Can We Talk Essay

Divorce in the United States is very common and excepted. With powerful words like till â€Å"death do us part†, and â€Å"Adultery† being said. Communication is a must to make the marriage work with affective affirmation and self-disclosure making the words can we talk mean more now than ever before. I can relate to the article â€Å"Can We Talk† in my current new marriage for the first 1 year we never argued or had a fight. Most fights were petty and now found out to be lack of affective affirmation meaning behavior that makes your partner feel loved, cared for or special (Schoenberg, N., 2011). Self-Disclosure The act of verbally or nonverbally revealing information about yourself to other people(Sole K.,2011) In my personal relationship has gone both ways for the positive when making her feel she knows that she can trust you as well as getting to know you more and everything about you must want to know. Then the negative side when revealing to much information and then scaring them away like when you make her feel like she is married on the first date or smothering her. I would say Self-Disclosure should be used regularly after the first date and somewhat on the first date to get to know each other. The similarities I have found in my gender communication is that most men and woman complain about similar problems they are having with their gender like most men may say she talks to much or is too affectionate or not affectionate enough. Then most females would say us men are not affectionate, don’t talk, lack of emotions and so on. The times when gender based situations accrue when a man expects the female to make dinner, clean the house, make their lunch and for the men take out the trash, mow the lawn, rake the leaves. All gender specific related similarities that usually result into a situation but not always. I do feel my marriage fits into the gender specific similarities with my wife doing the laundry, dinner, making lunch, etc. I fix what she breaks and paint, maintenance, fix car problems, celling fans, bought and installed the T.V., Laptop all electronics etc. The generalizations regarding gender has caused conflicted but with better communication and me helping out more solved the problem for now. REFERENCES Schoenberg, N. (2011, January 17). Can we talk? Researcher talks about the role of communication in happy marriages, McClatchy-Tribune News Service, ProQuest Newsstand, Document ID: 2240370261, Retrieved from: http://search.proquest.com.proxy-library.ashford.edu/docview/840600645/fulltext/13BC619D20D31078D66/1?accountid=32521 Sole K., (2011) Making Connections, Bridgepoint Education, Inc., ch.7.7, retrieved from: https://content.ashford.edu/books/AUCOM200.11.1/sections/sec7.7

Good and Bad Stress

As is the case with most people, a stigma is carried with the perception that asking for help is a sign of weakness. So much so is this fact that people have taken their own lives, before doing so. This is a universal problem that, to date has no solution. The prevalence of this problem is so severe education has been enforced almost to a mandatory level. Organizations have made suicide prevention training as such a part of the Job now that it almost seems routine.As with soldiers that are expected to operate in high stress environments, so are officers and the risk of the pressure becoming too much is always there. An Organization known as SAVE (Suicide Awareness Voices of Education) has dedicated its mission to prevention and education, as we now know that one of the biggest defenses we have to this horrible problem is an educational offense. Knowledge is power. We need stress. Our bodies endure stress everyday and a certain amount of stress is healthy.It is once we endure more tha n we can perceptively handle that the risk of suicide becomes prevalent. Most individuals in high stress professions excel under certain stressful situations, yet another reason that it takes a certain type of person to be able to handle the demands of police work, but every person is different and their body reaction to stress may be more severe. It is here that we see a stigma arise, in that an individual sees a counterpart that handles certain situations differently and perceptively better than they themselves creating a feeling of inadequacy.It is because of perception that so many lives are lost due to this not so silent killer. Page 3 of 4 No singular definition can be used to pinpoint a definition for stress, but we are certain that â€Å"good† stress is known to be helpful. It's the bad stuff that we have to look out for. In the past, law enforcement suicides often were ruled accidental deaths, and they are still underreported, Dandies says. â€Å"Most of us agree th at the statistics are probably much higher than we actually know, because of the shame factor. † (http://Saturday's. Saturdays. Com)If those in need of help would look past the stigma of weakness associated with getting help would we see a decrease in these senseless losses? Of course! â€Å"†These folks are taught to suppress their emotions and soldier forward,† says Elizabeth Dandies, a psychologist who works with California police agencies in the aftermath of suicides. â€Å"It's very difficult for them to admit they need help. † And I agree. I myself served five years as an Army PM and had to sit through countless hours of Suicide Prevention Training and memorizing a mantra using an acronym ACE.Ask your buddy Care for your buddy Escort you buddy Did I encounter individuals that could've benefited from counseling and refused to go?

Informative Analysis Essay

The purpose of an informative briefing is to enhance the audience’s knowledge about a specific topic in which the speaker is an expert. The goal of the presenter is to present clear-cut information in an interesting yet enlightening manner. The purpose of my speech was to enhance the audience’s awareness of what marijuana is, as well as to dispel many myths that exist around it that emanate from the fact that it is an illegal substance, causing often untrue information to be spread. The ultimate goal of my presentation was to leave the audience with a better understanding of what the plant actually is and how it may be of use to society. Introducing a topic during a presentation is one of, if not the, most difficult part of any speech. If the speaker does not draw the audience’s attention immediately, then they are, in effect, lost for the duration of the speech. I believe that my introduction was relatively effective because it introduced my topic in a way that most members of the class can most likely relate to. By asking the audience if they recognized the rolling paper, they were forced to focus on me as well as my question, which then introduced a relatively controversial topic. In doing so, I should have captured the attention of the audience. In reviewing my performance, however, it was clearly evident how nervous I was which hindered the eloquence of the introduction, making it less effective than I had planned and ultimately hoped for; it was, nonetheless, still effective in capturing the audience. As with any other presentation, the body of the speech followed the introduction. The body was organized in a manner that would logically suit the presentation. First, there was a brief description of what marijuana really is, which was actually quite important based on the purpose of the speech. Marijuana is most often referred to by one of the multitudes of street names that it has acquired and the purpose of the speech was to enhance the knowledge of the audience by presenting facts, not street information. Following the description was a point counter-point narrative of many of the myths surrounding marijuana usage and the truth behind those  myths. Next, I spoke about many of the federal studies that have occurred whose findings differ greatly with much of the propagandized information that is presented to the general population. The third major topic area that I covered was the potential that marijuana has for the business and financial world, as well as the repercussions tha t would ensue if marijuana was actually made into a legal plant and turned into an industry. Each of the major points was supported by numerous documented facts. In defining what marijuana is, I used the Common Sense for Drug Policy Foundations definition as well as other information that the site provided that enhanced the understanding of the defining characteristics of marijuana. After this, I spoke about the many studies that have occurred, such as the Schaffer Study conducted under the Nixon Administration, which I obtained information about from a book authored by Raymond Schaffer, the man who lead the study (the book was titled A Signal of Misunderstanding). I found that many of the other studies provided statistics that further enhanced the information provided in my speech because it described the ineffective nature of current policing policies as well as introduced the final portion of my presentation, which was the business aspects involved in the marijuana debate. The information provided by the national commission on marijuana and drug abuse was valuable in supporting my statement that there are business repercussions that could emanate from the use of marijuana. First, I stated how many users there are in the United States, followed by the extent of the crimes committed. Then, using information from an Associated press article entitled UN Estimates Drug Business Equal To 8% of World Trade, I described how the business world would most likely benefit from the legal use of marijuana. The basis of any conclusion is to tie up the presentation and basically re-cap what was presented. My conclusion was not as effective as I had hoped. My goal was to create a clincher, a final thought provoking, or at least interesting, point that would regain the audiences attention if it had been lost during the presentation. In attempting to do so, I was not  effective in summarizing the major points, nor was the clincher too effective. It seemed as if I was struggling to come up with an adequate clincher, which could have been avoided with more practice of the conclusion. Because I did not have a speech prepared, my eye contact was relatively effective in viewing the audience. Realistically, I should have looked up at the audience more, and for more sustained periods of time, but the lack of a composed speech forced me to look at the audience throughout the presentation. My vocal variation during the speech was sub-par. It was clearly evident that I was nervous throughout the speech and the voice was a reflection of my anxiety. In practicing the speech, I had used various intonations to emphasize certain points, but during my presentation I was, for the most part, speaking in a monotone. There were points where I did alter my vocal tone, but it was not frequent or effective enough. The speed and enunciation of the speech were adequate, but the volume of my voice and the general variation of tone in general could have been improved upon. Because I did not have any physical examples and no podium was set up, body movement was not necessarily appropriate. If we had been encouraged to walk around the front of the room or if there was a large physical example, then movement would have been appropriate. However, under the given circumstances and time restrictions, body movement was, personally, minimal because it was not overly necessary in the presentation of the information. As many of the other class members discovered, it was difficult to involve the class in the discussion. Few, if any, members of the class actively participated in any presentation, even if solely by asking questions. I believe that most of the class members have been confronted with my topic at some point or another during their lives, so even at an unspoken level most of my classmates must have at least related to the presentation. Again, my class is not overly participatory in any nature, so it is difficult to rate the amount of audience participation because, in general, the class does not participate unless there isn’t an alternative. Informative speeches are an effective method of enhancing an audiences knowledge of a given topic. They are purposeful and necessary, especially in  the upbeat modern world that requires quick and effective transference of information from one individual to another. Through the use of these speeches, a large amount of information can be provided to a room full of individuals in a relatively short amount of time. The information provided can then be used or applied immediately following the presentation. The goal of my informative speech was to enhance the audience’s knowledge about what marijuana really is, and how it can be used today to augment the way of life of our growing economy.

