VLSI and Video Over IP essays

VLSI and Video Over IP essays Research papers provide a valuable summation of information to an audience. Through research papers, the intended reviewer is able to grasp the concept being relayed by the writer. In order to substantiate his/her research, the writer will incorporate information from other accepted sources, such as books, journals, and web pages. In addition, research papers are usually in a certain format. Depending on the instructor, a widely recognized format will be selected and followed. This assignment will introduce information pertaining to VLSI (Very Large Scale Integration) and Video over IP. The information will be corroborated with books, journals, and web pages. The selected format for this paper is MLA (Modern Language Association of America). VLSI or Very Large Scale Integration is the process of placing hundreds of thousands of transistors onto a single chip. This type of technology was discovered in the early 1980s as a part of the semiconductor and communication technologies that were being researched at the time. The first semiconductor chips held one transistor each. Through more research, subsequent chips held more and more transistors and as a result, more and more process became integrated over time. This continual integration led to the production of the microprocessor, which utilizes VLSI technology. The first processor to utilize VLSI was the 4004 introduced by Intel in 1971. VLSI chips are designed and tested using CAD (Computer Aided Design) tools. VLSI chips are the essential building blocks of modern digital electronic systems ranging from computers to consumer goods. The design of these integrated chips requires sophisticated CAD software to manage the complexity of design and verify the functionality of the chip. Current research in the development of VLSI, mainly involves development of CAD tools. Through the development of more advanc ...

Argument Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Argument - Essay Example For example, CI requires that a rational individual is moral if the end of their actions is to promote the good of all. Therefore, CI is the best theory in precisely articulating human reasoning and decision making, and relating these to free human will compared to other decision theories. Moral actions are indicative of rationality, with an immoral action indicating irrationality in an individual. A moral action has to be universal in that it has to stand true in any event anywhere. For example, stealing is immoral; it causes pain to the owner while it may result to pleasure in the one stealing. Causing pain is immoral as it leads to suffering, implying that such an act when committed by a rational being would be immoral. Stealing is thus a crime universally as it violates CI theory, which is a universal law of morals. Being a universal law, Kantian CI becomes the best theory that explains why individuals have to decide in a certain way. For example, considering the relational Diale cts theory in a similar case, the theory requires us to consider issues around us, which help people to construct meaning in any relation. Thus the theory is based on specific circumstances as it requires one to consider cultural and social rational systems. This implies the theory applies to multicultural diversity (Turner, 2004). Thus stealing according to this theory may be justified in some cases as it directs people to construct certain meanings in a specific setting of relationships. On the other hand, the how we decide theory is largely based on observable behavior from outside as one cannot access the mind of the individual. For example, asking why does a an individual steal would lead to detailed examinations of their behaviors and history in finding elements that may explain such behaviors in deciding if the individual is actually on the wrong. Such an observation may sometimes be inaccurate and may lead to a wrong conclusion. Therefore, the advantage of CI theory is that it is based on a universal law and is not relative as the other two theories, which depend on specific circumstances. The issue of personal freedom in making a decision is of much importance, and precisely bestows the responsibility of an action on the particular individual. As Kant’s CI theory explains, freedom is an important element in reasoning, whose function cannot be ignored. Thus, without assuming freedom, an individual cannot act (McCormick, 2005). In other words, an individual is not a robot or causal agent that only serves to implement orders. Thinking in such direction would deny humanity its own existence and purpose. Freedom is thus a central focus in decision making and reasoning; an individual is at will to decide in any direction. In this theory, Kant places the consequence of each action on the specific individual, and not on a system of events that may be explained to be the causal agents behind such an action. However, considering the how we decide theory, the major limitation is the assumption that humans are not rational. Thus, the theory traces human action not from the specific individual, but from a system of factors and history that plays to shape and define human actions. This would relegate humanity to being a causal agent that is not responsible for

HR Policy Manual Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

