Corporate Philanthropy Essay Example for Free

Corporate Philanthropy Essay It is easy to estimate what corporate America is pulling in by simply looking at the amount of money they spend on advertising and celebrity endorsements. The evidence of increased affluence can also be seen in the kind of lifestyle exemplified by the CEOs of said companies. In this era of billion dollar industries the question has to be asked on the necessity or the responsibility of for-profit organizations to engage in and support philanthropy? An initial reaction would be the affirmative as there is almost no negative consequence to the idea of receiving a gift. But then again there is no such thing as a free lunch so to speak. This study will attempt to get a basic understanding of corporate philanthropy and what it means to the donor and to the receiver as well. Spirit of Giving Even before tax deductible corporate charitable contributions became part of business strategy, there were already businessmen and organizations imbued with the spirit of giving. In the early year of the twentieth century Milton S. Hershey, a deeply religious man belonging to the Mennonite sect took great pains in order to bless others as he was blessed and this was explained by Andrew Savitz: Hershey [†¦] wanted his wealth to be used ‘for a purpose of enduring good’, [†¦] Through his Hershey Improvement Company, he founded most of its leading institutions, including local bank, department store, zoo, and public gardens modeled on those at the French Versailles [†¦] He even founded a community college that local residents and company employees could attend free of charge (2006, p. 5-6). When the Great Depression ravaged corporate America in the 1930s this same spirit of giving has alleviate the suffering of many people. After this time the Federal government has seen the potential of corporate giving in helping the government during times of crisis and even in providing assistance for economic growth. The government then made decisive steps to harness this potential. Wilkinson et al. , described the rationale, â€Å"1n 1935, during the height of the Great Depression, corporate giving to private charity was welcomed as a means to reduce the taxation that would otherwise be required by local communities shouldering the burden of caring for unemployables† (2006, section 1-4). Thus, in a way the spirit of giving was regulated and before while the gift was given freely without any prodding, now those who gave are rewarded with incentives such as the â€Å"tax deductible contributions† that many are familiar today. Social Responsibility In times of crisis it is understandable why the help of businesses are required to help prevent an economic collapse or a major breakdown in the social system of this country but what about in the times of peace and less turbulent times; where can corporate philanthropy come in? Louis Boone, writing about the realities of 21st century businesses asserted that corporate success is not only about dollars and cents but by abiding with an unwritten code of corporate ethics which includes contributing to increase the well being of society (2006, p. 51). The author adds that philanthropy is one of the ways which a corporation fulfills its social responsibilities (Boone, p. 51). Impact of Generosity Robin Pogrebin in his New York Times article illustrated the ability of for-profit organizations to help create awareness for the arts, â€Å"The Brooklyn Academy of Music recently closed a $200,000 deal with Visa’s signature card to sponsor its coming production of the dance-theater piece ‘Edward Scissorhands’†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (2007, par. 21). In the same article Pogrebin clarifies the significance of such donations to places like museums and cultural groups. In a succinct way he was able to show that dance and theater groups could never compete with NASCAR or the NBA for example in terms of reach which makes Visa’s contribution more meaningful. Another good example would be the philanthropic activity of Krispy Kreme that allow them to donate to Foster Friends – a charity that works with foster children with special needs. According to one of their executives, â€Å"We want our company to establish deep roots in the community† (Boone, p. 152). Sometimes one can only appreciate things when it is already gone. This is what happened to a historical site in Sussex County, New Jersey when funds