Who knows?

At least the articles publishers on the net seems to take liberty and use the term marketing triangle to fit their needs.  Because I focus on online marketing and how to compliment online marketing using off-line techniques  like 0861 wordnumbers I searched and found this article on The Golden Marketing Triangle.

Let me quote:

The Golden Triangle of Marketing is when your Phone Number matches your Company/Main Product Name AND your URL (website address).

According to this source:

All major companies utilize the Golden Triangle to increase credibility and reinforce the consumer’s memory.

Intuitively this statement makes sense to me because you reinforce the name:

• as part of your business name,
• your 0861 word number and
• your domain name.  
  When you have a 0861 Florist number, you are called InterFlorist and your web site address is at Inter.0861Forist.co.za it must be adding to your credibility. And more so when your opposition has a phone number like 021 987 5423, a business called InterForist and a web site interflorist.

The opposition only have two of the triangle’s legs; the business name and the web site name. The third and supporting leg (The 0861Forist Word Number) is missing.

What else is missing from the incomplete opposition triangle? The opposition’s web site name doesn’t double up as their word-pone number.

Therefore 0861 Marketing Triangle was created so that it can multiply the credibility and recallability; by adding the phone-word-number to the web site name; www.0861Forist.co.za 

Are you amazed by the power of 0861 Triangle Marketing?  I am

Pretoria, South Africa, 23 September, 2008

Lawyers for Human Rights has been monitoring the situation in the recently consolidated camps for the victims of May’s xenophobic violence.  We have also been following the court process taking place in the Constitutional Court and await the directions from the Court regarding the future of the camps. 

While LHR believes that the camps should be phased out in the near future, we are of the opinion that the delay and lack of willingness on the part of government to make a concrete re-integration plan for these individuals has created a situation where victims of violence do not know whether they can integrate into communities in safety or not. 

We are deeply concerned about reports that methods of coercion and intimidation have been employed in the camps to force residents to leave the sites.  These methods include the removal of identity cards from residents, removing their property, including clothes, arresting residents for “trespassing” and then withdrawing the charges after a weekend in detention. To make things worse, the notorious “Red Ants” was deployed to remove the tents from the residents of the Akasia camps leaving refugees without shelter.

In similar fashion, residents from the Rand Airport site were evicted without notice or court order in breach of its commitment to the Constitutional Court that the government will obtain proper eviction court orders in terms if the Prevention of Illegal Evictions Act before forcing residents to leave the camps.

While we have always taken the position that permanent refugee camps are not an option in South Africa, we feel that the government has a responsibility to create a concrete plan of action for re-integration of camp residents.  While we note that government agents have been working on the ground to investigate conditions in the communities, this appears to have been on an ad hoc basis with no formal plan in place.  We further note that funds have been provided by aid agencies such as the UNHCR and UNICEF to residents to incentivise them to integrate into the community.  While these efforts are assisting individuals to re-integrate into communities, there are still large numbers who fear returning to communities. 

Intimidation and threats cannot replace a concrete plan for re-integration.  We immediately call on government to:

• Stop all acts of intimidation against camp residents;
• Not remove the temporary immigration exemption cards issued under section 31(2)(b) of the Immigration  Act;
• Allow residents access to their property from the camp;
• To honor its commitment to the Constitutional Court not to evict any residents without a court order authorizing it;
• Immediately call off the Red Ants who have been deployed in the Akasia camp. 

LHR is concerned that these intimidation methods will lead to further distrust of the government and make it even more difficult for the refugee and migrant communities to integrate into South African society.  Integration of refugees is a legal obligation on the South African government, both in terms of domestic and international law.  We call on government to respect that obligation and assist in the re-integration of these victims of violence.

For more information, please contact:

David Cote, Lawyers for Human Rights,                 

012-320-2943    072-628-7698   david@lhr.org.za

Flower

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A flower, also known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Magnoliophyta, also called angiosperms). The biological function of a flower is to mediate the union of male sperm with female ovum in order to produce seeds. The process begins with pollination, is followed by fertilization, leading to the formation and dispersal of the seeds. For the higher plants, seeds are the next generation, and serve as the primary means by which individuals of a species are dispersed across the landscape. The grouping of flowers on a plant are called the inflorescence.

In addition to serving as the reproductive organs of flowering plants, flowers have long been admired and used by humans, mainly to beautify their environment but also as a source of food.

Contents [hide] 1 Flower specialization and pollination 2 Morphology 2.1 Floral formula 3 Pollination 3.1 Attraction methods 3.2 Pollination mechanism 3.3 Flower-pollinator relationships 4 Fertilization and dispersal 5 Evolution 6 Development 6.1 Flowering transition 7 Symbolism 8 Usage 9 See also 10 References 11 External links

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Flower specialization and pollination

Each flower has a specific design which best encourages the transfer of its pollen. Cleistogamous flowers are self pollinated, after which, they may or may not open. Many Viola and some Salvia species are known to have these types of flowers.

Entomophilous flowers attract and use insects, bats, birds or other animals to transfer pollen from one flower to the next. Flowers commonly have glands called nectaries on their various parts that attract these animals. Some flowers have patterns, called nectar guides, that show pollinators where to look for nectar. Flowers also attract pollinators by scent and color. Still other flowers use mimicry to attract pollinators. Some species of orchids, for example, produce flowers resembling female bees in color, shape, and scent. Flowers are also specialized in shape and have an arrangement of the stamens that ensures that pollen grains are transferred to the bodies of the pollinator when it lands in search of its attractant (such as nectar, pollen, or a mate). In pursuing this attractant from many flowers of the same species, the pollinator transfers pollen to the stigmas—arranged with equally pointed precision—of all of the flowers it visits.