HR Policy Manual - Assignment Example They provide automobile and hybrid-electric batteries and systems engineering. Johnson Controls vision statement is simple: to provide a more "comfortable, safe and sustainable world" (Johnson Controls Website "Vision Statement"). They are located in Glendale, WI and have another office in San Francisco. Johnson Controls is structure as a Corporation. The Equal Employment Opportunity statement tells employees and people outside the organization how the company feels about employing a diversity of people. These statements often include not only the legal definitions of diversity like race, ethnicity or disability, but they also involve statements that are important to the company like sexual orientation, amnesty, marital status or age. Each company will have a different idea of what they should put into their EEO statements. Johnson Controls is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer. We believe that in order to be sure that our products and services are doing their jobs that we need to be a part of the community. We provide products and services that represent the diversity in the workplace. We look for people in every region who will work well as a team and who are involved in the global marketplace. We are dedicated to attracting, training and developing the best talent that we can find all over the world. Affirmative action is similar to EEO in that it tells what the business plans to do about discrimination. This statement will generally tell the groups of people that the company will cover under their anti-discrimination clause. According to Wordnet, an affirmative action policy is "a policy designed to redress past discrimination against women and minority groups through measures to improve their economic and educational opportunities". We work to eliminate discrimination and harassment in all its forms, and we are committed to providing equal opportunity in all of our employment practices. By valuing diversity, all our employees can fully

Marketing the New Product of IMMO Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Marketing the New Product of IMMO - Essay Example The product should be differentiated and branded differently and it should target different segments of the market as well as well as be priced differently. Further in terms of forecasting demand for the product, it is advisable that the organization obtains orders from the law enforcement agencies as well as from retailers before deciding on the number of units that should be manufactured at launch and in the four quarters of the first year. The objective of this report is to help the management of the organization to decide on the different strategies that it should undertake to ensure that it is meets its full potential in profitability and market penetration. Throughout this document the author has carried out an in depth analysis of the organization, its products, the markets that it wishes to penetrate and the current economic conditions and makes the necessary conclusions and recommendations. In this report the author first analyses if IMMO Tech should proceed with its plans to market the new product, and then the if the organization should enter into any international markets and if so which ones in particular. ... alyses if IMMO Tech should proceed with its plans to market the new product, and then the if the organization should enter into any international markets and if so which ones in particular. Further the author also analyses which market segments and target markets should they focus on, who the target consumers are and which social demographic and lifestyle characteristics they have to share. Once the author studies the different demographic groups in and their similar characteristics the author then goes on to advice the organization on the importance of standardizing or differentiating the products according to the market segments that are targeted and how this can be done to suit the different markets. Next the author analyses the pricing strategy and which strategy should be adopted at the early stages of the product's life cycle, the retail price that should be recommended to the stockists. Since the pricing strategy has been recommended the author then goes on to study and analyze the implications of charging different prices in different markets and the extent to which exchange rates play a role in the context international business. In the final sections of the document the author then analyses if IMMO should develop a range of accessories, if the organization does decide to produce accessories then, how will they add value to the brand and the profitability of the organization. How will it be done in a manner that it rivals can copy Then the author goes on to analyze how and where IMMO should promote and advertise its smartphone, how many units should IMMO Tech manufacture in the run up to the launch And finally how many should be produced in the first four quarters after the launch Once all of the above has been analyzed in detail the author then draws

Advice To A Young Man English Literature Essay

