Sunday, December 29, 2019

Does Stress Send You And The Refrigerator - 1312 Words

46 Does Stress Send You to the Refrigerator? Here s Help for that Unhealthy Habit For many of us, unpleasant emotions such as fear and anxiety are translated into a need to eat. We may develop this habit growing up, or in a new situation such as college. When I was at UCLA, my roommate and I used to stock up on â€Å"finals survival food,† as we called our habit. We would climb into her car, head to the biggest grocery store in Westwood, and pile our grocery cart high with bags of candy, cartons of ice cream, packaged frosting-covered cupcakes, boxes of chocolate cookies, and sugary sodas to see us through the sleepless nights and nail-biting stress of finals week. After college, that habit of using food as a way to manage stress seemed as natural as my morning requirement for a cup of coffee (or two) before I could face the rigors of getting dressed and out the door for work. And like other unhealthy habits — abusing alcohol, smoking, spending endless hours on the Internet rather than interact in person with others — it’s not so easy to change. How to Conquer Stress-Induced Eating Habits â€Å"Executives who cope well through stressful times tend to think of high stress situations as a challenge,† notes Julie Barnes, PhD, who is a clinical psychologist and credentialed alcohol and substance abuse counselor licensed in the state of New York. If possible, see if you can reframe your own situation â€Å"as a courageous, heroic, or life-transforming challenge,† to â€Å"change the way your mindShow MoreRelatedEffects Of Social Media On Female Body Image1717 Words   |  7 Pagesâ€Å"When all you see is a body type that only two percent of the population has, it’s difficult to remember what’s real and what’s reasonable to expect of yourself and everyone else.† This was stated by Arielle Cutler, who studied the recent effects social media has on the female body image. Not only has media made women feel insecure about their bodies but it pinpoints exactly what bothers them. It could be weight, skin problems, height, and even a cl othing style. The media sends subliminal messagesRead MoreThe Absolutely True Diary Of A Part Time Indian By Sherman Alexie1255 Words   |  6 Pages†(Alexie 6). Arnold tells the reader he draws as a way to express himself so that everyone can understand. He uses fun to let his feelings out so he will not die keeping them inside. He plays basketball, draws, read comics, and uses humor as a de-stress tool throughout his life so he can push all of his sadness, oppression, and anger out of him. Throughout the story, fun is always used as a tool to keep Arnold stable and stronger. Moreover, the basic need of survival has always been utilized throughoutRead MoreFinal Project Creating a Social Program Essay1997 Words   |  8 Pagesin the condition that they are in but want them to know there is a way out for them and they can rise again and be the strong independent woman of worth that they are. We provide room and board and three hot meals per day for these women; we even send them to school to learn a skill that will eventually help them in the business world when they get their feet on the ground. One of the main problems that I see since I have been in this field is there are not enough caring and sharing sheltersRead MoreMetalfrio Case Analysis7723 Words   |  31 Pagesto the company. However, it has taken many years to get to where they are now. Created in 1960, it was primarily focused on refrigeration components when it was first established. Due to overgrowing demand, Metalfrio began selling commercial refrigerators to many producers of ice cream and beverages in Brazil. In the 1989, a leading Brazilian producer of stoves and manufacturers of household appliances, Continental 2001, acquired 60% of capital in Metalfrio. A few years later, a German group BoschRead MoreProject on Stress Management9684 Words   |  39 PagesCHP:1 INTRODUCTION What is Stress? Stress is a complex phenomenon. It has been defined in many ways, but simply put; it is the wear and tear of everyday life. In everyday’s life people are subjected to a wide range of pressures. Similarly there are also a wide range of resources and strategies for coping with pressure. Sometimes people cope well and will not feel that the pressure is having any adverse effect upon them. At other times they will have difficulty in dealing with theRead MoreA Training On Cold Storage3272 Words   |  14 PagesLow storage temperature, high relative humidity, and control of air composition are the main conservation factors fort his group of products. To guarantee a top-quality product, storage conditions must be well controlled; however, the market value does not allow full air conditioning. The storage should minimize physiological losses and losses due to mechanical damage. A top view of saligram tiwari cold storage- This diagram is not necessary but this shows that how building isRead MoreComputer Concepts Exercises2344 Words   |  10 Pagesjust another name for the Internet. (Answer: False) 010200 A computer’s operating system is a type of application software. (Answer: False) 010300 Microcontrollers are special purpose microprocessors that can be embedded in devices such as refrigerators, cars, and washing machines. (Answer: True) 010400 A bit is a binary digit, such as a 1 or 0. (Answer: True) 010500 ASCII, EBCDIC, and Unicode are used to represent character data. (Answer: True) 010600 A megabyte is 1024 bits. (Answer:Read MoreShould People Work Less and Take More Time to Relax?4823 Words   |  20 Pagesfor the commentary for the essays in this workbook on the website has been changed from the original format given in the WPE workbook. ESSAY TOPIC â€Å"III† DIRECTIONS: You will have a total of 75 minutes to respond to the topic below. A time warning will be announced 10 minutes prior to the end of the test. You will not be allowed to leave early. Express your thoughts carefully, logically, and effectively. Provide examples and evidence to support your ideas. DO NOT WRITE ONRead MoreBreastfeeding For Mothers : Breastfeeding2398 Words   |  10 PagesExclusive Breastfeeding Deciding to breastfeed is one of the best choices you can make for you and your baby. Breast milk has all the nutrients that your baby needs, when your baby needs them. That is why many women who can choose to breastfeed exclusively. A change in hormones during pregnancy causes your breast tissue to grow and increases the number and size of your milk ducts. These hormones also allow proteins, sugars, and fats from your blood supply to make breast milk in your milk-producingRead MoreUnit 8 Health and Social Care Level 24960 Words   |  20 PagesIf the condition is minor and the action simple,then self-treatment may suffice,but in doubt take the person to casualty. Be an encouragement- Let the injured person know that help is on its way and try to make them as comfortable as possible. Send for professional help- Reaching for help quickly could save a life. Know your emergency telephone numbers. All relevant documentation should be filled out as soon as is possible and signed and dated. All staff should be updated annually on the

Saturday, December 21, 2019

My Name is Nobody Postmodernism in Derek Walcotts The...

Tales of journeys appear repeatedly throughout the expanse of literature; these sagas include the stories of Gilgamesh, King Arthur, and, more recently, The Lord of the Rings. Derek Walcott’s poem â€Å"The Schooner Flight† initially seems out of place amongst these surging legends of heroics and danger, yet through closer examination the poem flourishes as a postmodern retelling then deconstruction of the age-old heroic journey. The poem is a celebration of Greek mythology, a disruptive force against established binaries, and a question of what constitutes identity. The construction of the poem represents a contradiction, as it is a Homeric pastiche yet it defies the very nature of the customary heroic journey. However, this contradiction is†¦show more content†¦Shabine’s attempt to escape without notice is similar to Odysseus’s attempts to avoid being entranced by the Sirens’ singing and meeting certain death. Shabine states that â€Å"M aria Concepcion was all my thought† (44), as she encompasses his mind like the Siren’s singing did to Odysseus (Homer 248-249). Walcott’s use of pastiche of the style and tropes of the Odyssey should presumably position Shabine as the hero in the poem, yet his heroic position is ultimately subverted through a postmodern upheaval of the grand heroic narrative. At the same time the poem establishes a pastiche of the Odyssey, â€Å"The Schooner Flight† actually disrupts the grand narrative to focus on a more fragmented view. A main theme in the Odyssey, a theme common to many tales of heroic journeys, is nostos, meaning homecoming (â€Å"nostos†). The grand narrative of the hero’s journey, or the monomyth, is defined through the linear rites of passage of separation, initiation, and return (Campbell 23). While the Odyssey perfectly follows this metanarrative, â€Å"The Schooner Flight† subverts it and forms a petit rà ©cit, meaning a sma ll or local narrative that individualizes discovery (Hannabuss 220). Instead of the journey home, the poem focuses on a journey away from home, allowing for focus on Shabine’s individual experience, as opposed to a grand, presupposed cycle. The heroic grand narrative is further

Friday, December 13, 2019

Black House Chapter Eight Free Essays

string(56) " make it sound worse than it was, Jack says to himself\." 8 TWO TELEPHONE CALLS and another, private matter, one he is doing his best to deny, have conspired to pluck Jack Sawyer from his cocoon in Norway Valley and put him on the road to French Landing, Sumner Street, and the police station. The first call had been from Henry, and Henry, calling from the Maxton cafeteria during one of the Symphonic One’s breaks, had insisted on speaking his mind. A child had apparently been abducted from the sidewalk in front of Maxton’s earlier that day. We will write a custom essay sample on Black House Chapter Eight or any similar topic only for you Order Now Whatever Jack’s reasons for staying out of the case, which by the way he had never explained, they didn’t count anymore, sorry. This made four children who had been lost to the Fisherman, because Jack didn’t really think Irma Freneau was going to walk in her front door anytime soon, did he? Four children! No, Henry had said, I didn’t hear about it on the radio. It happened this morning. From a janitor at Maxton’s, Henry had said. He saw a worried-looking cop pick up a bicycle and put it in his trunk. All right, Henry had said, maybe I don’t know for certain, but I am certain. By tonight, Dale will identify the poor kid, and tomorrow his name will be all over the newspaper. And then this whole county is going to flip out. Don’t you get it? Just knowing you are involved will do a lot to keep people calm. You no longer have the luxury of retirement, Jack. You have to do your part. Jack had told him he was jumping to conclusions, and that they would talk about it later. Forty-five minutes later, Dale Gilbertson had called with the news that a boy named Tyler Marshall had vanished from in front of Maxton’s sometime that morning, and that Tyler’s father, Fred Marshall, was down there right now, in the station, demanding to see Jack Sawyer. Fred was a great guy, a real straight arrow and family man, a solid citizen, a friend of Dale’s, you could say, but at the moment he was at the end of his rope. Apparently Judy, his wife, had been having some kind of mental problems even before the trouble started, and Tyler’s disappearance had driven her off the edge. She talked in gibberish, injured herself, tore the house apart. And I kind of know Judy Marshall, Dale had said. Beautiful, beautiful woman, a little thing but tough as all get-out on the inside, both feet on the ground, a great person, a tremendous person, someone you’d think would never lose her grip, no matter what. It seems she thought, knew, whatever, that Tyler had been snatched even before his bicycle turned up. Late this afternoon, she got so bad Fred had to call Dr. Skarda and get her over to French County Lutheran in Arden, where they took one look at her and put her in Ward D, the mental wing. So you can imagine what kind of shape Fred’s in. He insists on talking to you. I have no confidence in you, he said to me. Well, Dale had said, if you don’t come down here, Fred Marshall is going to show up at your house, that’s what’ll happen. I can’t put the guy on a leash, and I’m not going to lock him up just to keep him away from