The Silver Linings Playbook Chapter 18

A Hive Full of Green Bees â€Å"Ahhhhhhhhh!† I sit up, my heart pounding. When my eyes focus, I see my dad standing at my bedside with his hands above his head; he's wearing his number 5 McNabb jersey. â€Å"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!† he continues to scream, until I get out of bed, raise my hands, and say â€Å"Ahhhhhhhhhh!† We do the chant, spelling the letters with our arms and legs. â€Å"E!-A!-G!-L!-E!-S! EAGLES!† When we finish, instead of saying good morning or anything else, my father simply jogs out of my room. I look at the clock, and it reads 5:59 a.m. The game starts at one o'clock. I promised to join Jake's tailgate party by ten, which gives me two hours to lift and an hour to run – so I lift, and Tiffany is outside at 8:00 a.m. just like she said she would be. We do a short run – maybe only six or seven miles. After a shower, I put on my Baskett jersey and ask my mom for a ride to the PATCO station, but she says, â€Å"Your driver is waiting for you outside.† Mom kisses me on the cheek and hands me some money. â€Å"Have fun, and don't let your brother drink too much.† Outside, I see Dad in his sedan; the engine is running. I get into the car and say, â€Å"Dad, are you going to the game?† â€Å"I wish I could,† he says, and then we back out of the driveway. The truth is that my father is still serving a self-imposed ban and is therefore not allowed to attend Eagles games. In the early eighties, Dad got into a fight with a Dallas Cowboys fan who dared to sit in the 700 Level, which were the cheap seats at the Vet, where the die-hard Eagles fans sat. The story I heard from my since-deceased uncle was this: When the Cowboys scored a touchdown, this Dallas fan jumped up and began cheering real loudly, so people started throwing beers and hot dogs at him. The only problem was that my dad was sitting in the row in front of this Dallas fan, so the beer and mustard and food rained down on Dad too. Apparently, Dad lost it, attacked the Dallas fan, and beat him within an inch of his life. My father was actually arrested, convicted of aggravated assault, and incarcerated for three months. If my uncle hadn't made the mortgage payments, we would have lost the house. Dad did lose his season ticket and has not been to an Eagles game since. Jake says we could get Dad in, since no one actually checks IDs at the gate, but Dad won't go back, saying, â€Å"As long as they let the opposing fans in our house, I can't trust myself.† This is sort of funny, because twenty-five years after Dad beat the hell out of that Dallas fan, he is just a fat old man who is not likely to beat up another fat old man, let alone a rowdy Dallas fan with the guts to wear a Cowboys jersey to an Eagles game. Although my father did hit me pretty hard in the attic just a few weeks ago – so maybe he is wise to stay away from the games. We drive over the hospital-green Walt Whitman Bridge, and he talks about how this just might be an important day in Eagles history, especially since the Giants won both games last year. â€Å"Revenge!† he keeps yelling indiscriminately. He also tells me I have to cheer real loudly so Eli Manning – who I know (from reading the sports pages) is the Giants' QB – will not be able to talk or hear during the huddles. â€Å"Scream your goddamn lungs out, because you're the twelfth man!† Dad says. The way he talks at me – never really pausing long enough for me to say any-thing – makes him sound crazy, I know, even though most people think I am the crazy person in the family. When we are stopped, waiting in line to pay the bridge toll, Dad quits his Eagles rant long enough to say, â€Å"It's good that you are going to the games with Jake again. Your brother's missed you a lot. You do realize that, right? You need to make time for family no matter what happens in your life, because Jake and your mother need you.† This is a pretty ironic thing for him to say, especially since he has hardly said anything to me since I have been home and never really spends any time with me or my mother or Jake at all, but I am glad my father is finally talking to me. All the time I have ever spent with Jake or him has always revolved around sports – mostly Eagles – and I know this is all he can really afford emotionally, so I take it, and say, â€Å"I wish you were going to the game, Dad.† â€Å"Me too,† he says, and then hands the toll collector a five. After taking the first off-ramp, he deposits me about ten blocks away from the new stadium so he can turn around and avoid traffic. â€Å"You're on your own coming home,† he says as I get out. â€Å"I'm not driving back into this zoo.† I thank him for the ride, and just before I shut the door, he raises his hands in the car and yells â€Å"Ahhhhhhhhh!† so I raise my hands and yell â€Å"Ahhhhhhhh!† A group of men drinking beers out of a nearby car trunk hear us, so they raise their hands and yell â€Å"Ahhhhhhhhhh!† Men united by a team, we all do the Eagles chant together. My chest feels so warm, and I remember how much fun it is to be in South Philly on game day. As I walk toward the west Lincoln Financial Field parking lot – following the directions my brother gave me on the phone the night before – so many people are wearing Eagles jerseys. Everywhere green. People are grilling, drinking beer from plastic cups, throwing footballs, listening to the WIP 610 pregame show on AM radio, and as I walk past, they all high-five me, throw me footballs, and yell, â€Å"Go Birds!† just because I am wearing an Eagles jersey. I see young boys with their fathers. Old guys with their grown sons. Men yelling and singing and smiling as if they were boys again. And I realize I have missed this a lot. Even though I do not want to, I look for the Vet and only find a parking lot. There's a new Phillies ballpark too, called Citizens Bank Park. By the entrance ripples a huge banner of some new player named Ryan Howard. All of this seems to suggest that Jake and Dad weren't lying when they said the Vet was demolished. I try not to think about the dates they mentioned, and I focus on enjoying the game and spending time with my brother. I find the right parking lot and begin to look for the green tent with the black Eagles flag flying from the top. The parking lot is full – tents and grills and parties everywhere – but after ten minutes or so, I spot my brother. Jake's in his number 99 Jerome Brown memorial jersey. (Jerome Brown was the two-time Pro Bowler defensive tackle who was killed in a car crash back in 1992.) My brother is drinking beer from a green cup, standing next to our friend Scott, who is manning the grill. Jake looks happy, and for a second I simply enjoy watching him smile as he throws an arm around Scott, whom I haven't seen since the last time I was in South Philly. Jake's face is red, and he looks a little drunk already, but he has always been a happy drunk, so I do not worry. Like my father, nothing makes Jake happier than Eagles game day. When Jake sees me, he yells, â€Å"Hank Baskett's tailgating with us!† and then runs over to give me a high five and a chest bump. â€Å"What's up, dude?† Scott says to me as we too exchange high fives. The big smile on his face suggests that he is happy to see me. â€Å"Man, you really are huge. What have you been lifting – cars?† I smile proudly as he punches my arm, like guys do when they are buddies. â€Å"It's been years – I mean, um – how many months has it been?† He and my brother exchange a glance that I do not miss, but before I can say anything, Scott yells, â€Å"Hey, all you fat-asses in the tent! I wanna introduce you to my boy – Jake's brother, Pat.† The tent is the size of a small house. I walk through the slit on one side, and a huge flat-screen television is set up on milk crates stacked two by four. Five really fat guys are seated in folding chairs, watching the pregame show – all of them in Eagles jerseys. Scott rattles off the names. After he says mine, the men nod and wave and then go back to watching the pregame show. All of them have handheld personal organizers, and their eyes are rapidly moving back and forth between the small screens in their hands and the large screen at the far side of the tent. Almost all have earpieces in, which I guess are connected to cellular phones. As we exit the tent, Scott says, â€Å"Don't mind them. They're all trying to get last-minute info. They'll be a little more friendly after they've placed their bets.† â€Å"Who are they?† I ask. â€Å"Guys from my work. I'm a computer tech now for Digital Cross Health. We do websites for family doctors.† â€Å"How are they watching television out here in the parking lot?† I ask. My brother waves me around to the back of the tent, points to a small engine in a square of metal, and says, â€Å"Gas-powered generator.† He points to the top of the tent, where a small gray plate is perched, and says, â€Å"Satellite dish.† â€Å"What do they do with all this gear when they go into the game?† I ask. â€Å"Oh,† Scott says with a laugh. â€Å"They don't have tickets.† Jake pours a Yuengling Lager into a plastic cup and hands it to me, and I notice three coolers loaded with beer cans and bottles, probably four or five cases. I know the plastic cup is to keep away the police, who can arrest you for having an open beer can in your hand but not for holding a plastic cup. The bag of empties just outside the tent suggests that Jake and Scott are way ahead of me. As Scott finishes grilling breakfast – thick sausages and eggs scrambled in a pan he has placed over the gas flames – he does not ask me many questions about what I have been up to, which I appreciate. I'm sure my brother has already told Scott all about my time in the bad place and my separation from Nikki, but I still appreciate Scott's allowing me to reenter the world of Eagles football without an interrogation. Scott tells me about his life, and it turns out that while I was in the bad place, he married someone named Willow, and they actually now have three-year-old twins named Tami and Jeri-Lyn. Scott shows me the picture he keeps in his wallet, and the girls are dressed alike in little pink ballerina outfits – tutus, tights – their hands stretched up over silver tiaras, pointing toward heaven. â€Å"My tiny dancers. We live on the Pennsylvania side now. Havertown,† Scott says as he loads a half dozen sausages onto the top rack of the barbecue, where they will keep warm while the next batch cooks. I think about Emily and me floating over the waves only the day before, and again I promise myself I'll get busy making my own daughter just as soon as apart time is over. I try not to do the math in my head, but I can't help it. If he has twins who are three years old and he was married sometime after I last saw him – but