Lanzones Festival

Lanzones Festival is held every third week of October and it is a four day grand celebration of the lanzones fruit. The mostimportant livelihood in Camiguin is lanzones. It is when a lot of tourists come to witness the joyous Lanzones festival. Lanzones is one of the major fruit producers in the Philippines. Lanzones is a tropical fruit that grows extravagantly on the north-central coast of Mindanao. Lanzones has a pale brown skin and sweet translucent flesh. It is said that the sweetestlanzones in the Philippines comes from Camiguin. The town of Mambajao in Camiguin celebrated its annual festival calledLanzones Festival together with its harvest in the month of October. Lanzones Festival in MambadjaoCamiguin is celebrated with a weekend street dancing competition and parties, cultural shows, parade and beauty pageant (coronation of MutyasaBuahanan) and trade fair that features local handicraft and products. Houses, street poles and even people are ornamented with lanzones during the lanzones festival. According to the legend of an unknown beautiful maiden took the fruit’s past bitter flavor to replace it to delicious and sweet taste of thelanzones, thus townsfolk dance in the streets in order to honor and celebrate. It also celebrated by the people in Camiguin as a contribution in making Mindanao as a cultural tourism destination and give thanks for a bountiful harvest for all the agricultural products. The Lanzones fruit is a major source of the Camiguin Islands' livelihood and it is for the annual harvest that they celebrate this thanksgiving day. Houses, carriages, street poles and even people are decorated with lanzones and lanzones leaves. townsfolk dance in joy abandon in commemoration of the legend that a beautiful, unknown maiden took from the its former bitter flavor to leave only its luscious, sweet taste.

Styles of Learning

Introduction: There are many different styles of learning, but only three of these styles are most commonly used in school settings; auditory, visual, and a combination of the two. Auditory learners are typically good listeners who are able to pick things up when they hear them and benefit from hearing lectures, brainstorming, and participating in discussions. They are great at listening and picking up on the tone/inflection in which things are said, hearing what others simply may not. Many times, these are participants who talk through projects with you and desire verbal input. They think best outloud and can typically follow oral directions. Written information may have little appeal to them, so they may read it outloud to digest it fully (Weichel, 2016). Visual learners have a keen eye and are taking it all in. Observation and note-taking are their strengths; however, those notes may be in pictures, diagrams, or words, depending on their preferences. They may position themselves in the room so they can focus and avoid distractions. They benefit from visualization exercises, watching videos, written instructions, maps, diagrams, silent reading, and flowcharts. Many enjoy reading and are able to process the words and recall what they have seen (Weichel, 2016). Short-term memory is the second stage of the multi-store memory model proposed by the Atkinson-Shiffrin (McLeod, 2009). It acts as a kind of â€Å"scratch-pad† for temporary recall of the information which is being processed at any point in time (Mastin, 2018). Short-term memory has three key-aspects; limited capacity, limited duration, and encoding. For limited capacity, only about seven items can be stored at a time. The magic number seven (plus or minus two) provides evidence for the capacity of short term memory. Most adults can store between 5 and 9 items in their short-term memory. This idea was put forward by Miller (1956) and he called it ‘the magic number seven'. He thought that short term memory could hold seven (plus or minus two) items because it had only a certain number of â€Å"slots† in which those items could be stored. However, Miller didn't specify the amount of information that can be held in each slot. Also, if we can â€Å"chunk† information together we can store a lot more information in our short-term memory (McLeod, 2009). For limited duration, storage is very fragile and information can be lost with distraction or passage of time. It is usually assumed that the short-term memory spontaneously decays over time, typically in the region of ten to fifteen seconds, but items may be retained for up to a minute, depending on the content (Mastin, 2018). Items can be kept in short-term memory by repeating them verbally (acoustic encoding), a process known as rehearsal. Peterson and Peterson (1959) showed that the longer the delay, the less information is recalled. The rapid loss of information from memory when rehearsal is prevented is taken as an indication of short-term memory having a limited duration (McLeod, 2009). When several elements (such as digits, words, or pictures) are held in short-term memory simultaneously, they effectively compete with each other for recall. New content, therefore, gradually pushes out older content (known as displacement), unless the older content is actively protected against interference by rehearsal or by directing attention to it. Any outside interference tends to cause disturbances in short-term memory retention, and for this reason people often feel a distinct desire to complete the tasks held in short-term memory as soon as possible. When something in short-term memory is forgotten, it means that a nerve impulse has merely ceased being transmitted through a particular neural network. In general, unless an impulse is reactivated, it stops flowing through a network after just a few seconds (Mastin, 2018). The type or characteristics of the information also affects the number of items which can be retained in short-term memory. For instance, more words can be recalled if they are shorter or more commonly used words, or if they are phonologically similar in sound, or if they are taken from a single semantic category (such as sports, for example) rather than from different categories. There is also some evidence that short-term memory capacity and duration is increased if the words or digits are articulated aloud instead of being read subvocally, in the head (Mastin, 2018). Some researchers (e.g. Eugen Tarnow) have proposed that there is no real distinction between short-term and long-term memory at all, and certainly it is difficult to demarcate a clear boundary between them. However, the evidence of patients with some kinds of anterograde amnesia, and experiments on the way distraction affect the short-term recall of lists, suggest that there are in fact two more or less separate systems (Mastin, 2018). Gender and hormones influence how the human brain develops. Recognizing some of the differences between the male and female brain can help to understand why males and females often have different learning styles and behavioral patterns. The female brain has a higher proportion of gray matter while the male brain has a higher proportion of white matter. Having more gray matter may explain why young women are usually more efficient in processing information, often have stronger verbal skills, and usually excel at juggling several activities (Male and Female Brains Are Not the Same, 2015). Having more white matter appears to help the male brain transfer information throughout the brain. This can enhance young men's spatial skills, such as navigation and and solving math problems. The differences between males and females is principally hormonal, whereby males have dominant androgens while females have more of estrogens than androgens (Does Gender Affect Memory, 2018). Researchers have argued that the difference in these sex hormones is what differentiates memory in humans based on gender. Generally, boys have superior scholastic ability when compared to girls. In terms of academics, boys technically have superior memory. However, girls and females technically have superior short term memory on various issues (Does Gender Affect Memory, 2018). The purpose of this experiment was to determine which of the most common learning modes used in school, auditory learning, visual learning, or a combination of the two modes, was most effective for information retention among males and females. This experiment explores how many words twenty 8-10 year olds can memorize in a short period of time.Results:Procedure:Three tests, a visual test, an auditory test, and a combination test, testing both auditory and visual modes together, were created for twenty 8-10 year olds to be able to read, along with a copy of each test.For the visual test, each 8-10 year old was given a list of 20 words to read over.After reading over the list, the list was taken away, and the child recited how many words he or she remembered.For the auditory test, each 8-10 year old was read another list of 20 words, and then recited how many words he or she remembered. For the combination test, each 8-10 year old was given a list of 20 words to look at while the same words were read to them.All three tests were given to each 8-10 year old, and the order in which the test were administered and which lists of words that were used were changed each time to avoid test, test-practice, or test-fatigue bias.After each test was given, the scores were recorded and averaged, along with separating the males from the females. Tests are located in â€Å"Appendix A†, â€Å"Appendix B†, and â€Å"Appendix C†.Data: The material collected was from twenty 8-10 year olds, ten being male and ten being female. For the visual test, the ten males scored 3, 5, 5, 5, 8, 7, 5, 9, 4, and 4 out of twenty, and averaged 5.5 words. For the auditory test, the ten males scored 3, 6, 5, 4, 6, 7, 6, 8, 6, and 6 out of twenty, and averaged 5.7 words. For the combination test, the ten males scored 5, 6, 4, 5, 8, 5, 5, 9, 7, and 5 out of twenty, and averaged 5.9 words. For the visual test, the ten females scored 6, 5, 4, 9, 8, 5, 8, 7, 5, and 6 out of twenty, and averaged 6.3 words. For the auditory test, the ten females scored 6, 4, 4, 6, 7, 4, 5, 4, 4, and 4 out of twenty, and averaged 4.8 words. For the combination test, the ten females scored 5, 6, 4, 6, 6, 4, 7, 6, 6, and 4 out of twenty, and averaged 5.4 words. The males averaged 5.7 words per test, and the females averaged 5.5 words per test. Table 1: Boys' Scores on the Visual, Auditory, and Combination Tests (Out of 20)Visual TestAuditory TestCombination Test335566554545868775565989467465Average: 5.5Average: 5.7Average: 5.9Table 2: Girls' Scores on the Visual, Auditory, and Combination Tests (Out of 20)Visual TestAuditory TestCombination Test665546444966876544857746546644Average: 6.3Average: 4.8Average: 5.4Graph 1: Girls' Scores on the Visual Test (Out of 20) Graph 2: Girls' Scores on the Auditory Test (Out of 20)Graph 3: Girls' Scores on the Combination Test (Out of 20)Graph 4: Boys' Scores on the Visual Test (Out of 20)Graph 5: Boys' Scores on the Auditory Test (Out of 20)Graph 6: Boys' Scores on the Combination Test (Out of 20)Graph 7: Boys' Average Scores on All Three Tests (Out of 20)Graph 8: Girls' Average Scores on All Three Tests (Out of 20)Discussion: In this experiment, ten 8-10 year old boys and ten 8-10 year old girls were given three tests, a visual test, an auditory test, and a combination (auditory and visual combined) test, and asked to recite how many words they remembered from each test. The predicted results of the experiment were that the girls would remember more words than the boys because girls generally have a superior short-term memory than boys (Does Gender Affect Memory, 2018). The results to the experiment proved otherwise; boys averaged a score of 5.7 words overall, and the girls averaged a score of 5.5 words overall. The actual results may have differed from the predicted results because the girls were tested in the hall where many other children were walking in and out of rooms, causing the girls to lose focus on the experiment. They may have not been able to focus on reading the visual test or following along on the combination test. They may have also not been able to hear the auditory test or the combination test as it was read to them. The boys may have experienced less interruptions when being tested, allowing them to obtain higher scores. The words on the lists may have also been more appealing for 8-10 year old boys, than for 8-10 year old girls. Although girls generally have a superior short-term memory compared to boys, this experiment may have proved that boys can have a superior short-term memory compared to girls. Research by many psychologists has shown that the female gender manages to organize their memory in a united style while, on the other hand, the male gender organizes their memory in a truly distinguished style (Does Gender Affect Memory, 2018). Differences in memory among males and females are diverse based on various situations and circumstances (Does Gender Affect Memory, 2018). The ten 8-10 year old boys involved in this experiment may have proved that boys have a better short-term memory when given three short tests. Since the boys scored the highest on the combination test, they might also be superior in auditory and visual learning rather than the girls.This experiment tested the short-term memory of both girls and boys when it comes to short lists of words. It proved that boys may sometimes prove superior to girls in certain circumstances, and that boys aren't primarily auditory or visual learners, but the ones experimented on are a combination of the two. Although the female brain matures faster than the male brain, this experiment concluded that girls may not always have a superior short-term memory to boys (Does Gender Affect Memory, 2018). ReferencesDoes Gender Affect Memory Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays – 1000 words. (2018).Retrieved April 29, 2018, from https://studentshare.net/psychology/63811-does-gender-affect-memoryMale and Female Brains Are Not the Same. (2015). Retrieved April 29, 2018, from http://www.multiplyingconnections.org/become-trauma-informed/male-and-female-brains-are-not-sameMastin, L. (2018).Short Term (Working) Memory. Retrieved April 29, 2018, from http://www.human-memory.net/types_short.htmlMcLeod, S. (1970, January 01). Saul McLeod. Retrieved April 29, 2018, from https://www.simplypsychology.org/short-term-memory.htmlWeichel, J. (2016, August 19).What's their learning style? Part 3: Visual learners. Retrieved April 29, 2018, from http://msue.anr.msu.edu/news/whats_their_learning_style_part_3_visual_learners AppendixA Airplanes Balloon Candy Doughnuts Fireworks Glitter Harmonicas Ice cream Jumping Karate Legos Macaroni Nachos Ocean Pirates Rainbows Shark Toys Unic orns WaffleAppendixB Astronaut Bacon Cakes Disney Elephants Fire trucks Gorilla Halloween Insects Jelly bean Kite Lollipops Marshmallow Narwhals Parrot Rabbits Sea horse Texting Volcano WatermelonAppendixC Aquariums Basketball Cheeseburger Dolphin Easter Frogs Ghost Hamsters Ice skating Juggling Ladybugs Magic Naps Pizza Robots Sea turtle Trampoline Whales Zombies Waves

