E-views Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

E-views - Essay Example dependent var 1946.249 S.E. of regression 455.4699   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Akaike info criterion 15.33487 Sum squared resid 3526698.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Schwarz criterion 15.72491 Log likelihood -183.6859   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Hannan-Quinn criter. 15.44305 F-statistic 60.17375   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Durbin-Watson stat 1.916498 Prob(F-statistic) 0.000000 (a) The estimated equation is: Y = 148.220572044 - 1.28739451915*X1 + 1.80962162969*X2 + 0.59039598443*X3 - 21.4816857405*X4 + 5.61940285601*X5 - 14.51467253*X6 + 29.3602583452*X7 The interpretation of the estimated coefficients is provided below: Table 3: Coefficient values and their interpretation Coefficient Value Interpretation Coefficient 1 148.2206 This is the intercept. ... ase in the manhour requirement by approximately 0.60 hours per week Coefficient 5 -21.4817 for an increase of the common use area by an additional square feet will imply a reduction of the manhour requirement by 21 hours per month Coefficient 6 5.619403 If the number of building wings increases by one, the additional monthly manhour requirement rises by 5.61 Coefficient 7 -14.5147 for an increase of operational berthing capacity by an additional unit, the monthly manhour requirement falls by 14.51 Coefficient 8 29.36026 For every additional number of rooms, approximately 29.4 additional manhours per month become necessary (b) Testing for significances Here, n=25 and we test at the 95% level (0.05). The test is two sided. For these specifications, the critical value: . From the 4th column of table 2 we see that only the coefficients of X2, X4, X6 and X7 exceed the critical value (in absolute terms). Thus, these are the only variables that are found to be significant, i.e., the coeffic ients are statistically different from zero. It can be checked from the column of probabilities it is only these coefficients that have p-values less than 0.05. Therefore, the conclusion is that only the monthly number of check ins, common use area, operational berthing capacity and number of rooms have statistically significant effects on the predicted variable, the required manhours to run the establishment. Problem 2 The test of joint significance is an F test of the null hypothesis that all coefficients are equal to zero, i.e., the parameters are jointly insignificant. In Eviews this is equivalent to using the Wald test for testing the restriction: The 5% critical F-statistic value for one restriction and 17 degrees of freedom (n=25, k=8) is 4.451. Observe from table 2 that the computed

Economic Topics Essay Example for Free

Economic Topics Essay Discuss how the government can use discretionary fiscal policy and automatic stabilisers to stabilise fluctuations in real GDP. What tools does the government have at its discretion to stabilise the economy? Suppose the government decides to decrease income taxes. Show in a diagram and explain how this policy will lead to an increase in real GDP. Explain how potential output may be affected. Any government program that tends to reduce fluctuations in GDP automatically is called an automatic stabilizer. The reduction in economic activity automatically reduced tax payments, reducing the impact of the downturn on disposable personal income. Furthermore, the reduction in incomes increased transfer payment spending, boosting disposable personal income further. Fiscal policy is the use of government expenditures and taxes to influence the level of economic activity; it is the government counterpart to monetary policy. Fiscal policy is the best counter-stabilisation tool available to any government. Discretionary government spending and tax policies can be used to shift aggregate demand. Expansionary fiscal policy might consist of an increase in government purchases or transfer payments, a reduction in taxes, or a combination of these tools to shift the aggregate demand curve to the right. A contractionary fiscal policy might involve a reduction in government purchases or transfer payments, an increase in taxes, or a mix of all three to shift the aggregate demand curve to the left. Income taxes affect the consumption component of aggregate demand. A reduction in income taxes increases disposable personal income, increases consumption (but by less than the change in disposable personal income), and increases aggregate demand. That shifts the aggregate demand curve rightward by an amount equal to the initial change in consumption that the change in income taxes produces times the multiplier. Suppose, for example, that income taxes are reduced by $200 billion. Only some of the increase in disposable personal income will be used for consumption and the rest will be saved. Suppose the initial increase in consumption is $180 billion. Then the shift in the aggregate demand curve will be a multiple of $180 billion; if the multiplier is 2, aggregate demand will shift to the right by $360 billion. Thus, the equilibrium level of real GDP rises to $12,260 billion, and the price level rises to P2. $12,000 $ 12,260 $12,360 The economy shown here is initially in equilibrium at a real GDP of $12,000 billion and a price level of P1. A reduce of $200 billion in the level of Income Taxes (ΔT) shifts the aggregate demand curve to the right by $360 billion to AD2. The equilibrium level of real GDP rises to $12,260 billion, while the price level rises to P2.

There is always room for pie. :: essays research papers

There Is Always Room For Pie   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Throughout my life my parents have always taught me that a child is a product of its environment. As time has passed and I have grown older and observed the people around me I have seen this fact become more evident. I believe that no one person can mimic another’s actions or behaviors so precisely that they become identical. A person’s personality seems to be an infinitely large empty pie plate. The actions or behaviors that people portray are a small slice that they have taken from others to fill up their plate. These actions and behaviors are taken from the influential people in their lives. I do not think any one will ever have a full pie plate because it seems to me that we never stop learning new behaviors from people around us.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  As I have began to talk with my mom more and more through the years I have found her constantly telling me that I act or sound â€Å"just like my father†. Whenever I do or say something around my mom I wait to hear those four words, and it seems that she says them about every four minutes. Even though I mimic many of my father’s actions and behaviors, am I my father? In my mind I do not think I could ever be my dad. I do know why I emulate him so much, because I look up to him. Quite a few sons say that sort of thing about their fathers. Even though it is a generic saying it seems to bring a unique feeling each time it is said. I am glad that I am able to take large pieces from my dad’s personality pie and add them to mine. It does not mean that I have not take anything from my mother’s, it just appears to me that a son imitates more of his father and a daughter imitates more of her mother. I know that this is a sexist statement, but in my observations I have found this to be exceedingly true.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  What things make up the pieces of the personality pie that we copy? A good example would be self-concept/self-image. Self-concept is a person’s impressions, opinions and attitudes toward their physical, mental and emotional makeup. My father had always been a physically strong person. My physical strength that has come from him, as well as body shape, is more genetic than personality.

Mla Template for Dummies Essay

Got a paper to write? Here’s a tip: don’t worry about the formatting, just write. Besides, this MLA template for Word has the formatting down for you. Just replace everything in brackets with your information (remember the heading!) and you’re good to go. And, of course, replace this stuff with your content. But read this first! There’s some really important info here. Do yourself a favor and save this template to your computer in a place where you’ll remember it. There are bunch of little nuances in MLA that are really easy to miss – the heading, the spacing, the date format, and those random rules that seem to exist only to annoy you†¦ stop re-writing it each time you go to write a paper, and just whip out this handy template! Wasn’t that easy? By the way, here’s a look at some of the stuff people get wrong a lot. First, the heading at the top right corner of each page. Remove the entire thing if your paper is just one page long; some teachers, though, tell you to just remove the page number. Next come inline citations. You want to â€Å"write them in this format, with the period way at the end, assuming you got this from the 5th page of someone’s essay† (Someone 5). Also, if someone includes some random tangent in their quote, you can cut out the junk using ellipses. â€Å"I’ve got logorrhea, meaning I tend to ramble on incoherently a lot . . . Now back to the main topic.† Notice that there are spaces in between each ellipsis (yes, that’s the singular form), before the ellipses, and after them. Strange, I know. But it gets weirder. What if you want to cite a really long bit of text (4 lines or more)? Take a look. Welcome to long-quote land! Notice that the formatting here is the same as it is everywhere else – except every paragraph is indented twice as much (one inch) as usual paragraphs. What I’d recommend you do is type your long quote normally (like a normal paragraph), then highlight the whole thing and hit â€Å"tab† to indent it all properly. Also, remember that there are no quotation marks surrounding this block of text! None! Nada! Zilch! And as if there weren’t enough twists already, citing a long quote is different than citing a normal quote: the citation goes in parentheses after the final punctuation, like this. (Someone 5) Also, make sure you include a Works Cited page below this page (I’ve even included the page break!) I’d highly recommend using a web service such as easybib.com, which does all your formatting for you – just input the information you know. What’s more, you can export it to a Word document, complete with all the formatting! You can copy the contents of the exported document, insert a page break (Insert → Page Break; fancy that) after your body, then paste the contents in. Feel free to share this template with your friends at is.gd/mlatemplate (or, if for some reason that doesn’t work, is.gd/MLAtemplate), but remember that this template is copyrighted, meaning you can’t claim it as your own. Enjoy and good luck! –Neel

