Wednesday, December 25, 2019

Argumentive Essay Topics You Can Win on Education - an in Depth Anaylsis on What Works and What Doesnt

Argumentive Essay Topics You Can Win on Education - an in Depth Anaylsis on What Works and What Doesn't When you get your completed essay, make sure that you tell all your friends what a terrific service it is and what's the ideal place to acquire cheap essays. Such a vibrant and dynamic field is likely to create some amazing research questions. It's possible to opt for an intriguing topic from any area of science. Following are a few of the suggested sociology essay topic for those students that are unable to pick a great topic for their assignment. If you are concerned that you won't have the ability to locate an inexpensive essay writing service capable of dealing with your academic papers, we're here to prove you wrong. A proposal essay is a type of argumentative essay, where the author outlines the issue and provides an indisputable solution based on fundamental research. You have to understand completely that you're not writing a descriptive essay. An argumentative essay requires you to choose a topic and have a position on it. You are needed to write a minumum of one research paper in a semester for many the subjects. The more you fully grasp the simpler it's for you to compose a thriving research paper. At times, very good research paper topics are just the easiest ones. When deciding on your research paper topic, you must make certain it is neither boring nor worn out. Essays that go off the point with a lot of additional detail will acquire poor marks. Most of the folks have a tendency to run away from politics and thus the politics essays too, therefore it is quite important to grab the eye of the readers till the conclusion of the essay and that would be much difficult I know. The main reason for writing such a paper isn't just to discuss it. There's well-known that you won't have the ability to write a superior insightful research paper if you're not interested in the subject overall and in the subject specifically. Writing a stellar scholarship essay will be able to help you get more cash for college. At length, you'll find somebody who will write essays for money at the most economical rates for you. Writing an excellent essay can be a breeze if the author keeps in mind a couple of important pointersPost by Harshmeet. Writing an essay with Essay help can be a challenging undertaking. Generalizations Avoiding general statements or generalizations is a significant tool to generate a potent statement. Students accountable for bullying ought to be expelled from school. Generally, the teachers or professors assign the topics independently. Writers mainly accompanies a major part in the present generation education system. Education is among the fundamental activities in every society. Writing education essay is actually intriguing. Writing a scholarship essay can be quite difficult especially if you prefer to do it. Education improves the mental status and modify the method of thinking of an individual. It is an essential tool for everyone to get success in life and earn respect and recognition. It is very important tool for the people all over the world to make balance of life and its existence on the earth. Higher education is getting an increasing number of attention in the current scenario. Quality and importance of the education is rising day by day. Education department also should stop by all schools to set up and verify their should make sure that resources are allocated in accordance with their requirements and status. It is the most important factor which plays a great role in the development of an individual as well as a country. It plays great role in everyone's life as it brings positive effects on the human life. Utilize your present expertise, the information that you have heard before, and clarify your viewpoint. To earn argument logical emotions should not be regarded as as a tool. Still, it's much better to get a freedom of choice as far as you are able to choose the issue which interests you. It is crucial to teach the students with a suitable strategy to create the concept clear for everybody.

Tuesday, December 17, 2019

John Keats s Life Of Poetry - 1024 Words

Like many poets, John Keats has had a very troubling and traumatic life and it shows in his writings of poetry. Death and many other awful troubles causing him to have a life that anyone would feel horrible in. John Keat’s poetry has many dark recurring themes. One speculation is that his poetry was an escape from his melancholy filled life. There are many aspects to Keats’s life that could have been motivation to write his poetry. One would say that he connected works of poetry with the events of his life. John Keats was on born October 31st 1795 in Moorgate, London. His parents went by the name of Thomas and Francis Keats. He was the oldest of four children. Keats’ was described as a volatile character, always in extremes, given to indolence and fighting. However, at 13 he began focusing his energy on reading and study, winning his first academic prize in midsummer 1809. He was very bright for his age. Keats’s first tragedy took place when he was just eight years, In April of 1804 John’s father died of a skull fracture from a horse accident. Keats’s was very distraught about his father’s death. He became even more confused when his mother instantly married. Only about 6 years his mother passed away from falling ill to tuberculosis. Keats was only 15 years old. Keats nursed his mom until death. Because he was so close with his mom before his death Keats became very distraught over his mother s death. Death of one s parents at an early age can easily p ut one s state ofShow MoreRelatedJohn Keats Essay968 Words   |  4 PagesThomas Keats and Frances Jennings gave birth to the infamous John Keats on 31 October 1795 at his grandfather’s stable in London, United Kingdom.(â€Å"Keats, John (1795-1821).†) In early adolescence, Keat’s father had encountered an accident while riding which led to his death when John was a measly 8 year old. As for John’s mother, she deceased when he was 14 years old due to the tragic disease tuberculosis.(â€Å"Keats, John (1795-1821).†) John was succeeded by two younger brothers, George and Tom and alsoRead MoreThomas Keats And Frances Jennings Essay1033 Words   |  5 PagesThomas Keats and Frances Jennings gave birth to John Keats on 31 October 1795 at his grandfather’s livery stable in London, United Kingdom.(â€Å"Keats, John (1795-1821).†) His father died in a riding accident when John was only 8 years old. As for John’s mother, she died when he was 14 years old due to tuberculosis.(â€Å"Keats, John (1795-1821).†) John had two younger brothers, George and Tom, and a younger sister named Fanny. John and his brother’s George and their younger brother went to John Clarke’sRead MoreEssay On John Keats1035 Words   |  5 PagesJohn Keats Thomas Keats and Frances Jennings gave birth to John Keats on 31 October 1795 at his grandfather’s livery stable in London, United Kingdom.(â€Å"Keats, John (1795-1821).†) His father died in a riding accident when John was only 8 years old. As for John’s mother, she died when he was 14 years old due to tuberculosis.(â€Å"Keats, John (1795-1821).†) John had two younger brothers, George and Tom, and a younger sister named Fanny. John and his brother’s George and their younger brother went to JohnRead MoreAnalysis Of The Poem Ode Of Spring By John Keats Essay1376 Words   |  6 PagesIn the poem Ode to Autumn by John Keats, my initial thoughts of this work is how the author does a beautiful job describing the season. The way that he makes his words come to life. The poem makes you feel as if you are right there in the midst of autumn. As I read through the poem, it was as if I could inhale the autumn air. I think the thing that I loved most about this piece is the mere fact that it is my most favorite season of the year. When the poem talks about the songs of spring, it tellsRead MoreJohn Keats : The Five Senses, Reality Departures, And Nature1628 Words   |  7 Pagesâ€Å"If Poetry comes not as naturally as Leaves to a tree it had better not come at all† (biography). John Keats was an English-born poet who was known for his sonnets, romances, and epics. He was a well-known romantic poet who was criticized because of his style of poetry. In his poems, Keats uses frequent themes such as death, the five senses, reality departures, and nature. As a romantic poet, John Keats uses imagery and emotion based themes as way to display his beliefs in his poetry. Born inRead MoreRomanticism : Romanticism And Romanticism1444 Words   |  6 PagesRomanticism was a period time 1750 to 1870 in Europe, Latin America and The United States. Romantic Movement didn’t reach to France until the 1820’s. Romanticism main spirit was against of rule, law and formulas that classicism the different characterized of general in 18th century. Imagination, Subjectivity of approach, freedom, Expression and the idealization of nature will be focused in movement of Romantic Literature. In this period industrial revolution with the social and political norms formRead MoreWilliam Carlos Williams : An Influential Poet1181 Words   |  5 Pagesand he developed an interest in poetry and William Carlos William ( writing. Williams became influenced by other poets and phenomenon to write his own poetry, sometimes on prescription blanks and in between seeing patients (Overview of William Carlos Williams). With a busy lifestyle and work life, Williams still managed to create famous poetry with the help of other influential poets and paved the way for modernist and Imagist literature. Williams wrote his poetry in an era where literature wasRead MoreCombined Experience of Suffering, Death and Love all at Once1541 Words   |  7 PagesPeoples’ personal life experiences usually affect the topic of their work. John Keats was a famous poet who grew up in an idyllic life until tragedy continuously stroked until his death at twenty-five years old. At eight years old, his father died in a tragic riding accident. Six years later, his mother died of tuberculosis (TB). In the midst of his troubles, his teacher strongly encouraged his reading and literacy ambitions. Living next to an insane asylum, Keats eventually started to developRead MoreRomantic Poetry By George Gordon Byron969 Words   |  4 PagesRomantic poetry was part of the Romantic Movement in the European literature during the XVIII and XIX century. In part, the movement was a rebellion in response to the Enlightenment movement, which focused on the more scientific and rational thought, romantics set themselves in opposition to the order and rationality to embrace freedom. It could be said that romantic poetry is about the comeback of the men to the nature. Prominent characteristics of romantic poetry emphasized passion and emotionRead MoreOde to a Nightingale This essay discusses the numerous symbolism and imagery John Keats uses throughout his poem.1311 Words   |  6 PagesIn his poem Ode to a Nightingale, John Keats uses powerful, distinct symbolism and imagery. The nightingale, for instance, is interpreted by many to be a symbol of Keats poetic inspiration and satisfaction. This symbolism can be seen by the vivid descriptions Keats hives the nightingale. However, the nightingale is definitely not the only item of symbolism in Ode to a Nightingale. In a short piece of art, Keats apparently has mastered using many different items, phrases, and brilliant, descriptive

