Barnes Noble Nook Essay Example

Barnes Noble Nook Essay Marketing Strategy Strategic Situation Summary: Market Target(s) Description: Barnes Noble Nook 1. Market Segments Identified- Middle-Upper Class, educated, moderate- high income, heavy internet user 2. Primary Market- Business travelers Percent More Likely Than Average U. S. Adult to†¦. †¢ Have accessed the Internet outside the home via WiFi or wireless connection (in last 30 days): 199% †¢ Have household income of $100,000 or more annually: 87% †¢ Have accessed the Internet with a cell phone or other mobile device (in last 30 days): 154% †¢ Be a Heavy Internet User: 116% Have a Bachelor’s or Post-Graduate Degree: 111% †¢ Be between the ages of 35-54: 20% †¢ Be male: 16% 3. Secondary Market- Education- High School students, College Undergraduates 4. Market Characteristics a. Geographic- Suburban – travel to cities for work or school b. Demographic- The following is a survey conducted for Nook Owners’ age distribution from 111 Nook owners †¢ 7. 21% Nook Owners between 10 and 19   8 out of 111. †¢ 21. 62% Nook owners between 20-29 – 24  out of 111. †¢ 17. 11% of Nook owners between 30-39 – 19  out of 111. †¢ 22. 52% of Nook owners are between 40-49 – 25 out of 111. †¢ 18. 1% of Nook owners are between  50-59 – 20  out of 111. †¢ 11. 71% of Nook owners are between 60-69 – 13  out of 111. †¢ Just 1 nook owner between 70-79. †¢ Just 1 nook owner between 80-89. c. Psychographic- †¢ Personality: †¢ Values: †¢ Primary Motivation: †¢ Ideals: †¢ Self-expression: †¢ Resources: d. Behavioral- †¢ User-status: †¢ Usage-rate: †¢ Purchase-occasion: †¢ Benefits sought: Objectives for the Market Target(s): Marketing Program Positioning Strategy: A. Product Strategy a. New Products b. Product Improvements: Incremental Innovation NOOKstudy i. It will allow the student instant downloads for academic ebooks. We will write a custom essay sample on Barnes Noble Nook specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Barnes Noble Nook specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Barnes Noble Nook specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer It will allow students to search for keywords in lecture notes, syllabuses and more. ii. Its a desktop app that will work on Macs and PCs. When installed, it provides students with access to a wide library of textbooks for less than standard books. iii. Furthermore, the app will enable students to highlight and take notes that are searchable and customizable, and provide students access to all of their materials – eTextbooks, lecture notes, syllabi, slides, images, and other course-related documents – all in one place. Their digital library will be able to go from home, to the library, and to the classroom. B. Distribution Strategy C. Price Strategy: a. Of the 181 million US consumers who are online, 14%, or 25 million consumers, say that eReaders priced at $199 or higher — the current price range for eReaders — are expensive, but they’d still consider them for purchase at that price point. What this means: The maximum addressable market for eReaders as they are currently priced is substantial, but to reach the largest market possible, the prices will need to come down. Still, they have phenomenal social and economic impact as they catalyze a new behavior of digital reading across multiple devices. We’re just at the beginning of this revolution. [pic] D. Promotion Strategy a. Advertising i. Banner ads inside books. The average U. S. adult reads four books a year; with a population of 250 million you get 1 billion books digested annually. At 200 pages per book, thats 200 billion potential ad impressions if just one ad was placed at the bottom of each page. Now, charge a $20 CPM for such premium placement and you have just unlocked a $4 billion advertising market. This concept can extend to college textbooks with coupons for partners, such as Starbucks Coffee. ii. Readers give advertisers more consumer attention because readers cannot easily surf away to other websites. Advertisers would win higher response rates because the ads are much more noticeable and could be contextually targeted to content and the users personal information disclosed by their book purchases. b. Publicity c. Internet d. Personal Selling e. Sales Promotion i. Visit any Barnes Noble store and show y our NOOK or mobile device to one of our booksellers, and receive a voucher for the FREE eBook. The voucher will require recipients to enter an online code to receive the free eBook. This will create more movement to the website and to promote other product offerings. E. Marketing Research F. Coordination with Other Business Functions [pic] Mediamark says there are approximately 2. 1 million US adults who own eReaders. Available this week, the new Nook WiFi device is priced at just US$149. The price on the existing Nook 3G, meanwhile, was slashed from $259 to $199, making it the first under-$200 dedicated e-reader with both free 3G wireless and WiFi, according to the company. Barnes Noble now offers all Nook users complimentary access to ATTs (NYSE: T) entire nationwide WiFi network. Its eBookstore now boasts more than one million e-books, periodicals and other digital content, the company said. Under-$200 is always a new product categorys sweet spot, and BN is probably selling the Nook at a slim margin or even a loss in order to gain market share and brand share in the digital book distribution world. Price, meanwhile, is a very important factor in that competition particularly the sub-$200 price point, which is psychologically very important for consumer adoption, she asserted. Any time you deflate the margin on a product by merely adjusting price, it has consequences to the bottom line, he explained. Another option to just dropping price would have been to add a coupon for up to $50 worth of content; this would have fulfilled the urge to drop price however would have kept topline revenue flat. Style: The Nook has a color menu, whereas the entire Kindle display is focused on black and white, he explained. The Nook is lighter. The Nook is now cheaper and the Nook is a little more aesthetically appealing. Potential Target Markets Specifically, individuals interested in a very focused reading experience are one; the education market is another, she pointed out. If device manufacturers and educational and professional publishers are successful at getting that constituency, we think e-readers will be able to hold their own against media tablets, Kevorkian said noting, however, that while theres great potential, it has yet to be realized. A total of 7. 6 million media tablets, including the iPad, will ship worldwide in 2010, growing to 46. 7 million units in 2014, IDC has forecast. The e-reader category, on the other hand including both connected e-readers and USB-enabled ones will ship 6. million worldwide this year, the company predicted, increasing to just over 9 million in 2012 before declining to 7. 9 million in 2014, Kevorkian noted. NOOK for Android-based smartphones and device s. The new application offers those with devices using Android OS 1. 6 and higher the ability to shop Barnes Nobles expansive eBookstore of more than one million eBooks The new Android app is also the first eReader software to feature Barnes Nobles new NOOK-centric branding, leveraging the strength of the companys NOOK brand across its entire eReading offering. The new eReader software branding aligns with the companys current NOOK offering NOOK 3G and NOOK Wi-Fi eBook Readers, and the recently announced NOOKstudy online study platform and software solution for higher education. NOOK for Android will soon be followed by an updated NOOK for iPhone, NOOK for iPad, and others in the coming months, the company noted. Barnes Noble is diving deeper into the education market with an expected August release of NOOKstudy which will run on Macs and PCs and not require a NOOK or any other mobile device. NOOKstudy will act as a hub for eTextbook, class notes, syllabi, scanned handouts, and even non-educational eBooks. It will allow students to take notes as well as highlight passages in eTextbooks. Users will also be able to tag items for easy retrieval using common terms like: for the final exam. It will provide full searches of anything, in the eTextbooks or your notes, and link into Google or Dictionary. com to look up terms. Multiple eTextbooks can be opened at the same time, or two pages from ifferent sources can be simultaneously displayed. The program is currently being piloted at Penn State, University of Nevada, Queensborough Community College, and the Rochester Institute of Technology. Barnes Noble’s ability to market the Nook through its bricks-and-mortar stores, along with the comparative newness of the device, were keys to that competitive edge. Under the terms of the Best Buy agreement, the Nook’s e-reader software will come pre-loaded on a number of PCs and smartphones sold through the retailer. Both Barnes Noble and Amazon have focused on porting e-reader applications onto a number of devices, including ostensible rival iPad, in a bid to increase the potential audience for their proprietary e-books. Barnes Noble announced a software update for its Nook e-reader, including a Web browser and Android-based games, on April 23. Another feature, â€Å"Read In Store,† allows Nook users to browse the retailer’s e-books for free at any Barnes Noble bookstore, with the entirety of each book accessible for an hour. NOOK Wi-Fi eBook Reader marries innovative technology and sleek minimalist design with Wi-Fi connectivity. This latest addition to the NOOK family gives customers the opportunity to take advantage of the proliferation of both in-home and public Wi-Fi hotspots, where they can browse the Web and shop the Barnes Noble eBookstore of more than one million eBooks, periodicals and other digital content. With its latest software update for all NOOK devices (now available at www. nook. com/update), Barnes Noble is offering all NOOK customers complimentary access to ATTs entire nationwide Wi-Fi network, including Barnes Noble bookstores which have previously been available to NOOK customers. As part of the NOOK eBook Reader family, NOOK Wi-Fi features Barnes Noble’s breakthrough LendMe technology, enabling customers to share eBooks with friends for up to 14 days. NOOK Wi-Fi also offers the same great in-store features like Read In Store to browse complete eBooks in Barnes Noble stores at no cost, and More In Store, offering free, exclusive content and special promotions. http://floridaresearchgroup. wordpress. com/2010/02/16/demographics-of-kindle-a

The impact of technology on families and communities essays

The impact of technology on families and communities essays Discuss the impact of social, legal and technological change on individuals, groups, families and Communities As time moves on so does humanity and society we adapt and change as new knowledge and understanding is presented to us in different forms such as technologies, laws and social views all impacting on us within our homes and within our communities. Technology gets more and more advanced everyday its designed to entertain help and study humans it affects almost every aspect of the average persons life in one way or another wether that be machines in the work place the home computer or the knew technology that helps save lifes. Since the Industrial revolution which first occurred in Europe in the 1700s factories all around the world became involved with the new technology of the machine which in many ways replaced the manual human workers designed to help increase effiency and cost which has helped many companies consumers and workers and also buried some with jobs being replaced and people being put out of work which became increasingly the case with the introduction of computers with multiple task capabilities it could fill the job and effency of several workers. This effected society and communities drastically with unemployment levels soaring these levels decreased but the impact is still seen today with fewer jobs to go round. It hasnt all been negative though its also opened up paths for people who want to carry out a career with in technology such as IT workers etc and with a computer now in many homes schools and workplaces public understanding of technology has expanded and adapted to the changes with computers and machines being essential to run many business and carry out the day to day tasks we take for granted. Technology has also helped increase communication between nations, communities and individuals that once would not have been as easily accomplished; the internet has provided communicat...

