Prison Overcrowding And Its Effects On The United States...

Per Derek Gilna’s report on Increase in Federal Prison Population, Overcrowding, prisons have become overpopulated throughout a five-year span from 2006 to 2011 (Gilna, page 48). Prison overcrowding has become a plague in the United States for some time now. The US Bureau of Justice Statistics shows more than two-million adults are incarcerated in US federal and state prisons. There are many reasons that prisons are becoming overpopulated but not such a certain cause. To fix the problem, attention must be brought towards the causes of this problem. Its happen to become a serious issue because it affects the prisoners, tax payers, prison staff and millions of others living in the U.S. as well. To put a stop to this continuous problem, action must take place to start prison reform and to structure our country to punish criminals in manner that is more reasonable than how we currently do it in today’s world. Mostly everyone today might have some type of relation or connect ion to a person that may be in jail or prison. That person may have committed a more serious crime than others that probably made a mistake but somehow ended up incarcerated for a very long time whether they were innocent or guilty. The rate of incarceration in the US is indeed high. Nearly, 455 people per every 100,000 people are incarcerated (Smolowe, 1994). These numbers are higher than any other country in the world. Looking at South Africa, our second closest, there are only 311 people per ever 100,000Show MoreRelatedThe Effects Of Prison Overcrowding On The United States Essay1713 Words   |  7 PagesThe United States has the biggest imprisonment rate on the planet, and paying a high cost for it. Detainment strength finished in the mid-1970s when the jail populace expanded from 300,000 to 1.6million detainees, and the imprisonment rate from 100 for each 100,000 to more than 500 for every 100,000. Nonetheless, there is by all accounts little relationship between the wrongdoin g rate and the imprisonment rate (Clear et al., 2013). One of the causes of prison overcrowding comes about because of theRead MoreOvercrowding And Its Effects On The United States Prison System1178 Words   |  5 Pages Overcrowding prisons are an issue that has been influencing the United States prison population for decades, however what is the true significance of overcrowding. As indicated by Jeff Bleich (1989) â€Å"the term overcrowding is repetitive, since crowding already refers to a higher level of social density than is desired†. An overcrowded prison is a shocking condition that causes outrage and dissatisfaction among detainees (Haney, 2014). This condition is so undesirable that one can consider it as unconstitutionalRead MorePrison Overcrowding Essay1184 Words   |  5 Pages Prison Overcrowding Nicole Neal American Intercontinental University Abstract This research paper is to explore the impact of prison overcrowding. The United States has a, what seems to be everlasting, prison overcrowding problem. Not only does the United States have this dilemma, but also many other countries have overcrowded prisons as well. Many issues need to be addressed; ways to reduce the prison populations and how to effectively reduce prison cost withoutRead MorePrison Overcrowding And The United States1555 Words   |  7 Pagesones.† The prisons in the United States have been overcrowded for many years and require a change in order to fix this. Some of the main causes for prison overcrowding that will be covered in this paper are mass incarceration, long sentencing, recidivism, and prisoners of drug crimes. Overcrowding of prisons in the United States is a major issue that affects not only the prisoners themselves, but taxpayers and politicians. Although there are many different solutions to prison overcrowding such as buildingRead MorePrison Overcrowding : The United States1535 Words   |  7 Pages 2017 Prison Overcrowding The United States has the highest number of incarcerated individuals than other countries. Offenders are arrested every day for minor and major offences such as murder. America is hard on crime. When someone breaks the law the criminal justice’s system seeks an eye for an eye. Prison overcrowding has become a major problem in the United States, it is very expensive to house an inmate and there are other methods to punish offenders without sending them to prison for extendedRead MoreEffects Of Prison Overcrowding1345 Words   |  6 Pagesproblems and a few of the effects that prison overcrowding causes towards the inmates and the guards. I will first address the issue of violence that prison overcrowding causes. My next point will be the health of the inmates discussing both their physical and mental while in overcrowded prisons. Lastly I will discuss the physical and mental health of the correctional officers and how the job could lead to correctional officers having issues in their private life. Prison Overcrowding has become a majorRead MorePrison Overcrwoding in America and England1234 Words   |  5 PagesPrison overcrowding in the United States is due to many reoccurring charges that is being sentenced to inmates that have been released and returning. As the increasing inmate population is a growing concern in the U.S, many law enforcement agencies and academic expert have analyzed data about the situation and are working to combat it. Research shows that Drugs are mainly to blame. Of the inmates in federal prison as of September 2011, more than half or 50.4% was serving sentences for drug offensesRead MoreThe Overcrowding Of The Correctional Facilities1730 Words   |  7 Pagesthreat to maintaining this balance is the overcrowding of prisons. In 2011, the United States Supreme Court ruled that massive overcrowding of California prisons violates its prisoner’s eighth amendment right protecting them from cruel and unusual punishment (Boylan, 2015, p. 558). At the time California’s correctional institutions were at double their capacity, housing over 155, 500 prisoners in only 33 institutions (Specter, 2010, p. 194). The overcrowding of correctional facilities is one of theRead MoreIncreased Population of Prisons Essay1606 Words   |  7 PagesOvercrowded prisons and improper punishment systems are enormous social issues for our government. The United States has seen steady growth in its prisons. A projected increment in seen due to â€Å"get-tough† policies that locks up offenders for longer sentences (Ohlemacher, 2007, para. 1). The correction system had been through various phases of transformation, and the government had been tough on crime; this approach had resulted in rising prison populations. There are many factors that cause overcrowdingRead MorePrison Systems Do Not Control The Number Of Prisoners Sent1286 Words   |  6 PagesCrimes in America 26 March 27, 2016 Overcrowding in Prisons The prison systems do not control the number of prisoners sent to jails. However, they have to deal with the consequences of this fact. In the last twenty years, all over the world, it is experienced a rapid increase in the number of prisoners. This growth is not limited to any particular type of jurisdiction or political system - it is observed in all regions of the world. According to the incapacitation effect, the shorter the span of opportunity

Domestic Violence By Law Enforcement Officers - 1531 Words

Domestic Violence by Law Enforcement Officers: A Review on Police Brutality Joette Jackson Dr. Khalfani Sociology 101-008 April 1, 2015 Domestic altercation contributes the largest category of calls received by the po-lice annually. It is not surprising considering the vast number of womb who are abused by their significant others. Domestic abuse is a hard pill to swallow, it is a complex issue that plagues a society. Neither parties are likely to come forth with the traumatic details. It is easy to read on the internet about the perils of domestic violence. The common sto-ries of a man abuses woman, a woman kills child, for all to see. However, what causes violence to happen? Who really is to blame? The Judicial system†¦show more content†¦In recent years America has experience the largest amount of layoffs due to the poor economy. Imagine the weight of unemployment increasing daily, now imagine the stress that causes inside the households of Americans. Corsianos (2012) restated, the average Male officers in a large police department will cost taxpayers between two –and-a half and five-and- a half ti mes more than the aver-age female officer with regard to force liability lawsuit payouts. (National Center for Women and Policing 2002). Due to this Female officers are less likely to succumb to rage which leads to domestic violence. IMPACT ON VICTIMS Physical. Every nine seconds a woman is beaten by her spouse (Protection Against Crime, 2002). Seventy-five percent of the victims of intimate murders are female with a total of three to four million women being battered each year by their respective intimate partners (Protection Against Crime, 2002).The victims of domestic abuse by law enforcement officers endure a special kind of torture, that others in that similar situation do not. The victims are most likely to endure the dangers of professionals who are experienced in firearms, knowledge and training of subduing their victims, etc. During these types of events, one might lose the sense of control and order they once had in their lives. Victims of abuse may suffer physical and emotional pain from the ordeals they had to live through, long after their

