Interview With Sports Organisation Leader Essay

Part I: Interview Questionnaire 1. Briefly describe your current position and its duties and responsibilities. I am the treasurer to the Mid-Crest Panthers. My responsibilities include ensuring safe custody of all the organization funds and assets as well as handling all financial matters in the organization. I am also a member of the board in which most decisions of the organization are made. 2. How long have you held this position? 3. What is the leadership structure like in your organization? This organization has a board which is the main decision making body. The board is made of the president, vice president, treasurer, secretary, athletic director, cheer coordinator, football director, parent coordinator, and fundraising coordinator. The organization also has team coaches which head various teams. However, all these leaders work in union as far as coordination of the club is concerned. 4. Who are some of the primary stakeholders of this organization? The primary stakeholders include customers and fans, management, coaches, staff, youth and parents. 5. How do you strive to meet the needs of the stakeholders? All stakeholders are represented in board meetings where they give their opinions of what whom they represented would like to see happens in the organization.   I also note this down and ensure that their needs are met as much as possible while still considering all decisions made by the board. 6. How would you describe your leadership style? My leadership style is including others views in carrying out duties entrusted to me. It is democratic leadership. Coming up with ideas and then letting other opinion into these ideas. 7. How important is leadership to the success of your organization? Leadership is very important. It gives the guideline of what activities to be carried out, how and when they will be carried out. It also comes up with strategies of financing these activities. It unites all stakeholders of the organization. It also gives solution to various problems that faces the organization as far as daily activities are concerned. The leadership monitors the organizations activities and gives direction for the necessary actions. 8. What do you feel is the most important aspect of leadership? Most aspect of leadership is to understand people you are leading and their needs- what they need, and then come up with appropriate way of solving these problems. 9. What are some of the significant changes your organization has undergone? The size of this organization has greatly increased over the past years. The organization has also increased its network with other organization in its effort to ensure reliable club funding and participating stakeholders. 10.   What role did leadership play in these changes? The leadership comes up with policies that will enhance this and then present them to the stakeholders as they seek support of the same. 11.   What methods do you use to resolve conflict or resistance to change? Method of solving conflict depends on what kind of conflict is at hand. There are some conflicts which are solved by the team leader, the board or both. Opinions from different members are also given priority so as to avoid conflicts. Dialogue is employed so as to solve many conflicts and rule of majority is also employed. 12. What advice would you give someone entering a leadership position for the first time? One should be ready to work extra hard than the people he/she is leading, understand their needs, including their weaknesses and strengths and be ready to listen to their opinions. Part II: Interview Summary According to this interview, it is clear that a leader is not a person who makes decisions and imposes them those he/she is leading. Success of a leader greatly depends on the relationship he/she has created with those he/she is leading. It is not enough to make decision on how to lead an organization, it also calls for great effort to sell these ideas to all stakeholders so as these decisions may be well implemented. This interview has also changed my view about this organization. I have come to understand that it is a big family where cooperation of all stakeholders is emphasized. All stakeholders are well informed of all activities going on in the organization. It is not a place where stakeholders receive policies from the top management; it is a place where all of them are involved in decision making e.g. in this organization, board members consist of representatives from all stakeholders. As the main decision making body, it is certain that decisions made will involve opinions from all stakeholders. This interview also enriched my knowledge about leadership. As a leader I should have ideas about how to handle a certain situation, but I should also make sure this is supported by the majority and also enrich these ideas from opinions of all stakeholders. In case I was in leadership position, I will consider others opinions very important for my success as a leader. I will equally respect all staff to this organization and support decisions made by the board.

Fast Food in School Cafeterias Essay

Buckley, Cara. â€Å"A Proposal to Separate Fast Food and Schools.† New York Times [New York] 20 04 2009, n. pag. Web 26 April. 2012. . The author explores research done that suggests that the closer a fast food restaurant is to a school, the higher is the obesity rate of the children there. Eric N. Gioia is a city councilman from Queens and he wants to ban any fast food restaurants from opening within a tenth of a mile from any schools. According to the report â€Å"The Effect of Fast Food Restaurants on Obesity† done by researchers from The University of California, Berkeley, and Columbia, when fast food restaurants open a quarter mile or more away from schools there is no change in the obesity rate, but when they are open within a tenth of a mile from schools obesity rates rise. The study also found that the daily caloric intake could increase 30 to 100 calories a day depending on the proximity of fast food chains to schools. The study even showed that pregnant women are more likely to gain a lot of weight of they live within a mile of fast food chains. This article from the New York Times explores the side of a ban on fast food restaurants near schools. Buckley did an in depth analysis on the ban of fast food near schools and what the effects of having fast food chains near schools has on the children. She used many reliable sources to support her research. The only problem that I see with this article is that it does not explore the other side of the argument enough. Overall I gained a lot of useful information from this article, and learned a lot of useful facts. Harris, Karen. â€Å"Fast Food in California’s High Schools: Popular, Profitable, Contributing to Teen Obesity?.† California Center for Health Improvement . n. page. Web. 26 April. 2012. This article talks about fast food in California High Schools and the reasons they are sold more than the healthy options. There are many schools that sell taco bell in school. The student’s say that these food options taste better. Also, the schools sell them ‘A la Carte’ so they can profit and use the money for school activities and such. This article also discusses how the school environment can take away from anything that parents try to teach their kids about healthy eating. Many school districts allow private corporations to advertise in their schools, promoting eating unhealthy food. This article gave me a good idea of what fast food actually in schools is like. It is obvious that kids are going to go for the more unhealthy option of the foods they have to choose from, because it tastes better, they can get it faster, and it is usually cheaper. This article was a good source of information but it even says in the beginning that the source of their data is a little bit unreliable because it is just the schools mailing in their information about what food they serve and not all schools reported their information. Over all this is a good source for basic information about fast food in schools, but not all of the data is reliable. Do fast-food chains cluster around schools? MSN.com. 26 April 2012 This article addresses the problem of having fast food restaurants located near schools, and says that the corporations do this strategically. This makes it very hard to eat healthy for kids when they are being tempted with cheap, quick food. This article says that nearly 80 percent of Chicago schools studied had at least one fast food restaurant within a half mile. It also discusses how when a child eats fast food they consume more calories fat and sugars than they would eat fruits and vegetables. Burger King wouldn’t answer any questions about the placement of their stores, and McDonalds denies that schools have anything to do with where they place their stores. This article is a lot like the first one that I read, but had more research into the amount of fast food restaurants in proximity to schools. I like  that they did the research in a city like Chicago, and it says that these findings are similar in other cities across the nation. This article could help me in my research because it shows that it is proven that fast food chains cluster around schools. Eisler, Peter, Blake Morrison, and Anthony DeBarros. â€Å"Fast-food standards for meat top those for school lunches .† USA Today. 9 12 2009: n. page. Web. 3 May. 2012. . In this article, the authors explore the fact that the meat we eat at schools does not go through the same standards that the meat served at fast food restaurants. The government is supplying schools with millions of pounds of beef and chicken that aren’t good enough for many fast food chains to serve. The authors say that the standards that Jack in the Box uses for its food is ten times more stringent than what the USDA sets for the meat served in schools. When it comes to chicken, schools are being supplied with thousands of tons of meat from old chickens that fast food restaurants don’t use. The standards are not the same, and that is very alarming. I really like this article because it is different from the other ones that I have read. It shows the downfalls of cafeteria food, instead of the bad things about fast food. It really opened my eyes that we never really know where our food comes from, and sometimes even when we think we are eating healthy we are consuming old, gross meat. This is extremely useful to my research because it shows the downfalls of the USDA and proves that school foods are not always better than fast food. Denver, Kusa. â€Å"‘Pink slime’ eliminated from fast food, but not school lunches .† USA Today. 09 03 2012: n. page. Web. 3 May. 2012. . This article talks about Pink Slime and how it is still being served in schools, but fast food restaurants have decided not to use that meat anymore. The U.S. Department of Agriculture told an online newspaper that it is buying 7 million more pounds of the Pink Slime to serve in school lunches across the country. But at the same time the USDA says that, â€Å"All USDA  ground beef purchases for the National School Lunch Program must meet the highest standards for food safety.† This slime is made of cow intestines and other by-products that we really don’t want to eat. This meat is more prone to E. Coli and salmonella. I definitely think this article is useful to me because it is yet another example of the food we are being served in schools. It is not held to the same standards that fast food chains hold their food to. I think the research used reliable sourced such as the USDA and the U.S. department of agriculture. Childhood obesity and obesity in general are some of the biggest problems facing the United States. We as a country are trying to educate everyone on how to eat properly and live a healthy life. We blame fast food chains for the obesity in our country, when in reality they are not the main problem. It is a culture change that is hard to wrap our heads around, and one that people don’t know how to deal with. The economy is bad, therefore we go for the cheaper food, and fast food chains are everywhere, and convenient. The food in schools should be held to a much higher standard than it is, and advertisers are targeting kids in schools and tempting them to eat unhealthy foods. There are many problems between schools and fast food. The proximity of a school to fast food restaurants has shown to have an impact on the weight of the children in the surrounding schools. This makes perfect sense to me because it makes it more convenient. Burger Kings always have signs about deals on burgers or fries. They are directly advertising to the young kids in those surrounding schools. The advertisers know that kids are tight on cash, and want to get their food quick. Some researchers say that there is no correlation between obesity and having fast food restaurants near schools, but I think there definitely is. If there is no McDonald’s right across the street from a school, those kids won’t have a choice of eating it and might make a better choice. I know that people should have the will power to say no and try and eat something healthier, but I believe that the government should be doing something to try and make it easier for Americans to live a healthy, after all shouldn’t the health of  their country be important to them? I think that laws should be passed against having fast food chains within a certain distance of schools, because that is just escalating the problem of obesity in America. Another link to schools and obesity is the advertising and availability of fast food in a school cafeteria. It is hard for a 12 year old to choose grilled chicken and broccoli over a cheeseburger when given a choice. Ads that show happy kids eating McDonalds are directly targeted at young kids, showing them that they will be happy if they eat fast food. Childhood obesity is on the rise and advertising in schools is a huge reason. It is ridiculous that schools allow this and even that the government doesn’t prevent it. Kids are victims in this situation because they have no say about what kinds of advertisements they are exposed to. You would think that the adults in this country would see this problem and try to fix it, but instead we just serve McDonald’s and Taco bell in the cafeteria instead of having delicious healthy options. It is so counter productive to teach kids about the food pyramid and tell them to be active and eat their fruits and veggies and then offer t hem fries and a hot dog. That is not fair, its almost like we are setting the children up for failure and obesity, exactly what we say we are trying to prevent. The most shocking thing that I found throughout my research was the lack of quality in the meat that is being served in school cafeterias. According to a few of the articles that I read fast food chains would not serve the quality of meat that the government is giving to schools. The USDA is supposed to be protecting us as consumers when in reality they are giving schools beef with pink slime and old chicken meat that fast food chains wouldn’t even serve. The meat that our children are eating is more likely to have E. Coli or salmonella. All the blame is being put on fast food chains for the unhealthy country we are becoming when in reality many school lunches are just as bad or worse for us than fast food. With all of this being said, fast food is having a huge impact on modern day schooling and our society in general. Schools are changing because now we have to make it part of the curriculum to teach children about healthy  eating and living, when in previous time periods that was the parent’s job. It has now become the school’s job because even the generation of parent’s isn’t living a healthy life. This can take away from teaching more important things to the curriculum such as math science and reading. Also, the schools can now be blamed for the rise in obesity because they are not always serving healthy foods, and they are allowing fast food chains into their cafeterias.

