20 Surprising Facts About the Titanic

20 Surprising Facts About the Titanic You may already know that the Titanic hit an iceberg  at 11:40 p.m. on the night of April 14, 1912, and that it sank two hours and forty minutes  later. Did you know that there were only two bathtubs for third class passengers or that the crew had only seconds to react to the iceberg? These are just a couple of the interesting facts about the Titanic that were going to explore. The  Titanic  Was Gigantic The Titanic was supposed to be an unsinkable boat and it was built to monumental scale. In total, it was 882.5 feet long, 92.5 feet wide, and 175 feet high. It would displace 66,000 tons of water and it was the largest ship built up to that point in time. The Queen Mary cruise ship was built in 1934 and surpassed the Titanics length by 136 feet, making it 1,019 feet long. In comparison, The Oasis of the Seas, a luxury liner built in 2010, has a total length of 1,187 feet. That is nearly a football field longer than the Titanic. And Grand Luxuries for the first class passengers included a swimming pool, a Turkish bath, a squash court, and a dog kennel. The Ritz Restaurant on board was inspired by the famous Ritz in Londons Picadilly Circus. The grand staircase- there were several staircases- descended seven of the ships ten decks, and featured oak paneling and bronze cherubs. A replica of the staircase can be seen at the Titanic museum in Branson, Missouri. The Last Dinner The last dinner served to first class passengers at the Ritz Restaurant was a feast with ten sumptuous courses, featuring oysters, caviar, lobster, quail, salmon, roast duckling, and lamb. On board the Titanic were 20,000 bottles of beer, 1,500 bottles of wine, and 8,000 cigars, all for the first class passengers. Expensive to Operate The Titanic burned about 600 tons of coal each day to keep it powered. A team of 176 men kept the fires burning, and it is estimated that over 100 tons of ash were injected into the Atlantic each day the Titanic operated. The Canceled Lifeboat Drill Originally, a lifeboat drill was scheduled to take place on board the Titanic on the very day that the ship hit the iceberg. However, for an unknown reason, Captain Smith canceled the drill. Many people believe that had the drill taken place, more lives could have been saved. Only Seconds to React From the time the lookouts sounded the alert, the officers on the bridge had only 37 seconds to react before the Titanic hit the iceberg. In that time, First Officer Murdoch ordered, hard a-starboard (which turned the ship to port- left). He also ordered the engine room to put the engines in reverse. The Titanic did bank left, but it wasnt quite fast or far enough. Lifeboats Were Not Full Not only were there not enough lifeboats to save all 2,200 people on board, most of the lifeboats that were launched were not filled to capacity. If they had been, 1,178 people might have been rescued, far more than the 705 who did survive. For instance, the first lifeboat to launch- Lifeboat 7 from the starboard side- only carried 24 people, despite having a capacity of 65 (two additional people later transferred onto it from Lifeboat 5). However, it was Lifeboat 1 that carried the fewest people. It had only seven crew and five passengers (a total of 12 people) despite having a capacity for 40. Another Boat Was Closer for Rescue When the Titanic began sending out distress signals, the Californian, rather than the Carpathia, was the closest ship. However, the Californian did not respond until it was much too late to help. At 12:45 a.m. on April 15, 1912, crew members on the Californian saw mysterious lights in the sky. These were the distress flares sent up from the Titanic  and they immediately woke up their captain to tell him. Unfortunately, the captain issued no orders. Since the ships wireless operator had already gone to bed as well, the Californian was unaware of any distress signals from the Titanic until the morning. By then, the Carpathia had already picked up all of the survivors. Many people believe that if the Californian had responded to the Titanics pleas for help, many more lives could have been saved. Two Dogs Rescued The order was for  women and children first when it came to the lifeboats. When you factor in that there were not enough lifeboats for everyone on board the Titanic, it is a bit surprising that two dogs made it into the lifeboats. Of the nine dogs on board the Titanic, the two that were rescued were a Pomeranian and a Pekinese. Rich and Famous Among the famous people who died on the Titanic, the wealthiest by far was John Jacob Astor IV, who was worth over US$90 million, over two billion in todays currency. Others included the mining heir, Benjamin Guggenheim, and engineer Thomas Andrews, who oversaw the construction of the Titanic. The co-owner of Macys department store, Isidor Straus and his wife Ida, also died on board the ship. Corpses Recovered On April 17, 1912, the day before survivors of the Titanic disaster reached New York, the CS Mackay-Bennett, a commercial cable repair ship, was sent off from Halifax, Nova Scotia to search for bodies. On board, the Mackay-Bennett were embalming supplies, 40 embalmers, tons of ice, and 100 coffins. Although the Mackay-Bennett  found 306 bodies, 116 of them were too badly damaged to take all the way back to shore. Attempts were made to identify each body found. Additional ships were also sent out to look for bodies. In all, 328 bodies were found, but 119 of these were so severely degraded that they were buried at sea. No-one Knows All Who Died on the Titanic Although the official number of the dead on the Titanic was 1,503 (of the 2,208 on board, there were 705 survivors), over a hundred unidentified bodies were buried in Fairview Lawn cemetery in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Many people traveled under false names, and from so many different places, it proved impossible to identify even the recovered bodies. Sidney Leslie Goodwin, a 19-month-old boy buried under the marker unknown child was identified in 2008, after extensive DNA tests and a worldwide genealogical search. Dance Band on the Titanic There was an eight-piece band on the Titanic, led by violinist Wallace Hartley, who had to learn 350 songs in the songbook handed out to first class passengers. As the Titanic was sinking, they sat on the deck and played music, and all of them went down with the ship. Survivors reported that the last piece they played was either Nearer My God to Thee or a waltz named Autumn. The Fourth Funnel Wasnt Real In what is now an iconic image, the side view of the Titanic clearly shows four cream and black funnels. While three of them released steam from the boilers, the fourth was just for show. The designers thought the ship would look more impressive with four funnels rather than three. Only Two Bathtubs in Third Class While the promenade suites in first class had private bathrooms, most passengers on the Titanic had to share bathrooms. Third class had it very rough with only two bathtubs for more than 700 passengers. The  Titanics  Newspaper The  Titanic  seemed to have everything on board, including its own newspaper. The Atlantic Daily Bulletin was printed every day on board the  Titanic. Each edition included news, advertisements, stock prices, horse-racing results, society gossip, and the days menu. A Royal Mail Ship The R.M.S. Titanic was a Royal Mail Ship. This designation meant the Titanic was officially responsible for delivering mail for the British postal service. On board the Titanic was a Sea Post Office with five mail clerks (two British and three American) who were responsible for the 3,423 sacks of mail (seven million individual pieces). Interestingly, although no mail has yet been recovered from the wreck of the Titanic, if it were, the U.S. Postal Service would still try to deliver it out of duty and because most of the mail was destined for the U.S. 73 Years to Find It Despite the fact that everyone knew the Titanic sunk and they had an idea of where that happened, it took 73 years to find the wreckage. Dr. Robert Ballard, an American oceanographer, found the Titanic on September 1, 1985. Now a UNESCO protected site, the ship lays two miles below the oceans surface, with the bow nearly 2,000 feet from the ships stern. The  Titanics  Treasures The Titanic movie included The Heart of the Ocean, a priceless blue diamond that was supposed to have gone down with the ship. This was just a fictional addition to the story that was likely based on a real-life love story regarding a blue sapphire pendant.   Thousands of artifacts were recovered from the wreckage, however, and many pieces of precious jewelry were included. The majority were auctioned off and sold for some rather incredible prices. More Than One Movie Though many of us know of the 1997 movie Titanic starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, it was not the first movie made about the disaster. At least 11 have been made, depending on how you define Titanic movie. The very first movie made about the Titanic disaster was released in May 1912, a month after the disaster. It was a silent movie called Saved from the Titanic and it starred Dorothy Gibson, an actress who was one of the survivors. In 1958, A Night to Remember was released that recounted in great detail the ships fatal night. The British-made film featured Kenneth More, Robert Ayres, and many other notable actors, with over 200 speaking parts. There was also the 1953 Twentieth Century Fox production of Titanic. This black and white film starred Barbara Stanwyck, Clifton Webb, and Robert Wagner and was centered around a couples unhappy marriage. Another Titanic movie was produced in Germany and released in 1950. In 1996, a Titanic TV mini-series was produced. The all-star cast included Peter Gallagher, George C. Scott, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Eva Marie Saint. It was reportedly a rushed production designed to be released before the famous blockbuster film hit theaters the next year.

