The Nurse to Patient Ratio is Important Essay -- Nursing Essays

An English Nurse who laid the foundation for professional nursing, Florence Nightingale stated, â€Å"It may seem a strange principle to enunciate as the very first requirement in a hospital that it should do the sick no harm.† Acute care facilities try to maintain low costs and employ quality nurses, making the nurse-to-patient ratio become more of an issue with patient care. Nearly every person’s health care experience involves the contribution of a registered nurse, and the effects of not having an appropriate nurse to patient minimum ratio affects not only the patient and nurse physically, medically, but also the hospital financially. Determining nurse-to-patient ratios is a difficult task with no single or definite solution and many variables exist to develop guidelines to cover every possible situation in an acute care facility. There are two boards of the state of Ohio that help with patient safety and keeping a safe workplace for the healthcare professional such a nurse. The first board is the Ohio board of Nursing, and the following is their description of what they are responsible for: The Board exists solely to enforce the law and rules regulating practice. The Board has authority to establish requirements individuals must meet to obtain a license or certificate to practice nursing or provide dialysis care in Ohio. The Board approves pre-licensure nursing education programs and dialysis training programs, oversees the licensure examination of nurses, and takes disciplinary action when a licensee or certificate holder violates the law. These activities help to assure that only qualified individuals provide care to the public. The Board does not exist to advance the interests of the nursing profession or dialysis t... ...s, C., & Hess, R. (2009). Registered Nurses' Perceptions of Nurse Staffing Ratios and New Hospital Payment Regulations. Nursing Economic$, 27(6), 372-376. Retrieved from Academic Search Complete database. Costello, M. (2002). JCAHO workforce report says staff levels affect quality, safety. AHA News, 38(31), 1. Retrieved from Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition database. Garretson, S. (2004). Nurse to patient ratios in American health care. Nursing Standard, 19(14-16), 33-37. Griffiths, P. (2009). Staffing levels and patient outcomes. Nursing Management - UK, 16(6), 22-23. Retrieved from Academic Search Complete database.

The Cycles of International Conflict Essay -- International Conflict

Wars have been waged for decades creating the world we live in today. Charles Tilly observed, â€Å"the state made war and war made the state† (qtd in Sernau, 2009, 147). However, these battles have been destructive and bloody resulting in the deaths of countless individuals. These grave consequences lead us to ask the ever problematic question, what could possibly motivate a state to engage in warfare? Fundamentally, some believe war is linked to a conflict of political and economic interests rooted in power struggles ranging from territorial and humanitarian to ideological and ethnic while others argue that war has become ingrained in our societies and economies resulting in this tenacious cycle of confrontation. Territories are the bases of states. Accordingly, Joshua Goldstein and Jon Pevehouse explain that â€Å"Most of today’s borders are the result of past wars (in which winners took territory from losers) or were imposed arbitrarily by colonizers† (Goldstein and Pevehouse, 2009, 25). Territory is precious to states and is rarely yielded voluntarily for any incentive and lost territory is not quickly forgotten (Goldstein and Pevehouse, 2009, 133). For example, disputes were the consequences of the collapse of the Ottoman Empire after World War I and the Middle Eastern region being colonized by England and France through the Sykes Picot agreement (Singh, 2003). Eventually these colonies gained their freedom but several territory disputes arose the most prominent being the Israeli-Palestinian conflict linked to the Oslo Accords (Singh, 2003). The concept of irredentism which is â€Å"The goal of regaining territory lost to another state† (Goldstein and Pevehouse, 200 9, 133) is a problematic result of this dispute with Palestinians belie... ...tions." Bint Jbeil. 1993. Web. 9 Apr. 2012. . Kent, John. "Cold War and the Periphery." History in Focus. Institute of Historical Research, 2006. Web. 9 Apr. 2012. . Nikitin, Alexander. "Political and Economic Causes of War." Proc. of 50th Pugwash Conference On Science and World Affairs: Eliminating the Causes of War, Queen's College, Cambridge. 2000. Print. Sanchez, Peter. Class Lecture. International Politics. Loyola University, Chicago, IL. 26 Mar 2012. Sernau, Scott. Global Problems: The Search for Equity, Peace, and Sustainability. Boston: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon, 2009. Print. Singh, K. G. "Treating the Symptoms Instead of the Cause." Asia Times Online. 31 July 2003. Web. 5 Apr. 2012. .

Cults Essay -- essays research papers

Cults have become a phenomenon in our world today. Each year "hundreds of Canadians join some of the 3,000 unorthodox religions of one type or another" (Fernell, Branswell, 189) all across North America. Like every organization, club or even in the common work place there is usually a person who is a figure of authority or other wise know as a "leader" and with every leader there are always rules and objectives that each and every member has to do and follow. The common psychological profile and objective of a cult leader is usually based upon power, control, domination and subjugation. Many cult leaders use forms of mind control such as thought-reform, brainwashing and hypnosis. The effects of these mind controlling techniques often mentally scar people and it is very hard to re-gain control of what use to be their â€Å"normal† personality, way of thinking and life. Unselfishness, kindness, gentleness and compassion should be a basic living principle, not just an ideal. When individuals claim to be â€Å"spiritually developed and put themselves in the role of a master or prophet† (Hassen, 01) cult members â€Å"become so subservient to their leader that they even tolerate murder† (Fennel, 185). Destructive cults want to have control and power over people and want to expand their temporal power and usually do it to make money. Leaders exist to serve totalistic dictators, not to serve the people and desire to rule through power, not with the power of love. Charismatic leaders often stray into temptation to exploit their power over others in many dangerous ways. The cult leader often relies almost entirely on rules, procedures, aggression, denial and mimicry to hide their lack of people skills. Cult leaders are able to exert a hold over people for a variety of reasons. The members sometimes feel they belong to a group or "family& quot; because they feel secure and have a new way of thinking and believing the "real" way the world is or should be and as â€Å"the leader’s actions become more bizarre, so do the cult’s members† (Fennel, 186). Many people are thought to believe that the only type of people to become influenced or brain washed into joining a cult are those that are insecure, lonely and nieve. However, the people cult leaders actually strive for are the bright, intelligent people whom usually have 2-3 years of college or university... ... at a party or on a bus ride can be supportive. Supporting is listening and empathizing with the ex-member with out the offering of unsolicited options. Simply being there is one of the best ways anyone can help. The hunger for spiritual guidance and religious truth is usually what drives people into exploring many of the different existing religions all over North America and in other parts of the world. Many problems tend to arise when the leaders of these cultic groups proclaim themselves to be living embodiments of this truth. The many great dangers of cults lie in the leap one must take from embracing religious truth, to worshipping a person claiming to be this so called â€Å"truth†. The danger of these cults increase rapidly when the person promises salvation, redemption or perfection in exchange for money, goods and services. Once a person begins giving in to the leader and the rest of the cult members, the stronger their grasp becomes upon the person and the harder it becomes to leave the group. Victims (ex-cult members) â€Å"can and should be helped with both the induced and pre-existing aspects of their problem, at the appropriate points in treatment† (Clifford, Gold berg p 03).

