Policies and Procedures for Promoting Positive Behaviour

Policies and procedures for promoting positive behaviour Policy/procedure |Summary | | | | | |Self esteem | | | | | |Valuing each child’s individuality, | | |Believing that children are capable of making choices, accepting responsibility and acting accordingly, | |Behaviour policy |Providing opportunities for success, | | |Viewing success in terms of personal progression rather than being in competition with others, | | |Praising achievements, | | |Promoting the acceptance of others, | | |Clearly demonstrating that we value their work, | | |Building into the curriculum activities which develop the child’s ability to express his/her feelings, through the sharing circle, co-operative games | | |and Drama. | | | | | |Physical environment | | | | |Attractive, comfortable well-resourced and well managed classrooms, | | |Displays of children’s work to show it is highly valued, | | |Tidy and accessible resources demonstrate that children are trusted to organis e themselves for work and that they know how to use and care for things. | | | | | | | | | | |Classroom management | | | | | |Work must be matched to their ability so that success is possible for all, | | |Children must know what they are doing and why, | | |Classroom rules are devised by children themselves to ensure standards of behaviour, | | |Rules should be few in number, prominently displayed and referred to often, | | |We must set high standards, praise quickly and consistently – looking out for and rewarding good behaviour, | | |We must be firm, fair and supportive, | |Know children as individuals, to be active listeners, to refer to the behaviour rather than the child, | | | | | |Be polite to everyone | |Code of conduct |Talk quietly and listen carefully | | |Always tell the truth | | |Treat others as you would wish them to treat you | | |Be patient and wait your turn | | | | |Rewards and sanctions |House points | | | | | |The children can earn house poi nts for:- | | | | | |Quality of work Good Behaviour | | |An excellent piece of work Being polite, etc. | |An improving piece of work | | | | | |Dinner Supervisors Stickers | | | | | |Dinner supervisors can award stickers for good behaviour during lunchtime. | | | | | | | |Barney Stickers | | | | | |This is Crooksbarn School’s main method of rewarding positive behaviour. It is used by the class teacher throughout the school and indicates | | |excellent standards of work and/or behaviour by a child. Only 1 may be awarded each day, the children can wear them for 1 day then they are | | |transferred to a collecting chart displayed in the classroom.Once the child has succeeded in gaining 3 ‘Barnies’ he/she is awarded a ‘Head Teacher’s| | |Barney that is presented by the Head Teacher at the whole school assembly on Monday Mornings. An additional award is given out by the Head Teacher to| | |any child who has gained 9 ‘Barnies’ during the course of the school year | | | | | |Get rid of anyone not involved in the conflict as violence thrives on witnesses. | |Don’t put yourself at risk, alert colleagues, enlist their help. | |Dealing with conflict and inappropriate behaviour |Asses a situation first. | | |Be calm, don’t take it personally. | | |Use verbal intervention first. | | |It may be worse to add another person to a gang situation, if it cannot be sorted out and the conflict/inappropriate behaviour goes out of your | | |control call another member of staff and in the worse case scenario call the police. | | | | |Positively encourage the caring and nurturing side of children whilst openly and actively discourage bullying | | |Work for a caring, cooperative ethos (home corner, paired, group work etc. ) | |Anti-bullying |Discuss friendships – this should be covered through PSHE and citizenship scheme of work. However, children should receive regular reminders of this. | | |Ensure adequa te supervision in playgrounds. | |Value and encourage being different and having high self-esteem. | | | | | | | | |Helping to create a pattern of regular attendance is everybody’s responsibility, parents, pupils and all members of school staff, | |Attendance |To help us focus on this we will report to arents/carers annually on their child’s attendance with the annual school report, | | |Contact the parent/carer if their child’s attendance falls below the school’s target for attendance, | | |Celebrate good attendance by displaying individual and class achievements, | | |Reward good or improving attendance through class competitions, certificates and outings/events. | | |Every half-day absence from school has to be classified by the school (not the parents), as either AUTHORISED or UNAUTHORISED.This is why | | |information about the cause of any absence is always required, | | |Any periods of leave taken without the agreement of the school, or in excess of that agreed, will be classed as unauthorised and may attract sanctions| | |such as a Penalty Notice. | | |The minimum level of attendance for any child at Crooksbarn School is 90% attendance |

Feasibility Study on Carbonated Drinks Essay

I. Introduction An effervescent drink that releases carbon dioxide under conditions of normal atmospheric pressure. Carbonation may occur naturally in spring water that has absorbed carbon dioxide at high pressures underground. It can also be a byproduct of fermentation, such as beer and some wines. Many curative properties have been attributed to effervescent waters (e.g., aiding digestion and calming nerves), but few have been scientifically tested. The term seltzer once referred to the effervescent mineral water obtained from the natural springs near the village of Niederseltsers in SW Germany. Today, however, seltzer is simply well-filtered tap water with artificially added carbonation. Club soda is also artificially carbonated but contains other additives as well, including sodium bicarbonate, sodium chloride, sodium phosphate, sodium citrate, and sometimes light flavoring. Artificial carbonation was first introduced in 1767 by an Englishman, Joseph Priestley, and was commercialized in 1807 by Benjamin Silliman, a Yale Univ. chemistry professor, who bottled and sold seltzer water. After 1830, sweetened and flavored (lemon-lime, grape, orange) carbonated drinks became popular. In 1838, Eugene Roussel added a â€Å"soda counter† to his Philadelphia shop; by 1891, New York City had more soda fountains than bars. In 1886, John S. Pemberton, an Atlanta druggist seeking a headache and hangover remedy, added kola nut extract to coca extract and produced Coca-Cola. A pharmacist named Hires invented root beer in 1893. Today, heavily sweetened, carbonated drinks, or sodas, are among the most popular beverages in the world. In the last two decades, the introduction of diet drinks containing artificial sweeteners has increased sales of carbonated beverages. Annual Coca-Cola sales alone total more than a billion dollars, and sodas account for one-fourth of the annual sugar consumption in the United States. Soft drinks or carbonated drinks can be found most anywhere in the world, but nowhere are they as ubiquitous as in the United States, where 450 different types are sold and more than 2.5 million vending machines dispense them around the clock, including in our schools. The American Beverage Association says that, in 2004, 28 percent of all beverages consumed in the U.S. were carbonated soft drinks. Beverages are carbonated for various reasons. Many people find the fizzy sensation to be pleasant and like the slightly different taste that carbon dioxide provides. Carbonated beverages, particularly naturally carbonated spring water, were once thought to be health tonics, and the effervescence can help soothe an upset stomach. To keep the carbon dioxide dissolved, cans and bottles of soda must be kept under high pressure. Containers might explode when shaken, because of the build up of the gas, or the beverage might spray out when a shaken container is opened. The carbon dioxide in a carbonated beverage also causes people to burp after they drink it, because the gas is released after being ingested into the body. II. Types of Carbonated Drinks A. Soda – Many people begin to drink carbonated beverages in childhood with a first sip of Coke, Sprite or Dr Pepper at a birthday party. B. Coffee – Although the ventures didn’t succeed, Starbucks tried to introduce a carbonated coffee beverage called Mazagran and Coke attempted the same thing with Kona. C. Carbonated Water – Carbonated water (also known as sparkling water, fizzy water and seltzer) is popular among weight-conscious or other people who want to avoid sugar sodas. It is available plain and in a variety of light flavors, like lemon, raspberry and vanilla. D. Sparkling Wine (Champagne) – Sparkling wine—or champagne, depending on where the beverage was produced—is the drink of choice for celebrations and also pairs well with light dishes like fish or chicken. E. Energy Drinks – Enviga, Red Bull, Jolt and Monster are carbonated drinks that have stimulants that help energize. F. Juices- You can buy juice that has carbonation but check their nutrition labels to see how healthy they are. One example is the Nantucket Nectars line of lightly carbonated juices called Nectar Fizz. III. Technical Feasibility A. Business Location Location to setup a Carbonated Drink Distribution is on a urban area where everybody can have an access buying drinks. Location can be on a beach for summer is coming everyone wants cold drinks. IV. Organizational Feasibility A. The legal status of business play an important role in any setup; the proposed Carbonated Drink store setup is assumed to operate as a Franchise of bigger organizations. V. Conclusion Carbonated Drinks are what most people want. Drinks like this will consumed by most of people especially in urban area where it is now the trend.

