Charles H. Percy

Charles Harting "Chuck" Percy (September 27, 1919 – September 17, 2011) was an American businessman and politician. He was president of the Bell & Howell Corporation from 1949 to 1964, and served as a Republican U.S. Senator from Illinois from 1967 until 1985, following a defeat to Paul Simon. He was mentioned as a Republican presidential hopeful from 1968 through 1988. During his Senate career, Percy concentrated on business and foreign relations.
Early life and education.
Charles Harting Percy was born in Pensacola, the seat of Escambia County in far northwestern Florida, the son of Edward H. Percy and the former Elizabeth Harting. His father, an Alabama native descended from illustrious colonial-era Mississippians and Virginians, was at various times an automobile salesman and bank cashier. His Illinois-born mother was a concert violinist. Edward was a son of Charles Brown Percy and Helen Leila Herndon of the powerful Herndon family of Virginia. Elizabeth Harting was a daughter of Phineas Fredrick Harting and Belle Aschenbach.
The family moved to Chicago when Percy was an infant. As a child, he had entrepreneurial energy and held jobs while attending school. In the mid-1930s, his pluck brought him to the attention of his Sunday school teacher, Joseph McNabb, the president of Bell & Howell, then a small camera company.
Percy completed high school at New Trier High School. He entered the University of Chicago on a half tuition scholarship, and worked his way through college with several part-time jobs. He completed his degree in Economics in 1941.
Business career.
Percy started at Bell & Howell in 1938 as an apprentice and sales trainee while he was still in college. In 1939 he worked at Crowell Collier.
He returned to Bell & Howell in 1941 to work full-time after graduating from the University of Chicago. Astute at business, within a year he was appointed a director of the company. Percy served three years in the United States Navy during World War II and returned to the company in 1945.
In 1949, the Jaycees named Percy one of the "Outstanding Young Men in America", along with Gerald R. Ford Jr., of Michigan, future U.S. President, and John Ben Shepperd, future Texas Attorney General.
After Joseph McNabb died in 1949, Percy was made the president of Bell & Howell. He was instrumental in leading the company during a period of financial success and growth. During his leadership, Percy expanded Bell & Howell, raising revenues 32-fold and the number of employees 12-fold, and listing the company on the New York Stock Exchange. While continuing to manufacture movie cameras and movie and sound projectors for military, commercial, and home use, in the late 1940s the company diversified into the production of microfilm. It later entered the rapidly expanding markets of information services as well.
Political career.
In the late 1950s, Percy decided to enter politics. With the encouragement of then U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Percy helped to write "Decisions for a Better America," which proposed a set of long-range goals for the Republican Party. He belonged to the moderate and liberal wing of the Republican party, led by Eisenhower during his presidency and later closely identified with New York Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller. Percy hoped to broaden the base of the party.
Percy first entered electoral politics with a run for governor of Illinois in 1964, which he narrowly lost to Democratic incumbent Otto Kerner. During his gubernatorial campaign, Percy reluctantly endorsed conservative Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater, his future Senate colleague. Goldwater fared poorly throughout the country, although he did marginally better in Illinois than in the nation at large.
U.S. Senate.
In 1966, Percy ran for U.S. senator from Illinois. His 21-year-old daughter Valerie was murdered at the family home in September, late in the campaign. Her death was thought to have been caused by an intruder, but the crime was never solved despite a lengthy investigation.
Percy and his opponent both suspended campaigning for a couple of weeks following Valerie's death. He upset Democratic Senator Paul Douglas (a former professor of Percy's at the University of Chicago) with 56 percent of the vote.
After Percy appeared on the Television show "Face The Nation" on Sunday 15 January 1967 with the other newly elected Republican Senators, the then President Lyndon Johnson noted privately that he thought Percy would make a fine President if the opportunity should ever arise.
On 12 December 1967 Senator Percy met with South Vietnamese President Thieu and assured him that "no responsible people in either the Democratic or the Republican Party favored US withdrawal from South Vietnam".
In 1967, Senator Percy introduced a bill to establish a program to stimulate production of low-cost housing. Percy's proposal was the first of its kind to provide home ownership to low-income families, and it received strong support from Republicans in both the House and the Senate, although it ultimately did not pass. When asked why he selected housing for his first major legislative proposal, Percy said: "Of all the problems I ran across during three years of campaigning, first for the governorship and then for the Senate, the most appalling in their consequences for the future seemed to be the problems of the declining areas of the city and countryside, the inadequacy of housing." Percy voted in favor of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 and the confirmation of Thurgood Marshall to the U.S. Supreme Court, joined other Rockefeller Republicans in voting against the Supreme Court nominations of Clement Haynsworth and George Harrold Carswell, but did vote for William Rehnquist in 1971.
When in the Senate less than two years, Percy was mentioned as a Republican hopeful for the 1968 Presidential nomination. "The New York Times" columnist James B. Reston referred to him as "the hottest political article in the Republican Party". In 1970, Percy spoke about his enjoyment of "The Autobiography of Malcolm X", saying "Every white person should read it."
In 1972, Percy sought a second term to the Senate. In the general election, he defeated Congressman Roman Pucinski by a landslide. He gave up his seat on the important Senate Appropriations Committee for one on the Foreign Relations Committee.
Senator Percy in 1974 introduced legislation making the National Maximum Speed Limit permanent, which became law in January 1975, remaining in effect until it was amended in 1987 to allow on rural Interstate highways and finally repealed in 1995.
In 1978, as Percy was completing his second term, he appeared invincible. Percy was considered so strong that the Democratic Party was unable to persuade any serious candidates to challenge him in that year's election. Alex Seith, a dark horse candidate, was his Democratic challenger. Seith had never before sought elected office but had served as an appointee on the Cook County Zoning Board of Appeals for twelve years, nine as chairman.
At that time, Percy's reputation as a moderate Rockefeller Republican, contrasted with Seith's ostensible hard-line foreign policy positions, combined to make Percy suddenly vulnerable in the weeks before the election. Percy had earlier worked to broaden the base of the Republican Party and was an outlier to more conservative elements. Sensing his probable loss, Percy went on television days before the polling and, with tear-filled eyes, pleaded with Illinois voters to give him another chance. He said, "I got your message and you're right... I'm sure that I've made my share of mistakes, but your priorities are mine." He won re-election 53% to Seith's 46%.
After the Republicans won control of the Senate in 1980, Percy became chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. That year he gave a luncheon in honor of the 16th Karmapa of Tibet at the United States Capitol with other Tibetan Buddhists and Congressmen. He served in the Senate until the end of his third term in January 1985, after narrowly losing to Congressman Paul Simon in 1984. Critics had accused Percy of paying more attention to foreign affairs than to the domestic issues of his constituents. After Percy's defeat, no Republican would win a senatorial race in Illinois until Peter Fitzgerald in 1998.
In 2006, writing about the influence of political lobbies on the U.S. relationship with Israel, political theorists John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt wrote that they believed Percy's loss was the result of a campaign waged against him by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Earlier that year, Percy and the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Dante Fascell, expressed sympathy for the cause of Karl Linnas, a former concentration camp commander who was to be deported from Pennsylvania to Estonia, having lied in the papers he used to enter the United States. Linnas was found to have ordered, and participated in, the murders of Jews and other prisoners. Percy's view, shared by Fascell, Representative Donald L. Ritter of Pennsylvania, and the Helsinki Commission, was that Linnas should be deported, but not to the Soviet Union.
While in the Senate, Percy was active in business and international affairs. Although he explored the possibility of running for President in both 1968 and 1976, he did not run either time. During the early 1970s, he clashed with President Nixon and criticized the U.S. conduct of the Vietnam War.
In 1977, Percy and Sen. Hubert H. Humphrey—responding to the 1973 OPEC oil embargo and high energy prices in general—created the Alliance to Save Energy to encourage a national commitment to energy efficiency. Percy was the founding chairman of the organization.
Percy was mentioned again for the presidency in 1980 and 1988, but his candidacies did not progress beyond the exploratory stage.
Perhaps Percy's most important act, and his longest-lasting legacy, was ending the practice of nominating federal judges from a pool of candidates generated by the Chicago political machine. He implemented a system of consultation with, and advice from, groups of legal experts, including the professional bar association, a practice considered novel at the time. One of his nominees, John Paul Stevens, was selected by President Gerald Ford as a justice of the United States Supreme Court.
Marriage and family.
Percy was a Christian Scientist. During World War II, he married Jeanne Valerie Dickerson. They had twin daughters, Valerie and Sharon (born 1944) and a son Roger (born 1946). After Jeanne Percy's death in 1947, Percy married Loraine Diane Guyer in 1950. They had two children: Gail (born 1953) and Mark (born 1955).
One of his twin daughters, Valerie Percy, was murdered at age 21 in her bedroom in the family home in Kenilworth, Illinois, near Chicago, during his senatorial campaign in September 1966. She had been beaten and stabbed to death in her bed while the family was in residence. Although her stepmother had a brief glimpse of the killer and considerable resources were devoted to solving the crime, the identity of the murderer remains unknown. The wife of a first responder physician to the scene stated in 2016 that her late husband, Dr. Robert Hohf, felt that "the crime scene had been cleaned up" by the time he arrived to the Percy home early on the morning of Sept. 18, 1966.
In 1967 her twin sister Sharon Percy married John D. Rockefeller IV. He became a politician and was later as elected Democratic Governor of West Virginia (1977–1985). He served as a United States Senator for West Virginia from 1985 until 2015.
Percy remained active after leaving political office but suffered from Alzheimer's disease in later years. He died on September 17, 2011, at the Washington Home and Community Hospice in Washington, D.C.. It was the day before the 45th anniversary of his daughter Valerie's death.


