Monday, December 30, 2019

Research Proposal on Outsource Cafeteria

The cafeteria services (K-12) of the Plante and Moran company have been under debate for some good time. The outsourcing of the cafeteria or its internal upgrade depends on several issues. Some of these issues are so urgent and require quick and permanent solutions. They include: the control of health care costs; employee’s health that has been threatened by lack of exercise, smoking, stress, and obesity; and the lack of the company’s ability to meet its health care costs. All these factors put the company under serious search for solutions. Over the last few years, the cafeteria has undergone through numerous changes of both administrative and legislative concern in order to find long lasting solutions for the above issues. Most of the changes have been quite open to make the cafeteria services more flexible and attractive to employees. The recent legislative changes, however, have created a very big impact. The optional services include: the over-the-counter drugs which are permitted and excluded for tax; the permission of dependents, including students, to be entitled to take part in parents’ cafeteria plans with Dependent and Medical Care Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs). The extended repayment period has also extended the time limit for incurring the medical and dependent expenses. The 2008 Heroes Assistance and Relief Tax Act give tax benefits to individuals in the military. This act allows for the amendment of the cafeteria laws to enable the workers have an active responsibility for at least 180 days. This report evaluates the above factors and gives a recommendation on the possible ways forward. Summary For proper control of the health care costs, the company needs to control the obesity threats associated with the fats and calories in the cafeteria’s menu and provide proper equipments for exercise. This can be achieved through: Creation of an onsite workout room for the employees Contracting a local gym for the development of an employer-sponsored program for the employees Analysis The data used in this research is purely secondary information. The information has been collected from various sources including the cafeteria plans of 2009 and the Decision Support (EPSI). In the analysis of this data, a menu of fully integrated support features, including costing, product line analysis, productivity, operational budgeting, and capital budgeting have been considered. A similar criterion was used all through in the analysis so as to limit error chances that could arise. Findings For the two possible options, the strengths and weaknesses were established and listed below using the costs and convenience as the measuring factors. The creation of an onsite workout room for the employees required that huge sums of money be put aside for the construction purposes. The equipping of this facility also required large sums of money. Both the construction and equipping of the Onsite Workout Room must be done at once implying that employees would be constrained to cater for the additional expenses which might not be possible. On the issue of convenience, the onsite workout room may not favour employees so mush. There are possible cases of employees not accessing it during non-working hours and weekends. It can also be quite tricky for family members to use the same facility. However, the onsite workout room encourages employees’ unity, uplifts their happiness and promotes their solidarity as workers. When a local gym is sought, an Offsite Workout Room results. In such a case, the company would not be constrained to cater for the construction costs. Also, there would be no need for equipping this facility as all the costs are incurred by the contracted firm. Members would only be required to give some annual subscriptions, which in real sense, is negligible compared to te amount required for the construction purposes. On the issue of convenience, the Offsite Workout room may favour the employees so much. There are high chances of this facility operating during both working hours and non-working hours including weekends. There is also possibility of the family members using the same facility. Finally, this arrangement may lead to employee’s happiness as they can move to the gym with the family members under no or limited restrictions. The access to the facility is also not restricted.

