Black House Chapter Seven

7 GOD MAY KNOW where Henry Leyden found that astounding suit, but we certainly do not. A costume shop? No, it is too elegant to be a costume; this is the real thing, not an imitation. But what sort of real thing is it? The wide lapels sweep down to an inch below the waist, and the twin flaps of the swallowtail reach nearly to the ankles of the billowing, pleated trousers, which seem, beneath the snowfield expanse of the double-breasted waistcoat, to ride nearly at the level of the sternum. On Henry's feet, white, high-button spats adorn white patent-leather shoes; about his neck, a stiff, high collar turns its pointed peaks over a wide, flowing, white satin bow tie, perfectly knotted. The total effect is of old-fashioned diplomatic finery harmoniously wedded to a zoot suit: the raffishness of the ensemble outweighs its formality, but the dignity of the swallowtail and the waistcoat contribute to the whole a regal quality of a specific kind, the regality often seen in African American e ntertainers and musicians. Escorting Henry to the common room while surly Pete Wexler comes along behind, pushing a handcart loaded with boxes of records, Rebecca Vilas dimly remembers having seen Duke Ellington wearing a white cutaway like this in a clip from some old film . . . or was it Cab Calloway? She recalls an upraised eyebrow, a glittering smile, a seductive face, an upright figure posed before a band, but little more. (If alive, either Mr. Ellington or Mr. Calloway could have informed Rebecca that Henry's outfit, including the â€Å"high-drape† pants with a â€Å"reet pleat,† terms not in her vocabulary, had undoubtedly been handmade by one of four specific tailors located in the black neighborhoods of New York, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, or Los Angeles, masters of their trade during the thirties and forties, underground tailors, men now alas as dead as their celebrated clients. Henry Leyden knows exactly who tailored his outfit, where it came from, and how it fell into his hands, but when it comes to persons such as Rebecca Vilas, Henry imparts no more information than is already likely to be known.) In the corridor leading to the common room, the white cutaway appears to shine from within, an impression only increased by Henry's oversized, daddy-cool dark glasses with bamboo frames, in which what may be tiny sapphires wink at the corners of the bows. Is there maybe some shop that sells Spiffy Clothes of Great 1930s Bandleaders? Does some museum inherit this stuff and auction it off ? Rebecca cannot contain her curiosity a moment longer. â€Å"Mr. Leyden, where did you get that beautiful outfit?† From the rear and taking care to sound as though he is muttering to himself, Pete Wexler opines that obtaining an outfit like that probably requires chasing a person of an ethnicity beginning with the letter n for at least a couple of miles. Henry ignores Pete and smiles. â€Å"It's all a matter of knowing where to look.† â€Å"Guess you never heard of CDs,† Pete says. â€Å"They're like this big new breakthrough.† â€Å"Shut up and tote them bales, me bucko,† says Ms. Vilas. â€Å"We're almost there.† â€Å"Rebecca, my dear, if I may,† Henry says. â€Å"Mr. Wexler has every right to grouse. After all, there's no way he could know that I own about three thousand CDs, is there? And if the man who originally owned these clothes can be called a nigger, I'd be proud to call myself one, too. That would be an incredible honor. I wish I could claim it.† Henry has come to a halt. Each, in a different way, shocked by his use of the forbidden word, Pete and Rebecca have also stopped moving. â€Å"And,† Henry says, â€Å"we owe respect to those who assist us in the performance of our duties. I asked Mr. Wexler to shake out my suit when he hung it up, and he very kindly obliged me.† â€Å"Yeah,† Pete says. â€Å"Plus I also hung up your light and put your turntable and speakers and shit right where you want 'em.† â€Å"Thank you very much, Mr. Wexler,† Henry says. â€Å"I appreciate your efforts in my behalf.† â€Å"Well, shit,† Pete says, â€Å"I was only doing my job, you know? But anything you want after you're done, I'll give you a hand.† Without benefit of a flash of panties or a glimpse of ass, Pete Wexler has been completely disarmed. Rebecca finds this amazing. All in all, sightless or not, Henry Leyden, it comes to her, is far and away the coolest human being she has ever been privileged to encounter in her entire twenty-six years on the face of the earth. Never mind his clothes where did guys like this come from? â€Å"Do you really think some little boy vanished from the sidewalk out in front of here this afternoon?† Henry asks. â€Å"What?† Rebecca asks. â€Å"Seems like it to me,† Pete says. â€Å"What?† Rebecca asks again, this time to Pete Wexler, not Henry. â€Å"What are you saying?† â€Å"Well, he ast me, and I tol' him,† Pete says. â€Å"That's all.† Simmering dangerously, Rebecca takes a stride toward him. â€Å"This happened on our sidewalk? Another kid, in front of our building? And you didn't say anything to me or Mr. Maxton?† â€Å"There wasn't nothin' to say,† Pete offers in self-defense. â€Å"Maybe you could tell us what actually happened,† Henry says. â€Å"Sure. What happened was, I went outside for a smoke, see?† This is less than strictly truthful. Faced with the choice of walking ten yards to the Daisy corridor men's room to flush his cigarette down a toilet or walking ten feet to the entrance and pitching it into the parking lot, Pete had sensibly elected outdoor disposal. â€Å"So I get outside and that's when I saw it. This police car, parked right out there. So I walked up to the hedge, and there's this cop, a young guy, I think his name is Cheetah, or something like that, and he's loadin' this bike, like a kid's bike, into his trunk. And something else, too, only I couldn't see what it was except it was small. And after he did that, he got a piece a chalk outta his glove compartment and he came back and made like X marks on the sidewalk.† â€Å"Did you talk to him?† Rebecca asks. â€Å"Did you ask him what he was doing?† â€Å"Miz Vilas, I don't talk to cops unless it's like you got no other choice, know what I mean? Cheetah, he never even saw me. The guy wouldn't of said nothing anyhow. He had this expression on his face it was like, Jeez, I hope I get to the crapper before I drop a load in my pants, that kind of expression.† â€Å"Then he just drove away?† â€Å"Just like that. Twenty minutes later, two other cops showed up.† Rebecca raises both hands, closes her eyes, and presses her fingertips to her forehead, giving Pete Wexler an excellent opportunity, of which he does not fail to take full advantage, to admire the shape of her breasts underneath her blouse. It may not be as great as the view from the bottom of the ladder, but it'll do, all right, yes it will. As far as Ebbie's dad is concerned, a sight like Rebecca Vilas's Hottentots pushing out against her dress is like a good fire on a cold night. They are bigger than you'd expect on a slender little thing like her, and you know what? When the arms go up, the Hottentots go up, too! Hey, if he had known she was going to put on a show like this, he would have told her about Cheetah and the bicycle as soon as it happened. â€Å"All right, okay,† she says, still flattening the tips of her fingers against her head. She lifts her chin, raising her arms another few inches, and frowns in concentration, for a moment looking like a figure on a plinth. Hoo-ray and hallelujah, Pete thinks. There's a bright side to everything. If another little snotnose gets grabbed off the sidewalk tomorrow morning, it won't be soon enough for me. Rebecca says, â€Å"Okay, okay, okay,† opens her eyes, and lowers her arms. Pete Wexler is staring firmly at a point over her shoulder, his face blank with a false innocence she immediately comprehends. Good God, what a caveman. â€Å"It's not as bad as I thought. In the first place, all you saw was a policeman picking up a bike. Maybe it was stolen. Maybe some other kid borrowed the bike, dumped it, and ran away. The cop could have been looking for it. Or the kid who owned the bike could have been hit by a car or something. And even if the worst did happen, I don't see any way that it could hurt us. Maxton's isn't responsible for whatever goes on outside the grounds.† She turns to Henry, who looks as though he wishes he were a hundred miles away. â€Å"Sorry, I know that sounded awfully cold. I'm as distressed about this Fisherman business as everyone else, what with those two poor kids and the missing girl. We're all so upset we can hardly think straight. But I'd hate to see us dragged into the mess, don't you see?† â€Å"I see perfectly,† Henry says. â€Å"Being one of those blind men George Rathbun is always yelling about.† â€Å"Hah!† Pete Wexler barks. â€Å"And you agree with me, don't you?† â€Å"I'm a gentleman, I agree with everybody,† Henry says. â€Å"I agree with Pete that another child may well have been abducted by our local monster. Officer Cheetah, or whatever his name is, sounded too anxious to be just picking up a lost bicycle. And I agree with you that Maxton's cannot be blamed for anything that happened.† â€Å"Good,† Rebecca says. â€Å"Unless, of course, someone here is involved in the murders of these children.† â€Å"But that's impossible!† Rebecca says. â€Å"Most of our male clients can't even remember their own names.† â€Å"A ten-year-old girl could take most of these feebs,† Pete says. â€Å"Even the ones who don't have old-timer's disease walk around covered in their own . . . you know.† â€Å"You're forgetting about the staff,† Henry says. â€Å"Oh, now,† Rebecca says, momentarily rendered nearly wordless. â€Å"Come on. That's . . . that's a totally irresponsible thing to say.† â€Å"True. It is. But if this goes on, nobody will be above suspicion. That's my point.† Pete Wexler feels a sudden chill if the town clowns start grilling Maxton's residents, his private amusements might come to light, and wouldn't Wendell Green have a field day with that stuff ? A gleaming new idea comes to him, and he brings it forth, hoping to impress Miz Vilas. â€Å"You know what? The cops should talk to that California guy, the big-time detective who nailed that Kinderling asshole two-three years ago. He lives around here somewhere, don't he? Someone like that, he's the guy we need on this. The cops here, they're way outta their depth. That guy, he's like a whaddayacallit, a goddamn resource.† â€Å"Odd you should say that,† Henry says. â€Å"I couldn't agree with you more. It is about time Jack Sawyer did his thing. I'll work on him again.† â€Å"You know him?† Rebecca asks. â€Å"Oh, yes,† Henry says. â€Å"That I do. But isn't it about time for me to do my own thing?† â€Å"Soon. They're all still outside.† Rebecca leads him down the rest of the corridor and into the common room, where all three of them move across to the big platform. Henry's microphone stands beside a table mounted with his speakers and turntable. With unnerving accuracy, Henry says, â€Å"Lot of space in here.† â€Å"You can tell that?† she asks. â€Å"Piece of cake,† Henry says. â€Å"We must be getting close now.† â€Å"It's right in front of you. Do you need any help?† Henry extends one foot and taps the side of the flat. He glides a hand down the edge of the table, locates the mike stand, says, â€Å"Not at the moment, darlin',† and steps neatly up onto the platform. Guided by touch, he moves to the back of the table and locates the turntable. â€Å"All is co-pacetic,† he says. â€Å"Pete, would you please put the record boxes on the table? The one on top goes here, and the other one right next to it.† â€Å"What's he like, your friend Jack?† Rebecca asks. â€Å"An orphan of the storm. A pussycat, but an extremely difficult pussy-cat. I have to say, he can be a real pain in the bunghole.† Crowd noises, a buzz of conversation interlaced with children's voices and songs thumped out on an old upright piano, have been audible through the windows since they entered the room, and when Pete has placed the record boxes on the table, he says, â€Å"I better get out there, ‘cuz Chipper's probly lookin' for me. Gonna be a shitload of cleanup once they come inside.