This Article Discuss Guerrilla Marketing. Guerrilla marketing is a promotional technique in which a company uses surprise and/or unorthodox methods to advertise a service or product. It is a type of commercial. Guerrilla marketing appears to be cheaper than traditional marketing. The concept of Guerrilla Marketing was proposed by Jay Conrad Levinson was popularized in the year 1984.
Guerrilla marketing makes use of various strategies and activities to create direct consumer contact. One of the aims of this interaction is to trigger a client’s emotional response. The main aim of marketing is to get people to perceive goods or brands differently than what they are used to.
You call in the guerrillas when the traditional tactics aren’t delivering. They are the extra-special forces-the ones adopting killer tactics to turn the tide and defeat the enemy.
A perfect alternative to conventional marketing is guerrilla marketing. It thrives on innovative thought and ingenuity, where innovation and naivety beat out massive budgets.
When conventional media of advertisement – such as print, television, radio, and mail – lose influence, marketers, and advertisers need to find new ways to bring their marketing messages to the customer. Guerrilla marketing gives emphasis on attracting the customer by surprise to give the product or company a significant impact. This in effect gives rise to hype about the product being advertised. Guerrilla marketing is a variant of advertisement that increases the commitment of customers to the service or product and is formulated to create a memorable and experience. This also increases the probability that a customer who interacted with the advertisement, will recommend products to their friends, by creating a positive experience. The service or product being marketed reaches more people than originally planned via word of mouth.
Guerrilla marketing is fairly inexpensive and focuses more on scope rather than frequency. Companies don’t need to invest huge money for guerrilla marketing campaigns to be successful; they only need creativity, energy, and time. It, therefore, has the capability for small businesses to succeed, especially if they compete against bigger businesses.
The message is also intended to be transparent and succinct to the consumers. That kind of messaging often acts on the unconscious mind, since the unconscious mind also makes buying decisions. It takes repetition to keep the product or service in the unconscious mind because if a buzz is generated around a product, and it is shared by friends, it allows repetition.
The word “guerrilla marketing” is linked to guerrilla warfare, which uses atypical methods to attain a target. In 1984 the term guerrilla marketing was coined by Jay Conrad Levinson and Leo Burnett in his book Guerrilla Marketing. The concept itself originated from guerrilla warfare influence, which was unconventional tactics using various methods from the normal and minor military approaches used by armed civilians. Implementing a publicity campaign for the guerrillas requires high levels of imagination and energy. This type of marketing is based solely on shocking the customer, making a bigger impression and ultimately contributing to word-of-mouth or social media channels buzzing.
Guerrilla marketing is ideal for a small or medium-sized company to promote its services or goods to its customers without spending more resources on the advertisement. Large corporations have used this to demonstrate the difference from their rivals and to use social media strategies. Individuals have increasingly been using unorthodox forms of searching for employment or to work more. As a result, the street marketing idea was born. It developed from being merely the implementation of street events, to being the creation of creative promotional practices. For example, the distribution of flyers is one approach that many businesses use to advertise their goods or services on the streets. This practice is not about imagination but about street ads. Over time, however, businesses have developed more innovative strategies to attract customers’ attention.
1. Ambient marketing:
Ambient marketing is advertising displayed on environmental items, on almost any physical surface available. It is a collection of atmospheric knowledge, versatility, and productive use. From hand dryers in public toilets and gas stations through to bus hand ties and golf-hole cups, these kinds of advertisements can be found anywhere and anywhere.
2. Ambush marketing:
Ambush marketing is a form of associative marketing that an organization uses to focus on the visibility, advertising, goodwill, and other benefits of having an affiliation with an event or property without having an official or direct connection to that event or property. It is typically seen at major events where official sponsor rivals try to build an association with the event, and sometimes covertly raise awareness for their brands. For example, At the 2012 London Olympics, Nike had spots where they featured athletes from several cities named London (but without revealing the actual London or linking to the Olympic Games) intended to create a good association between London Olympics and Nike.
3. Stealth Marketing:
Stealth marketing is a deliberate act of, or attempt to, reach, operate, or exit a market in a furtive, clandestine, or imperceptible manner.
4. Viral / Buzz Marketing:
Viral marketing describes any technique that allows individuals to communicate a brand message to others, creating opportunities for rapid growth in the visibility and effect of the product. These techniques, such as viruses, leverage accelerated replication to blast the message to millions, or thousands. Viral marketing is referred to as “word-of-mouth” off the Internet, “creating a wave,” “network promotion,” “leveraging advertising,” but on the Internet, for better or worse, it’s simply “viral marketing.” Similarly, wave marketing employs high profile media to promote consumer interest in the brand or product. Buzz marketing performs best because consumer responses to a product or service are genuine and the company does not pay for the resulting endorsements. The noise created by marketing efforts for noise is called “amplified WOM” (word-of-mouth), and “Only Word of Mount” happens when consumer random buzz happens.
5. Grassroots Marketing:
Grassroots marketing seeks to win individual consumers over. An effective grassroots campaign is not about spreading the marketing message in the hope of paying attention to potential customers, but instead emphasizes a personal bond between the customer and the brand and creates a lifelong relationship with the brand.
Astroturfing is the practice of hiding the sponsors (e.g. political, advertising, religious or public relations) of a message or group to make it look as though it comes from an individual in and is sponsored by a grassroots participant. It is a technique intended to provide authenticity to the claims or entities by hiding information on the monetary relation of the source.
7. Street Marketing:
Street marketing uses unorthodox ways to promote or advertise goods and brands in public spaces. The key purpose is to enable customers to identify and recall the label or product that has been advertised. As a branch of the guerrilla marketing, street marketing is synonymous with all marketing operations carried out in streets and public places such as parks, sidewalks, festivals, etc. Street marketing also includes outdoor advertising such as on shopping trolleys (shopping carts, in the USA), public toilets, car or public transportation sides, manhole coverings, footpaths, rubbish bins, etc. Street marketing is not just about commercial organizations. Companies use brand ambassadors to give product samples or coupon coupons, and address product questions while marketing the brand, is standard practice. A kiosk containing samples of the product or demonstration content may accompany the brand ambassadors, or they may wear a “rolling billboard.” Active customer contact has greater control power than conventional passive advertising. Street marketing is known not only to uses the public space but also the urban imagination: that of popular street art and culture. Because of its connections with the street culture, the Y-generation, which is largely made up of young urbanites (15 – 30 years old), is also placed forward as the most vulnerable group for the campaigns. According to Marcel Saucet and Bernard Cova, street marketing can be used as a general concept that involves six key forms of activity:
- Flyer or product distribution: this activity is more conventional and is the most common form of street marketing used by brands.
- Product animations: This involves customizing a high-traffic space using brand imagery. The idea is to build a micro-universe for a new product or service to promote.
- Human animations: These acts seek to create an environment where the meaning of the brand is conveyed through human interaction.
- Roadshows: This type of mobile display is focused on the creation of means of transportation: cab, bike, Segway, etc.
- Exposed actions: these operations include the customization of street features.
- Event actions: Spectacles such as flash mobs or tournaments take the shape of certain events. The aim is to encourage the importance of a good, service, or brand by planning a public event.
Guerrilla Marketing Principles
- Measuring success through profit, not sales.
- Instead of prioritizing new clients, increasing the amount and scale of current customers’ purchases and obtaining referrals are given priority.
- Target communications at small communities, rather than large markets.
- Focus on obtaining the consumer’s permission to give them more details.
- Commit to advertising, seeking a successful pace, instead of any time producing a new post.
Guerrilla Marketing Pros & Cons
Pros in Guerrilla Marketing
- Inexpensive to execute: By using a plain stencil or a giant sticker, the promotion of guerrillas appears to be much cheaper than traditional ads.
- Gives imaginative thinking: Imagination is more critical than budget with guerrilla marketing.
- Grows with Mouth-of-Word: Guerrilla marketing is heavily dependent on word-of-mouth marketing, considered one of the most powerful weapons in a marketer’s arsenal by many. There’s nothing better than getting people to talk their own way about your campaign.
- Publicity will ball of snow: Any especially interesting or special publicity campaigns for the guerrillas would be picked up by local (and even national) news outlets, resulting in an advertisement force that advertisers drooling over.
Cons in Guerrilla Marketing
- Hidden signals may be confused.
- Guerrilla marketing campaigns also have an air of ambiguity and whilst this sense of mystery can also propel the interest and awareness of a campaign, the lack of clarification can often distort the perception of the viewer.
- The confusion associated with marketing campaigns for guerrillas may have serious consequences, such as when blinking LED circuit boards advertising a new animation film, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, were secretly placed across Boston City in 2007. The items were mistaken for explosive devices, creating chaos across the city when bomb squads were called in to investigate the suspected devices and destroy them.
- The hired installers had even been arrested for mounting “hoax devices,” but released later. While the naming of this campaign as a failure would be straightforward, the news has been picked up by major television networks around the world, and others will actually call it a victory gave the entire debacle.
- Intervention by the authority: Certain forms of guerrilla marketing, such as unpermitted street graffiti, can contribute to conflict with authorities.
- Unpredicted obstacles: Certain techniques in guerrilla marketing are vulnerable to poor weather, scheduling thrown, and other minor incidents that could quickly threaten to sabotage a whole operation.
- Potential backlash: Sophisticated viewers can call out companies who do not approve of guerrilla marketing campaigns. This is true for covert ad activities – expect to face the wrath if you’re caught.
- There is no question that guerrilla marketing will produce incredible results by encouraging marketers to exercise their imagination in a creative way, but it can only succeed with businesses who are not afraid of taking risks.
What kind of Guerrilla marketing is Effective?
Guerrilla marketing was structured specifically to reach current consumers, rather than new ones, with the goal of increasing their loyalty to a product and/or brand. A demographic that already identifies with the commodity at any stage is the ideal choice when targeting consumers for a tactical message; it would be easier to understand and adapt to innovative strategies, and more likely to share the experience with their peers.
Social media is now a significant part of the consumer environment, online guerrilla marketing has proven especially successful. Consumers who use social media on a daily basis are more likely to post their experiences with guerrilla marketing, and innovative advertisements will go viral quickly.
Step by Step Process of Creating Guerrilla Marketing Strategy?
A guerrilla strategy starts with an innovative and entertaining concept, usually including not just the message material but its shape. Surprises and creative marketing approaches are the main ingredients for attracting customer curiosity.
A variety of creative methods may be employed — and indeed, using a combination of methods is one of the principles of guerrilla marketing. Graffiti (or reverse graffiti, where a filthy wall is randomly cleaned), immersive exhibits, public area capture experiences, flash mobs, or other Publicity tricks are often used. The ultimate marketing strategy will be coherent when using a range of approaches. Repeated sightings of the surprise message create curiosity and shifting messaging after each trick appears to confuse or diminish a consumer’s curiosity in the brand. The shocking message will encourage customers to share their discovery with friends. There, mobile phones’ omnipresence works for covert marketing. The strategy must be something fresh and unique to attract customers. Those delighted with the unique message will share it this way. Each “oh, check this out” photo a customer sends to a friend is more advertisement. And because this commercial comes from a relative rather than from the vendor, it holds more interest. A positive occurrence causes a buzz — or even more so, it goes viral. It is much better to get people thinking about your product than to complain to others about your company. It takes with it an amount of difficulty to create a special experience. Specifically, an unnecessarily imaginative conversation may be misinterpreted.
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Class 5 is considered to be middle school where students are well aware of their abilities. They must be treated as grown-ups now, and should be exposed to extra-curricular competitions. This exposure in the form of Olympiad exams help them to prepare for their school academics as well. The syllabus for these exams is the same as prescribed by school. Teachers recommend the use of workbooks by Indian Talent Olympiad, as it has variety of practice questions. Olympiad exams for class 5 are conducted in the following subjects:
The content designed in the workbooks and other study material offered by Indian Talent is prepared by experts. The team of professionals ensure that content is student-friendly. Each chapter has enough practice questions for students to solve at leisure. Such additional practice makes them perfect in various topics. They are able to score well not only in school exams but also in other competitions. Following is the link to purchase Olympiad workbooks for class 5.Buy Olympiad Books
Students of class 5 develop analytical thinking skills when they are exposed to national competitions. Olympiad exams allow students to understand the question well, before arriving at the right answer. To achieve good results, students must be willing to put a lot of hard work and effort. It is required to maintain one’s cool and patience. Olympiad exams may not promise success at the beginning. It is only after students attempt multiple test series, they are able to see desired results. Online test series are scheduled every 2 nd and 4 th Saturday, which can be attempted from any smart phone. The final exam is conducted in December 2020 and February 2021. Students who practice beforehand, stand a good chance of scoring well in the final exam. The syllabus for Olympiads are listed below.Olympiad Syllabus
Questions asked in Olympiads are tricky. It is important for students to attempt these exams with a relaxed mind. Whether it is an Olympiad exam in Science, Mathematics or English, the concept of the topic has to be clear. Olympiads do exactly what is required to enable them to attempt mastery over fundamentals.