Anemophilous flowers use the wind to move pollen from one flower to the next, examples include the grasses, Birch trees, Ragweed and Maples. They have no need to attract pollinators and therefore tend not to be “showy” flowers. Male and female reproductive organs are generally found in separate flowers, the male flowers having a number of long filaments terminating in exposed stamens, and the female flowers having long, feather-like stigmas. Whereas the pollen of entomophilous flowers tends to be large-grained, sticky, and rich in protein (another “reward” for pollinators), anemophilous flower pollen is usually small-grained, very light, and of little nutritional value to insects.

Morphology

Flowering plants are heterosporangiate, producing two types of reproductive spores. The pollen (male spores) and ovules (female spores) are produced in different organs, but the typical flower is a bisporangiate strobilus in that it contains both organs.

A flower is regarded as a modified stem with shortened internodes and bearing, at its nodes, structures that may be highly modified leaves.^[1] In essence, a flower structure forms on a modified shoot or axis with an apical meristem that does not grow continuously (growth is determinate). Flowers may be attached to the plant in a few ways. If the flower has no stem but forms in the axil of a leaf, it is called sessile. When one flower is produced, the stem holding the flower is called a peduncle. If the peduncle ends with groups of flowers, each stem that holds a flower is called a pedicel. The flowering stem forms a terminal end which is called the torus or receptacle. The parts of a flower are arranged in whorls on the torus. The four main parts or whorls (starting from the base of the flower or lowest node and working upwards) are as follows:

Diagram showing the main parts of a mature flower

The umbrella style flower of the Sarracenia genus.

• Calyx: the outer whorl of sepals; typically these are green, but are petal-like in some species.
• Corolla: the whorl of petals, which are usually thin, soft and colored to attract insects that help the process of pollination.
• Androecium (from Greek andros oikia: man’s house): one or two whorls of stamens, each a filament topped by an anther where pollen is produced. Pollen contains the male gametes.
• Gynoecium (from Greek gynaikos oikia: woman’s house): one or more pistils. The female reproductive organ is the carpel: this contains an ovary with ovules (which contain female gametes). A pistil may consist of a number of carpels merged together, in which case there is only one pistil to each flower, or of a single individual carpel (the flower is then called apocarpous). The sticky tip of the pistil, the stigma, is the receptor of pollen. The supportive stalk, the style becomes the pathway for pollen tubes to grow from pollen grains adhering to the stigma, to the ovules, carrying the reproductive material.

Although the floral structure described above is considered the “typical” structural plan, plant species show a wide variety of modifications from this plan. These modifications have significance in the evolution of flowering plants and are used extensively by botanists to establish relationships among plant species. For example, the two subclasses of flowering plants may be distinguished by the number of floral organs in each whorl: dicotyledons typically having 4 or 5 organs (or a multiple of 4 or 5) in each whorl and monocotyledons having three or some multiple of three. The number of carpels in a compound pistil may be only two, or otherwise not related to the above generalization for monocots and dicots.

In the majority of species individual flowers have both pistils and stamens as described above. These flowers are described by botanists as being perfect, bisexual, or hermaphrodite. However, in some species of plants the flowers are imperfect or unisexual: having only either male (stamens) or female (pistil) parts. In the latter case, if an individual plant is either female or male the species is regarded as dioecious. However, where unisexual male and female flowers appear on the same plant, the species is considered monoecious.

Additional discussions on floral modifications from the basic plan are presented in the articles on each of the basic parts of the flower. In those species that have more than one flower on an axis—so-called composite flowers—the collection of flowers is termed an inflorescence; this term can also refer to the specific arrangements of flowers on a stem. In this regard, care must be exercised in considering what a ‘‘flower’’ is. In botanical terminology, a single daisy or sunflower for example, is not a flower but a flower head—an inflorescence composed of numerous tiny flowers (sometimes called florets). Each of these flowers may be anatomically as described above. Many flowers have a symmetry, if the perianth is bisected through the central axis from any point, symmetrical halves are produced—the flower is called regular or actinomorphic, e.g. rose or trillium. When flowers are bisected and produce only one line that produces symmetrical halves the flower is said to be irregular or zygomorphic. e.g. snapdragon or most orchids.

Floral formula

A floral formula is a way to represent the structure of a flower using specific letters, numbers, and symbols. Typically, a general formula will be used to represent the flower structure of a plant family rather than a particular species. The following representations are used:

Ca = calyx (sepal whorl; e. g. Ca⁵ = 5 sepals)
Co = corolla (petal whorl; e. g., Co^3(x) = petals some multiple of three )
Z = add if zygomorphic (e. g., CoZ⁶ = zygomorphic with 6 petals)
A = androecium (whorl of stamens; e. g., A^∞ = many stamens)
G = gynoecium (carpel or carpels; e. g., G¹ = monocarpous)

x: to represent a “variable number”
∞: to represent “many”

A floral formula would appear something like this:

Ca⁵Co⁵A^{10 - ∞}G¹

Several additional symbols are sometimes used (see Key to Floral Formulas).

Pollination

Main article: pollination

The primary purpose of a flower is reproduction. Flowers are the reproductive organs and mediate the joining of the sperm contained within pollen to the ovules, normally from one plant to another but many plants also can pollinate their own flowers. The fertilized ovules produce seeds that are the next generation. Sexual reproduction produces genetically unique offspring, allowing for adaptation. Flowers have specific designs which encourages the transfer of pollen from one plant to another of the same species. Many plants are dependent upon external factors to move pollen between flowers, including the wind and animals, especially insects. Even large animals such as birds, bats, and pygmy possums can be employed. The period of time during which this process can take place (the flower is fully expanded and functional) is called anthesis.

