Courage in To Kill a Mockingbird Essay Example for Free

Courage in To Kill a Mockingbird Essay Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees all others, (Winston Churchill). There are several different ways t be courageous. Harper Lee, in her 1960 novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, uses courage as a main theme. Harper Lee demonstrates that if one can tell the truth, change or remain rooted in their morals, they are a minority among people who lack the ability to do so. In To Kill a Mockingbird there are different characters that show it takes a certain amount of courage to tell the truth. When Dolphus Raymond said, You little folk wont tell on me now, will you? Itd ruin my reputation if you did, (Lee 227) after he showed the kids that is was Coke in his paper and not alcohol. It was to make the children feel better about the trial. He had the courage to tell the kids the truth, right when there was a whole lot of lying going on in the courtroom, and risked them spreading his story. Another great example is that Tom Robinson, during his trial, had the courage to tell the truth about why he regularly helped Mayella. When Mr. Gilmer asked Tom why he was so obliged to do Mayellas chores for free, Tom ruined any chance he had of winning the case by answering, I felt right sorry for her, she seemed to try moren the rest of em, (224). Back in the 1930s in the southern hills of Maycomb County, Alabama, where this story takes place, how dare a black man feel sorry for a white woman. The white citizens of the south believed that blacks were the lowest of the low. Lower than trailer trash, like the Ewells. What Tom said contradicted the mindset of the time and he died because of it. Not many characters have the strength to tell the truth, however some do and the make a world of change. Harper Lee, in To Kill a Mockingbird, shows the readers that having the ability to change is quite significant. Not everyone can, and change can take your life, shake it a bit and when its put back down you dont know if it is for better or for worse. Scout always used to get into fights. One day, Atticus asked Scout to stop fighting. Scout loves her father very much and doesnt want to disappoint him so she listened, no matter how much she got chided for it. When I committed myself to a policy of cowardice. Word got around that Scout Finch wouldnt fight anymore, her daddy wouldnt let her, (92). It was courageous of her to change because fighting was a big part of her life and her peers were sure to tease her. Another character that exemplifies the courage to change is Mrs. Dubose. She was addicted to morphine but had the courage to change for the final hours of her life, even though she knew she would die soon no matter what. I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. Courage is when you know youre licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what, (128). Mrs. Dubose had the courage to change and died content with herself. Its clear that you need to be courageous to change because not many characters change in this story. Maycomb was born in ignorance and Maycomb continued to live in ignorance. The most courageous acts in To Kill a Mockingbird occur when a character is alone in their morals and remain rooted in those morals no matter what. Atticus is a perfect example of someone sticking to their guns. The reason that he gives his children as to why he is defending the black man, Tom Robinson is, Before I can live with other folks, Ive got to live with myself, (120). A different example is at the end of the book, when Boo Radley kills Bob Ewell. Sherriff Tate sticks to his morals by reporting that Mr. Ewell fell on his knife. Sherriff Tate told Atticus that if Boo was charged with murder, the attention he would receive from the towns women would kill Boo. Another example of a character being steadfast in their morals is when Calpurnia, knowing that everyone is equal, takes Jem and Scout to the black peoples church. Some of the black folks werent very welcoming to the kids because they were white. Lula stopped, but she said, You aint got no business bringin white chillun here-they got their church, we got ourn. It is our church aint it Miss Cal? Calpurnia said, Its the same God aint it? (136). These characters truly are minorities. That is when they shine and are model citizens of Maycomb County. Seems like being alone, fighting for what they believe in, makes them stronger. In To Kill a Mockingbird, it is the characters that have the courage to stand out against racism and break the status quo of Maycomb County that are a minority among the characters that dont. Courage is one of the biggest themes in To Kill a Mockingbird and only a special few are able to possess it. As Reggie White said, God places the heaviest burden on those who can carry its weight.

Changing Nature Of The Psychological Contract Management Essay

Changing Nature Of The Psychological Contract Management Essay The mutual expectations people have from one another in a relationship of employer employees are commonly referred to as a psychological contract. The content of these contracts can be changed over time and can affect the behavior of the two. The origins of these psychological contracts go beyond thousands of years back. Amidah (1998) was one of the initial writers who used the term psychological contract as the mutual understanding between employees and their employers. The psychological contract between employers and employees related to job security has been facing changes due to the economic down grading. The increasing rates of short term and contractual employment have forced employees to seek self actualization sort of psychological contracts. The changing nature of psychological contracts of generation Y has certain implications on organizations which have always been interested in having workforce committed to the organizational goals and objectives. According to recent literature, psychological contract is an individuals beliefs necessary to perform commitment that may exist between the employee and the organization (Lester, Turnleyet.al. 2002). Individuals perception and expectations from the organization in terms of receiving benefits, wages and opportunities against the services provided to the organization by the employee used to form the foundation of any psychological contract (Lester, Turnley et.al. 2002). The inherent perceptual nature of the psychological contract between employers and employees may have contrasting implication about obligations of the contract (Lester and Kickul, 2001). Nowadays companies are more focused on the achievement of corporate goals and profit margins while noticing stock market prices because of the competitive business environment all around the world (De Meuse, Bergmann et. Al., 2001). This is because of the fact that the world has seen the problem of corporate downsizing, restructuring and mergers since 1980s and 1990s (De Meuse, Bergmann et. al 2001). This current scenario of doing business has absolutely changed the nature of employee and employer contract and the demand of this relationship. In the past, these psychological contracts were of long term where employees were committed with an organization where they continued to learn as well as they got high job ranking but now the psychology of the contract has seen changing nature because of the availability of short term employment with upscale designation for technical and professionals workers (Smithson and Lewis, 2000, Lester and Kickul, 2001). Hiring of high skilled professional(s) for a specific task completion is one of the emerging trends in the business community (Lester and Kickul, 2001) and consequent termination of the staff with the attainment of work objectives. This phenomena has made the modern workplace a source of stress and extra work load and job insecurity and decreased commitment to organizational goals and objectives in return (De Meuse, Bergmann et. al). The need of personal growth, development of transferable skills, networking opportunities and career management for immediate job has been gaining potential among professionals due to the current scenarios of job insecurity (De Meuse, Bergmann et.al., 2001, Lester and Kickul, 2001). The changing environment of employment has considered another driver of the change in nature of psychological contracts of generation Y. The previous employees to employer psychological contracts were relational in nature and their specific features were trust, respect and loyalty between the employee and the employer, but, this new insecure job environment has randomly changed the nature of the psychological contract from relational to transactional nature. This transactional exchange has been defined by De Meuse and Begmann et.al (2001) as an explicit or an implicit promise having the capacity of maintaining information about monetary remuneration available to employee against his services to the organization. This periodical change in nature of the psychological contract was