Total Ozone And 11 Year Solar Cycle Environmental Sciences Essay

The chief purpose of the present survey is to look into further into the association between entire ozone ( TOZ ) and 11-year solar rhythm ( SC ) , during the period 1979 – 2010 by using satellite observations of TOZ and impulse flux ( MF ) . A positive correlativity between the one-year mean entire ozone ( TOZ ) over both hemispheres and macula figure ( SN ) is found. On the contrary, concentrating on the January and February mean monthly TOZ fluctuations from the equator to the high latitudes, of the Northern Hemisphere no association between TOZ and SN is derived. It is attributed to the being of the quasi-biennial-oscillation ( QBO ) and the El Ni & A ; ntilde ; o-Southern oscillation ( ENSO ) in TOZ clip series, . However, when sing TOZ over the zonary agencies centred at 17.5 & A ; deg ; N and 27.5 & A ; deg ; N and SN during the old ages of the east stage of QBO in the equatorial zonary air current at 50hPa, a important correlativity between TOZ and SN reveals. These fi ndings are of important importance because solar radiation is a major driving force of the clime system. 1. Introduction Several surveies have shown that fluctuations in the 11-year solar irradiance and subsequent UV soaking up by ozone cause alterations in temperature and air current in the upper stratosphere ( Crooks and Gray, 2005 ; Alexandris et Al. 1999 ; Kondratyev and Varotsos 1996 ; Katsambas et Al. 1997 ) . These comparatively weak direct alterations could change the upward extension of planetary-scale moving ridges and lead to an indirect feedback on the lower ambiance through a alteration of the stratospheric mean circulation – Brewer- Dobson circulation ( Gernandt et al. 1995 ; Kodera and Kuroda, 2002 ; Tzanis and Varotsos, 2008 ; Cracknell and Varotsos 1994, 1995 ; Efstathiou et al. , 2003 ; Gernandt et al. , 1995 ; Varotsos, 2002, 2005 ; Varotsos et Al. 1994 ; Varotsos 1989, 2004 ) Matthes et Al. ( 2010 ) indicated that the one-year mean solar response in temperature and ozone in the upper stratosphere is in qualitative understanding with other mold and experimental surveies and does non depend on the presence of the imposed quasi-biennial oscillation ( QBO ) of equatorial air current. However, the solar response in the center to take down stratosphere differs significantly for the two QBO stages. During solar maxima a weaker Brewer-Dobson circulation with comparative downwelling, warming, and enhanced ozone occurs in the tropical lower stratosphere during QBO east conditions, while a stronger circulation, chilling, and decreased ozone exists during QBO west conditions. During QBO east, the combination of production and advection resulted in the net ozone addition, whereas during QBO west, the effects cancel each other and consequence in small net ozone alterations. Matthes et Al. ( 2010 ) showed besides that during Southern Hemisphere ( SH ) tardily winter to early spring, the solar response at polar latitudes switches mark between the two QBO stages and qualitatively confirms observations and other recent theoretical account surveies. Lu et Al. ( 2009 ) proposed some penetrations on the QBO modulated 11-year solar rhythm signals in Northern Hemisphere ( NH ) winter temperature and zonary air current. They used day-to-day ERA-40 Reanalysis and ECMWF Operational information for the period of 1958-2006 in order to analyze the seasonal development of the QBO-solar rhythm relationship at assorted force per unit area degrees up to the stratopause. The consequences showed that the solar signals in the NH winter extratropics are so QBO-phase dependant, traveling poleward and downward as winter progresses with a faster descent rate under westerly QBO than under eastern QBO. In the stratosphere, the signals seemed to be extremely important in late January to early March and have a life span of ?30-50 yearss. Under western QBO, the stratospheric solar signals clearly lead and connected to those in the troposphere in late March and early April where they have a life span of ?10 yearss. Sitnov ( 2009 ) utilizing entire ozone informations obtained in the period of 1957 – 2007 at 10 ground-based European Stationss, investigated the effects of the QBO and 11-year solar rhythm, attesting in entire column ozone. In this work, it was derived that solar activity modulates the stage of the QBO consequence so that the quasi-biennial entire ozone signals during solar upper limit and solar lower limit are about in opposite stage. It was besides demonstrated that stray under lasting conditions of solar lower limit or solar upper limit the QBO effects in entire ozone have the clip graduated table of about 20 months. Titova and Karol ( 2010 ) holding applied the method of discriminant analysis to the TOMS informations of satellite sounding of the entire ozone content ( TOC ) in the March months of 1979-2008, attempted to do a new estimation of the TOC field variableness in the Northern Hemisphere and inter-longitudinal regularities of its alterations under the action of climatic variableness. The effects of temperature fluctuations in the polar stratosphere, El Ni & A ; ntilde ; o -Southern Oscillation ( ENSO ) and QBO seemed to be comparable and make 80 DU in some parts. Titova and Karol ( 2010 ) besides proposed that the parts of TOC fluctuations and their location and dimensions change depending on the stages of QBO, AO, and ENSO. Three parts of increased TOC-over Europe, Eastern Siberia, and the Pacific Ocean-are formed in old ages with a warm stratosphere. A counterbalancing TOC lessening takes topographic point in the Torrid Zones and over Greenland. In the old ages of El Ni & A ; ntilde ; O and the eastern QBO stage, the TOC increases over Europe and drops over the cardinal Pacific, every bit good as to the South from 45 & A ; deg ; N. Ziemke et Al. ( 2010 ) established an ENSO index utilizing column ozone informations measured in tropical latitudes from Nimbus 7 TOMS, Earth Probe TOMS, NOAA SBUV, and Aura OMI orbiter instruments. This index, which covered a clip period from 1979 to the present, was defined as the Ozone ENSO Index ( OEI ) and it was the first developed from atmospheric hint gas measurings. OEI was constructed by first averaging monthly average column ozone over two wide parts in the western and eastern Pacific and taking their difference. The combined Aura OMI and MLS ozone informations confirmed that zonary variableness in entire column ozone in the Torrid Zones caused by ENSO events lies about wholly in the troposphere. As a consequence, OEI can be derived straight from entire column ozone alternatively of tropospheric column ozone. For clear-sky ozone measurements a +1 K alteration in Nino 3.4 index corresponds to +2.9DU ( Dobson Unit ) alteration in OEI, while a +1 hPa alteration in Southern Os cillation index coincides with a ?1.7DU alteration in the OEI. For ozone measurings under all cloud conditions these Numberss are +2.4DU and ?1.4DU, severally. Soukharev ( 1997 ) analyzing the monthly agencies of entire ozone, in months January to March between 1973 – 1995 on five Stationss in Northeastern Europe, indicated statistically important correlativities between the fluctuations of entire ozone in February and, partly, in March, and the SN during the different stages of QBO. Similar correspondence was established between the index of stratospheric circulation and SN sing the QBO stage. Based on the obtained correlativities between the interannual fluctuations of ozone and stratospheric circulation index, Soukharev concluded that a connexion between solar rhythm – QBO – ozone occurs through the kineticss of stratospheric circulation. Varotsos ( 1989 ) analyzing the planetary TOZ, during the period 1958-1984, suggested that there was non any apparent connexion between TOZ and 10.7 centimeter solar flux ( F10.7 ) . However, when the informations were separated harmonizing to the E or west stage of QBO in the equatorial stratosphere, it was derived that entire ozone was positively correlated ( anticorrelated ) with the solar rhythm, during the West ( east ) stage of QBO. The chief purpose of this work is to research farther the association between TOZ and solar activity, from the equator to the high latitudes in both Hemispheres over the last three solar rhythms.2. Datas and analysisQBO informations used in the present paper were calculated at the NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory-Physical Science Division ( NOAA/ESRL-PSD ) from the zonary norm of the 30mb zonary air current at the equator. Those informations were computed from the NCEP/NCAR Additionally, the average monthly macula Numberss ( SN ) derived from the datasets of the National Geophysical Data Center ( NGDC ) , during the period January 1749 – October 2009, were employed. TOZ informations set, was obtained from Nimbus-7, Meteor-3, and Earth Probe Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer ( TOMS ) and Ozone Monitoring Instrument ( OMI ) , covering the period 1979-2010 ( with measuring spreads for several months of the old ages 1994, 1995 and 1996 ) . Momentum Flux ( MF ) measurings between 45 & A ; deg ; N and 75 & A ; deg ; N, through 1979 – 2010, obtained by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Goddard Space Flight Center, were besides used. Finally, Ozone ENSO index ( OEI ) measurings obtained by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 613.3 Chemistry and Dynamics Branch, in the Torrid Zones during 1979 – 2010, were employed ( Ziemke et al. , 2010 ) . All clip series presented in this survey were normalized ( the long-run mean subtracted and so devided by the standard divergence ) and detrended.3. Discussion and ConsequencesSeveral surveies argued that when the solar UV radiation is stronger, more ozone via the photolysis of O2 would be formed in the upper stratosphere, so that the maximal ozone degree would happen at the maximal solar activity. Very late, Haigh et Al. ( 2010 ) have noticed that during the worsening stage of the most recent '11-year ‘ solar rhythm ( occurred during 2002-2009 ) there was a four to six times larger diminution in UV than would hold been predicted on the footing of our old apprehension. Haigh et Al. ( 2010 ) suggested that this decrease was partly compensated in the entire solar end product by an addition in radiation at seeable wavelengths. More unusually, they have besides showed that these spectral alterations appear to hold led to a important diminution from 2004 to 2007 in stratospheric ozo ne below an height of 45 kilometers, with an addition above this height. Therefore, it is interesting to re-visit the probe of the influence of the solar activity to the column ozone variableness on a planetary and hemispheric footing.3.1. The entire ozone and solar rhythm on a planetary and hemispheric footingAlong the lines above the 11-year solar rhythm and the TOZ one-year average fluctuations over the Earth, the NH and the SH, during the last solar rhythms are shown in Figure cubic decimeter ( a ) , ( B ) , ( degree Celsius ) , severally. Inspection of Figure 1 shows that an evident solar rhythm is outstanding in the TOZ information. To quantify this association the correlativity coefficients were calculated and derived statistically important ( at 95 % assurance degree ) by utilizing the non-parametric Spearman method. a ) B ) degree Celsiuss ) Figure 1. Annual average TOZ and macula figure ( as a placeholder for the 11-year solar rhythm ) over ( a ) the Earth, ( B ) the northern hemisphere, ( degree Celsius ) the southern hemisphere, during 1979 – 2010. TOZ and SN clip series have been normalized and detrended. This in-phase March of TOZ and solar activity is non surprising and it is rather consistent with the current apprehension about the solar forcing in TOZ kineticss. Harmonizing to this, the upper stratospheric ozone response ( 2-3 % between solar lower limit and solar upper limit ) is a direct radiative consequence of warming and photochemistry. The lower stratospheric solar rhythm in tropical ozone appears to be caused indirectly through a dynamical response to solar ultraviolet fluctuations. However, the beginning of such a dynamical response to the solar rhythm is non to the full understood ( WMO 2010 ) .3.2. The entire ozone on the wintertime Northern Hemisphere and solar rhythmTo acquire a better apprehension of the afore-mentioned dynamical TOZ response, the probe of the plausible relationship between TOZ and solar activity would be performed at the wintertime government of the ambiance. Of class, during winter months, the solar rhythm signal is weak compared to big atmospheric fluctuations and the signal is hence more hard to pull out ( Labitzke and new wave Loon, 1988 ) . In an effort to farther research this job, the fluctuations of the average TOZ over the NH during January/February and the corresponding SN values during the period 1979 – 2010 are plotted in Figure 2 ( a ) . a ) B ) Figure 2. ( a ) ( Jan+Feb ) /2 TOZ and SN over the northern hemisphere, during 1979 – 2010. ( B ) The running correlativities ( Rhode Island ) for twelvemonth I between the equatorial zonary air current at 50 hPa and the average TOZ for January and February. TOZ and SN clip series have been normalized and detrended. The decision drawn from Figure 1 ( a ) is that a quasi-periodic constituent ( 2- 4 year ) in the Northern Hemispheric TOZ clip series reduces unusually the above mentioned correlativity between TOZ and SN fluctuations. To look into whether this taint of the association of the TOZ and SN fluctuations by the QBO is a map of the solar activity the method of running correlativities was employed ( Kodera ( 1993 ) . The consequences obtained are shown in Figure 2 ( B ) where the running correlativities ( Rhode Island ) for twelvemonth I between the equatorial zonary air current at 50 hPa and the average TOZ for January and February do non demo an 11-y signal ( figure 2b ) . Therefore, the above-said taint by the QBO of equatorial air current, is independent of the solar rhythm, upseting any evident association between TOZ and SN.3.3. The latitudinal dependance of the association between the wintertime TOZ and solar rhythm at the Northern HemisphereNext, the probe of the possible associatio n between the TOZ and SN is explored as a map of latitude. In this respect, Haigh ( 1994 ) have reported that due to the seasonality, the stratospheric ozone alterations due to solar flux fluctuation are largest at center to high latitudes in the winter hemisphere. Figure 3 ( a-f ) present the January / February mean TOZ and SN from the equator to the high latitudes, during 1979 – 2010. All these figures do non demo any evident correlativity between TOZ and solar activity, due to the taint by the quasi-periodic oscillations ( QBO and ENSO ) in the TOZ clip series. a ) B ) degree Celsiuss ) vitamin E ) vitamin D ) degree Fahrenheit ) Figure 3. ( Jan+Feb ) /2 TOZ and SN at ( a ) 7.5 & A ; deg ; N, ( B ) 17.5 & A ; deg ; N, ( degree Celsius ) 27.5 & A ; deg ; N, ( vitamin D ) 37.5 & A ; deg ; N, ( vitamin E ) 47.5 & A ; deg ; N, ( degree Fahrenheit ) 57.5 & A ; deg ; N, during 1979 – 2010. All clip series have been normalized and detrended. However, the solar response in the winter entire ozone at 17.5 & A ; deg ; N and 27.5 & A ; deg ; N seemed to differ significantly under the two QBO stages. Other surveies have besides identified solar influences on the strength and extent of the Walker circulation, that is a cell circulation in the zonal and perpendicular waies in the tropical troposphere caused by differences in heat distribution between ocean and land. Meehl et Al. ( 2008 ) and vanLoon et Al. ( 2007 ) showed a strengthening of the Walker circulation, at peak old ages of the 11-year solar rhythm, It should be reminded that when the Walker cell weakens or contraries, an El Ni & A ; ntilde ; o consequences, and when Walker cell becomes strong causes a La Ni & A ; ntilde ; a.3.4. The association between the wintertime TOZ and solar rhythm at the Northern tropics ; the function of the QBO and ENSOIn the followers, the January and February mean TOZ and SN informations were grouped harmonizing to the QBO stages of the equatorial zonary air current at 50hPa and were plotted against the OEI at 17.5 & A ; deg ; N and 27.5 & A ; deg ; N ( figure 4a-d ) . During the west stage of QBO, a statistically important anticorrelation between TOZ and OEI clip series is evident, ensuing in a quasi periodic constituent that coincides with ENSO ( Ziemke et al. 2010 ) and causes no correlativity between TOZ and SN. On the other manus, during the east stage of QBO, TOZ clip series exhibits the 11-year signal. a ) B ) degree Celsiuss ) vitamin D ) Figure 4. ( Jan+Feb ) /2 TOZ and SN at 17.5 & A ; deg ; N during ( a ) the west stage of QBO and ( B ) the east stage of QBO. ( Jan+Feb ) /2 TOZ and SN at 27.5 & A ; deg ; N during ( degree Celsius ) the west stage of QBO and ( vitamin D ) the east stage of QBO. The dotted lines present the OEI through 1979 – 2010 in the West and east stages of QBO. All clip series have been normalized and detrended. In the undermentioned, figure 5 ( a ) presents the February mean TOZ and SN at 17.5 & A ; deg ; N, during 1979-2010, while figures 5 ( B ) , ( degree Celsius ) show the February TOZ and macula figure when the informations were grouped in the West and east stage of QBO, severally. Inspection of these figures shows an evident correlativity between TOZ and the 11-year solar rhythm, during QBO east ( statistically important correlativity at 95 % assurance degree ) . The ENSO constituent is noticeable one time more in the TOZ clip series when the informations were grouped in the west stage of QBO and is anticorrelated with OEI ( figure 5 ( B ) ) . B ) a ) degree Celsiuss ) Figure 5. February average TOZ and SN at 17.5 & A ; deg ; N, through 1979-2010 ( a ) independently of the QBO stages, ( B ) for the western stages of QBO and ( degree Celsius ) for the eastern stages of QBO. The thin line with the symbol ten, in ( a ) , corresponds to the smoothened clip series of the February mean TOZ. All clip series have been normalized and detrended. a ) B ) Figure 6. ( a ) February mean TOZ at 17.5 & A ; deg ; N against equatorial zonary air current at 50hPa, ( B ) temporal development of QBO upper limit and lower limit, during 1979 – 2010. All clip series have been normalized and detrended. To analyze farther the part of the QBO in the equatorial zonary air current at 50 hPa to the association between the February TOZ at 17.5 & A ; deg ; N and OEI the figure 6 ( a ) is shown.. Figure 6a shows the statistically important anticorrelation between OEI and TOZ, but no any association of TOZ with QBO. The latter can likely be explained by the fact that TOZ exhibits OEI and it is modulated by the temporal development of QBO upper limit and lower limit. To give an penetration to it Figure 6 ( B ) depicts the temporal development of the difference between consecutive QBO upper limit and [ ( soap ( i+1 ) – soap ( I ) ] and the temporal development of the difference between consecutive QBO lower limit [ min ( i+1 ) – min ( I ) ] for twelvemonth ( I ) . Both the differences in the consecutive upper limit and the differences in the consecutive lower limit of QBO demonstrate the ENSO signal.3.5. The association between the wintertime TOZ and solar rhythm at the Northern high latitudes ; the function of the QBO and ENSOFinally, in order to research the function of the atmospheric kineticss to the relationship between the TOZ and solar rhythm the interannual variableness of the February mean impulse flux ( MF ) between 45 & A ; deg ; N and 75 & A ; deg ; N at 50hPa, during 1979 – 2010 was studied. , . Figure 7 ( a ) depicts the clip series of MF and SN for February, while figures 7b, degree Celsius show the impulse flux and macula figure when the informations were grouped harmonizing to the QBO stage. Harmonizing to Figure 1 ( degree Celsius ) , during the old ages of the east stage of QBO an evident anticorrelation between MF and the 11-year solar rhythm is observed. A plausible account is the fact that in winter months, the polar whirl is sensitive to equatorial air current. In this context, Salby and Callaghan ( 2000 ) have found that alterations in the polar-night whirl are consistent with the solar signature observed in wintertime record s of polar temperature that have been stratified harmonizing to the QBO of equatorial air current. B ) a ) degree Celsiuss ) Figure 7. February average MF and SN between 45 & A ; deg ; N and 75 & A ; deg ; N, through 1979-2010 ( a ) independently of the QBO stages, ( B ) for the western stages of QBO and ( degree Celsius ) for the eastern stages of QBO. All clip series have been normalized and detrended. Another decision drawn from Figure 7 is that the increased dynamical variableness occurs during the west stage of the equatorial QBO and the winter whirl is significantly weakened during solar upper limit and western stage of the quasi-biennial oscillation.4. DecisionsIn this survey, a statistically important correlativity was derived between the one-year mean TOZ and SN over the Earth, the northern and the southern hemisphere, through 1979 – 2010. The evident 11-year signals in TOZ were obtained without any grouping of ozone informations harmonizing to the QBO stages of equatorial air current. Furthermore, sing the January and February mean TOZ and SN over the NH, an obvious quasi-periodic constituent was seen in the TOZ clip series, cut downing perceptibly the above mentioned correlativity between TOZ and 11-year solar rhythm. No evident correlativity was besides derived analyzing the January and February mean TOZ and SN from the equator to the high latitudes, due to the qua si-periodic constituent in the TOZ clip series, caused likely by the quasi-periodic oscillations. Concentrating on the January and February mean TOZ and SN at 17.5 & A ; deg ; N and 27.5 & A ; deg ; N, TOZ clip series revealed an 11-year signal during the eastern QBO stages and an ENSO signal during the western QBO stages. The correlativity between TOZ and the 11-year solar rhythm, in the east stage of QBO becomes higher for February. Finally, analyzing the February mean MF between 45 & A ; deg ; N and 75 & A ; deg ; N at 50hPa, during 1979 – 2010, eastern stages of QBO seemed to do an obvious anticorrelation between MF and the 11-year solar rhythm.

