Essentials of Life-Span Development Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Essentials of Life-Span Development - Essay Example The researcher will begin with the statement that he was born in Miami, Florida, and has lived most of his life there. His parents are still together and very supportive of him and his siblings. They have a close-knit, loving family relationship and depend on each other for emotional support. The researcher is the middle child of four siblings that include an older sister, and, a younger sister and brother. His younger brother is still in school, a junior; however his sisters and the author all graduated from the same high school, Pine High School. Researcher’s older sister is in nursing school at Delgado Community College; his younger sister and he also attend college there. The author’s temperament is easy going; he is extroverted and friendly. He feels that one of the main reasons for this is because his family is so close and supportive. It makes it easy to face the challenges of his life knowing that people are there for him. The researcher tries hard to stay healt hy by choosing healthy meals and taking time for exercise. As well he drinks water and does his best to get enough sleep. He avoids risky behaviors as much as possible. The author knows that as he proceeds through the life cycle, his strength and endurances will decline, therefore he wants to stay strong as long as possible so he tries to take care of his body and mind by choosing healthy behaviors. The author has many hobbies that are fulfilling to him. He enjoys shopping, eating and hanging out with his sisters and friends.  

Covenants Land law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Covenants Land law - Essay Example The main concern in this case is whether or not Sarah is able to enforce the covenant to Oliver who will only own the land for a particular period which is 50 years. The answer is definitely no. Sarah does not have any legal ground to enforce the covenant to Oliver since the covenant between Leonard and Mary did not apply to Oliver2. However, Sarah has all the legal grounds to enforce some penalty to Mary for the bridge of covenant. The reason is that Mary had not sold off the land to Oliver. Therefore, the covenant is still biding, what she did was to lease the land to Oliver, but not sell it to him. What this means is that the covenant is still binding and Mary has to take the responsibility to ensure that the restrictive covenant signed between her and Leonard is upheld. Therefore, the piece of advice to Sarah is to get hold of Mary and charge her with the responsibility3. However, this should be noted that it is the covenantee who enforces the covenant to the covenanter. This will be in exception incase the deed was designed to provide that the covenanter is not in any way liable incase there is a breach in the covenant after he/she has sold the land. However, this is not applicable in this case because Mary had not sold the land In the second case regarding Ned, the covenant they agreed on was one that denied him the right to use the plot for commercial use. However, when Ned sold the plot to Phillip he went ahead to use it for commercial use where he offered yoga and log cabin services. This is a little complex since Ned sold the land to Philip. It can even be more complex incase Ned cannot be easily traced4. Sarah may not be able to enforce the covenant on Philip since there was no any transaction between them. However, if Sarah can be able to reach Ned then she can be able to compel her to make the same agreement with Ned. In fact, it may be difficult for Sarah to