Fluke, or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings Chapter 10~11

CHAPTER TEN Safety Clay Demodocus drifted silently down past the tail of the breath-holder, only the quiet hissing of his own breath in his ears. Breath-holders were called such because they hung there in the water for up to forty minutes, heads down like a singer, just holding their breath. Not swimming or singing or doing much of anything else. Just hanging there, sometimes three or four of them, tails spread out like the points of a compass. As if someone had just dropped a handful of sleeping whales and forgotten to pick them up. Except they weren't sleeping. Whales didn't really sleep, as far as they knew. Well, the theory was that they slept with only half of their brain at a time, while the other half took care of not drowning. For an air-breather, sleeping in the water and not drowning is a big problem. (Go ahead, try it. We'll wait.) Falling asleep would be so easy with the rebreather, Clay thought. It was very quiet, which was why Clay was using it. Instead of using a tank of air that was exhaled through a regulator into the water as bubbles, the rebreather sent the diver's exhalation back through a scrubber that took out the carbon dioxide, past some sensors and a tank that added some oxygen, then back to the diver to be rebreathed. No bubbles, which made the rebreather perfect for studying whales (and for sneaking up on enemy ships, which is why the navy had developed it in the first place). Humpbacks used bubble blowing as a means of communication, especially the males, who threatened one another with bubble displays. Consequently it was nearly impossible to get close to a whale with scuba gear, especially a static animal like a singer or a breath-holder. By blowing bubbles the diver was babbling away in whalespeak, without the slightest idea of what he was saying. In the past Clay had dropped on breath-holde rs with scuba gear, only to watch the animals swim off before he got within fifty feet of them. He imagined the whales saying, â€Å"Hey, it's the skinny, retarded kid talking nonsense again. Let's get out of here.† But this season they'd gotten the rebreather, and Clay was getting his first ever decent footage of a breath-holder. As he drifted by the tail, he checked his gauges, looked up to see Amy snorkeling at the surface, silhouetted in a sunbeam, a small tank strapped on her back ready to come to his rescue should something go wrong. The one big drawback to the rebreather (rather than a fairly simple hose on a tank as in a scuba setup) was that it was a very complex machine, and, should it break, there was a good chance it would kill the diver. (Clay's experience had taught him that the one thing you could depend on was that something would break.) Around him, except for the whale, was a field of clear blue; below, nothing but blue. Even with great visibility he couldn't see the bottom, some five hundred feet down. Just past the tail he was at a hundred feet. The navy had tested the rebreather to more than a thousand feet (and since he could theoretically stay down for sixteen hours if he needed to, decompression wasn't a problem), but Clay was still wary of going too deep. The rebreather wasn't set to mix gases for a deep dive, so there was still the danger of nitrogen narcosis – a sort of intoxication caused by pressurized nitrogen in the bloodstream. Clay had been narced a couple of times, once while under arctic ice filming beluga whales, and if he hadn't been tethered to the opening in the ice with a nylon line, he would have drowned. Just a few more feet and he'd be able to sex the breath-holder, something that they hadn't done more than a few times before, and then it was by crossbow and DNA. The question so far was, are breath-holders all male like singers, and if so, does the breath-holding behavior have something to do with the singing behavior? Clay and Quinn had first come together over the question of sexing singers, some seventeen years before, when DNA testing was so rare as to be nearly nonexistent. â€Å"Can you get under the tail?† Nate had asked. â€Å"Get photos of the genitals?† â€Å"Kinky,† Clay had said. â€Å"Sure, I'll give it a try.† Of course, except for a few occasions when he was able to hold his breath long enough to get under an animal, about a third of the time, Clay had failed at producing whale porn. Now, with this rebreather†¦ As he drifted below the tail, so close now that even the wide-angle lens could take in only a third of the flukes, Clay noticed some unusual markings on the tail. He looked up from the display just as the whale began to move, but it was too late. The whale twitched, and the massive tail came down on Clay's head, driving him some twenty feet deeper in an instant. The wash from the flukes tumbled him backward three times before he settled in a slow drift to the bottom, unconscious. As he watched the pseudo-Hawaiian try to kick down to the singing whale for the eighth time, Nathan Quinn thought, This is a rite of passage. Similar things were done to me when I was a grad student. Didn't Dr. Ryder send me out to get close-up blowhole pictures of a gray whale who had a hideous head cold? Wasn't I hit by a basketball-size gob of whale snot nearly every time the whale surfaced? And wasn't I, ultimately, grateful for the opportunity to get out in the field and do some real research? Of course I was. Therefore, I am being neither cruel nor unprofessional by sending this young man down again and again to perform a hand job on the singer. The radio chirped, signaling a call from the Always Confused. Nate keyed the mike button on the mobile phone/two-way radio they used to communicate between the two boats. â€Å"Go ahead, Clay.† â€Å"Nate, it's Clair. Clay went down about fifteen minutes ago, but Amy just dove after him with the rescue tank. I don't know what to do. They're too deep. I can't see them. The whale took off, and I can't see them.† â€Å"Where are you, Clair?† â€Å"Straight out, about two miles off the dump.† Nate grabbed the binoculars and scanned the island, found the dump, looked out from there. He could make out two or three boats in the area. Six or eight minutes away at full throttle. â€Å"Keep looking, Clair. Get ready to drop a hang tank if you have one set up, in case they need to decompress. I'll be there as soon as I get the kid out of the water.† â€Å"What's he doing in the water?† â€Å"Just a bad decision on my part. Keep me apprised, Clair. Try to follow Amy's bubbles if you can find them. You'll want to be as close to them as you can when they come up.† Nate started the engine just as Kona broke the surface, spitting out the snorkel and taking in a great gasp of air. Kona shook his head, signifying that he hadn't accomplished the mission. â€Å"Too deep, boss.† â€Å"Come, come, come. To the side.† Nate waved him to the boat. Quinn brought the boat broadside to Kona, then reached over with both hands. â€Å"Come on.† Kona took his hands, and Quinn jerked the surfer over the gunwale. Kona landed in a heap in the bottom of the boat. â€Å"Boss –  » â€Å"Hang on, Clay's in trouble.† â€Å"But, boss –  » Quinn buried the throttle, yanked the boat around, and cringed at the bunny-in-a-blender screech as the hydrophone cord wrapped around the prop, sheared the prop pin, and chopped itself into a whole package of expensive, waterproof licorice sticks. â€Å"Fuck!† Nate snatched off his baseball cap and whipped it onto the console. The hydrophone sank peacefully to the bottom, bopping the singer on the back as it went. Nate killed the engine and grabbed the radio. â€Å"Clair, are they up yet? I'm not going to be able to get there.