Footfall Management

CERTIFICATE This is to certify that the project title â€Å"foot fall in mall † has been accomplished by Mr. Niraj kumar, Mr. Sushil kumar, Mr. Nagender kumar, Ms Rajni, Ms. Neha Arora under my guidance and supervision. They have submitted in the partial fulfillment of requirement of PGDM from This DELHI SCHOOL OF PROFESSIONAL STUDIES AND RESEARCH, DELHI work as not been submitted anywhere else for the award of degree. All source of information have been dully mentioned. (Ms. Noopur Aggarwal) SUPERVISIOR DELHI SCHOOL OF PROFESSIONAL STUDIES AND RESEARCH, DELHI -110085 CONTENTS Chapter-1 Meaning Of Footfall ? Meaning of footfall ? Objectives of study ? Limitation to study Chapter-2 Techniques to measure footfall ? Camera traffing monitioring ? Electronic footfall monitioring ? Automated counting ? Manual counting Chapter -3 An Glimpseof Shoppers Stop ? Introduction of shoppers stop ? Features of shoppers stop(rajouri) ? Structure of mall ? Parking system ? Visitior’s information Chapter-4 Research Methodology ? Type of research ? Research approach ? Sampling design ? Collection of data Chapter-5 Finding And Conclusions Opinions Questionnaire References Chapter-1 FOOTFALL Defination-Objective Of Study,Limitation to Study Meaning of footfall Footfall, is a measurement of the number of people entering a shop or other public space. The number of people are visiting a shop or mall in a day,that much will be understood the footfall for that day. If 15000 people are visiting a mall in one week, it means footfall for the week is 15000 for the week. footfall is an important indicator of how successfully a company’s marketing,brand and format are bring people into its shop. In europeon culture footfall is known as padestrian counting. OBJECTIVE OF RESEARCH ON FOOTFALL ? To know the importance of footfall measurement in modern scenario This research study will help to throw light on importance of footfall measurement. To know the causes, organization’s interest in knowing the footfall ? To know the impact on marketing initiatives Footfall affect the a marketing head to decide some new events should be organized or not. The effect of footfall effect a manager to what extent ? To know how we can understand customer behavior pattern Footfall is really a measureable scale in understanding the behavior of customer. This study will tell us. ? To know how footfall effect on decision of heads of mall Limitations to study †¢ No leave is provided to visit the mall. All the data collection, survey are done during our study. †¢ Without having Identity cards it was very difficult to contact with any superior authority †¢ Manager were not ready to tell about the security aids and system. †¢ They feared their ideas will be copied by other competitor. ADVANTAGES OF MEASURING FOOTFALL FOR A MALL ? Provide an indication of customer behaviour patterns ? Assess the impact of marketing initiatives Tailor staff levels according to customer demand, rather than to service supply. ? Empower businesses to better target their marketing efforts ? To check the efficiency of staff Chapter-2 Techniques to measure footfall 1. CAMERA TRAFFING MONITORING The cameras do the traffic monitoring themselves; it isn't a question of simply recording video footage and manual operators counting the numbers of pe ople! The cameras are able to count people by making comparisons between a discreet image that changes rapidly over time, and the stationary background. The camera technology is state-of-the-art, with ongoing research investigating ways of programming the cameras to take the analysis a level further and distinguish between adults and children, and even make confident distinctions between people and supermarket trolleys. 2. Electronic footfall monitoring: Advances in electronics have added sophisticated footfall monitoring to retailers' information weaponry. Many retailers are reported to be experimenting with this new technology, but limited discussion exists in the public domain on its potential role or retailer experiences. 3. Automated Counting Automated counting is done through some censurey aids invented by advance technology. [pic] [pic] Many types of automated counting ? Hydro acoustic tubes ? Pneumatic tubes ? Inductive loops ? Acoustic slab sensors ? Passive infrared censors ? Active infrared censors 4. counting manually a person enters in a mall he finds a durwan/guard at standing at gate, he not only greets him but he will be counting the no. of person entering in mall by a handful size instrument. Chapter-3 Introduction of Shoppers stop ltd. [pic] Eros Mall, Plot No. 10, Shivaji Palace, District Center, Raja Garden, Rajouri New Delhi,   Delhi 110027 Phone: 011 – 4505 5400 / 25444101 INTRODUCTION OF SHOPPERS STOP Shopper’s stop has been a pioneer in the departmental store format since it’s beginning in 1991. Shoppers stop is launched as a men’s ready-to-wear garment store in Andheri, Mumbai. shoppers stop is the part of K. Raheja corp. it’s CEO is Govind Shrikhande and managing director is B. S. Nagesh. it has large chain of 28 departmental store around country. shoppers sop rajouri is the 25th store of chain. Shoppers stop are the first global style retailer in India with a wide range of merchandise. Exclusive Shop counters of international brands and world class customer service. In our Endeavour to retain our positioning as a global retailer we sought to bring the best retail technology, retail practices and sales to india. Features of shoppers stop (Rajouri). ? Shoppers stop rajouri is the biggest departmental stores of india. ? It has 1. 35 lakh sq ft retail area ? It Houses an overwhelming range of premium international and national brands. ? It is a four storey mall ? World class ambiance and cleanness ? Great services to customers through customer service desk or first citizen desk ? Water dispenser were available on every floor ? Four fire exits ? Two washrooms at every floor Sitting arrangement and journals, newspaper are kept beside sofas ? Gift wrapping and alteration. Structure Of Mall ? Ground floor DEPARTMENT NAME : JEWELERY OR SUNGLASS ? Javeri pearls, damas, haute curry, fastrack DEPARTMENT NAME : COSMETIC ? Ponds, lakme, lorell, clearance Brio Leathers ? FIRST FLOOR DEPARTMENT NAME : LADIES ETHENIC †¢ Kashish, Kashish gold, Biba, satyapau l, ritu wear, W, Diy, DEPARTMENT NAME : LINGERIE †¢ Lovable,b’witch, Department name : Men’s formal †¢ Austin reed,blackberry Provoke,wills lifestyle,van hussen,gaps,color plus,satyapaul,arrow,Louis phillip,tommy Hilfiger,FCUK DEPARTMENT NAME : Kids †¢ Mothercare,pumpkin patch,united colour of Benetton, giny jony, ruff,zapp,Lilliput,Barbie,toys DEPARTMENT NAME : Ladies western †¢ Wills lifestyle,noi,zipsy,ven hussen, Indian terren, Austin reed,blackberry,remanika DEPARTMENT NAME : Mens casual †¢ Spyker,I jeans, levi, pepe,calvin clein,esprit,united color of Benetton, push and shove 3rd Floor DEPARTMENT NAME : Home section †¢ Masphar,portico DEPARTMENT NAME : Sports wear †¢ Mysha,royal sporting house, adidas, nike, reepok,puma, †¢ Luggage section 4TH FLOOR †¢ Desi cafe, food factory, moti mahal, PARKING SYSTEM Double storey basement parking is the special attribute of shoppers stop. 200 cars can parked easily in parking. direct lift service from parking to main floors. free parking for first citizen of shoppers stop. two- way enterance and exit, valley parking is also available here VISITOR’S INFORMATION Shoppers stop(rajouri) is situated in heart of city at rajaouri Garden in Eros mall in delhi beside the ring road. a visitor can reach to place by bus and metro. Rajouri metro station is attire of shopper stop. It is 22 k. m from international airport and 18 k. m. from domestic airport. This place has many competetant in area like Westside,tdi mall,citisqure mall,west gate,paragon mall . TECHNIQUES TO MEASURE FOOTFALL AT STORE Store is using the manual counting system to count the footfall. When person enters in the mall the guard at the gate he presses the button of handful machine in his hand. This help to store manager to know the footfall in the store through this data. Floor foot fall is also measured in the same way,to know the floor footfall measurement. The guards standing over there they feed the no. Of persons visiting on the floor in machine. Chapter-4 Research Methodology Types of research Analytical research:- during all the study, by the available information researcher tries to find out effects on human behavior during any special occasions. Conceptual research:- study reveals the idea that durig Sales period or festive seasons or any special event has increased the footfall up to 100% . so, a retailer should be ready with innovative ideas to attract customer. Research Approaches Quantitative approach:- during study selected executive and managers were contacted to know their view on footfall measurement. By the data cikkectuib study, it infers the rrelation between population and their behavior. Sampling design Systematic sampling :- in study, people were selected randomly and asked question and their views Collection of data Primary data:- Many Sr. managers and dept. managers are contacted through questionnaire and their views are included in study. Secondary data:- books, journals and internet gave sufficient way to solve the problem. Collection of data through questionnaires:- the questionnaire was made according the problems which arise during the study. What is the impact of footfall on decision making, how is it important to decide future plans of organizations. The head executive and sales executive were asked to fill this questionnaire. Chapter-5 FINDING AND CONCLUSIONS Finding After completing the research it is found that in festive seasons or sales time mall are getting the increased no. of customer in their outlets or malls. Footfall helps a organization to decide that how many employee should be continued in the oultlet on some day. footfall shows the efficiency of a sales executive comes out by the help of footfall. Conclusions:- It is really very helpful tool to know the firm about their state and way of progress Opinions The best department manager in chain of shoppers stop awarded Miss Anuradha Sharma tells that during sales period the footfall increases upto 100 % and various activities in store attracts 20% extra customer to their shop. She tells the manual technique of footfall is used in measurement of footfall in the store. She also agrees that the facts of footfall are great helpful to better target their market efforts. Department manager of home section in shoppers stop rajouri Mr. chander verma, says†sales period are obiviously increasing the no. customer in double fold†. Last festive season their department has achived more than 50%. He confirmed that manual technique of footfall is used in footfall. His opinion about footfall, he thinks’these really help us to forecast the no. of visiotor to our shop. Sales executive of â€Å"w† brand in city square mall Mr. Rajesh tells he finds the no. of visitors to their outlet goes up by 100% during sales. he also agrees that festive season they get a good business and their sales increases upto 50% Delhi school of professional studies and research INSTITUTIONAL AREA ,ROHINI SECT-25 DELHI-110085 Name _____________________________________________ Post _______________________________________________ Name of organization__________________________________ What is the % increase in number of customer during sales period. A. 10 -25 B. 25-50 C. 50-75 D. 75-100 Increase in number of customer during any special events A. Doesn’t affect B. Upto 20% C. 30-50% D. 50-100% E. More than 100% Which technique is used to measure footfall in you mall? A. CAMERA TRAFFING MONITORING B. Electronic footfall monitoring: C. Automated Counting D. counting manually does footfall helps to better target their market efforts A. yes B. no signature

