A.T. Kearney Sales Management Essays

A.T. Kearney Sales Management Essays A.T. Kearney Sales Management Essay A.T. Kearney Sales Management Essay A. T Kearney and the new â€Å"defining entity† Background: â€Å"No longer is IT just another tool the CEO might use to accomplish costs saving and operational ends. Today, information technology can help solve product problems, set new levels of service and create new distribution and communication channels. † Founded in 1926, A. T. Kearney had evolved into one the world’s dominant management consulting practices. Its approach was to develop realistic solutions and help clients implement recommendations that generated tangible results and improved competitive advantage. The mix of strategy and operations had differentiated A. T. Kearney from its competitor’s and driven the firm’s outstanding results. A. T. Kearney had doubled its size every three years since 1983 and was recently listed in Consultants news as one of the five fastest-growing consulting firms in the world. EDS started in 1962 with Ross Perrot and $1000 dollar investment. It helped customers use information and technology to recast their economics and to identify and seize new opportunities. Considered by many to be the inventor of â€Å"outsourcing,† EDS had established itself as a world leader in information technology services. EDS defined its business as â€Å"shaping how information is created distributed, shared, enjoyed, and applied for the benefit of businesses, governments, and individuals around the world. † Its service offering included four different types of products: Systems Development, Systems Integration, Systems Management, and process management. EDS later entered the management consulting industry as part of a strategy to offer business solutions rather than simply IT solutions to its customers. EDS eventually formalized its efforts of management consulting by creating MCS which leveraged its tradition and strengths, MCS brought a new dimension to EDS. Over a short two-year period, EDS had built MCS into an organization of 1,300 people, with 30 offices in 20 countries. Competition for both firms revolved around the big six classic IT firms who were enjoying annual growth rates in excess for 15 percent as IT became increasingly strategic in nature and instrumental for reengineering. Operation and Strategic Firms, who were best known for their strategic expertise, were broadening their service fferings as they moved aggressively downstream into operations consulting. Systems Integrators and Systems Vendors had moved to more traditional management consulting markets and new information technology entrants that spotted the opportunity to consolidate client relationship by selling â€Å"upstream† consulting services on top of their core outsourcing and system integration s kills. Because of intense competition and extensive opportunities, EDS acquisitioned A. T. Kearney Ltd. in order to provide is a full service company. Despite amazing growth in the first year, the â€Å"new entity† had problems in leveraging the two companies, and jumping on these new attractive opportunities. However, the acquisition also raised many issues. Among these was the issue of how to leverage the merger in terms of providing strategic consulting and information systems solutions to clients. There’s also the issue about the ability of these two very different organizations, with different skill sets and cultures, to work together in blending their services into a broad, seamless continuum. Should the two firm’s cross-sell each others services? Should A. T. Kearney call on existing ED’s clients and vice-versa? Should the two firms work together to secure new clients? Sales management issues arising from this decision. For example, if cross-selling is to be encouraged, what incentive scheme might be appropriate? Strengths: * Successful merger between EDS and A. T. Kearney * World leader in Information Technology services * Offer services from systems development to Consulting services * Companies are very well known world-wide * Well positioned in the market place * Unparalleled spectrum of capabilities to clients Steady growth * â€Å"One Stop Shop† * Broad Range of services * Well matched for both A. T. Kearney and MCS. * Strong goals of growth, globalization, and leadership. Weaknesses * Leveraging and combining each other’s strengths in the marketplace * Merging of two entirely different cultures * Fear that A. T. Kearney would be viewed as the front end for EDS * Merge not working out among employee s * May be difficult to attract and retain good people * Consulting vs. Systems * Un-established environment where the two companies could remain apart, but at the same time work together. Sales and account management Opportunities: * Draw on the strengths of both organizations and develop entirely new products. * Full service firm * Technology being integrated into business strategy * A lot of growth potential * Technological Investments will increase * Substantial cross-marketing opportunities * Host events where employees from both organizations attend Threats: * Competitors becoming full service * Political and legal policies affecting the merge * Competition from other firms * The â€Å"Big Six† – Classic IT firms * Operational and Strategic Firms Systems Integrators and system vendors * New information technology entrants Recommendations: Cross-Selling will be strongly encouraged in the company by giving incentives to the sales teams of both companies. In additio n, the company should train a middleman between the two services. Train employees in cross-selling techniques. The approach must be built around serving the customer, not just selling more stuff. For example, you might describe how the additional products or services would complement the original purchase and further solve the customer’s problem. Be on the same payroll, their pay depends on the other company. Basically, there should be consultants from A. T. Kearney, who are involved in the creation of the IT programs from EDS. The two firms should work together to secure new clients. Essentially, whether the client from A. T. Kearney or EDS. A. T. Kearney will encourage the client to buy the software and services from EDS or EDS can ask the client use A. T. Kearney consulting services or they can also make it a package deal. In order to do so there’s a need to establish consistent forms of communication  with various layers of management. Setting up a communication program that includes a comprehensive list of employee groups within the purchasing and selling organizations; a very specific timetable for addressing each group; tools and forums to be used in communicating to each group; and deadlines for developing content and producing material, along with the individuals charged with accomplishing these tasks. There should be clear communications to  all  employees,  the expectations for working in the post-transaction environment. They should, therefore, hear the same message from management so that all employees are singing from the same prayer book.    Ideally, members of a companys executive team should initially address all employees directly. On a follow-up basis, however, managers should be reinforcing the big picture painted by senior officials while focusing on specific actions expected of employees under their supervision. To ensure these follow-up communications are consistent in their message and reflect top managements expectations for employee action, a company-wide communication plan should be in place. Overall controls on the type and content of the communications could range from providing managers with content outlines and/or key talking points, to centralized development of the presentation material itself. Listen to the views and concerns of all employees  regarding work in the new environment. Overall, the newly formed company must work hard at finding a blend of corporate practices and procedures from operations, sales and R;D to finance, management systems and the use of capital and human resources that best suits its planned goals and objectives. Reason for Recommendation: If two firms were to create a new environment that can work for both organizations by communicating, it will provide both firms with optimum advantage. Benefits from the blend will include: keeping as many clients as possible, getting some more and most importantly, have a good and efficient organization, not just to the eyes of the clients, but also to the new inner structure that the company will have. The entity can host event for the employees to get to know each other this way EDS employees can refer clients to a specific A. T. Kearney consultant or perhaps have both work together, even introduce the A. T. Kearney consultant to the client and visa-versa. In order to encourage this, the company can provide incentives for cross-selling, or they can. For the vendor, the benefits are also substantial. The most obvious example is an increase in revenue. There are also efficiency benefits in servicing one account rather than several. Most importantly, vendors that sell more services to a client are less likely to be displaced by a competitor. The more a client buys from a vendor, the higher the switching cost

brassica rapa essays

brassica rapa essays The Effect of Exogenously Applied Gibberellic Acid on the Plant Type Brassica rapa in a Regulated Environment. The purpose of this experiment was to determine whether the exogenous application of the plant hormone Gibberellic Acid (GA) will increase the growth rate of a Rosette mutant Brassica rapa. A wild type plant was compared to six rosette mutant plants, which have a recessive mutation that prevents the production of Gibberellins, natural plant growth hormones. Gibberellic Acid was applied to six of the plant cells in concentrations of 0, 1, 100, 1000, 10,000, and unknown uM. We compared the height and growth of each plant cell to the control, the 0 uM mutant plant, which represented an unaffected Rosette mutant. Five different measurements of the growth in height of each of the plants were taken over the three week course of the experiment. The data and results analyzed from the experiment helped determine which concentration of Gibberellic Acid has the most effect in the growth response of the Rosette mutants and what the unknown concentration the  ¡unknown ¡ Rosette mutant pl ant was receiving. James Matthew Warner Dishuck and I had the alternate hypothesis that an increase in the concentration of Gibberellic Acid applied exogenously to the Rosettes would result in an increase in plant growth. Our results from our experiment showed that the 1,000 uM and 10,000 uM enhanced Rosette mutants had significant changes in their growth response and height increase through out the experiment, which disproved the null hypothesis that GA enhanced Rosette mutant plants would have a plant growth equal to a Rosette mutant plant unaffected by the plant growth hormone. Gibberellic Acid has a positive effect on the Gibberellins-lacking Rosette mutant Brassica rapa , but after a certain concentration of GA, the plant growth hormone would have a possible negative effect on the Brassica rapa. Brassica rapa is a diminutive plant dev...