† Amy felt as if someone were driving huge ice picks into her eardrums. She pinched her nostrils closed and blew to equalize the pressure, even as she kicked to go deeper, but she was moving too fast to get equalized. She was down fifty feet now. Clay was a hundred feet below her, the pressure would triple before she got there. She felt as if she were swimming through thick, blue honey. She'd seen the whale tail hit Clay and toss him back, but the good news was that she hadn't seen a cloud of bubbles come up. There was a chance that the regulator had stayed in Clay's mouth and he was still breathing. Of course, it could also mean that he was dead or that his neck had snapped and he was paralyzed. Whatever his condition, he certainly wasn't moving voluntarily, just sinking slowly, relentlessly toward the bottom. Amy fought the pressure, the resistance of the water, and did math problems as she kicked deeper. The rescue tank held only a thousand pounds of air, a third of the capacity of a normal tank. She guessed that she'd be at around a hundred and seventy-five to two hundred feet before she caught Clay. That would give her just enough air to get him to the surface without stopping to decompress. Even if Clay was unhurt, there was a good chance he was going to get decompression sickness, the bends, and if he lived through that, he'd spend three or four days in the hyperbaric decompression chamber in Honolulu. Ah, the big palooka is probably dead anyway, she thought, trying to cheer herself up. Although Clay Demodocus had lived a life spiced with adventures, he was not an adventurer. Like Nate, he did not seek danger, risk, or fulfillment by testing his mettle against nature. He sought calm weather, gentle seas, comfortable accommodations, kind and loyal people, and safety, and it was only for the work that he compromised any of those goals. The last to go, the least compromised, was safety. The loss of his father, a hard-helmet sponge diver, had taught him that. The old man was just touching bottom at eight hundred feet when a drunken deck hand dragged his ass across the engine start button, causing the prop to cut his father's air line. The pressure immediately drove Papa Demodocus's entire body into the bronze helmet, leaving only his weighted shoes showing, and it was in his great helmet that he was lowered into the grave. Little Clay (Cleandros in those days in Greece) was only five at the time, and that last vision of his father haunted him for years. He never did see a Marvin the Martian cartoon – that great goofy helmet body riding cartoon shoes – when he did not have to fight a tear and sniffle for Papa. As Clay drifted down into the briny blue, he saw a bright light and a dark shape waiting there on the other side. Out of the light came a short but familiar figure. The face was still dark, but Clay knew the voice, even after so many years. â€Å"Welcome, Earth Being,† said the vacuum-packed Greek. â€Å"Papa,† said Clay. Clair dragged the heavy tank out of the Always Confused's bait well and tried to attach the regulator in order to hang it off a line for Amy and Clay to breathe from so they could decompress before coming up. Clay had shown her how to do this a dozen times, but she had never paid attention. It was his job to put the technothingies together. She didn't need to know this stuff. It wasn't as if she was ever going to go diving without him. She'd let him drone on about safety this and life-threatening that while she applied her attention to putting on sunscreen or braiding her hair so it wouldn't tangle in the equipment. Now she was blinking back tears and cursing herself for not having listened. When she thought she finally might have the regulator screwed on correctly, she grabbed it and dragged the tank to the side of the boat. The regulator came off in her hands. â€Å"Goddamn it!† She snatched the radio and keyed the mike. â€Å"Nate, I need some help here.† â€Å"Go ahead, sistah,† came back. â€Å"He be in the briny blue, fixing the propeller.† â€Å"Kona, do you know how a regulator goes on a scuba tank?† â€Å"Yah mon, you got to keep the bowl above the water or your herb get wet and won't take the fire.† Clair took a deep breath and fought back a sob. â€Å"See if you can put Nate on.† Back on the Constantly Baffled, Nate was in the water with snorkel and fins fighting the weight of half a dozen wrenches and sockets he'd put in the pockets of his cargo shorts. He almost had the propeller off the boat. With luck he could install the shear pin and be up and running in a couple of minutes. It wasn't a complex procedure. It had just been made a lot trickier when Nate found that he couldn't reach the prop to work on it from inside the boat. Then, suddenly, his air supply was cut off. He kicked up, spit the snorkel out of his mouth, and found himself staring Kona right in the face. The fake Hawaiian hung over the back of the boat, his thumb covering the end of Nate's snorkel, his other hand holding the radio, which he'd let slip halfway underwater. â€Å"Call for you, boss.† Nate gasped and snatched the receiver out of Kona's hand – held it up out of the water. â€Å"What in the hell are you doing? That's not waterproof.† He tried to sling the water out of the cell phone and keyed the mike. â€Å"Clair! Can you hear me?† No sound, not even static. â€Å"But it's yellow,† said Kona, as if that explained everything. â€Å"I can see it's yellow. What did Clair say? Is Clay all right?† â€Å"She wanted to know how to put the regulator on the tank. You have to keep the bowl above the water, I tell her.† â€Å"It's not a bong, you idiot. It's a real scuba tank. Help me out.† Nate handed up his fins, then stepped on the trim planes on the stern and pulled himself into the boat. At the console he turned on the marine radio and started calling. â€Å"Clair, you listening? This is the Constantly Baffled calling the Always Confused. Clair, are you there?† â€Å"Constantly Baffled,† cut in a stern, official-sounding male voice, â€Å"this is the Department of Conservation and Resources Enforcement. Are you displaying your permit flag?† â€Å"Conservation, we have an emergency situation, a diver in trouble off our other boat. I'm dead in the water with a broken shear pin. The other boat is roughly two miles off the dump.† â€Å"Constantly Baffled, why are you not displaying your permit flag?† â€Å"Because I forgot to put the damn thing up. We have two divers in the water, both possibly in trouble, and the woman on board is unable to put together a hang tank.† Nate looked around. He could see the whale cops' boat about a thousand yards to the west toward Lanai. They were alongside another boat. Nate could see the familiar figure of the Count standing in the bow, looming there like doom in an Easter bonnet. Bastard! â€Å"Constantly Baffled, hold there, we are coming to you.† â€Å"Don't come to me. I'm not going anywhere. Go to the other boat. Repeat, they have an emergency situation and are not responding to marine radio.† The Conservation Enforcement boat lifted up in the water under the power of two 125-horse Honda outboards and beelined toward them. â€Å"Fuck!† Nate dropped the mike and started to shake, a shiver born not of temperature, as it was eighty degrees on the channel, but out of frustration and fear. What had happened to Clay to prompt Amy to go to his rescue? Maybe she had misjudged the situation and gone down needlessly. She didn't have much experience in the water, or at least he didn't think she had. But if things were okay, then why weren't they up†¦? â€Å"Kona, did Clair say whether she could see Amy and Clay? â€Å"No, boss, she just wanted to know about the regulator.† Kona sat down in the bottom of the boat and hung his head between his knees. â€Å"I'm sorry, boss. I thought if it was yellow, it could go in the water. I didn't know. It slipped.† Nate wanted to tell the kid it was all right, but he didn't like lying to people. â€Å"Clay put you on the research permit, right, Kona? You remember signing a paper with a lot of names on it?† â€Å"No, mon. That five-oh coming up now?† â€Å"Yeah, whale cops. And if Clay didn't put you on the permit, you're going to be going home with them.