My Memoirs Essay

I am Jack Merridrew, when I was younger I went to a cathedral school where I was head boy and chapter chorister. My choir and I were being evacuated from England because of the cold war. None of us knew where we were going, but wherever it was it would be safe. I thought it would be a great adventure but I was certainly proved wrong. This is how my adventure began. We were on the aeroplane, which was taking us to our new destination, when the lights began to flicker and the windows began to shake. The next thing I knew we had crashed. I woke up the next morning to find myself lying on a patch of grass with some of the choir boys. I was not injured but just a bit shocked at what had happened. I didn’t have a clue where we were but I knew I would survive somehow. The weather was excruciatingly hot and the air was very moist. I led my choir into the forest where we found lots of fruit. I used not to eat much fruit but I was so hungry I ate as much of it as my stomach would take. There was a stream where we were able to drink from, the water tasted so fresh, the freshest I’ve ever tasted. I heard a loud noise, I didn’t know exactly what it was but it sounded like a horn. My choir and I followed the noise, until we came to a platform, where there were lots of other boys. One of the boys was blowing a conch. I can remember ordering the choir to stand in line so that we looked presentable and authoritative. The boy with the conch introduced himself as Ralph and there was a fat boy with him, wearing rounded spectacles. Simon from my choir fainted like he usually did, because he was an epileptic. The other boys and I had discussed our situation and had established that there were no adults on the island, so I suggested that I should be chief because I was head boy. Ralph decided to have a vote on who should be leader. It should have been me, but they chose Ralph because of that ridiculous conch thing that he had. I was extremely furious and disappointed; Ralph said that my choir could be hunters and obviously I was leader of the hunters. Ralph suggested that we should explore where we were to make sure we were on an island. He told me the fat boy’s real name was Piggy. Piggy wanted to come with us. I laughed and told him to go back to the others. If Piggy had come with us he would have slowed us down. As we were exploring we heard a squealing noise. We ran to see what it was. A pig was tangled in some creepers. I pulled out my knife, ready to cut its throat. Something in me stopped me from killing the pig, maybe it was the thought of the knife going through the flesh or maybe it was because I was too innocent. I didn’t care what the reason was at the time. Ralph and Simon were looking at me I felt ashamed and angry, I vowed to myself that I would kill it next time. When we were certain that we were on an island, we agreed to build a signal fire on the top of the mountain so we could be rescued. When we were still down on the platform a littulin said that there was some kind of â€Å"beastie† on the island. I knew that he was just afraid because he was away from home. I wanted everyone to know that I was strong so I promised to kill the beast if I saw it. We managed to get loads of leaves and bits of wood for a fire; but we had no matches to light a fire. I snatched Piggy’s glasses and managed to shine the light through them causing a bit of smoke. I blew it a bit and it lit the leaves and sticks. In minutes the fire got out of control and it swept down the side of the mountain. After the fire some of the littulins had noticed the boy with the birth mark on his face was missing. We came to the conclusion that he was killed during the fire. I didn’t particularly care. It wasn’t at all my fault. The littulin should have been more careful. Hunting was becoming really tedious, as there was nothing to kill. I desperately needed meat; I was prepared to kill, to prove to the rest of the boys that I should be chief not Ralph. All Ralph cared about was making huts, sticking to the rules and getting rescued. I knew that we wouldn’t get rescued straight away; I just wanted to have fun and make the most of our time on the island without any adults. As time passed on the island my clothes got worn and ripped but I didn’t care. I was able to make paints for my face out of berries and mud; I spread it all over my face as camouflage to help me in the forest. It was my new identity. When we went hunting we found a pig, we chased it and killed it with our spears. I felt victorious and triumphant. The flesh and blood did not concern me at all; I just wanted the meat. We marched proudly back to the beach. Ralph didn’t even care that I had got some meat; he just cared about a ship that had gone past, and hadn’t seen us. It wasn’t my fault the signal fire had gone out, we had to go and hunt. The ship probably wouldn’t have seen the fire anyway. I don’t know why but I took my anger out on Piggy and his glasses got broken. As usual Ralph stuck up for Piggy like he always did. When we were roasting the pig I knew that Ralph was jealous that he hadn’t been part of the hunt, which is why he should have let me become chief because I was more fun then he. One day while I was on the beach a something fell from the air. We all thought it was a beast; I was even fooled at first. When Ralph, some other bigguns and I went to look for the beast, I didn’t really know what creature I was looking for. I went up to the top of the mountain alone. There was a huge bulge next to a boulder; I couldn’t make out what kind of creature it was. It was extremely dark; I went back up there with Roger and Ralph. It moved. For the first time I was actually scared. But I soon forgot about it because I wasn’t really bothered. After I got off the island I never found out what it was because when the investigation team went up to the mountain there was nothing there. While we were having a meeting on the platform, I wanted another vote for a new chief. I was surprised and ashamed when they still voted for Ralph. They should have chosen me. I went off on my own to think; I wasn’t surprised though when my hunters came to look for me. My hunters would rather be in a tribe with me than Ralph. I decided I would make a tribe of my own. Everybody knew I was the strongest on the island; I would be able to provide food. If I kept everyone scared they would join my tribe. I invited Ralph to a big feast that I was having, while two of my hunters went to steal fire from them. He did not realise my plan. It was to keep my friends close but my enemies closer. All the boys came to my feast because I could provide them with food. I asked people to join my tribe, nearly everyone joined, apart from Piggy and Ralph. When Simon crawled out of the forest and into our circle I did think for a second that it was a beast. But everyone including myself got carried away beating him as if he was the beast; I just couldn’t stop hitting him with my spear. It was like my body had been taken over by evil. I didn’t mean to kill him. The next day I decided to move my tribe to Castle Rock because it was more enclosed and Ralph wouldn’t be able to invade my location. We had no way of getting fire so we plotted together to go and steal Piggy’s glasses. When I got back from hunting the next day, I found Ralph at Castle Rock, we began to argue then started to fight. My tribe took Sam and Eric hostage so that Piggy and Ralph were now on their own. Ralph was still sticking up for Piggy. He told me to give back Piggy’s glasses but there was no way that I was going to give Piggy his glasses they were now mine. Whilst Piggy was standing in the entrance protesting about his glasses, Roger released a huge boulder. It came hurtling down the cliff and smashed Piggy’s skull in two. It didn’t bother me, I was so glad he was out of the way. Now I just needed to get rid of Ralph. I threw my spear down at him but missed. He got away and ran into the forest. I wanted Ralph dead. My tribe and I went into the forest to hunt him down. We burnt out his hiding place to smoke him out. Ralph ran through the forest and across the platform, he fell to the ground. This was my chance to kill him, to show him I could do what I wanted because I was strong and powerful. But as we looked up a naval officer looked down at us and said, â€Å"Have you been having a war or something?† That is when I knew my adventure was over. I was totally astonished. All the hatred in me went away. Suddenly I didn’t feel so powerful and strong, I felt small and weak like a littulin. When the officer asked who was boss Ralph said, â€Å"I am.† I don’t know why I didn’t say anything. Maybe it was because I was scared or maybe it was because I was never a real chief. We were put onto a ship, which took us back to England. The naval officers were surprised that three people had been killed. They were asking so many questions. I kept quiet; I didn’t want the officers to know I was one of the boys that caused most of the trouble on the island. After we were rescued, the war was over for a month. I was sent back home with the rest of the boys. I found it incredibly hard trying to settle back into a civilised society. I had been back at home for only a week when there was a letter in the post informing me of an inquest into Piggy and Simon’s deaths. I found it difficult to recollect what had happened. But when I thought about it more and more I remembered everything in fine detail. I kept thinking what if they find me guilty for Simon’s death? Would they send me to prison? Throughout the space of two weeks I was taken in and out of the police station to write many statements on the killings, which took place on the island. I did not see any of the boys again until we were up in court, I was found partly guilty for Simon’s death, and I was found guilty of conspiring to kill Piggy and also I was found guilty of attempting to kill Piggy. Most of the boys blamed me for the killings but Roger was also found guilty of killing Piggy. I do not know what happened to the rest of the boys, but I do know that Ralph was let off with just community service. I am writing my memoirs from Celeron detention centre, while serving two life sentences. If I ever get out of here I will visit Ralph and show him the sufferings of solitary confinement. He was also to blame for Simon’s death, why should he be let off? I now realise that when I was on the island, camouflaging my face with paint had hidden my true identity, which led me to do many things I wouldn’t usually have done. The society we had been in on the island was very different, we were all out of control and there was no one there to stop us. I now realise that killing isn’t a game; I saw it as a game because it mitigated the brutality of what I was really doing. The only problem is, I realised it too late. I lost control of my actions and now I have to pay for them. However, I do not regret conspiring to kill Ralph because he is someone I truly hate and I always will. I should have been chief!

California History Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

California History - Essay Example Had I surveyed myself, the percentage would have been even lower. The story of Califia is largely classified as a myth but to what extent is known only to Spanish explorers. The island of California, as described in a 1510 novel by Garci Ordonez de Montalvo, was located near the coast of Southeast Asia and inhabited by only women, large, muscular Amazon women. Califia was well known for her humanitarian efforts and for her sense of loyalty to the island people. She dealt fairly with friend and foe alike and had the ability to travel the world whenever she pleased. The weapons were made of gold as were all other metallic objects because gold was the only type of metal found on the island. A glorious, exotic setting to be sure whether it was real or imagined (Wright, 2005). When Spanish explores found what is today known as Baja California, they thought it to be an island. No shame in this as GPS positioning systems would not exist for another half a millennia or so. Maybe the explorers found gold or dark woman when they landed, no one knows, or maybe the recently published novel was fresh on their mind and the story was deemed worthy of naming a previously unknown (to Europeans) piece of land. The name ‘California’, as some have suggested, may not originate from Queen Califia at all but was derived from a combination of the Spanish words Caliente and fornia meaning ‘hot oven.’ Others point to the Latin words Calida and Fornax meaning ‘hot furnace’ (Zwinger, 1961). Baja California’s climate has certainly been described accurately as both metaphors but the Amazon story is much more entrancing. The romantic and adventurous lives that the Spanish explorers led is evidence enough to me that they would likely nam e what they found to be a large exotic island after a large, exotic and adventurous Queen rather than the benign and unimaginative name.

Impacts of Sarbanes-Oxley Act on UK Companies Essay

Impacts of Sarbanes-Oxley Act on UK Companies - Essay Example The law has eleven sections, each with a varying amount of subsections. Each title has tremendous effect on the business and legal environment, with titles ranging from auditing, inspection of registered public accounting firms, accounting standards, establishment of an accounting oversight board, auditor partner rotation, corporate responsibility for financial reports, and probation to personal loans to executives, among others. Sarbanes - President George W. Bush signed Oxley in July 2002. The authors of the law are Paul Sarbanes and Michael Oxley. Sarbanes is the longest serving U. S. senator in Maryland history, having won his fifth term in 2000. He received his undergraduate degree from Princeton University, and a Harvard law degree. Sarbanes is the senior Democrat on the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee. Representative Michael Oxley was elected to the Ohio House in 1972 at the age of twenty - eight. Oxley has his undergraduate degree from University of Miami in Oxford, Ohio, and received a law degree from the University of Ohio. He is now the chairman of the House Committee of Financial Affairs. The largest part of the Sarbanes - Oxley Act is not all the sections that it covers in the law, not who signed it, or even authored it; it is how corporations will comply to this extensive piece of legislation. Enron, Tyco, and WorldCom all were under much scrutiny in the last couple of years because of personal loans given to executives for personal use. SOX bans the use of nearly all personal loans. These loans that corporations would give out to their executives were not really loans at all, but large sums of money, not expected to be paid back. Â  

