Supply Chain Mgmt for Best Buy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Supply Chain Mgmt for Best Buy - Essay Example This may be achieved by addressing the customer issues relating to the size, specification and time of demand so that they meet their desires with convenience. This is possible by introducing online customer care services where customers can make enquiries from their homes and get appropriate feedback. This approach will help the company in tracking the behaviour trend of the clients in terms of needs. In-depth and long term relationship with the suppliers: Due to the prevailing global economic uncertainties, it would be safe for Best buy to adopt positive working relationship with the suppliers to track their ability in terms of reliable inventory stocking and ensuring that they have efficient modes of replenishing its stock. Deeper understanding of the supplier will help the firm to formulate and establish supply chain management system that suites the suppliers policies and system and this goes down to cut costs, improve efficiency and encourage innovation. Best buys should adopt a partnership policy that proposes use of same technology for easy co-ordination of supply activities in response to the market demand to avoid customer disappointment which will translate to financial and social cost to the firm. Internal control measures: Best buys need to consider developing sound internal control system that would give guideline on how to achieve its set goals. It is important that tit observe the minimal use of pricing as a competitive strategy but rather adopt other approaches that would give it optimal costing and revenues. To achieve this, they need to develop a system that will help all the management teams to retrieve any information and liaise with both suppliers and distributors. This would help in maintaining continuous flow of inventory thereby eliminating supply cut-off to the advantage of its online competitors like Amazon and EBay. Emphasis on IT technology

Post Colonial Intervention in Somalia Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Post Colonial Intervention in Somalia - Essay Example The civil war issue has been the main target of many humanitarian as well as peacekeeping missions such as the AMISOM but the conflict still exists as a result of various factors such as the fact that countries have intervened for their own selfish reasons such as oil and trade routes. These will be explored in the paper as an analysis of the various interventions is presented.The civil war issue has been the main target of many humanitarian as well as peacekeeping missions such as the AMISOM but the conflict still exists as a result of various factors such as the fact that countries have intervened for their own selfish reasons such as oil and trade routes. These will be explored in the paper as an analysis of the various interventions is presented. Six main United Organizations were involved in coordinating overall humanitarian efforts in Somalia: the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), UNHCR, UNICEF, and WHO. In addition, over 30 NGOs worked as implanting partners of the UN in Somalia. Among the things that were addressed by the United Nations organizations together with the NGOs included coming up with priority options that could aid combat famine and loss of innocent lives in Somalia. However, delayed international media coverage of the conflict played a significant role in triggering international responses (Schraeder, 2006).The first reports by the NGOs who were residing in the country when Said Barre was overthrown did not receive significant attention.

Second Language Learning And Age Related Factors English Language Essay

Second Language Learning And Age Related Factors English Language Essay Age is one of the most important affective factors in Second Language Acquisition(SLA). There is some consensus among SLA researchers that age as an affective factor that brings about different performance stages in second language learning. Most experts also agree that individual learners learn differently depending on many variables like learning opportunities, the motivation to learn, individual differences and learning styles in second language acquisition. However, there is little consensus as to how far individuals of the same age group of learners follow a similar and/or linear pattern of language acquisition. The question of how developmental stages interact with individual learning differences is still a question of great debate. It is generally believed that younger learners have certain advantages over older learners in language learning. The common notion is that younger children learn L2 easily and quickly in comparison to older children (Ellis, 2008; Larsen-Freeman, 200 8; Mayberry Lock, 2003). The relationship between age and success in SLA, though complex in nature, is linked to the Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH). CPH, also known as the sensitive period, is defined as the period during which a child can acquire language easily, rapidly, perfectly, and without instruction(Richards Schmidt, 2002, p.145). The CPH suggests that a period of time, between birth and somewhere around the age when a child enters puberty, exists in which the learning a second language can be accomplished more rapidly and easily than times falling outside of this period i.e. post puberty (Larsen-Freeman Long, 2008).SLA theories and research have explained the impact of age in second language acquisition. As reported by Light bown and Spada (2008), learning depends on learners characteristics and the environment. Their findings suggested that older learners have a higher level of problem solving and metalinguistics abilities than younger learners. Researchers discoveries Researchers have focused on learners pronunciation, syntax and grammatical morphemes. Mark Patkowski (1982) examined the level of spoken English of sixty-seven immigrants to the U.S. His finding was that pre-puberty learners acquire second language better than post-puberty learners. He also pointed out that two other factors-length of residence and amount of instruction-are inseparable from the age factor. Johnson and Newport (quoted in Light bown Spada, 2008) found native-like language abilities and the performance levels lower in older children than younger in a study of forty-six Chinese and Koreans speakers. On the other hand, Snow and Hoefnagel-Hohle (1982), from their research carried in Holland, concluded that adults learned faster than children and the rate of second language learning was higher. David Singleton(2003) also declared that the tendency for younger learners to do better in the long run in the matter of second language lexical acquisition is no more than a tendenc y (p. 22). In this paper, an attempt is made to study and analyze the age related research on the basis of critical period hypothesis and other relevant variables. The key question in this paper is how age affects second language acquisition. Do people of the same age group possess the same learning characteristics and learn in the same ratio in SLA? Are there any certain features that the researchers have agreed upon regarding the age factor in SLA and CPH? Critical period The notion of critical period for a second language acquisition has been associated with several hypotheses. Some researchers have focused on the view that the younger learners as the better learners whereas others opine the older learners as the better learners. However, there are different perspectives on how the children and adults learn a foreign or second language. Adults naturally find themselves in such situations that demand more complex language and expression of more complicated ideas whereas children lack pressure and maturity in second language learning. The Experiments David Singleton (1989) offered a number of proposals related to age and second language acquisition. The most popular notions are the younger =the better and the older =the better (Singleton, p. 31). He, on the basis of previous studies and research on age factor, focused on learners pronunciation skill and other linguistics features. There are a number of research to support the younger the better hypothesis. Yamanda et al. (qtd. in Singleton, 1989) studied 30Japanese elementary school pupils of seven to ten ages old. These students did not have any previous experience of English. The researchers used a list of 40 English words and recorded the rate of success of the students. Their finding was that more than average older learners decreased with age i.e. the older the age the lower the score. Furthermore, Mark S. Patkowski (1982) carried out a research on 67 highly educated immigrants to the United States from various backgrounds. In his control subjects, 33 subjects were those who had come to the United States before the age of 15 (pre-puberty group) and 34 subjects who were post-puberty group with similar backgrounds. He examined the spoken English of the subjects, and analyzed a difference between learners who began to learn English before puberty and those who began learning English later after puberty (Patkowski, 1982, p.58). His results showed a strong negative relationship between age of arrival and syntactic rating. He concluded that the pre-puberty group was better in language learning than the post-puberty group. He further addressed: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦the only factor which was highly associated with the level of syntactic proficiency attained by learners was the age at which acquisition of English began. Practice and instructional variables showed little or no association with the dependent variables. The result, then, appeared to strongly support the hypothesis of an age-related limitation on the ability to acquire full command of a second language. (Patkowski, 1982, p. 59) He also concluded that the age factor is highly related to other several factors like the numbers of years spent in the United States, amount of information exposure to English and amount of formal instruction in English. One of the supporting evidences in the field of second language acquisition comes from the experience of immigrants. A group of researchers have shown a relationship between age of entry, length of residence and level of language acquisition (Singleton 1989; Ekstrand 1982; Asher Gracia 1989; Lightbown Spada 2008). Asher and Gracia examined acquisition of pronunciation of 71 Cuban immigrants to California. The subjects were of aged groups from seven to 19 years. The majority of them had been in the United States for about five years. They concluded that not one of the 71 Cuban subjects was judged to have American native pronunciation (qtd. in Singleton, 1989, p. 83). They also figured out a fact that the younger a child had been when entering the United States, the higher the probability of a native like accent. The Lenneburgian notion of CPH that puberty as a milestone for SLA has been reversed by the other researchers. Carroll (1963) suggested that the ability to acquire a native like accent declines toward puberty. Ekstrand (1982) carried out a research on age and length of residence of 2400 Swedish pupils. The test consisted of six areas including pronunciation, diction, listening, reading, oral and written production. Ekstrand grouped the total population into 26 categories according to third month of year of birth and observed effects of age and effects of length of residence in the process of second language. He found that language learning ability goes almost linearly with age. He also noticed that social and emotional adjustment did not seem to be related to age. He deduced that age was strongly correlated with grade levels because quality and quantity of instruction was an important factor in second language learning. For Ekstrand, the more developed the brain was, the better it was suited for second language learning. Susan Oyama (1976) studied 60 male Italian immigrants who entered to the United States at ages ranging from six to 20. She examined the degree of American accent and proficiency in English listening. She concluded that age is as an important factor to achieve native like accent. The youngest arrivals performed a better accent. She has shown the relation of age and listening comprehension as follows: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦those subjects who began learning English before age 11 showed comprehension score similar to those of native speakers, whereas later arrivals did less well; those who arrived after the age of 16 showed markedly lower comprehension scores than the native. (Oyama, 1982, p. 23) A further immigrant study appeared in support of the younger the better hypothesis. Johnson and Newport (qtd. in Lightbown Spada, 2008) selected 46 Chinese and Korean experimental subjects in their research. They tested some rules of English morphology and syntax among the participants of aged groups from three to 15 and with those aged groups from 17 to39. The result was that those who began learning later did not have native like language abilities and their performance on the test varied more widely. Robert Dekeyser (2000) conducted a replication of the Johnson and Newport with a group of Hungarian immigrants to the United States. On the contrary, he concluded that adult learners were better than the younger ones. The second strong hypothesis is that older learners are more successful that than younger language learners in SLA. This notion was highly supported by a number of short term experimental researchers. These studies and research were based on teaching projects and second language immersion programs. Some of these studies have highlighted adolescents and adults of different ages where results have indicated that the older learners are far better than the younger ones. In 1967 Ashor and Price (as cited in Singleton, 1989) have carried out an experiment with96 students from the second, fourth and eighth grades of a school and 37 undergraduate students from a college. The subjects did not have any previous knowledge of Russian, the targeted language. After three short trainings conducted in Russian language, the results