before his wife got pregnant – it must mean that I have not seen Scott for at least four years. Now maybe he knocked up his girlfriend and then married her, but of course, I can't ask that. Since his daughters are three, the math indicates he and I have not talked for at least three or four years. My last memory of Scott is at the Vet. I had sold my season ticket to Scott's brother Chris a season or two before, but Chris often went away on business conferences and allowed me to buy my seat back for the few home games played when he was out of town. I came up from Baltimore to see the Eagles play Dallas; I don't remember who won or what the score was. But I remember sitting in between Scott and Jake – up in the 700 Level – when Dallas scored a rushing touchdown. Some clown behind us stood up and began cheering as he unzipped his jacket, revealing a throwback Tony Dorsett jersey. Everyone in our section started booing and throwing food at this Dallas fan, who smiled and smiled. Jake was so drunk he could hardly stand, but he charged after this guy, climbing up over three rows of people. The sober Dallas fan shoved Jake away easily, but when Jake fell back into the arms of drunken Eagles fans, a cry went up, and the Tony Dorsett jersey was forcibly removed from the visiting fan's back and ripped into many pieces before security arrived and threw out a dozen people. Jake was not thrown out of the game. Scott and I were able to get Jake up and away from the mayhem, and when security arrived, we were in the men's room splashing water onto Jake's face, trying to sober him up. In my mind, this happened last year, maybe eleven months ago. But I know if I bring up this incident now as we are grilling in front of the Linc, I will be told that the memory occurred more than three or even four years ago, so I do not bring it up, even though I want to, because I know Jake's and Scott's responses will help me figure out what the rest of the world believes about time. And also, not knowing what the rest of the world believes happened between then and now is terrifying. It's better not to think too much about this. â€Å"Drink some beers,† Jake says to me. â€Å"Smile. It's game day!† So I start drinking, even though the little orange bottles that my pills come in have stickers forbidding me to drink alcohol. After the fat guys in the tent are fed, we eat off paper plates, and then Scott, Jake, and I begin throwing the football around. In the parking lot people are everywhere, not just tailgating, but roaming. Guys selling stolen or homemade T-shirts, moms parading around little girls in cheerleading outfits who will do a cheer if you donate a dollar to their local cheerleading booster club, crazy bums willing to tell you off-color jokes for free food and beer, strippers in short pants and satin jackets handing out free passes to the local gentlemen's clubs, packs of little kids in pads and helmets collecting money for their peewee football teams, college kids handing out free samples of new sodas or sports drinks or candy or junk food, and of course the seventy thousand other drunken Eagles fans just like us. Basically, it's a green football carnival. By the time we decide to have a catch, I've had two or three beers, and I'd be willing to bet Jake and Scott have each had at least ten, so our passes are not all that accurate. We hit parked cars, knock over a few tables of food, beam one or two guys in the back, but no one cares, because we are Eagles fans in Eagles jerseys who are ready and willing to cheer on the Birds. Every so often, other men will jump in front of one of us and intercept a pass or two, but they always give back the ball with a laugh and a smile. I like throwing the football with Jake and Scott because it makes me feel like a boy, and when I was a boy, I was the person Nikki fell in love with. But then something bad happens. Jake sees him first, points, and says, â€Å"Hey, look at the asshole.† I turn my head and see a big man in a Giants jersey, maybe forty yards away from our tent. He is wearing a red, white, and blue hard hat, and the worst part is that he has a little boy with him who is also wearing a Giants jersey. The guy walks over to a group of Eagles fans who give him a hard time at first but eventually hand him a beer. Suddenly my brother is walking toward this Giants fan, so Scott and I follow. My brother starts chanting as he walks, â€Å"Ass – hole! Ass – hole! Ass – hole!† With every syllable, he throws his index finger at the hard hat. Scott is doing the same thing, and before I know it, we are surrounded by twenty or so men in Eagles jerseys who are also chanting and pointing. I have to admit it feels sort of thrilling to be part of this mob – united in our hatred of the opposing team's fans. When we reach the Giants fan, his friends – all Eagles fans – laugh, and their faces seem to say, â€Å"We told you this would happen.† But instead of acting remorseful, the Giants fan puts his hands up in the air, as if he has just performed a magic trick or something; he smiles widely and nods his head like he is enjoying being called an asshole. He even puts his hand to his ear, as if to say, â€Å"I can't hear you.† The kid with him, who has the same pale skin coloring and flat nose – probably his son – looks terrified. The little guy's jersey hangs down to his knees, and as the â€Å"ass – hole† chant intensifies, the kid holds on to his father's leg and tries to hide behind the big man's thigh. My brother transitions the crowd into a â€Å"Giants suck† chant, and more Eagles fans come to join in. We now are at least fifty strong. And this is when the little kid breaks into tears, sobbing. When we Eagles fans see that the kid is really upset, the mob chuckles and respectfully disperses. Jake and Scott are laughing as we walk back to our tent, but I don't feel so great. I wish we did not make that little kid cry. I know the Giants fan was stupid to wear a Giants jersey to an Eagles game, and it is really his own fault that his son was made to cry, but I also know that what we did was unkind, and this is the sort of behavior Nikki hates, what I am trying – I feel his hands explode through my back, and I stumble forward and almost fall down. When I turn around, I see the big Giants fan. He is no longer wearing his hard hat; his son is not with him. â€Å"You like making little kids cry?† he says to me. I'm too shocked to speak. There were at least fifty men chanting, but he has singled out me. Why? I wasn't even chanting. I wasn't even pointing. I want to tell him this, but my mouth won't work, so I just stand there shaking my head. â€Å"If you don't want a problem, don't wear a Giants jersey to an Eagles game,† Scott says. â€Å"It's just bad parenting to bring your son down here dressed like that,† Jake adds. The mob quickly forms again. A circle of green uniforms surrounds us now, and I think this Giants fan must be crazy. One of his friends has come to talk him down. The friend's a small man with long hair and a mustache – and he's wearing an Eagles shirt. â€Å"Come on, Steve. Let's go. They didn't mean anything. It was just a joke.† â€Å"What the fuck is your problem?† Steve says, and then shoves me again, his hands exploding through my chest. At this point the Eagles fans begin chanting, â€Å"Ass – hole! Ass – hole! Ass – hole!† Steve is staring into my eyes, gritting his teeth so the tendons in his neck bulge like ropes. He also lifts weights. His arms look even bigger than mine, and he is taller than me by an inch or two. I look to Jake for help, and I can see that he looks a little worried himself. Jake steps in front of me, puts his hands up to suggest that he means no harm, but before he can say anything, the Giants fan grabs my brother's Jerome Brown memorial jersey and throws Jake to the ground. I see him hit the concrete – my brother's hands skidding along the blacktop – and then blood is dripping from his fingers and Jake's eyes look dazed and scared. My brother is hurt. My brother is hurt. MY BROTHER IS HURT. I explode. The bad feeling in my stomach rockets up through my chest and into my hands – and before I can stop myself, I'm moving forward like a Mack truck. I catch Steve's cheek with a left, and then my right connects with the south side of his chin, lifting him off the ground. I watch him float through the air as if he were allowing his body to fall backward into a pool. His back hits the concrete, his feet and hands twitch once, and then he's not moving, the crowd is silent, and I begin to feel so awful – so guilty. Someone yells, â€Å"Call an ambulance!† Another yells, â€Å"Tell 'em to bring a blue-and-red body bag!† â€Å"I'm sorry,† I whisper, because I find it hard to speak. â€Å"I'm so sorry.† And then I am running again. I weave through the crowds of people, across streets, around cars, and through horns blaring and cursing drivers screaming at me. I feel a bubbly feeling in my midsection, and then I am puking my guts out onto the sidewalk – eggs, sausage, beer – and so many people are yelling at me, calling me a drunk, saying that I'm an asshole; and then I'm running again as fast as I can, down the street away from the stadiums. When I feel as though I am going to throw up again, I stop and realize I'm alone – no more Eagles fans anywhere. A chain-link fence, beyond it a warehouse that looks abandoned. I vomit again. On the sidewalk, outside of the puddle I am making, pieces of broken glass glint and sparkle in the sun. I cry. I feel awful. I realize that I have once again failed to be kind; that I lost control in a big way; that I seriously injured another person, and therefore I'm never going to get Nikki back now. Apart time is going to last forever because my wife is a pacifist who would never want me to hit anyone under any circumstance, and both God and Jesus were obviously rooting for me to turn the other cheek, so I know I really shouldn't have hit that Giants fan, and now I'm crying again because I'm such a fucking waste – such a fucking non-person. I walk another half block, my chest heaving wildly, and then I stop. â€Å"Dear God,† I pray. â€Å"Please don't send me back to the bad place. Please!† I look up at the sky. I see a cloud passing just under the sun. The top is all electric white. I remind myself. Don't give up, I think. Not just yet. â€Å"Pat! Pat! Wait up!† I look back toward the stadiums, and my brother is running toward me. Over the next minute or so, Jake gets bigger and bigger, and then he is right in front of me, bent over, huffing and puffing. â€Å"I'm sorry,† I say. I'm so, so sorry.† â€Å"For what?† Jake laughs, pulls out his cell phone, dials a number, and holds the small phone up to his ear. â€Å"I found him,† Jake says into the phone. â€Å"Yeah, tell him.