Edgar Allan Poe s The Famous Quote - 1183 Words

Edgar Allan Poe once wrote the famous quote, â€Å"Words have no power to impress the mind without the exquisite horror of their reality.† Born on January 19, 1809, he was raised by two actors in a boarding house along Carver Street, in Boston, Massachusetts. His years in Massachusetts had not been long forgotten. For an author of so many great tales, Poe led a depressing life in his adolescent years, undergoing many mental obstacles. Even without a proper education in schooling or a healthy childhood, Edgar Allan Poe still remains to be known as one of the greatest writers of his time. In the earlier stages of his life, he and his siblings had to undergo the loss of both their parents. Their father, David Poe, had failed as an actor and a husband when he’d taken a turn for the worst, relying on alcohol which had encouraged his violent temper. He had deserted his wife and three children in July of 1811 and with this leaving their mother, now a widower, alone with two-year-old Edgar, his elder brother Henry, and his infant sister Rosalie. She struggled to feed her children for the next few months as she accepted any stage role offered to her just for a few bucks. Then on December 8, 1811, Elizabeth Poe died of tuberculous in Richmond, Virginia only 5 months after David had fled. The three children huddled close to their mother’s deceased body until they were soon to be taken away from each other. After his mother’s death Edgar had been sought out by Frances Allan who convinced herShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of Edgar Allan Poe s The Raven And The Fall Of The House Of Usher 896 Words   |  4 PagesEdgar Allan Poe is an extremely well known American writer and is famous for his horrific and mysterious works such as, â€Å"The Raven† and â€Å"The Fall of the House of Usher.† Poe was born in 1809 in Boston, Massachusetts in an era that seems to have many dark and ominous writers and pieces of literature originating from that time period. Poe is said to have launched the interest in many of the detective type stories that we read from modern day writers. â€Å"In the early 1800s, romanticism was the dominantRead MoreEdgar Allen Poe, My Hero And This Is Why1487 Words   |  6 PagesEdagr Allen Poe is my hero and this is why. He has been an not so liked person when he was alive and even after death he still isn’t that liked. People only know him as th e guy who wrote stories that were creepy. Some people think that he had a lot of problems. Some people thought that he had done drugs and alcohol. One of his qoutes were â€Å"Men have called me mad; but the question is not yet settled, whether madness is or is not the loftiest intelligence†- Edgar Allen Poe (Giordano). I never knewRead MoreThe Precedent Of Gothic Horror1031 Words   |  5 PagesThe Precedent of Gothic-Horror The king of the gothic-horror genre, Edgar Allan Poe, is well-known for intriguing short stories, especially â€Å"The Cask of Amontillado†. In cinematic art, Alfred Hitchcock, â€Å"The Master of Suspense†, uses similar techniques in his film such as foreshadowing, and suspense to give the audience a sense of an adrenaline overdose. Fear, terror and suspense are the most vivid emotions created by Poe’s stories and by Hitchcock’s films have paved the road for future horror entertainmentRead MoreGothic Literature : `` Tell Tale Heart `` And `` The Raven ``1698 Words   |  7 Pageshad much success demonstrated through Edgar allan Poe. Edgar Allan has a number of common Themes, motifs and structures that make his work easily recognizable and more importantly, fits his stories into the classification of the gothic. Among these elements, they include the theme of death and decay, which is almost always in Gothic fiction, the theme or presence of madness, ins anity or other internal chaos, and haunted or creepy locations. Some stories by Poe that include these elements are, â€Å"Tell-TaleRead MoreThe Raven By Edgar Allen Poe1494 Words   |  6 PagesIn 1844, Edgar Allen Poe published one of his most famous poems â€Å"The Raven.† â€Å"The Raven† is about a man reading books trying to keep his mind off a woman named Lenore he loved that died. Later, while he is napping, he wakes up from a knocking on the door. He gets up and opens the door of his chamber, but no one is there. He goes to his window then opens the shutters. A raven flies right in and sits on a bust of Pallas, goddess of wisdom, on top of his chamber door. The narrator sits there askingRead MoreEssay about The Work and Life of Edgar Allan Poe1994 Words   |  8 PagesA bit of Edgar Allan Poes life had been molded into each piece of his work. This provided his readers and critics with a better understanding of Poes life. Poe displayed his greatest lifes ac hievements and his worst disappointments in a series of stories and poems created throughout his whole life. It is the goal of this research paper to reveal symbolic facts about Poe?s life and define these hidden parallels in some of his most famous works.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Edgar Allan Poe was born on January 19, 1809Read MoreYoussef Abdelhameed. Dr. Glover. Enc-1102 (222042). 211278 Words   |  6 PagesAbdelhameed Dr. Glover ENC-1102 (222042) 21 April 2017 Poe and American Victorianism Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his writings of poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery. He is widely regarded as a famous figure of Romanticism in the United States and American literature, and he was one of the country s earliest practitioners of short stories. Edgar Allan Poe has witnessed a variety of disturbing situations in hisRead MoreThe Raven By Edgar Allan Poe945 Words   |  4 Pageshad to experience hardly any grief in my life. Everyone is different which results in everyone having their own way that they deal with grief. The way that Edgar Allan Poe describes grief and the way that Emily Dickinson describes grief is both different and similar. Poe’s famous poem titled â€Å"The Raven† is a great example of how Edgar Allan Poe writes about grief. The poem is about the grief of the narrator during the loss of the love of his life, Lenore. The narrator’s opening statement in theRead More The Poetry and Prose of Edgar Allen Poe2196 Words   |  9 Pagesimagery. Poets may be common, but for their poetry to be timeless it must be universally relatable. Edgar Allen Poe is regarded as one of the most famous poets in American history due to his well renowned debauchery, gothic tales of terror, and poems which are taught in schools and still analyzed today. Edgar Allen Poe was born in Boston Massachusetts in the early nineteenth century. It is well known that Poe endured a difficult life, and tragedy began at an early age. At three years old, he witnessedRead MoreGothic Literature : The Black Cat1161 Words   |  5 Pagesliterature, also known as Gothic fiction, is the genre of combined fiction, horror and Romanticism. Examples of Gothic literature are Frankenstein, The Castle of Otranto and Dracula. As well as these pieces, one of the famous pieces of Gothic literature is The Black Cat by Edgar Allen Poe. The Black Cat is the short story about the unnamed narrator in the jail who is about to die in the next day. From the young age, the narrator loves pets that when he gets older, he still lives with various species

The Tale Of Othello By William Shakespeare - 1264 Words

The tale of Othello written by William Shakespeare is about several things; love, heroism, military, isolation and sadness. The contrasts of characters within in this play are almost as remarkable as the themes presented and evoked. Within this piece each character is balanced by another of similar or contrasting characteristics. Desdemona is balanced by her opposite, Iago. Her love and concern for others is at one end of the spectrum versus his hatred and concern for self at the other end. All of the characters present a range and variety as striking and different as that produced by the opposite. Othello and Iago are two opposites that balance each other’s personality and action throughout this piece. Their distinguishing qualities stand out to the mind’s eye therefore when we are not thinking of their actions or characterstics, the idea of them is still as present as ever. Prior to the opening scene it can be assumed that Othello and Iago had a great relationship. There is evidence throughout the play that prior to this point there had be confidence between the two men and they were both looked at as men of excellent ability and character. Othello was known as a noble Moor obtaining the highest military position. People also saw Iago as an upright and noble man as he earned the nickname â€Å"honest Iago.† However as portrayed in the first scene and throughout the remainder of the play, â€Å"honest Iago† becomes the mortal enemy of the noble Othello. We can tell that the play isShow MoreRelatedWilliam Shakespeare s Othello And The Canterbury Tales Essay1369 Words   |  6 PagesIn William Shakespeare’s novel, â€Å"Othello† and in Geoffrey Chaucer’s novel, The Canterbury Tales, include women throughout both novels. The novel, Othello is written in 1603 and The Canterbury Tales is written in the 1400’s, during the late Middle Ages. Women during the Late Middle Ages and the early Modern Period were portrayed differently then how women are portrayed today. Typically, during this time period of 1400-1600’s, women roles during this time was weak. Women were only allowed to listenRead MoreCinthio Source In Othello892 Words   |  4 PagesWebquest on Othello by William Shakespeare - Areeb Shaikh Go to the Wikipedia page for the play and scroll down to the section labelled â€Å"Cinthio source†. Why, do you think, there were so many similarities between Shakespeare’s play and this â€Å"source†? There are so many similarities between Othello and this source because Othello is an adaption of Cinthio’s tale, â€Å"Un Capitano Moro,† which was in Gli Hecatommithi (1565), a collection of one hundred tales. In Cinthio’s play there is a character namedRead MoreWilliam Shakespeare s Works Of Shakespeare1126 Words   |  5 Pagesback story of the author himself; William Shakespeare. Shakespeare was born April 26, 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon, which is located in the United Kingdom. Even though his goals were to become an actor, he fell into writing and become one of the most well-known writers in his life. There s a lot of controversy surrounding Shakespeare and there s many people who believe that he, himself did not write his famous plays, sonnets, and poems. In his lifetime, Shakespeare wrote thirty-seven plays, five longRead MoreOthello : William Shakespeare s Othello2542 Words   |  11 Pages3 March 2015 Othello Introduction Shakespeare is the second most quoted writer in the English language – after the various writers of the Bible. Many of Shakespeare’s ideas for the play Othello came from a collection of tales written by Giraldi Cinthio. In Othello the character of Iago acts as the prominent main character throughout the play, even though he plays the role of the antagonist to the other central characters in the comedy Iago is the tragic hero. Shakespeare’s Othello was not justRead MoreOthello, By William Shakespeare1599 Words   |  7 Pages William Shakespeare’s 16th century play Othello is a duplicitous and fraudulent tale set alternatingly between Venice in act 1, and the island of Cyprus thereafter. The play follows the scandalous marriage between protagonist Othello, a Christian moore and the general of the army of Venice, and Desdemona, a respected and intelligent woman who also happens to be the daughter of the Venetian Senator Brabantio. Shakespeare undoubtedly positions the marriage to be viewed as heroic and noble, despiteRead MoreThe World Of William Shakespeare950 Words   |  4 Pagesworld of William Shakespeare was such a time. In the age of man’s revision of his culture and sense of humanity after the dark Middle Ages there was money and fame to be earned in the gossipy tales of mankind’s utter lack of culture and cruel inhumanity. In truth, it has never stopped, the same plot devices in service by the playwrights of the Renaissance are still drawing blood and audiences today. It is always intriguing to hear salacious stories of someone else’s wrong doing, and Shakespeare had aRead MoreThe Two Settings of Othello1184 Words   |  5 PagesEffects of the Environment in Othello In The Tragedy of Othello, an epic tale of love and revenge, Shakespeare introduces major themes of jealousy and self-preservation. Shakespeare uses sharp contrast of settings to convey and amplify feelings brought on by the characters’ actions. The civilized city of Venice and the cut off island of Cyprus bring out the differences in personalities among the main characters, leading them to act as different as the two settings. Venice keeps these charactersRead MoreThe Tale of Two Limit Exceeding Men Who Fell Short of Personal Goals1000 Words   |  4 PagesThe Tale of Two Limit Exceeding Men Who Fell Short of Personal Goals If all authors used the same tones, there would be no differences between books. Tone is the literary element that shows the authors attitudes toward a subject. In the beginning of the hero cycle, reverent tone is used many times, however, as the character progresses through the book, they begin to show their flaw, which, many times is revealed by the changing tones the author uses. In the conclusion of the story, they accept defeatRead MoreLady of Bath vs. Desdemona1394 Words   |  6 PagesChaucer and Shakespeare To say that men in the centuries leading up to the twentieth believed a woman must be â€Å"seen but not heard,† is a fair statement. Women during the times of Chaucer and Shakespeare were second class citizens with little rights. They were considered properties of their masters (fathers and husbands), and had no use other than birthing and mothering. A woman was supposed to be meek, chaste, and have no opinion. However, the characters Desdemona in William Shakespeare’sRead MoreEssay about Othellos Tragic Flaws983 Words   |  4 Pages Shakespeare has been known to create terrific tales of love and tragedy. Even James Van Der Beek, a well known actor from Dawsons Creek, once commented that, â€Å"like all great romantics, Shakespeare realized love was a lot more likely to end with a bunch of dead Danish people than with a kiss†(Americans on the Bard). This emphasizes how easily people can relate Shakespeare to tragic love. Although he did write many poems and plays with happy endings, his tragedies stand out the most. In these