Monday, December 9, 2019

Religion In James Joyces A Portrait Of The Artist Essay Example For Students

Religion In James Joyces A Portrait Of The Artist Essay As A Young Man. Religion and Its Effect on Stephen DedalusReligion is an important and recurring theme in James Joyces APortrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Through his experiences withreligion, Stephen Dedalus both matures and progressively becomes moreindividualistic as he grows. Though reared in a Catholic school, severalkey events lead Stephen to throw off the yoke of conformity and choosehis own life, the life of an artist. Religion is central to the life of Stephen Dedalus the child. He wasreared in a strict, if not harmonious, Catholic family. The severity ofhis parents, trying to raise him to be a good Catholic man, is evidencedby statements such as, Pull out his eyes/ Apologise/ Apologise/ Pullout his eyes. This strict conformity shapes Stephens life early inboarding school. Even as he is following the precepts of his Catholicschool, however, a disillusionment becomes evident in his thoughts. Thepriests, originally above criticism or doubt in Stephens mind, becomesymbols of intolerance. Chief to these thoughts is Father Dolan, whosestatements such as, Lazy little schemer. I see schemer in your face,exemplify the type of attitude Stephen begins to associate with hisCatholic teachers. By the end of Chapter One, Stephens individualismand lack of tolerance for disrespect become evident when he complains tothe rector about the actions of Father Dolan. His confused attitude isclearly displayed by the end of the chapter when he says, He was happyand free: but he would not be anyway proud with Father Dolan. He wouldbe very kind and obedient: and he wished that he could do something kindfor him to show him that he was not proud. Stephen still has respectfor his priests, but he has lost his blind sense of acceptance. As Stephen grows, he slowly but inexorably distances himself fromreligion. His life becomes one concerned with pleasing his friends andfamily. However, as he matures he begins to feel lost and hopeless,stating, He saw clearly too his own futile isolation. He had not goneone step nearer the lives he had sought to approach nor bridged therestless shame and rancor that divided him from mother and brother andsister. It is this very sense of isolation and loneliness that leads toStephens encounter with the prostitute, where, He wanted to sin withanother of his kind, to force another being to sin with him and to exultwith her in sin. He wants to be loved, but the nearest thing he canfind is prostitution. In the aftermath of this encounter and thenumerous subsequent encounters, a feeling of guilt and even morepronounced loneliness begins to invade Stephens being. Chapter Threerepresents the turning point of the novel, for here Stephen turns hislife around. After the sermon on sin and hell, Stephen examines his souland sees the shape it is in, wondering, Why was he kneeling there likea child saying his evening prayers? To be alone with his soul, toexamine his conscience, to meet his sins face to face, to recall theirtimes and manners and circumstances, to weep over them. Religion pushesits way suddenly and unexpectedly back into Stephens life. After hisconfession at the end of Chapter Three, he begins to lead a life nearlyas devout as that of his Jesuit teachers and mentors. Even as he leadsthis life, however, shades of his former self are obliquely evidentthrough statements such as, This idea had a perilous attraction for hismind now that he felt his soul beset once again by the insistent voicesof the flesh which began to murmur to him again during his prayers andmeditations. Here it is evident that, even as his life becomes more andmore devout, he can never lead the perfect and sinless life of theJesuit. The offer of a position as a priest is met by memories of hisch ildhood at Clongowes and thoughts such as, He wondered how he wouldpass the first night in the novitiate and with what dismay he would wakethe first morning in the dormitory. Stephen realizes that the clericalcollar would be too tight for him to wear. A walk on the beach confirmsthis thought in Stephens mind through the statement, Heavenly God!cried Stephens soul in an outburst of profane joy. The sight of awoman and the knowledge that, as a priest, he could not even talk toher, finally convinces Stephen to abandon religion. His running escapefrom the woman also symbolizes his run from religion and restriction, arun to freedom, to the life of an artist. .uae89dfd0abba631abe01d7ad5454b0c5 , .uae89dfd0abba631abe01d7ad5454b0c5 .postImageUrl , .uae89dfd0abba631abe01d7ad5454b0c5 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .uae89dfd0abba631abe01d7ad5454b0c5 , .uae89dfd0abba631abe01d7ad5454b0c5:hover , .uae89dfd0abba631abe01d7ad5454b0c5:visited , .uae89dfd0abba631abe01d7ad5454b0c5:active { border:0!important; } .uae89dfd0abba631abe01d7ad5454b0c5 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .uae89dfd0abba631abe01d7ad5454b0c5 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .uae89dfd0abba631abe01d7ad5454b0c5:active , .uae89dfd0abba631abe01d7ad5454b0c5:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .uae89dfd0abba631abe01d7ad5454b0c5 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .uae89dfd0abba631abe01d7ad5454b0c5 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .uae89dfd0abba631abe01d7ad5454b0c5 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .uae89dfd0abba631abe01d7ad5454b0c5 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .uae89dfd0abba631abe01d7ad5454b0c5:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .uae89dfd0abba631abe01d7ad5454b0c5 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .uae89dfd0abba631abe01d7ad5454b0c5 .uae89dfd0abba631abe01d7ad5454b0c5-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .uae89dfd0abba631abe01d7ad5454b0c5:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: History 12 EssayThe life of an artist is one of individuality and solitude, both ofwhich Stephen exhibits in the final chapter. Religion is the last thingon Stephens mind as he formulates his theses on art, aesthetic beauty,ideal pity and ideal terror. While these theses are important to thecontinuity of the novel, religion does not resurface until much later. Near the end of the novel, Cranly sees the folly of the life Stephen istrying to make for himself. He is surrounding himself with beautifulthoughts and images, but these images will not hold him later in life. Realizing such, Cranly gently tries to push religion back into Stephenslife, stating, Do you not fear that those words may be spoken to you onthe day of judgment? This question, however, is met by the rebuke,What is offered me on the other hand?An eternity of bliss in thecompany of the dean of studies? Stephens bitterly sarcasticdenunciation of the religious life represents a final break from allreligion. The end of Stephens life in Ireland rings hollow, for thisexchange shows the emptiness he has to show for it. In response to thequestion of whether he loves his mother, Stephen says, I dont knowwhat your words mean. This statement shows the lack of love inStephens life that results from the absence of religion, for withoutreligion there can be no true feeling or outlet for these feelings. While Stephen eventually turns away from religion, it is an importantfacet in his development as an artist. Religion, originally one of thenets by which he flies, leads to the loss of his naivet and later tohis disillusionment with a conformist society as a whole. Stephensthoughts are too independent and liberal for his contemporaries, andthus it is inevitable that he will cast away his nets, reject society,and become an artist. Religion disturbs, shapes, and finally changesStephen for good. While religion leads to an artistic and lonely life,Stephen can never totally break from his family or need forcompanionship. At the close of the novel he says, Old father, oldartificer, stand by me now and ever in good stead, belying the factthat no matter how independent Stephen becomes, no man can be an island. Category: English

