Deception Point Page 72

The President looked around the room for Tench. He had not seen her since before his press conference, and she was not here now. Odd, he thought. This is her celebration as much as it is mine. The news report on television was wrapping up, outlining yet again the White House's quantum political leap forward and Senator Sexton's disastrous slide. What a difference a day makes, the President thought. In politics, your world can change in an instant. By dawn he would realize just how true those words could be. 85 Pickering could be a problem, Tench had said. Administrator Ekstrom was too preoccupied with this new information to notice that the storm outside the habisphere was raging harder now. The howling cables had increased in pitch, and the NASA staff was nervously milling and chatting rather than going to sleep. Ekstrom's thoughts were lost in a different storm-an explosive tempest brewing back in Washington. The last few hours had brought many problems, all of which Ekstrom was trying to deal with. And yet one problem now loomed larger than all the others combined. Pickering could be a problem. Ekstrom could think of no one on earth against whom he'd less rather match wits than William Pickering. Pickering had ridden Ekstrom and NASA for years now, trying to control privacy policy, lobbying for different mission priorities, and railing against NASA's escalating failure ratio. Pickering's disgust with NASA, Ekstrom knew, went far deeper than the recent loss of his billion-dollar NRO SIGINT satellite in a NASA launchpad explosion, or the NASA security leaks, or the battle over recruiting key aerospace personnel. Pickering's grievances against NASA were an ongoing drama of disillusionment and resentment. NASA's X-33 space plane, which was supposed to be the shuttle replacement, had run five years overdue, meaning dozens of NRO satellite maintenance and launch programs were scrapped or put on hold. Recently, Pickering's rage over the X-33 reached a fever pitch when he discovered NASA had canceled the project entirely, swallowing an estimated $900 million loss. Ekstrom arrived at his office, pulled the curtain aside, and entered. Sitting down at his desk he put his head in his hands. He had some decisions to make. What had started as a wonderful day was becoming a nightmare unraveling around him. He tried to put himself in the mindset of William Pickering. What would the man do next? Someone as intelligent as Pickering had to see the importance of this NASA discovery. He had to forgive certain choices made in desperation. He had to see the irreversible damage that would be done by polluting this moment of triumph. What would Pickering do with the information he had? Would he let it ride, or would he make NASA pay for their shortcomings? Ekstrom scowled, having little doubt which it would be. After all, William Pickering had deeper issues with NASA†¦ an ancient personal bitterness that went far deeper than politics. 86 Rachel was quiet now, staring blankly at the cabin of the G4 as the plane headed south along the Canadian coastline of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Tolland sat nearby, talking to Corky. Despite the majority of evidence suggesting the meteorite was authentic, Corky's admission that the nickel content was â€Å"outside the preestablished midrange values† had served to rekindle Rachel's initial suspicion. Secretly planting a meteorite beneath the ice only made sense as part of a brilliantly conceived fraud. Nonetheless, the remaining scientific evidence pointed toward the meteorite's validity. Rachel turned from the window, glancing down at the disk-shaped meteorite sample in her hand. The tiny chondrules shimmered. Tolland and Corky had been discussing these metallic chondrules for some time now, talking in scientific terms well over Rachel's head-equilibrated olivine levels, metastable glass matrices, and metamorphic rehomogenation. Nonetheless, the upshot was clear: Corky and Tolland were in agreement that the chondrules were decidedly meteoric. No fudging of that data. Rachel rotated the disk-shaped specimen in her hand, running a finger over the rim where part of the fusion crust was visible. The charring looked relatively fresh-certainly not three hundred years old-although Corky had explained that the meteorite had been hermetically sealed in ice and avoided atmospheric erosion. This seemed logical. Rachel had seen programs on television where human remains were dug from the ice after four thousand years and the person's skin looked almost perfect. As she studied the fusion crust, an odd thought occurred to her-an obvious piece of data had been omitted. Rachel wondered if it had simply been an oversight in all the data that was thrown at her or did someone simply forget to mention it. She turned suddenly to Corky. â€Å"Did anyone date the fusion crust?† Corky glanced over, looking confused. â€Å"What?† â€Å"Did anyone date the burn. That is, do we know for a fact that the burn on the rock occurred at exactly the time of the Jungersol Fall?† â€Å"Sorry,† Corky said, â€Å"that's impossible to date. Oxidation resets all the necessary isotopic markers. Besides, radioisotope decay rates are too slow to measure anything under five hundred years.† Rachel considered that a moment, understanding now why the burn date was not part of the data. â€Å"So, as far as we know, this rock could have been burned in the Middle Ages or last weekend, right?† Tolland chuckled. â€Å"Nobody said science had all the answers.† Rachel let her mind wander aloud. â€Å"A fusion crust is essentially just a severe burn. Technically speaking, the burn on this rock could have happened at any time in the past half century, in any number of different ways.† â€Å"Wrong,† Corky said. â€Å"Burned in any number of different ways? No. Burned in one way. Falling through the atmosphere.† â€Å"There's no other possibility? How about in a furnace?† â€Å"A furnace?† Corky said. â€Å"These samples were examined under an electron microscope. Even the cleanest furnace on earth would have left fuel residue all over the stone-nuclear, chemical, fossil fuel. Forget it. And how about the striations from streaking through the atmosphere? You wouldn't get those in a furnace.† Rachel had forgotten about the orientation striations on the meteorite. It did indeed appear to have fallen through the air. â€Å"How about a volcano?† she ventured. â€Å"Ejecta thrown violently from an eruption?† Corky shook his head. â€Å"The burn is far too clean.† Rachel glanced at Tolland. The oceanographer nodded. â€Å"Sorry, I've had some experience with volcanoes, both above and below water. Corky's right. Volcanic ejecta is penetrated by dozens of toxins-carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, hydrochloric acid-all of which would have been detected in our electronic scans. That fusion crust, whether we like it or not, is the result of a clean atmospheric friction burn.† Rachel sighed, looking back out the window. A clean burn. The phrase stuck with her. She turned back to Tolland. â€Å"What do you mean by a clean burn?† He shrugged. â€Å"Simply that under an electron microscope, we see no remnants of fuel elements, so we know heating was caused by kinetic energy and friction, rather than chemical or nuclear ingredients.† â€Å"If you didn't find any foreign fuel elements, what did you find? Specifically, what was the composition of the fusion crust?† â€Å"We found,† Corky said, â€Å"exactly what we expected to find. Pure atmospheric elements. Nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen. No petroleums. No sulfurs. No volcanic acids. Nothing peculiar. All the stuff we see when meteorites fall through the atmosphere.† Rachel leaned back in her seat, her thoughts focusing now.