† Jake hands me the phone. I put it up to my ear. â€Å"Is this Rocky Balboa?† I recognize the voice as Scott's. â€Å"Listen, the asshole you knocked out – well, he woke up and is super pissed. Better not come back to the tent.† â€Å"Is he okay?† I ask. â€Å"You should be more worried about yourself.† â€Å"Why?† â€Å"We played dumb when the cops showed up, and no one was able to identify you or your brother – but ever since five-o left, the big guy's been searching the parking lot, looking for you. Whatever you do, don't come back here, because this Giants fan's hellbent on revenge.† I hand the phone back to Jake, feeling somewhat relieved to know I did not seriously hurt Steve, but also feeling numb – because I lost control again. Plus, I'm a little afraid of the Giants fan. â€Å"So, are we going home now?† I ask Jake when he finishes talking to Scott. â€Å"Home? Are you kiddin' me?† he says, and we start walking back toward the Linc. When I don't say anything for a long time, my brother asks if I'm okay. I'm not okay, but I don't say so. â€Å"Listen, that asshole attacked you and threw me to the ground. You only defended your family,† Jake says. â€Å"You should be proud. You were the hero.† Even though I was defending my brother, even though I did not seriously hurt the Giants fan, I don't feel proud at all. I feel guilty. I should be locked up again in the bad place. I feel as though Dr. Timbers was right about me – that I don't belong in the real world, because I am uncontrollable and dangerous. But of course I do not say this to Jake, mostly because he has never been locked up and doesn't understand what it feels like to lose control, and he only wants to watch the football game now, and none of this means anything to him, because he has never been married and he has never lost someone like Nikki and he is not trying to improve his life at all, because he doesn't ever feel the war that goes on in my chest every single fucking day – the chemical explosions that light up my skull like the Fourth of July and the awful needs and impulses and †¦ Outside the Linc, masses form thick lines, and with hundreds of other fans, we wait to be frisked. I don't remember being frisked at the Vet. I wonder when it became necessary to frisk people at NFL games, but I do not ask Jake, because he is now singing â€Å"Fly, Eagles, Fly† with hundreds of other drunken Eagles fans. After we are frisked, we climb the steps and have our tickets scanned, and then we are inside of Lincoln Financial Field. People everywhere – it's like a hive full of green bees, and the buzz is deafening. We often have to turn sideways just to squeeze between people as we walk the concourse to get to our section. I follow Jake, worrying about getting separated, because I would be lost for sure. We hit the men's room, and Jake gets everyone inside to sing the Eagles fight song again. The lines for the urinals are long, and I am amazed that no one pees in the sinks, because at the Vet – at least up in the 700 Level – all sinks were used as extra urinals. When we finally get to our seats, we are in the end zone, only twenty or so rows up from the field. â€Å"How did you get such good tickets?† I ask Jake. â€Å"I know a guy,† he replies, and smiles proudly. Scott is already seated, and he congratulates me on my fight, saying, â€Å"You knocked that fucking Giants fan out cold!† which makes me feel awful again. Jake and Scott high-five just about everyone in the section, and as the other fans call Scott and my brother by name, it becomes obvious that they are quite popular here. When the beer man comes around, Scott buys us a round, and I am amazed to find a cup holder in the seat in front of me. You would never see such a luxury item at the Vet. Just before the Eagles' players are announced, clips from the Rocky movies are shown on the huge screens at each end of the field – Rocky running by the old Navy Yard, Rocky punching sides of beef in the meat locker, Rocky running up the steps of the art museum – and Jake and Scott keep saying, â€Å"That's you. That's you,† until I worry that someone will hear them, understand that I just fought the Giants fan in the parking lot, and tell the police to take me back to the bad place. When the Eagles' starting lineup is announced, fireworks explode and cheerleaders kick and everyone is standing and Jake keeps on pounding my back with his hand and strangers are high-fiving me, and suddenly I stop thinking about my fight in the parking lot. I begin to think about my dad watching the game in our family room – my mother serving him buffalo wings and pizza and beers, hoping the Eagles win just so her husband will be in a good mood for a week. I again wonder if my dad will start talking to me at night if the Eagles pull out a victory today, and suddenly it's kickoff and I am cheering as if my life depends on the outcome of the game. The Giants score first, but the Eagles answer with a touchdown of their own, after which the whole stadium sings the fight song – punctuated by the Eagles chant – with deafening pride. Late in the first quarter, Hank Baskett gets his first catch of his NFL career – a twenty-five-yarder. Everyone in our section high-fives me and pats me on the back because I am wearing my official Hank Baskett jersey, and I smile at my brother because he gave me such a great present. The game is all Eagles after that, and at the start of the fourth quarter the Eagles are up 24 – 7. Jake and Scott are so happy, and I am beginning to imagine the conversation I am going to have with my father when I get home – how proud he will be of my yelling whenever Eli Manning was trying to call a play. But then the Giants score seventeen unanswered points in the fourth quarter, and the Philadelphia fans are shocked. In overtime, Plaxico Burress goes up and over Sheldon Brown in the end zone, and the Giants leave Philadelphia with a win. It is awful to watch. Outside of the Linc, Scott says, â€Å"Better not come back to the tent. That asshole will be there waiting, for sure.† So we say goodbye to Scott and follow the masses to the subway entrance. Jake has tokens. We go through the turnstiles, descend underground, and push our way onto an already packed subway car. People yell, â€Å"No room!† but Jake mashes his body in between the other bodies and then pulls me in too. My brother's chest is against my back; strangers are smashed against my arms. The doors finally close, and my nose is almost touching the glass window. The smell of beer resurfacing through everyone's sweat glands is pungent. I don't like being this close to so many strangers, but I don't say anything, and soon we are at City Hall. After we exit the train, we spin another turnstile, climb up into center city, and begin walking down Market Street, past the old department stores and the new hotels and The Gallery. â€Å"You wanna see my apartment?† Jake asks when we get to the Eighth and Market PATCO stop, which is where I can hop a train over the Ben Franklin Bridge to Collingswood. I do want to see Jake's apartment, but I am tired and anxious to get home so I can do a little lifting before bed. I ask if I might see it some other time. â€Å"Sure,† he says. â€Å"It's good to have you back, brother. You were a true Eagles fan today.† I nod. â€Å"Tell Dad the Birds will bounce back next week against San Fran.† I nod again. My brother surprises me by giving me a two-armed hug and saying, â€Å"I love you, bro. Thanks for getting my back in the parking lot.† I tell him that I love him too, and then he is walking down Market Street singing â€Å"Fly, Eagles, Fly† at the top of his lungs. I descend underground, insert the five my mother gave me into the change machine, buy a ticket, stick it into the turnstile, descend more stairs, hit the waiting platform, and begin to think about that little kid in the Giants jersey. How hard did he cry when he realized his father had been knocked out? Did the kid even get to see the game? A few other men in Eagles jerseys are sitting on the chrome benches. Each nods sympathetically at me when they see my Hank Baskett jersey. One man at the far end of the platform yells, â€Å"Goddamn fucking Birds!† and then kicks a metal trash can. Another man standing next to me shakes his head and whispers, â€Å"Goddamn fucking Birds.† When the train comes, I choose to stand just inside the doors, and as the train slides across the dusk sky, over the Delaware River, across the Ben Franklin Bridge, I look at the city skyline, and – again – I start to think about that kid crying. I feel so awful when I think about that little kid. I get off the train at Collingswood, walk across the open-air platform and down the steps, stick my card into the turnstile machine, and then jog home. My mother is sitting in the family room, sipping tea. â€Å"How's Dad?† I ask. She shakes her head and points at the TV. The screen is cracked so that it looks like a spiderweb. â€Å"What happened?† â€Å"Your father smashed the screen with the reading lamp.† â€Å"Because the Eagles lost?† â€Å"No, actually. He did it when the Giants tied the game at the end of the fourth quarter. Your father had to watch the Eagles blow the game on the bedroom television,† Mom says. â€Å"How's your brother?† â€Å"Fine,† I say. â€Å"Where's Dad?† â€Å"In his office.† â€Å"Oh.† â€Å"I'm sorry your team lost,† Mom says, just to be nice, I know. â€Å"It's okay,† I answer, and then go down into the basement, where I lift weights for hours and try to forget about that little Giants fan crying, but I still can't get the kid out of my mind. For whatever reason I fall asleep on the rug that covers part of the basement floor. In my dreams the fight happens again and again, only instead of the Giants fan bringing a kid to the game, the Giants fan brings Nikki, and she too is wearing a Giants jersey. Every time I knock the big guy out, Nikki pushes through the crowd, cradles Steve's head in her hands, kisses his forehead, and then looks up at me. Just before I run away, she says, â€Å"You're an animal, Pat. And I will never love you again.† I cry through my dreams and try not to hit the Giants fan every time the memory flashes through my mind, but I can't control my dream self any more than I could control my awake self after seeing the blood on Jake's hands. I wake up to the sound of the basement door being closed, and I see the light streaming in through the small windows over the washer and dryer. I walk up the steps, and I cannot believe the sports pages are there. I am very upset about the dream I had, but I realize it was only a dream, and despite everything that has happened, my father is still leaving me the sports pages after one of the worst Eagles losses in history. So I take a deep breath. I allow myself to feel hopeful again and start my exercise routine.