How Small Coffee Shops Can Succeed Using Social Media Essay Example for Free

How Small Coffee Shops Can Succeed Using Social Media Essay Everyone has a local coffee shop that they consider to be their favourite. That one place where they know they’ll be welcomed with open arms and the people behind the counter know their name (or at least their face). The place that even if their coffee costs almost double as much as Tim Hortons (Starbucks); that this is the place they’ll always recommend to their friends. A few years ago, it was nearly impossible for a local coffee shop to compete with the deep pocket coffee shops. Today, even the smallest cafe with the a very little marketing budget can compete. All they need – is a story worth telling and of course, a coffee worth brewing. If they have those, the clients will keep coming back – the main concern is usually getting them there in the first place. Here are some ways that social media can be used to help local coffee shops compete with the big players. Two Tweets and One Sugar As I write this post, twitter has become one of the biggest buzzwords of the year. However, the buzz isn’t unwarranted. Twitter is one of the largest social networking channels in North American consisting more than 15Million accounts. And while its still in its infancy; it provides businesses an unparalleled opportunity to communicate with consumers and current customers in real-time. So what does this mean for coffee shops? It means that they can communicate more effectively than ever with consumers. If that means setting up a search that tracks their brand and sending a simple thank you or going as far as taking a pre-order, so be it. Twitter gives these brands a chance to create a personal connection with their consumers and make their brand worth talking about. By being active in the twitter community an opportunity exists for coffee shops to offer their space for events such as tweet ups. Hosting these live events at your venue not only gaurantee that you’ll be selling your products, but also guarantees some buzz (tweets) about your brand. On top of that, some of these new customers were probably never in your shop in their life; however, because you got involved in twitter and hosted this event you were able to attract new customers to experience your shop. What more can you ask for? I’m glad you asked. How about 1 Blog Latte While blogging can be an important part of a social media strategy, its not worth having if you don’t have a strategy behind it. If your main goal is to develop an online community; it might be in your best interest to blog about different beans or maybe do a Wine Library TV segment – Coffee Style. However, if your strategy is focused around getting more butts in your cafes seats, it might be in your best interest to discuss offers on the blog. As great as a blog can be for an organization it can also be their downfall. A company that views their blog as being a great way to only talk about their brand and how great they are will never find readers. Well maybe they’ll have their spouse and employees; but customers won’t be interested. If you can provide your readers with something of value they will return. I often tell people looking to start a blog to try and offer the three E’s of Social Media. Entertainment, Education or Engagement An Extra Large Facebook Facebook has become the grand-daddy of them all when it comes to social networks. It has recently gone from being a questionable place to have your brand, to a necessity for many companies in the food industry. With its most recent changes to the facebook pages; it has become obvious that brand experience on facebook is back. Brands are now able to create facebook pages with more customization than ever and truly deepen their relationship with their customers. The frazzle-dazzle applications aren’t the only way for a local coffee shop to set itself a part from other stores. It can also use Facebook to promote other content that they have created. This means they can post links to their blog, videos, pictures and even coupons; reaching an audience that may not be present on the other social networking channels. With that said, we can’t forget the meat and potatoes that Facebook was built upon. The ability to get your message out to a number of people is one of the key reasons why businesses have found such success on facebook. Those tweetups we discussed earlier can easily be cross-promoted using a Facebook event. The opportunities available on facebook are great – its up to you, to turn them into something remarkable. Whose your Manager Mayor?! Foursquare is the new kid on the block in the social media world. It will be the most talked about social networking platform for the rest of this year and will definitely be playing a big part in several social media plans. James Hoffman explains on his blog why, You have people competitively visiting you, talking about you. More than that there is a pretty sensible business model in there too, meaning that foursquare could well be around in a few years. Coffee shops seemed pretty quick to embrace twitter, and it will be interesting to see if that experience has soured social media for them, or if they’ll embrace foursquare too. Something tells me that they’ll embrace foursquare like a seat-belt embraces impact. Mayorship TechCrunch One of my favourite tactics that coffee shops can use in Foursquare is promoting the idea of becoming mayor. The basics behind this tactic is that you tell the consumers that if they become the mayor of your shop they get their beverages for free. Seeing that there is an incentive now for going to the shop more and more – You’ve ultimately created a competition that will keep the people swarming your shop. The whole idea of providing customers with rewards for loyalty has been going on for years. This race to be the mayor however, takes customer loyalty, flips it upside down and turns it into a competition. Lets not get our Mochas in a Bunch With all that said, you must always remember your companies core strategy and goals. These channels discussed above may take a similar route as hi5 or geocities in a few years time. For that reason, it is important to not put all your eggs into one basket. Facebook is already talking about their new function that will be the â€Å"Foursquare Killer.† (Keep your eyes open) Finally, remember that the value you provide your customer in the store will always out weight the value you can provide them with a social networking tool. While its important to do things to get your customers in the door – its just as important to make sure they’ll want to come back.

