Proper Handeling of Exotic Birds essays

Proper Handeling of Exotic Birds essays Imagine being in an environment where you live in constant fear that your captor, who is 100 times your size may, at any moment, kill you. How stressful is that? Many pet birds seem mean because they live in fear of their owners. Often, people buy a bird who is sweet and affectionate with the caretaker at the store, and when they bring him home, they expect the bird to behave exactly the same with them. It is important to take the time, however, to establish a trust and a bond with the pet bird, because without it, the bird is only going to react in fear. Birds are one of the most rewarding pets a person can own. They are highly intelligent and they crave human attention. They love to please people and they crave affection. So much so, that most parrots become jealous if they see you giving too much of your affection to someone other than them. When I began working at a pet store as a bird specialist, I enjoyed a first-hand opportunity to work directly with a variety of birds, and I quickly learned many new things. Sometimes we would get an older bird in the store who had been mistreated and who was afraid of people. Those birds ta ught me the importance of establishing trust and dominance, as well as the value of rewarding good behavior often. With a simple understanding of the birds perspective and knowledge of proper handling, a strong bond can develop between people and their pet birds. In the wild, a bird must be on the defense at all times because they are small enough to be prey to almost any creature. To a bird, we are potential predators. Until we have proven to the bird that we are not going to kill them and that we are not a threat, the bird will continue to be frightened of us and defend itself. So how do you get the bird to trust you? Well, you have to start by catching the bird. Depending on whether the bird was handfed as a baby or not, and how the bird has b ...

Consanguinity and Medieval Marriages

Consanguinity and Medieval Marriages Definition   The term â€Å"consanguinity† simply means how close a blood relationship two persons have- how recently they have a common ancestor. Ancient History In Egypt, brother-sister marriages were common within the royal family.  If the Biblical stories are taken as history, Abraham married his (half-)sister Sarah.  But such close marriages have been generally prohibited in cultures from fairly early times. Roman Catholic Europe In Roman Catholic Europe, the canon law of the church forbid marriages within a certain degree of kinship.  Which relationships were forbidden to marry varied at different times. While there were some regional disagreements,  until the 13th century,  the  church forbade marriages with consanguinity or affinity (kinship by marriage) to the seventh degree- a rule which covered a very large percentage of marriages. The pope had the power to waive the impediments for particular couples.  Frequently, papal dispensations waived the block for royal marriages, especially when more distant relationships were generally forbidden. In a few cases, blanket dispensations were given by culture.  For example, Paul III restricted marriage to the second degree only for American Indians and for natives of the Philippines. Roman Scheme of Consanguinity Roman civil law generally prohibited marriages within four degrees of consanguinity. Early Christian custom adopted some of these definitions and limits, though the extent of prohibition varied somewhat from culture to culture. In the Roman system of calculating the degree of consanguinity, degrees are as follows: The first degree of kinship includes: parents and children (direct line)The second degree of kinship includes: brothers and sisters; grandparents and grandchildren (direct line)The third degree of kinship includes: uncles/aunts and nieces/nephews; great-grandchildren and great-grandparents (direct line)The fourth degree of kinship includes: first cousins (children sharing a pair of common grandparents); great uncles/great aunts and grand nephews/grand nieces; great grandchildren and great grandparentsThe fifth degree of kinship includes: first cousins once removed; great grand nephews/great grand nieces and great grand uncles/great grand auntsThe sixth degree of kinship includes: second cousins; first cousins twice removedThe seventh degree of kinship includes: second cousins once removed; first cousins three times removedThe eighth degree of kinship includes: third cousins; second cousins twice removed; first cousins four times removed Collateral Consanguinity Collateral consanguinity- sometimes called Germanic consanguinity- adopted by Pope Alexander II in the 11th century, changed this to defining the degree as the number of generations removed from the common ancestor (not counting the ancestor).  Innocent III in 1215 restricted the impediment to the fourth degree, since tracing more distant ancestry was often difficult or impossible. The first degree would include parents and childrenFirst cousins would be within the second degree, as are uncle/aunt and niece/nephewSecond cousins would be within the third degreeThird cousins would be within the fourth degree Double Consanguinity Double consanguinity arises when there is consanguinity from two sources.  For example, in many royal marriages in medieval times, two siblings in one family married  siblings from another.  The children of these couples became double first cousins. If they married, the marriage would count as a first cousin marriage, but genetically, the couple had closer connections than first cousins who were not doubled. Genetics These rules about consanguinity and marriage were developed before genetic relationships and the concept of shared DNA were known.  Beyond the genetic closeness of second cousins, the statistical likelihood of sharing genetic factors is almost the same as with unrelated individuals. Here are some examples from medieval history: Robert II of France married Bertha, a widow of Odo I of Blois, in about 997, who was his first cousin, but the Pope (then Gregory V) declared the marriage invalid and eventually Robert agreed. He tried to get an annulment of his marriage to his next wife, Constance, to remarry Bertha, but the Pope (by then  Sergius IV) would not agree.Urraca of Leon and Castile, a rare medieval reigning queen, was married in her second marriage to Alfonso I of Aragon.  She was able to get the marriage annulled on the grounds of consanguinity.Eleanor of Aquitaine was married first to Louis VII of France.  Their annulment was on the grounds of consanguinity, fourth cousins descended from Richard II of Burgundy and his wife, Constance of Arles. She immediately married Henry Plantagenet, who was also her fourth cousin, descended from the same Richard II of Burgundy and Constance of Arles.  Henry and Eleanor were also half-third cousins through another common ancestor, Ermengard of Anjou, so she w as actually more closely related to her second husband. After Louis VII divorced Eleanor of Aquitaine on grounds of consanguinity, he married Constance of Castile to whom he was more closely related, as they were second cousins.Berenguela of Castile married Alfonso IX of Leon in 1197, and the Pope excommunicated them the next year on grounds of consanguinity. They had five children before the marriage was dissolved; she returned to her father’s court with the children.Edward I and his second wife, Margaret of France, were first cousins once removed.Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon- the famous Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain- were second cousins, both descended from John I of Castile and Eleanor of Aragon.Anne Neville was a first cousin once removed of her husband, Richard III of England.Henry VIII was related to all of his wives through common descent from Edward I, a fairly distant degree of kinship.  Several of them were also related to him through descent from Edward III.As just one example from the multiply-in termarried Habsburgs, Philip II of Spain married four times.  Three wives were closely related to him. His first wife, Maria Manuela, was his double first cousin. His second wife, Mary I of England, was his double first cousin once removed. His third wife, Elizabeth Valois, was more distantly related. His fourth wife, Anna of Austria, was his niece (his sister’s son) as well as his first cousin once removed (her father was Philip’s paternal first cousin). Mary II and William III of England were first cousins.