Saturday, December 21, 2019

Global Financial Crisis in Us - 2995 Words

INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT Critically discuss the contention that inadequate regulatory oversight in the United States of America combined with a culture of greed within the finance sector led to the global financial crisis of 2008-2009. SUBMITTED BY: PANKAJ PARASHAR STUDENT ID: 3098673 SUBMITTED TO: DR.LISA BARNES GSBS6484:CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY PANKAJ PARASHAR 3098673 GSBS6484 Page | 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 3 2. INTRODUCTION †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦... 4 3. GROWING OUT OF FINANCIAL CRISIS†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 4 4. INITIATION OF GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. .5 5. CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF US POLICIES AND IRREGULARITIES OF FINANCIAL MARKET†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦6 6. CORPORATE GOVERNANCE†¦show more content†¦4. Initiation of global financial crisis: The entire financial crisis since 1930 has proximity to one another overpriced stocks, trouble-free credit expansion, insatiability of power money and substantial fraud(Yeoh, 2010). However, 2008 economic catastrophe resembles that markets are more closely linked to each other and systemic risk can be originated from many market resources and can be transferred very quickly due to lack of proper corrective measures(Kindleberger et al., 2005). The crisis mainly begun in January 2007, when US market reported losses in mortgage market and credit exposure due to certain delinquencies, especially in sub prime loan category. Stage 2 of crisis came up with fast deflation of housing value in slowing world economy, and it damaged property market in UK and Eurozone. Northern Rock one of the most renowned UK mortgage bank collapsed because of the knock on effect of US mortgage bubble bursting1(Gerson LehmanGroup, 2009). Aftermath NR collapse the banking credit spreads2 reached over 175 points for AA-rating companies. This showed the way of entire shutdown of asset securitization3 markets. Stage four of the crisis begun in September 2008 1 Housing bubbles may occur in local or global real estate markets. In their late stages, they are typically characterized by rapid increasesShow MoreRelatedThe Global Financial Crisis Of 2007-20081123 Words   |  5 PagesThe Global Financial Crisis of 2007-2008 is the worst financial crisis since the 1930’s The Great Depression (Reuters, 2009). Even if bailouts of banks by national governments prevented the collapse of major financial institutions, worldwide stock markets continued to drop. Evictions and foreclosures overwhelmed the housing market while severed unemployment embraced the labor market (Baily and Elliot, 2009). This global financial crisis was responsible for the decline in the consumers’ wealth, andRead MoreThe Global Financial Crisis Of The Usa1383 Words   |  6 PagesThe recent global financial turmoil started on July 2007 ,mainly in the USA and spread among developed nations in the later part of 2008 and subsequently shifted to the developing nations .this crisis consisted of some prime drawbacks not only for the developed countries but also for develop ing countries .the most talked about issue in the recent financial arena in the global financial crisis ,which started to show its effect in the middle of the year 2007.the turmoil ,however ,was rooted in theRead MoreFinancial Crisis Of A Single Country1671 Words   |  7 Pages Table of Contents Summary 2 Financial crisis 3 Impact of financial crisis 4 Effect of financial crisis on different on the economies of different countries 5 Mathematical problems 6 Conclusiom 8 References ..................................................................................................................................................9 Summary Financial crisis has long been a part of global economic recession throughout the history. Here, the purpose of this assignmentRead MoreWhat Is Economic Crisis?1474 Words   |  6 Pagesrepercussions of the economic crisis are not going to disappear in the short What is economic crisis? * An economic crisis is A situation in which the economy of a country or countries experiences a sudden downturn brought on by a financial crisis. A financial crisis is a situation when money demand quickly rises relative to money supply. Until a few decades ago, a financial crisis was equivalent to a banking