Rhetorical Analyses Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Rhetorical Analyses - Essay Example To provide a balanced discourse, Featherstone eventually evaluated magazines such as Blue Jean, Teen Voices, Hues and Reluctant Hero that were certified to provide more substantial contents. The rhetorical analysis hereby aims to evaluate Featherstone’s effectiveness in evaluating the magazines using appeals to ethos, logos, and pathos. The author’s arguments clearly indicated her preferences for the teen girls’ reading materials through provision of examples and citing relevant support from identified slogans, celebrities, and choice of feature articles that were believed to evoke the readers’ emotional response. For example, Featherstone’s assessment of Teen People’s strategies of using celebrities such as Jennifer Love Hewitt by focusing on the actress’ clothes and love life, instead of providing positive information, aim to make readers realize the lack of credible and substantial content that could improve knowledge of girls on mo re crucial matters. Her choices of vocabularies, though, swerve from easy to read to confusing and almost defying logical order – which is contrary to using appeals to pathos.

Wizard of Oz Better as Book or Film Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Wizard of Oz Better as Book or Film - Term Paper Example However, this seeming recent trend actually has a long history. Examples of this exist as far back as the beginning of the film industry with Hollywood’s early interpretation of Tennyson’s poem â€Å"Enoch Arden† in 1911. Unfortunately, film representations such as this struggle desperately to provide an accurate recreation of text originally presented in novel form. The many fans of the Harry Potter series are fully aware that film, while interesting and entertaining in its ability to bring out certain elements of the story that might have been missed in the reading, can never duplicate the full depth and artistry of the novel. Yet translating book to film is not always fully detractive. Sometimes, film can add artistic elements that may or may not help to inform the meanings intended within the book. Because more recent films are able to dazzle with amazing special effects and digital imagery, it is better to compare a film of the past which was more limited to simply telling the story. To illustrate the differences between film and novel, then, it is helpful to compare something like Victor Fleming's 1939 filmic rendition of Frank L. Baum's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz both in terms of medium and zeitgeist of the age in which each were made. Numerous differences exist between the film and the novel, many of which can be said to be minor but which also tend to generalize significant details of the book. Clearly, the film is limited in its ability to tell the story because of time constraints. While the novel could be as long as it needed to be to properly tell the story, the film is limited to two or three hours at most before it starts losing the interest of the audience. It is for this reason that the more specific details of the book are lost within the film. However, the film adds additional components such as sound in the form of music and voice. This creates a stronger emotional draw than just reading the words. Throughout the f ilm, the actors are also able to provide a greater sense of personality as they carry thoughts and emotions through facial expressions and actions rather than simply in narration. Some changes were made purely as part of the zeitgeist and change of medium, such as changing the silver slippers from the book to ruby red slippers for the film. This change was made to take advantage of the new color film technology that was then being introduced in Hollywood and used as a distinguishing feature between Kansas and Oz. Changes in wording, such as transitioning from the Tin Woodsman found in the novel to Tinman in the film are reflective of the changes in language that took place between 1900 England and 1937 America. However, even such a small change causes the story to lose some of the artistic wordplay present in the book. While these are all small changes, larger changes are also present. In both presentations, book and novel, the story begins in a gray and drab Kansas, but this depict ion is quite different between the two mediums, again reflecting changing zeitgeist. In the book, Dorothy and her family are quite isolated to the point that Dorothy can "see nothing but the great gray prairie on every side. Not a tree nor a house broke the broad sweep of flat country that reached to the edge of the sky in all directions† (1-2). In the film, Dorothy is not quite as isolated as she is first seen making her way home from school along a dirt road on which she is able to interact with several other members of her community. Dorothy's house has also been changed from the simple "four walls, a floor and a roof" described in the book to a comfortable frame house in the film in which Dorothy has her own room indicating the family exists in a comfortable middle class

News talk critique Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

News talk critique - Coursework Example The two presentations depicted varying characteristics. The first one, presented in class, received dismal responses from the audience. In particular, the class showed a lack of interest in the topic and consistently failed in answering questions posed after the presentation. Their response indicated that I lacked confidence, eloquence and clarity. The information was not well understood. The second presentation received a small audience of two at the Centre for Business Communication. In this presentation, I was more confident, composed and articulate. The audience’s response was positive with questions being answered. Despite feeling nervous, the audience took no note of fear. In the next year, I hope to improve my presentation skills. The particular areas of focus are essential in public presentation. The first is confidence boosting which will allow me to have composure during presentations. Eloquence will facilitate the dissemination of information in a clear and precise manner. Moreover, I will seek to present in front of several individuals to reduce my stage fright. Developing good memory skills will boost the quality of my presentations as the bulk of information will be remembered. Lastly, I will endeavour to develop a controlled voice without shaky notes. This plan will culminate into improved presentation

Attitude Towards Credit Card And Financial Awareness Dissertation

Attitude Towards Credit Card And Financial Awareness - Dissertation Example ................................ 4.3 Attitude...................................................................................................................... 5.1 Discussion of findings............................................................................................... 6.1 Conclusions and recommendations......................................................................... REFERENCES APPENDICES EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Research has indicated that there are three potential influences that will impact the credit card behavioural patterns of Chinese university students: financial awareness, attitude and social demographics. Chinese society is borne of long-standing cultural values related to the Confucian era, in which hedonistic self-gratification is present, where collectivist values are nurtured and respected, and where social in-group affiliation and reputation protection are considered important constructs of the Chinese lifestyle. Hence, there is ample evidence using t he theory of conspicuous consumption that Chinese university students might be adopting or increasing their frequency of credit card utilisation to gain important social opinion. Because the market is not in a stage of growth, but has become stagnated, business leaders need to know how to best target consumer segments and gain more profitability opportunities. The findings from the study provided a foundation for recommendations on how to improve business strategy develop for more effective strategic plans to gain university student interest and engagement with credit cards. Further implications from the study include how to build more effective marketing by credit card providers and how to potentially enhance education at the university to provide more financial responsibility and... By focusing on what actually drives existing sentiment about credit cards and the specific socio-psychological factors impact behaviors, utilizing qualitative research methodology, it will give a more concrete lesson about what factors influence and motivate credit card adoption and utilization patterns. This research project fulfilled all of its objectives, identifying the potential relevance of financial awareness, attitude and social demographics on the credit card behavior of university students. Though not all assertions and contentions provided in the literature review were supported, there were many factors related to university student credit card behaviors that create opportunities for new business model development that can better improve the competitive and revenue positions of credit card companies and banking institutions that offer credit card services.This project provided a new series of understandings about the relevance of social demographics, the tangible irrelevan ce of financial awareness and the strong relevance of attitude that could serve as a standard for marketing research practice and credit card policy development that could be better geared for exploiting market opportunities with male and female university students. Businesses that offer credit services should be aware of the identified predictors of certain credit card behaviors in the university student market segment in China in order to provide more relevant offerings and insulate the business from potential risks.

Thermal Energy Storage Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Thermal Energy Storage - Essay Example Appreciation for the advantages and benefits of the thermal energy systems has encouraged many people to use the technology to cut power costs and lessen the negative impact of non-renewable sources of energy on the environment. The low-cost and readily available materials that can serve as thermal energy storage media also inspired people more to develop and install it. Nevertheless, much has yet to be done in educating people, especially heavy consumers of electrical power, about the science and technology behind thermal energy storage. With this and their knowledge about its advantages, the optimization of the use of thermal energy through its effective storage will further persuade them to shift to renewable energy as the alternative to the diminishing and environmentally harmful energy sources, such as petroleum. Thermal energy, thermal energy storage, renewable sources of energy, solar energy, fossil fuels, law of thermodynamics, heaters, solar heating, kinetic energy, internal energy, thermal storage, thermal mass, storage media For a great number of years, mankind has been largely dependent on fossil fuels and other non-renewable sources of energy to power basic utilities. Since the 1800’s, the industries and the economies, in general, of many countries have been run by relying on petroleum. Consequently, the demand for this particular fossil fuel had increased tremendously in the following decades. Even by the latter years of the 20th century, however, problems have arisen due to the heavy reliance on petroleum. Although there were other means of producing energy introduced, these were very minimal compared to those powered by oil. Today, several countries have used nuclear power, coal-powered energy generation, and other non-renewable sources of energy such gas power as alternatives to petroleum. There are also countries that have developed renewable sources such as hydroelectric, geothermal, solar, and wind energies. However, these

Trouble in Williams Companies Inc Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Trouble in Williams Companies Inc - Essay Example The collapse of Enron in the late 2000 and in the early 2001 was a problem to Williams. This led to uncertainty in the future of energy trading as participants assessed their exposure to Enron. As a result, it competitors like El Paso Corp. announced its intention to curtail investment in energy and concentrate in natural gas. Another rival Reliant resource also decided to scale down its energy trading. The businesses then become very difficult making Williams to record a loss, its first loss in a period of three years. The news about all the problems facing Enron Corporations broadband unit as well as Global Crossing highly exposed substantial weaknesses in the telecom industry and this made Williams Communication Group to be unable to meet its covenants which then led to breach of its lending agreements with its creditors making William Companies financially distressed. Proposed $900 million funding agreement As way to save its situation, Williams Companies Inc proposed a $900 million agreement with Lehman-Berkshire Hathaway which would fund the company and the agreement would be backed by the assets of Barrett Resources Corporation, a company which the Williams had acquired in 2001. The conditions provided for in this agreement were too strict and too onerous for Williams considering the fact that the company was going through tough financial times. The terms required Lehman Brothers would each advance Williams $ 450 million for a period of one year. The terms also required Williams to make a number of payments which included interest rate of 5.8% payable in quarterly basis, the principal amount in one year and an additional payment of 14% of the principal to be paid in cash upon maturity. The proposition would be very helpful to Williams as it would restore liquidity in the company and also increase cash flow but the problem was how to finance it given the financial hard times faced by the company. The loan from Lehman Brother will be guaranteed by William Companies and all of its subsidiaries indicating that the company may lose everything if it is deemed unable to pay for the loan. As a result, the Williams felt a sense of fear that if all does not work out well, they might end up being bankrupt hence losing the company and its subsidiaries to Lehman-Berkshire Hathaway. From the perception of Lehman Hathaway, the proposition would be a good deal for Williams as it will help the company to restore liquidity. According to Lehman Brothers, the terms may not be of much importance for as long as the situation is well taken care of. The purpose of each item in the proposition The purpose of each of the terms of the Proposed Short term credit agreement was to ensure that Williams eventually paid for the loan acquired. Considering the fact that Williams was almost bankrupt, there was the need for Lehman Berkshire Hathaway to restrict Williams in so many ways to ensure t hat the company tried as much as possible to gain from the loan in order to repay the loan without having to sell its assets. The main purpose of having William Companies guaranteed by the company and i

