Basics of finance and investment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Basics of finance and investment - Essay Example Bad news is always remembered more because it is human nature that people’s miseries create a stronger impact in our minds. But it should also be remembered that if there is a Leeson, there is also a Warren Buffet. Money was lost on internet stocks, but just before that, money was also made on the same internet stocks. And Bernard Madoff was one of a kind, who took advantage of people’s confidence to him as a SEC consultant. There was nobody before or after him who operated at the level he did, because the there is usually in place an effective regulation of the market and most such operators are caught early on (Arnold, 2004). If there are no extreme developments such as market crashes and financial crises, investing for value long-term has always been sound strategy for enhancing wealth. There are several vehicles for investment: the savings account, the money market, certificates of deposit and common stocks are some of them. Each of these instruments is associated with a particular level of rate of return. The rate of return is the percentage gain an investment makes – in short, how much yearly earnings are expected as a proportion of the capital invested. The rates of return fluctuate, but they maintain a more or less consistent relationship with those of the others. For instance, the savings account in a bank would normally have the lowest rate of return which is denoted by its interest rate. The money market placement has a slightly higher interest rate, followed by certificates of deposit, and then the stock investment. The average rates of return for each of these instruments is shown in th e second row of Table 1 (source: UK National Statistics Online). The rate of return plays an important part in the concept of compounding. In compounding, the returns that have been accumulated for one year becomes part of the

Vitamin C Effect on Apple Browning | Experiment

Vitamin C Effect on Apple Browning | Experiment This experiment was designed to investigate the effect of Vitamin C concentration on the enzymatic browning of apples. Apple slices were dipped into Vitamin C solution of different concentration ranging from 0 mg to 100 mg. They were left under room temperature and conditions for 24 hours before the browning index was measured. There was a general decrease in browning index as Vitamin C concentration increased with 80 mg showing the lowest browning index. Pearsons product-moment correlation coefficient established a strong negative correlation between the two variables investigated with a 5% confidence level. The results supported the experimental hypothesis. Research and Rationale The browning of certain fruits such as apples, pears, peaches and bananas is caused by an oxidation process known as enzymatic browning which requires three factors: substrate, which consists of polyphenolic compounds; a polyphenol oxidase (PPO), an enzyme that can catalyze the first step in the reaction; and oxygen, a reactant.[1,3] Enzymatic browning is mostly undesirable but is inevitable when these fruits are subjected to mechanical injuries or processing. When fruits are sliced or the skin of the fruit is pierced open, the enzyme PPO which exists in the cells are released and exposed to the surrounding air. Upon contact with oxygen in the atmosphere, PPO reacts with oxygen and starts catalyzing the conversion of polyphenolic compounds into quinones. Quinones are not dark in color but are readily polymerized to form complex brown polymers. [12] 369words Prevention of undesirable enzymatic browning is of utmost importance to the food processing industries because browning of fruits will cause deterioration of quality, alteration of flavor and color of fruit products, causing industries to incur losses and wastage of food. Preventive steps include inactivation of enzyme by heat denaturation, the use of acid to inhibit enzyme activity and the use of bisulfites to interfere with browning.[1] In this practical, I am looking at the function of Vitamin C in preventing enzymatic browning. The function of Vitamin C as a natural antioxidant to the browning of sliced apples was first discovered by Dr. Szent Gyorgi, a Nobel Prize Winner. Vitamin C, a strong reducing agent and reactive species, prevents enzymatic browning by reacting with oxygen, inhibiting the PPO enzyme and disallowing oxygen to react with the phenolic compounds. Borenstein (1965), Sapers and Dougles (1987) and Sapers and Ziolkowski (1987) stated that ascorbic acid is a more effective inhibitor of enzymic browning than are sulfites or erythorbic acid. Besides that, Taeufel and Voigt (1964) stated that ascorbic acid is the most significant inhibitor of PPO because it has no detectable flavour at the concentration used which would interfere with the acceptability of the final processed product. Also it has no corrosive action upon metals, in addition to its vitamin value. The biggest advantage of using Vitamin C as a browning inhibitor is it is natural and healthy. [6] Vitamin C is the most widely used as a food additives in inhibiting discoloration due to enzymatic browning because Vitamin C has quite powerful reducing properties together with its obvious physiological acceptance and safety. Moreover, Vitamin C becomes a very common food additive due to its worldwide legislative acceptance and many of its technical uses. The availability of crystalline Vitamin C to a very high standard of purity in industrial quantities has undoubtedly been of assistance in the growth of the market. [2] Apples are chosen as a material in this experiment because apple is a very common fruit used in the food industry and is always included in our daily diet for its high nutritional value. Moreover, apples brown rapidly after being bruised due to their high polyphenolic compound contents. The pale coloration of apples gives an easily observable and clear indication of the amount of browning. Vitamin C is applied on the surface of cut apples to slow down the oxidation process. In the experiment, the amount of browning was indicated by the browning index of the apples. The higher the browning index, more enzymatic browning that took place. According to Eskin et al. (1971)[6] reported that food material must be treated with an adequate amount of Vitamin C to totally halt the browning process, otherwise browning is only slightly delayed, up to the point at which all the Vitamin C is oxidized. Therefore, the aim of experiment is to investigate the relationship between Vitamin C concentration and enzymatic browning of apples, determining the ideal concentration which inhibits enzymatic browning most effectively. Experimental hypothesis The higher the concentration of Vitamin C, the slower is the enzymatic browning of apples. Null hypothesis There is no significant correlation between the concentrations of Vitamin C and the enzymatic browning of apples. Planning A trial experiment was conducted to help me choose the most suitable methods to conduct