2011 National Patient Safety Goals

2011 National Patient Safety Goals Core Competency Pre-Test Reading Material Identify patient/residents correctly Use at least two ways to identify patient/residents. For example, use the patient/resident’s name and date of birth. This is done to make sure that each patient/resident gets the medicine and treatment meant for them. Make sure that the correct patient/resident gets the correct blood type when they get a blood transfusion. Improve staff communication Quickly get important test results to the right staff person.When taking orders from a physician you must read back and verify orders received and document as such. Shift report must be given to oncoming care givers and after procedures. Standardize abbreviations, acronyms and symbols that are not to be used throughout the organization. Use medicines safely Label all medicines that are not already labeled. For example, medicines in syringes, cups and basins. Take extra care with patient/residents who take medicines to thin their blood. Blood thinners such as Coumadin, Lovenox and Heparin have many drug and food interactions.Prevent infection Hand washing is the most important step in preventing infection. Indications for hand washing o o o o o When hands are visibly dirty or visibly soiled with blood or other body fluids, wash hands with either a soap and water If hands are not visibly soiled, use an alcohol-based hand rub for routinely decontaminating hands Wash hands before having direct contact with patients Wash hands before donning gloves for all procedures Wash hands after contact with a patient Page 1 of 3 Â ©2008- 2010 API Healthcare Corporation.All rights reserved. o o o o Wash hands after contact with inanimate objects (including medical equipment) in the immediate vicinity of the patient Wash hands after removing gloves Before eating and after using a restroom, wash hands soap and water Wash hands with soap and warm water if exposed to C-Diff Use proven guidelines to prevent infection s that are difficult to treat. Treatment of Multi Drug Resistant Organisms (MDROs) may require one or more antibiotics. VRE and MRSA are two of most prevalent MDROs.Ensure cultures and sensitivities are done and patient treated accordingly. Use proven guidelines to prevent infection of the blood from central lines. Ensure cultures and sensitivities are done and patient treated accordingly. Use safe practices to treat the part of the body where surgery was done. Properly clean and disinfect all equipment between patient use to reduce chance of spreading infection. Check patient/resident medicines Find out what medicines each patient/resident is taking at home.Make sure that it is OK for the patient/resident to take any new medicines with their current medicines. Give a list of the patient/resident’s medicines to their next caregiver or to their regular doctor before the patient/resident goes home. Give a list of the patient/resident’s medicines to the patient/resident a nd their family before they go home. Explain the list. Some patient/residents may get medicine in small amounts or for a short time. Make sure that it is OK for those patient/residents to take those medicines with their current medicines.Identify patient/resident safety risks Find out which patient/residents are most likely to try to kill themselves. Find out if there are any risks for patient/residents who are getting oxygen. For example, fires in the patient/resident’s home. (Home Care) Page 2 of 3 Â ©2008- 2010 API Healthcare Corporation. All rights reserved. Prevent patient/residents from falling Find out which patient/residents are most likely to fall. For example, is the patient/resident making any medicines that might make them weak, dizzy or sleepy?Take action to prevent for these patient/residents. Hourly rounds by the staff have shown to reduce the number of falls. Prevent bed sores (Long Term Care) Find out which residents are most likely to have bed sores. Take a ction to prevent bed sores in these patient/residents. From time to time, re-check residents for bed sores. * Obtained from Joint Commission. Com 2010 Easy to Read Patient Safety Goals Page 3 of 3 Â ©2008- 2010 API Healthcare Corporation. All rights reserved.

Public and Private Partnership Paddington Health Campus Scheme Essay

Public and Private Partnership Paddington Health Campus Scheme - Essay Example Governments have numerous strategies for supplying public goods and services. Numerous of these strategies are partnerships with the non-profit or private agencies. The most recent decades have seen a dramatic increase in the formation of public-private partnerships (PPPs). The United Kingdom engaged in a new form of PPP in the 1990s to boost the participation of the private sector in public service provision (Robinson et al., 2010). According to Yescombe (2007), called the private finance initiative (PFI), the British Treasury Department has generated roughly twenty billion pounds to spend in public service management and private financing in the UK. PFI in the region has already been privatised. PPPs are public acquisition mechanisms which require private agencies to deliver services that are usually the obligation of the government. Fiscal and infrastructure demands keep on making these strategies appealing to governments, hence it is important to evaluate their outcomes (Hodge & Greve, 2005). This essay examines the Paddington Health Campus Scheme. It evaluates the actual driving forces and problems of the Scheme in terms of two issues: (1) strategic planning, and (2) working in partnership. It indicates that PPPs had dual sources: (1) a core theoretical assumption that productivity or competency would be improved by controlling competition in the market via private sector bidding, and (2) a macroeconomic strategy plan, motivated by an interest in regulating public debt (Hodge & Greve, 2005). Nevertheless, in actual fact, these productivity benefits are a long way from being mechanical—as stated by Geddes (2005), the successful progress of any PPP scheme hinges on a coordination of the objectives of operational, tactical, and strategic ranks of authority. Overview of the Paddington Health Campus It is practically useless to plan a complete business scheme and other actual reports for a PPP scheme of the private sector, or the market, does not view th e scheme as commercially appealing or fiscally workable. In the initial period of the PFI numerous schemes were marked down by the public sector as PPP-feasible, though, afterward it turned out that a significant percentage of these projects were actually not appropriate, because of a mixture of problems such as heavy contract requirements, brief contract durations, inadequate flow of income, and overflow of risk transfer (Cartlidge, 2006). Of late, the failure of the PFI Paddington Health Campus Scheme generated massive abortive costs and consultant fees. The Paddington Health Campus scheme was a complicated and aggressive project to construct a top-notch medical and research facility which in the end revealed weaknesses in the ability of the partners to work towards success. The project planned to set up high-tech and sophisticated medical services and to replace the dilapidated hospitals of Harefield, Brompton, and St. Marys (Great Britain: National Audit Office, 2006a, 4). The s cheme partners were Partnerships UK, Imperial College, St. Marys NHS Trust, Harefield NHS Trust, and Royal Brompton. The Outline Business Case (OBC) was endorsed in October 2000 by the NHS’s London Regional Office. It projected the overall cost of construction to be roughly 300 million. In May 2005, estimated costs had increased to 894 million and the date of completion was extended from 2006 to 2013 (Great Britain: National Audit Office, 2006a, 4). Initially introduced in 1998, the project was abolished after a major partner declined to back up the business case for the scheme (Robinson et al., 2010). The scheme was then restored. Circumstances such as this are apparently unfavourable for the reputation of PPPs as it disputes the entire method of this form of acquisition, in addition to the substantial waste of resources, effort, and time. Hence, if there are some uncertainties about the interest of private agencies in taking part in a planned PPP scheme, market scanning mus t be carried out at the soonest

FBI Whistleblower Colleen Rowley Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

FBI Whistleblower Colleen Rowley - Essay Example In the hours after the Sept. 11attack, the FBI agents shared a joke. For days, they had made attempts to create interest in the FBI in Washington, to look into Zacharias Moussaoui, who was the 20th hijacker. They had made attempts to ask the FBI to give them the permission to search Moussaoui’s computer; they were denied. Amidst their frustration, they made the joke that the headquarters back in Washington had been working with Osama Bin Laden, as otherwise there would have been no reason for them to turn them down. This was a disturbing story that was told in a 13-page letter that was written to the director of the FBI Robert Mueller, by Colleen Rowley. The letter is documentation of the effort put by Rowley as well as the Minneapolis Chief Division Counsel, to develop an interest in Moussaoui. Coleen Rowley commenced her career with the FBI in Mississippi and later made relocation to the city of New York in the year 1984. After the 9/11 attacks, Rowley explained to the direc tor of the FBI, how the personnel had not responded to the information that had been providing on Zacharias Moussaoui. In the months that followed, Muller made the acknowledgment that the attack could have been prevented if the FBI had responded the tips that they had been given.

Mexican Chicago Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Mexican Chicago - Essay Example Gabriela Arredondo is a renowned historian and associate professor of Latino studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. The author based her thesis on the revolutionary content of the Mexican ethnic group between 1916 and 1939. In these periods Mexicans were a different ethnic group though it worked to be assimilated into a city that had a renowned history of incorporating the immigrants and the newcomers. For example, based on the revolutionary context of origin of the Mexican in Chicago between 1916 and 1930, Arredondo believes that these Mexicans did not merely form part of the ethnic groups that worked to be assimilated into a city with long history of absorbing newcomers. In addition, supporting and suggesting a new understanding of the identity formation Arredondo argues that Mexicans wielded tools of identification that emerged in the revolutionary Mexico. These avant-garde tools collectively battled the ethnic groups prejudice such as Italians, Poles, African Americans and the Irish communities. Finally, in the direct view of Mexicans, they highlighted tremendous and unique differences among themselves. These differences were based on gender and class. In the discussion of becoming â€Å"Mexican† in Chicago during the early 20th century, Arredondo not only explores the identity construction but also comes up with a provision and telling insight of the repercussions of this identity formation process. In my opinion, although the author’s attention to the homeland circumstances of the Mexicans in Chicago is warranted, her elaboration of the analogy in this context is largely flawed, incomplete and inaccurate. For example, in her attempts to compare Mexican immigrants with the European immigrants, Arrerondo has virtually ignored a number of historical factors that may have contributed to their acceptance status and their

Exemplars in legal and ethical issues in rehabilitation or physical Essay

Exemplars in legal and ethical issues in rehabilitation or physical therapy practice - Essay Example In this process, the doctor warns that although the patient will be able to work normally or even run, he advises that the exercise should not be vigorous. The physician plans of an 8-week therapy session where the patient is up to different tests. The exercises are made on a regular to help the patient cope with the pain at the stump area. After the therapy sessions, the patient feels normal and comfortable with his bionic right leg. The physician keeps a true record of each days exercise. On the point of discharge from the therapy, patient A returns to his normal practice at the tracks. After a few sessions on the tracks, he complains of pain at the stump area. This leads him back to the physician with insistence of getting a raw deal. He threatens to sue the physician since he cannot return to his professional racing even after the therapy. Is this claim compelling? This case is without a doubt related to contributory negligence. This alleged lawsuit stands no ground since the therapist has clear records of all the therapy sessions and the advice given to patient A. The records are clearly documented and therefore the patient lacks sufficient cause for the lawsuit. To solve this crisis, the patient can opt for a different solution. This is whereby he returns to the doctor so that more therapy sessions can be prescribed if indeed he was not to return full in the race trucks. On terms of legality, the doctor gave the patient a chance to choose. This is based on the principle of respect to autonomy. Patient B is an old man suffering stroke and has been through therapy. The patient is showing positive signs in terms of response to therapy. After the patient care unit for post stroke patients agrees that no more therapy can be availed to the patients, the family members agree to take the patient back home. However, after a brief look up at the family’s history, the doctor notices that the family

The t Statistic Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The t Statistic - Essay Example The null hypothesis is based on the claim of the sales manager that the annual average sale of the company/ purchases done by the customers is greater than $14,000. The null and alternate hypotheses would be as follows, The t-test conducted with the above mentioned descriptive statistics reveals that t(ÃŽ ±/2,19) = 0.38 is less than the critical value of t = -2.093, therefore the null hypothesis is not rejected and the sales manager’s claim is considered as true. The data shown in Table 2.0 is taken from the case study named HH Industries (Levin et al., 2009, p.49). The data comprises of total number of orders per day for the first and last quarters. The null hypothesis is based on the claim of the sales manager that the sales figures are steady throughout from first quarter to last. The data selected is from the first and last quarters. The null hypothesis in this case would be that the average total number of orders per day for the first and last quarters is equal. The null and alternate hypotheses would be as follows, The t-test was conducted on two samples of number of orders from first and last quarters. Observing the t-value = - 6.9, it is concluded that the H0 is rejected. The  µ1 ≠   µ2. There is a significant difference between the average number of orders booked per day for first and last

