Han China

Thesis †¢ It is not acceptable to simply say â€Å"the two civilizations were similar and different† – specify specifically how they are similar and different †¢ Possible Prompt: Analyze similarities and differences in techniques of imperial administration in TWO of the following empires. – Han China (206 B. C. E. –220 C. E. ) – Mauryan/Gupta India (320 B. C. E. –550 C. E. ) – Imperial Rome (31 B. C. E. –476 C. E. )Example †¢ The political system of Han China is similar to the Guptan Empire in that both included strict laws and stressed the importance of your role n society. A major difference between these administrations is that in Han China the king was fully in charge, even revered, while in the Mauryan/Guptan Empire priests were at the top of the hierarchy. Example †¢ The imperial administration of Han China and Imperial Rome were similar because they were both headed by an emperor.However, they differed in their treatment of the emperor. In Han China a ruler’s decisions, if detrimental to society, could be questioned. While in Rome, what the emperor decreed could not be questioned. What do I need for my thesis? You must address 1 specific similarity and 1 specific difference. †¢ i. e. Both the Empires of China and Rome were ruled by an emperor who maintained imperial control, however, the Chinese instituted a system of scholar bureaucrats that gained their position through merit, while the Romans never achieved such an elaborate bureaucracy. What is a direct comparison? †¢ This is a comparison that is not split between paragraphs or by other sentences. It must be one or two sentences that compare one subject of the comparison to another. †¢ Your comparisons should be supported by vidence to support your statement. Example Direct Comparison: While both the Roman and Han (or Gupta) Empires left behind many achievements, the Han (or Gupta) were much more technol ogically and culturally creative.Evidence: – The Romans took much of their culture from the Greeks, such as their religion, artwork and architecture. – While the Romans had aqueducts, roads and other great works, much of this was taken from others and improved upon. The Gupta on the other hand came up with the concept of zero and a base 10 number system that is still in use today. The Romans relied on slavery for their source of labor, while the Chinese relied upon free peasants. This led to technological stagnation on the part of the Romans, while the Chinese were able to (insert pieces of specific evidence here). What is analysis? †¢ This is where you explain why. †¢ You tell the reader what caused this similarity or difference to occur. †¢ This is usually a because sentence and the most difficult part of the comparison essay. †¢ The reason that the Guptan bureaucracy was never as elaborate as that of the Chinese was because†¦.

Human Development Essay

Human development is marked by different stages and milestones over the lifespan. It is expressed over three domains: physical, cognitive and socio/emotional. While human physical and cognitive development is universal, socio/emotional definitions and development vary from culture to culture. The various stages of human development include the prenatal period, infancy, toddler hood, early childhood, middle childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, middle adulthood and late adulthood. Each stage is marked by milestones in physical, cognitive, and socio/emotional development. The theorist that investigated about middle adulthood was Erik Erickson. Erikson observed that middle-age is when we tend to be occupied with creative and meaningful work and with issues surrounding our family. Also, middle adulthood is when we can expect to â€Å"be in charge,† the role we’ve longer envied. The significant task is to perpetuate culture and transmit values of the culture through the family and working to establish a stable environment. Strength comes through care of others and production of something that contributes to the betterment of society, which Erikson calls generativity, so when individual in this stage they often fear inactivity and meaninglessness. As children leave home, or relationships or goals change, they may be faced with major life changes—the mid-life crisis—and struggle with finding new meanings and purposes. If adults do not n get through this stage successfully, they become self-absorbed and stagnate. The main features of midlife refer to the transformation and progress on physical, cognitive/intellect and social domains. Changes are also evident on expertise and personality. Physical change is the most gradual. Such changes include, atrophy of muscles, slower metabolism, skin elasticity and dryness, wrinkles, slow growth of nail and hair and baldness. These changes also facilitate the decrease in height, increase in weight and decrease in bone density, strength and immunity, vision and hearing and decrease in kidney function and cardiac output. The greatest lost in this domain since physical factors are the primary source of sensory and motor functioning. The changes in physical attributes are generally characterized by menopause in women and andropause in men. Menopause is when the body stops ovulating and producing estrogen and gradual decline in testosterone levels. These physical changes are emphasized of the double-standard of aging. Men become more distinguished and women become old. Cognitive changes has to do with the way humans perceive and experience the world and deals with issues like memory, thinking and decision-making processes and concept comprehension. During middle adulthood, humans are experts at problem solving, although they begin to experience some signs of decline with speed in processing and recall. The lost mainly focuses the ability to perform tasks unlike the agility that they could exert when they are much younger. Many are losing confidence on performing the same task because their IQ or memory won’t allow them to do so. Social changes are wherein the individuals became more aware of his being, his worth and his surrounding. They become more aware of their own mortality, the passing time and the seriousness of the physical decline. The gain is the opportunity to identify you with others and contribute time to the community. Social changes has to do with how an individual is able to handle emotions, relationships, social situations, and the various roles demanded of them by society. Some aspect of Socio/Emotional standards, such as social expectations, relationships, and roles vary from culture to culture. The implication of middle adulthood to social work practice basically refers to the familiarity of the social worker to the journey of the service-users towards reaching that stage of life. The social worker may find difficulty in dealing with them especially when he or she has no idea where his or her clients’ concerns and issues are coming from. Their assistance would be feasible if they can recognize the role that culture plays on the process of. Middle adulthood is met with the psychological and emotional challenges of facing the mid-life crisis, and a life analysis and inventory is taken. During this stage of lifespan, adults encounter changing roles that families face. Firstly in terms of career and work. Adults most often choose to go to college for work-related purposes. Many employers require workers to attain certain levels of education in order to qualify for promotions due to globalization. some adults may change career fearing the consequence of losing jobs while Others go to college to learn new skills in preparation for another career. Some, adults may also return to college simply for personal enrichment. â€Å"The role of work , whether one works in a full time career, part time job or as a homemaker, is central during middle adulthood†(Santrock,2009,p490). As adults reach their peak position in earning, they are saddled with multiple financial burdens including rent, mortgage, medical bills, and children tuition. These competing demands hinder the middle adulthood to further to career progress. They decide whether to change jobs or career, or rebalance family and work or plan for retirement. Having some knowledge about human lifespan development is beneficial for many reasons. It increases self-awareness and understanding, which helps with life planning. If a female is aware of the stages of her physical development, for example, she will know that her natural childbearing years are limited. If she wants to have children, she can use family planning to make choices about her education, career and mate to support this goal. Additionally, this knowledge can be helpful for improving relationships and interpersonal communication and resolving conflicts.

