A Murdur Is Announced Free Essays

A Murder Is Announced A Murder Is Announced is a work of criminologist fiction by Agatha Christie and first distributed in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in June 1950 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company around the same time. The UK release retailed at eight shillings and sixpence (8/6) and the US version at $2. 50. We will compose a custom paper test on A Murdur Is Announced or on the other hand any comparative point just for you Request Now ] The tale includes her criminologist Miss Marple and is viewed as a wrongdoing novel exemplary. The book was vigorously advanced upon distribution in 1950 as being Christie’s fiftieth book, in spite of the fact that in truth this figure must be shown up at by including in both UK and US short story assortments. Plot synopsis An unusual notification shows up toward the beginning of the day paper of a totally normal little English town, Chipping Cleghorn: â€Å"A murder is reported and will happen on Friday, October 29th, at Little Paddocks, at 6:30 p. m. Companions acknowledge this, the main hint. † This evidently comes as an incredible astonishment to Letitia Blacklock, the proprietor of Little Paddocks, as she has no clue about what the notification implies; she didn’t place it and none of her mates knows more than she. Miss Blacklock chooses to take it in her step and sets herself up to have visitors that night. Normally, the locals are captivated by this notification, and a few of them show up on the doorstep with clumsy reasons yet an unmistakable intrigue. As the clock strikes 6:30, the lights go out and an entryway swings open, uncovering a man with a blinding light. In an intensely highlighted voice, the man requests they â€Å"Stick ’em up! † Most of the visitors do as such, trusting it to be a piece of a game. The game closures when shots are discharged into the room. The entryway pummels shut, and alarm grabs hold: quite expeditiously, it’s found that the breakers are blown, the shooter has been shot, and Ms. Blacklock’s ear is dying, obviously from a bullet’s close miss. The most inquisitive thing of everything is the shooter: he is perceived by Dora Bunner (an old companion of Letitia’s, warmly known as â€Å"Bunny,† who lives at Little Paddocks as her partner) as Rudi Scherz, the assistant at a nearby spa, who had approached Letitia for cash only a couple of brief days back. The police are brought in. All pieces of information recommend that the case is only a weird self destruction or coincidental demise, yet Inspector Craddock is uncomfortable with the two prospects. It just so happens, Miss Marple is a visitor at exactly the same spa where Rudi Scherz was utilized. Craddock is encouraged to include her for the situation, and the two start cooperating. At the spa, it develops that Rudi has a criminal foundation, yet trivial robbery and falsification instead of any increasingly genuine wrongdoing. His better half, a server at the spa, notwithstanding, uncovers that he had been paid to show up as the robbery man; he trusted it was all â€Å"a senseless English joke†, and was plainly not anticipating being taken shots at. With this new information, Craddock comes back to Chipping Cleghorn. Miss Marple, not uncoincidentally, is the guardian of the neighborhood vicar’s spouse, and chooses to remain with her. The initial step is to set up a thought process in Scherz’s assault on Miss Blacklock. This presents an issue: Letitia has no known adversaries. She worked for an effective lender (Randall Goedler) and has found real success however isn't herself affluent. She doesn't have a sumptuous existence and, beside her home, she has sufficiently just to live on. Nonetheless, she may instantly obtain a sizable sum of wealth; Randall Goedler’s bequest went to his better half, Belle, when he kicked the bucket. Beauty is delicate, and is currently close to death. At the point when Belle bites the dust, Miss Blacklock acquires everything. Assuming, be that as it may, she predeceases Belle, the home goes to the puzzling â€Å"Pip† and â€Å"Emma†, offspring of Randall’s offended sister, Sonia. Nobody knows where these two are, significantly less what they resemble. Reviewer Craddock finds oil on the pivots of an entryway into the parlor (where the shooting occurred) thought to be unused, and Bunny makes reference to that until as of late there had been a table set against the entryway. Monitor Craddock goes to Scotland to meet Belle; she makes reference to that Letitia had a dearest sister, Charlotte, who was brought into the world with a goiter. Their dad, a good old specialist, attempted ineffectively to treat Charlotte, however she just pulled back further into herself as her goiter deteriorated. Their dad kicked the bucket quickly before World War II, and Letitia surrendered her activity with Goedler and took her sister to Switzerland for the fundamental medical procedure to fix the deformity. The two sisters held up out the war in the Swiss open country, yet before it was finished, Charlotte kicked the bucket unexpectedly. Letitia came back to England presently. Miss Marple takes tea with Bunny during her shopping trip with Letitia, and Bunny uncovers a few insights regarding the case: she discusses the as of late oiled entryway she found with the Inspector; she’s sure that Patrick Simmons, a youthful cousin of Letitia’s who, with his sister Julia, is additionally remaining at Little Paddocks, isn't as he shows up; and, most unsurprisingly, she’s totally positive there was an alternate light in the room the evening of the homicide (the one with the shepherdess and not with the shepherd) than there was presently. Their heart to heart is intruded, be that as it may, as Letitia shows up, and she and Bunny continue their shopping. That night, Letitia masterminds a birthday celebration for Bunny, complete with nearly each and every individual who was at the house when Rudy Scherz was kills; and she asks Mitzi to make her uncommon cake, which Patrick has nicknamed â€Å"Delicious Death†. This was while post-war severity proportioning was in actuality †margarine and eggs were rare even in a rustic network, and the chocolate and raisins utilized in the cake were hard to get. A container of chocolates is likewise a present. Rabbit cherishes chocolate however it gives her a headachek and she can’t discover the anti-inflamatory medicine she purchased. She takes some of Letitia’s headache medicine rather, rests for a rest †and bites the dust. Miss Marple visits Ms. Blacklock, who grieves Bunny and starts crying. Miss Marple requests to see photograph collections which may contain pictures of Sonia Goedler, Pip and Emma’s mother, yet all photographs of Sonia were removed from the collections as of late, despite the fact that they were set up before the demise of Rudi Scherz. Through finding and re-authorization, Misses Hinchliffe and Murgatroyd (two old maid ranchers who were likewise present at the hour of the Scherz murder) make sense of that Miss Murgatroyd could see who was in the room as she was remaining behind the entryway when it swung open; she couldn’t have seen Rudi as he was on the opposite side of the opened entryway, yet she could see whose appearances were lit up by the light shaft. The two ladies presume that the individual who wasn’t in the room (and in this manner not seen by Miss Murgatroyd) could have sneaked out of the room when the lights went out and come around behind Rudi, and shot at himâ€and Miss Blacklock. Similarly as she recollects the one individual not in the room, the stationmaster calls to inform them that a pooch has quite recently shown up. As Miss Hinchliffe pulls away in her vehicle, Miss Murgatroyd runs into the garage, yelling â€Å"She wasn’t there! † She is killed while Miss Hinchliffe is away, thus doesn't uncover whom she didn't see. Miss Hinchliffe returns and meets Miss Marple. They find Murgatroyd’s body, and a troubled Hinchliffe educates Miss Marple of Murgatroyd’s obscure explanation. At Little Paddocks, Letitia gets a letter from the genuine Julia Simmons in Perth. She faces â€Å"Julia† with the letter, and â€Å"Julia† uncovers that she is really Sonia’s little girl, Emma Stamfordis, taking on the appearance of Julia so she could endeavor to increase a part of the legacy from Letitia and let the genuine Julia invest energy seeking after an acting profession. Julia/Emma demands she is uninvolved in the death attemptâ€she was a break shot during the French Resistance and would not have missed at that extend, even in the darkâ€nor did she wish to forestall Letitia from acquiring Randall Goedler’s domain. She had planned to charm herself with Letitia and attempt to acquire a bit of the cash, and once the homicide occurred, had no real option except to proceed with the disguise. Phillipa Haymes (a visitor at Little Paddocks and a youthful widow) sneaks into the kitchen to address Julia/Emma, yet Julia/Emma sends her away before discovering what Phillipa needed to state. That night, the vicar’s feline, Tiglath Pileser, thumps over a glass of water onto a frayed electrical line, which makes the breakers blow, and the last piece of information becomes alright for Miss Marple. Monitor Craddock assembles everybody at Little Paddocks and dispatches the last investigation, which is hindered by Mitzi, Letitia’s remote â€Å"lady-help†, shouting out that she saw Letitia submit the homicide. The examiner doesn't trust her, and proceeds with his scrutinizing. The auditor proceeds, and rapidly suggests that Edmund Swettenham who, with his bereft mother, was likewise present at the shooting, is in actuality Pip. Be that as it may, Phillipa approaches and admits that she is in truth Pip; Inspector Craddock then blames Edmund for needing to wed a rich spouse in Phillipa by killing Letitia. Edmund denies this and as he does as such, an alarmed shout is gotten notification from the kitchen. Everybody hurries to the kitchen and finds Miss Blacklock endeavoring to suffocate Mitzi in the sink. Miss Blacklock is captured by a neighborhood constable who has been stowing away in the kitchen with Miss Marple, who impersonates Dora Bunner’s voice to make Ms. Blacklock separate. Miss Marple clarifies it just: it wasn’t Charlotte who passed on in Switzerland, however Letitia. Charlotte, mindful that Letitia was

