Creative Writing: April 2009

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Contrast Essay

A comparison and contrast essay may discuss only similarities, only differences, but more often than not, both comparison and contrast is used. The essay may be organised in one of two patterns. Either is acceptable, but mixing patterns is not.

When writing an article to compare your ideas, you have to determine the items that are related in some way. It is impossible for you to try differentiating two diverse things altogether. After you have determined you ideas, it is useful for you take time to map out the outlines of your writings, as this will help you to have a more organized contrast essay. At the same time, it would also help you to have a better picture of what are the arguments that you had made and whether or not they are relevant.

As you are presenting your ideas in your articles, you will have to now more in-depths with the topics that you ought to write abut, hence, writers are usually advised to get familiar with the topic and be resourceful. To show that you are an expert of the topic of your thesis, you need to use some specific and relevant examples for support in your contrast essay.

Though you are contrasting the ideas of two different yet related items, you must bare in mind that you have to give equal treatment to both elements that you are discussing. So that you can show that the points that you made in your paper are all relevant and important for the readers to take note. It is also to make your point equally prominent for all the points made.

There are two general formats for the writers to follow while writing the distinction thesis. As the writers proceed to discuss more about the points made in their thesis, they can discuss it either item by item or point by point. The writers would have to determine the format to be used but they cannot use both of the formats concurrently.

As you are comparing two items concurrently in your composition, the use transitional words or phrases is crucial. This is to guide and lead the readers throughout the whole paper and also to help the reader understand the similarities and differences in your subject.

The introduction and conclude of your thesis play an important roles in your paper. In the introduction, you have to give some background information about the topic of your thesis before you proceed to talk about your points.

In the summary, however, you have to restating your points made in the introduction of your essay writing. Besides that you would also have to summarize the main pointsFree Reprint Articles, and give the reader the final so what of the major similarities and/or differences that you discussed.

There are various tips and guidelines available in the internet about how to write a good contrast essay. Writers can always browsed through get better pictures of what means by contrast essay and how to write a good one.

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Windows 7 Test Release From Thursday

Microsoft will send out a release candidate (test version) of the latest Windows, Windows 7, next week for tests. The test version is available from Thursday for developers, though the public will get it from the fifth of May.

The good news is that the system requirements of Windows 7 are almost similar to that of Vista. So, most users won't have to worry about upgrading the hardware in order to run it.

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ClickBank Ads Reloaded!

Now, as we reported earlier in this CB ads post, ClickBank has come up with the new way to earn more money. You can now create keyword-specific CB ads and display them on your blog through HTML/JS code. The new feature added is called Hop Ad Builder. Here's what you do.

1. Go to ClickBank, and sign in.

2. Click Account settings and then click Hop Ad Builder, the new item added.

3. You will find two options, two choices, Text Ad Builder or Tabbed Ad Builder. I recommend you use the second, as it can be better monetized. The former option looks just like Google Ads and may get lower CTR altogether.

4. Research the most appropriate keywords and use them to automate the ad creation process. Customize the ad box looks and get the JS code to add to your website.

That's it. You got the new CB ad code, which will update itself according to the keywords and settings you have chosen and display them. Look at my sidebar, which has a similar tabbed ad system.

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Psychology Essay

Psychology essay writing usually demonstrates your knowledge gained and your ability to think critically. Psychology essay writing presents all sorts of issues to write about in this manner. Each one is interesting in its own way, and different writers tend to specialize in critically analysing different issues of psychology.

Your Psychology essay provides you an opportunity to present your views and compare them with scholarly works. In a manner of speaking, you will be contributing to the field of psychology through presenting your arguments. However, before you start writing down your arguments in a Psychology essay, you need to present your topic in an introduction. This part will inform your readers about the direction you intend to take in your essay. Additionally, your introduction will describe your title and also highlight a specific area you want to address. Basically, you will place your main arguments here that you will build upon in the main body of your essay.

In your Psychology essay, selecting the right sources to support your arguments is important. These will help you to draw your conclusion effectively. Also, the authenticity of these sources will help to convince your readers about the conclusions you draw. A Psychology essay without adequate or authentic sources cannot achieve the goal of your essay.

Along with using your sources well in your Psychology essay, you need to place arguments in coherent paragraphs. One argument should need into the next. You may analyze your claims as you go along or you may do so in a separate section. If you decide to analyze your arguments in a separate section of your Psychology essay, your arguments must be analyzed in the same sequence as you presented them earlier. This will help the reader to experience a smooth follow in the direction you take.

In a Psychology essay, your claims and arguments are not to impede the work of other scholars. Instead, your work will compliment their research. This is most likely to be the outcome because you will be using established and scholarly sources in your Psychology essay. Apart from complimenting scholarly work, your main goal is to prove your point. Depending on how you use your sources you will be able to do this.

Your Psychology essay will not have its complete strength without a solid conclusion. You need to make sure that your essay states finally what you have managed to prove. To do this in your Psychology essay, you need to remind your readers about the main points. After this, you should briefly review your evidence. Your last step should be a clear statement that supports your arguments.

For writing a successful Psychology essay, you can hire professional writing services or you could get down to doing it yourself. To be a successful Psychology essay writer, you need to practice your skills. After some timeComputer Technology Articles, you will find out how much you have improved. You will be able to write your own essays effectively whenever you need to.

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Microsoft Vine: A New Contestant in Social Warfare

Tuesday, Microsoft announced its new social tool, MS Vine. It's private beta now, and you need an invitation to start on it. You can request one from the Vine home page. With pretty much everything to connect social networks like Facebook and Twitter, Vine will be a new social tool.

With Facebook on the top of social networks and even Google having its not-so-popular-in-the-US social network, Orkut, it was high time for MS to start one.

Vine can help you get alerts about your family, friends, and places you care about through a dashboard with a map-studded architecture. Vine, as envisaged by MS, is to keep people connected at the time of crises. This is why Vine connects you to about 20,000 news and public safety sources, which will update you about everything you care about.

Vine also works closely with Facebook and Twitter, sending status updates of your friends and family. In order to know more about Vine, check out the TechCrunch story.

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Online Essay

Essay writing is a skill that one can develop overtime. Taking help from tutors and friends is a good way to develop your skills. Nowadays you can develop your skills online also. There are web sites which help you to develop your skills by giving you practice topics which are reviewed by online tutors. The approach is simple and all you need to do is login to one of the websites and request for a topic. The website gives you a topic on which you need to start writing your essay. There are panel of reviewers who will review your essay and give their comments. You can improve your skills based upon the comments of the reviewer.

The resources available for online essay serve the purpose of different levels of the academic curricula. They serve the purpose of Elementary school, Middle school, high school and graduation levels. If you are writing a thesis for your PhD there are online resources to help you out with your dissertation as well. The websites that offer online essay services helps the users take a step by step approach to the essay writing. The different steps through which the write is guided are pre-writing, writing, organizing, editing rewriting and finally publishing the essay on the website. If the reviewer panel feels that your essay is up to the website’s publishing standards then your essay is displayed on the website.

You stand to gain if your essay is published on the website. You get a wide exposure as a quality writer and people reading your essay may want you write for them. This is when you get recognition as a writer and monetary gains start trickling in. You can also take up writing as a part time or full time job if that interests you. Most of the online essay websites offers services wherein the essays are reviewed by experts to help improve the writing skills of the writer. They are very helpful if you do not have a tutor to guide you on your writing skills. You can also take the help of many online essays that are already published on various websites. Online essays need to be precise and to the point. Unlike essays which are on paperComputer Technology Articles, online essays have very little time to catch the reader’s attention. You have to get your point across to the reader in the shortest possible time.

There are three important steps that you should follow when you are writing an online essay. Your essay should be persuasive. You should do a proper research on your topic and come with logical points to support your argument. The essay should disseminate information. Quality information on the topic is one of the best ways to draw attention to your writing. Your essay should be descriptive. A good but crisp description of the topic generates the interest of the readers and makes them spend time on your essay. If you are interested to develop your skills as an essay writer taking the help of online resources definitely helps a long way.

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Foreword and Forward

These are two often-mistaken words. Some people believe that there is only one word, forward, which means 'ahead', 'toward the front', etc. They believe the same word is used to denote 'the introductory note' of a poetry or anthology. Some other people believe the word for introductory note is foreward. No, there are two words, foreword and forward.

Foreword comes from two words, 'fore' and 'word' (not 'for' and 'ward' or 'fore' and 'ward'), which hence means, a word that comes before other words, an introductory word or a collection of words that form the introduction. That's why the word, foreword means 'introductory note'.

Forward has several meanings, but only one of them corresponds to a noun. It's always an adverb, adjective, or a verb, but not a noun (except in football (soccer for Americans)).