A Telephone Based Wireless Remote Controller

Abstract—A telephone based wireless system for the remote operation of the home appliances is proposed. The telephone, acting as a remote controller, generates a DTMF signal corresponding to each dialed digit which is converted to a BCD code by the Telephone interface circuit. This is given as input to the transmitter module which is then used to control various home appliances through a receiver module. Data processing stages of the transmitter and receiver modules have been implemented using digital components, thereby avoiding possible use of conventional devices like monostable multivibrators.Due to the fully digital nature, the proposed design is less complex and hence the implementation is cost effective. I. INTRODUCTION With the advancement in science and technology, human beings have developed a tendency to make their everyday life amply luxurious with the aid of technology. This has led to the development of many sophisticated gadgets and equipments that assist them p artially/fully in their daily activities. Operating all such electronic/electrical instruments in a modern house might be difficult for the elderly as well as disabled people.Our primary motivation to build a simple and low cost system which remotely operates all the home appliances stems from this point. We integrate our system with a standard telephone set so that the telephone can be used for the dual purpose of telephony and remote controller for various home appliances. The proposed system mainly consists of 3 modules, viz. , telephone interface circuit, transmitter and receiver. The transmitter module is in turn made up of a digital data processing block and a wireless (infrared) transmitter block and the eceiver module is made up of a wireless (infrared) receiver block, digital data processing block and a decoding block. In the scheme, a telephone receiver acts as a remote terminal to provide input Dual-Tone Multi-Frequency (DTMF) signals to the telephone interface circuit wh ich converts them to corresponding 4 bit Binary Coded Decimal (BCD) codes. The transmitter generates an 8 bit frame using this BCD code to facilitate asynchronous communication. The receiver decodes the received signals after checking for any transmission errors (single bit) in the frame. These decoded bits act as control signals for the operation of home appliances.The system employs an asynchronous type of communication [1] in which the transmitter and receiver clocks are independent. The receiver clock does not have any prior information regarding the phase of the transmitter clock [2]. This leads to the problem of choosing the correct sampling instants at the receiver [3]. Hence the data is transmitted in the form of frames instead of individual bits. Each such frame consists of start bits, information bits, and stop bits [1]. This is explained in detail in the subsequent sections. When the system is idle, the data processing block of he transmitter gives constant logical high o utput. Since the transmitter consumes more power in transmitting logical high than logical low, the output of data processing block is negated before transmission to save power in the idle state. The receiver module also senses this and remains idle whenever the transmitter is transmitting continuous logical low. The reception of a start bit changes the state of the receiver from an idle to an active state. It then has to sample the remaining data bits in the frame at proper sampling instants. Most of the standard hardware schemes involve the use of monostable ultivibrators at the receiver to recover the data bits following the start bit. The monostable multivibrators commonly rely on variable components such as resistance and capacitance values, as well as they often account for a major part of the propagation delays associated with the receiver. We have extended this treatment to a fully digital design that presents more challenging tasks including a digital output feedback. Moreo ver, use of all digital components in the data processing stages reduces the propagation delay considerably. The complete design outline of all the modules of the roposed system is presented in Section II. Results and discussions are given in Section III. Finally, we present our conclusions in Section IV. II. DESIGN OUTLINE The block diagram of the proposed telephone based wireless remote control system is shown in Fig. 1. In the proposed system, the telephone set performs the dual functions of telephony and remotely controlling various devices. The remote control mode of the telephone can be activated by pressing ‘#’ from the keypad of the telephone. After the desired tasks are accomplished, ‘#’ should be pressed again to deactivate the control system.This is one of the functions of the telephone interface circuit, which is discussed next. A. Telephone Interface Circuit The telephone interface circuit integrates the designed system with the standard teleph one system. As shown in Fig. 2, it basically performs the job of receiving the signals from the local loop and converting them to the standard digital signals in the BCD format. When any telephone button is pressed, a unique DTMF signal is produced for a short duration [4] which is converted to corresponding BCD code by a standard DTMF to BCD converter (KT-3170) [5].The dual tone frequencies and the BCD codes associated with each dialed digit are shown in Table 1. The system remains in the idle state until ‘#’ button is pressed which sets the telephone to remote control mode. This mode remains activated until ‘#’ button is pressed again. This is realized in the hardware by using the BCD code corresponding to ‘#’ as the clock to toggle the J-K flip-flop (74112). The flip-flop output toggles whenever the ‘#’ button is pressed and this is directly used to control the mode of operation of the telephone. The DSO output of KT-3170 [5] is used to generate a start it for the system as it is logical high whenever a received tone pair has been registered and the output latch is updated. As the latched 4-bit BCD code is directly available at the output of KT-3170, it is given as such to the data processing block of the transmitter. These data bits are then processed to facilitate asynchronous communication as explained below. B. Transmitter The 4-bit output of KT-3170 can not be directly transmitted as individual bits as the proposed system employs asynchronous mode of communication. The 4-bit BCD code is thus transmitted as frames for proper reception [1].We have chosen an eight bit frame for our system which consists of a start bit followed by four data bits, a parity bit and two stop bits. Parity bit enables the system to detect any single bit error during transmission. Stop bits mark the ending of the frame. The frame is then transmitted using infrared (IR) transmitter. As shown in Fig. 2, the transmitter mainly con sists of two blocks which are explained below. 1) Fully Digital Data Processing Block: This block performs the function of converting individual bits to 8-bit frames in order to carry asynchronous communication.First bit of the frame is the start bit (taken as 0) which is generated when any of the buttons is pressed. The succeeding 4 bits are the data bits (BCD code) generated by the telephone interface circuit as explained before. Next bit is taken as parity check bit generated by XORing the first 5 bits of the frame. Last 2 bits, termed as stop bits, are taken as 1. Following the generation of the start bit, the data bits are loaded in the parallel to serial converter (74165) using a D-type flip-flop (7474) and the frame is transmitted serially. 2) IR Transmitter Block: This module transmits the frames enerated in the previous section using an IR emitting diode. The data to be transmitted is modulated using Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK) with a carrier square wave of 38 kHz. The tra nsmission range of the system is thus highly improved over the case when data is transmitted without modulation. As the data processing stage gives logical high output in the idle state, it is negated before transmission to save power. Thus, a logical low is actually transmitted whenever the system is in idle state. C. Receiver The receiver also has 2 working states, viz. , idle and active.It remains in the idle state until it detects a start bit. It then receives the frame starting from the start bit and checks for a single bit error. If error is detected, no action is taken and the information has to be transmitted again by the user. The received data bits are then decoded which act as control signals for the operation of various appliances. As is evident from Fig. 3, receiver circuit can be subdivided into 3 blocks which are explained below. 1) IR Receiver Block: This block receives the transmitted frames and converts the signal back to Transistor Transistor Logic (TTL) levels.A standard 38 kHz IR receiver (TSOP 1738) [6] is used for this purpose. 2) Sampling Clock Generator: The main function of this block is to generate a sampling instant at approximately the middle of the transmitted bit interval. The start bit activates this block and loads counter 1 (4-bit up-counter) with value ‘0’. The clock frequency of this counter is 16 times the bit rate. When the output of this counter changes from 7 to 8, the most significant bit changes from ‘0’ to ‘1’ and this rising edge is used as the sampling instant for the data.Start bit also loads the counter 2 (4-bit down-counter) with the frame size i. e. , 8. When this reaches the value ‘0’, the whole block is disabled and is reactivated only when next start bit arrives. 3) Data Sampler and Decoder: The serial input data is sampled according to the sampling instant generated in the previous stage and is converted to parallel form using serial to parallel converter ( 74164). This data is then checked for any 1-bit errors by XORing the bits. If error is found, no action is taken and the data has to be retransmitted. If no errors are found, the data is decoded using 4-16 decoder (74154) and he signal is given to the appliance for the completion of the corresponding task. III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS The proposed system has been fully implemented and successfully tested in the standard telephone local loop. The transmitter, kept near the telephone set, taps the DTMF signal from the local loop and transmits the corresponding data frame wirelessly. This signal is received by the receiver installed at the switch board. It decodes the data and takes the corresponding action. At least ten control signals, corresponding to each digit from 0 to 9, can be generated using a standard telephone set.The transmitter was previously implemented without a modulator where the IR LED was kept ON for transmitting logical high and OFF for transmitting logical low. Thi s limited the distance between the transmitter and receiver to a maximum of 30 cms for proper reception. The range of the wireless system has increased to several meters after modulating the data using 38 kHz square wave. This range also depends on the current flowing through the infrared diode which has to be properly tuned to maximize the range. A standard TSOP 1738 receiver is used in the proposed ystem, which requires a minimum burst length of 10 cycles for proper detection. This puts an upper limit on the data rate supported by our system which is practically observed to be 2. 8 kbps [5]. The IR transmitter is highly directional and requires the receiver to be in line of sight of the transmitter. The reception angle of the receiver is observed to decrease with increasing distance between the transmitter and receiver. This is because of the fact that the power is not uniformly distributed and is concentrated in narrow transmission angle.Moreover, the signal power reduces when th e distance between the transmitter and the receiver is increased. So, the receiver has to be highly aligned with transmitter when operating at some substantial distance from it. This problem is of not much concern for our system because the transmitter and receiver, being static in nature, can be properly aligned at the time of installation. The data processing blocks of both the transmitter and the receiver are fully digital in nature. This comprehensively reduces the propagation delays involved and increases the rate at which data can be processed in these blocks.Though, data rate is not very important in the present application but this feature makes the design of our data processing blocks suitable for high data rate applications which are commonly seen in wired communication. IV. CONCLUSIONS A wireless system has been proposed to operate the home appliances remotely using a standard telephone set. This has been successfully tested and is found to be working satisfactorily withi n a distance of 10 meters. The telephone receiver performs a dual-function of telephony and remotely controlling various devices with the help of its ‘#’ button on the keypad.The telephone interface circuit is easily integrated with the standard local loop thus avoiding any changes in the telephone set. Hence, the proposed system is compatible with any type of telephone working on standard local loop. The system employs asynchronous mode of communication which avoids the need to synchronize the transmitter and receiver clocks, thus making our system less complex and hence cost effective. The proposed fully digital innovative design of the data processing blocks reduces the propagation delay and makes them useful for even high data rate applications.Moreover, the system is capable of detecting the single bit errors occuring during transmission. The proposed system can be used in a wide range of practical applications such as speed control of motors, switching of applianc es, control of robots, etc. The above discussed characteristics like simple design, high practical utility and easy installation makes our system highly marketable. REFERENCES [1] Gorry Fairhurst. Asynchronous Communication [Online]. Available: http://www. erg. abdn. ac. uk/users/gorry/course/phy-pages/async. html. [2] D. Comer, Computer Networks and Internets with Internet Applications.Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 2004. [3] A. Subramanian, V. P. S. Makh and A. Mitra, â€Å"A New Digital Transceiver Circuit for Asynchronous Communication†, Enformatika Trans. , vol. 8, pp. 237-241, Oct. 2005. [4] DTMF Background [Online]. Available: http:// www. ece. utexas. edu/mason/codesign/dtmf. html. [5] Samsung Electronics Datasheet. KT3170 Low Power DTMF Receiver [Online]. Available: http://www. ortodoxism. ro/datasheets/SamsungElectronic/mXuusvq. pdf. [6] Vishay Semiconductors Datasheet. Photo Modules for PCM Remote Control Systems [Online]. Available: http://www. vishay. co m/docs/82030/82030. pdf

Research Instrument Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Research Instrument - Essay Example Since these researchers are measuring suicidal potential rather than ideation the questions are broad based and include social factors such as school and home life. They carefully tested the validity of the questions, internal consistency and test-retest reliability. Test-retest reliability is an important factor in determining if a self-reporting instrument is valid over time; the CASPI had a .76 score which the authors report is consistent with other testing instruments. The retest was conducted two weeks after the initial screening, which could be a factor in its high reliability score. The CASPI instrument was measured against known suicidal potential in the population sampled in order to assess its true validity. It appears that the researchers were successful in formulating questions with enough neutrality that children and adolescents could answer them honestly. The subpopulation of young children (less than 13 years old) is notoriously hard to assess, but this instrument appears to be consistent and valid even with younger children. It was more consistent and valid with older children, however (up to 96 percent accurate in distinguishing levels of suicidal potential). This instrument was tested with a significant number of students with a diverse cross section of socio-economic circumstances and ethnicities. This is a key element which is sometimes lacking in validating other self-reporting instruments. It also asks questions about family history, which is an important indicator of suicidal potentiality that is sometimes left out of other reporting instruments. Self-reporting instruments are as accurate as the people taking them—if the participant completes them honestly, they will measure suicidal potential. Self-reporting instruments require an ability to self-reflect as well as a willingness to open up through the anonymity of a questionnaire. When self-reporting

Canadian National Bank Current Problems Case Study

Canadian National Bank Current Problems - Case Study Example To cope with the pressure of this kind of environment the bank has implemented a system by the name of Customer Service Capacity Management (CSCM). This system has proposed certain parameters for each branch of the bank. The branch managers of each of these branches are expected to implement these recommendations without any exceptions. In such a situation a branch manager expects full support from each and every employee working in his or her branch. But unfortunately the branch manager of Chatham Branch has been unable to get support of one of her senior customer service representative, who is holding her own grudges against the branch manager. This has resulted in a series of ongoing tension situation existing between the manager and the customer service representative. All efforts of the manager to reconcile the prevailing differences have resulted in a failure, and thus a point has been reached where the fate of both these ladies is in the hands of a disciplinary committee. Prob lem Statement: The main problem which is being talked about in this case is one of interpersonal conflict. This form of conflict is arising between a young, inspirational, cooperative customer service manager and an experienced, mid aged, frustrated customer service representative. ... When this lady saw a young woman with just a degree to back her in the shoes of a manager, she decided to make her life difficult. Sub problems in the Bank: Since the bank is currently operating in an environment which is characterized by deregulation, therefore the entire banking paradigm has changed. In this paradigm banks need to be very responsive to customers’ needs with regards to their financial products and services. Banks also need to utilize their resources very efficiently and undertake strategies which help them to reduce their operating costs. In this regards Canadian National bank has implemented a new system by the name of Customer Service Capacity Management (CSCM). The basic aim of this system is to match customer traffic with the number of customer service representatives. In this way the system enables a reduction in cost. Recently, Lesley has been asked by this system to cut the job of a clerk and have the responsibility of this job fulfilled by two custome r service representatives. These representatives will share the work hours and work responsibilities of this job post. The responsibility to carry the task out fell on Pam Stewart and Sarah Wright, both these ladies had vast experience to back them but both these ladies were poles apart when it came to their personalities. Sarah was friendly and cooperative whereas as Pam was stubborn and uncooperative. Sarah had not problems when it came to performing these additional responsibilities, whereas Pam made a fuss about things and requested that she be relieved of these additional duties. She communicated to Lesley by means of a formal letter with a doctor’s certificate, asking her to relieve her of this additional role. Lesley rightfully took up this issue with Sarah asking