Long-Term Investment Strategy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Long-Term Investment Strategy - Essay Example Again, the savings have to be an equal amount of money that I get from my security fund every month. I really want that when I retire, I have enough money that can enable me to build a bigger and expensive residential home and also have business premises in the city. Therefore, in addition to saving for my children, I’d like to save close to $6 million for the premises project. To be able to achieve all these goals, my monthly retirement savings must be put into an investment that will enable this money to multiply. This will help me to both save and invest at the same time. By saving, I will be able to earn an interest every month and when I invest, there are proceeds that I will benefit from in form of profits. My retirement savings per month is $1,000. I’ll be able to take this fixed amount of money monthly and invest it in appropriate investment. The low-cost mutual funds and ETFs that attract popular market indexes will be preferable for this strategy but dollar co sting can be done for any investment. This has two benefits, first by putting aside the same amount every month; one builds the habit of saving and investing at the same time. Secondly, one would buy more shares when they are cheap and when prices shoot, one ends up with the same shares hence investing the same amount. Averagely, I will be able to buy more when an investment is cheap than when it is expensive. To buy cheaply is a way of generating long term profits and by using dollar-cost averaging, one is able to take advantage of changing prices and add it to your gains. In investing, I’ll be looking for two things majorly, my current income and long-term investment. To be able to achieve these, my future prospects will be to invest into dividend stock. This will give me the best choices paying reliable and growing dividends while I’ll still be able to share in the prospects of the company underlying the business. I’ll have to keep checking with my broker to know what services it offers. Give that there are hundreds of high quality blue chip dividend stock, together with many ETFs and mutual funds specializing in dividends, it will never be hard for me to find promising candidates for my investment portfolio. As good investors say, successful investment does not rely on the picking of great stocks and other investment, but it also depends on hanging onto as much of what you earn as possible. This investment strategy will be able to consider ways of keeping the IRS at bay as capital gains taxes can get into my investment returns. I realize that I’ll even be able to take advantage of tax benefits which are available for retirement savings by investing in employer sponsored-retirement plans. Much income is normally sheltered from taxes as long as the money stays in the account, depending on how much growth one can get from the retirement savings. However, for some retirement accounts, one has to pay taxes when they have to withdraw money in retirement, but IRAs and 401 (k)s make the income tax free. When one wants to invest, having a solid strategy makes his investment plans less intimidating than if the strategy is not strong to make the investment to be nerve wracking. My strategy will depend largely and be based largely on market efficiency. This is where I will have to keep on watch with my broker to monitor when the shares are sold cheaply in the market for me to buy them. This will enable me to purchase a lot of shares and dividends cheaply. Then when the prices shoot, I will be

