Cashless Society Essays (323 words) - Payment Systems, E-commerce

Cashless Society Cashless Society One article that caught my attention recently was one presented in the November 21, 1998 issue of The Economist. The article was about a cashless society and how well alternative forms of tender were catching on. According to the article, some forms of the smart card haven't caught on as well as expected. Smart cards have information embedded in them, essentially allowing a consumer to purchase things quickly and conveniently. It was the hope that these cards would supplant paper and coin money forever. However, that has not been the case. Smart cards do exits, however. In the article, it is mentioned that smart cards with chips embedded in them allowed a customer to quickly swipe the card through the reader. Thirty-two cents is then deducted. Simple and easy, right? Well, it hasn't caught on. One of the main reasons that smart cards have struggled a bit is that it has competition in the form of current debit cards. People can purchase anything they desire with these cards already. Therefore, there wouldn't be any added value of having a debit card. A survey of 2,400 North Americans by Smart Card Forum gives some interesting results. According to the survey, more than three-quarters would have liked to have a card that stored vital medical and car-related information. Less than half wanted a card that they could use to purchase things with. Another problem facing smart cards is compatibility. Current smart cards utilize only on a small range of readers. For example, a smart card for parking meters in Boston would not work for ones in New York. And since local governments control those areas of jurisdiction, it has to take a national effort to make it work. This means that the U.S. government must implement and lead the way. When this happens, then we will truly see the fall of paper and coin money. Social Issues Essays