Advice To A Young Man English Literature Essay Benjamin Franklin, Founding Fathers of the United States, was born on January 17, 1706 and died on April 17, 1790 aged 84. Franklin was a lead author and printer, satirist, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat. As a scientist, he was a significant figure in the American Enlightenment and the history of physics for his discoveries as well theories regarding electricity. He invented the glass armonica, the Franklin stove, bifocals, a carriage odometer, and the lightning rod. At the age of 24, Franklin publicly acknowledged an illegitimate son named William. In June 25, 1745, Benjamin Franklin wrote a letter Advice to a Friend on Choosing a Mistress. In this he is advice to a young man on how to channel his sexual urges. He states that a remedy for sexual desire is unknown. His advice would be to take a wife. Having doubts that the intended reader will finally get married; the speaker outlines several advantages of marrying. That the intended reader would succeed in his industry if he gets a healthy wife. According to Franklin, a prudent wife is economical and she is sufficiently a fortune. The author is able to portray a woman as very important in any family (McGovern 10). Incase the above arguments fails; Franklin lists seven explanations why an older mistress is better than a young one. Advantages include greater caution in conducting an intrigue, less risk of unwanted pregnancy, and better conversation. The author advised the young man that his reputation will be safer with the commerce of woman. According to Franklin, a woman is able to safeguard her familys reputations incase of an affair. She is capable of forming a mans manners by her good counsel. Born in St. Johns, Antigua and Barbuda on May 25, 1949, as Elaine Cynthia Potter Richardson, Jamaica Kincaid is an American Caribbean gardener, author and novelist. Throughout the academic year she teaches at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, California, resides with her family in North Bennington, Vermont, in the summers. In St. Johns, Antigua and Barbuda she was brought up by her mother and stepfather, who was a carpenter, until 1965 at age of 19 where she moved to America, New York to work as an aupair. She changed her name to Jamaica Kincaid since her family criticized her writing, in 1973. She has given birth to a son, named Harold, and a daughter, named Annie, with her former husband Allen Shawn. She recently converted to Judaism a minority religion with minority of Black people. She writes extensively on women and their relationships with one another, especially mother to her daughter to be precise as depicted in her works such as Annie John, Lucy, The Autobiography of M y Mother, and Girl which a collection of stories and was first published in 1983 in At the Bottom of the River. In her poem Girl she talks about the morals and norms imposed on women by the humanity, and at times, their own community and social group as well. Here, the major theme of conflicts between a mother and her daughter and traditional and Western or modern values are portrayed by her effective illustration of daughters relationship with her mother. The literary work was done when St. Johns, Antigua and Barbuda was moving from a colonial state and my people were at crossroads on whether to keep African-based Obeah culture or be assimilated in the British or Western ways (Gioia and Kennedy 379). The speaker in Girl employs the use of constant command which makes obvious that she feels as if she ought to be ruthless and simple with the girl in order for her to be taken seriously. The orator desires the girl to know how to behave, and the only approach she finds in which to do so is by authorizing the girl to do specific chores and making it look like there is alternative way in which to perform them. The orator tries to teach the girl by replicating fine points for instance how to set a table in five diverse circumstances. By demonstrating that there is a great deal to be learned to adequately carry out a simple task such as setting the table, the orator shows the girl that she ought to pay attention and put effort to succeed as a woman. In this way, the speaker acts as a role model as well as a counselor to the girl. The speaker shows that a woman has various roles as well various ways of performing the same task (University of Delhi 88). In both the literary works the writers portray the fact that women are expected to obtain and maintain clothes and are responsible for mens clothing. This is depicted in Kincaids Girl where it begins with laundry: Wash the white clothes on Monday and put them on the stone heap; wash the color clothes on Tuesday and put them on the clothesline to dry; After this the mother comes with demonstration on how you iron your fathers khaki shirt so that it doesnt have a crease; this is how you iron your fathers khaki pants so that they do not have a crease. In Benjamin Franklin, Advice to a Young Man on the Choice of a Mistress prudent healthy Wife is supposed to take care of her husband well so that he succeeds in his profession. This is also seen where the Girl is taught how to prepare and grow different foods. In this family a girl is expected to learn how to fish and to soak salt fish overnight before you cook it. Thus, in the two literary works the women are supposed to be caring of the husband and the rest of the family in terms of general wellbeing of the family. Being economically savvy is a virtue implied by both writers in their works. In the Girl she learns how to shop for bread grow root vegetable, okra and dasheen, and