Michael Jackson As A Product Music Essay

Michael Jackson As A Product Music Essay Michael Jackson was born at Gray , Indiana in 1958 to an African-American couple, Joseph Walter Jackson and Katherine Esther Scruse. Though Michael had a very troubled relationship with his father at very early stages of his life, being born into a family with a musical background has contributed to the elevation of Michael into becoming the King of Pop. His career started as early as at the age of 5. In 1963, he was part of Jackson 5, a band that consisted of his four other brothers. Although at initial stages the band entertained their local surroundings, it captured a professional interest in 1968 when it signed a contract to Motown Records. By 1970, the group has gained enormous popularity and has topped music charts with hits such as Ill Be There, I want You Back, ABC and a few others. Michael has done four solo hits at this time. His solo Ben stood number one on the charts. After three glorious years, the sales started to decline forcing the Jacksons to leave Motown in 1975. Later that year, renaming the band as The Jacksons, they signed to Epic Records. Soon, Michaels outstanding performances and natural talent set him apart from the rest and made him central focus (Telegraph, 2009). Building on the relationship with producer Quincy Jones, formed at the time of acting in his musical movie The Wiz, Michael has released Off the Wall jointly produced by Jones. Off the Wall generated four US top ten hits, obtained number three on the billboard 200, sold over 20 million copies globally, and fetched various prestigious awards from American, Billboard and Grammy. This album has said to have brought 37% of wholesale album profits, the highest ever royalty rate in the music industry (USA Today, 2009). However, the best is yet to come. In 1982, the music business world has witnessed an unpredicted storm with the release of his Thriller. It has won him 8 of the 12 nominated Grammy awards, spent 122 weeks on the Billboard 200, sold over 50 million copies globally, and has since then remained the best selling album ever. However, the albums success cant be measured by sales alone, says Mitchell and Newman (2009), as Jackson moonwalked his way into history of music, Thriller set a new benchmark for blockbusters that changed how the music business promoted and marketed superstar releases. It also changed MTV, she continues, breaking down the cable networks racial barriers and raising the bar for video quality. Amidst the turmoil in music business at that time, he was described as a one man rescue team for the music business (Corliss, 2009). It exposed Michael as song writer, singer and dancer. Later that year, his fame reached further heights with the disclose of his signature Moonwalk live on Motowns 25:Yesterday, Today, Forever television show. The period between 1984 and 1992 has showcased Michaels business acumen. During this time he purchased Beatles back catalogue for $47 million, built Neverland ranch, founded Heal the World to aid children and environment, wrote a biography titled moonwalk, cause marketed to raise the funds for the poor in Africa and signed $1 billion 15 year contract with Sony. The Beatles purchase proved to be a great business move which guaranteed him millions of dollars of income forever (Strauss, 1996). In him was a wise investor, marketing genius but a shopping spree. However, at this time, the interest in business did not affect his music career as he released two albums, Bad and Dangerous. Although, the albums were not in race with Thriller, they kept him a float. But even as Jackson grew richer and more successful observes Leung (2005), his personal life took a strange turn: his face, his colour, his sex, his outfits, his marriage, and his lifestyle. And further, she opines, as the media zoomed in, he began to look more like a circus side show than a musical superstar.The much adored and worshiped innocent image of Michael has began to show up cracks in the early part of 1993, when a 13 year old accused him of child abuse at his Neverland. Although he denied the accusation, he reportedly settled it outside of court for $20 million causing suspicions (Independent, 2009). This was just a glimpse of numerous rumours and accusations to befall. Soon, Michaels image has begun to be questioned from every nook and corner and was surrounded by controversiesFrom physical transformation to song writing, from being married to becoming father of surrogate mother born child, from peter pan utopian ideas to adopting a chimp, from not exposing his children i n front of media to dangling his third child blanket out of balcony, from his new business contracts to his financial bankruptcy, from attending a Grammy ceremony on triple date to showing in court wearing pyjamas, and from label disputes to taking painkillers or drugs; every single move of him was under constant monitoring and was consistently linked to controversies. Acquisitions of physical transformation include plastic surgeries and bleaching. The suspected change of sex and colour has given a room from many moral and ethical allegations. The accused self-induced change from black to white has been reported as betrayal of black community (Topping, 2009). Although, Michael has responded with clarifications about the skin disease he posses and mental and physical turmoil he went through in his child hood (to argue his innocent love for children) in the famous interview of Opera Winfrey and by writing songs such as It does not matter if you are Black or White, they did not yield any results. In the surge of these allegations, his marriage to Lisa Marie Presley, the daughter of Elvis Presley was surprising to many. However, the marriage was short lived. He then married for the second time, a nurse named Debbie Rowe in 1996. The couple had two children- son, Prince Michael Jackson in 1997 and daughter, Paris Michael Jackson in 1998. The second marriage was also resulted in divorce in 1999. A year