Skull identitation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Skull identitation - Essay Example In addition, the observed physical characteristics on the frontal view and the profile views were also taken into consideration. For instance, the jaws and other features present in these different skulls. This skull exhibits large supraorbital height index of approximately71 uv/tv. This almost matches the supraorbital size of Australopithecus africanus skull and Neanderthal skulls that are 70uv/tv and 70uv/tv respectively. An analysis on the nuchal ridge area was also taken it had a height of 39tw/tv. A comparison was then drawn with regard to the known varieties; there was closeness with the nuchal skull of Australopithecus africanus and Neanderthal that had a nuchal area of 38tw/tv and 37tw/tv respectively. A further measurement was done on the condylar position on the skull. It was found out that the condylar position index was 44xy/xz. When this was compared with known varieties of skulls; there was an exact match with the condylar index of Australopithecus africanus that was also 44xy/xz. To ascertain the identity of this skull, a further analysis was done and the physical characteristics of the skull and different traits were observed. The canine teeth were relatively smaller and the shape of the jaw was fully parabolic. These characteristic were shared with the skull of Australopithecus africanus. In general, this skull is possibly a skull of Australopithecus africanus The results revealed that the supraorbital height index of this skull is 66uv/tv which was relatively smaller compared to the first skull (Elbroch, 2006). Although, this exactly matches supraorbital size of Homo sapiens skull that is also 66uv/tv. Another study on the nuchal area height was also conducted and gave a height of 18tw/tv. It was observed that it was also smaller in size compared to that of the first skull but was closer to that of Australopithecus robustus. A

Technology and Patient Confidentiality Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Technology and Patient Confidentiality - Essay Example Nurses have moral and official responsibilities to uphold the discretion and privacy of customer wellbeing information obtained while giving nursing and health care. One of the methods that nurses use to sustain limits and put up nurse-client relations based on confidence and discretion is by respecting clients’ privileges around discretion and privacy. Canadian Nurses Association’s privacy legislation gives support and impacts the values to the nurses’ in relation to clients’ private health data and information. The legislation entails a summary of Canadian nursing principles in relation to discretion and privacy of individual health data and information. Individual health data and information is any information regarding clients that is spoken, recorded on paper or electronic form. This contains information gathered by nurses throughout the course of beneficial nurse-client relations. This type of information relates to the following: Physical and mental health, including family health account. Health care previously accorded to the patient. A strategy for service. Expenses or capability for health care. Contribution of body parts or information obtained from examining these body parts. An individual’s health number or the names of the client’s alternate decision-maker. Clients do not have to give their names for information to be categorized as private health information. Health care information is â€Å"discovering† if an individual can be acknowledged, or if it can be pooled with added data to recognize an individual. A staff record consisting of a note from a medical doctor acknowledging a nonappearance from their job is not recognized as private health information. On the other hand, a depiction of the employee’s symptoms and management that might be catered for by an occupational health nurse when giving health care is acknowledged as private health information. Client confidentiality in nursing. I believe that patient confidentiality is very important and for a long time I have always believed that each and every patient should have their own confidential information remaining confidential. This however becomes a very tough decision to make when the patient’s health is in danger and the confidential information is needed to ensure that they are safe. In this case however, it becomes very hard for the nurse to decide on the right action to take. In any case, the nurse should avoid making promises surrounding confidentiality at all costs. To win and sustain the client’s trust, the nurse ought to explain to him/her that such information as suicide plans cannot be kept secret because it poses threat to the client’s safety. (Guido 2013). The health sector is heading towards an incorporated, two-way approach to the provision of health care services. The field of nursing has sturdily advocated for such an approach. On the other hand, greater assimilation and co operation may be needed to improve distribution of health care information if the different members of the health care team are to tread in safely and successfully. Confidentiality in health care details has the likelihood to slow down information distribution. Nurses are advised to notify the people in their concern that their health details will be shared with the health care panel for the reason of giving care successfully. This opinion appears to be hinged on the supposition that approval is not necessary for distributing information among members of the he

Starbucks Marketing Strategy Essay Example for Free

Starbucks Marketing Strategy Essay Starbucks developed an advantage over its competitors by engaging in partnerships with stores such as Safeway, Barnes Noble where they open cafes to serve their coffee and sell their products. They improved their brand awareness by licensing its brand name on different food products such as ice cream and bottled Frapuccinos 2. What were the principal drivers behind Starbucks’ success in the marketplace? What does the Starbucks brand mean to consumers? How have the growth opportunities pursued that Starbuck has pursued affected the value of its brand name? One of the drivers behind Starbucks’ success is their store locations. The company only open stores in centralized cities in highly visible regions. Stores are always spacious with room for customers to hang out and drink their coffee. They also have great merchandise items such as coffee beverages, whole bean coffee by the pound, pastries, sandwiches, etc†¦ A big part is Starbucks’ success is their employees. Their baristas are trained to customize each drink and to explain the origin of different coffees. There are treated like partners, and trained to provide the best customer service and to deal with customer complains on the spot. The Starbucks brand means consistency and predictability to consumers. It is a promise to great coffee and great experience. Starbucks’ extensive product line strategy of creating a variety of products beyond just coffee beans was a big growth opportunity, as well as their partnerships that allowed them to expand their brand by selling ready to drink coffee, flavored ice cream and branded coffee now in supermarkets. They also have joint venture agreements in 15 countries. 3. What are the major challenges facing Starbucks as it goes global? Is the brand advantage sustainable going forward? Can Starbucks defend its position against other specialty coffee retailers? Competition is always a challenge when expanding a business overseas, as well as their lack of experience in the international market. Global expansion also means being operated by local partners and therefore making less money. However, I do believe their brand is sustainable. Starbucks is the market pioneer, which gives them major advantage against their competitors. To defend their position, Starbucks should never impose their western preferences in their international markets and continue to adapt their products to the local markets.