Here are the meanings:

Adjective: ahead, toward the future, at the front, lacking discipline.
Adverb: ahead, indicating progress or improvement, in front of
Verb: to redirect a mail, to advance.

Here are the examples:

As the covey moved forward, we couldn't get its clear picture.
A forward girl, she regularly gets rebuked by her father.
I am looking forward to meeting my friends.
The government employee forwarded the mail to his superior.
Our forward planning saved the city from floods.

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How to avoid intended or unintended plagiarism in your essay?

Contrary to what people believe and say, it is possible to avoid plagiarism in your essays whether it is intended or unintended. It is not an easy job. However, with a little care and caution while trying to write a custom essay or while buying an essay, plagiarism can be prevented.

How to avoid intended or unintended plagiarism in your essay?

Buy essayContrary to what people believe and say, it is possible to avoid plagiarism in your essays whether it is intended or unintended. It is not an easy job. However, with a little care and caution while trying to write a custom essay or while buying an essay, plagiarism can be prevented.

Being a student is not easy at any stage of academic life. Whether it is writing a custom essay or buying essay from some writing service, you have to be very careful and look out for plagiarism. In order to avoid intended or unintended plagiarism in your essays, we propose some strategies which have been carefully worked out and checked to help you when you buy essay or write a custom essay.

Here are some simple and easy to follow steps on how to avoid intended or unintended plagiarism in your essay:

* You can learn how to correctly paraphrase, write and cite resources from the original sources.
* Learn about what plagiarism actually is. Unless and until you know what plagiarism is, you can do nothing to prevent it and in intended or an unintended way, you may be committing it.
* Talk to your teachers and professors on how you can learn to write new ways of writing and how can you write an essay in a totally fresh manner.
* If you are copying someone’s idea, give them due credit or write it in quotation marks to indicate it has been taken from some other source. If you do not do this, it will be called plagiarism.
* Select specific topics for writing essays or when buying essays from any writing service
* Try to go for a particular style of writing or formatting essays
* Go for current resources or the happening issues. Avoid dwelling in the past researches as most of the researches found on the net or encyclopedias are old and lead to plagiarism
* Try to give your personal experiences regarding the topic
* Take oral exam along with the written essay
* Try to put in team effort while doing a research topic
* Talk amongst yourselves as students about plagiarism, the reasons why it is done and discuss ways to avoid intentional and intentional plagiarism

Some general guidelines on how to avoid intended or unintended plagiarismHere are some general tips discussed in detail for you. With help of these tips you can avoid intentional or intentional plagiarism in your essay papers.

Knowing what plagiarism actually isWhether we study from books, listen to our teachers’ lecture or see them on TV, we are going through ideas proposed by some one else. As a result, it is very important that when we write about those same ideas, we give the credit where and when it is necessary. If you take those ideas and text and use without entirely changing them or acknowledging them, you are plagiarizing.

Discussing plagiarism as a moral issueIt is best to realize that plagiarism is a moral and an ethical issue. Stealing or cheating someone else’s original ideas and thoughts without giving them due credit is indeed wrong. Doing your assignment on our own should be preferred. Instead, copying it from some other source just to gain some marks is wrong.

For this purpose you can have group discussions in your college or university and also invite a speaker who will highlight the consequences of plagiarizing.

Learning proper methods of research and writingThe best way to avoid plagiarism is to be creative on your own. It is only when we do not know what to write in our essays, we resort to plagiarism. If we had our own ideas and thoughts, there would be no need to steal or cheat someone else’s ideas. Learning the correct way to search reliable resources such as libraries and internet and writing them down properly using the citation styles is a sure way to avoid intended or unintended plagiarism.

Choice of essay topicsOne way to avoid plagiarism in either intended or unintended way is to go for essay topics which are related to your field of specialization or the field in which you are studying. This way, you will be writing and documenting your own ideas in your custom essay, instead of incorporating and stealing someone else’s ideas.

Checking your assignment after completionThe best way to check your custom essay or an assignment for unintended plagiarism is to check it against the sources from where it has been taken. This would make sure that you have not copied the text as it is and even if you did it without actually knowing it; you will be able to correct your mistakes.

Checking through plagiarizing softwaresWith plagiarism on the rise, many softwares have been developed which make checking your essay for plagiarism an easy job. Any of the numerous softwares available for detecting plagiarism can be used to check your essay. Also if you buy essay from some essay writing service, you can check the essay with the help of these softwares and thus avoid plagiarism.

Consequences of plagiarismDiscuss the consequences of plagiarism when caught. The threat of being dismissed or terminated from the university for plagiarizing is enough for any one to realize that this is something strictly banned and will prevent them from plagiarizing in future. Exchange the stories that you have heard about students who were caught and punished for plagiarizing. This way you will know that this can happen to you as well deter you from doing the same.

It may take time for you to learn and know what plagiarism actually is how you can avoid it. It may prove to be a difficult task for you but with time you can actually avoid intended or unintended plagiarism in your essays.

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Literally, Practically, and Virtually

It's literally freezing in there.
It's practically freezing in there.
It's virtually freezing in there.

You may have seen sentences similar to these used every now and then. The words, literally, practically, and virtually, are all used in these instances to convey emphasis to what's being said. For this need for emphasis, literally and virtually were originally used a lot, but somehow practically also found its way to this and is getting popular.

But despite this common meaning, each of these words has its specific place in English; let's see it now.

1. Literally:

Literally has actually held the meaning, "in a manner that accords with the literal sense of the words", as the American Heritage Guide tells. In that sense, we should not be using literally in the sentence above. But it went on to be used as a word for emphasis and stayed so.

But actually, literally should not be used when a metaphor is present, as in the above sentence. A way to know this is to assume that literally has the same meaning as 'really'. Then substitute in the above sentence, it becomes, "It's really freezing in here", which is untrue. Literally, hence, should be used when you mean 'really', and not when you want mere emphasis. Examples:

There are literally thousands of members in his party. [There are really at least a thousand members in the party]
He spent literally five hours waiting for her. [Not that he spent four and a half hours]

2. Practically

Practically has a word-by-word meaning of "almost" or "in a practical way". Example:

He lives his life practically, so he gets into as few troubles as possible.

The word, as the Heritage Guide tells, has the extended meaning, "for all practical purposes", which gives the following example sentences:

The city was practically unapproachable before the ceasefire.

In this sentence, we are not giving an emphasis, but we are referring to a practical situation, which somehow has a bit of emphasis.

The trick to using practically in this sense, and not to get lost in the above 'emphasis' meaning, is to substitute it with its meaning "for all practical purposes". Let's see how:

It's, for all practical purposes, freezing in here.

Now, as in the case of 'literally', you know this isn't the case. So, this sentence is wrong. Use practically when you have a meaning similar to 'really'. Examples:

The job of a military nurse is practically unsafe for her.
The house was practically unapproachable after the fire.

3. Virtually:

Virtually is safe to be used with all sentences that require a metaphorical emphasis, as in the above sentence as well as the following examples.

Her married life is virtually a chasm of darkness.
There's virtually no air in the cabin.
All we found in the party were virtually two people, she and her husband.

Dictionaries tell, virtually means, "in effect even if not in fact", and "nearly".

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How to Serve Third Party Ads

Here is a video series that teaches you how you can serve third party ads, directly from Google Channel, YouTube.

1. Third Party Ad Serving Basics Part A:

2. Third Party Ad Serving Basics Part B:

3. Third Party Ad Serving Basics Part C:

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Using Google Reader

Here are three videos from Google teaching you how to use Google Reader, the most popular online RSS reading system.

1. Getting Started:

2. Reading Feeds:

3. Sharing Feeds:

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Several Steps in the Writing of College Application Essay

Describes essential steps in the writing and composing of two most popular types of the essays- English essay and college application essay.

Whether you already study at the University or whether you intend to become a student in the nearest future, college application essay is undoubtedly one of the most important writing projects of your life. With the fierce competition and limited number of places the colleges and universities, it is becoming more and more difficult to get to the colleges or universities. One should not forget that you should stand out from numerous competitors that compete with you to get the entrance to the university. How this can be achieved? The only answer to this question is: by writing brilliant, outstanding and memorable college application essay.

The college application essay format may either facilitate your acceptance or lead to the rejection of your application. However, in this type of the essay writing one should not just focus on academic achievements- the admission committee already has them. Rather one must emphasize on several non-academic achievements (such as your achievements in music, sport and culture). In this case you might as well describe your most favorite activity, your hobby and even some exciting and interesting story; however, it should emphasize your exceptional qualities and skills, and live the impression that you stand out from other applicants. The story should be exciting and memorable to read, and certainly your English must be exceptional. Easy-to-read and outstanding English skills are of paramount importance in the writing and composition of English essay. English essay is the type of written assignment where your ability to express yourself in clear, comprehensive English are tested. One must provide as many evidence of your ability to express yourself in clear and understandable language as possible. Try to use as many synonymies, autonomies and indiums as possible in order to impress your reader with the knowledge of the language.