These Dark Satanic Mills Essay Example

These Dark Satanic Mills Essay In William Greider’s article These Dark Satanic Mills, the focal story being handled is the expanding entanglements the world is confronting, apparently commensurate to all the advances humankind has caused upon itself. What's more, from a more extensive viewpoint, the a lot bigger issues to which the article relates are the striking incongruities that pervade practically all aspects of regular human life. The focal story is the false notion and outright phoniness of the word globalization and the imprudence of worldwide human advancement. Expressing a model from the article itself, for example, the most extreme worry for their youngsters and the security of their toys of for all intents and purposes all guardians on the planet has a fundamental incongruity †much to their dismay that the producers of those toys they presume the wellbeing of face considerably progressively grave dangers, and it need not be explained where the manufacturing plants are and how youthful the laborers are, in the most discouraged countries of the existence where kid work is to some degree saw as the most regular thing (Greider 329). This is a case of the sheer incongruity exasperated by inconspicuous numbness which enters all edges of the present reality. The deliberately ignoring on the genuine hidden purposes for obviously altruistic things involve the whole of the focal story of the article, and this defect can be effortlessly converted into increasingly justifiable word, and one of those words is pietism, false reverence both of the legislatures and of the people groups. It seems as though globalization doesn't work the manner in which humanity had imagined it a century back. This is so a result of the ramifications of the express aspirations of countries and the world’s masses to make the world a littler spot, a worldwide network where all distinctions of individuals can be changed; yet was exacerbated as a result of the miscount of the likely outcomes and the hurrying of the procedure. We will compose a custom paper test on These Dark Satanic Mills explicitly for you for just $16.38 $13.9/page Request now We will compose a custom paper test on These Dark Satanic Mills explicitly for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Recruit Writer We will compose a custom article test on These Dark Satanic Mills explicitly for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Recruit Writer The bigger issue is the retreating progress of the world because of the decrease in profound quality and the synchronous plunging of respect for the quintessence of life. On the off chance that solitary humankind had foreseen the diseases of today, at that point innovation, free enterprise, legislative issues and financial matters would not be as cutting edge to the degree that these days they make confusion more than they infuse generosity and kindheartedness; however the inverse had just happened. In the event that solitary man had not been so honored with so much virtuoso, at that point life today is present day yet not excessively convoluted. Furthermore, upon this comes the issue of the idea of man; regardless of his virtuoso, there still are individuals who are honored with the scary capacity to spread fiendishness and make bloom the ills of the world. In case man has overlooked, incredible duty accompanies extraordinary force, and by that proverb, it need not be questioned tha t man conveys the sole obligation regarding the ramifications of his manifestations. In the event that lone man was naturally acceptable, at that point these issues would not have risen. In any case, that is the primary irresolvable ailment: the foe of man is himself and the bitterest enemies of his profound quality are his avarice and his voracity, all the features of irreverence. On the off chance that this can not be sidestepped, the world for sure is a goliath sinister factory, in a manner of speaking. Except if man sees even in any event the tip of the tail of his foe, which is simply the detestable side, this mishap wherein the world is submerged would go on never-endingly and be just disturbed by the further progression of the nature of human life. One of the hints of Greider’s in one of his translated cases is the worldwide blacklist of a specific endeavor (Greider 334). For a bigger scope, truly, that is certainly evident, for no number of financial, political and moral strategies would ever satisfy those capacity except if those making them don't take a gander at themselves and approach whether they are to benefit the individuals, that's it and nothing less.

