How Do Cellphones Reduce Attention - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 4 Words: 1347 Downloads: 4 Date added: 2019/08/16 Category Technology Essay Level High school Tags: Cell Phone Essay Did you like this example? Cellphones have become extremely popular over the years. They started out as being used for basic communication such as calling others. They then started to include letters under the numbers so that we can text. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "How Do Cellphones Reduce Attention" essay for you Create order Now, cellphones are called smartphones. These phones allow consumers to do everything that can be done on a computer, and everything that can be done on a phone. They have become more of a distracting device as time goes by. The number of distracted students, drivers, employees, co-workers, family members, friends, have only gone up. Upon research, it has been proven that cellphones reduce our attention in various environments and situations. In this research, we will look at the different actions we take that make cellphones reduce our ability to pay attention fully. To start with, the use of cellphones has demonstrated weakened performance in multitasking. For example, students in class contribute to cellphones reducing attention. According to (Mendoza, Pody, Lee, Kim, McDonough 2018)Â   Young adults between the ages of 18–24 send or receive an average of 109 text messages per day. Although cellphones have other features such as voice call and web browsing, text messaging appears to be the most convenient method of communication among young adults. Such excessive cellphone use has brought researchers to focus on how this usage impacts learning and memory in classroom settings. Today, there is a major influence by social media and the addiction it has on students. In high school, it is still manageable to control students from using their cellphones. Teachers and administrators are able to put rules into place of not allowing students to use their cellphones. Everything is mostly done by hand, the old-fashioned way. On the other hand, in college it becomes more difficult due to the fact that students are now adults and they are responsible for all the actions they take. There are professors who prohibit the use of cellphones, but unfortunately it is inevitable to have the device on you and not be able to look at it. In this study by (Mendoza, Pody, Lee, Kim, McDonough 2018) it is stated that, Attention is optimal when individuals are focused on one task at a time. However, with many competent sources vying for our attention, both inside and outside the classroom, multitasking has become the norm for most members of the younger generations. Most students report to use social media, text, browse the web, do online shopping, and check emails during class. This poses a threat to students in the classroom mainly because their focus is elsewhere. The professor could have been saying something important, and the student might not have an understanding of what was said at a later time because they were not paying attention. As much as we think multitasking is efficient, there are many disadvantages to this as we only have a limit to the number of things we can pay attention to at a time. Long term memory also comes into play with the distraction of a cellphone. In order to effectively encode information, we must first process the sensory information from the lecture the professor is teaching, and then select the information that is made most important by the professor or the key concepts of the lecture that might show up in future exams or quizzes. This happens when we ignore distractions from the environment, and cellphones are one of those distractions that can complicate this process. Only a small portion of the information we input in our brain actually gets stored into our long-term memory. It is understandable that after an amount of time of listening to a large amount of information, it becomes difficult to continue trying to process all the information after a long period of time. Switching ones attention to a cellphone happens rather quickly, and results in cognitive outlays. The dependence on these devices can also cause anxiety. Knowing that it is in the s tudents backpack, or purse is just as much of a distraction. This also creates anxiety by constantly having the student thinking who could be texting, emailing, or what kind of notification it is. (Mendoza, Pody, Lee, Kim, McDonough 2018) state in their article that there is a general fear of not having access to their mobile device. This is referred to nomophobia. There was a questionnaire performed by (Yildrim and Correia, 2015) they demonstrated that nomophobia is constructed by four factors. The first is not being able to communicate, the second is losing connectedness, the third is not being able to access information, and lastly giving up convenience. Students in college go through this withdrawal method when they are sitting in class, mostly with tougher professors who dont allow cellphones. They might get up to use the bathroom frequently during class, or even leave early. This is a major distraction to most students and prohibits them from getting the full learning experience they should in the classroom. To prove the results of cellphones reducing students learning, there was a study performed. (Mendoza, Pody, Lee, Kim, McDonough 2018) recruited undergraduate psychology students from a small college in Arkansas. The students were asked to watch a twenty-minute TED talk. They were randomly placed in three groups. The first group was al lowed to use their cellphone. Group two was allowed to have the cellphone in their possession, without the permission of using it and on silent. The third group was not allowed to watch the TED talk with their cellphones on them. The end result of this study is that after they filled out the questionnaire, students who actually had their cellphones removed had the highest scores. Distracted driving is one of the major issues that come with cellphone use. While doing research on this topic, it is found that this is one of the most dangerous effects of cellphones reducing our attention. As students, as parents, as adults and teenagers, we need to drive. Driving is the way most of us get to places such as work, school, and home. The use of cellphones while driving is only increasing every day. It has become a public health concern in the recent years. In 2010, there were 995 fatalities reported and 24,000 injuries. This is believed to be caused by cellphone use while driving. As driving itself is considered a weapon, with cellphones involved it makes it worse. While driving a person doesnt only need to be attentive to what they are doing, but also be aware of others around. Cars are very heavy machines that can kill a person instantly if it is not driven carefully. When a person is driving and texting, the person is not even looking up to see what is happening on the road. According to (Weller, Shackleford, Dieckmann, Slovic 2012) a survey stated that 75% of the participants said they never leave their home without their phone, while 25% of the participants said that they would rather lose their wallet than lose their phone. This survey also proved the sentimental attachment that people have with their phones and thats why they cant leave their house without it. Unfortunately, this excessive use of cell phones continues to grow with drivers all around the world. To further support the danger of distractions with cellphones while driving, there was a study conducted by (Weller, Shackleford, Dieckmann, Slovic 2012.) they asked participants within the age of 17-28, with a valid license in good standing, drove at least three times per week, and lastly owned a cellphone. The participants who were under 18, were allowed to join in the study with pare ntal permission and supervision. As a result, 89% claimed that they have called someone while driving, 62.3% claimed that they have texted while driving, 21.5% claimed that they have either read or wrote a text message while driving. For the participants who had data service on their phones, 16.8% claimed that they have used Facebook, Instagram, snapchat and other social media platforms while driving, and 22.4% claimed to have used any other apps that they have available on their phones. This includes games, shopping apps, and news apps. In the table below, endorsement rates were also summarized by the attachment of participants and their cellphones.

Foster Parent - 629 Words

Being A Foster Parent Being A Foster Parent By: Marnicia Moody 9/7/2014 ENG 121 English Composition I Instructor: Sarah Young pg 1 Being A Foster Parent Being a foster parent is a choice that I made with a lot of support from my family and friends. I have always wanted to adopt but never knew I could be a foster parent at such a young age or without having a husband. In August of 2013 Telaunda, my close neighbor and friend, put me in contact with a department of human services caseworker who came to my house to talk with me and give me information about the program. Me and Tanya, the Oak Plains Academy caseworker, sat at my dining room table to talk about what†¦show more content†¦Then I do the fun part, shopping, I make sure they have at least five pairs of shoes and clothes that fit. In my house looking good is a must. You do not have to look and feel like crap. Being a foster parent is a lot of hard work though. They have therapy once a week, doctors appointments, and meetings. The behaviors that I have to deal with are far worse. Although I get to pick the child that gets placed in my home you never really know how they are going to respond. In my experience a different home is a different environment so each child is going to act differently where ever they are placed. I have had children that have tried to kill themselves, fight, and get in trouble on a normal basis at school. I consider my self lucky though. The stories I hear at the foster care meetings Oak Plains Academy has once a month will blow your mind. Their are ladies that have been taking children into their homes for fifteen years. Once I heard a child kicked out a window to runaway from a foster home after trying to stab another child that was in the house with a fork. One child stole car keys from a foster parents purse and took her car on a joy ride and crashed it. After hearing these different situations I always make sure that I pick carefully about who I let in myShow MoreRelatedBeing A Foster Parent1610 Words   |  7 Pagesbecause I cannot tell you about all of their actions, the intentions of their actions, or really what their action was. All I could argue is what the media says they did, which I do not find to be fair. I settled on an act, the act of being a foster parent. Like all acts, I think that you have to look at it from a whole perspective. I think it is first important to define what being morally good is to me. Even after everything we have read and the philosophers we have looked at, my definition ofRead MoreKeeping Foster Parents And Kinship Parents892 Words   |  4 PagesKeeping Foster Parents and Kinship Parents Supported (KEEP) was established in 1996 and was formed out of a family based alternative program for teenagers with chronic delinquency and mental health problems called Treatment Foster Care Oregon (TFCO). (keepfostering.org) The program was developed by Patty Chamberlain and Oregon Social Learning Center. (cofcca). KEEP serves foster and kinship parents and their foster children aged five to twelve years old. Needs Addressed KEEP encourages foster and kinshipRead MoreRole Of The Foster Parent On The Continuum Of Carer And Parent Essay1511 Words   |  7 PagesRole of the Foster Parent One of the most significant studies found in the literature was a qualitative study conducted by Schofiell, Beek, Ward, and Biggart on the role of the foster parent (2013). The purpose of the study was to understand the boundaries of the role of the foster parent on the continuum of carer and parent (Schofield, Beek, Ward, Biggart, 2013). The study was a portion of a larger study on permanency in foster care (Schofield, Beek, Ward, Biggart, 2013). Schofiell, Beek,Read MoreEvaluation And Evaluation Of Preservice Foster Parents1577 Words   |  7 Pagesevaluation of preservice foster parents training. To determine its value, effectiveness, and outcomes, the thesis is divided into two separate studies. Where the focus is on providing empirical evidence on how preservice training improves the quality of parenting and its contribution to the care of children once they leave their natural home environment. Specifically, the thesis addresses the ability and the validity of preservice training in providing potential foster parents with the knowledge ofRead MoreShould Children Of Alcoholic Parents Be Placed? Foster Care? Essay950 Words   |  4 PagesShould children of alcoholic parents be placed in foster care? Alcoholism is a disease caused by an excessive consumption of alcoholic substances. Alcoholism causes many psychological and behavioral problems which include disruption of social and work life, hand tremors, blackouts, obsessive desire to drink, inclination towards violence, among other problems. Alcoholism might cause violent reaction towards other people, usually the people who suffer of these violent reactions are the ones that areRead MoreProviding the Service, Maximum Potential, to Foster Parents2859 Words   |  11 PagesThe concept of providing a service like Maximum Potential to assist foster parents with positioning their youth for academic success is vital to our community. The transition to adulthood is often difficult for youth in foster care and those who have aged-out of care. The many challenges seem insurmountable and the costs to society are tremendous. The costs of intervening early and with the right kinds of support those that build and strengthen families, are developmentally appropriate for childrenRead MoreFoster Care : Children And Adolescent s Feeling When They Got Into Their Parents1277 Words   |  6 PagesHow does the foster children and adolescent’s feeling when they got in foster care. The social worker apart the kid from their parents. Being in foster care is considered as cultural, it has their own hope. Hope is just big important to foster care, they hope that the foster care put foster kids in a right family. This quote is about foster care’s expectation that will satisfy foster kids’ needs. â€Å"Who are these people who become foster parents?Where do they fit into the very large,complexRead MoreFoster Care and Adoptive Parents in the Latino Community Essay example2390 Words   |  10 PagesPolicy Brief: Foster Care Adoptive Parents in the Latino Community Foster Care Adoptive Parents in the Latino Community Foster Care and Adoption are the most multi-faceted areas of child welfare. Foster care consists of placing children outside of the custody of their parents or legal guardians. This out-of-home placement can be temporary or long-term. Adoption on the other hand, consists of the legal and permanent process that establishes a parent/child relationship between individualsRead MoreSwot Case Study : Foster Parents Essay2317 Words   |  10 PagesStudy Report: Foster Parents I. Identifying Information The Foster Parents are a married male and female couple. The Husband is a thirty-six year old white male, who holds steady employment within the Roanoke City area. The female member is a 36 year old white female, who is currently is a stay at home mother to the couple’s one biological child. Both Foster Parents were referred to the Roanoke City Department of Social Services by a Roanoke City Department of Social Service foster parent, who attendedRead MoreMy Journey Started Off When I Was Left By My Foster Parents1743 Words   |  7 Pages My journey started off when I was left by my foster parents after they got divorced when I was only thirteen years old. I was homeless for about two years, during which I used to go to a night school just for the food. I was caught by my teacher and given the chance to stay; later on, my teacher adopted me and I grew up in the orphanage, where I learned different languages such as Bengali, Hindi, Urdu, and Nepalese Hindi and Tur kish. I grew up watching English movies on TV which inspired

