10 Fascinating Facts About Fleas

Fleas?! Theyve (literally) plagued humankind for centuries, but how much do you know about these common insects? Lets start with these 10 fascinating facts about fleas. Fleas Are Infamous for Their Role in Transmitting the Black Death During the Middle Ages, tens of millions of people died of the plague, or Black Death, as it spread across Asia and Europe. Cities were particularly hard hit. London lost 20% of its population to the plague in just two years during the mid-1600s. It wasnt until the dawn of the 20th century, however, that we identified the cause of the plague – a bacterium called Yersinia pestis. What does this have to do with fleas? Fleas carry the plague bacteria and transmit it to humans. An outbreak of the plague often kills a large number of rodents, particularly rats, and those bloodthirsty, plague-infected fleas are forced to find a new food source – humans. And the plague isnt a disease of the past, either. Were fortunate to live in an age when antibiotics and good sanitation practices keep plague deaths to a minimum. Fleas Lay Their Eggs on Other Animals, Not in Your Carpet A common misunderstanding about fleas is that they lay their eggs in your carpeting and furniture. Fleas actually lay their eggs on their animal host, meaning if your dog Fido has adult fleas living in his fur, those adult fleas are doing their best to keep him infested with their offspring. Flea eggs, however, arent particularly sticky or well suited for staying put, so they mostly roll off your pet and land in his dog bed or on the carpet. Fleas Lay a Lot of Eggs Without intervention, a few fleas on Fido can quickly become a maddening flea infestation that feels impossible to defeat. Thats because fleas, like bed bugs and other bloodsucking pests, will multiply quickly once theyve found a good host animal. A single adult flea can lay 50 eggs per day if its well fed on Fidos blood, and in its short lifespan can produce 2,000 eggs. Adult Fleas Poop Blood Fleas feed exclusively on blood, using their piercing, sucking mouthparts to siphon it from their hosts. An adult flea may take as many as 15 blood meals in a single day. And like any animal, a flea produces waste at the end of the digestion process. Flea feces are essentially dried blood residue. When they hatch, flea larvae feed on this dried blood waste, which is usually left in the host animals bedding. Fleas Are Skinny Fleas typically inhabit the fur or feathers of host animals. If they were built like most bugs, they would quickly become entangled. Flea bodies are quite thin and smooth, making it easy for a flea to move freely between pieces of fur or feathers on their hosts. A fleas proboscis, the straw-shaped beak that enables it to pierce skin and siphon blood from its host, remains tucked under its belly and between its legs when not in use. Most Flea Infestations in Homes Are Cat Fleas, Even in Homes Without Cats Remarkably, scientists estimate there are over 2,500 species of fleas on the planet. Within the lower 48 U.S. states, flea species number approximately 325. But when fleas infest a human habitation, theyre almost always cat fleas, Ctenocephalides felis. Dont blame kitties for this annoyance, though, because despite their common name, cat fleas are just as likely to feed on dogs as they are on cats. Dog fleas (Ctenocephalides canis) can also be a pest problem but are mainly found on dogs that spend all or most of their time outdoors. Giant Fleas Plagued Dinosaurs as Early as 165 Million Years Ago Compression fossils from Inner Mongolia and China suggest that fleas pestered the dinosaurs, too. Two species, dubbed Pseudopulex jurassicus  and  Pseudopulex magnus, lived in the Mesozoic era.  The larger of the two dino flea species, Pseudopulex magnus, was an impressive 0.8 inches long, with equally impressive mouthparts capable of piercing dinosaur skin. These ancestors of todays fleas lacked the ability to jump, however. Fleas Prefer Humid Environments Fleas dont thrive in low humidity, which is why they arent as much of a pest problem in arid areas like the Southwest. Dry air prolongs the flea life cycle, and when the relative humidity falls below 60 or 70%, flea larvae may not survive. Conversely, the flea life cycle accelerates when the humidity is high, so keep that in mind when trying to control a flea infestation. Anything you can do to dry out the air in your home will help you win the battle against these bloodthirsty pests. Fleas Are Skilled Jumpers Fleas dont fly, and they would never be able to catch your dog in a foot race (despite having six legs to Fidos four). So how are these tiny insects able to get around? Fleas are amazingly adept at flinging themselves into the air. Cat fleas, our most common flea pest, can propel themselves a full 12 inches forward or upward. Thats a jumping distance equal to roughly 150 times its own height. Some sources compare this to a human landing a long jump of nearly 1,000 feet. Fleas Arent Picky About Whose Blood Theyll Drink In 1895, the Los Angeles Herald offered some facts about fleas to its readers. The flea, the Herald writer declared, shows a preference for women, children, and persons with thin skins. Thick-skinned men may have been offered a false sense of security by this column because fleas will gladly drink whatever blood is available to them. Fleas are sensitive to the vibrations that travel through the floor as people and pets walk through the house. They can also detect the presence of carbon dioxide we exhale. Should a sound or scent suggest a potential blood host is nearby, the hungry flea will jump in its direction, without considering first whether the host is a man, woman, or child. Sources: Plague: The Black Death, National Geographic website. Accessed online October 18, 2016.Plague: Ecology and Transmission, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website. Accessed online October 18, 2016.Ridding Your Home of Fleas, by Mike Potter, University of Kentucky Department of Entomology, fact sheet #602. Accessed online October 18, 2016.Some Facts About Fleas, Los Angeles Herald, Volume 44, Number 73, 23 June 1895, page 21.Physicians Guide to Arthropods of Medical Importance, 6th edition, by Jerome Goddard.Fleas, Purdue University Department of Entomology. Accessed online October 18, 2016.Giant Bloodsuckers! Oldest Fleas Discovered, by Stephanie Pappas, LiveScience website, February 29, 2012. Accessed online October 18, 2016.Monster Fleas Put the Bite on Dinosaurs, by Jeanna Bryner, LiveScience website, May 2, 2012. Accessed online October 18, 2016.