predicted by Rousseau and Parks in a research conducted during 1993 with an explanation of change in the nature of contract from relational to transactional in case of occurrence of any violation of the contract. However, it is important to maintain the equilibrium of trust between the employee and the employer either in relational psychological contract or in transactional psychological contract, but, in the present situation of job insecurity it is hard to have any trust on the employer or employee. Therefore, the lack of job security has brought the concentration of employees to acquire transferable skills and techniques and contracts of transactional type (De Meuse, Bergmann et al). Impacts of the changing nature of the psychological contract of generation Y on organizations With the emergence of new markets, competitors and technologies have been increasingly changing the behavior of organizations towards the hiring of skilled and well trained employees at every level of the organization (Lester and Kickul, 2001). Businesses of today are only selecting skillful employees for short term periods to make their projects accomplished by utilizing the skills and expertise of professionals (Lester and Kickul, 2001). It is because of the use of new technologies in business processes and to get a competitive edge in the market. To achieve this desired level, organizations have to keep track of professionals and motivated and committed workforce to efficiently achieve their goals. It has been studied that the changing nature of psychological contracts is because of the reducing commitment of employees due to job insecurity and enhanced competition faced by todays employers (Bunderson 2001, Lester and Kickul, 2001). However, high level of commitment and satisfaction is enjoyed by employees who have long term psychological contract as per studies conducted during 1998. There are certain measures that should be taken by the organization to retain and motivate their employees even on the presence of economic pressure and new organizational structure (Lester and Kickul, 2001). The level can be achieved by just understanding the elements of psychological contracts as well as the fact that it is an evolving and continually changing contract and organizations have the right of making a choice regarding an employee to get committed and motivated workforce and employment. According to Maslows hierarchy theory, the highest need for humans is self-actualization. Lester and Kickul (2001) states that today  employees are  becoming increasingly aware of the non-monetary rewards which the firms are willing to provide  in exchange for their skills. It entails that employees have now reached at a certain point in time; where theyre able to seek out the self-actualization. Self-esteem or self actualization is the highest need of humans as stated by Maslows hierarchy theory. Employees are increasingly getting awareness of the behavior of organizations of giving non-monetary rewards to employees against the skills of professionals and technical persons (Lester, Kickul, 2001). This is the time when it can be suggested that employees are gradually heeding towards the state of self actualization. Stalker (2000) stated that successful companies of the day are keeping balance between the needs of the employee and the needs of the organization. To achieve this, companies are needed to maintain a balance between their efforts and time investment. Managers are responsible to achieve this balance while keeping the workforce committed and motivated (Lester, Turnleyet, al., 2002). It is a fact that nowadays job insecurity has made psychological contracts a dynamic and evolving one and can be handled by the organization by just understanding the causes of changes and timely changes in the contract according to the needs and demand of the sources (Lester and Kickul, 2001). Lester and Kickul (2001) shows that a  proactive approach to the psychological contracts can reduce employees intentions to leave since their needs can be fulfilled by the organization. The other step that can be an effective support to minimize the gap of the psychological contract is communication. Better and timely communication between the contracting bodies can reduce the conflict and can reduce the gap of psychological contracts (Lester and Kickul, 2001). Open book management techniques are an effective communication tool between the organization and employees and help in the formation of an effective communication frameworkfor the organizations. Successful organizations are required to startworking on the psychological contract before the hiring of the employee. The organizations publications, interview processes, contract negotiation and orientation processes are some of the ways that can help organizations to make better changes in the psychological contract and keep it up to date (Niehoff and Paul 2001). Organizations literature and publications create the first impression of all the values espoused by the employers.  The interview process then helps in establishing the image of the organization for potential employees (Niehoff, Paul, 2001), while promoting expectations  ranging from the tangibles  such as pay and benefits,  to the intangibles such as  treatment of employees or degree of empowerment etc (Niehoff, Paul, 2001). As suggested by Niehoff and Paul (2001), by  providing Realistic Job Previews like Cisco Systems  (Lester and Kickul, 2001), candidates can be given a realistic and clear view of the actual expectations of the work hours, duties and performance levels  (Niehoff and Paul, 2001).  The negotiation process (after an offer is made to a candidate)  provides a further  opportunity to clarify the specific details regarding the expectations of both parties  (Niehoff, Paul, 2001). Finally, the orientation program gives an opportunity to re-enforce the psychological contract which has been formed. Once all of these are in line with each other and also in line with the companys expectations, the company can form a contract that is expected to be clearly understood by both parties and has less chances of being breached. Conclusion Changed psychological contract is the demand of the modern economic environment. It is the demand of both the organization and employees. The psychological contracts of generation Y are more transactional and related to self actualization. This change in the nature of the contract has been considered by the management of an organization and employees with the increasing demand of giving more time and effort in the formation of the psychological contract acceptable to the organization and employees. As it has been seen that psychological contracts are formed on the basis of trust, but it can be strengthened by the two following factors: Internal factors External factors Internal factors can be the individuals perception that can be the outcome of his or her cultural behavior, but external factors include situations that how organizations are shaping their policies in the interest of employees and how much they are acknowledging the perceived obligations according to the formal contract of employment with those professionals or skilled technicians. These measures can be used to determine the commitment of employees to the organizational goals and objectives and any violations can lead to the job satisfaction depletions actions. However, the choice to be in the employment contract can be up to individual employee. The long lasting employer to employee relationship can only be possible if there is a strong build up credibility between employer and employee. This credibility can give the contract more and more reliance and can be effective to build up a long lasting relationship. Psychological contract will remain strong till the time they remain in fa vor of the employees orientation towards life and can be the source of strong commitment of individuals to be or not to be part of an organization. But with the change and any amendments in organizational structure, strategy and the job role, the individual can shift to new works and job roles and this new work role can be the source of better return on relationship (ROR) than on return on investment (ROI). Strong and reliable psychological contract can provide the organization with a healthy and fruitful relationship between the employee and employer that would be helpful in the sustainability of the organization. Whatsoever it can be better concluded in a way that the changing nature of the psychological contract of generation Y is only the result of changing nature of job environment and increasing insecurity to jobs, therefore, employees have transformed their interest from signing relational contract to transactional contract. This transformation of contract nature has caused t he organization to bear the loss of committed and loyal workforce for a long period of time on one hand while getting the benefit of having highly skilled professionals for the completion of their project within a short period of time.