crisis. Today it may also take the form of a currency crisis. Many economists have comeRead MoreWhy India Recovered Quickly From The 2008 Global Crisis Essay1594 Words   |  7 PagesIndia recovered quickly from the 2008 global crisis? Vivek Shah MBA AF 629 December 12, 2016 Introduction It’s the most heard term about the global economy in the recent years and it’s the year we have been always hearing about its 2008. We all have been a part of it in some or the other way and all the major economies had been affected by the global turmoil which eventually lead to the worst situation after the Great depression of 1929. The sub-prime crisis in USA which lead to great recessionRead MoreGlobal Financial Industry : The Financial Crisis Essay839 Words   |  4 PagesIn 2008, the global financial industry experienced dramatic changes when the global financial crisis came furiously. In the United States, the historical changes appeared in the structure of investment banking. These changes included the fifth-largest US investment bank, Bear Stearns and the third-largest US investment bank, Merrill Lynch was acquired respectively, and the fourth-largest US investment bank, Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy. In addition, the Goldman Sachs and the Morgan StanleyR ead MoreFactors That Affects The Global Economy And Its Impact On The Nigeria And Egypt Economy1568 Words   |  7 Pagesthe factors that affects the global economy and their impact on the Nigeria and Egypt economy. In 2007, the financial crisis, which later extended to the global financial crisis began in the United States of America. The origin and elements of the 2007/2012 global financial crisis have been widely discussed in the literature throughout the period. The aim of this work is to, however, try to point out the reasons and also the macroeconomic effects of the financial crisis in both countries economy andRead MoreGlobal Financial Crisis : Its Causes And The Global Responses Essay1592 Words   |  7 PagesAssignment topic: Global financial crisis: its cause and the global responses Introduction The global financial crisis or economy crisis is commonly believed to have begun in July 2007 with credit crunch, when a loss of confidence by the US investors in the value of sub-prime mortgages caused a liquidity crisis. On the other hand, due to the big changes that took place over the last 20 to 30 years in the worldwide economy and the influence of 2007 financial crisis, it has re-emerged as one of theRead MoreThe World Experienced A Tremendous Financial Crisis Essay1131 Words   |  5 Pagestremendous financial crisis which rooted from the U.S housing market; moreover, it is considered by many economists as one of the worst recession since the Great Depression in 1930s. After posing a huge effect on the U.S economy, the financial crisis expanded to Europe and the rest of the world. It brought governments down, ruined economies, crumble financial corporations and impoverish individual lives. For example, the financial crisis has resulted in the collapse of massive financial institutionsRead MoreGlobal Financial Crisis1408 Words   |  6 Pagesis explained the occurrence of the global financial crisis in 2008. It has shown that lots of companies have bankrupted and millions of people lose their jobs and homes around the world. Such as United States, Iceland, England, France, Singapore and China. There is a sentence in this film has make me impressed, which is â€Å" the poorest always pay the most.† The director has separated this film into five parts, which are How we get there, The Bubbles, The Crisis, Accountability and Where we are now

Friday, December 13, 2019

Fluke, or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings Chapter 33 Free Essays

string(105) " when he was losing the point – much the way he was waving in the conversational wind right now\." CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE Could Be Worse, Could Be Dog Years â€Å"Evidently,† said Nate, â€Å"where we screwed up was killing the whales.† â€Å"No way,† said Amy. â€Å"We tipped our hand. We will write a custom essay sample on Fluke, or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings Chapter 33 or any similar topic only for you Order Now † â€Å"About being meme machines, right?† â€Å"Yeah. Are you sure you’re not spying for him?† â€Å"Nope. Know how you can tell? When I was spying, did I ever touch you here?† â€Å"No. No, you did not.† â€Å"And did I ever let you touch me here?