Sunday, December 1, 2019

Popular Music Isnt Cool Essays - Music Industry, Music, MTV

Popular Music Isn't Cool Pop Culture Isnt Cool From my point of view, Great pop music is an oxymoron. These days people look to the media for the answer to everything, including what music to listen to, or in most cases what music to play in the back round. Im not saying all pop fans are closed minded to the point where they listen to the music genre that is currently trendy in hopes of it helping them position themselves socially. Im also not denying the fact, people like that are out there. In most cases, I think people listen to pop because for some reason theyre not involved in another music scene, so its all they know exists. Record labels systematically chose who they want to sign, and then promote them to the public. Therefore, they have an enormous influence on what music America and many other countries listen to. This is bad news because corporate promoters dont just go out looking for talent to sign to their label regardless of what kind of music it is attached to. Companies use statistics to determine what they think will sell, and sign whoever fits the right criteria. They dont bother looking for artists who arent playing whats hot; they want bands playing the sound they know sells. Labels also want bands with catchy songs, and I dont know about you but I think catchy giggles are for advertisements. Real musicians have to be careful where they put their signature, because any one who takes them self seriously wouldnt stand for a company who censers their art. Also you may have noticed TV is now just as much a source of music as radio, so you better be an attractive conformist if you want to be promoted as an artist in the business of pop music. MTV, without doubt, plays a major role in how generic popular music has become. Obviously the birth of music videos gave big business a chance to sell music to the other four senses. The real opportunity for MTV to cash in on the music industry wasnt just picking up their crumbs. Just luring in those people whose ears are uninterested in music with flashy colors and shiny things is no longer their motive. Quickly MTV figured out eye candy doesnt sell nearly as well as the fantasy life the right image can supply. There is nothing wrong with having an image, everyone portrays an image whether they like it or not. In this case the problem is, MTV uses image to sell a product where image should be considered irrelevant. The effect of doing this is closing the viewers minds; it causes people to listen to music only on the expressional level. This blinds people from the fact that on the purely musical level the product is elementary, and in my opinion more often resembles noise than music. Maybe you already knew all the things I have said thus far, but you disagree with my views on the issue. Then we see things from a different angle, and that ok by me. You might like the things Ive said, but dont totally agree with me because you figure Im problely just a cynical basterd. Ive got no credentials, for all you know I cant back up a single word Ive said. Just to show you Im not the only one who has such distaste for MTV and the other big brothers of the music industry, Ill quote someone with a bit of a longer r?sum? than I do. Jerry Garcia, along with the rest of the Grateful Dead, holds the record for playing the most concerts ever. 30 years of dedicated fans proves Jerry to be knowledgeable in the field of music. Incase Jerrys opinion might be worth more to you than mine, Ill quote something he said once at Dead concert (I have the tape): We were trying to figure out if we were going to sit down or stand up while we were playin, and I think the industry standard is you sit down. Then vary sarcastically he said; You know thats the right way to do it because thats the way they do

Tuesday, November 26, 2019

Spitting Image

Spitting Image Spitting Image Spitting Image By Maeve Maddox ELVIS’ SECRET SON FOUND: Handsome 32-year-old is the spitting image of The King Thats to say, the young man looks exactly like Elvis. The underlying image is that of a man spitting out a child in his own likeness, rather like Cadmus sowing the dragons teeth from which sprang full-grown men. NOTE: Some fastidious folk etymologists have tried to elevate the expression from the realm of expectoration by suggesting that spit and image derives from the phrase spirit and image. Not likely. The Online Etymology Dictionary gives 1602 as a date for spit used with the meaning the very likeness. The Phrase Finder cites this 1689 reference from George Farquhars play Love and a Bottle: Poor child! hes as like his own dadda as if he were spit out of his mouth. The expression has appeared in various forms: the spit A daughter,..the very spit of the old captain. (1825) the spit and fetch He would be the very spit and fetch of Queen Cleopatra. (1859) the spit an image Shes like the poor lady thats dead and gone, the spit an image she is. (1895) the dead spit Ill chance you having another ring..the dead spit of mine. (1901) the spitten image He looked the spitten picture of my ould father. (1887) the spittin image Hes jes like his pa, ï ¿ ¼the very spittin image of him! (1901) the spitting image In another twenty years..she would be her mothers spitting image. (1929) the spit-image My husband saw a man that was the spit-image of King no further away than Jackson. (1949) The OED gives an example of Westmoreland dialect in which splittin image is used instead of spittin image. A possible explanation is given by D. Hartley in Made in England (1939): Evenness and symmetry are got by pairing the two split halves of the same tree, or branch. (Hence the country saying: hes the ‘splitting image’ï ¿ ¼an exact likeness.) Spitting image is definitely the winning version. Most modern speakers would hear splitting image as a malapropism. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Expressions category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:20 Great Similes from Literature to Inspire YouWhat is Dative Case?How to Write a Proposal

Saturday, November 23, 2019

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

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Spanish vs. English colonization of America Essay - 1

Spanish vs. English colonization of America - Essay Example Spanish conquest and colonization. There were millions of people living in the Americas when Christopher Columbus arrived in 1492. In the following centuries the population of the Native Americans decreased steadily (Brading 48). The writings of the Dominican friar Bartolomà © de Las Casas vividly depict atrocities committed on the natives by the Spanish conquistadors. â€Å"It was a general rule among Spaniards to be cruel; not just cruel, but extraordinarily cruel so that harsh and bitter treatment would prevent Indians from daring to think of themselves as human beings or hav-ing a minute to think at all.† (Las Casas 70). At the same time, the Spanish rulers in America were unhappy at the high mortality rate of the natives, since they wanted to exploit the Indians laborers. The Spaniards were committed to converting their American subjects to Christianity, often by force. However, as Cook mentions (94), â€Å"American groups simply blended Catholicism with their traditional beliefs, which could not have been regarded as a success†. Nowadays, among many scholars it is believed that epidemic disease was the main cause of the population decline — the figure of 80% is mentioned related to those who may have died due to European diseases, such as chicken-pox and measles (Cook 94, 212).

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

Exploring ethics in contemporary business Assignment

Exploring ethics in contemporary business - Assignment Example Further, decisions in an organisation are taken, for instance, to mitigate risks or brainstorm for the best alternatives to move an organisation to the next level (Guest & Woodrow, 2012) . In a hierarchical organisational structure, decisions are made in boardrooms by the top management without involving other employees. Consequently, the style of leadership in a hierarchical organisational structure tends to be authoritative, where the decision made by the top management is final (Ahmed, Bwisa, & Karanja, 2014). In such a case where decisions go wrong, the management should be held accountable for poor decision-making. On the contrary, while a flatter organisational structure allows other employees to take part in the decision-making process, the management still has the last word regarding the ideal decision to be implemented (Michaelson, 2010). In this sense, ethical issues arise whether it is appropriate to hold an employee accountable for poor decision-making in an organisation. In an organisation, decision-making entails a process of tackling a problem by looking for a solution that will bring about value for an organisation’s stakeholders. In essence, decisions in an organisation can be programmed or non-programmed. In the former, decisions are normally repetitive and routine while, in the latter process, decisions tend to be novel and unstructured (Ahmed, Bwisa, & Karanja, 2014). Some of the models in the literature that can be associated with organisational decision-making include the Rational, Carnegie, Incrementalist, Unstructured and the Garbage Can models (Glockner & Betsch, 2011). With regard to the rational model, the process of making decisions is straightforward and involves a three-step process. The three steps encompass identifying the problem, brainstorming for an ideal alternative and selecting the best among others to implement. In most organisational setups, the rational model is the most common