† CHAPTER ELEVEN The Mermaid and the Martian The depth gauge read two hundred feet by the time Amy finally snagged the top of Clay's rebreather and pulled herself down to where she was looking into his mask. If it weren't for a small trail of blood streaming from his scalp, making him look like he was leaking black motor oil into the blue, he might have been sleeping, and she smiled in spite of herself. The sea dog survives. Somehow – maybe through years of conditioning his reflexes to keep his mouth shut – Clay had bitten down on the mouthpiece of the rebreather. He was breathing steadily. She could hear the hiss of the apparatus. She wasn't sure that Clay's mouthpiece would stay in all the way to the surface, and, if it came out, the photographer would surely drown, even if she replaced it quickly. Unlike a normal scuba regulator, which was frightfully easy to purge, you couldn't let water get into a rebreather or it could foul the carbon-dioxide scrubbers and render the device useless. And she'd need both her hands for the swim up. One to hold on to Clay and one to vent air from his buoyancy-control vest, which would fill with air as they rose, causing them both to shoot to the surface and get the bends. (Amy wasn't wearing a BC vest or a wet suit; she wasn't supposed to have needed them.) After wasting a precious thirty seconds of air to consider the problem, she took off her bikini top and wrapped it around Clay's head to secure his mouthpiece. Then she hooked her hand into his buoyancy vest and started the slow kick to the surface. At a hundred and fifty feet she made the mistake of looking up. The surface might have been a mile away. Then she checked her watch and pulled up Clay's arm so she could see the dive computer on his wrist. Already the liquid-crystal readout was blinking, telling her that Clay needed two decompression stops on the way up. One at fifty feet and one at twenty, from ten to fifteen minutes each. With his rebreather he'd have plenty of air. Amy wasn't wearing a dive computer, but by ball-parking it from her pressure gauge, she figured she had between five and ten minutes of air left. She was about half an hour short. Well, this is going to be awkward, she thought. The whale cops wore light blue uniform shirts with shorts and aviator-style mirrored sunglasses that looked as if they'd been surgically set into their faces. They were both in their thirties and had spent some time in the gym, although one was heavier and had rolled up his short sleeves to let his grapefruit biceps breathe. The other was thin and wiry. They brought their boat alongside Nate's and threw over a bumper to keep the boats from rubbing together in the waves. â€Å"Howzit, bruddahs!† Kona said. â€Å"Not now,† Nate whispered. â€Å"I need to see your permit,† said the heavier cop. Nate had pulled a plastic envelope out from under the console as they approached. They went through this several times a year. He handed it over to the cop, who took out the document and unfolded it. â€Å"I'll need both of your IDs.† â€Å"Come on,† Nate said, handing over his driver's license. â€Å"You guys know me. Look, we've sheared a pin and there's a diver emergency on our other boat.† â€Å"You want us to call the Coast Guard?† â€Å"No, I want you to take us over there.† â€Å"That's not what we do, Dr. Quinn,† said the thin cop, looking up from the permit. â€Å"The Coast Guard is equipped for emergencies. We are not.† â€Å"Dis haole, lolo pela, him,† said Kona. (Meaning, he's just a dumb white guy.) â€Å"Don't talk that shit to me,† said the heavier cop. â€Å"You want to speak Hawaiian, I'll talk to you in Hawaiian, but don't talk that pidgin shit to me. Now, where's your ID?† â€Å"Back at my cabin.† â€Å"Dr. Quinn, your people need to have ID at all times on a research vessel, you know that.† â€Å"He's new.† â€Å"What's your name, kid?† â€Å"Pelekekona Keohokalole,† said Kona. The cop took off his sunglasses – for the first time ever, Nate thought. He looked at Kona. â€Å"You're not on the permit.† â€Å"Try Preston Applebaum,† said Kona. â€Å"Are you trying to fuck with me?† â€Å"He is,† said Nate. â€Å"Just take him in, and on the way take me to our other boat.† â€Å"I think we'll tow both of you in and deal with the permit issues when we get into harbor.† Suddenly, amid the static of the marine radio on in the background, Clair's voice: â€Å"Nate, are you there? I lost Amy's bubbles. I can't see her bubbles. I need help here! Nate! Anyone!† Nate looked at the whale cop, who looked at his partner, who looked away. Kona jumped up on the gunwale of the police boat and leaned into the wiry cop's face. â€Å"Can we do the territorial macho power trip after we get our divers out of the water, or do you have to kill two people to show us how big your fucking dicks are?† Clair ran around the boat searching for Amy's bubble trail, hoping she was just missing it, had lost it in the waves – hoping that it was still there. She looked at the hang tank sitting in the floor of the boat, still unattached to the regulator, then ran back to the radios, keying both the marine radio and the cell-phone radio and trying not to scream. â€Å"SOS here. Please, I'm a couple of miles off the dump, I have divers down, in trouble.† The harbormaster at Lahaina came back, said he'd send someone, and then a dive boat who was out at the lava cathedrals at Lanai said they had to get their divers out of the water but could be there in thirty minutes. Then Nathan Quinn came back. â€Å"Clair, this is Nate. I'm on the way. How long ago did the bubbles stop?† â€Å"Clair checked her watch. Four, five minutes ago.† â€Å"Can you see them?† â€Å"No, nothing. Amy went deep, Nate. I watched her go down until she disappeared.† â€Å"Do you have hang tanks in the water?† â€Å"No, I can't get the damn regulators on. Clay always did it.† â€Å"Just tie off the tanks and tie the regulators to the tanks and get them over the side. Amy and Clay can hook them up if they get to them.† â€Å"How deep? I have three tanks.† â€Å"Ninety, sixty, and thirty. Just get them in the water, Clair. We'll worry about exact depth when I get there. Just hang them so they can find them. Tie glow sticks on them if you have any. Should be there in five minutes. We can see you.† Clair started tying the plastic line around the necks of the heavy scuba tanks. Every few seconds she scanned the waves for signs of Amy's bubbles, but there weren't any. Nate had said â€Å"If they get to them.† She blinked away tears and concentrated on her knots. If? Well if Clay made it back – when he made it back – he could damn sure get himself a safer job. Her man wasn't going to drown hundreds of feet under the ocean, because from now on he was going to be taking pictures of weddings or bar mitzvahs or kids at JC Penney's or some goddamn thing on dry land. Across the channel, near the shore of Kahoolawe, the target island, Libby Quinn had been following the exchange between Clair and Nate over the marine radio. Without being asked, her partner, Margaret, said, â€Å"We don't have any diving equipment on board. That deep, there's not much we could do.† â€Å"Clay's immortal anyway,† said Libby, trying to sound more blas than she felt. â€Å"He'll come up yammering about what great footage he got.† â€Å"Call them, offer our help,† the older woman said. â€Å"If we deny our instincts as caretakers, we deny ourselves as women.† â€Å"Oh, fuck off, Margaret! I'm calling to offer our help because it's the right thing to do.† Meanwhile, on the ocean side of Kahoolawe, Cliff Hyland was sitting in the makeshift lab belowdecks in the cabin cruiser, headphones on, watching an oscilloscope readout, when one of his grad students came into the cabin and grabbed him by the shoulder. â€Å"Sounds like Nathan Quinn's group is in trouble,† said the girl, a sun-baked brunette wearing zinc-oxide war paint on her nose and cheeks and a hat the size of a garbage-can lid. Hyland pulled up the headphones. â€Å"What? Who? Fire? Sinking? What?† â€Å"They've lost two divers. That photographer guy Clay and that pale girl.† â€Å"Where are they?† â€Å"About two miles off the dump. They're not asking for help. I just thought you should know.† â€Å"That's a ways. Start reeling in the array. We can be there in a half hour maybe.† Just then Captain Tarwater came down the steps into the cabin. â€Å"Stay that order, grommet. Stay on mission. We have a survey to finish today – and a charge to record.† â€Å"Those guys are friends of mine,† Hyland said. â€Å"I've been monitoring the situation, Dr. Hyland. Our presence has not been requested, and, frankly, there is nothing this vessel could do to help. It sounds like they've lost some divers. It happens.† â€Å"This isn't war, Tarwater. We don't just lose people.† â€Å"Stay on mission. Any setback in Quinn's operation can only benefit this project.† â€Å"You asshole,† Hyland said. Back in the channel, the Count stood in the bow of the big Zodiac and watched as the Conservation and Resources Enforcement boat towed away the Constantly Baffled. He turned to his three researchers, who were trying to look busy in back of the boat. â€Å"Let that be a lesson to you all. The key to good science is making sure all the paperwork is in order. Now you can see why I'm such a stickler for you people having your IDs with you every morning.† â€Å"Yeah, in case some other researcher rats us out to the Conservation and Resources cops,† one woman said. â€Å"Science is a competitive sport, Ms. Wextler. If you're not willing to compete, you're welcome to take your undergrad degree and go baby-sit seasick tourists on a whale-watching boat. Nathan Quinn has attacked the credibility of this organization in the past. It's only fair play that I point out when he is not working within the rules of the sanctuary.