Thursday, December 26, 2019

The Body Under the Bed - Urban Legends

Heres an example of the scary urban legend known as The Body Under the Bed as shared by a reader: A man and woman went to Las Vegas for their honeymoon, and checked into a suite at a hotel. When they got to their room they both detected a bad odor. The husband called down to the front desk and asked to speak to the manager. He explained that the room smelled very bad and they would like another suite. The manager apologized and told the man that they were all booked because of a convention. He offered to send them to a restaurant of their choice for lunch compliments of the hotel and said he was going to send a maid up to their room to clean and to try and get rid of the odor. After a nice lunch, the couple went back to their room. When they walked in they could both still smell the same odor. Again the husband called the front desk and told the manager that the room still smelled really bad. The manager told the man that they would try and find a suite at another hotel. He called every hotel on the strip, but every hotel was sold out because of the convention. The manager told the couple that they couldnt find them a room anywhere, but they would try and clean the room again. The couple wanted to see the sights and do a little gambling anyway, so they said they would give them two hours to clean and then they would be back. When the couple had left, the manager and all of housekeeping went to the room to try and find what was making the room smell so bad. They searched the entire room and found nothing, so the maids changed the sheets, changed the towels, took down the curtains and put new ones up, cleaned the carpet and cleaned the suite again using the strongest cleaning products they had. The couple came back two hours later to find the room still had a bad odor. The husband was so angry at this point, he decided to find whatever this smell was himself. So he started tearing the entire suite apart himself. As he pulled the top mattress off the box spring he found a dead body of a woman. Analysis All it takes is one dead body under the mattress to spoil your whole honeymoon. Befitting its Sin City reputation, Las Vegas has been the setting of some horrific urban legends (see The Kidney Snatchers if you dont know what I mean). What sets The Body in the Bed apart from the rest is how frequently incidents resembling the one described above have actually happened in real life — just never, to my knowledge, in Las Vegas! The closest encounter between fact and legend Ive been able to document took place in Atlantic City (another gambling mecca, naturally) in 1999. This account comes from the Bergen Record: The body of Saul Hernandez, 64, of Manhattan was found in Room 112 of the Burgundy Motor Inn after two German tourists slept overnight in the bed despite a rancid smell that prompted them to complain to the front desk.The couple told motel officials about the smell Wednesday night but stayed in the $36-a-night room anyway. On Thursday, they complained again and were given a new room while a motel housekeeper cleaned Room 112. In July 2003, a cleaning crew discovered a dead body stuffed under the mattress in a room at the Capri Motel in Kansas City, Missouri. This report was filed by KMBC-TV News: Police said that the man appeared to have been dead for some time, but the body went unnoticed until a guest staying the room could no longer tolerate the smell. Officers were called to the Capri Motel in the 1400 block of Independence Avenue around noon Sunday after cleaning crews made the grisly discovery.KMBCs Emily Aylward reported that the man who checked into the motel room a few days ago complained to management about the odor two times over the three days. He then checked out on Sunday because he could not tolerate the smell. In March 2010, Memphis police responded to a call from a local motel where employees had noticed a foul odor in one of the rooms. According to ABC Eyewitness News: On March 15th, investigators were called back to room 222 at the Budget Inn, where the body of Sony Millbrook was found under the bed. Police say she was found inside the metal box frame that sits directly on the floor after someone reported smelling a strange odor. The box springs and mattress fit into the top of the bed frame. Room 222, according to investigators, had been rented 5 times and cleaned many times by the hotel staff since the day Millbrook was reported missing.Homicide investigators say Millbrook appears to have been murdered. Theres more than one moral to these stories, to be sure, but the most disturbing of all is that urban legends do sometimes come true.​ Further reading: Isle Mainland Traveler Shared Room with Corpse. Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 1 August 1996.