you. On top of everything else, we need you here, Jack. All right, Dale had said. I know you’re not making any promises. But you know what you should do. Would these conversations have been enough to get him into his pickup and on the road to Sumner Street? Very likely, Jack imagines, which renders the third factor, the secret, barely acknowledged one, inconsequential. It means nothing. A silly attack of nerves, a buildup of anxiety, completely natural under the circumstances. The kind of thing that could happen to anybody. He felt like getting out of the house, so what? No one could accuse him of escaping. He was traveling toward, not running away from, that which he most wanted to escape the dark undertow of the Fisherman’s crimes. Neither was he committing himself to any deeper involvement. A friend of Dale’s and the father of a child apparently missing, this Fred Marshall, insisted on talking to him; fine, let him talk. If half an hour with a retired detective could help Fred Marshall get a handle on his problems, the retired detective was willing to give him the time. Everything else was merely personal. Waking dreams and robins’ eggs messed with your mind, but that was merely personal. It could be out-waited, outwitted, figured out. No rational person took that stuff seriously: like a summer storm, it blew in, it blew out. Now, as he coasted through the green light at Centralia and noted, with a cop’s reflexive awareness, the row of Harleys lined up in the Sand Bar’s parking lot, he felt himself coming into alignment with the afternoon’s difficulties. It made perfect sense that he should have found himself unable well, let us say unwilling to open the refrigerator door. Nasty surprises made you think twice. A light in his living room had expired, and when he had gone to the drawer that contained half a dozen new halogen bulbs, he had been unable to open it. In fact, he had not quite been able to open any drawer, cabinet, or closet in his house, which had denied him the capacity to make a cup of tea, change his clothe s, prepare lunch, or do anything but leaf half heartedly through books and watch television. When the flap of the mailbox had threatened to conceal a pyramid of small blue eggs, he had decided to put off collecting the mail until the next day. Anyhow, all he ever got were financial statements, magazines, and junk mail. Let’s not make it sound worse than it was, Jack says to himself. You read "Black House Chapter Eight" in category "Essay examples" I could have opened every door, drawer, and cabinet in the place, but I didn’t want to. I wasn’t afraid that robins’ eggs were going to come spilling out of the refrigerator or the closet it’s just that I didn’t want to take the chance of finding one of the blasted things. Show me a psychiatrist who says that’s neurotic, and I’ll show you a moron who doesn’t understand psychology. All the old-timers used to tell me that working homicide messed with your head. Hell, that’s why I retired in the first place! What was I supposed to do, stay on the force until I ate my gun? You’re a smart guy, Henry Leyden, and I love you, but there are some things you don’t GET! All right, he was going to Sumner Street. Everybody was yelling at him to do something, and that’s what he was doing. He’d say hello to Dale, greet the boys, sit down with this Fred Marshall, the solid citizen with a missing son, and give him the usual oatmeal about everything possible being done, blah blah, the FBI is working hand in glove with us on this one, and the bureau has the finest investigators in the world. That oatmeal. As far as Jack was concerned, his primary duty was to stroke Fred Marshall’s fur, as if to soothe the feelings of an injured cat; when Marshall had calmed down, Jack’s supposed obligation to the community an obligation that existed entirely in the minds of others would be fulfilled, freeing him to go back to the privacy he had earned. If Dale didn’t like it, he could take a running jump into the Mississippi; if Henry didn’t like it, Jack would refuse to read Bleak House and force him to listen instead to Lawrence Welk, Vaughn Monroe, or something equally excruciating. Bad Dixieland. Years ago, someone had given Jack a CD called Fats Manassas His Muskrat All Stars Stompin’ the Ramble. Thirty seconds of Fats Manassas, and Henry would be begging for mercy. This image makes Jack feel comfortable enough to prove that his hesitation before cupboards and drawers had been merely a temporary unwillingness, not phobic inability. Even while his attention was elsewhere, as it chiefly was, the shoved-in ashtray below the dash has mocked and taunted him since he first climbed into the pickup. A kind of sinister suggestiveness, an aura of latent malice, surrounds the ashtray’s flat little panel. Does he fear that a small blue egg lurks behind the little panel? Of course not. Nothing is in there but air and molded black plastic. In that case, he can pull it out. The buildings on the outskirts of French Landing glide past the pickup’s windows. Jack has reached almost the exact point at which Henry pulled the plug on Dirtysperm. Obviously he can open the ashtray. Nothing could be simpler. You just get your fingers under there and tug. Easiest thing in the world. He extends a hand. Before his fingers touch the panel, he snatches the hand back. Drops of perspiration glide down his forehead and lodge in his eyebrows. â€Å"It isn’t a big deal,† he says aloud. â€Å"You got some kind of problem here, Jacky-boy?† Again, he extends his hand to the ashtray. Abruptly aware that he is paying more attention to the bottom of his dashboard than to the road, he glances up and cuts his speed by half. He refuses to hit his brakes. It’s just an ashtray, for God’s sake. His fingers meet the panel, then curl under its lip. Jack glances at the road once more. Then, with the decisivesness of a nurse ripping a strip of tape off a patient’s hairy abdomen, he yanks out the sliding tray. The lighter attachment, which he had unknowingly dislodged in his driveway that morning, bounces three inches into the air, greatly resembling, to Jack’s appalled eye, a flying black-and-silver egg. He veers off the road, bumps over the weedy shoulder, and heads toward a looming telephone pole. The lighter drops back into the tray with a loud, metallic thwack no egg in the world could have produced. The telephone pole swims closer and nearly fills the windshield. Jack stamps on the brake and jerks to a halt, arousing a flurry of ticks and rattles from the ashtray. If he had not cut his speed before opening the ashtray, he would have driven straight into the pole, which stands about four feet from the hood of the pickup. Jack wipes the sweat off his face and picks up the lighter. â€Å"Shit on a shingle.† He clicks the attachment into its receptacle and collapses backward against the seat. â€Å"No wonder they say smoking can kill you,† he says. The joke is too feeble to amuse him, and for a couple of seconds he does nothing but slump against the seat and regard the sparse traffic on Lyall Road. When his heart rate drops back to something like normal, he reminds him self that he did, after all, open the ashtray. Blond, rumpled Tom Lund has evidently been prepped for his arrival, for when Jack walks past three bicycles lined up next to the door and enters the station, the young officer takes off from behind his desk and rushes forward to whisper that Dale and Fred Marshall are waiting for him in Dale’s office, and he will show him right in. They’ll be glad to see him, that’s for sure. â€Å"I am, too, Lieutenant Sawyer,† Lund adds. â€Å"Boy, I gotta say it. What you got, I think, we need.† â€Å"Call me Jack. I’m not a lieutenant anymore. I’m not even a cop anymore.† Jack had met Tom Lund during the Kinderling investigation, and he had liked the young man’s eagerness and dedication. In love with his job, his uniform, and his badge, respectful of his chief and awed by Jack, Lund had uncomplainingly logged hundreds of hours on the telephone, in records offices, and in his car, checking and rechecking the often contradictory details spun off by the collision between a Wisconsin farm-insurance salesman and two Sunset Strip working girls. All the while, Tom Lund had retained the energetic sparkle of a high school quarterback running onto the field for his first game. He does not look that way anymore, Jack observes. Dark smudges hang beneath his eyes, and the bones in his face are more prominent. More than sleeplessness and exhaustion lie behind Lund’s affect: his eyes bear the helplessly startled expression of those who have suffered a great moral shock. The Fisherman has stolen a good part of Tom Lund’s youth. â€Å"But I’ll see what I can do,† Jack says, offering the promise of a commitment greater than he intends. â€Å"We can sure use anything you can give us,† Lund says. It is too much, too servile, and as Lund turns away and leads him to the office, Jack thinks, I didn’t come here to be your savior. The thought instantly makes him feel guilty. Lund knocks, opens the door to announce Jack, shows him in, and vanishes like a ghost, utterly unnoticed by the two men who rise from their chairs and fasten their eyes upon their visitor’s face, one with visible gratitude, the other with an enormous degree of the same emotion mixed with naked need, which makes Jack even more uncomfortable. Over Dale’s garbled introduction, Fred Marshall says, â€Å"Thank you for agreeing to come, thank you so much. That’s all I can . . .† His right arm sticks out like a pump handle. When Jack takes his hand, an even greater quantity of feeling floods into Fred Marshall’s face. His hand fastens on Jack’s and seems almost to claim it, as an animal claims its prey. He squeezes, hard, a considerable number of times. His eyes fill. â€Å"I can’t . . .† Marshall pulls his hand away and scrubs the tears off his face. Now his eyes look raw and intensely vulnerable. â€Å"Boy oh boy,† he says. â€Å"I’m really glad you’re here, Mr. Sawyer. Or should I say Lieutenant?† â€Å"Jack is fine. Why don’t the two of you fill me in on what happened today?† Dale points toward a waiting chair; the three men take their places; the painful but essentially simple story of Fred, Judy, and Tyler Marshall begins. Fred speaks first, at some length. In his version of the story, a valiant, lionhearted woman, a devoted wife and mother, succumbs to baffling, multifaceted transformations and disorders, and develops mysterious symptoms overlooked by her ignorant, stupid, self-centered husband. She blurts out nonsense words; she writes crazy stuff on sheets of notepaper, rams the papers into her mouth, and tries to swallow them. She sees the tragedy coming in advance, and it unhinges her. Sounds crazy, but the self-centered husband thinks it’s the truth. That is, he thinks he thinks it’s the truth, because he’s been thinking about it since he first talked to Dale, and even though it sounds crazy, it kind of makes sense. Because what other explanation could there be? So that’s what he thinks he thinks that his wife started to lose her mind because she knew that the Fisherman was on the way. Things like that are possible, he guesses. For example, the brave afflicted wife knew that her beautiful wonderful son was missing even before the stupid selfish husband, who went to work exactly as if it were a normal day, told her about the bicycle. That pretty much proved what he was talking about. The beautiful little boy went out with his three friends, but only the three friends came back, and Officer Danny Tcheda found the little son’s Schwinn bike and one of his poor sneakers on the sidewalk outside Maxton’s. â€Å"Danny Cheetah?