The Myths Of Nuclear Power Safety - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 7 Words: 2201 Downloads: 10 Date added: 2019/08/16 Category Energy Industry Essay Level High school Tags: Nuclear Power Essay Did you like this example? There are many myths and lies surrounding pro-nuclear power that are being made public by people who have a vested interest in the production and growth of the nuclear power industry. The myths that nuclear is a safe energy source, cost less to construct and operate, is better for the environment and has little risk of being used for terrorism all are being presented to the public from the media who are being fed these lies by the Nuclear Science Organization and nuclear power business when in fact nuclear power poses a huge safety and environmental risk to all living life forms.  Ã‚   The public has a right to be educated on the truths that surround these lies and to be educated on the subject of nuclear power.. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "The Myths Of Nuclear Power Safety" essay for you Create order Nuclear power plants are very complex systems which are operated by humans who can and do make mistakes such as improper maintenance leading to equipment failures and human error makes a future meltdown possible no matter how well a plant is designed. Human error can cause accidents and failures that cause safety concerns for the workers, the environment and the general public. There are also many safety concerns because of failure that result from natural disasters flooding, fires and earthquakes.   We have seen many accidents and failures of nuclear power facilities such as those in Chernobyl, Three Mile Island and Fukushima that could be avoided in the future with the discontinuation of nuclear power facilities. One of the most common myths surrounding nuclear power is that the operating costs of nuclear power stations are far less than those of a coal power station. Nuclear power and coal stations actually have similar costs in the combined expenses of operation, maintenance and fuel costs. Nuclear power plants only have a lower fuel cost but they have a higher operation and maintenance cost which operationally becomes very comparable to that of a coal power station.   New nuclear plant construction has a very high initial capital investment with an estimated construction cost upward of $9 billion per unit and most nuclear power stations have not been built within budget and most greatly exceed these budgets. The last station constructed in Finland was â€Å"3 years behind schedule and at least 1.7 billion euros over budget† (Disendorf). Another common myth with nuclear power is that very little waste is produced compared to coal power, this results in an unfair and misleading comparison. The high level nuclear waste produced by the nuclear power plant is uranium which contains radioactive material and is extremely hazardous to all life forms as well as the environment. The radioactive waste material is regulated by the government and must be properly contained and isolated in order to protect human life as well as the environment. Coal power does produce waste in the form of coal ash however when compared in the same amount to that of radioactive waste the coal ash has much less harmful properties and some of this wast e can be reused for things such as making concrete. When it comes to the discussion of dealing with the radioactive waste produced by the nuclear power plants one myth being reported is that the problem has been solved long term in the managing of the high level nuclear wastes. The truth is this problem has been solved in engineering theory meaning that according to science and on paper there is a solution but this problem has never actually been solved in practice of safely disposing and storing the radioactive material. â€Å"There is no long- term high-level nuclear waste dump operating in the world† (Disendorf ). The dump site on the Yucca Mountian in Nevada was shut down in 2010 under the orders of President Obama when he suspended licensing needed for this facility to operate in order to continue storing high levels of nuclear waste. The countries of Finland and Sweden are in the process of building underground dumps for nuclear waste storage which is a temporary solution because no one knows how to create facilities that can house and will be able to keep radioactive waste safe for long periods of time, the waste must be kept safe and undisturbed for at least 10,000 years. Reprocessing or recycling of the nuclear waste is an idea that has been introduced to solve the problem with storage of these waste products. Unused fuel can be recycled to make new fuel and most of the waste after the recycling process would only require a storage time of 300 years leaving only about 1% of the waste radioactive. Recycling or reprocessing the nuclear waste seems like a great plan in theory however reprocessing would be very costly and poses environmental and safety concerns. Reprocessing uses a series of chemical operations which separates the plutonium and uranium from other nuclear waste that comes from the used fuel in the nuclear power reactors.   The separated plutonium can be used to fuel reactors however the cost of the reprocessing and the use of plutonium to fuel the reactors is far more expensive than using uranium fuel and disposing of the used fuel or nuclear waste directly. Due to the prohibitive costs the U.S. decided in the late 1970’s to not reprocess the used fuel from their reactors but to dispose of the waste in an underground repository where it would need to remain isolated for at least tens of thousands of years from the environment.   A recent industry estimate showed that a reprocessing plant with a capacity of processing 2,000 metric tons of nuclear fuel waste annually would cost $20 billion to build and two of these facilities would be needed in the U.S. alone just to reprocess all of it’s nuclear fuel waste. If spent fuel is not disposed of properly it could be used for or stolen by terrorists and used for creating a nuclear weapon which causes security issues. Reprocessing would increase the risk of nuclear terrorism, very little plutonium less than 20 pounds in fact is needed to make a simple nuclear weapon. If the U.S. continues it’s practice of storing nuclear power waste the plutonium remains bound in the used fuel making it impossible to steal however when plutonium is separated it’s stored in a concentrated powder form increasing the risk of theft and terrorism. There are a few arguments surrounding the threat of nuclear weapons being produced from the waste. One argument is countries that are currently using nuclear power or pursuing the use of nuclear power have signed a treaty stating they will comply with the rules of not using their nuclear technologies toward making nuclear weapons however any country with nuclear technology needs to be considered a great risk. Security of the nuclear plants has been a large concern because many of these plants do not follow the same safety measures and protocols in the protection of the nuclear byproducts resulting in a high probability of a security breech, theft and misuse of the spent fuel. Some argue the spent fuel from the reactors of a nuclear power station does not produce weapon grade plutonium which would not be usable in making a nuclear weapon.   