† The ocean breeze carried the junior researchers' under-the-breath whispers of  «asshole » away from the ears of Gilbert Box, over the channel to wash against the cliffs of Molokai. Nate wrapped his arms around Clair and held her as she sobbed. As the downtime passed the first half hour, Nate felt a ball of fear, dread, and nausea forming in his own stomach. Only by trying to stay busy looking for signs of Clay and Amy was he able to keep from being ill. When Amy's downtime passed forty-five minutes, Clair started to sob. Clay might have been able to stay down that long with the re-breather, but with only the tiny rescue tank, there was no way Amy could still be breathing. Two divemasters from a nearby tour boat had already used up a full tank each searching. The problem was, in blue water it was a three-dimensional search. Rescue searches were usually done on the bottom, but not when it was six hundred feet down. With the currents in the channel†¦ well, the search was little more than a gesture anyway. Being a scientist, Nate liked true things, so after an hour he stopped telling Clair that everything was going to be all right. He didn't believe it, and grief was already descending on him like a flight of black arrows. In the past, when he had experienced loss or trauma or heartbreak, some survival mechanism had kicked in and allowed him to function for months before he'd actually begin feeling the pain, but this time it was immediate and deep and devastating. His best friend was dead. The woman that he – Well, he wasn't exactly sure what he'd felt about Amy, but even when he looked past the sexuality, the differences in their ages and positions, he liked her. He liked her a lot, and he'd become used to her presence after only a few weeks. One of the divers came up near the boat and spit out his regulator. â€Å"There's nowhere to look. It's just blue to fucking infinity.† â€Å"Yeah,† Nate said. â€Å"I know.† Clay saw blue-green breasts gently bobbing before his face and was convinced that he had, indeed, drowned. He felt himself being pulled upward and so closed his eyes and surrendered. â€Å"No, no, no, son,† said Papa. â€Å"You're not in heaven. The tits are not blue in heaven. You are still alive.† Papa's face was very much smashed against the glass of his helmet, wearing the sort of expression he might have had if he'd run full speed into a bulletproof window and someone had snapped a picture at maximum mash, yet Clay could see that his eyes were smiling. â€Å"My little Cleandros, you know it is not time for you to join me?† Clay nodded. â€Å"And when it comes time for you to join me, it should be because you are old and tired and ready to go, not because the sea is wanting to crush you.† Clay nodded again, then opened his eyes. This time there was a stabbing pain in his head, but he squinted through it to see Amy's face through her dive mask. She held his regulator in his mouth and was gripping the back of his head to make him look at her. When she was sure that he was conscious and knew where he was, she gave him the okay signal and waited until he returned it. Amy then let go of Clay's regulator, and they swam slowly upward, to surface four hundred yards from where they'd first submerged. Clay immediately looked around for the boat and found nothing where he expected it, the closest vessels being a group of boats too far away to be the Always Confused. He checked his dive computer. He'd been down for an hour and fifteen minutes. That couldn't be right. â€Å"That's them,† Amy said. She looked down into the water. â€Å"Oops. Let me get my top off of your face.† â€Å"Okay,† Clay mumbled into the rebreather. Kona was in tears, wailing like Bob Marley in a bear trap – inconsolable. â€Å"Clay gone. The Snowy Biscuit gone. And I was going to poke squid with her, too.† â€Å"You were not,† said Nate. But the artificial Hawaiian didn't hear. â€Å"There!† Kona shouted as he leaped onto the shoulders of the stocky whale cop to get a better view. â€Å"It's the white wahine! Praise to Jah! Thanks be to His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie. Go there, Sheriff. A saving be needed.† â€Å"Handcuff this kid,† said the cop.

An Introduction to Reading and Writing Essay

Rounded = lifelike, full, dynamic, reader can predict future behavior because of an understanding of the personality – Protagonist = the hero or heroine, main person in the story, person on the quest, etc. – Antagonist = the person causing the conflict, in opposition to the protagonist, the obstacle, etc. – Flat = no growth, static – Stock = representative of a group or class (stereotypical) – Characters disclosed through †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ Actions Descriptions, both personal and environmental Dramatic statements and thoughts Statements by other characters Statements by the author speaking as storyteller, or observer – Characters need to have verisimilitude, be probable or plausible Point of View †¢ Refers to speaker, narrator, persona or voice created by the author to tell the story †¢ Point of view depends on two factors: – Physical situation of the narrator as an observer – Speaker’s intellectual and emotional position †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ First person = I, we Second person = You (uncommon) Third person = He, she, they (most common) Point of view may be: – Dramatic/objective = strictly reporting – Omniscient = all-knowing – Limited omniscient = some insight Setting †¢ Setting = a work’s natural, manufactured, political, cultural and temporal environment, including everything that characters know and own (place, time, objects) †¢ Major purpose = to establish realism or verisimilitude, and to organize a story †¢ Setting helps create atmosphere or mood †¢ Setting may reinforce characters and theme, in order to establish expectations that are the opposite of what occurs = irony Tone and Style †¢ Tone = methods by which writers and speakers reveal attitudes or feelings †¢ Style = ways in which writers assemble words to tell the story, to develop an argument, dramatize the play, compose the poem – Choice of words in the service of content †¢ Essential aspect of style is diction – Formal = standard or elegant words – Neutral = everyday standard vocabulary – Informal = colloquial, substandard language, slang Tone and Style (cont’d) †¢ Language may be: – – – – Specific = images General = broad classes Concrete = qualities of immediate perception Abstract = broader, less palpable qualities †¢ Denotation = word meanings †¢ Connotation = word suggestions †¢ Verbal irony = contradictory statements – One thing said, opposite is meant – Irony = satire, parody, sarcasm, double entendre †¢ Understatement = does not fully describe the importance of a situation – deliberately †¢ Hyperbole (overstatement) = words far in excess of the situation Symbolism and Allegory †¢ Symbolism and allegory are modes that expand meaning †¢ Symbol creates a direct, meaningful equation between: – A specific object, scene, character, or action – Ideas, values, persons or ways of life †¢ Symbols may be: – Cultural (universal) = known by most literate people (e. g. , white dove, color black) – Contextual (authorial) = private, created by the author Symbolism and Allegory (cont’d) †¢ Allegory is a symbol = complete and self-sufficient narrative (e. g. , â€Å"Young Goodman Brown†) †¢ Fable = stories about animals that possess human traits (e. g. , Aesop’s Fables) †¢ Parable = allegory with moral or religious bent (e. g. , Biblical stories) †¢ Myth = story that embodies and codifies religious, philosophical and cultural values of the civilization in which it is composed (e. g. , George Washington chopping down the cherry tree) †¢ Allusion = the use of other culturally well=known works from the Bible, Greek and Roman mythology, famous art, etc. Idea or Theme †¢ Idea = results of general and abstract thinking †¢ Literature embodies values along with ideas – In literature, ideas relate to meaning, interpretation, explanation and significance – Ideas are vital to an understanding and appreciation of literature †¢ Ideas are not as obvious as character or setting. It is important to consider the meaning of what you’ve read and then develop an explanatory and comprehensive assertion. †¢ Theme can be found in any of these: – – – – – Direct statements by the authorial voice Direct statements by a first-person speaker Dramatic statements by characters Figurative language, characters who stand for ideas The work itself.