Essay Plan

The purpose of this assessment is to provide developmental feedback to help you to improve your performance on the final module examination which carries 100% of module marks. Each of the essay questions below will appear as a ‘seen' question on the forthcoming examination paper: engagement in this formative assessment task is therefore essential in your preparations for this. It is imperative that you complete this task to the best of your ability to optimism your level of performance on the doodle overall.Failure to engage with this task is likely to adversely affect your performance on the module. The task You are required to produce an essay plan of 500 words (excluding words In reference list). This should Include the following: 1. An Introduction of 200-250 words written In full with appropriate citations. 2. An outline of the main body which Includes a list of key Ideas/arguments, presented In a logical order Including Indication of key authors. Links to the question sho uld be highlighted to demonstrate relevance of Included material. 3.Outline of conclusion which summaries key points and links back to the question set. 4. Reference list In full which follows Harvard Referencing. You should select ONE of the following questions: A. Perspectives, Perceptions and Selections Outline the social exchange perspective on selection. In what ways does this develop our understanding of the selection process? B. Managing Performance Why Is performance management necessary In organizations? Critically assess the difficulties that arise In Its Implementation. BY MEETS You are required to produce an essay plan of 500 words (excluding words in reference list).This should include the following: 1. An introduction of 200-250 words written in full with appropriate citations. 2. An outline of the main body which includes a list of key ideas/arguments, presented in a logical order including indication of key authors. Links to the question should be highlighted to demo nstrate relevance of included material. 3. Outline of conclusion which summaries key points and links back to the question set. 4. Reference list in Why is performance management necessary in organizations? Critically assess the difficulties that arise in its implementation.

Similarities and Difference Between Hinduism and Buddhism.