Nuclear bombs have been made from the reactor grade plutonium and although they are less efficient and less predictable the amount of damage is still the same, in fact the unpredictability of these weapons makes the risk greater. Another argument is the countries that have developed nuclear weapons used military facilities and not civil facilities to research and develop their weapons. The truth is many countries have used civil nuclear power plants and spent fuel to develop nuclear bombs, these countries include India, Pakistan, North Korea and currently Iran. Other countries such as the UK and France used nuclear power to add to their stocks of plutonium. The countries of Argentina, Brazil, South Korea, Libya, South Africa and Taiwan used nuclear power to begin the research and testing process for developing nuclear power but decided to dismantle their facilities. My final argument on nuclear power is safety for the environment and all living life form. Nuclear power has been called a clean source of energy and the nuclear power plants are said to not release carbon dioxide emissions. This is a deceivingly true statement. Nuclear power plants may not emit carbon dioxide during operation but every step in the nuclear fuel cycle except the actual operation of the reactors burn fossil fuels and emit carbon dioxide. Nuclear power plants use uranium ore as fuel and the mining process releases large amounts of carbon dioxide into the environment. There is also Carbon dioxide released into the environment when new nuclear power plants are built and in the transport of radioactive waste also causing carbon dioxide emissions. Nuclear power plants are constantly emitting radiation, though these are low levels of radiation it’s a constant emission into the environment. Studies have shown an increased rate of cancer among people who have worked in nuclear power plants and those who have lived near these nuclear power plants. â€Å"The degree of damage low levels of radiation cause to wildlife, plants and the ozone layer is not fully understood. More research is being done to determine the magnitude of effects caused by low levels of radiation in the environment.† (Kivi) Cooling systems have been put into place to keep the nuclear power reactors from overheating however these cooling systems are causing problems to the environment. Water is pulled from rivers and oceans to cool the reactors however fish are being sucked into these intake systems resulting in the death of many fish. When the water is used to cool the system it is then returned to the ocean or river from which it came but it is now roughly twenty five degrees warmer than the water was originally, the warming of the water causes a shock on the fish and plant life killing more fish. The transportation and storage of the nuclear waste poses another safety and environmental concern. Nuclear waste is often not stored onsite and requires transportation to a storage facility. The waste would be transported in large trucks and in the event of an accident or a possible leak it would cause a large radioactive spill site causing contamination to our soil and water ways. We could also see soil contamination in the even of the casks the waste is stored in leaking and with the storage needing to be maintained for a minimum of 10,000 there is no way to know if they will hold up. Even when we take human error out of the equation we will still have natural disasters such as earthquakes and tsunamis like the ones that caused the damage and failure of the plant in Fukushima. These natural disasters resulted in major damage to the nuclear reactors causing the system leak radioactive waste releasing radioactivity into the air, soil and sea. The contamination of the area led to a large evacuation that is still in effect for many people who are displaced from their homes without an end in sight. This was a devastating event for the people of Japan as well as the sea life and has been a very costly clean up and repair process and a drain on not only the country of Japan but other countries as well.   There are also concerns about other types of natural disasters such as hurricanes, tornados and even the rise in sea level that can lead to catastrophic failures. Do the benefits of nuclear power out weigh the risks? The list of fallacies told by the nuclear power companies to the general public will continue to go on and on but the facts show that most all of their claims are lies. Many of the statements given only contain partial truths such as many environmentalists have become pro-nuclear, when in truth aside from two well know environmentalists very few prominent environmentalists are pro-nuclear. Another example of these partial truths is with the decrease in oil production we will need nuclear power as a substitute. The truth is the main sources of fuel for our electricity generation globally are coal and gas. Oil is mostly burnt for transportation so unless electric cars become used much more largely globally in our daily transportation nuclear power is irrelevant as a solution for oil conservation as we see a decline in oil production. As long as the nuclear power companies continue to be in business lies will be told and the people of the general public will have to look outside of the media in order to obtain facts and educate themselves on the hidden agenda of those in the business of seeing nuclear power succeed. The safety, cost and sustainability of nuclear power have been falsely reported on for many years because of lies fed to the media by those with a vested interest in seeing growth in the nuclear power industry. Those lies have only taken into consideration the best interest in the growth of the nuclear power business and have not considered what is in the best interest of the environment, or human life which is you the people who will be living with the consequences of their decisions.

Gender, Masculinity, And Body Structure And How It Is...

