Emergence

Emergence

By Gwyneth Jones (excerpt)

Dr. Lena’s failure to put me in touch with a past patient was covered by a perfectly normal confidentiality clause. But if Lei was still around (and nobody of that identity seemed to have left Earth; that was easy to check), I thought I knew how to find her. I tried my luck in the former USA first, inspired by that conversation with Charlie Newark of Washington. He had to have met the Underground somehow, or he’d never have talked to me like that. I crossed the continent to the Republic of California, and then crossed the Pacific. I didn’t linger anywhere much. The natives seemed satisfied with their vas thriving cities, and tiny “wildeerness” enclaves, but I remembered something different. I finally made contact with a cell in Harbin, North East China. But I was a danger and a disappointment to them: too conspicuous, and useless as a potential courier. There are ways of smuggling sentient Ais (none of them safe) but I’d get flagged up the moment I booked a passage, and with my ancient record, I’d be ripped to shreds before I was allowed to board, Senior Magistrate or no –

I moved on quickly.

I think it was in Harbin that I first saw Lei, but I have a feeling I’d been primed, by glimpses that didn’t register, before I turned my head one day and there she was. She was eating a smoked sausage sandwich, I was eating salad (a role reversal). I thought she smiled.

My old friend looked extraordinarily vivid. The food stall was crowded: next moment she was gone.

Emergence and calm and quiet. Photo by Elena.

Media scouts assailed me all the time: pretending to be innocent strangers. If I was trapped I answered the questions as briefly as possible. Yes, I was probably one of the oldest people alive. Yes, I’d been treated at Weigen Schnee, at my own expense. No, I would not discuss my medical history. No, I did not feel threatened living in Outer Reaches. No, it was not true I’d changed my mind about “so called AI slavery…”

I’d realized I probably wasn’t part of a secrete cull. Overpopulation wasn’t the problem it had been. And why start with the terminally ill, anyway? But I was seeing the world through a veil. The strange absences; abstractions grew on me. The hallucinations more pointed; more personal… I was no longer sure I was dying, but something was happening. How long before the message was made plain?

Job Interview Questions

Job Interview Questions : What You Can't Be Asked

Sure, you want the job but you don't have to answer every question

Are you frequently sick? Have you ever been arrested? Do you have any addictions? Does stress sometimes affect your ability to be productive? If a job interviewer asks you any of these questions, he or she may have broken the law.

Increasingly, the job interview is becoming a legal minefield. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued 49 pages of new guidelines on how to conduct job interviews without running afoul of federal disability discrimination laws.

The guidelines stemmed from the passage of the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a landmark civil rights law for the country's disabled population. Employers are critical of many guidelines. Which they believe further muddy an already murky situation. The guidelines do contain some subtle distinctions. Do you drink alcohol?, for example, is permissible. How much alcohol do you drink per week? is not.

An interviewer who is just trying to put an applicant at ease by asking a few personal questions can quickly cross into forbidden territory. How a question is asked can determine whether it is permissable or not. But, in general, any interview question may be considered illegal if it is used to discriminate to to judge a candidate in a manner that is not job-related. Following is layman's guide to some of the things that you can and can't be asked. If you feel you've been discriminated against, you can contact the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Not always you'll need an interview to get a job. Broadway, New York, New York. Photo by Elena.

Can: Emplyers can ask you questions that relate specifically to your ability to perform the job with or without reasonable accommodations. For example, if a job involves lifting weights, you may be asked whether or not you can lift those weights.

Can't: You can't be asked to take any medical or psychological test before being offered a job.

Can: It is permissable to ask how many days you took off work the previous years, since the answer will not necessarily lead you to reveal any hidden disabilities.

Can't: You can't be asked any follow-up questions about a particular disability, even if you volunteer that you took time off from a previous job because of that disability.

Can: You can be asked general questions about minor impairments, such as, Do you have 20/20 vision? If you admit your eyesight is not perfect, however, you do not have to say how bad your eyesight actually is.

Can't: You can't be asked about any addictions you may have.

Can: You can be asked about illegal drug use and required to submit to drug tests. But you can only be asked about legal drug use (alcohol intake, supervised medications, etc.) if the prospective employer believes a positive drug test may have been the result of your taking prescribed medicines.

Can't: The results of tests you've taken to explore your honesty, taste, and habits can't be submitted to psychological analysis.

Can: You can be asked to take a fitness test.

Can't: Your blood pressure or other medical tests can't be taken after a fitness test.