† asks Jack, who, like Fred Marshall, is beginning to think he thinks a number of alarming things. â€Å"Tcheda,† says Dale, and spells it for him. Dale tells his own, far shorter version of the story. In Dale Gilbertson’s story, a boy goes out for a ride on his bicycle and vanishes, perhaps as a result of abduction, from the sidewalk in front of Maxton’s. That is all of the story Dale knows, and he trusts that Jack Sawyer will be able to fill in many of the surrounding blanks. Jack Sawyer, at whom both of the other men in the room are staring, takes time to adjust to the three thoughts he now thinks he thinks. The first is not so much a thought as a response that embodies a hidden thought: from the moment Fred Marshall clutched his hand and said â€Å"Boy oh boy,† Jack found himself liking the man, an unanticipated turn in the evening’s plot. Fred Marshall strikes him as something like the poster boy for small-town life. If you put his picture on billboards advertising French County real estate, you could sell a lot of second homes to people in Milwaukee and Chicago. Marshall’s friendly, good-looking face and slender runner’s body are as good as testimonials to responsibility, decency, good manners and good neighborliness, modesty, and a generous heart. The more Fred Marshall accuses himself of selfishness and stupidity, the more Jack likes him. And the more he likes him, the more he sympathizes with his terrible plight, the mor e he wishes to help the man. Jack had come to the station expecting that he would respond to Dale’s friend like a policeman, but his cop reflexes have rusted from disuse. He is responding like a fellow citizen. Cops, as Jack well knows, seldom view the civilians caught up in the backwash of a crime as fellow citizens, certainly never in the early stages of an investigation. (The thought hidden at the center of Jack’s response to the man before him is that Fred Marshall, being what he is, cannot harbor suspicions about anyone with whom he is on good terms.) Jack’s second thought is that of both a cop and a fellow citizen, and while he continues his adjustment to the third, which is wholly the product of his rusty yet still accurate cop reflexes, he makes it public. â€Å"The bikes I saw outside belong to Tyler’s friends? Is someone questioning them now?† â€Å"Bobby Dulac,† Dale says. â€Å"I talked to them when they came in, but I didn’t get anywhere. According to them, they were all together on Chase Street, and Tyler rode off by himself. They claim they didn’t see anything. Maybe they didn’t.† â€Å"But you think there’s more.† â€Å"Honest to God, I do. But I don’t know what the dickens it could be, and we have to send them home before their parents get bent out of shape.† â€Å"Who are they, what are their names?† Fred Marshall wraps his fingers together as if around the handle of an invisible baseball bat. â€Å"Ebbie Wexler, T. J. Renniker, and Ronnie Metzger. They’re the kids Ty’s been hanging around with this summer.† An unspoken judgment hovers about this last sentence. â€Å"It sounds like you don’t consider them the best possible company for your son.† â€Å"Well, no,† says Fred, caught between his desire to tell the truth and his innate wish to avoid the appearance of unfairness. â€Å"Not if you put it like that. Ebbie seems like kind of a bully, and the other two are maybe a little on the . . . slow side? I hope . . . or I was hoping . . . that Ty would realize he could do better and spend his free time with kids who are more on, you know . . .† â€Å"More on his level.† â€Å"Right. The trouble is, my son is sort of small for his age, and Ebbie Wexler is . . . um . . .† â€Å"Heavyset and tall for his age,† Jack says. â€Å"The perfect situation for a bully.† â€Å"You’re saying you know Ebbie Wexler?† â€Å"No, but I saw him this morning. He was with the other two boys and your son.† Dale jolts upright in his chair, and Fred Marshall drops his invisible bat. â€Å"When was that?† Dale asks. At the same time, Fred Marshall asks, â€Å"Where?† â€Å"Chase Street, about ten past eight. I came in to pick up Henry Ley-den and drive him home. When we were on our way out of town, the boys drove their bikes into the road right in front of me. I got a good look at your son, Mr. Marshall. He seemed like a great kid.† Fred Marshall’s widening eyes indicate that some kind of hope, some promise, is taking shape before him; Dale relaxes. â€Å"That pretty much matches their story. It would have been right before Ty took off on his own. If he did.† â€Å"Or they took off and left him,† says Ty’s father. â€Å"They were faster on their bikes than Ty, and sometimes they, you know . . . they teased him.† â€Å"By racing ahead and leaving him alone,† Jack says. Fred Marshall’s glum nod speaks of boyhood humiliations shared with this sympathetic father. Jack remembers the inflamed, hostile face and raised finger of Ebbie Wexler and wonders if and how the boy might be protecting himself. Dale had said that he smelled the presence of falsity in the boys’ story, but why would they lie? Whatever their reasons, the lie almost certainly began with Ebbie Wexler. The other two followed orders. For the moment setting aside the third of his thoughts, Jack says, â€Å"I want to talk to the boys before you send them home. Where are they?† â€Å"The interrogation room, top of the stairs.† Dale aims a finger at the ceiling. â€Å"Tom will take you up.† With its battleship-gray walls, gray metal table, and single window narrow as a slit in a castle wall, the room at the top of the stairs seems designed to elicit confessions through boredom and despair, and when Tom Lund leads Jack through the door, the four inhabitants of the interrogation room appear to have succumbed to its leaden atmosphere. Bobby Dulac looks sideways, stops drumming a pencil on the tabletop, and says, â€Å"Well, hoo-ray for Hollywood. Dale said you were coming down.† Even Bobby gleams a little less conspicuously in this gloom. â€Å"Did you want to interrogate these here hoodlums, Lieutenant?† â€Å"In a minute, maybe.† Two of the three hoodlums on the far side of the table watch Jack move alongside Bobby Dulac as if fearing he will clap them in a cell. The words â€Å"interrogate† and â€Å"Lieutenant† have had the bracing effect of a cold wind from Canada. Ebbie Wexler squints at Jack, trying to look tough, and the boy beside him, Ronnie Metzger, wriggles in his chair, his eyes like dinner plates. The third boy, T. J. Ren-niker, has dropped his head atop his crossed arms and appears to be asleep. â€Å"Wake him up,† Jack says. â€Å"I have something to say, and I want you all to hear it.† In fact, he has nothing to say, but he needs these boys to pay attention to him. He already knows that Dale was right. If they are not lying, they are at least holding something back. That’s why his abrupt appearance within their dozy scene frightened them. If Jack had been in charge, he would have separated the boys and questioned them individually, but now he must deal with Bobby Dulac’s mistake. He has to treat them collectively, to begin with, and he has to work on their fear. He does not want to terrorize the boys, merely to get their hearts pumping a bit faster; after that, he can separate them. The weakest, guiltiest link has already declared himself. Jack feels no compunction about telling lies to get information. Ronnie Metzger shoves T.J.’s shoulder and says, â€Å"Wake up, bum-dell . . . dumbbell.† The sleeping boy moans, lifts his head from the table, begins to stretch out his arms. His eyes fasten on Jack, and blinking and swallowing he snaps into an upright position. â€Å"Welcome back,† Jack says. â€Å"I want to introduce myself and explain what I am doing here. My name is Jack Sawyer, and I am a lieutenant in the Homicide Division of the Los Angeles Police Department. I have an excellent record and a roomful of citations and medals. When I go after a bad guy, I usually wind up arresting him. Three years ago, I came here on a case from Los Angeles. Two weeks later, a man named Thornberg Kinderling was shipped back to L.A. in chains. Because I know this area and have worked with its law enforcement officers, the LAPD asked me to assist your local force in its investigation of the Fisherman murders.† He glances down to see if Bobby Dulac is grinning at this nonsense, but Bobby is staring frozen-faced across the table. â€Å"Your friend Tyler Marshall was with you before he disappeared this morning. Did the Fisherman take him? I hate to say it, but I think he did. Maybe we can get Tyler back, and maybe we can’t, but if I am g oing to stop the Fisherman, I need you to tell me exactly what happened, down to the last detail. You have to be completely honest with me, because if you lie or keep anything secret, you will be guilty of obstruction of justice. Obstruction of justice is a serious, serious crime. Officer Dulac, what is the minimum sentence for that crime in the state of Wisconsin?† â€Å"Five years, I’m pretty sure,† Bobby Dulac says. Ebbie Wexler bites the inside of his cheek; Ronnie Metzger looks away and frowns at the table; T. J. Renniker dully contemplates the narrow window. Jack sits down beside Bobby Dulac. â€Å"Incidentally, I was the guy in the pickup one of you gave the finger to this morning. I can’t say I’m thrilled to see you again.† Two heads swivel toward Ebbie, who squints ferociously, trying to solve this brand-new problem. â€Å"I did not,† he says, having settled on outright denial. â€Å"Maybe it looked like I did, but I didn’t.† â€Å"You’re lying, and we haven’t even started to talk about Tyler Marshall yet. I’ll give you one more chance. Tell me the truth.† Ebbie smirks. â€Å"I don’t go around flipping the bird at people I don’t know.† â€Å"Stand up,† Jack says. Ebbie glances from side to side, but his friends are unable to meet his gaze. He shoves back his chair and stands up, uncertainly. â€Å"Officer Dulac,† Jack says, â€Å"take this boy outside and hold him there.† Bobby Dulac performs his role perfectly. He uncoils from his chair and keeps his eyes on Ebbie as he glides toward him. He resembles a panther on the way to a sumptuous meal. Ebbie Wexler jumps back and tries to stay Bobby with a raised palm. â€Å"No, don’t I take it back I did it, okay?† â€Å"Too late,† Jack says. He watches as Bobby grasps the boy’s elbow and pulls him toward the door. Red-faced and sweating, Ebbie plants his feet on the floor, and the forward pressure applied to his arm folds him over the bulge of his stomach. He staggers forward, yelping and scattering tears. Bobbie Dulac opens the door and hauls him into the bleak second-floor corridor. The door slams shut and cuts off a wail of fear. The two remaining boys have turned the color of skim milk and seem incapable of movement. â€Å"Don’t worry about him,† Jack says. â€Å"He’ll be fine. In fifteen, twenty minutes, you’ll be free to go home. I didn’t think there was any point in talking to someone who lies from the git-go, that’s all. Remember: even lousy cops know when they’re being lied to and I am a great cop. So this is what we are going to do now. We’re going to talk about what happened this morning, about what Tyler was doing, the way you separated from him, where you were, what you did afterward, anyone you might have seen, that kind of thing.† He leans back and flattens his hands on the table. â€Å"Go on, tell me what happened.† Ronnie and T.J. look at each other. T.J. inserts his right index finger into his mouth and begins to worry the nail with his front teeth. â€Å"Ebbie flipped you,† Ronnie says. â€Å"No kidding. After that.† â€Å"Uh, Ty said he hadda go someplace.† â€Å"He hadda go someplace,† T.J. chimes in. â€Å"Where were you right then?† â€Å"Uh . . . outside the Allsorts Pomorium.† â€Å"Emporium,† T.J. says. â€Å"It’s not a pomorium, mushhead, it’s a em-poree-um.† â€Å"And?† â€Å"And Ty said † Ronnie glances at T.J. â€Å"Ty said he hadda go somewhere.† â€Å"Which way did he go, east or west?† The boys treat this question as though it were asked in a foreign language, by puzzling over it, mutely. â€Å"Toward the river, or away from the river?† They consult each other again. The question has been asked in English, but no proper answer exists. Finally, Ronnie says, â€Å"I don’t know.† â€Å"How about you, T.J.? Do you know?† T.J. shakes his head. â€Å"Good. That’s honest. You don’t know because you didn’t see him leave, did you? And he didn’t really say he had to go somewhere, did he? I bet Ebbie made that up.† T.J. wriggles, and Ronnie gazes at Jack with wondering awe. He has just revealed himself to be Sherlock Holmes. â€Å"Remember when I drove past in my truck?† They nod in unison. â€Å"Tyler was with you.† They nod again. â€Å"You’d already left the sidewalk in front of the Allsorts Emporium, and you were riding east on Chase Street away from the river. I saw you in my rearview mirror. Ebbie was pedaling very fast. The two of you could almost keep up with him. Tyler was smaller than the rest of you, and he fell behind. So I know he didn’t go off on his own. He couldn’t keep up.† Ronnie Metzger wails, â€Å"And he got way, way behind, and the Misherfun came out and grabbed him.† He promptly bursts into tears. Jack leans forward. â€Å"Did you see it happen? Either one of you?† â€Å"Noooaa,† Ronnie sobs. T.J. slowly shakes his head. â€Å"You didn’t see anyone talking with Ty, or a car stopping, or him going into a shop, or anything like that?† The boys utter an incoherent, overlapping babble to the effect that they saw nothing. â€Å"When did you realize he was gone?† T.J. opens his mouth, then closes it. Ronnie says, â€Å"When we were having the Slurpees.