Attraction methods

Plants can not move from one location to another, thus many flowers have evolved to attract animals to transfer pollen between individuals in dispersed populations. Flowers that are insect-pollinated are called entomophilous; literally “insect-loving” in Latin. They can be highly modified along with the pollinating insects by co-evolution. Flowers commonly have glands called nectaries on various parts that attract animals looking for nutritious nectar. Birds and bees having color vision, enabling them to seek out “colorful” flowers. Some flowers have patterns, called nectar guides, that show pollinators where to look for nectar; they may be visible only under ultraviolet light, which is visible to bees and some other insects. Flowers also attract pollinators by scent and some of those scents are pleasant to our sense of smell. Not all flower scents are appealing to humans, a number of flowers are pollinated by insects that are attracted to rotten flesh and have flowers that smell like dead animals, often called Carrion flowers including Rafflesia, the titan arum, and the North American pawpaw (Asimina triloba). Flowers pollinated by night visitors, including bats and moths, are likely to concentrate on scent to attract pollinators and most such flowers are white.

Still other flowers use mimicry to attract pollinators. Some species of orchids, for example, produce flowers resembling female bees in color, shape, and scent. Male bees move from one such flower to another in search of a mate.

Pollination mechanism

The pollination mechanism employed by a plant depends on what method of pollination is utilized.

Most flowers can be divided between two broad groups of pollination methods:

Entomophilous: flowers attract and use insects, bats, birds or other animals to transfer pollen from one flower to the next. Often they are specialized in shape and have an arrangement of the stamens that ensures that pollen grains are transferred to the bodies of the pollinator when it lands in search of its attractant (such as nectar, pollen, or a mate). In pursuing this attractant from many flowers of the same species, the pollinator transfers pollen to the stigmas—arranged with equally pointed precision—of all of the flowers it visits. Many flower rely on simple proximity between flower parts to ensure pollination. Others, such as the Sarracenia or lady-slipper orchids, have elaborate designs to ensure pollination while preventing self-pollination.

Anemophilous: flowers use the wind to move pollen from one flower to the next, examples include the grasses, Birch trees, Ragweed and Maples. They have no need to attract pollinators and therefore tend not to be “showy” flowers. Whereas the pollen of entomophilous flowers tends to be large-grained, sticky, and rich in protein (another “reward” for pollinators), anemophilous flower pollen is usually small-grained, very light, and of little nutritional value to insects, though it may still be gathered in times of dearth. Honeybees and bumblebees actively gather anemophilous corn (maize) pollen, though it is of little value to them.

Some flowers are self pollinated and use flowers that never open or are self pollinated before the flowers open, these flowers are called cleistogamous. Many Viola species and some Salvia have these types of flowers.

Flower-pollinator relationships

Many flowers have close relationships with one or a few specific pollinating organisms. Many flowers, for example, attract only one specific species of insect, and therefore rely on that insect for successful reproduction. This close relationship is often given as an example of coevolution, as the flower and pollinator are thought to have developed together over a long period of time to match each other’s needs.

This close relationship compounds the negative effects of extinction. The extinction of either member in such a relationship would mean almost certain extinction of the other member as well. Some endangered plant species are so because of shrinking pollinator populations.

Fertilization and dispersal

Main article: biological dispersal

Some flowers with both stamens and a pistil are capable of self-fertilization, which does increase the chance of producing seeds but limits genetic variation. The extreme case of self-fertilization occurs in flowers that always self-fertilize, such as many dandelions. Conversely, many species of plants have ways of preventing self-fertilization. Unisexual male and female flowers on the same plant may not appear or mature at the same time, or pollen from the same plant may be incapable of fertilizing its ovules. The latter flower types, which have chemical barriers to their own pollen, are referred to as self-sterile or self-incompatible (see also: Plant sexuality).

Evolution

While land plants have existed for about 425 million years, the first ones reproduced by a simple adaptation of their aquatic counterparts: spores. In the sea, plants — and some animals — can simply scatter out genetic clones of themselves to float away and grow elsewhere. This is how early plants reproduced. But plants soon evolved methods of protecting these copies to deal with drying out and other abuse which is even more likely on land than in the sea. The protection became the seed, though it had not yet evolved the flower. Early seed-bearing plants include the ginkgo and conifers. The earliest fossil of a flowering plant, Archaefructus liaoningensis, is dated about 125 million years old.^[2] Several groups of extinct gymnosperms, particularly seed ferns, have been proposed as the ancestors of flowering plants but there is no continuous fossil evidence showing exactly how flowers evolved. The apparently sudden appearance of relatively modern flowers in the fossil record posed such a problem for the theory of evolution that it was called an “abominable mystery” by Charles Darwin. Recently discovered angiosperm fossils such as Archaefructus, along with further discoveries of fossil gymnosperms, suggest how angiosperm characteristics may have been acquired in a series of steps.

Recent DNA analysis (molecular systematics)^[3][4] show that Amborella trichopoda, found on the Pacific island of New Caledonia, is the sister group to the rest of the flowering plants, and morphological studies^[5] suggest that it has features which may have been characteristic of the earliest flowering plants.

The general assumption is that the function of flowers, from the start, was to involve other animals in the reproduction process. Pollen can be scattered without bright colors and obvious shapes, which would therefore be a liability, using the plant’s resources, unless they provide some other benefit. One proposed reason for the sudden, fully developed appearance of flowers is that they evolved in an isolated setting like an island, or chain of islands, where the plants bearing them were able to develop a highly specialized relationship with some specific animal (a wasp, for example), the way many island species develop today. This symbiotic relationship, with a hypothetical wasp bearing pollen from one plant to another much the way fig wasps do today, could have eventually resulted in both the plant(s) and their partners developing a high degree of specialization. Island genetics is believed to be a common source of speciation, especially when it comes to radical adaptations which seem to have required inferior transitional forms. Note that the wasp example is not incidental; bees, apparently evolved specifically for symbiotic plant relationships, are descended from wasps.

