery of the sole exercise of a new invention by him invented, for raising of water, and occasioning motion to all sorts of mill works, by the important force of fire, which will be of great use for draining mines, serving towns with water, and for the working of all sorts of mills, when they have not the benefit of water nor constant winds; to hold for 14 years; with usual clauses. Introducing His Invention to the World Savery next went about letting the world know about his invention. He began a systematic and successful advertising campaign, missing no opportunity to make his plans not merely known but well understood. He obtained permission to appear with his model fire engine and to explain its operation at a meeting of the Royal Society.  The minutes of that meeting read: Mr. Savery entertained the Society with showing his engine to raise water by the force of fire. He was thanked for showing the experiment, which succeeded according to expectation, and was approved of.   Hoping to introduce his fire engine to the  mining districts of Cornwall as a pumping engine,  Savery wrote a prospectus for general circulation, The Miners Friend; or, A Description of an Engine to Raise Water by Fire.†Ã‚   Implementation of the Steam Engine Saverys prospectus was printed in London in 1702.  He proceeded to distribute it among the proprietors and managers of mines, who were finding at that time that the flow of water at certain depths was so great as to prevent operation. In many cases, the cost of drainage left no satisfactory margin of profit. Unfortunately, although Saverys fire engine began to be used for supplying water to towns, large estates, country houses and other private establishments, it did not come into general use among the mines. The  risk for explosion of the boilers or receivers was too great.   There were other difficulties in the application of the Savery engine to many kinds of work, but this was the most serious. In fact, explosions did occur with fatal results. When used in mines, the engines were necessarily placed within 30 feet or less of the lowest level and could potentially become submerged if the water should rise above that level. In many cases this would result in the loss of the engine. The mine would remain drowned unless another engine should be procured to pump it out. The consumption of fuel with these engines was very great as well. The steam could not be generated economically because the boilers used were simple forms and presented too little heating surface to secure a complete transfer of heat from the gases of combustion to the water within the boiler. This waste in the generation of steam was followed by still more serious waste in its application. Without expansion to the expulsion of water from a metallic receiver, the cold and wet sides absorbed heat with the greatest avidity. The great mass of the liquid was not heated by the steam and was expelled at the temperature at which it was raised from below. Improvements to the Steam Engine Savery later began work with Thomas Newcomen on an atmospheric steam engine.  Newcomen was an English blacksmith who invented this improvement over Slaverys previous design. The Newcomen steam engine used the force of atmospheric pressure. His engine pumped steam into a cylinder. The steam was then condensed by cold water, which created a vacuum on the inside of the cylinder. The resulting atmospheric pressure operated a piston, creating downward strokes. Unlike the engine Thomas Savery had patented in 1698, the intensity of pressure in Newcomen’s engine was not limited by the pressure of the steam. Together with John Calley, Newcomen built his first engine in 1712 atop a water-filled mineshaft and used it to pump water out of the mine. The Newcomen engine was the predecessor to the Watt engine and it was one of the most interesting pieces of technology developed during the 1700s. James Watt was an inventor and mechanical engineer born in Greenock, Scotland, renowned for his improvements of the steam engine. While working for the University of Glasgow in 1765, Watt was assigned the task of repairing a Newcomen engine, which was considered  inefficient but still the best steam engine of its time. He began to work on several improvements to Newcomens design. Most notable was his 1769 patent for a separate condenser connected to a cylinder by a valve. Unlike Newcomens engine, Watts design had a condenser that could be kept cool while the cylinder was hot. Watts engine soon became the dominant design for all modern steam engines and helped bring about the Industrial Revolution. A unit of power called the watt was named after him.