Similarities and difference between Hinduism and Buddhism. Buddhism believes in the process of reincarnation based on deeds of the present life. Hinduism also believes that everyone is a part of an impersonal world and therefore, one's soul reincarnates into another body of any being, based on the deeds of the present life. One has to work for salvation oneself and therefore, cannot blame others for the same. The salvation depends on the good deeds of a person. In Hinduism also, one attains salvation as per one's own fate and deeds. Both of them believe that there are many paths to attain enlightenment such as overcoming through your feelings and desires and controlling over the six conscious senses. Both the schools of thought believe that excessive attachment to things and people in the physical world causes pain and suffering. Therefore, we must get ourselves free from the illusions of ‘Maya' or worldly desires. Both of them gives an emphasis on the practice of meditation and other forms of yoga, which not only helps one to concentrate on the truth of life, but also facilitates the path of enlightenment and liberation. The Hindus believe in 300,000 Gods. Buddhism do follow some rituals but only in the form of meditation, and bowing and different forms of worship while offering prayer in the Buddhist temples. Buddhist practices also do not require any priests. The rituals, being followed by the Hindus are more complex and vary from birth to death of a person. Besides, priests do play important role in all the rituals. The Buddhists do not believe in the stages of life. People can join any of the stages any time depending upon their spiritual preparedness. The Hindus believe in the four stages of life What impact has a religious or spiritual tradition had on your life. I would have to say my parents. They are both Christians and raised me and my brother and sister as Christians. I was baptized and have attended church throughout the years. I have also gone to youth group and to youth camp. We do family devotions. My dad tries to get us all together at night. It is hard we all play sports or do other activities and sometimes we are tired. I like what the devotions say it is just I don’t always want to sit there and do it. I believe in God, it is just sometimes I have a hard time doing what I know I should do. Read the subsection on Mesopotamia and write two or three sentences to summarize it. All the Mesopotamian civilizations to follow – Akkadian, Babylonian, and Assyrian – adopted Sumerian culture and made it their own. The Sumerians were the originators whom everyone copied. In addition to creating the first forms of writing, the Sumerians invented the plow, the wheel, and used bronze tools. Their impact was so great that we feel it today when we hear about the Great Flood. The Amorites were better known as Babylonians – named after the city they founded in central Mesopotamia called Babylon. Babylon became the most well-known city in all of Mesopotamia. The most famous king of the Babylonians was one of its earliest kings Hammurabi. Define or describe each of the following key terms from this section. Civilization- A complex culture in which large numbers of people share basic elements, such as a social structure, religion, and art. Patriarchal- Society in Mesopotamia was dominated by men. Circle the letter of the word that has the closet meaning to the boldface academic vocabulary words from this lesson. 1. A system of codes helped maintain order in early civilizations. C. regulations 2. Early civilizations focused on what the leaders believed were important goals for maintain their social structure. A. concentrated Egypt and Divine Kingship Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower Nile River. Egyptian civilization began around 3150 BC. Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh. The history of ancient Egypt occurred in a series of stable Kingdoms, separated by periods of relative instability known as Intermediate Periods: the Old Kingdom, the Middle Kingdom, and the New Kingdom. Egypt reached a high of its power during the New Kingdom. Egypt was conquered by a succession of foreign powers in this late period. Egyptian monarchs had many titles, but the most common was pharaoh, which means â€Å"great house† or â€Å"palace. † 1. How did King Solomon Help Jerusalem become the capital of Israel? Under King Solomon the Israelites established control over all Palestine. Jerusalem became the capital of a united kingdom known as Israel. He expanded the government and encouraged trade. He is known for building the temple in Jerusalem. 2. How did Judaism give Jews strength? Judaism became a stateless religion. They believed God was not fixed to one place; he was lord of the whole world. It helped them maintain an identity as a people even though they did not have a state. 3. What Jewish beliefs are parts of Western tradition? Human beings are separate from nature and must struggle against it; human beings have a particular relationship to a supreme being, who watches over them. 4. How was Judaism unique among ancient religions of western Asia and Egypt? Asia and Egypt believed in many Gods. Judaism was monotheistic, being one God. It gave all people not just a ruler or priest, access to God. Judaism – People of Judah were Jews and their religion was called Judaism. Monotheistic – Belief in one God. Covenant – A contract with God’s people when lead out of bondage. Prophets – Religious teachers used by God to speak to his people. Ancient India Cast System and Hinduism/Buddhism will be covered. Cast System – Social and religious classification based on discrimination Hinduism – Religion whose followers believe in karma and reincarnation. Buddhism – Religion with a goal of achieving wisdom. Networks – Extended family used in caste system. Ancient China 1. In what way was the â€Å"mandate from Heaven† a powerful ruling force? This political belief said that a ruler was the ruler because Heaven had given the mandate. 2. How did the beliefs of Confucius indirectly support the â€Å"Mandate from Heaven†? He believed people were naturally good and every person could acquire knowledge and virtue if you had a virtuous leader. He believed in obedience to superiors. Confucianism – It was the same thing. He believed people were naturally good and every person could acquire knowledge and virtue if you had a virtuous leader. He believed in obedience to superiors. Core – In Chinese society the family is the core. The fathers place was very high. How did the law codes and religious beliefs develop in ancient civilizations? About 5,000 years ago, the first civilizations began to develop along river valleys. The rich, fertile farmlands of river valleys helped these civilizations to thrive. These early civilizations relied on a traditional economy based on farming. Many developed into cities with systems of government, social structures, and belief systems, laying the foundations for later civilizations. Through warfare and trade, these and other cultural achievements spread to new lands. The Hebrews developed Judaism, a monotheistic religion based on the worship of one God, whose laws are set out in the Torah and the Ten Commandments. In Egypt, the benefits of the Nile River supported the development of early civilization. The history of ancient Egypt is divided into three periods: Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom, and New Kingdom. Religious beliefs about gods, values, and life after death affected ancient Egyptian life. India is a land of mountains, fertile plains, and arid regions. In the Indus River valley this civilization was taken over by the Aryans, who invaded India and destroyed many Indus Valley cities. Geography isolated early Chinese civilization, yet the people developed a writing system, literature, silk making, and other arts. They honored nature and ancestor spirits. How did the caste system influence the lives of people in ancient India? The Aryans divided their society into separate castes. Castes were unchanging groups. A person born into one caste never changed castes or mixed with members of other castes. Caste members lived, ate, married, and worked with their own group. At the top of the caste system were the priests, teachers, and, then warrior caste, farmers and merchants, and craft workers and laborers. The untouchables were the outcastes, or people beyond the caste system. Their jobs or habits involved â€Å"polluting activities† including any job that involved ending a life, such as fishing killing or disposing of dead cattle or working with their hides. Untouchables were often forbidden to enter temples, schools and wells where higher castes drew water. In some parts of southern India, even the sight of untouchables was thought to be polluting The Civilization of the Greeks Greek Ideas about Government The Greeks had a lot of different kinds of governments, because there were many different city-states in ancient Greece, and they each had their own government. In addition, people's ideas about what made a good government changed over time. Aristotle divided Greek governments into monarchies, oligarchies, tyrannies and democracies. For the most part, Greece began by having monarchies, then oligarchies, then tyrannies and then democracies, but at each period there were plenty of city-states using a different system, and there were many which never did become democracies or tyrannies at all. All Greek city-states seem to have been monarchies, ruled by kings. Homer's Iliad, and Greek mythology in general, shows us a whole series of kings like Agamemnon and Theseus, and some of their palaces have survived for archaeologists to dig up. Writing About History Persuasive Writing. How was the polis the center of Greek Life? â€Å"Polis† is the Greek word for a city-state. Some city-states were democracies; others were ruled by kings, who in Greek were called tyrants, a tyrant was just a king, not necessarily an evil or cruel. How important was the polis to Greek life? Let's put it this way there was no Greek life outside a polis. The entire Greek history is a history of rivalries between city-states. What was the citizen of Ancient Greece Like? Only Males who had: were 18, owned land, were free and both parents of the male had to be the children of citizens. Females, no matter how high born, could not become citizens. Slaves and Foreigners could not become citizens. Also, man slaves could not be citizens either. Citizens were expected to attend regular meetings, as well as serve in the army or navy. Who ran the Spartan government? They had two kings, hereditary monarchs; the kings were automatic members of the Gerousia, the council of 28 elders picked for life plus the two kings. Five ephors, chosen annually by popular election, had the main power. The final part was the assembly, made up of all Spartan citizens over 18. Why is Athenian democracy considered a model for American democracy? The founders of democracy in Athens exercised decisions through a direct democracy in which all male citizens were allowed to have direct influence on the decisions. Although in the United States today we accept democracy as a form of life it had its early beginnings in the city-states of Ancient Greece. The form of government known as democracy had its early roots in Ancient Greece but its influence has a direct connection with the type of government we have today in the United States. Today in the United States of America we have a representative democracy in which we appoint â€Å"representatives† through election. Define each of the following key terms. Polis – In ancient Greece, an independent city and its surrounding region under a unified government. Usually the town was walled and contained a citadel on raised ground acropolis and a marketplace agora. Tyrant – A tyrant was one who illegally seized and controlled a governmental power in a polis. Democracy – Is a government by the people or rule of many. Oligarchy – Is ruled by the few. Direct Democracy – Is a form of government in which people collectively make decisions for themselves, rather than having their political affairs decided by representatives. Without common goals, a community would have a community would have a difficult time maintaining order. (c. aws) Only adult males could vote in ancient Athens. (a. grown-up) The Greek Love of Wisdom. The ancient Greeks considered wisdom to be an important virtue. Socrates and Plato, philosophy was literally the love of Wisdom. Plato's The Republic, in which the leaders of his proposed utopia are to be philosopher kings: rulers who understand the Form of the Good and possess the courage to act accordi ngly. Aristotle, in his Metaphysics, defined wisdom as the understanding of causes, i. e. knowing why things are a certain way, which is deeper than merely knowing that things are a certain way. Philosophy – Refers to an organized system of thought. Socratic Method- Socrates used it as a teaching method he presumed that all knowledge was already present in each person and after careful questioning could draw out. Foundations – What people build things on like government or religion, like their beliefs. Who lived in the polis? The development of the Greek polis whether a military oligarchy in Sparta or democracy in Athens allowed citizens to participate in political issues. This concept of the â€Å"rule by the people,† mainly in Athens, gave the citizens a sense of freedom and harmony. In order to be a citizen in the polis, one had to be an adult whose ancestors were Greek and from that particular polis. Children, foreigners, and slaves could not be citizens. Citizens had many exclusive rights. How did Athens and Sparta differ? The city-states differed in different regions of ancient Greece. Even though the states kept the concept of the polis, the way in which each was governed differed. Two of the most important city-states were Sparta and Athens. Sparta developed as a war-like polis, while Athens developed as a democratic one. Rome and the Rise of Christianity.

FIXED-PRICING CONTRACTING Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

FIXED-PRICING CONTRACTING - Essay Example labor and materials. Therefore, by using these indices the profitability and going concern of small businesses is shield from fluctuating economic conditions. Thus, when there are serious doubts about the economic environment’s stability for prices of labor and materials used by small contracting firms during the period of performance of contract, it is eminent all pre-defined contingencies subject to fluctuations are measured and determined (Stanberry, 2012). Therefore, the fixed-price contracts EPA are the most appropriate type of contacts for small businesses not enjoying any economies of scale and having the desire to grow and expand in a hostile environment where rivalry between firms for the limited market share is intense. Thus, small business owners can take advantage of favorable economic conditions to make supernormal profits when price adjusts upward by negotiating high terms for the ceiling of contract price and negotiating low base level prices during adverse economic

KFC topic and marketing yes Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

KFC topic and marketing yes - Essay Example limited products, though unique, KFC has been impacted by fierce competition from competitors like McDonald’s, Wendy’s and Burger King among others. A close analysis of the case study draws to the conclusion that there is need for KFC to diversify its products while attempting to retain its uniqueness in order to remain viable in the long run. In the early 1950s, Harland Sanders embarked on a franchising strategy which saw KFC rapidly growing in America to become one of the most recognizable brands. Having been taken public and listed on the New York Stock Exchange, KFC grew a strong foothold in the United States which prompted it to venture into international markets. Thus, the major motive behind PepsiCo’s acquisition followed a strong belief that the restaurant industry complemented their business of soft drinks and snacks. It was believed that restaurants increased the number of outlets to sell soft drinks and this would also increase the organisation’s popularity. Given that KFC was an already established business entity in the market, PepsiCo sought to capitalise on this through an acquisition which would sort of transfer all the loyal customers from KFC to them. PepsiCo believed that it could take advantage of the numerous synergies available for operating different businesses under one umbrella name. Management skills could be transferred among three businesses. The company had earlier own acquired Pizza Hut and Taco Bell which were leaders in pizza and Mexican categories which could create a synergy with the chicken brand. These synergies were hoped to create competitive advantage for PepsiCo since it would be operating different lucrative businesses which will help it gain more market shares. It can be seen from the case study that the fast food industry is characterised by stiff competition from other rival competitors. Reynolds and Lancaster (1999) suggest that Porter’s Five Forces Model is an ideal business strategy that is used to analyse