Planetarium summary out of class Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Planetarium summary out of class - Assignment Example During the night we were able to witness yellow star – Weero – which is truly a bright star. I only knew it was yellow from class but today I saw it live! We also witnessed a show about a fascinating staff called space mirrors. Many people perceive stars as points of light that are far from the planet Earth. This is not true since stars are actually the reflections of the Sun off space mirrors in universe. Some mirrors are very close while others are far away; some are blue while others are red and so that is the reason why stars have dissimilar colours. The show revealed that some galaxies and stars look older since their light penetrated through the time cube. Later on, after the show, it was now the time to look, through a solar telescope, at the sun. I realized that the Sun appeared like some green ball since the telescope just allow a little of green light rays through it. Other stars also appeared green just as the

Professional Ethics And Governance Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Professional Ethics And Governance - Assignment Example The creativity and the risk taking will provide the decision makers in securing and protecting the risky partnership with the stock of Enron and ensuring that the stock will not fall (Healey and Isles, 2002). The values of Enron that is included in the corporate culture is not balanced and maintained by proper and appropriate attention that is required for increasing the corporate integrity and also acquiring of the customers and not only providing value to its shareholders. The corporate culture of Enron mainly embraces its value which is of large size which is not only considered as the value but also as a strategy in order to attain big mission or objective. Enron has faced a severe failure partly because of the existence of complexity and partly because of its size and the auditors failed , the bankers and the creditors failed, the management of the company failed and even the regulators also failed to safeguard and control the integrity of the capital market (Erwin, 2011). The c ombination of the various failures has resulted in the structural problem of the company. Arthur Andersen has been considered as the most influential, high earning and the most ethical accounting firm of the world. In spite of the rise in the consulting services, the relationship of the firms with its clients the company faced several threats from the investors of its regulators, clients and courts. Andersen failure in maintaining proper audit has both legally and ethically disrupted the various aspects that are related to the development of the ethical standards and accounting theory. The maintenance of quality control which is termed and regarded as the most important element and factor in the accounting profession has also been violated by Andersen (Stevens, 2013). The corporate culture of Lehman brother can be analyzed by the fact that it failed to face the severe and aggressive recession that prevailed in the year 2008 and it went bankrupt. Lehman

Project Management Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Project Management - Research Paper Example Some negative features of its structure as well as execution counteract the positive results that are being attained under the Act. The lack of a â€Å"trigger for greenhouse gas emissions† (Russell & Cohn, 2012) is a major gap in the dogmatic structure of issues of national importance. Addition of a greenhouse trigger within the Act is suggested to harmonize other greenhouse schemes of the Australian Government. Latest policy alterations in listing endangered ecological communities may ease a number of these setbacks; however, a process for â€Å"merits review of listing decisions† (Russell & Cohn, 2012) would improve the public responsibility and precision of the function of the Act. No individual should take any step that likely to have a major impact on the heritage standards of a confirmed property without the authorization of Environment Minister. Each heritage property, including South Western Historical Society Building, has its personal heritage standards. It i s the standards, and not merely the place itself, which are safeguarded. Any activity is likely to have a major effect if there is even the slightest likelihood or chance that it will cause one or more of the heritage standards to be lost, dishonoured, harmed or changed considerably. Activities outside the heritage property that have an effect on the heritage standards also require authorization (Hansen & Hoffman, 2010). It is a counselling body whose associates are hired by the Heritage Minister, together with delegates from the community, â€Å"Director General of the Department of Planning and Infrastructure†, a person with aptitude and expertise in historical heritage, and the â€Å"National Trust of Australia† (Lane et al, 2010). The functions of the EPBC are (1) giving suggestions and performing analysis, research and inquiries with respect to the items of environmental heritage; (2) maintaining a record, known as the State Heritage Inventory, recording places of State and local heritage importance. Thirdly, carrying out community learning about the nation’s environmental heritage, and (4) and giving views or reports on environmental heritage when needed. Any person or a company, who wants to renovate or refurbish a place, building or land listed as a historical heritage, should initially get authorization from the EPBC. Any activity that might harm some or all foliage on land or within limits of a heritage item needs authorization as well. These authorizations are not compulsory for State significant improvements that have been given development approval. Not each action that entails a matter â€Å"protected by the EPBC Act will have a significant impact† (Piddock, 2007), so it is essential that the person gives every available piece of information regarding the planned activity for renovation, in addition to the measures he will be taking to decrease undesirable effects on the building. The Australian Government has mutual c ontracts with every state as well as territory administration to authorize environment evaluation procedures that meet the already established values. If a person wants EPBC Act endorsement, besides state or territory administration authorization, it may be feasible to carry out a single evaluation, avoiding repetition. To make the most of this chance it is vital that the person takes an appointment with the minister at the beginning of drafting a