Questions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 45

Questions - Essay Example Pain disorder entails experiencing painful penetrations during intercourse. For vaginismus, the vagina contracts continuously, making it difficult for vaginal penetration. Orgasm disorder is a condition whereby either party fails to attain orgasm during sexual intercourse. The secondary orgasmic disorder is when the woman fails to reach orgasm after she has attained orgasm in previous occurrences. There are two common types of STIs: bacterial and viral. Bacteria cause bacterial STIs while viruses cause the viral STIs. Syphilis and the Human Papilliomavirus (HPV) are examples of bacterial and viral STIs respectively. Massachusetts Laws define child sexual abuse as the irresponsible supervision or handling of a child resulting in sexual abuse. It entails sexual grooming, assault, and exploitation. The age of consent in Massachusetts is 18 and 16 for males and females respectively (Lutz, 2011). A child exposed to sexual abuse suffers from emotional, mental, and physical disorders. State laws should be enforced to mitigate child sexual abuse whereby offenders face legal

Francis Bacon and Rene Descartes Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Francis Bacon and Rene Descartes - Essay Example The point is that Bacon considered the reality as perceptional, empirical thing, that’s why the only knowledge that can be reliable for humans is the perceptional one. Rational thinking only processes the empirical information. Descartes’ method or rational analysis of deduction is about thinking only. Descartes claims that any knowledge that we get must be questioned by doubt not to take wrong and mistaken information for truth. By deduction Descartes means analyzing the reality by finding the most elementary truth, which lately will lead to some bigger truth and this consistent order of research must reveal the origins of everything. But the main rule in this inquiry is to be skeptical, because only skeptical approach can discern wrong and truthful knowledge and select the appropriate one to move on in exploration. Bacon’s and Descartes’ methods are obviously totally different, because the fundamentals the thinkers use in their approaches are considered to be opposite. Descartes uses rational thinking and doubt-based analysis, while Bacon claims that the only thing researcher can rely on is empirical knowledge. Both Locke’s and Hobbes’ political theories are based on the concept of social agreement (contract). But the main essential difference between the roles of government in these theories is in their opposite views on basis of society: Hobbes claims that society is based on feud of people with each other, when Locke says that it is equality what makes people to conclude social agreement.

Training Effectiveness in the UAE Essay Example for Free

Training Effectiveness in the UAE Essay The United Arab Emirates is a small federation of seven independent states and is located in the Persian Gulf. It is one of the world’s leading producers and suppliers of oil. After the formation of the Federation in 1972 the nation has evolved to become a major business and financial hub of the Middle East. The official religion is Islam and the official language is Arabic. 87% of the country’s workforce is composed of foreigners known and referred to as the expatriate population. Since a larger number of UAE nationals are now entering the wok force there is a growing demand in the UAE for training programs to effectively train new recruits. Additionally as new technologies and methodologies get introduced in the country the demand to train professionals to utilize these new systems grows. With the surge in the demand for training comes the desire to implement and employ training programs which impart the desired skills in a manner which is both productive and effective. This paper seeks to summarize three articles which deal with effective training programs in the UAE. The majority of these articles deal with online training programs which are gaining popularity in the country and can easily be used to determine effectiveness through reporting capabilities and online learning tests. The first article â€Å"English goes Global via Online Training† is written by Michael Sisk and was published in the periodical Bank Technology News in July 2008. The article deals with the one of the most essential training needs that employers in the UAE face: Improving English Language Skills The article discusses how rapid globalization has increased the requirement for improved English efficiency in the Organization. The crux of the article talks about an e-learning tool to teach business English in Organizations known as Global English. Developed 10 years ago and used by more than 450 clients across the world Global English provides a scalable online solution to companies English training needs. In the UAE this service is being increasingly marketed to Banks as banking acquisitions on a global level often create a multicultural workforce and the need to communicate in a common language. The most commonly accepted medium of communication in these circumstances is often English. Global English empowers bank employees to communicate better with the management and their employers. Global English offers a number of advantages to the management of an organization. It is scaleable and cost effective for banks as they no longer have to arrange for formal classroom trainings with expensive English Language instructors. It is also available anywhere as compared to English Language instructors who may be difficult to find in some countries or cities. This online tool is available 24 hours a day and employees can also train from home if they login through an online platform. Also this software provides a more focused one to one interactive learning experience than what can be offered in a classroom setting. The interactive nature of these learning programs enable the students to apply their learning to real life business situations such as apologizing to the customer. Global English has an excellent reporting capability which enables management to monitor how many employees are using the training program; how long they are spending on it; the improvement they have achieved and most importantly how productivity has increased due to improved English proficiency. The increase in productivity as a result of effective training is determined through a series of surveys. The article cites how Emirates Bank a locally owned bank has effectively utilized Global English to improve the English proficiency of its staff. The Bank uses the online training software to train new local recruits. In line with the UAE Governments policy to recruit more UAE nationals in the financial sector the bank uses this online tool to improve English capabilities of Arabic speaking UAE national recruits in an attempt to enable them to communicate better with expat employees and help in transition of from expat employees in the future. The bank reports that prior to the implementation of these programs it could only train 90 employees in a classroom setting but after the implementation it can train 500 students for the same amount of money because classroom time and teaching cost has reduced. (Sisk 2008) The Bank also reports that 85 percent of its new recruits successfully pass the program and that there has been a 50 percent improvement in the English level skills than there was using the old classroom setting approach. The second article â€Å"Emirates Group selects Plateau Systems for enterprise-wide learning management† by Moussa Ahmad was published in Business Intelligence Middle East News in July 2007. The article deals with Emirates Airline one of the biggest entities in the country adopting a Learning Management system known as Plateau to achieve training effectiveness in the learning and development functions of its globally based workforce. The Plateau system achieves greater effectiveness as a learning tool because it adopts a learner centric approach to training which enables employees to take responsibility of their own learning and development. This leaves the learning development professionals to focus more on enhancing performance and facilitating training. Some of the capabilities of the software include scheduling registration course delivery tracking scalability and ability to integrate with other tools. All these capabilities will be used to track and improve the companies training effectiveness and enhance performance of the employees. One of the chief reasons that the company has given for the selection of this software is its strong customer satisfaction ratings as well as compliance with important industry standards such as SCORM and AICC. (Ahmad 2007) Plateau’s award winning training program has been implemented very successfully and with achieved significant training effectiveness in global organizations such as the American Red Cross, General Electric, Capital One Services and the National Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA) The third article â€Å"Online Learning in the Arab World† by Nidhal Guessoum was published in the e-Learn Magazine in 2006. The article deals with factors that determine the growth and effectiveness of online training in the Arab World including the UAE. Some of the main factors that the article cites as having effected the growth and effectiveness of online training in the Arab world include the regions reliance on Arabic based learning language. In order for online learning to grow more rampant online training programs must operate in Arabic as opposed to English which many of them use at the moment. The second factor is the reliance of these training programs on a digital infrastructure which is well developed in some Arab countries particularly the in the Persian Gulf Region but needs to be more rapidly employed in workplaces and schools. The article discuss the growing demand for online training and estimates the e-learning market in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at $14 million in 2006 with an estimated increase to$56 million by 2008. It also estimates that online education spending in the Arab Gulf region will reach $240 million by the end of 2009 (Guessoum 2006), with Saudi Arabia and the UAE representing about 80 percent of the total. Population. The article also states that while Saudi Arabia leads in academic e-learning, the UAE leads in business e-learning services. The articles goes on to discuss how Government initiative has helped improve e-learning in the region and how UAE educational institutes such as the Zayed University and the American University of Sharjah have implemented it in its teaching methodology. The article ends by citing two new hurdles to effective online training in the Arab World in general and the UAE in particular. One is the fear and ambiguity surrounding online examinations and how effective they are in gauging learning. The second is the distrust surrounding e-learning and sceptical attitude that learning electronically through online communication and interface will not yield the same results as face to face interaction. Works Cited Sisk Michael (July 2008): English goes Global via Online Training Bank.Technology News Retrieved May 5 2010 from the Website www. americanbanker. com/btn_issues/21_7/-357013-1. html Ahmad Moussa (July 2007): Emirates Group selects Plateau Systems for enterprise-wide learning management. Business Intelligence Middle East Retrieved May 5 2010 from the website www. bi-me. com/main. php? id=11292t=1 Guessoum Nidhal (2006): Online Learning in the Arab World E-Learn Magazine Retrieved May 5 2010 online from the website http://www. elearnmag. org/subpage. cfm? section=articlesarticle=40-1