Civil Rights Movement in the US Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Civil Rights Movement in the US - Essay Example It lasted until national civil rights legislation was passed in the mid-1960s. African-Americans and other racial minorities rejected this regime. They resisted it and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded in 1909. It struggled to end race discrimination through litigation, education, and lobbying efforts. Its crowning achievement was its legal victory in the Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education (1954) that rejected separate white and colored school systems and by implication overturned the "separate but equal" doctrine established in Plessy v. Ferguson.Invigorated by the victory of Brown and frustrated by its lack of immediate practical effect, private citizens increasingly rejected gradualist, legalistic approaches as the primary tool to bring about desegregation. In defiance, they adopted a combined strategy of direct action with nonviolent resistance known as civil disobedience, giving rise to the African-American Civil R ights Movement of 1955-1968. Notable legislative achievements during this phase of the Civil Rights Movement were passage of Civil Rights Act of 1964, that banned discrimination in employment practices and public accommodations; the Voting Rights Act of 1965, that restored and protected voting rights; the Immigration and Nationality Services Act of 1965, that dramatically opened entry to the U.S. to immigrants other than traditional European groups; and the Civil Rights Act of 1968, that banned discrimination

Requirement analysis Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Requirement analysis - Coursework Example The efficiency of the system has been lowered making it not to be reliable. The unreliable system takes a long time for it to enable the customers to sign an application form. The application form enables the customers to open an account, well known as trading product account. The share trading account is categorized into, high risk accounts, medium risk account, low risk accounts and also specific market account. Hence, the choice of the account to be opened depends highly on the customers. The system has got a lot of complications and this becomes the requirement analysis. They include; the time taken for a customer to complete the application process is long (Holmes, et al. p.21), implying that a lot of questions are asked and this makes the entire process tiresome. Printing time is highly delayed as the delay may take up to twenty four hours. So the enterprise stockbrokers have come up with an objective of enhancing the efficiency of the online stock trading system. The ES has a way of reducing the printing time and also reducing the application time (P arrish, et al. p. 54). Enterprise stockbrokers have come up with investigation techniques that combine both the measures and the goal driven analysis to ensure the efficiency of the system (Aalst, et al. P. 87). It has introduced a new and accurate requirement analysis procedures that can react effectively to changes or rather business adjustment. The proposed methodology reflects on the emerging issues and ensures that the objective of enterprise stockbrokers are obtained and also ensures that the enterprise stockbrokers system adds value to the business. This entails to the item or arrangement that is consistently conveyed by the project. Note that toward the starting this can be a bit fluffy if the last objective or even extension have not been characterized yet. This second layer represents the Business System and involves the last item, as well as those stakeholders

Question to answer Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Question to answer - Assignment Example The terms connectionless and connection-oriented describe different kinds of communication. Connection-oriented means that ‘when devices communicate, they perform handshaking to set up an end-to-end connection. The handshaking process may be as simple as synchronization such as in the transport layer protocol TCP, or as complex as negotiating communications parameters as with a modem. Connection-Oriented systems can only work in bi-directional communications environments. To negotiate a connection, both sides must be able to communicate. This will not work in a unidirectional environment. On the other hand, connectionless means that no effort is made to set up a dedicated end-to-end connection. Connectionless communication is achieved by transmitting information in one direction, from source to destination without checking to see if the destination is still there, or if it is prepared to receive the information. When there is little interference, and plenty of speed available, these systems work well. In environments where there is difficulty transmitting to the destination, information may have to be re-transmitted several times before the complete message is received. Walkie-talkies, or Citizens Band radios are good examples of connectionless communication. You converse into the mike, and the radio transmitter sends out your signal. If the person receiving you doesnt understand you, theres nothing his radio can do to correct things, the receiver must send you a message back to repeat your last message’(InetDaemon). 3. What are the four important steps to follow while programming sockets for communication? Hint: Use the code given on blackboard and check the flow of the code from top to bottom for helpful information on how sockets work. One, ‘we create an object of class TcpClient (namespace System.Net.Sockets0 to connect to the server. The connection is established by calling TcpClient method

The Risks That UK Coal, an FTSE Listed Company, Can Potentially Face Case Study

The Risks That UK Coal, an FTSE Listed Company, Can Potentially Face In Undertaking Cross-Border Merger and Acquisition (M&A) Activity - Case Study Example The researcher states that cross-border mergers and acquisitions are complex undertakings packaged with risks and rewards. When two organizations with different internal controls, management styles, corporate cultures and processes attempt to integrate, the business risk increases substantially. Before embarking on M&A journey, it is imperative that all risk factors are considered prior to injecting capital in the host country. UK Coal needs to conduct due diligence so as to ensure that M&A activity fits its long-term strategic objectives. Due diligence identifies, confirms or disputes the business reasons for proposed merger or acquisition transactions. Due diligence demands a thorough data analysis of assets and liabilities, particularly large balance sheet items such as accounts receivable, inventory, and accounts payable to establish fair market value. It is imperative that a fair value for the business is accurately established so that a reasonable price is paid for the target a ssets. A careful analysis of the target company's financial statements avoids incidents of overpaying and mismanaging shareholders' expectations. Differences in corporate culture, business practices, and institutional layouts can hinder firms from fully realizing their potential. According to a KPMG study, 83 percent of all M&As failed to economically benefit the shareholders and over 50 percent actually destroyed value. A research was conducted involving over 100 senior managers to determine the reason behind this failure which turned out to be the cultural differences. In pursuing a cross-border M&A, it is vital for an organization to assess the political situation prevailing in the target country. This assessment will not only uncover any potential political risks but also prepare the host company to face them and find appropriate solutions for them. Another potential barrier to a successful M&A activity is lack of knowledge about the target company. Knowledge about the company l eads to a successful post-merger integration. Â  Another factor that should be taken into account is the effects of trade impediments on cross-border M&A. Academic studies have found that on an aggregate basis, trade costs affect merger activity negatively, though the effect is less pronounced for horizontal mergers, i.e. mergers between firms within the same industry. UK Coal needs to ensure that its target company is one which will lead not only to economical but also intercultural synergies between the two companies. To identify an appropriate acquisition target, aforementioned due diligence should be adequately employed. Moreover, UK Coal needs cognizance in matters relating to exchange rates, local accounting standards, foreign government potential trade regulations, etc. UK Coal should have information regarding its local competitors in the host country and their respective market positions. This will lead to reasonable projections and estimates for the business. Expectations of UK Coal from this activity should be realistic and in parity with the overall strategy formulated at the design stage. Regulatory aspects also need attention to avoid any legal risks. Competent professionals (lawyers, accountants) must be hired to provide financial and legal opinions regarding the merger or acquisition transaction.

Argument about animal rights and welfare Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Argument about animal rights and welfare - Essay Example He argued in 1785 that humans have responsibilities only toward other humans, and that "unkindness to animals is opposing to mans obligation to himself (Thomas A. Mappes, 2002 ). We have the ethical obligation to take care of the rights of animal and need to work as much as we can, for their welfare. We need to ask ourselves about what kind of legacy we would leave for our children. What impact would it have on our future generations? Animals have an equal right to live on this earth with us. When we do give our efforts for the promotion of animal rights and welfare, we are doing our part in their protection and preservation(Richard H. Corrigan & Mary E. Farrell (eds.)). Jeremy Bentham, even though deeply opposed to the idea of natural rights, argued, following Rousseau, that it was the aptitude to suffer, not the skill to reason, that should be the standard of how we treat other beings. If sagacity were the criterion, many humans, including babies and disabled inhabitants, would also have to be treated as though they were things. We must be ready to be the saviors of animals, inform and educate people about the rights and the welfare of animals. The best way to start this is by giving lectures in educational institutions, on the neighborhood level, on the city level, and on the larger level, by both going to places personally, and also by using all the methods of media and communications technology that we have developed so far. We need to train people and impart knowledge of animal rights and welfare, to pass on this knowledge about animal rights and welfare, so that people know the facts, and are able to separate facts from fiction (Orlans, 1998 ). Following the perception of Peter Singer who argues, are predicated on the aptitude to suffer, and nothing more, and once it is recognized that a being has interests, those interests must be given equal contemplation. The degree to which animals can suffer is consequently a key

How to Be a Successful Working Student Essay Example for Free

How to Be a Successful Working Student Essay How to Be a Successful Working Student To work while studying is something that will really stress you out if you don’t know how to manage your time and settle your priorities. Your life, your work, your relationships all seem to conspire to deny you the time needed to do the reading, the writing, and the classes needed to complete your course of study, or so it seems. However, it doesn’t mean that you have to punish yourself and neglect the enjoyment that is offered by student life. As for me, now that I have to balance my work and my studies, I follow some guiding principles so that as much as possible I would not sacrifice my performance in school and in my work. There are a lot of things to consider before I decide on how I will spend an hour, a minute, or a moment of my day but to manage time does not mean about getting more time, it is about using it more effectively. We can’t control time, but we can always settle what to do with it. Planning my day ahead and knowing what my limitations are, I try to follow a scheduled time so that I won’t be trapped in a situation that is already out of my control. And with other obligations, I know that I have less study time than those students who can spend full-time on study. So, I know that I have to maximize it. There are times here and there which I use to maximize my time. For example, reading a course material on the commute, during the meal break at work, while waiting for the class to start, or in other spare minutes. Since these pockets of times are short-spare time in between tasks, I make my reading materials in a handy format. Then, as much as possible, I try to connect with others. I know that I should not take it all by myself. A good way to combat stress and loneliness is to seek out the company of people whom you know you can have a good time and share your problems with. Those â€Å"pieces of gold†, or the positive and enjoyable moments could lift up my spirits and help me to begin to see things in a new and balanced way. And lastly, I learn to always see things positively. That is a rule of thumb, because if I allow myself to be consumed by negative thoughts, it will only leave me depressed and would not be able to cope up with what my schedule asks of me. To always ask GOD for guidance and acknowledging that I cannot do things by my own. I just always remind myself that I am a student who is working, not a worker who is studying. I always put my studies first before anything because I know that it is one thing that I can hold on in the long run. To work while studying is one opportunity that I know I should be thankful, so now that I am already in this situation and is handling more responsibility, I just see this as a chance to grow and become more of a better, mature person. Any working student may agree with me that it is really hard to balance school and work, so to those who are committing their time fully to their studies, do not envy us when we receive our salaries. Just be grateful because time cannot be bought. That’s one thing that I have learned since I started to become a working student.