Acting like a lady

Acting like a lady Essay So You Want To Act Like a Lady?For years women have been waxing, plucking and beautifying themselves for one reason and one reason only; because they think that is beauty. A woman is only classified as a lady if she can walk, talk and dress the part. The way that society has viewed femininity has changed immensely over the past hundred years, but acting like a tomboy or, heaven forbid, being strong and independent is looked down upon in the eyes of men and other women. Certain standards of ladylike demeanor have become outdated in todays society, and women should be looked at as beautiful when strong and independent. But what defines a woman to be ladylike, and can it be defined as a single type? I believe that standards of beauty have changed, and standing out is what will get you ahead in society today. Stereotypes of the ideal female must be brought down to work on achieving inner beauty and internal happiness. Since the 1950s, women have been seen as very dainty and sensitive creatures who are meant to be silent partners to their mates. A womans place was in the home-cooking, cleaning and watching after her children. Women were to get up every morning and prepare lunches for their breadwinning husbands, as well as wake and dress the children for school, cook breakfast, do housework and have a hot meal on the table when her husband was to return home. Women have stepped down to their traditional roles as housewife and caretaker, and it has raised many issues in society today. It was considered a womans job to be a good cook and be a whiz with a broom, in fact, it is what made them so darn attractive. Times, they are a changing. In fact, the U.S Department of Labor states that in the year 2008, women will make up 48% of the work force. That means that more women will be going to college and getting and education, as well as heading out into the workforce to make a name for themselves. Being a lady also means dressing like a lady. But since when has the portrait of a woman relied on what she wore? I have been told all my life that high heels are a womans best friend, and a true treasure is finding just your shade of lipstick. The pain that women endure for a small amount of vanity will be forever a mystery to me. Hours spent in the bathroom with irons, curlers, pokers, prodders, waxes and powders, and for what? So you can pretend you enjoy it and wake up the next morning and do it all again. The first test in becoming ladylike lies in a womans outer appearance. Not long ago, it was considered beautiful to run around in tightly yanked corsets and ballroom gowns, but now we must wear high heels that look like some sort of torture device? Running late to the market in a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt is completely unacceptable, if you a true lady that is. I remember growing up watching reruns of shows like The Brady Bunch and The Wonder Years and in every episode the women were dressed in ridiculous looking dresses and jumpers. They never looked comfortable, and they sure as heck couldnt throw around the football! To find a woman in a pair of jeans and a do-rag was permitted only while working in the yard or cleaning the house. I grew up my entire life in a t-shirt, jeans and a pair of softball cleats, and I consider myself very much a lady. I would have much rather scored the winning run than play with my sisters Barbie bake oven, thats for sure. READ: Fears and Phobias EssayTo be a lady also means to act like a lady. This means no spitting, swearing, farting, cursing, hitting, name-calling or getting dirty. It is completely impossible for any one person to go their entire life without performing at least one, it not all of these acts, repeatedly. Why hide the fact that you just ate a medium pizza and then drank a 2 liter of Coke? Let out a little belch. And in someones unwritten laws of being a woman, it was decided that women must be dainty and sensitive to matters of decorum. I know that most men take comfort in the fact that they must provide for their wives and perform difficult tasks to show their manhood, but what about those few precious women who can get things done by themselves? Men are in charge of manual labor, heavy machinery and getting a little dirt underneath their fingernails. Because, we all know that dirt would never find its way into a ladys fingernail, or it would just be extremely hard to see under t heir pastel pink fingernail polish. To be a lady means to never to be one of the guys. And women participating in sports are completely out of the question. A woman wasnt allowed to play rough and be tough because they would never find a man, get married and have children (supposedly every womans fulfillment in life?) Women are meant to be the cheerleaders standing off to the side at a baseball game, looking adoringly into their little mirrored compact and asking who just scored a touchdown. Do men really find, ditsy, uneducated women attractive? Do they really want a woman to rely on their every move and hang on their every whim? Empowered women, to me, are the epitome of beauty, and if that means ripping a worm in half, sticking it on the hook and catching dinner, then so be it. Up until just recently, women have been content being looked down upon by powerful men in society, but in my eyes, for gender inequality to go on any longer would be a travesty. Women today need to realize that they no longer need to fit some ridiculous cookie-cutter mold that insecure men have formed for them. It infuriates me that at one time, women werent allowed to play professional sports, let alone vote! It all turned around though, just eighty five years ago when women were allowed into the voters booth. To think that resources were once unobtainable to the women before me, only motivates me to take advantage of all I can in the time that I have here on earth.

Relations Between Globalization and Migration Essay

Relations Between Globalization and Migration - Essay Example The research project will collect data from the secondary sources and analyze the data according in order to come up with a conclusion. Globalization is referred to as the increasing integration and interaction of countries which has seen the decreasing significance of national borders. It is an economic, cultural, political, and environmental integration but there has been more focus on the economic integrations. Globalization and migration have been shown to be two of the most dynamic global socio-political trends in the present world. They are both highly interacted in the sense that one drives the other. Globalization has been shown to have an effect on the current migration situation in the world and has created conditions and situations which are increasing the pressure and creating a desire for migration. It is estimated that there are about 150 million people who live outside their containers in the world and how have been forced out of their homes due to economic consequences that have been created by the globalised economy. It has been shown that as s result of the increase rate for migration, there has be en pressure that has been exerted on some areas which are thought to have economic viability as compared to others. There has been an effected on the agrarian and the industrial system of the world as labor migrates in and out of the productive areas. (Benarl 2000, p. 67) Introduction The Caribbean Region is located in America. It is made up of many small states which are independent. It has a similar climate in all the states which makes it agricultural practices to be the same. The Caribbean region is made up of different states including Antigua, Bahamas, Barbados, Dominion, Cuba, Costa Rica, Haiti, Nicaragua, and others. One of the common features of the Caribbean region has been uniformity in crop production where the climate favors the production of bananas and sugar. The two crops are a common future of the region. (Australian Government, 2008; CIDA, 2008) Globalization is the growth of economic integration of various societies in the word and the process has touched all the spheres of life including the Caribbean region. The agricultural sector of the Caribbean region has been affected by the growth wave of globalization. The primary product of the region which is bananas and sugar have been the two important export crops for the region and the leading earners of foreign exchange for the region. The sectors have also provided a lot of employment for the region. The increasing globalized world has led to a lot of challenges in the two key crops. The challenges have been due to the Lome Convention that was signed in 2000. The Lome convention first signed in 1975 gives preferential prices for the entire agricultural product from the ACP countries that are exposing to the EU. Globalization manifested in the Caribbean agricultural region in two ways. First there was removal for farm subsided and second there was liberalization of the impor t regime. Therefore the wave of globalization has been impacting negative in the region given there disadvantaged position due to their limited size and due to the depreciation of their currencies. Therefore the Lome convention was made in order to give those times to organize their agricultural secto

Compensation Management Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Compensation Management - Coursework Example Considering the FMLA or Family and medical leave act, it can be said that it is another very important lawsuit in the US federal Law. It enables the employees of an organization to take paid leave for family and medical reasons having complete job security during leave. The group health insurance will also continue under same terms and conditions as if the employee had not gone on leave. Knowing about FMLA and all of its clauses is very critical to know because with this information employees will be aware of their leave rights. Moreover, they may apply for leave when necessary staying within the clauses of eligibility of FMLA. Moving forward to COBRA, â€Å"The consolidated omnibus budget reconciliation Act† is a federal law that enables workers to get health benefits for a period of time in which they may have lost their job (voluntary or involuntary), worked lesser number of hours, death case, divorce or facing issues in transition between jobs. COBRA also benefits employees of an organization having 20 or more employees where, they can extend their group health plans for an extended period, otherwise it could have ended (Mathis, Jackson, & Valentine, 2013). COBRA enables employees to elect their continuation of health plan and employers are also required to put up a notice for the cause.  COBRA is very integral lawsuit in health and insurance and it benefits every common man of any organization. Its knowledge and application is necessary not only as an employee but as an employer too. The reason behind this is that COBRA can benefit through group health plans and during any tough times. Anyone can be able to apply for the optional benefits knowing the eligibility criteria of

Analysis of Strategic Marketing Planning Literature review

Analysis of Strategic Marketing Planning - Literature review Example Based on Levitt's (1983) contribution, technology is one of the factors which affects firms to globalize their strategy (p.92). The other factor is cultural, that is consumer homogeneity (p. 96). It means that the preferences and tastes of consumers are becoming the same around the globe. The main aspect here is that communication (e.g. internet, cable television) is in the hands of normal people because through technology its costs have been reduced. Consequently, people around the world want all the things they have watched, heard and experienced via new technologies. So it means that the firms hast to decide if it will standardize or customize its product according to the market they penetrate. Based on the proposal of Levitt (1983) and Douglas and Craig (1991), if the firms consider themselves as a global player, they would opt for standardization of products because of consumer homogeneity. According to Douglas and Craig (1991) contribution, the competitive pressure (p.51) in the global market forces firms to defend their market position. Rivals are no more only in the domestic markets but in all markets around the world; consequently, firms have to be around the globe fighting with their competitors. In this situation, firms have to control their internal factors related to Resource-based View.

Contract and employment agreement Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Contract and employment agreement - Essay Example His work was reviewed and at one time, he was told to proofread his work. This means there indeed was an implied contract that meant Barnes was an employee to the company. Since Barnes was discharged, it should be proven that the termination does not amount to wrongful discharge, as the claims by the company’s vice president were informal. Hawk also points out fraudulent inducement, which indeed is exhibited when the company requests Barnes not to resign for another company, and that he might be promoted. Pentrix’s main aim is to keep highly skilled personnel within the company. Diana Gagnon in response to the question, ‘If you were investigating whether Barnes could successfully sue Pentrix, what information would you want to know?’ says she would need several pieces of information to know if Barnes could successfully sue Pentrix. She gives these pieces as; Barnes past performance reviews, copies of the employee handbooks and his signature page, the validi ty of the rumor as stated by Olga Svetlana with regard to the leaked information, and the discharge of the employees. While other points mentioned here may not be substantial, whether the rumor stated by the company’s vice chancellor on the leaking of information is worth an investigation to determine whether it was true or not, and as a result, whether Barnes can successfully sue.