The Problem of Obesity Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

The Problem of Obesity - Essay Example Hilde Bruch says that the claim that obesity runs in the family is one that researchers think may a basis in fact. There would be distinct patterns in behavior that would be handed down from generation to generation as family traditions; such as the preparation of food and eating behaviors. In fact, Bruch points out, if a child comes from a family with two obese parents, a seventy percent incidence in obesity is found among the offspring. Indicating that eating behavior is also a family behavior. Although Bruch is quick to point out that â€Å"Such studies are based on the often unreliable statements of patients, and the ability to record the potentially obese and the actually obese phenotypes makes interpretation of their significance even more difficult..† That was in 1973; today we have more extensive research and testing and even genetic tracking information that builds on what Bruch has posited and demonstrate that in some cases – certainly not all – that ob esity is in fact an inherited trait. In 1998, Robert Pool writes, researchers in Europe conducting tests on obesity found that with regard to a certain patients, and study of the family, a DNA mutation existed that prevented the brain from detecting leptin, a condition associated with diabetes, which is a hereditary condition; that sent the message to the patient’s brain that the patient’s body was starving. â€Å"Thus, in both humans and mice the diabetes mutation produces an obesity almost identical to that produced in the obese mutation. However, it has also been determined that each time the aforementioned appears it has been in â€Å"highly inbred families.† The pattern of first cousins intermarrying is a common one in many developing nations.

Rethinking Leadership Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Rethinking Leadership - Essay Example A leader is the one who motivates and influences his/her subordinates to attain the pre-defined goals (Hernandez et al. 1166). With this definition in mind, one can recognize a number of effective leaders; Alexander the Great, Nelson Mandela, Adolf Hitler, Asoka and Mahatma Gandhi etc. However, at the organizational level, Steve Jobs is undoubtedly the most legendary leader of the 21st century who transformed the world of information technology. Steven Paul  "Steve"  Jobs  (February 24, 1955  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ October 5, 2011) was an American entrepreneur, innovator, leader and inventor, best known as the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of  Apple Inc.  Through Apple, he was widely recognized as a charismatic pioneer of the  personal computer revolution and for his influential career in the computer and  consumer electronics  fields, transforming one industry after another, from computers and smart phones to music and movies. Jobs also co-founded and served as chief executive of  Pixar Animation Studios. He became a member of the board of directors of The Walt Disney Company  in 2006, when Disney acquired Pixar. Steve Jobs was the one, who led to the creation of the  Apple Lisa  and, one year later, the Macintosh. He also played a role in introducing the  LaserWriter, one of the first widely available laser printers, to the market. Steven Paul Jobs was born on 24 February 1955 in San Francisco, California, to an un-married couple who gave him up for adoption. He was taken in by a working class couple, Paul and Clara Jobs, and grew up with them in Mountain View, California. He attended Homestead High School in Cupertino California and went to Reed College in Portland Oregon in 1972 but dropped out after only one semester, staying on to "drop in" on courses that interested him (Hertzfeld 53). He took a job with video game manufacturer Atari to raise enough money for a trip to India and returned from there a

The Kissnger Qiestion Essay Example for Free

The Kissnger Qiestion Essay The Vietnam War resulted in the deaths of 1.5 million to 3 million Vietnamese and other Indochinese and 58,000 Americans. It was the catalyst for Richard Nixon’s self-induced disgrace. Henry Kissinger played a pivotal role in guiding America’s foreign policy as the war torn nation reeled under the loss of one president to assassination and another to fraud. The Vietnam War singed the conscience of the world and Kissinger found himself where foreign policy and national security converged. National Security Advisor is the one that holds the most strategic meetings at the highest levels of US administration. External and internal threats to the nation’s security and well being should be calculated well in advance; otherwise the entire fabric of security planning lies in shreds. There must have been some constructive and sensible proposals to avert the Vietnam fiasco. It’s fair to ask what alternative course Americas critics would have followed. Some serious people argued for complete withdrawal, on the grounds that the war was already lost. Some have argued that Nixon, after taking office, should have declared that the situation in Vietnam was far worse than he had thought, blame it on the Democrats and seek a deal with the North Vietnamese like the one that was ultimately reached. Meanwhile, the argument goes, Nixon could have used tough rhetoric at home to appease the foreign policy makers. Whether the approach would have worked can’t be known, but had it worked, it certainly would have been preferable to what happened instead. Once in office, Kissinger and Nixon said they were seeking peace with honor: the abandonment of our South Vietnamese allies would be a dishonorable betrayal and would undermine our credibility in the world. America ended up abandoning them anyway. Even overlooking for the moment how the whole thing turned out, the peace with honor formulation was riddled with flaws. And the South Vietnamese regime was known to have been inept and hopelessly corrupt. In writing about the importance of our allies in South Vietnam, Kissinger gives minimal attention to the Vietnamese people but a great deal to South Vietnam’s president Nguyen Van Thieu, calling him a great patriot and a dauntless leader. McNamara and Kissinger, not unlike some American presidents, including Nixon, had myopic affinity for strongmen like the Shah of Iran, Philippines president Ferdinand Marcos. A student of Metternich, the 19th-century Austrian statesman, Kissinger was a practitioner of the realist (or realpolitik) school of diplomacy, which places emphasis on the state’s interests and the use of military power to achieve them, and he preferred to deal with the strong leaders of nation-states who could deliver. The US administration’s complicity in the 1963 overthrow of South Vietnam’s leader General Ngo Dinh Diem conferred legitimacy on the North Vietnamese claim that the South Vietnamese government was illegitimate. Ironically, when all this was happening in Vietnam, the rest of the world could only look and expect. Even the Nobel society that conferred the peace prize to Kissinger made almost no mention of the American lives lost during the Vietnam War, and none of the fact that USAs pursuit of what many saw as a patently hopeless cause may have damaged Vietnam permanently. To see the US side of the story, Nixon had a peculiar governing style. He hated to give direct orders and sometimes issued orders he hoped or expected would not be carried out. He had an aversion to controversy among his advisers. And after Vice President Spiro Agnew said in one meeting that the South Vietnamese, with American support, should attack two North Vietnamese sanctuaries in Cambodia rather than just one, as had been proposed, Nixon agreed. But, according to Kissinger, Nixon was so annoyed that Agnew had staked out a more hawkish position than his own that he excluded Agnew from the next meeting on the war. Even Kissingers colleagues are portrayed as politically astute Mel Laird, secretary of defense, to be slippery. Though, Laird was often proved right about the likely public reaction to proposed U.S. actions. Unfortunately, the men surrounding the president were accomplished charmers, masterly manipulators in a field where manipulation was the job requirement. The Vietnam War was not without its tragicomic aspects. There was the futile hunt for the elusive COSVN, supposedly the North Vietnamese military headquarters in Cambodia—and a leading rationale for U.S. military incursion into Cambodia in 1970. The South Vietnamese troops and their American advisers found only deserted huts. Nevertheless, USA describes the attack as a success, leading to the capture of documents, arms and ammunition, which, according to Karnow, were quickly replaced. There was also the raid by American commandos on the Son Tay prison in North Vietnam, which was believed to hold American prisoners of war but turned out to be empty. U.S. intelligence had said the prison was closed. The war did infuse sacrifice, though not entirely based on moral lines. Historians omit several relevant matters or deals with them in triumphs of understatement. The two senior members of the National Security Agency, Anthony Lake and Roger Morris, quit in 1970 in protest over the expansion of the war into Cambodia. And as for the national upheaval and constitutional crisis that was Watergate, Nixon felt unappreciated for his effort to withdraw troops, that antiwar sentiment touched Nixon on his rawest nerve and that he saw enemies all around him and so engaged in methods of all-out political combat. That’s it. No mention of Nixon’s enemies list; of the White House’s hiring a goon squad (the plumbers) to conduct break-ins; or of Kissinger’s supplying names to the FBI for wiretaps of his own aides and of journalists, to trace leaks about the war. Vietnamese people had to face brutalities of warring factions and deceit of their power hungry leaders. Many years on, we still cannot confidently classify the leaders who could have been true to the national cause or the people of Vietnam. Some critics persisted in believing that given enough time and resources, Americas Vietnam policy would have succeed. In 1975, after Ford had taken office as president with sole card to prevent Saigon’s collapse was additional money from Congress to fund the war effort—an appropriation that Congress was resisting. The denial of the money may well have sped the collapse of the South Vietnamese government, but how long it could have been sustained is another matter. If leaders truly continued to believe in enforcing the type of government, one is forced to conclude that USA would have deluded the world. Kissinger and Nixon were in a bunker of their own, clinging to the false promise of Vietnamization, holding to a misbegotten concept of national honor and railing at the war’s opponents. Great nations have the intent to make the right decisions in critical circumstances. Unfortunately, the reputation of USA is doomed to carry the fact that they failed to take a timely decision in Vietnam. References    John Prados, LOST CRUSADER: The Secret Wars of CIA Director William Colby, Oxford University Press, 2003