Le Petti Gourmet

Jim O’Connor, President and Owner of Le Petit Gourmet, received a shocking phone call while vacation in California, which informed him that his business is going to shut down indefinitely due to the outbreaks of hepatitis A in his catering facility. Le Petit Gourmet was a family catering business that had been operating in the Denver metro area for more than 30 years. Le Petit employed between 150 and 200 people, 75 of whom were full time. Along with Le Petit was perceived as the most expensive and upscale caterer in Denver, O’Connor also want his business to be known for good food on all levels, from cookies to lobsters. Le petit Gourmet’s business had been on the upswing in recent years. On November 22, Health Department notified O’Connor that his kitchen manager infected by hepatitis A, and by Nov 30, the doctor confirm the case. Due to the further outbreak on Dec 30, Le Petit Gourmet is being shut down completely, and the health departments have ordered food-service workers in metro Denver area to using gloves or utensils when handling food in prevention to hepatitis A. In addition, Le Petit Gourmet employees were forbidden to work as food-handlers anywhere else until January 31. When he returned from San Francisco, Jim O’Connor found that his business and family were under siege. The media, his insurance agents, lawyers, and health department inspectors, Le Petit employees and customers were waiting for his explanation on how he going to handle the hepatitis outbreaks. Initially, he hired a public relations firm to assist him, but decided that he needed to take a more active role to save his business. First of all, he personally called the victims of hepatitis and apologized for what had happened. He also meets with his employees to calm their fears. Afterward, he make sure that his company will have enough cash flow on hands to handle this crisis by delaying payment to his vendors and negotiated a larger mortgage, because he realized that he doesn’t have income for undetermined amount of time. To win back the public on their side, O’Connor and his staff decided to dumped $45,000 of food products into the trash. Many of these items were unopened and frozen products, not part of the infected food. O’Connor was able to maintain his employees during the outbreaks, he honestly tell them that pay cut was imminent in the future, but if your stand by me and help me, I will commit to pay you back when the business is getting better. He also states to the employees that the infected person have been left Le Petit Gourmet, we are very safe working here in Le Petit Gourmet. When he have all the information he need, he held a news conference at the Le Petit Gourmet facility and explained what had happened and what he and Le Petit Gourmet prepared to do about the crisis. During the outbreak periods, other catering companies was worried that this crisis would effects their companies, so they mailed out letter to inform their clientele that this only happened to Le Petit Gourmet and will never happened against them. Due the O’Connor and his staffs diligent works, Le Petit Gourmet finally reopened on January 11, and they have their first catering job on January 14. Main Issues The main issues for this case was how O’Connor able to handle this crisis with ease and win back the reputation for his business. When the crisis first happened, O’Connor is put in a very tough spot, not only that he has face the media, health department, employees, etc†¦ they all waiting for him to inform them what is really happened behind this mess that cost by Le Petit Gourmet. I think that O’Connor did excellent job step by step to get his business reopened and back to business as soon as possible. First of all, he realized that he not going to have enough cash flow on hands to solve the problem, because he will have no income for long period of time due to the out breaks. Smartly, he asked his vendors for a delay payment, and also negotiated a larger mortgage to make sure to have enough cash on hand to solve the crisis. Money could be use to compensate the victims or pay for attorney fees, and also need to pays his employees. Second of all, he was acting as a public relations spokesperson, who called all the victims and apologized for what had happened. He also met with his employees to calm their fears by telling them that the individual to whom the initial outbreak had been traced had already left the company, we are in a very safe working environment. He honestly told his employees that pay cut were imminent in the immediate future and their long-term status at Le Petit Gourmet was cloudy, but if they can stay on his side during this difficult time, he will make commitment to help them later on. In addition, he also dumped $45,000 dollars of food products into the trash, to inform everyone that everything that has to do with hepatitis A will be destroyed and nothing will be held. I am most impress with O’Connor was that he didn’t shy away from the media, after he gather all the information he needed and collected himself personally, he held a new conference at the Le Petit Gourmet facility and explained what had happened and what he and Le Petit Gourmet as a company were prepared to do about the crisis. Finally, due to the diligent works from O’Connor and his staffs, Le Petit Gourmet was finally reopened on January 11, and got they first catering job on January 14. I believe that O’Conner manage everything very well during the crisis, he win back the reputation of his company by holding a news conference and inform everybody what has happened, and win back his employees by honestly tell them what is going to happened in the future, he didn’t hide anything from anyone. He tells everyone what he thinks and what he going to about it.

Description And Comparison Of Two Companies (Part III) Research Paper

Description And Comparison Of Two Companies (Part III) - Research Paper Example The company is a part of automotive industry that manufactures some of the best automobiles, motorcycles as well as engines in the world. With the BMW Group owning three of the world’s best automobile brands- BMW, Mini and Rolls Royce and a total revenue of â‚ ¬76.84 billion in2012, BMW Group has become one of the leading premium brands in the world. The company is well known for its innovation, technology and quality. Louis Vuitton Louis Vuitton Malletier commonly referred to as LV, headquartered in Paris, is a French company founded in 1854. The company is a part of the retail industry that manufactures and sells a variety of products-shoes, watches, sunglasses, luxury trunks, accessories, jewelry and many other items. LV is one of the leading premium luxury fashion brands in the world. The company earned revenue of â‚ ¬3.2 billion in 2012. Target market BMW The BMW has a very strict target market. It only targets the luxury sector and avoids the entanglement in the ma ss production of average cars. BMW targets the elite and affluent class of the world for its real BMW. However, the company moved to target the upper middle-class with its new Mini and the 1 series. Louis Vuitton Louis Vuitton has a very limited target market of very wealthy people with high disposable incomes around the world. Nonetheless, the company targets both genders and a varying age from 16 to 80. Competitors BMW Mercedes-Benz and Audi are two of the most pertinent competitors of BMW. These three are referred to as the ‘German Big 3’ and are the leading premium automaker brands in the world. Louis Vuitton Hermes, Chanel and Gucci are some of the strong direct competitors to Louis Vuitton. These brands, along with LV, have remained the top ranked premium brands for the last few years. (Zelesny, 2011) Business Risks BMW BMW terms the volatility in the environment, the high debt levels and the uncertainty in the relevant industry as some of the most important busin ess risks to the company. (Annual Report, 2012) Currently, the ongoing strikes in South Africa will cost the company extra 25 percent of the regular cost to import the cars into the lucrative African market. (Furlonger, 2013) Louis Vuitton Louis Vuitton referred to the slowdown in the renewed growth of the world economy as well as the Euro crisis as risks hindering the growth of the company. It also referred to the foreign exchange risk culmination due to the weakening of the Euro. (Annual Report, 2012) The sudden surge for the Louis Vuitton’s logo bags caused a gap in the supply, which converted into a business risk as it hindered the continuous supply of the brands in the market. (Financial Times, 2013)The maturing of the taste in one of the largest markets – China has resulted in the Louis Vuitton logo fatigue. This will cause the Chinese consumers to move to alternate cheap brands. (Roberts, 2012) Fiscal Year BMW BMW Group’s financial year ends on 31st Decem ber. (Annual Report, 2012) Louis Vuitton Louis Vuitton’s financial year ends on 31st December. (Annual Report, 2012) Stock Exchange BMW BMW is listed on the Frankfurt Xetra stock exchange in Germany. Louis Vuitton Louis Vuitton is listed on the EN Paris stock exchange. Financial Principles BMW The notes to the BMW financial statements 2012 strictly signify that the company-followed uniform accounting policies and principles in accordance with IAS 20, IAS 27, IAS 33, IFRS 2 and others. This company follows international accounting principles. (Annual Report,

Advances in medicine and related technologies have given society the Research Paper

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Business Ethics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 5

Business Ethics - Essay Example I saw the wrong doing of our boss. I was discussed by his action, but there no witnesses except the two people involved and myself. I saw the event from far away. I decided to take a stand against the abuser. I told human resources about it. Our boss did not like my position, she said I wasn’t even there and you did not hear the other person involved complaining. I was made out to be liar. I only lasted an extra month at that job. Relativism perspective basically says that the ethical standards and views of a person are created depending on his own perspective of the situation. I had a car accident about four months ago. I was hit from behind by a car. To me it was simple the person bumped me because he did not keep distance so he was liable. The person who hit my car did not see it that way. His point of view was that I stopped suddenly and my pressing on the brakes cause the accident. Both views might have been right depending on the perspective of the person analyzing the situation. Fortunately the insurance company ruled in my favor. 2. Pick one of the readings from the Harvard Business Review text and discussed what was learned from the reading. Learned can also mean a â€Å"relighting† of something known but forgotten. Then discuss how you could/would use this knowledge in a professional or personal setting. The conflicts a managers faces regarding ethical issues in the workplace are numerous and constant occurrences. The decision making process requires the professional to take into consideration all aspects of the action, but they should remind themselves that the action itself requires a decision based solely on the act without putting unnecessary emphasis on factors such as the consequences of revealing an unethical act to the public. When working in a team environment I would lead a team by emphasizing honesty within the actions of the team. If somebody does not meet expectations the person should be honest about it or should be

Gender, sexuality, and race are less biological facts than the outcome Essay

Gender, sexuality, and race are less biological facts than the outcome of contextually-specific discourses and discursive practices. Explain with reference to no more than two aspects of identity - Essay Example al., 1998). Gender discrimination also implies that the people of opposite sex, generally the female section of the society, are more often discriminated as compared to their male counterparts. However, feminists have argued with lieu to the modern phenomenon that professional potentialities and abilities do not differ within the modern society among the two genders. It is rather that gender based or racial discrimination existing in the society restricts them to become at par with the male members that has been affecting communities in their healthy developments (Mottier, 1999). Racism has been a common phenomenon since the past generations, wherein people of different nations have been experiencing the harmful impacts of racial discrimination, especially in their workplaces (Caluya, 2013; Books, 1992). Emphasising these facts, the essay aims at elaborating on the trends of gender, sex and race discriminations prevailing in the society in context to individuals’ identity rela ted aspects. Gender inequality/discrimination has emerged as one of the major issues in this society, which has commonly targeted the female section of the society. Discrimination between the two genders has been prevailing since the early generations affecting a particular section of the society (Alsop et. al., 1998). However, due to the continuous modernization of the society, gender/sexual discrimination has reduced to a certain extent, although such trends are still prevalent in some societies (Weeks, n.d.). According to the past studies, the root cause triggering such discrimination has been related to people having limited concern regarding the biological differences, but emphasise more on the arbitrary dissimilarities between the two genders, considering the outcome as a discursive practice. Undoubtedly, gender inequality/discrimination imposes strong negative impacts on the society, as females are often not considered equal to that of their male counterparts and

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The Vals Survey from strategic business insights - Assignment Example I combine this with finding challenges within my own life, such as learning new things or experiencing something new. For the achiever, it is one that is a goal oriented lifestyle with a commitment to career and family. Structure and staying with the status quo are things which I can also relate to. I also show this in my personality with always creating goals. Even with my school work, I have a strong commitment to completing the degree and building a successful career in return. When looking at other roles, such as believers, thinkers and strivers, I find that I can’t relate to the activities or ideals and instantly reject these types of personalities. The product that I buy which fits into the innovator category is the newest technology. I am always looking at what the latest concepts are and subscribe to tech news online to browse through products, even if it is a digital alarm system for ice fishing. My most recent purchase is the Sony Ericcson XPERIA, which is like a min iature computer combined with a phone. I’m using this to replace my Blackberry and to see if there are extra components that work better. I’m interested in seeing how this will work together with the technology which is used while seeing if there is any new applications that work more efficiently for those interested in high end communication.