A Debate On Male And Female Gamers Media Essay

A Debate On Male And Female Gamers Media Essay The purpose of this report is to highlight the biasness which has become popular in the designation of most of games that are of much interest to almost everyone in the world. This report will encompass the game makers and who play games and how this is increasing attention in the current world. The report will address games that have been observed to present biasness between men and women in the world. Since there exist several sources of games, this report will have an over view of some sources that are popular and famous in the modern world. How the biased is present or perceived will be an area of interest in this report. The question â€Å"is game design gender biased?† will enable the report to succinctly explain the steps that should be taken in order to fight gender biasness in designing of today’s games. Effect produced by this kind of biasness in game field will be also an area of concern in this report. In order for this report to highlight the gender bias f ound in the designation of today’s games, it would be of much important to understand what gender bias is. Discussion Gender bias refers to a situation whereby one sex is favored over the other. For instance you might find that men are given more priority than women in certain activities. During 1970s, men were highly favored than women in most of career fields. For example only men were allowed to take part in economic activities while women were branded as housewives. This is to mean that the act of considering one sex over the other is what counts for gender bias. From different researches that have been conducted it is shown that game design is gender biased. Game industry has been faced by several questions based on girls and women in gaming. Questions such as why girls and women have been neglected by the game industry has captured the attention of many people in the world more so the game developers individuals. The emergence of pink games movement took its roots in la te 1990s whose emphasis was based on designing games around gender specification (Tavani 2010) The intention of this movement was to provide females; girls and women with what they desired. This was a way of encouraging girls and women to develop positive attitude toward games. The most popular games are computer games whose directory of playing is based on commands or set of instructions. The pink games movement had intent of motivating females to embrace the ever changing technology in the world. If girls and women are allowed to participate or play computer games, they would become active players of such games and also got involved in the advanced technology and also what today is known as computer science. Through games, girls would solve problems associated with disenfranchisement. This has enabled many games developers to understand the importance of equity or fair treatment when it comes to the issue of designing games. As per concern to this report, it is therefore crucial f or games developers to embark on or consider fairly homogenous and stereotypical ideas of gender. Games designing biasness have made games industry to experience a long period of recess. This has resulted from the fact that many of the titles of popular games have less taste to women. Only men are favored although they have been said to spend little time in playing such games. Games design is the only known product for the games industry and therefore in order to capture a diverse market for its product, it should therefore take into consideration various issues based on game designing. For instance it should ensure that the titles for the games are free from gender bias. These titles should also have same levels of taste to all sex this is to mean that they should be universal to all. The game developers need to focus on titles that are in a capacity to cater for a variety of tastes of people without catching a certain part of population and ignoring the other (Garner, 2004).

Compare and Contrast Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 12

Compare and Contrast - Essay Example Currently, education has been made online. Some researchers say this is perhaps the strongest force that will generate solutions to problems that face human beings ones and for all. Dr. Karen Head and Thomas Friedman are specialists prominent in education matters and technology. Dr. Karen gives a detailed analysis into the cost and value that is derived from online writing while Friedman speaks of the general perception in the current trend of online writing courses. Karen is of the view that online courses are not very active and is costly to the students contrary to Friedman’s assertion the technology reduces cost of learning. Online learning is an approach being used by many large institutions of higher learning. The outfit is tenable because it brings the vastness of professional lecturers into one single massive open online course massive open online course platform to deliver quality. In addition, students of varying demographical, sociological, psychological, philosophical and geographical origins connect to the same tool and are able to pursue their dreams. Karen and Friedman agree that the idea is braced for greater outcomes and when effectively utilized will bring positive change to world perception on education and use of the internet. With a simple personal computer or a smartphone, one log into the massive open online course massive open online course platform and takes courses at will. They also agree that the internet reach solves need to take up extra expenses that result from taking up training in a distant place where accommodation and transportation comes at a fee. Technology is a handy s olution to most of the problems human beings face and that enhancing the efficiency of writing classes will start with embracing the massive open online course platform. Karen believes that the process is complicated for the teachers, technical department and students before a single lesson is ready. It takes

Film theory, Third Cinema, First Cinema Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

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Nokia Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Nokia - Case Study Example Nokia’s biggest strength is the reputed brand name and the acceptance of Nokia products in over 150 countries. Nokia products are custom made for each country and region considering the economic and cultural situations. Moreover Nokia products are easy to use and a wide range of telecommunication products are available from Nokia to cater the needs of all the segments of people in the world. Being the number one mobile manufacturer in the world, the resale value of the Nokia products are best in the industry. The major weakness of Nokia is the price of their product. Compared to other mobile manufacturers, Nokia products are expensive. Nokia is not offering much promotions and sales discounts to the customers compared to others. Moreover, after sales services of Nokia seems to be not adequate. Globalization and liberalization has offered Nokia lot of opportunities worldwide. The heavily populated and rapidly developing countries like India and China offer great opportunities for Nokia products. In developing countries like India the standard of living has increased a lot and people started to use expensive items and Nokia can easily capitalize on that (Scribd) The major threats for Nokia is from the competitors like, Motorola, Sony Erikson, LG, Samsung etc. Apple has recently introduced a touch screen phone which was new in that category. Even though Nokia has introduced some substitutes for countering the Apple threat, it was not successful enough to beat the Apple challenge. Recently Nokia has experience a major problem in India when some of the Nokia batteries started to burst. Nokia forced to replace all the batteries of a particular series in India which actually damaged the reputation of Nokia in India. Nokia unveiled plans to launch a slew of services for mobile users, starting later this year in Europe and Asia. The scheme

A Summary of District-Level Downsizing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

