Nazis, Cucks ContraPoints Professor Ramos Blog

Nazis, Cucks ContraPoints â€Å"So, I used to be, little bit of a Man. I’m not proud of it.. We all make mistakes!†Says Natalie Wynn in her 2018 XOXO festival presentation. Natalie Wynn is a transsexual YouTuber known for her B-listing Youtube channel Contrapoints. Flashing a style of her own, she is instantly recognizable for her soft lit videos, colorful characters abundant in a flair of bourgeois and sometimes cringe worthy sex appeal. She discusses controversial subjects like Marxism, gender dysphoria, politics, Cucks and much more from a leftist angle. I came across Contrapoints through my best friend Monique Johnson, a feminist, college art teacher who loves debate. Granted my BFF has always had strange tastes, but she really one-upped herself with this one. She sent me a video of Natalie Wynn and I didn’t really know how to process the creature I was watching. At first it was a bit hard for me to sit through the whole video, but I did anyway. Partially because of my upbringing and of family influences distilling a kind of internalized homophobia about my own sexuality, Making me cringe the second I see someone else talk about their own sexuality publicly and comfortably. But then seeing this provocative trans woman talking about the taboos many are too afraid to discuss or even mention, was actually very refreshing. After really sitting down and watching the full length of one of her many 20 minute  videos, I saw that this Frank-N-Furter, transsexual, costumer was actually making  great points about hot-button iissues. This video left me curious and wanting more, I started digging around and exploring her channel to see what other kinds of material and content she covers. I came across an XOXO Festival video; A kind of public speaking program/festival based in Portland Oregon, similar to TedTalks. In this video, (Natalie Wynn, ContraPoints XOXO Festival (2018))  it shows Natalie standing on stage in front of a fairly large crowd of seated patrons, and she discusses her struggles with transitioning, her channel and what it stands for. Natalie, in her earlier career, pursued a Phd in philosophy but she turned away from this pursuit. In her words, â€Å"The examined life is actually not worth living†. Prior to her channel, she worked as a Uber driver, piano teacher, paralegal and what ever other job she could manage in the many chapters of her life. At this point, she was in an awkward stage of transition. Not quite a women, in the eyes of society, but also not quite a man, in the eyes of her own psyche. (Natalie Wynn at her home in Baltimore.) During this time she had made her channel, Contrapoints, she decided to put to use her education and experience. The channels main purpose was to counter and debate the points made by other videos on the web. Hence the name, Contrapoints. But with the internet being the internet, she dealt with the backlash that comes with going through â€Å"second puberty† for the whole online world to see and criticize. Leftist Twitter took to her as a representative for the entire trans community and this was simply unfair. She decided to collaborate with a few different Youtube channels and debaters on their programs discussing trans issues, unknowing of the consequences. While she made excellent points and countered arguments with obvious research and wit, she failed those debates in the eyes of her viewers because she was deemed unlikable due to her appearance. This damaged her reputation for a while and the leftist side of the internet turned against her. That is, until she took a slight change in direction with her channel by costuming into different personas to discuss the topics she was tackling in a back and forth style of banter. By slipping into a fictional setting of debate, she found a way of putting controversial topics on the forefront for open discussion while dampening the impact of negative criticism on her personal life. Her videos are a boiling pot of heated discussion on what needs to be addressed, asking questions that no one knew needed to be asked. â€Å"If you want an honest conversation about race on the internet, here’s what you do. You set your computer on fire, you flee to the forest, you drink a mimosa laced with toad venom and you simply wait for the wolverines to eat your legs.†Says Natalie Wynn in her Youtube video, America: Still Racist. She talks about racial demographics in large cities like Bal timore, where previous practices of racism have in a sense trapped families and future generations of African-Americans. Creating ghettos and making racial demographics in urban areas almost impossible to financially escape, through a process of Restrictive Covenants, Redlining, and Predatory Landing when Jim Crow laws were still in act. This kind of grouping creates hot spots of racial conflict by a means of separating, and this separatism continues to stay prevalent in the U.S. because of past racism. Natalie takes topics like these, that are heavy in Political jargon, bulky with information that are near impossible to find in the convoluted garbage bins of the internet and breaks them down in a way that makes all of her videos extremely informational and easy to digest. â€Å"Contrapoints offers us a sense of what it looks like to combat the emotional appeal of neo-fascists with something similar† (Cross), a critic taken from the website TheVerge.com, reviewing how Natalie Wynn has quickly become the new Oscar Wilde of Youtube by taking on the Alt-Right head on with research, facts and seduction. I’m extremely happy my best friend brought me to this channel and to Natalie Wynn’s content. Her discourse on the material she covers is unique, extremely brainy and funny. Even her earlier content brings up issues that are still relevant to todays issues that other debate channels try, but fail to hit the mark. She always finds a way to resolve and properly untangle the inner workings and complexities of the human condition. In my own opinion, I’d have to say, â€Å"Contrapoints is hands down the leading channel in terms of quality content, discourse, and diverse topic discussion on the internet to dateâ€Å". Work Cited         Barbara Brotman. â€Å"Decades Later, Black Home Buyers’ Battle for justice back in spotlight†. Chicagotribune.com. https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-contract- buyers-league-20150724-story.html. July 25, 2015 Katherine Cross. â€Å"The Oscar Wilde of Youtube fights and the alt-right with decadence and seduction†. August 24, 2018. The Verge. Leslie Vincent Tischauser. â€Å"Jim Crow Laws† Land marks of the American Mosaic. 2012. ABC-CLIO. https://www.abc-clio.com/ PP.8-9. Natalie Wynn. â€Å"Natalie Wynn, ContraPoints XOXO Festival (2018)†. Youtube.com. https://youtu.be/0Ix9jxid2YU. Nov 9, 2018. Natalie Wynn. â€Å"America: Still Racist | ContraPoints†. Youtube.com. https://youtu.be/GWwiUIVpmNY. Feb 28, 2018. Photo Credit Amelia Holowaty Krales  