The 7 Steps to Becoming a Doctor A Complete Guide

The 7 Steps to Becoming a Doctor A Complete Guide SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Medicine is one of the most challenging, yet rewarding fields a student can enter. Before deciding whether becoming a doctor is right for you, it’s important that you’re well-informed about every step you’ll have to take along the way. Here, I’ll walk you through exactly how to become a doctor, starting with high school. This career is definitely not for everyone- it requires huge investments of time, money, and effort- but if this career path is right for you, this post will help you start preparing now for a successful career. Career Outlook Medicine is a super competitive and rigorous field- doctors have a lot of responsibility, and have to spend a lot of time and money on their training. Healthcare is also a growing field, which means that the demand for good doctors will continue to increase over the coming years. This means that if you pass all of the necessary steps, you probably won’t have an issue finding a good job. Let’s take a look at the career outlook for physicians and surgeons (Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics): 2015 Median Pay: $187,200 per year Job Outlook, 2014-2024 (percent change in employment): 14%, which is much faster than the average % change of 7%. This means that there will likely be an increase in demand for doctors. Pay and job outlook can vary depending on what type of doctor you want to be, so if you have a particular specialty in mind (e.g. dermatology, rheumatology), I encourage you to do your own research on projected career outlook. How to Become a Doctor: Career Path Overview Becoming a doctor is a pretty complex, multi-step process. Here are all the major steps I’ll cover in more detail in this post: Do well in high school Get into a great college Take the MCAT (and get a good score) Apply and get into medical school Become a licensed doctor by passing your boards Choose your specialty and complete your residency Take and pass your final boards to practice independently Still interested in how to become a doctor? Let’s get into the nitty gritty details of each major step. High School If you’re serious about becoming a doctor, you’ll do yourself a big favor by getting focused in high school. Like I mentioned, this is a pretty competitive field- the earlier you start distinguishing yourself as a great student, the easier the process will be. Here’s what you can do in high school to help prepare for later steps: Focus on Science and Math To fulfill all pre-med requirements in college (I’ll get to that in a bit), you’ll have to take quite a few science and math classes. Lay a solid foundation by taking a science and math course every year, and make it a priority to take advanced and/or AP courses. You’ll also want to keep your GPA (in these classes and all others) as high as possible. This is an important step because it also gives you a tiny glimpse into what college and medical school will be like. If you don’t enjoy science and math courses in high school, it’s unlikely you’ll enjoy them later on. Use this as an opportunity to think critically about whether you’d like to pursue this career. Do Plenty of Community Service Being a good doctor isn’t just about being a science and math whiz- it’s about being invested in caring for other people. Show how you care about helping others by volunteering consistently in high school. It’s best if you can do volunteer work that’s at least somewhat related to healthcare. You might see if there are any opportunities at a nearby hospital or clinic (I had friends in high school who helped escort people who were visiting family members in the hospital, for example). These volunteer opportunities can also help you decide fairly early whether a career in medicine is something you’re interested in pursuing. Of course, you don’t have to volunteer exclusively in healthcare environments- any community service opportunity where you’re helping other people is a good fit. Read more about the benefits of community service, and then check out our list of the nine best places to volunteer. Is working in healthcare a good fit for you? Volunteering in the field is a great way to find out. Get a Great Score on the ACT or SAT To get into a great medical school, it helps to go to a great college. To get into a great college, it helps to get a high score on the SAT or ACT. Plan on taking your first test by the end of your junior year- this gives you time to take your test of choice again if you want to try to raise your scores. Read these guides for more info on how to get a great score: What counts as a good, bad or average ACT or SAT score? How to get a perfect score on the ACT or SAT How long should you study for the ACT or SAT? Submit Stellar College Applications Your senior fall will be all about researching and applying to colleges. You don’t necessarily need to go to a school with a dedicated pre-med program, but it helps if your college or university has strong science and math programs- they’ll help prepare you for the MCAT and med school. If you want to go to a top-tier private school, you’ll have to submit applications with: High GPA High SAT/ACT scores Great letters of recommendation Polished and thoughtful personal essays Some great public schools may not require letters of rec or applications essays- nevertheless, it’s wise to start preparing these materials early in the college application process if you think you’ll apply to any colleges that require them. If you’re still working on college research, read more about: The best rankings lists and whether you should trust them Whether it matters where you go to college How to decide where to go to college College College is where you really start focusing your studies and preparing for a career in medicine. Here’s everything you should do as an undergraduate to prepare yourself for the next major step: medical school. Meet All Pre-Med Requirements Most medical schools require students to have taken a series of courses as undergraduates. This ensures that they have strong foundational knowledge in math and science, and will be well-prepared for the more advanced courses they’ll take as med students. Here are the core classes that most medical schools require: Two semesters of biology with laboratory Two semesters of inorganic chemistry with laboratory Two semesters of organic chemistry with laboratory Two semesters of math, at least one in calculus Two semesters of physics with laboratory Two semesters of English and/or writing This comes to 12 course requirements at minimum, which doesn’t give you a ton of wiggle room if you also have to meet requirements for a major without much pre-med overlap (say, romance languages or studio art). Because of this, many pre-med students choose majors like biology or chemistry- this makes it much easier to meet both pre-med requirements and the requirements for your major. If you decide later in college that you’d like to apply to medical school but you know you don’t have time to fit in all these requirements, don’t panic just yet. It’s fairly common for people to wrap up pre-med requirements by taking an extra semester or two at college (some schools call these students â€Å"super seniors†). You may also look into full-time post-bac programs if you have more than a few requirements left to fulfill. These options mean extra time and extra expenses, but they’re helpful (and sometimes necessary) steps before applying to med school. Keep Your Grades Up Your transcript will be a very important part of your med school applications, so your academic performance should really be your #1 priority as you work your way through college. Build Relationships With Professors and Mentors You’ll need a few strong letters of recommendation from respected faculty members when you submit your med school applications- use this to motivate you to network with as many people as possible. Develop relationships with professors and mentors by going to office hours, participating in class, and taking opportunities to work on research projects. Your nerdy professors will prove to be invaluable resources when you’re applying to med school, but only if you have relationships with them! Get Some Research Experience Having research experience under your belt is a big plus for med school applications, especially if you can squeeze in a publication or two. Working in a biology or chemistry lab would probably be most helpful for medical school. There are a couple ways you can get research experience as an undergraduate: Work as a research assistant (paid or unpaid) in an on-campus lab or an off-campus research institute. Look at campus job postings, or approach specific professors in your department about potential lab openings. If you don’t have time during the semester to take on extra work, consider summer opportunities. Complete an undergraduate thesis, which involves research work. This usually requires a professor to officially take you on as his/her student. Each school (and each department within a school) will have its own procedures and policies for undergraduate theses, so educate yourself early on (i.e. freshman year) if you’re interested in this track. Continue With Community Service Medical schools are going to look at your community service record as an important part of your application. You should make time for volunteer work in college just as you did in high school. The good news is that it should be easier to find relevant advocacy and community service clubs and organizations in college. Here are a few example activities you may be interested in (although this list is by no means exhaustive): Volunteering at a homeless shelter Joining a public health advocacy society or organization Volunteering at a nursing home, or engaging in other forms of elder care (e.g. Meals on Wheels) Joining a peer counseling organization It’s better to stick with a few clubs or activities over the long term (as opposed to jumping around between activities year after year). This demonstrates that you’re consistent and reliable- it also opens up opportunities for leadership roles, which is a big plus for your applications. Ace The MCAT The MCAT (or Medical College Admissions Test) is used as a predictor of your success in med school, and as such is weighted pretty heavily when compared to other parts of your application. Most students take the MCAT their junior year- this is arguably the most optimal time to take the test. You will have gone through many of your pre-med courses at this point, which makes studying for the MCAT a lot easier. Test Scoring and Logistics In total, it takes 7.5 hours to complete the MCAT. The sections on the test include: Physical Sciences Verbal Reasoning Biological Sciences Psychological, Social and Biological Foundations of Behavior Each section is scored on a range from 118 to 132, with a median score of 125. You’ll receive an individual score for each section in addition to an overall score. Total (overall) scores range from 472 to 578, with the average score sitting at about 500. This scoring system is relatively new, so there isn’t any historical data available to predict what a good or â€Å"safe† MCAT score will be for med school admissions. Hypothetical percentile ranks state that the 85th percentile score will sit at 508-509. This coincides with a score of 30 on the old MCAT, which was thought to be a good score to aim for. The new MCAT encourages admissions officers to look favorably upon students who score around 500 or above. The MCAT is administered 15 times per year, so you have quite a bit of flexibility when it comes to scheduling the test. Be prepared for some hefty expenses - it costs $305-$355 to register for the test depending on how far in advance you sign up. There are Fee Assistance Programs available for students who may not be able to shoulder these expenses. After your scores are calculated, they’re automatically released to AMCAS (American Medical College Application Service) - you won’t have to submit them separately to any schools unless they don’t use the AMCAS. Get more information on test dates and registration. If you’re adequately prepared the first time you take the test, you could save