Early Intervention for Special Needs Children Essay

The development and implementation of early intervention activities for young children who have a delay or who are at risk for future delays are relatively recent phenomena in the United States. Early intervention as an applied and academic field has developed primarily within the specialty area of early childhood special education (ECSE), a field comprised of professionals from many disciplines. The genesis of ECSE in the United States may be traced to the formation, in 1968, of the Handicapped Children’s Early Education Program (HCEEP) branch within the United States Department of Education. Although other work had occurred in early intervention prior to this time, the establishment of HCEEP provided national recognition and federal funds to address early intervention issues. Since 1968, rapid changes have occurred in the field of early intervention. The most significant event impacting on early intervention was the passage of Public Law 99-457 (P. L. hereafter) in 1986. This law mandates education for handicapped children aged three to five years and provides both impetus and funding for early intervention for children younger than age three. From the viewpoint of an outside observer, the passage of only eighteen years from the establishment of a specialty area to that specialty area demonstrating efficacy such that its tenets become law is admirable. However, these tenets, and the practices derived from them, are based on research that has recently received negative reviews. It is clear that ECSE has done well, but many challenges remain to be met. Failure to conquer these challenges could result in a loss of valuable ground that many have worked hard to achieve. Early Evidence for Early Intervention As the fields of special education and early childhood education evolved, evidence were accumulating that early intervention could be effective. In a classic study, Skeels (1966) examined the effects of environmental stimulation on two comparable groups of infants. Mentally retarded females acted as surrogate mothers for one group (n = 13), providing these children with attention and stimulation. Twelve infants with average IQs remained in a nonstimulating orphanage environment. Eighteen months later, the stimulated infants gained an average 27. 5 IQ points while the control group dropped 26. 2 points. Twenty-one years later, Skeels (1966) continued to find differences between those who were placed in the enriched environment and those who were not. Of those in the experimental group, all were found to be self-supporting as adults. Four of these adults had completed college and, as a group, had a median high-school education. Of those in the control group, four adults had been institutionalized. The median education for these adults was at the third-grade level. Additional evidence came from the work of Kirk (1965), who studied handicapped preschoolers. He compared institutionalized mentally handicapped preschoolers who received a preschool program with a comparable group who remained on the wards and received no intervention services. Children in the experimental program showed significant gains on intellectual measures. Six of the fifteen-experimental group children were able to leave the institution by age eight, while none of the children in the control group left the institution. Works researched provided additional evidence for the value of early intervention. Based upon these studies, the consensus emerged that children’s cognitive skills develop early in life and very rapidly, and that early enrichment can have profound influences on a child’s future functioning. Although this consensus is no longer accepted without question, this philosophy, nevertheless, played a major role in the acceptance of early intervention and helped to create a social climate for legislation favoring handicapped children. Legislative Activities Both research and societal factors converged to provide momentum for the early intervention movement in the 1960s. The changing social climate in the United States in the 1960s led to the passage of favorable legislation for several groups. Litigative and legislative activities occurred in the areas of civil rights, rights for the disadvantaged, and rights for the handicapped. A breakthrough for early intervention, focusing on disadvantaged children, was the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964. Part of this act was directed at the establishment of Project Head Start. This program was designed to provide early intervention for disadvantaged preschool children in the research found that these IQ gains disappeared after the children entered school. Based on societal and political pressures, Head Start continued despite the negative research findings. Arguments by researchers who questioned the findings and suggested that unmeasurable gains were being made bolstered the pro-Head Start forces. The results of a nineteen-year longitudinal study on children who participated in Head Start (the Perry Pre-school Project) found a number of positive results. These benefits included: (a) less need for special education, (b) more positive school attitudes, (c) less arrests, (d) less teen pregnancy, and (e) better employment histories. Other research has supported these findings. As an early intervention program, Head Start is the most well-known in the United States and has served over eight million preschoolers. Additionally, Head Start has had a major impact on early intervention for children with handicaps. The Economic Opportunity Acts Amendments of 1972 mandated that at least 10% of the total population served by Head Start be children with handicaps, giving Head Start the status of the first mandated, mainstreamed early intervention program in the United States. This occurred well before the concept of mainstreaming became popular in special education. One of the most important pieces of legislation regarding young children with handicaps was the Handicapped Children’s Early Education Assistance Act of 1968. This act established the Handicapped Children’s Early Education Program of the Department of Education, which has been responsible for funding the majority of innovative service projects in early intervention that occurred in the United States. This legislation may be viewed as the formal beginning of the field of early intervention for the handicapped. HCEEP programs will be discussed more fully later in this chapter in the section on current practices. The next major legislation to affect early intervention activities was an act that impacted significantly on educational practices for all handicapped children–the Education of All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 (P. L. 94-142). P. L. 94-142 provided for a free, appropriate public education with related services to all children with handicaps between the ages of three and twenty-one years. This act has been called the â€Å"Bill of Rights† for children with handicaps. The overall impact of this act on educational practice has been discussed in other places. While this act documented acceptance of the need for early intervention by the federal government, it also provided individual states with the option not to serve these young children. Unfortunately, this was an option many states adopted. In 1985, only twenty-four of the fifty states had mandated services for handicapped children under age five and only eight states had mandated services for handicapped children under age three. Although P. L. 94-142 had a major impact on such intervention, supporters of early intervention were aware of the implementation problems involved in serving young children. As a result of successes with preschool early intervention, the need for services for even younger children was being heralded. Congress responded to these calls for early intervention in 1983 by passing the Amendments to the Education of the Handicapped Act (P. L. 98-199). These amendments provided financial incentives for states to extend early intervention service levels down to birth. Unfortunately, funding remained dependent upon the number of children served between the ages of three and five, and the act, in effect, diluted the funding available for the three- to five-year-old children. Also, incentives built into these amendments to encourage individual state participation were weak and ineffectual. Lobbying groups for early intervention continued their activities to push through a law mandating early intervention for all young children with handicaps. In 1986, Congress responded by passing P. L. 99-457, (Amendments to the Education of the Handicapped Act). P. L. 99-457 mandated that all preschool-aged children with handicaps receive a free and appropriate education by 1991. This law provided penalties for states that did not conform to the law. In addition, P. L. 99-457 created a new state grant program for infants and toddlers with handicaps. The passage of P. L. 99-457 has signaled a new era for early intervention. The federal government has recognized the need for early intervention (at least at the preschool level) and has provided funds to support it. P. L. 99-457 is also significant in other ways. Children need not be classified into narrowly defined categories to receive services. The importance of the family in development has been heavily emphasized, especially for those children under age three years. For infants and toddlers, the definition of what constitutes intervention services has been broadened. For all children, a wide variety of possible intervention options has been acknowledged. It is clear that the passage of P. L. 99-457 is not the final stop for advocates of early intervention. Concerns regarding how states will implement preschool services and how service policies will be defined remain. Questions regarding services for infants and toddlers are just beginning to be addressed. Many problems still exist, but Public Law 99-457 represents a major accomplishment for advocates of early intervention and a benefit for the children and families who will receive services. Problems in the Present Currently, early intervention activities regarding the development of and research on â€Å"best practices† are occurring. However, there is a growing tendency to question some of what has been accomplished by early intervention. Questions have arisen concerning the research on which early intervention activities are based and on the data from which costs have been obtained. These particular areas–research and costs–have traditionally provided a foundation for early intervention. This report briefly reviews concerns regarding knowledge of costs and the research base of early intervention. Early Intervention Research In a â€Å"review of reviews,† White, Bush, and Casto (1985-86) found overwhelming agreement that early intervention is effective (94% of fifty-two studies). Unfortunately, they also found that a number of these reviews based this assertion primarily or solely on studies done with disadvantaged children. The benefits of early intervention for disadvantaged children are not a major issue of contention. Controversy ensues when these findings are over generalized to children with handicaps. A number of well-conducted reviews of early intervention for handicapped children has been completed. These reviews have been cautious with their conclusions, but overall the findings have been quite negative, particularly regarding the validity of the studies. Dunst, Snyder, and Mankinen (1987) found that 71% of the forty-nine studies they reviewed used methods that made the results scientifically uninterpretable. Other researchers essentially agreed with the Dunst, Snyder, and Mankinen findings. They then attempted to argue that the lack of effectiveness found for early intervention programs was a result of the nature of studies in early intervention. Researchers used meta-analytic techniques to examine a number of common assumptions made regarding early intervention programs and found little empirical support for those assumptions. An extremely comprehensive review by Dunst, Snyder, and Mankinen ( 1987), which examined 105 studies by degree of causality and by type of child served, was no more positive for the early intervention movement. These authors stated that any conclusions regarding the efficacy of early intervention must be considered tentative and conditional. They noted that â€Å"there is insufficient evidence at this time to conclude that there are cause-effect relationships between the interventions and outcomes observed†. Dunst and associates further stated, in agreement with Casto and Mastropieri (1986), that children in early intervention programs do make positive developmental and behavioral changes across time but that â€Å"the extent to which the interventions are responsible for observed effects is difficult to ascertain† (p. 285 ). Some researchers have been critical of reviews of early intervention because they tend to exclude single-subject methodology research. Many of the problems in reviewing this literature base are related to the subjective nature of comparing this research, as no standard metric is employed across studies. Reviews of the single-subject literature in early intervention have been conducted and are favorable but have not significantly refuted other reviews. Single-subject studies do show strong evidence for a functional relationship between dependent and independent variables. These single-subject studies usually focus on a narrow, well-defined objective. Although this is useful for demonstrating functional relationships, it represents only parts of the whole of an early intervention program. Also, these studies are usually conducted under rigorous investigative control, a feature not available in most early intervention programs. Successful programs frequently have problems when disseminated for use by a wider audience. Also, many single-subject studies do not sufficiently address generalization and maintenance issues. Researchers provide suggestions for single-subject research in early intervention, many of which are identical to those that need to be addressed by group research.