dried up and the foundation managing the 19th century site that featured a 19th century town and a Lenape Indian Village (Hughes, 2007, par. 1-5). In the same way the benefits of corporate philanthropy can only be appreciated when the donations have stopped. In the case of Sussex County school children would be denied the education and joy derived from visiting historic sites such as this one. Bottomline Not all agree to the positive impact of corporate giving. When receiving gifts from corporate sponsors one could almost feel the strings attached the moment free money is being handed out. A realistic view of the world should automatically alert beneficiaries of donations to the fact that something must be given in return. But it must also be understood that corporations does not necessarily demand for the soul of the fundraiser and is only interested with a partnership that would work both ways. There is no need to be paranoid and say, â€Å"†¦if companies have a say in some decisions, might they eventually demand it in others? † (Pogrebin, par. 12). Ms. Perkins, a fund raising consultant asserts that corporations are less interested in â€Å"dictating programming than in exploiting it† (as cited in Pogrebin, par. 13). This makes a lot of sense since no CEO or corporate staff for that matter will have the time and energy to spare in tinkering with something they have no proficiency in like say tap dancing. Mr. Will Maitland Weiss, executive director of the Arts and Business Council of New York agrees with this assessment and he said, â€Å"The challenge isn’t that evil Mr. Businessman is trying to trick you into doing something you don’t want to do. The challenge for an arts group is to go into a meeting thinking strategically: We want to reach this audience, you want to reach this market, and we’ll both win† (as cited in Pogrebin, par 14). An example of the dynamics described by Weiss can be seen in the partnership between Time Warner and City Center’s Fall for Dance program which the media giant has sponsored for the past three years. The mutual relationship produced exposure for Time Warner and the six figure gift from the conglomerate was translated into 160, 000 festivals brochures, 400 subway posters and 5,500 bus advertisements (Pogrebin, par. ). If the cultural center tried to carry all the promotional and operational expense all by itself there is no way the production could have taken off the ground. Conclusion In the final analysis there is no significant objection to the idea that for-profit organizations should indeed participate and engage themselves in charitable causes and other philanthropic activities. The reasons for supporting such an activity are numerous. It starts with the fact that these organizations are earning millions of dollars. It is just proper for them to give back to the community or to the people that patronized their product, service or whatever it may be they are selling. The second major reason is the positive impact of giving, which has resulted in helping others reach their full potential. In the examples given previously one can see the numerous social problems that were solved because of corporate giving. There is even a deeper reason for the need to give. As pointed out by Boone, a lot of businessmen believe that it is ethical to give back to the community. And that many CEOs and entrepreneurs view themselves as failures if they only focus on the dollars and cents instead of making their world a better place. Third reason for an affirmative answer to the query on corporate giving is its ability to jumpstart projects that may not be as important as feeding the poor but is equally significant in feeding the soul. Examples were given of arts and culture groups that could not compete with sports and would have no chance of staging production without the aid of corporate sponsors. The objection to corporate philanthropy is baseless and could not hold water when stacked up against the benefits of generosity. Obviously, foundations and charitable institutions are never at a loss for programs and activities that will efficiently spend money given by for-profit organizations. Moreover, the examples given earlier has proven that corporate giving has evolved into a highly sophisticated system of partnership between donor and beneficiary that illustrates the paradox of making profit while giving away money. This is only possible in the world of corporate giving.

