If Youre a Nature Lover, You Need These Words in Your Vocabulary

If Youre a Nature Lover, You Need These Words in Your Vocabulary Robert Macfarlane loves words about nature and our interaction with it. In fact, he loves it so much that he compiled Landmarks, a collection of words used across America, England, Scotland, Ireland and Walesâ€"some of which have been long forgottenâ€"to describe natural scenery.In an article written for The Guardian, he explains why he felt the need to publish this compendium:…Although we have fabulous compendia of flora, fauna and insects (Richard Mabeys Flora Britannica and Mark Cockers Birds Britannica chief among them), we lack a Terra Britannica, as it were: a gathering of terms for the land and its weathersâ€"terms used by crofters, fishermen, farmers, sailors, scientists, miners, climbers, soldiers, shepherds, poets, walkers and unrecorded others for whom particularised ways of describing place have been vital to everyday practice and perception.Robert Macfarlane, The GuardianIn that same article, he further details the events that led him to collect these words:The same su mmer I was on Lewis, a new edition of the Oxford Junior Dictionary was published. A sharp-eyed reader noticed that there had been a culling of words concerning nature. Under pressure, Oxford University Press revealed a list of the entries it no longer felt to be relevant to a modern-day childhood. The deletions included acorn, adder, ash, beech, bluebell, buttercup, catkin, conker, cowslip, cygnet, dandelion, fern, hazel, heather, heron, ivy, kingfisher, lark, mistletoe, nectar, newt, otter, pasture and willow. The words taking their places in the new edition included attachment, block-graph, blog, broadband, bullet-point, celebrity, chatroom, committee, cut-and-paste, MP3 player and voice-mail.Robert Macfarlane, The GuardianAs Macfarlanes story about the Oxford Junior Dictionary shows, we live in a time when we are generally less connected to nature and to our surrounding natural world. This is especially true for children, who know more about gaming systems and iPads than they do about the sound of the wind through the trees and capturing fireflies. What does this mean for our next generation of poets and writersâ€"writers who are losing the vernacular that was once so common among artists who explored the natural world around them?With this in mind, here is a list of words that shouldnt be forgotten by poets and writers who are likewise nature lovers. Teach them to your children so they wont be completely lost.Wind, rain, snow, and stormsAfter-drop (Poetic)Raindrop which falls after a cloud has passed (first cited in Sir Philip Sidneys Arcadia, c 1580)Airie (Caithness)Gentle breath of windAchram (Irish)Very heavy rain (literally, boisterous behavior)Billow (East Anglia)SnowdriftBrim (Orkney)Cold, drying wind that withers plantsBlacthorn Winter(Herefordshire) Winter that turns very cold late in the seasonCith (Gaelic)Shower of warm, drizzling rainDomra (Shetland)Obscuration of the sky by hazeDribs (Leicestershire, Northamptonshire)Rain which falls in drops f rom the eaves of thatched housesDringey (Lincolnshire)Light rain that still manages to get you soaking wetFeetings (Suffolk)Footprints of creatures as they appear in the snowGleamy (Essex)Showers with fitful sunshineGoldfoil (Poetic)Coined by the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins, describing a sky lit by lightning in zigzag dints and creasings.Heavengravel (Poetic)Hailstones Gerard Manley HopkinsLattin, letty (Shropshire and Somerset, respectively)Enough rain to make outdoor work difficultOogly (Cornish)Referring to the sky, when it foretells wild weatherPayling (Northamptonshire)Wind-driven showerPenitent (Geography)Spike or pinnacle of compact snow and ice left standing after differential melting of a snowfieldPetrichor (Scientific)The pleasant, distinctive small of rain in the air, sometimes detectable before the rain has even begun to fall, and especially strong when the first rain falls after a period of warm, dry weatherPirr (Shetlandic)A light breath of wind, such as will make a cat s paw on the waterPuthery (Cheshire)Intense stillness and humidity immediately before a storm breaksRoarie bummlers (Scottish)Fast-moving storm cloudsSnow-bones (Yorkshire)Patches of snow seen stretching along ridges, in ruts, or in furrows after a partial thawUngive (Northamptonshire and East Anglia)To thawVirga (Meteorological)Observable streak or shaft of precipitation that falls from a cloud but evaporates before reaching the groundWeather-mooth (Caithness)Clear area in the sky, low on the horizon, from which the clouds appear to streamWhewan (Orkney)Wind that howls around cornersWhiffle (Kent)Referring to the wind, when it comes in unpredictable gustsWhittle (Cheshire)A strong gust of wine, supposedly named after Captain Whittle, whose coffin was hurled to the ground from its bearers shoulders by such a gustWilliwaw (Nautical)Sudden, violent squallWolfsnow (Poetic)Dangerously heavy and wind-driven snow (Gerard Manley Hopkins)MountaineeringAlpenglow (Mountaineering)Light of the setting or rising sun seen illuminating high mountains or the underside of cloudsAlpenglow is the light of the setting or rising sun seen illuminating high mountains or the underside of clouds. Photo by eberhard grossgasteiger on Unsplash.Chockstone (Mountaineering)A stone wedged in a vertical cleft or chimney of rock, impeding progressChoss (Mountaineering)Rock that is unsuitable for climbing due to its instability or friabilityCreachann (Gaelic)Grassless, stony hilltopMoel (Welsh)A hilltop or mountain summit that is treeless and roundedNick (Yorkshire)Gap in the hills through which weather comesSlip-rift (Geological)Cave or chasm formed by the peeling away of one rock layer from another under the duress of gravityWaterAber (Welsh)Mouth of a river (into the sea); confluence of a lesser with a larger riverAbhainn (Gaelic)Substantial river, often running to the sea, with numerous tributariesAcker (North Sea Coast)Ripple on the surface of the waterBala (Welsh)Outflow of a river from a lakeBorbhan (Gaelic)Purling or murmur of a streamCaochan (Scottish)A small stream flowing across moorland and boggy ground with its channel concealed by heather and other moor vegetationCymer (Welsh)Confluence of two or more streams Moonwake (Poetic) The reflection of moonlight on a body of waterFaoi (Gaelic)Noisy streamHurdifell (Shetland)Steep, rocky hill covered in bouldersJabble (Scottish)Agitated movement of water; a splashing or dashing in small waves or ripples; where currents meet, the water is said to be jabblyLoom (Cumbria)Slow and silent movement of water in a deep poolPell (Sussex)Hole of water, generally very deep, beneath an abrupt waterfallSoma (Irish)A body of water that is abounding in swansStaran (Gaelic)Causeway of stones built out into a lake in order to fetch waterTrunnel (English regional)A road or path where, in summer, the leaves of trees on both sides form a canopyA Trunnel is an English word noting a road or path where, in summer, the leaves of trees on bo th sides form a canopy. Photo by Jason Ortego on Unsplash.Twevelet (Poetic)Small leaf bundles snagged around river twigs after a floodWinterbourne (Anglo-Saxon)Intermittent or ephemeral stream, dry in the summer and running in winterMoon, sun, and starsApricity (Phenological)Suns warmth in winterBenighted (Mountaineering)Overtaken by darkness while walking or climbingBright-borough (Poetic)Area of the night sky thickly strewn with stars (Gerard Manley Hopkins)Buried moon (Northamptonshire)Moon seen through a vaporous hazeBurr (East Anglia)Mistiness over and around the moon; a moon-haloDark hour (East Anglia)Interval between the time of sufficient light to work or read by and the lighting of candlesâ€"therefore, a time of social domestic conversation (We will talk that over at the dark hour)Dimpsy, dimsy (Devon, Somerset)Dusk, or the darkened hour brought on by poor weather, or the short period of time between daylight and dusklight. The cusp of duskness (Isabel Macho)Doomfire (Poeti c)Sunset light which has the appearance of the apocalypse (Gerard Manley Hopkins)Firesmoke (Childish)Blending of sunrise or sunset with cloudsGreen flash (Optics)Optical phenomenon occurring just before sunset or just after sunrise, in which a green spot is briefly visible above the upper rim of the suns diskGrimlins (Orkney)Night hours around midsummer when dusk blends into dawn and it is hard to say if day is ending or beginningHoarlight (Poetic)Burnished or embossed forehead of sky over the sundown, beautifully clear (Gerard Manley Hopkins)Print-moonlight (Sussex)Moonlight bright enough to read byShepherds lamp (Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire)First star that rises after sunsetShivelight (Poetic)A word created by poet Gerard Manley Hopkins for the lances of sunshine that pierce the canopy of a woodFlora, fauna and landscapeBerhog (Shetland)Sterile piece of groundDeadfall (Geography)Dead branch that falls from a tree as a result of wind or its own weightDreeping (Irish/poetic)Des cribing landscape that is heavy with dew or rain (Patrick Kavanagh)Ecotone (Ecological)Transition zone between two biomes, where communities meet and integrate (for example, between field and forest or lake and land)Frail (Banffshire)The skeleton of a leafHopliness (Childish)Changes in color along the length of a stem of grassHoodoo(Geography) Tall, thin spire of rockMute (Exmoor)Stumps of trees and bushes left in the ground after fellingPixy-hunting (Somerset)Climbing trees in an orchard to get the last fruit after the main crop has been harvestedPlatos fire (Poetic)Shadows dancing inside of a tree hollow on a sunny day in the woodsSillion (Poetic)Shining, curved face of earth recently turned by the plowSmeuse (English)The gap in the base of a hedge made by the regular passage of a small animalSmoog (Childish)Referring to a group of children who gather, crack, stack and whack bits of fallen timber in the woodsSnicket (Yorkshire)A narrow path between buildings or between a fence and a fieldSolastalgia (Global)Distress caused by environmental change (climate change, pollution mining) that alters a persons home landscape without them ever leaving itSpurring (Exmoor)Following the tracks of a wild animalSway (Venery)Deviation of an animals footprints from the median line of passageVallum (Northumberland)A wide ditchWilsom (Scots)A way or path leading through wild and desolate regions

Business Ethics and Organizational Culture Free Essay Example, 1250 words