† Pete shambles out, rolling the handcart before him. Rebecca asks if there is anything more Henry would like her to do for him. â€Å"The overhead lights are on, aren't they? Please turn them off, and wait for the first wave to come in. Then switch on the pink spot, and prepare to jitterbug your heart out.† â€Å"You want me to turn off the lights?† â€Å"You'll see.† Rebecca moves back across to the door, turns off the overhead lights, and does see, just as Henry had promised. A soft, dim illumination from the rank of windows hovers in the air, replacing the former brightness and harshness with a vague mellow haze, as if the room lay behind a scrim. That pink spotlight is going to look pretty good in here, Rebecca thinks. Outside on the lawn, the predance wingding is winding down. Lots of old men and women are busily polishing off their strawberry shortcakes and soda pop at the picnic tables, and the piano-playing gent in the straw boater and red sleeve garters comes to the end of â€Å"Heart and Soul,† ba bump ba bump ba ba bump bump bump, no finesse but plenty of volume, closes the lid of the upright, and stands up to a scattering of applause. Grandchildren who had earlier complained about having to come to the great fest dodge through the tables and wheelchairs, evading their parents' glances and hoping to wheedle a last balloon from the balloon lady in the clown suit and frizzy red wig, oh joy unbounded. Alice Weathers applauds the piano player, as well she might: forty years ago, he reluctantly absorbed the rudiments of pianism at her hands just well enough to pick up a few bucks at occasions like this, when not obliged to perform his usual function, that of selling sweatshirts and baseball caps on Chase Street. Charles Burnside, who, having been scrubbed clean by good-hearted Butch Yerxa, decked himself out in an old white shirt and a pair of loose, filthy trousers, stands slightly apart from the throng in the shade of a large oak, not applauding but sneering. The unbuttoned collar of the shirt droops around his ropy neck. Now and then he wipes his mouth or picks his teeth with a ragged thumbnail, but mainly he does not move at all. He looks as though someone plunked him down by the side of a road and drove off. Whenever the careering grandkids swerve near Burny, they instantly veer away, as if repelled by a force field. Between Alice and Burny, three-fourths of the residents of Maxton's belly up to the tables, stump around on their walkers, sit beneath the trees, occupy their wheelchairs, hobble here and there yakking, dozing, chuckling, farting, dabbing at fresh strawberry-colored stains on their clothing, staring at their relatives, staring at their trembling hands, staring at nothing. Half a dozen of the most vacant among them wear conical party hats of hard, flat red and hard, flat blue, the shades of enforced gaiety. The women from the kitchen have begun to circulate through the tables with big black garbage bags, for soon they must retire to their domain to prepare the evening's great feast of potato salad, mashed potatoes, creamed potatoes, baked beans, Jell-O salad, marshmallow salad, and whipped-cream salad, plus of course more mighty strawberry shortcake! The undisputed and hereditary sovereign of this realm, Chipper Max-ton, whose disposition generally resembles that of a skunk trapped in a muddy hole, has spent the previous ninety minutes ambling about smiling and shaking hands, and he has had enough. â€Å"Pete,† he growls, â€Å"what the hell took you so long? Start racking up the folding chairs, okay? And help shift these people into the common room. Let's get a goddamn move on here. Wagons west.† Pete scurries off, and Chipper claps his hands twice, loudly, then raises his outstretched arms. â€Å"Hey, everybody,† he bellows, â€Å"can you truly believe what a gol-durn gorgeous day the good Lord gave us for this beautiful event? Isn't this something?† Half a dozen feeble voices rise in agreement. â€Å"Come on, people, you can do better than that! I want to hear it for this wonderful day, this wonderful time we're all having, and for all the wonderful help and assistance given us by our volunteers and staff!† A slightly more exuberant clamor rewards his efforts. â€Å"All right! Hey, you know what? As George Rathbun would say, even a blind man could see what a great time we're all having. I know I am, and we're not done yet! We got the greatest deejay you ever heard, a fellow called Symphonic Stan, the Big-Band Man, waiting to put on a great, great show in the common room, music and dancing right up to the big Strawberry Fest dinner, and we got him cheap, too but don't tell him I said that! So, friends and family, it's time to say your good-byes and let your loved ones cut a rug to the golden oldies, just like them, ha ha! Golden oldies one and all, that's all of us here at Maxton's. Even I'm not as young as I used to be, ha ha, so I might take a spin across the floor with some lucky lady. â€Å"Seriously, folks, it's time for us to put on our dancing shoes. Please kiss Dad or Mom, Granddad or Grandma good-bye, and on your way out, you may wish to leave a contribution toward our expenses in the basket on top of Ragtime Willie's piano right over here, ten dollars, five dollars, anything you can spare helps us cover the costs of giving your mom, your dad, a bright, bright day. We do it out of love, but half of that love is your love.† And in what may seem to us a surprisingly short amount of time, but does not to Chipper Maxton, who understands that very few people wish to linger in an elder-care facility any longer than they must, the relatives bestow their final hugs and kisses, round up the exhausted kiddies, and file down the paths and over the grass into the parking lot, along the way a good number depositing bills in the basket atop Ragtime Willie's upright piano. No sooner does this exodus begin than Pete Wexler and Chipper Maxton set about persuading, with all the art available to them, the oldsters back into the building. Chipper says things like, â€Å"Now don't you know how much we all want to see you trip the light fantastic, Mrs. Syverson?† while Pete takes the more direct approach of, â€Å"Move along, bud, time to stir your stumps,† but both men employ the techniques of subtle and not-so-subtle nudges, pushes, elbow grasping, and wheelchair rolling to get their doddering charges through the door. At her post, Rebecca Vilas watches the residents enter the hazy common room, some of them traveling at a rate a touch too brisk for their own good. Henry Leyden stands motionless behind his boxes of LPs. His suit shimmers; his head is merely a dark silhouette before the windows. For once too busy to ogle Rebecca's chest, Pete Wexler moves past with one hand on the elbow of Elmer Jesperson, deposits him eight feet inside the room, and whirls around to locate Thorvald Thorvaldson, Elmer's dearest enemy and fellow inhabitant of D12. Alice Weathers wafts in under her own guidance and folds her hands beneath her chin, waiting for the music to begin. Tall, scrawny, hollow-cheeked, at the center of an empty space that is his alone, Charles Burnside slides through the door and quickly moves a good distance off to the side. When his dead eyes indifferently meet hers, Rebecca shivers. The next pair of eyes to meet hers belong to Chipper, who pushes Flora Flostad's wheelchair as if it held a cr ate of oranges and gives her an impatient glare completely at odds with the easy smile on his face. Time is money, you bet, but money is money, too, let's get this show on the road, pronto. The first wave, Henry had told her is that what they have here, the first wave? She glances across the room, wondering how to ask, and sees that the question has already been answered, for as soon as she looks up, Henry flashes her the okay sign. Rebecca flips the switch for the pink spot, and nearly everybody in the room, including a number of old parties who had appeared well beyond response of any kind, utters a soft aaah. His suit, his shirt, his spats blazing in the cone of light, a transformed Henry Leyden glides and dips toward the microphone as a twelve-inch LP, seemingly magicked out of the air, twirls like a top on the palm of his right hand. His teeth shine; his sleek hair gleams; the sapphires wink from the bows of his enchanted sunglasses. Henry seems almost to be dancing himself, with his sweet, clever sidestepping glide . . . only he is no longer Henry Leyden; no way, Renee, as George Rathbun likes to roar. The suit, the spats, the slicked-back hair, the shades, even the wondrously effective pink spot are mere stage dressing. The real magic here is Henry, that uniquely malleable creature. When he is George Rathbun, he is all George. Ditto the Wisconsin Rat; ditto Henry Shake. It has been eighteen months since h e took Symphonic Stan from the closet and fit into him like a hand into a glove to dazzle the crowd at a Madison VFW record hop, but the clothes still fit, oh yes, they fit, and he fits within them, a hipster reborn whole into a past he never saw firsthand. On his extended palm, the spinning LP resembles a solid, unmoving, black beachball. Whenever Symphonic Stan puts on a hop, he always begins with â€Å"In the Mood.† Although he does not detest Glenn Miller as some jazz aficionados do, over the years he has grown tired of this number. But it always does the job. Even if the customers have no choice but to dance with one foot in the grave and the other on the proverbial banana peel, they do dance. Besides, he knows that after Miller was drafted he told the arranger Billy May of his plan to â€Å"come out of this war as some kind of hero,† and, hell, he was as good as his word, wasn't he? Henry reaches the mike and slips the revolving record onto the platter with a negligent gesture of his right hand. The crowd applauds him with an exhaled oooh. â€Å"Welcome, welcome, all you hepcats and hepkitties,† Henry says. The words emerge from the speakers wrapped in the smooth, slightly above-it-all voice of a true broadcaster in 1938 or 1939, one of the men who did live remotes from dance halls and nightclubs located from Boston to Catalina. Honey poured through their throats, these muses of the night, and they never missed a beat. â€Å"Say, tell me this, you gates and gators, can you think of a better way to kick off a swingin' soiree than with Glenn Miller? Come on, brothers and sisters, give me yeahhh.† From the residents of Maxton's some of whom are already out on the floor, others wheelchair-bound on its edges in various postures of confusion or vacuity comes a whispery response, less a party cry than the rustle of an autumn wind through bare branches. Symphonic Stan grins like a shark and holds up his hands as if to still a hopped-up multitude, then twirls and spins like a Savoy Ballroom dancer inspired by Chick Webb. His coattails spread like wings, his sparkling feet fly and land and fly again. The moment evaporates, and two black beachballs appear on the deejay's palms, one of them spinning back into its sleeve, the other down to meet the needle. â€Å"All-reety all-righty all-rooty, you hoppin' hens and boppin' bunnies, here comes the Sentimental Gentleman, Mr. Tommy Dorsey, so get off your money and grab your honey while vocalist Dick Haymes, the pride of Buenos Aires, Argentina, asks the musical question ‘How Am I to Know You?' Frank Sinatra hasn't entered the building yet, brethren and sistren, but life is still fine as mmm-mmm wine.