Impact of Digital Technologies on Customer Behaviour Free-Sample

Question: What is the Impact of Digital Technologies on Customer Behaviour. Answer: Digital presence in simple terms means having space online. Today many companies and businesses have social media accounts, various websites, apps and other viable forms of online advertising so as to reach their customers and other interested investors. Due to the recent advancements and innovations in the technology sector, many people worldwide are at the liberty of convenience to many forms of digital channels of advertisement and marketing. With this, it is easy for a company to reach to customers and make customers get access to its database and access information about the offerings being given out by the particular company. Through this, a company can easily engage with its customers and by so end up building good customer relationships and brand loyalty. (Fume, 2015) For instance, Vodafone which is the second largest telecom company in the world with over a half a million subscribers worldwide after the Chinese firm China Mobile has been using and recently expounding its digital presence in the past years to engage its customers and in turn, create good consumer relations with its clients. Vodafone has a large customer base with a predominant existence of its services in the regions of Africa, Asia, and Europe. It owns and operates networks in more than 20 countries and has a partnership with networks in over 45 countries (Wuaglobal 2016, p. 1). As of 2014, it had a connection base of subscribers of over 435.9 million throughout the world. The big question now is how it gets to achieve good consumer relations with all these customers through the use of apps, websites, social media and other forms of customer-related technologies. In 2016, Vodafone launched a new small business focused application marketplace. The first country that went live with the application for small and medium sized businesses was Italy. The application marketplace was made up of four main apps. The apps included; Smart sales which were created basically for catalog and management of context. The smart hotel which was created with solution providing tools for those investors and businesses in the hotel sector. Smart mobility which was created to organize the notes of staffs and business expenses mainly. Site web which was created as a personalized website design page. Customers were enabled to directly download the apps and manage them online through the Vodafone's marketplace, and this helped in the improving of the consumer's experience on Vodafone. (Vodafone.com 2016, p. 1). With increased consumer experience Vodafone was and is still able to boast about its great consumer relationship with its customers. For the past five years Vodafone through its partnership with Designate a company with expertise in telecom digital design, have been able to create a digital self-service model with customers experience at its center. Through this initiative, the two of them were able to come up with an app MI Vodafone an app that gives the customers the pleasure of managing all their Vodafone services on a single platform. The app gives the users a tool through which they can manage both their individual products as well as their services together with their relationship with Vodafone. With the use of this app, the customers have been able to check in their day to day consumption, manage their bills, get access to information and change their payment plans all centered in one place. With this app, Vodafone has been able to redefine the relationship with its clients since it now offers highly visual and very transparent relaying of information. Users of Vodafone are now completely in control of their experience on Vodafone compared to the previous experience which was tedious and wasted a lot of money and time compared to the current system which is more efficient and effective. Currently, it only takes thirty seconds or less to access information on Vodafone and this great consumer experience makes the customers more satisfied creating a good customer relationship between the company and its clients. (Designate 2017, p. 32) Social media is not only just a platform where people socialize anymore in the contemporary world as it used to be some years back. Nowadays, social media is platforms that can help a company or a business create a good or poor relationship between a brand or itself and its customers. Vodafone being a telecom company had a very bad encounter with social media some time back in the years 2011 and 2012 in one of its operational bases Australia. To be more specific Vodafone Hutchison Australia a partnership between Vodafone and Hutchison had an experience with consumer backlash due to social media criticism. In the year 2011 and 2012, the company Vodafone Hutchison Australia lost more than 680000 customers mainly because of a widespread criticism on various social media platforms. To rectify the mistake, the new CEO Kim Clarke came up with a strategy through which the company gets to directly engage with its customers through the company's website and various social media platforms. Vodafone Hutchison Australia has now come up with a well-designed process of improving customers experience through ensuring that there is the practice of consistent and highly relevant social media engagement with its clients. To make sure that this is not just a strategy with no action the company has put up a network team of thirty-five agents. The agents are assigned to manage the company's social environment through a platform known as Radian 6. (CMO 2017, p. 45) With this the company has been able to ensure that it provides highly objective service level to its customers and thus create a good consumer relationship with its customers. This can be attributed to the recent improvements that have been noticed in the company's operation in the immediate present past. In New Zealand, Vodafone has a partnership with one of the local companies called Digital Mobile which is one of its largest dealers in New Zealand? Digital Mobile is mandated to mainly sell and support the products and services that are being provided by Vodafone in the New Zealands local market (Vodafone 2016). For a long time, the customers of the company have been used to signing their Vodafone contracts. They have been doing so using a paperwork system which was tedious, time-consuming, inefficient and very ineffective with the comparison to the new system since customers were returning incomplete contracts. Consequently, the company's employees had to go back to the customers and ask for the missing information. These always resulted in customers ending up not getting all the services they had applied or requested for, and at the end the customers became frustrated, and that stretched the company's relation with the customers (Ready Business 2015, p. 1). Recently, through the making of various consultations with various expertises the company has come up with an electronic signup system to make the signing process for the Vodafone contracts is more streamlined and becomes satisfying to the customers. Through the introduction of the self-sufficient electronic sign-up system, the customers are now able to sign up for their contracts using mobile data through a digital signing process. The employees in the company now don't have to go back to the customer for missing information on the contracts, but instead, they do it through the same platform. The new system now manages customer follow-ups, the signing processes and sends customers reminders thus reducing time consumption in signing up for contracts. (Secured Signing, 2017, p. 12). These have made sure the customers are highly satisfied and through the company has been able to create a good bond with its consumer bases hence making a good customer relationship between the company and its clients. In 2011, Vodafone Egypt during the Cairo ICT 2011 conference and exhibition' was able to introduce to its customers some apps which were tuned towards improving the consumer services the company was offering its clients. The apps were also focused towards improving its consumers' experience. One of the apps shirkers' which in English can be translated to my company' was introduced mainly to help companies increase their performance effectiveness and efficiency by allowing them to employ latest business management of finance and administration of customer relations through the internet (Indian Weekly 2010, p. 23). The app comprises of two other apps. One of them mallaffaty' which in English can be translated to my files' was made in such a way that it allows customers to save files on a program based on the internet and also allows them to retrieve them and also download them at any time. The second one is known as mawqe'ie' which can be translated into English to mean my website' application that helps the users to set up their websites and emails through very easy steps rather than having to look for expensive expertise. Another app they introduced is known as Hesabaty' which translates to my account' an app that offers the customers to manage their accounts through the internet (Dupre 2016, p. 1). Due to this apps introduction, Vodafone Egypt was able to create a good consumer relationship with its customers since customer satisfaction was improved and is now at its best. Also in 2012, Vodafone was able to introduce high internet speed through the 4G technology. Long term evolution LTE was introduced at a speed of 150Mbps which is the highest yet known internet speed so far.Through the introduction of this high-speed internet, customers have been able to have a very pleasant experience with the use of internet everywhere around the world. In the same year 2011, Vodafone was also able to come up with an app the Vodafone Buzz (Clariden Global 2017, p. 1). The app is mainly designed as a networking and chatting platform just like other social media platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter and Google talk. In addition to this Vodafone, buzz gives additional options like questionnaires, chat rooms, and games. To add on its long chain of network and technological modes of managing its consumer relationships Vodafone came up with a device called the Web box. This device is connected to the television so that both of them work at the same time. This enables the customers to listen to FM radio, access the internet and send and receive emails, short messages, and multimedia messages. With this Vodafone has been able to cement its consumer bases and thus created a great bond with its customers and by so doing it has been able to maintain its relationship with its customers (Vodafone Egypt, 2011) Vodafone has been on the verge of improving and transforming businesses throughout the globe. Through its workings, Vodafone was able to come up with transformation pathways for businesses and effective business models (Designate 2017, p. 13). Through its visions and focus Vodafone was able to come up with FSOM the Future State Operating Model whose aim was to deliver a unified set of standard processes in the business and corporate world across its many networks globally. With this the company has been able to introduce transformations in the business like BMT2 the Business Transformation Methodology which when applied transformed the company from a merger and acquisition growth technology company to a shareholder driven consumer focused company making it more flexible towards the management of consumer relations.(Digitalist,2014) Vodafone through its partnership with a Kenyan based Telecommunication Company Safaricom which is the East Africa's largest telecom company was able to introduce the worlds largest mobile money transfer platform known as MPESA which has its transactions accumulating to $ 50 billion a year (Telecom Lead 2016, p. 1). Through Vodafone, the platform is now operating in more than four countries, and it has helped users send and receive money conveniently through their mobile phones without having to go to banks and other financial institutions. With these Vodafone has been able to manage its consumer relationships. Conclusion Vodafone just like many businesses in the today corporate world has put emphasis to digital presence to create and enhance a good relation with its customers. Through the various innovations, it has made it has been able to remain one of the world's largest telecom companies. The above discussed are just some of the apps, social media, and customer-related technologies are just some of the many forms Vodafone is using to create and reinform itself for digital presence. References Clariden Global 2017, 2nd annual digital consumer care, contact center, and experience. Available from: claridenglobal.com/conference/digitalcustomercare-contactcenter2017/ (Accessed on May 6, 2017) CMO 2017, changing the brand one conversation at a time: Vodafone Hutchison Australia. Available from: www.cmo.com.au/article/462940/changing_brand_one_conversation_time_vodafone_Hutchison_Australia. (Accessed on May 6, 2017) Designate 2017, Nextgen digital relationships. Available from: https://designit.com/cases/nextgen-digital-relationships (Accessed on May 6, 2017) Digitalist 2015, Vodafone Turns Up The Volume On Business Transformation. Available from: www.digitalistmag.com/industries/telecomunications-industries/2014/04/23/vodafone-turns-up-the-volume-on-business-transformation-01249234 (Accesses on May 6, 2017) Dupre 2016, Vodafone Fastest Mobile Operator to Respond To Customers-Du Prepel. Available from: www.dupre.co.uk/mobile.../vodafone-fastest-mobile-operator-respond-customers/ (Accessed on May 6, 2017) Flume 2015, What Does It Mean To Have A Digital Presence?-Cover Magazine. Available from: flume.co.za/what-does-it-mean-to-have-a-digital-presence-career-magazine/ (Accessed on May 6, 2017) India Weekly 2010, India weekly Telkom news March 12, 2010. Available from: https://books.google.com/books?id=07nmDyIHCQIC (Accessed on May 6, 2017) Ready Business 2015, Ready Business Insights: Social Media in Hospitality-Vodafone NZ. Available from: www.vodafone.co.nz/readybusiness/digital-insights/social-for-hospitality/ (Accessed on May 6, 2017) Secured signing 2017, Digital Mobile Moves To Electric Signing for Contracts. Available from: www.securedsigning.com/resourses/case-studies/digital-mobile (Accessed on May 6, 2017) Telecom Lead 2016, Vodafone reveals digital cloud marketplace targeting SMEs. Available from: www.telecomlead.com/telecom-services/vodafone-reveals-digital-cloud-marketplace-targeting-smes-72137 (Accessed on May 6, 2017) Vodafone 2011, Press release for publication Cairo, 28 May 201. Available from: www.vodafone.com.eg/vodafoneportalweb/en/releaseDetail-page?dDocName=VF_017145 (Accessed on May 6, 2017) Vodafone cloud 2015, Vodafone cloud barometer. Available from: https://www.vodafone.nl/-assets/mgb/downloads/.../whitepaper-cloud-barometer.pdf (Accessed on May 6, 2017) Vodafone 2016, Vodafone launches new small business focused app marketplace. Available from: www.vodafone.com/business/press-release/vodafone-launches-new-small-business-focused-application-marketplace-2016-10-24 (Accessed on May 6, 2017) Vodafone 2016, Vodafone: ready business index. Available from: https://businessapps.vodafone.com.au/en/readybusinessindex (Accessed on May 6, 2017) Vodafone 2017, Future ready retail-Vodafone. Available from: https://www.vodafone.ie/content?id=BAU025225 (Accessed on May 6, 2017) Wuaglobal 2016, Vodafone Wins Digital Customer Experience Study SIM only plan-WUA. Available from: www.wuaglobal.com/.../vodafone-wins-digital-customer-experience-study-sim-plan-g... (Accessed from May 6, 2017)