showed that the eight graders performed significantly better than the second graders and the fourth graders. They also noticed a consistently positive relationship with advancing age because of above average mental ability of the adults. Politzer and Weiss (as quoted in Singleton, 1989) have conducted another study in which they found that an advantage of SLA for older learners than younger ones. Their subjects were second, fifth, seventh and ninth graders. The experimental procedures were consisted of an auditory discrimination test, a pronunciation test and a reading test among 257 pupils. They recorded a gradual improvement of scores with an increase age in all three tests. Similarly, Olson and Samuel in the 1970s (qtd. in Singleton, 1989) have investigated the relative capacity of native English speakers in three different age groups on 20 elementary pupils, 20 junior high school pupils and 20 college students. On the test of pronunciation, it was found that two older groups performed significantly better than the elementary age group. In other studies on age and SLA, many researchers have mentioned a similar finding that adult subjects performed better than the children (Bland Keislar, 1966; Smith Braine, 1973; Burstall her colleagues, 1974; Singleton, 1989). Bland and Keislar took six fifth graders and four kindergartners in their study. They conducted an individualized program of oral French. They mentioned that amongst the fifth graders this time ranged from 4.5 to 11 hours, the mean being 6.9 hours, whereas amongst the kindergarteners the ranges from 12.5 to 17.5 hours and the mean was 15.1 hours (Qtd. in Singleton 1989, p. 98). In other words, the younger learners took more than twice as long as the older learners. A large scale experiment was conducted by Burstall and her colleagues (Qtd. in Singleton 1989) in the 1970s. The study included three age groups of pupils from selected primary schools in England and Wales. Among the 11 year old, 13 year old and 16 year old students, the results indicated that older students dramatically achieved higher score in listening and speaking tests than the younger ones. Other researchers of SLA interested in assessing phonological skills of learners suggest a common belief that younger learners acquire a native like accent in the target language. Dunkel and Pillet (reported in Singleton, 1989) compared the proficiency in French between elementary school pupils and beginning students of French from the university. They found that the younger learners pronunciation was better than that of the older ones. However, in both written and aural tests, the university students had better performance than the younger ones. In another study, Fathman and Precup (reported in Singleton, 1989) tested oral proficiency in English on 20 children and 20 adults in a formal setting in Mexico. Their finding also brought a similar conclusion that the children scored better in English pronunciation than the adults but the adults scored better then the children in syntax. Some studies, on the other hand, have focused on the issues of culture and variations of accent among the speakers of the same language. Lobov (1920) has claimed that people rarely acquire the accent of a particular region if they move into that region after puberty (qtd. in Singleton, 1989, p. 111). While considering younger learners in long run, Stephen Krashen (1979) has forwarded three proposals in the domain of morph syntax. Krashens positions in SLA are as following: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Adults proceed through early stages of syntactic and morphological development faster than children (where time and exposure are held constant). à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Older children acquire faster than younger children (again time and exposure are held constant). à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Acquirers who begin natural exposure to second languages during childhood generally achieve higher second language proficiency than those beginning as adults. (qtd. In Singleton, 1989, p. 117) Krashen et al. studied syntax and morphology of children in formal and informal learning contexts. They claimed that older learners proceed through the early stages of second language grammatical development more quickly than younger learners. Anan Fathman (1982) observed a difference in the rate of learning English phonology, morphology and syntax based on the differences in age. She focused on the children aged 11 to 15 years who received significantly higher scores in learning the morphology and syntax of a second language than those children of aged six to ten years. One of the most significant studies related to age and SLA comes from the research of Catherine E. Snow and Marian Hoefnagel-Hohle (1982). They investigated 51 English subjects in five age groups whose target language was Dutch. The subjects accomplishments at three points in the Netherlands were compared with the accomplishments of two advanced speakers of Dutch and native speakers. The beginners were tested three times at 4 to 5 month intervals, but the advanced learners were tested only once. The subjects were tested individually at school or at home in various categories-pronunciation, auditory discrimination, morphology, sentence repetition, sentence translation, sentence judgment, Peabody picture vocabulary test, story comprehension and storytelling. The results of their study gave strong evidence against the critical period hypothesis. All the tests showed a rapid learning by the 12 to 15 years old and adults during the first few months of acquisition. T hey mentioned: The adultsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦fell increasingly behind because their subsequent improvement was very slow. The teenagers had achieved almost native performance extremely quickly, within a few months of starting to speak Dutchà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.The crucial findings of relevance for evaluating the CPH were that the 3 to 5 years old scored consistently worse than the older groups on all the test and that the 12 to 15 years old showed the most rapid acquisition of all the skills tested. (Snow Hoefnagel-Hohle, 1982, p. 103) The Results Their finding rejected the notion of younger learners as better learners in L2 acquisition. In the second study, Snow and Hoefnagel-Hohle took 81 subjects. Of them, 51 were beginners and31were advanced learners. In the result, it was found that in all cases the adolescent and adult subjects outperformed the younger subjects. The research has shown non-liner relationship between age and second language acquisition. Whether the long term or short term studies are conducted on syntax and morphology or pronunciation of a second language, there are as many conflicting views as the researchers. To address this situation, it is opted to quote Singleton (1989) that beyond the strict terms of Krashen et. al.s hypothesis the evidence concerning short term versus long term language attainment is more confused (p.119) and there is no common argument agreed by all the research. David Birdsong (2006) has studied theoretical issues and empirical findings of age related research of second language acquisition. He had found that brain memory, learning conditions and second language processing speed are connected with age factor. He has pointed out that morphological changes and cognitive process are different in young and adult learners. The next component besides Critical Period Hypothesis of second language acquisition is the variables related to the age factor. These variables can be motivation, anxiety, self confidence, attitude, learning styles and so on. They are responsible in language acquisition in both children and adults. Their direct relationship to age as an indicator of language learning has been studied by various researchers. John Archibald (2005) has said that it is hard to say whether critical period exists or not. He argued that it is much more difficult to predict knowledge or ability in any of the other areas of communicative competence (syntax, cohesion, sociolinguistics, etc.) based on age of acquisition (Archibald, 2005, p. 420). Rather he valued individual differences, the L2 classroom, modified input, modified interaction, and learning environment in second language learning context. Mary Schleppegrell (2008) has focused on health, classroom practices and learning styles as age related factors in second language learning. She says that older adults learn a foreign language for a specific purpose to be more effective professionally, to be able to service in an anticipated foreign situation or for other instrumental reasons (Schleppegrell, 2008, p. 3). On the other hand, younger learners may not have extrinsic motivation or may not see a specific goal in learning another language. It is also noticed that children and adults do not always get the same quality and quantity of language input in both formal and informal learning settings (Lightbown Spada, 2008). It is also hard to say how these variables work as a filter or barrier in learning process of young and adults. As in Colliers study (1987) (qtd. in Singleton, 1989), the barrier of anxiety sometimes makes the adults less successful in second language. Language input is another factor linked to age. Stephen Krashen believes that the learner improves when he or she receives second language input at a level of comprehensible input (i+1). For Krashen the natural comprehension input has become the fundamental principle in SLA. This comprehensible input may change with age where older learners get an advantage over younger ones (Lightbown Spada, 2008). Conclusion Summing up, age is one of the characteristics that determine the way in which an individual learns second language. Age is highly associated with critical period in many research studies. There are a number of controversial issues related to second language acquisition and critical period hypothesis. As Singleton (2005) has predicted, a multiplicity of CPs, like mythical hydra, whose multiplicity of heads and capacity to produce new heads rendered it impossible to deal with (p. 288). He declares the end of critical period. Some researchers limited the CP between per inatality and puberty, while the others extended it after the puberty. In the realm of pedagogy, the researchers have advocated CPH into two main categories-the younger the better and the older the better. A group of researchers including Singleton, Yamanda et al., Carroll and et al, and Patkowski believed that the young learners have higher learning potentiality than the adults whereas Johnson and Newport, Dekeyser, Asher and Price, Politzer and Weiss, Olson and Samuel opined the opposite. The young learners are considered fluent in communication of the second language and achieve native like accent. Learners after the age of puberty do not acquire native like accent of a second language but have complex learning pattern. Research suggests that children and adults L2 learners pass through different developmental states in second language learning. Learning depends on the cognitive maturity and neurological factors. Julia Van Sickle and Sarah Ferris (as quoted in Singleton, 2005) have shown the relation between age and second language acquisition as, One of the dangers of the emphasis on critical periods is that it prompts us to pay too much attention to when learning occurs and too little attention to how learning might best occur (p. 105). Age is not everything in second language learning. However, factors related to the age, for example the learning opportunities, the motivation to learn, individual differences, and learning styles, are also important determining variables that affect the rate of second language learning in various developmental stages of the learners.

Atkins and Low Carbohydrate Diets: Not the Optimal Method of Weight Loss :: Health Nutrition Diet Exercise Essays

Atkins and Low Carbohydrate Diets: Not the Optimal Method of Weight Loss In the help of today’s society where looks seem to matter more than personality, different types of diets quickly became popular. In the year 2003 to 2004 the Atkins Diet reached its peak, from its wide advertising to its celebrity connections an increasing amount of Americans focus their interest on this unusual way of losing weight. The Atkins Diet was introduced by Dr. Robert Atkins in 1972. Its purpose is to make a person loose weight by eating foods that are high in protein and lessening foods that are high in carbohydrates. When a person eats foods that are high in carbohydrates, it produces a high amount of insulin which causes the body to quickly change food into body fat. On the other hand, when the body generates low carbohydrates it produces low insulin and this causes the body to search other areas for fuel, which is fat. And when the body does not have energy source that comes from carbohydrates it will turn to another resource which is fat to burn energy. So in other words, the Atkins Diet is stating that you can eat as much food that contains fats and proteins which are mainly steak, eggs and all the other foods that are taught to be unhealthy. Therefore, one question seems to be always asked when talking about the Atkins Diet. Does it work? Low carbohydrate diets have been very controversial because it does not follow the food pyramid and many Americans are puzzled by this idea. But countless people are trying it because of the idea that you can eat large amounts of good tasting foods and still be able to loose weight. There are also other advantages such as sleeping better, no headaches as well as no joint and muscular pains. Weight loss in the Atkins Diet is also rapid compared to the conventional way of loosing weight where carbohydrates are stated to stimulate a person’s appetite that triggers to more eating which can cause breaking the rules and longer time to see results. Many believe that the Atkins Diet is too good to be true and wants to be informed of the bad side of this well known diet. With its focus on fatty foods and meats, medical experts find the Atkins to be unsafe because it limits a person from eating nutrient rich foods.