Bunting (animal behavior)

Bunting is a form of animal behavior, often found in cats, in which the animal butts or rubs their head against other things, including people. Bunting as a behaviour can be viewed as a variation of scent rubbing. This is when an animal, typically a carnivore, will rub its back on a scent such as prey or the urine of an animal of the same species. Evolutionarily speaking, scent rubbing is the oldest form of scent communication and bunting is a derivative of this behaviour. Rolling in the scent of another animal was an adaptation to camouflage the scent of a predator or outside male in order to get closer to mates.
Bunting is generally considered to be a form of territorial scent-marking behaviour, where the cat rubs the scent glands on their cheeks and forehead on the object being marked. After a display of aggression, a cat will begin bunting objects in that immediate area as a form of territorial display toward a rival cat. Bunting and allorubbing are also part of feral cat behavior within colonies. An elaborate ritual which can take several minutes, two cats will rub along the side and tail of the other cat. This behaviour in domestic cats involves a system of hierarchy and may have evolved as a way to channel aggression where the costs of a conflict is too high. Cats also use bunting as a way to familiarize themselves to their environment and the pheromones secreted work to ease the cat's anxieties about an unfamiliar area.
Bunting is a normal animal behavior, and should be distinguished from head pressing, which is abnormal and typically a sign of illness.
Development.
The practice of bunting stems from the behaviour that arises when kittens are very young and seek stimulation from their mother by rubbing and kneading. This behaviour develops throughout the animal's life and is not only found in cats. It has also been found in other carnivorous mammals and some ungulates. Bunting in ungulates has no olfactory function but may have a role in the weaning of young. When a juvenile is nursing from its mother, it will bunt the udder with its head. This is to stimulate milk production or "let down" and causes some pain to the mother when the bunting movement is frequently performed. Over time, there is an increase in the number of times the udder is bunted by the young. This causes the mother to react in an attempt to prevent further pain. This reaction of the mother can be any form of defensive behaviour from a nipping bite, moving away from the young, or a jab of her horns. Bunting in domesticated and wild cat species has olfactory roots and has a range of uses which include, but are not limited to, mother-young association bonds, greeting/welcoming of kin, diffusing potential aggression in social environments, and distributing scent on areas to cultivate familiarity.
Bunting in other species.
Cattle.
Bunting behaviour is a display of aggression in cattle. When two cattle are rivaling each other, they will often use bunting as a form of defense. Cattle will attempt to bunt the rival cattle with the goal of bunting their head under the hind legs of the animal. This occurs when one cattle shows submission during the final moments of a feud, and this specific behavior is calling clinching.
The behaviour of bunting within cattle is first observable in calves. As a form of play fighting, a young calf will bunt the flank of its mother. A newborn calf will bunt the mother's udder and this stimulates milk flow. It has been found that when calves are taken from their mothers and raised artificially, the calf will attempt to bunt the artificial teat when milk is not being produced quick enough.
Horses.
As seen in cattle, horse foals will bunt the mother's udder in order to stimulate milk production. Another example of bunting is when a dam experiences pain while a foal is suckling. The dam will proceed to bunt the foal with her head, non-aggressively, to prevent further discomfort. Many foals will play fight with one another; displaying the bunting behaviour. The foal will push its head against another foal's body in an attempt to knock the other off-balance.
Horses will also rub the bottom or sides of their jaw onto others. This self-grooming social interaction can have a calming effect for the horses involved, and dominant horses are more likely to initiate the behavior.
Lions.
Similarly to domesticated cats, lions also use bunting as a form of greeting and territorial marking. Lions will often greet each other with this head bunting behavior when returning to a pride after a hunt. In the early stages of life, cubs procure stimulation from their mother as she cleans them by rubbing and licking them. This behaviour carries throughout their lives and bunting remains a primal source of interaction between adults as it stimulates a familiar interaction between kin.