Restriction Digestion Samples Management †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Restriction Digestion Samples Management. Answer: Introduction: The DNA ladder consisted of 10 bands of sizes 500, 1000, 1500, 2000, 2500, 3000, 3500, 4000, 4500 and 5000 base pairs. The distance travelled by the DNA bands were measured in millimeters and a standard curve was generated. Both the DNA band sizes and the distances travelled by them were plotted to generate a standard curve. The standard curve was prepared in excel and a scatter plot was generated carrying all the respective data points. The X- axis represents the DNA length in base pairs and the Y-axis represents the distance travelled by each of the bands in the DNA ladder used. An exponential trend line was inserted in the scatter plot and the necessary equation was also included as shown in Appendix. The unknown plasmid was digested with three different enzymes. These enzymes are BamHI, EcoRI and HindIII. The plasmid was single digested with the BamHI, EcoRI and HindIII restriction enzymes as well as done in combinations. These combinations are EcoRI and BamHI, EcoRI and HindIII, BamHI and HindIII. The undigested plasmid was also loaded in one of the lanes of the agarose gel. The DNA ladder was used to determine the sizes of the unknown bands in the lanes, where the restriction digestion samples were loaded. The distance travelled by the unknown bands were measured in millimeters. The sizes of the unknown bands were determined from the standard curve generated. The first lane consisted of the uncut plasmid. Uncut plasmids generally consists of supercoiled and closed circular forms, so it is difficult to determine the exact sizes of the plasmid. Single digestion of the plasmid with BamHI yielded a single band of size 5.0 kb, which is the same size as the top most DNA band in the DNA ladder. Single digestion with EcoRI yielded bands of sizes approximately 3.0, 1.5 and 0.5 kb. The three bands obtained after digestion with the EcoRI enzyme coincided with the corresponding bands in the DNA ladder. Single digestion with HindIII yielded bands of sizes approximately 3.25 and 1.75, positioned between 3.0 and 3.5 kb band and between 1.5 and 2.0 kb bands of the DNA ladder, respectively. The results indicate that BamHI has a single restriction site in the plasmid, EcoRI has three restriction sites and HindIII has two restriction sites in the said plasmid. Double digestion with EcoRI and BamHI yielded four bands of sizes approximately 2.25, 1.5, 0.625 and 0.5 kb, respectively. The 0.5 and 1.5 kb bands are common in case of both single digestion with EcoRI and on double digestion with EcoRI and BamHI. Thus, these two bands are due to EcoRI digestion only, while, the 3.0 kb band obtained in the case of EcoRI digestion was digested by BamHI to sizes 2.25 and 0.625, respectively. Thus, the BamHI site is 2.25 and 0.625 kb apart from the EcoRI sites. Double digestion with BamHI and HindIII yielded DNA bands of sizes approximately 1.75, 1.625 and 1.5 kb, respectively. Single digestion with HindIII also yielded a common DNA band of size 1.75 kb. Thus, this 1.75 kb band is caused due to HindIII digestion only, while the other two bands obtained as a result of double digestion using BamHI and HindIII are caused as a result of digestion by BamHI. Thus, it can be inferred that the BamHI restriction site is present between the two HindIII sites and digests the 3.25 kb band obtained in the case of single digestion with HindIII to approximately 1.75 and 1.625 kb, respectively. Double digestion with EcoRI and HindIII yielded five DNA bands of sizes approximately 2.125, 0.875, 0.75, 0.625 and 0.5 kb, respectively. Single digestion with EcoRI yielded three DNA bands of sizes 3, 1.5 and 0.5 kb, respectively. Thus, it can be seen that the 0.5 kb band is common for both the EcoRI single digestion and the EcoRI and HindIII double digestion. Thus, the 0.5 kb DNA band obtained is solely due to EcoRI digestion, while the 3 kb DNA band obtained in the case of single digestion with EcoRI underwent restriction digestion by HindIII to DNA bands of sizes approximately 2.125 and 0.875 kb, respectively. The 1.5 kb DNA band obtained in the case of single digestion of the plasmid with EcoRI was divided by restriction digestion with HindIII to DNA bands of sizes 0.875 and 0.75, respectively. Thus, there are two DNA bands of 0.875 kb co-migrating in the agarose gel. The 3.25 kb DNA band obtained in the case of single digestion with HindIII was divided into three DNA bands of s izes 2.125 kb, 0.5 kb and 0.75 kb, respectively. These three DNA bands were obtained as a result of presence of two of the three EcoRI restriction sites present between the two HindIII sites in the plasmid. The 1.75 kb band obtained as a result of single digestion of the plasmid with HindIII was divided into two 0.875 kb bands co-migrating in the agarose DNA gel. This is obtained as a result of the presence of the third EcoRI restriction enzyme site in between the two HindIII restriction enzyme sites. At first single restriction enzyme digestion maps are created. The circle represents the plasmid. Figure 1 represents the presence of the single BamHI site. Single digestion resulted in the linearization of the plasmid, thereby yielding a single DNA band in the agarose gel as observed in lane 4. Figure 2 represents the EcoRI sites present in the plasmid. Single digestion with EcoRI yielded three bands as opposed to the single band obtained in the case of single digestion with BamHI and this was observed in the agarose gel in lane 3. Figure 3 represents the HindIII sites present in the plasmid DNA. There are two HindIII sites, which can be represented by the presence of two DNA bands as observed in the agarose gel in lane 5. Figure 4 represents the EcoRI and BamHI sites present in the plasmid DNA. Figure 5 represents the BamHI and HindIII sites in the plasmid DNA. Finally, Figure 6 represents the final restriction sites present in the plasmid DNA.

