<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?><?xml-stylesheet href="http://www.blogger.com/styles/atom.css" type="text/css"?><feed xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom' xmlns:openSearch='http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearchrss/1.0/' xmlns:georss='http://www.georss.org/georss' xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5316106143397886101</id><updated>2011-08-12T04:43:53.467-07:00</updated><title type='text'>online jobs</title><subtitle type='html'></subtitle><link rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#feed' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://onlinejobs1977.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5316106143397886101/posts/default?max-results=100'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://onlinejobs1977.blogspot.com/'/><link rel='hub' href='http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/'/><author><name>on line jobs</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/08232085231546770680</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='24' height='32' src='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_mRPqmvCxJOI/Sb_bkZBsUZI/AAAAAAAAAAM/9UA16kfy28M/S220/Image047.jpg'/></author><generator version='7.00' uri='http://www.blogger.com'>Blogger</generator><openSearch:totalResults>2</openSearch:totalResults><openSearch:startIndex>1</openSearch:startIndex><openSearch:itemsPerPage>100</openSearch:itemsPerPage><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5316106143397886101.post-1471596568060523043</id><published>2009-03-04T08:22:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2009-03-04T08:27:37.959-08:00</updated><title type='text'>online jobs</title><content type='html'>On line jobs&lt;br /&gt;1.Welcome to Cash Deals, a unique, simple and perfectly legal technique to make money on the Internet. The greatest advantage of Cash Deals is that it not only comes at a price fabulously lower than other products of its genre, it also offers exclusive procedures on how to deploy the net to maximize earnings for the user.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Internet has thrown open exciting new vistas to earn money. Cash Deals is an e-book that explains the various procedures of setting up your own business on the net and offers evident illustrations of considerable success achieved by innumerable persons who have earned a great deal simply by utilizing the techniques dealt with in this book.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Cash Deals is a compilation of techniques garnered from the Internet which have been proved and found beneficial by users over the world. Every effort has been made to confirm the veracity of information, data, illustrations, tables, screenshots and contextual references found in this e-book.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt; However, as the communication technologies are dynamic and changing, it might be possible that some of the information has become obsolete or redundant by the time it is applied. Any errors of commission or omission are purely unintentional.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;2. Users of Cash Deals and its contents thereof are hereby cautioned to take their own steps in updating or verifying information before they apply it in their favor. No responsibility whatsoever is undertaken with reference to any loss, damage and application of the techniques incurred as a result of information or omissions of content provided herein.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Furthermore, no guarantee of income is offered despite the fact that Cash Deals has proved highly profitable to many who have diligently applied the techniques. All contents of this e-book are the copyright of its respective owners.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If our software tracks any Pirating of the Cash Deals CD it will automatically lead to cancellation of Registration in www.ecashdeals.com and all further support will be forfeited and subject to legal proceedings .&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;We sincerely offer our best services and continued support of your endeavor. We hope that the skills and knowledge acquired from cash deals provide you with ability to adapt to inevitable internet evolution.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;3.You could be anyone with very limited skills but with the time and inclination to work towards easy money.Businessman, professional, self-employed or practically anybody with just a bit of enthusiasm and fervor to earn extra cash.&lt;br /&gt; A basic computer system with Internet connection. A bank account, preferably a separate one to keep track of your progress. A credit card for rapid transaction on the net.An e-mail ID, preferably dedicated to your Cash Deals business purpose.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Acrobat Reader to be able to read information provided to you OPTIONAL - Your own website to promote your business. Plus of course, just enough time to spare, and application of mind.On finishing Cash Deals e-book, we will familiarize you with how to select successful Affiliate programs and their promotion.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Familiarize yourself with all the instructions given in Cash Deals. They are your secret to success. Familiarize yourself with the operation of your computer and internet browsing, which are your tools to earn.When reading , its better to be online so that you can follow the e-book links.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;4.Before setting up your own programs, you should read and understand all the examples. As you go ahead you maybe tempted to jump and start on programs straightaway. But it’s suggested you go through the entire content and start patiently.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Internet has offered innumerable opportunities for marketers of various goods and services to reach countless customers across the world and buy these goods and services. However, they need intermediary support to publicize and promote their products and services.&lt;br /&gt;You are this intermediary. Offer your services to advertise and market their products and they reward your efforts with attractive compensations whenever you introduce a prospect. Advertising for these products will be your main work to implement this business and earn your remunerations.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Compare this facility with the actual process of distributing a product building infrastructure, fixed and working capital, overheads, stocking, manpower, management, administration - how much easier it is to sit at your computer and count your cash.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;5.Your effort, time and investment are absolutely minimal, whereas your returns are mammoth. So you see you don’t need to own a company, deal in products or even have a website.There are millions of companies worldwide who pay commissions for leads, registrations and sales.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt; The sales will be generated from the advertising links that you place at various websites. For this all you need to do is to become an affiliate of the company, place an ad and link up.As a foundation you need to familiarize with the following terminologies.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Marketers/Advertisers/Merchant Companies: These are the providers of products and services who to sell their products and services through Internet.Affiliate Program Providers (APP): APP’s are basically huge companies who have empanelled numerous other advertisers with them.&lt;br /&gt; This APP provides Affiliates to advertisers to promote their product. These are the organizations that act as go-betweens for the Marketers and you (Affiliates/Publishers).They bring merchant companies and you (Affiliates) together to form partnerships.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;6. They also provide connectivity services for transactions and payments. They have comprehensive websites which track payments and transactions in all aspects of partnership. These are the individuals like you, who advertise and promote the goods and services of the marketers to the target customers and end users.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt; The Merchant Company empanels APPs to act as the vital link with the Affiliate and form a trilateral partnership. You the Affiliate, will apply to the APP and get registered with them. You now place advertisements promoting for products and services of Marketers on the net as prominently as you could by extracting the Html codes provides by the Advertisers.(Html codes are explained later).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;When any of the millions of buyers surf through the net, clicks through your advertisement and completes any activity such as registration, purchase or download (whether paid or free),the transaction is routed through your Affiliate ID along to the Marketer’s site and you get entitled to commissions.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The APP routes your commission payment from the Merchant Company and transfers the payment directly automatically to you account within matter of hours.Even if the customer does not immediately purchase, your Merchant Company may offer a waiting period for the transaction to fructify, after which you receive your commission.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;7. Enlisting with an affiliate Program. Identify an Advertising company and its product to promote.Selecting keywords that people would utilize to access your product. Making a bid for the selected keywords at the earmarked price.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The primary step is to become an Affiliate with any renowned APP. This is absolutely free and involves no expenditure.The procedure is as simple as filling in a form and submitting online with the APP. Generally, acceptance is available automatically.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;You also have an option of signing up as an Affiliate directly under a&lt;br /&gt;Company other than APP’s.The best known APP from research is Commission Junction (CJ). Other well known names are Linkshare Corporation, Click Bank internationally and in India the most famous APP is affiliatecurry more.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;All these sites are preferred because of its massive infrastructure, high number of linked companies and transferring regular payments to your account. The technological superiority offers you facility to track your account status online, assess the values of companies on behalf of whom you are operating.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;8.It updates all other informations on your e-mail ID of advertisers and all related topics.As affiliates are very beneficial to Merchant companies many new merchants join companies like CJ and others to promote their products. All you need to do is to promote the product or service effectively sit back and collect your monthly cheques by commissions.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Select a prominent APP, such as CJ, linkshare, clickbank affiliatecurry Study and master the site thoroughly.- Maintain one e-mail account for all information about APPs.In all the top affiliate programs lets us enroll for commission junction (CJ)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Fill out the form. Note that in functional currency column always select USD (United State Dollar). A part of the site has provision for you to fill in the address of your website or a newsletter key in the name of your newsletter such as "Web's Best Deals", or "Online Marketing" or some such name.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Plan and decide whether you want your APP(cj) to send you checks or directly deposit the amount in your bank account. (Always prefer to receive payments CJ send only in cheque form).Once your form is accepted, you will receive an e-mail confirming you of your new status as Affiliate, together with a user name and password to of your publisher account in CJ.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;9.  After receiving your user id and Password for CJ.com. Login to your account using this username and password which you have already received in your email.Now we should take a step to apply to merchant companies for that go to “Get links” in same page you will Advertiser Categories.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Plan to select the category which you plan to promote.Select an APP who has a well branded clientele. CJ for example, has a list of well-known merchants such as eBay, Citi financials, Yahoo, Monster and the New York Times Home Delivery etc.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Select an APP who is in demand and enlists new merchants frequently.Select the program and “Apply to Program”.You will receive a message of congratulations from the company.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Preliminaries over, As you are now a registered Affiliate and following this status you have gone ahead and located the specific Affiliate programmes that are most profitable to deal with. You are now ready to link up with them.&lt;br /&gt;65.You would have to find the route which says “Get HTML”, or an equivalent term. Click here and it will take you to the page that has a link to their website as viewed below.Select only the blue marked area to paste into your ads. Other part of Html Link code can be ignored.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Copy and paste the selected link into a note pad or a word doc.Prepare your advertisement with related content of website.Now you are now a full-fledged Affiliate. Now let's focus on how to utilize this status to promote the products.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;While selecting the Merchant Company for whom you wish to become an affiliate, ensure to deal with companies of repute and good branded products and services, you need to ensure that your commissions reach you promptly and correctly.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Fly-by-night operators might gain from you but deprive you of your payments. Some companies have a registration form just to get your e-mail, sell them and misuse your ID (It’s a word of caution).After choosing the merchants from Cj.com or any other APPs.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt; 10..Its time to create an Effective Ad campaigns to market the products. But don’t be overawed by the term ad campaign. Contrary to the expensive advertisements we commonly know, ads on the net may cost you almost Rs.0/- or just a minimal expense.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;To understand this better, compare this with releasing an ad for your product or service in a newspaper. The bigger and more prominently placed your ad is, the greater the chances of it being seen. The cost of displaying your ad therefore is directly proportional to its size and position.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Quite similar is the concept of advertising your products on the net. There are also certain newspapers and tabloids wherein you could release ads absolutely free of cost. But publications with high circulation and readership charge high tariffs.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt; On the net, you have the flexibility of placing your ads on a free or paid site. The paid sites you select give you their display rates.it is among the most preferred free classified ads site.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;11. All you have to do is simply access the site and directly place your ad without any charges. You neither need a login id nor a password.Decide on where you would like to place your ads.If you wish to begin on a cautious note, you may prefer to select a free site to place your ad.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt; For more free classifieds websites browse in google search engine. If however you are looking for high-end exposure, paid packages may be more advisable.While selecting a free site, you have the benefit of choosing a site which has a high ranking.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There  is a site which offers ranking of free sites on the basis of traffic it attracts by employing various means. Check this site and select a high ranking free site to place your ad.If you have decided to use a paid site, then you need to select one that offers you.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The highest possible exposure to surfers.The lowest in terms of advertising cost. One that offers facility to pay only when a customer uses your ad like music.One that offers credit facility on your credit card.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;12. A site which offers these gives you the best scope to generate more traffic to your ad. Just as you have the highest exposure when you place a big hoarding at a busy street corner, more people will see your ad when you place it in a hyperactive site with lots of viewers. Thus you generate more revenues for yourself.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;With all the above, plus many more features, the most popular site Paid advertising site in this category.More than 500 million times a day surfers search for information, products and services on Google. Everybody who has ever used a search engine on the net is familiar with the word music.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;For any "Sponsored links" are visible on the right hand side of the results page.The blue marked area is the place where your ads will appear.These links are ads which have been placed by the music Ad Words programme, an eminently effective system of ad display.&lt;br /&gt; In net so,many offers the facility of operating, editing, adding, altering or deleting any part of your ad anytime you need to. However, it also lays down editorial guidelines you have to ad here to Earlier.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;13..Presently, payments are made in Indian rupees also. Advertisements placed on music  words are not only displayed on their site but also various other sites which are interlinked with them such as blogger, and almost most of the advertising sites.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Take for example for every search on the engine, a user types in some words in the search column these words are called “keywords”. They aid in locating the preferred site.. For example if the search is for “ Jobs ” you will get the following result.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt; Empathy is the vital factor - putting yourself in the shoes of a prospective surfer - what words would you key in when searching for your kind of product or service? It is a question of instructing to display your ad whenever the relevant keyword has been used. Therefore selecting the keyword is of paramount importance.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt; This is best done with music  Ad words since the site has an inbuilt system which suggests keywords and guides through the process of keywords for the ads being placed.It is imperative therefore that utmost care is given to the process of selecting the keywords.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;14.  For this purpose, you may employ available methods for identifying keywords. As many advertisers do not do thorough research on keywords but we will take on a tour about key words in the following pages to come.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In due course, it will be obvious to you as to which of the selected keywords have been used while accessing the products you have advertised.Point no.1 is that you don't way any web site. You pay only when someone clicks on your ad and views .&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This is called 'Cost per click" or CPC, a major advantage as you pay only for clicks.The cost of keyword depends upon its popularity rating, viz, the number of times it has been used for search.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Each keyword has been priced by Google on this basis. As your ad begins to produce results for you, the CPC would tend to decrease.It has been observed that while most people find a little difficult to follow in the initial stages, as you go on it gets clearer and then provides the greatest advantage.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;15. The cost of a keyword could start at 10 paisa and go up to 100’s of rupees. The cost of setting up a campaign may be in the vicinity of your ad. You could decide upon the maximum budget you would be willing to spend on keywords.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In ad words,each keyword has a minimum bid. Music "Ad Words Discounter" is a facility that watches your expenditure in comparison with your competitors.The concept is much the same as that of a newspaper ad.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The highest visibility is the top right hand side as this is the natural direction of movement of the human eye.Similar is the case with your ad placed on the net. Most programs other than charge tariffs, based upon the positioning of the ad, i.e., the close to top right, the higher the tariffs.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;On the other hand, has a unique system of placing the ad according to its performance. This is because they wish to offer their own customers the best positions for the most relevant ads.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;16. . Therefore, you will be amazed to observe your ad gradually rising higher above its competitors as the CPC and click through rates keep improving. It therefore goes without saying that the higher the relevance of your ad, the greater the visibility that web site offers you for the same price.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As mentioned, sponsored links are your product ads that will guide the customer to the advertisers website. The display of your ad on the sponsored ads column depends upon the budget and your CPC. This is much like the ad copy of a traditional advertisement in a publication.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The facility for one attractive headline and two lines of body copy totaling 35 characters per line is offered by web sites. It is imperative to devise a catchy headline and lucid copy that ensures maximum traffic. Brevity of text, important catchwords and simple language generally draw in more users through your link.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt; For example creating a job advertisement in music ad words will be as screen shot below.Smart users of Cash Deals have discovered that it is possible to keep enhancing their profitability by closely monitoring their ads and editing accordingly.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;73.  You need to compare your cost of advertising vis-a-vis its performance. Thereby, you might find it beneficial to make suitable alterations, what you need to do is to track the history of your click through Rate (CTR is the nothing but No. of clicks which are converted to sales).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The next step is to measure the effectiveness of the specific ad against the money earned through it. Needless to say, the return on investment must necessarily be positive. Otherwise, changes may be made in order to increase its visibility to produce higher CPC.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt; Also offers to calculate your click through Rate (CTR), is the ratio of close of deals, transactions or business. This appears on your CTR column thus facilitating change in your ad copy to make it more effective.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;“Traffic estimator” which estimates the traffic to the advertisement based on the CPC and budget of the Keywords as seen below.If however the ad is already producing good results, it might be a good idea to increase the budget in order to enhance the traffic volume and consequently, the sales.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;17.   Although this is not indispensable, it is highly advantageous if you decide to create and host your own website. It gives you far greater advertising scope. You could give vivid description of the products you deal with the companies you are affiliated to and so on.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt; You could also change the contents if you are dissatisfied with the results and take affiliate link with other companies and products. Most important, you would develop brand image, credibility and sales for yourself through your own website.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Now, a quick round-up on where you stand before we really get going. You have now understood the concept of selling on the net. You appreciate the role you can play, how you are needed by top sellers on the web and how you stand to earn big money with little effort. You understand the basic requisites you need to work on the concept.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;You also know how to enlist as a vital link in the chain and what your part would be in the system. You have an idea of how little you may have to invest and the time and effort involved. You are now therefore geared to set the ball rolling. Let’s go through the various steps you need to undertake.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;18..   Create a folder; give it a name  say, Adblitz, or any other preferred name.Create new sub-folders every time you launch a new ad campaign. Arrange all your information such as the concerned files, text documents and so on within these sub-folders.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;You have the option of using a free e-mail service such as Hotmail or Yahoo or you could use the e-mail id received from your ISP, for example shara@vsnl.com.If you choose the free service, remember they prescribe space limitations and messages would automatically get deleted once you cross the limit.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It is advisable to dedicate one e-mail address to your Affiliate programme correspondence. Plan on how you would prefer to receive your commissions.Again, it is advisable that you dedicate one bank account exclusively for your Affiliate programme purpose.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Select the Affiliate Programme Provider (APP) that you wish to register with. The top 5 are - Commission Junction (CJ), Link Share, Clickbank, Be Free and Perfomics. Others are available, but for starters, one of these is best.&lt;br /&gt;19. As mentioned earlier, CJ is ideal to begin with. It links you up with innumerable advertisers across the world, connects your ID to their sites and pays your commissions promptly.Fill in the form that appears on the screen.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Ideally, your own website serves a larger purpose. If you have one, enter it followed by the URL in the next field. If you decide to have a website URL, register at a sum of just $5 a year. You could take one which parks your domain free, So register a URL, log in and forward it to your Affiliate link, or for that matter, any other UR.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As your website is unlikely to offer incentives to visitors or charity for philanthropic purposes, click ‘NO’ in the respective field and leave the description field blank. Fill in the details of your communication in the field marked for contact info.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt; As decided earlier, fill in the mode of receipt of your commissions. If you reside in India, click on ‘Check’. Once all details have been filled in, click on ‘Accept Terms’. CJ will thereafter forward an email with your password.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;20.  Log into cj.com through your user id and password provided by CJ. Go through the site thoroughly and familiarize yourself with all the procedures. Later on, when you are comfortable and reasonably experienced, use the same procedure as above to register with other APPs as well, thus enlarging your portfolio.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Select a suitable promotional method that works to your advantage. Your APPs provide you links with their Merchants. Place these links in your Pay per Click ads. You could also place them on your website or use them in your newsletters and e-mails.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;By now you have a clear idea on how to utilize your registration as an Affiliate to promote your business. Extend it by adding new business lines to your portfolio.This is the largest online book store popularized. It offers excellent commissions to Affiliates. Using the procedure explained above, sign up for Amazon and promote it through your ads.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A great deal depends on which programs you sign up with because this is what maximizes your revenues. It is an interesting exercise to select the programme based on certain factors which help you locate the most lucrative one.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;21.  In India the demand for matrimonial sites are highly popular. Again, many of the bidders are the matrimonial sites themselves.Apart from these, you could also select other areas that are frequently employed by Indian browsers.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The earning potential is tremendous as such big names have not yet been exploited by Indian Affiliates. With millions of computer-savvy Indians now resorting to the World Wide Web, the scope is immeasurable.&lt;br /&gt;Using the information provided above, identify the most lucrative sites and go through the links to reach the corresponding Merchants. On these sites, locate the Affiliate programme link and select the Merchants that offer the highest commissions and best programmes.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;You can even directly register with companies which have affiliate programs other than CJ, Linkshare and so on. Found any; straightaway apply for their programme because you don’t have to pay to become their Affiliate. Thereafter, it’s all earning only.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;22.It is easy to compare two companies based on the commissions they offer you. The higher the commission, the less the effort in achieving your set targets.There are many products that are in demand in the market.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Some offer features that others don’t, select such products. tgives commissions when any surfer clicks on your ad and downloads free stuff. That’s it.Some companies stipulate a period for payment of commissions. Others offer lifetime commissions. The latter are a source of perpetual revenue.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Select a company that keeps sending you checks in shorter time periods.Some programmes pay you additional commission for referring their merchants to other Affiliates. Therefore every time your referral affiliate makes a sale, the merchant pays you an additional amount without touching the commission of your lower Affiliate.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This system enhances your income with no extra effort.Now that you are familiar with the parameters that you need to bear in mind while identifying your Affiliate programme, adopt any one of the following methods to select the programme best suited to earn.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;23. There are many sites which function as Key word Suggestion. This tool tells you how many times a keyword or a phrase is searched on engines like Yahoo and AltaVista.This site will be useful in determining the popularity of particular keyword.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;You could take ideas from those sites that are doing well. For this, go to digitalpoint /tools/suggestion/ and select a keyword like “Real Estate”. As you see below we can observe the key word traffic per day.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It’s easy to set up a campaign across the world. Language is hardly a problem as translation services are available on the web. For example when you place an ad in English Language and target it to Germany this website will automatically translate into German Language.&lt;br /&gt;Like this it can be translated into any International languages.See the following screen shots for an ad which was placed in English translated German. (Observe the white letters in blue back ground in both screen shots)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;24. .  You can establish a campaign which has not been widely exploited in Europe or Asia, for a selected niche in USA. Identify the countries you would like to set up your ad translate your English ads and set them up in those countries. Take caution while translating on the free net translator as it is computer based and not manual.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As there are many players like you, it is necessary for you to find products or companies that are very often sought but do not have too many websites or Ad campaigns competing for them.For this purpose you could employ a number of free tools that provide this information.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There is a tiny problem with free tools and that is, while these tools are quite effective in finding highly searched products or companies with less competition, they are a little slower and therefore you may have to spend more time in achieving your task.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;However, if you wish to use a highly effective tool for the same purpose cutting down on time, then you could opt to pay for a better tool. Recommended one is the Wordtracker. This gives you information as to the frequency of search for a particular word. 25.  The expense on Wordtracker Tool is justified by the speed and volume of information you can gather to your advantage.This is a scientific methodology that provides you information on market trends and guides you to writing ads based on sales forecasts.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A simple method is to carefully study periodicals such as newspapers, magazines and business publications. Fast moving items are given editorial coverage based on which you could make market predictions.Like the below search engine sites.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This is another report connected to a much searched site over the world viz, Yahoo. A number of categories searched are mentioned with their frequency.Jeeves is a site which receives countless queries on information required on a daily basis.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This tool lists the search terms most often used. It deals with practically every area under the sun and therefore provides a plethora of information on the demographic and psychographic aspects of the market.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;26.   The advantage of this site is the undisputed popularity of Google amongst web surfers over the world. It requires a bit of research work but is fruitful. The way we is searched is reflected on various lists, graphs and other formats with periodical updates on daily, weekly and monthly bases.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This e-mail report offers a weekly search of the top 200 items that have been searched.Very often, there is no better place to look for profitable programs than the APPs such as CJ and Clickbank. They have a demarcated area on the home page where they enlist.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;‘New Merchants’ who have only recently been added and all the details about the advertiser will be just a click away including commissions they pay to affiliates.It is a good idea to seek affiliation with info–based products as the Merchants offer very high commissions – often as much as 50% for promoting their products.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Copy and paste this into the “Destination URL” field of your Google AdWords or any other site where you place your ad .This is the link which directs the customer to the home of the advertiser/ merchant site. You will not encounter any problem in following this procedure its easy.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;27.   The second situation is where the Merchant uses an APP like CJ instead of his own Affiliate Programme. In this case, they would facilitate your link up on their site to Login or sign up. So sign up (if you have not already done so) and log in.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Thereafter, follow the same steps that have been explained ie, go to the “get links” or equivalent spot on the APP for a Merchant’s site, copy and past the URL link in to a text document. This link will have your Affiliate ID in it and you would be pasting it into the “Destination URL.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A brief note has already been given on the subject of Keyword Research. We will now deal at length on this because this is what ultimately ensures the success of your campaign.Keyword Research is the exercise you undertake to unearth the most important words that the end customer of the Merchant is likely to employ while searching the net for the product or service they wish to purchase.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Now let’s select one product line and see what steps are needed in the process of keyword research. Automobiles are a current range for both sale as well as purchase on the net, and Merchants offer high commissions. How do you identify the keywords for CARS.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;28.   Remember, empathy is the route, putting yourself in the place of a prospective customer looking for a car of his own preferred specifications. What are the words he is likely to key in on yahoo or any other search engine.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It is up to you to develop an exhaustive list of all the words you can think of that you are likely to attract customers because this is what is going to determine your revenue.It is but natural that the most often used words are the most expensive.&lt;br /&gt;This is because time and again, the same words have been used by buyers thus justifying the steep price. While you may have no option but to select the popular keywords, by sheer hard work and application of diligence.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;You could still find a number of keywords and combinations thereof that people might adopt while searching and yet these are low priced. Your success lies in collecting a repertoire of such words.Now that we have selected cars, let us look at the bottomline of keywords in this category that are lowest priced and that might fetch you a minimum number of clicks.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;29. These are various combinations that cost as little as 5 cents. If you are clever enough, you will grab excellent keywords that others have failed to take note of. What you need to do is to strike the maximum number of keywords and combinations and thus maximize traffic through you ad.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Many people who search the net for products and services are not conversant with correct spelling. This could mean a bonanza for you if you play your cards well.Take keywords that are popular and try to re-spell them as they are pronounced or as they are likely to be misspelt.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;For example, the word ski is a popular keyword with sporting goods stores. It may cost as much as Rs 5/- in google ad words. But the inaccurate spelling of skiis costs even lesser than Rs 5/- and attracts innumerable callers due to the misconceived spelling.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This exercise is possible for any number of commonly used keywords. The most popular keywords are also the costliest. Goaround them and discover widely used misspellings for these words. Bid a bottom price on them.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;30.  You end up building a collection of probable misspelt keywords at a low investment.Once you get used to this exercise, you will find how much you could make without depending on expensive keywords when placing your ads.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A number of tools are available to help you research keywords. Master them and you’ve actually mastered keyword research.These tools reveal the number of times the keywords on your list have been searched in all the permutations and combinations you have derived for them. Some tools offer new options as well.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Develop a list of keywords on a text file, giving only one keyword per line. Keep adding substitute or complementary words culled out from the tools and thereby expand your list to the fullest.The next step is to classify and categorise the keywords you have selected for any product line.&lt;br /&gt;Why you need to categorise your keywords is in order to put them into separate groups when you launch your AdWords campaign. Customers searching through similar keywords would automatically be routed through these diverse categories.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;31. This is a search tool that offers various combinations and alternatives for any keyword that you enter. However it suffers one defect in that it does not give you details of the number of times each alternative has been searched.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;But the advantage is that this search tool clearly discerns between singular and plural of keywords and offers the same results, for example car and cars are both identified together.This tools expands the list of keywords given by you into a much larger list of related or substitute words which you could adopt.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;For example if you are looking for a Merchant dealing in cosmetics and your keywords are lipstick, shampoo and perfume, you are likely to receive a counter with a much more exhaustive list including eye shadow, rouge, talcum powder, mascara, facial creams and many others.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Though this tool is fairly recent, it is very useful when you are unsure of the list of keywords you should include for a specific Merchant.Overture Search Term Suggestion ToolThis search tool gives details of how many searches have been done for a particular period of time.&lt;br /&gt;32.  The tool also gives the various combinations of the same keyword which people have searched.However, Overture’s tool gives only those keywords or combinations that have been searched. But to expand your base, you need many combinations and this task must therefore be undertaken by yourself.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This is because combinations that have not yet been used are yet to find place in their database.Further, unlike Google, Overture does not differentiate between singular and plural words such as automobile and automobiles.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The advantage of this search tool is its wide database of commonly used terms and expressions. Further it offers details of competing sites that use specific keywords.In fact, Wordtracker is an intelligent tool that presents to you keywords connected to your line of business activity which you yourself may not have thought of.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The tool also gives you info about how many people have searched for the keywords that you have entered.Though expensive, Wordtracker gives you a free trial for you to evaluate its utility to you.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;33.This search tool offers the flexibility for you to seek specific information on the number of times a particular keyword or related phrases were searched during the previous month.This is a similar search tool that gives a list of phrases that are related to the keyword that you key in.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It also provides a chronological listing of the bids for the keywords given.Here you have the facility to ask for a specific search engine which the tool automatically provides, together with a list of other optional phrases for your keyword.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This is one of the most comprehensive and effective search tools. It provides a complete list of all related keyword phrases for the one you key in. It gives the number of searches for each of the keyword phrases during the preceding month.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The greatest advantage is that it spells out the number of current ad campaigns running in both as well as Overture. Further it optimizes your return potential by offering the ratio between the number of a particular keyword search and the number of related websites.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;34.   As already discussed, Google is the most preferred search engine and hence it is most advisable to set up your campaign on AdWords.Similar to every advertising strategy, the more effective your ad campaign is, the more your returns are going to be, so the primary task is to write an attractive campaign.&lt;br /&gt;There are two options as regards the timing of writing the ads, either prior to or after identifying your keywords. However, the latter option gives you the leeway to design your ads on the basis of the selected keywords and hence this is recommended.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Another reason for following this order is that you would now be in a position to devise separate ad strategies for each of the keyword groups you classified in the research stage. This is because you need to create ad copy corresponding to the keyword groups which will attract customers who are searching within that product category.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;When you apply Google, you would be obliged to follow certain guidelines for writing your ad. Some of these stipulations are as under . Headline – Maximum 25 characters in length. This is inclusive of word spaces.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;35.  How judiciously you work within these restrictions determines how effective your ad would be. While writing ad words, keep in mind the following guidelines. Headlines should be short, crisp and attractive. Be sure to include the words that the customer is likely to be drawn towards.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The idea of creating ads after selecting keywords is that the customer would most likely be inclined to show interest if he finds the same words in the ad as the keywords through which he reached you. Research other ads that have a proven track record of success, copy the ideas they have used and adapt them to your own ad.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Use the method of bold lettering and highlighting. Keywords often used will find greater notice when they appear bold. Use symbols and abbreviations whenever you are confident the customer will not be misled or confused.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Brevity is vital, use of words should be such that the maximum message is conveyed with minimum words. Catchy words and slogans are the hallmarks of an effective ad . Words like “sale”, limited offer”, “Bargain buy”, “Discount”, “Clearance sale” and so on always find favour with the customer.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;36.   Sell the benefits that the customer would derive  from buying.Words like “No more waiting” or “Reduce costs” or “Enjoy additional benefits” are what the customers are looking for. List product attributes prominently giving the special features of the product and their unique benefits.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Target your competition. List out the incremental aspects that make your product better. Use parameters such as quality, pricing after-sales service and so on. Eliminate non-serious browsers. Remember, whether or not they buy, you pay for your click-through.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Spell out the specific features, price and terms so that frivolous customers don’t go further. The more you convert, the more you earn, but casual customers reduce your returns. Take the emotional route. Talk about family benefits and personal benefits using phrases like “for all at home”, “If you care for your wife” or “for your child’s future”, and so on. Induce urgency. Sales are less likely if the purchase decision is postponed.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Use terms like “Today only”, or “Limited stocks”, or “It’s a now-or-never chance”.Use your own ingenuity devises specialized ads for your specific product, the brand, the Merchants popularity and of course, the relevance of your keyword groups.&lt;br /&gt;         &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;b.p.o&lt;br /&gt;37. Business process outsourcing (BPO) is a form of outsourcing that involves the contracting of the operations and responsibilities of a specific business functions (or processes) to a third-party service provider. BPO that is contracted outside a company's country is called offshore outsourcing. BPO that is contracted to a company's neighboring (or nearby) country is called nearshore outsourcing .&lt;br /&gt;Originally, this was associated with manufacturing firms, such as Coca Cola that outsourced large segments of its supply chain. In the contemporary context, it is primarily used to refer to the outsourcing of services. BPO is typically categorized into back office outsourcing. which includes internal business functions such as human resources or finance and accounting, and front office outsourcing . - which includes customer-related services such as contact center services.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Given the proximity of BPO to the information technology industry, it is also categorized as an information technology enabled service or ITES. Knowledge process outsourcing(KPO) and legal process outsourcing (LPO) are some of the sub-segments of business process outsourcing industry. BPO is the process of hiring another company to handle business activities for you.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;BPO is distinct from information technology (IT) outsourcing, which focuses on hiring a third-party company or service provider to do IT-related activities, such as application management and application development, data center operations, or testing and quality assurance. In early days, BPO usually consisted of outsourcing processes such as payroll.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;38.    Then it grew to include employee benefits management. Now it encompasses a number of functions that are considered "non-core" to the primary business strategy. Now it is common for organizations to outsource financial and administration (F&amp;amp;A) processes, human resources (HR) functions, call center.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;These outsourcing deals frequently involve multi-year contracts that can run into hundreds of millions of dollars. Often, the people performing the work internally for the client firm are transferred and become employees for the service provider. customer service activities and accounting and payroll.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Dominant outsourcing service providers in the BPO fields (some of which also dominate he IT outsourcing business) include US companies IBM, Accenture, and Hewitt Associates, as well as European and Asian companies Capgemini, Genpact, TCS, Wipro and Infosys. IT "enables" these services to be performed.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Many of these BPO efforts involve offshoring -- hiring a company based in another country -- to do the work. India is a popular location for BPO activities. Formost Frequently, BPO is also referred to as ITES -- information technology-enabled services. Since business processes include some form of automation.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;39.        An offshoot of BPO is KPO -- knowledge process outsourcing. Considered by some to be a subset of BPO, KPO includes those activities that require greater skill, knowledge, education and expertise to handle. This refers to the idea of having service providers contribute to the effort of transforming.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;For example, whereas an insurance company might outsource data entry of its claims forms as part of a BPO initiative, it may also choose to use a KPO service provider to evaluate new insurance applications based on a set of criteria or business rules; this work would require the efforts of a more knowledgeable set of workers than the data entry would.&lt;br /&gt;The current definition of KPO encompasses R&amp;amp;D, product development and legal e-discovery, as well as a number of other business functions. Also coming into use is the term BTO -- business transformation outsourcing a business into a leaner, more dynamic, agile and flexible operation.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;BPO as expanded sounds as Business Process Outsourcing and can be aptly defined as the act of utilizing the services of a third party by a company in order to perform its back office operations that might be payroll administration, customer help desks/ call centers, tele- marketing, accounting, billing; the list is endless. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;40.        Business process outsourcing (BPO) is the practice of using a third party, contracted to perform specific, specialized processes on a company’s behalf. Although “outsourcing” in its most basic form has been used for decades, such as when a business uses an outside accountant to balance the books.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;By outsourcing certain aspects of “doing business,” the company can focus on its primary purpose, whatever that may be. There are two primary types of BPO: back office and front office outsourcing has become a practice used by the majority of businesses and large companies, on a much larger scale.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Typical back office processes that may be outsourced include payroll, billing, logistics and human resources. Some companies offer their services in collections, credit analysis and job recruitment. More than ever, processes that one would never think would be outsourced, such as claims processing at an insurance company, are being outsourced to separate companies.&lt;br /&gt;The foreign call center has become one of the most reviled aspects of BPO, with many located in different parts of the world. Where most companies once touted their customer service as something they took pride in, many customers find themselves having to explain their problems to someone has little vested interest in the company.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;41.        Outsourcing or “offshoring” customer service to countries such as India saves the company a lot of money and improves their bottom line. Some of the biggest complaints customers have with foreign call centers are heavy accents and obvious scripting. Examples of front office outsourcing include technical support.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A company may utilize BPO due to cost considerations, or simply because they do not have the expertise to deal with certain aspects of business. Many companies have come under criticism for using BPO to cut costs, especially in regards to call centers, customer service, marketing and advertising.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Companies in western countries, particularly the United States, are finding that countries like India offer the services they need at an excellent price. This is due to the fact that many of these countries have a well educated labor pool, high unemployment rates and a low cost of living. In India, which had approximately 63% of the offshore BPO market in 2006, labor is cheap, and employees are sometimes better educated than higher-paid workers in the US.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Many opponents of BPO lament the fact that western workers are losing jobs to foreigners faster than they are being replaced. While many companies are improving their bottom line by outsourcing, they are facing harsh criticism by consumers for the decline in quality of customer service.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;42. Employees may find an outsourced human resources department less accessible than an in-house one. Although BPO may be profitable now, consumer and employee backlash coupled with government restrictions or taxation on the practice may reduce its popularity, support to be successfully outsourced.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Major corporations in the US and Europe are outsourcing their back office operations to India to save costs. E.g. employee payroll is maintained in India for their employees worldwide. Although these jobs usually are not directly IT-related, their data-based orientation often means that they require IT department.