12 Tips for Talking About Money With Your Spouse or Partner

12 Tips for Talking About Money With Your Spouse or Partner 12 Tips for Talking About Money With Your Spouse or Partner 12 Tips for Talking About Money With Your Spouse or PartnerTalking about money with your spouse or partner isnt easy, but these helpful bits of expert advice should help make the conversation a healthy and productive one.Maintaining a healthy marriage or long-term relationship takes a lot of work and communication. But if you and your spouse or partner aren’t talking to each about money, specifically, it could be undoing all the hard work youre doing in the other areas of your marriage.“Occasionally I’ll meet with clients and can tell that they’re on different pages financially,” said Holly Peterson, owner of  Elite Retirement Strategies in Pocatello, Idaho. “When I meet with a couple and one indicates that they are an aggressive saver and the other is laid back and doesn’t track their spending, I know immediately that they are not on the same page in multiple ways. Each person will have a completely different attitude when it comes to money and how they treat it.”If you and your spouse are unable to communicate about money, then neither of you is setting your partnership up for success. Don’t let that happen. Here are twelve pieces of advice from financial and relationship experts that can help you and your partner start a healthy, productive money conversation.1. Be honest and be open.Chad Rixse is the founder of  Far North Capital  in Anchorage Alaska. He cited “honest and open communication” as a crucial component in successful marriages and long-term relationships. “Relationships that harbor secrets or are dysfunctional on the communication end rarely, if ever, work out long-term,” he said.“Even if you and your spouse (or significant other) share different financial principles or goals, if you are able to be open and honest about your current individual financial pictures, expectations, management styles, and habits, its far easier to find common ground and align your financial lives together.”Personal finance educator Denise Myhand, founder of  The Wealth Culture, an organization dedicated to the narrowing the wealth gap for women and minorities, agreed that partners being honest and open in their communications is key to successful money conversations.“Let your partner know what is going with you financially or if you have any concerns,” she said. “Do you have debt that the partner needs to know about, maybe you have nothing saved for retirement or you dont like combining your money because you feel like you are being controlled. Whatever the issue is you have to share it to resolve it. You and your partner can not address issues if you both are not aware of them.”2. Don’t wait. Start talking now.Syble Solomon is the creator of  Money Habitudes, a personality profile and financial conversation starter game for couples. Her advice is to quit waiting and start talking about money with your partner ASAP.“Start by acknowledging to your partner that talking about money can feel awkward, but it b uilds trust and lays a stronger foundation for your relationship,” she said.Sounds scary, right? Don’t worry, Solomon offered some other helpful tips to help you ease into the conversation:“H.A.L.T.: When getting started, give yourself the advantage of a time and place where you can relax; planning a quiet evening to talk about money over coffee is much better than right after fighting about the credit card bill. Think of the acronym H.A.L.T.; dont try to have this conversation when someone is hungry, angry, lonely or tired.“Avoid numbersâ€"at least at first. There seems to be a lot of advice that tells couples that the first money conversation they should have is doing a budget or going over credit reports. Think about working up to that and first get comfortable talking about finances in more general terms.“Reminisce. An easy way to begin is to just share your memories. Remember the first time you bought something with your own money? What did you buy? How did you get th e money? A simple conversation like this proves that you can talk about money in a constructive way and lays the foundation for future conversations and understanding. Then you can talk about debt and credit scores, etc.!”3. Pull your credit reports and go through them together.  Todd Huettner is the president of  Huettner Capital, a residential mortgage bank located in Denver, CO. He recommended that you and your spouse start your financial conversation by going through your credit reports.Credit reports document your history as a borrower and contain the information used to create your credit score. Most information on these reports goes back seven years, while some information (like bankruptcies) stays on your reports for longer.You actually have three different credit reports, one each from the three major credit reporting agencies: Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax. You can request one free copy of each report annually, just visit www.AnnualCreditReport.com.Huettner suggested that you pull your credit reports and walk through them together looking for the following:“What are your credit scores? Similar scores can highlight common attitudes toward risk and finances including savings, borrowing, managing debt. Vastly different scores are definitely something to discuss. If you both have low scores, now is the time to look at how you can improve your finances together.