Good to Know Why Companies Really Hire Consultants

Good to Know Why Companies Really Hire Consultants The other day, I was having a conversation with a friend of mine named Morgan. Morgan owns a firm that specializes in provision of IT services to corporates. Due to an increasingly competitive marketplace, Morgan had been forced to bring down his rates in order to retain clients, but this ate into his profits.The firm was barely surviving.At his wits end, Morgan decided to bring in consultants to help him figure out how to return the firm to profitability. After examining the firm’s operations and marketing strategy, the consultants recommended operational changes that helped reduce costs.They also recommended a new marketing strategy that helped the firm attract clients while charging a higher fee than most competitors. In the long run, Morgan’s firm was able to return to profitability. The conversation with Morgan got me thinking about the importance of consultants to companies.Consulting has become ubiquitous in almost every industry. SMEs in the UK spend about £60 billion pe r year on average, while companies in the United States spent $58.7 billion on consulting in 2016. The figure in the United States represented a 7.1% increase from the previous years, which points to a likelihood that expenditure on consulting will continue increasing.Despite this, the use of consultants remains controversial. Hiring consultants is essentially paying third parties to come into your organization, try to understand your operations and then come up with strategies on how you can further improve on what you are already doing.This brings about an important question: why leave such an important element of your organization to third parties? Why would these outsiders be better at strategizing for your organization than your in-house employees who already know the business inside out?Sometimes, hiring consultants has been compared to giving someone your watch so that they can tell you the time and then paying them top dollar for telling you the time.Because of this, many bu sinesses and organizations struggle with the decision of whether to hire a consultant or not. Should your business spend money on consultants? Do they add any value to your business? To make it easier for you to make this decision, let us take a look at some of the top reasons why companies really hire consultants. TO BRING IN EXPERTISERunning a business is a very dynamic experience. Very often, businesses will come across situations they have never had to deal with before, such as launching a new product, entering new markets, merging with another company, and so on.These situations are very critical, and might put the whole business at risk if poorly managed. At the same time, these situations require specialized skill sets that the company might not have access to in house. It is next to impossible for a company to have on staff all the expertise needed to successfully navigate unfamiliar situations.To navigate such situations, a company might turn to consultants to bring in the expertise and specialized skill set required to properly handle these situations. Consultants often specialize in specific niches.They will have handled similar situations a couple dozen times. They know what to do, the potential pitfalls to avoid in order to minimize risk, and they have a track record that speaks for itself.By bringing in consultants, companies have a way to fill in any talent gaps on demand whenever they need it. Once the challenging situation has been successfully navigated, the company can then let go of the consultants without having to worry about any continued costs.TO GAIN EXTERNAL PERSPECTIVERemember writing essays back in school? After writing the essay, you typically went through it a couple of times in a bid to find and correct any mistakes before submission. Here’s the funny thing. Even after proof-reading your essay several times, asking a friend to go through your essay one time would reveal some glaring mistakes that you had missed all through. In this case, it takes a fresh pair of eyes to find obvious mistakes you might have missed. The same happens in business.Since you are too close to your company, you might become blind to obvious mistakes that an outsider can easily spot. This is especially true for small to mid-size companies where the management and owners are too attached to the company since they have invested a lot of their time, resources and energy into the company.The only difference is that while an error in your essay may lead to a low score, mistakes in your business can have very significant consequences.To avoid missing the obvious because of their attachment, senior management might decide to bring in a fresh pair of eyes to provide an external perspective of the business.Since consultants have no emotional connection to the company, it is easier for them to spot and call out the issues that might be holding the company back, especially if these issues arise from an error of judgment on the part of the co mpany’s management.In addition, it is easier for outsiders to question how things are done. In many situations, in house staff may be reluctant to point out problems because they are afraid that it will be equated to causing trouble and lead to their dismissal.This creates an environment where staff may be aware of problems but opt not to address them, leaving the problem to escalate. Since consultants are not worried about being labelled as trouble-makers, they are more likely to question assumptions and call out strategies that don’t seem to be working.TO BENEFIT FROM EXTENSIVE KNOWLEDGE OF THE INDUSTRYConsultants often have extensive experience and knowledge about their respective industries. They have worked with several companies within this industry, studied and implemented different strategies and are aware of everything there is to know about the industry. They might even have worked with your competitors and are aware of the strategies they are using.They have seen what works and what does not. By bringing consultants in, you get the chance to tap in into their extensive knowledge and experience and get recommendations that can help your company to easily outsmart your competitors.TO SUPPLEMENT STAFFIn some cases, a company might be aware of the problems it is facing and what it needs to do to resolve the problem. Unfortunately, the company’s staff might be tied up in other important tasks that cannot be placed on the back-burner.Most likely, the available staff will be needed to focus on their day-to-day operations and other tasks that maintain the cash flow of the company. They cannot simply be transferred to the new task. In this case, it makes sense for businesses to hire consultants to supplement their staff.Why not hire additional staff instead? The problem is that hiring full-time staff is an expensive affair. With full-time employees, you have to factor in the costs of salaries and other benefits, onboarding and training, advertising for the open positions and other recruiting expenses, employment taxes, space needs, equipment, and other costs associated with management of employees. While a consultants fees are typically hire than an employee’s salary, hiring a full-time employee is more expensive in the long run. In addition, most projects that require a company to hire consultants are one-off projects lasting just a few weeks or months. If you hire full-time employees, you might not have enough work to keep them busy once the project is done, yet you have to continue paying their salaries and benefits.Hiring consultants also allows you to get value for your money. In the case of full-time employees, their remuneration is not directly linked to their performance. Once you hire a full-time employee, you have to pay their monthly salary regardless of how they perform on the job.With consultants, you have the option of discussing deliverables and performance metrics, such that you only pay once these deliverables and metrics are met. Hiring consultants is a way of ensuring that you get your money’s worth. In addition, hiring consultants is more efficient on your time.According to a report shared on Glassdoor, it takes an average of 23.7 days to make a hiring decision.This does not even factor in the tie taken to onboard and train the new employees. Consultants, on the other hand, are used to switching around companies and are therefore used to faster learning curves. Because of all this, companies might opt to hire consultants to supplement their staff temporarily instead of hiring full-time employees.TO BRING ABOUT CHANGEHiring consultants can also be a great way of bringing about change within a company. People don’t like change, both in their personal and professional lives.Bringing about change in an entire organization is particularly difficult. Before implementing change, the organization’s management have to consider things such as employee morale, corporate culture of the organ ization and so on. This can make it quite challenging to implement the change. In such situations, it might be wise to hire consultants to implement the change.Consultants are good at implementing change for a number of reasons. Since they are outsiders, they don’t know about and are not afraid of impacting the corporate culture. In addition, consultants do not suffer from status quo bias, which is the tendency of people to want things to remain the same, thus making it difficult for them to see things beyond their current paradigm.People within the companies are subject to this bias because they have gotten used to established ways of doing things. In this case, it might be difficult for them to realize that their current practices might be to blame for their current problems. Since these practices worked for the company before, they keep implementing the same practices even if the changing times demand new practices.There is a story about a company that used to deliver goods thr ee days a week, on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. On the remaining days, the company’s lorries sat idly in the garage, despite the fact that there were delivery runs to be made. A newly employed manager thought that this was very inefficient, and he set out to find out the reason behind this delivery schedule. His first inquiry was met with a very common and popular answer: we’ve always done it that way.Not satisfied, he inquired further.In the end, he discovered that having been started a century ago, there were no automobiles, therefore the company used to make deliveries using horse carriages. Since the horses had to rest, it was decided that deliveries would be made three times a week so that the horses could rest in between deliveries. The same schedule was adopted even after the company switched to lorries. Can you imagine that?Just like the new manager, consultants do not have the status quo bias. They are not predisposed to using the same outdated practices because that i s the way things have always been done. They don’t have qualms about questioning the thinking behind established practices. This makes them great catalysts for change.In addition, companies might be afraid of change because suggested changes are untested, therefore there is some concern that they might not be successful. Consultants, on the other hand, might have tested these ideas on another company and confirmed their effectiveness, therefore making it easier for them to implement the changes with full confidence that the changes will actually be effective.TO PROVIDE OBJECTIVITYVery often, business decisions are usually influenced by emotions and office politics. This is not a huge problem for normal, day to day decisions. However, businesses cannot afford to have serious decisions that affect the future of the company influenced by petty things like office politics.For instance, an employee might keep their concerns to themselves even when they think the wrong decision is being made because they are afraid that their boss will take credit for their ideas, or simply because they don’t like their boss.This leads to decisions being made irrationally and without critical input.   In this case, hiring consultants is a great way of providing much needed objectivity when making decisions. Consultants do not care about office politics, allowing them to make rational, independent and critical decisions.Additionally, the objectivity provided by consultants can help save companies from something known as the sunk cost fallacy. Sometimes, companies might opt to continue investing in non-profitable projects even though it is almost certain that the best decision is to stop the project in order to prevent further losses.The typical justification for this is that since significant resources have already been invested in the project, the company should try and recoup the investment before ending the project. In many cases, this only leads to more losses. In such cases, consultants can objectively evaluate the project and help the company make decision to cut further losses by ending such a project.TO DO THE DIRTY WORKThis is closely related to the previous reason. Running a businesses is not easy, and sometimes, business executives are forced to make some necessary yet unpopular decisions. For instance, in a bid to cut costs, a manager might need to lay off some staff, to eliminate a product line or do away with an entire department.Making such decisions can be challenging. Would you be comfortable knowing that because of a decision you made, 20 people you know personally are not going to have a source of income? At the same time, such decisions have to be made for the sake of the company. In such scenarios, a company can bring in consultants as ‘mercenaries’ to do the dirty work. The CEO or management can distance itself from the unpopular decision by using the consultants as the scape goat.TO PROVIDE VALIDATIONSometimes, companies have an i dea of what they want to do or the direction they want to take, but they are not very sure whether it is the best course of action. In such cases, the company might need someone to look at their intended course of action and give it a stamp of approval. Consultants might come in to provide this validation. To make this easier to understand, let us use an illustration.Assume that you want to start exercising so that you can take part in next year’s marathon. While you know what you want to do, you might still see a doctor to confirm that your body can handle the vigorous exercise associated with training for a marathon. This is what a consultant does. Like the doctor, they confirm whether what you want to do is actually good for the company.The validation from consultants can also come in handy if you want to raise resources from third parties.For instance, if you are preparing a business plan with the aim of using it to secure funding, the bank might ask you to hire consultants to proof-test your business plan before giving you the funds. In this case, the consultant provides validation that your plan is actually workable, thus allowing you to secure the funding.TO TEACH OR TRAIN EMPLOYEESEmployees are a company’s greatest asset, so it is important for companies to invest in developing their employees’ skills. In today’s competitive world, continually training employees allows them to perform their roles effectively and give the company an edge over its competitors.Training is especially important when the company adopts new technology, since employees have to learn how to use new software, operate new equipment or implement a new workflow. For instance, if the company switched from Oracle to SAP, employees need to learn how to use the new ERP.At the same time, sending employees out for external training might not be very effective, especially if a large number of employees have to be trained over a short period of time. In such situations, the best be t for a company is to hire a consultant to train employees.Since consultants are always on top of new developments in their industry, they are best placed to teach companies’ staff what they need for the company to stay competitive. Before commencing a training program, consultants first take some time to understand the company and the come up with customized training programs that are specific to the company and aligned with the company’s culture and training needs.Since consultants perform the training on-site, there is less interference on the day to day activities of the workforce. Using consultants to conduct internal training is also a lot more effective, since employees are trained using real-life problems, challenges and examples that they come across every day at work. It teaches employees the exact skills they need in order to effectively and successfully perform their roles.Hiring consultants to offer internal training is also more cost effective than sending out empl oyees for external training, especially if a large number of employees need to be trained.TO SAVE TIMEPicture the following scenario: a company is thinking about introducing a new product or service to the market, but it first needs to conduct some research to determine whether there is a ready market for the new product or service.Unfortunately, the company cannot afford to have its managers spending their time on an idea that might even not work. Because of this, the idea for a new product or service is placed on the backburner and is eventually forgotten.This doesn’t have to happen. Instead of spending valuable time on a moonshot project or placing it on the backburner, a company might opt to bring in consultants to help with the market research.The consultants can devote their time in conducting the research and then present data on the viability of the product, thus making it possible for the management to make the decision whether to move ahead with the idea or not, while sa ving the company the time it would have spent conducting its own research.This is not restricted to product launches only. By taking over some not-so-crucial tasks, consultants help companies save time while at the same time allowing managers to concentrate on their main duties.WRAPPING UPMany companies struggle with the decision on whether to hire consultants or not. As you have seen, consultants add a lot of value and can support companies in a lot of ways.If your company finds itself in a situation where it needs to bring in temporary expertise, gain an external perspective, benefit from extensive industry knowledge, supplement staff, implement change, make some unpopular decisions, or gain validation for its strategies, hiring consultants might be a great option.Consultants can also provide objectivity, train employees and help the company to save time.