† His face pursed with tension, T.J. nods in agreement. Two more questions reveal that they had enjoyed the Slurpees at the 7-Eleven, where they also purchased Magic cards, and that it had probably taken them no more than a couple of minutes to notice Tyler Marshall’s absence. â€Å"Ebbie said Ty would buy us some more cards,† helpful Ronnie adds. They have reached the moment for which Jack has been waiting. Whatever the secret may be, it took place soon after the boys came out of the 7-Eleven and saw that Tyler had still not joined them. And the secret is T.J.’s alone. The kid is practically sweating blood, while the memory of the Slurpees and Magic cards has calmed down his friend to a remarkable degree. There is only one more question he wishes to ask the two of them. â€Å"So Ebbie wanted to find Tyler. Did you all get on your bikes and search around, or did Ebbie send just one of you?† â€Å"Huh?† Ronnie says. T.J. drops his chin and crosses his arms on the top of his head, as if to ward off a blow. â€Å"Tyler went somewheres,† Ronnie says. â€Å"We didn’t look for him, we went to the park. To trade the Magic cards.† â€Å"I see,† Jack says. â€Å"Ronnie, thank you. You have been very helpful. I’d like you to go outside and stay with Ebbie and Officer Dulac while I have a short conversation with T.J. It shouldn’t take more than five minutes, if that.† â€Å"I can go?† At Jack’s nod, Ronnie moves hesitantly out of his chair. When he reaches the door, T.J. emits a whimper. Then Ronnie is gone, and T.J. jerks backward into his chair and tries to become as small as possible while staring at Jack with eyes that have become shiny, flat, and perfectly round. â€Å"T.J.,† Jack says, â€Å"you have nothing to worry about, I promise you.† Now that he is alone with the boy who had declared his guilt by falling asleep in the interrogation room, Jack Sawyer wants above all to absolve him of that guilt. He knows T.J.’s secret, and the secret is nothing; it is useless. â€Å"No matter what you tell me, I’m not going to arrest you. That’s a promise, too. You’re not in any trouble, son. In fact, I’m glad you and your friends could come down here and help us straighten things out.† He goes on in this vein for another three or four minutes, in the course of which T. J. Renniker, formerly condemned to death by firing squad, gradually comprehends that his pardon has come through and his release from what his buddy Ronnie would call vurance dile is imminent. A little color returns to his face. He returns to his former size, and his eyes lose their horror-stricken glaze. â€Å"Tell me what Ebbie did,† Jack says. â€Å"Just between you and me. I won’t tell him anything. Honest. I won’t rat you out.† â€Å"He wanted Ty to buy more Magic cards,† T.J. says, feeling his way through unknown territory. â€Å"If Ty was there, he woulda. Ebbie can get kind of mean. So . . . so he told me, go downstreet and get the slowpoke, or I’ll give you an Indian burn.† â€Å"You got on your bike and rode back down Chase Street.† â€Å"Uh-huh. I looked, but I didn’t see Ty anywheres. I thought I would, you know? Because where else could he be?† â€Å"And . . . ?† Jack reels in the answer he knows is coming by winding his hand through the air. â€Å"And I still didn’t see him. And I got to Queen Street, where the old folks’ home is, with the big hedge out front. And, um, I saw his bike there. On the sidewalk in front of the hedge. His sneaker was there, too. And some leaves off the hedge.† There it is, the worthless secret. Maybe not entirely worthless: it gives them a pretty accurate fix on the time of the boy’s disappearance: 8:15, say, or 8:20. The bike lay on the sidewalk next to the sneaker for something like four hours before Danny Tcheda spotted them. Maxton’s takes up just about all the land on that section of Queen Street, and no one was showing up for the Strawberry Fest until noon. T.J. describes being afraid if the Fisherman pulled Ty into that hedge, maybe he’d come back for more! In answer to Jack’s final question, the boy says, â€Å"Ebbie told us to say Ty rode away from in front of the Allsorts, so people wouldn’t, like, blame us. In case he was killed. Ty isn’t really killed, is he? Kids like Ty don’t get killed.† â€Å"I hope not,† Jack says. â€Å"Me, too.† T.J. snuffles and wipes his nose on his arm. â€Å"Let’s get you on your way home,† Jack says, leaving his chair. T.J. stands up and begins to move along the side of the table. â€Å"Oh! I just remembered!† â€Å"What?† â€Å"I saw feathers on the sidewalk.† The floor beneath Jack’s feet seems to roll left, then right, like the deck of a ship. He steadies himself by grasping the back of a chair. â€Å"Really.† He takes care to compose himself before turning to the boy. â€Å"What do you mean, feathers?† â€Å"Black ones. Big. They looked like they came off a crow. One was next to the bike, and the other was in the sneaker.† â€Å"That’s funny,† says Jack, buying time until he ceases to reverberate from the unexpected appearance of feathers in his conversation with T. J. Renniker. That he should respond at all is ridiculous; that he should have felt, even for a second, that he was likely to faint is grotesque. T.J.’s feathers were real crow feathers on a real sidewalk. His were dream feathers, feathers from unreal robins, illusory as everything else in a dream. Jack tells himself a number of helpful things like this, and soon he does feel normal once again, but we should be aware that, for the rest of the night and much of the next day, the word feathers floats, surrounded by an aura as charged as an electrical storm, beneath and through his thoughts, now and then surfacing with the sizzling crackle of a lightning bolt. â€Å"It’s weird,† T.J. says. â€Å"Like, how did a feather get in his sneaker?† â€Å"Maybe the wind blew it there,† Jack says, conveniently ignoring the nonexistence of wind this day. Reassured by the stability of the floor, he waves T.J. into the hallway, then follows him out. Ebbie Wexler pushes himself off the wall and stamps up alongside Bobby Dulac. Still in character, Bobby might have been carved from a block of marble. Ronnie Metzger sidles away. â€Å"We can send these boys home,† Jack says. â€Å"They’ve done their duty.† â€Å"T.J., what did you say?† Ebbie asks, glowering. â€Å"He made it clear that you know nothing about your friend’s disappearance,† Jack says. Ebbie relaxes, though not without distributing scowls all around. The final and most malignant scowl is for Jack, who raises his eyebrows. â€Å"I didn’t cry,† Ebbie says. â€Å"I was scared, but I didn’t cry.† â€Å"You were scared, all right,† Jack says. â€Å"Next time, don’t lie to me. You had your chance to help the police, and you blew it.† Ebbie struggles with this notion and succeeds, at least partially, in absorbing it. â€Å"Okay, but I wasn’t really flippin’ at you. It was the stupid music.† â€Å"I hated it, too. The guy who was with me insisted on playing it. You know who he was?† In the face of Ebbie’s suspicious glower, Jack says, â€Å"George Rathbun.† It is like saying â€Å"Superman,† or â€Å"Arnold Schwarzenegger†; Ebbie’s suspicion evaporates, and his face transforms. Innocent wonder fills his small, close-set eyes. â€Å"You know George Rathbun?† â€Å"He’s one of my best friends,† Jack says, not adding that most of his other best friends are, in a sense, also George Rathbun. â€Å"Cool,† Ebbie says. In the background, T.J. and Ronnie echo, â€Å"Cool.† â€Å"George is pretty cool,† Jack says. â€Å"I’ll tell him you said that. Let’s go downstairs and get you kids on your bikes.† Still wrapped in the glory of having gazed upon the great, the tremendous George Rathbun, the boys mount their bicycles, pedal away down Sumner Street, and swerve off onto Second. Bobby Dulac says, â€Å"That was a good trick, what you said about George Rathbun. Sent them away happy.† â€Å"It wasn’t a trick.† So startled that he jostles back into the station house side by side with Jack, Bobby says, â€Å"George Rathbun is a friend of yours?† â€Å"Yep,† Jack says. â€Å"And sometimes, he can be a real pain in the ass.† Dale and Fred Marshall look up as Jack enters the office, Dale with a cautious expectancy, Fred Marshall with what Jack sees, heartbreakingly, as hope. â€Å"Well?† Dale says. ( feathers) â€Å"You were right, they were hiding something, but it isn’t much.† Fred Marshall slumps against the back of his chair, letting some of his belief in a future hope leak out of him like air from a punctured tire. â€Å"Not long after they got to the 7-Eleven, the Wexler boy sent T.J. down the street to look for your son,† Jack says. â€Å"When T.J. got to Queen Street, he saw the bike and the sneaker lying on the sidewalk. Of course, they all thought of the Fisherman. Ebbie Wexler figured they might get blamed for leaving him behind, and he came up with the story you heard that Tyler left them, instead of the other way around.† â€Å"If you saw all four boys around ten past eight, that means Tyler disappeared only a few minutes later. What does this guy do, lurk in hedges?† â€Å"Maybe he does exactly that,† Jack says. â€Å"Did you have people check out that hedge?† ( feathers) â€Å"The staties went over it, through it, and under it. Leaves and dirt, that’s what they came up with.† As if driving a spike with his hand, Fred Marshall bangs his fist down onto the desk. â€Å"My son was gone for four hours before anyone noticed his bike. Now it’s almost seven-thirty! He’s been missing for most of the day! I shouldn’t be sitting here, I should be driving around, looking for him.† â€Å"Everybody is looking for your son, Fred,† Dale says. â€Å"My guys, the staties, even the FBI.† â€Å"I have no faith in them,† Fred says. â€Å"They haven’t found Irma Freneau, have they? Why should they find my son? As far as I can see, I’ve got one chance here.† When he looks at Jack, emotion turns his eyes into lamps. â€Å"That chance is you, Lieutenant. Will you help me?† Jack’s third and most troubling thought, withheld until now and purely that of an experienced policeman, causes him to say, â€Å"I’d like to talk to your wife. If you’re planning on visiting her tomorrow, would you mind if I came along?† Dale blinks and says, â€Å"Maybe we should talk about this.† â€Å"Do you think it would do some good?† â€Å"It might,† Jack says. â€Å"Seeing you might do her some good, anyhow,† Fred says. â€Å"Don’t you live in Norway Valley? That’s on the way to Arden. I can pick you up about nine.† â€Å"Jack,† Dale says. â€Å"See you at nine,† Jack says, ignoring the signals of mingled distress and anger emanating from his friend, also the little voice that whispers ( feather). â€Å"Amazing,† says Henry Leyden. â€Å"I don’t know whether to thank you or congratulate you. Both, I suppose. It’s too late in the game to make ‘bitchrod,’ like me, but I think you could have a shot at ‘dope.’ â€Å" â€Å"Don’t lose your head. The only reason I went down there was to keep the boy’s father from coming to my house.† â€Å"That wasn’t the only reason.† â€Å"You’re right. I was feeling sort of edgy and hemmed in. I felt like getting out, changing the scenery.† â€Å"But there was also another reason.† â€Å"Henry, you are hip-deep in pigshit, do you know that? You want to think I acted out of civic duty, or honor, or compassion, or altruism, or something, but I didn’t. I don’t like having to say this, but I’m a lot less good-hearted and responsible than you think I am.† † ‘Hip-deep in pigshit’? Man, you are absolutely on the money. I have been hip-deep in pigshit, not to mention chest-deep and even chin-deep in pigshit, most of my life.† â€Å"Nice of you to admit it.† â€Å"However, you misunderstand me. You’re right, I do think you are a good, decent person. I don’t just think it, I know it. You’re modest, you’re compassionate, you’re honorable, you’re responsible no matter what you think of yourself right now. But that wasn’t what I was talking about.† â€Å"What did you mean, then?† â€Å"The other reason you decided to go to the police station is connected to this problem, this concern, whatever it is, that’s been bugging you for the past couple of weeks. It’s like you’ve been walking around under a shadow.† â€Å"Huh,† Jack said. â€Å"This problem, this secret of yours, takes up half your attention, so you’re only half present; the rest of you is somewhere else. Sweetie, don’t you think I can tell when you’re worried and preoccupied? I might be blind, but I can see.† â€Å"Okay. Let’s suppose that something has been on my mind lately. What could that have to do with going to the station house?† â€Å"There are two possibilities. Either you were going off to confront it, or you were fleeing from it.† Jack does not speak. â€Å"All of which suggests that this problem has to do with your life as a policeman. It could be some old case coming back to haunt you. Maybe a psychotic thug you put in jail was released and is threatening to kill you. Or, hell, I’m completely full of shit and you found out you have liver cancer and a life expectancy of three months.