You may be assigned with different topics of an essay; they may vary from the evaluation of Charles Dickens contribution to English literature up to the modern trends in English language. When one start writing this type of the essay one should be aware that in spite of the fact that this type of the essay differs in many aspects from other types of written assignments, it nevertheless should have the same structures as other types of the papers, namely planBusiness Management Articles, body and conclusion.

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Artist and Artiste

Artist, pronounced in the same way, can mean "creator or performer of any kind of art form". Another meaning the word is applied to is "a deceitful person".

There is a separate word, 'artiste', in existence, which in popular belief is the feminine form of 'artist'. But it is not true. An artiste is either a professional performer or someone wanting to be recognized as having artistic talents. This word is pronounced, 'arteest'.

According to Oxford, previously artist was not used for the meaning of 'performer of art'. But now that the word covers both meanings, artiste has almost gone out of use or finds use only in the most formal of occasions.

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The Crystal Egg: Short Story By H G Wells

'The Crystal Egg' is a short story from H G Wells, one of the most celebrated of SciFi writers of the last century. Read below and type your opinions at the comments. To read more such classic short stories, please follow the topic, English Classics.

The Crystal Egg
by H G Wells

There was, until a year ago, a little and very grimy-looking shop near Seven Dials, over which, in weather-worn yellow lettering, the name of "C. Cave, Naturalist and Dealer in Antiquities," was inscribed. The contents of its window were curiously variegated. They comprised some elephant tusks and an imperfect set of chessmen, beads and weapons, a box of eyes, two skulls of tigers and one human, several moth-eaten stuffed monkeys (one holding a lamp), an old-fashioned cabinet, a fly-blown ostrich egg or so, some fishing-tackle, and an extraordinarily dirty, empty glass fish-tank. There was also, at the moment the story begins, a mass of crystal, worked into the shape of an egg and brilliantly polished. And at that two people who stood outside the window were looking, one of them a tall, thin clergyman, the other a black-bearded young man of dusky complexion and unobtrusive costume. The dusky young man spoke with eager gesticulation, and seemed anxious for his companion to purchase the article.

While they were there, Mr. Cave came into his shop, his beard still wagging with the bread and butter of his tea. When he saw these men and the object of their regard, his countenance fell. He glanced guiltily over his shoulder, and softly shut the door. He was a little old man, with pale face and peculiar watery blue eyes; his hair was a dirty grey, and he wore a shabby blue frock-coat, an ancient silk hat, and carpet slippers very much down at heel. He remained watching the two men as they talked. The clergyman went deep into his trouser pocket, examined a handful of money, and showed his teeth in an agreeable smile. Mr. Cave seemed still more depressed when they came into the shop.

The clergyman, without any ceremony, asked the price of the crystal egg. Mr. Cave glanced nervously towards the door leading into the parlour, and said five pounds. The clergyman protested that the price was high, to his companion as well as to Mr. Cave--it was, indeed, very much more than Mr. Cave had intended to ask when he had stocked the article--and an attempt at bargaining ensued. Mr. Cave stepped to the shop door, and held it open. "Five pounds is my price," he said, as though he wished to save himself the trouble of unprofitable discussion. As he did so, the upper portion of a woman's face appeared above the blind in the glass upper panel of the door leading into the parlour, and stared curiously at the two customers. "Five pounds is my price," said Mr. Cave, with a quiver in his voice.

The swarthy young man had so far remained a spectator, watching Cave keenly. Now he spoke. "Give him five pounds," he said. The clergyman glanced at him to see if he were in earnest, and when he looked at Mr. Cave again, he saw that the latter's face was white. "It's a lot of money," said the clergyman, and, diving into his pocket, began counting his resources. He had little more than thirty shillings, and he appealed to his companion, with whom he seemed to be on terms of considerable intimacy. This gave Mr. Cave an opportunity of collecting his thoughts, and he began to explain in an agitated manner that the crystal was not, as a matter of fact, entirely free for sale. His two customers were naturally surprised at this, and inquired why he had not thought of that before he began to bargain. Mr. Cave became confused, but he stuck to his story, that the crystal was not in the market that afternoon, that a probable purchaser of it had already appeared. The two, treating this as an attempt to raise the price still further, made as if they would leave the shop. But at this point the parlour door opened, and the owner of the dark fringe and the little eyes appeared.

She was a coarse-featured, corpulent woman, younger and very much larger than Mr. Cave; she walked heavily, and her face was flushed. "That crystal _is_ for sale," she said. "And five pounds is a good enough price for it. I can't think what you're about, Cave, not to take the gentleman's offer!"

Mr. Cave, greatly perturbed by the irruption, looked angrily at her over the rims of his spectacles, and, without excessive assurance, asserted his right to manage his business in his own way. An altercation began. The two customers watched the scene with interest and some amusement, occasionally assisting Mrs. Cave with suggestions. Mr. Cave, hard driven, persisted in a confused and impossible story of an inquiry for the crystal that morning, and his agitation became painful. But he stuck to his point with extraordinary persistence. It was the young Oriental who ended this curious controversy. He proposed that they should call again in the course of two days--so as to give the alleged inquirer a fair chance. "And then we must insist," said the clergyman. "Five pounds." Mrs. Cave took it on herself to apologise for her husband, explaining that he was sometimes "a little odd," and as the two customers left, the couple prepared for a free discussion of the incident in all its bearings.

Mrs. Cave talked to her husband with singular directness. The poor little man, quivering with emotion, muddled himself between his stories, maintaining on the one hand that he had another customer in view, and on the other asserting that the crystal was honestly worth ten guineas. "Why did you ask five pounds?" said his wife. "_Do_ let me manage my business my own way!" said Mr. Cave.

Mr. Cave had living with him a step-daughter and a step-son, and at supper that night the transaction was re-discussed. None of them had a high opinion of Mr. Cave's business methods, and this action seemed a culminating folly.

"It's my opinion he's refused that crystal before," said the step-son, a loose-limbed lout of eighteen.

"But _Five Pounds_!" said the step-daughter, an argumentative young woman of six-and-twenty.

Mr. Cave's answers were wretched; he could only mumble weak assertions that he knew his own business best. They drove him from his half-eaten supper into the shop, to close it for the night, his ears aflame and tears of vexation behind his spectacles. Why had he left the crystal in the window so long? The folly of it! That was the trouble closest in his mind. For a time he could see no way of evading sale.

After supper his step-daughter and step-son smartened themselves up and went out and his wife retired upstairs to reflect upon the business aspects of the crystal, over a little sugar and lemon and so forth in hot water. Mr. Cave went into the shop, and stayed there until late, ostensibly to make ornamental rockeries for gold-fish cases, but really for a private purpose that will be better explained later. The next day Mrs. Cave found that the crystal had been removed from the window, and was lying behind some second-hand books on angling. She replaced it in a conspicuous position. But she did not argue further about it, as a nervous headache disinclined her from debate. Mr. Cave was always disinclined. The day passed disagreeably. Mr. Cave was, if anything, more absent-minded than usual, and uncommonly irritable withal. In the afternoon, when his wife was taking her customary sleep, he removed the crystal from the window again.

The next day Mr. Cave had to deliver a consignment of dog-fish at one of the hospital schools, where they were needed for dissection. In his absence Mrs. Cave's mind reverted to the topic of the crystal, and the methods of expenditure suitable to a windfall of five pounds. She had already devised some very agreeable expedients, among others a dress of green silk for herself and a trip to Richmond, when a jangling of the front door bell summoned her into the shop. The customer was an examination coach who came to complain of the non-delivery of certain frogs asked for the previous day. Mrs. Cave did not approve of this particular branch of Mr. Cave's business, and the gentleman, who had called in a somewhat aggressive mood, retired after a brief exchange of words--entirely civil, so far as he was concerned. Mrs. Cave's eye then naturally turned to the window; for the sight of the crystal was an assurance of the five pounds and of her dreams. What was her surprise to find it gone!

She went to the place behind the locker on the counter, where she had discovered it the day before. It was not there; and she immediately began an eager search about the shop.

When Mr. Cave returned from his business with the dogfish, about a quarter to two in the afternoon, he found the shop in some confusion, and his wife, extremely exasperated and on her knees behind the counter, routing among his taxidermic material. Her face came up hot and angry over the counter, as the jangling bell announced his return, and she forthwith accused him of "hiding it."

"Hid _what_?" asked Mr. Cave.