Tesco Changing Business Environment

Tesco Changing Business Environment Briefly describe and evaluate the changing business environment at Tesco over the last five years using appropriate theories, models and relevant examples. Introduction Tesco was been founded by Jack Cohen, on his first day he managed to gain a profit of  £1 and sales of  £4. Tesco is ranked third in world for largest grocery retailer, with its operations in more than 14 countries. The name â€Å"Tesco† had appeared first in 1924, and its first shop was opened in London. In 1947 the company was been listed on London Stock Exchange and in 1948 it opened the first self-service shops for business. First Tesco supermarket was opened in 1956 in Essex. In 1947 Tesco started selling Gasoline. Its annual Turnover in 1979 was around 1 billion pounds. It started its first senior department in 1975 and in 1997 Its first Large stores (extra). Companies main purpose is to create value for customers in order to earn them lifetime loyalty. This strategy made them successful and is now the topmost Supermarket in UK. Tesco apart from being one of the largest retailers for food have also embraced the non food products and expanding on household goods, toil etries, electrical items, clothing etc. One of the most important strategies of Tesco is focus on non food items. Business environment: Business environment includes of many factors that affect an organisations operation are customers, competitors, stakeholders, suppliers, industry trends, regulations, other government regulation, social, economic factors and technological developments. â€Å"Business Environment is the total of all things external to business firms and industries which affect their organisation and operations.† (Bayard O Wheeler, 1968) The business depends on many factors, but it has to act and react accordingly inside as well as outside of factory. Changes that occur within a company is called as internal factors and changes outside the company are called as external factors. This effect the objectives and strategies of the company. PESTEL Analysis of Tesco:- PESTLE Political, Economic, Social and Technological factors: analysis measures the market potential and situation, particularly indicating growth or decline Tesco is the giant of all supermarkets due to its UK dominance. Analysis of the marker has shown three main reasons for this. A PESTLE analysis is therefore useful in keeping TESCO up to date with their environmental surroundings, for example, realising in advance that we were heading for a recession would have helped them to plan ahead. Tesco are scattered everywhere both locally and internationally They sell to almost every segment of the society They sell both food and non food items Political: Politically, the recession is one of the main spectrums that are currently affecting all the countries which may lead to higher numbers of unemployment. As one of the largest and fastest growing retailers more jobs will be available with TESCO therefore helping to reduce the levels of unemployment. Economic: One of TESCO’s competitive advantages at present relates to their overwhelming physical presence, there are issues about TESCO driving out the competition from other retailers. There are policies as well as laws and regulations governing monopolies and competition which would be identified though an analysis. This is potentially one of the main issues that TESCO’s are faced with. Protecting consumers and ensuring that entrepreneurs have the opportunity to compete in the market economy are important within consumer law. Due to the current state of the economy, many small businesses are failing and many unable to enter the market. Analysis has helped to assess where location wise there is a demand for expansion. The situation is in no way being assisted by the ever expanding TESCO’s chains of store. Under EU law, there is presumption that an organisation with a large market share is dominant. The concerns with this are that quality of products and service s will slip and there is a risk of paying higher prices. TESCO to date has not been assessed as posing a risk of exploitation but should bear this in mind. This is the reason why regular or continuous scans making use of the PESTLE analysis will lead to continuous assessments which can ensure that TESCO’s dominance is not in any way exploitative. Planning permission is an issue that TESCO seriously need to be aware of due to their continued expansion. Planning permission is heavily regulated in the UK. A thorough analysis would help us to identify the relevant laws on planning permission and whether any resistance to planning was on lawful grounds or merely local people’s dissent. It therefore initially assesses the potential success of a store in a new area. Social: Sociological aspect of the PESTLE analysis involves lifestyle trends, demographics consumer attitudes and opinions, consumer buying patterns major events and influences buying access and trends in the case of Tesco considerations such as the increase in immigration of Eastern Europeans or increase in young professionals. Naturally there is therefore a demand for new goods for example; the career minded professional who is a single person. This has seen a rise in the meals for one or quick microwaveable meals to make cooking quick and easy for those always on the go. Technological : Technological factors which have perhaps had the most impact on TESCO has been the growth in the use of the internet .Internet has given new shape to new day shopping They have capitalised on the use of online shopping forum Tesco direct and provide a delivery service through their website at www.tesco.com.this has aided the company to cater to a larger segment of people at their convenience. TESCO’s are also instrumental as a retailer in supporting carbon reductions and have created a  £100 million Sustainable Technology Fund for this purpose. They also encourage their customers to make low carbon choices. Yet if TESCO’s did not take their corporate responsibilities seriously in relation to environmental issues it could have face consequences for TESCO’s reputation. By doing a PESTLE analysis we can analyse the development and the success of TESCO’s in addition to the day to day management of each store in line with strategic decisions. Without knowing what external factors affect the organisation, it is difficult to manage the business in an efficient manner. Tescos Business Operations Understanding thorough various business models, all companies need several business strategies to run their business in a smooth manner. They follow various methods to do so. One of the major is to analysis the strengths weakness of the company along with the opportunities it has and which may arise in future and the threats which they may face. SWOT Analysis Strength, weakness, Threat and Opportunities Strengths 1. Tesco is one of the largest and renowned grocery retailers. The brand name is one of the biggest strengths they possesses. They have diversified into different countries with about 1 million workforces from different backgrounds and different age groups. During the decline of global retail overall sales the company has still shown a growth of 13% within the UK markets and 26% internationally .They have won several retail awards for keeping up their standards and providing best retails services keeping in mind their corporate responsibilities . They are continuously expanding with propositions of opening several stores on an international level. 2. Of the major supermarkets in the UK, only Tesco, The Co-operative, Iceland and Sainsburys offer loyalty card schemes to customers. Customers can collect two Club card points for every  £1 (or one point for â‚ ¬1 in Ireland and Slovakia) they spend in a Tesco store, or Tesco.com, and 1 point per  £1 in petrol station (not in Slovakia). Customers can also collect points by paying with a Tesco Credit Card, or by using Tesco Mobile, Tesco Homophone, Tesco Broadband, selected Tesco Personal Finance products or through Club card partners, E.ON and Avis. Each point equates to 1p in store when redeemed or 4p when used with club card deals (offers for holidays, day trips, etc). Club card points (UK IE) can also be converted to Air miles. Club card points are also converted into coupons which can be redeemed for extra points or cash totals. 3. They use its own-brand products, including the upmarket Finest, mid-range Tesco brand and low-price Value encompassing several product categories such as food, beverage, home, clothing, Tesco Mobile and financial services. Weaknesses 1. Due to the current economic conditions TESCOs may suffer from the rising cost of living and lower incomes available to the public resulting in less demand for the non essential and mid to high priced items. 2. Due to the ongoing recession TESCOs Finance profit levels were impacted through bad debt, credit card arrears and household insurance claims. This could continue if the market doesn’t see change soon. 3. TESCOs has retained its position as a price leader in UK markets for which they had to reduce profit margins in order to retain the key price points on commercial items. 4. Grocer outlets are not set up to operate as specialist retailers in specific areas of product which can be capitalised on by smaller retailers and things can be sold locally. Threats 1. Due to the ongoing recession UK and American markets have been affected by economic concerns. Loss of employment and Lower income available will impact and strategic focus may need to change to lower priced basic products with less focus on higher priced brands and luxury products suggesting a change in pricing structure. 2. Due to modern development and constant changes in technology there are a lot of changes to consumer buying behaviours. Requiring further analysis as technology develops consumer buying patterns change which will result in product areas requiring evaluation constantly to keep up with the demands. 3. Rising raw material costs from both food and non food will impact profit margins overall. 4. Sourcing changes to Far East locations with regards exporting restrictions on some non food product areas will reduce margin rates on products with already low margins. 5. Tesco has always feared the threat of takeover from the market leader Wal-Mart who has both means and motive to pursue such action. Wal-Mart has been a leader especially in the US market for few years now. With its alliance with ASDA in the UK they are one of the nearest competitors. Opportunities 1. After researching the growth figures and sales of Tesco the statics suggest that TESCO is the third largest global grocer which indicates a level of buying power to ensure mainstream economies of scale. 2. The acquisition of Homever provides the opportunity to develop the brand through Asia, specifically South Korea and further grow International markets for the group. 3. Tesco Direct has been one of the recent and great achievements which has been seen as one of the important tools in increasing the sales margins. The online and catalogue shopping will grow the use of technology, providing the launch pad for larger non food based products with moderate to high margin returns and less focus on sales and margin per foot return to space. The development of such platforms not only help in saving retail space but reach a larger number of people. 4. TESCO mobile have grown  ¼ million customers in 2008 and moved into profitable status suggesting further growth and development within this technological area can be developed. Tesco’s Market Share (Figures based on year 2008-2009) in comparison with the closest competitors ASDA, Morrison, Sainsbury) Fig 1 TESCO’s growth chart over the last five years (2005-2009) showing constant growth in turnover and profit. Bowman strategy Its another suitable way to analyze a companys competitive position in comparison to the offerings of competitors. Bowman considers competitive advantage in relation to cost advantage or differentiation advantage. There are six core strategic options Low price / low added value: this option is based on segmentation. Tesco has products that will be suitable for different geographical areas, population or age Low Price: this option signifies the importance of being the cost leader. The company has to the risk of price war and low margins Hybrid the Company need to take care of the cycle of reinvestment by keeping a low cost base and low price Differentiation: Differentiation can be created either with a price premium the perceived added value should be sufficient enough to bear the price premium or without where the perceived value by user yielding market share benefits Focused differentiation: the company tries to focus on perceived added value to a particular segment which will assure a premium price. Increased price standard: keeping higher margins in case competitor do not want value risking loosing the market share Increased price /low values .this option will only work if the company holds a monopoly and has no competitors Low value standard price: in this option one would lose the market share as the value provided is low at a standard price of the market Tescos Steering Wheel (1997)- Key performance indicators :The rationale for the strategy is to broaden the scope of the business to enable it to deliver strong sustainable long-term growth by following the customer into large expanding markets at home – such as financial services, non-food and telecoms – and new markets abroad, initially in Central Europe and Asia, and more recently in the United States. The strategies and objectives of the company: Tesco has a well-established and consistent strategy for growth, which has allowed us to strengthen our core UK business and drive expansion into new markets. †¢ To be a successful international retailer: Tesco is focusing on not only a full expansion within the UK but also throughout the world. Currently they have several projects including reopening of retail outlets in countries like China, India, Brazil. †¢ To grow the core UK business: Tesco wants to provide excellent customer service and value to all customers thought the UK †¢ To be as strong in non-food as in food. The expansion of hypermarket style supermarkets and the emphasis of sale of non products have increased over the last few years .non food represents a significant profit opportunity I have tried to look at the overall company’s policies and strategies of Tesco to be as strong in non food item like it does in food. †¢ To develop retailing services such as Tesco Personal Finance, Telecoms and Tesco.com †¢ To put community at the heart of what we do: Tesco emphasis on providing value services and to earn life time loyalty. They take initiative in developing the community and making an effort to shape the environment for betterment. The policies they follow include using fair trade policies, creating shared value, social accounting etc. They have close affiliations with charitable organizations like cancer research, race for life etc The growth of any product sale depends on different aspects. I have visited nearly all Tesco formats and had a view of what Tesco is offering and how the services are provided for the same Earning Customer Loyalty- What is in place and how have they improved over the five year – loyalty card , membership Tesco’s Club card program boasts 10 million active households and captures 85% of weekly sales. It is also a symbol of Tesco’s commitment to their customers as individuals: multidimensional customer segmentation and tailored communications as of last June, four million unique quarterly mailings prove to Tesco’s customers that they can count on their â€Å"local grocer† to know them. Mailings are tailored to the needs, interests, and potential interests of Club Card members. Customers are segmented into cost conscious, mid-market, and up-market segments, which are in turn segmented into healthy, gourmet, convenient, family living, and so on. These sub segments are then segmented further and communications are tailored to each. Impressively, Club Card coupon redemption is in the 20%-40% range and cost per redemption decreased since the inception of the Club Card Program. By targeting in such a relevant way and treating customers according to their individual behaviors, needs, and desires, Tesco came to understand that a higher-value coupon is not needed when you’ve reached the right person in the right way with a tailored message. In the five year period following the implementation of the Club Card program, sales have increased by 52% and still grow at a rate higher than the industry average. Store openings and expansions have increased Tesco’s floor space by 150%. In the online space, tesco.com boasts 500,000 transactions weekly, totaling nearly two billion pounds in sales each year. The profitability, plus the size of the tesco.com business and the number of transactions it completes, makes tesco.com a truly unique online grocery store. (http://www.loyalty.vg/pages/CRM/case_study_14_Tesco.htm) Conclusion and recommendation: After a thorough research of Tesco as a company, its strategies and the turnover and sales figures it can be assessed that the company has been on a constant growth graph. The company is facing few challenges due to recession and constant technological developments however with their strategies they are turning them into opportunities. The company not only is focusing at a diversified and international market but is also doing it in way which will not only benefit it customers and meet the corporate responsibility. They currently also are one of the leaders in the UK market with 30% share and 3rd internationally. Tesco also y launched a new range of cheaper discount goods to stop shoppers deserting, which hit Tescos top-line sales as shoppers traded down to the new items. Shoppers now buy an average of two items each from the discount range. The launch of the Tesco Club card to encourage shopper loyalty is also been a great advantage. The company should focus on dealing with recessi on and devising new ways to keep up with the market share than slashing the prices down to meet competition. Bibliography References: http://www.tescoplc.com/plc/about_us/strategy/ http://www.businessballs.com/portersfiveforcesofcompetition.htm http://www.oppapers.com/essays/Tesco/249648 http://www.modelanswer.co.uk/business/help/pestle/tescos.php http://www.businessteacher.org.uk/business-resources/swot-analysis-database/tesco-swot-analysis/ http://www.tescoplc.com/plc/about_us/strategy/community/ http://www.oppapers.com/essays/Tesco/249648 http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/jun/16/tesco-sales-losing-market-share Other Essays on Tesco Other essays available on the Tesco organisations are: Tesco Business analysis Tesco is one of the leading supermarkets Tesco Strategy analysis Tesco SWOT analysis Tesco Fresh Veg Supply Chain Management