prepare pumpkin fritters, doukona (a coconut, banana and cornmeal pudding) bread pudding and pepper pot. These are humble dishes which are supposed to make ends meet. In Benjamin Franklin, Advice to a Young Man on the Choice of a Mistress a wife is supposed to be with her good Economy, and the husband will be a Fortune sufficient. The art of nursing is required of women in these literary works. This is whereby, as in the case of Girl, she has to learn how to make a good medicine for a cold and in the Benjamin Franklins work the lady has to learn to do a 1000 Services small and great, and are the most tender and useful of all Friends when you are sick. Therefore, the two societies though centuries apart, this knowledge was mandatory for all women and girls who are about to become wives. Behaving well in public places especially in front of men was greatly emphasized whereby the Girl is told this is how to behave in the presence of men who do not know you very well, and this way they wont recognize immediately the slut I have warned you against becoming. The mistress in Benjamin Franklins work Advice to a Young Man they are more prudent and discreet in conducting an Intrigue to prevent Suspicion. Thus both women and girls are supposed to carry themselves with decorum to avoid tainting their images. Being beautiful despite the age and chores that one does is not expected of women in the two literary works. In Advice to Young Man the lady learns how to maintain her attractiveness by having confidence in her by not leaning on looks. The Girl has to be smart even if it means washing with her own spit. In the Girl the mother tells the daughter how to how to bully a man; this is how a man bullies you Thus the woman has a role to play in introducing her daughter to complicated dating world. The mistress in the Advice to Young Man knows how to seduce effortlessly young boys by knowing how to kindly take care of a young Man, form his Manners by her good Counsels. Therefore, dating roles in both works are antagonistic whereby girls are expected to be chased by boys while old ladies seduce the young boys. Therefore, from the above roles of women in both the Girl by Jamaica Kincaid and Benjamin Franklins Advice to a Young Man on the Choice of a Mistress have significant similarities and disparities as also evident in the world today. Both authors represent a different period in time as well as station in life. Franklin is a man of status offering advice to someone he wishes to succeed in life. Franklin appreciate the roles of a healthy woman whereas Kincaid depicts the nurturing the roles of a well behaved woman.

Causation and Moral Responsibility for Death Essay -- Euthanasia Physi

Causation and Moral Responsibility for Death ABSTRACT: The distinction between killing and letting die has been a controversial element in arguments about the morality of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide. The killing/letting die distinction is based on causation of death. However, a number of causal factors come into play in any death; it is impossible to state a complete cause of death. I argue that John Mackie’s analysis of causation in terms of ‘inus factors,’ insufficient but non-redundant parts of unnecessary but sufficient conditions, helps us to see that moral responsibility for death cannot rest on causation alone. In specifying the cause of death, some factors can be considered alternatively as either causal factors or merely parts of the presupposed background conditions. If a factor is moved from the background field into the causal field, the result is a changed background field. Comparisons of cases of killing and letting die often do just this; hence, the cases depend on different pres uppositions and the causation cannot be directly compared. Moral judgments determine how to apportion factors to the causal and background fields. The distinction between killing and letting die has been used by many to condemn euthanasia and assisted suicide while giving approbation to withdrawing life-support systems in at least some patients. In the recent United States Supreme Court decision which denies a right to physician-assisted suicide, Chief Justice Rehnquist writes that "when a patient refuses life sustaining medical treatment, he dies from an underlying fatal disease or pathology; but if a patient ingests lethal medication prescribed by a physician, he is killed by that medication." (1) It is doubtful, ho... ..., no.3 (1976): 15-16. (7) John Mackie, The Cement of the Universe: A Study of Causation, paperback edition (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1980). (8) Ibid., 60-62. (9) Ibid., 63. (10) Ibid., 66-67. This statement of a "gappy" universal is fundamentally the same as Mackie’s, but I have altered the formulation for consistency. (11) O.H. Green, "Killing and Letting Die," American Philosophical Quarterly 17 (1980): 195-204, and Helga Kuhse, The Sanctity-of-Life Doctrine in Medicine: A Critique (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987). (12) Kuhse, 50-51. (13) Ibid., 67-68. (14) Ibid., 68. (15) President’s Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine and Biomedical and Behavioral Research, Deciding to Forego Life-Sustaining Treatment: Ethical, Medical, and Legal Issues in Treatment Decisions (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1983), 69.