Psychology Adrian Monk free essay sample

Adrian Monk, portrayed by actor Tony Shalhoub, is the main character in the USA Network series MONK. Monk is a former homicide detective for the San Francisco Police Department, suffering from an anxiety disorder known as obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), as well as numerous phobias. After Monk’s wife was murdered, his disorder worsened leading to his suspension from the police force. When the series opens, Monk works as a private police homicide consultant and undergoes therapy to overcome his anxiety disorder and phobias. He is assisted by a private nurse who helps him cope with his disability on the job. Part One—Case Study Character Background The episode â€Å"Happy Birthday Mr. Monk† shows that Monk, born October, 17, 1959, is a California man of Welsh ancestry. Monk is 50 years old, and was born in Marin County, CA. He stated, â€Å"His alma mater is the University of California, Berkley. † His parents were very strict and authoritarian. We will write a custom essay sample on Psychology Adrian Monk or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Monk’s father Jack Monk abandoned the family when Monk was eight years old. Jack said that he was going to get Chinese food, but he never came back. Ambrose Monk, Monk’s brother, is agoraphobic and afraid to go out in public. Monk’s mom died in 1994. Because of these childhood family events, Monk is already a very sensitive and fragile person. Mr. Monk dislikes unorganized, rude, dirty, and filthy people. He also dislikes murderers, people who commit evil acts, and criminals on the loose. That is the reason he became a homicide detective. Mr. Monk likes people who help others, such as his physician and Trudy. In addition, he likes organized, clean, and tidy people. Mr. Monk’s strength is that he is a very clever detective. Plus, he has an amazing photographic memory, which helps him catch criminals. His weakness is that he has many phobias, which affect his performance as a detective. Mr. Monk doesn’t have any friends because of the weird and odd behaviors caused by his OCD. His family consists of his assistants/nurses Sharona, and then Natalie. He also works with people in the homicide department, namely Captain Leland Stottlemeyer and Lieutenant Randy Disher. Stressors/Pathology Mr. Monk does not have any relationships with anyone, mainly because of his odd behaviors. He acts strangely in front people because of his OCD. In the episode â€Å"Mr. Monk Makes A New Friend† he annoys a new friend by calling him too much. Monk explains himself, stating, â€Å"I can’t not call him or hear his voice. † It is very annoying to call a friend every hour. That is one example of how Mr. Monk has difficulty with personal relationships. His wife, Trudy Monk, with whom he had a meaningful relationship, died in a car bomb. Before his wife’s death, Mr. Monk’s OCD symptoms had alleviated. After Trudy was murdered, the OCD symptoms intensified, and those around him could clearly see that he had issues, which affected his job performance and led to his isolation. When the series begins, Mr. Monk’s condition is somewhat stable, but his lives in an overly organized apartment. The battle Monk faces daily is how to make it through the day with his OCD. He tries to avoid everything that makes him uncomfortable or is viewed as a threat. Mr. Monk stresses over the fact that every room must be neat and tidy. Plus everything must be a multiple of 10; for example he buys a box of eggs, which contains 12 eggs and deliberately throws two eggs away. Mr. Monk doesn’t have any history of this disorder, but his brother was agoraphobic. Symptoms Other symptoms of OCD manifest themselves typically as ritual behavior such as repetitive hand washing. Mr. Monk needs to wash his hands every time he touches an object or shakes a hand. He becomes obsessed with shapes. For example, his toast has to be a perfect square. Numbers occupy his time. As mentioned above, everything must come in multiples of 10. He has the typical preoccupation with dirt and germs. For example, he can’t stay in an untidy or dirty room; he has to tidy it up. Mr. Monk is terrified of germs, milk, dust, and heights. So what Mr. Monk does all day is try to stay away from all of these fears. These symptoms never emerged in the series; rather, the viewer is led to believe that Mr. Monk had OCD since he was born. However, the viewer is also informed in conversations with the police sergeant and with Monk’s nurse and therapist that what triggered this disorder was the murder of his wife. Immediately after his wife died, his disorder worsened. Outcome of Case Monk’s treatment was to go to Dr. Charles Kroger for psychotherapy that would aid him to cope with his disorder. In the sessions, Mr. Monk talks about what he did during the day and the goals he accomplished. The treatment is not entirely effective, but it helps Mr. Monk relax and get all the stress out. In the long term, Mr. Monk cannot overcome his disorder because he cannot imagine that he can be cured. In addition, he is not a risk taker, meaning he could never do anything that would make him uncomfortable. Because of this, there is little hope that he will be able to completely overcome his disorder. This makes sense because his disorder is inherited, and not attributed to environmental causes. Part Two—Disease Diagnostic Criteria Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a pattern of recurring obsessions and compulsions that are severe enough to be time consuming and interfere with a person’s daily functioning. They must cause marked distress (such as pain or physical harm to the person) or significant impairment. Usually, they take more than one hour of a person’s time. It is important to specify whether or not the patient has poor insight, meaning that the person does not realize that the obsessions or compulsions are unreasonable or excessive. At some point, the person must realize that their obsessions and compulsions are not reasonable (i. e. , normal). â€Å"Obsessions are consistent ideas, thoughts, impulses, or images that are experienced as intrusive and inappropriate and that cause marked anxiety or stress† (DSM IV-TR, 300. 3). Most common obsessions are about contamination with dirt or germs, repeated doubts, a need to have things in a particular order, horrible impulse, the need to shout obscene words, or sexual impulses. Compulsions are repetitive behaviors which people do to reduce the anxiety or distress of the obsessions. For example, repeated hand washing is a compulsion, which satisfies the obsession of repeated thoughts of contamination from dirt. For a complete list of Diagnostic Criteria from the DSM IV-TR, see Appendix A. Etiology (Causes) Nearly 1 to 2 percent of the population suffers from OCD. Most of those begin to be afflicted in early adulthood, and it is often preceded by a particularly stressful event such as pregnancy, childbirth, or family conflict. It may be closely associated with depression, with the disorder developing soon after a bout of depression or the depression developing as a  result of the disorder. Men and women are equally affected. A fairly high proportion (as much as 50 percent) do not marry (Baldridge 2001). Although Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder usually begins in adolescence or early adulthood, it may begin in childhood. Modal age at onset is earlier in males than in females: between ages 6 and 15 years for males and between ages 20 and 29 years for females. For the most part, onset is gradual, but acute onset has been noted in some cases. The majority of individuals have a chronic waxing and waning course, with exacerbation of symptoms that may be related to stress. About 15% show progressive deterioration in occupational and social functioning. About 5% have an episodic course with minimal or no symptoms between episodes (DSM IV-TR, 300. 3) No cause for OCD has been isolated. Four theories exist which try to explain the basis of OCD psychologically: guilt, anxiety, and superstition. 1) The theory of guilt has its origins in Freudian psychoanalysis. Freud believed that patients with OCD developed repetitive rituals, such as hand washing, to replace obsessive thoughts about sex. The obsessive ritual, then, was seen as a way to replace the guilt of being overwhelmed by forbidden, sexual thoughts. 2) The anxiety hypothesis poses that OCD behaviors develop to reduce anxiety. Many thought or action patterns emerge as a way of escape from stress, such as daydreaming during an exam or cleaning one’s room rather than studying for a test. If the stress is long lasting, then a compulsive behavior may set in. 3) The superstition theory proposes a connection between a chance association and a reinforcer that induces a continuation of that behavior. In other words, a particular obsessive-compulsive ritual may be reinforced when a positive outcome follows the behavior; anxiety results when the ritual is interrupted. 4) A fourth theory is accepted by those who believe that mental disorders are the result of something physically or physiologically amiss in the sufferer, employing data from brain structure studies, genetics, and biochemistry. Brain chemistry has been found to be altered in those suffering from OCD, along with increased metabolic activity. In addition, relatives of OCD sufferers are twice as likely as unrelated individuals to develop the same disorder, indicating that the tendency for the behavior could be inheritable (Baldridge 2001). Treatments OCD is one of the most difficult disorders to treat. Treatments usually fall into four categories: psychotherapy, behavioral therapy, drug therapy, and psychosurgery. The goal of psychotherapy in treating OCD is to find and then remove an assumed repression so that the patient can deal honestly and openly with whatever is actually feared. It is hoped that in dealing with the fear, the compulsions that have developed to replace the fear will lessen. The most effective type of psychotherapy for obsessive-compulsive disorder is behavioral therapy. It can help by desensitizing the patient to the feared object or situation. For example, the therapist will aid the patient in replacing the symptoms of the obsession or compulsion with preventive or replacement actions, such as a non vocal, internal shout of â€Å"stop! † when obsessive thoughts enter the mind or the action of snapping a rubber band on the wrist. Behavioral therapy may also help by gradually lengthening the time between the stimulus and response. For example, a patient may hold dirt and then gradually lengthen the amount of time after which he or she will wash his or her hands. While behavioral treatment can help to control OCD, it does not â€Å"cure† the disorder. Drugs used to treat OCD include antidepressants, tricyclic, monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs), LDS, and tryptophan. Antidepressants help by reducing depression by correcting the serotonin abnormality in the brain, which may decrease the need for compulsive behavior. MAOIs may help OCD associated with panic attacks, phobias, and severe anxiety. With drug therapy, it should be noted that when the drugs are stopped, the patient often returns to the obsessive-compulsive behavior. Psychosurgery to reduce OCD is a last resort. The patient would undergo a lobotomy in which the frontal cortex would be separated from the lower brain area in an 8-centimeter square area. A combination of behavioral therapy, psychotherapy and drug therapy is recommended. General Research Behavioral treatments are new ways to deal with the disorder. For example, someone with an obsession about germs might be asked to practice handling dirt and then not washing his hands for increasing lengths of time. With repeated exposure to the anxiety-provoking object or situation without performing the compulsion, usually the anxiety lessens, and the compulsion weakens its hold. Obsessions can fall into one of five categories: 1. Obsessive doubts, which are persistent doubts that a task has been completed. 2. Obsessive thinking, which is an almost infinite chain of thought, targeting future events. Obsessive impulses, which are very strong urges to perform certain actions, whether they be trivial or serious, that would likely be harmful to the obsessive person or someone else and that are socially unacceptable. 4. Obsessive fears, which are thoughts that the person has lost control and will act in some way that will cause public embarrassment. 5. Obsessive images, which are continued visual pictures of either a real or an imagined event. (DSM IV-TR, 300. 3) Compulsions on the other hand are repeated, ritualized behaviors. For example, fearing one has forgotten to turn off an appliance, such as a stove, is a common obsession. It is likely to be accompanied by a compulsion to check repeatedly, perhaps hundreds of times each day, perhaps to see if the appliance has been turned off. Compulsions are repetitive behaviors, the goal of which is to prevent or reduce anxiety or distress, not to provide pleasure or gratification. In most cases, the person feels driven to perform the compulsion to reduce the distress that accompanies an obsession or to prevent some dreaded event or situation. For example, those with obsessions about being contaminated may reduce their mental distress by washing their hands until their skin is raw. There is difference between OCD and obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD). A personality disorder is, on the one hand, a type of mental illness characterized by serious and persistent distortions in the total personality. Every perception, attitude, feeling and behavior is affected. OCD, on the other hand, is an anxiety disorder. Like other anxiety disorders, fear is at its root—fear of a hot appliance burning down the house, for example, or fear of the body being contaminated by germs. The fear produces an anxiety which can only be alleviated by a ritual, or compulsion, which will reduce the fear. Conclusion Evaluation of Case In conclusion, Adrian Monk has Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. He satisfies the following OCD patterns of behavior: 1. Washer, because he is afraid of contamination; 2. Checker, because Mr. Monk repeatedly checks if the door is locked, or whether the oven is turned off. Mr. Monk checks everything a dozen time just to make sure. For example, he checks his oven if it is closed everyday at least twelve times; 3. Arranger, because he always arranges his utensils based on size and shape and his books based on color. He cannot function in a messy room or disorganized room. In addition, Mr. Monk has other phobias, such as fear of blood and fear of the woods. He is terrified of germs, milk, heights, and spiders. Mr. Monk has a rule that everything he has must come as a multiple of ten. When he buys milk, he gets 10 bottles even though he lives alone and the milk will expire before he has time to drink it all. Monk’s symptoms may improve with therapy, but his OCD will not completely resolve.