The Palace of Minos at Knossos in Ancient Crete

The Palace of Minos at Knossos in Ancient Crete The Palace of Minos at Knossos is one of the most famous archaeological sites in the world. Located on Kephala Hill on the island of Crete in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Greece, Knossos palace was the political, social and cultural center of the Minoan culture during the Early and Middle Bronze Age. Founded at least as early as 2400 BC, its power was greatly diminished, but not completely dissipated, by the eruption of Santorini about 1625 BC. Whats perhaps more important, perhaps, is that the ruins of Knossos Palace are the cultural heart of the Greek myths Theseus fighting the Minotaur, Ariadne and her ball of string, Daedalus the architect and doomed Icarus of the wax wings; all reported by Greek and Roman sources but almost certainly much older. The earliest representation of Theseus fighting the minotaur is illustrated on an amphora from the Greek island of Tinos dated 670-660 BC Palaces of the Aegean Culture The Aegean culture known as Minoan is the Bronze Age civilization that flourished on the island of Crete during the second and third millennia BC. The city of Knossos was one of its main citiesand it contained its largest palace after the shattering earthquake that marks the beginning of the New Palace period in Greek archaeology, ca. 1700 BC. Palaces of the Minoan culture were likely not simply residences of a ruler, or even a ruler and his family, but rather held a public function, where others could enter and use (some of) the palace facilities where staged performances took place. The palace at Knossos, according to legend the palace of King Minos, was the largest of the Minoan palaces, and the longest-lived building of its type, remaining throughout the Middle and Late Bronze Ages as the focal point of the settlment. Knossos Chronology In the early 20th century, Knossos excavator Arthur Evans pegged the rise of Knossos to the Middle Minoan I period, or about 1900 BC; archaeological evidence since then has found the first public feature on Kephala Hilla deliberately leveled rectangular plaza or courtwas constructed as early as the Final Neolithic (ca 2400 BC, and the first building by Early Minoan I-IIA (ca 2200 BC). This chronology is based in part on that of John Youngers plain-jane Aegean chronology, which I highly recommend. Late Helladic (Final Palatial) 1470-1400, Greek take over of CreteLate Minoan/Late Helladic 1600-1470 BCMiddle Minoan (Neo-Palatial) 1700-1600 BC (Linear A, eruption of Santorini, ca 1625 BC)Middle Minoan (Proto-Palatial) 1900-1700 BC (peripheral courts established, heyday of the Minoan culture)Early Minoan (Pre-Palatial), 2200-1900 BC, court complex started by EM I-IIA including the first Court buildingFinal Neolithic or Pre-Palatial 2600-2200 BC (first central courtyard of what would become the palace at Knossos begun in FN IV) The stratigraphy is difficult to parse because there were several major episodes of earth-moving and terrace building, so much so that earth moving must be considered a nearly constant process that began on Kephala hill at least as early as EM IIA, and probably starts with the very end of the Neolithic FN IV. Knossos Palace Construction and History The palace complex at Knossos was begun in the PrePalatial period, perhaps as long ago as 2000 BC, and by 1900 BC, it was fairly close to its final form. That form is the same as other Minoan palaces such as Phaistos, Mallia and Zakros: a large single building with a central courtyard surrounding by a set of rooms for various purposes. The palace had perhaps as many as ten separate entrances: those on the north and west served as the main entry ways. Around 1600 BC, one theory goes, a tremendous earthquake shook the Aegean Sea, devastating Crete as well as the Mycenaean cities on the Greek mainland. Knossos palace was destroyed; but the Minoan civilization rebuilt almost immediately on top of the ruins of the past, and indeed the culture reached its pinnacle only after the devastation. During the Neo-Palatial period [1700-1450 BC], the Palace of Minos covered nearly 22,000 square meters (~5.4 acres) and contained storage rooms, living quarters, religious areas, and banquet rooms. What appears today to be a jumble of rooms connected by narrow passageways may well have given rise to the myth of the Labyrinth; the structure itself was built of a complex of dressed masonry and clay-packed rubble, and then half-timbered. Columns were many and varied in the Minoan tradition, and the walls were vividly decorated with frescoes. Architectural Elements The palace at Knossos was renowned for its unique light emanating from its surfaces, the results of the liberal use of gypsum (selenite) from a local quarry as a building material and ornamental element. Evans reconstruction used a grey cement, which made a huge difference to the way its seen. Restoration efforts are underway to remove the cement and restore the gypsum surface, but they have moved slowly, because removing the greyish cement mechanically