A Summary of District-Level Downsizing - Essay Example Schachter goes on to add that, the state legislators or the democratic and republican governors are on a process to balance their budgets and the bad economic times have forced them to implement a huge cut in the public services arena, where the education sector is the target. The director of the AASA (American Association of School Administrators) confirmed this by saying that addition of the cuts to the end of the stimulus year would see the districts come to a cliff. While reacting to the survey that was conducted by the AASA concerning the school superintendents, the director Domenech indicated that the budget cut value of 5%, which was targeting the administrators, was bound to accelerate. The whole district school administrator spectrum has become the target and vulnerable. The cuts in the education sector that are happening currently in the United States cities are a unique event that has never happened. As the number of the students rises, other educational leaders are guttin g departments such as operations and assessments at the district level to turn the assistant principal position into a species that is endangered. The executive director of the IASA (Illinois Association of School Administrators) attributed the current events to the administrators being a microcosm of the recess in America. According to Schachter, different states have reacted to these events in different ways in as much as the cuts or the layoffs are common in all the involved districts. In California for example the layoffs or down sizing have considerably narrowed down the administrative corridor. Approximately 3,000 administrative posts an equivalent of 17% reduction has been implemented in California. This hardest part of this is that the state of California over the same period managed to loose a total of 20,000 teacher’s equivalent of 6%. Despite of all these downsizing attempts a $4billion cut in California state education aid is looming and if the Gov.Brown’s plan of temporarily raising the taxes of some states is not approved, and then as many as 2000 administrators are going out of their jobs next year. The administrators were targeted first to try and salvage the classroom since the instruction of the students was a priority hence the teachers were spared in California. The Charleston (S.C.) to mention as one of the schools froze the salaries of 3400 teachers and lay off a few. The board of this school is planning to cut between 70 and 60 positions in non-classrooms in the following year. This is according to Bobby Michael, who is the chief operations and financial officer for the county school Charleston. (Schachter, 1) In the state of Texas, the idea of raising the property taxes is not being considered despite the amount accounting for 37% of Texas school budget. The superintendent of Irving (Texas) Independent School District Bedden Dana managed to tap $6.5 million, and another $7million to $10 million of the district’s res erve fund will be taken in the following year to cover the deficit. The Irving district is facing a huge deficit of between $21 million to $31 million and, therefore, the reserves will not be enough to offset the deficits. Schachter is of the opinion that, the district has adopted another method of increasing the size of the class by adding three students at the elementary averaging

Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 2

Law - Essay Example (Zander, 2004, p 701). While solicitors are the ones who hire barristers and apprise them of the facts of the case, they were not permitted right of audience in the higher courts, therefore this often entailed double the costs for clients, since they had to hire a solicitor and a barrister as well, and in difficult cases to be contested in the highest courts they were also obliged to hire a Queen’s Counsel. Since these legal professionals charge by the hour and costs are particularly high for Queens Counsels who are allowed audience in the High Court and Crown Courts, this has often pushed the option of litigation right out if the province of poorer clients. Barristers function on the lines of the â€Å"cab rank† principle which could be projected as an advantage, however the reality is that in some cases there are returned briefs and the question of an unprepared barrister appearing in Court on behalf of a client instead of a solicitor who is better acquainted with the case, which â€Å"may be a major source of unfairness and poor justice for offenders and litigants.†(Darbyshire, 2001, p 263). Moreover, as demonstrated in the Report by the National Association of CAB (www.unece.org), few clients are properly informed about costs and this is part of the reason why the fees associated with processing a case are most often the cause of customer complaints. Duplication of costs has been inevitable because both the solicitor and the barrister must be paid and it is often difficult for a client to comprehend why he is faced with the necessity of paying two people for one case. Moreover, the lack of audience in the higher Courts has been the biggest grievance of solicitors, who are often the best acquainted with the facts of the case after their close association with the clients. It is the solicitors who brief the barristers but since there is no guarantee that the barrister who has been briefed will be free to appear in court

Understanding four pillars of sustainability Essay

Understanding four pillars of sustainability - Essay Example The concern of sustainability in art and design has been on the key trends in recent past. This has called to question the role of designers and artists in sustainability. The article "Sustainability" Has Become a Growing Focus of Artists' (and Art Schools') Attention† by Daniel Grant in general addresses such concern and the new paradigms in integrating the four pillar of sustainability (environment, cultural, financial, social) to enhance better artistic practices. Likewise stresses the effort to institutionalized sustainability into an elective concentration in many schools which is a positive step. Through critically analyzing the article, by acknowledging the prominence and importance of the pillars of sustainability reinforces the need for an integrated various approach to all of the themes in art which is increasingly dynamic. In this regard, the article underscores the fact that the foundational and challenges of sustainability in may be complex in nature, when we take a holistic approach and engaging all the pillars of sustainability these challenges becomes solvable. According to the article, art that focuses on sustainability issues lacks a given look, but reflects a series of ideologies about the significance of art as in the environment and society at large. There are various strategies that are seen to be workable in positive sustainability reinforcement in art. However, institutionalizing issues of sustainability into an elective concentration in many colleges is a surest way to promote this positive trend.