Lymphoma Essays (648 words) - Lymphoma, Hodgkins Lymphoma

Lymphoma Lymphoma Controlling Purpose: In this paper you will be informed about the cause, symptoms, and treatment of lymphoma. You will also learn about the lymphatic system and how this cancer affects it. I. Lymphatic system A. Function of the system B. Parts of the system. C. How cancer affects the system II. Types of lymphoma A. Hodgkin's lymphoma B. Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma III. Cause of lymphoma A. HIV B. Organ transplant IV. Treatment A. Radiation B. Chemotherapy C. Bone marrow transplant Lymphoma Lymphoma is cancer of the lymphatic system. Any group of cancers in which the cells of lymphoid tissues multiply unchecked. Clayman, 657. This is the system which manufactures and circulates lymph throughout the body. The purpose of the lymphatic system is to help the body fight infection. Lymph is a colorless fluid that contains white blood cells. This system also consists of the spleen, nodes and tonsils. The nodes are small organs found in the neck , under the arms, in the groin and abdomen. The nodes store infection fighting cells. Normally, cells grow, divide, and replace themselves in and orderly way. When lymphoma occurs, cells in the lymphatic system grow out of control. When this happens too much tissue is formed and a tumor is developed. The tumor is usually in the nodes found in the neck, this is one of the symptoms of lymphoma. Since lymph is circulated throughout the body, it spreads easily. Cancerous lymphocytes can be confined to a single lymph node or can be spread throughout the body to almost any organ. Berkow, 770. There are two basic types of lymphomas, Hodgkin's and non-Hodgkin's lymphomas. There is little difference between the two types of cancers. The main difference is the ages it affects. Hodgkin's usually occurs in younger people while Non-Hodgkin's usually occurs in older people. Some forms of lymphoma are curable, but other forms are not. Hodgkin's lymphoma is more curable than non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Sometimes the cancer will go into remission for a few years then come back. The cure rate of some lymphomas is high, but the cure rate of others is low. For the most part the cause of lymphoma is unknown. In some cases an organ transplant may cause lymphoma because is suppresses the immune system. It is also thought that HIV may allow other viruses to cause lymphoma. In most cases of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, the cause is unknown. Occasionally, the disease is associated with the suppression of the immune system. Clayman, 657. There are only a few types of treatment for lymphomas. The two main types of treatment are radiation and chemotherapy. An anticancer drug is also used to help fight the cancer. When the cancer is very serious a bone marrow transplant is sometimes used. Most patients who are treated survive five years longer than people who are affected by the cancer and are not treated. To diagnose lymphoma a portion of the lymph node is removed and examined for cancerous cells. More tests are run on the tissue to determine what type of lymphoma, grade, and stage the cancer is in. After this the doctor will decide which type of treatment will be best for the patient. The extent of the disease is assessed by a process called staging. Berkow, 773. Lymphoma can be classified into four basic stages. In the first stage there is only one cancer site. In the second stage there are two cancer sites, both are above or below the waist. In the third stage, there are cancer sites both above and below the waist. The bone marrow is not affected. In the fourth and worst stage, The cancer has spread outside of the lymphatic system. The bone marrow has also been infected. Bibliography Berkow, Robert, ed. The Merk Manual. Whitehouse Station, N.J.: Merk and Co., Inc., 1997. Clayman, Charles, B., ed. Home Medical Encyclopedia. New York: Reader's Digest Association. What is Lymphoma. Macintosh. Http://www.lymphoma.org Health and Beauty Essays

Bill of Rights essays

Bill of Rights essays Individual rights are the oldest and most traditional of American values. (ACLU, 1997) The Bill of Rights is a document consisting of the Constitutions first ten amendments. The first eight of these amendments specify certain basic freedoms and safeguards we as citizens hold. They protect the people from wrongdoings or unjust acts committed toward them by the federal government. The Government, due to these amendments, cannot change or interfere with these rights. Ancient Greeks and Romans created many of the basic ideas used in the Bill of Rights (Lowi...a number of prominent Americans were alarmed at the omission of individual liberties in the proposed constitution. (Early America, 2001) Both James Madison and Thomas Jefferson fought over the acceptance of these views. It was James Madison, though, that helped pass the first ten amendments. On September 25, 1789, the First Congress of the United States therefore proposed to the state legislatures 12 amendments to the Constitution that met arguments most frequently advanced against it. The first two proposed amendments, which concerned the number of constituents for each Representative and the compensation of Congressmen, were not ratified. Articles 3 to 12, however, ratified by three-fourths of the state legislatures, to constitute the first 10 amendments of the Constitution. (National Archives, 1998) These soon came to be known as the Bill of Rights, and was put into effect on Dece mber 15,1791. The Constitution as it was first written and given to the states for ratification contained provisions for civil liberties, which covered everyone. It also set up a powerful national government. The thirteen states were asked to ratify the Constitution wanting a list of individual rights, as each state had in its constitution. The states would not ratify the...

Managing Finance & Decision Making Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Managing Finance & Decision Making - Essay Example The retail sector is expected to show growth in all the categories and sub-divisions: electrical, groceries, clothing and footwear, cosmetics, home-ware, floor coverings and furniture, gardening as well as e-retail, in the coming years. (Tesco, 2010) The grocery and the e-retail will be the most important divisions in the coming years. According to British Retail Consortium, the sector sales in the country amounted to GBP 293 billion in 2010. The retail companies based in the United Kingdom provides services to millions of people around the globe leading in grocery, clothing, and home-ware. This sector supplies employment to 11 percent of the total workforce in the country: employing around 3 million people. It contributes 8 percent to the country’s GDP and accounts to be a major part of the country’s exchequer. (Invest in UK, 2010) The retail sector in the United Kingdom is oversaturated with the a small number of big players controlling the market. According to Britis h Retail Consortium, there were 286,680 retail outlets in the country as of 2010. According to a research performed by the TNS Kantar Worldpanel, the three major players of the retail industry in the United Kingdom, with respect to market share, are: Tesco with 30.5 percent Sainsbury with 16.6 percent ASDA with 16.5 percent 1 Despite the setbacks in the economy: rising prices, fuel costs, spending cuts, the investors look forward to strong growth and positive sales growth in the retailing. They expect the economy to heal itself in the coming months and realize its true potential. Tesco A global merchandising and grocery store based in the United Kingdom leads the ‘Big Four’ supermarkets group. The brand is the largest within the boundaries of the country with a market share of 31 percent and the third largest in the global market with respect to sales revenue. The company operates in 14 different countries through 4,811 different types of stores. It provides everything under one roof: from grocery to appliances, clothing to shoes, tires to gardening tools as well as home wares. (Tesco, 2010) Tesco plans to invest GBP 27 million to reduce its carbon footprint by 2020. â€Å"At Tesco, we care about the environment and want to lead the way in preparing for a low carbon future. We are now ready to unveil the scale of our plans to use Combined Heat and Power to cut our carbon footprint2.† The brand is ranked as the second largest in the world with respect to profits. The brand in the fiscal year 2010 showed strong growth: sales showed an increase by 6.8 percent whereas it’s pre-tax profit increased by 10 percent. Therefore, the financial gurus believe that the company has now transformed itself into a fully globally diversified business and is en route to strong future growth. (Tesco, 2010) Sainsbury J Sainsbury, with a market share of 16.6 percent, is ranked as the second largest retailer in the United Kingdom. The company provides an en ormous assortment of goods and services under one roof to its 19 million customers through the 872 stores spread across the country. The products range from grocery to appliances, tires to gardening, clothing to cosmetics as well as furniture. (Sainsbury, 2010) Sainsbury has become one of the pioneers of dedication. It has planned to invest GBP 40 million into the sustainable farming over the period of next three years that will allow the farmers to augment their productivity and

Hourly Rounding in the ED by Staff Research Paper

Hourly Rounding in the ED by Staff - Research Paper Example One answer to this conundrum is hourly patient rounding, which shows promise in the achievement of both nurses and patient satisfaction. Positive outcomes of this system depend on the level of satisfaction felt by both the patient and his parents, as well as by the nurses. The earlier proposal dealt with the improvement of client satisfaction in the paediatric hospital’s emergency department. The study aimed at researching ways in which client satisfaction could be improved. It showed that in order for paediatric hospitals to offer optimal ED services, and also gain the guardians and children’s satisfaction, they needed to tie the rounds with clinical care, treatment procedures, nursing services, and waiting time. However, the proposal did not research on the satisfaction of Registered Nurses. This paper seeks to study satisfaction in the system from a nurse’s point of view and the effect on the patients. A previous study was conducted on the assessment and compa rison of a paediatric hospital ED’s overall department for both patients and their guardians (Nathan, 2002). It aimed at identifying healthcare aspects that influenced this group’s satisfaction. At the end of their ED care, questionnaires were administered, with survey instruments using a pain rating scale and an interval scale of six points. The questions involved their perception of interactive quality wit the attending doctors, adequacy of availed information, the child’s pain resolution, correlation between actual and estimated waiting times, as well as a comparison between fear, satisfaction and pain. The study validated earlier studies that had found a correlation between satisfaction of patients and interactive quality with ED personnel, adequacy of availed information, and, for the guardians, the time spent waiting for room placement, as well as that spent waiting to be attended by a physician. The study did not find a correlation to the total time sent in the ED (Nathan, 2002). The study found that pain resolution was associated significantly with patient satisfaction in the ED, which could be addressed via hourly rounding. However, this study did not deal with the satisfaction of the nurses, who are just as important in pain resolution through hourly rounding. The study discussed below used patients and nurses as the study group at the Hillcrest Medical Centre. An hourly patient rounding system was initiated at the Hillcrest Medical Centre in Tulsa (Melnyk & Fineout, 2010). Before the system was implemented, the Nursing Manager pondered the facilitators, barriers, and implications of the system that he needed to consider in order making it a success. After holding several strategy planning meetings with his nursing staff, the unit was able to pilot hourly rounding, scripting, outcomes, facilitators, barriers and procedures. The piloting procedure consisted of several sections (Frampton & Charmell, 2009). The unit was split into t wo, where one side consisted of techs and nurses who were to perform q1 hour rounding, while on the other side were nurses who gave nursing care in their usual manner. They also mounted a miniature small white board for every room so that the nurse attending the patient could write their name on it. Afterwards, the desk secretaries could tally the number of patients that made distress calls from both sides. In addition, the techs and nurses were in possession of a clipboard in every time which consisted of a time chart on which they registered each hourly round made. The techs were

