The relationship between cannabis use and mental health disorder

The relationship between cannabis use and mental health disorder Abstract This assignment evaluates the relationship between cannabis use and mental health disorder related to it in Australia. Recent national data reflects that cannabis use was at its peak in 1998 when over 60% of people aged 20-29 were reported having used cannabis. Since then various studies have found co relation between cannabis use causing no mental health issues and cannabis use causing schizophrenia and psychosis. Recent studies have found that cannabis is recognized in Australia as the third most prevalent drug of dependence following alcohol and tobacco. About 10% of people who try cannabis will develop dependence at some point in their life. Studies have found relationship between weekly frequency of cannabis use and mental illness such particularly psychosis, schizophrenia, anxiety and depression (www.mhca.org.au). Introduction Cannabis is a plant contains a psychoactive molecule that produces a high associated with this drug. The psychoactive product contains dried flowers and leaves of plants selected to produce high levels of tetrahydrocannabinol (www.dictionary.com). There is a significant and growing research on the relationship between mental illness and cannabis use in Australia. The evidence supports the association between mental illness and regular cannabis use. The evidence states that regular cannabis use from young age will increases the risk of mental illness since there is genetic vulnerability to psychosis being which can be triggered by cannabis use. Evidence shows that cannabis use facilitates schizophrenia in people who have family history of mental illnesses. The average first use of cannabis users is now 14.9 years. This is of a very important concern in Australia as this is the age at which there are psychological changes in brain. Psychosis is an abnormal condition of the mind in gene ric psychiatric term for a mental state is often described as a loss of contact with the reality. This disorder can disable the normal functioning of the brain. This malfunction in brain causes people with elevated risk of death by suicide. Thus it is important to analyse the evidence carefully in order to make conclusions and recommendations (Hall et al, 2004). Relationship between Mental Illness and Cannabis. Certain pockets of Australian population consume cannabis in form of heating or ignition combined with inhalation of smoke or oral consumption of the plant itself mixed into a food medium. The other way that individuals consume cannabis is by vaporization, which causes the active ingredients to evaporate into gas without burning the plant material. This is generally done by boiling the ingredients of cannabis plant. Once these vapours are inhaled, it produces various short term and long term effects. The short term effects range from sleepiness, difficulty keeping track of time, impaired or reduced short term memory. In my general practice I have observed that the patients consuming high amount of cannabis find it hard to communicate and focus. They are generally slower to react and have increased heart rate, heart palpitations and show signs of psychological dependence on cannabis drug consumption. Their reasons for addiction generally range from recreational purposes and sometimes to escape their present hardships in life (Personal Communication, Clinical Placement, 2010). Evidence shown by scientific research shows that potential harm of cannabis use is generally and especially in vulnerable groups such as Aboriginal, young people, people belonging to poor socio economic background. The habit starts from peer pressure and gradually becomes an addiction. Rates of cannabis use by people with mental illness such as anxiety and depression also show heavy use of cannabis use.(Castle, 2004) The self medication hypothesis states that people experiencing signs of mental health disorder consume cannabis in order to alleviate or increase symptoms. There have been longitudinal studies to determine whether the mental illness is related to cannabis use. The hypothesis covers two scenarios -that cannabis initiates mental disorder that were previously lying inactive and that cannabis causes mental health illness who would not otherwise develop them. Thus research has been conducted on biological mechanisms such as effects of cannabis on brain chemistry and its effects on people without genetic predisposition to mental illness. Other social effects are taken into consideration when researching on cannabis users exposed to factors such as poor mental health, substance using peers, school dropout, unemployment and crime. It is a difficult to justify the effects of cannabis on an individual if many variables co exist both for the cannabis user and people with other social vulnerabil ities including family difficulties. Thus it is possible that there is a common genetic factor that predisposes individuals to cannabis use and mental illness (Patton et al, 2002). According to DSouza et al (2004) there is little dispute that cannabis can produce short term recurrences of pre existing psychotic symptoms. However there is no evidence relating to the fact that cannabis actually causes schizophrenia or other psychotic illness in long term (Johns, 2001). Research also shows that cannabis can also amplify a pre existing thought in an individual. These thoughts tend to overwhelm the individual causing severe reactions by individuals including suicide and self harm in extreme cases. In order for ascertain the research Hill (1965) states that following criteria must be met: Strength, consistency, specificity, temporality, biological gradient, coherence and plausibility. Every case needs to support each criteria to make the hypothesis stronger. Relationship between Cannabis consumption and Psychosis A recent study conducted by Hldes et al (2006) states that there is a two way relationship between psychosis and cannabis which states that regular use of cannabis is associated with higher risk of psychotic relapse. Many longitudinal studies have found that the mental illness particularly psychosis leads to increased use of cannabis. Research conducted by Hall et al (2004) states that most common symptoms related to the individuals with psychosis smoking cannabis were sudden confusion which were generally related to delusions and hallucinations. Their emotional state became unstable and showed signs of paranoid symptoms. These findings have been supported by individuals suggesting that they took large doses of cannabis product. Most of these people had no family history of psychosis. Their symptoms were gone once the individuals stopped their cannabis