Biography of Andy Warhol, Icon of Pop Art

Biography of Andy Warhol, Icon of Pop Art Andy Warhol (born Andrew Warhola; Aug. 6, 1928–Feb. 22, 1987) was one of the most important artists of pop art, a genre that became popular in the second half of the 20th century. Though he is best remembered for his mass-produced paintings of Campbells soup cans, he created hundreds of other works ranging from commercial advertisements to films. His best-known work, including the soup cans, reflected his views on the banality that he saw in the commercial culture of America. Fast Facts; Andy Warhol Known For: Pop artAlso Known As: Andrew WarholaBorn: Aug. 6, 1928 in Pittsburgh, PennsylvaniaParents: Andrej and Julia WarholaDied: Feb. 22, 1987 in New York, New YorkEducation: Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University)Published Works: Commercial illustrations, paintings, filmsï » ¿Notable Quote: I just happen to like ordinary things. When I paint them, I dont try to make them extraordinary. I just try to paint them ordinary-ordinary. Early Life and Education Andy Warhol was born on Aug. 6, 1928, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and grew up there with his older brothers, Paul and John, and his parents, Andrej and Julia Warhola, both of whom had emigrated from Czechoslovakia (now called Slovakia). Devout Byzantine Catholics, the family regularly attended Mass and observed their Eastern European heritage. Even as a young boy, Warhol liked to draw, color, and cut and paste pictures. His mother, who was also artistic, encouraged him by giving him a chocolate bar every time he finished a page in his coloring book. Elementary school was traumatic for Warhol, especially once he contracted Sydenhams chorea, also known as St. Vitus dance, a disease that attacks the nervous system and makes the sufferer shake uncontrollably. Warhol missed a lot of school during several month-long periods of bed rest. Additionally, large, pink blotches on Warhols skin, also from the disorder, didnt help his self-esteem or acceptance by other students. This led to nicknames such as â€Å"Spot† and â€Å"Andy the Red-Nosed Warhola† and a lifelong interest in clothing, wigs, cosmetics, and, later, plastic surgery in response to what he perceived as his flaws. During high school, Warhol took art classes there and at the Carnegie Institute (now the Carnegie Museum of Art). He was somewhat of an outcast because he was quiet, could always be found with a sketchbook in his hands, and had shockingly pale skin and white-blond hair. Warhol also loved to go to movies and started a collection of celebrity memorabilia, particularly autographed photos. A number of these pictures appeared in Warhols later artwork. Warhol graduated from high school and then went to the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) in 1945, graduating in 1949 with a major in pictorial design. Blotted-Line Technique During college, Warhol developed the blotted-line technique, which involved taping two pieces of blank paper together at an edge and then drawing in ink on one page. Before the ink dried, he pressed the two pieces of paper together. The resulting image was a picture with irregular lines that he could fill in with watercolor. Warhol moved to New York right after college and worked there for a decade as a commercial illustrator. He quickly earned a reputation in the 1950s for using his blotted-line technique in commercial advertisements. Some of Warhols most famous ads were for shoes for I. Miller, but he also drew Christmas cards for Tiffany Co., created book and album covers, and illustrated Amy Vanderbilts Complete Book of Etiquette. Pop Art Around 1960, Warhol decided to make a name for himself in pop art, a new style of art that had begun in England in the mid-1950s and consisted of realistic renditions of popular, everyday items. Warhol had turned away from the blotted-line technique and had decided to use paint and canvas, but he was having trouble deciding what to paint. Warhol began with Coke bottles and comic strips, but his work wasnt getting the attention he wanted. In December 1961, a friend gave Warhol an idea: he should paint what he liked most in the world, perhaps something such as money or a can of soup. Warhol painted both. Warhols first exhibition in an art gallery came in 1962 at the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles. He displayed his canvases of Campbells soup, one for each of the 32 types of soup made by the company. He sold all the paintings as a set for $1,000. Before long, Warhols work was known all over the world and he was in the vanguard of the new pop art movement. Silk-Screening Unfortunately for Warhol, he found that he couldnt make his paintings fast enough on canvas. In July 1962, he discovered the process of silk screening, which uses a specially prepared section of silk as a stencil, allowing one silk-screen image to create similar patterns multiple times. He immediately began making paintings of political and Hollywood celebrities, most notably a large collection of paintings of Marilyn Monroe. Warhol would use this style for the rest of his life. Mass production not only spread his art; it became his art form. Movies In the 1960s as Warhol continued to paint, he also made films, which were known for creative eroticism, lack of plots, and extreme length- up to 25 hours. From 1963 to 1968, he made nearly 60 movies. One of his movies, Sleep, is a five-and-a-half-hour film of a nude man sleeping. â€Å"We were shooting so many, we never even bothered to give titles to a lot of them,† Warhol later recalled. On July 3, 1968, disgruntled actress Valerie Solanas, one of the hangers-on at Warhols studio known as The Factory, shot him in the chest. Less than 30 minutes later, Warhol was pronounced clinically dead. The doctor then cut Warhols chest open and massaged his heart for a final effort to get it started again. It worked. Though his life was saved, it took a long time for him to recover. Warhol continued to paint during the 1970s and 1980s. He also began publishing a magazine called Interview and several books about himself and pop art. He even dabbled in television, producing two shows- Andy Warhol’s TV  and  Andy Warhol’s Fifteen Minutes,- for MTV and appearing on  The Love Boat  and  Saturday Night Live. Death On Feb. 21, 1987, Warhol underwent routine gallbladder surgery. Though the operation went well, Warhol unexpectedly passed away the following morning from complications. He was 58. Legacy Warhol’s work is featured in an enormous collection at the  Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, which the website describes as one of the most comprehensive single-artist museums in the world and the largest in North America. It includes paintings, drawings, commercial illustrations, sculptures, prints, photographs, wallpapers, sketchbooks, and books covering Warhol’s career, from his student work to pop art paintings and collaborations. In his will, the artist directed that his entire estate be used to create a foundation for the advancement of the visual arts. The  Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts was established in 1987. Sources Andy Warhol: American Artist. Encyclopedia Britannica.Andy Warhols Life. Warhol.org.ï » ¿

Essay on Yoga Day Essays

Essay on Yoga Day Essays Essay on Yoga Day Essay Essay on Yoga Day Essay I walked in the room on my first day of yoga class and soon enough the motivation was evident . The air was pregnant with tranquility which was necessary for an environment being setup for a series of mind stimulating exercises. The yoga instructor, who had an extremely well-proportioned body, started off with a routine which became one of my favorites throughout the semester. Aimed to sooth the tension in your lower back, the cat stretch immensely improved my posture which in turn helped me get rid of a few back problems that I had been dealing with recently. Rounding off the spine with the four limbs flat on the floor, we were taught to place our body in a cat like pose while breathing deeply. Another routine which had a beneficial strengthening effect on my thighs was the mountain pose or â€Å"tadasana†. Like most other yoga exercises, it not only claims to improve one’s posture but it also helps to relieve sciatica as well. We were guided to anchor the balls of the feet on the floor and then to lift the body up. The thighs were the main focus of this routine, were kept firm while pushing the sternum up towards the ceiling, with arms hanging on the side like that of a rag doll. The pose was to be maintained for around thirty seconds to a minute. One of the classical yoga poses, the cobra pose or â€Å"bhujangasana† did wonders to relieve stress and fatigue which had been bottling up inside my body on a daily basis. It made my back more upright and had a very firm stretching effect on my shoulders and chest. This particular pose made all the participants lay chest down on the floor and aimed on pushing the sternum upwards. This pose, we were told, was therapeutic for respiratory issues such as asthma and for increased amount of blood circulation. The plane pose aimed to tone the abdomen, was pretty welcoming for me as I had been trying to get rid of a little extra flab in that area. It helped to fortify the muscles of my back and spine. We were directed to stand erectly and to follow by lifting up one leg, with the chest parallel to the floor and arms held out like wings of an airplane. This worked like magic on my abs because at the end of the semester, I noticed nicely toned up abs which I was immensely ecstatic about. Not only that, but my ankles also felt much stronger to bear the weight of my body. Over all my experience doing yoga was incalculably rewarding as I ended up with an upright, healthy posture and the few minutes of meditation everyday made me reflect on how much I had ignored myself in the past few months. I was thoroughly rejuvenated and blissfully in peace, both physically and mentally. References Carillo A. , Neuhaus E. , (2005), Iron Yoga: Combine Yoga and Strength Training for Weight Loss and Total Body Fitness. USA: Rodale, 137-140. Simpkins, C. A. , Simpkins A. , (2003), Yoga Basics. Boston, MA: Tuttle. Watts, A. (1983). Help for Hay Fever. Yoga Journal, 50, 25-26. Airplane Pose Exercise Demonstration. (2010). In Spark People Retrieved May 31, 2010 from sparkpeople. com/resource/exercises. asp? exercise=118 Cat pose (2010) Yoga Journal Retrieved May 30, 2010 from yogajournal. com/poses/2468