† She moved his hand for him. â€Å"No, you did not. Especially not in public.† â€Å"Yeah, we should probably go back to your place.† She had called him on his buzzy, bug-winged speaky thing, about which he made a mental note to ask what the name of it was at his first convenience. They’d met for coffee at a Gooville caf that catered to whaley boys. She’d assured him that no one would notice them, and, strangely enough, the whaley boys had completely ignored them. Maybe he was no longer news. â€Å"If they say anything, I’ll just tell them that we’re having sex,† Amy said. â€Å"But you said you didn’t think I should tell the Colonel I’d seen you.† â€Å"Yeah, but that was before he let you in on his secret plan.† â€Å"Right.† â€Å"Although I’m a little ashamed of how old you are. We should talk about that.† â€Å"So should I move my hand?† â€Å"Yeah, down and a little to the right.† â€Å"Let’s head back to my place.† Back at his apartment, standing in the kitchen, he said, â€Å"Hey, what do you call this thing?† He pointed to that thing. â€Å"The phone.† â€Å"No kidding?† He nodded as if he’d known that all along. â€Å"So where were we?† â€Å"Killing whales was where we went wrong?† â€Å"Yes.† â€Å"Or how old you are?† â€Å"So,† he continued, â€Å"killing whales was a big mistake.† â€Å"Which you knew, because that’s what made you want to become a nerd in the first place.† â€Å"No, that’s not right.† † ‘Scuse me, action nerd.† â€Å"You want to know how I got into this field, really?† â€Å"No. I mean, sure. You can tell me about the destruction of the human race later.† â€Å"You have to promise you won’t laugh.† â€Å"Of course.† She looked incredibly sincere. â€Å"My sophomore year at the University of Sasketchewan in the Sticks – ; â€Å"You’re kidding.† â€Å"It’s a good school. You promised you wouldn’t laugh.† â€Å"Oh, you meant even this early in the story I’m not supposed to laugh? Sorry.† â€Å"I mean, I’m sure it doesn’t measure up to Gooville Community College –  » â€Å"Not fair.† â€Å"Home of the Gooville Fighting Loogies – ; â€Å"Okay, you made your point.† â€Å"Thank you. So a friend and I decided that we’re going to go to break out of our boring small-college lives, we were going to take some risks, we were going to –  » â€Å"Talk to a girl?† â€Å"No. We decided to drive all the way to Florida for spring break just like American kids, where we would then drink beer, get sunburned, and then talk to a girl – girls.† â€Å"So you went.† â€Å"Took almost a week to get there, but yes, we drove in his dad’s Vista Cruiser station wagon. And I did indeed meet a girl. In Fort Lauderdale. A girl from Fort Lauderdale. And I talked to her.† â€Å"You dirty little tramp. Like, ‘How’s it going, eh?  » â€Å"Among other things. We conversed. And so she invited me to go see a manatee.† â€Å"He shoots! He scores!† â€Å"But I thought it was an American way of saying matinee. I thought we were going to a movie. You know, you don’t think about those things as being real.† â€Å"But it was.† â€Å"She did volunteer work for a rescue hospital for injured marine mammals, mostly manatees that had been hit by boats. They had a bottlenose dolphin, too. We stayed there for hours, caring for the animals, her teaching me about them. I was hooked. I hadn’t even picked my undergrad major, but as soon as I got back to school, I went for biology, and I’ve been studying marine mammals ever since.† â€Å"Oh, my God, you didn’t get laid, did you?† â€Å"I found a passion for life. I found something that drives me.† â€Å"I can’t believe I fell for such a pathetic loser.† â€Å"Hey, I’m pretty good at this whale stuff. I’m respected in my field.† â€Å"But you’re dead.† â€Å"Yeah, before then, I mean. Hey, did you say that you fell for me?† â€Å"I said I fell for a pathetic loser, if the shoe fits†¦Ã¢â‚¬  He kissed her. She kissed him back. That went on for a while. They both found it excellent. Then they stopped. â€Å"You said you wanted to talk about our age difference,† Nate said, because he always picked women who broke his heart, and, figuring that his heart was now into this whole thing far enough to be broken, he wanted to get on with it. â€Å"Yeah, we probably should. Maybe we should sit down.† â€Å"Couch?† â€Å"No, at the table. You might want a drink.† â€Å"No, I’m okay.† Yep, heartbreak, he thought. They sat. â€Å"So,† she said, curling her legs up under her, sitting like a little kid, making him feel ever more the creepy old guy leching on the young girl, â€Å"you know that the whaley boys have been pulling people in here from shipwrecks and plane crashes for years, right?