How Does Golding Make This Passage Tense And Powerful? :: English Literature:

How Does Golding Make This Passage Tense And Powerful? Golding uses many techniques to make this passage tense and powerful by using language and the content of the passage. He uses many types of imagery and dramatic language throughout the passage as well as changes in pace and many different sorts of sound effects. The most conspicuous means Golding has used to make this passage very powerful is the content. He implies that someone has died in this passage, which evokes many feelings among readers because death is such a disastrous occurrence: "That little 'un had a mark on his -face -where is -he now?" The way Golding has portrayed the death is particularly effective because it is not definite that the boy has died and not knowing something is more tense than knowing something. Also the boy didn't die in the book, meaning all we have is the reactions from the boys and what they say, instead of knowing exactly what happened we are left to think about it on our own, using our own imagination. The imagery that Golding uses in the passage is very descriptive and unsettling. He uses personification, similes and metaphors: "Tall swathes of creepers rose for a moment into view, agonized, and went down again." Here Golding has used personification to depict the plants. This shows how the boys are starting to see things and get very paranoid of their surroundings. The plants seem to be coming to life, which is very unnatural and disconcerting. "One patch touched a tree trunk and scrambled up like a bright squirrel." This is a simile, describing the fire to be like a squirrel, which seems really strange but also very subtle and powerful. Golding has portrayed to very different things: an innocent squirrel and a lethal fire. This makes the fire appear quite harmless; therefore highlighting its danger even more when we find out it has killed someone. "The drum-roll of the fire" --------------------------- The metaphor Golding has used here is repeated several times in the passage. Later he just says, "drum-roll" instead of fire. This is effective because a drum roll is a powerful and steady sound, very distinctive and of importance. Although it doesn't sound like a fire it is very significant like the fire is in this passage. Also the thought of a growing drum-roll going on during this passage builds up much tension. In this passage Golding doesn't just use the boy's speech to convey