Book of Matches explore Essay Example For Students

Book of Matches explore Essay Drawing parallels with other poems in the â€Å"Book of Matches† explore the ways in which Armitage effectively conveys experience in ‘Hitcher’.  Ã¢â‚¬ËœHitcher’ by Simon Armitage is a chilling poem in which a frustrated man, who picks up a hitcher with â€Å"just a toothbrush and the good earth for a bed†, takes out his anger on this ‘hippy’ and throws him out of a moving car: he is cheered up by doing so and says that â€Å"the outlook for the day was† now â€Å"moderate to fair†. This poem contains key ideas and concerns that are reminiscent of Simon Armitage’s other poetry and therefore parallels can be drawn between this poem and his other works in the collection, â€Å"Book of Matches†. This poem is much longer than the sonnets which form the central sequence of the collection. This shorter sequence, which gives the collection its name, is based on the pub game of telling your life story in the time it takes for a match to burn. However, these sonnets are often imperfect in form (irregular meter and pararhyme) and it seems that Armitage’s philosophy and experience influence his poetry and do not allow him to write in the perfect and romantic form of a true sonnet. In the poem ‘Hitcher’, there a five, five line stanzas, which almost have a syllabically regular structure, despite its irregular rhyme scheme. It is written in the form of a monologue that allows the reader to gain insight into the mind of this killer and adds to the immediacy and the authenticity of the poem. The first stanza of Hitcher reveals that the narrator has been off work for a while and is under threat of losing his job. He colloquially states that he had been â€Å"tired, under//the weather†, but not seriously ill. This seems to describe someone who is unable to face the routine of everyday life and he states that the â€Å"ansaphone† is â€Å"screaming† that he will be fired if he produces â€Å"one more sick note†. The frequent use of proper nouns is common in Armitage’s poems and shows the grounded and down-to-earth quality of his work. ‘Hitcher’ presents us with two extremes in society: two men of the same age, one of whom has succeeded in escaping all ties and worries, the other caught up in it, but unable to face up to its demands and threatened with losing his job. In a question and answer session with Simon Armitage, he said that at the time he was writing the poem, he was torn between both characters as he was choosing between either becoming a full-time poet or continuing as a probation officer. This also could represent a deeper meaning as it shows that art (represented by the hippy) always loses out to Thatcherite Capitalism (symbolised by the worker). The verb â€Å"screaming† shows the desperate nature of this man and portrays a recurrent theme of Simon Armitage’s poetry which is the futility of life. The protagonist is working and yet achieving nothing, whereas the ‘hippy’ seems to be living a care-free life. This is also shown in the poem, â€Å"My Party Piece† in the phrase, â€Å"I still find time to stall and blush before I’m burnt†. This shows that despite the short time that he has to tell his life story, he has spare time at the end to â€Å"stall and blush†. The narrator himself hitches a lift to the place where he has a hired car parked, but for a very different reason to the hitcher who he picks â€Å"up in Leeds†. Simon abruptly introduces the hitcher, who is only ever introduced as ‘him’ or ‘he’. This is important as keeping the character anonymous makes the crime more despicable. The hitcher epitomises freedom as he follows â€Å"the sun to west from east† and he is described as â€Å"blowin’ in the wind† which is a clear reference to the popular Bob Dylan song of the 1960s. The lazy enjambment of this stanza could be trying to make the hitcher sound as boring as possible. However, the hippys comment that the truth could perhaps be â€Å"round the next bend† is an ominous precursor to what follows. .u05ed5794dd87118945dd9f517a1d86ea , .u05ed5794dd87118945dd9f517a1d86ea .postImageUrl , .u05ed5794dd87118945dd9f517a1d86ea .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u05ed5794dd87118945dd9f517a1d86ea , .u05ed5794dd87118945dd9f517a1d86ea:hover , .u05ed5794dd87118945dd9f517a1d86ea:visited , .u05ed5794dd87118945dd9f517a1d86ea:active { border:0!important; } .u05ed5794dd87118945dd9f517a1d86ea .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u05ed5794dd87118945dd9f517a1d86ea { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u05ed5794dd87118945dd9f517a1d86ea:active , .u05ed5794dd87118945dd9f517a1d86ea:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u05ed5794dd87118945dd9f517a1d86ea .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u05ed5794dd87118945dd9f517a1d86ea .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u05ed5794dd87118945dd9f517a1d86ea .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u05ed5794dd87118945dd9f517a1d86ea .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u05ed5794dd87118945dd9f517a1d86ea:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u05ed5794dd87118945dd9f517a1d86ea .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u05ed5794dd87118945dd9f517a1d86ea .u05ed5794dd87118945dd9f517a1d86ea-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u05ed5794dd87118945dd9f517a1d86ea:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens begins the novel with oxymoron EssayThe fact that stanza three describes the narrators sudden violent attack on the hitcher reveals the envy that he felt when confronted by a person who appeared to have total freedom. I let him have it is a blunt description of the physical attack during which the narrator hit the hitcher initially with his own head and then â€Å"six times with the krooklok†, directly in his face. Ruthlessness is all too apparent when he tells us that he carried on driving, perhaps because he didnt even swerve during the attack. Violence is a common theme in Simon Armitage’s poetry as Armitage worked a s a probation officer originally in Manchester. This job, during which he had to deal with drug dealers and murderers could have given him a bleak and violent outlook on life that seems to have influenced his poetry. The colloquial and casual language, such as â€Å"I dropped it into third† makes the crime even more disturbing and the relaxed tone in which the main character talks after brutalising someone shows his psychopathic tendencies. Colloquial language is often used in Simon Armitage’s other poetry which reinforces the down-to-earth qualities of his poems (â€Å"My father though it bloody queer† and the hard-edged phrase, â€Å"People talk nonsense and I put them straight†). Armitage uses enjambment to link the third stanza to the fourth, as the narrator describes how he pushed the hitcher out of the car and watched him â€Å"bouncing off the kerb†. The statement â€Å"We were the same age, give or take a week† tells us that the narrator obviously made a direct comparison between himself and the hitcher. The hitcher â€Å"said he liked the breeze/to run its fingers/through his hair†: the personification brings to life this description that must have aroused such envy in the narrator at the hitchers freedom that he began his frenzied attack. In the last stanza we again see the cold-heartedness of the narrator in the matter-of-fact tone in which he speaks, â€Å"it was twelve noon†. Realism is added to the poem in the abrupt way the narrator says, â€Å"stitch that†, a violent, northern phrase uttered when head-butting someone. The chilling humour and flippant style shown in the line, â€Å"you can walk from there† is shocking and shows that the narrator shows no remorse. In conclusion, the combination of the colloquial tone in which the protagonist speaks and the violent actions that he depicts effectively portrays experience and, in particular, a man who lacks experience and yet is tired of life.  Drawing parallels with other poems in the â€Å"Book of Matches† explore the ways in which Armitage effectively conveys experience in ‘Hitcher’.

Marley and Me free essay sample

Marley and me: life and love with the world’s worst dog is a New York Times best-selling novel written by John Grogan , a journalist and also a non-fiction writer in America. The book , published in 2005 , is more a autobiographical book than a novel because the whole story is based on the author’s personal experience with his beloved dog Marley. So , the author John Grogan and his wife Jenny , are also the leading characters in Marley and me . The book is such a hit that in 2008 a movie was adapted from it , which also is very successful. Told in first-person narrative , the book focuses on the 13 years that John and his family spent with their dog Marley. As we can see from the subtitle of the book : life and love with the world’s worst dog , Marley is not an obedient dog. It is portrayed as a boisterous , uncontrolled yellow Labrador. We will write a custom essay sample on Marley and Me or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page A new couple , John and Jenny , were thinking about having a baby. Lack of experience , they decided to raise a dog to practise being parents because taking care of a dog , just like a baby, requires patience and attention. So that is how Marley became a new member of the family. Marley was so naughty that it was always hungry and destructive of furniture. But the couple forgave it and loved it even more . As life went on with Marley , the couple decided to have their first baby . Unfortunately , Jenny had an abortion when carrying the first baby. Life was tough but Marley was always there for them. Frustrated as they were , they decided to tried again and luckily they had three children later on . Life is happy for the couple. Years elapsed before the couple realized that Marley was no longer a puppy, but an old dog. Marley was no longer naughty , boisterous as it was . It was a sad moment in the story when John had to give permission to the vet to put Marley to sleep forever. The whole family were depressed but they knew it was best for Marley. The whole family missed Marley so much that after Marley’s death , they raised another dog which greatly resembles Marley. The author himself once described Marley : In good times and bad , in sickness and health, we didn’t give up on Marley and so it was to us , and in the end he came through and proved himself a great and memorable pet. Marley and me is not a book mainly focuses on the pet , but on life and love with the pet. What is special in this book is that it seldom tells you that Marley is growing up . Instead, the author tells story about John and Jenny year after year. Thirteen years is quite a long journey for everyone. Maybe the couple never realized how different life would be if they didn’t decide to raise Marley or any other dog. Marley is so unique and special to the couple because Marley accompanied them for thirteen years. In thirteen years , many memorable things happened. When they hanged their job , when they got a promotion, when they bought a new house , when they had a really tough time when losing their first baby , when they first became parents , Marley was always there , living under the same roof with them and shared with them their happiness or bitterness. Life is a bittersweet symphony. Whatever life it is for the couple, Marley was with them. In spite of the fact that Marley was extremely naughty and boisterous , the couple didn’t abandon it . The pet and the family were bound up with each other , experiencing the taste of life together. That is the reason why Marley meant so much to John, Jenny and their children and also explains why the subtitle of Marley and me would be : life and love with the world’s worst dog. The book uses the story between Marley and the couple as a framework for talking about life, love and the struggles of beginning a marriage, starting a family and making the most of every moment , which I think is the best success of Marley and me. If it simply describes how lovely and naughty Marley is , it may only appeal to people who are fond of pets. But Marley and me is not that kind of book. If you don’t like dogs, you can still enjoy the book very much because the book reflects on life , which makes you ponder after reading it. Because it is a book based on true stories , the language of Marley and me is so vivid and heart-felt as if you could see how time flies in this precious 13 years. Marley used to be energetic , but as time went on , Marley began to cripple onto the stage and gradually lost its hearing. It a story about Marley’s whole life and a precious phase of the young couple. No one is flawless, so is the dog. But once you have been a member of a family, you never give up on each other . Instead , you choose to support and accompany them whether they are happy or they are depressed. Though John often refers to Marley as â€Å"the world’s worst dog† in the book , Marley and him come to share an unbreakable bond. Marley and me is not just a story between John and his dog, but a story between John and his best friend , who has accompanies him for 13 years and also brought so much joy as well as trouble to him.

Abolition of the Death Penalty essays

Abolition of the Death Penalty essays Resolved: that the United States Federal Government should ratify or accede to, and implement The Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights aiming at the Abolition of the Death Penalty In order to facilitate clarity and promote clash we exercise the affirmative right to define by offering the following definitions. should: is used to express moral obligation (taken from Websters New International Dictionary, second edition, 1961) Observation 2: Criteria and Resolutional Analysis A. In order for the United States to uphold its democratic ideals to the truest form possible, it must follow the basis of our democracy: the U.S. Constitution. Any law that contradicts what is in the constitution should not be allowed to exist. The death penalty is one of those laws. Rev. Jesse Jackson, Legal Lynching, Racism, Injustice, and the Death Penalty, 1996, pgs. 84 and 85. The U.S. Constitution protects the right of American citizens to their life, liberty, and property. In this, it has become the model for other countries wishing to codify human dignity, due process, and fundamental fairness in their own legal standards. The Eighth Amendment in particular the one prohibiting cruel and unusual punishment has been duplicated by new nations around the world. Germany and South Africa, two nations born from the ashes of brutal and bloody conflicts, have ruled in favor of life by banning the death penalty in their constitutions. The worldwide trend is toward the abolition of capital punishment... We recognize torture as a violation of the Eighth Amendment, but not the ultimate torture the threat of death and actual execution. Is not death by lethal injection, firing squad, or electric chair cruel and unusual punishment? Is not such punishment just as cruel as stoning or other forms of torture we call primitive? Is it not cruel to keep someone on d...

Key Issues Analysis When MRMC Ethical efficiencies in valuing and Essay

Key Issues Analysis When MRMC Ethical efficiencies in valuing and pricing - Essay Example The opportunity costs are the goods and services that consumers want and value. Incorrect pricing has ethical implications. To charge too small a price for a product in relation to its production costs will affect revenue negatively, upset the delicate balances required for profit maximization, and lead to disastrous repercussions, perhaps even to the demise of the company. On the other hand, to charge too much for the product, more than people are willing to pay, will result in the same kinds of consequences. Incorrect payments to the factors of productions is unethical because it would also result in opportunity costs for the company. The opportunity costs include the foregone profits of producing goods and services that consumers want and also the opportunity costs arising from the greater community in which the firm exists - from the immediacy of geographical location to philosophical, religious, legal, sociological, and cultural implications of the greater world. Paid less than the value of his/her marginal product, the employee, a scarce human resource, would leave the company. Paid more, the company's opportunity costs would result in fewer resources from which to produce the goods and services the community wants. One disposition is to put aside individual ethics and adopt only corporate ethics, that is, profit maximization or opportunity costs minimization, producing goods and services that consumers want and value. Price is a measure of how much do consumers want and value the goods and services produced. The payment to all of the factors of production will be equal to the total revenues from the price. The total dollars from the production of goods and services is apportioned among the various factors of production according to the contribution of that factor of production's contribution, called its marginal physical product (MPP) in economics terms. The sum of the MPP of the factors of production equals what is produced. With respect to value, the MPP of each factor of production is sold in the market place for that price the consumer is willing to pay for it. When that price is multiplied by the MPP of each factor of production, the dollars we receive are called the value of the marginal physical product (VMP). Another disposition is to attempt to influence the value that consumers place on goods and services produced by the firm. This could be achieved through advertisements. Value could be added to the factors of production so that their VMP could be increased. For example, labor could be trained and creativity could be encouraged. Also, cheaper factors of production could be used. For example, rather than producing steel in the USA, the firms in the steel industry could have based their production in Venezuela, Canada, and Australia where the cost of production is lower. Nike is a good example of an organization that has adopted this disposition. Its operation is based in China, where the cost of production is low. It tries to influence consumer demand for its goods through advertisements. The value of entrepreneurship is increased by outsourcing all functions in which it has no competitive advantage and focusing instead on marketing. The first disposition is recommended. This is because it essentially means production at the level where marginal cost (MC) is equal to marginal revenue (MR) when profit is maximized.