“Why are any scores low? There are perfectly understandable reasons why someone may have bad credit. However, repeated mistakes can indicate something other than bad luck.“Look at prior names and name variations. Now is the time to fess up if you were previously married. It is much uglier to find out later.4. Learn your partner’s underlying values.The way your partner deals with money might completely confound you. If that’s the case, it’s safe to assume that you dont just find their behavior confounding, but extremely frustrating as well. So instead of looking at the things they do with money, take the time to figure out why they’re doing them.“When it comes to communication about money between partners, I like to take a holistic approach,” said money coach and founder of  Bountiful Money Cecilia Case. I ask my clients and their partners to both go through exercises that help them understand their underlying values. They then compare their answers.“This provides a basis for understanding what your partner is valuing when they do something with money that isnt what they would do. When they understand their partners values and motivations, it becomes easier to see that the spouse wasnt doing it to make you mad, they were doing it because it made sense to them. That can be the start for a supportive and understanding give and take between loving partners.”Certified Financial Education Instructor Kassandra Dasent  likewise stressed the importance  of “how each persons experience with money in the past has shaped their understanding and interaction w ith it in the present.”“Through open, honest and non-judgmental communication, couples will be able to make financial decisions that meet their needs, address some of their wants and overall improve their quality of life,” she said.5. Decide on one common financial goal.  They say that opposites attract. And they’re often right. This is just as true for money as it is anything elseâ€"maybe even more so. The odds are good that you and your partner have very different approaches to money and financial issues.That’s why Holly Peterson suggests you and your partner pick one common financial goal and work towards it, “whether it’s creating a budget, getting credit card spending under control or pledging to put a portion of your income towards retirement.”“It’s also important to be on the same page for overall goals,” she added. “You both probably want to retire by a certain age, now you need to work together to figure out how to make that a reality. Have regular c heck-ins with each other for support and accountability.”Additionally, focusing on one financial goal will also help you and your spouse from biting off more than you can chew!6. Make regular appointments to talk.Dasent recommended that couples in a marriage or a committed relationship set aside time regularly to talk about finances. She also specified that these sessions should be held on  a minimum  monthly basis.“Regardless if one partner is responsible for the day to day financial decisions, it is important that both partners know what their money is being spent on and how that may be affecting the progress of their financial and life goals,” she said.“Expect to talk about money in casual spontaneous times but also in scheduled and routine times,” offered Carrie Krawiec, a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist at  Birmingham Maple Clinic in Troy, MI. “Monitor your body for signs of getting overwhelmed or frustrated and plan to take breaks, limit time, or reschedule if either person gets too heated.“If you must take a break or quit early,” she added, “make a concerted effort to return as avoiding only makes it harder to come back and makes it more difficult as a couple to resolve money problems.”7. Dont make it personal.A marriage is a very personal thing, but talking about how money works in your relationship is going to require a bit more detachment. Otherwise, the conversation could go off the rails fast.“When discussing past mistakes or current debt, dont make it personal, just remain objective,” said Rixse. “Ultimately, your goal is to move forward in harmony and work towards mutual goals that will benefit not only each of you individually but your marriage as well.“If objectivity is difficult to obtain, bring a third-party in like a financial planner or trusted family member that can remove any negative emotions that might be wrapped up in the conversations together and help you see each others side in a healthy way.”8. Be proactive.Are things going okay between you and your spouse right now money-wise? Great. That means this is the perfect time to start talking about finances.“Be proactive,” said Myhand. “Discuss your finances regularly and be planful. Don’t wait for something to come up to discuss what you are going to do.“Waiting till something happens can create extra financial and emotional stress that can be a burden on your relationship.  Setting financial goals and budgeting regularly will help you be proactive and keeps everyone on the same page.”9. Learn healthy problem-solving skills.Identifying a problem is step one. Step two is actually fixing it. The more tools and positive problem-solving skills you have at your disposal, the better.