Mary Shelleys Frankenstein :: essays research papers

BIRTH AND CREATION: One of the main issues in the novel, and also in Victor Frankenstein's mind. One of the reasons for creating his monster, Frankenstein was challenging nature's law of creation. That is, to create a being, male sperm and female egg must be united etc.. He was also fraught with the mystery of death and the life cycle. He created something in defiance of our understanding of birth and creation. However the similarity of Frankenstein's creation and a baby's creation is that both need to be held responsible for, and consequences dealt with, from the moment of birth. Frankenstein failed to do this with his creation. ?Whence did the principle of life proceed ?To examine the causes of life, we must first have recourse to death? ?I had worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body? ALIENATION: Alienation is spoken of frequently throughout the novel. Felt by both Frankenstein and his creation. The monster is deserted by the very person who brought him into the world, thus leaving him completely and totally isolated. Frankenstein feels alienated, because he is burdened with the secret that he has let loose a monster on society and is the real reason for his loved ones deaths. He alienates himself because of his feelings of guilt, shame and hatred of himself for committing such a sin. The monster only realises his feelings of alienation after observing the cottagers for such a long time, comparing their lives to his own, extending his knowledge and then finally setting himself up for rejection when going in to the cottage, believing that they will accept him. Both eventually deal with their alienation by blaming the other and setting out to get revenge. ?All save I, were at rest or in enjoyment?, Monster (138) ?My protectors had departed, and had broken the only link that held me with the world?, Monster (140) ?I, the miserable, and the abandoned, am an abortion, to be spurned at, kicked, and trampled on.? Monster (224) ?Noone can conceive the anguish I suffered?. Frankenstein (78) ?I shunned the face of man?, Frankenstein (93) ?I feel as if I was walking on the edge of a precipice, towards which thousands are crowding, endeavouring to plunge me into the abyss?. Frankenstein (96) THE MONSTROUS AND THE HUMAN: The only difference between the monster in this novel, and humans, is the appearance, although it is a great difference there are greater similarities; brain, way of thinking, emotions etc.

Terrorism and Subcultural Theory of Crime :: essays research papers

The horror of domestic terrorism is a problem all Americans should be concerned with, especially since there is a violent subculture in this nation which seeks out and indoctrinates people into their way of life. The crime that I will be focusing on during the course of this paper will be domestic terrorism, specifically hate groups such as the KKK, and various other white supremacy groups. The theory that I will be using to try and explain these crimes will be subcultural theory, but more especially the Subculture of Violence theory provided to us by Marvin Wolfgang and Franco Ferracutti. The reason I will be using his specific subcultural theory is because I feel that it bests describes how the people in these situations are desensitized to the evils they do and then begin to believe that the acts and beliefs are normal, or superior to all other views.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The issue of domestic terrorism has been a fairly recent phenomenon. With little attention given until such acts as the Oklahoma City Bombing and the Unabomber made national headlines. It is because of this that there has been little research done on the area and most of the research there is focuses on the hate groups associated with the acts of violence. A strong force in the domestic terrorist movement is the fervent anti-government stance that these groups internalize. As Mark Hamm wrote in 1997, â€Å"I used the term apocalyptic violence to depict not only the astounding carnage witnessed on that day, but also to describe the anti-government counter-culture to which Timothy McVeigh and his accomplices belonged. In this statement he is referring to the assault on the Branch Davidian complex in Waco, TX. It is believed by many that this is the act which pushed McVeigh to bomb the federal building in Oklahoma City. Hamm went on further to argue, â€Å"The fede ral government had created an apocalyptic subculture in the hinterlands of the USA. And that it had done so through its ruthless use-of-force at Waco.†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  It is the belief of these groups, most specifically the white supremacy groups that the government is corrupt and run by inferior people, anyone not Anglo-Saxon white, and the country needs to be cleansed. The issue of hate groups has been plaguing this country for many decades but only in recent years have they begun to organize to the tune of committing massive acts of violence and terror.

Anne Frank :: essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Anne Frank was a Jewish girl who lived in Amsterdam during the time of the Holocaust. Her life is pretty normal. Her father is a successful buisness man, she has good grades, has a caring family, and is kinda popular. The problem is is that she does not have a real friend. Besides her cat, that she loves to death. Of course she has the girls that she hangs out with, but they don't confide in eachother. Therefor, she doesn't consider them her real friends. Then on her 13th birthday she recieves a diary in which she puts her thoughts into or confides in. She now calls this her friend. She even gives it a name. It is named Kitty.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Then she meats this 16 year old boy who calls himself Hello. They start to become close and tell eachother things. When all of a sudden her older sister Margot recieves a call-up by the German officers. Her family does not want her sent to a concentration camp, so they are forced into hiding. They run to her fathers office with the help of Miep and some other people that work for her father. The office is a three storie building, but the bottom floor is the only floor that is really used. Leaving the other 2 floors supposively for storrage. The Franks take the 2nd floor and they're friends, the van Daan's, have the 3rd floor. The van Daan's consist of Mr. van Daan, Mrs. van Daan, and Peter; their 16 year old son. Both families hardly get along with eachother and find eachother in quarrels quite often. Mrs. van Daan and Mrs. Frank do not get along. Anne and Mrs. van Daan do not get along. Also Anne and Margot are not the best of friends at times. And Peter is a whinner so he does not get along with hardly anyone. Anne feels that her father is the only one that understands her at all, and this really upsets her mother.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  So the neighbors do not notice that they are there, they have to have dark cloth over the windows at all times, and can not even look outside. They can not have lights on at sertain times of the day, and most of all, they can not make noises exspeacilally at night.