Tuesday, December 17, 2019

Alan Ainsworth s The 75 Arguments An Anthology

Business and Economics The reading is contained in Alan Ainsworth’s book â€Å"The 75 Arguments: An Anthology† that addresses different arguments in various subjects including technology, marriage, race, globalization, economics, among others. The book presents arguments about the relationship between organizations’ responsibilities and the economy. According to the author, activities that aim to enhance the global economy might have negative consequences for both the environment and the society as a whole. Agencies should recognize their responsibilities to support the life of the communities when attending their daily operations. Companies that value the needs to protect the environment tend to receive support from the society while those who defy such responsibilities end up impoverishing their economic growth. In the recent past, globalization, the view of ideas from world perspective has gained popularity across the world. A critical review of the arguments on globalization could offer people and organizations with ideas on the importance of fulfilling their responsibilities while pursuing their economic objectives. Summary One of the ideas in the book includes the Globalization: The Super Story of which Friedman presents. Freidman identifies himself as one of the firm believers of the globalization. In his perspective, globalization regards the concept that people carry with them a bid framework through which they examine events, the world, decide what is relevant or not.Show MoreRelatedGlobalization Has Changed the World in Different Way818 Words   |  4 Pageslifestyle. For example, driving cars, living in houses, and going to shopping malls. These are just the few of the things that are in are lifestyle that we have daily access. Works Cited Ainsworth, Alan. Globalization: The Super-story. 75 Arguments: An Anthology. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2008. N. pag. Print. Wenz, Peter S. Globalization.† Encyclopedia of Environmental Ethics and Philosophy. Ed. J Baird Callicott and Robert Frodeman. Vol. 1. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2009. 463-468. Opposing Viewpoints