Crime rates in Qatar Research Proposal Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Crime rates in Qatar - Research Proposal Example The primary responsibility of any country to its citizens is security. The existence of adequate security in any society therefore makes it possible for people to pursue their various interests without having to worry about their personal or family safety (Wendel 2007). This positively influences the country’s economy because people devote more time towards developments and other income generating activities. Qatar is one such country that is striving to attain a national security status with relatively lower crime rates compared to her western counterparts like the United States. Although few studies have been conducted to document the actual crime statistics in Qatar, there is a general consensus that Qatar citizens feel safer than those in America (Orr 2007). Hence a research gap exists in order to establish the actually crime rates in Qatar. Several researchers in America have attempted to demystify crime by conducting a couple of studies on the crime rates in the country. Most of these studies are commissioned by stakeholders in security matters like the American criminal justice system while a few are privately funded. Stephen Rickman conducted one such study. In his findings, authorized for distribution by the American institute for public research, Rickman (2013) analyzed data for reported crimes in U.S for the past 50 years and recorded an overall reduction of crime rates from the 1970s to the present. The statistics indicate that there has been a significant decrease in crime between 2005 and 2010 since violent crimes reduced by 15.8% while property crimes dropped by 12.1% (Rickman, 2013). The findings also indicate that crime rates have fallen sharply in the last 30 years. For instance, In 1991, the U.S reported 24,703 homicides compared to 14,748 murders in the year 2010, which points to a reduction of murder ca ses by over 10,000 annually

International Law Dissertation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

International Law - Dissertation Example But two aspects are fundamental to all political systems. One is that power--the ability to influence behavior--is the main means by which the political system directs behavior and allocates resources. The other is that law is always one form in which political decisions are formed and perpetuated. Law translates political decisions into binding instructions to the society's members about how to behave. This dependent relationship of law to politics has important consequences. Another thing that will be discussed in the paper will be Law and Politics. A brief introduction of how this portion will be discussed in the paper is as follows: One consequence is that the inadequacy of the contemporary political system to maintain social order reliably is necessarily reflected in the law. The insistence of states to be sovereign, i.e., to be their own ultimate authority in determining their behavior, disables the law to perform its ordering function most efficaciously. The immediate cause of this weakness is the diffused, horizontal distribution of power among states. The institutions that maintain an efficient legal system in national political systems are lacking. There is no central government, no formal legislature, no executive, and no fully developed judiciary, because sovereign states aim at performing all these functions for themselves and, if possible, for the entire society. Another consequence is that international laws, like all laws, mostly represent a prevailing power constellation in the society.

Libor Scandal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Libor Scandal - Essay Example The dishonesty that was exposed by the authorities was very shocking and that the ultra conservatives needed to exploit the public by weeping into public gallery. When the authorities ignore incessant warnings about the true health of the system, they merely choose to be on the sidelines yet the problem continues to spiral out of control. The society must constantly drive for more control, through several bodies and commissions and their agencies, they seem to coil under the weight pressure of such scandals. The system of relationship between the authorities and business is a network of personal interests complicated by the mutual rules and regulation governing such a relationship and underpinned by a culture of ‘too big to fail’. The authorities must use their discretions to punish those manipulating the system for profit fully, and this must be conducted without fear and favor. As a consequence the most important lesson the society should have learned from the Libor sc andal is the perpetrators going out of business, but then again this might cause further pain for non- participants of the scandal such as their customers and shareholders. However, the real perpetrators such as the traders and the brokers should feel the full force of the law for their actions in manipulating the Libor rate; therefore, they must be charged with criminal offence. When people argue about the evils of capitalism, they fail to notice that the system cannot manipulate itself; it takes the people effort to do that. The writer of the post decries the weight that the system carries, he notes when a scandal breaks out, the system bears the blame yet people cause such scandals. On the other hand,... When people argue about the evils of capitalism, they fail to notice that the system cannot manipulate itself; it takes the people effort to do that. The writer of the post decries the weight that the system carries, he notes when a scandal breaks out, the system bears the blame yet people cause such scandals. On the other hand, the Business Week claims that the Libor scandal had the consequence of destroying the entire worlds’ financial structure; this is because several people relied on the Libor rate as the benchmark rate. The rate is standard for over 360 trillion of securities loans including students and bonds, and its manipulation might have enormous results. The paper reported that there are several lawsuits filed seeking compensation from the world’s top banks such as Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Barclays, and Citigroup amongst other banks. Predictably, the banks moved to court to counter the suit by application to the court for dismissal of the suit, and these banks faced an uphill task of winning back their clients back after the enormity of this scandal was revealed. Consequently, these banks are likely to face protracted cases in court by aggrieved parties from all over the world at least thirteen different suits have been filed in the US. The paper further persuades the investors not to take lightly the importance of the issue ‘Investors should not minimize the importance of this matter’. The authorities must always have the interests of the wider public at heart.

Kingdom of Peace Paper Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Kingdom of Peace Paper - Assignment Example The total population living in Singapore is 4.38 million in which 3.64 are Singapore residents. The percentage composition is 34.8% for age and 30% for gender. The total fertility rate is 8.5 births/1,000 population (est. 2011). The factors which influence the fertility rate are Importance of children as a part of the labor force Urbanization Cost of raising and educating children The infant mortality rate is 2.32 deaths/1,000 live births. The factors which influence the infant mortality rate are: Average age at marriage Availability of private and public pension systems Availability of reliable birth control methods 3) Topic 3 – Migration The total percentage of migrants in Singapore is 10.3% and they are international. The migrants come from Europe, China, Saudi Arabia and India. According to the culture of Singapore, the migrants that have come from different countries are totally different but the majority of Malays are believers of Islam with a considerable community of I ndian Muslims and they have the same culture as of Singapore. The migrants that come from different countries adjust easily into the lifestyle of Singapore as well as they don’t face any obstacles in Singapore. The migrants need visas/ special permits to legally work in Singapore. Although, the culture shock for the migrants is minimal but there are some situations in Singapore where you will feel very unfamiliar. Only educated people are given preference in Singapore. 4) Topic 4 – Language The languages of Singapore are Arabic, English and Spanish. And the official language is English as 80% of the people speak English. Many other languages are used in Singapore such as Chinese, Malay and Tamil. In Singapore, there is only one type of accent but there are different types of dialect. The difference between accent and dialect is; accent is the way different people from different regions speak while dialect is the form of language in which people speak. 5) Topic 5 â€⠀œ Religion The main religion of Singapore is Islam. There are other religions also like Fundamentalist Christianity and Atheist. The religion Fundamentalist Christianity is a type of the main religion Christianity and it literally means â€Å"anointed one† and it is a monotheistic religion based on the teachings of Jesus. The adherents of the Christianity faith are known as Christians. Mostly the people living in Singapore are Atheist. The religion does not influence the politics of the country. As there are many religions found in Singapore there will be an influence of religion on the culture because the people of different religions will follow their own culture. In Singapore, there are 50% followers are of Islam. Topic 6 – Urbanism Singapore has no cities but estates including Changi, Sengkang, Tampines, etc. However, these estates are well developed with a 100% urban population against rural population. Singapore has a mega as a well as a primate city. However, i t is its own capital. It has a robust internal model of infrastructure that allows growth, development and technological advancement in the country. Primarily, it follows Latin American pattern. Singapore faces transport issue in the country which requires a developed policy enumerating new pathways for the public, private and large vehicles. Topic 7 - Industry Electronics is the main industry in Singapore. It is bulk-reducing as well as bulk-gaining industry. In order to

Managing Entrepreneurial Enterprises' Individual Entrepreneurship Essay

Managing Entrepreneurial Enterprises' Individual Entrepreneurship Interview - Essay Example I always like seeing things being done the right way and thus, I prefer employing myself in order to control my business my own way. In my business, I can make my own rules without consulting any person except my employees Charantimath, 2006, 23). Secondly, I like being independent with my own goals and objectives that I have set to achieve. Individuality is a characteristic that enables me to be to stand even when faced with challenges without expecting help form any person. Therefore, as an entrepreneur I can be totally independent without sharing profits or losses with anyone. How do you security in your business? I am a goal oriented person. Setting goals gives a person assurance and security at work since, when the goals are accomplished; it implies that it cannot fail at given time. An entrepreneur has to be focused at achieving his or her goals since; a business is driven by the goals (Eric, 2012, 12). Without goals, the employment security of the employer is at stake and can fail anytime. How do you manage to succeed in your business? First I am a disciplined person. I do not waste time on issues that might lead to failure of my business. I am also punctual in my work. I ensure that all my projects are completed within the speculated time. Discipline also helps me to keep deadlines and be serious with every part of the business (Bridge, 2010, 35). It is also a factor that helps me to ensure that there is no wastage of resources in the business. Therefore, as an entrepreneur, I have managed to succeed through ensuring that every line of work is well coordinated without taking any part for granted. How do you manage to keep your business running despite the stiff competition in the technology industry? The main strategy that I use is creativity and innovativeness. Entrepreneurship is all about generating of new and unique ideas in order to challenge those of competitors. For instance, in the technology industry I have to ensure that I am updated on all th e updated technology such as new brands of computers and laptops. I also have to innovate new ways of repairing different parts of the instruments. This helps me to attract new customers and provide them with quality services (Under30CEO, 2010, 65). One character trait that also helps me manage the competition is being a risk taker. As a risk taker, I can take advantage of different opportunities in life without fearing the possible losses. This way I can come up with quality features that can be used in building my business. For instance, purchasing laptops in bulk from foreign countries is extremely risky since; one is never certain if the laptops will be purchased by customers. However, as an entrepreneur, I have to take the risk since; that way I will increase my profits. This character is also supported by the fact that I am an opportunistic person. How do you ensure that, as an entrepreneur, opportunities do not pass you by? I take advantage of the different opportunities that my competitors may be ignoring. This way, my business can thrive above others since I will be equipped with unique ideas (Rex Bookstore, 2012, 45). I am also a thinker; I find my way out of the hard parts of the business that I may face. For instance, if a laptop has been repaired and it is not yet working, as an entrepreneur I have to think of the probable cause of the problem. Therefore, as an entrepreneur I cannot afford to run out of ideas at any one point in time. This has also helped to be above my competitors since; while other companies might tell

