Deception Point Page 96

But he heard the explosion. 117 The West Wing was usually quiet at this hour, but the President's unexpected emergence in his bathrobe and slippers had rustled the aides and on-site staff out of their â€Å"day-timer beds† and on-site sleeping quarters. â€Å"I can't find her, Mr. President,† a young aide said, hurrying after him into the Oval Office. He had looked everywhere. â€Å"Ms. Tench is not answering her pager or cellphone.† The President looked exasperated. â€Å"Have you looked in the-â€Å" â€Å"She left the building, sir,† another aide announced, hurrying in. â€Å"She signed out about an hour ago. We think she may have gone to the NRO. One of the operators says she and Pickering were talking tonight.† â€Å"William Pickering?† The President sounded baffled. Tench and Pickering were anything but social. â€Å"Have you called him?† â€Å"He's not answering either, sir. NRO switchboard can't reach him. They say Pickering's cellphone isn't even ringing. It's like he's dropped off the face of the earth.† Herney stared at his aides for a moment and then walked to the bar and poured himself a bourbon. As he raised the glass to his lips, a Secret Serviceman hurried in. â€Å"Mr. President? I wasn't going to wake you, but you should be aware that there was a car bombing at the FDR Memorial tonight.† â€Å"What!† Herney almost dropped his drink. â€Å"When?† â€Å"An hour ago.† His face was grim. â€Å"And the FBI just identified the victim†¦ â€Å" 118 Delta-Three's foot screamed in pain. He felt himself floating through a muddled consciousness. Is this death? He tried to move but felt paralyzed, barely able to breathe. He saw only blurred shapes. His mind reeled back, recalling the explosion of the Crestliner out at sea, seeing the rage in Michael Tolland's eyes as the oceanographer stood over him, holding the explosive pole to his throat. Certainly Tolland killed me†¦ And yet the searing pain in Delta-Three's right foot told him he was very much alive. Slowly it came back. On hearing the explosion of the Crestliner, Tolland had let out a cry of anguished rage for his lost friend. Then, turning his ravaged eyes to Delta-Three, Tolland had arched as if preparing to ram the rod through Delta-Three's throat. But as he did, he seemed to hesitate, as if his own morality were holding him back. With brutal frustration and fury, Tolland yanked the rod away and drove his boot down on Delta-Three's tattered foot. The last thing Delta-Three remembered was vomiting in agony as his whole world drifted into a black delirium. Now he was coming to, with no idea how long he had been unconscious. He could feel his arms tied behind his back in a knot so tight it could only have been tied by a sailor. His legs were also bound, bent behind him and tied to his wrists, leaving him in an immobilized backward arch. He tried to call out, but no sound came. His mouth was stuffed with something. Delta-Three could not imagine what was going on. It was then he felt the cool breeze and saw the bright lights. He realized he was up on the Goya's main deck. He twisted to look for help and was met by a frightful sight, his own reflection-bulbous and misshapen in the reflective Plexiglas bubble of the Goya's deepwater submersible. The sub hung right in front of him, and Delta-Three realized he was lying on a giant trapdoor in the deck. This was not nearly as unsettling as the most obvious question. If I'm on deck†¦ then where is Delta-Two? Delta-Two had grown uneasy. Despite his partner's CrypTalk transmission claiming he was fine, the single gunshot had not been that of a machine gun. Obviously, Tolland or Rachel Sexton had fired a weapon. Delta-Two moved over to peer down the ramp where his partner had descended, and he saw blood. Weapon raised, he had descended belowdecks, where he followed the trail of blood along a catwalk to the bow of the ship. Here, the trail of blood had led him back up another ramp to the main deck. It was deserted. With growing wariness, Delta-Two had followed the long crimson smear along the sideboard deck back toward the rear of the ship, where it passed the opening to the original ramp he had descended. What the hell is going on? The smear seemed to travel in a giant circle. Moving cautiously, his gun trained ahead of him, Delta-Two passed the entrance to the laboratory section of the ship. The smear continued toward the stern deck. Carefully he swung wide, rounding the corner. His eye traced the trail. Then he saw it. Jesus Christ! Delta-Three was lying there-bound and gagged-dumped unceremoniously directly in front of the Goya's small submersible. Even from a distance, Delta-Two could see that his partner was missing a good portion of his right foot. Wary of a trap, Delta-Two raised his gun and moved forward. Delta-Three was writhing now, trying to speak. Ironically, the way the man had been bound-with his knees sharply bent behind him-was probably saving his life; the bleeding in his foot appeared to have slowed. As Delta-Two approached the submersible, he appreciated the rare luxury of being able to watch his own back; the entire deck of the ship was reflected in the sub's rounded cockpit dome. Delta-Two arrived at his struggling partner. He saw the warning in his eyes too late. The flash of silver came out of nowhere. One of the Triton's manipulator claws suddenly leaped forward and clamped down on Delta-Two's left thigh with crushing force. He tried to pull away, but the claw bore down. He screamed in pain, feeling a bone break. His eyes shot to the sub's cockpit. Peering through the reflection of the deck, Delta-Two could now see him, ensconced in the shadows of the Triton's interior. Michael Tolland was inside the sub, at the controls. Bad idea, Delta-Two seethed, blocking out his pain and shouldering his machine gun. He aimed up and to the left at Tolland's chest, only three feet away on the other side of the sub's Plexiglas dome. He pulled the trigger, and the gun roared. Wild with rage at having been tricked, Delta-Two held the trigger back until the last of his shells clattered to the deck and his gun clicked empty. Breathless, he dropped the weapon and glared at the shredded dome in front of him. â€Å"Dead!† the soldier hissed, straining to pull his leg from the clamp. As he twisted, the metal clamp severed his skin, opening a large gash. â€Å"Fuck!† He reached now for the CrypTalk on his belt. But as he raised it to his lips, a second robotic arm snapped open in front of him and lunged forward, clamping around his right arm. The CrypTalk fell to the deck. It was then that Delta-Two saw the ghost in the window before him. A pale visage leaning sideways and peering out through an unscathed edge of glass. Stunned, Delta-Two looked at the center of the dome and realized the bullets had not even come close to penetrating the thick shell. The dome was cratered with pockmarks. An instant later, the topside portal on the sub opened, and Michael Tolland emerged. He looked shaky but unscathed. Climbing down the aluminum gangway, Tolland stepped onto the deck and eyed his sub's destroyed dome window. â€Å"Ten thousand pounds per square inch,† Tolland said. â€Å"Looks like you need a bigger gun.† Inside the hydrolab, Rachel knew time was running out. She had heard the gunshots out on the deck and was praying that everything had happened exactly as Tolland had planned. She no longer cared who was behind the meteorite deception-the NASA administrator, Marjorie Tench, or the President himself-none of it mattered anymore. They will not get away with this. Whoever it is, the truth will be told. The wound on Rachel's arm had stopped bleeding, and the adrenaline coursing through her body had muted the pain and sharpened her focus. Finding a pen and paper, she scrawled a two-line message. The words were blunt and awkward, but eloquence was not a luxury she had time for at the moment. She added the note to the incriminating stack of papers in her hand-the GPR printout, images of Bathynomous giganteus, photos and articles regarding oceanic chondrules, an electron microscan printout. The meteorite was a fake, and this was the proof.