Corruption in Colombia Essay Example for Free

Corruption in Colombia Essay There has been a four-decade long conflict between government forces and anti-government groups, such as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia (FARC) who are funded by the drug trade, has escalated over the years. Since about 2002 the violence has decreased a slit amount because of the lack of the military and popular support necessary to overthrow the government. However these groups of insurgents have continued to attack civilians. Large areas around Columbia are under the revolutionary influence. By the end of 2006, more than 31,000 former governments’ officials had ceased to function as long as the formal organization the United Self Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC). When this occurred criminal groups arose and members included former government officials. The Colombia Government has made efforts to advance government control throughout the country. In order to understand how corruption is affecting Colombia, we must first examine concrete economical statistics. The Colombian Peso exchange rate depreciated 6. 64 percent against the US Dollar during the last 12 months. The Colombian Peso spot exchange rate specifies how much one currency, the USD, is currently worth in terms of the other, the COP. While the Colombian Peso spot exchange rate is quoted and exchanged in the same day, the Colombian Peso forward rate is quoted today but for delivery and payment on a specific future date. Colombian pesos (COP) per US dollar: 1,869. 9 (2010) 2,157. 6 (2009) 2,243. 6 (2008) 2,013. 8 (2007) 2,358. 6 (2006) According to the CIA World Factbook, Colombia is ranked 59th in exports and 54th in imports. In May of 2011 Colombia exports were worth 4704 Million USD and imports were worth 4931 Million USD. Their major exports are petroleum, coffee, coal, nickel, gold and, nontraditional exports. Their major imports are industrial and transportation equipment, consumer goods, chemicals, paper products, fuels, and electricity. The total population in Colombia was last reported at 45. 9 million people in 2010 from 16. 0 million in 1960, changing 187 percent during the last 50 years. Colombia has 0. 67 percent of the world? s total population which means that one person in every 150 people on the planet is a resident of Colombia. The unemployment rate in Columbia from 2000 until 2010 averaged at 14. 7 percent. The highest percentage was in January of 2001 when it was 20. 99 percent. The lowest percentage was in November of 2007 when it was 8. 91 percent. Labor force is the number of people employed plus the number unemployed but seeking work. The non-labor force is those who are not looking for work, those who are institutionalized, and those serving in the military. According to the World Bank, the Colombia Gross Domestic Product is worth 288 billion dollars or 0. 46% of the world economy. Colombias average GDP was 60. 55 billion dollars and reached the highest dollars in December of 2010. Colombia is a free market economy with major commercial and investment ties to The United States. Transition from a highly regulated economy has been underway for more than 15 years. Colombias average annual economic growth rate was of over 5% from 2002 to 2007. The inflation rate in Colombia was last reported at 3. 3 percent in August of 2011. Inflation rate refers to a general rise in prices measured against a standard level of purchasing power. The most well-known measures of Inflation are the CPI which measures consumer prices, and the GDP deflator, which measures inflation in the whole of the domestic economy. Corruption’s negative impact on Colombian Foreign Direct Investment is reflected by the poor image of Colombian government by its citizens. The Colombian government, although less developed and more corrupt, is structured similarly to the United States’ government. However unstable it may be, it is a republic and consists of three branches: executive, legislative and judicial. Also like the United States, Colombia is dominated by two major political parties, the Colombian Conservative Party and the Colombian Liberal Party. Because of the natural radicalism of the two parties, two major civil wars have resulted from their existence, The Thousand Days War and La Violencia. The Thousand Days War is a prime example of how the corruption of the Colombian government has made Foreign Direct Investment a very difficult achievement for Colombia. The Thousand Days War was a civil war fought between the Conservative Party of Colombia and the Liberal Party of Colombia, sparked by corruption. In 1898, Conservative Party member Manuel Antonio Sanclement, was elected president of Colombia. This was very controversial because it was believed that significant election fraud had made this possible. As Sanclement was an adamant Liberal Party oppose, the Colombian Liberal Party waged war. The war, which lasted 4 years, claimed an estimated 100,000 lives. As devastating of a loss as 100,000 people is, the worst outcome of The Thousand Days War may be that it did little to resolve the extreme differences between the Liberal and Conservative Parties of Colombia. The Thousand Days War was soon followed by a second civil war more commonly known as La Violencia. La Violencia was also a war founded on corruption. It was sparked by the assassination of the Liberal Party leader Jorge Eliecer Gaitan. After the assassination in 1948, Conservative Party leader Laureano Gomez, was the uncontested elected president in 1950. Under Gomez’s power, there was an increased rate of violence, specifically by the liberals of Colombia who were very upset about Gomez’s rise to power. Gomez was overthrown by a military coup led by General Gustavo Rojas Pinilpla in 1953. However, Rojas proved to be just as corrupt his predecessor and was soon overthrown by the Colombian military, with the support of both the Conservative and Liberal parties. La Violencia, a time properly named after and extreme period of violence and conflict, lasted from 1946 to 1957. Within that timespan it claimed an estimated 300,000 Colombian lives. The following chart shows the number of Colombian citizens who are murdered per 100,000 people by year. What is more concerning than its high rates, is that it continued to increase even after La Violencia. These extreme rates of murder and frequent conflicts are heavily dependent on the poor image citizens have of the Colombian government. There is a lack of trust in the Colombian government. Historically, governmental corruption is common practice in Colombia, just as it is a frequent occurrence that violent rebellions and civil wars take place in order to transfer power between the two political parties. This poor government infrastructure and lack of control allows corruption to run wild in Colombia making it a very difficult place for Foreign Direct Investment. This poor image of government in Colombia did not see much improvement after La Violencia. Another violent problem emerged with narco-terrorism. Colombia has become notorious for its cocaine production. In 2008, Colombia was the sources of 50% of the world’s cocaine. It is an industry which is very frequently held out violently, leading to what is known as narco-terrorism. In 1990, three presidential candidates were killed by narco-terrorists. With the rise of drug trafficking in Colombia, it appears that narco-terrorists have more control than the Colombian government. Although Colombian government has always struggled with corruption, there have recently been many signs of improvement towards a better country for Foreign Direct Investment. Within the past decade, several laws have been passed to weaken drug cartels and strengthen governmental control. From 2002 to 2008 Colombia has seen a decrease in many historically struggling areas. Its homicide rate dropped 44%, its kidnapping rates dropped 88%, its terrorist attacks dropped 79% and its attacks on country’s infrastructure dropped 60%. These tremendous improvements show an increase in governmental authority in Colombia. If Colombia can continue to improve in these areas and demonstrate that its government can have more control over its people, without corruption, it will become a much better candidate for Foreign Direct Investment. In August 2010, President Santos, introduced a legislation that would distribute industry incomes to Columbians who have lost their land due to violence. He also is trying to make improvements through domestic security. Columbia is third largest exporter of oil to the United States. Foreign direct investment from 2008 to 2009 went from $10 billion to $7. 2 billion. Even though records show that it has dropped $2. 8 billion, in 2010 it began to recover their losses through the oil sector. Because of their financial crisis the economy didn’t grow significant amount till 2010 then it grew 4. %. Before that the growth was a low percentage. With the challenges that Colombia’s faces it requires major improvement to sustain economic expansion. The outrageous amount of corruption in Colombia is hindering its economy and stopping it from becoming a safe and stable country. Although it is one of the oldest democracies in Latin America, Colombia has some of the most corrupt elections. An estimated 130,000 candidates are running for election at the local, regional, and national levels. 10% of these candidates have proven criminal records. About a third of their senate is currently under investigation for parapolitics and many of which are already in jail. The corrupt election are stopping Colombia from having a stable government which is stopping foreign investors from taking the risk of putting money into Columbia, meaning less jobs and poorer quality of life for the average Colombian. In 2005 the parapolitics scandal was uncovered and left the Colombian senate in chaos. The Colombian senate seats 102, and with 51 senators now being investigated and 29 in jail, they are virtually paralyzed. As each senator is arrested, it delays the agenda for legislation even more. Paramilitary leaders have confessed to hundreds of thousands of crimes including murders, abductions, rapes, narcotics, and extortion. They have also confessed to backing many politicians in an attempt to be protected outside of the law. Many members of the former president of Colombia, President Alvaro Uribe’s party were arrested for parapolitics showing the world how unstable the Colombian government is. One of the arrested politicians includes the president’s cousin Mario Uribe who has had very close ties to the president both family-wise and politically. This influenced the United States greatly and in 2007 a package of military aid destined for Colombia from the United States was blocked in the U. S. senate because of fear of election corruption. Colombia depends on the U. S. greatly, as it is number 3 in the world for U. S. military aid. The aid is used to assist in fighting the drug war and without it; more violence and corruption will take place. Paramilitary has a huge effect on the elections conducted in Columbia. There are around 20,000 paramilitary fighters in the country all growing from their creation in the 1980’s. In 2010 armed groups killed over two dozen candidates running for election and at the same time they invested large sums of money to fund their own candidates’ campaigns. Along with bribing people to run for them, these armed groups will also pay the public for individual votes. This can be as much as $40 per person in some places. Other times they will also use sheer military force to intimidate the public into voting for them. Many of the jailed parapoliticians have others running in their place as puppets while they are still in jail. Caracol news agency reported that 18 of the candidates in 2010 were â€Å"political front men† for ex-senators. There was an increase in the amount of women running for election which usually is considered a good thing. The truth is that the ones with the best chance for election were being backed by paramilitary families in an attempt to keep seats lost by jailed parapoliticians. The other big problem in Colombia its enormous drug trade and the negative effect it has on the economy. Columbia is the world’s largest cocaine producer and accounts for 43% of coca cultivation (the crop used to make cocaine). 0% of the cocaine found in the United States is Colombian. Combined, Colombian and Mexican drug cartels make an estimated $4. 