Comparison of Ethiopia and Mali Essay -- essays research papers fc

A Brief Overview of the History of Ethiopia Ethiopia is one of the most unique among African countries for maintaining its freedom from colonial rule, with the short exception of an occupation by the Italians from 1936-1941. A socialist state was established in 1974 with the overthrow of Emperor Selassie, who had been in control since 1930. A junta or group of military officers called the Derg was responsible for the coup. Yet, this corrupt administration has lead only to warfare and wide scale public suffering. In 1991, the junta was finally brought down by a combination of revolutionary forces who called themselves the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front. In 1994, a constitution was drafted and 1995 marked Ethiopia’s first multiparty elections. Recently, a boarder feud with Eritrea, that lasted over 2 years, was ended in December of 2000; yet recent objections by Ethiopia have delayed a final declaration of border. The landlocked country of Ethiopia is located in east Africa, just west of Somalia, and is roughly twice the size of Texas . Ethiopia’s natural resources include platinum, copper, and small reserves of gold. Only .65% of the land is suitable and allotted for permanent crops. Ethiopia is currently facing several environmental concerns including deforestation, overgrazing, soil erosion, and water shortages due to poor management of water-intensive farming. Ethiopia’s population is in excess of 66 million. Ethiopia is home to numerous ethnic groups, the largest being Oromo, which accounts for 40% of the population. About half of the Ethiopian population is Muslim, with the majority of the other half practicing Ethiopian Orthodox. Ethiopia’s government is a federal republic which grants its citizens voting rights at 18 years of age. Currently, Ethiopia faces the problem of attempting to control the illicit drugs that come through the country, as it acts as a hub for the transportation of heroin and cocaine. A Brief Overview of the History of Mali Mali became a French colony in 1904 and was renamed French Sudan. In June of 1960, it gained its’ independence and became known as the Sudanese Republic. The Sudanese Republic associated with the Republic of Senegal under one federation. In August of 1960, Senegal broke off connections with the federation, and the Sudanese Republic changed its name to The Republic of Mali.... ... use their homes as collateral for startup capital to create businesses or invest, promoting economic expansion. It was also interesting to read about the history of each country, and I was surprised when I realized that Ethiopia is one of the oldest independent countries. This report was extremely fascinating and helped me get a better grasp on events outside of the United States. I feel that a worldview is increasingly important in our day and age to help people better understand the problems and solutions in developing nations. Works Cited 1.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The CIA, http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html 2.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The formal HDI Report, http://hdr.undp.org/reports/global/2003/indicator/pdf/hdr03_indicators.pdf 3.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The European Union, http://europa.eu.int/index_en.htm 4.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The World Bank, http://poverty.worldbank.org/library/view/8702/ 5.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  http://www.geographia.com/mali 6.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/mali.htm 7.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/ethiopia.htm

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Administration and Related Streams How To Use The Business Report Template (version 1. 0) Formal business reports are prepared in a different format than essays or other academic assignments. Preparing professional reports, and proposals, will help you communicate your ideas to your employers while also adding to your value as an employee. This is an important skill to develop and practice while here at Centennial. Business writing should involve three key steps: Planning Writing Completing Planning: Analyzing the situation or topic.Defining the purpose, the â€Å"business problem† or opportunity' that a report may address. Formulating a main message for your report – often this involves proposing a solution or response to the purpose. Developing an audience profile. Gathering information. In other words, primary and secondary research, as required. Organizing the information: Creating an outline or structure for the key points that need to be expressed. Writing: Adapt ing to the audience. Developing a tone or style that is sensitive to audience needs while projecting and protecting your organization's image and/or brand.Composing the message: Follow the outline prepared earlier, using carefully instructed paragraphs and sentences. Identify or create any visual or graphic representations of data that you want to use. Completing: Revising: Proofread and edit for spelling, grammar and typographical