the experiment, the best 2 quantification methods and the range of concentration of Vitamin C to be used in the real experiment. Methods involved Preparing Vitamin C of different concentration A standard Vitamin C solution of concentration 4mg/ml was prepared by dissolving two 500mg Vitamin C tablets in 250ml of distilled water and homogenised in a volumetric flask. Six different concentrations of Vitamin C solutions of 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100mg with the same total volume of 25 ml were prepared by serial dilution method. To make Vitamin C solution of 20mg, 5ml of the stock solution was mixed with 20ml of distilled water. To make 40mg, 10ml of stock solution was mixed with 15ml of distilled water and so on. 5ml of buffer at pH6.5 was added into each solution. A control solution of only distilled water was also prepared. Preparing the apple cubes A total of 30 freshly cut apple cubes of dimension 2.0-2.0 cm were prepared. Each five apple cubes were dipped into one of the solutions prepared. The apple cubes were then placed on separate Petri dishes and left at room temperature and conditions for 24 hours. Collecting data The apple cubes were examined with 3 different methods. Firstly, the intensity of the colour of the browned apple cubes was examined using a colour scale from 1 to 9. The percentage coverage of browned parts of the apple cubes was also examined using a 2-2cm quadrat. Lastly, the apple cubes are homogenised in a blender for 2 minutes, followed by centrifuging at 10000 rpm. After filtering the solution, the browning index of the clear fruit juice obtained was determined by measuring the absorbance at 420nm using a spectrophotometer.[7,5] Trial results From the results obtained, I learnt that increasing Vitamin C concentration does have an effect on the browning of apples and the most preferable method of quantification was measuring the browning index. The results obtained from measuring the percentage coverage and colour intensity were less significant and these observations were very subjective. Besides that, I realised that the trial results were inconsistent and did not show significant difference in all the quantification methods used. This may be either caused by errors and limitations occurred during the trial experiment or the concentration of Vitamin C used was not high enough. However, according to Linus Pauling Institute in Oregon State University, the recommended daily allowance of Vitamin C for normal healthy adult above age 19 is around 75 to 95mg.[4,9] Thus, increasing the Vitamin C concentration was not advisable. Therefore, subsequent experiments were carried out by using the same Vitamin C concentrations but steps were taken to ensure the errors and limitations were minimised. Vitamin C stock solution was heated to ensure complete dissolving but the temperature of heating cannot be too high to prevent breakdown of Vitamin C. Procedures were repeated once to get more reliable results and the number of apple cubes used were increased from 5 to 10. This could help eliminate any browning happening due to chance. Besides that, all the apparatus used for the cutting and handling of the apple cubes were cleaned thoroughly and free from rust as rust can accelerate the browning of apples. Apparatus Petri dishes, measuring cylinder, glass rod, beaker, boiling tubes, filter funnel, normal laboratory spectrophotometer, cuvette, pestle and mortar, water bath, knife, dropper, volumetric flask, blender, centrifuge, knife, marker pen Materials Distilled water, apples, Vitamin C tablets, label stickers, filter paper Variables Manipulated: Concentration of Vitamin C (mg) Serial dilution technique was used to make the same volume of lime juices containing different Vitamin C concentration. The Vitamin C concentrations used were 0, 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100mg. The control was distilled water to allow comparison to be made. Responding: Browning index (ABS) The browning index was determined by blending, centrifuging, filtering and measuring the percentage absorbance at 420nm of the oxidised apple cubes. Controlled: Types of apples, pH of Vitamin C solution, surrounding temperature All the apples used in the experiment were of the same type, same origin and were bought from the same supermarket at the same time. The pH of the solutions was kept constant using a buffer at pH6.5. The apple slices were placed in separate Petri dishes in the laboratory under normal room temperature. Real Experimental Procedure Six different concentrations of Vitamin C of 0, 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100mg were prepared. Sixty apple cubes were cut with 10 apple cubes dipped into each concentration. The apple cubes were placed in different Petri dish and left at room temperature and condition for 24 hours. The apple cubes were then homogenised in a normal blender for 2 minutes centrifuged at 10000rpm and filtered. The absorbance of the clear apple juice at 420nm was measured using a spectrophotometer and the reading of the spectrophotometer was recorded as the browning index. The experiment was repeated once. Safety Precautions Gloves were worn when dealing with Vitamin C tablets to prevent the tablet from being contaminated. Vitamin C solutions were prepared in situ and sealed after the preparation to prevent any loss of Vitamin C due to oxidation. Care was taken when cutting the apple into cubes with knife to avoid cutting the hand. Knife and all the apparatus involved in the handling of apple cubes were cleaned thoroughly before the experiment and were make sure to be free from rust as rust can accelerate enzymatic browning. Apples were made sure to be healthy and not bruised when they were purchased. All glassware and apparatus were clean and free from laboratory chemicals. Special glassware and equipment, stored away from all sources of laboratory chemical contamination, and reserved only for food experiments was used.[8] Data Collection in Main Study Statistical Analysis There is a quite clear negative correlation between Vitamin c concentration and the browning index. This relationship was further proven by using Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient[10,11] to test the linear dependence between the two variables being investigated. The correlation coefficient, r ranges from -1 to 1. A value of 1 implies that a linear equation describes the relationship between X and Y perfectly, where as Y increases, X increases. A value of -1 implies that when Y decreases, X increases. A value of 0 implies that there is no linear correlation between the two variables. The negative value of r indicates a negative correlation between the two variables investigated. The critical value for 5% confidence level = 0.811, which is smaller than the value of r calculated from the data of the real experiment. Therefore, the PMCC analysis showed that there is a statistically significant negative correlation between the concentration of Vitamin C and the browning index. The null hypothesis can be rejected. Data Analysis The graph