"The crystal!"

At that Mr. Cave, apparently much surprised, rushed to the window. "Isn't it here?" he said. "Great Heavens! what has become of it?"

Just then Mr. Cave's step-son re-entered the shop from, the inner room--he had come home a minute or so before Mr. Cave--and he was blaspheming freely. He was apprenticed to a second-hand furniture dealer down the road, but he had his meals at home, and he was naturally annoyed to find no dinner ready.

But when he heard of the loss of the crystal, he forgot his meal, and his anger was diverted from his mother to his step-father. Their first idea, of course, was that he had hidden it. But Mr. Cave stoutly denied all knowledge of its fate, freely offering his bedabbled affidavit in the matter--and at last was worked up to the point of accusing, first, his wife and then his stepson of having taken it with a view to a private sale. So began an exceedingly acrimonious and emotional discussion, which ended for Mrs. Cave in a peculiar nervous condition midway between hysterics and amuck, and caused the step-son to be half-an-hour late at the furniture establishment in the afternoon. Mr. Cave took refuge from his wife's emotions in the shop.

In the evening the matter was resumed, with less passion and in a judicial spirit, under the presidency of the step-daughter. The supper passed unhappily and culminated in a painful scene. Mr. Cave gave way at last to extreme exasperation, and went out banging the front door violently. The rest of the family, having discussed him with the freedom his absence warranted, hunted the house from garret to cellar, hoping to light upon the crystal.

The next day the two customers called again. They were received by Mrs. Cave almost in tears. It transpired that no one _could_ imagine all that she had stood from Cave at various times in her married pilgrimage. ... She also gave a garbled account of the disappearance. The clergyman and the Oriental laughed silently at one another, and said it was very extraordinary. As Mrs. Cave seemed disposed to give them the complete history of her life they made to leave the shop. Thereupon Mrs. Cave, still clinging to hope, asked for the clergyman's address, so that, if she could get anything out of Cave, she might communicate it. The address was duly given, but apparently was afterwards mislaid. Mrs. Cave can remember nothing about it.

In the evening of that day the Caves seem to have exhausted their emotions, and Mr. Cave, who had been out in the afternoon, supped in a gloomy isolation that contrasted pleasantly with the impassioned controversy of the previous days. For some time matters were very badly strained in the Cave household, but neither crystal nor customer reappeared.

Now, without mincing the matter, we must admit that Mr. Cave was a liar. He knew perfectly well where the crystal was. It was in the rooms of Mr. Jacoby Wace, Assistant Demonstrator at St. Catherine's Hospital, Westbourne Street. It stood on the sideboard partially covered by a black velvet cloth, and beside a decanter of American whisky. It is from Mr. Wace, indeed, that the particulars upon which this narrative is based were derived. Cave had taken off the thing to the hospital hidden in the dog-fish sack, and there had pressed the young investigator to keep it for him. Mr. Wace was a little dubious at first. His relationship to Cave was peculiar. He had a taste for singular characters, and he had more than once invited the old man to smoke and drink in his rooms, and to unfold his rather amusing views of life in general and of his wife in particular. Mr. Wace had encountered Mrs. Cave, too, on occasions when Mr. Cave was not at home to attend to him. He knew the constant interference to which Cave was subjected, and having weighed the story judicially, he decided to give the crystal a refuge. Mr. Cave promised to explain the reasons for his remarkable affection for the crystal more fully on a later occasion, but he spoke distinctly of seeing visions therein. He called on Mr. Wace the same evening.

He told a complicated story. The crystal he said had come into his possession with other oddments at the forced sale of another curiosity dealer's effects, and not knowing what its value might be, he had ticketed it at ten shillings. It had hung upon his hands at that price for some months, and he was thinking of "reducing the figure," when he made a singular discovery.

At that time his health was very bad--and it must be borne in mind that, throughout all this experience, his physical condition was one of ebb--and he was in considerable distress by reason of the negligence, the positive ill-treatment even, he received from his wife and step-children. His wife was vain, extravagant, unfeeling, and had a growing taste for private drinking; his step-daughter was mean and over-reaching; and his step-son had conceived a violent dislike for him, and lost no chance of showing it. The requirements of his business pressed heavily upon him, and Mr. Wace does not think that he was altogether free from occasional intemperance. He had begun life in a comfortable position, he was a man of fair education, and he suffered, for weeks at a stretch, from melancholia and insomnia. Afraid to disturb his family, he would slip quietly from his wife's side, when his thoughts became intolerable, and wander about the house. And about three o'clock one morning, late in August, chance directed him into the shop.

The dirty little place was impenetrably black except in one spot, where he perceived an unusual glow of light. Approaching this, he discovered it to be the crystal egg, which was standing on the corner of the counter towards the window. A thin ray smote through a crack in the shutters, impinged upon the object, and seemed as it were to fill its entire interior.

It occurred to Mr. Cave that this was not in accordance with the laws of optics as he had known them in his younger days. He could understand the rays being refracted by the crystal and coming to a focus in its interior, but this diffusion jarred with his physical conceptions. He approached the crystal nearly, peering into it and round it, with a transient revival of the scientific curiosity that in his youth had determined his choice of a calling. He was surprised to find the light not steady, but writhing within the substance of the egg, as though that object was a hollow sphere of some luminous vapour. In moving about to get different points of view, he suddenly found that he had come between it and the ray, and that the crystal none the less remained luminous. Greatly astonished, he lifted it out of the light ray and carried it to the darkest part of the shop. It remained bright for some four or five minutes, when it slowly faded and went out. He placed it in the thin streak of daylight, and its luminousness was almost immediately restored.

So far, at least, Mr. Wace was able to verify the remarkable story of Mr. Cave. He has himself repeatedly held this crystal in a ray of light (which had to be of a less diameter than one millimetre). And in a perfect darkness, such as could be produced by velvet wrapping, the crystal did undoubtedly appear very faintly phosphorescent. It would seem, however, that the luminousness was of some exceptional sort, and not equally visible to all eyes; for Mr. Harbinger--whose name will be familiar to the scientific reader in connection with the Pasteur Institute--was quite unable to see any light whatever. And Mr. Wace's own capacity for its appreciation was out of comparison inferior to that of Mr. Cave's. Even with Mr. Cave the power varied very considerably: his vision was most vivid during states of extreme weakness and fatigue.

Now, from the outset, this light in the crystal exercised a curious fascination upon Mr. Cave. And it says more for his loneliness of soul than a volume of pathetic writing could do, that he told no human being of his curious observations. He seems to have been living in such an atmosphere of petty spite that to admit the existence of a pleasure would have been to risk the loss of it. He found that as the dawn advanced, and the amount of diffused light increased, the crystal became to all appearance non-luminous. And for some time he was unable to see anything in it, except at night-time, in dark corners of the shop.

But the use of an old velvet cloth, which he used as a background for a collection of minerals, occurred to him, and by doubling this, and putting it over his head and hands, he was able to get a sight of the luminous movement within the crystal even in the day-time. He was very cautious lest he should be thus discovered by his wife, and he practised this occupation only in the afternoons, while she was asleep upstairs, and then circumspectly in a hollow under the counter. And one day, turning the crystal about in his hands, he saw something. It came and went like a flash, but it gave him the impression that the object had for a moment opened to him the view of a wide and spacious and strange country; and turning it about, he did, just as the light faded, see the same vision again.

Now it would be tedious and unnecessary to state all the phases of Mr. Cave's discovery from this point. Suffice that the effect was this: the crystal, being peered into at an angle of about 137 degrees from the direction of the illuminating ray, gave a clear and consistent picture of a wide and peculiar country-side. It was not dream-like at all: it produced a definite impression of reality, and the better the light the more real and solid it seemed. It was a moving picture: that is to say, certain objects moved in it, but slowly in an orderly manner like real things, and, according as the direction of the lighting and vision changed, the picture changed also. It must, indeed, have been like looking through an oval glass at a view, and turning the glass about to get at different aspects.

Mr. Cave's statements, Mr. Wace assures me, were extremely circumstantial, and entirely free from any of that emotional quality that taints hallucinatory impressions. But it must be remembered that all the efforts of Mr. Wace to see any similar clarity in the faint opalescence of the crystal were wholly unsuccessful, try as he would. The difference in intensity of the impressions received by the two men was very great, and it is quite conceivable that what was a view to Mr. Cave was a mere blurred nebulosity to Mr. Wace.