Prelude to Foundation Chapter 6 Rescue

LEGGEN, JENARR-†¦ His contributions to meteorology, however, although considerable, pale before what has ever since been known as the Leggen Controversy. That his actions helped to place Hari Seldon in jeopardy is undisputable, but argument rages-and has always raged-as to whether those actions were the result of unintentional circumstance or part of a deliberate conspiracy. Passions have been raised on both sides and even the most elaborate studies have come to no definite conclusions. Nevertheless, the suspicions that were raised helped poison Leggen's career and private life in the years that followed†¦ Encyclopedia Galactica 25. It was not quite the end of daylight when Dors Venabili sought out Jenarr Leggen. He answered her rather anxious greeting with a grunt and a brief nod. â€Å"Well,† she said a trifle impatiently. â€Å"How was he?† Leggen, who was entering data into his computer, said, â€Å"How was who?† â€Å"My library student Hari. Dr. Hari Seldon. He went up with you. Was he any help to you?† Leggen removed his hands from the keys of his computer and swivelled about. â€Å"That Heliconian fellow? He was of no use at all. Showed no interest whatever. He kept looking at the scenery when there was no scenery to look at. A real oddball. Why did you want to send him up?† â€Å"It wasn't my idea. He wanted to. I can't understand it. He was very interested. Where is he now?† Leggen shrugged. â€Å"How would I know? Somewhere around.† â€Å"Where did he go after he came down with you? Did he say?† â€Å"He didn't come down with us. I told you he wasn't interested.† â€Å"Then when did he come down?† â€Å"I don't know. I wasn't watching him. I had an enormous amount of work to do. There must have been a windstorm and some sort of downpour about two days ago and neither was expected. Nothing our instruments showed offered a good explanation for it or for the fact that some sunshine we were expecting today didn't appear. Now I'm trying to make sense of it and you're bothering me.† â€Å"You mean you didn't see him go down?† â€Å"Look. He wasn't on my mind. The idiot wasn't correctly dressed and I could see that inside of half an hour he wasn't going to be able to take the cold. I gave him a sweater, but that wasn't going to help much for his legs and feet. So I left the elevator open for him and I told him how to use it and explained that it would take him down and then return automatically. It was all very simple and I'm sure he did get cold and he did go down and the elevator did come back and then eventually we all went down.† â€Å"But you don't know exactly when he went down?† â€Å"No, I don't. I told you. I was busy. He certainly wasn't up there when we left, though, and by that time twilight was coming on and it looked as though it might sleet. So he had to have gone down.† â€Å"Did anyone else see him go down?† â€Å"I don't know. Clowzia may have. She was with him for a while. Why don't you ask her?† Dors found Clowzia in her quarters, just emerging from a hot shower. â€Å"It was cold up there,† she said. Dors said, â€Å"Were you with Hari Seldon Upperside?† Clowzia said, eyebrows lifting, â€Å"Yes, for a while. He wanted to wander about and ask questions about the vegetation up there. He's a sharp fellow, Dors. Everything seemed to interest him, so I told him what I could till Leggen called me back. He was in one of his knock-your-head-off tempers. The weather wasn't working and he-â€Å" Dors interrupted. â€Å"Then you didn't see Hari go down in the elevator?† â€Å"I didn't see him at all after Leggen called me over.-But he has to be down here. He wasn't up there when we left.† â€Å"But I can't find him anywhere.† Clowzia looked perturbed. â€Å"Really?-But he's got to be somewhere down here.† â€Å"No, he doesn't have to be somewhere down here,† said Dors, her anxiety growing. â€Å"What if he's still up there?† â€Å"That's impossible. He wasn't. Naturally, we looked about for him before we left. Leggen had shown him how to go down. He wasn't properly dressed and it was rotten weather. Leggen told him if he got cold not to wait for us. He was getting cold. I know! So what else could he do but go down?† â€Å"But no one saw him go down.-Did anything go wrong with him up there?† â€Å"Nothing. Not while I was with him. He was perfectly fine except that he had to be cold, of course.† Dors, by now quite unsettled, said, â€Å"Since no one saw him go down, he might still be up there. Shouldn't we go up and look?† Clowzia said nervously, â€Å"I told you we looked around before we went down. It was still quite light and he was nowhere in sight.† â€Å"Let's look anyway.† â€Å"But I can't take you up there. I'm just an intern and I don't have the combination for the Upperside dome opening. You'll have to ask Dr. Leggen.† 26. Dors Venabili knew that Leggen would not willingly go Upperside now. He would have to be forced. First, she checked the library and the dining areas again. Then she called Seldon's room. Finally, she went up there and signaled at the door. When Seldon did not respond, she had the floor manager open it. He wasn't there. She questioned some of those who, over the last few weeks, had come to know him. No one had seen him. Well, then, she would make Leggen take her Upperside. By now, though, it was night. He would object strenuously and how long could she spend arguing if Hari Seldon was trapped up there on a freezing night with sleet turning to snow? A thought occurred to her and she rushed to the small University computer, which kept track of the doings of the students, faculty, and service staff. Her fingers flew over the keys and she soon had what she wanted. There were three of them in another part of the campus. She signed out for a small glidecart to take her over and found the domicile she was looking for. Surely, one of them would be available-or findable. Fortune was with her. The first door at which she signaled was answered by a query light. She punched in her identification number, which included her department affiliation. The door opened and a plump middle-aged man stared out at her. He had obviously been washing up before dinner. His dark blond hair was askew and he was not wearing any upper garment. He said, â€Å"Sorry. You catch me at a disadvantage. What can I do for you, Dr. Venabili?† She said a bit breathlessly, â€Å"You're Rogen Benastra, the Chief Seismologist, aren't you?† â€Å"Yes.† â€Å"This is an emergency. I must see the seismological records for Upperside for the last few hours.† Benastra stared at her. â€Å"Why? Nothing's happened. I'd know if it had. The seismograph would inform us.† â€Å"I'm not talking about a meteoric impact.† â€Å"Neither am I. We don't need a seismograph for that. I'm talking about gravel, pinpoint fractures. Nothing today.† â€Å"Not that either. Please. Take me to the seismograph and read it for me. This is life or death.† â€Å"I have a dinner appointment-â€Å" â€Å"I said life or death and I mean it.† Benastra said, â€Å"I don't see-† but he faded out under Dors's glare. He wiped his face, left quick word on his message relay, end struggled into a shirt. They half-ran (under Dors's pitiless urging) to the small squat Seismology Building. Dors, who knew nothing about seismology, said, â€Å"Down? We're going down?† â€Å"Below the inhabited levels. Of course. The seismograph has to be fixed to bedrock and be removed from the constant clamor and vibration of the city levels.† â€Å"But how can you tell what's happening Upperside from down here?† â€Å"The seismograph is wired to a set of pressure transducers located within the thickness of the dome. The impact of a speck of grit will send the indicator skittering off the screen. We can detect the flattening effect on the dome of a high wind. We can-â€Å" â€Å"Yes, yes,† said Dors impatiently. She was not here for a lecture on the virtues and refinements of the instruments. â€Å"Can you detect human footsteps?† â€Å"Human footsteps?† Benastra looked confused. â€Å"That's not likely Upperside.† â€Å"Of course it's likely. There were a group of meteorologists Upperside this afternoon.† â€Å"Oh. Well, footsteps would scarcely be noticeable.† â€Å"It would be noticeable if you looked hard enough and that's what I want you to do.† Benastra might have resented the firm note of command in her voice, but, if so, he said nothing. He touched a contact and the computer screen jumped to life. At the extreme right center, there was a fat spot of light, from which a thin horizontal line stretched to the left limit of the screen. There was a tiny wriggle to it, a random non-repetitive seder of little hiccups and these moved steadily leftward. It was almost hypnotic in its effect on Dors. Benastra said, â€Å"That's as quiet as it can possibly be. Anything you see is the result of changing air pressure above, raindrops maybe, the distant whirr of machinery. There's nothing up there.† â€Å"All right, but what about a few hours ago? Check on the records at fifteen hundred today, for instance. Surely, you have some recordings.† Benastra gave the computer its necessary instructions and for a second or two there was wild chaos on the screen. Then it settled down and again the horizontal line appeared. â€Å"I'll sensitize it to maximum,† muttered Benastra. There were now pronounced hiccups and as they staggered leftward they changed in pattern markedly. â€Å"What's that?† said Dors. â€Å"Tell me.† â€Å"Since you say there were people up there, Venabili, I would guess they were footsteps-the shifting of weight, the impact of shoes. I don't know that I would have guessed it if I hadn't known about the people up there. Its what we call a benign vibration, not associated with anything we know to be dangerous.† â€Å"Can you tell how many people are present?† â€Å"Certainly not by eye. You see, we're getting a resultant of all the impacts.† â€Å"You say ‘not by eye.' Can the resultant be analyzed into its components by the computer?† â€Å"I doubt it. These are minimal effects and you have to allow for the inevitable noise. The results would be untrustworthy.† â€Å"Well then. Move the time forward till the footstep indications stop. Can you make it fast-forward, so to speak?