Outline Home school and private school Essay Example for Free

Outline Home school and private school Essay What two objects, people, subjects, or concepts are you going to compare and contrast?   What are the similarities between the two objects, people, subjects, or concepts? List as many similarities that you can think of. Learning, working yourself towards a diploma to a better future, material used is the same (textbooks, quizzes, test) What are the differences between the two objects, people, subjects, or concepts? List as many differences that you can think of. Homeschool you get more one on one help and attention, greater social interaction in public schools, fights and bullying aren’t as likely in homeschool, flexibility in schedules Are you going to focus on similarities, differences, or both? Explain your rationale. I think it’s important to focus on both I believe there are more difference than similarities when it comes to homeschool vs. public school What do you want your readers to learn and understand after reading your essay? What is the purpose of your essay? The purpose is to show that while homeschool and public schools are different they both have their positive benefits and you have to choose the one that best suits you and your family. What three parallel points of comparison or contrast will you address in your essay? For example, if you were going to compare and contrast two teachers, your three parallel points might be these: Each teacher’s homework policy Each teacher’s classroom conduct policy Each teacher’s demeanor Social Interaction Flexibility of schedule and submitting assignments. Bullying Issues Explain why this is an appropriate and workable topic selection for the final assignment. This topic is appropriate for me because my husband and I have actually been discussing moving our children from public to home school due to my child being bullied by an older child. So I feel like choosing this topic can teach me something and help me in the future to make decisions for my own children. 1. What is your chosen topic from the list? Home School vs. Public School 2. Will you be comparing or contrasting the items? I will be comparing and contrasting home school and public school there are many important differences as well as similarities. 3. Will you be organizing your essay point-by-point or by subject? Point by point 4. What 3 characteristics will you be comparing or contrasting? Social interaction in public vs. home school, bullying, and the flexibility of schedules between both 5. What is your brainstorming plan? I will jot my ideas down as they come to me, I will research the differences and similarities, then make a rough draft. Emails and written letters vary because of the time involved for both senders and recipients. Emails are typed, and letters are hand-written. Typing is much quicker compared to hand writing. Emails can be sent with the click of a button. Letters must be sealed, stamped, and sent by what is today deemed â€Å"snail mail†. Emails can be sent much quicker than hand written letters. A recipient can go into his or her email account and quickly review an email. Letter recipients must wait for the mail, open the envelope and unfold the paper. Recipients receive emails much faster than those receiving written letters. Ultimately, emails and written letters have various differences in the ways that the messages are written, sent, and received, but they also differ because of the popularity of each.