Peoples Attitudes towards Climate Change Free Essays

I. Introduction Climate Change or Global warming is the increase of the average temperature of earth’s atmosphere, oceans, and landmasses. Scientists believe earth is currently facing a period of rapid warming brought on by rising levels of heat-trapping gases, known as greenhouse gases, in the atmosphere (Harvey, 2012). We will write a custom essay sample on Peoples Attitudes towards Climate Change or any similar topic only for you Order Now Ironically, â€Å"It is not climate change that is our problem, but the attitude of people that should be addressing the problem† (Fernandez, 2012). Most previous studies evaluating the cause of awareness to the people towards the climate change is the effects of people’s attitude towards climate change (Gallup, 2008; Barret Dannenberg, 2012). Most of the studies confirm the explicit and implicit attitudes towards climate change suggest targeting hidden thoughts a better way to change people’s behavior (Corner, 2010; Kormos McIntyre, 2011). There are also findings that proved the countries to firm one another to build human activities towards climate change. This paper is intended to transport cognizance on the necessary ideas on what are the people’s perception towards climate change that have been affected the existence of the of the mother nature and all the life form that exist in this world. A. Objectives The students intend to: 1. To Discuss the nature climate change and its causes; 2. To provide data supporting that there are causes and effects in every peoples attitude towards climate change; 3. To determine the authenticity of the claim that there are causes and effects in every peoples attitude towards climate change; and 4. To associate the findings to the personal lives of parents and children in particular and to the people in general B. Significance of the study This study aims to expound the effectiveness of people’s attitude towards climate change in enhancing human activities for the global benefit of the world. It creates a goal to the students, instructors, children and parents which provide them more intellectual improvement in their years of existence. People’s attitude towards climate change evidently influences many positive effects although there are also negative effects, in order to explain the level of peoples attitude towards climate change, this paper would like to be evident to the fact that climate change does exist to the occurrences of people’s conditional attitude towards climate change. C. Definition of terms In order to understand clearly the subject matter, we define the following key concepts: Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years, it may be a change in average weather conditions , or in the distribution of weather around the average conditions (example: more or  fewer extreme weather events). Implicit Association Test (IAT) is a measure within a social psychology designed to detect strength of a person’s automatic association between mental representations of the objects (concepts) in memory. Anthony Greenwald, Debbie McGhee, and Jordan Schwartz introduced the IAT in scientific literature in 1998. Peoples Attitude is determine more by their immediate situation or surroundings than by any internal characteristics, it is to say that surroundings and situation have great impact on people’s attitude. Socioeconomic Status (SES) is an economic and sociological combined total measure of a person’s work experience and of individuals or families economic and social position in relation to others, based on income, education and occupation. II. Nature of Climate Change It is clear from extensive scientific evidence that the dominant cause of the rapid change in climate of the past half century is human-induced increases in the amount of atmospheric greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide (CO2), chlorofluorocarbons, methane, and nitrous oxide. Hence, estimates of the earth’s changing carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration (top) and Antarctic temperature (bottom), based on analysis of ice core data extending back 800,000 years. Until the past century, natural factors caused atmospheric CO2 concentrations to vary within a range of about 180 to 300 parts per million by volume (ppmv). In addition, warmer periods coincide with periods of relatively high CO2 concentrations. Atmospheric CO2 concentrations have increased by almost 40% since pre-industrial times, from approximately 280 parts per million by volume (ppmv) in the 18th century to 390 ppmv in 2010. The current CO2 level is higher than it has been in at least 800,000 years. Some volcanic  eruptions released large quantities of CO2 in the distant past. However, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) reported last 2011 that human activities now emit more than 135 times as much CO2 does as volcanoes each year. However, human activities like greenhouse gases, currently release over 30 billion tons of CO2 into the atmosphere every year.This build-up in the atmosphere is like a tub filling with water, where more water flows from the faucet than the drain can take away. Moreover, methane is produce through both natural and human activities. For example, natural wetlands, agricultural activities, and fossil fuel extraction and transport all emit CH4.Methane is more abundant in Earth’s atmosphere now than at any time in at least the past 650,000 years. [2] Due to human activities, CH4concentrations increased sharply during most of the 20th century and are now more than two-and-a-half time’s pre-industrial levels. In recent decades, the rate of increase has slowed considerably. Nitrous oxide is produce through natural and human activities, mainly through agricultural activities and natural biological processes. Fuel burning and some other processes also create N2O. Concentrations of N2O have risen approximately 18% since the start of the Industrial Revolution, with a relatively rapid increase towards the end of the 20th century. In contrast, the atmospheric concentration of N2O varied only slightly for a period of 11,500 years before the onset of the industrial period. III. How does Climate Change Work? The Kyoto Protocol The Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is an international treaty that sets binding obligations on industrialized countries to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. The UNFCCC is an environmental treaty with the goal of preventing â€Å"dangerous† anthropogenic (example: human-induced) interference of the climate system. One hundred ninety countries are United Nation members, except Afghanistan, Andorra, Canada, South Sudan and the United States. The United States signed but did not ratify the Protocol and Canada withdrew from it in 2011. The Protocol was adopt by Parties to the UNFCCC in 1997, and entered into force in 2005. As part of the Kyoto Protocol, many developed countries have agreed to legally binding limitations/reductions in their emissions of greenhouse gases in two commitments periods. The first commitment period applies to emissions 2008-2012, and the second commitment period applies to emissions 2013-2020. The protocol was amended in 2012 to accommodate the second commitment period, but this amendment has (as of January 2013) not entered into legal force. On the other hand, 37 countries with binding targets in the second commitment period are Australia, all members of the European Union, Belarus, Croatia, Iceland, Kazakhstan, Norway, Switzerland, and Ukraine. Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine have stated that they may withdraw from the Protocol or not put into legal force the Amendment with second round targets. Moreover, Japan, New Zealand, and Russia have participated in Kyoto’s first round but have not taken on new targets in the second commitment period. Other developed countries without second-round targets are Canada (which withdrew from the Kyoto Protocol in 2012) and the United States (which has not ratified the Protocol). Thus, international emissions trading allow developed countries to trade their commitments under the Kyoto Protocol. They can trade emissions quotas among themselves, and can receive credit for financing emissions reductions in developing countries. Developed countries may use emissions trading until late 2014 or 2015 to meet their first-round targets. Developing countries do not have binding targets under the Kyoto Protocol, but are still committed under the treaty to reduce their emissions.Actions  taken by developed and developing countries to reduce emissions include support for renewable, improving energy efficiency, and reducing deforestation. Under the Protocol, emissions of developing countries are authorized to grow in accordance with their development needs. The treaty recognizes that developed countries have contributed the most to the anthropogenic build-up of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere (around 77% of emissions between 1750 and 2004), and that carbon dioxide emissions per person in developing countries (2.9 tons in 2010) are, on average, lower than emissions per person in developed countries (10.4 tons in 2010). Because, a number of developed countries have commented that the Kyoto targets only apply to a small share of annual global emissions. Countries with second-round Kyoto targets made up 13.4% of annual global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions in 2010.[27] Many developing countries have emphasized the need for developed countries to have strong, binding emissions targets. At the global scale, existing policies appear to be too weak to prevent global warming exceeding 2 or 1.5 degrees Celsius, relative to the pre-industrial level (King, D., et al., 2011;) IV. Providing Data Supporting the Claim that there are Causes and Effect in every people attitudes towards climate change. In the study conducted by The World Bank’s World Development Report 2010 on Climate Change and Development commissioned on international poll of public attitudes to climate change their findings indicate that attitudes on international cooperation on climate change results in one thought, that if their countries acted, other countries would be encouraged to act as well. Should an agreement on cutting emissions emerge from the Copenhagen meeting, very large majorities in all 15 countries said their nation should commit to cut emissions as part of the agreement. Then, if such an agreement does not emerge, majorities in 14 countries and a plurality in one still thought their nation would have a responsibility to act.Effect of one country’s example on others one overhanging question in  the difficult global process of forming measures against climate change is the power of example and mutual efforts: if some nations lead, will others be inclined to follow—not only on a world scale, but also regionally, or among neighboring countries? Furthermore, respondents were asked whether they thought, â€Å"That if our country takes steps to deal with the problem of climate change, other countries would then be more willing to act, or do you think it wouldn’t make much difference?. Similarly, in 14 of 15 countries, majorities thought the example of their country acting would affect other countries’ willingness positively—and in Russia, a plurality thought so (47% to 32%). For that reason, an average of 68% in all 15 countries thought other countries will be affected by their example, and only 24% did not developed countries that have smaller majorities believed in the power of their example, while many developing countries showed much more confidence in it. Thus Bangladesh, Senegal, Kenya, Indonesia and Vietnam all had majorities of 79% or higher who thought that if their country took such steps, other countries would be then more willing to act. In addition, Mexico, Iran and China were almost as confident (all at 73%). Egypt (66%) and India (61%) had substantial majorities thinking so; France was similar at 63%. However, Japan, the United States and Russia were all significantly less confident that their example would make any difference. In Japan, 54% thought their example would encourage other countries, while 46% did not; in the US 52% thought it would make a difference, while 46% did not; and in Russia 47% thought it would, and 32% that it would not. WhereasGallup conducted the first comprehensive survey of global opinions about climate change, posing two questions to respondents in 128 countries: 1) how much you know about global warming or climate change.Moreover 2) How serious of a threat is globalwarmingto you and your family?Gallup finds that a majority of the world’s adult population is aware of the climate change issue, but a substantial minority is not aware. Further, those who are aware are more likely to say climate change poses a serious threat to themselves and their families. Results vary by region and among each of the top five greenhouse gas-emitting countries, underscoring the challenges leaders face in reaching a global climate agreement. Regionally, people in Europe and the Americas (which includes North, South, and Central America) are the most likely to be aware of climate change. More than 8 in 10 adults in Europe and the Americas say they know at least something about climate change. Fish Ponds Cause the brunt of typhoons â€Å"Pedring† and Quiel†. It is one of the major reasons of a prolonged flooding in residential and rural areas in the plains of Bulacan and Pampanga because of the proliferation of fishponds and aquaculture projects in the major waterways, thus, this result to the slowed flow of the water from the typhoon and dams. On the other hand, cities of Butuan and Cotabato experiencing the prolonged flood because of the rivers that is clog by water lilies. Similarly, the city of Cotabato experienced the said problem because of the industries that polluted the river with nitrates which induce the growth of lilies to cause a certain scenario. Implicit Association Test Using the Implicit Association Test (IAT), developed in the 1990s and now widely used in social psychology, Geoffrey Beattie and Laura McGuire at Manchester University asked whether people’s â€Å"explicit† attitudes (the responses people give in surveys and opinion polls) or their â€Å"implicit†Ã‚  attitudes (which can only be revealed by people’s reaction times on a specially designed task) best predicted the amount of attention they paid to iconic images of climate change. Situational Survey Participants were asked to rate how much they agreed with statements such as: â€Å"I prefer a product with a low carbon footprint†. But they also completed an IAT where they had to assign a series of positive or negative terms to the target category of â€Å"low carbon footprint†. The researchers then showed them a series of images, some of which were iconic negative images of climate change (for example, a stranded polar bear), some of which were positive images of nature (for example, a field of sunflowers), and some of which were everyday household objects. Intermingled across a series of slides, participants could choose which images to look at. The results were striking: Only implicit attitudes predicted how long people looked at iconic images of climate change. It did not matter if people had expressed a positive explicit attitude towards low-carbon products. Only people with strongly positive implicit attitudes (i.e. the people with quick reaction times between positive terms and the low carbon footprint category) chose to linger on the climate change images. These findings suggest that even people who express a high degree of concern about climate change, or who claim a great deal of interest in low-carbon products, may actually be unconsciously shielding themselves from imagery associated with climate change and by extension, a deeper reflection on how to change their behavior in response to it. What about interpreting the Climate Change as an emergency? People also reject climate change because of other commitments in their life. If climate change is real, that might mean we need to change how we live. If  we don’t want to change, that can influence our thinking all the way back up to whether we consider the issue a problem. Broadly, you can call this motivated reasoning(Nordhaus, and Shaw, 1994) Psychologists recognize that people have a complex set of social identities based on their age, gender, religion and many other groups. These memberships drive attitudes, feelings and behavior. Social identity exists whenever a person feels they are a member and feels a sense of psychological identification with a group (Latane, Darley, 1968) Political party is a powerful social identity that informs how people think about themselves and the world. Following this very brief description of social identity theory, consider how political party shapes how we process incoming information. It’s not easy to go against your political party, because you can be derogated and excluded from the group. It’s uncomfortable to feel social influence and not go along. Political identification matters in evaluating information on climate change (Frant Mayer, 2009). V. Implication of the study People cannot change their attitude towards climate change if their socioeconomic status (SES) priority on climate change is not on their list of commitments in life. Someone must encourage them to change their belief in their attitudes towards climate change. Through the interaction with the media, people in the society will be aware on how climate change got worst in this time of decade. Hence, creatinga law that will be a major concern of the people, and implement it to all citizens that live on a certain country that implement such law. As a result people may continue their attention and could gain more as they interact with the intellect of climate change just like a footprint in wet cement, it hardens as it goes by, thereby, and there should be a good footprint to leave so they could have much better through thedevelopment. VI. Conclusion We arrived with a conclusion that Global Climate Change is a fact, although there are skeptics in no way a majority group. That is why governments around the world have reacted to this growing threat nearest major climatic changes that may put their economies at risk. People Attitudes towards Global Climate Change, on the other hand, has made it very clear globalization of pressing environmental issues if it is not a company that involves all nations. Population pressure and development taken by most developed nations along with developing nations placed increasing pressure on natural resources and environmental systems on land. At present, the self-regulatory capacity of the atmosphere are carried to their limits and according to many, surpassed. It is not sound policy, for humanity, let the search for solutions for the future or if they are strongly needed. The atmosphere and the processes that maintain their characteristics are not very fast reaction times compared with the periods humans. How to cite Peoples Attitudes towards Climate Change, Essays