Descartes Free Will - 1986 Words

In Meditations on First Philosophy Descartes attempts to explain the cause of errors in human beings. Descartes says that error occurs since the will extends further than the intellect (Descartes p.39). Thats because our intellect is something that is finite; it is limited to the perception of only certain things. Whereas our will, ability to choose is not limited; it is has an infinite capacity. Therefore we sometimes attempt to will things which we do not have a complete understanding of. Descartes argument, as I will briefly describe, is quite sound, if you agree to all his conditions (being that the intellect is limited and the will infinite). I am not, as of yet, sure if I necessarily agree to the later of his two†¦show more content†¦The first aspect I would like to navigate through is the constraints placed on the ability to choose. One does not have the opportunity to choose freely in an organized society, community or institute. There seems to always be a res triction to the actual amount of choices one has. If Descartes was correct in his assumption of complete freedom of choice and will every option would be available to someone at any given time, in any given situation. But this is not necessarily the condition. There are a few different examples that one can view to comprehend this facet of my argument. Take for instance, perhaps an extreme but an occurrence none the less, people born of poverty do not have the ability to choose to acquire certain things. It is impossible simply by the fact that they do not have the means to get it. There is no choice of purchasing a fifty dollar object if all one has is twenty dollars. I feel though that perhaps Descartes was speaking of another free will, a non-materialistic aspect. Another example one can then try to explain is how in many middle eastern nations individuals are born into a society where one religion is forced upon them. They must live to follow this religion or risk outcas t by the community or even death. In such a decision one does not have the opportunity to choose to not follow the religion because, although it may seem available, most choices against the norm bring with them an extreme consequences.Show MoreRelated The Free Will in Meditations on First Philosophy by Descartes3767 Words   |  16 PagesThe Free Will in Meditations on First Philosophy by Descartes I In Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes takes the reader through a methodological exercise in philosophical enquiry. After stripping the intellect of all doubtful and false beliefs, he re-examines the nature and structure of being in an attempt to secure a universally valid epistemology free from skepticism. 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Second, if God created him, God is responsible for hisRead MoreThe Philosophy Of Descartes Meditations1698 Words   |  7 PagesDescartes Meditations is said to be the beginning of Western Philosophy. His writings are still greatly referred to to this day, and he is most famous for his quote â€Å"cogito ergo sum† which translates to â€Å"I think, therefore I am.† Each of Descartes’ meditations are followed by objections from other theologists and philosophers, and thereon followed by replies from Descartes. Some objections are made stronger than others, for example, Thomas Hobbes, and it could be doubted whether or not DescartesRead MoreDescartes Meditations Is The Beginning Of Western Philosophy1690 Words   |  7 PagesDescartes Meditations is the beginning of Western Philosophy. His writings as still greatly referred to to this day, and he is most famous for his quote â€Å"cogito ergo sum† which translates to â€Å"I think, therefore I am.† Each of Descartes’ Meditations is followed by objections from other theologists and philosophers, and thereon followed by replies from Descartes. Some objections are made stronger than others, for example, Thomas Hobbes, and it could be doubted whether or not Descartes truly was ableRead MoreEssay about Rene Descartes Faith and Reason1292 Words   |  6 PagesRene Descartes Faith and Reason The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries witnessed a colossal transition in the scientific view of the universe. During this period a profound rethinking of scientific theory as well as moral and religious matters took place. Traditional ideas were reconsidered by religious thinkers. Philosophers began applying rational scientific thought to problems that they considered. 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The most important issues he noted were the threat of being deceived and the potential of being incorrect in his judgments, both of which would lead him into error. Error exists as a problem that individuals encounter on a regular basis, and it also exists as a focal point in Descartes’ Meditations. Descartes defines error as â€Å"a privationRead MoreDescartes And Spinoza On The Freedom Of Human Will904 Words   |  4 Pagesour own decisions and judgements or is our will powerless and our actions and decisions are predetermined by prior causes? Well, there are two philosophers named Descartes and Spinoza that have had some disagreements about the human will and will give you their accounts about why their argument is stronger than the other. Descartes account of the will starts from the very nature of the will. The nature of will is given from God to give or withhold assent; to act on desires. When the will and

Lamb The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal Chapter 13 Free Essays