† Rebecca Vilas cannot believe what she is seeing. This guy is getting just about everyone out onto the floor, even some of the wheelchair cases, who are dipping and swirling with the best of them. Dolled up in his exotic, astonishing outfit, Symphonic Stan Henry Leyden, she reminds herself is corny and breathtaking, absurd and convincing, all at once. He's like . . . some kind of time capsule, locked into both his role and what these old people want to hear. He has charmed them back into life, back into whatever youth they had left in them. Unbelievable! No other word will do. People she had written off as shuffling basket cases are blooming right in front of her. As for Symphonic Stan, he's carrying on like an elegant dervish, making her think of words like suave, polished, urbane, unhinged, sexy, graceful, words that do not connect except in him. And that thing he does with the records! How is that possible? She does not realize that she is tapping her foot and swaying in time to the music until Henry puts on Artie Shaw's â€Å"Begin the Beguine,† when she literally begins her own beguine by starting to dance by herself. Henry's hepcat jive-dance, the sight of so many white-haired, blue-haired, and bald-headed people gliding around the floor, Alice Weathers beaming happily in the arms of none other than gloomy Thorvald Thorvaldson, Ada Meyerhoff and â€Å"Tom Tom† Boettcher twirling around each other in their wheelchairs, the sweeping pulse of the music driving everything beneath the molten radiance of Artie Shaw's clarinet, all of these things abruptly, magically coalesce into a vision of earthly beauty that brings tears stinging to her eyes. Smiling, she raises her arms, spins, and finds herself expertly grasped by Tom Tom's twin brother, eighty-six-year-old Hermie Boettcher, the retired geography teacher in A17 formerly considered something of a stick, who without a word fox-trots her right out to the middle of the floor. â€Å"Shame to see a pretty girl dancing all on her lonesome,† Hermie says. â€Å"Hermie, I'd follow you anywhere,† she tells him. â€Å"Let's us get closer to the bandstand,† he says. â€Å"I want a better look at that hotshot in the fancy suit. They say he's blind as a bat, but I don't believe it.† His hand planted firmly at the base of her spine, his hips swerving in time to Artie Shaw, Hermie guides her to within a foot of the platform, where the Symphonic One is already doing his trick with a new record as he waits for the last bar of the present one. Rebecca could swear that Stan/Henry not only senses her presence before him but actually winks at her! But that is truly impossible . . . isn't it? The Symphonic One twirls the Shaw record into its sleeve, the new one onto the platter, and says, â€Å"Can you say ‘Vout'? Can you say ‘Solid'? Now that we're all limbered up, let's get jumpin' and jivin' with Woody Herman and ‘Wild Root.' This tune is dedicated to all you beautiful ladies, especially the lady wearing Calyx.† Rebecca laughs and says, â€Å"Oh, dear.† He could smell her perfume; he recognized it! Undaunted by the steamy tempo of â€Å"Wild Root,† Hermie Boettcher slides into a back step, extends his arm, and spins Rebecca around. On the first beat of the next bar, he catches her in his arms and reverses direction, spinning them both toward the far end of the platform, where Alice Weathers stands next to Mr. Thorvaldson, gazing up at Symphonic Stan. â€Å"The special lady must be you,† Hermie says. â€Å"Because that perfume of yours is worth a dedication.† Rebecca asks, â€Å"Where'd you learn to dance like this?† â€Å"My brother and I, we were town boys. Learned how to dance in front of the jukebox at Alouette's, over by Arden.† Rebecca knows Alouette's, on Arden's Main Street, but what was once a soda fountain is now a lunch counter, and the jukebox disappeared around the time Johnny Mathis dropped off the charts. â€Å"You want a good dancer, you find yourself a town boy. Tom Tom, now he was always the slickest dancer around, and you can plunk him in that chair, but you can't take away his rhythm.† â€Å"Mr. Stan, yoo-hoo, Mr. Stan?† Alice Weathers has tilted her head and cupped her hands around her mouth. â€Å"Do you take requests?† A voice as flat and hard as the sound of two stones grinding together says, â€Å"I was here first, old woman.† This implacable rudeness brings Rebecca to a halt. Hermie's right foot comes gently down atop her left, then swiftly moves off, doing her no more injury than a kiss. Towering over Alice, Charles Burnside glares at Thorvald Thorvaldson. Thorvaldson steps back and tugs at Alice's hand. â€Å"Certainly, my dear,† says Stan, bending down. â€Å"Tell me your name and what you'd like to hear.† â€Å"I am Alice Weathers, and â€Å" â€Å"I was here first,† Burny loudly repeats. Rebecca glances at Hermie, who shakes his head and makes a sour face. Town boy or not, he is as intimidated as Mr. Thorvaldson. † ‘Moonglow,' please. By Benny Goodman.† â€Å"It's my turn, you jackass. I want that Woody Herman number called ‘Lady Magowan's Nightmare.' That one's good.† Hermie leans toward Rebecca's ear. â€Å"Nobody likes that fella, but he gets his own way.† â€Å"Not this time,† Rebecca says. â€Å"Mr. Burnside, I want you to â€Å" Symphonic Stan silences her with a wave of his hand. He turns to face the owner of the remarkably unpleasant voice. â€Å"No can do, mister. The song is called ‘Lady Magowan's Dream,' and I didn't bring that snappy little item with me this afternoon, sorry.† â€Å"Okay, bud, how about ‘I Can't Get Started,' the one Bunny Berigan did?† â€Å"Oh, I love that,† Alice says. â€Å"Yes, play ‘I Can't Get Started.' â€Å" â€Å"Happy to oblige,† Stan says in Henry Leyden's normal voice. Without bothering to jive around or spin the records on his hands, he simply exchanges the LP on the turntable for one from the first box. He seems oddly wilted as he steps to the mike and says, â€Å"I've flown around the world on a plane, I settled revolutions in Spain. Can't get started. Dedicated to the lovely Alice Blue Gown and the One Who Walks by Night.† â€Å"You're no better'n a monkey on a stick,† says Burny. The music begins. Rebecca taps Hermie on the arm and moves up alongside Charles Burnside, for whom she has never felt anything but mild revulsion. Now that she has him in focus, her outrage and disgust cause her to say, â€Å"Mr. Burnside, you are going to apologize to Alice and to our guest here. You're a crude, obnoxious bully, and after you apologize, I want you to get back into your room, where you belong.† Her words have no effect. Burnside's shoulders have slumped. He has a wide, sloppy grin on his face, and he is staring empty-eyed at nothing in particular. He looks too far gone to remember his own name, much less Bunny Berigan's. In any case, Alice Weathers has danced away, and Symphonic Stan, back at the far end of the platform and out of the pink spot, appears to be deep in thought. The elderly couples sway back and forth on the dance floor. Off to the side, Hermie Boettcher pantomimes dancing and quizzes her with a look. â€Å"I'm sorry about that,† she says to Stan/Henry. â€Å"No need to apologize. ‘I Can't Get Started' was my wife's favorite record. I've been thinking about her a lot, the past few days. Sort of took me by surprise.† He runs a hand over his sleek hair and shakes out his arms, visibly getting back into his role. Rebecca decides to leave him alone. In fact, she wants to leave everyone alone for a little while. Signaling regret and the press of duty to Hermie, she makes her way through the crowd and exits the common room. Somehow, old Burny has beaten her to the corridor. He shuffles absently toward Daisy wing, head drooping, feet scuffing the floor. â€Å"Mr. Burnside,† she says, â€Å"your act may fool everyone else, but I want you to know that it doesn't fool me.† Moving by increments, the old man turns around. First one foot shifts, then a knee, the spavined waist, the second foot, finally the cadaverous trunk. The ugly bloom of Burny's head droops on its thin stalk, offering Rebecca a view of his mottled scalp. His long nose protrudes like a warped rudder. With the same dreadful slowness, his head lifts to reveal muddy eyes and a slack mouth. A flash of sheer vindictiveness rises into the dull eyes, and the dead lips writhe. Frightened, Rebecca takes an instinctive step backward. Burny's mouth has moved all the way into a horrible grin. Rebecca wants to escape, but anger at having been humiliated by this miserable jerk lets her hold her ground. â€Å"Lady Magowan had a bad, bad nightmare,† Burny informs her. He sounds drugged, or half asleep. â€Å"And Lady Sophie had a nightmare. Only hers was worse.† He giggles. â€Å"The king was in his countinghouse, counting out his honeys. That's what Sophie saw when she fell asleep.† His giggling rises in pitch, and he says something that might be â€Å"Mr. Munching.† His lips flap, revealing yellow, irregular teeth, and his sunken face undergoes a subtle change. A new kind of intelligence seems to sharpen his features. â€Å"Does you know Mr. Munshun? Mr. Munshun and his li'l friend Gorg? Does you know what happened in Chicago?† â€Å"Stop this right now, Mr. Burnside.† â€Å"Duz you know uff Fridz Haarman, him who wazz zo loff-ly? Dey called him, dey called him, dey called him ‘da Vamp, Vamp, Vamp of Hanover,' yez dey dud, dud, dud. Evveybuddy, evveybuddy, evvey-buddy haz godz nide-marez all da dime, dime, dime, ha ha ho ho.† â€Å"Stop talking like that!† Rebecca shouts.†You're not fooling me!† For a moment, the new intelligence flares within Burny's dim eyes. It almost instantly retreats. He licks his lips and says, â€Å"Way-gup, Burn-Burn.† â€Å"Whatever,† Rebecca says. â€Å"Dinner is downstairs at seven, if you want it. Go take a nap or something, will you?† Burny gives her a peeved, murky look and plops a foot down on the floor, beginning the tedious process that will turn him around again. â€Å"You could write it down. Fritz Haarman. In Hanover.† His mouth twists into a smile of unsettling slyness. â€Å"When the king comes here, maybe we can dance together.† â€Å"No, thanks.† Rebecca turns her back on the old horror and clacks down the hallway on her high heels, uncomfortably aware of his eyes following her. Rebecca's nice little Coach handbag lies flat on her desk in the windowless vestibule to Chipper's office. Before going in, she pauses to rip off a sheet of notepaper, write down Fritz Harmann(?), Hanover(?), and slip the paper into the bag's central compartment. It might be nothing it probably is but who knows? She is furious that she let Burnside frighten her, and if she can find a way to use his nonsense against him, she will do her best to expel him from Maxton's. â€Å"Kiddo, is that you?† Chipper calls out. â€Å"No, it's Lady Magowan and her freakin' nightmare.† She strides into Chipper's office and finds him behind his desk, happily counting out the bills contributed that afternoon by the sons and daughters of his clientele. â€Å"My li'l Becky looks all ticked off,† he says. â€Å"What happened, one of our zombies stomp on your foot?† â€Å"Don't call me Becky.† â€Å"Hey, hey, cheer up. You won't believe how much your silver-tongued boyfriend conned out of the relatives today. A hundred and twenty-six smackers! Free money! Okay, what went wrong, anyhow?† â€Å"Charles Burnside spooked me, that's what. He ought to be in a mental hospital.† â€Å"Are you kidding? That particular zombie is worth his weight in gold. As long as Charles Burnside can draw breath into his body, he will always have a place in my heart.† Grinning, he brandishes a handful of bills. â€Å"And if you have a place in my heart, honey-baby, you'll always have a place at Maxton's.† The memory of Burnside saying, The king was in his countinghouse, counting out his honeys makes her feel unclean. If Chipper were not grinning in that exultant, loose-lipped way, Rebecca supposes, he would not remind her so unpleasantly of his favorite resident. Evveybuddy haz godz nide-marez all da dime, dime, dime that wasn't a bad description of the Fisherman's French Landing. Funny, you wouldn't think Old Burny would take more notice of those murders than Chipper. Rebecca had never heard him mention the Fisherman's crimes, apart from the time he groused that he would not be able to tell anyone he was going fishing until Dale Gilbertson finally got off his big fat butt, and what kind of crappy deal was that?