† â€Å"I don’t have cancer, at least as far as I know, and no ex-con wants to kill me. All of my old cases, most of them, anyway, are safely asleep in the records warehouse of the LAPD. Of course, something has been bothering me lately, and I should have expected you to see that. But I didn’t want to, I don’t know, burden you with it until I managed to figure it out for myself.† â€Å"Tell me one thing, will you? Were you going toward it, or running away?† â€Å"There’s no answer to that question.† â€Å"We shall see. Isn’t the food ready by now? I’m starving, literally starving. You cook too slow. I would have been done ten minutes ago.† â€Å"Hold your horses,† Jack says. â€Å"Coming right up. The problem is this crazy kitchen of yours.† â€Å"Most rational kitchen in America. Maybe in the world.† After ducking out of the police station quickly enough to avoid a useless conversation with Dale, Jack had yielded to impulse and called Henry with the offer of making dinner for both of them. A couple of good steaks, a nice bottle of wine, grilled mushrooms, a big salad. He could pick up everything they needed in French Landing. Jack had cooked for Henry on three or four previous occasions, and Henry had prepared one stupendously bizarre dinner for Jack. (The housekeeper had taken all the herbs and spices off their rack to wash it, and she had put everything back in the wrong place.) What was he doing in French Landing? He’d explain that when he got there. At eight-thirty he had pulled up before Henry’s roomy white farmhouse, greeted Henry, and carried the groceries and his copy of Bleak House into the kitchen. He had tossed the book to the far end of the table, opened the wine, poured a glass for his host and one for himself, and started cooking. He’d had to sp end several minutes reacquainting himself with the eccentricities of Henry’s kitchen, in which objects were not located by kind pans with pans, knives with knives, pots with pots but according to what sort of meal required their usage. If Henry wanted to whip up a grilled trout and some new potatoes, he had only to open the proper cabinet to find all the necessary utensils. These were arranged in four basic groups (meat, fish, poultry, and vegetables), with many subgroups and subsubgroups within each category. The filing system confounded Jack, who often had to peer into several widely separated realms before coming upon the frying pan or spatula he was looking for. As Jack chopped, wandered the shelves, and cooked, Henry had laid the table in the kitchen with plates and silverware and sat down to quiz his troubled friend. Now the steaks, rare, are transported to the plates, the mushrooms arrayed around them, and the enormous wooden salad bowl installed on the center of the table. Henry pronounces the meal delicious, takes a sip of his wine, and says, â€Å"If you still won’t talk about your trouble, whatever it is, you’d better at least tell me what happened at the station. I suppose there’s very little doubt that another child was snatched.† â€Å"Next to none, I’m sorry to say. It’s a boy named Tyler Marshall. His father’s name is Fred Marshall, and he works out at Goltz’s. Do you know him?† â€Å"Been a long time since I bought a combine,† Henry says. â€Å"The first thing that struck me was that Fred Marshall was a very nice guy,† Jack says, and goes on to recount, in great detail and leaving nothing out, the evening’s events and revelations, except for one matter, that of his third, his unspoken, thought. â€Å"You actually asked to visit Marshall’s wife? In the mental wing at French County Lutheran?† â€Å"Yes, I did,† Jack says. â€Å"I’m going there tomorrow.† â€Å"I don’t get it.† Henry eats by hunting the food with his knife, spearing it with his fork, and measuring off a narrow strip of steak. â€Å"Why would you want to see the mother?† â€Å"Because one way or another I think she’s involved,† Jack says. â€Å"Oh, come off it. The boy’s own mother?† â€Å"I’m not saying she’s the Fisherman, because of course she isn’t. But according to her husband, Judy Marshall’s behavior started to change before Amy St. Pierre disappeared. She got worse and worse as the murders went on, and on the day her son vanished, she flipped out completely. Her husband had to have her committed.† â€Å"Wouldn’t you say she had an excellent reason to break down?† â€Å"She flipped out before anyone told her about her son. Her husband thinks she has ESP! He said she saw the murders in advance, she knew the Fisherman was on the way. And she knew her son was gone before they found the bike when Fred Marshall came home, he found her tearing at the walls and talking nonsense. Completely out of control.† â€Å"You hear about lots of cases where a mother is suddenly aware of some threat or injury to her child. A pyschic bond. Sounds like mumbo jumbo, but I guess it happens.† â€Å"I don’t believe in ESP, and I don’t believe in coincidence.† â€Å"So what are you saying?† â€Å"Judy Marshall knows something, and whatever she knows is a real showstopper. Fred can’t see it he’s much too close and Dale can’t see it, either. You should have heard him talk about her.† â€Å"So what is she supposed to know?† â€Å"I think she may know the doer. I think it has to be someone close to her. Whoever he is, she knows his name, and it’s driving her crazy.† Henry frowns and uses his inchworm technique to entrap another piece of steak. â€Å"So you’re going to the hospital to open her up,† he finally says. â€Å"Yes. Basically.† A mysterious silence follows this statement. Henry quietly whittles away at the meat, chews what he whittles, and washes it down with Jordan cabernet. â€Å"How did your deejay gig go? Was it okay?† â€Å"It was a thing of beauty. All the adorable old swingers cut loose on the dance floor, even the ones in wheelchairs. One guy sort of rubbed me the wrong way. He was rude to a woman named Alice, and he asked me to play ‘Lady Magowan’s Nightmare,’ which doesn’t exist, as you probably know â€Å" â€Å"It’s ‘Lady Magowan’s Dream.’ Woody Herman.† â€Å"Good boy. The thing was, he had this terrible voice. It sounded like something out of hell! Anyhow, I didn’t have the Woody Herman record, and he asked for the Bunny Berigan ‘I Can’t Get Started.’ Which happened to be Rhoda’s favorite record. What with my goofy ear hallucinations and all, it shook me up. I don’t know why.† For a few minutes they concentrate on their plates. Jack says, â€Å"What do you think, Henry?† Henry tilts his head, auditing an inner voice. Scowling, he sets down his fork. The inner voice continues to demand his attention. He adjusts his shades and faces Jack. â€Å"In spite of everything you say, you still think like a cop.† Jack bridles at the suspicion that Henry is not paying him a compliment. â€Å"What do you mean by that?† â€Å"Cops see differently than people who aren’t cops. When a cop looks at someone, he wonders what he’s guilty of. The possibility of innocence never enters his mind. To a longtime cop, a guy who’s put in ten years or more, everyone who isn’t a cop is guilty. Only most of them haven’t been caught yet.† Henry has described the mind-set of dozens of men Jack once worked with. â€Å"Henry, how do you know about that?† â€Å"I can see it in their eyes,† Henry says. â€Å"That’s the way policemen approach the world. You are a policeman.† Jack blurts out, â€Å"I am a coppiceman.† Appalled, he blushes. â€Å"Sorry, that stupid phrase has been running around and around in my head, and it just popped out.† â€Å"Why don’t we clear the dishes and start on Bleak House?† When their few dishes have been stacked beside the sink, Jack takes the book from the far side of the table and follows Henry toward the living room, pausing on the way to glance, as he always does, at his friend’s studio. A door with a large glass insert opens into a small, soundproofed chamber bristling with electronic equipment: the microphone and turntable back from Maxton’s and reinstalled before Henry’s well-padded, swiveling chair; a disc changer and matching digital-analog converter mount, close at hand, beside a mixing board and a massive tape recorder adjacent to the other, larger window, which looks into the kitchen. When Henry had been planning the studio, Rhoda requested the windows, because, she’d said, she wanted to be able to see him at work. There isn’t a wire in sight. The entire studio has the disciplined neatness of the captain’s quarters on a ship. â€Å"Looks like you’re going to work tonight,† Jack says. â€Å"I want to get two more Henry Shakes ready to send, and I’m working on something for a birthday salute to Lester Young and Charlie Parker.† â€Å"Were they born on the same day?† â€Å"Close enough. August twenty-seventh and twenty-ninth. You know, I can’t quite tell if you’ll want the lights on or not.† â€Å"Let’s turn them on,† Jack says. And so Henry Leyden switches on the two lamps beside the window, and Jack Sawyer moves to the overstuffed chair near the fireplace and turns on the tall lamp at one of its rounded arms and watches as his friend walks unerringly to the light just inside the front door and the ornate fixture alongside his own, his favorite resting place, the Mission-style sofa, clicking first one, then the other into life, then settles down onto the sofa with one leg stretched out along its length. Even, low light pervades the long room and swells into greater brightness around Jack’s chair. â€Å"Bleak House, by Charles Dickens,† he says. He clears his throat. â€Å"Okay, Henry, we’re off to the races.† â€Å"London. Michaelmas Term lately over,† he reads, and marches into a world made of soot and mud. Muddy dogs, muddy horses, muddy people, a day without light. Soon he has reached the second paragraph: â€Å"Fog everywhere. Fog up the river, where it flows among green aits and meadows; fog down the river, where it rolls defiled among the tiers of shipping, and the waterside pollutions of a great (and dirty) city. Fog on the Essex marshes, fog on the Kentish heights. Fog creeping into the cabooses of collier-brigs; fog lying out on the yards, and hovering in the rigging of great ships; fog drooping on the gunwales of barges and small boats.† His voice catches, and his mind temporarily drifts off-focus. What he is reading unhappily reminds him of French Landing, of Sumner Street and Chase Street, of the lights in the window of the Oak Tree Inn, the Thunder Five lurking in Nailhouse Row, and the gray ascent from the river, of Queen Street and Maxton’s hedges, the little houses spreading out on grids, all of it choked by unseen fog; which engulfs a battered NO TRESPASSING sign on the highway and swallows the Sand Bar and glides hungry and searching down the valleys. â€Å"Sorry,† he says. â€Å"I was just thinking â€Å" â€Å"I was, too,† Henry says. â€Å"Go on, please.† But for that brief flicker of an old NO TRESPASSING sign completely unaware of the black house he one day will have to enter, Jack concentrates again on the page and continues reading Bleak House. The windows darken as the lamps grow warmer. The case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce grinds through the courts, aided or impeded by attorneys Chizzle, Mizzle, and Drizzle; Lady Dedlock leaves Sir Leicester Dedlock alone at their great estate with its moldy chapel, stagnant river, and â€Å"Ghost’s Walk†; Esther Summerson begins to chirp away in the first person. Our friends decide that the appearance of Esther demands a small libation, if they are to get through much more chirping. Henry unfolds from the sofa, sails into the kitchen, and returns with two short, fat glasses one-third filled with Balvenie Doublewood single-malt whiskey, as well as a glass of plain water for the reader. A couple of sips, a few murmurs of appreciation, and Jack resumes. Esther, Esther, Esther, but benea th the water torture of her relentless sunniness the story gathers steam and carries both reader and listener along in its train. Having come to a convenient stopping point, Jack closes the book and yawns. Henry stands up and stretches. They move to the door, and Henry follows Jack outside beneath a vast night sky brilliantly scattered with stars. â€Å"Tell me one thing,† Henry says. â€Å"Shoot.† â€Å"When you were in the station house, did you really feel like a cop? Or did you feel like you were pretending to be one?† â€Å"Actually, it was kind of surprising,† Jack says. â€Å"In no time at all, I felt like a cop again.† â€Å"Good.† â€Å"Why is that good?† â€Å"Because it means you were running toward that mysterious secret, not away from it.† Shaking his head and smiling, deliberately not giving Henry the satisfaction of a reply, Jack steps up into his vehicle and says good-bye from the slight but distinct elevation of the driver’s seat. The engine coughs and churns, his headlights snap into being, and Jack is on his way home. How to cite Black House Chapter Eight, Essay examples