How Lack of Sleep Effects Young Adults Essay Example for Free

How Lack of Sleep Effects Young Adults Essay Many people feel that sleep is a part of our lives that can be given up on to meet the burdens of a busy schedule. However, lack of sleep increases the risk of accidents, irritability and symptoms of depression as well as impairing memory and cognitive function. When a young adult is growing up they are faced with the commitments of an adult but the carefree attitude of a child. Because most teens feel this way it is hard for them to balance out an academic plan, social life and a working position. With the demands of growing up at a quite young age it is hard to get the sleep that is needed to help your brain fully develop into an adult brain. Teenagers’ sleep more because; their minds and bodies are going through so many changes into forming into an adult. Not only does puberty affect the bodies but it also affects the brain in an enormous way. Todd Maddox, a psychology professor at the Institute for Neuroscience at the University of Texas in Austin, attempts to comprehend what precisely is going wrong in the impaired brain during a sleep deprived teenager, â€Å"The brain regions that are impaired when you are sleep deprived are the same ones that are impaired with normal aging or as a result of diseases like Parkinsons and Alzheimers. (Forbes 2011) The temporal lobe which is a brain region involved in language processing, was stimulated during verbal learning in relaxed subjects but not in sleep-deprived subjects. The parietal lobe, not activated in rested subjects during the verbal exercise, was more active when the subjects were deprived of sleep. Although memory performance was less efficient with sleep deprivation, greater activity in the parietal region was associated with better short term memory. (Wikipedia 2011) Fewer than nine hours of sleep every single night puts young adults at risk for developmental and emotional complications. Sleep deprivation may be the reason for behavioral issues calamities and even psychopathology, reports The American Psychological Association. Sleep helps brain chemistry grow larger, which improves mood and social communication. Nine to ten hours of continuous sleep helps the growing brain adjust to the chemical effects of: developmental and emotional growth, life changes, and peer and social difficulties. Healthy sleeping patterns balance hormonal alterations in the endocrine system. The extra sleep also decreases the amounts frustration levels that are often the cause of behavioral problems. Sleep deprivation can harmfully affect the brain and cognitive function. A 2000 study, by the UCSD School of Medicine and the Veterans Affairs Healthcare System in San Diego, used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technology to monitor activity in the brains of sleep-deprived subjects performing simple verbal learning tasks. The study showed that regions of the brains prefrontal cortex displayed more activity in sleepier subjects. Depending on the task at hand, the brain would sometimes attempt to compensate for the adverse effects caused by sleep deprivation. (Daily Science 2009) This normal developmental reaction is impaired by lack of sleep. Every day teenagers are watching and learning how to adapt to behaviors in their world and the adult world. With all of these impressions, opportunities for mistakes, and pressure to make mature choices; lack of sleep creates failure. Teenagers reach their peak of tiredness is during the early morning hours and right after lunch. Both of these times many students have been reported to have been groggy or sleeping in class, when they are tired they are commonly unmotivated during class time and there is little if any concentration on the subject at hand. And as the obvious connection to a poor attention in school would be weak grades and test scores. In August 2001, researchers at the University of Minnesota reported the results of a study of more than 7,000 high-school students whose school district had switched in 1997 from a 7:15 a. m. start time to an 8:40 a. m. start time. Related with students whose schools kept earlier start times, students with later starts reported: getting more sleep on school nights, being less sleepy during the day, getting slightly higher grades and experiencing fewer depressive feelings and behaviors. Because the adolescent minds are not fully refreshed to start a new day it is showing on their grade performance. A study in 1998 done by psychologists Amy R. Wolfson, PhD, of the College of the Holy Cross, and Mary A. Carskadon, PhD, of Brown University Medical School, surveyed over 3,000 high school students and noticed that the students who were receiving lower grades in school were getting on average 25 minutes less sleep than the students who were getting higher grades in their classes. Adolescents sleep less than they did as children, decreasing from an average of 10 hours a night during middle childhood to fewer than 7. 5 hours by age of 16. According to Wolfson and Carskadons 1998 study; 26 percent of high school students routinely sleep less than 6. 5 hours on school nights, and only 15 percent sleep 8. 5 hours or more. The same study showed that to make up for lost sleep, most teenagers’ sleep an extra couple of hours on weekend mornings, a habit that can lead to poor quality sleep and sleep disorders. Theres a real need for longitudinal studies to follow through later childhood and adulthood, says psychologist Avi Sadeh, PhD, a sleep researcher at Tel Aviv University. Although research has sufficiently established that sleep problems affect young peoples cognitive skills, behavior and temperament in the short term, he says, Its not at all clear to what extent these effects are long-lasting. (Science Daily 2011) Daily stress has a great effect on wreaking the immune system; however, making time to sleep can correct the hormonal imbalances caused by everyday stress. For teenagers, stress is inevitable, but without providing the brain with time to sleep on it, the long-term effects of stress can take their toll on adolescents. Truancy, increased sick days, moodiness and risk-taking behavior can be signs that the maturing teenager is not renewing their brains with sufficient sleep. Lack of enthusiasm and depression can arise from long-term sleep deprivation, which in teenage years can occur with only several weeks of poor sleeping patterns. (eHow 2011) With finals coming up quickly I have noticed that in myself I have been staying up later then I usually do just to â€Å"cram† an extra hour or two in studding for these tests and quizzes that are coming up I have felt the anxiety that lurking behind this week of dread. This might not be the best thing for me to do because sleep needs to happen in order to create memories; you need sleep to keep them inside your brain and thoughts. (Schacter, Gilbert Wegner 2011) Sleep deprivation may be linked to serious diseases, such as heart disease and mental illnesses including psychosis and bipolar disorder. The connection between sleep deprivation and psychosis was further documented in 2007 through a study at Harvard Medical School and the University of California at Berkeley. The study revealed, using MRI scans, that sleep deprivation causes the brain to become incapable of putting an emotional event into the proper perspective and incapable of making a controlled, suitable response to the event. Without sleep our brains don’t function as well as they should and would be if you had the time that you really need for your body to be fully rejuvenated and ready to get any job done.