Discrimination in the Workforce Problem-Resolution Essay

Discrimination in the Workforce Problem-Resolution - Essay Example Now let us see what may be the goal to be formulated by the leader to achieve a better result where the problem of discrimination arises. AIM/GOAL The best way to combat workplace discrimination is to prevent it from happening in the first place. So the first and foremost aim or goal should be always ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. Henry Kissinger US diplomat & scholar; national security advisor 1969-1975; Secretary of State 1973-1977; Nobel Prize in Peace 1973 3Solution for the discrimination of the workforce revolving around the elimination of the so called discrimination of work force in the workplace. OBJECTIVE It is vital for any organization to formulate the objectives to attain the above said goals.The desired objectives should be, 1. To achieve a change in someone's life and to improve their life opportunities, 2. To keep an accelerate quality of life for someone as long as possible in the face of infirmity and adversity, 3. To keep people safe from harm and harming themselves to others. (2) To achieve these objectives which are aim to eradicate the discrimination of workforce in the workplace some strategies must be brought in. STRATEGIES 1. To educate and make the leaders and the workers aware of their rights and...But the employer or leader is the sole and prime body to prevent such inactivity right before the outburst of the crisis for the well being of his dependents and also for the benefit of the company. As Henry Kissinger (1) the task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been. So for a leader it is import display varied leadership styles according to the demands of the diverse situations. To prevent the problems like discrimination of workforce and safe guard the interest of the employees the leader has to acquire the tactics like vision, strategy, communication, buy-in, motivation, empowerment etc. Besides he has to plan an overall goal to achieve the thriving end and also he must have precise objectives to gain this goal. Now let us see what may be the goal to be formulated by the leader to achieve a better result where the problem of discrimination arises. 3. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC),(2004) in Annual Federal Sector EXCEL Program for Government Employees, Managers, and Union Officials from August 30 to September 2, 2004 in Las Vegas, Nevada. disability. A strong prevention program helps employers comply with the law and breaks down barriers to employment opportunities.

Criminal Cases in Health Care Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Criminal Cases in Health Care - Research Paper Example Similarly, the HIPAA laws sets the standards that oversee the safety of electronic data routinely collected from patients whenever they visit hospitals (McGee, 2014). In case of HIPAA violations, the healthcare provider in question is routinely stripped of his or her practicing license and fired from his or her place of work. Prosecution by the related authorities should then follow this and in case the accused is guilty, he or she should either be fined or imprisoned for a given duration of time (Pozgar, 2014). In as much as hospitals are not to blame in case of such an occurrence, the bodies that execute such laws occasionally fine hospitals as the event took place under their watch. The administrator should always make sure that information is accessed within the facility and by the relevant personnel. Ideally, corporate compliance would help in such situations, as hospitals would ensure that they block all the avenues through which patient data would leak, hence averting any potential

Investigatory Project Essay Example for Free

Investigatory Project Essay This investigatory project is to be conducted to study the feasibility of Kalamansi (Citrus Microcarpa Bunge), Oregano leaves (Coleus aromaticus Benth.) and Kakawate leaves (Gliricidia sepium (Jacq.) Steud.) as mosquito repellant lotion. As of today it is not only dengue virus, there is a new disease called chikungunya virus that is anarthropod-borne virus, of the genus Alphavirus, that is transmitted to humans by virus-carrying Aedes mosquitoes. There have been recent breakouts of chikungunya associated with severe illness. It can cause death for many people. We all need a repel to protect ourselves from mosquitoes so this study is conducted to help people prevent these mosquitoes and its viruses by simply using Kalamansi, Oregano leaves and Kakawate leaves mosquito repelling lotion. Kakawate’s insecticidal study showed nematicidal activity against Meloidogyne incognita nematode with 60% mortality; mosquito repellent activity against Aedes aegypti with maximum 78% repellency (http://www.stuartxchange.com/Kakawati.html) Kalamansi have linalool that is used as insecticide (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linalool) in Oregano, the oil was insecticidal to white termites It was more active than synthetic insecticides, (http://www.stuartxchange.com/Oregano.html) Mosquitoes can carry deadly diseases that cause thousands of illnesses and deaths each year. With the increase in international travel, no one is immune to mosquito-borne diseases. (http://www.mosquitomagnet.com/advice/mosquito-info/mosquito-borne-diseases) The researcher wants to prove that Kalamansi (Citrus Microcarpa Bunge), Oregano leaves (Coleus aromaticus Benth.) and Kakawate leaves (Gliricidia sepium (Jacq.) Steud.) can be used as lotion in repelling mosquitoes.