Soya-bean Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Soya-bean - Essay Example However, now doubts have been raised by scientists, doctors and nutritionists that soy is not that healthy after all and that soy poses special health risk A very interesting account of the historical travel of the soy plant in the Western world has been documented by Hymowitz (1990). While his idea that the soy plant was a saviour, or manna from heaven itself, for many people can be and is subjected to much debate, the historical account of the origin of the plant is well worth a read. Soya bean is a gift to the new world from the ancient oriental (Chinese , Japanese civilization). Before we take up the issue of the actual debate of the nutrient value and the positive and negative effects of this miracle plant, it would be worthwhile to have a brief glimpse into the origin and historical path travelled by it. Recorded history traces of its origin dates back to 2838 BC in China and to 6th century in Japan. Ibn Europe the records show an introduction of the plant as late as the 17th century , with America eventually catching up. Nonetheless, the USA produces one-third of the world's supply and indeed has seen a rise in the actual sales of soy product by nearly 3 times in the past decade. Like most legumes and beans, soy bean... Interestingly they also contain a high proportion of fat, however since this is mostly unsaturated fat, the effects of such lipid forms are mostly beneficial for an individual. However it is important to address that this nutrient content profile is applicable to Whole Foods and not Supplements. Much of the research to date has examined dietary soy in the form of whole foods such as tofu, "soymilk," or as soy protein added to foods, and the public health community mostly concurs that these whole foods can be worthwhile additions to a healthy diet. The recently raised concerns, however, focus on specific components of soy, such as the soy isoflavones daidzein and genistein, not the whole food or intact soy protein. In this respct we need to understand the nutrient content of soy been at the micronutrient level. This is also important since there has been an increase in chemicals, available over the counter in pills and powders, which are both, advertised and marketed as dietary supplements for use by women to help lessen menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes. While it may be possible that soy bean, in whole food has some efficacy for improving a lot of diseased condition, it is imperative to understand that teasing out individual chemicals would not be a good practice. This problem has been very accurately summarised by Wood; "There are probably hundreds of protective compounds in soy [foods]. It's just too big a leap to assume that a pill could do the same thing" (Woods, 2000). The need to exercise caution hence is clear and care must be taken in hailing soy as the food that can do only good. Nonetheless, there is much effect in the literature which supports the increased prevalence of soy bean as a health food. C Soybean as Food While not every form

When Volunteerism Isn't Noble Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

When Volunteerism Isn't Noble - Essay Example Her disagreement with the school board on trading voluntary hours with credits did not stop her from offering free service. This is because she believes that volunteering in one’s community is of worth and fundamental. She disagrees with mandatory volunteering because it is not genuine. People in such programs are forced to engage in voluntary services to satisfy goals that could be educational. For example, in Lynn’s school, students were compelled to complete hours of community services to get their respective diplomas. Lynn refuses to comply with mandatory volunteering in her school because of several reasons. The first reason that inspires her refusal to comply with compulsory volunteering is its equivalence to blackmail. She does not understand why the president would approve any programs that force students to volunteer before they attain their grades. Her decision to sue Liberty High was attributable to the fact that obligatory volunteerism program was faulty. Sh e noticed that other students joked about it while others exaggerated the number of hours they worked (McWhorter 19). I do not agree entirely with Lynn Steirer’s ideas on volunteering. Volunteering should not be liberal because it affects the entire volunteering process. Volunteering has desirable results when people are forced to participate, for example, by being given hours that they need to satisfy. Sometimes people need to be forced before they realize the significance of volunteering in both their lives and communities. Mandatory volunteering is positive especially to students because it could make students responsible. During the volunteering process, students notice that they are passionate about volunteering making them responsible students. They could be unaware of institutions that allow them to offer their free services. This suggests that mandatory volunteering exposes them

Planning in the Health-Care Setting Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Planning in the Health-Care Setting - Case Study Example Health Information Management was formed by Jackie and Sandra as a partnership firm and consists of 6 other specialists (Elements of a Business Plan). As this market niche has not been identified so there are no competitors at all as yet. Therefore, considerable profits can be reaped but competitors will penetrate in future so the firm should provide cost-effective and premium quality services to retain its market share even in future. Presently, there exists an untapped market niche for home health care personnel and resources. Hence, the firm has an excellent opportunity to cater to the entire industry and establish its monopoly before competitors enter the market .Customers’ expectations and industry standards are based around providing prompt and quality home health care benefits. Market trend seems to suggest growth in future years. Prompt and premium home health care services shall be provided. Price skimming shall be used to reap the maximum profits, as demand for these services is unfulfilled so customers will pay the high prices. The services should be promoted through hospitals and clinics and shall be provided at homes of patients (Crow & Goldstein, 2003). In addition to Jackie and Sandra, the management team is composed of 2 RRAs and 4 ARTs. The principal partners as well as the specialist staff are highly motivated and committed to business growth and betterment. Bryan and others have willingly taken the challenge of providing home health care

Decision Making Process Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Decision Making Process Paper - Essay Example Three years ago after graduating, I took an entry-level job because of the experience and skills I would gain. However, after two years and joining the full-time rank of employees, I got frustrated with my job because of the low pay, I was getting. I was spending more than what I was earning and wanted this to change. I decided that I wanted to quit my job and start a small business. It was a critical decision that I had to make carefully because the economy today is extremely challenging and in most cases, such entry-level jobs are a luxury when jobs are so hard to come by even for graduates. In addition, like all new business, I was not sure if it would be successful or not. In such situations, most parents are not happy with such decisions, so I had to convince my parents, why the loan I borrowed from them, was not a waste of their hard-earned money. According to Bateman and Snell (2007), to make an effective decision, the first step is to identify and diagnose the problem. I had to recognize the difference that existed between my current job state and the state that I desired. In the second stage, it is critical to generate an alternative solution. I decided that since the little amount I had saved was not enough to start the business, I would borrow my parents a loan. The third stage in decision-making is to evaluate the existing alternatives and the fourth stage is to make a choice. I was spending more than I was earning, therefore found it wiser to quit my job and start a business where I would get the opportunity to earn more than I spent. The last stage in decision-making process involves implementing the decision (Bateman & Snell, 2007). I knew this stage of decision-making required careful planning, so I made all the preparations necessary when starting a new business such as getting a business license and used but effic ient office equipment. Today, I am a proud owner of a small business

How to Create a Marketing Plan Essay Example for Free

How to Create a Marketing Plan Essay When was the last time you dusted off that marketing plan you created for your business? Wait, you do have a marketing plan, right? Well, if your marketing plan somehow found its way to the recycle bin or if you have actually never planned out a marketing strategy for your business then BusinessMarketingBlog is going to help you. Before we jump into the 6 Simple Steps to Developing A Marketing Plan, it is important that you understand the following elements of every successful marketing plan: 1) Spend the time and resources to plot out your marketing strategy and budget 2) Implement your marketing plan 3) Analyze and adjust your marketing plan as needed 4) Refine your marketing plan for the upcoming year, quarter, month, etc. 6 Steps to an Effective Marketing Plan Step 1: Define the Purpose of Your Marketing Efforts Before you can create a successful marketing plan you must have a strong understanding of what the purpose of your marketing plan is. QUESTION: What do I want people to do after they have been exposed to my marketing? Your answer should be something very specific, not something vague like â€Å"I want my marketing to help my business grow.† Here are some common purposes that business owners use to drive their marketing efforts: * Get someone to pick up the phone and call me * Entice someone to email me * Get people to tell others about my marketing / business HINT: The more thought and planning you put into this first step, the higher your conversion rates will be throughout your marketing efforts. Step 2: Determine Your Competitive Advantage and Emphasize It Now that you have pinned down a couple of the purposes for your marketing plan it is time to think about and plan out how you are going to get people to complete these actions. QUESTION: Why will people take the specified actions you have identified? You must determine what your competitive advantage is over your competitors. Sure, you probably have a lot of great benefits and value adds,  but you need determine your one strongest and most specific competitive advantage. HINT: Stress your competitive advantage as a solution to a problem (if possible). Step 3: Determine Your Target Audience Your marketing plan cannot be effective unless you know the specific demographics of the customers you are trying to reach. Again, try to be as specific as possible as the most effective marketing plans are centered around targeted, accurate broadcasting and not so much reaching the highest number of people possible. A thousand random prospects will usually not earn you as much profit as 10 of the right prospects. QUESTION: Which group of people will be most accepting and willing to receive my marketing message? You can save a ton of money by knowing who your target audience is and tailoring your marketing to that group of people. HINT: Identify ALL of your target groups, BUT market to each group with tailored, targeted messages. Step 4: Determine Your Marketing Methods There are so many ways to market a business these days; however, only a few marketing methods and mediums are raising to the top as being the most cost effective and penetrating. Get out of your old, set ways of how marketing needs to be and expand your efforts into some of today’s most effective means of reaching prospects. Ask yourself this question: QUESTION: Which marketing strategies will allow me to reach my prospects where they are without annoying or interrupting them and will I be able to directly track the results of these efforts? Online marketing is one of, if not, the most cost effective ways to market a business these days. We recommend a comprehensive marketing campaign that includes all of the following online marketing methods: * Business Website and/or Blog * Paid Search Marketing * Search Engine Optimization * Social Media Marketing * Email Marketing * Video Marketing HINT: Hire a professional to implement and maintain these online marketing services for you. You will save a ton of money in the long run. Step 5:  Determine Your Niche Now that you have pin-pointed your purpose, benefits and target market, you need to define your niche. Ask yourself this question: QUESTION: When people hear your product / business / company name, what’s the first thing that crosses their minds? Is it price, speed, exclusivity, service, value or something else? Your answer to this is your niche, also known as positioning, and it is what your prospects see and expect from you. The more defined and specialized your business becomes, the more likely it is to succeed in the long run so put some thought into this one. HINT: Once you define your niche, specialize in it as much as possible and communicate this niche throughout all of your marketing Step 6: Determine Your Marketing Budget Last, but most definitely not the least important, is to define what your marketing budget is for your business. Your marketing budget is something that should be evaluated at least 4 times a year, if not more. You should stick to your planned budget as much as possible. Too often do we see businesses get nervous in tough economies and decide to cut expenses with marketing being one of the first to see cuts. QUESTION: Do you really think that cutting your marketing budget or holding off on aggressive marketing is going to position your business appropriately in any economy? Marketing is not something you should ever cut corners on, especially in down economies when opportunities are ripe for cheaper market penetration. We recommend preparing to spend at least 10% of your gross sales on marketing your business. HINT: Calculate your marketing budget using your projected gross sales; this will help you operate in a growth mode. If you work off of your current sales then you will be plan ning a marketing strategy to just tread water. Putting It All Together These 6 steps are more than enough to get you started on developing a real marketing plan for your business. There are many more elements to a full scale marketing plan that deserves time, research and planning; however, once this work is done and you are able to see, follow, analyze and refine your marketing plan we can almost guarantee that your business will be taken to new levels of success that you have not experienced yet. Good luck and  please let us know if you need assistance or have specific questions about any or all of the steps outlined above.