Strategic Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words - 28

Strategic Management - Essay Example ted and respected models of strategic analysis, including SWOT, Porter’s Five Forces, and even cultural characteristics modelling provided by Geert Hofstede in order to adjust in an evolutionary or systemic philosophy. To build a solid brand reputation and gain market share among competition, KFC must understand its strengths and weaknesses, as well as externally-driven market threats to build a sustainable and marketable strategic position. Without this knowledge, the business will not be able to create productive and long-standing relationships with the very diverse markets in which the business operates. The SWOT analysis is an acronym for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Performing a SWOT analysis is a measure by which a business entity examines both its internal competencies and capabilities aligned with the external market to determine its current strategic position in its market. The basic assumption of the relevancy of the SWOT analysis is that the company can be properly fit within the context of external opportunities and threats by understanding internal resources available (Pearce and Robinson 2011). The SWOT analysis is a framework by which strategic planners are able to make adjustments to the internal organisational structure or reallocate resources to better respond to external market conditions. Porter’s Value Chain is a model that looks at the organisation as a chain of activities that transforms inputs into effective outputs. It is a customer-centric model that views that organisation as being an entity with a set of inter-dependent systems and divisions able to create outputs that customers will perceive as having sustainable value (Pearce and Robinson 2011). There are three ways in which customers perceive the aforementioned value: through activities that provide differentiation of product or services, through activities that lower their costs, and the ability of a company to respond to customer needs rapidly (Thompson,

Electric Health Record (EHR) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

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Leprosy in the Middle Ages Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Leprosy in the Middle Ages - Essay Example This essay focuses on the discussion of the Leprosy, or Hansen’s disease, that is an debilitating disease which has been prevalent for over 4,000 years, right from the ancient civilizations of China, India and Egypt. The researcher states that the earliest documented case of leprosy, supported by DNA evidence, is that of a man whose remains were discovered in a tomb next to the Old City of Jerusalem. The first recorded instance of leprosy is found in the Bible. It is probable that the disease spread to Europe from Egypt through Phoenician sailors in the 8th century. The word leprosy has its roots in the Greek lepra, meaning ‘a disease which makes the skin scaly'. The primary external symptom is pronounced skin lesions. It is caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium leprae. If unchecked, this chronic bacterial infection can progressively attack the skin, nerves, limbs and eyes, causing permanent damage, deformation, blindness, loss of neural sensation, and local paralysis. Th e mode of transmission of the disease is still not certain. Poor living conditions, diet and genetic factors may predispose an individual to contact leprosy. Treatment for leprosy began with the introduction of dapsone in the 1930s and complete cures were made possible by multidrug therapy in the 1980s. It is acknowledged that leprosy was a familiar disease in medieval Europe, and probably reached its peak during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. In the Middle Ages, leprosy was a serious problem which elicited unique social and medical responses. ... In the Middle Ages, leprosy was a serious problem which elicited unique social and medical responses. Leprosy was a feared condition throughout the Middle Ages. This may be largely attributed to ignorance of its causes and medical implications, and the absence of any recognized treatment or cure. The Medieval diagnosis of leprosy, â€Å"was a prediction of disfigurement and death, and what is perhaps more terrifying, it separated a man from society because of the infection he carried outwardly and the moral corruption that lay within him† (Covey, 2001, 316). Biblical references supported this reaction to the disease. The numerous references to leprosy in the Bible largely give leprosy a connotation of being a disease of the unclean. This is evident in the passage from Leviticus 13: 44–46 which states, â€Å"Now whosoever shall be defiled with the leprosy, and is separated by the judgment of the priest, shall have his clothes hanging loose, his head bare, his mouth cove red with a cloth, and he shall cry out that he is defiled and unclean. All the time that he is infected and unclean, he shall dwell alone without the camp† (Covey, 2001, 316). In effect, the Bible condemned leprosy as a ‘defilement’ and sanctioned the banishment of lepers from society. The most common attitude toward leprosy was ostracism, rising from the fear that leprosy was a highly contagious disease. In the light of this fear of contacting leprosy through association with lepers, medieval laws enforced segregation of lepers in various manners in different places. The 1276 assizes of London restricted the freedom of movement of lepers by banning them from residing in the city. This was followed by