Describing of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act

1. In two to three paragraphs, describe the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and why it is important to the accounting profession. (15 points) Sarbanes-Oxley Act was created in order to ensure that controls were implemented and monitored by the regulating authority. Congress wanted to make sure that there was a specific standard and guideline for companies to follow in order to prevent fraud at such a large scale. When followed correctly there are controls set in place that are internal which are governed by the managers and checked upon by the Federal regulatory authorities.This act was passed in 2002, prior to then the rules were more relaxed and when the crisis occurred with Enron that was a breaking point for the American people, especially those who lost a lot of money. Needless to say this just made it harder for fraud to occur. There were and still are several grey areas that the players involved exploit.2. Name and briefly describe the five components of COSO’s internal control fram ework. (10 points) The five components of COSO are as follows: a. Control Environment: Basically means that the leaders of the organization set the tone for ethics and enforce them with a code of conduct followed by consequences when not abided by. b. Risk assessment: this just means they check there controls for weaknesses regularly and fix any discrepancies with stronger controls. c. Control activities: These are segregation of duties, account reconciliations, and info processing controls. They are considered internal controls as well that protect the processes in place. d. Information and communication: The internal and external reporting process. The text book stated that it includes technology assessments as well.3. Describe the relationship between the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and COSO. (10 points) COSO is used to check in on the organizations and offer guidelines for them to follow when setting upo their controls. If all five elements are followed then they will not have much to wo rry about when auditing occurs and fraud would be less likely.4. Tom Jackson is a CPA who really likes to go to Las Vegas, play poker, and bet on football games. Tom knows that the accounting profession disapproves of gambling, but because he spends a lot of time studying sports facts and how to win at poker, he feels that he is simply making educated decisions based on facts. He says that this is no different from using accounting information to buy stocks. Use the fraud triangle as a basis to comment on Tom’s gambling activities. (15 points) In this case Tom has all of the elements in place to commit fraud. He has the opportunity because of the nature of his business.He has already decided that gambling excessively is ok because it is a calculated risk. Not realizing he is putting himself in a position where the pressure will come into place when he does lose. Debt is always looked at when being evaluated for sensitive positions that deal with national security or money inv olvement. Even if it is just a public trust clearance that the person is seeking on order to get the position they still will review your credit history at a minimum.

Business communication review Essay

Introduction A group of friends and I have decided to make a small business known as ‘Beyond The Scoop’. I have now been asked to create a detailed report on the different type of communication. ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION Video Conferencing image00.png Video conferencing is widely being used as the rise of technology is improving. Video conferencing is basically a direct video interface in which both people can see and hear each other. It is used in large cooperation as it requires a lot of money to acquire the equipment for video conferencing. HSBC have recently been using Video Conferencing as they have a range of banks all around the world. They use video conferencing in order to talk about propositions and other matters without the need of travelling. Video Conferencing will reduce a great deal of expense as people no longer need travel to far distances to meet. This means people would be more flexible to communicate to other people with the comfort of talking from their own home. On the other hand, video conferencing requires a lot of money for it to run properly. Since you need high internet speed to have a stable video conference and high internet speed require more money. Furthermore, the equipment itself and can add up to the thousands and there is no guarantee for a stable connection as internet providers have peak times in which most people’s connection are low. Additionally, when speaking on video conferencing it is hard to determine on whose turn is it talk and can cause a lot of frustration. Purpose The purpose of video conferencing is to discuss and explain about issues. Emailimage01.png Email has taken a big role nowadays and is now surpassing the need for letters. It is commonly used throughout the world from teenagers to big cooperate businesses. The basic function of email is a message sent electronically. One business which uses email would be ‘Amazon’. Amazon sends email to customers informing customers about their products as well as delivery information. This is a great advantage as people don’t have to wait a long period of time to get information in comparison to the average memo. Since a person simply needs to login to their email and the message will appear. You also have the advantage of knowing whether or not a person has read the message and if they have received it. This great advantage in case an employee states he did not receive information from another colleague a person can easily just login to their email and check. Email also eliminates the need for using paper and this is great advantage as it is environmentally friendly and it could be used for something else. An email is also superior when it comes to receiving a message in comparison to a letter. This is because an email can be sent to a person in a few seconds whereas a letter may a take a few days. In addition, sending an email is usually free where as you have to pay for sending a letter. While email has many advantages it also has a few disadvantages. For example, it requires internet access to work and if the internet is down an email could not be sent. In addition, emails also have the ability to send virus along with the email and could endanger the computer receiving it. Also, people tend to get a lot of spam and phishing which could lead to the user being victim to giving financial information. Purpose The purpose of an email is usually to inform colleagues about task as well as key information. It can also be used to explain task and what are the requirements for each tasks. Website image02.png Website have become so important to the extent where some businesses simply use them rather than having an actual building to sell their products for example ‘Woolworths’. Woolworths have all the products on their website and they also provide free delivery. Having a website means manufactures can sell products without the need of maintaining a store which can be highly expensive. Furthermore, some people are restricted to stay at home and going on a website is easy as you only require a computer and internet access to access a website. A website also has the advantage of easily being updated. For example if a company like ‘Argos’ had a new product it could easily update that on their website. Moreover, a website is also able to present information in various forms for example; sound, images, videos and written information. These features are relatively cheap and be acquired or made easily. However, a website is not perfect for example it has the flaws of requiring internet access. As internet access is not always available to customer, customers cannot always access the website. Furthermore, some users have difficulties navigating through website because they are not great with computers. Some websites may also contain inappropriate images or have inappropriate adverts which might not be suitable for some users. It may have some offensive images which could lead to law suits. Purpose The purpose of a website is usually to persuade people into buying their products. It can also be used to inform readers on prices and contact details. SPOKEN Face to Face Face to face communication has reduced in the past few years as technology such as telephones, social networking websites and video conferencing has came out. One company which use face to face is ‘PC Worlds’. PC World use face to face during meetings to discuss important issues. Face to Face communication still has many advantages. One advantage is that you don’t need to rely on internet or any signals to be able to talk. Moreover, you are more likely to tell if a person is lying when you are talking face to face. Whereas, via email someone can be discrete and can easily lie and it would be hard to identify since you cannot see their facial expression. Via face to face you are also able to use facial expressions and body language to get your point across e.g. to be serious, persuasive or happy.image03.png The disadvantages are that you have to be at a close distance to be able to talk and if you are not then you might have to pay travel cost to be able close enough to be able to talk. Moreover, face to face communication requires time as you would have to talk to several people for confirmation that they are available and you would also need to organise a place and time which would suit and this would take a large portion of time to organise. Purpose The purpose of face o face communication can be to inform, explain, entertain and describe. Radioimage04.png Radio is regularly used to promote businesses as they are listened to by a vast amount of people. For example a company called ‘Capital’ are a radio company which advertise a few companies on their channel. Radio communications have the advantage of being widely listened as a lot of people listen to radio regularly during the morning. It is also a fact that radio communication has increasing more in comparison to other communication. This means there is wider audience to talk to. It is also significantly cheaper to use radio communication in comparison to television communication. Radio communication has now recently been available on most phones and cars and this means an even rider range of audience. The disadvantages are that it is only able to provide vocal communication and not visual communication. This means if a business was to advertise their products it would be hard to make a decent advertisement on radio as you would only hear about the product. Furthermore, radio communication tends not to have strong signals and a person can easily encounter interruptions in comparison to an internet connection. Purpose Radio communication is usually to entertain as most channels tend to provide music to listen to as well as interesting discussions. It can be used to inform as some radio stations provide information about the weather and other information. PRINT Postersimage05.png Posters are information and images on paper which are stuck on buildings. They are used by small business and sometimes big businesses to advertise their business. For example ‘GPU’ use posters as they have quite unique designs and are very effective. Posters have the advantage of being cheap. It is very simple to make a poster however for it to be effective it must have vibrant colours to ensure it makes contact with people when they walk by. You can also make several copies and it would attract a large audience. Due to the fact it is very cheap it does have several disadvantages. One would be that a poster can be placed a top of your poster. Or someone could damage your poster. Furthermore, people usually walk by and don’t often look out for posters unless it is really eye catching. Purpose Posters are often used to entertain readers and intrigue readers with vibrant colours and outstanding images. It also is used to inform reader on key information. Letters Letters are used in most businesses for example ‘HSBC’ give letters informing their clients about their bank information every month. Letters have been used for a long portion of time however they are slowly being replace by email. Letters have the advantage of not needing internet connection as well as the fact you can’t get viruses from them. Furthermore, you can send products to the recipient for example ‘free samples’ where as you are unable to do via email. image06.png The disadvantage of letters is that it is a waste of trees and contributes to global warming. It also takes a significantly longer portion of time to receive in comparison to an email or a fax. In addition, it also requires money in order to send a letter whereas emailing is free as well as instant. Purpose The purpose of a letter is used to inform and explain to people on particular information. It can also be used to convey personal opinions. Memorandumimage07.png Memos were often used before emails. Schools such as Swanlea use memos to inform other teachers on some tasks. The advantages of memos is that it has the ability to remind employees on small matters which they must do. The disadvantages are that a memo can simply be lost and it may not get to the receiver. Moreover, a person can deny that they were asked to do a task on the memo since there won’t be any proof that the sender sent a memo in the first place. Whereas in an email there is sold proof that you have sent an email and recently you can now tell if a person has read your email. Purpose A memo is used to inform people about certain task and are often are used as reminders so people don’t forget. In conclusion, I have realised it would be best to use; posters, leaflets, emails and a website. This is because posters can be done by our own personnel as one person is expertly