The view, as Mr. Cave described it, was invariably of an extensive plain, and he seemed always to be looking at it from a considerable height, as if from a tower or a mast. To the east and to the west the plain was bounded at a remote distance by vast reddish cliffs, which reminded him of those he had seen in some picture; but what the picture was Mr. Wace was unable to ascertain. These cliffs passed north and south--he could tell the points of the compass by the stars that were visible of a night--receding in an almost illimitable perspective and fading into the mists of the distance before they met. He was nearer the eastern set of cliffs; on the occasion of his first vision the sun was rising over them, and black against the sunlight and pale against their shadow appeared a multitude of soaring forms that Mr. Cave regarded as birds. A vast range of buildings spread below him; he seemed to be looking down upon them; and as they approached the blurred and refracted edge of the picture they became indistinct. There were also trees curious in shape, and in colouring a deep mossy green and an exquisite grey, beside a wide and shining canal. And something great and brilliantly coloured flew across the picture. But the first time Mr. Cave saw these pictures he saw only in flashes, his hands shook, his head moved, the vision came and went, and grew foggy and indistinct. And at first he had the greatest difficulty in finding the picture again once the direction of it was lost.

His next clear vision, which came about a week after the first, the interval having yielded nothing but tantalising glimpses and some useful experience, showed him the view down the length of the valley. The view was different, but he had a curious persuasion, which his subsequent observations abundantly confirmed, that he was regarding the strange world from exactly the same spot, although he was looking in a different direction. The long facade of the great building, whose roof he had looked down upon before, was now receding in perspective. He recognised the roof. In the front of the facade was a terrace of massive proportions and extraordinary length, and down the middle of the terrace, at certain intervals, stood huge but very graceful masts, bearing small shiny objects which reflected the setting sun. The import of these small objects did not occur to Mr. Cave until some time after, as he was describing the scene to Mr. Wace. The terrace overhung a thicket of the most luxuriant and graceful vegetation, and beyond this was a wide grassy lawn on which certain broad creatures, in form like beetles but enormously larger, reposed. Beyond this again was a richly decorated causeway of pinkish stone; and beyond that, and lined with dense red weeds, and passing up the valley exactly parallel with the distant cliffs, was a broad and mirror-like expanse of water. The air seemed full of squadrons of great birds, manoeuvring in stately curves; and across the river was a multitude of splendid buildings, richly coloured and glittering with metallic tracery and facets, among a forest of moss-like and lichenous trees. And suddenly something flapped repeatedly across the vision, like the fluttering of a jewelled fan or the beating of a wing, and a face, or rather the upper part of a face with very large eyes, came as it were close to his own and as if on the other side of the crystal. Mr. Cave was so startled and so impressed by the absolute reality of these eyes that he drew his head back from the crystal to look behind it. He had become so absorbed in watching that he was quite surprised to find himself in the cool darkness of his little shop, with its familiar odour of methyl, mustiness, and decay. And as he blinked about him, the glowing crystal faded and went out.

Such were the first general impressions of Mr. Cave. The story is curiously direct and circumstantial. From the outset, when the valley first flashed momentarily on his senses, his imagination was strangely affected, and as he began to appreciate the details of the scene he saw, his wonder rose to the point of a passion. He went about his business listless and distraught, thinking only of the time when he should be able to return to his watching. And then a few weeks after his first sight of the valley came the two customers, the stress and excitement of their offer, and the narrow escape of the crystal from sale, as I have already told.

Now, while the thing was Mr. Cave's secret, it remained a mere wonder, a thing to creep to covertly and peep at, as a child might peep upon a forbidden garden. But Mr. Wace has, for a young scientific investigator, a particularly lucid and consecutive habit of mind. Directly the crystal and its story came to him, and he had satisfied himself, by seeing the phosphorescence with his own eyes, that there really was a certain evidence for Mr. Cave's statements, he proceeded to develop the matter systematically. Mr. Cave was only too eager to come and feast his eyes on this wonderland he saw, and he came every night from half-past eight until half-past ten, and sometimes, in Mr. Wace's absence, during the day. On Sunday afternoons, also, he came. From the outset Mr. Wace made copious notes, and it was due to his scientific method that the relation between the direction from which the initiating ray entered the crystal and the orientation of the picture were proved. And, by covering the crystal in a box perforated only with a small aperture to admit the exciting ray, and by substituting black holland for his buff blinds, he greatly improved the conditions of the observations; so that in a little while they were able to survey the valley in any direction they desired.

So having cleared the way, we may give a brief account of this visionary world within the crystal. The things were in all cases seen by Mr. Cave, and the method of working was invariably for him to watch the crystal and report what he saw, while Mr. Wace (who as a science student had learnt the trick of writing in the dark) wrote a brief note of his report. When the crystal faded, it was put into its box in the proper position and the electric light turned on. Mr. Wace asked questions, and suggested observations to clear up difficult points. Nothing, indeed, could have been less visionary and more matter-of-fact.

The attention of Mr. Cave had been speedily directed to the bird-like creatures he had seen so abundantly present in each of his earlier visions. His first impression was soon corrected, and he considered for a time that they might represent a diurnal species of bat. Then he thought, grotesquely enough, that they might be cherubs. Their heads were round and curiously human, and it was the eyes of one of them that had so startled him on his second observation. They had broad, silvery wings, not feathered, but glistening almost as brilliantly as new-killed fish and with the same subtle play of colour, and these wings were not built on the plan of bird-wing or bat, Mr. Wace learned, but supported by curved ribs radiating from the body. (A sort of butterfly wing with curved ribs seems best to express their appearance.) The body was small, but fitted with two bunches of prehensile organs, like long tentacles, immediately under the mouth. Incredible as it appeared to Mr. Wace, the persuasion at last became irresistible that it was these creatures which owned the great quasi-human buildings and the magnificent garden that made the broad valley so splendid. And Mr. Cave perceived that the buildings, with other peculiarities, had no doors, but that the great circular windows, which opened freely, gave the creatures egress and entrance. They would alight upon their tentacles, fold their wings to a smallness almost rod-like, and hop into the interior. But among them was a multitude of smaller-winged creatures, like great dragon-flies and moths and flying beetles, and across the greensward brilliantly-coloured gigantic ground-beetles crawled lazily to and fro. Moreover, on the causeways and terraces, large-headed creatures similar to the greater winged flies, but wingless, were visible, hopping busily upon their hand-like tangle of tentacles.

Allusion has already been made to the glittering objects upon masts that stood upon the terrace of the nearer building. It dawned upon Mr. Cave, after regarding one of these masts very fixedly on one particularly vivid day that the glittering object there was a crystal exactly like that into which he peered. And a still more careful scrutiny convinced him that each one in a vista of nearly twenty carried a similar object.

Occasionally one of the large flying creatures would flutter up to one, and folding its wings and coiling a number of its tentacles about the mast, would regard the crystal fixedly for a space,--sometimes for as long as fifteen minutes. And a series of observations, made at the suggestion of Mr. Wace, convinced both watchers that, so far as this visionary world was concerned, the crystal into which they peered actually stood at the summit of the end-most mast on the terrace, and that on one occasion at least one of these inhabitants of this other world had looked into Mr. Cave's face while he was making these observations.

So much for the essential facts of this very singular story. Unless we dismiss it all as the ingenious fabrication of Mr. Wace, we have to believe one of two things: either that Mr. Cave's crystal was in two worlds at once, and that while it was carried about in one, it remained stationary in the other, which seems altogether absurd; or else that it had some peculiar relation of sympathy with another and exactly similar crystal in this other world, so that what was seen in the interior of the one in this world was, under suitable conditions, visible to an observer in the corresponding crystal in the other world; and _vice versa_. At present, indeed, we do not know of any way in which two crystals could so come _en rapport_, but nowadays we know enough to understand that the thing is not altogether impossible. This view of the crystals as _en rapport_ was the supposition that occurred to Mr. Wace, and to me at least it seems extremely plausible...

And where was this other world? On this, also, the alert intelligence of Mr. Wace speedily threw light. After sunset, the sky darkened rapidly-- there was a very brief twilight interval indeed--and the stars shone out. They were recognisably the same as those we see, arranged in the same constellations. Mr. Cave recognised the Bear, the Pleiades, Aldebaran, and Sirius; so that the other world must be somewhere in the solar system, and, at the utmost, only a few hundreds of millions of miles from our own. Following up this clue, Mr. Wace learned that the midnight sky was a darker blue even than our midwinter sky, and that the sun seemed a little smaller. _And there were two small moons!_ "like our moon but smaller, and quite differently marked," one of which moved so rapidly that its motion was clearly visible as one regarded it. These moons were never high in the sky, but vanished as they rose: that is, every time they revolved they were eclipsed because they were so near their primary planet. And all this answers quite completely, although Mr. Cave did not know it, to what must be the condition of things on Mars.

Indeed, it seems an exceedingly plausible conclusion that peering into this crystal Mr. Cave did actually see the planet Mars and its inhabitants. And if that be the case, then the evening star that shone so brilliantly in the sky of that distant vision was neither more nor less than our own familiar earth.