string(200) " that iron door now, but once you have training, you will not only know, but you will gain great power from the knowledge\? When I think you are ready, I promise to show you what is behind that door\." Chapter 13 â€Å"I could kick that punk’s punk ass,† the angel said, jumping on the bed, shaking a fist at the television screen. â€Å"Raziel,† I said, â€Å"you are an angel of the Lord, he is a professional wrestler, I think it’s understood that you could kick his punk ass.† This has gone on for a couple of days now. We will write a custom essay sample on Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal Chapter 13 or any similar topic only for you Order Now The angel has found a new passion. The front desk has called a dozen times and sent a bellman up twice to tell the angel to quiet down. â€Å"Besides, it’s just pretend.† Raziel looked at me as if I had slapped him. â€Å"Don’t start with that again, these are not actors.† The angel back flipped on the bed. â€Å"Ooo, ooo, you see that? Ho popped him with a chair. Thaz right, you go girl. She nasty.† It’s like that now. Talk shows featuring the screaming ignorant, soap operas, and wrestling. And the angel guards the remote control like it’s the Ark of the Covenant. â€Å"This,† I told him, â€Å"is why the angels were never given free will. This right here. Because you would spend your time watching this.† â€Å"Really?† Raziel said, and he muted the TV for what seemed like the first time in days. â€Å"Then tell me, Levi who is called Biff, if by watching this I am abusing the little freedom I’ve been given while carrying out this task, then what would you say of your people?† â€Å"By my people you mean human beings?† I was stalling. I didn’t remember the angel ever making a valid point before and I wasn’t prepared for it. â€Å"Hey, don’t blame me, I’ve been dead for two thousand years. I wouldn’t have let this sort of thing happen.† â€Å"Uh-huh,† said the angel, crossing his arms and striking a pose of incredulity that he had learned from a gangster rapper on MTV. If there was anything I learned from John the Baptist, it was that the sooner you confess a mistake, the quicker you can get on to making new and better mistakes. Oh, that and don’t piss off Salome, that was a big one too. â€Å"Okay, we’ve fucked up,† I said. â€Å"Thaz whut I’m talkin’ about,† said the angel, entirely too satisfied with himself. Yeah? Where was he when we needed him and his sword of justice at Balthasar’s fortress? Probably in Greece, watching wrestling. Meanwhile, when we got to the library, Balthasar was sitting before the heavy dragon table, eating a bit of cheese and sipping wine while Tunnels and Pea Pods poured a sticky yellow wax on his bald head, then spread it around with small wooden paddles. The easels and slates from my lessons had been stacked out of the way against the shelves full of scrolls and codices. â€Å"You look good blue,† Balthasar said. â€Å"Yeah, everybody says that.† The paint, once set, didn’t wash off, but at least my skin had stopped itching. â€Å"Come in, sit. Have wine. They brought cheese from Kabul this morning. Try some.† Joshua and I sat in chairs across the table from the magus. Josh, completely true to form, disregarded my advice and asked Balthasar outright about the iron door. The aspect of the jolly wizard became suddenly grave. â€Å"There are some mysteries one must learn to live with. Did not your own God tell Moses that no one must look upon his face, and the prophet accepted that? So you must accept that you cannot know what is in the room with the iron door.† â€Å"He knows his Torah, and Prophets and Writings too,† Joshua said to me. â€Å"Balthasar knows more about Solomon than any of the rabbis or priests in Israel.† â€Å"That’s swell, Josh.† I handed him a hunk of cheese to keep him amused. To Balthasar I said, â€Å"But you forget God’s butt.† You don’t hang out with the Messiah for most of your life without picking up a little Torah knowledge yourself. â€Å"What?† said the magus. Just then the girls grabbed the edges of the hardened wax shell they’d made on Balthasar’s head and ripped it off in one swift movement. â€Å"Ouch, you vicious harpies! Can’t you warn me when you’re going to do that? Get out.† The girls tittered and hid their satisfied grins behind delicate fans painted with pheasants and plum blossoms. They fled the library leaving a trail of girlish laughter in the hall as they passed. â€Å"Isn’t there an easier way to do that?† asked Joshua. Balthasar scowled at him. â€Å"Don’t you think that after two hundred years, if there was an easier way to do it I would have found it?† Joshua dropped his cheese. â€Å"Two hundred years?† I chimed in. â€Å"You get a hairstyle you like, stick with it. Not that you could call that hair, per se.† Balthasar wasn’t amused. â€Å"What’s this about God’s butt?† â€Å"Or that you could call that style, for that matter,† I added, rising and going to a copy of the Torah that I’d seen on the shelves. Fortunately it was a codex – like a modern book – otherwise I’d have been unwinding a scroll for twenty minutes and the drama would have been lost. I quickly flipped to Exodus. â€Å"Right, here’s the part you were talking about. ‘And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.’ Right? Well, then God puts his hand over Moses as he passes, but he says, ‘I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen.'† â€Å"So?† said Balthasar. â€Å"So, God let Moses see his butt, so using your example, you owe us God’s butt. So tell us, what’s going on with that room with the iron door?† Brilliant. I paused and studied the blueness of my fingernails while savoring my victory. â€Å"That’s the silliest thing I’ve ever heard,† said Balthasar. His momentary loss of composure was replaced by the calm and slightly amused attitude of the master. â€Å"What if I told you that it is dangerous for you to know about what is behind that iron door now, but once you have training, you will not only know, but you will gain great power from the knowledge? When I think you are ready, I promise to show you what is behind that door. You read "Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal Chapter 13" in category "Essay examples" But you must promise to study and learn your lessons. Can you do that?† â€Å"Are you forbidding us to ask questions?† asked Joshua. â€Å"Oh no, I’m simply denying you some of the answers for the time being. And trust me, time is the one thing that I have plenty of.† Joshua turned to me. â€Å"I still don’t know what I am supposed to learn here, but I’m sure I haven’t learned it yet.