Thursday, December 5, 2019

Social Realism Essay Example For Students

Social Realism Essay Social Realism In ArtSocial realism, in art, describes both a specific stylistic approach and an overall attitude toward the subject. Social realism aims toward the not so lovely part of life. Its goal is not to amuse but to show the observer the evils of poverty , immorality and war. Social Realists believed that paintings should describe and express the people, their problems and their times. The roots of social realism lie in the 18th century. Some of the artists involved in the start of social realism are William Hogarth, Francisco de Goya and Honor Daumier. William Hogarth attacked drunkenness and foolish extravagance with his engravings of the 1730s to the 50s. Goya had a series of horrifying etchings titled The Disasters of War. Daumier had satiricial lithographs of the 1830s to 40s, that reflect deep social concern. Social realism painting declined, in France, after the 1860s which was the time it became important in Great Britian. Sir Luke Fildess Applicants for Admission to a Casual Ward, Frank Holls Newgate: Committed for Trial, and Hubert Herkomers Pressing to the West depict grimy scenes of urban poverty. In the 1900s the British social realist tradition was carried on in the United States by the Ashcan school. After 1920 its emphasis was carried on by several major American painters. Ben Shahn was one of the artists in the 1920s and early 30s. He showed laborers and other victims of the Depression as well as scenes of the Sacco and Vanzetti trial and execution. Also Ivan Albright and Edward Hopper focused on the isolation of individual people in a society.

Thursday, November 28, 2019

Pros and Cons Erp Essay Example

Pros and Cons Erp Paper Akhilesh Nair Deepesh Chatterjee Mithun Vishnu Nikhil Kumar OPEN SOURCE ERP PROS and CONS Contents Introduction3 Commercial and Open Source ERP Software6 Open Source ERP Solution Pros8 Open Source ERP Solution Cons10 Open Source ERP Success Story11 Company Overview11 Issue At Hand11 The Solution11 Results12 The Bottom Line12 Top Open Source ERP Applications to Look Out for13 ?Goodness of Open Source ERP Packages13 ?Open Source ERP Packages13 ?Java-Based Open Source Finance Apps13 ?Latest Developments13 ?GnuCash: The Ultimate Free Open Source Accounting Software14 Introduction Open source ERP is an enterprise resource planning (ERP) software system whose  source code  is made publicly available. The  open source  model allows companies to access the ERP systems code and customize it using their own IT department instead of paying extra for vendor customization services and licensing, as is typically the case with closed source programs. Open source ERP can be particularly attractive to small to mid-sized businesses (SMBs) that want to upgrade or customize their ERP systems without paying large licensing and support fees. Open source brings an alternative which addresses many of the key problems of both custom and commercial enterprise software. It begins by offering the user a freely available code base as a starting point. The user can try it for free to see if it meets his needs. There is no risk of upfront licensing fees for software that may not work. If no modifications are required, open source software can be implemented with the same rapid time-to-market as commercial packages. We will write a custom essay sample on Pros and Cons Erp specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Pros and Cons Erp specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Pros and Cons Erp specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer If customizations are required, the user has a head start with an existing code base. Furthermore, he can leverage the expertise of both in-house and open source community developers. An open source project brings with it the domain knowledge and business requirements of many contributing organizations, significantly reducing the specification risk typical of custom software. Open source communities also offer user-developers collaborative help in developing and debugging of his software. The net result is better software in less time. Longer term, open source offers the user the control of custom software and the external resources previously available only with commercial software. With the source code in hand, the user can decide on future support and upgrades. There is no one to discontinue the software for him. At the same time, because the software shares the common roots with open source, he can obtain support and upgrades from the open source community or purchase professional-quality support from a range of vendors in the community. Thus, the risks of becoming stranded due to the loss of vendor support or key employees are significantly reduced with open source. Selection of ERP system Ease/Speed  of  Implementation There exist a sentiment that implementation takes too long. It is hard to state whether proprietary or open source ERP systems are faster and easier to implement. On one hand, open source solutions are, in general, believed to be less user-friendly. On the other hand, ERP vendors (or their partners) implement proprietary ERPs, so there is no clear need for them to make ERP systems easy to install. However, it can be stated that if the ERP system is easier to implement then it would be possible for the ERP vendor to sell more licenses, since it can be assumed that there is a lack of  implementing consultants. Moreover, ease and speed of implementation does not depend only on the graphical user interface and number of settings one needs to select from but  mainly on the amount of required customizations. Further development does not depend only programmer’s speed of writing code but also on requirements collection, their analysis and correct understanding Price Unless the company has the capabilities to implement an open source ERP system and program all the necessary customizations, open source ERP is not really for free. Consultants for open source ERP systems may charge significantly more than e. g. consultants for MS EPR systems, since there are rather only a few of them. On the other hand, an open source ERP system can be a perfect solution for a starting company, which has no established business processes – the company can adapt to the system, i. e. it does not require customization, so consultants need to be hired only to install the system. Another advantage is that an open source ERP system can be adjusted directly to the intended business processes in case at least one of the employees has a good  computer science background Vendor  Support Though this criterion seems to be more important for proprietary ERP systems, since it is customers of proprietary ERP systems, who are locked in with the vendors but on the other hand, they have security that the support exists. In the open source world, this criterion can be interpreted as having a large enough community, which could support the organization implementing a particular open source ERP system. Reliability Vendors providing proprietary ERP systems try to achieve as high reliability as possible but community using an open source ERP system might be able to find errors faster, since it is larger in numbers and each of them tries to make sense of code. While in proprietary ERP system vendor organization, it is always the same people looking into the code, so it is much harder for them to spot a mistake, especially in the code, which was written by them. Ease  of  Use It is unclear whether proprietary or open source ERP systems are easier to use. On one hand, ERP system vendors try to achieve competitive advantage providing ERP systems that are easier to use. On the other hand, open source solutions are, in general, believed to be less user-friendly [51, 52]. But the community of users (with programming skills) is likely to improve the system to the level that is more-or-less acceptable for most of the users. Customization Proprietary ERP systems are often programmed in vendor-specific languages. Companies can be sure that vendors (or their partners) will customize and set up their ERP systems. But it also means that they are locked to the vendor (or its partners). Since open source ERP systems are programmed in widely known programming languages, there is a greater pool of potential programmers, who can do it. Openness of code is not a domain of OSS ERPs anymore. E. g. MS Dynamics AX allows users to change a significant percentage of the code. Integration Customers are often searching for means of integration of their systems/data. Many proprietary ERP systems inherently allow for usage of data warehouses. It is possible that there fewer proprietary than open source ERP systems, which allow for communication to other systems through API. On the other hand, this communication can be solved even by less standard means (through customization). Organizational  Fit Existing ERP systems try to focus on business processes, however it can be suggested that they do not explicitly describe the business processes that are supported. Besides that, ERP systems are not easily adjustable to changes in business processes. Unfortunately, it seems that this is a problem of both open source and proprietary ERP systems. Flexibility Flexibility is required because of rapidly changing environment, which is likely to lead to new business models, which need to be supported without disturbing the end-users and on-going business. This requires an ERP system to have a robust architecture, which would allow for these requirements. Many existing proprietary ERP systems arose from MRP systems through small iterations. So systems, which were created more recently and do not carry this burden, are more likely to be more flexible, which could be the case ith open source ERP systems. Training First, it can be said that the amount of training required depends on the ERP systems  Ã¢â‚¬â€œhow self-explanatory it is and how many functions it offers. Secondly, users of  proprietary ERP systems are more-or-less dependent on the vendor or partner’s related to the specific ERP system. On  the other hand, users of open source ERP  systems may have a hard time to find a consultancy company offering training for a particular system. Latest  Technologies There is no reason why proprietary ERP systems should be better in using latest technology but it is mostly vendors of proprietary ERP systems, who claim that their competitive advance (over other (regardless whether open source or proprietary) ERP systems) is usage of latest technology. Proprietary vendors may promote them more but similar solutions may exist  in the open source world. OpenERP is a full suite of business software, including the following modules: Accounting: Record your operations in a few clicks and manage all your financial activities in one place. Application Builder:   The OpenERP application builder lets you customize every module of OpenERP directly from the web interface without any development required. CRM: Track leads and opportunities customized your sales cycle, controls statistics and forecasts and marketing campaign automation to improve your sales performance. Human Resources:   The module is for personnel information management, leave, time tracking, attendance‚ expenses, payroll, periodic evaluations and recruitment. Invoicing:  Create and supervise your entire supplier and customer invoices. Manufacturing:  Plan and control your supply chain through different applications in the Manufacturing module. Marketing:  Marketing campaigns can help you automate email and email sending, qualify leads and encourage customers to contact the right department. Point of Sale:  The OpenERP touch screen point of sale allows you to manage your shop sales. Its fully web-based so you dont need to install or deploy any software. Project Management: Keep track and manage your projects using tasks for short term project execution or plan phases for long term planning. Purchase:  Create and track your purchase orders, manage your suppliers info, control your products reception process and check suppliers invoices. Warehouse Management:  An inventory management system to easily manage complex needs: tracking stocks of suppliers/customers, full traceability, accounting links, and more. OpenERP supports multi-warehouse management based on hierarchical location structure. Because OpenERP is open source and