Psychology textbook Essay Example for Free

Psychology textbook Essay I didn’t know that psychology actually had a goal until I read the introduction to Psychology textbook. I am learning a lot of new things on this subject. For instance science of psychology has four main goals and they are as listed, described, predict, understand, and mental process and influence behavior. In my own words here they are. Describing: collecting information from the population by certain targeted people. The prediction goal is self explanatory it’s mostly meant for making assumption or predictions of what will become of your study before you actually know what will happen. The third goal of psychology is Understand, in this area you never really know when the information that you learn will change the next day or even within the next year. Psychology is a continuously growing field and the information that is gathered is only considered as theories and always changes, sometimes without knowledge or notice. Lets move on to influences which in my opinion one of the most used in everyday life . for instance a toddler is encourage to learn how to walk and talk. And a teenager can be pressured into doing things and making choices that they wouldn’t originally have made without the influence from their peers. Influencing people can be good too. For instance you can be influenced by coworkers and supervisors to take an open position that they feel you would get with no problem. Another example is to get the influence to do better than you are currently doing whether it be work, school, or making a better relationship with you family. The Biology and behavior was hard for me to decide what section to write about because there were so many to choose from. I didn’t want to be wrong about this section so I decided to pick the part that stood out the most to me. I am going talk about the Nervous System. It’s a really important part of the body because it helps you maintain consciousness and your behavior. The nervous system has billions of neurons. They are too, a very important part in the body because they do things such as sending messages from one end to the other end of the neuron. They are also called wires. To show why the nervous system is a really important part of the body, I will use the wires in a radio for an example. The wires in the radio are the main connection for it to provide power to send to the wires that go throughout the radio in order to hear the sound and in for it to recognize what needs to be done when certain buttons are pressed. Without the power cord the radio would really have no use. When the power cord is plugged into a power outlet the power cord provides the ability for the radio to produce sound from the speakers. It enables the buttons to work properly so that you can press the play button on the radio and hear the tracks on a CD. The wires also give you the ability to actually hear the music that comes out of the speakers. The next topics I will mention are sensation and perception. First I will mention what sensation is, it allows your brain to connect with the outer part of your body and transfer it to the inside of your body to your brain. For example, touching things with different temperature let’s say you touch or hold ice. If you hold it the ice long enough you may begin to feel a numbing sensation and you may start getting cold or experiencing the chills or goose bumps. Another example would be touching something hot. Due to the high degrees in the object you may experience pain or even have burn marks on your skin. Now lets move on to Perception which n my words mean, getting information and making images of them. There are a few different types of perception for instance â€Å"constancy† this also has different types. But for now we will use size constancy. When you look at the very same object from different angles and distances, it may appear smaller or bigger than it really is. Picture looking at a large building out of a window on an airplane before it takes off of the ground and try watching it until you get in the sky. It will appear to be much smaller than it did when you were viewing it at a closer distance but you know the actual building didn’t get smaller, it was the distance that you were viewing it at that made it look a different size. We all must know that perception is just about the same in everyone and that’s the reason we are able to communicate with each other.

Femicide in Guatemala Essay Example for Free

Femicide in Guatemala Essay Femicide in Guatemala â€Å"Six women and girls were killed in Guatemala last week in one day alone. Two of the girls, about 6 and 12 years old, were found strangled to death in a street in the capital Guatemala City wearing their pajamas† (Moloney 1). Guatemala has the third highest rate of Femicide in the world. Femicide is defined as the killing of a woman by a man because she is a female. In Guatemala, a significantly high number of femicide cases have been reported and I strongly believe that this is a very troublesome and unhealthy issue for the population. More than 3800 females have been murdered in Guatemala since the year 2000 and this is just the official number. This clearly suggests that numerous innocent women are tortured and killed by men each day throughout the region. Another report suggests that 512 women were killed between January 1 and October 16 in the year 2012 alone and this is after a 10 percent decline from the previous year. (PCUSA, 1) Most of these cases were reported in the province of Guatemala, which includes the country’s largest city and capital. The fact that this number is still so high despite the drop suggests what an urgent issue this is. There are various reasons for this violent victimization of women throughout Guatemala and is becoming an increasingly pressing issue which needs serious attention. It has been reported that this region is one of the unsafe areas in the world for women. Each day countless women are raped, mutated, forced into sexual slavery and abortions, sterilized and murdered. This creates a sense of fear among the entire population and makes them more submissive to this brutality. Men and women throughout the country live their lives in immense anxiety and stress of losing the women that they love. One of the main concerns regarding femicide is impunity, meaning that most of these cases are not brought to trial. Reports suggest that only 1%-2% of femicide cases are prosecuted whereas criminals have a 98% to 99% chance of completely escaping any punishment or prosecution. This poses a huge problem because women don’t get the justice that they deserve and criminals easily escape. This is very unfair for the innocent women who are victims of such crimes because their offenders don’t receive the punishment that they deserve. Another main reason for this exigent issue is the inability of the Guatemalan authorities to ensure the safety of women. This is to say that the Guatemalan government is so corrupt that they are unable to provide security for women and with the extremely high rate of impunity it is almost impossible for women to find justice. Now, it is very important to understand why these gender specific crimes exist in the region. One of the main reasons for this violent targeting of women goes back to the â€Å"Guatemalan government and military’s 36 year old genocidal counterinsurgency campaign against the country’s Mayan population† (Mychalejko 1). This is to say that the reason behind this problem of femicide exists to destroy the intricate social bonds of Mayan communities. Additionally, â€Å"Gender violence not only terrorizes women in the community, but it also disrupts traditional patriarchal gender relations by sending the message to men that they are not capable of protecting women† (Mychalejko 1). I find this medium of using gender violence to target an indigenous population very disappointing. It is not ethical for a population to kill thousands of women in order to get even with a community. Further, it is believed that this harsh behavior against women is really effecting the male population because such incidents happen so frequently that they are becoming insensitive to such incidents. Men in the Guatemalan society have become normalized to such reports and this can be seen because the crimes are continuing to become more inhumane and frequent. As mentioned above, one of the primary reasons for this ongoing violence against women is the Guatemalan Civil war, which left behind harsh memories of violence and impunity. The increased militarization cause by the ongoing war on drugs also continues to contribute to these high femicide rates. Guatemala is one of the regions strongly involved in the drug trade and thus women are used as collateral damage in the battle between gangs. Additionally, the economic and political climate in the region is not very stable and thus the land a resource conflict also contributes to these innocent deaths. Lastly, it has also been found that the increased involvement of foreign governments, especially US and Canada play an important role in this violence targeted to women. Basically, the Guatemalan government uses the targeting of women as a â€Å"tactical and deliberate tool of political repression (Mychalejko 2). In my personal opinion, not only is this very disturbing but it is also very unfair. Women play an important role in building a society and this unnecessary violence against them is very alarming. Using women as a bait to target the bigger economic and political issues is unethical and should not be practiced by any government. It is impossible for women to find hope and justice in a society where such high impunity exists. This continues to be a never-ending cycle for thousands of innocent women who lose their lives, while the people responsible are let free. Overall this is an absolute shame and mockery of the system. The Guatemalan civil war really contributes to these high rates of gender violence in the country. The aftermath of the war left more than 200,000 Guatemalans murdered, most of who were indigenous. Also, thousands were raped, tortured, disappeared and displaced. The most disappointing part however, is that over 98 percent of the people who engaged in these war crimes were left free. It is this lack of justice that left criminals in the country in power and innocent victims hurt. Therefore, these high rates of femicide are to inform the local population about this harsh past and to remind them that justice has not yet come. In conclusion, I think that we must all focus our attention to this increasing issue of femicide in Guatemala. In the recent times, as the political repression against women in increasing, they are becoming more active in order to prevent femicide. For example, â€Å"In Guatemala it has been proven that as more women participate politically and socially, it brings out more repression. An example is the recent attempt on the life of [the aforementioned anti-mining activist] Yolanda Oqueli† (Mychalejko 3). Yolanda is a leader of FRENAM, a movement that aims to defend land from expansion activities. She was returning home from a peaceful protest when she was shot. I believe that this issue of femicide is one that needs immediate attention. It is absolutely wrong and immoral to use a country’s women as a way of gaining political control. Additionally, the Guatemalan government is extremely corrupted and has a very high rate of impunity, which in turn, allows criminals to go free and possibly even commit the crime again. I suggest that the citizens of the world acknowledge this and do an intervention throughout the region. It is high time that women not be used as a bait to target men or to settle past scores. Women are an integral part of any society and deserve respect and security.

Communication Reflection using the Atkins and Murphy Model

Communication Reflection using the Atkins and Murphy Model INTRODUCTION I will outline a personal experience, which identifies aspects of effective communication. I was a student nurse of about ten weeks on my first placement fourteen years ago. I was working on an acute medical ward when a patient I was looking after became unwell and clammy. I aim to explore my feelings about the events that transpired, and describe what I would do differently if anything similar happens in the future using Atkins and Murphys (1994) framework for reflection. DESCRIPTION A patient I will call Mrs Costa, to maintain confidentiality (UKCC 1998), had been on the medical ward for a week. I was allocated to care for her. I reported to the nurse in charge of the ward that day that Mrs Costa was clammy and looking unwell. I was sent to fetch another nurse. I did not know what was going on and there was lots of shouting and staff running about, then the curtains were closed around Mrs Costas bed. The other patients were asking what was happening, so I attempted to reassure them that everything was fine and then I just kept out of the way lacking confidence to do or say anything else. When the phone started to ring I went to answer it. As I was going a patient with immobility problems decided to walk unaided. She managed about four paces before collapsing in the middle of the ward. Two or three doctors came running into the ward and seeing the collapsed patient thought it was for her, they were called. The staff nurse shouted at me in front of the patients and staff for not letting the doctors know which patient they had been called for. I was very embarrassed and felt really stupid. The staff nurse told me the patient had died and because she had important things to do I had to phone Mrs Costas husband and ask him to come to the ward. I said I didnt think I should be doing it and she told me it was good experience, but not tell her relatives that Mrs Costa had died on the phone. I had no idea what to say at first. The family were Greek and understood very little English. I just remember Mr Costa asking if his wife was all right. I said she was unwell and could he come in as soon as he was able. As Mr Costa arrived on the ward, the shift ended and nobody really discussed the days events. I went home and burst into tears. ANALYSIS Having been on placement for only two weeks, I did not have enough knowledge or experience to deal with these events. I remember feeling that I was in too deep I did not know how to help Mrs Costa. I recall how I felt left out and useless in dealing with a cardiac arrest. I am now aware that nurse training in the 1980s was of a low standard and unprofessional (Redfern 1999). I recognise that with experience I would be able to deal with emergency situations and that I did the right thing by reporting Mrs Costas condition to the charge nurse. Since the introduction of Project 2000 I am aware that students are not expected to care for patients without the support of qualified staff. I am also aware that a student would not be left alone to tend to the other patients while all the qualified staff assisted the cardiac arrest team. When I was getting into trouble I felt embarrassed and stupid. Looking back I understand that the staff nurse was probably under a lot of pressure due to the circumstances surrounding the cardiac arrest, but I felt like a naughty schoolgirl. I am also aware of the need for constructive criticism in order to improve my standards of practice (Betts 2002). I do however think that this should be given behind closed doors and in discussion form rather than a row, which appears unprofessional. I felt guilty when the other patient fell. Since reflecting I would make my priority the care of the other patients on the ward and realise that answering a phone would have been less important (Potter and Perry 2001). Mentors are now allocated to students to provide support and guidance including identifying priorities. Spending time with other patients, reassuring them and allaying their fears would be more useful. Again this is something that would come with experience I also felt very guilty lying to Mr Costa saying his wife was sick when I knew that she had died. I remember the phone call so clearly. I now realise that I should have firmly refused, as I did not have adequate training (UKCC 1992), to make the phone call but listened to a qualified staff member making the call so that I could still gain experience. I realise that nowadays mentors and charge nurses would help students and other members of staff discuss situations like this to let them reflect on the events. I think that reflective practice would have been useful at the time (Heath and Taylor 2002), as I was unprepared for the events and felt emotionally drained afterwards. EVALUATION Although this situation is mainly negative it has provided me with some useful experiences for the future. I know that new student nurses require the knowledge and backup of a qualified member of staff or team. Charge nurses should not vent stress on other staff especially in public, but should take them aside and point out what they could do to improve. I now realise how important it is to have a member of staff tending to the patients and reassuring them when an emergency situation takes place (Heath and Taylor 2002). Although I did not like lying to a relative I also understand the importance of not divulging information (UKCC 1996) over the phone and that news of a sudden death could be very traumatic if the relatives were on their own with no support. CONCLUSION OF LEARNING In future I would make sure I knew the ward protocol for emergencies. In any new situation I would try to learn as much as I could about that particular speciality to gain confidence. I would use questioning to improve my knowledge in the area thereby improve my understanding. I would take into account other peoples weaknesses. I would reassure the other patients if I were not directly involved in the emergency. In accordance with UKCC guidelines (1998) I would only take part in practices for which I had relevant training.