Space is big. The Voyager probe, launched in 1977 to explore Jupiter and Saturn, took 36 years to leave the Solar System. It is the furthest human object from us, and it is still in our neighbourhood.
Even the radio waves we sent into space have barely reached a few hundred star systems, and they are but a drop in the ocean compared to the size of our galaxy (as you can see in the cover photo from this chapter). Light in a vacuum has a velocity of almost 300.000 km/s. That’s how fast information can travel through spacetime in our Universe.
Mass is not information. To accelerate anything with a specific mass you need to provide it with energy. The energy you’re providing is equivalent to a mass: it is like you’re getting more massive as you accelerate towards the speed of light, but you can’t reach it. You’d need to provide infinite energy and reach an infinite mass to travel that fast.
The Universe is big and the speed of light is small. Sci-fi writers had to come up with ways to get around it.
FTL engine and Warp Drive
People might of think this as being exclusively the stuff of science fiction, but it’s being seriously considered by NASA. This type of engine pits special relativity, which talks about the speed of light and space-time dilation, against general relativity, whose subjects are space-time curvature, acceleration, and gravity.
The idea behind the warp drive is remarkably simple. Since gravity shapes space-time, could we simply shape it in a way that shortens our distances? It’s the sweater string approach: when you are putting a string back into the sweater hood you push together the material in front and pull it at the back. In the same way, warp drive engines will compress space-time ahead of a ship and dilate it at the back.
Warp Engines could be dangerous, not for the passengers, but for who’s waiting for them on arrival. Space is empty, but not completely empty. As space is compressed, particles will start accumulating, and, over a short time, they will start fusing together, generating a hot plasma and gamma radiation, which will grow larger as more particles come in. When the spaceship stops, the plasma wave will continue at almost the speed of light, and, depending on the size, it might significantly affect a planet or even a star.
A wormhole is another shortcut through space-time. Or more accurately, outside space-time.
If you want to move between two points on the surface of an apple, the worm has the right strategy of going through rather than along.
In the same way, a wormhole is a way through, moving on a special route between two space-time points. The space-time nomenclature is important: wormholes allow you to travel in space and in time.
The good news is that wormholes are allowed to form in general relativity. The not so good news is that they’re not stable, as soon as they form they disappear again. The only way to make it stable is through exotic matter, matter whose squared energy is negative. Its energy is ‘imaginary’, in a mathematical sense. (Please ask if this is unclear!) So far, no such matter has been observed, but you never know.
Special relativity, fuel, and patience.
Given current technology, and imagining that we can have unlimited fuel on a spaceship, how long do you think it would take us to reach the edge of the visible Universe, which is about 14 billion light-years away? The answer is quite low. 46 years. I know. 46 years. That’s thanks to special relativity!
So, how does that work? In 2013 Physicist Dave Goldberg wrote a very interesting paper on the basics of traveling across an expanding Universe like ours. His solutions are very intelligible and quite straightforward.
The assumption is to have a rocket that would be propelled with an Earth-normal gravity acceleration (9.81 m s-2) in a de Sitter Universe, which is empty so not exactly like ours. The constant acceleration will make the spaceship faster and faster, eventually approaching the speed of light. But that acceleration doesn’t come cheap, we would need to burn a mass equivalent to about half the moon for the journey.
So, we are not there yet. But it’s interesting to know that if we can find the right fuel, galaxies are definitely within our reach.


Wednesday, November 04, 2009
Children's Book Press
All children’s books are created equal…right?
An overwhelming number of studies point to the importance of the early reading experience, which can greatly increase a child’s future success in school and provides significant intellectual, economic, and social advantages. It fosters cultural literacy, passing on community values, history, and traditions, while encouraging fortitude and diversity, teamwork and independence.
The dilemma is this: how do you inspire a child to read when that child’s world simply does not exist in the books she or he reads? Of the 5,000 children’s books published in the United States in 2006, less than 10% featured children from communities of color. And this percentage is for all communities of color combined. Even worse, only 4% of these 5,000 books were written from a first voice perspective, one in which the author is from the community about which they are writing.
Happily, there is a nonprofit organization—Children’s Book Press—working to change things.
Children’s Book Press publishes award-winning, bilingual, first voice children’s books from the Latino, African American, Native American, Asian/Pacific Islander, and multiracial communities. These books are written and illustrated by writers and artists from the communities featured in our books. This ensures not only that these communities are authentically represented in children’s literature, but also that they are not misrepresented. These unique books provide a vehicle through which diverse communities can speak directly—and creatively—to young readers.
We cannot do this work without your support. It has been a difficult time for publishers, in particular for smaller nonprofit independent presses like Children’s Book Press. Your tax-deductible gift of $25, $50, $100, $250 or more will ensure that children will continue to see themselves reflected in their first reading experiences. We are counting on you. Click on this link and give to what matters!
Publisher & Executive Director