B Midterm

Consumers Perspective From a consumers perspective, we are always looking for ways to present ourselves favorably to the public -? whether we do it consciously or unconsciously. Some consumers want to be perceived as the â€Å"Geeky Gadget', always on the rise to own the top notch smartness (need for uniqueness, P. 161). This is also a good example of how this consumer engages in impression management, P. 122, to positively maintain his or her public Image. The way a person seeks to pursue their ideal self may play an important role n driving this change.For example, a person who dollies Steve Job's innovative and creative character may want to become innovative by associating him/herself with Apple products (ideal self, P. 122). A different example in how an individual's perception about owning the latest or newest phone is through their extended self. For example, an interesting study conducted by Google indicated how â€Å"people are using mobile to change all aspects of their l ife† (Michael Oliver, 2013). Furthermore, most smartened users cherish their phones so much that it comes their identity (extended self, P. 28). Company's Perspective In contrast, from a company's perspective, an organization's culture can shape their approach based on their core values and beliefs. For instance, a company that emphasizes the values of innovation, learning, and creativity can influence their employees' behaviors to become innovative and creative in making new products (values, P. 174). 2. Temporary Situation on Consumer Behavior People's decisions to live frugally depend on a variety of factors including their motivation, lifestyle, and timing.Motivation Conflict One reason people may be cutting back on spending is due to motivational conflict. For example, I purchased a Samsung Galaxy SO because believe it satisfied all my needs. On the other hand, however, I had to suffer the consequences of paying an expensive fee (approach-avoidance conflict, P. 99). Since I have invested in something expensive that I believe will last me a long time, I am not willing to spend money or time looking for another smartened.Hierarchy of Needs People can also be cutting back depending on where they currently stand on the levels of their needs. Consumers who have satisfied their lower-level needs and want to fulfill their upper needs may be willing to consume more to get there. On the other hand, if consumers feel that their lower level needs haven't been met, they will remain in that level until they no longer feel dissatisfied. For example, a student who is struggling to pay rent may not be likely to spend money for a smartened to feel connected with her peers.Once she has earned enough money from her part-time job to pay off all her rent and has fulfilled her need of safety, she may move on to satisfy her need for belongingness. Lifestyle Another reason why consumers are not willing to spend is because of their lifestyle. A person's social class should be understood as it plays a huge role in influencing what type and quantity consumers buy (Boundless, n. D. ). Consumers in the upper class have a higher level of disposable income, and therefore, are willing to spend more on luxury good items than those with less disposable income. 3.Multi-attribute Model: Smartened Decisions Attribute (I) Importance (l) Beliefs (B) phone 6 as unsung Galaxy AS BlackBerry Passport Fast Processor 5 4 Large Built-in Storage High Camera Quality 3 Eng Battery Life Easy Navigation Attitude Score 65 72 69 53 The five attributes that are most important for me in terms of deciding what smartened to purchase encompasses the processor speed, large built-in storage, high quality camera, long battery life, and finally, the ease of navigation. L When assessing a phone's attributes, did some research and read over some product reviews and recommendations based on consumption communities, p. . I also took into consideration my positive and negative experiences In using a smartened. For example, the fast receptors and long battery life attributes display the highest weight of importance because value the performance of a phone in terms of its speed and ability to last a long time. Having to charge a phone two to three times a day was painfully inconvenient, and therefore developed a negative attitude towards the performance of that phone (utilitarian function, P. 187). Regarding the table above, Samsung Galaxy SO ranked the highest with an overall attitude score of 72.As I did more internal and external research on each smartened (cognition), I valued a lot of the attributes Samsung Galaxy ad offered (affect) causing me to purchase the product (high involvement hierarchy, P. 189). In addition, my attitude object towards Samsung products has developed over time, establishing a strong brand loyalty (internalizing, level of commitment, p. 293). Also hold a strong favoritism towards the Samsung brand, which enforces me to buy their products regar dless of what price it is (brand equity, P. 163). 4.Improving the image of the BlackBerry Passport to University-aged Students The lowest ranked phone under the multi-attribute model is the BlackBerry Passport with an overall attitude score of 53. But how can marketers improve the image of this phone to attract university-aged students? Capitalizing on Relevant Advantage Blackberry's Passport smartened ranked relatively high with a score of 4 on both fast processor and large built-in storage. Since the attribute built-in Storage perceives low importance, marketers can emphasize the convenience of having enough storage as if you were to bring a mini-laptop.Laptops have huge storage, and if consumers perceive that the BlackBerry phone holds a sufficiently large storage component, it can reinforce the presence of the hone. Strengthen Perceived Product-attribute Link Although BlackBerry's ease of navigation ranked low importance, marketers can alter a consumers attitude towards this att ribute so that they are appropriately educated on how to navigate the device. For example, doing tutorial videos allow for better understanding on how to use the smartened.Add a New Attribute Since many university students value the element of convenience, Blackberry can add a feature where instead of paying for a purchase through a credit or debit card, users can pay through their phone. Furthermore, BlackBerry can also capitalize on is their physical keyboard. This can be a huge factor in leveraging consumer preferences on being able to physically touch buttons. Influence Competitors' Ratings It is really crucial for marketers to consider maintaining an ongoing bond or relationship with their consumers as this is one of the factors of keeping them motivated to stay loyal.This is mostly the hardest thing to do as it is very complicated to persuade loyal consumers of a competitor to switch to BlackBerry. Keeping this in mind, BlackBerry can establish a reputation for being the most organized smartened. For example, they can advertise how they sponsor many student clubs and companies to keep teams organized and connected. 5. Changing Consumer Behavior through Instrumental Conditioning Apple can change consumer behavior towards illegal music downloads through instrumental conditioning in many ways using positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement.Variable-interval Reinforcement Variable-interval reinforcement is a great way to counteract illegal downloading of music. For every music download a consumer purchases, Apple can reward them with a PIP exclusive pass to a concert of their top unload music artist. For example, if a consumer consistently downloaded One Republic's music, tunes can notify them that One Republic is having an upcoming concert in their nearby location and reward them with the exclusive PIP tickets along with a friend. This is also a good example of frequency marketing, P. 2. A Combination of Positive and Negative Reinforcement Another p ossible alternative Apple can do is use negative reinforcement as a way to reduce the behavior of downloading illegal music. Apple can create a built-in program within tunes that allows them to analyses which source the USIA came from and guilt the consumer by publicizing it on their tunes library (guilt, P. 114). In addition, they can also limit the storage of songs a consumer can input in their library based on the number Of different sources the music came from.