Essay --

Gang Injunctions: Ineffective to Prevent Violent Crimes in California In now days, the increase in gun violence troubles many communities in the United States. Many of the high-crime neighborhoods have become a total gang-controlled area. In 2013, the total number of gangs in the United States are 24,500 (Federal Bureau of Investigations). As major cities in America struggle to respond to the growth of gangs and attendant crime and violence, the law enforcement come up with gang injunctions to reduce crimes rates. Although a couple of gang injunctions have been granted in Texas and Illinois, the overwhelming majority of injunctions have been issued in California. In 2005, the total number of violent crimes were 5,985 alone in San Francisco that year, and 31, 767 in Los Angeles (Disaster Center). According to Matthew O’Deane, a police officer, and Stephen Morreale, an Assistant Professor of Worcester State University, a study and review was conducted of 25 southern California gang injunctions to understand if civil gang injunctions reduce crime . As a result, the study found that the crime rate decreased by 14.1% in injunction areas. Several California cities recently moved forward with gang injunctions to reduce violent crime rates. Gang injunctions have become a distinct Californian approach to fight crimes since they were first introduced in the 1980s in Los Angeles. The injunctions that have been granted primarily affect impoverished, minority neighborhoods and may actually serve to further stigmatize and oppress innocent minority youth who also live in these communities. Cities have issued them to fight local gangs, and promise that gang injunctions will cut down violent crime rate, and make the neighborhoods more safer; ho... ...ht to defend himself in the court. Moreover, the gang injunctions obtained in the target area should be defined clearly for gang members. It is important to make sure that the identification of the target area are easily understood by both the police and the gang members. Gang injunctions are ineffective way to prevent crimes, because they lead to many problems that hurts the communities. Gang injunctions are suppressions instead of preventions. Therefore, using force would not help to prevent crimes. However, they are legal tools to enable communities to take back their streets and public places from the gangs and gang members that terrorize them. Gang injunctions did contribute to the stabilization of communities and reduce gang-related crimes, they just need improvements to make it more useful and acceptable for both gang members and residents in target areas.

Virginia Woolf :: essays research papers

Virginia Woolf, in her novels, set out to portray the self and the limits associated with it. She wanted the reader to understand time and how the characters could be caught within it. She felt that time could be transcended, even if it was momentarily, by one becoming involved with their work, art, a place, or someone else. She felt that her works provided a change from the typical egotistical work of males during her time, she makes it clear that women do not posses this trait. Woolf did not believe that women could influence as men through ego, yet she did feel [and portray] that certain men do hold the characteristics of women, such as respect for others and the ability to understand many experiences. Virginia Woolf made many of her time realize that traditional literature was no longer good enough and valid. She caused many women to become interested in writing, and can be seen as greatly influential in literary history Virginia Woolf recognized that in Post-war England old social hierarchies had broken down, and that literature must rediscover itself in a new and altogether more fluid world; the realist novel must be superseded by one in which objective reality is replaced by the impressions of subjectiv conciousness. A new way of writing appeared, it was the famous "stream of Conciousness": It was developed a method in order to get the character through its conscience's states; the character is understood by the way it moves, talks, eats, looks, and everything it does. Although the term "stream of conciousness" is rightly applied to the work of Virginia Woolf, it was first borrowed in 1918 from William James to describe the novels of Dorothy Richardson. Richardson described her work as an attempt to "produce a feminine equivalent of the current masculine realism". The method was more and more used in English Fiction in the study "A Room of One's Own" (1929), where the existence of a private space, and of a private income, is seen as a prerequisite for the development of a woman writer's creativity.

The Republican Plan Should Not Be Vetoed :: Argumentative Persuasive Government Papers

The Republican Plan Should Not Be Vetoed The government of the United States has been the patriarch of the country. It has taken care of it's people for over two hundred years in times of war, recession and hundreds of other problems. But to solve these problems money had to spent sometimes in mass quantities. The World Wars not only made the US a world power but also a world bank. It has been since that time that the United States have begun it's trend towards deficit. After browsing through the Web I have a better understanding of what the deficit is, where it came from, and how it is being handled. It seems absurd that our country owes almost 5 trillion dollars. At the same time in economics we have learn the dollar value can sometimes be unimportant but the relative value that truely matters. If the whole world is in the same relative picture than the debt is not an enormous concern. As with any problem things should not be taken to either extreme at a given moment. To eliminate the debt would be a task no party could devise and in essence would be unimportant for the world economy. On the other hand money should not be spent like wild fire. Like everyone else in the country the government should spend their (our) money wisely. My opinion is that the Republican plan should not be vetoed. It needs to be instated to control the increase in the national debt and censor government spending. I do believe that the Republicans often look towards the wrong departments to make cuts in.

Cruesa, his first wife, is lost at Troy Essay

To analyse the character of Aeneas in comparison to the character of Odysseus we must first recognise that they have both been sent away from home, Aeneas by force after the sack of Troy and Odysseus to fight from the Greek side. To analyse them as leaders and â€Å"good men† we must look at their feats and their strengths as well as recognising their flaws as people and warriors. Both characters are extremely respected as heroes. Virgil presents us with the man that founded the greatest empire of all, the Roman Empire. Odysseus had the idea of the Trojan horse, without which the Greeks would not have won the war. Both are primarily good men who serve their countries well. I found though, that they do this in two very different ways. Odysseus’ nostos and Aeneas search for a new home. Scholars continue to disagree on whether or not Aeneas is presented as a good soldier, although the question itself is certainly far from black and white, complicated by the culturally relative nature of terms such as â€Å"conflict†and â€Å"courage†, as well as by the rather oblique definition that â€Å"good† itself holds. Odysseus respectively. I will argue that Aeneas meets the criteria set by neither model and that, ultimately, he is an emotionally unstable, morally dubious and even an incompetent military leader. However, the very fact that he is the protagonist needs to be stressed: his character is necessarily sympathetic, dynamic and intricate. My intention is not to assert that Aeneas is a villain or a coward; he is quite obviously neither of these things and such an interpretation of the Aeneid, a text rich and ambiguous in meaning, would be nothing short of reductive. And in this way he must, and does, have some positive, somewhat redeeming features. Virgil created in Aeneas a new type of Stoic hero, a point that is perhaps most evident in Book Four when Aeneas leaves Carthage. His speech to Dido is indicative of his determination to suffer both silently, Aeneas did not move his eyes and struggled to fight down the anguish in his heart. â€Å", (Book 4) and willing, â€Å"Do not go on causing distress to yourself and to me by these complaints. It is not by my own will that I still search for Italy. † (Book 4) Emotional restraint and acquiescence in regard to one’s own fortunes and torment is intrinsic to a Roman conception of a role model and leader. Equally, the presentation of Aeneas in Book Four can be seen to parallel that of Odysseus in Book Nineteen of the Odyssey, where the reader is told that, in spite of his wife’s tears, the hero’s â€Å"eyes were steady†. Aeneas, then, does conform to both the Roman and Homeric paradigms in his ability to endure the sufferings that Fate has allotted him. And yet his chief characteristic is not his endurance, as is the case with Odysseus, but rather his pietas, a quality essential for a Roman warrior. Time and time again in the Aeneid he is referred to as pious Aeneas, â€Å"famous for his devotion†(Book 6), so the Sibyl states. This devotion is threefold in that it is not only religious and extends to both his family and to his duty as â€Å"Father† of Rome. The latter of these has already been demonstrated by his separation from Dido, in which he subordinates his personal wishes in order to fulfil his destiny, while one can see the first two aspects of this pietas at work quite clearly in Book Five, in which the funeral games, â€Å"held in honour of the divine father of Aeneas†(Book 5), combine a celebration of the familial and of the holy. Like the â€Å"Father† figure that Aeneas, by fate takes on, Odysseus has great affection for his men. When he loses some of his men at Ismarus he tells us how they sailed on â€Å"with heavy hearts, grieving for the loss of our companions†. As well as this, when all the other ships are lost to the Laestragonians, he states, â€Å"We lay on the beach for two days and nights, utterly exhausted and eating our hearts out with grief†. Odysseus risks his life for them. In book 10 when the first half of his men are transformed into pigs by Circe, he goes alone to rescue them. He goes blind into this plan without any forward planning until Hermes helps him. He is so determined to help that he tells an interfering Eurylochus, â€Å"I shall go. I have absolutely no choice. â€Å". He never abandons his men. In Book 9 when his men eat the fruit of the Locus they lose all hope and want for home. Odysseus literally drags them and ties them to benches on the ship so that they cannot escape. In the cave of the Cyclops, after they have blinded the monster, Odysseus ties all of his men to the bellies of rams and they escape leaving him, he is alone and has nobody to tie him on. He does not care because he thinks about his men before he acts as does Aeneas. In this respect they are very similar except Aeneas makes more mistakes than Odysseus does and loses his wife. As a father figure, like Aeneas, Odysseus is very well respected by his men. Near the Cyclops the men divide the goats between the ships. They give nine to all of the ships and ten to Odysseus’ alone as a sign of their respect for him as their leader. Yet this pietas, as much as it appears to pervade Virgil’s characterisation of the leader, might be called into question. Aeneas, on frequent occasions, seems reluctant to implement himself and also uncertain as to the rewards it offers. In Book Five the poet externalises Aeneas’ thoughts as he wonders â€Å"whether he should forget about his destiny and settle in the fields of Sicily† (Book 5), and throughout the first half of the poem he needs to be constantly prompted to continue in his search for his homeland: by his wife’s shade in Book Two, his father’s shade in Book Five, and twice by Mercury in Book Four. Mercury wasted no time, â€Å"So now you are laying foundations for the high towers of Carthage and building a splendid city to please your wife? Have you entirely forgotten your own kingdom and your own destiny? † (Book 4). These temptations are presented to Odysseus throughout â€Å"The Odyssey† but he does not give into temptation whereas Aeneas marries Dido, falls in love with her. Odysseus has a very strict work ethic, which clearly shows his devotion to Ithaca. He is offered immortality by Nymph Calypso if he just stayed with her, but instead the first image that the reader is given of him is knelt on a beach crying for his homeland. He is tempted again by the witch Circe. Odysseus has the weakness of enjoying women. He stayed with Circe for one year before his men reminded him of home. He also stayed with Calypso for seven years. Although we must take into though that there were reasons why he had to stay with her. Even through these periods of extreme temptation and immensely beautiful women, Odysseus wants to return home. He is driven by the goddess Athene but she is not the true reason for his passionate longing for Ithaca. Aeneas is different. He no longing to go home, he has no home. He does long for his promised citadel but is also a cell for the gods to create a new Empire. Venus’ intervention is what points Aeneas towards leaving Dido who he tells, â€Å"I left you against my will† (Book 6). Aeneas seems rather less than devoted to his duty at this moment. He is shown to be quite contented in Carthage and it seems unlikely that he would have left its â€Å"sweet† shores under his own volition. Dido is Aeneas first serious test, and he seems to give way without a struggle (Book 4), and one may see the character here as close to the antithesis of Odysseus who, in his pig-headed determination to return to Ithaca, even rejects Calypso’s offer of immortality. Indeed, Aeneas, â€Å"whose sword was studded with yellow stars of jaspers† (Book 4) is a picture of decadence. Nor is devotion to duty the only aspect of his pietas that can be found wanting, and as much as Aeneas appears to be a truly devoted son it should be noted that he repeatedly fails to protect his family. When one considers those personages in the poem that could be seen as intimate with Aeneas it must be realised that virtually none survive. Cruesa, his first wife, is lost at Troy; Dido, debatably his second, commits suicide and Anchises, his father, dies in the port at Drepanum.