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Outsourcing is the delegation of tasks or jobs from internal production to an external entity (such as a subcontractor). Most recently, it has come to mean the elimination of native staff to staff overseas, where salaries are markedly lower The concept started with Ross Perot when he founded Electronic Data Systems in 1962&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Offshore outsourcing more and more takes the shape of Business Process Outsourcing, where whole business processes (such as support and development) are outsourced. The client is usually free to choose who provides the outsourced business processes, while stock markets press the company to do more for less.&lt;br /&gt;43.        This requires that managers search out the cheapest sources they can find. In countries like India and China (primarily Bangalore in India), companies like IBM, Microsoft, Hewlett Packard, and Novell choose to get BPO business services from sub-contractors in these countries or move many development and support jobs there.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Smaller businesses can also take advantage of freelancing on the Internet to get smaller projects done by offshore developers atminimum cost. In the corporate environment, the term “outsourcing” often refers to a particular type of outsourcing, business process outsourcing (BPO).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;BPO occurs when an organization turns over the management of a particular business process (such as accounting or payroll) to a third party that specializes in that process. The underlying theory is that the BPO firm can complete the process more efficiently, leaving the original firm free to concentrate on its core competency.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;HR Processing Solutions, Finance and Administration Solutions, Procurement Solutions, Customer Services, Telemarketing Services, IT Help Desk Services, Technical Support   Services, Knowledge Services, Insurance Processing, Mortgage Processing, leads to higher productivity gains without compromising on quality.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;44.        Through the right mix of business process improvement, labor arbitrage and technology enhancements, BPO is aimed at reducing cost, increasing service levels and thus improving the enterprise value of the business processes. Blending qualified workforce with and faster adoption of well-defined business processes.&lt;br /&gt;Business Process Outsourcing includes the following areas and a lot more. Back office operation, Customer Relationship Management, Call Centers and telemarketing, Tele-servicing and product support, Payroll maintenance, Finance, Accounting/billing, Human Resources,Logistics Management, Supply Chain Management&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;   The BPO industry has flourished at a frantic pace in the last few years and companies have ended up with huge savings by being a part of the industry. By outsourcing their back office business processes to cheaper nations like China, India, Philippines, Mexico, South Africa Medical transcription, Back Office Operations, Insurance Claims Processing, Legal database maintenance&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Companies can cut costs, better concentrate on their core businesses and strengths, ensure better customer satisfaction and in a way get an edge over their competitors. A report suggests that US firms have saved nearly $8 billion through outsourcing to third world nations like India.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;45     The BPO boom seems to be increasing everyday with more and more companies deciding to follow the race, making conditions really viable for a positive growth in the BPO industry. you can make money online through bpo. Benefits of BPO increase productivity, Cut operational costs, Provide better service, Save costs, Improved accountability&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;India has revenues of 10.9 billion USD from offshore BPO and 30 billion USD from IT and total BPO (expected in FY 2008). India thus has some 5-6% share of the total BPO Industry, but a commanding 63% share of the offshore component. The top five Indian BPO exporters for 2006-2007 according to NASSCOM are Genpact, WNS Global Services,&lt;br /&gt;This 63% is a drop from the 70% offshore share that India enjoyed last year, despite the industry growing 38% in India last year, other locations like Eastern Europe, Philippines, Morocco, Egypt and South Africa have emerged to take a share of the market, Transworks Information Services, IBM Daksh, and TCS BPO.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;China is also trying to grow from a very small base in this industry. However, while the BPO industry is expected to continue to grow in India, its market share of the offshore piece is expected to decline. The Important centers in India are Bangalore, Hyderabad,etc.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;46.   According to McKinsey, the global "addressable" BPO market is worth $122 - $154 billion, of which: 35-40 retail banking, 25-35 insurance, 10-12 travel/hospitality, 10-12 auto, 8-10 telecoms, 8 pharma, 10-15 others and 20-25 is finance, accounting and HR. Moreover, they estimate that 8% of that capacity was utilized as of 2006.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;One of the most important advantages of BPO is the way in which it helps to increase a company’s flexibility. However, several sources have different ways in which they perceive organizational flexibility. Therefore business process outsourcing enhances the flexibility of an organization in different ways.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Most services provided by BPO vendors are offered on a fee-for-service basis. This helps a company becoming more flexible by transforming fixed into variable costs. A variable cost structure helps a company responding to changes in required capacity and does not requisite a company in investing in assets and hereby making the company more flexible.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Another way in which BPO contributes to a company’s flexibility is that a company is able to focus on its core competencies, without being burdened by the demands of bureaucratic dictate. Key employees are herewith released from performing non-core or administrative processes and can invest more time and energy in building the firm’s core businesses.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;47.The key in this lies in knowing which of the main value drivers to focus on – customer intimacy, product leadership, or operational excellence. Focusing on one of these drivers may help a company create a competitive edge. Outsourcing may provide a firm with increased flexibility in its resource management.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A third way in which BPO increases organizational flexibility is by increasing the speed of business processes. Using techniques such as linear programming is a way to reduce cycle time and inventory levels, which reduces a company’s slack, and reduce response times to major environmental changes.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Supply chain management with the effective use of supply chain partners and business process outsourcing increases the speed of several business processes, such as the throughput in the case of a manufacturing company.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Finally, flexibility is seen as a stage in the organizational life cycle. BPO helped to transform Nortel from a bureaucratic organization into a very agile organization. A company can hereby help maintaining ambitious growth goals, which do not fit with regular incumbent strategies.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;48.    .  BPO therefore allows firms to retain their entrepreneurial speed and agility, which they would otherwise sacrifice in order to become efficient as they greatly expanded. It avoids a premature internal transition from its informal entrepreneurial phase to a more bureaucratic mode of operation.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Although the above-mentioned arguments favor the view that BPO increases the flexibility of organizations, management needs to be careful with the implementation of it. Some tends to change their attitudes, personalities and character on how the way they talk to other clients.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Outsourcing of an Information System, for example, can cause security risks.Although BPO has many potential advantages there are a few stumbling blocks, which could counter these advantages. Among problems, which arise in practice are: A failure to meet service levels, unclear contractual issues, changing requirements and unforeseen charges,from a communication and from a privacy perspective.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;When BPO does not work out as planned the company might well experience the way in which BPO makes a company very dependent on a vendor and therefore very inflexible. Consequently, these challenges need to be considered before a company decides to engage in business process outsourcing.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;49.From a knowledge perspective, a changing attitude in employees, underestimation of running costs and the major risk of losing independence, outsourcing leads to a different relationship between an organization and its contractor. BCM consists of a set of steps, to successfully identify, manage and control that business processes that are, or can be outsourced.&lt;br /&gt;Risks and threats of outsourcing must therefore be managed, to achieve any benefits. In order to manage outsourcing in a structured way, maximizing positive outcome, and minimizing risks and avoiding any threats, a Business Continuity Management (BCM) model is setup.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Another framework, more focused on the identification process of potential outsourceable Information Systems, identified as AHP, is explained.L. Willcocks, M. Lacity and G. Fitzgerald identify several contracting problems companies face, ranging from unclear contract formatting, to a lack of understanding of technical IT- processes.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The BPO Market Development program provides an overview of BPO markets with a focus on market development and market forecasting by industry and service line. It provides timely identification of changes in market opportunity and service delivery mechanisms.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;50. BPO Index is an ongoing monitor of the health of the BPO market. This edition continues to focus on the impact of the credit crunch on BPO contract activity and its likely impact in 2009. Also presents buy-side research on business issues and initiatives and the resulting role of BPO in the retail &amp;amp; CPG sector in 2009.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Analyzes developments in contract activity within the global BPO market during 2008, and key contracts and developments in Q4 2008 to identify the direction of, and opportunities in, the BPO market in 2009. BPO Opportunities in Healthcare &amp;amp; Pharmaceuticals Sector During 2009.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This market analysis, consisting of 79 pages, identifies the business issues now faced by healthcare &amp;amp; pharmaceutical companies, and their key business initiatives and BPO buying intentions for 2009. The report is one of a series covering BPO opportunities in 2009 from an industry sector perspective.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Even prior to the credit crunch, both pharmaceutical companies and healthcare providers recognized the need to reduce their cost-to-serve, and in particular their SG&amp;amp;A costs, and major pharmaceutical companies had already begun outsourcing their F&amp;amp;A, HR, and indirect procurement functions to reduce their overhead costs.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;51. Understand the market and its implications for your sourcing strategy with our in-depth market analyses of business process outsourcing, analyzing BPO drivers &amp;amp; usage and planned purchasing patterns.  These reports analyze the pattern and opportunities for BPO service adoption by industry sector, starting with the business issues and BPO drivers specific to the sector..&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In particular each industry sector report provides analysis of Key business issues, Initiatives planned to address these issues, Usage and satisfaction with current shared services centers, Current and planned use of business process outsourcing profile of likely BPO service adoption, Benefits sought from BPO.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;BPO stands for Business Process Outsourcing. Major corporations in the US and Europe are outsourcing their back office operations to India to save costs. E.g. employee payroll is maintained in India for their employees worldwide. Services are typically delivered through a telecommunications or data network, or other electronic media&lt;br /&gt;Although these jobs usually are not directly IT-related, their data-based orientation often means that they require IT departmental support to be successfully outsourced. ITES stands for IT-enabled services.Those outsourcing services that use information technology in the processing and delivery of the service.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;52. The practice of sending Your browser may not support display of this image. Outsourced functions of any sort, whether IT-based or business process positions, to a nearby country rather than choosing markets such as India or Malaysia that are thousands of miles away.For e.g. US nearshores the work to Canada and Mexico.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The physical proximity of these "nearshore" countries is a big threat to India. Reason Saving Cost reduction 43% ,Focus 35%,Access to special enterprise 32%,Resource related reasons{relieve resource constraints, reduce IT staff and augment IT staff.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There is a disagreement as to what exactly constitutes BPO. With the rapid expansion of the BPO industry and the extent of its reach, it is becoming increasingly difficult to define what a BPO exactly means. Your browser may not support display of this image.BPM stands Your browser may not support display of this image.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Tt encompasses a wide variety of activities such as human resource, accounting, financial research, marketing, sales, legal work, logistics and so on. Software services are also regarded as a part of the BPO market by many firms. For Business Process Management, basically this is about outsourcing the business processes.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;53. BTO stands Your browser may not support display of this image.for Business Transformation Outsourcing. Accenture defines BTO as a strategic partnership between the customer and the outsourcer with the advantage of sophisticated financing mechanisms. It aligns IT and business strategy of a company while optimising quality, performance and business availability.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It would involve the firm acquiring strategic stakes in the BPO Your browser may not support display of this image.operations that companies have Your browser may not support display of this image. According to Yankee Group, BTO enables companies measure and maximise business value across its IT investments.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;BTO also stands for Business Technology Transformation. It is a fast growing nice in BPO and is expected to become a $7 billion industry by 2007 from the current $2.5 million [2004]. BTO can reduce the overhead cost of enterprises by 20%. BTO is about governing the priorities, people and processes of organizations.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;BTO involves sharing risks and gains with an outsource business partner, measuring the performance improvement in dramatic gains in the share price, market position and return on capital. For business Process Optimization and Outsourcing.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;54. A BTO provides a comprehensive set of services across the entire organisation resulting in a pre-decided output, whereas a BPO is just a contract for outsourcing services/ functions to be done in a specified way. BTOs are more profitable and higher up in the value chain.BPO2 stands Your browser may not support display of this image.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;KPO stands for Knowledge Process Outsourcing. KPO involves offshoring of knowledge intensive business processes that require specialised domain expertise, thus delivering high value to organisations by providing business expertise rather than just process expertise. MBPO stands for Medical Your browser may not support display of this image.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;HRO stands for Human Resource Outsourcing. HR is getting Your browser may not support display of this image.outsourced to third party providers who can bring in the benefits of knowing the domain. Business Process Outsourcing. Apollo Hospitals is the first major hospital to be getting into this.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;HR as an activity, it comprises of a group of activities, which include payroll management, training, staffing, benefits administration, travel and expenses management, retirement and benefits planning, risk management, compensation consulting, etc.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;55. These activities are Your browser may not support display of this image.outsourced by which the client can concentrate on their core competency.In the US context, HR outsourcing is a huge area. For instance, nearly about 29-30 per cent of the outsourcing space is HR.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;RPO stands for Research Process Outsourcing. This is popular in the biotech industry. Clients outsource their R&amp;amp;D work. This was termed reportedly by India's biotech queen Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw. RPO also stands for Recruitment Process Outsourcing. RPO is a key component of Your browser may not support display of this image.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Human Resource Outsourcing (HRO).The RPO team basically handles all the recruitment work for their clients. EPO stands for Engineering Process Outsourcing. India's engineering process outsourcing (EPO) business would grow 10-fold by 2014 to touch USD 30 billion and make the country a major hub in this area.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The global EPO market, on the other hand, will grow to around USD 110-USD 140 billion by 2015, taking India's share to 20-27 percent, said the study conducted by the state-run Engineering Export Promotion Council. ESO stands for four browser may not support display of this image. Engineering Services Outsourcing.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;56. Engineering Services Outsourcing (ESO) includes product design, research and development and other technical services across sectors like automotive, aerospace, hi-tech/telecom, utilities and construction/industrial machinery.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Spending on Your browser may not support display of this image.engineering services was $750 billion in 2004 and is projected to grow to $1.1 trillion globally by 2020, according to a recent Nasscom and Booz Allen Hamilton study - Globalisation Of Your browser may not support display of this image.Engineering Services - the next frontier for India.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;ESO also stands for Educational Services Outsourcing. Education is a growing sector and the demand for Indian educators is on the rise. ESO market is estimated to be USD eight billion dollars and Indian teachers are currently offering services to countries like US, UK , Canada , and the Middle East.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Though the main demand is from USA, newer markets of Netherlands and Europe too are fast opening up for Indian teachers. It is defined as the number of errors per 1000 lines of code. Accroding to Meta Group it has grown from 0.53 (2002) to 0.6 (2003) and is expected to further rise to 0.87 (2005).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;57. Engagement, education, enactment and enforcement framework is expected to ease the concerns of security and data privacy issue. Procurement BPO is transfer of management and execution of one of more procurement activities, transfer of the entire procurement sub-segments or transfer of the entire procurement business functions to an external provider.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It offers increased productivity, cost reduction and business transformation to the client. It has a market potential of $10 billion by 2006. BOT stands for build, operate and transfer. BOT is not applicable only to BPO. Generally clients who wish to have their captive centre partner with a local company which builds and operates the centre for 2-3 years and then transfers it completely to the client.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;HIPAA stands for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. The US healthcare industry has been interested in simplifying administrative processes and improving efficiency for several decades.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The industry leaders concluded that greater standardization of data and transactions was necessary to improve efficiencies. This conclusion was subsequently memorialized by specific administrative simplification language included in the healthcare legislation called the HIPAA.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;58. US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Telemarketing Sales Rule bars companies from calling individuals who have registered themselves on DNC list. This hurts call centres that make outbound calls [cold calling].&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This rule comes into effect from October 1, 2003. As of Sept 1, 2003 about 48 million individuals have registered on the DNC registry. If a company calls an individual on the DNC list, the fine can be approximately $11,000. Call centres have bought insurance to protect themselves from being fined.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Visit National Do Not Call Registry for first hand information. Call centres can download the DNC list from this site. Call center's sell by first playing a recorded message in American English. Then the real CSR speaks in neutral/American accent.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Banking, Financial Services and Insurance in Karnataka, the Legislative Assembly passed a bill in August 2002 which provides for the use of services of women employees during night. Section 25 of the Act was modified to accommodate this change. It is likely that all other states have a similar law.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;59. Also see Factories Act now allows women to work night shifts. BOSS stands for Burn-Out Stress Syndrome. BOSS syndrome is seen very commonly among young people working in call centres. The symptoms of this syndrome include chronic fatigue, insomnia and complete alteration of 24-hour biological rhythm of the body.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Gastrointestinal problems are inevitable for those working at nights as the body is put under chronic stress. A potentially fatal increase in heart rhythm can result in severe chronic gynaecological problems in women and sleep disorders in both men and women.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Guidance about physical and mental coordination to meet the demands of a call centre job is necessary. It really depends upon what is the kind of job you are doing for your client. There are companies in India who are doing the R&amp;amp;D work for their clients. Is that low skilled labor.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The multinational company sets up its own BPO operation instead of outsourcing to a third party. E.g. GE Capital has its operations in Hyderabad and Gurgaon, Dell has an operation in Bangalore. OTTS stands for Outsourcing Through Six Sigma. See all about quality for BPOs.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;60. Information Technology Services Qualification Center (ITsqc) in Carnegie Mellon University has developed the eSourcing Capability Model (eSCMSM) for Service Providers to enable IT-enabled sourcing service providers to appraise and improve their capability to provide consistently high quality sourcing services.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The eSCM framework also will enable service providers to establish and manage continually improving relationships with clients. The following list is no different than for any other business. Domain or process knowledge - basically you need to know the customer's business. Yup, this is in short supply.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;NASSCOM is the best organization that caters to the BPO segment. They have done a wonderful job in addressing the issues with the government. They have a special group called SIGITES - Special Interest Group for IT Enabled Services. Also see Business Process Industry Association of India(BPIAI). Also see Business Process Industry Association of India(BPIAI).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Business Process Industry Association of India (BPIAI) provides a network for members to jointly address challenges facing the call centre industry. The association was established in the year 2000. ASSOCHAM too has an initiatve for the BPO sector.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;61. Be it Telecom Infrastructure, Cost of leased circuits, Labour laws, Training or Retention - all these issues can be addressed better in one voice. On Aug 6, 2004 Medical Transcription firms in the country joined together to form the Indian Medical Transcription Industry Association (IMTIA) aiming to set best practices and propel growth of the $ 100 million sector.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The American Teleservices Association(ATA) represents the call centers, trainers, consultants, and equipment suppliers that initiate, facilitate, and generate telephone, Internet, and email sales, service, and support.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Centre for BPO Professionals, a non-profit organisation, will facilitate a platform for BPO and call centre professionals to discuss their issues and find out solutions and help them maintain their employability and adaptability in the volatile market requirements. As of March, 2005 CBPOP has its offices in Bangalore and Hyderabad.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Association of Outsourcing Partners - will foster public-private partnership in education, training &amp;amp; governance, share best practices from China &amp;amp; the US, and promote India as the Knowledge Capital of the World. If you believe in the AOP objectives please join us as soon as you can.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;62. India is situated 5 hours ahead of UK, 10 hours ahead of New York and 13 hours ahead of Los Angeles. US and UK companies can claim overnight response capability because during their night time, it is day time in India and agents in India can respond to emails during Indian business hours. This is known as follow the sun model.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;See guidelines. This is basically to get the DoT [Department of Telecom] clearance to operate a call centre. There is no prescribed application form, but you need to submit a set of documents. From what we have heard this office is very helpful and they don't harass you.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As of Oct 22, 2002 the Govt of India has decided that ITES can usethe bandwidth on a time-sharing mode. It would not be treated as resale of bandwidth, which was banned in India. The move will allow firms to use the same facility and bandwidth to service Indian and international clients, which is not permitted under the present norms.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;BPOIndia.org would like to thank Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), which mooted the idea. BPO clients would not like their work to be disrupted. To ensure continuity it is essential to be multi-locational, at times this could mean in different countries also.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;63. BPO companies need to constantly evaluate where they can get the best value for their money. Low-skill jobs like data entry could be outsourced to countries where labor is cheaper than in India.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Few countries have data access legislation that prevents databases and information from crossing geographical boundaries. The best way to solve this problem is to have a BPO centre in that country itself. At times BPO client can take permission from the appropriate authorities and move the database outside the country.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;For e.g. in the case of EDS [Enhanced Directory Service] the operator needs to access a database which has the information of the residents/businesses of the client country. Usually you are not allowed to ship this database outside that country, however clients have taken special permission to ship this database to countries like Philippines.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;IVR stands for Integrated Voice Response. IVR systems are automated systems installed in customer contact/service centers that help automate routine tasks such as account information, product information, schedule etc.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;64.  IVR systems help automate many transactions that free employees tedious repetitive tasks. Customers can input their query using touch tone phones and these days advanced IVRs support speech recognition. Kochi has some of the cheapest available bandwidth in the country.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It has the advantage of being located at the landing points of both satellite and submarine cable links. Both Sea-Me-We 3 and SAFE international submarine cables land at Kochi. Not only is bandwidth abundant, it is cheaper than at other locations. VSNL offers a 2 Mbps Internet leased line for Rs 12.5 lakh at Kochi. A 2 Mbps IPLC link costs Rs 40 lakh here.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Nasscom has rated Kochi as one of the top two destinations in India for bandwidth intensive IT-enabled services. VSNL's International Gateway Exchange with 15 Gbps capacity is located next to the Cochin Special Economic Zone.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Recently VSNL unveiled the SAT-3/WASC/SAFE submarine cable station in Kochi. With this, Kochi is one of the 16 landing points across the world for the submarine cable. The cable system has an ultimate capacity of 120 Gbps that enables it to convey a total of 5.8 million simultaneous telephone channels.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;65.  VSNL operates a facility in the zone under the co-location scheme, offering global connectivity support to zone units at low-entry costs. (Source: Express Computer). The Indian government wants to examine whether a non-resident company, which has outsourcing deals with a BPO outfit in India, is subject to tax in India.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Tax implications for the BPO sector (source Express Computer). Taxing BPO clients will increase the cost of transacting in India. This will make India less cost-effective. Companies will be discouraged from outsourcing their processes to India, this will slow down the growth rate of the Indian BPO sector.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Indian BPO sector will lose out vis-à-vis its competitors like Philippines, China, Ireland, Hong Kong, etc, if government adopts tough tax regimes. The employment generated by the BPO sector might take a beating and the country will lose out significantly on the income tax charged on individual employees.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Overseas clients might perceive India as a country where taxation policies are not stable. India needs to project itself as a stable destination. See our Research Reports section. Call centre workers are suffering from a new industrial disease: repetitive voice injury, also dubbed as call centre-itis.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;66. Long hours and little opportunity for even a drink of water are behind the 'disease'. Glocalization is basically globalization plus localization, your ability to take the best from the world's systems, best practices, best ideas, best brands, and meld them with your own culture in a balanced way so that you don't feel overwhelmed by them.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A significant amount of information is required to effectively manage a call center. We need, for example, data on caller needs and expectations, the queue and caller tolerance, the load on the system, agent activities and performance, call patterns, cost components, the activities of other parts of the organization and conditions in the external environment.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;But we must also be able climb above the detail and assess overall performance, without the need to review dozens of reports. The question is, what measures can adequately summarize the numerous activities of a call center? While any measure by itself has the potential to mislead, the ten reports summarized below generally give a good synopsis of the call center's performance when they are interpreted together.&lt;br /&gt;Average Call Value (Sales and Reservations Only), This measure is generally calculated by dividing total revenue generated by number of calls. This has historically been, and continues to be, a top priority in sales and reservations environments.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;67.  Customer satisfaction is, without doubt, a top priority. Most call centers conduct surveys via either outbound calls or mail to randomly selected callers. Some call centers contract with outside firms to conduct surveys and prepare the results, while others do the surveys themselves. And a growing number of call centers are automating some surveys.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Callers are transferred into a VRU that guides them through a series of questions and allows them to respond via touch-tone. Service level takes the form of X percent answer in Y seconds (such as 80 percent of calls answered in 20 seconds), and is a high level measure of how fast callers get through to reps.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The best managed call centers take service level seriously, and strive to meet it as consistently as possible. An appropriately selected service level objective should mean that answering calls less quickly (or a lot more quickly) would actually cost money, not save it. Abandonment is an ongoing concern in incoming call centers.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If callers hang up before we get a chance to talk to them, we are missing the opportunity to make them happy, sell to them and solve their customer service problems. However, abandonment is difficult to accurately forecast (and, therefore, staff around) and is often a misleading indication of the queue callers experienced.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt; 68. In the final analysis, we can control how accessible we are -- how many trunks we have, how many skilled reps are plugged in.But we can't control how callers will react or the myriad of circumstances that influence their behavior. Accordingly, be sure to view abandonment in light of the other measures.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are various ways to calculate cost per call (i.e. what factors to include in staff costs, how to allocate equipment, how to value the building) but the basic formula is to divide total costs by total calls received for a given period of time (usually a month).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The potential in following cost per call is to identify the variables that are driving it upwards or downwards, and the impact they have. A climbing cost per call can be a good sign, depending on the variables driving it up. For example, process improvements may result in fewer calls than would otherwise be necessary.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As a result, the fixed costs (in the numerator) get spread over fewer calls (in the denominator), driving cost per call up. But, of course, total costs will go down over time, because the elimination of waste and rework will drive down variable costs. (Similarly, cost per call usually goes down during the busy times of the year, and up during the slower times of year).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;69. A major theme of the quality movement is that good service pays for itself because of the elimination of things that come with a lack of quality: doing work over, correcting mistakes, handling complaints, increased public relations costs, canceled orders or subscriptions, costs of closing accounts, costs of inspection, and others.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Errors and rework are often part of a cycle. For example, errors and rework consume valuable staff time, which can lead to insufficient staffing to handle the incoming workload; insufficient staffing tends to lead to high occupancy, unhappy callers and increased stress on the staff -- which contributes to errors and rework.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So, reducing errors and rework has a positive impact on service level, morale, customer satisfaction and costs. A variation on errors and rework is a measure of the percent of calls completed on the first attempt, which has become an increasingly important measure in many call centers.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Errors and rework can be measured in a number of ways. For example, the database may allow you to track repeat calls, unresolved issues and errors in data entry. Monitoring or side-by-side coaching should detect and track specific problems that are occurring during call handling. Call coding in the ACD (where reps use codes to track specific types of calls and issues) can trace problems.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;70.  And transferred calls, escalated calls, customer complaints and correspondence (both to and from customers) can be additional sources of information. Underestimating calling demand will mask and defeat all other efforts to provide good service, and overestimating demand results in waste. Transaction-based pricing requires high degree of domain specialisation especially for high end BPO work - a BPO credibility and proven track record that today is not widespread.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Good forecasting comes from constantly tracking results and making improvements to the forecasting process. Common practice is to blend quantitative "time series" forecasting (projecting out existing call patterns) with judgmental forecasting (for example, what is marketing about to do? new terms and procedures? process changes? interest rates? the weather?).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If the forecast is off by much, we need to identify which variables caused the problems, and factor them in (or out) in the future. This measure is independent of whether we actually have the staff necessary to acheive a targeted service level. How well do the staffs we have adhered to schedule?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Adherence factor is a measure of how much time an individual is on the phone, available to take calls, and generally consists of all plugged-in time, including talk time, wrap-up time, waiting to receive calls, and necessary outgoing calls. Generally, when adherence factor improves (goes up), service level goes up and occupancy goes down.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;71. Generally, when adherence factor improves (goes up), service level goes up and occupancy goes down. Generally, when adherence factor improves (goes up), service level goes up and occupancy goes down. Average handling time brings together two components: talk time and after call work (wrap up). Talk time is everything between "hello" and "good-bye." After call work is that work that must immediately follow the inbound call.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The ratio of talk time to after call work varies significantly from one call center to another. An erratic average handling time often points to the need for more training, especially on how to use the after call work mode. To be true after call work, three criteria must be met- 1) The work is related to an inbound call.&lt;br /&gt; In other words, the work is an important component of the randomly arriving call load. The Quick Version of Choosing a Service Level Objective.Sometimes we hear, "Okay, the analysis is fine, but let's get to the point. What should our service level objective be?". Fair enough. If you are in a competitive industry (e.g. shipping, catalog and mutual funds) and want to be on the high-end scale, 90/20 is fairly common.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Others go for 85/15 or 90/15. Engineer for no more than one percent blockage on the trunks. If you hit these targets reasonably well, your abandonment rate will probably be around one or two percent. Going for the middle of the road? 80/20 is common. That's what a lot of banks, insurance companies and travel reservation centers shoot for.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;72. Don't allow more than one to five percent blockage on the trunks. Hit these objectives and you'll probably see abandonment at three or four percent. Want a service level that is more modest? 80/60, or 90/120, or even 80/300, with five to 15 percent blockages, is a target common with software support centers and some government organizations.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Abandonment can range up to 10 percent, 15 percent or higher. Hold your judgment - some of these organizations do a darn good job of hitting these objectives consistently, a lesson many with more lofty goals could use. Of course, just throwing out numbers like this can be dangerous. There are exceptions to the norm in any industry. Also, interpret these numbers with common sense.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If you are an emergency services center, you will target 100/0. On the other end of the scale, there are centers for which 80/300 is a dream. Remember, it's not just how high your objectives are, but how consistently you hit them. PTP stands for Per-transaction price. A norm in the US and the concept is fast gaining popularity among top Indian BPOs, the chances of PTP becoming a norm in industry are very dim.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;PTP for the uninitiated is a form of pricing where a BPO company is paid only on the basis of completed transactions. The client pays a portion of the value that he gains from outsourcing rather than a fixed cost based on the number of seats or hours of effort that a service provider uses to deliver the solution. This ensures that the client pays only for the benefits that he derives and not for inefficiencies of the service provided.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;73. A range of information and resources to assist all users of Recruitment Online are available on HRWeb. The easiest way to access these is to use the Recruitment Online and Help Using Recruitment Online links under the What’s Hot/What’s New menu on right side of the HRWeb homepage.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Quick Navigation Guides for recruiters and applicants which explain various Recruitment Online processes (color laminated versions of these guides were mailed to schools in late April). Step by Step Guides for applicants on topics such as creating a resume and applying for a job. Information about accessing the online help and training tool which is a very important part of the Recruitment Online system.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Information about logging in and using the system.Frequently Asked Questions. New handy hints and tips which provide useful information and good practice suggestions for employees, job seekers, principals and recruiters on making the best use of Recruitment Online. Principals and business managers are asked to ensure that all staff members in the school are made aware of the availability of this information on HRWeb.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A position description, created as part of the Job Requisition in Recruitment Online, is required for any vacant position.  Position descriptions consist of seven (eight for special teacher recruitment program positions) different elements or Description Types, each of which must be completed for the vacancy.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;74. Where the position is a tenured one (leading Teacher or Principal Class) the period of tenure must be specified under Other Information in the position/job description.  The period of tenure is up to five (5) years for assistant principal and leading teacher positions. The formatting in the position description information in a Job Requisition should be checked by the Recruiter prior to approving the Job Requisition, e.g. check apostrophes and bullet (dot) points.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;When creating Job Requisitions for Family Leave or School Support vacancies, this must be specified under Other Information in the position/job description so that potential applicants are aware of the special conditions that apply to these vacancies.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Short term vacancies for periods over 30 working days, but less than six months for teacher vacancies and three months for SSO vacancies, are not required to be posted.  When creating a job requisition that does not require posting, on page 7 under Posting Destinations.&lt;br /&gt;The easiest way to link an applicant to a job requisition that has not been posted (i.e. a short term vacancy) is as follows:  go to Manage Recruiting Activities Home then under the Applicants heading select Link Requisition to Applicant.  Enter the person’s name (surname in the Last Name field and first name in the Name field) then click on search.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;75. A Job Search Agent can be set up so that applicants do not have to regularly search for vacancies.  The Recruitment Online system will send an email when vacancies meeting the selected search criteria have been posted.  The Job Search Agent is accessed from the Applicant Home page. For a Job Requisition to be available, both the authoriser and recruiter must access the Job Requisition and approve it.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A Job Search Agent can be set up so that applicants do not have to regularly search for vacancies.  The Recruitment Online system will send an email when vacancies meeting the selected search criteria have been posted.  The Job Search Agent is accessed from the Applicant Home page. Only after the vacancy closing date will the system make applications available for them to be provided to panel members.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Where an applicant for a vacancy has submitted a response to the key selection criteria, the school that raised the Job Requisition will not be able to view that part of the person’s application until after the closing date for the vacancy. A principal/recruiter can view the remaining parts of each applicant’s resume, and determine (preferably prior to the closing date) whether a search should be done on the system in order to supplement the applicant field.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Principals are reminded that while the preferred method for applicants to apply for job vacancies is through Recruitment Online, hard copy applications must be accepted, especially where the applicant is unable to access the system. No action is to be taken by schools to appoint or promote Assistant Principals on HRMS.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;76. Payroll action will be processed centrally following the return of the signed principal class employment contract by the Schools Recruitment Unit. Once the successful applicant has accepted the job and their disposition status is changed to 080-Ready to Hire, a workflow email is generated.  This Notification Appointment email is sent to the Originator of the Job Requisition, advising of appointment action on HRMS.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;When a salary overpayment is repaid within the same financial year as it occurred, the amount to be repaid excludes PAYG tax.  However, if the overpayment is repaid in a subsequent financial year, it is a requirement of the Australian Tax Office (ATO) that the Department recover the gross amount, including PAYG tax.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Where the gross amount is required it is then up to the employee to seek a refund of the PAYG tax paid on the overpayment from the ATO by requesting a reassessment of his or her tax return for the year in which the overpayment occurred.  It is therefore advantageous to an employee who has been overpaid to repay any outstanding amount before the end of the financial year in which it occurred.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;With this in mind, principals are encouraged to negotiate and activate (for recovery in accordance with Section 56 of the Financial Management Act) any outstanding overpayments for the current financial year.  Outstanding overpayments can be identified through the Over/underpayment Summary Report which should be reviewed on at least a weekly basis. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;77. Under the provisions of the Financial Management Act 1994, schools are legally required to record and recover overpayments and should act as soon as possible to recover an overpayment.  To help ensure these requirements are met it is important to have in place appropriate strategies and processes to detect and recover any outstanding overpayments from staff members before they terminate their employment.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;An important element of that strategy should be running and checking the Over/Underpayment Summary Report from HRMS on at least a weekly basis, especially prior to pay confirmation. The Over/Underpayment Summary Report displays information on outstanding over/underpayments for staff members paid on HRMS.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;One of the report fields (columns) is titled ‘Separation Date’ which identifies employees with over/underpayment records who have a termination date on HRMS. This will help to identify ceasing staff members with overpayments, enabling the school to negotiate with the staff member the full repayment of the overpayment prior to the termination date.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;When a potential overpayment is detected after pay confirmation but prior to the direct deposit recall deadline of 10.00 am of the day before pay day, it may be appropriate to request a direct deposit recall. The School Services Officers Agreement 2004 provides for SSO’s to access pro rata long service leave entitlements after 7 years eligible service.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;78. The option to commute (i.e. be paid) a portion of their long service credit to salary in conjunction with a long service leave absence of 6 weeks or longer.  Comprehensive information concerning long service leave is available. It is important that any staff member considering commuting part of their entitlement be aware of the possible taxation implications.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Payments will be added to the staff member’s normal fortnightly salary and taxed accordingly, which may result in a substantial increase in their marginal tax rate. A new form is now available for use by staff to apply for long service leave and to request commutation of their long service credit.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Staff member completes the LSL application section and the details are entered on HRMS in the usual way. Staff member completes both sections of the form, indicating the number of weeks LSL credit they wish to commute. LSL absence entered on HRMS by the school in the usual way. Fax the form to Schools HR Services for the cash option to be processed.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The following are arguments and themes useful for writing frameworks for various essay topics.  I have suggested some sources for each topic as examples. Also, I have added some Web addresses that may be useful. If, after your best efforts, you cannot find articles in these sources.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;79. Framework: Please refer to the essay document for articles to use.  Formulate a framework using the arguments in Joan Kendall (for aboriginal), or articles related to children in your course kit for Term 2. Kendall, Joan (2001) argues the following (use her arguments, reasoning, and explore your evidence): “The condition of natives in Canada, referred to what the report calls “an endless circle of disadvantage—family violence, educational failure, poverty, ill health, violence.”  Why?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Loss of land and sovereignty, cultural genocide, lack of education, and job market discrimination. Cause of Aboriginal poverty is joblessness. Remote location of many Aboriginal people, a factor in their underdevelopment. A communal approach to living—that is, collective ownership and sharing of resources, as opposed to the idea of individual private rights that characterizes.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Western culture—is often assumed to be a major stumbling block to Aboriginal development. Indian Act—that infringes on Aboriginal sovereignty. Need for capital to support business starts and entrepreneurial activity. Canadian Child Care Federation, May 1997 argues that: “Children are extremely vulnerable to the impacts of high unemployment and an unstable labour market.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In particular, children living in lone-parent families and families headed by parents under 30 years of age are more likely to live in poverty.” On Mexico and India, you could focus on Child labour and reasons for its prevalence.  There are many journal articles on child labour that you can access through York Library’s e-resources.&lt;br /&gt; &lt;br /&gt;80. Framework:  Formulate a framework using the arguments and concepts in one or more of the articles suggested in the essay document. What have been women’s conditions of work and in family, their means of survival and employment opportunities in different periods: colonial and post-colonial.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Why and how do most women in the Third World country of your choice, live in subordinated and marginalized conditions?  What have been the government policies concerning women in the workforce and society?   What roles do elites and class relations play in shaping women's subordination or repression.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Women and Globalized Labour :Comparing women workers in affluent vs. poorer countries’ economies. Globalization &amp;amp; Neoliberalism: You may build a comparison using the following concepts.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;jobs - women as reserve pool of cheap labour - lower wages and piece work done in their homes. Job segregation and low wages: female wages do not relate to productivity or physical hardship involved. Any job sector where women are numerous turns into a low wage sector.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;81. Labour market segmentation between the primary market and the secondary market -- female and teenage male labour work in the secondary market. i.e., part‑time, lower wage, less unionization, and with little growth potential as careers. In Canada, structural shift away from manufacturing toward service sector industries has happened.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Jobs in this expanding sector have absorbed women in a majority of occupations. Wage differential and job segregation for women in general are a result of growth of jobs in the economy, and the kinds of jobs where women are now hired. There are many journals exclusively on women’s issues both in Scott and in the Women’s Library in Founders College.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;You may search for online articles through databases in York Library’s e-resources.  