intake. These symptoms were seen back within days once the individuals started cannabis consumption again. Thus this evidence supports the hypothesis that the regular use of cannabis increases chances of psychosis in an individual. On the other hand the other hypothesis can be argued that cannabis intake does not support psychosis. There have been number of studies conducted that have compared people with people who have mental illness post cannabis use and who have developed mental illness prior to cannabis consumption. There is always a little variation in the results. According to Mental health council of Australia, there have been number of researches that have been conducted investigating the cannabis use among individuals with psychotic disorders and found that they were not significantly different from the general population. A range of motive can be grouped into following four categories: coping with unpleasant affect (to relieve emotional distress), enhancement (to have fun), social interaction (to affiliate with others), confirming (to fit in) (www.mhca.org.au) The evidence obtained shows that the first two tend to be heavy cannabis consumers and the later two are just recreational. The first two consume cannabis to relieve themselves from emotional distress, psychotic symptoms and medication side effects which lead them to consume heavy amounts of cannabis in order to feel that state of mind and emotion. People with psychosis initially use substance to change their emotional state and facilitate social contact. They then develop dependence on this substance stating, If I dont smoke then I will not be able to cope. These individuals then have belief that cannabis is the only way out thus worsening their psyche and this will lead to worsening cannabis dependence (Spence in Castle and Murray, 2004) Conclusion Various cases and individual analysis state that there is a strong connection between cannabis consumption and psychosis. The hypothesis states individuals consuming cannabis have developed symptoms of psychosis and these individuals have normalised once they stopped consuming cannabis. Thus, there is some evidence that suggest that cannabis consumption will impact the psyche of an individual but these findings are inconclusive at this stage as it fails to take into consideration other variables such as socioeconomic background, mental state, lack of family and community support. Relationship between Cannabis Consumption and Schizophrenia Schizophrenia is a mental illness caused by disintegration of thinking process and disorientated emotional response. It usually consists of hallucinations, paranoid, disorganized speech and thinking process with social and occupational dysfunction, withdrawal from reality, social apathy (www.dictionary.com) According to research by Mental Health Council of Australia relationship between Schizophrenia and cannabis use is growing though by no means comprehensive. Schizophrenia affects one percent of the Australian population. Smaller but substantial bodies of research exist such as depression and anxiety. In some cases, Schizophrenic patients had previous symptoms of psychotic illness (Hall et al, 2004). In research conducted on 100 young people consuming high amount of cannabis, 49% male with an average age of 19.3 years were identified at ultra high risk of psychosis. Schizophrenia was the symptom with presence of other acute psychotic symptoms. This research is very difficult due to the fact that there are many variables that co exist both cannabis users with mental health illness and non cannabis users with mental health difficulties have similar behavioural problem. Most of them have substance abuse history, unemployment and life time on benefits past. It can be possible that these are the common genetic factors in both cannabis users with mental health issues and non cannabis users with mental health issues (www.mhca.org.au). Longitudinal studies show that continuous cannabis consumption in people with schizophrenia is associated with worse mental health outcome in terms of more severe symptoms and thus there is a greater chance of relapse and more psychosocial issues. Thus frequent cannabis use is associated with a higher risk of psychotic relapse and a more increased risk of cannabis relapse (Hides et al, 2006). Studies conducted by Arsenault et al, (2004) cite cross national surveys from USA, Netherlands and USA found rates of cannabis consumption among people with Schizophrenia was double than those of general population. Thus following conclusions were derived from these findings: Evidence of self medication of cannabis because of pre existing Schizophrenia due to the mental health issues caused by schizophrenia related to negative symptoms may be a factor in continuous Cannabis consumption. There have been consistent longitudinal studies stating that cannabis precipitates schizophrenia and many other psychosis related symptoms in people who are vulnerable because of their family background. The rate of schizophrenia has remained stable or decreased with increases in cannabis use over the past few decades. Overall longitudinal studies conducted by Nemesis study from Holland and New Zealand have made these findings that conclude that cannabis can be considered a casual factor in schizophrenia. Research has found that alleged increases in cannabis use over past two decades have not affected increase in rate of schizophrenia. However vast number of people who consume cannabis have not developed schizophrenia and vast number of people who have schizophrenia have n ot got schizophrenia because of their cannabis consumption (Degenhardt et al, 2004). Conclusion Cannabis consumption may affect small percentage of population that is vulnerable socially and mentally. The pattern of cannabis use leading to clinically significant impairment or distress has manifested by a need for increased amounts of the substance to achieve intoxication or desired effect. That effect is then reduced by continuous use of the same amount of substance. Individuals then consume larger amount of substance to achieve that similar feeling and these persistent efforts start to affect the psyche of the individuals. Schizophrenia is more prevalent in individuals with poor socio economic background and history of substance abuse. Cannabis causes changes in neurotransmitter systems that make depressed mood more likely but greater evidence supports that this problem is due to individual behaviour pattern. Evidence from both hypotheses is limited and there needs to be well designed longitudinal studies including studies that examine cannabis use on older Australians to furt her narrow the relation between cannabis use and schizophrenia (Degenhardt et al, 2004).