6 billion exporting to the United States per year. Overall Columbia’s drug trade is about $10 billion / year which is equivalent to 25% of the countries legal exports. In 2008 81,000 hectares of land were being used for illegal coca cultivation. These are staggering numbers and makes you wonder, how is all of this being allowed to happen? If Colombia was not as corrupt as it is, this wouldn’t happen. Many of the drug lords use their influence and resources to pay off politicians, police, and military to turn a blind eye to their drug trade. Attempts have been made to stop this massive drug trafficking but so far it has only slowed it down. Colombia’s defense spending is now at $12 billion per year which is triple the average defense budget of other South American countries. Along with an increased defense budget, the United States has also committed an additional $6 billion since 2001 to help crackdown on the coca production. These are large sums of money that could be spent in other more productive ways. Such as, creating a better national infrastructure and creating jobs. $18 billion is a lot of money to invest in an economy, and currently they are losing all of that potential production because drugs are such a big problem. Drug trafficking and election corruption are both hurting the Colombian economy. Billions of dollars are being spent to stop the corruption but to this point there is still a great deal going on. In order for Colombia to have better production in a global economy, they must prove to the world they have a stable government, and reduce the risks associated with investing in them. Over the past few years, foreign direct investment in Colombia has been gradually increasing as their country has been fighting the corruption and violence that had been prominent. Some of the most advantageous areas for FDI are technology, fuels – such as coal, oil and natural gas and infrastructure. One reason that fuel is a wise choice for FDI is because Colombia has much more oil than is being used by its population: This excess would allow foreign companies access to enough oil to run more plants at a cheaper cost. Infrastructure is also important because Colombia’s current ease of transportation leaves much to be desired. If a company decided to invest in Colombia’s transportation, it would draw more investors in as said transportation costs decreased. The Colombian government has been actively working to encourage local companies to develop the roadway systems across the country to attempt to make Colombia more attractive to foreign investors. While several countries are investing in Colombia, the United States is the lead investor by over 30%. It is certainly beneficial to have a strong investor, however it can be problematic for one country to control so much of Colombia’s foreign direct investment. Having investments in Colombia is helpful for the United States because Colombia is a relatively close population of cheap labor without many of the highly-regulated working conditions that are found in more developed, less corrupt countries. As a surprisingly strong investor, Anguilla contributes 20% of Colombia’s foreign direct investment. For a country whose economy is largely based on tourism, it is interesting to see their commitment to a local country that has very little tourism because of its reputation for violence, drugs and corruption. Foreign direct investment has been increasing in the recent years due to Colombia’s higher regulation of corruption and desire to control the violence in the streets. Many businesses are beginning to trust Colombia to protect their product rights and property, although Colombia is still far from stable and dependable. While crime rates are slowly decreasing in Colombia, most businesses still avoid investing in Colombia because of its reputation for extensive riots and drug wars. If Colombia can decrease their reputation for instability and corruption, they have every opportunity to successfully draw in investment and provide a safer, better future for their citizens. As stated throughout this extensive research paper, corruption can cause a country many problems. One aspect that it affects the most is trade. Countries and corporations are less attracted to corrupt governments opposed to more stable governments. According to Mauro, who analyzed 94 corrupt countries, GDP increased by four percent with a decrease of 2. 38 on his teen point scale; GDP per capita increased by . percent. Mauro contributed to the book, The State in a Changing World, World Development Report 1997. Columbia has had corruption problems for an extended period of time now. Parts of the government have tried to stop such corruption but cooperation from all parts is needed to progress. In order for Columbia to progress they must start at the root. They must analyze what causes corruption and approaches other countries took to successfully start eliminating corruption. A few of the reasons corruption is practiced are to avoid penalties for illegal actions or to get around legal regulations. One overwhelming problem in Columbia, that is no secret to most, is drug trade. Drug cultivating and trade in Columbia is evident due to its geological location and ideal climate. In order to transport these drugs and have farms some drug lords may need to pay off government officials so they can â€Å"turn their eyes† on such activities. In this case both the drug lords and government officials benefit. Corruption will be hard to fight in Columbia due to the fact that the drug industry is estimated to be valued in the billions and whenever there is such a significant amount of money on the line, people are willing to do anything. Regardless of the reason, usually it is for an individual’s personal gain, companies included. Institutional corruption usually arises when government officials have a significant amount of power but little accountability. Most of the time, the officials must have their own financial incentives in order to partake in the corruption. The more control government officials have to regulate corporations the more corruption is likely to occur. If the probability of being caught or punished is low, people will tend to risk dealing with corruption. There are two approaches that must be taken to fight corruption, the first approach must be an institutional approach and the other must be a social approach. To begin an institutional reform towards corruption, Columbia must limit authority. Columbia has a questionable democratic government. With all the corruption going on, the polls could be altered. This is where the social approach comes into play later on. There most prominent branch is the executive branch. This supports the fact that Columbia’s authorities may have too much power. Privatization is believed to be able to reduce corruption by limiting the amount of government interaction with companies. In order to be successful there must be certain regulation put into place. The only problem with this approach is that it has already been taken by Columbia, and while it did improve corruption, it was not notable enough. Columbia has gone as far as privatizing its water supply and while it had many critics at first, it turned out to be a good decision by their part due to the correct regulations put into place. Other suggestions are to increase liberalization by reducing tariffs. This will lead to officials having less access to 1bribes. Competition among public services can also reduce corruption by eliminating monopoly type organizations. By increasing accountability, corruption can be decreased. Accountability includes stricter enforcement and easier detection mechanisms. Accountability can be increased through many ways. Freedom of information legislation can help. To better explain freedom of information legislation, and example would be the Ugandan government began posting prices for services and activities such as registering a car or starting a small business. This eliminates questionable pricing and increases transparency. Another tactic to increase transparency is to implement financial disclosure among government officials. This tactic makes government officials income and assets public. Some South American countries have already began this practice; countries such as Argentina, Brazil, and Chile. Government expenditures and income can also be made public for transparency purposes. This way money won’t go missing and if it does the people will know; this is known as an open budget process. Legislative oversight can benefit Columbia greatly in terms of eliminating corruption. Since Columbia must give more power to its legislative branch rather than its executive branch. A recent example has been one of Columbia’s neighbors, Brazil. The congressional impeachment of President Fernando Collor de Mello demonstrated the strength of the legislative branch. The Brazilian senate has also set up a special committee to investigate potential fraud in selling government bonds. Columbia’s senate should take initiative and also set up some sort of committee to investigate corruption charges. These methods won’t completely eliminate corruption and none will come close to even making an impact if it’s the only method used but if they are combined corruption and decrease considerably. An incentive to avoid corruption would be stricter sanction. By increasing the severity of the punishments people face a higher risk factor when participating in corrupt actions, thus leading them to think twice about their actions. Sanctions may include but are not limited to minimum sentences for taking part in corrupt activities or denying public services for any entity offering bribes, this includes people or companies. Columbia was already on somewhat of a right track when it comes to strengthening their judicial branch’s power. In 1991 Alfonso Valdivieso was appointed attorney general. In Colombia the Attorney General cannot be dismissed or reappointed and he is given investigatory powers. Valdivieso gained world recognition for prosecuting high ranking drug lords and government officials. I would recommend Columbia to ask Valdivieso for help, knowing that he is a reliable source when it comes to corruption. He can’t be Attorney General again but if special unit is formed to combat corruption, he is definitely a guy that should be taken in mind. This concludes possible ways to avoid and reduce corruption from an institutional view point, reducing corruption from a social approach is rather different. The way people are raised and their surroundings affect their views on many things including corruption. If children are raised in a corrupt environment, they will view it not only acceptable but almost necessary. It’s a top down effect where government officials and corporation leaders are at the top. They must set an example for the public to look down on corruption and not endorse it. Public Relations Campaigns can be put into effect to better inform people on the consequences and harm done by corruption that is not too clear. Campaigns can be executed through mass media, community activities or school programs. A few key points that should be emphasized are the effect that corruption has on things such as public services, investments, and inequality. All of these aspects are affected in a negative way. Columbia’s unemployment rate is 11. 8% and its Gini index is 58. 5. These numbers could improve with by decreasing corruption but this fact isn’t evident to most of the population. If people feel like they have a say in the situation and can make a change, they will be more actively supportive. These campaigns should aim towards making people feel as if every little bit of help counts. In Argentina a non-government organization was formed to inform the public about corruption. The organization consists of television and radio ads. Another positive use of media to combat corruption is investigative journalism. Investigative journalism increase transparency greatly. It helps uncover corrupt officials and acts. The truth is what drives investigative journalism rather than just a story. Investigative journalism poses a threat of being exposed towards anyone that is participating in corrupt acts. It is a risky job due to the fact that people being uncovered may have a lot of power. Workshops should be set up to train such journalist. Countries such as Uganda and Tanzania have just that. In a country like Colombia with all the guerilla forces and drug cartels, this is a very important part to investigative journalism. Journalist run the risk of being targeted, so they must be careful and smart in the ways they go about reporting and accessing their findings. Lastly Columbia could search for outside help. Help can come from individual countries or organizations. Organizations such as the United Nations and the World Bank could offer guidelines to help. Both organizations are pretty much powerless but they can help establish treaties that could improve anti-corruption efforts. Individual countries that wish to invest in Columbia could also take initiative and further influence Columbian anti-corruption movements. To recap corruption is mostly if not solely negative towards Columbia’s economic development. It makes Columbia look risky to outside investors hoping to make a Federal Direct Investment. Investors prefer stability rather than turmoil. Due to its geological position, Columbia has faced drug problems for a few decades now. In order to transport these drugs and grow them, bribery and corruption is needed. Columbian citizens and officials should notice that corruptions cons outweigh the pros when it comes to the Columbian economy as a whole. Officials must lead by example and the power of the executive branch should be reduced.