Racism in the Loon Essay - 942 Words

â€Å"The Loons†: Social Racism Kills a Metis Girl Margaret Laurence’s short story â€Å"The Loons† from A Bird in the House has proven highly controversial as an example of racist literature. The Loons, is a representation of racial separation in mid-western Canada in the early 1900s. Here, Margaret Laurence uses setting and characterization to show how severe the prejudice of white people can be towards half breeds, after the period of new colonization. Piquette Tonnere, protagonist, who intends to fight those prejudices eventually, dies, leaving readers surprised to observe the cruelty of the society. The tale â€Å"The Loons† illustrates how racism exists in the guise of good intentions, intolerance and stereotyping. When Vanessas†¦show more content†¦Being ignorant about aboriginals, Vanessa has preconceived ideas about Picquettes heritage. It seemed to me that Picquette must be in some way a daughter of the forest, a kind of junior prophetess of the wilds, who might impart me, if I took the right approach......., or whatever it said in Hiawatha. (Laurence 419) Vanessa is suggesting that just because Picquette is an aboriginal, she must be a skilled tracker and hunter like legendary literary character Hiawatha. Piquette senses this, and she refuses to open up to Vanessa, by rejecting her friendly act. Vanessa immediately decides that â€Å"as an Indian, Piquette was a dead loss,† when she realizes that Piquette has no â€Å"Indian† secrets to share with her; she is confused by Piquette and ultimately rejects her. Alienated Piquette acts indifferently to her surroundings, and only once in the story her heartfelt feelings have been expressed: â€Å"Listen, you wanna know something, Vanessa?...Your dad was the only person in Manawaka that ever done anything good to me† (Laurence 422). Coming from Piquette, who keeps her emotions hidden, just like the loons who cry only at night, her words mean a lot: they show to the readers, Piquette’s loneliness and isolation. Grown up woman Piquette wants acceptance in white dominating society. She attempts to escape poverty and alienation by becoming a seductive woman to snare a man assuming marriage can be the only avenue of escape. In her make up and skin tight skirt,Show MoreRelatedShort Story Essay on Canadian Racial Diversity (Citing Akua Nuten, the Mystery of a White Man, and the Loons)783 Words   |  4 Pagescriminals made his claim seemingly powerful as it was truthful that there are many criminals who are White but really, it is just as easy to come up with a list of Asians, Blacks, and Latinos who are lawbreakers, rapists, and law rigging judges. In â€Å"The Loons†, the half-breed girl Piquette Tonnerre spent a month with the MacLeods, a Caucasian family on a holiday. During that period, the doctor’s daughter Vanessa was trying to make friends with Piquette but she was rejected and ignored by the narrow-mindedRead MoreThe Loons1387 Words   |  6 Pagesthe long-run. Both â€Å"The Loons† by Margaret Laurence and â€Å"Compatriots† by Emma Lee Warrior portray similar messages about the Natives. The main characters Hilda and Vanessa represent ignorance because of their stereotypical nature towards the culture. However, as Vanessa matures she goes through a realization and understands the sorrow and pain of Piquette and her tradition other than herself. Vanessa’s final understanding of Piquette’s life and culture symbolizes the loons. Both short stories revealRead More Racism in Literature Essay2573 Words   |  11 PagesThese works are written using a variety of elements of literatu re for instance setting, themes, conflict, and characters. The following essay discusses the element of racism as a theme in Margaret Laurence’s short story â€Å"The Loons,† Langston Hughes’ poem, I Too, Sing America, and W.E.B Du Bois’ book, â€Å"The Souls of Black Folk.† â€Å"The Loons† is a short story that was done by Margaret Laurence together with other stories in the sequence â€Å"A bird in the House† and was published in 1970. The story centersRead More`` Sula `` By Toni Morrison And The Great Gatsby1762 Words   |  8 PagesMorrison and â€Å"The Great Gatsby† by F Scott Fitzgerald are books based in the 1920’s. They are about life in that time seen from different perspectives upper white class (extremely wealthy) and of course the lower African American Class. It is obvious racism and discrimination were a crucial part of how society worked in America in this time. How blacks were separated from whites and looked down upon. How because of the color of their skin and race they were forced to live in poverty and denied equalRead MoreGloablization4764 Words   |  20 PagesSummers’ (1998) Skin Deep: Inside the World of Black Fashion Models, we see a very different view of Black woman’s beauty. The r unways of Paris and Milan served as the stepping-stones of many highly paid Black fashion models. Despite the pervasiveness of racism, many Black models found acceptance in this part of the world. We can trace this acceptance to the life’s work of Josephine Baker. Although her story is by far not an exceptionally happy tale she did gain prominence and acceptance in Europe long beforeRead MoreCracker Barrel3944 Words   |  16 Pagesmatters, health and safety, taxes, pensions and insurance. Cracker Barrel having to deal with the results of pending and threatened litigation. Cracker Barrel has also had to deal with negative press releases and other communications in regard to racism and homosexuality lawsuits. I have eaten at three Cracker Barrel Old Country Store Restaurants and have not found them to be that great. Their service was really no better than the average restaurant of this caliber. The demographics

The Struggles Of Immigration During The United States

The Struggles of Immigration â€Å"Remember, remember always, that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists.† (― Franklin D. Roosevelt) Immigration itself is a powerful word to all immigrants living in the United States. Let’s be honest with ourselves when you hear the word immigration, the first thing that pops up in our minds is Mexican. Why is it that when we hear the word immigration we think of Mexicans? That is something that nobody will ever understand. But immigration is not just about Mexicans, it is also about all the other immigrant people living in the United States. There are people from many parts of the country. Every time one sees the news, or social media one can see the many†¦show more content†¦If we could only legalize the people that are already in the United States, that would help out the economy greatfully. For example, if we could charge all the immigrants a $10,000 fine to be able to get their Green Cards this would increase our economy immensely. Let’s say that it would be $10,000 X 20,000,000 it would come out to be $200,000,000,000, This would gratefully help out th e economy. It is said that both high-skill and low-skill immigration leads to increased economic growth. Immigration benefit the U.S in two ways, â€Å"it had increased immigration to expand the American workforce and encourages more business start-ups† (Furchtgott-Roth 1). It also â€Å"increases economic efficiency by raising the supply of low- and high-skilled immigrants†( Furchtgott-Roth 1). Immigrants work and provide much of the low-skill labor for industries. If they didn’t most consumers would pay high prices for hotels and restaurants. Immigrants also benefit from and to the U.S research in science, technology,engineering and mathematics(STEM). One also has to take in account the impact of deportation. Everyday there are immigration stings, when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement ( ICE) goes out and start picking up immigrants that are illegal in the United States, which is impacting our economy in a negative way. Alright let’s begin, the cost to keep an inmate in jail is $129.44

Finding Forrester Free Essays

The movie Finding Forrester is based in the Bronx. Jamal Wallace meets William Forrester and at first is unaware that he is a famous author. William helps Jamal with his passion for writing which he covers up with basketball to get accepted. We will write a custom essay sample on Finding Forrester or any similar topic only for you Order Now He gets the opportunity to go to a different school for basketball until he figures out that he would rather be there for academics. William and Jamal have an agreement that William will help with writing and Jamal will keep him a secret. Jamal turns in a paper that William wanted to remain in the apartment, and Jamal gets punished for it when he finds out the first part of his paper that William started for him had published in the New Yorker. Jamal rather take the blame for plagiarism instead of telling them that he knew Forrester. He still covers up with basketball, yet purposely misses his two free throws at the championship game, so the school would want him for his academics and not his athletics. In the end Forrester comes to the school to read for the class and the professor is shocked that he is there, and loves the work that Forrester reads until he says that it is not by him it is by Jamal Wallace. Then the professor knows that they are friends and Jamal never plagiarized from Forrester. William Forrester dies at the end form cancer that he never told anyone about. The end result is that he left his apartment to Jamal and he also gave him a break in his writing. William left Jamal an unfinished book with papers giving him permission to finish and publish it as his book. This is a huge break for him, people never took him seriously he was just a kid from the Bronx and that’s all he would have been if Forrester never helped him. My reaction to this film is that no matter where you’re from you can make it big. Also a friendship can start from any type of situation. I think you can see how they each helped each other through the film. Forrester helped Jamal with his writing and got him a better future then he was headed for. Jamal helped Forrester live his life not cooped up in an apartment. You can see how hard it is to be accepted when you’re young. Jamal had to hide his academics like his teacher said â€Å"being smart doesn’t get you accepted. † Basketball is what got Jamal accepted. Even basketball didn’t do it for everyone. In a different school it can take more. When Jamal was trying to teach Clair how to play basketball you could see in her father’s face that he was unsure about Jamal. Overall I really liked the movie, it doesn’t seem like something I would pick up off a shelve at the video store and watch. I am happy I got the chance to watch it; there are many lessons to be learned in the movie Finding Forrester. How to cite Finding Forrester, Papers Finding Forrester Free Essays Finding Forrester The film, â€Å"finding Forrester†, was a good quality film, with a great theme and moral lesson. The film has two main characters, Jamal Wallace and William Forrester. Jamal Wallace is a talented 16-years old African American basketball player in Bronx, New York, whose secret passion is writing and reading. We will write a custom essay sample on Finding Forrester or any similar topic only for you Order Now William Forrester is a reclusive Pulitzer Prize winning novelist who never gave the world a second novel. He suffers from agoraphobia which prevents him from dealing with life. After an accidental meeting, Forrester becomes Jamal’s teacher and helps him to improve his writing skill. Jamal’s passion of reading and writing, and Forrester’s desire to be a part of the world again builds a friendship that changes both of their life. In his old public school, Jamal Wallace just another teenage boy who resembled all of his friends, except for his secret love to read and write. Once he attends the new private school, he is given a complete different experience. Jamal’s passion for writing is kept secret; he hides in his room reading and writing. During the class, the English teacher asks Jamal about thee significance of â€Å"the raven†, he responds that he had never read this prom before. He was afraid to be different and though his friends would leave him if he told them about his writing. That’? s also the reason that he didn’? t tell his friends about his high test scores. Instead, he showed off his genius in basketball, since it made him fit in school. However, the school discovered Jamal’s test scores, and thinks public school might not be the right place for him. The Easton’s best private school offers Jamal a scholarship. As his friend, William, encourages him to find an answer, which Jamal believes will be found at the private school. When Jamal attends the new school, his experience was changed. He works hard to fit in his new school because the majority of people are white and more educated. Jamal had a big conflict with Mr. Crawford–his new English teacher. There were lots of problems that Mr. Crawford had against Jamal, most of which were based on as well as Jamal’s race and as well as his writing talent. Even though Jamal’s life changes dramatically after he transfers to a new school, he never gives up when he is treated unfairly. William Forrester is the other main character in the film, who is a famous Pulitzer Prize winning author. However, after the death of his brother, he develops agoraphobia and becomes reclusive, isolating himself from the outside world. A series of event and the development of a friendship with Jamal Wallace changes William. In the film, Jamal teaches William the values of life that he is missing; he shows his integrity to Forrester by not telling anyone about his life of solitude. The friendship with Jamal helps William to overcome his agoraphobia. William realizes he could trust Jamal because Jamal deeply cares about him. He takes Forrester to the Yankee Stadium, where he listens to his life story. This makes William realize the importance of friendship, seeing life in a new perspective. Before watching this film, I had no idea what to write about it, but now I have discovered and learned a lot from those characters. Jamal helps William to overcome his agoraphobia and go outside again to be a part of the world. In exchange, Forrester helps Jamal with his passion and goal of uniting. The friendship between Jamal and Forrester turns into a whirlwind that sweeps both characters up and changes their lives forever. This film tells me the virtues of life. How to cite Finding Forrester, Papers