later, Michael had a third child, speculated to be born of a surrogate mother. Amidst this personal life turmoil, not so surprisingly the 1990s have been barren in terms of musical revenue. Though the release of the best selling remix album ever: Blood on the Dance Floor: HIStory in the Mix, the Dangerous world tour, a few charity events, a couple of shows celebrating his 30th anniversary and most acclaimed half time performance of Super Bowl XXVII have looked to rejuvenate his image, dangling his third child out of third floor balcony in 2002, the British journalist, Martin Bashirs documentary, Living with Michael Jackson, (in which the pop icon reportedly told that he shared bed with young children) in 2003, the second child abuse allegations, and following the pop stars arrest in 2004 based on these and many other relative allegations have further fueled the outrage (Rolling Stone, 2009). Ironically, in the following year Michael was acquitted of all these charges. In 2006, his Neverland ranch was closed due to labour disputes and he moved to Bahrain to star t a new. However, the controversies have never left him as he entered into dispute with King of Bahrain on several matters. As a late surge in the declining stage of his career, he and AEG, the music promoter, announced a surprise comeback to take place on 11th of July 2009. However, Michael goes into cardiac arrest and dies at the age of 50. Even in death the controversies did not desert him as there were many speculations on how he died. In the vocabulary of Product Life Cycle (PLC), beginning in 1963 up until 1978, Michael was in introduction stage, where he was a part of a group. He created awareness among music industry with his electric and outstanding performances. His stand alone performances from the group have served as trail before the actual solos at a later stage. Although being a part of group, he built a name for himself among music producers and customers. From 1978, with scarecrow role in the musical movie The Wiz has entered into Growth stage. Teaming up with Quincy Jones, the producer, he has extended his image to new markets. With albums like Thriller, performances like Moonwalk, endorsements contracts like Pepsi, and cause marketing and charity works like We are the World profits and sales have seen an unbelievable growth. All due to the improved quality, styling and added new value attributes to the music. And, thus, he was able to open up entirely anew distribution channels. The invention of music video genre, improved quality of the same, lip-syncing to pre-recorded voice in live performances and access to a whole new distribution channel in the form of MTV are a few of the many examples. The year 1986 has seen the start of Maturity stage. The sales and profits have reached to such a peak stage that, even the commercial success of Bad with over 30 million copy sales worldwide were considered lower. With the controversies regarding personal life beginning to creep into musical career the rate of sales growth slowed down. With the emergence of numerous controversies coupled with customers churn and competition, the early part of 1990s have seen the beginning of the end-the decline stage. The changes in his music videos with construction of sexual and violent natured images did not suit many customer preferences. The banning of In the closet in South Africa is a proof of the same. In the beginning of 2009, Michael calling it a final curtain call planned to perform 50 concerts (which saw a record breaking ticket sales and estimated to make close to $100m) but has met with his untimely death. So, Michael Jackson as a product (or marketing offering) has a similar life cycle to that of many others. However, what seems unique to him is the reincarnation or another cycle after its death-Product Death Cycle (PDC). Buried under huge financial debts for most part of his life, Michaels earnings have grown by millions after his death. Under various film, contract and merchandising deals, he has earned close to $200 million by the end of the year (Arango, 2009). Even beyond 2009, he is expected to earn close to 100 million per annum. For the man who left mark on over a 6 billion people, the Neverland and many other places on his name could be money generating machines for eternity from the tourists. The commercial renaissance after his death can be witnessed in almost everything-the physical and online retail outlets, the Billboard charts, radios, TV shows, internet and the like. As the digital music listeners fell back to CDs, over 422,000 copies of his albums were sold in the second week after his death, 40 times higher than the first one (Deprez, 2009). As per online, he notes, the shares of Apple, Amazon and eBay rose more than 2%, 1.3% and 0.64% respectively and expected to be long lasting. According to Silvio Pietroluongo , the Billboard director of charts, the level of dominance by Michael Jackson on the top pop catalogue albums chart is unlike anything one has ever seen on any Billboard chart, regardless if it occurred pre or post death (Smith, 2009). Michael Jackson topped the search list of all the major search engines for the year including Google, Yahoo and Bing (Michael Jackson, 2009). Britney Spears, whose name topped the yahoo search for past four years has been wiped out within an hour of his death as millions of users poured into it in no time (FD Wire, 2009). His music and videos became ubiquitous on the radios, iPods, MP3 players, televisions and internet (Sisario, 2009). As Barker (2009) puts it, his commemorative products and memorabilia are like the stimulus package 3 in the midst of global recession. In the contemporary capitalistic world, death of a few popular celebrities has always transformed into brilliant business opportunities (Porter, 2009). However, in the case of Michael Jackson, the opportunities in generating sale in death as in life are totally at par. Its not a day or a week affair; it is here to stay longer and thus might need another cycle.