Implementation of a Risk Communication Plan

Implementation of a Risk Communication Plan Following the reported deaths of hundreds of birds in Esperance in Western Australian between December 2006 and March 2007, it was discovered that lead being transported through the towns port were responsible for their deaths. However, much of the community was unaware of this until it became public as part of the investigation into bird deaths in the local environment. Esperance saw itself as an idyllic rural community, with a sound economic basis, but removed from the problems associated with cities, such as pollution. Once the lead problem was identified, residents became very concerned about their childrens health and demanded immediate action. In order to address the concerns of the affected parties, a risk communication plan is essential so as the risk assessment team is able to improve risk understanding among target groups, disclose information about hazards to people whom might be exposed, legitimise risk-related decisions in favor of acceptance or rejection of specific risk sources. It also has the role to breakdown the risk management process to the target audience so that assessors can build up trust in the risk fairness of the management process while at the same ensuring that there is enough individual risk reduction information to improve public protection. Finally the risk communication plan promotes support towards the communicating agency as it provides guidelines for emergency situations and educates decision-makers about public concerns and perceptions. (Sue Lang, Lorna Fewtrell and Jamie Bartram, 2001, p.320) There are multiple stakeholders involved in this crisis, starting with the residents of the community, governmental departments such as the department of water, environment and planning, local businesses, the companies exporting the metals, the port authorities and media. A risk communication (RC) needs assessment was run prior in order to identify the major stakeholders involved in the in this crisis and to identify the issues of concerns of for each group, the goals from the interaction with each group and be able to choose and adequate technique of approach to each type of stakeholder. The RC needs assessment had led to understand that various stakeholders had different issues of interests and concerns and that whether their concerns were, the techniques of approach to them may overlap. The key stakeholders were identified to be the residents of Esperence, health department, water department, port authorities, tourism operators, business owners, the media, local authorities and department of environment, local government and department of planning. The key issues noted during the assessment were the risk to the health of the residents, risks to local businesses such as tourism, relocation of locals, and panic within the community due to health hazards. The table below identifies the issues that meant to be addressed in a risk communication plan and how they are link to the plans goal together with the activities needed to be carried out so as to reach the goals. It should also be noted that descending order of the issues representative of the priority given to each individual issue. (R Brian Pickard, Risk Communication Plan Guidance,   2013 p.24) ISSUES TO BE ADDRESSED PLANS GOALS ACTIVITIES Local residents concerns regarding the hazards Provide the residents necessary   and adequate information to address their concerns Provide information to the residents by activities such as distributing information on physical or electrical mediums. Develop and maintain relationships and supports two-way communication with public community groups, and the news media. Concerns of the health department regarding crisis Provide them with the outreach of the crisis; how many people are affected and to which extent. Maintain direct communication for health persons via phone, email or in person. So that they received necessary data as they require it. Level of information between assessors and Department of water Share findings obtain through research to concerned department so it knows where they stand and how they can mitigate the situation Ensure that they receive   tangible information in terms of documents and findings which they can consult and base action plan upon Concerns about treat to local businesses. Assess impact of contamination on local businesses. Hold meeting with the concerned stakeholders and discuss ways by which they are being affected and try find solutions. Department of planning Provide the department expected outcomes in case of an imminent crisis Ensure that they receive   tangible information in terms of documents and findings which they can consult and base action plan upon Nature and types of information being released by the media Audit the quality of information being released to the press. Monitoring of information released through various media outlets; websites, newspapers, television and radio by appointing media trackers Threat to port activities and jobs at stake Assess situation and find possible links between issues and port. Minimize potential risk of activities shutdown. Meet with responsible of activities and discuss Communication at all stages of the program is important. People need to be informed about key developments so they will be able to make the most of the program. Information should be disclosed to community members throughout the program, especially before starting key activities, before making changes to the program and upon encountering delays. The order/timing in which information is disclosed to the various stakeholders depends upon who they represent in the community and the value of their feedback so that when a wider public is informed, the risk assessment plan has already been revised to that it understood by the majority of the stakeholders. The resources to be deployed for the risk communication plan relies greatly on the budget allocated to the assessment. While a great part of the resources remain man power which favors easier communication, builds up trust among the community, provides for skills for data collection and analysis depending upon the budget communication methods such as mass media and dedicated can employed, else inexpensive methods inexpensive, such as sharing information at community meetings, working with community and committees creating simple posters can be used., There are various challenges that might hinder the implementation of this; unwillingness for stakeholders to cooperate, coordinate risk communication messages among multiple communicators who are communicating about the same issue or time constraints. (Cabinet Implementation Unit Toolkit, 2013, p.3). The roles and responsibilities in order to implement the risk communication plan correctly are as listed below. ROLE RESPONSIBILITIES Public Information Officer Implement risk communication plan and directs information disclosure Provide information to stakeholder through various mediums Create and uphold two conversation between all stakeholders .Maintains current information summaries and/or displays on the incident. Responsible to communicate information to   pertinent staff Develop presentations for utility executives Prepare responses to constituent inquiries. Content and Message Coordinator Develops pathways to receive information rapidly from various institutes regarding public health emergencies and works with available subject matter experts to create situation-specific fact sheets and updates. Media Coordinator . Assesses media needs (e.g., briefings, statements) and bridges the gap between the public and sources Direct Public Outreach Coordinator Responsible for public service announcement and initiates telephone information line Partner/Stakeholder Coordinator Sets up communication protocols based on agreements with identified partners and stakeholders. Media Tracker Monitors available internally and externally identifies misinformation, provides, assess the quality of communication, takes action to amend wrong information, tracks press releases, monitors news outlets and web sites, and drives away (stories that may or may not be true)

Revenge At Its Sweetest :: essays research papers

Only a few slow moving tumbleweeds occupied the desert terrain. The endless plain of dust and hot dry dirt seemed to have no occupants, it was as if the ground hadn't been walked over for years. Suddenly, the seemingly endless silence was broken by a gradual fade into a chaotic rumbling. The sound grew more ferocious and eventually became unbearably loud. Just then in the distance behind a cliff, a cloud of dust appeared and out of it raced seven cars racing at insane speeds. It looked as if the cars had been built from scraps of hard iron and metal for the sole purpose was to fight against other contenders in this barren wasteland. In front of the pack was a sleek fast car, being pursued by six other cars, but one could tell the leading car was an extremely experienced driver possessing total control of the vehicle. The dark and mysterious figure behind the wheel of the leading car was wearing a helmet with the name "MAX" on the side of it. Max reached across the seat and pulled out a shotgun, and after putting it out the window shot a round back at the following pack of cars. Immediately after one car at the back swerved dangerously and rolled several times before bursting into flames sending pieces of metal all the barren wasteland. A pack of cars was quickly approaching a deep canyon, they would have to break hard now to avoid hitting the edge of it. Max didn't slow down, Max pushed the accelerator with such an extreme force and determination that it seemed as if the car screamed in pain as it lurched forward, faster than ever. Then the car leapt off the canyon's edge and became airborne. Gliding through the air without any control of the car didn't seem to faze Max at all. The car seemed to delicately touch down on the other side as if there was a bridge. The following pack ended up being obliterated against the other side of the canyon's jaws. Max was finally alone, killing off the opposition had been easy, almost too easy! Searching for the final destination was difficult due to the similarity of the horizon in every direction. Yet eventually a dark mass loomed up, "Looks like the bastards hideout", Max muttered. "Taking care of them will accomplish my vendetta for what they did to my love".