Aristotle: The Three Kinds Of Friendship

Aristotle: The Three Kinds Of Friendship In book VIII of Aristotles The Nicomachean Ethics (1999; 1156a6 1156a30), the notion of The Three Kinds of Friendship (Philia) is expressed. Holding that there are three basic kinds or species of friendship that bind us together expressing that in respect to each there exists a mutual and recognised love. Utility, pleasure, virtue and the good can attract and bind us together in an association of friendship, essentially we become friends with certain individuals because they are either: useful to us, provide us with pleasure, or they attain to the principles of virtue and the good. In pursuing friendship by way of our actions we can have three goals in mind. The three objects of love that which we strive to achieve being: utility, pleasure and the good. Friendships of utility and pleasure pertain to self-indulgent and self-centred natures and are therefore only friendships in a truncated effect, they are prone to dissolution due the changeable nature of our wants and desires effecti ng what we find useful or pleasurable. Aristotle states that in such friendships love is only incidental with one not precisely loving the other at all but only his own good. Hence these relationships are seen to be incomplete or imperfect. To base a friendship on utility is not to love the other in their own right but to gain some good from them, in relation to one or both the parties involved. Aristotle relates this kind of friendship to that of a commercial transaction between two parties or a relation of two old men who provide each other with mutual support in their twilight years. Friendships of pleasure characteristic of the young whom are compelled by impulse and desire are sought as means of attaining pleasure from another. Like the desires that spawn them they are transient by nature but can be cherished and are held in higher esteem than friendships based on utility, as they can be sought for their own sake, involving a sharing of pleasures what gives life a certain sweet ness. Although the emphasis here by way of desire leans towards erotic relationships friendships of pleasure can also be based on pleasure such a conversation. The complete friendship is one based on virtue and moral goodness, existing between people of equal moral and virtuous standing these good people are similar in virtue wishing goods to each other for each others sake. These men acting by way of virtue complement each other incidental to each others wants or needs they simply admire the other in relation to the good and attain usefulness and pleasure to the highest degree. Complete friendships are then rare, raising the problem: can anyone really have a true friendship in the eyes of Aristotle? How many people can really attain to this idea of the good man? Is it possible to be that morally good and virtuously astute? Friendship is a term we know very well one that is important to all of us in our everyday lives. Aristotle here is expressing friendship in terms of the Greek word Philia. The conception is altogether different form our modern interpretation, more extensive in its interpretation. Philia can exist in the family sphere as well as in relation to being a citizen and the duties that that entails even as far to include peoples relations to natural phenomena. Aristotle grounds his discussion of friendship in praxis: practical reason. Human beings act in search of an end or goal in search of the good. To act in accordance with the good is to act virtuously, the ultimate end being happiness or flourishing. The differences between the three objects of love are differences of degree. Friendships of utility and pleasure resemble that of the good but are incomplete formulations and only resemble that of the good. In essence utility and pleasure are incidental and extrinsic not being sought for their own sake but, for an external gain or benefit. Essentially all relationships can useful, pleasurable and good, but, a truly excellent virtuous relationship should be sought in accordance with the good as a final end. These good people develop good character by way of acting virtuously perfected by habit (Hexis). One cannot simply learn virtue. Instead a cultivation of habits is required with experienced grounded in life to become virtuous you must a ct in accordance with virtue, do virtuous things. The notion of sameness is also introduced: a perfect integration of oneself into friendship creating a perfect oneness. One must also be conscious or aware of the other, each reflecting on what is good for the other. This criteria together as one creates a primary friendship.