Likewise, most fruit used in plant reproduction comes from the enlargement of parts of the flower. This fruit is frequently a tool which depends upon animals wishing to eat it, and thus scattering the seeds it contains.

While many such symbiotic relationships remain too fragile to survive competition with mainland animals and spread, flowers proved to be an unusually effective means of production, spreading (whatever their actual origin) to become the dominant form of land plant life.

While there is only hard proof of such flowers existing about 130 million years ago, there is some circumstantial evidence that they did exist up to 250 million years ago. A chemical used by plants to defend their flowers, oleanane, has been detected in fossil plants that old, including gigantopterids^[6], which evolved at that time and bear many of the traits of modern, flowering plants, though they are not known to be flowering plants themselves, because only their stems and prickles have been found preserved in detail; one of the earliest examples of petrification.

The similarity in leaf and stem structure can be very important, because flowers are genetically just an adaptation of normal leaf and stem components on plants, a combination of genes normally responsible for forming new shoots.^[7] The most primitive flowers are thought to have had a variable number of flower parts, often separate from (but in contact with) each other. The flowers would have tended to grow in a spiral pattern, to be bisexual (in plants, this means both male and female parts on the same flower), and to be dominated by the ovary (female part). As flowers grew more advanced, some variations developed parts fused together, with a much more specific number and design, and with either specific sexes per flower or plant, or at least “ovary inferior”.

Flower evolution continues to the present day; modern flowers have been so profoundly influenced by humans that many of them cannot be pollinated in nature. Many modern, domesticated flowers used to be simple weeds, which only sprouted when the ground was disturbed. Some of them tended to grow with human crops, and the prettiest did not get plucked because of their beauty, developing a dependence upon and special adaptation to human affection.^[8]

Development

The molecular control of floral organ identity determination is fairly well understood. In a simple model, three gene activities interact in a combinatorial manner to determine the developmental identities of the organ primordia within the floral meristem. These gene functions are called A, B and C-gene functions. In the first floral whorl only A-genes are expressed, leading to the formation of sepals. In the second whorl both A- and B-genes are expressed, leading to the formation of petals. In the third whorl, B and C genes interact to form stamens and in the center of the flower C-genes alone give rise to carpels. The model is based upon studies of homeotic mutants in Arabidopsis thaliana and snapdragon, Antirrhinum majus. For example, when there is a loss of B-gene function, mutant flowers are produced with sepals in the first whorl as usual, but also in the second whorl instead of the normal petal formation. In the third whorl the lack of B function but presence of C-function mimics the fourth whorl, leading to the formation of carpels also in the third whorl. See also The ABC Model of Flower Development.

Most genes central in this model belong to the MADS-box genes and are transcription factors that regulate the expression of the genes specific for each floral organ.

Flowering transition

The transition to flowering is one of the major phase changes that a plant makes during its life cycle. The transition must take place at a time that will ensure maximal reproductive success. To meet these needs a plant is able to interpret important endogenous and environmental cues such as changes in levels of plant hormones and seasonable temperature and photoperiod changes. Many perennial and most biennial plants require vernalization to flower. The molecular interpretation of these signals through genes such as CONSTANS and FLC ensures that flowering occurs at a time that is favorable for fertilization and the formation of seeds.^[9] Flower formation is initiated at the ends of stems, and involves a number of different physiological and morphological changes. The first step is the transformation of the vegetative stem primordia into floral primordia. This occurs as biochemical changes take place to change cellular differentiation of leaf, bud and stem tissues into tissue that will grow into the reproductive organs. Growth of the central part of the stem tip stops or flattens out and the sides develop protuberances in a whorled or spiral fashion around the outside of the stem end. These protuberances develop into the sepals, petals, stamens, and carpels. Once this process begins, in most plants, it cannot be reversed and the stems develop flowers, even if the initial start of the flower formation event was dependent of some environmental cue.^[10] Once the process begins, even if that cue is removed the stem will continue to develop a flower.

Symbolism

Lilies are often used to denote life or resurrection

Flowers inspire decorative motifs

Flowers are common subjects of still life paintings, such as this one by Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder

Chinese Jade ornament with flower design, Jin Dynasty (1115-1234 AD), Shanghai Museum.

Flowers are beloved for their various fragrances

Many flowers have important symbolic meanings in Western culture. The practice of assigning meanings to flowers is known as floriography. Some of the more common examples include:

• Red roses are given as a symbol of love, beauty, and passion.
• Poppies are a symbol of consolation in time of death. In the UK, New Zealand, Australia and Canada, red poppies are worn to commemorate soldiers who have died in times of war.
• Irises/Lily are used in burials as a symbol referring to “resurrection/life”. It is also associated with stars (sun) and its petals blooming/shining.
• Daisies are a symbol of innocence.

Flowers within art are also representative of the female genitalia, as seen in the works of artists such as Georgia O’Keefe, Imogen Cunningham, Veronica Ruiz de Velasco, and Judy Chicago, and in fact in Asian and western classical art. Many cultures around the world have a marked tendency to associate flowers with femininity.

The great variety of delicate and beautiful flowers has inspired the works of numerous poets, especially from the 18th-19th century Romantic era. Famous examples include William Wordsworth’s I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud and William Blake’s Ah! Sun-Flower.

Because of their varied and colorful appearance, flowers have long been a favorite subject of visual artists as well. Some of the most celebrated paintings from well-known painters are of flowers, such as Van Gogh’s sunflowers series or Monet’s water lilies. Flowers are also dried, freeze dried and pressed in order to create permanent, three-dimensional pieces of flower art.