showed that the increasing Vitamin C concentration brings about an overall decrease in the browning index of the apple cubes by 69 %. From 0 mg to 80 mg of Vitamin C concentration, the browning index decreases almost linearly. Although there was a slight increase in browning index from 80 mg to 100 mg, the value of Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient, r = 0.942 re-affirmed that there is a strong negative correlation between Vitamin C concentration and browning index. The browning index is an indication of the proportion of oxidised phenols[7] during apple storage of 24 hours in the experiment. A lower browning index indicates a lower proportion of reacted phenolic compounds. In other words, the lower the browning index, the lesser the enzymatic browning taking place in the apple cubes. When the apples were cut into cubes, they were exposed to oxygen and enzymatic browning was initiated. By coating the apple cubes with a layer of Vitamin C, also known as ascorbic acid (AA) which is a very strong reducing agent, the process of enzymatic browning was inhibited as AA prevented O-quinone from being converted to its colored end product. Besides, AA competed with polyphenol oxidase (PPO) to react with oxygen. AA also formed a barrier to prevent oxygen from reacting with the substrate of the enzymatic browning process. The mode of AA action upon phenols can be summarized as follow: [6] O -diphenol +  ½ O2 O quinone + H2O O -Quinone + AA O- diphenol + dehydro AA A A +  ½ O2 dehydro AA + H2O With increasing Vitamin C concentration, more Vitamin C was made available to prevent the oxidation of phenols, thus the amount of oxidised phenols which contributed to the absorption at 420 nm was reduced and the browning index decrease. From the graph, the Vitamin C concentration that gave the lowest browning index was 80 mg. The browning index at this concentration was 86% lower than that of 0 mg. This showed that 80 mg was the ideal concentration which inhibits enzymatic browning happening in the apple cubes most effectively. Vitamin C concentration of 0 mg was used as a control in this experiment to show that Vitamin C did play a role in inhibiting enzymatic browning. The browning index at 100 mg was higher than that at 80 mg when it was expected to be lower. This may be due to another type of browning, known as non-enzymatic browning taking place in the apple cubes in which ascorbic acid was found out to play a role in some non-enzymatic browning. The non-enzymatic browning may have produced end products which also caused absorption at 420nm. As ascorbic acid affects non-enzymatic browning, the higher ascorbic acid concentration at 100 mg contributes to more non-enzymatic browning than that at 80 mg, contributing to a slightly higher browning index. [1] Evaluation In food processing industries, the average effective level of Vitamin C used for apple halves is 660mg/kg[2], which is also equivalent to 0.66mg/g. The total mass of all the apple cubes used in the experiment for each concentration was 45 g, so the ideal concentration of Vitamin C should be 29.7mg which almost three times lower than the ideal concentration obtained in the experiment. This may be due to errors and limitations which had arisen during the experiment. Apples are very porous and thus very difficult to treat. It is difficult to get ascorbic acid solution into sufficiently intimate contact with the fruit, which is important to maintain the quality of the fruit.[2] In this experiment, the apple cubes were only dipped into the Vitamin C solution and the solution did not have time to diffuse completely and reach every cell in the apple cubes. Besides that, this experiment was carried out under normal room temperature in which enzymatic browning occurs at a faster rate. The apple cubes were left at normal room conditions and constantly exposed to air, thus more ascorbic acid was needed to inhibit enzymatic browning as compared to vacuum packed processed apples. Moreover, a delay in adding ascorbic acid after the cutting of apples will cause permanent browning as the enzyme was not inactivated rapidly enough to prevent any appreciable oxidation to occur before ascorbic acid was added. [2] 3074 words The apples may be subjected to mechanical injuries during handling which may contribute to browning of the apples. Therefore, the apple cubes were handled as carefully as possible. A stainless steel knife was used to make sure there was no rust which could accelerate browning of the apple cubes. Different types of apples have different amount and types of phenolic compounds, substrates of enzymatic browning, which would affect the rate and amount of browning happening.[1,2] Apples of the same origin and type were bought at the same time at the supermarket to minimise this limitation. Further enzymatic browning may occur during the blending of apple cubes which may affect the final browning index. To prevent this, during blending, 50cm ³ of Vitamin C solution of that particular concentration which the apple cubes where dipped into was added. The quantification method used in this experiment has been simplified as the materials and apparatus available in my college laboratory was limited. The experiment can be improved using a more accurate and advanced method, polyphenol oxidase (PPO) assays [6,7] which measures the effect of Vitamin C on the activity of PPO directly so that the results obtained would be more reliable. Other improvements of this experiment include soaking the apple cubes longer in the Vitamin C solution and cutting the apples into smaller pieces to increase their total surface area to volume ratio for rapid diffusion of Vitamin C solution into the apples. Further studies on the type of food additives that affect the enzymatic browning of apples could have been investigated and their effectiveness compared. [6] Conclusion There is a negative correlation between Vitamin C concentration and enzymatic browning with 80 mg as the ideal concentration of Vitamin C which significantly reduced enzymatic browning by 86%. This was determined by the decreasing browning index as the Vitamin C concentration increases. Sources Evaluation Sources 1 to 4 are published books by food experts and also accredited universities. Moreover, books which are published are usually reviewed by other experts from that particular field prior to publication. Therefore, the information from these sources is reliable and factual. Sources 5 to 7 are online journals about Vitamin C and its effect on enzymatic browning, the quantification method of browning and the factors affecting enzymatic browning. These journals are peer-reviewed and so should contain sound scientific information. Furthermore, the information in these journals has been found to correlate each other, implying that they are highly regarded as reliable sources. Cumulative word count: 3349 words Sources 8 to 12 are websites which are well established and have many viewers. Therefore, the information they provide must have been screened and reviewed by experts to ensure they are sound and correct.