† â€Å"If I do-the kind of fast-forward you're speaking of-then it will all just blur into a straight line with a slight haze above and below. What I can do is move it forward in fifteen-minute stages and study it quickly before moving on.† â€Å"Good. Do that!† Both watched the screen until Benastra said, â€Å"There's nothing there now. See?† There was again a line with nothing but tiny uneven hiccups of noise. â€Å"When did the footsteps stop?† â€Å"Two hours ago. A trifle more.† â€Å"And when they stopped were there fewer than there were earlier?† Benastra looked mildly outraged. â€Å"I couldn't tell. I don't think the finest analysis could make a certain decision.† Dors pressed her lips together. Then she said, â€Å"Are you testing a transducer-is that what you called it-near the meteorological outlet?† â€Å"Yes, that's where the instruments are and that's where the meteorologists would have been.† Then, unbelievingly, â€Å"Do you want me to try others in the vicinity? One at a time?† â€Å"No. Stay on this one. But keep on going forward at fifteen-minute intervals. One person may have been left behind and may have made his way back to the instruments.† Benastra shook his head and muttered something under his breath. The screen shifted again and Dors said sharply, â€Å"What's that?† She was pointing. â€Å"I don't know. Noise.† â€Å"No. Its periodic. Could it be a single person's footsteps?† â€Å"Sure, but it could be a dozen other things too.† â€Å"It's coming along at about the time of footsteps, isn't it?† Then, after a while, she said, â€Å"Push it forward a little.† He did and when the screen settled down she said, â€Å"Aren't those unevennesses getting bigger?† â€Å"Possibly. We can measure them.† â€Å"We don't have to. You can see they're getting bigger. The footsteps are approaching the transducer. Go forward again. See when they stop.† After a while Benastra said, â€Å"They stopped twenty or twenty-five minutes ago.† Then cautiously, â€Å"Whatever they are.† â€Å"They're footsteps,† said Dors with mountain-moving conviction. â€Å"There's a man up there and while you and I have been fooling around here, he's collapsed and he's going to freeze and die. Now don't say, ‘Whatever they are!' Just call Meteorology and get me Jenarr Leggen. Life or death, I tell you. Say so!† Benastra, lips quivering, had passed the stage where he could possibly resist anything this strange and passionate woman demanded. It took no more than three minutes to get Leggen's hologram on the message platform. He had been pulled away from his dinner table. There was a napkin in his hand and a suspicious greasiness under his lower lip. His long face was set in a fearful scowl. † ‘Life or death?' What is this? Who are you?† Then his eye caught Dors, who had moved closer to Benastra so that her image would be seen on Jenarr's screen. He said, â€Å"You again. This is simple harassment.† Dors said, â€Å"It is not. I have consulted Rogen Benastra, who is Chief Seismologist at the University. After you and your party had left Upperside, the seismograph shows clear footsteps of one person still there. It's my student Hari Seldon, who went up there in your care and who is now, quite certainly, lying in a collapsed stupor and may not live long. â€Å"You will, therefore, take me up there right now with whatever equipment may be necessary. If you do not do so immediately, I shall proceed to University security-to the President himself, if necessary. One way or another I'll get up there and if anything has happened to Hari because you delay one minute, I will see to it that you are hauled in for negligence, incompetence-whatever I can make stick-and will have you lose all status and be thrown out of academic life. And if he's dead, of course, that's manslaughter by negligence. Or worse, since I've now warned you he's dying.† Jenarr, furious, turned to Benastra. â€Å"Did you detect-â€Å" But Dors cut in. â€Å"He told me what he detected and I've told you. I do not intend to allow you to bulldoze him into confusion. Are you coming? Now?† â€Å"Has it occurred to you that you may be mistaken?† said Jenarr, thin-lipped. â€Å"Do you know what I can do to you if this is a mischievous false alarm? Loss of status works both ways.† â€Å"Murder doesn't,† said Dors. â€Å"I'm ready to chance a trial for malicious mischief. Are you ready to chance a trial for murder?† Jenarr reddened, perhaps more at the necessity of giving in than at the threat. â€Å"I'll come, but I'll have no mercy on you, young woman, if your student eventually turns out to have been safe within the dome these past three hours.† 27. The three went up the elevator in an inimical silence. Leggen had eaten only part of his dinner and had left his wife at the dining area without adequate explanation. Benastra had eaten no dinner at all and had possibly disappointed some woman companion, also without adequate explanation. Dors Venabili had not eaten either and she seemed the most tense and unhappy of the three. She carried a thermal blanket and two photonic founts. When they reached the entrance to Upperside, Leggen, jaw muscles tightening, entered his identification number and the door opened. A cold wind rushed at them and Benastra grunted. None of the three was adequately dressed, but the two men had no intention of remaining up there long. Dors said tightly, â€Å"It's snowing.† Leggen said, â€Å"It's wet snow. The temperature's just about at the freezing point. It's not a killing frost.† â€Å"It depends on how long one remains in it, doesn't it?† said Dors. â€Å"And being soaked in melting snow won't help.† Leggen grunted. â€Å"Well, where is he?† He stared resentfully out into utter blackness, made even worse by the light from the entrance behind him. Dors said, â€Å"Here, Dr. Benastra, hold this blanket for me. And you, Dr. Leggen, close the door behind you without locking it.† â€Å"There's no automatic lock on it. Do you think we're foolish?† â€Å"Perhaps not, but you can lock it from the inside and leave anyone outside unable to get into the dome.† â€Å"If someone's outside, point him out. Show him to me,† said Leggen. â€Å"He could be anywhere.† Dors lifted her arms with a photonic fount circling each wrist. â€Å"We can't look everywhere,† mumbled Benastra miserably. The founts blazed into light, spraying in every direction. The snowflakes glittered like a vast mob of fireflies, making it even more difficult to see. â€Å"The footsteps were getting steadily louder,† said Dors. â€Å"He had to be approaching the transducer. Where would it be located?† â€Å"I haven't any idea,† snapped Leggen.-That's outside my field and my responsibility.† â€Å"Dr. Benastra?† Benastra's reply was hesitant. â€Å"I don't really know. To tell you the truth, I've never been up here before. It was installed before my time. The computer knows, but we never thought to ask it that.-I'm cold and I don't see what use I am up here.† â€Å"You'll have to stay up here for a while,† said Dors firmly. â€Å"Follow me. I'm going to circle the entrance in an outward spiral.† â€Å"We can't see much through the snow,† said Leggen. â€Å"I know that. If it wasn't snowing, we'd have seen him by now. I'm sure of it. As it is, it may take a few minutes. We can stand that.† She was by no means as confident as her words made it appear. She began to walk, swinging her arms, playing the light over as large a field as she could, straining her eyes for a dark blotch against the snow. And, as it happened, it was Benastra who first said, â€Å"What's that?† and pointed. Dors overlapped the two founts, making a bright cone of light in the indicated direction. She ran toward it, as did the other two. They had found him, huddled and wet, about ten meters from the door, five from the nearest meteorological device. Dors felt for his heartbeat, but it was not necessary for, responding to her touch, Seldon stirred and whimpered. â€Å"Give me the blanket, Dr. Benastra,† said Dors in a voice that was faint with relief. She flapped it open and spread it out in the snow. â€Å"Lift him onto it carefully and I'll wrap him. Then we'll carry him down.† In the elevator, vapors were rising from the wrapped Seldon as the blanket warmed to blood temperature. Dors said, â€Å"Once we have him in his room, Dr. Leggen, you get a doctor-a good one-and see that he comes at once. If Dr. Seldon gets through this without harm, I won't say anything, but only if he does. Remember-â€Å" â€Å"You needn't lecture me,† said Leggen coldly. â€Å"I regret this and I will do what I can, but my only fault was in allowing this man to come Upperside in the first place.† The blanket stirred and a low, weak voice made itself heard. Benastra started, for Seldon's head was cradled in the crook of his elbow. He said, â€Å"He's trying to say something.† Dors said, â€Å"I know. He said, ‘What's going on?' â€Å" She couldn't help but laugh just a little. It seemed such a normal thing to say. 28. The doctor was delighted. â€Å"I've never seen a case of exposure,† he explained. â€Å"One doesn't get exposed on Trantor.† â€Å"That may be,† said Dors coldly, â€Å"and I'm happy you have the chance to experience this novelty, but does it mean that you do not know how to treat Dr. Seldon?† The doctor, an elderly man with a bald head and a small gray mustache, bristled. â€Å"Of course, I do. Exposure cases on the Outer Worlds are common enough-an everyday affair-and I've read a great deal about them.† Treatment consisted in part of an antiviral serum and the use of a microwave wrapping. â€Å"This ought to take care of it,† the doctor said. â€Å"On the Outer Worlds, they make use of much more elaborate equipment in hospitals, but we don't have that, of course, on Trantor. This is a treatment for mild cases and I'm sure it will do the job.† Dors thought later, as Seldon was recovering without particular injury, that it was perhaps because he was an Outworlder that he had survived so well. Dark, cold, even snow were not utterly strange to him. A Trantorian probably would have died in a similar case, not so much from physical trauma as from psychic shock. She was not sure of this, of course, since she herself was not a Trantorian either. And, turning her mind away from these thoughts, she pulled up a chair near to Hari's bed and settled down to wait. 29. On the second morning Seldon stirred awake and looked up at Dors, who sat at his bedside, viewing a book-film and taking notes. In a voice that was almost normal, Seldon said, â€Å"Still here, Dors?