Cystic Fibrosis :: essays research papers

Cystic Fibrosis Shelby Parker sits in the lotus position in the middle of a hospital bed, her slender arms resting on the pillow in her lap. Cystic fibrosis is catching up with her. At 23 years old Shelby stands at five foot two inches and weighs seventy pounds. She seems impossibly thin, her limbs are so frail it's a wonder she can lift a glass of water.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Just a year ago, Shelby was a fulltime college student, but now she spends day and night connected to an oxygen tank. A hose runs into her nose, another pumps intravenous antibiotics into her arm. An infection almost killed her in January, and nothing short of a lung transplant will save her.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  A tiny doe-eyed women with a child's voice, Shelby is in a life and death show down with her disease. Her lungs, scarred by repeated infections, are failing. Ten years ago, death would have loomed certain. Today there is hope. Just a few miles from where Shelby waits, doctors at the University of North Carolina are leading a national effort to cure cystic fibrosis by repairing the faulty gene that causes the disease. But that prospect is still very far off.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  For Shelby, the only real hope lies in the hands her doctors who have the power to remove her weak, scarred lungs and replace them with a healthy set.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Cystic Fibrosis is a disease caused by an inherited genetic defect. It is not contagious, yet about one in twenty-three people in the United States carry at least one defective gene. This statistic makes cystic fibrosis the most common genetic defect of its severity in the country.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  For many, cystic fibrosis used to be known as a childhood disease, and to some it still is. Just thirty years ago, the median survival age was only eight, but thanks to medical advances, life expectancy is now just under forty for cystic fibrosis patients. Today there are an alarming number of adults with this disease who face an added set of problems such as: finding health insurance, going to college, getting a job, and building permanent relationships- all while keeping up physical therapy and medications. For many years the causes of cystic fibrosis were a mystery, but recent advances in biology have made the reasons much more clear. Humans have a gene encoded in their DNA, which manufactures a special protein called CFTR. This protein controls the flow of chloride ions across the cell membrane.

Computers in Medicine :: essays research papers

We live in an age of science and technology. The appliances of science and technology have revolutionized our way of life. There is nothing that has influenced our lives more than a computer. We have become dependant on them for almost every aspect of our lives. There is no field that is devoid of the influence of computer applications. The demand of computers has been dramatically increasing in many fields. I believe that among the fields that have made tremendous advances in the twentieth century due to the advancement of computers, medicine stands out from the rest. The medical field is continuously using the newest technology to better the treatment and diagnosis of patients in order to help people. There are many different aspects in which technology is being used to improve the field of medicine. This technology aids in administrative matters, non-direct healthcare, and specialized medical equipment in fields such as pharmaceuticals, radiology, virtual surgery and virtual medi cine. In administrative matters, computers impact patient billing, online referrals, and computerized patient records. According to (Bader, S.A & Braude, 1998), there are software programs that exist to aid physicians in insurance billing. Without these applications, a physician or highly trained assistant would have to spend hours writing thousands of claims by hand. One program called Medical Billing Assistant accomplishes this tedious task. The program receives input such as dates, price, patient numbers, and medical procedure codes. The software records the data and produces an output, which can be mailed to insurance companies, kept for log, or given to patients. Computers not only aid in the administration and organization of patient records, but in actual health care. The Internet has made a huge impact on the health care system. Health care on the Internet has become diverse and significantly present in the past two to three years. Throughout the years, Internet services for health care evolved. According to (Douglass K., 1997), during the first generation, uses of the Internet have been applications of information that describe products, and services that are available from health care providers. During the second generation, the Internet was used for transactions that involved electronic data exchanges, which includes purchasing prescription drugs. As technology advances, the third generation will involve the use of complex health management programs and the managing of clinical information. (Douglass K., 1997), â€Å"It will be challenging to regulate health care on the Internet.

Justification of the Corn Laws Essay -- Politics History Political

Justification of the Corn Laws The Corn Law was a potentially dangerous bill introduced in 1815 after three years of good harvests. It was instigated with the support of Lord Liverpool the current Prime Minister who saw the Corn Laws as a temporary measure to create stability in the agricultural sector in the immediate post-war years. The Corn Laws were potentially disastrous because they, along with the abolishment of Income tax and the creation of the Game laws, were seen as a return by the ultra-Tory's to a single-issue, single class government. That issue being the wants and needs of the landed classes. I believe that the Corn Laws led large groups of the urbanised population to become unreasonably politicised in their demands to parliament. The catalyst for these potentially revolutionary actions being the starvation of the working classes - the Corn Laws. Lord Liverpool's justification for the Corn Laws was the appalling state of agriculture in England in the post war period. England faced a unique set of financial and economic problems bought about by the end of the war. The harvest of 1813, 14 and 15 were extremely good leading to a fall in prices by almost half. The end of trade sanctions after the end of the Napoleonic Wars flooded the British market with cheaper corn that made British Corn uncompetitive. Agriculture still exceeded manufacturing as the country's largest single economic interest. Therefore the Corn Laws were justifiable in this sense because they still supported the largest single category of labour provider. But while choosing to secure one social group Liverpool and his cabinet had provided immedia... ...for a slim chance of economic recovery in a single sector of the country's economy-agriculture. The British Government had decided to choke one group of citizens, the urban based working classes, to create a wealthier group of large land owners-ironically the largest group of MP's. In my eyes protecting no part of the economy would have been the best idea. No economic area would flourish but neither would any industry be choked. A free market mentality would be painful but would result in more efficient techniques in manufacturing and agriculture. All the Corn Laws seemed to do was underline the injustices that were allowed to happen because of the lack of universal suffrage. It also highlighted how inward looking and self centred the Ultra-Tory's were as well as highlighting urban electoral under representation.