Death Of A Great Composer Essay Example For Students

Death Of A Great Composer Essay It is hard to believe that the death of a man can remain unknown for several centuries. Itis even harder to believe that the death of one of the greatest composers of all time, isindeed that. That composer, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, was a child prodigy. Heperformed for royalty, wrote and composed symphonies, and learn to play the violin andorgan without instruction all before he ever reached the age of seven. Mozart was trulyblessed with a gift from God to hear the music before he ever wrote it. Many peoplewere aware of that gift, including Antonio Salieri. Salieri was the court composer andwas thought of highly until the works of Mozart became heard in Vienna. Mozart wasamazing and astounding and loved by all-all except Salieri. Salieri sat and watched thisman, this great â€Å"wonder child†, and asked God why he had given this perverted andimmature boy such a wondrous gift. He asked God why he had put the love of music inhis heart if he was going to give the talent to Mozart. During the time that Salieri spentwith Mozart, did only his pain, hatred and jealousy grow. Salieri wished nothing buthumiliation, failure and perhaps even death on Wolfgang Mozart. Through all of thosedistressing emotions, I’m not sure that Antonio Salieri ever wanted Mozart dead so badly,that he could have or would have killed him, as some historians have said. I believe thatif Salieri would have wanted Mozart dead, that he would have acted more quickly that hedid. After all, why would Salieri, the man jealous of the work and popularity of Mozart,ever let him become such a success? Why didn’t Salieri act on his internal rage beforehand? Simple, through of the hatred that Salieri felt toward Mozart, he could not helpbut to appreciate his work that was so finely mastered. I, myself, think that Mozart’sdeath was caused by alcohol. Mozart was always a very heavy drinker, but especiallyafter he moved to Vienna. There could have a been numerous explanations for hisexcessive drinking, one might have been stress. From looking at what Mozartaccomplished, you might have thought that he was a very hard-worker and a very seriousman, always getting things done when they needed to be. You would be right in thinkingthat Mozart was a very hard-worker and that he always had his work finished before hehad ever started it. Yet of all the titles that Mozart had earned, mature was definitely notincluded. Mozart was indeed a partier. He loved to drink and dance and play. I thinkthat his drinking started out as a social occurrence and then it was more of a pleasure. But all to soon, Mozart would become more and more addicted to alcohol. He becamesomewhat dependent on liquor, even though it was never stated, it was obvious that hislate-night â€Å"sneak-outs† were associated with the stress of his work. Mozart would drinkconstantly, during a meal, and while he was writing music, which would have been howhe spent the other twenty-three hours of his day. Mozart never learned how to manage histime so that he would have time to do other things, such as spending time with his family. He also never understood that there were limits to anything. That â€Å"blindness† includedhis love of alcohol. The failure to ever learn these, time-management and boundaryskills, would drive him farther away from everything he wanted, his family, his work andlife. The death of young Mozart was completely unexpected and appalling to all thatknew him. Music Essays

The Tang Dynasty

The Tang dynasty started ruling China from 618 up to 907. Besides establishing stable government emperors, the Tang dynasty promoted religious beliefs among the Chinese people. Among the successful religion was Buddhism where different factors underscore the prosperity of this religion during the Tang Dynasty.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on The Tang Dynasty specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More First, the Tang Empire established policies that encouraged religious people to assimilate non-religious ones. Secondly, the emperors exempted the Buddhist monks from taxation, which promoted the flourishing of the religion by more people joining the monasteries. Additionally, Empress Wu fought other religions except Buddhism and as citizens moved towards national unity, the success of Buddhism soared. However, when the number of monks increased, emperor Tang Wu Zong destroyed their temples forcing the monks to start laboring and this phenomenon underlines the rapid lasting decline of Buddhism at that time. The leaders of Yuan Dynasty used wars to conquer all the ethnic tribes in China by enforcing the dynasty’s governance; for instance, Emperor Shinzu used military services and possessed all the territories in China. The Yuan leaders used force to combine both Chinese and Mongol ruling system to establish social caste system, which gave the ruling class powers. As a result, the Chinese people possessed the lowest classes. The major strength of the combined system was the ability of the leaders to unite all the ethnic groups and acquisition of efficient military services. However, the rulers promoted corruption and social discrimination, which led to the fall of the Yuan dynasty. This essay on The Tang Dynasty was written and submitted by user MadameMasque to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster Essays