Information System In Allied Bank

Information System In Allied Bank Allied bank was the first bank to be established in Pakistan. It started out in Lahore by the name Australasia Bank before independence in 1942; was renamed Allied Bank of Pakistan Limited in 1974 and then Allied Bank Limited in 2005. Allied Bank was the first Muslim bank to have been established in Pakistan. Established in December 1942 as the Australasia Bank in Lahore with a paid-up share capital of Rs. 0.12 million under the Chairmanship of Khawaja Bashir Bux, the Bank attracted deposits equivalent to Rs. 0.431 million in its first eighteen months of business. Today, with its existence of over 60 years, the Bank has built itself a foundation with a strong equity, assets and deposit base. At the time, the Banks total assets amounted to Rs. 0.572 million. Today, Allied Banks paid up Capital Reserves amount to Rs. 10.5 billion, deposits exceed Rs. 143 billion and total assets equal Rs. 170 billion. It offers universal banking services, while placing major emphasis on retail banking. The Bank also has the largest network of over 800 online branches in Pakistan and offers various technology-based products and services to its diverse clientele. Vision: To become a dynamic and efficient bank providing integrated solutions and the first choice of bank for all customers. Mission: To provide high tech innovative solutions to meet customer requirements To create sustainable value through growth, efficiency and diversity for all stake holders To provide a challenging work environment, and reward dedicated team members To play a proactive role in contributing towards the society Values: Integrity Excellence in service High performance Innovation and growth Areas of Business: Allied bank is operating in all major cities of Pakistan. It has a network of 700 branches. Information Systems at Allied Bank Limited Information systems used at ABL differ from department to department and complete specifications of systems used in Customer Retail Banking Department will be mentioned in the later part of the report however, the IS used in Allied bank serves the common purpose of faster communication between all stake holders, updating of transactions process on daily basis, provision of better customer service, faster execution of data, easier access and communication to the central branch and other branches countrywide etc. However, Allied Bank used manual systems before 2002. The reasons for making the shift to automated information systems are summarized below: The need for converting from manual to automated systems: Personnel at Allied Bank are of the view that both manual and automated systems are effective ways of message entry and transmission but manual data systems have certain cons as compared to their counterpart the automated data systems. Manual data systems are slow and tedious as compared to automated systems. Moreover, there are more chances of human error occurring in the usage of manual systems as compared to automated systems and this error removing is crucial to the efficient functioning of the Allied Bank. Moreover, manual data systems are less secure and tampering with data is possible via their use and to minimize that risk Allied bank shifted to the use of automated Data systems in 2002. Moreover, Mr. Shahzad Shahid, Product Manager-Liabilities, was of the view that this change will result in cost reduction in the long run. Management Information System used at ABL The MIS used at Allied bank Limited is Oracle Database 10g. Oracle Data base 10g has completely transformed the outlook and operations of ABL. It has transformed the structure such that now ABLs IS does not consist of fragmented machineries working individually to attain goals but they now function as a fused collection of servers, storage devices, and systems to meet the changing processing needs of ABL. This resulted in dramatic cost reduction, overall efficiency and enhancement in the quality of customer service. It has also reduced hardware costs by efficient networking and amalgamating of functions performed by various servers and systems. Cost reduction also took place because Oracle 10g eliminated the need for the purchases and upgrading of management softwares and tools and third party interventions as it was a complete management solution in itself. Oracle 10g also enabled Allied Bank Limited in efficient and wider data base storage, high and faster accessibility of data, faster performance, secure data transferring and cheaper application development. Salient features of Oracle 10g from which ABL is benefiting from are described below in great detail:  [1]   Oracle 10g served as a very attractive investment for Allied Bank Limited as it cut down significant costs of Allied Bank on hardware because Oracle 10g provide the technology of Oracle Real Application Clusters which enabled the creation of communication clusters via use of just 3-4 PCs which become more easier to administer and run and are more efficient as compared to functioning of sole systems. Oracle 10g also enabled Allied Bank to cut down its costs on storage devices which prove to be a big cost for banks to store humongous amounts of daily transactions and data. However, this problem was solved by the use of Oracles automatic storage management which not only enabled the pooling of PCs but also enabled pooling of storage devices to the communication cluster as per required. This choice of addition of storage devices to clusters made the data transformation, collection and storage cheaper, easier and efficient. Oracle 10g has enabled Allied bank to save on its database management costs as its database administration is either completely automatic or much uncomplicated. This has enabled Allied bank to save its costs on the training of new database managers. Oracle 10g has its own cluster administration softwares which monitor, manage the performance of clusters and thus eliminates the needs for extra utility and program softwares. Oracle uses Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control and Management Packs to monitor clusters performance efficiently. Oracle 10g uses GUI tools and utilities for increasing the power and efficiency of the clusters. Oracle 10g also introduces self-administration in the databases through use of programs such as Automatic Storage Management, Automatic Memory Management, Automatic Optimizer Statistics Collection, Automatic Workload Repository, Automatic Database Diagnostics Monitor, Automatic SQL Tuning, Segment Advisor, Automatic Workload Management, Automatic Disk-Based Backup and Recovery to meet the changing processing, data transforming and storing demands. Thus, Allied Bank has benefited greatly from its shift from Manual systems to the automated Oracle 10g system. The benefits reaped are unparalleled in terms of cost reduction, efficiency, data disseminating and decision making. Allied Bank in addition to the use of Oracle 10g uses softwares such as Unibank, however it is planning to change its banking software from Unibank to Temenos t-24 in the mid of 2010. Shift from Unibank to Temenos T-24 When Allied bank shifted to automated Information Systems in 2002, it started using softwares such as UNIBANK .This software held answers to the management of all the chaos created by the use of manual systems.  [2]  Unibank was a branch centric cash management software which held answers to the banking problems of the time thus it was called the core banking solution. Unibank gave faster and safe electronic access to banking transactions and functions. Unibank enabled Allied Bank to: Evaluate the latest record of all account transactions taking place in the branch Exchange information with other departments of the branch such as finance and accounting Monitoring and management of deposits and withdrawals simultaneously Electronic transfer of data from one branch to another Provision of e-statements for the employees making their jobs easier. Secure data control and transfer. Electronic monitoring and management of employee payrolls Need for Temenos T-24 Although Unibank seemed to be the answer to all the banking problems at that time however due to changing technological trends, higher uncertainty in the environment, shift towards centralized functioning and policies, Allied Bank has decided to shift from Unibank to Temenos T-24. The reason being that, Unibank was branch centric software and due to this reason data could be lost or misplaced if server crashed at any particular branch. Moreover, considering the uncertain political situation in Pakistan, there was high possibility of raids and fires and due to this the threat of data loss was eminent thus a shift is being planned and implemented from Unibank to Temenos T-24 as we speak. This shift will be implemented in all the branches countrywide within a period of 6 months. The reason for shifting to Temenos T-24 is that it is centralized software with the central server in Kashmir Road Branch in Lahore. This central server acts as a hub and daily transmissions are not only recorded in branches but in the central hub too, thus making the information more secure. Moreover, designated user ids/passwords, bio-metric systems add to the security of information. All the transactions and operation take place in real time. Policies are designed at the central server in Lahore and are applicable to all the branches country wide thus making the operations uniform and consistent in all the branches.  [3]   Temenos T-24 in addition to providing all the functions that Unibank provided, offers a more secure platform and new and efficient data bases. Moreover, Temenos T-24 is partners with Microsoft and has adopted MS platform to make the functioning of the software more user-friendly and easy. Moreover, one of the reasons for adopting Temenos T24 by ABL is that its cost of owner ship is very cheap as compared to the benefits it provides. Moreover, it uses established programs such as HTTP, XML so that functioning it not an entirely new experience but adds on to the previous knowledge of the employees. Moreover, it has an edge over Unibank as it eliminates the need for end-of-day banking and is a true 24/7 banking system, which heaves away burden from the employees and enables employees and customers to access updated information at all times. Department: Commercial and Retail Banking Overview The Commercial Retail Banking Group (CRBG) offers a variety of asset and liability-based retail products to its customers. The Groups main focus has been on introducing various financing and investment products for its valuable clients, and contributing to the steady growth of the financial industry. CRBG consists of 4 geographic groups and is further divided across 27 regions in Pakistan. Each region is responsible for providing a quality service to its own customer-base. In recent years, the Group has been working to find alternate ways to bank for customers, and has installed more ATMs to its already strong and largest ATM network. The department offers the following product and services to its customers Internet Banking Online Banking Profit Rates ATM Network Unclaimed Deposits Deposit Account SME Agriculture Other Services Corporate Leasing The department has a total of 6000 employees all over Pakistan, the information flow and the data transfer rate thus is very high and poses a great challenge for the Information System of the department to maintain and keep it secure. Functional Hierarchy of the Department Technical specifications Allied Bank after its privatization has been following a pro I.T policy. The switch from the manual system to a more automated Information System requires certain infrastructure (PCs, Softwares etc) and ABL in this regard didnt compromise on quality; they have a contract with Digital World Pakistan Pvt. Ltd. (DWP) to provide state of the art computers with the best softwares to run the M.I.S system. The CRBG dept of ABL has the following I.T infrastructure: Hardware Specifications Personal computers- 14 in total Consisting of 9 desktop PCs and 5 laptops Desktop PCs Specs: Intel Pentium 4 2.5ghz, 512MB RAM, 80 GB hard-disk Laptop PCs Specifications: Intel Dual Core2 2Ghz, 2gb RAM, 160GB Hard-disk HP Printers 3 in total 2 HP LaserJet 1010 Colored Printers, 1 HP Desk-jet Black and white printer HP Digital Scanner IBM P5 Mainframe Server Specifications: Four 1.65GHz 64-bit POWER5 processors L2 cache: 1.9MB (2-way); 3.8MB (4-way) L3 cache: 36MB (2-way); 72MB (4-way) 32GB of 266MHz DDR1 memory Two 10/100/1000 Ethernet ports Optional 2 Gigabit Fibre Channel, 10 Gigabit Ethernet and 4x InfiniBand ® adapters Two USB, two HMC and two system ports Software Specifications Application Software CRBG department Employees uses the following application softwares; Microsoft Office 2007 2010 McAfee Anti-Virus 2010 Adobe Reader 8 System Software The departments computers were found to be using the following system softwares; Operating System: Windows XP for Desk-top PCs and Windows Vista for the Laptops. Windows NT server for mainframe server. Core Banking Solution The software currently in use is UNIBANK, however T24 has been introduced in one branch in LAHORE. Query Software ABL employees generate queries through these softwares, for example if I want to view a customers demographics I will put in a query in the Discoverer Viewer which will then seek the data from the Central Database Discoverer Viewer It is just for viewing of data, Discoverer PLUS The queries here can even be edited and employees have limited access to this software Network Type Allied bank is using the client/server network because the employees easily share the data and its cheaper than others and maintainable. All the data is saved in Central Database (CBS) and employees can easily access it. This type of computing system provides an easy access and efficient flow of data, which increase the functionality of organization. End-User and training In this era of cut-throat competition and diminishing profit margins Banks are becoming more lean, service oriented and efficient. As mentioned before Banks in order to keep this trend of efficiency going upward are adopting new information systems and updating the existing ones however one barrier to this are the employees, there is already a shortage of computer literate people in Pakistan and for this reason when new softwares or In our case a new CORE BANKNG SOLUTION is introduced it requires rigorous training session to train the employees so that they are able to use the software. The effectiveness of core banking systems is directly related to the skills and knowledge of those operating them; therefore training is an essential investment and not an expense. The training session have been divided into three stages When we talk of the end user its the employees themselves here, they use the information available and make different queries accordingly as mentioned before currently the Core Banking Solution (CBS) namely Unibank is being change to Temenos and this requires that the support and operations staff be trained to use this CBS. For this reason different training sessions have been organized by the Bank and the Temenos technical team itself. Apart from this Temenos, to support the contracted BANKS, also provides the following courses to their employees: Open Training Courses Bespoke Training courses End User Training (EUT) Training consultancy for design and development of EUT courses eLearning and Computer Based Training (CBT) The Train the Trainer approach The benefits of attending these training programs include dedicated premises and training equipment, and the added advantage of minimizing interruptions for the duration of training course. Information Intakes and Flow CRBG has information flow daily from all over Pakistan, the department has the responsibility to effectively manage the liabilities of the Bank. The information accessible by this department through the Information system includes: Daily Monitoring of Deposits The deposits intakes and off takes during the day Maintaining a minimum balance of funds ATM monitoring Monitoring the downtime of each ATM Monitoring which area has a consistent network/server issues Customer Demographics ABLs information system is linked to NADRAs system for verification of Customers IDs CRBG has access to all the information of its customers and employees as it is responsible for managing the liabilities section Account Opening Run Rate The accounts opened each day along with their balances Employee Check in Check out time Through monitoring of this data employee efficiency can also be measured. Query Regarding an Employee Employee Record Information Flow We observe TRANSACTION PROCESSING SYSTEM functional in this department apart from the Office Automation Systems, all the activities and transactions done throughout the chain of command in this department is recorded first at the Branch level then after EODs (End of Day) are Run all the data of that days transactions are transferred to the ORACLE CENTRAL DATABASE located in ABL HEAD-QUARTERS LAHORE. Real-time Monitoring is being done of this information flow by the department, once the days information is saved in the ORACLE CENTRAL DATABASE in their respected fields and tables, it can be accessed through the DISCOVERER VIEWER/PLUS Software the next day by creating a query for it. Issues with the Information System To function effectively as an interacting, interrelated, and interdependent feeDatabase Administratorck tool for management and staff, MIS must be useable. The five elements of a useable MIS system are: timeliness, accuracy, consistency, completeness, and relevance. The usefulness of MIS is hindered whenever one or more of these elements are compromised. The IS at Allied Bank, although effective to a great extent, has certain weaknesses as we found out: From a branch centered approach, the bank has moved to a centralized system. Transactions at the branches, previously used to be stored and processed at the branches only. It was only at the day end, that all data and information was relayed to the head office. Now, however, this practice has changed. Branches only facilitate interactions with customers, whereas the information is directly send to the head office and is processed there in real time. The problem with this is the time lag that results subsequently. Data flow from the point of transaction to the head office, back to the point of transaction is a longer and hence a slower process. Also the security procedures inbuilt in the new software, Temenos, make processing slower. In the new IS, cash transactions taking place go from a Temenos account head to a buffer account and then to the customers account. Previously, the cash transactions were directly debited/ credited to the customer account. Buffer accounts created, although increase the overall security; make the processing of data slower. Too much reliance on information systems also means that in the scenario when server crashes down, or gets hanged, banking transactions will be completely disrupted. Security Measures and Backup One of the major concerns of organizations using information technology to carry out their business processes is how to secure the data against internal and external threats. With modern advancements, mitigating information security threats has become an ongoing battle. Viruses, worms, hacker attacks, spam, phishing, and instant messaging attacks are just some of the problems. Data bank faces risk of security breaches not only at the hands of customers and outsiders, but also from the employees working within the organization. Therefore it is highly crucial to build security parameters to detect whatsoever threats there might be and also to ensure data safety. At Allied Bank, data security is the thing that cannot be compromised at all. For this reason, the MIS department has taken stringent measures to ensure data security. The Corporate and Retail Department which deals primarily in confidential data of bank customers has taken numerous steps to avert security threats. Employees have individual Ids and passwords that they use to log-in to the system database. But this does not mean that all the employees have same access to the data and information. There are proper hierarchy levels: which implies that there are gatekeepers at each level, supervising who access what data! Password protection is there to prevent just everybody from viewing confidential data. Moreover, Allied Bank uses SSL certified encryption to secure its data channels. SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) is the standard security technology for establishing an encrypted link between a web server and a browser. This link ensures that all data passed between the web server and browsers remain private and integral. SSL is an industry standard and is used in the protection of online transactions with customers. Encryption of data exchanged by customers and the bank ensures that data security, even if breached on its way, will make decrypting and understanding the data difficult. Anti-virus and anti-spam packages like McAfee Anti-Virus are also installed to secure data against viruses, spam, etc. There is also a Disaster Recovery System in place, in case of fire, raids, and other unforeseen and unexpected events. The backups are stored at both hot and cold sites. The head office in Lahore is the hot site. It is the central database of Allied Bank where all the transactions taking place in the eight hundred or so branches are recorded and updated on a real time basis. The cold sites are at the twenty seven regional offices all over Pakistan. These cold sites are updated at appropriate intervals, on a weekly basis sometimes. In accordance with the State Bank of Pakistan regulation, data and information of three years is stored and maintained at these cold sites. Also, USBs are widely used as potable storage devices. Future Plans Allied bank is planning to replace the current Core Business Solution Uni Bank with Temenos. This transformation is in its phase I. The software is being tested in one branch near the Head Office in Lahore. This testing phase will end on June 30th. Training of employees is being conducted and further more sessions are in the pipeline Allied bank plans to introduce Temenos in 107 branches out of the whole network of 800 braches within six months. Implementation in further branches is still unplanned. Allied Bank has opened its branch in Kashmir and plans to extend its network and reach in the remote areas of the country. Recommendations The disaster recovery system at Allied Bank is inappropriate to bear the load of 800 branches. There is one common hot site of all the branches at the Head Office and cold sites at the regional offices, 27 in number. But we feel that these backups are too less, keeping the current security scenario in view where banks have even been raided and burned by mobs. Therefore the backups should be set up at places other than the bank branches. The training period for a batch of 50 people is three weeks on average. We feel that this is insufficient as the new banking system Temenos has far complex procedures as the user interface is not friendly. Proper temperature controls are needed for the server to operate efficiently. We feel that the current infrastructure is insufficient to support the system. References http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/topics/0,295493,sid14_tax299811,00.html http://tldp.org/HOWTO/SSL-Certificates-HOWTO/x64.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disaster_recovery http://info.ssl.com/article.aspx?id=10241 http://www.occ.treas.gov/handbook/mis.pdf http://www.temenos.com http://www.abl.com.pk http://www.oracle.com

Elements of Fiction :: essays research papers

Elements of Fiction   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, is consider to be a fine example of American Literature. The book raised a lot of controversy, it was publish after the Civil War, and it talked about the reality of America and its society. Some of the Themes of the story are, Moral and Social Maturation, Society’s Hypocrisy, and freedom through social exclusion. At the opening of the novel, Tom is engaged in and is generally the organizer of childhood pranks and make-believe games. As the novel progresses, these initially consequence-free childish games begin to take on more and more gravity. Tom begins to lead himself, Joe Harper, Huck, and, Becky Thatcher into increasingly dangerous situations. He also finds himself in predicaments where he must put his concern for others above his concern for himself, such as when he takes Becky's punishment and when he testifies at Injun Joe's trial. As Tom begins to take initiative to help others instea d of himself, he shows his increasing maturity, competence, and moral integrity. Tom's adventures to Jackson's Island and McDougal's Cave take him away from society. These symbolic removals help to prepare him to return to the village in a new, more adult relationship to the community. Though early on Tom looks up to Huck as much older and wiser, by the end of the novel Tom's maturity has surpassed Huck's. Tom's personal growth is evident in his insistence, in the face of Huck's desire to flee all social constraints, that Huck stay with the Widow Douglas and become civilized. Twain complicates Tom's position on the border between childhood and adulthood by ridiculing and criticizing the values and practices of the adult world toward which Tom is heading. Twain's harshest satire exposes the hypocrisy and often the essential childishness of social institutions such as school, church, and the law, as well as public opinion. He also mocks individuals, although when doing so he tends to be less biting and focuses on flaws of character that we understand to be universa l. Twain shows that social authority does not always operate on wise, sound, or consistent principles and that institutions fall prey to the same kinds of mistakes that individuals do. In his depiction of families, Twain shows parental authority and constraint balanced by parental love and indulgence. Though the Widow attempts to restrain and punish Tom, Aunt Polly always goes soft because of her love for her nephew.