Schools Should Prepare Children For Life in Societ Essay Example For Students

Schools Should Prepare Children For Life in Societ Essay yIn todays information society people often think that characters from TV-showsor talkshow guests reflect our society. Although that opinion is rather based onthe disability of people to use information than on any logical thoughts, thereis something every talkshow reminds us of: people are not perfect. So, I say,society can not be perfect either. I believe that society works by that societydoesnt work. People are too different to put them all into one melting pot, butyou have to, because otherwise society would end in destruction and hate (asseen in the Third Reich). I believe that schools have an obligation to prepare children for life insociety. Therefore they dont necessarily have the ability to change society butI think todays situation in Germany is not nearly as bad as the situation inDead poets society, a movie based on a true story. In the movie a teachertries to let his students be creative and critical towards everything they seeand hear while neglecting values like punctuality and obedience. At first he issuccessful, but as soon as the school board notices his ambitions, he getssuspended for some odd reason. If a teacher in Germany tries to influence students in the way that they aremore creative that is generally seen as positive, but what almost makes thisimpossible is the number of students in a class and the time frame of just 45minutes, which is short if you are going to hear all the different opinions ofall the students. If we accept that there do exist problems in society that need to get fixed, wealso have to see that it is not schools job to do this alone. Schools just cannot make decisions for society, but they should work onproducing individual, critical and creative thinkers with a strong socialconscience. However other institutions need to support schools in doing that andI think it should specifically be pointed out that the current decrease ofteachers while numbers of students are increasing, can have fatal consequencesfor the next generations of citizens. Category: Social Issues

s Mistakes

Saul’s Failures Although Saul was the chosen king, he did have his share of significant failures. In 1st Samuel 13:8-14 it describes how Saul impatiently intruded the office of a priest, yielding to the pressure of the moment. Samuel reprimands Saul saying, â€Å"Thou has done foolishly, thou has not kept the commandment of the Lord thy God, which occurs in 8:13. Saul exhibited extremism in his actions. His pendulum swung from complete inactivity and failure to lead an army against the attacking Philistines, to uttering a rash vow that insisted no one eat anything until all the Philistine army was vanquished. This not only brought Jonathon into danger, but caused the people to break the law and eat the meat with the blood. Saul was even deceitful with God. He claimed that he completely obeyed Gods instructions regarding the Amalekites when in reality he only partially obeyed the Lord. He spent his time chasing David around the wilderness, and finally consulted with a which in Endor. Saul flipped from inactivity to hyperactivity, disqualifying himself for leadership.... 's Mistakes Free Essays on Saul\'s Mistakes Saul’s Failures Although Saul was the chosen king, he did have his share of significant failures. In 1st Samuel 13:8-14 it describes how Saul impatiently intruded the office of a priest, yielding to the pressure of the moment. Samuel reprimands Saul saying, â€Å"Thou has done foolishly, thou has not kept the commandment of the Lord thy God, which occurs in 8:13. Saul exhibited extremism in his actions. His pendulum swung from complete inactivity and failure to lead an army against the attacking Philistines, to uttering a rash vow that insisted no one eat anything until all the Philistine army was vanquished. This not only brought Jonathon into danger, but caused the people to break the law and eat the meat with the blood. Saul was even deceitful with God. He claimed that he completely obeyed Gods instructions regarding the Amalekites when in reality he only partially obeyed the Lord. He spent his time chasing David around the wilderness, and finally consulted with a which in Endor. Saul flipped from inactivity to hyperactivity, disqualifying himself for leadership....

Hanging Words

Hanging Words Hanging Words Hanging Words By Maeve Maddox The Latin verb pendere, â€Å"to hang,† has fostered numerous words that have something to do with the act of hanging. In English, many â€Å"hanging† words have come and gone, but plenty remain in contemporary usage. The most immediately recognizable are pendant, pendent, pendulous, pendulum, pend, and pending. pendant The noun pendant refers to a loosely hanging piece of jewelry worn on a chain around the neck. A pendant can also be the hanging part of an earring. â€Å"Pendant lamps† are designed to hang from the ceiling. An obsolete meaning of pendantin the plural-is testicles: They gird themselves with a piece of raw leather, and fasten a square piece like the back of a glove, to it, which almost hangs so low as their pendants. (1634 example from the OED, spelling modernized) pendent The adjective pendent means hanging or suspended. Something that is hanging is said to be pendent. For example, on old documents like the Magna Carta, a seal is pendent from the parchment. In grammar, an incomplete grammatical structure, such as a dangling participle, is said to be pendent. pendulous Like pendent, the adjective pendulous means â€Å"hanging,† but with the added connotation of drooping or sagging. The word is often applied to jowls; for example, bloodhounds and basset hounds have pendulous jowls. pendulum The pendulum of a clock is a rod with a weight at one end, used to regulate and control the movements of the clock mechanism. It hangs and swings back and forth. pend/pending The verb pend is probably not used as often as its present participle form pending. â€Å"To pend† means â€Å"to await conclusion or resolution.† That’s to say that a matter is hanging in uncertainty. As an adjective, pending is used to mean â€Å"awaiting decision.† As a preposition, pending means â€Å"while awaiting, during, or until,† as in, â€Å"Court of Appeal stays appeal proceedings pending outcome of central amendment applications to the EPO.† In the Roman economy, money was weighed in a scale that had hanging parts. I suppose that explains the fact that the Latin verb pendere, â€Å"to hang,† had the related meaning â€Å"to weigh.† For this reason, some English â€Å"hanging words† have a figurative sense of weighing something, for example, the English word compendium. A compendium is â€Å"an abridgement or condensation of a larger work or treatise, giving the sense and substance, within smaller compass.† Compendium is from the Latin verb compendere, â€Å"to weigh together.† A compendium, in both Latin and in English, is the abridgement of a longer work in which the â€Å"heavier† part has been kept and the â€Å"lighter† part dispensed with. Dispense is another hanging word, from Latin pensare, â€Å"to weigh out.†) The association of weighing with money transactions can also be seen in some of these words. Without further comment, I’ll leave you with a few more words and let you discern the â€Å"hanging† connection in them. append appendage appendix depend dependent dependable dependence expend expenditure impend independent perpendicular suspend suspense suspender Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:50 Idioms About Legs, Feet, and ToesHow to Punctuate with â€Å"However†Show, Don't Tell