“Create a goal, Brainstorm objectives for reaching the goal, choose a handful of objectives that make sense,” said Krawiec. Rough out a plan saying who will do what and then meet weekly to track progress and troubleshoot as necessary.”S he also offered the following guidelines for healthy problem-solving:“A goal should be positive and future-focused so not ‘Spend less’ but rather ‘Put 20 percent of income in savings each month.’“When brainstorming each idea should not be judged. Then cross off ideas that don’t work. Choose a few you are willing and able to do.“Don’t expect 100 percent success.“Meet weekly to congratulate successes and rework problem areas.”10. Practice positive reinforcement.When you’re part of a couple, you divide the chores and other household duties. Money is no different. One person is going to end up being responsible for the couple’s finances. That’s no small job, and it’s on the other partner to give them positive reinforcement.“Give frequent gratitude and praise to the person responsible for managing the household finances,” said Krawiec, adding that, “Happy marriages have five positive interactions for each one negative.“If you are the person responsib le for money give specific directions of your expectations and frequent positive feedback for cooperation. If you are the person who is not the household accountant give thanks that this important job function is done for you.”More than simply offering positive reinforcement, Krawiec laid out how you can avoid negative behaviors and modes of communication:“Avoid criticism (character attacks; “you are so stingy” or “you think money grows on trees” and stick to factual complaints “I dislike when you spend cash on out to eat meals when you can pack a lunch or eat at home.” )“Avoid defensiveness (cross-complaining, rebutting, denying). Avoid contempt (which is eye-rolling, sneering, sarcasm, name-calling) and lastly, avoid stonewalling which is shutting down.“These are John Gottman’s 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse or 4 behavior characteristic of marriages that end in divorce,” she added.11. Choose success over shame.Do you and/or your spouse have trouble maintainin g positive financial behaviors over a longer period of time? Youre not alone. Here’s Huettner’s description of what he calls the “Financial Shame Cycle”:“Paying your bills on time, spending wisely, saving money are all things people could tell you are good financial habits just like eating right, exercising regularly, and getting lots of sleep are good health habits. Then why are they so hard to do?“The Financial Shame Cycle is something I created to explain why personal finance can be so difficult for many people even though we “know” the basics.“Shame is different because we do not feel we simply made a mistake. With shame we feel we are bad inherently and ‘just aren’t good with money.’“The stages in the cycle are:“We don’t know what to do/how to start so we don’t do anything.“We know what to do, but we don’t have a plan that we feel will succeed, so we don’t start.“We don’t see progress/success so we reinforce our belief that we are not g ood and start back at one.”“If you or your significant other experiences these feelings, you need to do a little more work,” said Huettner. Luckily, he also offered the steps that a couple can take to exit the “Financial Shame Cycle” and enter the “Financial Success Cycle” instead:“It all begins with the acceptance that we are not the only ones who have these struggles and we just need to get learn to handle our finances. The steps for Huettners Financial Success Cycle include:“Information: get help and informed on where you are financially.“Confidence: create a plan to achieve your goal.“Progress: create small steps to take to see your successes.“Communication is a key part of building a strong relationship and financial conversations are no different. You will have this conversation at some point; either now to start your relationship or far too late when it is ending. There is too much at stake to wait,” said Huettner.12. See how one CFP talks to their s pouse.Getting your finances together can seem like a pretty daunting task. And it’s certainly going to take some hard workâ€"from both you and your spouse. The other 11 tips contained in this article can help you out, but it’s always nice to see healthy financial practices in action.That’s why we’ll leave with you with this snapshot from Certified Financial Planner Krista A. Cavalieri, owner of  Evolve Capital, of how she and her husband talk to each other about money:“My husband and I have a pretty decent baseline of healthy communication which is key to any conversation but especially so when it comes to money because as we all know, money is a very sensitive topic.“We do not have formal monthly or weekly meetings, which are sometimes needed depending on the couple. We have a very open line of communication and both log into our budgeting tool quite often to ensure things are moving along. We casually chat about money about once a week often in relation to going to din ner or a possible weekend trip. These conversations help us reconnect and confirm that we are on the same page about the overall goal of our money.“We often clear out of the ordinary purchases with one another. While it used to be of a certain dollar amount (about $100) we have found that because of the Amazon prime and the good old add on items, we talk about purchase more frequently.“We also discuss activities for the children and try to come to a common ground on what activities we feel are worth spending money on and when. Such as gymnastics for our middle child, we both agree it might be better to wait until she can do it without needing a parent.