History of Tobacco Laws

History of Tobacco Laws Coffins of Black In 1775, Percivall Pott, a surgeon at St. Bartholomews Hospital in England, noticed a marked rise in cases of scrotal cancer in his clinic. His patients were mostly chimney sweeps, who spent a lot of time in contact with grime and ash. He noted that the minute invisible particle of soot could be found under their skin for days, and that scrotal cancer bust out of a superficial skin wound called a soot wart. Based on these observations, Pitt suspected that it was the chimney soot that caused the scrotal cancers. That would mean that the cancer was potentially preventable. But removing the carcinogen was perhaps difficult to achieve. But with the embarrassing plight of chimney sweeps exposed, social reformers sought to create laws to regulate the occupation. The Chimney Sweepers Act was passed in 1788 to prevent master sweeps from using children under eight. In 1834, the age was increased to fourteen. By 1875, the use of young climbing boys was forbidden. In 1761, an amateur scientist in London, John Hill, claimed that he had found one carcinogen tabacco could cause lip, mouth, and throat cancer. In England, tobacco was rapidly escalating into a national addiction. Cigarette smoking soon spread through Europe and across the Atlantic to the United States. As cigarette consumption became a national addiction, it would be difficult to discern an association with cancer. The Emperors Nylon Stockings In the United Kingdom, government statisticians alerted the Ministry of Health in January 1947 that an unexpected epidemic of lung cancer was emerging in the country: Lung cancer morbidity had increased fifteen-fold in the prior two decades. In February, the ministry asked the Medical Research Council to organize a conference of experts to study this inexplicable rise of lung cancer rates and to find the cause. The experts at the conference pointed to every breathable form of toxin except cigarette smoke. Without any consensus, the council appointed Austin Bradford Hill, an eminent biostatistician, to devise a systematic study to identify the risk factor for lung cancer. Hill recruited Richard Doll, a 36-year-old medical researcher who had no experience in performing a study of this scale. *** In the United States, a medical student name Ernst Wynder encountered a case of 42-year-old man who died of cancer of the airways of the lung. The man was a smoker with tar-stained bronchi and soot-blackened lungs. Wynder had never seen such a case before, so he applied to the medical school for money to study the connection between smoking and lung cancer. But he was bluntly told that the effort would be futile. He wrote to the U.S. Surgeon General, but was told that he could prove nothing. So Wynder approached his mentor Evarts Graham, the great heart surgeon in St Louis. Graham was a heavy smoker and didnt believe the connection between cancer and smoking. But he agreed to help Wynder with the study in part to disprove the link and lay the issue at rest. The Case-Control Studies In St Louis, Wynder and Graham followed a simple method. They recruited a group of lung cancer patients and a control group without cancer and asked them about their smoking habits. They used smokers to nonsmokers ratio within each group to determine the smoking-cancer connection. In the UK, Doll and Hill followed a similar method in their study. They asked social workers in the hospital to interview the two groups of patients in and around London. To counteract biases, they included other questions such as how often they eat fried fish into the survey. By May 1, 1948, the result of their study was: The one and only statistical association with lung cancer was cigarette smoking. They published their study in September 1956. Meanwhile, Wynder and Graham in St Louis had also arrived at the same conclusion. The published their studies a few months earlier. The Prospective Cohort Study It might appear that Doll, Hill, Wynder and Graham proved the link between lung cancer and smoking. But they had proved something else. In a case-control study, the risk is estimated post hoc by asking lung cancer patients whether they had smoked. The interviewer could have unconsciously probed lung cancer patients about their smoking habits more aggressively than control group. In the early 1940s, an Oxford geneticist named Edmund Ford faced a similar notion. The solution was to follow a cohort to capture the change over time. Doll and Hill followed Fords work with deep interest. There was a centralized registry of all doctors in Britain that could be used for a cohort study. Every time a doctor in the registry died, the registrar was noticed with a detail description of the cause of death. On October 31, 1951, Doll and Hill sent out survey letters to about 60,000 doctors. About 41,000 of them responded. Doll and Hill used the data to create a master list, dividing it into smokers and nonsmokers. Each time a death was reported, they found out the cause of death from the registrars office. Between October 1951 and March 1954, 789 deaths were reported, and 36 were attributed to lung cancer. All these 36 deaths had occurred in the smokers category, showing a strong correlation between lung cancer and cigarette smoking. A thief in the Night In 1956, the percentage of smokers in the US adult population had reached an all-time peak of 45 percent. Cigarette sales had climbed to stratospheric heights and the tobacco industry had transformed their advertising by targeting their advertising to selected segments of the population. By the early 1960s, an average American consumed eleven cigarettes per day, nearly one for each waking hour. In the mid-1950s, public health organizations in America were undisturbed by the link between tobacco and cancer. But the tobacco industry was worried that the link would scare consumers away. In 1953, three years before Dolls prospective study was public, the heads of several tobacco companies met in New York to prepare a counterattack. They saturated the news media in 1954 with an advertisement titled A Frank Statement, obfuscating facts and creating doubts about the connection between lung cancer and tobacco. They had already formed a committee called Tobacco Industry Research Committee (TIRC) to act as an intermediary between the hostile academy, the embattled tobacco industry, and the confused consumer. The director of the committee was Clarence Cook Little, who the Laskerites had deposed as president of ASCC. Little was a strong proponent that lung cancer was hereditary. Studies had shown a strong correlation between smoking and lung cancer. But correlation, Little argued, could not be equated with cause. To counter that argument, Bradford Hill prepared a list of nine criteria that could prove a causal relationship. No single item in that list proved causality, but scientists could pick criteria from the list to strengthen or weaken the causal relationship. In the February 1957, Evart Graham died from bilateral bronchogenic carcinoma. Two weeks before he died, Graham wrote to his friend Alton Ochsner: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦bilateral bronchogenic carcinoma sneaked up on me like a thief in the nightà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦You know I quit smoking more than five years ago, but the trouble is that I smoked for 50 years. In 1954, in a book entitled Smoking and Cancer, Graham had wondered whether it was time for the US Public Health Service to at least issue a statement of warning. A Statement of Warning In the summer of 1963, a team of three men visited the laboratory of Oscar Auerbach in East Orange, New Jersey. Oscar Auerbach was a lung pathologist who believed that cancer grew from a precursor lesion precancer to its full-blown form slowly, and methodically, over a long period of time. Long before lung cancer became symptomatic, he found, the lung tissues contained layers of precancerous lesions in various stages of development. He had recently completed a monumental study comparing lung specimens of nonsmokers and smokers, which was considered a landmark in the understanding of the genesis of lung cancer. The three visitors were William Cochran, Peter Hamill, and Emmanuel Farber. They were three of the ten-member advisory committee appointed by the US surgeon general. The   mandate (of the committee) was to review the evidence connecting tobacco to cancer so that the surgeon general could issue an official report. US Surgeon Generals Report In 1961, the American Cancer Society, the National Tuberculosis Association and the American Heart Association had sent a joint letter to President Kennedy urging him to appoint a national commission to investigate the link between tobacco and cancer. Kennedy assigned it to his surgeon general, Luther Terry. Terry appointed ten members to his advisory committee. Each member brought insight to a unique piece of the puzzle. Piece by piece, a consistent picture emerged. The committee found the relationship between smoking and lung cancer was one of the strongest in history. Luther Terry released his 387-page report on January 11, 1964. The report was released on a Saturday in part to minimize its effect on the stock market. It was front page news and a leading story on every television and radio stations in the United States and abroad. The FTC Action The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) was a federal agency whose mandate was to regulate advertisements and claims made by various products. Given the link between cigarettes and cancer, as acknowledged by the surgeon generals report, the FTC recommended that cigarette makers would need to acknowledge this directly in advertising their products. The FTC recommended to imprint the message into the product itself. Cigarette packages and all advertisements were to be labeled with Caution: Cigarette Smoking Is Dangerous to Health. It May Cause Death from Cancer and Other Disease. The proposed action from the FTC spread panic through the tobacco industry. Rather than being regulated by the FTC, the tobacco industry voluntarily requested regulation by Congress. In Congress, the FTCs recommendation was diluted as it changed hands from hearing to hearing, leading to an amended bill called the Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act (FCLAA) of 1965. It changed the FTCs warning label to Caution: Cigarette smoking may be hazardous to your health. The words cancer, cause, and deaths were removed from the original label. Battle on Cigarette Advertising In late 1966, a young attorney named John Banzhaf asked a local television station to provide airtime for anti-smoking announcements. The station refused. In the summer of 1967, Banzhaf filed a complaint with the FCC. The FCCs fairness doctrine required public media to provide free air time to opposing viewpoints on controversial issues. The FCC announced responded that its fairness doctrine applied to the request for anti-smoking announcements. With the FTC consent, Banzhaf sued the TV station. The suit went to trial in 1968. The court ruled that proportional airtime had to be given to pro-tobacco and anti-tobacco advertising. In February 1969, the FCC announced that they would rigorously police the proportional air time clause.   A barrage of anti-smoking advertisements appeared on television. In late 1970, faced with the daily brunt of negative publicity, tobacco manufacturers voluntarily withdrew cigarette advertising from broadcast media. Lawsuits Against Tobacco Manufacturers Rose Cipollone started smoking when she was a teenager in 1942. She tried to quit, but relapsed later with greater dependency. In her quest for the safe cigarette, she had switched brands and tried new filters periodically. In 1981, Cipollone was diagnosed with lung cancer. By August 1983, the cancer metastasized all over her body. She started chemotherapy, but had a poor response. She died on October 21, 1984 at age 58. Marc Edell, a New Jersey attorney, heard of Cipollones diagnosis in the summer of 1983. He sued for the Cipollones against three tobacco manufacturers whose products Rose had used Liggette, Lorillard, and Philip Morris. In previous lawsuits against the tobacco companies, the tobacco industry had all declared victory. Edell acknowledged that Rose Cipollone had read the warning labels and knew of the risks of smoking. But what matter was what the cigarette manufacturers knew, and how much of the cancer risk they had revealed to consumers. Edell asked the courts for unprecedented access to the internal files of the three tobacco companies. These documents showed that the tobacco companies knew smoking was linked to cancer, and the struggles within the industry to conceal the risks. In 1987, after four long years, the court decided that Rose Cipollone was 80 percent at fault. Only Liggett was liable for the remaining 20 percent, as Rose Cipollone smoked their cigarettes before the 1966 warning labels. Lorillard and Philip Morris got off without punishment. The jury awarded $400,000 in damages to Antonio Cipollone. Lawsuits by the States In 1994, Mississippi was the first state to sue the tobacco industry to recover its public healthcare outlays linked to smoking. Several other states soon followed. Faced with the prospect of defending multiple actions nationwide, the four largest cigarette makers proposed a global agreement in June 1997. In 1998, 46 states signed the Master Settlement Agreement with the four companies. Since 1998, an additional 47 cigarette makers have joined the agreement, making it one of the largest liability settlements in the United States.

Response to Putins Way :: essays research papers

Putin’s Way After the fall of communism and the advent of democracy, the Soviet constitution was amended to delete the provision that the CPSU was the "leading and guiding" force in the political system. As a result, many political groups began to operate more openly in Russia. The constitution of 1993 guarantees further Russians' right to a multiparty system. Despite that â€Å"the Duma that results [today] is a democrat’s nightmare: three parties whose only ideologies are an almost slavish loyalty to President Vladimir Putin and varying degrees of nationalism, plus one made of the dregs of seven decades of totalitarian rule.† Putin’s Way examines why the â€Å"middle class did not vote as they were meant to.† In 1991, the majority of Russian people had the opportunity to cast a ballot that would truly be counted. The ballot allowed for the people to choose between Yabloko, the social-democrats, versus the Union of Right Forces (SPS), â€Å"the self-appointed guardians of Russian liberalism.† But, in the 2003 lower house elections, neither Yabloko nor the SPS received the 5% needed to get their party-list candidates into the Duma, the lower house. However, the â€Å"Liberal-Democrats,† an ultra-nationalist party led by Vladimir Zhirinovsky doubled their vote over the last election in 1999. In second place, Motherland, â€Å"a Kremlin-backed party,† led by ex-communist Sergei Glazyev, and modern nationalist, Dmitry Rogozin, won 12.7% of the vote. United Russia, the People’s Party, came in first place, winning 19 single-mandate seats and occupying 222 seats, nearly half of the seats in the Duma. The result of the 2003 elections: â€Å"three parties whose only ide ologies are an almost slavish loyalty to President Vladimir Putin and varying degrees of nationalism.† Having failed to amass votes, for the next few years, the two liberal parties will have nearly negligible influence. Putin’s Way provides a number of reasons for the unfortunate results of the election and for why the people voted the way they did. First, national/state run TV stations ignored the law that requires equal media coverage for all candidates. In secluded areas, local bosses forced government workers forced to campaign, threatening their jobs. Secondly, Yabloko and the SPS failed to raise topics such as healthy care and education, â€Å"unpopular with most Russians, but something that the newly affluent might agree with.† Thirdly, when democracy hit town, a vast separation was created between the haves and the have-nots. But, â€Å"the fact that economic growth under Mr.

Children and the Psychological Price of Overachievement :: Parents Parenting Argumentative Essays

Children and the Psychological Price of Overachievement The issue of whether parents are too hard on their kids has been debatable for years. The subject started to present itself more as a problem when the Jon Bennet Ramsey case happened. The performing arts are where the problem of â€Å"pressure parents† seems to be the most prevalent and problematic. When does being there for the children become too much? When does â€Å"what’s best for the children† become the worst possible thing for the children? In the dance world, what goes on backstage to a performer is masked by the way the dancer carries them self on stage. The pressure that comes from a parent, particularly a mother, can be almost unbearable to a performer. Some parents try too hard to give to their kids what they could not or did not have when they were young. Parents try to relive their dreams of being the dancer or prima ballerina through their daughters and sons. Parents should not push their children to extremes. In the article, â€Å" Psychological Price of Overachievement,† by USA Today, they say that there are parents who push their kids too far. They tell their audience, parents and adults, the pressures and the outcomes of the pressures that can be put on the children from their parents. The article is trying to provoke thought in the audience to have them re-evaluate their parenting methods or what will be their parenting methods. The main concern is the kids in this case. The pressure sometimes builds so high that the dancer becomes unhappy and feels the need to do whatever it is to keep their parents happy. This can include developing an eating disorder, such as bulimia, or depression. As a dancer I saw all of these things first hand. Being backstage all that is heard is the voices of the few parents who are just telling their kids over and over that they need to be the best and perform the best out of the whole group of 100 or more people. When the parents would finally leave, many of the girls backstage with me would get so nervous and anxious about their performance and pleasing their parents that they would then go vomit in the bathroom.

