ISO Program and Structure Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

ISO Program and Structure - Essay Example The conformity with standards provides assurance to the stakeholders that products and/ or services will operate as desired. The standardization began with the establishment of International Electrontechnical Commission (IEC) in 1906. Other significatn contributions in fields other than the electrotechnical field came through International Federation of the National Standardizing Associations (ISA) that was established in 1926. In 1946, it was decided to create a new international organization with objective 'to facilitate the international coordination and unification of industrial standards'. Hence, ISO came in to being and officially started operations on February 23, 1947. All members of ISO are treated equally towards development of standards. Having one vote per member regardless of the country to which he/ she belongs, ISO's activities are carried out in democratic way at the strategic as well as technical and operational levels. ISO is a non-government organization and as such all the standards that are developed by ISO are not monitored for implementation as part of the regulatory mechanism. However, many countries and associations, realizing the value and impact of these standards, have made it mandatory for companies to comply in their respective countries. Market driven. Only those standards are develop by ISO for which there is a requirement in the market. Standards are developed by industry, technical and market experts and they are joined by other specialized knowledge bearers. Consensus. Since the standards are developed when there is a market requirement, and are finalized once consensus is obtained from the stakeholders, this ensure the wide spread acceptance once the standards are out. ISO reviews the standards once every five years to ensure these remain current and up-to-date. Wordwide. There are around 3,000 ISO technical groups including technical committees, sub-committees, and working groups having almost 5,000 experts who participate towards development of ISO standards and with their consensus, the standards are finalized. What makes ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 so Special ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 series of standards have become the market's de facto standards for quality and environment management. ISO 9000 is related to quality management to achieve customer satisfaction and to meet regulatory requirements by continuous improvement in quality. ISO 14000 is concerned with environmental management and speaks of methods and techniques to reduce the harmful effects on the environment by organizations. Most of the ISO standards are specifically applied to a product, service or a process. In contrast, ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 are generic management system standards. This means that same standard can be applied regardless of the size of the company

Exploitable Weakness Terrorist Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Exploitable Weakness Terrorist - Assignment Example In a survey carried out between 1968 and 2006 by Jones & Libicki (2008) on terrorist groups that had become extinct, changing to political processes was most instrumental accounting for 43% of all endings. This was closely followed by policing strategies at 40% while those that ended due to achieving of goals and military intervention stood at 10% and 7% respectively. Exploiting the inherent weaknesses within terrorist groups is vital for putting in place strategies that are effective in bringing them down since different strategies work in different contexts (Cronin, 2006). With the emergency of many terrorist and insurgent groups globally, resources to combat them are being depleted and therefore the use of effective strategies to eliminate them is very important (Jones & Libicki, 2008). The biggest challenge presently is metamorphosis of these groups into virtual organizations that integrate into the society and operate globally. As much as metamorphosis of these groups is a challenge, their effective annihilation lies in understanding their nature and how they operate (Blomberg, Engel & Sawyer, 2010). Groups that do not convert to political activism but cling to other ideals like religious and radicalization can only be terminated through policing strategies and economic sanctions. Use of military force on such groups by governments only resu lts in exacerbation of their violence and turning civilians against governments. It is also important to demystify terrorism and avoid counter-terrorism strategies that are tantamount to creation of military warfare governments and these groups (Jones & Libicki,

The Controversial Topic Of Alcohol Advertisement

The Controversial Topic Of Alcohol Advertisement Do you know today the death number due to alcohol consumption in United Kingdom is 33,000 every year!(drinkaware.co.uk)And most of the blame goes to Alcohol advertisement, which has been always a controversial topic to discuss, some says it`s very much responsible for encouraging drinking and some says drinking is personal choice, but here it`s not the matter of does it encourage drinking or not, but is alcohol industry playing the role of being social responsible and following the ethics which people deserve to get? Alcohol advertisement has wipe out half of the advertisement industry, because alcohol is culturally welcomed and is on the tip of the tastes for people which also has its bad impression due to irresponsible and excessive drinking which turns out to be social shock, and has created adverse health and social consequences, sometimes to be long or short period. But here the basic concern is youth, who are the prime victim of alcohol and this tendency of alcohol consumption is key problem of every country today, but is alcohol advertisement are to be blamed for not being socially responsible and ethical? Today UK is has more strict voluntary codes for alcohol advertisement so that the boundary can be set up. However even after the strict voluntary codes are regulated for alcohol advertisement; the marketing and advertisement is blamed for this social shock, or alcohol industry is playing the positivity in the field of social responsibility, it`s very much important to understand where is the problem? Can we blame alcohol advertisement to encourage drinking or it is influence of culture and personal choice people make. With the use of qualitative and quantitative approach I have tried to reach the objective of my research. My research will discuss does alcohol advertisement is responsible enough to follows voluntary codes formulated and proving themselves socially and ethically responsible? And another important blame needed to be sorted out, is alcohol advertisement the right criteria to blame for encouraging drinking? What general of UK opinion about the fact of encouragement of alcohol consumption through advertisement? And what experts think about the issue? CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION: What is alcohol advertisement? Does that really deserve and answer, because controversial topics like that do not need an introduction but discussion! They are never out of discussion. Today some facts about alcohol advertisement said by an expert that every year alcohol industry spends 600 to 800 million pounds on advertising and promoting it products, professor Gerard Hastings OBE Director institute of social media When I heard alcohol advertisement! My first reaction towards it was challenging and soon I knew it was. The reason behind choosing a topic like this was practically exploring my knowledge in the field of marketing which will also allow myself to understand the real meaning of social responsibility and ethics, till now I have just read and heard them but I really doesnt know if they exist? This is the first time in my life I am doing something which I lead to anywhere and any direction and since the alcohol advertisement is the issue then it brings interest with it. UK does allow the allow alcohol advertisement with some limitation which are regulated in form of voluntary codes, where as in India the alcohol advertisement are totally restricted, and this gave me chance to explore alcohol advertisement and have a close look. My supervisor was a real inspiration as she knew that this issue will enlarge my knowledge of marketing and also the responsibility and ethics it holds within its elf. Billions of pounds are fritter on alcohol advertisement but in response of billions how much effort is put socially and ethically? Alcohol advertisement is always controversial and debatable topic and so people do have right to understand and being part of something like alcohol which has always showed them trouble, does alcohol industry follows all the voluntary codes stated for alcohol advertisement, is alcohol industry paying enough attention to the social responsibility come with promoting alcohol or they are still into earning shares and profit. Some people say its alcohol behind encouragement of alcohol consumption and some think is personal decision but if we look the both point of view if alcohol advertisement are made according to the voluntary codes set up then still the encouragement of drinking will be blamed on advertisement. But today even after strict voluntary codes and regulation it seems to be high drinking rate. So whom to blame alcohol advertisements or culture an d self desire of people? My research in this paper holds the two important questions which are really needed to be answered before things get out of our