Monday, December 9, 2019

Kerang Train Crash in Australia Samples †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Kerang Train Crash in Australia. Answer: Kerang Train crash in Australia This train accident occurred on 5th of June in 2007 at 13:40 AEST in Australian state of Victoria , that is about six kilometres north of the city of the Kerang in the state NorthWest , and 257 kilometres that is north-northwest of the city of the Melbourne (Australia, 2014) . The Southbound V/Line passenger train program 8042 that are comprised of the locomotive N460 together with the carriage set which was N7 was operating into by the northbound semi-trailer truck at the level crossing exactly where the Piangil railway line crosses the Murray valley Highway . The locomotive as well as the carriage eluded the impact as the truck swerved in direction of the left (Glendon, Clarke McKenna, 2016). Nevertheless, the 2nd carriage in addition to the third carriage were struck both, which brought on very intense damages that occurred to the carriages and fatal injury to eleven passengers. The truck needed innumerable forty tonnes and it had been travelling at one hundred kilometres per ho ur, its effect was a devastating tragedy (Australia, 2014). The truck, that was owned by the Canny Carrying Business of the Wangaratta and was driven by the Christiaan Scholl, was damaged extremely on consequence to the carriage. School merely continual a shoulder and a head injuries. In this accident eleven individuals died and twenty three were injured in this crash, this was one of the deadliest crash in Australian since the 1977 that took place at Granville (Glendon, Clarke McKenna, 2016). The Granville train derailed and run into the support of the road bridge and crashed on two train passenger carriages (Khan, Rathnayaka Ahmed, 2015). This accident killed eighty four people, and more than 210 were injured affecting 1300 individuals. The train which that was involved in Kerang accident was a locomotive hauled service from Swan Hill that had departed for Melbourne at around 13:00. The train was operated by N class locomotive and 3 vehicle N kind carriage set. This collision triggered the closure of most the close by part of Murray Valley Highway. Safety breaches which caused the accident. On this particularly accident it was caused by derailment. The derailment occurs when a train runs off its rail. In this derailment it was caused by a collision by a truck when it was at the cross road. The train crashed with the truck where there was a clear derailment of the running of the vehicle wheels on the track (Khan, Rathnayaka Ahmed, 2015). This was an obstruction which was encountered at the road at level crossings- which is the grade crossing. This impact was devastating because the truck was carrying more than 40 tonnes and it was moving at a high speed of 100kmh. the derailment in most of the cases cause a distribution on main lines to differ from the distribution on the yard or the siding tracks, as a result of different in nature of the operations in these two setting (Salmon, Lenne, Read, Walker Stanton, 2014). This type of derailment provides an insight into the development, evaluation, as well as the implementation of the accident prevention approaches given a sp ecific set of the operating conditions. Speed is a contributing factor in this derailment severity, and several qualitative and quantitative relationship between the derailments and the speed. Another aspect which have caused this accident could have been the fatigue. This is regarded as the lack of recuperative sleep. This might are actually contributed by time as well as workplace, the period of time spent at the workplace along with the amount as well as quality of rest that is accomplished to and after function periods (Salmon, Lenne, Read, Walker Stanton, 2014). Depending on the report the truck driver failed to did not have sufficient rest. Depending on the regulation in Victoria it involves a driver especially for truck to obtain a 30 minute sleep after driving for specific five hours (Haque, Chin Debnath, 2013). The motor vehicle driver happen to be on leisure leave for a few weeks. His measures in those days are not generally known as this may be likelihood of cumulative tiredness that should be present to beginning his work that day. An additional safety breach was contrast of the signals in addition to the train with the background. The contrast entails the difference in the brightness between an item and also its background (Khan, Rathnayaka Ahmed, 2015). The contrast usually performs a significant aspect in numerous visual duties, for instance discriminating objects in the intricate visual environments or simply to have the ability to look at the road sign. The level of contrast bears the capability to choose whether or not an object might be identified easily (Salmon, Lenne, Read, Walker Stanton, 2014). The moment the sun is directly or maybe indirectly recognizable to the road user it could result in the physical discomfort and potentially reduce a person capability to use visual data from the environment. The result of the sun might be amplified by imperfection or maybe damage to the windscreen of the vehicles (Mulvihill, Salmon, Beanland, Lenn, Read, Walker, Stanton, 2016). The condition of the truck b efore the incident might not be determined. The originality of the indicators could be lowered under these conditions particularly in which their luminance level is a great deal similar to the background, as it happens in the bright sunlight (Kemp, 2016). For that reason, the contrast between the signals along with surrounding might be less. With this accident the sun was almost direct even before the truck simply by the approach to the level crossing. Because of this position, it might be feasible that the sunlight then was mirrored off the surface of the road, which afflicted the drivers visibility of the warning signage and level crossing flashing lights (Zhao Khattak, 2017). Furthermore, it had been also reported from the study that the truck driver utilized the vision correcting glasses that changed on the effect of the glare. The position of the sun whenever the accident occurred designed that the side of the train that was dealing with the truck driver was shadowed. Because of this, the contrast between the