“While we havent settled on a date for retirement we talk about it in theory, such as if we might relocate and also to confirm with one another that we would like to travel.”Talking to your spouse about money isn’t something you can do in a one-time-only session; it’s a conversation you two will be having for the rest of yo ur lives. If you want some financial topics to help carry you through the decades, check out these related posts and articles from OppLoans:The (Comprehensive) Couple’s Guide To Budgeting8 Good Habits to Get Your Financesâ€"and Your Lifeâ€"on TrackFrom Budget to Baller: 6 Tips to Grow Your Money8 Ways To Save Money Today, Tomorrow and Every Day AfterHow do you handle money issues with your partner?  We want to hear from you! You can find us  on  Facebook  and  Twitter.  |  InstagramContributorsCecilia Case is a Money Coach and founder of  Bountiful Money. Money intertwines with nearly every aspect of our lives, and its power can make it an intimidating problem to fix. Cecilia uses a direct but gentle method of exploring your past, understanding your values and goals, and helping you find your own path to money health and success. You can heal your relationship with money, and find peace and prosperity in your personal finances!Krista Cavalieri  started Evolve Capital  when she rea lized there was no way for young people (like her) to get good financial advice tailored to them. Not one size fits all financial products or minimums they can’t reach. Just because they are young doesn’t mean they should be ignored. Krista  has been in financial planning since 2010 and prior to that traded foreign exchange with UBS after graduating from The Ohio State University. She also holds the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNING designation.Kassandra  Dasent (@kassandradasent) is a Certified Financial Education Instructor, certified credit analyst, and personal finance expert. Minding Your Money is what  Kassandra  Dasent  specializes in.  Focusing on how the emotional quotient can have a direct and lasting impact on ones relationship with money, she successfully communicates to her audiences practical ways on how to improve their financial circumstances. To learn more, visit  KassandraDasent.com.A recognized real estate and personal finance expert with over twenty years of exper ience,  Todd  Huettner  is frequently quoted in the business press including The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, Credit Karma, and Realtor.com. He is President of  Huettner  Capital (@HuettnerCapital), a residential mortgage bank located in Denver, CO.   In addition to earning an economics degree and an M.B.A.,  Todd  has held his real estate license in multiple states and been an underwriter, financial analyst, and consultant.Carrie  Krawiec  (@CarrieJKLMFT) is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist at Birmingham Maple Clinic in Troy, MI.  Carrie  provides individual, couple and family therapy with interest areas  including a variety of relationship issues such as adult family conflict, family business  conflict,  family conflicts between parents and teens, relationship and marriage counseling,  peer relationships, communication, and emotional regulation.  Carrie  has specific training in Parent Management Training-Oregon (PMT-O Specialist); a behavior management technique for paren ts to utilize with children to prevent and reduce behavior issues in children age 7 to 17.Denise Myhand is a personal finance advocate who is passionate about people, life, knowledge and new experiences. She is the founder of The Wealth Culture, an organization dedicated to the narrowing the wealth gap for women and minorities where they advocate four core principles: budgeting, debt repayment, generational wealth, socializing financial responsibility and empowerment. In addition to the Wealth Culture,  Denise  has recently completed her first ebook: The Debt Slay Guide An autobiographical and instructional guide to paying off debt.Holly Peterson is the owner of  Elite Retirement Strategies in Twin Falls, Idaho.Chad Rixse was born and raised in  Anchorage, Alaska until the age of 18. He then spent the next 11 years in Seattle where he graduated from the University of Washington and got his start in the financial services industry. Chad  has since moved back to Anchorage to found Fa r North Capital  (@farnorthcapital) and continue pursuing his lifelong passion for helping others. He finds the  positive difference hes able to make in peoples lives the most rewarding aspect of his work. Outside of work,  Chad  loves enjoying  all that Alaska has to offer. In the summer, he loves to camp, hike, fish, and golf. In the winter, he downhill skis and gets to the rock gym a few times per week.  Chad  is also active in the Anchorage Chamber of Commerces Young Professionals Group.The creator of  Money Habitudes (@moneyhabitudes), Syble Solomon, is an educator and coach who specializes in the psychology of money. Since 1995, she has been an executive coach and adjunct faculty member with the Center for Creative Leadership. She was a doctoral fellow at University of Pittsburgh, received her Masters in Education at George Washington University and her B.A. in Economics with a minor in psychology from Rutgers University beginning her career as a Peace Corps volunteer, teachin g in the Philippines.