Herman Melville: The Great American Writer :: Biography Biographies Essays

Herman Melville: The Great American Writer Everyone has heard of the novel Moby Dick at some point in their educational career, yet few know much about the life of its author. Herman Melville , the author of Moby Dick had an interesting life. Throughout his life he had many ups and downs. He was born on August 1, 1819 to a wealthy family that owned their own export business. This privileged life was short lived when Allen Melville, Herman's father, died in 1832. This was two years after the family business had gone under. Through this early example of a high and low in Melville's life you can see that his roller coaster like life was just beginning. In his writing you can see the three different stages that he had in his life. There are three stages to Herman Melville's life they are adventuresome young writer, mildly popular author, and finally a depressed old man who changed his entire style of writing. (Columbia 1, Padilla 1-2) Melville's first novels come from his imagination and were inspired by trips that he took across the sea as a young man.Melville had a stint on a boat headed to Liverpool from New York in 1839, yet only spent one summer on it because he had to come home and help his family out with their monetary situation.Finally in 1841, Melville found his way back to adventure and sailing.He headed out to the South Seas on the Acushnet.On this voyage it is said that Melville and one of his shipmates abandoned ship and were held by a group of cannibals in the French Polynesia.This experience led him to write his first novel that was not published until 1846, Typee.It was named after the Typee people who Melville had supposedly lived with for four months; however, ship records show that he was on another ship only a month after he had supposedly been with the Typee.Melville's next trip that inspired his second novel was on the Lucy Ann, a ship that was sailing to Tahiti.The novel Tahiti and Omoo, wr itten in 1846, 1847 respectively, are about Tahitian jails and revolts against the ship owners in Tahiti.These things never actually happened to Melville although his readers thought that they did.Melville was one of those authors who believed that bending the truth to make a great story was well worth it and his creative right.

Theodore Roethkes Root Cellar Essay -- Root Cellar Theodore Roethke E

Theodore Roethke's "Root Cellar"   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Theodore Roethke was raised in Michigan, where cities and towns are woven with lakes, streams, and rivers. This atmosphere gave Roethke a â€Å"mystical reverence for nature,† (McMichael, 1615) and allowed him to take a grotesque image and transform it into natural magnificence. A great example of this is Roethke’s poem â€Å"Root Cellar.† The poem describes a cellar, which most people would consider to be a death-baring, cold place. Instead, Roethke gives the dungeon life and enchantment. The first line gives the reader an idea that the cellar is awake. In the second line, there is a description of the plants left in numerous boxes that search for a bit of light to help them continue their existence. The plants’ roots hanging from the crates that are packed into the small space are portrayed in the third, fourth and fifth lines. The odor of the cellar is acknowledged in the sixth line. The seventh line describes the aging of the roots. The eighth line describes the stems of the plants and gives them more dimensions. The ninth line depicts the floor’s slipperiness. The tenth and eleventh lines describe how everything in the cellar was trying to hold on to their life for as long as possible. Roethke’s ability of creating imagery in this poem lets the reader visualize every aspect of the cellar.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Roethke uses a few different literary modes to help create his imagery. Metaphor and similes are figures of speech in which a word or phrase tha...