hands, firstly is alcohol advertisement socially and ethically responsible? And is alcohol advertisement right factor to blame for encouraging consumption of alcohol? UK has culture and beliefs which has high rate in alcohol consumption, the primary reasons behind alcohol is the effects which it gives; is increasing the high risk on health of people and giving birth to social problems like abusing , accidents, sexual harassments. And the more importantly the youth whose roots are being habitat by alcohol; it could be underage drinking consumption or over dose of alcohol consumption. So my research will focus on alcohol advertisement, but with limited issues covered in. one reason behind alcohol advertisement is that its ingredient of marketing, and marketing creates want in people, it give birth to desire, which doesnt specified wit h one product but all and since here alcohol is the product which has most of the time negative impact. Despite the fact marketing has connects world together and showed the reality of every entity present on this earth but it has given variety of reason of being dishonest. The function and practice of marketing has been criticised because it is claimed that it deliberately creates partial truths about products and services and exploits the fears and weaknesses of fellow human beings. Peter Drunker. Who should be really blamed? No one knows but thousand of researchers, experts, medical organizations, social worker have worked hard enough to reach to a point, however everyone has different way to look at the issue. To understand this issue there thousand of research and survey taken place with money spend but no one still knows what else could be done to stop this destroying of the generation who could not understand the responsible drinking and keeping it ahead of every entity in their lives. So with the limited reach I have conducted a research to know what these people actually think, about the alcohol advertisement and the impact it has on them and on the youth. PROBLEMS: May be after lining down some facts, will help me better to make understand the depth of the problem we have and how eagerly needs a solution. About 10 million people in England drink above the guidelines. UK has one of the highest rates of binge drinking in Europe. Up to 1 in 3 adult is at risk of lever disease due to alcohol consumption. 33,000 deaths in UK due to alcohol. (sources: www.drinkaware.co.uk) This is not the end but the start, these are just the symptoms and the problem is ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION; which is one of the major causes to encourage alcohol consumption. There are various factors involved in encouragement of alcohol is starts from marketing, sports sponsorships , TV advertisement, movies, brands to cultural trend of UK which does has thrown out the fear of affects due to alcohol, parental inspirational to children. But if we look into more deep then alcohol marketing has more impact on alcohol consumption. So with bringing alcohol in light the two major issues which are taken care of is, Do alcohol advertisement following its social and ethical responsibilities by following the voluntary codes set up by United Kingdom? And the reason for which these restriction made on alcohol advertisement which is sending wrong message of encouraging alcohol advertisement does has any real story. Yes another problem is do alcohol advertisement encourage drinking? If we look into what are past and present problem lightened by experts, Advertising standards authority an self regulator of advertising across all media in UK, there records says that last year they received over 26,000 complaints which seemed to be complained due to breach the rules. As a result, nearly 2,500 ads were changed or withdrawn in 2008, thanks to a range of effective sanctions at our disposal and the cooperation of advertisers who respect our decisions. And on other hand the British medical Association says Alcohol consumption in the UK has increased rapidly in recent years, not just among young people, but across society. The population is drinking in increasingly harmful ways and the result is a range of avoidable medical, psychological and social harm, damaged lives and early deaths. As consumption has increased, the market for alcohol has grown substantially. This has been driven by vast promotional and marketing campaigns with the UK alcohol industry spending approx imately  £800m annually. (Source: BMA) there are thousands of problem which has been raised due to alcohol advertisement affects not only youth but people of UK too. The National Institute of Clinical Excellence (Nice) has said the government should consider a complete ban on alcohol advertising in order to stop underage and binge drinking. (source: http://www.brandrepublic.com/news/1007168/Government-advisers-support-ban-alcohol-ads/) what I understand here is every advertisement is made to reach out the population and inform them about the product and sell it and earn profit, so can we really blame alcohol industry or UK government? It`s very much important the changing culture and trend which is adopted by our youth, by disrespecting their lives front of alcohol consumption. To understand and find a solution to this issue I have taken a research through qualitative and quantitative approach, so that the criteria can be fulfilled which needed by the alcohol advertisement, with my point of view and participants view on the issue I have tried to put down the solution and the key areas needed to be focused on. OBJECTIVE: The main intention of this research paper is to understand the alcohol advertisement, and what are the disadvantages, it has carried out toward the society. How its own function to reach people and convey them the message behind the product, has become the drawback. To find the explanation of blame on alcohol advertisement, and to what extend alcohol advertisement can be blame for encouraging alcohol consumption. With self understanding of the research I have outline the project with discussions and proves, as secondary data provided by experts. With the journey of finding the answers behind the controversies of alcohol advertisement METHODLOGY: With several methods and technique any kind of research can be conducted but by keeping in the mind that the issue like alcohol advertisement is very subjective, I have taken the help of both the research methods, qualitative( observation) and quantitative ( survey via questionnaire) and of course the with help of secondary data of experts. The reason behind choosing the observation is that it makes the research descriptive and involves the researcher itself which help them to understand the need of the research, and what are the further requirement which will make the research successful. Another method which is survey, which is conducted to complete the research, is because of one main advantage that it has the scientific approach which allows creating and designing the structure of the desired result with flexibility. Secondary data is something which is ready to use, and bring deep explanation to the research. The best advantage of secondary data is the time and cost effective verses primary data which need more expensive and time taking, and since I have gathered both primary and secondary data collection for the research paper. The basic reason to choose these methodologies, if we look into the first issue, does alcohol industry follows voluntary codes set up by UK government for alcohol advertisement? I have done observation and used secondary data to find the reason, as to find the answer to the question it was important to observe the advertisement broadcasting on television, public places, and to the places where a breach of code can be conducted. And use of secondary data was due to the journey which has been alcohol advertisement gone through; the changes which were made due to unsatisfied and controversy it has created. So this has given the observation of the experts and organization wh ich have involved them in this research too. And to find the answer of another issue is alcohol advertisement is to blame for encouraging drinking? This was more of psychological based issue which needed to be answered by the people of UK, though survey via questionnaire which is designed with flexible questions and with the space of opinion which can reflect their mentality of alcohol advertisement contribution in encouraging them to drink more, and again I have also taken help of secondary data which involves journals, articles, repots taken by expert. So my methodology for the research paper is combination of primary and secondary data which involves qualitative and quantitative research with following method like survey and observations. FINDINGS AND DISSCUSSION With giving out surveys to 100 people out of which 70 people responded about their opinion on alcohol advertisement, with the age group of 23 to 54 the survey was filled up and according to them it on them alcohol advertisement do not encourage drinking in the society they think its a personal choice, which they make! 90% of them are not aware of the alcohol advertisement voluntary codes, which are set up by UK government so basically its simple they even don`t know what is legally allowed in alcohol advertisement to be broadcasted. These were the finding of survey conducted in Cardiff city. This result of survey can be put down in two ways, first that the participants are not aware about the alcohol advertisement voluntary codes, which are set up for the society itself, for the protection from the misleading message alcohol advertisement were giving in past. And