What is a summary of the Prologue to This Bloody Mary Is the Last Thing I Own by Jonathan Rendall?

Prologue: Tiffany at the Sahara

Rendall, a British boxing and gambling journalist, begins his journalistic journey through boxing with the cryptic words, "It was a few hours after Frank Bruno attacked me at Betty Boop's Bar in the lobby of the MGM Grand that I decided to get out of boxing." He continues even more cryptically with references to the "listing white Plymouth" he is driving and to "Holmes's falling body." Either intrigued or befuddled, the reader takes a journey in the prologue to the Sahara and, accidentally, to Tiffany.

We imagine Rendall, the narrator and subject, walking from the MGM Grand. He tells us it's late and that he is trying to maneuver the listing car "away from Caesar's Palace," indicating that he had gone elsewhere (to Caesar's) from the MGM following the earlier misadventure and epiphany. He had come to Las Vegas to see the Holmes versus McCall boxing match. Rendall marks the time for us by saying the fight was "all ready over" (you have to be quick to keep up with his switches through time) before telling us that he had left the fight while it was still in its twelfth round. It seems the crowd was against Holmes, but "he was too cagey."

Now Rendall is limping his listing Plymouth to a "crossroads where he can go left to the Sahara," in all but derelict Downtown Las Vegas, or right "up the Strip to the Alladin." He notices a pattern of traffic flowing "right to left." He decides to "go with the flow" and heads left to the Sahara. Rendall takes a few stream-of-consciousness digressions, first declaring that "payday" or not, he is getting out of boxing. He wonders why Holmes, at age forty-six and reportedly wealthy, is still fighting. He bemoans the Plymouth's condition again while telling himself it is a "bad line of memory."

And then there was the Plymouth. Such a nice car when I hired it. White and shining, four good wheels. But this is a bad line of memory...

His second digression is to reminisce over the past of the Sahara Casino, a quiet by-way of a casino that once hosted the greats, like Dean Martin, but now hosted senior citizens looking for a little quiet gambling action, located in "Downtown Vegas," which was "about to be torn down."   

[It was] the sort of disappearing place Hollywood directors kept filming as if Vegas was still like that, when it wasn't.

Rendall digresses a third time with thoughts of how the Sahara could become his new Aladdin, a place to be a "secret place" in Vegas, since the Aladdin was getting a make-over with the suites being turned into three separate guest rooms. Then recalling his thoughts, he berates himself for thinking about a new Aladdin when he has determined to leave boxing and Las Vegas.

He digresses in stream-of-consciousness once again to the Friendship Inn and Roy, "[s]uch a sweet guy," whom he had gotten caught up in the Frank Bruno incident (which is still vaguely mysterious to us). We learn they were planning a Mike Tyson TV documentary that Rendall would write; he would "put it together." Frank Warren was to make the connection for them with Tyson, but Warren showed up unexpectedly at the MGM with Frank Bruno, whose trademark bright blue suit seemed threatening even at a distance. Rendall describes Roy's face as he looked on at what happened, wanting to help but unable to: Roy said, "I have never been involved in anything remotely like this in my entire career in television."

Then Rendall's thoughts jump to Steve (another random name we can't identify) who pretended not to know Rendall "when Bruno made his move," even though Rendall had done business favors for Steve. Whenever his wandering thoughts hit upon something unpleasant, he regulates his thoughts away from a "bad line of memory" by saying "Forget it," and "Don't even think about it." Steve had been with him, laughing, "the night before" when he drove the Plymouth the wrong way into "Bally's car park," triggering the security spikes, which harpooned the tires (so that's why the rented Plymouth lists).

Rendall finally arrives at the Sahara. As he turns in, his headlights flash on a high-heeled girl crossing his path; she was "about twenty-one years old, black, wearing a bikini top and bright pink lipstick." When he enters from the "moonless, wet night," he is surprised to see a packed house with "muscular men and women whooping and shouting." After asking, he is told the "LAPD convention" booked the casino. He sat down in one of the two empty seats at the bar, and Tiffany, the "girl from outside," immediately sat at the other. Their conversation revolved around her interest in two hundred dollars, although he does tell her some boxing stories, adding "the Frank Bruno incident at the end." When she learns that the "people here tonight" are the "LAPD convention," she about flies out the door, her "Fuzzy Navel" cocktail still in hand.

Rendall's digressions begin again, triggered by the absence of a clock in the casino; casinos don't have clocks. He laments his lost ten years, dreams of a rest in the country, gazing "sleepily at the green and blue horizon," as all washes away. His daydream of the country, helped along by his own Fuzzy Navel, washes in with the room:

[It was] ebbing away, their whole world receding like a spinning globe. ... [It] hurtled, close-up glimpses writhing and rearing up for an instant, ... rattling voices, in snap-shots of doomed dances, to snatches of mournful tunes. And then it was gone.