is detrimental to the underlying gypsum. Laser removal has been attempted and may prove a reasonable answer. The main source of water at Knossos initially was at the spring of Mavrokolymbos, about 10 kilometers away from the palace and conveyed by way of a system of terracotta pipes. Six wells in the near vicinity of the palace served potable water beginning ca. 1900-1700 BC. A sewer system, which connected toilets flushed with rainwater to large (79x38 cm) drains, had secondary pipelines, lightwells and drains and in total exceeds 150 meters in length. It has also been suggested as the inspiration for the labyrinth myth. Ritual Artifacts of the Palace at Knossos The Temple Repositories are two large stone lined cists on the west side of the central court. They contained a variety of objects, that were placed as a shrine either in Middle Minoan IIIB or Late Minoan IA, following earthquake damage. Hatzaki (2009) argued that the pieces were not broken during the earthquake, but rather were ritually broken after the earthquake and ritually laid down. The artifacts in these repositories include faience objects, ivory objects, antlers, fish vertebrae, a snake goddess figurine, other figurines and figurine fragments, storage jars, gold foil, a rock crystal disk with petals and bronze. Four stone libation tables, three half-finished tables. The Town Mosaic plaques are a set of over 100 polychrome faience tiles which illustrate house facade), men, animals, trees and plants and maybe water. The pieces were found between in a fill deposit between an Old Palace period floor and an early Neopalatial period one. Evans thought they were originally pieces of inlay in a wooden chest, with a linked historical narrativebut there is no agreement about that in the scholarly community today. Excavation and Reconstruction The Palace at Knossos was first extensively excavated by Sir Arthur Evans, beginning in 1900. in the earliest years of the 20th century. One of the pioneers of the field of archaeology, Evans had a marvelous imagination and a tremendous creative fire, and he used his skills to create what you can go and see today at Knossos in northern Crete. Investigations have been conducted at Knossos off and on since then, most recently by the Knossos Kephala Project (KPP) beginning in 2005. Sources This glossary entry is a part of the About.com guides to the Minoan Culture, and Royal Palaces, and the Dictionary of Archaeology. Angelakis A, De Feo G, Laureano P, and Zourou A. 2013. Minoan and Etruscan Hydro-Technologies. Water 5(3):972-987. Boileau M-C, and Whitley J. 2010. Patterns of Production and Consumption of Coarse to Semi-Fine Pottery at Early Iron Age Knossos. Annual of the British School at Athens 105:225-268. Grammatikakis G, Demadis KD, Melessanaki K, and Pouli P. 2015. Laser-assisted removal of dark cement crusts from mineral gypsum (selenite) architectural elements of peripheral monuments at Knossos. Studies in Conservation 60(sup1):S3-S11. Hatzaki E. 2009. Structured Deposition as Ritual Action at Knossos. Hesperia Supplements 42:19-30. Hatzaki E. 2013. The end of an intermezzo at Knossos: ceramic wares, deposits, and architecture in a social context. In: Macdonald CF, and Knappett C, editors. Intermezzo: Intermediacy and Regeneration in Middle Minoan III Palatial Crete. London: The British School at Athens. p 37-45. Knappett C, Mathioudaki I, and Macdonald CF. 2013. Stratigraphy and ceramic typology in the Middle Mnoan III palace at Knossos. In: Macdonald CF, and Knappett C, editors. Intermezzo: Intermediacy and Regeneration in Middle Minoan III Palatial Crete. London: The British School at Athens. p 9-19. Momigliano N, Phillips L, Spataro M, Meeks N, and Meek A. 2014. A newly discovered Minoan faience plaque from the Knossos town mosaic in the Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery: a technological insight. Annual of the British School at Athens 109:97-110. Nafplioti A. 2008. â€Å"Mycenaean† political domination of Knossos following the Late Minoan IB destructions on Crete: negative evidence from strontium isotope ratio analysis (87Sr/86Sr). Journal of Archaeological Science 35(8):2307-2317. Nafplioti A. 2016. Eating in prosperity: First stable isotope evidence of diet from Palatial Knossos. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 6:42-52. Shaw MC. 2012. New light on the labyrinth fresco from the palace at Knossos. Annual of the British School at Athens 107:143-159. Schoep I. 2004. Assessing the role of architecture in conspicuous consumption in the Middle Minoan I-II periods. Oxford Journal of Archaeology 23(3):243-269. Shaw JW, and Lowe A. 2002. The Lost Portico at Knossos: The Central Court Revisited. American Journal of Archaeology 106(4):513-523. Tomkins P. 2012. Behind the horison: Reconsidering the genesis and function of the First Palace at Knossos (Final Neolithic IV-Middle Minoan IB). In: Schoep I, Tomkins P, and Driessen J, editors. Back to the Beginning: Reassessing Social and Political Complexity on Crete during the Early and Middle Bronze Age. Oxford: Oxbow Books. p 32-80.