Bite Me: A Love Story Chapter 6~7

6. The Vampire Parrots of Telegraph Hill A flock of wild parrots lives in the city of San Francisco. They are South American cherry-headed conures-bright green with a red head, a little smaller than a typical pigeon. No one is quite sure how they came to the City. It's likely that they are the descendants of animals caught in the jungle, then released to the city skies when they proved too wild to be kept as pets. They fly over the northern waterfront of San Francisco, foraging for fruit, berries, and blossoms, from the Presidio at the entrance of the Golden Gate Bridge, over Pacific Heights, the Marina, Russian Hill, North Beach, and all the way to the Ferry Building near the Oakland Bay Bridge. They are social, squawky, silly birds that mate for life and advertise their presence with a cacophony of beeps and cheeps that inspire smiles from residents, bewilderment from tourists, and hunger in predators, mostly red-tailed hawks and peregrine falcons. The parrots spend their nights high in the trees of Telegraph Hill, beneath the great concrete phallus of Coit Tower, sheltered from attack from hawks by the evergreen canopy overhead, and from all but the most ambitious cats, by the sheer altitude. But still, they are sometimes attacked, and although gentle creatures, they will fight back, biting with their thick, built-for-seed-crushing beaks. Which is what happened. The next morning after he witnessed the cat attack in the SOMA, the Emperor of San Francisco was awakened from a nest he'd made in one of the little stair gardens on Telegraph Hill, to hear parrots squawking in the trees. The sun was just breaking the horizon behind the Bay Bridge, turning the water red-gold under a blue morning mist. The Emperor crawled out from under a pile of carpet padding, stood, and stretched, his great joints creaking in the cold like ancient church doors. The men, Bummer and Lazarus, poked their noses out of the gray cloak, snuffled the dawn, then, with the call of the parrots, resolved themselves to morning and emerged like urgent butterflies to search for the perfect spot for the first wee of the day. The three watched as fifty or so squawking parrots circled Coit Tower and headed out toward the Embarcadero, where, suddenly, they all stopped flying, burst into flames, and fell like a smoldering storm of dying comets into Levi's Plaza. â€Å"Well, you don't see that every day,† said the Emperor, scratching Lazarus's ears through the bandages. The retriever was a doggy version of The Mummy, wrapped ears to tail in bandages after his last encounter with the vampire cats. The vet in the Mission wanted to keep him overnight, but the retriever had never spent a night away from the Emperor since they had found each other, and the vet had no accommodations for a large and burly monarch, let alone a feisty Boston terrier, so the three had bunked together under the carpet pad. Bummer chuffed, which translated from dog to: â€Å"I don't like it.† As the famous frog sang, it's not easy being green. 7. The Fog Comes on Little Cat Feet and Whatnot FOO Stephen â€Å"Foo Dog† Wong's fully bombed Honda drift machine was full of rats. Not completely full, the passenger seat was filled by Jared Whitewolf, Abby's backup BFF. (BBFF, really.) â€Å"Did you have to get all white ones?† Jared asked. He was six foot two, very thin, and paler than Death shagging a snowman. The sides of his head were shaved and in the middle he sported an unlaquered Mohawk, which hung in his eyes unless he was lying on his back or looking up. In addition to a floor-length black PVC cenobite coat, he was currently wearing Abby's thigh-high red platform Skankenstein ® boots, which was completely within his rights, as her current BFF. What bothered Foo was not that Jared had on girl's boots, but that he had on the boots of a girl with distinctly small feet. â€Å"Don't those hurt?† Jared tossed his hair out of his eyes. â€Å"Well, it's like Morrissey said, ‘Life is suffering.'† â€Å"I think the Buddha said that.† â€Å"I'm pretty sure Morrissey said it first-like, back in the eighties.† â€Å"No, it was the Buddha.† â€Å"Have you ever even seen a picture of the Buddha with shoes on?† Jared asked. Foo couldn't believe he was having this argument. What's more, he couldn't believe he was losing this argument. â€Å"Well, I have some Nikes upstairs that might fit you if you need to change shoes. Let's get the rats unloaded. I have to get to work.† Jared already had four plastic cages with two white rats in each stacked on his lap, so he unfolded himself out of the Honda and wobbled on the red platforms to the fire door of the loft. â€Å"Don't try to paint them black,† Jared said, peering into the Plexiglas boxes as Foo opened the door for him. â€Å"I tried that with my first rat, Lucifer. It was tragic.† â€Å"Tragic?† said Foo. â€Å"I'd have never guessed. Put them on the floor in the living room. I'll borrow the truck from work tomorrow and pick up some folding tables to put them on.† In addition to pursuing his degree in molecular biology, and variously rescuing Abby, formulating vampire serum, and tricking out his Honda, Foo still worked part-time at Stereo City, where he specialized in telling people that they needed a bigger TV. â€Å"You still have that job?