For India: the journal Manushi (in women’s library in Founders College).For Latin America (refer to peer-reviewed journals on Latin America focusing on economy and labour).  On Canada, there are many peer-reviewed journals online through York library system.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Contemporary Wars and Ethnic Conflicts: Compare their causes for and their impact on the Third World (Africa or the Middle East or Afghanistan) and those of the First World. Framework: Formulate a framework using the arguments and concepts in the relevant articles suggested in the essay document.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;82. NAFTA &amp;amp; US hegemony:  Canada and Mexico. Framework:  Formulate a framework using the arguments and concepts in the relevant articles in the Developing World as well as Ciccantel’s and Quintero-Ramírez’s articles from your Course Kit for Term 2. Foreign Trade benefits markets that are protected;  Globalization benefits the powerful;  WTO is controlled by the rich nations.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;WTO system of regulations favours industrial economies whereas the economic needs of the Less Developed economies face an asymmetry in power relations and economic bargaining conditions. WTO is shaped by Washington consensus set of one-size-fits-all agenda that is detrimental to the LDCs’ trade development.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Ciccantell (Course Kit): Raw materials drive US hegemony.  In order to establish US hegemony over North American economic resources, U.S. policies started with the continental control of resources, e.g., energy, oil &amp;amp; gas. U.S. maneuvered Canada and Mexico into joining NAFTA, tempting them with the large “open” US market for export.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Climate change and Economic development: Why and how does/would the Kyoto Protocol and the consensus arrived at the Bali conference of 2007 affect economic development in the Emerging Economies differently from that in the Advanced Industrial Countries&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;83. A large research library such as Princeton’s requires a diversity of skilled staff performing a wide variety of tasks, all working in an interrelated fashion.  Understanding the broad picture and the roles of  other units enables staff members to perform their own jobs better and prepares them to apply for positions in other areas of the library.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The goal of this program is to acquaint staff members in B &amp;amp; C level positions with the basic concepts of library work and to provide a small taste of the work done in other areas of the Library.  In this way they will better understand position descriptions and job postings as they are advertised.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This is not, however, intended to be job training, per se, and will not necessarily qualify a participant for a higher level position. This program will also serve as a pilot in determining whether job shadowing can help all support staff better understand the job tasks of their colleagues and the work of the Library.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The program will start with four volunteers from the staff who currently work in B or C level positions.  If the evaluation of the program indicates that it is valuable, appropriate adjustments will be made and four more volunteers will be solicited.  If the program is successful for B and C level staff, support staff volunteers from other levels may be encouraged to participate in the future.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;84. A combination of classroom and individual coaching by Tracie Emanuel.  Topics will depend on the current skills and knowledge of the participants. Classroom presentation by Rhoda Kesselman with hands-on exercises. Design and purpose of an integrated library system. Interpreting records in the Online Catalog.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Types of records in the Cataloging Module: bibliographic, holdings, item, Interaction of modules: cataloging, acquisitions, circulation, OPAC, Brief introduction to MARC Format. Classroom presentation by Rhoda Kesselman with hands-on exercises. Review of interpreting records in the Online Catalog. Basic and Guided search screens.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Available searching methods, with examples Boolean keyword searching Navigating search results (lists, buttons, redirected searches, references, search history), Classroom presentation by Rhoda Kesselman, with hands-on exercises. Review of types of records and record relationships.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Each participants will spend two half days in Firestone, hosted by support staff members in Catalog Division and Circulation Division.  The hosts will explain their jobs as they perform their tasks and then coach the participants in doing some of the basic tasks in the job.  Each day will have three parts, as indicated below.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;85. There is some latitude in the organization of this shadowing experience, based on the needs of the unit and the availability of support staff hosts.   HR will be working directly with support staff hosts for this project, and the participation of supervisors in planning this program is also welcomed.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;To maximize the input, the evaluation will be done at a lunch with all participants and their hosts.  Supervisors of each group will be contacted as well, to judge the impact on the participating units. They post jobs in the United States and abroad.  Here are some to get you started. Many international language institutions have centers in various countries around the world. You can contact them to find out about current opportunities.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The first site below has detailed background information about various countries around the world.  The second link has information about health conditions and gives recommendations about immunizations. There are many online job postings and job search databases. Volunteering is the way many ESL/EFL teachers make their start in the profession.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are many opportunities out there from short term “working vacations” to multi year commitments. Placement services and cultural exchange are another way to find teaching jobs abroad.  As with any employer, it’s a good idea to do some research into these programs.  This should include contacting current and former participants. TESOL International has a convention every year with a job fair.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;86. Our graying workforce and the development of newcareer/retirement patterns have created a need for evidence-based organizational policies and practices that effectively utilize the talent represented by this growing sector of the workforce. This requires a clear understanding of when and how age is related to work attitudes, work motivation and worker decisions about whether, when, and how to make the transition from work to retirement.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Contrary to the common belief that older workers are a disgruntled lot, simply waiting out their time until retirement, a large body of research on work attitudes indicates that older workers report generally more positive attitudes toward their jobs and work than their younger coworkers.  However, this is a broad-brush statement that underplays the complexities of relationships between age and workers’ attitudes toward work and conditions that support positive attitudes and motivation.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;several quite different explanations for why age is associated with positive attitudes exist, each with somewhat different implications for organizational practices targeted at older workers. These include explanations tied to the differing experiences and expectations of Baby Boomers and their younger Gen X and Millennial coworkers (cohort explanations); explanations grounded in the idea that we become “easier to please” as we age (developmental explanations).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Explanations grounded in the idea that older workers may simply have had more time to reap the rewards provided by status and salary and that disaffected older workers leave the workforce through retirement (situational explanations). Research that directly tests these explanations is limited.  It is also important to recognize that older workers are themselves a highly diverse group whose attitudes represent responses to a broad array of work environments and job demands over an extended period of time.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;87The accumulated work experiences and expected future work experiences of older workers in low-income, physically demanding jobs are quite different from those of older workers who have many years of experience in successively responsible professional positions.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Organizational research provides inconsistent findings about age differences in general levels of work motivation, but some evidence suggests that the kinds of outcomes and experiences workers value shift as they age, with implications for how managers can keep older workers actively engaged and motivated.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There is also evidence that older workers are less motivated to engage in development activities, and to adapt to changing organizational structures (e.g. technology integration, self-managed work groups). This presents particular challenges to organizations, because continuous skill development and adaptability to changing work conditions have become key features of an effective workforce.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The past decade has also seen a decided increase in attention to the variety of psychological processes that are called into play when workers make decisions about whether, when, and how to make a transition from work to retirement, but many unanswered questions remain. The bulk of empirical research on retirement decision making has emphasized the important influences of financial resources, worker health, and access to healthcare in this process.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;88.However, psychosocial variables, such as feelings of being “pushed” or “pulled” toward retirement, the desire to maintain important social networks, and the need to manage emerging work-life issues (e.g., eldercare) also play a role in attitudes toward the timing of retirement and reactions to extended employment.  An overarching theme of the findings from this research is the value of being able to exercise control over the timing and extent of retirement from work.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Probably the most consistent take-away point from scientific research on aging and work attitudes is that older workers value work and express positive attitudes toward work that satisfies motives and needs that are important to them.  Based on existing evidence and theory about motives and needs of older workers, three kinds of interventions deserve particular attention.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;First, opportunities to develop and maintain meaningful social relationships, regular access to sources of social support, and opportunities to mentor are likely to be valued outcomes for older workers that can enhance work motivation, work attitudes, and retention, as well as providing a vehicle for knowledge transfer.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Second, regular exposure to mastery experiences through challenging assignments should be encouraged as ways of enhancing attitudes toward training and development.  Third, flexible working arrangements of various kinds are a particularly valued outcome for older workers because they allow them to carry out other valued roles in their lives that take on increasing prominence as they move closer to exiting the workforce.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;89. On the other hand, there is substantial room for rigorous research that contributes to understanding the role worker age plays in the development of important work attitudes and the manner in which work motivation processes and worker engagement are affected by aging processes.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Theoretically grounded empirical research that includes worker age as a focal issue and research designs that speak to the underlying processes and mechanisms underlying age differences are needed to help us understand when such differences are the outcome of natural aging processes, and when they are the outcome of generational differences or differential exposures to work conditions and situational variables that are amenable to intervention by organizations.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In addition, further development of work-based theories that explicitly incorporate psychological and developmental aspects of age would provide frameworks for integrating worker age into our understanding of work attitudes and work motivation. The Campus Conversation Partners Program is an informal meeting opportunity that emphasizes information exchange.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It allows both participants to learn more about each other’s culture, provides the non-native English partner an opportunity to practice conversing in the host language, and fosters international friendships. These conversation topics were generated for the English and international conversation partners to provide mutually beneficial learning experiences and lesson ideas.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;90. The topics below may be adapted for each casual meeting. Conversation ideas can also be modified according to both of your interests. Other topics may be generated spontaneously during the session. To make the most of this experience, find out more about your partner’s cultural background, be sensitive to political situations and religious beliefs, meet regularly, keep an open mind, and think positively.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Learn about special days throughout the year and how they are celebrated by law or custom. Bring a current 12-month calendar to the session. Optional: Make a list of holidays celebrated in each country. Optional: Invite each other to celebrate the special holiday.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Compare and contrast common holiday observations (new year, Valentine’s Day, etc.) each month. Discuss other special days, such as independence and legal holidays, religious celebrations, etc. Learn about geography and gain insights to tourism.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Bring an atlas or maps of the world, USA, Iowa, and partner’s country to the session. Optional: Share travel photos or brochures. Ask your partner to show on the world map which routes he/she traveled to get to the USA and explain his/her preparation for entry to the USA and admission to the UI.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;91. bizjournals is the online media division of American City Business Journals, the nation's largest publisher of metropolitan business newspapers. It operates the Web sites for each of the company's 41 print business journals and operates a web-only site with local business news and information for Los Angeles.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;American City metropolitan business newspapers reach 4 million readers each week with exclusive, in-depth coverage of their business communities. The loyalty of these readers testifies to American City's commitment to top-quality journalism, unexcelled service for advertisers and readers, and active business community involvement.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;American City also operates the City Business Journal Network, a national advertising representative firm, and Biz Books, marketer of hundreds of business book titles.American City is a unit of Advance Publications Inc., which also operates Conde Nast Magazines, , Parade magazine, Fairchild Publications, the Golf Digest companies, Newhouse Newspapers and cable television interests.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Looking for the best place to launch a new business during these turbulent times. Start your search in North Carolina.The two markets with the nation's top scores for small-business vitality, according to a new bizjournals study, sit 140 miles apart in the Tar Heel State. Bizjournals used a six-part formula to analyze the nation's 100 largest metropolitan areas, searching for the places that are most conducive to the creation and development of small businesses.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;95.  The  two North Carolina markets emerge as the clear leaders, thanks to their outstanding records in four statistical categories with a direct impact on small-business activity.-- Population: Raleigh and Charlotte picked up a combined total of 427,000 new residents between 2002 and 2007.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Raleigh grew by 21.2 percent in that five-year period, Charlotte by 17.4 percent. Both dwarfed the national growth rate of 4.8 percent.-- Employment: The entire country is endangered by the current recession, the two North Carolina hubs included. But they cushioned any future blow with outstanding job growth during the 2003-08 span -- 23.0 percent in Raleigh, 15.4 percent in Charlotte. The U.S. gain was 5.8 percent.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Small-business growth: The number of small businesses grew dramatically in both markets from 2005 to 2006, the latest period covered by official statistics. Raleigh led the way with a 4.6 percent rise, followed by Charlotte at 4.0 percent. The national increase was 1.3 percent.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Small-business concentration: The typical U.S. market has 24.57 small businesses for every 1,000 residents. The North Carolina markets enjoy concentrations that are at least 10 percent bigger, with Raleigh at 27.58 per 1,000, Charlotte at 27.07.And that's not all. Two other markets with North Carolina connections rank among the 30 best metros in the study.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;96 . Greensboro holds 29th place, and the Virginia Beach-&lt;br /&gt;Norfolk metro, which extends into northeastern North Carolina, is 19th.The highest scores in bizjournals' study went to areas that have prosperous economies, are expanding rapidly, and are densely packed with small businesses. (Bizjournals defines a small business as any private-sector employer with 99 or fewer employees.)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Seattle ranks third in the overall standings, putting it just behind Raleigh and Charlotte in terms of small-business vitality. Austin and Boise, Idaho, round out the national top five.The sole exception in the top 10 comes from the East -- Portland, Maine, which ranks 10th. The highest-rated Midwestern market is Des Moines, Iowa, in 22nd place.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;At the very bottom of the new rankings is Detroit, offering further proof that the declining fortunes of the automotive industry have harmed all kinds of small businesses in Michigan.Employment has fallen 7.5 percent in the Detroit area since 2003, the worst decline anywhere outside of New Orleans, which was devastated by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Detroit also suffers from a weak concentration of small businesses, with only 22.70 per 1,000 residents, nearly 8 percent below the national average.Also mired in the bottom five are Toledo, Modesto, Calif., Dayton and Rochester, N.Y.This is the fourth time that bizjournals has rated the small-business vitality of America's major markets -- and Raleigh is the fourth different winner.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;97.  Orlando was No. 1 in the previous rankings, which were released in July 2007. The runners-up were two other Florida markets that were hot at the time: No. 2 Sarasota-Bradenton and No. 3 Miami-Fort Lauderdale. (Florida's 2007 superpowers now rank seventh, 44th and 12th, respectively.) Last place on the '07 list went to Springfield, Mass.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Portland, Maine, was the leader in bizjournals' original standings in large part because it had the nation's highest concentration of small businesses back then, just as it does now. San Jose occupied last place in the 2005 rankings.This article would have been more meaningful to small business owners like me if it focused on metropolitan areas or cities that:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt; Provide tax incentives to start-up business,  Has an abundant pool of skilled workforce, Low cost of living and healthcare , Highly invested SBA with proven success of helping small businesses. It should also clarify what industries these small businesses in the top 10 cities are in. I suspect they are all in high tech, since Raleigh and Charlotte are part of the research triangle and Seattle has Microsoft, Amazon and the biotech’s.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Seems to me that following these 'hot' small business areas is a lot like following last years hot stocks. They generally don't stay hot for long, as in your Florida example. Signing leases, relocating employees, training, and other start up costs are long term decisions.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;98. I am surprised at the negative tone of the responses here, and I have to disagree to a limited degree with Ron Martin's blanket statement. All the author appears to have been stating is that the listed communities in general exhibit highest percentage of the 8 characteristics, which statistically support new business better than communities on the opposite end of the spectrum.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I would love to hear what NPO's "Business Person's need[s]" would consist of or how a business would stand to be as successful if based in a community with low numbers in each of the 8 categories.Scoop Reprint Source, a full-service custom reprint supplier, is American City Business Journals' authorized reprint service.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In addition to high-quality printed reprints, designed to your specifications, Scoop provides related products, including digital reprints and commemorative plaques.Please choose the product below that you are interested in, and you will get a free, no-obligation quote on your reprint product from Scoop ReprintSource. Call today at 1-800-767-3263 for more information or visit our web site&lt;br /&gt;Great press coverage is reason to celebrate. Why not revel in your achievement by turning your article into an impressive work of art? The FameFrame, your article smartly mounted on a hardwood plaque, is a great way to preserve your success by protecting your article from fading and yellowing and at the same time, promote your company's image. It makes a beautiful addition to your office, lobby or conference&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;An E-print is a reprint in an electronic format. It looks the same as a hard copy reprint but is posted on your company's web site, giving your article tremendous exposure. So now, in addition to your traditional reprint marketing program, you can share your positive press with your Internet audience.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;99.  Our obituaries are fully searchable so that you can enter a last name to find an obituary from our system going back to Jan. 2001. Obituaries are browse able so you can quickly scan a list of obituaries going back 7, 30 or 90 days to see what you may have missed.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;All of the upcoming visitations and services are organized so you can quickly see when a visitation or service is scheduled even though the obituary may have run two or three days ago.To make obituaries easier to print and save, you can view obituaries one at a time or browse the entire day's worth.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A printer-friendly feature allows you to print a single obituary in a concise format that includes The Greenville News banner and the date it was published.You can enlarge the type size through your Internet browser to make it easier to read.Finding a legitimate work at home job is harder than finding a traditional job.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;First of all, despite all the online advertising you see, there aren't that many of them. Those that are available may require that you live in a certain area or spend at least some time in the office. Others may be part-time or freelance, so, you will need to be continually seeking potential positions.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;100 . Keep in mind that the skills needed for home employment are similar to those needed for working in an office. You need both the experience and the skills necessary to do the job. You'll also need a home office with phone, fax, computer, printer, software, and other basic office equipment.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;To get started, consider, for now, your job search as your job. Dedicate as many hours per week to your search for employment as you would spend working. If you're looking for full-time work, you should be spending full-time hours seeking employment.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Networking remains the top way to find a job and it does work. Develop contacts - friends, family, college alumni, even the other job seekers who participate in the anyone who might help generate information and job leads.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;You can take a direct approach and ask for job leads or try a less formal approach and ask for information and advice. Contact everyone you know and tell them you want to work from home. You may be surprised by the people they know and the leads you can generate.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;101.Check the sites and look through all the listings and remember to take advantage of the Resume Posting section, if the site has one. That way companies seeking employers will be able to find your resume. using terms like "work at home" "telecommute" and "freelance."&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Next, search the online job banks using keywords like "work at home" "telecommute" and "telecommuting" for example, using "telecommuting" as a keyword generates almost 200 listings. "Work at home" generates close to a 1000 positions. Searching Yahoo! HotJobs brought similar results.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This is a time when it make sense not to simply search the web search engines. I've found that searching for "work at home" most often brings up scams or web sites that want to charge you for providing "real" work at home jobs or for "proven successful" home business information. Rather, stick with the sites that focus on employment.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Be prepared to apply online. Have a &lt;a href="http://jobsearch.about.com/cs/resumes/index.htm"&gt;resume and cover letter&lt;/a&gt; ready to send. Depending on the type of employment you're looking for you may also need work samples to send to prospective employers. Track where you've applied. Many of the same positions are listed on multiple sites, so you'll want to be sure not to duplicate your efforts.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;102.  Before you jump on an opportunity that sounds wonderful, review our tips and suggestions for avoiding scams, and for successfully working from home. Yes there are some, but, they are not nearly as plentiful as you would think considering the amount of interest there is in working from home.&lt;br /&gt;They are also difficult to find. Job seekers who are interested in home employment need to spend a good deal of time searching for legitimate opportunities, as well as a significant amount of time weeding through scams.Many people who work from home started out working in an office, but, were able to arrange with their employer to work some or all of time at home.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I have an acquaintance who relocated to Washington, DC. Her employer decided to enable her to work from home, rather than losing a valuable employee. I have another acquaintance who works part-time from the office and part-time from home in order to accommodate her children's school schedules.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;My sister-in-law schedules home nursing care visits from home. In those cases, employees, who had already proven themselves to be valuable to their employer, were able to negotiate flexible work schedules.There are companies that hire employees directly to work from their homes.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;103.   Check the sites that list work at home. Some these positions are those where you cover a territory, for an insurance company or a consumer product, for example, and spend some time on the road and some time in your home office. There are also customer service, recruiting, sales, scheduling, technical, writing, and telemarketing jobs available.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In many cases, the jobs are part-time, commission-based, or pay a lump sum for a completed project. In other cases, you can work as a where you are an employee of the company who works from a home office, providing customer service to client companies.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It  provide administrative, secretarial, and clerical support, as well as creative and/or technical services for clients.Work at home are usually independent contractors who transcribe and edit recorded reports onto their home computer.online  work for internet based companies that offer help, within a variety of subject areas, to students of all ages.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If you're looking to make a little extra money, but do be careful about avoiding scams.Full-time jobs that provide health insurance, a pension, vacation, and other benefits while you work full-time from home, especially if you don't have experience, are few and far between.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;104.  Finding them online is a little like looking for a needle in a haystack.Flexibility is one key to successfully working from home. If you are willing to consider freelance or contract employment or willing to combine a couple of part-time positions, you'll have a greater chance of success in finding opportunities that are legitimate.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It's also critically important to take the time to search for positions and to thoroughly research those that sound viable.You may see advertisements for work at home jobs on this page, because that's the topic of the article. Just because you see an ad here, that doesn't make it a legitimate company.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are more work from home job scams than there are real work from job listings, so, job seekers need to be really careful when searching for and evaluating work at home job listings. Presume that the position is a scam, unless there is compelling evidence to the contrary.&lt;br /&gt;Take the time to research the position, the company including talking to other people who work there. That way, you wont be scammed and you will be using your best efforts and best judgment to find a legitimate work from home job.If it sounds too good to be true, it is,Evaluate every listing you look at very carefully.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;105.Find out if there's a salary or if you're paid on commission. Ask how often are you paid. Ask what equipment (hardware/software) you need to provide. Find out what support the company provides.If you get an unsolicited email telling you that a company that you have never heard of wants to hire you for a job where you don't need experience or skills and can make a lot of money, trash it.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There's lots of out there, some of which are personalized and sound quite legitimate.Be carefully of listings that guarantee you wealth or financial success or that will help you get rich fast from home. They will probably do none of the above.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Do not send money! Legitimate employers don't charge you to get started or for anything else.Also, don't send money for work at home directories or start-up kits. Free information and job listings are available online.Ask for references - request a list of other employees or contractors to see how this has worked for them.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Be flexible - consider freelance work or projects as well as full-time employment. At least it will get you started.Employed now? Ask your employer about the possibility of work some hours from home. Be patient and be prepared to spend a lot of time weeding through scams and junking listings to get to legitimate openings.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;106.  About.com is a top 20 Web property that is part of The New York Times Company. We offer an exciting, start-up atmosphere with comprehensive benefits including health/vision/dental, 401(k) with a company match, employee stock purchase plan, gym membership discount and tuition assistance.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Positions are located in our New York City headquarters unless otherwise noted. Below is a listing of available positions at About.com. Please use the link at the end of each job description to apply.The New York Times Company is an equal employment opportunity .&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Employer, and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, age, disability, national origin, citizenship, or any other protected characteristic. The New York Times Company is committed to diversity in its most inclusive sense.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Ad Sales System Development team builds, maintains, and operates reliable web sales and accounting support systems based on Perl, Oracle, and HTML. The ideal candidate will be familiar with web based technologies and understand the business ramifications of accurate, reliable, and streamlined sales support systems.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;107. This position calls for a motivated and meticulous team player that believes both in maintainable, reliable code and clean, well-documented design. This is a hands-on position that requires both active long term product development management and day-to-day programming, operational and internal request support.&lt;br /&gt;JobsDB.com is today the leading online recruitment network in Asia Pacific. By harnessing the speed and global reach of the Internet, JobsDB.com has designed and developed a powerful recruitment medium, which brings employers and job seekers together and allows them to interact directly for fast, efficient and cost effective recruitment.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Founded in 1998, JobsDB launched its services in Hong Kong in September in the same year. With headquarters in Hong Kong, it quickly expanded its operations and is today the leading provider of online recruitment services in Asia Pacific with the widest network coverage, spanning Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and USA.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Today, the JobsDB Group employs over 1,000 staff across the region.JobsDB believes in regional network supported by local services. Its extensive network is backed by local service and localized content to meet the needs of individual territories. Its aim is to provide the best product and services in the region.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;108.  Over the years, JobsDB has built one of the largest and most comprehensive databases in Asia Pacific with over 8 million job seeker members and over 140,000 corporate clients.Job seekers can utilize JobsDB's services either as a registered member or as a visitor and explore constantly updated employment opportunities at home or across the region.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;For employers, JobsDB offers an extremely convenient, efficient and cost effective platform for business recruitment through a Recruitment Management System and access to a continuously expanding job seeker database.JobsDB is at the forefront of technology.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Recognizing the growing trend of companies recruiting through its own corporate web sites, JobsDB has developed a solution that is highly flexible and customizable which enables companies to build its own system based on individual requirements to automate and streamline the entire hiring process online.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;JobsDB continues to strive for excellence in product and services to maintain its leading position in the region through constant enhancement and innovative product development.If it has anything to do with ice cream, it has everything to do with Cold Stone Creamery.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;109.  From unique ice cream creations to smoothies, cakes and shakes – nobody serves up the ultimate indulgence like Cold Stone.  It starts with using the highest quality ingredients and ends with our signature process for preparing your custom creation on a frozen granite stone.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Denny's® is the most recognized name in family dining providing good food and service for more than 50 years.  With approximately 1,600 restaurants across America and systemwide sales of more than $2 billion, Denny's is the largest full-service family restaurant chain in the United States&lt;br /&gt;Denny's restaurants offer a casual dining atmosphere and moderately priced meals served 24 hours a day at most locations.  Denny's is well-known for its breakfasts served around the clock, including the popular Meat Lover's Breakfast and Original Grand Slam.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Denny's menu also features a variety of appetizers, hamburgers, sandwiches, salads, chicken, steak and seafood entrees as well as desserts.         Specialty menus for health conscious guests feature low-fat offerings.  The chain also offers customers age 55 and over selections at special prices and children 10 and under a specially priced menu.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;110.  In addition, Denny's offers free refills on coffee, tea, soft drinks and lemonade.  At year end 2005, there were 1,578 Denny's restaurants: 543 were owned and operated by the company and 1,035 were operated under franchise and licensing agreements. The restaurants are located in the United States, Canada, Costa Rica, Guam, Mexico, New Zealand and Puerto Rico.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The majority of restaurants are located in California, Florida and Texas.Denny's ended 2005 with system wide sales of $2.36 billion and $1.64 million average unit sales for company-operated restaurants.  There are 27,000 employees at Denny's company restaurants.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Denny's mission is to profitably grow the company by providing our guests with great food, service and hospitality in a clean, comfortable restaurant, 24 hours a day.For more information on how the Employment guide Office can help you meet your hiring needs through job postings and candidate database access.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Employment guide Office offers an aggressive agency incentive program for all advertising agencies and media resellers. For more information on this program or to advertise with The Employment guide Office.Give your website visitors access to EmploymentGuide.com jobs with Job Alerts!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;111.   The Job Alert program is a simple way for job seekers to learn about available opportunities within their community.  Post the following widget on your website, and your visitors can easily look for jobs without even leaving your website! We’ll send them emails with jobs pertaining to their interests.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This product is free to job seekers and can provide your visitors with a valuable resource. Click here to learn more about Job Alerts.To use it, simply paste the following line of code into a page where you want the widget to appear.For information about local job fairs, circulation, distribution, local or national sales and national advertising rates for our print publication.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;To contact Customer Service for assistance, to report a problem, or to offer feedback, Would you like to have EmploymentGuide.com linked to your website? Do you need a comprehensive customized job board for your website? Please for more information on how your website can link to America's destination for part-time, hourly employment and full time careers.&lt;br /&gt;Online jobs for college students enable college students to earn a decent amount of money. A great number of sites offer online jobs for college students. The common query with all college students is that these sites are for only real, and not online jobs. Here are some facts to show that these sites indeed contain online jobs for college students.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;112. Online jobs for college students are available on many online jobs websites  online jobs portals specializing in online jobs for college students. One just has to look around on any site he visits. Around will be distributed many links which lead hm to such great online opportunities.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Monster.com, Timesjobs.com, Naukri.com etc are some of the more popular online job sites in India. Online jobs for college students and Online jobs in&lt;br /&gt;India for non College students are many a times different categories on these sites. Students could do well to check these sites.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Some of the online job sites are strewn around in every web page. Online job sites are also found in and around the Internet in the form of online links and&lt;br /&gt;other ways.There are many opportunities for Indian College students to earn in Indian rupees through online India job sites. Online India jobs and online India job sites are coming up day by day and are offering a plethora of opportunities to the Indian college students in form of Online jobs for Indian college students.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;HubPages is the leading online publishing ecosystem.HubPages has easy-to-use publishing tools, a vibrant author community and underlying revenue-maximizing infrastructure. Huber’s (Hub Pages authors) earn money by publishing their Hubs (content-rich Internet pages) on topics they know and love, and earn recognition among fellow Hubbers through the community-wide Hub Score ranking system.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;113.   The HubPages ecosystem provides a search-friendly infrastructure which drives traffic to Hubs from search engines such as Google and Yahoo, and enables Hubbers to earn revenue from industry-standard advertising vehicles such as Google AdSense, Kontera, and the eBay and Amazon Affiliates program. All of this is provided free to Hubbers in an open online community.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;.Before working at HubPages, Paul was a developer at MongoMusic. Paul is a prolific programmer and wrote a large percentage of the MongoMusic code base. Paul continued as a developer at Microsoft working on search engines, match technologies, and scalable data systems. A Michigan native, Paul graduated from Tufts University with a degree in computer science and quantitative economics.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Maddie was a freelance writer and longtime Hubber before joining the HubPages team in an official capacity in March 2008. She writes on a variety of topics, from holistic health, to nutrition, to eating disorder awareness.Offline, Maddie enjoys experimenting in the kitchen, devouring literature, playing with language, and romping with her rescued dog.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Fawntia recently graduated from Stanford with a master's degree in computational and mathematical engineering. Before that, she majored in math at Reed College in Portland, Oregon. She enjoys traveling and cake decorating.Larry has wide software experience. Larry has worked at Philips Electronics, GTE, Sun Microsystems, and recently at InterComponentware.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;114.   He was on the original team at Sun that started the Java 2 Enterprise Edition Platform (J2EE) and started Java BluePrints at Sun. He grew up in Los Angeles and studied cognitive science at UCLA.Larry loves movies, fantasy novels, and mathematics.Ryan is the Marketing Manager for HubPages(he is the one on the left in the photo) and is currently downing one of the many Diet Mountain Dews that he will consume this week.&lt;br /&gt;He enjoys creating odd and exciting job titles, playing in and evangelizing all of the awesome people and stories that can be found on HubPages at any point in time.If you are someone who would like to find a way to partner up together to do some amazing things, please send Ryan a message through HubPages&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Oh, and he wanted to tell all of you to have an awesome day and to keep on having fun. Design and implementation of features from abstract to concrete Work efficiently without detailed specs or endless meetings Write lean, clean code Help out wherever needed Top tier skills in Perl, Python, PHP, SQL, Ruby, or JavaScript are sought. anfun to publish your own content on the web.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Whether you're just starting out, changing your career path, or looking for a better-paying job, The Employment Guide® and EmploymentGuide.com® can point you in the right direction. With over 75 free weekly employment magazines nationwide, you can find us on city streets, in grocery stores, and even online at EmploymentGuide.com.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;115.  Since its inception in 1995, the EmploymentGuide.com job board has provided an optimum combination of hiring solutions and job search options across numerous job industries nationwide. Our focus is on hourly and skilled jobs, from entry-level to mid-management employment opportunities. Don't get lost in your job search. Let Us Be Your Guide.&lt;br /&gt;If transportation is your industry of interest, CareersinGear.com and CareersinGear.com Magazine offer a variety of truck driving jobs for over-the-road and owner-operator positions. With regionally-based quarterly publications distributed in over 3,600 locations nationwide, along with extensive online resources for employers and job seekers, CareersinGear will drive your career further.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Not only do we provide national trucking jobs, CareersinGear.com provides useful resources for truck drivers including a freight finder tool, truck driving schools.  trucking news articles, and more and CareersinGear.com Magazine both provide an easy to use job search and helpful resources to aid truck drivers.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;WiserWorker.com is dedicated to providing quality employment opportunities and resources to the largest demographic group in the country, the Baby Boomers. Our clients offer a variety of senior employment opportunities, both hourly and salaried. Paired with a national job fair series, WiserWorker.com features targeted jobs for the older worker and a robust resource center for employers and jobseekers.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;117. Dominion Enterprises, a division of Landmark Communications, is a leading marketing services company serving the automotive, real estate, apartment, recruitment, and marine markets. The company operates a variety of businesses that offer Internet marketing, Web site design and hosting, lead generation, CRM, and data capture and distribution services.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The company has more than 40 market-leading Web sites reaching more than 12.5 million unique monthly visitors, and more than 500 magazines with a weekly circulation of over 5 million. Headquartered in Norfolk, Va., the company has nearly 6,000 employees nationwide and annualized revenue of more than $946 million.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Make your move easy and hassle-free! 123 Movers brings you moving companies that understand your relocation. And you'll receive free quotes and find great moving tips. If you're going cross-country or just moving crosstown, 123 Movers is here to help you make the decisions for the best possible move.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The companies advertising Business Opportunities on EmploymentGuide.com are not researched and are assumed reputable. It is always wise to check out any company that you may not be familiar with before using their services.EmploymentGuide.com and/or its respective suppliers make no representations about the suitability of the information, software, products, and services contained on this web site for any purpose.&lt;br /&gt;118. All such information, software, products, and services are provided "as is" without warranty of any kind. EmploymentGuide.com and/or its respective suppliers hereby disclaim all warranties and conditions with regard to this information, software, products, and services, including all implied warranties and conditions of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, product title and non-infringement.&lt;br /&gt;In no event shall EmploymentGuide.com and/or its suppliers be liable for any direct, indirect, punitive, incidental, special, or consequential damages arising out of or in any way connected with the use of this web site or with the delay or inability to use this web site, or for any information, software, products and services obtained through this web site, or otherwise arising out of the use of this web site, whether based on contract, tort, strict liability or otherwise, even if EmploymentGuide.com or any of its suppliers has been advised of the possibilty of damages.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Because some states/jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of liability for consequential or incidental damages, the above limitation may not apply to you. Writing is just something I’ve always done, but it wasn’t what I did for a living.   One day I woke up and found myself with one child who, because he was a adopted, needed a little more of my attention;  and a premature baby whom I was not about to leave in order to work full-time.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt; I took sporadic projects from home, but not long after my third child came along.   Being immersed in a world so far from what I’d been so used to, I applied to do some freelance work for a local daily newspaper.  Later I was hired to write a weekly feature for a weekly newspaper.   From there I added some more freelance work and build a part-time situation that let me have the best of all worlds (or at least worlds available to me at the time). &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;119.  When I first signed up at HubPages I didn’t really do it for the earnings, which was a good thing - because the earnings were kind of laughable.  I think the first month earnings were something like $2.83 (for some reason that figure sticks in my mind).  The next month it may have be around  $5 or $6.  I think it took three months to reach around $13.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt; There was always an increase in earnings each month, but they were really low.  At the time, the payout minimum was $50.   I figured, “One of these days I’ll get an extra $50, so that’s nice.”   I kind of saw the HubPages earnings as a “piggy bank”.Right as I approached the $50 Google moved the goal post to $100.  “That’s fine,” I thought.  Getting a spare $100 from the “piggy bank” would be even better. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It took about eight months to get the first payout.  (I say “about” because even though I just went to look up the actual numbers on Google, I can’t find them quickly enough and don’t want to slow up this interview).I had read on a Hub that it can take about nine months for “Google to find you”.  That was pretty close to accurate, because at (I’m fairly certain) nine months I made payout in one month.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Since then, the monthly payout has increased, and I’ve been paying more attention to earnings than I once did.  I’m not really thinking of them as a “piggy bank” any longer.   Now, I pay attention to the earnings and figure out my average for a 31-day period.  I use that to kind of project my earnings for the next payout, and it has turned out to be fairly accurate.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;120.   Although there has been the occasional variation from the pattern I think I’ve seen; in general, it hasn’t just been the earnings that have increased.  It has been the size of the increase, itself, that has also grown.  January was the only month in which my “projected earnings” didn’t follow the pattern.  (That pesky Inauguration Day did a number of my January average.  My friend said it should make me feel good to know that my “audience” is more interested in a Presidential Election than in going online.  :)  It sort of does.  :)  )&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt; While I know what you mean about jimmythejock and Mark Knowles, they had nothing to do with my keeping writing on HubPages.  The community is wonderful, and there’s lots of really fine Hubs on the site, but I kept writing because HubPages gives writers the chance to write what they feel like writing.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As someone who writes on assignment (about things I can’t honestly say I’m always that interested in), I was looking for a place to just write I want to write.  It’s kind of my way of taking a break and relaxing. Everyone wants to make money online and everywhere you turn there seems to be a scam just waiting to happen.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Why did you choose to give HubPages a shot and what has your experience been like from a ‘customer support’ perspective? Basically, does the HubPages team take care of you, or are we just a bunch of losers.“Bunch of losers??!!” - That never would have occurred to me.   People are great, but, more importantly, professional.  &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;121.  With the exception of this interview, I haven’t had a lot of “individual dealings” with the folks who run HubPages.  All has been well, I’ve seen the gradual and progressive moves toward an “even better” site.  It’s a nice site, and it’s run well.   When I’ve had questions I go to the forum and get them answered; but because all has pretty much been smooth and problem-free, I haven’t had any complicated issues that required asking for personal attention from HubPages administration, itself.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt; With experience writing on other sites too, I can say that HubPages does an excellent job of preventing those “complicated issues” from occurring (at least in my experience). HubPages is not a scam.  For one thing, nobody asks for a cent - and that’s the first measure of scam.  For another thing, nobody promises anybody they’ll get rich quickly. HubPages pretty much tells all new users not to quit their day jobs.&lt;br /&gt;As a writer, it has occurred to me that (at least with some pieces) I could theoretically earn more by looking for a print publisher, going through the whole thing with queries, waiting for long periods of time, and maybe selling the thing (etc. etc. etc.).  I don’t want to be doing all that.  I don’t have the time.  I have a “rest of life” to be dealing with. &lt;br /&gt;Like most “writer types”, I write because I enjoy it, want to, and sometimes feel as if I need to.  Before the Internet existed (oops, showing my age again), I wrote stuff for my own enjoyment and just stuck it in files with the idea of “maybe someday marketing it”.  Some of my writing is “hobby writing”.  Some of it is “take-a-break-from-day-to-day-life” writing.  Earning from that kind of writing is kind of “icing on the cake”. &lt;br /&gt;122.  I set up a whole, little, separate (and free) checking account so my earnings could be deposited electronically.  It’s fun to have that “piggy bank” turn into a second ATM card in my wallet.Any time any of us first finds a writing site we never quite know how it will work out, whether it’s a scam, or whether we’ll earn more than 90 cents in six months. &lt;br /&gt;With that exception of whether we could be/would be selling off our rights to a piece of material for a substantial amount there isn’t anything to lose by writing on HubPages.  