The Bible, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and The Epic of Gilgames

The Bible, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and The Epic of Gilgamesh - Are They Relevant Today? In The Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh, the hero of this epic, achieves many feats of skill, which makes him famous, but that is not the reason it is an epic. The Epic of Gilgamesh fulfills the requirements of an epic by being consistently relevant to a human society and carries immortal themes and messages. By looking at literature throughout history, one can infer the themes that are consistently passed on to other generations of humans. It is in human nature for people to want to excel in life and strive to make a name in this world for themselves. We want to be remembered by name or for something we have done. Most, who actually succeed, are forgotten about in a matter of years. However, some are remembered for tens, hundreds, and even thousands of years, because of their great intellectual achievement to feats of outstanding skill. Gilgamesh is not only a character of a story; he is actually a portrayal of people and how they act out of human nature. He, like many of us, does not want his existence to end when he leaves this world. He is not content with what he has, well looks, money, and power, and desires more in life. The Epic of Gilgamesh is a story that we, as people, can relate to. There are similarities between Gilgamesh's journeys and our own journey through life. Some of the texts that will be compared with the Epic of Gilgamesh, are the Bible, and Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The characters of these stories are all have that burning desire to be successful in life, which we can relate to. These texts span across different time periods and societies illustrati... ...rder for people to live, they must always be above the line of absolute poverty. In the human perspective, the greater the amount of money you have, the farther you have "to drop" to get below the poverty level. It is basically a bigger buffer zone in terms of economic status. Therefore, in a human society, there will always are certain inalienable aspects of humanity. The Epic of Gilgamesh fulfills the requirements of an epic by being consistently relevant to a human society and by carrying immortal themes and messages. Epics will always be present because there are certain themes about humanity that cannot be denied. In this era, it is easy to say that the world is rapidly changing. But, humans aren't changing with it and there lies the root of most of the problems in society. We must recognize and maybe change the world to be more suitable for humanity.

A Respectable Woman Essay

In A Respectable Woman Mrs Baroda follows the same course as Mildred in the beginning her interest in a man by feeling â€Å"piqued† at his lack of interest in her. The simple fact of the physical presence of the man is again what awakens the woman’s sexual interest as Gouvernail’s silences and indifference seem hardly designed to attract her. Again like Mildred Mrs Baroda is confused by the difference beetweeen the social role she expects her guers to play and Gouvernail’s actuality. Gouvernail does not register either Mrs Baroda’s indifference or her imposition of her presence upon him (other expression: G. does not respond to †¦ to do smth.) Without takinf any action or even engaging in the social niceties, both men are the unwitting instigators of dramatic developments in the self-knowledge of others; they are catalytic to momentous change in the lives of the women they encounter. Mrs Baroda becomes helpless in the face of her own physical desire; she resorts to flight and refuses to have any contact with G for more than a year. When in proximity to him she shas been consumed by the conflict arising from her struggle to keep hold on her identit as a â€Å"respectable woman† whilst attempting to control her newly awakened !physical being!. An ending to the story which would restore Mrs Baroda to her place as the embodiment of the title â€Å"A R W† is offered to the reader when the invitation to G is once again extended: â€Å"Ihave overcome everything† You will see. This time I shall be very nice to him†. What her husband taes as the overcoming of her dislike could also, of course, be the overcoming of her passion or, alternatively, the overcoming of the scruples which prevented her from pursuinf the attraction. The two latter interpretations hang suspended as possibilities above the story. However, whatever the reading of these lines , the fact remains that the intimacy of this married couple – evidenced by their informal sharing of the dressing-room, their liking for each other’s company, their â€Å"long, tender kiss! – has been and amy again be threatened. There is no certainty, no stabiklity, no emblem of a highly ordered society such as marriaag,e which is not susceptible to disruption by thedemands of physical desire. The story allows us to lift Mrs Baroda out of her closed reading as â€Å"A R W† ans to place her in an umber of alternative situations; the possibility exists for her to continuer as that woman or to use her reputation to conceal a quite different existence .We do not know what will happen but our reading of Mrs Baroda cane never be quite the same again because doubt has been planted by the ambiguous ending of the story and, having already witnessed both the power of feelings that shake her and her resolution to controla them, we are forces back into the body of the story in order to suspend judgement.