Poor Nurse Patient Communication In Mental Health Setting Nursing Essay

Poor Nurse Patient Communication In Mental Health Setting Nursing Essay Communication is defined asthe imparting or interchange of thoughts, opinions or information by speech, writing or signs. It is the tool which strengthens healthcare provider-patient relationship through which therapeutic goals are achieved (Park et al, 2006). Effective communication occurs when a desired effect is the result of information sharing, while poor communication leads to uncertainty and frustration. There are many situations where poor communication can lead to confusion. It includes not only building rapport but also leading to patients queries unanswered, discussing medical issues at patients bedside while ignoring them, talking harshly to patients etc. This can result in lack of support, disrespect and especially, harm to the patients. During my Mental Health Clinical at a private Hospital, I encountered a patient with diagnosis of Schizophrenia, and his Mental Status Examination (MSE) revealed that he had circumstantial ideas. I asked him a question and he talked irrelevantly about it. The nurse, who was listening to our conversation, scolded the patient saying why was he not answering relevantly. The nurses way of talking was very rebuking and lacked empathy. Upon getting scolded, the patient got aggressive and embarrassed, yet left silently. I visited the patient later, continued the MSE politely, and he answered me well. In my patients scenario, the nurse emotionally abused and demoted my patient rather than encouraging him. I believe this lowered my patients self-esteem and shattered him psychologically as evident by his gesture of leaving the room in silence due to aggression. Gadit (2011) states that verbal abuse can cause significant psychological problems in later years and brain damage. This means that skilled communication of a nurse helps a patient reduce his worries, making him comfortable. Moreover, patients verbalization of feelings and thoughts aids a nurse in correctly identifying his problems and performing interventions. Therapeutic communication holds importance as it contributes to a patients emotional growth or reinforce his or her illness. (Masilani, 2010, p.02). Thus, poor communication shatters the nurse-patients therapeutic relationship and acts as a barrier in expression of patients feelings which may lead to flawed nursing care. Nurses poor communication leaves a negative imag e in a patients mind regarding nurse and the institution, impacting greatly on his treatment. Patient would not express but build on feelings deep inside, which can lead to depression. My patient was not able to answer promptly due to his disease process. Through positive regard, assurance and encouragement, the nurse could have helped the patient. Instead the nurse demoted him and lowered his self-esteem. A model by Shanon and Weaver (1949) explains where the gap was formed. This model has 8 elements: source is an individual or a group that wants a message to be delivered ; encoder is the specified format for later interpretation; message is the idea that is being communicated; channel is the route that the message travels on; noise is any interference in the communication; decoder is the interpretation of the message from its original form into the one that the receiver understands; receiver is the intended recipient who takes in the message that the source has sent and feedback relates to the source whether their message has been received, interpreted correctly or lost in the noise. In the above scenario, I was the source who put the model into action. Encoding was my speech and expressions. I was doing the Mental Status Examination and it was my message. Noise was the nurse who interrupted and distorted my message. When the noise over rode the source, problem in the decoding occurr ed, leading the receiver to get aggressive and embarrassed. This gave the feedback that the message that was sent has got an error and needs to be revised. Building on the feedback, I gave patient sometime, and interacted with him later to continue his examination for his benefit Barriers to effective communication can impede or deform the message. There may be physical barriers that often occur due to the environment. Example of this is the shortage of staff, lack of time, increased workload, improper building etc. In the above scenario, the unit allotted for psychiatry was undersized and less spacious. Nurses and the patients were locked in the small unit, where they could easily listen to each others conversations. Second barrier can be the system fault. It refers to problems with the system in an organization. Examples include a lack of clarity in responsibilities, supervision and training. Keeping the scenario in mind, a nurse has the basic responsibility to practice empathy, as studies link empathy with therapeutic relationship (Reynolds Stewart, 2002; Neumann et al, 2012). Attitudinal barriers occur as a result of problems with staff. Examples include poor management, communication errors, personal attitudes of individual staff due to lack of motivati on and insufficient training etc. The above Private Hospital setup reflected that there was no supervision and the staff did not seem much competent. When looking into the socio cultural context, a news report reveals that mental health is the most neglected field in Pakistan (Qasim, 2012). In such conditions, if the communication flaws persist, a patients mental health is likely to be devastated. Another survey in Pakistan shows that patients satisfaction depends on a healthcare providers communication and behavior with them during their length of hospital stay (Danish, Khan, Chaudhry, Naseer, 2008). As psychiatric patients usually have repeated admissions and prolonged hospitalizations, therefore therapeutic communication can allow a nurse to deliver quality care to the patients, thus satisfying their needs. Moreover, departments of psychiatry in Pakistan are not well equipped specially in terms of psychiatric manpower (Gandit 2006). Literature emphasizes that swift pace and content is required in the field of research. Poor communication can be attributed to a number of factors. Lack of understanding, which includes value to proper communication and empathy in therapeutic relation, is one of the causes . Sometimes patient factors do not allow healthcare practitioner to communicate properly as it has been observed that harming behavior, emotional blocks and other psychotic symptoms do not allow nurses to continue therapeutic communication (Pfeiffer, 1998). It was also evident in my patients case that nurses communication can lower self-esteem and promote distress. Excessive poor communication of the nurses can lead to constant aggression and anxiety of communication, ultimately worsening patients mental health. To sustain a therapeutic nurse-patient relationship I would recommend that institutional management should arrange communication skill workshops for staff, as researches show that workshops help in improving nurses communication skills and their sense of preparedness (Lamiani Furey, 2009). The nursing supervisors should also identify the causes which hinder in communication. Moreover, nurses could reflect daily upon their communication skills, analyze the mistakes and try to work on it, as reflection is a powerful educational tool in nursing that can enhance clinical experience (Bradbury-Jones et al, 2009). They can also take ongoing feedbacks from colleagues and try to improve on their weak points. Since psychiatric patients have problems in communicating and forming relationships (Hem Heggen, 2003, p.102), therefore I would suggest that psychiatric nurses should have profound awareness of when to show empathy during communication. In my opinion medical and nursing students should focus on efficient communication while studying psychiatric course, so they can continue to practice it precisely. Furthermore, as discussed above, a barrier to effective communication is the lack of supervision. For that, ongoing rounds and evaluations should be done by the higher authorities to witness the exact situation and happenings, since it is noticed that in the supervision of the higher authorities, communication is more therapeutic. Thus, I recommend institutions to keep an eye on their staffs communication techniques in order to minimize negligence. In conclusion, nurses may commit errors but practice can make them perfect especially in a skill like communication. Thus, nurses must practice as much as possible and try reducing communication errors. As discussed, there are several causes and effects of poor communication especially in psychiatric nursing. But nurses should use themselves as a therapeutic instrument (Hem Heggen, 2003), so that they can help the psychiatric patients for their early recovery. Word Count: 1,342 Words

Arguments of Christopher Browning versus Daniel John Goldhagen Regardin

Arguments of Christopher Browning versus Daniel John Goldhagen Regarding The German View of the Holocaust The arguments of Christopher Browning and Daniel John Goldhagen contrast greatly based on the underlining meaning of the Holocaust to ordinary Germans. Why did ordinary citizens participate in the process of mass murder? Christopher Browning examines the history of a battalion of the Order Police who participated in mass shootings and deportations. He debunks the idea that these ordinary men were simply coerced to kill but stops short of Goldhagen's simplistic thesis. Browning uncovers the fact that Major Trapp offered at one time to excuse anyone from the task of killing who was "not up to it." Despite this offer, most of the men chose to kill anyway. Browning's traces how these murderers gradually became less "squeamish" about the killing process and delves into explanations of how and why people could behave in such a manner. Goldhagen's book however, has the merit of opening up a new perspective on ways of viewing the Holocaust, and it is the first to raise crucial questions about the extent to which eliminationist anti-Semitism was present among the German population as a whole. Using extensive testimonies from the perpetrators themselves, it offers a chilling insight into the mental and cognitive structures of hundreds of Germans directly involved in the killing operations. Anti-Semitism plays a primary factor in the argument from Goldhagen, as it is within his belief that anti-Semitism "more or less governed the ideational life of civil society" in pre-Nazi Germany . Goldhagen stated that a "Demonological anti-Semitism, of the virulent racial variety, was the common structure of the perpetrators' cognit... ...d in is own home. He was found by Soviet men in his home and taken to Siberia, because he was too young, in their point of view, to not be a member of the Nazi party. This is a man that Goldhagen cannot say is a fanatic anti-Semite and because of his own story to me I cannot deem the entire German population to be Goldhagen's 'ordinary Germans'. It is not an easy debate and will probably never be one but I would hope that someone could see that we cannot say something about an entire population. We would have to look at each member individually and then I am sure that we would find that some were those 'ordinary men', that Browning believed and some were the 'ordinary Germans' that Goldhagen believed in. Bibliography: Browning, Christopher R., Ordinary Men. Harper Perennial,New York, 1993 Goldhagen, Daniel Jonah. Random House, Inc. New York, 1996

Nuclear Energy :: essays research papers fc

You are watching the control panels and gages for rector two. Sitting comely you think about how easy your job is. It is a joke! All day you sit around and watch the gages for reactor number two just to make sure they maintain their settings. You don't even need to look at the gages either because a computer automatically regulates them without you. Life is so good. Suddenly all the sirens go of and the gages and displays spin wildly in every direction. The ground shakes and you can hear the sound of a deep rumble. Unknown to you, the reactor's cooling pumps have failed to cool the reactor's core and in 3 seconds the temperature went from 280 degrees centigrade to 4,000 degrees centigrade. The water that was in the reactor is instantly turned to steam which creates tremendous amount of pressure in the reactor core. Above the reactor core there is a 5 foot thick lead plate and above that there is a meter thick floor composed of iron, barium, serpentine, concrete, and stone. The exploding steam fires the floor up like shrapnel. The metal plate goes through the four foot thick concrete roof like butter and reaches and altitude of sixty meters. You can hear ripping, rending, wrenching, screeching, scraping, tearing sounds of a vast machine breaking apart. L. Ray Silver, a leading author who covered the disaster at Chernobyl, said that within the core, steam reacts with zirconium to produce that first explosive in nature's arsenal, hydrogen. Near-molten fuel fragments shatter nearly incandescent graphite, torching chunks of it, exploding the hydrogen. The explosion breaks every pipe in the building rocking it with such power that the building is split into sections (11-13). You look down at your body and notice that it feels hot and your hands look different. Unknown to you a tremendous amount of neutrons are hitting your cells and taking chucks out of your skin. Suddenly everything goes black.The paragraph above describes the scene of what happened at Chernobyl nuclear plant a few years ago. From that time until the present many other smaller accidents have happened. From these accidents many people have died and millions have been indirectly affected. Nuclear energy has far to many negative problems than advantages. From the mining of uranium to disposal of nuclear waist there are problems of such magnitude that no scientist on this earth has an answer for.

Pollution Essay examples -- essays research papers

Pollution has become a major issue over the years because it contaminates the Earth’s environment and affects human health. While some environmental pollution is a result of natural causes such as volcanic eruptions, most is caused by human activities. The increase of various types of pollution has made cancer pollutant more prevalent among the people, raising the risk of getting cancer. After being exposed to theses pollutants, the effects may be immediate or delayed. Some of the delayed effects, due to the exposure, can go unnoticed for many years. Another major issue that pollution creates is the tremendous cost for preventing and cleaning it up. However, we can not regulate the pollutants to the extent where there are no more possible threats. The most we can do is to minimize the effects of the potential risks, which we may encounter as a society. We can approach this matter by conducting different types of test from animal studies and epidemiological studies.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  To regulate pollution, we first have to have an idea of what type of effects it will have on the general population and then determine the acceptable amount of exposure level. Since the specific risk here is that the individual will get cancer, after being exposed to a pollutant, possibly leading to their death, we have to consider a few factors such as age, sex, and their health status. Depending on how old the person is, if they are relatively young then he or she may not be affected by the pollutant because their immune system can probably fight off the pathogens. Gender can also make a difference, since males and females have different biological anatomies, thus the pollutant may be resistant to females but not the males or vice versa. Finally, the health status of a person also has to be considered. If a person is healthy and fit then maybe age might not matter and it will decrease their potential threat from the pollutant. After all of these factors are take n into account we have to regulate the carcinogenic pollutant and determine an acceptable level of risk. To determine what the effects are after an individual has been exposed to this pollutant and gets cancer, we can perform animals or epidemiological studies. Even though the animal studies will not be deterministic since we are not using human subjects to collect the data, it will give us an idea on how a... ... an acceptable exposure level; again this can not be done without some degree of subjectivity. As a result, I believe that an appropriate exposure level to cancer, due to this pollutant, should be one in a million. This is acceptable because every one person out of a million that is affected by this pollutant can get treated and cared for. By setting it at this level I think that there it would eliminate the shortage problems at hospital or at any care centers when providing treatments to the infected people. Thus, everyone who gets cancer from this pollutant will have the opportunity to take care of themselves and not have to worry about the lack of resources.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Everyone takes risk in particularly in everything they do. The best thing to do is minimize the effects of the risks as much as possible. The cancer causing pollutant in this case can be regulated by using some type of preventive measures. Without being oblivious about the moral issues, we have to set certain risks and exposure level of the pollutant. I set my risks and exposure level after determining several issues and came to conclusion after what I thought was the most optimal conditions.