Define and write your professional learning and development identity

Define and write your professional learning and development identity Write your professional identity, Training Journal Its not an accident that one of the West Ends most popular stage shows at the moment is about a character in search of his purpose. The protagonist in Avenue Q is a comedy puppet searching for direction. But his questions of Who am I? and What am I here to do? are not just New Age, mystical musings; they are at the core of what it means to be successful in any business. In fact, if you scratch the surface of most successful companies, youll find whole departments set up to create a brand identity that lets customers know exactly who they are and what they do. Take the brand Innocent Drinks, for example. If you buy an Innocent smoothie, youre not just buying a drink. Youre buying a fun, fresh and completely natural experience that contains two of servings of fruit in a 250ml serving. Its a tasty little shot of good health. And the witty words on the Innocent website, bottles and advertising campaigns tell you so. But its not just companies that need to create this type of brand identity. You need to forge your own voice within your organisation. The employees you work with need to know who you are; what you stand for; what you do and why they need to take notice of you and your work. Communicating this in a powerful, succinct way isnt always easy. Employees often get caught up in the ins and outs of their particular roles and forget about issues outside their immediate remit. They may even feel that taking time out for professional development is an unwelcome diversion from the work at hand. For this reason its essential that you as a learning and development specialist develop a strong professional identity to enable you to have greater influence over the people you work with. Your skills, personality and values are integral to your brand. But its also vital to develop a strong, human, written voice to ensure that you present yourself in a positive light. Innocent have cottoned on to the fact that creating a distinct written voice is an effective way of connecting with their customers. You also need to ensure that your writing style is an integral part of your personal brand. Your written voice is the end result of the words and phrases you use in order to communicate your ideas and recommendations. It needs to be bright, concise and speak directly to your reader. But it should also reflect your personality, vision, achievements and goals. So here is a blueprint for creating a written voice that is distinctly yours. Laying the foundations You need to do some groundwork before working on your writing style. Grab a pen and paper and jot down words, phrases and sentences that describe your skills and personality. You might write, I am someone who sees potential in others, or My core skills are motivating and empowering others. Spend time thinking about your values and all the facets of your personality that make you who you are. And dont forget to note down examples of the value that you create for your organisation. Next, decide which points are most relevant to your work. Organise these into the headings values, personality traits, skills and results. Finally, combine all of this into a powerful statement of purpose. Decide what the overall purpose of your job is. And make sure that this is aligned with the purpose of your organisation. Remember, this foundation work is integral to creating the brand that you will express through your written voice. So dont feel that this has to be a one-off exercise. You can keep coming back to this until you feel youve completely brainstormed everything about you and your work. And keep this work safe its a powerful document that you should keep referring to. Sizzling sound bites In order to create a strong professional identity through your writing, you need to develop ways of succinctly communicating important information about you and your work. Imagine that youre in an airport when you meet a powerful business leader, such as Richard Branson. You strike up a brief conversation and he asks you what you do for a living. You have about 30 seconds to impress before you go your separate ways. Most people would say something such as, Im a learning and development manager for a large pharmaceutical company. But describing yourself in terms of your job title and company doesnt give you a strong identity. Throughout the world there are thousands of learning and development managers in pharmaceutical companies. So set yourself apart by communicating whats special about your brand of learning and development. The way to do this is to explain the context of your role, the issues you deal with and your results. For instance, you could say, I help pharmaceutical research teams to increase their productivity. I do this by transforming the way they approach their work. By finding out what makes them tick, I help each person add more to the business bottom line. Now it probably wouldnt sound natural to deliver this statement in its entirety in one go. But if you have it committed to memory, youll be able work each of its component sentences into most introductory business conversations. By speaking in this way, you explain who you are, what you do and what value you bring to your organisation. Practise developing these compelling two or three sentence summaries of what you do. Write out several of them, referring to different areas of your work. And begin to use them when people both internally and externally ask you about what you do. What does your writing really say about you? Gather together some recent documents that you have written. These could be reports, briefing documents or even emails that you have sent to other employees. Critically look at what messages your writing sends. For example, if one of the things you most value is clear communication, then look at how clear your writing is. If your purpose is to make other peoples jobs more efficient, is your writing clearly structured so that its quick and easy to read? And do you refer to psychometric models or training processes that only a training specialist would really grasp? Does your writing really reflect your values and personality? If you tend to use lots of long sentences, your writing may not reflect a decisive personality. Similarly, a long document that lacks subheads to break it up is not the best way to reflect that youre excited by change. Your writing needs to communicate your brand the elements that make you different. If it doesnt effectively communicate the changes that you have made happen, then it wont be representing you and your work. The principles behind the following techniques can help you to analyse your current documents. Applying them to any new written work can transform the way you (and your documents) are perceived. And crucially, they can help you to effectively communicate the underlying purpose of your work. Seven techniques for honing your written voice One Focus on your reader Before you begin writing a document, ask yourself the following questions: What is the document about? Who will read it? How much do they already know about the subject? What do they absolutely need to know? How important is the subject to them? How interested are they in the subject (which is not necessarily the same question as above)? Focusing on your readers in this way will help to make sure that you present yourself as helping their work lives. Training may be top of your agenda but others may not see it as a business priority. Thinking about the needs of your readers will help you shape your writing so that its relevant to them. Two Clarify your main message If youre unsure of your main message, you can be certain that your readers will be equally bemused. So spend time thinking about what you really want to say. Brainstorm ideas by asking yourself the questions: What? Where? When? How? Why? and Who? Group together the points or ideas that have things in common. Then decide what is important and essential for your readers to know. Your main message is among these points and it can vary depending on which stance you want to take. For example, if youre writing a report on psychometric testing as a training tool, your main message might be to outline the cost savings to your organisation. Alternatively, you may want to stress how employees work better as a team once they become aware of their own personality traits. Next you need to plan which order to put your points in. Your main message is the golden nugget of any document. So make sure it stands out by including it in the first paragraph. Then arrange your other points in order of importance. Three Create snappy titles and subheads Journalists know that a headline is the most powerful tool for winning over a reader. So take a tip from professional writers and make yours arresting. If your report is about the cost savings of psychometric testing, your title could be Psychometric testing: how a fifty-minute quiz has saved 50,000. This is much more powerful than a functional title, such as The results of workplace psychometric testing Similarly, break up the text with subheads that are equally attention-grabbing. For example, if youre writing about an initiative that will be happening shortly, you could include a subhead that reads The final countdown. This creates an image of the initiative as being exciting and worth waiting for. Four Keep it short and sweet Short sentences are effective as they break up ideas into bite-size chunks. Aim for each sentence to be between 15 and 20 words. If your sentences are any longer, its difficult for your ideas to stand out. Similarly, never write a 1000-word document when a 500-word one will do. Always go through your work and cross out any meaningless words or sentences. And aim to make every single word count. Its better to do several drafts of a document than to rush out the original long, rambling version. Five Use active language Use the active voice where possible, as it gives your writing movement. For instance, write This technique has really improved productivity, instead of A real improvement in the productivity of employees has been noticed following the application of this simple technique. Notice that the first example uses the verb improve rather than the noun improvement. Opting to use verbs over nouns helps to make your writing punchier. Six Share your success For any training programme to be a success, it needs to address core business needs or goals. Ask yourself why your organisation exists, why it matters and what difference it makes in peoples lives. Always communicate the success of any learning and development initiatives in terms of specific business objectives. For example, you can write Performance management training reduced staff turnover by 5 per cent in 2009, saving 100,000. By sharing specific business results in this way, you enable others to perceive your initiatives as having true value and being dynamic enough to improve the business bottom line Seven Be accurate To gain credibility, your writing needs to be flawless. So pay particular attention to grammar, punctuation and spelling. When youve worked long and hard on a document, it can be easy to gloss over typos and other mistakes as your eyes begin to see what they expect to see. For this reason, you need to proofread documents very slowly. It helps to take a pencil and stop it at every word. Always double check facts and figures, and if possible, also ask a colleague to proofread it too. A fresh pair of eyes can work wonders. Make your own writing a focus at the outset of any new initiatives and training programmes. And ensure that you apply your new written voice consistently. It is well worth the effort, as a strong written voice is an ambassador for all you do. Remember, in these troubled economic times, excelling in all areas of your personal brand is a must. And using language effectively can propel you to the next tier of success. Whats more, mastering writing skills not only helps to cement your own professional identity, but it can inspire your colleagues to do the same. Leave others in no doubt about who you are and what youre here to do, and theyll be more likely to follow your lead.