another finding which is very much psychological based is not accepting the fact that alcohol advertisement do encourage d rinking not in youth but in society too. IS ALCOHOL INDUSTRY RESPONSIBLE? What ASA wants to say? The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is the UKs independent regulator of advertising across all media, including TV, internet, sales promotions and direct marketing. A recent survey conducted by ASA to ensure the alcohol advertisement are following alcohol advertising codes in 2008 2009 before December, during the period before Christmas the ASA`s compliance team supervised and assessed all the alcohol advertisements with all the content being used for promotion of alcohol across all the media from 1 to 24 December. The survey showed a very mush positive result, out of 307 alcohol advertisements which were monitored only one of them was contempt for breach of CAP code; and none of the advertisement breached BCAP codes. With overall conformity are of 99.7% and reveal an improvement year to year over 2007 and 2008 survey which were conducted before by ASA in a row, which is compliance rate of 97.4%(2007) and 98.9% (2008) were verified. The data projected by ASA shows MEDIA NO. of ads NO. of breaches Compliance rate of media PRESS 177 1 99.4% OUTDOOR 33 0 100% ONLINE 31 0 100% TV 50 0 100% RADIO 16 0 100% (Source by ASA) 2008 2009 According to ASA alcohol industry is the alcohol ads picked up in the survey sample between 1 December and 24 December 2009, 0.3% breached the CAP Code, a compliance rate of 99.7%. That is an encouraging result and suggests the industry is acting responsibly within the self-regulatory system. The result is an improvement on the compliance rate of 98.9% from the 2008 survey and 97.4% from the 2007 survey. ASA But can we be relaxed after the data representations by ASA, if we really not need to be worried after this result then what expression, will one have after this well projected alcohol advertisement: Is this answerable? Is responsibility reflecting? In the recent discovery by expert Gerard hasting, there were some producer who were found guilty in terms of neglecting voluntary codes setup for alcohol advertisement, he says as UK has chose for self regulatory control system which basically focuses on content of alcohol advertisement, and all this work is regulated by ASA, alcohol standard association and as the part of its alcohol inquiry, Gerard hasting found evidences which proves that the communication agencies and producer were targeting youth , and promoting alcohol. With some marketing document in hand following producers were found guilty to be breach the codes for alcohol advertisement. PRODUCER BRAND COMMUNICATION AGENCY BEVERAGE BRANDS WKD (AN ALCOPOP) BIG COMMUNICATIONS BIRAY LEINO PR FIVE BY FIVE(DIGITAL) DIAGEO SMIRNOFF VODKA AKQA JWT HALEWOOD INTERNATIONAL LAMBRINI ( A PERRY) SIDEKICK SHOTS BJL CHEETHAMBELL JWT MAOLSON COORS BREWING COMAPANY CARLING BEATTIE McGuiness BUNGAY (BMB) (Source: http://www.bmj.com/content/340/bmj.b5650.full) Research has established that alcohol advertising, like that for tobacco and fast food, influences behaviour. It encourages young people to drink alcohol sooner and in greater quantities. (Source: http://www.bmj.com/content/340/bmj.b5650.full) with all the research and finding it does point out that social and ethical responsibility has some major concern, as per the survey taken by 70 general participants of UK even they have agrees to an extent that yes alcohol advertisement does encourage drinking to some extent. Starting with questionnaire people do agree to restrict alcohol advertisement to some extend which is very much reflecting the unseen picture of impact of alcohol advertisement in their eyes. They do accept that the alcohol advertisement do encourage drinking but they to a level deny the fact that alcohol advertisement encourage them personally to drink. With an explanation asked if they do accept that according to them if any alcohol advertisement do reflect the social r esponsibility and the total number of answer to this was NO but if talk about their responsibility in considering to complaint about any of the unethical alcohol advertisement then it again comes too NO. To give an example, from my one of the observation while the research, I realised one of the beer advertisement which do write drink responsibly but this responsible behaviour of the alcohol advertisement was so much tiny that it could not be noticed. If we look into opinion of other experts and communicator than we have (Reuters) Britains system of self regulation on alcohol advertising is failing and companies are pushing the boundaries of codes of practice to lure in young drinkers, social marketing experts said Thursday. One of the main causes for encouraging drinking is the pricing which of course is associated with marketing. A very low pricing does attract people to drinking, today alcohol is cheaper than water The Labour government is coming under increasing pressure from health experts to consider setting minimum prices for alcohol to curb widespread binge drinking by young people with access to cheap drink. Thursdays report was published by the British Medical Journal, whose deputy editor Trish Groves said it was now time to clamp down on alcohol promotion and set a minimum price per unit of alcohol to try to halt a rise in alcohol-related illness.It is time to put away the rhetoric that alcohol misuse is largely an individual problem best avoided and managed through education, counselling, and medical treatment, she wrote in a commentary on the study.Instead, the UK needs to embrace the idea that the health and societal costs of alcohol misuse are best prevented through legislation on pricing and marketing.She noted that while the British government is spending 17.6 million pounds on alcohol education in 2009/10, that figure was dwarfed by the UK drinks industrys 600 million to 800 mil lion pounds annual spend on promoting alcohol. Prime Minister Gordon Brown rejected a recommendation from chief medical officer Liam Donaldson last March that a minimum price of 50 pence should be set per unit of alcohol in England, a level which would nearly double the price of some cheap beers and wines. Donaldson said such a move would reduce the annual number of crimes by 46,000 and hospital admissions by 100,000 while cutting absenteeism from work, saving 1 billion pounds a year. (Source: http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE60K05Q20100121) ALCOHOL AND SPORTS If alcohol industry is seriously following the voluntary codes set up by organizations then why still alcohol adverting is too blamed for encouraging drinking in society? Or is it that alcohol advertisement voluntary codes set up are not so restricted effective that they are able to stop the impact on the alcohol advertisement which is encouraging drinking; if we look into the alcohol marketing in sports ground, that that may be the one of the strongest impact which has on alcohol consumption. Heineken sponsors European rugby. According to Portman group, a public relation body is tied up with companies like InBev and Carlsberg, and has estimated that alcohol firms spend an estimate amount around  £150m to  £200m on advertising and marketing in UK every year. Sport in many countries is god, and everyone worship god, but this is another form of marketing which means following the god, alcohol industry knows very well if not advertisement then why not to use the sports and sports players as the source of promotion of alcohol and this has proved to be right because recently there is very much rise in alcohol consumption, the specific period of while sports tournament takes place any of the store will provide alcohol on the cheap deals and if even though not, then the culture of UK do force them to consume them. According to Professor Ian Gilmore, president of the Royal College of Physicians and chairman of the Alcohol Health Alliance UK, backed calls for a ban on alcohol and sports sponsorship: Notwithstanding the claims of their lobbyists, it is obvious that drinks industry sponsorship of sport is less about supporting an important part of our national culture and more brand positioning and profit. We need to ask whether this continued alliance and the mixed messages such deals send to young people and adults alike is actually appropriate. (Source:http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/nov/10/addiction-journal-alcohol-sport-sponsorship) But on other hand the following statement was urge The alcohol and advertising industries have welcomed a study that claims that a ban on alcohol sponsorship would not curb underage alcohol abuse. The Cardiff Business School study, published by the International Journal of Sports Marketing Sponsorship, found that there are no significant statistical correlations between sports sponsorship awareness and attitudes to alcohol use among underage drinkers. The survey asked 294 pupils aged 14-15 from five schools about their intentions to drink alcohol and to get drunk on the forthcoming weekend. The same students were also asked about their attitudes to drinking alcohol, their involvement in sport and a series of questions to determine their awareness of sponsors. The reports author, Dr Fiona Davies, says although alcohol sponsorship does play a part in perpetuating and normalising the culture of drunkenness, prohibition will not work on its own. And David Poley, chief executive of alcohol industry body The Portman Group, says the study provides evidence that sponsorship has a comparatively minor effect on drinking