The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster Essays The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster Paper The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster Paper Essay Topic: Invisible Monsters â€Å"In the beginning there was the Word, and the Word was ‘Arrrgh! ’†. These famous lines taken from Piraticus 13:7 are the first words you will see in the Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Many do not know what exactly Pastafarianism is, and so I am here to spread the Word! Pastafarians stand for all that is good, and are against all that is bad. What more could someone ask for? The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, while having existed in secrecy for millions of years only recently came into the mainstream in May of 2005. But what do they stand for, and what exactly are their beliefs? In May of 2005, an open letter to the Kansas School Board from concerned citizen Bobby Henderson sparked the mass intro of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster into our society. Some claimed that the church is purely a thought experiment, satire, illustrating that Intelligent Design is not science, but rather a pseudoscience manufactured by Christians to push Creationism into public schools. But Bobby knew better, and wrote his letter to express his concern. In the words of Bobby Henderson himself, â€Å"With millions, if not thousands, of devout worshippers, the Church of the FSM is widely considered a legitimate religion, even by its opponents – mostly fundamentalist Christians, who have accepted that our God has larger balls than theirs. † A lot of people can’t bring themselves to understand this religion. Before I delve farther into what exactly this religion is, I would like to share what they consider the basic beliefs that they all share. By design, the only dogma allowed in the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is that there is no dogma allowed. There are absolutely no strict rules and regulations, there are no written rituals and prayers that must be abided by, and every single member gets a say in what the Church is and what it becomes. Due to this, the religion is actually quite difficult to clearly define what the religion is. According to them, they have a set of general beliefs that are as follows. First, they believe that pirates, the original pastafarians, were simply peaceful explorers and that due to Christian misinformation, they received an outlook of outcast criminals. To them, this is completely untrue. Next, they are extremely fond of beer and other alcoholic beverages. To them, this is basically the equivalent of holy water. Every single Friday is a religious holiday and is to be treated as such. Another belief is that they should never take themselves too seriously. This religion wasn’t founded by a group of â€Å"uptight† individuals. Finally, they embrace contradictions. These aforementioned aspects are considered the core beliefs of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. The central belief is that an invisible and undetectable Flying Spaghetti Monster created the  universe  after drinking heavily. According to these beliefs, the Monsters intoxication was the cause for a flawed  Earth. Furthermore, according to Pastafarianism, all evidence for evolution was planted by the Flying Spaghetti Monster in an effort to test Pastafarians faith- parodying certain  biblical literalists. When scientific measurements such as  radiocarbon dating  are taken, the Flying Spaghetti Monster is there changing the results with His Noodly Appendage. The Pastafarian conception of  Heaven  includes a  beer  volcano and a  stripper  factory. The Pastafarian  Hell  is similar, except that the beer is stale and the strippers have  sexually transmitted diseases. According to Pastafarian beliefs,  pirates  are absolute divine beings and the original Pastafarians. Furthermore, Pastafarians believe that pirates image as thieves and outcasts is misinformation spread by Christian theologians in the  Middle Ages  and by  Hare Krishna’s. Instead, Pastafarians believe that they were peace-loving explorers and spreaders of good will who distributed candy to small children, adding that modern pirates are in no way similar to the fun-loving buccaneers from history. In addition, Pastafarians believe that ghost pirates are responsible for all of the mysteriously lost ships and planes of the  Bermuda Triangle. Pastafarians celebrate  International Talk like a Pirate Day on September 19th. The inclusion of pirates in Pastafarianism was part of Hendersons original letter to the Kansas State Board of Education, in an effort to illustrate that†correlation does not imply causation†. Henderson presented the argument that global warming, earthquakes, hurricanes, and other natural disasters  are a direct effect of the shrinking numbers of pirates since the 1800s.   A chart accompanying the letter shows that as the number of pirates decreased, global temperatures increased. This parodies the suggestion from some religious groups that the high numbers of disasters, famines and wars in the world is due to the lack of respect and worship towards their deity. In 2008, Henderson interpreted the growing pirate activities at the  Gulf of Ade n  as additional support, pointing out that  Somalia  has the highest number of pirates and  the lowest  carbon emissions  of any country. There are 7 occurrences of celebration within the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. The first is Pastover, in which pastafarians around the world are encouraged to eat copious amounts of pasta which is cooked â€Å"in his image† by family members dressed as pirates. A common practice on this day is the passing of the eye patch, in which each family member takes turn wearing the eye patch and explains why he/she is happy to have been â€Å"touched by his noodly appendages†. Next is Ramendan, in which pastafarians are encouraged to eat only ramen noodles and remember their times of eating quality pasta. Then there’s Halloween, a time of remembrance of when Pirates walked the earth freely. A little known fact is that pirates were well known for passing out candy on this day but the practice dwindled as they became more and more persecuted. Next, on September 19th, is International Talk like a Pirate Day, in which pastafarians everywhere are encouraged to return to their pirate ancestor’s native tongue. Another important holiday is Friday. Every Friday, to be exact, is a holiday to the Pastafarians. On this day, they are to pay homage to their beer volcanoes and stripper factories. Finally is Holiday, which basically covers all the commercial holidays. To be a world religion, there are seven things that generally must be met. The first is the experiential aspect in which you look at what that started it all. Although the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster has existed for â€Å"millions, if not thousands† of years, the main point that brought it into the mainstream was Bobby Henderson’s letter to the Kansas School Board expressing his concern about their denial of his alternative theory. From that point on, Pastafarianism exploded into the mainstream, and since then it has only expanded and grown. In fact, according to them, you don’t even have to actually believe in the FSM to be a member. In their own words, â€Å"For the same reason that many in other religions don’t literally believe their scripture, you can be a Pastafarian without being a True Believer of our scripture. In other words, do you know Christians who don’t take the Bible literally – but who consider themselves True Christians, nonetheless? So do I. In fact, True Belief is not often a requirement of religion. Most religions are comprised of a group of people with similar – but not exact – world views. Pastafarianism is no different in that regard. † Next is the aspect involving myth. Here, we examine the storied that aren’t necessarily true scientifically, but convey important truths about life. One example of this is the FSM story of creationism. The story begins with the creation of the universe by an invisible and undetectable Flying Spaghetti Monster. On the first day, the Flying Spaghetti Monster separated the water from the heavens; on the second, because He could not tread water for long and had grown tired of flying, He created the land- complemented by a beer volcano. Satisfied, the Flying Spaghetti Monster overindulged in beer from the beer volcano and woke up hung over. Between drunken nights and clumsy afternoons, the Flying Spaghetti Monster produced seas and land for a second time, accidentally, because he forgot that he created it the day before along with Heaven and a midget, which he named Man. Man and an equally short woman lived happily in the Olive Garden of Eden for some time until the Flying Spaghetti Monster caused a global flood in a cooking accident. This gives us a clear and understandable way to interpret how something as large as the Earth was made. Next is Doctrinal, which involve creeds, gospels, and things of that nature. One way in which the Church of the FSM meets this standard is in its adaptation of the 10 commandments. This gives the pastafarians a clear list of things to do in order to get into Heaven. The story goes that Captain Mosey ascended Mount Salsa and received 10 pieces of advice from the Flying Spaghetti Monster. These pieces of advice are contained in the book known as â€Å"The Eight ‘I’d Really Rather You Didn’ts. † The reason there are only eight is due to the fact that on the way back down from Mount Salsa, Captain Mosey ropped two of them. This event partly accounts for Pastafarians flimsy moral standards. The Flying Spaghetti Monsters commandments address worship of Him, the treatment of people of other faiths, sexual conduct, and nutrition. The fourth aspect is ethical. In this, we examine what the religion says is good or bad. Here, we can again look at the wonderful story of Captain Mosey. Again referring to the â€Å"Eight I’d Really Rather You Didn’ts†, we can get a better picture of their moral code. The first says that they are not to â€Å"act like sanctimonious holier-than-thou people when talking about His Holy Goodness. He goes on to say that if someone doesn’t believe in Him, it is okay. The second says not to use His Noodly Goodness as a means to oppress others. In His words, â€Å"Purity is for drinking water, not people†. Third, he talks about not judging people for the way they look, talk, dress, or choose to live their life. If they want to engage in homosexual relations, let them. â€Å"One is not better than the other, unless were talking about fashion and Im sorry, but I gave that to women and some guys who know the difference between teal and fuchsia. I am not going to go over all eight of them in this paper, but the point is that they do indeed have a set of commandments much like another well-known religion. Next is ritual, in which we look at the varying rituals involved in the Church of the FSM. Actually, there are no mandatory religions involved in the Church of the FSM. However, there are rituals that are encouraged to be practiced during events such as holidays. One o f which I mentioned earlier, in which the passing of the eye patch takes place. Here, each member of the family takes turns wearing the holy eye patch and sharing why he or she is blessed to have been touched by His Noodly Appendages. The fifth aspect is the social aspect. Here, we look at the communities involved within the religion. The Church of the FSM does not have a set, established church anywhere. Instead, they believe that the Earth is their â€Å"church† and that wherever they happen to meet is okay with them, as many of them are â€Å"too lazy to be bothered to get up at seven in the morning and go to some building to be told what to believe†. They do however hold things uch as parades in order to unite together as â€Å"one under His Noodly Appendages†. Finally, there is the material aspect. In the Church of the FSM, one of the Eight I’d Really Rather You Didn’ts is that they are not to spend billions of dollars erecting statues, cathedrals, and other items of worship when the money could go to â€Å"stopping world hunger, healing the sick, helping the homeless, and lowering the cost of cable. † However, there are many pieces of art created by a slew of talented ten year olds that serve to allow His Noodly Appendages to continue to touch those around us for millions of years to come. As we can see, this religion has actually had a huge impact on our society since it went mainstream in 2005. People all over the world are changing to better serve his Holy Goodness and help those around them. If you look at the Church as a whole, not one death has occurred due to it, and â€Å"certainly no wars and slaughters were caused by it, much like another religion†. The FSM has allowed us to take a step back and look at what we believe in, and determine what actually makes sense. By creating a religion completely based off of one guy’s imagination and determination for people to open their eyes and look at what they preach, the Church of the FSM has helped many to become better people, and it will continue to do so throughout the years as more and more people become aware of his Noodly Goodness. 1. www. venganza. org. 2. The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Author: Bobby Henderson Published: 2005. 3. http://politics. gather. com/viewArticle. action? articleId=281474976877085 4. http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/The_Gospel_of_the_Flying_Spaghetti_Monster#Pastafarian_Creation_Myth

Critical thinking Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 6

Critical thinking - Essay Example He uses the church as a source to refer to the hard hearted in support of his position. The church through the ages has at times adopted the doctrine of compel violet, a kind of political dominants, a kind of cultural superiority, a means of political dominance. According to Aristotle the essence of happiness is prosperity combined with virtue. When someone is happy, that is when he or she can make many friends, build a family, make wealth, live long life, excel, have athletic powers and therefore good virtue. Rhetoric is known as the ability of using language efficiently. Aristotle asserts, rhetoric is useful in that; it helps to discover the known and the unknown about a subject. Normally, we use language- in speech or in writing- we engage in a rhetorical work (McKeon, 148). Absolute certainty assumes the knower to understand each concept in its full extension and in its relationship to all other concepts. Absolute certainty precludes doubt of any nature. Absolute certainty holds every thought in total context and always relates all information together as one unified whole. Absolute certainty, defined in this full extension of the term, is possible only to an absolute being that enjoys absolute knowledge. The Corpus of marvel exists when someone evokes or experienced surprise or wonders where as a miracle is an event that occurs inexplicable as per the laws of nature and is taken to be supernatural. Hume defines miracle as a transcriptional of law of nature by a specific volition of Deity. Personally, some experiences are inexplicable i.e. when I got healed stomach ulcers without undergoing any medication (Bailey, Alan & Dan, 212). There are four methods by which we can assure the truth of something. First, is by trusting the source of the information (Lee, 37). For example, by reading a book or review a research study; by using references other than scientific studies such as religious literature. In all cases, the information is usually made clear and

International managment (Vodafone) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

International managment (Vodafone) - Essay Example As the company claims, Vodafone is the company that loves change. So, driven by the desire to constantly change and expand, in 2010 Vodafone entered into agreement with a Libyan state owned mobile network, Almadar Aljadid (Al-Madar) (Al-Madar, 2010). The agreement implied that Al-Madar would have access to Vodafone’s products while Vodafone would be able to use Al-Madar’s network to provide mobile telecommunication services in Africa. For this agreement one of the target population groups of Vodafone were multinational companies, for whom Vodafone’s service would solve a number of communication problems. However, as public uprisings started in North Africa, Vodafone faced a public relations disaster. Vodafone was blamed for impacting the Egyptian society because of cooperating with Egyptian ex-President Mubarak (ESG Insider, 2011). In February the company, experiencing pressure from the government of Egypt, had to close its nationwide network. At the same time, o n behalf of the regime, the operator spread anonymous text messages to service users that encouraged people not to oppose the existing regime and, on the contrary, fight against those willing to change the rule. It should be remembered that Al-Madar company, through which Vodafone was providing its services in Africa, is owned by Col. Gadaffi’s eldest son. So Al-Madar, in an attempt to limit communication between the rebels, shut down its mobile phone network. Therefore, it can be concluded that it was not Vodafone who closed the network. Nevertheless, the company itself does not refuse the fact of sending text messages that called for loyalty to the regime. Allnutt (2011), an editor-in-chief of Radio Free Europe, believes Vodafone’s shutting down the networks to be a human rights... Recent popular uprisings in North Africa have shaken both the MENA countries and the global society. The demonstrations against non-democratic governments paralyzed or slowed down operations of many multinational corporations. However, to some extent it might be said that the very same multinational corporation played certain role in the development of the conflicts. International companies are frequently blamed for undermining development and exacerbating inequality and poverty in the developing countries. Furthermore, they leave no space for operations of small and middle-sized domestic companies, thus transferring money â€Å"that could be put towards poverty eradication into the hands of the rich†. Another point of view is that revolutions in North Africa have purely social roots – unemployed want to have jobs and those who works want to earn living wages. In any case, the result is clear – companies have to embrace change and adapt to the innovations, whethe r they impact the company positively or negatively in the short run.

Little White Lies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Little White Lies - Essay Example In view of a couple, where one engages in various affairs before they met with their current spouses, would it be right to lay the whole truth out, however dark it is? This question will be best answered by differentiating utilitarianism and Kantian ethics or deontology. Utilitarianism, by Bentham, is a theory that argues on conformation to utility principle. The theory is focused on greatest happiness, whereby, an action is right if it increases happiness and decreases pain. Deontology, on the other hand, argues on the principle of duty. A deontologist will tend to fulfill what is morally right irrespective of the consequences of his or her actions. A right action, to a deontologist is that which conforms to the moral law (Jost & Wuerth, 2011). The tale of a little white lies then focuses on a couple that has a dark past and wants to get engaged. What would be right? A dark past may range from prostitution, hardcore crime, drug abuse, and any other vices that the society morally abhors. In the case of a woman disclosing a promiscuous past to a potential lifetime partner, would it really be necessary? Would it be necessary for a man to disclose the number of first degree murders he committed before he reformed? Reasoning from my personal point of view, I would not need to disclose such information as I would hurt my partner’s feelings. Above that, the consequences of disclosing such information are unknown and might be disastrous to the relationship. Some information might lead to lack of trust or create fear in the relationship. In the case that a criminal’s past life is actually a past life or a promiscuous past life is forgotten, then such information is unnecessary in my view. According to Kantian ethics, one should act according to a categorical imperative. This entails acting in a manner that would also favor the actor in universal law. This theory subscribes to the requirement of a moral obligation in ones course of