In adolescent’s years, the process of the development stages to boy’s bodies takes place. A male’s body structure and how it is perceived by society contributes to their construction of their masculine identities (Addis, M. E., Reigeluth, C. S., Schwab, J. R., 2016). Swain (2003) researchers suggest males constructed their sense of self through their bodies which are used as a social symbol to peers that is a display of masculinity. Kimmel (1997), suggest males create their masculine identities through their social interactions, such as sports. Within sports, masculinity is heavily highlighted, because society perceives a muscular sculpture and athleticism as male qualities. Researchers examined how males use their bodies in intimidating ways in sports which reveal their hypermasculinity (Iudici, A., Verdecchia, M., 2015). For instance, boys will join a sport and use their bodies when participating in athletics to show a physical sign of â€Å"toughness†. In sports or physical activities, boy’s masculinity are showcased. Many males measure their own body’s strength and skills to other males (Kehler, 2010; Swain, 2003). Through various interactions, males acknowledge that they have to obtain a powerful and strong body. More importantly, males seek to gain a status through their strengths and skilled body (Kehler, 2010; Swain, 2003). Males that have masculine sculpted bodies are able to attain positions of others males. Typically, in Physical Education (PE), a boy’sShow MoreRelatedYet, A Reading Of Deleuze’S Concept Of ‘Becomings’ Enable1292 Words   |  6 Pagestherefore disrupt the public imagined temporality which consider the innocent girl to slowly transform into an experienced sexual woman. It also conceptualized these anti-linear and sometimes queer ‘becoming’ as a way of managing contradictions in the society discourse. 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At a very young age we are introduced to a gender identity based upon the sex we were born with. Girls are associated with the color pink, dolls, nurturing tendencies, and inclined to be more emotional. While boys are associated with theRead MoreWomen s Influence On The Formation Of The New Land971 Words   |  4 PagesAccording to society women need a strong masculine man to protect and provide for them. What if I told all that could’ve been different in a new world where women and men could be free, own land, and practice any religion, would you go? Many European settlers fled England with hopes to break free from tradition. Breaking free from old traditions must lead to new traditions, right? Yet, the arrival of settlers not only brought culture, religion, and traditions, but also a system of gender roles. The

Bite Me A Love Story Chapter 1 Free Essays

string(111) " their love is eternal, and they are creatures of unspeakable evil and stuff, but they are not ancient at all\." The third book in the Love Story series, 2010 1. Hello Kitty BEING THE JOURNAL OF ABIGAIL VON NORMAL, Emergency Backup Mistress of the Greater Bay Area Night The City of San Francisco is being stalked by a huge, shaved vampyre cat named Chet, and only I, Abby Normal, emergency backup mistress of the Greater Bay Area night, and my manga-haired love monkey, Foo Dog, stand between the ravenous monster and a bloody massacre of the general public. Which isn’t, like, as bad as it sounds, because the general public kind of sucks ass. We will write a custom essay sample on Bite Me: A Love Story Chapter 1 or any similar topic only for you Order Now Still, I think that this battle of dark powers; the maintenance of my steamy, forbidden romance; the torturous break-in of a new pair of red vinyl, thigh-high Skankenstein; platform boots; as well as the daily application of complex eye makeup and whatnot, totally justify my flunking Biology 102. (Introduction to Mutilation of Preserved Marmot Cadavers, with Mr. Snavely, who totally has his way with the marmots when no one is around, I have it on good authority.) But try to tell that to the mother unit, who deserves this despair and disappointment for cursing me with her tainted and small-boobed DNA. Allow me to catch you up, s’il vous plaà ®t. Pay attention, bitches, there will be a test. Three lifetimes ago, or maybe it was like last semester, because like the song says, â€Å"time is like a river of slippery excretions when you’re in love†-anyway-during winter break, Jared and I were in Walgreens looking for hypoallergenic eye makeup when we encountered the beautiful, redheaded Countess Jody and her consort of blood, my Dark Lord, the vampyre Flood, who was totally disguised in jeans and flannel as a loser. And I was all, â€Å"Nosferatu.† Whispered to Jared like a night wind through dead trees. And Jared was all, â€Å"No way, you sad, deluded little slut.† And I was all, â€Å"Shut your fetid penis port, you spunk-breathed poseur.† Which he took as a compliment, so that’s how I meant it, because while Jared is deeply gay, he’s never really gayed anyone up, except maybe his pet rat, Lucifer. Strictly speaking, I think Jared would be considered a rodentsexual, if not for the difficult geometry of the relationship. (See, size does matter!) Note to self: I should totally set Jared up with Mr. Snavely and they can talk about squirrel-shagging and whatnot and maybe I won’t have to repeat Bio 102. Anyway, Jared is a fitting support player in the tragedy that is my life, as he dresses dismal chic and excels at brooding, self-loathing, and allergies to beauty products. I’ve tried to talk him into going pro. ‘Kayso, the vampyre Flood had me meet him at a club, where I offered up myself to his dark desires, which he totally rejected because of his eternal love of the Countess. So he bought me a cappuccino instead and appointed me to be their official minion. It is the duty of the minion to rent apartments, do laundry, and bring the masters a sack with a tasty kid in it, although I never did that last part because the masters don’t like kids. ‘Kayso, the vampyre Flood gave me money and I rented a trs cool loft in the SOMA (which is widely accepted to be the best ‘hood for vampyres because there’s mostly new buildings and no one would suspect ancient creatures of purest evil to hang out there). But it turns out, it was like half a block from the trs cool loft in the SOMA that they already lived in. ‘Kayso, when I take the key to them, hoping they will bestow the dark gift of immortality upon me, this limo full of wasted college-age guys and a painted blue ho with ginormous fake boobs pulls up. And they’re all, â€Å"Where is Flood? We need to talk to Flood. And let us in,† and other demanding shit. And I’m all, â€Å"No way, step off Smurfett. There’s no one named Flood here.