† She put down the book-film. â€Å"I can't leave you alone, can I? And I don't trust anyone else.† â€Å"It seems to me that every time I wake up, I see you. Have you been here all the time?† â€Å"Sleeping or waking, yes.† â€Å"But your classes?† â€Å"I have an assistant who has taken over for a while.† Dors leaned over and grasped Hari's hand. Noticing his embarrassment (he was, after all, in bed), she removed it. â€Å"Hari, what happened? I was so frightened.† Seldon said, â€Å"I have a confession to make.† â€Å"What is it, Hari?† â€Å"I thought perhaps you were part of a conspiracy-â€Å" â€Å"A conspiracy?† she said vehemently. â€Å"I mean, to maneuver me Upperside where I'd be outside University jurisdiction and therefore subject to being picked up by Imperial forces.† â€Å"But Upperside isn't outside University jurisdiction. Sector jurisdiction on Trantor is from the planetary center to the sky.† â€Å"Ah, I didn't know that. But you didn't come with me because you said you had a busy schedule and, when I was getting paranoid, I thought you were deliberately abandoning me. Please forgive me. Obviously, it was you who got me down from there. Did anyone else care?† â€Å"They were busy men,† said Dors carefully. â€Å"They thought you had come down earlier. I mean, it was a legitimate thought.† â€Å"Clowzia thought so too?† â€Å"The young intern? Yes, she did.† â€Å"Well, it may still have been a conspiracy. Without you, I mean.† â€Å"No, Hari, it is my fault. I had absolutely no right to let you go Upperside alone. It was my job to protect you. I can't stop blaming myself for what happened, for you getting lost.† â€Å"Now, wait a minute,† said Seldon, suddenly irritated. â€Å"I didn't get lost. What do you think I am?† â€Å"I'd like to know what you call it. You were nowhere around when the others left and you didn't get back to the entrance-or to the neighborhood of the entrance anyway-till well after dark.† â€Å"But that's not what happened. I didn't get lost just because I wandered away and couldn't find my way back. I told you I was suspecting a conspiracy and I had cause to do so. I'm not totally paranoid.† â€Å"Well then, what did happen?† Seldon told her. He had no trouble remembering it in full detail; he had lived with it in nightmare for most of the preceding day. Dors listened with a frown. â€Å"But that's impossible. A jet-down? Are you sure?† â€Å"Of course I'm sure. Do you think I was hallucinating?† â€Å"But the Imperial forces could not have been searching for you. They could not have arrested you Upperside without creating the same ferocious rumpus they would have if they had sent in a police force to arrest you on campus.† â€Å"Then how do you explain it?† â€Å"I'm not sure,† said Dors, â€Å"but it's possible that the consequences of my failure to go Upperside with you might have been worse than they were and that Hummin will be seriously angry with me.† â€Å"Then let's not tell him,† said Seldon. â€Å"It ended well.† â€Å"We must tell him,† said Dors grimly. â€Å"This may not be the end.† 30. That evening Jenarr Leggen came to visit. It was after dinner and he looked from Dors to Seldon several times, as though wondering what to say. Neither offered to help him, but both waited patiently. He had not impressed either of them as being a master of small talk. Finally he said to Seldon, â€Å"I've come to see how you are.† â€Å"Perfectly well,† said Seldon, â€Å"except that I'm a little sleepy. Dr. Venabili tells me that the treatment will keep me tired for a few days, presumably so I'm sure of getting needed rest.† He smiled. â€Å"Frankly, I don't mind.† Leggen breathed in deeply, let it out, hesitated, and then, almost as though he was forcing the words out of himself, said, â€Å"I won't keep you long. I perfectly understand you need to rest. I do want to say, though, that I am sorry it all happened. I should not have assumed-so casually-that you had gone down by yourself. Since you were a tyro, I should have felt more responsible for you. After all, I had agreed to let you come up. I hope you can find it in your heart to†¦ forgive me. That's really all I wish to say.† Seldon yawned, putting his hand over his mouth. â€Å"Pardon me.-Since it seems to have turned out well, there need be no hard feelings. In some ways, it was not your fault. I should not have wandered away and, besides, what happened was-â€Å" Dors interrupted. â€Å"Now, Hari, please, no conversation. Just relax. Now, I want to talk to Dr. Leggen just a bit before he goes. In the first place, Dr. Leggen, I quite understand you are concerned about how repercussions from this affair will affect you. I told you there would be no follow-up if Dr. Seldon recovered without ill effects. That seems to be taking place, so you may relax-for now. I would like to ask you about something else and I hope that this time I will have your free cooperation.† â€Å"I will try, Dr. Venabili,† said Leggen stiffly. â€Å"Did anything unusual happen during your stay Upperside?† â€Å"You know it did. I lost Dr. Seldon, something for which I have just apologized.† â€Å"Obviously I'm not referring to that. Did anything else unusual happen?† â€Å"No, nothing. Nothing at all.† Dors looked at Seldon and Seldon frowned. It seemed to him that Dors was trying to check on his story and get an independent account. Did she think he was imagining the search vessel? He would have liked to object heatedly, but she had raised a quieting hand at him, as though she was preventing that very eventuality. He subsided, partly because of this and partly because he really wanted to sleep. He hoped that Leggen would not stay long. â€Å"Are you certain?† said Dors. â€Å"Were there no intrusions from outside?† â€Å"No, of course not. Oh-â€Å" â€Å"Yes, Dr. Leggen?† â€Å"There was a jet-down.† â€Å"Did that strike you as peculiar?† â€Å"No, of course not.† â€Å"Why not?† â€Å"This sounds very much as though I'm being cross-examined, Dr. Venabili. I don't much like it.† â€Å"I can appreciate that, Dr. Leggen, but these questions have something to do with Dr. Seldon's misadventure. It may be that this whole affair is more complicated than I had thought.† â€Å"In what way?† A new edge entered his voice. â€Å"Do you intend to raise new questions, requiring new apologies? In that case, I may find it necessary to withdraw.† â€Å"Not, perhaps, before you explain how it is you do not find a hovering jet-down a bit peculiar.† â€Å"Because, my dear woman, a number of meteorological stations on Trantor possess jet-downs for the direct study of clouds and the upper atmosphere. Our own meteorological station does not.† â€Å"Why not? It would be useful.† â€Å"Of course. But we're not competing and we're not keeping secrets. We will report on our findings; they will report on theirs. It makes sense, therefore, to have a scattering of differences and specializations. It would be foolish to duplicate efforts completely. The money and manpower we might spend on jet-downs can be spent on mesonic refractometers, while others will spend on the first and save on the latter. After all, there may be a great deal of competitiveness and ill feeling among the sectors, but science is one thing-only thing-that holds us together. You know that, I presume,† he added ironically. â€Å"I do, but isn't it rather coincidental that someone should be sending a jet-down right to your station on the very day you were going to use the station?† â€Å"No coincidence at all. We announced that we were going to make measurements on that day and, consequently, some other station thought, very properly, that they might make simultaneous nephelometric measurements-clouds, you know. The results, taken together, would make more sense and be more useful than either taken separately.† Seldon said suddenly in a rather blurred voice, â€Å"They were just measuring, then?† He yawned again. â€Å"Yes† said Leggen. â€Å"What else would they possibly be doing?† Dors blinked her eyes, as she sometimes did when she was trying to think rapidly. â€Å"That all makes sense. To which station did this particular jet-down belong?† Leggen shook his head. â€Å"Dr. Venabili, how can you possibly expect me to tell?† â€Å"I thought that each meteorological jet-down might possibly have its station's markings on it.† â€Å"Surely, but I wasn't looking up and studying it, you know. I had my own work to do and I let them do theirs. When they report, I'll know whose jet-down it was.† â€Å"What if they don't report?† â€Å"Then I would suppose their instruments failed. That happens sometimes.† His right fist was clenched. â€Å"Is that all, then?† â€Å"Wait a moment. Where do you suppose the jet-down might have come from?† â€Å"It might be any station with jet-downs. On a day's notice-and they got more than that-one of those vessels can reach us handily from anyplace on the planet.† â€Å"But who most likely?† â€Å"Hard to say: Hestelonia, Wye, Ziggoreth, North Damiano. I'd say one of these four was the most likely, but it might be any of forty others at least.† â€Å"Just one more question, then. Just one. Dr. Leggen, when you announced that your group would be Upperside, did you by any chance say that a mathematician, Dr. Hari Seldon, would be with you.† A look of apparently deep and honest surprise crossed Leggen's face, a look that quickly turned contemptuous. â€Å"Why should I list names? Of what interest would that be to anyone?† â€Å"Very well,† said Dors. â€Å"The truth of the matter, then, is that Dr. Seldon saw the jet-down and it disturbed him. I am not certain why and apparently his memory is a bit fuzzy on the matter. He more or less ran away from the jet-down, got himself lost, didn't think of trying to return-or didn't dare to-till it was well into twilight, and didn't quite make it back in the dark. You can't be blamed for that, so let's forget the whole incident on both sides. â€Å"Agreed,† said Leggen. â€Å"Good-bye!† He turned on his heel and left. When he was gone, Dors rose, pulled off Seldon's slippers gently, straightened him in his bed, and covered him. He was sleeping, of course. Then she sat down and thought. How much of what Leggen had said was true and what might possibly exist under the cover of his words? She did not know.