† Jared said as he stumbled up the stairs. â€Å"Abby said you guys have total fuck-you money.† Why did she tell him? She wasn't supposed to tell him. Did she tell him everything? Why did she have to have friends at all? She'd given Jared five thousand dollars of Jody and Tommy's money for Hanukkah-despite the fact that neither one of them was Jewish. â€Å"Because I will not let mainstream society make me into the Christmas bitch of the zombie baby-Jebus, that's why,† she'd said. â€Å"And because he helped me take care of the Countess and Lord Flood when they were in trouble.† â€Å"I need to keep my cover,† Foo said. â€Å"For tax purposes.† That was partially true. He did need to keep up his cover, because, like Abby, he hadn't actually told his parents that he'd moved out. They were so used to him being at school, in the lab, or at work, that they hadn't really noticed that he hadn't been sleeping at home. It helped that he had four younger brothers and sisters, who were all carrying insane work and course loads. His parents were all about toil. As long as you were toiling, you were okay. They could smell toil from miles away, or the lack of it. He might be able to get away with living in his own loft with his spooky-sexy girlfriend, and doing bizarre genetic experiments on the undead, but if he quit his job they'd sense it in a second. It took Foo and Jared twenty minutes to get all the rats up the steps and lined up around the living room. â€Å"We're not going to hurt them, are we?† said Jared, holding up one of the plastic cages so he was eye to eye with its occupants. â€Å"We're going to turn them into vampires.† â€Å"Oh, cool. Now?† â€Å"No, not now. For now, you're going to need to feed them and make sure there's a water bottle in each of their cages,† Foo said. â€Å"Then what?† Jared asked, tossing his hair out of his eyes. â€Å"Then you can go home,† said Foo. â€Å"You don't need to observe them full-time until the experiment starts.† â€Å"I can't go home. I told my parents I was staying over at Abby's.† Foo was suddenly horrified at the thought of having to spend the night in the loft with a hundred rats, two bronzed vampires, and Jared. Especially Jared. Maybe he'd go home and leave Jared to watch the rats-make an appearance at home for the parents, so as to throw them off the trail of his non-toiling, loft-living, Anglo-girlfriend lifestyle. â€Å"You can stay here, then,† Foo said. â€Å"I'll be back in the morning.† â€Å"What about them?† Jared nodded toward the bronzed figures of Jody and Tommy. â€Å"What about them?† â€Å"Can I talk to them? I didn't get to finish telling Jody my novel.† Jared had spent a very long night telling Jody the first part of the novel he was going to write, an erotic horror story that starred himself and his pet rat, Lucifer 2. â€Å"Okay,† said Foo. He didn't really like thinking about the two people, well, vampires, but they seemed a lot like people, that he'd helped imprison in a bronze shell. It sort of gave him the willies, and that was highly unscientific. â€Å"But no touching,† he added. Jared pouted and sat down on the futon, about the only spot in the entire living-room-kitchen area not covered with plastic rat cages. â€Å"Okay, but will you help me get these boots off before you go?† Foo shuddered. It had been less than an hour since the cops led Abby away and already he missed her like a severed limb. It was embarrassing. How could hormones and hydrostatic pressure make you feel like this? Love was very unscientific. â€Å"Sorry,† Foo said. â€Å"Gotta jet.† A true hero, the kind Abby accused him of being, he knew, would have helped Jared. JARED Abby Normal had once offered to pay for a tattoo for Jared that read: Danger. Do not administer caffeine without adult supervision. Jared asked, â€Å"Can it be in red? Does it have to be on the forehead? Maybe on the side so I can grow my hair over it if I don't like it. Am I being emo? Do you want to play Blood-feast on Xbox? They have green fur iPod cases at Urban Outfitters. I love white chocolate mochas. Marilyn Manson needs to be dragged to death behind a clown car. Oh fuck, I'm so allergic to this eyeliner I could cry.† Abby said, â€Å"Oh my God, you're like Obnoxious and Annoying had an ass baby!† â€Å"What are you trying to say?† asked Jared. What she had been trying to say, although she didn't know it at the time, was that under no circumstances should Jared be left alone in an apartment with an abundance of time and espresso, which is what Foo had just done. So after feeding, watering, and naming all the rats (most given French names from Abby's copy of Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du Mal), Jared began brewing espressos and was nine demitasse cups into the afternoon when he decided to act out the remainder of his unwritten vampire adventure novel, The Dark of Darkness, for a hundred rats caged in plastic and two vampires encased in bronze. â€Å"So the evil Blood Queen dons her chrome strap-on of death and goes after Lucifer 2. But Jared Whitewolf is on her like a fat kid on a cupcake, parrying her blows with his dagger of death, or Dee Dee, as it is known.