Investments Essay

Checking account is a type of investment to manage personal finances that has both advantages and disadvantages. The primary advantages of checking are to save fees charged by storefronts that offer check cashing services and easy accessibility to funds by writing on checks compared to carrying cash. The disadvantages of checking accounts are overdraft fees when the balance is less than the maintaining balance and less security than ATM cards since it only requires a signature. Money market account offers advantages to account holders to hold emergency funds and money for periodic payments. A higher rate of interest is also offered compared to other types of accounts. Its disadvantages are limited transactions to only 3 deposits and 3 withdrawals every month; potential investment loss since only $250,000 is insured by FDIC; unguaranteed interest rate due to fluctuation; risk of spontaneous spending due to easy accessibility; and risk of withdrawing funds leading to a minimum balance especially when the account is tied to a checking account. Passbook savings account offers the advantages of safety as covered by U. S. federal government insurance companies (FDIC and NCUSIF); immediate access to funds based on the needs of the account holder; and it offers a fairly small interest. Its disadvantages are the limitation on federal insurance of a maximum of $250,000 coverage and the lowest interest rate of passbook accounts compared to all types of savings account. The interest also is subjected to tax returns for the depositor. Certificate of deposits additionally has advantages and disadvantages. It offers flexibility of the terms starting at three months up to five years or more. It means the longer the term, the higher interest rate the depositor will receive at the end of the term. Another advantage is the grace period it offers. Depositors are given commonly a seven-day period to come to a decision whether to extend the term or not. Its disadvantages are the interest rate is fixed, penalty fees when the deposit is withdrawn before maturity date, and automatic rollover when the depositor missed to make a decision on or before the grace period.

Practical Demonkeeping Chapter 26

26 TRAVIS'S STORY Augustus Brine sat in one of the big leather chairs in front of his fireplace, drinking red wine from a balloon goblet and puffing away on his meerschaum. He had promised himself that he would have only one glass of wine, just to take the edge off the adrenaline and caffeine jangle he had worked himself into during the kidnapping. Now he was on his third glass and the wine had infused him with a warm, oozy feeling; he let his mind drift in a dreamy vertigo before attacking the task at hand: interrogating the demonkeeper. The fellow looked harmless enough, propped up and tied to the other wing chair. But if Gian Hen Gian was to be believed, this dark young man was the most dangerous human on Earth. Brine considered washing up before waking the demonkeeper. He had caught a glimpse of himself in the bathroom mirror – his beard and clothing covered with flour and soot, his skin caked with sweat-streaked goo – and decided that he would make a more intimidating impression in his current condition. He had found the smelling salts in the medicine cabinet and sent Gian Hen Gian to the bathroom to bathe while he rested. Actually he wanted the Djinn out of the room while he questioned the demonkeeper. The Djinn's curses and ravings would only complicate an already difficult task. Brine set his wineglass and his pipe on the end table and picked up a cotton-wrapped smelling-salt capsule. He leaned over to the demonkeeper and snapped the capsule under his nose. For a moment nothing happened, and Brine feared that he had hit him too hard, then the demonkeeper started coughing, looked at Brine, and screamed. â€Å"Calm down – you're all right,† Brine said. â€Å"Catch, help me!† The demonkeeper struggled against his bonds. Brine picked up his pipe and lit it, affecting a bored nonchalance. After a moment the demonkeeper settled down. Brine blew a thin stream of smoke into the air between them. â€Å"Catch isn't here. You're on your own.† Travis seemed to forget that he had been beaten, kidnapped, and tied up. His concentration was focused on Brine's last statement. â€Å"What do you mean, Catch isn't here? You know about Catch?† Brine considered giving him the I'm-asking-the-questions-here line that he had heard so many times in detective movies, but upon reflection, it seemed silly. He wasn't a hardass; why play the role? â€Å"Yes, I know about the demon. I know that he eats people, and I know you are his master.† â€Å"How do you know all that?† â€Å"It doesn't matter,† Brine said. â€Å"I also know that you've lost control of Catch.† â€Å"I have?† Travis seemed genuinely shaken by this. â€Å"Look, I don't know who you are, but you can't keep me here. If Catch is out of control again, I'm the only one that can stop him. I'm really close to ending all this; you can't stop me now.† â€Å"Why should you care?† â€Å"What do you mean, why should I care? You might know about Catch, but you can't imagine what he's like when he's out of control.† â€Å"What I mean,† Brine said, â€Å"is why should you care about the damage he causes? You called him up, didn't you? You send him out to kill, don't you?† Travis shook his head violently. â€Å"You don't understand. I'm not what you think. I never wanted this, and now I have a chance to stop it. Let me go. I can end it.† â€Å"Why should I trust you? You're a murderer.† â€Å"No. Catch is.† â€Å"What's the difference? If I do let you go, it will be because you will have told me what I want to know, and how I can use that information. Now I'll listen and you'll talk.† â€Å"I can't tell you anything. And you don't want to know anyway, I promise you.† â€Å"I want to know where the Seal of Solomon is. And I want to know the incantation that sends Catch back. Until I know, you're not going anywhere.† â€Å"Seal of Solomon? I don't know what you're talking about.† â€Å"Look – what is your name, anyway?† â€Å"Travis.† â€Å"Look, Travis,† Brine said, â€Å"my associate wants to use torture. I don't like the idea, but if you jerk me around, torture might be the only way to go.† â€Å"Don't you have to have two guys to play good cop, bad cop?† â€Å"My associate is taking a bath. I wanted to see if I could reason with you before I let him near you. I really don't know what he's capable of†¦ I'm not even sure what he is. So if we could get on with this, it would be better for the both of us.† â€Å"Where's Jenny?† Travis asked. â€Å"She's fine. She's at work.† â€Å"You won't hurt her?† â€Å"I'm not some kind of terrorist, Travis. I didn't ask to be involved in this, but I am. I don't want to hurt you, and I would never hurt Jenny. She's a friend of mine.† â€Å"So if I tell you what I know, you'll let me go?† â€Å"That's the deal. But I'll have to make sure that what you tell me is true.† Brine relaxed. This young man didn't seem to have any of the qualities of a mass murderer. If anything, he seemed a little naive. â€Å"Okay, I'll tell you everything I know about Catch and the incantations, but I swear to you, I don't know anything about any Seal of Solomon. It's a pretty strange story.† â€Å"I guessed that,† Brine said. â€Å"Shoot.† He poured himself a glass of wine, relit his pipe, and sat back, propping his feet up on the hearth. â€Å"Like I said, it's a pretty strange story.† â€Å"Strange is my middle name,† Brine said. â€Å"That must have been difficult for you as a child,† Travis said. â€Å"Would you get on with it.† â€Å"You asked for it.† Travis took a deep breath. â€Å"I was born in Clarion, Pennsylvania, in the year nineteen hundred.† â€Å"Bullshit,† Brine interrupted. â€Å"You're not a day over twenty-five.† â€Å"This is going to take a lot more time if I have to keep stopping. Just listen – it'll all fall into place.† Brine grumbled and nodded for Travis to continue. â€Å"I was born on a farm. My parents were Irish immigrants, black Irish. I was the oldest of six children, two boys and four girls. My parents were staunch Catholics. My mother wanted me to be a priest. She pushed me to study so I could get into seminary. She was working on the local diocese to recommend me while I was still in the womb. When World War I broke out, she begged the bishop to get me into seminary early. Everybody knew it was just a matter of time before America entered the war. My mother wanted me in seminary before the Army could draft me. Boys from secular colleges were already in Europe, driving ambulances, and some of them had been killed. My mother wasn't going to lose her chance to have a son become a priest to something as insignificant as a world war. You see, my little brother was a bit slow – mentally, I mean. I was my mother's only chance.† â€Å"So you went to seminary,† Brine interjected. He was becoming impatient with the progress of the story. â€Å"I went in at sixteen, which made me at least four years younger than the other boys. My mother packed me some sandwiches, and I packed myself into a threadbare black suit that was three sizes too small for me and I was on the train to Illinois. â€Å"You have to understand, I didn't want any part of this stuff with the demon; I really wanted to be a priest. Of all the people I had known as a child, the priest seemed like the only one who had any control over things. The crops could fail, banks could close, people could get sick and die, but the priest and the church were always there, calm and steadfast. And all that mysticism was pretty nifty, too.† â€Å"What about women?† Brine asked. He had resolved himself to hearing an epic, and it seemed as if Travis needed to tell it. Brine found he liked the strange young man, in spite of himself. â€Å"You don't miss what you've never known. I mean I had these urges, but they were sinful, right? I just had to say, ‘Get thee behind me Satan', and get on with it.† â€Å"That's the most incredible thing you've told me so far,† Brine said. â€Å"When I was sixteen, sex seemed like the only reason to go on living.† â€Å"That's what they thought at seminary, too. Because I was younger than the others, the prefect of discipline, Father Jasper, took me on as his special project. To keep me from impure thoughts, he made me work constantly. In the evenings, when the others were given time for prayer and meditation, I was sent to the chapel to polish the silver. While the others ate, I worked in the kitchen, serving and washing dishes. For two years the only rest I had from dawn until midnight was during classes and mass. When I fell behind in my studies, Father Jasper rode me even harder. â€Å"The Vatican had given the seminary a set of silver candlesticks for the altar. Supposedly they had been commissioned by one of the early popes and were over six hundred years old. The candlesticks were the most prized possession of the seminary and it was my job to polish them. Father Jasper stood over me, evening after evening, chiding me and berating me for being impure in thought. I polished the silver until my hands were black from the compound, and still Father Jasper found fault with me. If I had impure thoughts it was because he kept reminding me to have them. â€Å"I had no friends in seminary. Father Jasper had put his mark on me, and the other students shunned me for fear of invoking the prefect of discipline's wrath. I wrote home when I had a chance, but for some reason my letters were never answered. I began to suspect that Father Jasper was keeping my letters from getting to me. â€Å"One evening, while I was polishing the silver on the altar, Father Jasper came to the chapel and started to lecture me on my evil nature. â€Å"‘You are impure in thought and deed, yet you do not confess,' he said. ‘You are evil, Travis, and it is my duty to drive that evil out!' â€Å"I couldn't take it any longer. ‘Where are my letters?' I blurted out. ‘You are keeping me from my family.' â€Å"Father Jasper was furious. ‘Yes, I keep your letters. You are spawned from a womb of evil. How else could you have come here so young. I waited for eight years to come to Saint Anthony's – waited in the cold of the world while others were taken into the warm bosom of Christ.' â€Å"At last I knew why I had been singled out for punishment. It had nothing to do with my spiritual impurity. It was jealousy. I said, ‘And you, Father Jasper, have you confessed your jealousy and your pride? Have you confessed your cruelty?' â€Å"‘Cruel, am I?' he said. He laughed at me, and for the first time I was really afraid of him. ‘There is no cruelty in the bosom of Christ, only tests of faith. Your faith is wanting, Travis. I will show you.' â€Å"He told me to lie with arms