He leaves the Sahara, puts his Fuzzy Navel down by the Plymouth, turns and sees Tiffany, still clutching her drink, walking in her high heels toward the Strip and other casinos.

How is the main problem resolved in Catching Fire?

The one of the main conflicts in Catching Fire is an internal conflict, as Katniss determines whether or not she wants to be a part of the growing rebellion against The Capital. It is interesting that, for such an active character, this decision gets made for Katniss, instead of her making it for herself. At the beginning of the novel, President Snow threatens her, saying that uprisings may be coming if she doesn't fall in line and convince the people in the districts that love, not rebellion, motivated her bluff of committing suicide with the poisoned berries in The Hunger Games. At the time, Katniss says that she is "both chilled and somewhat elated by the possibility" (Chapter 2). 

In District 11, she seems to encourage rebellion again, by speaking from the heart about Rue. However, this is accidental; her goal was to share with Rue's family, but her actions and words have consequences for the people of District 11, as the man who whistled Rue's signal is executed. Again, Katniss vows to squash rebellion for peoples' safety, even though she would love for The Capital to be overthrown.

After the Victor's Tour, Gale encourages Katniss to be the face of the rebellion and again she refuses, claiming that she can't be responsible for so many people getting hurt in what she sees as a lost cause. However, when Katniss meets Twill and Bonnie and hears about their journey towards District 13, she begins to hope that rebellion may be possible.   

Once Katniss realizes she will have to go back into the Games, however, all thoughts of rebellion are driven from her mind. However, Haymitch continues working, using his knowledge of Peeta and Katniss and their relationship to manipulate them into working with the other Victors in the arena, who are in on the plot. In the end, Katniss is rescued from the arena by District 13 and the rebels. In this way, the conflict of whether Katniss will joint he rebellion or not is decided for her. Still, in Mockingjay, she will continue to struggle with how much cooperation she will provide to the rebel forces, so the conflict is not entirely resolved. 

In "To Kill a Mockingbird," besides Boo Radley, how are Jem and Scout and Tom Robinson also symbols of the mockingbird?

The title of To Kill a Mockingbird refers to a story told by the character Atticus Finch to his children. As a teenager Atticus received his first gun. His father told him if he was to shoot at birds, he must never kill a mockingbird. The reason was that the mockingbird only makes beautiful music for people to enjoy, so killing it would be a sin.

As a symbol, the mockingbird represents innocence. Scout, Jem, and Tom Robinson are innocent in different ways. Tom Robinson is innocent of rape, while Jem and Scout are innocent because they are still children.

The destruction of innocence occurs when Tom Robinson is killed by police after he is found guilty of rape. Though Jem and Scout are still alive at book's end, the death of Tom Robinson, along with the near fatal attack by Bob Ewell, forces the siblings to face the complexities and injustices of the adult world.

In "The Machine that Won the War" by Isaac Asimov, what is Multivac's expected role in the war?

The title of Isaac Asimov's short story is ironic. The machine of the title is a large computer (in Asimov's day a computer might fill an entire building) named Multivac. Multivac is expected to provide strategy for the war effort against the Denebians, who do not have such a computer. The Chief Programmer Henderson says that everyone expected Multivac to "circumvent" any enemy attacks. He admits, however, that important data was missing and therefore Multivac compromised. He suggests that the data fed to Multivac was "meaningless." He also tells Swift and Jablonsky that he altered the data to come up with an outcome which he believed was correct based on educated guesses. Swift and Jablonsky also use their personal judgement in the analysis of the information given to them by Multivac. Swift, the director, even admits that in many instances he simply flipped a coin, which he refers to as the earliest of computers. His coin flips actually win the war. Thus, what is thought to be a fabulous victory predicated by wondrous advancements in technology is actually a product of sheer luck.   

What are emerging infectious diseases?

Introduction

The term
emerging infectious diseases
was introduced late in the twentieth century by Nobel laureate Joshua Lederberg. Most emerging infectious diseases are of zoonotic (animal) origin, and a variety of insect vectors such as mosquitoes help to spread the infections. While “new” infectious diseases continue to emerge, many of the old plagues remain, often appearing in more virulent and drug-resistant forms. While some outbreaks inexplicably appear, often specific identifiable ecologic factors such as climate change and agricultural development and demographic changes such as urbanization place individuals at increased risk through exposure to unfamiliar microbes or their natural zoonotic hosts. The rise of megacities, with their high population densities, dearth of potable water, and foodstuffs, makes urbanites particularly vulnerable to emerging infectious diseases. Moreover, modern humans have the capability to spread contagious disease halfway around the world rapidly through air travel. Mostly these are global problems and are viewed as global infectious disease threats.