Project Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Project - Research Paper Example Wal-Mart transferred its logistics, information and management expertise in those countries. In Argentina, China the company established its own stores. For all these moves the company had more than 1200 stores beside US. The international expansion of Wal-Mart increased its economies of scale from its international buying power. Many international companies are the main suppliers of Wal-Mart. They are been in the global operation for a long time. The company gives a huge discount than the local operator of those regions. By this the company is gaining its market share and huge profit. The internet based software of enabled the company to have control on its global operations, pricing, profit etc on the daily basis. Wal-Mart has also got expansion opportunities in India. It follows the Best Price Modern Wholesale stores with a joint venture with Bharti. It maintains the process of cash and carry, business to business wholesale structure of giving service to small business. From this the firm is getting the opportunities of learning about the small retailers and the challenges of supply chain. Wal-Mart should implement a multi domestic strategy focusing on the responsiveness of the local people and their requirement in each of the markets. It can sell customized product according to the need. Strategies related in maintaining Wal-Mart culture is very important for its success. Presently the company attracts its customers for its low priced products. But the people who are very brand conscious and obsessed with quality usually do not shop from Wal-Mart. So for targeting those customers Wal-Mart can stretch its business a little and create a department which will satisfy those customers by providing product of good brands and high quality. Presently Wal-Mart has a huge opportunity for entering in the Asian and European market. For introducing it in this market Wal-Mart should focus

Evidenced Based Research Activity Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Evidenced Based Research Activity - Case Study Example From this study it is clear that  sensory domain data showed no overall statistical differences between the two groups, and children in both the treatment and control group, had no dissimilar variation in sensory impairment during the pre-assessment. Secondly, the paired t-test revealed positive, though statistically insignificant enhancements for those children under the treatment group, in terms of sensory impairment, as well as stationery body control. However, there were indications of affirmative and remarkable improvements for children in the treatment group in terms of their locomotion and object manipulation. Nevertheless, children in the control group had minimal and non-statistically significant changes.This paper discusses that  using the Wilcoxon signed rank test, the study revealed that children with down syndrome experienced positive but statistically significant improvements, in terms of their sensory impairment and locomotion domains. On the other hand, children w ith cerebral palsy experienced positive and statistically significant enhancements, in all of the three motor domains. This included stationery body control, movement or locomotion, and object manipulation. Therefore, outcomes improved significantly from pre-intervention, follow-up and then to post intervention, that is why there were no dissimilarities in longitudinal outcomes between children with CP and those with DS.

Buffalo Soldiers and the Apache Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Buffalo Soldiers and the Apache - Essay Example Numerous literatures confirmed that subduing the Indians on the Plains and the Southwest, securing the borders, escorting stage coaches and trains as well as policing cattle rustlers and illegal traders who sold guns and liquor to the Indians had all become second nature to them as these were their primary responsibilities-many of which were carried out under some harsh conditions. Many of these African Americans had joined with the force mainly to earn their freedom. They decided they would fight to prove themselves and to be free as well as to keep up their end of the bargain to make an attractive $13 a month. Many of these soldiers were former slaves, freemen and Black Civil War Soldiers. However, they couldn’t read and write, so they were considered less than the whites. For these brave-hearted men, bravery was their fiercest fighting tool, and ambition and perseverance were their ammunition, because everything else that they received for resources were inadequate or not u p to standard such as; the old horses, limited food supplies and limited ammunition. In addition, they were deployed to some of the toughest areas. Quite frankly however, it was the 10th regiment of the Buffalo Soldiers who played a greater role in the campaign against the Apaches in the March 1890 Expedition. After being transferred to Texas, research showed that their primary mission was to protect mail and travel routes, control Indian movements, protect against Mexican revolutionaries and outlaws as well as garner knowledge about the area’s terrain (Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History & Culture). Particularly credited for the Westward Expansion, the Buffalo Soldiers’ 10th Cavalry explored miles of unmapped terrains after which they used their experience to open 300 miles of new roads and laid 200 miles of telegraph lines according to literatures from this said source. This knowledge helped the Buffalo Soldiers to create maps of the area showing scarce waterholes, moun tain passes and grazing areas that would later allow for settlements in that area. The mission created some tough soldiers in West Texas who always had to be on alert from raids from the Apaches. However, it was the 10th regiment’s success at detailed mapping that later lead to the demise of the Apache Indians between 1879 and 1880. Col Benjamin Grierson and his cavalry decided to play on the weaknesses of their enemies, whose chief at the time was Chief Victorio and his band of warriors who had allegedly escaped from their New Mexico Reservation creating havoc across the Southwest on their way to Mexico. They decided to intercept where it would hurt most in those harsh regions-the waterholes. The mission called for a big military assembly, as such, different troops were assigned to the waterholes. Engagements were met at the all the waterholes, but the two most notable were the ones at the Tinaja de las Palmas (water hole at South Sierra Blanca) and at Rattlesnake Springs wh ich is north of Van Horn. Grierson and his men devised strategies to trap Victorio.

Part b Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Part b - Assignment Example ntition, decreased appetite, decreased taste sensation, and presence of chronic illness, older adults are more likely to be nutritionally deficient, which put them at risk for hypoglycemic episodes (Roach, 2001, p. 321). Likewise, older adults frequently live alone and the non-recognition of the symptoms of hypoglycemia may lead to incidences of injury (Surrena, 2009, p. 387). Mr. Adams Douglas, 51 year-old male, was admitted to the hospital due to confusion. Assessment revealed a blood sugar of 2.1 mmol/L, a marked hypoglycemia. In addition, Mr. Douglas is receiving medication for diabetes and hypertension and stated that he administered full dose (26 units) of insulin in the morning although Mr. Douglas had not eaten anything prior to administration of insulin. Further assessment also revealed that Mr. Douglas smokes 1 pack of cigarette/day and has been living alone in a single bed unit. Upon admission to the hospital, Mr. Douglas’ current conditions include slurred speech, inability to remain still in the bed, feeling of weakness and lack of energy, and Glasgow Coma Scale of 13/15. Initial medical interventions were implemented in order to rule out hypoglycemic episodes. The first nursing diagnosis is the Risk for Injury related to decreased blood sugar level, secondary to insulin therapy. After two hours of nursing intervention, Mr. Douglas’ will be free from any form of injury by maintaining blood glucose levels between 2.7-3.3 mmol/L and identifying signs and symptoms of hypoglycemia. Nursing interventions include the following: assessment of serum glucose levels at bedside before administering oral hypoglycemic agents, before meals, and before going to sleep because serum glucose levels are more accurate parameters than urine glucose, which is affected by renal threshold and function of aging (Moyet, 2008, p. 856); assessment of signs and symptoms of hypoglycemia such as irritability, confusion, fatigue, weakness, sweating, shakiness, palpitation,

Proposing a Solution to a Problem Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Proposing a Solution to a Problem - Essay Example Just like a prisoner, Jessa had to comply with the schedule provided. Everything within the institution follows a daily routine. As a residence of the Hospital, she lives most of her life following the house rules. At age 31, Jessa decided that she had to leave the hospital so she could learn to deal with life outside a confined area. Since she doesn’t know how to read and write and was enclosed in the institution for a very long time, she encountered a lot of difficulties coping with the life situation in the community. Her long stay at the institution contributed most to her lack of self-confidence and fear of trying something new. She also had a problem dealing with other people. Jessa told us that many years ago she was invited to join People First, a social institution that provides support for people with learning disabilities. At first she was reluctant to accept the invitation. It was the third invitation she received when she finally agreed to participate in the group discussion. The mission of People First is to inspire all adults with learning difficulties throughout different state to become a confident self-advocate(s) through proper teaching and guidance of the volunteers. (PAMONA, 2004) This group helped Jessa restore her self-confidence by simply attending the trainings that were provided to them. They were taught how to think positively and be confident about themselves. The self-advocacy skills were necessary to empower and encourage her not to give up on learning. They also provide her personal self-advice when necessary. The trusted people behind the People First were the main source of inspiration for Jessa in taking the necessary steps such as making her own decisions in order for her to gain control over her own life. Self-Advocacy is very important in the life of Jessa because it made her realize that as a human being, we all have the right to be treated equally with respect and dignity. (People First of Norfolk, 2007) In line with

Project Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

Project Management - Essay Example Rapid results benefits fall into three classes. First, mini projects allow the initiators to determine the success rate of the projects in terms of the activities that require undertaking. Correction of Problems seen at early stages normally carried out as soon as there is the detection this reduces the chances of shady work. Secondly, result delivery period is short. During the implementation of the mini projects in a project, results achievement is less than a hundred days. Lastly, rapid results approach enhances motivation at work due to the quick results. Workers or employees feel a sense of reward due to quick results and hence feel that if they work more hard more results achieved. According to (Sylvester, n.d.) there are several attributes that require inclusion in rapid results for result achievement include impact variable, period, measurement, and scope. People and managers have a different perspective of Rapid results; the view is that it prevents project failure and probl em identification done at the beginning rather than waiting for the outcome at the end. According to reports, fifty percent of the projects fail, this is due to lack of use of rapid results. An example of a current workplace that lacks utilization of rapid result initiative in Kenya. A case study showing the number of people infected and living with HIV and AIDS in Kenya shows that many people have the virus, but they do not know. The lack of awareness is due to lack of use of rapid result initiatives (Mwangi, 2012). According to a survey undertaken in 2007 by Kenya Aids Indicator Survey (KAIS) and published by CDC, shows that eight out of ten infected people are unaware of their status. In the next year that is 2008, a research indicated that 6.3 percent of the adults between the ages of fifteen and forty-nine are living with HIV.