Target market

A target market is a group of customers within a business's serviceable available market at which a business aims its marketing efforts and resources. A target market is a subset of the total market for a product or service.
The target market typically consists of consumers who exhibit similar characteristics (such as age, location, income or lifestyle) and are considered most likely to buy a business's market offerings or are likely to be the most profitable segments for the business to service.
Once the target market(s) have been identified, the business will normally tailor the marketing mix (4 Ps) with the needs and expectations of the target in mind. This may involve carrying out additional consumer research in order to gain deep insights into the typical consumer's motivations, purchasing habits and media usage patterns.
The choice of a suitable target market is one of the final steps in the market segmentation process. The choice of a target market relies heavily on the marketer's judgement, after carrying out basic research to identify those segments with the greatest potential for the business.
Occasionally a business may select more than one segment as the focus of its activities, in which case, it would normally identify a "primary target" and a "secondary target". Primary target markets are those market segments to which marketing efforts are primarily directed and where more of the business's resources are allocated, while secondary markets are often smaller segments or less vital to a product's success.
Selecting the "right" target market is a complex and difficult decision. However, a number of heuristics have been developed to assist with making this decision.
Definition.
A target market is a group of customers (individuals, households or organisations), for which an organisation designs, implements and maintains a marketing mix suitable for the needs and preferences of that group.
Target marketing goes against the grain of mass marketing. It involves identifying and selecting specific segments for special attention. Targeting, or the selection of a target market, is just one of the many decisions made by marketers and business analysts during the segmentation process.
Examples of target markets used in practice include:
Background.
Selection of a target market (or target markets) is part of the overall process known as S-T-P (Segmentation→Targeting→Positioning). Before a business can develop a positioning strategy, it must first segment the market and identify the target (or targets) for the positioning strategy. This allows the business to tailor its marketing activities with the needs, wants, aspirations and expectations of target customers in mind. This enables the business to use its marketing resources more efficiently, resulting in more cost and time efficient marketing efforts. It allows for a richer understanding of customers and therefore enables the creation of marketing strategies and tactics, such as product design, pricing and promotion, that will connect with customers' hearts and minds. Also, targeting makes it possible to collect more precise data about customer needs and behaviors and then analyze that information over time in order to refine market strategies effectively.
The first step in the S-T-P process is market segmentation. In this phase of the planning process, the business identifies the market potential or the total available market (TAM). This is the total number of existing customers plus potential customers, and may also include important influencers. For example, the potential market or TAM for feminine sanitary products might be defined as all women aged 14–50 years. Given that this is a very broad market in terms of both its demographic composition and its needs, this market can be segmented to ascertain whether internal groups with different product needs can be identified. In other words, the market is looking for market-based opportunities that are a good match its current product offerings or whether new product/service offerings need to be devised for specific segments within the overall market.
Market segmentation.
Markets generally fall into two broad types, namely consumer markets and business markets. A consumer market consists of individuals or households who purchase goods for private consumption and do not intend to resell those goods for a profit. A business market consists of individuals or organisations who purchase goods for one of three main purposes; (a) for resale; (b) for use in producing other goods or services and; (c) for general use in daily business operations. Approaches to segmentation will vary depending on whether the total available market (TAM) is a consumer market or a business market.
Market segmentation is the process of dividing a total available market, using one of a number of key bases for segmenting such as demographic, geographic, psychographic, behavioural or needs-based segments. For example, a demographic segmentation of the adult male population might yield the segments, Men 18-24; Men 25-39, Men 40-59 and Men 60+. Whereas a psychographic segmentation might yield segments such as Young Singles, Traditional Families, Socially Awares and Conservatives. Identifying consumer demand and opportunity within these segments should assist the marketer to identify the most profitable segments.
Although there are many different ways to segment a market, the most common bases used in practice are:
During the market segmentation process, the marketing analyst will have developed detailed profiles for each segment formed. This profile typically describes the similarities between consumers within each segment and the differences between consumers across each of the segments. The primary use of the segment profile is to assess the extent to which a firm's offerings meet the needs of different segments. A profile will include all such information as is relevant for the product or service and may include basic demographic descriptors, purchasing habits, disposition to spend, benefits-sought, brand preferences, loyalty behavior, usage frequency and any other information deemed relevant to the subject at hand.
The segment profile assists in the decision-making process and has a number of specific benefits:
After profiling all the market segments formed during the segmentation process, detailed market analysis is carried out to identify one or more segments that are worthy of further investigation. Additional research may be undertaken at this juncture to ascertain which segments require detailed analysis with the potential to become target segments.
Selecting the target market.
A key consideration in selecting the target markets is whether customer needs are sufficiently different to warrant segmentation and targeting. In the event that customer needs across the entire market are relatively similar, then the business may decide to use an "undifferentiated approach". On the other hand, when customer needs are different across segments, then a "differentiated" (i.e. targeted) approach is warranted. In certain circumstances, the segmentation analysis may reveal that none of the segments offer genuine opportunities and the firm may decide not to enter the market.
When a marketer enters more than one market, the segments are often labeled the "primary target market" and the "secondary target market." The primary market is the target market selected as the main focus of marketing activities and most of the firm's resources are allocated to the primary target. The secondary target market is likely to be a segment that is not as large as the primary market, but may have growth potential. Alternatively, the secondary target group might consist of a small number of purchasers that account for a relatively high proportion of sales volume perhaps due to purchase value, purchase frequency or loyalty.
In terms of evaluating markets, three core considerations are essential:
However, these considerations are somewhat subjective and call for high levels of managerial judgement. Accordingly, analysts have turned to more objective measures of segment attractiveness. Historically a number of different approaches have been used to select target markets. These include:
International segmentation and targeting.
Segmentation and targeting for international markets is a critical success factor in international expansion. Yet, the diversity of foreign markets in terms of their market attractiveness and risk profile, complicates the process of selecting which markets to enter and which consumers to target. Targeting decisions in international markets have an additional layer of complexity.
An established stream of literature focussing on "International Market Segmentation" (IMS) suggests that international segmentation and targeting decisions employ a two-stage process:
Analysis carried out in the first stage focuses involves the collection of comparative information about different countries with a view to identifying the most valuable markets to enter. This is facilitated by the relatively wide data availability for macro-variables. Most government departments collect business census data as well as data for a broad range of economic and social indicators that can be used to gauge the attractiveness of various destinations.
Positioning.
Positioning is the final step in the S-T-P planning approach (Segmentation→ Targeting → Positioning). Positioning refers to decisions about how to present the offer in a way that resonates with the target market. During the research and analysis carried out during the segmentation and targeting process, the marketer will have gained insights into what motivates consumers to purchase a product or brand. These insights can be used to inform the development of the positioning strategy.
Firms typically develop a detailed positioning statement which includes the target market definition, the market need, the product name and category, the key benefit delivered and the basis of the product's differentiation from any competing alternatives. The communications strategy is the primary means by which businesses communicate their positioning statement to target audiences.
Marketing mix (4 Ps).
Once the segmentation has been carried out, target markets selected and the positioning strategy developed, the marketer can begin to shape the "marketing mix" (or "marketing program") around the needs, wants and motivations of the target audience. The traditional marketing mix refers to four broad levels of marketing decision, namely: "product", "price", "promotion", and "place". When implemented successfully, these activities should deliver a firm's products or services to target consumers in a cost efficient manner. The four core marketing activities include: product, price, place and promotion.
The marketing mix is the combination of all of the factors at the command of a marketing manager to satisfy the target market. The elements of the marketing mix are: "Product" – the item or service that is being offered, through its features and consumer benefits and how it is positioned within the marketplace whether it be a high or low quality product. "Price", is a reference to the sacrifices made by a consumer to acquire a product and may include both monetary and psychological costs such as the combination of the ticket price, payment methods and other associated acquisition costs. "Place" refers to the way that a product physically reaches the consumer – where the service or item is sold; it also includes the distribution channels in which the company uses to get products or services to market. Finally, "Promotion" refers to marketing communications used to convey the offer to consumers and may include; personal selling, advertising, public and customer relations, sales promotion and any other activities to communicate with target markets.
The first reference to the term, the 'marketing mix' was claimed to be in around 1950 by Neil H. Borden. Borden first used the term, 'marketing mix' in an address given while he was the President of the American Marketing Association in the early 1950s. For instance, he is known to have used the term 'marketing mix' in his presidential address given to the American Marketing Association in 1953. However, at that stage, theorists and academics were not in agreement as to what elements made up the so-called marketing mix. Instead, they relied on checklists or lengthy classifications of factors that needed to be considered to understand consumer responses. It wasn't until 1960 when E. Jerome McCarthy published his now-classic work, "Basic Marketing: A Managerial Approach" that the discipline accepted the 4 Ps as constituting the core elements of the marketing mix. In the 1980s, the 4 Ps was modified and expanded for use in the marketing of services, which were believed to possess unique characteristics which necessitated a different marketing program. The commonly accepted 7Ps of services marketing include: the original four Ps of product, price, place, promotion plus participants (people), physical evidence and process.
Product.
A ‘Product’ is "something or anything that can be offered to the customers for attention, acquisition, or consumption and satisfies some want or need." (Riaz & Tanveer (n.d); Goi (2011) and Muala & Qurneh (2012)). The product is the primary means of demonstrating how a company differentiates itself from competitive market offerings. The differences can include quality, reputation, product benefits, product features, brand name or packaging.
Price.
Price provides customers with an objective measure of value.(Virvilaite et al., 2009; Nakhleh, 2012). Price can be an important signal of product quality. Prices can also attract specific market segments. For instance, premium pricing is used when a more affluent segment is the target, but a lower-priced strategy might be used when price-conscious consumers are the target. Price can also be used tactically, as a means to advertise, short stints of lower prices increase sales for a variety of reasons such as to shift product over-runs or out of season goods.
Place.
Place refers to the availability of the product to the targeted customers (Riaz & Tanveer, n.d). So a product or company doesn't have to be close to where its customer base is but instead they just have to make their product as available as possible. For maximum efficiency, distribution channels must identify where the target market are most likely to make purchases or access the product. Distribution (or place) may also need to consider the needs of special-interest segments such as the elderly or those who are confined to wheelchairs. For instance, businesses may need to provide ramps for wheelchair access or baby change rooms for mothers.
Promotion.
Promotion refers to "the marketing communication used to make the offer known to potential customers and persuade them to investigate it further". May comprise elements such as: advertising, PR, direct marketing and sales promotion. Target marketing allows the marketer or sales team to customize their message to the targeted group of consumers in a focused manner. Research has shown that racial similarity, role congruence, labeling intensity of ethnic identification, shared knowledge and ethnic salience all promote positive effects on the target market. Research has generally shown that target marketing strategies are constructed from consumer inferences of similarities between some aspects of the advertisement (e.g., source pictured, language used, lifestyle represented) and characteristics of the consumer (e.g. reality or desire of having the represented style). Consumers are persuaded by the characteristics in the advertisement and those of the consumer.
Strategies for segmenting and targeting.
Marketers have outlined five basic strategies to the segmentation and the identification of target markets: undifferentiated marketing or mass marketing, differentiated marketing, concentrated marketing (niche marketing) and micromarketing (hyper-segmentation).
Mass marketing (undifferentiated marketing).
Undifferentiated marketing/Mass marketing is a method which is used to target as many people as possible to advertise one message that marketers want the target market to know (Ramya & Subasakthi). When television first came out, undifferentiated marketing was used in almost all commercial campaigns to spread one message across to a mass of people. The types of commercials that played on the television back then would often be similar to one another that would often try to make the viewers laugh, These same commercials would play on air for multiple weeks/months to target as many viewers as possible which is one of the positive aspects of undifferentiated marketing. However, there are also negative aspects to mass marketing as not everyone thinks the same so it would be extremely difficult to get the same message across to a huge number of people (Ramya & Subasakthi).
Differentiated marketing strategy.
Differentiated marketing is a practice in which different messages are advertised to appeal to certain groups of people within the target market (Ramya & Subasakthi). Differentiated marketing however is a method which requires a lot of money to pull off. Due to messages being changed each time to advertise different messages it is extremely expensive to do as it would cost every time to promote a different message. Differentiated marketing also requires a lot time and energy as it takes time to come up with ideas and presentation to market the many different messages, it also requires a lot of resources to use this method. But investing all the time, money and resources into differentiated marketing can be worth it if done correctly, as the different messages can successfully reach the targeted group of people and successfully motivate the targeted group of people to follow the messages that are being advertised (Ramya & Subasakthi).
Concentrated marketing or niche marketing.
Niche marketing is a term used in business that focuses on selling its products and services solely on a specific target market. Despite being attractive for small businesses, niche marketing is highly considered to be a difficult marketing strategy as businesses may need thorough and in-depth research to reach its specific target market in order to succeed.
According to (Caragher, 2008), niche marketing is when a firm/ company focuses on a particular aspect or group of consumers to deliver their product and marketing to. Niche marketing, is also primarily known as concentrated marketing, which means that firms are using all their resources and skills on one particular niche. Niche marketing has become one of the most successful marketing strategies for many firms as it identifies key resources and gives the marketer a specific category to focus on and present information to. This allows companies to have a competitive advantage over other larger firms targeting the same group; as a result, it generates higher profit margins. Smaller firms usually implement this method, so that they are able to concentrate on one particular aspect and give full priority to that segment, which helps them compete with larger firms.
Some specialities of niche marketing help the marketing team determine marketing programs and provide clear and specific establishments for marketing plans and goal setting. According to, (Hamlin, Knight and Cuthbert, 2015), niche marketing is usually when firms react to an existing situation.
There are different ways for firms to identify their niche market, but the most common method applied for finding out a niche is by using a marketing audit. This is where a firm evaluates multiple internal and external factors. Factors applied in the audit identify the company's weaknesses and strengths, company's current client base and current marketing techniques. This would then help determine which marketing approach would best fit their niche.
There are 5 key aspects or steps, which are required to achieve successful niche marketing. 1: develop a marketing plan; 2: focus your marketing program; 3: niche to compete against larger firms; 4: niche based upon expertise; 5: develop niches through mergers.
Develop A Marketing Plan:
Developing a market plan is when a firms marketing team evaluates the firms current condition, what niches the company would want to target and any potential competition. A market plan can consist of elements such as, target market, consumer interests, and resources; it must be specific and key to that group of consumers as that is the speciality of niche marketing.
Focus Your Marketing Program:
Focusing your marketing program is when employees are using marketing tools and skills to best of their abilities to maximise market awareness for the company. Niche marketing is not only used for remaining at a competitive advantage in the industry but is also used as a way to attract more consumers and enlarge their client database. By using these tools and skills the company is then able to implement their strategy consistently.
Niche To Compete Against Larger Firms:
Smaller and medium-sized firms are able to compete against niche marketing, as they are able to focus on one primary niche, which really helps the niche to grow. Smaller firms can focus on finding out their clients problems within their niche and can then provide different marketing to appeal to consumer interest.
Niche Based Upon Expertise:
When new companies are formed, different people bring different forms of experience to the company. This is another form of niche marketing, known as niche based on expertise, where someone with a lot of experience in a specific niche may continue market for that niche as they know that niche will produce positive results for the company.
Developing Niches Through Mergers:
A company may have found their potential niche but are unable to market their product/ service across to the niche. This is where merging industry specialist are utilised. As one company may have the tools and skills to market to the niche and the other may have the skills to gather all the necessary information required to conduct this marketing. According to (Caragher, 2008), niche marketing, if done effectively, can be a very powerful concept.
Overall, niche marketing is a great marketing strategy for firms, mainly small and medium-sized firms, as it is a specific and straightforward marketing approach. Once a firm's niche is identified, a team or marketers can then apply relevant marketing to satisfy that niche's wants and demands.
Niche marketing also closely interlinks with direct marketing as direct marketing can easily be implemented on niches within target markets for a more effective marketing approach.
Direct marketing.
Direct marketing is a method which firms are able to market directly to their customers needs and wants, it focuses on consumer spending habits and their potential interests. Firms use direct marketing a communication channel to interact and reach out to their existing consumers (Asllani & Halstead, 2015). Direct marketing is done by collecting consumer data through various means. An example is the internet and social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat. Those were a few online methods of which organisations gather their data to know what their consumers like and want allowing organisations to cater to what their target markets wants and their interest (Lund & Marinova, 2014). This method of marketing is becoming increasingly popular as the data allows organisations to come up with more effective promotional strategies and come up with better customize promotional offers that are more accurate to what the customers like, it will also allows organisations to uses their resources more effectively and efficiently and improve customer management relationships. An important tool that organisations use in direct marketing is the RFM model (recency-frequency-monetary value) (Asllani & Halstead, 2015). Despite all the benefits this method can bring, it can be extremely costly which means organisation with low budget constraints would have trouble using this method of marketing..
Online targeting.
Digital communications have allowed marketers to segment markets at ever tighter levels - right down to the individual consumer. This process is known as micromarketing, cyber-segmentation or hyper-segmentation. In effect, this allows to the marketer to pursue both a differentiated marketing strategy and a niche marketing strategy to reach the smallest groups in the marketplace. R
Hyper-segmentation relies on extensive information technology, big databases, computerized and flexible manufacturing systems, and integrated distribution systems. Data is captured from electronic communications devices, mapped and logged with a management information system. This enables the integration of observed behaviour (domains accessed) with motives (content involvement), geographics (IP addresses), demographics (self-reported registration details) and brand preferences (site-loyalty, site stickiness). Additional data inputs might include behavioural variables such as frequency (site visits), diversity including visitation across different landscapes and fluidity spanning multiple time periods. Programmed business intelligence software analyses this data and in the process, may also source data inputs from other internal information networks. Marketers and advertisers can then use an inventory of stock images and phrases to compile customised promotion offers in real-time which are delivered to prospective purchasers with a strong interest in the product, or who are in an advanced state of buyer-readiness.
With increased availability of electronic scanner data there has been a greater focus on research of micromarketing and pricing problems that retailers encounter. Research in 1995 by Stephen J. Hoch et al. provided empirical evidence for the micromarketing concept. In 1997, Alan Montgomery used hierarchical Bayes models to improve the estimation procedures of price elasticities, showing that micromarketing strategies can increase gross profits.
With the advent of social media, advertising has become a more efficient at reaching relatively small target audiences. People are constantly exposed to advertisements and their content, which is key to its success. In the past, advertisers had tried to build brand names with television and magazines; however, advertisers have been using audience targeting as a new form of medium. The rise of internet users and its wide availability has made this possible for advertisers. Targeting specific audiences has allowed for advertisers to constantly change the content of the advertisements to fit the needs and interests of the individual viewer. The content of different advertisements are presented to each consumer to fit their individual needs.
The first forms of online advertising targeting came with the implementation of the personal email message. The implementation of the internet in the 1990s had created a new advertising medium; until marketers realized that the internet was a multibillion-dollar industry, most advertising was limited or illicit.
Many argue that the largest disadvantage to this new age of advertising is lack of privacy and the lack of transparency between the consumer and the marketers. Much of the information collected is used without the knowledge of the consumer or their consent. Those who oppose online targeting are worried that personal information will be leaked online such as their personal finances, health records, and personal identification information.
Advertisers use three basic steps in order to target a specific audience: data collection, data analysis, and implementation. They use these steps to accurately gather information from different internet users. The data they collect includes information such as the internet user's age, gender, race, and many other contributing factors. Digital communications has given rise to new methods of targeting:
These methods rely on data collected from consumer-browsing histories and as such, rely on observed behaviour rather than self-reported behaviours. The implication is that data collected is much more reliable, but at the same time attracts concerns about consumer privacy. Many internet users are unaware of the amount of information being taken from them as they browse the internet. They don't know how it is being collected and what it is being used for. Cookies are used, along with other online tracking systems, in order to monitor the internet behaviors of consumers.
Many of these implemented methods have proven to be extremely effective. This has been beneficial for all three parties involved: the advertiser, the producer of the good or service, and the consumer. Those who are opposed of targeting in online advertising are still doubtful of its productivity, often arguing the lack of privacy given to internet users. Many regulations have been in place to combat this issue throughout the United States.