I’m not above writing an article on assignment and being paid as little as $20 for it.   Earning money by posting ads on writing is a different way of earning; and for me, it took a little “brain adjusting”. &lt;br /&gt;It does present the additional aspect of needing to learn about things like traffic, Google workings, and other things that many writers haven’t previously thought much about.  I was new at this type of thing.  Much of the learning (that I’m still doing) has required hands-on experience.  Still, that top-earning Hub is not a piece of Earth-shattering art, and it has earned me hundreds and hundreds of dollars over the course of almost a year.&lt;br /&gt; I think writers need to separate the natural association of success of a piece with big upfront payment; and they also need to decide if the aim is earnings and/or having the thing read, or some other less “nitty-gritty” aim. Let’s do some role playing, shall we? You’re you (that should be easy) and I’m a new Hubber trying to figure out what the heck’s going on and learning my way around the place.&lt;br /&gt;123. Give me a few great nuggets of advice that will help me become the type of super awesome and successful writer that you’ve become.Having learned only through that hands-on experience I mentioned, I think one good approach is to combine “all purpose” writing with a good number of “nitty-gritty”, informational, pieces.&lt;br /&gt; In the beginning, I didn’t really know how I should interpret “write what you want to write” and “the more useful a Hub is, the better it will do”.   I wrote about things like dealing with grief or parenting, thinking they were useful in their own way.   Sometimes some of my things seemed a little too “dreamy” or “human-based”, so I tried to think of very practical topics, like “making a cheap dinner”.&lt;br /&gt; In one desperate attempt to write something useful (aka “practical”) I wrote about “fake bacon” (the soy version of bacon).  To be honest, I didn’t really have any idea of what was particularly “searchable”; and I wasn’t even thinking in terms of anything but writing what I felt like writing, interspersed with something practical.&lt;br /&gt;I knew I could go find the most searched terms of the day somewhere, but that wasn’t how I wanted to approach my writing.  I had a stab-in-the-dark approach or else a “what-I’m-in-the-mood-for” approach.Today, now that my Hubs have a history, I can see what “useful” really means.  My most financially successful Hubs and the ones I like best aren’t the same Hubs.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;124.  The Hubs that have had the most success for me are practical (not “dreamy” and not “change-the-world-y”), but they very much have “me” in them.  They aren’t clones of everything else on the web about the same subject.  Also, it turns out that daring not to produce something “Earth-shattering”‘;  and being brave enough to produce something that you think is a “too-personal” version of a subject that is presented in “more professional ways” all over the web; seems to work pretty well.&lt;br /&gt;I have noticed, too, though, that those Hubs that aren’t particularly “hot” but that have gotten a good score, have contributed in their own way to the larger picture, in terms of earnings.  I worry that my “hot” hubs won’t be “hot” forever; but what I’ve figured out is that if 100 “non-hot” hubs earn something like $30 a month, then 500 of them will likely earn five times as much.  Of course, 500 Hubs with poor scores aren’t going to do the same thing, so it’s always important to aim to write good material.&lt;br /&gt;Something else I’ve noticed is that (I’m guessing here) because much of my material is generally aimed at a grown-up audience, I think that accounts for a lot of the pretty high eCPM’s on Google.  Some of my things that don’t get much in terms of traffic do pretty well on ad clicks.I’ve learned that people want to save money or learn easier ways to do things, but a lot of people don’t want to yet another copy of a “zillion” other similar things online.&lt;br /&gt;I’ve also learned that it’s true what they say about putting in some effort getting traffic to your siteAt the same time, I’ve learned that - if  you don’t mind taking longer - it doesn’t take a lot of trying to out-smart the inner working of search engines, or spending a lot of time trying to figure out a non-spam way to promote material, to eventually get traffic.&lt;br /&gt;125.   Something else I’ve learned is that there is a snowballing effect that occurs both with traffic and with what I’ve learned, and the snowballing effect takes some time.  It probably would have taken less time had I not been a “know-nothing” about search engines and traffic, or had I been bothered thinking about key words. &lt;br /&gt;On the one hand, it seems kind of awful that today I would probably be earning a lot more than I am, had I know a little more, and been bothered with a little more.  Still, as a writer, I’m not sure that I could have produced my best quality writing if I had used the “brain energy” I would have needed to use in order to learn all the ins and outs of online writing, the Internet, traffic, SEO’s, etc.&lt;br /&gt; THAT is where HubPages has been most helpful to me.  I write.  HubPages does the other stuff.    A fringe benefit of my experience on HubPages is that I have learned the things I’ve learned.  To learn those things (about SEO, etc.) while doing “hobby writing” and (at least eventually) also earning has meant I’ve “multi-tasked” when it comes to use of my free time.  A lot of people watch tv in their spare time.&lt;br /&gt;I’m really enjoying “my way” instead.Now I know, too, why, when I signed up for HubPages in the beginning,  the only thing I read about what to write was (essentially) “make it useful”.  Whether or not you do well earning has a “big-picture” element to it, and I suspect there is no one formula that will work for every Hubber.&lt;br /&gt;126.  Thanks again for taking time to answer a few of my questions, Lisa. Any last thoughts for all of the people out there who may or may not now what HubPages is all about, Be sure to make us look good.I hope my earlier answers did make HubPages look “good”, because I’m absolutely happy with having found the site.  I’m not a “great Hubber”. &lt;br /&gt;I’m pretty much an “accidental earner”.  That monthly deposit into that separate little checking account has grown well beyond the minimum payout now, and I kind of wish I “knew then what I know now”, because it’s only with the benefit of hindsight and learning that I see the potential earnings (in my case, still not a full-time income by any means; but nice nonetheless).  Also, if I knew then what I know now, I probably would have written more Hubs.  Oh well….&lt;br /&gt;People like me, who first came to HubPages without any background (or even interest) in the whole “Internet-writing/SEO/ads-on-your-site” thing, need to know that you don’t need to know about those things in order to eventually earn.  I say, “Don’t put too much weight into just them”, because I really do believe that concentrating on that stuff, rather than the quality of the writing won’t, in the long run, work very well.&lt;br /&gt;I don’t take making monthly Google payout for granted.  Something like that “pesky”  Inauguration Day or the occasional holiday has shown me how clicks can be, which is to suddenly go wild (in a direction that isn’t always a good one).  Although I’m kind of trying to incubate ideas about creating a whole bunch more Hubs that will be like my more successful ones, my plan pretty has the same “core” as as my approach did before I knew anything about even a modest effort at developing a plan.&lt;br /&gt;127.   I’m going to keep writing as well as I know how, and keep trying to build up my collection of Hubs, and keep trying to learn.  There are easier ways to get ad earnings, but sometimes maybe hands-on learning offers a good, solid, core.There are many, many, online writing sites on which people can earn, provided they write the standard 400- or 500- , professionally written, article about something very searchable and/or practical  People who write just the right kind of article on those sites can earn .&lt;br /&gt; Those sites, however, often don’t encourage or reward writing that doesn’t fit the formula of a “standard web article”.  It may take less time (although not always) to whip up a quickie, researched, article on how to buy running shoes; but the time required to produce enough of those “quickie articles” to earn well isn’t always the best use of a writer’s time.  On top of that, most writers want a way to write what they want to write even if that’s in addition to writing as a job.&lt;br /&gt;HubPages is a great place for writing what you want to write, learning a few things about how the whole “Internet writing” thing works, take a break and read other people’s stuff, and earn - while still leaving enough spare time to pursue other writing projects or hobby projects, as well.  As a Hubber, I don’t feel feel like my stuff is a “needle in a haystack”, but I neither do I feel any subtle pressure to change my writing approach.&lt;br /&gt; If you don’t care much about earning, it’s a “fun enough” site for writing.  If you care about earning, and need a quick few thousand dollars to stop foreclosure on your home, it isn’t likely you’ll earn what you need on HubPages.  On the other hand,  the time and effort you put in can work like investing in the stock market work - some soar, some earn less but earn steady and/or long term.  It always pays to become more knowledgeable about your strategy, but there are never any real guarantees.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;128. For several months now, we’ve had a fairly unknown section of our site that you’ve potentially never seen before The Idea Bank is a tool that looks somewhat similar to the section, but is actually something that was first added to HubPages for a completely different reason. You see, Requests are various topics that can be answered by writing a Hub, but the topics in the Idea Bank are very-high-probability-of attracting-super-awesome-traffic-if-you-write-a-Hub-about-them topics.&lt;br /&gt;In other words, this means that if you write a Hub to answer one of the listed topics over in the Idea Bank, then it has a very, very, very good chance of getting some great traffic once it’s published. Here at HubPages headquarters we use a super-secret method of determining the topics that would give you best overall chance of getting read and then communicate each of them to you via the Idea Bank so that all of you can share in some of success.&lt;br /&gt;We’ve also recently given it quite an upgrade, so you’ll be seeing more great topics flowing in over there as we make deposits into the bank.So, if you’re needing a fresh idea on what to Hub about, be sure to head on over to the Idea Bank and pick off one of topics that are sititng over there waiting to be written about. I mean, we wouldn’t want them to get lonely.ew with employers at one of over 200 general and health care career events&lt;br /&gt;HubPages has long had its own version of Yahoo! Answers.  At HubPages, we call the questions, “Requests” and the answers are themselves hubs.  In this way hubbers (HubPages term for authors who write hubs) can look through the requests and decide which ones to answer or take a look at the answers given.&lt;br /&gt;129.  In the old version of the request search, you might get as your first result that was over 2 years old.  This first result might have 0 answers or it might have 10 answers.  The search by relevance was done solely in terms of word matching and it ignored factors of recency and the answer count.&lt;br /&gt;For the new request search, we assume that people are looking for requests to answer.  So, it makes sense that newer requests should come first and unanswered requests should come before requests that have already been answered (with requests answered by only 1 person coming before requests answered by 2 people, etc.).  The new request search accomplishes by grouping the results in 2-week buckets. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are three major differences in the new forum search that we hope that you will notice.  First, the excerpt in the results shows the bolded, matching search terms (just like the Hub Search and the Author Search).  Second, the search results come back faster and we believe that the results are now a better match with your search terms.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt; Third, the hub search box is automatically populated with the same search terms in case you would like to do general hub search with the same words.Below is a search I did on “ebay capsules”  The quotes enable me to do an exact-phrase search.&lt;br /&gt;130. Since 2002, QuickRewards.net has rewarded members for taking surveys, visiting websites, playing games, shopping at over 1,300 stores, trying out products, signing up for offers, reading emails, printing grocery coupons and much more! Members can redeem their earnings for gift cards or cash and receive their payments within as quickly as 24 hours with no minimum cash out policy.&lt;br /&gt;"Read This Page, And I'll Show You How To Make $25 In Just 7 Minutes (Or Less), Sitting At Home In Front Of The Computer... And The Best Part Is... You Can Do It Over And Over Again!" Make $500 to $3,500 Per Month From Home Without Owning a Website, Without Selling Anything, Without Paying for Advertising, Without Needing Prior Experience, you can make pretty good money just taking surveys! Get Free Stuff, Work From Anywhere, And Make All The Money You Need There Are Hundreds Of Survey Companies That Want your Opinion Right Now&lt;br /&gt;"This is the best money-making opportunity I've seen, bar none. I have been involved in the network marketing and direct-sales business for 25 years, but none can compete with SFI."D. Scruggs TX, USA"Being new, I joined several programs. Having retired, I had the time to devote to each.&lt;br /&gt; The ONLY one that produced a commission in the first month was SFI. The ONLY one that gave me daily reports was SFI. The ONLY one I kept was SFI. Now I'll devote my energy to SFI."I have been in several network marketing companies, but never have I seen a system this impressive that does so much soquickly!"&lt;br /&gt;131. "I have been involved in network marketing for over 20 years. I have never seen anything like SFI. If I had only known about SFI beforehand, I would have not wasted my time. Now, I am spreading the word to the whole world that there is nothing anywhere that can come close to SFI. R.Belmonte AB,ANADA"Bravo,FI!&lt;br /&gt;I'm a success-conscious Nigerian who is now an instant leader and on my way to financial independence after embracing SFI marketing and its residual-income earning program. SFI possesses awesome, well-organized, and managed structure that produces the best ever imagined fortune for a committed affiliate in record time. "&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;After three and a half years online I have found the most professional and best-run opportunity with SFI. The teamwork and support are the best around. My future is now in my hands--and it looks good."The SFI program works! I cannot recommend any other affiliate program more strongly."&lt;br /&gt;"SFI is truly different from all other Internet money-making opportunities out there. SFI's products and customer service are unmatched. After just five months with SFI, I am well on my way to quitting my day job. Thank-you SFI for changing my life!"&lt;br /&gt;132. I am very fortunate in finding a company like SFI to get myself on the road to financial freedom. There are so many [opportunities] out there claiming the same and delivering nothing but disappointments. SFI is very easy and I do not have to invest a lot of my hard-earned money or take time away from my family. I love the idea of doing all of my business on the Internet."&lt;br /&gt;Homeshoring” and telecommuting are rapidly growing with the advancements in Internet technology. Companies today strive to build a corporate image of modern and family-oriented organizations. Hiring work-from-home employees does not simply display flexibility, but becomes essential for keeping the competitive edge.&lt;br /&gt;The quest to recruit and retain the best professionals from around the world revolutionized the traditional concept of a workplace. Office space has now moved online.Recent studies indicate that 44 % of US businesses utilized some form of telecommuting. Competition urges companies to make best use of human resources while liberating expertise from the confinement of the office buildings.&lt;br /&gt;Improving productivity is no longer at the expense of worker satisfaction. Research shows that telecommuters are happier and 20% more productive than the rest of the workforce.Telecommuting simply makes business sense. It’s a WIN-WIN situation for both workers and employers.&lt;br /&gt;133. Work-from-home solutions deliver a cost-effective way to improve productivity and performance, as well as employee retention and overall job satisfaction"The simplicity of the SFI system has helped me to develop a six- figure income coming right out of college.&lt;br /&gt;With its great team leaders on your side and simple automation, you can build a successful home-based business in no time at all!" - C. Fuchs, CO, USA "This is the best money-making opportunity I've seen, bar none. I have been involved in the network marketing and direct-sales business for 25 years, but none can compete with SFI.&lt;br /&gt; "Being new, I joined several programs. Having retired, I had the time to devote to each. The ONLY one that produced a commission in the first month was SFI. The ONLY one that gave me daily reports was SFI. The ONLY one I kept was SFI. Now I'll devote my energy to SFI." - H. Schmidhofer, AUSTRALIA SFI is truly different from all other Internet money-making opportunities out there.&lt;br /&gt;SFI's products and customer service are unmatched. After just five months with SFI, I am well on my way to quitting my day job. Thank-you SFI for changing my life!"I am very fortunate in finding a company like SFI to get myself on the road to financial freedom. There are so many [opportunities] out there claiming the same and delivering nothing but disappointments.&lt;br /&gt;134.  SFI is very easy and I do not have to invest a lot of my hard-earned money or take time away from my family. I love the idea of doing all of my business on the Internet."This is the best money-making opportunity I've seen, bar none. I have been involved in the network marketing and direct-sales business for 25 years, but none can compete with SFI."&lt;br /&gt;Being new, I joined several programs. Having retired, I had the time to devote to each. The ONLY one that produced a commission in the first month was SFI. The ONLY one that gave me daily reports was SFI. The ONLY one I kept was SFI. Now I'll devote my energy to SFI."&lt;br /&gt;"I have been in several network marketing companies, but never have I seen a system this impressive that does so much so quickly."I have been involved in network marketing for over 20 years. I have never seen anything like SFI. If I had only known about SFI beforehand, I would have not wasted my time.&lt;br /&gt; Now, I am spreading the word to the whole world that there is nothing anywhere that can come close to SFI"."I have been in several network marketing companies, but never have I seen a system this impressive that does so much so quickly! "I have been involved in network marketing for over 20 years.&lt;br /&gt;135.  I have never seen anything like SFI. If I had only known about SFI beforehand, I would have not wasted my time. Now, I am spreading the word to the whole world that there is nothing anywhere that can come close to SFI. "Bravo, SFI! I'm a success-conscious Nigerian who is now an instant leader and on my way to financial independence after embracing SFI marketing and its residual-income earning program.&lt;br /&gt;SFI possesses awesome, well-organized, and managed structure that produces the best ever imagined fortune for a committed affiliate in record time. "After three and a half years online I have found the most professional and best-run opportunity with SFI. The teamwork and support are the best around.&lt;br /&gt; My future is now in my hands--and it looks good!"The SFI program works! I cannot recommend any other affiliate program more strongly.SelectOnlneJobs.com is an online resource for online job offers in various employment categories, such as paid surveys, data entry, mystery shopping, freelancing and more.&lt;br /&gt;Our mission it to match job seekers with potential employers and recruiting companies. SelectOnlineJobs.com is a free subscription-based resource that operates a rich database of online resumes of job seekers, and connects employers and job seekers through processing job applications and invitations.&lt;br /&gt;136.  SelectOnlineJobs.com is among the most popular and recognized web resources for full-time and part-time online jobs. We are dedicated to providing our users with a quality selection of employment opportunities. Our network of users in the US and internationally encompasses a large segment of online job seekers to whom we offer numerous opportunities for career success and advancement.&lt;br /&gt;Homeshoring and online freelancing have become tremendously popular, creating a huge demand for online home workers. More and more companies are hiring teleworkers, saving costs and increasing efficiency. Both businesses and employees have recognized the advantages of online recruitment, as it shortens the time for candidate selection, while providing employees with a more diverse and flexible job seeker pool.&lt;br /&gt;SelectOnlineJobs.com has been conceived with the mission to facilitate and shorten the process of job search and selection. Therefore, we are dedicated to continuously improving the quality of our services by offering ever more diverse employment opportunities, valuable career advice, and excellent customer service. We strive to foster positive and proactive environment for both job seekers and employers.&lt;br /&gt;Everyone who are looking for that perfect part time online home jobs or trying to decide if they should start a work from home business opportunity. You may be residing in U.S, Canada, England (United Kingdom), Australia, India, Pakistan, Sri lanka, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Germany, Ireland or what ever it may be. But Everyone needs some extra income and looks to earn money online by working from home without any investment.&lt;br /&gt;137.  Working from home sounds good to everyone, but the one thing that looks to be forgotten is that hard work. Therefore dedicated real hard work is needed to fulfill this dream. We knows that lot of individuals looking for the perfect Part time Online jobs opportunity and looking to Earn online quick and quit from their financial worries.&lt;br /&gt;To be honest if you are looking to Earn online quick or an instant returns without investment then we should suggest finding a home based jobs. Once the work at home opportunity starts to make a profit then give up that job.I have found a work at home opportunity to do in part time basis that would require little work with a big payment and again no expenses to get started.&lt;br /&gt;When looking for that work from home based business it is best to find something that interests you and will work well with your life style. Just wait minimum of one year before you can expect to replace that full time income; this is a usual time frame sometimes this may exceed few months. We just show you how we earn online through this part time online jobs.&lt;br /&gt; Also we offer you relevant information about what are requirements to this online part time home jobs and our experience. Remember that more time you dedicate to this work from home (home based business) Opportunity You can expect bigger returns SelectOnlineJobs.com offers exclusive and unique online job opportunities including work at home and online jobs for experienced professionals or individuals with little to no experience.&lt;br /&gt;138.  We provide a new and unfortunately still extremely rare standard of service for both our customers and our writers. We have a 24/7 support system to help sort out any problems at either end of the stick. Our company does not neglect its writers like many other companies do, we value them - just as much as we value customers. After all it is their talent and hard work that keeps our customer coming back for more.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Online job opportunity for talented people have increased manifold. It is possible now to let your talent do the talking while you luxuriate in the cozy confines of your home. Freelancing on the internet offers vast opportunities for anyone and everyone with some ability. Academia-Research.com offers tremendous online job opportunity for freelance writing.&lt;br /&gt;If you believe that "a drop of ink can make a million think", Academia-Research is where you deserve to be.With Academia-Research.com, freelancing is as easy as ABC! Put simply, we believe in the 3Ws.Wherever you may work!Whenever you may work.Adjust the work according to your life rather than the vice-versa! That is the beauty of working with Academia-Research.com. And, rest assured, our freelance writers work WITH us and not for us. We believe in growing together and moving together.&lt;br /&gt;So if you think you can write in simple, lucid language and "possess common sense to an uncommon degree", Academia-Research.com is looking for you. We are a reputed company in academic and research writing. Our fame, clientele and size are growing with every passing moment.&lt;br /&gt;139.  We provide a lot of freedom and flexibility to our writers. You can choose topics of your choice and we are open 24x7 round the clock! You can manipulate the quantity and quality of the workload depending on your compulsions of time, compensation offered and the complexities involved.&lt;br /&gt;While providing online job opportunity we expect from our freelance writers, to display originality, creativity and simple expression We have a comprehensive mechanism to separate the chaff from the wheat i.e. check for plagiarism and quality. Academia-Research.com considers plagiarism more heinous than sin. So, if you believe in "borrowed wisdom", you may join some other organization.&lt;br /&gt; You will be required to give credit where credit is due (i.e. citations and references). Serious, hard working, sincere writers will find online job opportunity enjoyable in more ways than one.You can choose the writing assignments from a plethora of subjects ranging from natural sciences to social sciences.&lt;br /&gt; You have the freedom to cut your cloth according to your pocket. Home is where the heart is! So, put your heart in writing as you work from home.Apart from raking in the mullah (making money), joining us will also result in significant value-addition to your life in that you will learn more and more (thereby cutting short your stupidity!).&lt;br /&gt;140.  To give prospective writers an understanding of how to become a writer at Academia-Research and what to expect once "on board", we have summarized several key administrative procedures including.In addition, we understand the importance of communicating with our writers and keep "News" and "Information" pages on our computer system so writers can stay informed of both administrative and technical matters.&lt;br /&gt;Click the "Submit" button on the screen. This will send the application to our Human Resources department. Human Resources staff will review your application and let you know the status of your application as soon as possible. Qualified applicants will be contacted to complete a test essay and submit and further documentation necessary.&lt;br /&gt;New writers successfully passing both the application phase and essay phase of the application process will be sent a letter of congratulations notifying them they have been hired as a writer with Academia-Research and informing them their account has been activated.&lt;a name="op"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Customer orders that are currently unassigned are found on the "Available Orders" page. It is possible to directly receive notification of recently posted orders via email (as an option on Profile), however, these are only notices to let writers know of new work that has come in. Do not reply to them. Orders can only be requested by entering the system via the writer's control panel and going to the Available Orders page.&lt;br /&gt;141. On "Available Orders" to get additional information about the assignment, click on "view and get" to see the order and get more information. This only provides more information, it is not the same as requesting the order. To request an order, click on the "Get Order" button. This will send the Administrative staff a notice that a writer is interested in an order.&lt;br /&gt;DO NOT start writing until you have received a confirmation from Administration that you have been assigned the order. It is not uncommon for several writers to request an assignment yet only one writer can get the assignment. The process can take time, sometimes several hours, so it is important to continue to check email for the notification before beginning work or taking another project.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It is important to start by requesting smaller orders so our staff can assess your skill level. Once we are comfortable with your capabilities, we can begin assigning larger, more complex papers. While we would like to give all writers the papers they request, that is not possible, so there may be times you do not get the paper you request.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Once you have received confirmation that you have been assigned the order, you must contact your customer via the message board. Although each customer will have different concerns, most want to know your general plan for the assignment. If they have further concerns, they will contact you, also via the message board.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;142.  When a customer has a query, it is important to get back to them within 12 hours, especially if the order has a tight deadline. Sometimes comments made on the message board are as important to the assignment as those made in the customer's original orders, so you need to be responsive.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If you cannot meet a deadline, or are asking for an extension, you must ask this of the customer on the message board directly. Our staff cannot handle these matters as they are up to the discretion of the customer. If you need to send the customer a document (such an outline or a draft) prior to completion of the paper, send it as an attachment to a message to Admin with the request to pass it on to the customer.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Do not send it as the completed document, as this will inaccurately move the file into the Completed Orders file, when the order is not complete. Once you have completed the order, you will need to send it from your home computer to the customer via our computer system. To do this, first click the "Browse" button. This will allow the computer system to "browse" your word processing system to find the right file to send.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;You will need to accept the correct file which will be entered in the "Upload" box on Academia-Research's computer system. Once you have the file entered, click "Complete Order." This will only work properly with Microsoft Word (.doc) files and .zip files. You should zip the completed assignment if it is in some format other than Microsoft Word or if there is more than 1 file to upload.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;143.  If, for any reason, you do not think you can meet your deadline, you must alert us and the customer. Orders submitted late will lead to fines unless the customer specifically grants an extension.After the paper is submitted, the customer has 14 days to accept the paper. If the customer is not satisfied, and you receive a revision request, you should complete it within 24 hours, unless arranged otherwise with the customer. All matters pertaining to revisions must go through the customer.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;To become one of our writers you have to register on our website by filling out the registration form. Once you have done this you will receive a test essay that you will be asked to complete within a couple of days. If you pass the test, you will be sent a letter of congratulations and your account will be activated. From then on.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;We provide a new and unfortunately still extremely rare standard of service for both our customers and our writers. We have a 24/7 support system to help sort out any problems at either end of the stick. Our company does not neglect its writers like many companies do, we value them - just as much as we value customers.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;After all it is their talent and hard work that keeps our customers coming back for more.High fees, we make sure that your hard work is rewarded.Stability, we have been working in this industry for over 5 years now and constantly have a large amount of incoming orders.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;144.You will be able to choose from a large variety of available orders and will never we obliged to work on anything that you do not want work on.You will get paid twice a month and there are no reserves on your payment.Efficient and easy to use online system that will allow you to communicate with the customer, receive sources or any other necessary materials from him/her.&lt;br /&gt;We have a very good reputation both in the writing world and amongst our customers that means that working for us will help you attain or just keep up a good reputation.24-hours support system from our admin and HR departments which assist our writers to learn more academic writing and eliminate any current problems concerning orders, payments and recruitment procedure.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;We do never ignore any of our writers' inquiries.Our writers are always encouraged to improve our work with suggestions. We are open to discuss all requests and claims to make our service easy and perfect for both customers and writers.We pay our writers well and do everything that we can to make their job as easy as it can be.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In return we expect well-written, fully referenced, unique and timely papers. We do everything to keep both our customers and our writers happy.If you are interested with our company, after you have filled out a registration form, we will send you a test paper for completion. If it is completed to our satisfaction we will send you an email confirming that you have become a member of our team.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;145.  The Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) is the state government agency charged with overseeing and providing workforce development services to employers and job seekers of Texas. For employers, TWC offers recruiting, retention, training and retraining, and outplacement services as well as valuable information on labor law and labor market statistics.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;For job seekers, TWC offers career development information, job search resources, training programs, and, as appropriate, unemployment benefits. While targeted populations receive intensive assistance to overcome barriers to employment all Texans can benefit from the services offered by TWC and our network of workforce partners.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Texas Workforce Commission is part of a local/state network dedicated to developing the workforce of Texas. The network is comprised of the statewide efforts of the Commission coupled with planning and service provision on a regional level by 28 local workforce boards.&lt;br /&gt;This network gives customers access to local workforce solutions and statewide services in a single location  Texas Workforce Centers.Primary services of the Texas Workforce Commission and our network partners are funded by federal tax revenue and are generally free to all .&lt;br /&gt;146.  Get ready to start working from home today! Estimates say that approximately 40 million people are now working from home in some capacity. Isn't it time for you to finally have that wonderful lifestyle too.  We know you have been searching and searching, and have probably come to many dead ends.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Now, you can finally quit searching and start working from home, today!  We have done all the research for you.  But you need to get in on the jobs now, while there are still a big variety available. When you open your 'Database of Online Jobs', you will find literally thousands of legitimate online jobs.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt; We have the database arranged by company name, with a brief description of each company's job openings.  From there, you can click on the job openings and apply to all the ones you are interested in, without the worry of wondering if they are legitimate, will they charge a fee, will I get a response.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Forget filling out forms, rebate processing, pay per click, MLM, pyramid schemes, assembly at home, and all of those ridiculous and non existent jobs.  Those  are not real jobs. Do you see any buildings in your town that say "Paid Surveys" on the sign, or Pay per Click, or "Stuff Envelopes" or "Get Paid to Read emails" ? Of course not. These are not real jobs or real hiring companies.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;147.There are millions of websites offering you paid job positions, and none of them seem trustworthy, sincere, honest, or even care about their customers. Their websites look like they are duplicates of others, with ads all over them, and no real information to provide to you, an important potential customer, about work from home job positions.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt; We really care about our customers. You can ask us anything, and we mean anything! We tell you exactly what you will be getting, and nothing is a mystery with Online Jobs Galore. We only provide you with real, genuine, legitimate, pre-screened and thoroughly researched online job positions from top notch companies.&lt;br /&gt; We have been searching for years, just like you, and ran into so many scams that we became frustrated and confused. This is exactly why we started the development of this Online Jobs Database.We have now become one of the most trusted providers of genuine onlinejobs.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Online Jobs Database is a digital file that you download onto your computer, and you can access it at any time. You will get automatic updates in real time. As the companies are removing and adding jobs, your Database on your computer will always have up to the minute information.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;148. Making a good business plan is a big first step. It is suicidal to venture out into any business without having a well thought out plan. You must ask yourself some pertinent questions such as the type of business you want to do, how you intend to carry it out, the necessary requirements, possible difficulties and how to solve them. However, if the plan remains on paper, nothing will be achieved. Take action. Start that business.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;One of the first steps in achieving success is to choose a home-based business that you are not only familiar with but also interested in. And you have to be open to learn in order to keep abreast with current developments in that field. Learn the ropes and know how to get ahead and stay there. Remember that you are competing with other businesses all over the world.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Home businesses in India have opened a new scope of work for all Indians; people can work on their own time and convenience. And to start a home business you don’t need a huge investment.You will need the endurance of termites in order to keep going even during times when the future looks bleak.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This is one of the major reasons for choosing a field you have great interest in, for you will then have the motivation to carry on instead of getting discouraged. Turn every obstacle into an exciting challenge that offers you more ways of doing your business better and you will be happy when at last you look back and review your success.&lt;br /&gt;149.    This will give you more confidence and determination to tackle any future problems - and you will have experience behind you.Do not gear your business towards making money. This may seem odd, but it is when you focus on fulfilling the needs of your customers well that your business will really flourish.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Let your products or services help them better their lives and they will be glad to invest in them. Of course, you have to show them first how they will benefit. In other words, you must learn how to market yourself effectively. Which brings us to another point.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Let what you show your clients be consistent with the goods or services that you actually deliver. Otherwise they will not trust you next time even when you really have more to deliver.With these actions, you will be in a position to make a success out of your initial plan.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Online business is pretty much the same when compared to the offline business. The name that you decide should reflect your business in some way or the other. Your domain name is how your customers recognize you. Customers need to remember it, spell it and type it correctly in the web browsers. Good domain names that are short, easy and those that reflect your business purpose are memorable.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;150.   You should try and browse some of the online job listings for work at home offers that you feel fit your qualifications and skills. Try to do a little research on the company that offers these home based jobs to determine if they are above board. There are also some signs you should look for when it comes to these online jobs.&lt;br /&gt;Signs like jobs that ask for money upfront for training materials, jobs that state that you do not need skills to make money and jobs that promise you that you will get rich quick.Aside from being wary of these warning signs, you should be prepared for hours of searching for ways as to how to make money online.&lt;br /&gt;Money does not grow on trees and the best money making schemes are not that easy to come by. You should exercise a bit of patience when it comes to looking for the right online money making scheme that fits your skills, your budget and your schedule.&lt;br /&gt;You can also start your own online business to make sure that you do not end up getting scammed. Trust is the key to a successful online business and job as well as quality. If you cultivate this kind of an atmosphere and relationship with your clients, you can expect to see the money keep on coming from your online business or job.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;      The Indian Village Was Immense&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;1.    Traditionally, the village on the Little Bighorn has been depicted as the largest ever seen in the West. Actually there were at least one dozen villages larger, and geographical and spatial considerations illustrate the impossibility of the exaggerated size estimations.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A village that has been depicted as large as six miles long and one mile wide, in reality was 11⁄2 miles long and one-quarter mile wide. It contained about 1,200 lodges and perhaps 1,500 warriors. Custer was not “crazy” for attacking.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Indians told us the village size. Pretty White Buffalo said that the Cheyenne and Sans Arc camps were at the lower end of the village, across from the Medicine Tail crossing of the river. Standing Bear said that the mouth of Muskrat Creek (Medicine Tail) was north of the Santee camp, which was the northernmost of the circles.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Two Moon said that the village stretched from Sitting Bull’s Hunkpapa camp at Shoulder Blade Creek, to the Cheyenne camp at Medicine Tail’s place. Wooden Leg stated that the Cheyenne camp was just a little upstream and across from Medicine Tail Coulee, and at the other end were the Hunkpapas, just northeast of the present-day Garryowen Station, with all the camps east of the present road.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;2. A soldier named Wolf drew a map depicting the camp conforming to the course of the river with its northernmost limits across from Medicine Tail. Fears Nothing’s map showed the entire camp between Medicine Tail in the north, to Shoulder Blade Creek in the south.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Standing Bear and Flying Hawk both produced maps that showed the                        northernmost limit of the camp to be south of Medicine Tail Creek.The Indians showed us that the camp conformed to the river and was, at most, 11⁄2 miles long. It was a large camp, certainly, but it was not several miles long and unconquerable.&lt;br /&gt;      &lt;br /&gt; It is said that the Indians knew Custer and the 7th Cavalry were coming,     and set a trap. They did no such thing. Pretty White Buffalo said that no one expected an attack; the young men were not even out watching for the soldiers. “I have seen my people prepare for battle many times,” she said, “and this I know: that the Sioux that morning had no thought of fighting.”&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Moving Robe was digging wild turnips with other women several miles from camp when she saw a cloud of dust rise beyond the bluffs in the east. She saw a warrior riding by, shouting that soldiers were only a few miles  away, and that the women, children and old men should run for the hills in the other direction.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;3.  Antelope Woman (Kate Bighead) was bathing in the river with many others. Scores of naked men, women and children were in the river and not expecting a battle. Neither were many others playing or fishing along the stream. Everyone was having a good time, said Antelope, and no one was thinking about any battle.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Low Dog said the sun was about at noon, and he was still asleep in his lodge. He awoke to the shouts of soldiers, but thought it was a false alarm. “I did not think it possible that any white men would attack us,” he said. Libraries in the ancient World is a honest introduction to the argument of book collection and text transmission in the ancient classical and pre-classical world.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It tells the story of ancient libraries from their very beginning (the royal libraries of the Ancient Near East) down to the first Christian monastic institutions of the Middle Age, focusing on the topic of library, both as building and institution. As far as the analysis of archaeological data is involved, Casson is able to build a strong argument with detail and precision of analysis&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;He reviews all the relevant evidence and is able to balance and present the different hypotheses and the sources of his study. Exposition is far weaker when it comes to take into consideration the extant literary testimonies and appraise the place of libraries in the larger context of literacy and books in the Greek and Roman Civilization.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;4. Graeco-Roman Philology is a fascinating field, since it is open to almost unending surprises. It is also a field that can command enormous appeal as well as almost infinite boredom, depending on how it is presented. This is due to the distance - both temporal and cultural - from our world and that society.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It is natural that when we think about a library, a bookshop, a writer, a book - we ask for the help of everyday experience. A bookstore is a bookstore. A book a book... like in everyday experience. . And yet, under the surface of apparent similarity, we come to discover a far different truth.&lt;br /&gt;This truth is unendingly announcing the miracle of historical, literary, medical, philosophical, ... texts, most of them dating back about 2500 years that have been able to reach us in adventurous and often incredible ways.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The strong archaeological approach, is probably responsible for the difficulty to present is a comprehensive analysis of libraries, books, literacy in the larger context of a far different society and the problems of text transmission in an age still far from Gutenberg.&lt;br /&gt;5.  Ancient World was different from our own (and different as well the Latin World from the Greek)Just to name some differences that are not considered in the exposition Problems in reading and spelling - contrary to our books, the ancient rolls and codices were written in almost exclusively in capital letters, and with no spacing between words.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This presented insurmountable difficulties for people with low literacy and asked for far better knowledge of language and language skills than we have today. Besides it made text corruption far easier. - Reading aloud - today reading conveys the idea of a quiet space and of silence.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Actually one of the most astonishing differences between us and them is signalled by Augustine, when he writes in the "Confessions" that his master Ambrose (bishop of Milan) was capable to read "without emitting any sound nor moving the tongue"..&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;That is reading in the classical times consisted only in reading aloud.in turn the act of making a copy of a text is to be more properly described as being    dictated, and libraries were not the silent sanctuaries we know today, but rather different noisy places more similar probably to modern Koranic schools.- Spreading of illiteracy. In this, Greek and Latin world were probably different.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;6.  In the west, literacy resented early of a progressive decline, that coupled with the passage from roll to codex created a momentous phenomenon of deterioration, especially in some fields (not just many technical and scientific books were lost, but as well many less read writers (it is funny that a technical innovation ended speeding the process of decadence).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This phenomenon of progressive narrowing of scope was further aggravated by the spreading of illiteracy during the early Middle Age: in many mosaics of this period painters end up to represent books as closed, both because unable themselves to write and because people around them are no more able to read. Illiteracy, difficulty in text reading, all coupled with a worsening of Latin and Greek knowledge (specially in the West), had big impact on the transmission of texts.&lt;br /&gt;There is also a second trait of the account I do not agree. This is the over-simplification according to which we have a Greek and Latin Culture in total opposition to other "barbarian" (i.e. of lesser species) cultures, that contributed more or less to the decline into the Middle ages.Actually this is not so.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And especially so for the main opposition presented: that between Greek Byzantine Empire and "Eastern" cultures. There's an implicit assumption (sometimes annoyingly made explicit) according to which Arabs erased all sign of Greek culture in the newly conquered lands - a newly presented argument for a learned and cultured West versus inferior and unsophisticated East.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;7. Actually there are strong indications this is far from correct and that an osmosis between Greek culture and "Eastern" cultures was well established at least since the reign of emperor Justinian. Not only does the contemporary historiographer Agatia tell us the story about translations into Persian commissioned by Corsoe .&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;King of Persia (Historiae, B28.1), but the same king did give sanctuary to many philosophers of the School of Athens, after this pagan institution was forcibly closed by order of the emperor. As for the Arabs, since the very beginning of their rule, there was a momentous activity of translation (at least three great waves are recorded of this phenomenon) .&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;From Greek to Arab (often through Syriac) that in turn caused a new osmosis from Arabic lands to the Byzanthine empire since the IX century and from Arab Spain and Sicily to the Latin West as far as XII Century, well before the fall of Byzantium and the looming of European Renaissance (the Salernitan School, St Tomas Aquinas,...).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;We must thank all these Arab scribes, philosophers, booksellers, translators and enlightened rulers if we can enjoy today so much of the Greek literature.One of my passion (if you did not guess already) is the history of the transmission of books - specially in the larger context of classical western culture.&lt;br /&gt;8.   If anyone does share this interest, could be interested in a few books I had the chance to read in the past about this argument: - "The Vanished Library" by Luciano Canfora (possibly the most authoritative story of the Royal Library in Alexandria), - "Scribes and Scholars" by L.D. Reynold &amp;amp; N.G. Wilson, still unsurpassed introduction to classical philology.&lt;br /&gt;One of the few books in which academic and poetical are not         incompatible adjectives.- "Greek Thought and Arabic Culture" by Dimitri Gutas, a very interesting survey of the continuous exchanges from East to West and back from the rise of the Persian Empire to the advent of Islamism .&lt;br /&gt;"A History of Reading" by Alberto Manguel, brilliant and entertaining, written by a disciple - and in the dense style -of Borges - "A Gentle Madness.Bibliophiles Bibliomanes and the Eternal passion for books" by Basbanes, a mine of anecdotes that is both fascinating and witty.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;After breakfast, White Bull left his wife’s lodge and went to tend the horses with no thoughts of any approaching danger. When he heard a man yelling an alarm, he climbed a hill and could see the soldiers approaching. He jumped on his best horse and drove the ponies back to camp.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;9. Standing Bear awoke late that morning. While they ate breakfast, his uncle said, “After you are through eating you had better go and get the horses, because something might happen all at once, we never can tell.Before they could finish eating, there was a commotion outside, and Standing Bear learned his uncle’s premonition was correct. The soldiers were coming. They had been surprised.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Wooden Leg had been to a dance the night before, and slept late that morning. He and his brother Yellow Hair went to the river and found many Indians splashing in the water. The brothers found a shade tree and dozed off. Suddenly an old man called out: “Soldiers are here! Young men, go out and fight them.”&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;” The time spent in their fight and the results of their shooting are all the evidence we need to show that they defended their ground tenaciously. An interpretation claiming that few government cartridges were found on Custer Hill cannot change this.”&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Could it not be said in an equally accurate statement that.All the interpretation in print cannot change the fact that few government cartridges were found on Custer hill?Seems strange to ignore physical evidence from archaeological science on page 6 and then use the same archaeological evidence to support the contention that few or no bodies were found in the Deep Ravine.&lt;br /&gt;10. I understand that you are a published author and expert in Custer’s battle     at the Little Bighorn. Therefore, I’m hoping you may provide an explanation regarding the conversational and confrontational style used in your article. It’s rather surprising to read something so juvenile from a published author. Frankly, sir, I would be embarrassed by such an effort.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Grammatically, you have made a few errors which should have been amended during routine editing.Scholastically, your research is wonderful but incomplete. Your sources appear to be primarily native Americans; their reliability as eyewitnesses is tenuous, yet you fail to even mention this fact.