Zoe’s Tale PART II Chapter Twelve

There was a rattle and then a thump and then a whine as the shuttle's lifters and engines died down. That was it; we had landed on Roanoke. We were home, for the very first time. â€Å"What's that smell?† Gretchen said, and wrinkled her nose. I took a sniff and did some nose wrinkling of my own. â€Å"I think the pilot landed in a pile of rancid socks,† I said. I calmed Babar, who was with us and who seemed excited about something; maybe he liked the smell. â€Å"That's the planet,† said Anna Faulks. She was one of the Magellan crew, and had been down to the planet several times, unloading cargo. The colony's base camp was almost ready for the colonists; Gretchen and I, as children of colony leaders, were being allowed to come down on one of the last cargo shuttles rather than having to take a cattle car shuttle with everyone else. Our parents had already been on planet for days, supervising the unloading. â€Å"And I've got news for you,† Faulks said. â€Å"This is about as pretty as the smells get around here. When you get a breeze coming in from the forest, then it gets really bad.† â€Å"Why?† I asked. â€Å"What does it smell like then?† â€Å"Like everyone you know just threw up on your shoes,† Faulks said. â€Å"Wonderful,† Gretchen said. There was a grinding clang as the massive doors of the cargo shuttle opened. There was a slight breeze as the air in the cargo bay puffed out into the Roanoke sky. And then the smell really hit us. Faulks smiled at us. â€Å"Enjoy it, ladies. You're going to be smelling it every day for the rest of your lives.† â€Å"So are you,† Gretchen said to Faulks. Faulks stopped smiling at us. â€Å"We're going to start moving these cargo containers in a couple of minutes,† she said. â€Å"You two need to clear out and get out of our way. It would be a shame if your precious selves got squashed underneath them.† She turned away from us and started toward the rest of the shuttle cargo crew. â€Å"Nice,† I said, to Gretchen. â€Å"I don't think now was a smart time to remind her that she's stuck here.† Gretchen shrugged. â€Å"She deserved it,† she said, and started toward the cargo doors. I bit the inside of my cheek and decided not to comment. The last several days had made everyone edgy. This is what happens when you know you're lost. On the day we skipped to Roanoke, this is how Dad broke the news that we were lost. â€Å"Because I know there are rumors already, let me say this first: We are safe,† Dad said to the colonists. He stood on the platform where just a couple of hours earlier we had counted down the skip to Roanoke. â€Å"The Magellan is safe. We are not in any danger at the moment.† Around us the crowd visibly relaxed. I wondered how many of them caught the â€Å"at the moment† part. I suspected John put it in there for a reason. He did. â€Å"But we are not where we were told we would be,† he said. â€Å"The Colonial Union has sent us to a different planet than we had expected to go to. It did this because it learned that a coalition of alien races called the Conclave were planning to keep us from colonizing, by force if necessary. There is no doubt they would have been waiting for us when we skipped. So we were sent somewhere else: to another planet entirely. We are now above the real Roanoke. â€Å"We are not in danger at the moment,† John said. â€Å"But the Conclave is looking for us. If it finds us it will try to take us from here, again likely by force. If it cannot remove us, it will destroy the colony. We are safe now, but I won't lie to you. We are being hunted.† â€Å"Take us back!† someone shouted. There were murmurings of agreement. â€Å"We can't go back,† John said. â€Å"Captain Zane has been remotely locked out of the Magellan's control systems by the Colonial Defense Forces. He and his crew will be joining our colony. The Magellan will be destroyed once we have landed ourselves and all our supplies on Roanoke. We can't go back. None of us can.† The room erupted in angry shouts and discussions. Dad eventually calmed them down. â€Å"None of us knew about this. I didn't. Jane didn't. Your colony representatives didn't. And certainly Captain Zane didn't. This was kept from all of us equally. The Colonial Union and the Colonial Defense Forces have decided for reasons of their own that it is safer to keep us here than to bring us back to Phoenix. Whether we agree with this or not, this is what we have to work with.† â€Å"What are we going to do?† Another voice from the crowd. Dad looked out in the direction the voice came from. â€Å"We're going to do what we came here to do in the first place,† he said. â€Å"We're going to colonize. Understand this: When we all chose to colonize, we knew there were risks. You all know that seed colonies are dangerous places. Even without this Conclave searching for us, our colony would still have been at risk for attack, still a target for other races. None of this has changed. What has changed is that the Colonial Union knew ahead of time who was looking for us and why. That allowed them to keep us safe in the short run. It gives an advantage in the long run. Because now we know how to keep ourselves from being found. We know how to keep ourselves safe.† More murmurings from the crowd. Just to the right of me a woman asked, â€Å"And just how are we going to keep ourselves safe?† â€Å"Your colonial representatives are going to explain that,† John said. â€Å"Check your PDAs; each of you has a location on the Magellan where you and your former worldmates will meet with your representative. They'll explain to you what we'll need to do, and answer the questions you have from there. But there is one thing I want to be clear about. This is going to require cooperation from everyone. It's going to require sacrifice from everyone. Our job of colonizing this world was never going to be easy. It's just become a lot harder. â€Å"But we can do it,† Dad said, and the forcefulness with which he said it seemed to surprise some people in the crowd. â€Å"What's being asked of us is hard, but it's not impossible. We can do it if we work together. We can do it if we know we can rely on each other. Wherever we've come from, we all have to be Roanokers now. This isn't how I would have chosen for this to happen. But this is how we are going to have to make it work. We can do this. We have to do this. We have to do it together.