Fashion and Celebrities in time of Modernism Essay

Fashion and Celebrities in time of Modernism - Essay Example The essay "Fashion and Celebrities in time of Modernism" talks about Fashion and Celebrities in the Modernism era. Paul Poiret and Madeleine Vionnet share the tribute for liberating women from their corsets. Swan bill, S-bend, or â€Å"health corset† was designed to ease pressure on the diaphragm and stomach and take the shape of the natural figure of the body of a female. Gibson, an American graphic artist designed the â€Å"Gibson Girl† hair style that was an ideal description of the gorgeous, autonomous American woman at the twist of the 20th century. A little boy kneeling down visualizes Gibson Girls magnifying him under a pair of lens, like an insect. Mariano Fortuny designed a Delphos Gown which was a finely pleated silk dress. Modernism at the same time has to do with futuristic, which is always connected with streamline and simplicity. One of the famous artist in the modernism faction was Pablo Picasso‘s cubism and futuristic. This is best demonstrated by the revolutionary fore-front leader in fashion, Paul Poiret with his illustrious lampshade dress in the year 1992 that depicted the best impression of modernism in fashion with simple lines and vivid color. Geometric patterns are among the common elements that can be seen in modernism. The space-age modern giant Pierre Cardin, in his design that combined esthetic strong lines and geometric shapes that were simple and remarkable, best illustrates these modern patterns. His style was simple, straight forward and emphasized some minimalism of ornament.

Regional Studies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Regional Studies - Essay Example In 1946, Sony has taken location and Akio Morita and Masaru Ibuka founded. There is no question that the founders of sophisticated electronics rather quickly (Wataru Fogel 2010). This is because the two were the founders of abilities and capabilities to the Japanese electronics commerce of lightweight at the top. On an edge note, we should notify you that China is in electrical devices goods are evolving better and more high-tech, are far along with enterprise buying into in some other nations, encompassing Japan. We have to notify you much achievement in the buyer electronics commerce in Japan because of persons who easily could not turn off their electrical devices. The reality is that the buyer electronics commerce in the United States, mostly dry due to the achievement of Japan's buyer electronics in Japan. In the late 1880s was one TV output, which stayed in the U.S. because Japanese businesses have bought into in others. Did you understand that Japan, which first hue TV? In 198 0, Japan has evolved the electronics for example camcorders, VCRs, CD. Today, we all understand how well liked the compact computer disc contestant in the world. If you stroll in public locations, then you can anticipate glimpsing numerous distinct kinds of electrical devices gear used. ... Most Japanese electronics manufacturers took benefit of the trade items enterprise because the market is saturated with competition (Anderson 2002). Over the last 20 years, electronics manufacturers Korean and Taiwanese gnawed its way into buyer electronics market worldwide and Chinese manufacturers have obtained substantial support throughout the last decade. Today, the pie of the Japanese electronics constructing market is not large-scale sufficient to share with all the Japanese manufacturers, if each of them desire to stay in the market for buyer items cheap. There are easily too numerous Japanese electronics manufacturers, and they should change the main heading of the business to endure the increasing affray on the market. Unfortunately, numerous Japanese electrical devices businesses are too large-scale to change main heading rapidly, and latest alterations broadcast, numerous of these businesses manage not appear very smart. Several business broadcasts and alterations in the schemes of foremost Japanese manufacturers have occurred in latest months. Matsushita Electric Industry has traded its stake in JVC set (one of the manufacturers of buyer electronics contestant in the world of audio-visual equipment) because of reduced productivity. JVC will now work with the Kenwood (another premier Japanese constructor of audio equipment) to endure in this industry. In supplement, Sanyo endured important deficiency in latest years, most business bosses lately resigned. Sony's long-run international buyer electronics monster, determined to close its constructing of semiconductors and sales procedures of Toshiba. Meanwhile, latest, released last week engaged Sharp, the premier constructor of LCD

Chemistry Essays Saline & Fluids in the Body

Chemistry Essays Saline & Fluids in the Body Saline and Fluids Using saline as an example, outline the importance of solutions in the body and what is the concentration of normal saline and how the concentration of saline is controlled in the body and what effects on the cells an increase in saline concentration would have. Our bodies are fifty tosixty percent water, which therefore makes water an essential fluid for ourbodies. The main transporting agent in our body is the cells, and solutions arenecessary to execute functions such as:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Chemical balance   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Circulation of blood   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Transporting nutrients to the cells   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Elimination of waste   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  respiration The main component ofthe blood, perspiration, saliva, mucus, lymphatic fluids and digestive juicesis water. The function of water also ensures the lubrication of the joints,that the muscles, skin, and organs is moisturized. The temperature of the bodyis also aided by water. Two thirds of water is situatedwithin the cells intracellular, and one third of water is found in the sitesbetween the cells interstitial and in the blood plasma. The composition ofsolutes in the intracellular and extracellular water can vary. A highconcentration of potassium ions is found in the intracellular cells, and a highconcentration of sodium and chloride ion is found in the extracellular cells. It is precarious to thesurvival of the human body that the accurate balance of fluids and salts ismaintained and the right pH acid balance. If the body loses fluids and salts,then dehydration can occur, and this can cause the concentration of salts toalter causing electrolyte imbalance. One of the mostimportant solutions in the body is saline, which is a solution consisting ofsodium chloride and distilled water. Salt plays a perilous function in the accurateoperation of the human body, as well as all other forms of life. The averageperson contains about eight ounces of salt, which facilitates muscles to contract,digestion to occur, the floe of blood, wounds to repair and fluids to beproperly regulated. A litre of isotonic or normal (0.9%) saline contains 154mmol of NaCI, comparable to 9 g of salt or 3.6 g of sodium. The regulation of salineand water equilibrium in the body is an example of homeostasis. Homeostasis isthe preservation of balance, or constant conditions, in a biological organismby means of habitual mechanisms that neutralize influences tending towarddisequilibrium. The correct composition of extracellular fluids and watercontent in the body is maintained by the important role played by the kidneys. Osmolarityis the amount of particles dissolved in a certain volume of fluid. Theosmolarity of fluid can be altered by the volume of fluid or by the quantity ofsolute molecules. In the duration of a day, the kidneys will manage 180 litersof blood, and will produce 1.5 liters of urine. The volume of water excreted bythe kidney is regulated by the anti-diuretic hormone (ADH: also referred toas vasopressin; diuresis means water loss and is therefore referred to as awater loss hormone. If the concentration offluid in the body drops below normal, the osmoreceptors in the hypothalamuswill recognize the resulting increase in osmolarity. ADH will be released bythe hypothalamus, in response to the change in osmolarity. The amount of fluidvolume lost must be replaced by drinking additional fluid, thus ensuring thatosmolarity returns to equilibrium and recovering the fluid loss. If the concentration offluid in the body increases above normal, this will also modify the osmolarityof the circulating fluids. The decrease in osmolarity is regulated by thehypothalamus, which stops producing ADH. In the absence of ADH, the kidney permitsfluid loss from the body. The kidney consists of numerous nephrons in which itfilters solutions, and then selectively reabsorbs or secretes different plasmacomponents. The entire composition of the nutrient molecules and most of thewater will be reabsorbed, and returned to the bloodstream. The major extracellularsalt is NaCl. The levels of osmolarity of the circulating body fluids aredetermined by the sodium and the chloride content. The kidney establishes theconcentration of Na+ loss from the body (Cl or anadditional anion will proceed Na+, so if Na+ levels aremonitored anion levels counteract automatically). If there is inadequate Na+inside the body, this will be identified by the kidney, which commences acomplex series of events, established as the renin/angiotensin/aldosterone pathway.In response to a decreased concentration of Na+, the kidney dischargesrenin into the blood. Renin acts on a plasma protein, angiotensinogen changingit into angiotensin I Angiotensin I is asubstrate for a changing enzyme, found widely in the lungs, which changes itinto angiotensin II. Angiotensin II has remarkable biological activity, causingthe release of aldosterone acting on the adrenal cortex. Aldosterone is ahormone that operates on the kidney to inhibit Na+ loss from thebody. Inversely, should there be an excess of Na+ in the body, adecrease in renin discharge will lead to a deterioration in the aldosterone concentrationsand an increase in Na+ deficiency in the urine. Variation in the Na+concentration is a protracted process than that of circulating fluid levels andmay require hours to days for completion. The obstacle between theextra and intra cellular compartments is known as the cell membrane. Watercan occur liberally through biological membranes but many solutes cannot. Whenone section has a larger concentration of solutes, the direction of the flow ofwater is from the section with the depleted concentration to the section withthe larger concentration. This process is known as osmosis. Osmosis is the migrationof water from an area of high water concentration through a semi-permeablemembrane to a region of low water concentration. In a hypotonic solutionof saline, the concentration of the solute molecules outside the cells is lowerthan that the concentration of solutes inside the cell. This in turn willenable the water to diffuse into the cell, until equilibrium is established.This flow of water into the cell causes the cell to swell. References 1. Stryer, L.Biochemistry (4th Edition). Freeman, New York. 2000 2. Campbell,M.K. Biochemistry, (2nd Edition) Saunders College Publishing, 1995 3. Parsons, R.GCSE Double Science: Biology Revision Guide Higher (GCSE Double Science)Coordination Group Publications (2001) 4. Clancy, J.McVicar, A, Baird, N. Perioperative Practice: Fundamentals of HomeostasisRoutledge, an imprint of Taylor Francis Books Limited (2002) 5. Revise ASBiology (Revise AS Study Guide S.) Letts Educational Ltd (2004) 6. Chiras, D.Human Biology: Health, Homeostasis and the Environment Jones and BartlettPublishers International (1994)