Patrick M. Walsh

Patrick Michael Walsh (born January 13, 1955) is a former United States Navy four-star admiral who last served as the 59th Commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet from September 25, 2009 to January 20, 2012. He served as the 35th Vice Chief of Naval Operations from April 5, 2007 to August 13, 2009, and as Commander of the U.S. Naval Forces Central Command and Commander, U.S. 5th Fleet from October 2005 to February 27, 2007. He retired from the Navy with over 34 years of service.
Biography.
Education.
Walsh graduated with honors from Jesuit College Preparatory in Dallas, Texas, and was the second student in the sixty-year history of the school to receive both the Distinguished Graduate and Distinguished Alumnus awards. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1977 with a Bachelor of Science degree. He attended graduate studies in the International Relations curriculum at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, as part of the Admiral Arthur S. Moreau Scholarship Program. Walsh graduated first in his class and received a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy degree, entered the Doctorate Program with distinction and subsequently received a PhD
United States Navy career.
After designation as a Naval Aviator, Walsh began operational flying with the "Golden Dragons" of Attack Squadron 192, deployed to the Indian Ocean aboard the aircraft carrier and was later selected by Commander, Light Attack Wing Pacific, as the Junior Officer/Tailhook Pilot of the Year. He then reported to Air Test and Evaluation Squadron 5 as an Operational Test Director until selection to the Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron, "Blue Angels," where he flew the Left Wingman and Slot Pilot positions. When he returned to the fleet, Walsh joined the "Golden Warriors" of Strike-Fighter Squadron 87 as the Operations Officer and flew combat missions in support of Operations "Desert Storm" and "Provide Comfort" from the carrier .
Walsh commanded the "Gunslingers" of Strike-Fighter Squadron 105 for missions in support of Operations "Southern Watch" and "Deny Flight" from . He commanded Carrier Air Wing 1 for deployment in support of Operation "Southern Watch" aboard . He also commanded Carrier Group Seven of the Strike Group for a deployment to the western Pacific Ocean. Most recently, he commanded U.S. Naval Forces Central Command and U.S. 5th Fleet, while also commanding the Combined Maritime Forces conducting Operations "Enduring Freedom", "Iraqi Freedom" and maritime security operations in the Central Command area of responsibility.
Walsh was a Special Assistant to the Director of the Office of Management and Budget as a White House Fellow. He chaired the Department of Leadership, Ethics and Law at the U.S. Naval Academy, served as the Executive Assistant to the Chief of Naval Personnel, and reported to the Joint Staff for his first flag assignment as the Deputy Director for Strategy and Policy, (J-5). He also served concurrently as the Director, Navy Quadrennial Defense Review and Director, Navy Programming Division.
On February 3, 2009, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates selected Walsh to conduct a 30-day review of operations at the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, following President Barack Obama's order that the detention center be closed within one year.