backed by a large community, you can take advantage of more than 700 OpenERP modules on the  OpenERP Apps website. These applications extend functionality of the ERP software and provide more business apps for things like manufacturing, localization, project management and more. The other benefit to users is that you do not need to use all the business apps. You can choose only the modules that you need for your business from the suite (e. g. just CRM or CRM and invoicing). This keeps your OpenERP tidy and less overwhelming if you do not need all the business apps. You can add additional modules (at no cost) as you need them. Architecture Compiere and ERP5 are two of the top notch open source ERP systems that are widely accepted and implemented. The architecture of an Open Source ERP can be explained using the structured architectural design of compere and a comparison with ERP5. ERP5 offers powerful ERP solution for small businesses. ERP5 was originally developed as apparel industry solution for an organization with more than 300 employees on 5 internationally distributed sites. The special requirements of the apparel industry are mass customization of products and hence the need for handling unstructured and multimedia data. Mass customization means that many variants of a product are possible. The original modules are now generalized as business templates. It has the exact features that include customer relationship management (CRM), production management (MRP), supply chain management (SCM), product design management (PDM), accounting, human resources and e-commerce. For the small businesses, ERP5 has an Express edition which integrates ERP, CRM and KM funtionality. ERP5 uses the open source Python based ZOPE (Z Object Publishing Environment) application server and content management framework as its foundation. The web based Zope Management Interface is used as IDE for developing ERP5 modules. The application server also supports multiple languages, provides a security model, object persistence, and remote object access trough HTTP, XML-RPC and SOAP. ERP5 uses, extends or provides 5 important Zope components: Page Templates implement the web user interface and presentation logic. Workflows are used for the development of various types of decision workflows ERP5Form49 is used for web form development. XMLObjects add synchronization capabilities and autonomous activity (timed, pre- and postcondition triggers) to ERP5- Zope objects. The synchronization of distributed sites is carried out through XML export and import and also supports unreliable communication channels, which are allowed to fail. The duplication of reporting data to a relational database allows simple SQL querying. Compiere is uniquely designed to avoid the duplication of information and the need for synchronization. The design of Compiere allows customization of the application done easily. Modules in compiere include CRM, Quote to Cash, Requisition-to-Pay, Partner Relations Management, Warehouse, Supply Chain Management, Performance Analysis, Double-entry Book-keeping, Work-flow-Management and Web Store. Compieres architecture uses a fat Java Client (Java Webstart). The accounting engine is on the application server (JBOSS J2EE container). Thin Web clients are used for web store and some CRM functionality. There is also a beta thin client serving all forms, but it needs further work to be equivalent to the fat client. The used application server supports clustering. No cluster installation is documented. Emails can be sent and files can be attached to documents. Compiere has a built-in reporting engine. A Sourceforge side project provides Jasper Report77 integration. CSV export and import of data is provided by the commercially available migration tool. Other interfaces can be developed in Java using the briefly (Javadoc) documented APIs (application programming interfaces). The database abstraction layer is SQL-centric which was initially developed for Oracle. Commercial and Open Source ERP Software Pricing: Most open source software is freely distributed with no up-front licensing fees. Further savings come from ease of deployment, training and integration. Companies that implement open source ERP solutions often report a 50% savings over proprietary systems. With free systematic  open source ERP training methodology like SOSE! Site you can own your software for no cost. Commercial ERP is an expensive package and suitable only for bigger corporations. The prices do vary significantly but according to the size of the company and volume of business. In any cases they have been found to be extremely costly irrespective of the quantum in which they are purchased. These packages are not subject to flexibility and molding. Their usage modalities are rarely liberal and cause troubles when they are modified. Hence the deployments also turn out to be costly and inconvenient due to the procedures involved, in the future. Another major allegation against the package is that they consist of lot of  hidden costs. Flexibility: When you compare commercial and open source ERP, commercial systems are not flexible in nature. They let business with no other choice but to change their way of business. However when it comes to open source ERP everything was decided by the code . Therefore companies can do the necessary modifications in code and without much support from the vendor. Another advantage of open source is that it does not interfere with the regular schedule of the company during the implementation stage. This is a major difference between commercial and open source ERP applications. You should use business software for your needs, you should not change the way of your business to fit into software needs. Duration:- When you study commercial and open source ERP,The time allotted for implementing open source ERP is very less when compared with commercial ERP. The innumerable number of complexions in commercial ERP calls for longer time span. It consumes a lot of time not only during implementation but in every stage of ERP process due to the nature of work involved. With use of SITE  ERP implementation methodology  you can reduce time required for open source ERP to the minimum. Dependence: When it comes to the question of relying on the vendor the open source ERP owners enjoys a considerable edge than the commercial ERP. Since open source are license free users having full freedom for taking care of needs by themselves. The productivity is also high in open source ERP systems and the failure rates are very low. Results: Success rate of open source ERP are considerably more compare to proprietary ERP software’s. Read  open source ERP success stories  for more details. Training: Lots of training is required for using commercial ERP. It calls for lots of investments in terms of time and money. If they dont give the necessary impetus the results will be poor. Similarly validity of training sessions designed and handled exclusively by the ERP vendor is also debatable. On the other hand Open Source ERP does not require much training. The results are also bound to be effective because the user gets to learn through the process of self training. The company need not spend much on training and makes a minimal utilization of the resources. This is another way of reducing the level of dependence on the ERP vendor. You can get free  online ERP training  with SOSE!. Security: On comparing commercial and open source ERP applications, Commercial ERP systems are less secure. They are by and large prone to the traps and pitfalls of hackers. Even though open source ERP makes everything transparent and available in the public domain it bring into the notice of user whenever something goes wrong. Visibility: Few end users change the underlying code of an open source application. But when the need arises, open source provides access to the code to make changes to suit each distributor’s unique business needs. Open source customers enjoy a refreshing level of transparency from their vendors around activities such as bug reporting and fixing and road map planning. Longevity: Virtually any ERP solution will work well when initially deployed, but time is the true test of every ERP solution and vendor. Unforeseen opportunities will likely drive changes to a business’ objectives and necessitate changes to its ERP solution. Independently, a vendor’s commitment to supporting a solution could change over time. An open source solution with a flexible foundation addresses today’s needs and safeguards the solution’s future. Because the user has the source code, a solution can never be bought or merged out of existence, meaning the investment lasts as long as needed. Independent services for  ERP implementation support  is also available for free with open source ERP. | Conclusion: Functionality is the top consideration when reviewing ERP solutions, but it should be closely linked with evaluating open source and proprietary options. The demonstrable benefits of open source products reach deep into a company’s infrastructure. You can evaluate and  select business ERP software  which give functionality you need. The differences between  commercial and open source ERP  show the Edge enjoyed by open source ERP players. And independent free ERP trainer likes SOSE! Will help open source ERP to reach people. Open Source ERP Solution Pros * Negligible Investment and Maintenance Costs Open source ERP solutions hold a big pro in the fact that there are no huge un-front licensing fees, pre-sales cost associated with them, thus, the initial cost of an Open Source ERP solution is usually far less than a comparable proprietary program. There’s minimal dependency on the ERP vendor in most cases. In a study done by Meta Group, where it surveyed 63 companies – including small, medium and large enterprises in a range of industries – it was found that the average cost of implementation of ERP was $15 million, with the highest as $300 million and lowest as $400,000. Commercial ERP also has pre-sales cost associated with them. * Widely customizable Open Source ERP solutions are highly customizable allowing for companies to mold them to meet specific business process requirements. It is possible because it comes with two versions of code; the compiled version and the un-compiled version. There are a few reasons to do customizations, which are; functionality needed for core competencies, your front or back office systems require the customizations, you want more or less fields, or you have regulatory requirements that require the customization. So, if you need customizations, then by all means you must have them with a clear eye on the whos who of the support of customizations and financials needed. But, commercial ERP does not provide an easy and inexpensive customization of the ERP software to fit the business model changes whatsoever. Flexibility Open source ERP gives lots of freedom like free redistribution, freedom to access and modify the source code and freedom for the end user to use it for any purpose they wish to. GPL licensing of Open Source Software enables developer community to rapidly contribute to the software development and enhance features. * Total Cost of Ownership TCO of Open Source ERP solution may be less given the option of virtually free ope rating systems (Linux)and databases (MySQL) and potentially lower maintenance fees. Independent Integrations Open Source ERP solutions typically have a wide range of integration formats so that they are employable well with other software components. * Ease of Training Open source ERP packages come with complete licenses, comprehensive documentation and user manuals, helping the users to learn and understand their usage. No special trainings or consultants may be hired. * Ease with implementation The implementation can also be carried out separately without disturbing the regular operation of the business. Also, with open source ERP, the customers can do any sort of experimentations even while in production without losing the base or 100% availability. * Shorter implementation timings -The open source ERP packages require considerably shorter implementation time, which is another big positive aspect whereas in case of commercial ERPs , even six months are considered to be short period for implementation * Reduced or no Dependency on ERP Vendor As the open source ERP packages have proper documentation and user manuals, there is no or reduced dependency on ERP vendor to come and fix the issue. A good programmer can handle the issue in considerably less time. * High Accuracy and Quality The productivity and accuracy is high in the case of open source ERP