outstretched on the steps before the altar and pray for strength. He left the chapel for a moment, and when he returned I could hear something whistling through the air. I looked up and saw that he was carrying a thin whip cut from a willow branch. â€Å"‘Have you no humility, Travis? Bow your head before our Lord.' â€Å"I could hear him moving behind me, but I could not see him. Why I didn't leave right then I don't know. Perhaps I believed that Father Jasper was actually testing my faith, that he was the cross I had to bear. â€Å"He tore my robe up the back, exposing my bare back and legs. ‘You will not cry out, Travis. After each blow a Hail Mary. Now,' he said. Then I felt the whip across my back and I thought I would scream, but instead I said a Hail Mary. He threw a rosary in front of me and told me to take it. I held it behind my head, feeling the pain come with every bead. â€Å"‘You are a coward, Travis. You don't deserve to serve our Lord. You are here to avoid the war, aren't you, Travis?' â€Å"I didn't answer him and the whip fell again. â€Å"After a while I heard him laughing with each stroke of the whip. I did not look back for fear he might strike me across the eyes. Before I had finished the rosary, I heard him gasp and drop to the floor behind me. I thought – no, I hoped – he had had a heart attack. But when I looked back he was kneeling behind me, gasping for air, exhausted, but smiling. â€Å"‘Face down, sinner!' he screamed. He drew back the whip as if he were going to strike me in the face and I covered my head. â€Å"‘You will tell no one of this,' he said. His voice was low and calm. For some reason that scared me more than his anger. ‘You are to stay the night here, polish the silver, and pray for forgiveness. I will return in the morning with a new robe for you. If you speak of this to anyone, I will see that you are expelled from Saint Anthony's and, if I can manage it, excommunicated.' â€Å"I hadn't ever heard excommunication used as a threat. It was something we studied in class. The popes had used it as an instrument of political control, but the reality of being excluded from salvation by someone else had never really occurred to me. I didn't believe that Father Jasper could really excommunicate me, but I wasn't going to test it. â€Å"While Father Jasper watched, I began to polish the candlesticks, rubbing furiously to take my mind off the pain in my back and legs, and to try to forget that he was watching. Finally, he left the chapel. When I heard the door close, I threw the candlestick I was holding at the door. â€Å"Father Jasper had tested my faith, and I had failed. I cursed the Trinity, the Virgin, and all the saints I could remember. Eventually my anger subsided and I feared Father Jasper would return and see what I had done. â€Å"I retrieved the candlestick and inspected it to see if I had done any damage. Father Jasper would check them in the morning as he always did, and I would be lost. â€Å"There was a deep scratch across the axis of the candlestick. I rubbed at it, harder and harder, but it only seemed to get worse. Soon I realized that it wasn't a scratch at all but a seam that had been concealed by the silversmith. The priceless artifact from the Vatican was a sham. It was supposed to be solid silver, but here was evidence that it was hollow. I grabbed both ends of the candlestick and twisted. As I suspected, it unscrewed. There was a sort of triumph in it. I wanted to be holding the two pieces when Father Jasper returned. I wanted to wave them in his face. ‘Here', I would say, ‘these are as hollow and false as you are. I would expose him, ruin him, and if I was expelled and damned, I didn't care. But I never got the chance to confront him. â€Å"When I pulled the two pieces apart, a tightly rolled piece of parchment fell out.† â€Å"The invocation,† Brine interrupted. â€Å"Yes, but I didn't know what it was. I unrolled it and started to read. There was a passage at the top in Latin, which I didn't have much trouble translating. It said something about calling down help from God to deal with enemies of the Church. It was signed by His Holiness, Pope Leo the Third. â€Å"The second part was written in Greek. As I said, I had fallen behind in my studies, so the Greek was difficult. I started reading it aloud, working on each word as I went. By the time I was through the first passage, it had started to get cold in the chapel. I wasn't sure what I was reading. Some of the words were mysteries to me. I just read over them, trying to glean what I could from the context. Then something seemed to take over my mind. â€Å"I started reading the Greek as if it were my native language, pronouncing the words perfectly, without having the slightest idea of what they meant. â€Å"A wind whipped up inside the chapel, blowing out all the candles. Except for a little moonlight coming through the windows, it was completely dark, but the words on the parchment began to glow and I kept reading. I was locked into the parchment as if I had grabbed an electric wire and couldn't let go. â€Å"When I read the last line, I found I was screaming the words. Lightning flashed down from the roof and struck the candlestick, which was lying on the floor in front of me. The wind stopped and smoke filled the chapel. â€Å"Nothing prepares you for something like that. You can spend your life preparing to be the instrument of God. You can read accounts of possession and exorcism and try to imagine yourself in the situation, but when it actually happens, you just shut down. I did, anyway. I sat there trying to figure out what I had done, but my mind wouldn't work. â€Å"The smoke floated up into the rafters of the chapel and I could make out a huge figure standing at the altar. It was Catch, in his eating form.† â€Å"What's his eating form?† Brine asked. â€Å"I assume from the deal with the flour that you know Catch is visible to others only when he is in his eating form. Most of the time I see him as a three-foot imp covered with scales. When he feeds or goes out of control, he's a giant. I've seen him cut a man in half with one swipe of his claws. I don't know why it works that way. I just know that when I saw him for the first time, I had never been so frightened. â€Å"He looked around the chapel, then at me, then at the chapel. I was praying under my breath, begging God for protection. â€Å"‘Stop it!' he said. ‘I'll take care of everything.' Then he went down the aisle and through the chapel doors, knocking them off their hinges. He turned and looked back at me. He said: ‘You have to open these things, right? I forgot – it's been a while.' â€Å"As soon as he was gone I picked up the candlesticks and ran. I got as far as the front gates before I realized that I was still wearing the torn robe. â€Å"I wanted to get away, hide, forget what I had seen, but I had to go back and get my clothes. I ran back to my quarters. Since I was in my third year at seminary, I been given a small private room, so, thankfully, I didn't have to go through the dormitory ward rooms where the newer students slept. The only clothes I had were the suit I had worn when I came and a pair of overalls I wore when I worked in the seminary fields. I tried to put on the suit, but the pants were just too tight, so I put the overalls on and wore the suit jacket over them to cover my shoulders. I wrapped the candlesticks in a blanket and headed for the gate. â€Å"When I was just outside the gate, I heard a horrible scream from the rectory. There was no mistaking; it was Father Jasper. â€Å"I ran the six miles into town without stopping. The sun was coming up as I reached the train station and a train was pulling away from the platform. I didn't know where it was going, but I ran after it and managed to swing myself on board before I collapsed. â€Å"I'd like to tell you I had some kind of plan, but I didn't. My only thought was to get as far away from St. Anthony's as I could. I don't know why I took the candlesticks. I wasn't interested in their value. I guess I didn't want to leave any evidence of what I'd done. Or maybe it was the influence of the supernatural. â€Å"Anyway, I caught my breath and went into the passenger car to find a seat. The train was nearly full, soldiers and a few civilians here and there. I staggered down the aisle and fell into the first empty seat I could find. It was next to a young woman who was reading a book. â€Å"‘This seat is taken,' she said. â€Å"‘Please, just let me rest here for a minute,' I begged. ‘I'll get up when your companion returns.' â€Å"She looked up from her book and I found myself staring into the biggest, bluest eyes I'd ever seen. I will never forget them. She was young, about my age, and wore her dark hair pinned up under a hat, which was the style in those days. She looked genuinely frightened of me. I guess I was wearing my own fright on my face. â€Å"‘Are you all right? Shall I call the conductor?' she asked. â€Å"I thanked her but told her that I just needed to rest a moment. She was looking at the strange way I was dressed, trying to be polite, but obviously perplexed. I looked up and noticed that everyone in the car was staring at me. Could they know about what I'd done? I wondered. Then I realized why they were staring. There was a war on and I was obviously the right age for the Army, yet I was dressed in civilian clothes. ‘I'm a seminary student,' I blurted out to them, causing a breeze of incredulous whispers. The girl blushed. â€Å"‘I'm sorry,' I said to her. ‘I'll move on.' I started to rise, but she put her hand on my shoulder to push me back into my seat and I winced when she touched my injured shoulder. â€Å"‘No,' she said, ‘I'm traveling alone. I've just been saving this seat to ward off the soldiers. You know how they can be sometimes, Father.' â€Å"‘I'm not a priest yet,' I said. â€Å"‘I don't know what to call you, then,' she said. â€Å"‘Call me Travis,' I said. â€Å"‘I'm Amanda,' she said. She smiled, and for a moment I completely forgot why I was running. She was an attractive girl, but when she smiled, she was absolutely stunning. It was my turn to blush. â€Å"‘I'm going to New York to stay with my fianc's family. He's in Europe,' she said. â€Å"‘So this train is going east?' I asked. â€Å"She was surprised. ‘You don't even know where the train is going?' she asked. â€Å"‘I've had a bad night,' I said. Then I started to laugh – I don't know why. It seemed so unreal. The idea of trying to explain it to her seemed silly. â€Å"She looked away and started digging in her purse. ‘I'm sorry,' I said, ‘I didn't mean to offend you.' ‘You didn't offend me. I need to have my ticket ready for the conductor.' â€Å"I'd completely forgotten about not having a ticket. I looked up and saw the conductor coming down the aisle. I jumped up and a wave of fatigue hit me. I almost fell into her lap. â€Å"‘Is something wrong?' she asked. â€Å"‘Amanda,' I said, ‘you have been very kind, but I should find another seat and let you travel in peace.' â€Å"‘You don't have a ticket, do you?' she said. â€Å"I shook my head. ‘I've been in seminary. I'd forgotten. We don't have any need for money there and†¦' â€Å"‘I have some traveling money,' she said. â€Å"‘I couldn't ask you to do that,' I said. Then I remembered the candlesticks. ‘Look, you can have these. They're worth a lot of money. Hold them and I'll send you the money for the ticket when I get home,' I said. â€Å"I unrolled the blanket and dropped the candlesticks in her lap. â€Å"‘That's not necessary,' she said. â€Å"I'll loan you the money.' â€Å"‘No, I insist you take them,' I said, trying to be gallant. I must have looked ridiculous standing there in my overalls and tattered suit jacket. â€Å"‘If you insist,' she said. ‘I understand. My fianc is a proud man, too.' â€Å"She gave me the money I needed and I bought a ticket all the way to Clarion, which was only about ten miles from my parent's farm. â€Å"The train broke down somewhere in Indiana and we were forced to wait in the station while they changed engines. It was midsummer and terribly hot. Without thinking, I took off my jacket and Amanda gasped when she saw my back. She insisted that I see a doctor, but I refused, knowing that I would only have to borrow more money from her to pay for it. We sat on a bench in the station while she cleaned my back with damp napkins from the dining car. â€Å"In those days the sight of a woman bathing a half-naked man in a train station would have been scandalous, but most of the passengers were soldiers and were much more concerned with being AWOL or with their ultimate destination, Europe, so we were ignored for the most part. â€Å"Amanda disappeared for a while and returned just before our train was ready to leave. ‘I've reserved a berth in the sleeping