The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove Chapter 2~3

Two The Sea Beast The cooling pipes at the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant were all fashioned from the finest stainless steel. Before they were installed, they were x-rayed, ultrasounded, and pressure-tested to be sure that they could never break, and after being welded into place, the welds were also x-rayed and tested. The radioactive steam from the core left its heat in the pipes, which leached it off into a seawater cooling pond, where it was safely vented to the Pacific. But Diablo had been built on a breakneck schedule during the energy scare of the seventies. The welders worked double and triple shifts, driven by greed and cocaine, and the inspectors who ran the X-ray machines were on the same schedule. And they missed one. Not a major mistake. Just a tiny leak. Barely noticeable. A minuscule stream of harmless, low-level radiation wafted out with the tide and drifted over the continental shelf, dissipating as it went, until even the most sensitive instruments would have missed it. Yet the le ak didn't go totally undetected. In the deep trench off California, near a submerged volcano where the waters ran to seven hundred degrees Fahrenheit and black smokers spewed clouds of mineral soup, a creature was roused from a long slumber. Eyes the size of dinner platters winked out the sediment and sleep of years. It was instinct, sense, and memory: the Sea Beast's brain. It remembered eating the remains of a sunken Russian nuclear submarine: beefy little sailors tenderized by the pressure of the depths and spiced with piquant radioactive marinade. Memory woke the beast, and like a child lured from under the covers on a snowy morning by the smell of bacon frying, it flicked its great tail, broke free from the ocean floor, and began a slow ascent into the current of tasty treats. A current that ran along the shore of Pine Cove. Mavis Mavis tossed back a shot of Bushmills to take the edge off her frustration at not being able to whack anyone with her baseball bat. She wasn't really angry that Molly had bitten a customer. After all, he was a tourist and rated above the mice in the walls only because he carried cash. Maybe the fact that something had actually happened in the Slug would bring in a little business. People would come in to hear the story, and Mavis could stretch, speculate, and dramatize most stories into at least three drinks a tell. Business had been slowing over the last couple of years. People didn't seem to want to bring their problems into a bar. Time was, on any given afternoon, you'd have three or four guys at the bar, pouring down beers as they poured out their hearts, so filled with self-loathing that they'd snap a vertebra to avoid catching their own reflection in the big mirror behind the bar. On a given evening, the stools would be full of people who whined and growled and bitched all night long, pausing only long enough to stagger to the bathroom or to sacrifice a quarter to the jukebox's extensive self-pity selection. Sadness sold a lot of alcohol, and it had been in short supply these last few years. Mavis blamed the booming economy, Val Riordan, and vegetables in the diet for the sadness shortage, and she fought the insidious invaders by running two-for-one happy hours with fatty meat snacks (The whole point of happy hour was to purge happiness, wasn't it?), but all her efforts only served to cut her profits in half. If Pine Cove could no longer produce sadness, she would import some, so she advertised for a Blues singer. The old Black man wore sunglasses, a leather fedora, a tattered black wool suit that was too heavy for the weather, red suspenders over a Hawaiian shirt that sported topless hula girls, and creaky black-on-white wing tips. He set his guitar case on the bar and climbed onto a stool. Mavis eyed him suspiciously and lit a Tarryton 100. She'd been taught as a girl not to trust Black people. â€Å"Name your poison,† she said. He took off his fedora, revealing a gleaming brown baldness that shone like polished walnut. â€Å"You gots some wine?† â€Å"Cheap-shit red or cheap-shit white?† Mavis cocked a hip, gears and machinery clicked. â€Å"Them cheap-shit boys done expanded. Used to be jus' one flavor.† â€Å"Red or white?† â€Å"Whatever sweetest, sweetness.† Mavis slammed a tumbler onto the bar and filled it with yellow liquid from an icy jug in the well. â€Å"That'll be three bucks.† The Black man reached out – thick sharp nails skating the bar surface, long fingers waving like tentacles, searching, the hand like a sea creature caught in a tidal wash – and missed the glass by four inches. Mavis pushed the glass into his hand. â€Å"You blind?† â€Å"No, it be dark in here.† â€Å"Take off your sunglasses, idjit.† â€Å"I can't do that, ma'am. Shades go with the trade.† â€Å"What trade? Don't you try to sell pencils in here. I don't tolerate beggars.† â€Å"I'm a Bluesman, ma'am. I hear ya'll lookin for one.† Mavis looked at the guitar case on the bar, at the Black man in shades, at the long fingernails of his right hand, the short nails and knobby gray calluses on the fingertips of his left, and she said, â€Å"I should have guessed. Do you have any experience?† He laughed, a laugh that started deep down and shook his shoulders on the way up and chugged out of his throat like a steam engine leaving a tunnel. â€Å"Sweetness, I got me more experience than a busload o' hos. Ain't no dust settled a day on Catfish Jefferson since God done first dropped him on this big ol' ball o' dust. That's me, call me Catfish.† He shook hands like a sissy, Mavis thought, just let her have the tips of his fingers. She used to do that before she had her arthritic finger joints replaced. She didn't want any arthritic old Blues singer. â€Å"I'm going to need someone through Christmas. Can you stay that long or would your dust settle?† â€Å"I ‘spose I could slow down a bit. Too cold to go back East.† He looked around the bar, trying to take in the dinge and smoke through his dark glasses, then turned back to her. â€Å"Yeah, I might be able to clear my schedule if† – and here he grinned and Mavis could see a gold tooth there with a musical note cut in it – â€Å"if the money is right,† he said. â€Å"You'll get room and board and a percentage of the bar. You bring 'em in, you'll make money.† He considered, scratched his cheek where white stubble sounded like a toothbrush against sandpaper, and said, â€Å"No, sweetness, you bring 'em in. Once they hear Catfish play, they come back. Now what percentage did you have in mind?† Mavis stroked her chin hair, pulled it straight to its full three inches. â€Å"I'll need to hear you play.† Catfish nodded. â€Å"I can play.† He flipped the latches on his guitar case and pulled out a gleaming National steel body guitar. From his pocket he pulled a cutoff bottleneck and with a twist it fell onto the little finger of his left hand. He played a chord to test tune, pulled the bottleneck from the fifth to the ninth and danced it there, high and wailing. Mavis could smell something like mildew, moss maybe, a change in humidity. She sniffed and looked around. She hadn't been able to smell anything for fifteen years. Catfish grinned. â€Å"The Delta,† he said. He launched into a twelve-bar Blues, playing the bass line with his thumb, squealing the high notes with the slide, rocking back and forth on the bar stool, the light of the neon Coors sign behind the bar playing colors in the reflection of sunglasses and his bald head. The daytime regulars looked up from their drinks, stopped lying for a second, and Slick McCall missed a straight-in eight-ball shot on the quarter table, which he almost never did. And Catfish sang, starting high and haunting, going low and gritty. â€Å"They's a mean ol' woman run a bar out on the Coast. I'm telling you, they's a mean ol' woman run a bar out on the Coast. But when she gets you under the covers, That ol' woman turn your buttered bread to toast.† And then he stopped. â€Å"You're hired,† Mavis said. She pulled the jug of white cheap-shit out of the well and sloshed some into Catfish's glass. â€Å"On the house.