Final Business Model and Strategic Plan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Final Business Model and Strategic Plan - Essay Example The new product division will analyze the potential market for their products. They will use the available budget to conduct research that will provide insights about the competition in the markets and what the competitors are doing to win customers. In addition, the new product division will use the information received to build a strong company brand presence. Moreover the brand owners who include the brand manager and marketing manager will gather information about the prospective customers. They will conduct online surveys as well as group and personal interviews to find out about customers views and preferences, goals economic and financial status. Moreover, they will liaise with the IT department to come up with a website that will be sued to market the new product. The website will inform customers on the benefits of the product, the places where to purchase the product as well as the prices and discounts that will be provided for the product. In addition, clients can post the ir comments, recommendations as well as the challenges they have faced while using the product. Moreover some of the marketing promotions that will be used will include above the line and below the promotion. This includes the posters, newsletters, billboards, coverage on radio and television. The new product division will mostly use above the line advertisement for the purpose of reaching a massive group of people. The new product division will have an effective communication plan that will ensure effective communication both internally and externally. The new product division plans to have access to the agenda of the critical meetings by involving the senior executives to deliver on the presentations in regards to the new product division to get insights and feedback from them. The new product division also plans to have proper management by planning campaigns and tracking results and success. This will include monitoring performance of the new product

Crime And Intentional Tort Essay Example for Free

Crime And Intentional Tort Essay A crime is defined as â€Å"acts or omissions that are in violation of law† (Wests Encyclopedia of American Law, 1998). The states and the federal government have enacted criminal laws that define each of the crimes and prescribe penalties in case of violation or commission (Wests Encyclopedia of American Law, 1998). The two elements of a criminal offense are: â€Å"actus reus and mens rea; one is physical and the other, mental state† (Wests Encyclopedia of American Law, 1998). Thus, â€Å"actus reus must be causally related to the mens rea for a crime to occur† meaning that the evil intention of the mind must coincide with the physical manifestation through the unlawful act (Wests Encyclopedia of American Law, 1998). However, as an exception to this rule, the courts have in a line of judicial precedents ruled that in case of strict liability the person who may not be â€Å"at fault or negligent† shall be legally liable for damages to the injured party. The injured party will only have to prove that he sustained damages (Wests Encyclopedia of American Law, 1998). Moreover, courts allowed liability on the basis of the actus reus alone as being sufficient (Wests Encyclopedia of American Law, 1998). For instance, the employer is deemed liable for damages for the negligent acts of his employees while in the performance of their duties. Another example would be in the case of product liability where in the company is held liable for the injury sustained by a customer due to defective products. Crimes may be committed by natural and juridical persons. Natural persons are human beings while juridical persons are entities created by fiction of law deemed to be individuals capable of entering into contracts, owning and or possessing properties, enforcing rights and acquiring debts (Wests Encyclopedia of American Law, 1998). A corporation therefore is a person. Corporations may be held liable for civil damages for the acts and conduct of the employees it employees. This liability is known as vicarious liability (Wests Encyclopedia of American Law, 1998). Anent criminal liability, a corporation is not capable of committing a crime because it does not have a mind statelacking in â€Å"mens rea. † It is also a legal fiction and therefore, one cannot put it behind bars. The recent years however, showed a different trend from these arguments. Nowadays, an American corporation engaged in criminal activities such as fraud can be convicted when the criminal conduct of its employee or officer is proven. The federal government through the Deputy Attorney General cited the reasons for indicting corporations as being beneficial to public interests (Thompson, 2003). It â€Å"enables the government to address and be a force for positive change of corporate culture, alter corporate behavior, and prevent, discover, and punish white collar crime† (Thompson, 2003). The federal government not only prosecutes the corporation but also the officers or agents of the corporations who apparently are guilty and culpable. Two recent cases may be cited to illustrate this point. The prosecution of Ebbers where his former finance officer testified against him, resulted in at least a total of 85 years imprisonment consisting of â€Å"one count of conspiracy, one count of securities fraud and seven counts of false regulatory filings† (Associated Press, 2005). It was also discovered that manipulation on the books of accounting resulted in the amount of $ 11 billion (Associated Press, 2005). In another case, Reliant Energy Services, Inc. and four of its officers were criminally charged for â€Å"manipulation of the California energy markets† (U. S. DOJ web site, 2004). Thus, when there is corruption in a company, disrespect for the law, fails to see to it that internal mechanisms are in place to detect fraud and corruption and thereafter fails to cooperate in the investigation, the federal government vows to criminally prosecute the corporation (U. S.  DOJ web site, 2004). In both cases, the corporations involved were charged and prosecuted because of the pervasiveness of the violations such as when directed by upper management or when in conspiracy with the other officers of the corporation (U. S. DOJ web site, 2004). The rule of respondeat superior shall apply in case the violation is an isolated case as when committed by a single officer and with a compliance program being implemented by the corporation. The company can only act through its agents and officers, thus if an overwhelming majority have committed fraud or any criminal act, then such act is considered the act of the corporation—the mens rea being the mental state of the culpable officers and agents. This is penalized in accordance with the Sentencing Guidelines. In the two cases cited, the respective companies are guilty of a felony because the charges were of serious nature with an imprisonment of more than one year (Wests Encyclopedia of American Law, 1998). Corporate crime can be a misdemeanor or a felony depending on the penalty attached by law for its commission.

German Immigration to the Midwest :: American America History

German Immigration to the Midwest German Immigration: A story told by the ghosts of the past "The day I left home, my mother came with me to the railroad station.When we said goodbye, she said it was just like seeing me go into my casket, I never saw her again." So is the story of Julia B. from Germany and many others who left their life and love for a chance of happiness in a new country. This is the story of the German immigrants in 1880-1930 who risked everything on a dream of better things. What caused the German immigration to Ameica between 1870-1930? In this paper I'll answer that question plus: what caused the movement, what happined to them when they arrived, and how did they adapt. I'll also tell some of the more gritty stuff by using intimate and detailed quotes used by many real immigrants who came to America anywhere from 1880 to 1930. As you read this, be prepared to learn what really happened to these immigrants and why the streets were paved with anything but gold. Today, many Germans live throughout the U.S.; especially in the mid-west. More likely then not, they came here in the late 1800's- 1900's. This would be because of the many revolutions in the 1860's and the poverty that almost always follows war. In one 20 year span in the late 1800's Germany went to war at least 7 times taking on neighboring countries such as: Austria, France, Belgium and Russia. Like I said, much money was spent on the war effort in Germany. People were taxed heavily just to buy bullets for the army. Through all this, word was spread like wild fire through Germany that a new country in the west across the water was offering freedom and a promise of happiness for anyone who would make the long journey to the new country: America. So with somewhat heavy hearts, many men and women left their families behind to journey to America in hopes of something greater. For many, the road to America was a hard one. Most of the emigrants were very poor and had to hitchhike or walk the long miles to the coast just to be able to get on the boat to America. Sometimes it would take months just to save up enough money to pay for rides out of Germany, expensive passports, and to pay for the boat fare and it would take weeks just to go to France where they usually only began the long hard trip to their destination. German Immigration to the Midwest :: American America History German Immigration to the Midwest German Immigration: A story told by the ghosts of the past "The day I left home, my mother came with me to the railroad station.When we said goodbye, she said it was just like seeing me go into my casket, I never saw her again." So is the story of Julia B. from Germany and many others who left their life and love for a chance of happiness in a new country. This is the story of the German immigrants in 1880-1930 who risked everything on a dream of better things. What caused the German immigration to Ameica between 1870-1930? In this paper I'll answer that question plus: what caused the movement, what happined to them when they arrived, and how did they adapt. I'll also tell some of the more gritty stuff by using intimate and detailed quotes used by many real immigrants who came to America anywhere from 1880 to 1930. As you read this, be prepared to learn what really happened to these immigrants and why the streets were paved with anything but gold. Today, many Germans live throughout the U.S.; especially in the mid-west. More likely then not, they came here in the late 1800's- 1900's. This would be because of the many revolutions in the 1860's and the poverty that almost always follows war. In one 20 year span in the late 1800's Germany went to war at least 7 times taking on neighboring countries such as: Austria, France, Belgium and Russia. Like I said, much money was spent on the war effort in Germany. People were taxed heavily just to buy bullets for the army. Through all this, word was spread like wild fire through Germany that a new country in the west across the water was offering freedom and a promise of happiness for anyone who would make the long journey to the new country: America. So with somewhat heavy hearts, many men and women left their families behind to journey to America in hopes of something greater. For many, the road to America was a hard one. Most of the emigrants were very poor and had to hitchhike or walk the long miles to the coast just to be able to get on the boat to America. Sometimes it would take months just to save up enough money to pay for rides out of Germany, expensive passports, and to pay for the boat fare and it would take weeks just to go to France where they usually only began the long hard trip to their destination.

P Cruises Marketing Concepts

Social needs Include the chance to meet new people and create a new social group, or simply the right to ‘brag' to friends about the experiences one has undergone while using this product. Individual needs could Include the chance of gallon new knowledge gathered through the locations offered and a different experience. Wants, when backed by buying power, become known as demands (Armstrong, Adam, Denizen & Kettle, 2012). The wants for this product are shaped through a persona's social background or even rich culture.Its uniqueness also forces the shape of the want and the variation of the respective of a holiday which is achieved through this product promotes the demand. The organization shapes the demand by promoting the practices that can only been seen and experiences through the product. P Cruises do not simply offer one type of product. What they achieve through their market include a service, goods and an experience, which are used to satisfy the customer's needs, wants a nd demands. The services that this organization offers include accommodation, meals, on-board entertainment, etc.The company provides the essential requirements to achieve a unique experience which creates the idea of a cruise which is then seen as holiday. The availability of overseas ports promotes the want for this service. Thus, P&O Cruises are able to use experiences detailed through service as their product rather than having a physical good or product. Customer perceived value is the difference between the values the customer gains from owning and using a product and the costs of obtaining the product (Armstrong, Adam, Denizen & Kettle, 2012).Media evaluation, personal knowledge and recommendations are all techniques which could be used to evaluate a product or service and then determine whether they outweigh their competitors in terms of value and satisfaction. Through the use of media reports, it is evident that P&O Cruises are continuing to grow as a corporation and are ab le to satisfy customers and consumers wants, needs and demands. Supporting this is the social media page ‘Backbone' with over 250, 000 â€Å"likes† directed toward P&O Cruises.An Important part of marketing Is the exchange, transactions and relationships sector. In large regards to how a company builds a profitable relationship with Its customers, It weighs heavily on this segment. The exchange process Is the act of obtaining a profit for the company In return for the service and experience the company offers. In P&O Cruiser's case, It Is the exchange of a luxurious holiday for a set amount of money. The success of the exchange depends widely on the transaction process.The transaction Is the marketing unit of measurement and involves the payment for the experiences offered by P Cruises companies and the like, depend on strong relationships with their consumers in order to succeed and create a healthy business. In maintaining and building a well- established relationship between P Cruises and the consumer, a strong positive relationship will result and a positive reputation will be created in favor of the company. In creating a long-term relationship, both sides will appreciate what is being offered.The customer will enjoy the service offered again and again as they trust the company and the company will continue to receive profits. The final core marketing concept is the potential buyers of a product or service, markets. P Cruises target market varies widely. It can include individuals looking for an adventure, couples that want to develop their relationship, elders that have yet to experience the thrills offered in this service, families with money to spend on something that will entertain the younger generation and many more.However, P Cruises do generally not advertise towards individuals who have limited time, money and/or interest in what is offered by the company. The five core marketing concepts are used to develop a successful company with going concern. P Cruises have evidently used these concepts during the business years and are now one of the leading cruise services offered. They have not marketed a physical good and have marketed their services and experiences successfully through the concepts of human needs, wants and demands; market offerings; value and satisfaction; exchanges, transactions and relationships; and market.