For a time the Martians--if they were Martians--do not seem to have known of Mr. Cave's inspection. Once or twice one would come to peer, and go away very shortly to some other mast, as though the vision was unsatisfactory. During this time Mr. Cave was able to watch the proceedings of these winged people without being disturbed by their attentions, and although his report is necessarily vague and fragmentary, it is nevertheless very suggestive. Imagine the impression of humanity a Martian observer would get who, after a difficult process of preparation and with considerable fatigue to the eyes, was able to peer at London from the steeple of St. Martin's Church for stretches, at longest, of four minutes at a time. Mr. Cave was unable to ascertain if the winged Martians were the same as the Martians who hopped about the causeways and terraces, and if the latter could put on wings at will. He several times saw certain clumsy bipeds, dimly suggestive of apes, white and partially translucent, feeding among certain of the lichenous trees, and once some of these fled before one of the hopping, round-headed Martians. The latter caught one in its tentacles, and then the picture faded suddenly and left Mr. Cave most tantalisingly in the dark. On another occasion a vast thing, that Mr. Cave thought at first was some gigantic insect, appeared advancing along the causeway beside the canal with extraordinary rapidity. As this drew nearer Mr. Cave perceived that it was a mechanism of shining metals and of extraordinary complexity. And then, when he looked again, it had passed out of sight.

After a time Mr. Wace aspired to attract the attention of the Martians, and the next time that the strange eyes of one of them appeared close to the crystal Mr. Cave cried out and sprang away, and they immediately turned on the light and began to gesticulate in a manner suggestive of signalling. But when at last Mr. Cave examined the crystal again the Martian had departed.

Thus far these observations had progressed in early November, and then Mr. Cave, feeling that the suspicions of his family about the crystal were allayed, began to take it to and fro with him in order that, as occasion arose in the daytime or night, he might comfort himself with what was fast becoming the most real thing in his existence.

In December Mr. Wace's work in connection with a forthcoming examination became heavy, the sittings were reluctantly suspended for a week, and for ten or eleven days--he is not quite sure which--he saw nothing of Cave. He then grew anxious to resume these investigations, and, the stress of his seasonal labours being abated, he went down to Seven Dials. At the corner he noticed a shutter before a bird fancier's window, and then another at a cobbler's. Mr. Cave's shop was closed.

He rapped and the door was opened by the step-son in black. He at once called Mrs. Cave, who was, Mr. Wace could not but observe, in cheap but ample widow's weeds of the most imposing pattern. Without any very great surprise Mr. Wace learnt that Cave was dead and already buried. She was in tears, and her voice was a little thick. She had just returned from Highgate. Her mind seemed occupied with her own prospects and the honourable details of the obsequies, but Mr. Wace was at last able to learn the particulars of Cave's death. He had been found dead in his shop in the early morning, the day after his last visit to Mr. Wace, and the crystal had been clasped in his stone-cold hands. His face was smiling, said Mrs. Cave, and the velvet cloth from the minerals lay on the floor at his feet. He must have been dead five or six hours when he was found.

This came as a great shock to Wace, and he began to reproach himself bitterly for having neglected the plain symptoms of the old man's ill-health. But his chief thought was of the crystal. He approached that topic in a gingerly manner, because he knew Mrs. Cave's peculiarities. He was dumfounded to learn that it was sold.

Mrs. Cave's first impulse, directly Cave's body had been taken upstairs, had been to write to the mad clergyman who had offered five pounds for the crystal, informing him of its recovery; but after a violent hunt, in which her daughter joined her, they were convinced of the loss of his address. As they were without the means required to mourn and bury Cave in the elaborate style the dignity of an old Seven Dials inhabitant demands, they had appealed to a friendly fellow-tradesman in Great Portland Street. He had very kindly taken over a portion of the stock at a valuation. The valuation was his own, and the crystal egg was included in one of the lots. Mr. Wace, after a few suitable condolences, a little off-handedly proffered perhaps, hurried at once to Great Portland Street. But there he learned that the crystal egg had already been sold to a tall, dark man in grey. And there the material facts in this curious, and to me at least very suggestive, story come abruptly to an end. The Great Portland Street dealer did not know who the tall dark man in grey was, nor had he observed him with sufficient attention to describe him minutely. He did not even know which way this person had gone after leaving the shop. For a time Mr. Wace remained in the shop, trying the dealer's patience with hopeless questions, venting his own exasperation. And at last, realising abruptly that the whole thing had passed out of his hands, had vanished like a vision of the night, he returned to his own rooms, a little astonished to find the notes he had made still tangible and visible upon, his untidy table.

His annoyance and disappointment were naturally very great. He made a second call (equally ineffectual) upon the Great Portland Street dealer, and he resorted to advertisements in such periodicals as were lively to come into the hands of a _bric-a-brac_ collector. He also wrote letters to _The Daily Chronicle_ and _Nature_, but both those periodicals, suspecting a hoax, asked him to reconsider his action before they printed, and he was advised that such a strange story, unfortunately so bare of supporting evidence, might imperil his reputation as an investigator. Moreover, the calls of his proper work were urgent. So that after a month or so, save for an occasional reminder to certain dealers, he had reluctantly to abandon the quest for the crystal egg, and from that day to this it remains undiscovered. Occasionally, however, he tells me, and I can quite believe him, he has bursts of zeal, in which he abandons his more urgent occupation and resumes the search.

Whether or not it will remain lost for ever, with the material and origin of it, are things equally speculative at the present time. If the present purchaser is a collector, one would have expected the enquiries of Mr. Wace to have reached him through the dealers. He has been able to discover Mr. Cave's clergyman and "Oriental"--no other than the Rev. James Parker and the young Prince of Bosso-Kuni in Java. I am obliged to them for certain particulars. The object of the Prince was simply curiosity--and extravagance. He was so eager to buy because Cave was so oddly reluctant to sell. It is just as possible that the buyer in the second instance was simply a casual purchaser and not a collector at all, and the crystal egg, for all I know, may at the present moment be within a mile of me, decorating a drawing-room or serving as a paper-weight--its remarkable functions all unknown. Indeed, it is partly with the idea of such a possibility that I have thrown this narrative into a form that will give it a chance of being read by the ordinary consumer of fiction.

My own ideas in the matter are practically identical with those of Mr. Wace. I believe the crystal on the mast in Mars and the crystal egg of Mr. Cave's to be in some physical, but at present quite inexplicable, way _en rapport_, and we both believe further that the terrestrial crystal must have been--possibly at some remote date--sent hither from that planet, in order to give the Martians a near view of our affairs. Possibly the fellows to the crystals on the other masts are also on our globe. No theory of hallucination suffices for the facts.

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Thesis Essay Writing Guidelines Every Student Ought to Know

Find out the essential information every student ought to know before writing a thesis essay! This will help you write an A+ thesis essay help that will stand against the crowd!

Writing a thesis essay is one of the challenges that students face in their academic life. The main reason why so many students dread writing a thesis essay is its baffling complexity, which is hard to handle at times.

However, writing a thesis essay can be much easier, if you already know how it should be written. And the secret formula of writing a high quality thesis essay is incredibly simple: all you need is to understand the initial purpose of thesis essays and follow the tips for thesis essay structure that you’ll find below.

* Thesis Essay Peculiarity

Thesis essay is an essay elaborating on the original research and arguing a specific point of view. It requires an argumentative topic on which you have a strong opinion and want to prove it by means of research findings and information analysis. To put it in other way, thesis essay is a scientifically-minded piece of writing.

Consequently, a thesis essay is much more demanding than the rest of essays. It demands responsibility, analytical skills, ability to summarise, compare, and contrast. In order to write a high-quality thesis essay you need to be persuasive and able to prove your case no matter what.

* Thesis Essay Topic

Thesis essay topic requires tender treatment. To choose the one that is your best bet, stick to the following:

1. the topic must be to your liking, that is you must have strong feelings on its account and hold a solid point of view as far as the solution of this problem goes;
2. your thesis essay topic must be argumentative, ambivalent and thought-provoking;
3. your thesis essay topic should not be widely researched and be on everybody’s lips. On the contrary, it must be a problem that is not known to the public at large and still is concerns us very much.

Get down to choosing a thesis essay topic with these tips in mind, and you will find one truly argumentative and interesting.

* Thesis Essay Structure

Thesis essay structure must be carefully thought over, since it is the foundation on which you build your proposition and prove your rightness. With a proper thesis essay structure you will create the necessary impression on the readers and make them reject their own views and stick to your point.