The Image of Harold Turgis in Angel Pavement Essay Example

The Image of Harold Turgis in Angel Pavement Essay Example The Image of Harold Turgis in Angel Pavement Paper The Image of Harold Turgis in Angel Pavement Paper Essay Topic: Everything Is Illuminated The Image of Harold Turgis Harold Turgis is one of the main characters of the novel Angel Pavement by J. B. Priestley. Harold worked for Twiggs and Dersingham, which dealt with a sale of veneers(Ã'„Ð °Ã ½Ã µÃ'€Ð °) and inlays. His position is described in the novel as Stanleys senior or Mr. Smeeths junior clerk, which can be explained that he is not a bad worker, but not good enough either, he is somewhere in-between. And this fact doesnt let the reader feel drawn to him from the very beginning of the story. As far as his appearance is concerned, again no one could say that he was handsome but he was not ugly either. He was in his early twenties, a thinnish, awkward young man, with a rather long neck, poor shoulders, and large clumsy hands and feet. He was obviously neither sick nor starved, yet something about his appearance, a total lack of colour and bloom His features were not good nor yet too bad. He had brown eyes that might have been called pretty if they had been set in a girls face, a fairly large nose that should have been masterful but somehow was not; a small still babyish mouth, usually open, and prevailing several big and irregular teeth; and a dropping rather than retreating chin. All this made Harold Turgis rather unprepossessing to other people as well as to the reader. Mr. Smeeth portrayed Turgis as quite a good worker, but a little bit careless: He does his best. Hes a bit careless sometimes, Ill admit, and hes not to be trusted far with figures yet. Harold was not lazy, he did everything what he was supposed to do, but at the same time he lacked enthusiasm for office work, moreover he never regarded himself as one of the firm. Even when the company was busy again and everything was very well for it, Turgis didnt share everybodys joy, for him it meant only a great deal more work: Turgis didnt see the fun of going hard at it all day and every day and frequently having to stay an hour later. In his everyday life Turgis was just one of London crowd, where he spent a deal of his time. He knew better than anybody else severity of crowd and the city itself, when he was jolting in overcrowded buses hasting to work or back home to his poor lodgings, when it was pouring and an icy wind chilled to the marrow, and his cheap and shabby clothes couldnt protect him from foul weather- Turgis rented a tiny bed-sitting room at the top of Mr. Pelumptons house. He proved to be a good quiet lodger, sober, and punctual in his payments. On Saturdays and Sundays Harold`s landlady provided him with breakfast and dinner, on the other days of the week he had only breakfast in the house and had to shift for himself for his other meals, what means that half of the week he was half starved. Turgis went on well with the Pelumptons and spent not one evening talking to Mr. Pelumpton, though He really thought Mr. Pelumpton a ridiculous old bore, which testifies to the fact that he rather subdued to other people than expressed his own opinion, he found it easier and safer. He was a youth who liked to agree with his company, not because he felt kindly disposed towards other people, but simply because it was less trouble to agree and applaud. Harold was not really sociable and companionable, he didnt have friends and wasnt longing for finding some; he didnt want company for companys sake. But he dreamt of finding a good, beautiful girl who would love and support him and who would share with him his lonely existence. Turgis consi dered himself to be a very romantic person and by temperament an inborn lover. His thoughts never left the other sex long; happiness had for him a feminine shape; the real world was illuminated by the bright glances of girls He realized that he had nothing to offer a girl, but his heart, soul and love, as he was far from being beautiful, clever, successful or rich, but still he didnt lose his hope. He knew that he had little to offer on the surface, was nothing to look at, nobody in particular, but he felt that inside he was different, he was wonderful, and that sooner or later a girl, a beautiful and passionate girl, caring nothing for the outside show, would recognize this difference. Then life would really begin. But still he was languishing in poverty, visiting on Sundays pictures and teashops, hoping to meet there a wonderful girl, his partner for the whole life, and trying to amuse himself by reading advertisements, the victim of which he was, since nearly every his shilling was conjured out of his pocket by the richest and most artful advertising managers . Perhaps that is why his suits bagged so soon, his shoes soaked up the rain, his cigarettes shredded and split, and his amusements failed to amuse, which proves that he didnt possess a critical mind, couldnt analyze his mistakes and make conclusions. However miracles always happen to people who believe in them. Once Lena Golspie came to the office to see her dad and Turgis saw her: There, like a being from another world, stood a girl all in green, a girl with large brown eyes, the most impudent little nose, and a smiling scarlet mouth, the prettiest girl he had ever seen. Since that very moment she became his dream, his inspiration and goal. If earlier he had just a vague image of a desired girl in his mind, now this image accepted the shape of Lena Golspie. Harold hadnt seen or spoken to her since that time, but he thought and dreamed about her a great deal. He didnt know her but was sure that he already loved her and that made him at least change his appearance: he shaved every day, bought some new collars and brushed his clothes. And evenings he spent strolling along Maida Vale, where Ms. Golspie lived, in hope to see her. One day he received that chance to see Lena, as he was asked to take some money to her. He was so happy; he couldnt wait till the end of the working day. When he delivered Lena the money, she invited him to have some tea, then they went to the movies, drank cocktails and danced after returning home. The next day they met again; Turgis couldnt believe his happiness. He was too naive to understand that Lena spent time with him just because she had nothing else to do, her friends left the city, besides she was not a kind of person who would stay in, she adore entertainment most of all, so she used Turgis like a toy. Even the last night when they were to meet and she didnt come, he tried to justify her: He thought of a hundred excuses for her. She might have been taken ill quite suddenly something might have happened at the house. After that accident Turgiss life was like a bad dream: his real life had been this pursuit of Lena, he could not forget her for a single minute. At first, he had realized, with wonder and humility, that it was all miraculous, that he was nobody in particular, with nothing very much to offer. But she herself had changed that She had kissed him into being somebody, and now he had a great deal to offer his love, his life. He tried to put her out of his mind, but failed, everything reminded him of her. Now he lived as he never lived before: he spent sleepless nights, thinking about her, he hardly ate anything, he didnt look after himself. That first phase of unusual smartness, brushed hair, clean collars, creased trousers, had passed; he could not bother with that any more Every night he went to Maida Vale hoping to see her and talk to her. His mind, however, lived as he never lived before, knowing exquisite agonies, finding pleasure and pain inextricably confused in these hours of waiting and shadowing. He was emotionally and physically exhausted, he couldnt stand it any longer, that is why he decided to go to Ms. Golspie and have it out with her once and forever. The reception was not friendly: Lena was beside herself with rage, she told Turgis that once she felt sorry for him and spent some time with him as she had nothing else to do, she pointed out that he was nobody and nothing on earth; at that moment she hated him so much. He looked at her and there came, like a flash of lightening, the conviction that she was hateful, and something broke, and a great blinding tide of anger swept over him. Her scream was cut short, for his hands were round her soft white throat, pressing and pressing it as he shook her savagely. Turgis was sure that he killed her. When he left her room, he didnt know where to go, he went nowhere, he just wanted to leave her room. Harold aimlessly strolled around the city until he reached the office, where he found Mr. Golspie and Ms. Matfield. He told them everything; they went together to Mr. Golspies apartment and found out that Lena was alive. So what did Turgis obtain? He failed to marry Lena Golspie, failed to kill her, he was too poor even to commit suicide, and finally he lost his job. But the author gave Harold Turgis one more chance: he sent him Poppy Sellers, who loved him and was ready to share with him his life, who could support and take care of him, who could understand him, having the same social background, the same ideals about life she was the eager, excited, imploring female, and he was the large, knowing, tolerant, protective male. Already they may have felt that they were going further together now than the way to the remotest picture theatre could take them. and soon these two were lost in the crowd.