Marketing case Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Marketing case - Essay Example ions were manifested regarding the introduction and marketing of casual runners and walkers in 11 new designs, instead of focusing on the 5 designs that the company has produced for the last 15 years. There are different symptoms that were identified in the case such as: (1) an eroding regional share; (2) eminent failure to increase the share in the broader market; (3) inability to cope with production of more designs using the present workforce; and (4) ineffective advertisements that confused old customers more than attracting new ones. From these symptoms, one could deduce that using the 5 Why Analysis: why was there an erosion in regional share? (could be due to increasing competition where more product options were available); why did they fail to increase the share in a broader market base despite increasing the number of designs? (could be due to their inability to cope with the required high quality expected of the products they produce); why were they unable to cope with the production of new designs (maybe their present staff of 35 production workers could not comply with the increased product designs or there were failure to detect the quality of work outsourced from t wo plants in South Korea); and, why was there ineffective advertisements (maybe due to the increase product designs, management could not focus on the product and marketing strategies that they want to project to the consumers). In this regard, after closer evaluation, the root problem actually stemmed from the overexpansion in product lines and designs that have not been supported by appropriate marketing strategies to enhance public awareness and to establish core competence and competitive advantage for a particularly strong product brand or line. 1. What had Henry done right? Actually, Henry was right in identifying that Pacer must respond to the changing and increasing demands of the athletic shoe market. The industry’s largest players begun to go after their established market

Canada and the United States Ownership of the Arctic Region

Canada and the United States Ownership of the Arctic Region The Arctic region has been a neglected area for many years. However with the recent discovery of natural and mineral resources in the Arctic, countries such as the United States, Russia and other European countries have been presenting their keen interest in the cold territory. In the article Arctic Meltdown, written by Scott Borgerson, the author discusses the economic and the security consequences caused by the Global Warming.Global warming has contributed to the melting of the icecaps this led to the finding of forty-four billion barrels of natural gas liquids in the frozen area of the Arctic Circle. The discovery has escalated the fight between Russia, United States, Canada and other European countries over which state legally possess these resources creating the most crucial territorial dispute of the century.The article Arctic Meltdown, talks about the political issues caused in the Arctic creating hindrance to the negotiation made between countries claiming its possession of t he resources. Although the melting of the icecaps presents promising energy markets and the revolution of global shipping, serious problems such as the possibility of war over the territory in the Arctic region are currently being overlooked by the U.S. State Department and by the U.S. National Security Council. Since there are no legal structures available in responding to the great levels of ice-melting and to an organized development of the Arctic region, the territory is as a result in danger of being exploited by several money and power hungry countries.This proves that if a powerful country such as the United States does not step up and address the challenges faces in the Arctic, the issues evident will continue to worsen creating a possibility of a battle between nations in desire to control the abundant amount of resources available. This essay will employ the conceptual models of global politics such as realism and complex interdependence in understanding different dimensio ns evident to the current situation in the Arctic. Hence will examine on how the Canadian and U.S. governments should approach the issue. Overview of the situation in the Arctic region The melting of the icecap has sparked pre-existing issues relating to the land claims made by Russia, U.S and other countries in Europe, challenging Canadas Arctic sovereignty because of the increase interest of outside states of the resource available in the region. Ice caps in the Arctic are melting as a result more natural resources and minerals are being found. This has allowed a creation of shorter shipping routes that could potentially save billions of dollars each year for shipping companies.According to an estimate conducted by the U.S. geological survey and Statoil-Hydro of Norway, the Arctic carries about one quarter of the worlds remaining and undiscovered oil and gas sediments.Countries battle over the territory for the reason that it can economically prosper a country as a result increasing the states political influence and authority. This desire to attain power is embedded in every state, which is why tension is ignited amongst countries longing to achieve rights of th e Arctic. U.S and Canada relations in the Arctic Canada and the United States relationship have shown some frustration in pursuing its own interest in the Arctic. Both states display enthusiasm on the extraction of the resources and expansion of a strategic military region in the Arctic.Such keenness has raised a major number of issues such as the control over marine transportation in the Northwest Passage and the domineering of pollution problems. The predicament roots back in 1969 and 1970, when the use of the voyages S.S Manhattan, a U.S. tanker and C.G.S. Polar Sea, a U.S. icebreaker motivated the issue of Canadas sovereign control over its Arctic region that stimulated a debate nationally.The dispute over Canadian sovereignty of the Arctic waters led to the enactment of the Arctic Waters Pollution Prevention Act that allows Canada to regulate over pollution inside a 100 mile zone. In 1970, the unhappy United States responds back stating that accepting the act would jeopardize the freedom of navigation essential for United Stat es activities worldwide.However in 1988, Canada and the United States signed an agreement on Arctic Co-operation, that allowed the U.S. icebreakers to voyage through the Arctic with some limitations and consent obtained from the Canadian government. The claim of territory in the Arctic by several countries has challenged Canadas sovereignty over the Arctic. In attempt to overcome the challenges, Canada dedicated fifty-one million dollars to help classify and map the border of its continental shelf in the Arctic to coincide upon the jurisdictions laid out in the United Nations Convention on the Law of Sea also known as UNCLOS.The UNCLOS is an administration of law and command that regulates the worlds oceans and seas by setting up rules governing uses of all oceans and its resources.Canada ratified the UNCLOS in 2003; the United States on the other hand has not approved the UNCLOS even though the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations voted in 2004 advocating the ratification. To tackle the current crisis in the Arctic territory, it is essential for United States to come up with an agreement with Canada to help prevent the escalation of conflicts regarding the sea-water lines and its resources.Borgenson states in the article the Arctic Meltdown, that the decisions made by the Arctic powers in the coming years will therefore profoundly shape the future of the region for decades. He believes that without the U.S. participating in the decision making to find solutions for the claims made by the Arctic powers. Borgenson indicates that without the U.Ss leadership in this matter, the region could erupt in an armed mad dash for its resources. Realist theory approaches to the conflict Political realists in international politics strive to obtain power through the use of violence.They believe that throughout history nations have either vigorously prepared for violence or either convalescing from it due to war.The conceptual theory realism relies heavily on three assumptions; 1) states are leading actors and act as rational divisions; 2) the use of force is effective to obtain power as proven throughout the past [historic wars]; 3) and suppose that hierarchy in politics high politics dictates over low politics of economic and public dealings.In addition, realists assume that the international system is in a continuous state of anarchy; which is why protecting nations own interest is greatly valued because of the mistrust of agreement between other states or actors. Most importantly, the main objective of realism is to obtain power mostly through the use of military and economic means. To analyse the situation in the Arctic, it is essential to connect some of the cha racteristic of realism with the issue. In some parts, characteristics of realism can be closely related to the relationship of United States and Canada with the issue revolving around the Arctic. Canada claims sovereignty over the Arctic because of geographical and historical reasons to it. The United States searches to find a reason of somehow that the country has rights over the Arctic and its resources. Both states display their own interests in the region suggests characteristics of realism. Complex Interdependence approaches to the conflict Complex interdependence is a theory used in international politics that emphasis on the idea of economic independence. The theory includes three central characteristics. Firstly, the employment of multiple channels is strongly significant for the fact that it joins societies in transnational, interstate and trans-governmental affairs. Secondly, in complex interdependence theory, hierarchy is absent in which military security is least considered therefore does not dictate the agenda.The absence of hierarchy allows for the concentration of other issues pertaining to domestic policy. Lastly, the use of military force is not present between government to government conflicts.Military force in complex interdependence can be extraneous on working out on disputes on economic matters amid affiliates of an alliance, however may be essential for that alliances political and military relations with a rival bloc. Theories of complex interdependence can be closely related with the issue currently residing in the Arctic region. For instance, countries interested in the Arctic only display interest to a country or region if the state benefits from it. In this case, United States demonstrates their interest in the Arctic region because of the mass amount of natural resources the region carries. By protecting their interests, United States as well as Russia and other arctic states are taking measures such as arming icebreakers to secure their claims. Canada as a result retaliates by setting up security satellites surveillance system to look for ships intruding in its waters. Another reason why complex interdependence theory can be closely applied with this situation is because of approaches Canada and the United States are taking to help reach a decision. The U.S.-Canada Arctic Policy was an attempt to join interests in the two countries over the Arctic.Although no negotiations were made among the two states, both states made an effort to approach the issue without threatening to use military force. Unlike realism, complex interdependence theory places an importance on the roles of International Organizations in state to state conflicts. The situation over the control of the Arctic region closely relates to the model, complex interdependence. Complex interdependence is a model of theory known to be the most realistic by political scientists. A futuristic legal option that United States may consider is ratifying the United Nations Convention on the Law of Sea along with other negotiations protecting interests of both countries. The unification of both countries on the issue may help tackle other problems presented by other countries claiming the resources and territories in the Arctic region. In conclusion, to overcome the battle between states over the Arctic territory, Canada and the United States will have to set aside their differences and reach to a decision combining interests from both of the states to prevent further conflicts. One way of achieving solution to this issue is by taking realistic legal measures such as codifying an agreement, law or settlement. This can only be successfully established if Canada and the United States join their self-interests of the Arctic by applying theories placed in the conceptual model, complex interdependence, to help maximize opportunities made available in the region.