Extranet Infrastructure For Hospital Chains Information Technology Essay

Extranet Infrastructure For Hospital Chains Information Technology Essay Networking and Internet has revolutionized the means of communication and has made this world a small family. Many businesses have developed on the basis of Internet and have attained huge success by adopting to advanced technology in sensible manner. This assignment deals with network infrastructure implementation in a chain of hospitals. This assignment is divided into different sections starting from implementation of type of network with OSI TCP/IP implementation at different layers of infrastructure. Then it also includes the type of hardware / software required for implementation and also the most important part i.e. implementation of security policy. 1.0 Type of Network Type of network required to be chosen is a tedious task. Different types of network designs, are categorized based on their scope or scale. Network industry referes to each type of design as some kind of area network. Choosing an area network requires in-depth requirement analysis and cost analysis. There are different types of network available such as: LAN : Local Area Network MAN: Metropolitan Area Network WAN: Wide Area Network SAN: Storage Area Network WLAN: Wireless Local Area Network. CAN: Campus Area Network PAN: Personal Area Network DAN: Desk Area Network These all types of network are chosen in different types of situations. Considering the scenario of the chain of hospitals having 25 computers different types of options are available: If the hospitals are situated in a city then MAN can be implemented that can be used to connect different hospitals and LAN for connection inside each hospital. If the hospitals are dispersed in different cities or countries then WAN is required to connect two different hospitals and again LAN can be used for connection inside each hospital. SAN can be used to transfer large amounts of data between computer and storage elements. Justification: Since PAN and DAN are networks of short distances, it is not used to implement in this kind of scenario. CAN spans all LANs and since this is a matter of only 25 computers it is not a wise decision to implement CAN and neither cost effective. WLAN can be implemented but as communication become wireless there also comes into account security concerns which becomes costly. Since the hospital deals with lot of patients and huge amounts of data it is necessary to implement SAN since it will make data transfer more secure and robust. Topology for LAN connection: Now since the connection between hospitals is decided, next point of concern is the connection inside each hospital. The computers in a LAN can be connected in several ways. These different ways of connection is referred to as topology. There are several topologies such as: Bus Star Tree Ring Mesh Source: (GeoSig, 2009) Each and every topology has its own advantages and disadvantages. Sometimes there is also mixed topology called HYBRID topology that is used, which is the implementation of two or more topologies. Here in this scenario, the best configuration to use is mesh topology or ring topology. Justification: Mesh topology ensures robust and secure data communication since each all computers are attached by dedicated links. Also its secure since the message sent to the intended recipient only sees it. Hence mesh topology is ideal for secure and effective communication. The only disadvantage being amount of cabling causing an increase in number of I/O ports. In order to be cost effective ring topology is also advisable. Since in case of ring topology there is point to point line configuration only and hence amount of cabling is reduced. Also it is very easy to reinstall and reconfigure. Fault isolation is also achieved because in a ring there is a signal that is circulating every time. Hence if a device does not receive signal for a certain amount of time it can issue an alarm which can alert the networker to the problem and location. The only disadvantage is that break in the ring such as a disabled station causes the entire network to become disable. Although this disadvantage can be overcome by using dual ring or switch that is capable of closing this break. Other types of topologies are not taken into account for following reasons: In case of bus topology the cable length is limited to few number of computers and also modification in number of computers, fault isolation and reconfiguration is tedious task. In case of Star topology the failure of central hub caused the whole network to fail which is a very serious disadvantage. Tree topology is very much like the Star topology. It has two types of hubs instead of one as in star. But failure of any one type of hub results in failure of that whole network. Therefore the recommended network type for implementation is to adopt WAN or MAN for wider communication and LAN and Mesh/Ring topology for local communication. A basic LAN consists of the following components. Two or more computers. Network Interface card or LAN Card in each PC. Ethernet cable (Cat5, UTP/SPT) cable to connect the two computers. A hub, switch or router to route or direct the network traffic. Software for the communication/computer networking. The alternate technologies to Ethernet are Token Ring, which is used in the Ring Topologies networks. Token Ring is designed by the IBM and ATM. In ATM networking, devices are connected with each other over a very large distance (thus forms the WAN), and behaves like LANs. 2.0 OSI and TCP/IP Layer Implementation OSI an abbreviation for Open System Interconnection model was developed by ISO for facilitating communication across all types of computer systems. The purpose of OSI model is to facilitate communication regardless of their underlying architecture i.e. without requirement of changing the logic of underlying hardware and software. It is built of seven layers as follows: Physical : Layer 1 Data Link : Layer 2 Network : Layer 3 Transport : Layer 4 Session : Layer 5 Presentation : Layer 6 Application : Layer 7 TCP/IP is an abbreviation for Transmission Control Protocol/ Internetworking Protocol. The TCP/IP protocol suite was developed before the development of OSI model. Therefore the layers are not an exact match with the OSI model. The suite is made up of 5 layers: Physical : Layer 1 Data Link : Layer 2 Network : Layer 3 Transport : Layer 4 Application : Layer 5 OSI layer: Recommended hardware and software Hardware: Physical Layer: It defines all the components such as electrical, mechanical and all types of hardware for sending and receiving data, all physical aspects.such as fibre optic cables (since SAN is used), cards etc. The bit stream is conveyed at electrical and mechanical level. The characteristics defined by the physical layer are: Voltage levels Timing of impulses Physical data rates Max transmission distance Physical connectors. The implementation of physical layer can be classified as either LAN or WAN specifications. Data Link Layer The data link layer is responsible to define the format of the data and ensure its reliable transfer. It facilitates frame synchronization, protocol management, flow control and also handles all errors in physical layer. There are 2 sublayers: MAC: Media Access Control LLC: Logical Link Control MAC is responsible for two devices to uniquely identify each other while LLC is responsible for managing communication over a single link of network. The hardware that operate at this layer are Hubs and Switches. Network Layer: Network layer provides facility of switching, congestion control, routing and error handling. The protocol operating at this layer is called IP i.e. Internetworking Protocol and it defines the the way of determining route selection systematically. In order to facilitate thi, Routers operate at this layer that determines the way of forwarding packets. Transport Layer At the transport layer data is segmented into packets for transferring across the network. The function of this layer is to provide flow control, error checking and recovery and multiplexing.This layer makes use of protocols such as TCP i.e Transport Control Protocol and UDP i.e. User Datagram Protocol. Session Layer Session layer is responsible for dealing with session and connectin co-ordination. Its function is to establish, manage and terminate communication session. The protocols functioning in this layer are Remote Procedure Call (RPC), Zone Information Protocol (ZIP), Appletalk, Session Control Protocol (SCP). Presentation This layer is responsible for coding and conversion of data from application to network format. It makes sure that the data of application layer is readable by the application layer of other system. It contains software used for encryption of data and thereby providing compatibility between systems. Application Layer This layer is completely responsible for the software applications. The main function is to identify the communication partners and determine the availability of resources and also synchronizing communication. It provides end user services such as e-mails, file transfer, virtual terminal access and network management.The softwares required to be implemented is discussed after the TCP/IP network model. Some of the examples implemented in application layer are File Transfer Protocol(FTP), Telnet and Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP). TCP/IP Network Model The physical and data link layer performs similar to OSI model. Physical and Data link It defines all drivers and NIC (Network Interface Card) Network Layer It handles basic communication and protocols operating at this layer are IP, ARP, IGMP and ICMP. Transport Layer Handles the flow of data and segments data into packets over network. TCP and UDP operate in this layer. Application Layer: It handles data of end user applications. Frequently used TCP/IP applications includes Telnet, SMTP, SNMP, DNS, NTP, Traceroute, RIP and NFS. Recommended Softwares: The softwares required for communication over intranet are: Windows 7 OS UnixWare Remote Desktop connnection Lan Messenger Justification: The OS recommended is Windows 7 since it is the latest and fastest OS as compared to previous versions of Microsoft. Remote Desktop connection is required to be establised in order to connect the computer over LAN or WAN. UnixWare provides facility of data communication over WAN. It establishes point to point links thereby facilitating fast transfer. SAN network also requires fast and efficient data communication that also can be achieved by usage of this software. Lan Messenger or a system that is uniformly implemented on all computers should be purchased. 3.0 IT Policy Main purpose of the IT policy stated is to define a framework on how to protect the Hospitals computer systems, network and all data contained within, or accessible on or via these systems from all threats whether internal, external, deliberate or accidental. It is the policy of institution is to ensure that: All central computer systems and information contained within them will be protected against any unauthorised access or use. Information kept in these systems is managed securely, should comply with  relevant data protection laws in a professional and proper way. All members of the hospital are aware that it is the part of their duty to abide by this policy. All employees (computer users ) accept total responsibility adhering to and implementing this policy within their service areas. The integrity and confidentiality of all central computer systems; accessible on or via these systems is the responsibility of Computing Services. All regulatory and legislative requirements regarding computer security and information confidentiality and integrity will be met by Computing Services and the hospital regulatory bodies. All breaches of security will be reported to and investigated by a nominated security coordinator usually within Computing Services and hospital regulatory bodies. The primary role of the Hospital function regarding medication and research is not hindered. 2. Statement of Authority, Scope and Responsibilities In addition all users have a responsibility to report promptly (to Computing Services or Hospitals regulatory bodies) any incidents which may have a security significance to the Hospital. 3. The Computing Environment Computing Services(under the guidance of hospital regulatory bodies) plan, maintain and operate a range of central computing servers, core network switches, edge network switches, backup systems, and the overall network infrastructure interconnecting these systems. The computing environment is defined as all central computing resources and network infrastructure managed and overseen by Computing Services and all computing devices that can physically connect, and have been authorised to connect, to this environment. All are covered by this policy, including computing hardware and software, any Hospital related data residing on these machines or accessible from these machines within the campus network environment and any media such as CD-ROMs, DVD-ROMs and backup tapes that may at times be accessible.. Computing Services also considers all temporary and permanent connections via the Hospital network, casual laptop docking points, the Wireless network, the Virtual Private Network and the RAS modem pools to be subject to the provisions of this policy. Computing resources not owned by the Hospital may be connected to the Hospitals network. However, all such resources must function in accordance with Hospitals regulations governing the use of computing resources. Computing Services reserves the right to monitor, log, collect and analyze the content of all transmissions on networks maintained by both Computing Services and individual departments and organisations at any time deemed necessary for performance and fault diagnostic purposes. Any network monitoring will be performed in accordance with the Computer Systems Scanning and Monitoring Policy. It is the right of computing service to check or monitor any employees login without prior content. 4. Physical Security Computing Services provides a secure machine room with protected power arrangements and climate controlled environment. Primarily for the provision of central computing and network facilities individual departments and, if appropriate, individuals are encouraged to make use of the facility for applicable teaching or research projects. Any computer equipment in general office environment should be within physically secure rooms outside of general office hours. Desktop machines in public areas should contain a device or mechanism for securing and protecting the main components and contents of the computer from theft. The above is in accordance with The Hospitals insurance policy . 5. Access to Systems Computer and network systems access is only via individual user accounts. Please refer to the user accounts policy for further details and account eligibility. 5.1 Email Accounts provide access to email facilities. Use of email is governed by Computing Services email policy. 5.2 File Storage All users have access to the centrally managed file storage. Use of the file storage is governed by Computing User file storage policy, It should be appreciated for most applications the security of files on the server is considered to be adequate. However files held on a Network File Server (NFS) should never be considered completely secure. For this reason Computing Services do not recommend that you hold sensitive information such as exam papers or results on the central server (or on any NFS file server for that matter). 5.3 The Web All users have the right to publish their own web pages under the appropriate subdomain of bath.ac.uk. Individual users will be responsible for content in these areas and the Hospital reserves the right to remove access to any material which it deems inappropriate, illegal or offensive. Users should not in any way use their personal web space for commercial purposes. Users shall not in any way use personal web space to publish material which deliberately undermines IT security at the Hospital or elsewhere. Users shall not publish any information regarding open accounts, passwords, PINs, illegally obtained software licenses, hacking tools, common security exploits or similar unless there are specific and legitimate reasons to do so. E.G in order to demonstrate a problem to enable a fix, or similar. 5.4 Internet Access The campus network is connected to the Internet via SWERN and JANET. Computing Services operate and maintain a firewall with the aim of protecting the campus network and Computer systems from unauthorised or illegal access or attack from the external environment. 5.5 Campus Network Individuals must seek permission from local support representatives before connecting any machine to the LAN. Particular attention must be paid to the Host connection and IP Address Allocation policy before any connection is made. Computing Services may disconnect any unauthorised host from the network without warning if discovered. 6. Remote Access to Systems Remote access is defined as accessing systems from a physically separate network. This may include: Connections direct across the Internet VPN Connections Direct dial connections to the RAS (Remote Access Service) Any user with a valid Hospital computer account may access systems as appropriate. Remote access is allowed via secure methods only. Remote connections to any campus IT services are subject to the same rules and regulations, policies and practices just as if they were physically on the campus. Computing Services shall provide the only VPN and dial-in service that can be used. All connections via these services will be logged. No other remote access service shall be installed or set up, including single modems connected to servers or workstations. Any active dial-in services found to be in existence will be removed from the network. 7. Data Security The Hospital holds a variety of sensitive data including personal information  about students and staff. If you have been given access to this information, you  are reminded of your responsibilities under data protection law. You should only take a copy of data outside the Universitys systems if absolutely necessary, and you should exhaust all other options before doing so. This includes putting sensitive data onto laptops, memory sticks, cds/dvds or  into emails. If you do need to  take data outside the University, this should only be with the authorisation of the Universitys data protection officer. As part of this you should perform a risk assessment on the implications of it falling into the wrong hands, and take appropriate steps to mitigate against this. This will almost certainly include encrypting the information, and checking the data protection statements of any recipients of the data. There are a variety of methods of remote access to systems available (in particular using VPN and remote desktop or terminal services) which  allow you to work on data in-situ rather than taking it outside the University, and these should always be used in preference to taking data off-site. Computing Services  offers a variety of  information and support to help you keep data secure.  If  you are uncertain about any aspect of data security, you must contact us for advice. 8. Anti-Virus Security Computing Services will provide means by which all users can download and install current versions of site-licensed virus protection software. Users must ensure that they are running with adequate and up-to-date anti-virus software at all times. If any user suspects viral infection on their machine, a complete virus scan should be performed. If Computing Services detect a machine behaving abnormally due to a possible viral infection it will disconnected from the network until deemed safe. Reconnection will usually be after liaison with the