“Nineteen Eighty-Four” by George Orwell Essay

â€Å"Nineteen Eighty-Four† is George Orwell’s unswervingly grim vision of a dystopian future. The author always intended it as more warning than prophecy, so that even though its title date has passed, its lessons about the dangers of conformity, mental coercion, and verbal deception retain their validity and relevance. The novel depicts a world divided into three totalitarian superpowers that are constantly at war with one another: Oceania, dominated by the former United States; Eurasia, dominated by Western Europe; and Eastasia, dominated by China and Japan. Since the novel belongs to the genre of the dystopia, a negative Utopia, much of its content is necessarily involved in describing Oceanian society—not only in the features of its everyday life, much of which reflects British life in 1948 (a year whose inverted numbers may have suggested the novel’s title), but also in detailed explanations of the historical origins of Ingsoc and Oceania, as well as its official language, Newspeak. Discussion A key ingredient in this chilling documentation of eroding human freedom is its depiction of a corrupted language, â€Å"Newspeak,† Orwell’s brilliant rendering of that degraded language of politicians and sophists which hides rather then reveals truth. (Orwell, 19) Orwell, rather clumsily in the view of some critics, gives much of this information in the form of a book-within-a-book, the supposed handbook of the revolutionaries, and an appendix to the novel itself about Newspeak. The purpose of Newspeak was to drastically reduce the number of words in the English language in order to eliminate ideas that were deemed dangerous and, most importantly, seditious to the totalitarian dictator, Big Brother and the Party. â€Å"Thought crime,† the mere act of thinking about ideas like Freedom or Revolution, was punishable by torture and brainwashing. Newspeak was the sinister answer. A character in 1984 describes it succinctly: â€Å"Do not you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end, we shall make thought crime literally impossible because there will be no words in which to express it. The whole climate of thought will be different. In fact, there will be no thought as we understand it now. † Is our real world today, at the beginning of the new millennium, so very different on a fundamental level from what Orwell predicted? There have been countless refutations of the 1984 dystopia: Totalitarianism is on the wane, Communism is dead, there is more prosperity, more community, more freedom than ever before. (Orwell, 37) Arguably, on a geo-political level, the global information economy has promoted the causes of peace and freedom, preventing potentially worse atrocities and repression in hotspots such as China and the Balkans. The bottom line is: you have no freedom, no power, you feel no need or desire for freedom or power, and, what’s worse you do not even know that you do not have it. Analysis Critics of every aspect along the political spectrum, no matter what their views about the validity of Orwell’s social analysis in â€Å"Nineteen Eighty-Four†, agree on one thing: Considered politically and historically, â€Å"Nineteen Eighty-Four† is one of the most important books of the twentieth century. The bleakness of its vision of a totalitarian society became a profound warning, and Orwell’s accuracy was attested by dissidents in Eastern Europe and Russia both before and after the dissolution of the Soviet empire; Orwell, said a Russian philosopher, â€Å"understood the soul, or soullessness† of Soviet life. Not only did the words â€Å"Newspeak† and â€Å"doublethink† enter the English language but Russians refer to the Novoyaz of Communist Party language. (Orwell, 67) Some critics have pointed out that another layer of meaning exists within the novel. They connect Orwell’s dissection of Oceanian society to his portrayal of his depressing and unhappy preparatory school days, which he discussed in his essay â€Å"Such, Such Were the Joys† (1952). Young English boys were removed from the warmth and security of their families, mini-societies governed by love and respect, and hurled into a world dominated by fear, repression, and an all-pervading sense of guilt. There, Orwell was imprisoned â€Å"not only in a hostile world but in a world of good and evil where the rules were such that it was actually not possible for me to keep them. † In such a society, rebellion or even dissent becomes almost impossible, and even personal relationships are viewed with hostility and suspicion by the ruling â€Å"class,† that is, the masters and proprietors of the school. (Orwell, 81) Conclusion As a true anti-utopian novel, one in which the horrors of totalitarianism are amply illustrated, â€Å"Nineteen Eighty-Four† serves as a poignant reminder of the preciousness of free thought and an open society and whatever the author has predicted in this novel has one way or the other turned out to be true. Works Cited Orwell, George (1949). â€Å"Nineteen Eighty-Four†. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co. pg 15-129.

The Development of Tourism Around Certain Key Wildlife Species Can Be Problematic. Evaluate Strategies Which Are Used, Around the World, to Seek a Working Balance in the Nature-People Relationship?