car for us,' she said. â€Å"I was shocked. I started to protest, but she stopped me. She said, ‘You are going to sleep and I am going to watch over you. You are a priest and I'm engaged, so there is nothing wrong with it. Besides, you are in no shape to spend the night sitting up in a train.' â€Å"I think it was then that I realized that I was in love with her. Not that it mattered. It was just that after living so long with Father Jasper's abuse I wasn't prepared for the kindness she was showing me. It never occurred to me that I might be putting her in danger. â€Å"As we pulled away from the station, I looked out on the platform, and for the first time I saw Catch in his smaller form. Why it happened then and not before I don't know. Maybe I didn't have any strength left, but when I saw him there on the platform, flashing a big razor-toothed grin, I fainted. â€Å"When I came to, I felt like my back was on fire. I was lying in the sleeping berth and Amanda was bathing my back with alcohol. â€Å"‘I told them you'd been wounded in France,' she said. â€Å"The porter helped me get you in here. I think it's about time you told me who did this to you.' â€Å"I told her what Father Jasper had done, leaving out the parts about the demon. I was in tears when I finished, and she was holding me, rocking me back and forth. â€Å"I'm not sure how it happened – the passion of the moment and all that, I guess – but the next thing I knew, we were kissing, and I was undressing her. Just as we were about to make love she stopped me. â€Å"‘I have to take this off,' she said. She was wearing a wooden bracelet with the initials E + A burnt into it. ‘We don't have to do this,' I said. â€Å"Have you, Mr. Brine, ever said something that you know you will always regret? I have. It was: ‘We don't have to do this.' â€Å"She said: ‘Oh, then let's not.' â€Å"She fell asleep holding me while I lay awake, thinking about sex and damnation, which really wasn't any different from what I'd thought about each night in the seminary – a little more immediate, I guess. â€Å"I was just dozing off when I heard a commotion coming from the opposite end of our sleeping car. I peeked through the curtains of the berth to see what was happening. Catch was coming down the aisle, looking into berths as he went. I didn't know at the time that Catch was invisible to other people, and I couldn't understand why they weren't screaming at the sight of him. People were shouting and looking out of their berths, but all they were seeing was empty air. â€Å"I grabbed my overalls and jumped into the aisle, leaving my jacket and the candlesticks in the berth with Amanda. I didn't even thank her. I ran down the aisle toward the back of the car, away from Catch. As I ran, I could hear him yelling, ‘Why are you running? Don't you know the rules?' â€Å"I went through the door between the cars and slid it shut behind me. By now people were screaming, not out of fear of Catch, but because a naked man was running through the sleeping car. â€Å"I looked into the next car and saw the conductor coming down the aisle toward me. Catch was almost to the door behind me. Without thinking, or even looking, I opened the door to the outside and leapt off the train, naked, my overalls still in hand. â€Å"The train was on a trestle at the time and it was a long drop to the ground, fifty or sixty feet. By all rights I should have been killed. When I hit, the wind was knocked out of me and I remember thinking that my back was broken, but in seconds I was up and running through a wooden valley. I didn't realize until later that I had been protected by my pact with the demon, even through he was not under my control at the time. I don't really know the extent of his protection, but I've been in a hundred accidents since then that should have killed me and come out without a scratch. â€Å"I ran through the woods until I came to a dirt road. I had no idea where I was. I just walked until I couldn't walk anymore and then sat down at the side of the road. Just after sunup a rickety wagon pulled up beside me and the farmer asked me if I was all right. In those days it wasn't uncommon to see a barefoot kid in overalls by the side of the road. â€Å"The farmer informed me that I was only about twenty miles from home. I told him that I was a student on holiday, trying to hitchhike home, and he offered to drive me. I fell asleep in the wagon. When the farmer woke me, we were stopped at the gate of my parents' farm. I thanked him and walked up the road toward the house. â€Å"I guess I should have known right away that something was wrong. At that time of the morning everyone should have been out working, but the barnyard was deserted except for a few chickens. I could hear the two dairy cows mooing in the barn when they should have already been milked and put out to pasture. â€Å"I had no idea what I would tell my parents. I hadn't thought about what I would do when I got home, only that I wanted to get there. â€Å"I ran in the back door expecting to find my mother in the kitchen, but she wasn't there. My family rarely left the farm, and they certainly wouldn't have gone anywhere without taking care of the animals first. My first thought was that there had been an accident. Perhaps my father had fallen from the tractor and they had taken him to the hospital in Clarion. I ran to the front of the house. My father's wagon was tied up out front. â€Å"I bolted through the house, shouting into every room, but there was no one home. I found myself standing on the front porch, wondering what to do next, when I heard his voice from behind me. â€Å"‘You can't run from me,' Catch said. â€Å"I turned. He was sitting on the porch swing, dangling his feet in the air. I was afraid, but I was also angry. â€Å"‘Where is my family?!' I screamed. â€Å"He patted his stomach. ‘Gone,' he said. â€Å"‘What have you done with them?' I said. â€Å"‘They're gone forever,' he said. ‘I ate them.' â€Å"I was enraged. I grabbed the porch swing and pushed it with everything I had. The swing banged against the porch rail and Catch went over the edge into the dirt. â€Å"My father kept a chopping block and an ax in front of the house for splitting kindling. I jumped off the porch and snatched up the ax. Catch was just picking himself up when I him in the forehead with it. Sparks flew and the ax blade bounced off his head as if it had hit cast iron. Before I knew it I was on my back and Catch was sitting on my chest grinning like the demon in that Fuselli painting, The Nightmare. He didn't seem at all angry. I flailed under him but could not get up. â€Å"‘Look,' he said, ‘this is silly. You called me up to do a job and I did it, so what's all the commotion about? By the way, you would have loved it. I clipped the priest's hamstrings and watched him crawl around begging for a while. I really like eating priests, they're always convinced that the Creator is testing them.' â€Å"‘You killed my family!' I said. I was still trying to free myself. â€Å"‘Well, that sort of thing happens when you run away. It's all your fault; if you didn't want the responsibility, you shouldn't have called me up. You knew what you were getting into when you renounced the Creator.' â€Å"‘But I didn't,' I protested. Then I remembered my curses in the chapel. I had renounced God. ‘I didn't know,' I said. â€Å"‘Well, if you're going to be a weenie about it, I'll fill you in on the rules,' he said. ‘First, you can't run away from me. You called me up and I am more or less your servant forever. When I say forever, I mean forever. You are not going to age, and you are not going to be sick. The second thing you need to know is that I am immortal. You whack me with axes all you want and all you'll get is a dull ax and a sore back, so just save your energy. Third, I am Catch. They call me the destroyer, and that's what I do. With my help you can rule the world and other really swell stuff. In the past my masters haven't used me to the best advantage, but you might be the exception, although I doubt it. Fourth, when I'm in this form, you are the only one who can see me. When I take on my destroyer form, I am visible to everyone. It's stupid, and why it's that way is a long story, but that's the way it is. In the past they decided to keep me a secret, but there's no rule about i t.' â€Å"He paused and climbed off my chest. I got to my feet and dusted myself off. My head was spinning with what Catch had told me. I had no way of knowing whether he was telling the truth, but I had nothing else to go on. When you encounter the supernatural, your mind searches for an explanation. I'd had the explanation laid in my lap, but I didn't want to believe it. â€Å"I said, ‘So you're from hell?' I know it was a stupid question, but even a seminary education doesn't prepare you for a conversation with a demon. â€Å"‘No,' he said, ‘I'm from Paradise.' â€Å"‘You're lying,' I said. It was the beginning of a string of lies and misdirections that have gone on for seventy years. â€Å"He said, ‘No, really, I'm from Paradise. It's a little town about thirty miles outside of Newark.' Then he started laughing and rolling around in the dirt holding his sides. â€Å"‘How can I get rid of you?' I asked. â€Å"‘Sorry,' he said, ‘I've told you everything that I have to.' â€Å"At the time I didn't know how dangerous Catch was. Somehow I realized that I was in no immediate danger, so I tried to come up with some sort of plan to get rid of him. I didn't want to stay there at the farm, and I didn't have anywhere I could go. â€Å"My first instinct was to turn to the Church. If I could get to a priest, perhaps I could have the demon exorcised. â€Å"I led Catch into town, where I asked the local priest to perform an exorcism. Before I could convince him of Catch's existence, the demon became visible and ate the priest, piece by piece, before my eyes. I realized then that Catch's power was beyond the comprehension of any normal priest, perhaps the entire Church. â€Å"Christians are supposed to believe in evil as an active force. If you deny evil, you deny good and therefore God. But belief in evil is as much an act of faith as belief in God, and here I was faced with evil as a reality, not an abstraction. My faith was gone. It was no longer required. There was indeed evil in the world and that evil was me. It was my responsibility, I reasoned, to not let that evil become manifest to other people and thereby steal their faith. I had to keep Catch's existence a secret. I might not be able to stop him from taking lives, but I could keep him from taking souls. â€Å"I decided to remove him to a safe place where there were no people for him to feed on. We hopped a freight and rode it to Colorado, where I led Catch high into the mountains. There I found a remote cabin where I thought he would be without victims. Weeks passed and I found that I had some control over the demon. I could make him fetch water and wood sometimes, but other times he defied me. I've never understood the inconsistency of his obedience. â€Å"Once I had accepted the fact that I couldn't run away from Catch, I questioned him constantly, looking for some clue that might send him back to hell. He was vague, to say the least, giving me little to go on except that he had been on Earth before and that someone had sent him back. â€Å"After we had been in the mountains for two months, a search party came to the cabin. It seemed that hunters in the area of the cabin, as well as people in villages as far as twenty miles away, had been disappearing. When I was asleep at night, Catch had been ranging for victims. It was obvious that isolation wasn't going to keep the demon from killing. I sent the search party away and set myself on coming up with some kind of plan. I knew we would have to move or people would discover that Catch existed. â€Å"I knew there had to be some sort of logic to his presence on Earth. Then, while we were hiking out of the mountains, it occurred to me that the key to sending Catch back must have been concealed in another candlestick. And I had left them on the train with the girl. Jumping off the train to escape Catch may have cost me the only chance I had to get rid of him. I searched my memory for anything that could lead me to the girl. I had never asked where she was going or what her last name was. In trying to recall details of my time with her I kept coming up with the image of those striking blue eyes. They seemed etched into my memory while everything else faded. Could I go around the eastern United States asking anyone if they had seen a young girl with beautiful blue eyes? â€Å"Something nagged at me. There was something that could lead me to the girl; I just had to remember it. Then it hit me – the wooden bracelet