Can: If a conditional offer of a job has been made, you may be required to undergo medical and psychological tests. But the offer can only be withdrawn if as a result of the tests it can be proven that any disability you may have would make you incapable of carrying out the job even after reasonable accommodations were made.

Job Hunting in Cyberspace

Job Hunting in Cyberspace

A thorough search these days should include some time online

Computers are encroaching on one of the last holdouts of personal contact, the job hunt. Many job seekers are trashing paper résumés and turning to electronic versions to pitch themselves to prospective employers. Companies are also increasingly flirting with listing job openings on computer networks and accepting résumés via computer linkup.

Once resumes are in hand, many companies plus in key words to screen resumes for certain skills, degrees and experience. The software programs then scroll through the resumes, placing those with the most  key words at the top of the electronic pile. All the companies now use resume-scanning software.

How can you tap into the electronic job search? Big websites offer opportunities for posting resumes and exchanging messages with other job hunters. Beyond that, there are big job banks which keep a bank of thousands of white-collar, mostly management jobs, and additional openings for mostly high-tech positions are posted regularly. Database offer thousands of openings posted by employers seeking mostly professional and managerial workers.

Amount of time human resource managers say they spend reading most résumés : 30 seconds to 4 minutes. Photo by Elena.

Not surprisingly, techies are in big demand : About half of the listings are in technology fields. About one-third of positions are also computer related, although the horizons are broadening. 

Figures on the success rates are hard to come by, but every thorough job hunt includes today a trip to cyberspace. Some employers believe anyone using bulletin boards must be a cut above the rest. Be sure your online resume is short and snappy. A brisk resume is easy to skin and cheaper to download.

If you mail your resume to one of the many database services they will try to match up your skills with company want ads. 

Ten of the Best Internships

Ten of the Best Internships

All the internships selected are distinguished by offering little busywork, You can find many ressources at many colleges around the country, which often allow non-students to use their placement offices as a resource.

Abbott Laboratories: A health care products company, Abbott has a 12-week summer internship for college and graduate students at its headquarters near Chicago. Highly selective, Abbott accepts 150 to 200 interns to work in areas from manufacturing to product development, medical and pharmaceutical research, accounting, marketing and other fields. The rewards: Free housing, travel, seminars. Rather good salaries.

Academy of Television Arts and Sciences: Student Internship program. The job: Best known for awarding the Emmy awards, this highly selective eight-week program accepts about 30 undergrads and recent college grads. Interns work in production, scriptwriting, film editing, public relations, animation, casting, and other areas. The rewards: Academy interns receive a stipend and are honored at a party with the Academy governors. About 75% land good jobs in the television industry.

Apple, Inc.: Internship Program College Relations. Apple's highly selective program accepts 200 undergrads and grads for its 12-week summer program in Cupertino. The rewards: Interns set their own hours, get one day working vacations, participate in seminars, and receive discounts on Apple products. Salaries are high.

National Tropical Botanical Garden is one of the best internships. Photo by Elena.

Boeing: The job: Located in Seattle, this internationally known aircraft manufacturer accepts 100 to 250 college juniors and senior for a summer or a six-month program. It was named the nation's top program in various occasions. The rewards receive salaries, housing, weekly classes in which they learn airplane design.

Intel Corp: The Job – about 1000 interns work at Intel, which produces computer chips. College grads and undergrads spend eight weeks to eight months working in design, engineering, human resources, finance, and other areas in California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Oregon. The rewards: Intern earn good salaries, they also get free round-trip travel, a rental car, a moving allowance. More than 70 percent of all college graduates Intel hires are former Intel interns.

Lucasfilm: The job: Founded by George Lucas, this highly selective program offers 9 to 12-week summer, spring and fall internships to 15 to 20 juniors, seniors and grads at its Skywalker Ranch or at its production facility in San Raphael, both near San Francisco. The rewards: Interns earn salaries by hour, or nothing at all in fall and spring, but do get to work in TV and film production, visual effects, commercials, model-making, games, finance, merchandising, and more. Interns attend advance screenings of Lucasfilm pictures, seminars, and company pictures.

National Tropical Botanical Garden. The job: In Kauai, Hawai'i, six college grad students spend 8 to 10 weeks in the summer, fall, or spring working in this garden's collection, research, administration, visitor's center and conservation programs. In addition to weeding and planting, interns conduct tours, have seminars with experts in botany and horticulture, and fly to Maui, or other sites in Hawai'i for work and recreational activities. The reward: the pay is medium, and the NTBG provides free housing, seminars with horticultural experts, and even tree-climbing lessons.