It was 9 o’clock in the morning when I heard the news that Aliens were going to invade our planet

It was 9 o'clock in the morning when I heard the news that Aliens were going to invade our planet. As unlikely, as this sounded, I knew it to be true the moment I heard it. I had already seen the evidence. Please excuse me; I guess I am rushing ahead a bit. It would probably be better if I started from the beginning. It started 10 months ago when I was working at the Jodrell Bank radio telescope. I was a scientific researcher at the base; and a specialist in radar research. Some of my colleagues had been getting weird results from their observations and I had been asked to double check the validity of their findings. These weren't the only weird happenings either. Scientist from different parts of the planet researching both climate and animal behaviors were also reporting a wide variety of anomalous data. The climate was changing, there were resent reports that a tornado struck the south-east of England. That wasn't the only weird occurrence in weather that had happened; a few weeks later there was another report that a snowstorm had hit West Africa. Alongside all of this there had been rumors of country leaders having meetings discussing the strange events that had been happening. Occurrences after occurrence still leaders around the world were making up lies and excuses, over 100 nuclear power plant had been struck by lightning and earthquakes spontaneously. Haunted by all of these occurrences and happenings, I found it hard to sleep. Even when I could sleep, I was disturbed by weird recurring nightmares. Still, my research work was proving to be equally unsettling. No matter what test I performed, I could find no data that would allow me to dismiss the results drived by my Colleagues. As these findings indicated many anomalous objects were present in near-near Earth orbit. I found myself called in to the office of observation director himself, and as I looked through the images that the Hubble telescope was giving me I noticed weird looking objects that were hovering Earth orbit, by the time I could show the images to my head director we were quickly stopped and ordered to leave the premises. While I tried to go back to get the images as prove I was immediately stop and guided outside of the building. After that incident I was sent home, I had a conversation with my head director telling me that the workplace was being closed for illegal experimenting. The government closed Jodrell bank Telescope and announced that we had secret bases. I worked there for 13 years and had never encountered any secret bases were experiments were performed. Why did the government really close my workplace? Day after day I started to realize that my colleagues were rapidly but slowly losing contact. Until one morning when I was mysteriously called by one of my colleagues to watch a broadcast acknowledging the existence of other life forms and their invasion of our planet. While listening to the event, I suddenly thought †why has the news turned black? †I thought that they were having technical difficulties so I changed to the next channel and when I did it turned out the same as the channel before. The whole screen just plain black while. At the same time, I was confused, a bright light made me cover my eyes, and a shape appeared with the way it spoke. I knew it to be a face but it wasn't a recognizable face and one that I have never encountered. The shape and figure of the life form was unforgettable. It breathed softly and spoke gently. I understood: â€Å"People of earth, we are concerned that your world leaders have been dishonest and created your worst nightmares, bringing destruction and violence upon you. I will give you your last choice of renewing and establishing the disturbance you have caused. I couldn't believe what I was hearing; we were so loud that we caused concern upon our cosmic neighbors. They had taken us as threat to the galaxy. This is one big step for human beings.

