American Way essays

American Way essays There's nothing more ingrained in the American value system than work ethic that involves the notion that hard work will lead to the fulfillment of the American dream, economic success. According to the New York Times (Schmitt, 2001), there's ample evidence to suggest that American hard work is paying off as evidenced by a sharp increase in living standards shown by census data for the 1990s.[1] The proof provided by the article includes: An increase in high school and college graduates An increase in people owning cars, with eighteen percent owning three bigger homes, with an increase in the number of houses with seven growing family incomes However, books such as Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal (Schlosser, 2001)[2] and Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America (Ehrenreich, 2002)[3] dispute the claims of The New York Times. These works argue that working class people are now working longer, harder hours than ever before with little reward or hope for a better future. These books claim that hard work may be the American way, but it is certainly not to key to the American dream. Schlosser describes the "deskilling" of fast food jobs and the grueling labor involved. Fast food jobs have their origins in the assembly line systems adopted by American manufacturers in the early twentieth century (Schlosser, p. 68). In a restaurant assembly line, tasks are broken up into small, repetitive bits requiring little or no skill, while machines and operating systems do the things that require timing and training (Schlosser, p. 69). In the chapter called Behind the Counter, Elisa, is a sixteen year old fast food worker who must get up at 5:15 in the morning to arrive at work on time. She and her manager open the restaurant by turning on the ovens and grills and getting the food and ...

Sugar Water in the Gas Tank Urban Legend

Sugar Water in the Gas Tank Urban Legend Internet urban legend warns of a criminal ploy to disable womens vehicles by pouring sugar water in their gas tanks. Does this trick really work? Description: Urban legendCirculating since: Oct. 2005 (this version)Status: Dubious (see details below) Example Email contributed Oct. 14, 2005: Subject: Warning....be alert!Thought this might be worth passing on.Subject: FW: Warning....be alert! Target in Olathe.I just wanted to let you all know of something that happened to me today in the Target parking lot. be aware of this and let everyone you know aware so this does not happen to anyone else. I was at Target today to return something which only took a couple of minutes. when I pulled into the parking lot a man in a car pulled in a couple spaces down from me. he started to go into the store about the same time as I did, then turned back around and went back to his car. I went into Target returned my items and walked back out to get into my car. when I walked out, he was walking away from my car carrying a small gas can. I noticed there was fluid on the side of my car and a puddle beside it. I got into my car not sure of what happened, wrote down his license plate # and left. He followed me out of the parking lot and onto 169. I was only able to drive about a half a mile and my car started acting funny. It died on me as I was driving and I was able to pull into an area business along the highway. I just sat in my car and called the police. The man drove by three times as I waited. The police who came took a report and said that he had poured sugar water into my gas tank which is what made my car stall. It was a great way to get a woman by herself to be stranded on the streets. Luckily for me I was able to stop where there were people around. The police know where the car came from and are working on this now. Not sure what will happen but my car is now in the shop not running, but it could have been much worse for me. Just be aware that this is happening and always be aware of your surroundings. It certainly scared me and I am grateful that nothing else happened. Analysis While its not 100 percent beyond the realm of possibility, the incident described above seems unlikely to have happened given the haphazard nature of the ploy involved. Putting sugar or water in the gas tank of a vehicle can indeed cause the engine to stall- sugar, because the granules wont dissolve in gasoline and may clog the fuel filter; water, because it interrupts combustion- but neither method will produce a predictably-timed engine failure. Depending on the quantity of the foreign substance introduced, it might take minutes, hours, or even days for the stall to occur, if it occurs at all. The same would hold true if the foreign substance was a sugar-water mixture. Dissolved in water, the sugars effect would be negligible, so its essentially no different than pouring plain H2O in the gas tank. The point is, the evildoer who plans to use this method to waylay his victim in a conveniently secluded spot is leaving an awful lot to chance, and, more likely than not, will fail. Which makes it unlikely that such a ploy is often used. From Kansas to Texas to North Carolina It may seem strange, then, to find email reports of incidents matching this exact description happening in Target store parking lots everywhere from Kansas to Texas to North Carolina. But its not so strange when you consider that this forwarded message has been circulating non-stop since 2005, accruing helpful bits of misinformation along the way. In this respect, the text fulfills the classic definition of what folklorists call a migratory legend, with individuals revising specific details to localize the tale before passing it along. At the same time, the story has inspired skeptical news coverage in some cities based on disavowals by local police. â€Å"It’s not happening in Hickory, police captain Clyde Deal told the Hickory, NC Daily Record after the email surfaced there in March 2007. â€Å"As far as we can tell, it’s not happening anywhere in western North Carolina.† Assistant police chief Mike Samp of Mishawaka, Indiana, gave a similar response to the South Bend Tribune: We researched it and could find no police report, which quite naturally, made us suspicious. Police in Wheeling, Ohio simply dismissed it as a hoax. Another Close Call Sifting through email archives, we discovered a variant of this story dating from November 2002 in which a perpetrator who disables a womans car with sugar water is captured by police and found to have an array of kidnapping implements hidden in his van. This alternate version bears a general similarity to the one weve already seen, but is also reminiscent of The Knife in the Briefcase, an urban legend circulating online since the late 90s in which a woman survives a close call in a shopping mall parking lot with a good Samaritan who turns out to be packing a knife, duct tape, and chloroform. Email contributed Nov. 11, 2002: Fw: THIS ALERT COULD SAVE YOUR LIFE!!!!!!!!!!I wanted to share a TRUE story with all of you. I heard about this last week and found out, that it is indeed TRUE. This happened to Cathy Conaways sister, who lives in North Guyton. She went to the Wal-Mart in Pooler about 11:00 one night about 1-2 weeks ago. (Im sure this is familiar for a lot of us) When she parked her car, there was a van parked right next to her. She heard noise coming from inside but didnt see anyone in it. (didnt think much about it then)About 1 a.m. she was leaving and noticed that the van was now parked in front of her vehicle. Getting a little nervous ( that gut feeling) she went back inside and asked if a security guard could walk her out. As they were loading her car, the van pulled out and left. As she got on the road, she noticed the same van behind her. She went a little ways (between Pooler and Faulkville) and her car began to spit and sputter. By this time she was really scared and called 911 from her cell phone. As she pulled over, the police was right there, and the van went on by.While talking to the police the van had turned around and went back by. She pointed it out and the police went after it. The man inside was arrested and taken to jail, but was released on a $700 bond. In his van they found: HER gas cap, a gun, hunting knife, duct tape, rope, a gallon jug of sugar water, and two pairs of womens underwear!!!!!!!!!! After getting her vehicle checked out for the problem, it was determined that sugar and water had been poured into her gas tank.They have found the man and he is back in jail. He is from Walterboro, S.C. I thought I would share this with you since Christmas shopping nights are just ahead. PLEASE be aware of your surroundings where ever you go. As for me, Im getting a LOCKING gas cap. They sell them (where else but) Wal-Mart. Anyway, the bottom line is: BE CAREFUL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Remember the lady that went missing from Rincon several months ago? They found her car , I think in the Freds parking lot, but still have not found her. Makes you wonder, doesnt it Cautionary tales are meant to instruct, and in a vague sense these examples may be edifying even though theyre false, in that they remind potential crime victims to take note of their surroundings and be wary of the advances of strangers when alone. But they also mislead, diverting attention to fictional scenarios and creating a climate of fear. Remember the fable of the boy who cried wolf? People will only be deceived so many times before they just stop listening, and that defeats the purpose. Sources I Put Sugar in My Husbands Gas Tank... Car TalkDont Panic, Widespread Email Warning Women Just a Prank. Hickory Record (North Carolina).Another Urban Legend Gets Debunked. South Bend Tribune, 10 March 2007.Hoax Email Aimed at Women. WTOV-TV News, 28 February 2007.What If I Put Sugar in Someones Gas Tank? How Stuff Works.