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Many of these testimonies were provided years after the battle, at a time when memories tend to obfuscate the realities.Sorry for the criticism. Or, as you so eloquently wrote, “Deal with it.” Seriously, did your teenage son write this for a class.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I have to say that I was very interested when I first saw this article but have to agree with above posters. I was rather disappointed by the way it was written and the rhetoric used.I have read many history books over the years and many articles on this site. I’m afraid this article is sub par to anything I have read so far.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;11. Red Feather slept late that morning and awoke to the words: “Go get the horses - buffaloes are stampeding!” Indians began dashing into the camp with the ponies. One, known as Magpie, shouted, “Get away as fast as you can, don’t wait for anything, the white men are charging!” Red Feather could see soldiers firing into Sitting Bull’s camp. Some Hunkpapas and Oglalas, caught up in the early panic, ran away.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Runs the Enemy heard that soldiers were coming, but did not believe it. He sat back down with the men and continued smoking. Rain in the Face admitted the soldiers came to the valley without warning. “It was a surprise,” he said.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Sitting Bull, the chief who was said to have masterminded the ambush by the Indians, was caught up in the confusion. When the soldiers attacked, his young wife, Four Robes, was so frightened that she grabbed only one of her infant twins and ran to the hills.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;When asked where the second child was, she realized she had left it behind, and raced back to the lodge to retrieve it. Later, the one left behind received the name Abandoned One. This was not the household of a man who supposedly knew soldiers were coming and set a trap for them.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;12.It is apparent from the Indian reactions that Custer had surprised the camp. There was no ambush. Custer’s approach was successful. In spite of attacking in broad daylight, he did surprise the village.It is said that Custer foolishly divided his force and allowed the regiment to be defeated in detail.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It is  using part of a force to fix the enemy in front, and sending another portion to envelop the flank is a standard tactic of professional armies. While Major Marcus Reno attacked the southern end of the village, Custer made a flank march to the north along the river bluffs.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Indians, snapping out of their initial surprise, counterattacked Reno and chased him across the river to the east bank. When they climbed the bluffs, they had another surprise: Custer was already beyond them, 11⁄2 miles north and closer to the village than the Indians were.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;White Bull went up the bluffs where he saw something of great importance.Where we were standing on the side of the hill we saw another troop moving from the east toward the north where the camp was moving,” he exclaimed.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;13.One Bull found a vantage point on the hill and saw more troops coming from the south, leading what appeared to be pack mules. But a bigger problem was the troop force to the north. Soldiers were already beyond the Indians and were heading toward the other end of the camp.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;American Horse was in the valley while Reno’s survivors climbed the hill. When he turned to the river, he heard a man’s voice calling out that more bluecoats were moving to attack the lower village, American Horse’s own people. He spun his horse around and quickly headed north.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Fears Nothing reached the river and heard an Indian on the east bank calling that more soldiers were coming down from behind the ridge. He rode up the bluffs to see for himself and clambered back down. Once in the valley, he galloped north toward the mouth of Medicine Tail Creek.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Runs the Enemy noticed two Indians waving blankets on the eastern bluffs. Crossing over with another Indian, he heard them yell that the soldiers were “coming, and they were going to get our women and children.” He continued to the crest and the sight shocked him. “As I looked along the line of the ridge they seemed to fill the whole hill,” he said.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;14. It looked as if there were thousands of them, and I thought we would surely be beaten.” Runs The Enemy raced downhill, across the river and back down the valley.Wooden Leg had climbed a hill north of Reno’s hilltop position when another Indian cried out: “Look! Yonder are other soldiers!” Peering downriver, Wooden Leg saw them on the distant hills.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The news spread quickly, and the Indians began to ride after them to meet this other threat Short Bull was busy driving Reno out of the valley and into the hills. He never noticed Custer until Crazy Horse rode up with his men.“Too late! You’ve missed the fight!” Short Bull called to him.“Sorry to miss this fight!” Crazy Horse laughed. “But there’s a good fight coming over the hill.”&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Short Bull looked where Crazy Horse pointed. For the first time he saw Custer and his men pouring over a hill. “I thought there were a million of them,” he said.“That’s where the big fight is going to be,” Crazy Horse predicted. “We’ll not miss that one.”&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Many Indians who chased Reno up the bluffs also realized that there were more soldiers already north of them, in a position to interpose themselves between the warriors and the village. Moving along a ridge above Medicine Tail Coulee, less than two miles away, was Custer’s Battalion. It was a shock. Custer had surprised them not once, but twice. His tactics were working.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;15. One of the major misconceptions of the Little Bighorn fight is that Custer was shot down in a midstream charge while crossing the river. The idea stems from two sources: one was the Lakota White Cow Bull, and the other was two Crow scouts who were not there. Many other Indian eyewitnesses who were there never said anything of the sort.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Two Moon said that Cheyenne guards were already posted on the east bank when Custer rode down. In addition, many Lakotas had already crossed to the east side. Warriors were across the river, some going upstream and some downstream, trying to get on each side of the soldiers.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Yellow Nose said he and his companions were already on the east side of the river when the soldiers first fired at them.From the east bank of the river, White Shield saw that the troops were heading straight for them, and he believed they would break through and get across the river. When the Gray Horses (Company E) got close to the river, they dismounted, and both sides fired at each other.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Bobtail Horse said the soldiers began shooting as they neared the ford leading to the camp. He said: “Let us get in line behind this ridge and try to stop or turn them. If they get in camp they will kill many women.” Bobtail Horse said that his “party had not advanced toward Custer, but were on the bank of the Little Horn on the same side as Custer.”&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;16. The soldiers advanced, but, “the ten Indians were firing as hard as they could and killed a soldier,” Bobtail Horse explained. The man’s horse ran on ahead, and Bobtail Horse caught it. The soldiers finally stopped. This all happened on the east bank.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Red Hawk was fighting Reno’s men, but went north in time to see a second group of soldiers coming down the ridge in three divisions. They did not make it to the river, he said. The first division only got to a point about one-half to three-quarters of a mile from the water.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Lone Bear said the soldiers got near the river, dismounted and began leading their horses, but they never got to the river. Lone Bear watched as large numbers of warriors, both mounted and on foot, crossed over to the east bank and started after Custer before he reached the stream.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;More warriors indicated the confrontation occurred east of the river. Kill Eagle said, “The Indians crossed the creek and then the firing commenced.” Wooden Leg said that the first three Cheyennes to cross the river were Bobtail Horse, Roan Bear and Buffalo Calf, and they fired on Custer while he was “far out on the ridge.”&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;17. He Dog said 15 or 20 Indians fought the troopers from the east side of the stream - near the dry creek, but not near the river. Standing Bear also said that the Indians crossed the river as soon as Custer came in sight. They took position behind a low ridge and were reinforced rapidly as more warriors crossed over.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There was no fighting on the creek,” Standing Bear said. Bobtail Horse, who was right there, indicated without hesitation that they were all on the east bank, on the same side as Custer. Two years after the fight, Hump, Brave Wolf and Ice told 5th Infantry Lieutenant Oscar F. Long that the Indians crossed the river before Custer could possibly have forded. They had already gained a small hill on the north side of the Little Bighorn and placed themselves between Custer and the river.&lt;br /&gt;It is clear from the explanations of the Indians who were there that Custer’s soldiers never got across the river, or even into it; the Indians were already on the east (north) bank fighting them. Where do we get the idea that Custer was killed in the river? Mostly from White Cow Bull. His story has caused more mischief than almost any of the tales that have been circulated about the battle.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It is only White Cow Bull who supposedly said that he and Bobtail Horse shot a buckskin-clad soldier in the river. Neither Bobtail Horse nor any of the other Indians who were there mention anything of the sort - they don’t even say White Cow Bull was there. Yet, White Cow Bull says that he, almost single-handed, stopped a full-scale cavalry charge in midstream. No other Lakota or Cheyenne saw it. They were not fighting on the river, but east of it. White Cow Bull’s story is just that - bull.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;18. The Crow scouts Goes Ahead and White Man Runs Him reportedly told stories of Custer dying in the river. Goes Ahead’s tale comes from his wife, Pretty Shield, who was not there either, but said little other than Custer drank too much and rode into the river and died. White Man Runs Him did not see Custer, but heard later that Custer was hit in the chest by a bullet and fell into the water. From such tales grew the myth that Custer was killed at the river. It did not happen.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;One standard tale of the battle involves the legendary ride of Crazy Horse. The story goes that Crazy Horse, with his tactical genius, judged the situation in a flash, gathered hundreds of his warriors, went north down the valley, crossed the river, swung east and swept down on an unsuspecting Custer from the north, completely surprising and overwhelming the befuddled commander.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Many historians and novelists have followed this scenario: Cyrus Brady, George Hyde, Charles Kuhlman, William Graham, Mari Sandoz, Edgar Stewart, David H. Miller, Stephen Ambrose, Henry and Don Weibert, James Welch, Robert Utley, Evan Connell, Jerry Greene and Doug Scott.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A slight variation on this theme comes from Richard Fox; he has Crazy Horse approaching from Deep Ravine. With all those historians concurring at one time or another over the years (some have since modified their interpretation), the story must be true.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;19. How did it really happen? Again, the warriors who were there told us where Crazy Horse went. After fighting Reno, Crazy Horse and Flying Hawk went back to the village to drop off some wounded warriors. They immediately went to Medicine Tail Ford, where Short Bull and Pretty White Buffalo saw Crazy Horse crossing the river.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;He was next located in the area of Calhoun Hill by numerous Indians who fought with him that day, including Foolish Elk, Lone Bear, He Dog, Red Feather and Flying Hawk. White Bull rode from the bluffs where Reno had retreated, directly north on the east side of the river.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;He approached Calhoun Hill from up Deep Coulee and worked around the hill where he joined Crazy Horse and his men, already fighting. Had Crazy Horse gone on his mythical northern sweep, or done half the deeds ascribed to him, he could not have been fighting near Calhoun Hill in this phase of the battle.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Crazy Horse was very reticent about speaking to white recorders. His spokesman, Horned Horse, said that the soldiers’ assault was a surprise. The Indians had no plan of ambush. Crazy Horse believed Custer mistook the women and children stampeding in a northerly direction down the valley for the main body of Indians. The warriors merely divided into two groups, one staying between the noncombatants and Custer and the other circling his rear.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;20. That is all there is to it. Only after the collapse of the Calhoun-Keogh position did Crazy Horse continue north where he may have, finally, confronted the last of Custer’s men making their stand on the far knob of the ridge. Or maybe not. Flying Hawk indicated that during the final phase of the battle, Crazy Horse jumped on his pony and chased off after one of the last fleeing troopers.&lt;br /&gt;Crazy Horse likely had nothing at all to do with the final fight on Last Stand Hill. He did not make a several mile sweep down the valley and hit Custer near Last Stand Hill from the north, and he did not attack from up Deep Ravine.&lt;br /&gt;Much of this incorrect story stemmed from Gall. Edward Godfrey recorded him as saying, “Crazy Horse went to the extreme north end of the camp.” He turned right and went up a very deep ravine and “he came very close to the soldiers on their north side.” Remember, however, that the northern end of the camp was at Medicine Tail Coulee, not three miles farther, as many white historians believed, and “north” to most Indians, is “east” to white observers.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Why did we get it so wrong? It developed from a number of factors: different terrain perceptions between Indian and white, white exaggeration of the village size, poor critical examination of the accounts and a reluctance to take the time to re-research the primary sources. An incorrect premise was accepted and perpetuated with each telling, and Crazy Horse’s ride has drifted out of the realm of history and into the land of fantasy.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;21. Of late there have been archaeological studies that have shined new light on some of the mysteries of the battle. One of them, by Richard Fox, has taken the stance that the Custer battle had “no famous last stand,” and that the Last Stand is a myth, determined mainly because of artifact clustering patterns and because some men ran toward the river at the end of the fight. Certainly, there was no Last Stand as in the 1941 movie They Died With Their Boots On, but there was a stand.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Good Voiced Elk said, “No stand was made until the soldiers got to the end of the long ridge Flying By rode Battle Ridge to the north where he saw bodies of the soldiers who had been killed all the way along his path. As far as he could see there had been only one stand, and it was made in the place where Custer would be killed, down at the end of the long ridge.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Lone Bear said the fight on Custer Hill was at close quarters, and, “There was a good stand made.Gall neared the end of the ridge where the last soldiers were making a stand, he said, and, “They were fighting good.Lights said the stand made at Custer Hill was longer than anywhere else on the field.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Two Eagles said the most stubborn stand by the soldiers was made on Custer Hill.Red Hawk said the bluecoats were “falling back steadily to Custer Hill where another stand was made,” and, “Here the soldiers made a desperate fight.”&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;22.  Iron Hawk saw 20 mounted men and about 30 men on foot on Last Stand Hill. “The Indians pressed and crowded right in around them on Custer Hill,” he said. But the soldiers were not yet ready to die. Said Iron Hawk, “They stood here a long time.”&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;He Dog participated in the chase that broke the soldiers’ line, and helped drive the fleeing troopers along the ridge. At the far end, Custer’s men were putting up a good fight.Red Hawk said that only after making a desperate fight on Custer Hill did the remaining soldiers retreat downhill.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Flying Hawk said they kept after the fleeing soldiers until they got to where Custer was making a stand on the ridge. There “the living remnant of his command were now surrounded.”Although impressions of the stand’s time length and degree of intensity vary among the observers, the fact that it took place cannot be erased. soldiers defending the northern portion of Custer’s field inflicted most of the Indian casualties - the best defense was not made at Calhoun Hill.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The time spent in their fight and the results of their shooting are all the evidence we need to show that they defended their ground tenaciously. An interpretation claiming that few government cartridges were found on Custer Hill cannot change this.&lt;br /&gt;23. Recent visitors to the battlefield may have walked down the Deep Ravine Trail to its end and read the interpretive sign. The sign perpetuates another myth: that about 28 soldiers died within the steep-walled gully. It has several quotes from Indians and soldiers who said they saw bodies in the ravine.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;What are not listed are the statements from eyewitnesses who said that few, if any, bodies were there.Interpretation should be based on historical and physical evidence whenever possible. Battle relics and bones have been found virtually on every part of the Little Bighorn Battlefield.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The participating warriors called it a Last Stand. Deal with it.Where they have not been found is in the trench of the Deep Ravine. When the archaeological record shows no sign of bodies, it ought to be matched with the appropriate historical record&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;That there were few, if any, bodies in the Deep Ravine. It is incredible that diametrically opposed historical and archaeological interpretations are presented as facts. Although some soldiers ran from Custer’s Hill, they did hold their ground and fight from their position as long as they could. The participating warriors called it a Last Stand. Deal with it.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;24. Since there is no physical record of soldier bodies in Deep Ravine, the interpretive sign should contain the appropriate historical commentary.The Oglala warrior He Dog, said, “Only a few soldiers who broke away were killed below toward the river.”&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Lone Bear said Custer Hill was “the first and only place where the soldiers tried to get away, and only a few from there.Waterman said, “A few soldiers tried to get away and reach the river, but they were all killed.Flying By said that “Soldiers were running through [the] Indian lines trying to get away…only four soldiers got into the gully by the river.”&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Two Moon explained that Custer’s men “stayed right out in the open where it was easy to shoot them down. Any ordinary bunch of men would have dropped into a watercourse, or a draw.Red Hawk tellingly reported, “Some of the soldiers broke through the Indians and ran for the river, but all were killed without getting into it.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Iron Hawk said that at the fight’s end, “We looked up and the soldiers all were running….The furthest headstone shows where the second man that I killed lies…probably this was the last of Custer’s men to be killed….there was only one soldier sneaking along in the gulch.”&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;25. Probably the clearest white voice that denies bodies in the Deep Ravine came from eyewitness Lieutenant Charles F. Roe, who was there right after the battle, and whose job it was to return to the field in 1881, rebury the bodies on the ridge and place the stone monument above them. In a letter to Walter Camp in 1911, responding to Camp’s persistent.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Incorrect questions about bodies in the ravine, Roe finally said.I put up the markers near the deep ravine you speak of. There never was twenty-eight dead men in the ravine, but near the head of said ravine, and only two or three in it.”&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;What can we gather from all this? There were many participants who saw what happened at the Little Bighorn, and we should not discount their stories in favor of speculation from those who did not see the events - neither those who lived in the 19th century nor those who make their livings by writing stories today. It is difficult to debunk the old legends, however. Myths die hard - even when hundreds of eyewitnesses have already told it like it was.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Historian Gregory Michno, who writes from Longmont, Colo., is a frequent contributor to Wild West. His much acclaimed books Lakota Noon: The Indian Narrative of Custer’s Defeat and The Mystery of E Troop: Custer’s Gray Horse Company at the Little Bighorn are recommended for additional reading, along with Lakota Recollections of the Custer Fight: New Sources of Indian-Military History, by Richard G. Hardorff, and Wooden Leg: A Warrior Who Fought Custer, by Thomas B. Marquis.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;26. The Dewey decimal system of cataloguing and its modern successors are relatively new, and they sometimes seem inadequate as ways of organizing knowledge in ever-changing fields of study.But the idea of bringing order to collections of written material is an ancient one, as Lionel Casson writes in this lucid survey of bibliophilia in the ancient Mediterranean.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Among the earliest examples of written material that we have are lists of library holdings, clay tablets from Mesopotamia that archive commercial inventories, scholarly texts, and a surprising number of works on witchcraft and remedies against it.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Ancient libraries grew, Casson writes, by many means: by peaceful trade, as when book-hungry Romans spent extravagant sums on Greek texts made in southern Italy; by conquest, as when the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal looted the libraries of his ancient rival Babylon, carting the contents to his capital of Nineveh; and by fiat, as when the Egyptian pharaohs appropriated private collections to round out their own.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Those libraries nourished the great philosophers and writers of old, shaping world culture into our own time. But, as Casson ably shows, the enemies of books are many, among them floods, fires, insects, and intolerance.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;27.  As it is today, so it was in the past, and contending empires and ideologies too often expressed themselves by sacking and burning the collections of their enemies--by reason of which we have only a few of the works that engaged readers in the distant past.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Casson's slender book enhances our understanding of the role of books and their collectors in the ancient world, and bibliophiles and historians alike will find much of value in its pages. --Gregory McNamee&lt;br /&gt;According to the author (Travel in the Ancient World; etc.), "is the first full-scale study of libraries in the ancient world." This alone will make the book very attractive to a readership well beyond those with professional interests in the ancient world.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And yet the book's title sells its contents short since it is really about a great deal more than the curatorship of the written word through its very specialized beginnings in the Near East c. 3000 B. C. until the collapse of cities in the Western Roman world.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;28. Casson's book is not limited to where and when important libraries existed; it offers a social history transcending the idea of a library as we know it. Casson discusses literacy in the ancient world; the techniques of production and the materials from which books were made trade in books;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The centrality of libraries as the predecessors of modern universities and research institutions; the organization of Greco-Roman libraries, which continues, necessarily modified, in today's libraries; the differences and intersections among royal, private and public libraries; the kinds of books favored by libraries and even observations on the concept of the rare book in antiquity.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Detailed consideration of the architectural elements of ancient libraries (what did these libraries look like? Where and how were books stored? How were reading rooms arranged?) makes the book as appealing to the archeologist as the bibliophile.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There were libraries before there were books. A fascinating survey, _Libraries in the Ancient World_ (Yale University Press) by Lionel Casson, explains how the libraries were similar and different from our own, and how they managed without printing and without books as we know them.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;29. The similarities are reassuring and often delightful. We suspect there were Egyptian libraries, but we have never found one, because there are no masses of papyrus documents; such collections may have been lost in fires.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Sumerians, however, had written records were in cuneiform letters, pressed into clay. Some of the collections of these tablets offered the privilege of borrowing, and librarians then seem to have been bothered by two of the same problems that beset librarians now, theft and damage.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Tablets bore warnings or curses calling upon the services of the local gods: "Whoever removes the tablet... may Ashur and Ninlil, angered and grim, cast him down, erase his name, his seed, in the land", "He who carries it off, may Adad and Shala carry him off!", and "Who rubs out the text, Marduk will look upon him with anger."&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It was the Greeks who instituted libraries with aims similar to our own, shelves full of books on a wide range of subjects, available to readers who could come in and consult them. There was a demand for books, and by the fourth century BCE, bookselling was a flourishing industry.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;30. The booksellers probably employed scribes to turn out copies of works. There were no such things as royalties or author's rights. Rome conquered all, but Greece held intellectual sway over the Romans, who continued the library tradition.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Roman libraries had bookshelves of a particular type set into the walls, and archeologists can spot the tell-tale imprint of the bookshelves and thereby identify a chamber as a library. Independent public libraries faded as the libraries became incorporated, surprisingly, into other structures, the baths.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Here they served as part of a recreational and cultural center. Casson ends his story with the codex and the great monastic libraries. The codex is very much like a modern book, not a scroll, but a mass of pages sewn together with covers (perhaps of wood).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It was less bulky (both sides of the paper being used) and could be held in one hand, with the other hand taking notes. It took a long time for the scrolls to die out, except among the Christians who used codices for their scriptures, possibly because of the pagan association to scrolls.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;31. Casson, a Professor Emeritus of Classics, has gathered together an important tale not just of libraries but of reading and publishing. It is the first full study of libraries in the ancient world. If you love libraries and books, this is a fine book for learning about their earliest foundations.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In less than 150 pages, Lionel Casson has written a history of libraries of the ancient world that is captivating to read. Most of the chapters are about the libraries of the Classical World from the library of Aristotle to the library of Alexandria to the libraries of Rome to the libraries of the far parts of the Empire.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The reader will find out how libraries gained books, who read them, and how they were maintained. There are additional chapters on the rise of libraries in the ancient Near East, the development of the codex, and libraries after the fall of Rome.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;What makes this book captivating is that each chapter is filled with anecdotes. For example, a tablet from Uruk warns that anyone who fears Anu and Antu will return the tablet to the owner the same day. In ancient times library fines were not just 10 cents per day.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;32. In 642 AD the library holdings of the Serapeum at Alexandria supplied the public baths with six month's supply of kindling. To the city's Muslim Arab conquerors, these thousands of books and scrolls were clearly worthless.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If their contents agreed with the word of the Prophet, they were superfluous; if they disagreed, they were blasphemous. And so the last great collection of antiquity was consigned to the flames.&lt;br /&gt;This account of the end of the second great Alexandrian library is less than established fact - it is equally possible that the collection of the Temple of Serapis was destroyed somewhat earlier, in 391 AD, on the orders of a Christian patriarch.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;What is not in dispute is the existence of great collections of writings at Alexandria, the first of which was the Library of Alexandria founded by Ptolemy I around 300 BCE. The Library was the foremost of its kind throughout antiquity, boasting a collection of perhaps 490,000 scrolls.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;33.It was established as a research library for the first "Museum" - a kind of ancient think tank stocked with intellectuals lured from every corner of the Hellenistic world. Dedicated to the Muses, the Alexandria Museum and its Library were also semi-sacred places associated with religion. To learn and to study was to worship.&lt;br /&gt;The Library of Alexandria was the greatest though certainly not the only literary collection of antiquity. In fact, as NYU classicist Lionel Casson demonstrates in his book-length essay _Libraries in the Ancient World.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Widespread literacy and pride in cultural achievement ensured that few cities of the ancient Mediterranean were without libraries of their own. While Alexandria holds a central position in library history and in Casson's account, his book seeks to cover a far wider scope.&lt;br /&gt;In fact this book sets out to relate "whatever is known" about ancient libraries "from their debut in the ancient Near East... down to the early Byzantine period." Considered in terms of this goal narrowly defined, the book is a success.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;34. With modern text search technology and the availability of research assistants, a complete list of references to libraries, scrolls, codices, administration and collection can be readily extracted from the corpus of surviving classical literature.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;All that remains is to arrange the source material in thematic and chronological order and provide an elegant prose framework on which to hang the pertinent information. This is, I think, a very fair description of the author's methodology and achievement with _Libraries in the Ancient World.&lt;br /&gt;The history of ancient libraries begins in the near east with the Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilizations. The first library worthy of the name and of which we have direct knowledge belonged to an Assyrian king of the late 2nd millennium BCE. Lacking papyrus, the Mesopotamians had no books or scrolls; records were kept on clay tablets.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;"Records" is by and large the appropriate term - Assyrian libraries were mainly archive collections, though some literary works have come down to us - the Epic of Gilgamesh is the most significant example.&lt;br /&gt;35. No library collections survive from ancient Egypt prior to the Hellenistic period. While Casson's conclusion is that nothing can be known of Egyptian libraries, it seems like the extensive papyrus literature recovered from Egyptian burial sites would suggest something about the kinds of works Egyptian collections contained.&lt;br /&gt;From Mesopotamia the scene shifts abruptly in space and time: to Greece and the Mediterranean world of the 5th century BCE. There is some brief discussion of probable Mycenaean palace archives. It turns out that Trajan's Column was flanked by the Greek and Latin wings of a giant three-level library facility - lending a new dimension of interest to an already impressive monument.&lt;br /&gt;However the transition is too abrupt to do justice to the strong eastern influences at work on Greek civilization during the 8th and 7th centuries - that era of ancient Greek history known as the Orientalizing Period.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Greek libraries, like Athena, spring full-grown into the light of day. Our knowledge is severely constrained by the fragmentary state of the historical record. But the presentation also suggests perhaps an idealized view of the classical era no longer in fashion.&lt;br /&gt;36. Certainly Casson shows that great library collections were renowned throughout the classical world. The Library of Alexandria was the centerpiece of the Ptolemaic kingdom's cultural identity and its agents were famous for their acquisitiveness.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt; Aristotle's library, said to be the inspiration for the Ptolemies, was sought out and seized by Sulla in the Mithridatic Wars of the 1st century BCE. Through the Republican period Roman generals and proconsuls included the library collections of conquered Hellenistic kingdoms among the spoils of war.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In fact Casson suggests that Rome's first significant library collections were not home-grown but carted back as loot from newly conquered provinces in Greece and Asia Minor. Substantial library resources existed at Rome by 150 BCE; by the imperial period, public and private library collections were widespread.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As early as the time of Julius Caesar, libraries were seen as prestige projects by Rome's absolute rulers. Tiberius, Vespasian and Trajan each contributed large libraries for the betterment of the capital city.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;37. The segregated layout of Trajan's Library was typical of Roman libraries - Greek on one side, Latin on the other. The body of works in Greek was vastly larger than the Latin literature, but the Romans improbably allotted equal space to both, in a physical layout not necessarily conducive to serious research.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;All of this suggests something about the Roman approach to literature and Roman culture in general. Casson's short book is conceived and executed as a strictly "just the facts" approach to the subject of ancient libraries.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;That is more than fair, but one can't help but think that there is more to explore here. What do the architectures of Greek and Roman libraries say about their respective societies. How did the library function within the carefully plotted urban plan of the Hellenistic city, or the Roman town? Questions such as these go unexplored here, but this carefully .                                               &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;ABOUT  THE WAR&lt;a href="http://www.historynet.com/wp-content/uploads/image/2009/militaryhistoryquarterly/spring/palestine-bigger.jpg"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;38.  Israel has fought and won three major wars in its 61-year existence. The best-known today are the Six-day War of 1967 and the 1973 Yom Kippur War. The first war it fought as a nation was in 1948, today referred to by Israelis as the “War of Independence” and by Palestinian Arabs as “al-Nakba,” the catastrophe.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;But perhaps the most important clashes in Israel’s relatively brief history took place in the months preceding its declaration of statehood on May 14, 1948, when the Haganah, the predecessor of the Israel Defense Forces—aided in a minor way by the dissident groups, the IZL and the LHI—battled Arab militias in the towns and villages of Palestine and along the roads linking them.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;At the time, Great Britain, while nominally charged with maintaining order as it disengaged from the Palestinian territory it had ruled since 1917, focused mainly on withdrawing with minimal casualties and with its political prestige in the Middle East intact, and only occasionally intervened in the fighting.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Palestine’s Jews responded to the Arabs’ first attempt to wipe them out with a fierce, all-out war At stake in this civil war was Israel’s existence, and in the early months the Arabs appeared to be winning. By the end of March 1948, most of the Haganah’s armored car fleet lay in ruins, and Jewish West Jerusalem, with 100,000 residents, was under siege.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Had the run of successful Arab convoy ambushes continued, and had Jerusalem gone under, it seems certain that the armies of the Arab states that invaded the country seven weeks later would have aborted the tiny state before its birth.Instead, in April 1948, with its back to the wall, the Yishuv (in Hebrew, the Settlement)—as the 630,000-strong Jewish community in Palestine called itself—struck back.&lt;br /&gt;39. In a series of campaigns lasting six weeks, they battled mercilessly with the Palestinian Arab militias and overran dozens of Arab villages and towns. Slowly but surely, the balance of the war began to tip in their favor.By 1947, waves of immigration had brought about half a million Jews to Palestine’s shores.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Most came from Eastern Europe, fleeing bouts of anti-Semitic legislation and violence—pogroms—in the czarist empire and the resurgence of anti-Semitism in central Europe, cresting with the Holocaust during World War II. Underlying their desire to return to the Land of Israel was an age-old messianic longing for the ancestral territory and the resurrection of Jewish sovereignty.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Palestinian Arab resistance to the Zionist immigration was slow to get off the mark—like Arab nationalism in general—but grew increasingly violent and increasingly religious during the 1930s, precisely when the Zionist movement was most desperately seeking a safe haven for Europe’s persecuted Jews. Even before this escalation, Jews had little trust in Palestinian Arabs.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Axis powers, Italy and Germany, had politically and economically supported the Palestine Arab revolt in 1936–1939, against both British rule and the burgeoning Zionist enterprise. And the Palestinian national movement’s leader, the anti-Jewish Muslim cleric Haj Amin al-Husseini, sat out the war years (1941–1945) in Germany, received a salary from the Third Reich’s foreign ministry, and broadcast calls to the Arab world to join in the anti-British jihad.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;40. The Zionists feared nothing less than a second Holocaust should the Arabs win political control of Palestine, obliterating the Jews and their dreams of a homeland. And, from 1939 on, the Zionists also had to contend with a British government that had turned from pro-Zionism to appeasing the Arabs. That year London issued a new Palestine White Paper, severely curbing Jewish immigration and providing for an independent Palestine governed by its Arab majority within 10 years.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In response, the clandestine Jewish militias, the mainstream Haganah and the right-wing IZL (irgun zvai leumi, or National Military Organization, which the British called the “Irgun”) and its offshoot, the LHI (lohamei herut yisrael, or Freedom Fighters of Israel; the British called it the “Stern Gang” after its leader Avraham Stern), launched a campaign to oust the British from Palestine.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The campaign had been suspended for much of the world war as Jews and Britons fought the common Nazi enemy, but it was renewed in 1944 with a surge of Irgun and Stern Gang attacks that claimed dozens of British lives. Meanwhile, the Haganah dispatched ships laden with thousands of illegal European immigrants to Palestine.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The world war had vastly weakened Great Britain. By 1947, the country no longer had the resolve to deal with the dilemma in Palestine: the Zionists demanding statehood, at least in part of the country, and the Palestinian Arabs demanding all of the country as their indivisible patrimony. The additional embarrassment of having to fight illegal immigrants, most of them Holocaust survivors, and the trauma of continuous Jewish terrorist attacks finally persuaded Whitehall to throw in the towel.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;41. In February 1947 Foreign Secretary Ernst Bevin announced that Britain would terminate its rule and hand over the Palestine problem to the United Nations.The UN duly appointed a commission of inquiry, the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP), whose majority in September recommended to the General Assembly that Palestine be partitioned into two states, one Jewish, the other Arab.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Jerusalem and Bethlehem, both having sites holy to Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, were earmarked for international rule. The General Assembly proceeded to reduce the size of the recommended Jewish state to 55 percent of Palestine (the Arabs were to get close to 45 percent) and voted for partition: 33 in favor (including all of Western Europe, the United States, the Soviet bloc, and most of Latin America), 13 against (mostly Arab and Muslim or partly Muslim countries), and 10 abstentions (including Britain and China).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Zionist leadership and mainstream parties, though not the right-wing Revisionist movement, accepted the division, despite Zionism’s original quest for sovereignty over the whole Land of Israel; David Ben-Gurion, the chairman of the Jewish Agency Executive (the Yishuv’s “government”), and Chaim Weizmann, Zionism’s most prominent statesman, bowed to the diktat of history and circumstance.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Arab world, spearheaded by Palestine’s Arab leadership, responded with a resounding “no”—as they had in 1937, when the British Peel Commission had recommended that only 17 percent of Palestine be awarded for Jewish statehood, and most of the remainder for Arab sovereignty.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;42.  The United Nations General Assembly passed the partition resolution (No. 181) on November   29, 1947, and Palestinian Arabs, in disorganized and dispersed fashion, launched hostilities to stymie the carrying out of the resolution.On November 30, Arab gunmen, in the first shots of the war, ambushed two Jewish buses near Petah Tikva, killing seven passengers, and snipers firing from the Arab town of Jaffa hit pedestrians in neighboring Tel Aviv.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Husseini-led Arab Higher Committee (AHC), the Palestinian Arabs’ “government,” called a general strike. The civil war had begun.The two sides were ill-matched. The Yishuv, the Jewish community in Palestine, was much smaller: 630,000 to the Arabs’ 1.3 million. However, the Yishuv was tightly knit, highly mobilized, largely urban, educated, European, and motivated by the trauma of the just-ended Holocaust. Their leaders were public-service oriented and committed; they included the best and the brightest.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;From the 1920s into the 1940s the Yishuv had fashioned a state within a state, with its own governing institutions, including a cabinet (the Jewish Agency Executive), departments (such as the Jewish Agency political, settlement, and finance departments), and a militia, the Haganah, with some 35,000 members.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;When hostilities commenced, the Haganah had about 10,000 rifles, 3,500 submachine guns, 775 light machine guns, 157 medium machine guns, 16 antitank launchers, 670 two-inch mortars, and 84 three-inch mortars. Several thousand additional light weapons were in the hands of Jewish supernumerary policemen serving the British, most of whom were Haganah members. The Haganah had several spotter aircraft, though no combat aircraft, tanks, or artillery.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;43.  In the course of the civil war, Haganah armorers produced makeshift armored cars—trucks protected by steel sheeting—and thousands of Sten submachine guns, as well as light mortars, grenades, mines, and ammunition.The Haganah had a standing, efficient strike force of some 2,000 to 3,000 members, the Palmach, which served as its backbone and shield as it mobilized and, from November 1947 to May 1948, was transformed from a militia into an army, with battalion and brigade formations.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;By May the Palmach could field 10 functioning, if underequipped and undermanned, brigades. Most of the Yishuv’s roughly 250 rural settlements—which were the front line for much of the civil war and the conventional interstate war that followed—had trenchworks, perimeter fences and lighting, bomb shelters, and a central armory, which usually included a few machine guns and light mortars. The Haganah was familiar with the terrain and had nowhere to flee—except into the Mediterranean.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Palestine Arabs enjoyed the support of the vast hinterland of Arab states, who, though in niggardly fashion, sent arms, money and, between December 1947 and February 1948, a 4,000-strong force of relatively well-equipped volunteers, most of them Syrians and Iraqis, known as the Arab Liberation Army (ALA). The ALA had medium and heavy mortars, armored cars, and, by April, half a dozen field pieces.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In addition, hundreds of lightly armed Muslim Brotherhood volunteers arrived in southern Palestine from North Africa.But the Jews had organized for war; the Arabs had not. Although each of Palestine’s approximately 800 Arab villages and towns had a local militia, each with dozens or even hundreds of personal weapons, the Palestinians had failed to put together a national militia organization—and when it came to civil war, each village, town and, at best, region fought alone against the Haganah, the Irgun and LHI.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;44.  Some of the militias were obedient to the Husseini family–dominated Arab Higher Committee (AHC) that nominally governed the Arab community; others obeyed local authorities (the urban national committees or village mukhtars). The Arab militiamen probably, like the Jews, felt that they were fighting for hearth and home—but, unlike the Jews, they always had the option of flight to hinterland Arab villages and states. And their militias had almost no mortars or armored cars. The Palestinians, like the Arab states, had no independent arms production capabilities.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Palestine Arabs were largely illiterate, poor, mainly agricultural, and disunited, with a cluster of venal families, led by the Husseinis, at the helm. The leaders had little or no public-service orientation. The better-educated, wealthier Christian 8 percent of the Arab population feared the Muslim majority, townspeople looked down on fellahin (typically, farm laborers) and Bedouins (members of nomadic tribes), while fellahin feared and contemned Bedouins.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The notable families had been bitterly divided since the 1920s by a power struggle between the Husseini-led leadership and the “Opposition,” led by another notable Jerusalem family, the Nashashibis.In the late 1930s, against the backdrop of the Palestine Arab revolt, the rivalry had erupted in systematic Husseini terrorism against their Arab opponents, leaving a trail of blood feuds and treachery that was to disunite the Palestinians when they confronted the Zionists a decade later.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Palestine Arabs also failed to put together an autonomous governmental structure. The Husseini-dominated AHC nominally “governed” the Arab community—but many Arabs opposed it. At the start of the civil war, local notables from the various factions set up “national committees” in each town, which tried to run the communities during the crisis. But in effect, most of the the middle and upper classes declined to join the fight—and most of them (including many national committee members) fled the country during the following months, beginning as early as November 1947.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;45. In the hilly spine of the country, running from Galilee through Samaria and Judea, the Arabs enjoyed an overwhelming superiority in numbers; there were practically no Jewish settlements. But in the areas earmarked by the United Nations for Jewish sovereignty—in the central and northern Coastal Plain, in the Jezreel and Jordan valleys and in Jerusalem—the populations were thoroughly intermixed.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Along each road were Arab and Jewish villages, and many of the towns—Haifa, Safad, Tiberias—had both Jewish and Arab neighborhoods. The civil war, chaotic like most, was fought mainly in the predominantly Jewish areas. That included the lowlands—the Coastal Plain and the Jezreel and Jordan valleys—and in and around Jerusalem. In the city and its surrounds were roughly 100,000 Jews and a similar number of Arabs.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Because the Arabs lacked a national militia and suffered from a deficit of national consciousness and commitment, especially among the majority rural population, the inhabitants of the core Arab areas—around Hebron, Ramallah, Nablus, and Nazareth—did not take part in the fighting.The Arabs may have started the war, albeit in disorganized, haphazard fashion, but they did so with widespread reluctance and deep foreboding; many, perhaps most, did not believe they could win, and lacked confidence in their political and military leaders.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The fellah is afraid of the Jewish terrorists….The town dweller admits that his strength is insufficient to fight the Jewish force and hopes for salvation from outside….[The] majority…are confused, frightened…All they want is peace, quiet,” reported one Haganah Intelligence Service (HIS) agent already in October 1947.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;46. The first stage of the civil war was characterized by a gradual snowballing of the hostilities, which at first engulfed only some seam neighborhoods in the mixed towns and certain rural roads (the Jerusalem–Tel Aviv road, the north-south Jordan Valley road). At no point between November 1947 and May 1948 did the Arab Higher Committee issue a blanket order to the various militias to “assault the Yishuv.” And during the war’s first four months the AHC blew hot and cold, occasionally instructing militias to attack this or that settlement or neighborhood, at other times vaguely instructing the locals to keep their powder dry until a general assault was ordered (an order that never came).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Many Arab national committees, run by the propertied middle and upper classes, were reluctant to order or allow their militiamen (and in each of the large towns—Haifa, Jaffa, Jerusalem—there were a number of militia groups, each loyal to a different boss) to attack the Jews for fear of Jewish retaliation, which was bound to damage property and businesses and to cost lives.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Attacks in the first four months of the war were limited to Arab bombings and snipings in the urban centers; assaults on Jewish urban neighborhoods and rural settlements; and ambushes against Jewish traffic, which from December 1947 generally moved in organized convoys, guarded by Haganah members, often riding in open vans and makeshift armored vehicles, and British armored cars. There were also, as feared, Jewish retaliatory attacks on Arab urban neighborhoods, villages, and traffic.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In December, Arab militiamen assaulted and partly took Tel Aviv’s southern Hatikva Quarter before being driven back by Jewish militiamen. The following month, the ALA’s 2nd Yarmuk Battalion, supported by local militiamen, unsuccessfully attacked Kibbutz Yehiam in Western Galilee. In February 1948, the ALA attacked Kibbutz Tirat Zvi, in the Beit Shean Valley, but the Jewish defenses (and the vastly outnumbered Jewish defenders) and the mud proved too formidable. A British relief column arrived on the scene at the end of the battle and briefly engaged the Arabs. The ALA suffered 40 to 60 dead.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;47. As the war wore on, and partly in response to Jewish reprisals, the Arab militiamen also unleashed a wave of urban bombings. The focus was Jerusalem. On February 1, Arab bombers, aided by British deserters, struck the offices of the Palestine Post (today the Jerusalem Post), killing one person and injuring 20. On February 22, the bombers—most of them British deserters in this case—struck more effectively, blowing up three trucks in downtown Jerusalem’s Ben-Yehuda Street, levelling four buildings and killing 58 people. A third bomb, in an American consular car driven by an Armenian Arab, blew up in the courtyard of the Jewish Agency building, killing 12.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;For the first 10 days of hostilities, the Haganah limited itself to pure defense, hoping that the bout of violence would blow over after Arab tempers cooled, as had happened with previous anti-Zionist violence in 1920, 1921, and 1929. But on December 9, 1947, the Haganah General Staff decided to change to “active defense,” maintaining a general strategy of defense while occasionally retaliating against Arab targets.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;For the next three months, Haganah raiders responded to attacks on Jewish targets with similar, if less frequent, attacks on Arab traffic and villages. Usually, the orders were to avoid harming women and children, though there is no evidence that such instructions were ever issued to Palestinian Arab assailants. Inevitably, noncombatants died in the Haganah reprisals, which also tended to suck more and more Arabs into the circle of hostilities.