Ap Chemistry Free Response Answers

1. (a) I, III, and IV are correct. II is not correct. To explain III, de Broglie's equation states l = h/(mv), so nl = nh/(mv) = 2pi(r). Where: l = wavelength, v = velocity of electron, n = some positive integer, r = distance of electron from center, m = mass of electron. Solve, get mvr = L = nh/2pi. (b) The current wave mechanical model for the atom states that there are an integer number of wavelengths in every standing  integer number (n). 2. (a) The first shell electrons in Lithium are the closest electrons to the nucleus. In addition, there are proportionally more protons to electrons.This pulls the electrons even closer to the nucleus. And in Potassium, the outer shell electrons are a substantial distance from the nucleus. There are a greater number of protons than electrons; however, the large number of electrons dissipates the effect. This is in addition to Lithium being a much smaller neutral atom than Potassium because of the difference in the outer shells. (b) The outer shell for Cl is the same as Cl-; however, Cl-  has more electrons being  attracted by the same number of protons. This weakens the attraction per electron. Since the attraction is weaker, the electrons are farther from the nucleus.Since the attraction is stronger for Cl, the electrons are closer to the nucleus. (c) Although the normal trend is for the ionization energy to increase going to the right in a period, aluminum has a lowered ionization energy and magnesium has a raised ionization energy due to the electron configurations of these two ionizations. This reverses the order of ionization energies. (d) The ionization energy increases each time an electron is removed because there are fewer electrons attracted by the same number of protons while magnesium starts off at a relatively  high value because it begins in one of the preferred forms.The second ionization energy is lowered because losing an electron forms a preferred form and because of this, this is a smaller than normal increase in ionization energy between the first and second ionization energies. The third ionization energy is increased the most because it starts in the most standard form. When you combine this with a lower than normal second ionization energy, you get a very large increase in ionization energy. 3. (a) As you go to the right of the period, there are more protons in the nucleus.The greater attraction makes it more difficult to remove electrons and first ionization energy is the energy necessary to remove an electron from a neutral atom. (b) Although the general trend is to have Boron with a higher first ionization energy than Berylium, Boron's ionization potential is lowered and Berylium's ionization potential is raised, the order is reversed. (c) O loses one electron and makes it easier to remove the electron and lowers the ionization potential. For nitrogen, it more difficult to remove the electron and raises the ionization potential.And since Oxygen's ionization potentia l is lowered and Nitrogen's ionization potential is raised, the order is reversed. (d) Na has a lower first ionization energy than Li and also a lower ionization energy than Ne. Ne has the second highest first ionization energy of all the elements. â€Å"1s2†Ã‚  is the most preferred electron configuration. â€Å"s2  p6†Ã‚  of other shells are also highly preferred. Ne has the second highest first ionization potential because it’s â€Å"2s22p6†. 4. (a) The type of decay expected for Carbon-11 would be positron emission. 116C -; 115B + 01e (b) The type of decay expected for Carbon-14 would be Beta Decay as well. 46C -; 147N + 0-1? (c) Gamma rays have no mass or charge, so they need not be shown in nuclear equations. (d) Measure the amount of Carbon-14 in the dead wood and compare with the amount of Carbon-14 in a similar living object. 5. (a) 23494Pu -; 23092U + 42? (b) The missing mass has been converted into energy (E  =  mc2). (c) A line should be drawn curving downward from the path of the dotted line. This will represent the path of the alpha particles which are repelled by the positive plate and attracted by the negative one. A second line should be drawn upward from the path of the dotted line.This will represent the path of the beta particles which are repelled by the negative plate and attracted by the positive one. The line should curve more than the one for the alpha particles. A third line should be drawn as a continuation of the dotted line. This will represent the gamma rays. (d) Incineration is a chemical process. The only thing any chemical process can do is connect radioactive atoms to other atoms, which has no effect on the radioactivity. 6. (a) As you go down the column in the alkali metals, the outer shell electrons are farther from the nucleus.The attraction for the outer shell electrons is decreased and because the attraction is decreased, therefore the melting point decreases. (b) Intermolecular forces de termine boiling and melting points. Halogens are all diatomic, which means they bond with themselves. In these diatomic compounds, the only intermolecular force is  London forces. The larger molecules can form temporary dipoles easier than small molecules. The larger molecules as you go down the column have a greater attractive force. This increases the melting point as you go down the column. 7. a) As radius increases the heat of reaction decreases. Which means less energy released by ionic attraction. (b) As ionization energy increases the heat of reaction decreases, which means more energy is required to form M2+ while other factors remain unchanged 8. Metals are good conductors of heat, generally malleable, and react by losing electrons to form cations. They tend to have â€Å"s1†,   â€Å"s2†,   â€Å"s2p1†, or   â€Å"s2p2†Ã‚  as their outer shell. Most metals have just â€Å"s1†Ã‚  or  Ã¢â‚¬Å"s2†. Nonmetals are poor conductor s of heat, brittle, and gain electrons when reacting with metals to form anions.Nonmetals have either 3, 4, 5, or 6 electrons in the p subshell in addition to s2  of the same shell number. When the last subshell is a d, the outer shell is s2  of the next shell. Occasionally there will be only 1 electron in the s subshell and this explains when the transition elements are metals. When the last subshell is a â€Å"f†, the outer shell is s2  of the second higher shell and this explains when the lanthanides and actinides are metals. This proves how more than half of the periodic table are metals. 9. (a) â€Å"you have not learned this one yet† (b) â€Å"F2†Ã‚  has the highest  electronegativity  and  electron affinity.Thus it has the greatest attraction for extra electrons. F2   +   2e -;  2F  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ 1   This makes the reaction more likely to occur. â€Å"I2†Ã‚  has the lowest electronegativity and electron affinity. Thus it has less a ttraction for extra electrons making the reaction  Ã‚   I2   +   2e -;   2I  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ 1   less likely to occur. Because it can disperse the charge better, the reaction does occur. (c) The trend for alkali metals shows a very small variation in reducing strength without a real trend. Cesium has the lowest ionization potential and Lithium has the highest ionization potential. However, there is not a great difference in the alkali metals.

Comparison of Nora (A Dolls House) and Mrs.Alving (Ghosts).

Comparison of Nora (A Dolls House) and Mrs.Alving (Ghosts). Nora and Mrs. Alving are two main characters in Ibsen's plays. They are similar in some ways, but obviously they are both uniquely diverse. They play many of the same roles in their plays, and are probably the most similar two characters between "Ghosts" and "A Doll's House."Nora is a unique character, a kind not usually seen in most plays. She swings her mood often; she is either very happy or very depressed, comfortable or desperate, wise or na ­ve. At the beginning of the play, Nora still plays a child in many ways, listening at doors and eating forbidden sweets behind her husband's back. She has gone straight from her father's house to her husband's, bringing along her nursemaid which tells us that she hasn't really grown up. She also doesn't have much of an own opinion. She has always accepted her father's and her husband's opinions.Oswald PlushShe's aware that Torvald would have no use for a wife who was equal to him. But like many children, Nora knows how to manipulate Torva ld by pouting or by performing for him. In the end, it is the truth about her marriage that awakens Nora. Although she may suspect that Torvald is a weak, petty man, she believes that he is strong, that he'll protect her from the consequences of her actions. Then, at the moment of truth, he abandons her completely. She is shocked into reality and sees how fake their relationship has been. She realizes that her father and her husband have seen her as a doll, a toy to be played with, a figure without opinion or will of her own. She also realizes that she is treating her children the same way. Her whole life has been based on illusion rather than reality.Mrs. Alving married her late husband, Captain Alving, at her family' proposal, but she had a horrible marriage. She ran away to Pastor Manders, who she was attracted to, but he made her return to her husband. After enduring her husband's depravity for a while, she sent away Oswald at the age of seven, with the hope that he would never discover his dead father's immorality. Mrs. Alving built an orphanage to memorialize his death, and it was scheduled to be dedicated the following day. She didn't want anyone to know the truth about his person; she wanted everyone to think he was a great, honorable man. Fortunately, she at least had the compellation to tell her son the truth about his father.The occasions that arose for both characters were similar to some extent. One year into her marriage, Mrs. Alving, like Nora, walks out on her husband, fleeing to the house and into the arms of her friend Pastor Manders, only to be persuaded by him to return to her husband. Another similar occurrence was when Nora had to save her husband, by going into exile and away for a little bit, and Mrs. Alving saved her son by sending him into exile or at least away from their home so that Oswald would never have to grow up with his freelancing father.There were also some key differences between Nora and Mrs. Alving. In "A Doll's House", the reason of the union between Nora and Helmer relied on the husband's conception of integrity and unyielding devotion to social morality. He was the conventional, ideal husband and devoted father. Not so in Ghosts. Mrs. Alving married Captain Alving only to find that he was a physical and mental wreck, and that life with him would mean utter degradation and be fatal to her possible children. In her despair, she turned to her friend, Pastor Manders, who needed to be indifferent to necessities. He sent her back to shame and degradation, back to her duties to her husband and home. Happiness, to him, was the "unholy manifestation of a rebellious spirit," and a wife's duty was not to judge, but "to bear with humility the cross which a higher power had for your own good laid upon you."Mrs. Alving bore the cross for twenty-six long years. Not for the sake of the higher power, but for her little son Oswald, whom she longed to save from the poisonous atmosphere of her husband's home. Meanw hile, Nora fled her husband for the sake of the higher power, for the opportunity to find her own ideas and opinions, to gain an experience without the controlling factor that her husband had on her.