Background

Throughout history, populations have been afflicted by major outbreaks of emerging infectious diseases such as the bubonic plague

or Black Death, a zoonosis caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis that is spread by fleas that feed off rodents. The Black Plague emerged in the fourteenth century, obliterating a third of the European population within a few years. More deadly than Y. pestis, however, was the variola virus, the etiologic agent of smallpox, which evolved from poxviruses in cattle and emerged into human populations thousands of years ago. Between the fourteenth and the sixteenth centuries, the Spanish conquered Central America, aided in large part by the deadly smallpox epidemic that arose when the disease, previously unknown in the Americas, entered the indigenous populations. In 1980, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that smallpox had been eradicated. However, in 2003, as the United States entered into war with Iraq, US president George W. Bush decreed that the armed forces be vaccinated against smallpox in anticipation of a bioterrorism attack. This pronouncement came on the heels of similar attacks in the United States wherein anthrax
infection caused by Bacillus anthracis was intentionally spread in Florida and New York. In 2009, another bacterial infection, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), continued to emerge due to the apparent overuse of the antibiotic methicillin.

Influenza, known as a human disease for hundreds of years, emerged in the pandemic of 1918 that killed 20 to 40 million persons, more than died in World War I. Other influenza
pandemics included the Asian flu in 1957, the Hong Kong flu in 1968, and swine flu in 1977. Avian influenza, or bird flu, previously rare in humans, emerged in 2004. The H1N1 influenza
(formerly called swine flu) emerged in Mexico in 2009 and rapidly spread throughout the Northern hemisphere, infecting millions in the United States alone and countless others across the globe, sickening and killing a disproportionate number of young children and pregnant women and rarely affecting those over age sixty-five. Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus, is the causative agent of Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), one the world’s deadliest infectious diseases; according to the WHO, about 2 million people die from AIDS-related diseases each year, more than from non-AIDS-related tuberculosis or malaria. Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis
(MDR-TB) and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) continued to emerge in the early twenty-first century, especially in those living with HIV infection. Malaria, a parasitic scourge, causes between 600,000 and 700,000 deaths every year, with 90 percent of deaths occurring in sub-Saharan Africa. Malaria continues to emerge with strains of its most lethal species, Plasmodium falciparum, which is resistant to antimalarial drugs.

Examples

Three diseases serve as important recent examples of emerging infectious diseases: H1N1 influenza, HIV/AIDS, and resistant tuberculosis.

H1N1 influenza. A zoonotic disease resulting from a mix of swine, avian, and human flu viruses, H1N1 influenza emerged in the United States following the regular 2008–2009 flu season, during which influenza A (H1), A (H3), and B viruses all circulated. In mid-April 2009, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) documented the first two cases of influenza A pandemic (H1N1) in the United States; after September 1, 2009, the CDC characterized the antigens of collected flu viruses: 412 2009 influenza A (H1N1); 4 influenza B; 3 influenza A (H3N2); and 1 seasonal influenza A (H1N1). In December 2009, 99 percent of flu strains were composed of pandemic H1N1 2009. According to the WHO, as of November 22, 2009, there were more than 40,617 “confirmed and probable” cases of pandemic H1N1 2009, and 7,826 deaths worldwide; by May of 2010, the estimated number of deaths had risen to more than 18,000. However, these statistics are significantly lower than the actual morbidity and mortality because they are based on limited data. Moreover, pandemic H1N1 2009 infections in which the virus mutated to a strain more virulent were identified across the globe. In addition, a number of patients developed strains of H1N1 resistant to the antiviral oseltamivir (Tamiflu). In August 2010, the WHO announced that the pandemic period had ended; although outbreaks were expected to continue to occur, the virus was no longer considered a major threat.

HIV and AIDS. Since HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, was first isolated in the early 1980s, the virus has continued to emerge into new populations and new geographic locations while morphing into new strains and variants, becoming resistant to available antiretroviral therapies (ART). Therefore, new drugs and combinations of old and new therapies must continually be produced to help keep alive the more than 34 million people living with HIV and AIDS. Moreover, while HIV infection is now treated like a chronic disease in many developed countries, many developing nations continue to struggle to obtain adequate drugs and preventive programs to treat all those infected with the virus. Despite the advent of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) in 1996, a range of comorbidities continues to plague those living with HIV and AIDS, including liver disease (hepatitis B and C), non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, neurological illnesses, malignancy, malnutrition, and increased susceptibility to TB and MDR-TB. Nevertheless, according to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the number of HIV/AIDS-related deaths decreased by more than 500,000 between 2005 and 2011, and the number of new HIV infections decreased by 700,000 between 2001 and 2011.