Sunday, November 17, 2019

Current Issues in Law and HR Course Work Essay Example for Free

Current Issues in Law and HR Course Work Essay Organizations are considered to be the most incentive, social arrangement of today. It’s considered a marvel to know that thousands of people with individual backgrounds, skills and interests are coordinated into various organizations, so that they can pursue their common institutionalized goals and objectives. The historians of the future see today’s organizations as the greatest achievement of our time and era. For example biogenetic engineering have had some breakthroughs. The Apollo mission to the moon was made possible by the organization called NASA. Even on day to day basis organizations play an important role in our lives. The water we drink to the food we eat or the clothes we wear all comes from different kinds of organizations Human resource is defined by many companies as a combination of the administrative functions with the performance of the company’s employees and their relations along with the company’s planning. Human resource basically develops mostly from industrial and organizational behaviour. The major function that are included in HRM are recruitment, selection, training and development, orientation, placement, separation, career planning, performance appraisal, salaries and wages, incentives and gain-sharing, benefits, services and security and employee relations and assessment. The term human resource basically refers to the people of the company. The manager of the company engages in HR because the HR activities and tasks are considered to be an important part of the company. It basically helps the company to achieve the goals and the objectives that are set for them by the management. As you all know that human resource activities also make a large contribution to the company’s success in many ways but the HR activities mostly support the strategies of the organization. The HR department basically exists to support the managers and the employees of the company and to pursue the company’s goal or objectives (Werther Davis 1996). The major challenges that would be faced by the organization are as follows: †¢ Population-growth challenges †¢ Global Competitive Challenges †¢ Unemployment Challenges †¢ Social Responsibility Challenges †¢ Medical, Food, Housing Challenges †¢ Unknown Challenges †¢ Ethical Challenges †¢ Workforce Diversity Challenges The objectives of the HR department are based on societal, organizational, functional and personal goals. It is known that the objectives of the company are not formally stated that is they are not in the written form. The objective of the human resource management not only reflects the intention of the middle and top management but also balances the challenges that are faced by the HR department. Objectives are basically considered as benchmarks against which the actions can be evaluated. The human resource objectives not only reflect the intention of the management but also balance the organizational challenges, the HR function and the people who are affected by it. If the company fails to succeed in its objectives it would harm the company’s profits, performance and even the survival of the firm. As we know that there are four objectives that are common to the HR management. The objectives are as follows: 1. Organizational Objective: which basically recognizes that the HR management exists and it contributes to the organizational effectiveness. The HR department basically exists so that it can help managers of the company to achieve the objectives and goals of the company. HR management only supports the managers with the human resource issues. If we put is simply the HR department only exist solely to help assist the rest of the company. 2. Functional Objective: which basically states that this objective solely exists to maintain the department’s input at a level that is considered relevant to company’s needs. A relation exists between the objectives and the HR activities and they are appraisal of the employee, placement and assessment of the employee. 3. Societal Objective: this objective shows that the company has to be ethically and socially responsive to the needs and challenges of the society while the company minimizes the negative impacts of such demands on the organization 4. Personal Objective: shows that the HR management helps assisting the employees in achieving their goals and objectives. And these goals enhance the individual’s contribution towards the organization. To achieve these goals the HR department help the managers of the company to obtain, maintain, utilize and retain the right amount and types of workers. The objectives of the employees must be met otherwise the employees would not be motivated, retained and maintained by the HR department of the company. And the employees would neglect their jobs, voice their complaints or maybe leave the organization for a better opportunity (Werther Davis 1996). It is not necessary that all the organization can meet the HR objectives every time. Some sort of trade-offs do occur that stops the company in achieving the stated goals and objectives. When the objectives are net by the department, they make a huge contribution towards the organization’s and employees needs. And with the help of these objectives the managers are able to see the kinds of activities that are needed to be carried out and why. There is a relationship that exists between the objectives and the activities of the HR. For example, for the societal objective the supporting activities would be legal compliance, union and management relations and benefits of the employees. For the organizational objective the supporting activities would be HR planning, employee relations, selection, training and development, appraisal, placement and assessment. For functional objective the supporting activities would be performance appraisal, placement, assessment and development of the employees. And for personal objective the supporting activities would be training and development, performance appraisal, placement, assessment and compensation of the employees. The HR activities are considered as actions that are taken by the department to maintain a workforce balance that is considered as appropriate to the organization’s needs. For example, small companies who do have the HR department have small budgets and small staffs therefore the HR department of such companies only focus on the activities that they consider are important for the company. The functions or activities that are considered important for such companies would be planning, recruitment, and wages and salaries of the employees. The functions that are performed by the HR department of the organization are as follows: Planning is the first activity that is conducted by the department. Planning can be defined as the systematic forecast that determines the company’s future and the demand and supply of the employees that would be needed by the organization. HR planning is also known as employees planning which helps the HR department and other managers of the company to develop staffing plans so that they would go along with the strategy of the company. it is important that the company is staffed with the right amount of people so that the strategic operational and functional goals of the company can be met. It has been realized by a lot companies that the HR plans are very important if the organization wants to have strategic success. For example, companies like Nokia and Apple it is important to have strategic plans because it would help the companies by developing new products and introducing them as quickly as possible in the market. It is only possible when the company is staffed with the right kind of people. Without the right people strategy based opportunities would be lost to a better staffed organization like Motorola and IBM (Werther Davis 1996). Recruitment is one of the important activities of the HR department. Recruitment is mostly concerned with attracting and finding individuals who are capable for employment. The recruitment process begins s when the new recruits are sought and this process ends when the applicant submits and application. People who find new recruits are called recruiters. The process of hiring is faced with some limitations like costs, incentives, job requirements, policies of the company, environment conditions, insufficient and scarce resources and EEO legislation etc. Recruitment is done in two ways 1) internal channel which includes job posting program and departing employees 2) External channel which includes advertising, walk-in and write-ins, employee referrals, state employment agencies, open house, international recruiting, temporary help agencies and leased employees etc (Recruitment Process) Selection is one of the activities of the HR department. Selection is defined as a process that is based on specific steps that are used to describe that which individual should be hired. This process starts when the individual applies for the job and it ends when the final decision is made by the management of the company. the selection process is also faced with some limitations like EEO legislation, Workforce diversity and external prohibitions etc. ( The Selection Process). The selection process is based on eight steps and these steps are as follows:- †¢ Preliminary reception of applications †¢ Employment tests †¢ Selection interview †¢ Preference and background checks †¢ Medical tests †¢ Supervisory interview †¢ Realistic job preview †¢ Hiring decision Orientation, Placement and Separation is considered to be an activity of HRM. Orientation can be defined as when the new recruits are given an overview of the company on the first day of work. The orientation program of the company is based on the following goals 1) the pride of belonging to the company 2) creates awareness about the company’s business 3) emphasize on customer focus and service 4) helps to reduce the concerns that are related to the job 5) helps with development of a team member and 6) helps to establish personal growth etc. Placement can be defined as the work activities that are assigned to a new employee. The role of HR department here is that to advice the managers of the company about the rules and the regulations and it also provide counseling to the employees. Placement is based on 3 classes 1) promotion, transfer and demotion. Separation can be defined as a decision where the individual and the company must part. Separation process starts either the employer or the employee. The role of HR department is to find a method which is satisfactory for conducting a separation in such a way that it reduces the harmful factors that might affect the company. Training Development is concerned with that placing the employees in a job does not give the company the surety that the individual would be successful in his or her job. Training and development programs are considered important for all the employees. The distinction between training and development is that training is for now and development is for the future. For example at Corning Glass there are a lot of learning opportunities that range from skilled orientation training to seminars that deal with development issues, they basically help the managers to face the issues that might arise in the future. The employees of the company are not bothered that the class is intended for training or development. It is only concerned with whether the program has helped the employees and the organization or not (Training and Development). Training and development are based on the following steps: †¢ Need assessment †¢ Learning principles †¢ Program content †¢ Training and development objectives There are some challenges that are faced by HR department due to training and development. For example cost effectiveness, desired program content, learning principles and appropriateness of the facilities etc. The role of HR department over here is that it helps to prepare the individuals for future job responsibilities. And it also attempts stops the employees from obsolesce, work force diversity, technological changes, affirmation action and employee turnover etc. (Werther Davis 1996) Career planning is one of the activities of the HRM. When the department is doing career planning it is mostly concerned with whether the company’s training and development programs has helped the employees with promotion chances or not. A couple of decades ago career planning was seen as an individual’s problem but now career planning is seen as the HR department’s problem. The HR managers and specialist see career planning as a way to meet the internal staffing needs. The involvement of the HR department in career planning is increasing everyday due to its benefits like low turnover, satisfies the needs of the employees, personal growth, helps with workforce diversity and decrease hoarding etc. Performance appraisal is one of the major activities of HRM. Performance appraisal can be defined as evaluating an employee’s current or past performances relative to his or her performance standard. In this competitive world companies require a high performance so that they can become dominant leaders in their perspective markets. And at the same time employees also need feedback on their performance so that it can act as a guide for their future behavior and responsibilities. There are some challenges that are faced by the HR department regarding the performance appraisal like legal constraints, rater’s biases regarding the employee based on halo effect or personal prejudice or even cross cultural biases etc. It has been vied been viewed by the experts that when there is poor performance throughout the company it creates huge problems with the human resource management activities(Grote Grote 1996). Wages and Salaries are concerned with compensation. Compensation can be defined as something the employees receive in their return of their input to the organization. Without proper compensation the employees of the company would leave and it would be difficult for the company to hire new recruits. The result of pay dissatisfaction can harm the productivity of the company and can also harm the quality of work life as well. There are some challenges that affect the compensation plan like wage rates, union, constraints by the government and equal pay etc. ( Salary and Wages) Security, Safety and Health is considered a challenge for the HR experts that how to comply proactively with the minimum costs for the organization and to provide with the minimum of costs for the organization and to provide the greatest of benefits to its employees, whereas in the area of employee security and health companies have taken a proactive action. It is the role of the HR department to face the challenges that arise overtime. The HR is usually faced with 2 kinds of challenges: 1) Internal challenges which are also the organizational challenges. Internal challenges for example would include union, information systems, organizational conflicts between the company and the employees. 2) External challenges are those problems that exist due to the changing environment and the management has no control over it. Change in the company’s environment actually evolves at different kinds of rates. External challenges would include workforce diversity, technology, economics and government. The HR department has to follow 4 steps so that they can overcome the external challenges. They are as follows: †¢ Monitor the environment †¢ Evaluate the impact of the challenges on the company †¢ Take proactive measures that is implement approaches that would help the company to achieve its goals †¢ Obtain and analyze the feedback. It is the role of the HR department to achieve a balance between the trade-offs of efficiency and effectiveness. For example when jobs are under specialized the job design may be simplified by decreasing the number of tasks and if the job is over specialized the number of job tasks can be enriched and expanded by the human resource department.