Functional Requirements of Airline Reservation System

Functional Requirements of Airline Reservation System This project deals with the development of a Software Requirements Specification (SRS) document that specifies what an airline reservation system should and should not do. The SRS document is divided into five sections namely System Objectives This section lists all the goals and objectives of the system categorized based on the viewpoint of the airline company and the customer (passenger). These are higher-level goals which are somewhat broad in nature. They help in a top-down development of the SRS. System Context This section clearly depicts the environment and boundaries of the ARS and the entities with which it interacts. It helps us see how the system fits into the existing scheme of things. What the system will do by itself and what it expects other entities to do is clearly delineated. Functional Requirements This section is the bulk of the document and precisely states the functions of the system what it should do and what it should not. This section is split into subsections modeled after the real world activities like reserving tickets, rescheduling tickets etc. Freedom from ambiguity and navigability were kept in mind while documentation. A consistent terminology has been followed throughout and the terms are explained in the appendix. The subsections follow a logical sequence that reflects the real world. For example, a customer cannot reschedule a ticket unless he has bought one earlier and cannot buy one unless he has checked its availability. Non-functional Requirements These are quality requirements that stipulate the performance levels required of the system for various kinds of activities. Numerical lower and upper limits set conditions on the response times, access times etc of the system. Sometimes, tradeoffs are necessary among various non-functional requirements. Future Requirements These are the specifications which are not provided for now in the current version of ARS but which could be incorporated into future versions. Some of these need advanced technologies and interfaces with other systems. The ARS could be designed in future to enhance the existing capabilities or add entirely new ones. The assumptions and limitations of the ARS have been interspersed in the SRS to present the same in their proper context. 1. System Objectives 1.1 The Airline Reservation System (ARS) is a software application to assist an airline with transactions related to making ticket reservations, which includes blocking, reserving, canceling and rescheduling tickets. 1.2 From the viewpoint of the airline 1.2.1 Minimize repetitive work done by the system administrator and reservation clerks. 1.2.2 Maintain consistency among different access modes, e.g. by phone, by web, at the information desk and across different physical locations. The users should be basically taken through the same steps by the system as they go through in conventional desk-reservation systems. 1.2.3 Maintain customer information in case of emergency, e.g. flight cancellation due to inclement weather. The profile can also be used by the airline company to track user preferences and travel patterns to serve them better, plan routes, for better marketing and efficient scheduling of flights. 1.2.4 Maximize the revenue of the airline company by various means: 1.2.4.1 Increase awareness among frequent travelers about various special offers and discounts. 1.2.4.2 Minimize the number of vacant seats on a flight and maximize flight capacity utilization. 1.2.4.3 Maintain the capability to adopt a flexible pricing policy. The price of the tickets should be dynamically determined based on how early, before the date of departure, the customer buys the ticket. 1.3 A survey conducted by airline companies shows that users of an existing reservation system would respond favorably to an ARS that satisfied or helped them satisfy the following objectives: 1.3.1 Reduce effort and frustration for travelers in scheduling a trip, especially by reducing the search effort for the flight they need to take. 1.3.2 Show all possible combinations and itineraries available for a pair of origin-destination cities. 1.3.3 Reduce redundancy in the information required from the customers in order for them to buy tickets, create user accounts etc. 1.3.4 Check the validity of input data and give a feedback to the user in case of errors or inconsistency. 1.3.5 Provide flexible access modes to users internet, telephone, PDA. 1.3.6 Protect customers privacy concerns. 1.3.7 Make it easy for travelers to check the ticket status or make changes to their trip. 2. System Context 2.1 The ARS will provide the following types of easy-to-use, interactive, and intuitive graphical and telephonic interfaces. 2.1.1 The ARS will provide an easy-to-use, intuitive Graphical User Interface (GUI) as part of the Clerk/Administrators working desktop environment. 2.1.2 The ARS will also provide an interactive GUI, on the World Wide Web for the general customers. The above two ARS interfaces shall help provide the following functionalities to the users access to the ARS to check the flight schedule, availability of seats, ticket price and to block, reserve, cancel, and reschedule tickets. The ARS will also provide an easy-to-use, simple telephonic user interface, which can be accessed by the customers through telephone or cell phone from anywhere. This interface shall provide access, only to the following functionalities, namely, check flight schedule and check ticket status including any change in the flight timings. The functionality available through this telephonic interface is limited because of security constraints. 2.2 The system and its environment and the interactions between them are depicted in the diagram below. DB-Reservations Flight Schedule Database Customer Via Web DB-User DB-Schedule I N T E R F A C E CW DB-Geography ARS software INTERFACE Cp Customer Via Phone INTERFACE A Administrator The closed boundary above clearly delineates the system and the environment. The diagram shows the interactions between the ARS software and the databases inside the system. There are three databases internal to the system and which the system maintains. DB-user is the database containing all the personal information of the registered users of the ARS. This can be updated by the user by logging in to the system. Information from this database is used during transactions like charging the credit card etc. DB-schedule is a copy of the flight schedule database. The latter exists independently and is updated by a flight scheduler system which is out of scope of the ARS. DB-schedule is updated with the latest status of the flight schedule database whenever there is any change in the latter. For example, if a flight has been added to the schedule between two cities on Tuesdays, DB-schedule gets updated with this change through a process with which we are not concerned. It is external to th e system and is out of the scope of this SRS. DB-schedule also contains the base prices of tickets for various flight numbers. DB-reservations are a database containing information regarding the number of seats available on each class on different flights. It has provision for marking how many of the reserved seats have been blocked but not yet bought. DB-reservations should update itself using DB-schedule, for example, if a new flight is added. DB-geography is a database, which contains information about the cities and towns serviced by the airline. The distance between all cities and towns is contained in a matrix form. There are three interfaces, one for the administrator, one for the customer via web and another for the customer via phone. The administrator can update DB-schedule with any changes in the base prices of flight tickets. The system uses a pricing algorithm and dynamically determines the actual price from this base price depending on the date of reservation vis-Ã  - vis date of departure. The customer interfaces (web and phone) enable multiple functions which are described in the following section section 3. 3. Functional Requirements 3.1 User Accounts 3.1.1 The passenger, who will henceforth be called the user, will be presented with 3 choices by the reservation system, as the first step in the interaction between them. A user can choose one of these and his choice would be governed by whether he is a guest or a registered user and whether he wants to check the availability of tickets or also block/buy them. The terms registered user and guest are described below. 3.1.1.1 A user who has traveled by the airline earlier would have been given a user id and a password. He would have his personal information stored in the database referred to earlier in section 2 as DB-user. This personal information would be henceforth referred to as profile. Such a user with a profile in DB-user shall be called a registered user. A registered user will be able to check the availability of tickets as well as block/buy a ticket by logging into the system. 3.1.1.2 A new user, on the other hand, would either have to register himself with the system by providing personal information or log into the system as a guest. In case of a, the new user becomes a registered user. In case of b, the new user would remain a guest. A guest can only check the availability of tickets and cannot block or buy tickets. But a registered user can also act as a guest if he only wants to check the availability of tickets. Availability of tickets always refers to viewing the flight schedule for given days, the price of tickets and any discount offers. The system shall present the user with an option to exit from the system at any time during the following processes. 3.2 Registration and creation of user profile The system shall require a user to register, in order to carry out any transactions with it except for checking the availability of tickets. It will ask the user for the following information at the least a user id, a password, first name, last name, address, phone number, email address, sex, age, preferred credit card number. The system will automatically create a sky miles field and initialize it to zero in the users profile. 3.3 Checking Availability 3.3.1 After logging in a user (either a registered user or a guest), the system shall request him to enter the following details origin city and destination city. City is a generic term and refers to a city or town as the case may be. The origin and destination cities would be entered as text. The system shall now refer to the flight schedule database, referred to as DB-geography in section 2, and check if there is any ambiguity with the names of the cities. In case there are more than two cities with same name as entered by the user, the system shall list all of them (with more qualifications) and ask the user to select one of them. In case, either the origin or destination cities are not listed in DB-geography as being directly serviced by the airline, the system shall suggest the nearest city to which service is available, including the distance of the destination city from this nearest city. After the origin and destination cities are ascertained, the system shall now access the flight schedule database, referred to as DB-schedule in section 2, and checks if there is a direct operational service between the two cities. If not, the system shall suggest possible routes and transfer points using a route selection algorithm. The user shall now be presented with a choice of either selecting one of the routes. In case he selects a route, the system shall fill in the intermediate stop over points and create a multiple trip itinerary for the user. 3.3.4 The system shall now ask the user to enter the following details class, one-way or round trip, departure date and the number of adult passengers, children and senior citizens. Class refers to business class/first class/club class/smoking/non smoking. This choice shall be made by the user through a drop down menu indicating all the possible combinations of choices. One-way/round trip shall be either a drop down menu or a check box selection. Departure date refers to either a single date or a range of dates, entered through a calendar-like menu. This menu shall not show dates in the past or those dates that are too ahead in the future(as determined by the airline policy). In case, the trip is a round trip, the system shall also ask the user to enter the departure date on the return trip. Having taken all the above input from the user, the system checks for any false entries like the departure date on the return trip being earlier than the departure date on the onward trip. In case of incompatibility, the system shall display a suitable error message and prompt the user to enter the information correctly. Having taken all of the information as laid out above in 3.3.1 and 3.3.4, the system shall now access the flight schedule database DB-schedule and queries it using the input provided by the user. The system queries the reservation database DB-reservations to check which of the flights on the schedule have seats available. The system displays the results in a suitable form (a tabular form) with the following information depicted for each flight number the flight number, departure time in origin city, arrival time in destination city, the duration of the flight (taking into account the possibility of a change of time zone) and the number of seats available on that flight. There can be several flights between two cities and all of them will be listed for the particular date that the user wants to depart from the Origin City. In case, the user has entered a range of dates, the system shall display all the flights for all those dates in the range. If the user has requested a round trip, the system shall display two tables one for the onward trip and one for the return trip. There will be a check box in front of each line in the table representing a flight with available seats. The user is now asked to check one of the boxes reflecting a choice of a flight number and time. In case of a round trip, the user is asked to check one box each in the two tables. The system shall now display the price of the ticket for the trip. This will be the sum of the prices for all the members of the travel party being represented by the user. The system shall also list any rules regarding the cancellation of tickets what percentage of the price will be refunded within what date ranges. This will be displayed as a table. Making Reservations/Blocking/Confirmation 3.4.1 After having taken the user through the step 3.3, Checking Availability, The system will now ask the user if he wishes to block/buy the ticket. If yes, and if the user has been a guest, he will have to first register and become a registered user and then log onto the system. If the user is already a registered user, and if he has logged on already, he can block/buy the ticket, but if he has been acting as a guest, he will have to log on. Having ensured that the user is logged on validly according to 3.4.1, the system compares the departure date with the system date. If the departure date falls within 2 weeks of the system date, the system informs the user that he has no option to block the ticket and asks him if he would like to buy it. If the difference between the departure date and system date is more than 2 weeks, the system asks the user if he would like to block or buy the ticket. The system informs the user that he can block the ticket at no cost now. It also informs him that if he chooses to block the ticket, he should make a final decision before 2 weeks of the departure date. The system shall send an email to the user, 3 weeks before the departure date as a reminder, in case he decides to block the ticket now. Having taken the input from the user in 3.4.2, the system shall now proceed to update the reservation database DB-reservation. It will decrement the number of available seats on the particular flight for the particular class by the number of travelers being represented by the user. In case of a blocking, the system makes a note of it in the database to be used if the user doesnt turn up before 2 weeks of the departure date. It generates a blocking number and displays it for the user to note down. In case the user buys the ticket, the system accesses his profile and charges the price of the ticket to his credit card number. It simultaneously generates a confirmation number and displays it to the user for him to note down. The ticket has been reserved. It adds the mileage of the trip (accounting for the number of travelers) to the skymiles in his profile. 3.5 Confirm Ticket 3.5.1 A user who has earlier blocked a ticket after going through the steps 3.2 through 3.4, is required to either confirm the ticket before two weeks of the departure date or the ticket stands cancelled. To let the user confirm a ticket, the system shall first log him on and ask for his blocking number. Then it accesses DB-reservation and removes the check mark, which so far represented a blocked seat. The seat is now confirmed and reserved for the user. The system accesses DB-user and charges the price of the ticket to the credit card number of the user. It simultaneously generates a confirmation number and displays it for the user to note down. The ticket has been reserved. It adds the mileage of the trip (accounting for the number of travelers) to the skymiles in his profile. 3.6 Reschedule Ticket The system shall present the user with an option to re-schedule his travel partys trip. In order to do this, the system first logs on the user and requests his confirmation number. It will not allow a user to reschedule a blocked ticket but only a confirmed ticket. Using this, it queries DB-reservation and presents the details of the trip to the user, including but not limited to origin city, destination city, date of departure and date of arrival (in case the trip is a round trip). The system shall now ask the user to select new dates from the calendar-menu. It now goes through step 3.3. In case, there are no available tickets for the dates entered, it displays a suitable message informing him that rescheduling to that date is not possible. In case there are tickets available, the system asks the user to select the flight number for the trip (another for the return trip if the trip is a round trip) and proceeds to update the database. The system accesses DB-reservation and decrements the number of available seats on the flight(s) by the number of members in the users travel party. It then increments the entry for the previous flight by the same number to reflect an increase in the available seats on it as a result of the rescheduling. The system now checks if there is any difference in the prices of the tickets. If so, it accesses DB-user and charges or credits the credit card as the case may be. The system generates a new confirmation number and displays it to the user. 3.7 Cancellation The system shall also give the user an option to cancel a confirmed ticket or a blocked ticket. The latter case is simpler and will be dealt with first the system shall first log on the user and request the blocking number. Then it accesses DB-reservation and updates it by incrementing the number of available seats by the number of people in the users travel party. In the former case, i.e., for a confirmed ticket, it asks for the confirmation number and accesses DB-reservation and presents the details of the trip as in step 3.6.1. It then lists the applicable rules for cancellation of tickets and depending on the system date and the departure date, it displays the % of the amount that would be refunded if the user cancels the ticket. After the user cancels the ticket, the system generates a cancellation number and displays it for the user to note down. It accesses DB-reservation and updates it by incrementing the number of available seats on that flight by the number of travelers in the users party. It accesses DB-user and credits the refund amount to his credit card number. The system then deducts the mileage of the trip (taking into account the number of travelers in his party) from the sky miles in his profile. 3.8 Update Profile The system shall enable the user to update his profile at any time. Changes can be made in fields including but not limited to address, phone number and preferred credit card number. 3.9 View Ticket Status The system shall allow a user to view all information about his trip. After logging him on, it asks for his blocking number or his confirmation number. It accesses DB-reservation and retrieves the details of the trip and presents them to the user in a convenient format, including any last minute changes to the flight timings etc. Such changes will be highlighted. 3.10 Query Flight Details The system shall allow any user (registered or non registered) to access the details about the arrival and departure times of a flight by requesting the user to input the flight number and date. The system accesses DB-schedule and presents the time of arrival and departure. Telephone access The system shall be accessible through a touch-tone telephone. The telephonic interface shall, at the least, provide the customer with the facility to check availability of tickets and query flight details. The system shall walk the customer exactly through steps 3.3 and 3.9 respectively but through a telephonic interface. Non-functional Requirements 4.1 Performance 4.1.1 Response time of the Airline Reservation System should be less than 2 second most of the time. Response time refers to the waiting time while the system accesses, queries and retrieves the information from the databases (DB-user, DB-schedule etc) (A local copy of flight schedule database is maintained as DB-schedule to reduce this access time) ARS shall be able to handle at least 1000 transactions/inquiries per second. ARS shall show no visible deterioration in response time as the number of users or flight schedule data increases 4.2 Reliability ARS shall be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week ARS shall always provide real time information about flight availability information. ARS shall be robust enough to have a high degree of fault tolerance. For example, if the user enters a negative number of passengers or a value too large, the system should not crash and shall identify the invalid input and produce a suitable error message. 4.2.4 ARS shall be able to recover from hardware failures, power failures and other natural catastrophes and rollback the databases to their most recent valid state. 4.3 Usability ARS shall provide a easy-to-use graphical interface similar to other existing reservation system so that the users do not have to learn a new style of interaction. 4.3.2 The web interface should be intuitive and easily navigable Users should be able to understand the menu and options provided by ARS. 4.3.3 Any notification or error messages generated by ARS shall be clear, succinct, polite and free of jargon. Integrity 4.4.1 Only system administer has the right to change system parameters, such as pricing policy etc. The system should be secure and must use encryption to protect the databases. 4.4.2 Users need to be authenticated before having access to any personal data. 4.5 Interoperability ARS shall minimize the effort required to couple it to another system, such as flight schedule database system. 5 Future Requirements 5.1 Support for waiting list functionality 5.1.1. ARS shall be made more flexible in ticket reservation handling, and shall accept waiting list for reservation. 5.1.2 The waiting list handling capability of ARS shall be made more advanced, by enabling it to send requests to the Flight Scheduler to schedule extra flights, depending on the demand in a particular corridor, and providing the wait listed passengers with a new flight. 5.2 The telephonic interface of the ARS shall be improved to support more functionality like allowing the customers to cancel a ticket etc., by incorporating security measures. 5.3 ARS shall be made more dynamic and helpful to the users by enabling it to send instant messages to the passengers, of a cancelled or rescheduled flight, through email, phone, fax etc., informing them about the change, and providing them with other feasible alternatives. 5.4 Information about the kind of meals served in a flight and the type of entertainment offered on a flight should be incorporated into the system. Provide service integration with auto rental agencies and hotel chains. Interface for the travel agents shall be provided in the future versions with additional features like informing them of any availability of seats on a flight which was earlier booked to capacity. Choices like aisle or window seats shall be provided to the users. The ARS shall be able to handle the situation where flight services are available to multiple airports in a single city.