MDR-TB/XDR-TB. Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains resistant to multiple drugs represent an emerging threat to the global control of both tuberculosis and HIV, which often coinfect patients. The WHO estimates that between 220,000 and 400,000 cases of MDR-TB emerged in 2011. MDR-TB is defined as resistance to a minimum of the anti-TB drugs isoniazid and rifampin. While HIV may or may not be directly associated with the risk of developing MDR-TB, nosocomial outbreaks in individuals living with HIV and AIDS have been noted. HIV/AIDS has also been linked to an increased risk for rifampin-monoresistant TB. In addition, new cases of XDR-TB, defined as MDR-TB resistant to a fluoroquinolone and a minimum of one second-line injectable agent, have been widely reported across the globe. Treatment of MDR-TB is complex, sometimes requiring the use of less effective and more toxic drugs that mandate treatment over longer periods of time, thereby lessening the chance of successful outcomes and posing serious problems for developing countries, especially those with a high prevalence of HIV-1 infection. MDR-TB and XDR-TB are also of concern in wealthier countries where massive immigration and global travel is commonplace.

Bibliography:

Garrett, Laurie. Betrayal of Trust: The Collapse of Global Public Health. New York: Hyperion Books, 2001.

Global Alert and Response. "Pandemic and Epidemic Diseases." World Health Organization, 2013.

Global Alert and Response. "Pandemic (H1N1) 2009—Update 103." World Health Organization, June 4, 2010.

Hill, Stuart. Emerging Infectious Diseases. San Francisco: Benjamin Cummings, 2005.

Leslie, T., et al. “Epidemic of Plasmodium falciparum Malaria Involving Substandard Anti-malarial Drugs, Pakistan, 2003.” Emerging Infectious Diseases 15 (2009): 1753–59.

MacPherson, D. W., et al. “Population Mobility, Globalization, and Antimicrobial Drug Resistance.” Emerging Infectious Diseases 15 (2009): 1727–32.

National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases. "Fighting Emerging Infectious Diseases." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, March 12, 2012.

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. "Emerging and Re-Emerging Infectious Diseases." National Institutes of Health, August 24, 2010.

UNAIDS. "World AIDS Day Report 2012." Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, November 2012.

World Health Organization. "Factsheet on the World Malaria Report 2012." World Health Organization, December 2012.

World Health Organization. "HIV/AIDS." World Health Organization, 2013.

World Health Organization. "Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis (MDR-TB) 2012 Update." World Health Organization, November 2012.

In The Witch of Blackbird Pond, how did Captain Eaton make his living?

Captain Eaton made his living by being a sailor and an officer aboard the ship the Dolphin.  More specifically, Captain Eaton is the captain of the ship.

The Dolphin is a trading vessel, and the ship's classification is that it is a brigantine ship.  That means it is a two masted ship in which the main mast is tall enough to accommodate a minimum of two sails.  The foremast always is a square rigged mast.  Captain Eaton earns his living by supplying trade from location to location.  While he comes across as a bit gruff and rough, he is a man with high moral standards.  For example, he is willing to supply trade of all types, but he refuses to partake in the slave trade.  He refuses despite the fact that he could make a lot more money. 

"Because I remember, I despair. Because I remember, I have the duty to reject despair." What do you think Elie Wiesel meant by this statement from...

The quote comes from Elie Wiesel's Nobel Peace Prize lecture in 1986, almost thirty years after the publication of his memoir Night, which recounts the year he spent in Nazi concentration camps and his miraculous liberation. In his speech he urges mankind not to forget the atrocities of the Nazis, as well as other examples where senseless brutality has proliferated. His memoir is part of that "remembering." The Spanish philosopher George Santayana once said, "Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it." This seems to sum up what Wiesel had in mind. In order not to forget, one must recall the despair that one felt in the face of hardship and move on from there.

Wiesel uses the Biblical example of Job, who had everything taken away from him, but remained hopeful and eventually rebuilt his life. Wiesel did the same thing, yet he has dedicated his life to remembering the despair he experienced in the camps and spreading the word about those horrors. In Night, he produces a litany of ways in which men could perform inhumane acts toward their fellow men, yet throughout the book there are also examples of acts of hope and generosity. Ultimately, Wiesel believes mankind must "reject" despair for the hope which drove Job to rebuild. In 2016, with wars raging on four of the seven continents and terrorism an imminent threat, Wiesel's words are even more important for the world, even if it seems that, in the ensuing years, his speech has fallen on deaf ears. Moreover, his book Night remains an important reminder and a document of protest against the sort of inhumanity which mankind seems unable to overcome.