How does Shakespeare present suicide in Hamlet? Essay

Among all of the themes in Hamlet, morality, aswell as suicide cause an abundance of questions to be considered as the drama unfolds. At the present date suicide is looked upon with immense sympathy, considering what may have led the person to their downfall in life. However, beforehand in Elizabethan England, committing suicide was a huge sin against oneself, going against the 6th commandment â€Å"thou shall not murder† and also abuses the religious fact that only God has the authority to give, and therefore ‘end’ life. Shakespeare portrayed Hamlet as a very intelligent Prince from the beginning; however, from Hamlet’s first soliloquy (act 1 scene II) Hamlet makes it well known that he is in a time of anguish when he makes reference to his diminishing lack of self worth ,†but no more like my father†¦Than I to Hercules†. He also contemplates suicide, â€Å"†¦sullied flesh would melt, Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew;† these lines massively represent that Hamlet wants his spirit released from his body. Despite Hamlet supposedly having the justification to commit suicide (death of father, betrayed by mother), with all of this pain, eternal life in Heaven seems a healthy option. However, Hamlet takes into account his Christian beliefs and loathes that to end one’s life is an enormous sin. In Shakespeare’s world renowned soliloquy, â€Å"to be or not to be†¦Ã¢â‚¬ , Hamlet rarely addresses his problem and drastically uses the pronouns ‘we’ and us’. Also, once again he verbally considers his suicide and it seems as if he is trying to persuade himself to commit the action, but with no success, due to him fearing the unknown that may haunt him in the afterlife, â€Å"†¦what dreams may come†. Regardless of everything he has said, people would†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦rather bear those ills we have than fly to others that we know not of?† this again emphasizes the dread of the unknown from the known. Shortly after this soliloquy, Hamlet shows his distress to Ophelia, and says â€Å"I loved you not†, and soon tells her, â€Å"Get thee to a nunnery†, this is a small branch which grows from the stem of problems that caused Ophelia’s eventual madness and led to her ‘death’. In act IV scene 7 Ophelia meets her ‘death’, the cause of this is never confirmed, leaving the audience to wonder if it was accidental or suicidal. However, Queen Gertrude’s account of her death proves very influential over the audience’s opinion, as the Queen moves from simply stating â€Å"your sister’s drown’d, Laertes†, to suggesting a case of suicide. At first instance this evidence suggests accidental death, â€Å"an envious sliver broke†, referring that the branch she stood on broke. However, when describing Ophelia’s actions it suggests Ophelia purposely gave up the fight for life and Gertrude claims, â€Å"As one incapable of her own distress, Or like a creature native and indued†, which boldly suggests Ophelia’s grief caused her to give up her fight to the water. Also, it is implied before this scene that Ophelia is mad, but in this scene this accusation is once again backed up when the Queen says, â€Å"Which time she chanted snatches of old tunes†, this proves her absolute madness as any sane person would be struggling, yet Ophelia seems to allow the water to submerge her. Following on from the issue of Ophelia’s supposed suicide, two clowns enter and discuss whether she is to receive a traditional Christian burial despite, â€Å"†¦wilfully seeking her own salvation†. As the Priest begins one of his short speeches, he also gives a stern impression that he was under the suspicion that she committed suicide, stating, â€Å"Her death was doubtful†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Usually suspecting people (clergymen) would not allow deceased people to receive a Christian burial. But in Ophelia’s case the Priest goes from one extreme to another, â€Å"She should in ground unsanctified†¦Ã¢â‚¬ , but soon carries out a hurried burial and declares†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦to peace-parted souls†, this could be due to Ophelia’s royal relations having influence over this religious decision. In Hamlet, every action and sentence can often be ambiguous, which can cause debate among people considering what Shakespeare was actually implying. The theme, suicide is presented in this same manner and is worked to perfection. This theme can lead the audience to believe on thing, but can cause a dramatic change In a person’s fame of mind by purposely using pun and wit. For example, when it is suggested that Ophelia committed suicide, but it is such an open argument that it is also proposed that Ophelia’s death was accidental and a cold murder. Gertrude’s narrative description of Ophelia’s death proves very suspicious and this could suggest that she was present and could have witnessed and watch her drown. This can be argued because Gertrude knew deep down that her son would be better off without Ophelia due to Hamlet needing to marry a fellow royal into their Danish family.

What Is Rotaract

Rotaract clubs are part of a global effort to bring peace and international understanding to the world. This effort starts at the community level but knows no limits in its outreach. Rotaractors have access to the many resources of Rotary International (RI) and The Rotary Foundation. Rotary International provides the administrative support that helps Rotaract clubs thrive. History Rotaract has evolved quickly in its short but dynamic history. In the early 1960s, Rotary clubs around the world began to sponsor university youth groups as community service projects. The 1967-68 RI president, Luther H. Hodges, and the RI Board of Directors considered this club activity to have international relevance, and Rotaract was approved in 1968 as an official program for Rotary clubs. The first club chartered was the Rotaract Club of North Charlotte, North Carolina, USA, on 13 March 1968. Several decades later, the Rotaract program has grown into a strong, international network of 7,300 clubs in more than 150 countries and geographical areas. Rotaract’s 145,000 members are young men and women (ages 18 to 30) who serve the needs of their communities, widen their personal and professional contacts, and increase their understanding of the world. Goals Rotaract has the following goals: ? To develop professional and leadership skills ? To emphasize respect for the rights of others, based on recognition of the worth of each individual ? To recognize the dignity and value of all useful occupations as opportunities to serve ? To recognize, practice, and promote ethical standards as leadership qualities and vocational responsibilities ? To develop knowledge and understanding of the needs, problems, and opportunities in the community and worldwide To provide opportunities for personal and group activities to serve the community and promote international understanding and goodwill toward all people How does Rotaract fit into the Rotary family? Rotary International is a worldwide service organization for leading business and professional men and women, with more than 1. 2 million members in over 31,000 Rotary clubs. Each Rotaract club is sponsored by a local Rotary club. This sponsorship is a result of Rotary’s belief that you ng people, or New Generations, should take an active interest in community life and have the opportunity for professional development. Organizing a Rotaract club is one of the most rewarding activities a Rotary club can undertake in its community. The Rotaract program gives Rotarians the opportunity to mentor dynamic young women and men interested in providing service to their own communities as well as the global community. In turn, a Rotaract club can bring new energy to a Rotary club, inspire fresh ideas for service, increase support for projects, and help develop future Rotary club members. Rotaract clubs are self-governed and largely self-financedat the local level. Working in cooperation with their sponsoring Rotary clubs as partners in service, Rotaractors are an importantpart of Rotary’s extended family. What does a Rotaract club do? Rotaract clubs organize a variety of projects and activities, depending primarily on the interests of the club members. However, within the Rotaract program, all clubs undertake three types of activities in varying degrees: professional development, leadership development, and service projects. Together, these three areas ensure a balanced club program and provide important experience and opportunities for the personal development of each Rotaractor. Professional Development A club’s professional development activities should expand the members’ understanding of the work environment and business opportunities within their community. These activities should highlight the Rotaractor’s role in the community’s economic development and illustrate how skills developed through service activities can help in resolving problems in the workplace. Each Rotaract club should provide professional development opportunities to its members through activities such as: ? Professional and vocational forums Business technology updates ? Management and marketing seminars ? Conferences on business and professional ethics ? Presentations on finance and credit options for business start-up Sponsoring Rotarians can enhance the professional development of Rotaractors by providing practical advice on entering the business world and tackling business, vocational, and professional challenges. Making the club’s professional d evelopment projects into joint Rotaract-Rotary projects can also help Rotaractors get better acquainted with sponsoring Rotarians. Leadership Development A club’s leadership development activities aim not only to make members more effective leaders in their personal lives, but also to teach them how to develop and sustain strong clubs with relevant projects. Important topics to address in training club leaders include: ? Improving public speaking skills ? Developing techniques for marketing the Rotaract program to potential members ? Building consensus among members ? Delegating project responsibilities and ensuring necessary follow-up ? Identifying channels for project publicity and promotion ? Finding financial resources for strengthening club development ? Assessing project success Service Projects Service Above Self is Rotary’s foremost guiding principle. A Rotaract club’s service projects are designed to improve the quality of life at home and abroad. These projects often address today’s most critical issues, such as violence, drug abuse, AIDS, hunger, the environment, and illiteracy. Each Rotaract club is required to complete at least two major service projects annually, one to serve the community and the other to promote international understanding. Each should involve all or most of the members of the club.