† I know! I was all, Oh-my-fucking-zombie-jebus-on-a-pogo-stick! She was blue! And I’m not racist, so shut up. She clearly had self-esteem issues that she compensated for with giant fake boobs, slutty blue body-paint, and doing a carload full of stoners for money. I’m not judging her by the color of her skin. Everyone copes. When I got braces I went through a Hello Kitty phase that lasted well into my fifteens, and Jared maintains that I am still perky at heart, which is not true. I am simply complex. But more about the blue hooker later, because right then the Asian guy looks at his watch and says, â€Å"Too late, it’s sunset.† And they drove off. Which is when I opened the door into the stairwell to the loft and was confronted by Chet, the huge shaved vampyre cat. (Except, at the time, I didn’t know his name, and he was wearing a red sweater, so I didn’t know he was shaved, and he wasn’t a vampyre yet. But huge.) So I’m all, â€Å"Hey, kitty, go away.† And he did, leaving only William, the huge shaved cat homeless guy, lying on the steps. I thought he was dead, because of the smell, but it turns out he was only passed out from alcohol and partially drained of blood and stuff. But I’m pretty sure he’s dead now because, later, Foo and I found his stank-ass clothes on the steps of the loft, full of the gray dust that people turn to when a vampyre drains them. So upstairs I’m all, â€Å"There’s a dead guy and a huge kitty in a sweater on your steps.† And the Countess and Flood are all, â€Å"Whatever.† And I’m all, â€Å"And there was a limo full of stoners here who were totally hunting you.† And they were all, â€Å"Whoa.† And they seemed more freaked out than you’d think, for ancient creatures of dark forbidden romance and whatnot. And it turns out they weren’t-I mean, aren’t. I mean, sure, their love is eternal, and they are creatures of unspeakable evil and stuff, but they are not ancient at all. You read "Bite Me: A Love Story Chapter 1" in category "Essay examples" It turns out that the vampyre Flood is only like nineteen, and he’s only known the Countess for like two months. And she’s only like twenty-six, which, while a little crusty, is not that ancient. And despite her advanced age, the Countess is beautiful, with long, totally natch red hair and milky skin, green eyes like emerald fire, and a smoking body that could turn a girl totally lesbo if she wasn’t already a slave to the mad, man-ninja sex-fu of the delicious Foo Dog. (Foo keeps insisting that he can’t be a ninja because he’s Chinese and ninj as are Japanese, but he’s just being stubborn and goes all Angry, Angry Asian on me whenever I bring it up.) ‘Kayso, in the master’s loft I see these two bronze statues, one of this crusty businessman-looking guy, and the other looks like the Countess, except it’s totally naked, or in a leotard, and bronze. And I’m all, â€Å"Exhibitionist, much, Countess? Did it come with a pole?† And she’s all, â€Å"Help Tommy move furniture, Wednesday.† Like that makes any sense at all. (Turns out that Wednesday is a Gothish character from some crusty movie.) ‘Kayso, later, by virtue of my extensive research and sneaking around and whatnot, I find out that the statues aren’t statues at all. That the Countess used to be inside the statue of her, and that inside the crusty businessman statue is the real ancient creature of unspeakable evil, the nosferatu that turned the Countess. And the vampyre Flood, who wasn’t a vampyre at all at the time, had bronzed the two of them when they were sleeping the deep sleep of the daytime dead, which is like the deepest sleep you can get. (You should know right now, that there’s no yawning, gentle drift into sleepytime for vampyres. When the sun breaks the horizon, they drop rag-doll dead on the spot, and you can pose them, paint them, put their hands on their junk and post the pics on the Web, and they won’t know a thing until sundown when they come on like a light and they’re wondering why their naughty bits are green and their inbox is full of propositions from e lfin_love.com.) I know. Whoa! It turns out that Flood, who was known as Tommy, was chosen by the Countess as her day-minion, blood lunch, and love monkey, because he worked nights at the Safeway. Then, the old vampyre, who had turned the Countess only like a week before, started fucking with them-saying he was going to kill Tommy and generally harsh Jody’s reality. ‘Kayso, Flood and his stoner Safeway night crew (called the Animals) hunted down the alpha vampyre, who was sleeping in a big yacht in the Bay, and they stole like jillions in art from the yacht and blew it up with the vampyre in it, which seriously put habaneras in his ‘tude lube, but when he came out of the water, they fucked him up a good long time with spear guns and whatnot. I know! Oh-my-fucking-god-ponies-in-the-barbecue! I know! It just goes to show you, like Lord Byron says in the poem: â€Å"Given enough weed and explosives, even a creature of most sophisticated and ancient dark power can be undone by a few stoners.