Security Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Security - Assignment Example The solution should prevent IRS from spending a fortune on network infrastructure upgrades. Modernization of the E-File is an important step of IRS re-engineering its efforts to enhance enforcement, improve its services, and modernize work processes and technology (Chamberlain 15). This is achievable through the introduction of the modernized E-file. The modernized E-file should be an internet-based system that should use the standardized Extensible Mark-Up Language (XML) constructs. The main component of the modernized E-file is introduction of transmitters. The transmitters present in the modernized E-file will provide postmarks to all taxpayers for individual returns. The receipt present in the electronic postmark will provide the taxpayers with confidence that they have filed their returns on time. However, the date of the electronic postmark will be considered as the date of filling. This happens when the date of electronic postmark is prior to the endorsed due date and the return is gotten by the IRS after the recommended due date for filling. All the requirements for signing the tax return and completion of a paper of declaration and timely submission of the rejected timely filed tax return has to be followed to for the electronic postmark to be reflected the date of filling (Grayson and Warren 22). The electronic postmarks will be available to the taxpayers through the online filing. Markedly, when the transmitter creates the electronic postmark with the time and date, the information is recorded by the transmitter host computer. With the introduction of the electronic postmark, IRS can ensure that people do fill in their tax returns on time but they can submit them later. If the electronic postmark is before or on the recommended deadline of filing a tax return, but the IRS obtains the tax return after the deadline of submission, the IRs will treat the submission as timely