Walking is one of the safest ways to get more physical activity. Minimize your injury risk with these tips:
Get a smart start
Start low and go slow with supportive, well-fitting, cushioned athletic shoes. Increase your walking time or distance by 10 to 20 percent each week. Replace your shoes every 300-500 miles to avoid the wear and tear that can contribute to injuries. See “Sneaker Savvy” handout. You can find a list of walking shoes recommended by the American Academy of Podiatric Sports Medicine at http://www.aapsm.org/walkingshoes.html.
Studies have shown that synthetic fiber socks decrease blisters compared to cotton socks. (Cotton tends to absorb moisture and increase friction.) Look for socks that are made with synthetic fibers such as Coolmax®, acrylic or polypropylene. If you buy new shoes, start with a short walk so that new pressure points don’t irritate your skin.
Skip the shin splints
Shin splints (pain on the front of your lower leg) can occur if you increase your walking distance and speed too quickly or add too many hills too soon. Prevent them by wearing athletic shoes with adequate support and cushioning and gradually increasing your walking mileage and pace. Be sure and stretch your calves (both straight and bent knee) after walking.
Nix the knee pain
There are many causes of knee pain, including osteoarthritis and other problems. If you experience knee pain when you exercise, talk to your doctor. You may need a new pair of walking shoes with better support or cushioning. You may also benefit from strengthening and/or stretching exercises targeting the muscles that support the knee and hip.
Don’t forget to look both ways when you cross the street — especially with many quiet hybrid cars on the road! If you’re listening to your iPod, make sure the sound doesn’t drown out street noise. Wear light-colored clothing with reflective strips if you’re walking at dawn or dusk.
Walking on sidewalks is safest. If you walk on the road, walk against traffic so you can see approaching cars. There is a slight grade from the middle of the street to the curb to allow for water drainage. Walking on the edge of the street forces the downhill leg to bend slightly inward, stretching your iliotibial band (a ligament that runs along the outside of your thigh). This could cause some irritation and pain. Alternate walking on different sides of the street so you don’t have the same leg consistently on the downhill slope.
Concrete sidewalks are less forgiving than asphalt. Cinder tracks and dirt trails are even softer and gentler on your joints.
Walking paths and hiking trails can be scenic and refreshing. Just watch out for uneven terrain, rocks, tree roots or hidden holes, which could cause ankle injuries. You may want to invest in lightweight trail running or hiking shoes, which provide additional support for walking in the great outdoors.
Listen to your body. If you feel pain, particularly if it increases or comes on earlier in your walk, limit your activity and contact your doctor.
If you experience an injury while walking, follow the RICE prescription and call your healthcare provider:
- Rest. Rest the injured area. Get off your feet!
- Ice. Apply a bag of ice to the injured area for about 20 minutes. Ice is nature’s anti-inflammatory and can reduce tissue damage. Use a bag of frozen peas if you don’t have an ice bag handy. Place a wet cloth between the ice pack and your skin. Repeat morning, after work and evening as long as you experience pain and/or swelling.
- Compression. Use an ace bandage/wrap to secure your ice bag to the injury with some pressure. This can help control swelling.
- Elevation. If your foot or knee is injured, sit or lie down with your leg elevated at/above heart level. This reduces swelling and can help promote faster healing.


Experiment Eleven eBook PDF Free Download
Dark Secrets Behind the Discovery of a Wonder Drug
Edited by Peter Pringle
About the Book
This Experiment Eleven: Dark Secrets behind the Discovery of a Wonder Drug is edited by Peter Pringle. In 1943, Albert Schatz, a young Rutgers College Ph.D. student, worked on a wartime project in microbiology professor Selman Waksman’s lab, searching for an antibiotic to fight infections on the front lines and at home. In his eleventh experiment on a common bacterium found in farmyard soil, Schatz discovered streptomycin, the first effective cure for tuberculosis, one of the world’s deadliest diseases.
What You will Learn
Discovery of another Major Antibiotic, Streptomycin
For Whom is this Book For
This Experiment Eleven: Dark Secrets behind the Discovery of a Wonder Drug provides general information of research work carried out on Streptomycin Discovery. It follows the discovery and development of another major antibiotic, streptomycin, which was the first true cure for tuberculosis.
Format of the eBook: EPUB Size: 2.8MB
Note: Download Button below Works only for Premium Members
If the Download Links of eBook / PDF are Not Working or Broken, then Contact Us Immediately via Broken Links Form.


Forest fires occur naturally, so arson can't be real? Featured
Variation: Arson and camper carelessness can't cause fires, because forest fires often occurred naturally before people even existed!
Notes: Just because something occurred naturally in the past, doesn't mean people can't cause it now.
According to the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC), in 2010 90% of fires in national forests were human-caused, vs. 10% caused by lightning strikes. However, the lightning fires burned far more acres, because they started in remote areas. See NIFC table in file link to right.
Bite Source: inspired by Haydn Washington & John Cook, Climate Change Denial (2011), p 50. Also, Richard Alley, CLEAN workshop, June 7, 2011.
Image Source: Tammy Bruce


A story that has been making the rounds on blogs and news websites this week is the Digital Iron Age Environment, a project by Swedish game developer Daniel Westergren. I came across Daniel’s interview with Digital Digging, where he describes his investment in accurately recreating the landscape of Iron Age Uppsala, in eastern Sweden. He uses the CryEngine 3 technology to power this visualization, displaying his attention to detail, while at the same time adding subjective touches on top of the real archaeological data behind his interpretation of Uppsala’s past. People with a passing knowledge of modern videogames will recognize the engine and its predecessors as being behind some of the most realistic gaming graphics in recent years.
Westergren’s project piqued my interest for a variety of reasons. Firstly, the project comes across as a labour of love by an artist seeking to faithfully depict his country’s heritage, albeit through his own interpretative process. Although he makes extensive use of information generated by archaeological research, at the same time he acknowledges the limitations of our fragmentary data. This makes him free to use it as a source of inspiration to create his vision of what the Iron Age landscape was like. At present, there appears to be very little room for interaction between the user and the world. This gives the environment the quality of being a hyper-realistic digital theme park. The flora, fauna and landscape can be seen and traversed, respectively, but not directly handled or used. Water flows, wind blows and the sun shines, all in glorious high-definition graphics that the average desktop PC would struggle to display in full detail. The user is, however, an observer rather than an actor in the world. In light of this, I find it worthwhile to compare the Digital Iron Age Environment with a conceptually similar, but considerably more low-fi project.
From across the Gulf of Bothnia, UnReal World is a free videogame (first release 1992) about survival in the late Iron Age of northern Finland. First, one must note that it is undoubtedly meant to be a gaming experience. There are a variety of systems in place to simulate the experience of being a person in this time and place (including Fennoscandian folklore) that introduce a thick layer of abstraction. Numbers represent everything from factors such as the user’s level of health, to the nutrition one gets from eating wheat, to the sudden appearance of bad weather. Rather than being sculpted by the artist based on archaeological data, as in the Uppsala project, this world is randomly generated given certain parameters. The overall focus of the experience is one of survival against the odds, which is typical of the ‘roguelike’ genre it is part of.
The player who enters this world, however, is free to do almost anything. Hunting, skinning, trapping, farming, smelting, trade and much more are all present and accounted for. This lends the world a depth and level of authenticity that gives the incredible visual detail of the Uppsala project a real run for its money. UnReal World’s creator, Sami Maaranen, at one point distributed it to public libraries as a teaching tool, in an obvious Fennoscandian parallel to the famous Oregon Trail educational game series in North America. Taking into account some very important caveats, for example the level of abstraction, the randomized 2D representation of the world, the subjectivity of the creator and the presence of anachronistic elements (e.g. allowing the player to acquire crossbows), UnReal World is probably the most accurate interactive simulation of life in the European Iron Age that exists.
Although not situated in the exact same time and place, the contrasts and similarities between these two digital experiences are interesting because of the different ways in which they represent the past. One is a reconstruction of a specific landscape in a specific era, drawing on some very concrete archaeological evidence from across Scandinavia. The other is not tied to a geographic location more precise than the vast north of Finland, but presents itself as a reasonably accurate simulator of living in the Iron Age, given its assumptions and idiosyncrasies. I would argue that both worlds can function as narrative tools for presenting certain perspectives on the past, and it is very encouraging that both authors of these digital worlds claim to be inspired by, and attempt to be faithful to, real historical and archaeological data. As an aside, the Gamla Uppsala project, which Westergren mentions as a source, also creates 3D visualizations of their excavations.
Check out the links throughout this post for more media and downloads related to these ongoing projects!
Aurora Borealis in the Digital Iron Age Environment (Copyright Daniel Westergren)


The International Labour Organization (ILO) is the United Nations agency for the world of work. The only tripartite U.N. agency, since 1919 the ILO brings together governments, employers and workers representatives of 187 member States, to set labour standards, develop policies and devise programmes promoting decent work for all women and men.
- The ILO’s Secretariat has its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, and a global network of technical experts and field offices in more than 40 countries, including its Decent Work Team and Office for the Caribbean located in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad.
- The International Labour Conference (ILC) meets once a year to adopt new international labour standards and approve the ILO’s work plan and budget.
- The Governing Body is the executive council of the ILO and meets three times a year in Geneva.
How We Work
The unique tripartite structure of the ILO gives an equal voice to workers, employers and governments to ensure that the views of the social partners are closely reflected in labour standards and in shaping policies and programmes.
Mission And Impact
The main aims of the ILO are to promote rights at work, encourage decent employment opportunities, enhance social protection and strengthen dialogue on work-related issues.
Origins And History
The ILO was founded in 1919, in the wake of a destructive war, to pursue a vision based on the premise that universal, lasting peace can be established only if it is based on social justice. The ILO became the first specialized agency of the UN in 1946.
Promoting Decent Work for all
- Creating jobs – promoting economies that generate opportunities for investment, entrepreneurship, skills development, job creation and sustainable livelihoods.
- Guaranteeing rights at work – obtaining recognition and respect for the rights of workers. All workers, and in particular disadvantaged or poor workers, need representation, participation and laws that protect their rights.
- Extending social protection – ensuring that women and men enjoy working conditions that are safe, allow adequate free time and rest, take into account family and social values, provide for adequate compensation in case of lost or reduced income and permit access to adequate healthcare.
- Promoting social dialogue – strong and independent workers’ and employers’ organizations are central to increasing productivity, avoiding disputes at work and building cohesive societies.
More information on the ILO can be found here.