Health Care System In Uae Health And Social Care Essay

Health Care System In Uae Health And Social Care Essay Health care is essential for any economy regardless of its size since it directly affects the workforce. The workforce in turn influences output and income earned by the government from taxes and foreign exchange. The health care sector should thus receive a substantial proportion of the budgetary expenditure if a country is to achieve high growth and development levels. The UAE is one of the most influential countries in the Middle East and it shapes the economic and political sphere in this continent. Although it is a dominant country in the Middle East, it faces many challenges in its health care system which threatens to undermine its growth and development. Several interventions should be taken to ensure that this nation does not lose its influence in the Middle East due to problems in the health care sector, which may affect its growth and development. This paper will show that UAE faces challenges such as limitation in the number of specialists and nurses, low skills possessed by nurses and poor remuneration of employees who work for government hospitals. In order to address these concerns, more health care professionals should be trained and schools build for students who are interested in the medical field. In addition, foreign workers in health care facilities should be thoroughly vetted to ensure that they possess skills needed by patients. In order to motivate employees in the health care sector, their salaries and allowances should be increased, and their working environments improved through equipping hospitals with drugs, equipment and health care specialists. This will improve the overall quality of health care provided in the UAE. Introduction The health care sector is one of the most important sectors in any nation and it directly affects the economic growth and development of all nations. This is due to the reason that if the population has poor health, the productivity from individual workers decreases and this in turn reduces output from industries and firms. This in turn results in lower GDP, lower taxes earned by government and lower income earned from exports. Many health care systems across the world face challenges due to an increase in number of people who seek health care and the limitation of resources available. There has been an increase in diseases, both communicable and terminal illnesses. In addition, unhealthy lifestyles and poor dietary habits have led to an increase in diseases such as diabetes, heart illnesses and high blood pressure, across the world. It is therefore important that different health care systems are assessed and their weaknesses exposed in order to improve the quality of health care pr ovision. The UAE faces some challenges in its health care service delivery. These weaknesses include a shortage of specialists and nurses. Others include low quality of skills by nurses and low motivation levels among health care stakeholders. This has led to poor service delivery and man patients are opting to pursue health care services abroad. Many specialists are also taking jobs abroad since they perceive remuneration in UAE to be low. These factors have an economic impact of loss of revenue by the government, increase in cost of health care and opportunity costs of seeking local health care services. This paper will analyze the health care industry in the United Arab Emirates. Various weaknesses inherent in the system will be discussed from an economic point of view. These weaknesses will be compared to other successful hospitals across the world in order to develop effective interventions to solve them. Recommendations will then be made on actions which the UAE government, in collabora tion with the private sector and international partners, has to take to improve the quality of health care provision. The incentives which should be given to change the behavior of UAE health care stakeholders will also be given at the end of the paper. The discussed issues will be summarized. Problems and solutions Introduction There are various problems which are present in the UAE health care system as earlier stated. These problems include inadequate distribution ratio of nurses to patients and the presence of low skilled nurses. These problems lead to dissatisfaction with service provision amongst the UAE population, and this results in many patients seeking treatment overseas. Over 70% of residents in UAE seek treatment overseas when faced with life-threatening ailments. This leads to losses to both health care providers and the government, which loses a substantial income from taxes. In addition, sometimes the government supports patients who seek treatment overseas and this increases the costs incurred by the government. For instance, in 2009, the UAE government spent over 280 million dirham to cover overseas costs of 530 patients (Porter Teisberg, 2006). This figure is even higher when military patients are included. When the government spends this amount of money on overseas treatment, economic lo sses include opportunity costs of payment from patients to health practitioners, loss of tax revenue by the government and direct expenses paid for the medical cost. It is therefore imperative that steps are taken to restore the confidence which nationals of the UAE have in the health care system. This part of the paper will discuss individual problems in the provision of health care in the UAE. The solutions to the problems faced will be discussed after discussing the problems. Inadequate distribution ratio of nurses to patients The international acceptable standards in health care provision advocates for a bed capacity to nursesà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢ ratio of 1:1 in areas which are considered critical to health care. The current ratio present in the UAE is in fact 1:5. This means that one nurse takes care of four patients simultaneously. According to Zain and Libo, (2008), although the internationally recognized nurse to patient ration in the ICU is 1:5, there are several hospitals in Dubai which have higher nurse to patient ratios. For instance, the Al Baraha hospital has a nurse to patient ratio of 1:10 in general wards, and in the ICU, this ratio is 1:4. In addition, it has 100 doctors and 200 nurses yet it receives 13 new born babies, 250 emergency patients and 650 outpatients in a daily basis. This shows the problem facing the hospital as far as the shortage of nurses is concerned. This is not acceptable, especially in critical areas of health care. This is due to the reason that increasing the workload of nurses has adverse impacts on health care provision. These include increasing risk of spread of infection as nurses urgently try to complete tasks, increasing risk of error due to fatigue, increasing occupational injuries due to rush to complete tasks, increasing risk of error when filling incident reports and increasing turnover rate due to excessive work and few promotions. This would eventually reduce the overall quality of health care, which adversely affects the health of the population and workforce. This would in turn reduce productivity and economic growth and development in the UAE. In addition, inadequate staff may make patients lose confidence in the health care provision and seek alternative health options such as over the counter medication, herbal medicine and others. Some of these methods may further aggravate their illnesses. In order to solve this problem, the UAE government should increase its investment in health care. The current proportion of budget spent on health care in the UAE is approximately 9%. For a sector which has a huge impact on a countryà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢s growth and development, UAE spends too little on health. It should increase this proportion to over 15% in order to cater for the needs of hiring new nurses and expanding health care infrastructure. The US, which is a larger economy, spent 17% of its GDP in 2009 on health care. More nurses should be hired to improve the nurse to patient ratio. In addition, more medical schools would be built to train more health care practitioners who would cater for the expanding health care needs. This will reduce the risks earlier discussed and improve the overall quality of health care in the UAE. Low skilled nurses Many nurses who work in the UAE are either under qualified or in possession of little experience, which affects their health care provision. This is caused by many factors and one of them is the shortage of nurses and the unfavorable nurse to patient ratio. Due to this shortage, cheap labor is sought from foreign countries such as Philippines and India. When this happens, it is difficult to fully ascertain the levels of skills held by these professionals, and most end up having low nursing skills. In addition, little or no professional training in nursing is given to such health care professionals. As a result, the few nurses present in the UAE do not possess the skills required to deal with the many health care needs of the population. This leads to provision of poor and low quality health care, which makes the population unhealthy. Nurses with poor professional skills are more prone to errors, which may even end up being fatal to patients. In order to deal with the problem of low skills among nurses, several interventions ought to be taken. The first is a review of skills and experience possessed by nurses who come from overseas to work in the UAE. Their academic qualifications and experience should be corroborated, and the quality of health care institutions they worked for assessed before they are employed in UAE hospitals. In order to develop superior nursing skills among UAE residents, the government ought to increase its budgetary allocation to the health care sector in order to build more nursing institutions which would develop more nurses (Oxford Business Group, 2008). The private sector and international partners should collaborate when building these nursing schools and training new nurses in order for improve the quality of skills possessed by nurses. According to City data website (2010), this strategy has already proved to be successful in Bangkok. Due to investment in training of nurses and use of technol ogy, the health care delivery has improved and this has translated into direct benefits to the population. The life expectancy has increased by over 10 years during the last three decades. Inadequate number of specialists This is a third problem which faces the UAE health care industry. There are a large number of general doctors but few specialists amongst the population. Most large hospitals have over 100 doctors but the number of specialists is usually less than 10. This limits the effectiveness of health care provision since many patients nowadays require specialized health care needs. The increase in chronic diseases such as cancer, heart problems and brain disorders has made it necessary to increase the number of specialists in these fields. In the current case, where there are few specialists, the specialist to patient ratio is very large. This may cause similar problems caused by overburdening nurses with responsibilities. In addition, it increases the costs of treating illnesses which require specialized care since the few specialists may charge high prices due to their high demand. The overall effect of having few specialists is increase in cost of health care, inability of the population to access specialized care and increase in errors made by specialists due to high work load. All these factors undermine the UAE health care provision industry. In order to solve this problem, training of specialists is required, so that they may offer their services to patients who require them. The government should collaborate with international partners and the private sector to build more schools where health care specialists are trained. These medical schools should be well equipped in order to ensure that specialists have the expertise and knowledge needed to perform their duties effectively (Crichton, 2000). Since the cost of training health care specialists is high, the government should subsidize the costs of pursuing education on certain areas of health care. The population should be encouraged to pursue knowledge on certain areas which have very few specialists such as neurology. Incentives which should be given to health care practitioners There are various incentives which should be given to doctors and nurses in order to increase their motivation levels. These incentives enable them to be well motivated and to increase their output as far as caring for patients is concerned. These incentives will be discussed below; Better remuneration There have been complaints from many health care practitioners in the UAE that the salaries and benefits they receive are not commensurate to the efforts they put in their assignments. As is common in many countries, many government health practitioners have complained that professionals working in private practice are earning significantly higher salaries and benefits than them. This lowers their morale and productivity since according to the expectancy theory by Vroom, employees only work harder when they are sure that their expectations regarding remuneration and other needs, will be realized (Beach, 2007). This can be seen by the large number of health care specialists who are moving to the US and Europe to offer their services to these countries. In order to increase their motivation levels, their salaries and benefits should be increased and matched to those of specialists in private practice. This will ensure that health care professionals are motivated and they will increase the quality of services they give. Better working environments In order for doctors and nurses to be able to work effectively, they should be provided with the latest equipment, drugs and training. This enables them to provide high quality health care to the population. The government should ensure that all hospitals have enough staff in order to improve the nurse to patient ratio. There should also be enough specialists and equipment and drugs used by patients. In any organization, organizational culture plays a role in motivating employees (Murray, 2005). The organizational culture should be therefore conducive for employees, since this will motivate them into increasing their output. The management should ensure that employees are involved in decision making, are given independence when working and that they are encouraged to work as a team. There should be an uninterrupted flow of information between the lower level employees and the management. The management should use the democratic leadership style since this is the most effective in ach ieving employee motivation (Bratton, et. al., 2004). This style involves employees in making decisions which affect their duties. Finally, there should be conflict resolution mechanisms which will avoid workplace conflicts. This will ensure that the quality of service provision improves. Incentive for patients It has been discussed that due to the challenges which the health care sector in the UAE faces, many patients are beginning to lose confidence in the health care system. It is therefore necessary to provide certain incentives which will restore confidence in the health acre system. One way of doing this is improving the patient to nurse ratio. This has been discussed in detail above when dealing with challenges in the UAE health care industry. Increasing the number of nurses will ensure that patients receive better quality of health acre and this will restore their faith in the system. Another incentive is the increase in quality of skills possessed by nurses. This will enable nurses to provide better services to patients, and this can be achieved through re-training them and vetting them before they are employed. Finally, patients should be provided with score cards which reveal their satisfaction with service provision in hospitals. This measure will enable hospitals to acquire fee dback from their patients and they will be able to improve upon areas which they are considered to be weak (Carver Scheier, 2001). It has proven to be successful in many hospitals in Thailand and it is bound to be similarly successful in the UAE. This measure will increase the quality of health care provided. Summary and conclusion There are various aspects of the UAE health care system which have been discussed in the paper. UAE has been seen to have challenges such as few number of specialists, low nurse to patient ratio, lower remuneration of health care stakeholders and poor skills by nurses. These effects have been discussed to lower the motivation of employees and as a result, they are likely to make errors or perform poor quality assignments. This in turn makes patient lose confidence in local health care provision and some seek health care services overseas. Some health care professionals also look for employment overseas as a result. When this happens, the UAE government loses tax revenue. It also ends up paying for patientsà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢ overseas treatment which leads to economic losses such as lost opportunity costs of payment from patients to health practitioners, loss of tax revenue by the government and direct expenses paid for the medical cost. In order to solve these problems which are affecting the UAE healthcare service provision, several steps should be taken by the UAE government in collaboration with the private sector and international partners. The first involves better remuneration of employees in the health care industry. The stakeholders in the health care industry should set new remuneration which matches that from the private practice. The second step involves building of medical schools and paying for educational needs of students to enable them pursue various medical fields. This will increase the skills and number of health car professionals, which is a major challenge in UAE. The third intervention is screening all health care professionals from foreign countries before they begin working in the UAE in order to ensure that they have adequate skills. Although these interventions are important in improving the overall quality of healthcare provision in the UAE, it is similarly useful to provide incentives to stakeholders in the health care sector in order to improve service provision. Health care employees should receive higher remuneration in order to increase motivation. Their work environment should also be conducive and the organizational culture should feature teamwork, independence, communication, conflict resolution and other important factors (Mugisho, 2007). Patients on the other hand can be motivated through improving the skills and increasing number of nurses and specialists since this will encourage them to have faith in the health care system. Feedback should be sourced through score cards, where patients rate service provided to them. This will enable the management improve the weaknesses of the processes. These interventions will encourage patients to seek local health services and this will increase government inco me and tax revenue thereby leading to higher economic growth and development.