Thursday, November 14, 2019

Pricing Strategies :: Business Market Marketing Price

Pricing Strategies (graphics not included) One of the four major elements of the marketing mix is price. Pricing is an important strategic issue because it is related to product positioning. Pricing also affects other marketing mix elements as well, such as product features, channel decisions, and promotion. A pricing strategy is a course of action designed to achieve pricing objectives. This strategy helps marketers set prices. There are many ways to price a product. The following, figure 1.1, shows a list of five major types of pricing strategies. (Business, 8th Ed., pg 421) Figure 1.1 New-Product Pricing There are two primary types of new product pricing strategies, price skimming and penetration pricing. An organization can use one or both of them over a calculated period of time. Price Skimming involves charging the highest price possible for a short time where a new, innovative, or much-improved product is launched onto a market. The objective with skimming is to â€Å"skim the cream† off customers who are willing to pay more to have the product sooner. Prices are lowered once demand falls. (Business, 8th Ed., pg 422) Penetration Pricing is the opposite extreme; it involves the setting of lower, rather than higher price for a new product. The main purpose is to build market share quickly. The seller wants to discourage competitors from entering the market by building a large market share quickly. (Business, 8th Ed., pg 422) Differential Pricing Differential pricing occurs when a company attempts to charge different prices to two different customers for what is essentially the same product. For this to be effective, the market must have multiple segments with different price sensitivities. Differential pricing can happen in several ways: negotiated pricing, secondary-market pricing, periodic discounting, and random discounting. The following describes two of the ways. Negotiated Pricing happens when the final price is established through bargaining between the seller and the buyer. This occurs in various industries and at all levels of distribution. Prices are normally negotiated for houses, cars and used merchandise. (Business, 8th Ed., pg 423) Periodic Discounting is the temporary reduction of prices. This normally happens when retailers have holiday sales or seasonal sales. The downside of this is that customers can predict when the price reductions will occur and hold off on buying until the sales take place. (Business, 8th Ed., pg 423) Psychological Pricing Psychological pricing is a marketing practice based on the theory that certain prices have a psychological impact.

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

History of Architecture from Ancient world

Discus the early development of urban architecture in the ancient Near East, with specific reference to one or two cities in the ‘Fertile Crescent. ‘ The history of civilization has been one of the most significant fields of study for a very long time. After the agriculture revolution the number of population grow rapidly, civilizations were formed and cities were being built to accommodate the growing populations of the ancient civilization. Architecture has always been a vital part of the civilizations throughout the history of mankind.As Nations become powerful and prosperous their Architecture becomes more dominant by building rater cities, public splendor and religious monuments. From the birth of civilizations until now many civilizations have appeared and disappeared from the face of the earth for various reasons. The ones that have survived and claim their existence have carried out their identity, culture and Architecture from their ancestors. Those civilizations that have vanished due to foreign invasions or other unknown reasons have left us their ancient cities and Architecture that need to be discovered.A great example that we can refer to is the Ancient Near East, where one f the earliest human civilizations were living in. It is told that the Sumerians were the first civilization that once lived in Mesopotamia which is in Ancient near east and worlds first cities also developed in here which includes Summer (Our) and Babylon (Wildfowl & Matthews, n. D. ) In this Essay I will be focusing on the urban development and Architecture of the Ancient civilizations which includes the Sumerians and the Babylonians that were based in Mesopotamia the lands of Fertile Crescent.The Ancient Near East which is now known as the Middle East was the birth place of he civilization, It was here in Mesopotamia where the world's first civilization (Sumerians) claimed their existence (Wildfowl & Matthews, n. D. ) The Sumerians lived in Mesopotamia (a fertile land between the Tigris River and Euphrates River in the Ancient Near East). These two rivers were very important for the Sumerian Civilization because of agriculture and trade, since it was one of the main routs of their economy.The Sumerians were the first civilizations that farmed in large scale â€Å"It was here that the first farmers learned to cultivate grain, growing what they needed ether than gathering wild varieties†(Wildfowl & Matthews, n. D. ) Following the agriculture revelation and a great increase in population led to the multiplication of large communal centers of an urban character (Lamp, n. D. , BC. 8) As it is still apparent that when a nation becomes powerful and prosperous their architecture becomes more prominent and there cities become more complex.Following the agriculture revelation the Sumerian economy grow rapidly and at the same time cities were taking shape and also public splendor and religious monuments were merging from the middle of the citie s. â€Å"For the people of Ancient near east there cities meant more than Just a city for them, it was a complex that only a god could have created it and according to the ideal concept of the people in the ancient near east, cities did not develop in slow growth, to paraphrase the cosmogony: there was time when the city had not been made†¦ And then the city was made† (Lamp, n. D. , p. ) The Sumerians built their cities around a huge monumental religious building with a tower that can be seen from up to km away. They built the high tower (Gujarat) n the middle of the city that the farmers far away could still see their house of God and for the Sumerians the Gujarat was a connection between their city and the havens. The city was enclosed by a wall that was surrounded by farms and villages. It is very important to understand the history of Architecture and planning before we could make any comment about the relationship between modern Architecture and ancient Architecture .The western Architecture that can be mentioned as a â€Å"modern Architecture† derived from the Architecture of the very first civilizations in Mesopotamia (Watkins, 2005, p. ) The city of Our is one of the most famous Ancient Cities of the Sumerians therefore it can be mentioned as a typical Sumerian Urban Architecture example. Similar to the other Sumerian cities the city of Our also had a Gujarat (a huge religious monumental building) in the middle of the main city, it is estimated that it took at least 1500 men 5 years Just to build its base.The main city of Our that was an enclosed area of 89 hectares with estimated population 34,000 people was surrounded by a huge mud-brick retaining wall that had another wall at the top which was built out of burnt-bricks. The size and population of the Our city including the towns and near suburbs that was situated outside the wall of the city was huge. As the author George R. Collins mentioned in his book (Cities and planning in the Ancient Near East) â€Å"Greater Our with its suburbs, merchant quarters and dependencies might have been a City of a quarter million people. (Lamp, n. D. , p. 15) The Architecture of the houses behind the city wall was very similar to each other; they were built out of mud-brick and they all had low doors and a few air vents in order to keep the interior cool in the summer. None of the houses was aligned with heir neighbors â€Å"the orientation of the buildings is non uniformed, with some designed to face the circular roadways and others positioned in what appears to be a more ad hoc fashion†(Asana & Herrmann, 2010, p. 6) Considering the layout, design and materials of the Mesopotamia cities and houses it becomes clear that the people of Mesopotamia were moderately conservative in terms of their approach to planning their cities and buildings(Lamp, n. D. , p. 17) Babylon the capital of Babylonian situated on the old Euphrates in Mesopotamia which is a part of modern day I raq is one of the ancient cities that stands equally with Athens and Rome as a culture ancestor of the western civilization.It was one of the large cities of its time that had a population of around half a million people including the suburbs and towns outside the city wall (Sags, 2000, p. 26) The city and its temples were destroyed many times by foreign invaders and were frequently rebuilt because of its religious importance. The city of Babylon too like other cities in the ancient Near East had its own Architecture and planning identity, it was here that brick was widely used for religious and monumental buildings. Excavation in Iraq as revealed the city grid plan with its double walls, towers and canal connecting it to the river, as well as the foundations of brick built Temples, Palaces, fortifications and the famous Gujarat†(Watkins, 2005, up. 18-20) The city had a rectangular shape with an area of 404. 8 Hectares that was surrounded by a double fortification wall approxi mately mm in width with a mm cavity area in between that were reinforced by strong towers and a moat.The city had 8 main gates that lead to major streets behind the city walls and the main streets that leads to the city are paved â€Å"the main approach to the city was from a wide paved road now known as the processional way' (Watkins, 2005) The hanging gardens that were arranged around five enormous courtyards and the massive walls of Babylon were once counted amongst the 7 wonders of the ancient world (Watkins, 2005, p. 12) Monumental and Residential buildings of the Ancient Near East As I mentioned above that most of the ancient cities were quite similar to each other in terms planning, the residential housing planning was not very different too.A typical city in the Ancient Near East would have had a monumental building in the middle of the itty with residential buildings surrounding it. According to the excavators there was a planning idea that was followed when building durin g the fourth millennium B. C. â€Å"The plan shows that there has been great concern for balance and symmetry in the layout of the single buildings and their fades, but there is little regard for the alignment of the temples or their relationship to one another. (Lamp, n. D. , p. 19) This reinforces the idea that the overall compositional principal was undermined as long as the individual buildings were planned considering symmetry, axes and balance. Their concern for formal planning, symmetry and axial approach is never consistently carried trough but is only applied to parts of the building† (Movement, AFAIK, & Woodlouse, 2003) Letter the Babylonians adopted the same fundamentals of the Mesopotamia planning without bringing any minor changes to it.The residential planning on the other hand was very basic, a town or a suburb was growing from a single house, and even the cities were developing in the same manner. The conclusion is that there was no difference between grown ci ties and planned cities. At the same time there is one principle that has always remained throughout the story of ancient planning which is the orientation of the buildings. Most of the buildings in the Ancient Near East face North West where the most pleasant wind comes from.Following the agriculture revelation for the first time in the ancient Near East, the number of population grow in the region and trade was becoming more common through the Tigris River and Euphrates River. Ancient Near East was home to the world's first civilization and it was here that city planning and monumental buildings first appeared. Some of the architecture in the ancient Near East was counted amongst the 7 wonders of the ancient world which includes the hanging gardens in the Assyrian city and the massive walls of the Babylon city.