Your thesis essay structure should be like this:

1. the introduction must include a statement of your hypothesis, which is a summary of your controversy;
2. confirmation of your hypothesis must be logically arranged:

a. first, provide a short digression in the history of the problem corroborating it by the past attempts at its solution;

b. analyze the problem at the present;

c. prove your hypothesis by the supporting evidence you came across when researching the thesis essay topic;

d. compare your hypothesis with other existing propositions and prove why yours is the best solution;

3. reinforce your thesis statement at the end of the essay by providing a persuasive summary of your thesis essay to make the readers come over to your side once and for all.

This is the proven way of organising thesis essays. So, do not hesitate to use this structure in your paper.

* The Use of Supporting Evidence

As it has been previously mentioned, your hypothesis in a thesis essay needs a back up in the form of supporting evidence from reliable and relevant sources. The related sources you can use to strengthen your proposition can be:

1. past research and writings and their impact on the study;
2. facts, statistics, and the testimony of others through personal interviews and questionnaires;
3. or articles and books;
4. and examples.

You do not have to conduct a deep research for your thesis essay, as you do for a research paper. All you need is to explore your topic deep enough to have a sufficient amount of evidence and proofs. However, make sure that the information you plan to use is up-to-date and is taken from reliable sources. Otherwise, it will be easy to discredit your proposition.

* Disprove the Opposing Arguments

Every hypothesis has a weak point, which, if wisely used by opponents, can destroy it all together. To avoid itFree Web Content, try to identify weak points of your proposition and the possible ways how they can be used by your opponents. Then find counterarguments that will rebut your antagonist’s sharp rejoinders. Try to anticipate any objections the readers may have and rebut them at once.

That is all you need to know in order to write a good thesis essay. Be sure that with the above tips in mind you will easily master thesis essay writing and even come to like finding controversial topics and forming your hypothesis on its account. Thesis essay writing will no longer be a tedious burden for you.

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College Admission Essay

If you are seriously considering applying to college or any graduate school, part of the preparation that you cannot ignore, aside from taking the required standardized tests, is the preparation of a well-crafted college admission essay or graduate school admission essay, including MBA essay, as part of your application to college or grad school.

This part of the application process is a measurement of your personality, and constitutes an integral part of the admissions process. With the number of applicants wanting to pursue higher education dramatically rising since the early 90's, many colleges and post-graduate schools have imposed certain safeguards to regulate the entry of admitted applicants to their programs . The goal is to admit only candidates who hold promise and are likely to succeed in their chosen field of endeavor. The college admission essay or graduate school admission essay, including MBA essay, is one such safeguard.

It is important, therefore, to come up with a well-polished college admission essay or graduate school admission essay, including MBA essay. And doing so need not be a problem if you are capable of articulating your experiences in written form quite well.

What do you actually need to present in a college admission essay or graduate school admission essay, including MBA essay help? It varies actually. Some schools have several specific topics from which you are required to choose and write about. However, on the average, admissions essays usually seek to present you as an individual. This may include a listing of your past and present experiences, your nature, preferences, ideals, principles, family and social backgrounds, your school years, grades received, extracurricular activities, etc. But these are not simply listed down. The essay should seek to present these profiles in clear and specific details and preferably, accompanied with one or two related anecdotes.

The area of extracurricular activities will be of particular significance. Many admissions officers are no longer impressed with high test scores as well as high grades. They realize that these do not represent the total you. They are not satisfied with the numerical side of yourself. What they would like is to get to know more about you and the activities you got involved in, which may be presented in the college admission essay or graduate school admission essay, including MBA essay. Specifically, they want you to present evidence that your field of expertise, for which you are seeking further studies on, is one that is very close to your heart. That being the case, you naturally do not limit your knowledge of the field to theoretical concepts in school. You go out and engage in projects wherein you are able to apply school theories in actual situations.

Such evidences, again, as written down in the college admission essay or graduate school admission essay, including MBA essay - as the case may be, along with an excellent school record as well as a good performance in the admissions test, will persuade school administrators that you are capable of adding something significant to your selected field of study and their school in particular.

However, such evidences should not be listed down in general terms. What is usually required in many college admission essays or graduate school admission essays, including MBA essays are specifics. Detailed accounts of the off-campus undertakings that you immersed yourself in while attending school. Undertakings that are directly connected to your area of concentration. A good example would be something like the following: wanting to enter medical school, you decided to sign up, in the final year of your pre-med course, as a volunteer in the relief operations organized by the group Band-Aid to help the famine-stricken country of Ethiopia. There, your eyes were opened to the harsh reality that not everything is ok in the world. You began to acknowledge that while a number of countries may be well-off, countless others are living way below certain human standards of living. And they are in dire need, not only of food and shelter, but such other basic necessities like medicine and health care.

The college admission essay or graduate school admission essay, including MBA essay affords you the opportunity to present yourself as someone capable of sharing something significant in a particular field, and not just a mere statistic in the same. As such, you are encouraged to get involved in extracurricular endeavors while in the midst of completing your courses of study and to cite these in your college admission essay or graduate school admission essay, including MBA essay. This will make your piece more convincing as well as effectiveFeature Articles, as it will give solid proof that you are not merely satisfied with meeting course requirements. You are also applying in real life the lessons taught to you inside the classroom.

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Is Your Twitter Account Affected Too?

We've addressed the most recent variant of the Mikeyy worm. Still, we suggest that you avoid viewing the profiles of users posting uncharacteristic or otherwise suspicious tweets.

This appeared as one of the recent Twitter statuses. Michael 'Mikeyy' Mooney, a Brooklyn teen created the worm called Mikeyy which affected Twitter two days ago. Afterwards, Mooney also got lucky with a spot-job from ExqSoft, which probably was looking for astute hackers.

The Mikeyy worm is primarily intended to send out unnecessary tweets from hijacked Twitter user accounts. The Oprah Winfrey account (@Oprah), CNN breaking news account (@Cnnbrk), and the Ellen DeGeneres Show account (@TheEllenShow) are only some of the celebrity Twitter accounts hijacked by Mikeyy.

Protect Your Twitter Account

I had shared my recent experience in which my Twitter and Facebook accounts were hacked by the wine guy or his compatriots. It is always wise to stay safe with your accounts, no matter how less often you use them. Here are some tips.

1. Remove your browser cookies and turn off JavaScript before doing the following.

2. Reset your passwords and use the most-difficult-to-guess ones.

3. Don't share your password with any unrecognized Twitter tools or online services.

4. Don't share your passwords.

Conclusion

If you have any experience with any account hijacking, like mine, please write about it in the comments. Also, don't forget to subscribe to my RSS feed.

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Comparative Essay

Comparative essay writing requires you to draw comparisons. Comparing important facts can be helpful in research writing, which is why Comparative essay writing is an important exercise for tasks that you will be assigned at school.

Most students find this form of essay writing helpful and easy too. Others do face difficulty, and this is because you need to adopt a measured approach for this form of writing.

For writing a Comparative essay, some students are known to go for professional help that is available online. While some my place orders to have their essays written from a professional writing company, others may choose to take tips from other online sources. You can write your Comparative essay by making use of online tips if you are willing to work hard and study the important points provided by different websites.

Comparative essay writing generally demands two approaches. Let’s assume there are two poems to compare. One method of comparing the two poems would be to first of all present one poem at a time. After doing this, your Comparative essay can draw a comparison of the key points of both poems.

Your second approach to comparing the two poems in your Comparative essay will be a little different. In this approach, you will introduce both poems together and compare them as you progress through your Comparative essay. Instead of introducing and describing each poem separately, you will describe and compare them together.

In your Comparative essay, both these approaches have their advantages. Both approaches can be equally effective, depending on your skills. Some people may be able to use one approach better than the other. For this reason, you will find writers who will only compare a topic with one particular approach for a Comparative essay.

Comparing two poems according to the first approach in a Comparative essay can be advantageous. However, it may not be easy to carry out this approach when you have to deal with 3 or more poems. You would rather introduce each of your 3 or 4 poems separately, describe them separately, and then proceed to analyzing and comparing them all.

While your emphasis in a Comparative essay is based in the main body of your essay, your introduction and conclusion are important too. For the sake of maintaining simplicity in your Comparative essay, it is wise to keep your introduction as short as possible. You could introduce your objective for comparison and state which topics you are going to compare. If there is any main claim or point to make, you should do it towards the end of your introduction. This will serve as your thesis statement, which will be recalled or re-stated in the conclusion.

In your Comparative essay help conclusion, you will first sum up the main points from your comparison. Perhaps, you can state the characteristics of each poem or subject and present similarities and differences of each one with the others. After doing this, you will be able to re-state your thesis statement from the introduction of your Comparative essay. At this pointArticle Search, you will also know whether or not you need to make any modification to the thesis statement.