yourself the cost of an extra registration fee. Studying for the MCAT Plan on studying 200-300 hours if you want to do well on the test. Since it’s a 7.5 hour exam, you really don’t want to have to take it twice. There are a few different ways to prep for the MCAT exam: Independent study. This may work for students at a school with strong pre-med support who are also performing well in their classes. Strong foundational knowledge is the most important factor that affects performance on the MCAT, but students would still, of course, need to spend significant time preparing. An MCAT Prep Course. Pre-med students commonly take prep courses when they want a solid review schedule that will keep them on track. There’s a lot of material to cover, and a good course helps you make sure there aren’t any major gaps in your knowledge of content or strategy. They can be very expensive most are several thousand dollars. Kaplan and Princeton Review are a couple of the most popular options. Online Prep- Online resources can offer a great combination of structure and flexibility when you’re working to cover a lot of material. Khan Academy offers some free study material if you’re looking for a place to start, although it won’t suffice if you’re putting together a full online study plan. Dr. Flowers Test Prep is another, more comprehensive, resource for online studying. A private tutor. Students whose grades aren’t up to par or who have poorly on the MCAT before may want to consider this option. If you choose to seek out a tutor, choose someone with glowing recommendations and years of tutoring experience- they won’t come cheap, but they’re also less likely to waste your time and money. You can buy an official practice test through the AAMC for $25, in addition to other official study guides and prep materials. Applying to Medical School The medical school application process is extremely long. If you want to start med school the fall after you graduate from college, you’ll have to start your applications your junior year. Researching Medical Schools The average student applies to about 13 schools to optimize their chances of getting in- I wouldn’t recommend that you put together a list much smaller than that. The MSAR (or Medical School Admissions Requirements) website is one of the best tools for looking into important medical school information. For a $25 year-long subscription, you can easily access: Acceptance rates Average MCAT and GPA of applicants and accepted students Numbers of out-of-state students Application requirements Application deadlines Like with any school or program, there are med school rankings lists. Because US medical schools’ admissions criteria and curricula are so stringent and rigorous, however, keep in mind that admission to any school in the country should be considered an accomplishment. If you end up in a school in the country, and you follow through with a residency at a good hospital, you’ll have no trouble finding work. Types of Medical Schools There are two types of physicians in the US: allopathic physicians (MDs) and osteopathic physicians (DOs). Both types are fully licensed physicians, and are often very similar in the way they practice medicine- they just receive degrees from slightly different types of programs. We’re most used to hearing about doctors with MDs, so if you’re not familiar with DOs then I encourage you to do more research on these types of programs. DOs receive additional specialty training in certain areas, including using the hands to diagnose/treat illnesses and injuries. Read more about osteopathic medicine. Allopathic or osteopathic: which type of med school is right for you? The Application There are three steps to the application process: Step 1: Primary Application You send in your primary application by June the year before your first year of med school. Most med schools use the American Medical College Application Service (AMCAS), which is like a Common App for med schools. This application includes official transcripts, a personal statement, your resume/CV, and your MCAT scores. Start preparing these materials a few months before submission. Step 2: Secondary Application This usually happens in July-August on a typical application timeline (i.e. one where you submit the primary application in June). At this point, a school will either reject your primary application OR ask you to complete its secondary application. The secondary application will differ for each school you apply to. Sometimes, schools just ask you to submit an application fee to continue with the application process. Other times, schools send fairly extensive lists of essay prompts (e.g. â€Å"Why are you interested in attending this medical school?†). If the school is happy with your primary + secondary application, you will move on to the next step. Step 3: Interview If a school definitely does (or definitely does not) want to interview you, you’ll hear back from them pretty quickly. Some students are left in limbo for a while as schools deliberate about what to do with them. Interviews are the final decision-making phase. Your interview will either make or break your application. Preparing for interviews is tough because each school (and each interviewer) will have its own priorities and questions. Overall, you want to come off as (1) committed to the medical track (2) confident about your abilities (3) eager to learn (4) warm and empathetic (5) grateful for the opportunity to be there. Medical School After fulfilling all those pre-med requirements and submitting all those applications, you finally arrive here: med school. You’ll spend four years here, but that doesn’t mean the experience will be very similar to that of your undergraduate education- there are more decisions to be made, more opportunities for hands-on experiences, and more professional licensing requirements to worry about. Here’s an overview of what these four years will look like: First two years- Primarily classroom-based courses Third year- Training in each major medical specialty (also known as rotations) Fourth year- Primarily elective courses based on preferred specialty There are some other important steps along the way- like board exams- that I’ll address here as well. Years 1-2: Classroom Work You won’t have much say in what courses you’ll take during your first two years of med school. Your education during this time will be an extension of your pre-med requirements- you’ll take many advanced courses that will give you the important biological, anatomical, and chemical foundations you’ll need to work as a physician. These courses will obviously have an important impact on your GPA, which will affect how competitive you are when you’re matched for your residency/internship (we’ll get to that shortly). As such, it’s important to keep your grades up- your future self will thank you. At the end of your second year you’ll take the United States Medical Licensing Examination, or the USMLE-1. This test assesses your medical competency to see if you should continue with your education and medical licensure (another name for the USMLE exams is â€Å"Boards†). At most medical schools, you need to pass this exam in order to progress to your third year of school. Read more about the test and access exam practice materials. Year 3: Rotations In your third year, you’ll start working with patients in a medical setting (under a supervisor) within different medical specialties. This helps you gain hands-on experience as a physician, but perhaps more importantly, you’ll learn more about what sort of specialty you may be interested in. After the bulk of your rotations experiences in your third year, you’ll have to decide what sort of medicine you’d like to pursue. This decision will dictate what sort of elective courses you’ll take in your fourth and final year of med school, as well as how long you’ll spend in your residency (get more information on this in the Residency section). Med school rotations are a bit more productive than the one the hamster’s doing on this wheel. Year 4: Pursuing Your Specialty As you now know, your fourth year is dedicated primarily to taking elective courses to prepare for your preferred specialty and continuing gaining hands-on experience. You’ll also take the USMLE Level 2 (it’s similar to the first examination, only testing more advanced knowledge)- it includes a clinical knowledge and clinical skills portion. Residency Residencies (also known as internships) are supervised positions at teaching hospitals. You’ll be matched to an available residency position through the National Resident Matching Program, also known as the NRMP. You’ll be able to note your preferences, but you won’t have ultimate decision-making power over your matches. Once the NRMP sets you up, you sort of have to take what you’re given. You’ll spend at least three years in your residency program, but may spend more there depending on your specialty. During your first year, you’ll be known as an intern- you’ll be at the bottom of the totem pole, but not for long. During your residency you’ll also need to pass your final licensing exam (USMLE-3). The third and final licensing exam is taken during the first year of your residency. It tests your ability to utilize your medical knowledge and provide care in an unsupervised setting, which is what you’d have to do as a licensed physician. You will receive a salary as a resident, but it won’t be much. The average resident gets about $48,000/year, which will cover living expenses and your minimum medical school loan payments. Here are some example specialties and their respective residency requirements: Anesthesiology- 4 years Dermatology- 4 years Emergency Medicine- 3-4 years General Surgery- 5 years Internal Medicine- 3 years Neurology- 4 years Obstetrics and Gynecology- 4 years Pathology- 4 years Pediatrics- 3 years Psychiatry- 4 years Radiology- 4-5 years Beyond the Residency Once you’ve finished with your residency and passed all your boards, you can officially practice independently as a licensed physician! It probably won’t take you long to find work. You may want to practice in a hospital, a clinic, or private practice. You’ll have to keep up with Continuing Medical Education in order to practice as a physician, no matter specialty. This ensures that you stay educated and up-to-date on the latest research and best medical practices. Your education doesn’t end here- you’ll be working to keep up with new information and best practices for the rest of your career. Summary This is a ton of information to take on at once, especially if you’re at the beginning of this process (or even if you’re still unsure about becoming a doctor). There are a few good things you should take away from this, though: You don’t have to decide at the beginning of college that you want to become a doctor (although it does make it easier to fulfill pre-med requirements). The path to becoming a physician isn’t completely rigid, especially if you’re interested in other biological and physical science careers. You don’t have to think about all of these steps at the same time. Once you’re in med school, your peers will be thinking about (and worrying about) the same things- there’s no way you’ll forget any important steps. Becoming a doctor is definitely not for everyone- getting into medical school is really tough, and you still have a lot of training to complete after you graduate. But if you decide you want to enter the medical profession, you now have the info you need to start off on the right foot. What’s Next? If you want more information on what to do to prepare for med school while you’re in high school, you’re in the right place. Check out our guide on 59 great medical programs for high school students and our list of the 7 books every pre-med student should read. Starting to research different college or med school options? Start off with this complete list of BA/MD and BS/MD programs in the US. You may also be interested in our step-by-step guide on how to get into a BS/MD program. Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points? We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. 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BRIEF RESPONSES TO CLASSMATES POSTS Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