Collision Avoidance: ADS-B or TCAS :: Essays Papers

Collision Avoidance: ADS-B or TCAS INTRODUCTION Background Collision avoidance is something that has been a problem in aviation for a long time. Most of the flights conducted today rely on the see and avoid concept and ground radar. Both of which have their flaws. The FAA predicts that mid-air collisions will increase by 300% over the next 20 years due to the increase in flights being flown by all areas of the aviation community (Kraus xiv). Civil aircraft have had onboard protection from midair collisions only since 1990 and general aviation aircraft are not required to have any collision avoidance technology onboard(www.cassd.org 1). In order to effectively manage the national airspace system in the future we will need to implement Free Flight. Free Flight is a concept designed to enhance safety and efficiency of the airspace by allowing aircraft to choose their own route instead of using victor airways (www.ads-b.com 1). Along with this freedom there is still the problem of aircraft separation which when on an instrument flight plan is air traffic control's (ATC) responsibility. In free flight there may be areas where ATC cannot give the required collision avoidance necessary. In order to safely manage the safety zone around an aircraft, pilots will need to rely on systems installed in the aircraft for better separation. Purpose The purpose of this report is to identify whether Automatic Dependence Surveillance Broadcast (ADS-B) or Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System (TCAS II) should be placed in all aircraft if the FAA decides that there is a need for some collision avoidance technology to be required for all aircraft. TCAS is currently required on all commercial passenger aircraft over 30 seats and ADS-B is currently being tested. Scope In this report, I will discuss:  · Automatic Dependant Surveillance Broadcast (ADS-B)  · ADS-B's Advantages and Disadvantages  · Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System (TCAS)  · TCAS's Advantages and Disadvantages  · Summarize which system is better for collision avoidance Body ADS-B ADS-B is a collision avoidance tool that allows aircraft to transmit position, speed, heading and identification via a data link to either other aircraft in the air or on the ground and/or controllers on the ground. ADS-B can also be used with equipped vehicles on the surface movement area. An ADS-B emitter will periodically broadcast the required information obtained from the onboard navigation systems. Other equipped aircraft will be able to receive this information and view it on the Cockpit Display of Traffic Information (CDTI).

Air BnB stakeholder analysis

Real-time data Is often used for navigation or tracking. Continental use real-time data also for flight statistics (where the most valuable customers are while In flight, which ones are affected by delays and cancellations), to support Lorene security efforts, crew scheduling, crew performance, fraud detection and so on. The goal with the real-time warehousing was therefore to solve all those problems and get happy and loyal customers and employees. Some of the goals are listed below: Give employees fast information about the business and customers Flight on timeTake all of the baggage to final destination Easy booking, no overbooking – Increase services What have been shown is that the real-time Blob hasn't Just improved and completed all of the goals, Continental has even started to use the system in much broader perspective. Make a list of most valuable customers, get knowledge about their trips, what they prefer, if they got good service and if something happening with the m in the real-time and in that case give them right and direct service without them to need to ask for it. Customer facing', near and personal contact with customers example: personal letter and so on) Improve of security because of comparing data in real-time with help of the system, helped FBI with searching after possible terrorists. It also helps to track people who try to track the system. Be almost always on time because of special booking processes, use all capacity of the plains, be always updating about price changes and act from there. Continental has invested approximately $30 million Into real-time warehousing over the last six years.Of this amount, $20 million was for hardware and software expenses, and $10 million for personnel costs. Although this Investment Is significant, the quantifiable benefits from real-time warehousing are magnitudes larger. Specifically, over the last six years, Continental has realized over $500 million In Increased revenues and cost savings, resulting In a ROI of over 1,000 percent. The data warehousing group made some Important Improvements.They developed a warehouse architecture that could grow and scalar to meet these real-time and operational need, developed prototypes to show potential end users, to get them excited about data warehousing and to give them ideas about new applications that here was business benefits for each application. They also made that data warehouse operates consistent with organizational culture. The warehouse proved employees with different information so that they can do they Job better and faster. All that changes lead that new project was successful.Elements of the data warehousing environment at Continental which are necessary to support and extensive end-user Blob application development are: Data exist in the data warehouse from sources that are trusted by end users Help from data warehousing staff is readily available and friendly Metadata is kept current and is easily accessible by end users via the web Users have access to and are trained in tools to access and manipulate data Graphics are used, when appropriate, for data display, making it easier for users to understand and interpret the complicated data being presented Special issues about data warehouse management: Date and time management is amplified because of the finer granularity of data Customized views significantly improve query performance and reduce the load on the data warehouse With the extensive number of on-line, real-time users, views also revived an extra level of security against access to unauthorized data Data loads come in via many different routes and methods, so generalize components to handle data loading are used to save the effort of starting from scratch to develop each new loading process The large volume of constant data loading means that it is not humanly possible to watchful TTL processes, so automated watchdog applications are used to alert data warehouse staff via pagers wh en their attention is needed for some anomaly Data for loading are put into standardized queues, from which pre- Ritter load utilities pull data for loading into the data warehouse, no matter what the source of the data are There are data loads, tactical queries and strategic queries, each with different patterns of data warehouse use, specific priorities are given to the different types of loads against the warehouse. Priorities also change by type of day. Higher priority is given to queries that require the fewest data warehouse processing resources. I learned ten specific lessons are outlines in the Lessons Learned section. These lessons can be applied to the development of real-time data warehousing in any organization. Blab Britain

The House Of The Seven Gables Essays - The House Of The Seven Gables

The House Of The Seven Gables Essays - The House Of The Seven Gables The House Of The Seven Gables By Nathaniel Hawthorne The House of the Seven Gables is a romantic novel set in a grand and rustic, old house with seven gables in New England town. The story opens with its history, beginning in the 1690's, when witch-hunting was rampant. Afterwards, it revolves around the course of one summer in the 1850's. At his housewarming party, Colonel Pyncheon, the socially noted owner of the house was mysteriously found dead in one of the rooms. Although he was highly esteemed for his wealth and high position, legend has it that he usurped the land on which his house stood from a poor fellow named Matthew Maule. Maule was a nobody. Furthermore, he was rumored to be practicing witchcraft. For this, he was hanged and it was rumored that Pyncheon was responsible for it because he wanted the land for himself. However, his social prominence and Maule's infamy allowed him to get away with the crime smoothly. Before Maule died though, cursed him saying, God will give him blood to drink. For years, the Pyncheon-Maule dispute carried on. The long line of Pyncheons struggled to keep the land from their rivals. Though they succeeded in this, their greed became their own undoing. Alice Pyncheon dies because her father, Gervayse, allowed her to be hypnotized by a Maule also named Matthew, because he believed him when he said that he needed Alice's mind to find a the hidden Pyncheon treasure. Clifford Pyncheon was another victim of the greed of his cousin Judge Jaffrey Pyncheon. He framed him and sent him to prison for killing their uncle so that he could have the Pyncheon fortune to himself. However, after many years, the once talked-about mansion was eventually forgotten, and the story focuses on the time when Hepzibah Pyncheon, an old and lonely spinster inhabited it. She was often feared for the scowl on her face that was actually only the result of a chronic squint due to her poor eyesight. Proud and without talent for practical matters, she is a symbol of decaying aristocracy. She grieves for her beloved brother, Clifford, who was framed and imprisoned. She had a boarder named Holgrave. He is an attractive and imtellectual young man with modern views and notions. He preaches about social reform to Hepzibah and Phoebe. When her money was running out, Hepzibah was forced to open little bakeshop in the front gable of the house and abandon her illusion of aristocracy. This only adds to her misery until her young niece, Phoebe, comes from the country to live with her in the house. Like a ray of sunshine, she lights up the house with her beauty, simplicity, and free-spiritedness After 30 years in prison, Hepzibah's brother, Clifford, is released and comes home to the house of seven gables. He has a love for beauty but the years of seclusion had drawn out the life from him and he became bitter and spiritless. Then he develops a special bond with Phoebe. Despite the complexity of his personality, she understood him. A frequent visitor was Judge Jaffrey Pyncheon. He resembled his ancestor, the colonel physically and in his greed and pretentiousness as well. Yet, he pretends to be good-natured and amiable. He insists that Clifford possessed the knowledge about a hidden Pyncheon fortune. However, the truth of the matter is that Clifford has long since forgotten the secret. One day , Judge Jaffrey comes again, looking for Clifford. He manages to force Hepzibah to let him see her brother and she goes up to fetch him. He is not in his room and when she comes back to tell the judge, she finds him dead. And Clifford is standing beside him. Afraid that he would be accused of murder again, Clifford flees, bringing Hepzibah along. In their absence, Holgrave and Phoebe fall in love. Eventually, it was discovered that Jaffrey's death was a result of a stroke, and everything is cleared and resolved. Clifford and Hepzibah return and Holgrave asks Phoebe to marry him. She agrees and he discloses that he is a descendant of Matthew Maule. The secret treasure turned out to be the deed of the territory, which was now useless. It was hidden inside a vault concealed by the painting of the colonel which hung on the wall of the house eversince it was built. Hepzibah, Clifford, Phoebe, and Holgrave all decide to leave

New York Times Co. v. United States Essays - Free Essays

New York Times Co. v. United States Essays - Free Essays New York Times Co. v. United States U.S. Supreme Court, 1971 The New York Times printed allegedly classified documents that leaked from the Pentagon about the war in Vietnam. A 47 volume classified history of the American involvement in Vietnam was distributed to the Times and, later, the Post by Daniel Ellsberg, a minor writer in the Pentagon Papers. The Times published these papers bit by bit until the Nixon administration sought an injunction on the Times to stop publication. The Supreme Court found that the First Amendment did not permit an injunction against the Times. The issue here is weather or not the First Amendment applies to federal papers, and weather prior restraint is unconstitutional. Also, can the government seek an injunction on a press to halt publication of such documents, even in cases of national security. The Supreme Court Ruled 6-3 in favor of the New York Times, saying that the First Amendment did not permit an injunction against the press. The Court found that the Government did not relieve their "Heavy Burden" of proof to justify the injunction based on prior restraint. This verdict was reached June 25, 1971. A heavy burden of proof is placed on the government whenever there is grounds for prior restraint. Is this burden is not sufficiently substantiated, then and injunction cannot be issued. The First Amendment protects the rights of individuals and the press to communicate freely. The U.S. has the right to halt any publication that they deem harmful, if and only if, they show enough evidence to support their injunction, and meet their "Heavy Burden" of proof imposed upon them by the courts. Please put your paper here.