Latitudinal Gradient of Species Diversity Essay -- Geography Geology N

Latitudinal Gradient of Species Diversity The latitudinal gradient in species diversity is one of the most striking patterns in the distribution of organisms on the planet. Simply put, the average number of species per unit area increases dramatically the closer the area is to the equator, almost entirely regardless of the type of organism being considered (Pianka, 1994). Researchers investigating the gradient have formulated a wide variety of hypothesis explaining the higher level of species diversity in the tropics. These include but are not limited to: a greater degree of evolution and radiation in tropical species due to the long and relatively stable geological history of the area, seasonal climatic stability and/or predictability, a higher level of productivity, an increased rate of competition and a higher predation intensity (Pianka, 1994). Another theory is that tropical soils somehow influence species diversity and thus cause the latitudinal gradient. This paper will further investigate this final theory by outlini ng the basic characteristics of tropical soils, summarizing the mechanisms invoked to explain species diversity with these soil characteristics, and evaluating how well this research agrees with what is known about tropical soils. For the sake of narrowing the topic somewhat, attention is limited to the soils of and research occurring in Latin America. Tropical Soils In the past, tropical soils have been over-simplified and misunderstood (Sanchez, 1976), and this situation plagued soil science at least until the late seventies (Van Wambeke and Dudal, 1978). Sanchez (1976) attributes this misunderstanding of tropical soils to the fact that when temperate region-trained soil scientists first went to the... ...s richness in Costa Rican forests: Journal of Biogeography, 7, 147-157. Jordan, C.F. and Herrera, R., 1981, Tropical rain forests: are nutrients really critical?: American Naturalist, 117, 167-180. Paoletti, M.G., Taylor, R.A.J., Stinner, B.R., Stinner, D.H., and Benzing, D.H., Diversity of soil fauna in the canopy and forest floor of a Venequelan cloud forest: Journal of Tropical Ecology, 7, 373-383. Pianka, E.R., 1994. Evolutionary Ecology, Fifth Edition: New York, Harper Collins College Publishers, p. 390-396. Sanchez, P., 1976, Properties and Management of Soils in the Tropics: New York, John Wiley and Sons, Chapters 2,3,4, and 5. Van Wambeke, A., and Dudal, R., 1978, Macrovariability of soils of the tropics, p. 13-28 in Stelly, M. (editor-in-chief), Diversity of Soils in the Tropics: Ithaca, Department of Agronomy, Cornell University Press.