Tobacco Horror Show Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Tobacco Horror Show - Essay Example Throughout the article, an attempt has been made to conclude which of the means, literal or visual, is most effective when it comes to delivering ‘the right’ information. The question is, what is more important, the tobacco companies business that will be affected or public health that is always put on the line due to their tobacco production and products? The answer is simple and in my opinion, a smoker needs to be conveyed a message, in a way, that it actually delivers neutralized related aspects such as bad lungs, cancerous cause, short breath, addiction and eventually a shorter span of life. Moreover, a literal message might not have the same effect as compared to the one that is visually displayed as it can be adequate for the smoker to develop the right understanding. The motive should be to educate smokers and to help them overcome the smoking practice or addiction. Displaying images that depict the internal and overall destruction of a human body will make a smok er think twice. Works cited Fish, Stanley. "The Tobacco Horror Show."Â  New York Times. 14 Nov. 2011. Web. 13 Dec. 2011. . The Age of the Superfluous Worker America’s survival in the global economy today is questioned as the unemployment ratio has consistently climbed, as observed. As the situation worsens the estimated jobless ratio has now hiked to almost 15% of the overall work force. These statistics include the type that has now given up their search for work, the superfluous workers. These issues, when combined, severely contribute to the ever-increasing surplus pool. If present-day capitalism continues to eliminate a greater number of jobs as compared to what it creates, soon, along with the addition to surplus labor, majority of workers will eventually turn into superfluous workers. If a considerable proportion is continued to be expelled from within the American work force, soon America will transform into a disturbed society. This age has rightly been named ‘ the age of the superfluous worker’. Where there are less job opportunities for every American citizen, most of them transform into superfluous workers. According to my point of view, government needs to focus more on creating jobs and providing earning opportunities to its own people. If unemployment continues to climb heights, the youth is estimated to reach the ‘surplus state’ at an early age. If out-sourcing offices to lower waged countries continues, an ongoing addition to superfluous workers is never likely to halt. Other than the government concentrating more on creating jobs, employers also need to play a considerable role. They need to understand the fact that if they continue to outsource businesses, soon a time will come when the nation’s youth will be mentally challenged. Works cited Fish, Stanley. "The Age of the Superfluous Worker."Â  The New York Times. 14 Nov. 2011. Web. 13 Dec. 2011. . Moving Beyond Civil Rights Initially, civil rights mad e America a united and fair nation yet in the present, civil rights have failed to bring about any changes in the lives of many minorities, women and the unemployed. Due to the initial successful implementation of civil rights laws, Americans perceive every issue of social injustice

Is a new Walmart a good thing for a community Essay

Is a new Walmart a good thing for a community - Essay Example on, the company serves towards the betterment of the community by providing jobs and ensuring environmental sustainability in its operational processes. To ensure environmental sustainability, Walmart has abandoned the sale of deodorant sticks in cardboard boxes and made use of the concept of greener buildings to establish its stores. The company also engages in Corporate Social Responsibility on a regular basis (Goetz, n.d.). Despite such advantages to the community, Walmart is engaged in a number of problems such as exploitation of labor, which is treated as a negative attribute from the perspective of the community. Moreover, in Walmart, there exists discrimination of worker in terms of gender and age. The company has an increased level of unemployment leading to higher rates of poverty and lower welfare spending. Furthermore, Walmart erodes business centers situated in downtown, which can be considered another factor behind the neglect of the community. Despite promoting environmental sustainability, Walmart itself is engaged in increased environmental degradation, against the communal perspective. In South America, fish farms located across the nation and have led to a rise in obesity rates by 2.4% points for which Walmart is responsible (Goetz, n.d.). Considering the advantages of the company and its comparison with the disadvantages, it can be identified that the company has adopted different measu res based on which the company is able to perform operations with environment consciousness and sustainability. In this context, Walmart can be considered as a good thing for the