Bite Me: A Love Story Chapter 14

14. The Samurai of Jackson Street II Katusumi Okata had lived among the gaijin for forty years. An American art dealer, traveling through Hokkaido in search of woodblock prints from the Edo period, had come into Katusumi's father's workshop, seen the boy's prints, and offered to bring Okata to San Francisco to create prints for his gallery on Jackson Street. The printmaker had lived in this same basement apartment since. He'd once had a wife, Yuriko, but she had been killed in front of him on the street when he was twenty-three, so now he lived alone. The apartment had a concrete floor covered by two grass mats, a table that held his printmaking tools, a two-burner stove, an electric kettle, his swords, a futon, three sets of clothes, an old phonograph, and now, a burned-up white woman. She really didn't go with anything else, no matter how he arranged her. He thought he might make a series of prints of her-her blackened, skeletal form posed about the apartment like some demon wraith from a Shinto nightmare, but the composition wasn't working. He walked up to Chinatown and bought a bouquet of red tulips and put them on the futon beside her, but even with the added color and design element, the picture wasn't working. And she was making his futon smell like burned hair. Okata was not used to company, and he wasn't sure how to keep up his end of the conversation. He had once made friends with two rats who came out of a hole in the brick wall. He had talked to them and fed them on the condition that they not bring any friends, but they hadn't listened and he was forced to mortar up the hole. He figured they didn't speak Japanese. To be fair, however, she wasn't doing very well holding up her side of the conversation, either-lying there like a bog person dipped in creosote, her mouth open as if in a scream of agony. He sat on a stool next to the futon with his sketch pad and a pencil and began to sketch her for a print. He had very much admired the great cape of red curls that streamed out behind her when he'd seen her on the street, and he was sorry that all but a few strands had burned away in the sun. A shame. Perhaps he could draw the red curls in anyway. Make them swirl around the blackened rictus like one of Hokusai's waves. He knew what she was, of course. He was still healing from his encounter with the vampire cats, and it took no little bit of sketching to fill in the details, especially as her fangs were pointing prominently at his ceiling right now and they were far too long and sharp to be those of a normal burned-up white girl. He filled three pages with sketches, experimenting with angles and composition, but on the fourth page he found that a sadness had overcome him that he could not chase away with the moment created in making a drawing. Katusumi retrieved his wakizashi short sword from the stand on his work table, unsheathed it, and knelt by the futon. He bowed deeply, then put the point of the sword on the pad of his left thumb and cut. He held his thumb over her open mouth and the dark blood dripped over her teeth and lips. Would she be like the cats? Savage? A monster? He held the razor-edged wakizashi ready in his right hand, should a demon awake. But if he'd been able to raise his beloved Yuriko, even as a demon, wouldn't he have? All the years that had passed, kendo training, drawing, carving, meditating, walking the streets unafraid, alone, hadn't they all been about that? About making Yuriko live? Or not living without her? When the burned-up girl jerked with a great, rasping intake of breath, cinders cracked off her ribs and peppered the yellow futon and water began to flow from the swordsman's eyes. RIVERA AND CAVUTO Marvin the cadaver dog took them to the Wine Country. There they found Bummer and Lazarus, the Emperor's dogs, guarding a Dumpster in an alley behind an abandoned building. Marvin pawed the Dumpster, and tried to stay on task while the Boston terrier sniffed his junk and the golden retriever looked around, a little embarrassed. Nick Cavuto held the lid, ready to lift it. â€Å"Maybe we should call the Wong kid and see if our sunlight jackets are done, then open it.† â€Å"It's daylight,† said Rivera. â€Å"Even if there are, uh, creatures in there, they'll be immobile.† Rivera still had a very difficult time saying the word â€Å"vampires† out loud. â€Å"Marvin says there's a body in there, we need to look.† Cavuto shrugged, lifted the lid of the Dumpster and braced himself for a wave of rotten meat smell, but there was none. â€Å"Empty.† Bummer barked. Marvin pawed at the side of the Dumpster. Lazarus chuffed, which was dog for, â€Å"Duh. Look behind it.