Paper Ratio and Financial Statement Analysis Essay

Executive Summary In corporate finance, both ratio and financial statement analysis are important tools that can be used in order to assess a company’s strength financially. They can be used in order to forecast a business’ prospective cash flow and ability to grow in the future, as well as a company’s strengths and weaknesses. Income statements, balance sheets, the statement of retained earnings, and the statement of cash flows are the four primary types of financial statements used in corporate finance. All of these financial statements serve to analyze a firm’s cash flows from different perspectives and are all interrelated. Ratio analysis, another important tool in financial analysis, analyzes the probability that a firm will be profitable or not. The different kinds of ratios used are liquidity ratios, efficiency ratios, leverage ratios, profitability ratios, and market-value indicators, with each type including various different specific ratios that one can calculate when examining a firm’s operability. Both the financial statements and ratio analysis offer an analysis of a firm’s finances at a particular point in time, while also forecasting its financial stability in the future. Another advantage is that they allow a firm’s finance team to compare its finances to that of other similar companies, known as benchmarks, in order to value the strength of their firm in the marketplace. However, financial statements and ratio analysis can also lack in their accuracy since financial analysis is often based on historical figures from the past several years and thus only offer the prospective financial future rather than concrete data since often a firm’s finances are based on the ever-changing marketplace or other factors not in control of the firm’s managers, such as economic conditions. Despite such disadvantages, financial statements and ratio analysis is a very important aspect in the corporate environment and essential to examining a firm’s viability. Overview In business, financial statements are important tools, which allow a firm to clearly state its financials in terms of figures, such as revenues, expenses, net incomes, etc. and analyze strengths and shortcomings of the firm. This allows the firm’s managers to clearly see what is and is not working for the firm. Ratio analysis is used when identifying and analyzing multiple variables in the firm’s operations, such as inventory, accounts receivable, net sales, etc. When completing financial statement and ratio analysis, it is beneficial for the firm to examine its financial figures over several previous consecutive years, so that any and all patterns in its operability can be observed and analyzed. Such patterns can reveal aspects of the company where efficiency is not at its finest and thus there is a financial loss. As a result, the company can implement changes in order to improve upon these shortcomings and increase its profits. Ratio analysis is both a qualitative and quantitative way of looking at the data in order to analyze how a company functions and ways to improve it by looking at present and previous functioning and forecasting the future of the company. Both financial statement and ratio analysis can provide insight into the success or failures of specific product lines, allowing managers to make intelligent decisions regarding what their firm should offer in the future to consumers. Financial statement analysis is also a way to assess and validate a company’s viability in the marketplace to outside investors/creditors. Financial statements assist managers in understanding how profitable their firm is. It is often used to make comparisons of one firm to another or of a specific time period to another time period for the same firm. The main aspects of a financial statement are revenues, expenses, and net income. Revenues are sales numbers that come from products or services a firm creates through its business operations (Parrino, 2011). For a firm, such as Microsoft, its revenue would come from products such as the computers, phones, tablets, and software it sells to consumers. On the other hand, for a consulting firm, such as Accenture, revenues would stem from the fees it charges for its consulting services contracts with various government agencies around the world. Both companies are providing a product to a consumer, one simply happens to be a tangible product that people buy, while the other is a service product that agencies need for their functionality. Expenses are the costs a firm incurs while generating its revenues (Parrino, 2011). For Microsoft, expenses would stem from the costs of building its products, marketing them, developing new products, shipping them around the world, etc. For Accenture, expenses would stem from the cost of all of its consultants, which includes their wages, insurance, company laptops it provides to each of them, travel costs for sending consultants around the world on projects, etc. Again both types of firms exhibit expenses; some of them are just different. Net income shows the company’s revenue relative to its expenses. If revenues exceeds expenses then the company has a net profit and is â€Å"in the black† for that time period (Parrino, 2011). On the other hand, if expenses exceed revenues then the company has a net loss and is â€Å"in the red† for that time period (Parrino, 2011). By looking at financial statements from one fiscal period to the next or annually, managers can observe how their firm is progressing. If the numbers show that the firm is not operating at an optimal level or there is a sudden decline in profit, managers can delve further into the firm’s operations using ratio analysis to look for problem areas and address them accordingly. For instance, ratio analysis can allow analysts to view the rate turnover of a specific product line and examine whether something is lacking in that product line that is hindering the firm’s ability to get rid of that inventory to consumers. Such ratio analysis will be elaborated upon later in this paper. There are four types of financial statements; income statements, balance sheets, the statement of retained earnings, and the statement of cash flows, which are all vital and interrelated. The income statement calculates the firm’s net income or its earnings after expenses have been deducted and is used to calculate retained earnings at the end of the year (Parrino, 2011). Net income is calculated as followed: Net Income = Revenues – Expenses The balance sheet summarizes what assets the firm has at a specific point in time, as well as how the firm has financed such assets (Parrino, 2011). Total assets is calculated as followed: Total Assets = Total Liabilities + Total Stockholders’ Equity The value of assets will change annually since firms often buy and sell assets, thus altering the firm’s value and financing. Such changes are indicated in the  statement of cash flows, which gives a summary of changes in the firm’s balance sheet from the beginning of a period to the end (Parrino, 2011). The statement of retained earnings summarizes changes in the retained earnings in a simpler manner for managers than the statement of cash flows and basically shows the firm’s expenses and loss from one period to the next (Parrino, 2011). These financial statements can provide a lot of information to managers regarding the operations of the company. If Microsoft sees a decrease in its net income or total assets from one year to the next, this can indicate many things. A decrease in net income can indicate maybe some products are not selling as well as they have in the past, meaning Microsoft may need to change its marketing strategy or release a new product. A decrease in total assets can mean several things. Perhaps the company’s products are of less value than before or perhaps they have fewer liabilities. Deciding what specifically financial statements mean for the future of a firm often requires more in depth analysis through ratio analysis. Ratio analysis is the use of financial figures to analyze a firm’s overall operability and evaluate its strengths and weaknesses (Parrino, 2011). It can be used from various perspectives including stockholders, managers, and creditors, in order to evaluate the profitability of a firm. Specifically, a financial ratio is a â€Å"number from a financial statement that has been scaled by dividing by another