Free Essays on Reaction To “Marrying Medicine“

In preparing for this assignment, I found myself interested in all of the four essays. This may seem trivial, or even predictable, if it weren’t for the fact that I honestly can’t remember the last time a read something that wasn’t directly related to passing a medical exam. I was moved by the awkwardness and passion in Tell Me, Tell Me; disturbed by the disclosures in Invasions; and intrigued by the conflict in Case Study: Please Don’t Tell! However, it was Marrying Medicine that really hit closest to home. Obviously the paper addresses an issue that concerns most female physicians and medical students. As the traditional â€Å"caregiver,† I think many of us tend to feel the need to care fully for our patients as well as care for our families. This creates a major source of conflict when time constraints prevent us from doing both. Furthermore, a legal obligation to provide care for the patients often tips the scales away from the people we would probably prefer to care for. As someone who is very close to and reliant on my family and very involved in personal relationships, it terrifies me to think my career choice may prevent me from creating the kind of home atmosphere I’m accustom to. Reading the essay again, I found another issue that was not quite as apparent, but that echoes a sentiment I’ve often felt. On one hand, Dr. Bannerjee knows what a competent, caring physician she is, and how she is desirable enough to have turned down many suitors. On the other hand, she has serious doubts about why her husband is with her. It’s almost as if she has two distinct personalities: one that is secure, confident, and in control and another that is insecure, doubtful, and fearful. While she is obviously more intelligent and attractive than most women, she still grapples with the insecurities that plague the rest of her gender. On top of it, she has to deal with another duality of her personality: her ambitious, h... Free Essays on Reaction To â€Å"Marrying Medicineâ€Å" Free Essays on Reaction To â€Å"Marrying Medicineâ€Å" In preparing for this assignment, I found myself interested in all of the four essays. This may seem trivial, or even predictable, if it weren’t for the fact that I honestly can’t remember the last time a read something that wasn’t directly related to passing a medical exam. I was moved by the awkwardness and passion in Tell Me, Tell Me; disturbed by the disclosures in Invasions; and intrigued by the conflict in Case Study: Please Don’t Tell! However, it was Marrying Medicine that really hit closest to home. Obviously the paper addresses an issue that concerns most female physicians and medical students. As the traditional â€Å"caregiver,† I think many of us tend to feel the need to care fully for our patients as well as care for our families. This creates a major source of conflict when time constraints prevent us from doing both. Furthermore, a legal obligation to provide care for the patients often tips the scales away from the people we would probably prefer to care for. As someone who is very close to and reliant on my family and very involved in personal relationships, it terrifies me to think my career choice may prevent me from creating the kind of home atmosphere I’m accustom to. Reading the essay again, I found another issue that was not quite as apparent, but that echoes a sentiment I’ve often felt. On one hand, Dr. Bannerjee knows what a competent, caring physician she is, and how she is desirable enough to have turned down many suitors. On the other hand, she has serious doubts about why her husband is with her. It’s almost as if she has two distinct personalities: one that is secure, confident, and in control and another that is insecure, doubtful, and fearful. While she is obviously more intelligent and attractive than most women, she still grapples with the insecurities that plague the rest of her gender. On top of it, she has to deal with another duality of her personality: her ambitious, h...

Direct Speech Definition and Examples

Direct Speech Definition and Examples Direct speech is a report of the exact words used by a speaker or writer. Contrast with indirect speech. Also called direct discourse. Direct speech is usually placed inside quotation marks and accompanied by a reporting verb, signal phrase, or quotative frame. Examples and Observations A South Carolina parrot was the sole witness to the death by neglect of a 98-year-old woman. Help me, Help me, said the parrot. Ha ha ha!(reported in Harpers Magazine, February 2011)I went in search of the good beer. Along the way, I caught an intriguing snippet of conversation in the sunroom:â€Å"So if I win at that table, I’ll go on to the World Series,† said the mom I know as some kind of government contractor.â€Å"World Series?† you ask.â€Å"Of Poker,† she replied. â€Å"I went last year.†Whoa.(Petula Dvorak, White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner Has Nothing on Suburban Fete. The Washington Post, May 3, 2012)How old are you? the man asked.The little boy, at the eternal question, looked at the man suspiciously for a minute and then said, Twenty-six. Eight hunnerd and forty eighty.His mother lifted her head from the book. Four, she said, smiling fondly at the little boy.Is that so? the man said politely to the little boy. Twenty -six. He nodded his head at the mother across the aisle. Is that your mother?The little boy leaned forward to look and then said, Yes, thats her.Whats your name? the man asked.The little boy looked suspicious again. Mr. Jesus, he said.(Shirley Jackson, The Witch. The Lottery and Other Stories. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1949) Direct Speech and Indirect Speech While direct speech purports to give a verbatim rendition of the words that were spoken, indirect speech is more variable in claiming to represent a faithful report of the content or content and form of the words that were spoken. It is important to note, however, that the question of whether and how faithful a given speech report actually is, is of a quite different order. Both direct and indirect speech are stylistic devices for conveying messages. The former is used as if the words being used were those of another, which are therefore pivoted to a deictic center different from the speech situation of the report. Indirect speech, in contrast, has its deictic center in the report situation and is variable with respect to the extent that faithfulness to the linguistic form of what was said is being claimed. (Florian Coulmas, Reported Speech: Some General Issues. Direct and Indirect Speech, ed. by F. Coulmas. Walter de Gruyter, 1986) Direct Speech as Drama When a speaking event is reported via direct speech forms, it is possible to include many features that dramatize the way in which an utterance was produced. The quotative frame can also include verbs which indicate the speakers manner of expression (e.g. cry, exclaim, gasp), voice quality (e.g. mutter, scream, whisper), and type of emotion (e.g. giggle, laugh, sob). It can also include adverbs (e.g. angrily, brightly, cautiously, hoarsely, quickly, slowly) and descriptions of the reported speakers style and tone of voice, as illustrated in [5]. [5a] I have some good news, she whispered in a mischievous way.[5b] What is it? he snapped immediately.[5c] Cant you guess? she giggled.[5d] Oh, no! Dont tell me youre pregnant he wailed, with a whining nasal sound in his voice. The literary style of the examples in [5] is associated with an older tradition. In contemporary novels, there is often no indication, other than separate lines, of which character is speaking, as the direct speech forms are presented like a dramatic script, one after the other. (George Yule, Explaining English Grammar. Oxford University Press, 1998) Like: Signaling Direct Speech in Conversation An interesting new way of signaling direct speech has recently developed among younger English speakers and is spreading from the United States to Britain. This occurs entirely in spoken conversation, rather than in writing, . . . but here are some examples anyway. (It may help to imagine an American teenager speaking these examples.) - . . . Though the construction is new [in 1994] and not yet standard, its meaning is very clear. It seems to be used more often to report thoughts rather than actual speech. (James R. Hurford, Grammar: A Students Guide. Cambridge University Press, 1994) Differences in Reported Speech Even in the days of audio and video recording, there can be surprising differences in direct quotations attributed to the same source. A simple comparison of the same speech event covered in different newspapers can illustrate the problem. When his country was not invited to a meeting of the Commonwealth of Nations in 2003, the president of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, said the following in a televised speech, according to The New York Times: If our sovereignty is what we have to lose to be re-admitted into the Commonwealth, Mr. Mugabe was quoted as saying on Friday, we will say goodbye to the Commonwealth. And perhaps the time has now come to say so. (Wines 2003) And the following according to an Associated Press story in the Philadelphia Inquirer. If our sovereignty is to be real, then we will say goodbye to the Commonwealth, [sic; second quotation mark missing] Mugabe said in remarks broadcast on state television. Perhaps the time has come to say so. (Shaw 2003) Did Mugabe produce both versions of these comments? If he gave only one, which published version is accurate? Do the versions have different sources? Are the differences in the exact wording significant or not?(Jeanne Fahnestock, Rhetorical Style: The Uses of Language in Persuasion. Oxford University Press, 2011)

Programming MS Excel to freeze panes Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Programming MS Excel to freeze panes - Article Example The same applies to when applying to more than one column. However, to implement freezing panes on the first column, you choose the first column under the freeze submenu. After using the freeze panes, in either case, you remove by selecting unfreeze panes. The purpose of using freezing panes is to maintain your track on cells, and rows or columns of data that you feel are vital when making navigations through the worksheet. Further, it is very vital when working with an extreme number of rows and columns. It is so because irrespective of where you are scrolling, the headings will always be visible thus making it easier to relate where the data belongs. The user is said to remain in perspective with the data concerned. Freezing panes differs from the views in the database. First, freezing panes aims to keep a section of the worksheet visible i.e. keep its state constant to allow the user to relate to other parts of the worksheet especially when there are many columns and rows involved. Views, on the other hand, retrieve information from data store that meets the particular criterion. In essence, database views are more flexible (Lightstone, Teorey & Nadeau, 2007). The results it can return is custom to users needs and covers a wider scope as compared to freezing panes in Excel that has a predefined way of using it. Further, freezing panes is strictly restricted to navigation where some section is mobile while the others are constant whereas views deal with

Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig Van Beethoven Essay

Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig Van Beethoven - Essay Example Though their lifetimes were relatively close compared to many other composers they lived during different musical times and significantly influenced those styles. Bach's career is best known for his sacred and secular work. His work is considered to encompass all of the Baroque style. While Bach did not introduce any new musical ideas to the Baroque period his work did embrace all that was the Baroque style, though some of his choices can be considered extreme. For example his notation of the complete melodic line, including all flourishes, performers during the Baroque period were presented with the base of the melody and included their own flourishes (Wolffe, C. 381-389). Beethoven music was considered to be extremely important for the transition from the classical to romantic style. His work can be separated into three periods; early (classical period), middle (Heroic period) and late (Romantic period) (Kerman, J., 89-92). Both composers composed many religious works but their utilization of religion and music differs. Much of Bach's work is written for the church or based on religion and he closely tied is music and text. A few examples of this are his motifs in the cantata Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit. The slow repeating notes in the start of the piece Jesus' slow, labored walk as we carried the cross. He also uses many octave leaps, which represent the relationship between heaven and earth. There is also symbolism in his work that is not directly related to the performance. The variation in instrumentation and vocal parts during Lobet Gott in seinen Reichen of St. Matthew's Passion can be seen by some as to form a cross (Wolff, C., 298-303). Beethoven also wrote many religious pieces but his attachment to the church is somewhat less intense than Bach's. Beethoven's religious beliefs are highly debated and though he was raised a roman catholic. While he wrote pieces for the catholic church, the Mass in C and Missa Solemnis being the most famous. The Missa Solemnis was composed in compliance with the standard Musical Catholic Mass. Some of his other work, most notably the ninth symphony contained refers to God and also mythological stories, he refers to the "Elysium" fields (Forbes, E., 880-929). The contribution of Beethoven's works that are considered to be a transition between the classical and romantic styles is his middle or romantic period. His heroic works, which include The Eroica, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh and Eight Symphonies, String quartets 7-11, the Waldstein and Appasionata piano sonatas, and the opera Fidelio, are considered to have extended to scope of classical music. Much of his early period work was based or influenced from Mozart and Hadyn. His middle period work where hugely demanding on the performers. At the time the playing levels of musicians were not consistent as most musical endeavors were sponsored or funded by private individuals. Large symphony orchestras like the New York Philharmonic that play together constantly had not been formed yet. Bach's music did not cause a change in musical styles. Instead his work encompassed much of the Baroque style by bringing his music to a new level. He is noted for his use of contrapuntal technique (the relationship between two or more voices that are independent in rhyme and contour but have harmonic association), his harmonic and melodic structure from a small to large scale, and his incorporation