Poetry Analysis Of The Cave By Mumford And Sons - 847 Words

Poetry Response: The Cave â€Å"The Cave† by Mumford and Sons is a song. The song expresses the feeling of darkness and being lost. It is about finding the strength and hope to keep going. â€Å"But I will hold on hope,† (line 9) and â€Å"And I’ll find strength in pain,† (line12). The speaker is the songwriter and band members who made the song. The tone is one of which not easily distinguished. The speaker seems hopeful and full of strength, ready to move on and become free. He also seemed understanding, as if he knows how you feel and has felt that way himself. The song is forty-four lines in all with a consistent line length, where its not too long or too short. The poem uses free form allowing the freedom to say what was needed. It allowed him†¦show more content†¦This refers to Odysseus’ journey and the time he was tied to the post, his crew’s ears covered in glue, while sirens called out trying to convince them to listen. The song uses different figurative language to provide imagery. In lines one and two it says, â€Å"Its empty in the valley of your heart The sun, it rises slowly as you walk.† This is a simile and a metaphor as one line uses as and the other does not. It also says, in lines ten and eleven, â€Å"And I won’t let you choke on the noose around your neck.† This compares a noose to how the darkness they are fighting is holding them back and keeping them from living. It’s a metaphor. The song uses imagery when he says â€Å"So come out of your cave walking on your hands And see the world hanging upside down,† (lines 29-30) this gives you something to see and gives a better understanding of the meaning. The song has an irregular rhyme scheme but still, holds a musical effect. It doesn’t take away from the song but adds depth to it allowing you to see that whats important are the words and the meaning behind them not how pretty it would sound. The rhyt hm allows for the tone to shine through as with certain parts, it takes a longer time to read and the other times it is much faster. The pace changes with the moods.Show MoreRelatedStephen P. Robbins Timothy A. Judge (2011) Organizational Behaviour 15th Edition New Jersey: Prentice Hall393164 Words   |  1573 Pagesof systematic study. Identify the major behavioral science disciplines that contribute to OB. Demonstrate why few absolutes apply to OB. Identify the challenges and opportunities managers have in applying OB concepts. Compare the three levels of analysis in this book’s OB model. MyManagementLab Access a host of interactive learning aids to help strengthen your understanding of the chapter concepts at www.mymanagementlab.com cott Nicholson sits alone in his parents’ house in suburban Boston

White Noise Process Definition

The term white noise in economics is derivative of its meaning in mathematics and in acoustics. To understand the economic significance of white noise, its helpful to look at its mathematical definition first.   White Noise in Mathematics Youve very probably heard white noise, either in a physics lab or, perhaps, at a sound check. Its that constant rushing noise like a waterfall. At times you may imagine youre hearing voices or pitches, but they only last an instant and in reality, you soon realize, the sound never varies.   One math encyclopedia defines white noise as A generalized  stationary stochastic process  Ã‚  with constant  spectral density. At first glance, this seems less helpful than daunting. Breaking it down into its parts, however, can be illuminating.   What is a stationary stochastic process? Stochastic means random, so a stationary stochastic process is a process that is both random and never varying -- its always random in the same way. A stationary stochastic process with constant spectral density is, to consider an acoustic example, a random conglomeration of pitches -- every possible pitch, in fact -- which is always perfectly random, not favoring one pitch or pitch area over another.   In more mathematical terms, we say that the nature of the random distribution of pitches in white noise is that the probability of any one pitch is no greater or less than the probability of another. Thus, we can analyze white noise statistically, but we cant say with any certainty when a given pitch may occur.   White Noise in Economics in the Stock Market White noise in economics means exactly the same thing. White noise is a random collection of variables that are uncorrelated. The presence or absence of any given phenomenon has no causal relationship with any other phenomenon.    The prevalence of white noise in economics is often underestimated by investors, who often ascribe meaning to events that purport to be predictive when in reality they are uncorrelated. A brief perusal of web articles on the direction of the stock market will indicate each writers great confidence in the future direction of the market, beginning with what will happen tomorrow to long-range estimates.   In fact, many statistical studies of the stock markets have concluded that although the direction of the market may not be entirely random, its present and future directions are very weakly correlated, with, according to one famous study by future Nobel Laureate economist Eugene Fama, a correlation of less than 0.05. To use an analogy from acoustics, the distribution may not be white noise exactly, but more like a focused kind of noise called pink noise. In other instances related to market behavior, investors have what is nearly the opposite problem: they want statistically uncorrelated investments to diversify portfolios, but such uncorrelated investments are difficult, perhaps close to impossible to find as world markets become more and more interconnected. Traditionally, brokers recommend ideal portfolio percentages in domestic and foreign stocks, further diversification into stocks in large economies and small economies and different market sectors, but in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, asset classes that were supposed to have highly uncorrelated results have proven to be correlated after all.