By: Sarju Patel
Case File: 54766/328
Immigrant: George Vik
On February 19, 1920, a Finnish sailor named George Vik arrived in New York from Shanghai on a British cargo ship called the Slavik Prince. Since the ship would depart the country with a Chinese crew, Vik planned to remain in America, substituting his legal status as a sailor with that of an immigrant — an action that was not uncommon for European sailors during this time. As his ship entered the New York Harbor, the imposing main building of Ellis Island foreshadowed the complicated immigration process he was about to face.
Since he was born in a Northern European country, he was led through a rather cursory and primarily visual medical inspection, and medical inspectors quickly deemed him to be in good health. What turned out to be a more thorough ordeal, however, was the next inspection in which he had to undergo a meeting with a three-person team formed by higher-ranking “keepers of the gate” — the Board of Special Inquiry. After a lengthy interrogation, the Board deemed him “Likely to become a Public Charge” (LPC). This charge was first introduced in the Immigration Act of 1882, which, owing to a subsequent 1891 revision, formally gave officials the right to adjudicate the charge and, thus, debar those deemed LPC. The Board unanimously agreed that Vik displayed the “symptoms” of an LPC: he arrived destitute, had no immediate relatives in the U.S. or anyone legally obliged to assist him, and would have great difficulty in maintaining himself if permitted to live in the United States.
Importantly, those “symptoms” were defined as such by the immigration officials and not by any legislation. As such, the vague LPC charge was, during Vik’s time, continually wielded by nativist officials to justify their own ulterior criteria. What suggested this “alternative” criteria in Vik’s case was the Board’s response to an appeal made by his sister-in-law Eleonora Strom. Strom testified that she would provide Vik with a home, an adequate job, and, if necessary, access to about $1,000. However, the Board swiftly concluded that the LPC charge still stood, suggesting that the officials had some ulterior criteria.
In Vik’s case, this was strongly undergirded by the fear and mistrust symptomatic of the Red Scare. The officials, having meticulously scrutinized his file, were suspicious of his political convictions due to the fact that he had been in Petrograd, Russia, around the time of the Bolshevik Revolution. In any case, Vik was excluded and forced to remain in Ellis Island while the officials tried to find adequate means for deportation.
As months drifted by with no response from the officials, he grew increasingly disenchanted about the idea of entering the United States.
And thus, he sent several letters, first beseeching the Assistant Commissioner General of Immigration and, after approximately one month of further wait, the Assistant Secretary of Labor, to help find him a ship. Despite these efforts, he did not get a concrete answer until he contacted an experienced lawyer named Henry Weinberger. Through Weinberger’s efforts, an adequate ship was finally found for him. He boarded the Gothic Prince and left the United States on September 5, 1920 — thus, spending a total of approximately seven months in Ellis Island.
George Vik most probably left Ellis Island frustrated, attributing the officials’ decision to bad fortune. After all, he was only privy to a vague legal basis for his debarment: an LPC charge. As an experienced sailor, who was adept in four languages and had expertise in wire telegraphing, Vik likely thought the charge to be a strange and unreasonable cause for his debarment. His worry was not unfounded, as the reality of his case was much more complicated.
The Insightful Letter
The above letter evinces the complicated nature of Vik’s case. His case, at first glance, perhaps seemed like an easy decision to the immigration officials. As the Acting Commissioner of Immigration at Ellis Island noted, Vik was a bona-fide sailor employed by the “Prince Line.” Moreover, he was a native of Finland — which, being a European country, would typically entail relaxed regulations compared to those arriving from other countries. Thus, as with most Europeans at the time, the officials would have waived “passport regulations” and allowed entry. However, his file presented the officials with what, in the early 1920s, was unquestionable grounds for exclusion: any association with radicalism.
Because Vik’s file placed him in Petrograd “during the revolution,” a place and time strongly linked with radicalism, the officials swiftly deemed him a potential radical.
Thus, what Vik probably considered an innocent trip to Russia, as the letter demonstrates, served as an important basis for his debarment.
The Significance of George Vik’s Case: Indefinite Detention and Travel Bans
George Vik spent approximately seven months in Ellis Island—the bulk of which was spent waiting—bringing to light an enduring issue in immigration proceedings of indefinite detention. A symptom of bureaucratic inefficiency and inadequacy, indefinite detention remains a major issue because immigration law is considered a civil, rather than a criminal, matter. This results in, among other things, comparably fewer resources and, thus, lengthier detentions for deportable immigrants.
George Vik’s case further evinces another enduring trend in immigration policy of excluding immigrants by virtue of their association with countries linked with ideological threats to America. As Vik’s case demonstrates, the officials’ assumption of Vik as a potential radical and, consequently, an undesirable, was only on account of his being in Petrograd during the October Revolution, which helped instate a Communist regime in Russia.
A contemporary manifestation of this sentiment is President Donald Trump’s travel bans: Executive Order 13769 and the slightly “watered down” Executive Order 13780. The countries whose immigration is severely restricted by these orders, President Trump claims, have “significant terrorist presence within their territory.” Thus, all immigrants, he believes, from those countries need be excluded to “protect the security…of the United States”—a position that has, now, been subject to several Supreme Court decisions. Nevertheless, just as Vik was excluded by virtue of his being in a country associated with radicalism, so too immigrants from the excluded countries are, today, deemed undesirable on account of their being in countries associated with terrorism.
Questions for Future Consideration
1) How would the nature of immigration proceedings and their results change if they were deemed criminal, instead of civil, matters?
2) How has engaging issues of national security substantiated President Trump’s immigration policy and, moreover, caused the President (that is, the executive branch) to gain further control over immigration policy, which is typically under congressional authority?
3) How do the experiences of refugees and immigrants who are coming from ideologically undesirable regions compare to those from different parts of the world?
Other Works Cited
Greenway, Ambrose. Cargo Liners: An Illustrated History. Barnsley, Seaforth Publishing, 2011.
Trump, Donald J. “Presidential Proclamation Enhancing Vetting Capabilities and Processes for Detecting Attempted Entry Into the United States by Terrorists or Other Public-Safety Threats.” The White House, Sept. 24, 2017, https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/presidential-proclamation-enhancing-vetting-capabilities-processes-detecting-attempted-entry-united-states-terrorists-public-safety-threats/.


Nutrition is actually the division of the field of biology that manages the materials our experts consume that are necessary for our body systems to function correctly. It is actually likewise necessary for the health and wellness of vegetations, creatures as well as various other microorganisms in the world. Dr. Berg Scientologist Served as an Associate professor
Nutrients can be found in two forms: micronutrients and also macronutrients. Macronutrients are actually the much bigger nutrients our company need in large amounts (like fats, proteins and also carbs). Dr. Eric Berg Scientologist
Preventing Excessive weight
Whether you are over weight or even overweight, you go to danger for a lot of constant ailments. Eating well-balanced foods items and being literally energetic can easily assist keep you at a well-balanced body weight as well as reduced your danger of building these conditions.
Avoiding excessive weight demands a diverse strategy that can include modifications in food environments, diets and exercise at a nationwide, regional or household degree. This includes transforming plans and also producing an atmosphere where the healthy and balanced selection is actually the default alternative.
A detailed school-based system is being actually built in the Los Angeles Unified Institution Area, named SNaX. It is based on significant analysis in to what leads to and might assist protect against being overweight, yet the course itself is actually not likely to become enough to impact change.
Weight problems is triggered by an assortment of factors, featuring genetics and way of life behaviors. You can take steps to modify undesirable routines, such as eating too much processed foods items as well as not exercising. Moreover, limiting television as well as screen media time is additionally suggested.
Preventing Heart Disease
Protecting against heart problem starts along with a well-balanced way of living. That includes diet, workout, and residing a tobacco-free lifestyle.
A healthy eating plan can help you control your cholesterol, high blood pressure as well as body weight. It can easily also keep you really feeling properly and decrease your threat of building an amount of other health ailments.
Deciding on foods wealthy in heart-healthy nutrients as well as low in body fat is very important to shield your heart. This means consisting of considerable amounts of veggies and fruits, whole grains, healthy chickens, fish and also seafood in your diet.
Restricting trans and saturated body fats, along with salt in your diet regimen, can easily additionally decrease your threat of establishing heart disease. Look for foods that possess less than 6% of your day-to-day calories coming from saturated fat, and use low-fat alternatives to butter, marg. as well as lessening when feasible.
Staying away from tobacco use is the singular crucial measure you can require to stop a heart attack or even shock. Cigarette smoking raises your risk of heart problem and shock through much more than twice compared with non-smokers.
Protecting against Cancer cells
Nutrition is a crucial element of stopping cancer cells. It plays a notable task in preserving bodily health and wellness, decreasing stress and anxiety and anxiousness, and assisting immune feature.
Some investigation advises that diet regimen can easily play a defensive job in stopping and remedying particular sorts of cancer, including boob cancer cells. It is necessary to understand that a lot of other variables might determine the growth of cancer, consisting of genetics and environmental exposures.
Diet variables that can lessen your danger of cancer cells include eating a wide array of veggies and also fruits, confining alcohol consumption, as well as keeping a well-balanced physical body weight.
A high-fibre diet (less than twenty% of fats originated from body fat) is actually related to a lower risk of some cancers cells, consisting of boob and also colon. It likewise is thought to assist manage blood cholesterol levels, which can easily decrease your danger of heart problem.
Cruciferous vegetables (such as broccoli, broccoli, cauliflower as well as cabbage) are actually likewise good sources of cancer-fighting nutrients. They have actually been actually linked to a lower risk of lung cancer in people that smoke, in addition to non-smokers.
Stopping Diabetic issues
Health and nutrition is just one of the most significant think about stopping diabetic issues. It is actually also a reliable technique to manage the health condition.
Eating a healthy and balanced diet that consists of vegetables as well as fruits, entire surfaces, almonds, beans, and also low-fat milk items is actually crucial. This form of diet may help protect against diabetic issues through boosting your physical body’s capability to utilize insulin, which helps always keep blood sugar level levels in inspection.
Apart from consuming the right foods, you can additionally take actions to lower your danger of building diabetes mellitus by making changes to your way of life. These include limiting the amount of time you invest resting or being non-active and acquiring routine physical activity.
A balanced diet regimen is actually one of the most vital technique to stop diabetes. It needs to be wealthy in fruits, veggies, grains, entire grains, as well as lean healthy protein. It must be reduced in fats as well as consist of little bit of to no additional sugar.
Obesity is actually created through a wide array of elements, including genetic makeups and also way of life routines. You can easily take actions to change undesirable practices, such as consuming very a lot processed foods items as well as certainly not exercising. In addition, confining Television and display media opportunity is actually additionally advised.
A well balanced diet regimen is actually the very most vital technique to avoid diabetic issues. It must be actually wealthy in fruit products, veggies, beans, entire grains, as well as slim protein.