Measurement Incorporated

Measurement Incorporated is an educational testing company based in Durham, North Carolina. The company was founded in 1980 by Dr. Henry Scherich. Measurement Incorporated currently administers state-wide standardized tests for Arizona, California, Michigan, and Washington State. Measurement Incorporated also administers the Independent School Entrance Examination (ISEE) for the Educational Records Bureau.
Products and Services.
Measurement Incorporated (MI) provides assessment services, automated essay scoring products, online testing and development, and professional services. MI also provides traditional paper and pencil assessments.
Corporate Affairs.
Historic Preservation.
Measurement Incorporated has purchased and renovated three historic buildings in downtown Durham, North Carolina: the Brodie Duke Warehouse, the Imperial Tobacco Warehouse, and the BC Remedy Building.
Built around 1878, the Brodie Duke Warehouse is one of the oldest tobacco-related buildings in town. Brodie Duke was the oldest surviving child of Washington Duke, and was the first of the Duke family to move to Durham. He made a living by selling tobacco from the floor below his living space. After a while, the rest of Brodie's family followed in his footsteps, selling their farm and moving to Durham. Brodie and his father shared a warehouse at this time, and held an agreement by which each would sell the other's products. Eventually, Brodie built his own warehouse, the Brodie Duke Warehouse, and joined with his family to create "W. Duke, Sons & Co."
The Imperial Tobacco Warehouse was built during the 1890s, and was originally owned and used by the Imperial Tobacco Company. In retaliation against James Buchanan Duke's expansion of the American Tobacco Company into Europe, the lead European tobacco companies combined to create the Imperial Tobacco Company, and expand to the United States' market. For a while, the two companies had a deal, by which neither would enter each other's market. However, in attempt to lower their prices in Europe, the Imperial Tobacco Company established their own organization in the United States. In 1965, the building was sold to the DC May decorating company, and in 1987, it was leased to the film crew of "Bull Durham", starring Kevin Costner and Susan Sarandon. In 2005, it was sold to, and renovated by, MI.
The BC Remedy Building was formerly owned by Five Points Drug Company. Built in the early 1920s, it was used to produce BC Powder, an over-the-counter pain reliever, commonly used for headaches, that contains aspirin and caffeine. In the 1970s, the building was used as an operations center for Central Carolina Bank and Trust, and was later sold to MI, who renovated it into an office space.
Criticism and Controversies.
Testing problems.
In 2005, about 890 Ohio high school students thought they had failed a test, when they had actually passed. A scoring error was made by MI on the ISEE admission test for the 2010/2011 testing year, about 7000 (or 17%) of the testing students received incorrect scores because the wrong key had been used. In 2016, the state of Michigan fined the company $400,000 for not delivering test scores on time.
TNReady lawsuit.
In 2016, the state of Tennessee terminated two contracts, worth a total of $165 million with the company after the failure of their online testing platform followed by a failure to deliver paper versions of the tests. In June 2017, Measurement Incorporated sued the State of Tennessee Department of Education for $25.3 million. The Department of Education responded in January 2018 with a counterclaim, saying the company did not fulfill its duties.
The case is currently pending with the Tennessee Claims Commission and is slated to go to trial in late 2019.
Religious discrimination.
In 2011, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) fined Measurement Incorporated $110,000 for discriminating against Jacqueline Dukes when she was fired for refusing to work on her Sabbath ("EEOC v. Measurement, Inc.", Civil Action No. 1:10-cv-00623 in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina).


Trammell Crow

Fred Trammell Crow (June 10, 1914 – January 14, 2009) was an American real estate developer from Dallas, Texas. He is credited with the creation of several major real estate projects, including the Dallas Market Center, Peachtree Center in Atlanta, Georgia, and the Embarcadero Center in San Francisco, California.
Biography.
A native of Dallas, Crow as a child and later as an adolescent earned money through a series of odd jobs, including plucking chickens, cleaning bricks, and unloading boxcars, from the age of ten until his father forbade it. He was the fifth of eight children reared in East Dallas. His father, Jefferson Crow, worked as a bookkeeper for Collett Munger – one of Dallas' early real estate developers and the builder of Munger Place subdivision.
After completing Woodrow Wilson High School in 1932 Crow was unable to attend college at the time because of the Great Depression, Crow then worked after high school at some odd jobs. then In 1933, Crow landed a job for about $13 a week as a runner for Mercantile National Bank in Dallas while attending night school in accounting at Southern Methodist University. Upon graduation in 1938, he was at the age of twenty-four the youngest CPA in Texas. He then worked for three years as a Certified Public Accountant before joining the United States Navy in 1940. He used his background in accounting and was offered a commission auditing the books of defense contractors. After World War II, he remained with the Navy for another year to handle final settlements with its contractors. He left the Navy after achieving the rank of commander and then returned to Dallas and saw opportunities for the growth of the city. He became an agent for North American Van Lines, a moving company. Shortly thereafter, he worked as a wholesale grain merchandiser, tripled the sizes of the warehouses, and erected new loading facilities. Once the grain business faded, he switched at the age of thirty-three to the burgeoning field of warehouse real estate development.
Crow built his first warehouse in 1948 and leased it to Ray-O-Vac Battery Company. The warehouse was larger than what Ray-O-Vac needed, and Crow was able to seek additional tenants. He convinced Decca Records to sign for the leftover space, and began a career as a "speculative builder." This field was a new concept in property development, one in which builders typically designed construction to meet the expressed needs of one specific company, then leased the entire space to that company after the building was in place.
He continued from his start with a single-story warehouse on the banks of the Trinity River in the late 1940s. In partnerships with John M. Stemmons, he became one of the largest developers in the Trinity River Industrial Park. By the middle 1950s, Crow was Dallas' largest warehouse builder.
His company's skyscrapers – including Dallas' 50-story Trammell Crow Center and the 53-story Chase Tower – reshaped skylines in the 1980s in cities stretching from Charlotte, North Carolina to San Diego, California.
Trammell Crow Company.
By 1970, Crow had developed Trammell Crow Company into a nationwide organization, another innovation in a field that was, at the time, dominated strictly by local builders.
"Forbes" in 1971 and "The Wall Street Journal" in 1986 called Crow the largest landlord in the US. "The Journal" said the company he founded was then the largest developer in the nation.
Crow once had interests in nearly of developed real estate, comprising eight thousand properties in more than one hundred cities. Crow's holdings were said to be much larger than those of the better-known William Zeckendorf and Donald Trump and include hotels, hospitals, residential developments, and – just as in the early days of the company – warehouses. The "Austin Business Journal" said in its profile of TCC, "When compared to Trammell Crow, other real estate companies are for the birds." Yahoo! Finance, in an oddly similar metaphor, said in its company profile: "It takes a tough bird to succeed in the real estate business, and Trammell Crow Company is one of the cocks of the walk." Calling the organization "one of the top diversified real estate management companies in the US," the profile estimates that the company manages nearly of warehouse, service center, and retail space in the United States and Canada.
As of June, 2007, the company was set to grow even further with the scheduled $60 million purchase of the HealthSouth headquarters building in Birmingham, Alabama.
The Trammell Crow Company was privately held until 1997, when it went public on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the symbol TCC. In 2006, the firm was sold to CB Richard Ellis group (NYSE:CBG) for approximately $2.2 billion.
Art collection.
Trammell Crow was an enthusiastic collector of East Asian art. His son, Trammell S. Crow, went to Yale University with Alex Kerr, and some time later, after Kerr was more established, he became an art purchaser in Tokyo for the Trammell Crow Company at the behest of his father. In 1998, 598 of the family's best pieces were donated to the people of Dallas with the founding of the Trammell & Margaret Crow Collection of Asian Art.
He also commissioned several pieces from artist Bjørn Wiinblad, also sculptor David Cargill, incorporating them into his Dallas hotel and real estate projects.
Personal life.
In 1981, Crow received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.
In 1989, Crow was an original inductee of the Woodrow Wilson High School Hall of Fame, which was established in connection with the school's sixtieth anniversary.
Crow was instrumental in bringing to Dallas the 1984 Republican National Convention, which renominated U.S. President Ronald W. Reagan and Vice President George Herbert Walker Bush. He and his wife, the former Margaret Doggett, were avid collectors of Asian art, for which they established a museum, The Trammell & Margaret Crow Collection of Asian Art. This private museum is open to the public without charge. It is located on Flora Street in the Arts District of downtown Dallas.
Crow married his wife Margaret in 1942 and at the time of his death, they had been married for sixty-six years. The couple has six surviving children: Lucy C. Billingsley, Robert Crow, Harlan Crow, Howard Crow, Stuart Crow, and Trammell S. Crow. The Crows have sixteen grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. His eldest son, Robert, was a drug addict during the 1980s and often found himself in rehabilitation clinics.
Late in life, Crow suffered from Alzheimer's disease and died at age 94 in his sleep at his ranch near Tyler on January 14, 2009. He is interred at the Texas State Cemetery in Austin, Texas. His widow Margaret died in 2014, five years later, also at the age of 94.


Felix, qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas

“Felix, qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas” is verse 490 of Book 2 of the "Georgics" (29 BC), by the Latin poet Virgil (70 - 19 BC). It is literally translated as: “Fortunate, who was able to know the causes of things”. Dryden rendered it: "Happy the Man, who, studying Nature's Laws, / Thro' known Effects can trace the secret Cause" ("The works of Virgil", 1697). Virgil may have had in mind the Roman philosopher Lucretius, of the Epicurean school.
Uses.
This sentence is often written with a present tense instead of the past tense: “Felix, qui potest rerum cognoscere causas” (“Fortunate is he, who is able to know the causes of things”). Translators have also often added the adjective "hid" or "hidden" to qualify the causes.
The latter half of the phrase, "rerum cognoscere causas", is the motto of the London School of Economics, the University of Sheffield, Bruce Hall (residential college of the Australian National University), Humberside Collegiate, the University of Guelph, Hill Park Secondary School in Hamilton, Ontario, the IVDI lecture hall of the University of Debrecen, the Science National Honor Society, the Royal Military College of Science, the German newspaper "Der Tagesspiegel" and the .
The phrase is engraved in the stone bust of Clodomiro Picado Twight in the University of Costa Rica, in San Pedro and also engraved on a stone fireplace at the Henry Wallace building in the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE) in Turrialba, Costa Rica.
It appears prominently on a board in the 1990 film "Awakenings" (at time 1:06:19). The sentence also appears in Latin in the English-language edition of "Asterix and Obelix All at Sea" on page 41. The reply to this sentence is: "Never Mind The Potty Causes Now!"


Dean Craig

Dean Craig (born 25 October 1974) is an English screenwriter and film director. In addition to his film work, Craig wrote the BBC television series "Off The Hook".
Early life.
He was educated at The Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School, an independent school in Elstree in Hertfordshire.
Career.
Craig began as a script reader and script editor for Working Title, BBC Films, and Miramax, before heading to New York University to take a summer filmmaking program in 2002. He wrote on his first feature screenplay "Caffeine". He then wrote "Death at a Funeral", which would later be remade in 2010.
He teaches screenwriting at the London Film School.