attitudes. (Source:http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/alcohol-industry-welcomes-alcohol-sponsorship-report/3009929.article) ALCOHOL ADVERTISEMENT AND ITS EFFECTS: Watching alcohol adverts on television may make young people drink more alcohol, according to a recent study published in Archives of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Researchers at the University of Connecticut asked nearly 2000 young people aged between 15 and 26 about how much they drank. The answers were compared with the amount spent on advertising alcohol on television in their area. The interviews were carried out over a two-year period. Some people were interviewed up to four times. The study revealed that American youths who watched more alcohol adverts tended to drink more alcohol too. For each extra advert watched in a month, the interviewees consumed one percent more alcohol. Across all age groups, for every extra dollar per head spent on adverts in each television area, alcohol consumption rose by three percent. They concluded that alcohol advertising contributes to increase drinking among young people. The study also seemed to undermine previous claims that alcohol advertising has no effect on underage drinkers. It focused on advertising spending information rather than asking interviewees to estimate how many alcohol adverts they had seen. (SOURCE:http://www.bupa.co.uk/health_information/html/health_news/060106alcoholadvertising.htmlSnyder L, Milici F, Slater M, Sun H, Strizhakova Y. Effects of Alcohol Advertising Exposure on Drinking Among Youth. Archives of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine 2006; 160:18-24.) The National Institute of Clinical Excellence (Nice) has said the government should consider a complete ban on alcohol advertising in order to stop underage and binge drinking. Nice, which also called for a minimum price to be imposed on alcoholic drinks, has issued a 91-page document which claims that one in four adults in England is drinking what it deemed a dangerous amount of alcohol, which it says costs the NHS about  £2.7bn a year. The report suggests a number of changes to marketing legislation, which it claims could stem alcohol abuse. The report says: There is evidence that alcohol advertising does affect children and young people. One of its proposals is a complete alcohol advertising ban to protect children and young people from exposure to alcohol advertising. The report goes on to propose a review of rules, suggesting that new limits are set by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) to reduce the proportion of children exposed to alcohol, and ensure that all alcohol advertising particularly when it involves new media and product placement, is covered by a stringent regulatory system. (Source:http://www.brandrepublic.com/news/1007168/Government-advisers-support-ban-alcohol-ads/) EXPERIMENT: 1 Objective: To test whether alcohol advertising expenditures and the degree of exposure to alcohol advertisements affect alcohol consumption by youth. Design: Longitudinal panel using telephone surveys. Setting: Households in 24 US media markets, April 1999 to February 2001. Participants: Individuals aged 15 to 26 years were randomly sampled within households and households within media markets. Markets were systematically selected from the top 75 media markets, representing 79% of the US population. The baseline refusal rate was 24%. Sample sizes per wave were 1872, 1173, 787, and 588. Data on alcohol advertising expenditures on television, radio, billboards, and newspapers were collected. Main Exposures: Market alcohol advertising expenditures per capita and self-reported alcohol advertising exposure in the prior month. Main Outcome Measure: Self-reported number of alcoholic drinks consumed in the prior month. Results: Youth who saw more alcohol advertisements on average drank more (each additional advertisement seen increased the number of drinks consumed by 1% [event rate ratio, 1.01; 95% confidence interval, 1.01-1.02]). Youth in markets with greater alcohol advertising expenditures drank more (each additional dollar spent per capita raised the number of drinks consumed by 3% [event rate ratio, 1.03; 95% confidence interval, 1.01-1.05]). Examining only youth younger than the legal drinking age of 21 years, alcohol advertisement exposure and expenditures still related to drinking. Youth in markets with more alcohol advertisements showed increases in drinking levels into their late 20s, but drinking platitude in the early 20s for youth in markets with fewer advertisements. Control variables included age, gender, ethnicity, high school or college enrolment, and alcohol sales. Conclusion: Alcohol advertising contributes to increase drinking among youth. (Source: http://archpedi.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/160/1/18, Leslie B. Snyder, PhD; Frances Fleming Milici, PhD; Michael Slater, PhD; Helen Sun, MA; Yuliya Strizhakova, PhD Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2006; 160:18-24.) OTHER EXPERIMENT: BY NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON ALCOHOL ABUSE AND ALCOHOLISM RESEARCH MONOGRAPH 28 Alcohol beverage advertisers are exploring a variety of ways to protect and extend their reach. Brewers are the most vigorous in this effort. Faced with similar problem, a marketing study reported, much other industry would have pulled in their marketing horn long ago. The brewing industry`s response has been almost the opposite. It is doing everything possible to attract new customers, and one brewing industry executive calls it a panic' (Hume 1985, p.16) while most beer advertising budgets shrank, the top three beer brands increased their advertising by more than 20 percent (Nutrition Action Health letter 1992). By McCarty and Ewing Experiment was conducted by McCarty and Ewing (1983). The subjects viewed a set of magazine ad slides for eight distilled spirit products or for non alcohol products as part of a supposed evaluation of sexual stimuli in advertising messages. In the counterbalanced design, half saw the alcohol ads first and half saw them following the non alcohol ads; a second manipulation involved access to a distilled spirit mixed drink versus a soft drink before evaluating the slides. During a break between exposure sessions, all subjects fixed drinks with liquor and mixers at a private bar before viewing the opposite set of slides. Each ad was shown for 30 seconds initially and 2.5 minutes during a later group discussion of sexual content. There was no significant main effect of advertising on amount of liquor poured, rate of consumption, or blood alcohol content (BAC) level on a breath testing device at the end of the study. However there was a significant interaction: among subjects in the alcoh ol pre drink condition, those viewing alcohol ads in the second slide session following the break had higher BAC scores than subjects who viewed these slides first. The author concluded that the higher blood alcohol levels suggest that alcoholic advertisi

Elie Wiesel Essay -- History, The Holocaust, Nazis

No one experiences such a terrible event as the Holocaust without changing. In Night, a memoir by the Jew Elie Wiesel, the author describes his torture at the hands of the Nazis. Captured with his family in 1944 (one year before the end of the war), they were sent to Auschwitz to come before the stern Dr. Mengele in the infamous selection. There, Elie parted from his mother and sister leaving him with his father who was too busy to spend any time with his son before the camp. Under the Nazis' control, Elie and his father moved to several camps including Buna. The Nazi regime â€Å"deprived [Elie]...of the desire to lived..., which murdered [his] God and soul and turned my dreams to dust†(32). Prior to the war, Elie lived a highly spiritual and innocent life. Elie possessed a very strong interest in Jewish beliefs. At the young age of 12, â€Å"during the day [he] studied the Talmud, and at night [he] ran to the synagogue to weep over the destruction of the Temple†(3). Elie attacked the faith with such a vigor that he, â€Å"asked [his] father to find [Elie] a master to guide [his] studies of the cabbala†, but his father responded, â€Å"you are too young for that... only at thirty that one had the right into the perilous world of mysticism†(1-2). At such a young age, Elie followed the Jewish faith with a vigor uncommon for his age; his father kept him grounded in a world of reason. Even when the Nazis were taking the Jews to the concentration camp (though they did not know where they were going), Elie, â€Å"got up at dawn. [he] wanted to pray before [the Jews] were expelled†(16) Even as Elie's freedoms vanished, he still maintained a sense of faith as a crutch. This also shows how Elie still was a child at the time, not aware that the G... ...had but one desire_to eat. [He] no longer thought of his father or mother†(107). The war left him crushed for life without any attachments to reality or sympathy for his family; he had cried his last tears. Following the camp, Elie only existed as a body wanting basic necessities without a soul or passion. The Holocaust changed Elie from a religious child to a mindless body who lost all innocence at age when he â€Å"was fifteen years old†(96). He wanted to study the cabbala and grow up quickly. The flames of the furnaces and the noose on the necks of fellow prisoners stole that desire from him and all the prisoners leaving empty bodies to work for the Nazi regime. Such horrors forced any man to abandon his passions if he wished to survive to the next day. The effect the war had on the Jews makes the claims of Holocaust deniers incredibly ignorant and cruel.