Strategic Management and Information Systems Coursework

Strategic Management and Information Systems - Coursework Example The strategic position of an organization must be clearly understood to ensure that strategic choices for future and strategy management issues are put into action. As a result, the internal and external environment of the organization are analysed to develop strategies necessary for resource allocation. Successful allocation of resources enables the organization attain a competitive advantage towards goal achievement (Paul, 2006). The Adizes PAEI Model of management is a four faced model with short-term orientation, long-term orientation, internal and external orientation. The key players in this model are; the Producer, Administrator, Entrepreneur, and Integrator (PAEI). Their roles in the four orientations produce results, procedure systems, creativity continuity, and motivation co-operation. The producer is concerned about the external and short-term orientation programs for the organization. The focus is result oriented in relation to the plans and management roles of the organization. The implementation of the strategic plan must comply with the market perspective of the organization. The entrepreneur element integrates external and long-term orientation with a focus on creativity and continuity in the market. Through this element, strategic management enables exploration of new market opportunities to enable the organization attain competitive edge advantages. The roles of strategic manager are not very different from those of other managers but are obliged to operate within the tight confined market. The thinking of strategic managers is abstract, affecting their roles within the organisation confined to three decision levels; strategic, tactical and operational roles. These roles affect and are influenced by external and internal environmental factors. This level offers an organization a competitive riding advantage over others. This could mean that an organization would

Schools of Strategic Management Thought Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Schools of Strategic Management Thought - Essay Example The key characteristic of the Environmental School of Strategic Management Thought is that business is considered as closely depended on its environment – being unable, in a way, to take initiatives that would support its various activities. In accordance with Sadler (2003) the specific School of Strategic Management Thought is based on the contingency theory. In this context, it is noted that businesses that are influenced by the Environmental School of Strategic Management Thought have the following characteristics: a) their strategic decisions are likely to be influenced by the organizational environment, b) all organization’s decisions and activities need to be aligned with the environment, c) the leaders of these organizations do not have power to act independently; rather they should focus on identifying the conditions of the organizational environment and ensure the alignment of the business decisions with these conditions, d) businesses that follow the rules of the specific School of Strategic Management Thought are finally become unable to keep their identity and to realize their goals; this result to the gradual loss of the power of the organization to face the environmental conditions – which are likely to become hostile; in the long term, this phenomenon could lead the organization to stop its operations. In accordance with Matthews (2005) the Environmental School of Strategic Management Thought is based on ‘strategy formation as a reactive process’ (Matthews, 2005, p.29).

Most Memiroble Holiday Essay Example for Free

Most Memiroble Holiday Essay Put muscle into your writing by using strong verbs. This is a good, rowdy starter in which students are encouraged to think about specific verb choices and act them out. Then it’s onto the nitty gritty of replacing the verbs with their own selections. Stretch this resource by getting students to take a ploddy passage from a text and jazz it up. (The Curious Incident of a Dog in the Night-time might provide you with some simple text to play around with. ) http://www.randomhouse.co.uk/curious/ For another ‘brass tacks’ starter, have a look at Varying your sentences. This resource capitalises on the old ‘cat sat on the mat’ sentence and takes students through various sentence types. The extension task gets students to create their own sentences and find and label some gruesome examples from Pat Barker’s Regeneration. Sentence lengths and interesting vocabulary is a versatile resource. 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Ideas / the planning stage: If you’ve got a class of ‘rush at it’ students and want to slow them down and draw attention to planning, then have a look at There’s more to original writing than just writing stories which lists a number of creative approaches to choose from and gives students ownership of their writing. The planning box means that students have to think before they leap. Creative writing task would be ideal for a higher set or gifted group of students as it leaves things nicely open. It’s a simple one page sheet in which students mix and match the various ‘elements’ and come up with some ideas for a poem, short story or piece of descriptive writing. There’s plenty of scope for you to amend/stamp your individual mark on things and this resource will ensure that you don’t straightjacket your students or get 30 identikit responses that will reduce you to tears. Original writing suggestions. This is a collection of ideas and teachers’ tips taken from several different staffroom threads on the topic. It’s a great place to start if you’re looking for GCSE coursework inspiration. The writing stage: Describing a beach or holiday memory. A lovely descriptive writing resource based around re-creating a holiday memory (ideal for Key Stage 3). It uses snippets from Dylan Thomas’ ‘Holiday Memory’ and incorporates some marvellous, moody, seaside photographs. This could be extended to form a piece of travel writing or adapted and tweaked for Key Stage 4. Writing a short story comes complete with a Tweakit and supplies students with a recipe for writing – page 1 in particular, is useful for helping students hone/focus on their planning. Wild week creative story writing – a booklet (ideal for KS3) presenting students with a series of strange and magical incidents guaranteed to inspire creative responses. Tips, tick lists and AFL strategies Writing checklists – a set of handy checklists for a range of writing approaches. Ideal for incorporating AFL into your lessons. Original writing – things to remember! A fantastically handy PowerPoint this (ideal for use before students begin writing or after the completion of a first draft). Walk your class through the down-to-earth advice on structuring sentences, putting paragraphs together and using vocabulary effectively. Still more†¦ English teaching online – the one with all the original writing. Some great advice from published writers including David Almond and Darren Shan: http://www.teachit.co.uk/custom_content/newsletters/newsletter_sep06.asp

Human Papilloma Virus Vaccine

Human Papilloma Virus Vaccine human papilloma virus vaccine Abstract Identifying human papilloma viruses related to the pathogenesis of cancer cervix and producing vaccines against them offered hopes for primary prevention of cancer cervix. Understanding the virus and the natural history of HPV infection recommends the use of the vaccine. However; debates on the compulsory use of the vaccine for young age females delays the legislations needed. The aim of this essay is to review, briefly, HPV vaccination and spotlight the debate about how important it is as a preventive measure against cancer cervix. Introduction In 1842, Rigoni Stern presented his observation that nuns never get cervical cancer to the 4th Congress of Italian Scientists. This pointed out the possibility that sexually transmitted infection may be the cause of cervical cancer (Harper, 2004). Since then, many types of human papilloma virus (HPV) were identified to cause certain human diseases. The most serious health problem with HPV is that it is an important causative agent for cancer cervix (types 6, 11, 16, 18) (Bishop and others, 2007). Virus transmission occurs through sexual contact and infection may give no symptoms (silent infection). HPV infection is the commonest sexually transmitted infection in the US, by the age of 50, 80% of women in the US have had the chance to catch infection (National Cancer Institute 2006). I support giving HPV vaccine to females between the ages of 9 to 26 because of the possible serious outcome of HPV infection; as recommended by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) on Ju ne 2006 (ACIP 2006). Therefore; my essay is directed to parents and young sexually active females to spotlight how serious the consequences of human papilloma virus infection can be and how important is their support to HPV vaccination. Background Papilloma virus is a double strand circular DNA virus. The epithelial cells in certain tissues as the skin and the ano-genital tract are the target cells of infection are. Papilloma virus capsids (outside capsule like envelop around the virus DNA) contain two characteristic proteins (virally encoded proteins) called L1 and L2. These virally encoded proteins develop late in the infection cycle. These capsids are made of protein with L1 proteins having the intrinsic ability of self-assembly forming virus like particles (VLP) which are, in fact, empty capsids. The use of VLPs as a vaccine is because they are similar, immunologically, to the infecting virus (Bishop and others 2007). The question now is what happens when HPV infection occurs? The natural course (sequence of events) of infection takes three forms (Harper 2004). The first form is episomal infection (virus-latency or latent period of HPV infection). The virions (small virus particles) transmitted from one epithelial surface (superficial cells) become attached to another epithelial surface. Virions, then, find its way to the deeper (basal) cells. Characteristic to this stage is the association with low virus copy numbers and that is the reason for missing HPV in routine histo-pathological scrapping examination. The second form is when the virus genome (DNA) copies itself faster than the host cell DNA. In this stage, the epithelium may show some metaplasia (cell character or order change). The third form occurs when high risk virus genome incorporates with basal cell DNA with the release of precancerous substances (CIN) (Harper 2004). Cervical cancer is the third cancer that affects the female genital tract in the US (after cancer ovary and carcinoma of the uterine endometrium). It is the eighth cancer if we look to all body organs. The incidence of cervical cancer shows ethnic variations, in American white females, the incidence is 8.6 each 100.000. In African-American females, it incidence is 13 each 100.000. In Asian-American females, it is 9.3 by 100.000, while in Hispanic (Latino) females; the ratio is 14.7 each 100.000. The main reasons which predispose to cancer cervix are; practicing sexual activity at an early age, multiple sexual partners, persistent infection with papilloma virus and cigarette smoking. The major factor affecting prognosis is early detection since the 5 years survival rate is 48% when discovered in late stages. The 5 years survival rate of preinvasive (early) cases is near 100% (Benedet and others 2001). A quadrivalent HPV vaccine (types 6, 11, 16, 18) developed, recently, and approved by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) in June 2006. According to FDA report in 2006, it is a significant step forward to prevent female HPV infection which is an important reason for developing cancer cervix (FDA News 2006). The vaccine is prepared from virus like particles (VLP) which lack DNA and therefore non infective combined with an adjuvant. The dose of vaccine is three intramuscular 0.5 ml doses with intervals of two months after the first dose and six months after the second (Cutts and others 2007). The vaccine is recommended for females nine to 26 years old. Females of young age are vaccinated because it is important to give them the vaccine before sexual activity. Parent should be acknowledged that the vaccine is only prophylactic and will not prevent the disease caused by any type of HPV if infection with that type has already occurred. Pregnant females are discouraged of taking the vac cine as its impact on the unborn fetus needs further studies. Any female who is mildly ill can still get the vaccine, but those who are moderately or severely ill should postpone the dose till they recover. Finally, those with known history of allergy to yeast (adjuvant) or to a previous dose of the vaccine should get the vaccine or following doses (ACIP 2006). Discussion Cons: The debate against HPV vaccine is on four main issues. First, knowing that health care authorities encourage HPV; should legislations be made to make the vaccine a school mandate? HPV is not a causal or droplet infection such as measles or pertussis. It needs practices that are not usual at schools at such a young age. Therefore; there is no immediate need to give the vaccine as a preschool requirement. The right of parents to refuse vaccinating their daughters is the second issue. Third, is cost-effectiveness, as the price of the three doses is 360 US$, this raises the question of funding compulsory schoolgirls vaccination. Finally, as there is no vaccine that is safe or effective, should not we wait for further confirming studies (Weber 2007)? HPV vaccine side effects range from mild to severe. Mild side effects include: pain at the site of injection (80%), redness or swelling at the site of injection (25%), mild fever (10%) and itching at the injection site (3.3%). Moderate fever i.e. 102 F occurs in 1 female vaccinated by 65. Severe risk may develop because of severe allergic reactions (ACIP 2006). However; HPV vaccine does not have a therapeutic effect on a female that have the virus nor can it prevent the disease caused by that virus (ACIP 2006). The routine screening using Papinicolaou (pap) test to detect cervical precancer lesions succeeded in reducing the overall decrease in cervical cancer incidence by 70% over the last 50 years (Guido 2004). Dungan, 2007, argues that it is better to educate women on safe sex and abstinence. Yearly pap test should not be discouraged. It might be better to improve these two lines than to provide a vaccine without being aware its long-term effects or for how long does it provide protection against the virus. Pros: Epidemiological studies show that nearly 20 million men and women are infected with HPV in the US. Additionally about 6.2 million get infected each year, and 50% of sexually active men and women are HPV infected. Although HPV infection may cause no symptoms, yet infection is important for developing cancer cervix. Cancer cervix affect 10000 women in the US every year of them 3700 die of it (ACIP 2006). HPV vaccine is effective against two viruses blamed for about 70% of cases showing malignant transformation of cells (type 16, 18) and two more viruses that cause about 90% of benign genital warts (CIAP 2006). The vaccine is made of VLPs devoid of DNA and thus is not capable of producing a disease. The vaccine does not cause serious or life threatening side effects (CIAP 2006). In addition, the vaccine is expected to give long term immunity (good immune memory) and therefore, it is likely to provide long-term protection (Stanley 2007). The vaccine is expensive, yet the cost of treatment of cancer cervix is much higher. Studies showed that if the vaccine is effective against HPV type 16, 18 only, being immune saves 15.000 to 25000 US$. In addition, the US Health Department provides vaccination at minimum or no charge for those who cannot afford it (ACIP 2006). The prospects of HPV vaccination are notable. FDA approved the vaccine (FDA 2006) and both the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP 2006) and the National Cancer Institute (2006) advise giving it to females between 9 to 26 years old. For a successful introduction of the vaccine, nationwide, there is the need for support of policy decision makers, healthcare professionals and the public specially parents and sexually active females. Therefore; essential communication strategies are essential for a successful HPV vaccine program. Conclusion Human papilloma virus vaccine contributes to improving the incidence of cervical cancer. Sex education and regular screening have proved relatively effective in preventing cancer cervix. However, complying of all sexually active females to these measures is questionable. A decision of approving HPV vaccine is a decision of saving lives. For better efficacy, the vaccine has to be given before the age of sexual activity. Therefore; filling the communication gap with parents is important. Making it mandatory needs state legislations which in turn need discussion with healthcare workers to solve the issues delaying legislations making the vaccine affordable to anyone irrespective of their social or economic status. References Harper, D.M (2004). Why am I scared of HPV (Editorial). CA Cancer J Clin, 54, 245-247. Bishop, B, Dasgupta, J, Klein, M, Garcea, R.L et al (2007). Crystal Structures of four types of human papilloma virus L1 capsid proteins. J. Biol. Chem., 43, 31803-31811. National Cancer Institute (2006). HPV- Vaccine: Question and answers for the public. Retrieved 02/07/2008, from Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) (2006).HPV (human papilloma virus) vaccine: What you need to know. Retrieved 02/07/2008, from Howe, H.L, Wu, X., Ries, L.A et al (2006). Annual report to the nation on the status of cancer 1975-2003 featuring cancer among US Hispanic/Latino populations. Cancer, 107, 1643-1658. Benedet, J.L, Odicino, F, Maisonneuve, P et al (2001). Carcinoma of the cervix uteri. J Epidemiol Biostat, 6 (1), 7-43. FDA News (June 8, 2006). FDA Licenses New Vaccine for Prevention of Cervical Cancer and Other Diseases in females caused by human papilloma virus. US Food and Drug Administration, News. Retrieved 02/07/2008, from . Cutts, F.T, Franceschi, S, Goldie, X et al (2007). Human papilloma virus and HPV vaccines: a review. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 85, 719-726. Weber, C.J (2007). Update on vaccination against human papilloma virus (HPV). Urologic Nursing, 27 (4), 320-321. Guido, R (2004). Guidelines for screening and treatment of cervical disease in the adolescent. J pediatr Adolesc Gynaecol, 17, 303-311. Dungan, D (2007). Pros and cons of HPV vaccine debate: Gardasil remains controversial despite FDA approval. Idaho Mountain Express. Retrieved 02/07/2008 from Stanley, M (2007). Prophylactic HPV vaccines. Journal of Clinical Pathology, 60, 961-965.