Gwyneth Lewis

Gwyneth Lewis (born 1959) is a Welsh poet, who was the inaugural National Poet of Wales in 2005. She wrote the text that appears over the Wales Millennium Centre.
Biography.
Gwyneth Lewis was born into a Welsh-speaking family in Cardiff. Her father started teaching her English when her mother went into hospital to give birth to her sister.
Lewis attended Ysgol Gyfun Rhydfelen, a bilingual school near Pontypridd, and then studied at Girton College, Cambridge, University of Cambridge, where she was a member of Cymdeithas Y Mabinogi. She was awarded a double first in English literature and the Laurie Hart Prize for outstanding intellectual work. Lewis then studied creative writing at Columbia and Harvard, before receiving a D. Phil in English from Balliol College, Oxford, for a thesis on 18th-century literary forgery featuring the work of Iolo Morganwg.
Lewis was made a Harkness Fellow and worked as a freelance journalist in New York for three years. She then returned to Cardiff as a documentary producer and director at BBC Wales. She left the BBC in 2001 after receiving a £75,000 grant from the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts to carry out research and sail to ports linked historically with the inhabitants of her native Cardiff.
Lewis later wrote the words which appear over the Wales Millennium Centre, which opened in November 2004. The same words form the title of Karl Jenkins's cantata "In These Stones Horizons Sing", which is partly set to lyrics by Gwyneth Lewis. In 2005 she was elected Honorary Fellow of Cardiff University. The same year she was made the first National Poet of Wales.
Lewis was a judge for the 2011 Hippocrates Prize for Poetry and Medicine. On 6 August 2012, Gwyneth Lewis won Y Goron (the Crown) at the National Eisteddfod at Llandow for a collection of poems on the set title of "Ynys" (Island).
Music.
Lewis entered the world of music in partnership with Richard Chew. "Redflight/ Barcud" was her first libretto, commissioned and presented by Welsh National Opera with pupils from Ysgol Capel y Cynfab, Cynghordy and Ysgol Cil-y-cwm. "The Most Beautiful Man from the Sea" is an oratorio for 600 voices, with music by Chew and Orlando Gough. It was given its world première at the Wales Millennium Centre by the Chorus of Welsh National Opera and 500 amateur singers.
Personal life.
Married to Leighton, a former bosun with the Merchant Navy, Lewis has had a well documented battle in the past with clinical depression and alcoholism. Her personal battles inspired her first book, "Sunbathing in the Rain: A Cheerful Book on Depression" and also a collection of poems, "Keeping Mum – Voices from Therapy".
Having agreed to change their lifestyles for their own good, Lewis and her husband bought the small yacht "Jameeleh", taught themselves to sail, and set out to cross the Ocean to Africa. The journey inspired her 2005 book "Two in a Boat – The True Story of a Marital Rite of Passage".
Prizes and awards.
Current list of prizes and awards:


Vistoso Bosses

Vistoso Bosses were an American R&B duo made up of Taylah P. and Kelci from Atlanta, Georgia. They debuted with the single "Delirious" produced by STJAMES, featuringSoulja Boy Tell 'Em, taken from their 2009 shelved album "Confetti". They were also the first females signed to the Collipark Label, founded by Mr. Collipark aka Michael Crooms. They were featured on Space Cowboy's album: the song Party Like Animal. The duo split up in late 2010. Kelci was featured with another all-girl group called "We Are Gauge" from the Most Talented School In America on YouTube. Kelci is officially in an all-girl group called "We Are Levi".
Taylah P., now known as Taylor 7 Blayne, not long afterwards dropped her first solo single, Show Me The Money. She then appeared in the competition of 106&Park's, 106 the Search.


The Gospel Harmony Boys

The Gospel Harmony Boys is a Southern gospel quartet. Since 1952, they have been presenting Gospel Music concerts all across the United States in churches, auditoriums, fairs, and festivals. The group presents a concert that includes many classic gospel songs as well as many new, original tunes that are designed to help us desire a closer walk with the Lord.
The Gospel Harmony Boys included Dr. Clacy Williams singing tenor, Scott Brooks singing lead, Scott Adams singing Baritone, and Brandon Stone singing bass.


The Philadelphia Singers

The Philadelphia Singers was a choir in Philadelphia, in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The group was founded by Michael Korn in 1972 and was currently directed by David Hayes. In 2001, The Philadelphia Singers was named "Resident Chorus of The Philadelphia Orchestra" and was the only chorus to receive this distinction.
The Philadelphia Singers appeared twice at the Lincoln Center Festival with Kurt Masur and the New York Philharmonic, premiering for the first time in the United States works by Krysztof Penderecki and Dov Seltzer. The choir also appeared with The Philadelphia Orchestra, premiering in the United States works by Sir James MacMillan, Luciano Berio, and Augusta Read Thomas as well as world premieres of works by Daniel Kellogg and Jennifer Higdon.
The Philadelphia Singers maintained its own annual subscription series and was the only Philadelphia ensemble to have a regular national radio broadcast on Public Radio International called "Christmas with The Philadelphia Singers". The program was a live broadcast of its annual concert, "Christmas on Logan Square", at St. Clement's Church. The ensemble was devoted to presenting choral music from all periods with a particular focus on American choral music.


Special Class for the Gifted Young

The Special Class for the Gifted Young is a program aimed to select gifted young students to enter the universities in China. First established in 1978 at the University of Science and Technology of China, it was a major innovation in China's higher education. The idea was suggested by renowned scientists such as Tsung-Dao Lee, C. N. Yang, and Samuel C. C. Ting, and supported by the then Vice-premier of the State Council Fang Yi. The objective of the class is to explore the most efficient ways to nurture promising youth. Peking University, Tsinghua University, Nanjing University, Wuhan University, Jilin University, Shanghai Jiaotong University and Huazhong University of Science and Technology also launched similar programs. But they were all shut down for all kinds of reasons. Currently, only the University of Science and Technology of China and Xi'an Jiaotong University still have this program.
University of Science and Technology of China.
As of October 2006, the Special Class for the Gifted Young of the University of Science and Technology of China has enrolled a total of 1134 exceptionally gifted youth, 942 of whom have already graduated.
With the success of the class, a new class was established and adjoined to the original class in 1985, namely "The Experimental Class of Teaching Reform", more popularly known as the Double Zero Class, which is conducted under the same guiding spirit as the Special Class for the Gifted Young. This class has now become an integral part of the program. In 2008, the Special Class for the Gifted Young combined with the Experimental Class of Teaching Reform and the Experimental Class of Innovation became the School of the Gifted Young. The three classes now select students in different ways, while the admitted students receive the same training from the school.
The Special Class for the Gifted Young upholds the guiding principle of ""selecting talents despite their age and cater to their individual potentials"." The curriculum aims to strengthen the foundation courses and an all-round education in the first two years, and in the later years allow students to enjoy wide latitude in developing their potentials and interest. Students are encouraged to attend seminar courses, sign up for the various ""student research projects"," and participate in their professors' research projects. This kind of real research environment not only provides valuable opportunities for them to apply what they have learned in the classroom and give their initiative and creativity full play, but also enhances the spirit of teamwork and cultivates personal integrity.
The past two decades has proven the success of the program. Its students have won numerous prizes in such international and national contests. 80 percent of its graduates have been enrolled in postgraduate programs at home or abroad, one third of whom have already obtained doctoral degrees. Its graduates have now spread all over the world. Among them are the 31-year-old and 34-year-old full professors at Harvard University, the 40-year-old US National Academy of Sciences member, the 31-year-old IEEE fellow and the president of Baidu, the discoverer of the smallest possible carbon nanotube, winners of the U.S. Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, TR35 innovators selected by MIT Technology Review and so on.
Special Class for the Gifted Young.
Established in 1978, the Special Class for the Gifted Young (SCGY) is the traditional and original program of its kind. Its establishment was based on the idea suggested by renowned scientists such as Tsung-Dao Lee, C. N. Yang, and Samuel C. C. Ting. SCGY has strict age limit; for instance, to enroll in 2016, the student must have a birth date after January 1, 2000. Prospective students must first pass the National College Entrance Examination in China, and then the final test arranged by USTC, which mainly focuses on the student's ability in mathematics and physics. Approximately 40 to 50 students are admitted to the class every year.
Experimental Class of Innovation.
The Experimental Class of Innovation was established in 2008, with relatively weak age limit. For instance, to enroll in 2016, the student must have a birth date after January 1, 1999.
Experimental Class of Teaching Reform.
More popularly known as the Double Zero Class (Chinese: 零零班), the Experimental Class of Teaching Reform selects students with regular process, and therefore has no age limit. It is supposed to consist of the best students admitted by the university. Upon admission to the university, students have another chance to join this class, provided that they perform extremely well in the university's examination for all newly admitted students.
Xi'an Jiaotong University.
In 1985, Xi'an Jiaotong University established a special class for gifted youth called Honors Youth Program of Xi'an Jiaotong University (Chinese: 西安交大少年班, also translated as Special Class for the Gifted Young of Xi'an Jiaotong University, a name usually confused with the equivalent in the USTC). The class aims to select talents and explore ways to nurture promising youth without the widely criticized Gaokao and other standardized tests. Every January, XJTU holds tests and interviews for thousands of 9th grade applicants from all over mainland China and admits about 140 students. Youth Class students first study high school courses in High School Affiliated to Xi'an Jiaotong University, Suzhou High School-SIP, or Tianjin Nankai High School. After passing final exams of high school courses, students can directly become undergraduates of XJTU without taking Gaokao. After passing final exams of undergraduate courses, students can directly enter the master's degree programs at XJTU without taking the Postgraduate Admission Test. Alumni of Youth Class include Zhou Hongyi, co-founder of Chinese antivirus software company Qihoo, Xi Chen, a Presidential Scholar and associate professor at Columbia University, and Haitao Zheng, a 2005 TR35 innovator selected by MIT Technology Review.