Dire Predictions Global Warming Free Essays

Geography November 29, 2010 Dire Predictions : Student Edition Chapter one of Dire Predictions Understanding Global Warming does exactly like the title says, it gives the reader the essential basics of understanding the Global Warming issue. Chapter one gives essential information covering a wide range of things including: the natural and human impacts on climate, definition of a greenhouse gas and how it affects temperature, positive and negative feedback loops, threatening human byproducts that affect the ozone, ways scientists study ancient climates, and it gives possible future Earth outcomes due to global warming. It is a really loaded chapter I know, but this information proves to be very valuable when learning about global warming. We will write a custom essay sample on Dire Predictions: Global Warming or any similar topic only for you Order Now In fact, the information is so valuable that it can’t be covered by just stating a quick overview of the chapter, but needs a more detailed summary. Some natural variables that potentially affect the Earth’s climate include the sun, volcanic eruptions, and Earth’s orbit. But how exactly does something like a volcanic eruption effect climate? This is because â€Å"Explosive volcanic eruptions modify the composition of the atmosphere by injecting small particles called aerosols into the atmosphere layer. † These released aerosols block the solar radiation that would have reached Earth’s surface and consequently, it has cooling effect on Earth’s surface. The more talked about topic in chapter one however is the non-natural, or human induced impacts causing global warming. Humans burning of fossil fuels and release of chlorofluorocarbons (CFC’s) are both examples of human variables that affect global warming. CFC’s are a kind of gas that is released by cooling apparatus’ such as the refrigerator. These gasses have been proven to destroy the ozone. Furthermore, the book goes on to prove that the major impacts causing global warming are not natural but mostly human made. It states that the hole in the ozone is not mostly caused by a natural increase in CO2 gasses but the release of CFC-11 and CFC-12 gasses by humans into the environment. As proof of the gasses affect on the ozone it states that the average temperature of the globe has gone up from 13. degrees Celsius to 14. 5 degrees Celsius. It seems like a small amount of temperature increase but even one degree average increase can have a major influence on global warming. Finally, chapter one goes on to describe what happens if these patterns persist. So what will happen if these patterns persist, and what effects will it have on agriculture and man? To better understand what will happen to us, we have to understand what t he ozone layer does. The ozone layer protects us from harmful ultraviolet radiation. If these patterns persist the ozone will protect less and less ultraviolet radiation from entering Earth’s atmosphere. If this happens then the ice caps will melt which will be catastrophic to man and agriculture. According to http://www. tropical-rainforest-animals. com/Global-Warming-Effects. html some effects of global warming will be: Floods Droughts, Heat waves, Extreme winter cold and snow fall, Tornadoes, Extreme storms, Tropical cyclones, hurricanes, and typhoons. You don’t have to be a geography major to know that these types of effects will deal a devastating blow to people and plants. Precipitation patterns will also change everywhere, messing up normal agricultural growth. Some more effects global warming will have on agriculture and animals is it will make trees produce leaves earlier, it will cause earlier greening on vegetation, it causes re-distributions of algae that will kill animals that eat it to survive, and the ultraviolet radiation will ultimately poison humans and animals and destroy plants everywhere. If we have no ozone life will be unsustainable on Earth. But wait, all these horrible things don’t have to happen; we can do things to prevent global warming. We can start to help this not to happen by burning up less fossil fuels, thus reducing emissions into the ozone. Scientists and mechanics have recently been working together to make cars that produce less waste and are better for the environment. We can help by buying these kinds of cars and investing in this type of research. Another way to help is if we as a world unite and we set goals and laws that require fewer emissions from each country. Also, it may seem small but a way we can all help is by recycling things which cuts down the waste it takes to make whole new things. More ways you can help are by: using less air conditioning and heat, changing light bulbs to more energy efficient ones, buying energy efficient products, driving less or carpooling, using less hot water, and finally planting a tree. Although planting a tree or changing a light bulb may seem like a small way to help, if everyone in the world followed these suggestions emissions would be greatly reduced which could save the Earth. Scientists have worked together to try to understand the problem. By constantly recording new data and looking at old data they have come to a better understanding of what we use that causes these emissions and the way it affects us and our planet. A way scientists have studied the ancient atmosphere is by drilling into the ice caps and examining the trapped air. Also scientists are constantly observing the ozone layer to see any changes that might come. Scientists also look at what kind of molecules the ozone is made of and gasses that could destroy it. Learning about the problem is half the battle so we are on our way to a brighter tomorrow. I think the information given in the book was good information based on scientific truths. The information in this book was very easy to follow as almost every page had a corresponding graph or picture