John Henry Newman’s Changing Attitude to Infallibility Essay -- Religio

Examine John Henry Newman’s changing attitude to Infallibility, between the end of Vatican 1 in 1870 and Gladstone’s attack in 1875. In this essay I propose to analyse Newman’s attitude to Infallibility during the period outlined above. I will examine his letters in particular to note the range of correspondents and the approaches taken. I will attempt to see a pattern in relation to his views expressed to mere enquirers writing to him, to national and professional writers seeking information or debating points and to family and friends in connection with the doctrine of Infallibility. Over this five-year period I will deduce from mainly primary sources, his views expressed on Infallibility and his developed reasoning and then present conclusions. Firstly a short historical background to Victorian Britain will set the context. Mid-Victorian Britain saw political reform as a main agenda. There was an established order of churches, characterised by denomination but more telling, by social class, and a defined place in society. The plight of the poor and the devastating effects of industrialisation were not uppermost in the church’s role. These views were being challenged with an increasing secularisation of society, by movements set up to reform and give more people a voice in government, and questioning the relevance of the church. The church played a role in e.g. the Christian Socialist Movement, set up as much to control and limit reform as it was to assist the poor. This was a time of expansion by the Catholic Church, since the re-establishment of the hierarch in 1850. Popular liberal attitudes questioned the loyalty of Catholics to the state and since the 1850’s newspapers and periodicals characterised this view as ... ...ring 1982), pp. 86–88. Rahner, K. ‘A Critique of Hans Kung’. Homiletic and Pastoral Review 71, May 1971, pp.10 – 26. Schatz, K. Papal Supremacy: From its Origins to the Present. Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1996, pp.151-162. Strange, Roderick. John Henry Newman: A Mind Alive. London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 2008. Sugg, J. ed. A Packet of Letters: a selection of correspondence of John Henry Newman. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983. Tierney, B. Origins of Papal infallibility 1150 – 1350. (‘Studies in the History of Christian Thought’).Leiden: EJ Brill, 1972. Ward, W. William George Ward and the Catholic Revival. London: Longmans Green andCo.1893, p.274. Accessed 9 March 2014: https://archive.org/details/riwilliamgeorgeward. Wolfe, J. Religion in Victorian Britain: Culture and Empire. Manchester: The Open University Press, 1997.

History of Ledd Zeppelin and ITs Musical Impact Essay -- Led Zeppelin

History of Ledd Zeppelin and ITs Musical Impact Tell someone to name a band from the 1960s and '70s and you could probably listen to a dozen answers before hearing the same one twice. The overwhelming amount of talent squeezed into these two decades has produced some of the most popular, most powerful, and in some cases, the most bizarre music ever. Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds, Janis Joplin, Bob Dylan, Elvis Presley, Queen, Aerosmith, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, The Eagles.... All were from this era that seemed to glorify music as no other time period did, or ever will. The amount of evolution of music that occurred in this time period is amazing as well. The mainstream went from listening to songs like Bill Haley and the Comet's "Rock Around The Clock," to The Beatles' frightening "Revolution 9." While these two examples may seem completely different, they are not as distant as one might think. Nearly all music from the '60s and '70s was bred from its earlier ancestors. Music has been constantly evolving, and during the two decades in question, it underwent a radical change like never before. The New Yardbirds In early 1968 the music group The Yardbirds was in shambles. Their last, and half-put --together album "Little Games" was a total flop and the band had to struggle to have the release of the album in the UK stopped. On March 30, the group allowed a taping of their concert in Madison Square Garden to be considered for a live album to be released later. They easily convinced their record contractor, Epic Records, to ditch the project. The lead guitarist of The Yardbirds, Jeff Beck, had suffered from a mental breakdown a few years earlier and could no longer handle the pressure of touring. The band members, Keith Relf, Chris Dreja, Jim McCarty, and Jimmy Page decided to throw in the towel and let the band collapse. Playing wasn't the same rush it used to be, and it just wasn't fun anymore. Each member elected to follow their own projects. Dreja planned a career in photography, McCarty and Relf intended on starting bands of their own. Lead guitarist, Jimmy Page was given legal rights to the band's name, songs, and albums. However, along with the rights that Page was given, were 10 tour dates that still needed to be honored in Scandinavia. Page nee... ...The most significant thing about Led Zeppelin's music today, is that it doesn't sound dated. The music seems similar to music today. The lasting impression of their music is obvious, and can be heard in any Rock band of today. Unfortunately, the machine that was Led Zeppelin came to a screeching halt on the morning of September 25, 1980. When band members decided to go into Bonham's bedroom to pull a prank on him in his sleep, Bonham was found dead. After a night of heavy drinking, Bonham had turned the wrong way in his sleep, and asphyxiated himself upon his own vomit. A statement was released on December 4, 1980, stating that the band could not go on in its present state. After 11 incredible years, the band could not function with "the loss of our dear friend." Led Zeppelin had owned the 70s, and they were going to finish their reign quietly, and let the throne open to the next "supergroup." As suddenly as Led Zeppelin began, it had ended even more so. The giant had fallen. . "As it was, then again it will be, Though the course may change sometimes, Rivers always reach the sea." -Ten Years Gone Led Zeppelin History of Ledd Zeppelin and ITs Musical Impact Essay -- Led Zeppelin History of Ledd Zeppelin and ITs Musical Impact Tell someone to name a band from the 1960s and '70s and you could probably listen to a dozen answers before hearing the same one twice. The overwhelming amount of talent squeezed into these two decades has produced some of the most popular, most powerful, and in some cases, the most bizarre music ever. Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds, Janis Joplin, Bob Dylan, Elvis Presley, Queen, Aerosmith, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, The Eagles.... All were from this era that seemed to glorify music as no other time period did, or ever will. The amount of evolution of music that occurred in this time period is amazing as well. The mainstream went from listening to songs like Bill Haley and the Comet's "Rock Around The Clock," to The Beatles' frightening "Revolution 9." While these two examples may seem completely different, they are not as distant as one might think. Nearly all music from the '60s and '70s was bred from its earlier ancestors. Music has been constantly evolving, and during the two decades in question, it underwent a radical change like never before. The New Yardbirds In early 1968 the music group The Yardbirds was in shambles. Their last, and half-put --together album "Little Games" was a total flop and the band had to struggle to have the release of the album in the UK stopped. On March 30, the group allowed a taping of their concert in Madison Square Garden to be considered for a live album to be released later. They easily convinced their record contractor, Epic Records, to ditch the project. The lead guitarist of The Yardbirds, Jeff Beck, had suffered from a mental breakdown a few years earlier and could no longer handle the pressure of touring. The band members, Keith Relf, Chris Dreja, Jim McCarty, and Jimmy Page decided to throw in the towel and let the band collapse. Playing wasn't the same rush it used to be, and it just wasn't fun anymore. Each member elected to follow their own projects. Dreja planned a career in photography, McCarty and Relf intended on starting bands of their own. Lead guitarist, Jimmy Page was given legal rights to the band's name, songs, and albums. However, along with the rights that Page was given, were 10 tour dates that still needed to be honored in Scandinavia. Page nee... ...The most significant thing about Led Zeppelin's music today, is that it doesn't sound dated. The music seems similar to music today. The lasting impression of their music is obvious, and can be heard in any Rock band of today. Unfortunately, the machine that was Led Zeppelin came to a screeching halt on the morning of September 25, 1980. When band members decided to go into Bonham's bedroom to pull a prank on him in his sleep, Bonham was found dead. After a night of heavy drinking, Bonham had turned the wrong way in his sleep, and asphyxiated himself upon his own vomit. A statement was released on December 4, 1980, stating that the band could not go on in its present state. After 11 incredible years, the band could not function with "the loss of our dear friend." Led Zeppelin had owned the 70s, and they were going to finish their reign quietly, and let the throne open to the next "supergroup." As suddenly as Led Zeppelin began, it had ended even more so. The giant had fallen. . "As it was, then again it will be, Though the course may change sometimes, Rivers always reach the sea." -Ten Years Gone Led Zeppelin