trains in addition to its background is a bit more likely to have minimized and a lot less easy for one detect (Zhao Khattak, 2017). Based on the rail operators in Australia configure on the locomotive ditch lights to flash any time the locomotive warning horn is initialized to have the capability to help in improving the conspicuity of the locomotive. It was not with regards to this incident. Changes to policy which resulted from the incident and how this was implemented. Following this tragic accident there are various policy which have been implemented in order to prevent similar incident in the future. One of the aspect which was identified in regards to the accident was the safety of the level crossing (Ma, Guha, Choi, Anderson, Nealy, Withers Dietrich, 2017). First it is important to understand that the use of the level crossing is completely safe provided attention is paid and one obeys the laws and the regulations which are set. Nonetheless, as a result of this accident the government of Australia has been concerned with the occurrence of the accident. Therefore there policies in regards to managing the level crossing risk have been implemented (Zeigler, 2016). The government has said it will be only in exceptional circumstance will they permit new crossings to be introduced onto the network. They have continued educating the uses on how to use the crossing safety and they have highlighted to them the dangers associated to it. Moreover, the go vernment has opted to work with the police as well as the HM Railway Inspectorate (the office of the Rail Regulation) and attempt to promote enforcement of the law along with prosecution of any individual who abuses the level crossings (Salmon, Read, Stanton Lenn, 2013). The government aims to regularly examine and correctly sustain the level crossing commercial infrastructure such that the safety incidents as a result of the infrastructure malfunction could be reduced (Zhao Khattak, 2017). Additionally, the transport authorities need to investigate new warning system at the level crossing and more training for the train drivers as well as the instructors to help them to respond to crashes. Following this accident the government continues to examine, trial and implement of innovation, processes in addition to techniques which enhances the safety by means of either reduction of the cost and the provision of enhanced protection. Further the government decided to eliminate unmanned l evel crossing through various means (Salmon, Read, Stanton Lenn, 2013). It decided to eliminate all the level that are unmanned through; closing the unmanned crossing that have negligible train vehicle units, merger of the unmanned level crossing to the nearby manned gates or road under bridge. There has been a renewed interest in the safety of the rail travel in Australia Railways, following the incident of Kerang accident. There are a number of technologies which are been developed following this accident in order to improve on the safety of rail journey (Zhao Khattak, 2017). One such is the derailment detection devices which are sensors which are on board train and detect the possibility of derailment based on the movement as well as the tilt. The devices would measure and process the signals (Young, Lenn, Beanland, Salmon Stanton, 2015). With the proper integration into the braking system of the train, in case of derailment the instrument would minimize the causalities by the reducing the amount of time the derailed coach drag (Zeigler, 2016). This is aligned with the policy of the government which they have implemented to examine, trial and implementing of revolutionary technology, procedures in addition to strategies to be able to develop the safety through reduced cost and provision of improved protection. Conclusion Kerang train accident is one of the deadliest has been encountered since 1977, that occurred at Granville in Australia. This accident has been due to the safety breaches. In this research it has focused on the causes of the incident, and the changes to the policy and practices which the government has implemented to prevent a future incident from occurring. References Australia, S. W. (2014). Work-related traumatic injury fatalities, Australia 2013. ACT: Canberra. Glendon, A. I., Clarke, S., McKenna, E. (2016). Human safety and risk management. Crc Press. Haque, M. M., Chin, H. C., Debnath, A. K. (2013). Sustainable, safe, smartthree key elements of Singapores evolving transport policies. Transport Policy, 27, 20-31. Kemp, R. (2016). Quantitativerisk management and its limits. Routledge Handbook of Risk Studies, 164. Khan, F., Rathnayaka, S., Ahmed, S. (2015). Methods and models in process safety and risk management: past, present and future. Process Safety and Environmental Protection, 98, 116-147. Ma, X., Guha, S., Choi, J., Anderson, C. R., Nealy, R., Withers, J., ... Dietrich, C. (2017, January). Prototypes of using directional antenna for railroad crossing safety applications. In Consumer Communications Networking Conference (CCNC), 2017 14th IEEE Annual (pp. 594-596). IEEE. Mulvihill, C. M., Salmon, P. M., Beanland, V., Lenn, M. G., Read, G. J., Walker, G. H., Stanton, N. A. (2016). Using the decision ladder to understand road user decision making at actively controlled rail level crossings. Applied ergonomics, 56, 1-10. Salmon, P. M., Lenne, M. G., Read, G., Walker, G., Stanton, N. A. (2014). Pathways to failure? Using work domain analysis to predict accidents in complex systems. Advances in Human Aspects of Transportation: Part II, 8, 258. Salmon, P. M., Read, G. J., Stanton, N. A., Lenn, M. G. (2013). The crash at Kerang: Investigating systemic and psychological factors leading to unintentional non-compliance at rail level crossings. Accident Analysis Prevention, 50, 1278-1288. Young, K. L., Lenn, M. G., Beanland, V., Salmon, P. M., Stanton, N. A. (2015). Where do novice and experienced drivers direct their attention on approach to urban rail level crossings?. Accident Analysis Prevention, 77, 1-11. Zeigler, N. M. (2016). Positive train control: safety, effectiveness, and security (Doctoral dissertation, Utica College). Zhao, S., Khattak, A. J. (2017). Injury Severity in Crashes Reported in Proximity of Rail CrossingsThe Role of Driver Inattention. Journal of Transportation Safety Security, (just-accepted).