Black Book movie 2006 (European film CRITIQUE) Review

Black Book 2006 (European film CRITIQUE) - Movie Review Example Betrayal is one of the things that makes the movie interesting. Also, the soundtrack blends well with change well with the environment to reflect the mood of the film. In addition to that, techniques used in finding out people secrets in the movie gives one the desire to keep watching (Pamuk, Orhan, and Maureen, 2006). For instance, the hidden microphone that was planted by Ellis on Franken’s office which enabled them know that it was Gein who betrayed Rachel’s parent. Finally, the tactics the character use to gain advantage over others allow one keep watching, seduction of Commander Ludwig by Ellis after she disguised herself. The major conflict in the movie is the warfare between the Germans and Holland. It is resolved when Holland gets victory though The Hague resistance. Other sub-major conflicts are race conflict these shall be settled by people accepting to live with one another even though love centers everything. Another conflict is greed people are seen to love money. This conflict is resolved when the greedy people are killed. Finally, there is a conflict of love. Ellis has a natural tendency to fall in love with people who had significant positions the resistance. She resolved this internal conflict by sleeping with them in return for information. The main protagonist of the movie, Rachael meets the antagonist leader Van Gein whom later she realizes was a betrayer of her family. In the event of escaping, the protagonist meets Rob, a tertiary character which enables her escape and connect her to another tertiary character Smaal, who assist her financially. The film has won several award having nominated for four Golden calves for the best actress, best director, and the best film. Though the movie was positively received by the Dutch press, it had some question. For instance, some said that the movie director, Verhoeven, failed to put emphasis on the moral dissertation and focused only