The Host Chapter 21: Named

I kept tight to Jeb's side, a little in front of him. I wanted to be as far as possible from the two men following us. Jamie walked somewhere in the middle, not sure of where he wanted to be. I wasn't able to concentrate much on the rest of Jeb's tour. My attention was not focused on the second set of gardens he led me through-one with corn growing waist-high in the blistering heat of the brilliant mirrors-or the wide but low-ceilinged cavern he called the â€Å"rec room.† That one was pitch-black and deep underground, but he told me they brought in lights when they wanted to play. The word play didn't make sense to me, not here in this group of tense, angry survivors, but I didn't ask him to explain. There was more water here, a tiny, noxiously sulfurous spring that Jeb said they sometimes used as a second latrine because it was no good for drinking. My attention was divided between the men walking behind us and the boy at my side. Ian and the doctor did mind their manners surprisingly well. No one attacked me from behind-though I thought my eyes might get lodged in the back of my head from trying to see if they were about to. They just followed quietly, sometimes talking to each other in low voices. Their comments revolved around names I didn't know and nicknames for places and things that might or might not have been inside these caves. I couldn't understand any of it. Jamie said nothing, but he looked at me a lot. When I wasn't trying to keep an eye on the others, I was often peeking at him, too. This left little time to admire the things Jeb showed me, but he didn't seem to notice my preoccupations. Some of the tunnels were very long-the distances hidden beneath the ground here were mind-boggling. Often they were pitch-black, but Jeb and the others never so much as paused, clearly familiar with their whereabouts and long since accustomed to traveling in darkness. It was harder for me than it was when Jeb and I were alone. In the dark, every noise sounded like an attack. Even the doctor's and Ian's casual chatter seemed like a cover for some nefarious move. Paranoid, Melanie commented. If that's what it takes to keep us alive, so be it. I wish you would pay more attention to Uncle Jeb. This is fascinating. Do what you want with your time. I can only hear and see what you hear and see, Wanderer, she told me. Then she changed the subject. Jamie looks okay, don't you think? Not too unhappy. He looks†¦ wary. We were just coming into some light after the longest trek so far in the humid blackness. â€Å"This here is the southernmost spur of the tube system,† Jeb explained as we walked. â€Å"Not super convenient, but it gets good light all day long. That's why we made it the hospital wing. This is where Doc does his thing.† The moment Jeb announced where we were, my body froze and my joints locked; I skidded to a halt, my feet planted against the rock floor. My eyes, wide with terror, flickered between Jeb's face and the face of the doctor. Had this all been a ruse, then? Wait for stubborn Jared to be out of the picture and then lure me back here? I couldn't believe I'd walked to this place under my own power. How stupid I was! Melanie was just as aghast. We might as well have gift-wrapped ourselves for them! They stared back at me, Jeb expressionless, the doctor looking as surprised as I felt-though not as horrified. I would have flinched, ripped myself away from the touch of a hand on my arm, if the hand had not been so familiar. â€Å"No,† Jamie said, his hand hesitantly resting just below my elbow. â€Å"No, it's okay. Really. Right, Uncle Jeb?† Jamie looked trustingly at the old man. â€Å"It's okay, right?† â€Å"Sure it is.† Jeb's faded blue eyes were calm and clear. â€Å"Just showing you my place, kid, that's all.† â€Å"What are you talking about?† Ian grumbled from behind us, sounding annoyed that he didn't understand. â€Å"Did you think we brought you here on purpose, for Doc?† Jamie said to me instead of answering Ian. â€Å"Because we wouldn't do that. We promised Jared.† I stared at his earnest face, trying to believe. â€Å"Oh!† Ian said as he understood, and then he laughed. â€Å"That wasn't a bad plan. I'm surprised I didn't think of it.† Jamie scowled at the big man and patted my arm before removing his hand. â€Å"Don't be scared,† he said. Jeb took up where he'd left off. â€Å"So this big room here is fitted up with a few cots in case anyone gets sick or hurt. We've been pretty lucky on that count. Doc doesn't have much to work with in an emergency.† Jeb grinned at me. â€Å"Your folks threw out all our medicines when they took over things. Hard to get our hands on what we need.† I nodded slightly; the movement was absentminded. I was still reeling, trying to get my bearings. This room looked innocent enough, as if it were only used for healing, but it made my stomach twist and contract. â€Å"What do you know about alien medicine?† the doctor asked suddenly, his head cocked to the side. He watched my face with expectant curiosity. I stared at him wordlessly. â€Å"Oh, you can talk to Doc,† Jeb encouraged me. â€Å"He's a pretty decent guy, all things considered.† I shook my head once. I meant to answer the doctor's question, to tell them that I knew nothing, but they misunderstood. â€Å"She's not giving away any trade secrets,† Ian said sourly. â€Å"Are you, sweetheart?† â€Å"Manners, Ian,† Jeb barked. â€Å"Is it a secret?† Jamie asked, guarded but clearly curious. I shook my head again. They all stared at me in confusion. Doc shook his head, too, slowly, baffled. I took a deep breath, then whispered, â€Å"I'm not a Healer. I don't know how they-the medications-work. Only that they do work- they heal, rather than merely treating symptoms. No trial and error. Of course the human medicines were discarded.† All four of them stared with blank expressions. First they were surprised when I didn't answer, and now they were surprised when I did. Humans were impossible to please. â€Å"Your kind didn't change too much of what we left behind,† Jeb said thoughtfully after a moment. â€Å"Just the medical stuff, and the spaceships instead of planes. Other than that, life seems to go on just the same as ever†¦ on the surface.† â€Å"We come to experience, not to change,† I whispered. â€Å"Health takes priority over that philosophy, though.† I shut my mouth with an audible snap. I had to be more careful. The humans hardly wanted a lecture on soul philosophy. Who knew what would anger them? Or what would snap their fragile patience? Jeb nodded, still thoughtful, and then ushered us onward. He wasn't as enthusiastic as he continued my tour through the few connecting caves here in the medical wing, not as involved in the presentation. When we turned around and headed back into the black corridor, he lapsed into silence. It was a long, quiet walk. I thought through what I'd said, looking for something that might have offended. Jeb was too strange for me to guess if that was the case. The other humans, hostile and suspicious as they were, at least made sense. How could I hope to make sense of Jeb? The tour ended abruptly when we reentered the huge garden cavern where the carrot sprouts made a bright green carpet across the dark floor. â€Å"Show's over,† Jeb said gruffly, looking at Ian and the doctor. â€Å"Go do something useful.† Ian rolled his eyes at the doctor, but they both turned good-naturedly enough and made their way toward the biggest exit-the one that led to the kitchen, I remembered. Jamie hesitated, looking after them but not moving. â€Å"You come with me,† Jeb told him, slightly less gruff this time. â€Å"I've got a job for you.† â€Å"Okay,† Jamie said. I could see that he was pleased to have been chosen. Jamie walked beside me again as we headed back toward the sleeping-quarters section of the caves. I was surprised, as we chose the third passageway from the left, that Jamie seemed to know exactly where we were going. Jeb was slightly behind us, but Jamie stopped at once when we reached the green screen that covered the seventh apartment. He moved the screen aside for me but stayed in the hall. â€Å"You okay to sit tight for a while?† Jeb asked me. I nodded, grateful at the thought of hiding again. I ducked through the opening and then stood a few feet in, not sure what to do with myself. Melanie remembered that there were books here, but I reminded her of my vow to not touch anything. â€Å"I got things to do, kid,† Jeb said to Jamie. â€Å"Food ain't gonna fix itself, you know. You up to guard duty?† â€Å"Sure,† Jamie said with a bright smile. His thin chest swelled with a deep breath. My eyes widened in disbelief as I watched Jeb place the rifle in Jamie's eager hands. â€Å"Are you crazy?† I shouted. My voice was so loud that I didn't recognize it at first. It felt like I'd been whispering forever. Jeb and Jamie looked up at me, shocked. I was out in the hallway with them in a second. I almost reached for the hard metal of the barrel, almost ripped it from the boy's hands. What stopped me wasn't the knowledge that a move like that would surely get me killed. What stopped me was the fact that I was weaker than the humans in this way; even to save the boy, I could not make myself touch the weapon. I turned on Jeb instead. â€Å"What are you thinking? Giving the weapon to a child? He could kill himself!† â€Å"Jamie's been through enough to be called a man, I think. He knows how to handle himself around a gun.† Jamie's shoulders straightened at Jeb's praise, and he gripped the gun tighter to his chest. I gaped at Jeb's stupidity. â€Å"What if they come for me with him here? Did you think of what could happen? This isn't a joke! They'll hurt him to get to me!† Jeb remained calm, his face placid. â€Å"Don't think there'll be any trouble today. I'd bet on it.† â€Å"Well, I wouldn't!† I was yelling again. My voice echoed off the tunnel walls-someone was sure to hear, but I didn't care. Better they come while Jeb was still here. â€Å"If you're so sure, then leave me here alone. Let what happens happen. But don't put Jamie in danger!† â€Å"Is it the kid you're worried about, or are you just afraid that he'll turn the gun on you?† Jeb asked, his voice almost languid. I blinked, my anger derailed. That thought had not even occurred to me. I glanced blankly at Jamie, met his surprised gaze, and saw that the idea was shocking to him, too. It took me a minute to recover my side of the argument, and by the time I did, Jeb's expression had changed. His eyes were intent, his mouth pursed-as if he were about to fit the last piece into a frustrating puzzle. â€Å"Give the gun to Ian or any of the others. I don't care,† I said, my voice slow and even. â€Å"Just leave the boy out of this.† Jeb's sudden face-wide grin reminded me, strangely, of a pouncing cat. â€Å"It's my house, kid, and I'll do what I want. I always do.† Jeb turned his back and ambled away down the hall, whistling as he went. I watched him go, my mouth hanging open. When he disappeared, I turned to Jamie, who was watching me with a sullen expression. â€Å"I'm not a child,† he muttered in a deeper tone than usual, his chin jutting out belligerently. â€Å"Now, you should†¦ you should go in your room.† The order was less than severe, but there was nothing else I could do. I'd lost this disagreement by a large margin. I sat down with my back against the rock that formed one side of the cave opening-the side where I could hide behind the half-opened screen but still watch Jamie. I wrapped my arms around my legs and began doing what I knew I would be doing as long as this insane situation continued: I worried. I also strained my eyes and ears for some sound of approach, to be ready. No matter what Jeb said, I would prevent anyone from challenging Jamie's guard. I would give myself up before they asked. Yes, Melanie agreed succinctly. Jamie stood in the hallway for a few minutes, the gun tight in his hands, unsure as to how to do his job. He started pacing after that, back and forth in front of the screen, but he seemed to feel silly after a couple of passes. Then he sat down on the floor beside the open end of the screen. The gun eventually settled on his folded legs, and his chin into his cupped hands. After a long time, he sighed. Guard duty was not as exciting as he'd been expecting. I did not get bored watching him. After maybe an hour or two, he started looking at me again, flickering glances. His lips opened a few times, and then he thought better of whatever he was going to say. I laid my chin on my knees and waited as he struggled. My patience was rewarded. â€Å"That planet you were coming from before you were in Melanie,† he finally said. â€Å"What was it like there? Was it like here?† The direction of his thoughts caught me off guard. â€Å"No,† I said. With only Jamie here, it felt right to speak normally instead of whispering. â€Å"No, it was very different.† â€Å"Will you tell me what it was like?† he asked, cocking his head to one side the way he used to when he was really interested in one of Melanie's bedtime stories. So I told him. I told him all about the See Weeds' waterlogged planet. I told him about the two suns, the elliptical orbit, the gray waters, the unmoving permanence of roots, the stunning vistas of a thousand eyes, the endless conversations of a million soundless voices that all could hear. He listened with wide eyes and a fascinated smile. â€Å"Is that the only other place?† he asked when I fell silent, trying to think of anything I'd missed. â€Å"Are the See Weeds†-he laughed once at the pun-â€Å"the only other aliens?† I laughed, too. â€Å"Hardly. No more than I'm the only alien on this world.† â€Å"Tell me.† So I told him about the Bats on the Singing World-how it was to live in musical blindness, how it was to fly. I told him about the Mists Planet-how it felt to have thick white fur and four hearts to keep warm, how to give claw beasts a wide berth. I started to tell him about the Planet of the Flowers, about the color and the light, but he interrupted me with a new question. â€Å"What about the little green guys with the triangle heads and the big black eyes? The ones who crashed in Roswell and all that. Was that you guys?† â€Å"Nope, not us.† â€Å"Was it all fake?† â€Å"I don't know-maybe, maybe not. It's a big universe, and there's a lot of company out there.† â€Å"How did you come here, then-if you weren't the little green guys, who were you? You had to have bodies to move and stuff, right?† â€Å"Right,† I agreed, surprised at his grasp of the facts at hand. I shouldn't have been surprised-I knew how bright he was, his mind like a thirsty sponge. â€Å"We used our Spider selves in the very beginning, to get things started.† â€Å"Spiders?† I told him about the Spiders-a fascinating species. Brilliant, the most incredible minds we'd ever come across, and each Spider had three of them. Three brains, one in each section of their segmented bodies. We'd yet to find a problem they couldn't solve for us. And yet they were so coldly analytical that they rarely came up with a problem they were curious enough to solve for themselves. Of all our hosts, the Spiders welcomed our occupation the most. They barely noticed the difference, and when they did, they seemed to appreciate the direction we provided. The few souls who had walked on the surface of the Spiders' planet before implantation told us that it was cold and gray-no wonder the Spiders only saw in black and white and had a limited sense of temperature. The Spiders lived short lives, but the young were born knowing everything their parent had, so no knowledge was lost. I'd lived out one of the short life terms of the species and then left with no desire to return. The amazing clarity of my thoughts, the easy answers that came to any question almost without effort, the march and dance of numbers were no substitute for emotion and color, which I could only vaguely understand when inside that body. I wondered how any soul could be content there, but the planet had been self-sufficient for thousands of Earth years. It was still open for settling only because the Spiders reproduced so quickly-great sacs of eggs. I started to tell Jamie how the offensive had been launched here. The Spiders were our best engineers-the ships they made for us danced nimbly and undetectably through the stars. The Spiders' bodies were almost as useful as their minds: four long legs to each segment-from which they'd earned their nickname on this planet-and twelve-fingered hands on each leg. These six-jointed fingers were as slender and strong as steel threads, capable of the most delicate procedures. About the mass of a cow, but short and lean, the Spiders had no trouble with the first insertions. They were stronger than humans, smarter than humans, and prepared, which the humans were not†¦ I stopped short, midsentence, when I saw the crystalline sparkle on Jamie's cheek. He was staring straight ahead at nothing, his lips pressed in a tight line. A large drop of salt water rolled slowly down the cheek closest to me. Idiot, Melanie chastised me. Didn't you think what your story would mean to him? Didn't you think of warning me sooner? She didn't answer. No doubt she'd been as caught up in the storytelling as I was. â€Å"Jamie,† I murmured. My voice was thick. The sight of his tear had done strange things to my throat. â€Å"Jamie, I'm so sorry. I wasn't thinking.† Jamie shook his head. â€Å"‘S okay. I asked. I wanted to know how it happened.† His voice was gruff, trying to hide the pain. It was instinctive, the desire to lean forward and wipe that tear away. I tried at first to ignore it; I was not Melanie. But the tear hung there, motionless, as if it would never fall. Jamie's eyes stayed fixed on the blank wall, and his lips trembled. He wasn't far from me. I stretched my arm out to brush my fingers against his cheek; the tear spread thin across his skin and disappeared. Acting on instinct again, I left my hand against his warm cheek, cradling his face. For a short second, he pretended to ignore me. Then he rolled toward me, his eyes closed, his hands reaching. He curled into my side, his cheek against the hollow of my shoulder, where it had once fit better, and sobbed. These were not the tears of a child, and that made them more profound-made it more sacred and painful that he would cry them in front of me. This was the grief of a man at the funeral for his entire family. My arms wound around him, not fitting as easily as they used to, and I cried, too. â€Å"I'm sorry,† I said again and again. I apologized for everything in those two words. That we'd ever found this place. That we'd chosen it. That I'd been the one to take his sister. That I'd brought her back here and hurt him again. That I'd made him cry today with my insensitive stories. I didn't drop my arms when his anguish quieted; I was in no hurry to let him go. It seemed as though my body had been starving for this from the beginning, but I'd never understood before now what would feed the hunger. The mysterious bond of mother and child-so strong on this planet-was not a mystery to me any longer. There was no bond greater than one that required your life for another's. I'd understood this truth before; what I had not understood was why. Now I knew why a mother would give her life for her child, and this knowledge would forever shape the way I saw the universe. â€Å"I know I've taught you better than that, kid.† We jumped apart. Jamie lurched to his feet, but I curled closer to the ground, cringing into the wall. Jeb leaned down and picked up the gun we'd both forgotten from the floor. â€Å"You've got to mind a gun better than this, Jamie.† His tone was very gentle-it softened the criticism. He reached out to tousle Jamie's shaggy hair. Jamie ducked under Jeb's hand, his face scarlet with mortification. â€Å"Sorry,† he muttered, and turned as if to flee. He stopped after just a step, though, and swiveled back to look at me. â€Å"I don't know your name,† he said. â€Å"They called me Wanderer,† I whispered. â€Å"Wanderer?† I nodded. He nodded, too, then hurried away. The back of his neck was still red. When he was gone, Jeb leaned against the rock and slid down till he was seated where Jamie had been. Like Jamie, he kept the gun cradled in his lap. â€Å"That's a real interesting name you've got there,† he told me. He seemed to be back to his chatty mood. â€Å"Maybe sometime you'll tell me how you got it. Bet that's a good story. But it's kind of a mouthful, don't you think? Wanderer?† I stared at him. â€Å"Mind if I call you Wanda, for short? It flows easier.† He waited this time for a response. Finally, I shrugged. It didn't matter to me whether he called me â€Å"kid† or some strange human nickname. I believed it was meant kindly. â€Å"Okay, then, Wanda.† He smiled, pleased at his invention. â€Å"It's nice to have a handle on you. Makes me feel like we're old friends.† He grinned that huge, cheek-stretching grin, and I couldn't help grinning back, though my smile was more rueful than delighted. He was supposed to be my enemy. He was probably insane. And he was my friend. Not that he wouldn't kill me if things turned out that way, but he wouldn't like doing it. With humans, what more could you ask of a friend?