Christianity Essay -- essays research papers

The period from the eighth to the fourteenth century was one of vast reforms, some for the better and some for the worse. During this period in Europe, commonly known as The Middle Ages, economic reforms took place as well as social, political, and religious changes. One common theme throughout The Middle Ages consisted of the relationship between the Church and the State. The Catholic church during this era held a prominent role in society, and it had an abundant amount of power and authority during this time. The Catholic Church exercised its authority in many different stages, in which a response from the people occurred because of the way the Church showed its power. The nature of the Catholic Church began its reform around the time Charlemagne, from 768 to 814, took control. He became a Christian emperor and the first great political leader in Western Europe. His main goal was to promote the Roman Catholic religion throughout all of the world known to man, and to do this Charlemagne coordinated with the pope, which in turn the pope crowned him the holy Roman Emperor. Charlemagne strived to reestablish central authority and revive the culture of the Early Middle Ages, and he succeeded by gaining authority over a large area, including almost all of Western and Central Europe (Charlemagne p.130-131). Charlemagne also made many reforms, mostly Church and educational ones. He first reformed the monasteries by making them Benedictine; he also made sure that the churches were abiding by the rules and not doing anything wrong. Charlemagne designed a system in which four archbishops were set up in four different regions with their headquarters in cities in that particular region. The archbishops appoint bishops authority in their territories. As the Catholic Church’s authority increases during this time, it also comes with consequences. This system of archbishops and bishops are great for the Church, but Charlemagne uses them as royal agents, which is part of royal policy. Furthermore, Charlemagne makes reforms in education in order to further improve the Church; he sets up a system which strengthens the priesthood by setting up bishop schools. These reforms indicate â€Å"a lack of division between religious and secular affairs† (Charlemagne p.131). Who really has authority, is it the pope or the king? King Charlemagne did make all of the reforms, but the pop... ... the monarchies of Europe and by the papacy. Considering everything the Catholic Church has gone through , was it successful in the religious mission it set out for. The answer to this question is very opinionated to historians, but I believe the answer is no. Notably during the High Middle Ages in which the crusades occurred, many popes set out into various lands including Byzantium and Islam in order to spread Christianity and stop the popularity of the Islamic religion. Many historians believe that the Crusades contributed to the economic and intellectual development of Europe by reopening Mediterranean east-west trade, but these people are wrong (Cantor p.192). All the Crusades did was stir up religious prejudice and the intolerance of Muslims (Cantor p.193). Although the Christian world learned a great deal from the Muslims, the Crusades were not a part of this occurrence. In addition, the fact that heresy occurred from such groups as the Hussites and the Waldensians further proves that the papacy had problems with people actually turning away from the Catholic Church. How could the Church be successful in its religious mission if groups of people are breaking away from it?

Essay --

Brooke Johnson Russ Tallchief Comp 1 T 530-800 18 February 2014 When I Grow Up I started showing an interest in nursing when I was about six years old, from all the stories my aunt told about being a Registered Nurse. When Greys Anatomy began airing in 2005, I decided I wanted to be like all those doctors. I wanted to wear the scrubs, and have a bunch of interns that listened to every word I spoke and always did as I said. Of course, I never knew then that by 19 years old, I would actually be attending college and majoring in nursing. As high school seniors we sat through plenty of lectures about choosing a major and a university. I think that was when I really decided I wanted to eventually become a Registered Nurse and major in nursing. Once I decided what I wanted to major in, I began thinking about specialties. There are hundreds of different specialties you could choose from, such as: Cardiac Care Nurse, Health Policy Nurse, Genetics Nurse, Forensic Nurse, Toxicology Nurse, School Nurse, Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner, and many more. Out of all of the specialties I could have chosen I decided to become a PNP, which stands for Pediatric Nurse Practitioner. I know the steps you have to take to become a Registered Nurse, but I would like to know information about becoming a PNP. In the research I have done, I have found out a lot of stuff I did not know before which has made me even more excited to become a Pediatric Nurse. A Pediatric Nurse is a nurse for infants all the way up to 17 year olds. Once you turn 18, you no longer go to a pediatric doctor/nurse since at 18 years of age you are legally considered an adult. â€Å"A Pediatric Nurse Practitioner is a professional nurse trained to recognize differences between adults ... ...leted it should not be overly difficult to find a job. I will finally be helping children and families, like I have dreamed of doing since I was little. â€Æ' Works Cited Bomhak, Terri. Registered Nurse. Telephone. 15 February 2014. Rodgers, Chelsea. Pulmonology Nurse. Personnel Interview. 19 February 2014. "Degree Requirements: Bachelor of Science." School of Nursing. Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, 2014. Web. 22 Feb. 2014. . Greenwood, Beth. "Facts About Pediatric Nurse Practitioners." Chron. Demand Media, 2014. Web. 22 Feb. 2014. . "Nurse Practitioner Programs." Nurse Practitioner Programs. N.p., 07 Nov. 2011. Web. 18 Feb. 2014. .

Judicial Process of the Supreme Court Essay -- American Government, Su

Nature’s Judicial Process in the Supreme Court consists of decision-making; based on the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. Although the Supreme Court has the capability to decide all extended cases; it also has the power to ascend under the Constitution, which allows the Supreme Court its jurisdiction in the Judicial Branch of government. The Judicial Process interpret the laws that are established in the Supreme Court; thus, allowing the Court to exercise its power by shifting its system under the Constitutional laws of the United States. Throughout the Supreme Court, many cases have been rejected and are deposed of, but the Supreme Court approves only certain cases. Thus, the Supreme Court reconciles the issue of that specific case, which is then obtained and written by the Chief Justice of the Court as the final conclusion. Cases that are controversial result in great effect in the Supreme Court. For instance, Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka in 1954 was one of the most controversial cases that the Supreme Court had to resolve; it violated the Equal Protection clause of the fourteenth Amendment. The case that violated an individual right was the case of Gideon vs. Wainwright in 1963, which violated the Sixth Amendment in a criminal case for the defendant. The case of Miranda vs. Arizona in 1966 is another controversial case that the Supreme Court had to base its judgment in order to have the individuals rights read to them due to the violation of the Fifth Amendment. Cases that are controversial have set many concerns throughout the judicial process of the Supreme Court; therefore, the progress of the people in the Judicial Branch was recognized to appreciate how far the Court has advanced and how superior in power the ... ...s considered to be encroachments to the Amendment and the Constitution. When Miranda was not told of his right to silence when asked by an officer, sparked the controversial case that convicted him of violating the Constitution even though the rights of Miranda was never read to him. Despite the fact of his rights, Miranda’s case is an issue that the Supreme Court has not faced yet. However, the case is controversial since one’s right is not informed, so in the Warren Court the affirmation of a criminal was to have his rights read despite being a criminal. If the obtainment of any items that are evident will be confiscated illegally since the right has not been addressed, so the evidence is not valid for the officer to obtain. During the time of the case, the decision was thought to cause more than controversy, but allowing criminals to set foot out of prison.