Bonds and The Bond Market Essay -- essays papers

Bonds and The Bond Market Given today's uncertain economy, many people are taking time to examine various options for their financial future. Different types of investments are investigated and bonds are one of the more popular choices considered. Many of the same people who talk about investing in bonds, however, do not fully understand them nor where they place in the economy. Many individuals believe that they should simply buy a bond and wait until it matures before cashing it in. These people fail to realize that they may be losing a lot of money due to the fluctuation of bond prices. At some point it may be more profitable for them to sell their bond than to keep it until the payment date is reached. There are many people who do not understand what bonds really are. A bond is an agreement between two separate entities. One of these bodies gives, to the other, use of their money for a period of time and, in return, may receive a "bond". The bond issuer agrees to a fixed rate of return which he will pay the supporting person or business. This fixed rate of return is an amount, in percentages, which is paid at regular intervals until some future specified time ( the "maturity date"). Upon reaching the maturity date, one's original investment is returned to them. As previously mentioned, bonds are one of the more popular types of financial investment in today's economy. There are many reasons why people invest in bonds. For example, if one chooses a stable and profitable bond, it will provide a steady source of income through interest payments during the lifetime of the bond. As well, the risk when investing in a bond is considerably less than for most other forms of investment. The bond does not, for instance, experience the volatility of a stock on the stock market, like many other forms of investment do. Also, in instances where the issuer fails to pay the principal amount back to the bond holder, legal recourse is available. Furthermore, in cases of bankruptcy within large corporations with stock holders, bond holders take priority and are ... ...onsequently the prices of previously purchased bonds decrease. If you are able to hold onto your bond until the maturity date is reached, temporary changes in interest rates will not affect your financial investment; however, if you need to sell the bond before the marked maturity date, you might have to accept LESS than what you paid for it. This volatility can work to your advantage too, because it is possible that your bond could be worth more at the time you decide to sell. This is why it is important to keep up to date on bond prices. You may be able to make money by simply selling your bond before it's maturity date. In conclusion, I would suggest that bonds are a wise venue for anybody wanting to financially invest in different corporations or governments. I would caution, however that when selecting a bond, one should seek the guidance of an experienced investor. By choosing a bond that is right for you and your lifestyle, you have the potential of increasing your profits greatly and going home wealthier and happier.

Implicit cognition Essay

Implicit cognition refers to internal influences that affect an individual’s behaviours. The identifying feature of implicit cognition is that an individual’s past experiences can influence their judgements in   fashion that the individual is not introspectively aware of – i.e. the person is not conscious of the fact that the experiences have affected his/her perceptions in such a way. (Greenwald & Banaji, pg 4; 1995) Evidence supports the view that social behaviour and attitudes in particular are often based largely on unconscious attitudes, for example an individual’s attitudes towards a specific ethnic group are prone to be implicitly influenced. Implicit attitudes are commonly thought to mainly effect cognitive bias in a negative way (e.g. racism), however Edward Thorndike (1920) named the ‘halo effect’, upon observing that personality ratings showed a tendency for positive attributes to be associated with other positive attributes more than they should be (Greenwald & Banaji, pg 9; 1995). A great amount of ‘halo effect’ research has been based on using physical attractiveness as the objectively irrelevant attribute that influences perception of other characteristics. Studies have shown that attractive people are judged to possess greater social skills as well as being more successful in employment (Dion, Berscheid & Walster; 1972). As previously mentioned implicit cognition is caused by past experiences influencing judgement in ways that the individual is not introspectively aware, thus it is imperative to use indirect measures to gauge an individual’s implicit attitudes. The distinction between direct and indirect measures depends on the relationship between what the subject is informed about the purpose of a measure and what the researcher chooses to interpret from the subject’s response to the measure (Greenwald & Banaji, pg 8; 1995) – the researcher will inform the subject that one attribute is being measured when in fact the researcher will interpret information about another attribute based on the subjects response to the measure. It is necessary to use indirect measures because implicit attitudes are by definition attitudes that an individual is unable to report as they are unaware of their existence i.e. implicit attitudes are beyond an individual’s introspective limits. For the purpose of this essay I have chosen to examine the reaction time based ‘Implicit Association Test’ (IAT) and Facial Electromyography (fEMG) which is based on physiological measurement. Implicit attitudes result in projections of behaviour or judgments that are under the control of automatically activated evaluation, without the actor’s awareness of that causation. The IAT procedure seeks to measure implicit attitudes by measuring their underlying automatic evaluation. A beneficial property of the IAT is that it may resist individuals masking their attitudes using self presentation strategies (e.g. providing false responses in order to gain social acceptance or avoid criticism). In short, the IAT may reveal attitudes and other automatic associations even or those who prefer not to express those attitudes (Greenwald et al, pg 1464-5; 1998). The IAT is performed over a series of five stages; the first stage is called ‘Target Concept Discrimination’ in this stage the target concept is introduced and the subject is instructed to simply pair the stimuli with its corresponding concept, for example a study on implicit attitudes towards sexual preference (Project Implicit – an online database of IATs offering the test to the public, spearheaded by Dr Anthony Greenwald, Dr Brian Nosek and Dr Maharin Banaji) presents the subject with the task concepts ‘gay’ and ‘straight’, the subject is then presented with images displaying gay or straight couples or words such as homosexual and heterosexual. When the stimulus appears on screen the subject pairs it with the corresponding category – picture of a man and wife pairs with straight concept. The next stage in the IAT is ‘Associated Attribute Discrimination’ as previously this stage is presented as a two- category discrimination task. The subject is asked to pair words such as happiness, love, agony, strife with the corresponding attributes good and bad according to which attribute best suits their meaning. Following the introduction to the ‘Target Concept Discrimination’ and to the ‘Associates Attribute Dimension’, the two are amalgamated in the third stage –i.e. gay and good on one side of the screen and straight and bad on the other or vice versa. During this stage stimuli for target and attribute discriminations appear on alternate trials. For example’ a picture of a homosexual couple would be shown followed by the word ‘famine’.   As previously the subject pairs the stimuli with their matching category. The fourth stage consists of reversing the target concepts position in the experiment and the final stage of the experiment combines the ‘Reversed Target Concept Discrimination’ with attribute discrimination. For example the gay concept is now on the same side of the screen as bad. The subject is then presented with alternating stimuli and pairs them with the appropriate concept or attribute. If the target concepts are differentially associated with the attribute dimension, the subject should find one of the combined task (either the third stage or the fifth stage) to be more difficult than the other- this is shown in the subjects reaction time; longer reaction times suggest the subject has higher difficulty pairing an attribute with a concept. The measure of the difference in difficulty is used to provide the measure of implicit attitudinal difference between the target categories (Greenwald et al, pg 1465-6; 1998). In the example of implicit attitudes towards sexual preference, it should be easier to complete the task when straight is combined with good if there is a stronger association between heterosexuals and good meanings than between homosexuals and good meaning, thus showing an implicit attitude of bias towards heterosexuals. Also it is common to use training stages before each of the combined discrimination stages to reduce the effects the order of the combined discrimination tasks has on the IAT results. Since the IAT was first described by Dr. Anthony Greenwald et al in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in 1998 it has grown exponentially in popularity, having been used in over 300 published studies and cited in over 800 articles (Azar, 2008). Among the reasons for the success of the IAT are its relative ease of use, the large effect sizes it creates, its high level of adaptability and its resistance to subject’s faking their responses. To show the validity of the IAT Greenway et al (1998) used the classical known-groups validity measure. This measure consists of using groups whom are known previous to the experiment to differ regarding the construct of interest. Greenwald et al used Americans of Korean and Japanese descent to test the validity of the IAT. The participants had to classify positive and negative words along with typical Korean and Japanese names in the combined discrimination stage, as expected the IAT results showed that individuals of Korean or Japanese descent were prone to hold mutually negative implicit attitudes towards the other ethnicity (Banse et al pg 146; 2001). It has been disputed that the reason for these IAT results is at least partially based on ethnic groups being more familiar with names associated with in their own group, i.e. positive IAT scores may reflect familiarity more so than sympathy with their own ethnic group. Another commonly expressed concern with the internal validity of the IAT is the order in which the combined discrimination tasks appear. Greenwald et al (1998) expressed that all other thing being equal, strengths of associations used in the first of the IAT’s two combined tasks had a tendency to be stronger than those used in the second combined task. However, in a subsequent study Nosek et al (2005) showed that an increase in the length of the training stages before each of the combined discrimination stages can result the order having less of an effect on the IAT scores. If the pairing order effect is due to the interference caused by learning and becoming accustomed to an initial response set and subsequently needing to replace it with a new response set, then extra practice with the new response set may act to reduce this effect. (Nosek et al, pg 177; 2005). Furthermore the IAT is designed that the order of the combined discrimination task be random.