Moving and Handling Essay

Outcome 1 1)When you are required to assist people to move or help to reposition people it is important to understand the related anatomy and physiology, anatomy being the physical structure of the body and physiology the normal functions of the body. When a muscle contracts it pulls the bones at a joint in the direction that it is designed to move, when supporting moving and positioning activities it is important to think about the direction a joint moves in and how far the joint is designed to move in that direction. For example an elbow or knee joint can only extend to a certain point and trying to push these joints past that point would cause painful damage to that joint. 2)When positioning people who are unable to move themselves, it is important to remember to always check their pressure areas, especially the elbows, heels and the bony part of the back at the base of the spine called the sacrum. Poor positioning techniques can cause pressure areas to develop. Care needs to be taken when moving people with certain medical conditions, for example care must be taken when moving or positioning arthritic people in order to reduce the possibility of causing pain and discomfort. You also need to remember that arthritic joints have limited movement so you should not attempt to move these beyond their limits. When assisting people with Parkinson’s disease to find a comfortable position, be careful not to force the rigid limb further than it is able to. Also people with Parkinson’s disease have slower reaction times so it is important to give people suffering from this condition time to move and not to rush them. Always look for non-verbal signs of pain or discomfort. When moving and handling people who have suffered from a stroke, you will need to be aware of the extent of the stroke and what parts of the body have been affected. Outcome 2Â  1)Legislation is in place to protect people and reduce the risk of injury to care workers and the people they support. The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 makes it a legal requirement for employers to make sure that the health, safety and welfare of their employees is maintained and employees have a duty to take care of the health, safety and welfare of themselves and others. The Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 (amended 2002) relate to moving and handling in the workplace. These Regulations were updated in 2002. The Regulations are for employers, self-employed people and employees. They state that employers must avoid all dangerous manual handling activities when it is reasonable and practical to do this. If it is not possible, the risks regarding the task must be assessed including the load, the working environment and the ability of the handler then appropriate action should be taken to reduce the risk to the lowest level. Employees must follow the appropriate procedure outlined by their employer to promote safety during moving and repositioning. If you are responsible for assisting somebody to move, it is both the responsibility of the employer and the employee to ensure your safety and that of the person being moved. 2) There are several health and safety factors that need to be considered before moving or positioning someone. Firstly you should plan the activity by asking questions like, what activity will you be assisting with? Are you helping the person to stand, roll, walk or turn? If you are assisting someone to walk, how far do you need to go? Who else could help you? How long will the activity take? Secondly consider the environment and identify any potential hazards. Are there any obstacles or obstructions, which may increase the risk of you or the person tripping over? Is the floor level, dry and free from obstacles like rugs? Is there enough space for the activity? Thirdly think about the person who is being assisted to move or who is being positioned because they will be at the centre of the activity. What can they do for themselves? How much support will they need? How can you encourage their independence during the activity? Has the person experienced the activity before? Are there any medical devices attached to the person such as catheter bags, intravenous drips or wound drains? What is the person’s weight and height? In addition you should also consider how suitable you and your colleagues are for assisting in the activity. Have you had moving and handling training? What is your state of health and well-being? Is your clothing suitable to perform moving and handling procedures? Does your footwear fit properly and is it supportive? Lastly when planning moving and handling of a person there may be a piece of equipment that is required such as a hoist, walking frame or slide sheet. Before using any equipment, you should check that it is available, clean, in good condition and in good working order. Also find out if the person being assisted has used the equiptment before and if there were any problems. You should only use equipment that you have been trained to use. Outcome 3Â  1) A) It is important before assisting somebody to move, that you access up-to-date information about their moving and handling requirements, their ability to cooperate, their health condition and their moving and handling requirements. This information should be found in the person’s support plan and their moving and handling risk assessment. Both these documents should be read at the same time as each other because the support plan will provide specific information on the individual person like what the person can do for themselves, the amount of support needed by the person from care staff, any limitations of the person e.g. medical conditions that should be taken into account, how the person moves, how often they need to be repositioned and any problems or benefits from moving and handling equipment that the person has used. B) Although there is similar information in the moving and handling risk assessment it will also contain details that focus on reducing the risk of harm to the person and the care worker from moving and handling activities. Risk assessments identify potential hazards that could cause harm and include the moving and positioning activity itself, the environment, the person, any equipment that will be used, yourself and other care workers. 2) It is important that you check the person, equipment and the environment before undertaking any moving and positioning activities You should always consider if the person is still able to cooperate with the activity, also check for catheter bags, intravenous drips or wound drains and that the equipment is clean and safe. It is also good practice to check that the person’s footwear is suitable for the activity and check the floor for any obstacles. It is very important to watch out for floors that have just been washed and wet floor signs. 2) For each identified risk you need to be clear about who might be harmed; it will help you identify the best way of managing the risk. That doesn’t mean listing everyone by name, but rather identifying groups of people, In each case, identify how they might be harmed, i.e. what type of injury or ill health might occur. you then have to decide what to do about them. The law requires you to do everything ‘reasonably practicable’ to protect people from harm. You can work this out for yourself, but the easiest way is to compare what you are doing with good practice. 3) Sometimes workplace polices and procedures in relation to moving and handling may conflict with someones wishes. [ For example, some workplaces have adopted no-lifting policies which mean that hoists are used for all people but what if a person does not want to be hoisted If dealt with incorrectly, this could leave people feeling undervalued, humiliated, distressed and degraded. You could also find yourself in trouble, because the persons basic human rights may have been violated. To prevent conflicts from developing between people and workplace policies relating to moving and positioning, it is best to involve people in their own risk assessments and mobility support plans in the first place, if appropriate. Risk assessments should focus on the needs of the person, not just the needs of the service provider. Where possible, people should be placed at the centre of the planning process and given choice over their moving and positioning requirements, as they will have the best knowledge of their own mobility. The wishes of the person need to be balanced with the need to ensure that care staffs are not put at risk through moving and positioning activities. Balancing the wishes of somebody with the rights of care workers will help promote a person’s independence, autonomy and dignity. However, sometimes, a person’s condition can change and their mobility can improve as well as deteriorate. This may lead to them changing their mind on how they wish to be moved or positioned. If their wishes conflict with their plan of support, it is important that you document this in the persons support plan and inform your manager. If the person wants to do more for themselves, you should encourage this, but be aware of their limitations are they trying to do too much too soon If the person refuses to be moved or turned, you should encourage them to move as much as possible by themselves.

Bloodsucking Fiends: A Love Story Chapter 27~28