† Rivera looked in. Other than a couple of broken wine bottles and the rice part of a taco combo plate, there was nothing in the Dumpster, yet Marvin still pawed at the steel, which was the signal he had been trained to give when he'd found a corpse. â€Å"Maybe we should give Marvin a biscuit to reset him or something,† said Rivera. â€Å"No corpse, no biscuit, that's the rule,† said Cavuto. â€Å"We all have to live by it.† At the mention of a biscuit both Bummer and Marvin stopped what they were doing, sat, looked dutiful and contrite, and gave Rivera the â€Å"I need and deeply deserve a biscuit† look. Frustrated with what biscuit whores his cohorts were, Lazarus went to the side of the Dumpster and started pawing the space between it and the wall, then tried to stuff his muzzle in behind it. Cavuto shrugged, pulled on a pair of form-fitting mechanics gloves from his jacket pocket, and pulled the cement blocks from under the Dumpster's wheels. Rivera watched in horror as the realization hit that he was probably going to get Dumpster schmutz, or worse, on his expensive Italian suit. â€Å"Man up, Rivera,† Cavuto said. â€Å"There's police work to be done.† â€Å"Shouldn't we call some uniforms in to do it? I mean, we're detectives.† Cavuto stood up and looked at his partner. â€Å"You really believe the movies when James Bond kills thirty guys hand to hand, blows up the secret lair, gets set on fire, then escapes under water and his tux doesn't even get wrinkled, don't you?† â€Å"You can't just buy one of those off the rack,† Rivera said. â€Å"It's a high-tech fabric.† â€Å"Just give me a hand with this thing, would you?† Once the Dumpster was in the middle of the alley, the three dogs more or less dogpiled in front of the boarded-up window, Marvin doing his highly trained, â€Å"There's a dead guy in here, give me a biscuit† paw scrape, Bummer barking like he was announcing the big sale event down at Yap-mart and everything had to go, and Lazarus rolling out a long, doleful howl. â€Å"Probably in there,† said Cavuto. â€Å"Ya think?† said Rivera. Cavuto was able to work his fingers between the sheet of plywood and the window frame and pulled it out. Before he could even set it aside Bummer had leapt through the window into the darkness. Lazarus pawed the windowsill, then leapt after his companion. Marvin, the cadaver dog, backed away, then ruffed twice and tossed his head, which translated to, â€Å"No, I'm good, you guys go ahead, just give me my biscuit. I'll be over here-well, would you look at that-those balls definitely need some tongue attention. No, it's okay, go on without me.† Marvin had a nose that could distinguish as many different odors as the human eye could colors, in the range of sixteen million distinct scents. Unfortunately, his doggie brain had a much more limited vocabulary for giving name to those scents and he processed what he smelled as: dead cats, many, dead humans, many, dead rats, many, poo and wee, many flavors, none fresh, and old guy who needs a shower; none of which would have given him pause. The smell that he couldn't file, that he didn't have a response for, that stopped him at the window, was a new one: dead, but not dead. Undead. It was scary, and licking his balls calmed him and kept his mind off the biscuit that they owed him. Rivera shone his flashlight around the room. The basement appeared empty but for piles of debris and a thick layer of dust and ash over the floor, textured with the paw prints of hundreds of cats. He could see the movement of Bummer and Lazarus just at the edge of the flashlight's beam. They were scratching at a metal door. â€Å"We'll need the crowbar out of the car,† said Rivera. â€Å"You're going in there?† asked Cavuto. â€Å"In that suit?† Rivera nodded. â€Å"There's something down there, one of us has to.† â€Å"You're a goddamn hero, Rivera, that's what you are. A real, dyed in the worsted wool and silk blend hero.† â€Å"Yeah, there's that, and you can't fit through the window.† â€Å"Can too,† said Cavuto. Five minutes later they were both standing in the middle of the basement, fanning their Surefire ballistic flashlights through the dust like they were wielding silent light sabers. Rivera led the way to the steel door that the hounds were going at as if someone had duct taped it to a fox. â€Å"You guys, shut up!† Rivera snapped, and much to his surprise, Bummer and Lazarus fell silent and sat. Rivera looked back at his partner. â€Å"That's spooky.† â€Å"Yeah, and praise Willie Mays that's the only spooky thing going on here.