† â€Å"That’s what Cielle said.† â€Å"She wants you, I can tell, but that’s beside the point. Do you know that they pulled whole crews off sunken submarines, plus they’ve yanked sonar guys out of port for years?† â€Å"I didn’t know that.† â€Å"Doesn’t matter, has nothing to do with what I’m telling you. So you realize that some people who have been lost at sea, like the crew of the American sub Scorpion that sank back in 67, actually ended up here?† â€Å"Okay. That makes sense. More of the Goo looking out for itself. Gaining knowledge.† â€Å"Yeah, but that’s not the point. I mean, those guys helped put together a lot of the technology you saw on the whale ship, the human technology, but that doesn’t matter. The important part is that the world thinks that the crew of the Scorpion is at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, even though they’re not. Got it?† â€Å"Okay,† Nate said, really slowly, the way he had spoken to the Colonel when he was losing the point – much the way he was waving in the conversational wind right now. You read "Fluke, or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings Chapter 33" in category "Essay examples" â€Å"And you realize that when I applied with you and Clay, that I gave my real name, which is Amy Earhart, and that Amy is short for Amelia?† â€Å"Oh, my God,† Nate said. â€Å"Ha!† Amy said. The ship broker found Clay’s ship in the Philippines, in Manila Harbor. Clay bought it based on faxed photographs, a spec sheet, and a recent hull certification for just under $2 million of the Old Broad’s money. It was a 180-foot-long U.S. Coast Guard fisheries patrol vessel built in the late fifties. It had been refitted several times since then, once in the seventies for fishing, once in the eighties for ocean survey, and finally in the nineties as a live-aboard dive boat for the adventure tourist. It had plenty of comfortable cabins as well as compressors, dive platforms, and cranes to raise and lower support vessels onto the rear deck, although, except for the lifeboats, it came with no support craft. Clay thought they could use the rear deck as a helicopter-landing pad, even if there wasn’t a budget for a helicopter, but – you know – someone with a helicopter might want to land there, and it helped no end to have a big H painted on the dec k. There was a budget for painting a big H. The ship had efficient, if not quite state-of-the-art, navigation equipment, radar, autopilot, and some old but functioning sonar arrays left over from its days as a fishing ship. It had twin twelve-hundred-horsepower diesel engines and could distill up to twenty tons of freshwater a day for the crew and passengers. There were cabins and support for forty. It was also rated a class-three icebreaker, which was a feature that Clay hoped they wouldn’t have to test. He really didn’t like cold water. Through another broker Clay hired the crew of ten men, sight unseen, right off the docks of Manila: a group of brothers, cousins, and uncles with the last name of Mangabay, among whom the broker guaranteed that there were no murderers, or at least no convicted murderers, and only petty thieves. The eldest uncle, Ray Mangabay, who would be Clay’s first mate, would sail the ship to Honolulu, where Clay would meet them. â€Å"He’s going to be driving my ship,† Clay said to Clair after he’d gotten the news that he had a crew and a first mate. â€Å"You have to let your ship go, Clay,† Clair said. â€Å"If he sinks it, it wasn’t really yours.† â€Å"But it’s my ship.† â€Å"What are you going to call it?† He was thinking about the Intrepid or the Merciless or some other big-dick, blow-shit-up kind of name. He was thinking about Loyal or Relentless or the Never Surrender, because he was determined now to find his friend, and he didn’t mind putting that right on the bow. â€Å"Well, I was thinking about – ; â€Å"You were thinking deeply about it, weren’t you?† Clair interrupted. â€Å"Yes, I thought I’d call her the Beautiful Clair.† â€Å"Just the Clair will be fine, baby. You don’t want the bow to look busy.† â€Å"Right. The Clair.† Strangely enough, on second thought, that pretty much encompassed Intrepid, Merciless, Relentless, and Loyal. Plus, it had the underlying meaning of keeper of the booty, which was sort of a bonus in a ship name, he thought. â€Å"Yeah, that’s a good name for her.† â€Å"How long before she gets here?† â€Å"Two weeks. She’s not fast. Twelve knots cruising. If we have somewhere to go, I’ll send the ship directly there and meet it at a port along the way.