Chapter 27 Bridging the Boredom Half past midnight. He stood at the top of the southwest tower of the Oakland Bay Bridge, some fifty stories above the gunmetal-cold bay, thinking, Jump or dive? He wore a black silk suit and he paused for a moment, regretting that the suit would be ruined. He liked the feel and flow of silk on his skin. Oh well. Two miles away Jody was walking up Market Street wishing that she could just get drunk and pass out. I wonder, she thought, if I found someone who was really drunk and drank his blood? No, this damn system of mine would probably identify alcohol as a poison and fight the effects. So many questions. If only I'd remembered to ask them. She stopped at a phone booth and called Tommy at the store. â€Å"Marina Safeway.† â€Å"Tommy, it's me.† â€Å"Are you still mad?† â€Å"Not mad enough, I guess. I just wanted to tell you to stay in the store until after daylight. Don't go outside for any reason. And stay around the other guys if you can.† â€Å"Why? What's the matter?† â€Å"Just do as I say, Tommy.† â€Å"I cleaned up the loft. Mostly, anyway.† â€Å"We'll talk about it tomorrow night. Stay at home until I wake up, okay?† â€Å"Are you still going to be pissed?† â€Å"Probably. I'll see you then. Good-bye.† She hung up. How could he be so smart sometimes and so ignorant other times? Maybe the vampire was right, a human could never understand her. She suddenly felt very lonely. She ducked into an all-night diner and ordered a cup of coffee as rent on a booth. She still could enjoy the smell of coffee, even if she couldn't keep it down. She opened the paper she had bought from the bum with her cosmetics bag and began to read through the personals. â€Å"Men Seeking Women,† â€Å"Women Seeking Men,† â€Å"Men Seeking Men,† â€Å"Women Seeking Women,† â€Å"Men Seeking Small Fuzzy Animals†; there was a wide selection of categories. She scanned over the more mundane entries until her eye settled on one under â€Å"Support Groups.† â€Å"Are You a Vampire? You don't have to face your problem alone. Blood Drinkers Anonymous can help. Mon.-Fri. Midnight. Rm. 212 Asian Cultural Center, Non-Smoking.† It was Friday. It was midnight. She was only ten minutes from the Asian Cultural Center. Could it be this simple? The first thing she noticed when she walked into room 212 of the Asian Cultural Center is that all of the people sitting in a circle in molded plastic chairs, all twenty of them, were giving off heat signatures. They were all human. She was backing out of the door when a pear-shaped woman in a leotard and black cape intercepted her and took her hand. â€Å"Welcome,† said the woman. She sported a set of rather wicked-looking fangs that caused her to lisp. â€Å"I'm Tabitha. We're just getting ready to start. Come on in. There's coffee and cookies.† She led Jody to an orange plastic chair and urged her to sit down. â€Å"It's hard the first time, but everyone here has been where you are.† â€Å"Not bloody likely,† Jody said, wiping a speck of Tabitha's spittle from her cheek. Tabitha pointed to a plastic medallion that hung from her neck by a heavy silver chain. â€Å"See this chip? I've been clean and bloodless for six months. If I can do it, so can you. One night at a time.† Tabitha squeezed her arm, then threw her cape over her shoulder, turned dramatically, and stalked across the room to the cookie table, her cape billowing behind her. Jody looked at the other occupants of the room. All were talking, most were sneaking looks at her between sips of coffee. The men were all tall and thin with protruding Adam's apples and bad skin. Their dress ranged from business suits to jeans and flannel. They might have been a chess club out for the evening if not for the capes. To a man, they wore capes. Four of seven had fangs. Two sets of four were made of glow-in-the-dark plastic. Jody focused on two of them whispering in the corner. â€Å"I told you, this is a babe-fest. Did you see the redhead?† He sneaked a look. His partner said, â€Å"I think I saw her at Compulsive Cleaners last week.† â€Å"Compulsive Cleaners, I was going to try that. How are the odds?† â€Å"Lots of gay guys, but a few babes. Mostly they smell like Pine Sol, but it's hot if you like latex gloves.† â€Å"Cool, I'll check it out. I think I'm going to quit going to Adult Children of Alcoholics, everybody's looking to blame, no one's looking to get laid.† Jody thought, I don't know if I want to hear quiet desperation this clearly. She changed her focus to the women in the room. A six-foot-two brunette woman in a black choir robe and Kabuki-like makeup was complaining to a washed-out blonde wearing a tattered wedding dress. â€Å"They want to be tied up, I tie them up. They want to be spanked, I spank them. They want to be called names, I call them names. But try and drink a little of their blood, and they scream like babies. What about my needs?† â€Å"I know,† said the blonde. â€Å"I asked Robert to sleep in the coffin one time and he left.† â€Å"You have a coffin? I want a coffin.† Christ, Jody thought, I've got to get out of here. Tabitha clapped her hands. â€Å"Let's get the meeting started!† Those who were standing found seats. Several men tried to shove their way into the seats next to Jody. A skinny geek with peanut-butter breath leaned in to her and said, â€Å"I was on ‘Oprah' on Halloween. ‘Men who drink blood and the women who find them disgusting. If you want, you can come by my place and watch the tape after the meeting.† â€Å"I'm out of here,† Jody said. She jumped up and headed for the door. Behind her she heard Tabitha saying, â€Å"Hi, I'm Tabitha and I'm a bloodsucking fiend.† â€Å"Hi, Tabitha,† the group said in chorus. Outside Jody looked up and down the street wondering which way to go, what to do. She paused by a phone booth, realizing that there was no one she could call. Tears welled in her eyes. Why even bother to hope? The only person who had the slightest idea how she felt was the vampire who had made her. And he had made it clear that he wasn't interested in helping her – the evil fucker. I should set him up with my mother, she thought, then the two of them can look down on humanity together. The thought made her smile. Then the phone rang. She looked at it for a second, looked around for someone else who would answer it, but except for a guy standing by his car a couple of blocks away, the street was empty. She picked up the phone. â€Å"Hello.† A man's voice said, â€Å"I thought you would show up here eventually.† â€Å"Who is this?† Jody asked. The man sounded young, his voice was unfamiliar. â€Å"I can't tell you that yet.† â€Å"Okay,† Jody said. â€Å"Bye.† â€Å"Wait, wait, wait, don't hang up.† â€Å"Well?† â€Å"You're the one, aren't you? You're real. I mean, you are a real vampire.† Jody held the phone away, stared at the receiver as if it were an alien object. â€Å"Who is this?† â€Å"I don't want to tell you my name. I don't want you to be able to find me. Let's just say that I'm a friend.† â€Å"That's how most of my friends are,† Jody said. â€Å"They don't tell me their names or how to find them. It keeps my social calendar pretty clear.† Who was this guy? Who could possibly know that she was here, right now? â€Å"Okay, I guess I owe you something. I'm a med student at†¦ at a local college. I did some research on one of the bodies†¦ one of the bodies of the people you killed.† â€Å"I didn't kill anyone. I don't know what you're talking about. If I am who you think I am, how did you know I'd be here? I didn't even know I would be here until an hour ago.† â€Å"I've been waiting, watching every night for a couple of weeks. I had a theory that you wouldn't have any noticeable body heat, and you don't.† â€Å"What are you talking about? No one notices anybody's body heat.† â€Å"Look up the street. By the white Toyota. It's running, by the way. If you make a move to come toward me, I'm gone.† Jody looked more closely at the person up the street standing by a white car. The car was running. The man was holding a cell phone and looking at her through some very large binoculars. â€Å"I see you,† she said. â€Å"What do you want?† â€Å"I'm looking at you through infrared glasses. You're not giving off any body heat, so I know you're the one. My theory was right.† â€Å"Are you a cop?† â€Å"No, I told you, I'm a medical student. I don't want to turn you in. In fact, I think I might be able to help you, if you're interested in being helped.† â€Å"Talk,† Jody said. She held her hand over the phone and focused on the guy by the car. She could hear him talking into the cell phone. â€Å"They gave one of the cadavers to our department after the coroner was done with it. It was a male, about sixty years old, the third victim, I think. I noticed that there was a clean spot on his neck, as if it had been washed. The coroner hadn't put that in his report. I took a tissue sample and put it under a microscope. The tissue in that area was living. Regenerating. I cultured it and it started to die, until I added something on a hunch.† â€Å"What?† Jody asked. She didn't know what to think. This man knew she was a vampire, and strangely, she felt an urge to attack. Some protective instinct wanted her to hurt him. Kill him. She fought to stay calm. â€Å"Hemoglobin. I added some human hemoglobin and the tissue started to regenerate again. I ran it through the sequencer. It's not human DNA. It's close, but not human. It doesn't produce heat, doesn't seem to burn fuel the same way that mammalian cells do. The coroner said that he was the one that had drained the blood from the body, but he'd never done that before. And I knew that the guy had been murdered. I made a guess. I saw the ad in the Weekly for a vampire support group, so I've been watching.† Jody said, â€Å"Suppose I believe what you're saying. Suppose I believe that you believe this bullshit, how could you help me? Supposing I wanted to be helped?† â€Å"My major is gene therapy. There's a chance I could reverse the process.† â€Å"This isn't science. I'm not saying that you're right about your theory. There are a lot of things that you don't know, that can't be explained by science. If you don't know that by now, you will. What you're talking about is magic.