Last Sacrifice Chapter Sixteen

CONSIDERING SYDNEY DESTROYED dead bodies on a regular basis, it was kind of surprising that she was so shocked by our post-fight appearances. Maybe dead Strigoi were just objects to her. Dimitri and I were real live people, and we were a mess. â€Å"I hope you guys don't stain the car,' she said, once the bodies were disposed of and we were on our way. I think it was her best attempt at a joke, in an effort to cover up her discomfort over our torn and bloody clothes. â€Å"Are we going to Paris?' I asked, turning to look back at Dimitri. â€Å"Paris?' asked Sydney, startled. â€Å"Not yet,' said Dimitri, leaning his head back against the seat. He was back to looking like a controlled guardian. All signs of his earlier breakdown were gone, and I had no intention of giving away what had happened before we'd fetched Sydney. So small †¦ yet so monumental. And very private. For now, he mostly looked tired. â€Å"We should wait until daytime. We had to go for Donovan now, but if Sonya's got a house, she's probably there all the time. Safer for us in daylight.' â€Å"How do you know he wasn't lying?' asked Sydney. She was driving with no real destination, merely getting us out of the neighborhood as fast as possible and before people reported screams and the sounds of fighting. I thought back to the terror on Donovan's face and shivered. â€Å"I don't think he was lying.' Sydney didn't ask any more questions, except about which direction she should drive. Dimitri suggested we find another hotel so that we could clean up and get some rest before tomorrow's task. Fortunately, Lexington had a much broader selection of hotels than our last town. We didn't go for luxury, but the large, modern-looking place we chose was part of a chain, clean and stylish. Sydney checked us in and then led us inside through a side door, so as not to startle any guests who might be up in the middle of the night. We got one room with two double beds. No one commented on it, but I think we all shared a need to stay together after our earlier Strigoi encounter. Dimitri was much more of a mess than me, thanks to his mutilation of Donovan, so I sent him to shower first. â€Å"You did great,' I told Sydney as we waited. I sat on the floor (which was much cleaner than the last room's) so that I wouldn't wreck the beds. â€Å"That was really brave of you.' She crooked me a smile. â€Å"Typical. You get beat up and nearly killed, but I'm the one you're praising?' â€Å"Hey, I do this all the time. Going in there alone like you did †¦ well, it was pretty hardcore. And I'm not that beat up.' I was brushing off my injuries, just as Dimitri would. Sydney, eyeing me, knew it too. My legs were scraped more than I'd realized, the skin torn and bleeding from where I'd fallen on the cement. One of my ankles was complaining over the roof-jump, and I had a number of cuts and bruises scattered over the rest of me. I had no clue where most had come from. Sydney shook her head. â€Å"How you guys don't catch gangrene more often is beyond me.' We both knew why, though. It was part of the natural resistance I'd been born with as a dhampir, getting the best of both races' traits. Moroi were actually pretty healthy too, though they sometimes caught diseases unique to their race. Victor was an example. He had a chronic disease and had once forced Lissa to heal him. Her magic had restored him to full health at the time, but the illness was slowly creeping back. I showered after Dimitri finished, and then Sydney forced her first aid kit on both of us. When we were bandaged and disinfected to her satisfaction, she got out her laptop and pulled up a map of Paris, Kentucky. The three of us huddled around the screen. â€Å"Lots of creeks and rivers,' she mused, scrolling around. â€Å"Not much in the way of lakes.' I pointed. â€Å"Do you think that's it?' It was a tiny body of water, marked APPLEWOOD POND. â€Å"Maybe. Ah, there's another pond. That could be a suspect too or–oh! Right here?' She tapped the screen on another body of water, a bit bigger than the ponds: MARTIN LAKE. Dimitri sat back and ran a hand over his eyes as he yawned. â€Å"That looks like the most likely option. If not, I don't think it'll take long to drive around the other ones.' â€Å"That's your plan?' asked Sydney. â€Å"Just drive around and look for a blue house?' I exchanged glances with Dimitri and shrugged. Sydney might be showing her bravery on this trip, but I knew her idea of â€Å"a plan' was a little different from ours. Hers were structured, well-thought out, and had a clear purpose. Also, details. â€Å"It's more solid than most of our plans,' I said at last. The sun was going to be up in another hour or so. I was restless to go after Sonya, but Dimitri insisted sleep until midday. He took one bed, and Sydney and I shared the other. I didn't really think I needed the rest he claimed, but my body disagreed. I fell asleep almost instantly. And like always lately, I eventually was pulled into a spirit dream. I hoped it was Adrian, coming to finish our last conversation. Instead, the conservatory materialized around me, complete with harp and cushioned furniture. I sighed and faced the Brothers Dashkov. â€Å"Great,' I said. â€Å"Another conference call. I have really got to start blocking your number.' Victor gave me a small bow. â€Å"Always a pleasure, Rose.' Robert merely stared off into space again. Nice to know some things never changed. â€Å"What do you want?' I demanded. â€Å"You know what we want. We're here to help you help Vasilisa.' I didn't believe that for an instant. Victor had some scheme in mind, but my hope was to capture him before he could do any further damage. He studied me expectantly. â€Å"Have you found the other Dragomir yet?' I stared incredulously. â€Å"It's only been a day!' I almost had to redo my math on that one. It felt more like ten years. Nope. Only a day since I'd last spoken to Victor. â€Å"And?' Victor asked. â€Å"And, how good do you think we are?' He considered. â€Å"Pretty good.' â€Å"Well, thanks for the vote of confidence, but it's not as easy as it seems. And actually †¦ considering what a cover-up this has all been, it really doesn't seem easy at all.' â€Å"But you have found something?' Victor pressed. I didn't answer. An eager gleam lit his eyes, and he took a step forward. I promptly took one back. â€Å"You have found something.' â€Å"Maybe.' Again, I had the same indecision as before. Did Victor, with all his scheming and manipulating, know something that could help us? Last time, he'd given me nothing, but now we had more information. What had he said? If we found a thread, he could unravel it? â€Å"Rose.' Victor was speaking to me like I was a child, as he often did to Robert. It made me scowl. â€Å"I told you before: It doesn't matter if you trust me or my intentions. For now, we're both interested in the same short-term goal. Don't let future worries ruin your chance here.' It was funny, but that was similar to the principle I'd operated on for most of my life. Live in the now. Jump right in and worry about the consequences later. Now, I hesitated and tried to think things over before making a decision. At last, I chose to take the risk, again hoping Victor might be able to help. â€Å"We think the mother †¦ the mother of Lissa's brother or sister †¦ is related to Sonya Karp.' Victor's eyebrows rose. â€Å"You know who that is?' â€Å"Of course. She turned Strigoi–allegedly because she went insane. But we both know it was a little more complicated than that.' I nodded reluctantly. â€Å"She was a spirit user. No one knew.' Robert's head whipped around so fast that I nearly jumped. â€Å"Whos a spirit user?' â€Å"Former spirit user,' said Victor, instantly switching to soothing mode. â€Å"She became a Strigoi to get away from it.' The sharp focus Robert had directed toward the two of us melted into soft dreaminess once more. â€Å"Yes †¦ always a lure to that †¦ kill to live, live to kill. Immortality and freedom from these chains, but oh, what a loss †¦' They were crazy ramblings, but they had an eerie similarity to some of the things Adrian said sometimes. I didn't like that at all. Trying to pretend Robert wasn't in the room, I turned back to Victor. â€Å"Do you know anything about her? Who she's related to?' He shook his head. â€Å"She has a large family.' I threw up my hands in exasperation. â€Å"Could you be any more useless? You keep acting like you know so much, but you're just telling us what we've already found out! You aren't helping!' â€Å"Help comes in many forms, Rose. Have you found Sonya?' â€Å"Yes.' I reconsidered. â€Å"Well, not quite. We know where she is. We're going to see her tomorrow and question her.' The look on Victor's face spoke legions about how ridiculous he thought that was. â€Å"And I'm sure she'll be eager to help.' I shrugged. â€Å"Dimitri's pretty persuasive.' â€Å"So I've heard,' said Victor. â€Å"But Sonya Karp isn't an impressionable teenager.' I sized up a punch but worried Robert might have his force field up again. Victor appeared oblivious to my anger. â€Å"Tell me where you are. We'll come to you.' Once more, a dilemma. I didn't think there was much the brothers could do. But this might present an opportunity to recapture him. Besides, if we had him in person, maybe he'd stop interrupting my dreams. â€Å"We're in Kentucky,' I said at last. â€Å"Paris, Kentucky.' I gave him what other info we had about the blue house. â€Å"We'll be there tomorrow,' Victor said. â€Å"Then where are you now–‘ And just like last time, Robert ended the dream abruptly, leaving me hanging. What had I gotten myself into with them? Before I could consider it, I was immediately taken to another spirit dream. Good Lord. It really was deja vu. Everyone wanted to talk to me in my sleep. Fortunately, like last time, my second visit was from Adrian. This one was in the ballroom where the Council had met. There were no chairs or people, and my steps echoed on the hard wood floor. The room that seemed so grand and powerful when in use now had a lonely, ominous feel. Adrian stood near one of the tall, arched windows, giving me one of his roguish smiles when I hugged him. Compared to how dirty and bloody everything was in the real world, he seemed pristine and perfect. â€Å"You did it.' I gave him a quick kiss on the lips. â€Å"You got them to nominate Lissa.' After our last dream visit, when I'd realized there might be some merit to Victor's suggestion, I'd had to work hard to convince Adrian that the nomination idea was a good one– particularly since I hadn't been sure myself. â€Å"Yeah, getting that group on board was easy.' He seemed to like my admiration, but his face grew grimmer as he pondered my words. â€Å"She's not happy about it, though. Boy, she let us have it afterward.' â€Å"I saw it. You're right that she doesn't like it–but it was more than that. It was spirit- darkness. I took some of it away, but yeah †¦ it was bad.' I remembered how taking her anger had caused it to flare up briefly in me. Spirit didn't hit me as hard as it did her– but that was only temporary. Eventually, if I pulled enough over the years, it would take over. I caught hold of Adrian's hand and gave him as pleading a look as I could manage. â€Å"You've got to look after her. I'll do what I can, but you know as well as I do how stress and worry can agitate spirit. I'm afraid it'll come back like it used to. I wish I could be there to take care of her. Please–help her.' He tucked a loose piece of hair behind my ear, concern in his deep green eyes. At first, I thought his worry was just for Lissa. â€Å"I will,' he said. â€Å"I'll do what I can. But Rose †¦ will it happen to me? Is that what I'll become? Like her and the others?' Adrian had never shown the extreme side effects Lissa had, largely because he didn't use as much spirit and because he did so much self-medicating with alcohol. I didn't know how long that would last, though. From what I'd seen, there were only a few things to delay the insanity: self-discipline, antidepressants, and bonding to someone shadow-kissed. Adrian didn't seem interested in any of those options. It was weird, but in this moment of vulnerability, I was reminded of what had just happened with Dimitri. Both of these men, so strong and confident in their ways, yet each needing me for support. You're the strong one, Rose, a voice whispered inside my head. Adrian gazed off. â€Å"Sometimes †¦ sometimes I can believe the insanity is all imagined, you know? I've never felt it like the others †¦ like Lissa or old Vlad. But once in a while †¦' he paused. â€Å"I don't know. I feel so close, Rose. So close to the edge. Like if I allow myself one small misstep, I'll plunge away and never come back. It's like I'll lose myself.' I'd heard him say stuff like this before, when he'd go off on some weird tangent that only half made sense. It was the closest he ever came to showing that spirit might be messing with his mind too. I'd never realized he was aware of these moments or what they could mean. He looked back down at me. â€Å"When I drink †¦ I don't worry about it. I don't worry about going crazy. But then I think †¦ maybe I already I am. Maybe I am, but no one can tell the difference when I'm drunk.' â€Å"You're not crazy,' I said fiercely, pulling him to me. I loved his warmth and the way he felt against my skin. â€Å"You'll be okay. You're strong.' He pressed his cheek to my forehead. â€Å"I don't know,' he said. â€Å"I think you're my strength.' It was a sweet and romantic statement, but something about it bothered me. â€Å"That's not quite right,' I said, wondering how I could put my feelings into words. I knew you could help someone else in a relationship. You could strengthen them and support them. But you couldn't actually do everything for them. You couldn't solve all their problems. â€Å"You have to find it within your–‘ The hotel room's alarm clock blared and broke me from the dream, leaving me frustrated both because I missed Adrian and