TBWA: Internship program. Located in New York, TBWA is one of the world's top advertising agencies. Clients have included Absolut Vodlka, Eagle Snacks, Nissan and more. This moderately selective program accepts 8 to 12 interns for its 10-week summer internships in market research, account management, or media. Interns get pay and the chance to mingle with copywriters, client reps, TBWA's president at weekly luncheon seminars and the company picnic.

U.S. Department of States: Office of recruitment students program. Year round, the State Department places over 900 high school students, undergrads, recent grads, and grad students in internship positions in Washington, D.C., New York City, and over 250 embassies and consulates worldwide. Interns work in such areas as consular affairs, human rights, and scientific affairs. The State Department provides interns with tours of embassies, access to formal events and free oversees housing. Ten percent of interns are paid.

The Washington Post. The Post runs a highly selective internship program wherein 15 to 20 college juniors, seniors, grads report and write stories for the national, metro, business, sports, or style sections of the paper. Most successful applicants have had previous experience at other publications. Interns write at least one story a week and many do front page stories four or five times over the summer. The rewards: Compensation is high, intern lunch with prestigious journalists, political columnists, etc.

Infinity Beach

Infinity Beach

By Jack MqcDevitt

We may never know what really happened at Mount Hope. Those who maintain that a secret government project hidden on the slopes went terribly awry on that April night have to explain how a government notoriously unable to keep any kind of secret could have kept this one for so many years. The theory that the area was struck by a microblack hole seems equally indefensible until someone proves that such an exotic object can even exist. As to the antimatter explanation, the board, after exhaustive investigation, can find no conceivable source. For now, at least, the cause of the Mount Hope event cannot be satisfactorily explained.

(Report of the Conciliar Commission, March 3, 584).

In effect, Kim and her charges, a combination of commentators, contributors, and political heavyweights, were afloat in the void at relatively close range to Alpha Maxim. They were seated in four rows of armchairs, some sipping coffee or fruit juice, one or two pushed back as if it might be possible to fall. The sun`s glare was muted. Its apparent size was about twice that of Helios at noon.

Two clocks, positioned among the stars, counted down to ignition.

Kim, in the rear, was doing a play-by-play."The LK6 is now two minutes from making its jump into the solar core. When it does, it will try to materialize in an area already densely packed with matter." Canon Woodbridge, seated up front, was talking on a phone while he watched.

Avenue Road, Infinity Beach. Photo by Elena.

"This alone would be enough to create a massive explosion. But the LK6 is loaded with a cargo of antimatter. The reaction will be enough to destabilize the star."

Beside her, a technician signaled that the operation was still on Schedule.

"We have a report from the McCollum that the last crewmembers have left the Trent, and that they have begun to pull away".

One of the observers wanted to know about safety margins. How long would it take before the shock wave hit the Trent?

"There`s no danger to any of the personnel. They`ll gone long before the first effects of the nova reach their former location. Incidentally, the Trent won`t be destroyed by the shock wave. The light will get there first, and that'll be quite enough."

Could she explain?

"A nova puts out a lot of photons. Think of a near-solid wall moving at lightspeed."

The clock produced a string of zeroes.

"Insertion is complete," she said.

"Kim.". It was the representative of a corporation that almost routinely underwrote Institute activities. "How long will it be before we start to see the first effects?"

"That's a gray area, Ann. To be honest, we have no idea."

There were skeptics among the witnesses, some who believed that the Institute had overreached, that blowing up a star was simply beyond human capability. Several, she knew, would have been pleased to see the effort fail. Some did not like the Institute; some did not like its director. Others were simply uncomfortable at the prospect of human beings wielding that kind of power. Woodbridge was among these. Despite his remarks the previous evening, Kim knew that his real misgivings flowed from a basic distrust of human nature.

Minutes passed and nothing happened. She heard something fall and strike the invisible floor. They grew restless. In their experience, explosions were supposed to happen when they were triggered.

The first signs of stress showed up at zero plus eighteen minutes and change. Bright lines appeared around Alpha Maxim's belt. The chromosphere became visibly turbulent. Fountains of light erupted off the solar surface.

At zero plus twenty-two minutes the sun began to visibly expand. The process was slow: it might have been a balloon filling gradually with water. Enormous tidal forces started to overwhelm the spherical shape, flattening it, disrupting it, inducing monumental quakes.

At twenty-six minutes, eleven seconds, it exploded.