† I’m paraphrasing. It may have been Shelley. ‘Kayso, the Countess saves the old vampyre from being toasted, but she promises the cops (there were these two cops) to take him away and never come back to the City, but when they go to sleep, Flood, who couldn’t bear to lose Jody, took them downstairs to the biker-sculptors and had them bronzed. But when he was trying to explain to the Countess about why he did it, he drilled holes in the bronze by her ears, and she turned into mist, streamed into the room, and turned him into a vampyre. Which totally surprised him, because he didn’t even know she knew how to do either of those things. (Misting and turning, I mean.) So then they’re like, both vampyres, eternal in their love, but somewhat lame in their night skills. Because Jody had been feeding off of Tommy, she hadn’t thought through what they would eat after Tommy turned vampyre. So, first they went to this homeless guy we’ll call William the Huge Cat Guy (because that’s what people call him) because he used to sit on Market Street with Chet and a sign that said, I AM POOR AND MY CAT IS HUGE. And they ended up renting the huge cat, Chet, to be their shared blood lunch. But it turned out that a large part of Chet’s kitty hugeness was fur, so in order to facilitate the biting process, they shaved him. I’m just glad that I wasn’t their minion yet, because I think we all know who would have ended up shaving the kitty. But no! It didn’t work. I’m not sure why. But William got totally, date-rape-level hammered on the liquor he bought with the huge cat rent money, and they ended up feeding on him. Which is where I, the new princess-elect of darkness, was brought into the fold. (Into the â€Å"fold† means, like, the gang, as in gang of sheep, not fold like in what you do to T-shirts if you’re a casual cotton slave at Old Navy.) It was I, who turned Tommy onto the needle exchange program, where he was able to use his pale thinness to convince them he was a junkie and get syringes so they could take William’s blood and put it in the fridge for the Countess to have in her coffee. Turns out that the only way the vampyre can tolerate real food or drink is if it has a little human blood in it. (The Countess likes blood on her fries, which is at once trs cool and deeply fucked-up.) So, as soon as the Countess and Flood figured out the deal with blood and food, William the Huge Cat Guy wandered off and the Countess had to go find him, since she has more experience at hunting the night, while Flood and I moved stuff from one loft to the other. But I had to get lice shampoo for my useless little sister, Ronnie, who was plagued by vermin, and Flood sent me home early to spare me the wrath of the mother unit because he didn’t want his minion on restriction. (So noble. I think that’s when I fell in love with him.) Then he took the bronzed old vampyre down to the water to dump him in the Bay before the Countess got back. It was clear to me that Tommy had jealousy issues with the old vampyre, and wanted to get rid of him. Except he ran out of dark before he got to the Bay and had to leave the old vampyre sitting by the Ferry Building on the Embarcadero and run from the sun for his life. At the last minute, the Animals drive by in their limo with their stu pid blue ho and scoop the vampyre Flood off the street just before he was incinerated by the sun. I know. WTF? (FYI, when I type WTF, you are supposed to read it What the Fuck? Same with OMG, and OMFG, which are Oh My God and Oh My Fucking God. Only a completely lame Disney Channel nimnode pronounces the letters. Even BMLWA, or Bite My Lily White Ass should only be spoken as letters if you are hanging out with nuns or other people who are embarrassed about being told to bite asses.) ‘Kayso, the Animals go back to work at the Safeway, but not before they tie Flood to a bed frame, where the blue hooker tortured him to get him to turn her into a vampyre, because now she had like all the money that the Animals had gotten for the old vampyre’s art, which was like six hundred thousand dollars, and she wanted to take her time spending it, so she wanted to be immortal. But Flood was like a complete vamp noob. He’d never even killed anyone and turned them to dust or anything, so he didn’t know how to change someone. The Countess didn’t tell him that the chosen had to drink the vampyre’s blood to receive the dark gift. So the blue ho tortures the shit out of him. I know, what a bitch. Meanwhile, the Countess found the huge cat guy, and I found the lice shampoo, but we don’t know where Tommy is. But the Countess was burned from going out on some hot water pipes, so she fed on me, right there in the loft, and I was all, â€Å"Oh shit, I’m going to get the dark gift and I’m, like, wearing my lime-green Chuck Taylors, which are totally not the kicks for becoming a creature of unspeakable power in.† But no, the Countess just partook of my sanguine nectar so she could heal. That’s probably where I fell in love with her. Anyway, she goes asking around about Tommy, and this completely crazy homeless guy who thinks he is the Emperor of San Francisco (you see him and his two dogs in the north end of the City all the time) says that one of the Animals was asking around about Flood. So I’m all, â€Å"Uh-oh.† And the Countess is all, â€Å"Yep.† Next thing you know, we are at the Marina Safeway and the Countess-wearing her black jeans and red leather jacket, but no lipstick-underhands a steel reinforced trash can like as big as a lesbian gym teacher through the big front window, and she just walks right through the falling glass, badass as shit, into the store and starts kicking stoner ass. It was glorious. But she didn’t kill anyone, which turned out to be a mistake, as was, in my humble opinion, not wearing any lipstick. For while it was a heroic ass-kicking as has ever been delivered in real life, it would have been that much cooler if she had some black lipstick on, or maybe something in a dark maroon. But they told her that Tommy was tied up at Lash’s, the black guy’s, apartment. And their shit was all busted up, and I was like, â€Å"You bitches have been powned!† And the Countess was like, â€Å"That’s cute. Let’s go get Tommy.† She can be kind of a bitch sometimes. Anyway, we go to the apartment where Tommy is being held, but when we get there, he’s still tied to the bed frame, but stood up against a wall, all naked and covered in blood, even his junk. And the blue ho is dead on the floor. And I’m all, â€Å"Uh-oh.