Colonisation of Perennial Ryegrass by Endophytic Bacteria

Colonisation of Perennial Ryegrass by Endophytic Bacteria 2. Materials and methods 2.1. Preparation of culture media Nutrient agar (NA) – NA (Oxoid, Basingstoke, Hants, UK) was prepared by weighing out 28g of nutrient agar powder and dissolving in 1L of deionised H2O, by warming on a hot plate. This was autoclaved at 121 °C and 15psi for 15 minutes. The medium was then aseptically dispensed in sterile petri dishes and allowed to solidify. Sucrose glutamate agar (SGA) – SGA was prepared by dissolving 20g of sucrose, 2g of glutamate, 15g of agar bacteriological (Agar No.1) and 1g of K2HPO4 in 1L deionised H2O. This was autoclaved as outline above. The medium was allowed to cool to approximately 60 °C at which 5ml of MgSO4 and 1ml of kanamycin was aseptically added to the medium using a Nalgene Syringe Filters. The medium was then poured into petri dishes and allowed to solidify. Nematode growth medium (NGM) – 1L of NGM was prepared by dissolving 3g of NaCl, 17g of agar, and 2.5g of peptone in 975ml of deionised H2O in a Duran bottle. This was autoclaved as outline above. The media was allowed to cool for 15 minutes at which 1ml of 1M CaCl2, 1ml of 5mg/ml cholesterol in ethanol, 1ml of 1M MgSO4 and 25ml of 1M KPO4 buffer were added aseptically in a Duran bottle. The bottle was swirled to ensure the medium was mixed properly and then aseptically dispensed in sterile petri dishes and allowed to solidify. 2.2. Culturing entomopathogenic nematodes (EPN) 9cm filter paper was placed in sterile petri dish and 1ml of stock nematode suspension was pipetted onto filter paper. Five live Galleria mellonella (wax moths) were placed onto petri dish and sealed with parafilm (Figure 1). The dish were kept in a dark and observed daily for the insect mortality. Once the G. mellonella were dead they were transferred to white traps. Figure 1 Galleria (wax moth) baiting technique. 2.3. Preparation of white traps White traps (White, 1927) were prepared which the lid of a small petri dish (35x10mm) was placed on top of the base and placed in a clear tub, this was then covered with filter paper. 30ml of water was added to the plastic container just to allow absorbing through the filter paper. The dead G. mellonella was placed on the moist filter paper and it was covered and placed in dark for 7 to 14 days (Figure 2). The white traps were observed daily for emergence of infective juveniles (IJs) by using stereoscope (Figure 3). Whenever the water around the stage became densely concentrated with nematodes, the water was decanted into a container and replaced with another 30ml of deionised H2O. The nematodes were stored at 4 °C in 25ml of distilled water until needed for use. Figure 2 – Galleria larvae on white trap. Figure 3 – Galleria larvae under stereoscope (20X). 2.4. Culturing Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) on NGM (Couillault. C, 2002) A stock culture of C. elegans was cultures from a previous stock of C. elegans. In a laminar air flow, the plate was divided into equal sections. A sterilized scalpel was used to cut sections from the stock culture to the centre of a fresh NGM plate (Figure 4). The plates were sealed using a strip of parafilm and stored at room temperature or inside incubator at 21 °C for 3 days. The petri plates were observed regularly using stereoscope (Figure 5). Figure 4 – Culturing C. elegans on NGM (Chunking method). Figure 5 – Observation of C. elegans under stereoscope (20X). 2.5. Culturing of bacterial endophytes The endophytic bacterial strains used in this study were provided by IT Carlow stock collection and have been labelled with gfp (green fluorescent protein). The Pseudomonas strains used were F113, L321 and L228. 1L of Nutrient broth (NB) was prepared and 10ml was pipetted into Mc Cartney bottles and autoclaved. The Pseudomonas strains of L321gfp, L228gfp, and F113gfp were inoculated aseptically using a wire loop and incubated at 30 °C for 24hours in an orbital shaker incubator. The gfp strains in the nutrient broth were then streaked onto fresh non contaminated nutrient agar and SGA in duplicate for each of bacterial strains, using the quadrant streaking method. All plates were covered with parafilm, labelled and incubated at 30 °C for 24hours. A gram stain, catalase test, oxidase test, and observation of morphological characterisation were carried out for the Pseudomonas strains of L321gfp, L228gfp, and F113gfp. 2.6. Quantification of nematodes S. feltiae and C. elegans The stock suspension of nematodes was divided into 50ml samples. 100 µl of the infective juvenile suspension of each sample was pipetted using micropipette onto a counting tray and tally counter was used to count for nematodes under stereoscope (Figure 6). Once they were counted, the sample was discarded and washed with deionised H2O. This was repeated 10 times and the average number of nematodes was calculated. Figure 6 – Counting chamber containing suspension of nematodes. 2.7. Preparation of soil samples 2500g of soil was autoclaved as outlined in section 2.1. The soil was dried in an oven at 55 °C for 24 hours. The soil samples were prepared by weighing out 90g into plastic cups (Figure 7) and temporarily covered with tin foil to prevent any contamination. Figure 7 – Each plastic cup contains 90g of soil. 2.8. Preparation for Sodium alginate beads (Bashan, 2002) The microbeads stock suspension were prepared by dissolving 10g of Sodium alginate in 500ml of deionised H2O , 10g of Calcium Chloride in 500ml of deionised H2O, and 5g of powdered skimmed milk in 50ml of deionised H2O. All components were autoclaved separately and the skimmed milk was autoclaved only for 10 minutes. The working solution was prepared from the stock solutions as follows; 5ml of skimmed milk, 15ml of sodium alginate and 5ml inoculum. The components of the working solution were poured into a sterile petri dish and mixed using a sterile rod. Parafilm was used to plug the spout of 20ml syringe, the alginate mixture and grass seeds were subsequently added. The parafilm was then removed and a sterile rod was used to ensure the coated seeds dropped out individually, into a beaker containing Calcium Chloride on a magnetic stirring plate (Figure 8). The beads were washed at least three times with sterile distilled water and stored in a sealed petri dished until needed for use. Figure 8 – Beaker containing Calcium Chloride on a magnetic stirring plate. 2.9. Isolation of bacterial endophytes from alginate beads (Bashan, Y and Levanony, 1989) In order to isolate and enumerate bacterial endophytes from microbeads seed coating. Six alginate beads containing individual bacterium were dissolved in 10ml of 0.25M Potassium Phosphate buffer in a test tube and incubated at 30 °C for 24 hours. The bead was then shaken on a vortex for 5 minutes to break down the alginate. Using a serial dilution method, 1ml of bead samples containing bacteria was serially diluted in 9ml of sterile ringers from 10-1 to 10-10 (Figure 9); this was carried out onto SGA in triplicate and incubated at 30 °C for 24 hours. Figure 9 – Most probable number (MPN) method/Serial dilution method. 2.10. Isolation of bacterial endophytes from plants (Keogh, E, 2009) Each plant was removed from pots and excess soil was removed. Three samples were taken from each plant (stem, root, and rhizosphere). The stems and roots were surface sterilised with 1% of sodium hydrochloride and washed twice with sterile water. The stems and roots were cut with sterile scalpel and crushed with a pestle and mortar in 5ml of Ringers solution. 100 µl of suspension was added to 900 µl of sterile Ringers in 2.5ml microfuge tubes. The serial dilutions were carried out and the resulting dilutions of 30 µl were then pipetted onto SGA in triplicate and incubated at 30 °C for 24 hours. 3. Results 3.1. Characterisation of bacterial endophytes The classical approach to bacteria identification involves preliminary microscopic examination of the gram-stained preparation for its categorisation which would later form the basis for the selection of biochemical test to be performed to test their identity. Table (Table 1) and figures (Figure 10(a) to (f)) below shows the characterisation for each strain of endophyte. Figure 10 – Characterisation of bacterial endophytes. (a) Culture plate observation for F113. (b) Microscopy examination for F113. (c) Culture plate observation for L228. (d) Microscopy visualisation for L228. (e) Culture plate observation for L321. (f) Microscopy examination for L321. 3.2. Counting of nematodes S. feltiae and C. elegans The number of nematodes was counted per well in four weeks’ time (Table 2) and a chart (Figure 11) was produced comparing the S. feltiae and C. elegans. This was repeated 10 times and the average number of nematodes was calculated. Table 2 – Quantification of nematodes. Figure 11- Comparison between No. of IJ/100 µl with the time of S. feltiae and C. elegans. 3.3. Soil samples inoculation In order to make sure the soil samples free from contamination, the serial dilutions were carried out and the resulting dilutions of 30 µl were then pipetted onto SGA in triplicate and incubated at 30 °C for 24 hours (Figure 12). The results indicated no growth in the soil samples. Figure 12 – No growth in the soil samples. 3.4. Isolation of bacterial endophytes from alginate beads In order to isolate bacterial endophytes from alginate seed coating, the beads were plated onto SGA and incubated at 30 °C for 24 hours. The results indicated that fluorescent which present of green colour pigment (Figure 13). Figure 13 – SGA changed to green colour. 3.5. Colonisation and enumeration of endophytic bacterial within plant tissues Inoculated perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne) was allowed to grow for 4 weeks (Figure 14) before sampling took place. Total bacterial population of gfp expressing were determined for each of the tissues examined. Endophytic bacteria are considered to be those isolated from the internal tissues of surface sterilised plants. However, it is difficult to determine whether an organism is truly endophytic or merely a survivor of the surface sterilisation process. To ensure that the sterilisation processes were adequate, the sterilised tissues were pressed against the surface of a sterile SGA plate and samples of the third water rinsing were also plated onto SGA plates (Figure 15). Bacterial counts (Figure 16 and 17) on these plates were always between 10-1 to 10-4 CFUs per ml (Table 3 and 4), which was considered to be a good indication that the surface was successfully sterilised. However, under epifluorescent microscopy, the gfp expressing from inoculated plants. Pseudomonas species str ain L321 was detected only in the rhizosphere and the interior root tissues of inoculated plant (Figure 18(a) and (b)). Figure 14 Lolium perenne was allowed to grow. Figure 15 – Bacterial count on SGA plates Table 3 –Plate counts on Pseudomonas strain of L321. Figure 16 – Bacterial counts between S. feltiae and C. elegans. Table 4 – Plate counts on Pseudomonas strain of F113. Figure 17 – Bacterial counts between S. feltiae and C. elegans. Figure 18 – Visualisation under epifluorescent microscope. (a) L321gfp bacteria (400X). (b) L321gfp bacteria (100X). 4. Discussion Bacterial colonisation of the internal tissues of plants has been described in almost all plant species examined so far. Although many of these bacteria are phytopathogenic, a considerable number have also been found that colonise the plant without causing disease. Such bacteria are referred to as bacterial endophytes. Colonisation may take place at the local tissue level or throughout the plant, with bacterial colonies and biofilms residing latently in the intercellular spaces and inside the vascular tissues. This project describes the isolation, identification and colonisation efficiency of perennial ryegrass by gfp labelled bacterial endophytes. Furthermore, this study has shown the successful colonisation of perennial ryegrass by three endophytic bacterial strains under controlled conditions. The Pseudomonas strains, L321 demonstrated efficient colonisation resulting in high population numbers within the plant tissues. This experiment shows that the L321 bacteria endophyte worked successfully with the C. elegans to increase the plant colonisation. In this project, L228 was discarded due to the lawns were very poor and did not fluorescence very well so the experiment carried out only with L321 and F113. During the characterisation of bacteria endophytes, the results were obtained which the genus Pseudomonas appeared in Gram negative bacilli motile by polar flagella. In addition, in catalase test shows positive formed the bubbles when comes into contact with Hydrogen Peroxide. On the other hand, the results show that they are oxidase producing which will be oxidised to deep purple colour. Also, when nematodes had been put on plates and timescale had begun it was noticed that some plates start to dry out which may be due to the media drying out so to overcome this this, the plates have to seal with parafilm to prevent from dry out. Furthermore, other notice when the plates rinsed with water, I noticed crystals formed in the media and this may be due to the tem perature problem. Generally in the experiment there is no physical quantity can be measured with perfect certainty; there are always errors in any measurement. For example, the systematic errors are due to poorly calibrated instrument; observational for example, errors in judgment of an observer when reading the scale of a measuring device to the smallest division. 5. Conclusion In conclusion, this study has shown the successful colonisation of perennial ryegrass by three endophytic bacterial strains under controlled conditions. The Pseudomonas strains, L321 demonstrated efficient colonisation resulting in high population numbers within the plant tissues. Hence, none of the introduced strains showed any signs of pathogenicity towards their host plant and others tested. Many studies have shown that the colonisation levels in field trials are less successful than those in laboratory trials. This is probably due to increased microbial competition and less favourable environmental conditions. Therefore, additional long-term field trials need to be carried out in order to gain a better understanding of the colonisation pattern and population dynamics of endophytic bacteria in the perennial ryegrass. If time permitted future work would include, the carrying out of plant biomass which is a time consuming method that involves drying of cells and to perform by weighi ng the dry and fresh weight of each plant. 6. References Brown, R.H. and Kerry, B.R. (1987). Principles and Practice of Nematode Control in  Crops. Academic Press, Sydney. 447 pp. Evans, D., Trudgill, D.L. and Webster, J.M. (1993). Plant Parasitic Nematodes in  Temperate Agriculture. CAB International, Wallingford. 648 pp.   Luc, M., Sikora, R.A. and Bridge, J. (2005). Plant Parasitic Nematodes in Subtropical  and Tropical Agriculture, 2nd edn. CAB International, Wallingford. 871 pp. Mai, W.F. and Mullin, P.G. (1996). Plant Parasitic Nematodes. A Pictorial Key to  Genera, 5th edn. Comstock, London and Cornell University, Ithaca. 276 pp. Ahmad, F., Ahmad, I., Khan, M.S. 2008. Screening of free-living rhizospheric bacteria for their multiple plant growth promoting activities. Microbiol. Res. 163, 173-181. Barraquio W L, Ladha J K, Watanabe I. Isolation and identification of a N2 fixing Pseudomonas associated with wetland rice. Can J Microbiol. 1983;29:867–873.