† He was pleading me with his eyes to not push the issue. I decided to let it drop; besides, I didn’t relish the idea of being poisoned again. â€Å"How long is this going to take?† I asked. â€Å"These lessons, I mean?† â€Å"Some students take many years to learn the nature of Chi. You will be provided for while you are here.† â€Å"Years? Can we think about it?† â€Å"Take as long as you like,† Balthasar stood. â€Å"Now I must go to the girls’ quarters. They like to rub their naked breasts over my scalp right after it’s been waxed and is at its smoothest.† I gulped. Joshua grinned and looked at the table in front of him. I often wondered, not just then, but most of the time, if Joshua had the ability to turn off his imagination when he needed to. He must have. Otherwise I don’t know how he would have ever triumphed over temptation. I, on the other hand, was a slave to my imagination and it was running wild with the image of Balthasar’s scalp massage. â€Å"We’ll stay. We’ll learn. We’ll do what is needed,† I said. Joshua burst out laughing, then calmed himself enough to speak. â€Å"Yes, we will stay and learn, Balthasar, but first I have to go to Kabul and finish some business.† â€Å"Of course you do,† said Balthasar. â€Å"You can leave tomorrow. I’ll have one of the girls show you the way, but for now, I must say good night.† The wizard stalked off, leaving Joshua to collapse into a fit of giggles and me to wonder how I might look with my head shaved. In the morning Joy came to our rooms wearing the garb of a desert trader: a loose tunic, soft leather boots, and pantaloons. Her hair was tied up under a turban and she carried a long riding crop in her hand. She led us through a long narrow passageway that went deep into the mountain, then emerged out of the side of a sheer cliff. We climbed a rope ladder to the top of the plateau where Pillows and Sue waited with three camels saddled and outfitted for a short journey. There was a small farm on the plateau, with several pens full of chickens, some goats, and a few pigs in a pen. â€Å"We’re going to have a tough time getting these camels down that ladder,† I said. Joy scowled and wrapped the tail of her turban around her face so that only her eyes showed. â€Å"There’s a path down,† she said. Then she tapped her camel on the shoulder with her crop and rode off, leaving Joshua and me to scramble onto our animals and follow. The road down from the plateau was just wide enough for a single camel to sway his way down without falling, but once down on the desert floor, much like the entrance to the canyon where the fortress’s entrance lay, if you didn’t know it was there, you would never have found it. An added measure of security for a fortress that had no guards, I thought. Joshua and I tried to engage Joy in conversation several times during the journey to Kabul, but she was cranky and abrupt and often just rode away from us. â€Å"Probably depressed that she’s not torturing me,† I speculated. â€Å"I can see how that might bring her down,† said Joshua. â€Å"Maybe if you could get your camel to bite you. I know that always brightens my mood.† I rode on ahead without another word. It’s wildly irritating to have invented something as revolutionary as sarcasm, only to have it abused by amateurs. Once in Kabul, Joy led the search for the blinded guard by asking every blind beggar that we passed in the marketplace. â€Å"Have you seen a blind bowman who arrived by camel caravan a little more than a week ago?† Joshua and I trailed several steps behind her, trying desperately to keep from grinning whenever she looked back. Joshua had wanted to point out the flaw in Joy’s method, while I, on the other hand, wanted to savor her doofuscosity as passive revenge for having been poisoned. There was none of the competence and self-assured nature she showed at the fortress. She was clearly out of her element and I was enjoying it. â€Å"You see,† I explained to Joshua, â€Å"what Joy is doing is ironic, yet that’s not her intent. That’s the difference between irony and sarcasm. Irony can be spontaneous, while sarcasm requires volition. You have to create sarcasm.† â€Å"No kidding?† said Josh. â€Å"Why do I waste my time with you?† We indulged Joy’s search for the blind man for another hour before directing her inquiries to the sighted, and to men from the camel caravans in particular. Once she started asking sighted people, it was a short time before we were directed to a temple where the blinded guard was said to have staked his begging territory. â€Å"There he is,† said Joshua, pointing to a ragged pile of human being beckoning to the worshipers as they moved in and out of the temple. â€Å"It looks like things have been tough on him,† I said, amazed that the guard, who had been one of the most vital (and frightening) men I’d ever seen, had been reduced to such a pathetic creature in so short a time. Then again, I was discounting the theatrics of it all. â€Å"A great injustice has been done here,† said Josh. He moved to the guard and gently put his hand on the blind man’s shoulder. â€Å"Brother, I am here to relieve your suffering.† â€Å"Pity on the blind,† said the guard, waving around a wooden bowl. â€Å"Calm now,† said Joshua, placing his hand over the blind man’s eyes. â€Å"When I remove my hand you will see again.† I could see the strain in Joshua’s face as he concentrated on healing the guard. Tears trickled down his cheeks and dripped on the flagstones. I thought of how effortless his healings had been in Antioch, and realized that the strain was not coming from the healing, but from the guilt he carried for having blinded the man in the first place. When he removed his hand and stepped away, both he and the guard shivered. Joy stepped away from us and covered her face as if to ward off bad air. The guard stared into space just as he had while he had been begging, but his eyes were no longer white. â€Å"Can you see?† Joshua said. â€Å"I can see, but everything is wrong. People’s skin appears blue.† â€Å"No, he is blue. Remember, my friend Biff.