† I stepped out of the shuttle, and put my feet on the ground of the new world. The ground's mud oozed over the top of my boot. â€Å"Lovely,† I said. I started walking. The mud sucked at my feet. I tried not to think of the sucking as a larger metaphor. Babar bounded off the shuttle and commenced sniffing his surroundings. He was happy, at least. Around me, the Magellan crew was on the job. Other shuttles that had landed before were disgorging their cargo; another shuttle was coming in for a landing some distance away. The cargo containers, standard-sized, littered the ground. Normally, once the contents of the containers were taken out, the containers would be sent back up in the shuttles to be reused; waste not, want not. This time, there was no reason to take them back up to the Magellan. It wasn't going back; these containers wouldn't ever be refilled. And as it happened, some of these containers wouldn't even be unpacked; our new situation here on Roanoke didn't make it worth the effort. But it didn't mean that the containers didn't have a purpose; they did. That purpose was in front of me, a couple hundred meters away, where a barrier was forming, a barrier made from the containers. Inside the barrier would be our new temporary home; a tiny village, already named Croatoan, in which all twenty-five hundred of us – and the newly-resentful Magellan crew – would be stuck while Dad, Mom and the other colony leaders did a survey of this new planet to see what we needed to do in order to live on it. As I watched, some of the Magellan crew were moving one of the containers into place into the barrier, using top lifters to set the container in place and then turning off their power and letting the container fall a couple of millimeters to the ground with a thump. Even from this distance I felt the vibration in the ground. Whatever was in that container, it was heavy. Probably farming equipment that we weren't allowed to use anymore. Gretchen had already gotten far ahead of me. I thought about racing to catch up with her but then noticed Jane coming out from behind the newly placed container and talking to one of the Magellan crew. I walked toward her instead. When Dad talked about sacrifice, in the immediate term he was talking about two things. First: no contact between Roanoke and the rest of the Colonial Union. Anything we sent back in the direction of the Colonial Union was something that could give us away, even a simple skip drone full of data. Anything sent to us could give us away, too. This meant we were truly isolated: no help, no supplies, not even any mail from friends and loved ones left behind. We were alone. At first this didn't seem like much of a big deal. After all, we left our old lives behind when we became colonists. We said good-bye to the people who we weren't taking with us, and most of us knew it would be a very long time if ever until we saw those people again. But even for all that, the lines weren't completely severed. A skip drone was supposed to leave the colony on a daily basis, carrying letters and news and information back to the Colonial Union. A skip drone was supposed to arrive on a daily basis, too, with mail, and news and new shows and songs and stories and other ways that we could still feel that we were part of humanity, despite being stuck on a colony, planting corn. And now, none of that. It was all gone. The no new stories and music and shows were what hit you first – a bad thing if you were hooked on a show or band before you left and were hoping to keep up with it – but then you realized that what it really meant was from now on you wouldn't know anything about the lives of the people you left behind. You wouldn't see a beloved baby nephew's first steps. You wouldn't know if your grandmother had passed away. You wouldn't see the recordings your best friend took of her wedding, or read the stories that another friend was writing and desperately trying to sell, or see pictures of the places you used to love, with the people you still love standing in the foreground. All of it was gone, maybe forever. When that realization hit, it hit people hard – and an even harder hit was the realization that everyone else that any of us ever cared about knew nothing about what happened to us. If the Colonial Union wasn't going to tell us where we were going in order to fool this Conclave thing, they certainly weren't going to tell everyone else that they had pulled a fast one with our whereabouts. Everyone we ever knew thought we were lost. Some of them probably thought we had been killed. John and Jane and I didn't have much to worry about on this score – we were each other's family, and all the family we had – but everyone else had someone who was even now mourning them. Savitri's mother and grandmother were still alive; the expression on her face when she realized that they probably thought she was dead made me rush over to give her a hug. I didn't even want to think about how the Obin were handling our disappearance. I just hoped the Colonial Union ambassador to the Obin had on clean underwear when the Obin came to call. The second sacrifice was harder. â€Å"You're here,† Jane said, as I walked up to her. She reached down to pet Babar, who had come bounding up to her. â€Å"Apparently,† I said. â€Å"Is it always like this?† â€Å"Like what?† Jane said. â€Å"Muddy,† I said. â€Å"Rainy. Cold. Sucky.† â€Å"We're arriving at the beginning of spring here,† Jane said. â€Å"It's going to be like this for a little while. I think things will get better.† â€Å"You think so?† I asked. â€Å"I hope so,† Jane said. â€Å"But we don't know. The information we have on the planet is slim. The Colonial Union doesn't seem to have done a normal survey here. And we won't be able to put up a satellite to track weather and climate. So we have to hope it gets better. It would be better if we could know. But hoping is what we have. Where's Gretchen?† I nodded in the direction I saw her go. â€Å"I think she's looking for her dad,† I said. â€Å"Everything all right between you two?† Jane said. â€Å"You're rarely without each other.† â€Å"It's fine,† I said. â€Å"Everyone's twitchy these last few days, Mom. So are we, I guess.† â€Å"How about your other friends?† Jane asked. I shrugged. â€Å"I haven't seen too much of Enzo in the last couple of days,† I said. â€Å"I think he's taking the idea of being stranded out here pretty badly. Even Magdy hasn't been able to cheer him up. I went to go visit him a couple of times, but he doesn't want to say much, and it's not like I've been that cheerful myself. He's sending me poems, still, though. On paper. He has Magdy deliver them. Magdy hates that, by the way.† Jane smiled. â€Å"Enzo's a nice boy,† she said. â€Å"I know,† I said. â€Å"I think I didn't pick a great time to decide to make him my boyfriend, though.† â€Å"Well, you said it, everyone's twitchy the last few days,† Jane said. â€Å"It'll get better.