The Proper Way of Managing your Money

Money Management is where the proper handling of money is applied. Proper management of money is important in our daily lives. Success in life is based on how you manage it. It is really a great challenge to manage your money. As we all know that we all live in a society where all of our neighbors are flooded with lots of products and you are there wanting to have also what they have. It doesn’t work that way. You need to budget, save and invest your hard earned cash to be productive and become a millionaire as well (King 36). Set-up your own goal and develop it to have an organized system. What should be your goal? For instance, your goal is to gain more money in 5 years time. The question now is what can you do to attain your goal? One possible way is through budgeting.   You must know where your money goes, how much comes in and how much goes out so you will know if you really save. In budgeting, you need to know your purchases which include your basic necessities and the payments for your bills. Furthermore, a 20% of your salary or income must be included to your budget. It is a smart decision. If you save 20% of your salary per month, you will be astonished for the money earned in five years time. That is a lot of savings on your part. Even though, you have a small income monthly, you can still save money. So, don’t be discouraged if your salary or income generated for the whole month is small. (King 35) Also read: No Money, No Honey Saving practically also means a wise spending. In this case, we must avoid inflation. It only happens when more money is needed as against the total supply of money available. To site an example, you buy more foods than you actually eat. You help increase the price of goods because the higher the demands of a certain product in which its supply is few, the price of the product becomes higher (King 36). When you shop, you need to have a comparison to distinguish which is the lowest price.   Furthermore, plan to shop when there is a sale or discounts. It is really a great help on saving your money. Don’t avail credit cards. It’s so tempting and almost 70% of people who use credit cards are actually indebt (King 39). Saving and budgeting are more on practicing self-discipline. Acquiring this attitude means you have the potential of managing your money properly. After budgeting and saving your money, you have to find the right kind of investments for your hard earned money comes from your salary or profit from your business. An investment is something to purchase in which has potentials in getting your money back more than you spent for a certain purchase. You need to invest to have more gains like in mutual funds. A mutual fund is a regulated investment company with a pool of assets that regularly sells and redeems its shares.   However, this opportunity is risky. There are times that the shares are decreasing after a long period of time. There are many to invest, like in lots, after long years, the price increases. It is hard to become a millionaire. It will take you years to be one, but if you know the proper management of your money and acquire the winning attitudes, you are not far to become one. Bibliography King, David. You Can Be Rich. Worldlink Marketing Corporation, 2002.      