Studying The Changes Of Global Warming Environmental Sciences Essay

Scientific researches over the decennaries have shown that clime alteration on our planet can happen as a consequence of both anthropogenetic causes every bit good as natural 1s. The GSA, Geological Society of America, concurs with the appraisals done by the National Research council, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) and the National Academies of Science that the planetary clime has warmed and that the activities that are human, in peculiar emanations of green house gases, is the chief perpetrator of this heating that has been taking topographic point since the mid 1900 ‘s. in order to understand how and what is bespeaking planetary heating this paper will look at climatic informations for The Wabash River Watershed that day of the months from the 1960 ‘s to the 1990 ‘s. The information comprises of both the H2O on the surface and that in the ambiance that has been planned on a monthly footing with regard to this part. This includes minimal, maxima l every bit good as the mean temperatures for the month. In add-on, informations on precipitation which includes yearss of visible radiation, entire precipitation, heavy, moderate every bit good as the entire figure of yearss of precipitation. Included besides is the H2O balance informations for existent evapotranspiration, shortage, excess and estimated H2O overflow, which is frequently a placeholder for watercourse flow informations. This information will organize a footing for the reading of temperature, precipitation and other factors and their relationship to planetary heating. Global warming deductions: climatic informations from the Wabash River Watershed Climate refers to infinite and clip forms of precipitation, air current and temperature. This differs significantly across different countries. Analyzing these alterations and their deductions on planetary heating is a scientific challenge. This is because clime alterations of course over an array of clip graduated tables, that is, from 10 ‘s of old ages ( decadal ) , 100 ‘s of old ages ( millennian ) and even longer periods referred to as glacial rhythms, for illustration, ice ages. Climate besides changes of course over a assortment of relevant particular graduated tables that is from the local and regional infinite to the planetary infinite ( Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2001 ) . By analyzing this alterations so we can be able to understand their relationship to planetary heating, an issue that is in the head of everyone ‘s attending in every facet of our society today, politically, economically, technologically and socio-culturally. The climatic alteration which can be or non be related to planetary heating frequently determines the location and type of human ecosystems that are managed by worlds such as the handiness of agricultural land and it besides affects how, when and if weathering of stones will take topographic point, the type of dirt that will be signifiers and the rate at which this dirt will be formed. Climatic alteration and consequent planetary heating besides determines the quality and measure of H2O that is available for usage by worlds every bit good as other life on the planet. More dramatically is determines how terrible storms, inundations and drouths are ( Elzen & A ; Schaeffer, 2002, p.35 ) . Average one-year temperature, Wabash River Watershed ( 1857-2007 ) The pointer shows a pronounced addition in temperature by a about a sum of 0.6 grades of the period from early 1960 ‘s to late 1990 ‘s. This calculates to about 0.02 grades addition every twelvemonth. As such this indicates that the climatic alteration in temperature in the Wabash River watershed is declarative of planetary heating. This is because the addition in temperatures is non systematic with expected alterations that occur of course over clip. Harmonizing to the Milankovitch rhythms, which indicate that the alterations in the orientation and distance of the Earth in relation to the Sun history for the Earth ‘s glacial rhythms, the Earth is really traveling in the way that should be doing major glaciations. As such the exogenous alterations that occur in the solar input as a consequence of this phenomenon are non important plenty to explicate the temperature amplitude of the fluctuations. The alteration presented is really little when compared to a glacial rhythm but the temperature additions are happening in a really high rate. This is a rate of 0.02 grades per annum as compared to o.oo13 grades Celsius per annum that occur during interglacial rhythms. These alterati ons in temperature are already more than any that have of all time been experience in the yesteryear on Earth and as such this can merely bespeak planetary heating ( Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2001 ) . Precipitation informations Numerous observations of an empirical nature and theoretical accounts concentrating on the clime in this part, Wabash River Watershed, confirms an sweetening of the hydrological rhythm in the signifier of increased surface and atmospheric H2O. This has been observed by the addition in the lower limit, maximal and mean precipitation informations: heavy, moderate visible radiation precipitation informations, every bit good as watercourse flow informations that are derived from estimated, excess and shortage H2O run off. The low strength and high frequence of the precipitation in this country has resulted in excessively much vaporization something that has been linked with the rise in evapotranspiration which in bend has caused small overflow. The effects of these have been a decrease in the ascertained and recorded river flows in the part of Wabash River Watershed. Other indexs of planetary heating in the part are in the signifier of terrible conditions. The part has experience 29 twis ter every twelvemonth with the peak months being in the months of April through June which has 63 per centum of the sum twisters ( Lee et, al. , 2001, p.110-120 ) . Research indicates that in order for the Earth to keep H2O balance, so the vaporization from the H2O organic structures around the universe have to be balanced by the precipitation into this same H2O organic structures plus the tally offs in the continentals land organic structures. The ambiance is supposed to incorporate merely 0.001 per centum of the H2O on Earth, an of import facet of the hydrologic rhythm. The addition in temperatures in this part can be attributed to the green house consequence. As such the warmer H2O surface in the part has created a vapor-pressure difference between the H2O surface and the adjacent ambiance which has enhanced the vaporization rate increasing other constituents that are in the hydrologic rhythm such as the addition in precipitation in the part ( Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2001 ) . The nexus between the sweetenings in the hydrologic rhythm with planetary heating has been drawn from legion empirical theoretical accounts and observations. For case, a planetary heating of around 4 grades Celsius is expected to bring forth precipitation additions of around 10 per centum. This addition in precipitation is in the signifier of heavier rainfall as opposed to rainfall that is more frequent or that autumn over a longer continuance. Rainfall information from this part indicate that the forms of rainfall in the part have been characterized by heavy down pours that are less frequent and normally do brassy inundations. This falls under the description of the consequence of planetary heating ( Lee et, al. , 2001, p.120 ) . The part ‘s climatic information offers extra grounds as to the alterations in the hydrologic rhythms. First the heating that has been observed in the part are about all caused by an addition in the part ‘s dark clip temperature. The minimal temperatures daily have increased at a rate that is twice that of twenty-four hours clip temperatures since 1960, this is approximately 1 degree Celsius as opposed to the 0.5 grades for the twenty-four hours clip temperatures. This has been explained to be the consequence caused by increased cloud cover and/or humidness during the dark coupled with an addition in vaporization during the say which creates a chilling consequence on the daytime land temperatures in the part ( this can be better explained by utilizing the description Idaho organic structure heat vaporizing after intoxicant is rubbed on person ‘s tegument, go forthing the organic structure ice chest after the procedure ) . As a consequence of this the effects of the planetary heating in the part such as hotter twenty-four hours have non been experienced which does non connote that there are no planetary heating effects in the part ( Lee et, al. , 2001, p.120 ) . Datas from balloon borne instrumentality ( radiosonde ) every bit good as orbiter informations in the part suggest that the norm ( average ) of H2O vapour concentration in the ambiance has markedly increased. This is indicated by an addition in the sum of precipitation that is generated by storms in the country since the 1961 through to 1990. The Wabash Watershed part has experienced an addition in rainfall sums of about 10 per centum on norm in the four decennaries from 1960 which has increased the rates of precipitation in the part. This addition in the last few decennaries is due mostly because of the disproportional addition in utmost and heavy precipitation rates. This phenomenon is consistent with the anticipations of climatic theoretical accounts. The climatic information in this part indicate that rainfall tends to be more when the norm ( average ) temperature in a month is recorded as being above normal. This is consistent with the anticipations from climatic theoretical acc ounts that have been designed to picture the rate of planetary warming Another index of planetary warming consequence on the climatic conditions of the Wabash River Watershed is the addition in the strength of the storms that have been experienced in the part over the past few decennaries. This has been associated with the atmospheric forepart that is found in the Northern hemisphere ( Lee et, al. , 2001, p.126 ) . An sweetening of the hydrological rhythm in itself has been indicated as an foil of planetary warming through assorted mechanisms. On of the mechanisms is stated as the water-vapor feedback. Water vapour by itself is a major nursery gas and as such contributes to 36-70 per centum of the entire heating of the Earth ‘s surface and lower ambiance by absorbing and breathing of the infrared radiations. In add-on to this, Storms in the part have become really frequent in the last few decennaries, this presents the part with cloud screen that is deep or at least high, the effect of this is that the increased cloud cover Acts of the Apostless to heat up the planet underneath it ensuing in higher temperatures experienced. The ground for this is that deep or high clouds cut down the sum of surpassing long moving ridge radiation to higher extent than the short moving ridge radiation that is incoming into the Earth ‘s atmosphere lending to planetary heating as such. Clouds have a dif ferent consequence from H2O vapour on radiations because they are made up of liquid H2O or ice ( Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2001 ) . Snow autumn and thaw informations Datas in the part sing snow autumn and the thaw of the snow indicate that t the day of the months of the last hoar in the spring are coming earlier each twelvemonth. This can be contributed to a rise in temperatures which is dissolving the ice faster. This is further strengthened by the fact that the yearss in a twelvemonth cheapness can be considered the turning seasons, warm plenty to turn harvests have besides been on the addition. Projected information from this climatic information indicate that the length of summer will go on to increase at a steady rater if the present conditions ate still maintained. This is a typical feature of the planetary heating phenomenon ( Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2001 ) . Decision It is clear that all the climatic alterations that have been experienced in the last few decennaries may hold occurred in the past of course and likely even during times of that can non be considered as planetary heating periods. Climatic alterations represent a complex phenomenon that can hold multiple causal agents. While the forms are consistent with a clime that is progressively warmer, it is presently impossible to province that a individual climatic event such as a storm event is as a consequence of planetary heating. However, informations over a long period of clip does supply a background on which we can province that the climatic alterations and the events that come with it in the part of Wabash River Watershed are in fact as a consequence of planetary heating.

Research Paper on Law

Research Paper on Law Law is a subject that is very important in the lives of all human beings. Daily we are dealing with issues of law and daily we listen about news related to violation of laws and implementation of laws. Law plays an important role in our daily lives and no one can deny the importance of law in our daily lives. We should follow the laws set by our government and we should be aware of all those laws. Law is a full fledged field of study and the students who are linked to this field must have to show some information that they are well read and well aware of all laws about their country, international laws, constitutional laws, institutional laws, governmental laws and others. They should be able to know the history of laws and court system because all this information will let them write research papers on law. Law research paper should show your understanding and awareness of law and its culture all over the world. Research papers on law can be on many aspects of law such as violation of laws, governmental laws, benefits of laws, restrictions because of laws, lawlessness, criminology, human rights, social welfare, implementation of laws, eradication of laws, educational laws, financial laws, institutional laws, trading laws, industrial laws, constitutional laws, traffic laws and others. There are many topics on which you can write research papers on law. There are also some companies that are working for the welfare of students and try to help them out in terms of their problems associated to writing research papers on law. If you feel that you are unable to write a research paper on law your self, you should buy research paper on law from those helping entities. Research papers should be written after gathering enough information related to the topic of your research. Research paper on law should be written keeping in consideration the various aspects that are associated to law. You must be aware of all the rules and regulations related to writing a law research paper. You should make clear and straightforward statements in your law research paper. You should not include irrelevant information as it will make your research paper on law a bad one and you will not get good marks in it. Always introduce your topic in the starting of your research paper on law. Divide your research paper on law in sections and justify your arguments from previous works done in the same field of study on which you are writing law research papers. Always conclude the topic in the ending and it will make your research paper on law a good one. To write a research paper on law, follow the points given above and you will see that your research paper on law will be able to get grade winning marks. Some tips as for how to write a research paper will surely help you to be successful in research paper writing.