Sunday, November 10, 2019

The Twilight Saga 4: Breaking Dawn 10. Why Didn’t I Just Walk Away? …

10. Why Didn't I Just Walk Away? Oh Right, Because I'm An Idiot. I felt like – like I don't know what. Like this wasn't real. Like I was in some Goth version of a bad sitcom. Instead of being the AAdweeb about to ask the head cheerleader to the prom, I was the finished-second-place werewolf about to ask the vampire's wife to shack up and procreate. Nice. No, I wouldn't do it. It was twisted and wrong. I was going to forget all about what he'd said. But I would talk to her. I'd try to make her listen to me. And she wouldn't. Just like always. Edward didn't answer or comment on my thoughts as he led the way back to the house. I wondered about the place that he'd chosen to stop. Was it far enough from the house that the others couldn't hear his whispers? Was that the point? Maybe. When we walked through the door, the other Cullens' eyes were suspicious and confused. No one looked disgusted or outraged. So they must not have heard either favor Edward had asked me for. I hesitated in the open doorway, not sure what to do now. It was better right there, with a little bit of breathable air blowing in from outside. Edward walked into the middle of the huddle, shoulders stiff. Bella watched him anxiously, and then her eyes flickered to me for a second. Then she was watching him again. Her face turned a grayish pale, and I could see what he meant about the stress making her feel worse. â€Å"We're going tolet Jacob and Bella speak privately,† Edward said. There was no inflection at all in his voice. Robotic. â€Å"Over my pile of ashes,† Rosalie hissed at him. She was still hovering by Bella's head, one of her cold hands placed possessively on Bella's sallow cheek. Edward didn't look at her. â€Å"Bella,† he said in that same empty tone. â€Å"Jacob wants to talk to you. Are you afraid to be alone with him?† Bella looked at me, confused. Then she looked at Rosalie. â€Å"Rose, it's fine. Jake's not going to hurt us. Go with Edward.† â€Å"It might be a trick,† the blonde warned. â€Å"I don't see how,† Bella said. â€Å"Carlisle and I will always be in your sight, Rosalie,† Edward said. The emotionless voice was cracking, showing the anger through it. â€Å"We're the ones she's afraid of.† â€Å"No,† Bella whispered. Her eyes were glistening, her lashes wet. â€Å"No, Edward. I'm not___† He shook his head, smiling a little. The smile was painful to look at. â€Å"I didn't mean it that way, Bella. I'm fine. Don't worry about me.† Sickening. He was right – she was beating herself up about hurting his feelings. The girl was a classic martyr. She'd totally been born in the wrong century. She should have lived back when she could have gotten herself fed to some lions for a good cause. â€Å"Everyone,† Edward said, his hand stiffly motioning toward the door. â€Å"Please.† The composure he was trying to keep up for Bella was shaky. I could see how close he was to that burning man he'd been outside. The others saw it, too. Silently, they moved out the door while I shifted out of the way. They moved fast; my heart beat twice, and the room was cleared except for Rosalie, hesitating in the middle of the floor, and Edward, still waiting by the door. â€Å"Rose,† Bella said quietly. â€Å"I want you to go.† The blonde glared at Edward and then gestured for him to go first. He disappeared out the door. She gave me a long warning glower, and then she disappeared, too. Once we were alone, I crossed the room and sat on the floor next to Bella. I took both her cold hands in mine, rubbing them carefully. â€Å"Thanks, Jake. That feels good.† â€Å"I'm not going to lie, Bells. You're hideous.† â€Å"I know,† she sighed. Tm scary-looking.† â€Å"Thing-from-the-swamp scary,† I agreed. She laughed. â€Å"It's so good having you here. It feels nice to smile. I don't know how much more drama I can stand.† I rolled my eyes. â€Å"Okay, okay,† she agreed. â€Å"I bring it on myself.† â€Å"Yeah, you do. What're you thinking, Bells? Seriously!† â€Å"Did he ask you to yell at me?† â€Å"Sort of. Though I can't figure why he thinks you'd listen to me. You never have before.† She sighed. â€Å"I told you – ,† I started to say. â€Å"Did you know that 7 told you so' has a brother, Jacob?† she asked, cutting me off. â€Å"His name is ‘Shut the hell up.† â€Å"Good one.† She grinned at me. Her skin stretched tight over the bones. â€Å"I can't take credit – i got it off a rerun of The Simpsons† â€Å"Missed that one.† â€Å"It was funny.† We didn't talk for a minute. Her hands were starting to warm up a little. â€Å"Did he really ask you to talk to me?† I nodded. â€Å"To talk some sense into you. There's a battle that's lost before it starts.† â€Å"So why did you agree?† I didn't answer. I wasn't sure I knew. I did know this – every second I spent with her was only going to add to the pain I would have to suffer later. Like a junkie with a limited supply, the day of reckoning was coming for me. The more hits I took now, the harder it would be when my supply ran out. â€Å"It'll work out, you know,† she said after a quiet minute. â€Å"I believe that.† That made me see red again. â€Å"Is dementia one of your symptoms?† I snapped. She laughed, though my anger was so real that my hands were shaking around hers. â€Å"Maybe,† she said. Tm not saying things will work out easily, Jake. But how could I have lived through all that I've lived through and not believe in magic by this point?† â€Å"Magic?† â€Å"Especially for you,† she said. She was smiling. She pulled one of her hands away from mine and pressed it against my cheek. Warmer than before, but it felt cool against my skin, like most things did. â€Å"More than anyone else, you've got some magic waiting to make things right for you.† â€Å"What are you babbling about?† Still smiling. â€Å"Edward told me once what it was like – your imprinting thing. He said it was like A Midsummer Night's Dream, like magic. You'll find who you're really looking for, Jacob, and maybe then all of this will make sense.† If she hadn't looked so fragile I would've been screaming. As it was, I did growl at her. â€Å"If you think that imprinting could ever make sense of this insanity †¦Ã¢â‚¬  I struggled for words. â€Å"Do you really think that just because I might someday imprint on some stranger it would make this right?† I jabbed a finger toward her swollen body. â€Å"Tell me what the point was then, Bella! What was the point of me loving you? What was the point of you loving him? When you die† – the words were a snarl – â€Å"how is that ever right again? What's the point to all the pain? Mine, yours, his! You'll kill him, too, not that I care about that.† She flinched, but I kept going. â€Å"So what was the point of your twisted love story, in the end? If there is any sense, please show me, Bella, because I don't see it.† She sighed. â€Å"I don't know yet, Jake. But I just†¦ feel†¦ that this is all going somewhere good, hard to see as it is now. I guess you could call it faith.† â€Å"You're dying for nothing, Bella! Nothing!† Her hand dropped from my face to her bloated stomach, caressed it. She didn't have to say the words for me to know what she was thinking. She was dying for it. I'm not going to die,† she said through her teeth, and I could tell she was repeating things she'd said before. â€Å"I will keep my heart beating. I'm strong enough for that.† â€Å"That's a load of crap, Bella. You've been trying to keep up with the supernatural for too long. No normal person can do it. You're not strong enough.† I took her face in my hand. I didn't have to remind myself to be gentle. Everything about her screamed breakable. â€Å"I can do this. I can do this,† she muttered, sounding a lot like that kids' book about the little engine that could. â€Å"Doesn't look like it to me. So what's your plan? I hope you have one.† She nodded, not meeting my eyes. â€Å"Did you know Esme jumped off a cliff? When she was human, I mean.† â€Å"So?† â€Å"So she was close enough to dead that they didn't even bother taking her to the emergency room – they took her right around to the morgue. Her heart was still beating, though, when Carlisle found her___† That's what she'd meant before, about keeping her heart beating. â€Å"You're not planning on surviving this human,† I stated dully. â€Å"No. I'm not stupid.† She met my stare then. â€Å"I guess you probably have your own opinion on that point, though.† â€Å"Emergency vampirization,† I mumbled. â€Å"It worked for Esme. And Emmett, and Rosalie, and even Edward. None of them were in such great shape. Carlisle only changed them because it was that or death. He doesn't end lives, he saves them.† I felt a sudden twinge of guilt about the good vampire doctor, like before. I shoved the thought away and started in on the begging. â€Å"Listen to me, Bells. Don't do it that way.† Like before, when the call from Charlie had come, I could see how much difference it really made to me. I realized I needed her to stay alive, in some form. In any form. I took a deep breath. â€Å"Don't wait until it's too late, Bella. Not that way. Live. Okay? Just live. Don't do this to me. Don't do it to him.† My voice got harder, louder. â€Å"You know what he's going to do when you die. You've seen it before. You want him to go back to those Italian killers?† She cringed into the sofa. I left out the part about how that wouldn't be necessary this time. Struggling to make my voice softer, I asked, â€Å"Remember when I got mangled up by those newborns? What did you tell me?† I waited, but she wouldn't answer. She pressed her lips together. â€Å"You told me to be good and listen to Carlisle,† I reminded her. â€Å"And what did I do? I listened to the vampire. For you.† â€Å"You listened because it was the right thing to do.† â€Å"Okay – pick either reason.† She took a deep breath. â€Å"It's not the right thing now.