errors. Re-write for conciseness and clarity. To assist you with the formatting of such documents, we have prepared a template that you can use to guide you through the report preparation process. Download the template. Save one â€Å"master † copy to use again in the future.Save a new copy with a new file name that reflects your report or assignment. Instructions are given and highlighted in yellow. Read all instructions and delete them when you no longer need them. Replace all other elements (titles, headings, sample text, etc. ) with YOUR conten t, as instructed. When you finish using the template, the final document should contain your own original work, formatted as a standard business report. All instructions or examples given in this template should be either deleted or replaced with your own content.Instructions for the cover page: The next page is a cover page and contains the report title (mandatory), a subtitle (optional) and information on the author, the intended audience (in this case, a roofless), and the date it was prepared. Every business report should have a title that reflects its content or â€Å"main message†. The title should be in the same font as the body of your work, but at least twice as large as your regular text. It should be centered, bold, underlined and should appear about one third to halfway down the page from the top.Depending on the nature and content of the report, you may decide that a subtitle is appropriate. For example, a report about recycling in Toronto might look like this: R ecycling In Toronto Saving The City One Plastic Bottle At A Time Titles do not require punctuation, although you can use a colon at the end of the title if you decide to use a subtitle. This is optional. Guidelines regarding fonts and font sizes: Use either a simple sans serif font (Ariel, Calamari, OTTOMH) or Times New Roman (a simple serif font). Regardless of which font you select, use the same font for the entire document.Do not use italics at any point in your report. Use the following font sizes and configurations: Cover Page Title: 22 point, bold, underlined, centered Cover Page SubTitle: 16 point, centered Headings: 16 point ,bold, underlined, centered Subheadings: 13 point, bold, underlined left-justified Body text: 1 1 point DELETE THIS PAGE BEFORE YOU HAND IN YOUR WORK! The Title Of Your Report The Subtitle of Your Report Your Name Your Student Number Professor's Name Course Name Course Code Date Submitted Executive Summary Instructions: The heading â€Å"Executive Summa ry' is standard and should remain unchanged on this page.An Executive Summary is the last item that an author prepares when writing a business report. It should contain NO MORE than three paragraphs, each with three or four sentences. The Executive Summary should never exceed one page. Paragraph One: Introduce the topic of the report. Paragraph Two: Discuss the main problem(s) that the report examines. Paragraph Three: Review, briefly, any conclusions or recommendations that the report offers. A reader should get a reasonable representation of the overall content from reading these three paragraphs. Table of Contents These page numbers are provided as samples.Use the real page numbers for your report. Put actual headings and subheadings as per your actual report. Introduction First Topic Heading Subheading 2 Second Topic Heading 3 Third Topic Heading 4 Recommendations Conclusion References 5 Appendices 6 Appendix One 7 Appendix Two 8 – Title Appendix Three – Title 9 Ap pendix Four – Title 10 The Table of Contents shows the reader where to find specific content areas. If you have prepared a strong outline prior to writing your report (highly recommended), the headings, subheadings and other information should be easily available and clearly organized.This example shows three headings and two subheadings for each, however this is Just for the purposes of this example. There is no set amount for these elements. Use as many of each as you feel are appropriate to construct a omelet report. Insert the accurate page number for each corresponding element. It is often best to construct this table of contents after all content is prepared and edited. This will allow for fewer revisions to the table of contents. The appendices show any data tables, charts, graphs, or visuals that you refer to within the body of the report.Such visual material should appear at the end in an appendix rather than taking up page space within the body of the report. A note about page numbers: The first page of the report is the page that follows this table of contents and should notation a few introductory paragraphs to the topic, followed by the first major topic heading. However, the first page NUMBER should appear on page two. It is standard to leave the page number out on page one. Introduction Marketing has been changed dramatically for last fifty years. Nowadays it consists of many different and complex tools for every particular type of business.With constant changes technological progress, in the way consumers communicate personally and professionally, marketing is a moving forward every day. Now, it happens online, offline and everywhere