† â€Å"I hope so,† I said, and I did. I did moody and depressed with the best of them, but even I have my limits, and I was getting near them. â€Å"Where's Dad? And where's Hickory and Dickory?† The two of them had gone down in one of the first shuttles with Mom and Dad; between them making themselves scarce on the Magellan and being away for the last few days, I was starting to miss them. â€Å"Hickory and Dickory we have out doing a survey of the surrounding area,† Jane said. â€Å"They're helping us get a lay of the land. It keeps them busy and useful, and keeps them out of the way of most of the colonists at the moment. I don't think any of them are feeling very friendly toward nonhumans at the moment, and we'd just as soon avoid someone trying to pick a fight with them.† I nodded at this. Anyone who tried to pick a fight with Hickory or Dickory was going to end up with something broken, at least. Which would not make the two of them popular, even (or maybe especially) if they were in the right. Mom and Dad were smart to get them out of the way for now. â€Å"Your dad is with Manfred Trujillo,† Jane said, mentioning Gretchen's dad. â€Å"They're laying out the temporary village. They're laying it out like a Roman Legion encampment.† â€Å"We're expecting an attack from the Visigoths,† I said. â€Å"We don't know what to expect an attack from,† Jane said. The matter-of-fact way she said it did absolutely nothing to cheer me up. â€Å"I expect you'll find Gretchen with them. Just head into the encampment and you'll find them.† â€Å"It'd be easier if I could just ping Gretchen's PDA and find her that way,† I said. â€Å"It would be,† Jane agreed. â€Å"But we don't get to do that anymore. Try using your eyes instead.† She gave me a quick peck on the temple and then walked off to talk to the Magellan crew. I sighed and then headed into the encampment to find Dad. The second sacrifice: Every single thing we had with a computer in it, we could no longer use. Which meant we couldn't use most things we had. The reason was radio waves. Every piece of electronic equipment communicated with every other piece of electronic equipment through radio waves. Even the tiny radio transmissions they sent could be discovered if someone was looking hard enough, as we were assured that they were. But just turning off the connecting capability was not enough, since we were told that not only did our equipment use radio waves to communicate with each other, they used them internally to have one part of the equipment talk to other parts. Our electronics couldn't help transmitting evidence that we were here, and if someone knew what frequencies they used to work, they could be detected simply by sending the radio signal that turned them on. Or so we were told. I'm not an engineer. All I knew was that a huge amount of our equipment was no longer usable – and not just unusable, but a danger to us. We had to risk using this equipment to land on Roanoke and set up the colony. We couldn't very well land shuttles without using electronics; it wasn't the trip down that would be a problem, but the landings would be pretty tricky (and messy). But once everything was on the ground, it was over. We went dark, and everything we had in cargo containers that contained electronics would stay in those containers. Possibly forever. This included data servers, entertainment monitors, modern farm equipment, scientific tools, medical tools, kitchen appliances, vehicles and toys. And PDAs. This was not a popular announcement. Everyone had PDAs, and everyone had their lives in them. PDAs were where you kept your messages, your mail, your favorite shows and music and reading. It's how you connected with your friends, and played games with them. It's how you made recordings and video. It's how you shared the stuff you loved, to the people you liked. It was everyone's outboard brain. And suddenly they were gone; every single PDA among the colonists – slightly more than one per person – was collected and accounted for. Some folks tried to hide them; at least one colonist tried to sock the Magellan crew member who'd been assigned to collect them. That colonist spent the night in the Magellan brig, courtesy of Captain Zane; rumor had it the captain cranked down the temperature in the brig and the colonist spent the night shivering himself awake. I sympathized with the colonist. I'd been without my PDA for three days now and I still kept catching myself reaching for it when I wanted to talk to Gretchen, or listen to some music, or to check to see if Enzo had sent me something, or any one of a hundred different things I used my PDA for on a daily basis. I suspected that part of the reason people were so cranky was because they'd had their outboard brains amputated; you don't realize how much you use your PDA until the stupid thing is gone. We were all outraged that we didn't have our PDAs anymore, but I had this itchy feeling in the back of my brain that one of the reasons people were so worked up about their PDAs was that it kept them from having to think about the fact that so much of the equipment we needed to use to survive, we couldn't use at all. You can't just disconnect the computers from our farm equipment; it can't run without it, it's too much a part of the machine. It'd be like taking out your brain and expecting your body to get along without it. I don't think anyone really wanted to face the fact of just how deep the trouble was. In fact, only one thing was going to keep all of us alive: the two hundred and fifty Colonial Mennonites who were part of our colony. Their religion had kept them using outdated and antique technology; none of their equipment had computers, and only Hiram Yoder, their colony representative, had used a PDA at all (and only then, Dad explained to me, to stay in contact with other members of the Roanoke colonial council). Working without electronics wasn't a state of deprivation for them; it's how they lived. It made them the odd folks out on the Magellan, especially among us teens. But now it was going to save us. This didn't reassure everyone. Magdy and a few of his less appealing friends pointed to the Colonial Mennonites as evidence that the Colonial Union had been planning to strand us all along and seemed to resent them for it, as if they had known it all along rather than being just as surprised as the rest of us. Thus we confirmed that Magdy's way of dealing with stress was to get angry and pick nonexistent fights; his near-brawl at the beginning of the trip was no fluke. Magdy got angry when stressed. Enzo got withdrawn. Gretchen got snappish. I wasn't entirely sure how I got. â€Å"You're mopey,† Dad said to me. We were standing outside the tent that was our new temporary home. â€Å"So that's how I get,† I said. I watched Babar wander around the area, looking for places to mark his territory. What can I say. He's a dog. â€Å"I'm not following you,† Dad said. I explained how my friends were acting since we'd gotten lost. â€Å"Oh, okay,† Dad said. â€Å"That makes sense. Well, if it's any comfort, if I have the time to do anything else but work, I think I would be mopey, too.