usiness Ethics and Organizational Culture of Enron Business Ethics and Organizational Culture of Enron Business is needed by people to earn money as money is involved in the selling of goods and services. Selling is not the only aspect of business because many processes are needed to conduct a business. Entrepreneurs and customers are not the only people involved in business as huge businesses like malls and corporations require employees to run the whole businesses. In having employees working for a company, ethics and culture mold them to work together towards the organizational goals. Ethics and culture are parts of the corporate world, but both of them are also found outside of the business and corporate context. It would help to define both concepts as they will both guide the discussion later on about a controversial company and how both ethics and culture were bended and changed. The first concept is that ethics which is part of philosophy that serves as guide on how to liv e in terms of the concept of goodness or between right and wrong (Pojman and Fieser, 2012, p. We will write a custom essay sample on Business Ethics and Organizational Culture or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/pageorder now 2). The action is being judged as the motive affects the action and the outcome is checked as to whether it is good or bad. As people spend time to learn and explore the world, they seek the truth which gave birth to philosophy and pursues the integrity of the actions as Socrates said, â€Å"the unexamined life is not worth living, † (Pojman and Fieser, 2012, p. 2). The focus of ethics is the reflection and study of actions and motives as seen in the famous quotation of Socrates. With that pursuit, ethics is correlated with morality or moral philosophy as they deal with the right and wrong conduct, but ethics is larger than morality as the latter is just a portion of the former (Keim, 2000, p. 180). Since ethics affects decision and choice as guided by whether an action is good or bad, it can shape the culture of people. Culture allows men to survive as deals with the physical and sociological realms of life as people of the same group have the same behavior (Ayisi, 1992, p. 2). In short, culture is a way of life as people respond for learning and survival in their everyday lives. According to Hofstede, another definition of culture is â€Å"the collective programming of the human mind that distinguishes the members of one human group from those of another, † (Wagner, 2009, p. 2). Culture is said to be a mindset of a group of people as they adapt to their environment and as they interact with one another.

Does Caffeine Have An Affect On The Heart Rate Of A Dafnia...

Does CAFFEINE have an affect on the Heart Rate of a DAFNIA (water flea)? Introduction The objective of this investigation was to observe the affect of caffeine on the heart rate of a Daphnia (water flea), by observing the specimen under a microscope for a set period of time while in an environment of concentrated caffeine. By using a microscope, the collection of data regarding the heart rate of the how to make a line graph in word Daphnia was possible. Drinks such as coffee, Red bull, MONSTER and Coca-Cola contain high amounts of caffeine, causing the consumer to increase their amounts of stimulatory neurotransmitters (this is a chemical in the brain sent throughout the body telling your heart to beat, your lungs to breathe, and your stomach to digest). As caffeine is a stimulant, it is predicted that the drug will increase the Heart Rate of the Daphnia. Caffeine will be used in this experiment with concentrates of black coffee. Due to the miniature size of a Daphnia, biologists have had unique troubles with analysing the way the systems of the Daphnia function. Biologists have argued, that the circulatory system of a Daphnia relies on diffusion or convection. However, it has been decided that depending on the oxygen levels in the environment will affect the way that the circulatory system of the Daphnia functions. The levels of haemoglobin will also affect the functioning of the circulatory system in the water flea. Haemoglobin is a red blood cell, assisting the

Pfizer Company A Presentation of Strategic Context Free Essays

Pfizer is the number two largest biomedical and pharmaceutical research and development company in the world, boasting in excess of fifty Billion dollars per year in gross revenues. While the recession has hit many companies, the biotechnology and pharmaceuticals sector has remained not only relatively insulated, but in addition to that the forecasting models for growth predict a profitable future. Pfizer has had its share of growing pains, a cause for reduction in gross revenues comes primarily from a growth strategy to acquire another large biopharmaceutical company, yet net retained earnings have continued to increase at a rate of six percent annual average each year over the last three years. We will write a custom essay sample on Pfizer Company: A Presentation of Strategic Context or any similar topic only for you Order Now After Pfizer’s acquisitions of Wyeth they saw a substantial increase in operating profit margins due to increased efficiencies between the two companies. Pfizer has recently acquired a biopharmaceutical company named Wyeth. By purchasing Wyeth which specializes in vaccines, Pfizer has broadened their customer base by expanding their product line. This business practice aligns with Pfizer’s current pro-growth Strategy. It is clear, in most part; Pfizer’s business Strategy aligns with the wild wild west model of Industry Ecosystems. Pfizer if a relatively fast growing company, in an industry that thrives on making fast and furious technological discoveries, and they have a very high rate of customer retention due to patent protection. Pfizer has many competing technologies in the market place for such diseases as cardiac health, mental health, and infectious disease treatments. Their drug Lipitor is by far the highest grossing drug the company currently has on the market. Cardiac disease is the most common and fatal disease that Americans face. Lipitor functions by lowering low density lipids (or fats) in the blood stream thus promoting cardiac and circulatory efficiency and health. Pfizer’s patent on Lipitor is set to expire in November of this year which would potentially result in reducing their total