Low Maintenance Alternatives to Grass

Low Maintenance Alternatives to Grass Grass lawns first appeared in Europe in medieval times, status symbols for the rich that had to be kept trimmed by fairly labor-intensive methods, often by grazing livestock and certainly not by polluting lawn mowers and poisonous weed killers. Lawns actually did not become popular in North America until the middle of the 20th century, but are now as common as the middle-class suburban homes they surround. It Takes Water and Money to Keep Grass Lawns Green Besides hogging public water supplies- over 50 percent of U.S. residential water usage goes to irrigate lawns- a 2002 Harris Survey found that American households spend $1,200 per year on residential lawn care. Indeed, the booming lawn care industry is more than eager to convince us that our grass can be greener- and then sell us all the synthetic fertilizers, toxic pesticides, and leaky lawnmowers to make it so. Groundcover Plants and Clover Require Less Maintenance than Grass Lawns There are many alternatives to a carpet of monochromatic grass for one’s property. A variety of groundcover plants and clover can be used instead, as they spread out and grow horizontally and require no cutting. Some varieties of groundcover are Alyssum, Bishops Weed, and Juniper. Common clovers include Yellow Blossom, Red Clover, and Dutch White, the best suited of the three for lawn use. Groundcover plants and clovers naturally fight weeds, act as mulch and add beneficial nitrogen to the soil. Flowers, Shrubs and Ornamental Grasses Consider using flower and shrub beds, which can be â€Å"strategically located to add color and interest while expanding the low maintenance areas of your yard,† and planting ornamental grasses. Ornamental grasses, many which flower, have numerous benefits over conventional grasses, including low maintenance, little need for fertilizer, minimal pest, and disease problems and resistance to drought. However tempting, though, try to avoid planting invasive plants. Anyway, native plants often require less water and general maintenance. Moss Plants are Another Alternative to Grass Lawns According to David Beaulieu, moss plants should also be considered, especially if your yard is shady: â€Å"Because they are low-growing and can form dense mats, moss plants can be considered an alternative ground cover for landscaping and planted as ‘shade gardens’ in lieu of traditional lawns.† Moss plants do not possess true roots, he points out, instead deriving their nutrients and moisture from the air. As such they like wet surroundings and also soil with a pH that is acidic. The Benefits of Grass Lawns In all fairness, lawns do have a few plusses. They make great recreational spaces, prevent soil erosion, filter contaminants from rainwater and absorb many kinds of airborne pollutants. So you might still keep a short section of lawn, one that can be mowed with a few easy strokes. If you do, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recommends avoiding traditional synthetic fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides. The Best Ways to Care for Grass Lawns A number of all-natural alternatives are now widely available at nurseries. Natural lawn care advocates also advise mowing high and often so that grass can out-compete any nascent weeds. Leaving clippings where they land, so they can serve as natural mulch, helps prevent weeds from getting a foothold.