9. The development of tourism around certain key wildlife species can be problematic. Evaluate strategies which are used, around the world, to seek a working balance in the Nature-People relationship? Tourism is the world’s largest industry with nature-based ecotourism seeing rapid growth since its initial arrival in the 1980s. It is estimated by the World Tourism Organisation that nature tourism generates 7% of all international travel expenditure (Lindberg, 1997) and this figure will have increased rapidly over recent years.It’s increase in popularity is due to a number of factors; tourists becoming increasingly bored of the typical sun, sea and sand holiday’s, the increase in global awareness or environmental issues such as global warming, deforestation and conservation efforts. Ecotourism has the ability through its economic benefits to increase conservation, improve the economic well-being of local communities and national governments and educate people on t he threats facing fragile environments around the world. However, ecotourism is not without its drawbacks and ill-managed and uncontrolled tourism can impact badly on wildlife and protected areas.In this assignment I will aim to look at the relationship between people and ecotourism and analyse the benefits and weaknesses that they both have on each other. The most prominent thing which springs to mind with regard to nature tourism for most people would be safaris in Africa aiming at spotting the ‘Big 5’ (African Elephant, Black Rhinoceros, Cape Buffalo, Lion & Leopard). The term was originally coined by hunters but now it is applied widely in tourism. ‘Africans safaris are one of the fastest growing segments of the travel market’ (Wildlife Travel, 2006).Approximately 8% of Kenya is protected National Parks and reserves and these areas are responsible for generating millions of pounds annually for the treasury, and literally thousands of Kenyans are employe d in the wildlife-based tourism industry throughout the country (Sindiga, 1999). This means that many parts of Africa have been able to develop a sustainable part of the economy based around protecting and conserving the animals which they have for tourists benefit as opposed to in the past, where the predominant form of tourism was in hunting these animals.However now the money received from tourism can be used to increase conservation efforts and aid breeding programs and the rehabilitation of neglected animals. However, in some instances the companies which run the safaris have their headquarters located in other more economically developed countries therefore the money raised by the African land leaves the host country to other countries and therefore it is not helping Africa become more economically developed.The most distinguished nature reserve in Africa is the Masai Mara Nature Reserve in Kenya. Tourist accommodation first started being developed after the reserve was gazett ed in 1963. The initial effort enforced by the reserve to ensure the animals are not disturbed and parks preserved whilst tourists visit them is issuing all visitors and guides with a printed leaflet outlining the regulations which must be abided by whilst in the reserve and these are listed in figure 1.Infringement of these regulations carries a $25 fine, although it is rarely applied (Wildlife and People, 1999) †¢ No off-road driving. †¢ No following of animals. †¢ Minimum approach distance of 20m to an animal. †¢ Limit of five vehicles at any one viewing. †¢ Limit of 10 minutes viewing when other vehicles are waiting to view. †¢ Maximum speed limit of 50km/hr. †¢ No deliberate use of noise to distract wildlife. †¢ No leaning out of vehicles (except roof hatches) and no getting out of vehicles. †¢ No dropping litter. †¢ No pets. †¢ No starting fires. Figure 1A study conducted to see how many visitors broke these rules suggeste d that regulations were broken in over 90% of cases, with the main infringement being too many vehicles around animals and driving too close to the animals (Wildlife and people, 2003). Obviously, it is very hard to enforce these rules as guides and tourists want to get the closest possible encounter due to them having to forgo large amounts of financial expenditure for the experience and in the guides opinion the happier a visitor is the more likely they are to receive repeat business in the future or positive word of outh advertising. Also the increasing number of vehicles in safari parks increases pollution and can cause a distraction for hunting animals and disturb the prey which they are stalking as these animals have adapted their hunting tactics over thousands of years and they now have a relatively new factor to adapt to. However, in some instances the vehicles can be beneficial as for the cheetah who have been known to jump up on the roofs of vehicles in order to get a bette r view of where there prey is. Big Cat Week, 2010) Construction of tourist facilities may increase the amount of jobs available to local people however it does also mean that more land is lost for natural habitats and although it is a necessary harm which is needed to increase economic activity there are few regulations on how much land can be used for new buildings and the removal of vegetation can increase soil erosion (Safariholidays 2011).Africa has a very delicate eco system which is highly vulnerable to drought and famine so although the benefits of tourism mean increasing sustainability in the long run it must be ensured that the locals receive some of the benefits because it is their land which is being developed for the benefits of tourists.This is heightened by the fact about the large amounts of water is used during tourism activities whether it be for regular showers which westerners are accustomed to or filling numerous swimming pools up continuously to counter the effe cts of evaporation due to the fact that water is a scarce commodity in many parts of Africa and tourists are consuming large amounts of it taking it away from the animals and people who depend on it.The safari industry also helps to improve the relationship between local farmers and big cats such as cheetahs due to the fact that farmers will kill animals which prey on the herds, normally out of desperation due to the fact that they are considered a pest however increasing awareness of how other local residents depend on the survival of the big cats for tourism has lead more farmers to report incidents of attacks to reserves and safaris as opposed to laying out meat laced with poison.On a different side of things which focuses more on the illegal benefits made from poaching animals eco-tourism now exists in Madagascar where adventurers pay local guides to lead tour groups through reserves, finding and pointing out the rare and hard-to-spot species of wildlife which the tourists have come to see. The guides track the animals every day and therefore have a better understanding of where to find them at different times.This is a very effective tourism as it puts money directly into the locals peoples pockets and there is no middle men in the process so much so that it can worth while to prevent other local residents from hunting the animals concerned or cutting trees for firewood. (Ralf Buckley, 2010 page 50). This is a perfect job for many local residents who have extensive knowledge of the jungle through growing up their with many people getting a large amount of their meat through before hunting in the jungle can now receive an alternate way to make money through hosting guides.However, it could be suggested that the money received from tourism is not enough to sustain locals due to the face that one individual involved in wild life tourism in Madagascar was involved in poaching wildlife for the black market and also claimed to be able to guide tourist groups to sightings of two rare Madagascar endemic species; the tomato frog and the aye-aye lemur. In which it is reported that suspicion that the animals were captive animals placed in sports shortly before tourists arrival and then recaptured afterwards (Ralf Buckley, 2010, page 51).This is obviously very stressful for the animals involved and the tourists are unknowingly funding a harmful form of tourism however without the proper regulation in place to ensure tour guides are responsible there is no easy way of stopping this as tourists are always going to be attracted to guides who promise to show tourists guaranteed sightings of rare species of animals. As at the moment it would seem some ‘guides’ are taking advantage of the animals they are suppose to help to protect.In conclusion I would say that eco-tourism is constantly moving forward, having switched from mainly hunting in Africa in the 1960’s to now numerous sustainable Safaris all over Africa and with complete ly new eco-tourism destinations, such as Madagascar becoming more and more popular helping the country develop a whole new economy through the emergence of eco-tourism. There are obviously faults in the industry, just like most other industries.The main one in Africa would be the fact that much of the money raised by the host countries leaves to western countries and the local people see little benefit from having their land developed for tourism and preserved for the safety of animals as if this land was not used in this way it would most likely be used by the local people for some form of farming. The main thing which needs to change now is for the distribution of wealth to be more fair and even between the companies and the local people.And it would seem the main disadvantage for Madagascar being the lack of regulation, which enables corruption within the industry. 1505 words References Lindberg, K. , Furze. , Staff, M. , Black, R. (1997) Ecotourism in the Asia-Pacific Region: Is sues and Outlook. Burlington, VT. The International Ecotourism Society. Ian Proctor. (2006). â€Å"Is an African Safari Safe? â€Å". Available: http://www. wildlifetravel. net/african%20safari%20advice. htm. Last accessed 20/03/2012. n/a. (2011). Negative Impacts of Safari Tourism. Available: http://safariholidays. ikispaces. com/Disadvantages+of+Safari+tourism. Last accessed 20/03/2012. Ralf Buckley (2010). Conservation Tourism. Oxfordshire, England: CABI Pulishing. page 51. Sindiga, I. (1999) Tourism and African Development: change and challenge of tourism in Kenya. African Studies Centre, Lieden. Walpole, M. J. , Karanja, G. G. , Sitati, N. W.. (2003). Wildlife and People: Conflict & Conservation in Masai Mara, Kenya. Available: http://www. peopleandwildlife. org. uk/publications/CONFLICT%20w_and_p_masaimara. pdf. Last accessed 22. 03. 2012.

My college essay Essay

Your GPA, class rank, SATI and SATII scores are all important to a college admissions officer in helping to assess your academic abilities. But they are only numbers – they have no personality. What can make your application stand apart are the personal essays. The college essay will allow an admissions officer to look beyond those numbers and see you as a person. A well-written essay should convey your thoughts, attitudes, personal qualities, imagination, sense of humor and creativity. It will round out the rest of your application and help you stand out from other applicants. In the end, it is one of the only parts of your application over which you have complete control, so it is important to take the time to do your best work. WRITING THE ESSAY To write a college essay, use the same three-step process that you would use to write an essay for class: first prewrite, then draft, and finally, edit. Taking the time for this process will help you to identify a focus for your essay and gather details you’ll need to support it. Prewriting: To start, you need to organize potential ideas for the main points of your essay. Since the purpose of the essay is to share more about you with the admissions dean, begin with YOU. Brainstorm for a few minutes, making a list of your strengths and outstanding characteristics. Focus on your strengths of personality, not your accomplishments (i. e. , you are responsible, not â€Å"an Eagle Scout;† committed, not â€Å"a three-year starter for the basketball team†). Your accomplishments are important, but more appropriate for the activities section of the application. Discover your strengths by doing a little research about yourself. Ask friends, parents and teachers what they see as your strengths. Create an outline, listing several pieces of evidence from your life next to each of the strengths that you have discovered to prove your point. Look for patterns and connections in the information that you have brainstormed. Group similar ideas and events together in logical ways (i. e. , was basketball more about the sport or about the friendships? Does your passion for numbers show itself in your performance in the state math competition and your summer job at the computer store? Drafting: Getting started is often the hardest part of essay writing. Use the information that you have learned about yourself in the prewriting phase to jump-start the process. While drafting, your job is to further organize this information into a typical essay with an introduction, the body of the essay, and conclusion. The introduction gives your reader an idea of the essay’s contents and can be short when you need to be concise. Often a vivid sentence is sufficient, such as â€Å"My favorite science project was a complete failure. † The body presents the evidence that supports your main idea. Use narration and details about the incident to show rather than tell. The conclusion can be brief as well, with a few wellselected sentences that tie together the events and incidents that you’ve described and solidify the meaning they had to you. Editing: After your draft, allow yourself time to make improvements: find and correct any errors, strengthen your focus if need be, and get feedback from another reader. Remember, this is your essay, making you your own best editor. No one can tell your story. Your words and ideas are the best way to go. Let it cool; take a break from the work for a few days before beginning an edit. Does your main idea come across clearly? Do you prove your points with specific details? Is your essay easy to read aloud? Seek feedback from someone you like and trust (but someone likely to be honest about your writing). Ask them to tell you what they think the essay is really about. Did they get it right or do you need to do another edit? Edit even more, making your language simple, direct and clear. This is a personal essay, not a term paper. Most colleges set word limits for each essay, so every word counts (say, â€Å"now† instead of â€Å"in today’s society†). Proof read at least two times before thinking that you are done. Careless spelling or grammatical errors, awkward language, or fuzzy logic will make your essay memorable – for all of the wrong reasons.