Gloak's Safe-Action Advertisement Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Gloak's Safe-Action Advertisement - Essay Example The guy in the add looks like has military. Hes ex Drill Instructor at Marine Corp. He has military clothing on that civilian wear He narrates how a thug tried to kick upon the front door of house; while he was successful in opening the front door, what lied ahead of him became one of his worst night mares ever. The customer expresses his amazement at the tenacity with which a loaded Gloak protected him and his family. This is one of the many amazing stories that Gloak intends to collect through this promotional campaign. At the bottom center of the page, the Gloak spokes person asserts how she hears these remarkable stories every other day. The on-lookers are prompted to send in their stories of Gloak on Facebook page of Gloak and get a chance to appear in a Gloak ad. The paper will elaborate on the advertisement, its appearance, the target market that it is intended for, it’s branding through the advertisement, the ethos pathos and logos. It will critique the advertisement i n greater depth over its strengths and weaknesses. The Gloak ad speaks to consumers in various ways –both direct and in-direct. Through the given story, the ad speaks to the customer by telling him the gun will protect him no matter what the circumstances are. No matter how drastic the situation or how tough the encounter, Gloak will protect them.

Finance Principles Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Finance Principles - Essay Example Stakeholders include all individual and institutions that are financially and non financial associated with the company i.e. from board of directors and top management to shareholders, creditors, suppliers, employees, society and the environment (Ross, Westerfield, & Jordan, 2008, p.7). Corporate governance policies are developed and implemented by mainly the board of directors and top management of companies. Executive directors play important on this business activity. Many executive directors of leading firms of both UK and USA have been criticized for major corporate failure of their organizations. Few of these firms are WorldCom, Enron, Tyco, Fannie Mae, Northern Rock, Freddy Mac, Barings Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland. Principles underlying corporate governance and its importance Corporate governance is generally a set of principles developed by the companies to show its extent of confidence in terms of capability of the company to maintain sustainable interest of all the stakeho lders. Main objective of corporate governance principles to conduct a business with integrity and fairness and the business should be transparent in all financial transactions. It should provide all necessary disclosure and discussions following all laws of the land and it should have responsibility and accountability towards its commitment to the stakeholders so that it can run a business with an ethical manner. Good corporate governance refers to standard level of confidence from a company through its positive commitment through corporate governance policies. The independent present in board leads to high confidence of the company in the market. It one of the important criteria on which the long term investors value a target company or an institutional investment decision is made by leading investment firms. Therefore, companies should have very clean, transparent and objective oriented corporate governance which would help to raise fund from both creditors and from market (Van Ho rne & Wachowicz, 2008, p.15). Combined Code on corporate governance Combined code is a popular corporate governance code of conduct that was derived from three different report of corporate governance. These are Hampel Committee’s Final Report, Greenbury report and Cadbury Report. The combined code was developed in 1988 and it is appended mandatory to the corporate governance policies of the companies listed in London Stock Exchange. Therefore, compliance of the combined code was mandatory to all the listed companies. The main constituents of combined code i.e. Cadbury report and Greenbury report were developed by Hample Committee and Greenbury Committee respectively in 1995. The main objective of combined code is to ensure that companies need to follow a standard set of corporate governance policies. The board of directors need to develop and maintain confidential corporate governance policies to safeguard the interest of the stakeholders’ interests. For this purpose the board need to have full control over the business activities so that shareholders’ investment and companies’ assets can generate adequate return for profitability of the companies as well as the shareholders (Block & Hirt,

Nursing implication for patient with agitation behavior Dissertation

Nursing implication for patient with agitation behavior - Dissertation Example From the Keady & Jones (2010) study it becomes clear that the agitation, aggression and restless behaviour of a patient with Alzheimer’s disease are really an attempt to communicate this discomfort experienced by the patient. In understanding these communication attempts by the patient may be the key to the use of non-pharmacological means to address the challenge of agitation in these patients. The most valuable quality of a nurse is the ability to assess one’s self to help others by self-awareness. It is crucial to know about personal stress that can meddle in one’s ability to communicate with patients. The review suggests non-pharmacological alternative like assertive skills that patient can learn by participating in structured groups and programs like walking program to increase mobility, teaching memory tactics to facilitate assistive device use and reduction of hypnotic and analgesics use. Homework also can be given to these patients to help them generalize these skills. Providing productive activities reduce the chance of inappropriate patient behavior. The Frank case study provides a step-wise model of how nursing intervention towards employing non-pharmacological intervention means to address agitation in these patients.

People in Organisations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

People in Organisations - Essay Example   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   â€Å"A process in which leader and followers interact in a way that enables the leader to influence the actions of the followers in a non-coercive way, towards the achievement of certain aims or objectives.†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Leaders carry out this process by applying their leadership attributes, such as beliefs, values, ethics, character, knowledge, and skills. To inspire team members into attaining higher levels of teamwork, there are certain attributes that the team leader must have, certain things he should know, and, certain functions that he should perform. These do not come naturally to most of them, but are acquired through continuous analysis and study. Only those become good leaders who are continually WORKING and STUDYING to improve their leadership skills; they are NOT resting on their laurels.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The present essay focuses on a team that has been consistently performing for some time now. Any organization’s management including the top-rung leadership and the individual teams must strive to achieve better results and aim for achieving higher objectives. No matter how well the team has been performing, it is necessary for any team to adopt such an approach because it helps in the development of a team in terms of both the performance as well as increased revenues for the company in the long run. .  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Two basic things are necessary for any performing team, which is looking to improve its performance- Strategy and Tactics. Tom Peters in his book Thriving on Chaos, had said-â€Å"What have you done today to enhance (or at least insure against the decline of) the relative overall useful-skill level of your work force vis-à  -vis competitors†.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   With reference to a performing team, when Peters mentioned, "enhancing", he was speaking of the strategic plans that will help the team members