Fluke, or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings Chapter 1~2

For Jim Darling, Flip Nicklin, and Meagan Jones: extraordinary people who do extraordinary work Fluke (flook) 1. A stroke of good luck 2. A chance occurrence; an accident 3. A barb or barbed head, as on a harpoon 4. Either of the two horizontally flattened divisions of the tail of a whale PART ONE The Song An ocean without its unnamed monsters would be like a completely dreamless sleep. – JOHN STEINBECK The scientific method is nothing more than a system of rules to keep us from lying to each other. – KEN NORRIS CHAPTER ONE Big and Wet Next Question? Amy called the whale punkin. He was fifty feet long, wider than a city bus, and weighed eighty thousand pounds. One well-placed slap of his great tail would reduce the boat to fiberglass splinters and its occupants to red stains drifting in the blue Hawaiian waters. Amy leaned over the side of the boat and lowered the hydrophone down on the whale. â€Å"Good morning, punkin,† she said. Nathan Quinn shook his head and tried not to upchuck from the cuteness of it, of her, while surreptitiously sneaking a look at her bottom and feeling a little sleazy about it. Science can be complex. Nate was a scientist. Amy was a scientist, too, but she looked fantastic in a pair of khaki hiking shorts, scientifically speaking. Below, the whale sang on, the boat vibrated with each note. The stainless rail at the bow began to buzz. Nate could feel the deeper notes resonate in his rib cage. The whale was into a section of the song they called the  «green » themes, a long series of whoops that sounded like an ambulance driving through pudding. A less trained listener might have thought that the whale was rejoicing, celebrating, shouting howdy to the world to let everyone and everything know that he was alive and feeling good, but Nate was a trained listener, perhaps the most trained listener in the world, and to his expert ears the whale was saying – Well, he had no idea what in the hell the whale was saying, did he? That's why they were out there floating in that sapphire channel off Maui in a small speedboat, sloshing their breakfasts around at seven in the morning: No one knew why the humpbacks sang. Nate had been listening to them, observing them, photographing them, and poking them with stick s for twenty-five years, and he still had no idea why, exactly, they sang. â€Å"He's into his ribbits,† Amy said, identifying a section of the whale's song that usually came right before the animal was about to surface. The scientific term for this noise was  «ribbits » because that's what they sounded like. Science can be simple. Nate peeked over the side and looked at the whale that was suspended head down in the water about fifty feet below them. His flukes and pectoral fins were white and described a crystal-blue chevron in the deep blue water. So still was the great beast that he might have been floating in space, the last beacon of some long-dead space-traveling race – except that he was making croaky noises that would have sounded more appropriate coming out of a two-inch tree frog than the archaic remnant of a superrace. Nate smiled. He liked ribbits. The whale flicked his tail once and shot out of Nate's field of vision. â€Å"He's coming up,† Nate said. Amy tore off her headphones and picked up the motorized Nikon with the three-hundred-millimeter lens. Nate quickly pulled up the hydrophone, allowing the wet cord to spool into a coil at his feet, then turned to the console and started the engine. Then they waited. There was a blast of air from behind them and they both spun around to see the column of water vapor hanging in the air, but it was far, perhaps three hundred meters behind them – too far away to be their whale. That was the problem with the channel between Maui and Lanai where they worked: There were so many whales that you often had a hard time distinguishing the one you were studying from the hundreds of others. The abundance of animals was a both a blessing and a curse. â€Å"That our guy?† Amy asked. All the singers were guys. As far as they knew anyway. The DNA tests had proven that. â€Å"Nope.† There was another blow to their left, this one much closer. Nate could see the white flukes or blades of his tail under the water, even from a hundred meters away. Amy hit the stop button on her watch. Nate pushed the throttle forward and they were off. Amy braced a knee against the console to steady herself, keeping the camera pointed toward the whale as the boat bounced along. He would blow three, maybe four times, then fluke and dive. Amy had to be ready when the whale dove to get a clear shot of his flukes so he could be identified and cataloged. When they were within thirty yards of the whale, Nate backed the throttle down and held them in position. The whale blew again, and they were close enough to catch some of the mist. There was none of the dead fish and massive morning-mouth smell that they would have encountered in Alaska. Humpbacks didn't feed while they were in Hawaii. The whale fluked and Amy fired off two quick frames with the Nikon. â€Å"Good boy,† Amy said to the whale. She hit the lap timer button on her watch. Nate cut the engine and the speedboat settled into the gentle swell. He threw the hydrophone overboard, then hit the record button on the recorder that was bungee-corded to the console. Amy set the camera on the seat in front of the console, then snatched their notebook out of a waterproof pouch. â€Å"He's right on sixteen minutes,† Amy said, checking the time and recording it in the notebook. She wrote the time and the frame numbers of the film she had just shot. Nate read her the footage number off the recorder, then the longitude and latitude from the portable GPS (global positioning system) device. She put down the notebook, and they listened. They weren't right on top of the whale as they had been before, but they could hear him singing through the recorder's speaker. Nate put on the headphones and sat back to listen. That's how field research was. Moments of frantic activity followed by long periods of waiting. (Nate's first ex-wife had once commented that their sex life could be described in exactly the same way, but that was after they had separated, and she was just being snotty.) Actually, the wait here in Maui wasn't bad – ten, fifteen minutes at a throw. When he'd been studying right whales in the North Atlantic, Nate had sometimes waited weeks before he found a whale to study. Usually he liked to use the downtime (literally, the time the whale was down) to think about how he should've gotten a real job, one where you made real money and had weekends off, or at least gotten into a branch of the field where the results of his work were more palpable, like sinking whaling ships – a pirate. You know, security. Today Nate was actively trying not to watch Amy put on sunscreen. Amy was a snowflake in the land of the tanned. Most whale researchers spent a great deal of time outdoors, at sea. They were, for the most part, an intrepid, outdoorsy bunch who wore wind- and sunburn like battle scars, and there were few who didn't sport a semipermanent sunglasses raccoon tan and sun-bleached hair or a scaly bald spot. Amy, on the other hand, had milk-white skin and straight, short black hair so dark that the highlights appeared blue in the Hawaiian sun. She was wearing maroon lipstick, which was so wildly inappropriate and out of character for this setting that it approached the comical and made her seem like the goth geek of the Pacific, which was, in fact, one of the reasons her presence so