Huck Finn by Mark Twain :: Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain

In the story Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, the river symbolizes freedom. Huck goes on the river to get free from becoming civilized and to get away from his pap and Jim uses the river to get freed from slavery. Also the king and the duke use it to escape from angry towns. Any time they are in trouble when they get on the river they are no longer in trouble.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Huck gets a raft to go down the river to get away from his pap and so he is no longer living in civilization. He didn't like sleeping in a bed and reading books, Huck says, I didn't see how I'd ever got to like it so well at the widow's, where you had to wash, and eat on a plate, and comb up, and go to bed and get up regular, and forever bothering over a book and have old Miss Watson pecking at you all the time (1368). Then when Huck thought his dad was going to kill him he knew he had to leave there too. So he got a canoe and raft and went down the river. When he was on the river he was safe and getting free from his pap and no longer feared getting hurt by him.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Jim is afraid of being sold by Widow Douglas so he runs away and is trying to get freed from slavery. He also goes down the river with Huck and uses it as his path to freedom. Whenever he is on the river he is safe. When Jim is being chased he can always get away on the river. He is also not treated like a slave on the raft and doesn't have to fear being sold.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The King and the Duke get in trouble many times by scamming different towns to get money by lying and pretending to be people they really aren't. Every time they get away by going on the river and are free on it. When they finally get caught they are on land, away from the freedom of the river.

The Real National Treasure :: essays research papers

THE REAL NATIONAL TREASURE The United States, along with the allied forces of the world, is currently fighting to find Osama bin Laden as well as his organization, al Qaeda, in Afghanistan. The new declaration of the â€Å"War on Terrorism† has withdrawn all boundaries that the terrorist organizations have been hiding behind. Although this war is a new idea to the average American Citizen, it is an old foe of the governments in most countries, which have already established antiterrorism and counter-terrorism task forces, but are now working together under an allied force. With the tightened security at the airports and military facilities, the counter-terrorism efforts are fighting back to counter the terrorists actions, but the key to fighting terrorism is to prevent the attacks from happening at all.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  More than a majority of the American public supports this military action against countries that terrorize the United States. In fact according to a gallop poll, eighty-eight percent of Americans polled agree that the United States should take military action in retaliation for attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The problem that is being faced by the world is how to avoid future attacks after the smoke clears from the current engagement.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There are two types of forces that are currently employed against terrorism and both have the same mission of fighting terrorism, with different applications. The antiterrorism force is used as a preventive action against future attacks while the counter-terrorism task force has many more post-action responsibilities. According to the Office of Counter-Terrorism, there are four policies being implemented as guidelines: â€Å"Make no concessions to terrorists and strike no deals, bring terrorists to justice for their crimes, isolate and apply pressure on states that sponsor terrorism to force them to change their behavior, and bolster the counter-terrorism capabilities of those countries that work with the U.S. and require assistance†. These steps are necessary to fight terrorism after the actions of horror have occurred, and the current Afghanistan action in search of the al-Qaeda members (including bin Laden) is an example of a counter-terrorism action.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In order to prevent future attacks, the United States must put a stronger emphasis on strengthening the antiterrorism forces. Putting more numbers on the membership board of this force is what is going to make headway in the â€Å"War on Terrorism†. It is a lot more difficult to fight terrorism before the attacks have taken place, but history has already demonstrated that the oldest form of intelligence collection, human intelligence, can be used to fight an entire country.

Margaret Atwoods Surfacing Essay -- Margaret Atwood Surfacing Essays

Margaret Atwood's 'Surfacing' Throughout the book the narrator constantly intertwines the past and present as though it is side by side. Atwood shows this in the opening sentence ‘’I can’t believe I’m on this road again’’. The use of the adjective ‘again’ reveals the narrator has been in this place in an earlier life. The narrator seems to repress a lot of her past and continuously contradicts herself, which at times confuses the reader as we can not tell whether she is talking about her past or her present and whether she regards it as home as she says ‘’Now were on home ground foreign territory’’. This links in with one of the key divisions in the story between the Americans and the Canadians that is portrayed throughout the book. This paradoxical declarative reveals that the protagonist feels she should belong there but feels detached from this childhood place, suggesting she may feel alienated from this place revealing something oppressive about this home ground. Also David is the key person who emphasizes this division between the Americans and Canadians. On page three David stresses ‘’Bloody fascist pig Yanks’’, reiterating the stereotypical Canadian disliking of the Americans, using his usual hostile, aggressive language. Ironically David seems to be the fascist pig being the unpleasant chauvinistic pig. The use of the adjective ‘foreign’ links in with the division of language between French and English that we see later in the book. In chapter 2 we see that there is a clear division between the narrator and any emotions. We see that the narrator is emotionally detached from her husband and her child as she â€Å"left him in the city, that would be perfectly true, only it was different city; he... ...ust them, I can’t think of anyone else I like better, but right now I wish they weren’t here†. This shows that the narrator is showing her regrets for bringing them with her reiterating her distrust in them. We also begin to see the narrators distrust in those who are closest to her, her family. When she begins to reminisce on the past she refers to her family with the third person pronoun â€Å"they† for example when she says â€Å"they used to go over it as fast a possible† then later realizes this mistake she is making and states â€Å"that won’t work, I can’t call them ‘they’ as if they were somebody else’s family†. However the tables are turned as we the readers begin to realize that it is the protagonist that we are unable to trust. This is due to the protagonist’s constant self contradictions and self corrections as she says â€Å"my husband, my former husband†.