† Jared pirouetted, a move he'd learned in ballet class at age six, and slashed the air, low and fast, with the double-edged dagger held backhand so as to sever his imaginary enemy's femoral artery, a move he'd learned in Soul Assassin Five on the Xbox (although it was harder to do while wearing platform boots than it was in the video game). The dagger was real enough, twelve inches of double-edged high-carbon stainless steel with a dragon hilt. Jared carried it because he thought it made him look badass when doormen took it away from him at clubs. â€Å"And he strikes her weapon in half!† he said, leaping and bringing the blade around a little too fast. He turned his ankle, lost his balance, and as he fell, the dagger put a deep nick in the bronze statue. â€Å"Ow!† He sat on the floor holding his ankle and rocking back and forth in the yoga position known as the â€Å"freaked-out half-lotus.† Then he noticed the gash he'd put in the bronze, directly over Jody's right clavicle. â€Å"I'm sorry, Countess,† Jared said, still a little breathless from his battle. â€Å"I didn't mean to hurt you. It's just that I had to save Lucifer 2. You'd do the same thing for Lord Flood if he was in the story.† Jared buffed at the bronze with his sleeve, but the gash was deep and wasn't going to go away with polishing. â€Å"Abby's going to kill me. I'll patch you, Countess. Just hang on. Toothpaste. We used it on the wall that time we drank Abby's mom's vodka and played cross-country darts in her living room. Hang on a minute.† Jared let the heavy dagger drop to the floor, climbed to his feet, winced, then limped off to the bathroom to look for toothpaste. He located a tube of all natural tartar control with baking soda just as the sun dropped under the horizon in the west. Out in the living room, a needle-thin stream of mist began leaking out of the gash he'd made in the bronze statue. Toothpaste probably wouldn't have fixed it. THE ANIMALS In the last two months, the Animals, the night stock crew at the Marina Safeway, had hunted an ancient vampire, blown up his yacht, stolen millions of dollars' worth of art, sold it for pennies on the dollar, spent the remaining hundreds of thousands on gambling and a blue hooker, got turned into vampires, were torn apart by zoo animals, then burned up by sunlamps when they attacked Abby Normal, then turned, by Foo, back into seven guys who stocked shelves at the Safeway and smoked a little too much weed. And as it often is with adventurers, after the adventure, they were feeling a little bored, and a little worried that nothing exciting would ever happen to them again. After you've battled the darkness, then become the darkness, then shagged the darkness, frozen turkey bowling and skiing behind the floor-scrubbing machine just doesn't hold the same thrill. After you've shared a blue prostitute with your buddies to the tune of a half a million dollars, only to have her kill and resurrect you before disappearing into the night, swapping stories of banging babes was a bit of an anticlimax. After all, they worked nights and the oldest of them, Clint, was only twenty-three, so most of their stories were gross exaggerations, wishful thinking, or outright lies anyway. Even crucifying Clint with zip ties on the potato chip rack every other Friday didn't seem fun anymore, and last week they had just left him hanging, thrashing in the Doritos, and went off to stock their aisles before he could even forgive them for knowing not what they did. Tragic, really, to be young, free, and mind-numbingly bored. So when the Emperor of San Francisco came screaming out of the parking lot and slammed, face-first, into the big Plexiglas front window, rattling the Tic Tacs on every register, each of them dropped what he was working on and headed to the front of the store, hoping in their hearts that something outstanding was coming down. The seven, the Animals, stood on one side of the big window, while the Emperor pounded on the other, the royal hounds leaping and barking at his side. â€Å"Maybe we should let him in,† said Clint, curly-haired, born-again, ex-heroin addict who worked cereal, coffee, and juices. â€Å"He seems troubled.† â€Å"S,† said Gustavo, the porter, leaning on his mop. â€Å"Troubled.† â€Å"Seems fucking freaked,† said Drew, the Ichabod-Crane-gaunt master of the frozen food aisle and chief medical officer. â€Å"Totally fucking freaked.† â€Å"What's wrong?† asked Lash, the lean black guy who had become their leader when Tommy was turned into a vampire, largely because he almost had an MBA, but also because he was a black guy and inherently cooler than everyone else. â€Å"Murder, destruction, ravenous creatures of the night, a storm of them,† shouted the Emperor. â€Å"Hurry, please.† â€Å"He always says that,† said Barry, the balding fireplug of a scuba diver who also stocked soap and dog food. â€Å"Well, every time he says it, it's kind of true,† said Jeff, the tall blond ex-power forward with the blown-out knee (baking supplies and international foods). â€Å"I say let him in.† â€Å"Look, the retriever is all bandaged up. Poor guy,† said Troy Lee, their resident martial arts expert who worked the glass aisle. â€Å"Let them in.† â€Å"You just want to roll the little one up in a burrito,† said Lash. â€Å"Yeah, that's right, Lash. Because I'm Chinese, I have a deep-seated need to nosh house pets. Now why don't you let him in before my inner Chinaman forces me to kung-fu your bitch ass.