† Just then the door opened and a blast of sunlight cut through the dinge and smoke and residual Blues and Vance McNally, the EMT, walked in and set his radio on the bar. â€Å"Guess what?† he said to everyone and no one in particular. â€Å"That pilgrim woman hung herself.† A low mumble passed through the regulars. Catfish put his guitar in its case and picked up his wine. â€Å"Sho' 'nuff a sad day startin early in this little town. Sho' 'nuff.† â€Å"Sho' 'nuff,† said Mavis with a cackle like a stainless-steel hyena. Valerie Riordan Depression has a mortality rate of fifteen percent. Fifteen percent of all patients with major depression will take their own lives. Statistics. Hard numbers in a very squishy science. Fifteen percent. Dead. Val Riordan had been repeating the figures to herself since Theophilus Crowe had called, but it wasn't helping her feel any better about what Bess Leander had done. Val had never lost a patient before. And Bess Leander hadn't really been depressed, had she? Bess didn't fit into the fifteen percent. Val went to the office in the back of her house and pulled Bess Leander's file, then went back to the living room to wait for Constable Crowe. At least it was the local guy, not the county sheriffs. And she could always fall back on patient confidentiality. Truth was, she had no idea why Bess Leander might have hung herself. She had only seen Bess once, and then for only half an hour. Val had made the diagnosis, written the scrip, and collected a check for the full hour session. Bess had called in twice, talked for a few minutes, and Val had sent her a bill for the time rounded to the next quarter hour. Time was money. Val Riordan liked nice things. The doorbell rang, Westminster chimes. Val crossed the living room to the marble foyer. A thin tall figure was refracted through the door's beveled glass panels: Theophilus Crowe. Val had never met him, but she knew of him. Three of his ex-girlfriends were her patients. She opened the door. He was dressed in jeans, sneakers, and a gray shirt with black epaulets that might have been part of a uniform at one time. He was clean-shaven, with long sandy hair tied neatly into a ponytail. A good-looking guy in an Ichabod Crane sort of way. Val guessed he was stoned. His girlfriends had talked about his habits. â€Å"Dr.Riordan,† he said. â€Å"Theo Crowe.† He offered his hand. She shook hands. â€Å"Everyone calls me Val,† she said. â€Å"Nice to meet you. Come in.† She pointed to the living room. â€Å"Nice to meet you too,† Theo said, almost as an afterthought. â€Å"Sorry about the circumstances.† He stood at the edge of the marble foyer, as if afraid to step on the white carpet. She walked past him and sat down on the couch. â€Å"Please,† she said, pointing to one of a set of Hepplewhite chairs. â€Å"Sit.† He sat. â€Å"I'm not exactly sure why I'm here, except that Joseph Leander doesn't seem to know why Bess did it.† â€Å"No note?† Val asked. â€Å"No. Nothing. Joseph went downstairs for breakfast this morning and found her hanging in the dining room.† Val felt her stomach lurch. She had never really formed a mental picture of Bess Leander's death. It had been words on the phone until now. She looked away from Theo, looked around the room for something that would erase the picture. â€Å"I'm sorry,† Theo said. â€Å"This must be hard for you. I'm just wondering if there was anything that Bess might have said in therapy that would give a clue.† Fifteen percent, Val thought. She said, â€Å"Most suicides don't leave a note. By the time they have gone that far into depression, they aren't interested in what happens after their death. They just want the pain to end.† Theo nodded. â€Å"Then Bess was depressed? Joseph said that she appeared to be getting better.† Val cast around her training for an answer. She hadn't really diagnosed Bess Leander, she had just prescribed what she thought would make Bess feel better. She said, â€Å"Diagnosis in psychiatry isn't always that exact, Theo. Bess Leander was a complex case. Without compromising doctor-patient confidentiality, I can tell you that Bess suffered from a borderline case of OCD, obsessive compulsive disorder. I was treating her for that.† Theo pulled a prescription bottle out of his shirt pocket and looked at the label. â€Å"Zoloft. Isn't that an anti-depressant? I only know because I used to date a woman who was on it.† Right, Val thought. Actually, you used to date at least three women who were on it. She said, â€Å"Zoloft is an SSRI like Prozac. It's prescribed for a number of conditions. With OCD the dosage is higher.† That's it, get clinical. Baffle him with clinical bullshit. Theo shook the bottle. â€Å"Could someone O.D. on it or something? I heard somewhere that people do crazy things sometimes on these drugs.† â€Å"That's not necessarily true. SSRIs like Zoloft are often prescribed to people with major depression. Fifteen percent of all depressed patients commit suicide.† There, she said it. â€Å"Antidepressants are a tool, along with talk therapy, that psychiatrists use to help patients. Sometimes the tools don't work. As with any therapy, a third get better, a third get worse, and a third stay the same. Antidepressants aren't a panacea.† But you treat them like they are, don't you, Val? â€Å"But you said that Bess Leander had OCD, not depression.† â€Å"Constable, have you ever had a stomachache and a runny nose at the same time?† â€Å"So you're saying she was depressed?† â€Å"Yes, she was depressed, as well as having OCD.† â€Å"And it couldn't have been the drugs?† â€Å"To be honest with you, I don't even know if she was taking the drug. Have you counted them?† â€Å"Uh, no.† â€Å"Patients don't always take their medicine. We don't order blood level tests for SSRIs.† â€Å"Right,† Theo said. â€Å"I guess we'll know when they do the autopsy.† Another horrendous picture flashed in Val's mind: Bess Leander on an autopsy table. The viscera of medicine had always been too much for her. She stood. â€Å"I wish I could help you more, but to be honest, Bess Leander never gave me any indication that she was suicidal.† At least that was true. Theo took her cue and stood. â€Å"Well, thank you. I'm sorry to have bothered you. If you think of anything, you know, anything that I can tell Joseph that might make it easier on him†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"I'm sorry. That's all I know.† Fifteen percent. Fifteen percent. Fifteen percent. She led him to the door. He turned before leaving. â€Å"One more thing. Molly Michon is one of your patients, isn't she?† â€Å"Yes. Actually, she's a county patient, but I agreed to treat her at a reduced rate because all the county facilities are so far away.† â€Å"You might want to check on her. She attacked a guy at the Head of the Slug this morning.† â€Å"Is she in County?† â€Å"No, I took her home. She calmed down.† â€Å"Thank you, Constable. I'll call her.† â€Å"Well, then. I'll be going.† â€Å"Constable,† she called after him. â€Å"Those pills you have – Zoloft isn't a recreational drug.† Theo stumbled on the steps, then composed himself. â€Å"Right, Doctor, I figured that out when I saw the body hanging in the dining room. I'll try not to eat the evidence.