financial number† in order to show something about the company’s operations (Parrino, 2011). There are several types of financial ratios; liquidity ratios, efficiency ratios, leverage ratios, profitability ratios, and market-value indicators. Liquidity ratios focus on whether â€Å"a firm has the ability to convert current assets into cash quickly without loss of value† (Parrino, 2011). Two liquidity ratios are as followed: Current Ratio = Current Assets / Current Liabilities Quick Ratio = (Current Assets – Inventory) / Current Liabilities Liquidity ratios indicate a firm’s ability to pay short-term obligations, such as interest payments for debt. This is very important because every firm has creditors, whether its investors, banks, or even tax collectors and even the most profitable company can go under if it is unable to pay all of its obligations for any reason. Efficiency ratios measure â€Å"how efficiently a firm uses its assets† and include the following: Inventory Turnover = Cost of Goods Sold / Inventory Days Sales in Inventory = 365 Days / Inventory Turnover Accounts Receivable Turnover = Net Sales / Accounts Receivable Days Sales Outstanding = 365 Days / Accounts Receivable Turnover Total Asset Turnover = Net Sales / Total Assets Fixed Asset Turnover = Net Sales / Net Fixed Assets Efficiency ratios are a useful tool in financial analysis because they can examine and identify inefficient use of any kind of asset. For instance, in our case of a decrease net income for Microsoft, financial analysts can look at the inventory turnover for each of its products and analyze whether one is too low indicating that the rate at which they are selling that specific product line is not efficient compared to the cost of producing that product line. Based on this managers can decide whether they should decrease the amount of inventory they produce or cut the product line all together. Leverage ratios are used to examine a firm’s financing or ability to meet long-term financial obligations. Leverage ratios are as followed: Total Debt Ratio = Total Debt / Total Assets Debt-to-Equity Ratio = Total Debt / Total Equity Equity Multiplier = Total Assets / Total Equity Leverage ratios are important because every firm uses debt or equity and often both for its financing, but the more debt a firm uses, the greater the risk it will default on those debt payments. So, for instance, the total debt ratio can tell you how much debt a firm uses in its capital structure and thus how volatile its earnings are (Parrino, 2011). Profitability ratios â€Å"measure management’s ability to efficiently use the firm’s assets to generate sales and manage the firm’s operations† (Parrino, 2011) and include the following: Gross Profit Margin = (Net Sales – Cost of Goods Sold) / Net Sales Operating Profit Margin = EBIT / Net Sales Net Profit Margin = Net Income / Net Sales Return on Assets(ROA) = Net Income / Total Assets EBIT ROA = EBIT / Total Assets Return on Equity(ROE) = Net Income / Total Equity Profitability ratios are important because they indicate a company’s ability to be profitable relative to its expenses. Market-value indicators predict the future of a firm’s finances using market value trends and financial statements. They include: Earnings Per Share(EPS) = Net Income / Shares Outstanding Price-Earnings Ratio(P/E) = Price Per Share / Earnings Per Share Market-to-Book Ratio = Market Value of Equity Per Share / Book Value of Equity per share Market-value indicators are important because they can assist in predicting the future for a firm. Whether the firm will be profitable using its current strategy or should it maybe switch to a different strategy to keep up with competing companies. All of these financial ratios are crucial to financial analysis in corporations and used very often by analysts, managers, creditors, stockholders, etc. Advantages and Disadvantages of Ratio Analysis Ratio analysis has several benefits. First, it offers various methods of analyzing a company’s financial wellbeing, going beyond just the financial statements by looking at specific aspects of operations. This can indicate strengths and shortcomings that managers should be aware of. Improvements can be made in order to increase profitability as a result. For instance, if a Microsoft notices that one product line has a higher days sales in inventory than another, this indicates that the specific product stays on the shelf longer and perhaps the firm should focus more on the product line with the lower days sales in inventory as it sells better. Secondly, ratio analysis can assist in predicting earnings or showing a pattern, which managers can use to find the best way to maintain financial profitability. While financial statements provide numbers such as revenues or expenses, ratio analysis can offer a concrete number describing revenues relative to the cost of the goods sold, such as with the gross profit margin. Such a ratio can indicate how profitable a firm’s operations were in a specific  period of time and if very profitable a concrete method of recreating such success. Essentially, ratio analysis simplifies the information provided in financial statements by compartmentalizing them to show patters and trends, which are very useful. Thirdly, ratio analysis can also be used in order to compare the firm’s operations to that of its competitors. Often, how well a company is doing depends on the market and how well other companies are doing, so ratio analysis provides a very useful tool to companies in making such comparisons. There are some disadvantages to ratio analysis. Predictions based on ratio analysis can be inaccurate from time to time. This is because ratio analysis is mostly based on historical data from previous time periods, which only offers so much information about the future. Yes, analysts can predict that the market will behave a certain way through market value indicators, but such predictions are only so accurate. The market can be affected by a variety of aspects, such as volatile economic conditions or even a natural disaster. For example following Hurricane Katrina, at â€Å"the end of the first week following†¦U.S. commercial crude oil inventories fell by 6.4 million barrels from the previous week,† indicating a strong market effect on petroleum due to the disaster (â€Å"Hurricane Katrina’s impact,† 2011). Businesses cannot control environmental disasters or economic conditions, which is why while ratio analysis is a very useful tool, it cannot always be relied on 100%. The use of market-value indicators is increasingly used in order to better forecast the future of a firm as it takes into account the economic climate at a specific point in time in order to predict the trend of future financial entities (Niazi, 2011) but again sometimes something like a natural disaster can negatively affect business. This is why having a high operating income and total assets is important to be prepared for such events. While not a perfect model as random economic turbulence can skew results, market-value indicators do still provide some insight into the future. Furthermore, when using ratio analysis to compare to another similar benchmark firm, there can also be pitfalls. Often it is impossible to find a company similar enough in size, corporate structure, and operations to properly compare to and gauge a market comparison. Thus, often ratio analysis when benchmarking can provide a skewed impression of where the firm stands against its competitors in the market. Financial statement and ratio analysis are very useful in corporate finance that provide much information to analysts, managers, stockholders, and creditors about the financial state of a firm. While there are some shortcomings to ratio analysis, its advantages in practice surely outweigh its disadvantages and offer valuable tools to cultivate a thriving company. References Hurricane Katrina’s impact on the U.S. oil and natural gas markets. (2011, September 12). Retrieved from http://www.eia.gov/oog/special/eia1_katrina_091205.html Niazi, G. S. K., Hunjra, A. I., Rashid , M., Akbar, S. W., & Akhtar, M. N. (2011). Practices of working capital policy and performance assessment financial ratios and their relationship with organization performance. World Applied Sciences Journal, 12(11), 1967-1973. Parino, R., Kidwell, D. S. & Bates, T. W. (2012). Fundamentals of Corporate Finance: Second edition. John Wiley & Sons; Hoboken, NJ.