Italian Women of the Renaissance Essays -- Arts, Gentileschi, Anguisso

Across Europe, between 1400 and 1650, there were women present in all major styles of time. They worked along side of great artists and were developing new techniques and styles. Women also played a very important role in the Renaissance. Although not as well documented as their male counterparts, women worked along with the other great masters, were just as innovating, and were key in developing new techniques. Artemisia Gentileschi (1593 – 1652), daughter of a well-known Roman artist, was one of the first women to become recognized in her time for her work.. She was noted for being a genius in the world of art. But because she was displaying a talent thought to be exclusively for men, she was frowned upon. However by the time she turned seventeen she had created one of her best works. One of her more famous paintings was her stunning interpretation of Susanna and the Elders. This was all because of her father. He was an artist himself and he had trained her and introduced her to working artists of Rome, including Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. 1. In an era when women artists were limited to painting portraits, she was the first to paint major historical and religious scenes. After her death, people seemed to forget about her. Her works of art were often mistaken for those of her fathers. An art historian on Artemisia, Mary D. Garrard notes that Artemisia â€Å"has suffered a s cholarly neglect that is unthinkable for an artist of her caliber.† Renewed and long overdue interest in Artemisia recently has helped to recognize her as a talented renaissance painter and one of the world’s greatest female artists. She played a very important role in the renaissance. (http://www.artemisia-gentileschi.com/index.shtml) Another... ...n for her spontaneity which came from her passionate and stubborn temperament. In her Rime, she writes poems relating to her love of a man named Collaltino. Her poems are filled with ecstasy and sorrow, with the remembering of happy moments but also with jealousy and anxiety between the two. In 1553, her health took a turn for the worse. She caught a high fever which killed her in a few days. The same year, her sister had her Rime published. It was not very successful in her century. It had to wait two centuries before being published again. She is now hailed as one of the greatest Italian poets. Stampa’s Rime is one of the largest collection of Canzonieri in the Italian literature. There are 311 poems in all, arranged in chronological order. Gaspara freed herself from her obsessive love by transferring her pain into some of the greatest poetry in Italian history.