Colin Shindler

Colin Shindler (born 1949) is an English author, social historian and Affiliated Lecturer in History at Cambridge University.
Life and career.
Born in Manchester, Colin Shindler graduated with a degree in History from Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he later completed his PhD thesis on Hollywood and the Great Depression. Since 1998 he has been lecturing and teaching at Cambridge on films and American history.
He has written numerous books on British and American cultural history with an emphasis on the impact of sport and film on modern society. "Manchester United Ruined My Life" and "Manchester City Ruined My Life" are a pair of memoirs about his support for Manchester City. He also wrote the screenplay for the 1988 film "Buster" and worked as a television producer in England between 1977 and 1996.
His older brother is the lawyer Geoffrey Shindler.
He should not be confused with another English academic and historian, also called Colin Shindler, born in 1946, who specialises in the history of modern Israel.


Cyril Edwards

Cyril William Edwards (8 August 1947 – 15 July 2019) was a British medievalist and translator. Teaching in London and Oxford, he published extensively on the medieval German lyric and Old High German literature, and translated four of the major Middle High German verse narratives.
Life.
Cyril Edwards was born in Neston, Cheshire, the son of William Henry Edwards, a gardener at the University of Liverpool’s Ness Botanic Gardens in the Wirral, and Edith Mary Edwards ("née" Purchase).
From Calday Grange Grammar School he went up to Oxford, graduating in 1970 with a degree in German from Jesus College. He went on to do research, completing a doctoral thesis on Konrad von Würzburg under Ruth Harvey in 1975.
In 1976 he took up a Lectureship in German at Goldsmiths College, University of London, where he taught Medieval German Literature and History of the German Language.
At Goldsmiths he was responsible for organizing three conferences devoted to Interdisciplinary Medieval Studies, which brought together historians, literary scholars and linguists.
He published over 30 journal articles and book chapters, with a particular focus on Minnesang and the Arthurian Romance. A number of his papers on Old High German literature were collected in the volume "The Beginnings of German Literature: comparative and interdisciplinary approaches to Old High German".
A characteristic feature of his scholarship was a concern with examining the original manuscripts of medieval texts, which led to visits to a wide range of libraries and archives in continental Europe. On a research trip to the Benedictine abbey of Kremsmünster in Upper Austria, he identified a previously unrecognized manuscript page (Cod. 248) in the abbey's library as a song by the Minnesänger Heinrich von Morungen. This led to a series of publications on Morungen's songs, culminating in an edited volume devoted to the "Narcissus song" (MF 145,1). (At his death Edwards was preparing an edition and translation of a late 15th century housebook (Cod. 264) held by the Kremsmünster Abbey.)
In 1994, "despite his record of committed and successful teaching and his internationally recognised distinction in research", Goldsmiths made him redundant on "thematic grounds", a move which gave rise to protests from colleagues in the UK and overseas.
Relocating to Abingdon in 1995, he became a lecturer in German at St Peter's College and Senior Research Fellow of the university's Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages. In the following years he published translations of four of the great narrative poems of the Middle High German classical period: Wolfram von Eschenbach's "Parzival", the Nibelungenlied and Hartmann von Aue's two Arthurian romances, "Erec" and "Iwein". Both the "Parzival" and the "Nibelungenlied" translations were published in the Oxford World's Classics series.
His interests and expertise went beyond the medieval: at Oxford he also taught German Cinema, and he contributed the article on Theodor Fontane to the Dictionary of National Biography. His later publications include two cook books and a book of poems. He was also a tiddlywinks player of some standing, representing both Oxford University and England, and at one point ranked 11th in the world.
Cyril Edwards died of a heart attack, aged 71, on 15 July 2019 in Abingdon. Professor Nigel Palmer wrote, "Cyril was a remarkable figure, a lovable eccentric, a fine scholar with a wide range of cultural interests who had a difficult career. His translations have played an important part in keeping interest in medieval German literature alive in the English-speaking world."
Publications.
Medieval literature.
Books
Selected articles
Translations.
Middle High German literature
Modern works


John Cassidy (journalist)

John Joseph Cassidy (born 1963) is an American journalist and British expatriate who is a staff writer at "The New Yorker". He is a contributor to "The New York Review of Books", and previously, an editor at "The Sunday Times" of London and a deputy editor at the "New York Post". He received his undergraduate degree from University College, Oxford, studied at Harvard University on a Harkness Fellowship, and received a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University and a master's in economics from New York University.
He is the author of the well-received "Dot.con: The Greatest Story Ever Sold", which examines the dot-com bubble, and "", which combines a skeptical history of economics with an analysis of the housing bubble and credit bust. He is also well known for his biographical and economic writing on the famous Cambridge economist John Maynard Keynes, whom he interprets in a largely positive light.


Paul Gigot

Paul Anthony Gigot (; born May 24, 1955) is an American Pulitzer Prize winning conservative political commentator and editor of the editorial pages for "The Wall Street Journal". He is also the moderator of the public affairs television series "Journal Editorial Report", a program reflecting the "Journal"s editorial views which airs on Fox News Channel.
Early life.
Paul Gigot was born in San Antonio, Texas, and he and his family moved to Green Bay, Wisconsin not long afterward. He is Roman Catholic and attended Catholic schools for 12 years. He graduated from Abbot Pennings High School in De Pere, Wisconsin in 1973.
He graduated "summa cum laude" from Dartmouth College in 1977, where he was Editor-in-Chief of "The Dartmouth". He was a student of English professor and conservative columnist Jeffrey Hart.
Career.
Prior to becoming an editor at "The Wall Street Journal", Gigot spent 14 years writing the column "Potomac Watch". His career at the "Journal" began in 1980, when he became a reporter covering Chicago, Illinois. Two years later he became the paper's Asia correspondent in Hong Kong. While in Hong Kong in 1984, Gigot was placed in charge of "The Wall Street Journal Asia".
From 1986 to 1987, Gigot served as a White House Fellow under President Ronald Reagan.
During the 1990s, he was a regular guest on "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer", appearing in the program's weekly political analysis segment, opposite Mark Shields, the regular liberal pundit.
In 2000, Gigot won a Pulitzer Prize for his weekly "Potomac Watch" column in "The Wall Street Journal", and became the "Journal"s vice president and editorial-page editor in 2001.
Paul Gigot has been described as leading a 'fatwa' against the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, via the editorial pages of "The Wall Street Journal".
In 2017, Gigot was alleged to have forced out junior colleague Mark Lasswell from "The Wall Street Journal" the previous summer, after Lasswell continued to publish op-eds critical of Donald Trump. Gigot refused to comment on the personnel change.
Under Gigot's tenure as editorial page editor and vice president, "The Wall Street Journal's" editorial page has been criticized by other media and its own reporters for its pro-Trump stance.
Gigot hosts the weekly cable show "Journal Editorial Report" on Fox News Channel.


Great Neck Village High School

Great Neck Village High School (also known as Village School or VS) is an American long-established public alternative school. It is a member of Coalition of Essential Schools and is located in the village of Great Neck, New York, serving students in grades 8 through 12. Village School is one of three high schools in the Great Neck School District, which includes Great Neck North High School and Great Neck South High School. Village School offers its 39 students an outdoor education program, college preparatory program, and inclusion of students with disabilities.
Co-founder Arnie Langberg has been called "one of the most important pioneers in the field of public alternative education."
Village School is home to the newspaper 'The Villager.
As of the 2014-15 school year, the school had an enrollment of 48 students and 6.0 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 8.0:1. There were 3 students (6.3% of enrollment) eligible for free lunch and none eligible for reduced-cost lunch.
Students.
Students who enroll must be considered at risk academically for an array of reasons. The students must be in danger of getting lost in Great Neck’s two large, comprehensive high schools or becoming overwhelmed by their large high schools. Students may have social and emotional problems. The students may also face anxiety and difficulties with focus and organization. In the Village School’s low-key approach, these issues can be dealt with easily. Students who may have felt lost and isolated in a large school often thrive in the smaller and more personalized setting of the Village School. In the 2010-2011 school year, 39 students attended Village School. However, Village School can enroll up to 50 students. About fifty percent of students qualify for special education.
Demographics.
The student body in the school year of 2010-2011 consists of:


Santa Fe Desert Chorale

The Santa Fe Desert Chorale is a 24-voice professional choir in Santa Fe, New Mexico which was founded in 1982.
History.
The Santa Fe Desert Chorale was founded in 1982 by artistic director Lawrence Bandfield. He chose Santa Fe with the belief that the city's artistic reputation would provide visibility to the group. Banfield led the Chorale until 1998.
From 1999 to 2004 the director was Dennis Shrock, who had previously been the choral director of the Oklahoma City Philharmonic.
In 2002 they started a year-round program for children (ages 7 to 14), which also holds public performances.
The Santa Fe Desert Chorale did not have a director for their 2008 Summer season, using four prospective directors, as well as three guest conductors. Since 2009, their official director has been Joshua Habermann, who was one of the four finalists tried during the 2008 season. Habermann also directs the Dallas Symphony Chorus.
During the Winter, 2011 season, the Chorale debuted a second group, named Desert Chorale II composed of students from the University of New Mexico, in addition to singers from the main group. Desert Chorale II was formed by Habermann as a means of providing training to singers outside of a university setting.
Organization.
The Desert Chorale holds general concerts during Summer, and holiday concerts in December. They have recorded 13 CDs.
The casting of the chorus changes yearly, with about two thirds returning on any given year. Habermann conducts auditions in New York, Los Angeles, and Dallas, while some musicians send recordings.