Extra points Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Extra points - Essay Example Generally typical unlawful immigrant household has only a 10th grade education. Consequently non-immigrants have low paying jobs hence pay less tax. On the other hand most house hold heads of lawful immigrants are well educated. Lawful immigrants headed by well-educated household tend to pay higher taxes that exceed the direct benefits they receive from the government. According to this report, lawful immigrants with college education heads generates a fiscal surplus of approximately$29250 which the government uses to finance the benefits of unlawful immigrants with less education who consequently contribute less taxes leaving the government with huge fiscal deficit. The benefits they receive exceed the taxes they pay to the government. Unlawful migrants unlike lawful migrants do not have access to social security, Medicare and other tested welfare services. However their children benefit from highly subsidized public education, medical benefits and welfare services offered by the go vernment. Unlawful immigrant household heads also benefit from the use of sewers, roads, parks, police, fire and state security. These available resources get overburdened due to congestion effects hence leading to decline of quality of services to be offered to lawful migrants and non-immigrants. It’s assumed by analysts that nearly half of the unlawful immigrants do not pay income or FICA taxes because most of them work â€Å"off the books†. In 2010, the Pew Hispanic Centre estimated children residing in US with unlawful parents to be 5.5 million. Out of this, 4.5 million were born in the US while the remaining 1 million migrated with their parents to the US. They therefore qualify to be legal citizens and are entitled to state welfare and subsidized education. In average, unlawful immigrants have about 3.7 percent of persons in their households as compared to non-immigrant who have 2.7 persons in their households. This indicates that households of unlawful immigrant s are larger than the household of non-immigrants. How has the relative education of unlawful immigrant households changed over time, and how does it compare to the education level of lawful immigrant and non-immigrant households? Data from the NELS indicate that the children of unlawful immigrant’s households will improve more than the educational levels of their parents. However 18 percent of these children are likely to drop out of school without even a high school degree while about 13 percent are likely to graduate with a college degree. The rest will either attain high qualification or some college training school. College graduates with degrees need to be improved to 30 percent to match with the levels of lawful immigrants and non-immigrants. In assessing the distribution of government benefits and costs, the study uses 6 categories of benefits/expenditures. Briefly describe what is in each category Government benefits and services are distributed into six categories a s follows: Direct benefits - : This involves the cost of services offered to the citizens or the direct cash transfer. They include the costs of Medicare services, unemployment insurance, workers compensation and social security. It’s calculated on the per capita of the Medicare cost that the government spends on its citizens. Means-tested benefit - : These are welfare costs that are channeled

Investigating The Social Background And Occupational Aspirations Of Dissertation

Investigating The Social Background And Occupational Aspirations Of Male Nurses In London Hospitals - Dissertation Example Research Design and Methods The paper seeks to study and analyze the social background and the occupational aspirations of male nurses in London Hospitals. Qualitative research is proposed to be undertaken by interviews and collection of data through questionnaire. However, this needs to be supplemented with the research on secondary sources for a comprehensive analysis. The depth of the subject which involves mainly personal opinions, views on the profession or future career plans and practical difficulties in the profession warrants in-depth interview with the professionals. Analysis of a single case as in the case of Case Study, study based on the structures of experience as in the case of Phenomenology, Ethnography through field observation of socio-cultural phenomena or Grounded theory are considered inadequate. Data collection Method Interview with the nursing professionals in London Hospitals will be used for data collection for this purpose, along with the questionnaires for collecting general information with regard to the various factors involved. Interview Interviews on account of its flexibility is considered ideal for research in this case on account of its open ended nature and the scope it offers in hearing experiences, various points of views and understanding through interaction. Questionnaire The questionnaire will cover a range of issues concerning personal, financial and social aspects of the study. The objectivity in the questionnaire eliminates the scope for interpretation or bias in research. Secondary Sources of Information Secondary data will be useful for ground work and for firming up the strategy. It... The research with reference to the social background and class perception in nursing is very important to address certain issues such as ‘image of nursing’, ‘career choice’, ‘career development’ and ‘further studies. Neilson states that if nursing is going to be viewed as a legitimate career choice and a profession it needs to reflect membership from the different social classes. Otherwise, it could perpetuate an image, among the school pupils, that nursing is a job for the lower social classes. Gender-bias towards nursing should be addressed for the growth of the profession. Neilson states that gender breakdown of those pupils who had chosen to follow nursing as a career revealed that males only accounted for 12.5% whereas females accounted for 87.5%. The males, in general, don’t view nursing as their career choice, and their parents’ view on nursing as a career may also be an important factor. Delivery of nursing care in UK could be seriously affected in future due to the poor admission of brighter students to nursing schools.