† â€Å"Good-bye,† Val said. She closed the door behind him and burst into tears. Fifteen percent. She had fifteen hundred patients in Pine Cove on some form of antidepressant or another. Fifteen percent would be more than two hundred people dead. She couldn't do that. She wouldn't let an-other of her patients die because of her noninvolvement. If antidepressants wouldn't save them, then maybe she could. Three Theo Theophilus Crowe wrote bad free-verse poetry and played a jimbai drum while sitting on a rock by the ocean. He could play sixteen chords on the guitar and knew five Bob Dylan songs all the way through, allowing for a dampening buzz any time he had to play a bar chord. He had tried his hand at painting, sculpture, and pottery and had even played a minor part in the Pine Cove Little Theater's revival of Arsenic and Old Lace. In all these endeavors, he had experienced a meteoric rise to mediocrity and quit before total embarrassment and self-loathing set in. Theo was cursed with an artist's soul but no talent. He possessed the angst and the inspiration, but not the means to create. If there was any single thing at which Theo excelled, it was empathy. He always seemed to be able to understand someone's point of view, no matter how singular or farfetched, and in turn could convey it to others with a succinctness and clarity that he seldom found in expressing his own thoughts. He was a born mediator, a peacemaker, and it was this talent, after breaking up numerous fights at the Head of the Slug Saloon, that got Theo elected constable. That and heavy-handed endorsement of Sheriff John Burton. Burton was a hard-line right-wing politico who could spout law and order (accent on order) over brunch with the Rotarians, lunch with the NRA, and dinner with Mothers Against Drunk Drivers and wolf down dry banquet chicken like it was manna from the gods every time. He wore expensive suits, a gold Rolex, and drove a pearl-black Eldor-ado that shone like a starry night on wheels (rapt attention and copious coats of carnuba from the grunts in the county motor pool). He had been sheriff of San Junipero County for sixteen years, and in that time the crime rate had dropped steadily until it was the lowest, per capita, of any county in California. His endorsement of Theophilus Crowe, someone with no law enforcement experience, had come as more than somewhat of a surprise to the people of Pine Cove, especially since Theo's opponent was a retired Los Angeles policeman who'd put in a highly decorated five and twenty. What the people of Pine Cove did not know was that Sheriff Burton not only e ndorsed Theo, he had forced him to run in the first place. Theophilus Crowe was a quiet man, and Sheriff John Burton had his reasons for not wanting to hear a peep out of the little North County burg of Pine Cove, so when Theo walked into his little two-room cabin, he wasn't surprised to see a red seven blinking on his answering machine. He punched the button and listened to Burton's assistant insisting that he call right away – seven times. Burton never called the cell phone. Theo had come home to shower and ponder his meeting with Val Riordan. The fact that she had treated at least three of his ex-girlfriends bothered him. He wanted to try and figure out what the women had told her. Obviously, they'd mention that he got high occasionally. Well, more than occasionally. But like any man, it worried him that they might have said something about his sexual performance. For some reason, it didn't bother him nearly as much that Val Riordan think him a loser and a drug fiend as it did that she might think he was bad in the rack. He wanted to ponder the possibilities, think away the paranoia, but instead he dialed the sheriff's private number and was put right through. â€Å"What in the hell is the matter with you, Crowe? You stoned?† â€Å"No more than usual,† Theo said. â€Å"What's the problem?† â€Å"The problem is you removed evidence from a crime scene.† â€Å"I did?† Talking to the sheriff could drain all of Theo's energy instantly. He fell into a beanbag chair that expectorated Styrofoam beads from a failing seam with a sigh. â€Å"What evidence? What scene?† â€Å"The pills, Crowe. The suicide's husband said you took the pills with you. I want them back at the scene in ten minutes. I want my men out of there in half an hour. The M.E. will do the autopsy this afternoon and this case will close by dinnertime, got it? Run-of-the-mill suicide. Obit page only. No news. You understand?† â€Å"I was just checking on her condition with her psychiatrist. See if there were any indications she might be suicidal.† â€Å"Crowe, you must resist the urge to play investigator or pretend that you are a law enforcement officer. The woman hung herself. She was de-pressed and she ended it all. The husband wasn't cheating, there was no money motive, and Mommy and Daddy weren't fighting.† â€Å"They talked to the kids?† â€Å"Of course they talked to the kids. They're detectives. They investigate things. Now get over there and get them out of North County. I'd send them over to get the pills from you, but I wouldn't want them to find your little victory garden, would you?† â€Å"I'm leaving now,† Theo said. â€Å"This is the last I will hear of this,† Burton said. He hung up. Theo hung up the phone, closed his eyes, and turned into a human puddle in the beanbag chair. Forty-one years old and he still lived like a college student. His books were stacked between bricks and boards, his bed pulled out of a sofa, his refrigerator was empty but for a slice of pizza going green, and the grounds around his cabin were overgrown with weeds and brambles. Behind the cabin, in the middle of a nest of blackberry vines, stood his victory garden: ten bushy marijuana plants, sticky with buds that smelled of skunk and spice. Not a day passed that he didn't want to plow them under and sterilize the ground they grew in. And not a day passed that he didn't work his way through the brambles and lovingly harvest the sticky green that would sustain his habit through the day. The researchers said that marijuana was only psychologically addictive. Theo had read all the papers. They only mentioned the night sweats and mental spiders of withdrawal in passing, as if they were no more unpleasant than a tetanus shot. But Theo had tried to quit. He'd wrung out three sets of sheets in one night and paced the cabin looking for distraction until he thought his head might explode, only to give up and suck the piquant smoke from his Sneaky Pete so he could find sleep. The researchers obvi-ously didn't get it, but Sheriff John Burton did. He understood Theo's weakness and held it over him like the proverbial sword. That Burton had his own Achilles' heel and more to lose from its discovery didn't seem to matter. Logically, Theo had him in a standoff. But emotionally, Burton had the upper hand. Theo was always the one to blink. He snatched Sneaky Pete off his orange crate coffee table and headed out the door to return Bess Leander's pills to the scene of the crime. Valerie Dr. Valerie Riordan sat at her desk, looking at the icons of her life: a tiny digital stock ticker that she would surreptitiously glance down at during appointments; a gold Mont Blanc desk set, the pens jutting from the jade base like the antennae of a goldbug; a set of bookends fashioned in the likenesses of Freud and Jung, bracing leather-bound copies of The Psychology of the Unconscious, The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV), The Interpretation of Dreams, and The Physician's Desk Reference; and a plaster-cast bust of Hippocrates that dispensed Post-it notes from the base. Hippocrates, that wily Greek who turned medicine from magic to science. The author of the famous oath that Val had uttered twenty years ago on that sunny summer day in Ann Arbor when she graduated from med school: â€Å"I will use treatment to help the sick according to my ability and judgment, but I will never use it to injure or wrong them. I will not give poison to anyone though a sked to do so, nor will I suggest such a plan.† The oath had seemed so silly, so antiquated then. What doctor, in their right mind, would give poison to a patient? â€Å"But in purity and in holiness I will guard my life and my art.† It had seemed so obvious and easy then. Now she guarded her life and her art with a custom security system and a Glock 9 mm. stashed in the nightstand. â€Å"I will not use the knife on sufferers from stone, but I will give place to such as are craftsmen therein.† She'd never had a problem with that part of the oath. She was loathe to use the knife. She'd gone into psychiatry because she couldn't handle the messy parts of medicine. Her father, a surgeon himself, had been only mildly disappointed. At least she was a doctor, of sorts. She'd done her internship and residency in a rehab center where movie stars and rock idols learned to be responsible by making their own beds, while Val distributed Valium like a flight attendant passing out peanuts. One wing of the Sunrise Center was druggies, the other eating disorders. She preferred the eating disorders. â€Å"You haven't lived until you've force-fed minestrone to a supermodel through a tube,† she told her father. â€Å"Into whatsoever houses I enter, I will do so to help the sick, keeping myself free from all intentional wrongdoing and harm, especially from fornication with woman or man, bond or free.