An investigation of either STRUCTURAL or TECHNOLOGICAL control and Essay

An investigation of either STRUCTURAL or TECHNOLOGICAL control and reactions to it in an organisation - Essay Example $170.9 billion and the net income was US $48.9 billion. Such financial returns could be achieved by the organization only with the help of an organized managerial structure. The human capital of the company is highly efficient and the latter constantly undertakes strategic business initiatives to enhance the skills of its workers. This paper will investigate ways through which the company manages its workforce and also, will discuss the impact of such management on the organization. In the contemporary world, the scope and scale of operations for nearly all organizations in the industry have turned out to be highly complex in nature. Since globalization, the prevalence of giant firms across different marketplaces has significantly increased (Stoica, 2010). It has been commented by analysts in the market that such high degree of internalization in business is feasible by firms, only with the assistance of a good managerial structure and technological development. This paper will concentrate on the managerial structure of the organization, Apple Inc., which is a giant multinational organization based in California. It engages in designing, developing and retailing of electronics, personal computers and computer software. Since its inception in 1976, the organization could achieve such high brand value among all its business stakeholders, only through efficient managerial expertise (Apple, 2013). Giant multinational companies possess a vast organizational structure for operating all its business branches across various nations. Figure 1 in the Appendix explains the general form of organizational structure that exists in every multinational company. However, there are five main types of structure: However, ethical issues in research were given high value by the researcher. All the personal information and data collected from each of the employees were, thus, highly confined and were not disclosed in public (Mukherji and Albon, 2009). The research

Why racial and sexual discrimination are immoral Essay

Why racial and sexual discrimination are immoral - Essay Example For example, when one is looking for a job and he/she is said by maybe the management or the person dealing with the recruitment drive that he/she doesn’t fit into the job just because of gender or race means that the organization is not after someone who can deliver but after someone to just fill the vacant position. To the organization, performance of the individual is not the hinge as it should be in normal circumstances. Also, when one seeks treatment in a hospital and he/she is denied medical services just because he does not belong to the right race or gender then the hospital fails in the mandate of its existence. The hospital is meant to offer medical services to people who in turn make payments which mean continuity. If the hospital fees are not accruing due to discrimination, then it means the hospitals existence is at threat which translates to many loosing their jobs and others loosing the opportunity to be get services. Again, when one is treated with bias in business matters, he/she may be the unexploited opportunity which other business partners have not discovered and which could take them a notch higher. In this case, such opportunity is given to the least deserving thus minimizing the returns of the venture. This means that, the main objective of the venture is not the driving force which will lead to more profits and thus the continuity of the venture. The three examples above confirm that, discriminating a person due to gender or race has nothing beneficial. According to Kantianism, an activities worth is measured according to its beneficial aspects. The number of good deeds resulting from the action should surpass the bad ones and if possible bad outcomes should be non-existent in any action that is taken by human beings (Jeremy, B 2007). When you get someone as an employee due to his/her race (as yours), then performance is compromised in this case. Giving a person an opportunity without regard of gender of race means that the

Topic 2 Eco Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Topic 2 Eco - Essay Example This notwithstanding, another concern that continues to be raised by experts in the field has to do with the cost associated with the use of these tools, where there continues to be debate as to whether or not these state-of-the-art screening and diagnostic tools would not lead to an increase in the rate of growth of healthcare expenditure. Taking a stand on the issue, it would be said that there are two broad financial impacts of the current situation on the rate of growth of healthcare expenditure. These are short term impact and long term impact. Short term impact of the use of state-of-the-art screening and diagnostic tools refers to the financial outcomes of using these tools from the time the spending is made to the next financial seasons when financial season when budgets are prepared. What is noted is that most health facilities purchase these tools not as part of their daily consumables but as lifetime purchases. This means that when they buy them once, they hardly buy them again in a very long time. The prices of these tools are however very high. In the short term when the health facilities would have to made huge financial allocations to make purchases, it can be said that the impact on expenditure will be massive in terms of growth. This is because the current healthcare budget is already plagued with very high demand from the need to achieving quality healthcare delivery (Henderson, 2012). Greater parts of the budgets of health facilities have tried to focus on human resource development in the past and even thoug h this form of spending has not ceased, there has been this new form of spending. The other form of impact is the long term effect of this form of spending, which looks at the results that the screening and diagnostic tools will have on healthcare delivery after about a year of their usage. From this context, it can be said that the usage of these tools promotes quality healthcare delivery, greater part of which focuses on

Vinegar Tom by Carly churchill Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Vinegar Tom by Carly churchill - Essay Example , while Jack, the neighboring farmer of Alice and her mother Joan is continuously fantasizing about Alice, Alice on the other hand is able to engage in promiscuity without any feelings being attached, as characterized by the opening song of the play that goes "A devils woman is never satisfied", to indicate the power of women to engage in sexual relations with men, without attached feelings1. This is where the men in this society have been overcome by the women power of sexuality, and without any other way to defeat them; the men have turned into witch hunting. Therefore, four of the women in the play are accused of witchcraft, starting with Alice, then Joan who is her mother, and then Ellen the midwife for assisting abortion, and Susan who aborts2. Even Betty, the fifth woman in the play is also accused of being mad or ill, simply because she does not want to marry3. All these has been done by men, out of their frustration on being unable to control the power of sexuality in the wom en, even though women are less powerful than those men in terms of

Topic 2 Eco Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Topic 2 Eco - Essay Example This notwithstanding, another concern that continues to be raised by experts in the field has to do with the cost associated with the use of these tools, where there continues to be debate as to whether or not these state-of-the-art screening and diagnostic tools would not lead to an increase in the rate of growth of healthcare expenditure. Taking a stand on the issue, it would be said that there are two broad financial impacts of the current situation on the rate of growth of healthcare expenditure. These are short term impact and long term impact. Short term impact of the use of state-of-the-art screening and diagnostic tools refers to the financial outcomes of using these tools from the time the spending is made to the next financial seasons when financial season when budgets are prepared. What is noted is that most health facilities purchase these tools not as part of their daily consumables but as lifetime purchases. This means that when they buy them once, they hardly buy them again in a very long time. The prices of these tools are however very high. In the short term when the health facilities would have to made huge financial allocations to make purchases, it can be said that the impact on expenditure will be massive in terms of growth. This is because the current healthcare budget is already plagued with very high demand from the need to achieving quality healthcare delivery (Henderson, 2012). Greater parts of the budgets of health facilities have tried to focus on human resource development in the past and even thoug h this form of spending has not ceased, there has been this new form of spending. The other form of impact is the long term effect of this form of spending, which looks at the results that the screening and diagnostic tools will have on healthcare delivery after about a year of their usage. From this context, it can be said that the usage of these tools promotes quality healthcare delivery, greater part of which focuses on

Economics and Contemporary Issues Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Economics and Contemporary Issues - Essay Example Behind this struggle, health care costs are skyrocketing, and two primary reasons for the increase find their roots in these same two groups. Life expectancies in the country are getting longer, and the aging boomers will require more health care for longer periods f time. Funding for the existing government health care systems is declining due to the same reasons that Social Security is facing implosion. More citizens receiving benefits are fewer citizens are paying into the system. The simple equation f higher demand -plus- lower funding -plus- longer lives -equals- higher costs. Secondly, the poor, uninsured and illegal immigrants who can receive health care at any hospital are creating increased drag on a system that is already suffering. Every hospital in the country will treat any person entering its emergency wards. If the services are not paid for, the loss is applies to the bottom line, and costs increase throughout the system. A third reason for the push for Universal healthcare is the pragmatic belief that in the long run it will reduce healthcare costs in general. If preventative care is available to everyone from birth, the result will be less-costly healthcare needs in people's later years. Early preventative measures also lessen the magnitude f epidemics; when more people are immunized and have access to treatment, disease cannot spread so easily. (University Wire, 2001) Former US Surgeon General C. Everett Koop recently stated: "I think I am right when I write that all Americans have the right to healthcare," Koop said. "If we agree that there is a right to healthcare, then we are also agreeing that someone must provide these rights," he said, noting that the right to healthcare is different than some other constitutional rights because it incurs a monetary cost on society. (Anand, 2000) Two year ago, in a survey f medical- school faculty and administrators published in the New England Journal f Medicine, 57 per cent said they like a single-payer universal healthcare system over either fee-for-service or managed care. Indeed, more and more doctors are now keen to work in coalitions where they learn from and fight for the needs f those whom they have traditionally considered inferiors or adversaries. (Gordon, 2000) As a result, when President Clinton ascended the podium, and declared that universal healthcare is a right which Americans shared, no one questioned where the money would come from to fund such a huge expansion f the federal bureaucracy. This has become the clearest argument for universal healthcare, the right f all people to receive healthcare, in the form f physician visits and pharmaceuticals, regardless f their socioeconomic status. (University Wire, 2001) A person who is poor should not be precluded from the benefit f healthcare simply because he or she cannot afford it. Boomers perceive universal health care as another program to benefit them, and the poor / uninsured thought they were looking at a savior. The core question to answer, however, is not whether healthcare coverage is a right or not. The costs f health care are skyrocketing, and the needs f the population are increasing. The question is: What is the most effective means f bringing down

Copper Cycle Lab Essay Example for Free

Copper Cycle Lab Essay Purpose: During this experiment, we were trying to see whether copper, after a chain of chemical reactions, will revert back to its elemental form. Procedure: First, I added nitric acid with copper in a beaker, which turned into a copper nitrate, a blue-green solution. Afterwards, I added sodium hydroxide, and my solution colored to a dark blue solution called copper hydroxide. I heated the solution to evaporate the water and I got a brownish-blackish solid called copper oxide. Once the solid appeared, I poured in sulfuric acid to it and I got copper sulfate, a bluish solution. The final step I took was to add the element zinc, which turned the solution from blue to clear, with a brown solid in the bottom of the beaker, copper. Observation: During each step, something happened. For instant, for the first step, when I added the acid to the copper, the copper disappeared and the solution turned from the clear acid color to a blue-greenish hue. In the next step, there was another chemical reaction when I added the sodium hydroxide. The whole solution turned blue when I stirred the mixture. When the time came to evaporate the solution, the liquids disappeared, leaving behind a wet, brownish solid in the middle of the beaker. When the solid was hot, it bubbled and popped until it cooled down. When all the liquids evaporated, I scraped off the solid and put it in a separate beaker. Once I put the sulfuric acid in it, the brown solids (copper oxide) slowly dissolved and turned the acid into blue. After the acid was blue, I added the metal/grey colored zinc into the solution; the solution bubbled and the zinc turned the solution clear. The zinc disappeared and in its place, copper appeared. Analysis: For each step, there was a chemical reaction, except for the part where we evaporated the water/liquefied chemicals. For each step, I was turning the copper into a compound. When an acid was added to the copper, it turned the element into a compound. When a base was added later, it merely replaced the acid with the base. Conclusion: For this experiment, I can conclude that an element/matter can never be destroyed or created. The copper cycle is evidence for the Law of Conservation of Mass, which states that an element or matter can never be created or destroyed, only changed.

Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock Essay: The Existential Anguish of J. Al

The Existential Anguish of J. Alfred Prufrock      Ã‚   Upon reading Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," the first question which sprang to my mind was the question of how Eliot, a poet who was in his mid-twenties at the time, was able to write a poem dealing with the problems of aging in such a penetrating manner. Upon closer examination, however, I realized that Prufrock's aging was only incidental to his central problem. Prufrock's major problem is a problem of existential anguish. Prufrock's doubts about aging at a dinner party are merely one example of this anguish, and this party brings his psychology into sharp focus when the reader examines closely the moment in which the poem's events occur.    It is true that Prufrock's overtly expressed fears all seem to stem from his aging. For instance, he mentions the thinning of his hair in lines 40, 41, and 82; and the aging itself is mentioned toward the end of the poem:    I grow old . . . I grow old . . . I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled. (lines 120-121)    However, all of Prufrock's problems stem from his insecurity and his inability to reveal his interest in the women at the party. "How should I presume?" he asks several times throughout the poem. (lines 54, 61, and 68) Prufrock is so entranced and frustrated by the women that every detail, including the arms "braceleted and white and bare" (line 63), the "long fingers" that smooth away the afternoon (line 76), and the "skirts that trail along the floor" (line 102) become everything to him in that moment.    These small details so obsess Prufrock and so occupy his mind, in fact, that everything else ceases to exist for him. He does not simply wonder how he should p... ... of the poem, then become clear. In the epigram, he quoted someone directly addressing the reader; in the first twelve lines, he invites us to "make our visit" (line 12); and in the three lines of the poem, Eliot tells us that "We have lingered [...] Till human voices wake us, and we drown." (lines 129-131) At this point, Eliot invites us to identify ourselves with the main character of the poem. J. Alfred Prufrock is not simply J. Alfred Prufrock. There is a quite a bit of Prufrock, with his self-doubt and his existential anguish, in all of us. But unlike Dante, we do not return to a normal life: we are merely drowned in "the chambers of the sea," (line 129), which the mermaids ride, uncaring.    References Eliot, T.S. "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" in The McGraw-Hill Book of Poetry. Ed. Robert DiYanni and Kraft Rompf. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1993.

Essay --

B00466902 Introduction to African History (AFST/HIST 283A) December 16th, 2013 1. (a) Africans and Europeans have relations that date all the way back to the origins of humans and human migrations. Scholars have hypothesized that Homo erectus found in Europe about 800,000 years ago originated and migrated from Africa Europeans and Africans also had religious relations; which is evident from the spread of Christianity, introduced by the Byzantines, throughout Africa specifically in North Africa, the Nile Valley, and the Horn of Africa. Aside from religious relations, Africans and Europeans also had economic and political relations as a result of European colonization and conquest of the African regions. Economic relations were a result of Europeans coming into Africa and taking natural resources to benefit from in the production of goods and trade. Another specific example of economic relations between Europeans and Africans is the practice of mercantilism, in which European nations were the mother countries and countries of Africa were the colonies. As the moth er country, Europeans, would take natural resources from the colony, African regions, to produce goods, which would then be sold back to the colony. This also attributed to the political relations between Africans and Europeans because the economic desires of the Europeans often led to them controlling the Africans to maximize profit and their own personal benefits; which is directly related to slavery, one of the biggest relations between Africans and Europeans. Slavery and the slave trade in turn created social relations because slaves were considered to be a class of their own. Another social relation that resulted from slavery was the creation a â€Å"new race† known as the... ...ural resources. Post independence Africans although not ruled by Europeans nations such as Britain, France, and the Dutch were still dependent on these nations for goods and other trading purposes. Culturally, post independence Africans and precolonial Africans were different because post independence Africans were greatly influenced by the mother countries that ruled them because their mother countries cultures were inflicted on them whether it was language, food, religion, or even clothing. Precolonial Africans and post independence Africans also differed politically in the aspect that precolonial African governments were more tribe like, while post independence Africans governments had western influence and some cases lead to dictatorships as seen in Liberia dictated by Samuel Doe, Zaire dictated by Mobutu Sese Seko, and Somalia dictated by Muhammad Siad Barre.

Damned Lies and Statistics: Untangling Numbers from the Media, Politicians, and Activists Essay

This report is based upon the book â€Å"Damned Lies and Statistics: Untangling Numbers from the Media, Politicians, and Activists†, written by Joel Best and published by University of California Press in 2001. Joel Best, a professor of sociology and criminal justice at the University of Delaware, has written a highly readable treatise on statistics, and how we can become better consumers of the statistical information that permeates the environment in which we live. Joel Best is a sociologist and, as a result, this is not a book about the mathematics of statistics, but about its sociology. That is, a book about the ways in which bad statistics are generated and spread through society. The title of the book comes from Mark Twain’s famous phrase â€Å"lies, damned lies, and statistics†, which is usually interpreted as grouping statistics with lies. A more critical title would come from the phrase â€Å"figures don’t lie, but liars can figure†. Despite its cynical title, Best’s book is one of the best ways to learn how to cease being awestruck by statistics, and to start critically evaluating them. In straightforward prose filled with real world examples, Joel Best deconstructs the processes by which social statistics are created and take on a life of their own, primarily through blind and unquestioning repetition by the media. He also delineates how such statistics are sometimes mutated, misinterpreted, misapplied, and manipulated. In his view, there are no perfect statistics, just better or worse ones. Every statistic involves human choices: defining what to measure, determining how to measure it, deciding whom to count or how to count it, and choosing how to deal with unreported cases (the dark figure) of whatever is being counted. Not only does every statistic contain identifiable, though generally unrecognized strengths, weaknesses, and dark figures, but many of the most controversial and heavily publicized statistics are created by people in advocacy positions. Social statistics – statistics about social problems, such as prostitution or suicide – are often produced by activists who are concerned about the problem, and may exaggerate it. When not produced by activists, statistics are often a product of government, which may be motivated in the opposite direction of the activists, to play down a problem. A quick summary of the issues and topics in this book offers a good overview of clear thinking on statistical issues. Chapter 1, â€Å"The Importance of Social Statistics†, explains where statistics come from, how we use them, and why they are important. Chapter 2, â€Å"Soft Facts†, discusses sources of bad statistics. Guessing, poor definitions, poor measures, and bad samples are the primary sources of bad statistics. Good statistics require good data; clear, reasonable definitions; clear, reasonable measures; and appropriate samples. Chapter 3, â€Å"Mutant Statistics†, describes the methods for mangling numbers. Most of these arise from violating the four requirements of good statistics, but a new problem arises here. While it is relatively easy to spot bad statistics, mutant statistics require a second level of understanding. As statistics mutate, they take on a history, and it becomes necessary to unravel the history to understand just how and why they are mutant. Transformation, confusion, and compound errors create chains of bad statistics that become difficult to trace and categorize. Chapter 4, â€Å"Apples and Oranges†, discusses the dangers of inappropriate comparison. Dangers arise when comparisons over time involve changing and unchanging measures, and projections. Comparisons among places and groups lead to problems not merely in the data measured, but in the ways the data may be gathered and collated. Comparison among social problems also creates unique difficulties. Best offers logic of comparison to help the reader understand how to make sense of good comparison and bad comparison. Chapter 5, â€Å"Stat Wars†, describes the problems that arise when advocated use questionable numbers to make a case. Chapter 6, â€Å"Thinking About Social Statistics†, sums up Best’s advice on understanding statistics – don’t be awestruck in the face of numbers, and don’t be cynical about them, he suggests, be critical and thoughtful.