BRIEF RESPONSES TO CLASSMATES POSTS - Essay Example Unlike litigation, arbitration allows parties to agree on who would hear the case. In formal litigation, the court assigns the case to the next available adjudicator. In civil courts, the issues become a matter of public interest whereas, in arbitration/mediation, cases remain confidential. Uncertainty of litigation processes increases once the case is appealed in higher courts. In contrast, arbitration leaves fewer chances for appeal. As Dimino specified, this happens as negotiation takes place ‘without having a forced agreement’. As everyone knows, an arbitral tribunal is not bound by the regulations of civil procedures, and hence, the parties can, by their mutual agreement, vary the terms of arbitrators’ authority, fire the arbitrators, and fix the procedure if they want.   In other words, the total mechanism of arbitration is more convenient and less stressful to the parties. At this juncture it is reasonable to point out some of the disadvantages of choosin g arbitration as settlement option. Among them, lack of transiency is often pointed out by critics as the major drawback. In case the arbitration becomes biased due to the so called confidentiality, the situation can become worse as courts are less likely to review the arbitration decisions anymore. Evidently, as many of the posts here indicate, arbitration has several advantages over formal dispute resolution methods. However, an important thing to remember is that the feasibility and popularity of arbitration does not reduce the significance of litigation. Instead, arbitration is only a limb of civil system that can reduce the burden of formal courts and thus facilitate easy access to justice. Like others, Barcena also has emphasized the higher cost that can incur during litigation. Although this claim has been true so far, recent studies indicate a considerable rise in arbitration cost also, sometimes that exceeded the cost of formal litigation processes. For instance, Public Cit izen, a consumer watchdog group conducted a study which identified that â€Å"the cost of initiating an arbitration is significantly higher than the cost of filing a lawsuit: $6,650 to $11,625 to initiate a claim to arbitrate a consumer claim worth $80,000 versus $221 to file that action in a particular county court† (as cited in Nolo). Admittedly, the other view regarding the parties’ perceptions on winning the case in court reflects right observation. As the litigation processes become more extensive and complex, the scope for mediation normally increases. Jimenez’s choices of dispute resolution clause are ‘bargaining and mediation’ as they are found ‘cost-effective’. However, it seems applicable only to certain situations like in a dispute between employer and employee on salary or promotion. As Yolauri Barcena opines, â€Å"mediation could be a good possibility for non-critical disputes within co-workers†. However, there are some essential negotiation skills that managers require for aligning their workforce to achieve the organizational goals in a viable manner. Every sphere of human life is vulnerable to conflict and therefore requires ceaseless haggle and negotiation. When it is in business affairs, the negotiation process goes rather formal, and it demands outstanding skills from an individual to win the bargain. However, the parties involved must be aware of the fact that they bargain not to win but to resolve an issue. This

Analysis on British Airways Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Analysis on British Airways - Essay Example Political factors is another crucial issue that is considered by the company to ensure the country has a stable government as political arena usually has a great influence on consumer’s spending power and business regulation. Some of the political factors British Airways consider are the stability of the government, the influence of the government on taxation and position of the government on the marketing ethics. Since there are other competitors in the air transport industry, British Airways has taken into consideration that their customers have a high bargaining power. Due to this reason, they ensure that the fare rates are friendly as their customers can always switch to purchase the substitute services from other airline companies. However, due to the high capital required to start an airline, British Airways is not under a very severe threat as compared to other business ventures that would require low capital to be started. On the other hand, the organization has to ens ure it spends heavily on advertising since there are a number of other companies offering the same services of air transport. For this case, it has to keep on advertising and offering competitive fare rates and other promotional activities to guarantee them that their services will continue prevailing in the market. Another factor that has guaranteed the services of British Airways that they will continue to prevail in the world market in their product services. They have ensured that the services are quality.... Since there are other competitors in the air transport industry, British airways has taken into consideration that their customers have a high bargaining power. Due to this reason they ensure that the fare rates are friendly as their customers can always switch to purchase the substitute services from other airline companies. However, due to the high capital required to start an airline, British airways is not under a very severe threat as compared to other business ventures that would require low capital to be started. On the other hand, the organization has to ensure it spends heavily on advertising since there are a number of other companies offering the same services of air transport. For this case, it has to keep on advertising and offering competitive fare rates and other promotion activities to guarantee them that their services will continue prevailing in the market. 1 Another factor that has guaranteed the services of British Airways that they will continue to prevail in the world market in their product services. They have ensure that they services are quality and their guarantee safety for their passengers. Being on of the oldest airline in the world, it has a brand name that has increased their goodwill in the market. British Airways do not operate on fixed rates on their fares through the years and for this case, they usually have seasonal pricing whereby they charge more during the peak season and low rates during low seasons. They also ensure that they charge reduced rates for customers who pay a return ticket unlike if one pays for one ways ticket and another one when returning which is expensive. 2 British Airways has ensured that their services are within the reach of their clients since they