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;From the start of the hostilities, the Irgun and the Stern Gang had deemed restraint a sign of weakness and ineffectiveness, and they now responded to Arab attacks with terrorism of their own; sometimes their targets were Arab militiamen and headquarters, more often the attacks were indiscriminate.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;48. In Jerusalem, Irgun men repeatedly threw grenades and bombs at milling groups of Arabs outside the Old City’s Damascus Gate; in Jaffa, in January 1948, LHI men, in a bold attack, levelled with explosives the old Saraya building, which housed a militia headquarters. In Jerusalem, also in January, the Haganah—in an uncharacteristic attack—blew up the Semiramis Hotel in the Katamon district, believing it to be a militia headquarters, though it probably wasn’t, and the Spanish vice consul was among the two dozen dead. Nonetheless, the Haganah for weeks refrained from attacking in areas not yet caught up in the fighting in the hope that the conflagration would die down.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As in all civil wars, the hostilities resulted in and were often characterized by local revenge cycles. One such cycle occurred in Haifa. On December 30, 1947, an Irgun team threw a grenade into a crowd of Arab workers at a bus stop outside the Haifa Oil Refinery gate. Eleven were killed. This triggered a rampage by the Arab workers inside the refinery compound against their Jewish coworkers, and 39 were slaughtered with knives, crowbars, and hammers. On the night of December 31, the Haganah avenged the massacre by raiding the nearby village of Balad ash Sheikh, in which many refinery workers lived. Dozens of villagers died, some dragged from their homes and executed.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A Haganah intelligence report from mid-May 1948 evaluated the Haganah, Irgun, and Stern Gang reprisals of December 1947 through March 1948 on the Palestine Arab community: “The main effect of these operations was on the Arab civilian population…[leading to] economic paralysis, unemployment, lack of of fuel and supplies because of the severance of transport. They suffered from the destruction of their houses and psychologically their nerves were badly hit, and they even suffered evacuations and wanderings….[All this] weakened the Arab areas and made the operations of the militiamen more difficult.” The hardier Yishuv, under similar hardships, stood fast.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;That report proved to be putting a gloss over a touch-and-go situation. It’s true that from early December 1947 on, Arabs began evacuating areas near Jewish population concentrations and in seam neighborhoods in the mixed towns. By late March 1948, much of the middle- and upper-class population had left, moving either into the Arab-populated interior of Palestine (Tulkarm, Nablus, Ramallah) or out of the country, to hotels and second homes in Beirut, Cairo, and Damascus. Most were fearful of being caught up in the fighting.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;49. The Arab Higher Committee was generally opposed to evacuations but was often ambiguous in its instructions to local authorities, except with regard to young males, who were reproached for leaving. Local authorities, such as the national committee in Haifa, often advised or even ordered the population to stay put, but to little avail. In the areas earmarked for Jewish sovereignty in the partition resolution, local Arab leaders or military commanders often ordered or advised rural communities to send away their women and children if they were already engulfed in the hostilities or about to be.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In the Coastal Plain, complete evacuation was ordered in a handful of villages, so they would not appear to be accepting Jewish rule. In the period from November 1947 through March 1948, only one Arab village, Qisariya (Caesarea), south of Haifa, was forcibly evacuated by the Haganah.Down to the end of March 1948, the Haganah—and the Jewish Agency—abided by the Zionist mainstream’s policy of acquiescing in the emergence of a Jewish state with a large Arab minority.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As Yisrael Galili, Ben-Gurion’s deputy as political head of the Haganah, put it in an order on March 24 to all the brigades, the organization was to respect “the rights, needs and freedom…without discrimination” of the Arab communities in the Jewish areas. (Exceptions were to be made only in the event of clear military necessity.)Evacuations aside, by late March, the situation along the roads had steadily deteriorated, and the Haganah General Staff began to fear a Jewish collapse, at least in Jewish West Jerusalem (which, with 100,000 people, contained a sixth of the country’s Jewish population).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt; “The Arabs intend to paralyze all Jewish traffic on the roads within the next few days.” Gradually during the first months of 1948 the Arab militias concentrated their attention on the convoys; by March their firepower and methods of operation had proved highly successful. For the Haganah, the last weeks of March were disastrous, as they lost much of their armored car fleet and dozens of troops.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;50.  First came the convoy ambushes, all in the Jerusalem area, at Har-Tuv on March 18, Atarot on March 24, and Saris on March 24, in which a total of 26 died and 18 vehicles were destroyed. Then came two great disasters. On March 27, thousands of local militiamen swooped down on a 50-vehicle convoy heading back to West Jerusalem from the isolated Etzion Bloc—a cluster of four kibbutzim between Hebron and Bethlehem—and halted it, pouring fire on the 186 Haganah. By the following morning, the Jews’ situation was desperate.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The overflights of Haganah spotter planes, dropping the occasional grenade on the militiamen, did little good. At last a British armored column got through and negotiated a ceasefire. The Haganah men were forced to abandon all their vehicles and hand over their arms. The Haganah lost 15 dead and 73 wounded, and 10 armored cars, 4 buses, and 25 armored trucks.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;An even worse fate befell a smaller Haganah convoy in Western Galilee, heading for Kibbutz Yehiam, on March 27. The convoy was lost to Arab Liberation Army and local ambushers, with 47 Haganah men killed; many of the bodies recovered by the British afterwards had been mutilated. A third convoy, on its way from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, was badly mauled at Hulda on March 31.But the Etzion Bloc was the exception.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It comprised a continuous strip—actually three linked strips—of territory (the Jordan Valley, the Jezreel Valley, and the northern and central Coastal Plain), with two adjacent, if semi-besieged, enclaves to the east (Jewish Jerusalem) and south (the Negev settlements zone)—from which it was to face, and eventually contain and repel, the invading armies of Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, and Syria.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;51. The Yishuv suffered 1,700 to 1,800 dead in the course of the civil war (and another 4,000 dead during the conventional war of the Arab invasion). The community incurred severe infrastructure and economic damage. But, apart from the Etzion Bloc, it had lost no settlements, and financial aid began to pour in from world Jewry.Arab society in Palestine had been shattered. The Palestinian Arabs had failed to establish a state or even to secure for themselves any part of Palestine.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Their losses, in casualties, were probably two or three times as large as the Jewish totals—and their economic losses were much larger. The refugees ultimately landed in the Arab states or the areas these states were about to occupy in Palestine—the West Bank near Jordan and the Gaza Strip near Egypt—and were to be a burden on these states. The refugee problem, which was to grow threefold during the following months, was to destabilize the Middle East during the following decades, and Palestine remains a problem on the international agenda.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The defeat of the Palestinian Arabs, without doubt, forced the Arab states’ hand and pushed their leaders into fulfilling their promises to invade Palestine—and attack Israel—on May 15. The most moderate of the Arab leaders, King Abdullah of Jordan (who in 1947 had secretly agreed with the Jewish Agency to share Palestine between them) on May 10—the eve of the invasion—explained to Golda Myerson (Meir), the Jewish Agency representative, that he was now one of a five-member coalition and could not act independently. “After Deir Yassin, Tiberias and Haifa,” much to his reluctance, he would have to participate in the invasion and the war. And so he did.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The British High Commissioner in Palestine, Gen. Alan Cunningham, understood the significance of what had occurred. “It is becoming increasingly apparent that the Yishuv and its leaders are deeply worried about the future. The intensification of Arab attacks on communications…has brought home the precarious position of Jewish communities, both great and small, which are dependent on supply lines running through Arab-controlled country,” he reported to London on April 3. “In particular it is now realized that the position of Jewish Jerusalem, where a food scarcity already exists, is likely to be desperate after 16th May.…The balance of the fighting seems to have turned much in favour of the Arabs.”&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;                                                   &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;                                  NASA&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;52. The Society of American Archivists (SAA) held its annual meeting on 26–30 August in San Francisco with more than 1,700 attendees. It was SAA’s largest-ever West Coast gathering. The conference theme—to explore our professional identities in three strategic priority areas as identified by SAA (technology, diversity, and public awareness)—was especially meaningful.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Participants attended sessions and section meetings, heard Mark Greene’s presidential address on defining the profession’s core values, talked with dozens of exhibitors in the Expo Hall, and visited with colleagues at a reception held at the San Francisco Public Library.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Early in the week, more than a dozen local repositories opened their doors to visitors, and a small, enthusiastic group of archivists attended a San Francisco Giants baseball game. John Dean, former White House counsel, 1970–73, and a prolific author, served as keynote speaker.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;He had interesting observations about archives and archivists, as well as history and politics. Dean opened the session up for questions about halfway through his appointed time and seemed to enjoy the give and take with the audience.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;53. Representing NASA at this year’s annual meeting were Jane Odom and Colin Fries from Headquarters; April Gage and Leilani Marshall from Ames Research National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) ramps down activities relating to the 50th anniversary of the Agency.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt; plans are gearing up to recognize a series of 40th anniversaries relating to Apollo. It was in October 1968 that Apollo 7, the first piloted launch in the series, went into Earth orbit to test Apollo hardware. By December, the famous Apollo 8 had circumnavigated the Moon, entering orbit on Christmas Eve; during the mission, its astronauts gave the famous reading from Genesis and took the iconic “Earthrise” photograph that had an impact around the world. The first lunar landing took place on 20 July 1969, with five more to follow, ending in December 1972.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As time passes, those events seem all the more remarkable in human history. During those five action-packed years, 24 men went to the Moon, 3 of them (Jim Lovell, Eugene Cernan, and John Young) twice. Twelve of them orbited silently above the bleak lunar landscape, and three oth&amp;shy;ers were whipped around the Moon in a “free-return trajectory” in a desperate attempt to return to Earth after an explosion aboard the Apollo 13 spacecraft.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt; Twelve of the 24 lunar voy&amp;shy;agers actually landed on the Moon, spending in total some 300 hours on the lunar surface, of which 80 hours were outside the Lunar Module, either with “boots on the ground” or with the astronauts actually driving around the space&amp;shy;craft environs. These events seem incredible to us even now, as NASA makes plans to return humans to the Moon almost a half century latCenter; Barbara Amago from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory; and Shelly Kelly from the University of Houston–Clear Lake, where the JSC Space History Collection is housed.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;54. Jane attended a session on archival meaning and values; a presentation of case studies by individuals from several academic institutions on archiving digital manuscripts; a session on legal and ethical perspectives of returning displaced archives; and section meetings on government records and on reference, access, and outreach. A session she found especially meaningful dealt with confronting the challenges of digital preservation.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In this session, representatives from three federal agencies (the National Archives and Records Administration [NARA], the Library of Congress [LOC], and the Government Printing Office [GPO]) discussed their experiences in this area. They described what is in electronic form and what is still hard copy, as well as new initiatives to handle digital information, including dissemination.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The NARA speaker discussed the work of the Electronic Records Archives within the National Archives, while the LOC panelist commented that he felt that copyright law had not kept pace with digital technology. And, comforting to those of us who prefer hard-copy sources, the GPO representative opined that hard-copy printing will never go away but lamented that dealing with digital information has now been added to GPO’s workload.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Jane and April took the opportunity midweek to visit the Charles Schulz Museum and Research Center in Santa Rosa (http://www. schulzmuseum.org). They spent several hours visiting with archivist Lisa Monhoff and Museum Director Karen Johnson, touring the archives and museum, and even going behind the scenes. Lisa had pulled a number of items, several with NASA themes, from the archives collections to show our group.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;55. Colin reports that one of the more intriguing sessions he attended described an Archival Web Capture Project. Dean Weber, archivist for the Ford Motor Company, described how his repository, along with the Ford Historical Resources Collaborative, has cooperated with the San Diego Supercomputing Center at the University of California San Diego to crawl and capture the Ford.com Web site on a quarterly basis, preserve the data, and provide access through http://www. thehenryford.org.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt; The goal is to collect a long-term historical series of Web snapshots to document the Internet as one of the important methods car buyers use to make their choices. There are limitations with current Web crawler technology since it cannot capture dynamic graphics or Flash multimedia.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The project is eliminating duplicate links and will eventually provide the user with a prompt when he or she clicks on an outside link and leaves the site. The group entered the project thinking of it as a purely technological challenge, but one of the lessons learned was that it turned out to be about managing people and relationships.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Despite the technological focus, it also involved using the traditional archival techniques of appraisal, accessioning, description, arrangement, preservation, and access. Ames Research Center Archivist April Gage (left) and NASA Chief Archivist Jane Odom outside the Charles Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa, California.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;56. April writes that among the business discussed at the Government Records Section meeting was the announcement of an improved National Association of Government Archives and Records Administrators Web site (http://www.NAGARAresources.org) through which archivists and records managers can share a wide variety of resources, as well as a new records certification program for administrators and archivists of local government archives.&lt;br /&gt;Attendees were encouraged to ask their congressional representatives to sponsor H.R. 6056, entitled “Preserving the American Historical Record,” which would authorize the Archivist of the United States to provide grants to states for preserving and disseminating historical recordsA representative from the Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO) within the National .&lt;br /&gt;Archives discussed the activities of that office, including its ongoing review of federal agencies and recent recommendations to prioritize records of historical significance and establish a declassification center  There was also an announcement of a new Council of State Archivists project—the Intergovernmental Preparedness for Essential Records—to provide state and local governments with records-related emergency training materials&lt;br /&gt; the Hub Records Management Advisor to the Museum of London, delivered the feature presentation, in which she discussed her role helping museums comply with two new legislative acts in the United Kingdom (U.K.) involving the freedom of information and data protection.&lt;br /&gt;57.  Also of interest in this talk was Demb’s discussion of a Web site designed to disseminate information to museums in the U.K. about best practices in collections management (see Commentary on Sarah’s paper was provided by Courtney Yevich from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Leilani recounts that in almost all of the sessions she attended that dealt with description, the phrase “Web 2.0” kept popping up. Archivists were talking about this concept particularly in relation to online finding aids and digital photograph collections.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;“Web 2.0” refers to Web site design and construction that applies different concepts of information-sharing techniques, such as bookmarking, tagging, commenting, blogging, podcasting, Really Simple Syndication (RSS), and editable sites like Wikipedia. Archivists leading the sessions asserted that using Web 2.0 concepts with online finding aids and digital collections is the next step in online description.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;They argued that as researchers and Internet users become more sophisticated in their interaction with information in the online environment, they expect repositories to be on the leading edge of this technological progression. One of the ways to meet the changing needs of users is through the application of Web 2.0 concepts.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;58.  Several repositories are already applying these concepts, such as allowing users to comment on photographs, provide information in a designated field, and apply descriptive “tags” to them. The most prominent use of this model is the Library of Congress’s photograph pilot project on Flickr, an online photo management and sharing application.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Other uses of Web 2.0 applications allow users to leave reviews of finding aids and Web sites, to refer other users of a guide to similar or related sources, to allow users to create their own personalized “libraries” of digital images and guides to meet their own research needs, and to allow users to comment on information contained in finding aids and other parts of a repository’s Web site.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Society of American Archivists Convenes in San Francisco (continued)&lt;br /&gt;take apart collections and present them in other ways. Whether or not to use these concepts, and in what manner, are decisions that each repository will need to make on its own, but there is no doubt that the changing needs of researchers are definitely causing archivists to reevaluate the current way their collections are being used and accessed, particularly in the online environment.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Mark your calendar now—next year’s annual meeting of the Society of American Archivists will be held 11–16 August 2009 in Austin, Texas. Y’all come!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;From the Chief Historian (continued)&lt;br /&gt;WhenNeilArmstrongandBuzzAldrinlandedontheSeaofTranquilityon20July1969, they stayed a little less than a day, and they traveled less than half a mile on foot. During the last Apollo mission, Apollo 17, members of the crew landed on the Taurus-Littrow highlands on 11 December 1972 and stayed for three days, during which Harrison Schmitt and Eugene Cernan traveled some 19 miles in the lunar roving vehicle. Though human footprints are well preserved at the six landing sites and rover tracks surround three of them, not a step has been taken on the lunar surface since that time.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;59.  Although the importance of the Apollo missions is still debated, the difficulty and the expense are widely recognized. At the peak of the Apollo era, during one of the most tumultuous decades in American history, NASA expenditures constituted almost 4 percent of the federal budget. Since that time, NASA’s budget has remained relatively steady at less than 1 percent.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Eight years after President Kennedy’s challenge, the goal was met, but only after gargantuan efforts and funding resources unlikely ever to be seen again in the space program over such a short timespan. Among those efforts was the construction of the Saturn V launchvehicle,ledbythelegendaryWernhervonBraunatMarshallSpaceFlightCenter, with Boeing, North American Aviation, and Douglas Aircraft Company as prime contractors for each of the Saturn stages.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Apollo spacecraft themselves—the “chariots for Apollo” known more technically as the Command and Service Modules—were also the responsibility of North American Aviation. Hundreds of subcontractors, thousands of engineers, tens of thousands of workers, and many unsung heroes played their roles in sending Americans to the Moon. The Saturn V was composed of 3 million parts, the CommandandServiceModules2million,andtheLunarModule1million.AsApollo11 astronaut Michael Collins put it, “All 6 million worked, nearly all the time.”&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Apollo program has been criticized for being driven by politics, dominated by engineers, and deaf to science; after all, the only scientist who traveled to the Moon was Harrison Schmitt on Apollo 17, the last voyage. What, in the end, did Apollo achieve? Aside from its geopolitical goals, and despite the clear backseat status of science, a considerable amount of science was in fact returned from the Moon. As Donald Beattie has described in his book Taking Science to the Moon, almost 5,000 poundsofexperimentalequipmentwaslandedontheMoon,includingtheApolloLunar Surface Experiments Package (ALSEP) on each of the last five Apollo missions.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;60.eight  hundredfortypoundsoflunarmaterialwasreturnedandanalyzed.Astronautstraversed 65 miles either on foot or in the lunar rover in support of field geology and geophysical studies&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;  &lt;br /&gt;CommandandServiceModules.Theoverallresultisamuchbetterunderstandingofthe nature and origin of the Moon and its relation to Earth. The top 10 scientific discoveries from the Apollo missions, as ranked by the office of the curator for planetary materials at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, are found at http://www.lpi.usra.edu/expmoon/science/ lunar10.html.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;No one would have guessed in 1972 that almost a half century would pass before even the possibility that humans would return to the Moon was seriously broached. Though the Russians would manage several more robotic lunar missions, including a lunar sample return in 1976.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;it would be more than 20 years before Americans returned to the Moon with even a robotic emissary, the Clementine spacecraft, in 1995.&lt;br /&gt;Lunar Prospector followed in 1998, and the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is on schedule to launch in March 2009, intended as a precursor to human missions now being planned by 2020.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;61. How will history judge the voyages of Apollo? Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., a special assistant to President Kennedy, ventured one opinion when he wrote in 2004: “It has been almost a third of a century since human beings took a step on the Moon—rather as if no intrepid mariner had bothered after 1492 to follow up on Christopher Columbus. Yet 500 years from now (if humans have not blown up the planet),&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;the 20th century will be remembered, if at all, as the century in which man began the exploration of space.” Although a historian of politics and world affairs, Schlesinger did not rank war in the century’s top 10 events. Wars come and go and affect many people, but the first venture into space happens only once and holds infinite promise— and peril.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;On the other hand, there are some, historians among them, who think the Apollo program was time and money misspent and that analogies to Columbus are misplaced. In reviewing Andrew Chaikin’s book A Man on the Moon in the New York Times Review of Books,historianoftechnologyAlexRolandcalledChaikin’sretellingoftheApollostory “the great American legend of the late 20th century,” replete with heroic astronauts and epic tales.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Eschewing Apollo’s role in exploration and pointing to the lack of science on the missions, he downplayed the significance of the voyages of Apollo.&lt;br /&gt;Critics are entitled to their opinions, but in my view, the Apollo voyages were indeed an accomplishment of mythic proportions, justifying mythic retellings.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;62. History may well side with Mr. Schlesinger, but what happens over the next few decades will determine whether the expeditions of Apollo are more akin to the Vikings’ brief forays to North America under Leif Eriksson or to the more sustained effort heralded by Columbus (in this case, without the exploitation of natives).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In the long view of history, the success or failure of NASA’s current attempt to return humans to the Moon, proceed to Mars, and spread throughout the solar system will also be judged accordingly. We are now in a test to see whether humans can be motivated by a journey of exploration rather than a race, by international cooperation rather than competition. History will be watching.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;News from Headquarters and the Centers Headquarters&lt;br /&gt;Jane Odom continues to evaluate and acquire new material for the Historical Reference Collection (HRC). One notable collection she acquired recently was a large amount of Participant in Space (teacher, journalist, educator) material, 1977–2003, from the Office of Education.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Jane appraises material for historical value and directs the subsequent processing of collections, answers reference requests, and facilitates the entry of our international visitors into the building. She is pleased to report that after several months of work, all of the Administrators’ and Deputy Administrators’ speeches have been published on the Headquarters Historical Reference Collection Web site. These speeches and other useful historical documents may be found at https://mira.hq.nasa.gov/history/ online.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;63. Collectively, Colin Fries, John Hargenrader, and Liz Suckow all share reference duties, answering inquiries received by e-mail, assisting walk-in researchers, and helping Jane with Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. They also recently assisted Jane in reviewing more than a dozen speeches in the Administrators series before they were published to the new HRC Web site described above.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Liz has completed a preservation project on the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo astronaut biographical files. She appraised a collection of Spaceflight Advanced Projects reading files from the 1990s, adding the items she retained to the HRC, and processed a collection of source materials on NASA’s Spaceflight Tracking and Data Network from the author of a new history book on that subject.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Liz began appraising two collections recalled from the Federal Records Center: one containing a small amount of George Low correspondence on the Mercury Program and the other a large collection of Apollo Program and Office of Policy files. She is making copies of historically significant items from these collections and adding them to the HRC.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Also, Liz began entering descriptive information about our oral history collection into the database, scanned and uploaded to the database the George Mueller speech collection, and scanned and uploaded the Fred Gregory chronological correspondence files, 2002–05. Finally, she is doing historical background research for an Apollo 40th-anniversary working group.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;64. Colin finished scanning 9 cubic feet of Office of External Relations chronological correspondence files, 2000–03, and checked the portable document format (PDF) files into the database. Currently, he is scanning a collection of life sciences chronological files, 1993–2003. He completed processing the collection of engineer John Sloop and assisted in proofreading various publications and 50th-anniversary materials.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Additionally, Colin is reprocessing the Headquarters organization files and continues to maintain the History Division Web pages, where he is currently focusing on updating the Forecast of Upcoming Anniversaries pages.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;John is continuing to scan the Office of Safety and Mission Assurance chronological correspondence files, 1986–2001. He is happy to report that the recent purchase of new scanners has helped to speed up the process significantly. John continues his preservation work, removing and reformatting deteriorating newspaper clippings&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;NASA HISTORY DIVISION&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;News from Headquarters and the Centers (continued)&lt;br /&gt;various collections as he finds them. He is nearing completion of a project to add a collection of over 100 Plum Brook Reactor Facility images for the Great Images in NASA (GRIN) photo database online at Look for these new images to appear soon on GRIN.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;65. Ames Research Center (ARC)&lt;br /&gt;April Gage and Leilani Marshall earned an Ames safety award (ASAP II) recognizing their outstanding efforts in developing the NASA Ames History Office Disaster Preparedness Plan. Center Director Pete Worden hosted a Directors’ Round Table on 16 September. Four of his predecessors—Hans Mark, Sy Syvertson, Dale Compton, and Scott Hubbard—returned to offer their insights on what makes Ames successful.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Ames has begun planning a series of special events to mark its upcoming 70th anniversary on 20 December 2009. These will have an “evolution” theme aligned with local history-of-science events to mark the 150th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s publication On the Origin of Species.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Jack Boyd and Glenn Bugos presented a paper entitled “Why Space Research and Space Exploration?: NASA Ames Research Center Contributions to NASA’s 50 Years” to the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Space 2008 meeting in San Diego. Jack also made a major presentation to the National Hispanic University.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;April Gage completed in-house scanning and preservation measures to 102 reports and engineering design documents in the Pioneer Project Records, 1952–96 collection (AFS8100.15A). In addition, she continues to acquire historical records and artifacts from around the Center..&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;66. April, along with Jane Odom, also got an extensive advanced viewing of the upcoming space-themed exhibit, entitled “To The Moon: Snoopy Soars with NASA,” at the Charles Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa, California.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The NASA Ames History Office welcomed two new interns. James D. Anderson will be doing special writing projects on the later history of NASA Ames. He recently completed two bachelor’s degrees, one in astrophysics and one in the history of science, both from the University of California at Berkeley.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Shoshana Shwartz is an undergraduate in the public history program at San Jose State University and will be helping to process archival collections. And we were delighted to host Ray Macauley, a historian at the University of Manchester, who is undertaking a detailed study of the Pioneer plaque for a project on representation strategies in interstellar communication.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;We bid adieu to intern Allison Tara Sundaram, who is now at the University of Leeds pursuing a master’s degree in museum studies. In addition to being of great help in the archives, Allison surveyed, inventoried, and performed extensive preservation measures on nearly 10 cubic feet of materials in the Pioneer Project Records.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;67. 1952–96. Furthermore, Allison preserved and described 2.5 cubic feet of artifacts and records, including exhibits on tektites and memorial condolences compiled following the Columbia accident.&lt;br /&gt;The NASA Ames Historic Preservation Office won a 2008 Preservation Design .&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Award from the California Preservation Foundation for its report entitled “Evaluation of Historic Resources Associated with the Space Shuttle Program at Ames Research Center.” In October 2008, a new dirigible returned to Moffett Field with Airship Ventures, Inc.—though stationed in Hangar 2 rather than Hangar 1. It darkened our skies 75 years to the month after the USS Macon first arrived at Moffett Field.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Glenn Research Center (GRC)&lt;br /&gt;Kevin Coleman, GRC History Officer, has retired after 38 years of federal service. Kevin started the Glenn history program in the mid-1990s. Since that time, it has grown tremendously and has been one of the most active and prolific history programs in the Agency. In 2005, Kevin was awarded the first NASA History Award for his achievements.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Under Kevin’s direction, six books and two documentaries were produced on the history of various Glenn programs and facilities. He also spearheaded the effort to host the “Realizing the Dream of Flight” symposium in celebration of the centennial of flight. Best wishes, Kevin! Anne Power will be assuming the role of GRC History Officer.&lt;br /&gt;Of Ashes and Atoms.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;68.   NASA’s first feature-length history documentary, tells the history of the NASA Plum Brook Reactor Facility. After it aired on WGTE, Toledo’s public television station, last December, Of Ashes and Atoms received a nomination in the historical documentary category for the Lower Great Lakes Regional Emmy awards. Awards were held 13 September. Unfortunately, Glenn did not walk away a winner, but as they say in the business, it’s an honor to be nominated!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Altitude Wind Tunnel interactive CD-ROM is now available. The disk includes an overall chronicle of the historic facility’s involvement with propulsion research, Project Mercury, and the Centaur program; an interactive timeline and facility map; photos and film footage; and technical reports. Copies of the CD-ROM are available by contacting the NASA Headquarters History Division or the Glenn Research Center history office. A monograph on the topic of the Altitude Wind Tunnel should be available in 2009.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)&lt;br /&gt;After the Explorer anniversary celebrations in January, Erik Conway continued work on his Mars exploration book. Erik has written up through the crash of the Mars Polar Lander in 1999. Erik has carried out 16 oral histories with participants this spring and summer in support of the project’s next phase: the completion of the Mars 2001 Odyssey mission and the decision to embark on the Mars Exploration Rover mission. Erik plans to complete the manuscript (though the Mars Exploration Rover mission) next year.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;News from Headquarters and the Centers (continued)&lt;br /&gt;Erik has also been contributing to the new JPL climate science Web site, which is online at http://climate.jpl.nasa.gov. Erik has written an essay on JPL and NASA’s role in climate science that is “live” and has essays on terminology and on temperature measurement controversies in the pipeline. Additionally, Erik has an essay on historical carbon dioxide measurement forthcoming on a related Web site for the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder on the Aqua satellite. This effort should taper off as the climate site gets its new science writer up to speed.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;69. Erik is working on three articles for scholarly publication. Erik has completed the second draft of last year’s International Geophysical Year paper, “The International Geophysical Year and Planetary Science,” and submitted it to the second round of review. Erik is contributing a paper to the NASA 50th-anniversary conference at the end of October on the intersection of Earth and planetary science, and he is also working on a paper for a volume on planetary exploration that was funded via the Science Mission Directorate’s recent call for historical proposals.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Erik’s atmospheric science history is due out from Johns Hopkins University Press in November. It can be ordered from the fall 2008 catalog, from the usual online bookstores, or from Many thanks to Steve Sanford, Donna Lawson, and Mike Finneran at Langley Research Center for their patience during this long, drawn-out publication process.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Johnson Space Center (JSC)&lt;br /&gt;The arrival of Hurricane Ike in the Houston area the weekend of 12–13 September 2008 affected the Center and its surrounding vicinities. Fortunately, the History Office and the history collection and archives were not damaged. As the area recovers, work has resumed, and on 1 October, as planned, the Center’s employees enjoyed a picnic on the grounds of JSC to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Agency.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The JSC History Office produced the fall issue of the Houston History magazine for the University of Houston Center for Public History in recognition of the Agency’s 50th anniversary. JSC History Coordinator Rebecca Wright served as the guest editor, and contributing the articles were Mike Coats, JSC Center Director;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;70. Sandra Johnson and Dr. Jennifer Ross-Nazzal, from the JSC History Office; student researcher Jessica Cannon; and Shelly Henley Kelly, archivist from the University of Houston–Clear Lake and for the JSC History Collection. Articles focus on the years 1958 to 1978 and on JSC. Included is an edited transcript from an interview conducted.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Flight controllers in the Mission Operations Control Room celebrate the successful conclusion of the Apollo 11 lunar landing mission. The photo, taken on 24 July 1969 in the Mission Control Center at the Manned Spacecraft Center, Houston, Texas, serves as the cover for the current Houston History magazine honoring NASA’s 50th anniversary.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;pioneer flight director Chris Kraft discussing the historical importance of Apollo 8. Also featured are imagery from the JSC repository, thoughts from those working in Mission Control for the Apollo 11 lunar landing, details about the first flag on the Moon, the connection between JSC and area universities, and an article about the 35 new individuals who in 1978 helped to change the face of human spaceflight.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Also, this past summer marked the 11th consecutive year the JSC history team has enjoyed working with student interns. These graduate students spent 10 weeks researching and writing biographical profiles on people who will be interviewed in the future as part of the ongoing JSC Oral History Project.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;71. Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC)&lt;br /&gt;The History Office at Marshall Space Flight Center is utilizing new forms of low-cost digital technology to improve the speed and quality of services that the History Office offers its patrons.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;More than five years ago, the office began converting paper typescript documents into portable document format (PDF). Now, the office can search through almost 50 years of the Marshall Star newspaper in a matter of minutes instead of randomly flipping through bound volumes.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;More recently, the Marshall historian has also created a trial process for scanning documents off-site using a laptop computer and a portable scanner like the one he took to the National Archives Southeastern Regional Office in Morrow, Georgia.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There, he scanned 2,000 pages of the Marshall Space Flight Center weekly notes that Dr. Wernher von Braun collected as Director from 1960 until 1970. “Scanning is not a new thing,” said Marshall historian Mike Wright. However, there are lessons to learn about using it in places like the National Archives.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;72. One involves selecting the right scanner. The scanner must have a flat glass bed without an automatic document feeder that might jam and physically damage the documents. This means that the person doing the scanning must lay each sheet on the scanner bed individually. Using a scanner with a push-button panel to approve each scan saves more time than manipulating a mouse.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The results from Georgia demonstrated the capability to scan 125 sheets in 36 minutes. The History Office has also acquired a relatively new low-cost tool especially designed to scan bound publications without breaking the bindings. This new device is called a book scanner and looks very much like a regular flatbed scanner except that the outer edge of the scanner glass is almost flush with the outside edge of the scanner unit.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This design makes it easy to get clean scans of full-book pages instead of using a standard paper copier that sometimes cuts off the inside left page and the inside right page. The scanner costs under $400. One test-run resulted in scanning more than 100 book pages in color or in black and white in less than an hour.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The History Office is also using an inexpensive new tool to convert 35-millimeter digital slides into full-size computer images. Tabletop slide scanners have been around for a few years, but they involve scanning slides or film negatives at an extremely high resolution, which drains the computer’s memory and delays the transfer. One solution involves using a small digital scanner.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;73.   Entire unit is about the size of a soap dispenser in a public restroom. The scanner allows the user to insert a tray of about six slides that appear relatively fast on the computer screen in preview mode. The operator simply hits a button on the scanner and quickly sees the results.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;   &lt;br /&gt;One cautionary note is that the quality of the images from the   scanner will not match the quality expected from high-end equipment. However, the speed at which the slides can be transferred to digital format makes it practical to use the collected images as an index for selecting particular slides that can be transferred using more expensive processes involving high-end equipment.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In a matter of a few days, Roena Love and Janie Crawford, from    the Marshall History Office, scanned more than 400 35-millimeter slides into digital images.Stennis Space Center (SSC) In October 2007, Stennis Space Center launched a yearlong celebration of NASA’s 50th anniversary with events and exhibits&lt;br /&gt;showcasing the past five decades of space exploration.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;StenniSphere, the visitor center at Stennis Space Center, introduced a 50th-anniversary exhibit that traveled across Mississippi and southern Louisiana. The highlight of the exhibit was a Moon rock brought to Earth by astronauts on the Apollo 15 mission in August 1971.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;74. The exhibit also featured models depicting launch vehicles from each era in the evolution of NASA’s space program—the Goddard rocket, the Mercury Redstone, the Saturn V, and the Space Shuttle. Models of the Ares I and Ares V offered a preview of NASA’s upcoming Constellation Program.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A 40-foot timeline provided a look back at key events in NASA’s history, which included events such as the earliest days of rocketry, Neil Armstrong’s historic first steps on the Moon, and the initial construction of the International Space Station. The exhibit also featured life-sized cutouts depicting how technology created for NASA affects everyday life.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In January, representatives from Stennis traveled to Jackson, Mississippi, for NASA Stennis Space Center Day at the Capitol. During the event, lawmakers passed a resolution declaring 30 January 2008 NASA Space Day in Mississippi. The resolution commemorated NASA’s 50th anniversary and encouraged Mississippians to recognize the significant accomplishments that NASA’s Stennis Space Center has contributed to the state as well as the nation.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Stennis also hosted a ceremony to mark the Center’s designation as an American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Historic Aerospace Site. The 10 April event coincided with a sitewide employee picnic. Attendees received 50th-anniversary pins and mouse pads featuring a picture of Stennis employees forming the number 50.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;75. The History Office at Stennis has also taken part in the anniversary celebrations. Stennis released a series of articles to area newspapers detailing the history of the Center—from the selection of southern Mississippi as the site of a rocket engine testing complex through Stennis’s current role in the Space Shuttle Program. Also, Lagniappe, Stennis Space Center’s monthly newsletter, features recurring articles highlighting significant events in Stennis history.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A new “This Week in History” section has been added to Stennis’s online weekly publication, Orbiter. The piece includes a historic photograph with a caption.Altitude Wind Tunnel at NASA Glenn Research Center CD-ROM (SP-2008-4608). Bob Arrighi at NASA Glenn has put together a wealth of documents, still and moving images, and other information about this historic wind tunnel.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Members of the public may request a copy of this disk by sending a self-addressed, stamped envelope to the NASA History Division, Room CO72, NASA Headquarters, 300 E Street SW, Washington, DC 20546.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Other New Aerospace History Publications&lt;br /&gt;Compiled by Chris Gamble Forgotten Aviator Hubert Latham: A High-Flying Gentleman, by Barbara Walsh (U.K.: The History Press LT, September 2007). This book is the authentic biography of pioneer aviator Hubert Latham, who was Louis Blériot’s rival for the Daily Mail’s prize for the first airplane flight across the English Channel in July 1909.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;76. The Space Environment and Its Effects on Space Systems, by Vincent L. Pisacane (American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, May 2008). This full-color textbook will help students and professionals understand the space environment and its influence on spacecraft design, engineering, and performance.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Managing Space Radiation Risk in the New Era of Space Exploration, by the National Research Council (National Academies Press, May 2008). As part of the Vision for Space Exploration (VSE), NASA is planning for humans to revisit the Moon and someday go to Mars. An important consideration in this effort is protection against exposure to space radiation.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt; This book presents an assessment of current knowledge about radiation in the space environment, an examination of the effects of radiation on biological systems and mission equipment, an analysis of current plans for radiation protection, and a strategy for mitigating the risks to current and future astronauts.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Smithsonian Atlas of World Aviation, by Dana Bell (Collins, June 2008). Featuring 100 newly commissioned and historic maps as well as 200 related photographs, navigation charts, and historic artifacts, the Smithsonian Atlas of World Aviation charts the awe-inspiring history of flight around the world. Dana Bell, a leading expert on aviation history, explains the fascinating stories behind aviation’s great technological advances and provides historic and social context that highlights the many ways in which these advances have changed the course of human history.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;77. Blast Off: An Innocent’s Adventures at the Dawn of the Space Age, by Ken McCracken (Tuttle Publishing, July 2008). With the escalation of the Soviet-American “space race,” Ken McCracken, pioneer researcher into cosmic radiation, soon found financial support to send his cosmic-radiation detectors aloft aboard NASA satellites. His discoveries are credited with having saved astronauts’ lives, particularly on the lunar landing missions.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Other New Aerospace History&lt;br /&gt;buzz of working at the heart of the space program with the best and brightest minds of the era. He brings the reader an often lighthearted glimpse at the inner workings of NASA and reveals some little-known glitches.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Solar Sails: A Novel Approach to Interplanetary Travel, by Giovanni Vulpetti, Les Johnson, and Gregory Matloff (Springer, July 2008). This book describes solar sails, how they work, and how they will be used in the exploration of space.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The book is written in an easily readable manner that does not necessitate any prior knowledge of physics or solar sailing. It discusses current plans for solar sails and also describes how advanced technology, such as nanotechnology, might enhance solar-sail performance.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;78. Space Shuttle Program: How NASA Lost Its Way, by R. Michael Gordon (McFarland, July 2008). This critical study of NASA’s Space Shuttle program provides an in-depth examination of the events, decisions, and policies that may have contributed to the horrific destruction of the Shuttles Challenger and Columbia.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It first traces the early development of NASA’s Shuttle program, specifically examining the problems associated with the designs of Shuttles OV-099 (which was to become Challenger) and OV-102 (which was to become Columbia). (OV stands for “orbiter vehicle.”) A detailed look at the first successful flights made by Challenger and Columbia and the cancellation of top-secret Shuttle flight STS-51C (which would have launched under nearly identical weather conditions to those of the ill-fated Challenger mission STS51L) is provided.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;An in-depth assessment of the Shuttles’ disastrous final launches follows, including detailed accounts of the postflight search and rescue operations, the official investigations into each accident, and the impact of each disaster on the future of NASA’s human space program.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Story of Pratt &amp;amp; Whitney, by Mark Sullivan, Sullivan &amp;amp; Lashane Public Relations (American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, July 2008). Pratt &amp;amp; Whitney engines helped to win World War II by powering much of the U.S. fighter fleet as well as many British planes. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;79 . They have powered record-breaking aircraft such as the Boeing B-50, the F-100 Super Sabre, and the SR-71 spy plane. These dependable engines are also responsible for powering the first generation of commercial jet transports that brought the world to our front doors—the Boeing 707, the Douglas DC-8, the Boeing 727 and 737, and the Douglas DC-9. Today, Pratt &amp;amp; Whitney engines provide power for everything from land-based power stations, business jets, and helicopters to large commercial aircraft, fifth-generation fighters, and piloted and robotic space vehicles.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The International Space Station: Building for the Future, by John E. Catchpole (Springer-Praxis, July 2008). This book covers, in great detail, the newest construction and uses of the International Space Station (ISS) from 2002 to 2008, including the recent delivery and installation of the final piece of U.S. hardware, Node 2, and all European and Japanese hardware.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The book also explains the impact of the tragic loss of Columbia on the ISS and the American space program in general. Furthermore, it introduces the Ares 1 launch vehicle and the Orion spacecraft, designed to return humans to the Moon, and discusses them as they are involved in the ISS program.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Landscapes of Mars: A Visual Tour, by Gregory L. Vogt (Springer, September 2008). This is essentially a picture book with beautiful and exciting images All the major regions and topographical features are shown and supplemented with chapter introductions and extended captions.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;80. Space Enterprise: Living and Working Offworld in the 21st Century, by Philip Harris (Springer-Praxis, September 2008). Dr. Philip Harris provides the vision and rationale as to why humanity is leaving its cradle, Earth, to use space resources, as well as pursuing lunar industrialization and establishing offworld settlements.