Data Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 2

Data Analysis - Essay Example This indicates that the previous studies were unable to demonstrate differences other than experimental environment. Therefore, Eckel & Grossman (1998) introduced double-anonymous dictator game experiment to collect data to find the core difference of behavior of men and women while undertaking economic decisions (Eckel & Grossman, 1998). The authors of the study undertook testing of the hypothesis that exclaimed no difference between men and women and then the donations were taken under consideration. It was noted that men donated $0.82 on average while the amount was $1.60 among women. The statistical observation marked that p-value was less than 0.01. It is due to this reason that null hypothesis was rejected by further implying median test of the hypothesis (Eckel & Grossman, 1998). The research was able to conclude that women are more selfless in comparison to men. Furthermore, it was also marked that women donate or send out charity double the times of men. The focus of the research was to assess the difference between their economic decisions in order to formulate thesis for further research work. The authors have suggested that a number of studies could be undertaken to find out the factors that might impact the decision making process of both within the context of economic influence (Eckel & Grossman, 1998). Another research entitled ‘Fairness and Retaliation: The Economics of Reciprocity’ conducted by Fehr and Gachter (2000) states that people are more likely to react or behave differently depending upon their self-interest. Herein, reciprocity is defines as an action of a person to be nicer if he or she is approached by a friendly action of another person. This can also be applied in an otherwise situation i.e. if a person becomes unfair then the other person is also predicted to come up with a brutal

Inter-Professional Practice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Inter-Professional Practice - Essay Example I am further hoping to increase my networking skills to enable me to relate better with others and to stay informed in advance. The way I will achieve these goals is by trusting myself more and not holding back when I feel I need to express myself. To develop my assertiveness, I will challenge myself by pursuing risk. To avoid being directed by others, I will have to train myself to be stronger and to stand my ground. This will also allow me to express my opinion more confidently. To avoid internal distractions, I will train myself to focus more on the subject and less on the contextual emotions at play. The risks I will pursue will include taking a more proactive role, not only in groups, but also in classes. This will require and also allow me to push my limits. To improve my networks, I will build a better rapport with group members. I will engage with them at a personal level and establish contacts with them. I am familiar of some of the barriers that I will face that will make it difficult for me to achieve my goals. I am influenced and held back. I tend to become distracted easily and this will interfere with my listening skills. Low levels of confidence in myself will bar my assertiveness endeavours and my desire to network. The barrier to developing self-confidence is in turn a fear of being judged. To overcome being influenced, I will have to assess what caused me to be influenced or held back and prepare myself for similar scenarios in future. I will need to improve my self esteem and overcome other barriers to self-confidence by training myself to pay less attention to judgement by others. Improving my self-confidence will then allow me to become more assertive and to form more networks. To overcome distractions during listening, I plan to train myself to pay attention first during small forums and increase the size with progress. I also plan to eliminate distractions by removing them and reintroducing

Import and Export Markets in the United Kingdom Essay - 1

Import and Export Markets in the United Kingdom - Essay Example This research will begin with the statement that the United Kingdom produces a vast amount of products for exports and imports a wide range of electronics, food, oil, and other consumer goods. The use of higher technology manufactured goods has caused a dramatic increase in both exports and imports. However, the recent financial crisis experienced around the world has led to a decline in imports and exports. In 2009, UK imports and exports totaled to $1,256 billion, which was equivalent to 4.3 of the world trade. The financial crisis has caused a rise in exchange rates of a sterling pound, which has caused an 8.6% decrease in exports and 9.1% decrease in imports (Great Britain, 2009). Over the past ten years, the UK has been a net oil exporter, but production has been decreasing consistently over the past years. The oil industry has recorded an average decrease of 5.3% per year in exports. This has converted the UK from an oil export to an oil import land. Oil production in the regio n is less than demand, which calls for supplements through increased imports. Imports of other energy sources such as coal, electricity, and gas have increased over the past five years. In 2010, the importation of liquefied natural gas increased to account for 35% of total gas imports, while gas exports have decreased slightly over the same period. Gas has also been increasingly used for electricity supply with the amount required increasing by 47%. Changes in the financial sector affect business sentiments and investment decisions, which are linked to global trade. Data service exports at the start of 2007 were about 30 billion pounds while imports were about 33 billion pounds. Mid 2008 recorded the peak imports and exports at 40 billion and 34 billion pounds respectively. The rate of imports and exports of data services decreased consistently since 2008 reaching a low of 32 billion in imports and 29 billion in exports in mid-2009. However, an increase was recorded towards the end of 2010 with imports and exports reaching 41 and 35 billion respectively.

Fourth Grade Ratio and Proportion Lesson Plan Essay

Fourth Grade Ratio and Proportion Lesson Plan - Essay Example The method makes it possible for students to participate in the learning process through the adoption of a learner-centered approach that involves the participation of the student in the process. The method is premised on the need to develop the capacity for critical assessment of facts in ways that promote deeper insights into the spheres that connect to ratios and proportions. The author also advocates for the need to develop a well-informed system that uses the experiences of the students to explore on the fundamental questions and dimensions of ratios and proportions. The aspect of reflection, as promoted in the book is essential for the task of developing authentic learning experiences. The use of experiences is meant to help the students to apply the lessons learnt to real activities outside the classroom. I would have proposed for increased use of illustrations and teaching aids that enhance the quality of understanding and memorability on the part of the students. The incorporation of technological aids would help the students acquire practical skills in handling diverse bodies of knowledge on the

The Struggles and the Victories of Modern France Essay Example for Free

The Struggles and the Victories of Modern France Essay Introduction Modern France has been a product of the historical struggles between the then prevailing Catholic Church and monarchy and the rising influence of intellectuals and revolutionaries. Pierre Birnbaums The Idea of France traces the roots of the modern French state and how the current status quo had been influenced by the ideological, political and social struggles that have shaken the country. Essentially, Birnbaum argued that France as we know it today was a product of one of the most important periods in the history of France- the Enlightenment and the French Revolution of 1789. Hence, much of what democracy in France today can be attributed to that period and the succeeding years of struggle to reach its current political stability. The Idea of France France according to Birnbaum has seen its soul as residing in a privileged relationship with reason (Birnbaum, xiii). This hallmarks the principles of enlightenment where reason was the primary tool in governing human activity particularly in the affairs of the state, the individuals and the society. Hence, it was a call to end the prevailing rule of the Church and the monarchy that was the remnants of the Middle Ages which is seen by the revolutionists as irrational and superstitious. Therefore, from the side of the revolution activists, the emergence of the power residing in the people emerged through the National Assembly or the Third Estate which received criticisms and oppositions from the traditionalists composed of the monarchy and the Church. From the oppositions and the struggle for supremacy in the government, Birnbaum argued that these antagonistic forces had served as the birthmark of the contemporary French democracy particularly its emphasis on plurality. While Modern France was built in over 200 years after the Enlightenment period, this era according to Birnbaum marked the time when the future of modern France was first hallmarked. In doing so, Birnbaum traced the origins and the development of the political antagonists and protagonists in order to support and defend the current status quo in an era when monarchy and the belief in the divine power was the norm. The division of France also stemmed from philosophers- those defending the reign of the Catholic Church and the monarchy and those who had been advocating a reform in the current system as advocated by the likes of Tocqueville. Hence, Birnbaum described the Third Republic as fraught with divisiveness reaching its peak in the Bloody Week of June 1871 and the conservatives gaining the upper hand. However, this victory was temporary and the ensuing Liberation and the Fourth Republic was established. At this time, France has already shifted to a parliamentary form of government existing in a coalition. At this time, the changes that were advocated during the French Revolution has been on process and the divisiveness still existed. It was only in the Fifth Republic that the political factions waned and the Republic and the Catholic Church evolved- they no longer exhibited the hatred that once fuelled their ideologies but rather have reformed their principles to change the anti-clericism. In doing so, the French government was able to provide for a pluralistic government as well as a cultural pluralism in the society of France. Analysis   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The primary strength of Birnbaums book is its ability to depict the contradictory forces in French history as both protagonists of democracy: it objectively portrayed the Catholic Church and the monarchy was essential elements in the reformation of a modern France. In doing so, Birnbaum avoids the overtly one-sided depiction of French history as nothing more than a struggle between proponents and opponents of democracy. Each had been ancillary to the other. Needless to say, the French Revolution occurred due to these two forces. Second, Birnbaum treated the 200 years and more as a history not only of politics but also of philosophies and of the people. For one, Birnbaum showed the historical context of the Modern France through a careful and thorough analysis of the cultural struggles in the country at the time. Moreover, it included an analysis of how France was able to overcome the multiculturalism at the time in order to give way to a more tolerant and a brand of French culturalism that is unique. Consequently, upon reading the book, one would appreciate the uniqueness of the French society and its struggles particularly in ushering the Enlightenment period. Hence, Birnbaum also showed readers and scholars from all over the world that the role France has played in modern democracies and current governmental structures are important. Third, while most history books would have delved into too much detail hence, focusing more on facts than on the importance of those facts, Birnbaum was able to capture the readers attention by focusing on the latter: the importance of events can only be appreciated if it can be related to what is relevant at the time and in modern times. Consequently, the only weakness of the book has been its inability to thoroughly relate the world events at the time and how it influenced the Frenchs history as well as how France had influenced other societies. While this is not central to the books theme, it would have given the readers the idea how revolutionary and how important the events in French history had been at a time when most governments are governed by the Church. Conclusion   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Guided by reason and a vision that looks at the society and the people as the primary guiding force for the changes in the society, The Idea of France rested on the argument that historical forces are all protagonists in shaping what French society and government is today. The actors primarily the Republicans and the Catholic Church and the monarchy including the opposing intellectuals and the people versus the nobility- all of these had been instrumental in creating the France that we know today. Modern democracies such as that of France springs from a multitude of events- in the case of The Idea of France it had been the increasing dismay of the people on the status quo governed by the Church and the monarchy. Essentially, The Idea of France by Birnbaum aptly captured the struggles and the victories of France in paving the way for a more democratic form of government particularly in establishing a government by the people and for the people. Concurrently, the struggle of France had endured years before it finally established the Modern France that we know today. Essentially, it is during the period of the Enlightenment and the succeeding years after it that the idea of modern France had been crafted and cemented. Work Cited Birnbaum, Pierre. The Idea of France. Hill and Wang. 352 pages. 2001.