disturbed Nate. (He reasoned: A well-formed bottom hanging in space is just a well-formed bottom, but you hook up a well-formed bottom to a whip-smart woman and apply a dash of the awkward and what you've got yo urself is†¦ well, trouble.) Nate did not watch her rub the SPF50 on her legs, over her ankles and feet. He did not watch her strip to her bikini top and apply the sunscreen over her chest and shoulders. (Tropical sun can fry you even through a shirt.) Nate especially did not notice when she grabbed his hand, squirted lotion into it, then turned, indicating that he should apply it to her back, which he did – not noticing anything about her in the process. Professional courtesy. He was working. He was a scientist. He was listening to the song of Megaptera novaeangliae (â€Å"big wings of New England,† a scientist had named the whale, thus proving that scientists drink), and he was not intrigued by her intriguing bottom because he had encountered and analyzed similar data in the past. According to Nate's analysis, research assistants with intriguing bottoms turned into wives 66.666 percent of the time, and wives turned into ex-wives exactly 100 percent of the time – plus or minus 5 percent factored for post-divorce comfort sex.) â€Å"Want me to do you?† Amy asked, holding out her preferred sunscreen-slathering hand. You just don't go there, thought Nate, not even in a joke. One incorrect response to a line like that and you could lose your university position, if you had one, which Nate didn't, but still†¦ You don't even think about it. â€Å"No thanks, this shirt has UV protection woven in,† he said, thinking about what it would be like to have Amy do him. Amy looked suspiciously at his faded WE LIKE WHALES CONFERENCE 89 T-shirt and wiped the remaining sunscreen on her leg. † ‘Kay,† she said. â€Å"You know, I sure wish I could figure out why these guys sing,† Nate said, the hummingbird of his mind having tasted all the flowers in the garden to return to that one plastic daisy that would just not give up the nectar. â€Å"No kidding?† Amy said, deadpan, smiling. â€Å"But if you figure it out, what would we do tomorrow?† â€Å"Show off,† Nate said, grinning. â€Å"I'd be typing all day, analyzing research, matching photographs, filing song tapes –  » â€Å"Bringing us doughnuts,† Nate added, trying to help. Amy continued, counting down the list on her fingers, â€Å"- picking up blank tapes, washing down the trucks and the boats, running to the photo lab – ; â€Å"Not so fast,† Nate interrupted. â€Å"What, you're going to deprive me the joy of running to the photo lab while you bask in scientific glory?† â€Å"No, you can still go to the photo lab, but Clay hired a guy to wash the trucks and boats.† A delicate hand went to her forehead as she swooned, the southern belle in hiking shorts, taken with the vapors. â€Å"If I faint and fall overboard, don't let me drown.† â€Å"You know, Amy,† Nate said as he undressed the crossbow, â€Å"I don't know how it was at Boston doing survey, but in behavior, research assistants are only supposed to bitch about the humiliating grunt work and lowly status to other research assistants. It was that way when I was doing it, it was that way going back centuries, it has always been that way. Darwin himself had someone on the Beagle to file dead birds and sort index cards.† â€Å"He did not. I've never read anything about that.† â€Å"Of course you didn't. Nobody writes about research assistants.† Nate grinned again, celebration for a small victory. He realized he wasn't working up to standards on managing this research assistant. His partner, Clay, had hired her almost two weeks ago, and by now he should have had her terrorized. Instead she was working him like a Starbucks froth slave. â€Å"Ten minutes,† Amy said, checking the timer on her watch. â€Å"You going to shoot him?† â€Å"Unless you want to?† Nate notched the arrow into the crossbow. He tucked the windbreaker they used to  «dress » the crossbow under the console. It was very politically incorrect to carry a weapon for shooting whales through the crowded Lahaina harbor, so they carried it inside the windbreaker, making it appear that they had a jacket on a hanger. Amy shook her head violently. â€Å"I'll drive the boat.† â€Å"You should learn to do it.† â€Å"I'll drive the boat,† Amy said. â€Å"No one drives the boat.† No one but Nate drove the boat. Granted, the Constantly Baffled was only a twenty-three-foot Mako speedboat, and an agile four-year-old could pilot it on a calm day like today. Still, no one else drove the boat. It was a man thing, being inherently uncomfortable with the thought of a woman operating a boat or a television remote control. â€Å"Up sounds,† Nate said. They had a recording of the full sixteen-minute cycle of the song now – all the way through twice, in fact. He stopped the recorder and pulled up the hydrophone, then started the engine. â€Å"There,† Amy said, pointing to the white fins and flukes moving under the water. The whale blew only twenty yards off the bow. Nate buried the throttle. Amy was wrenched off her feet and just caught herself on the railing next to the wheel console as the boat shot forward. Nate pulled up on the right side of the whale, no more than ten yards away as the whale came up for the second time. He steadied the wheel with his hip, pulled up the crossbow, and fired. The bolt bounced off the whale's rubbery back, the hollow surgical steel arrowhead taking out a cookie-cutter plug of skin and blubber the size of a pencil eraser before the wide plastic tip stopped the penetration. The whale lifted his tail out of the water and snapped it in the air, making a sound like a giant knuckle cracking as the massive tail muscles contracted. â€Å"He's pissed,† Nate said. â€Å"Let's go for a measurement.† â€Å"Now?† Amy questioned. Normally they would wait for another dive cycle. Obviously Nate thought that because of their taking the skin sample the whale might start traveling. They could lose him before getting a measurement. â€Å"Now. I'll shoot, you work the rangefinder.† Nate backed off the throttle a bit, so he would be able to catch the entire tail fluke in the camera frame when the whale dove. Amy grabbed the laser rangefinder, which looked very much like a pair of binoculars made for a cyclops. By taking a distance measurement from the animal's tail with the rangefinder and comparing the size of the tail in the frame of the picture, they could measure the relative size of the entire animal. Nate had come up with an algorithm that, so far, gave them the length of a whale with 98 percent accuracy. Just a few years ago they would've had to have been in an aircraft to measure the length of a whale. â€Å"Ready,† Amy said. The whale blew and arched its back into a high hump as he readied for the dive (the reason whalers had named them humpbacks in the first place). Amy fixed the rangefinder on the whale's back; Nate trained the camera's telephoto on the same spot, and the autofocus motors made tiny adjustments with the movement of the boat. The whale fluked, raising its tail high in the air, and there, instead of the distinct pattern of black-and-white markings by which all humpbacks were identified, were – spelled out in foot-high black letters across the white – the words BITE ME! Nate hit the shutter button. Shocked, he fell into the captain's chair, pulling back the throttle as he slumped. He let the Nikon sag in his lap. â€Å"Holy shit!† Nate said. â€Å"Did you see that?† â€Å"See what? I got seventy-three feet,† Amy said, pulling down the rangefinder. â€Å"Probably seventy-six from where you are. What were your frame numbers?