she wore. The initials carved inside the heart were E + A. How hard could it be to search service records for a soldier with the first initial E? His service records would have his next of kin, and she was staying with his family. I had a plan. â€Å"I took Catch back East and began checking local draft boards. I told them I had been in Europe and a man whose first name began with E had saved my life and I wanted to find him. They always asked about divisions and stations and where the battle had taken place. I told them I had taken a shell fragment in the head and could remember nothing but the man's first initial. No one believed me, of course, but they gave me what I asked for – out of pity, I think. â€Å"Meanwhile, Catch kept taking his victims. I tried to point him toward thieves and grifters when I could, reasoning that if he must kill, at least I could protect the innocent. â€Å"I haunted libraries, looking for the oldest books on magic and demonology I could find. Perhaps somewhere I could find an incantation to send the demon back. I performed hundreds of rituals – drawing pentagrams, collecting bizarre talismans, and putting myself through all sorts of physical rigors and diets that were supposed to purify the sorcerer so the magic would work. After repeated failures, I realized that the volumes of magic were nothing more than the work of medieval snake-oil salesmen. They always added the purity of the sorcerer as a condition so they would have an excuse for their customers when the magic did not work. â€Å"During this same time I was still looking for a priest who would perform an exorcism. In Baltimore I finally found one who believed my story. He agreed to perform an exorcism. For his protection, we arranged to have him stand on a balcony while Catch and I remained in the street below. Catch laughed himself silly through the entire ritual, and when it was over, he broke into the building and ate the priest. I knew then that finding the girl was my only hope. â€Å"Catch and I kept moving, never staying in one place longer than two or three days. Fortunately there were no computers in those days that might have tracked the disappearances of Catch's victims. In each town I collected a list of veterans, then ran leads to the ground by knocking on doors and questioning the families. I've been doing that for over seventy years. Yesterday I think I found the man I was looking for. As it turned out, E was his middle initial. His name is J. Effrom Elliot. I thought my luck had finally turned. I mean the fact that the man is still alive is pretty lucky in itself. I thought that I might have to trace the candlesticks through surviving relatives, hoping that someone remembered them, perhaps had kept them as an heirloom. â€Å"I thought it was all over, but now Catch is out of control and you are keeping me from stopping him forever.†

How Coconut Oil for Hair Will Make Your Hair Gorgeous

How Coconut Oil for Hair Will Make Your Hair Gorgeous SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips People have used coconut oil for thousands of years to moisturize their hair and scalp. In recent years, science has confirmed what many people already knew- coconut oil is a highly effective hair treatment. Want to promote hair growth? Get smoother, sleeker hair? Get rid of annoying dandruff? This guide will go over the top five benefits of coconut oil for hair, along with the evidence that proves why it works so well. Most importantly, we'll talk about how YOU can use coconut oil on your hair, step by step! To learn how coconut oil works, first you need to understand the structure of hair itself. This will really help you understand your body and how to treat it better. Let’s start there. Hair Structure: What You Need to Know To get why coconut oil works, first you need to understand how hair is structured. Each individual hair on your head is shaped like a cylinder. It has an inner tube made up of the cortex and medulla, and this tube is surrounded by a keratin-based shell called the cuticle. The cuticle isn’t very flexible, so it struggles to maintain its shape when hair expands and contracts. A healthy cuticle is able to keep its shape and protect the cortex within. A damaged cuticle, on the other hand, has trouble defending itself against the elements. The cuticle can crack or break, thereby exposing the cortex and letting out all the moisture inside. When cuticles break, your hair can feel coarse and have split ends. The cuticle has to protect the cortex from many elements, including heat, chemicals, and even water. In fact, water is one of the worst culprits for cuticle damage. Read on to find out why. Here's a serious close up of a single hair. Hair can feel dry and damaged if the cuticle breaks. (Sam Lindsay/All rights reserved) Water, Hair, and the Dangers of Hygral Fatigue When the individual hairs on your head get wet, they expand. When the water evaporates, they contract again. All of this movement can be tough on the cuticle, which is made up of a pretty inflexible material (the protein keratin, which also forms your fingernails and toenails). Healthy cuticles are good at warding off water and preventing over-absorption. In fact, having â€Å"hydrophobic† hair is one sign that your hair is healthy. You can analyze your own hair with a simple test: put a lock of hair in a glass of water. If it floats for a while, then it’s hydrophobic (hurray!). If, on the other hand, your hair sinks right to the bottom, then it absorbs water fast. If the cuticles around your hairs let in too much water too fast, then the actual fibers of the hair can come apart. This occurrence, known as hygral fatigue, shows itself with coarseness, breakage, and split ends. As you’ll see below, coconut oil is a great way to make your hair more hydrophobic, thereby protecting the cuticle and cortex within and preventing your hairs from unraveling like a ball of yarn. Before going into the benefits of coconut oil for your hair, let’s quickly review the other factors that affect the health of your hair. Too much blow drying and straightening can turn your hair into an arid desert. What's Damaging Your Hair? Your hair is technically a dead fiber once it leaves your scalp, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t respond to factors in your environment. Some external forces that damage hair are Heat, as from a blow dryer or hair straightener Chemicals, as from certain shampoos, conditioners, and hair dyes Touching and twisting, as from elastic, clips, or even just twirling your hair Besides your environment, your hair is also affected by internal factors, like your Nutrition Hydration Scalp circulation Stress levels (lots of stress can make your hair fall out!) Coconut oil addresses many of these factors. It helps moisturize your hair, plus it can be used to treat conditions, like dandruff and head lice. But why is it actually good for your hair? Let’s look at the top five benefits of coconut oil for your hair, why it works, and how you can use it. Bring the moisture back to your hair with a home coconut oil treatment. Top 5 Benefits of Coconut Oil for Hair Applying coconut oil to your hair is a natural, chemical-free, and effective way to: #1: Deeply condition your hair#2: Treat and prevent damage#3: Reduce dandruff#4: Treat head lice#5: Stimulate hair growth With its cosmetic and medical benefits, coconut oil holistically maintains hair and scalp health in an all-natural way. While it may seem too good to be true, there are research studies that support its efficacy, as you’ll see below. First, let’s look at the most common use of coconut oil for hair- as a moisturizer. Benefit #1: Deeply Condition Your Hair Coconut oil is highly effective at flooding your hair with moisture. Remember how each hair is made of an inner tube surrounded by the cuticle? Coconut oil can actually penetrate the cuticle, make its way into the hair shaft, and moisturize it from the inside out. Once it soaks into your hair, coconut oil nourishes it with vitamins, mainly Vitamin E and K, minerals, like iron, and lauric acid. The lauric acid, in particular, is special, because it's attracted to proteins in the hair and helps coconut oil soak in. In addition to moisturizing your hair with vitamins and minerals, coconut oil also helps seal off the cuticle. This helps restore damaged cuticles and prevent hygral fatigue, or over-absorption of water. Coconut oil both adds and prevents the loss of moisture. Don’t just take my word for it, though. Read on to see what the Journal of Cosmetic Science has to say about the effectiveness of coconut oil as a hair moisturizer. When they looked closely, scientists confirmed what lots of people have known for centuries: coconut oil is a super effective hair moisturizer. Research on Coconut Oil as a Hair Moisturizer A study published in the Journal of Cosmetic Science compared coconut oil to mineral oil to see which one better moisturized hair. Mineral oil, by the way, is widely used in mass-produced hair products. It’s an inexpensive oil, but it also turns out that it’s an ineffective one! This is what the scientists concluded: â€Å"The results show that coconut oil penetrates the hair shaft while mineral oil does not. The difference may be due to the polarity of the coconut oil compared to the nonpolar nature of the mineral oil. The affinity of the penetrant to the protein seems to be the cause for this difference in their behavior. This study also indicates that the swelling of hair is limited by the presence oil. Since the process of swelling and deswelling of hair is one of the causes of hair damage by hygral fatigue, coconut oil, which is a better penetrant than mineral oil, may provide better protection from damage by hygral fatigue.† When the scientists talk about the â€Å"affinity of the penetrant to the protein,† they’re referring to coconut oil’s ability to penetrate the hair shaft and moisturize it from the inside out. Beside adding moisture, it also prevents damage from water. Research studies aside, how can you actually apply coconut oil to your hair for a super dose of moisture? How to Use Coconut Oil to Moisturize Your Hair There really aren’t too many ways to go wrong with coconut oil. For the most part, you can use as much or as little as you want, and you have a lot of leeway in how long you leave it in. These seven steps will tell you everything you need to know about using coconut oil. First, you’ll need a few materials: Extra virgin coconut oil, preferably organic A shower cap or some kind of covering, like an old T-shirt (optional) Old shirt (so you don’t get oil on your clothes) It works best to apply coconut oil to damp, towel-dried hair. Once you’ve washed or just rinsed your hair and dried it off, your first step will be getting the coconut oil ready to apply. Step 1: Melt the Coconut Oil Get the coconut oil into liquid form. It’s solid at room temperature and melts at 76 degrees or higher. The best way to do this is to put together a makeshift double boiler by placing a cup or bowl of coconut oil into a bigger bowl of hot water. Note- you shouldn’t microwave the coconut oil. This can degrade the proteins. If you have fine hair and are only using a little, then you could also just rub the coconut oil between your hands. I use the double boiler method, as I’ve got thick hair and need to use several tablespoons of oil. Step 2: Determine How Much Coconut Oil to Use in Your Hair Experiment with how much oil to put in your hair. Finer hair may just use one to two teaspoons. If you have thicker hair, then you might use three to five tablespoons and work it through section by section. Figuring out the right amount may take some trial and error, but you can always rinse it out if you feel like you put too much. Step 3: Work the Coconut Oil Into Your Hair Work the coconut oil through your hair starting from the ends and moving your way up. You might avoid or go light on the roots and scalp, unless you’re specifically looking to moisturize your scalp or treat dandruff. If you’re not, then too much oil here could make the hair heavy and be tough to rinse out. If you're leaving coconut oil in your hair overnight, remember to put a towel on your pillow. This baby forgot and got oil everywhere. Step 4: Comb Your Hair Comb the oil through your hair with your fingers or a wide-toothed comb or brush. Try to distribute it evenly. Step 5: Let It Sit Put your hair up with an elastic or cover it with a shower cap or other covering. You can let your hair sit and moisturize for anywhere from half an hour to 18 hours. The longer you let it sit (up to a point), the more it can soak in and moisturize your hair. Step 6: Rinse Rinse the oil out of your hair. You can use shampoo or not, depending on whether you need to wash your hair. Step 7: Style Your Hair Style your hair normally! If you’re aiming to prevent dryness, try to avoid harsh heats from styling tools. You can also rub a small amount of coconut oil into your hair as a styling product. It can tame frizz, add shine, and act as a heat protectant. Just don’t overdo it and end up with oily clumps! Remember, coconut oil is an oil, so be careful about getting it on your clothes or pillow. Now let’s consider the second, related use of coconut oil - as a way to treat and prevent damage. Coconut oil restores damaged proteins? That's nuts. Benefit #2: Treat and Prevent Damage Coconut oil both treats and prevents damage to hair. In addition to the hygral fatigue you read about earlier, hair can also get damaged by protein loss. When you treat hair with chemicals or heat, you break bonds in proteins. When I straighten my curly hair with a 400 degree hair straightener, for instance, I’m breaking protein bonds and changing the structure of my hair. Of course, the curls come right back once my hair gets wet, but proteins aren’t always able to rebound to their original form. Lots of heat can result in long-term damage. Coconut oil can both fix existing damage to proteins and prevent further injury by acting as a heat protectant. Check out what this research study has to say about how coconut oil takes care of the proteins in your hair. Research on Coconut Oil to Prevent Protein Damage Many of the same researchers that looked at coconut oil as a moisturizer studied its effects on hair proteins. Their study was called â€Å"Effect of mineral oil, sunflower oil, and coconut oil on prevention of hair damage.