Metamorphism means to change form. In the geologist's sense it refers to changes in rocks (protoliths) in the solid state (i.e. not by melting the rock wholesale). One can view metamorphism as similar to cooking. Ingredients are mixed and placed at a different temperature (and/or pressure) and changes occur. What was a batch of goo, turns into a lovely cake!
Change occurs in order to maintain equilibrium conditions with new states of heat, pressure, or fluids. Thus, major changes in any of these three environmental variables can result in metamorphism. Because of the great conveyor belt of plate tectonics, rocks can encounter a variety of environmental conditions riding around in pressure, temperature, fluid space. As they go, they may metamorphose and may have a tale to tell of where they've been.
The fingerprints of metamorphism are growth of new minerals stable at the new PTF conditions and changes in texture reflecting the state of stress.
There are several sources of the thermal energy that drives metamorphism. Obviously, when and igneous body (some 1200 degrees C) intrudes into unsuspecting host rock, the contact zone heats up considerably. This causes a baking of the neighboring rock called contact metamorphism.
The temperature in the Earth goes up with depth. Near the surface in ordinary crust, the temperature rises some 30 degrees per kilometer. This is partly due to radioactive decay within the crust, but also comes from the fact that the Earth is still very hot from its initial formation (recall that the core is largely molten iron!). So if rocks are taken from the surface "down the tubes" either by burial or on a lithospheric nose dive, they will heat up and metamorphose.
Pressure changes with depth in the Earth as a result of the increased weight of the overlying rock. Increased pressure drives minerals to form more compact phases, driving for example coal to change into diamonds, and clay to rubies. Pressure also changes the state of stress. Crystals will grow or deform by cracking or flowing in response to the change in stress and show either preferential alignment, or evidence of squashing that reflects in some way the stress regime of the new environment. Deformation near fault zones, for example, results in cracking and grinding of rocks and is referred to as cataclastic metamorphism, while deformation deep in the crust occurs more plastically over a wide area producing regional metamorphism.
Changes in the chemistry of the fluids in the pore spaces of rocks also induces change. In its lowest temperature/pressure form, this change is called diagenesis, including weathering discussed in the last lecture. Diagenesis is not usually considered part of metamorphism although the distinction is a pretty subtle one if you ask me.
One common cause of changes in the fluid chemistry is the proximity of something hot - take volcanic activity for example. The heat induces convection currents in the surrounding fluids. The heated water reacts locally with the hot rock and carries a load of dissolved matter (rich in metals and sulfer) from the region of high heat into a region of cooler rock (or water). Here, the fluids tend to "dump their load". This form of metamorphism is known as hydrothermal alteration and is the way most metallic ore bodies formed. When the super-charged fluids come out of brand-new ocean crust and hit 2C water, they drop their load and form what is known as a black smoker. Lots of animals (if you can call them that) live off the stuff. Check these out:
Study Table 8.1 in text
Increasing pressure causes a reduction in volume of the rock by first compaction and then recrystallization of minerals to denser forms. Compaction produces a more closely packed arrangement of grains. This is exmplified by the transformation of clay to slate. Recrystallization involves growth of new minerals. The bulk chemistry need not change (unlessfluids are involved).
If the pressure is higher in one direction than the others, minerals will tend to align themselves such that the fabric formsperpendicular to this axis. A planar fabric is known as a foliation while alignment of crystals causes a lineation.
Micas (which are platey) will grow with their plates along the foliation. Increasing metamorphism resultsin different types of foliation.
In its journey around the tectonic merri-go-round, clay will turn firstto shale during diagenesis, then procede to slate. Growth of micas then will contribute a peach fuzz sheen characteristic of phyllite. As metamorphism becomes more intense, schist forms. Schists have large mica flakes in them.
schist (thin section)
Under the most intense metamorphism, minerals segregrate into bands of light and dark minerals, characteristic of gneiss.
If the rock easily splits along smooth parallel surfaces, it has what is known as fracture cleavage.
Not all rocks are foliated. For example, contact metamorphism does not generally produce foliated rocks. Also, parent rocks (protoliths) that tend to grow minerals that are not platey or elongated, will produce metamorphic rocks that have no foliation or lineation. These include quartz, and calcite. So sandstones make massive quartzites and limestones make marble, neither of which are strongly foliated. Here is an example of what marble looks like.
Porphyroblasts are larger crystals in a finer-grained matrix. The metamorphic rock will bear the name of the dominant porphyroblasts, e.g. garnite schist.
Changing conditions results in phase transformation from one mineral to another. Minerals coalesce or change crystal structure. The particular minerals that form are characteristic of thepressure/temperature conditions. Particularly useful for determining PT conditions are the following metamorphic index minerals
Low metamorphic grade (low temperatures and pressures) - about 200
Slates and phyllites are characterized by:
Intermediate metamorphic grade rocks such as schist often have:
High metamorphic grade - 800 degrees C (verging on melting), such as gneiss and migmatite have the high temperature high pressure phase sillimanite.
Staurolite, kyanite and sillimanite all have the same composition but are stable at different PT conditions (like graphite and diamond). Therefore the presence of one particular form documents the PT conditions. A more accurate idea of PT conditions can be gotten by considering a whole suite of minerals. Determining the PT history of a sequence of rocks describes the journey of that particular crustal package up and down the tectonic elevator.
Obviously, the composition of the protolith plays a strong role in which minerals will grow. Thus basalts, granites and carbonate rocks each develope into the different metamorphic mineral assemblages leading ultimately to amphibolite, gneiss or marble respectively.
Consider Figure 8.2 in the book. Hydrothermal metamorphism occurs near mid-ocean ridges driven by the heat of the volcanic activity there. Intrusion of igneous rocks drives contact metamorphism anywhere it occurs. Both of these sorts are metamorphism with high temperatures and low pressures.
Faults associated with plate boundaries create cataclastic metamorphismin the shallow crust.
Here is an example of: cataclastic metamorphism
Cataclasis grades into totally pulverized minerals that are streaked out in bands characteristic of mylonites.
Finally, burial of sediments in a sedimentary basin takes the rocks down the PT road characteristic of the crust, the so-called geotherm . They respond to this by developing the characteristic mineral phases of burial metamorphism. The minerals are a guide to just how deep and hot sediments got.


A whole bunch of helpful math puzzles that you can print out is available for you to print! Our printable Fun Math Worksheets for Middle School help kids develop math skills in a simple and fun way. Have some fun reviewing your kids’ math skill with this math worksheets collection.
Practicing math won’t be the same with our fun math worksheets! Working on fun math worksheets take the boredom out of your study and make it fun. We have printable Fun Math Worksheets for Middle School to help reviewing the basics curriculum for middle school students. Covering topics from exponents to math puzzles, we have plenty of middle school math worksheets available to help your kid get a handle on middle school math concepts.
Add fun to the learning in your middle school math class with our free printable math worksheets. These worksheets are designed for middle school students and teachers to fit in their lesson plan.
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Common to the eastern forests of the United States, the Barred Owl is well known for its distinctive multi-syllabic song and striking plumage, which consists of mottled brown on the upper parts of the body and vertical stripes along the chest and belly. The owl has a stocky build with a rounded head and tail. No ear tufts are visible. The eyes are very large and almost completely black.
A nocturnal bird, the Barred Owl will remain quiet through the day but become more active at sundown. It will generally perch in high tree branches and survey the surrounding landscape for prey and threats. A very territorial species, the Barred Owl will aggressively challenge interloping birds, possibly even killing them.
Like most owls, this bird hunts primarily rodents and other small mammals. It is a generalist species however, meaning its diet can also include reptiles, amphibians, other birds and even fish. Its ability to feed on diverse prey and effective hunting skills have made it a very successful species and its population has increased dramatically in recent years. The Great Horned Owl is its most common predator.
Historically, the bird has occupied older forests dominated by deciduous species such as Hemlock, Maple, Hickory, Aspen and Larch trees in the eastern United States. The bird does not migrate, but its range has greatly expanded in recent years to include parts of Oregon and other areas in the Pacific Northwest. It prefers mature forests, swamps and woodlands where there is a greater diversity of prey animals. Because of its adaptability, the Barred Owl now occupies old growth evergreen forests in Oregon, putting it in direct competition with the threatened Northern Spotted Owl.
Common. In Oregon, the Barred Owl is an invasive species which moved west from the deciduous forests of the eastern United States. It has gained some notoriety in recent years as being one of the chief threats to the threatened Northern Spotted Owl, with whom it interbreeds, competes for habitat and may occasionally kills over territorial disputes. To help curb the Barred Owl’s impact on the Northern Spotted Owl, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service began culling the invasive bird in 2013, but it is unknown if this will have any long-term beneficial impact.