† â€Å"Were you always blue?† â€Å"No, only recently.† Then the guard seemed to see Joshua for the first time and his expression of wonderment was replaced by hatred. He leapt at Joshua, drawing a dagger from his rags as he moved. He would have split my friend’s rib cage in a single swift blow if Joy hadn’t swept his feet out from under him at the last second. Even so, he was up in an instant, going for a second attack. I managed to get my hand up in time to poke him in the eyes, just as Joy kicked him in the back of the neck, driving him to the ground in agony. â€Å"My eyes!† he cried. â€Å"Sorry,† I said. Joy kicked the knife out of the guard’s reach. I put an arm around Joshua’s chest and pushed him back. â€Å"You need to put some distance between you and him before he can see again.† â€Å"But I only meant to help him,† said Joshua. â€Å"Blinding him was a mistake.† â€Å"Josh, he doesn’t care. All he knows is that you are the enemy. All he knows is that he wants to destroy you.† â€Å"I don’t know what I’m doing. Even when I try to do the right thing it goes wrong.† â€Å"We need to go,† said Joy. She took one of Joshua’s arms while I took the other and we led him away before the guard could gather his senses for another attack. Joy had a list of supplies that Balthasar wanted her to bring back to the fortress, so we spent some time tracking down large baskets of a mineral called cinnabar, from which we would extract quicksilver, as well as some spices and pigments. Joshua followed us through the market in a daze until we passed a merchant who was selling the black beans from which was made the dark drink we’d had in Antioch. â€Å"Buy me some,† Joshua said. â€Å"Joy, buy me some of those.† She did, and Joshua cradled the bag of beans like an infant all the way back to the fortress. We rode most of the way in silence, but when the sun had gone down and we were almost to the hidden road that led up to the plateau, Joy galloped up beside me. â€Å"How did he do it?† she asked. â€Å"What?† â€Å"I saw him heal that man’s eyes. How did he do it? I know many kinds of magic, but I saw no spells cast, no potions mixed.† â€Å"It’s very powerful magic all right.† I checked over my shoulder to see if Joshua was paying attention. He was hugging his coffee beans and mumbling to himself as he had for the whole trip. Praying, I presume. â€Å"Tell me how it’s done,† Joy said. â€Å"I asked Joshua, but he’s just chanting and looking stunned.† â€Å"Well, I could tell you how it’s done, but you have to tell me what’s going on behind the ironclad door.† â€Å"I can’t tell you that, but perhaps we can trade other things.† She pulled the tail of her turban away from her face and smiled. She was stunningly beautiful in the moonlight, even in men’s clothes. â€Å"I know over a thousand ways to bring pleasure to a man, and that’s only what I know personally. The other girls have as many tricks that they’d be willing to show you too.† â€Å"Yeah, but how is that useful to me? What do I need to know about pleasing a man?† Joy ripped her turban off her head and smacked me across the back of the head with it, sending a small cloud of dust drifting into the night. â€Å"You’re stupid and you’re blue and the next time I poison you I will be sure to use something without an antidote.† Even the wise and inscrutable Joy could be goaded, I guess. I smiled. â€Å"I will accept your paltry offerings,† I said with as much pomposity as an adolescent boy can muster. â€Å"And in return I will teach the greatest secret of our magic. A secret of my own invention. We call it sarcasm.† â€Å"Let’s make coffee when we get home,† said Joshua. It was some challenge to try to drag out the process of how Joshua had returned the guard’s sight, especially since I hadn’t the slightest idea myself, but through careful misdirection, obfuscation, subterfuge, guile, and complete balderdash, I was able to barter that lack of knowledge into months of outrageous knob polishing by the beauteous Joy and her comely minions. Somehow, the urgency of knowing what was behind the ironclad door and the answers to other enigmas of Balthasar’s fortress abated, and I found myself quite content pursuing the lessons the wizard assigned me during the day, while stretching my imagination to its limit with the mathematical combinations of the night. There was the drawback that Balthasar would kill me if he knew that I was availing myself of the charms of his concubines, but is the pilfered fruit not sweetened by the stealing? Oh, to be young and in love (with eight Chinese concubines). Meanwhile Joshua took to his studies with characteristic zeal, fueled in no little bit by the coffee he drank every morning until he nearly vibrated through the floor with enthusiasm. â€Å"Look at this, do you see, Biff? When asked, the master Confucius says, ‘Recompense injury with justice, and kindness with kindness.’ Yet Lao-tzu says, ‘Recompense injury with kindness.’ Don’t you see?† Joshua would dance around, scrolls trailing out behind him, hoping that somehow I would share his enthusiasm for the ancient texts. And I tried. I really did. â€Å"No, I don’t see. The Torah says, ‘an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,’ that is justice.† â€Å"Exactly,† said Joshua. â€Å"I think Lao-tzu is correct. Kindness precedes justice. As long as you seek justice by punishment you can only cause more suffering. How can that be right? This is a revelation!† â€Å"I learned how to boil down goat urine to make explosives today,† I said. â€Å"That’s good too,† said Joshua. It could happen like that any time of the day or night. Joshua would come blazing out of the library in the middle of the night, interrupt me in the midst of some complex oily tangle of Pea Pod and Pillows and Tunnels – while Number Six familiarized us with the five hundred jade gods of various depths and textures – and he’d avert his eyes just long enough for me to towel off before he’d shove some codex in my hand and force me to read a passage while he waxed enthusiastic on the thoughts of some long-dead sage. â€Å"The Master says that ‘the superior man may indeed endure want, but the inferior man, when he experiences want, will give into unbridled excess.’ He’s talking about you, Biff. You’re the inferior man.† â€Å"I’m so proud,† I told him, as I watched Number Six forlornly pack her gods into the warmed brass case where they resided. â€Å"Thank you for coming here to tell me that.† I was given the task of learning waidan, which is the alchemy of the external. My knowledge would come from the manipulation of the physical elements. Joshua, on the other hand, was learning neidan, the alchemy of the internal. His knowledge would come from the study of his own inner nature through the contemplation of the masters. So while Joshua read scrolls and books, I spent my time mixing quicksilver and lead, phosphorous and brimstone, charcoal and philosopher’s stone, trying somehow to divine the nature of the Tao. Joshua was learning to be the Messiah and I was learning to poison people and blow stuff up. The world seemed very much in order. I was happy, Joshua was happy, Balthasar was happy, and the girls – well, the girls were busy. Although I passed the iron door every day (and the niggling voice persisted), what was behind it wasn’t important to me, and neither were the answers to the dozen or so questions that Joshua and I should have put to our gene rous master. Before we knew it a year had passed, then two more, and we were celebrating the passage of Joshua’s seventeenth birthday in the fortress. Balthasar had the girls prepare a feast of Chinese delicacies and we drank wine late into the night. (And long after that, and even when we had returned to Israel, we always ate Chinese food on Joshua’s birthday. I’m told it became a tradition not only with those of us who knew Joshua, but with Jews everywhere.) â€Å"Do you ever think of home?† Joshua asked me the night of his birthday feast. â€Å"Sometimes,† I said. â€Å"What do you think of?† â€Å"Maggie,† I said. â€Å"Sometimes my brothers. Sometimes my mother and father, but always Maggie.† â€Å"Even with all your experiences since, you still think of Maggie?† Joshua had become less and less curious about the essence of lust. Initially I thought that his lack of interest had to do with the depth of his studies, but I then realized that his interest was fading along with the memory of Maggie. â€Å"Joshua, my memory of Maggie isn’t about what happened the night before we left. I didn’t go to see her thinking that we would make love. A kiss was more than I expected. I think of Maggie because I made a place in my heart for her to live, and it’s empty. It always will be. It always was. She loved you.† â€Å"I’m sorry, Biff. I don’t know how to heal that. I would if I could.† â€Å"I know, Josh. I know.† I didn’t want to talk about home anymore, but Josh deserved to get off his chest whatever it was that was bothering him, and if not to me, to whom? â€Å"Do you ever think of home?† â€Å"Yes. That’s why I asked. You know, the girls were cooking bacon today, and that made me think of home.† â€Å"Why? I don’t remember anyone ever cooking bacon at home.† â€Å"I know, but if we ate some bacon, no one at home would ever know.† I got up and walked over to the half-wall that divided our rooms. There was moonlight coming through the window and Joshua’s face had caught it and was glowing in that annoying way that it sometimes did. â€Å"Joshua, you’re the Son of God. You’re the Messiah. That implies – oh, I don’t know – that you’re a Jew! You can’t eat bacon.† â€Å"God doesn’t care if we eat bacon. I can just feel it.† â€Å"Really. He still feel the same way about fornication?† â€Å"Yep.† â€Å"Masturbation?† â€Å"Yep.† â€Å"Killing? Stealing? Bearing false witness? Coveting thy neighbor’s wife, et cetera? No change of heart on those?† â€Å"Nope.† â€Å"Just bacon. Interesting. You would have thought there’d be something about bacon in the prophecies of Isaiah.† â€Å"Yeah, makes you wonder, doesn’t it?† â€Å"You’re going to need more than that to usher in the kingdom of God, Josh, no offense. We can’t go home with, ‘Hi, I’m the Messiah, God wanted you to have this bacon.'† â€Å"I know. We have much more to learn. But breakfasts will be more interesting.† â€Å"Go to sleep, Josh.† As time passed, I seldom saw Joshua except at mealtimes and before we went to sleep. Nearly all my time was taken up with my studies and helping the girls maintain the fortress, while nearly all of Joshua’s time was spent with Balthasar, which would eventually become a problem. â€Å"This is not good, Biff,† Joy said in Chinese. I’d learned to speak her language well enough that she seldom spoke Greek or Latin anymore. â€Å"Balthasar is getting too close with Joshua. He seldom sends for one of us to join him in his bed now.† â€Å"You’re not implying that Joshua and Balthasar are, uh, playing shepherd, are you? Because I know that’s not true. Joshua isn’t allowed.† Of course the angel had said he couldn’t know a woman, he hadn’t said anything about a creepy old African wizard. â€Å"Oh, I don’t care if they’re buggering their eyeballs out,† said Joy. â€Å"Balthasar mustn’t fall in love. Why do you think that there are eight of us?† â€Å"I thought it was a matter of budget,† I said. â€Å"You haven’t noticed that one of us will never spend two nights in a row with Balthasar, or that we don’t speak with him beyond what is required for our duties and lessons?† I had noticed, but it never occurred to me that there was something out of the ordinary. We hadn’t gotten to the chapter on wizard – concubine behavior in the book yet. â€Å"So?† â€Å"So I think he is falling in love with Joshua. That is not good.† â€Å"Well, I’m with you on that one. I wasn’t happy the last time someone fell in love with him. But why does it matter here?† â€Å"I can’t tell you. But there has been more commotion coming from the house of doom,† said Joy. â€Å"You have to help me. If I’m right, we have to stop Balthasar. We’ll observe them tomorrow while we adjust the flow of Chi in the library.† â€Å"No, Joy. Not library Chi. The stuff in the library is too heavy. I hate library Chi.