The Stupidest Angel Chapter 4

Chapter 4 HAVE YOURSELF A NASTY LITTLE CHRISTMAS Josh wiped the tears off his face, took a deep breath, and headed up the walk to his house. He was still shaking from having seen Santa take a shovel in the throat, but now it occurred to him that it might not be enough to get him out of trouble. The first thing his mom would say was, Well, what were you doing out so late anyway? And dumb Brian, who was not Josh's real dad but Mom's dumb boyfriend, would say, â€Å"Yeah, Santa would probably still be alive if you hadn't stayed so long at Sam's house.† So, there on the front step, he decided to go with total hysteria. He started breathing hard, pumping up some tears, got a good whimpering sob going, then opened the door with a dieseling back sniffle. He fell onto the welcome mat and let loose with a full fire-truck-siren wail. And nothing happened. No one said a word. No one came running. So Josh crawled into the living room, trailing a nice fiber-optic string of drool from his lower lip to the carpet as he chanted a mucusy â€Å"Momma,† knowing that it would completely disarm her temper and get her all fired up to protect him from dumb Brian, for whom he had no magic manipulation chant. But nobody called him, nobody came running, dumb Brian was not sprawled across the couch like the great sleepy slug that he was. Josh wound it down. â€Å"Mom?† Just the hint of a sob there, ready to go full bore again when she answered. He went into the kitchen, where the memo light was blinking on Mom's machine. Josh wiped his nose on his sleeve and hit the button. â€Å"Hi, Joshy,† his mom said, her cheerful overtired voice. â€Å"Brian and I had to go out to eat with some buyers. There's a Stouffer's mac and cheese in the freezer. We should be home before eight. Do your homework. Call my cell if you get scared.† Josh couldn't believe the luck. He checked the clock on the microwave. Only seven-thirty. Excellent! Latch-keyed loose like a magic elf. Yes! Dumb Brian had come through with a business dinner. He grabbed the Stouffer's out of the freezer, popped it – box and all – into the microwave, and hit the preset time. You didn't really have to peel the plastic back like they said. If you just nuke it in the box, the cardboard will keep it from exploding all over the microwave when the plastic goes. Josh didn't know why they didn't just put that in the instructions. He went back into the living room, turned on the TV, and plopped down on the floor in front of it to wait for the microwave to beep. Maybe he should call Sam, he thought. Tell him about Santa. But Sam didn't believe in Santa. He said that Santa was just something the goys made up to make them feel better about not having a menorah. That was crap, of course. Goys (a Jewish word for girls and boys, Sam had explained) didn't want a menorah. They wanted toys. Sam was just saying that because he was mad because instead of Christmas they had snipped the tip of his penis off and said mazel tov. â€Å"Wow, sucks to be you,† said Josh. â€Å"We're the Chosen,† said Sam. â€Å"Not for kickball† â€Å"Shut up.† â€Å"No, you shut up.† â€Å"No, you shut up.† Sam was Josh's best friend and they understood each other, but would Sam know what to do about a murder? Especially a murder of an important person? You were supposed to go to an adult in these situations, Josh was pretty sure of it. Fire, an injured friend, a bad touch, you were supposed to tell an adult, a parent, a teacher, or a policeman, and no one would be mad at you. (But if you found your mom's boyfriend lighting a giant chili-dog-and-beer fart in the garage workshop, the police absolutely did not want to know about it. Josh had learned that lesson the hard way.) A commercial came on, and Josh's mac and cheese was still surfing the microwaves, so he debated calling 911 or praying, and decided to go with the prayer. Like calling 911, you weren't supposed to pray for just anything. For instance, God did not care whether or not you got your bandicoot through the fire level on PlayStation, and if you asked for help there, there was a good chance that he would ignore you when you really needed help, like for a spelling test or if your mom got cancer. Josh reckoned it was sort of like cell-phone minutes, but this seemed like a real emergency. â€Å"Our Heavenly Father,† Josh began. You never used God's first name – that was like a commandment or something. â€Å"This is Josh Barker, six-seventy-one Worchester Street, Pine Cove, California nine-three-seven, five-four. I saw Santa tonight, which was great, and thank you for that, but then, right after I saw him, he got killed with a shovel, and so, I'm afraid that there's not going to be any Christmas and I've been good, which I'm sure you'll see if you check Santa's list, so if you don't mind could you please make Santa come back to life and make everything okay for Christmas?† No, no, no, that sounded really selfish. Quickly he added: â€Å"And a Happy Hanukkah to you and all the Jewish people like Sam and his family. Mazel tov.† There. Perfect. He felt a lot better. The microwave beeped and Josh ran to the kitchen, right into the legs of a really tall man in a long black coat who was standing by the counter. Josh screamed and the man took him by the arms, picked him up, and looked him over like he was a gemstone or a really tasty dessert. Josh kicked and squirmed, but the blond man held him fast. â€Å"You're a child,† said the blond man. Josh stopped kicking for a second and looked into the impossibly blue eyes of the stranger, who was now studying him in much the same way a bear might examine a portable television while wondering how to get all those tasty little people out of it. â€Å"Well, duh,† said Josh. The Christmas tree took a wide left onto Cypress Street. Finding that somewhat suspicious, Constable Theophilus Crowe pulled in behind it as he dug the little blue light out of the glove compartment of his Volvo and stuck it on the roof. Theo was relatively sure that there was a vehicle under the Christmas tree somewhere, but all he could see right now were the taillights shining through the branches in the back. As he followed the tree up Cypress, past the burger stand and Brine's Bait, Tackle, and Fine Wines, a pinecone the size of a Nerf football broke loose and rolled off to the side of the street, bouncing and thumping into one of the gas pumps. Theo hit the siren one time, just a chirp, thinking he'd better stop this before someone got hurt. There was no way that the driver under the Christmas tree could see the road clearly. The tree was driving trunk first, so the widest, thickest branches were covering the front of the vehicle. The tree's tires chirped with a downshift. It killed the lights and screeched around the corner on Worchester Street, leaving a trail of rolling pinecones and pine-fresh exhaust. Under normal circumstances, if a suspect tried to elude Theo, he would have called it into the county sheriff's immediately, hoping a deputy in the area might provide backup, but he'd be damned if he was going to call in that he was in hot pursuit of a fugitive Christmas tree. Theo turned the siren onto full shriek and took off up the hill after the fleeing conifer, thinking for the fiftieth time that day that life had seemed a lot easier when he'd smoked pot. â€Å"Boy, you don't see that every day,† said Tucker Case, who was sitting at a window table at H.P.'s Caf, waiting for Lena to come back from freshening up in the rest-room. H.P.'s – a mix of pseudo Tudor and Country Kitchen Cute – was Pine Cove's most popular restaurant, and tonight it was completely packed. The waitress, a pretty redhead in her forties, glanced up from the tray of drinks she was delivering and said, â€Å"Yeah, Theo hardly ever chases anyone.† â€Å"That Volvo was chasing a pine tree,† Tuck said. â€Å"Could be,† said the waitress. â€Å"Theo used to do a lot of drugs.† â€Å"No, really – † Tuck tried to explain, but she had headed back to the kitchen. Lena was returning to the table. She was still in the black tank top under an open flannel shirt, but she had washed the streaks of mud from her face and her dark hair was brushed out around her shoulders. To Tuck she looked like the sexy but tough Indian guide chick in the movies, who always leads the group of nerdy businessmen into the wilderness where they are assaulted by vicious rednecks, bears gone mutant from exposure to phosphate laundry detergent, or ancient Indian spirits with a grudge. â€Å"You look great,† Tuck said. â€Å"Are you Native American?† â€Å"What was the siren about?† Lena asked, sliding into the seat across from him. â€Å"Nothing. A traffic thing.† â€Å"This is just so wrong.† She looked around, as if everyone knew how wrong it was. â€Å"Wrong.† â€Å"No, it's good,† Tuck said with a big smile, trying to make his blue eyes twinkle in the candlelight, but forgetting where exactly his twinkle muscles were located. â€Å"We'll have a nice meal, get to know each other a little.† She leaned over the table and whispered harshly, â€Å"There's a dead man out there. A man I used to be married to.† â€Å"Shh, shh, shh,† Tuck shushed, gently placing a finger against her lip, trying to sound comforting and maybe a little European. â€Å"Now is not the time to talk of this, my sweet.† She grabbed his finger and bent it back. â€Å"I don't know what to do.† Tuck was twisted in his seat, leaning back to relieve the unnatural angle in which his finger was pointing. â€Å"Appetizer?† he suggested. â€Å"Salad?† Lena let go of his finger and covered her face with her hands. â€Å"I can't do this.† â€Å"What? It's just dinner,† said Tuck. â€Å"No pressure.† He had never really dated much – gone on dates, that is. He'd met and seduced a lot of women, but it was never over a series of evenings with dinner and conversation – usually just some drinks and vulgarity at an airport hotel lounge had done the trick. He felt it was time he behaved like a grown-up – get to know a woman before he slept with her. His therapist had suggested it right before she'd stopped treating him, right after he'd hit on her. It wasn't going to be easy. In his experience things went a lot better with women before they got to know him, when they could still project hope and potential on him. â€Å"We just buried my ex-husband,† Lena said. â€Å"Sure, sure, but then we delivered Christmas trees to the poor. A little perspective, huh? A lot of people have buried their spouses.† â€Å"Not personally. With the shovel they killed him with.† â€Å"You may want to keep it down a little.† Tuck checked the diners at the nearby tables to see if they were listening, but they all seemed to be discussing the pine tree that had just driven by. â€Å"Let's talk about something else. Interests? Hobbies? Movies?† Lena tossed her head as if she didn't hear him right, then stared as if to say, Are you nuts? â€Å"Well, for instance,† he pressed on, â€Å"I rented the strangest movie last night. Did you know that Babes in Toyland was a Christmas movie?† â€Å"Of course, what did you think it was?† â€Å"Well, I thought, well – now it's your turn. What's your favorite movie?† Lena leaned close to Tuck and searched his eyes to see if he might be joking. Tuck batted his eyelashes, trying to look innocent. â€Å"Who are you?† Lena finally asked. â€Å"I told you.† â€Å"But, what's wrong with you? You shouldn't be so – so calm, while I'm a nervous wreck. Have you done this kind of thing before?† â€Å"Sure. Are you kidding? I'm a pilot, I've eaten in restaurants all over the world.† â€Å"Not dinner, you idiot! I know you've had dinner before! What, are you retarded?† â€Å"Okay, now everybody is looking. You can't just say ‘retarded' in public like that – people take offense because, you know, many of them are. You're supposed to say ‘developmentally disabled. â€Å" Lena stood up and threw her napkin on the table. â€Å"Tucker, thank you for helping me, but I can't do this. I'm going to go talk to the police.† She turned and stormed through the restaurant toward the door. â€Å"We'll be back,† Tuck called to the waitress. He nodded to the nearby tables. â€Å"Sorry. She's a little high-strung. She didn't mean to say ‘retarded. † Then he went after Lena, snatching his leather jacket off the back of his chair as he went. He caught up with her as she was rounding the corner of the building into the parking lot. He caught her by the shoulder and spun her around, making sure that she saw that he was smiling when she completed the turn. Blinking Christmas lights played red and green highlights across her dark hair, making the scowl she was aiming at him seem festive. â€Å"Leave me alone, Tucker. I'm going to the police. I'll just explain that it was just an accident.