The Roman goddess of flowers, gardens, and the season of Spring is Flora. The Greek goddess of spring, flowers and nature is Chloris.

In Hindu mythology, flowers have a significant status. Vishnu, one of the three major gods in the Hindu system, is often depicted standing straight on a lotus flower.^[11] Apart from the association with Vishnu, the Hindu tradition also considers the lotus to have spiritual significance.^[12] For example, it figures in the Hindu stories of creation.^[13]

Usage

In modern times, people have sought ways to cultivate, buy, wear, or otherwise be around flowers and blooming plants, partly because of their agreeable appearance and smell. Around the world, people use flowers for a wide range of events and functions that, cumulatively, encompass one’s lifetime:

• For new births or Christenings
• As a corsage or boutonniere to be worn at social functions or for holidays
• As tokens of love or esteem
• For wedding flowers for the bridal party, and decorations for the hall
• As brightening decorations within the home
• As a gift of remembrance for bon voyage parties, welcome home parties, and “thinking of you” gifts
• For funeral flowers and expressions of sympathy for the grieving

People therefore grow flowers around their homes, dedicate entire parts of their living space to flower gardens, pick wildflowers, or buy flowers from florists who depend on an entire network of commercial growers and shippers to support their trade.

Flowers provide less food than other major plants parts (seeds, fruits, roots, stems and leaves) but they provide several important foods and spices. Flower vegetables include broccoli, cauliflower and artichoke. The most expensive spice, saffron, consists of dried stigmas of a crocus. Other flower spices are cloves and capers. Hops flowers are used to flavor beer. Marigold flowers are fed to chickens to give their egg yolks a golden yellow color, which consumers find more desirable. Dandelion flowers are often made into wine. Bee Pollen, pollen collected from bees, is considered a health food by some people. Honey consists of bee-processed flower nectar and is often named for the type of flower, e.g. orange blossom honey, clover honey and tupelo honey.

Hundreds of fresh flowers are edible but few are widely marketed as food. They are often used to add color and flavor to salads. Squash flowers are dipped in breadcrumbs and fried. Edible flowers include nasturtium, chrysanthemum, carnation, cattail, honeysuckle, chicory, cornflower, Canna, and sunflower. Some edible flowers are sometimes candied such as daisy and rose (you may also come across a candied pansy).

Flowers can also be made into herbal teas. Dried flowers such as chrysanthemum, rose, jasmine, camomile are infused into tea both for their fragrance and medical properties. Sometimes, they are also mixed with tea leaves for the added fragrance.

See also

• Plants
• List of garden plants
• Plant sexuality
• Garden
• Gardening
• Sowing
• Evolution of plants
• Plant evolutionary developmental biology

References

• Eames, A. J. (1961) Morphology of the Angiosperms McGraw-Hill Book Co., New York.
• Esau, Katherine (1965) Plant Anatomy (2nd ed.) John Wiley & Sons, New York.

See our image gallery on this topic at: flowers

External links

• Native Plant Information Network
• Garden Guide UK - Information on Flowers and Colours

How frustrating when you search, using Google, and you find what you want from an Adwords ad. But when you get to the site you don’t know where to go! The product or service you wanted is hidden behind lots of junk.

If you want to stop wasting money using Google Adwords the try a squeeze page. The solution is to make a dedicated landing page for a group of Adword Keywords. And today I will share with you one option. 

Below is and example from the Google Adwords Guru Perry Marshall:

This page is called a squeeze page.

A squeeze page has many variations and I will share one with you.

But what is a squeeze page?

Squeeze pages are landing pages created to solicit opt-in email addresses from prospective subscribers.

The important terms to take note of are landing pages and then to solicit opt-in email address.

1. By having a dedicated landing page for your Awords keyword allows you to address the issue mentioned in the Adwords ad. Therefore, when you get a visitor you need to answer his/her question. Keep it tight and to the point. Meaning that you should not distract the visitor. Keep to the offer.
2. When you opt for a squeeze page as a landing page you understand that people who took your money by clicking through your Adwords ad may not be ready to purchase today. All they want is information. And most online visitors start by searching for info. The rule is to stop them from reading and then leaving. You need to make them take one more step. A step where they don’t need to pull the money out. All you do is give them something valuable free. And you give it to them if they exchange their email for the info.

My suggestion to you:

Go an have a look at Perry Marshall’s Google Adwords Squeeze Page and subscribe to his Free Course. While you do that take note of the way he creates trust with you.

Take note that there are no distractive links and ads. The page has one focus and that’s to get you to signup for his 5 days course. And you don’t have to worry. I did his course and I then decided to purchase his course.

 

Tuesday 23 September 2008

On Friday 19 September 2008 the UNHCR office in South Africa released a press statement criticizing the “negative role civil society has played” in the xenophobia crisis since May 2008. The UNHCR press statement was in response to a joint civil society report which, amongst other areas of attention, detailed the failure of the UNHCR to act according to its’ mandate during the crisis.

At the beginning of the crisis civil society recognized the importance of utilizing the expertise and practical support of the UNHCR as the internationally experienced and mandated body in dealing with issues of displacement. With this in mind, many attempts were made to invite the UNHCR to meetings, address concerns to them via correspondence and work together with them.

The UNHCR press statement singles out the AIDS Law Project and TAC for specific criticism, yet at all meetings they have met with all civil society organizations involved in the crisis.