The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove Chapter 9~10

Nine When Mikey â€Å"the Collector† Plotznik wheeled into town and saw that the Texaco station had blown up, leaving a charred circle two hundred yards wide around it, he knew that it was going to be a great day. It was a shame about the burger stand going up too, and he'd miss their spicy fries, but hey, you don't often get to see the toasting of a major landmark like the Texaco. The fire was all out now, but several firemen were still sifting through the wreck-age. The Collector waved to them as he wheeled by. They waved back, somewhat reticently, for the Collector's reputation preceded him and made them nervous. Today would be the day, Mikey thought. The Texaco was an omen, the star in the sky over his lifelong dream. Today he'd catch Molly Michon naked, and when he did (and brought back the proof), his reputation would grow to mythic proportions. He patted the disposable camera he carried in the front pouch of his hooded sweatshirt. Oh yes, he'd have evidence to back up his story. They would believe him – and bow to him. At this point in his life, the Collector was more interested in explosions than in naked women. He was only ten, and it would be a couple of years before his interests moved to girls. Freud never identified a stage of devel-opment known as â€Å"pyrotechnic fascination,† but that was only because there wasn't an abundant supply of disposable lighters in nineteenth-cen-tury Vienna. Ten-year-old boys blow shit up. It's what they do. But today a strange new feeling had come over Mikey, a feeling he couldn't put a word to, but if he could, the word would have been â€Å"horny.† As he Rollerbladed through town, tossing the Los Angeles Times into the shrubs and gutters of businesses along Cypress Street, he felt a tightness in his shorts that until now he had associated with having to take a raging pee in the morning. Today it signified a need to see the Crazy Lady in a state of undress. Paperboys are the carriers of preadolescent myth. On every paper route, there is a haunted house, a kid-eating dog, an old woman who tips with twenties, and a woman who answers the door in the nude. Mikey had never actually seen any of these things, but that never stopped him from spinning wild stories for his buddies at school. Today he would get proof, he could feel it in his loins. He skated down the driveway into the Fly Rod Trailer Court, chucked a paper into the rose bushes in front of Mr. Nunez's trailer, then made a beeline for the Crazy Lady's house. He could see a blue glow coming through her windows, a TV. She was home and awake. Yes! He pulled up a couple of doors down and noticed that a new trailer had moved in next to the Crazy Lady. A new customer? Why not give it a try? The Crazy Lady didn't receive the paper, so his pretense for knocking on her door was to get her to subscribe. He could practice on these new people. As he skated up to the front door of the new trailer, lights came on in the two front windows. Yes! Someone was home. Strange curtains – they looked like cat's eyes. Through a part in the curtains, Molly watched the kid come down the road into the trailer park. She liked kids, but she didn't like this kid. At least once a week he knocked on her door and tried to get her to subscribe to the paper, and once a week she told him to go away and never come back. Sometimes he would bring one of his little buddies along. She could hear them skulking around her trailer, trying to peek in the windows. â€Å"Swear to God, she's got a dead guy in there that she does it with. I've seen him. And she ate a kid once.† The kid was heading for the monster trailer. In the background, a videotape was playing on her TV – Mechanized Death: Warrior Babe VII – and THE SCENE was coming up. Molly looked away from the window and watched THE SCENE for the thousandth time. Kendra is standing in the back of a jeep, manning a rack of net guns as the jeep pursues the Evil Warlord across the desert. The driver turns, as he is supposed to, throwing up a fishtail of dust, but the front wheel of the jeep hits a rock and the jeep rolls. Kendra is thrown fifty feet in the air and lands in a heap. The steel bra she is wearing cuts deep into her chest and blood sprays out across the dust. The bastards! Every time she watches THE SCENE she can't believe the bastards left it in. The accident was real, the blood was Molly's, and when she returned to the set ten days later, a security guard escorted her to the producer's trailer. â€Å"I can pay you extra's wages as a mutant,† the producer said, â€Å"but let's face it, babe, you didn't get your billing because of your acting ability. You think I'm gonna hold up filming for ten days when the whole schedule is only three weeks long? We got a new Kendra. Wrote the accident and the facial reconstruction into the script. She's a cyborg now. Now you can get in line with the mutants to pick up your bag of rags, or you can get the fuck off the set. My audience wants perfect bodies, and you were getting up there anyway. With that scar you don't sell anymore.† Molly had just turned twenty-seven years old. She pulled herself from THE SCENE and looked out the window again. The kid was there, right there in front of the monster trailer. She should warn him or something. She pounded on the window and the kid looked up, not startled, but with a dreamy expression on his face. Molly gestured for him to move away. The window she was looking out of didn't open. (Trailers built in those days were designed so people would burn up in case of a fire. The manufacturers thought it would keep the lawsuits down.) The kid just stood there, his fist poised before the door as if he were frozen in the middle of knocking. As Molly watched, the door began to open. Not on the hinges, but vertically, like a garage door. Molly pounded furiously on the window with the hilt of her sword. The kid smiled. A huge red tongue snaked out of the door, wrapped around the kid, and slurped him in, Rollerblades, paper satchel, and all. Molly screamed. The door slammed shut. Molly watched, stunned, not knowing what to do. A few seconds later the mouth opened and expectorated a soccer-ball-sized wad of newspaper. Theo The hours of Theo's day had moved like slugs crawling on razor wire. By four in the afternoon, he felt as if he'd been awake for a week and the cups of French roast he'd been drinking had turned to foaming acid in his stomach. Mercifully, there hadn't been a single call for a bar fight or do-mestic dispute, so he had spent the entire day at the scene of the fuel truck explosion, talking to firemen, representatives from Texaco Oil, and an arson investigator sent up from the San Junipero Fire Department. Much to his surprise, going all day without a hit from his Sneaky Pete pot pipe had not sent him into fits of anxiety as it usually did. He was a little paranoid, but he wasn't sure that that wasn't just an informed response to the world anyway. At a quarter past four, the arson investigator crossed the charred parking lot to where Theo was leaning on the hood of his Volvo. The investigator was in his late twenties, clean-cut, and carried himself like an athlete, even in the orange toxic waste suit. He carried a plastic space helmet under his arm like a tumorous football. â€Å"Constable Crowe, I think that's about all I can do today. It'll be dark soon, and as long as we keep the area closed off, I'm sure everything will still be here in the morning.† â€Å"What's your call so far? â€Å"Well, we generally look for evidence of accelerants, gas, kerosene, paint thinner – and I'd say there were definitely some flammable liquids involved here.† He smiled a weary smile. â€Å"So you don't know what happened?† â€Å"Offhand, I'd say a fuel truck blew up, but without further investigation I'd hate to make a commitment at this time.† Again the smile. Theo smiled back. â€Å"So no cause?† â€Å"The driver probably didn't seal the hose correctly and a cloud of fumes got set off. There wasn't much wind last night, so the fumes would have just clung to the ground and built up. Anything could have set it off: the driver could have been smoking, the pilot lights at the hamburger place, a spark in the truck exhaust. Right now I'd say it was totally accidental. It was a company-owned store, and it was turning a profit, so there really isn't a financial motive for arson. Texaco will definitely be building your town a new burger stand and probably paying off some nuisance settlements from people claiming trauma, duress, and irritation.† â€Å"I have the information on the driver,† Theo said. â€Å"I'll check to see if he was a smoker.† â€Å"I asked him. He's keeping quiet† came a voice from a few yards away. Theo and the arson investigator looked up to see Vance McNally coming toward them holding up a Ziploc bag full of white and gray powder. â€Å"I've got him right here,† the EMT said. â€Å"You want to interrogate him?† â€Å"Very funny, Vance,† Theo said. â€Å"They're going to have to do the autopsy with a flour sifter,† Vance said. The investigator took the Ziploc from Vance and examined it. â€Å"You find any remains of a cigarette lighter? Anything like that?† â€Å"Not my job,† Vance said. â€Å"The fire was so hot it turned the seat springs to liquid. Even incinerated the bones, except for those little bits of calcium in there. Honestly, this might not all be our boy. We might be giving his wife a bag full of burnt-up truck parts to put in an urn on the mantel.† The investigator shrugged and handed the bag back to Vance. Then to Theo he said, â€Å"I'm going home. I'll come back tomorrow and look around some more. As soon as I give the okay, the oil company will send in a crew to drain the ground tanks.† â€Å"Thanks,† Theo said. The investigator left in a county car. Vance McNally turned the Ziploc bag of truck driver in the air. â€Å"Theo, this ever happens to me, I want you to get all my friends together, have a big party, and snort me, okay?† â€Å"You have friends, Vance?† â€Å"Okay, it was just an idea,† Vance said. He turned and carried his bag to the waiting ambulance. Theo sipped his coffee and noticed something moving in the charred brush beyond the Texaco. It looked as if someone was holding up a TV antenna and getting altogether too close to the yellow tape he had run around the perimeter. Jeez, was he going to have to stay here all night guarding the scene? He pried himself off the Volvo and headed for the offender. â€Å"Hey there!† Theo called. Gabe Fenton, the biologist, emerged from the brush, indeed holding up some kind of antenna, followed by his Labrador retriever, Skinner. The dog ran to meet Theo and greeted him with two muddy paw prints on the chest. Theo rubbed Skinner's ears to hold him at bay, the classic slobbering Labrador control move. â€Å"Gabe, what in the hell are you doing down here?† The biologist was covered with burrs and foxtails, his face striped with soot from the charred brush. He looked exhausted, yet there was a note of excitement bordering on ecstasy in his voice. â€Å"You won't believe this, Theo. My rats moved en masse this morning.† Theo tried, but couldn't match Gabe's enthusiasm. â€Å"That's swell, Gabe. Texaco blew up last night.† Gabe Fenton looked around at the surrounding area as if seeing the destruction for the first time. â€Å"What time?† â€Å"About four in the morning.† â€Å"Hmmm, maybe they sensed it.† â€Å"They?† â€Å"The rats. Around 2 A.M. they all started moving west. I can't figure out what caused it. Here, look at the screen.† Gabe had a laptop computer strapped into a harness around his waist. He turned it so Theo could see the screen. â€Å"Each of these dots represents an animal I have implanted with a tracking chip. Here's their location at 1 A.M.† He clicked a key and the screen drew a topographical map of the area. Green dots were scattered pretty much evenly along the creek bed and the business district of Pine Cove. Gabe hit another key. â€Å"Now here they are at two.† All but a few of the dots had moved into the ranchland east of Pine Cove. â€Å"Uh-huh,† Theo said. Gabe was a nice guy. Spent too much time with vermin, but he was a nice guy. Gabe needs to talk to humans occasionally, Theo thought. â€Å"Well, don't you see? They all moved at once, except for these ten over here that moved to the shore.† â€Å"Uh-huh,† Theo said. â€Å"Gabe, the Texaco blew up. A guy was killed. I was talking to firemen in space suits all day. Every paper in the county has called me. The battery is almost out on my cell phone. I haven't eaten since yesterday and I only slept an hour last night. Help me find the significance in rat migration, okay?† Gabe looked crestfallen. â€Å"Well, I don't know the significance yet. I'm tracking the ten that didn't move east, hoping the anomalies will give a clue to the behavior of the larger group. Strange thing is, four of the ten disappeared off my screen a little after two. Even if they were killed, the chips should still transmit. I need to find them.† â€Å"And I wish you the best of luck, but this area may still be dangerous. You can't be here, buddy.† â€Å"Maybe there were fumes,† Gabe said. â€Å"But that doesn't explain why they all moved in the same direction. Some even came through this area from the shore.† Theo couldn't bear to express to Gabe how little he cared. â€Å"You had any dinner, Gabe?† â€Å"No, I've been doing this since last night.† â€Å"Pizza, Gabe. We need pizza and beer. I'll buy.† â€Å"But I need to†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"You're a single guy, Gabe. You need pizza every eighteen hours or you can't function properly. And I have a question to ask you about footprints, but I want you to watch me drink a few beers before I ask so I can claim diminished capacity. Come, Gabe, let me take you to the land of pizza and beer.† Theo gestured to his Volvo. â€Å"You can stick the antenna out the sunroof.† â€Å"I guess I could take a break.† Theo opened the passenger door and Skinner leapt into the car, leaving sooty paw prints on the seat. â€Å"Your dog needs pizza. It's the humane thing to do.† â€Å"Okay,† Gabe said. â€Å"I want to show you something over by the creek bed.† â€Å"What.† â€Å"A footprint. Or what's left of one.† Ten minutes later they sat over frosty mugs of beer at Pizza in the Pines, Pine Cove's only pizza parlor. They'd taken a window table so Gabe could keep an eye on Skinner, who was bouncing up and down outside, giving them an ever-changing view of the street, then the street with dog face (ears akimbo), then the street, then the street with dog face again. Other than to order a beer, Gabe Fenton hadn't said a word since they'd gone to the creek bed. â€Å"Will he just keep doing that?† Theo asked. â€Å"Until we take him a slice of pizza, yes.† â€Å"Amazing.† Gabe shrugged. â€Å"He's a dog.† â€Å"Always the biologist.† â€Å"One needs to keep the mind limber.† â€Å"Well, what do you think?† â€Å"I think that you obliterated most of what you thought was a footprint.† â€Å"Gabe, it was a footprint. A talon or something.† â€Å"There are a thousand explanations for a depression in the mud like that, Theo, but one of them is not an animal track.† â€Å"Why not?† â€Å"Well, for one, there hasn't been anything that large on this continent for about sixty million years, and for another, animals tend to leave more than one track, unless it's a creature especially adapted for hopping.† Gabe grinned. The flying dog head pogoed by the windowsill. â€Å"There were a lot of people and vehicles around there, the other tracks might have been wiped out.† â€Å"Theo, don't let your imagination run away with you. You've had a long day and†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"And I'm a pothead.† â€Å"I wasn't going to say that.† â€Å"I know, I'm saying it. Tell me about your rats. What will you do when you find them?† â€Å"Well, first I'm going to keep searching for the stimulus of their behavior, then I'll catch a few of the group that migrated and compare their brain chemistry to those that headed toward the shore.† â€Å"Does that hurt them?† â€Å"You have to blend up their brains and run the liquid in a centrifuge.† â€Å"I guess so then.† The waitress brought their pizza and Gabe was severing cables of cheese from his first slice when Theo's cell phone rang. The constable listened for a second, then stood and dug into his pocket for money. â€Å"I've got to go, Gabe.† â€Å"What's up?