Activities in India Essay Example for Free

Activities in India Essay The development process of CSR strategy in Indian |Banking Sector can be divided into 4 phases. During 1920’s the CSR activities in financial sectors are mainly motivated by charity and philanthropy which does not have a clear planning or message towards society. Between 1914 and 1960 the financial sectors become more concerned over ethical responsibilities and social development to become a good corporate citizen. During early stage of 1970’s the financial sectors become more concern over the legal responsibilities by following rules and regulations while carrying out business activities. After 1980 the Indian financial organisations combine CSR into a understandable and sustainable business Strategy. Analysis of CSR Activities of Indian banking companies At present banking sectors are under immense pressure from investors, share holders, NGO’s to perform the business in more on ethical and responsible way(Bhattacharya 2004). But in Indian Banking sectors CSR activities are considered to be on the lower side while comparing other countries and the government has not adopted any rules and regulations for carry out CSR. The Reserve Bank of India who controls all banks of India sense that the CSR activities in both public sector and private sector banking are lacking while compare to other countries. In order to improve the CSR activities in Banking Sectors the RBI issued a notification on 2007, advising all banks to improve the CSR activities by helping the cause of sustainable development with full cooperation from boards. The RBI also advised all banks to combine the environmental and social concerns in their business activities which will have a positive effect on stake holders and society Even though lot of Indian banks are still not considered CSR seriously, Some Public and private banks like SBI, SIDBI, Punjab National Bank, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Union Banks, etc. are doing some good initiative as a part of CSR . While carrying out CSR activities the key areas Indian banking sectors considered are environment and community. Some of the recent CSR initiatives provided by different banks in India are listed below. Environment To make an appeal in environmental and ecological interest, energy efficient buildings are provided by Reserve Bank of India also to decrease the substance which cause harm to ozone layer some of the air condition plants are replaced by RBI in various banks. Small Scale Industries which are involved in energy saving projects are provided by Small Industries Bank In India(SIDBI) which will encourage them to perform well. State Bank of India(SBI) is providing an innovative approach towards CSR by introducing â€Å"Green Banking†. The green banking is concerned with sustainable and ethical banking. The main purpose of green banking is to increase the awareness of environmental friendly programme and to reduce the carbon foot print which effects the environment negatively. The green channel counter method has been adopted by SBI to change their branches to paperless which is a good policy against deforestation. To prevent pollution and to increase recycling procedure, SBI has Started â€Å"Panet Earth† which helps the society in reducing the waste and to preserve water and energy. Community As child labour is one of the major problems faced by India, the children below 14 years who are from low income group are provided with free education by ICICI bank. This bank also provides various awareness programs on HIV/AIDS. With the Support of NGO’s the Punjab national banks are implementing various technical programmes for better education to people from rural areas and also they are providing â€Å"micro credit policy† which helps the society in increasing income level and reducing unemployment. To help in increasing local economy, more than hundred villages are adopted by Bank of Baroda (BOB). Some of the small commercial banks are also undertaking various CSR activities like blood donation, health camps, welfare activities of students, self employment opportunities, etc. The Impact of CSR on Indian Banking Sector According to research conducted by Pava and Krauz(1996)there is positive relationship between CSR and Financial performance of the organisation. On the other side some researches from Hopkin and cove(2003)proved that there is chance of negative impact on share price and brand image on organisations as a result of socially irresponsible practices and bad CSR strategies. According to the survey conducted by Bihar and Pradhen (2011) CSR has positive impact on performance and image of the bank. For example, ICICI one of the leading Indian Commercial Banks was able to improve the brand image and profit of the business with fine CSR strategies. So the CSR activities will help to improve the performance of the bank by giving the banks good brand image. By less consumption of office stationeries, energy and water operational costs of the organisations can be reduced, helps to maintain good relationship with the stakeholders, by adopting eco friendly products health hazards of the employees can be reduced. Thus it can be said that the CSR activities help the banking sector to perform the business with Legal and Ethical responsibilities there by making the organisation a good corporate citizen.

Comparison of the Portrayal of Nature in Blake and Wordsworth Essay

Comparison of the Portrayal of Nature in Blake and Wordsworth One of the most popular themes for Romantic poetry in England was nature and an appreciation for natural beauty. The English Romantic poets were generally concerned with the human imagination as a counter to the rise of science. The growing intellectual movement of the 18th and 19th centuries placed scientific thought in the forefront of all knowledge, basing reality in material objects. The Romantics found this form of world view to be restrictive. They felt that imagination was crucial to individual happiness. The imagination also provides a common human bond; a means of sympathy, of identification. However, the absence of imagination, the Romantics felt, would lead people to indifference and a false sense of being. The English Romantics accepted the reality of the link between man and nature in the form of the human imagination as the basis of human understanding, rejecting the scientific world view of materialism. The Romantics attempted to discover the hidden union between man a nd nature. Imagination is a force, or energy, that allows such a bond to be made. William Blake saw the human imagination as essential to human understanding of the world; he saw reality as a "mental construction." According to Blake, once the energy of imagination is used effectively to realize the connection between man and nature, the person gains freedom from the restraining bonds of uninspired thought. Humans bring meaning to nature in the form of imaginative thought. Self-imposed social and intellectual restrictions deprive humans of experiencing nature and the true human spirit. In Blake's Songs of innocence and Experience we have several poems which focus on nature. T... ...ded him comfort and enjoyment during the years of his absence, when he was stuck in the "din of towns and cities." For the rest of the poem, he ponders on the relationship he has had with this area, thinking about how his feelings about nature have changed since he was a child and how he can pass on his appreciation of the valley to his "dearest Friend", with whom he is exploring the river valley around the abbey. The specifics of the scene are important to Wordsworth, but their importance is primarily as an inspiration for the more philosophical ideas he presents throughout the poem. What Wordsworth names and represents as nature is the ruling power working tacitly and harmoniously, reconciling discordant elements, building up the mind and perhaps the cosmos itself. www.mattbrundage.com Wordsworth Lyrical ballads Blake - Songs of Innocence and Experience