Outlier

1. The large difference between how I have thought and understood success compared to the way Malcolm Gladwell argues is the circumstances and families that create success. Previous to reading this book, I strongly believed that the way to become successful was to put in hard work. For example, my theory to success was similar along the lines to what Malcolm Gladwell discusses earlier in the book. He says, â€Å"Practice isn’t the thing you do once you’re good. It’s the thing you do that makes you good†(Gladwell, 2008). I believed if you practiced what you want to be successful at everyday, you would eventually end up reaching your goal.However, after reading Malcolm Gladwell’s opinion my beliefs are now different. One of the more important examples Malcolm Gladwell mentions that showed how different I thought was the success story of Bill Gates. I personally believed that Bill Gates was successful only because he was an intelligent man who was driv en by hard work and his goal to create the personal computer. Previous to this novel my only education on Bill Gates was from reading short articles about him and from what I have heard from friends and teachers. What I did not know about Bill Gates was his given circumstance and the support from his family and others.Malcolm Gladwell mentions that there important opportunities that were â€Å"incredible lucky series of events†(Gladwell, 2008), that created his success. Some of the opportunities Bill Gates was given were his â€Å"free computer time at the University of Washington†(Gladwell, 2008) and also previous to that his mother along with others â€Å"had enough money to pay for his high school Lakesides computer fees†(Gladwell, 2008). Without the circumstance of Bill Gates receiving free computer time, chances are he wouldn’t have been nearly as intelligent and innovative with computers as he is today.To reiterate Malcolm Gladwell’s argument about super achievers are successful because of their families, in Bill Gates circumstance it is true. He wouldn’t have had the opportunity to practice with computers at a young age if his mother couldn’t afford to pay for the schools computer fees. Based on Bill Gates example Malcolm Gladwell writes about, it creates a credible argument to how he believes how to become successful. I did not even consider before reading this novel that family and the fortunate circumstances you are given are a substantial part to ones success.However, now it is crucial that it is not overlooked. 2. In my opinion, the â€Å"cultural language† in the United States varies across the country depending on where you are from. I believe that in some regions of the United States the cultural language is similar to the language represented by the co-pilot Koltz in â€Å"The Ethnic Theory of Plane Crashes†(Gladwell, 2008). However, I also believe in other vicinities in the United States the cultural language is outgoing and in the situation presented in the plane crash chapter, the cultural language would have been much more extrovert.The cultural language across the United States has emerged and evolved based on where you and your parents are from and how you were raised. Moments before the plane â€Å"Avianca 052†(Gladwell, 2008) crashed after running out of fuel, Co-Pilot Mauricio Klotz attempted to warn Kennedy Airport that their airplane did not have the sufficient amount of fuel to land. However, because Klotz was using â€Å"his own cultural language†, the controllers were not able to comprehend the trouble Avianca 052 was really in. I believe Klotz’s mitigated speech during this problem is similar to some cultural languages in the United States.For example, Malcolm Gladwell discusses Robert Sternberg’s theory of â€Å"practical intelligence†(Gladwell, 2008). To Sternberg, practical intelligence is â€Å"knowledge t hat helps out read situations correctly and get what you want†(Gladwell, 2008). It is clear that Klotz’s cultural language lacked practical intelligence. However, I believe numerous cultures in the United States also lack the same intelligence. Malcolm Gladwell recalls a study where â€Å"Annette Lareau conducted a fascinating study of a group of third graders†(Gladwell, 2008). Results of the study showed that lower-class children are â€Å"quiet and submissive†(Gladwell, 2008).Therefore, children and adults who are from lower-class families very well could have responded the same way Klotz did during a time of emergency. The cultural language of the United States can also be outgoing and far from â€Å"quiet and submissive†. Malcolm Gladwell discusses the South and the personalities people possess there. From results of an experiment, it had shown that Southerners were more willing to stand up for themselves. The experiment consisted of calling the m an â€Å"asshole† to see if it â€Å"caused their levels of testosterone and cortisol-the hormones that drive arousal and aggression-to go up† (Gladwell, 2008).The results were the Southerners â€Å"were angry, their cortisol and testosterone jumped. Their handshakes got firm†. It is easy to predict how a Southerner would have reacted to a plane moment’s way from crashing if they react strongly to simply being called a derogatory name. My guess is that if a Southerner was a co-pilot, the controllers at Kennedy Airport would have understood the trouble the airplane was in. I believe our vast cultural language derived from what Malcolm Gladwell would call â€Å"the culture of honor†(Gladwell, 2008).The â€Å"culture of honor† describes people behave the way they do because of where â€Å"you grew up or where your parents grew up†¦where your great-grandparents and your great-great-grandparents grew up and even where your great-great-gre at-grandparents grew up†(Gladwell, 2008). This explains our difference in the United States culture because the majority of the people living in the United States families were once immigrants. People come from all over the world to live in the U. S. and that is why are culture is different from any others.I believe our vast cultural language works in favor with our social structure because it matches with the supply and demand of our economy. For example, there are plenty of jobs in the United States where people who respect their superiors and are afraid to speak up can work. Also, there are opportunities to open up your own business if you contain traits similar to Malcolm Gladwell’s example of a Southerner and do not mesh well with being told what to do. 3. When Gladwell says that biologists talk about the ‘ecology’ of an organism he is referring to why certain organisms are more successful than others.Malcolm Gladwell is inferring that the â€Å"talle st oak in the forest is the tallest not just because it grew from the hardiest acorn†(Gladwell, 2008). It is the tallest oak in the forest because of many more reasons. Reasons that include luck and some things that cannot be controlled. For example, when discussing about oak trees, Gladwell mentions that one oak tree is the tallest because â€Å"no other tree blocked its sunlight†¦no rabbit chewed through its bark†¦ and no lumberjack cut it down before it matured†(Gladwell, 2008).Gladwell’s point of the ecology of this certain tree is that is it the most successful because of certain circumstances it was placed in. The â€Å"Matthew Effect† or also known as â€Å"accumulative advantage† is when â€Å"those who are successful are most likely to be given the kinds of special opportunities that lead to further success†(Gladwell, 2008). Malcolm Gladwell’s example of accumulative advantage is hockey players and how at a young age they achieve success. Gladwell discusses that â€Å"the professional hockey player starts out a little bit better than his peers.And that little difference leads to an opportunity that makes that difference a bit bigger†(Gladwell, 2008). An important implication of the hockey example is that the similarities in the age of the hockey players who have had success. The majority of the hockey players in Canada are born in â€Å"January, February, and March†(Gladwell, 2008). Because of the fact that these professional hockey players were born in the beginning of the year they had an advantage over those who were born later in the year.The reason why they have an advantage is because when they were young they were bigger and more matured than those who were born later in the year. Since that these hockey players were bigger than the other kids they were given the opportunity to play hockey at more of an elite level. This is a prime example of â€Å"The Matthew Effect† and it explains that ones who are successful are given more opportunities to be more successful. However, accumulative advantage and ecology both are very similar.For example, along with the accumulative advantage in the hockey player instance there is also ecology to it. As mentioned earlier, the ecology of an organism is lucky or uncontrollable circumstances that occur. For the most part, the date of birth of a person is often uncontrollable and is not often planned. Accumulative advantage and ecology as seen in this example, are often correlated with one another. In both the Matthew Effect and the ecology and an organism, people are given a better opportunity. References Gladwell, M. (2008). Outliers. New York: Little,Brown and Company.

Civil Rights – Naacp

The iris case was not a success because the supreme court agreed with the board, but the second case In 1953, came to the agreement that segregation was wrong on the grounds that separating black students from others that are the same age and Intelligence as them because of their race, â€Å"generates a feeling of Inferiority†¦ That may affect their hearts and minds In a way unlikely ever to be undone,† (Chief Justice Earl Warren). This was a major success for the NAACP although Implementing the new ruling proved to be more difficult because the federal government did not force he state governments to apply them to their cities.This ruling did change some districts but most did not comply. Many schools and school districts were closed because the cities would have rather close them than integrate. Also because of President Eisenhower lack of support, the ruling was never enforced therefore making the ruling pointless. Similar problems occurred with other rulings and acts such as the Civil Rights Act of 1957 which attempted to end voter discrimination, but ended up being a useless law because of the loopholes left by the federal overspent.The only few times where the NAACP changes of the law actually worked such as the case about the arrest of Rosa Parks for refusing to give up her bus seat, and that was only because of the non-violent movement that got the publics attention and more involvement in the issue. The other legal successes for the black community such as the Voting Rights Act of 1965 which made it so African Americans could vote without being taxed, given impossible tasks, or being intimidated by racists groups; this time not leaving loopholes.This act along with there beneficial acts such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 were mostly due to the many marches, movements, and riots that demanded change and the assassination of JEFF which happened right after he publicly announced that he was for the rights of African Americans by trying to put through the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Because this was one of the last things that JEFF was remembered for, LB had to live up the citizen's expectations for him to do the same as JEFF so that he would not have died In vain.In addition, the groups AIM and CLC participated in the Civil Rights Movements. In the event of Birmingham In 1963 lead by CLC was a major focus for the call rights activists. This event resulted In church bombings as the group CLC and other protesters marched for their rights and this movement later turned Into massive violence from the white society. As a continuation of Birmingham, James Bevel gave Dry. King the Idea to use children for marches arrested, and Jailed and more chaos prevailed.In (Source E) It displays a photograph from the event of the Birmingham Marches during the time period of 1963. It shows he violence and a African American male was being attacked by the local police with police dogs. This eve nt was somewhat successful at the end because stores were desegregated and some other public places. In the event of the Meredith March in 1966, Its main purpose was to protest against racism and other civil rights activists, including Dry. King and his group AIM, CLC, along with SYNC continued this march to protest for their civil rights in 1966.The start of this march was from James Meredith attending the University of Mississippi and was rejected his acceptance from the allege because of his race which was African American and James Meredith filed a complaint to the Court systems and the court ruled that the University of Mississippi was managing a policy of segregation. In the duration of this Many race riots broke out in the result of this setting. There was not only violence against the African Americans but there was violence against the U.S Marshals who were helping the African Americans. Referring back to the James Meredith march â€Å"March against Fear† the African Americans faced violence as well as when they were registering to vote. In he March James Meredith was shot and the Civil Rights activists Dry. King and Carmichael decided to finish the march on Meredith behalf. Therefore, this event was somewhat successful because it allowed the U. S to pay attention to the African Americans although it was not particularly in the way that King and other civil rights activists wanted to.The civil rights organizations the CORE and SYNC both proved to be vitally important during the civil rights movement. They often times worked in conjunction in order to work toward racial equality. Their first major movement was he Sit Ins in 1960 where college students refused to leave diners until served. The next thing was the Freedom Rides in 1961 in which black students tried to ride across in order to test the laws banning racial segregation on international buses.This effort was a failure in that there was extreme violence against the riders. â€Å"The rac ist mob had attacked with iron bars, and even bombs. Passengers escaped right before the bus burst into flames and it wasn't until policemen shot into the air that the mob dispersed† (Source A). After the Freedom Rides SYNC turned its attention to the Albany movement (1962) in which students tried to desegregate the entire public sector of the city. It failed because the police never got violent, and after CLC Joined they didn't allow King to stay in Jail.Malcolm X an influential leader of black Muslims used these types of instances to Justify the idea that â€Å"There's no such thing as a nonviolent revolution and that the revolution is based on concepts of property, independence, freedom, Justice and equality' (Source D). In 1994 SYNC attempted a new movement called Freedom Summer in which northern white students attempted o get blacks to register to vote. The southern states viewed it as â€Å"a planned invasion in which Northern students are causing problems under the pr etext of bringing Freedom† (Source B).The huge difference between the northern mentality of equality to all verses the southern mentality of white and better than blacks and stay out of our business led to a horrifically violent summer. The very next year SYNC went to Selma, Alabama in order to register voters, but the police had a violent response. During a speech at Howard Lyndon Johnson said â€Å"The words â€Å"Give me overcome discrimination I will sent to Congress a law designed to eliminate illegal barriers. (Source F).