Meteors Case Study Essay

Meteorites are rocks from space, which land on Earth, attracted by her gravity. The shooting stars that you see at night, are actually burning meteors that fall on Earth from outer space! This is the first of many interesting facts that are going to follow. Why do meteorites fall? For the same reason why anything falls on Earth – ‘Gravity’. Very few can escape it! Meteorites have their origin in outer space. They are relatively small pieces of dust and debris, usually left behind in the wake of a comet. Meteorites, that are huge in size, have their origin in space, as asteroids. They are left over pieces of matter from formation of the solar system, which could not clump together to form a planet like our Earth. There is a dense belt of such asteroids outside the orbit of the planet Mars, called the ‘Asteroid Belt’. Asteroids are huge in size and their lengths can number to kilometers! Once in a while, small pieces of rock or dust, come into range of Earth’s gravitational pull and fall on Earth as shooting stars. An asteroid dislodged from its trajectory and falling on Earth is also called a meteorite. However, an asteroid being huge in size, causes a cataclysmic explosion on Earth on impact. Origin ‘Meteor’ and ‘Meteorite’ facts are interchangeable terms and we shall see why they are so. When these rocks and pieces of dust are floating in space, they are called ‘Meteoroids’. When they make a blazing entry into Earth’s atmosphere, they are called ‘Meteors’. Finally, if they survive the burning entry into Earth’s atmosphere and fall on Earth, they are called ‘Meteorites’. So a meteorite could originate from comet debris called meteoroids or larger objects called asteroids! Here are some basic facts about meteorites, meteors and meteoroids. Comets leave tons of dust and debris in their trail as they travel along long orbits round the Sun. When Earth, while revolving around the Sun, passes through some patches of this comet debris, it enters the Earth’s atmosphere causing meteor showers. Meteor showers are periodic events. One can see thousands of meteors or shooting stars, as they are called, during such a shower. The most popular meteor showers are ‘Perseids’ (which peak around August 12) and Leonids (which peak around 17 November). During these showers, you can observe a shooting star at the rate of 1 meteor per minute on an average. A falling meteor can travel at speed of as much as 44 miles per second ! One of the facts is that they have some of the oldest rocks in the solar system among them. They could be older than the Earth and date from the period when Sun was forming! Every day, about 4 billion meteoroids fall on Earth! Majority of them are very tiny and therefore do not cause much harm. If a meteorite is observed while falling and recovered from the place of fall, it’s called a ‘fall’ meteorite. If a meteorite is not observed while falling, but found from any location, it’s called a ‘find.’ Till 2006, there have been roughly 1,050 witnessed falls while there are about 30,000 documented ‘Finds’. Falling meteors which are large in size, can create an intense electromagnetic pulse, which temporarily disrupt radio communication in the region of fall! With a properly designed radio antenna, you can actually ‘hear’ meteorites falling as radio noise. Types and Composition Here are some facts about their types and composition, that you should know about. Recovered meteorites are classified into three main categories which are ‘Chondrites’ (Make about 86% of all recovered meteorites), ‘Achondrites’ (8%) and ‘Iron’ meteorites (6 %). The name ‘Chondrites’ comes from features called ‘Chrondules’, which are melted silicate materials from their past. Chondrites are about 4.55 billion years old and are the types of rocks from which our own planet formed! Certain chondrite meteorites fallen from outer space contain traces of amino acids and organic matter, bolstering the theory that life may have been planted on Earth! This is one of the most astounding facts. Achronidtes are relatively younger meteorites of the igneous rock type and are pieces of asteroids, the Moon and Mars! Iron meteorites are composed of iron-nickel alloys and silicate materials. They are also thought to be pieces of asteroid s! Every one of these meteor facts are intriguing. Earth has been pounded by the impact of many meteorites, ranging from the very tiny to gigantic meteorites. The meteorites impact craters that are found on earth are testimony to this. It is time for the last of our facts. One gigantic meteorite impact occurred millions of years ago on Earth which brought on the extinction of dinosaurs! One question that may come to your mind is, ‘Where do meteorites fall?’. They could fall anywhere on Earth. Meteors have been found all over the world. The recent findings have been mostly in Africa and accessible parts of Antarctica. If you could find one, you are bound to be rich as private collectors and museums pay millions of dollars for them! The reason is that they are very rare and are made up of minerals, which are never found on Earth! So keep looking! You may never know, when one might pop out of the sky, making you rich. So it’s actually profitable to know some meteor fact s. Originating in the outer space, an object reaches Earth and gets a place in the list of meteorites. There have been many instances of extraterrestrial bodies impacting the Earth’s surface while some have only passed through the Earth’s atmosphere before they were destroyed. Meteorites have been arousing interest of the masses as there is an element of mystery that surrounds them. Where do they originate? What makes some of them enter the Earth’s atmosphere? How dangerous can they get? Space research and astronomy have revealed some interesting information about some of these questions and researched thoroughly on the different types of meteorites. Most of the meteorites disintegrate before reaching Earth while some reach the planet’s surface. Huge meteorites form craters on Earth while the smaller ones involve less danger. Meteorites containing small round particles are known as chondrites and form about 86% of those falling on Earth. Those similar in appearance to small igneous rocks are called achondrites and believed as being the crustal material of a steroids. Meteorites originating from the core of asteroids are known as iron meteorites and form about 5% of the meteorites, which fall. History has recorded a number of instances of meteorites impacting the Earth. ALH 84001: It was found in the Allan Hills, Antarctica in December 1984. Meteorite hunters of the United States working on ASMNET project discovered this meteorite. When discovered, its mass was 1.93 kilograms and its rock was reportedly one of the oldest forms. This meteorite was supposed to have come from Mars. Later it was believed to consist of some traces of the life on Mars and this made ALH 84001 more famous than ever. Hoba: This meteorite lies on the farm Hoba West in Namibia and has never been moved elsewhere because of its exceptionally greater mass. With a mass of about 60 tons, it is the largest meteorite known to mankind. It is tabloid in shape and composed of metal. It is believed to have landed on Earth about 80,000 years ago. In 1955, it was declared as a national monument and has since then been attracting visitors from different parts of the world. Tunguska Event: The Tunguska explosion took place in June 1908 near Tunguska River, now a part of Russia. Most probably, the air burst of a large meteorite caused this explosion. The energy emitted from this explosion was about 1000 times greater than that of the bomb blast of Hiroshima. According to the eyewitnesses of this explosion, the event started with a flash of bright blue light and a sound originating from east and moving northward. Later the sound was accompanied by shock waves that broke windows miles away. This was one of the famous disintegrating meteorites that remain in the list of world’s most famous meteorites. Willamette Meteorite: This is an iron-nickel meteorite that was discovered in the United States near Oregon. It is the largest of the meteorites found in the United Sates as also the sixth largest in the world. Probably the meteorite had landed in the region, which is now known as Canada. This meteorite weighing about 15.5 tons is one of the very large meteorites of the world. Orgueil: This meteorite fell in France in 1864 and is a relatively older meteorite. The fall of this meteorite consisted of small stones that covered a massive area. This is one of those eight meteorites that belong to the CL chondrite group. A striking feature of this type of meteorite it that its composition is similar to that of the Sun. This meteorite is one of the most researched ones. For purposes of deeper study of the composition of this meteorite, it was split into pieces. Currently, it exists in the form of pieces kept in different museums in Europe and the United States. These were some of the famous meteorites of the world. They have always been a subject of interest for researchers around the world. Meteor showers A meteor shower is a celestial event wherein it is observed that a group of meteors radiate from anyone point in the sky. This phenomenon is also known as ‘Meteor Storm’ or ‘Meteor Outburst’. The meteors that are present in the showers are actually cosmic debris that enter the Earth atmosphere at very high speed and vaporize very quickly due to friction leaving behind a streak of light which is known as the meteor shower. An identified meteor shower is usually an annual affair as the Earth will encounter the same meteors at approximately the same time and same speed every year. Causes Meteor showers are a result of interaction that takes place between the planet Earth and a comet. Comets consist of ice and rocks (often termed dirty ice balls) that orbit around the sun like planets. Every time the comet gets close to the sun, some of the ice present in the comet melts which produces a large amount of debris. This debris moves away from the comet and becomes a part of its tail which is visible part of the comet. The solid parts of the tail are the meteoroids and they spread along the entire orbit of the comet which is termed as a meteoroid stream. As the Earth orbits around the sun, its path may cross the meteoroid stream and a meteor shower follows. When the meteoroid stream is particularly dense, then we get to witness the meteor storm and having witnessed one myself, I can guarantee that the sight is truly spectacular. People Behind the Concept It is believed that Irish astronomer George Johnstone Clooney collaborating with the British astronomer Arthur Matthew Weld Downing and Adolf Berberich belonging to the Royal Astronomical Computation Institute in Berlin, Germany offered the very first idea of the meteoroid stream in the 1890. They were able to calculate as to how the meteoroids once freed from the comet would travel at low speeds when compared to the comet itself would start drifting after completing one orbit. This effect was attributed to simple orbital wherein the materials drift laterally away from the comet as some particles make a wider orbit when compared to other particles. The gravitational pull of the Earth’s atmosphere would decide where the dust trails would pass the Earth’s atmosphere. It is a fair possibility that some years, the dust particles can completely miss the Earth’s orbit. Major Meteor Showers If you want to watch meteor showers then the best time of the year is the night of January 3. The shower has been named Quadrantids and this particular shower can produce over a close to 140 meteors per hour. The source of this shower is not a comet but a minor planet, 2003 EH1 which suffered a catastrophic breakup in 1490. However, the showers are very faint and the peak hours last only for a few hours. Hence, you will have to be in a good spot and at an ideal point to watch the shower in all its glory and the best place to watch this particular shower is from the Northern Hemisphere. But people in Southern Hemisphere need not be disappointed. As a matter of fact, they get to witness a meteor shower termed Eta Aquarids which consists of debris from the famous Halley’s Comet. This shower peaks on the night of May 5 and the rate of meteors is about 30 per hour. The meteor shower ‘Geminids’ is considered to be the best annual shower. It peaks around the night of December 13 and the rate of meteor is around 70 per hour. The source of this shower is also a minor planet, 3200 Phaethon. It is best visible from the Northern Hemisphere and it is believed that due to the extreme cold conditions, the air tends to be more transparent and this is the reason as to why this particular shower is spectacular. Sporadic Meteor Showers When the meteoroids collide with each other and can become a part of the sporadic meteors background. They form isolated meteors and are not a part of any shower. Asteroids Asteroids are considered to be remnants of an early broken planet of the solar system. Asteroids have no fixed shape and are too small to be spherical in shape. They are ellipsoids (two dimensional figure), dumbbell or irregularly shaped. As they have different shapes, they also vary in their size. The first asteroid Ceres, discovered in January 1801 by Italian astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi, is the largest known asteroid and is 940 km in diameter. Some of the smallest asteroids are just 6 meters in diameter. The mass of all the asteroids added together, is believed to lesser than the mass of the Moon. Only 200,000 asteroids have been discovered so far, but billion more undiscovered asteroids still exit in our solar system. Asteroid Belt Most asteroids lie in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, however there are more belts in the solar system, namely the ones beyond Neptune’s orbit. The belt itself has interesting origination theories. Most astronomers believe that the belt is a broken planet, while some say that the belt is primordial material that never coalesced into a planet because of Jupiter’s gravitational pull. The asteroid belt lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter and contains more than 200 asteroids larger than 100 km in diameter, and more than 750,000 asteroids with diameters larger than 1 km. Most asteroids are found in this belt because of the gravitational interaction between the solar system and the celestial bodies in it. As opposed to the fiction made popular by various depictions of the asteroid belt, it is not at all dense. The region is so vast that asteroids are hundreds of thousands of kilometers away from their closest neighbor. The asteroids are so small and far away from each other that they appear as faint stars, and except for Ceres, are not bright enough to be seen without some telescopic aid. Only the asteroid Vesta, on rare occasions of an extremely clear dark sky can become visible to the naked eye. What are Asteroids Composed Of? Asteroids are made of different minerals and substances. This depends on the planet they broke away from in a collision, as well as the chemical reactions they might have experienced while orbiting in the solar system. The asteroids closest to the Sun are mostly carbonaceous and the ones further away are composed of silicate rock. The metallic asteroids are made of 70-80% iron and the remaining is nickel with many other metals