† â€Å"Magic is just science that we don't know yet. Do you want me to help or not?† â€Å"Why would you want to do that? As far as you know, I kill people.† â€Å"So does cancer, but I still work on it. Do you have any idea what kind of competition there is for jobs in my field? It's an all-or-nothing field. I could end up getting my PhD and giving saccharine enemas to rats for five bucks an hour. What I learn from you would put my resume at the top of the stack.† Jody didn't know what to say. Part of her wanted to drop the phone and go after him. Another part wanted to accept his help. She said, â€Å"What do you want me to do?† â€Å"Nothing yet. How can I get hold of you?† â€Å"I can't tell you that. I'll call you. What's your number?† â€Å"I can't tell you that.† Jody sighed. â€Å"Look, Mr. Scientific Genius, figure out something. And by the way, I really didn't kill those people.† â€Å"Then why are you even listening to me?† â€Å"I guess this conversation is over. Get in your car and get comfortable with asking rats to bend over. Good-bye.† â€Å"Wait, we could meet somewhere. Tomorrow. Someplace public.† â€Å"No, it has to be at night. Someplace private. You could have cops everywhere.† She watched him as she talked. He had put the binoculars down and she could see that he was Asian. â€Å"You're the killer here. Would you meet you someplace private and dark?† â€Å"All right. Tomorrow night. Seven o'clock, at Enrico's on Broadway. That public enough for you?† â€Å"Sure. Can I bring a blood-sample kit? Would you let me?† â€Å"Would you let me?† she asked. He didn't answer. â€Å"Just kidding,† she said. â€Å"Look, I don't want to hurt you, but I don't want to get hurt either. When you leave here, drive like hell and take an indirect route home.† â€Å"Why?† â€Å"Because I really didn't kill those people, but I know who did, and he's been following me. If he's seen you, you're in danger.† The line was quiet for a minute, just the ghost voices of a cellular connection. Jody watched the Asian guy watching her. Finally he cleared his throat. â€Å"How many of you are there?† â€Å"I don't know,† she said. â€Å"I know that all of the victims don't change. It couldn't work. The geometric progression would have the entire human race turned to vampires in a month.† He sounded more confident now that he had brought the conversation back to science. â€Å"I'll tell you what I know tomorrow. But don't expect much. I don't know much. Or I'll tell you now if you want to talk face to face, but I don't think it's a good idea to talk about this with you on a cell phone.† â€Å"Yeah, you're right. Not now, though. Not here. You understand, don't you?† Jody nodded, exaggerating the gesture so he could see. â€Å"The longer you stand there, the better chance you have of being seen by†¦ by the other one. Tomorrow night, then. Seven o'clock.† â€Å"Will you be wearing that dress?† Jody smiled. â€Å"Do you like it? It's new.† â€Å"It's great. I didn't think you would be a woman.† â€Å"Thanks. Go now.† She watched him climb into the Toyota, the cell phone still in hand. â€Å"Promise not to try and track me down?† â€Å"I know where you'll be tomorrow night, remember?† â€Å"Oh yeah. By the way, my name's Steve.† â€Å"Hi, Steve. I'm Jody.† â€Å"‘Bye,† he said. He disconnected. Jody hung up the phone and watched him drive away. She thought, Great, another one to worry about. It hadn't occurred to her that her condition might be reversible. But then, the med student didn't know about how the body had turned to dust. Science indeed. Jump or dive, he thought. The silk suit whipped about his legs in the chill wind. The tower's aircraft warning light flashed red across his face and he could see heat swirling off it, dissolving over the bay. His name was Elijah Ben Sapir. He stood five feet ten inches tall and he had been a vampire for eight hundred years. In human life he had been an alchemist and had spent his time mixing noxious chemicals and chanting arcane incantations trying to turn lead into gold and tap the secret of eternal life. He hadn't been a particularly good alchemist. He had never been able to pull off the gold transformation, although by a bizarre miscalculation of chemistry he did manage to invent Teflon some eight hundred years before DuPont would find a use for it. (It should be noted, though, that archaeologists recently uncovered a Viking rune stone in Greenland that mentions a Jew who entered the palace of Constantine the Magnificent in 1224 selling a line of nonstick hot pokers for the Emperor's torture chamber and was promptly given the bum's rush to the city gates. The accuracy of the story has been questioned, however, as it begins, â€Å"I never believed that your letters were true until Gunn er and I†¦Ã¢â‚¬  and goes on to recount the sexual exploits of two Vikings and a harem of brown-skinned Byzantine babes.) Ben Sapir's search for eternal life had been somewhat more successful. Granted, it came with the side effects of drinking human blood and staying out of sunlight, but he had gotten used to that. It was the loneliness that he couldn't abide. Perhaps, after all these years, it would end. He was afraid to hope. It had been a hundred years since a fledgling had lasted this long. She had been a Yanomamo woman in the Amazon Basin and she had hunted the jungle for three months before she returned to her village and turned her sister. The sisters declared themselves gods and demanded sacrifices from the village. He found them by the river feeding on an old woman, and he took no pleasure in killing them. Perhaps the redhead, perhaps she would be the one. Dive, he decided. He leaped away from the tower, jackknifed into a dive, and plunged fifty stories to the black water. The challenge was to avoid changing to mist before hitting the water. That was too easy. The impact of the water ripped the clothes off his back; the stitching of his shoes exploded with the pressure. He surfaced, naked except for one sock that had strangely survived the impact, and began the long swim back to his yacht thinking, I shouldn't have saved her from the sunlight. I must be desperate for entertainment. Chapter 28 Is That a Blackjack in Your Pocket? Tommy booted the Emperor out of the store at dawn. It had been a long night trying to keep the crazed ruler away from the Animals while throwing stock and trying to figure out the logistics of his meeting with Mara, all while under the influence of Dr. Drew's polio weed, which seemed to affect the part of the brain that motivates one to sit in the corner and drool while staring at one's hands. When the shift ended, he declined the Animal's invitation for beers and Frisbee in the parking lot, swiped a baguette from the bread-delivery man, and caught the bus home, intent on going straight to bed. He knew his plan was foiled when Frank, the biker/sculptor, met him outside their building holding a familiar-looking bronze turtle. â€Å"Flood, check it out.† Frank held up the turtle. â€Å"It worked!† â€Å"What worked?† Tommy asked. â€Å"Thick electroplating process. Come on in, I'll show you.† Frank turned and led Tommy through the roll-up door into the foundry. The foundry took up the entire bottom floor of the building, here was a huge furnace making a muffled rumbling sound. There were several large pits filled with sand, and plaster-of-Paris molds lay in them in various states of completion. In the back, near the only windows, stood wax figures of naked women, Indians, Buddhas, and birds, waiting to be cut up and placed in plaster of Paris. Frank said, â€Å"We've been doing a lot of statues for people's gardens. Buddhas are big with the koi-pond types. That's what we needed the turtles for. Monk already sold one of them to a woman in Pacific Heights for five hundred bucks. Sight unseen.† â€Å"My turtles?† Tommy said. He looked more closely at the bronze turtle Frank was holding. â€Å"Zelda!† â€Å"Can you believe it?† Frank said. â€Å"We did them both in less than eight hours. Lost-wax process would have taken days. I'll show you.† He led Tommy to the other side of the shop where a short, portly man in leather and denim was working beside a tall Plexi-glas tank filled with a translucent green liquid. Frank said, â€Å"Monk, this is our neighbor, Tom Flood. Flood, this is my partner Monk.† Monk grunted, not looking up from a compressor that he seemed to be having trouble with. Tommy could see how he had gotten his name. He had a large bowl-shaped bald spot with a fringe of hair around it: the Benedictine version of Easy Rider, Friar Tuck on wheels. â€Å"This,† said Frank, gesturing toward the ten-foot tank, â€Å"as far as we know, is the biggest electroplating tank on the West Coast.† Tommy didn't know quite how to react. He was still stunned by seeing the bronze likeness of Zelda. â€Å"That's just spiffy,† he said finally. â€Å"Yeah, dude. We can do anything we can find. No molds, no wax carvings. You just dunk and go. That's how we did your turtles.† Tommy was beginning to get it. â€Å"You mean that that is not a sculpture? You covered my turtles with brass?† â€Å"That's it. That liquid is supersaturated with dissolved metal. We sprayed the turtles with a thin metal-based paint that would conduct current. Then we attached a wire to them and dipped them in the tank. The current draws the metal out of the water and it fuses to the paint on the turtle. Leave it a long time and the coating gets thick enough to have structural integrity. Voila, a bronze garden turtle. I don't think anybody's ever done it before. We owe you, man.† Monk grunted in gratitude. Tommy didn't know whether to be angry or depressed. â€Å"You should have told me you were going to kill them.† â€Å"I thought you knew, man. Sorry. You can have this one, if you want.† Frank presented the bronzed Zelda. Tommy shook his head and looked away. â€Å"I don't think I could look at her.