Everything You Need to Know About Instagram Analytics to Hit Your Goals

Everything You Need to Know About Instagram Analytics to Hit Your Goals On an average day of Instagram, 80 million photos are shared. 80 million! No wonder Instagram has doubled in the last two years with its highly visual nature among such an actively engaged community of users. Among  such a lively feed of content, it may be nerve-wracking trying to figure out where your business fits in, but it doesnt have to be so. Every great Instagram  account has to start somewhere, and once youve started, you can build up your Instagram audience over time with the help of Instagram analytics to optimize every aspect of your posts. With Instagram analytics, its not just about posting for the sake of joining in, but rather about using Instagram as a tool to meet your goals. But lets be honest. Before any goals can be met, you  need to completely understand all of the Instagram metrics, choose the ones that match your goals, and then optimize your Instagram strategy and posts to hit those goals. So, with that, lets dive in! Table of Contents: Why Pay Attention to Instagram Analytics? 17 Important Instagram Metrics to Monitor 4 Free Instagram Analytics Tools to Measure Performance 5 Paid Instagram Analytics Tools to Consider Using Data to Power Your Instagram Marketing Strategy Download Your Free Instagram Analytics Infographic Need help remembering which metrics matter most on Instagram? Download this free infographic and keep it on hand for reference.Everything You Need To Know About Instagram Analytics + 8 Free Tools Why You Need Instagram Analytics Data allows us to make better, smarter decisions for both our business and our audience. As Instagram continues to grow with over 400 million daily active users, that's a pretty great opportunity to reach and draw in not any audience, but the right audience. Without analytics, an Instagram post is a shot in the dark amidst the great clutter of all the  other millions of photos, but with analytics, a path becomes clear and a strategy can be made. Let's get started  by introducing all of the analytics out there, and find which one matters most for your  specific audience and goals. Without analytics, an Instagram post is a shot in the dark. Where Can I Find Instagram Insights? Some metrics are best measured with third-party tools (like , and others that we'll cover). But, you can find a lot of these metrics in-app with Instagram Insights. Here's how it works: Looking for more info on Instagram Insights? Check out the official support docs here. Measure Instagram Performance With 's Social Profile Reports Here at , we work hard to build the best all-in-one content + social media marketing calendar out there. Recently, we rolled out Social Profile Reports. These are detailed network-specific analytics reports (including Instagram) that give you a birds-eye view of your performance. Access top social profile reports from one dashboard.  Stop downloading reports from individual platforms (or multiple third-party tools). Quickly view important social KPIs for Instagram (and other top networks) right inside . Refine your social strategy with actionable insight.  Track your social performance so you know what’s working (and what isn’t). Use real-time data to make updates to your social strategy, so you can continue to drive results. Connect with your audience + create posts that stand out.  Track engagement stats and  stop guessing at what will (or will not) resonate with your followers. Utilize your social profile reports to identify top content AND start creating posts you know your audience will love. Get social profile reports delivered right to your inbox  with scheduled reports. Create and schedule easy-to-understand reports to your team + stakeholders on a weekly or monthly basis. Giving everyone a pulse on your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and Pinterest performance. Best of all, you can try it yourself! You can get a free trial for 14 days, or even schedule a demo with our team. Alright, now let's get down to what you came here for: being a mad scientist when it comes to analyzing your Instagram content. 17 Instagram  Analytics Smart Marketers Need to Measure You may be thinking... 17? 17 analytics I have to keep track of? And the answer is no. In order to have an awesome Instagram strategy, there's only a few, key analytics to keep track of. But it completely depends on your goals. To help decipher which ones suit  your goals best, here's a guide to the top 17 Instagram analytics broken down into three key categories. Recommended Reading: What 20 Studies Say About the Best Times to Post on Social Media (Including Instagram) Profile Analytics While Instagram profiles are quite limited compared to other social networks, there are three key components you can track with analytics: Follower count, Website clickthroughs, and Profile views. Follower Growth:  Your follower count is located directly between your post and following counts at the top right of your app. This is the most prominent metric across the entire Instagram app, and the very first thing anyone checks when they go to your account. Simply put, this is your audience's first impression of your account. Because of this, it's easy to get  lost in striving to constantly gain followers. But instead, remember to focus on the right kind of followers. Simply use this metric to keep track of your growth over time. Recommended Reading: How to Get Way More Instagram Followers With 20 Easy Tactics Website Clicks: The one and only place you can directly guide your audience to, is your website URL  in the profile section of your account. As it's the sole location, having your  most prominent URL  here is key to gaining traffic to your website. At , we use this URL  to guide our audience to our trial signup page, a most recent blog post, feature announcement, or whatever it may be for that day.Whatever you choose, make sure it's the most important page you'd like your audience to visit. To track how many of your audience are clicking on this URL, go to your analytics icon in the top right corner, and swipe through the metrics on the top. The website clicks will be the fourth and last option. Whatever you choose, make sure it's the most important page you'd like your audience to visit. To track how many of your audience are clicking on this URL, go to your analytics icon in the top right corner, and swipe through the metrics on the top. The website clicks will be the fourth and last option. Profile views: While not everyone chooses to follow your account, you can still track how many profile views you've had, plus how that compares to the previous week. This metric can give you an idea of general interest in who you are and what your account is about. In the same swipe location where  website clicks is located, you can find this on your third swipe in. Audience  Analytics Your audience is essential to growing your business and hitting your goals, so with these 7 key audience metrics, you can get to know your audience super well. Check it out: Age: Oftentimes, businesses will create user  personas that have key characteristics of their ideal, target audience, and age is always on the top of the list. Using the Instagram Insights, you can see the exact age range of your Instagram audience! Click the analytics icon in the top right corner, then "See More" under Followers, and boom! It shows the variety of age groups and where your specific audience falls. It can also sort by gender within the age category, so you can see if gender impacts your age range or not. It can also sort by gender within the age category, so you can see if gender impacts your age range or not. Use this specific metric to see if your Instagram audience's age is aligning with your user  persona. If it's not, you may need to change the imagery type or tone of your posts so it becomes consistent with your goals. Gender: Along with age, gender is another way to get to know your audience. In the same area in your Instagram Insights, it displays your audience's age ratio. For example, right now, 's audience is 70% women and 30% men. That ratio is very close to our other traffic, so we know our content is hitting our same target audience across multiple platforms. Location: Location is a  simple metric within Instagram Insights that displays both the top cities and top countries your audience is following from. The location metric is definitely more helpful to some businesses rather than others as some might completely rely on location for their business such as hotels, tourist attractions, local shops, etc. For us at , this metric is great to see our global audience. Where are we most popular? Use this location metric to see what communities follow you most. For us at , this metric is great to see our global audience. Where are we most popular? Use this location metric to see what communities follow you most. Active Hours: In the same location as the above under 'Followers', you'll also be able to find the most active hours from your audience. This is the time your audience is checking in on your account the most often, which in return, lets you see what hours are the most popular, and best time to post. Find the hour that fits your audience best, and take advantage of it. Active Days: Similar to active hours, Instagram Insights will show you the most active days your audience is checking your account. They may vary just slightly, but none the less, there's always a clear winner. Find your top days, and start scheduling your Instagram posts for those popular  days. Instagram Story Impressions: As of August 2016, Instagram released a new feature called Instagram Stories. Similar to the commonly known Snapchat, you can post your daily events in a story that only displays for a 24-hour period time. Businesses can you use these stories for a variety of ways from showing off their team culture, connecting at events, or simply for another way to reach their audience with news and questions. To find your Instagram Story metrics, go into the Instagram Insights tab via the analytics icon, and scroll down to the Stories section.From there, you can see the impressions on each Instagram story, which represent how many people have viewed your story. Top Followers: This metric allows you to see which followers are the most valuable to you whether by their engagement, size of account, keyword, location, etc.  Knowing your top followers, leads to potential partnerships, cross-promotion, or any other marketing campaigns as you can directly contact those who are already helping you grow.Why not see if there are more possibilities? While this metric isn't found directly in Instagram Insights within the app, you can find your Top Followers by using tools like Social Rank. If you click on 'Followers', you can sort by most engaged, most valuable, etc.- so pick the one that you're most interested in, and then a #1-#10 summary list will appear below. Take this list, and reach out! Instagram Content Analytics Beyond your account profile and audience analytics, there's the actual content itself. Instagram has both image and video sharing, so between the two, there are so many variables to make your content perform well from the color scheme, visual layout, the written caption, filter, you name it! Thankfully, the content analytics can give you  insight into what posts are working well, and then from there you  can analyze what individual variables work best. Likes:  Instagram users 'like' 4.2 billion posts per day! This is the simplest way to quickly see the performance of an Instagram post. To 'like' a post, your audience clicks the heart icon, and then below that, it shows the number of total likes on that given post. Likes are the easiest way for your audience to quickly scroll through their feed, while still engaging in your content, so this is a great place to start analyzing which content works, and which doesn't.