† And the Countess is all, â€Å"Yep.† And she says something about how the blue ho must have broken her neck or something, because if Tommy had drained her, she would have turned to dust and there would have been no body. Anyway, the cab ride back to the loft was trs awkward, you know, with Flood naked and covered with blood and the two of them all, â€Å"Oh I love you† and, â€Å"Oh I love you, too.† And I was being kind of a mopey little emo queen because I was jealous of both of them because they had their dark and eternal love for each other and I had like my lime-green Chucks and Jared the gay-bait rat-shagger. So that was good. The rescue and whatnot. Because we found the old vampyre art money that the Animals had paid to the blue ho, which was like a half a million dollars. But then we found out that the blue ho was not dead, but somehow had accidentally drunk some of Tommy’s blood when she kissed him during his torture and now she was nosferatu. And she turned all the Animals. Which, you know, was bad. And not in the good way. And the old vampyre had somehow escaped his bronze shell, and he was coming after Tommy and Jody, and even me? He even shook the living shit out of William the Huge Cat Guy while Jared and I watched from an alley across the street. I know! We were all, â€Å"Whoa?† So it’s like, Christmas night, and Jared and I are watching the midnight show of The Nightmare Before Christmas at the Metreon. And we’re all traumatized and whatnot from watching the vampyre pound the huge cat guy, and the Countess calls us. And she and my Dark Lord Flood meet us for coffee at this Chinese diner, which is like the only thing open because the Chinese totally blow off Christmas because there are no dragons or firecrackers in the story. Note to self: Write narrative poem exploring Christmas if the three wise men had given baby Jesus firecrackers, a dragon, and mu-shu pork instead of that other crap. So, after all night drinking coffee laced with Jared’s blood and getting the story on the old vampyre from the Countess and Flood, we go back to the loft and there, in the stairway, is the old vampyre, naked. And he’s all, â€Å"I had to do some laundry. That guy peed on my tracksuit.† (He was wearing a total gangsta yellow tracksuit when we saw him shaking the huge cat guy.) So we like ran, and we had to hide my masters in some rafters under the Bay Bridge when they went out at dawn. No yawning or anything-they just became dead. Well, undead. So we wrapped them in trash bags and duct tape and moved them to Jared’s basement lair in Noe Valley. (His basement lair is sacrosanct-his father and stepmother are afraid that they might walk in on him wanking to gay porn-so it was safe for the masters.) Meanwhile, I went back to the loft to feed Chet the huge shaved cat and decapitate the old vampyre with Jared’s dagger so I could get extra-credit points with the masters, but it turned out that I had not calculated sundown quite right. Since when does the sun go down at like five o’clock? That’s just fucking juvenile. Anyway, when I’m on the steps I hear the old vampyre moving around upstairs. And I’m all, â€Å"Awkward.† Then I hear a car pull up and I run out, right into the arms of this blond ho, who it turns out is the blue ho, who is now nosferatu, along with three of her vampyre minions who used to be the Animals. I know, â€Å"Uh-oh.† So she grabs me and is just about to tear my throat out, when the old vampyre grabs her by the neck and puts her face print in the hood of a Mercedes. He’s all, â€Å"You’re breaking the rules, ho. You can’t just go turning people willy-nilly.† So I was doing a minor booty-dance of ownage at the blond ho, when they all turned on me. So I pull out Jared’s dagger, but just the same I know they are going to have a huge group suck on my pale frame, when this totally fly, race-pimped Honda comes tearing out of the alley, and everything goes white light around the car. And my manga-haired love monkey, Foo, is totally in hero shades, and he’s all, â€Å"Get in.† ‘Kayso, he swept me away in his magic nerd-chariot, which he had rigged with ultraviolet floodlights that totally toasted the vamps with simulated sunlight. I know! I’d have done him right there in the car if I was not trying to maintain my detached aura of aristocratic chill. So instead I kissed him within an inch of his life, then slapped him so he didn’t think I was his personal slut, which I totally was. Would be. It turns out that Steve, which is Foo Dog’s day-slave name, had totally been staking out the Countess Jody’s apartment for like a month, since he figured out that she was a vampyre when some blood from one of the old vamp’s victims turned up in his hemo-lab at Berkeley. Foo is like some kind of biotech ber-genius, in addition to having mad ninja-driving skills. Then Foo dropped me off at Tulley’s on Market, where I met Jared and Jody, who sneaked by Jared’s parents by pretending to be lovers, which is disgusting in so many ways I kind of gagged a little when I typed it. (Jared is my emergency backup BFF, but he is a pervy little rat-shagger, as the Countess affectionately refers to him.) So the Countess is all, â€Å"I’m going back to the loft to get the money.† And I’m all, â€Å"No, the old vampyre.† And she is all, â€Å"He is not the boss of me.† (Or something like that. I’m paraphrasing.) And I’m all, â€Å"Whatever, make sure you feed Chet.† So we go back to Jared’s, and when we get there, the vampyre Flood is all fucked up from trying to climb face-down a building in the Castro after a delicious drag queen, like Dracula does in the book (only in the book it’s not in the Castro and Dracula isn’t after a drag queen). Note to self: When I am finally made nosferatu, do not try to climb face-down a wall. So then my sweet love ninja Foo shows up. And he’s all, â€Å"I couldn’t leave you out here, unprotected.