Gian Michele Graf

Gian Michele Graf (born 14 July 1962) is a Swiss mathematical physicist.
Graf studied physics and mathematics at ETH Zurich, where he graduated in 1986 with "Diplom" thesis supervised by Jürg Fröhlich and received his doctorate in 1990 with thesis supervised by Walter Hunziker (1935–2012) . From 1990 to 1992 Graf was an assistant professor of mathematics at Caltech. At ETH Zurich he was from 1992 to 1998 an assistant professor and from 1998 to 2001 an associate professor and is since 2001 a full professor.
He was at the Institute for Advanced Study in 1996 and in 2002. He has been a visiting researcher in six different countries.
Graf's research deals with fundamental thermodynamic properties of matter (especially questions related to the problem of the "stability of matter" mathematically investigated by Elliott Lieb and others), many-body scattering processes in quantum mechanics, quantum pumps and various problems of solid-state physics such as the quantum Hall effect and topological insulators.
He was a plenary speaker at the 10th International Congress on Mathematical Physics (ICMP) in Leipzig in 1991 and an invited speaker at the 14th ICMP in Lisbon in 2003. In 1992 he was a Sloan Fellow. He was an invited speaker of the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) in 1998 in Berlin and of the ICM in 2006 in Madrid.
Graf is a Swiss "Bürger" of Lugano and Rebstein.


Michael Hersch

Michael Nathaniel Hersch (born June 25, 1971) is an American composer and pianist.
Biography.
Early life and musical education.
Born in Washington, D.C., and raised in Reston, Virginia, Hersch was introduced to classical music at the age of 18 by his younger brother Jamie, who showed him a videotape of Georg Solti conducting Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.
He began his studies at the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore. In 1995 Hersch studied at the Moscow Conservatory, where he worked with Albert Leman and Roman Ledenev. That same year he also worked with John Corigliano, John Harbison, and George Rochberg at a program for young composers. Hersch then returned to Peabody for graduate studies, where he currently serves as Chair of the composition department.
Early recognition.
His first success came when Marin Alsop selected Hersch's "Elegy" as winner of the American Composers Prize, and conducted it at Lincoln Center in New York in 1997. That year also saw Hersch awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in Music Composition. He has also been a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center, where he studied under Christopher Rouse, the Norfolk Festival for Contemporary Music, and the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan. In 2000, Hersch was awarded the Rome Prize, in 2001 the Berlin Prize. While in Europe Hersch worked with Hans Werner Henze and Luciano Berio. Other honors include the Charles Ives Scholarship (1996) and the Goddard Lieberson Fellowship (2006) from the American Academy of Arts & Letters.
Hersch's earliest recordings appeared on the Vanguard Classics label, the first released in 2003, with performances by the composer and the String Soloists of the Berlin Philharmonic. This was followed by two other Vanguard discs. The second, with Hersch performing his own work in addition to music of Morton Feldman, Wolfgang Rihm, and Josquin des Prez, was selected by The Washington Post and Newsday as among the notable recordings of 2004-05. In 2007, Hersch's multi-hour piano cycle, "The Vanishing Pavilions" (2005), with the composer at the keyboard was released. David Patrick Stearns of The Philadelphia Inquirer wrote on the October 14, 2006 premiere of the work given by the composer.
Music.
Described by The New York Times as "viscerally gripping and emotionally transformative music … claustrophobic and exhilarating at once, with moments of sublime beauty nestled inside thickets of dark virtuosity," Hersch's work "marries a volcanic New World energy to a deeply skeptical, often angst-ridden spiritual climate." (Andrew Clark, Financial Times)
In 2014, Hersch's first work for the stage, "On the Threshold of Winter" (2012), premiered at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Fishman Space by the NUNC ensemble (Miranda Cuckson, director) with Ah Young Hong as the soloist. The opera, about terminal illness, is a reaction to the passing of one of Hersch's closest friends in 2009, as well as the composer's own diagnosis of cancer several years earlier. Its text comes from the deathbed poems of Romanian writer Marin Sorescu.
In recent years, a frequent collaborator has been violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja. The violinist has commissioned several works from Hersch, including his Violin Concerto, which she premiered with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra in 2015. It was recently announced that he will be writing a new work for her in 2018-19 to be premiered with Camerata Bern.
Other collaborations include those with Dutch contemporary music group Ensemble Klang, violinist Miranda Cuckson, and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.
Hersch's more recent music has been characterized as increasingly "spare, intense, fiercely inward-turning."
Piano performance.
A highly regarded pianist, Hersch has performed throughout the U.S. and internationally. Though he appears in public infrequently, he commands a wide repertoire from Josquin to Boulez. Since 2000, he has primarily focused on performances of his own music.
Audio recording.
"the wreckage of flowers" - Works for Violin
Sonatas Nos. 1 & 2 for Unaccompanied Cello
The Vanishing Pavilions
Chamber Music
Hersch – Josquin – Rihm – Feldman
Orchestral Works


Dale Griffin

Terence Dale "Buffin" Griffin (24 October 1948 – 17 January 2016) was an English drummer and a founding member of 1970s rock band Mott the Hoople. Later, he worked as a producer, and produced many of the BBC Radio 1 John Peel sessions from 1981 to 1994.
Life and career.
Born in Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire, Griffin attended Ross-on-Wye Grammar School. He played in local bands with future fellow Mott the Hoople member Overend Watts and it was during this time he gained the nickname "Buffin". Griffin's bands during this time included the Silence and the Charles Kingsley Creation. He appeared on two singles in 1966 by Yemm and the Yemen. Also in 1966, again with Watts and also with Mick Ralphs, Griffin played in the Doc Thomas Group. Successful in Italy, the group performed until the summer of 1968 when further changes of band personnel took place. Organist Verden Allen was added and the group changed its name to the Shakedown Sound and then to Silence. In 1969 they moved to London and with the addition of Ian Hunter, in June 1969 Mott The Hoople were formed.
Following the departure of Ian Hunter and Mick Ralphs, Griffin, along with Overend Watts and Morgan Fisher re-formed Mott with guitarist Ray Major and vocalist Nigel Benjamin. Following the departure of Benjamin in 1976 the remaining members regrouped as British Lions, with former Medicine Head member and songwriter John Fiddler, until their demise around 1978. During the 1980s, Griffin produced albums for Hanoi Rocks and The Cult, and the Department S hit, 'Is Vic There?', among others (such as New Model Army).
Griffin also produced numerous BBC Radio 1 John Peel sessions from 1981 to 1994. These included:
Aged 58, Griffin was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease.
In January 2009 it was confirmed that Griffin and the other original members of Mott the Hoople would reform for three 40th anniversary reunion concerts in October 2009. Due to popular demand, the reunion was eventually extended to five shows. Having been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, Griffin only performed during the encores. The Pretenders drummer Martin Chambers, a fellow Herefordshire native and friend of the band, played the main set and also covered for Griffin on the 2013 tour.
Griffin died in his sleep on 17 January 2016 at the age of 67, exactly a week after former collaborator David Bowie died from cancer.


Dog bite tug

A bite tug is an important drive and retrieve building tool used in dog training. It is used for police, military and Schutzhund dog training. Bite tugs are perfect for puppies but can be used for training adult dogs as well.
Bite pillows are larger tugs which are used for precision bite work training. They are safer and increase accuracy in bite work.
Materials.
Traditionally, bite tugs are made of leather, jute, fire hose, synthetic fibers, etc. The harder the material a bite tug is made of the more efforts a dog needs to exert. Durability of a bite tug depends upon quality of materials used to make it. Natural fabrics like leather and jute are safe and non-toxic. Bite tugs made of the natural materials will not endanger a dog's health and dog's teeth in particular. Bite tugs are heavy stuffed with safe materials. Still, it is prohibited to leave a dog with a bite tug alone because a dog can tear it apart and have serious health problems or even choke with the stuffing.
Size and design.
There are various dimensions of dog bite tugs. They vary in length and diameter. There are bite tugs with one, two, three handles or with no handle at all. Usually, a dog trainer chooses a bite tug and its design himself relying on his preferences. There are bite tugs with special bags in which treats can be stored.
Puppy training with a bite tug.
Longer bite tugs are used for puppies. The longer the tug, the easier for a puppy to bite it. A two-month-old puppy can be already trained with a bite tug. Bite tugs are suitable for obedience training as well. Encouraging a dog for his efforts and attention is always needed. Encouragement can be with treats or the bite tug can be given to a dog for some time as a reward.
Adult dog training.
The smallest tug is suitable for the training of larger, adult dogs. Long tugs will not be as effective since adult dogs can easily grab them. Bite tugs with handles are easy to use. The tug should be moved very fast so that a dog can not get at it. Short quick movements by the trainer make a dog move fast. Exercises of this kind help to develop drive.


Gusilay language

Gusilay (Gusiilay, Gusilaay, Kusiilaay, Kusilay) is a Jola language of the Casamance region of Senegal.