vampires :: essays research papers

Vampires True vampires possess different characteristics, powers and weaknesses than the fictional vampire. The outward appearance is only slightly different to that of a human, their eyes are usually larger and more defined with long lashes. Their features are often pointed; the females and males are slender. This helps hide their inhuman strength; therefore their opponents almost always underestimate them. All vampires are attractive; because of this vampires are almost always hunted by the same sex, to help prevent the hunter from forming an emotional attachment with their intended victim. Vampires are in a sense immortal. They cannot die of old age and are always in their prime at around 20 – 30 years of age (physically). They are immune to almost any diseases and poisons and cannot spread a disease from one human to another. They can recover from most wounds; a new vampire might take three days to recover from a wound that would take an older vampire three minutes. Vampires can of course be killed if the wound is large enough that they will die before they have time to heal, this means that old vampires are almost impossible to kill as they heal almost instantaneously All vampires are extremely strong generally the older they get the stronger, faster and smarter they get. Age is not everything in the power department; the quantity of self-discipline and will power the vampire has limits the force it can gather. The powers/abilities that the average vampire has are: - Weaponry, All vampires have an affinity with weapons, they can pick up almost any weapon and use it effectively, young or new vampires are trained in weaponry and martial arts. Vampires usually become an expert in one or two weapons. Vampires are the best assassins but aren’t used very often because they aren’t easily found and the reluctance of the seeker because of the misconception that the vampire will kill them, and then ask about the job proposition, when it would actually happen the other way around, in most circumstances. - Vampires are stronger and faster than any other known species, even Elves who are widely thought of as the fastest and strongest sentient creatures that still exist. Some common misconceptions about vampires are: - Sunlight is traditionally a way to kill a vampire. This is partly true, vampires are allergic to sunlight, especially young vampires, the reaction lessens the older and more experienced the vampire becomes.

If the Coat Fits Wear It Essay

The Oceanic Corporation, a Chesapeake, VA based company, was established in 1994. Glenn Rodgers III founded the corporation, which was privately owned at the time, after his retirement from Norentech Corporation. The Oceanic Corporation was originally formed to provide ship repair services and quickly earned a Department of Defense (DOD) certified Alteration Boat Repair (ABR) designation. Among its specialties were structural welding, piping system installation and repairs, electrical, painting, rigging, machinery and dry-lock work, as well as custom sheet metal fabrication. Other divisions of The Oceanic included Habitability Installation, Industrial Contracting, and Alteration/Installation Teams (AIT). With its initial success and good return on investment the firm opened and operated facilities in California, New Jersey, Florida, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Washington. In 1998, the company went public and its initial public offering was very successful. The stock price had risen from its initial value of $10 to its current level of $35 per share. There were currently 5 million shares outstanding. In 1999, the company issued 30-year bonds at par, with a face value of $1000 and a coupon rate of 10% per year, and managed to raise $40 million for expansion. Currently, the AA-rated bonds had 25 years left until maturity and were being quoted at 91.5% of par. Over the past year, the Oceanic Corporation utilized a new method for fabricating composite materials that the firm’s engineers had developed. In June of last year, management established the Advanced Materials Group (AM Group), which was dedicated to pursuing this technology. The firm recruited Larry Stone, a senior engineer, to head the AM Group. Larry also had an MBA from a prestigious university under his belt. Upon joining Oceanic, Larry realized that most projects were being approved on a â€Å"gut feel† approach. There were no formal acceptance criteria in place. Up until then, the company had been lucky in that most of its projects had been well selected and it had benefited from good relationships with clients and suppliers. â€Å"This has to change,† said Larry to his assistant Stephanie, â€Å"we can’t possibly be this lucky forever. We need to calculate the firm’s hurdle rate and use it in the future.† Stephanie Phillips, who had great admiration for the boss, replied, â€Å"Yes, Larry, why don’t I crunch the numbers and give them to you within the next couple of days?† â€Å"That sounds great, Stephanie,† said Larry. â€Å"My years of experience tell me that when it comes to the hurdle rate for new projects, one size hardly ever fits it all!† As Stephanie began looking at the financial statements, she realized that she was going to make some assumptions. First, she assumed that she assumed that the new debt would cost about the same as the yield on outstanding debt and would have the same rating. Second, she assumed that the firm would continue raising capital for future projects by using the same target proportions as determined by the book values of debt and equity (see Table 1 for recent balance sheet). Third, she assumed that the equity beta (1.5) would be the same for all the divisions. Fourth, she assumed that the growth rates of earnings and dividends would continue at their historical rate (see Table 2, for earnings and dividend history). Fifth, she assumed that the corporate tax rate would be 34% and finally, she assumed that the flotation cost for debt would be 5% of the issue price and that for equity would be 10% of selling price. The 1-year Treasury bill yield was 4% and the expected rate of return on the market portfolio was 10%.