hadn't been able to say all I wanted to. Well, there was nothing I could do for him now. I could only hope he'd manage on his own. Sydney and I were both sluggish and squinty-eyed. It made sense that she'd be exhausted, since her whole sleeping schedule–when she actually got sleep–had been thrown off. Me? My fatigue was mental. So many people, I thought. So many people needed me †¦ but it was so hard to help all of them. Naturally, Dimitri was up and ready to go. He'd woken before us. Last night's breakdown might as well have never happened. It turned out he'd been dying for coffee and had patiently waited for us, not wanting to leave us sleeping and undefended. I shooed him off, and twenty minutes later, he returned with coffee and a box of donuts. He also had purchased an industrial-strength chain at a hardware store across the street â€Å"for when we find Sonya,' which made me uneasy. By then Sydney and I were ready to go, and I decided to hold off on my questions. I wasn't crazy about wearing shorts again, not with my legs in this condition, but I was too eager to get to Sonya to insist we stop at a mall. I did, however, decide it was time to get my companions up to speed. â€Å"So,' I began casually, â€Å"Victor Dashkov might be joining us soon.' It was to Sydney's credit that she didn't drive off the road. â€Å"What? That guy who escaped?' I could see in Dimitri's eyes that he was just as shocked, but he kept cool and under control, like always. â€Å"Why,' he began slowly, â€Å"is Victor Dashkov joining us?' â€Å"Well, it's kind of a funny story †¦' And with that intro, I gave them as brief yet thorough a recap as I could, starting with the background on Robert Doru and ending with the brothers' recent dream visits. I glossed over Victor's â€Å"mysterious' escape a few weeks ago, but something told me that Dimitri, in that uncanny way we had of guessing each other's thoughts, was probably putting the pieces together. Both Lissa and I had told Dimitri we'd gone through a lot to learn how to restore him, but we'd never explained the full story–especially the part about breaking out Victor so that he could help us find his brother. â€Å"Look, whether he can help or not, this is our chance to catch him,' I added hastily. â€Å"That's a good thing, right?' â€Å"Its an issue we'll deal with †¦ later.' I recognized the tone in Dimitri's voice. He'd used it a lot at St. Vladimir's. It usually meant there was a private talk in my future, where I'd be grilled for more details. Kentucky turned out to be pretty beautiful as we drove out to Paris. The land was rolling and green as we got out of the city, and it was easy to imagine wanting to live in a little house out here. I wondered idly if that had been Sonya's motivation and then caught myself. I'd just told Dimitri that Strigoi saw no beauty. Was I wrong? Would gorgeous scenery matter to her? I found my answer when our GPS led us to Martin Lake. There were only a few houses scattered around it, and among those, only one was blue. Stopping a fair distance away from the house, Sydney parked the car off to the side of the road as much as she could. It was narrow, the shoulders covered in trees and high grass. We all got out of the car and walked a little ways, still keeping our distance. â€Å"Well. It's a blue house,' declared Sydney pragmatically. â€Å"But is it hers? I don't see a mailbox or anything.' I looked closer at the yard. Rose bushes, full of pink and red blossoms, grew in front of the porch. Baskets thick with white flowers I didn't know the names of hung from the roof, and blue morning glories climbed up a trellis. Around the house, I could just barely make out a wood fence. A vine with orange, trumpet-shaped flowers crawled over it. Then, an image flickered into my mind, gone as quickly as it had come. Ms. Karp watering pots of flowers in her classroom, flowers that seemed to grow impossibly fast and tall. As a teenager more interested in dodging homework, I hadn't thought much about them. It was only later, after watching Lissa make plants grow and bloom during spirit experiments, that I understood what had been happening in Ms. Karp's classroom. And now, even deprived of spirit and possessed by evil, Sonya Karp was still tending her flowers. â€Å"Yeah,' I said. â€Å"This is her house.' Dimitri approached the front porch, studying every detail. I started to follow but held back. â€Å"What are you doing?' I kept my voice low. â€Å"She might see you.' He returned to my side. â€Å"Those are black-out curtains. They aren't letting in any light, so she isn't going to see anything. It also means she likely spends her time on the house's main floor, rather than a basement.' I could easily follow his line of thinking. â€Å"That's good news for us.' When I'd been captured by Strigoi last year, my friends and I had been held in a basement. Not only was it convenient for Strigoi wanting to avoid the sun, it also meant fewer escape and entry options. It was easy for Strigoi to trap prey in a basement. The more doors and windows we had, the better. â€Å"I'll scout the other side,' he said, starting for the backyard. I hurried up to him and caught him by the arm. â€Å"Let me. I'll sense any Strigoi–not that she's going outside, but, well, just in case.' He hesitated, and I grew irate, thinking he didn't believe me capable. Then, he said, â€Å"Okay. Be careful.' I realized he was just worried about me. I moved as smoothly and quietly as I could around the house, soon discovering the wooden fence was going to create difficulty in seeing the backyard. I feared climbing over might alert Sonya to my presence and pondered what to do. My solution came in the form of a large rock lying near the fence's edge. I dragged the stone over and stood on top. It wasn't enough to let me look completely over, but I was able to easily put my hands on top of the fence and hoist myself up for a peek with minimal noise. It was like looking into the Garden of Eden. The flowers in the front had merely been the warm-up act. More roses, magnolia and apple trees, irises, and a billion other flowers I didn't recognize. Sonya's backyard was a paradise of lush color. I scoped out what I needed to and hurried back to Dimitri. Sydney still stood by the car. â€Å"A patio door and two windows,' I reported. â€Å"All curtained. There's also a wooden deck chair, a shovel, and a wheelbarrow.' â€Å"Any pitchforks?' â€Å"Unfortunately, no, but there's a big-ass rock sitting outside the fence. It'd be hard to get it into the yard, though. We're better off using it to help us climb over. No gate in the fence. She's made a fortress.' He nodded in understanding, and without any conversation, I knew what to do. We got the chain from the car and entrusted it to Sydney. We told her to wait for us outside–with the strict instructions to leave if we weren't back in thirty minutes. I hated to say that kind of thing–and Sydney's face indicated she didn't like hearing it–but it was inevitable. If we hadn't subdued Sonya in that amount of time, we weren't going to subdue her at all–or leave alive. If we did manage to overtake her, we'd give some signal for Sydney to come in with the chain. Sydney's amber-brown eyes were filled with anxiety as she watched us head back around the house. I nearly teased her for caring about evil creatures of the night but stopped myself just in time. She might loathe every other dhampir and Moroi in the world, but somewhere along the way, she'd come to like Dimitri and me. That wasn't something to mock. Dimitri stood on the rock and surveyed the yard. He murmured a few last-minute instructions to me before taking my hands and boosting me up over the fence. His height went a long way to make the maneuver as easy and quiet–though not silent–as possible. He followed me shortly thereafter, landing beside me with a small thud. After that, we sprang forward with no delay. If Sonya had heard us, then there was no point in wasting time. We needed every advantage we could get. Dimitri grabbed the shovel and swung it hard into the glass–once, twice. The first strike was about the height of my head, the second lower. The glass fractured more with each impact. Right on the heels of the second hit, I pushed forward and shoved the wheelbarrow into the door. Lifting it and throwing it against the glass would have been a lot cooler, but it was too unwieldy to raise very high. When the wheelbarrow struck the already weakened glass, the cracked areas broke and crumbled altogether, creating a hole big enough for both of us to get through. We both had to duck–especially Dimitri. A simultaneous attack through both sides of the house would have been ideal, but it wasn't like Sonya could run out the front door. Nausea had started to creep over me as soon as we were near the patio, and the sensation hit full force as we entered a living room. I ignored my stomach in the way I'd perfected and braced myself for what was to come. We'd broken in pretty quickly but not quickly enough to truly get the jump on Strigoi reflexes. Sonya Karp was right there, ready for us, doing all she could to avoid the sunlight spilling into the living room. When I'd first seen Dimitri as a Strigoi, I'd been so shocked that I'd frozen up. It had allowed him to capture me, so I'd mentally braced myself this time, knowing I'd feel the same shock when I saw my former teacher as a Strigoi. And it was shocking. Just like with him, so many of Sonya's features were the same as before: the auburn hair and high cheek bones †¦ but her beauty was twisted by all the other terrible conditions: chalky skin, red eyes, and the expression of cruelty that all Strigoi seemed to wear. If she recognized us, she gave no sign and lunged toward Dimitri with a snarl. It was a common Strigoi tactic to take out the bigger threat first, and it annoyed me that they always believed that was Dimitri. He'd shoved his stake in his belt in order to carry the shovel inside with him. The shovel wouldn't kill a Strigoi, but with enough strength and momentum, it would definitely keep Sonya at arm's length. He struck her with it in the shoulder after her first attempt, and while she didn't fall over, she definitely waited before trying another attack. They circled each other, like wolves readying for a battle, as she sized up her odds. One charge, and her greater strength would push him down, shovel or not. All of this took place in a matter of seconds, and Sonya's calculations had left me out of the equation. I made my own charge, slamming into her other side, but she saw me coming out of the corner of her eye and responded instantly, throwing me down while never taking her eyes off Dimitri. I wished I had the shovel and could hit her in the back from a safe distance. All I carried was my stake, and I had to be careful with it since it could kill her. I did a quick scan of her eerily normal living room and couldn't see any other potential weapons. She feinted, and Dimitri went for it. He just barely corrected himself as she leapt forward to take advantage of the situation. She thrust him against the wall, pinning him there and knocking the shovel from his grasp. He struggled against her, trying to break free as her hands found his throat. If I tried to pull her off, my strength combined with Dimitri's would probably free him. I wanted this over as quickly as possible, however, and decided to make a power play. I ran toward her, stake in hand, and plunged it through her right shoulder blade, hoping I was nowhere near her heart. The charmed silver, so agonizing to Strigoi skin, made her scream. Frantic, she shoved me away with force that was astonishing even for a Strigoi. I fell backward, stumbling, and whacked my head against a coffee table. My vision dimmed slightly, but instinct and adrenaline drove me back to my feet. My attack gave Dimitri the split second he needed. He knocked Sonya to the ground and grabbed my stake, pushing it against her throat. She screamed and flailed, and I moved forward to help him, knowing how hard it was to pin a Strigoi. â€Å"Get Sydney †¦' he grunted. â€Å"The chain †¦' I moved as quickly as I could, stars and shadows dancing in front of me. I unlocked the front door and kicked it open as a signal, then ran back to Dimitri. Sonya was making good progress in fighting him off. I dropped to my knees, working with Dimitri to keep her restrained. He had that battle lust in his eyes again, a look that said he wanted to destroy her right here and now. But there was something else, too. Something that made me think he had more control, that my words in the alley had actually had an impact. Still, I uttered a warning. â€Å"We need her †¦ remember we need her.' He gave me a slight nod, just as Sydney showed up lugging the chain. She stared at the scene wide-eyed, pausing only a moment before hurrying over to us. We'll make a warrior of her yet, I thought. Dimitri and I moved to our next task. We'd already spotted the best place to bind Sonya: a heavy, reclining armchair in the corner. Lifting her–which was dangerous since she was still thrashing wildly–we thrust her into the chair. Then, keeping the stake at her neck, Dimitri attempted to hold her down while I grabbed hold of the chain. There was no time to think of a precise system. I just started wrapping it, first around her legs and then as best as I could around her torso, trying to lock her arms against her. Dimitri had bought a lot of chain, thankfully, and I hurriedly wrapped it around the chair in a crazy manner, doing everything I could to keep her down. When I finally ran out of chain, Sonya was pretty well locked into place. Was it something she could break out of? Absolutely. But with a silver stake against her? Not so easy. With both in place †¦ well, we had her trapped for now. It was the best we could do. Dimitri and I exchanged brief, weary looks. I felt dizzy but fought through it, knowing our task was far from over. â€Å"Time for questioning,' I said grimly.