† â€Å"Well, now that she’s called the Clair, I hope they bring her in safe.† â€Å"My ship,† Clay said anxiously. â€Å"So,† Nate said, â€Å"You’re what, in your nineties? A hundred?† â€Å"Don’t look it, do I?† Amy posed: a coquettish half curtsy with a Betty Boop bump at the end. Indeed, it would have been a spry move for a woman in her nineties. Nate was really glad he was sitting down, but he missed the sensation he would have had of needing to sit down. â€Å"Your whole attraction was based on my age, wasn’t it?† She sat across from him. â€Å"You were working out your male menopause on the fantasy of my young body. Somehow you were going to try to recapture your youth. Once again you’d feel like more than a footnote to humanity. You’d be virile and vital and relevant and all alpha male, just because a younger – and decidedly luscious, I might add – woman had chosen you, right?† â€Å"Nuh-uh,† Nate said. She was wrong, right? â€Å"Wow, Nate, were you on the debate team at Moose Dirt U? I mean, your talent –  » â€Å"Sasketchewan in the Sticks,† he corrected. â€Å"So the age thing? It’s a problem?† â€Å"You’re like a hundred. My grandma isn’t even a hundred, and she’s dead.† â€Å"No, I’m not really that old.† She grinned and reached across the table, took his hand. â€Å"It’s okay, Nate. I’m not Amelia Earhart.† â€Å"You’re not?† Nate felt his lungs expand, as if a steel band around his chest had broken. He’d been taking tiny yip breaths, but now oxygen was returning to his brain. Funny, he was pretty sure that none of the other women he’d been with had been Amelia Earhart either, but he didn’t remember feeling quite so relieved about it before. â€Å"Well, I should have known. I mean, you don’t look anything like the pictures. No goggles.† â€Å"I was just messin’ with you. I’m her daughter. Ha!† â€Å"Stop it! This isn’t funny, Amy. If you’re trying to make a point, you’ve made it. Yes, you’re an attractive young woman, and maybe your youth’s a part of why I’m attracted to you, but that’s just biology. You can’t blame me for that. I didn’t make a move on you, I didn’t harass you when we were working together. I treated you exactly as I would have treated any research assistant, except maybe you got away with more because I liked you. You can’t ridicule me for responding to you sexually down here when you came on to me. The rules had changed.† â€Å"I’m not ridiculing you. Amelia Earhart really is my mother.† â€Å"Stop it.† â€Å"You want to meet her?† Nate searched her face for signs of a grin or a tremble in her throat that might indicate the rise of an Amy Ha! Nothing there, just that little bit of sweetness that she usually tried to hide. â€Å"So somehow, living down here, you haven’t aged. Your mother?† â€Å"We age, but not like on the surface. I was born in 1940. I’m about the same number of years older than you than you were older than me a half hour ago – kinda sorta. You going to dump me?† â€Å"It’s so hard to believe.† â€Å"Why, after you’ve seen all this? You’ve seen what the Goo can do. Why is it so hard to believe that I’m sixty-four?† â€Å"Well, for one, you’re so immature.† â€Å"Shut up. I’m young at heart.† â€Å"But for a second there I was so sure we were doomed.† Nate rubbed his temples – trying to stretch them, maybe – to make his head bigger to hold the whole concept of Amy’s being sixty-four. â€Å"No, it’s okay, we just haven’t gotten to that yet. We’re still doomed.† â€Å"Oh, thank goodness,† Nate said. â€Å"I was worried.† Later, after they had pushed the world away for a while, made love and napped in each other’s arms, Amy made a move to start another round, and Nate awoke to an immediate and uncertain anxiety. â€Å"Are we really doomed?† he asked. â€Å"Oh, goddamn it Nate!† She was straddling him, so she was able to get a good windup before thumping him hard in the chest with her fist. â€Å"That’s just un-fucking-professional!† Nate thought about how the praying mantis female will sometimes bite off the male’s head during copulation and how the male’s body continues to mate until the act is finished. â€Å"Sorry,† he said. She rolled off him and stared up at dim strips of green luminescence on the ceiling. â€Å"It’s okay. I didn’t mean to bite your head off.† â€Å"Pardon?