† Well, abstinence from fornication hadn't been a problem, had it? She hadn't had sex since Richard left five years ago. Richard had given her the bust of Hippocrates as a joke, he said, but she'd put it on her desk just the same. She'd given him a statue of Blind Justice wearing a garter belt and fishnets the year before to display at his law office. He'd brought her here to this little village, passing up offers from corporate law firms to follow his dream of being a country lawyer whose daily docket would include disagreements over pig paternity or the odd pension dispute. He wanted to be Atticus Finch, Pudd'nhead Wilson, a Jimmy Stewart or Henry Fonda character who was paid in fresh-baked bread and baskets of avocados. Well, he'd gotten that part; Val's practice had supported them for most of their marriage. She'd be paying him alimony now if they'd actually divorced. Country lawyer indeed. He left her to go to Sacramento to lobby the California Coastal Commission for a consortium of golf course developers. His job was to convince the commission that sea otters and elephant seals would enjoy nothing better than to watch Japanese businessmen slice Titleists into the Pacific and that what nature needed was one long fairway from Santa Barbara to San Francisco (maybe sand traps at the Pismo and Carmel dunes). He carried a pocket watch, for Christ's sake, a gold chain with a jade fob carved into the shape of an endangered brown pelican. He played his front-porch, rocking-chair-wise, country lawyer against their Botany 500 sophistication and pulled down over two hundred grand a year in the bargain. He lived with one of his clerks, an earnest doe-eyed Stanfordite with surfer girl hair and a figure that mocked gravity. Richard had introduced Val to the girl (Ashley, or Brie, or Jordan) and it had been oh-so-adult and oh-so-gracious and later, when Val cal led Richard to clear up a tax matter, she asked, â€Å"So how'd you screen the candidates, Richard? First one to suck-start your Lexus?† â€Å"Maybe we should start thinking about making our separation official,† Richard had said. Val had hung up on him. If she couldn't have a happy marriage, she'd have everything else. Everything. And so had begun her revolving door policy of hustling appointments, prescribing the appropriate meds, and shopping for clothes and antiques. Hippocrates glowered at her from the desk. â€Å"I didn't intentionally do harm,† Val said. â€Å"Not intentionally, you old buggerer. Fifteen percent of all depressives commit suicide, treated or not.† â€Å"Whatsoever in the course of practice I see or hear (or even outside my practice in social intercourse) that ought never to be published abroad, I will not divulge, but consider such things to be holy secrets.† â€Å"Holy secrets or do no harm?† Val asked, envisioning the hanging body of Bess Leander with a shudder. â€Å"Which is it?† Hippocrates sat on his Post-its, saying nothing. Was Bess Leander's death her fault? If she had talked to Bess instead of put her on antidepressants, would that have saved her? It was possible, and it was also possible that if she kept to her policy of a â€Å"pill for every problem,† someone else was going to die. She couldn't risk it. If using talk therapy instead of drugs could save one life, it was worth a try. Val grabbed the phone and hit the speed dial button that connected her to the town's only pharmacy, Pine Cove Drug and Gift. One of the clerks answered. Val asked to speak to Winston Krauss, the pharmacist. Winston was one of her patients. He was fifty-three, unmarried, and eighty pounds overweight. His holy secret, which he shared with Val during a session, was that he had an unnatural sexual fascination with marine mammals, dolphins in particular. He'd confessed that he'd never been able to watch â€Å"Flipper† without getting an erection and that he'd watched so many Jacques Cousteau specials that a French accent made him break into a sweat. He kept an anatomically correct inflatable porpoise, which he violated nightly in his bathtub. Val had cured him of wearing a scuba mask and snorkel around the house, so gradually the red gasket ring around his face had cleared up, but he still did the dolphin nightly and confessed it to her once a month. â€Å"Winston, Val Riordan here. I need a favor.† â€Å"Sure, Dr. Val, you need me to deliver something to Molly? I heard she went off in the Slug this morning.† Gossip surpassed the speed of light in Pine Cove. â€Å"No, Winston, you know that company that carries all the look-alike placebos? We used them in college. I need you to order look-alikes for all the antidepressants I prescribe: Prozac, Zoloft, Serzone, Effexor, the whole bunch, all the dosages. Order in quantity.† â€Å"I don't get it, Val, what for?† Val cleared her throat. â€Å"I want you to fill all of my prescriptions with the placebos.† â€Å"You're kidding.† â€Å"I'm not kidding, Winston. As of today, I don't want a single one of my patients getting the real thing. Not one.† â€Å"Are you doing some sort of experiment? Control group or something?† â€Å"Something like that.† â€Å"And you want me to charge them the normal price?† â€Å"Of course. Our usual arrangement.† Val got a twenty percent kickback from the pharmacy. She was going to be working a lot harder, she deserved to get paid. Winston paused. She could hear him going through the glass door into the back of the pharmacy. Finally he said, â€Å"I can't do that, Val. That's unethical. I could lose my license, go to jail.† Val had really hoped it wouldn't come to this. â€Å"Winston, you'll do it. You'll do it or the Pine Cove Gazette will run a front-page story about you being a fish-fucker.† â€Å"That's illegal. You can't divulge something I told you in therapy.† â€Å"Quit telling me what's illegal, Winston. I'm married to a lawyer.† â€Å"I'd really rather not do this, Val. Can't you send them down to the Thrifty Mart in San Junipero? I could say that I can't get the pills anymore.† â€Å"That wouldn't work, would it, Winston? The people at the Thrifty Mart don't have your little problem.† â€Å"You're going to have some withdrawal reactions. How are you going to explain that?† â€Å"Let me worry about that. I'm quadrupling my sessions. I want to see these people get better, not mask their problems.† â€Å"This is about Bess Leander's suicide, isn't it?† â€Å"I'm not going to lose another one, Winston.† â€Å"Antidepressants don't increase the incidence of suicide or violence. Eli Lilly proved that in court.† â€Å"Yes and O.J. walked. Court is one thing, Winston, the reality of losing a patient is another. I'm taking charge of my practice. Now order the pills. I'm sure the profit margin is going to be quite a bit higher on sugar pills than it is on Prozac.† â€Å"I could go to the Florida Keys. There's a place down there where they let you swim with bottlenose dolphins.† â€Å"You can't go, Winston. You can't miss your therapy sessions. I want to see you at least once a week.† â€Å"You bitch.† â€Å"I'm trying to do the right thing. What day is good for you?† â€Å"I'll call you back.† â€Å"Don't push me, Winston.† â€Å"I have to make this order,† he said. Then, after a second, he said, â€Å"Dr. Val?† â€Å"What?† â€Å"Do I have to go off the Serzone?† â€Å"We'll talk about it in therapy.† She hung up and pulled a Post-it out of Hippocrates' chest. â€Å"Now if I keep this oath, and break it not, may I enjoy honor, in my life and art, among all men for all time; but if I transgress and forswear myself, may the opposite befall me.† Does that mean dishonor for all time? she wondered. I'm just trying to do the right thing here. Finally. She made a note to call Winston back and schedule his appointments.