† Chi or Qi: the breath of the dragon, the eternal energy that flows through all things; in balance, as it should be, it was half yin, half yang, half light, half dark, half male, half female. The Chi in the library was always getting fucked up, while the Chi in the rooms with just cushions, or with lightweight furniture, seemed well adjusted and balanced. I don’t know why, but I suspected it had a lot to do with Joy’s need to make me move heavy things. The next morning Joy and I went to the library to spy on Joshua and Balthasar while we redirected the library’s Chi. Joy carried a complex brass instrument she called a Chi clock, which was supposed to be able to detect the flow of Chi. The magus was noticeably irritated as soon as we entered the room. â€Å"Must this be done now?† Joy bowed. â€Å"Very sorry, master, but this is an emergency.† She turned and barked commands at me like a Roman centurion. â€Å"Move that table over there, can’t you see that it rests on the tiger’s testicles? Then point those chairs so they face the doorway, they lie on the dragon’s navel. We’re lucky someone hasn’t broken a leg.† â€Å"Yeah, lucky,† I said, straining to move the huge carved table, wishing that Joy had recruited a couple of the other girls to help. I’d been studying feng shui for more than three years now and I still couldn’t detect the least bit of Chi, coming or going. Joshua had reconciled the elusive energy by saying that it was just an Oriental way to express God all around us and in all things. That may have helped him toward some sort of spiritual understanding, but it was about as effective as trained sheep when it came to arranging furniture. â€Å"Can I help?† Joshua asked. â€Å"No!† shouted Balthasar, standing up. â€Å"We will continue in my quarters.† The old wizard turned and glared at Joy and me. â€Å"And we are not to be disturbed, under any circumstances.† He took Joshua by the shoulder and led him out of the room. â€Å"So much for spying,† I said. Joy consulted the Chi clock and patted a cabinet filled with calligraphy materials. â€Å"This most certainly rides on the horn of the ox, it must be moved,† she pronounced. â€Å"They are gone,† I said. â€Å"We don’t have to pretend at this anymore.† â€Å"Who is pretending? That cabinet channels all the yin into the hall, while the yang circles like a bird of prey.† â€Å"Joy, stop it. I know you’re making this stuff up.† She dropped the brass instrument to her side. â€Å"I am not.† â€Å"Yes, you are.† And here I thought I’d push my credibility a bit, just to see. â€Å"I checked the yang in this room yesterday. It is in perfect balance.† Joy dropped to her hands and knees, crawled under one of the huge carved dragon tables, curled up into a ball, and began to cry. â€Å"I’m no good at this. Balthasar wants us all to know it, but I’ve never understood it. If you want the Elegant Torture of a Thousand Pleasant Touches, I can do it, you want someone poisoned, castrated, or blown up, I’m your man, but this feng shui stuff is just, just†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Stupid?† I supplied. â€Å"No, I was going to say difficult. Now I’ve angered Balthasar and we have no way of knowing what is happening between him and Joshua. And we must know.† â€Å"I can find out,† I said, polishing my nails on my tunic. â€Å"But I have to know why I’m finding out.† â€Å"How will you find out?† â€Å"I have ways that are more subtle and crafty than all your Chinese alchemy and direction of energies.† â€Å"Now who’s making things up?† I’d lost most of my credibility by dragging out the arcane-Hebrew-knowledge-for-sexual-favors ruse until I had actually claimed credit for receiving the tablets of the Ten Commandments as well as constructing the Ark of the Covenant. (What? It’s not my fault. Joshua was the one who would never let me be Moses when we were kids.) â€Å"If I find out, will you tell me what is going on?† The head concubine chewed at an elegantly lacquered nail as she thought about it. â€Å"You promise not to tell anyone if I tell you? Not even your friend Joshua?† â€Å"I promise.† â€Å"Then do what you will. But remember your lessons from The Art of War.† I considered the words of Sun-tzu, which Joy had taught me: Be extremely subtle, even to the point of formlessness. Be extremely mysterious, even to the point of soundlessness. Thereby, you can be the director of the opponent’s fate. So after considering strategy carefully, running and rejecting the various scenarios in my head, working out what seemed a nearly foolproof plan, and making sure the timing was perfect, I went into action. That very night, as I lay in my bed and Joshua in his, I called forth all my powers of subtlety and mysteriousness. â€Å"Hey Josh,† I said. â€Å"Balthasar sodomizing you?† â€Å"No!† â€Å"Vice versa?† â€Å"Absolutely not!† â€Å"You get the feeling he’d like to?† He was quiet for a second, then he said, â€Å"He’s been very attentive lately. And he giggles at everything I say, why?† â€Å"Because Joy says it’s not good if he falls in love with you.† â€Å"Well, it’s not if he’s expecting any sodomizing, I’ll tell you that. That’s going to be one disappointed magus.† â€Å"No, worse than that. She won’t tell me what, but it’s really, really bad.† â€Å"Biff, I realize you may not think so, but from my way of thinking, sodomizing the Son of God is really, really bad.† â€Å"Good point. But I think she means something to do with whatever is behind the iron door. Until I find out, you have to keep Balthasar from falling in love with you.† â€Å"I’ll bet he was myrrh,† said Josh. â€Å"Bastard, he brings the cheapest gift and now he wants to sodomize me. My mother told me the myrrh went bad after a week too.† Did I mention that Joshua was not a myrrh fan? How to cite Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal Chapter 13, Essay examples

Economics Assignment- Fish & Plants Exchange Economy