• On 3 June 2008 civil society issued a joint appeal to the UNHCR to act according to its’ mandate in assisting displaced people. There was no response.
• On 20 June 2008- World Refugee Day- civil society issued a memorandum to the UNHCR addressing the failure of that agency to act during the crisis. There was no response.
• The UNHCR issued an undated letter that gave insubstantial information to displaced people.
• On 9 July 2008 civil society called for clarification on the undated letter issued by the UNHCR. There was no response.
• The UNHCR walked out of one meeting with refugee leadership at Soetwater camp. (Minutes available on request).
• The UNHCR has failed to respond to several letters from civil society expressing concerns regarding conditions in camps and issues surrounding repatriation, reintegration and resettlement.

The issues about which civil society is concerned are not frivolous criticism. It is documented that the UNHCR has, amongst other failures during the crisis:

· Observed the horrific conditions in the camps over several months without appropriate intervention.

· Observed a clumsy consolidation process that led to people being exposed to a massive storm and several violations to human rights.

· Have allowed undocumented displaced people to remain vulnerable and without access to the rights enjoyed by those documented people protected by its’ mandate. The UNHCR should have put more pressure on government to provide legal status to those requiring it.

· Delayed processes of repatriation, reintegration and resettlement causing fear, uncertainty and further trauma to displaced people.

· Refused to engage with individual displaced people, and not established a team capable of dealing with the magnitude of the crisis. There have been two UNHCR officials in the Western Cape- it is obvious that these individuals cannot adequately monitor the situation.

· Partnered with the Cape Town Refugee Centre, an organization which has also failed miserably in providing support during the crisis. Civil society expressed dismay at this relationship in a formal letter to the UN.

· Failed to critically engage with government on issues relating to the rights of refugees.

· Failed to adequately advise the government on issues related to site planning. One site, Wadeville, had to be closed due to poor planning, and one site, Vickers Road, was never utilised due to a court interdict, obtained by civil society and humanitarian organisations, mandating government not to relocate the displaced there because it was unsuitable and unsafe.

· Supported camp closure, with no reintegration plan. This UNHCR supported plan was ruled against by the Constitutional court.

Civil society organizations have performed the following tasks during the crisis:

• Mobilising and distributing vast amounts of humanitarian aid, in terms of food and non-food items to camps and safety sites.
• Carrying out continuous site assessments to ascertain the numbers of people requiring humanitarian aid, and pinpointing areas where this aid has been insufficient.
• Drafted lengthy reports making practical and urgent recommendations to government and the UNHCR.
• Monitoring that human rights within the camps and sites have not been compromised, and making recommendations to government and the UNHCR where rights such as protection against violence, food, shelter and dignity have been compromised.
• Assisting displaced people by providing access to legal assistance.
• Put pressure on government to ensure that displaced people are protected during reintegration.
• Consulted with representative refugee leadership throughout the crisis.
• Provided legal support, especially the Legal Resources Centre, in the form of advice, written moratoriums, affidavits and other legal documents, direct intervention where displaced people have been arrested and consultatively when civil society has at all times intended to operate within the framework of South African law.
• Khayelitsha TAC assisted people with reintegration, TAC also sheltered people at two sites, and fed and clothed people during the crisis, spending 3 million Rand on humanitarian relief. (See attached list).

Civil society calls on the UNHCR to produce their own report documenting their involvement during the crisis, and their claimed adherence to international principles and human rights law. This report must indicate the exact movements of their local staff, their attendance at meetings, actions taken, and recommendations given to government. Civil society also calls on the international office of the UNHCR to instigate an inquiry into the actions and inactions of the South African office during the crisis.

ENDORSED BY THE FOLLOWING ORGANISATIONS AND INDIVIDUALS AS PART OF CIVIL SOCIETY:

Cosatu

Displaced Refugee Network

Tracey Saunders, independent volunteer

Sam Pearce, independent volunteer

Sonke Gender Justice Network

Social Justice Coalition

Treatment Action Campaign

AIDS Law Project

Joint Refugee Leadership Committee of the Western Cape

Legal Resources Centre

For Further comment or details, call:

Scott Dunlop, Communications TAC Xenophobia Task Team

084 719 8258

(021) 422 1490

SOME ADDITIONAL COMMENTS BY CIVIL SOCIETY AND OTHER VOLUNTEERS

The JCSMF noted the inadequate role played by UNHCR in upholding its mandate to protect refugees in South Africa. The UNHCR has consistently abdicated its responsibility and has supported government policies that negatively impact on refugee protection – including but not limited to the issue of camp closure. UNHCR has not adequately consulted and communicated with the displaced, which has resulted in misplaced policy and operational decisions. The JCSMF calls on UNHCR to uphold its mandate and to critically engage with government (in consultation with the displaced and civil society) on matters impacting on refugee protection.

Joint Civil Society Monitoring Forum:

(All founding members present at the meeting endorsed these resolutions: ALP, TAC UCT, MSF, PSAM

Also endorsed by HST, ARASA, OUT, RHRU, SWEAT, CSPRI, ALN, SCAT, Sonke Gender Justice)

“In the four months since the first camps were opened, very little has changed in Cape Town. People are still being housed in leaking tents in beach camp sites which are exposed to the harsh weather conditions .Nutritional needs of babies, infants and children are still not being met.   Access to education and health facilities is limited. There is no assurance of security and meaningful dialogue with government has been so pitiful that it is hardly worth mentioning. People are still despondent and signs of trauma are still evident. The one thing that has changed is that the constant pleas I initially heard for intervention by the UNHCR have become inaudible. Not only have displaced foreign nationals lost hope in the South African government but they have also lost hope in the international body that is mandated to protect them.

I can’t help but draw a parallel between the UNHCR’s role and the tents that they have provided. Neither has offered any protection. The tents lie strewn around the camp site at Blue Waters .Those that are still standing are leaking.They have been as insubstantial and meaningless as the constant assurance provide by the UNHCR that all is well and the crisis is being addressed adequately”.