Reflection Journals Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Reflection Journals - Essay Example Reflection. The above summary shows the importance of reducing lead poisoning. Lead poisoning can be avoided. Lead poisoning can be reduced to allowable levels. Lead poisoning can be acquired by inhaling lead that if floating in the air or eating lead-contaminated food. Sometimes people unknowingly drink lead from crystal clear tap water.Hazardous Effects of Lead Poisoning. Lead poisoning can destroy the average person’s health. The excessive intake of lead elements can hinder the development of the brain. Lead triggers the malfunctioning of the human nervous system and reduces the children’s intelligence capacity. Children are most susceptible to lead poisoning. The pregnant woman’s taking of lead elements will harm the fetus (Hembra, 2008). Government Must Act to Prevent Lead Poisoning. The government agencies cooperate to eradicate lead poisoning from the environment. The government’s environmental protection agency or EPA monitors and implements lead p oisoning programs. To help reduce lead poisoning incidences, the government agencies disseminate lead poisoning information to the public in order (Hemba, 2008).People should help eliminate Lead Poisoning. People should do their share to eliminate lead poisoning. To reduce lead poisoning, the parents must avoid lead-based jobs. The family should avoid lead-contaminated communities. The community must act to eliminate lead from entering the child’s body. The community leaders must distribute leaflets and other information on how to avoid being victims of lead poisoning.

Modern operating system Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Modern operating system - Research Paper Example Microsoft’s Windows on the other hand is the opposite and it does not allow the users to bring about the changes in the source code or modify it. Apple Inc itself is a closed source operating system. The open source nature of Android makes it relatively flexible and more appealing towards the programmers. The added advantage of open source operating system is the presence of platforms and online societies supported by the given operating systems developer companies. The open source function provides the respective operating system an edge in the context of software support and software development. Android exhibits support for Linux based kernel, but this is not to be confused with the Linux operating system. The libraries of Android operating system vary considerably from those of the Linux operating system. The use of Dalvik Virtual machine by Android is a characteristic feature of Android which gives it an edge over the contemporary operating systems as well as the Linux op erating system. The run time features include Dalvik as well as the libraries functions support. The Windows O.S kernel has seen considerable improvement in the recent times. It provides features such as System on Chip (SOC) along with the feature of User Mode Driver Framework (UMDF). In the recent times, the Microsoft O.S has come up with a dynamic outlook in the form of user platform and SOC supported kernel. Apple’ I.O.S kernel is a derivate of Unix Based system, however it does not copy or resemble the kernel of Linux or Android for each has its own designated and specific kernel.

Discussion Board 1-2 Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Discussion Board 1-2 - Research Paper Example h a 2005 estimate showing more than 32 million Americans suffer addiction disorders (excluding tobacco addiction), more studies have become necessary (James & Gilliland, 2005). Over the years, public policies, especially those regarding alcoholic beverages established that the problem with alcohol use lies in the abuser and not the beverage. Although this stand shaped policies that either legalized or illegalized certain beverages, it also called for specialized ways to explain the etiology of addiction. However, none addressed the entire field of addiction comprehensively, neither were they dismissed as being incorrect. Therefore, experts in the field had to come up with more than one etiology, which served the mutual role of complementing each other. To that end, they came up with etiologies that attempted to explain addiction from various perspectives including moral, socio-cultural, psychological, disease and family. The most significant reason for having more than one etiology is for a wider and better understanding of addiction in an attempt to make plans in diagnosis and treatment as effective as possible. The scope of addiction itself is too wide f or a single etiology, with each aspect calling for its own kind of

Work and Environment Essay Example for Free

Work and Environment Essay Work may refer to: Human labor: †¢ Employment †¢ House work †¢ Labor (economics), measure of the work done by human beings †¢ Manual labor, physical work done by people †¢ Wage labor, in which a worker sells their labor and an employer buys it †¢ Work (project management), the effort applied to produce a deliverable or accomplish a task Environment may refer to: Environment (biophysical), the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism †¢ Environment (systems), the surroundings of a physical system that may interact with the system by exchanging mass, energy, or other properties †¢ Environments (series), a series of LPs, cassettes and CDs depicting natural sounds †¢ Built environment, constructed surroundings that provide the setting for human activity, ranging from the large-scale civic surroundings to the personal places †¢ Knowledge environment Social environment, the culture that an individual lives in, and the people and institutions with whom they interact Work environment means the milieus around a person. It is your social and professional environment in which you are supposed to interact with a number of people. All of them are to be there with you. They are working there. They are supposed to co-ordinate with you in one way or he other. They may be working under you or you may be working under them. It depends upon your position at status at a work place. It is not important that an office would always be called your work place. It can be your home environment where you use to work for all the time where you are supposed to interact with your family members by and by. This environment is all about the people at your home and those who have any concern at your home. Work environment does not only counts the living world tings but also the materialistic world stuff. It may count the room or home where you are working. It may counts the things that you are using in one way or the other. It is all about things and livings that are around you where you are working. Hope it is clear now. A work environment can be identified as the place that one works. i. e. -in an office building in a cube, at home at the kitchen table, from a car or truck, at a construction site. All are work environments. We tend, however, to hear about healthy work environments. This can point to other factors in the work environment, such as co-workers, air quality, ergonomic seating, management (the boss! ), child care, parking, noise, and even the size of ones cube. A work environment doesnt require a job. It requires that work has to be done in some place. Say you need to do homework. Where do you do it? At school in study hall? At your kitchen table? On the floor at a friends house? These can also be considered work environments. A hostile work environment exists when an employee experiences workplace harassment and fears going to work because of the offensive, intimidating, or oppressive atmosphere generated by the harasser. A hostile work environment may also be created when management acts in a manner designed to make an employee quit in retaliation for some action. For example, if an employee reported safety violations at work, was injured, attempted to join a union, or in some way caused trouble for the management, then their response might be to harass and pressure the employee to quit. Actions that could be taken in furtherance of this might include inappropriate disciplinary procedures, reduced hours or wages, unreasonable scheduling or workload or similar things. The company’s behavior in lieu of termination avoids the need to pay unemployment benefits. The anti-discrimination statutes governing hostile work environment are not a general civility code. Thus, federal law does not prohibit simple teasing, offhand comments, or isolated incidents that are not extremely serious. Rather, the conduct must be so objectively offensive as to alter the conditions of the individual’s employment. The conditions of employment are altered only if the harassment culminates in a tangible employment action or are sufficiently severe or pervasive. An effective work environment is vital to the success of small businesses and large corporations alike. When problems remain unsolved and rules never get implemented, the result can be an unproductive staff and a stale work environment. People working together with a common denominator will accomplish tasks with greater ease and have higher expectations of themselves and their work. (success and passion)A positive work environment is critical no matter how many employees you have. It is management that fosters the work atmosphere so they are responsible for conducting things in a way that helps raise peoples spirits. There are four basic beliefs: †¢ Hope †¢ Trust †¢ Pleasure †¢ Opportunity

Mummification Essay -- Ancient Egypt

It started thousands of years ago when the first Egyptian was mummified by the natural sand found in the Sahara desert. Mummification is a method of preservation of a dead body. By performing this procedure, it assists the deceased to reach the Afterworld. There are three main methods of mummification, each depending of the wealth of the deceased. In this essay you will discover how pharaohs and high officials were mummified. Once the person has died, he or she is taken to the ibu, also known as the tent of purification. Usually, mummification is performed during nighttime due to the odoured caused by the dead body. When the embalmer is ready to begin the procedure, he first washes the body with water from the Nile. After, he uses an iron hook like device to remove the brain. The embalmer does this by inserting it to the nostril breaking up the cartilage until the hook can reach the brain. Once this procedure is achieved, he removes the brain by crushing it until it becomes watery enough to be drained by laying the person flat on its stomach. The remains of the brain are than ke...