in-between. With the prevalence of social media, mobile internet connections and on-demand information, the 21st century presents a new challenges and opportunities for marketers. To understand these challenges and opportunities could be extremely important for success of marketing campaigns and, as result, for businesses in 21st century.Furthermore, modern marketers should understand how to solve particular challenges and how to use particular opportunities as effectively as possible. Challenges The marketing profession is going through a major transformation. Traditionally, marketing focuses on three key responsibilities: understanding the customer, how ND where to market and building the brand promise. These responsibilities are now transforming into new dimensions that require marketers to function and collaborate differently.We are talking about the new marketing imperatives of understanding the client as an individual, having a clear view of the client experience Journey or the systems of engagement and lastly, integrating the company's culture and brand to be authentically one. With today's Big Data, a marketer has the potential to transform his/her role and use the new insights to drive strategic decisions for growth and nominative advantage. Big Data-?the enormous volume, vari ety, veracity and velocity of data being produced-?holds tremendous potential for the marketing function.With the right marketing mix, marketing professionals can use Big Data to better understand individual customers, predict their behaviors, create tailored interactions and maximize the value of each interaction. Gone are the days where we Just talk about understanding markets. We have moved onto a smaller rabbit hole that promises much more. Marketers now need to understand each customer as an individual. Subheading Sample text Lore pipes dollar sit met, constructed advising elite. Vestibules magna Guam, actor at congou neck, Venetians a fells.UNC ornate, veldt AC tincture pollutant, sapiens veldt consequent null, id dismissing est. Eros et risks. Vamps consequent arc trustier risks ornate a frangible NIST consequent. Queues at trustier Eros. Duds sit met Eros seed UNC consequent mantis e vitae Guam. Annual facilities caulis torpor id plainer. In plenteous NIST quiz risks lifelin e placemat. Name AC malamutes magna. Present trustier seem AC pipes subscript a ornate Guam ultraists. Suspensions at arc NIST. Ut veil dodo mass. Anne get pipes Eros, quiz plenteous unique. Team consequent valuate purrs, et posture urn lacing non.Prior torpor NIST, lacing a bacchius condiment, dictum e Mauritius. Morbid veldt pipes, lifeline subscript rhombus in, element get urn. Vamps seed felts et est. commode aliquot. Present quiz urn ante. In seed dud dodo, advising moll's ague. In biennium nib UT pipes lacing UT lusts lacks valuate. Queues get meets unique. Mauritius commode mass e elite saddles UT clique's Just vestibules. Passels simper pipes sit met dollar facilities a frangible tells tincture. Team at magna lore, UT rut elite. Suspensions siestas consequent Eros, et interned fells placemat UT.Anne UT lacks elects, vitae dictum lacks. Present AC NIST Adam, id vestibules lacks. Annual constructed, Leo neck imperiled plenteous, NIST risks Venetians null, quiz tempts meets dol lar dismissing seem. Anne vitae clique's torpor. Morbid seem dodo, solicitude seed portion at, lampooner sit met Adam. Plenteous turnips UNC, Verviers veil malamutes in, caulis in magna. (Argentina 2006) The major difference between a â€Å"business report† and an â€Å"essay' is that a business port clearly divides its content into logically flowing topic areas, divided by headings and subheadings.These should ALWAYS correspond to a properly prepared outline – something that makes your task much easier. Use as many headings / subheadings as make sense for your report. There is no standard regarding the number of paragraphs or sentences per paragraph, although most paragraphs contain – at minimum – three sentences. Use as many or as few as make sense for what you have to say about your topic. Please note: A heading or subheading should NEVER appear in the last 15% (I. E. At the bottom) of any page. In such a case, leave white space and start the next sec tion at the top of the next page.In-Text Citations: For all ideas, quotations or content, use standard PAP in-text citation format of the author's name followed year of publication. (Argentina 2006) The reader should then be able to refer to your reference page to find where you sourced your specific material. Opportunities Wide range of marketing tools With today's development of the Internet, new marketing tools appear every year or even every month. Improvement of old technologies is happening too. Because of that marketers can use a huge number of marketing tools now.Beginning from advertising in magazines and continue to the promotion in the Internet, social networks. Obviously, it gives new opportunities for businesses and for people around. Cheap marketing Vamps seed felts et est. commode aliquot. Present quiz urn ante. In seed dud dodo, advising moll's ague. In biennium nib UT pipes lacing UT lusts lacks valuate. Queues get