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A management/space psychologist, Dr. Harris presents a behavioral science perspective on space exploration and enterprise. He not only provides a critical review of what is happening in the global space community, but he also offers specific strategies for lunar economic development.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Harris analyzes the human factors in contemporary and future space developments, especially relative to the deployment of people in space. This user-friendly volume offers numerous photographs, diagrams, exhibits, and case studies.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Search for Life Continued: Planets Around Other Stars, by Barrie Jones (Springer-Praxis, July 2008). Barrie Jones addresses the question, Are we alone?—one of the most frequently asked questions by scientists and nonscientists alike.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;81. The author concentrates on planetary systems beyond our own but starts with life on Earth, which is the only life we know to exist and which provides guidance on how best to search for life elsewhere. Planets are the most likely abode of life, and so we start the quest with the search for planets beyond the solar system—exoplanets.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The methods of searching are outlined and the nature of hundreds of exoplanetary systems so far discovered described. In the near future, we expect to discover habitable Earth-like planets. But are they actually inhabited? How could we tell? All will be revealed.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Yearbook on Space Policy 2006/2007: New Impetus for Europe, edited by the European Space Policy Institute, Kai-Uwe Schrogl, Charlotte Mathieu, and Nicolas Peter (Springer, August 2008). The Yearbook on Space Policy aims to be the reference publication analyzing space policy developments.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Each year, it presents issues and trends in space policy and the space sector as a whole. Its scope is global, and its perspective is European. The Yearbook also links space policy with other policy areas. It highlights specific events and issues and provides useful insights, data, and information on space activities.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;82. Unmasking Europa: The Search for Life on Jupiter’s Ocean Moon, by Richard Greenberg (Springer-Praxis, August 2008). In Unmasking Europa, Richard Greenberg tells the story of how he and his team of researchers came to believe that the surface of Europa is in fact a crust so thin that it can barely hide an ocean of liquid water below.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The author describes, in clear but technically accurate terms—and with extensive illustrations (including more than 100 NASA mission images)—the remarkable history of research on Europa over the last four decades. The book also provides unique insights into how “big science” gets done today, and it is not always a pretty picture.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;From his perspective as a professor of planetary sciences at the University of Arizona and a quarter-century-long member of the Imaging Team for the Galileo space mission, Greenberg describes how personal agendas (including his own) and political maneuvering (in which he received an education by fire) determined a lot about the funding, staffing, and even the direction of research about Europa.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Neuroscience in Space, by Gilles Clément and Millard F. Reschke (Springer, August 2008). This book offers an overview of neuroscience research performed in space, from the observations made during the first piloted spaceflights to the detailed .&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt; 83. Other New Aerospace History Publications&lt;br /&gt;scientific investigations currently being carried out aboard the International Space Station. This book is for the general scientific reader. Each project and the reason why it was done is described and accompanied by illustrations, rationale and hypothesis, and a summary of results.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Also, reference lists guide readers to the published papers resulting from the various experiments. This book is a legacy of what we have learned on brain mechanisms and functions through research done in space, as well as a guide for what could be investigated in the future.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Surviving 1000 Centuries: Can We Do It? by Roger-Maurice Bonnet and Lodewyk Woltjer (Springer-Praxis, August 2008). The long-term future of our planet will be shaped by what is physically possible and what is not. This full-color book provides a quantitative view of our civilization over the next 100,000 years, in comparison to the 40,000–60,000 years it took for modern humans to emerge from Africa, on the basis of contemporary scientific and technological knowledge.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The evolution of Earth’s atmosphere and the origin of water are highlighted as the most important factors for the emergence and development of life. The authors consider both cosmic and natural hazards and point out that scientific information provided by satellites and communication systems on the ground could prevent many unnecessary casualties if used in forward planning and the installation of elementary precautions.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;84. Earth’s evolving climate is considered; the authors show how greenhouse gases have played an important role in the climate of the past, whereas human industrial and agricultural emissions will greatly impact the climate of our future.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Martian Surface: Composition, Mineralogy and Physical Properties, edited by Jim Bell (Cambridge University Press, July 2008). Phenomenal new observations from Earth-based telescopes and Mars-based orbiters, landers, and rovers have dramatically advanced our understanding of the past environments on Mars. This is an important new overview of the compositional and mineralogical properties of Mars; the last major study was published in 1992.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Historical Dictionary of Aviation From Earliest Times to the Present Day, by David Wragg (U.K.: The History Press, August 2008). International in scope, this dictionary has over 4,000 entries covering all aspects of aviation terminology, past and present. It defines terms specific to both military and civil aviation and includes proper names of civil and military aircraft, airlines, air forces, manufacturers, and periodicals.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Super Structures in Space From Satellites to Space Stations: A Guide to What’s Out There, by Michael H. Gorn (Merrell Publishers, September 2008). Since the launch of Sputnik I in 1957, hundreds of spacecraft—from satellites and probes to space stations—have ventured beyond Earth’s atmosphere to orbit the globe, fly to other planets, peer into the depths of the universe, or encounter comets and asteroids.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;85.  Many have become household names, their missions the focus of popular attention, while others undertake their equally important tasks in relative anonymity. Super Structures in Space is the first book to present pictorially the most important of these humanmade objects. Featuring a wealth of breathtaking illustrations, this remarkable volume reveals the exciting story behind each selected spacecraft: its origins and development, its designers and manufacturers, and its launch and objectives.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;NASA Art: 50 Years of Exploration, by James Dean and Bertram Ulrich (Abrams, October 2008). Artists, like astronauts, are constantly probing into the unknown. It is fitting that, shortly after the establishment of NASA in 1958.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Program was created on the principle that artists are uniquely equipped to interpret and document the experience of space exploration. NASA Art celebrates the 50th anniversary of NASA in October 2008 with an expanded selection of the best work created for the NASA Art Program, and it stands as a lasting record of the impact of space exploration on the artistic imagination.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Saturn V F-1 Engine Powering Apollo into History, by Anthony Young (Springer-Praxis, September 2008). The book focuses on the design, testing, and manufacture of the F-1 engine but also covers its incorporation into the first stage of the Saturn V and its in-flight record. It concludes with an examination of what might have been if the F-1 had not been discarded, together with the Saturn V, at the conclusion of the Apollo program.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;86.Images of America Consolidated Aircraft Corporation, by Katrina Pescador and Mark Aldrich, San Diego Air and Space Museum (Arcadia Publishing, September 2008). Founded by Reuben H. Fleet in 1923, Consolidated Aircraft Corporation (later Convair) became one of the most significant aircraft manufacturers in American history. For roughly 60 years, this prolific company was synonymous with San Diego.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In fact, whole sections of the city were designed to provide homes for the Convair workers and their families. These men and women were responsible for building some of the most significant aircraft in aviation history, including the PBY Catalina, B-24 Liberator, and F-102 Delta Dagger, as well as the reliable Atlas missile, which was vital in launching America into space.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Interplanetary A History of the British Interplanetary Society, edited by Bob Parkinson (London: British Interplanetary Society, September 2008). This volume combines a number of accounts, written from the perspectives of their various authors and influenced by their involvement with the British Interplanetary Society, into a single history of the Society.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Other histories could have been written from different perspectives, perhaps by commentators who have no intimate links with the Society at all. What distinguishes the accounts contained in this book is the proximity of their authors to the events in question.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;87.In this respect, the book bears unique witness to the Society, its evolution, and its achievements over 75 years.&lt;br /&gt;A Passion for Mars  Intrepid Explorers of the Red Planet, by Andrew Chaikin (Abrams, October 2008). The quest for Mars is chronicled by bestselling author Andrew Chaikin in this story of a passionate band of Earthbound explorers caught in the irresistible pull of the Red Planet.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Based on extensive interviews, illustrated with compelling images, and animated by the author’s own passion, Chaikin’s account will resonate with anyone who has ever dreamed of a journey to Mars.&lt;br /&gt;The Extraterrestrial Life Debate, Antiquity to 1915: A Source Book, edited by Michael J. Crowe (University of Notre Dame Press, October 2008). This book presents key documents from the pre-1915 history of the extraterrestrial life debate.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Introductions and commentaries accompany each source document, some of which are published here for the first time or in a new translation. Authors included are Aristotle, Lucretius, Aquinas, Nicholas of Cusa, Galileo, Kepler, Pascal, Fontenelle, Huygens, Newton, Pope, Voltaire, Kant, Paine, Chalmers, Darwin, Wallace, Dostoevski, Lowell, and Antoniadi, among others.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Michael J. Crowe has compiled an extensive bibliography not available in other sources. These materials reveal that the extraterrestrial life debate, rather than being a relatively modern phenomenon, has extended throughout nearly all of Western history and has involved many of its leading intel.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;88.   Other New Aerospace History lectuals. The readings also demonstrate that belief in extraterrestrial life has had major effects on science and society and that metaphysical and religious views have permeated the debate throughout much of its history.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Spying from Space  Constructing America’s Satellite Command and Control Systems, Centennial of Flight Series, by David Christopher Arnold (Texas A&amp;amp;M University Press, April 2008). On 14 August 1960, a revolution quietly occurred in the reconnaissance capabilities of America when the Air Force C-119 Flying Boxcar Pelican 9 caught a bucket returning from space with film from a satellite.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This revolution in military intelligence could not have occurred without the development of the command and control systems that made the space race possible. In Spying from Space, David Christopher Arnold tells the story of how military officers and civilian contractors built the Air Force Satellite Control Facility (AFSCF) to support the National Reconnaissance Program. Spying from Space fills a gap in space history by telling the story of the command and control systems that make rockets and satellites useful.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Hubble: Imaging Space and Time, by David Devorkin and Robert Smith (National Geographic, September 2008). In the spirit of National Geographic’s top-selling Orbit, this large-format, full-color volume stands alone in revealing more than 200 of the most spectacular images from the Hubble Space Telescope during its lifetime, up to the very eve of the final Shuttle mission to the telescope in 2008. Written by two of the world’s foremost authorities on space history.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;89.  Hubble: Imaging Space and Time illuminates the solar system’s workings, the expansion of the universe, the birth and death of stars, the formation of planetary nebulae, the dynamics of galaxies, and the mysterious force known as “dark energy.”&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Atmospheric Science at NASA  A History, New Series in NASA History, by Erik M. Conway (The Johns Hopkins University Press, November 2008). This book offers an informed and revealing account of NASA’s involvement in the scientific understanding of Earth’s atmosphere. Erik M. Conway chronicles the history of atmospheric science at NASA.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Tracing the story from its beginnings in 1958, the International Geophysical Year, through to the present, focusing on NASA’s programs and research in meteorology, stratospheric ozone depletion, and planetary climates and global warming. But the story is not only a scientific one. NASA’s researchers operated within an often politically contentious environment.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Atmospheric Science at NASA critically examines this politically controversial science, dissecting the often convoluted roles, motives, and relationships of the various institutional actors involved—among them NASA, congressional appropriation committees, government weather and climate bureaus, and the military.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;90.  Volunteers are also eligible to receive a year’s complimentary subscription to either AHL or HA. Abstracting for these bibliographies includes you in the largest history database in the world. It is good for your mind—and for the history profession. Paid freelance abstracters are paid per article, with a higher rate for foreign languages. become a volunteer abstracter; for information about paid abstracter positions.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;NASA’s National Historic Landmarks&lt;br /&gt;The National Park Service (NPS) manages the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP): over 80,000 buildings, districts, structures, and objects with historic significance. Of these, approximately 2,900 are National Historic Landmarks (NHLs) with historic significance to all Americans.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Although NASA’s accomplishments in aeronautical research, science, and space exploration are well documented, less is known about the historic buildings and structures that support and enable these accomplishments. This series provides an overview of NASA’s 20 NHLs. This issue features NASA’s Spacecraft Propulsion Research Facility, managed by Glenn Research Center (GRC), Ohio.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;From Centaur to Constellation: The Spacecraft Propulsion Research Facility (B-2 Site)NASA’s Plum Brook Station, Sandusky, Ohio&lt;br /&gt;On 2 January 1970, the front-page headline of Lewis News, the newsletter of Lewis Research Center (later renamed Glenn Research Center), Cleveland, Ohio, read, “First Test for New Facility, Centaur ‘Hot Fires’ in B-2.” The article celebrates the successful hot firing of Centaur’s twin rocket engines (RL-10s) on 18 December 1969 in the Spacecraft Propulsion Research Facility, commonly known by its site designation of B-2. Preparation for the firing began on 17 December with the “spin-up” testing of facility instrumentation.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;91. This testing involved the loading of liquid hydrogen and nitrogen in the propellant tanks, beginning automatic sequencing events. The propellant system was then reconfigured, and liquid oxygen replaced the liquid nitrogen in the rockets. Glen Hennings was chief of the Rocket Systems Division at Plum Brook Station at the time.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Although he reported that a timing circuit failed, resulting in the shortening of the planned test period, the test and facility operations were successful. The test was the first of a series used to improve the rocket’s pressurization and propellant feed systems and provided performance information for hydrogen-oxygen propellant systems in general.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Construction of the $11.5 million facility, designed by NASA, began with the contract awarded to Bechtel Corporation on 30 June 1964. Within a year, the enormous 180-foot-deep hole for the vacuum chamber was excavated. Construction of the B-2 site was completed in 1969; the first checkout test was conducted on 21 October 1969. To support future tests, the central control room has been upgraded with modern computer control systems.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;NASA’s National Historic Landmarks&lt;br /&gt;Construction of the B-2 site required the excavation of a 180-foot-deep hole, pictured here in 1965. (Source: Glenn Research Center, file photo number 01264) Although GRC had already expanded its original aeronautics capabilities and was directly supporting NASA’s space missions, construction of the B-2 site and the Space Power Facility (constructed at the same time) expanded GRC’s contribution to space exploration.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;92.  The B-2 site directly contributed to the success of the U.S. space program, earning it the designation of a National Historic Landmark in 1985. The B-2 test facility was nominated to the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Man-in-Space NHL Theme Study conducted by the National Park Service. It was one of three sites grouped as Rocket Engine Development Facilities. Along with the Rocket Engine Test Facility and the Zero-Gravity Research Facility, the nomination states that these sites represent the “important role of the Lewis Research Center in developing hydrogen as a fuel for Centaur and Saturn V rockets.”&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Managed by the Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, the B-2 site is located at Plum Brook Station in Sandusky, Ohio. The major elements thatsupport this facility are a test building, the remote control room, an equipment building, a three-stage exhaust system, a waste treatment retention pond, a propellant oxidizer and fuel storage area, an electricalsubstation, a refrigeration system, and a service building.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Although the successful operation of the B-2 site is dependent on these support structures, the boundary of the Spacecraft Propulsion Test Building officially marks the NHL. The Spacecraft Propulsion Test Building is more than 70 feet high and extends 176 feet below grade. The vacuum chamber is a stainless steel cylinder that can accommodate space vehicles up to 22 feet in diameter and 50 feet high.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It is capable of providing research, development, and validation testing of rocket engines. It was originally designed to handle engines capable of producing up to 100,000 pounds of thrust fired for either single- or multiple-burn missions, utilizing either cryogenic or stored fuels or oxidizers.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;93.The NHL nomination lists the B-2 vacuum chamber as a structure contributing to space exploration, transportation, and education; the nomination states, “The successful development and use of the Centaur was due in large measure to data that was collected from successful test firings of Centaur engines in the facility.”&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt; Designed to launch satellite payloads into orbital altitudes and give interplanetary space probes escape Visitors receive a rare glimpse inside the B-2 vacuum chamber in May 2008, the first time the facility had been opened to the public since 1999. (Source: Glenn Research Center, file photo number 01245)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;An unidentified man stands beside the open B-2 vacuum chamber in 1987. (Source: Glenn Research Center, file photo number 02667)&lt;br /&gt;velocity, the Centaur served as the upper stage for successful launches of Atlas and Titan rockets carrying the Pioneer, Viking, and Voyager spacecraft to their rich scientific discoveries.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Centaur was also used in the Mariner, Surveyor, and Apollo programs. After contributing to Centaur testing, the B-2 site was placed on standby from 1974 to 1987. Thus, when the B-2 test building was designated as an NHL in 1985, it was only 16 years old and inactive.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;94.  It  was reactivated in October 1987 and supported flight hardware tests for the Defense Nuclear Agency’s Spear and Exceed Programs up until 1992. In 1998, the Boeing Delta 3, which is a more powerful second stage than the original Centaur rocket, went through a full suite of tests.&lt;br /&gt;The B-2 is currently the fourth largest vacuum chamber in the world.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt; It is the only facility in the world capable of testing full-scale upper stage launch vehicles and rocket engines under simulated conditions at an orbital altitude of 100 miles. It simulates the conditions of the upper atmosphere by allowing rocket engines to be fired in a vacuum.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt; The chamber simulates the extremely low temperatures (-320°F) of space with its liquid-nitrogen cold wall and the solar heat loads of space with quartz infrared lamps (130 watts per square foot). The B-2 site is used to verify start-at-altitude capabilities while subjecting test subjects to these conditions.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The uniqueness of the B-2 site is the capability to “hot fire” an engine after exposing it to the cold temperatures of space while maintaining a vacuum. The exhaust gas from the engine burn causes pressure to build up during a test. To vent this exhaust, an 11-foot-diameter valve opens in 0.4 second to connect the chamber to a steam ejector system, thus enabling the chamber to maintain its vacuum.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;95.  Two parallel steam ejectors remove the engine exhaust products from the chamber while maintaining a moderate vacuum level. The rocket exhaust must also be cooled. The exhaust system includes a 250,000-gallon-per-minute water spray system for cooling the rocket exhaust. The below-grade spray chamber is 67 feet in diameter by 119 feet high.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The spray system water is recirculated through the 1.75million-gallon catch basin under the chamber. A 2.5-million-gallon retention pond is also located on-site.Though the station’s steam supply needs to be refurbished, the B-2’s vacuum tank could be available for tests conducted in 2009.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;GRC is hopeful that the B-2 site will be used to support the upcoming Constellation Program. Pending the results of an ongoing trade study, the B-2 site may be selected to provide verification of start-at-altitude testing for launch vehicles supporting the lunar program, e.g., Ares V, and possibly to support testing associated with the Lunar Lander.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If Constellation does use the B-2 site, consultation with the Ohio State Historic Preservation Officer (SHPO), National Park Service, and Advisory Council of Historic Places (ACHP) would be triggered if major modifications to the test building .&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;96. Aerial view of the Spacecraft Propulsion Research Facility, October 1999. (Source: Glenn Research Center, file photo number 02306b)&lt;br /&gt;required. As explained by Les Main, GRC Historic Preservation Officer, these agencies understand and support NASA’s reuse of our specialized facilities.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The consultation process is required under the National Historic Preservation Act and is governed by an Agency-wide Programmatic Agreement executed in 1989. The consultation provides a means to ensure that unique engineering and architectural features of the B-2 test building are documented before they are altered or removed.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It is a valuable exercise for a resource with limited public visibility. Documentation also provides a means of maintaining records of historic systems for future study by space system engineers and architects.&lt;br /&gt;Information for this article was provided by Robert Arrighi, archivist, and Daryl Edwards, aerospace engineer at Glenn Research Center, as well as the National Park Service .&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;For additional information, contact Les Main, GRC Historic Preservation Officer, at Leslie.A.Main@nasa.gov or Tina Norwood, NASA’s Federal Preservation Officer, at tnorwood@hq.nasa.gov.&lt;br /&gt;Other Aerospace History News .&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;97..  News from the National Air and Space Museum (NASM)&lt;br /&gt;David DeVorkin (Space History Division) has published Hubble: Imaging Space and Time (Washington, DC: National Geographic Society [NGS], 2008), coauthored with Robert Smith and Elizabeth Kessler. It is an enlarged and expanded version of The Hubble Space Telescope:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt; New Views of the Universe (NGS, 2004). On 29 September, he presented “In the Grip of the Big Telescope Age” at the conference “400 Years of the Telescope” at the European Space Agency center in Noordwijk, Holland. On 8 October, he was the Smithsonian Secretary’s Distinguished Research Lecturer and spoke on “Death and Transfiguration: The Smithsonian and Institutional Change in American Astronomy” at the National Museum of Natural History.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Martin Collins (Space History) was co-organizer of the “Artefacts Conference,” which was held from 5 to 7 October at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. Artefacts is an international consortium of museums and professionals whose purpose is to promote the use of objects in studies of the history of science and technology. This year’s annual meeting focused on the theme of relations among science, technology, and art.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Roger Launius (Space History) may have set a new record in presenting six papers at one conference, the “59th International Astronautical Congress,” held in Glasgow, Scotland, 29 September–3 October 2008: “An Historical Overview of Robots Versus Humans in Spaceflight: Technology, Human Evolution, and Interplanetary Travel,” “&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;98.An Unintended Consequence of the IGY: Eisenhower, Sputnik, and the Founding of NASA,” “Powering Space Exploration in the United States: A History of RTGs, Nuclear Reactors, and Outer Planetary Probes,” “Managing the Unmanageable: Apollo, Space Age Management, and American Social Problems,” “Why Go to the Moon? The Many Faces of Lunar Policy,” and “Vicarious Exploration, Apollo Imagery, and the Communication of American Culture.”&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Paul Ceruzzi (Space History) chaired and moderated a discussion panel on “The Museum of the Future, a Roundtable Discussion” at the Society for History of Technology Annual Meeting in Lisbon, Portugal, which was held 11–14 October 2008. At the same meeting, Martin Collins was the organizer and presenter in the session “History of Technology and Journals: What’s Needed?” and chair of the session “Politics of Broadcasting.”&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Michael Neufeld (Chair, Space History) chaired the sessions “Touching Space: Images and Artifacts in the History of Space Exploration” and “Aviation Myth Reconsidered.” Jeremy Kinney (Aeronautics) acted as commentator in the latter session and was co-organizer of and presenter in the session “Beyond ‘Aviation History in the Wider View’—New Approaches of the History of Flight.”&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Valerie Neal (Space History) presented a paper on “Dollars, Sense, and Human Spaceflight” at a conference on “The Almighty Dollar” held by the Austrian American Studies Association, 24–26 October 2008.&lt;br /&gt;Allan Needell (Space History) has taken over the longstanding “Historical Seminar on Contemporary Science and Technology” (better known as the “Thursday Seminar” or the “NASM CHS”) from Michael Neufeld.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Beginning in October 2008, it will reconvene under a new name, “The Smithsonian Contemporary History Colloquium,” with a slightly altered focus and, we hope, with an expanded audience of Smithsonian and neighboring scholars. Each quarter, we intend to focus on a specific theme pertaining to historical and cultural change.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;99. By change, we mean to include not only changes in science and technology, along with their social and political ramifications, but also—more broadly—related social, economic, and cultural changes in American society and its relations with the rest of the world.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The first quarter (23 October, 20 November, and 18 December) will feature presentations on the changing nature of American proposals for ballistic missile defense, economic expertise in the Eisenhower administration, and the rise and fall of American Russian experts. Announcements with speakers, titles, and abstracts will be available in October.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;News from the American Astronautical Society (AAS)&lt;br /&gt;The AAS History Committee will host its annual meeting on 19 November in conjunction with the “AAS National Conference” at the Pasadena Hilton in Pasadena, California. The meeting is scheduled for 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. Pacific time. Visitors are welcome to attend.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The AAS History Committee is pleased to announce the selection of Michael J. Neufeld as the recipient of the 2007 Emme Award for Astronautical Literature for Von Braun: Dreamer of Space, Engineer of War.After many years of service as series editor for the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) History Symposia, Dr. Don Elder has decided to step down. We thank Dr. Elder for his efforts—along with those of volume editors, authors, and the publisher, Univelt—to bring each set of proceedings to publication, and we wish him well on his future endeavors. We would also like to take this opportunity to welcome his successor, Dr. Rick Sturdevant, as the new series editor.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;100. The Society for History in the Federal Government (SHFG) is now accepting proposals for individual papers or panels for our 30th-anniversary annual meeting, which will take place on Thursday, 19 March 2009, at the National Archives and Records Administration (Archives II), 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, Maryland.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Proposals on any aspect of federal government history and history  practice will be considered and are encouraged, and we also invite proposals relating to the theme of “Thirty Years Young: Meeting New and Future Challenges and Opportunities in Federal History.”&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;SHFG welcomes submissions from historians, archivists, librarians, curators, graduate students, and others engaged in the study of federal government history, regardless of whether they are federal employees. The deadline for proposals is 1 December 2008. Please mail proposals to 2009 Program Committee, Society for History in the Federal Government, Box 14139, Benjamin Franklin Station, Washington, DC 20044, or contact the program committee.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;SHFG Online Journal&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Society seeks papers for its new online, peer-reviewed history journal to be published in fall 2008. The journal will promote scholarship on all aspects of the history and workings of the federal government and of the developmental relationships between American society and the U.S. military or U.S. government, 1776 to the present.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;101. In addition, the journal will feature research articles on methodological developments in federal historical work, including the fields of history, archival science, historic preservation, public history, museum studies, Web-based history, memory studies, and other related areas.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Manuscripts must be fully documented and follow the submission standards posted at our Publications link at http://www.shfg.org/. Send your manuscript, an abstract, brief biographical information, and information on available images to editor by mail to Society for History in the Federal Government, Box 14139, Benjamin Franklin Station, Washington, DC 20044.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;More information is available American Historical Association will be held in New York City with events scheduled in the Hilton New York (headquarters) and Sheraton New York (coheadquarters). 4–8 January 2009, the first 2009 semiannual meeting of the American Astronomical Society will be held in Long Beach, California.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The American Astronautical Society’s 2009 “Robert H. Goddard Memorial Symposium” will be held in Greenbelt, Maryland.26–29 March 2009, the annual meeting of the Organization of American Historians will be held in Seattle, Washington, at the Seattle Sheraton Hotel and the Washington State Convention Center.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;                                                  CHANDRAYAN-1&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;102.  THE MOON "with the history of the early solar system etched on it beckons mankind from time immemorial to admire its marvels and discover its secrets. Understanding the moon provides a pathway to unravel the early evolution of the solar system and that of the planet earth.Through the ages, the Moon, our closest celestial body has aroused curiosity in our mind much more than any other objects in the sky.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This led to scientific study of the Moon, driven by human desire and quest for knowledge. This is also reflected in the ancient verse. Exploration of the moon got a boost with the advent of the space age and the decades of sixties and seventies saw a myriad of successful unmanned and manned missions to moon.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This was followed by a hiatus of about one and a half-decade. During this period we refined our knowledge about the origin and evolution of the moon and its place as a link to understand the However, new questions about lunar evolution also emerged and new possibilities of using the moon as a platform for further exploration of the solar system and beyond were formulated.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt; Moon again became the prime target for exploration and a new renaissance of rejuvenated interest dawned. All the major space faring nations of the world started planning missions to explore the moon and also to utilize moon as a potential base for space explorationearly history of the Solar System and of the earth.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;103 .The idea of undertaking an Indian scientific mission to Moon was initially mooted in a meeting of the Indian Academy of Sciences in 1999 that was followed up by discussions in the Astronautical Society of India in 2000. Based on the recommendations made by the learned members of these forums, a National Lunar Mission Task Force was constituted by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Leading Indian scientists and technologists participated in the deliberations of the Task Force that provided an assessment on the feasibility of an Indian Mission to the Moon as well as dwelt on the focus of such a mission The task force recommended that given the technical expertise of ISRO it will be extreme worthwhile to plan an Indian Mission to the Moon.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It also provided specific inputs such as the primary scientific objectives of such a mission, plausible instruments to meet these objectives, launch and spacecraft technologies that need to be developed and suggested the need for setting up of a Deep Space Network (DSN) station in India for communication with the lunar orbiting spacecraft.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The team also provided a provisional budgetary estimateand its possible configuration. The Study Report of the Task Team was discussed in April 2003 by a peer group of about 100 eminent Indian scientists representing various fields of planetary &amp;amp; space sciences, earth sciences, physics, chemistry, asengineering and communication sciences.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;104. After detailed discussions, it was unanimously recommended that India should undertake the Mission to Moon, particularly in view of the renowned international interest on moon with several exciting missions planned for the new millennium. In addition, such a mission will provide the needed thrust to basic science and engineering research in the country including new challenges to ISRO to go beyond the Geostationary orbit.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Further, such a project will also help bringing in young talents to the arena of fundamental research. The Academia, in particular, the university scientists would also find participation in such a project intellectually rewardingtronomy, astrophysics and&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Dashing Evilution&lt;br /&gt;Entering the 1950s, no corporation even came close to General Motors in its size, the scope of its enterprise or its profits. GM was twice the size of the second biggest company in the world — Standard Oil of New Jersey (forefather of today’s ExxonMobil), and had a vast conglomeration of businesses ranging from home appliances to providing insurance and building Chevrolets, GMCs, Pontiacs, Oldsmobiles, Buicks, Cadillacs and locomotives.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It was so big that it made more than half the cars sold in the United States and the U.S. Department of Justice’s antitrust division was threatening to break it up. In the vast 21st century, it’s almost hard to imagine how overwhelmingly large GM was back then.But it didn’t make a sports car.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;105. The idea of a car coming from stodgy GM that could compete with Jaguar, MG or Triumph was almost absurd.Still, there was room inside GM for dreams even if there wasn’t any room for whimsy. Harley J. Earl, GM’s chief designer (formally the head of the Art and Color Section) and the man who invented the “concept car” with the 1938 Buick Y-Job, was in charge of the corporation’s ambitious musings.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt; In the fall of 1951, Earl began ruminating about an open sports car that would sell for around the price of a mainstream American sedan — about $2,000. His ideas were rather nebulous, but he handed those notions over to Robert F. McLean, the concept came into focus and a concept car emerged.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Determined to keep costs down, McLean used off-the-shelf Chevy mechanical components. The chassis and suspension were for all intents and purposes the 1952 Chevy sedan’s, with the drivetrain and passenger compartment shoved rearward to achieve a 53/47 front-to-rear weight distribution over its 102-inch wheelbase.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The engine was essentially the same dumpy inline six that powered all Chevys but with a higher-compression ratio, triple Carter side-draft carbs and a more aggressive cam that hauled its output up to 150 horsepower. Fearful that no Chevy manual transmission could handle such extreme power (and there were no four-speeds in GM’s inventory), a two-speed Powerglide automatic was bolted behind the hoary six. And to keep tooling costs in line, the body was made out of fiberglass instead of steel.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;106. While the car was conceived with rigorous attention to the bottom line and production feasibility in mind, it was still only intended to be part of GM’s Motorama exhibit at the 1953 New York Auto Show. That is until Ed Cole, Chevy’s then recently appointed chief engineer, saw it.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Cole, then immersed in development of the world-changing 1955 “small-block” V8, is said to have literally jumped up and down with enthusiasm for the Motorama car. So before it even got to New York, and after some corporate machinations, the engineering to put it into production began.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;But first Cole needed to name it. So he called Myron Scott, founder of the All-American Soap Box Derby and an assistant advertising manager for Chevrolet, into a special meeting of executives researching the name. Scott suggested “Corvette,” Cole loved it and the rest is history.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The public at the New York show loved the 1953 Motorama Corvette almost as much as Cole did. Thousands of potential buyers wanted to know when they could buy one. Just six months later, they could. The 1953 Corvette, virtually identical to the Motorama prototype, went into production on June 30, 1953, in Flint, Mich. They’ve been making them ever since.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;107.While the 1953 Corvette was undeniably gorgeous and, with its fiberglass body, somewhat innovative, as a sports car it was wholly pathetic. The chassis handled better with the ‘Vette’s improved weight distribution, but it was still pretty much a ‘52 Chevy sedan suspension down there.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;That meant the front end was suspended by a primitive independent system and the rear held up with leaf springs. A quicker steering gear gave some reflexes to the car, but quicker isn’t the same as quick. And of course, the 150-horsepower, 235-cubic-inch six and two-speed automatic Powerglide transmission was far less than athletic.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It wasn’t cheap either. At $3,498 the ‘53 Corvette sticker ran almost 75 percent more than Earl had initially hoped, $1,225 more expensive than the second most expensive ‘53 Chevrolet, the eight-passenger Deluxe 210 four-door station wagon, and $272 more expensive than two Special 150 two-door sedans — then the division’s cheapest car. For comparison’s sake, the basic 2003 Corvette coupe, at $44,535, is $705 more expensive than three of Chevy’s current cheapest car, the Cavalier coupe.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;108. Motor Trend tested one of the first Corvettes and found it traipsing from zero to 60 mph in a lackadaisical 11.5 seconds. But the publication was not completely unimpressed with the car. “Probably one of the biggest surprises I got with the car was when I took it through some sharp corners at fairly good speeds,” its writer reported.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The late start and makeshift nature of the Corvette’s Flint, Mich., assembly line meant that only 300 Polo White examples were built of the ‘53 before it was time to introduce the 1954 model. Not surprisingly, the ‘54 (now produced in an old millwork building in St. Louis) barely changed from the ‘53 with the notable exception that it could now be ordered in Pennant Blue, Sportsman Red and Black in addition to Polo White.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A total of 3,640 were built this model year and many wound up casting their shadows across Chevy dealers’ lots for months — even years — waiting for buyers. As good-looking as the Corvette was, unless it had performance to match its appearance, buyers weren’t that interested in it.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The year 1955 brought the single most important development in the history of the Corvette: Chevrolet’s brilliant small-block V8. Originally displacing 265 cubic inches, the first small-block was rated at 195 horsepower in the otherwise almost unchanged ‘55 Corvette (the most notable tweak was the oversize “V” in the lettering along the front fenders).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;109. Still saddled with the Powerglide transmission, performance was still less than scintillating (Road &amp;amp; Track had a ‘55 getting to 60 mph in 8.5 seconds), but the potential was obvious. With many ‘54 Corvettes still clogging dealer lots, GM restricted production of the ‘55 model to just 700 cars — all but maybe a half dozen of them being powered by the new V8.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It was the 1956 Corvette that established the two-seater as a legitimate performance machine and as an American icon. While the chassis was very much a carryover from previous Corvettes, the ’56’s new body was simply gorgeous from the chrome teeth filling its mouth, down along its scalloped flanks and back to its round rump of a trunk.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Inside, the cockpit was styled like, well, a cockpit with the bucket seats surrounded by a body-colored frame that divided the passenger space. And a removable hardtop was offered as an option for the first time. To many, the ‘56 and barely changed ‘57 remain the most beautiful Corvettes of all time.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As lovely as the ‘56 Corvette was (and still is) what really ignited the legend that year was that GM began racing it. The only engine offered in the ‘56 Corvette was the 265-cubic-inch V8, now rated at 210 horsepower and it could be backed, for the first time, by a three-speed manual transmission. That was a solid enough start for Zora Arkus-Duntov, now the Corvette’s chief engineer, to begin going fast.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;110.  At Florida’s Daytona Speedweeks in February, 1956, Duntov appeared with new ‘Vettes for John Fitch and Betty Skelton. Reworked cylinder heads, a compression ratio increase to 10.3 to 1, and a few other emerging speed parts for the small-block had the V8s making 255 horsepower. Fitch’s ‘56 went 145.5 mph and Skelton sped past at 137.8 mph. During that same competition, the best a Ford Thunderbird could do was just 134.404 mph.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;After the Speedweeks experience came even more Corvettes for that year’s 12 Hours of Sebring and then the more exuberantly styled SR-2 racer. And with the racing came a change in Corvette advertising that now heralded the car’s performance and competition credentials. In a real way, the ‘53 to ‘55 Corvettes were only foreshadows of the “real” Corvette that arrived in ‘56.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Visually, the 1957 edition was virtually identical to the ‘56, but inside, a four-speed manual transmission (the great T-10) was available for the first time. The standard Corvette engine grew to 283 cubic inches and 220 horsepower, breathing through a single four-barrel carburetor.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Best of all, for the first time, Chevrolet offered performance-upgraded engines as options. In addition to the base configuration, the 283 could be had with dual-quad carbs rated at either 245 or 270 horsepower or, best of all, with Rochester mechanical fuel injection.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;111.  Fuel injection on top of the 283 increased its output to either 250 or 283 horsepower — one horsepower per cubic inch. The top engine probably made more than that, but the ad agency loved that one cube/one pony hook. Suddenly, the Corvette was one of the world’s truly quick cars and it drove beautifully. “The function of the fuel injection system was notable,” wrote Motor Trend’s Walt Woron at the time.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;“Starts were quick. Pumping the throttle didn’t pump raw gas to the cylinders, so you can’t flood it. Throttle response is instantaneous. No maneuver could flood or starve the engine (and I tried with violent cornering and hard braking).” Road &amp;amp; Track had one ‘57 “Fuelie” catapulting to 60 mph in just 5.7 seconds. Still, though Chevy built 6,339 Corvettes during the ‘57 model year, only 1,040 of them had the fuel-injected engine.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Both the interior and exterior of the Corvette were significantly restyled for 1958.Dual headlights, simulated hood louvers, a full mine’s worth of chrome and needless side scoops marred the ’58’s exterior appearance. Inside, the cockpit theme was even more exaggerated than before with a grab bar in front of the passenger instead of instrumentation. The interior was actually pretty good, but the exterior was just overdone.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Again, the engine bay could be filled with any one of four different variations on the 283 small-block. At the base was the single four-barrel version now making 230 horsepower, dual-quad versions were rated at 245 and 270 horsepower and the fuelie engines now made either 250 or 290 horsepower.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;112.  Garish or not, the ‘58 Corvette was a hit and Chevy built 9,168 examples. For the first time, say some sources, GM made a profit with the Corvette.Cleaning off some of the chrome excess (and those hideous fake hood louvers) resulted in the much cleaner-looking 1959 Corvette, but the car was very much a carryover otherwise. Chevy put a full 9,670 of the ‘59 Corvettes on the road.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The 1960 Corvette didn’t look much different from the ‘59, but the rated outputs of the fuel-injected versions grew to 275 and a full 315 horsepower. A rear anti-sway bar helped tame the solid rear axle a bit, and for the first time over 10,000 Corvettes were built.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A new, toothless front grille announced the 1961 Corvette when it approached, and a new “duck tail” rear end let everyone know it was new as it departed. But except for the styling update (the rear part of which forecast changes to come for ‘63), the ‘61 carried over almost unchanged from ‘60.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It was the last year for that ’50s favorite, wide whitewall tires, on the options list and the first for one rare option, the 24-gallon, oversize fuel tank.Big news came in the form of a big engine for 1962 as the small-block V8 grew to 327 cubic inches.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;113.  The base four-barrel engine now knocked out 250 horsepower with higher output versions available in 300- and 340-horsepower versions. The dual-quad option was dropped, but the fuel injection system was back and it was now rated at a thrilling 360 horsepower.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There’s a subset of Corvette enthusiasts who claim the ‘62 (with its blacked-out grille and new rocker panel molding) to be the greatest Corvette ever. It was certainly the best of the first-generation, solid rear axle Corvettes — but the chassis was still closely related to the ‘52 Chevy sedan. A new Corvette was overdue.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;More than four decades after its introduction, the 1963 Corvette remains one of the most startling, engrossing and completely delightful automotive designs of all time. For many discerning enthusiasts, the ‘63 to ‘67 Corvettes are the most compelling of the series.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The “midyear” Corvettes aren’t so much beautiful as they are provocative. And it was Harley Earl’s successor as GM design chief, Bill Mitchell, who was doing most of the provoking. Back in the late ’50s, Mitchell had acquired one of the old SS chassis that had been built to race at Sebring and, working with his assistant Larry Shinoda, designed a new body for it with a high waistline, a chiseled prow and sharply creased fenders and called it the Sting Ray.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;114. At about the same time that Mitchell and Shinoda were conjuring up the Sting Ray body style, Corvette chief engineer Zora Arkus-Duntov was building what he hoped would be a world-class chassis for his beloved charge. Cutting the wheelbase down by four inches to 98, Duntov built a ladder frame that was much stiffer than the previous X-member design and allowed the passenger compartment to be sunk down between the rails.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;He also designed a new independent rear suspension that economically (in both dollar cost and space usage) used a single transverse nine-leaf spring and the half shafts as part of the linkage.It was the marriage of the Mitchell/Shinoda body design with the new Duntov chassis that resulted in the 1963 Corvette roadster and, for the first time, fastback coupe.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;From the rotating hidden headlamps across the front to the boat tail-shaped rear window, the ‘63 Corvette coupe was outrageously attractive. And with a thick center bar splitting the rear window in two, not a car out of which it was particularly easy to see. That design earned this car the nickname “split window coupe.”&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;However, the ‘63 is the most cluttered of the Sting Rays, with phony vent grilles in the hood, non-functional gills in the front fenders, ribbed rocker moldings and that bar bisecting the rear window.What carried over from the ‘62 to the ‘63 Corvette were most of the engines (all of which still displaced 327 cubic inches), the four-wheel drum brakes and the general styling of the rear quarters.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;115.  A three-speed manual was still the standard transmission and the base 327 V8 was still rated at 250 horsepower. On the options sheet were 300- and 340-horsepower four-barrel, and 360-horsepower fuel-injected versions of the 327. Also available was the legendary “Z06″ race pack option for the coupe that included such things as metallic brake pads, a heavy-duty suspension and an oversize fuel tank.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Ordering the Z06 required the costly fuel-injected engine, so production was limited.Motor Trend tested a ‘63 Corvette powered by the fuel-injected engine and backed by the Muncie four-speed transmission. The ‘Vette hustled from zero to 60 mph in 5.8 seconds and consumed the quarter-mile in 14.5 seconds at 102 mph.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;“We thought the old model cornered darn well,” wrote the magazine, “but there’s no comparing it to this new one. It does take a little different technique, but once the driver gets onto it, it’s beautiful.”The public fell in love with the Sting Ray, buying 10,594 coupes and 10,919 convertibles. That’s almost half again as many ‘62 ‘Vettes were sold and the first time total sales topped 20,000 in a year.