revenues for that drug significantly because other companies could then introduce a generic substitute. The net effect of Lipitor’s patent expiration on Pfizer’s bottom line could be a reduction as large as ten percent of total gross revenues. Pfizer would be expected to retain approximately twenty percent of users which equals four percent of Pfizer’s total Gross Revenues. Some customers ill continue to use Lipitor, for example: those patients whose insurance does cover name brand medicines or patience of physicians that reject writing prescriptions for generic substitutes. This problem is a perfect example of one of Porters Key strategy principals that Pfizer follows, analyzing and protecting a threat of substitute products. How Pfizer addresses the problem is how they exercise his strategy. The current estimated retail cost of Lipitor is around one hundred and seventy dollars per month depending on the prescribed dosage. After November of this year it is very possible that we could see a generic substitute on the Wal-Mart four dollar list. Part of Pfizer’s Business strategy has been to launch legal battles for patent protections and extensions longer than the November 2011 date, which would result in a prolonged period of increased earnings and profits. To continue with an analysis of strategy, Pfizer uses both a combination of the resource based view in conjunction with the industry investment prospective. An example of this would be Pfizer’s acquisition of Wyeth which catered to a much broader and diverse section of the drug market. The resource prospective would say that Pfizer already has massive research and development capabilities, drug production and manufacturing systems, and well established distribution channels for its already long list of products, making Wyeth a fit for the company’s growth and expansion strategies. What is different from the resource based view and supports the industry investment strategy is that Wyeth is a leading researcher, developer, and provider of vaccines, which is a very lucrative industry in and of its self. The numbers of users for vaccines are much larger than for a specialized product such as Lipitor, yet vaccines still have patent protections that help drug companies keep prices high. These two companies merged together have much greater and sustainable competitive advantages than either one by itself. One of the resources that will help to fend off threats to their product lines is their pooling of resources for their in house legal team. As new products emerge from the research and development scientists, their joint capacity to protect their drug assets and keep products in the hands of the end users will inevitably eep other drug companies from capitalizing on the opportunities to produce generics. Some of the more rare and inimitable products are the ability to produce huge financial gains for Pfizer if they pass through all the stages of FDA screening protocol. Some areas Pfizer is currently investing research and development dollars are, DNA specific drugs, new small molecule compounds, Stem Cell therapies, Amino Acid therapies. DNA specific drugs have huge potential for Pfizer because many side effects can be prevented, allergies can be detected, and a shorter time line for approval to the FDA can result from better drugs. New small molecule compounds are useful because they tend to have fewer side effects which equal fewer liabilities and risk for the producer, and can be easier to develop and manufacture. Stem cell research also opens up a great deal of opportunity for drugs that work well on the cellular and molecular level, but can even be toxic or fatal in the human body. The method of drug delivery is many times the largest hurdle in getting an effective drug to the reaction site to produce the desired effect. Finally, and quite possibly most interestingly there are over three hundred and twenty know amino acids. Our human bodies produce or utilize only twenty four of them. Many of the reaction mechanisms on the molecular level can be imitated or recreated by unnatural amino acids meaning that we may see a huge increase in effective drugs with decreased side effects by utilizing these products. In conclusion Pfizer has acquired a great addition to its company with Wyeth as part of its pro-growth business strategy. It is clear that they have used a combination of both resourced based and industry based strategy. By tapping into a broad mass market via a new product by a new company Pfizer will have a clear competitive advantage over companies like Merk and Novartis. Pfizer is definitely leveraging their human resource assets to prevent substitute products from entering the markets. I believe that by exercising these strategies Pfizer can prevent slipping into the creative destruction life stage of a company. How to cite Pfizer Company: A Presentation of Strategic Context, Essay examples

The Devils balls Review Essay Example