such as iridium mixed in. Some are also made of half silicate and half metallic. The asteroid Ceres is composed of a rocky core covered by an icy mantle, whereas Vesta has a nickel-iron core, basaltic crust and a covering of magnesium iron silicate (olivine mantle). Asteroids composition has been classified as the following: C class asteroids: They are found in the Earth’s outer belt and are darker and more carbonaceous than the ones found in the S class. D class asteroids: They are also known as Trojan asteroids of Jupiter and are dark and carbonaceous in composition. S class asteroids: They are found in the Earth’s inner belt, closer to Mars and are composed of mostly stone and iron. V class asteroids: They are a far-out group of asteroids that follow a path between the orbits of Jupiter and Uranus, and are made of igneous, eruptive materials. A near-Earth asteroid collided with the Earth about 65 million years ago, which triggered environmental changes, leading to the extinction of the dinosaurs. This asteroid created a huge circular depression called the Chicxulub Basin and is centered in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, a major tourist attraction. Though the chances of asteroid collision with the Earth is very rare, they do come very close to our planet due to collisions and gravitational tugs on the highly elliptical Sun’s orbit. Most asteroids burn up in the atmosphere and never reach the Earth. NASA projects, such as the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) and the Near Earth Asteroid Tracking (NEAT) main objectives are to detect and intercept asteroids or other celestial bodies coming close to the Earth before they cause untold damage to our planet. Asteroids are small celestial bodies composed of rock and metal, that revolve around the Sun. Their size can vary: some asteroids are large and roughly spherical in shape, due to which they appear like miniature planets; while the others are small and irregularly shaped. The matter of these celestial bodies also differs. The asteroid ‘Vesta’, is believed to have a nickel-iron core, olivine mantle and basaltic crust, while the asteroid ’10 Hygiea’ is composed of carbonaceous chondrite. Most of the small asteroids are piles of rubble held together by gravity. Some asteroids supposedly have traces of amino-acids and other organic compounds, and it is assumed that the impact of asteroids on the Earth could have initiated life on the planet by seeding it with the necessary chemical substances. Although, it is believed that the asteroids may have planted life on the Earth, they are capable of having catastrophic effect on the planet as well. Asteroids with a diameter of 5 to 10 meters, and energy equal to 15 kilotons of TNT, enter into the Earth’s atmosphere approximately once every year; while, those with a diameter of over 50 meters enter the Earth’s atmosphere approximately once in a thousand years. Their impact can be devastating if they hit the Earth, but they disintegrate in the upper atmosphere and most of the particles are vaporized, thus rendering them harmless. In the distant past, our planet has experienced a massive climate change and large-scale extinction of animal and plant species, ascribed to the impact of some large asteroids on the planet. The exogenesis theory suggests that origin of life on the Earth must have been triggered by the impact of some asteroid, carrying organic chemicals needed to initiate life form. The Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event, which led to the end of dinosaurs and the Permian-Triassic extinction event that led to the end of the Permian period finishing off 90% of the species on the planet, are believed to be the result of an asteroid impact on the Earth. The craters on the solid bodies in the solar system, which were attributed to volcanic activities till 1960s, were actually formed due to the impact of celestial bodies. Researchers have determined that in the last 600 million years, 60 objects with a diameter of five km or more, have struck the Earth. Even the smallest of these object possessed energy of ten million megatons of TNT, and would have formed a crater, approximately 95 km in diameter, on the surface of our planet. The Rio Cuarto craters in Argentina are believed to have formed due to the impact of asteroids that struck this area around 10,000 years ago. In 1490, ten thousand people reportedly lost their lives due to a hail of stones from the sky. This hail of stones is assumed to be result of the disintegration of a large asteroid, after it entered the Earth’s atmosphere. In 1908, a mid-air explosion of an asteroid destroyed 80 million trees, within an area of 830 miles, near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River, in Si beria. In many cases, the sighting of a foreign body, such as an asteroid or a meteoroids is reported as a fireball in the sky. Millions of asteroids will pass by the Earth in the years to come. Though, they are unknown now, they are detectable as they come closer to the planet. The Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) and the Near Earth Asteroid Tracking (NEAT) are projects initiated by NASA to detect asteroids or other such foreign bodies coming close to the Earth. The need of the hour is to develop an intercept system in space, to destroy or deflect foreign objects heading towards our planet, before they prove catastrophic. Asteroids are celestial bodies consisting of rocks and metals. They are mainly concentrated in the region known as the asteroid belt which lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Asteroids can be as big as Ceres, which is close to 1000 kilometers in diameter, or can be just a few feet in diameter. Whatever the size, asteroids are neither big enough to be called planets nor are they as small as comets. They are classified as minor planets that include the Kuiper Belt Objects. Discovery On January 1, 1801, Giuseppe Piazzi discovered the first asteroid which he initially thought to be a comet. He named this asteroid Ceres, after the Sicilian Goddess of grain. Ceres is also the largest asteroid to have been discovered so far. Soon, other large asteroids like Pallas, Juno and Vista were discovered. By the end of the 19th century, several hundred asteroids were discovered. Formation of Asteroids It was once believed that asteroids were formed by the explosion of a planet orbiting between Mars and Jupiter. However, according to present day astronomers, asteroids are debris left behind by the Big Bang that could not come together to form a tenth planet because of the effect of Jupiter’s gravitational pull. Asteroid Hits Asteroids have been hitting the Earth since millions of years. However, due to the friction with Earth’s atmosphere most of the asteroids get burnt. The asteroids that enter the Earth’ s atmosphere are called meteors while the ones that get burnt and appear as shooting stars are called meteorites. According to the Giant Impact Theory, the Moon was created when Theia, an asteroid of the size of Mars, collided with the Earth in the early days of the solar system. However, some consider Theia to be more of a planetoid than an asteroid. The largest crater caused by an asteroid hit is the Chicxulub Crater in Mexico that is 180 km in diameter. The asteroid that formed the crater had a diameter of 10 km. This collision is supposed to be responsible for the extinction of a large number of flora and fauna including the dinosaur. However, the evidence of the largest asteroid hit is in the Vredefort crater in South Africa that is 300 km in diameter. Impacts of Asteroid Hits The damage that an asteroid’s impact can cause depends mainly upon its mass and velocity, as these are the two factors that determine the energy that is released when an asteroid hits the Earth. While some asteroids are capable of sending thermal waves that can incinerate most flora and fauna within a few hundred kilometers, some larger asteroids can create huge impacts causing magma to cover areas as big as continents. The worst effect of an asteroid hit is the blocking out of sunlight for months together due to formation of dust clouds and soot in the upper atmosphere. This would hamper the green plants’ ability to prepare food through the process of photosynthesis and the food chain would be disrupted. Near-Earth Asteroids Near-Earth asteroids are those that have moved closer to the Earth’s orbit as they have been knocked out of the asteroid belt due to collision with other asteroids or comets, or due to the gravitational forces of Jupiter. They are classified into the following three groups: The Amors: These are near-Earth asteroids that cross the orbit of Mars but do not go out of the Earth’s orbit. The Apollos: The orbits of these near-Earth asteroids cross the Earth’s orbit but have an orbital period of greater than one year. The Atens: These near-Earth asteroids have orbits that cross the Earth’s orbit but have an orbital period of less than one year. Asteroids are currently being monitored for their probability of colliding with the Earth. Such studies have predicted that asteroids may hit the Earth on February 1, 2019 and March 16, 2880. The probability of the 2880 collision is as high as 1 in 300. A number of projects in the field of astronomy, like Spacewatch, Near-Earth Asteroid Tracking and Catalina Sky Survey are being carried out to detect any threat of such catastrophes. Comets A comet is a small body in space. It was matter of great interest to astronomers like Sir Edmond Halley. Many decades later, comets still remain a challenging mystery for the field of astronomy. Space research institutes around the world have reported the existence of 3628 comets that are known and studied. Annually, an average of one comet is sighted by the naked eye from the surface of the Earth. According to the definitions given by the various space research organizations, a comet can be defined as a space body that travels in an elliptical orbit around the sun. Most of the comets travel in elliptical orbits. When the comet comes in the vicinity of the star it is orbiting around, its comma-like tail gets illuminated. A majority of comets are visible only through telescopes and other aids. There are however, some comets which are also visible to the naked eye. What is a Comet Made Up of? A comet is principally made up of ice, dust and different forms of gases. The nature of the components differs from comet to comet. The central part of a comet that looks like a ball is termed as the nucleus. The nucleus is principally made up of ice and frozen gases. The frozen components also include many other compounds like ammonia, methane and carbon dioxide. Rocks are another component of the nucleus. Due to such composition, the nucleus of the comet often resembles a huge ball of dirt and snow. It is also believed by some astronomers, that the nucleus of a comet is rather fragile because several comets have split into parts without any explainable reason except immense velocity. The huge elliptical orbit takes the comet in the range of heat of the star around which it is orbiting. When the comet enters the inner parts of the solar system, the frozen content of the nucleus starts melting. The gases and water within the nucleus vaporize as a result of radiation from the star and the solar wind. The immense velocity of the comet and the solar wind, push the vaporized matter away from the nucleus. This gives the comet it’s distinct tail and the comma-like appearance. The high amount of heat and the ions (charged particles that are formed due to the heat of the sun) cause the tail of the comet to glow. How are Comets Formed? According to their formation or birth, the comets can be classified into two types. The first type is short-term comets which originate in the Kuiper belt as space bodies beyond the orbit of Pluto. The gravitational pull of the planets in the solar system, causes the origin of short term comets. These comets enter the solar system and take the form of active and glowing comets. Long term comets originate as traveling bodies in the Oort cloud (located around 50,000 light years away from the sun). The gravitational attraction of the planets in the solar system and other gravitational forces cause these comets to form elliptical orbits. Death of a Comet The study of comets has revealed that they have a fragile structure. Sometimes, comets split into parts due to sheer velocity. The entry and exit of comets in the solar system in course of its orbit, reduces the amount of matter (ice and frozen gases) in it. Due to this reduction in matter, the comets break-up and disperse into clouds. A dead comet is nothing but an asteroid or a similar form of a space body. Sometimes the comets also crash in other planets when their orbits cross each other. The most famous example of such a comet is the Shoemaker Levy 9, that crashed into Jupiter. For astronomers who have spent their lives studying comets, it a very heart-breaking moment to gaze at a dying comet. The Halley’s Comet is said to be one of the most beautiful comets. Another very beautiful comet is the Hale-Bopp, that was discovered in the year 1995, on 23rd July. It was predicted by astronomers that the Halley’s Comet would be sighted in the November of 1835. Mark Twain, the famous writer, was born just two weeks after the sighting. He developed a very special liking towards the Halley’s Comet. In his biography he comments,†I came in with the Halley’s Comet, and expect to go with it. The Almighty has said no doubt, Now here are two unaccountable freaks; they came in together; they must go out together.