† This is what they found: â€Å"The findings clearly indicate the strong impact that coconut oil application has to hair as compared to application of both sunflower and mineral oils. Among three oils, coconut oil was the only oil found to reduce the protein loss remarkably for both undamaged and damaged hair when used as a pre-wash and post-wash grooming product.† Coconut oil reduces protein loss because of its composition. It’s made of lauric acid, which, as mentioned above, can go inside the hair shaft. The other oils, which are in so many hair products, don’t contain lauric acid and thus can’t help with hair protein damage, as the researchers concluded: â€Å"Both sunflower and mineral oils do not help at all in reducing the protein loss from hair. This difference in results could arise from the composition of each of these oils. Coconut oil, being a triglyceride of lauric acid (principal fatty acid), has a high affinity for hair proteins and, because of its low molecular weight and straight linear chain, is able to penetrate inside the hair shaft.† Coconut oil offers a two-pronged approach to hair damage. It both treats damaged proteins by binding to them, and it prevents further loss. If you’re looking to use coconut oil to treat or prevent damage, what steps should you take? "My hair looks crazy. Sure wish I'd remembered to use coconut oil this morning." How to Use Coconut Oil to Treat Damage Treating damage and moisturizing your hair share a lot of overlap, so you can apply coconut oil using the seven steps described above. Distribute a good amount of liquid-form coconut oil in damp hair, and let it sit for anywhere from half an hour to overnight before rinsing out. Besides a full leave-in treatment, you can also use a small amount to prevent damage from heat, as described in these three steps. Step 1: Melt the Coconut Oil Get coconut oil in liquid form by rubbing it between your hands. Step 2: Rub the Oil Into Your Hair Rub anywhere from one to five teaspoons of coconut oil in your damp hair, depending on the thickness and length of your hair. Start from the bottom and work your way up, avoiding your roots to avoid oily build-up. Step 3: Comb the Coconut Oil Through Your Hair Evenly distribute the coconut oil throughout your hair with your fingers or a wide-toothed comb. If you find you put too much, you can rinse it out and try again! Step 4: Style Your Hair Style your hair as usual. You may use other products in conjunction with the coconut oil, but it can also work to reduce frizz and add shine to your hair on its own. You might love it so much that coconut oil becomes a part of your daily hair care routine! These first two benefits of coconut oil are all about restoring shine, body, and moisture to your hair. Beyond making your hair beautiful, coconut oil also has healthcare benefits, like treating dandruff and getting rid of head lice. Read on to learn how coconut oil accomplishes this and how to use it. Dandruff got you down? Coconut oil might get rid of it for good! Benefit #3: Get Rid of Dandruff Coconut oil has been to shown to contain antifungal and antibacterial properties that treat dandruff. It has been seen to be most effective in treating the dandruff caused by a yeast-like fungus called Malassezia. Since dandruff can have a number of causes, coconut oil may not always work on it. It’s definitely worth a try, though! At the very least, the oil will moisturize and soothe your scalp. Let’s check out the research base behind coconut oil as a dandruff treatment. Research on Coconut Oil to Treat Dandruff There’s a lot more anecdotal evidence that coconut oil works to treat dandruff than there is scientific evidence yet, but a lot of people swear by it. There have been some studies that looked at coconut oil as a skin moisturizer with antibacterial and antifungal properties. For instance, this study concluded the following: â€Å"The emergence of antimicrobial resistance, coupled with the availability of fewer antifungal agents with fungicidal actions, prompted this present study to determine the effectiveness of virgin coconut oil as an antifungal agent on these species...Coconut oil should be used in the treatment of fungal infections.† The study looked at Malassezia, by the way, the fungus that has been linked to dandruff. If you want to give it a try, read on for how to apply coconut oil. How to Use Coconut Oil to Treat Dandruff What’s the best way to use coconut oil to treat dandruff? Try these three steps to see if coconut oil is the remedy for you. Step 1: Shampoo Shampoo your hair thoroughly. Once you’ve rinsed out all the shampoo, towel dry your hair so it’s damp, not dripping. Step 2: Massage Coconut Oil Into Your Scalp Rub coconut oil between your hands to get it into liquid form. Massage two to four teaspoons of oil into your scalp, making sure to cover all the areas with dandruff. Step 3: Let It Sit Let the coconut oil sit on your scalp for at least ten minutes. Then rinse it out and shampoo your hair again. You can also let the coconut oil sit overnight, perhaps using a shower cap or covering your pillow with a towel to guard it from oil. You can use this coconut oil two to three times a week as needed. Coconut oil might save you a trip to the doctor! It's been shown to work better than traditionally prescribed head lice medicine. Benefit #4: Get Rid of Head Lice As you read above, coconut oil has both antibacterial and antifungal properties. These properties make it an effective treatment against head lice. In fact, it’s been shown to be even better than the widely prescribed medicine, permethrin lotion! The study below combined coconut oil with anise to produce an effective, lice-killing spray. Research on Coconut Oil to Treat Head Lice This research study compared coconut oil to permethrin lotion, the medicine that doctors usually prescribe to get rid of head lice. What did the scientists find? â€Å"We concluded that, although permethrin lotion is still effective for some people, the coconut and anise spray can be a significantly more effective alternative treatment.† Coconut oil doesn’t just work- it works better than the usual prescription! Read on to see how to use coconut oil for lice. How to Use Coconut Oil to Get Rid of Head Lice While you might douse your hair liberally with coconut oil to moisturize it, you would use the largest amount when attacking head lice. You’ll need coconut oil, a shower cap or towel, a comb, and a blow dryer. Step 1: Coat Your Hair and Scalp in Coconut Oil Get the coconut oil in liquid form via the makeshift double boiler method described above. Apply a liberal amount to coat your hair and scalp completely. Step 2: Massage Your Scalp Massage the coconut oil into your scalp for several minutes. Step 3: Cover Your Hair Cover your hair with a shower cap or towel for at least one to two hours. You may run a blow dry around your head to add heat. Step 4: Comb Out Dead Lice Remove the covering from your hair and use the comb to remove dead lice and eggs. Step 5: Wash and Repeat Wash your hair, and then repeat Steps 1 through 4. It’s best to let the oil sit for longer this time around, leaving it overnight if possible. When you remove the covering, again comb through your hair and then shampoo. Besides using pure coconut oil, you can also combine it with other ingredients. A few common remedies include combining coconut oil with three to five drops of tea tree oil, which has natural insecticide properties, or ten cloves of ground garlic, which has natural antiseptic properties. Some people have also tried covering their hair first with apple cider vinegar. They allow the vinegar to dry and then go through the steps of the coconut oil treatment. Finally, the multi-use coconut oil, in addition to all its other great uses, has also been said to stimulate hair growth. Massage coconut oil on your scalp, and you might become a real-life Rapunzel! Benefit #5: Stimulate Hair Growth Coconut oil has been said to promote hair growth. It moisturizes the scalp and impersonates natural scalp oils, specifically the oil sebum. Its various properties also help prevent the growth of bacteria and fungus. Finally, coconut oil has been said to increase scalp circulation and oxygen. There isn’t much research research to support using coconut oil for hair growth yet, but with all its other great benefits, it won't hurt to give it a try. The steps below will tell you how. How to Use Coconut Oil for Hair Growth The research behind coconut oil as a hair growth stimulator is still lacking, but it’s certainly worth trying, if only for its antibacterial, antifungal, and moisturizing effects. All you need to do is massage two to three teaspoons of liquid coconut oil into your scalp and let it sit for at least ten minutes. Then wash your hair as normal. Use it several times a week and see if your hair grows more over time! Coconut oil may seem like a miracle substance with all its benefits for your hair and scalp, and many people believe that it is. At the same time, no treatment works the same for everyone. There are a few side effects that people have reported after using coconut oil on their hair. Using Coconut Oil for Hair: 3 Possible Side Effects People have reported three main problems with using coconut oil on their hair. Some people say it made their hair feel drier. Others said it caused a rash to break out on their neck. And a few others said that coconut oil caused acne breakouts. Coconut oil is, of course, an oil, and many agree that it can clog your pores and aggravate skin that’s prone to oiliness and acne. If you’re using coconut oil for the first time, you might just use a small amount and wait to see if you experience any of these side effects. If you do have a bad reaction, then you should simply stop using it. There are other natural oils you can try if you’re looking to cut out chemical-filled hair products, like olive oil, avocado oil, grapeseed oil, and jojoba oil. If you don't get any side effects, though, then you may have just found the secret to healthy hair and chemical-free hair care! Behold, the mighty coconut! This tropical fruit might just be the secret to amazing hair. Coconut Oil for Hair: Major Benefits and Uses For many people, coconut oil is an effective, versatile hair treatment. It’s full of nourishing vitamins and minerals, and its unique composition lets it penetrate the hair shaft and add moisture from the inside out. Besides using coconut oil as a deep conditioning treatment, you can also add some to style your hair or protect it from heat. Not only will you have one good hair day after another, but you’ll make your scalp healthy with coconut oil’s antibacterial and antifungal properties. Make sure to use coconut oil in liquid form- 76 degrees or higher. Once you’ve got the hang of it, you might experiment with adding in essential oils and creating your own hair products! Modern research studies and ancient practice agree - coconut oil is a great, all-natural way to get strong, healthy, beautiful hair.