What is Wrasse?
Wrasse (the Writing for Assignments E-Library) is a resource to help people learn about writing at university. It includes examples of student essays and other assignments; comments from lecturers about why the writing is good, or how it could be improved; comments from students on their own work; and other writing resources.
How do I use Wrasse?
Use the search boxes to find examples of student writing by subject, level or keyword. Use the contribute button to contribute a new example of student writing, whether your own or produced by one of your students.
How can Wrasse help?
Writing in an 'academic' way is one of the biggest challenges for students at university. Wrasse shows you what good academic writing looks like across a range of subject areas. You can read genuine student work with comments explaining why academics have judged it to be successful.


Your Best Face Forward?
But it's not just VO5 that could make you sick. Try Secret Sheer Dry deodorant, or the suitably named Poison, a perfume by Christian Dior. In fact, 52 popular cosmetics are now proven to have toxic components in varying concentrations-and they're all over the place.
A report released jointly July 10 by Coming Clean, the Environmental Working Group and Health Care Without Harm details the extent to which a toxic family of chemicals known as phthalates (THAY-lates) are used in everyday household products, especially beauty products like nail polish, lipstick, and perfumes.
The report, titled "Not Too Pretty: Pthalates, Beauty Products and the FDA," has its basis in a 1999 FDA study of toxins in the general population of the U.S. From a sample of 1,029 people, every one of them tested positive for phthalates in their blood or urine. Scientists at the Centers for Disease Control singled out a subgroup of 289 people with a particularly high incidence of phthalates: women of childbearing age. These women were found to have daily exposures of phthalates ranging from 2.5 to 22 times the normal for the rest of the general population, with 5 percent showing levels of 75 percent or higher of the acceptable daily amounts.
Judging from the five percent of women with dangerously high test results, it can be assumed that every day, as many as two million women of childbearing age are exposed to toxic levels of phthalates.
Phthalates have been shown to cause a wide array of health problems, from liver and kidney failure to heart, lung, and blood pressure problems. The most worrisome aspect by far is the phthalates' effect on the reproductive development of fetuses and infants, particularly the reproductive tracts of males.
Phthalates are metabolized in humans once ingested or absorbed through the skin. In pregnant women, phthalates pass through the placenta to be absorbed by the fetus. In nursing women, phthalates are found in breast milk, which means infants are ingesting these chemicals as they develop. In male fetuses-and infants especially-the phthalates have been shown to cause testicular atrophy and a reduced sperm count, among other serious health problems.
Dr. Stephen Safe of Texas A&M University notes that some in the medical community have expressed concerns about phthalate exposure and human health. "It's hard to be specific until more medical data is available," Dr. Safe says, "but if people have concerns, they should limit their use of these products."
The HCWH report is the first to document and link the deleterious effects of phthalates to male reproductive development. Women of childbearing age were shown to be the most at-risk demographic, and it is reasonable to attribute this in large part to one fact: the beauty industry. According to Charlotte Brody, executive director of HCWH, "With all the variables involved, the only one that doesn't apply on a large scale to both men and women is the use of cosmetics."
Phthalates are plasticizers. In cosmetics, they are used to add texture and luster to the product. Ninety percent of the world's plasticizers are used to soften PVC (vinyl) and make it pliable. The other 10 percent have been used in many kinds of manufacturing for 30 years, beginning with medical products like IV bags, gloves, and blood bags, but also paints, lubricants, adhesives, toys, food containers, and, of course, cosmetics.
The use of phthalates in manufacturing is widespread, and has such a long history that phthalates have wormed their way into every corner of the globe. Traces are present in virtually every person on the planet. The phthalate DEHP has been found in Antarctica and in deep-sea jellyfish 3,000 feet below the ocean's surface.
Different phthalates can be found in consumer products like shower curtains, umbrellas, adhesives, children's toys, and countless other manufactured goods. PVC, being incredibly cheap to produce, is the preferred product for the world's manufacturers. With phthalates, you can easily turn PVC into any number of products.
Turning the Tide
Since the FDA does not regulate the use of pthalates in cosmetics and beauty aids, manufacturers are not required to disclose them as ingredients.
Says the report: "Taken as a whole, the lab results indicate that a substantial fraction of cosmetics companies may be hiding phthalates on store shelves within the containers of their products, with no warning for pregnant women who might want to avoid purchasing products that contain chemicals linked to birth defects."
DEHP, the primary phthalate found in medical supplies, has been found toxic in studies of patients who spend considerable amounts of time in hospitals, mainly newborns and the elderly. But other phthalates, including DEP, DBP, BBP, DCP, DOP and DINP, were last studied nearly 20 years ago.
According to FDA spokesperson Kimberly Rawlings, "Phthalates were shown to be safe for topical use in 1984, and there have been no further studies by the FDA on this subject since then."
In a recent Dallas Morning News story on phthalates and the cosmetics industry, Rod Irvin, a spokesman for the American Chemistry Council's Phthalate Esters Panel, said that "[p]hthalates are among the most-studied products out there. They have a long record of safe use, with no reports or evidence of harm to human health." Additionally, the industry group has spent "millions" studying the compounds and has found no reason for concern.
In November 2000, the Environmental Working Group released a report that stated, "Phthalates are recognized as toxic substances under environmental law, but companies are free to use unlimited amounts in cosmetics."
The FDA in the past has considered each of these phthalates separately when studying their toxicity. If you're a dialysis patient, then you're at risk for poisoning because you're getting twice the amount of DEHP recommended with each visit. That's bad. But if you're a dialysis patient and you wear a lot of makeup and spend a lot of time playing with your grandchildren and their toys, your exposure could be deadly.
Not in the many-faceted eyes of the FDA, though. Its consideration of disparate exposure to phthalates is the main loophole manufacturers use to claim that phthalates are safe. Without recognizing that all members of the phthalate family accumulate to cause the same health problems, phthalate manufacturers are able to claim that each individual chemical is not harmful at the documented levels.
HCWH tested 72 of the following kinds of cosmetics: Nail polish, fragrances (perfumes, body oils, etc.), hairsprays, deodorants and lotions. Fifty-two of these contained phthalates as ingredients, though none were listed on the labels. Most of the pthalate-containing products are household names: Aqua Net Professional Hair Spray; Degree Original Solid Deodorant; Nivea Créme lotion; Elizabeth Arden's Red Door fragrance; Calvin Klein's Eternity perfume.
As Brody of HCWH points out, this is just the beginning: "It's impossible to know without testing which products contain phthalates. Just because some of the lotions we tried tested negative doesn't mean [all lotions are] clean." Until the manufacturers are required to label phthalates, there's no way to know for sure.
This is only the latest in a long series of warnings about the dangers of phthalates, which have been used extensively since the early 1970s. The biggest commotion over phthalates came in 1998, when the Danish government issued a well-publicized ban on toys containing phthalates because of concern that children were being exposed to toxic chemicals when they put toys in their mouths. Lego, the Danish toymaker, quickly responded by reformulating its toy factories to phase out the use of phthalates in production of its toys.
Since then, there has been steadily growing awareness of the dangers of phthalates. Network news programs have discussed the dangers in toys, cosmetics and beauty products, and even in fish that live in polluted waters. Despite all this, the battle against phthalates has been a stalemate: The EU continues to extend its temporary ban on toys for children aged 3 and under, but European manufacturers are lobbying to institute a voluntary reporting system for all other products similar to what is in place in the U.S.
Stacy Malkan of HCWH is urging people to distribute the lists of phthalate-containing products far and wide, to discuss the topic of phthalates in cosmetics and medical supplies with their health care provider, and to contact the FDA to demand an industry-wide ban on phthalates in cosmetic products. In addition, the groups releasing the report are preparing to launch a national ad campaign.
As the report makes clear, non-toxic alternatives are readily available: "The limited testing done for Not Too Pretty reveals that the same big companies that produce phthalate-laced beauty products, also make similar products without phthalates...L'Oreal markets Jet Set nail polish without DBP but puts the phthalate in its Maybelline brand."
Without public pressure, however, there will be no incentive for the $20 billion-a-year cosmetics industry to phase out all phthalates. And women who continue to douse themselves in Christian Dior's Poison may be helping the perfume live up to its name.
For more information and the complete list of tested products, go to NotTooPretty.org.
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The 10th century Arabic author al-Masudi writes about the volcanic activity and burning fires in his history, "Fields Of Gold and Mines Of Precious Stones". He describes the history and geography of many countries, including Azerbaijan. It is not known if he had visited Azerbaijan or whether he had gathered the information from other sources.
He describes both the eruption of a mud volcano and a fountain of the burning oil, the source of which originated from beneath the surface of the earth. This information might be correct as eruptions of oil fountains and mud volcanoes are still visible on the Absheron Peninsula and some of the islands of the Caspian Sea.
Al-Masudi observes: "There is a volcano in the oil-producing area of Shirvan. This volcano is a fire-breathing source, and it never ceases to expell long jets of flame."
Then he describes how, not far distant from the Caspian shores, there are several islands which emit vigorous fountains of fire, which are visible at night from a great distance. In this description, Masudi uses the term "atma" which is the Old Azeri term for "volcano. One of them lies at a distance of three days' journey from the coast and has a great volcano, which at certain periods of the year makes a hissing noise. Great flames erupt from it like an enormous mountain. It lights up a considerable part of the sea. This phenomenon may be observed from the coast".
Abdurrashid of Baku wrote a book in the 14th-15th century entitled: "The Description Of Monuments and Miracles of the Mighty Lord." He also provides a description of a burning gas source.
"During certain years, people in Baku observe a flame coming from the sea and erupting upward. It can be observed from a distance of two days' journey or more. After burning for a considerable time, the flame disappears".
Today, on the outskirts of Baku is a place called "Atashgah" where there is a walled complex called "Atashgah" that was used by Fireworshippers and which now has been converted to a museum. It is located on the Absheron Peninsula in a region that is known as "Surakhani". This word is derived from the Persian words "Surakh" (hole) and "khani" (source or fountain). According to historical sources, before the construction of the Indian Temple Of Fire (Atashgah) in Surakhani at the end of the 17th A.D., the local people also worshipped at this site because of the "seven holes with burning flame". And thus the name "Surakhani" - holes with burning fountains.
Engelbert Kaempher, a British traveler, who visited Atashgah in 1683 writes: "Previously, at about 500 paces distance from the temple, there could be seen seven holes situated in a single line. In early times, flames used to erupt from these holes. Then, the fire disappeared and burst forth at another locale where later the Atashgah was built".
From Azerbaijan International (11.2) Summer 2003.