Balanced Scorecard and Ethical Issues Assignment

Balanced Scorecard and Ethical Issues - Assignment Example It has been observed that majority of the firms utilize BSC in order to evaluate the ‘balance’ existing between its compensation plan and the performance measures over a certain period of time which further assists the organization to design effective strategies (Ittner, Larcker, & Meyer, 1997). Performance measurement facilitates managers to evaluate the outcomes of the overall organization as well as employees’ operational activities. Performance measurement also depicts the effectiveness of resources and the possibilities through which the activities and the resources satisfy organizational missions and objectives in a rational manner. Recent researches have often regarded BSC as a management tool which can deliver successful and well-documented outcomes (US Department of Energy, 2013). However, when measuring the attributes considered in the BSC framework, various ethical issues can also be observed to disrupt its validity as well as the reliability of the ove rall evaluation process outcomes. As stated by Bieker & Waxenberger (2002), the BSC approach lacks in considering the wide group of stakeholders including the community members who can also impose significant influences on the organizational performances. Thus, by ignoring the organizational responsibilities and its performances towards the stakeholders, business incorporations may have to witness significant ethical concerns when applying the mechanism of BSC. Unethical Behavior As A Result of Wrong Performance Measures Majority of the companies in today’s contemporary era, evaluate performance indicators in order to improve the overall performance of the organization and directly tie with the compensation system which comprise various aspects such as customer satisfaction, cost of the products and quality of the services offered along with providing job satisfaction among the employees. It is in this context that as the BSC framework focuses on a multidimensional approach t o performance measurement, in majority companies, managers attempt to use this particular framework extensively (Lichiello & Turnock, 2006). With due consideration towards the critical viewpoint obtainable through the application of BSC approach, it can be regarded as an appropriate measurement tool through which Sparkling-Automotive Company (SAC) can tie its the compensation system with performance and thus enhance efficiency in its overall business process. However, SAC should also focus on recognizing the limitations of applying the BSC framework prior to its implementation for the purpose of its performance management. As stated by Butler, Henderson & Raiborn (2011), although the framework inculcates a multidimensional approach towards measuring performances of an organization, incorporation of sustainable issues, such as environmental concerns and stakeholders interests make the evaluation process quite complex. Owing to this particular limitation, managers often have to face o bstructions in detailing appropriate and almost accurate information relating to the performance measures. Furthermore, as explained by Rillo (2004), when measuring the cause-effect relationship between the implemented strategies and obtained outcomes through organizational pe

Importance of Literacy Essay Example for Free

Importance of Literacy Essay Literacy is the ability to think critically and understand what is being read. Illiteracy is a major problem in our society today. Without the ability to read, we cannot perform many common duties, some of which include driving, identifying medicine dosages, cooking, and teaching our children. Being literate is necessary for making an impact on today’s society. To be successful in today’s society, it is a requirement to become literate. We have to be able to read every day in our society. Without being literate, we cannot move forward in our day-to-day lives, or perform day-to-day activities such as driving. Driving a motor vehicle requires reading. Illiterate drivers would not be able to read signs on the road. Although they could remember pictures, if they do not know how to read, they would not be able to read street signs to know where they are. This could lead to a driver being lost or even a car accident. Also, in the state of Oklahoma, for example, students are required to pass the eighth grade reading test in order to obtain a driver’s permit. So have we as a state, not said that we expect our drivers to read at least on an eighth grade level? Car insurance would also be a problem for the illiterate. Without being able to read the requirements about car insurance they could get fined or have their license revoked. An illiterate person would not understand the importance of insurance or be able to evaluate different insurance companies. Our society requires us to be able to read and understand important documents such as, eviction notices, monetary statements, and job applications. Without being able to read these statements we could lose our homes. Without being able to read a job application one cannot expect to get a job. Few employers will hire someone without a resume. Without being able to read we would not be able to complete a resume. Without having a job we would not be able to make money. This lack of money could lead to an eviction from our homes. Another example of a problem caused by illiteracy is the inability to correctly identify how much medicine to administer when one is sick. Without being able to read the labels or dosing chart on the bottle, one would not know how much medicine to take, which could lead to either taking a lesser amount than needed or taking too much, resulting in a possible overdose. This problem could affect children as well. Without being able to read a prescription bottle, a parent could not administer the correct amount of medicine for his or her children. Parents who are illiterate are unable to help their children. They are not able to perform daily tasks for their children. Illiterate parents are not able to help their children with homework, and cannot teach their children how to read. Their children could fall behind in their education without a parent to help them at home to become literate. If a parent cannot read the directions on food labels, then he or she could not cook for his or her children. We need to have a desire to become literate to better ourselves, not only as people or parents but also as citizens in our society. Parents would need to have a desire to become literate to help their children to become better people in our society. We, as a society, need to have the desire to become literate. Both Malcolm X and Helen Keller had a desire to become literate; if they had not had that desire they would not have made as big an impact on American history and future generations. Malcolm X made a difference in history, though he was in prison. He had enough desire to become literate and to make a difference that he worked hard and taught himself to read and write. Helen Keller was in a different type of prison than Malcolm X. She was imprisoned in her own body. She could not see or hear anyone who tried to teach her. She had a strong desire to change the world by becoming literate. These two teach us that we have to have a desire to become literate, and that if we are literate we can make a difference. We all want to make an impact on our society. We want to make an impact in our jobs, our family, and our community. If we are illiterate, we cannot make those impacts. Illiterate people will always have the handicap of having to have someone help them in their daily life. In conclusion, literacy is a part of everyone’s daily life whether we realize it or not. Some of us take advantage of the privileges that we are given to become literate. Being literate is necessary for making impacts such as Malcolm X and Helen Keller.