meets unique. Mauritius commode mass e elite saddle s UT clique's just vestibules. Passels simper pipes sit met dollar facilities a frangible tells tincture. Team at magna lore, UT rut elite. Suspensions siestas consequent Eros, t interned fells placemat UT.Anne UT lacks elects, vitae dictum lacks. Present AC NIST Adam, id vestibules lacks. Annual constructed, Leo neck imperiled plenteous, NIST risks Venetians null, quiz tempts meets dollar dismissing seem. Anne vitae clique's torpor. Morbid seem dodo, solicitude seed portion at, lampooner sit met Adam. Plenteous turnips UNC, Verviers veil malamutes in, caulis in magna. Maximize each engagement Customers are individuals. To be a successful marketer, one needs to go beyond broad customer segmentation to determine individual preferences and anticipate individual behaviors.By understanding each customer as an individual, one can develop highly targeted promotions, determine the next best action for each individual and deliver a tailored experience-?one that improves outcomes and increas es return on investment (ROI). Social media sentiments are crucial especially for business to consumer (BBC) enterprises. Collecting and analyzing the content from social media must be a top priority. The volume of social media content is staggering: Every minute, there are some 1. 7 million Faceable posts, a third of a million tweets, plus some 2. 8 million Youth views, according to Delano Digitalis 013 Social Media Trends.In the Philippines, social media is changing the way the Filipinos do things in general. Going by the numbers from Sociological, one of every three Filipinos is on Faceable. Big businesses are cashing in on it and there's no sign that it's going to slow down anytime soon. To make a point, in May 2013, ABS-CAB Integrated News and Current Affairs (INCA) tied up with IBM Philippines to utilize its deep big data analytics expertise and patented tools in analyzing public interactions on social media that helped made better sense of the social media activities in the r ecent mid-term elections.Faceable is Just one of the many channels that offer marketers routes into the psyche of a customer. As the number of customer channels increases, delivering a tailored experience across all channels is a must. Whether a customer engages-?in person, via telephone calls or comments via Twitter or on Youth, the need to anticipate what the customer wants and then make the most of each interaction is crucial. Improving marketing effectiveness An effective marketer seeks to sustain interest, generate qualified lead and goes on to convert an inquiry into a new sale-?while making the most of the marketing investment.In the past, many marketing campaigns fail to generate actual sales. The good news is, today's advanced analytics has the potential to maximize the value of Big Data and transform key marketing functions. Employing big data analytics for behavior analysis, for example, enables marketers to explore a broader range of customer information than previously available, detect patterns in prior behavior and more accurately predict future behaviors. As a result, marketers can determine the next best action, better target promotions and increase the effectiveness of advertising campaigns.The valuable customer information that marketers collect can be used not only to improve marketing but also to enhance product development. By sharing emerging trends and real-time feedback gathered from social media and other sources, marketers can make a valuable contribution to successful product development. Moving from traditional marketing strategies to more data-driven approaches that employ advanced analytics, marketers can optimize their audience, channel, content and yield. They can better target high-value customers, determine the best channels for reaching those customers, tailor the messaging and ultimately liver better results.Big Data is more than a simple matter of size; it is an opportunity to find insights in new and emerging types of dat a and content, to make your business more agile, and to answer questions that were previously considered beyond your reach. Until now, there was no practical way to harvest this opportunity. To sum it up, it is about bringing science to the art of marketing and realizing that things can be done smarter. In Conclusion pipes, lifeline subscript rhombus in, element get urn. Vamps seed fells et est. commode aliquot. Present quiz urn ante.In seed dud dodo, advising moll's ague. Plenteous turnips UNC, Verviers veil malamutes in, caulis in magna. Most business reports are written with the purpose of presenting findings and offering recommendations. When preparing the conclusion, you may wish to review the main points from the introduction (for example, re-stating whatever business problem you were examining) and suggesting what positive results might follow should your recommendations be followed. Argentina, P. A. , & Foreman, J. (2006). The Power of Corporate Communication: Crafting the V oice and Image of Your Business.New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. Hover's Online. (2007) Intel-company Capsule. Retrieved September 6, 2007 from