† â€Å"No. I won't let you. You can't.† â€Å"Why can't I?† â€Å"Because I'm your alibi.† â€Å"If I turn myself in, I won't need an alibi.† â€Å"I know.† â€Å"Well?† â€Å"I want to spend Christmas with you.† Lena softened, her eyes going wide, the swell of a tear watering up in one eye. â€Å"Really?† â€Å"Really.† Tuck was more than a little uncomfortable with his own honesty – he was standing like someone had just poured hot coffee in his lap and he was trying to keep the front of his pants from touching him. Lena held out her arms and Tuck walked into them, guiding her hands inside his jacket and around his ribs. He rested his cheek against her hair and took a deep breath, enjoying the smell of her shampoo and the residual pine scent picked up from handling the Christmas trees. She didn't smell like a murderer – she smelled like a woman. â€Å"Okay,† she whispered. â€Å"I don't know who you are, Tucker Case, but I think I'd like to spend Christmas with you, too.† She buried her face in his chest and held him until there was a thump against his back, followed by a loud scratching noise on his jacket. She pushed him back just as the fruit bat peeked his little doggie face over the pilot's shoulder and barked. Lena leaped back and screamed like a bunny in a blender. â€Å"What in the hell is that?† she asked, backing across the parking lot. â€Å"Roberto,† Tuck said. â€Å"I mentioned him before.† â€Å"This is too weird. Too weird.† Lena began to chant and pace in a circle, glancing up at Tuck and his bat every couple of seconds. She paused. â€Å"He's wearing sunglasses.† â€Å"Yeah, and don't think it's easy finding Ray-Bans in a fruit-bat medium.† Meanwhile, up at the Santa Rosa Chapel, Constable Theophilus Crowe had finally caught up to the fugitive Christmas tree. He trained the headlights of the Volvo on the suspect evergreen and stood behind the car door for cover. If he'd had a public-address system he would have used it to issue commands, but since the county had never given him one, he shouted. â€Å"Get out of the vehicle, hands first, and turn and face me!† If he'd had a weapon he would have drawn it, but he'd left his Glock on the top shelf of his closet next to Molly's old nicked-up broadsword. He realized that the car door was actually only providing cover to the lower third of his body, and he reached down and rolled up the window. Then, feeling awkward, he slammed the door and loped toward the Christmas tree. â€Å"Goddammit, come out of the tree. Right now!† He heard a car window whiz down and then a voice. â€Å"Oh my, Officer, you are so forceful.† A familiar voice. Somewhere under there was a Honda CRV – and the woman he had married. â€Å"Molly?† He should have known. Even when she stayed on her meds, as she had promised she would, she could still be â€Å"artistic.† Her term. The branches of the big pine tree shuffled and out stepped his wife, wearing a green Santa hat, jeans, red sneakers, and a jean jacket with studs down the sleeves. Her hair was tied back in a ponytail that trailed down her back. She might have been a biker elf. She rushed out of the branches as if she were ducking the blades of a helicopter, then ran to his side. â€Å"Look at this magnificent son of a bitch!† She gestured to the tree, put her arm around his waist, pulled him close, humped his leg a little. â€Å"Isn't it great?† â€Å"It certainly is – uh, large. How'd you get it on the car? â€Å"Took some time. I hoisted it up on some ropes, then drove under it. Do you think there'll be a flat spot where it dragged on the road?† Theo looked the tree up and down, back and forth, watched the car exhaust boiling out of the branches. He wasn't sure he wanted to know, but he had to ask. â€Å"You didn't buy this at the hardware store, did you?† â€Å"No, there was a problem with that. But I saved a ton of money. Cut it myself. Completely totaled my broadsword, but look at this son of a bitch. Look at this glorious bastard!† â€Å"You cut it down with your sword?† Theo wasn't so worried about what she had cut it down with, but from where she'd cut it. He had a secret in the forest near their cabin. â€Å"Yeah. We don't have a chain saw that I don't know about, do we?† â€Å"No.† Actually they did, in the garage, hidden behind some paint cans. He'd hidden it when her  «artistic » moments had been more frequent. â€Å"That's not the problem, sweetie. I think the problem is that it's too big.† â€Å"No,† she said, walking the length of the tree now, pausing to jump through the branches and turn off the Honda's engine. â€Å"That's where you're wrong. Observe, double doors into the chapel.† Theo observed. The chapel did, indeed, have double doors. There was a single mercury lamp illuminating the gravel parking lot, but he could clearly see the little white chapel, the shadows of gravestones showing dimly behind it – a graveyard where they'd been planting Pine Covers for a hundred years. â€Å"And the ceiling in the main room is thirty feet tall at the peak. This tree is only twenty-nine feet tall. We pull it through the doors backward and stand that baby up. I'll need your help, but, you know, you don't mind.† â€Å"I don't?† Molly pulled open her jean jacket and flashed Theo, exposing his favorite breasts, right down to the shiny scar that ran across the top of the right one, cocked up like a curious purple eyebrow. It was like unexpectedly running into two tender friends, both a little pale from being out of the sun, a tad humbled by time, but with alert pink noses upturned by the night chill. And as quickly as they appeared, the jacket was pulled shut and Theo felt like he'd been shut out in the cold. â€Å"Okay, I don't mind,† he said, trying to buy time for the blood to return to his brain. â€Å"How do you know the ceiling is thirty feet tall?† â€Å"From our wedding pictures. I cut you out and used you to measure the whole building. It was just under five Theos tall.† â€Å"You cut up our wedding pictures?† â€Å"Not the good ones. Come on, help me get the tree off the car.† She turned quickly and her jacket fanned out behind her. â€Å"Molly, I wish you wouldn't go out like that.† â€Å"You mean like this?† She turned, lapels in hand. And there they were again, his pink-nosed friends. â€Å"Let's get the tree set up and then do it in the graveyard, okay?† She jumped a little for emphasis and Theo nodded, following the recoil. He suspected that he was being manipulated, enslaved by his own sexual weakness, but he couldn't quite figure out why that was a bad thing. After all, he was among friends. â€Å"Sweetheart, I'm a peace officer, I can't –  » â€Å"Come on, it will be nasty.† She said nasty like it meant delicious, which is what she meant. â€Å"Molly, after five years together, I'm not sure we're supposed to be nasty.† But even as he said it, Theo was moving toward the big evergreen, looking for the ropes that secured it to the Honda. Over in the graveyard, the dead, who had been listening all along, began to murmur anxiously about the new Christmas tree and the impending sex show. They'd heard it all, the dead: crying children, wailing widows, confessions, condemnations, questions that they could never answer; Halloween dares, raving drunks-invoking the ghosts or just apologizing for drawing breath; would-be witches, chanting at indifferent spirits, tourists rubbing the old tombstones with paper and charcoal like curious dogs scratching at the grave to get in. Funerals, confirmations, communions, weddings, square dances, heart attacks, junior-high hand jobs, wakes gone awry, vandalism, Handel's Messiah, a birth, a murder, eighty-three Passion plays, eighty-five Christmas pageants, a dozen brides barking over tombstones like taffeta sea lions as the best man gave it to them dog style, and now and again, couples who needed something dark and smelling of damp earth to give their sex life a jolt: the dead had heard it. â€Å"Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah!† Molly cried from her seat astraddle the town constable, who was squirming on an uncomfortable bed of plastic roses a few feet above a dead schoolteacher. â€Å"They always think they're the first ones. Ooooo, let's do it in the graveyard,† said Bess Leander, whose husband had served her foxglove tea with her last breakfast. â€Å"I know, there are three used condoms on my grave from this week alone,† said Arthur Tannbeau, citrus farmer, deceased five years. â€Å"How can you tell?† They heard everything, but their vision was limited. â€Å"The smell.† â€Å"That's disgusting,† said Esther, the schoolteacher. It's hard to shock the dead. Esther was feigning disgust. â€Å"What's all the racket? I was sleeping.† Malcolm Cowley, antique book dealer, myocardial infarction over Dickens. â€Å"Theo Crowe, the constable, and his crazy wife doing it on Esther's grave,† said Arthur. â€Å"I'll bet she's off her meds.† â€Å"Five years they've been married and they're still at this kind of thing?† Since her death, Bess had taken a strong antirelationship stance. â€Å"Postmarital sex is so pedestrian.† Malcolm again, ever bored with provincial, small-town death. â€Å"Some postmortem sex, that's what I could use,† said the late Marty in the Morning, KGOB radio's top DJ with a bullet – a pioneer carjack victim back when hair bands ruled the airwaves. â€Å"A rave in the grave, if you get my meaning.† â€Å"Listen to her. I'd like to slip the bone to her,† said Jimmy Antalvo, who'd kissed a pole on his Kawasaki to remain ever nineteen. â€Å"Which one?† Marty cackled. â€Å"The new Christmas tree sounds lovely,† said Esther. â€Å"I do hope they sing ‘Good King Wenceslas' this year.† â€Å"If they do,† spouted the moldy book dealer, â€Å"you'll find me justly spinning in my grave.† â€Å"You wish,† said Jimmy Antalvo. â€Å"Hell, I wish.† The dead did not spin in their graves, they did not move – nor could they speak, except to one another, voices without air. What they did was sleep, awakening to listen, to chat a bit, then, eventually, to never wake again. Sometimes it took twenty years, sometimes as long as forty before they took the big sleep, but no one could remember hearing a voice from longer ago than that. Six feet above them, Molly punctuated her last few convulsive climactic bucks with, â€Å"I – AM – SO – GOING – TO – WASH – YOUR – VOLVO – WHEN – WE – GET – HOME! YES! YES! YES!† Then she sighed and fell forward to nuzzle Theo's chest as she caught her breath. â€Å"I don't know what that means,† Theo said. â€Å"It means I'm going to wash your car for you.† â€Å"Oh, it's not a euphemism, like, wash the old Volvo. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge?† â€Å"Nope. It's your reward.† Now that they were finished, Theo was having a hard time ignoring the plastic flowers that were impressed in his bare backside. â€Å"I thought this was my reward.† He gestured to her bare thighs on either side of him, the divots her knees had made in the dirt, her hair played out across his chest. Molly pushed up and looked down at him. â€Å"No, this was your reward for helping me with the Christmas tree. Washing your car is your reward for this.† â€Å"Oh,† Theo said. â€Å"I love you.† â€Å"Oh, I think I'm going to be sick,† said a newly dead voice from across the woods. â€Å"Who's the new guy?† asked Marty in the Morning. The radio on Theo's belt, which was down around his knees, crackled. â€Å"Pine Cove Constable, come in. Theo?† Theo did an awkward sit-up and grabbed the radio. â€Å"Go ahead, Dispatch.† â€Å"Theo, we have a two-oh-seven-A at six-seven-one Worchester Street. The victim is alone and the suspect may still be in the area. I've dispatched two units, but they're twenty minutes out.† â€Å"I can be there in five minutes,† Theo said. â€Å"Suspect is a white male, over six feet, long blond hair, wearing a long black raincoat or overcoat.† â€Å"Roger, Dispatch. I'm on my way.† Theo was trying to pull his pants up with one hand while working the radio with the other. Molly was on her feet already, naked from the waist down, holding her jeans and sneakers rolled up under her left arm. She extended a hand to help Theo up. â€Å"What's a two-oh-seven?† â€Å"Not sure,† said Theo, letting her lever him to his feet. â€Å"Either an attempted kidnapping or a possum with a handgun.† â€Å"You have plastic flowers stuck to your butt.† â€Å"Probably the former, she didn't say anything about shots fired.† â€Å"No, leave them. They're cute.†