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;For 1964 the Sting Ray’s styling was cleaned up but the car otherwise mostly carried over from ‘63. Eliminating the dummy hood vents, restyling the roof vents and taking the center bar out of the rear window to drastically improve visibility made the true glory of the Sting Ray’s shape more obvious. New to the options list was a 360-horsepower four-barrel 327, and the fuelie motor was now rated at a stout 375 horsepower.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;116. Visually, the easiest way to tell a 1965 Corvette from a ‘64 is the three functional vertical louvers in each front fender. But the big news (literally) was the availability of the new 396-cubic-inch big-block V8. And there was even better news as four-wheel disc brakes became standard (though 316 fools did delete them in favor of drums and a $64.50 credit).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The “L78″ 396 grunted out a hulking 425 horsepower and became an instant legend as the meanest machine to leave General Motors since the company had stopped building Sherman tanks. With the arrival of big-block power, the mechanical fuel-injected 327’s days were numbered — 1965 would be its last year.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;But the 396 lasted only one year in the Corvette as it was superseded by 427-cubic-inch versions of the big-block V8 for 1966. Behind the new egg crate grille, buyers could opt for the standard 327, which was now rated at 300 horsepower, a 350-horse version inhaling through a single four-barrel, the “L39″ 427 making 390 horsepower or the overwhelming “L72″ 427 rated at 425 horsepower (the same as ’65’s 396, but with a less temperamental personality).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;For 1967 the louver count on each front fender went up to five and the parking brake moved from under the dash to between the bucket seats. But the real glory of the ‘67 came with the regal “L88″ 427, which used aluminum cylinder heads and an intimidating 12.5-to-1 compression ratio to make somewhere north of 500 horsepower while wearing a huge 850-cfm four-barrel carburetor (though Chevy would, disingenuously, only admit to 430 horses).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;117.  The L88 option carried an astronomical $947.90 price tag and ordering it automatically eliminated the heater, radio and fan shroud. The intent was obviously racing and only 20 L88s were ever built. Today they are the most desirable of the first Sting Rays.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Also new to the Corvette option charts was an “L68″ 427 rated at 400 horsepower and the L71 427 rated at 435 horsepower and featuring three two-barrel carburetors (”tri-power”).In every conceivable way, the Corvette was at its peak in ‘67. But, for no apparent reason, it was redesigned for ‘68 anyhow.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Based on the Mako Shark II show car designed by Larry Shinoda and displayed during 1965, the third-generation Corvette’s styling was flamboyant in its overall shape but restrained in its details. The fenders seemed almost to burst over the tires, but there were no phony scoops or extraneous chrome anywhere on the car.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The nose seemed to almost be plowing into the ground and used pop-up headlights to keep things sleek. There was a slight kickup to the car’s tail that was at least a bit reminiscent of Chapparal Can Am racecars. This generation of Corvettes has never been as beloved as the second generation, but it’s still a car that commands attention wherever it goes.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;118.  “Getting emotionally ‘hung up’ on the Corvette’s styling takes somewhat longer than becoming enthused over its great driving characteristics,” wrote Motor Trend, “but not much.”Again there were coupe and convertible Corvettes offered for 1968. The convertible again stowed its top under a hinged hard cover while the coupe featured swooping buttresses on either side of a tunneled-in rear window.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The most unique element of the coupe, though, were the two removable roof panels — the first “T-tops.”However, though the body was all new, the chassis and drivetrains were all familiar. The wheelbase was still 98 inches and the standard engine was still a 300-horsepower 327 small-block V8 topped by a four-barrel carburetor. The optional engines included a 350-horsepower 327 and all the big-block 427s from ‘67 including the awesome L88.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Though  it  replaced a beloved icon, the “Mako Shark” ‘Vette proved a hit during the ‘68 model year with Chevy selling 9,936 coupes (starting price $4,663) and 18,630 convertibles (starting at $4,347). That was yet another record, and it was accomplished despite calamitously bad quality control.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;For 1969, the Sting Ray name returned, though now spelled out on the fenders as one word — “Stingray” — in chrome script and the quality of assembly improved markedly. Minor changes included moving the ignition key to the steering wheel, and incorporating the backup lights into the taillights.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;119.  The most significant mechanical change was the replacement of the 327-cubic-inch small-block V8s with new 350-cubic-inch versions. As with the 327s, the 350s were rated at 300 horsepower in base form and 350 horsepower in the optional “L46.” The 427s also returned in force carrying the same power ratings as ’68’s.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There was, however, one earth-shattering addition to the line: the ZL-1. The ZL-1 engine was basically an L88 427 big-block V8 done up in all-aluminum construction, which made it 20 to 25 pounds lighter than a small-block. Intended for road racing and equipped accordingly, only two of the 585-horsepower ZL-1s were produced. Motor Trend got to drive one of them.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;“The ZL-1 has Ferrari speed plus,” Eric Dahlquist, then the magazine’s editor, wrote, “Ferrari handling and Ferrari brakes but without Ferrari fuss and bother so you can enjoy it, the car, more. Therefore, even without the super Ferrari leather interior and Ferrari coachwork, it is still better than a Ferrari in its own right because there is no distraction and everything in perspective, aluminum engine, fiberglass body and all, the ZL-1 is nearer a Chaparral 2G for the street.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt; The ZL-1 doesn’t just accelerate because the word ‘accelerate’ is inadequate for this car. It tears its way through the air and across black pavement like all the modern big-inch racing machines you have ever seen, the engine climbing the rev band in that kind of leaping gate as the tires hunt for traction, find it, lose it again for a millisecond, then find it until they are locked in.”&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;120. The four vertical side vents on each front fender of the ‘68 and ‘69 ‘Vettes gave way to a new crosshatch pattern for the 1970 model and amber front signal lights and square exhaust outlets also appeared. And finally a four-speed manual transmission was made standard equipment, replacing the desperately lame three-speed no one was buying anyhow.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The engine lineup for ‘70 was also revised with a new, thoroughly friendly 370-horsepower “LT-1″ 350 joining the lineup and all the 427s departing in favor of two new 454-cubic-inch big-block V8s — a 390-horsepower “LS5″ wearing a four-barrel carburetor and a tri-power equipped “LS7″ making a claimed 460 horsepower. However, the LS7 carried a $3,000 option price and there’s no record of any having been built. It would be a long while before Corvettes would be so powerful again.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;With stricter emissions controls in force, the compression ratios on all Corvette engines dropped for 1971. The base 350 now plugged along with 270 horsepower, the LT-1 350 dropped to 330 horsepower, and the detuned LS5 454 now made a mere 365 horsepower.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Gone was the LS7 454 and in its place was an “LS6″ 454 four-barrel V8 rated at 425 horsepower. Those are still heady numbers, but the diminution of Corvette performance would continue throughout the rest of the decade. Except for the power losses, the ‘71 was essentially the same as the ‘70.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;121.  The power drain would continue for 1972 and was exaggerated by a switch from SAE gross to SAE net power ratings. So the base 350 now carried a measly 200-horsepower rating, the LT1 made just 255 horsepower, and the sole big-block, an LS5 454, could only muster 270 horsepower. About 30 ‘72 Corvettes were powered by a special “ZR1″ version of the LT-1 350 as part of a club-racing package.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A body-colored rubberized front bumper took up residence on the 1973 Corvette, replacing the chrome strip used previously. Furthermore, the side vents were now single, almost vertical, openings and radial tires were standard for the first time. And power dropped again, with the base 350 now rated at 190 horsepower and a new optional “L-82″ 350 made 250 horsepower. The sole 454 was an “LS4″ rated at 275 horsepower.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The ‘73 Corvette’s rubber nose was paired with a matching wedge-shaped, body-colored tail on the 1974 Corvette as designers elegantly coped with new bumper regulations. There was some more jiggling of power ratings on the engines, but the big news was that this would be the last year for the big-block V8.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Ordering a 1975 Corvette was simplified down to two engine choices: the base 350 V8 making a hideous 165 horsepower or the L82 making 205 horsepower — both exhaling through a catalytic converter. A modification to the bumper system meant the ‘75 Corvette’s rear bumper cover was now a one-piece molding, unlike the ’74’s that had an unsightly seam down its center. But the Corvette was still amazingly popular with Chevy selling 33,836 coupes and 4,629 convertibles during the ‘75 model year.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;122.  Chevy sold exactly zero 1976 Corvette convertibles by simply stopping production. The base “L48″ 350 was now rated at 180 horsepower as engineers were beginning to grasp the intricacies of emissions regulations and the L82 350 jumped to 210 horsepower. Both engines breathed in through four-barrel carburetors.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Inside, the ‘76 Corvette got a new four-spoke steering wheel similar to that used on the Vega and Camaro — a wheel that was instantly despised by most enthusiasts — and the dash was now grained with “stitching” molded in.The Stingray lettering was excised off the 1977 Corvette’s fenders and steel reinforcements were added to the hood, but otherwise the car was a carryover from ‘76.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;To celebrate the Corvette’s first quarter century, the 1978 model’s tail was redesigned with a huge wraparound rear window replacing the buttresses that had long been one of the coupe’s signature design elements. However, while the large window did increase luggage capacity, it didn’t open so loading was still a matter of working around the seats.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The interior was comprehensively tweaked and that included new instrumentation, a lockable glovebox and the relocation of windshield wiper controls to a stalk on the steering column.The base L48 350 was now rated at 185 horsepower and a new dual-snorkel intake bumped output of the L82 version to 220 horsepower. The standard transmission was still a four-speed manual with a three-speed automatic optional.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;123. Two special-edition models became instant collectibles during the ‘78 model year. The first was a “Silver Anniversary” edition that featured a two-tone silver-on-top/charcoal-on-bottom paint job, and the second was the iconic black-on-top/silver-on-bottom limited-edition Indy Pace Car that also featured a deep chin spoiler and ducktail rear spoiler.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This was the first time a Corvette had paced the May classic and buyers snatched up the pace cars. Many pace cars wound up going directly into storage and ultralow mileage examples still regularly show up at auctions and on eBay. However, the pace cars aren’t particularly rare as Chevy wound up making about 6,500 of them.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Though it was hardly the quickest Corvette ever, the ‘78 was tremendously popular with Chevy building 40,725 of them — the first time the company had sold more than 40,000 units.On the outside, changes to the 1979 Corvette were indiscernible. A dual snorkel air cleaner now fed the L48 350 and that boosted output to 195 horsepower.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The L82 was treated to a new cam, larger valves, a higher-compression ratio and a more efficient exhaust system which all combined to push the engine to 225 horsepower. For some inexplicable reason, production jumped to 53,807 during the model year — yet another record — and the Corvette’s first production push beyond 50K.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;124.  An extensive design updating and weight reduction program had the 1980 Corvette looking more angular and weighing in about 250 pounds lighter. In every state but California, the base L48 350 now made 190 horsepower and the L82 was rated at 230. Both were available with either manual or automatic transmissions.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Californians, however, were stuck with only a 305-cubic-inch V8 making 180 horsepower that was lashed to a mandatory three-speed automatic transmission. Sales of the ‘80 Corvette slumped to 40,506 units.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;What changed about the 1981 Corvette was the adoption of a new, much lighter fiberglass transverse rear leaf spring and a new, 190-horsepower “L81″ version of the 350 V8 that was the only engine available. For most of the country, the L81 was no great shakes, but it was a definite step forward for California. In June of that year, Corvette production moved from St. Louis to a brand-new facility in Bowling Green, Kentucky.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Manual transmissions were banished from the 1982 Corvette, all of which were equipped with a four-speed automatic transmission for this year. Also, back after a 17-year absence was fuel injection — this time an electronic throttle body system known as “Cross-Fire Injection.” The injection system boosted output of the L81 350 to 200 horsepower with much better drivability.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;125.  Also offered during ‘82 was the “Collector Edition” Corvette that featured silver-beige paint, special graphics, multivaned wheels, bronze-colored glass roof panels and a rear glass window that opened hydraulically for easier storage access.With sales down to 25,407 units for the ‘82 model year, it was obvious the “Mako Shark” ‘Vettes had exhausted their welcome — finally.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Hey, what happened to 1983? What happened was that the change from the previous-generation Corvette to the new one was so radical that it took a while to get the Bowling Green plant up and running. So while 43 preproduction “1983″ C4 Corvettes were built, none of these was ever sold to the general public and only one of them survives today.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Instead, in March of ‘83, Chevrolet began selling the 1984 Corvette and it was the most dramatically different Corvette since the ‘63 Sting Ray.This new machine rode on a 96.2-inch wheelbase, used simply gorgeous cast aluminum suspension components and featured a larger interior with fully digital instrumentation that looked as if it had been ripped off a Star Trek movie set. One of the particularly cheesy and unconvincing Star Trek movie sets.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Gone were the old coupe’s T-tops in favor of a single fiberglass section that could be removed using a wrench, but many of the C3 styling themes continued, though more conservatively expressed. The hideaway headlights were now single square units on rotating mounts and the hood itself was a giant clamshell piece that made access to the engine easy, but appalled insurance companies who had to cover its enormous replacement cost.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;126.  Everything mechanical about the C4 Corvette was significantly better than before. The new suspension system used composite transverse leaf springs both fore and aft, the steering was by rack-and-pinion for the first time, the brakes were oversized discs.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The frame itself featured a large aluminum C-section beam that made for a stiffer structure and the tires were enormous (for the time) Goodyear P255/50VR16 unidirectional “Gatorbacks” on 16-inch wheels. About the only thing that carried over was the small-block 350 V8, again equipped with Cross-Fire throttle body fuel injection and now rated at 205 horsepower.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;At the beginning of the 1984 model run, the only transmission available was the 700R4 four-speed automatic, but by January of 1984 a new Doug Nash “4+3″ manual transmission was offered which featured an electronically engaged overdrive on the top three gears. Although intriguing, it was a balky and completely crummy excuse for a transmission.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The major criticisms of the ‘84 Corvette were its incredibly stiff ride, particularly when equipped with the Z51 performance suspension package, the still lackluster engine and the obnoxious dash graphics. Despite that, however, the ‘84 Corvette quickly established itself as the dominant car in showroom stock racing and Chevrolet sold a stunning 53,877 of them during the extended model year.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;127. Messing with success where needed, the Corvette was treated to the new Tuned Port Injected (TPI) version of the 350-cubic-inch (now more commonly referred to as a 5.7-liter) small-block for 1985. This vastly more efficient induction system bumped output of the V8 to 230 horsepower with a thick and friendly torque curve.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The better “L98″ engine was combined with a retuned, more comfortable suspension to produce a significantly better Corvette than the previous year.A convertible returned to the Corvette lineup for 1986 and a bright yellow version was used to pace that year’s Indianapolis 500 — the second time a Corvette had had the honor.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Another significant advance was the fitment of Bosch antilock brakes for the first time, making for a safer everyday machine. Every Corvette coupe also got a third brake light over its rear hatch, while the convertible’s was integrated into the rear fascia. Chevy sold 27,794 ‘86 Corvette coupes and 7,315 convertibles.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The fitment of hydraulic roller lifters to the L98’s valve train boosted its output to 240 horsepower for 1987, but the car was virtually unchanged otherwise. Two interesting additions to the options list were a new Z-52 suspension system for higher performance without the complete sacrifice of comfort and new electronic tire-pressure monitors.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;128.   New 17-inch wheels inside P275/40ZR17 tires were added to the 1988 Corvette options list while new aluminum cylinder heads and a revised camshaft boosted the L98 to 245 horsepower with even better torque characteristics. This was also the last year Chevy would foist the dreadful 4+3 transmission off as the shift-it-yourself choice. A 35th anniversary model, done in a white-on-white scheme, marked this milestone.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The new manual transmission for 1989 was a ZF six-speed that was a joy to shift as long as you didn’t mind using some muscle. And as long as you didn’t resent the “skip shift” feature that forced a shift from first to fourth gear under part throttle conditions to improve fuel economy.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Other changes to the lineup included a new FX3 selective ride control system for the Z51-equipped coupes and a new optional fiberglass hardtop for the convertible. Every enthusiast knew, however, that much bigger, much brawnier news was coming to the Corvette for 1990.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;That big news was, of course, the 1990 Corvette ZR-1 coupe (the ZR-1 was never available as a convertible). Nicknamed “King of the Hill,” the ZR-1 was built around the Lotus-designed, Mercury Marine-built, all-aluminum, 5.7-liter, DOHC, 32-valve LT5 V8 making an astounding 375 horsepower.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;129. That is, it made 375 horsepower when an in-dash key was set in “full-power” mode and not in the “valet” mode when it was limited to just 250 horsepower. The only transmission available in the ZR-1 was the ZF six-speed and inside its swollen rear fenders were humongous P315/35ZR17 tires on suitably wide wheels.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The widened rear fenders on the ZR-1 were capped by a new rear fascia distinguished by squared-off taillights and convex (as opposed to the usually concave) rear fascia.In testing a preproduction ZR-1, Motor Trend concluded that “With a top speed in the neighborhood of 175 mph, a 0-to-60-mph time of 4.71 seconds and 13.13-second/110.0-mph quarter-mile, no one’s going to accuse the DOHC .&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;‘Vette of being limp-wristed.” They were right, no one dared call the limited-production ZR-1 limp-wristed, but it was criticized for its incredible $58,995 price — nearly twice that of a regular L98-powered Corvette.All the ‘90 Corvettes got a new dashboard with a vastly improved mixture of analog and digital instrumentation, better ventilation, better sound systems and an airbag for the driver. Otherwise, the Corvette was very much status quo.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Restyling came to the Corvette for 1991 with a slicker front end incorporating wraparound foglights, a new rear fascia reminiscent of the ZR-1’s that incorporated the third brake light (the latter would remain on the hatch of the ZR-1) and new wheels. Everything else was pretty much a carryover, though the price of the ZR-1 had now ballooned to $64,138 — the first GM automobile to carry a price beyond $60,000.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;130.  For 1992, the L98 was dumped in favor of the new next-generation small-block V8, the LT1 (no hyphen, unlike the ‘70 version with the similar name). The LT1 was rated at 300 horsepower thanks to significant revisions to the cylinder heads, accessory drives, cooling system and fuel injection. But despite that healthy increase in output, it was also an even more engaging driving companion than the L98.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Along with the LT1 came traction control (Acceleration Slip Regulation — ASR — in GMspeak) whose best feature was that it could be turned off.On July 2, 1992, the millionth Corvette, a white ‘92 convertible, was built. No other sports car has even come close to that.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A special 40th anniversary package, consisting mostly of badges and special Ruby Red paint, was offered for 1993 on both LT1 and ZR-1 Corvettes. Otherwise, the most notable change for the year was refinement of the LT5 engine in the ZR-1 that boosted its horsepower from 375 to an epic 405 — in real-world terms (accounting for the difference between the old SAE gross and current SAE net rating methods), the most powerful production Corvette up to that time. Other changes were minimal.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;An airbag was added for passengers in the 1994 Corvettes while the cockpit’s trim and steering wheel were refined. The LT1 was treated to sequential fuel injection that improved drivability and simplified emissions control but didn’t increase total power output. The ZR-1 got new five-spoke wheels, but that’s about it.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;131.  New side gills distinguished the 1995 Corvette from previous editions, but other changes were much more subtle and included improved brakes, revised springs, de Carbon gas-charged shocks and a quieter-running engine fan. And for the third time, a Corvette (this time a convertible) paced the Indy 500.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It was also the last year for the ZR-1. “When the LT5’s throttle body opens into the 16 tuned intake runners (assuming the power key is twisted to ‘full’),” Motor Trend’s intrepid scribe wrote in its last ZR-1 test, “it humps. Beyond hazing the P315/35ZR17 Goodyear Eagle GS-Cs under the car’s trademark swollen flanks when accelerating, it bursts down the quarter-mile in 13.05 seconds at over 117 mph.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Getting to 60 from rest takes only 4.9 seconds, and getting from 60 to 100 takes only 4.8 more. The midrange power is even better than the Ferrari F355’s.“The engine is sophisticated, but the sound of it and the transmission could only be more involving if the driver sat in the crankcase.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The ZR-1’s mechanical character thrills in an era when so many cars isolate their occupants. Like all current Corvettes, the handling limits are high, but the ZR-1’s larger tires mean that once those limits have been exceeded that it’s even tougher to rein in. And, like all current Corvettes, the cockpit is a challenge to enter and cramped once inside.”&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;132.  For 1996, Chevy followed up the ZR-1 with two unique editions that would mark the end of C4 production. The first was a “Collector’s Edition” available on coupes and convertibles that consisted mostly of special emblems, five-spoke wheels and Sebring Silver paint.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Far more intriguing was the Grand Sport which swiped its name and blue-with-white-stripe paint job from an early-’60s racing Corvette and featured an amplified version of the LT1 small-block called the “LT4″ that made a healthy 330 horsepower. A debate still rages on whether the ZR-1 or Grand Sport best expressed the essence and potential of the C4 Corvette.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;What was obvious, however, was that it was time for a new Corvette.The fifth-generation Corvette was the most wholly new Corvette since the ‘53. Not even the engine carried over from the C4, and the entire concept of how the car was built changed.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Unlike every previous Corvette that bolted its transmission directly behind the engine, the 1997 version split the transmission off and placed it in the back of the car between the rear wheels where its weight could be used to offset that of the engine in the front. This transaxle arrangement had been used before on cars like the Porsche 928, but it was a radical departure for the Corvette.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;133. The suspension itself still used aluminum links and transverse leaf springs, but the wheels and tires were now 18-inchers in the back and 17s up front and there was no provision for a spare tire since all tires would be of run-flat design.The new frame used large, hydroformed rails and a thick backbone for extra strength, while relying on engineered wood products to make up part of the floor.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The hatchback coupe body (the only body offered during ‘97) again evoked styling themes established in the previous two generations of Corvettes, though with reduced front and rear overhangs as the wheels moved out toward the corners of the car. Also, the clamshell hood was gone in favor of a less expensive conventional hood.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The  C5’s engine was also completely new and unrelated to any previous Corvette V8. While still displacing a nominal 5.7 liters and using a single in-block camshaft to drive the two valves per cylinder via pushrods like the old small block.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt; The C5’s “Gen III” “LS-1″ was an all-new, all-aluminum design using all the latest production techniques. And its output was a satisfying 345 horsepower.The rear-mounted transmissions were either a version of the Borg-Warner T56 six-speed manual or Chevy’s own 4L60-E four-speed automatic in a new case for this application.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;134. The C5 Corvette was an instant sensation. “As if anyone doesn’t know it already, the new Corvette is unfathomably good,” wrote Motor Trend in one early comparison test. “Despite being the least expensive car gathered for the Decathlon, its 4.8-second clocking to 60 mph is as quick as the most expensive car’s and matches that Ferrari’s quarter-mile elapsed time as well.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;On top of that, it’s roomy, easy to get in and out of and forgiving of almost any boneheaded input from the driver. In its 45 years history, the Corvette has never before been so excellent in so many ways relative to its competition. It’s a colossal achievement.”&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Wisely not messing with something so fundamentally wonderful, Chevy merely expanded the C5 Corvette range for 1998 by adding a convertible model. And for the first time since ‘62, this convertible included a trunk that was accessible from outside the car.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Magnesium wheels were also offered as an option this year for those seeking the ultimate in unstrung weight savings. Again, a Corvette convertible paced the Indianapolis 500 and, again, Chevrolet offered replicas to the public — this time in bluish purple.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;135.  A fixed roof coupe, lighter in weight than either the hatchback coupe or convertible, was added to the 1999 Corvette lineup. The intent behind the fixed roof coupe was hinted at by the fact that it could only be had with the six-speed manual transmission. Otherwise the most significant addition to the ‘99 Corvette options list was a surprisingly effective head-up display unit that projected major information on the windshield in front of the driver.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Gone from the 2000 Corvette was the passenger-side door lock cylinder as Chevy concluded that the keyless entry system made it unnecessary. Otherwise, all that was left to be excited about were two new exterior colors (Millennium Yellow and Dark Bowling Green Metallic), a new interior color (Torch Red) and new five-spoke forged aluminum wheels.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The real reason for the fixed roof coupe became obvious with the 2001 model year as Chevrolet brought forth the ferocious Z06 Corvette that year. Running a revised high-compression, low-reciprocating-weight version of the LS1 dubbed the LS6, the Z06 went into battle with 385 horsepower, shooting its exhaust out a titanium system.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Z06 also got a special FE4 suspension system that was stiffer and had thicker anti-sway bars than other C5s, special lightweight wheels and bigger, lighter, more aggressive Goodyear tires that weren’t run-flat in design. In just about every way, the Z06 either matched or exceeded the vaunted ZR-1’s performance and did so for far less money.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;136. Regular C5 owners weren’t completely overlooked during 2001, however, with the LS1 seeing its output increase from 345 to 350 horsepower. It was also an even more flexible and torque-rich engine.As good as the ‘01 ZO6 was, the 2002 ZO6 was even better, as output of the LS6 jumped to an astounding 405 horsepower — matching the highest output of the ZR-1.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Furthermore, the Z06’s suspension was retuned to perform even better than before. On the LS1-powered side of the Corvette equation, there were revisions to the sound systems and a new Electron Blue paint color.Chevrolet acknowledged the 50th anniversary of the Corvette for 2003 with, naturally, a 50th Anniversary Edition Corvette.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Available either as an LS1-powered hatchback coupe or convertible, the 50th Anniversary car got special deep red paint, a new Magnetic Selective Ride Control system and a bunch of logos. Of course, it was also used to pace the ‘03 edition of the Indianapolis 500. Other Corvettes got more standard equipment, including a power passenger seat and dual-zone climate control system. The Z06 was basically unchanged.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The C5 entered the 2004 model year with everyone fully aware that this would be the last year for this beloved Corvette. There were commemorative editions of all three models, with the Z06 featuring a carbon-fiber hood and revised shock valving. If there was ever a car that didn’t seem to need changes, this was it.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;136.   The idea was to create a car that does more things well than performance cars costing two or three times the price. The chief goal for the new Corvette was to improve its refinement and performance while addressing every notable imperfection of the previous generation.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;At first glance, the 2005 Corvette appears to be little more than a styling refresh; dig deeper, though, and one quickly realizes that the C6 is much more. Exposed headlamps, not seen on a Corvette since 1962, combine with a lean grille to create a distinctive “face.”&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Addressing complaints of the C5’s big rear end, the backside was slimmed down so as not to appear as disproportionate as before. In profile, the sharply cut lines that trail away from the side vents look as if borrowed from the Dodge Viper, yet the overall look still says Corvette — even more so than the C5.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;For the first time since 1968, an engine with 350 cubic inches (5.7 liters) of displacement is not offered under the Corvette’s hood as the C6 uses a new 6.0-liter “LS2″ V8 as its sole power plant. Output is an astounding 400 hp and 400 lb-ft of torque providing performance on par with the world’s best from Italy and Germany.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;138.  According to Chevrolet, the Corvette rushes from zero to 60 mph in an adrenaline-pumping 4.2 seconds continuing on to a top speed of 186 mph. The standard six-speed manual received serious upgrades, and the clutch is smoother and lighter with a shift feel that is precise and satisfying in its snick-snick shift quality.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Three suspension setups are available, and it’s important to note that not one single suspension part was carried over from the C5. The standard setup provides a comfortable and controlled ride, along with the kind of precise handling you would expect.The optional F55 Magnetic Selective Ride Control suspension adjusts the shock damping rates instantly in response to changing conditions.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The result is an even more comfortable ride than the base suspension, yet better control during aggressive maneuvers. The Z51 package is the closest thing to “Z06-like” performance — at least this year, that is. This package includes more aggressive dampers and springs, larger stabilizer bars, shorter transmission gearing and larger cross-drilled brake rotors.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Even in Z51 form, the ‘Vette would make a perfectly acceptable daily driver. Regardless of suspension setup, the chassis manages to be both highly capable and forgiving.In the cockpit, everything from materials quality to overall ergonomics is vastly improved.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;139.  Among countries with at least 10 million people in 2003, China and India have been growing very rapidly since 1980. The World Bank (2005, Table 4.1) reports that China’s GDP grew the fastest at an average rate of 10.3% per year during 1980-90, while India’s grew at 5.7%. Of the five countries that grew faster than India during this decade, none did so subsequently during 1990-2000 and 2000-04.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In the latter two periods, China’s GDP again grew fastest at the rate of 10.6% and 9.4% respectively on an average per year, while India’s growth at 6.0 and 6.2% per year, respectively were exceeded by those of five countries during 1990-2000 and by four countries in 2000-2003. (World Bank, 2006a, Table 4.1. Only one country, Vietnam, grew faster than India in both periods. Thus only China’s and India’s rapid growth has been sustained for two and a half decades since 1980.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In 2003-04, India’s GDP growth rate jumped to 8.5%, fueled by recovery from a severe drought in the pervious year. The estimated growth rate for 2004-05 is 7.5% and the projected rate for 2005-06 is 8.4% (CSO, 2006). The projection for 2006-07 by various agencies including the Asian Development Bank, the IMF, the Planning Commission and others range from a low of 7.4% to a high of 8.2% (RBI, 2006, Table 10).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;China’s GDP growth rates, based on revised data, were 10.1% and 9.9% respectively in 2004 and 2005 and Samuel C. Park, Jr. Professor Economics, Yale University and Visiting Senior Fellow, Stanford Center for International Development. I thank Nicholas Hope, Kaoru Nabeshima and Shahid Yusuf for their comments on an earlier version which was prepared with support from the World Bank as a background paper for its ongoing study of the impact of China’s and India’s development on the rest of the world.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;140.  The projected rates for 2006 and 2007 respectively are 9.1% and 8.5% Thus both countries are expected to continue to grow rapidly.&lt;br /&gt;In terms of absolute level of Gross National Income (GNI) at Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) exchange rates in 2004, China, with $7.6 trillion was second largest in the World, second only to the United States at $11.7 trillion.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;India with $3.4 trillion in GNI was fourth after the U.S., China and Japan (3.8 trillion) (World Bank, 2006, Table 1.1). It is likely that by 2007, India would have replaced Japan as the country with the third largest GNI. IMF (2005, Box 1.4) estimates India’s share in global output at PPP exchange rates to have risen from 4.3% in 1990 to 5.8% in 2004, and India’s growth during 2003 and 2004 to have accounted for one-fifth of Asian growth and one-tenth of World growth, as compared to China’s contribution respectively of 53% and 28%.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It should cause no surprise then that the rapid growth of China and India has had significant impact on the World economy, though, not unsurprisingly, to the same extent.In what follows, Section 2 describes the two basic channels, namely import demand and export supply, through which the growth of a country influences growth of the rest of the world and vice versa. Section 3, the main section of the paper, is on growth of China and India and its influence on the World economy.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It begins with indicators of the extent of integration of China and India with global markets for goods and services focuses on Global GDP Growth and Shares of China and India is devoted to sources and sustainability of growth using conventional decomposition of growth, in an accounting sense, into its components of factor accumulation and total factor productivity.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;141.  countries in global markets from a disaggregated perspective. Section 5 concludes with some brief remarks on how public policy could influence the emerging growth scenarios and their impacts.. Interdependence of Growth Among Trading Nations.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It is trivially obvious that if the World consists of autarkic economies, there cannot be any interdependence in growth across countries. Thus, the greater is the integration of an economy with the rest of the World in trade in goods and services, investment and finances, the greater is likely to be interdependence in growth.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The sources of demand for the output of any good or service in the home economy are essentially two, namely, domestic and foreign. To the extent foreign demand accounts for a significant share of total demand, clearly growth in foreign income, ceteris paribus, will lead to growth in foreign demand for home exports and hence to growth in home income. This is the export-led growth channel for the domestic economy.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A substitution of home exports by domestic supply abroad could be source of growth for the rest of the world. This is the home export substitution abroad (equivalently, foreign import substitution) channel for the foreign economy.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;142.  Analogously, the sources of supply for meeting the domestic demand for any good in the home economy are again two, namely, domestic and foreign. To the extent foreign supply accounts for a significant share of total supply,Whether opening to trade by an autarkic economy has only a once-and-for all efficiency effect or also a dynamic growth effect, and if there is a growth effect, whether it is purely transitional or it is sustained along the steady state path are issues that have been explored in the literature.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Of course, even static and transitional effects could affect growth over a long time if the process of trade liberation takes place over an extended period. Besides there could be other channels, such as diffusion of knowledge, associated with external sector liberalization that can generate growth effects and their interdependence across countries (Srinivasan, 2001). I will not discuss these issues in this paper which is focused on the medium term.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Growth in home incomes, ceteris paribus, will lead to growth in home demand for foreign exports. This is the home import-led growth channel for the global economy. By the same token, substituting foreign with domestic supply could be a source of growth for the home economy, for a limited time, until all of importing (i.e. foreign supply) is eliminated. This is the home import-substitution channel for home growth.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The ceteris paribus phrase, in (i) and (ii), covers many things including: that prices faced at the border by exporters and importers are unaffected, public policies that create a wedge between border and domestic prices remain the same, and more broadly, supply and demand conditions including technology, tastes, market structure, exchange rate policy regime, etc. remain the same as growth takes place.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;143.  Clearly these are strong assumptions. For example, there is an on-going debate about whether global macroeconomic imbalances will be reduced or eliminated and about alternative adjustment policies for doing so2. The exchange rate and macroeconomic outcomes of alternative adjustment policies will have implications for global growth and in particular, whether China and India or any other country will replace the U.S. as global growth engines (Williamson, 2005).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Though relevant, this topic and other implications of changes in macroeconomic policies (e.g. monetary and fiscal) for macroeconomic stability and growth will not be covered in this paper. However, changes in policy regimes leading to trade and investment liberalization as well as technological changes (e.g. information technology revolution) could have significant impacts both on the growth of individual countries and industries and on growth of the world economy.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Growth of China and India and its Influence on the World Economy&lt;br /&gt;Indicators of the Extent of Integration in World Markets for Goods and Services An overall indicator of integration is the extent of international trade in the domestic economy as measured by the share of exports and imports in GDP and in the global economy as measured by the share of a country’s exports and imports in global exports and imports.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;144.  The figures for India for 2004 do not seem plausible as compared to those in World Bank (2005), Table 4.9) for 2003. National data for fiscal year 2005-06 suggest the shares of exports and imports in GDP at current market prices (factor cost) were respectively 13% (14%) and 18% (19%).&lt;br /&gt;3 The shares of exports and imports were respectively 34% and 31% in 2006 and 38% and 32% in 2006 (Nicholas lardy, private communication, July 14, 2006).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It is clear from Table 1 that although both countries have become increasingly integrated with the World Economy, China has gone much farther, even allowing for the fact that China started the process of integration at least a decade earlier.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Thus with twice as much or more share of exports and imports in GDP, more than seven times (five times) the share in World merchandise exports (imports), China was better positioned in 2004 for influencing (and also being influenced) by growth of the World economy. Interestingly, during the period 1990-2004 while the share of exports and imports in India’s GDP almost doubled, the increase in India’s share in its World merchandise exports, proportionately, was far less.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Thanks to its success in the IT service sector, India’s share in World exports of commercial services tripled during the same period. It would seem that in India’s case, with the possible exception of services, the effect of greater integration is largely one-way and domestic, in the sense of its raising the rate of GDP growth and the share of trade in domestic GDP, rather than India’s more rapid GDP growth influencing global GDP growth significantly.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;145.  The measures of integration in Table 1 in effect proxy the potential for the growth of China and India to contribute to growth in the World Economy - put another way, if these measures were zero, so that China and India were autarkic, then obviously their growth would have no effect on the growth of the other countries of the World.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;But on the other hand, even if positive, the measures do not necessarily imply that the growth of the two countries had or would have, significant impact on global GDP growth or on the growth of low and middle income countries (or alternatively to the growth of developing Asia).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The shares of the two countries (in global and low income countries’ GDP) have been increasing over time, although more so in the case of China than India, because of its more rapid growth. The two together accounted for more than a fifth of global growth if 2004 GDP shares are used as weights and slightly less than a tenth if 1990 shares are used as weights during 1990-2004 (Table 2).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Given the rapid growth of GDP in both countries during 1990-2004 it is no surprise that the use of 1990 GDP weights lowers the contribution of the two to global growth. The two accounted for as high as two fifths of global growth during 1989-1995 and a third during 1985-2003 (Table 3) once adjustment for PPP is made.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;146.  The relative share of China’s growth in global growth compared to India’s seems to have decreased over time regardless of the weights used in Table 2 or when adjustment is made for PPP in Table 3. However, the decrease in the relative share of China seems to be greater when PP adjustment is made.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This suggests that relative to India, prices in China seem to be moving closer over time to world prices, confirming once again the findings of Table 1 that China is integrating with the World economy faster than India.The IMF (2005) recognizes that policy makers .&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In India are actively seeking to strengthen India’s global linkages and to accelerate its integration with the World economy. Success in these efforts would increase the role of India in the World economy. The report explicitly refers to one of the mechanisms, India’s import demand, through which this would come about.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A dynamic and open Indian economy would have an important impact on the world economy. If India continues to embrace globalization and reform, Indian imports could increasingly operate as a driver of global growth as it is one of a handful of economies forecast to have a growing working-age population over the next 40 years.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;147.   Some 75-110 million will enter the labor force in the next decade, which should-provided these entrants are employed - fuel an increase in savings and investment given the higher propensity for workers to save.&lt;br /&gt;China is already well integrated with the world economy.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Indeed the share of international trade (exports and imports of good and services) in its GDP at 65% in 2004 and 70% in 2006 is very high for an economy of China’s continental size and level of per capita income.&lt;br /&gt;In China the share in population of persons .&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In the prime working age (15-59), already at 67.7% in 2005, is projected to fall to 53.3% by 2050 (UN, 2006, Table VI.10). This in large part reflects the effects of the draconian and coercive one-child policy instituted in 1979 and also the decline in fertility in the decade before.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The dependency ratio is projected to rise, from 57% to 88% by 2050. Its savings and investment rates at 42% and 39% of GDP (unrevised data)(World Bank, 2006b, Table 4.8) respectively in 2004 are also unlikely to be sustained indefinitely into the future. These two facts suggest that from the input (labour and capital) side there will be a downward pressure on China’s growth from a slow down in growth of labor and capital inputs.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;148.  On the other hand, as Perkins (2005) notes, China still has more than half of people of working age employed in agriculture and rural activities, with lower productivity than non-farm workers. He estimates that China’s non-farm workforce could increase by another 70 to 100 million in the next decade depending on assumptions about expansion of senior secondary and university education.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Thus, productivity gains from the intersectoral shift of labour as well as other changes that increase total factor productivity including technological improvement, could more than offset the downward pressure on growth so that aggregate GDP growth could be sustained in the ranges of 8% to 10% a year for the next couple of decades.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In India’s case, demographic trends are more favorable than China’s. It is true that some of the Indian states (mainly in the South but also in the West) have already achieved fertility rates at or below replacement level (without the use of an abhorrent and coercive one-child policy as in China) and more will soon do so.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Hence, these states will also experience an increasing old-age dependency ratio as in China replacement. Hence, India’s population in the age group 15-59 is projected to rise slightly as a share of total population from 60% in 2005, 61% in 2050 and dependency will fall slightly from 67% to 64% (UN 2006, Table VII.10).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;149.  India lags behind China in the educational attainment of its workforce and hence its catch-up with China on human capital accumulation will also contribute to growth. Moreover, with a much larger share of the workforce employed . in agriculture and other low productivity activities, India has greater potential than China to experience significant productivity gains from intersectoral shift of labour.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Also India’s saving and investment rates were around 30% in 2004-05 (CSO, 2006) according to Indian official data. World Bank reports lower rates respectively of 23% and 24% for 2004 (World Bank, 2006a, Table 4.8) are likely to increase further for life-cycle as well as other reasons. In brief, India can sustain, and in fact increase, the contribution of accumulation of human and physical capital in its growth.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;On Russian forces launched a three-pronged ground attack towards Grozny. The main attack was temporarily halted by deputy commander of the, who then resigned in protest, stating that it is "a crime" to "send the army against its own people." Many in the Russian military and government opposed the war as well.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Yeltsin's adviser on nationality affairs, and Russia's Deputy Minister of Defense Colonel-General (esteemed commander of the also resigned in protest of the invasion ("It will be a bloodbath, another Gromov said on television), as did More than 800 professional soldiers and officers refused to take part in the operation; of these, 83 were convicted by and the rest were discharged. Later, refused to be decorated as the Hero of Russia for his part in the war.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;150.   The Chechen Air Force was destroyed in the first few hours of the war, while around 500 people took advantage of the mid-December amnest  declared by Yeltsin for members of Dzhokhar Dudayev's armed groups. Nevertheless, Boris Yeltsin's cabinet's expectations of a quick quickly followed by Chechen, were horribly misguided, and Russia soon found itself in a quagmire.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The troops was low from the beginning, for they were poorly prepared and did not understand why they were sent into battle. Some Russian units resisted the order to advance, and in some cases, the troops their own equipment. In Ingushetia, civilian protesters stopped the western column and set 30 military vehicles on .&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The only federal subjects that did not sign the treaty were Chechnya. Eventually, in the   spring of 1994, President Yeltsin signed a special political accord with the president of Tatarstan, granting many of its demands for greater autonomy for the republic within Russia.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Thus, Chechnya remained the only federal subject that did not sign the treaty. Neither Yeltsin nor the Chechen government attempted any serious negotiations and the situation would deteriorate into a full-scale conflict.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5316106143397886101-1471596568060523043?l=onlinejobs1977.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://onlinejobs1977.blogspot.com/feeds/1471596568060523043/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://onlinejobs1977.blogspot.com/2009/03/online-jobs.html#comment-form' title='12 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5316106143397886101/posts/default/1471596568060523043'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5316106143397886101/posts/default/1471596568060523043'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://onlinejobs1977.blogspot.com/2009/03/online-jobs.html' title='online jobs'/><author><name>on line jobs</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/08232085231546770680</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='24' height='32' src='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_mRPqmvCxJOI/Sb_bkZBsUZI/AAAAAAAAAAM/9UA16kfy28M/S220/Image047.jpg'/></author><thr:total>12</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5316106143397886101.post-2893903846126943479</id><published>2009-02-23T20:03:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2009-02-23T20:11:44.755-08:00</updated><title type='text'>online jobs</title><content type='html'>&lt;p&gt;   1.         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