Tracey Saunders

Independent volunteer,

“What “negative impact”? If it was not for TAC,ALP and others the displaced would have been at the absolute mercy of an agency that up till today has still not displayed the ability to resolve the problem. Who co-ordinated and provided humanitarian relief from day one when all the UNHCR was concerned about was the protocols to be adhered to for fear of embarrassing the state? This conformity with its mandate is obviously not what was required at the time given the unique nature of the situation. The UNHCR must take full responsibility for the negative impression that currently prevails amongst volunteers and foreign nationals which is due to their own inadequate response and seeming buckling to the dictates of the state rather than the needs of the victims”.

Mike Louw, Cosatu

Sorry for my slack updates. It’s hard to write about the endlessly sad saga sometimes, and difficult to identify its gaps, needs, and concerns in quick ways.

It was a blur at Harmony Park today. UNHCR and UNICEF representatives were visiting en masse, engaged in long and drawn out meetings with the leaders over the voluntary registration process, which only started as I was leaving. The two options were outlined, the reintegration ‘package’ discussed, and the terms of participation made clear. I was troubled by the overemphasis of the readily accessible assistance from the Cape Town Refugee Center. Towards, the end of the meeting, a representative of UNICEF said, as it had not been said until this point, that the camp will close in a few months: this broke the otherwise cooperative mood. Harsh voices were raised (an acute comment from a Burundian resident on the importance of not calling reintegration an ‘opportunity’, for example) and tempers frayed. The major concerns surround the uncertainty for those who are still in the camp on the day of its closing and of the time after the two-months of UNHCR-sponsored rent ends (which seems to be allocated in problematically formal ways). I think that most residents will try to participate in one of the two options (reintegration, repatriation). The Congolese and Burundians residents (the ‘no hopers’, according to one mediator I spoke with, cynically but wisely) are a group with particular needs and myriad complex situations that I remain unconvinced have been adequately thought about on part of the state.
Home Affairs and UCT Law Clinic lawyers will come tomorrow, I hear. Mediator teams are large in Harmony and the surrounding areas. The extensive camp management seem to have most things under control, and they remain extremely cooperative and responsive to questions. Security has improved. There were troubling rumors of an event at Blue Waters in which a civil society group was quoted as actively telling people to not participate in the UNHCR processes and not to leave the camp (I’m unsure what to make of any rumors like this). There has been some circulated print material from Prosec Professional Security (B. Sithole, 021 551 4533) that says that foreign workers will no longer be employed by their company.
Some basic data I could get: 476 men, 131 women, 139 children (where have the children come from?!). Total camp population: 746.
83 tents (including 54 family tents). 58 toilets (12 male, 12 female indoor ones). 24 showers (12 for men, 12 for women). 50 dustbins…
Since the arrest of the oldest leader, I’m increasingly being used as a mediator to the mediators and camp management. It feels tiring at times, though it is usually helpful in relaying messages between people during the more heated moments. I continue to go to the camp as often as I can, and stay in regular phone contact with residents, camp management, and the mediator team by phone and email in between my visits.

Written by longterm volunteer

Yes We will meet on Thursday and not Wednesday because Wednesday is a public holiday. See you on Thursday 25 September 08:00 till 09:00 at the Sweetest Thing. See you there and remember to bring your promotional material along. Do your business friend a favour and invite him/her to this meeting.

Regards

Johan Horak 082 870 2004

REINTEGRATION IS NOT AN OPTION

On Thursday, 18 September 2008, we received the delegates from Provincial Government, City of Cape Town, UNHCR, UNICEF headed by CTRC Director, Ms Christine Henda. In a meeting together with the Bluewaters Leaders, after reluctantly holding a meeting with Leaders before they should embark to the process of registering IDP, they said that their main purpose was to register IDP’s and thereafter reintegrate them. This meeting was held out of their will. It was held because the Leaders insisted that they could not pitch up in camp and start attending IDP’s when the Leaders do not know what exactly going on. This was seen by Leaders as to take advantage of desperate refugees who have been in dilemma of reintegration, repatriation or resettlement.

There were many questions that were asked. These questions were not given satisfactory answers. Many questions were addressed to the UNHCR Field Assistant, Ms Diana hence the UNHCR has indicated several times that it is monitoring the development of the government in fighting against xenophobia. The following are some of the questions that were asked:

1. Are they happy with what the government is doing so that now it is safe for the IDP’s to go back?
2. Does it (UNHCR) see that the 2 months accommodation money is enough for someone who his/ her belongings were being taken away or her business looted?
3. Why does the government want to reintegrate undocumented people, while the cards were given are not being recognized by any institution?
4. How the UNHCR think that IDP’s will resume his/her life back into community with the threats that going on of closing down businesses, are we going to be employed by the government this time around if we cannot run businesses?
5. How should we survive since we do not have a piece of land where we can cultivate even a cabbage or spinach!
6. Why the UNHCR that supposed to protect us is sending us in hell as the same as one we ran from back home?

She (UNHCR) said that she was following orders from above. She did not disclose who has given her orders. Ms Christine Henda said that she was running out of funds. If we do not cooperate with them, we will be stuck in the camp and nobody who will be coming to help us because the camp will be closing very soon. But first of all, who did she spend money to? The delegates from Provincial government and City of Cape Town had nothing to say, they excluded themselves in this process.

We have questioned several times the role of CTRC (Cape Town Refugee Centre) in the path to reintegration and which criteria an IDP must met to qualify to be reintegrated. She (Ms. Christine) refused to answer a letter that was sent to her by TAC on behalf of IDP’s asking her role in reintegration, despite of answering the letter, she did not attend the meeting with civil societies together with JRLC thereafter. Likewise, the UNHCR South Africa refused to answer the letter that was sent to them asking clarification about their role and the role of CTRC.