Money Matters

Money Matters Money is desired by everyone, but the majority of wealth is held by only a small percentage of people in society. Is this minority of the rich as happy as we think they should be with all that money? Two songs regarding currency will help answer this; Pink Floyd’s song, â€Å"Money†, from the album The Dark Side of the Moon (1973) and AC/DC’s song, â€Å"Money Talks†, from the album The Razors Edge (1990). â€Å"Money† presents the idea that money allows the individual to get what they want. Money Talks† presents the idea that money allows the individual to get whomever they want. At the heart of both of these songs it is evident that the song writers wanted the listener to know the cycle of money and obtaining materialistic things which suggest that the key point being conveyed by these songs is that money enables greed which can lead to negative behavior. People often want money to make them feel happier; this is accomplished b y buying materialistic things or by trying to buy an individual’s affection or approval.But do these things really make us happy, or do they just give us more problems like greed and physical conflicts? According to Sonja Lyubomirsky , from The Scientific American, â€Å"The single biggest culprit, I argue, is that having money raises our aspirations about the happiness that we expect in our daily lives, and these raised aspirations can be toxic. † (Lyumbomirsky). The more one achieves, the more one wants, is the definition of greed.This is a viscous cycle that, if fueled by enough money, can end in bad decisions or negative behavior. For example, if you are conditioned to eating at nice restaurants, and then you go to a fast food chain, you wouldn’t be as satisfied in comparison to always going to fast food restaurants and not knowing the luxurious pleasure of dining at a fancy establishment. (Lyumbomirsky) Money can buy nice things and services, but it will no t always eliminate stress and bad moods.A Princeton University Study published in 2010 concluded that income is directly proportional to emotional experiences up to about $75,000 a year where it plateaus. (Staff) This study analyzed over 450,000 responses from over 1,000 test subjects on a daily basis asking questions about the previous day’s emotional experiences. These results are quite interesting but throughout the whole study it was evident that there were still daily stresses and depressing times regardless of your social and economical status. Staff) Instead of contentment and happiness, too much money can just lead to greed. Both songs, â€Å"Money† and â€Å"Money Talks† have the same social issue at their core, money. According to both songs if money allows you to get everything you desire, then ultimately it will cause greed and result in immoral decisions. The key difference in the songs is that in â€Å"Money† they want to get materialistic t hings and in â€Å"Money Talks† they money to buy materialistic things to attract the individuals they want.This is shown when Pink Floyd says â€Å"Money, it’s a gas Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash New car, caviar, four star daydream Think I’ll buy me a football team† in â€Å"Money,† and when AC/DC says â€Å"Hey little girl, you want it all The furs, the diamonds, the painting on the wall come on come on lovin’ for the money† in â€Å"Money Talks. † Both songs describe individuals using money to reach their aspirations, possessions or people. After using money to obtain their wants, each song describes the resulting negative consequences.By using money to attract a female mate, â€Å"Money Talks† describes the kind of immoral tendencies of a woman who is attracted by money. This effect is shown in the lyric â€Å"Hey little girl, you broke the laws You hustle, you deal, you steal from us all. † In â€Å"Money†, Pink Floyd plainly states â€Å"Money, so they say Is the root of all evil today. † Then the song describes a dispute over wanting more money, beginning with the lyric â€Å"But if you ask for a raise its no surprise that they’re giving none away. † Both songs depict the negative results created from too much money by describing greedy and immoral behavior based around wanting more. Money† is a story of the natural progression of money and greed. The song starts with a man who gets a good job, then buys expensive things, and then the greed of the money causes him to make a physical dispute started by asking for more money. The grooving beat starts with the sounds of a cash register, coins, and money to let the audience conform to the subject. When the instruments join the materialistic set groove, the piano, bass, and drums create a walking feeling to simulate someone on the move spending money.When the singer starts the first verse , he immediately talks about making money and spending money, which perfectly matches the sound effects and walking groove set up by the instrumental intro. The second verse describes the next stage of money and greed, which is using money for the rush like a drug. This connection is shown in the lyric â€Å"money, it’s a hit,† so spending money is like taking a hit of a mind altering substance. Just like drug use, money use can lead to bad judgment and skewed values.After the last line of the second verse, â€Å"And I think I need a Lear jet,† the guitarists and piano take turns to create a three minute psychedelic solo. The solo is very relaxing and enjoyable, simulating the early stages of drug use, or in this case, money use. The last sung verse describes the obsession of money leading to negative things such as crime and fights. The verse ends with the line â€Å"But if you ask for a raise it’s no surprise that they’re giving none away. † This line shows the subject needing more money to fuel his expensive spending addiction.The verse shows greed on both ends of the interaction, because the subject wants more money and the employer does not want to share any money. After this verse, the background tells a story of an argument which ended in a fist fight. Though not specifically stated, the listener can conclude from the reoccurrence of the music from the intro that the dispute started from spending too much money. â€Å"Money Talks† starts out with a twenty second instrumental introduction that has an upbeat tempo and really makes the listener want to tap their feet and nod their head .The fast happy mood directly contradicts the subject matter, which is closely related to prostitution. This kind of contradiction is known as musical irony. After ACDC sets the foundation for a happy and energetic song, the singer dives right into what money can do for you, â€Å"Tailored suits, chauffeured cars, Fine hotels and big cigars†. The singer has a natural energetic growl sound, but he will slightly change the volume or intensity of his tone depending on what the lyrics are saying. Every line that deals with negative behavior due to spending, the singer will mark it by adding slight emphasis to his voice.The first verse is sung with a pretty consistent tone until he introduces his female target by stating â€Å"Hey little girl, you want it all,† then he adds slightly more growl to his voice. After the first chorus, the subject takes a turn almost into a business proposition as the man asks what services she offers and how much she would like to be paid evidenced by these lyrics â€Å"So what do you do that’s guaranteed †¦ love me for the money Come on, come on, listen to the money talk†. During this line, the singer raises his volume, as well as his energy to show the decline of moral behavior with the increase of spending.The last line of this verse, â€Å"Yo u hustle, you deal, you steal from us all† is sung with more edge and energy than any other line of the song. This lyric directly shows how someone could be stuck in the cycle of compromising morals for money. Even though the music has little to do with the subject, the singer makes the lyric music connection by adding slightly more energy to the lines depicting negative behavior in relation to spending and making money. Money or wealth is an attribute of daily life for everyone. Unfortunately, having too much money can cause problems for the user and recipient in the form of greed.Pink Floyd’s song â€Å"Money† goes through the cycle of wealth by starting with making the money and then ends by describing a dispute driven by greed. ACDC depicts their view of the corruption of money by telling the story of a man who uses money to get women, also known as prostitution. Both songs accurately portray the negative connotations attached to wealth in today’s soci ety by ending their songs on greedy behavior started by obtaining and spending too much money. ? Bibliography Lyumbomirsky, Sonja. Scientific American. 10 August 2010. 15 April 2012. . Staff, PNAS and World Science. World Science. 8 September 2010. 14 April 2012. .

Language is a loaded weapon Essay

Language is that knowledge held by native speakers which, combined with the use of expressive faculties, enables them to communicate in spoken and written forms. Language is creative it can create ambience i. e. harmony, strife and war depending on how we use it, and the intentions of the user. Man is a complex being – each individual made so by unique & common experiences, which colour not only our reception/perception and interpretation of data but also influence our delivery. The way people deliver a message can alter the way we think, our understanding, perception, or approach. Language can be used honestly or dishonestly. To convey truth or to pervert truth, to persuade, to convince, to control, to unite, disunite, to make something clear or to mystify. Language is the tool we use to communicate. Its not just words it includes N. V. C (Non Verbal Communication, signals that we give out in the way we stand and move our body). Some interpretation of language is done at a subconscious level, instinctively. When interpreting the encoder’s message we consider his/her motivation. What are they trying to achieve? i. e. The way in which someone is listening or watching can indicate to you whether or not they are interested, disliking or are bored with what you are saying. You notice this on a subconscious almost subliminal level. If you are the encoder you adjust the way in which you speak so as the receiver decodes your message properly and doesn’t misunderstand what you have said. For example if you shout at someone they may get the impression you are angry with them, however you may have raised your voice to ensure they can hear you. To decode successfully many other aspects have to be considered about the encoder’s background, culture, belief system etc, over and above their motivation. Tone, pitch, volume, intonation, speed, hesitation, accent, emotion, even hormones, all affect both delivery and reception. Hence language is not a neutral tool; it is inadvertently biased in thousands of ways. All mankind is guilty of this fault. A clear example of this is propaganda, mass media, political persuasion, even the way history is written. For example in The Mirror after the September 11th incident, they produced a front page with the heading â€Å"My son the hijacker†. The way this title is worded makes you sympathise with the Mother, and shows us that the hijackers where not just people that had nothing to live for and no family, but people that had families. The subheading to this title was â€Å"I did not bring up my son to hate†¦ he was a good, kind, young man not an evil killer. † This brings reality to the fact that you think you know who and what type of person your son/daughter is, but then a tragic thing like this happens and you find out that perhaps you don’t really know who and what your child is really like. Another example that language is a loaded weapon is in The Sun’s October 4th paper, on page 11 there was a heading â€Å"Scouts leader ‘let boy, 10, die on mountain. † Your first reactions and emotions to this title are anger, hatred and spite towards the scout leader for letting a 10-year old boy die on a mountain. You then read on, to find out that the leader left the boy unsupervised at the rear of the group as they descended Mount Snowdon. This headline favours the boy, where as if the paper were writing in the favour of the leader you would perhaps have a heading more along the lines of â€Å"A young boy strayed on the descent of mount Snowdon, slipped and fell 500ft to his death. † This is an excellent example to show that â€Å"Language is a loaded weapon† this shows us that by simply changing the way in which this title is worded, creates a whole different perspective to the article. It can persuade you to feel sorry for the family of the boy and hatred towards the scout leader or to show consideration to the leader that the boy may have strayed from the path himself, slipped and fallen. Therefore language can be used to manipulate what you feel and in some ways is used to control you. Newspapers tell you what they think you should know not what you would like to know. An example of this was in the Daily Mirror 13th January 1996 page 7. A heading and its article entitled â€Å"Gulp! † took up nearly the whole of the page compared with a little box in the left hand corner which had the heading â€Å"Girls-raped by gang of 14. † When a few years later a similar thing happens to a boy this gets front-page news with the title of â€Å"A gay gang rapes boy, 19† from The Sun. The way these articles have been positioned and the amount they have had written on them manipulates what the mass media wants us to know. The way the second article is written shows us that the media try to control what we think. The heading itself creates a lot of emotions even though his age is given as nineteen, the word ‘boy’ is what immediately grabs your attention and causes your imagination to see a small child rather than a young man. Therefore taking in to consideration all these examples you find that language is not only a loaded weapon but is also â€Å"one thousand ways biased. † It can be used to manipulate what we think and what we think we know. We are told what to think and not asked to think about what we are told.