† Her gaze touched her big round stomach and she whispered under her breath, â€Å"I won't kill him.† My hands shook again. â€Å"Oh, I hadn't heard the great news. A bouncing baby boy, huh? Shoulda brought some blueballoons.† Her face turned pink. The color was so beautiful – it twisted in my stomach like a knife. A serrated knife, rusty and ragged. I was going to lose this. Again. â€Å"I don't know he's a boy,† she admitted, a little sheepish. â€Å"The ultrasound wouldn't work. The membrane around the baby is too hard – like their skin. So he's a little mystery. But I always see a boy in my head.† â€Å"It's not some pretty baby in there, Bella.† â€Å"We'll see,† she said. Almost smug. â€Å"You won't,† I snarled. â€Å"You're very pessimistic, Jacob. There is definitely a chance that I might walk away from this.† I couldn't answer. I looked down and breathed deep and slow, trying to get a grip on my fury. â€Å"Jake,† she said, and she patted my hair, stroked my cheek. â€Å"It's going to be okay. Shh. it's okay.† I didn't look up. â€Å"No. It will not be okay.† She wiped something wet from my cheek. â€Å"Shh.† â€Å"What's the deal, Bella?† I stared at the pale carpet. My bare feet were dirty, leaving smudges. Good. â€Å"I thought the whole point was that you wanted your vampire more than anything. And now you're just giving him up? That doesn't make any sense. Since when are you desperate to be a mom? If you wanted that so much, why did you marry a vampire?† I was dangerously close to that offer he wanted me to make. I could see the words taking me that way, but I couldn't change their direction. She sighed. â€Å"It's not like that. I didn't really care about having a baby. I didn't even think about it. It's not just having a baby. It's†¦ well†¦ this baby.† â€Å"It's a killer, Bella. Look at yourself.† â€Å"He's not. It's me. I'm just weak and human. But I can tough this out, Jake, I can – â€Å" â€Å"Aw, come on! Shut up, Bella. You can spout this crap to your bloodsucker, but you're not fooling me. You know you're not going to make it.† She glared at me. â€Å"I do not know that. I'm worried about it, sure.† â€Å"Worriedabout it,† I repeated through my teeth. She gasped then and clutched at her stomach. My fury vanished like a light switch being turned off. â€Å"I'm fine,† she panted. It's nothing.† But I didn't hear; her hands had pulled her sweatshirt to the side, and I stared, horrified, at the skin it exposed. Her stomach looked like it was stained with big splotches of purple-black ink. She saw my stare, and she yanked the fabric back in place. â€Å"He's strong, that's all,† she said defensively. The ink spots were bruises. I almost gagged, and I understood what he'd said, about watching it hurt her. Suddenly, I felt a little crazy myself. â€Å"Bella,† I said. She heard the change in my voice. She looked up, still breathing heavy, her eyes confused. â€Å"Bella, don't do this:' â€Å"Jake – â€Å" â€Å"Listen to me. Don't get your back up yet. Okay? Just listen. What if†¦ ?† â€Å"What if what?† â€Å"What if this wasn't a one-shot deal? What if it wasn't all or nothing? What if you just listened to Carlisle like a good girl, and kept yourself alive?† â€Å"I won't – â€Å" â€Å"I'm not done yet. So you stay alive. Then you can start over. This didn't work out. Try again.† She frowned. She raised one hand and touched the place where my eyebrows were mashing together. Her fingers smoothed my forehead for a moment while she tried to make sense of it. â€Å"I don't understand†¦. What do you mean, try again? You can't think Edward would let me†¦ ? And what difference would it make? I'm sure any baby – â€Å" â€Å"Yes,† I snapped. â€Å"Any kid of his would be the same.† Her tired face just got more confused. â€Å"What?† But I couldn't say any more. There was no point. I would never be able to save her from herself. I'd never been able to do that. Then she blinked, and I could see she got it. â€Å"Oh. Ugh. Please, Jacob. You think I should kill my baby and replace it with some generic substitute? Artificial insemination?† She was mad now. â€Å"Why would I want to have some stranger's baby? I suppose it just doesn't make a difference? Any baby will do?† â€Å"I didn't mean that,† I muttered. â€Å"Not a stranger.† She leaned forward. â€Å"Then what are you saying?† â€Å"Nothing. I'm saying nothing. Same as ever.† â€Å"Where did that come from?† â€Å"Forget it, Bella.† She frowned, suspicious. â€Å"Did he tell you to say that?† I hesitated, surprised that she'd made that leap so quick. â€Å"No.† â€Å"He did, didn't he?† â€Å"No, really. He didn't say anything about artificial whatever.† Her face softened then, and she sank back against the pillows, looking exhausted. She stared off to the side when she spoke, not talking to me at all. â€Å"He would do anything forme. And I'm hurting him so much†¦. But what is he thinking? That I would trade this† – her hand traced across her belly – â€Å"for some stranger's †¦Ã¢â‚¬  She mumbled the last part, and then her voice trailed off. Her eyes were wet. â€Å"You don't have to hurt him,† I whispered. It burned like poison in my mouth to beg for him, but I knew this angle was probably my best bet for keeping her alive. Still a thousand-to-one odds. â€Å"You could make him happy again, Bella. And I really think he's losing it. Honestly, I do.† She didn't seem to be listening; her hand made small circles on her battered stomach while she chewed on her lip. It was quiet for a long time. I wondered if the Cullens were very far away. Were they listening to my pathetic attempts to reason with her? â€Å"Not a stranger?† she murmured to herself. I flinched. â€Å"What exactly did Edward say to you?† she asked in a low voice. â€Å"Nothing. He just thought you might listen to me.† â€Å"Not that. About trying again.† Her eyes locked on mine, and I could see that I'd already given too much away. â€Å"Nothing.† Her mouth fell open a little. â€Å"Wow.† It was silent for a few heartbeats. I looked down at my feet again, unable to meet her stare. â€Å"He really would do anything, wouldn't he?† she whispered. â€Å"I told you he was going crazy. Literally, Bells.† â€Å"I'm surprised you didn't tell on him right away. Get him in trouble.† When I looked up, she was grinning. â€Å"Thought about it.† I tried to grin back, but I could feel the smile mangle on my face. She knew what I was offering, and she wasn't going to think twice about it. I'd known that she wouldn't. But it still stung. â€Å"There isn't much you wouldn't do for me, either, is there?† she whispered. â€Å"I really don't know why you bother. I don't deserve either of you.† â€Å"It makes no difference, though, does it?† â€Å"Not this time.† She sighed. â€Å"I wish I could explain it to you right so that you would understand. I can't hurthim† – she pointed to her stomach – â€Å"any more than I could pick up a gun and shoot you. I love him.† â€Å"Why do you always have to love the wrong things, Bella?† â€Å"I don't think I do.† I cleared the lump out of my throat so that I could make my voice hard like I wanted it. ‘Trust me.† I started to get to my feet. â€Å"Where are you going?† â€Å"I'm not doing any good here.† She held out her thin hand, pleading. â€Å"Don't go.† I could feel the addiction sucking at me, trying to keep me near her. â€Å"I don't belong here. I've got to get back.† â€Å"Why did you come today?† she asked, still reaching limply. â€Å"Just to see if you were really alive. I didn't believe you were sick like Charlie said.† I couldn't tell from her face whether she bought that or not. â€Å"Will you come back again? Before †¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"I'm not going to hang around and watch you die,Bella.† She flinched. â€Å"You're right, you're right. You should go.† I headed for the door. â€Å"Bye,† she whispered behind me. â€Å"Love you, Jake.† I almost went back. I almost turned around and fell down on my knees and started begging again. But I knew that I had to quitBella, quit her cold turkey, before she killed me, like she was going to kill him. â€Å"Sure, sure,† I mumbled on my way out. I didn't see any of the vampires. I ignored my bike, standing all alone in the middle of the meadow. It wasn't fast enough for me now. My dad would be freaked out – Sam, too. What would the pack make of the fact that they hadn't heard me phase? Would they think the Cullens got me before I'd had the chance? I stripped down, not caring who might be watching, and started running. I blurred into wolf mid-stride. They were waiting. Of course they were. Jacob, Jake,eight voices chorused in relief. Come homenow, the Alpha voice ordered. Sam was furious. I felt Paul fade out, and i knew Billy and Rachel were waiting to hear what had happened to me. Paul was too anxious to give them the good news that I wasn't vampire chow to listen to the whole story. I didn't have to tell the pack I was on my way – they could see the forest blurring past me as I sprinted for home. I didn't have to tell them that I was half-past crazy, either. The sickness in my head was obvious. They saw all the horror – Bella's mottled stomach; her raspy voice; he's strong, that's all: the burning man in Edward's face: watching her sicken and waste away†¦ seeing it hurting her, Rosalie crouched over Bella's limp body: Bella's life means nothing to her – and for once, no one had anything to say. Their shock was just a silent shout in my head. Wordless. I was halfway home before anyone recovered. Then they all started running to meet me. It was almost dark – the clouds covered the sunset completely. I risked darting across the freeway and made it without being seen. We met up about ten miles out of La Push, in a clearing left by the loggers. It was out of the way, wedged between two spurs of the mountain, where no one would see us. Paul found them when I did, so the pack was complete. The babble in my head was total