No Child Left Behind Creates More Problems for Students than it does So

The No Child Left Behind Act was designed by President George W. Bush in 2001. Although this act seems to be cutting edge and has generated enormous amounts of both controversy and support, this is not the first time American Education has seen such an attempt to improve education. According to the U.S. Department of Education, the purpose of No Child Left Behind is to improve student achievement and change the culture of America's schools. ?The NCLB Act of 2001, the revised Elementary and Secondary Education Act, is a potent blend of new requirements, incentives and resources and it poses significant challenges for states? (?Education Commission of the States,? 2003). No Child Left Behind laws require that every state must develop and implement an accountability system; ?Holding schools accountable for the performance of all students is the cornerstone of the NCLB Act? (2003). There are four main principles to the new plan; Greater accountability for student achievement, greate r flexibility for states, districts and schools in the use of federal funds (more specifically Title I funds) and more choices for parents of children from disadvantaged backgrounds and an emphasis on teaching methods that have been demonstrated and proven to work. However and even still, No Child Left Behind creates more problems for students than it does solutions because of accountability laws. More specifically, students in special education are held to the same standards that students in regular education are held to. Under the requirements for No Child Left Behind Act every school must have highly qualified teachers and must meet adequate yearly progress. Additionally, each school must report attendance, test scores and other statistics p... ... www.NoChildLeftBehind.com Pascopella, A. (2005) Technology cuts run deep. Retrieved 2005, March 11 Inside the Law.com: Analyzing, Explaining and Debating NCLB. Williams, Patrick (2004, 12 January). No Child Left Behind Legislation is a Bad Law. Independent Record. Retrieved February 28, 2005, from http://www.helenair. com/articles/2004/01/21/opinions/a04012104_03.txt Wright, Pamela, Wright Peter (2003). No Child Left Behind. Harbor House Law Press. Retrieved February 26, 2005, from http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1892320126/qid=1109887307/sr=8-2/ref=pd_ka_1/102-1349734-1050505 v=glance&s=books&n=507846 Wycliff, Donald (2003, 2 October) Skirting the No Child Left Behind. The Chicago Tribune. Retrieved February 28, 2005 from http://www.chicagotribune.com/news /columnists/chi-0310020171oct02,0,6652365.column