† She was reaching for the notebook as she looked back at Nate. â€Å"Are you okay?† â€Å"Fine. Frame twenty-six, but I missed it,† he lied. His mind was shuffling though a huge stack of index cards, searching a million article abstracts he had read to find some explanation for what he'd just seen. It couldn't possibly have been real. The film would show it. â€Å"You didn't see any unusual markings when you did the ID photo?† â€Å"No, did you?† â€Å"No, never mind.† â€Å"Don't sweat it, Nate. We'll get it next time he comes up,† Amy said. â€Å"Let's go in.† â€Å"You don't want to try again for a measurement?† To make the data sample complete, they needed an ID photo, a recording of at least a full cycle of the song, a skin sample for DNA and toxin figures, and a measurement. The morning was wasted without the measurement. â€Å"Let's go back to Lahaina,† Nate said, staring down at the camera in his lap. â€Å"You drive.† CHAPTER TWO Maui No Ka Oi (Maui Is the Best) At first it was that old trickster Maui who cast his fishing line from his canoe and pulled the islands up from the bottom of the sea. When he was done fishing, he looked at those islands he had pulled up, and smack in the middle of the chain was one that was made up of two big volcanoes, sitting there together like the friendly, lopsided bosoms of the sea. Between them was a deep valley that Maui thought looked very much like cleavage, which he very much liked. And so, to that bumpy-bits island Maui gave his name, and its nickname became â€Å"The Cleavage Island,† which it stayed until some missionaries came along and renamed it â€Å"The Valley Island† (because if there's anything missionaries do well, it's seek out and destroy fun). Then Maui landed his canoe at a calm little beach on the west coast of his new island and said to himself, â€Å"I could do with a few cocktails and some nookie. I shall go into Lahaina and get some.† Well, time passed and some whalers came to the island, bringing steel tools and syphilis and other wonders from the West, and before anyone knew what was happening, they, too, were thinking that they wouldn't mind a few cocktails and a measure of nookie. So rather than sail back around the Horn to Nantucket to hoist noggins of grog and the skirts of the odd Hester, Millicent, or Prudence (so fast the dear woman would think she'd fallen down a chimney and landed on a zucchini), they pulled into Lahaina, drawn by the drunken sex magic of old Maui. They didn't come to Maui for the whales, they came for the party. And so Lahaina became a whaling town. The irony of it was that even though the humpbacks had starting coming to birth their calves and sing their songs only a few years earlier, and in those days the Hawaiian channels were teeming with the big-winged singers, it was not for the humpbacks that the whalers came. Humpbacks, like their other rorqual brothers – the streamlined blue, fin, sei, minke, and Bryde's whales – were just too fast to catch in sailing ships and man-powered whaling boats. No, the whalers came to Lahaina to rest and recreate along their way to Japanese waters where they hunted the great sperm whale, who would literally float there like a big, dumb log while you rowed up to it and stuck a harpoon in its head. It would take the advent of steamships and the decimation of the big, floaty-fat right whales (so named because they did float when dead and therefore were the  «right » whales to kill) before the hunters would turn their harpoons on the hum pbacks. Following the whalers came the missionaries, the sugar farmers, the Chinese, Japanese, Filipinos, and Portuguese who all worked the sugar plantations, and Mark Twain. Mark Twain went home. Everyone else stayed. In the meantime, King Kamehameha I united the islands through the clever application of firearms against wooden spears and moved Hawaii's capital to Lahaina. Sometime after that Amy came cruising into the Lahaina harbor at the wheel of a twenty-three-foot Mako speedboat with a tall, stunned-looking Ph.D. sprawled across the bow seat. The radio chirped. Amy picked it up and keyed the mike. â€Å"Go ahead, Clay.† â€Å"Something wrong?† Clay Demodocus was obviously in the harbor and could see them coming in. It wasn't even eight in the morning. He was probably still preparing his boat to go out. â€Å"I'm not sure. Nate just decided to call it a day. I'll ask him why.† To Nate she said, â€Å"Clay wants to know why.† â€Å"Anomalous data,† Nate said. â€Å"Anomalous data,† Amy repeated into the radio. There was a pause. Then Clay said, â€Å"Uh, right, understood. That stuff gets into everything.† The harbor at Lahaina is not large. Only a hundred or so vessels can dock behind her breakwater. Most are sizable, fifty- to seventy-foot cruisers and catamarans, boats full of sunscreen-basted tourists out on the water for anything from dinner cruises to sport fishing to snorkeling at the half-sunken crater of Molokini to, of course, whale watching. Jet-skiing, parasailing, and waterskiing were all banned from December until April, while the humpbacks were in these waters, so many of the smaller boats that would normally be used to terrorize marine life in the name of recreation were leased by whale researchers for the season. On any given winter morning down at the harbor at Lahaina, you couldn't throw a coconut without conking a Ph.D. in cetacean biology (and you stood a good chance of winging two Masters of Science working on dissertations with the rebound). Clay Demodocus was engaged in a bit of research liars poker with a Ph.D. and a naval officer when Amy backed the Mako into the slip they shared with three tender zodiacs from sailing yachts anchored outside the breakwater, a thirty-two-foot motor-sailor, and the Maui Whale Research Foundation's other boat (Clay's boat), the Always Confused, a brand-new twenty-two-foot Grady White Fisherman, center console. (Slips were hard to come by in Lahaina, and circumstances this season had dictated that the Maui Whale Research Foundation – Nate and Clay – perform a nautical dog pile with six other small craft every day. You do what you have to do if you want to poke whales.) â€Å"Shame,† Clay said as Amy threw him the stern line. â€Å"Nice calm day, too.† â€Å"We got everything but a measurement on one singer,† Amy said. The scientist and the naval officer on the dock behind Clay nodded as if they understood completely. Clifford Hyland, a grizzled, gray-haired whale researcher from Iowa stood next to the young, razor-creased, snowy-white-uniformed Captain L. J. Tarwater, who was there to see that Hyland spent the navy's money appropriately. Hyland looked a little embarrassed at the whole thing and wouldn't make eye contact with Amy or Nate. Money was money, and a researcher took it where he could get it, but navy money, it was so†¦ so nasty. â€Å"Morning Amy,† said Tarwater, dazzling a perfectly even, perfectly white smile. He was lean and dark and frighteningly efficient-looking. Next to him, Clay and the scientists looked as if they'd been run through the dryer with a bag of lava rock. â€Å"Good morning, Captain. Morning Cliff.† â€Å"Hey, Amy,† Cliff Hyland said. â€Å"Hey, Nate.† Nathan Quinn shook off his confusion like a retriever who had just heard his name uttered in context with food. â€Å"What? What? Oh, hi, Cliff. What?