How to Write a Brand Positioning Statement Essay

The Power of 3 Words First words on the subjects goes to Branding expert and author Jack Trout who advocates the simplest brand positioning strategy possible. He believes that the best and most successful brands occupy very specific positions in consumers minds, and those positions can be translated into a brand positioning statement of no more than three words. He wrote a post on Branding Strategy Insider where he said: â€Å"I have never seen a great brand positioning strategy that needed more than three words to define the brand. Any more than that and the probability of achieving any kind of impact on the market turns almost immediately to zero. â€Å"Great branding focuses on the two or three things that mark the brand out as different. Great positioning always consists of unexpected words born from research, forged through heritage, and destined to differentiate. I cannot tell you what those words should be, but I can tell you that if you are claiming ‘innovation’ or ‘excellence’ in your positioning, you will achieve the opposite.† The trick is creating a brand positioning statement that accurately encompasses your brand within three words (or as close to that as you can get). Think of it this way, consumers don’t have the time, patience, or desire to sift through cluttered messages to get to the meat of the matter. If your brand position isn’t clear, concise, and believable, it will have no chance of snatching a space in consumers’ minds for more than a nanosecond. Your brand positioning strategy has to set the focus and direction of your brand in a way that is instantly meaningful to consumers. You may be familiar with Jact Trout’s work which amplifies the above alongwith his ex partner Al Ries. Check them out for more details and examples. While their work is strategic, practitioners need to follow a template which spells out the different elements that need to be included. We look at two approaches which are typical. If you examine closely the variations between them are slight 1. According to Gavin Robertson, Brand Positioning Statements provide the most useful function of Taking everything you know about your brand, Everything that could be said about the consumer Making choices to pick one target that you’ll serve One brand promise you will stand behind. The Brand Positioning Statement A best in class positioning statement has four key elements: Target Market (a) Definition of the market you play in (b) Brand Promise (emotional or rational benefit) (c) The Reason to Believe (RTB) the brand promise (d) The more focused your decisions, the more successful you will be: decide on one target, one promise and maybe one or two reasons to believe that help to directly back up your promise. But the target shouldn’t be everyone 18-65, and don’t throw your eight best features at the wall and hopefully something sticks. And the reason to believe has to back up your promise, not be a whole new promise. The classic way to write a Brand Positioning Statement is to take the elements above and frame them into the following: For the target market (a) Brand X plays in the market (b) and it gives the main benefit (c). That’s because of the following reasons to believe (d). 2. On the other hand Brad Van Auken says the brand position or brand positioning is how the brand is perceived in the context of competitive alternatives in the mind. When we develop Brand Positioning Statements we include the 5 elements below for each positioning statement. A Target Customer Definition, Brand Essence (Mantra), Brand Promise (Unique Value Proposition), Brand Archetype and Brand Personality, These 5 elements give the intended Brand Position greater depth. Brand Essence It is the â€Å"heart and soul† of the brand, its timeless quality, expressed as â€Å"adjective, adjective, noun.† Some people refer to the brand essence as the brand mantra, while for others the brand’s mantra is synonymous with the brand’s tagline or slogan. Brand Brand Essence (Adjective1, Adjective2, Noun) Disney Fun family entertainment Nike Authentic athletic performance Starbucks Rewarding everyday moments The Brand Promise / Unique Value Proposition: Only [name of brand] Delivers [unique and compelling benefit or shared value] To [target customer description] In the [product or service category] (establishing the competitive â€Å"frame of reference†) In the context of [market condition or trend that makes the benefit or value even more compelling] Because [proof points or â€Å"reasons to believe†] Focuses on the one or two key points of difference between the brand in question and other brands. Typically, these points of difference are brand benefits, benefits that are relevant, unique, compelling and believable for the brand in question. Brands typically focus on only one or two benefits and research has shown that people can’t link more than that number of benefits to a given brand in their minds. The first or most important benefit is sometimes referred to as the primary brand benefit. Example: The unique value proposition for Volvo is â€Å"safety.† As a brand promise, it could be expressed as â€Å"Only Volvo assures a safe ride to parents who care about their children’s safety.† One usually talks about attributes associated with products. Generally, with brands, people focus on benefits or values. Brand benefits can be functional, emotional, experiential or self-expressive. Through market research, one can identify the path from attributes to benefits to values to self-esteem in customers’ minds. This process is called laddering. A self-expressive benefit of the Mercedes brand is that it communicates that I have status and money. Brand  associations are anything that people link or associate with the brand in their minds. For example, people associate gambling and other vices with the Las Vegas, Nevada brand. The Brand Personality It is the composite of different brand personality elements. Focus on 7 to 12 brand personality elements for each brand. A brand personality element is usually expressed as an adjective. The purpose of brand personality attributes is to help personify the brand and to give it a distinctive â€Å"brand voice. Brand personality elements include the following: Trustworthy, Innovative, Reliable, Friendly, Rugged, Wholesome, etc. The Brand Archetype It is the underlying archetype that implies the driving force or motivation behind the brand. Combined with the brand personality, the brand archetype gives a brand a more human feel. Brand archetypes include The Pioneer, The Wizard, The Scientist, The Sage and The Artist. Other important terms to consider Brand Trigger is a term used mostly in Europe. It refers to anything that is associated with the brand that causes people to think about the brand. It elicits brand recall. Some people refer to a brand trigger as a Brand Mnemonic Device. So, most Brand Identity Elements (name, tagline, logo, jingle, etc.) are or can be Brand Triggers. We also talk about Brand Insistence Drivers. These five drive customers from being aware of the brand to preferring the brand to being loyal to the brand to insisting on the brand accepting no substitutes. 1. Awareness, 2. Relevant Differentiation, 3. Value, 4. Accessibility 5. Emotional Connection In the Brand Positioning process it’s important to evaluate the market and  your target customers — those that are most important to the future of your brand. With this understanding, continue to re-visit your positioning and tighten the focus.