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Ain't: An Old Usage That Still Sustains

I ain't going to no school today.
She supposed that she ain't his lover anymore.
Though Jack insisted, Jill ain't moved the garbage.

As evident from these three non-standard sentences, including the double-negative one, 'ain't' is a tried-and-tested short form for pretty much all of the auxiliary verbs, except the modal auxiliaries.

'Ain't' was originally conceived in the 1700s, as a better usage of 'an't', which was the shorter use for 'are not' and 'am not'. These usages underwent their share of criticism over the centuries, for being non-standard and inelegant. But it found profuse usage even among the people of the upper class. The user needn't worry much about grammar rules since 'ain't' can be used for both plural and singular forms.

There is nothing wrong in using 'ain't' in fiction dialogs and informal conversation, but stick to the standard auxiliaries in all formal occasions. Here are a few sentences from great writers:

'I suppose yer the new boy, ain't yer?' said the voice through the keyhole. –Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist

It's easy to criticize," I says, "but you ain't got the same problems as what I got."' –George Orwell, 1984

'I made this journey after the '93 bombing, and I can tell you, lady, you ain't seen nothin' yet.' –Jeffrey Archer, False Impression

"I hope it ain't your mother's middle name. Lot of people don't remember." –John Steinbeck, East of Eden

Messenger, do please lend a careful ear. Your monophilia, your one one one, ain't for Jahilia. Return to sender. –Salman Rushdie, Satanic Verses

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How to Write History Essay

To write a History essay out of imagination is not possible. You need to be a student with the critical approach as to what happened in the past and why it happened. Historical happenings have great lessons for the future. You need to bring this aspect into your History essay. Give well-reasoned responses to the small and big events that make the subject of history.

In a History essay you are asked to do and answer specific tasks. Firstly, understand the title of your History essay thoroughly. Though from the language point of view it is just like any other essay, all the format and grammar rules do apply here as well; the prime strength of your historical essay is the documentation of the facts. History concerns an era, an important individual etc. Most of such individuals who are part of the history now, were controversial figures and will continue to be controversial, as historians analyze their doings and undoing to the humanity. This prominent question will come before your mind. The pages of history are full of bloodshed. If your history topic is related to some such grave incident, you need to be very careful in giving your statements and opinions.

Constructive criticism shall be your weapon, while writing a History essay. If you go by step by step in writing your History essay, it makes your task simple. Firstly, know and understand the implications of the title of your History essay well. You need to be clear and sure about your task. Once you understand the issues that you have to tackle to do justice to the title, move to the next step. It is about gathering the research material that you propose to deal and elucidate in your History essay. The strength of your essay is not in mere literary descriptions, but in providing the relevant information. While selecting the texts, go for the reputed authors. If it involves current research, prepare your questionnaire to elicit information, in an intelligent manner. Your questions should be so framed, that they do not hurt the sentiments of an individual or a particular community. Apart from the texts, journals, newspaper clippings relevant to the topic, maps, and papers from the Government Archives, will be helpful.

As you gather information for your History essay make notes under suitable sub-heads of the essay help. Compilation of the notes is itself an art. Your jumbled approach to this aspect will create lots of confusion at the later stage. Identify the sources of your information methodically. This will save lots of trouble at the time of final compilation of your History essay. Read your notes again and again. Strike out the non-essentials. You know the page limitations of your History essay. The history books will provide you with wealth of information, but you need to estimate what is relevant to you and comes within the perimeters of the topic of your History essay.

The prime goal of your History essay is originality of expression. Quotations are okayFind Article, but do not flood your essay with quotations. Your one original explanation will impress your tutor more than ten brilliant quotations because he already knows them from the hundreds of History essay papers that he has scanned over the years.

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What You Should Know About Link Rot

In the real world, you need new issues of the Yellow Pages as new businesses arrive and some of the old businesses close operations. It's the same online—new websites pop up and old ones change URLs, content, and ownership every now and then.

Link rot is applied to the situation of gradual disappearance of resources to which existing links point. When you click such a link, you can get a page not found error or an entirely new page if the target has changed ownership and content has been revamped.

Studies have estimated that every month, nearly a thousand links disappear from the Web. None of us wants the links in our blogs and websites to point to non-existent or irrelevant resources. Therefore, we should add link rot checking to our list of blog maintenance tasks. Let's see how in this article.

Broken Link Maintenance

In order to completely correct link rot, you need an intelligent application, such as the IBM Peridot, which actually replaces your outdated links with correct, information-rich links to new web content.

Here are various ways in which you can actually protect your blog from link rot.

1. Use links to the Wayback Machine, Archive.org, which keeps an archive of thousands of websites and their entire content in permanent, accessible links.

2. Keep track of your links with a link protection tool such as the Xenu Link Sleuth or a sitemap generator.

3. Always set your blog to have permalink structure. Most blogging platforms, such as WordPress and Blogger are enabled for this by default, so you don't have to change anything.

4. Use the canonical forms of URLs.

5. Stick to the standard procedures of 301 redirects and 404 error pages on your website.

Conclusion

You should check for broken links and link rot at least once in two months for your blog. Better to do it more often if you have a huge website or blog. Several broken links doesn't sound like a good web practice to search engines as well as normal users.

You have read this article Blogging Tips / SEO with the title April 2009. You can bookmark this page URL http://neurotica-exotica.blogspot.com/2009/04/what-you-should-know-about-link-rot.html. Thanks!

Birth of Born and Borne

There is quite a bit of confusion among readers about the words, 'born' and 'borne', both past participle form of 'bear'. Let me clarify in this post.

To mean 'to give birth to a child', we associate the term, 'bear'. But this word has a lot of other meanings, such as 'tolerate', 'to carry something', 'to support something or somebody', 'produce something', etc. These examples will show you the use:

She thought she could bear her boyfriend's child.
His class couldn't bear his lousy lectures anymore.
My apple trees bear the best of apples in the entire state.

The word 'bear' has two past participle forms, associated with 'to give birth' meaning. They are 'born' and 'borne'. These two should be associated with two different meanings as below.

1. Use 'born' if you are talking about the child, in a passive sense.

My father was born in the middle of the last century.
Adolf Hitler was born in 1889.

2. 'Borne is the actual active past participle form of 'bear', and should be associated with the mother.

Stella thought that she has borne Jack's children.
Michelle Obama has borne two children.

The other meanings of the word take the normal past tense form, 'bore' and past participle form 'born'. More of such small word awareness posts can be found under the topic, Usage and Vocabulary, on the sidebar.

You have read this article English Language / Usage and Vocabulary with the title April 2009. You can bookmark this page URL http://neurotica-exotica.blogspot.com/2009/04/birth-of-born-and-borne.html. Thanks!

Custom Essay

Custom essay writing is always in demand. With the introduction of Internet facilities globally, this form of writing has become well known worldwide. There are many companies that specialize in Custom essay writing. If you run a random search online, your search results will include hundreds of websites through which you can place your order.

Custom essay writing is a valuable service for different people. It helps people mainly when they are short of time. Often, students as well as professional researchers are short of time with their workloads. They turn to Custom essay writing companies for help in their times of need. Since essay providing companies have services that produce essays within 24 hours, they are the best ones to turn to when you need help.

Custom essay writing companies can also help you when you need additional research to help with a huge project. Basically, Custom essay writing companies help you with your research in a speedy manner. Many students use this research to compliment their own.

Custom essay writing entails creating research essays that meet an individual’s assignment demands. Another person cannot use the same essay help that is written for you. Primarily, this is because of the topic difference. However, it is also considered to be unethical if one person makes use of another person’s original Custom essay.

A Custom essay can’t be created in advance for any customer. It has to be prepared on receipt of specifications from a client. If a company sells a Custom essay that has been written in advance of an order being placed, a client will know that it is not custom written.

One Custom essay order may be quite different from others. Though you may have a general introduction, a main body and a conclusion, specifications for a Custom essay will lead you to develop unique approaches to writing these portions. For example, while you might be asked to avoid a lengthy introduction, you might be asked to create a lengthy and descriptive conclusion. The main body of your essay might need to contain specific data, which might require inclusion of particular sources.

For your Custom essay, you will need to have thorough referencing as well. The use of sources is most important in a custom written essay. While you might make use of particularly requested sources, you might also be asked to put down quotes from these sources. In a custom essay, there is a particular way of quoting a source. You must use quotation marks and provide a citation as well. Your citation should contain exact page numbers if a quotation or idea is from a book. For citing a source, generally, you will provide an author name or a source name along with a date of publication.

If you can create your own Custom essay, it will help you throughout your career. There are many tutorials available online that you can use for learning how to create your own custom essays. Until you are able to create a Custom essay of your own, you can order one online.

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Creative Writing