Hw2 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Hw2 - Assignment Example Since the machine is like a limited resource that eventually, brings about interdepartmental and interpersonal conflicts. When this occurs, there is decreased productivity coupled with dwindling of people’s morale. Handling and resolving a situation at work is quite a task an employee faces. Mainly most of them feel dissatisfied because there is no resolution achieved. What made the situation hard to handle is due to the financial constrains within the organization, hence limiting the resource despite the big workload around. Since this has become a major problem in the company though a lasting solution was on discussion and agreed by every employee. Every employee gave his/her opinion on the matter because the problem affected everybody within the company. It came to conclusion that for every profit generated, half of it was to go in buying of office equipment until when there were enough equipment for employees. If I had, the chance to make the decision in rectifying this predicament the initial step would be employing a short-term decision to restrain the situation first. In the case of the two employees, they undergo training on how to mediate the dispute by themselves and each has different timing to use a particular machine. For long term goal, to solve the situation permanently is by ensuring enough resources that can serve every

A portfolio about Karl Benjamin(an artist), and discussing the meaning Essay

A portfolio about Karl Benjamin(an artist), and discussing the meaning of the work, its form, its context, its qualities - Essay Example He experimented with oil paints and found their translucence intriguing and began to use them in a flat mode, in interlocking geometric patterns with well-defined clean edges, which later came to be known as hard-edged painting. Benjamin eliminates any trace of brushwork using big, flat brushes to spread the paint in the designated area, and creates the hard-edges by using masking tape around the area to be painted. The patterns cover the entire picture, leaving no empty spaces, and rarely convey an impression of depth. They seem to flicker and move due to a well-planned use of color, which comes as much from Benjamin’s use of intellect as his intuition. The shapes used are often triangles, lozenges, squares, pyramids and vertical stripes, and their existence in the paintings is defined by the colors used to create them. Benjamin sometimes uses mathematical formulas and progressions to choose the color types, tones, shades and hues for one particular painting. He also paints his work in series in such a way that sometimes the only difference between two paintings lies in the colors used, shapes remaining identical. Benjamin has definite political opinions, but they have never been expressed in his work, which remains resolutely abstract. His works emerge out of a pure fascination with color, and seek to intensively examine the relationships between various shades and types to create moods: most of his chosen colors are sunny, brilliant, and are often used in blinding contrasts. His first groundbreaking exhibition was in 1954, and since then his collections have been exhibited numerous times in various galleries and museums, where his work has been noted for its wit and inventiveness. An example is the painting simply called "#4," dated 1972, which is a rectangle 128 cms* 170cms. This proportion has been adapted as the ratio of height and width for all the 576 colored rectangles Benjamin has painted in this picture. The color distribution covers the

Review of Patient Safety Standards for Hospitals by Joint Commision on Healthcare Essay Example for Free

Review of Patient Safety Standards for Hospitals by Joint Commision on Healthcare Essay The safety goals outlined for hospitals are intended to stimulate greater awareness of the elements of vulnerability or risk associated between patient and worker. Ultimately, patient safety, worker health and safe practice methods can have a positive influence on saving lives, reducing risk and controlling costs. The goals attempt to outline a uniform standard. When adopted by a health care organization, a successful culture of safety that benefits everyone has an opportunity to develop. The following are the Commission’s patient safety goals with respect to hospitals. The first goal is to improve the accuracy of patient identification. Patients are given the wrong medications, taken to the wrong surgical rooms, and specimens get contaminated or mixed up. To address this issue and achieve improved accuracy, implementation of two patient identifiers attempts to reduce these errors. First, the patient should be identified reliably by their name, telephone number or other number that is person specific. The second is to verify that the treatment matches the patient. The verification of the identifiers should be done with two individuals checking the same patient or having one person identify the patient, with a second verification assisted by the addition of a technology item, like a barcode. The second goal is to improve the effectiveness of communication among caregivers. Each clinical aspect of healthcare utilizes a different vocabulary. A patient may be seeing a psychiatrist, a physical therapist and a cardiologist at the same time. While each profession has a foundation of science that is designed help them communicate in a uniform manner, each clinical area will have specific language and understanding that may not translate from one specialty or discipline to another. Critical results of tests and diagnostics that are outside the normal range and indicate a life threatening situation must be communicated. Reports must be delivered and critical results given on a timely basis so the patient can be treated as soon as possible. Third, is the goal to improve the safety of using medication. Medications that are not labeled properly or medications that are similar in name or packaging can obviously lead to a 1 deadly consequence. Suggested ways to achieve this goal is to make sure all medications, and containers are labeled correctly. Some of the specific suggestions to achieve this safety goal are to adopt the use of oral unit-dose products, prefilled syringes, or premixed infusion bags when these products are available. The fourth goal is to reduce the risk of health care-associated infections. Many people are in fear of going to a hospital. They may feel at risk of getting a communicable disease. And while that is a possibility, few are aware that they may experience infections directly associated with the delivery of the medical service or treatment. The simplest and most obvious way to protect the patient from infection is to feverishly adhere to the Centers for Disease Control or World Health Organizations guidelines for hand washing. The late physician and scientist Ignaz Semmelweis would be astonished to see this method universally adopted. Although, with as much science that has since validated his pioneering work, he could be annoyed to see a lack of compliance, considering the volumes of evidence published which supports his early theory. Patients are acquiring hospital based infections at an alarming rate, according to an NBC news story which was based on data from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. And a brief review of the CDC report from 2011 on rates of infections clearly shows a link between number of days in the hospital and acquired infections. The longer a patient is in the setting, the more likely it is that the patient is at risk. The likelihood of risk depends on the kind of treatment the patient receives. Risk assessment tools are essential to understanding which staff, providers, or independent practitioners need to be educated to understand the types of infections and their origins as they relate to their practice area. The families and patients must likewise be educated to understand the risks, complications and microbial hazards that are inherent to the treatment or service they are receiving. Finally, goal fifteen is for the hospital to identify safety risks inherent in its patient population. This goal is a contributing factor to why Patient Safety Coordinators and certifications to become one are becoming more popular. Particularly, the goal speaks to the population that is at risk for suicide. While this goal is stated to apply only to psychiatric hospitals and patients being treated for emotional or behavioral issues, most all hospitals have at least a small population that could fit into this category. While not every hospital has a psychiatric floor, or even a psychiatrist on call, patients that appear or make a statement that they fear harming others or themselves may be detained temporarily at the discretion of the medical staff. The terms and length varies from state to state. Georgia’s law, O. C. G. A. Â § 37-3-41 allows basically for a forty-eight hour detainment period. But, that can be extended indefinitely if the treating physician deems it necessary and appropriate based on their examination.