Eye movements are a reflection of cognitive processes Essay -- Psychol

Introduction The mind is an intriguing element of the human life not only because of its complexity and capability but mostly because of its opacity. How does psychology begin to understand something so obscure and complex? Evidently, by observing and measuring the product of the cognitive processes that occurs through an interaction between the external and internal world. The term ‘cognitive processes’ is a rather collective term referring to a range of mental processes such as perceiving, thinking, speaking, acting, planning and imagining (Ward, 2006). The processes themselves are immensely difficult to measure directly, if possible at all. However, one may gain insight into these mental processes through observing the covert products, such as haemodynamic and electrophysiological changes and the overt products, such as behaviour, accuracy, response times and eye movements. The scope of this essay is to review the evidence that demonstrates exactly how eye movements reflect cognitive processes. Due to the vastness of the topic, this essay will focus on only one of the aforementioned cognitive processes. There has been much attention and extensive literature and reviews regarding eye movements as a tool for understanding the processes of reading, visual perception, visual search and attention (e.g., Rayner, 1998; Liversedge and Findlay, 2 000; Schutz, Braun and Gegenfurtner, 2011). All the mentioned research fields involve measuring eye movements while view some form of visual stimulus, this dissertation will explore a more aberrant field, evidence will be based on literature relating to eye movements when sensory visual input is absent, during visual mental imagery. While reviewing the literature basic themes relating eye m... ...nformation processing: 20 years of research. Psychological Bulletin, 124, 372-422. Schutz, A.C., Braun, D.I., & Gegenfurtner, K.R. (2011). Eye movements and perception: A selective review. Journal of Vision, 5, 1-30. Shallice,T. (1988). From neuropsychology to mental structure. New York: Cambridge University Press. Sima, J.F., Lindner, M., Schultheis, H., & Barkowsky, T. (2010). Eye movements reflect reasoning with mental images but not with mental models in orientation knowledge tasks. Spatial Cognition, 10, 248-261. Spivey, M.J., & Geng, J.J. (2001). Oculomotor mechanisms activated by imagery and memory: eye movements to absent objects. Psychological Research, 65, 235-241. Ward, J. (2006). The students guide to cognitive neuroscience. New York: Psychology Press. Watson, J.B. (1913). Psychology as the behaviourist views it. Psychological Review, 20, 158-177.

Nature is such a beautiful place Essay

Life is getting hard and expensive as the years are passing by. The prices on food, and other utility prices are going up. People have school, work and a family to look out for and do not have the time to enjoy the simple things in life that earth has to offer which is nature. In the essay of â€Å"An entrance to the Woods† Wendell Berry. He admits to living such a fast paste of life that is hard to come back down to the ground and enjoy what is in front of him. People pass by things so quickly and don’t pay attention that they fail to appreciate them. Once a person slows down, they could see what surrounds them. Nature is a good way to find yourself because it is easy to escape from the influence society has. Nature has away of taking away the things that are stressing us and giving away a chance to become refreshed. â€Å" In the middle of the afternoon I left off being busy at work, and drove sixty or seventy miles an hour, hardly aware of the country I was passing through, because on the freeway one does not have to be. The landscape has been subdued so that one may drive over it as seventy miles per hour without any concession whatsoever to one’s whereabouts. One might as well be flying. Though one is Kentucky one is not experien cing Kentucky. One is experiencing the highway, which might be in nearly any hill country east of the Mississippi.† (Berry, 88) During berry’s time in the woods, he writes â€Å"A man enters and leaves the world naked. And it is only naked–or nearly so that he can enter and leave the wilderness. If he walks, that is; and if he doesn’t walk it can hardly be said that he has entered. He can bring only what he can carry– the little that it takes to replace for a few hours or a few days an animal’s fur and teeth and claws and functioning instincts. And comparison to the usual traveler with his dependence on machines and highways and restaurant and motels–on the economy and the government, in short–the man who walks into the wilderness is naked indeed. He leaves behind his work, his household, his duties, his comforts–even, if he comes alone, his words. He  immerses himself in what he is not. It a kind of death.† (Berry, 90) We came to this world naked, and that is how we should enter and leave the wilderness. If we walk using our feet and explore the wilderness that’s how we can say that we entered the wilderness. The little that we bring to survive, it is gone in a few hours or days. An animal uses its fur, teeth and animal instincts to survive versus a traveler that needs machines, highways and restaurants and motels. To be in the wilderness one has to leave behind the work, the household, duties and comforts and even his words. One has get out of its comfort zone, and use your own abilities to survive the wilderness. It is like taking a risk of death. Wendell Berry own experience where he is up and left civilization. The work setting to enter a nature environment devoted to being self efficient on nature. Berry loved and respected nature, he wanted to develop his appreciation further, as he wanted it to evolve and understand for it. He wanted to know how nature worked, and learn it’s reason for being. Berry’s goal was met through this act and it was gratifying experience to escape from moderation and become organic. Berry realizes the purpose of the trip, but the connection to nature cannot replace to connection to man. In the essay of â€Å" Why I went to the woods† by Henry David Thoreau. Thoreau tried to produce his own crops, to live from the labor of his own hands, and to get rid of all the complicating things that distracted him from life’s true meaning by living in the woods. †Thoreau wanted time to read, write, and think. He wanted to make time for nature. And he wanted to test himself, to see just how much he could simplify his life, to determine how much time he could save to do what he really wanted to do with every minute of everyday†( Thoreau, 700) Thoreau mentions that he wants to live a deliberately life. To live deliberately means to take care and think of everything that you do in life, and not to do anything just for the heck of it. Everything that we do has to have a purpose and a meaning, and that is not a waste of time. â€Å"slow down rather than to speed up, to saver a few things fully rather than sample many things fleeting, and have time to decide what, in the long run of his short  life, matters most and why.† (Thoreau, 700) â€Å" I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essentials fact of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not live I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to proactive resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner and reduce it to its lowest terms, and if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it and publish its meanness to the world, or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion.† ( Thoreau, 701) By living in the woods he will be living a simple life away from civilization and to see his strength and weakness. By not being accustomed to that type of lifestyle he might die. When all hope is gone he realizes there are many things he have not tried. The simplest things in life could be and mean much more. Life is precious.

Summer Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere

June 20-21 is a very important day for our planet and its relationship with the sun. June 20-21 is one of two solstices, days when the rays of the sun directly strike one of the two tropical latitude lines. June 21 marks the beginning of summer in the northern hemisphere and simultaneously heralds the beginning of winter in the southern hemisphere. In 2014, the summer solstice occurs and summer begins in the Northern Hemisphere on Friday, June 21 at 6:51 a.m. EDT, which is 10:51Â  UTC. The earth spins around its axis, an imaginary line going right through the planet between the north and south poles. The axis is tilted somewhat off the plane of the earths revolution around the sun. The tilt of the axis is 23.5 degrees; thanks to this tilt, we enjoy the four seasons. For several months of the year, one half of the earth receives more direct rays of the sun than the other half. When the axis tilts towards the sun, as it does between June and September, it is summer in the northern hemisphere but winter in the southern hemisphere. Alternatively, when the axis points away from the sun from December to March, the southern hemisphere enjoys the direct rays of the sun during their summer months. June 21 is called the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere and simultaneously the winter solstice in the Southern Hemisphere. Around December 21 the solstices are reversed and winter begins in the northern hemisphere. On June 21, there are 24 hours of daylight north of the Arctic Circle (66.5Â ° north of the equator) and 24 hours of darkness south of the Antarctic Circle (66.5Â ° south of the equator). The suns rays are directly overhead along the Tropic of Cancer (the latitude line at 23.5Â ° north, passing through Mexico, Saharan Africa, and India) on June 21. The Reason for Seasons Without the tilt of the earths axis, we would have no seasons. The suns rays would be directly overhead of the equator all year long. Only a slight change would occur as the earth makes its slightly elliptical orbit around the sun. The earth is furthest from the sun about July 3; this point is known as the aphelion and the earth is 94,555,000 miles away from the sun. The perihelion takes place about January 4 when the earth is a mere 91,445,000 miles from the sun. When summer occurs in a hemisphere, it is due to that hemisphere receiving more direct rays of the sun than the opposite hemisphere where it is winter. In winter, the suns energy hits the earth at oblique angles and is thus less concentrated. During spring and fall, the earths axis is pointing sideways so both hemispheres have moderate weather and the rays of the sun are directly overhead the equator. Between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn (23.5Â ° latitude south) there really are no seasons as the sun is never very low in the sky so it stays warm and humid (tropical) year-round. Only those people in the upper latitudes north and south of the tropics experience seasons.