Proposing a Solution to a Problem Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Proposing a Solution to a Problem - Essay Example Just like a prisoner, Jessa had to comply with the schedule provided. Everything within the institution follows a daily routine. As a residence of the Hospital, she lives most of her life following the house rules. At age 31, Jessa decided that she had to leave the hospital so she could learn to deal with life outside a confined area. Since she doesn’t know how to read and write and was enclosed in the institution for a very long time, she encountered a lot of difficulties coping with the life situation in the community. Her long stay at the institution contributed most to her lack of self-confidence and fear of trying something new. She also had a problem dealing with other people. Jessa told us that many years ago she was invited to join People First, a social institution that provides support for people with learning disabilities. At first she was reluctant to accept the invitation. It was the third invitation she received when she finally agreed to participate in the group discussion. The mission of People First is to inspire all adults with learning difficulties throughout different state to become a confident self-advocate(s) through proper teaching and guidance of the volunteers. (PAMONA, 2004) This group helped Jessa restore her self-confidence by simply attending the trainings that were provided to them. They were taught how to think positively and be confident about themselves. The self-advocacy skills were necessary to empower and encourage her not to give up on learning. They also provide her personal self-advice when necessary. The trusted people behind the People First were the main source of inspiration for Jessa in taking the necessary steps such as making her own decisions in order for her to gain control over her own life. Self-Advocacy is very important in the life of Jessa because it made her realize that as a human being, we all have the right to be treated equally with respect and dignity. (People First of Norfolk, 2007) In line with

Business Model Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Business Model - Essay Example The business model was developed through though an integration of both creativity and innovation skills as shown in the appendix. Each of the group members was required to suggest a noble idea that would help in developing a business model suitable to solve the challenges facing the future development of the company. The ideas were merged to develop the model. The ideas suggested by the members were based on a number of factors. One of the factors is that the suggestions had to be focused towards managing the stability of the airline. Another aspect of the ideas is that they were supposed to conscious of the discontinuity aspect of the overall business strategy of the company. The members were thus supposed to possess personal experience and skills in the business in order to suggest ideas that had the ability to manage strategy discontinuities in the process of implementing the strategy. The ideas were also dependent on the ability to maintain and manage patterns arising in the indu stry due to technological and market-driven needs (Chen, 2009). This is the final business model was supposed to create an environment that balances several strategies necessary for the growth of the company. The last factor is that the ideas were dependent on the ability to balance changes in the industry facilitate continuity and growth of the business. An effective business model should have the ability to determine when to replace redundant strategies with new strategies in the implementation of the model. The processes involved in the creation of the business model were thus suitable in developing a model that had the abilities to initiate radical changes in the company and promote the future growth of the company (Chesbrough & Rosenbloom, 2002). Evaluation of a business model This section entails an evaluation of the business model including its ability to promote the future growth of the company. The evaluation is based on a comparison between Quasi-charitable provision and E -commerce business models. The evaluation thus involves a comparison between the Quasi-charitable provision of a service project and introduction of e-commerce in the company’s booking system. This is because Quasi-charitable provision of a service project is not viable in the long-run and does not consider the issues of emerging markets (Michael & George, 2006). The analysis will consist of an overview of the SWOT analysis of the two models. Quasi-charitable provision of a service project or business model Overview The model will be effective in addressing the challenges in business growth,

Life Course of a Mas Murderer Essay Example for Free

Life Course of a Mas Murderer Essay On April 16, 2007 one of the most devastating mass murders in U.S history occurred at a Virginia college. Seung-Hui Cho a 23 year old South Korean alone executed the killing of 33 people by securing colleges doors to prevent escape of any students. Events such as these are truly tragic and devastating to all involved. By gathering background information about Seung-Hui Cho, we can effectively examine social development theories as they relate to Cho and review my analysis that this particular occurrence was preventable. Born in South Korea, Seung-Hui Cho immigrated to America when he was 8 years old. Although Cho was a quiet well behave child he was awkwardly withdrawn and angry (cite book). Throughout school Cho was teased and bullied which could have been the cause of his average grades throughout school. Cho’s sister Sun-kyung was often in the school newspaper and was selected to attend the most elite Ivy League Universities (Schmalleger, 2009). Cho went on to attend Virginia tech where he was recognize once again for being extremely violent and was even removed from class. Cho was referred to multiple counselors and officials where he denied all thoughts of suicide and homicide. Although Cho denied these having these thoughts students that attend Virginia Tech could see the imminent risk rising with Cho. There are many social development theories that can be applied to Seung-Hui Cho but I feel that the Life Course Perspective accurately represents Cho most effectively. With the social development perspective, human development occurs on many levels simotaneously, including psychological, biological, familial, interpersonal, cultural, social, and ecological (Schmalleger, 2009). Social development d\theories focus on delinquencies over an extended period of time as well as transitions people go through within their life span. As the Life course perspective suggests Cho exhibited showed a distinct pattern of anti-social behavior throughout his childhood and had never committed any crimes. Cho had a hard childhood and was in the shadows of his very successful sister. Even in college Cho had no friends and began to look up to other school shooters as martyrs. Although these individuals were not his friends at all in his situation they were the closest thing to having friends. In college Cho was accused of stalking women on two different occasions, was caught taking photos of the legs of female students in class and was separated out of classes. I believe that Cho’s antisocial lifestyle along with the transition any from home eventually lead him to commit the mass murder. Cho’s anti-social lifestyle seemed to escalate to criminal behaviors from the time he went off to college until the time of the Virginia Tech shooting. I believe that this tragedy could have been prevented if the proper preventative measures and treatment techniques were taken. As a boy Cho should have been taken in for a mental evaluation but I believe the integration of his family into the American society prevented that. In high school Cho being bullied and teased could have been put to a stop by teachers and surrounding students. Also when Cho started writing gruesome poems short stories and plays he should have been recommended to a counselor. Any counselor that Cho had encounters with could have been a lot more persistent in getting to the bottom of Cho’s situations. A teacher college teacher doesn’t just separate a student from her class. Finally the two females who Cho supposedly stalked could have reported Cho and pressed charges, preventing him from escalating in criminal nature. Seung-Hui Cho may have lived a particularly difficult life but with appropriate preventative and treatment measures the Virginia Tech shooting could have been prevented. One way this could have been prevented is with the support of his family. Cho’s family should have played a larger role in providing guidance and discipline and instilling sound values in Cho. Also social institutions failed him. He was bullied in teased in schools and church which could have been the reason for him being anti-social throughout his lifespan (Seung-Hui, 2013). Finally individuals in Cho’s life should have intervened immediately and constructively when delinquent behavior first occurred. After closely reviewing Cho’s background information and examining social development theories as they relate to Cho my analysis is that the Virginia Tech shooting was preventable. References Schmalleger, F. (2009). Criminology today: An integrative introduction. (5th; ed., pp. 297-341). Columbus, OH: Pearson Prentice Hal. Retrieved from http://devry.vitalsource.com/ Seung-Hui Cho. (2013). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 06:22, Jul 28, 2013, from http://www.biography.com/people/seung-hui-cho-235991.