The Devils balls Review Paper Essay on The Devils balls So, I read this intriguing collection of short stories, and I hasten to share experiences. I do not think that this review will strongly affect those who choose the book to read, or, conversely, Zaretsky district not to take it up, but to express their views still like Ill start in the order and with each story separately.: The first was the story of Meg Cabot, and it was called The daughter of the hunter. With creativity Cabot I already know each other before this was pre-disposed to it. And for good reason. The idea of ​​the story was pretty good, but thats the way it defeated still leaves much to be desired. Numerous refrains called me just annoyed, it seemed as if this is not a special idea of ​​the author, but rather an expression of the paucity of language and familiar to all sign tyaplyapstva when the author does not re-read once again what he writes. We will write a custom essay sample on The Devils balls Review specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on The Devils balls Review specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on The Devils balls Review specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Follow two stories, namely authored by Lauren Miracle and Kim Harrison, generally impressed by some incompleteness. If the Bouquet I annoyed my non-deployed, if the author was too lazy to register more storyline * to a gun in the first act still vysterelilo third *, the Madison Avery and dusk reaper and did disappoint was planned some epic, which quickly turned, and over, by golly, asbolyutno nothing. If the author has decided to overnight Oh, something I signed, and deadlines have already running out will finish a minute Im right here . and set point quickly namarav senseless end, with a hint of a certain understatement. The reader will think of something myself, and I did so Zagreb denbzhat for this story The following story -. Miranda Kiss Kiss Strangely enough I liked the most. Although he suffered the previous disadvantages, but there are at least everything was concocted on the conscience. The gun never fired, but at least it was more or less clear whats what. Although I was frankly amazed gently introduced the topic of minorities. If at first I thought that Beth a strange name for a guy * sinful deed attributed to poor translation *, then, when I found that it was still a girl * besides companion best friend of the main character *, for a long time did not believe. These things I have not yet had time to get used to The most recent, of course turned out to be the story of Stephenie Meyer fans tremble * *. And to be honest, reading it was somehow more painful than most. The idea is nice, but no more. Meyer style, I did not notice, but in defense of the writer can say that this is the only story that fits enchanting title the book Devils balls. The rest of the story, though a school dance and appears in one way or another, but the devil itself is not. It serves as a complication, the reason, the link in the story, but the devils balls, I imagine not so The book does not live up to expectations, but I can say that despite all the shortcomings, read stories easy, romantic, almost all were generously seasoned and fun yet delivered.

How To Increase Blog Traffic With Contagious Content

How To Increase Blog Traffic With Contagious Content Everyone wants to increase their blog  traffic, right? It would be too discouraging to write articles, knowing that no one will ever read them. So whenever we write a new post, were secretly hoping that it will bring tons of new visitors to our blog. But do you really think that hope is enough? Certainly not! Its not the circumstances that determine if your articles will get traction- its the tactics and strategies  you  execute that make it happen. How To Increase Blog Traffic: 5 Ways To Make Contagious Content #blogging via @timsouloAnd right now Im going to show you what you can do to increase the odds that your articles will get the attention they  deserve. 3  Natural Ways To Increase Blog Traffic If I ask you where your blog traffic comes from, you're going to name a lot of different things: SEO, social networks, forums, banner ads, etc. But in general, all natural traffic sources fall into 3 different categories: Search traffic Your audience Word of mouth Let me visualize this concept for you: Please Note: I’m using the term "natural traffic" because you can also use all sorts of advertising to generate "paid traffic" to your blog and website. 1. Search traffic. This one is self explanatory. People search Google for hundreds of things every day and it sends them to hundreds of different websites. You can also search for videos on YouTube, for presentations on SlideShare, for photos on Flickr, for tweets on Twitter, etc. Share your content on highly searched sites to reach more people. #bloggingIf you want to get search traffic from all these platforms, you just need to put your content there and make sure it's optimized for the keywords that people might use to find it. Well, actually it's a little bit more complicated than that, but just by publishing your content on all these sites, you really win  half of the battle. 2. Your audience. These are the people who already know about you. Some of them are on your email list, some subscribe to your RSS, some might follow you on Twitter, some have your blog  in their bookmarks. Share the way your audience wants it- even if that means  using many channels. #bloggingIn other words- these people regularly check back with you to see if there was an update. And all you have to do to make them come back to your site is publish a new article and let them know about it via your distribution channels (email newsletter, Twitter, RSS). 3. Word of mouth. That's the kind of traffic you get when your audience- and people coming from "search"- share your content  with their friends. They might tweet your article, share it on Facebook, link to it from their own blog, or send the URL to someone via Skype. So how can you help  people share your content  with others? Well, if you need the short answer- you have to make your article "contagious". Contagious content is the kind people find so good they have to  share it. #bloggingAnd in case you want to go really deep, read along... 