Autism and Lea Mainstream Primary Essay Example for Free

Autism and Lea Mainstream Primary Essay The National Autistic Society (NAS) describes autism as ‘a lifelong developmental disability that affects the way a person communicates and relates to people around them’. Affecting individuals with different levels of severity, Autism is a spectrum condition, at the base of autism spectrum disorders are associated with learning disabilities; whereas at the top lie disabilities such as Aspergers Syndrome. According to NAS 44% of schools which identified children with ASD, say that significant number are not getting the specialist support needed. 5% of those responding felt that support was not forthcoming because of problems or delays with diagnosis or statementing. 30% of responders mentioned insufficient resources, both human and financial. 47% of those responding would like to see training and advice provided by or through the Local Education Authority (LEA). Below are some statements made by teachers in Primary schools when talking about shortcomings in inclusion of ASD children. ‘Although the child has been with us for three years, we have not yet managed to get an educational Psychologist to see the child. (LEA Mainstream Primary) ‘Funding inclusion is not a cheap option but seems increasingly to be used as such. A child with autism is autistic all day, not just for 18 hours per week. ’ (LEA Mainstream Primary) (Barnard, J et al 2002) Everyone within this spectrum suffer from problems communicating, social interaction and thinking and behaviour flexibility. Some are very sensitive to their environment, loud noise, vivid colours, busy visual stimuli or strong odours cause them stress and physical discomfort. Giving this child a conducive learning environment by minimizing distractions is key. It is most important to remind ourselves every child with ASD is unique and will respond in different ways. It is vital that children with ASD are not expected to fit into existing classrooms and school structures. SENCOs should also consider enhancing sensory awareness (for instance tuning the sounds from the projectors), they need to consider flexible solutions in order to be inclusive. Training all staff and promote inclusion and awareness by delivering whole school assemblies would be essential. Rewards and sanctions should be based on realistic, achievable targets, and rewards need to be as immediate as possible (www. autism. org. uk-NAS, ATL 2012). Social stories are used a great deal with Autistic children to develop skills in social situations and to address behaviours to keep them safe. Autistic children often like routine and dislike changes to routine, widgits can be useful for things like visual timetables. I have used Communication in Print, a software package incorporating widgits,; typing in a word and it prints both the word and a symbol associated with the word; designed for children who cant read but works great for very visual learners too ( http://www. widgit. com/about/index. htm). A coordinated team approach and parental involvement are important, if there is disruption to routine or medication at home and teacher is unaware it becomes difficult. Many of these children will have a daily communication diary in place well after most kids have ceased to need them. Good communication with parents means that they can support the work of the school effectively and feel reassured that good provision is made for their child. Rarely children with autism can follow timetable of a school week, so SENCOs need to create supportive time slots to help ease the build-up of pressure each day. Children with autism find communicating difficult; they may have good conversational skills, but their comprehension may be poor. They may misinterpret or ignore humour, irony and sarcasm, have difficulty with new vocabulary, and can often struggle to indicate that they have not understood something. Specialist support can help with developing and practising skills, can be a designated member of support staff under the guidance of a speech and language therapist. However, it should be timetabled and regular (ideally daily), with visual support and regular opportunities to practice strategies and skills. Teachers need to celebrate that children on autism spectrum tend to come with exceptional memory displaying persistence in certain topics, they adhere to routine and order. Parents and carers can experience very difficult times at home, supporting them with visual aids for home and school routines, as mentioned above, helps to reduce anxiety and stress. Involve them in the drawing up of Individual Education Plans (IEP) drawing from them if they have any strategies that works and might usefully transfer to the school situation. (MOREWOOD, G. DREWS, D. 2013). Mainstream schools need to make adjustments to support areas of physical, social, environmental needs. This is where school support comes in, establishing a buddy system of support can be valuable. Roles can include peer support in lessons, providing company during lunch and break times; buddies can provide great support (NAS) Children need to be given private space, reducing emotional dips and fluctuations through interventions or nurture rooms, would ease the tension and despair. Within the school setting SENCOs are the backbone to a child with ASD, they are the link between this child and the rest of the school. Mainstream schooling can be successful for these children only with a whole school awareness, acceptance and adaptation. SENCOs ensures staff are aware and understand difficulties children with ASD face; a key worker is assigned for these children; they will be the main support for these children in school liaising with parents. To be that inclusive school regular staff training and opportunities for teachers and TAs to seek advice and guidance through the SENCO is vital. However to keep placing ASD children in mainstream classrooms without adequate support lands unfair pressure on teachers. For the child in focus it will be integration without and social inclusion, leading to bad behaviours and exclusion from school in the worst cases.

Consequences of HIV/AIDS epidemic to Society Essay -- Health, Diseases

Assignment question: 3. A) What are some of the possible consequences of HIV/AIDS epidemic to: 1. Society 2. The infected individual b) What are some of the Human Rights, confidentiality and criminal law implication of HIV/AIDS? Q1. HIV/AIDS has increasingly taken a toll on the society in a myriad of dimensions which are worth discussing in order to find the best solutions. Due to HIV/AIDS epidemic, the economies of various countries have been badly affected and societies have experienced major losses. There is a rapid increase in the number of HIV infected people with resultant financial burden and major psychological and emotional consequences. The rising HIV prevalence has adversely affected the quality of labour in that many skilled and experienced workers have succumbed to the disease. Due the loss of skilled workers to HIV/AIDS, the standard of labour quality has been badly affected resulting in low levels of production, development and low labour inputs (Nations, n.d). HIV/AIDS also threatens the quality and supply of future labour in that infected people are incapacitated from engaging in any productive work as their bodies are rendered extremely weak. People who stay out of work need to be supported by others and this creates a high dependence on the limited resources available. The socioeconomic consequences of HIV/AIDS to the society are enormous. For instance, many children whose parents are infected with HIV are often forced to stay out of school and look for work to support their ailing parents. Consequently, a huge and dangerous gap in education is created and the future of these children is marred with uncertainties. At the same time, the ability of the affected children to serve the society is compromised (... ...he infection through reckless male partners. Criminalization of HIV has triggered debate in which people argue that criminalising HIV infected people does not address the complexities involved in disclosure and instead increases HIV stigma (UNAIDS, International Guidelines on HIV/AIDS and Human Rights, 2006). In addition, imprisonment cannot help people come to terms with their status and develop better attitude. Instead, a better course would be to promote education and psychological counselling. Treating HIV transmission as murder offence increases stigma and discrimination because it is like saying HIV equals death, while we know with the availability of antiretrovirals, people can lead healthy lives even when they are HIV positive. No illness has been treated with the same hysteria as HIV and this is because of its associated stigmatization and promiscuity.