History of US Federalism

History of US Federalism Khang Le In the US government, we have a system of checks and balances. With this system, the government and the separate branches can counter each other and maintain a balance of powers. It ensures that no branch of government becomes too strong and takes over another branch. In other words, this maintains a balance of powers. They become balanced because they can keep the other branches in check and they all have their own set of powers and responsibilities. The purpose of the checks and balances system is to make sure that democracy is upheld and that decisions made by the government work for everyone in the US. When the US government as we know today was being formed, the founding fathers decided that it would be best to split the government into three entities. The judicial branch is the Supreme Court and they oversee the determination of whether a law or policy is constitutional. By constitutional, I mean that the said policy or law is within the premises of the Constitution. The reason why the Supreme Court must do this is because Thomas Jefferson made it so that the interpretation of the Constitution was loose-ended, meaning that it would be up to the judges to deem it constitutional. If it was not loose-ended, then that would mean the judges would have to adhere strictly to the Constitution and go word for word to interpret that law or policy. The next branch is the executive branch. The executive branch is the president himself. He is the commander-in-chief of the army. During times of war, the president will oversee the manpower of the army. He has the power to appoint new justices, which are the supreme court judges. But he can only do so with the approval of the Senate.ÂÂ   He sometimes drafts new bills so that it can become laws by the next year. He also has the power to veto a bill passed by Congress. Vetoing is the power to overrule a law and deny it from being a law. This however can be overturned by Congress. Congress belongs in the legislative br anch. They are the people that come up with new procedures and laws to be passed. If for some reason the president vetoes their bill the first time, they can overrule it by having a second vote and having over two-thirds of Congress vote in favor of the bill. Sometimes, when there is a stalemate, a tie between votes, the vice president become the tiebreaker. There have been very few occasions where the Vice President had to come in to break a tie. The most recent one being President Trumps Vice President. Now, once a bill has passed and becomes a law, it is then tested by the citizens of the United States. When someone believes that the law is unjust, they are allowed the right to file a lawsuit. The lawyers then make arguments for the case and a judge will preside the hearings. If they lose, they can appeal to higher courts and may eventually reach the Supreme Court. In the case where the legislative branch does not find the ruling of the Supreme Court to be favorable, they can pro pose a new bill and then the process starts all over again. Congress, namely the Senate, also are the ones in charge of approving treaties with other countries. The president may be the face of the country but he doesnt have all the power. The principle behind these branches of government is that with separation of powers, not one part of the democratic government has too much power and they keep each other in check. This kind of checks and balances are applicable to constitutional governments. The media plays a huge role in the political process, especially if there was a misdoing on behalf of the government. With the arrival of social media and a wide variety of ways to attain news, the political process is under more scrutiny than ever. The only problem would be that how much the government censors or covers up. Because of that, sometimes the people become unaware of how laws work or that there could be loopholes in laws. Federalism is the way the United States is being run. Every single one of the states in the US shares a relationship with the national government. Basically, the federal government has a set of laws that need to be abided by. The state governments can enforce the laws to the extent that they believe is correct. For example, in some states, people can enter bars at the age of eighteen whereas in others, you must be twenty-one to do so. This system was created in this way to govern large and diverse nations. Not all areas can be governed the same, which is why federalism helps gives power to the states but the central government can still stay in power because it serves as a starting point for the states to follow. Before the United States became what, it is today, it was a confederation. While it was a confederation, the central government was weak and had almost no power, meaning that it had no way of providing itself with money and no military strength. While the states had all the power, the lacked a unified system and couldnt get their ideas together and could not be cohesive. After federalism kicked in, while the central government could impose laws and taxes onto the states, the states themselves can do what they saw fit and in accordance to the law. A bicameral Congress with the House of Representatives and a Senate also help to distribute the power from the states and central government. Because it is a representative system, the people are closer to the government and it makes for an efficient voting process because there are many opinions and it usually doesnt take too much time to vote. Both the concepts of dual federalism and cooperative federalism have originated in the USA. Dual federalism is referred to as layer cake due to the existence of distinct wall between powers and responsibilities of national governments and that of state governments. Cooperative federalism is referred to as marble cake. Dual federalism has horizontal power structure betw een national and state governments whereas cooperative federalism has a vertical structure between the two. In dual federalism, national government and state governments enjoy sovereignty in their respective fields. No such thing exists in cooperative federalism. Dual federalism is a rigid structure where at cooperative federalism is a flexible structure. Dual federalism promotes competition and tension; cooperative federalism promotes cooperation. The third section I am going to discuss is about the Civil Rights, the two Amendments that I am going to discuss are Amendment IV ( Search And Arrests ), it says The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. Basically, the police officer, in order to make a lawful arrest, must have a warrant in order to do so. If he doesnt have a warrant then it will be considered unlawful arrest and search. In order to get a warrant, the police officer must have evidence or probable cause that supports it. The police officer, or whoever has the evidence, must swear that it is true to his or her knowledge. The second Amendment that Im going to discuss is the fifth Amendment. It saysÂÂ   No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger, nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb, nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation. As it was in 1791, the Fifth Amendment continues to be very important today. Americans are protected against being tried repeatedly for the same crime. The government cannot bring you to trial again and again for the same offense, hoping to get the result they want. This means that if you are suspected of committing a crime, its up to the state to prove its case against you. You are innocent until proven guilty, and governmental authorities cannot deprive you of your life, your liberty or your property without following strict legal codes of conduct or due process. The Fifth Amendment also protects private property against a government taking. In 2005 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Kelo v. City of New London that local governments could take private property from one person and transfer that property to a corporate entity with the expectation that the property would become more useful to the public. The ruling drew a sharp dissent from Justice Sandra Day OConnor, who warned that it will allow governments to seize any property simply to allow developers to upgrade it. OConnor wrote, Nothing is to prevent the state from replacing any Motel 6 with a Ritz-Carlton, any home with a shopping mall. Since that decision, several local governments have declared their intent to take peoples homes in order to convert them into office complexes, shopping centers and mega-stores. As local governments continue to search f or ways to increase tax revenue, hard-working homeowners must be wary about their homes being taken away. Designating such possessions as necessary for the public use is often a sham, with the desire to increase tax revenues being the real motivation of local governments. Since the Kelodecision, some state legislatures have passed laws which ensure that such possession takings cannot occur. But unless the American public remains educated and focused on preserving this important constitutional right, it, along with their homes, could be taken by the government. The 14th Amendment said All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any pers on within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall b e held illegal and void. And the last one is The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article. For the last section, I think a relevant topic of discussion would be president Trumps travel ban. I believe this is relevant because its political process involves heavily on the president and the Supreme Court. The president may have issued a policy that bans travel from seven different countries but the Supreme Court had deemed it unconstitutional and overturned it. This relates to the concept of checks and balances. While the president is going to keep his promise with banning Muslims from entering the country, the Supreme Court is telling him that he is misusing his authority. Many people in the United States are affected by this too. Several families that are refugees are being deported out of the country and back into the dangerous areas. I think this is unjust and selfish of the current president. Simply because a person or a family comes from a certain ethnic group, does not mean that they are automatically connected to the series of terrorisms that have happened in the Unit ed States. While most of the high profile attacks came from Muslims, a lot of terrorist attacks on American soil have been committed by our own countrymen. The news sources that I have read are liberal in their language and are very left-winged. As an immigrant, I also fear for my safety, because if the current president can do as he pleases, then there could be one day where he opens a loophole and I could be his next target. It is a big help knowing that the democratic system still works for the most part. Even though the president may be doing everything in his power to feed his selfish needs, the legislative branch and the judicial branch are there to keep him in check. Bibliography http://www.cfodailynews.com/new-law-changes-form-w-2-filing-deadlines-for-next-year/ http://www.infoplease.com/spot/civilrightstimeline1.html http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/10/politics/civil-rights-act-interesting-facts/ http://study.com/academy/lesson/cooperative-federalism-definition-examples.html https://www.reference.com/government-politics/dual-federalism-198d7baf19c6304f http://study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-dual-federalism-definition-examples.html https://www.reference.com/government-politics/examples-check-balances-b7e5586db201a3d6 https://legaldictionary.net/checks-and-balances/ http://valocalgovernment.tripod.com/id34.html http://www.socialstudieshelp.com/lesson_13_notes.htm

brady bill :: essays research papers

Brady Law Falsehoods The Brady law has received much credit for the country's rapidly dropping crime rate. Yet with the Supreme Court striking down the laws background check requirements, it faces its ultimate test. If gun control advocates are correct, the court's decision will unleash a new crime wave. The Justice Department continually releases "new" studies crediting the law with reducing crime. Actually, the downward crime trend started in 1991, well before the Brady law became effective in March 1994. My research shows that this decline is in great measure because of higher arrest rates and more states allowing law-abiding citizens to carry concealed handguns. Others estimate that the Brady bill had a much smaller effect on gun sales than the 100,000 rejections its proponents claim. Last year the General Accounting Office reported that initial rejections numbered about 60,000, and more than half were for purely technical reasons, mostly paperwork errors that eventually were corrected. A much smaller number of rejections, 3,000, were due to violent crime convictions--and presumably many of these people just proceeded to buy a gun on the street. Brady law backers have focused almost exclusively on the value of background checks, the one part of the law that the Supreme Court specifically struck down. Yet there never was much controversy over this issue: When Congress debated the law, no one, not even the National Rifle Assn., opposed background checks. The dispute was over a five-day waiting period versus an "instant check." Ultimately, the success of background checks and waiting periods must be judged by their impact on crime. To seriously evaluate their impacts, however, one must recognize that other legal changes also occurred. For example, during 1995 and 1996, 10 more states adopted nondiscretionary concealed handgun laws. In the belief that concealed handguns deter crime, 31 states now grant permits automatically to citizens who have no significant criminal records or histories of major mental illness. In all 31 states, more people now carry legally concealed handguns. Considerable evidence supports the notion that permitted handguns deter criminals. Polls show that there are at least 760,000 and possibly as many as 3.6 million defensive uses of guns per year. In 98% of the cases, people simply brandish weapons to stop attacks. This is further reflected in the different rates of "hot burglaries," where a resident is at home when a criminal strikes. In Canada and Britain, both with tough gun control laws, almost half of all burglaries are "hot.