Community Diagnosis Essay

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A community is a group of organisms or populations living and interacting with one another in a particular environment. People with common agenda, interest, or cause, who collaborate by sharing ideas, informaton, and other resources. In communty health nursing, community is the client who needs promotion and preservation of the health of the population. Community diagnosis is a means of examining aggregate and social statistics in addition to the knowledge of the local situation, in order to determine the heath needs of the community. It is a tool to disclose the hidden problems that are not visible to the community people but are being affected by them. This tool is important and has helped many communities in improving their health status. The main purpose of community health and nursing services is to improve and sustain the health situation of the community that doesn’t have access to basic health care services and to help individuals who need help to promote quality care for the whole community. This study will mainly benefit the people in Barangay 842, District VI of Manila. The researchers were optimistic that through this study they will be able to assist the community in developing measures that will enable the local residents to identify and manage their own health related problems and be able to achieve good health. Read more:  How to write a diagnostic essay of my self. Rationale This study aims to present the nature of the community of Barangay 842, District VI, Pandaca Manila thus aiding the nursing students to practice their knowledge and skills with discipline accuracy and in logical manner like contributing to the improvement of the condition of the locality. The community as the center of this study provides them to do their role in the field of health care as a responsible health nurse. It can produce data and information that can help to determine and identify needs, interest and problems of the community through joint efforts and cooperation among students and the people affected. Recognizing their needs, interest and problems of the community will enable them to plan the action needed, offer proposals, alternatives and solution and solve these problems with unity and coherence to have a better community setting. Community diagnosis provides the students exposure to the real-life situations, thus developing their decision-making skill and learn on ho w to deal on different people and situations in a right and ethical manner that we will encounter while conducting this study. It also helps them develop our knowledge, skill, attitude, cooperation, and participation on improving the condition and organizing a community and learn how to deal on a chaotic situation effectively. In addition, nursing practice in the community – The community diagnosis helps raise the level of health dissemination of the community. This will also help students to maximize our potential and to render the potential on preventing diseases, promoting health and organize and participate on the development of health plan that will benefit the community to attain optimum health to individuals, families and communities. STATEMENT OF OBJECTIVES GENERAL OBJECTIVES After two weeks of gathering information at Barangay 842, Pandacan Manila BSN level Group 1 will be able to identify their community’s health concerns and make actions towards acquiring of health resources and services. SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES 1. To assess the health condition and needs of the community and identify existing health programs and resources available. 2. To identify the health conditions that requires the highest priority and needs to be addressed. 3. To plan with the barangay officials and health care personnel a program that will help resolve the health concerns and needs of the barangay. Scope and Limitation The prioritization of the problems observed and stated by our group focused more on the gathered data from the families interviewed residing from Barangay 842. The content of the data gathered from the random sample may not be reliable enough to represent the whole community of Barangay 842. However, the study may post significance in the sense that it may be useful in determining the problems of the community. Methodology/Tools Used There are 110 family respondents which compromises of 496 individuals in Barangay 621 Zone 62, District VI,, Sta. Mesa, Manila for our Community Diagnosis. This family represents the people we interviewed. This survey will serve as the representation of the community. The main method we used to assess the problem of the community is â€Å"survey† by means of survey forms. We assess the community by asking questions through interviewing that is clear and specific that can gather exact and specific answers. In addition, we gathered data through â€Å"observing† to complete the data needed in the survey form. The survey form was adapted from the Municipal Health Department and was modified by Mr. Kenneth Joe Lovely RN, faculty member – College of Nursing of Universidad De Manila. We used a â€Å"spot-map† to locate the area for our community diagnosis. Data Gathering Procedure The community assessment was conducted over the entire Barangay 621 Zone 61, Sta. Mesa, Manila. Only 110 families are surveyed to represent the entire community. All the questions are restricted in the survey form that is made by the Municipal Health Department and modified by Mr. Kenneth Joe Lovely RN, faculty member – College of Nursing of the Universidad De Manila. All the data gathered was according to what the researchers see and hear. The history of the barangay is available at the barangay hall of the community. SETTING OF THE COMMUNITY DESCRIPTION The barangay 621 is one of the Barangay at Sta. Mesa, Manila. It has a total number of populations of six thousands four hundred forty. Juan Philip P. Manabat is the current Barangay Chairman. It is bounded at the Cordillera Street. Tagalog is their medium of communication, but as we observed there are also other languages that present in the community such as Bisaya, Cebuano, Ilocano, etc. the Barangay boundaries are 590 north, 603 east, 611 west, and 630 south. Approximate land area of more or less 6.5 hectares. Covering the streets of Jacinto Zamora Link and Valenzuela Street. The existing facilities in the community are: * Water pumps * Half courts The most common means of transportation in their street are pedicabs but some of the people that live there also use motorcycles and cars. The road of the streets are fully cemented, there are also parts of the roads that are rough roads. HISTORY OF THE COMMUNITY The Barangay 621, Zone 62, District VI of Manila was created around 1970’s through the effort of their ancestors. Their Barangay Patron is Saint Labrado which is the Patron Saint of Farmers which they celebrate every 3rd week of May in commemoration of their ancestors. COMMUNITY PROFILE The Barangay 621, Zone 62, District VI of Manila is the 2nd Barangay that can be seen when entering the Bacood Area. The best landmark of this Barangay is the Bacood Park which is within the jurisdiction of this Barangay. Barangay 621 has an estimated land area of more or less than 6.5 hectares. Covering the streets of Jacinto Zamora Link and Valenzuela Street. The boundary of the community is a river at the south near the Pandacan Bridge (Zamora Bridge). The certain spots of the Barangay started from a house near the river. Consequently, the houses were mostly were wood type houses and some are concretes. A lot of stray dogs and cats can be seen in the streets. During anytime, its an extreme hotness while as nighttime approaches, a little bit breeze of coldness can be felt. Polluted air can be inhaled due to the cars passing by. The nearest schools in the Barangay are Regina Apostolorum Academy, Tzu Chi Great Love Campus which is near some basketball courts and near the Pandacan Bridge (Zamora Bridge). Some children go to the Bacood Elementary School which is in the other Barangay near Barangay 621. Utilization of their own resources was one of the main factors in their livelihood. Sari-sari stores are the primary livelihood in the Barangay. Others also exists such as junk shops, karinderyas, pedicabs are rented for transportation purposes. The Barangay hall is just near the houses and there are Barangay tanods in yhe community, which provides safety and security. SPOT MAP * Chapter II The Community and Population Group Population of the Barangay6440 Total Families Surveyed:110 Families Total Population of Individuals Surveyed:496 Sex Ratio: (SR) Sex Ratio:= MaleX 100 Female = 251 Males / 245 Females X 100 = 102 Males per 100 Females The Families surveyed in Old Sta. Mesa St. Brgy. 621 zone 62 accounts for 110 families in whom individuals are 496, there are 251 Males and 245 Females. Using the above formula, the computed sex ratio is 102 Males per 100 Females. The sex ratio of individuals who is

A & P versus The Widow of Ephesus

Women have always been playing catch up with men. Society has always portrayed women in a manner that revolves around them being shallow, materialistic, licentious, and willing to do anything to appeal to the opposite sex. In the stories of â€Å"A & P† and â€Å"The Widow of Ephesus,† it is no different. In fact the notion is accentuated in both stories. Women are portrayed as pathetic beings with explanatory yet unjustified backgrounds about their incompetence to resist attention or a handsome man. The female genre is perceived as one wit a shallow demeanor and weakness because of their inability to resist desires and lack the maturity to act sensibly. + Women continuously seek out the attention of men. In â€Å"The Widow of Ephesus†, through the character of a widow, women are portrayed as beings who cannot resist a handsome man. Her fidelity â€Å"was so famous that women came from far and near just to get a glimpse of her†(paragraph 2), and even after her husband died, she stayed by his side. However, the author's true feelings about women were revealed when a handsome soldier was brought into the picture. After bringing food down to the widow in her husband's tomb for some time, â€Å"this woman stopped resisting, and she accepted the young soldier's love just as she had accepted his food† (paragraph 11). In â€Å"A & P†, the young girl's were first portrayed as people who were somewhat questionable when it came to their innocence, which is the exact opposite depiction as in â€Å"The Widow of Ephesus†. They are looked down upon for their lack of clothing and illustrated as creatures that were only visually intriguing. The guy in the store is obviously an experienced girl-watcher because he said the â€Å"whole store was like a pinball machine and I didn't know which tunnel they'd come out of† (paragraph 12). So, he was unmistakably interested in the fact that they were wearing bating suits. In the end however, Sammy sticks up for the innocence that all girl's delineate and quits his job at the store after his boss embarrasses the girls by yelling at them for their outfits. He is depicted as heroic for his ways and will respect girls, now that he has seen what it does not to respect them. The social world's described in each story present an enlightening background for the behavior of each character. In the â€Å"Widow of Ephesus,† the woman is one of faith and loyalty to a man whom she had loved for her entire life. She was so in love with this man that she â€Å"accompanied the dead body right into the tomb, and after the coffin was placed in the vault†¦ she began a vigil†¦ weeping and wailing day and night† (paragraph 2). This gives the effect of how shallow women are to the author when, in one short period of time, this woman sleeps with another man because of his looks. When referring to â€Å"A & P†, these three girl's live by the beach, so wearing a bathing suit is perfectly normal. However, when the girls are dismissed from the store in front of strangers, they are embarrassed and made to feel inferior. A man made a woman feel like she was inferior because of how she was dressed. And, although Sammy was going to be looked down upon, he decided that him quitting his job was the necessary thing to do because when â€Å"you begin a gesture it's fatal not to go through with it† (paragraph 31). The embarrassment that the widow and the three girl's felt after they were condemned for their behavior warrants sympathy. The Widow was a woman who spent her entire life with one man and her grieving was well known throughout many different places. She lost the one man that she had ever loved and she couldn't bear to live with that compassion and sense of security that her husband brought to her. To have such a feeling of security and safety and then lose it, is a heartache that sanctions sympathy and pity. In â€Å"A & P,† the three teenagers were looked down upon for what they are wearing and how they are presenting themselves. They are embarrassed in front of customers whom they have never even met by a man who also a complete stranger because they are displaying themselves in an inappropriate manner. They are made to feel as if they are doing something wrong, in a rude and ignorant way, which results in commiseration by the reader. Women are constantly looked down upon for their actions and outward appearances. It is obvious that the author of â€Å"The Widow of Ephesus† thinks very lowly of women through his portraying of the entire female gender as shallow, trifling people who base things only on what they see. It is also clear that the author of â€Å"A & P† is one who thinks somewhat better about women than the other author, but still characterizes them as people who use their looks to get attention and then when they get the wrong attention, girls say that guys are the pigs. It's all a matter of the battle of the sexes, and in the future, there might quite possibly never be a winner.