Can Childhood Asthma be Outgrown? :: Health Respiratory Essays

Can Childhood Asthma be Outgrown? Today asthma is the most common chronic childhood disease, with the number of children with asthma increasing every year. In 1995, the Environmental Protection Agency reported that 5.5 million children in the United States had asthma. Now an estimated 6.1 million children under 18 in the United States currently suffer from asthma, according to the American Lung Association. However, some asthma sufferers manage to â€Å"out-grow† their childhood asthma. â€Å"By the time high school was over I found that I wouldn’t need to use my inhaler anymore and I haven’t used my inhaler in about three years,† said Jen Nelson, sophomore journalism major at Northeastern University. Today Nelson is asthma-free and in good health. â€Å"I have been pretty much okay. Last year I got the flu so I had a couple of symptoms, but it wasn’t to the point where I needed to use my inhaler,† said Nelson. At the age of 7, Nelson suffered a â€Å"really bad† asthma attack and was diagnosed with one type of asthma, bronchial asthma. â€Å"I developed it [asthma] because I had so many cases of bronchitis†, said Nelson. After having asthma for about 10 years, Nelson was told by her doctor that her asthma â€Å"wasn’t severe anymore† and â€Å"that they no longer considered her to be asthmatic.† Then there are the asthma patients who still have occasional problems with asthma accompanied with allergies that developed during their childhood. â€Å"I was diagnosed with asthma at a very early age. I have had it ever since I was very little. It has come and gone (and come again) over the years,† said Joanna Old, senior journalism major at Northeastern University. Through the age of 10, Old suffered from severe asthma. â€Å"I was hospitalized when I was around 4 or 5 for asthma†¦[Usually] when you have an asthma attack, your lungs get tight and you hear wheezing. Well, during this particular attack, the nurse didn’t even know what was wrong-it turns out my lungs were closed so tightly, there was no wheezing-no breathing at all. I stayed in the hospital for about 3 or 4 days hooked to an IV with an oxygen tent,† said Old. During this time, Old was also on steroids and used an inhaler regularly to manage her asthma. â€Å"I was actually very sickly looking because of the drugs. I remember my hair being very thin and wispy—and I never wanted to brush it!,† said Old. As Old grew up, her asthma seemed to become less severe.

Black people in the USA in 1945 Essay

Blacks in the USA in 1945 were not considered as equal; the treatment of people was based on their skin colour, a practice that had been going on for many years before, even after the Reconstruction of society after the Civil War in which the blacks were â€Å"liberated† from slavery. In theory, blacks were free to work and live where they wanted, but the figures at the time told a different story: by 1960, around 17% of the workforce of â€Å"white-collar† workers, i.e. professional, technical, administration, etc., were blacks, while the whites remained the majority at 47%. The â€Å"blue-collar† work, such as craftsmen, manual labourers, etc. – jobs that are renowned for needing less skill and education – had 40% of the workforce as blacks, and 36% were whites. Blacks just weren’t provided the education and qualifications to do the professional types of work due to separation of black and white facilities. Not only were they held back at g etting the higher-class jobs, they were paid less for the same work that whites did; in 1950, blacks earned about 53% of a whites wage. This figure remained the same over the next 20 years, with it rising 11% to blacks earning 64% of a whites wage. All over the USA, blacks were discriminated against in almost all areas of life, whether it is the law of the state, or just by the custom of the local society. After the abolishment of slavery, slaves had the choice of moving away from their former homes and having their own lives; unfortunately, many blacks didn’t have any money to move halfway across the USA to the northern states that had fought to free them. Those who did have the finance to travel rarely had enough money afterwards to sustain a good quality of life after they had moved. The custom of de facto came into play in some of the Northern states; ghettos and places where the majority of the population were black sprung up in towns and cities. Segregation by custom in the North was contrasted with segregation by law, or de jure, in the South- Jim Crow laws forbade blacks, for example, to enter white facilities, or sit on buses with whites, etc. Places where de facto was in force came up with other ways to separate blacks from whites to keep the Southern order of things; â€Å"red lining† was when banks were not allowed to give money for mortgages if they suspected it would be a risky investment- if a black family moved into a certain area, it would lower the prices of the surrounding houses. This  meant that places such as ghettos were built up, when the majority of the population were black. This type of segregation wasn’t by law, but by custom, blacks weren’t forced to live in â€Å"black† areas, but they felt pressured to live in certain places because of the practises such as red lining in effect. Although it is in the Constitution that everyone is equal and has the same civil rights, it is beliefs like red lining that push a wedge between races; it may not seem constitutional, but it is up to the Supreme Court in the USA to decide what is constitutional. They decided that slavery was lawful mainly due the fact that the Southern states economy was based on slavery; they were needed to produce cotton, the main export in the 19th century. Without them, the economy would have fallen apart. After the 13th amendment to the Constitution, slavery was no longer legal, but the Supreme Court still remained to overlook state laws that continued discrimination and practices that could be seen as worse then slavery- for example, the Ku Klux Klan were allowed to terrorise and lynch blacks, yet lynching was not made illegal. â€Å"The Supreme Court declared that the 14th amendment forbids states, but not citizens, from discriminating† (1) Separate facilities for blacks and whites were considered as the solution to the discrimination problem; the Supreme Court believed that the blacks were â€Å"separate but equal† when they were forced to use different buildings, transport, schools and hospitals then the whites. Since the Supreme Court approved laws and could declare them unconstitutional if they wanted to, they were the ones who the blacks has to convince if they wanted to change anything; in legal cases, the trial had to be taken to the Supreme Court to have any impact, since the State Courts were always going to be in favour of the Jim Crow laws. The Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896) case was when Homer Plessy refused to sit in the â€Å"coloured† car of a train and sat in the â€Å"white† section instead. The case went to Supreme Court, and they ruled that Plessy was guilty and sentenced him to pay a fine or go to jail. This was considered the most shameful ruling of the Supreme Court in history; it shows the extent of the discrimination against blacks, even after slavery was abolished- even though Plessy was 1/8 black and 7/8 white, he was still considered as black in the eyes of the Louisiana law. Although many people thought that this ruling was  shocking, there wasn’t much that could be done, since they did not have a definite leader to show them what the do; everything that the movement did was relatively unorganised, with maybe one person leading the others. People such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Booker T. Washington tried to unite blacks under one leadership, but it did not work, because everyone has different opinion on what should be done about the discrimination problem. Dr Martin King Jr. was a black leader that advocated peaceful resistance; because of this, many whites accepted him because they knew that he would not cause violence, but blacks did not like this as peaceful protest could only take them so far- they felt that King was weaker then some of the other extremist black leaders, such as Malcolm X. King’s approach to fighting against their oppression wasn’t enough to keep the blacks following him; they preferred people who were willing to do more for the benefit of all blacks. Another leader who was thought as weak by fellow blacks was Booker T. Washington; he was accused of being an accommodationist to the whites, as he wasn’t campaigning for equal civil rights, he was concentrating on equal job opportunities- this wasn’t what the blacks were fighting for; they wanted to be free to do what the whites could do, not only in jobs but in other aspects of life too. The leaders of the movement were not united, therefore they were not strong- many leaders were critical of others, for example, W.E.B DuBois criticised Washington, saying that blacks cannot get social equality if they do not get political equality first. The New Deal is a phrase used to explain the actions taken after Black Tuesday when the US Stock market crashed to stop the effects of the Depression disturbing the lives of the public. Laws were passed to help stop the consequences of the Depression becoming a long-term problem; within the first hundred days, President Roosevelt passed a law that lowered worker’s salaries and pensions by up to 15%- a move that people did not like, yet it saved a lot of money for the government. Another act was passed that stated that the government could inspect banks before letting them open again so they could see if the bank was eligible to lend and hold money. This prevented banks lending out money that they did not have, therefore they did not losing money for their customers and wouldn’t have to close, as they  would have to have done if they did lend out money they didn’t have. The New Deal was produced so the government could help all of those that were affected by the Depression; this helped the blacks because they were some of the poorest people in the USA at the time, and as many as 8% of blacks were unemployed in 1955. For the blacks, the New Deal slightly improved their way of living as it was designed to help everyone without discrimination. Soon after New Deal was set up, the situation for blacks was improved socially by the outbreak of the Second World War. When the Americans were brought into the war, they needed as many men as they could to fight; blacks had regiments where they could join and be equal to whites, but they still were not allowed to belong to the same regiment as the whites- there were some who did, but they were rare, they normally belonged to an all-black regiment. At the end of the war, the blacks got more ambitious; they were allowed to fight for their country, but America wasn’t even grateful enough of them to let them be equal. This would have enraged African Americans since they had fought so hard to be a part of America, so the Civil Rights movement activity increased, which put pressure on the government to do something. The Nazi ideology also pushed the government into action, because what the Americans were doing to the blacks could be compared to the Germans discriminating against the Jews in Germany; the blacks realised this, so demanded equality, as they didn’t want the same to happen to them . In conclusion, the position of blacks in 1945 was not equal to whites: even after a century of supposed â€Å"freedom† from slavery, blacks were still treated as inferiors to whites. Laws and acts were in effect that encouraged the discrimination of blacks. Amendments such as the rights for blacks to vote and the rights for them to be equal were passed, but there were so many other laws that cancelled them out. Jim Crow laws in the South and practises such as â€Å"red lining† in the North made it impossible for blacks to be seen as equal politically, whilst rebellions by extremist whites and groups such as the Ku Klux Klan stopped blacks gaining any social standing or equality. Blacks were supposed to be equal, but by 1945, some may comment that the position of them was worse then slavery, as the blacks were on their own in  there poverty and discrimination; before, they had their slave owners who would clothe and feed them to keep productive workers- they would never be out on the streets as slaves, but as â€Å"free† people, they received basically no help. Things that whites took for granted, such as clean and good-quality facilities, and jobs that are fair and just are things that blacks counted themselves lucky if they managed to get any equality. People like Martin Luther King Jr. and W.E.B. DuBois tried to get equality, both through violence and peaceful means, but it didn’t have much effect to the political and social standing of blacks. The discrimination of blacks continued right into the 20th century, even up into the 21st century. It was slow going for the blacks’ right to equality, but actions by both blacks and whites ch anged things for the better. However, in 1945, blacks were not considered as equal, but as 3/5s of a human being. Bibliography: (1) http://www.alternativeinsight.com/Reparations-Slavery.html Field, Ron; â€Å"Civil Rights in America 1865-1980†; Cambridge University Press http://www.lawbuzz.com/can_you/plessy/plessy.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Deal