Apush Notes: Conquering a Continent 1861-1877 Essay

* Essential Question: What factors helped advance the integration of the national economy after the Civil War? Section 1: The Republican Vision: * Integrating the National Economy: * Reshaping the former Confederacy after the Civil War supplemented a Republican drive to strengthen the national economy to overcome limitations of market variations that took place under previous Democratic commands. * Failure to fund internal improvements left different regions of the country disconnected, producing the Civil War, Republicans argued. * During the Civil War and after, the Republican-dominated Congress made strong use of federal power, passing protective tariffs that gave U.S. manufacturers a competitive advantage against foreign firms. * Republican administrations would strengthen the economy through a massive public-private partnership that modern historians argue represents a turn away from a laissez-faire or â€Å"hands off† approach of previous administrations towards the economy. * Railroad developments in the United States began well before the Civil War but peaked after the Civil War. By 1900, virtually no corner of the country lacked rail service. * Railroads transformed American capitalism by adopting a legal form of organization, the corporation, enabling them to raise private capital in large amounts. * Along with the transformative power of railroads, Republicans’ protective tariffs also helped build thriving U.S. industries. A Civil War debt of $2.8 billion was erased during the 1880s by a $2.1-billion-dollar income from tariffs. * Fierce tariff debates marked American politics in the 1880s and 1890s. Democrats argued that the tariff had not slowed poverty in the United States. * Protective tariffs had also helped to foster the growth of trusts, giant corporations that dominated whole sectors of the economy and wielded monopoly power. * The rise of railroads and trusts prompted a pushback by companies against new state and federal regulatory laws. In Munn v. Illinois (1877), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states possessed the right to regulate businesses, but not at the expense of fragmenting the national marketplace. * In the Southwest, federal courts promoted economic development at the expense of racial justice. Although the United States had taken control of New Mexico and Arizona after the U.S. Mexican War of 1848, much of the land still remained in Mexican American hands by the 1870s. * As the post–Civil War years brought railroads and Anglo-American settlers, Mexican Americans lost 64 percent of their lands through special courts that ruled on land titles. * The Santa Fe Ring was a notorious group of politicians and lawyers who conspired to defraud Mexican Americans of their lands. * After the Civil War, U.S. and European policymakers attempted to transform their economies to the gold standard. But basing money supplies on gold was a divisive issue that framed U.S. politics for a generation. * In 1873, Congress directed the U.S. Treasury, over a six-year period, to retire the greenback paper dollars issued during the Civil War and replace them with notes from an expanded system of national banks. After 1879, the Treasury exchanged notes for gold upon request. * Silver adherents received a modest victory when Congress passed the Bland-Allison Act of 1878, requiring the United States to coin a modest amount of silver. * Republican nationalist policies fostered rapid economic growth in the form of an expansion of telecommunications, corporations, and capital, making the United States a mighty industrial power by 1900. * The New Union and the World: * Following the Civil War, the United States achieved greater leverage with foreign nations like Britain. American expansionists expected to add more territories to the nation. The use of the Hawaiian Islands and the invention of steam transportation facilitated expansion off the continent to places like Japan in the 1850s. * Union victory also increased trade with Latin America. Mexico freed itself from French rule in 1867, but risked economic manipulation by its larger northern neighbor, the United States. * International trade became a new model for asserting power in Latin America and Asia. Under the leadership of Secretary of State William Steward (1861–1869), the United States embraced China and Japan, forcing the Japanese to remain open to trade. * Seward also advocated the purchase of strategic locations for naval bases and refueling stations, such as land in Nicaragua for a canal, Hawaii, and the Philippines. * In 1868, Seward achieved a significant victory with congressional approval of the Burlingame Treaty with China, regulating immigration. The same year, Seward also purchased Alaska from Russia, further establishing the United States as a global power. Summary: * Essential Question: What factors drew homesteaders to the Great Plains, and what role did they play in the Republicans’ vision for the post-Civil War nation? Section 2: Incorporating the West: * Cattlemen and Miners: * Conquest and development of the American West became the domestic foundation for national supremacy in the late 1800s. Farm development was as vital as factory development to Republican policymakers. * Republicans sought to bring families to the West by offering 160 acres of land through the Homestead Act. * Innovative federal policies, such as the U.S. Geological Survey, helped in 1879 to open up western lands managed under a new Department of the Interior. * Federal policies helped to incorporate the trans-Mississippi West. As railroads crossed the country, thousands of homesteaders filed land claims. * To make room for cattle, professional buffalo hunters eliminated the buffalo. * Texas ranchers inaugurated the famous Long Drive, hiring cowboys to herd cattle hundreds of miles north to the railroads that pushed west across Kansas. * As soon as railroads reached the Texas range country during the 1870s, ranchers abandoned the Long Drive. Stockyards appeared beside railroad tracks in large Midwestern cities like Chicago. These places became the center of a new industry, meatpacking. * Sheep raising also became a major enterprise in the high country of the Rockies and the Sierras. * In the late 1850s as California gold panned out, other mineral discoveries helped to develop the Far West in places like Nevada, the Colorado Rockies, South Dakota’s Black Hills, and Idaho. The Comstock Lode in Nevada was a major silver discovery. * At some sites, miners found copper, lead, and zinc that eastern industries demanded. The insatiable material demands of mining triggered economic growth at many far-flung sites, such as Pueblo, Colorado, which smelted ore. * Remote areas turned into a mob scene of prospectors, traders, gamblers, prostitutes, and saloonkeepers; prospectors made their own mining codes and often used them to exclude or discriminate against Mexicans, Chinese, and blacks. * California created a market for Oregon’s produce and timber. * Homesteaders: * Upon first encountering the Great Plains, Euro-Americans thought the land barren, and referred to it as the Great American Desert. * Railroads, land speculators, steamship lines, and the western states and territories did all they could to encourage settlement of the Great Plains. * New technology—steel plows, barbed wire, and strains of hard-kernel wheat—helped settlers to overcome obstacles. * Between 1878 and 1886, settlers experienced exceptionally wet weather, but then the dry weather typical of the Great Plains returned, and settlers fled recently settled land. * â€Å"American fever† took hold in northern Europe as Norwegians and Swedes came to the United States. * For some southern blacks known as Exodusters, Kansas was the Promised Land; by 1880, 40,000 blacks lived in Kansas—the largest concentration of blacks in the West aside from Texas. * By the turn of the century, the Great Plains had fully submitted to agricultural development. In this process, there was little of the â€Å"pioneering† that Americans associated with the westward movement; farming required capital investment and the willingness to risk boom and bust cycles just like any other business. * Although miners, lumber workers, and cowboys were overwhelmingly men, many women accompanied families as homesteaders. * The Republican ideal of national economic development through farm building supported the cultural value of domesticity. Spread widely before and after the Civil War, domesticity held that it was a man’s devotion to his wife and childr en that caused him to work hard and be thrifty and responsible. * Domesticity produced a political clash with the Mormon Church, whose adherents practiced polygamy. Along with voting rights, this issue framed gender political controversies during Reconstruction. * Women’s rights expanded when Wyoming granted women the right to vote in 1869. Towns in Kansas in the 1880s elected women as mayors and as city professionals. Women were increasingly leaving the home to work. * Yet the majority of rural women lived under harsh frontier conditions. Rolvaag’s contemporary work, Giants in the Earth portrayed the fear and isolation of Norwegian immigrant women on the Dakota vast prairie. * Debt and Aridity: * Farm prices dropped in the late 1800s as technological innovation and global expansion glutted markets for wheat, cotton, and corn. * Farmers also faced the problem of being small producers in a marketplace that rewarded economies of scale, giving large corporations the advantage of undercutting farmers. In the 1880s, farmers would launch one of the most powerful protest movements in the history of American politics. * A hostile environment existed on the Great Plains in the form of grasshoppers, prairie fires, hailstorms, droughts, tornadoes, blizzards, the lack of water, and minimal wood supplies. Many families built homes made of sod. * By the late 1880s, over 50,000 homesteaders had fled the Dakotas and many others gave up their settled lands. Dry farming techniques helped to alleviate some of the challenges of Great Plains farming. But it favored the growth of large corporations. Family farms required over 300 acres to survive low prices and harsh weather conditions. * By 1900, about half of the nation’s cattle and sheep, one-third of its cereal crops, and nearly three-fifths of its wheat came from the Great Plains. But environmental costs multiplied as wasteful anti-biodiversity agricultural practices continued. * Encouragement from experts like John Wesley Powell, a geologist who explored the West, to infuse federal funding into western development ignited a debate over corporate versus small family farms. * Rampant overdevelopment led to a preservation movement by Congress. In 1864, Congress gave 10 square miles of the Yosemite Valley to California for public use. In 1872, Congress set aside 2 million acres of Wyoming’s Yellowstone Valley as a public park for tourism, a new western industry on the rise. * Indian eviction accompanied land preservation. In 1877, the Nez Perce under Chief Joseph and the Bannock tribe of Indians utilized Yellowstone for survival as they fled forced reservation life by the federal military. * The military decided that killing buffalo would help reduce resistance of the Great Plains tribes. They had signed treaties in 1867 and 1868 to ceded vast tracts of land and remain on reservations. Whites now wanted Indians to cede more lands. Summary: * Essential Question: How did the federal government’s relationship with Native Americans change in the decades following the Civil War? How did they stay the same? Section 3: A Harvest of Blood: Native Peoples Dispossessed: * The Civil War and Indians on the Plains: * Before the Civil War, Congress gave the Great Plains to Native Americans because they thought it could not be farmed. But railroads, steel plows, and the desire for land reversed that decision. * The Sioux and other tribes fought against federal government attempts to place them on reservations. In 1862 in Minnesota, the Sioux responded by massacring white settlers. President Lincoln hanged the leaders and exiled the remainder from the state. * The Dakota Sioux uprising escalated tensions elsewhere between whites and Indians. In 1864, Col. Chivington led his troops to commit the Sand Creek Massacre of Cheyenne in eastern Colorado. * The Sioux and Arapaho responded with more attacks. In December of 1866, the Sioux wiped out eighty men under Captain Fetterman and successfully closed the Bozeman Trail. * By 1869, public opinion had turned against warfare as an effective means to subdue Indian tribes. Congressional leaders searched for other options to deal with the â€Å"Indian probl em.† * Grant’s Peace Policy: * Christian reformers heavily influenced the Grant administration’s peace policy. Reformers argued that Indians could be transformed into whites through education and religious indoctrination, particularly of Indian youth in boarding schools. The first boarding school opened at Carlisle in 1879. * Corruption, racism, and denominational in-fighting reduced the effectiveness of the boarding school campaign. To Indian leaders, reformers became just another interest group. * Indian tribes were forced by political circumstances to accommodate. In 1871, Congress abolished further treaty-making with Indian tribes. * The Supreme Court further eroded tribal power in Lone Wolf v. Hitchcock (1903), stating that Congress could make any policies it chose and could ignore existing treaties. * In Ex Parte Crow Dog, the Court ruled that Indians were not citizens unless approved by Congress. Indians would remain wards of the government until the 1930s. * Another assimilation measure attempted to free Indians from their tribal past, this time through land taking. The Dawes Severalty Act of 1887 held that all Indians would receive allotments of reservation land and the remainder would be sold to non-Indians. * The Bureau of Indian Affairs’ carelessness, corruption, and greed doomed the act. Fifteen million surplus acres alone were taken from tribes in Indian Territory by 1894, facilitating the birth of the state of Oklahoma. * Before Dawes, Indians had held over 155 million acres of land; by 1900, this had dropped to 77 million. By 1934, native peoples had lost 66 percent of their allotted lands. * The End of Armed Resistance: * By 1873, only Sitting Bull, the great Lakota Sioux leader, openly refused to go to a reservation. * A crisis came on the northern plains in 1876 when the Sioux refused to sell the Black Hills as demanded by the federal government. * On June 25, 1876, George A. Custer pursued a reckless strategy and suffered annihilation by Chief Crazy Horse’s Sioux and Cheyenne warriors at the Little Big Horn. This was the last victory of the Plains Indians against the U.S. Army. * The Apache hated their reservation, so they made life miserable for white settlers in the Southwest until their chief Geronimo was finally captured in 1886. The United States had completed its military conquest of the West. * Strategies of Survival: * Despite living on reservations and halting armed resistance, most native people continued to practice traditional languages, ceremonies, and arts. * Most native people also selectively adopted white ways such as use of the English language and skills such as agriculture. Most native people blended old and new ways. * One of the most famous native people who assimilated during this era was Dr. Charles Eastman, a Dakota Sioux boy trained in white schools to become a medical doctor. * The Ghost Dance movement symbolized the syncretism, or blending together, of white and Indian ways. The dance drew on Christian and native elements, spreading from reservation to reservation across the West and alarmed many local whites. On December 29, 1890, at Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota, U.S. Army soldiers massacred 150 Lakota Sioux people. The soldiers feared that the Ghost Dance would provoke war uniting Indian communities. * By 1890, the United States included forty states, an industrial economy that rivaled Britain and Germany, steady immigration, and inklings of becoming a major player in foreign places. A new American empire was forming abroad.