A Short Story Of Denim Essay

Denim is more than just a cotton fabric; it inspires strong opinions within the hearts of historians, designers, teenagers, movie stars, reporters and writers. Interest bordering on passion can be found among textile and costume historians today, especially in the debate over the true origins of denim. These experts have put decades of work into their research; here are summarized the prevailing opinions about the birth of denim, followed by a discussion of the way Levi Strauss & Co. has helped to contribute to denim’s movement around the world. In 1969 a writer for American Fabrics magazine declared, â€Å"Denim is one of the world’s oldest fabrics, yet it remains eternally young.† If continuous use of and interest in an item makes it â€Å"eternally young† then denim certainly qualifies. From the 17th century to the present, denim has been woven, used and discarded; made into upholstery, pants and awnings; found in museums, attics, antique stores and arc haeological digs; worn as the fabric of hard honest work, and as the expression of angry rebellion; used for the sails of Columbus’ ships in legend; and worn by American cowboys in fact. Legend and fact are also interwoven when scholars discuss the origin of the name denim itself. Most reference books say that denim is an English corruption of the French â€Å"serge de Nimes;† a serge fabric from the town of Nimes in France. However, some scholars have begun to question this tradition. There are a few schools of thought with regard to the derivation of the word â€Å"denim.† Pascale Gorguet-Ballesteros, of the Musee de la Mode et du Costume in Paris, has done some interesting research on both of these issues. A fabric called â€Å"serge de Nimes,† was known in France prior to the 17th century. At the same time, there was also a fabric known in France as â€Å"nim.† Both fabrics were composed partly of wool. Serge de Nimes was also known in England before the end of the 17th century. The question then arises: is this fabric imported from France or is it an English fabric bearing the same name? According to Ms. Gorguet-Ballesteros, fabrics which were named for a certain geographic location were often also made elsewhere; the name was used to lend a certain cachet to the fabric when it was offered for sale. Therefore a â€Å"serge de Nimes† purchased in England was very likely also made in England, and not in Nimes, France. There still remains the question of how the word â€Å"denim† is popularly thought to be descended from the word â€Å"serge de Nimes.† Serge de Nimes was made of silk and wool, but denim has always been made of cotton. What we have here again, I think, is a relation between fabrics that is in name only, though both fabrics are a twill weave. Is the real origin of the word denim â€Å"serge de nim,† meaning a fabric that resembled the part-wool fabric called nim? Was serge de Nimes more well-known, and was this word mistranslated when it crossed the English Channel? Or, did British merchants decide to give a zippy French name to an English fabric to give it a bit more cachet? It’s likely we will never really know. Then, to confuse things even more, there also existed, at this same time, another fabric known as â€Å"jean.† Research on this textile indicates that it was a fustian – a cotton, linen and/or wool blend and that the fustian of Genoa, Italy was called jean; here we do see evidence of a fabric being named from a place of origin. It was apparently quite popular, and imported into England in large quantities during the 16th century. By the end of this period jean was being produced in Lancashire. By the 18th century jean cloth was made completely of cotton, and used to make men’s clothing, valued especially for its property of durability even after many washings. Denim’s popularity was also on the rise. It was stronger and more expensive than jean, and though the two fabrics were very similar in other ways, they did have one major difference: denim was made of one colored thread and one white thread; jean was woven of two threads of the same color. Moving across the Atlantic, we find American textile mills starting on a small scale at this same time, the late 18th century, mostly as a way to become independent from foreign producers (mainly the English). From the very beginning, cotton fabrics were an important component of their product line. A factory in the state of Massachusetts wove both denim and jean. President George Washington toured this mill in 1789 and was shown the machinery which wove denim, which had both warp and fill of cotton. One of the first printed references to the word â€Å"denim† in the United States was seen in this same year: a Rhode Island newspaper reported on the local production of denim (among other fabrics). The book The Weavers Draft Book and Clothiers Assistant, published in 1792, contains technical sketches of the weaving methods for a variety of denims. In 1864, an East Coast wholesale house advertised that it carried 10 different kinds of denim, including â€Å"New Creek Blues† and â€Å"Madison River Browns.† (They sound rather contemporary, don’t they? Another example of denim appearing â€Å"eternally young.†) Webster’s Dictionary of the same year contained the word â€Å"denim,† referring to it as â€Å"a coarse cotton drilling used for overalls, etc.† Research shows that jean and denim were two very different fabrics in 19th century America. They also differed in how they were used. In 1849 a New York clothing manufacturer advertised topcoats, vests or short jackets in chestnut, olive, black, white and blue jean. Fine trousers were offered in blue jean; overalls and trousers made for work were offered in blue and fancy denim. Other American advertisements show working men wearing clothing that illustrates this difference in usage between jean and denim. Mechanics and painters wore overalls made of blue denim; working men in general (including those not engaged in manual labor) wore more tailored trousers made of jean. Denim, then, seems to have been reserved for work clothes, when both durability and comfort were needed. Jean was a workwear fabric in general, without the added benefits of denim as I just mentioned. In Staple Cotton Fabrics by John Hoye, published in 1942, jean is listed as a cotton serge with warp and woof of the same color, used for overalls, work and sport shirts, doctors and nurses uniforms and as linings for boots and shoes. Of denim, Hoye says, â€Å"The most important fabric of the work-clothing group is denim. Denims are strong and serviceable; they are particularly strong in the warp direction, where the fabric is subjected to greater wear than the filling.† Twenty years after this was written, the magazine American Fabrics ran an article which stated, â€Å"If we were to use a human term to describe a textile we might say that denim is an honest fabric – substantial, forthright, and unpretentious.† So how did this utilitarian and unpretentious fabric become the stuff of legends that it is today? And how did pants made out of denim come to be called jeans, when they were not made out of the fabric called jean? One very important reason can be found in the life and work of a Bavarian-born businessman who made his way to Gold Rush San Francisco more than 150 years ago. Levi’s ® jeans, of course, are named for the founder of the company that makes them. A lot of people over the years have thought that Levi Strauss & Co. was started by a Mr. Levi and a Mr. Strauss; or even by the French philosopher/anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss. The truth is, the company was founded by a man born as â€Å"Loeb† Strauss in Bavaria in 1829. He, his mother and two sisters left Germany in 1847 and sailed to New York, where Loeb’s half-brothers were in business selling wholesale dry goods (bolts of cloth, linens, clothing, etc.). For a few years, young Loeb Strauss worked for his brothers, and in 1853 obtained his American citizenship. In that same year, he decided to make a new start and undertake the hazardous journey to San Francisco, a city enjoying the benefits of the recent Gold Rush. At age 23, Loeb either decided to go into the dry goods business for himself (perhaps thinking that the easiest way to make money during a Gold Rush was to sell supplies to miners), or he was sent there by his brothers, in order to open the West Coast branch of the family business. No matter what the reason, San Francisco was the kind of city where people went to reinvent themselves and their lives, and this proved to be true for Loeb, who changed his name to â€Å"Levi† sometime around 1850, – for which we should be grateful, or else today we would all be wearing â€Å"Loeb’s Jeans.† We don’t know how young Levi Strauss got his business off the ground; what his thinking was; if he travelled into the gold country in search of customers, because LS&CO. lost virtually all of its records, inventory, and photographs in the great San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906. This has led to many problems for company officers, researchers, and certainly thos e interested in LS&CO.’s history. Chief of these is digging up the true story of the invention of blue jeans, and separating popular myth from historical reality. For decades, the story ran like this: Levi Strauss arrived in San Francisco, and noticed that miners needed strong, sturdy pants. So he took some brown canvas from the stock of dry goods supplies he brought with him from New York, and had a tailor make a pair of pants. Later, he dyed the fabric blue, then switched to denim, which he imported from Nimes. He got the idea of adding metal rivets to the pants from a tailor in Reno, Nevada, and patented this process in 1873. Luckily, the company obtained copies of the patent papers for the riveting process a number of years ago so we know that Jacob Davis, the Nevada tailor, did come up with this idea and worked with Levi Strauss to manufacture riveted clothing. However, the brown canvas pants story is really just an attractive myth. This story likely arose because evidence had been found of some brown pants made of a heavy material which the company sold in the 19th century. However, historical research done at institutions in the San Francisco area provides us with the truth within the myth. Levi Strauss was a wholesale dry goods merchant beginning with his arrival in San Francisco in 1853. He sold the common dry goods products, including clothing whose manufacturers are unfortunately unknown to us. Levi worked hard, and acquired a reputation for quality products over the next two decades. In 1872 he got a letter from tailor Jacob Davis, who had been making riveted clothing for the miners in the Reno area and who purchased cloth from Levi Strauss & Co. He needed a business partner to help him get a patent and begin to manufacture this new type of work clothing. Well, Levi knew a good business opportunity when he saw one, and in 1873 LS&CO. and Davis received a patent for an â€Å"Improvement in Fastening Pocket-Openings.† As soon as the two men got their manufacturing facility under way, they began to make copper riveted â€Å"waist overalls† (which is the old name for jeans) out of a brown cotton duck, and a blue denim. It’s likely that a pair of these duck pants (which survived the 1906 fire) confused early historians of the company, as duck looks and feels like canvas. The denim, however, was true blue. Of course, Levi did not dye any brown fabric blue, as the myth has proclaimed, nor did he purchase it from Nimes. Knowing that the riveted pants were going to be perfect for workwear, it’s likely he decided to make them out of denim rather than jean for the reasons mentioned earlier: denim was what you used when you needed a very sturdy fabric for clothing to be worn by men doing manual labor. The denim for the first waist overalls came from the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company in Manchester, New Hampshire, on the East Coast of the United States. This area, known as New England, was the site of the first American textile mills, and by 1873 their fabrics were wellknown and well-made. Amoskeag was incorporated in 1831 and their denim production dated to the mid-1860s (this being the time of the American Civil War, the company also manufactured guns for a few years). In 1914 an article about the association between LS&CO. and Amoskeag appeared in the mill’s own newspaper. It read in part, â€Å"In spite of the many cheaper grades offered in competition, the sale of the Amoskeag denim garment has kept up due in part to the superior denim used in its construction and in part to superior workmanship such as sewing with linen thread, etc. Doubtless the Amoskeag denim has contributed in no small degree to the success of Levi Strauss & Co. and, in return, that concern has contributed in an equal degree to the success of Amoskeag denims, advertising as it does, their superiority over all other denims.