systems. Also, the failure rates are often discovered to be on the lower side in comparison to commercial ERP packages. All open software has strong user community which is also very responsive and very knowledgeable. * Open source testing The open source users in the process of development are able to thoroughly test and 99% of the bugs are reported and highly secure. Except a very few, most of the commercial ERP systems are tested to a decent extent, but still are many security flaws, traps, pitfalls and loop holes, which can be easily harnessed by the hackers. * Handling security With the ever evolving nature of technology, security has become a problem of the past. And, there are many open source security applications on the market today which can be easily used with open-source ERP, which include; Nessus, Snort, Nagios, SpamAssassin, ClamAV, Open SSL, OpenSSH, Nmap, Ossec HIDS, and Wireshark. Open Source ERP Solution Cons * Risk of over-customization Delivering customized codes could prove troublesome for some organizations just in case you get into over-done customization and you can’t get out of it. Too many customizations can be a definite issue. * Difficulty in finding implementation and support resources Open Source ERP solutions also calls for the best and finest programmers of open source  ERP solutions on the code. This may be difficult and may cause higher support costs at times. Compatibility Issues with Proprietary Packages Some of the open source ERP packages are incompatible with the proprietary products of certain corporations like Microsoft, Oracle, or IBM etc (sometime due to variation in platform used for implementation). * Lack of Dedicated Support from a Specific Vendor Despite all of the benefits of open source ERP packages, the fear of the failure of open source ERP package during crucial stages of a project is considerable driving forces for commercial ERPs where vendors provide dedicate support in lieu of big bucks on licensing costs. Unstructured approach to issue resolution There are no proper defined product roadmaps and time line as most of the enhancements and bug fixes are done by freelancers and independent consulting companies and developers based on their requirements. * Devoid of feature- richness Proprietary software are feature-lade and have more features that are not found in the case of open source ERP packages mostly and may be cited helpful by commercial ERP vendors as a tool of ease and productivity. Open Source ERP Success Story Open source ERP has had its own share of successful implementations. There is no better argument for the use of an ERP solution than a testimonial by and organization which has used the system and reaped benefits from what the software has to offer. Let us take a look at a successful implementation that happened at a Danish pharmaceutical firm named Pharma Nord. The implementation was done by a firm by the name Compiere Company Overview Denmark-based Pharma Nord is one of Europe’s largest manufacturers of preventive dietary supplements and herbal remedies. The 500-person company, founded in 1981, develops, manufactures and markets scientifically well-founded dietary supplements, herbal remedies and medical drugs with optimal bio-availability. Pharma Nord’s products are available in 50 countries throughout Europe, Asia and North America. Issue At Hand Due to market success with its initial line of dietary supplements, Pharma Nord was continually expanding its product line and markets served. Growth in the regulated pharmaceutical industry, however, requires precise inventory management to address business and regulatory complexity. Pharma Nord’s ERP solution requirements extended well beyond the standard set of distribution and accounting functionality that performs at a global scale. They viewed the selection of an ERP solution as having a 15-20 year life. For a solution to succeed for more than 15 years, product licensing, ease of customization and confidence in the vendor were as important as out-of-the-box functionality The Solution Pharma Nord uses Compiere to manage its sales orders, invoicing, cash collections, purchasing and accounting for its sales subsidiaries and also to manage receipts and shipments in its warehouses. Pharma Nord liked what they saw in the earliest versions of Compiere in 2001. Using knowledge gained at a Compiere training class, Jacob Pedersen, Compiere Project Manager, completed an initial Compiere deployment in early 2002 focused on a single subsidiary. â€Å"We did it on the basis that we would probably find things that need to change along the way. And we have. It’s been with us, it’s been upgraded and we’ve changed quite a few things. We’ve been able to migrate to new versions of Compiere all the way from 2002 and now we’re here at 2008. I find that quite impressive. Before selecting an ERP solution, Pharma Nord assessed a number of offerings, notably Compiere and Navision. Midway through the evaluation, Navision was acquired by Microsoft. A few months later, the Linux version of Navision was discontinued. These events were eyeopening for Pharma Nord’s information technology and executive teams. The result was an even stronger requi rement for the kind of open source licensing offered by Compiere to ensure Pharma Nord’s long-term ERP success. Services from the Compiere Partner Network and Compiere helped Pharma Nord succeed. For example, the 2001 version of Compiere lacked support for tracking lot/batch numbers and expiry dates—essential functionality for the pharmaceutical industry. Pharma Nord’s sponsorship accelerated the development of this general use functionality. â€Å"We wrote the specification of exactly what the software should be able to do and it was developed by the Compiere team. † Pedersen Results Seven years after initial deployment, Pharma Nord is still going strong with Compiere. Their database has grown over the years as they’ve added business partners, products and transactions. Having transaction history available for analysis and reporting is a nice benefit from using a single product continuously over time. â€Å"What’s great about Compiere is that everything is stored at the most detailed level,† explained Pedersen. â€Å"So whenever you need to do reporting, you have a number of dimensions to work with. You can combine each product, different sizes, and different countries. All of those will be dimensions. Since you can report and group on these dimensions, you can get the answer you’re looking for by grouping and merging these data afterwards. With its sales and distribution operations productive with Compiere, Pedersen is looking toward the future: â€Å"Pharma Nord is also a manufacturing company. We manufacture all of our products ourselves. We know that Compiere is also working on manufacturing capabilities. † The Bottom Line Several unbelievably productive, efficient and highly secure open source ERP packages are not y et well recognized in the market, most of the customers are still prepared to shell out big bucks on custom commercial ERP packages. This might be due to the credibility that the big ERP producing organizations like SAP and Oracle. In times that are proving increasingly tough for organizations the world over; organizations are taking measures to tighten their operations and keeping stock of each and every penny that is spent; open source ERP packages provide a very robust and cost effective alternative for midsize companies who might not have a big budget allocated to cover their IT requirements. Even the large corporations can cut maintenance costs by making use of these brilliant packages. However, lack of support from a particular vendor is something that the open source ERP packages badly lack, and compatibility issues with other custom third party apps are one of their biggest turn-offs. Open source ERP scores higher than commercial ERP on many aspects. Yet, commercial ERP still have major share in ERP markets. This is because open source products are quite new and people are a bit conservative about choosing ERP software, because if implemented ERP software does not work, then there is serious business trouble. The first adopters of open source ERP were in Latin America, Europe, and Asian countries because of economic reasons. Now, open source ERP is gaining popularity even in US markets and one day, it will be able to challenge the domination of commercial ERP in ERP markets of USA Top Open Source ERP Applications to Look Out for The finance applications, especially the custom ERPs, can be extremely costly and burn big holes in the pockets of business owners, and as such the demand for open source apps in the field of finance has been increasing dramatically. So, let us take a look at the top open source finance applications * Goodness of Open Source ERP Packages Not only do the open source finance packages come totally free of cost, but they are also not dependant on a particular platform. However, the proprietary programs work well on only specific platforms, as theyre designed only for specific needs. As such, even after paying a lot of money on licenses, the proprietary financial packages don’t allow you to work with all platforms and require additional licenses based upon the number of machines on which, the software is used. On the contrary, the open source packages can be used on as many systems as needed, and they work well on all open source platforms like FreeBSD, UNIX, Linux, Solaris etc. * Open Source ERP Packages To cater to the needs of small business owners, countless open source finance packages were developed, such as Adempiere (an ERP Business Suite), GnuCash (a double-entry book-keeping system), ERP5 (a Zope/Python based ERP solution), and the likes of them. Turning the focus towards other popular open source ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) packages, Compiere, an ERP solution that automates processes like accounting, managing sales orders, inventory, and supply chain is also quite popular, while packages like Grisbi, a single-entry and KMyMoney a double-entry book-keeping program, have also gained significant levels of popularity. * FriFinans is yet another impressive open source finance application that offers facilities like taking orders, generating invoices, ordering products and doing a lot more. It is still under final stages of development, and isn’t tested completely yet, but even at this stage it looks quite promising. * Java-Based Open Source Finance Apps jFin, JGnash (double-entry book-keeping), JQuantLib (Quantitative Finance API framework), and JStock (stock market software) are some of the popular Java-based open source finance packages that have become extremely popular these days. * Latest Developments Looking at the latest developments,  n21 eBusiness Suite, a web-based ERP/CRM package is quite a powerful open source finance package that has emerged in the market, while  Mifos  Ã¢â‚¬â€ Microfinance Institution management software, Openbravo, and OpenERP have also been recently developed and gained high popularity soon enough. TurboCASH  is a popular double-entry book-keeping for Windows environment, while  GnuCash  is a treat for Linux/Unix/FreeBSD lovers. HomeBank  is an open source application for personal use, and  Marketceterais an open source trading platform for those whore interested in stock trading, but dont want to spend any money on using paid tools. Note:  All Linux financial tools are not necessarily free there are some proprietary packages that require licenses, and dont come under the GNU/GPL free distribution license, but majority of Linux/UNIX based finance packages are totally free for personal and commercial usage. GnuCash: The Ultimate Free Open Source Accounting Software Primarily coded in C,  GnuCash  is a free open source accounting software, and happens to be a part of the GNU Project. It runs on platforms such as OpenBSD, Solaris, UNIX, Linux, Mac OS X, FreeBSD, and the likes of them. Looking at the features of GnuCash, you’ll discover that the package allows you to perform double-entry bookkeeping, maintenance of Stock/Mutual Fund Portfolios, Scheduled Transactions, and Mortgage and Loan Repa yment Druid. It also offers support to HBCI and Multi-Currency Transaction Handling. GnuCash also comes with Transaction-Import Matching Support, OFX, QIF Import facilities, Small Business Accounting Features and even Multi-User SQL Support, making it an extensive open source finance application. What’s more, GnuCash can also export data to TXF format and can be used in tandem with the tax preparation programs with great ease. You can virtually perform all kinds of finance related tasks with the help of GnuCash.