Questions: Xenos and Yvonne are marooned on an island. Each castaway cares only about their own consumption. They are surviving by fishing and gathering plants to eat. Both have diminishing marginal rates of substitution of fish for plants. However, due to differing abilities, Yvonne catches most of the fish and Xenos gathers most of the plants. In each period, the results of their own work constitute their initial endowment. 1. Draw an Edgeworth box showing the two castaways exchange economy for fish and plants. The dimensions of the box represent the fish and gathered plants that they assemble in a single period. Mark an appropriate endowment point before trade, given their relative abilities in fishing and gathering stated above. 2. The castaways then trade fish for plants. Sketch onto your box two or three indifference curves for each castaway, and a contract curve. Identify points on the contract curve that could be reached via trade where both Xenos and Yvonne would be better off. Explain your answer. 3. Sketch a budget constraint and, if necessary, additional indifference curves to identify an exchange optimum after trade. Explain your answer. 4. What can you say about the efficiency of this outcome? Explain your answer in full. 5. Assume Yvonnes preferences change such that she becomes more caring. Explain, using a diagram, how these new preferences might affect the contract curve and the equilibrium point in their exchange economy. Answers: 1. Xenos and Yvonne are marooned in an island. They are surviving by fishing and gathering plants and both of them have diminishing marginal rates of substitution of fish for plants. But Yvonne catches most of the fish and Xenos gathers most of the plants (Bernheim and Rangel, 2005). In the following diagram, the Edgeworth box diagram can be drawn for showing the exchange economy for fish and plants. In the above diagram, the economy for fish and plants are shown between the two survivors. Ox is the origin of consumption of Xenos and Oy is the origin of consumption for Yvonne (Simonetti et al., 2010). In the above diagram the endowment point for both the survivors are given as A. It is known that Yvonne collects most of the fish and Xenos collects most of the plants. So, before trade their endowment point will be at A (Bernheim and Rangel, 2005). 2. Now, the castaway trades fish for plants. So, in the following diagram, the indifference curves can be drawn for each castaway along with the contract curve (Helm, 1989). In the above diagram the two origins of both the survivors are shown. The quantities of Fish are measured horizontally and the quantities of plants are measured vertically. The total height of the box measures the total plants in the economy whereas the width of the box measures the total fish in the economy. X1, X2 and X3 represents Xenoss indifference curves whereas Y1, Y2 and Y3 represent Yvonnes indifference curves. A higher indifference curve represents higher level of utility (Kay, 2003). OxOy is the contract curve that is the locus of all tangent points of the indifference curves of both the survivors. B is an optimal point than A. If the consumption moves from point A to point B then both Xenos and Yvonne will move to higher indifference curve and thus both of them will be better off (Persky, 1989). 3. Now a budget constraint can be drawn between both the survivors. In the above diagram the budget line is shown for the survivors. AD is the budget line that passes through the initial endowment point. In the above diagram, it can be seen that for Xenos, the initial endowment of plants was Op1 and the initial endowment of fish was Of1. Xenos can trade plants for fish (Wilkinson, 1996). Thus, after trade between both the survivors, Xenos can move to point B where he consumes Of2 units of fish and Op2 amount of plants. Similarly from Yvonnes point of view he trades fish for plants and point B is the optimal point for both the survivors in the island. 4. Here it can be said that the outcome is efficient for both the survivors. It is known that fish and plants are both required for a healthy diet in the island. It is known that the marginal rates of substitution are diminishing of fish for plants. That means, lower amount of fish will be given up by Yvonne for gaining more plants. On the other hand, the welfare of both the person should be taken into consideration. It is known that higher indifference curve means higher welfare of a person and thus it is very important to achieve the highest possible indifference curve for the individuals (Wilkinson and Pickett, 2009). So, it is very important to achieve the pareto optimal point. It is evident that if they move from the pareto optimal point then no one can be made better off without making anyone worse off. Thus it can be said that the outcome is efficient as the point is a pareto optimal point. 5. If Yvonnes preference changes and she becomes more caring then she will consider not only her preference but she will also take into account the preference of Xenos. Now, in the following diagram the change in the contract curve can be shown. If the preference changes to more altruistic nature then the optimal point for Yvonne will be at B and similarly the optimal point for Xenos will be C. Thus the section of the contract curve from Ox to B will not be effective and similarly the section Oy to point C will not be effective. In this case the section B to C of the contract curve will now be pareto efficient for both the survivors (Wilkinson and Pickett, 2009). References Bernheim, B. and Rangel, A. (2005).Behavioral public economics. Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research. Helm, D. (1989).The Economic borders of the state. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Kay, J. (2003).The truth about markets. London: Allen Lane. Persky, J. (1989). Retrospectives: Adam Smith's Invisible Hands.Journal of Economic Perspectives, 3(4), pp.195-201. Simonetti, R., Himmelweit, S., Mackintosh, M. and Stone, H. (2010).Doing economics : people, markets and policy. Book 1. Milton Keynes : Open University Wilkinson, R. (1996).Unhealthy societies. London: Routledge. Wilkinson, R. and Pickett, K. (2009).The spirit level. London: Allen Lane.