to help you understand the information given. However one of the problems I had with the information in this book is I felt that it was really quick to discredit the other side of the argument with not much detail. When faced with an opposing point the author just basically says that all other views are wrong and moves on. Also, the information in this book jumped to something completely different every other page. But that being said I did learn a lot from reading this book. The thing I found most interesting in the book were some of the statistics given throughout the chapter. For example thought how long the gasses CFC-11 and CFC-12 last and how much more potent it is that carbon dioxide. Even after five hundred years after CFC-12 is released, it is still 5,200 times more potent than carbon dioxide. And five hundred years after CFC-11 is released, it is 1,620 times more potent that the carbon dioxide (Dire Predictions, p. 9). With CFC gasses and other harmful gasses lasting this long it is important to stop the release of these harmful gasses as soon as we can. Another thing I found interesting in the book was the change in Mount Kilimanjaro snow coverage over time. First, it shows Mount Kilimanjaro during the year 1912 and it is covered in snow. That picture is followed by a picture of Mount Kilima njaro during the year 2007, and the snow cover has almost all disappeared. Another statistic I found very interesting in chapter one is the graphs on page thirty-three. These graphs show the amount of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide in the atmosphere before and up to 2005. The graphs show that the levels of these greenhouse gasses are pretty constant until it reaches the year 2005; When the graph line representing the gasses reaches to just before the year 2005, levels of all three of these gasses skyrocket. (Dire Predictions, pg. 33) Reading this book made me realize how serious the global warming issue is and how it is already affecting the world today. Due to global warming life as we know it could possibly come to an end. But don’t start putting your bucket list together just yet. If we start doing things everyday to help reduce the emission of greenhouse gasses we can make sure that tomorrow is a brighter day, figuratively that is. The things stated earlier (using less air conditioning and heat, changing light bulbs to more energy efficient ones, buying energy efficient products, driving less or carpooling, using less hot water, planting trees) are all examples of everyday things we can do to help the environment and stop global warming. Another thing that people can do to help this problem is by educating themselves about global warming. By educating yourself about global warming you can solve the problem easier because you know the causes. Also you can educate other people about the importance of taking global warming into consideration. If everyone around the world pitches in to try to help, maybe the next book we read will be Optimistic Predictions. Works Cited Banerjee, Subhankar. â€Å"Global Warming. † New York Times. 6 Oct. 2010. Mann, Michael E. , and Lee R. Kump. Dire Predictions: Understanding Global Warming. New York, NY: DK Pub. , 2009. Print. May, Elizabeth, and Zoe? Caron. Global warming for dummies . Mississauga, ON: J. Wiley Sons Canada, 2009. Print. Nodvin, Stephen C. â€Å"Global Warming. † encyclopedia of earth. 9 May. 2010. 29 Nov. 2010. . Yeatman, William. â€Å"Global Warming: Solutions/Cost/Science GlobalWarming. org  |  Archive  |  Global Warming 101 . † Global Warming . N. p. , 9 Feb. 2009. Web. 29 Nov. 2010. . How to cite Dire Predictions: Global Warming, Papers

Television, What A Waste of Timme Essay Example For Students

Television, What A Waste of Timme Essay Television, What A Waste of TimmeHow much does television mean to you? Would you sacrifice your mind, yourhealth, and your well-being just to keep ahold of it? Most people would. Theyare unaware of the severe effects that TV has on our lives and on our future. Ithink that television should be banned from all American households because ofthe negative ideas it exploits, the creative minds it destroys, and the growingamount of kids and adults that are making this place a bigger and lazier country. In the last decade, the amount of vioilence on television has greatly increasedand so has the number of senseless homicides and suicides in our country. Thepromiscuity and violence shown regularly on household televisions has intriguesus as Americans and numbed our sense of whats right and whats wrong in society. What shocked us at first has now become customary dinner-time cinema. We will write a custom essay on Television, What A Waste of Timme specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now With the increase in the number of television sets in America, more and moreyoung people have been robbed of their creativity. With TV, hardly anything isleft to the imagination. Before the existence of television, all people wreforced to create their own opinions and images of things in their own minds. But with TV, all the images are created for you and almost all the arguments areone-sided. With TV, you no longer create your own ideas; you are told them. Television has a great impact on the health of America. The seductive topicsand biased broadcasts shows daily across America are luring more and more peopleto the confines of their living room couch for a greater amount of time. Inactivity and overeating are a common result of this decision made by adultsand kids alike. Perhaps this is the reason why America is one of the fattestcountries in the world. Television is slowly and subliminally taking its toll on America. It isstealing all of the things that are most precious to usour mind, body, andsoul. If you rely on television for all your entertainment, I think that youwould be way better off looking for it within yourself and the people around you.