† At Levi Strauss & Co., the duck and denim waist overalls were proving to be the success that Jacob Davis had predicted. Levi Strauss was now the head of both a dry goods wholesaling and garment manufacturing business. In addition to the waist overalls, the company made jackets and other outer wear out of denim and duck; they also branched out into shirts of plain or printed muslin. Levi Strauss died in 1902, at the age of 73. He left his thriving business to his four nephews Jacob, Louis, Abraham and Sigmund Stern – who helped rebuild the company after the disaster of 1906. The earliest surviving catalog in the Archives shows a wonderful variety of denim products for sale. Within a few years, it became obvious to the Stern brothers that they needed a new source of denim. Near the end of the 19th century Amoskeag and other New England mills had begun to experience a slow decline, due to competition from mills in the southern states, higher labor and transportation costs, outdated buildings and equipment and high taxes. The demand for waist overalls was so great that LS&CO. needed a more reliable method of obtaining the fabric they needed. Interestingly, by around 1911 the company had stopped making garments out of cotton duck. It’s possible that this was due to customer preference: once someone had worn a pair of denim pants, experiencing its strength and comfort – and how the denim became more comfortable with every washing – he never wanted to wear duck again; because with cotton duck, you always feel like you’re wearing a tent. By 1915 the company was buying the majority of its denim from Cone Mills, in North Carolina (by 1922 all the denim came from Cone). Founded in 1891, it was the center of denim production in America by the turn of the century. Cone developed the denim which brought Levi’s  ® jeans their greatest fame during the following decades. By the 1920s, Levi’s ® waist overalls were the leading product in men’s work pants in the Western states. Enter the 1930s – when Western movies and the West in general captured the American imagination. Authentic cowboys wearing Levi’s ® jeans were elevated to mythic status, and Western clothing became synonymous with a life of independence and rugged individualism. Denim was now associated less often with laborers in general, and more as the fabric of the authentic American as symbolized by John Wayne, Gary Cooper and others. LS&CO. advertising did its part to fuel this craze, using the West’s historic preference for denim clothing to advertise Levi’s ® waist overalls. Easterners who wanted an authentic cowboy experience headed to the dude ranches of California, Arizona, Nevada and other states, where they purchased their first pair of Levi’s (the products were still only sold West of the Mississippi). They took these garments home to wow their friends and help spread the Western influence to the rest of the country, and even overseas. The 1940s, wartime. American G.I.s took their favorite pairs of denim pants overseas; guarding them against the inevitable theft of valuable items. Back in the States, production of waist overalls went down as the raw materials were needed for the war effort. When the war was over, massive changes in society signalled the end of one era and the beginning of another. Denim pants became less associated with workwear and more associated with the leisure activities of prosperous post-war America. Levi Strauss & Co. began selling its products nationally for the first time in the 1950s. Easterners and Midwesterners finally got the chance to wear real Levi’s ® jeans, as opposed to the products made by other manufacturers over the years. This led to many changes, within the company and on the products. Zippers was used in the classic waist overalls for the first time in 1954. This was in response to complaints from non-Westerners who didn’t like the button fly (the jeans the y were used to wearing had zippers). We received similar comments from men who had grown up using a button fly, saying rather rude things about finding a zipper where buttons should be. We did offer both products all over the country, but making changes to people’s favorite pants is always a risk. Some things took longer to change. One of them was the attitude that denim clothing was appropriate only for hard, physical labor. This was dramatically demonstrated to LS&CO. in 1951. Singer Bing Crosby was very fond of Levi’s ® jeans and was wearing his favorite pair while on a hunting trip to Canada with a friend in that year. The men tried to check into a Vancouver hotel, but because they were wearing denim, the desk clerk would not give them a room; apparently denim-clad visitors were not considered high-class enough for this hotel. Because the men were wearing Levi’s ® jeans, the clerk did not even bother to look past their clothing to see that he was turning away America’s most beloved si nger (luckily for Bing, he was finally recognized by the bellhop). LS&CO. heard about this, and created a denim tuxedo jacket for Bing, which we presented to him at a celebration in Elko, Nevada, where Bing was honorary mayor. Interestingly, the day set aside for this special presentation was called â€Å"Blue Serge Day† not â€Å"Levi’s Day† or â€Å"Blue Denim Day.† Was the word â€Å"denim† not sophisticated enough for the organizers of the event (who were not from LS&CO.)? I don’t think we’ll ever know the answer to this. The 1950s brought great acclaim to Levi’s ® jeans and denim pants in general, though not in the way most company executives would like. The portrayal of denim-clad â€Å"juvenile delinquents† or, as one newspaper put it, â€Å"motorcycle boys† in films and on television during this decade led many school administrators to ban the wearing of denim in the classroom, fearing that the mere presence of denim on a teenager’s body would cause him to rebel a gainst authority in all of its forms. Nearly everyone in America had strong opinions about what wearing blue jeans did to young people. For example: in 1957 we ran an advertisement in a number of newspapers all over the U.S. which showed a clean-cut young boy wearing Levi’s ® jeans. The ad contained the slogan, â€Å"Right For School.† This ad outraged many parents and adults in general. One woman in New Jersey wrote, â€Å"While I have to admit that this may be ‘right for school’ in San Francisco, in the west, or in some rural areas I can assure you that it is in bad taste and not right for School in the East and particularly New York†¦Of course, you may have different standards and perhaps your employees are permitted to wear Bermuda shorts or golf togs in your office while transacting Levi’s business!† Interesting, isn’t it, how this woman predicted the future trend toward casual clothing in the workplace? But even as some Americans tried to get denim out of the s chools, there were just as many who believed that jeans deserved a better reputation, and pointed to the many wholesome young people who wore jeans and never got into trouble. But no matter what anyone thought or did, nothing could stop the ever-increasing demand for Levi’s ® jeans. As one 1958 newspaper article reported, â€Å"†¦about 90% of American youths wear jeans everywhere except ‘in bed and in church’ and that this is true in most sections of the country.† Events in this decade also led the company to change the name of its most popular product. Until the 1950s we referred to the famous copper riveted pants as â€Å"overalls;† when you went into a small clothing store and asked for a pair of overalls, you were given a pair of Levi’s ®. However, after World War II our customer base changed dramatically, as referred to earlier: from working adult men, to leisure-loving teenage boys and their older college-age brothers. These guys called the product â€Å"jeans† – and by 1960 LS&CO. decided that it was time to adopt the name, since these new, young consumers had adopted our products. Now how did the word â€Å"jeans† come to mean pants made out of denim? There are two schools of thought on this one. The word might be a derivation of â€Å"Genoese,† meaning the type of pants worn by sailors from Genoa, Italy. There is another explanation: jean and denim fabrics were both used for workwear for many decades, and â€Å"jeans pants† was a common term for an article of clothing made from jean fabric; Levi Strauss himself imported â€Å"jeans pants† from the Eastern part of the United States to sell in California. When the popularity of jean gave way to the even greater popularity of denim for workwear, the word â€Å"jeans† seemed to get stuck with the denim version of these pants. Certainly the word jeans has been used to describe any type of pant made out of denim, and not just the riveted, indestructible, working-man’s pants originated by Levi Strauss & Co. in 1873. We even called some lightweight denim Western Wear pants in the 1940s â€Å"jeans.† But until America’s youth decided what j eans meant to them, we stuck with the classic moniker â€Å"overalls.† From the 1950s to the present, denim and jeans have been associated with youth, with new ideas, with rebellion, with individuality. College-age men and women entered American colleges in the 1960s and, wearing their favorite pants (jeans, of course), they began to protest against the social ills plaguing the United States. Denim acquired a bad reputation yet again, and for the same reasons as it had a decade earlier: those who protest, those who rebel, those who question authority, traditional institutions and customs, wear denim. Beginning in the late 1950s, Levi Strauss & Co. began to look at opportunities for expansion outside of the United States. During and after World War II, people in Japan, England and Germany saw Levi’s ® jeans for the first time, as they were worn by U.S. soldiers during their off-duty hours. There are letters in the company Archives from people who traded leather jackets and other clothing items to American G.I.s for their Levi’s ® jeans, and wrote to the company asking how they could get another pair. Word began to spread via individual customers, and American magazi nes which made their way overseas. Letters came to us from places as diverse as Thailand, England and Pitcairn Island in the South Pacific, written by people begging us to send them a pair of the famous jeans. British teenagers would swarm the docks when American Merchant Marine ships came into port, and buy the Levi’s ® jeans off the men before they even had time to set foot on dry land. By the late 1960s, the trickle of jeans into Europe and Asia had become a flood. Denim was poised to re-enter the continent which had given it birth, and it would be adopted with an enthusiasm shown to few other American products. Indeed, despite its European origins, denim was considered the quintessential American fabric, beginning even in the mid-1960s, when jeans were still a new commodity in Europe. We entered the Japanese market a few years later. One writer wrote prophetically in 1964: â€Å"Throughout the industrialized world denim has become a symbol of the young, active, informal, American way of life. It is equal ly symbolic of America’s achievements in mass production, for denim of uniform quality and superior performance is turned out by the mile in some of America’s biggest and most modern mills. Moreover, what was once a fabric only for work clothes, has now also become an important fabric for play clothes, for sportswear of all types.† By the 1970s, these â€Å"play clothes† tended toward the flared and bell bottom silhouette. At the same time, new fabrics were used for products that had traditionally been made out of denim. The product line of Levi Strauss & Co. was no exception. â€Å"Blue Levi’s ®Ã¢â‚¬  were still a staple of the company’s collection, but a glimpse at sales catalogs will reveal that customers also wanted plaid, polyester, no-wrinkle flares with matching vests. What looked almost like the end of simple, cotton denim as the fabric of everyday wear, was merely a pause in denim’s continued ascension to global dominion. A closer look will show that denim never really disappeared. Even in the 1970s, when it seemed that denim was being pushed aside in favor of these other fabrics, writers, manufacturers, and marketing executives worked hard to keep denim in the public eye. A writer in the Fall 1970 issue of American Fabrics said, â€Å"Indigo Blue Denim†¦has become a phenomenon without parallel in our times. To the youth of this country, and many other countries in this shrinking world, Indigo Blue Denim does not stand for utility. It’s the world’s top fashion fabric for pants.† By the mid to late 1970s the craze for doubleknits and other like fabrics began to slow. At the same time, marketing reports in various trade magazines showed an upward surge in the popularity of denim, as seen in the number of denim-clad models in print and television advertising. Those who followed clothing trends into the late 1970s were quoted in the trade papers with comments such as, â€Å"Jeans are more than a make. They are an established attitude about clothes and lifestyle.† This attitude could be seen very clearly in the â€Å"decorated denim† craze which saw beaded, embroidered, painted and sequined jeans appearing on streets from California to New York and across the ocean. Personalizing one’s jeans was such a huge trend in the United States that Levi Strauss & Co. sponsored a â€Å"Denim Art Contest† in 1973, inviting customers to send us slides of their decorated denim. The company received 2,000 entries from 49 of the United States, as well as Canada and the Bahamas. Judges included photographer Imogen Cunningham, designer Rudi Gernreich, the art critic for the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper, and the Curator for San Francisco’s De Young Museum. The winning garments were sent on an 18month tour of American museums, and some of them were purchased by LS&CO. for the company Archives. In the Introduction to the catalog published to accompany the museum tour, contest coordinators wrote that Levi’s ® jeans had become â€Å"a canvas for personal expression.† Personal expression found another medium in the 1980s with the â€Å"designer jean† craze of that decade. It seems you can’t keep a good fabric down, no matter what form it takes. We all remember the ways in which denim was molded onto our bodies and the way that jeans were now worn almost anywhere, including places where they would have been completed banned in previous years (such as upscale restaurants). A writer for American Fabrics predicted this trend all the way back in 1969, when he wrote, â€Å"What has happened to denim in the last decade is really a capsule of what happened to America. It has climbed the ladder of taste.† Today, LS&CO. employees wear Levi’s ® jeans to work. Looking back, we see that the very first people to wear Levi’s ® jeans worked with pick and shovel, and though our tools are computer keyboard, PDA and cell phone, we have both been moved to wear the same thing each and every work day: denim jeans. Born in Europe, denim’s function and adaptable form found a perfect home in untamed America with the invention of jeans; then, as now, denim makes our lives easier by making us comfortable; and gives us a little bit of history every time we put it on.