The Influence Of Internet On The Music Industry

The Influence Of Internet On The Music Industry Internet has made the world into global village and the growth occur in internet technology in a short spare of time brings out huge changes in world. The new trend of business comes as an E-Business and no one would have thought that it will become the most powerful tool of business. There are many positive and negative changes made due to internet vast technology. Companies get involve in E-Business and online trading creating new opportunities to explore the world and with rapid changing in technology. Companies and organizations startup their business in B2B, B2C businesses with help of internet excess and digitalization. Literature on the History of Digital Music and changes in Music industry: According to the International Trade Union release the trend in using the internet has rapidly increased in last few years especially in EU-countries and now a days internet is affecting almost all industry in positive and negative change in transitional countries. Great impact we can see in industries dealing with goods which can be distributed and digitalized online. In 80s digital revolution took place and affected every aspect of human life and developed a new human behavior. Thomas Beecham has said musicologist is a man who can read music but cant hear it. Music digitalization and distribution is one of them and this report will discuss the interference between technology changes in music industry. The first ever released music album on internet was back in year 1998 and it was a direct released by Chuck D with label Def Jam, this brings out the storm in music industry with a new change. This was a bad news for the mainly major companies of industry ruling on the world for almos t century. The another launch on internet did by the Peter Fanning in 1999 and a millions of people start getting the exchange of music files and it was a threat for the industry. In step with the development of new music formats because of the increasing use of internet (www, emails, FTP chat etc.) their potential usefulness in everyday of life, users started using internet for a wide range of need like everyday communication, entertainment, education and conducting business online. Music industry needs to get explore and brings out changements and to process and adapt new situation, and the major reason was the unfair partition of the money between the artists and his label. The biggest improvement which came with internet that an artist can reach his audience with no barrier and filter as in early 60s many musicians try to find out ways to expose their talent but they couldnt get succeed and the talent remains hidden from the world. The independent labels always exist in the industry and being managed by people who loves music. In my essay I will explain with my example that the first ever album and band using the internet technology to promote their label and name was from United Kingdom. In Britain there are lots of bands releasing their music albums everyday and they sell in millions also but the ARTIC MONKEY band from UK understood how to use internet very well for their promotion and marketing and create a huge fan. They released the album and made many burnt CDs with demos of their music and gave away in public freely with their MySpace address and they got succeeded in building their reputation without releasing anything. The news reported that thousands of fans singing the lyrics of songs and the band creates and achieve hysteria every time they put a new song on MySpace page and these all were not official release, they also provides their future releases on MySpace. The first song released by the Arctic Monkey was the hit and hit the first place in charts suddenly and their album broke the selling record in first week (beating Oasis, Spice Girls, Beatles) and Arctic Monkey proven that internet can be the strength not the threat for industry of music. MySpace have helped various artists and musicians to target their audience in their own style of music regardless of label demands. Experts admitted that illegal downloading of music can never get stop and it messes up the system which is unfair with artist and who paying for albums. BPI (British Phonographic Industry) has joined with IFPI to take legal action against internet file sharing. Research on the Positive Effects on Music Industry: 81.87% of the entire industry of music was controlled and ruling by four record companies as you can see with the figure shown Fig.1 Warner Music Group, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, EMI Group and These are the labels who have money to promote artists through the medium of radio, TV shows, and music videos, most of the artists are not signed or in a contract with these labels but small labels do have to promote their music as they dont have enough money for promotion. MySpace: Performing Right Society is the United Kingdom association of composers, music producers and songwriters, they have announced a strategic partnership relationship with MySpace and both organizations will be working together throughout year 2010. The main aim is to support, share, and discover music for promoting MySpace as the online aim. There is another importance of PRS Music membership for the music on my space generation is one of its kind deals in the music industry. Over a million of bands registered in UK and MySpace is the most popular medium and channel for the new and upcoming artists and music to promote their work. PRS music as go up to more than 65,000 members representing UKs people related with music industry in means of songwriters, composers, and publishers and we have seen a rapid growth in young songwriters. This deal comprises of three core themes building the partnership: Using MySpace service to communicate to new writers and musicians and promote the importance of the PRS Music membership. Benefits to PRS Music members: exclusive offers for the classes of songwriting and competitions and across country promotional activities and campaigns. MySpace Usage: existing PRS Music members value the usage of MySpace to engage more fans and wider the industry. There is a partnership between PRS music and My space music and it is connected for 12 months contract and it has the objective and aim to promote and it follows to the latest completion of a PRS music license for to launch a music of MySpace music, and this will provide a new platform the music lovers to download and stream music online and it will be having the catalogue of audio tracks and music videos in a comprehensive quantity. The partnership represents a genuine break to reach and to write lyrics on the new song albums by the writers who are already creating and sharing their music online. MySpace is an unbelievably powerful tool for the countries like UKs songwriting community and both organizations are fanatical about supporting new musical talent from all over the world. (Jezz Bell, Director Broadcast Online) Music Piracy: The positive part of the music piracy is that it allows listeners to download unknown artists piece of music from internet because they dont like to spend money and experiment with unknown artists. This kind hurt industry because most of the listeners download instead of buying but on other hand downloader may realize they like the music so they could buy the actual album or other albums of same artist will either to spread the music to their friends who then it can turn in to power to buy the album. Piracy is defined as illegal music theft. (Graham, Music industry finds new beat) In 1999 a new kind of service started which grows rapidly that was Peer-to-Peer (P2P) which was widely used by internet users to share music online. Napster was the leader in the field of P2P music sharing and he introduced this service for the sharing of mp3 music in its designed search engine. Walkman style was introduced and widely available in year 2000 and demand for mp3 format music increased in boom, and 70% of the music lovers used the format. Several issues which are considered by major players of music industry, some of them are People prefers to download individual songs not entire albums People search for popular music that is not possible to get in offline stores. People enjoys in sharing music and downloading at zero cost. Internet file sharing becomes the rapidly increasing trend. American idol can be given as example the contestants gone from TV star to superstar and makes potential money makers every year merely release song to iTunes and make their money and move and if artist doesnt have potential so it doesnt matter to recording company. Online Music Distribution: P2P technology led the rise in music piracy through internet and RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) annual reports show the revenues of CD retail business declining since 2000 till present. In 2004 the global music piracy was estimated to be worth 4.8 billion dollars (Reece, 2004) and for the present music industry it is extremely important issue if the consumers continue to download free music and producers and distributors will not be able to recover their original cost even nor music retailers and recording labels, basically end of day they are out there way to make any money. Therefore the major recording companies have published their own online music sales websites but its not proven as successful idea for them. They changed their strategy making new partners which are specialists for distribution of online music (Graham 2004). Now it is not necessary to buy complete album and digital era is one of the reason for the crises of music companies. Websites like CDbaby.com, Tunecore.com are uploading digital albums for Napster, AMAZONMP3, Rhapsody. Online music stores made music availability easier and widely accessed by internet users, and there are thousands of online store which are working on free downloading system or pay-per-download service. In 21st century iTunes a free software piece developed by Apple company at Macword in San Francisco and iTunes Music Store (iTMS) is presently the most popular music provider having large music catalogue and it allows you to download digital music, videos, ipod games, tv shows, audio books, ringtones and feature length films and these can be used and transferred into iPod and iPhone making more accessible and easy, in year 2004 it exceeded 100 million downloads.. Saila-Ngita expressing the experience said that the sites allow music fans to spend much less money than in the past, and Jay Rosental have said Most of this substitutional people go to (the web) instead of buying records. Total industry sales were 10 billion dollar in year 2001 which was 14 billion dollar in year 2000 ( RAII ), revenues from services like Apple iTune and Amazon MP3 are still growing stronger and the spending on music will be sharp down by 4% as forecast in the report by Forrester Research. The Lala Business Model: Palo-Alto bases LALA, launched in 2007, this model was made and shows that its getting struggle for the music industry to make profit and crises it is going through in last few years and the change in new approach of music. Lala providing services to customer offering to download song in just 99cent or pay 10cent for web-hosted song, and it also offering streaming of music and upto 50 songs. Online Music Business: In the last decade there was startup of new business and that was selling music online, and this evolution is in no way complete as it moves towards a finish line with rate of one step forward and nine steps step back. The five major events which makes the online business shifted to rapid decline are: Legal version released by Napster. New download store with name Audio LunchBox. Music match added an online store to its music player. Apple computer made its iTunes player and music store available to all Users. EMusic added rules to its music services. The war of digital music stores started in mid of 1995 when an American New York based company Sonicnet started offering music singles for download. In that artists were suppose to put prices for the download, but that time the audio quality was not good enough and the internet speed very slow and it took too much time to download a single track. Sonicnet was not a moneymaker venture but the message they try to promote that internet can be the place for artists to promote their music and control their profit. The golden age of music downloading was summarized in a catchphrase All you can eat. Online music companies offering fans to access and download music by paying monthly fee but so far it is not successful as free unauthorized service available for the users to download without paying a penny and the reason the authorized services is not successful and accomplish goal is the lack in cooperation for record companies and publishers. With the success of iTunes Music Store other services also rushing and copying it but its difficult for them to get success, that hasnt stopped the competition Buymusic an online song store has going little far for it, and Musicmatch which has integrated like an Apple-store. But the greatest competition for iTunes is the new Napster legal version 2.0 which is providing services to PC users combines the selling of songs of iTunes and members can subscribe and access as many songs to download. The other competitor in Online music business is iPod but its format is different and wont be flocking with Napster. The biggest disappointment in recent trend of online was announcement from eMusic to limited download because of the financial, legal and technological pressure. It has the specialize site in independent and alternative for the music lovers offering their subscribers to download music. The other name involve in the business is Rhapsody have the best quality and selected songs collection. Ideas for future and Conclusion: In conclusion we see the music industry has a tie with new technology over the decades and internet music download can be advantage and disadvantage and there is a battle going illegal downloader and recording companies. In short internet has a big impact on the revenue of music industry. It has forced the industry to change and adapt (Blethen). Music downloading effects are clear visible on the music industry as only 15% of the music albums making money as report released by RIAA (2005 RIAA Consumer Profile), and there is no long term increase in album sales, exposure of music and artists are smaller known. The grow of smaller known artists can change the entire soundscape of industry as many of the artists are not concentrating on making good music and the big recording companies are forcing an artist to create music and they can know will sell and hiring their own producers. Lesser known artists are the artists experimenting new ideas, instruments and structure and they working with smaller labels generally so these can produce an influence on the rest of music industry and industry instead of attacking piracy they should realize new ideas to stop and benefit the industry. Instead of encrypting CDs and shutting down websites and spending millions lobbying, they should build up a new system where all music is accessible fo r free and very it can has the easy links to online stores of customer likes so he can buy it, and this even should be provided on cheap prices, quick and inexpensive way and this will help artists also to get promotion.

Comparing Little Women And Treasure Island English Literature Essay

Comparing Little Women And Treasure Island English Literature Essay You could consider the following questions. What is meant by the courage of children? Does this, in the Set Books, refer to physical or psychological courage, or both? Do the books present gender differences in their portrayal of courage and, if so, are these significant? How do differing authorial techniques, such as narrative voice, focalisation and intertextuality help determine the readers awareness of courage? You could also consider the historical context of both novels as part of your discussion. The critical articles in the Readers, DVD 1 and the DVD-ROM may all provide valuable material for this essay. Kimberley Reynolds suggests, of the nineteenth century, that much fiction was used quite consciously as a form of social control (DVD 1, no. 5). Investigate and determine how representative Little Women and Treasure Island are of this trend. Notes on a possible approach For this option, you might want to explore nineteenth-century ideological viewpoints of concepts such as family, gender, class and religion. It would be valuable to include some brief discussion of other contemporary texts. One possible approach would be to consider the following questions. How do the novels reflect their differing historical contexts? What evidence can be found for authorial intent, and how can differing prose techniques outlined on the DVD-ROM, including narrative voice, intertextuality and focalisation, help us establish authorial intent? You might find it helpful to revise the material in Activity 1.3 in the Study Guide as a starting point. Explore Peter Hollindales claim that Peter Pan retains its magical elasticity and its ongoing modernity (Reader 2, p.  159), with reference to different versions since its original production. Notes on a possible approach You could consider some or all of the following questions. Which aspects of the play can be described as particularly modern? How have these been adapted to suit specific productions since the plays original stage setting? How does Barries script present opportunities for alteration in relation to differing constructions of childhood? Why is Peter Pan often regarded as a pantomime? Compare and contrast the idea of fairyland in Peter Pan and in William Allinghams poem The Fairies. Notes on a possible approach It may be helpful to concentrate on a small number of specific scenes or extracts from Peter Pan for example, 1.1 (from line 315, Peters entrance to the end) or 3.1. You might want to consider the historical and generic context of each of the two texts. Does it matter that one text is a play and the other a poem, in terms of how differently they may have been presented and received? Activity 3.6 in the Study Guide could be a useful starting point when planning your essay. Childrens perceptions of, and perspectives on, the world around them are often represented by childrens writers as inevitably incomplete and therefore flawed. Evaluate this suggestion with reference to any three of the Set Books in Block 4. Notes on a possible approach You could consider some or all of the following questions: How does each author represent the worldview of their child protagonist(s)? How does the structure of each novel, including such aspects as time-scale, narrative voice, dialogue, and a sense of place, help establish this? How do your chosen texts present differing, or similar, approaches to realism and aspects of fantasy? Is there a link between the uses of realism and fantasy, and representations of childrens perceptions and perspectives? Why might it matter if a childs perceptions of, and perspectives on the world around them are represented as flawed? You may find it useful to revise Part 1, Section 1 Telling and Showing, and Section  2 Focalisation, on the DVD-ROM. Discuss David Rudds defence of the work of Enid Blyton (Reader 1, pp.  168-82), in relation to the prestige conferred on two of the Set Books for Block  4, one of which must be either Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone or Northern Lights. Notes on a possible approach You could consider some or all of the following questions: What evidence is there for differing assessments of the popularity and quality of both Enid Blytons work and your two chosen texts? How can the success of a childrens book best be quantified? What differing views on the nature of childhood can be observed in the chosen books, and do these necessarily represent the times in which they were written? How have the criteria for judging the merits of childrens literature changed since the eighteenth century? How does the postmodern picturebook set out to capture both the adult and the child readers interest? Notes on a possible approach You could discuss which characteristics of a picturebook might invite the description of postmodern to be applied to it, drawing on a few examples. You could explore how the elements of a picturebook, including text, images, and paratext, combine to create meaning for both the child and adult reader. Is it possible to identify any elements as seemingly designed to appeal to particular age groups With reference to The Tale of Peter Rabbit and Voices in the Park, explore and evaluate the assertion by William Moebius that the best picturebooks can and do portray the intangible and invisible [], ideas that escape easy definition in pictures or words (Reader 1, p. 314). Notes on a possible approach You could consider, firstly, examples of concepts that might be described as intangible and invisible that are demonstrated in these two books. How do all the elements of these books unite to help create this? How do these help us understand the views of childhood, and of child readers, presented by the authors? You might wish to include a comparison between the historical contexts of the two books and how to situate each one in relation to childrens picturebooks generally Rachel Falconer states that it is important that the books and films [young people] read and watch should address the reality of their lives (Reader 1, p.  375). Is this view borne out by contemporary writing for children? Discuss with particular reference to three of the Set Books in Block 6. Notes on a possible approach You could consider some or all of the following questions. What might the phrase the reality of their lives assume? Can the reality of contemporary life be explored by books set either in the historical past or an imagined future? Do any, or all, of the books you have chosen raise the ideological question of what is suitable for children (Hewings in the Study Guide, p.  259)? Does the provision of a convenient exotic background (Hewings in the Study Guide, p.  265) help child readers to confront difficult concepts, or perhaps hinder them? Peter Hunt argues that while [childrens] books reflect the underlying preoccupations of a culture, the most notable ones also challenge and subvert (Reader 1, p.  72). Discuss this statement, with reference to three of the Set Books in Block 6. Notes on a possible approach You might want to consider the following questions. How, if at all, do your chosen books reflect attitudes to childhood currently observable within society? What underlying preoccupations do you find reflected in them? How, if at all, might these books differ from other childrens books of their time? Can you identify evidence of the authors overt moral intention (Hewings in the Study Guide, p.  260)? How can authorial choices, such as the use of direct or indirect speech, help influence the ways in which readers respond to the text? EMA: the assignment Answer either Option 1 or Option 2. Your assignment should be a maximum of 3000 words in length, excluding your list of references. Option 1 Some idea of a child or childhood motivates writers and determines both the form and content of what they write. Consider how this statement, from Peter Hunts first article in Reader 1 (p.  13), applies to any three of the Set Books. Your essay must draw on materials from at least two blocks of EA300. Option 2 Discuss how the book that has most recently won the UK Carnegie Prize fits into the history and tradition of childrens literature. Your discussion should also refer to at least one of the Set Books