† Cavuto was a deeply religious San Francisco Giants fan and genuflected whenever he passed the bronze statue of Willie Mays outside the ball park. â€Å"Good point,† said Rivera. He tried the door, which didn't budge, but it was clear from the arc plowed into the dust and ashes that it had been opened recently. â€Å"Crowbar,† he said, reaching back. Cavuto handed him the crowbar and at the same time drew his gun from his shoulder holster, a ridiculously large Desert Eagle.50-caliber automatic. â€Å"When did you start carrying that thing again?† â€Å"Right after you said the v-word out loud at Sacred Heart.† â€Å"It won't stop them, you know.† â€Å"It makes me feel better. You want to hold it while I pry the door?† â€Å"If there's a-one of them-in there, they'll be dormant or whatever you call it. It's daytime, they can't attack.† â€Å"Yeah, well, just in case they didn't get the memo.† â€Å"I got it.† Rivera fit the crowbar in the door jamb and threw his weight against it. On the third push, something snapped and the door scraped open an inch. Bummer and Lazarus were up instantly, with their noses in the gap. Rivera looked back at Cavuto, who nodded, and Rivera pulled the door open and stepped away. A pile of shelving and junk blocked the doorway, but Bummer and Lazarus were able to thread their way through it and were in the room, barking in frantic, desperate yelps. Through a gap in the junk, Rivera played the beam of his flashlight around the small storeroom, over barrels, shelving, and piles of dusty clothing. â€Å"Clear,† he said. Cavuto joined him in the doorway. â€Å"Clear, my ass.† The big cop kicked his way through the barricade, holding his flashlight high in one hand and the Desert Eagle trained on a row of barrels on the right side of the room, where Bummer and Lazarus were currently indulging a hurricane-level doggie freakout. Rivera followed his partner into the room, then approached the barrels while Cavuto covered him. Beyond the barking, he heard a faint metal tapping coming from one of the barrels. The barrel was upside-down and had held some kind of solid, the label said something about water-filtering mineral. It was sitting on its lid, which was only partially crimped on. â€Å"Something's in there.† â€Å"Plug your ears,† said Cavuto, cocking the hammer on the Desert Eagle, and aiming for the center of the barrel. â€Å"Are you high? You can't fire that thing in here.† â€Å"Well there's can't and there's shouldn't. I probably shouldn't fire it.† â€Å"Cover me, I'm pushing it over.† Before Cavuto could answer Rivera grabbed the edge of the barrel and shoved with all his might. It was heavy, and fell hard. Bummer and Lazarus rocketed around to the exposed lid and were pawing at it. â€Å"Ready?† said Rivera. â€Å"Go,† said Cavuto. Rivera kicked the edge of the lid and it clanked off, then landed with a dull thud in the thick dust on the floor. Bummer rocketed inside while Lazarus frisked back and forth outside. Rivera drew his weapon and moved to where he could look into the barrel. He was met first by a gray storm of hair, then two crystal blue eyes set in a wide, weathered face. â€Å"Well that was unpleasant,† said the Emperor, around the sloppy bath of dog spit he was receiving from Bummer. â€Å"I'll bet,† said Rivera, lowering his weapon. â€Å"I may require some assistance extricating myself from this container.† â€Å"We can do that,† said Cavuto. Cavuto was fighting back a very bad case of the empathy willies, imagining himself spending a night, maybe longer, upside-down, shoved inside a barrel. He and the Emperor were about the same size. â€Å"You in pain?† â€Å"Oh no, thank you, I lost the feeling in my arms and legs quite some time ago.† â€Å"I'm guessing you didn't get in there on your own, did you?† said Rivera. â€Å"No, this was not my doing,† said the Emperor. â€Å"I was roughly handled, but it appears to have saved my life. There wasn't enough room in the barrel for any of them to become solid. There were hundreds of the fiends around me. But you saw them as you came in, I'm sure.† Rivera shook his head. â€Å"You mean the cats? No, there are tracks everywhere, but the place is empty.† â€Å"Well that's not good,† said the Emperor. â€Å"No, it's not.† Rivera was distracted. He'd been playing his flashlight beam around the room, looking for something to help them get the Emperor out of the barrel. He stopped the beam on a spot by the shelves where the dust hadn't been stirred by their rescue efforts. There, as clearly as if it had been made in plaster of Paris to send home for Mother's Day, was a single human footprint. â€Å"That's not good at all,† he said. From outside the window Marvin barked three times quickly, which Rivera thought was a warning, but translated from dog to: â€Å"Hey, can I get a friggin' biscuit out here, or what?†