† â€Å"I'm thrilled it runs in the family,† I said. â€Å"We can't even blame it on genetics,† Dad said. He looked around. All around us were cargo containers, stacks of tents under tarps and surveyor's twine, blocking off where the streets of our new little town will be. Then he looked back to me. â€Å"What do you think of it?† â€Å"I think this is what it looks like when God takes a dump,† I said. â€Å"Well, yes, now it does,† Dad said. â€Å"But with a lot of work and a little love, we can work our way up to being a festering pit. And what a day that will be.† I laughed. â€Å"Don't make me laugh,† I said. â€Å"I'm trying to work on this mopey thing.† â€Å"Sorry,† Dad said. He wasn't actually sorry in the slightest. He pointed at the tent next to ours. â€Å"At the very least, you'll be close to your friend. This is Trujillo's tent. He and Gretchen will be living here.† â€Å"Good,† I said. I had caught up with Dad with Gretchen and her dad; the two of them had gone off to look at the little river that ran near the edge of our soon-to-be settlement to find out the best place to put the waste collector and purifier. No indoor plumbing for the first few weeks at least, we were told; we'd be doing our business in buckets. I can't begin to tell you how excited I was to hear that. Gretchen had rolled her eyes a little bit at her dad as he dragged her off to look at likely locations; I think she was regretting taking the early trip. â€Å"How long until we start bringing down the other colonists?† I asked. Dad pointed. â€Å"We want to get the perimeter set up first,† he said. â€Å"We've been here a couple of days and nothing dangerous has popped out of those woods over there, but I think we want to be safer rather than sorrier. We're getting the last containers out of the cargo hold tonight. By tomorrow we should have the perimeter completely walled and the interior blocked out. So two days, I think. In three days everyone will be down. Why? Bored already?† â€Å"Maybe,† I said. Babar had come around to me and was grinning up at me, tongue lolling and paws caked with mud. I could tell he was trying to decide whether or not to leap up on two legs and get mud all over my shirt. I sent him my best don't even think about it telepathy and hoped for the best. â€Å"Not that it's any less boring on the Magellan right now. Everyone's in a foul mood. I don't know, I didn't expect colonizing to be like this.† â€Å"It's not,† Dad said. â€Å"We're sort of an exceptional case here.† â€Å"Oh, to be like everyone else, then,† I said. â€Å"Too late for that,† Dad said, and then motioned at the tent. â€Å"Jane and I have the tent pretty well set up. It's small and crowded, but it's also cramped. And I know how much you like that.† This got another smile from me. â€Å"I've got to join Manfred and then talk to Jane, but after that we can all have lunch and try to see if we can't actually enjoy ourselves a little. Why don't you go in and relax until we get back. At least that way you don't have to be mopey and windblown.† â€Å"All right,† I said. I gave Dad a peck on the cheek, and then he headed off toward the creek. I went inside the tent, Babar right behind. â€Å"Nice,† I said to Babar, as I looked around. â€Å"Furnished in tasteful Modern Refugee style. And I love what they've done with those cots.† Babar looked up at me with that stupid doggy grin of his and then leaped up on one of the cots and laid himself down. â€Å"You idiot,† I said. â€Å"You could have at least wiped off your paws.† Babar, notably unconcerned with criticism, yawned and then closed his eyes. I got on the cot with him, brushed off the chunkier bits of mud, and then used him as a pillow. He didn't seem to mind. And a good thing, too, since he was taking up half my cot. â€Å"Well, here we are,† I said. â€Å"Hope you like it here.† Babar made some sort of snuffling noise. Well said, I thought. Even after everything was explained to us, there were still some folks who had a hard time getting it through their heads that we were cut off and on our own. In the group sessions headed by each of the colonial representatives, there was always someone (or someones) who said things couldn't be as bad as Dad was making them out to be, that there had to be some way for us to stay in contact with the rest of humanity or at least use our PDAs. That's when the colony representatives sent each colonist the last file their PDAs would receive. It was a video file, shot by the Conclave and sent to every other race in our slice of space. In it, the Conclave leader, named General Gau, stood on a rise over-looking a small settlement. When I first saw the video I thought it was a human settlement, but was told that it was a settlement of Whaid colonists, the Whaid being a race I knew nothing about. What I did know was that their homes and buildings looked like ours, or close enough to ours not to matter. This General Gau stood on the rise just long enough for you to wonder what it was he was looking at down there in the settlement, and the settlement disappeared, turned into ash and fire by what seemed like a thousand beams of light stabbing down from what we were told were hundreds of spaceships floating high above the colony. In just a few seconds there was nothing left of the colony, or the people who lived in it, other than a rising column of smoke. No one questioned the wisdom of hiding after that. I don't know how many times I watched the video of the Conclave attack; it must have been a few dozen times before Dad came up to me and made me hand over my PDA – no special privileges just because I was the colony leader's kid. But I wasn't watching because of the attack. Or, well, I should say that wasn't really what I was looking at when I watched it. What I was looking at was the figure, standing on the rise. The creature who ordered the attack. The one who had the blood of an entire colony on his hands. I was looking at this General Gau. I was wondering what he was thinking when he gave the order. Did he feel regret? Satisfaction? Pleasure? Pain? I tried to imagine what it would take to order the deaths of thousands of innocent people. I felt happy that I couldn't wrap my brain around it. I was terrified that this general could. And that he was out there. Hunting us.