Ithaca by C.P. Cavafy Essay -- Ithaca C.P. Cavafy Greek Poetry Essays

Ithaca by C.P. Cavafy Everyone is given the opportunity to take the odyssey that is "life, however it is important to make the journey as memorable as one possibly can. The poem "Ithaca" by C.P. Cavafy suggests that what is most important in life is the experience that is incorporated with the journey, not necessarily just reaching the ultimate goal. It is the quest, not the destination which matters most. This message is conveyed through the poem through the use of allusion, myth and symbolism. The poem, "Ithaca", is based loosely around the great epic the Odyssey by ancient Greek poet Homer. In the Odyssey the character Odysseus trying to make his way home to his kingdom, Ithaca. The character faces many vicious creatures and other challenges he must endure in order to make it to the final goal. This is alluded to in the poem, by making reference to one of the characters starting out on "[his] journey to Ithaca" (line 1). C.P. Cavafy also refers to mythological creatures such as "the Cyclopes and the fierce Poseidon" (line 5), as well as "the Lestrygonians" (li...

The Urban Legend of Tommy Hilfiger :: essays research papers fc

The Truth about the Rumor of Tommy Hilfiger A big controversy happened, the well-known Fashion Designer Tommy Hilfiger was on the Oprah show. She asked him if it was true if he said he did not make clothes for Blacks and Asians, his clothes were intended for upper class White people. When he admitted he said those things, she asked him to leave. This E-Mail is an Urban Legend. Juicy Emails like these are simply for entertainment purposes only and should not be taken seriously. Like junk mail it should be emptied into the recycle bin. People assume if an E-mail is sent to them or if a friend mentioned the incident then it must be true. How could someone write something so mean and cruel and spread it through emails? Thomas Craughwell explains that â€Å"fear, paranoia, envy and suspicion of unfamiliar† are reasons why urban legends such as Tommy Hilfiger are passed around (Craughwell 10). People read newspapers such as the Inquirer and read junk E-mails at work to make the day go by. Richard Roeper describes people as â€Å"today’s information consumer†, who are â€Å"savvy, jaded and cynical† (Roeper 10). It’s no secret that people can be gullible when it comes to interesting news. Roper states that people are as â€Å"willing as ever to believe stories that happened to best friend’s brother’s accountant† (Roper 11). People have gotten too lazy to look up information for themselves and look for quick fixes, instead of facts. The Tommy Hilfiger Rumor has all of the signs of the urban legend. As Defined by Craughwell â€Å"urban legends are usually passed by word of mouth and by E-mail†. Urban legends have many variations (Craughwell 9,13). David Emery from About.com has two of the most common variations of the E-mail in his article. Before there were any rumors of him on the Oprah Show, It was a â€Å"news article† in a â€Å"Philippian tabloid in 1996† as Barbara Mikkelson explains in her article. According to Barbara Mikkelson, the rumor was altered again with him being on the CNN style show with Elsa Klensch . In this rumor he did not comment on black people. He commented about â€Å"Asian people not looking right in the clothes† (Barbara Mikkelson). Although the rumors are being shown to be not true, they are still being passed around to this day (David Emery). People who are in the know about rumors made inquiries to the Anti Defamation League.