A summary of Amazon’s business Essay

I’ve used Amazon in my books for over 10 years now since many companies, from startups and small businesses to large international businesses, can learn from their focus on the customer and the approach of using technology and analysis to improve results. It consistently outperforms other companies in its ACSI customer satisfaction rating too. I aim to keep the case study up-to-date for readers of the books and Smart Insights readers who may be interested. In it we look at Amazon’s background, revenue model and sources for the latest business results. I recommend anyone studying Amazon checks the latest Amazon revenue and business strategies from their SEC filings / Investor relations. The annual filings to give a great summary of eBay business and revenue models. A good summary of the latest business model initiatives is available in this Amazon annual report summary for 2011. For Q4, 2010: North America segment sales, representing the Company’s U.S. and Canadian sites, were $7.21 billion, up 45% from fourth quarter 2009. International segment sales, representing the Company’s U.K., German, Japanese, French, Chinese and new Italian sites, were $5.74 billion, up 26% from fourth quarter 2009. Excluding the unfavorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates throughout the quarter, sales grew 29%. Amazon has come a long way since it launched in 1995: From: and it’s offices†¦ to it’s current Seattle headquarters: Amazon performs exceptionally efficiently measured against revenue per visitor, which is one of the key measures for any commercial website, whether it’s a media site, search engine, social network or a transactional retailer or offers travel or financial services. Of course profit per user would be quite different due to the significantly lower costs of other .coms like Facebook and Google. Note: SEC is the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) which is a government agency for which companies have to submit an open evaluation of their business models and marketplace conditions. Further Amazon case information This case study created by FaberNovel â€Å"Amazon.com: The Hidden Empire† one of five â€Å"Most Favorited† slideshows and one of the five â€Å"Most Popular Technology Presentations† of 2011. Recommended: Amazon Case Study Context Why a case study on Amazon? Surely everyone knows about who Amazon are and what they do? Yes, well that’s maybe true, but this case goes beyond the surface toreview some of the ‘insider secrets’ of Amazon’s success. Like eBay, Amazon.com was born in 1995. The name reflected the vision of Jeff Bezos, to produce a large scale phenomenon like the Amazon river. This ambition has proved justified since just 8 years later, Amazon passed the $5 billion sales mark – it took Wal-Mart 20 years to achieve this. By 2008 Amazon was a global brand with other 76 million active customers accounts and order fulfillment to more than 200 countries. Despite this volume of sales, at December 31, 2007 Amazon employed approximately 17,000 full-time and part-time employees. In September 2007, it launched Amazon MP3, a la carte DRM-free MP3 music downloads, which now includes over 3.1 million songs from more than 270,000 artists. Amazon Vision & strategy In their 2008 SEC filing, Amazon describe the vision of their business as to: â€Å"Relentlessly focus on customer experience by offering our customers low prices, convenience, and a wide selection of merchandise.† The vision is still to offer â€Å"Earth’s biggest selection and to be Earth’s most customer-centric company. Consider how these core marketing messages summarising the Amazon online value proposition are communicated both on-site and through offline communications. Of course, achieving customer loyalty and repeat purchases has been key to Amazon’s success. Many dot-coms failed because they succeeded in achieving awareness, but not loyalty. Amazon achieved both. In their SEC filing they stress how they seek to achieve this. They say: â€Å"We work to earn repeat purchases by providing easy-to-use functionality, fast and reliable fulfillment, timely customer service, feature rich content, and a trusted transaction environment. Key features of our websites include editorial and customer reviews;  manufacturer product information; Web pages tailored to individual preferences, such as recommendations and notifications; 1-Click ® technology; secure payment systems; image uploads; searching on our websites as well as the Internet; browsing; and the ability to view selected interior pages and citations, and search the entire contents of many of the books we offer with our â€Å"Look Inside the Book† and â€Å"Search Inside the Book† features. Our community of online customers also creates feature-rich content, including product reviews, online recommendation lists, wish lists, buying guides, and wedding and baby registries.† In practice, as is the practice for many online retailers, the lowest prices are for the most popular products, with less popular products commanding higher prices and a greater margin for Amazon. Free shipping offers are used to encourage increase in basket size since customers have to spend over a certain amount to receive free shipping. The level at which free-shipping is set is critical to profitability and Amazon has changed it as competition has changed and for promotional reasons. Amazon communicate the fulfillment promise in several ways including presentation of latest inventory availability information, delivery date estimates, and options for expedited delivery, as well as delivery shipment notifications and update facilities. This focus on customer has translated to excellence in service with the 2004 American Customer Satisfaction Index giving Amazon.com a score of 88 which was at the time, the highest customer satisfaction score ever recorded in any service industry, online or offline. Round (2004) notes that Amazon focuses on customer satisfaction metrics. Each site is closely monitored with standard service availability monitoring (for example, using Keynote or Mercury Interactive) site availability and download speed. Interestingly it also monitors per minute site revenue upper/lower bounds – Round describes an alarm system rather like a power plant where if revenue on a site falls below $10,000 per minute, alarms go off! There are also internal performance service-level-agreements for web services where T% of the time, different pages must return in X seconds. 2011 update on vision and importance of technology According to founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos, technology is very important to supporting this focus on the customer. In their 2010 Annual Report (Amazon,  2011) he said: â€Å"Look inside a current textbook on software architecture, and you’ll find few patterns that we don’t apply at Amazon. We use high-performance transactions systems, complex rendering and object caching, workflow and queuing systems, business intelligence and data analytics, machine learning and pattern recognition, neural networks and probabilistic decision making, and a wide variety of other techniques.And while many of our systems are based on the latest in computer science research, this often hasn’t been sufficient: our architects and engineers have had to advance research in directions that no academic had yet taken. Many of the problems we face have no textbook solutions, and so we — happily — invent new approaches†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ All the effort we put into technology might not matter that much if we kept technology off to the side in some sort of R&D department, but we don’t take that approach. Technology infuses all of our teams, all of our processes, our decision-making, and our approach to innovation in each of our businesses. It is deeply integrated into everything we do†. The quote shows how applying new technologies is used to give Amazon a competitive edge. A good recent example of this is providing the infrastructure to deliver the Kindle â€Å"Whispersync† update to ebook readers. Amazon reported in 2011 that Amazon.com is now selling more Kindle books than paperback books. For every 100 paperback books Amazon has sold, the Company sold 115 Kindle books. Kindle apps are now available on Apple iOS, Android devices and on PCs as part of a â€Å"Buy Once, Read Anywhere† proposition which Amazon has developed. Amazon Customers Amazon defines what it refers to as three consumer sets customers, seller customers and developer customers. There are over 76 million customer accounts, but just 1.3 million active seller customers in it’s marketplaces and Amazon is seeking to increase this. Amazon is unusual for a retailer in that it identifies â€Å"developer customers† who use its Amazon Web Services, which provides access to technology infrastructure such as hosting that developers can use to develop their own web services. Members are also encouraged to join a loyalty programme, Amazon Prime, a fee-based membership program in which members receive free or discounted express shipping, in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and Japan. Competition In its SEC (2005) filing Amazon describes the environment for our products and services as ‘intensely competitive’. It views its main current and potential competitors as: 1) physical-world retailers, catalog retailers, publishers, vendors, distributors and manufacturers of our products, many of which possess significant brand awareness, sales volume, and customer bases, and some of which currently sell, or may sell, products or services through the Internet, mail order, or direct marketing; (2) Other online E-commerce sites; (3) A number of indirect competitors, including media companies, Web portals, comparison shopping websites, and Web search engines, either directly or in collaboration with other retailers; and (4) Companies that provide e-commerce services, including website development; third-party fulfillment and customer-service. It believes the main competitive factors in its market segments include â€Å"selection, price, availability, convenience, information, discovery, brand recognition, personalized services, accessibility, customer service, reliability, speed of fulfillment, ease of use, and ability to adapt to changing conditions, as well as our customers’ overall experience and trust in transactions with us and facilitated by us on behalf of third-party sellers†. For services offered to business and individual sellers, additional competitive factors include the quality of our services and tools, their ability to generate sales for third parties we serve, and the speed of pe rformance for our services. From Auctions to marketplaces Amazon auctions (known as zShops) were launched in March 1999, in large part as a response to the success of eBay. They were promoted heavily from the home page, category pages and individual product pages. Despite this, a year after its launch it had only achieved a 3.2% share of the online auction compared to 58% for eBay and it only declined from this point. Today, competitive prices of products are available through third-party sellers in the ‘Amazon Marketplace’ which are integrated within the standard product listings. The strategy to offer such an auction facility was initially driven by the need to compete with eBay, but now the strategy has been adjusted such that Amazon describe it as part of the approach of low-pricing. Although it might be thought that Amazon would lose out on  enabling its merchants to sell products at lower prices, in fact Amazon makes greater margin on these sales since merchants are charged a commission on each sale and it is the merchant who bears the cost of storing inventory and fulfilling the product to customers. As with eBay, Amazon is just facilitating the exchange of bits and bytes between buyers and sellers without the need to distribute physical products. Amazon Media sales You may have noticed that unlike some retailers, Amazon displays relevant Google text ads and banner ads from brands. This seems in conflict with the strategy of focus on experience since it leads to a more cluttered store. However in 2011 Amazon revealed that worldwide media sales accounted for approximately 17% of revenue! Amazon marketing Amazon does not reveal much about its marketing approach in its annual reports, but there seems to be a focus on online marketing channels. Amazon (2011) states â€Å"we direct customers to our websites primarily through a number of targeted online marketing channels, such as our Associates program, sponsored search, portal advertising, email marketing campaigns, and other initiatives†. These other initiatives may include outdoor and TV advertising, but they are not mentioned specifically. In this statement they also highlight the importance of customer loyalty tools. They say: â€Å"while costs associated with free shipping are not included in marketing expense, we view free shipping offers and Amazon Prime as effective worldwide marketing tools, and intend to continue offering them indefinitely†. How ‘The Culture of Metrics’ started A common theme in Amazon’s development is the drive to use a measured approach to all aspects of the business, beyond the finance. Marcus (2004) describes an occasion at a corporate ‘boot-camp’ in January 1997 when Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos ‘saw the light’. ‘At Amazon, we will have a Culture of Metrics’, he said while addressing his senior staff. He went on to explain how web-based business gave Amazon an ‘amazing window into human behaviour’. Marcus says: ‘Gone were the fuzzy approximations of focus groups, the anecdotal fudging and smoke blowing from the marketing department. A company  like Amazon could (and did) record every move a visitor made, every last click and twitch of the mouse. As the data piled up into virtual heaps, hummocks and mountain ranges, you could draw all sorts of conclusions about their chimerical nature, the consumer. In this sense, Amazon was not merely a store, but an immense repository of fact s. All we needed were the right equations to plug into them’. James Marcus then goes on to give a fascinating insight into a breakout group discussion of how Amazon could better use measures to improve its performance. Marcus was in the Bezos group, brainstorming customer-centric metrics. Marcus (2004) summarises the dialogue, led by Bezos: â€Å"First, we figure out which things we’d like to measure on the site†, he said. â€Å"For example, let’s say we want a metric for customer enjoyment. How could we calculate that?† â€Å"There was silence. Then somebody ventured: â€Å"How much time each customer spends on the site?† â€Å"Not specific enough†, Jeff said. â€Å"How about the average number of minutes each customer spends on the site per session† someone else suggested. â€Å"If that goes up, they’re having a blast†. â€Å"But how do we factor in purchase?† I [Marcus] said feeling proud of myself. â€Å"Is that a measure of enjoyment†? â€Å"I think we need to consider frequency of visits, too†, said a dark-haired woman I didn’t recognise. â€Å"Lot of folks are still accessing the web with those creepy-crawly modems. Four short visits from them might be just as good as one visit from a guy with a T-1. Maybe better’. â€Å"Good point†, Jeff said. â€Å"And anyway, enjoyment is just the start. In the end, we should be measuring customer ecstasy† It is interesting that Amazon was having this debate in about the elements of RFM analysis (described in Chapter 6 of Internet Marketing), 1997, after already having achieved $16 million of revenue in the previous year. Of course, this is a miniscule amount compared with today’s billions of dollar turnover. The important point was that this was the start of a focus on metrics which can be seen through the description of Matt Pounds work later in this case study. From human to software-based recommendations Amazon has developed internal tools to support this ‘Culture of Metrics’.  