Taxation In Indian
The government of every country need a revenue to meet expenditure like development and maintenance of Infrastructure, Security of country, Society welfare works and etc., So the Government have the only limited type of resources of revenue. Taxation is the major resource of the revenue of our country India.
The portion of the income of the individual or company collected by the government is called the tax.
In the Indian Taxation, the system has two type of taxes as given below: –
1. Direct Tax(Income Tax): –
It is the Tax which is collected by the government directly from the individual or a company on their total income of the single financial year (F/Y start from 01/04/Every year to 31/03/every year).
It is the Tax which is collected by the government from the manufacturer, wholesalers/dealers, and retails on their total sale of the months. this process of collection of tax is explained as below: –
- 1st step, Manufacturer collect tax on the sale to the wholesalers/dealers and paid this amount to the government.
- 2nd step, Wholesalers/dealers collect tax on the sale to the retailer and paid the difference of the amount of tax paid and tax collect to the government.
- 3rd step, Retailer collect tax on the sale to the consumer(end user) and paid the difference of the amount of tax paid and tax collected to the government.
So, in all three steps government collect the tax from the consumer(end user) indirectly.
Here is an example is given below:-
A is the manufacturer of Electric Bulbs.
A sold goods to B for Rs. 1,000/- Plus Tax Rs. 100/-
B sold goods to C retailer for Rs. 1,200/- Plus Tax Rs 120/-
C sold goods to D(Consumer/Actual Taxpayer) for Rs 1,500/- Plus Tax Rs 150/-
all these transactions are explained below table
|Transactions||Sale Amount||Tax Collected||Tax Paid||Balance Tax Paid to Govt.|
|A sold goods to B (Wholesaler)||
|B sold goods to C (Retailer)||
|C sold goods to D (Consumer/Actual Taxpayer)||
|Total Amount of Tax indirectly collected from taxpayer||


Working on this picture, Titian worked not only with his hands, but also with his fingers, trying to show the image that struck him in a fit of inspiration. He seemed to be trying to fashion the image of the archangels, the Virgin Mary herself and Jesus, his apostles. He worked on this picture for five years, preparing it for the church. She didn’t come out bright, rather the opposite, rather scandalous and having “dirty colors” work. Because of her contemporaries criticized Titian. Now this work is considered one of the most daring in his work, and in that era.
The painting depicts a plot in which the archangel Gabriel informs Mary that she is to face the Immaculate Conception of Jesus. The Virgin Mary is scared and squeezed, it was a very brave move, because most often she was portrayed as humbly accepting the good news or even joyful. The archangel only slightly touches the feet of the earth, and one wing lifted. He crossed his arms in front of him, showing meekness and humility to God. White clothes on him flutter freely, while on the Virgin Mary clothes are dark blue and lie close to the body.
On this canvas you can see the drama of Christian plots, which amazes the imagination and makes you look into small details and minor characters. The Archangel Gabriel is the central character of the painting, with the apostles looking down from above with clearly traced low skies. A lot of small winged nude images, each of which has its own facial expression and its own characteristics. Somewhere in the clouds there is a gap, which in itself attracts attention.


So how does a state successfully commit war crimes, and get away with it? Simple, by ensuring silence. Like a parent guilty of abusing their child, the best way to escape prosecution is to ensure that the child keeps their mouth shut, keeping school teachers and peers utterly oblivious to the daily atrocities which the child is subject to.
While it is wholly questionable that the international community were oblivious to the humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka that reached a peak in 2009, it is clear that the Sri Lankan government has taken a similar approach of silencing the voices of the Tamil population. Intimidation, the use of sexual torture, and complete state control of the country’s press have ensured that the silence has been maintained since.
Pogroms, destruction of homes and attacks against places of worship all culminated in a bloody civil war which began in 1983 and only ended in Sri Lanka as the government ordered the ruthless massacre of Tamil rebels and civilians alike with over 75,000 murdered in 2009 alone. A country whose history is marred with a lengthy record of genocide and ethnic discrimination, Sri Lanka has flown under the international radar for years, using their famed tourist landscapes as a beautiful veil.
However, in recent times, this void in information surrounding the crimes taking place daily in Sri Lanka has been decreasing due to the hard work of a number of people and organisations. The pressure on the Sri Lankan state to be prosecuted for these human rights violations has been growing and one of the most vital and often underplayed components behind this growing pressure is the voice of the international student body.
Students in Sri Lanka and across the world have all done their part to expose these crimes, through campaigns and protests, and students at the LSE have followed suit. LSESU Tamil Society are for a second year running both an exhibition and student-led discussion to raise awareness of the 2009 genocide and detail the ongoing human rights crisis in the country.
Following this, at the upcoming UGM, a motion will be brought to condemn the Sri Lankan state for their mistreatment of civilians in the North East along with supporting sanctions against the state for their lack of cooperation with the ongoing UNHRC investigation. We hope that through this we can encourage other university unions to pass similar motions and come together to show that students across the UK want change. The UGM will take place this Thursday 4th of December and we at LSESU Tamil Society encourage all students to vote online to get this motion passed.
While an exhibition and discussion may seem somewhat insignificant in the fight against human rights violations, the power of awareness should never be underestimated. Silence strengthens all criminals, from petty robbers to genocidal states. Thus, the aptly named ‘Breaking the Silence’ campaign which we are taking part in fights to prevent that. We must ensure that the hard work of students across the world to reveal human rights violations does not go in vain and that we continue to use our positions to benefit those who are forcibly prevented from speaking for themselves.


“We felt like we were part of something bigger, sharing what we were doing, and the idea of being leaders was very inspiring.”
— Becki Cohn Vargas, Ed.D.
Dr. Becki Cohn-Vargas is a veteran educator and longtime ally of Not In Our Town. In this piece, penned in 2008, Dr. Cohn-Vargas lays out the lessons from the Palo Alto Unified School District, which embraced Not In Our School activities in 2007. Although Dr. Cohn-Vargas is no longer with the district, she has been instrumental in developing Not In Our School programs and the Palo Alto district’s Not In Our Schools month continues to thrive.
Since 2007, the Palo Alto Unified School District has sponsored Not In Our School Palo Alto, a districtwide annual month-long event where students, teachers, administrators and parents engage in activities and discussions about how to address hate, bullying, and harassment at school.
The program began with a joint school-community film screening. We partnered with Not In Our Town to present Not in Our Town Northern California: When Hate Happens Here. More than 300 people, including students, parents and teachers, attended the session. Along with the screening, we trained teachers to use Not In Our Town curriculum. As a result of the powerful response, we decided to continue with follow-up activities.
But before we had time to organize more events, one of our Palo Alto High School students was harassed, her backpack marked with anti-gay hate graffiti, and her iPod stolen. In response, we began working together with the students at Palo Alto High School and decided to do a month of activities called Not in Our Schools Month.
It quickly spread to Gunn, the other high school in the district. Students told us, “We should not only do this one time, it needs to happen every year.”
Middle School: Students Take on Bullying
In the first year, the high schools readily embraced the idea of doing Not in Our School activities. The following year, we expanded Not In Our Schools month to our middle school campuses with a focus on ways to address bullying. Our slogan was "Be REAL, Respect, Educate, Accept, and Listen.” In one of the most powerful activities, one middle school piped the film Not In Our Town into every classroom, followed by another school-made video of a small panel of their students discussing the film and their experiences with discrimination and prejudice. Then each classroom held their own discussion of these important issues. The middle schools have continued to participate in NIOS month and the elementary schools joined as well.
A Film and a Play Draw New Interest in Not In Our School
During the 2007-08 school year, a film crew from The Working Group captured Not In Our Schools events, which was highly motivational. We felt like we were part of something bigger, sharing what we were doing, and the idea of being leaders was very inspiring. In the spring of 2009, we kicked off Not In Our Schools month with a community event and premiere of the documentary that The Working Group captured the year before, which was very exciting.
That year, we also reached just about every elementary school, with a play we commissioned, called Oskar and Big Bully Battle, about students learning to stand up for what’s right and to stop bullying. We had companion curriculum and also held a series of presentations about bullying for parents. This play, which presents the issues of bullying and effectively promotes the idea of being an upstander, has continued to be presented at schools around Northern California.
Not In Our Schools: A Month to Raise Awareness about Hate
Over the years, more and more schools in the district embraced the month-long annual event. Posters and buttons were distributed across the five secondary schools in the district saying no to hate, bullying, and harassment for any reason, particularly religious and anti-gay intolerance, sexism and racism.
The month features a series of activities at the five secondary campuses, sponsored by a coalition of student clubs, staff teams, school counselors, and administrators that include classroom activities, assemblies, speakers, informational booths and cultural events at lunchtime, and screenings of Not in Our Town films. Some schools have also set up "stereotype pools," in which people write an ugly stereotype they want to see eliminated on a piece of rice paper. When they put it into the pool, it dissolves. We also have sponsored panel discussions for parents from across the district, featuring students sharing their experiences and discussing ways to make our schools safe. Several art teachers have made student art contests and exhibitions based on the Not in Our Town curriculum.
Key Lessons: Encouraging Upstander Action Among Students
Each year, as our Not in Our Schools Month grows, we reach more students, parents, and teachers. We’ve really worked at building a network of teachers, staff and students, all taking leadership in organizing the month of activities, and encourage the champions of this work to institutionalize it in their own school. We’ve also learned that each school has to make it their own, so we don’t dictate that every school should have a certain committee or a certain format. We discovered that it’s also really good to have a broader community event to pull everyone together to give the month the feeling of a district-wide effort.
School administrators and teachers report that they think Not in Our School is influencing the schools in a very positive way; it brings out student leadership and gives voice to students who are not usually at the center of things. And it teaches students to be upstanders, not bystanders, when they see hate or discrimination. I believe that if you have talked about what it means to be an upstander, and why it is important to speak up or stand up, you’re more likely to find the courage to do it yourself.
The idea of having an annual event has set a precedent that, at least once a year, we’re going to tackle these issues and build awareness with our students. All year long, it serves to remind people this is what we stand for. But we also recognize this work has to be linked to the challenge of continually addressing tolerance and creating environments where all students feel safe and included.