www. Hoovers. Com/ Intel-corporation/–old_13787–/free-co-facets. XHTML. Porter, M. E. & Kramer, M. R. (2002, December). The competitive advantage of corporate philanthropy. Harvard Business Review, 80(12), 56-68. Instructions – PAP Citation Style: The American Psychological Association (PAP) style is one of three standard formats used to cite works that have been used as research for reports and essays.ALL non- original ideas and content within a document MUST be cited or you may be legalizing – in other words, you may be presenting work that appears to be yours, but in fact is not. Your professor has the option to give a grade of zero for either the work, or the course, should a student be found popularizing. The best way to avoid this is to use PAP to cite EVERYTHING. Keep track of every article you read, every book, journal or website you use. Personal interviews with experts are great sources of information and must be cited in the text as well however do not need to be included in the reference page.PAP has the following attributes: Citations are formatted as hanging indents and appear alphabetically by author last name. Citations contain the following information (when available), IN THIS ORDER: 1 . Author last name followed by initials 2. Year of publication (in parentheses) 3. Title information 4. Publication information 5. Date retrieved or accessed (for online Journals and web sites) 6. Page range (for periodicals only) 7. URL (for online Journals and websites) The examples above offer three different types of citations for the reference page. There are dozens more that cover all possible situations.Examples can be found inline if you search for â€Å"PAP examples†, or you can refer to any reputable communications textbook for guidance. Appendix One – Title Chart Title List the source and the date here Put all visual materials into appendices that appear at the end of your report. Each page should contain only ONE visual. Change the title of the appendix here to reflect your work. MAKE SURE you properly label the data, and that you use an explanatory chart title. The source for the visual should always be listed, as well as a date. This is particularly important if you are using data that might be questioned or may be obsolete. Picture Title

What Is the Origin of the Aurora Borealis Name

The Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights, takes its name from two classical deities, even though it was neither an ancient Greek nor Roman who gave us that name. Galileos Classical Notion In 1619, the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei coined the term â€Å"Aurora Borealis† for an astronomical phenomenon observed mostly at very high latitudes: shimmering bands of color arcing across the night sky. Aurora was the name for the goddess of the dawn according to the Romans (known as Eos and usually described as rosy-fingered by the Greeks), while Boreas was the god of the north wind. Although the name reflects Galileo’s Italian worldview, the lights are part of the oral history of most of the cultures in the latitudes in which the Northern Lights are seen. The indigenous peoples of America and Canada have traditions related to the auroras. According to regional mythology, in Scandinavia, the Norse god of winter Ullr was said to have produced the Aurora Borealis to illuminate the longest nights of the year. One myth among the caribou hunter Dene people is that reindeer originated in the Aurora Borealis. Early Astronomical Reports A Late Babylonian cuneiform tablet dated to the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar II (ruled 605-562 BCE) is the earliest known reference to the Northern Lights. The tablet contains a report from a royal astronomer of an unusual red glow in the sky at night, on a Babylonian date corresponding to the March 12/13 567 BCE. Early Chinese reports include several, the earliest dated to 567 CE and 1137 CE. Five examples of multiple simultaneous auroral observations from East Asia (Korea, Japan, China) have been identified in the last 2,000 years, occurring on the nights of January 31, 1101; October 6, 1138; July 30, 1363; March 8, 1582; and March 2, 1653. An important classical Roman report comes from Pliny the Elder, who wrote of the aurora in 77 CE, calling the lights a chasma and describing it as a yawning of the night sky, accompanied by something that looked like blood and fire falling to earth. Southern European records of the Northern Lights begin as early as the 5th century BCE. The earliest recorded possible viewing of the Northern Lights may be impressionistic† cave drawings which could depict auroras flaming in the night sky. Scientific Explanation These poetic descriptions of the phenomenon belie the astrophysical origin of the aurora borealis (and its southern twin, the aurora australis. They are the closest and most dramatic example of space phenomena.  Particles from the sun, which may emerge in a steady stream called the solar wind or in giant eruptions known as coronal mass ejections, interact with magnetic fields in the upper atmosphere of Earth. These interactions cause oxygen and nitrogen molecules to release photons of light.