Article Analysis Week 1 Economics 365

Week One Article Analysis ECO/365 January 16, 2012 Week One Article Analysis David Colander defines economics as â€Å"the study of how human beings coordinate their wants and desires, given the decision-making mechanisms, social customs, and political realities of the society† (Colander, 2010, p. 4). Coordination in this definition refers to production content, method, recipients, and even quantity. To think like an economist one must analyze every situation by comparing the costs and benefits and make any decisions based on those findings (Colander, 2010). The study of microeconomics zeroes in on the individual and analyzes how economic forces affect the choices he or she makes. Economic forces will ensure that what people want and will pay to get will match what is available. This is the concept of supply and demand. If the prices are such that people are not willing to pay it to obtain an item or service, they will choose to buy less of it, not buy it, or buy a substitute. This is the working of the law of demand. The price affects both supply and demand. When prices increase, the demand decreases, and when prices decrease, the demand increases. In the law of supply, however, if prices increase, individuals and companies will increase the supply because the opportunity cost of not producing the product rises with the price (Colander, 2010). There are factors other than price that can lead to changes in supply as well as changes in demand. These could be government policies, taxes, income, social norms or expectations, political forces, tastes, and prices of other goods, to name a few. Four Steady Trends In the Harvard Business Review, Beinhocker, Davis, and Mendoca discuss 10 trends emerging in this economy. They consist of four trends that are steady, five that are accelerating, and one that is decelerating (Beinhocker, Davis, & Mendonca, 2009). The four steady trends can be summarized as a scarcity of resources, the science of management, the economic growth of Asia, and progress in technological innovation (Beinhocker et al. , 2009). Because of the recession investment in the production of oil has been limited, and the prices on that which is available has climbed steadily over the last few years. Water resources are also seeing a strain because of the growth in population, industrialization, and changes in climate. The use of advanced quantitative tools to make managerial decisions continues to be a steady trend. Companies will continue to make decisions through analytical methods using data and computing rather than gut instinct as research has proven it to be effective. Asian countries have shown significant growth in modern technology, industrial practices, and organizational methods. Although the current recession has slowed the economic growth in Asia, it has not stopped it, and they continue to show remarkable development within their economy. The final trend that remains steady in their outline is the use of research and development. Companies will continue to budget for research and development to improve upon processes and increase proficiency. The payoff for this practice is too large for companies to ignore. Five Accelerating Trends Beinhocker et al. (2009) determined the five trends that are accelerating as loss of trust in business, government involvement in business, changing consumer-spending habits, reshaping of industries, and an unstable price environment. Companies are concerned with the decline of trust citizens have expresses toward corporations. This type of environment can make doing business difficult and more expensive. It is more difficult for businesses to attract and retain customers and talent. It also can lead to negative publicity or even boycotts. Leaders in corporate America need to demonstrate their understanding of citizens’ concerns relating to high-level compensation within their organizations, and their treatment of staff facing layoffs, among other things. Government has begun playing a much larger role in businesses since the turn in the economy started. Policy makers are taking part in decision-making processes previously conducted by managers and officers on the board. As in the past, when government becomes involved it most likely will mean a permanent change in its role (Beinhocker, Davis, & Mendonca, 2009). The change in consumption patterns is due to the fact that the 80’s and 90’s saw high consumption by baby-boomers financing their purchases. As the recession began the boomers faced retirement buried nder large amounts of debt. This easily brought buying to a halt and with the aging population and depleted savings it will be a more slowly rise back to normal patterns. All industries are generally affected by a recession. The trend outlined here is that businesses will continue to reshape themselves during these times at an even higher rate. Taking advantage of opportunities that become present can reshape a busin ess’s competitive environment and give them an advantage in this economy. The final accelerated trend reviewed is the pattern of price instability. Over the past thirty years companies grew to expect an overall steady price environment. This is no longer the case. The article suggests that â€Å"rather than trying to accurately forecast inflation or deflation – an impossible task – companies should focus on how they might manage price instability† (Beinhocker et al. , 2009 p. 60). They recommend reviewing contracts with suppliers, wage agreements, policies on pricing, and hedging strategies to locate any dangers to the company in this area. Companies should make it a priority to refine their purchasing practices. The Single Decelerating Trend The final trend outlined in the article is the decelerating trend of globalization. Globalization seemed secure before the recession; however, some aspects of this trend are now questionable. Although the globalization of goods and services may slow for a period because of a decline in international trade and demand, it will not reverse entirely. The globalization of talent will also continue. Financial globalization is the area of most concern to strategists and is less likely to continue at its previous rate. It is suggested that companies test their business models under various globalization scenarios to uncover situations that may arise with tariffs, capital constraints, or restrictions on the movement of people. These are all very real possibilities outside of our country and help to explain the deceleration in the trend of globalization. References Beinhocker, E. , Davis, I. , & Mendonca, L. (2009, July). The 10 trends you have to watch. Harvard Business Review, 87(7/8), 55-60. Retrieved from http://www. hbr. org Colander, D. C. (2010). Economics (8th ed. ). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

The “Steady” Person: A look into my own world

People talk a lot about personality or behavior as if it’s such an uncomplicated and unfussy concept, but they end up having difficulty defining it when asked. They are apt to say that it (behavior or personality in general) is something a person â€Å"has. † They describe the behavioral components of particular people in words like â€Å"friendly,† â€Å"nice,† â€Å"forceful,† or â€Å"aggressive,† to paint a picture of what they mean by the term and as a result end, instead, in vague descriptions of how a person usually behaves with other people.On the other hand, when we base our descriptions on concrete and observable actions that people commonly do or adapt, we come up with what experts call as â€Å"behavioral profile. † There are different styles of behavior as well as there are no right and wrong profile. When we come up with correct profiling, the expected result is that we develop ways of getting to know a more concise and a ccurate picture of ourselves, or people in general. Personality is more than poise, charm, or physical appearance. It includes habits, attitudes, and all the physical, emotional, social, religious and moral aspects that a person possesses.However, to be more precise, the explicit behavioral styles covered in the course, perhaps, best captivate an individual’s personality and how he/she is understood. With the different behavioral styles, an overall pattern of various characteristics is seen. Like a â€Å"psychograph,† a person’s profile is pulled together and at a glance, the individual can be compared with other people in terms of relative strengths and weaknesses. Discussion As a person possessing the characteristics given under the Steadiness Style category, I know and accept that this kind of profile has its strong and weak points.People with this behavioral style, working in the sphere of influence or organization they are placed at present, with the distin ctive blind spots commonly tied with this behavior, will (in spite of its comeliness) also experience certain setbacks, especially if the â€Å"weaknesses† of this behavior are left unaddressed. Strengths of Steadiness Style People under the profile of Steadiness Style are found to be demonstrative, sympathetic, helpful, compassionate, and caring. Unlike the other behavioral styles, these descriptions are common to someone who enjoys people and takes pleasure in working directly with the concerns of individual persons.This is my type. Most of my colleagues and clients find me pleasant. They observe and appreciate the positive traits (strengths) of my â€Å"style. † I have the ear to listen to whatever people would want to say or express. I am naturally a very loyal friend and therefore can be trusted. For me, it is not difficult to work with different people, and thus, I am good at working in a team. My co-workers easily relate to me as we do our work together. Our tas ks in the office are often expedited because of the mutual support we give each other.The positive atmosphere or lack of it in certain places, I observe, is due to different styles, or rather, to the many weaknesses of other behavioral styles. My type of behavior createsâ€Å"lightness† in ambiance, for it is more of other-centered type. It seeks to help and understand. Steadiness Styles go along with others well even when they find certain â€Å"traits† in others which are disagreeable. It is always important to keep one’s composure and to keep the boat calmly sailing. Because of this optimistic outlook that S Style has, people tend to respond in like manner. It begets the same trust, same sympathy, and same support.Weaknesses of Steadiness Style As I have mentioned above, although this behavioral style has its strengths, it also has its weaknesses. In my case, I do not want to disturb the regularity of the condition of my world. I do not want to do things that will somehow upset the status quo. This, I believe, is the main weakness of Steadiness Style. All of the good characteristics of this style might be attributable to this same weakness. In other words, the good points which make Steadiness Style attractive are actually, or may actually be, its way to compensate for its main weakness.From this fear of instability proceeds coping mechanisms which are likeable traits that can actually win people. One of the weaknesses of my style is the fear of risks. Because I do not want to face an unknown future, my tendency is to maintain the security of the present. I do not want to impose certain changes, even when it is necessary, for fear of failure. I am distressed with the prospect of disruptions in my work. If ever there are necessary and inevitable changes that must be taken, I must think them through, create certain schemes/plans, and assimilate the inescapable changes into my world.Steady Style people have difficulty coping with unexpecte d distractions and therefore must always endeavor to maintain poise, constancy, and equilibrium. Another weakness attributable to person with S Style is his/her slowness in decision making. I could not decide alone. I want to include other people – my colleagues – in any decision that needs to be done. To involve people in decision-making process is in itself cannot be called a weakness. There are times when opinions or expertise of others need to be sought to arrive at a more accurate diagnosis of the real situation; these are times when suggestions and advices are priceless.However, to be held back from a crucial and necessary decision, merely because of fear of implementing necessary steps that might be unpopular in initial stages but beneficial in the long haul, is indecisiveness. It is a weakness which I find interwoven with all the good peculiarities of the Steady type. Conclusion Although there might be more â€Å"strengths† or â€Å"weaknesses† at tributable to Steadiness Style, what have been discussed here in this paper is enough to guide and enable one to understand this type of behavior.A systematic profiling of behaviors is designed to assist anybody – employees and employers/managers alike – to gain a better understanding of the differences inherent in different behavioral styles, and so be able, as a result, to work proficiently with other people who are framed with diverse styles of behavior. Remember, there is/are no right and wrong profile/s. Each behavioral profile is distinct and has its combined strengths and weaknesses. Our different styles are just statements of our uniqueness/distinctives on how we opt to do things.When understood properly, these differences of styles can be utilized to achieve excellent ends. If, on the other hand, this crucial understanding of behavioral types is bypassed, it creates a myriad of otherwise preventable problems. It is important that â€Å"blind spots† be p ut into light as in the case of Steadiness Style treated in this paper. It’s difficult to think of this â€Å"type† as having negative sides. According to studies, it is of the four styles, the most people-oriented. How could such a style retain with it bad qualities when it appears to be so â€Å"selfless† in nature?I have given the answers to the question when I pointed out the weaknesses of this behavioral style. With the understanding then that is gained through the discussion in this paper, the hope and prospect of the writer is better working relations with others who do not possess the same style of behavior as the one treated here. Reference 1. ________ Behavioral Styles. (please fill in your source for the file you uploaded here). 2. Bruce, Debra. 2005 in http://www. debrabruce. com/articles/DiSC-behavior-styles. php 3. D'Innocenzo, Len. 2005. in www. crkinteractive. com.