A Dirty Job Chapter 12

12 THE BAY CITY BOOK OF THE DEAD Charlie named the hamsters Parmesan and Romano (or Parm and Romy, for short) because when the time came for thinking up names, he just happened to be reading the label on a jar of Alfredo sauce. That was all the thought that went into it and that was enough. In fact, Charlie thought he might have even gone overboard, considering that when he returned home the day of the great firecracker/sewer debacle, he found his daughter gleefully pounding away on the tray of her high chair with a stiff hamster. Romano was the poundee, Charlie could tell because he'd put a dot of nail polish between his little ears so he could tell it apart from its companion, Parmesan, who was equally stiff inside the plastic Habitrail box. In the bottom of the exercise wheel, actually. Dead at the wheel. â€Å"Mrs. Ling!† Charlie called. He pried the expired rodent from his darling daughter's little hand and dropped it in the cage. â€Å"Is Vladlena, Mr. Asher,† came a giant voice from the bathroom. There was a flush and Mrs. Korjev emerged from the bathroom pulling at the clasps of her overalls. â€Å"I'm sorry, I am having to crap like bear. Sophie was safe in chair.† â€Å"She was playing with a dead hamster, Mrs. Korjev.† Mrs. Korjev looked at the two hamsters in the plastic Habitrail box – gave it a little tap, shook it back and forth. â€Å"They sleep.† â€Å"They are not sleeping, they're dead.† â€Å"They are fine when I go in bathroom. Playing, running on wheel, having laugh.† â€Å"They were not having a laugh. They were dead. Sophie had one in her hand.† Charlie looked more closely at the rodent that Sophie had been tenderizing. Its head looked extremely wet. â€Å"In her mouth. She had it in her mouth.† He grabbed a paper towel from the roll on the counter and started wiping out the inside of Sophie's mouth. She made a la-la-la sound as she tried to eat the towel, which she thought was part of the game. â€Å"Where is Mrs. Ling, anyway?† â€Å"She have to go pick up prescription, so I watch Sophie for short time. And tiny bears are happy when I go in bathroom.† â€Å"Hamsters, Mrs. Korjev, not bears. How long were you in there?† â€Å"Maybe five minute. I am thinking I am now having a strain in my poop chute, so hard I am pushing.† â€Å"Aiiiiieeeee,† came the cry from the doorway as Mrs. Ling returned, and scampered to Sophie. â€Å"Is past time for nap,† Mrs. Ling snapped at Mrs. Korjev. â€Å"I've got her now,† Charlie said. â€Å"One of you stay with her while I get rid of the H-A-M-S-T-E-R-S.† â€Å"He mean the tiny bears,† said Mrs. Korjev. â€Å"I get rid, Mr. Asher,† said Mrs. Ling. â€Å"No problem. What happen them?† â€Å"Sleeping,† said Mrs. Korjev. â€Å"Ladies, go. Please. I'll see one of you in the morning.† â€Å"Is my turn,† said Mrs. Korjev sadly. â€Å"Am I banish? Is no Sophie for Vladlena, yes?† â€Å"No. Uh, yes. It's fine, Mrs. Korjev. I'll see you in the morning.† Mrs. Ling was shaking the Habitrail cage. They certainly were sound little sleepers, these hamsters. She liked ham. â€Å"I take care,† she said. She tucked the cage under her arm and backed toward the door, waving. â€Å"Bye-bye, Sophie. Bye-bye.† â€Å"Bye-bye, bubeleh,† said Mrs. Korjev. â€Å"Bye-bye,† Sophie said, with a baby wave. â€Å"When did you learn bye-bye?† Charlie said to his daughter. â€Å"I can't leave you for a second.† But he did leave her the very next day, to find replacements for the hamsters. He took the cargo van to the pet store this time. Whatever courage or hubris he'd rallied in order to attack the sewer harpies had melted away, and he didn't even want to go near a storm drain. At the pet store he picked out two painted turtles, each about as big around as a mayonnaise-jar lid. He bought them a large kidney-shaped dish that had its own little island, a plastic palm tree, some aquatic plants, and a snail. The snail, presumably, to bolster the self-esteem of the turtles: â€Å"You think we're slow? Look at that guy.† To shore up the snail's morale in the same way, there was a rock. Everyone is happier if they have someone to look down on, as well as someone to look up to, especially if they resent both. This is not only the Beta Male strategy for survival, but the basis for capitalism, democracy, and most religions. After he grilled the clerk for fifteen minutes on the vitality of the turtles, and was assured that they could probably survive a nuclear attack as long as there were some bugs left to eat, Charlie wrote a check and started tearing up over his turtles. â€Å"Are you okay, Mr. Asher?† asked the pet-shop guy. â€Å"I'm sorry,† Charlie said. â€Å"It's just that this is the last entry in the register.† â€Å"And your bank didn't give you a new one?† â€Å"No, I have a new one, but this is the last one that my wife wrote in. Now that this one is used up, I'll never see her handwriting in the check register again.† â€Å"I'm sorry,† said the pet-shop guy, who, until that moment, had thought the rough patch that day was going to be consoling a guy over a couple of dead hamsters. â€Å"It's not your problem,† Charlie said. â€Å"I'll just take my turtles and go.† And he did, squeezing the check register in his hand as he drove. She was slipping away, every day a little more. A week ago Jane had come down to borrow some honey and found the plum jelly that Rachel liked in the back of the refrigerator, covered in green fuzz. â€Å"Little brother, this has got to go,† Jane said, making a face. â€Å"No. It was Rachel's.† â€Å"I know, kid, and she's not coming back for it. What else do you – oh my God!† She dove away from the fridge. â€Å"What was that?† â€Å"Lasagna. Rachel made it.† â€Å"This has been in here for over a year?† â€Å"I couldn't make myself throw it out.† â€Å"Look, I'm coming over Saturday and cleaning out this apartment. I'm going to get rid of all the stuff of Rachel's that you don't want.† â€Å"I want it all.† Jane paused while moving the green-and-purple lasagna to the trash bin, pan and all. â€Å"No you don't, Charlie. This kind of stuff doesn't help you remember Rachel, it just hurts you. You need to focus on Sophie and the rest of both of your lives. You're a young guy, you can't give up. We all loved Rachel, but you have to think about moving on, maybe going out.† â€Å"I'm not ready. And you can't come over this Saturday, that's my day in the shop.† â€Å"I know,† Jane said. â€Å"It's better if you're not here.† â€Å"But you can't be trusted, Jane,† Charlie said, as if that was as obvious as the fact that Jane was irritating. â€Å"You'll throw out all the pieces of Rachel, and you'll steal my clothes.† Jane had been swiping Charlie's suits pretty regularly since he'd started dressing more upscale. She was wearing a tailored, double-breasted jacket that he'd just gotten back from Three Fingered Hu a few days ago. Charlie hadn't even worn it yet. â€Å"Why are you still wearing suits, anyway? Isn't your new girlfriend a yoga instructor? Shouldn't you be wearing those baggy pants made out of hemp and tofu fibers like she does? You look like David Bowie, Jane. There, I've said it. I'm sorry, but it had to be said.† Jane put her arm around his shoulder and kissed him on the cheek. â€Å"You are so sweet. Bowie is the only man I've ever found attractive. Let me clean out your apartment. I'll watch Sophie that day – give the widows a day to do battle down at the Everything for a Dollar Store.† â€Å"Okay, but just clothes and stuff, no pictures. And just put it in the basement in boxes, no throwing anything away.† â€Å"Even food items? Chuck, the lasagna, I mean – â€Å" â€Å"Okay, food items can go. But don't let Sophie know what you're doing. And leave Rachel's perfume, and her hairbrush. I want Sophie to know what her mother smelled like.† That night, when he finished at the shop, he went down to the basement to the little gated storage area for his apartment and visited the boxes of all of the things that Jane had packed up. When that didn't work, he opened them and said good-bye to every single item – pieces of Rachel. Seemed like he was always saying good-bye to pieces of Rachel. On his way home from the pet shop he had stopped at A Clean, Well-Lighted Place for Books because it, too, was a piece of Rachel and he needed a touchstone, but also because he needed to research what he was doing. He'd scoured the Internet for information on death, and while he'd found that there were a lot of people who wanted to dress like death, get naked with the dead, look at pictures of the naked and the dead, or sell pills to give erections to the dead, there just wasn't anything on how to go about being dead, or Death. No one had ever heard of Death Merchants or sewer harpies or anything of the sort. He left the store with a two-foot-high stack of books on Death and Dying, figuring, as a Beta Male typically does, that before he tried to take the battle to the enemy again, he'd better find out something about what he was dealing with. That evening he settled in on the couch next to his baby daughter and read while the new turtles, Bruiser and Jeep (so named in hope of instilling durability in them), ate freeze-dried bugs and watched CSI Safari-land on cable. â€Å"Well, honey, according to this Kbler-Ross lady, the five stages of death are anger, denial, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Well, we went through all of those stages when we lost Mommy, didn't we?† â€Å"Mama,† Sophie said. The first time she had said â€Å"Mama† had brought Charlie to tears. He had been looking over her little shoulder at a picture of Rachel. The second time she said it, it was less emotional. She was in her high chair at the breakfast bar and was talking to the toaster. â€Å"That's not Mommy, Soph, that's the toaster.† â€Å"Mama,† Sophie insisted, reaching out for the toaster. â€Å"You're just trying to fuck with me, aren't you?† Charlie said. â€Å"Mama,† Sophie said to the fridge. â€Å"Swell,† Charlie said. He read on, realizing that Dr. Kbler-Ross had been exactly right. Every morning when he woke up to find another name and number in the day planner at his bedside, he went through the entire five-step process before he finished breakfast. But now that the steps had a name – he started to recognize the stages as experienced by the family members of his clients. That's how he referred to the people whose souls he retrieved: clients. Then he read a book, called The Last Sack, about how to kill yourself with a plastic bag, but it must not have been a very effective book, because he saw on the back cover that there had been two sequels. He imagined the fan mail: Dear Last Sack Author: I was almost dead, but then my sack got all steamed up and I couldn't see the TV, so I poked an eyehole. I hope to try again with your next book. The book really didn't help Charlie much, except to instill in him a new paranoia about plastic bags. Over the next few months he read: The Egyptian Book of the Dead, from which he learned how to pull someone's brain out through his nostril with a buttonhook, which he was sure would come in handy someday; a dozen books on dealing with death, grief, burial rituals, and myths of the Underworld, from which he learned that there had been personifications of Death since the dawn of time, and none of them looked like him; and the Tibetan Book of the Dead, from which he learned that bardo, the transition between this life and the next, was forty-nine days long, and that during the process you would be met by about thirty thousand demons, all of which were described in intricate detail, none of which looked like the sewer harpies, and all of which you were supposed to ignore and not be afraid of because they weren't real because they were of the material world. â€Å"Strange,† Charlie said to Sophie, â€Å"how all of these books talk about how the material world isn't significant, yet I have to retrieve people's souls, which are attached to material objects. It would appear that death, if nothing else, is ironic, don't you think?† â€Å"No,† Sophie said. At eighteen months Sophie answered all questions either â€Å"No,† â€Å"Cookie,† or â€Å"like Bear† – the last Charlie attributed to leaving his daughter too often in the care of Mrs. Korjev. After the turtles, two more hamsters, a hermit crab, an iguana, and two widemouthed frogs passed on to the great wok in the sky (or, more accurately, on the third floor), Charlie finally acquiesced and brought home a three-inch-long Madagascar hissing cockroach that he named Bear, just so his daughter wouldn't go through life talking total nonsense. â€Å"Like Bear,† Sophie said. â€Å"She's talking about the bug,† Charlie said, one night when Jane stopped by. â€Å"She's not talking about the bug,† Jane said. â€Å"What kind of father buys a cockroach for a little girl anyway? That's disgusting.† â€Å"Nothing's supposed to be able to kill them. They've been around for like a hundred million years. It was that or a white shark, and they're supposed to be hard to keep.† â€Å"Why don't you give up, Charlie? Just let her get by with stuffed animals.† â€Å"A little kid should have a pet. Especially a little kid growing up in the city.† â€Å"We grew up in the city and we didn't have any pets.† â€Å"I know, and look how we turned out,† Charlie said, gesturing back and forth between the two of them, one who dealt in death and had a giant cockroach named Bear, and the other who was on her third yoga-instructor girlfriend in six months and was wearing his newest Harris tweed suit. â€Å"We turned out great, or at least one of us did,† Jane said, gesturing to the splendor of her suit, like she was a game-show model giving the big prize package on Let's Get Androgynous, â€Å"You have got to gain some weight. This is tailored way too tight in the butt,† she said, lapsing once again into self-obsession. â€Å"Am I camel-toeing?† â€Å"I am not looking, not looking, not looking,† Charlie chanted. â€Å"She wouldn't need pets if she ever saw the outside of this apartment,† Jane said, pulling down on the crotch of her trousers to counteract the dreaded dromedary-digit effect. â€Å"Take her to the zoo, Charlie. Let her see something besides this apartment. Take her out.† â€Å"I will, tomorrow. I'll take her out and show her the city,† Charlie said. And he would have, too, except he woke to find the name Madeline Alby written on his day planner, and next to her name, the number one. Oh yeah, and the cockroach was dead. I will take you out,† Charlie said as he put Sophie in her high chair for breakfast. â€Å"I will, honey. I promise. Can you believe that they'd only give me one day?† â€Å"No,† Sophie said. â€Å"Juice,† she added, because she was in her chair and this was juice time. â€Å"I'm sorry about Bear, honey,† Charlie said, brushing her hair this way, then that, then giving up. â€Å"He was a good bug, but he is no more. Mrs. Ling will bury him. That window box of hers must be getting pretty crowded.