† And secretly I was all, â€Å"You rock my stripy socks, Foo,† but publically I just kissed him and tastefully dry humped his leg a little. So we all got in his fly Honda and went back to the loft. When we got there, the second-floor windows were open, and Flood could hear that the old vampyre was up there with Jody. And Foo was all, â€Å"Let me go.† And out of the hatchback, he pulls this long duster that’s covered with little glass warts. And Foo is all, â€Å"UV LEDs. Like sunlight.† The street-level fire door was locked, so Flood was all, â€Å"I’ll go.† But Foo was all, â€Å"No, it will burn you.† But they covered Flood all over, gloves, hat, and a gas-mask that Foo keeps around in case of emergency biology and whatnot, then he put on the duster. Foo gave him a rubber tarp and a baseball bat, and Flood starts working the street like a half-pipe, running up a building on one side, then up the other, until he goes feetfirst through the upstairs window. Personally, I think the Countess could have just jumped up there, but she’s been a vampyre longer than Flood and has better skills. ‘Kayso, there’s this blinding white light from the windows, and next thing we know, the old vampyre comes crashing through the window like a flaming comet and hits the street right by us. And he gets up all blackened and snarly and whatnot, and Foo holds up his UV floodlight and he’s all, â€Å"Step off, vampyre scum.† And the old vampyre ran off. Then Flood comes out the door carrying the Countess, who is looking way more dead than usual, and we took them to a motel to hide them until we could figure out what to do. Foo stole some donor blood from the lab at his college and gave it to Flood and the Countess so they could heal. And Foo’s all, â€Å"You know, I’ve been working on the blood I found on the victims, and I think I can reverse the process. I can turn you human again.† Which is totally why he had been stalking the Countess when I met him. So Tommy and Jody were all, â€Å"We’ll think about it.† ‘Kayso, Flood is holding Jody on the bed, and they’re talking softly, but I can hear them, because I’m just by the door and the room’s not that big. And it is clear that their love is eternal and will last for eons, but Flood doesn’t like being a vampyre because the hours suck and whatnot, and Jody likes being a vampyre because of the power she feels after feeling like a little wuss-girl for many years, and they more or less say that they are going to split up just as the sun rises and they go out. And I was all, â€Å"Oh, hell no.† So I had them bronzed. I’m looking at them now. We posed them like Rodin’s The Kiss and they shall be together unto the end of time, or at least until we figure out how to let them out and not have them tear out our throats and whatnot. Foo says it’s cruel, but the Countess told me that they could go to mist, and when they are mist time passes like a dream and it’s all good. But Foo did figure out his serum thingy. We lured the Animals to our love nest and while I was wearing the fly leather jacket that Foo made me, complete with the UV LED warts, which is very cool and cyber, I drugged them and Foo changed them back to human. And the crazy old Emperor guy said he saw three young vampyres take the old vampyre and the formerly blue ho away on a ginormous yacht, so we don’t have to worry about them anymore. Foo wants to cut Flood and Jody out of the bronze statue during the day, while they are sleeping, and turn them back to human. But the Countess doesn’t want that. So I think we should just wait. We have this trs cool apartment, and all of the money, and Foo almost has his master’s in bio-nerdism or whatever, and I only have to go home like twice a week so the mother unit still thinks I am living there. (The key was to condition her from age twelve that sleepovers are normal. Lily, my former sleepover BFF, calls it slowly boiling the frog, which I don’t know what it means, but it sounds darkly mysterious.) So, we are secure in our love nest and as soon as Foo gets home I am going to reward him with the slow booty dance of forbidden love. But something is screeching outside. BRB. Fucksocks! It’s Chet the huge shaved vampyre cat, down on the street. He looks bigger, and I think he ate a meter maid. Her little cart is running and there’s an empty uniform on the curb. Bad kitty! GTG L8erz. How to cite Bite Me: A Love Story Chapter 1, Essay examples

Disscuss the Contingency Approach to Management free essay sample

The contingency, or situational, approach to management theory and practice emerged in the early 1960s from organizational research conducted in the United States and England. With the arrival of the sixties came the expansion of markets based not on the introduction of new products but rather on the differentiation of existing products. Consumers were demanding more variety in the products they purchased. With consumer demand becoming more diversified, so did the types of organizations that were being founded. In addition, the work force was becoming less blue-collar and more white-collar. Many more workers were being employed in activities that did not directly involve the production of a good, but rather the production of a service. Contingency theory attempts to provide a perspective on organizations and management based on the integration of prior theories. Contingency theory starts with the theme of it depends, arguing that the solution to any one managerial problem is contingent on the factors that are impinging on the situation. For instance, where little variation in materials exists in the production process, it is appropriate to break down the work into highly routine tasks. However, where variation is high, requiring many judgments concerning which material is appropriate and which is not, managers will want to avoid making tasks routine. One of the first applications of contingency theory came from research conducted by two British scholars, Thomas Burns and G.M. Stalker. After studying several industrial firms in England, such as textile mills and electronics manufacturers, they concluded that the appropriate managerial techniques were highly dependent