Overfishing Effects More Than Just the Ocean

Salmon migrate yearly from the open Pacific Ocean to the coastal areas of the Pacific Northwest in order to spend about 5-6 weeks reproducing. During this time bears also migrate to these coastal areas to feed on the salmon which is a large part of their diet. This natural interaction has been an important factor of the ecosystem in the Pacific Northwest for many years and now that humans have imposed on this process by overfishing we are seeing changes in the ecosystem itself. While knowledge of this issue has been around for about 30 years, scientists only began researching it beginning in the early 90’s. According to this research the ongoing problem of overfishing is already beginning to show its effects on the ecosystem, what may happen to the forests and animals of the Pacific Northwest if this issue is not resolved? Through the research of Dr. Tom Reimchen and other scientists, an interaction between salmon and the forests of the Pacific Northwest has been discovered. Each year black and grizzly bears travel from far away to the streams and rivers in the Pacific Northwest to feed on the salmon that migrate there during their six week spawning period. This causes a local interaction, when the bears catch a fish they take it into the forest so they can eat it and not be disturbed. Usually the bears only eat about half of each fish they catch and leave the rest on the forest floor, which is then consumed by birds, other small animals and insects. Through the decomposition of the salmon as well as the bodily wastes of the bears and other animals, the soil in the forest absorbs nutrients as well as nitrogen from the salmon. â€Å"The use of stable nitrogen isotopes allows us to identify the relative contribution of salmon to the ecosystem† (Reimchen 2001: 14), this research showed that nitrogen 15, an isotope of nitrogen is present in a large number of the plants in the Pacific Northwest forests. Nitrogen 15 is mostly found in marine algae and salmon are highly enriched with it so it makes sense that the plants use the remnants of the salmon as a sort of fertilizer to make them grow causing large scale interaction. The presence of the nitrogen in the plants of the Pacific Northwest forests does not mean that the plants necessarily need it to grow. In another experiment performed by Reimchen he sought to answer this question, â€Å"I examined yearly growth rings of 13 trees of similar size from sites differing in (salmon) carcass density. Average growth rate over the last 50 years was 2. 5mm per year within 10m of the stream where carcasses were most abundant and less than 1mm per year where carcasses were not present† (Reimchen 2001: 14). These results are debatable because other factors such as the amount of rainfall and sunlight they get effect plant growth too, but another observation which backs the theory that nitrogen helps the plants grow is that the amount of salmon brought into the forest by the bears each year varies directly with the amount of salmon coming back to the stream each year. In the conclusion of his research thus far Reimchen believes that if it is not stopped, â€Å"†¦ the result of deforestation and overfishing will have ecosystem-level consequences for the remaining forests† (Reimchen 2001: 16). Due to the overfishing of salmon by humans, the migrating salmon population has reduced 80-90 percent in the last 100 years. In nature predators and prey coexist in equilibrium, but with human interference the salmon can not reproduce fast enough to keep up with the amount being caught resulting in a large decrease in their population. Although there are programs like the MSY or maximum sustainable yield in place which tells fisheries how many fish they are allowed to catch, they do not factor in the natural predators of the salmon and therefore they throw off the balance of the ecosystem. A direct result of over fishing is the harvesting of salmon in fish farms, the salmon are raised in net pens that usually float in areas off the coast. The biggest problem with fish farming is the fish escaping into the wild, for example in 1997, 360,000 salmon escaped from a single farm off the Washington coast. The salmon raised on fish farms are, â€Å"†¦ ed concentrated feed and medication to maximize the conversion of feed into growth while minimizing the loss of fish due to disease and escape† (Reimchen 2001: 139), the effects of the salmon raised on farms escaping into the wild may be genetic, ecological, and can cause problems with disease and parasites. The genetic problems the farm salmon can cause are they will interbreed with wild salmon and disrupt their genetic adaptations, replacing their genetic variability and their evolutionary potential. The competition for food, space, and habitat between the farmed and wild salmon could also be a problem. Farmed fish sometimes get sea lice or ISA a contagious lethal virus that they can pass to the wild salmon. All of these factors are depleting the amount of wild salmon as well as altering the way the salmon live. Another contributing factor to the decline of the salmon population is the political ecology involved. On one side there are the people willing to do anything in their power to protect and restore the status of the salmon in the pacific northwest, but on the other more powerful side are the people who see the salmon as a huge money maker and are doing everything they can to continue overfishing so they can profit from it. The fisheries not only catch salmon so they can sell it locally, but where they get the most money from is shipping it to large grocery store chains across the country. They must overfish in order to meet the demands of the stores they supply or else the stores will go to another source for salmon, so many fisheries ignore the problem and continue overfishing because they think that if they stop someone else is just going to come in profit off of what they are not catching. The problem with overfishing and fish farms are not only harming the salmon population, but if nothing is done about these issues it will effect the animals in the pacific northwest as well as the vegetation. Black and Grizzly bears get around 75% of their yearly dietary requirements from the salmon, with the amount of salmon available becoming less and less each year the bears are not going to have enough to eat and their population will decrease as a result. I also think that with the introduction of the farmed salmon and the diseases they can carry the bears may get sick and die from eating diseased fish. With less bears the vegetation in the pacific northwest will also suffer because less salmon will be transferred into the forests where the plants can absorb the nitrogen and the plants will not grow as much or as quickly, it may also make the plant population less diverse. I believe that the overfishing needs to be controlled by more extreme measures so that the salmon can be allowed to reproduce naturally and keep their population up. If companies sold salmon raised in a fish farm at lower prices and raised the price of wild salmon this may help as well because the more expensive it is, the less people will buy and the fishing companies will not have to catch as many. Its kind of like how you can go to the store and buy either regular fruit or pay extra for organic, and there is always people who are willing to pay more. I also think that fish farms should not be integrated in the coastal waters, they should be in a completely different location than the wild salmon so there is no chance of them escaping and contaminating the wild salmon. In addition to the repercussions of fish farming and overfishing on the ecosystems in the Pacific Northwest forests, deforestation is another action by humans that is threatening this area. With the growth rates of the trees already falling due to lack of nitrogen from salmon and humans cutting them down at an alarming rate, it is inevitable that unless serious steps are taken to protect both the salmon and the forest itself from humans the ecosystem in the Pacific Northwest will fail and the forests will be completely destroyed. References 1)Frissell, C. (1995). Topology of Extinction and Endangerment of Native Fishes in the Pacific Northwest. Conservation Biology, 7. http://www.jstor.org/pss/2386432 2)Reimchen, T. (Fall 2001). Salmon nutrients, nitrogen isotopes, and coastal forests. Ecoforestry. 3)Sachs, J. (15, Jan. 2010). Icon for an Endangered Ecosystem. http:// www.nwf.org/News-and-Magazines/National-Wildlife/Animals/Archives/2010/Icon-for-an-Endangered-Ecosystem.aspx

Who do you think was the most important figure in Russian history – Lenin or Stalin?

Both leaders play important roles in the Russian history. Lenin gave birth to Communism in Russia and helped it survive during its first critical years. He set up a one-party rule, his style of leadership was borrowed with only slight alterations by six consecutive leaders and command economy with Communism lasted till 1991. Stalin continued along Lenin's way, but took Russia more into ‘extremes'. Out of the backward Russia he created an influential and industrialised totalitarian state feared by the West. He expanded the Soviet Unions' borders up to Eastern Europe and helped in the spread of Communism right 100 km from the most dominant capitalist state, the USA. He introduced Collectivisation, helped Russia win the 2nd World War, but at the same time killed millions of people, most of them during the Purges. But could all this have happened without Lenin? It is possible that without Lenin Communism would have never emerged in Russia. If he wouldn't have returned from Finland twice, first to raise the Bolshevik's popularity – from a barely known Party to the third most influential one – and the second time to persuade other fellow party members to seize power, then the Bolsheviks might have never won enough support or might have failed to seize the right moment for the overthrow of the Provisional Government. Considering that Communism lasted for more than 70 year in Russia, his importance in the Russian history seems to be enormous. Furthermore, Lenin helped Communism to survive in perhaps the most critical times of a new regime: right after it has been set up. He closed down the Constituent Assembly and made peace with Germany so he can concentrate on Russia's internal affairs. During the Civil War in 1918 he made some very tactful decisions, like letting Trotsky to lead the Red Army and introducing War Communism to supply the soldiers. From all these, we can easily see that Lenin's role in the set up of Communism is absolutely crucial, making him a very important figure in the Russian history. Stalin had a huge impact on Russia as well. After emerging as the new ruler in 1922, he had great plans for Russia, which mostly were fulfilled. He industrialised Russia at an incredible pace and introduced Collectivisation. Both of these new reforms were carried out by 5 of his successors. However, Lenin was the one who first introduced a state planned economy, and quite a strict one, especially during the Civil War. Therefore Stalin's ideas were ‘ borrowed' from Lenin, proving that without Lenin Stalin might have never introduced the same reforms and thus have the impact that it created. Stalin had a great importance in Russia's history because he expanded greatly the boundaries of the country so they included 5 whole countries from Eastern Europe and the Baltic Countries up till 1990. With this he managed to increase the hostility between Russia and Western Capitalist Countries, who felt threatened by the rapidly expanding Communism throughout the world. Thus it can be seen that Stalin played an important role in the Cold War, especially in the early stages. However, this rivalry between Communist and Capitalist countries was commenced by Lenin, who with his idea of ‘Permanent Revolution' induced fear in the mind of the capitalist countries' leaders. Also during the Russian Civil war in 1918, the Red Army fought against foreign troops as well, who were trying to restore the old Tsarist rule. Therefore Stalin didn't start the rivalry between Capitalists and Russia (Communists); he simply carried on what Lenin started a longer time ago. During the 1930s Stalin began the Cult of Personality, when all types of media and communication glorified Stalin and the achievements of the USSR as an influential Communist power. The result of these was that many generation's minds were indoctrinated by the extensive use of propaganda. However, even thou Lenin didn't glorify himself as a God-like being, he introduced widespread propaganda much earlier in Russia during the Civil War. Stalin introduced the Purges to eliminate any kind of opposition and to assure his place as an unquestionable leader. During his ruling period the secret police was very active, arresting, executing or sending to exile any people who opposed or might oppose the current government. In this way millions of lives were lost, and the remaining surviving ones lived in fear and terror. This style of ruling, by keeping the nation under a strict, tight control was introduced by Lenin, who also made use of the secret police to calm down any possible resistance against the new regime. The same thing happened with religion as well. As a good Communist Lenin forbade the practice of religion, and Stalin – just like Lenin – continued the suppression of religious freedom. Therefore we can see that Stalin had an important role in the Russian history, but if we look more closely, it is easy to spot that he just followed Lenin's path. All this prove, that even thou Stalin might have had a greater impact on Russia, Lenin had a greater importance than him, because he was the one who was mostly involved in the set up of Communism and putting it into practice using different new reforms. Ultimately, Stalin might have never emerged as a leader if Lenin wouldn't have gave him the position as the general secretary of the Communist Party, which allowed Stalin to win the power struggle. Therefore his importance in the Russian history is less than Lenin's.