† Halley’s Comet was next sighted on 20th April, 1910. Twain ended the journey of his life the very next day. The journey of any comet is indeed like that of Mark Twain. It is remarkably long, fast, adventurous as it streaks across the dark sky. Haley’s comet Historical Spottings British scientist, Edmond Halley who observed the comet in 1682, was the first person to establish its periodic reappearance after every 75-76 years. He studied the comet and quite accurately predicted that it had earlier appeared in 1531 and in 1607. It was named ‘Halley’ in his honor and was observed again in 1758 as stated by him. It was last seen in February 1986. However, this was not the first time the comet was in focus. The first sighting recorded, was way back in 240 BC, by the Chinese and was mentioned in a chronicle, ‘Records of the Great Historian’. The comet also finds a mention in a Babylonian clay inscription of 164 BC. It has always been a subject of great interest, since it was believed to have an influence on the contemporary events. Armenian king Tigranes II, had its image printed on the coins issued in his regime after it was sighted in 87 BC. Therefore, even though the recurrence of the comet was an unknown fact, people were fascinated b y its appearance. The bright star that appeared in the night sky in 12 BC, coinciding with the birth of Jesus, is widely believed to be the Halley’s comet. Giotto Di Bondone, the famous Italian painter, who lived before the renaissance era, painted it in his work ‘The Star of Bethlehem’ in the Nativity, in 1305. He had seen the comet appear in 1301 and was impressed by the spectacle. In the middle ages, the appearance of a comet was considered to be a warning sign of a forthcoming danger. The most famous incident of spotting a comet during this period, was in 1066, before the Battle of Hastings. King Harold who had lost the battle, was believed to have seen the comet due to which he was cursed. In fact, the Bayeux Tapestry in Normandy, France, signifies the Norman victory in this battle with an image of King Harold looking at the comet in the sky. In 1456, Pope Calixtus III had condemned its appearance considering it to be an evil omen. Three years prior to this, Europe was defeated by the Ottoman Empire. Human beings have always blamed celestial phenomena, whenever they have not been able to explain the causes of certain unfavorable events. Historically, the presence of a comet in the night sky was commonly cited as the reason behind difficult situations that were beyond the reasoning of common man. A French physician, Ambroise, had described the pitiful conditions of middle ages, when a comet was seen just before the spread of a big epidemic. According to him, some people were scared to death while others fell sick on seeing the comet. It was believed to be some ‘evil form’ leaving behind a trail of blood, believed to be a sign of misery. Recent Spottings In the 16th and the 17th century, scientists learned to calculate the speed and distance at which comets travel around the Sun. Once, Edmond Halley had established the year of its reappearance, Halley’s comet became a matter of great interest. Although, he didn’t live to see his prediction coming true, his observation had a significant impact on the way society perceived comets. The sighting of a comet, especially Halley’s comet became less of a concern and more of a curiosity among people. Once people realized that comets are orbiting bodies just like planets, they became less apprehensive on the arrival of a comet in the Earth’s visibility zone. The change in the attitude of the people was seen in the depiction of the comet in the contemporary pictures. Halley’s comet was a subject of scientific study and was depicted as a beautiful heavenly body in the sky. Famous American writer Mark Twain was born in 1835, the year when Halley’s comet ha d appeared. He predicted in 1909 that since he had ‘come’ with the comet he will ‘go out’ with it. Sure enough, he passed away a year after the comet reappeared in 1910. In the 1900s, it had appeared twice; once in 1910 and then in 1986. Further studies gave us a deep insight into the structure, composition and orbital journey of many different comets. Halley’s comet has one of the shortest orbital paths. It is classified as a short period comet, i.e. comets having an orbit period of 200 years or less. Once upon a time, it belonged to the long period class, but due to the gravitational force of planets, its orbit shortened over a period of time. Today, it is known that comets like ‘Hale Bopp’ which appeared in 1997, will reappear after 4200 years! Thus, Halley’s comet is the most frequently spotted one. Recently, it was seen in February 1986. During this visit, it was subjected to its biggest scrutiny ever. Five spacecrafts from The European Space Agency, Japan and the USSR were launched to study its surface. Structure and Composition of Halley’s Comet Halley’s comet is a big mass of ice and dust, having an elliptical orbit and shaped like a peanut. It has a highly elongated orbit, taking it very close to the Sun. It flings off far in the outer solar system, similar to a slingshot motion. The composition is mainly of water, sodium monoxide, methane, ammonia, hydrocarbons, iron and sodium. Its closest distance from the Sun was found to be just 0.6 AU (astronomical unit) and the farthest distance was calculated to be 35 AU, roughly the same distance as that of Pluto. It orbits the Sun in a retrograde or in the direction opposite to that of the planets’ revolution. The speed with respect to the Earth is quite high, since it is highly eccentric and inclined. The day time is relatively more on its surface and its maximum temperature rises up to 77 degrees celsius. Due to its large size and a well-defined and regular orbit, it was easy for the probe missions photograph it closely and study its surface. The mass of the comet is 1.7Ãâ€"1015 kilograms and the size of the nucleus has been estimated to be 15 km Ãâ€" 7 km Ãâ€" 7 km. Winds blowing near its surface are so strong that 1 gram particle of dust which hit the Giotto space probe, briefly destabilized it. Halley’s comet will next appear in 2062. Comets have always been a fascination for human beings and will continue to mesmerize generations to come, as we discover more interesting facts about these spectacular fireballs, the comets. Comet lullin Comet Lulin was discovered on July 11, 2007, by the duo of Ye Quanzhi and Lin Chi-Sheng. A non-periodic comet, Lulin appears to be greenish in color. This green color is attributed to the presence of gases such as cyanogen and diatomic carbon, which produce a green glow when illuminated by sunlight in the vacuum of the space. Officially designated as C/2007 N3 (Lulin), it is also known as the ‘Comet of Cooperation’ in China and Taiwan, as the two individuals involved in its discovery, were from these two countries. This comet was first photographed by Taiwanese astronomer Lin Chi-Sheng on July 11, 2007, while he was working on the Lulin Sky Survey Project (LUSS) at the Lulin observatory in Nantou, Taiwan. The Lulin Sky Survey Project aims to identify the numerous small objects in the solar system, particularly those that pose possible hazards to our planet. Lin used a 16-inch telescope to photograph this comet, which was initially assumed to be an asteroid. A few days later, Ye Quanzhi, a 19-year old student of meteorology from Sun Yat-Sen University, China, recognized this comet while going through Lin’s photographs. Its status of being a comet was confirmed after the presence of coma, the nebulous envelope around the nucleus of the comet, was noticed. Both, Lin and Quanzhi were accredited with the discovery of this new comet. As it was first noticed from the Lulin Observatory, it was named as Comet Lulin. Comet Lulin was seen in the Libra constellation from January to March 2009. In January, it was getting brighter and could be seen just before dawn; while in February, the brightness reached its peak. Eventually, in March, it started to fade as it went farther away from the Earth. While it was approaching the Earth, it had a typical tail pointing away from the Sun, as well as an ‘anti-tail’ which was directly pointing towards the sun. Although, it was assumed that this anti-tail was observed only in photographs, so me observers reported that it was visible even from a telescope in February 2009. According to Brian Marsden, an astronomer at Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Massachusetts, this comet’s closest approach to the sun was on January 10, 2009 when it reached a distance of 113 million miles from the sun. He noticed that the comet was moving in a retrograde orbit that is near-parabolic. On February 24, Comet Lulin came the closest to the Earth, at a distance of 0.41 AU or 38 million miles to be precise. On February 4, 2009, a team of Italian astronomers, under the leadership of Ernesto Guido, witnessed a strange phenomenon taking place in comet Lulin. While photographing the comet with a remotely controlled telescope in New Mexico, they saw that its tail suddenly disconnected. Ernesto attributed this odd phenomenon to magnetic disturbance of the solar wind hitting the comet. Earlier, this had been observed with Comet Encke too, when coronal mass ejection occurred, due to such magnetic storms. Photographs taken by NASA’s Swift Gamma-ray Explorer satellite in ultra-violet and X-rays show that Lulin is shedding 800 gallons of water every second. Observations by NASA also revealed that the surface material of the comet was burning away due to sun’s heat. This sighting of Comet Lulin was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the whole world, as there is no possibility of this comet returning to the inner solar system, at least not for the next thousand years. Human kind has always looked to the heavens in awe and wonder, and sometimes in fear. Perhaps no other astronomical phenomenon except a total solar eclipse has historically evoked as much fear as comets. When the specter of fear is removed, however, they emerge as strikingly beautiful objects in the sky. It was once believed that if earth passed through a tail of a comet, its inhabitants would die; this theory has been discredited. Comets are messengers from a time long past. Most are chunks of dirty ice, locked away in the Oort cloud for billions of years. (Oort cloud: – It is the source for long period comets, with orbital periods of greater than two hundred years.) Comets are familiar to nearly everyone as striking star like objects with long tails stretching across a wide band of the sky. The most famous comet, Halley’s comet makes its return to the skies every seventy-five years. The word â€Å"comet† is derived from a Greek word meaning â€Å"long haired† Comets were greatly feared before the twentieth century as bad omens. Since then, they have been identified and cataloged as objects that come from deep space. Most of them occupy orbits that carry them far outside the solar system. Many of them make only a single approach to the sun and never return again, while others exist in stable, but highly elliptical orbits that allow them to return after an extended period of time, such as the Halley’s comet. In 1986, the European space probe Giotto passed about 600 kilometers from the Comet Halley as it made its close approach to the sun. The probe verified existing theories that comets are made up of ices covered by black dust or soil. The spacecraft confirmed a theory that had been advanced prior to the reconnaissance that described comets as â€Å"dirty snowballs.† Using data taken by the spacecraft, scientists determined that the dust is composed of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen. Other metals have also been discovered in comets, such as iron, calcium, nickel, potassium, copper and silicon. Halley’s comet was one of the darkest objects ever seen in the solar system; it was basically flat black. Comets are composed of a mixture of ices and dust. As a comet approaches the sun, it absorbs the suns energy and warms up. The main body of the comet is called the nucleus. As the nucleus warms, the ice beneath the comets soil evaporates. Because the comet has no atmosphere, the evaporated substance (also called a volatile) escapes into the vacuum of space as a gaseous envelope that surrounds the comet called â€Å"coma.† As the coma grows, it forms a plume of vapor that carries away some of the comets surface as well. This mixture of evaporated volatile particles and dust is carried away from the comet by solar wind, is ionized by high-energy particles, and creates the spectacular tail of the comet. The comet’s tail, glowing in the solar wind, can stream behind the comet for millions of kilometers. The nucleus of the comet consists of mostly volatile ices and dust. The ice is nearly all water ice, but there is also evidence of ices composed of carbon dioxide and methane. More elementary compounds of nitrogen, oxygen, and carbon monoxide may exist as volatile ices. Comets are typically small bodies (comparatively!!). Halley’s comet is a potato shaped object, 14 by 17 kilometers. The largest known comet is Chiron, which is estimated to be approximately 200 kilometers in diameter. Comets are thought to have formed as the solar system evolved. The material of which comets are composed was constructed by accretion at the outer edge of the disk of material that ultimately became the sun and planets. Because the comet material was fashioned at the outer edge of the solar system, the sun did not evaporate the volatiles in the cometary material. At the same time, the giant planets of the solar system formed at what would become the outer orbits of the solar system. These massive planets encountered the newly formed comets, and the ones that were not engulfed by the giant planets were, over the first billion years, catapulted into interstellar space by the planets massive gravitational fields. Not all comets met that fate, however. Some were gently nudged into stable orbits closer to the sun. Others were flung into the inner solar system and impacted the inner planets. Relevance: – The study of comets involves detailed knowledge of its composition of the outer regions of the solar system and the space between the last planet and 100,000 astronomical units onwards. Cometary study also seeks to understand complex gravitational interactions between bodies separated by wide distances and even gravitational interactions between tiny comets, their behavior when approaching the sun, and something of the makeup and evolution of the early solar system. New comets approaching the sun for the first time have been held in deep freeze in the Oort cloud and are thought to be composed of primordial material of the newly forming solar system. They have been tied up in the Oort cloud for billions of years at temperatures slightly above absolute zero. As they approach the sun, their internal gases begin to steam away. A detailed study of an approaching comet may tell cosmologists about the composition of the early solar systems. Comets and their approach have also hinted at the existence of the elusive brown dwarf, thought to be one of the most common bodies of interstellar space. Because they are so dim, they are all but invisible from Earth. On the other hand, because brown dwarfs are thought to be so plentiful, the study of comets and their orbits may give the first real clues to the former’s reality and abundance. In the early 1980s the existence of the galactic tidal action was merely speculation. Since then, careful study of cometary orbits and approaches has favorable supported the theory of galactic tides. In the close approach of Halley’s comet by an unmanned spacecraft in 1986, a wealth of information was recovered on the shape, behavior, and composition of comets. The existence of the Oort cloud and the concept gravitational interactions by passing objects in space have led to the theory of periodic comet showers. Such comet showers, separated by periods of tens of millions of years, may be responsible for the mass extinction on Earth. There is a wide speculation that Earth was struck by one or more comets 70 million years ago, which wiped out the dinosaurs. Some scientists have speculated that this extinction was the result of a shower of comets from the Oort cloud, sent on their close approach to the sun by a passing star or brown dwarf through the Oort cloud. Comets have been used to judge vast distances, evaluate the composition of the solar system as it was being born, and even test the idea that the gravity of the entire galaxy can make a difference to the smallest objects in space. Comets have been used as yardsticks to evaluate what may be the most type of star in the galaxy-the brown dwarf-which ironically is one that may never be seen. They have also been called dirty snowballs. Halley’s comet was so black that it was the darkest object ever seen in space. Yet, from these dirty specks of ice, cosmologists have witnessed some of the most spectacular light shows. Ultimately comets may also generate clues to some of the most fundamental secrets about the solar system and planets. From these tiny messengers, cosmologists may unlock and examine pristine elements from creation itself.