Universities Where Students Score High on the ACT

Universities Where Students Score High on the ACT When youre considering to which public college or university to apply, sometimes its helpful to browse through schools who have students scoring similarly on the ACT as you did. If your ACT scores are completely lower or higher than 75% of the students who were accepted to a particular school, perhaps youd be better off searching for a school where students are more in your range, although exceptions are certainly made all the time. This is a list of colleges and universities where 75% of the accepted students scored above or at a 20 - 25 composite score on the ACT. What does this mean? The following public schools are accepting students who are scoring about average on the ACT since the current national average is about a 21. If you have scored between 20 - 25 and all your other credentials fit – GPA, extracurricular activities, recommendation letters, etc. – then perhaps one of these public universities would be a good fit. Please keep in mind that this list is for the composite ACT score – youll see ACT scores a bit lower on particular sections (English, Mathematics, Reading, Science Reasoning), but the composite scores are always between 20 - 25. **Please note that I did not create an article for the private schools with these scores because there were nearly 400 private schools where 75% of the students scored between a 20 - 25 on the ACT. More ACT Score Information How to Understand Score PercentilesWhats a Good ACT Score?Average National ACT ScoresACT Scoring 101: Scaled Vs. RawI Think I Got a Bad ACT Score - Now What? Public Universities Where 75% of Students Score a 20 25 on the ACT Note that these are just the public universities. If you see a school listed in this article that was also listed in the 25 - 30 public schools list, then youll know its because the 25th percentile ACT score for that school happened to be a 25. Appalachian State UniversityBoone, North CarolinaArizona State UniversityTempe, Arizona Arkansas State University-Main CampusJonesboro, ArkansasAuburn UniversityAuburn University, AlabamaAuburn University at MontgomeryMontgomery, Alabama Bemidji State UniversityBemidji, MinnesotaBoise State UniversityBoise, Idaho Bridgewater State UniversityBridgewater, MassachusettsCalifornia Maritime AcademyVallejo, California California Polytechnic State University-San Luis ObispoSan Luis Obispo, California California State Polytechnic University-PomonaPomona, CaliforniaCentral Connecticut State UniversityNew Britain, Connecticut Central Michigan UniversityMount Pleasant, Michigan Christopher Newport UniversityNewport News, Virginia Citadel Military College of South CarolinaCharleston, South CarolinaClemson UniversityClemson, South Carolina College of CharlestonCharleston, South CarolinaColorado State University-Fort CollinsFort Collins, Colorado East Carolina UniversityGreenville, North CarolinaE mporia State UniversityEmporia, Kansas Florida Atlantic UniversityBoca Raton, FloridaFlorida Gulf Coast UniversityFort Myers, FloridaFlorida International UniversityMiami, Florida Florida State UniversityTallahassee, Florida Framingham State UniversityFramingham, MassachusettsGeorge Mason UniversityFairfax, Virginia Georgia College State UniversityMilledgeville, Georgia Georgia Southern UniversityStatesboro, GeorgiaGeorgia State UniversityAtlanta, Georgia Grand Valley State UniversityAllendale, MichiganIllinois State UniversityNormal, Illinois Indiana University-BloomingtonBloomington, IndianaIowa State UniversityAmes, Iowa James Madison UniversityHarrisonburg, Virginia Kennesaw State UniversityKennesaw, GeorgiaKent State University at KentKent, Ohio Kirksville Area Technical CenterKirksville, MissouriLake Superior State UniversitySault Ste Marie, Michigan Louisiana State University and Agricultural Mechanical CollegeBaton Rouge, Louisiana Louisiana State University-ShreveportShreveport, LouisianaLouisiana Tech Universi tyRuston, Louisiana Massachusetts College of Art and DesignBoston, Massachusetts Massachusetts Maritime AcademyBuzzards Bay, MassachusettsMcNeese State UniversityLake Charles, Louisiana Miami University-OxfordOxford, OhioMichigan State UniversityEast Lansing, Michigan Michigan Technological UniversityHoughton, MichiganMinnesota State University MoorheadMoorhead, Minnesota Minnesota State University-MankatoMankato, MinnesotaMinot State UniversityMinot, North Dakota Mississippi State UniversityMississippi State, Mississippi Missouri State University-SpringfieldSpringfield, Missouri Montana State UniversityBozeman, MontanaMontana Tech of the University of MontanaButte, Montana Morrisville State CollegeMorrisville, New York New Jersey Institute of TechnologyNewark, New Jersey New Mexico Institute of Mining and TechnologySocorro, New Mexico North Carolina State University at RaleighRaleigh, North Carolina North Dakota State University-Main CampusFargo, North Dakota North Georgia College State UniversityDahl onega, Georgia Northern Arizona UniversityFlagstaff, Arizona Northwest Missouri State UniversityMaryville, MissouriOakland UniversityRochester Hills, Michigan Ohio University-Main CampusAthens, Ohio Oklahoma State University-Main CampusStillwater, OklahomaOregon State UniversityCorvallis, Oregon Pearl River Community CollegePoplarville, MississippiPennsylvania State University-Main CampusUniversity Park, Pennsylvania Pennsylvania State University-Penn State AltoonaAltoona, Pennsylvania Pennsylvania State University-Penn State HarrisburgMiddletown, PennsylvaniaPennsylvania State University-Penn State YorkYork, Pennsylvania Purdue University-Main CampusWest Lafayette, Indiana Salisbury UniversitySalisbury, MarylandSan Diego State UniversitySan Diego, California South Dakota School of Mines and TechnologyRapid City, South DakotaSouth Dakota State UniversityBrookings, South Dakota Southeast Missouri State UniversityCape Girardeau, Missouri Southern Illinois University EdwardsvilleEdwardsville, Illinois Southern Polytechnic State UniversityMarietta, Georgia Southern Utah UniversityCedar City, Utah St Marys College of MarylandSt. Marys City, Maryland State University of New York at New PaltzNew Paltz, New York Stony Brook UniversityStony Brook, New York SUNY at AlbanyAlbany, New York SUNY at FredoniaFredonia, New YorkSUNY at Purchase CollegePurchase, New York SUNY College at BrockportBrockport, New YorkSUNY College at CortlandCortland, New York SUNY College at Old WestburyOld Westbury, New York SUNY College at OneontaOneonta, New YorkSUNY College at OswegoOswego, New YorkSUNY College at PlattsburghPlattsburgh, New York SUNY College of Agriculture and Technology at CobleskillCobleskill, New York SUNY College of Environmental Science and ForestrySyracuse, New YorkSUNY College of Technology at AlfredAlfred, New York SUNY Institute of Technology at Utica-RomeUtica, New York SUNY Maritime CollegeThroggs Neck, New York Temple UniversityPhiladelphia, PennsylvaniaTennessee Technological UniversityCookeville, Tennessee Texas A M University-Colle ge StationCollege Station, Texas Texas A M University-GalvestonGalveston, Texas Texas State University-San MarcosSan Marcos, Texas Texas Tech UniversityLubbock, Texas The College of New JerseyEwing, New Jersey The Evergreen State CollegeOlympia, WashingtonThe University of AlabamaTuscaloosa, AlabamaThe University of MontanaMissoula, MontanaThe University of TennesseeKnoxville, Tennessee The University of Tennessee at ChattanoogaChattanooga, Tennessee The University of Texas at ArlingtonArlington, Texas The University of Texas at AustinAustin, Texas The University of Texas at San AntonioSan Antonio, TexasThe University of Texas at TylerTyler, Texas The University of West FloridaPensacola, Florida Towson UniversityTowson, Maryland Truman State UniversityKirksville, MissouriUnited States Coast Guard AcademyNew London, Connecticut United States Military AcademyWest Point, New YorkUniversity at BuffaloBuffalo, New York University of Alabama at BirminghamBirmingham, AlabamaUniversity of Alabama in HuntsvilleHuntsville, A labama University of ArizonaTucson, Arizona University of ArkansasFayetteville, ArkansasUniversity of California-DavisDavis, California University of California-IrvineIrvine, California University of California-Los AngelesLos Angeles, California University of California-San DiegoLa Jolla, CaliforniaUniversity of California-Santa BarbaraSanta Barbara, California University of California-Santa CruzSanta Cruz, California University of Central ArkansasConway, Arkansas University of Central FloridaOrlando, Florida University of Cincinnati-Main CampusCincinnati, Ohio University of Colorado BoulderBoulder, Colorado University of Colorado Colorado SpringsColorado Springs, Colorado University of Colorado DenverDenver, ColoradoUniversity of Connecticut-StamfordStamford, Connecticut University of Connecticut-Tri-CampusWaterbury, Connecticut University of DelawareNewark, Delaware University of GeorgiaAthens, Georgia University of Hawaii at ManoaHonolulu, Hawaii University of HoustonHouston, Texas Unive rsity of IdahoMoscow, Idaho University of Illinois at ChicagoChicago, Illinois University of Illinois at SpringfieldSpringfield, IllinoisUniversity of IowaIowa City, Iowa University of KansasLawrence, Kansas University of KentuckyLexington, KentuckyUniversity of Louisiana at LafayetteLafayette, LouisianaUniversity of Louisiana-MonroeMonroe, Louisiana University of LouisvilleLouisville, KentuckyUniversity of MaineOrono, Maine University of Mary WashingtonFredericksburg, Virginia University of Maryland-Baltimore CountyBaltimore, MarylandUniversity of Massachusetts AmherstAmherst, Massachusetts University of Massachusetts-DartmouthNorth Dartmouth, Massachusetts University of Massachusetts-LowellLowell, Massachusetts University of MemphisMemphis, TennesseeUniversity of Michigan-DearbornDearborn, Michigan University of Minnesota-CrookstonCrookston, MinnesotaUniversity of Minnesota-DuluthDuluth, Minnesota University of Minnesota-MorrisMorris, Minnesota University of Minnesota-RochesterRochester, MinnesotaUniversity o f Minnesota-Twin CitiesMinneapolis, Minnesota University of MississippiUniversity, Mississippi University of Missouri-ColumbiaColumbia, MissouriUniversity of Missouri-Kansas CityKansas City, MissouriUniversity of Missouri-St LouisSaint Louis, MissouriUniversity of MontevalloMontevallo, AlabamaUniversity of Nebraska at KearneyKearney, Nebraska University of Nebraska-LincolnLincoln, Nebraska University of Nevada-RenoReno, NevadaUniversity of New OrleansNew Orleans, LouisianaUniversity of North Carolina at AshevilleAsheville, North Carolina University of North Carolina at CharlotteCharlotte, North Carolina University of North Carolina at GreensboroGreensboro, North CarolinaUniversity of North Carolina School of the ArtsWinston-Salem, North 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