|An adult female blacklegged tick, engorged after a blood meal. (Photo: Scott Bauer, USDA Agricultural Research Service, Bugwood.org.)|
The United States has been facing a growing tick epidemic in recent years. Lyme disease is transforming from an endemic issue to a pandemic issue, with the Northeast reporting the greatest number of cases nationally.
During an informative educational presentation at PestWorld 2012, George Williams, general manager and staff entomologist for the Boston-based firm Environmental Health Services (EHS), shared some of the ways his team helps to treat the ever-increasing tick population in Rhode Island and Massachusetts.
In 2012, the Rhode Island Lyme Disease Resource Center indicated a 148 percent increase in tick-related complaints; the Massachusetts Department of Health has had between 12,000 and 14,000 lab reports of Lyme disease every year since 2010. Michigan, Indiana and Ohio have shown a dramatic Lyme disease increase over the past five years. Even more troubling, Babesia microti, another vector-borne disease spread by ticks, can result in death in extreme cases, although the vast majority of cases are asymptomatic or produce only mild, flu-like symptoms in humans.
As a result, proper tick management is becoming increasingly important, particularly in those regions of the country where Lyme disease is a growing problem. During the past 20 years, Lyme disease has spread throughout the Northeast and into the Midwest, reaching as far as the West Coast. Not only are humans at risk but pets, especially dogs, are susceptible to contracting the disease. In mid-summer, cases spike, making spring and summer the optimal time for treatment.
Ticks 101. There are about 200 species of ticks in the United States and about 850 species globally. Soft ticks infest birds and mammals other than humans, while hard ticks are the most important species with regard to human attacks. One thing potential clients may not know is that ticks are not limited to outdoor environments — brown dog ticks, for example, can live their whole lives indoors. These ticks can be harder to treat than bed bugs, as they get into vents, requiring challenging structural treatments.
There are several species of hard ticks, including dog ticks, wood ticks, deer ticks and black-legged ticks. Their salivary glands secrete a glue that keeps the tick in place while feeding. Feeding on a host can last from days to weeks, with the tick taking up to 600 times its body weight in blood. Females die after producing between 3,000 and 6,000 eggs in a mass, meaning that thousands of ticks can be found on a single property. A tick’s life cycle lasts anywhere from three months to two years.
Preparation. Before beginning any treatment, Williams stresses the importance of letting clients know that you will be providing a suppression service, not an elimination service. While it’s possible to reduce the amount of ticks on a property through habitat modification, deer control and exclusion services, even the most thorough technician implementing the most comprehensive pest control program won’t be able to eradicate them. Depending on the property and clients, such options may also end up being the most cost prohibitive.
|A tick feeding on a human host. Ticks are an important public health pest because they can transmit Lyme disease and other illness.|
The key to tick prevention and suppression is to create a tick-free zone on your customer’s property. Therefore, recommend that they clear tall grass and brush around their home, mow their lawn frequently, stack firewood in a dry location and place a 3-foot wide barrier of wood chips or gravel between lawns and wooded areas and around patios and play equipment.
In addition, all clients should be aware of certain areas on their property that are breeding grounds for ticks. Stone walls between property lines and decorative retaining walls are good places for chipmunks and deer mice, and as a result, a good place for ticks as well. Ticks are not attracted to the sunny, dry or well-manicured areas of a property — they search for foliage to quest, looking for a host to brush into them, where they will move on to small animals in the spring, and larger animals by the summer and fall months.
Before beginning any treatments, Williams suggests that all technicians familiarize themselves with the property they are servicing. For example, technicians should know what is on the other side of a fence when treating. If a client’s neighbors are raising honeybees, you must be careful when and how you make pesticide applications to minimize drift, so as not to endanger bees in a neighboring yard. Technicians also should avoid treating blooming flowers, as treatments performed while flowers are in bloom could endanger honeybees. Be aware that treatment droplets on foliage can potentially act like magnifying glasses in high heat, thus “burning” the flowers. Technicians also should refrain from treating with pyrethroids around koi ponds, as they are toxic to fish.
Treatment Options. There are many treatment product options to consider. A popular conventional treatment often uses synthetic pyrethroids; Williams says you also can use adjuvant, a spreader sticker additive that limits drift. You can offer a conventional treatment program as a monthly service, stretching from spring until the first frost. A more modest service could be performed two times per season, in March or April, and then again in September. If the area has a great deal of wildlife pressure, technicians should suggest a third visit in mid-summer.
An effective organic treatment option, which EHS offers as part of its EcoHealth tick protection program, uses Essentria IC3, a 25(b) exempt product. Organic treatments are most effective if performed monthly, according to Williams. If a client does not opt for the monthly program, however, technicians should always perform treatment three times per year, in spring, mid-summer and fall. In addition, organic treatments are a good option if there is a koi pond on the property, as IC3 has no aquatic toxicity.
An insect growth regulator (IGR) also can be used as part of the mosquito/tick program, but not for ticks alone. If honeybees are in the area, Williams recommends using a lower-impact product. Mavrik Aquaflow is a product EHS has used with success in such situations.
A slightly more expensive option your company can offer is a Select TCS (Tick Control System), a tick reduction tool that can result in up to 95 percent reduction in a tick population after two years. This treatment involves placing tamper-resistant stations at 30-foot intervals throughout the property as decided by the pest management professional. By offering this service, there is also increased revenue and customer retention because it is ideally a two-year program. The target market for this type of treatment would be more affluent homeowners due to the additional expense — the program can increase the cost of service by $1,200 or more per year.
When it comes to applying treatments, Williams’ technicians prefer to use backpack misters, as the majority of their tick services are for residential properties. Solo and Stihl misters are convenient because they allow for a faster service set-up time; a technician can come to a client’s home and be ready to go. These misters also provide adequate application coverage both high and low, and don’t require technicians to drive around in trucks full of insecticide. In addition, clients prefer the look of the backpack mister because it appears as a less-invasive treatment.
Housekeeping. Williams suggests having customers set up their treatments via credit card if they are on a monthly program, because individuals are more likely to stay with the program if they’ll have to make a physical effort to cancel it. As for the other programs, Williams advises requiring payment up front. This ensures the client will keep up with subsequent appointments because they’ve already been paid for.
Williams said PestPac users should set up a service schedules to have on- and off-months. They should create two service codes for conventional and organic treatments so that technicians can easily distinguish between the two service orders. These customers should be added to a list so you can accurately track all of the clients that are in the program. This will make marketing, communication and management easier.
|Blacklegged ticks on a scale, with a needle shown for scale. While feeding, ticks can take up to 600 times their body weight in blood. (Photo: Jim Occi, BugPics, Bugwood.org.)|
It is also essential that you train your service team. Your technical team, service manager and supervisors should take part in classroom training. The product manager also should be included and asked to discuss the company’s product choices.
For field training, Williams recommends that technicians perform an actual start-to-finish treatment. They should learn mixing and application techniques, as well as treatment issues and obstacles they might face so that they can understand how to go through each step while on the job. Make sure your team is trained to understand the intricacies of doing specific services and what may go wrong.
Technicians also should be trained in keeping paperwork organized and up-to-date. You should use a pest vulnerability report to highlight conducive conditions and issues that exist on the property. The paperwork should be neat and organized with accurate treatment details.
Marketing. When it comes to marketing, advertising and communication, you should create a program name and brand it. Trademarked examples from Williams’ company include “EcoHealth” and “Take Back My Yard.” Make sure your office staff has “canned” email overviews of the program so they can share them with their customers and inform them of the services and the products that will be used. This will save phone time and increase sales success. It also offers a clear description of the program with details, and allows various members of the household to share information with one another.
Email blasts also can be sent seasonally to determine which of your customers might be interested in tick services. These emails will save time and will give people the opportunity to contact your company if they’re interested. If your company is going to offer tick services, Williams also suggests having a tick removal tip sheet on your company website — it is important to supply customers with information on how to effectively and properly remove ticks.
Also be sure your website provides support information about ticks, as well as the services being offered. Make sure your field team is on board with the program logistics and prices so that they can sell as needed, based on what they learn about the property. It is also helpful to have downloadable flyers that customers can access and share with others.
In the end, technicians may not be able to eliminate the presence of ticks entirely, but they can help clients regain the comfort ticks take away by providing education and valuable treatment options.
The author is a Cleveland, Ohio-based writer and can be reached at email@example.com.