| Comments: Comments are the next level of engagement from your audience as they not only 'liked' or scrolled past your post, but stopped to say something and voice their opinion. Comments don't necessarily all come pouring in at once, but rather appear over time as most brands continue to see a majority of comments 18-24 hours after the initial post all the way up to 19 days! You can find your comments by selecting a given post in Instagram, and then by scrolling to 'view all # comments' to see what was precisely said.Instagram now allows users to 'like' other people's comments too, so make sure to jump into the discussion, reply where you see fit, and like the comments you enjoyed most.The Instagram app includes both likes and comments in their notifications feed so that you can track and be alerted of these two analytics as they receive attention. Not only can you find them there, but if you'd like a large overview of likes and comments per account, you can find it in the The Instagram app includes both likes and comments in their notifications feed so that you can track and be alerted of these two analytics as they receive attention. Not only can you find them there, but if you'd like a large overview of likes and comments per account, you can find it in the Social Engagement Report! You can sort by any given period of time, and then it'll show you the performance per account and per message. Saves: Instagram released a new saving feature as of late  2016 that allows you to privately save any Instagram posts that you want to keep for later on. Rather than screen-shotting the Instagram post, you can simply click the ribbon icon in the bottom right of your Instagram post. From there, it will go into your Saved tab that's located on your profile page. Instagram insights include this metric within the individual Instagram post. Click 'View Insights' directly below your post, and then the amount of saves you've received is in the far right-hand. If your content is being added to a saved bucket, you definitely know it resounded with your audience and was something they plan on returning to later on. Nice work! Impressions: The total impressions on a given Instagram post is the total number of times your post has been seen. This could be from the direct newsfeed that users are scrolling through or through strangers on search. If they've simply seen your post, it'll track an impression. This metric is helpful to see overall viewership, but it doesn't give any insight on how well your audience engaged or interacted with a given post, so use this one sparingly. Reach: Similar to Impressions, but slightly different is Reach. Reach is defined by the total number of accounts that have seen your post. While impressions is total number of times, Reach is total number of accounts. This is a good metric to have as we know having the same person viewing the same post over and over doesn't necessarily equate to success. Reach allows you to see on an account level, to analyze how large your audience actually is. Engagement: Engagement is the number of unique Instagram accounts that have liked, saved, or commented on your post. Basically, it takes the data from your likes, saves, and comments, and rolls them into one metric for you called engagement.  This is an awesome metric to keep track of as most goals often coincide with interacting with their audience.There are several tips and tricks  to grow engagement, so try a few and watch your engagement grow! Plus, has your  Social Engagement Report suited for just this! You can select any given period of time, choose the Instagram network, and it'll analyze your total messages sent, the engagements received, and then finalize an engagement rate for you. We love using this to get the overall picture of our engagement over time. Top Posts: Lastly, there's top posts, or rather those Instagram posts that are top performing. Within Instagram insights, you can click on 'Top Posts' to see all of your posts sorted by their number of impressions from top to bottom within the last 30 days. While this metric only takes into consideration the impressions or  how many times your posts was seen, this can be helpful to see the bigger picture of which posts have the best curb appeal. Bonus:  If you'd like to see your top posts based on real engagement rather than just impressions, the Social Engagement Report shows you just that. Choose your timeframe, and see up to 20 of your top messages on Instagram. This is a great tool to see posts that not only look good, but have audience interaction. d use to track your Instagram efforts from your audience to your shared content.But, if we're honest, that's A LOT to keep track of. That's where Instagram tools come into play, so below we have some of favorite free and paid tools to save you time by seeing them all in one place, while making your more strategic with Instagram. Recommended Reading: How to Manage Multiple Instagram Accounts With One Powerful Tool How to Schedule and Measure Instagram Posts In One Place Go From Spontaneous to Strategic With Instagram Scheduling in [Demo]3  Free Tools for Measuring Instagram Performance Instagram Insights: With the introduction of Instagram Business accounts, Instagram Insights provides a lot of information at the touch of your hands, whenever you  have a free moment. They no longer simply present the likes and comments of a post, but rather numerous audience metrics and individual post metrics that weren't possible before. Plus, it's free! The only downside to Instagram Insights is that it's fairly limited in that it has set time frames for metrics: 1 week for most profile analytics and 30 days for top posts. Are you using #Instagram Insights to measure your performance?Square Lovin SquareLovin has a free account that will send you an email report of your chosen Instagram account. If you'd like, they allow can download the report to Excel or export to PowerPoint. Within SquareLovin, they show your total posts, engagements, and a large chart of your overall activity over time.There's also a section of Top Posts that is sorted by most engaged post with a nice comparison metric. Lastly, they have a chart that shows which keywords are common in your comments as well as your most active commenters. Within SquareLovin, they show your total posts, engagements, and a large chart of your overall activity over time.There's also a section of Top Posts that is sorted by most engaged post with a nice comparison metric. Lastly, they have a chart that shows which keywords are common in your comments as well as your most active commenters. And.... even more analytics from best time and day to publish, to what cities and filters work best for you. This is definitely a great tool to see extensive analytics for Instagram. SocialRank SocialRank is definitely the easiest as far as connecting your account and diving into the data right away. As mentioned above, this is one of the few places you can analyze your top followers by numerous factors, so you can get very specific.You can also compare across accounts to see how they differ, which would come in handy for anyone with multiple accounts for the same business. SocialRank also lets you download the info to a CSV file or PDF to share with others. Definitely recommended! 5 Paid Tools to Consider Iconosquare Iconosquare is probably the most well-known  Instagram Analytics tool available on the market. Between its beautiful dashboard with all the  posts in a line, and its various metrics from followers to engagement, I can certainly see why. Iconosquare has both overview metrics to see what your top post or top engaged post is, as well as individual analytics for any given Instagram post to see its lifespan over time. While Iconosquare does have a two-week free trial, it is a paid service with a variety of plans to choose from. Their features are quite extensive, so use their pricing chart to find where you and your team might fit. Quintly Quintly is a web-based tool that not only tracks your Instagram analytics, but all of your other accounts as well. Quintly is great at seeing how your analytics compare to your competitors as you can set benchmarks for your accounts, and they also have tailored reporting so you can send that data to whomever might be interested in seeing the progress. Lastly, Quintly allows you to set up custom metrics if you wish (which is always super needed!) as well as campaign tracking so you can see how a given campaign is performing across all networks. Lastly, Quintly allows you to set up custom metrics if you wish (which is always super needed!) as well as campaign tracking so you can see how a given campaign is performing across all networks. Quintly does have a 'forever free' plan, but the data is limited to 30 days. So if you're serious about analytics, they have four paid plans available for purchase. Keyhole Keyhole is another great platform to see all of your analytics in one place in a simple dashboard. They can track a few different networks such as Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, but uniquely can track any given hashtag, keyword, mention, or url as well. For Instagram, primarily, simply add whichever account you'd like data for. From there, you'll find your basic metrics up top, a chart of your posts performance over time, and then your top posts by engagement. Keyhole  also shows your top engaged hashtags used, and optimal best times to post to help in the creation of your future posts. Keyhole has a 3-day free trial, but that's a pretty short amount of time to really dive into your analytics. So they offer 5 paid plans that cover a wide variety of features. Minter.io Minter.io was specifically made for Instagram analytics. Once you enter your account info or a hashtag, you can choose any given period of time, and then start capturing data. Minter.io shows your audience, growth over time, their gender, and location. They also have an engagement tab that shows the top commented, most likes, top interacted, etc.Lastly, and probably my favorite element of Minter.io, is their optimization tab. This tab includes best times top post, best days to post, and really goes in depth on all the variety of ways to optimize your Instagram posts. Here's a grand list of all that the metrics they collect for Instagram: Minter.io has a 14-day free trial, but beyond that, it  is a paid service with three main plans to choose from. You've probably heard of before (wink, wink). But as a marketing management calendar my team and I work in every day, it's so handy to have all our analytics right alongside our campaigns so we not only schedule content, but can see what's working and what's not. Through 's desktop and mobile app, you can schedule Instagram posts in advance using 's best time feature, making one less step to think about. After scheduling our posts, my team and I go into our Social Engagement Report under the analytics tab to see how our Instagram posts performed. (This report has all of the networks, but let's focus on Instagram.) At , we're all about investing our time in the 10x projects rather than the 10% projects, so this report lets us see clearly where to focus our efforts in Instagram. The very first step is selecting the date period we'd like to analyze. From there, an overview chart will appear that shows how our posts are doing based off engagement (likes, comments, and shares). I personally love this, because we care more about engagement at than general impressions. The same goes for our top posts section. In here, you can choose to see up to your top 20 posts based off the Instagram post's overall engagement. weighs comments slightly more than likes appropriately so that posts with 20 comments rank better than 20 likes. This way, we have a completely accurate overview of which posts are top-performing, and then we can create content similar to that to grow our audience and reach our goals. Then, we also use Social Profile Reports to get a more granular view on our Instagram performance. This also lets us see our best posting times, to help us optimize our schedule: Plus, we can drill into our engagement rates by day of week and time of day: And, it gives us another place to see our top Instagram posts: has a 14-day free trial that includes scheduling to all networks, which includes the mobile app that schedules posts to Instagram (more features coming soon to mobile!). The more advanced plans such as Team Pro and beyond receive all of the analytic reports including Top Content, Social Engagement (seen above), and Team Reports. Try it out for yourself! There ya have it! Four free tools, and five paid Instagram analytic tools to keep your metrics all in one place to make you and your team even more efficient when it comes to Instagram scheduling and analysis. Don't be scared to sign up and utilize the trials of all of the tools to get a feel for which one is best for you and your goals. One will certainly feel best, and then you can rock your Instagram strategy.