5 Hacks To Make Your Content Contagious Did you notice from my visualization that "word of mouth" is actually a loop? This loop amplifies any incoming traffic that lands on your article. But the coolest thing is that it actually amplifies itself and goes in rounds for a while before it finally fades. And the extent to which this "word of mouth" loop will amplify your blog traffic mostly relies on how well you’re going to execute the following strategies: 1. Find A Contagious Idea And Build On Top Of It I know that many people will go hard on me for advising to "steal" ideas from someone else. But I can easily convince you that there’s nothing wrong about it. Take the Tesla car for example. The guys just took a car and put an electric motor into it. How unique is that?   The electric motor was first invented in the 1740s. The first car was built sometime in the  1880s. And the first electric vehicle was presented by nyos Jedlik in 1828. So how come no one is accusing Tesla of stealing someone else's ideas? Because it's not about the original idea, is about how well you execute  that idea. So why don't you "steal" some great ideas and build a "Tesla car" of your own? Here's a great tool that will help you find the most contagious ideas- Content Explorer by Ahrefs: Just put any keywords into the search bar, and the tool will give you a list of most popular content based on your keywords. Play with this tool for 10 minutes and I guarantee that you'll find tons of golden nuggets that will inspire you to write your own contagious article. Here’s a fun fact: Content Explorer is not the only tool of its kind. I know many other tools that were launched long before it. But these guys are known to crawl the Web at Google scale, which means their index of articles is a lot bigger than any other tools can offer. That's exactly how you take someone else's idea and nail it with your execution. 2. Add Some "Practical Utility" To Your Content Do you know what makes people want to share a certain piece of content? In a recent study, researchers examined the sharing patterns of the New York Times readers. Guess what happened to be the biggest driver of shares? Practical utility! And here's how you make your article more practical: Give your readers detailed action steps that they need to take. Provide them with lots of examples and case studies to prove your points. Show them the exact numbers that they can achieve. You won't believe how much people love case studies and exact numbers! Peep Laja from ConversionXL attributes the entire success of his blog to the fact that he never gave a piece of advice if he could not support it with a research paper or a case study. Alex Turnbull from Groove published a great article  about  the importance of writing persuasive research backed content which you also can’t miss. Readers share actionable content more than anything else. #bloggingAnd here's a bonus hack that you can use to easily make your articles more practical- try to add the phrase "for example" next to every piece of advice that you give. Recommended Reading:  Why People Share: The Psychology of Social Sharing 3. Make Your Content Visually Appealing I just told you that people love exact numbers and case studies. So how about this one: According to Jakob Nielsen, 79% of people always scan through any new page that they came across and only 16% read it word for word. And here's another one: According to Josh Schwartz of Chartbeat, there’s no correlation between social shares and people actually reading your article. If you combine these two studies together it's easy to digest that†¦ People can make a snap judgement whether your article is worthy of a share just by skimming through it. Which means that... Your article doesn’t necessarily have to be worthy of a tweet, as long as it looks like  being worthy of a tweet. I know it sounds quite controversial, but it's actually backed with research studies. And in fact, when I think of my own tweeting patterns, I realize that I've tweeted quite a lot of articles just because they seemed worthy to me. So here's how you make your article look more appealing to people who are just skimming through: Write an introductory paragraph that will briefly tell people what's in there. Use meaningful sub-headings (not "clever" ones). Use bulleted lists. Use one idea per paragraph.  Users will skip over any additional ideas if they are not caught by the first few words in the paragraph. Use a lot of high-quality graphics. This will instantly boost your credibility. Use a lot of outbound links.  This will show that you did a thorough research and know what you're talking about. Speaking of "high-quality graphics"- a study conducted by Moz showed that articles with visual content actually tend to attract more links: 4. Help Your Visitors Share Your Content So let's assume that your article is based on a highly contagious idea, it's highly practical, and it looks like something worthy of a share. That alone will guarantee you a fair amount of shares, I promise! But you can easily squeeze a lot more shares from that same article if you go just a few steps further. And here are these steps: Step #1: Make sure your social sharing buttons are easily accessible. This seems so obvious that it's almost not worth mentioning. But I'm sure I'll be able to surprise you with a few tips on something you've considered to be a no-brainer. According to a study from BrightEdge, content with sharing buttons is 7 times more likely to spread than content without. Content with sharing buttons is 7 times more likely to spread than content without. #bloggingAnd if you look at my own blog, my social sharing buttons are floating at the left side of my article, which