chaos. Everyone shouting at once. Sam's hackles were sticking straight up, and he was growling in an unbroken stream as he paced back and forth around the top of the ring. Paul and Jared moved like shadows behind him, their ears flat against the sides of their head. The whole circle was agitated, on their feet and snarling in low bursts. At first their anger was undefined, and I thought I was in for it. I was too messed up to care about that. They could do whatever they wanted to me for circumventing orders. And then the unfocused confusion of thoughts began to move together. How can this be? What does it mean? What will it be? Not safe. Not right. Dangerous. Unnatural. Monstrous. An abomination. We can't allow it. The pack was pacing in synchronization now, thinking in synchronization, all but myself and one other. I sat beside whichever brother it was, too dazed to look over with either my eyes or my mind and see who was next to me, while the pack circled around us. The treaty does not cover this. This puts everyone in danger. I tried to understand the spiraling voices, tried to follow the curling pathway the thoughts made to see where they were leading, but it wasn't making sense. The pictures in the center of their thoughts were my pictures – the very worst of them. Bella's bruises, Edward's face as he burned. They fear it, too. But they won't do anything about it Protecting Bella Swan. We can't let that influence us. The safety of our families, of everyone here, is more important than one human. If they won't kill it, we have to. Protect the tribe. Protect our families. We have to kill it before it's too late. Another of my memories, Edward's words this time: The thing is growing. Swiftly. I struggled to focus, to pick out individual voices. No time to waste,Jared thought. It will mean a fight,Embry cautioned. A bad one. Were ready,Paul insisted. Well need surprise on our side,Sam thought. If we catch them divided, we can take them down separately. It will increase our chances of victory, Jared thought, starting to strategize now. I shook my head, rising slowly to my feet. 1 felt unsteady there – like the circling wolves were making me dizzy. The wolf beside me got up, too. His shoulder pushed against mine, propping me up. Wait,I thought. The circling paused for one beat, and then they were pacing again. There's little time,Sam said. But – what are you thinking? You wouldn't attack them for breaking the treaty this afternoon. Now you're planning an ambush, when the treaty is still intact? This is not something our treaty anticipated,Sam said. This is a danger to every human in the area. We don't know what kind of creature the Cullens have bred, but we know that it is strong and fast-growing. And it will be too young to follow any treaty. Remember the newborn vampires we fought? Wild, violent, beyond the reach of reason or restraint. Imagine one like that, but protected by the Cullens. We don't know – I tried to interrupt. Wedon't know, he agreed. And we can't take chances with the unknown in this case. We can only allow the Cullens to exist while we're absolutely sure that they can be trusted not to cause harm. This. . . thing cannot be trusted. They don't like it any more than we do. Sam pulled Rosalie's face, her protective crouch, from my mind and put it on display for everyone. Some are ready to fight for it, no matter what it is. It's just ababy, for crying out loud. Not for long,Leah whispered. Jake, buddy, this is a big problem,Quil said. We can't just ignore it. You're making it into something bigger than it is,I argued. The only one who's in danger here is Bella. Again by her own choice,Sam said. But this time her choice affects us all. I don't think so. We can't take that chance. We won't allow a blood drinker to hunt on our lands. Then tell them to leave,the wolf who was still supporting me said. It was Seth. Of course. And inflict the menace on others? When blood drinkers cross our land, we destroy them, no matter where they plan to hunt. We protect everyone we can. This is crazy,I said. This afternoon you were afraid to put the pack in danger. This afternoon I didn't know our families were at risk. I can't believe this! How're you going to kill this creature without killing Bella? There were no words, but the silence was full of meaning. I howled. She's human, too! Doesn't our protection apply to her? She's dying anyway,Leah thought. We'll just shorten the process. That did it. I leaped away from Seth, toward his sister, with my teeth bared. I was about to catch her left hind leg when I felt Sam's teeth cut into my flank, dragging me back. I howled in pain and fury and turned on him. Stop!he ordered in the double timbre of the Alpha. My legs seemed to buckle under me. I jerked to a halt, only managing to keep on my feet by sheer willpower. He turned his gaze away from me. You will not be cruel to him, Leah, he commanded her. Bella's sacrifice is a heavy price, and we will all recognize that It is against everything we stand for to take a human life. Making an exception to that code is a bleak thing. We will all mourn for what we do tonight. Tonight?Seth repeated, shocked. Sam – think we should talk about this some more. Consult with the Elders, at least. You can't seriously mean for us to – We can't afford your tolerance for the Cullens now. There is no time for debate. Youwilldo as you are told, Seth. SetfYs front knees folded, and his head fell forward under the weight of the Alpha's command. Sam paced in a tight circle around the two of us. We need the whole pack for this. Jacob, you are our strongest fighter. Youwillfight with us tonight. I understand that this is hard for you, so you will concentrate on their fighters – Emmett and Jasper Cullen. You don't have to be involved with the†¦ other part. Quil and Embry will fight with you. My knees trembled; I struggled to hold myself upright while the voice of the Alpha lashed at my will. Paul, Jared, and I will take on Edward and Rosalie. I think, from the information Jacob has brought us, they will be the ones guarding Bella. Carlisle and Alice will also be close, possibly Esme. Brady, Collin, Seth, and Leah will concentrate on them. Whoever has a clear lineon – we all heard him mentally stutter overBella's name – the creature will take it. Destroying the creature is our first priority. The pack rumbled in nervous agreement.The tension had everyone's fur standing on end. The pacing was quicker, and the sound of the paws against the brackish floor was sharper, toenails tearing into the soil. Only Seth and I were still, the eye in the center of a storm of bared teeth and flattened ears. Seth's nose was almost touching the ground, bowed under Sam's commands. I felt his pain at the coming disloyalty. For him this was a betrayal – during that one day of alliance, fighting beside Edward Cullen, Seth had truly become the vampire's friend. There was no resistance in him, however. He would obey no matter how much it hurt him. He had no other choice. And what choice did I have? When the Alpha spoke, the pack followed. Sam had never pushed his authority this far before; I knew he honestly hated to see Seth kneeling before him like a slave at the foot of his master. He wouldn't force this if he didn't believe that he had no other choice. He couldn't lie to us when we were linked mind to mind like this. He really believed it was our duty to destroy Bella and the monster she carried. He really believed we had no time to waste. He believed it enough to die for it. I saw that he would face Edward himself; Edward's ability to read our thoughts made him the greatest threat in Sam's mind. Sam would not let someone else take on that danger. He saw Jasper as the second-greatest opponent, which is why he'd given him to me. He knew that I had the best chance of any of the pack to win that fight. He'd left the easiest targets for the younger wolves and Leah. Little Alice was no danger without her future vision to guide her, and we knew from our time of alliance that Esme was not a fighter. Carlisle would be more of a challenge, but his hatred of violence would hinder him. I felt sicker than Seth as I watched Sam plan it out, trying to work the angles to give each member of the pack the best chance of survival. Everything was inside out. This afternoon, I'd been chomping at the bit to attack them. But Seth had been right – it wasn't a fight I'd been ready for. I'd blinded myself with that hate. I hadn't let myself look at it carefully, because I must have known what I would see if I did. Carlisle Cullen. Looking at him without that hate clouding my eyes, I couldn't deny that killing him was murder. He was good. Good as any human we protected. Maybe better. The others, too, I supposed, but I didn't feel as strongly about them. I didn't know them as well. It was Carlisle who would hate fighting back, even to save his own life. That's why we would be able to kill him – because he wouldn't want us, his enemies, to die. This was wrong. And it wasn't just because killing Bella felt like killing me, like suicide. Pull it together, Jacob,Sam ordered. The tribe comes first I was wrong today, Sam. Your reasons were wrong then. But now we have a duty to fulfill. I braced myself. No. Sam snarled and stopped pacing in front of me. He stared into my eyes and a deep growl slid between his teeth. Yes,the Alpha decreed, his double voice blistering with the heat of his authority. There are no loopholes tonight. You, Jacob, are going to fight the Cullens with us. You, with Quil and Embry, will take care of Jasper and Emmett. You are obligated to protect the tribe. That is why you exist. You willperform this obligation. My shoulders hunched as the edict crushed me. My legs collapsed, and I was on my belly under him. No member of the pack could refuse the Alpha.