On this day, we were told that they wanted to know how many people who want to cooperate with them so that they can help them with reintegration. They said that they are willing to pay a rent fee of not more than R750 per month per a single and between R1200 - R1500 per family with a condition that a person may go to look for accommodation by himself. And after finding a vacant accommodation you were looking for, you have to come back and see Ms. Christine at her office in Wynberg together with the landlord’s account number in your hand! She will be paying the accommodation through landlords’ account since she will not be giving any body cash. There won’t be any other assistance to help someone to start off a living; everybody must start a new life as it was the case when first arrived in SA!

For those who may be willing to reintegrate in another communities as you know that nobody who is willing to go back in the community that he/she is once chased from. This proposal may not work out easily as they anticipated because it is not easy to find an accommodation here in the Western Cape normally. Eventually, that is why people ended up staying in black suburbs. There is other people who went to stay in these areas according to what their pockets may afford, the question is if someone was able to pay R200 a month, and now is taken back into community where he/she has to rent a room of R 1500 per month, and Reintegration Facilitators Team pay only for 2 months, and then after 2 months, this person is left to sustain him/herself, that is to pay a rent and to take care of his/her family. Do you think really this person will manage to live in this community that he or she would be settled? Or they want to throw us on to streets again!

Unfortunately, we were attacked because we were blamed for social problems that we have no control over such as drugs, theft, robbery, unemployment and poor service delivery, etc. How is South Africans going to feel if we go around asking their account numbers? Are not going to have this feeling that we are going to steal their money from their accounts? Who may give account to someone he/she does not know (I mean who is not yet his lessee)? Merely because you will be coming to lease his/her house at indeterminable day and month! It sounds to us as more prejudice if not apathy.

However, reintegration into communities that expelled us is not an option and UNHCR and government ought not to take advantage of hopeless IDP by enticing them with ridiculous monetary or force us to go where life may be taken away any time any minute because “a life taken away may never be returned”

At this stage where South Africa is facing political crisis, I fear that refugees may be left to die with nobody noticing what is going on the ground, because now, Xenophobia is not what matters to the nation! Though, we are disappointed by the UNHCR supporting inconsiderate reintegration.

Kavuro Callixte

Senior Member of Bluewaters Committee and JRLC.

Just when I though had all the facts and figures on word number recall rates I came across another study on Word Numbers (Vanity Number) recall rates.

Advertisers can expect an 84% improvement in recall rates for vanity 800 numbers vs. numeric phone numbers shown in visual media (TV, billboard, print) - and a much more significant 9-times higher recall rate in the case of audio (radio) ads, according to a recent study.

Some 65% of survey respondents were able to correctly recall the vanity 800 number that was featured in a visual advertisement.

Over 72% of consumers correctly recalled the vanity 800 number after hearing one 30-second radio advertisement, compared with just 5% of consumers who correctly recalled the numeric toll-free number.

Another American user of a word numbers (vanity numbers) made these comments on his blog.

Hundreds of businesses have harnessed the tremendous marketing power of 1vanity numbers. When combined with a world class Web site, vanity telephone numbers can help drive business and spin off profits that create fortunes.

Why would a couple of successful financial gurus abandon Wall Street to start a diapers company? Who would have thought that there was a ton of dough to be made collecting Junk ? And you mean to tell me that a New York florist now runs a billion dollar flower shop?

Yep.1-800-Diapers, 1-800-Got-Junk and 1-800-Flowers are some of the world’s premiere Web sites that use vanity telephone numbers to dominate their respective categories.

In addition, experts say that 84% of current Internet users rely on electronic media to search for product or service information in order to make a purchase (Source: InternetTrak). Being able to locate the 0861 word number on the Internet greatly improves the success rate of any Internet ad or Web site.

I am predicting a significant increase in the use of Word Numbers by South African business.

Although South Africans are relatively new to 0861 Word Numbers or Smart Numbers they are not afraid to use new technology. This is true for 0861 Word Numbers. But if you are new to this technology why should you use an 0861 word number?

 

1. Phone Word Numbers, like 0861 Florist, are 14 times easier to remember than remembering this number 0861-3567478. By the way: 0861-3567478 is the regular phone number for 0861 Florist. According to another study (see graph) word number recall is 72.3% and numeric number recall is only 5.1%.
2. Word Numbers can increase advertising response rates by 290%.
3. More customers will return to spend more money with you because they now know your phone number.
4. More happy customers will refer your business to their friends if you give them an easy to remember word number like 0861 Florist instead of 0861-3567478.
5. Your lead generation becomes cheaper. Let’s say you have on the radio and you punt your word number 0861 Florist and then your opposition comes on and they punt their number 0861 34687. A day or two later the listener wants a florist. Whose number will the listener remember.
6. Word Numbers increases your credibility.
7. It creates perceived Market Leadership
8. It completes the “Golden Triangle of Marketing”. This is when your Phone Word Number matches your Company or Main Product Name AND your web site name. Let’s assume you are called InterFlorist, your word florist phone number is 0861 Florist and your web site name is www.InterFlorist.co.za.
9. Because people anticipate word numbers they will dial 0861 Florist, for example, even if they don’t know if such a florist is available in the area.
10. Word Numbers are easy to use and easy to setup for individual business owner.
11. As many as 180 unique stores or locations can utilise one word number.  

A word of warning: Word numbers and specifically the generic word numbers extremely popular, they are a valuable asset and a scares commodity. Therefore they increase in value and it’s critical to identify your word number early.

To verify some of these claims read more about phone word numbers by Roy Morgan research and article dated December, 1998 DRTV, "Experts Miss the Point About Vanity Numbers"