Monday, December 2, 2019

The Good Shepherd free essay sample

The Biblical Definition of the Good Shepherd Jesus said, â€Å"I am the good shepherd† (John 10:11, NIV). A Shepherd is a person who tends and guards flocks of sheep. In Bible, Jesus was not a real shepherd; however, he described himself as the Good Shepherd. Christians may question why the Good Shepherd is distinctive from general shepherd. From biblical perspective, the Good shepherd is an emotional image that teaches Christians to follow Jesus. Through contrasting the Good and bad shepherds, investigating the functions the Good shepherd, and looking at biblical examples of the image of the Good shepherd, God’s intention of teaching Christians is more asserted. Through comparing the Good Shepherd and bad shepherds, God teaches every Christians to follow the Good Shepherd. The prophet Ezekiel, in Old Testament, prophesied against the bad shepherds. In Book of Ezekiel 34, He describes the characteristics of bad shepherds; â€Å"Woe to the shepherds of Israel who only take care of themselves! You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock† (Ezekiel 34:2-3). We will write a custom essay sample on The Good Shepherd or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The bad shepherds do not care for their flock but only for themselves. In the other hand, Jesus said, â€Å"the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep† (John 10:11) and he actually gave his life on cross to save his people. Ezekiel continues to speak about what the bad shepherds did not do for their flock; â€Å"[the bad shepherds] have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. [The bad shepherds] have ruled them harshly and brutally† (Ezekiel 34: 4). This Ezekiel’s description of the bad shepherds allows the readers of the Bible recognize the contrast without doubt. Furthermore, in Book of John, Jesus tells us that the bad shepherds are like â€Å"thieves and robbers† (John 10:1). Jesus stresses that the thief comes only â€Å"to steal and kill and destroy† but He had come to â€Å"lay down his life for the sheep† (John 10:11). Like this, Jesus, Good Shepherd, is completely reverse of the false shepherds. Through contrasting the bad shepherds and the Good Shepherds, Jesus, the Bible clearly teaches Christians to follow the Good Shepherd, Jesus. The image of the Good Shepherd functions as a motif throughout the Bible to teach Christians that they have to follow Jesus. The motif is the fact that God acts as the Shepherd of His people. The image of God as a shepherd does not appear once in the Bible but rather several times. Therefore, it allows Christians to hold on to this clear emotional image. From the beginning of the Bible, God has been portrayed as a shepherd by His people. In Genesis 48:15, Jacob declared that God has been his â€Å"shepherd all of his life to this day†. In New Testament, Jesus described Himself the Good Shepherd â€Å"I am the good shepherd† (John 10:11, NIV). As Jesus clearly depicted Himself as a shepherd, there is no doubt in Christians mind that He is not the Good Shepherd. Furthermore, in Book of Revelation, the author, John the apostle, brings a prominent image of God; â€Å"for the Lamb in the center of the throne shall be their shepherd and shall guide them to springs of the water of life; and God shall wipe every tear from their eye† (Revelation 7:15) (Biblegateway. com, n. d. ). Like this, the image of God as shepherd is frequently addressed in the Bible. Why did God address Himself as shepherd? First of all, according to Easton’s Bible Dictionary, shepherding was a very common occupation for Ancient Near East people (Biblegateway. com, n. d. ). The people, therefore, knew the duties of a shepherd in an unenclosed country like Palestine were very onerous and tough. God might have wanted His people to know that He will forever guide and protect His people as shepherd does for his sheep and goats. Second of all, God could have been called Himself only as King of kings. The Bible itself does not give a clear explanation; therefore, the readers cannot get a definite answer. However, there is fairly good reason that the readers could guess. The image of a king usually represents an idea of ruling and governing when the image of a shepherd gives an idea of guidance and protection. Jesus, in John 10: 11-17, illustrates how the shepherd cares for his flock, protecting them from weather, thieves, and predatory animals which He would do for His people. He loves and guides His people and if necessary, he would lay down his life for them. When Christians image the Good Shepherd, therefore, they remind themselves to follow Jesus. There are biblical examples of the Good Shepherd, David and Jesus, who all Christians should follow their path of lives. In fact, the â€Å"Good Shepherd† only indicates one person that is Jesus. However, there are many other shepherds addressed in the Bible who truly followed God like Jesus. More specifically, David is one of the most well-known shepherds in the Bible. Before David becomes a king of Israel, he was a shepherd keeping his father’s sheep. When David was a shepherd, he did not take the shepherding as small work. Rather, David loved his sheep and he was courageous enough to lay down his life for them. David said â€Å"when a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth †¦ and killed it† (1 Samuel 17:34-36). What David did for his father’s sheep proves that he really loved and cared the sheep just like Jesus, the Good Shepherd. On the other hand, the true example of the Good Shepherd, Jesus, was not a real shepherd. According to Book of Matthew, people called him â€Å"carpenter’s son† (13:55). He was a carpenter from little village until he starts his public life. However, Jesus addressed himself as â€Å"the good shepherd† who lays down his life for his people (John 10:11). Not only because Jesus indicated himself as the Good Shepherd, but his actions proved that. In Book of Matthew, one day, Jesus saw a large crowd and he had â€Å"compassion on them† so he feeds the five thousand people (Matthew 14:13-21). He taught and fed people who were â€Å"like sheep without a shepherd† (Mark 6:34). Jesus was not a real shepherd. He metaphorically addressed himself as the Good Shepherd; however, he is the true loving protector and caretaker for his people. Through biblical characters in the Bible, God more clearly teaches who the Good Shepherd whom all Christians shall follow is. The emotional image of the Good Shepherd reminds the existence of Jesus to all Christians and teaches them to follow Jesus. In Bible, God compares the Good and bad shepherds, addresses the function of the shepherd and signifies the biblical examples to undoubtedly teach the Christians to follow Jesus. The Bible teaches to follow Jesus, not because he is someone with authority but because he is the Good Shepherd who cares and loves all of his people.