† He turned and walked away. Frank said, â€Å"C'mon, man, take it. We owe you one. If you need a favor or something†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Tommy took Zelda. How would he explain to Jody? â€Å"By the way, I've turned your little friends into statues.† And this right after they'd had a big fight. He slunk up the steps feeling completely lost. Jody had left him a note on the counter: Tommy: Imperative that you are here when I wake up. If you go out you are in serious, life-threatening trouble. I mean it. I have some very important things to tell you. No time now, I'm going to go out any second. Be here when I wake up. Jody â€Å"Great,† Tommy said to Peary. â€Å"Now what do I do about Mara? Who does Jody think she is, threatening me? What does she think she's going to do if I'm not here? I can't be here. Why don't you keep her busy until I get home.† Tommy patted the chest freezer and an idea came to him. â€Å"You know, Peary, scientists have frozen vampire bats and thawed them completely unharmed. I mean, how would she know? How many times has she thought it was Tuesday when it was really Wednesday?† Tommy went to the bedroom and looked in on Jody, who had made it to bed, but not in time to change out of her black dress. Wow, Tommy thought, she never dresses like that for me. She looked so peaceful. Sexy, but peaceful. She'll be angry if she finds out, but she's angry now. It won't really hurt her. I can just take her out tomorrow morning and put her under the electric blanket. By sundown she'll be thawed out and I'll have handled the Mara thing. I can tell Mara that I'm involved. I can't start something new until this is finished. Maybe with the extra time, Jody will have chilled a little. He smiled to himself. He opened the lid of the freezer, then went into the bedroom to get Jody. He carried her into the kitchen and laid her in the freezer on top of Peary. As he tucked her into the fetal position he felt a twinge of jealousy. â€Å"You guys behave now, okay?† He tucked a few TV dinners around her nice and snug under her arms, then kissed her on the forehead and gently closed the lid. As he crawled into bed he thought, If she ever finds out about this, she's really going to be pissed. Tommy had been asleep three hours when the pounding started. He rolled out of bed, stumbled across the dark bedroom, and was blinded when he opened the door into the loft. He was just regaining his eyesight when he opened the fire door and Rivera said, â€Å"Are you Thomas Flood, Junior?† â€Å"Yes,† Tommy said, bracing himself against the doorjamb. â€Å"I'm Inspector Alphonse Rivera from the San Francisco Police Department.† He held up a badge wallet. â€Å"You're under arrest† – Rivera pulled a warrant from his jacket pocket – â€Å"for abandoning a vehicle on a public street.† â€Å"You're kidding,† Tommy said. Cavuto stepped through the door and grabbed Tommy by the shoulder, whipping him around as the big cop pulled his handcuffs from his belt. â€Å"You have the right to remain silent†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Cavuto said. Two hours later Tommy had been processed, probed, and printed, and as Cavuto had expected, Tommy's fingerprints matched those on the copy of On the Road that they had found under the dead bum. It was enough for them to get a search warrant issued for the loft. Five minutes after they entered the loft a mobile crime lab was dispatched along with a forensics team and two coroners' trucks. As far as crime scenes went, the loft in SOMA was the mother lode. Cavuto and Rivera left the crime scene to the forensics team and returned to the station, where they took Tommy from a holding cell and put him in a pleasantly pink interrogation room furnished with a metal table and two chairs. There was a mirror on one wall and a tape recorder sat on the table. Tommy sat staring at the pink wall, remembering something about how pink was supposed to calm you down. It didn't seem to be working. His stomach was tied in knots. Rivera had done dozens of interrogations with Cavuto and they always took the same roles: Cavuto was the bad cop, and Rivera was the good cop. Actually Rivera never felt like the good cop. More often he was the I-am-tired-and-overworked-and-I'm-being-nice-to-you-because-I-don't-have-the-energy-to-be-angry cop. â€Å"Would you like a smoke?† Rivera asked. â€Å"Sure,† Tommy said. Cavuto jumped in his face. â€Å"Too bad, punk. There's no smoking in here.† Cavuto took great pleasure in being the bad cop. He practiced in front of the mirror at home. Rivera shrugged. â€Å"He's right. You can't smoke.† Tommy said, â€Å"That's okay, I don't smoke.† â€Å"How about a lawyer then?† asked Rivera. â€Å"Or a phone call?† â€Å"I have to be at work at midnight,† Tommy said. â€Å"If it looks like I'm going to be late, I'll use my call then.† Cavuto was pacing the room, timing his path so he could wheel on Tommy with every statement. He wheeled. â€Å"Yeah, kid, you're going to be late, about thirty years late, if they don't fry you.† Tommy pushed back in his chair with fright. â€Å"Good one, Nick,† Rivera said. â€Å"Thanks.† Cavuto smiled around an unlit cigar and backed away from the table where Tommy sat. Rivera moved up. â€Å"Okay, kid, you don't want an attorney. Where do you want to start? We've got you hands-down on two murders and probably three. If you tell us the story, tell us everything, about all the other murders, we might be able to waive the death penalty.† â€Å"I didn't kill anybody.† â€Å"Don't be cute,† Cavuto said. â€Å"We found two bodies in your freezer. We've got your fingerprints all over a book that we found under a third body outside your apartment. We've got you staying at the motel where we found a fourth body. And we've got you with a closetful of women's clothing and eyewitnesses that put a woman near where we found a fifth body†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Tommy interrupted, â€Å"Actually, there's only one body in the freezer. The other is my girlfriend.† â€Å"You sick fuck.† Cavuto drew back as if to hit Tommy. Rivera moved to restrain him. Tommy cowered in his chair. Rivera led Cavuto to the far side of the room. â€Å"Let me take this for a minute.† He left Cavuto grumbling to himself and went to the seat across from Tommy. â€Å"Look, kid, we've got you cold, so to speak, on two murders. We've got circumstantial evidence on another. You are going to jail for a very long time, and at this point, the death penalty is looking pretty good. Now if you tell us everything, and don't leave anything out, we might be able to help you out, but you have to give us enough to close all the cases. Do you understand?† Tommy nodded. â€Å"But I didn't kill anybody. I put Jody in the freezer, which I admit is inconsiderate, but I didn't kill her.† Cavuto growled. Rivera nodded in mock acceptance of the story. â€Å"Fine, but if you didn't kill them, who did? Did someone you know force you into this?† Cavuto exploded, â€Å"Oh Christ, Rivera! What do you need, a videotape? This little bastard did it.† â€Å"Nick, please. Give me a minute here.† Cavuto moved to the table and leaned over it until his face was next to Tommy's. He whispered, raspy and gruff, â€Å"Flood, don't think you can use a wiggle and a wink to get yourself out of this. That might work down on Castro, but I'm immune to it here, you got me? I'm going to leave now, but when I come back, if you haven't told my partner your story, I'm going to cause pain. Lots of it, and I won't leave a mark on you.† He stood up, smiled, then turned and left the room. Tommy looked at Rivera. â€Å"A wiggle and a wink?† â€Å"Nick thinks you're cute,† Rivera said. â€Å"He's gay?† â€Å"Completely.† Tommy shook his head. â€Å"I would have never guessed.† â€Å"He's a Shriner, too.† Rivera tapped a cigarette out of his pack and lit it. â€Å"Looks can be deceiving.† â€Å"Hey, I didn't think you were allowed to smoke in here.† Rivera blew smoke in Tommy's face. â€Å"You had two people in your freezer, and you're giving me shit about smoking.† â€Å"Good point.† Rivera sat down and leaned back in the chair. â€Å"Tommy, I'm going to give you one more chance to tell me how you killed those people, then I'm going to let Nick back in here and I'm going to leave. He really likes you. This room is soundproof, you know.† Tommy swallowed hard. â€Å"You're not going to believe me. It's a pretty fantastic story. There's supernatural stuff involved.† Rivera rubbed his temples. â€Å"Satan told you to do it?† he said wearily. â€Å"No.† â€Å"Elvis?† â€Å"I told you, it's supernatural.† â€Å"Tommy, I'm going to tell you something I've never told anyone before. If you repeat it, I'll deny I said it. Five years ago I saw a white owl with a seventy-foot wingspan swoop out of the sky and pluck a demon off a hillside and take off into the sky.† â€Å"I heard that cops get the best drugs,† Tommy said. Rivera got up. â€Å"I'm going to bring Nick in.† â€Å"No, wait. I'll tell you. It was a vampire. You can thaw Jody out and ask her.† Rivera reached over and turned on the tape recorder. â€Å"Now slow down. Start at the beginning and go until we walked you into this room.† An hour later Rivera met Cavuto behind the one-way mirror. Cavuto was not happy. â€Å"You know, I'd rather you just threaten that I would beat him up.† â€Å"It worked, didn't it?† â€Å"There's nothing there we can use. Not a thing. If he sticks with that story he'll get off on insanity. It's too wild. I want to know how he got the blood out of the bodies.† â€Å"The kid thinks he's a writer. He's showing off his imagination. Let's let him sit awhile and get something to eat. I want to find the Emperor.† â€Å"That wacko?† â€Å"He's been reporting seeing a vampire for weeks. Maybe he saw the kid doing one of the murders.†