Equality of women in the workplace

Equality of women in the workplace Companies around the world are currently going through a period of transforming and changing. Some are expending their business globally and there are some who wonder how the changing will effect or give an impact on their organization. As we know, men and women are entering the labor force in equal numbers but the majority of top mangement positions is still belong to men. The failure of more women to break the upper levels of corporate management is due to the glass ceiling. In economics, the term glass ceiling refers to situations where the advancement of a qualified person within the hierarchy of an organization is stopped at a lower level because of some form of discrimination, most commonly sexism or racism. However, since the term was coined, glass ceiling has also come to describe the limited advancement of the deaf, gays and lesbians, blind, disabled, and aged based on the defination in Wikipedia. There are many types of glass ceiling such as religious discrimination, different pay for comparable work, sexual, races, ethnics and even harrasment in the workplace. Other than that, exclusion from informal networks like preconceptions and stereotyping of womens role and abilities is also one of them. Another types of glass ceiling are lack of family-friendly workplace policies and policies that discriminate against gay  people, non-parents, or single parents. There are many reasons that causes the glass ceiling. One of the reason is job segregation. Job segregation is the concentration of women and men in different types and levels of activity and employment. Normally, men tend to be highly concentrated in the upper levels of professions such as managers, supervisor, production supervisors and also executives. Women on the other hand, tend to be in the status of lower level and lower paid professions such as teachers, secretaries, receptionists and nurses.  Women also measure success in the workplace differently than men because women place a higher value on their positive interpersonal relationships and feelings whereas men tend to measure success by high salaries, promotional opportunities and job titles. There is also opinion that saying glass ceiling is voluntarily choose by some women. For example, men tend to work harder in order to get good pay and women tend to choose to work less hours or may not want to extend their work duration in order to organized their children and spend more quality time with their families. There are some organizations that provide their employees with family-friendly programs that offer options such as flex-time which employees can choose their own work hours, employee-assistance programs and child care nursery which allows their workers to have a better chance of balancing their work lives and home. Unfortunately, women may feel reluctant to take advantage of these programs as they feel it may lessen than chance for being success within the company. Besides, part of the reason lies in leadership  stereotypes. It is still a strong view that women are viewed by many others as weak and soft whereas good male leaders are mostly known as tough and powerful.   More or less, this appears to affect career choices as the organization may have a perception that women is weak and not qualified for the positions especially the top management positions. Women and men also differ in their career gaps. Men are not influence to take a leave of absence. For example, when one of their children is sick, women is most likely to have to take the leave because men seldom do that. Men also refuse to work on a part-time job in order to get additional or side income when compared to women. It is maybe because they are shy that people would know when they have two jobs as mentioned earlier that men tend to measure success by high salaries and job titles. Other than that, most of the employers have the believe that women may quit the job when they want to begin a family and get married. Therefore, the organizations are less likely to invest in womans career by appointing them as the top management position. In order to let the organization hire a woman as one of upper levels of corporate management, they must show the dedication and willingness to take on new challenges and risks and be vocal about their personal ambitions. SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION Today, women represent more than 40 per cent of the global workforce as they have achieved higher levels of education than ever before. Unfortunately, their share of upper management positions remains unacceptably low, with just a little tiny ratio succeed in breaking through the glass ceiling. According to the journal, the main topic that been highlight is about the impact and how gender diversity influence the career development of women being a director or one of the top position in the organization. There are three key areas that focus on women directors which are theoretical perspectives, characteristics and impact. Theoretical perspectives comprise of individual, board and firm. Individual consist of human capital, status characteristics and gender self-schema while board consist of social identity, social network and social cohesion, gendered trust, ingratiation and leadership. Firm level includes in resource dependency, institutional and agency theories. Characteristic review in four levels which are individual, board, firm and also industry and environment such as demographics, social capital, role, size, commitment, shareholder distribution, performance and economic environment. Impact also focus on the same level such as role models, governance performance, decision making, glass cliff effect, talent and also recruitment and retention. Glass ceiling exist because of few factors such as occupational sex discrimination, childcare responsibilities, stereotypes and gender discrimination. The perception of women can also lead to a problem because there are some belief that women are unqualified and they might have their own agenda. Organizations are very much concerned about hiring, retaining and promoting women to higher level but few are making the necassary changes to make a difference. Women hold less powerful corporate titles, fewer multiple directorships and earn considerably less than men. Men are more likely to have the collective trust whereas women believe in collective trust as well as relationship trust. The impact of women as a top management postition dwell in different level. In areas where they are very much represented in the pool from which leadership is drawn, women still do not move into leadership positions in equal ratios. The reason is women typically hold up on too much share of the burden in balancing their job and family. Sadly there are so much barriers that prevent women to become one of the top position in an organization. One of the barrier is the environment in a workplace. Organizational cultures, employees attitude, racial stereotype commonly limit women from completely participating in the organizations. Working parents, especially mothers, usually have to deal with family obligation which they often have to choose between their job and family. They actually require flexibility at work. Women often lack the right type of job experience to move foward. The experiences they have normally do not suit the promotion criteria. Equal but different? As mentioned earlier, men and women are entering this labour force in equal numbers but why is that women is being treated as minority group and a weak person? In this paper, i have attempted to contribute to glass ceiling by exploring how glass ceiling affect the women in achieving their dreams. Women often to have less power or right to control, judge, or prohibit the actions of others than men in the organization. They face different challenges and most likely they should have a required skills to be successful in the organization compared to their male counterparts. This is due to glass ceiling that appear to have in every organizations directly or indirectly. Men and women are seen differently because men want to see and analyse if women have the capabilities and the qualification that fit to be in the upper level management. The inflexibility of our culture builds an organizational resistance against the values that women and people with disabilities bring to the workplace. Women need to be guide and support through the challenge. The organization should revamped the assessment in order to exclude gender discrimination and conduct an exit interviews in order to determine the reason why women leave positions. Mostly, women will have less salary compared to men because the employers sometimes view women as they are not devoted to their work. In organizations, the progress of women and disable people appears to be affected by more than career choices and qualifications. Today there are some organizations that appraise, measure and do changes to their organizations policies and procedures in order to attract talented women to work in a diversifying work force. Doesnt mean that when there are still difficulties in the working environment, women should stop trying to achieve their dreams. They should always think positive that one day women will no longer treated as a minority and a weak person instead they are being treated equally as men. It is important for them to strive and go for what they dream of because they might be able to break the glass ceiling. SUGGESTION / RECOMMENDATION Recently there have been many changes that organizations are trying to intergrate so that more women can be a part of the top management position and achieve their dream. Some of the examples are work from home, flexible timing and so on. There are few recommendations that i would like to suggest that may helps in changing the perception and mind-set of certain people towards glass ceiling. The recommendations are: Women will have equal access to jobs if the government enforce the anti-discrimination legislation at the workplace. Provide various training that emphasize on the workplace equality, values and their importance and the consequences of gender discrimination. Part-time workers must have the same entitlements and benefits as full-time workers and make sure all employees conditions and benefits are equally distribute. Providing education and enough informations about sexual harassment and directly implement no-sexual harrasment policies to create a note of respect in the workplace. Creating a forums for women so that whenever they have issues affecting them in the workplace or jobs, they can always discuss it there. Develope a programmes to help employers acknowledge the capabilities and the benefits that women can bring to their businesses. Evaluation must not be rated based on employees gender, but it must be evaluated by their performance. Implement a family-friendly policies that will help supporting women at work which include the flexible working hours, child care nursery and other facilities, parental leave for women and men and many more. Organizational leaders should learn on how to enhance or upgrade the developmental and advancement opportunities for women and take responsibility for removing barriers. CONCLUSION In a nutshell, it seems that glass ceiling are still exsist in an organization and women have made a great tread in smashing on the glass ceiling but have not quite broken through it yet. In order to compete on a same level with men, having an access to line experience and management training it very important. Other than that, women must also have a good and effective communication skills that can give the opportunities for better interaction with others. Women also must have the ability to cope effectively and positively under pressure and willing to face of challenges, criticism and setbacks. It is easy to jump to the conclusion that successful elimination of glass ceiling requires not just an effective enforcement strategy but also the involvement of employers, employees and others in identifying and reducing attitudinal and other forms of organizational barriers encountered by women in advancing to higher level management position in different workplace setting. Organization also need to embrace the concept of diversity and redefine leadership model in organizations so that this will let women bring value to and integrate into leadership structures.