No topic Personal Statement Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

No topic - Personal Statement Example Lastly, I was a cheerleader for our voluntary team especially in various communal activities aimed at dealing with poor dental clinical health matters. Being a patient is very disastrous. I have encountered this ever since I was ten years of age. Dental infections caught my intellectual attention back then and still do to-date. Firstly, pain caused by dental infections distracts various activities of individual patients. Secondly, being a dental patient damages a patients’ self-image. These individuals may not openly interact with others because of bad breath or colored teeth, which easily distort self-image. Concisely, as an aspiring dentist since when I was ten years old, I began by helping my uncle sterilize used blankets for new patients. Yes, this may sound uncultured or uncouth way of handling patients clinically, but in Cuba, everything is a waste. Most blankets in this country are passed to several generations. This left us the mission of clinically and cautiously cleaning these blankets to remove the adhesive and molar bands. My reasons for wanting to undertake clinical dentistry course: Healthcare professionalism in the current world has emerged to be one of the well-paying fields of professionalism. Dentistry, as a part of healthcare professionalism in the contemporary society, gives individual professionals a wider view of the clinical care system in a more evidence-based way throughout the world. I was a bit hesitant because of the mess I left behind after helping my uncle in his dentist staff. Additionally, the Cuban employment domain was not motivating at all. Most professionals back then were paid meagre salaries. This killed my dream of becoming a dentist. My parents resorted into changing my career aspirations from becoming a dentist to being a mere artist. This was my worst nightmare so far. As an artist, my parents believed that my life would be better some days in the future.