The Benefits of Universal Healthcare Plan for the United States Research Paper

The Benefits of Universal Healthcare Plan for the United States - Research Paper Example American Medical Women’s Association has come up with one of the better definitions of the term: â€Å"Access to health care should not be linked to a person's employment, place of residence, sex, age, marital status, or health status. Health care should be available to all persons on the basis of medical need rather than financial ability or employer contracts.† (Brown et al, 918-919) A universal system of health care is considered the most optimistic way out for the healthcare crisis in America. Under this system the government becomes responsible for repayment of almost all the services offered by the health practitioners in clinics and hospitals. It is believed that this system would give everyone a chance at health insurance and provide significant cost savings if related administrative expenses could be reduced. This end could be achieved by promoting preventive medicine. Also required would be universally available electronic medical records (Diamond, 921). On th e other hand, many people are opposed to the idea of Universal Healthcare and consider it an impractical ideal that can’t be achieved. The biggest reason perhaps is that historically government bureaus have been known to become difficult and over-bearing rather consistently. It can also be argued that just because a person has access to preventive healthcare education, it doesn’t mean that they will adhere to its guiding principles; so there is a huge potential for costs going rampant. And lastly, the single-payer health system can put a huge toll on the quality of healthcare, something American will not be willing to put up with (Diamond, 921). Many people believe that despite all of its good intentions of â€Å"healthcare for all†, the current health reform movement is not the best method of achieving the desirable objective of universal health coverage as it is government controlled. History is witness that governments just aren’t prepared to do this j ob. It is argued that once the government gets the power to rule over the practice of medicine, it would signify the end of medical profession as known to mankind. Simply put, those against universal healthcare are afraid that it will bring a humiliating end to the best medical care in the world (Diamond, 922). It is commonly believed that health insurance cannot make healthcare more accessible in the United States. It cannot make people adhere to their recommended therapies, nor can it convince people to get to their doctor’s appointments on time. It can also be argued that medical problems are almost always a part of the bigger picture. A person’s health issues can be related to the conditions prevalent in the society. And universal healthcare may not be the solution at all if pregnant women remain ignorant of the advantages of prenatal care, and if asthma patients neglect to take their inhalers on time. It would indeed be better to educate and change people’s perception of health care and medical professionals. It would also be beneficial if the risk factors are weeded out of society so people can be healthier and more receptive to healthcare in case they do need it. We must stop people from smoking and educate them on the disadvantages of eating an unhealthy diet. The fact of the matter is that universal health coverage and medical advice will not have any effect no matter how strictly implemented. These measures would only work if the patients