Health Care Delivery in the US Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Health Care Delivery in the US - Essay Example Think of a machine whose parts are working together and running smoothly and efficiently. This is how health care delivery in the United States should be. Ludwig von Bertalanffy's Systems Theory shows there is more than just one part involved in the process. It takes all the parts involved to make the machine work properly. Getting these parts to fit, however, can be a challenge. Unfortunately, the uninsured does not always have access to good quality medical care, and/or services. Lack of education, when it comes to paperwork, multiple physicians, and understanding exactly what the disease and its treatment process becomes extremely confusing leading to errors and unneeded care. health care has had to go through many tests before being incorporated in the industry. Testing and proving the benefits of such programs, such as HomeMed or EHR, depends entirely on the ones doing the testing. If it is perceived by health consumers to provide benefits and has real time advantages, it will be accepted, if not it will be rejected. The incorporation of technology, and the acceptance of the internet, has seen many organizations implementing telemedicine. This will lead to more efficient care and access to remote areas.Conducting cardio-pulmonary resuscitation on a dummy leaves a lot to the imagination. The true sense of performing this life saving technique is lost. Roger's Diffusion of Innovation theory deals with the idea of accepting a new way of doing things.In today's health care setting, with many new

Case about the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRG) Assignment

Case about the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRG) - Assignment Example The intention of this study is the ICRC as an international organization that has faced with major global challenges due to the fact that its workforce comes from different cultural backgrounds. The level of cultural change is very minimal and measures need to be taken to improve the situation. If well managed, global diversity can ensure that resources of ICRC are harnessed and transformed into very important asset for the organization. However, this cannot be realized in the absence of a change in the culture of the organization. HR functional practices need to transcend across all departments and be supported with a good culture that encompasses all the needs of its employees. The issues that affect ICRC have been in existence for quite some time now but effective measures have not been undertaken to ensure that they are tackled in the global perspective and the organization is still clouded with origin issues where the Swiss culture seems to play a deciding role in what happens w ithin the headquarters of the organization and without in other foreign missions. There is a general assumption in this study that achieving a global diversity through cultural change is possible if well managed. Certain limitations do exist such as resources to be applied in such a massive restructuring program to meet the objectives of the plan. The refining of specialist HR supported functions is very essential if ICRC has to realize its objectives and this will have to be done through a program which paves the way for a change in culture. Certain key factors for such an ambitious program have been outlined and analyzed. There are critical elements which need to be put into account to enable the organization achieve this course. Conclusion has been drawn putting in mind the key concepts or theories relevant to the subject and these have been related to the evidence as far as the facts are concerned. Recommendations made are in line with the program that has been discussed in the analysis. These recommendations are actually some of the crucial things that need to be done in order to realize the success of this plan. An implementation program has been set to outline the relevant action steps that could be followed in order to meet the target of refining the specialist HR supported functions

Ethical Dilemma Capstone Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Ethical Dilemma Capstone - Essay Example ry, which states that what happens in a state is its own affair as long as it takes place within the limits of the international law then the US had no right to interfere whatsoever (Burge 9). However, there are instances where human rights violations are so severe that the use of force from outside is the only way to halt such scenarios. Therefore, the concept of non-interference must occasionally be overlooked by the international states to protect the targeted population. Nonetheless, this right or duty of humanitarian intervention sometimes acts against the consent of a state or its leaders for purposes that are claimed to be humanitarian, but some action does have hidden motives (Abbott, 8). For instance, the US was giving financial aid and military advice to French in Indochina. This was, however, primarily because America was concerned with keeping the Indochinese resources in a friendly way for the benefit of itself and its allies (Burge, 9). The American society was getting concerned with the financial aid that the U.S government was spending on French war. The U.S official reaction to this was; if they allowed communists to take over in countries in the Southern Asia, then America would face serious repercussions that would affect the political and economy of the U.S. Consequently, communism would spread to other parts of the world, thereby affecting the stability of the European region (Smith, 1). Although the U.S provided French with money, weapons and supplies they did not participate in the actual fighting. Later on when Viet Minh launched a major attack, France implored the U.S for direct military support but did not get any. Without the support of the allies the French forces stood little chance against an enemy with superior weapons, but on the other hand, they actually supported the Vietnam with their military. Thus, U.S would only participate in intervention when they stood to gain something. As Americans continued to aver support and