The Rise and Fall of the Borgia Family

The Rise and Fall of the Borgia Family The Borgias are the most infamous family of Renaissance Italy, and their history normally hinges around four key individuals: Pope Calixtus III, his nephew Pope Alexander IV, his son Cesare and daughter Lucrezia. Thanks to the actions of the middle pair, the family name is associated with greed, power, lust, and murder. The Rise of the Borgias The most famous branch of the Borgia family originated with Alfons Borja from Valencia in Spain, the son of a middling family. Alfons went to university and studied canon and civil law, where he demonstrated talent and after graduation began to rise through the local church. After representing his diocese in national matters, Alfons was appointed secretary to King Alfonso V of Aragon and became deeply involved in politics, sometimes acting as envoy for the monarch. Soon Alfons became Vice-Chancellor, a trusted and relied upon aide, and then regent when the king went to conquer Naples. While demonstrating skills as an administrator, he also promoted his family, even interfering with a murder trial to secure his kin’s safety. When the king returned, Alfons led negotiations over a rival pope who was living in Aragon. He secured a delicate success which impressed Rome and became both a priest and a bishop. A few years later Alfons went to Naples - now ruled by the King of Aragon – and reorganized the government. In 1439 Alfons represented Aragon at a council to try and unite the eastern and western churches. It failed, but he impressed. When the king finally negotiated papal approval for his hold of Naples (in return for defending Rome against central Italian rivals), Alfons did the work  and was appointed a cardinal in 1444 as a reward. He thus moved to Rome in 1445, aged 67, and changed his name to Borgia. Oddly for the age, Alfons was not a pluralist, keeping only one church appointment, and was also honest and sober. The next generation of Borgia would be very different, and Alfons’s nephews now arrived in Rome. The youngest, Rodrigo, was destined for the church and studied canon law in Italy, where he established a reputation as a ladies man. An elder nephew, Pedro Luis, was destined for military command. Calixtus III: The First Borgia Pope Hulton Archive / Getty Images On April 8th, 1455, a brief time after being made a cardinal, Alfons was elected as Pope, largely because he belonged to no major factions and seemed destined for a short reign due to age. He took the name Calixtus III. As a Spaniard, Calixtus had many ready-made enemies in Rome, and he began his rule carefully, keen to avoid Rome’s factions, even though his first ceremony was interrupted by a riot. However, Calixtus also broke with his former king, Alfonso, after the former ignored the latter’s request for a crusade. While Calixtus refused to promote King Alfonso’s sons as a punishment, he was busy promoting his own family: nepotism was not unusual in the papacy. Indeed, it allowed the Popes to create a base of supporters. Rodrigo was made a cardinal at 25, and a slightly older brother the same, acts which scandalized Rome because of their youth, and ensuing debauchery. But Rodrigo, sent to a difficult region as a papal legate, was skilled and successful. Pedro was given an army command, and the promotions and wealth flowed in: Rodrigo became second in command of the church, and Pedro a Duke and Prefect, while other family took a range of positions. Indeed, when King Alfonso died, Pedro was sent to seize Naples which had defaulted back to Rome. Critics believed Calixtus intended to give it to Pedro. However, matters came to a head between Pedro and his rivals over this, and he had to flee enemies, although he died shortly after of Malaria. In aiding him, Rodrigo demonstrated a physical bra very  and was with Calixtus when he too died in 1458. Rodrigo: Journey to the Papacy German School / Getty Images In the conclave following Calixtus’s death, Rodrigo was the most junior cardinal. He played a key role in electing the new Pope – Pius II – a role that required courage and gambling his career. The move worked, and for a young foreign outsider who had lost his patron, Rodrigo found himself a key ally of the new pope and confirmed Vice-Chancellor. To be fair, Rodrigo was a man of great ability and was perfectly capable in this role, but he also loved women, wealth, and glory. He thus abandoned the example of his uncle Calixtus and set about acquiring benefices and land to secure his position: castles, bishoprics, and money flowed in. Rodrigo also earned official reprimands from the Pope for his licentiousness. Rodrigo’s response was to cover his tracks more. However, he had many children, including a son called Cesare in 1475 and a daughter called Lucrezia in 1480, and Rodrigo would give them key positions. Rodrigo then survived a plague and welcomed a friend as Pope, and stayed on as Vice-Chancellor. By the next conclave, Rodrigo was powerful enough to influence the election, and was sent as a papal legate to Spain with permission to approve or deny the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella, and thus the union of Aragon and Castile. In approving the match, and working to get Spain to accept them, Rodrigo earned the support of King Ferdinand. On returning to Rome, Rodrigo kept his head down as the new pope became the center of plotting and intrigue in Italy. His children were given routes to success: his eldest son became a Duke, while daughters were married to secure alliances. A papal conclave in 1484 demurred from making Rodrigo pope, but the Borgia leader had his eye on the throne, and worked hard to secure allies for what he considered his last chance, and was aided by the current pope causing violence and chaos. In 1492, with the death of the Pope, Rodrigo put all his work together with a huge amount of bribes and was elected Alexander VI. It has been said, not without validity, that he bought the papacy. Alexander VI: The Second Borgia Pope Hulton Archive / Getty Images Alexander had widespread public support  and was capable, diplomatic and skilled, as well as rich, hedonistic and concerned with ostentatious displays. While Alexander at first tried to keep his role separate from family, his children soon benefited from his election, and received huge wealth; Cesare became a cardinal in 1493.  Relatives arrived in Rome and were rewarded, and the Borgias were soon endemic in Italy. While many other Popes had been nepotists, Alexander was promoting his own children and had a range of mistresses, something that further fuelled a growing and negative reputation. At this point, some of the Borgia children also began to cause problems, as they annoyed their new families, and at one point Alexander appears to have threatened to excommunicate a mistress for returning to her husband. Alexander soon had to navigate a way through the warring states and families which surrounded him, and at first, he tried negotiation, including the marriage of a twelve-year-old Lucrezia to Giovanni Sforza. He had some success with diplomacy, but it was short-lived. Meanwhile, Lucrezia’s husband proved a poor soldier, and he fled in opposition to the pope, who then had him divorced. We don’t know why he fled, but accounts claim he believed rumors of incest between Alexander and Lucrezia that persist to this day. France then entered the arena, competing for Italian land, and in 1494 King Charles VIII invaded Italy. His advance was barely stopped, and as Charles entered Rome, Alexander retired to a palace. He could have  fled  but stayed to use his ability against the neurotic Charles. He negotiated both his own survival and a compromise which ensured an independent papacy, but which left Cesare as both a papal legate and a hostage†¦ until he escaped. France took Naples, but the rest of Italy came together in a Holy League in which Alexander played a key role. However, when Charles retreated back through Rome, Alexander thought it best to leave this second time. Juan Borgia Alexander now turned on a  Roman family  who stayed loyal to France: the Orsini. The command was given to Alexander’s son Duke Juan, who was recalled from Spain, where he had earned a reputation for womanizing. Meanwhile, Rome echoed to the rumors of the excesses of the Borgia children. Alexander meant to give Juan first the vital Orsini land, and then strategic papal lands, but Juan was assassinated and his corpse thrown into the Tiber. He was 20. No one knows who did it. The Rise of Cesare Borgia Mondadori / Getty Images Juan had been Alexander’s  favorite  and his commander; that  honor  (and the rewards) were now diverted to Cesare, who wished to resign his cardinal’s hat and marry. Cesare seemed the future to Alexander, partly because the other male  Borgia  children were dying or weak. Cesare secularized himself fully in 1498. He was immediately given replacement wealth as the Duke of Valence through an alliance Alexander brokered with the new French King Louis XIII, in return for papal acts and aiding him in gaining Milan. Cesare also married into Louis’ family and was given an army. His wife became pregnant before he left for Italy, but neither she nor the child ever saw Cesare again. Louis was successful and Cesare, who was only 23 but with an iron will and strong drive, began a remarkable military career. The Wars of Cesare Borgia Alexander looked at the condition of the Papal States, left in disarray after the first French invasion, and decided military action was needed. He thus ordered Cesare, who was in Milan with his army, to pacify large areas of central Italy for the Borgias. Cesare had early success, although when his large French contingent returned to France, he needed a new army and returned to Rome. Cesare seemed to have control over his father now, and people after papal appointments and acts found it more profitable to seek out the son instead of Alexander. Cesare also became Captain-General of the churches armies  and a dominant figure in central Italy. Lucrezia’s husband was also killed, possibly on the orders of an angry Cesare, who also was rumored to be acting against those who badmouthed him in Rome by assassinations. Murder was common in Rome, and many of the unsolved deaths were attributed to the Borgias, and usually Cesare. With a substantial war chest from Alexander, Cesare conquered., and at one point marched to remove Naples from the control of the dynasty who had given the Borgias their start. When Alexander went south to oversee the division of land, Lucrezia was left behind in Rome as regent. The Borgia family gained great amounts of land in the  Papal States, which were now concentrated in the hands of one family more than ever before, and Lucrezia was packed off to marry Alfonso d’Este to secure a flank of Cesare’s conquests. The Fall of the Borgias As the alliance with France now seemed to be holding Cesare back, plans were made, deals struck, wealth acquired and enemies murdered to take a change of direction, but in mid-1503 Alexander died of malaria. Cesare found his benefactor gone, his realm not yet consolidated, large foreign armies in the north and south, and himself also deeply ill. Furthermore, with Cesare weak, his enemies rushed back from exile to threaten his lands, and when Cesare failed to coerce the papal conclave, he retreated from Rome. He persuaded the new pope to re-admit him safely, but that pontiff died after  twenty-six  days and Cesare had to flee. He supported a great Borgia rival, Cardinal  della  Rovere, as Pope Julius III, but with his lands conquered and his diplomacy rebuffed an annoyed Julius arrested Cesare. Borgias were now thrown out of their positions, or forced into keeping quiet. Developments allowed Cesare to be released, and he went to Naples, but he was arrested by Ferdinand of Arag on and locked up again. Cesare did escape after two years  but was killed in a skirmish in 1507. He was just 31. Lucrezia the Patron and the End of the Borgias Print Collector / Getty Images Lucrezia also survived  malaria and the loss of her father and brother. Her personality reconciled her to her husband, his  family, and her state, and she took up court positions, acting as regent. She  organized  the state, saw it through war, and created a court of great culture through her patronage. She was popular with her  subjects  and died in 1519. No Borgias ever rose to become as powerful as Alexander, but there were plenty of minor figures who held religious and political positions, and Francis Borgia (d. 1572) was made a saint. By Francis’ time the family was declining in importance, and by the end of the eighteenth century it had died out. The Borgia Legend Alexander and the Borgias have become infamous for corruption,  cruelty,  and murder. Yet what Alexander did as pope was rarely original, he just took things to a new extreme. Cesare was perhaps the supreme intersection of secular power wielded to spiritual power in Europe’s history, and the Borgias were renaissance  princes  no worse than many of their contemporaries. Indeed, Cesare was given the dubious distinction of Machiavelli, who knew Cesare, saying the Borgia general was a grand example of how to tackle power.