How to Get More Traffic From Every Post

How to Get More Traffic From Every Post by Noah Kagan, Chief Sumo at SumoMe.com (free tools to grow your website traffic) Traffic can feel a bit like catch-22. You need people to share your posts but if you have no traffic there’s no one to share At the start of 2014, I decided to prioritize my email list and grow my blog from a small side project to one of the top marketing blogs. In less than a year, traffic grew by more than 400%! Today, I want to show you 10 actionable strategies you can use to grow your own blog’s traffic each time you publish a new post.How to Get More Traffic From Every Post (Plus How OkDork Grew Traffic 400% In 8 Months)  @noahkagan1- Start Building And Prioritizing Your Email List Growing your email list is an amazingly vicious cycle. You get subscribers, email them when an article goes live, they go read it and then share it with people. Then those people subscribe and the cycle delightfully continues. But, to build an email list you have to ask for visitors email addresses. The easiest way to do that is to use plugins for your blog. I use the SumoMe plugin (built by AppSumo) and the apps List Builder and Scroll Box. The tools will help you start building an email list without any technical knowledge. (Scroll Box is a great way to ask engaged readers to sign up towards the end of a postyou can set it to appear only after someone has read 50% or 75% of your post.) The blog is a great example of what you should be doing if you want to build an email list. Each blog post there is a chance to sign up at the top and in the middle of the post. They also have a pop-up that has a persuasive offer to first time or one-off visitors Now, if you had to pick only one place to ask for emails, where would you ask? It’s not in a pop-up or a scroll box: it’s your homepage. Before 2014, my homepage included links to recent blog posts, archives, and the menu bar. After using heatmaps, I removed all of the distractions and left visitors with only 1 option: Now my most trafficked page is also my #1 email address generator. If you’re serious about growing your email list, make it extremely simple for each visitor to give you their email address. Pro tip: How To Turn Your Blog Readers Into Paying Customers 2- Be Part Of A Community I got involved in two key communities for marketers: GrowthHackers and Inbound.org. Before asking for anything from these communities, I did my best to spend time where my readers are, add value, comment in the forums, share articles and upvote other posts (not just OkDork posts). Being part of these communities helped pinpoint what posts our target audience (other marketers) wanted to read, the common elements of the most liked/upvoted posts, and made it more natural to ask for help promoting OkDork content. As a result, by mid-2014 GrowthHackers and Inbound.org were the two largest referring sites to OkDork. Engage your readers (or customers) where they are already spending time. Respond to their questions, suggest resources, add value every time you login or visit the site. Find a forum, sub-reddit, or a similar site that carries your target audience, become part of the community, add value back, and then begin to submit your own high-quality content. Pro Tip: 50% Places To Repurpose Your Content 3- Publish Long Content Arguably the biggest change that brought traffic to OkDork was reaching out to writers who had lots of marketing data that could be put into long form content. Why? Because the content was outrageously good and exactly what our target audience/community wanted. In fact, the majority of viral articles are over 3,000+ words and explore a single topic in depth. The longer the post the most shares it got. (Plus each guest writer notified their own email list and shared the post on Twitter which brought additional targeted traffic to OkDork.) Although it may be tempting to write lots of short content or to ask guest writers to write short posts, set your standards high and publish long content that contains more of what your audience wants. Take note of the posts that get lots of share within your community and make sure you do the same with each post. If your community is data driven include 10x as many statistics or if they are image driven add 10x more images than usual. Pro Tip: 5 Things That Will Change Your Mind About Long Form Content Marketing 4- Build An Inner Circle In May 2014, I put together a list of 15 to 20 friends, colleagues, fans that a) wanted to help me and b) were already enjoying the content on the blog. This â€Å"Inner Circle† or â€Å"Insiders List† reviewed upcoming posts and provided an early traffic boost to new posts - often by sharing it 24 to 48 hours before the post was sent out by email to my main list. Here’s the first email I sent to the Inner Circle: To build your own â€Å"Inner Circle† first list out: Interesting people within the community you are a part of; Customers/readers who provide constructive feedback; People who regularly send you the best articles or resources; Any people connected to special sites or channels you want to be on; And a few influencers who seem too good to be true. After you have the list, send an email like the one above that explains why they were selected, what the list is, and what they’ll get. Offer them a way out so that you’re not spamming people each week. Once you have their permission send an email from your personal account once a week or once every two weeks with a link to the latest blog post. It’s also important to occasionally help your Inner Circle with whatever they are working on. 5- Post On Popular Aggregate Sites In the past, when a new post was live on OkDork I occasionally shared it on a few sub-reddits or a community site like GrowthHackers. There was no system and in the busyness of running a blog, there were times when it wasn’t shared at all. To solve this two things happened: I developed an â€Å"Inner Circle† (above) Created a checklist of the top aggregate sites that referred traffic in the past. The checklist helped me see which aggregate sites and sub-reddits had not yet posted the article. Most of the time the Inner Circle took care of sharing it on their favorite sites, but if a site was missing it was easy to remember to add it or reach out to someone I knew was active in that particular community or site. To create your own checklist list out the top sites/groups/sub-reddits where your customers/visitors spend time. 6-   Make Images and Posts Easy to Share As traffic grows on your site, one of the most obvious ways to help it along is to make it easy to share the content on multiple channels. If a visitor has to copy the link, create a new email, and then share it you’ll only have a few people sharing the article. Again does an awesome job at this with its floating social icons on the left of each post and with an image sharing plugin to make sharing images easier. On OkDork I added the Share plugin to so that on each post people can easily share it on the usual channels Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn. The plugin also offers a bunch of other services like Evernote, Amazon Wishlist, Digg, and plain ol’ email. I’m convinced that great long form content gets shares 1) because great content and 2) everyone wants their friends to think they read an indepth article whether they actually read it or not so make sure it’s as easy as possible to share! Pro Tip: Where Is The Best Place To Put Social Media Buttons On Your Blog 7- Repromote Your Old Content Repromoting old content was one of the easiest ways to grow traffic on OkDork. Every two months, we used Google Analytics to find content that hadn’t been visited over a certain threshold in the previous three months. (That threshold should vary depending on your own site.) Then we scheduled each post to reshare it on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, etc. over the next three months. The advantage of this is you don’t have to do much work (no creativity required). You can also repromote and schedule content you just posted as well. Here’s a simple graphic from to show you how: Pro Tip: How Promote Your Blog With Social Media (And Double Your Traffic) 8- Quotes In my most popular posts (most shared and organic search), I added quotes throughout. While this had a smaller impact on overall traffic than some of the other methods, it is a more organic way to ask someone to share the post. When you select the best quotes from an article you make it easier to read, share, and re-share. As you repromote old content, you’ll also see an uptick in the number of shares. If you’re not already, you should be using the Plugin to make tweeting selections of your blog post a breeze. SumoMe also offers a highlighter that allows a user to â€Å"† their own selections. It’s a nice complement to the plugin. 9- Send The Highlights Of Each Post In An Email By now the tactics are getting really easy†¦but this is an important one. One of the biggest contributors to traffic came through the email list, but we found a simple way to drive traffic and get a boost in click through rates: making it easier and sexier to click through. Emails announcing a new blog post tend to do one of three things: Mention 1 new post and include a lead paragraph Link out to multiple new posts each with a lead paragraph Include an entire post in the email The first two aren’t terribly convincing- the meat of an article is almost never in the first paragraph! And the third option provides 0 reasons to actually click through and visit the site (meaning no additional traffic). Beginning this past summer, when an OkDork goes out it mentions only 1 new post and breaks out the 3 of the most valuable insights. It’s extremely simple (example below) and doubled click through rate from an average of ~5-6% to ~12-15%. Spend time figuring out what is most valuable to your audience and include those highlights in the email. Pro Tip: 5 Easy Lead Conversion Tips For Your Email Marketing Program 10- Publish on a Regular Schedule The other thing I did was create a calendar that we followed closely to make sure that new posts were going out every week and we didn’t fall behind. If you’re reading this on you already know that publishing regularly is critical to traffic. Not only does it help you be consistent, it creates a healthy expectation within your community and for your readers. A regular schedule made all of the other 9 strategies above doubly effective. In fact, if you’re not publishing regularly or at least with a consistent rhythm many of the tactics above will fall flat or produce few results. Pro Tip: Start A Free Trial Of Now