CRS-y Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

CRS-y - Assignment Example 58)Managers in every success-oriented organization are faced with three key decisions to make; First, the decision on the company’s value proposition. Second, the decision on company’s value-driven operational model, and thirdly, the decision on the company’s value disciplines. The company’s value proposition entails the implicit promise to the customers outlining all values combination (Iacobucci 2011, p. 89). The company’s value-driven operational model involves integration of operation processes with the systems of management and culture, required to deliver effective value proposition (Cooper 1999, p. 56). The company’s value disciplines entail the integration of operational models and value proposition to achieve leadership in the market through competitive advantage. The Treacy and Wiersema value disciplines have impacted greatly on CRM as reviewed in the following discussion of the value disciplines. The first value discipline is opera tional excellence which involves provision of reliable products to the customers and pricing services competitively, with less or no difficulties and inconveniences to the customers. A good example of a company that has embraced this discipline is Dell (Egan 2008, p. 83). Operational excellence stresses on a specified strategic approach on production and delivery of products and services. The companies following this discipline strive for leadership in the industry through price and convenience. The companies seek ways on; overhead minimization, elimination of unnecessary production cost and business processes optimization across all organization frontiers (Mukerjee 2011, p. 167). The companies in pursuance of Operational Excellence concentrate on direct sale to customers, sale based on order rather than inventory and low-cost. Dell, General Electricals, Wal-Mart, America Airlines and Federal Express are some of the companies that have had a significant adoption of the operational e xcellence. This has helped them to be leaders in their industries by undercutting their competitors through the discipline. The companies witnessed an increase in their customer base and their sales (Kincaid 2003, p. 48). However, Operational excellence possess key challenges in maintaining a consistency customer loyalty. This is because the discipline does not focus on product innovation and a long-lasting customer relationship. Instead it concentrates largely on price and convenience in products and services. This results to high switching in buyers as they seek more innovative products, hence leading to a low customer loyalty (Kincaid 2003, p. 43). The other discipline indicated by Treacy and Wiersema is product leadership. This discipline entails product excellence through differentiation. The companies that choose to embrace the discipline shift their focus on making the product different from those of the competitors (Rafinejad 2007, p. 58). Customers may be required to pay a price premium on the products which are differentiated from the competitors’ products. Companies on this discipline strive for the ‘’state-of-art products† characterized by high creativity. Product leadership requires increased product innovation, commercialization of ideas, and pursuance of new solutions and risk taking management structure (Rafinejad 2007,

Fundraising Skills - Writing a Fundraising Bid Essay

Fundraising Skills - Writing a Fundraising Bid - Essay Example These include planning requirements early in advance, having sound conceptual framework, including the aims and objectives of the program and generally seeing everything from the perspective of the funder among others. All these need to be in the bid. Communication is key when one is fundraising. This is because one has to present their needs to the funders eloquently and clearly. Diplomacy is also important since fundraising includes interactions with other people. Proper management skills are also necessary. This is of the time of the funders and the money allocated for the program. For one to be employed there is need for grasp of the content, ability to be part of a competent, diverse and empowered workforce, being able to manage funds and having great vision and sense of direction. Careers need to be managed by ensuring one performs his or her duties as well as advancing in the level of education. If one does all this, then their future is somehow assured to be successful. The Make Them Smile Charity Organization. We intend to grow big and strongly influence our society. Therefore, we are requesting for funds from you, The Big Lottery, so that we can achieve our desires. We are filling this application form stating our request. We have identified a need in the society requiring our services to fulfill and we shall attempt to convince you on our mission and vision. Cleft lip and palate are developmental defects of the upper lip and roof of the outer mouth present at birth. They may occur separately or in combination. Incomplete fusion of the developing lip or the incomplete fusion of the hard or soft palate causes them. All this happens during the prenatal stage of a child’s life. This condition causes feeding problems, ear infections or even hearing loss, speech problems and dental problems (Howard & Lohmander 2012, p.56) Although rectifying this is done through a simple