† â€Å"The Plotznik kid is missing. No one's seen him since he left on his paper route this morning.† â€Å"Probably hiding. That kid is evil. He rigged up something with his remote control car that affected the chips in my rats once. I spent three weeks trying to figure out why they were running figure eights in the parking lot outside the grocery story before I found him lurking in the weeds with the controller.† â€Å"I know,† Theo said. â€Å"Mikey told me that if he wired ten of your rats together, he could pick up the Discovery Channel. I still have to find him. He has parents.† â€Å"Skinner is a pretty good tracker. Want to take him?† â€Å"Thanks, but I doubt that the kid had a pizza in his pocket.† Theo folded his phone, snagged a slice of pizza for the road, and headed out the door. Ten Val Riordan leaned against her office door, trying to catch her breath and maintain her temper. Nothing in her clinical experience compared to the sessions she held on the day after the Texaco exploded. She had seen twenty patients in ten hours, and every one of them had wanted to talk about sex. And not abstract sex either, not issues or attitudes about sex, just squishy, thumping sex itself. It was unnerving. She'd anticipated a spike in libido among her patients (it was a common symptom of withdrawal from antidepressants), but the books said not more than five to fifteen percent would have a reaction – about the same number that experienced a loss of libido upon taking the drugs. But today she'd hit one hundred percent. It was as if she were running a kennel for hopeless horndogs rather than a psychiatric practice. After the last patient, she'd come out of her office to find her new receptionist, Chloe, furiously masturbating, her feet hooked into the edge of the desk, her steno chair squeaking like a tortured squirrel. Val had excused herself, turned on her heel, walked back into her office, and shut the door. Chloe, twenty-one, had maroon hair, an entire wardrobe rendered in black, and a sapphire nose ring. Val had begun treating the girl in her teens for bulimia, then hired her when the volume of appointments skyrocketed after the placebo went into effect. Chloe worked in exchange for therapy; Val had thought it would be a good financial move. Frankly, she'd liked her better when she just threw up a lot. Val was still trying to figure out exactly what to do when there was a soft knock on the door. â€Å"Yes?† â€Å"Sorry,† Chloe said through the door. â€Å"Uh, Chloe, that is not appropriate office behavior.† â€Å"Well, your last appointment had left. I thought that you would be working on your notes or something for a while. I'm really sorry.† â€Å"That's it? My last appointment leaves, so let the wild rumpus begin?† â€Å"Am I fired?† Val thought for a second. There were twenty more patients to see tomorrow and twenty the day after that. If the weirdness didn't kill her, the workload would. She couldn't afford to lose Chloe now. â€Å"No, you're not fired. But please, no more of that in the office.† â€Å"Do you have time to talk? I know my next session isn't until next week, but I really need to talk to you.† â€Å"Wouldn't you prefer to go home and, uh, think about things?† â€Å"You mean finish? No, I'm finished for now. That's what I want to talk to you about. That wasn't the first time today.† Val gulped. It was highly unprofessional to talk to a patient through a door. She steeled herself and opened it. â€Å"Come in.† She returned to her desk without looking at the girl. Chloe took a seat across from her. â€Å"So this wasn't the first time today?† Val was the psychotherapist now, not the boss. If she'd been the boss, she would have come over the desk and strangled the little slut. â€Å"No, I can't seem to get enough. I, well, it started about two in the morning, and I went straight though until time to get ready for work. Then once or twice while each patient was in session.† Val's jaw dropped. Sixteen hours of intermittent masturbation? The other patients she had seen had cited two in the morning as when their sexual adventures had started too. She said, â€Å"And how do you feel about that?† â€Å"I feel okay. My wrist hurts a little. Do you think I could have carpal tunnel?† â€Å"Chloe, if you think that you're going to file a workmen's compensation claim for this†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"No no no, I just want to stop.† â€Å"Did something happen to set this off? Something at two in the morning? A dream perhaps?† Her other patients had described various sexual dreams. Winston Krauss, the pharmacist with the sexual obsession for marine mammals, confessed to dreaming of having sex with a blue whale, riding it through the depths like Ahab with a hard-on. Upon awakening, he'd abused his inflatable Flipper until it would no longer hold air. Chloe shifted uncomfortably in her chair. Her long maroon hair hid her face. â€Å"I dreamed I was having sex with a tank truck, and it blew up.† â€Å"A tank truck?† â€Å"I came.† â€Å"Sexual dreams are completely normal, Chloe.† Right, a tank truck? That's normal. â€Å"Tell me, was there fire in your dream?† Pyromaniacs de-rived sexual pleasure from setting and watching fires. That's how they caught them, look in the crowd for a grinning guy with a woody and gas stains on his shoes. â€Å"No, no fire. I woke up at the explosion. Val, what's wrong with me? All I want to do is, you know, do it.† â€Å"And you feel that you might do something impulsive?† Chloe put on her cynical Goth-girl face. â€Å"If you mean something like buffing the muffin while I'm at work, yes, Dr. Riordan, I'm a little worried. Can't you adjust my medication or something?† There it was. In the past, that would have been the answer. Increase the Prozac to eighty milligrams, about four times the dose for the average de-pressed patient, and let the side effect of reduced libido do the work. Val had used the method to treat a nymphomaniac when she was an intern and it had worked marvelously. But what now? Duct tape oven mitts to her receptionist's hands? Although her typing probably wouldn't suffer much, it might make the patients nervous. Val said. â€Å"Chloe, masturbation is a natural thing. Everyone does it. But obviously there are appropriate times and places. Perhaps you should just cut back. Allow yourself to masturbate as a reward for controlling your urges.† Chloe's face went slack. â€Å"Cut down? I'm worried about driving home safely. I have a stick shift. I need both hands to drive, but I don't think I'm going to have them. Do you have a patch you can prescribe, like they do for smoking?† â€Å"A patch?† Val suppressed a laugh. She imagined a twitching, moaning line of people around the block at the pharmacy, there to pick up their prescriptions for the orgasm patch. It would make heroin look like Gummi Bears. â€Å"No, there's no patch, Chloe. You're just going to have to try to control yourself. I have a feeling that this is a side effect of your medication. It should pass in a day or two. I want to hear more about this dream of yours. We'll talk tomorrow, okay?† Chloe stood, obviously not satisfied with the help her therapist was offering, which was none. â€Å"I'll try.† She left the office, closing the door behind her. Val let her head fall to the desk. Jesus, Joseph, and Mary, why didn't I go into pathology? she thought. It would be so peaceful sitting around, boiling up beakers of urine and culturing bugs. No wackos. No stress. Okay, occasionally you'd be exposed to some deadly anthrax spores, but at least other people's sex lives stay in the bedroom and the tabloids where they belong. Her appointment with Martin and Lisbeth Luder rose in her head. They were in their seventies, had been in counseling because they hadn't had a decent conversation since 1958, and today they had come in and dumped a half hour of explicit sexual narrative on her, an account of perversions they'd indulged in the night before, starting at around 2 A.M. The visual conjured in Val's mind – all that parched, wrinkled flesh in furious fric-tion – culminated in flames, as if some giant cosmic Boy Scout had decided to rub two old people together to make a fire. The worst of it, the absolute worst of it, is that she'd found herself getting turned on while listening. She'd had to change her panties between appointments four times today. She considered pouring herself a hefty tumbler of brandy and settling down in front of the television, but that wasn't going to do it. Batteries; she needed four C-cell batteries and she needed them now. Then it was time to dig through her lingerie drawers and find a long-forgotten friend – and hope that it still worked. Molly Long past dark and Molly was still staring though the gap in the curtains at the trailer that ate the kid. The problem with being nuts, she thought, is that you don't always feel as if you're nuts. Sometimes, in fact, you feel perfectly sane, and there just happens to be a trailer-shaped dragon crouching in the lot next door. Not that she was ready to go out and pro-claim that fact to anyone, because no matter how sane you feel, some stuff just sounds too crazy. So she watched, still wearing her Warrior Babe outfit, hoping someone else would come along and notice. Around eight, someone did. She saw Theophilus Crowe going from door to door in the park. He came into view two trailers down at the Morales home, spoke briefly with Mr. Morales at the door, then headed for the dragon trailer. Molly was torn. She liked Theo. Yes, he'd taken her to County once or twice, but he'd always been kind to her – warned her about the guy in the day room who cheated at Parcheesi by eating the marbles. And he never spoke to her like she was a crazy woman. Theo was a fan. As Theo was raising his black Mag lite to tap on the dragon trailer's door, Molly saw the two windows on the end slowly open, revealing the cat'seye pupils. Theo obviously didn't see them. He was looking at his shoes. She threw up the aluminum sash and shouted, â€Å"They're not home!† The constable turned toward Molly. â€Å"Just a second,† she said. She bolted out the door of her trailer and stopped by the street where Theo could see her. â€Å"They aren't home. Come here a second,† she repeated. Theo tucked his Mag lite into his belt. â€Å"Molly, how are you?† â€Å"Fine, fine, fine. I need to talk to you, okay? Over here, okay?† She didn't want to tell him why. what if the eyes weren't there? What if it was just a trailer? She'd be on her way to County in a heartbeat. â€Å"They're not home then?† Theo said, pointing over his shoulder to the dragon trailer. He was staring at her now, at the same time trying not to stare. He had a goofy grin on his face, the same sort Molly had seen on the kid right before he got slurped. â€Å"Nope, gone all day.† â€Å"What's with the sword? Oh shit! She forgot she'd grabbed the sword on the way out. â€Å"I was just making some stir-fry. Chopping up some veggies.† â€Å"That ought to do it.† â€Å"Broccoli stems,† she said, as if that explained everything. He was looking at the leather bikini, and she watched his eyes stop on the scar above her breast, then look away. She covered the scar with her hand. â€Å"One of my old Kendra costumes. Everything else is in the dryer.† â€Å"Sure. Hey, you don't get the Times, do you?† â€Å"Nope. Why?† â€Å"The kid that delivers it, Mikey Plotznik, left for his route this morning and no one has seen him since. Looks like the last paper he delivered was a few doors down. You didn't happen to see him, did you?† â€Å"About ten, blond kid, Rollerblades? Kinda evil?† â€Å"That's him.† â€Å"Nope, haven't seen him.† She watched the eyes of the dragon trailer close behind Theo and took a deep breath. â€Å"You seem a little tense, Molly. You okay?† â€Å"Fine, fine, just wanted to get back to my stir-fry. You hungry?† â€Å"Did Val Riordan get hold of you?† â€Å"Yep, she called. I'm not nuts.† â€Å"Of course not. I'd like you to keep an eye out for this kid, Molly. One of his buddies fessed up that Mikey had a little bit of an obsession with you.† â€Å"Me? No kidding?† â€Å"He might be creeping around your trailer.† â€Å"Really?† â€Å"If you see him, give me a call, would you? His folks are worried about him.† â€Å"I'll do that.† â€Å"Thanks. And ask your neighbors when they get home, would you?† â€Å"You betcha.† Molly realized he was stalling. Just staring at her with that goofy grin on his face. â€Å"They just moved in. I don't know them very well, but I'll ask.† â€Å"Thanks.† He said, still just standing there, like a twelve-year-old ready to make an assault on the wall-flowers at his first dance. â€Å"I'd better go, Theo. I have broccoli in the dryer.† No, she had wanted to say she had to get back to dinner, or to her laundry, not both. â€Å"Okay. See ya.† She ran into her trailer, slammed the door, and leaned against it. Through the window she could see the dragon trailer open an eye and close it quickly. She could have sworn it was winking at her. Theo A niggling voice in Theo's head told him that finding the Crazy Lady attractive – extremely attractive – was an indicator that he was less than sane himself. On the other hand, he didn't feel that bad about it. He didn't feel bad about anything, not since he'd walked into the trailer park anyway. He had to deal with an explosion, a lost kid, the recent increase in general nuttiness in town – a virtual shit storm of responsibility – but he didn't feel all that bad. And in that moment outside of Molly's trailer, reflecting and waiting for the tide of lust to ebb, he realized that he hadn't smoked any pot all day. Strange. Normally this long without nursing from his Sneaky Pete and his skin would be crawling. He was heading back to his Volvo to resume the search for the lost boy when his cell phone rang. Sheriff John Burton didn't say hello. â€Å"Get to a land line,† Burton said. â€Å"I'm in the middle of trying to find a lost kid,† Theo replied. â€Å"A land line now, Crowe. My private line. You have five minutes.† Theo drove to a pay phone outside the Head of the Slug Saloon and checked his watch. When fifteen minutes had passed, he dialed Burton's number. â€Å"I said five minutes.† â€Å"Yes, you did.† Theo smiled to himself in spite of Burton's tone, which was on the verge of screaming. â€Å"No one goes on the ranch, Crowe. The lost kid is not on the ranch, do you hear me?† â€Å"It's standard procedure to search all the ranchland. Emergency services has the area gridded out. We have to cover the whole grid. I was going to call in some deputies to help us. The volunteer fire guys are exhausted from the explosion this morning.† â€Å"No. None of my guys. Don't call the Highway Patrol or the CCC either. And no aircraft. If the grid on the ranch has to be checked off, then check it off. No one goes on that land, is that clear?† â€Å"And what if the kid actually is on the ranch. You're talking about a thousand acres of pasture and forest that won't be searched.† â€Å"Oh bullshit, the kid is probably in a tree house somewhere with a stack of Playboys. He's only been missing for what, twelve hours?† â€Å"What if he's not?† There was silence on the line for a moment. Theo waited, watching three new couples leave the Head of the Slug in less than a minute. New couples: in Pine Cove everyone knew who everyone else was dating, and these were people who didn't go together. Not that unusual a phenomenon perhaps on a Friday night at 2 A.M., but this was Wednesday, and it was barely eight o'clock. Maybe he wasn't the only one feeling a wave of horniness. The couples were groping each other as if trying to get all the foreplay out of the way before they reached the car. Burton came back on the line. â€Å"I'll see that the ranchland is searched and call you if they find the kid. But I want to be the first to know if you find him.† â€Å"That it?† â€Å"Find that little fucker, Crowe.† Burton hung up. Theo got into his Volvo and drove to his cabin at the edge of the ranch. There were at least twenty citizen volunteers searching for Mikey Plotznik. The effort could spare him long enough to catch a shower and change his smoke-saturated clothes. As he parked the Volvo, an expensive, tricked-out red pickup truck pulled into the ranch entrance and rolled slowly by. As they passed, a Hispanic man sitting in the bed laughed and saluted Theo with the barrel of an AK-47 assault rifle. Theo looked away and walked to the dark cabin, wishing that there was someone there waiting for him.