on the kind of task the organization was trying to accomplish. Burns and Stalker identified two organization types: mechanistic, for a task that is routine and unchanging, and organic, for a task that is nonroutine and changing. They discovered that the most successful firms were those that used whichever type was appropriate for a given task. When the task was routine and unchanging (mechanistic), the appropriate managerial approach was to emphasize efficiency, a high degree of specialization, and elaborate procedures for maintaining controls over behavior. On the other hand, when the task was nonroutine and changing (organic), the appropriate approach was to emphasize low job specialization, creativity rather than efficiency, and freedom for workers to control their own behaviors rather than relying on rules and procedures to keep them in line. It is clear that this represents an integration of the classical and behavioral approaches. Other theorists, namely Paul Lawrence and Jay Lorsch and John Child, have enlarged on this perspective and identified contingencies, such as environmental conditions, ownership patterns, strategies, and leadership, as important in assessing the appropriate approach to use in a given situation. One attraction of the contingency approach among theorists and practitioners alike is its situational perspective. Those interested in research issues regarding organization and management can use the contingency perspective to explain why some factors influence situations in one setting but have virtually no influence in another setting. Indeed, one objective of research within the contingency framework is to specify those dimensions and conditions that do affect a situation and those that do not. For the manager, the requirement from the contingency perspective is to identify which technique will, in a particular situation, best contribute to the attainment of organizational goals. For instance, under some circumstances, an authoritarian leadership style may be more appropriate than a leadership style that tries to get workers internally motivated. tuation. While the contingency approach is useful in recognizing that the complexity involved in understanding human and organizational systems makes it difficult to develop universal principles of management, there have been several criticisms of the approach. For one, it has been pointed out that the logical extension of the contingency approach is that all situations are unique. If this is true, then management can be practiced only by intuition and judgment, thereby negating the value of prior knowledge and wisdom. On a research level, contingency theory has been criticized for being atheoretical. One requirement of theory is the ability to test the validity of assumptions by showing that contradictory assumptions do not disprove the theory. In a contingency framework, if contradictory results are obtained, the contingency response would be that the situation is unique or that important dimensions affecting the situation were not tested. Thus, showing that contradictory assumptions disprove the theory would be difficult at best. While these limitations are recognized, we will approach the study of management utilizing the assumptions of contingency theory. We believe that management is a highly complex discipline in both research and practice. We build the approach from previous research and practice and extend the findings to develop an understanding of how contextual, organizational, and human dimensions are integrated. Specifically, we draw ideas from classical management theory regarding the structuring of organizations to increase efficiency and productivity. Behavioral management theory provides knowledge about human needs and motivations that can lead not only to increased productivity but also to enhancement of the working environment. Systems theory serves to identify the context in which organizations operate, thus enabling managers to understand the environment and how the parts, or subsystems, of the organization are interrelated. In addition, we will draw from quantitative management theory for the application of specific tools and techniques that are useful for increasing managerial efficiency and effectiveness. By applying contingency theory to the study of management, you will be able to identify and to solve problems under different situations. You will recognize that the successful application of a technique in one situation does not guarantee success in another. Rather, you will be able to examine each situation in terms of how it is affected by the contextual, organizational, and human dimensions. As a result, your overall ability to correct problems and to become more effective as a manager will increase. Consider the following situation. A shoe manufacturer is faced with decreasing profits. As a manager, this person may conduct a time study from the belief that the decline in profits is due to lower productivity on the part of the workers (classical management theory Classical management theory (Fayol and Urwick) ). The manager may attempt to involve workers more fully in decisions concerning the methods to use in producing the shoes based on the premise that this will motivate workers to produce more (behavioral management theory). Or the manager may establish a committee of sales and production personnel to coordinate the production and distribution of goods under the assumption that large inventories are responsible for the decline in profits (systems theory). Application of a contingency perspective will enable the manager to examine the situation and to determine the cause of decreased profits before a new procedure or program is implemented. Perhaps only one program needs to be implemented, or perhaps all three. However, only through an awareness of all possible solutions to the problem is the manager able to arrive at a correct solution. Contingency theory is designed to provide the manager with the capabilities to examine numerous possible solutions to a problem.