Bloodsucking Fiends: A Love Story Chapter 16~18

Chapter 16 Heartwarming and UL-Approved There was a bum sleeping on the sidewalk across the street from the loft when they returned. Tommy, full of fast food and the elation of being twice laid, wanted to give the guy a dollar. Jody stopped him and pushed him up the steps. â€Å"Go on up,† she said. â€Å"I'll be there in a minute.† She stood in the doorway watching the bum for movement. There was no heat signature around him and she assumed the worst. She waited for him to roll over and start laughing at her again. She was feeling strong and a little cocky from the infusion of Tommy's blood, so she had to fight the urge to confront the vampire, to get dead in his face and scream. Instead she just whispered, â€Å"Asshole,† and closed the door. If his hearing was as acute as her own, and she was sure it was, he had heard her. She found Tommy in bed, fast asleep. Poor guy, she thought, running all over town doing my business. He probably hasn't slept more than a couple of hours since we met. She pulled the covers over him, kissed him on the forehead, and went to the window in the front room to watch the bum across the street. Tommy was dreaming of bebop-driven sentences read by a naked redhead when he woke to find her sleeping next to him. He threw his arm over her and pulled her close, but there was no response, no pleasant groan or reciprocal snuggle. She was out. He pushed the light button on his watch and checked the time. It was almost noon. The room was so dark that the watch dial floated in his vision for a few seconds after he released the button. He went to the bathroom and fumbled around until he found the light switch. A single fluorescent tube clicked and sputtered and finally ignited, spilling a fuzzy green glow through the door into the bedroom. She looks dead, he thought. Peaceful, but dead. Then he looked at himself in the bathroom mirror. I look dead too. It took him a minute to realize that it was the fluorescent lighting that had sucked the life out of his face, not his vampire girlfriend. He affected a serious glare and thought about how they would describe him in a hundred years, when he was really famous and really dead. Like so many great writers before him, Flood was known for his troubled countenance and sickly pallor, especially under fluorescent lighting. Those who knew him said that even in those early years they could sense that this thin, serious young man would make his presence known as a great man of letters as well as a sexual dynamo. His legacy to the world was a trail of great books and broken hearts, and although it is well known that his love life was his downfall, he felt no regret, as illustrated in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech: â€Å"I have followed my penis into hell and returned with the story.† Tommy bowed deeply before the mirror, careful to keep the Nobel Prize medal from banging the sink, then began to interview himself, speaking clearly and slowly into his toothbrush. â€Å"I think it was shortly after my first successful bus transfer that I realized the City was mine. Here I would produce some of my greatest work, and here I would meet my first wife, the lovely but deeply disturbed Jody†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Tommy waved the microphone/toothbrush away as if the memories were too painful to recall, but actually he was trying to remember Jody's last name. I should know her maiden name, he thought, if just for historical purposes. He glanced into the bedroom where the lovely but deeply disturbed Jody was lying naked and half-covered on the bed. He thought, She won't mind if I wake her up. She doesn't have to be at work or anything. He approached the bed and touched her cheek. â€Å"Jody,† he whispered. She didn't stir. He shook her a bit. â€Å"Jody, honey.† Nothing. â€Å"Hey,† he said, taking her shoulders. â€Å"Hey, wake up.† She didn't respond. He pulled the covers off her as his father used to do to him on cold winter mornings when he wouldn't get up to go to school. â€Å"Up and at 'em, soldier – ass in the air and feet on the floor,† he said in his best drill-sergeant bark. She looked really great lying there naked in the half-light from the bathroom. He was getting a little turned on. How would I feel, he thought, if I woke up and she was making love to me? Why, I believe that I would be pleasantly surprised. I think that would be better than waking up to frying bacon and the Sunday funnies. Yes, I'm sure she'll be pleased. He crawled into bed with her and ventured a tentative kiss. She was a little cold and didn't move a muscle, but he was sure she liked it. He ran a finger down the valley between her breasts and over her stomach. What if she didn't wake up? What if we do it and she doesn't wake up at all? How would I feel if I woke up and she told me that we had done it while I slept? I'd be fine with it. A little sad that I missed things, but I wouldn't be mad. I'd just ask her if I had a good time. Women are different, though. He tickled her just to get a reaction. Again, she didn't move. She's so cold. With her not moving at all it might be a little morbid. Maybe I should wait. I'll tell her that I thought about it and decided that it wouldn't be courteous. She'll like that. He sighed deeply, got out of bed and pulled the covers over her. I should buy her something, he thought. Jody snapped into consciousness and bit down on something hard. She opened her eyes and saw Tommy sitting on the edge of the bed. She smiled. â€Å"Good morning,† he said. She reached for whatever was in her mouth. Tommy caught her hand. â€Å"Don't bite down. It's a thermometer.† He checked his watch, then pulled the thermometer out of her mouth and read it. â€Å"Ninety-five point two. You're on your way.† Jody sat up and looked at the thermometer. â€Å"On my way to what?† He smiled bashfully. â€Å"On your way to body temperature. I bought you an electric blanket. It's been on for like six hours.† She ran her hand over the blanket. â€Å"You've been warming me up?† â€Å"Pretty cool, huh?† Tommy said. â€Å"I went to the library and got books too. I've been reading all afternoon.† He picked up a stack of books and began to shuffle through them, reading the titles and handing each to her in turn. â€Å"A Reader's Guide to Vampirism; Vampire Myths and Legends; Those That Stalk the Night – kind of an ominous title, huh?† She held the books as if they were made of wormy fruit. The covers depicted monstrous creatures rising from coffins, attacking women in various states of undress, and hanging around castles perched on barren mountains. The letters in the titles dripped blood. â€Å"These are all about vampires?† â€Å"That's just the nonfiction that they had on hand. I ordered a bunch more through the library exchange. Check out some of the fiction.† He picked up another stack from the floor. â€Å"A Feast of Blood; Red Thirst; Fangs; Dracula; Dracula's Dream; Dracula's Legacy; Fevre Dream; The Vampire Lestat – there must have been a hundred novels.† Jody, a little overwhelmed, stared at the books. â€Å"There seems to be a theme here on the covers.† â€Å"Yeah,† Tommy said. â€Å"Vampires seem to have an affinity for lingerie. Do you have any particular craving for sexy nightgowns?† â€Å"Not really.† Jody had always thought it a little silly to spend a lot of money on something that you only put on long enough for someone to take it off you. Evidently, though, if you went by these book covers, vampires looked at lingerie as garnish. â€Å"Okay,† Tommy said, picking up a notebook from the floor and making a check mark. â€Å"No lingerie fetish. I've made a list of vampire traits with boxes to check either ‘fact' or ‘fiction. Since you missed the lecture, I guess we'll have to just test them.† â€Å"What lecture?† Tommy put down his pen and looked at her as if she'd gotten into the express lane with a cartful of groceries and a two-party check. â€Å"Everybody knows that there's always an orientation lecture in vampire books. Usually it comes from some old professor guy with an accent, but sometimes it's another vampire. You obviously missed the lecture.† â€Å"I guess so,† Jody said. â€Å"I must have been busy chasing women in lingerie.† â€Å"That's okay,† Tommy said, returning to the list. â€Å"Obviously you don't have to sleep in your native soil.† He checked it off. â€Å"And we know that everyone you bite doesn't necessarily turn into a vampire.† â€Å"No, a jerk, maybe†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Whatever,† Tommy said, moving on in the list. â€Å"Okay, sunlight is bad for you.† He made a check mark. â€Å"You can enter a house without being invited. How about running water?† â€Å"What about it?† â€Å"Vampires aren't supposed to be able to cross running water. Have you tried crossing any running water?† â€Å"I've taken a couple of showers.† â€Å"Then that would be fiction. Let me smell your breath.† He bent close to her. She turned her head and shielded her mouth. â€Å"Tommy, I just woke up. Let me brush my teeth first.† â€Å"Vampires are supposed to have the ‘fetid breath of a predator, or, in some cases, ‘breath like the rotting smell of the charnel house. C'mon, give us a whiff.† Jody reluctantly breathed in his face. He sat up and considered the list. â€Å"Well? â€Å"she asked. â€Å"I'm thinking. I need to get the dictionary out of my suitcase.† â€Å"What for?† â€Å"I'm not sure what a charnel house is.† â€Å"Can I brush my teeth while you look?† â€Å"No, wait, I might need another whiff.† He went to his suitcase and dug out the dictionary. While he looked up â€Å"charnel house,† Jody cupped her hand and smelled her own breath. It was pretty foul. â€Å"Here it is,† he said, putting his finger on the word. â€Å"‘Noun. A mausoleum or morgue. A structure where corpses are buried or stored. See morning breath! I guess that we check ‘fact' on that one.† â€Å"Can I brush my teeth now?† â€Å"Sure. Are you going to shower?† â€Å"I'd like to. Why?† â€Å"Can I help? I mean, you're much more attractive when you're not room temperature.† She smiled. â€Å"You really know how to charm a girl.† She got out of bed and went into the bathroom. Tommy waited on the bed. â€Å"Well, come on,† she said as she turned on the water. â€Å"Sorry,† he said, leaping to his feet and wrestling out of his shirt. She stopped him at the bathroom door with a firm hand on the chest. â€Å"One second, mister. I have a question for you.† â€Å"Shoot.† â€Å"Men are pigs: fact or fiction?† â€Å"Fact!† Tommy shouted. â€Å"Correct! You win!† She leaped into his arms and kissed him. Chapter 17 This Month's Makeover: The Faces of Fear Simon McQueen had once climbed onto the back of a ton of pissed-off beef named Muffin and been promptly stomped into mush in front of an amazed rodeo crowd, and still managed to pinch the bottom of a female paramedic as he was carried away on a stretcher, singing a garbled version of â€Å"I've Got Friends in Low Places.† Simon McQueen had once picked a fight with a gang of skinheads and managed to render three of them unconscious before a knife in the stomach and a jackboot to the head rendered him helpless. Simon had jumped out of an airplane, fallen off the roof of a Lutheran church, run over a police car in his pickup truck, smuggled a thousand pounds of marijuana across the border from Mexico inside a stuffed cow, and swum halfway to Alcatraz Island on a dare before the Coast Guard fished him out of the bay and revived him. Simon had done all these things without the slightest tic of fear. But tonight, laid out across register 3 in his skintight Wranglers and his endanger ed-species Tony Lama boots with the silver spurs, his black Stetson pulled down over his face, Simon McQueen was frightened. Frightened that one of his two great secrets was about to become known. The other Animals were sharing tales of their weekend adventures, exaggerating aspects of binges and babes, while Glint professed to God that they knew not what they did. Simon sat up, pushed back his Stetson, and said, â€Å"Y'all wouldn't know a piece of ass if it sloshed upside your head.† The Animals fell silent, each trying to formulate a new and exciting way to tell Simon to fuck off, when Tommy came through the door. â€Å"Fearless Leader!† Lash exclaimed. Tommy grinned and faked a tap-dance step. â€Å"Gentlemen,† he said. â€Å"I have reached out and touched the face of God – film at eleven.† Simon was wildly irritated by this added distraction from his worrying. â€Å"What happened, you go down to Castro Street and get converted?† Tommy waved the comment away. â€Å"No, Sime – I can call you Sime, can't I? You see, last night, about this time† – he checked his watch – â€Å"there was a naked redhead hanging from the ceiling of my new loft, reading Kerouac aloud to me. If I die now, it was not all in vain. I'm ready to throw stock. How's the truck?† â€Å"A big one,† Troy Lee answered. â€Å"Three thousand cases. But the bitch is, the scanner is broken. We have to use the order books.† Troy's comment jabbed Simon like bad gas pain. He considered going home sick, but without his help the Animals would never be able to finish the truck before morning. A lump of fear rose in his throat. He couldn't use the order books. Simon McQueen couldn't read. â€Å"Let's get to it then,† Tommy said. The Animals threw themselves into their work with an abandon they usually reserved for partying. Razor box-cutters whizzed, price guns clicked, and cardboard piled up in shoulder-high drifts at the ends of the aisles. In addition to throwing the extra-large load, they had to allow an extra hour to write their stock orders. Normally the orders were done with a bar-code scanner, but with the scanner down, each man would have to go through a huge loose-leaf order book, writing in items by hand. By 5 A.M. they had most of the stock on the shelves and Simon McQueen was considering letting his box-cutter slip and cutting his leg so he could escape to the emergency room. But that might reveal a secret worse than illiteracy. Tommy came into Simon's aisle carrying the order book. â€Å"You better get started, Sime.† He held out the book and a pencil. â€Å"I still got a hundred cases to throw,† Simon said, not looking up. â€Å"Let someone else start.† â€Å"No, you've got the biggest section. Go ahead.† Tommy bumped Simon on the shoulder with the book. Simon looked up, then dropped his cutter and slowly took the book from Tommy. He opened the book and stared at the page, then at the shelf, then at the book. Tommy said, â€Å"Order light on the juices, we've got a lot of stock in the back room.† Simon nodded and looked at the book, then at the shelf of vegetables before him. Tommy said, â€Å"You're on the wrong page, Simon.† â€Å"I know,† Simon snapped. â€Å"I'm just finding my place.† He flipped through the pages, then stopped on a page of cake mixes and began looking at the shelf of vegetables. He could feel Tommy's gaze on him and wished that the skinny-little-faggot-book-reading-prick-bastard would just go away and leave him alone. â€Å"Simon.† Simon looked up, his eyes pleading. â€Å"Give me the book,† Tommy said. â€Å"I think I'm going to order everybody's section tonight. It'll give you guys more time to throw stock and I need to get more familiar with the store anyway.† â€Å"I can do it,† Simon said. â€Å"I know,† Tommy said, taking the book. â€Å"But why waste your talent on this bullshit?† As Tommy walked away, Simon took his first deep breath of the night. â€Å"Flood,† he called, â€Å"I'm buying the beers after shift.† Tommy didn't look back. â€Å"I know,† he said. Jody stood by the window in the dark loft watching the sleeping bum who lay on the sidewalk across the street and cursing under her breath. Go away, you bastard, she thought. Even as she thought it, she felt a measure of security in knowing exactly where her enemy was. As long as he lay on the sidewalk, Tommy was safe at the grocery store. She had never felt the need to protect someone before. She had always been the one looking for protection, for a strong arm to lean on. Now she was the strong arm, at least when the sun was down. She had walked Tommy down the steps and waited with him until the cab arrived to take him to work. As she watched the cab pull away, she thought, This must be how my mother felt when she put me on the school bus that first time – except that Tommy doesn't have a Barbie lunch box. She kept an eye on the vampire lying on the sidewalk across the street. Hours passed at the window and she asked the same questions over and over again, coming up with no solution to her problem, and no logic to the vampire's behavior. What did he want? Why had he killed the old woman and left her in the dumpster? Was he trying to frighten her, threaten her, or was there some kind of message to it all? â€Å"You're not immortal. You can still be killed.† If he was going to kill her, why didn't he just do it? Why pretend to be a sleeping bum, watching her, waiting? He has to find shelter before daylight. If I can just outlast him, maybe†¦ Maybe what? I can't follow him or I'll be caught in the sunlight too. She went to the bedroom and dug the almanac Tommy had given her out of her backpack. The sun would rise at 6:12 A.M. She checked her watch. She had an hour. She waited at the window until six o'clock, then headed out of the loft to confront the vampire. As she went through the door she instinctively reached out to click off the lights, only to realize that she hadn't turned any on. If I live through this, she thought, I'm going to save a fortune on utilities. She left the door at the top of the stairs unlocked, then went down the steps and propped the big fire door open with a soda can she found on the landing. She might have to get back in fast, and she didn't want to be slowed down by keys and locks. Her muscles buzzed as she approached the vampire, the fight-or-flee instinct running through her like liquid lightning. A few feet away she picked up a foul smell, a rotting smell coming from the vampire. She stopped and swallowed hard. â€Å"What exactly is it that you want?† she asked. The vampire didn't move. His face was covered by the high collar of his overcoat. She took another step forward. â€Å"What am I supposed to be doing?† The smell was stronger now. She concentrated on the vampire's hands, trying to sense some movement that would warn her of an attack. There was none. â€Å"Answer me!† she demanded. She stepped up and pulled the collar away from his face. She saw the glazed eyes and a bone jutting from the neck just as a hand clamped across her face and jerked her back off her feet. She tried to reach behind her to claw her attacker's face but he jerked her to the side. She opened her mouth to scream and two of his fingers slipped into her mouth. She bit down hard. There was a scream and she was free. She wheeled on her attacker, ready to fight, his severed fingers still in her mouth. The vampire stood before her, cradling his bloody hand. â€Å"Bitch,† he said. Then he grinned. Jody swallowed his fingers and hissed at him. â€Å"Fuck you, asshole. Come on.† She fell into a crouch and waved him on. The vampire was still grinning. â€Å"The taste of vampire blood has made you brave, fledgling. Don't take it too far.