Diet Nutrition Weight

Diet Nutrition Weight HEALING AMERICAS POPULATION THROUGH KNOWLEDGE OF DISEASE AND NUTRITION: AN INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH Introduction Though the United States is one of the most powerful nations on earth, as far as developing new fields of science and technology, the one area in which America does not dominate nor excel is health. Specifically, America is dying from illness that is related to a diet poor in nutrition. This issue is due in part to societys ignorance which stems from a lack of unified and reliable scientific information. The different disciplines that study these nutrition related diseases all have a different perspective on how to fix this endemic. This conflict of view causes the people to be mislead on how they should indeed live their dietary lives. If the people of America are to follow the nutritional trends they have set, the future will be doomed by disease and chronic illness. The American people have not been given the appropriate knowledge about the causes of disease and nutritional ways to prevent them. The human body is a miraculous system that once understood, can be the vehicle to gain a better quality of life for the individual and for the nation as a whole. Almost a third of young children are obese and many more over weight (Oz, 2003). The number one killer in this country is heart disease and as we will see later heart disease and other chronic illnesses stem from poor nutrition. The majority of adults are overweight and undernourished. Though this country has the resources to provide high quality, nutrition-rich foods, Americans are drawn to unhealthy, refined and processed foods. Across the whole country there is no major difference in the peoples level of health between cities or states. In other , the level of health in America is Nutrition 2 distributed evenly from city to city. This goes to show that no matter what background or financial class, the American people are eating the same foods that are causing such drastic effects on their health. This poor nutrition can also cause less productivity at work or school, and hyperactivity and mood swings among children and youth. Poor nutrition can in time push the typical American adult to depression, diabetes and hypertension and increase the risks of death in all ages and ethnic groups whether man or woman (Oz, 2003). â€Å" The U.S. Surgeon General has reported that 300,000 deaths annually are caused by or related to obesity. The incidence of diabetes alone has risen by a third since 1990, and treatment costs one hundred billion a year† (Oz, 2003, 2). This problem affects everyone because of the drastic social and economic tolls it takes on the American people. With a strong dedication towards a movement involving the abolishment of nutritional ignorance through health and science education, the American people can be freed from the war on nutrition-related illness and stop the high number of casualties. According to Allen Repko (2005), there is a definite need for an interdisciplinary approach to this issue because of its inability to be comprehensively resolved through the use of only one discipline, its complexity, and the large amount of relevance it displays throughout every home in America. There are many disciplines needed in order to show the necessity for good nutrition and the significance of educating the American people about healthy living. The disciplines most pertinent to this issue are Biology, Chemistry, and Human Nutrition. Biology is needed because of its perspective on the causes of disease, how Nutrition 3 they function, and how they affect the body. There are many sub-disciplines within the field of Biology that will be needed to help the reader understand the drastic affects of chronic illness. These sub-groups include Pathology and Physiology. Chemistry is a very useful discipline because it will show the reader the different chemical properties of the elements contributing to good and bad nutrition. Also, upon explaining disease, there is a necessity to understand the natural chemicals the human body uses to perform its functions, and the toxic chemicals synthesized to treat illness. The last discipline, Health Education, is very important in understanding the problem because of its view on illness and its approach to healing America through preventative practices. There will be diligent studies of literature done on the mechanisms dealing with chronic illness and metabolism. Most research done in the fields of Biology, Chemistry and Human Nutrition will come from methods such as laboratory experiments, data collection, surveys, and personal interviews. There will also be reports on statistical analysis to help strengthen main ideas. The purpose of this paper is to show the reader how dangerous and destructive the American diet is and how there could be a possibility of changing it. This involves finding the source for misleading the American people. The disciplines will delve into the science of diseases and how they take over the body and introduce all the vital chemicals that the body needs for normal function. Also, the perspectives of how to cure the illness and the actual measures that have been taken will be discussed. Once the perspectives of all the disciplines have been understood, the conflict can be found. Nutrition 4 Upon realizing the conflict, there can then be an attempt to find areas of common ground and integrate them into a unified and plausible solution. Background Before explaining the insights of each discipline on the problem at hand, it is important to understand the severity of the nations health risks and the characteristics of the diet that has brought them to this point. The current state of Americas health is not due to a spontaneous sequence of events. In other , due mainly to societal changes in dietary behavior, there has been an influx of weight related illnesses in the U.S. The American diet however, has not always been so detrimental to health. There have been many societal changes that have led to the demand for this diet. Just in the past fifty years the average American family has changed its lifestyle from gathering around the table for home cooked meals to a high-paced lifestyle of grab-and-go eating (personal communication, February 24, 2008). This change in lifestyle, along with others, has contributed to the majority of food industries responding to the new demands by increasing the production of processed, preserved and refined foods. In 1978, only 18 percent of the calories consumed in the average American diet took place away from home and now the amount has reached 36 percent (Oz, 2003). In 2000, Americans ate 110 billion dollars in fast food meals as opposed to the 6 billion dollars worth eaten in 1970 (Robbins, 2003). Not only have people become accustomed to Nutrition 5 eating this high-calorie and nutrient-deficient food, but many of the store bought foods have also become overly processed and refined to the point of nutrient depletion. Natural sugar for example, is being consumed less due to the increase in High Fructose Corn Syrup production (Forristal, 2001). Sugar used to be extracted naturally from sugar cane but is now replaced by a different type that comes from corn. There is no need to go into each individual food for the majority of foods eaten by the average American have the same nutritional properties. The affects of eating these foods will be discussed in detail later. Forty percent of the calorie intake in the American diet comes from refined sugars and refined grains which have been proven to contribute to poor health (Fuhrman, 2005). These refined substances include high fructose corn syrup, honey, lactose (milk), and fruit juice concentrates. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration makes a relatively close estimate that the average American consumes an unbelievable 32 teaspoons of added sugar a day (Kantor, 1999). Another major factor contributing to the high prevalence of weight related disease is the adoption of a sedentary lifestyle (Berenson, Srinivasan, Nicklas, 1998). The adoption of a sedentary lifestyle has affected almost everyone in the United States (Fuhrman, 2003). This can be attributed to an increase in entertainment that forces the individual to be less physically active (Oz, 2003). These forms of entertainment include video and computer games, movies, television and internet surfing. The internet has provided a whole new way to have access to the world without leaving the comfort of the individuals couch Nutrition 6 (Fuhrman, 2003). For example, people no longer have to leave their house to do their shopping. Though the main issue is about disease, it is also important to note the other affects of the American diet. Poor nutrition has resulted in less productivity at school or work, increased feelings of anxiety, stress and insecurity, and many more issues concerning quality-of-life. These concerns, though important, are miniscule compared to the paramount dilemma of obesity and its related diseases. Thirty four percent of all Americans are obese and many more over weight (Fuhrman, 2003). Twenty five percent of schoolchildren today are obese (Gauthier, Hicker, Noel, 2000). Obesity not only has been proven to cause many illnesses such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, hypertension and depression, but also to increase death rates in all ages and in almost every gender and ethnic group (Alterwein, 2003). The U.S. Surgeon General has reported that 300,000 deaths per year are caused by or associat ed with obesity (Bouchard, 1996). The number of people diagnosed with diabetes has risen by a third since 1990, and the cost for treatment has exceeded 100 billion dollars a year (Oz, 2003). Though there are many more statistics regarding the state of Americas health, enough has already been stated to validate the point that the people of America are in dire need for help. For the purposes of this paper, there are a few topics and related issues that will be excluded in order to narrow down the focus to the particular issues regarding the main problem. People excluded from the focus are the Americans who have adopted a Nutrition 7 vegan or vegetarian diet, athletes and other individuals who have been educated in fields of nutrition that take action towards a healthier lifestyle. Genetic factors will not be discussed due to the relatively little amount of information able to prove dietary and nutritional setbacks. Economic and cost related information will not be discussed for the topic at hand is about finding a solution to illness under any means necessary; even if that involves the high cost of healthier foods. When discussing illnesses, only the main weight related diseases will be discussed. These include Type II diabetes, heart attack, hypertension, and colon cancer. The main ideas to be included are directly related to diet and weight. These parameters have been set strictly due to the fact that what Americans are putting into their bodies has a direct correlation with what is causing these catastrophic illnesses. Now that the truths about our overweight society have been identified, there can be a dissection of the problem by the most relevant disciplines. In order for the reader to understand the issue thoroughly, it is important that the disciplines are introduced in an appropriate sequence. Biology will be the first discipline whose insights will be discussed. It is important to discuss these insights first because they introduce the reader to the main weight related illnesses America faces, and shows how they are caused. Before one can show the treatments and the mechanisms involved on a molecular level, one must understand what is happening on the larger cellular level. Therefore, after illness and its consequences have been discussed from a Biological standpoint, Chemistrys perspectives will be discussed to show an alternative view. Human Nutrition comes last because its perspective deals mainly with finding certain Nutrition 8 foods that contain certain helpful or harmful chemicals or elements that will be understood best after reading the Chemistry section. In other , before finding out what foods are high in fiber or low in cholesterol, it is important to see first what those compounds are and how they affect the body. The main goal of the paper is to discuss illness, perspectives on treatment and insights on dietary nutrition in order to provide a solution to the problem of a malnourished and nutritionally uneducated society that is looking for answers which, until now, have not been effectively provided. This lack of answers is due to these disciplines becoming too focused and too specialized in their particular field. When this narrowed view is encompassed by such a wide array of disciplines, it is almost impossible and definitely improbable that a practical and generic solution can be created to ensure a healing process for a physically unhealthy society. In other , this paper will use an interdisciplinary approach in order to educate the reader on the contrasting insights of the disciplines, and to integrate these insights into a practical, comprehensive, and unified solution (Repko, 2005). References Oz, Mehmet C. (2003). [Forward]. In Eat to Live (pp. ix-xi). New York, NY: Little, Brown and Company. Repko, A. (2005). Interdisciplinary practice: A student guide to research and writing. Boston: Pearson Custom Publishing. Fuhrman, J. (2003). Eat to Live. New York, NY: Little, Brown and Company. Robbins, J. (2003). [Introduction]. In Eat to Live. New York, NY: Little, Brown and Company. Forristal, L. (Fall 2001). The Murky World of High-Fructose Corn Syrup. The Weston A. Price Foundation. Retrieved February 14, 2008, from http://www.westonaprice.org/motherlinda/cornsyrup.html. Alterwein, R. (2003). [Introduction]. In Eat to Live. New York, NY: Little, Brown and Company. Kantor, L.S. (1999). A dietary assessment of the U.S. food supply. Nutrition Week 29 (3): 4-5. Berenson G.S., Srinivasan S.R., Nicklas T.A. (1998). Atheriosclerosis: a nutritional disease of childhood. American Journal of Cardiology. 82 (10B): 22-29T Gauthier, B.M., Hicker, J.M., Noel, M.N. (2000). High prevelance of overweight children in Michigan primary care practices. J. Family Practice 49 (1): 73-76. Bouchard, C. (1996). The causes of obesity: advances in molecular biology but stagnation on the genetic front. Biabetologia 39 (12): 1532-33.