Bag of Bones CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Devore was mad, all right, mad as a hatter, and he couldn't have caught me at a worse, weaker, more terrified moment. And I think that everything from that moment on was almost pre-ordained. From there to the terrible storm they still talk about in this part of the world, it all came down like a rockslide. I felt fine the rest of Friday afternoon my talk with Bonnie left a lot of questions unanswered, but it had been a tonic just the same. I made a vegetable stir-fry (atonement for my latest plunge into the Fry-O-Lator at the Village Cafe) and ate it while I watched the evening news. On the other side of the lake the sun was sliding down toward the mountains and flooding the living room with gold. When Tom Brokaw closed up shop, I decided to take a walk north along The Street I'd go as far as I could and still be assured of getting home by dark, and as I went I'd think about the things Bill Dean and Bonnie Amudson had told me. I'd think about them the way I sometimes walked and thought about plot-snags in whatever I was working on. I walked down the railroad-tie steps, still feeling perfectly fine (confused, but fine), started off along The Street, then paused to look at the Green Lady. Even with the evening sun shining fully upon her, it was hard to see her for what she actually was just a birch tree with a half-dead pine standing behind it, one branch of the latter making a pointing arm. It was as if the Green Lady were saying go north, young man, go north. Well, I wasn't exactly young, but I could go north, all right. For awhile, at least. Yet I stood a moment longer, uneasily studying the face I could see in the bushes, not liking the way the little shake of breeze seemed to make what was nearly a mouth sneer and grin. I think perhaps I started to feel a little bad then, was too preoccupied to notice it. I set off north, wondering what, exactly, Jo might have written . . . for by then I was starting to believe she might have written something, after all. Why else had I found my old typewriter in her studio? I would go through the place, I decided. I would go through it carefully and . . . help im drown The voice came from the woods, the water, from myself. A wave of lightheadedness passed through my thoughts, lifting and scattering them like leaves in a breeze. I stopped. All at once I had never felt so bad, so blighted, in my life. My chest was tight. My stomach folded in on itself like a cold flower. My eyes filled with chilly water that was nothing like tears, and I knew what was coming. No, I tried to say, but the word wouldn't come out. My mouth filled with the cold taste of lakewater instead, all those dark minerals, and suddenly the trees were shimmering before my eyes as if I were looking up at them through clear liquid, and the pressure on my chest had become dreadfully localized and taken the shapes of hands. They were holding me down. ‘Won't it stop doing that?' someone asked almost cried. There was no one on The Street but me, yet I heard that voice clearly. ‘Won't it ever stop doing that?' What came next was no outer voice but alien thoughts in my own head. They beat against the walls of my skull like moths trapped inside a light-fixture . . . or inside a Japanese lantern. help I'm drown help I'm drown blue-cap man say git me blue-cap man say dassn't let me ramble help I'm drown lost my berries they on the path he holdin me he face shimmer n look bad lemme up lemme up 0 sweet Jesus lemme up oxen free allee allee oxen free? PLEASE OXEN FREE you go on and stop now ALLEE OXEN FREE she scream my name she scream it so LOUD I bent forward in an utter panic, opened my mouth, and from my gaping, straining mouth there poured a cold flood of . . . Nothing at all. The horror of it passed and yet it didn't pass. I still felt terribly sick to my stomach, as if I had eaten something to which my body had taken a violent offense, some kind of ant-powder or maybe a killer mushroom, the kind Jo's fungi guides pictured inside red borders. I staggered forward half a dozen steps, gagging dryly from a throat which still believed it was wet. There was another birch where the bank dropped to the lake, arching its white belly gracefully over the water as if to see its reflection by evening's flattering light. I grabbed it like a drunk grabbing a lamp-post. The pressure in my chest began to ease, but it left an ache as real as rain. I hung against the tree, heart fluttering, and suddenly I became aware that something stank an evil, polluted smell worse than a clogged septic pool which has simmered all summer under the blazing sun. With it was a sense of some hideous presence giving off that odor, something which should have been dead and wasn't. Oh stop, allee allee oxen free, I'll do anything only stop, I tried to say, and still nothing came out. Then it was gone. I could smell nothing but the lake and the woods . . . but I could see something: a boy in the lake, a little drowned dark boy lying on his back. His cheeks were puffed out. His mouth hung slackly open. His eyes were as white as the eyes of a statue. My mouth filled with the unmerciful iron of the lake again. Help me, lemme up, help I'm drown. I leaned out, screaming inside my head, screaming down at the dead face, and I realized I was looking up at myself, looking up through the rose-shimmer of sunset water at a white man in blue jeans and a yellow polo shirt holding onto a trembling, birch and trying to scream, his liquid face in motion, his eyes momentarily blotted out by the passage of a small perch coursing after a tasty bug, I was both the dark boy and the white man, drowned in the water and drowning in the air, is this right, is this what's happening, tap once for yes twice for no. I retched nothing but a single runner of spit, and, impossibly, a fish jumped at it. They'll jump at almost anything at sunset; something in the dying light must make them crazy. The fish hit the water again about seven feet from the bank, spanking out a circular silver ripple, and it was gone the taste in my mouth, the horrible smell, the shimmering drowned face of the Negro child a Negro, that was how he would have thought of himself whose name had almost surely been Tidwell. I looked to my right and saw a gray forehead of rock poking out of the mulch. I thought, There, right there, and as if in confirmation, that horrible putrescent smell puffed at me again, seemingly from the ground. I closed my eyes, still hanging onto the birch for dear life, feeling weak and sick and ill, and that was when Max Devore, that madman, spoke from behind me. ‘Say there, whoremaster, where's your whore?' I turned and there he was, with Rogette Whitmore by his side. It was the only time I ever met him, but once was enough. Believe me, once was more than enough. His wheelchair hardly looked like a wheelchair at all. What it looked like was a motorcycle sidecar crossed with a lunar lander. Half a dozen chrome wheels ran along both sides. Bigger wheels four of them, I think ran in a row across the back. None looked to be exactly on the same level, and I realized each was tied into its own suspension-bed. Devore would have a smooth ride over ground a lot rougher than The Street. Above the back wheels was an enclosed engine compartment. Hiding Devore's legs was a fiberglass nacelle, black with red pinstriping, that would not have looked out of place on a racing car. Implanted in the center of it was a gadget that looked like my DSS satellite dish . . . some sort of computerized avoidance system, I guessed. Maybe even an autopilot. The armrests were wide and covered with controls. Holstered on the left side of this machine was a green oxygen tank four feet long. A hose went to a clear plastic accordion tube; the accordion tube led to a mask whi ch rested in Devore's lap. It made me think of the old guy's Stenomask. Coming on the heels of what had just happened, I might have considered this Tom Clancyish vehicle a hallucination, except for the bumper-sticker on the nacelle, below the dish. I BLEED DODGER BLUE, it said. This evening the woman I had seen outside The Sunset Bar at Warrington's was wearing a white blouse with long sleeves and black pants so tapered they made her legs look like sheathed swords. Her narrow face and hollow cheeks made her resemble Edvard Munch's screamer more than ever. Her white hair hung around her face in a lank cowl. Her lips were painted so brightly red she seemed to be bleeding from the mouth. She was old and she was ugly, but she was a prize compared to Mattie's father-in-law. Scrawny, blue-lipped, the skin around his eyes and the corners of his mouth a dark exploded purple, he looked like something an archeologist might find in the burial room of a pyramid, surrounded by his stuffed wives and pets, bedizened with his favorite jewels. A few wisps of white hair still clung to his scaly skull; more tufts sprang from enormous ears which seemed to have melted like wax sculptures left out in the sun. He was wearing white cotton pants and a billowy blue shirt. Add a little black beret and he would have looked like a French artist from the nineteenth century at the end of a very long life. Across his lap was a cane of some black wood. Snugged over the end was a bright red bicycle grip. The fingers grasping it looked powerful, but they were going as black as the cane itself. His circulation was failing, and I couldn't imagine what his feet and his lower legs must look like. ‘Whore run off and left you, has she?' I tried to say something. A croak came out of my mouth, nothing more. I was still holding the birch. I let go of it and tried to straighten up, but my legs were still weak and I had to grab it again. He nudged a silver toggle switch and the chair came ten feet closer, halving the distance between us. The sound it made was a silky whisper; watching it was like watching an evil magic carpet. Its many wheels rose and fell independent of one another and flashed in the declining sun, which had begun to take on a reddish cast. And as he came closer, I felt the sense of the man. His body was rotting out from under him, but the force around him was undeniable and daunting, like an electrical storm. The woman paced beside him, regarding me with silent amusement. Her eyes were pinkish. I assumed then that they were gray and had picked up a bit of the coming sunset, but I think now she was an albino. ‘I always liked a whore,' he said. He drew the word out, making it horrrrrrr. ‘Didn't I, Rogette?' ‘Yes, sir,' she said. ‘In their place.' ‘Sometimes their place was on my face!' he cried with a kind of insane perkiness, as if she had contradicted him. ‘Where is she, young man? Whose face is she sitting on right now? I wonder. That smart lawyer you found? Oh, I know all about him, right down to the Unsatisfactory Conduct he got in the third grade. I make it my business to know things. It's the secret of my success.' With an enormous effort, I straightened up. ‘What are you doing here?' ‘Having a constitutional, same as you. And no law against it, is there? The Street belongs to anyone who wants to use it. You haven't been here long, young whoremaster, but surely you've been here long enough to know that. It's our version of the town common, where good pups and vile dogs may walk side-by-side.' Once more using the hand not bunched around the red bicycle grip, he picked up the oxygen mask, sucked deeply, then dropped it back in his lap. He grinned an unspeakable grin of complicity that revealed gums the color of iodine. ‘She good? That little horrrrrr of yours? She must be good to have kept my son prisoner in that nasty little trailer where she lives. And then along comes you even before the worms had finished with my boy's eyes. Does her cunt suck?' ‘Shut up.' Rogette Whitmore threw back her head and laughed. The sound was like the scream of a rabbit caught in an owl's talons, and my flesh crawled. I had an idea she was as crazy as he was. Thank God they were old. ‘You struck a nerve there, Max,' she said. ‘What do you want?' I took a breath . . . and caught a taste of that putrescence again. I gagged. I didn't want to, but I couldn't help it. Devore straightened in his chair and breathed deeply, as if to mock me. In that moment he looked like Robert Duvall in Apocalypse Now, striding along the beach and telling the world how much he loved the smell of napalm in the morning. His grin widened. ‘Lovely place, just here, isn't it? A cozy spot to stop and think, wouldn't you say?' He looked around. ‘This is where it happened, all right. Ayuh.' ‘Where the boy drowned.' I thought Whitmore's smile looked momentarily uneasy at that. Devore didn't. He clutched for his translucent oxygen mask with an old man's overwide grip, fingers that grope rather than reach. I could see little bubbles of mucus clinging to the inside. He sucked deep again, put it down again. ‘Thirty or more folks have drowned in this lake, and that's just the ones they know about,' he said. ‘What's one boy, more or less?' ‘I don't get it. Were there two Tidwell boys who died here? The one that got blood-poisoning and the one ‘ ‘Do you care about your soul, Mr. Noonan? Your immortal soul? God's butterfly caught in a cocoon of flesh that will soon stink like mine?' I said nothing. The strangeness of what had happened before he arrived was passing. What replaced it was his incredible personal magnetism. I have never in my life felt so much raw force. There was nothing supernatural about it, either, and raw is exactly the right word. I might have run. Under other circumstances, I'm sure I would have. It certainly wasn't bravery that kept me where I was; my legs still felt rubbery, and I was afraid I might fall down. ‘I'm going to give you one chance to save your soul,' Devore said. He raised a bony finger to illustrate the concept of one. ‘Go away, my fine whoremaster. Right now, in the clothes you stand up in. Don't bother to pack a bag, don't even stop to make sure you turned off the stoveburners. Go. Leave the whore and leave the whorelet.' ‘Leave them to you.' ‘Ayuh, to me. I'll do the things that need to be done. Souls are for liberal arts majors, Noonan. I was an engineer.' ‘Go fuck yourself.' Rogette Whitmore made that screaming-rabbit sound again. The old man sat in his chair, head lowered, grinning sallowly up at me and looking like something raised from the dead. ‘Are you sure you want to be the one, Noonan? It doesn't matter to her, you know you or me, it's all the same to her.' ‘I don't know what you're talking about.' I drew another deep breath, and this time the air tasted all right. I took a step away from the birch, and my legs were all right, too. ‘And I don't care. You're never getting Kyra. Never in what remains of your scaly life. I'll never see that happen.' ‘Pal, you'll see plenty,' Devore said, grinning and showing me his iodine gums. ‘Before July's done, you'll likely have seen so much you'll wish you'd ripped the living eyes out of your head in June.' ‘I'm going home. Let me pass.' ‘Go home then, how could I stop you?' he asked. ‘The Street belongs to everyone.' He groped the oxygen mask out of his lap again and took another healthy pull. He dropped it into his lap and settled his left hand on the arm of his Buck Rogers wheelchair. I stepped toward him, and almost before I knew what was happening, he ran the wheelchair at me. He could have hit me and hurt me quite badly broken one or both of my legs, I don't doubt but he stopped just short. I leaped back, but only because he allowed me to. I was aware that Whitmore was laughing again. ‘What's the matter, Noonan?' ‘Get out of my way. I'm warning you.' ‘Whore made you jumpy, has she?' I started to my left, meaning to go by him on that side, but in a flash he had turned the chair, shot it forward, and cut me off. ‘Get out of the TR, Noonan. I'm giving you good ad ‘ I broke to the right, this time on the lake side, and would have slipped by him quite neatly except for the fist, very small and hard, that hammered the left side of my face. The white-haired bitch was wearing a ring, and the stone cut me behind the ear. I felt the sting and the warm flow of blood. I pivoted, stuck out both hands, and pushed her. She fell to the needle-carpeted path with a squawk of surprised outrage. At the next instant something clouted me on the back of the head. A momentary orange glow lit up my sight. I staggered backward in what felt like slow motion, waving my arms, and Devore came into view again. He was slued around in his wheelchair, scaly head thrust forward, the cane he'd hit me with still upraised. If he had been ten years younger, I believe he would have fractured my skull instead of just creating that momentary orange light. I ran into my old friend the birch tree. I raised my hand to my ear and looked unbelievingly at the blood on the tips of my fingers. My head ached from the blow he had fetched me. Whitmore was struggling to her feet, brushing pine needles from her slacks and looking at me with a furious smile. Her cheeks had filled in with a thin pink flush. Her too-red lips were pulled back to show small teeth. In the light of the setting sun her eyes looked as if they were burning. ‘Get out of my way,' I said, but my voice sounded small and weak. ‘No,' Devore said, and laid the black barrel of his cane on the nacelle that curved over the front of his chair. Now I could see the little boy who had been determined to have the sled no matter how badly he cut his hands getting it. I could see him very clearly. ‘No, you whore-fucking sissy. I won't.' He shoved the silver toggle switch again and the wheelchair rushed silently at me. If I had stayed where I was, he would have run me through with his cane as surely as any evil duke was ever run through in an Alexandre Dumas story. He probably would have crushed the fragile bones in his right hand and torn his right arm clean out of its socket in the collision, but this man had never cared about such things; he left cost-counting to the little people. If I had hesitated out of shock or incredulity, he would have killed me, I'm sure of it. Instead, I rolled to my left. My sneakers slid on the needle-slippery embankment for a moment. Then they lost contact with the earth and I was falling. I hit the water awkwardly and much too close to the bank. My left foot struck a submerged