† His hand had stopped spurting blood and was scabbing over as she watched. â€Å"What do you want?† The vampire looked at the sky, which was turning pink, threatening dawn. â€Å"Right now I want to find a place to sleep,† he said too calmly. He ripped the scab from his fingers and slung a spray of blood in her face. â€Å"Until we meet again, my love.† He wheeled and ran across the street into an alley. Jody stood watching and shaking with the need for a fight. She turned and looked at the dead bum: the decoy. She couldn't leave him here to attract police – not this close to the loft. She glanced at the lightening sky, then hoisted the dead bum onto her back and headed back to the loft. Tommy ran up the stairs and burst into the loft eager to share his discovery about Simon's illiteracy, but once through the door, he was knocked back by a stinging rotten odor like bloated roadkill. What's she done now? he thought. He opened the windows to air the place out and went to the bedroom, careful to open the door just wide enough to slip through without spilling sunlight on the bed. The smell was much stronger here and he gagged as he turned on the light. Jody was lying on the bed with the electric blanket pulled up to her neck. Dried blood was crusted over her face. A wiggling wave of the willies ran up Tommy's spine, stronger than any he had felt since his father had first told him the secret of ball-park hot dogs. (â€Å"Snouts and butt holes,† Dad had said, during the seventh-inning stretch. â€Å"I've got the willies,† said Tommy.) There was a note on the pillow by Jody's head. Tommy crept forward and snatched it off the pillow, then backpedaled to the door to read it. Tommy, Sorry I'm such a mess. It's almost dawn and I don't want to get stuck in the shower. I'll explain tonight. Call Sears and have them deliver the largest chest freezer that they have. There's money in my backpack. I missed you last night. Love, Jody Tommy backed out of the room. Chapter 18 Bugeater of the Barbary Coast Tommy woke up on the futon feeling as if he had been through a two-day battle. The loft was dark but for the streetlights spilling through the windows and he could hear Jody running the shower in the other room. The new freezer was humming away in the kitchen. He rolled off the futon and groaned. His muscles creaked like rusty hinges and his head felt as if it were stuffed with cotton – like a low-grade hangover – not from the few beers he had shared with the Animals after work, but from the verbal beating he had taken from the appliance salesman at Sears. The salesman, a round hypertensive named Lloyd, who wore the last extant leisure suit on the planet (powder blue with navy piping), had begun his assault with a five-minute lament on the disappearance of double knits (as if a concerted effort by a Greenpeace team in white vinyl shoes and gold chains might bring double knits back from the brink of extinction), then segued into a half-hour lecture on the tragedies visited on those poor souls who failed to purchase extended warranties on their Kenmore Freezemasters. â€Å"And so,† Lloyd concluded, â€Å"he not only lost his job, his home, and his family, but that frozen food that could have saved the children at the orphanage spoiled, all because he tried to save eighty-seven dollars.† â€Å"I'll take it,† Tommy said. â€Å"I'll take the longest warranty you have.† Lloyd laid a fatherly hand on Tommy's shoulder. â€Å"You won't regret this, son. I'm not one for high pressure myself, but the guys that sell these warranties after delivery are like the Mafia – they'll call you at all hours, they'll hound you, they'll find you wherever you go and they will ruin your life if you don't give in. I once sold a microwave to a man who woke up with a horse's head in his bed.† â€Å"Please,† Tommy begged, â€Å"I'll sign anything, but they have to deliver it right now. Okay?† Lloyd pumped Tommy's hand to start the flow of cash. â€Å"Welcome to better living through frozen food.† Tommy sat up on the futon and looked at the behemoth freezer that was humming in the half-light of the kitchen. Why? he thought. Why did I buy it? Why did she want it? I didn't even ask for an explanation from her, I just blindly followed her instructions. I'm a slave, like Renfield in Dracula. How long before I start eating bugs and howling at night? He got up and walked, in his underwear and one sock, into the bedroom; the smell of decay was strong enough to make him gag. It was the smell that had driven him to sleep on the futon in the living room rather than crawl into bed with Jody. He'd fallen asleep reading Bram Stoker's Dracula to get some perspective on the love of his life. She's the devil, he thought, staring at the steam creeping out from under the bathroom door. â€Å"Jody, is that you?† he asked the steam. The steam just crept. â€Å"I'm in the shower,† Jody said from the shower. â€Å"Come on in.† Tommy went to the bathroom and opened the door. â€Å"Jody, we need to talk.† The bathroom was thick with steam – he could barely make out the shower doors. â€Å"Close the door; it smells in there.† Tommy moved closer to the shower. â€Å"I'm worried about the way things are going,† he said. â€Å"Did you get the freezer?† â€Å"Yes, that's part of what I wanted to talk to you about.† â€Å"You got the biggest one they had, right?† â€Å"Yes, and a ten-year extended-service agreement.† â€Å"And it's a chest model, not an upright?† â€Å"Yes, dammit, but Jody, you didn't even tell me why I was buying it and I just did it. Since I met you, it's like I have no will of my own. I've been sleeping all day. I'm not doing any writing. I hardly even see daylight anymore.† â€Å"Tommy, you work midnight to eight. When do you think you would sleep?† â€Å"Don't twist my words. I will not eat bugs for you.† She's the devil, he thought. â€Å"Will you do my back?† She slid the shower door open and Tommy was transfixed by the water cascading between her breasts. â€Å"Well?† she said, cocking a hip. Tommy slipped out of his briefs, pulled off his sock, and stepped into the shower. â€Å"Okay, but I'm not eating any bugs.† After a mad naked dash through the bedroom they sat on the futon toweling off and looking at the new freezer. â€Å"It certainly is large,† Jody said. â€Å"I bought a dozen TV dinners so it wouldn't look so empty.† Jody said, â€Å"You'll have to take them out; put them in the regular fridge.† â€Å"Why? I don't think they'll fit.† â€Å"I know, but I have something to put in there and I don't think you'll want your TV dinners in there with it.† â€Å"What?† â€Å"Well, you know that bad smell in the bedroom?† â€Å"I was going to mention that. What is it?† â€Å"It's a body.† â€Å"You killed someone?† Tommy slid away from her on the futon. â€Å"No, I didn't kill anyone. Let me explain.† She told him about the bum, about creeping up on him thinking he was the vampire, and of the battle that ensued. Tommy said, â€Å"Do you think he was trying to kill you?† â€Å"I don't think so. It's as if he wants to show me how superior he is or something. Like he's testing me.† â€Å"So you bit off his fingers?† â€Å"I didn't know what else to do.† â€Å"What was it like?† â€Å"Honestly?† â€Å"Of course?† â€Å"It was a rush. It was an incredible rush.† â€Å"Better than drinking my blood?† â€Å"Different.† Tommy turned his back on her and began to pout. Jody moved to him and kissed his ear. â€Å"It was a fight, Tommy. I didn't come or anything, but I swear, I felt stronger after I†¦ after I swallowed.† â€Å"So that's why you were all crusty with blood when I got home?† â€Å"Yes, it was almost dawn when I got the body upstairs.† â€Å"That's another thing,† Tommy said. â€Å"Why did you bring that stinky thing up here?† â€Å"The police already found one body at the motel, and they have my name. Now they find another that was killed in the same way right next to where we live. I don't think they'd understand.† â€Å"So we're going to keep it in the freezer?† â€Å"Just until I figure out what to do with him.† â€Å"I'm not comfortable with you calling it ‘him. ; â€Å"Just until I figure out what to do with it, then.† â€Å"There's a big bay out there.† â€Å"And how would you suggest that we get it down there without being seen?† â€Å"I'll think about it.† Jody stood, wrapped a towel around herself, and walked back to the bedroom. â€Å"I'm going to put it in now; you might want to transfer your TV dinners.† She paused at the door. â€Å"And I'm out of clean clothes. You're going to need to go to the Laundromat.† â€Å"Why don't you go?† Jody regarded him gravely. â€Å"Tommy, you know I can't go out during the day.† â€Å"Oh no,† Tommy said. â€Å"Don't pull that. I don't know of a single Laundromat that's not open all night. Besides, I can't be your slave full-time. I have to have some time to get some writing done. And I might be taking on a student.† â€Å"What kind of student?† â€Å"A guy at work – Simon – he can't read. I'm going to offer to teach him.† â€Å"That's sweet of you,† Jody said. She shook her hair out, let her towel fall to the floor, and struck a centerfold pose. â€Å"Are you sure you don't want to do the laundry?† â€Å"No way. You have no power over me.† â€Å"Are you sure?† She licked her lips sensually. â€Å"That's not what you said in the shower.† I will resist her evil, Tommy thought. I will not give in. He stood and started gathering his clothes. â€Å"Don't you have a body to move?† â€Å"All right then,† Jody snapped. â€Å"I'll do the laundry while you're at work tonight.† She turned and went into the bedroom. â€Å"Good. I'll be out here looking for some tasty bugs,† Tommy whispered to himself. Midnight found Jody trudging down the steps with a trash bag full of laundry slung across her back. As she stepped onto the sidewalk and turned to lock the door she realized that she hadn't the slightest idea where to find a Laundromat in this neighborhood. The rolling steel door to the foundry was open and the two burly sculptors were working inside, bracing a man-sized plaster mold for pouring. She considered asking them for directions, but thought it might be better to wait and meet them when she was with Tommy. The interior of the foundry was glowing red with the heat from the molten bronze in the crucible, making it appear to her heat-sensitive vision like hell's own studio. She stood for a moment watching waves of heat spill out the top of the door, to swirl and dissipate in the night sky like dying paisley ghosts. She wanted to turn to someone and share the experience, but of course there was no one, and if there had been, they wouldn't have been able to see what she saw. She thought, In the kingdom of the blind, a one-eyed man can get pretty lonely. She sighed heavily and was starting toward Market Street when she heard a sharp staccato tapping of toenails at her heels. She dropped the laundry and wheeled around. A Boston terrier growled and snorted at her, then backed away a few feet and fell into a yapping fit that bordered on canine apoplexy, his bug eyes threatening to pop out of his head. â€Å"Bummer, stop that!† came a shout from the corner. Jody looked up to see a grizzled old man in an overcoat coming toward her wearing a saucepan on his head and carrying a wickedly pointed wooden sword. A golden retriever trotted along beside him, a smaller saucepan strapped to his head and two garbage-can lids strapped to his sides, giving the impression of a compact furry Viking ship. â€Å"Bummer, come back here.† The little dog backed away a few more steps, then turned and ran back to the man. Jody noticed that the little dog had a miniature pie pan strapped over his ears with a rubber band. The old man picked up the terrier in his free hand and trotted up to Jody. â€Å"I'm very sorry,† he said. â€Å"The troops are girded for battle, but I fear they are a bit too eager to engage. Are you all right?† Jody smiled. â€Å"I'm fine. Just a little startled.† The old man bowed. â€Å"Allow me to introduce myself†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"You're the Emperor, aren't you?† Jody had been in the City for five years. She'd heard about the Emperor, but she'd only seen him from a distance. â€Å"At your service,† said the Emperor. The terrier growled suspiciously and the Emperor shoved the little dog, head first, into the oversized pocket of his overcoat, then buttoned the flap. Muffled growls emanated from the pocket. â€Å"I apologize for my charge. He's long on courage, but rather short on manners. This is Lazarus.† Jody nodded to the retriever, who let out a slight growl and backed away a step. The garbage-can lids rattled on the sidewalk. â€Å"Hi. I'm Jody. Pleased to meet you.† â€Å"I hope you will forgive my presumption,† the Emperor said, â€Å"but I don't think it's safe for a young woman to be out on the street at night. Particularly in this neighborhood.† â€Å"Why this neighborhood?† The Emperor moved closer and whispered. â€Å"I'm sure that you've noticed that the men and I are dressed for battle. We are hunting a vicious, murdering fiend that has been stalking the City. I don't mean to alarm you, but we last saw him on this very street. In fact, he killed a friend of mine right across the street not two nights ago.† â€Å"You saw him?† Jody asked. â€Å"Did you call the police?† â€Å"The police will be of no help,† the Emperor said. â€Å"This is not the run-of-the-mill scoundrel that we are used to in the City. He's a vampire.† The Emperor lifted his wooden sword and tested the point against the tip of his finger. Jody was shaken. She tried to calm herself, but the fear showed on her face. â€Å"I've frightened you,† the Emperor said. â€Å"No – no, I'm fine. It's just†¦ Your Majesty, there are no such things as vampires.† â€Å"As you wish,† the Emperor said. â€Å"But I think it would be prudent for you to wait until daylight to do your business.† â€Å"I need to do my laundry or I won't have any clean clothes for tomorrow.† â€Å"Then allow us to escort you.† â€Å"No, really, Your Majesty, I'll be fine. By the way, where is the nearest Laundromat?† â€Å"There is one not far from here, but it's in the Tenderloin. Even during the day you wouldn't be safe alone. I really must insist that you wait, my dear. Perhaps by then we will have exterminated the fiend.† â€Å"Well,† Jody said, â€Å"if you insist. This is my apartment, right here.† She dug the key out of her jeans and opened the door. She turned back to the Emperor. â€Å"Thank you.† â€Å"Safety first,† the Emperor said. â€Å"Sleep well.† The little dog growled in his pocket. Jody went inside and closed the door, then waited until she heard the Emperor walk away. She waited another five minutes and went back onto the street. She shouldered the laundry and headed toward the Tenderloin, thinking, This is great. How long before the police actually listen to the Emperor? Tommy and I are going to have to move and we haven't even decorated yet. And I hate doing laundry. I hate it. I'm sending our laundry out if Tommy won't do it. And we're going to have a cleaning lady – some nice, dependable woman who will come in after dark. And I'm not buying toilet paper. I don't use it and I'm not going to buy it. And something has to be done about this asshole vampire. God, I hate doing laundry. She had gone two blocks when a man stepped out of a doorway in front of her. â€Å"Hey momma, you need some help.† She jumped in his face and shouted, â€Å"Fuck off, horndog!† with such viciousness that he screamed and leaped back into the doorway, then meekly called  «Sorry » after her as she passed. She thought, I'm not sorting. It all goes in warm. I don't care if the whites do go gray; I'm not sorting. And how do I know how to get out bloodstains? Who am I? Miss Household Hints? God, I hate laundry. The clothes jumped and played and dived over each other like fabric dolphins. Jody sat on a folding table across from the dryer watching the show and thinking about the Emperor's warning. He'd said, â€Å"I don't think it's safe for a young woman to be out on the street at night.† Jody agreed. Not long ago she would have been terrified if she'd found herself in the Tenderloin at night. She couldn't even remember coming down here during the day. Where had that fear gone? What had happened to her that she could face off with a vampire, bite off his fingers, and carry a dead body up a flight of stairs and shove it under the bed without even a flinch? Where was the fear and loathing? She didn't miss it, she just wondered what had happened to it. It wasn't as if she were without fear. She was afraid of daylight, afraid of the police discovering her, and of Tommy rejecting her and leaving her alone. New fears and familiar fears, but there was nothing in the dark that frightened her, not the future, not even the old vampire – and she knew now, having tasted his blood, that he was old, very old. She saw him as an enemy, and her mind casted for strategies to defeat him, but she was not really afraid of him anymore: curious, but not afraid. The dryer stopped-fabric dolphins dropped and died as if caught in tuna nets. Jody jumped off the table, opened the dryer, and was feeling the clothes for dampness when she heard footsteps on the sidewalk outside the Laundromat. She turned to see the tall black man she had chased into the doorway coming into the Laundromat, followed by two shorter men. All three wore silver L.A. Raiders jackets, high-top shoes, and evil grins. Jody turned back to the dryer and started stuffing her clothes into the trash bag. She thought, I should be folding these. â€Å"Yo, bitch,† the tall man said. Jody looked to the back of the Laundromat. The only door was in the front, behind the three men. She turned and looked up at them. â€Å"How about those Raiders?† she said with a smile. She felt a pressure in the roof of her mouth: the fangs extending. The three men split up and moved around the folding table to surround her. In another life, this had been her worst nightmare. In this life she just smiled as two of them grabbed her arms from behind. She saw a bead of sweat on the tall man's temple as he approached her and reached out to tear the front of her shirt. She ripped her right arm loose and caught the tall man's wrist as the sweat bead began to drip. She snapped his forearm and bones splintered though skin and muscle as she swung him, headfirst, through the glass door of the dryer. She reached over her shoulder and grabbed one of the Raider fans by the hair and smashed his face into the floor, then wheeled on her last attacker and shoved him back into the edge of the folding table, snapping his spine just above the hips and sending him spinning backward over a deck of washing machines. The bead of sweat hit the floor near the man with the smashed face. Amid the hum of fluorescent lights and the moans of the man with the broken back, Jody loaded the rest of her laundry into the trash bag. She thought, This stuff is going to be nothing but wrinkles by the time I get home. Tommy's doing the laundry next time. As she reached the door she ran her tongue over her teeth and was relieved to find her fangs had retracted. She looked over her shoulder at the carnage and shouted, â€Å"Forty-fucking-Niners!† The man with the broken back moaned.