Quiz Do you have what it takes to become a virtual assistant

Quiz Do you have what it takes to become a virtual assistant Virtual assistants, also known as VAs; have become a popular option for people who want to work remotely. Despite popular belief, virtual assistants are not limited to just clerical work. In fact, the career varies depending on the company. Â  Some may require a VA with a specialized skill set that fitss the company and the tasks that are needed to get done. Others may not. If you are considering becoming a virtual assistant, but aren’t sure if you would be a good fit, Â  this quiz is the perfect test to find out!Source [Playbuzz]

Battle of Hattin in the Crusades

Battle of Hattin in the Crusades The Battle of Hattin was fought July 4, 1187, during the Crusades. In 1187, after a series of disputes, the Ayyubid armies of Saladin commenced moving against the Crusader states including the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Meeting the Crusader army west of Tiberias on July 3, Saladin engaged in a running battle as it moved towards the town. Surrounded during the night, the Crusaders, who were short on water, were unable to break out. In the resulting fight, the bulk of their army was destroyed or captured. Saladins victory opened the way for the recapture of Jerusalem later that year. Fast Facts: Battle of Hattin Conflict: The CrusadesDates: July 4, 1187Armies Commanders:CrusadersGuy of LusignanRaymond III of TripoliGerard de RidefordBalian of IbelinRaynald of Chatillonapprox. 20,000 menAyyubidsSaladinapprox. 20,000-30,000 men Background During the 1170s, Saladin began expanding his power from Egypt and worked to unite the Muslim states surrounding the Holy Land. This resulted in the Kingdom of Jerusalem being encircled by a unified enemy for the first time in its history. Attacking the Crusader state in 1177, Saladin was engaged by Baldwin IV at the Battle of Montgisard. The resulting fight saw Baldwin, who was suffering from leprosy, lead a charge that shattered Saladins center and put the Ayyubids to rout. In the wake of the battle, an uneasy truce existed between the two sides. Succession Issues Following Baldwins death in 1185, his nephew Baldwin V assumed the throne.  Only a child, his reign proved brief as he died a year later. As the Muslim states in the region were uniting, there was increasing dissension in Jerusalem with the elevation of Guy of Lusignan to the throne. Claiming the throne through his marriage to Sibylla, mother of the late child-king Baldwin V, Guys ascension was supported by Raynald of Chatillon and the military orders such as the Knights Templar.   Known as the court faction, they were opposed by the nobles faction. This group was led by Raymond III of Tripoli, who had been Baldwin Vs regent,  and who were angered by the move. Tensions quickly escalated between the two parties and civil war loomed as Raymond left the city and rode to Tiberias.  Civil war loomed as Guy considered besieging Tiberias and  was only avoided through mediation by Balian of Ibelin. Despite this, Guys situation remained tenuous as Raynald repeatedly violated the truce with Saladin by attacking Muslim trade caravans in Oultrejordain and threatening to march on Mecca. This came to a head when his men assaulted a large caravan traveling north from Cairo. In the fighting, his troops killed many of the guards, captured the merchants, and stole the goods. Operating within in the terms of the truce, Saladin sent envoys to Guy seeking compensation and redress. Reliant on Raynald to maintain his power, Guy, who conceded that they were in the right, was forced to send them away unsatisfied, despite knowing that it would mean war. To the north, Raymond elected to conclude a separate peace with Saladin to protect his lands. Saladin on the Move This deal backfired when Saladin requested permission for his son, Al-Afdal, to lead a force through Raymonds lands. Compelled to allow this, Raymond saw Al-Afdals men enter Galilee and meet a Crusader force at Cresson on May 1. In the battle that ensured, the outnumbered Crusader force, led by  Gerard de Ridefort, was effectively destroyed with only three men surviving.  In the wake of the defeat, Raymond left Tiberias and rode to Jerusalem. Calling his allies to assemble, Guy hoped to strike before Saladin could invade in force. Renouncing his treaty with Saladin, Raymond fully reconciled with Guy and a Crusader army of around 20,000 men formed near Acre. This included a mix a of knights and light cavalry as well as around 10,000 infantry along with mercenaries and crossbowmen from the Italian merchant fleet. Advancing, they occupied a strong position near the springs at Sephoria. Possessing a force nearly the size of Saladins, the Crusaders had defeated earlier invasions by holding strong positions with reliable water sources while allowing the heat to cripple the enemy (Map). Saladins Plan Aware of past failings, Saladin sought to lure Guys army away from Sephoria so that it could be defeated in open battle. To accomplish this, he personally led an attack against Raymonds fortress at Tiberias on July 2 while his main army remained at Kafr Sabt. This saw his men quickly penetrate the fortress and trap Raymonds wife, Eschiva, in the citadel. That night, the Crusader leaders held a war council to determine their course of action. While the majority was for pressing on to Tiberias, Raymond argued for remaining in the position at Sephoria, even if it meant losing his fortress. Though the precise details of this meeting are not known, it is believed that Gerard and Raynald argued strenuously for an advance and indicated that Raymonds suggestion that they hold their position was cowardly. Guy elected to push on in the morning. Marching out on July 3, the vanguard was led by Raymond, the main army by Guy, and the rearguard by Balian, Raynald, and the military orders. Moving slowly and under constant harassment by Saladins cavalry, they reached the springs at Turan (six miles away) around noon. Concentrating around the spring, the Crusaders eagerly took water. The Armies Meet Though Tiberias was still nine miles away, with no reliable water en route, Guy insisted on pressing on that afternoon. Under increasing attacks from Saladins men, the Crusaders reached a plain by the twin hills of the Horns of Hattin by mid-afternoon. Advancing with his main body, Saladin began attacking in force and ordered the wings of his army to sweep around the Crusaders. Attacking, they surrounded Guys thirsty men and cut off their line of retreat back to the springs at Turan. Realizing that it would be difficult to reach Tiberias, the Crusaders shifted their line of advance in an attempt to reach the springs at Hattin which were around six miles away. Under increasing pressure, the Crusader rearguard was forced to halt and give battle near the village of Meskana, stopping the entire armys advance. Though advised to fight on to reach water, Guy elected to halt the advance for the night. Surrounded by the enemy, the Crusader camp possessed a well but it was dry. Disaster Throughout the night, Saladins men taunted the Crusaders and set fire to the dry grass on the plain. The next morning, Guys army awoke to blinding smoke. This came from fires set by Saladins men to screen their actions and increase the Crusaders misery. With his men weakened and thirsty, Guy broke camp and ordered an advance towards the springs of Hattin. Despite having sufficient numbers to break through the Muslim lines, fatigue and thirst badly weakened the cohesion of the Crusader army. Advancing, the Crusaders were effectively counterattacked by Saladin. Two charges by Raymond saw him break through the enemy lines, but once outside the Muslim perimeter, he lacked enough men to influence the battle. As a result, he retreated from the field. Desperate for water, much of Guys infantry attempted a similar breakout, but failed. Forced onto the Horns of Hattin, the majority of this force was destroyed. Without infantry support, Guys trapped knights were unhorsed by Muslim archers and forced to fight on foot. Though fighting with determination, they were driven onto the Horns. After three charges against the Muslim lines failed, the survivors were forced to surrender. Aftermath Precise casualties for the battle are not known, but it resulted in the destruction of the majority of the Crusader army. Among those captured were Guy and Raynald. While the former was treated well, the latter was personally executed by Saladin for his past transgressions. Also lost in the fighting was a relic of the True Cross which was sent to Damascus. Quickly advancing in the wake of his victory, Saladin captured Acre, Nablus, Jaffa, Toron, Sidon, Beirut, and Ascalon in rapid succession. Moving against Jerusalem that September, it was surrendered by Balian on October 2. The defeat at Hattin and subsequent loss of Jerusalem led to the Third Crusade. Beginning in 1189, it saw troops under Richard the Lionheart, Frederick I Barbarossa, and Philip Augustus advance on the Holy Land.

Harmonious Family Relationships Between Parent and Child Essay - 1

Harmonious Family Relationships Between Parent and Child - Essay Example To recover damages for intentional infliction of emotional distress, a plaintiff must prove that: (1) the defendant acted intentionally or recklessly; (2) the conduct was extreme and outrageous; (3) the actions of the defendant caused the plaintiff emotional distress; and (4) the resulting emotional distress was severe. A Claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress cannot be maintained when the risk that emotional distress will result is merely incidental to the commission of some other tort; accordingly, claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress will not lie if emotional distress is not the intended or primary consequence of the defendant's conduct. Id. The tort of intentional infliction of emotional distress simply has no application when the actor intends to invade some other legally protected interest, even if emotional distress results. Restatement (Second) of Torts,  § 46. Actionable nuisance is divided into three classifications: negligent invasion of another's interests, intentional invasion of another's interests, and other conduct, culpable because abnormal and out of place in its surroundings, that invades another's interests. Personal integrity and includes not only physical invasion of a person's property but also eavesdropping upon private conversations by wiretapping, microphones or spying into windows of a home. Section 822, Restatement, Torts (1939), reads: â€Å"The actor is liable in an action for damages for a non-trespassory invasion of another's interest in the private use and enjoyment of land if, (a) the other has property rights and privileges in respect to the use or enjoyment interfered with.

MANAGEMENT DEFINITION AND FUNCTIONS Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

MANAGEMENT DEFINITION AND FUNCTIONS - Essay Example In the past few years; health care sector has undergone dramatic changes ranging from, changing client characteristics to contributions of technology among others. These inputs directly impact on provision as well as management of the healthcare sector. Changing demographic patterns is a factor which impacts on facilities and specialization of healthcare providers. Current increase in the population of old people calls for development of specialty and wellness programs, to promote healthy aging. In addition; though an ever-present condition, diseases and illnesses have taken a different dimension, as some recur after long periods of absence. However, the sector faces constraints from increasing autism and childhood obesity (Liebler and McConnell 3.) Despite facing constraints from increasing diseases in the current generation, healthcare services adhere to laws and regulations. Such policies are made by the federal government for the benefit of all citizens and imply to private as well as public institutions. Such laws mainly focus on the increasing cost of health services that make it inaccessible to majority poor. Healthcare service fees face increments due to advancements in technology as well as pharmaceuticals among others (Liebler and McConnell4). However; in the face of increasing number of new diseases and infections; inputs such as, technology and pharmaceuticals are important aspects in ensuring effective delivery of healthcare services. In addition, increasing costs of healthcare services force government and insurers to act upon the sectors money. As a result, this forces healthcare providers to operate on less money than they actually require (Liebler and McConnell 5). Income limitations on the healthcare sector thus; forces the providers to close, down size or form large systems which take advantage of economies of