† Hyland and Quinn had both been part of a group of thirteen scientists who had first come to Lahaina in the seventies (â€Å"The Killer Elite,† Clay still called them, as they had all gone on to distinguish themselves as leaders in their fields). Actually, the original intention hadn't been for them to be a group, but they nevertheless became one early on when they all realized that the only way they could afford to stay on the island was if they pooled their resources and lived together. So for years thirteen of them – and sometimes more if they could afford assistants, wives, or girlfriends – lived every season in a two-bedroom house they rented in Lahaina. Hyland understood Quinn's tendency to submerge himself in his research to the point of oblivion, so he wasn't surprised that once again the rangy researcher had spaced out. â€Å"Anomalous data, huh?† Cliff asked, figuring that was what had sent Nate into the ozone. â€Å"Uh, nothing I can be sure of. I mean, actually, the recorder isn't working right. Something dragging. Probably just needs to be cleaned.† And everyone, including Amy, looked at Quinn for a moment as if to say, Well, you lying satchel of walrus spit, that is the weakest story I've ever heard, and you're not fooling anyone. â€Å"Shame,† Clay said. â€Å"Nice day to miss out on the water. Maybe you can get back with the other recorder and get out again before the wind comes up.† Clay knew something was up with Nate, but he also trusted his judgment enough not to press it. Nate would tell him when he thought he should know. â€Å"Speaking of that,† Hyland said, â€Å"we'd better get going.† He headed down the dock toward his own boat. Tarwater stared at Nate just long enough to convey disgust before turning on his heel and marching after Hyland. When they were gone, Amy said, â€Å"Tarwater is a creep.† â€Å"He's all right. He's got a job to do is all,† Clay said. â€Å"What's with the recorder?† â€Å"The recorder is fine,† Nate said. â€Å"Then what gives? It's a perfect day.† Clay liked to state the obvious when it was positive. It was sunny, calm, with no wind, and the underwater visibility was two hundred feet. It was a perfect day to research whales. Nate started handing waterproof cases of equipment to Clay. â€Å"I don't know. I may have seen something out there, Clay. I have to think about it and see the pictures. I'm going to drop some film off at the lab, then go back to Papa Lani and write up some research until the film's ready.† Clay flinched, just a tad. It was Amy's job to drop off film and write up research. â€Å"Okay. How 'bout you, kiddo?† Clay said to Amy. â€Å"My new guy doesn't look like he's going to show, and I need someone topside while I'm under.† Amy looked to Nate for some kind of approval, but when he simply kept unloading cases without a reaction, she just shrugged. â€Å"Sure, I'd love to.† Clay suddenly became self-conscious and shuffled in his flip-flops, looking for a second more like a five-year-old kid than a barrel-chested, fifty-year-old man. â€Å"By calling you ‘kiddo' I didn't mean to dimmish you by age or anything, you know.† â€Å"I know,† Amy said. â€Å"And I wasn't making any sort of comment on your competency either.† â€Å"I understand, Clay.† Clay cleared his throat unnecessarily. â€Å"Okay,† he said. â€Å"Okay,† Amy said. She grabbed two Pelican cases full of equipment, stepped up onto the dock, and started schlepping the stuff to the parking area so it could be loaded into Nate's pickup. Over her shoulder she said, â€Å"You guys both so need to get laid.† â€Å"I think that's reverse harassment,† Clay said to Nate. â€Å"I may be having hallucinations,† said Nate. â€Å"No, she really said that,† Clay said. After Quinn had left, Amy climbed into the Always Confused and began untying the stern line. She glanced over her shoulder to look at the forty-foot cabin cruiser where Captain Tarwater posed on the bow looking like an advertisement for a particularly rigid laundry detergent – Bumstick Go-Be-Bright, perhaps. â€Å"Clay, you ever heard of a uniformed naval officer accompanying a researcher into the field before?† Clay looked up from doing a battery check on the GPS. â€Å"Not unless the researcher was working from a navy vessel. Once I was along on a destroyer for a study on the effects of high explosives on resident populations of southern sea lions in the Falkland Islands. They wanted to see what would happen if you set off a ten-thousand-pound charge in proximity to a sea lion colony. There was a uniformed officer in charge of that.† Amy cast the line back to the dock and turned to face Clay. â€Å"What was the effect?† â€Å"Well, it blew them the fuck up, didn't it? I mean, that's a lot of explosives.† â€Å"They let you film that for National Science?† â€Å"Just stills,† Clay said. â€Å"I don't think they anticipated it going the way it did. I got some great shots of it raining seal meat.† Clay started the engine. â€Å"Yuck.† Amy untied the bumpers and pulled them into the boat. â€Å"But you've never seen a uniformed officer working here? Before now, I mean.† â€Å"Nowhere else,† Clay said. He pulled down the gear lever. There was a thump, and the boat began to creep forward. Amy pushed them away from the surrounding boats with a padded boat hook. â€Å"What do you think they're doing?† â€Å"I was trying to find out this morning when you guys came in. They loaded an awfully big case before you got here. I asked what it was, and Tarwater got all sketchy. Cliff said it was some acoustics stuff.† â€Å"Directional array?† Amy asked. Researchers sometimes towed large arrays of hydrophones that could, unlike a single hydrophone, detect the direction from which sound was traveling. â€Å"Could be,† Clay said. â€Å"Except they don't have a winch on their boat. â€Å"A wench? What are you trying to say, Clay?† Amy feigned being offended. â€Å"Are you calling me a wench?† Clay grinned at her. â€Å"Amy, I am old and have a girlfriend, and therefore I am immune to your hotness. Please cease your useless attempts to make me uncomfortable.† â€Å"Let's follow them.† â€Å"They've been working on the lee side of Lanai. I don't want to take the Confused past the wind line.† â€Å"So you were trying to find out what they're up to?† â€Å"I fished. No bites. Cliff's not going to say anything with Tarwater standing there.† â€Å"So let's follow them.† â€Å"We actually may get some work done today. It's a good day, after all, and we might not get a dozen windless days all season here. We can't afford to lose a day, Amy. Which reminds me, what's up with Nate? Not like him to blow off a good field day.† â€Å"You know, he's nuts,† Amy said, as if it were understood. â€Å"Too much time thinking about whales.† â€Å"Oh, right. I forgot.† As they motored out of the harbor, Clay waved to a group of researchers who had gathered at the fuel station to buy coffee. Twenty universities and a dozen foundations were represented in that group. Clay was single-handedly responsible for making the scientists who worked out of Lahaina into a social community. He knew them all, and he couldn't help it – he liked people who worked with whales – and he just liked it when people got along. He'd started weekly meetings and presentations of papers at the Pacific Whale Sanctuary building in Kihei, which brought all the scientists together to socialize, trade information, and, for some, to try to weasel some useful data out of someone without the burden of field research. Amy waved to the group, too, as she dug into one of the orange Pelican waterproof cases. â€Å"Come on, Clay, let's follow Tarwater and see what he's up to.† She pulled a huge pair of twenty-power binoculars out of the case and showed them to Clay. â€Å"We can watch from a distance.† â€Å"You might want to go up in the bow and look for whales, Amy.† â€Å"Whales? They're big and wet. What else do you need to know?† â€Å"You scientists never cease to amaze me,† Clay said. â€Å"Come hold the wheel while I get a pencil to write that down.† â€Å"Let's follow Tarwater.†