Marcus (2004) describes how the ‘Creator Metrics’ tool shows content creators how well their product listings and product copy are working. For each content editor such as Marcus, it retrieves all recently posted documents including articles, interviews, booklists and features. For each one it then gives a conversion rate to sale plus the number of page views, adds (added to basket) and repels (content requested, but the back button then used). In time, the work of editorial reviewers such as Marcus was marginalised since Amazon found that the majority of visitors used the search tools rather than read editorial and they responded to the personalised recommendations as the matching technology improved (Marcus likens early recommendations techniques to ‘going shopping with the village idiot’). Experimentation and testing at Amazon The ‘Culture of Metrics’ also led to a test-driven approach to improving results at Amazon. Matt Round, speaking at E-metrics 2004 when he was director of personalisation at Amazon describes the philosophy as ‘Data Trumps Intuitions’. He explained how Amazon used to have a lot of arguments about which content and promotion should go on the all important home page or category pages. He described how every category VP wanted top-center and how the Friday meetings about placements for next week were getting ‘too long, too loud, and lacked performance data’. But today ‘automation replaces intuitions’ and real-time experimentation tests are always run to answer these questions since actual consumer behaviour is the best way to decide upon tactics. Marcus (2004) also notes that Amazon has a culture of experiments of which A/B tests are key components. Examples where A/B tests are used include new home page design, moving features around the page, different algorithms for recommendations, changing search relevance rankings. These involve testing a new treatment against a previous control for a limited time of a few days or a week. The system will randomly show one or more treatments to visitors and measure a range of parameters such as units sold and revenue by category (and total), session time, session length, etc. The new features will usually be launched if the desired metrics are statistically significantly better. Statistical tests are a challenge though as distributions are not normal (they have a large mass at zero for example of no purchase) There are other challenges since multiple  A/B tests are running every day and A/B tests may overlap and so conflict. There are also longer-term effects where some features are ‘cool’ for the first two weeks and the opposite effect where changing navigation may degrade performance temporarily. Amazon also finds that as its users evolve in their online experience the way they act online has changed. This means that Amazon has to constantly test and evolve its features. Amazon.com Technology It follows that the Amazon technology infrastructure must readily support this culture of experimentation and this can be difficult to achieved with standardised content management. Amazon has achieved its competitive advantage through developing its technology internally and with a significant investment in this which may not be available to other organisations without the right focus on the online channels. As Amazon explains in SEC (2005) ‘using primarily our own proprietary technologies, as well as technology licensed from third parties, we have implemented numerous features and functionality that simplify and improve the customer shopping experience, enable third parties to sell on our platform, and facilitate our fulfillment and customer service operations. Our current strategy is to focus our development efforts on continuous innovation by creating and enhancing the specialized, proprietary software that is unique to our business, and to license or acquire commercially-developed technology for other applications where available and appropriate. We continually invest in several areas of technology, including our seller platform; A9.com, our wholly-owned subsidiary focused on search technology on www.A9.com and other Amazon sites; web services; and digital initiatives.’ Round (2004) describes the technology approach as ‘distributed development and deployment’. Pages such as the home page have a number of content ‘pods’ or ‘slots’ which call web services for features. This makes it relatively easy to change the content in these pods and even change the location of the pods on-screen. Amazon uses a flowable or fluid page design unlike many sites which enables it to make the most of real-estate on-screen. Technology also supports more standard e-retail facilities. SEC (2005) states: ‘We use a set of applications for accepting and validating customer orders, placing and tracking orders with suppliers, managing and assigning inventory to customer  orders, and ensuring proper shipment of products to customers. Our transaction-processing systems handle millions of items, a number of different status inquiries, multiple shipping addresses, gift-wrapping requests, and multiple shipment methods. These systems allow the customer to choose whether to receive single or several shipments based on availability and to track the progress of each order. These applications also manage the process of accepting, authorizing, and charging customer credit cards.’ Data Driven Automation Round (2004) said that ‘Data is king at Amazon’. He gave many examples of data driven automation including customer channel preferences; managing the way content is displayed to different user types such as new releases and top-sellers, merchandising and recommendation (showing related products and promotions) and also advertising through paid search (automatic ad generation and bidding). The automated search advertising and bidding system for paid search has had a big impact at Amazon. Sponsored links initially done by humans, but this was unsustainable due to range of products at Amazon. The automated programme generates keywords, writes ad creative, determines best landing page, manages bids, measure conversion rates, profit per converted visitor and updates bids. Again the problem of volume is there, Matt Round described how the book ‘How to Make Love Like a Porn Star’ by Jenna Jameson received tens of thousands of clicks from pornography-related searches, but few actually purchased the book. So the update cycle must be quick to avoid large losses. There is also an automated email measurement and optimization system. The campaign calendar used to be manually managed with relatively weak measurement and it was costly to schedule and use. A new system: Automatically optimizes content to improve customer experience Avoids sending an e-mail campaign that has low clickthrough or high unsubscribe rate Includes inbox management (avoid sending multiple emails/week) Has growing library of automated email programs covering new releases and recommendations But there are challenges if promotions are too successful if inventory isn’t available. Your Recommendations Customers Who Bought X†¦, also bought Y is Amazon’s signature feature. Round  (2004) describes how Amazon relies on acquiring and then crunching a massive amount of data. Every purchase, every page viewed and every search is recorded. So there are now to new version, customers who shopped for X also shopped for†¦ and Customers who searched for X also bought†¦ They also have a system codenamed ‘Goldbox’ which is a cross-sell and awareness raising tool. Items are discounted to encourage purchases in new categories! I have a more detailed article on Amazon personalisation / recommendation system He also describes the challenge of techniques for sifting patterns from noise (sensitivity filtering) and clothing and toy catalogues change frequently so recommendations become out of date. The main challenges though are the massive data size arising from millions of customers, millions of items and recommendations made in real time. Amazon Partnership strategy As Amazon grew, its share price growth enabled partnership or acquisition with a range of companies in different sectors. Marcus (2004) describes how Amazon partnered with Drugstore.com (pharmacy), Living.com (furniture), Pets.com (pet supplies), Wineshopper.com (wines), HomeGrocer.com (groceries), Sothebys.com (auctions) and Kozmo.com (urban home delivery). In most cases, Amazon purchased an equity stake in these partners, so that it would share in their prosperity. It also charged them fees for placements on the Amazon site to promote and drive traffic to their sites. Similarly, Amazon charged publishers for prime-position to promote books on its site which caused an initial hue-and-cry, but this abated when it was realised that paying for prominent placements was widespread in traditional booksellers and supermarkets. Many of these new online companies failed in 1999 and 2000, but Amazon had covered the potential for growth and was not pulled down by these partners, even though for some such as Pets.com it had an investment of 50%. Analysts sometimes refer to ‘Amazoning a sector’ meaning that one company becomes dominant in an online sector such as book retail such that it becomes very difficult for others to achieve market share. In addition to developing, communicating and delivering a very strong proposition, Amazon has been able to consolidate its strength in different sectors through its partnership arrangements and through using technology to facilitate product promotion and distribution via these partnerships. The Amazon retail platform enables other retailers to sell products online using  the Amazon user interface and infrastructure through their ‘Syndicated Stores’ programme. For example, in the UK, Waterstones (www.waterstones.co.uk) is one of the largest traditional bookstores. It found competition with online so expensive and challenging, that eventually it entered a partnership arrangement where Amazon markets and distributes its books online in return for a commission online. Similarly, in the US, Borders a large book retailer uses the Amazon merchant platform for distributing its products. Toy retailer Toys R’ Us have a similar arrangement. Such partnerships help Amazon extends its reach into the customer-base of other suppliers, and of course, customers who buy in one category such as books can be encouraged to purchase into other areas such as clothing or electronics. Another form of partnership referred to above is the Amazon Marketplace which enables Amazon customers and other retailers to sell their new and used books and other goods alongside the regular retail listings. A similar partnership approach is the Amazon ‘Merchants@’ program which enables third party merchants (typically larger than those who sell via the Amazon Marketplace) to sell their products via Amazon. Amazon earn fees either through fixed fees or sales commissions per-unit. This arrangement can help customers who get a wider choice of products from a range of suppliers with the convenience of purchasing them through a single checkout process. Finally, Amazon has also facilitated formation of partnerships with smaller companies through its affiliates programme. Internet legend records that Jeff Bezos, the creator of Amazon was chatting to someone at a cocktail party who wanted to sell books about divorce via her web site. Subsequently, Amazon.com launched its Associates Program in July 1996 and it is still going strong. Googling http://www.google.com/search?q=www.amazon.com+-site%3Awww.amazon.com for sites that link to the US site, shows over 4 million pages, many of which will be affiliates. Amazon does not use an affiliate network which would take commissions from sale, but thanks to the strength of its brand has developed its own affiliate programme. Amazon has created a tiered performance-based incentives to encourage affiliates to sell more Amazon products. Amazon Marketing communications In their SEC filings Amazon state that the aims of their communications  strategy are (unsurprisingly) to: Increase customer traffic to our websites Create awareness of our products and services Promote repeat purchases Develop incremental product and service revenue opportunities Strengthen and broaden the Amazon.com brand name. Amazon also believe that their most effective marketing communications are a consequence of their focus on continuously improving the customer experience. This then creates word-of-mouth promotion which is effective in acquiring new customers and may also encourage repeat customer visits. As well as this Marcus (2004) describes how Amazon used the personalisation enabled through technology to reach out to a difficult to reach market which Bezos originally called ‘the hard middle’. Bezos’s view was that it was easy to reach 10 people (you called them on the phone) or the ten million people who bought the most popular products (you placed a superbowl ad), but more difficult to reach those in between. The search facilities in the search engine and on the Amazon site, together with its product recommendation features meant that Amazon could connect its products with the interests of these people. Online advertising techniques include paid search marketing, interactive ads on portals, e-mail campaigns and search engine optimisation. These are automated as far as possible as described earlier in the case study. As previously mentioned, the affiliate programme is also important in driving visitors to Amazon and Amazon offers a wide range of methods of linking to its site to help improve conversion. For example, affiliates can use straight text links leading direct to a product page and they also offer a range of dynamic banners which feature different content such as books about Internet marketing or a search box.Amazon also use cooperative advertising arrangements, better known as ‘contra-deals’ with some vendors and other third parties. For example, a print advertisement in 2005 for a particular product such as a wireless router with a free wireless laptop card promotion will feature a specific Amazon URL in the ad. In product fulfilment packs, Amazon may include a leaflet for a non-competing online company such as Figleaves.com (lingerie) or Expedia (travel). In return, Amazon leaflets may be included in customer communications from the partner brands. Our Associates program directs customers to our websites by enabling independent websites to make millions of products available to their  audiences with fulfillment performed by us or third parties. We pay commissions to hundreds of thousands of participants in our Associates program when their customer referrals result in product sales. In addition, we offer everyday free shipping options worldwide and recently announced Amazon.com Prime in the U.S., our first membership program in which members receive free two-day shipping and discounted overnight shipping. Although marketing expenses do not include the costs of our free shipping or promotional offers, we view such offers as effective marketing tools. Marcus, J. (2004) Amazonia. Five years at the epicentre of the dot-com juggernaut, The New Press, New York, NY. Round, M. (2004) Presentation to E-metrics, London, May 2005. www.emetrics.org.