† â€Å"Yes, we’re probably doomed. We’re doomed for the same reason that I look the way I do, that most of the Goos look much younger than we really are. Turn a gene on, you age; turn it off, you don’t. I’ve even seen some people down here who seem to get younger. Flip a switch, pancreatic cancer at age twenty-two; flip another, you can smoke four packs a day and live to be a hundred. If the Goo thinks that the human race is a danger to it, it just has to flip a switch, pick a gene, make a virus, and the human race would blink out. I hadn’t really thought about it as a threat before. My whole life I’ve worked for the Goo. Service, you know? It takes care of us. It’s the source.† He didn’t know what to say. Did he need to actually take the Colonel’s request for help seriously? Did he need to help find a way to kill this amazing creature in order to save his own species? â€Å"Amy, I don’t know what to do. Two days ago I just wanted to get out of here. Now? The Colonel and you both said I was lucky to be alive. Has the Goo killed people who were close to finding out about it?† â€Å"Honestly, I don’t know. I’ve never seen it or heard of it happening, but I – we – each just do our own part down here. We don’t ask a lot of questions. Not because we’re told not to or anything – it’s just that you can live a long time without asking yourself big questions when your needs are looked after.† For the first time Nate could see the experience of years in Amy’s face, marked not by wrinkles but by a shadow in her eyes. â€Å"I’m asking,† he said. â€Å"Do I think the Goo is ethically capable of killing the human race?† â€Å"I guess.† â€Å"I don’t even know if the Goo has ethics, Nate. According to the Colonel, it’s just a vehicle for genes and we’re just vehicles for memes and nature says that a head-on collision is inevitable. What if it’s not? This battle has supposedly gone on for millions of years, and now the Colonel wants to force an endgame? What I do know is that you’ve got to talk him out of trying to kill it.† â€Å"But he’s your leader.† â€Å"Yeah, but he didn’t tell any of us about this. I think he’s doubting his own judgment. So am I.† â€Å"But you said that it could kill everyone on the planet at the flick of a switch.† â€Å"Yeah.† She rolled over and propped herself up on her elbow. â€Å"You hungry? I’m hungry.† â€Å"I could eat.† How to cite Fluke, or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings Chapter 33, Essay examples

Thursday, December 5, 2019

Inspiration in my life free essay sample

In life people have that one special person that inspired them the most throughout their life. In my life my mother has definitely been a huge inspiration. As a single mother she manage to find ways to take care of two kids, put food on the table, and get us everything we needed. In so many ways my mother has inspired me. When times got rough my mother was always there for me encouraging me to never give up and to stay focus. No matter what I did she was always there encouraging and supporting me. During sporting events she was there at every game being my number one fan yelling and cheering from the stands. My mom was a great motivator and always tried to keep me happy after a win or lost she would come up to me and give me with a hug with a huge smile on her face and she would tell me that I played a great game. We will write a custom essay sample on Inspiration in my life or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page As a kid my mother would always encourage me to be leader not a follower and to make my own decisions and do not let people make them for you. My mother is my role model because of her heart and her determination to becoming successful even when times get rough she still continue to strive. When people at their worst she finds anyway possible to help them. With determination and perservance she showed me anyone can accomplish anything. Even as a single mother with two kid she managed to work, own a clothing store, go to school and graduate with a degree, and also manage to go back to school to work on getting her second degree by taking online classes. My mother helps me live through all of my struggles. She is a diligent and determined mother who has led me down the right path. She has taught me the most important thing in life is to never give up on your dreams and that I could be whatever I want as long as I put my mind to it. Every day I thank her faithfully for helping me become the person I am today. My mother has been there for me and has inspired me in so many ways. Even though we may fight Im blessed to have her still in my life. I advise one to cherish every moment that they spend with their parents while they can because once their gone you’re on your own theres no one else thats going to be another parent to you like they were.