makes them always accessible no matter how deep you scroll. I also have two big bold buttons at the very end of my article, so that people could share it immediately after they've finished reading it. But the fun doesn't end there. You can push even further and optimize the design of your sharing buttons to get even more shares! Optimize the text on your social sharing buttons. Guys from Pixable carried out quite a few A/B tests to identify what makes people click on their sharing buttons more often. In their first test, they've tested the call to action and discovered that the "Share with Friends" phrase outperformed the phrase "Share" by 107%! The other test was even more amusing. In addition to the Facebook share button, they've added a Tweet button to see how that would impact their shares: That Twitter button increased the total number of shares, which was quite expected.  But the amount of Facebook shares increased as well! It seems that by providing the visitor with a choice, the second option gets them deciding on which platform to share, instead of whether or not to share. Recommended Reading:  The Best Place To Put Social Media Buttons On Your Blog Step #2: Ask for shares. As I've already mentioned above, only 16% of your visitors will actually read your article from start to finish. But these 16% are your most loyal visitors! 16% of visitors read your content from start to finish. They are your loyalists. #bloggingYou should not miss your chance to ask them for a share. You've just given them tons of great information for absolutely free, and all you're asking in return is a simple tweet. It should make them feel bad if they won't reciprocate. Pro Tip: Explain your readers why  they should share your piece of content. Give them a reason  to do it. According to research by Ellen Langer reasoning may pump your acceptance rate to as high as 94%. Here's what  the last sentence of my 7,000-word Guide To Strategic Writing looks like: "And please do me a little favour and share this guide with others, for there's a good chance that it will help them with their blogs." Can you see how I give my readers a reason to share my article? Step #3: Add sharable "sound bites". People share tons of different stuff on social networks: thoughts, quotes, takeaways, images. So why are you leaving your visitors with a single option- "whether or not to share your article"? Remember that fun experiment when the guys added a tweet button, which reframed the situation from "whether or not to share" to "which platform to pick for sharing"? Reframe your #blog readers' perspective from 'whether or not to share' to 'where to  share'.Well, you can move that frame in a different direction- from "whether or not to share the article" to "whether to share an article or a quote from it". Yes, I’m talking about these "tweetable quotes" that you see all over the blog. This strategy was adopted by lots of popular bloggers. I see the "tweet this" quotes on almost all of my favorite blogs. Wonder if this actually works? I once noticed Michael Hyatt using a "tweetable quote" by Jeff Goins in one of his articles: It's not fun to fail, but it just might be the only way to succeed. - Jeff Goins I immediately jumped on Twitter to see if his readers were actually tweeting it. And here's what I saw there: Here's a real life example of how tweetable quotes can help increase  blog traffic through contagious content. Lucky for you, the guys from were kind enough to develop a free WordPress plugin that you can use to create tweetable quotes in your articles. And if you have a little bit of money to invest, I invite you to check my own plugin, which is a little bit more advanced than the free one by .  It's called TweetDis. And if you want to know why this plugin is worth every single penny- just let me know. 5. Optimize Your "Share Snippets" So you've just learned what makes people share your articles. That opens up your viral loop. To effectively close the loop, you need to optimize your "share snippets" to get the maximum "clicks per share". People should eagerly click on your article when they see some of their friends sharing it. This will guarantee that your article will go through a series of viral cycles and your blog  traffic will fade very slowly. Here's how you squeeze more clicks out of your share snippets: Step #1: Write an irresistible headline. There is  actually tons of advice on writing irresistible headlines. All you need to do is simply apply all these tips until you come up with at least 5–7 headlines to choose from. You can then go play with headline analyzer tool to pick the winning one. I'm afraid there's no magic bullet. The more headline variations you will write,  the better you'll get at it. The guys from Upworthy are known to write 25 headlines per article before they settle with one (and so does ): Read This:  25 Scientifically Proven Ways To Write Better Headlines For Your Blog Step #2: Attach images to your "share snippets". What usually catches your attention as you skim through your Facebook newsfeed? Wait-wait!.. I know the answer! It's images! Most social networks allow you to attach images to the things that you share, and that's an opportunity you can't afford to ignore. Let's look at some data: Photos are the most engaging type of content on Facebook, with a whopping 87% interaction rate! No other post type received more than a 4% interaction rate. And attaching an image to your tweet can boost retweets by an impressive 35%. So in case an image is not being attached every time someone tweets your article- you're seriously missing out. Here's how to set this up from a technical standpoint:  Just install WordPress SEO plugin by Yoast and enable â€Å"Facebook Open Graph† and â€Å"Twitter card meta data† within its settings. Once you do this, the plugin will attach the featured image of your article to every single share. Yes, it really is as simple as that. BONUS: How To Turn Your Visitors Into Email Subscribers In the headline of this post, I promised you 5  tactics that will make your content contagious.   