The Two Books, Coined by the Theologians

The Two Books Module 3 The Two Books, Coined By The Theologians Gloria J. Farmer HTH-505-0101: Systematic Theology I Instructor: Professor Peter Conlin March 19, 2013 The Two Books – Page 1 God’s objective for self-revelation is that mankind comes to know Him better. From the beginning of creation, God’s plan â€Å"was to create a people among whom he could dwell and with whom he could be in relationship† (Hill & Walton, 2009, p. 23). Mankind has no excuse for not knowing God and establishing a relationship with Him because â€Å"everyone naturally has a general idea that there is a God† (McGrath, 2011, p. 5), based upon His eternal power and divine nature. His glory is declared in the heavens, the work of His hands is proclaimed in the skies, (Psalm 19; Romans 1:20) and â€Å"the order, intricacy, and wonder of creation speak to the existence of a powerful and glorious Creator† (Got Questions, 2013). Moreover, â€Å"people everywhere posses s general knowledge of the existence of God as the Creator of heaven and earth, and they understand His righteousness, and that He administers punishment to the wicked, etc.However, â€Å"people do not have a clue of God’s plans concerning mankind, the benefits of His blessings, our deliverances from sin and death, and the plan of salvation—which denotes true knowledge of God (McGrath, 2011). The Two Books that God reveals Himself to humanity include, â€Å"General Revelation and Special Revelation. â€Å"General revelation refers to the general truths that can be known about God through nature. Special revelation refers to the more specific truths that can be known about God through the supernatural† (Got Questions, 2013). General Revelation was not the catalyst that was designed to teach us our obligation towards God and our proper relationship to him as our creator. It was not designed to guide us in morality even if the fall of man had not occurred in the Garden of Eden† (Preacherwin’s, 2008). It is through General Revelation that God’s revelation of Himself as God, and the righteous judge is seen. Also, through General Revelation man is seen as a sinner standing under The Two Books – Page 2 God’s divine judgment.The clear message of general revelation and what is derived from it–natural theology (e. g. , Romans 1 and 2), encounters the problem of fallen man perverting its clear message. Nature, human history, and human nature (internally—via conscience) denote the three primary categories of general revelation (Apologetics, 2013). â€Å"God manifested or revealed Himself through Special Revelation in three major categories that include: miraculous events, divine speech, and visible manifestations. Special Revelation is redemptive or salvific in nature and is communicated in both words (e. . , Scripture) and acts or actions. It must be revealed/initiated by God alone. Christ and the Sc riptures respectively are the supreme examples of Special Revelation† (Apologetics, 2013). Having said this, The Two Books, coined by the Theologians, present an intertwining role of Special Revelation (Scripture) and General Revelation in the theological task of discovering God. As we explore General Revelation in the area of Science and the Bible, we must note that there is some information that General Revelation tell us and does not tell us.According to VandenBerg, (2010), there are two beliefs among the Christian community concerning scientific knowledge and the Bible. For example, â€Å"there are Christians who reject the knowledge in the areas of evolution, cosmology, and insist that the biblical accounts of creation and cosmology must be read in a woodenly literal fashion. They assert that it is not necessary to harmonize the Bible and science because, for the most part, the scientific academy is wrong.Furthermore, some Christians insist that what the Bible says about the origins of the universe does not, in fact, cannot, contradict what science has discovered. Contrasting those in the first group, those in this group tend to affirm the discoveries of science while seeking to harmonize them in some way with the biblical text. The Reformed tradition, tends to fall into line with the The Two Books – Page 3 latter group† (p. 16). However, â€Å"Because God is the author of both books—the physical world and the Bible—so the argument goes, there can be no disagreement between them.The basic premise for science and the Bible is that God has provided two sources of knowledge for human persons: nature and the Bible (VandenBerg, 2010). Scientists contend that the problem with General Revelation is not that data is interpreted incorrectly with regard to any particular scientific subject that is being studied, but the problem is that the author of the data is distorted (VandenBerg, 2010). A critical analysis of General Revelatio n calls into question what is being revealed.At first glance, â€Å"there is common understanding of what God is revealing about himself. However, the theological jury is still out deliberating a revelatory verdict† (Howard, D. , 2010). One point is agreed upon concerning General Revelation by those who embrace this Doctrine of Revelation is that knowledge about God is revealed concerning His existence and character (Howard, D. , 2010). â€Å"Agreement also exists that the knowledge revealed consists of particular attributes of God or a â€Å"broad outline of what He is like. The attributes of God that are considered to be revealed are those described in passages such as Psalm 19:1-6, Romans 1:18-32, and Acts 14:17. Psalm 19:1-8, according to Demarest, indicates that God â€Å"as Elohim—the eternal, omnipotent, wise, and good Creator and Sustainer of all that is—revealed via general revelation† (Howard, D. 2010). â€Å"Knowledge obtained from general r evelation is not considered salvific in nature, because it lacks salvation knowledge. Knowledge disclosed in general is only about God as The Two Books – Page 4Creator and other â€Å"general† divine attributes, not God as Redeemer and other salvific knowledge. There is no knowledge of redemption or the Redeemer given in general knowledge, because the precise purpose of general revelation is to declare â€Å"the glory of the Creator and give general guidance to the creature,† not to reveal Jesus Christ. Furthermore, humans do not obtain salvific knowledge from general revelation, they have true and accurate knowledge of God’s existence, his attributes, and moral law (Howard, D. , 2010). The task of discovering God is incomplete without Special Revelation (Scripture).The intertwining role of Special Revelation (Scripture) and General Revelation reveal â€Å"two different media that in different ways point to the same messenger—the divine Creator an d Revealer. To the degree that the content of the message is the same—â€Å"God’s invisible qualities his eternal power and divine nature† (Romans 1:20)—the truth that both books speak the same language and point to the same God must be stressed. At the same time, the truth that natural theology has no saving capacity, that to know our sin and salvation we need the additional special revelation given in Scripture, must never be overlooked.The two Books are not in the first place about the Bible and science but about God and his relation to us as Creator and Redeemer in Jesus Christ† (Bolt, J. , 2011). Special Revelation can be categorized in the following way. â€Å"Theophany (God makes Himself known to the prophet while the prophet is awake and aware of such taking place; Visions (God makes Himself known (not physically) to the prophet who is awake and aware of what is taking place; Dreams (God makes Himself known to a prophet who is asleep); In H is Son—Jesus Christ (Jesus is the ultimate manifestation of God given not just to the prophets, but The Two Books – Page 5 o all people. Jesus is also the perfect image of the invisible God and the object of all Special Revelation. All of Scripture, not just the Gospels, points to Jesus)† (Preacherwin, 2008). Without the Two Books, (General Revelation and Special Revelation), mankind would be deprived of the â€Å"intimate manifestation of God’s special Revelation to his people, revealing Christ and uniting in Christ all of these separate forms of Special Revelation.Scripture reveals Christ in his fullness for God’s people and thus, the completed canon of Scripture is given to us as the capstone upon which our faith is held together† (Preacherwin, 2008). References Apologetics. (2013). Explain general and special revelation using examples. Retrieved March 19, 2013 from http://www. apologeticsinfo. org/outlines/ Got Questions. (2013). What is general revelation and special revelation? Retrieved March 19, 2013 from http://www. gotquestions. org/general-special-revelation. tml Hill, A. E. & Walton, J. H. (2009). A Survey Of The Old Testament. Grand Rapids, Michigan. Zondervan. Howard, D. (2010). A critical analysis of general revelation. Criswell Theological Review, 8(1), 53-75 Preacherwin’s. (2008). Forms of Special Revelation. Retrieved March 19, 2013 from http://preacherwin. wordpress. com/2008/04/21/forms-of-special-revelation/ VandenBerg, M. L. (2010). What General Revelation Does (and Does Not) Tell Us. Perspectives On Science & Christian Faith, 62 (1), 16-24