Gender Issue in Legally Blonde Essays

Gender Issue in Legally Blonde Essays Gender Issue in Legally Blonde Essay Gender Issue in Legally Blonde Essay The document was written by an interviewer. 2. The document was written to give insight in the life of a slave woman. 3. The document is biased. The document is biased because Annie Coley was talking about slave life, but in the document she was only talking about her family’s life in slavery. (â€Å"We bought Sunday clothes. We got to rest three days at Christmas. We had a big dinner, but Boss gave us that out of his smokehouse. †) When Annie Coley says that, she is only referring to her own family during the slave days. She is not talking about slavery as a whole. 4. The document’s intended audience was basically the whole world; anybody who read it. 5. The document is an interview that was turned into an autobiography. 6. The document was written in the 1930’s. 7. The document was published in 1972. 8. The document focused on ex-slave Annie Coley’s life. 9. The document focused on the areas of freedom within the slave system, the situation of women in slavery, and the differences between slavery and freedom. 10. From the document I have learned that not all slave owners where terrible. I mean don’t get me wrong slavery in itself is horrible, but I mean in the way that the slaves where treated. For instance, when Annie Coley says (â€Å"After the crop was laid by, we went with Big Boss to his church and sat in the back seats. We couldn’t any of us read the Bible, so that was why Boss made us go to church so that we could hear it read. †) Although, the Boss should have let them go to school and learn how to read, he letting them hear the Bible being read in church was a gesture that he did care about them in some aspect. :

About the National Security Agency

About the National Security Agency The National Security Agency is a highly specialized and vital unit of the American intelligence community that works to create and break secret codes, a science known as cryptology. The National Security Agency, or NSA, reports to the U.S. Department of Defense. The work of the National Security Agency is done in secret and in the name of national security. The government did not even acknowledge the NSA existed for some time. The National Security Agencys nickname is No Such Agency. What the NSA Does The National Security Agency gathers intelligence by conducting surveillance on its adversaries through the collection of phone-call, email and Internet data. The intelligence agency has two primary missions: preventing foreign adversaries from stealing sensitive or classified national security information from the United States, and collecting, processing and disseminating information from foreign signals for counterintelligence purposes. History of the National Security Agency The National Security Agency was created on Nov. 4, 1952, by President Harry S. Truman. The intelligence agencys foundation has its genesis in the work U.S. forces conducted during World War II in breaking German and Japanese codes, which it describes as a crucial factor in the Allied success against German U-Boats in the North Atlantic and victory at the Battle of Midway in the Pacific. How the NSA is Difference From the FBI and CIA The Central Intelligence Agency deals mostly with gathering intelligence on Americas enemies and conducts covert operations overseas. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, on the other hand, operates within the U.S borders as a law-enforcement agency. The NSA is primarily a foreign intelligence agency, meaning that it is authorized to collect data to prevent threats from foreign countries. However, in 2013 it was revealed that the NSA and FBI had allegedly been collecting phone-call data from Verizon and other information from servers operated by none U.S. Internet companies including Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, AOL, Skype, YouTube, and Apple. Leadership of the NSA The head of the National Security Agency/Central Security Service is appointed by the secretary of the Department of Defense and approved by the president. The NSA/CSS director must be a commissioned military officer who has earned at least three stars. The current director of the intelligence agency is U.S. Army Gen. Keith B. Alexander. The NSA and Civil Liberties The surveillance activities of the NSA and every other intelligence agency often raise questions about civil liberties, and whether Americans are being subjected to unconstitutional invasions of privacy. In a statement published on the NSAs website, agency deputy director John C. Inglis wrote: Im often asked the question, Whats more important – civil liberties or national security? Its a false question; its a false choice. At the end of the day, we must do both, and they are not irreconcilable. We have to find a way to ensure that we support the entirety of the Constitution – that was the intention of the framers of the Constitution, and thats what we do on a daily basis at the National Security Agency. Still, the NSA has publicly acknowledged that it has inadvertently collected communications from some Americans without a warrant in the name of national security. It has not said how often that happens, though. Who Oversees the NSA Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court Government surveillance agencies are also subject to review by the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, which was created by Congress in 2004.