Plutons, Defined and Explained

Plutons, Defined and Explained A pluton (pronounced PLOO-tonn) is a deep-seated intrusion of igneous rock, a body that made its way into pre-existing rocks in a melted form (magma) several kilometers underground in the Earths crust and then solidified. At that depth, the magma cooled and crystallized very slowly, allowing the mineral grains to grow large and tightly interlocked - typical of plutonic rocks.   Shallower intrusions may be called subvolcanic or hypabyssal intrusions. There are a slew of partial synonyms based on a plutons size and shape, including batholith, diapir, intrusion, laccolith, and stock.   How Pluton Becomes Visible A pluton exposed at the Earths surface has had its overlying rock removed by erosion. It may represent the deep part of a magma chamber that once fed magma to a long-vanished volcano, like Ship Rock in northwestern New Mexico. It may also represent a magma chamber that never reached the surface, like Stone Mountain  in  Georgia.  The only true way to tell the difference is by mapping and analyzing the details of the rocks that are exposed along with the geology of the surrounding area. The Various Types of Plutons Pluton is a general term that covers the whole variety of shapes taken by bodies of magma. That is, plutons are defined by the presence of plutonic rocks. Narrow sheets of magma that form sills and igneous dikes may qualify as plutons if the rock inside them solidified at depth. Other plutons have fatter shapes that have a roof and a floor. This can be easy to see in a pluton that was tilted so that erosion could cut through it at an angle. Otherwise, it may take geophysical techniques to map the plutons three-dimensional shape. A blister-shaped pluton that raised the overlying rocks into a dome may be called a laccolith. A mushroom-shaped pluton may be called a lopolith, and a cylindrical one may be called a bysmalith. These have a conduit of some sort that fed magma into them, usually called a feeder dike (if its flat) or a stock (if its round). There used to be a whole set of names for other pluton shapes, but they arent really much use and have been abandoned. In 1953, Charles B. Hunt made fun of these in USGS Professional Paper 228 by proposing the name cactolith for a cactus-shaped pluton: A cactolith is a quasihorizontal chonolith composed of anastomosing ductoliths whose distal ends curl like a harpolith, thin like a sphenolith, or bulge discordantly like an akmolith or ethmolith. Who said geologists couldnt be funny?   Then there are plutons that have no floor, or at least no evidence of one. Bottomless plutons like these are called stocks if they are smaller than 100 square kilometers in extent, and batholiths if theyre larger.  In the United States, the Idaho, Sierra Nevada, and Peninsular batholiths are the largest. How Plutons Form The formation and fate of plutons is an important, long-standing scientific problem. Magma is less dense than rock and tends to rise as buoyant bodies. Geophysicists call such bodies diapirs (DYE-a-peers); salt domes are another example. Plutons may readily melt their way upward in the lower crust, but they have a hard time reaching the surface through the cold, strong upper crust. It appears that they need help from regional tectonics that pulls the crust apart- the same thing that favors volcanoes at the surface. Thus plutons, and especially batholiths, go along with subduction zones that create arc volcanism. For a few days in 2006, the International Astronomical Union considered giving the name plutons to large bodies in the outer part of the solar system, apparently thinking that it would signify Pluto-like objects. They also considered the term plutinos. The Geological Society of America, among other critics of the proposal, sent a quick protest, and a few days later the IAU decided on its epochal definition of dwarf planet that banished Pluto from the register of planets. (See What Is a Planet?) Edited by Brooks Mitchell

Accounting Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 6

Accounting - Assignment Example b) If we were to compare the 2013 Income Statement with the 2013 Statement, we would find that Helen Harris Handbags had a decline in profitability of  £69127. Various reasons can be outlined for this decline in profits. Some reasons can be identified through an Income Statement others may be issues affecting the business such as increase in competition, recession in the markets etc. However, looking at the Income statement alone, we can see a sharp increase in Marketing Expenses of the year 2013, as well as a slight fall in Total Sales. Other expenses have increased as well, but marginally. As total sales have fallen, inventory has gone up. The fall total Sales might be matter of concern for the business, especially since Marketing Expenses have increased. a) The Balance Sheet of a business is used to show the â€Å"net worth† of a company at a given point of time. (e-conomic(UK), 2014). It is particularly useful in monitoring the health of the company that is what the business owes and what it is owed. The Assets and Liabilities are the two main sections in a Balance Sheet and are always equal. The Balance Sheet is divided into two parts as mentioned above, and into various sub parts which include Fixed Assets, Working Capital, Current Assets, Equity or Shareholders Stake (which includes any profit/loss and drawings) b) In the case of Helen Harris Handbags, Inventory has increased, that has been the result of fall in Sales (discussed earlier). However, a matter of concern is a huge increase in Bank Overdrafts from 2012, in 2013. This tells us that business has increased its debts considerably since last year. There is an increase in the Debtors as well. a) The purpose of the Cash Flow Statement is to evaluate the cash inflows and outflows of a business during a financial period. (e-conomic(UK), 2014). The main avenues of Cash Inflows and Outflows can be described in

RFID in Business Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

RFID in Business - Research Paper Example This research paper seeks to investigate and explore RFID and its application in business field. The first section of the essay seeks to illustrate and describe RFID. This will be helpful in presenting constructive and significant insight for the reader regarding the introduction and background of RFID. Other sections of the essay offer comprehensive review and analysis concerning the advantages of RFID technology in business field. The usage of RFID is traced back in the early twentieth century when Leon Theremin invented an espionage tool for the Soviet Union. This device was a passive secret listening device and is considered to be the forerunner of RFID technology (Landt, 8). The roots of radio frequency identification technology can be tracked back to World War II where the usage of radar was common in order to warn of forthcoming planes. An IFF transponder was developed in Britain which also utilized RFID technology in order to identify unidentified aircrafts. Advancements in radar and RD communication systems persisted throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Mario W. Cardullo claims to be the first person who had received a patent for RFID tag with rewritable memory in 1973. In the same year, Charles Walton obtained a patent for a passive transponder which was used to open a door without using a key (Landt, 9). Los Alamos National Laboratory had also worked on RFID systems in the 1970s. A group of scientists has developed RFID transponder embedded in a truck which was used to identify the driver. This system gained popularity in the 1980s and was installed in entire transportation network. Los Alamos also introduced the passive RFID tags to track cows. IBM engineers had developed RFID system in 1990s and had sold its patents to Intermec which has applied it in several different applications ranging from warehouse tracking to farming. The concept of low cost RFID tags on all products was experimented in late