root and twisted. The pain was huge, something that felt like a thunderclap sounds. I opened my mouth to scream and the lake poured in that cold metallic dark taste, this time for real. I coughed it out and sneezed it out and floundered away from where I had landed, thinking The boy, the dead boy's down here, what if he reaches up and grabs me? I turned over on my back, still flailing and coughing, very aware of my jeans clinging clammily to my legs and crotch, thinking absurdly about my wallet I didn't care about the credit cards or driver's license, but I had two good snapshots of Jo in there, and they would be ruined. Devore had almost run himself over the embankment, I saw, and for a moment I thought he still might go. The front of his chair jutted over the place where I had fallen (I could see the short tracks of my sneakers just to the left of the bitch's partially exposed roots), and although the forward wheels were still grounded, the crumbly earth was running out from beneath them in dry little avalanches that rolled down the slope and pit-a-patted into the water, creating interlocking ripple patterns. Whitmore was clinging to the back of the chair, yanking on it, but it was much too heavy for her; if Devore was to be saved, he would have to save himself. Standing waist-deep in the lake with my clothes floating around me, I rooted for him to go over. The purplish claw of his left hand recaptured the silver toggle switch after several attempts. One finger hooked it backward, and the chair reversed away from the embankment with a final shower of stones and dirt. Whitmore leaped prankishly to one side to keep her feet from being run over. Devore fiddled some more with his controls, turned the chair to face me where I stood in the water, some seven feet out from the overhanging birch, and then nudged the chair forward until he was on the edge of The Street but safely away from the drop off. Whitmore had turned away from us entirely; she was bent over with her butt poking in my direction. If I thought about her at all, and I can't remember that I did, I suppose I thought she was getting her breath back. Devore appeared to be in the best shape of the three of us, not even needing a hit from the oxygen mask sitting in his lap. The late light was full in his face, making him look like a half-rotted jack-o'-lantern which has been soaked with gas and set on fire. ‘Enjoying your swim?' he asked, and laughed. I looked around, hoping to see a strolling couple or perhaps a fisherman looking for a place where he could wet his line one more time before dark . . . and yet at the same time I hoped I'd see no one. I was angry, hurt, and scared. Most of all I was embarrassed. I had been dunked in the lake by a man of eighty-five . . . a man who showed every sign of hanging around and making sport of me. I began wading to my right south, back toward my house. The water was about waist-deep, cool and almost refreshing now that I was used to it. My sneakers squelched over rocks and submerged tree-branches. The ankle I'd twisted still hurt, but it was supporting me. Whether it would continue to once I got out of the lake was another question. Devore twiddled his controls some more. The chair pivoted and came rolling slowly along The Street, keeping pace with me easily. ‘I didn't introduce you properly to Rogette, did I?' he said. ‘She was quite an athlete in college, you know. Softball and field hockey were her specialties, and she's held onto at least some of her skills. Rogette, demonstrate your skills for this young man.' Whitmore passed the slowly moving wheelchair on the left. For a moment she was blocked out by it. When I could see her again, I could also see what she was holding. She hadn't been bent over to get her breath. Smiling, she strode to the edge of the embankment with her left arm curled against her midriff, cradling the rocks she had picked up from the edge of the path. She selected a chunk roughly the size of a golfball, drew her hand back to her ear, and threw it at me. Hard. It whizzed by my left temple and splashed into the water behind me. ‘Hey!' I shouted, more startled than afraid. Even after everything that had preceded it, I couldn't believe this was happening. ‘What's wrong with you, Rogette?' Devore asked chidingly. ‘You never used to throw like a girl. Get him!' The second rock passed two inches over my head. The third was a potential tooth-smasher. I batted it away with an angry, fearful shout, not noticing until later that it had bruised my palm. At the moment I was only aware of her hateful, smiling face the face of a woman who has plunked down two dollars in a carny shooting-pitch and means to win the big stuffed teddybear even if she has to blast away all night. And she threw fast. The rocks hailed down around me, some splashing into the ruddy water to my left or right, creating little geysers. I began to backpedal, afraid to turn and swim for it, afraid that she would throw a really big one the minute I did. Still, I had to get out of her range. Devore, meanwhile, was laughing a wheezy old man's laugh, his wretched face crunched in on itself like the face of a malicious apple-doll. One of her rocks struck me a hard, painful blow on the collarbone and bounced high into the air. I cried out, and she did, too: ‘Hai!,' like a karate fighter who's gotten in a good kick. So much for orderly retreat. I turned, swam for deeper water, and the bitch brained me. The first two rocks she threw after I began to swim seemed to be range-finders. There was a pause when I had time to think I'm doing it, I'm getting beyond her area of . . . and then something hit the back of my head. I felt it and heard it the same way it went CLONK!, like something you'd read in a Batman comic. The surface of the lake went from bright orange to bright red to dark scarlet. Faintly I could hear Devore yelling approval and Whitmore squealing her strange laugh. I took in another mouthful of iron-tasting water and was so dazed I had to remind myself to spit it out, not swallow it. My feet now felt too heavy for swimming, and my goddam sneakers weighed a ton. I put them down to stand up and couldn't find the bottom I had gotten beyond my depth. I looked in toward the shore. It was spectacular, blazing in the sunset like stage-scenery lit with bright orange and red gels. I was probably twenty feet out from the shore now. Devore and Whitmore were at the edge of The Street, watching. They looked like Dad and Mom in a Grant Wood painting. Devore was using the mask again, but I could see him grinning inside it. Whitmore was grinning, too. More water sloshed in my mouth. I spit most of it out, but some went down, making me cough and half-retch. I started to sink below the surface and fought my way back up, not swimming but only splashing wildly, expending nine times the energy I needed to stay afloat. Panic made its first appearance, nibbling through my dazed bewilderment with sharp little rat teeth. I realized I could hear a high, sweet buzzing. How many blows had my poor old head taken? One from Whitmore's fist . . . one from Devore's cane . . . one rock . . . or had it been two? Christ, I couldn't remember. Get hold of yourself, for God's sake you're not going to let him beat you this way, are you? Drown you like that little boy was drowned? No, not if I could help it. I trod water and ran my left hand down the back of my head. Not too far above the nape I encountered a goose-egg that was still rising. When I pressed on it the pain made me feel like throwing up and fainting at the same time. Tears rose in my eyes and rolled down my cheeks. There were only traces of blood on the tips of my fingers when I looked at them, but it was hard to tell about cuts when you were in the water. ‘You look like a woodchuck caught out in the rain, Noonan!' Now his voice seemed to roll to where I was, as if across a great distance. ‘Fuck you!' I called. ‘I'll see you in jail for this!' He looked at Whitmore. She looked back with an identical expression, and they both laughed. If someone had put an Uzi in my hands at that moment, I would have killed them both with no hesitation and then asked for a second clip so I could machine-gun the bodies. With no Uzi to hand, I began to dogpaddle south, toward my house. They paced me along The Street, he rolling in his whisper-quiet wheelchair, she walking beside him as solemn as a nun and pausing every now and then to pick up a likely-looking rock. I hadn't swum enough to be tired, but I was. It was mostly shock, I suppose. Finally I tried to draw a breath at the wrong time, swallowed more water, and panicked completely. I began to swim in toward the shore, wanting to get to where I could stand up. Rogette Whitmore began to fire rocks at me immediately, first using the ones she' had lined up between her left arm and her midriff, then those she'd stockpiled in Devore's lap. She was warmed up, she wasn't throwing like a girl anymore, and her aim was deadly. Stones splashed all around me. I batted another away a big one that likely would have cut open my forehead if it had hit but her follow-up struck my bicep and tore a long scratch there. Enough. I rolled over and swam back out beyond her range, gasping for breath, trying to keep my head up in spite of the growing ache in the back of my neck. When I was clear, I trod water and looked in at them. Whitmore had come all the way to the edge of the embankment, wanting to get every foot of distance she could. Hell, every damned inch. Devore was parked behind her in his wheelchair. They were both still grinning, and now their faces were as red as the faces of imps in hell. Red sky at night, sailor's delight. Another twenty minutes and it would be getting dark. Could I keep my head above water for another twenty minutes? I thought so, if I didn't panic again, but not much longer. I thought of drowning in the dark, looking up and seeing Venus just before I went under for the last time, and the panic-rat slashed me with its teeth again. The panic-rat was worse than Rogette and her rocks, much worse. Maybe not worse than Devore. I looked both ways along the lakefront, checking The Street wherever it wove out of the trees for a dozen feet or a dozen yards. I didn't care about being embarrassed anymore, but I saw no one. Dear God, where was everybody? Gone to the Mountain View in Fryeburg for pizza, or the Village Cafe for milkshakes? ‘What do you want?' I called in to Devore. ‘Do you want me to tell you I'll butt out of your business? Okay, I'll butt out!' He laughed. Well, I hadn't expected it to work. Even if I'd been sincere about it, he wouldn't have believed me. ‘We just want to see how long you can swim,' Whitmore said, and threw another rock -a long, lazy toss that fell about five feet short of where I was. They mean to kill me, I thought. They really do. Yes. And what was more, they might well get away with it. A crazy idea, both plausible and implausible at the same time, rose in my mind. I could see Rogette Whitmore tacking a notice to the cOMMUNITY DOIN'S board outside the Lakeview General Store. TO THE MARTIANS OF TR-90, GREETINGS! Mr, MAXWELL DEVORE, everyone's favorite Martian, will give each resident of the TR ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS if no one will use The Street on FRIDAY EVENING, THE 17th OF JULY, between the hours of SEVEN and NINE P.M. Keep our ‘SUMMER FRIENDS' away, too! And remember: GOOD MARTIANS are like GOOD MONKEYS: they SEE no evil, HEAR no evil, and SPEAK no evil! I couldn't really believe it, not even in my current situation . . . and yet I almost could. At the very least I had to grant him the luck of the devil. Tired. My sneakers heavier than ever. I tried to push one of them off and succeeded only in taking in another mouthful of lakewater. They stood watching me, Devore occasionally picking the mask up from his lap and having a revivifying suck. I couldn't wait until dark. The sun exits in a hurry here in western Maine as it does, I guess, in mountain country everywhere but the twilights are long and lingering. By the time it got dark enough in the west to move without being seen, the moon would have risen in the east. I found myself imagining my obituary in the New York Times, the headline reading POPULAR ROMANTIC SUSPENSE NOVELIST DROWNS IN MAINE. Debra Weinstock would provide them with the author photo from the forthcoming Helen's Promise. Harold Oblowski would say all the right things, and he'd also remember to put a modest (but not tiny) death notice in Publishers Weekly. He would go half-and-half with Putnam on it, and I sank, swallowed more water, and spat it out. I began pummelling the lake again and forced myself to stop. From the shore, I could hear Rogette Whitmore's tinkling laughter. You bitch, I thought, you scrawny bi Mike, Jo said. Her voice was in my head, but it wasn't the one I make when I'm imagining her side of a mental dialogue or when I just miss her and need to whistle her up for awhile. As if to underline this, something splashed to my right, splashed hard. When I looked in that direction I saw no fish, not even a ripple. What I saw instead was our swimming float, anchored about a hundred yards away in the sunset-colored water. ‘I can't swim that far, baby,' I croaked. ‘Did you say something, Noonan?' Devore called from the shore. He cupped a mocking hand to one of his huge waxlump ears. ‘Couldn't quite make it out! You sound all out of breath!' More tinkling laughter from Whitmore. He was Johnny Carson; she was Ed Mcmahon. You can make it. I'll help you. The float, I realized, might be my only chance there wasn't another one on this part of the shore, and it was at least ten yards beyond Whitmore's longest rockshot so far. I began to dogpaddle in that direction, my arms now as leaden as my feet. Each time I felt my head on the verge of going under I paused, treading water, telling myself to take it easy, I was in pretty good shape and doing okay, telling myself that if I didn't panic I'd be all right. The old bitch and the even older bastard resumed pacing me, but they saw where I was headed and the laughter stopped. So did the taunts. For a long time the swimming float seemed to draw no closer. I told myself that was just because the light was fading, the color of the water draining from red to purple to a near-black that was the color of Devore's gums, but I was able to muster less and less conviction for this idea as my breath shortened and my arms grew heavier. When I was still thirty yards away a cramp struck my left leg. I rolled sideways like a swamped sailboat, trying to reach the bunched muscle. More water poured down my throat. I tried to cough it out, then retched and went under with my stomach still trying to heave and my fingers still looking for the knotted place above the knee. I'm really drowning, I thought, strangely calm now that it was happening. This is how it happens, this is it. Then I felt a hand seize me by the nape of the neck. The pain of having my hair yanked brought me back to reality in a flash it was better than an epinephrine injection. I felt another hand clamp around my left leg; there was a brief but terrific sense of heat. The cramp let go and I broke the surface swimming really swimming this time, not just dog-paddling, and in what seemed like seconds I was clinging to the ladder on the side of the float, breathing in great, snatching gasps, waiting to see if I was going to be all right or if my heart was going to detonate in my chest like a hand grenade. At last my lungs started to overcome my oxygen debt, and everything began to calm down. I gave it another minute, then climbed out of the water and into what was now the ashes of twilight. I stood facing west for a little while, bent over with my hands on my knees, dripping on the boards. Then I turned around, meaning this time to flip them not just a single bird but that fabled double eagle . There was no one to flip it to. The Street was empty. Devore and Rogette Whitmore were gone. Maybe they were gone. I'd do well to remember there was a lot of Street I couldn't see. I sat cross-legged on the float until the moon rose, waiting and watching for any movement. Half an hour, I think. Maybe forty-five minutes. I checked my watch, but got no help there; it had shipped some water and stopped at 7:30 P.M. To the other satisfactions Devore owed me I could now add the price of one Timex Indiglo that's $29.95, asshole, cough it up. At last I climbed back down the ladder, slipped into the water, and stroked for shore as quietly as I could. I was rested, my head had stopped aching (although the knot above the nape of my neck still throbbed steadily), and I no longer felt off-balance and incredulous. In some ways, that had been the worst of it trying to cope not just with the apparition of the drowned boy, the flying rocks, and the lake, but with the pervasive sense that none of this could be happening, that rich old software moguls did not try to drown novelists who strayed into their line of sight. Had tonight's adventure been a case of simple straying into Devore's view, though? A coincidental meeting, no more than that? Wasn't it likely he'd been having me watched ever since the Fourth of July . . . maybe from the other side of the lake, by people with high-powered optical equipment? Paranoid bullshit, I would have said . . . at least I would have said it before the two of them almost sank me in Dark Score Lake like a kid's paper boat in a mudpuddle. I decided I didn't care who might be watching from the other side of the lake. I didn't care if the two of them were still lurking on one of the tree-shielded parts of The Street, either. I swam until I could feel strands of waterweed tickling my ankles and see the crescent of my beach. Then I stood up, wincing at the air, which now felt cold on my skin. I limped to shore, one hand raised to fend off a hail of rocks, but no rocks came. I stood for a moment on The Street, my jeans and polo shirt dripping, looking first one way, then the other. It seemed I had this little part of the world to myself. Last, I looked back at the water, where weak moonlight beat a track from the thumbnail of beach out to the swimming float. ‘Thanks, Jo,' I said, then started up the railroad ties to the house. I got about halfway, then had to stop and sit down. I had never been so utterly tired in my whole life.