† Because he understood that he was the leader only so long as he told everyone to do what they wanted to do anyway, and because he had had his bitch ass kung-fued in the past and hadn't cared for it, Lash unlocked the door and let the Emperor in. The old man fell into the store when Lash opened the door. Bummer and Lazarus stopped barking and bolted by them, and on toward the back of the store. Jeff and Drew got the Emperor seated on one of the registers and Troy Lee handed him a bottle of water. â€Å"Chill, Your Majesty, we've done this before.† â€Å"Not like this. Not like this,† said the Emperor. â€Å"It's a storm of evil. Lock the door.† Lash rolled his eyes. They really had done this before, and the door being locked or unlocked wasn't going to make much difference if a vampire was following the old man. â€Å"We got your back, Highness,† Lash said. â€Å"Lock the door,† the Emperor moaned, pointing through the window. A fog bank was moving across the parking lot, with rather more intent than one usually expects from a fog bank. A high, yowling screech seemed to come out of the fog in a stream, as if it had been sampled, amplified, and duplicated a thousand times. The Animals moved to the glass. â€Å"Lock the door, Lash,† Clint said. Clint never gave orders. The edge of the fog bank was boiling with shapes, claws, ears, eyes, teeth, tails-cats formed of fog, rolling in a wave over one another, some materializing partially, only to evaporate and roll back into the cloud, their red eyes moving through the cloud like embers out of a firestorm. â€Å"Whoa,† said Drew. â€Å"Whoa,† repeated the others. â€Å"Okay, that is different,† said Troy Lee. â€Å"My friends all over the City are missing,† the Emperor said. â€Å"Street people. They're gone. Just their clothes and gray dust,† the Emperor said. â€Å"The cats are killing everything in their way.† â€Å"That is fucked up,† said Jeff. â€Å"Deeply, deeply fucked up,† said Barry, dragging one of the heavy wooden order dividers off the register and brandishing it like a club. â€Å"Lock the fucking door, Lash!† Clint screamed. â€Å"Jesus hates it when you use the f-word,† said Gustavo, the Mexican porter, who was Catholic and liked to remind Clint when his Jesus was slipping. The fog washed against the window and claw marks etched the Plexiglas instantly to frost, as if it had all been sanded. The noise was like, well, it was like a thousand vampire cats clawing on Plexiglas-it made their teeth hurt. â€Å"Did anyone bring weapons?† Troy Lee asked. â€Å"I brought some weed,† Drew said. A cat's claw of fog crept under the door and raked the toe of Lash's sneaker. He snapped the lock shut, pulled out the key, and backed away. â€Å"Okay, break time,† he said. â€Å"Crew meeting in the walk-in.† JARED Across town, in the bedroom of a fashionable loft, in the fashionable SOMA neighborhood, aspiring rat-shagger, Jared Whitewolf, looked up from rubbing his sore ankle to see a completely naked redhead walk into the room. Her hair hung to her waist in a great curling cape, framing her figure, which was perfect and as white as a marble statue. She held Jared's double-edged dagger in her right hand. Jared backed up onto the bed in a reverse crab walk. â€Å"I, I, I, it, it, it-Abby made me-â€Å" â€Å"Chill, Scissorhands,† Jody said. â€Å"You'd better find some of those blood bags of Steve's fast, unless you'd like to finish high school as a pile of greasy dust. Countess is thirsty.†

Importance of military history Essay

Military professionals should take out time from their busy schedules to read military history because military history is the very foundation of their knowledge of tactics and strategy. It is also the foundation on which the theoretical and practical training troops and the development of training directives are based. A careful study of objective military history with an open mind and with the determination of learning from the experiences of others will be of great benefit to any military professional. According to Gen. Charles L. Bolte, former Vice Chief of Staff, and Department of the Army; â€Å"The past must be studied as the basis for, and a guide to, the study of the future. To make a sound prediction one must project the past into the future. † The American Army has followed the advice of such great captains as Frederick the Great and Napoleon, as well as of others who have more recently made their mark on the pages of history. Napoleon has written, â€Å"†¦ the knowledge of the higher arts of war is not acquired except by experience and the study of history of wars and the battles of great captains. † Gen. George S. Patton Jr. , one of America’s great offensive battle leaders, also emphasized the importance of history. His words, written on the battlefield, were: â€Å"To be a successful soldier you must know history, reads it objectively- dates and even minute details of tactics are useless†¦ You must read biography and especially autobiography. If military professional do it they find war is simple. The study of past is fundamental to the preparation for the next, for current military problems cannot be solved without an understanding of the past from which they stem. The military professionals must be rooted in the past to understand the present that he may project himself into the future. Reference US Department of the Army. (2001). The Writing of American Military History: A Guide. New York: The Minerva Group, Inc. pg 1,7,10,9,12.