Graduation Speech -- Graduation Speech, Commencement Address

I'm sure everyone here has seen a picture of a mother duck leading her ducklings. Imagine the mother duck taking her ducklings up some stairs. The mother duck easily climbs the first stair and waits for the other little ducks to climb up. The first duckling stretches its wings as high up in the air as it can and stands on the tips of its little webbed feet. With a little help from its beak it manages to barely make the first step. Sometimes it requires a little help from mama duck to boost itself up. Despite the cute and rather funny part of this picture, it is possible to learn a lot from the ducks. The two ideas we can gain from them are leadership and following. In life each one of us is a leader and a follower at some point. Leadership is of key importance to the Christian, and also simply to every person. It is easy to imagine the kind of world that would ensue as a result of no leadership. There would be utter chaos and nothing positive would get done. Often we think of leaders as people with great authority such as the President of the United States, bosses of major corporations, and in the case of school, the principal and teachers. But the fact that does not readily present itself to us is that each one of us in some way or another is a leader. Everyone leads at some point in their life whether they realize it or not. Younger generations always look up to and follow older generations. Although they may not admit it, I am sure the underclassmen at our school have followed the lead and example of the Class of 2006. This is an awesome task to undertake: that of leadership. It is important to constantly remind yourself that someone is watching and following your lead. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 11:1, "Follow my examp... ...e tool in dealing with the problems that life throws our way. As a follower we must choose wisely who we associate with. A close group of friends can provide many things that help us along life's path in the Christian walk. Good Friends can provide support through tough times, accountability, and good fellowship. Leadership and following are not generally thought of as interconnected, though each one of us is both a leader and a follower. As a leader we must be a good example and a servant. As a follower we must choose wisely who to look up to and associate with and ultimately we must follow the perfect lead of Jesus Christ. I encourage everyone here, and especially the graduating class of 2006, to remember you are a leader, leading others to know Christ and His perfect plan for them, and a follower, learning to follow Christ and His perfect plan for ourselves.

Patience is a Virtue Essay

Patience is a virtue that every man and woman must strive to have. Without it, things can go horribly wrong, people would have faced much fights and arguments and there will be chaos in this world. Those who are impatient waste their lives thinking of the future. Furthermore many times, bad experiences often help build a better character, so if you are always rushing throughout your life without waiting for the results, how can you learn from your mistakes? Impatience will give you a lot of regrets in life, that is why we need to practice our patience so that there will be peace in you and in our society. The Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary tells us that patience is to be able to remain calm and not to become annoyed when waiting for a long time or when dealing with problems or difficult people. In Christianity, patience is one of the most valuable virtues in life. It is also one of fruits of the Holy Spirit. A good example of patience is Jesus Christ who had enough patience for seeing us sin against Him as He patiently forgives us each time we sin. Patience brings peace to our mind, helps us make the right choices, bring about enjoyment, right understanding, success, and fulfillment of goals in life. If everyone were to have patience in this world, there would be no more suffering, madness, misunderstandings, failures, and chaos in this world. If you are an impatient person, don’t feel depressed because you aren’t patient. Everyone commits mistake and everyone can change. We must be patient and understanding, life is too short to be vengeful and malicious. Like what Jean-Jacques Rosseau said â€Å"Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.†