I've just listed them, and I really hope you've enjoyed the read. But there's one more content marketing tactic that I just can't help sharing with you. It has nothing to do with blog traffic (at least not initially), but it will grow your email list at a pace you've never seen before. Bonus: How To Turn Your Visitors Into Email Subscribers #bloggingThis tactic is called "content upgrades", and here's how it works. Most bloggers create a single "opt-in bribe" and pitch it everywhere on their blog: on their homepage, in the sidebar, on different popups, and slide-in forms. And it works pretty well.   But a single "opt-in bribe" can’t be relevant to every article that you have on your blog. People coming to read an article about "content marketing" are not interested in your e-book on "conversion rate optimization". A few smart bloggers realized that and started offering "content-specific opt-in bribes" and embed them right into the content of their articles. I bet you've seen these yellow boxes offering you some bonus content. Here's an example from a blog of Brian Dean: This is an example of how Brian Dean uses content upgrades at Backlinko. The downloads complement the context of his articles perfectly. This tactic is called "content upgrades" and it converts readers into email subscribers at a crazy rate, because the "opt-in bribe" that you're offering is highly relevant to the content of the article and actually complements it. Recommended Reading:  Why You Should Give Free Content To Your Readers Here's a case study of how I implemented this strategy on my own blog: [CASE STUDY] How I Increased My Email Conversion Rate By 300% Using Content Upgrades OK, now I feel that I'm leaving you with enough information to make you completely rethink how you approach content marketing. Hope you loved my content marketing hacks and won't mind sharing this article with others. Or would you? :)

Duel Between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr

Duel Between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr The duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr is not only a fascinating part of early United States history but also one whose impact cannot be overstated as it resulted in the death of Hamilton who was serving as Washingtons Secretary of the Treasury. The foundation of their rivalry was set many years before they actually met on a fateful day in July of 1804. Causes of the Rivalry Between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr The rivalry between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr had its roots in a 1791 Senate race. Aaron Burr defeated Philip Schuyler who was Hamiltons father-in-law. Schuyler as a Federalist would have supported George Washingtons and Hamiltons policies while Burr as a Democratic-Republican opposed those policies. The relationship only became more fractured during the election of 1800. The electoral college was at an impasse as to the selection of the president between Thomas Jefferson, who was supposed to be running for president, and Aaron Burr, who was running for the Vice President position. Once the votes were counted, it was found that Jefferson and Burr were tied. This meant that the House of Representatives had to decide which person would become the new president. While Alexander Hamilton didnt support either candidate, he hated Burr more than Jefferson. As a result of Hamiltons political maneuverings in the House of Representatives, Jefferson became president and Burr was named his Vice President. In 1804, Alexander Hamilton again entered the fray in a campaign against Aaron Burr. Burr was running for New York Governor, and Hamilton vigorously campaigned against him. This helped Morgan Lewis win the election and led to further animosity between the two men. The situation worsened when Hamilton criticized Burr at a dinner party. Angry letters were exchanged between the two men with Burr asking for Hamilton to apologize. When Hamilton would not do so, Burr challenged him to a duel. Duel Between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr On July 11, 1804, in the early morning hours, Hamilton met Burr at the agreed upon site at the Heights of Weehawken in New Jersey. Aaron Burr and his second, William P. Van Ness, cleared the dueling grounds of trash, and Alexander Hamilton and his second, Nathaniel Pendelton, arrived shortly before 7 AM. It is believed that Hamilton fired first and probably honored his pre-duel pledge to throw away his shot. However, his unorthodox manner of firing up instead of into the ground gave Burr the justification to take aim and shoot Hamilton. The bullet from Burr struck Hamilton in the abdomen and probably did significant damage to his internal organs. He died from his wounds a day later. Aftermath of Alexander Hamiltons Death The duel ended the life of one of the greatest minds of Federalist Party and the early U.S. Government. Alexander Hamilton as Secretary of the Treasury had a significant impact on the commercial underpinning of the new federal government. The duel also made Burr a pariah in the political landscape of the U.S. Although his duel was considered to be within the bounds of the moral ethics of the time, his political aspirations were ruined.