† He didn't remember there being a window box in Mrs. Ling's window, but who was he to question? Charlie threw open the phone book and, mercifully, found an M. Alby with an address on Telegraph Hill – not ten minutes' walk away. No client had ever been this close, and with almost six months without a peep or a shade from the sewer harpies, he was starting to feel like he had this whole Death Merchant thing under control. He'd even placed most of the soul vessels that he'd collected. The short notice felt bad. Really bad. The house was an Italianate Victorian on the hill just below the Coit Tower, the great granite column built in honor of the San Francisco firemen who had lost their lives in the line of duty. Although it's said to have been designed with a fire-hose nozzle in mind, almost no one who sees the tower can resist the urge to comment on its resemblance to a giant penis. Madeline Alby's house, a flat-roofed white rectangle with ornate scrolling trim and a crowning cornice of carved cherubs, looked like a wedding cake balanced on the tower's scrotum. So as Charlie trudged up the nut sack of San Francisco, he wondered exactly how he was going to get inside the house. Usually he had time, he could wait and follow someone in, or construct some kind of ruse to gain entrance, but this time he had only one day to get inside, find the soul vessel, and get out. He hoped that Madeline Alby had already died. He really didn't like being around sick people. When he saw the car parked out front with the small green hospice sticker, his hopes for a dead client were smashed like a cupcake with a sledgehammer. He walked up the front porch steps at the left of the house and waited by the door. Could he open it himself? Would people be able to see it, or did his special â€Å"unnoticeability† extend to objects he moved as well? He didn't think so. But then the door opened and a woman about Charlie's age stepped out onto the porch. â€Å"I'm just having a smoke,† she called back into the house, and before she could close the door behind her, Charlie slipped inside. The front door opened into a foyer; to his right Charlie saw what had originally been the parlor. There was a stairway in front of him, and another door beyond that that he guessed led to the kitchen. He could hear voices in the parlor and peeked around the corner to see four elderly women sitting on two couches that faced each other. They were in dresses and hats, and they might have just come from church, but Charlie guessed they had come to see their friend off. â€Å"You'd think she'd give up the smoking, with her mother upstairs dying of cancer,† said one of the ladies, wearing a gray skirt and jacket with matching hat, and a large enameled pin in the shape of a Holstein cow. â€Å"Well, she always was a hardheaded girl,† said another, wearing a dress that looked as if it had been made from the same floral material as the couch. â€Å"You know she used to meet with my son Jimmy up in Pioneer Park when they were little.† â€Å"She said she was going to marry him,† said another woman, who looked like a sister of the first. The ladies laughed, whimsy and sadness mixed in their tones. â€Å"Well, I don't know what she was thinking, he's as flighty as can be,† said Mom. â€Å"Yeah, and brain damaged,† added the sister. â€Å"Well, yes, he is now.† â€Å"Since the car ran over him,† said Sis. â€Å"Didn't he run right in front of a car?† asked one of the ladies who had been silent until now. â€Å"No, he ran right into it,† said Mom. â€Å"He was on the drugs then.† She sighed. â€Å"I always said I had one of each – a boy, a girl, and a Jimmy.† They all nodded. This was not the first time this group had done this, Charlie guessed. They were the type that bought sympathy cards in bulk, and every time they heard an ambulance go by they made a note to pick up their black dress from the cleaner's. â€Å"You know Maddy looked bad,† said the lady in gray. â€Å"Well, she's dying, sweetheart, that's what happens.† â€Å"I guess.† Another sigh. The tinkle of ice in glasses. They were all nursing neat little cocktails. Charlie guessed they'd been mixed by the younger woman who was outside smoking. He looked around the room for something that was glowing red. There was an oak rolltop desk in the corner that he'd like to get a look in, but that would have to wait until later. He ducked out of the doorway and into the kitchen, where two men in their late thirties, maybe early forties, were sitting at an oak table, playing Scrabble. â€Å"Is Jenny coming back? It's her turn.† â€Å"She might have gone up to see Mom with one of the ladies. The hospice nurse is letting them go up one at a time.† â€Å"I just wish it was over. I can't stand this waiting. I have a family I need to get back to. I'm about to crawl out of my fucking skin.† The older of the two reached across the table and set two tiny blue pills by his brother's tiles. â€Å"These help.† â€Å"What are they?† â€Å"Time-released morphine.† â€Å"Really?† The younger brother looked alarmed. â€Å"You hardly even feel them, they just sort of take the edge off. Jenny's been taking them for two weeks.† â€Å"That's why you guys are taking this so well and I'm a wreck? You guys are stoned on Mom's pain medication?† â€Å"Yep.† â€Å"I don't take drugs. Those are drugs. You don't take drugs.† The older brother sat back in his chair. â€Å"Pain medication, Bill. What are you feeling?† â€Å"No, I'm not taking Mom's pain meds.† â€Å"Suit yourself.† â€Å"What if she needs them?† â€Å"There's enough morphine in that room to bring down a Kodiak bear, and if she needs more, then hospice will bring more.† Charlie wanted to shake the younger brother and yell, Take the drugs, you idiot. Maybe it was the benefit of experience. Having now seen this situation happen again and again, families on deathwatch, out of their minds with grief and exhaustion, friends moving in and out of the house like ghosts, saying good-bye or just covering some sort of base so they could say they had been there, so perhaps they wouldn't have to die alone themselves. Why was none of this in the books of the dead? Why didn't the instructions tell him about all the pain and confusion he was going to see? â€Å"I'm going to go find Jenny,† said the older brother, â€Å"see if she wants to get something to eat. We can finish the game later if you want.† â€Å"That's okay, I was losing anyway.† The younger brother gathered up the tiles and put the board away. â€Å"I'm going to go upstairs and see if I can catch a nap, tonight's my night watching Mom.† The older brother walked out and Charlie watched the younger brother drop the blue pills into his shirt pocket and leave the kitchen, leaving the Death Dealer to ransack the pantry and the cabinets looking for the soul vessel. But he felt before he even started that it wouldn't be there. He was going to have to go upstairs. He really, really hated being around sick people. Madeline Alby was propped up and tucked into bed with a down comforter up around her neck. She was so slight that her body barely showed under the covers. Charlie guessed that she might weigh seventy or eighty pounds max. Her face was drawn and he could see the outlines of her eye sockets and her jawbone jutting through her skin, which had gone yellow. Charlie guessed liver cancer. One of her friends from downstairs was sitting at her bedside, the hospice-care worker, a big woman in scrubs, sat in a chair across the room, reading. A small dog, a Yorkshire terrier, Charlie thought, was snuggled up between Madeline's shoulder and her neck, sleeping. When Charlie stepped into the room, Madeline said, â€Å"Hey there, kid.† He froze in his steps. She was looking right at him – crystal-blue eyes, and a smile. Had the floor squeaked? Had he bumped something? â€Å"What are you doing there, kid?† She giggled. â€Å"Who do you see, Maddy?† asked the friend. She followed Madeline's gaze but looked right through Charlie. â€Å"A kid over there.† â€Å"Okay, Maddy. Do you want some water?† The friend reached for a child's sippy cup with a built-in straw from the nightstand. â€Å"No. Tell that kid to come in here, though. Come in here, kid.† Madeline worked her arms out of the covers and started moving her hands in sewing motions, like she was embroidering a tapestry in the air before her. â€Å"Well, I'd better go,† said the friend. â€Å"Let you get some rest.† The friend glanced at the hospice woman, who looked over her reading glasses and smiled with her eyes. The only expert in the house, giving permission. The friend stood and kissed Madeline Alby on the forehead. Madeline stopped sewing for a second, closed her eyes, and leaned into the kiss, like a young girl. Her friend squeezed her hand and said, â€Å"Good-bye, Maddy.† Charlie stepped aside and let the woman pass. He watched her shoulders heave with a sob as she went through the door. â€Å"Hey, kid,† Madeline said. â€Å"Come over here and sit down.† She paused in her sewing long enough to look Charlie in the eye, which freaked him out more than a little. He glanced at the hospice worker, who glanced up from her book, then went back to reading. Charlie pointed to himself. â€Å"Yeah, you,† Madeline said. Charlie was going into a panic. She could see him, but the hospice nurse could not, or so it seemed. An alarm beeped on the nurse's watch and Madeline picked up the little dog and held it to her ear. â€Å"Hello? Hi, how are you?† She looked up at Charlie. â€Å"It's my oldest daughter.† The little dog looked at Charlie, too, with a distinct â€Å"save me† look in its eyes. â€Å"Time for some medicine, Madeline,† the nurse said. â€Å"Can't you see I'm on the phone, Sally,† Madeline said. â€Å"Hang on a second.† â€Å"Okay, I'll wait,† the nurse said. She picked up a brown bottle with an eyedropper in it, filled the dropper, and checked the dosage and held. â€Å"Bye. Love you, too,† Madeline said. She held the tiny dog out to Charlie. â€Å"Hang that up, would you?† The nurse snatched the dog out of the air and set it down on the bed next to Madeline. â€Å"Open up, Madeline,† the nurse said. Madeline opened wide and the nurse squirted the eyedropper into the old woman's mouth. â€Å"Mmm, strawberry,† Madeline said. â€Å"That's right, strawberry. Would you like to wash it down with some water?† The nurse held the sippy cup. â€Å"No. Cheese. I'd like some cheese.† â€Å"I can get you some cheese,† said the nurse. â€Å"Cheddar cheese.† â€Å"Cheddar it is,† said the nurse. â€Å"I'll be right back.† She tucked the covers around Madeline and left the room. The old woman looked at Charlie again. â€Å"Can you talk, now that she's gone?† Charlie shrugged and looked in every direction, his hand over his mouth, like someone looking for an emergency spot to spit out a mouthful of bad seafood. â€Å"Don't mime, honey,† Madeline said. â€Å"No one likes a mime.† Charlie sighed heavily, what was there to lose now? She could see him. â€Å"Hello, Madeline. I'm Charlie.† â€Å"I always liked the name Charlie,† Madeline said. â€Å"How come Sally can't see you?† â€Å"Only you can see me right now,† Charlie said. â€Å"Because I'm dying?† â€Å"I think so.† â€Å"Okay. You're a nice-looking kid, you know that?† â€Å"Thanks. You're not bad yourself.† â€Å"I'm scared, Charlie. It doesn't hurt. I used to be afraid that it would hurt, but now I'm afraid of what happens next.† Charlie sat down on the chair next to the bed. â€Å"I think that's why I'm here, Madeline, you don't need to be afraid.† â€Å"I drank a lot of brandy, Charlie. That's why this happened.† â€Å"Maddy – can I call you Maddy?† â€Å"Sure, kid, we're friends.† â€Å"Yes, we are. Maddy, this was always going to happen. You didn't do anything to cause it.† â€Å"Well, that's good.† â€Å"Maddy, do you have something for me?† â€Å"Like a present?† â€Å"Like a present you would give to yourself. Something I can keep for you and give you back later, when it will be a surprise.† â€Å"My pincushion,† Madeline said. â€Å"I'd like you to have that. It was my grandmother's.† â€Å"I'd be honored to keep that for you, Maddy. Where can I find it?† â€Å"In my sewing box, on the top shelf of that closet.† She pointed to an old-style single closet across the room. â€Å"Oh, excuse me, phone.† Madeline talked to her oldest daughter on the edge of the comforter while Charlie got the sewing box from the top shelf of the closet. It was made of wicker and he could see the red glow of the soul vessel inside. He removed a pincushion fashioned from red velvet wrapped with bands of real silver and held it up for Madeline to see. She smiled and gave him the thumbs-up, just as the nurse returned with a small plate of cheese and crackers. â€Å"It's my oldest daughter,† Madeline explained to the nurse, holding the edge of the comforter to her chest so her daughter didn't hear. â€Å"Oh my, is that cheese?† The nurse nodded. â€Å"And crackers.† â€Å"I'll call you back, honey, Sally has brought cheese and I don't want to be rude.† She hung up the sheet and allowed Sally to feed her bites of cheese and crackers. â€Å"I believe this is the best cheese I've ever tasted,† Madeline said. Charlie could tell from the expression on her face that it was, indeed, the best cheese she had ever tasted. Every ounce of her being was going into tasting those slivers of cheddar, and she let loose little moans of pleasure as she chewed. â€Å"You want some cheese, Charlie?† Madeline asked, spraying cracker shrapnel all over the nurse, who turned to look at the corner where Charlie was standing with the pincushion tucked safely in his jacket pocket. â€Å"Oh, you can't see him, Sally,† Madeline said, tapping the nurse on the hand. â€Å"But he's a handsome rascal. A little skinny, though.† Then, to Sally, but overly loud to be sure that Charlie could hear: â€Å"He could use some fucking cheese.† Then she laughed, spraying more crackers on the nurse, who was laughing, too, and trying not to dump the plate. â€Å"What did she say?† came a voice from the hall. Then the two sons and the daughter entered, chagrined at first at what they had heard, but then laughing with the nurse and their mother. â€Å"I said that cheese is good,† Madeline said. â€Å"Yeah, Mom, it is,† said the daughter. Charlie stood there in the corner, watching them eat cheese, and laughing, thinking, This should have been in the book. He watched them help her with her bedpan, and give her drinks of water, and wipe her face with a damp cloth – watched her bite at the cloth the way Sophie did when he washed her face. The eldest daughter, who Charlie realized had been dead for some time, called three more times, once on the dog and twice on the pillow. Around lunchtime Madeline was tired, and she went to sleep, and about a half hour into her nap she started panting, then stopped, then didn't breathe for a full minute, then took a deep breath, then didn't. And Charlie slipped out the door with her soul in his pocket.