Remote Access Control Policy: Richman Corporation

Authorization Rules: Controls will be configured to ensure access is approved for only company/corporate employees. These controls will be set up based off of the position (job roles) of the employees to ensure they can only access what is required to allow them to perform their duties. The policy will include group membership policies as well as authority-level policies. The employee access will be assigned to the appropriate groups and authority- level policies.Identification Rules: Employees of Richmond Corporation will be given an employee identification number. Every employee will have a key badge as well in order to enter their building and/or floor if the building contains elevators. The unique employee ID number will be engrained into the employee badge and will be used to allow employees access the corporate system. Authentication: The key badge given to each employee will be used to allow access and authenticate that employee.An initial temporary password will be applied to each employee logon information and require the employee to change the password on first login. The policy will be set up to ensure that the employees create strong passwords and are required to change their passwords every 60 to 90 days. Employees at higher levels who have access to sensitive information may also be required to use two-factor authentication such as fingerprint biometric access to get into rooms and buildings and/or simply login to their computer system.PIN numbers will be used to access server rooms. Token will be issued to provide access remotely to allow for secure logins. Accountability: Richmond Corporation IT department will keep record of Log Files to be able to see who has logged into the system and when. The IT department will ensure they keep back-up files of required resources. They will apply access controls using different levels of restriction and access. Multiple security controls will be in place. There will be a policy for media disposal as well.

Conflict & Stress Management Essay

1.0 INTRODUCTION Stress and conflict are two major issues any organisation faces. They are inevitable in all facets of life, be individual or organisational. If not handled well they can be a hindrance for the company performance. Conflict and stress both varies according to the organisation and its culture. But both need to be managed well to avoid unnecessary problems. Conflict is a perception. Surveys show that employees spend as much as 42% of their time engaging in or attempting to resolve conflicts and 20% of managers’ time is taken up by conflict related issues (Gupta, Boyd, Kuzmits, 2011). This valuable time can be utilised in making the organisation a more efficient and an effective one. Organisations which fail to address conflict have the risk of losing their competitive advantage. Conflict can be viewed in many ways and there are different management styles which can deal with conflict. The leadership of the organisation must be involved in dealing with conflict as they would have to negotiate and bargain in order to overcome conflict. Stress is a major concern with today’s working people. This is because the world is developing in a faster pace which requires constant adaptation. Stress not only affects ones work-life balance, but also their personal life which creates chaos for individuals. According to some estimation, humankind losses 100 million workdays every year due to the aftermath of stress (Treven & Potocan, 2005). Work stress needs to be managed well so it can actually improve the well being of the individuals as well as the organisation. Both of these factors will be viewed in the context of Nippon Lanka and will be analysed thoroughly on how they overcome these issues to maintain a healthy relationship with employees. Improvements and recommendations for the current methods will also be discussed. 2.0 OVERVIEW Nippon Lanka Pvt Ltd (NPLK) is a joint venture (JV) between the Nippon PLC Japan (NPJ) and Silicone Coatings Pvt Ltd (SC) Sri Lanka where the NPJ brought over 60% of Silicone’s shares. This joint venture is advantageous to both parties where NPJ is able to use this as an entry method and SC as an opportunity to be a part of a global industry. Formation of this JV took almost a year where Nippon Lanka studied SC and the relevant industry as whole to get an idea of the present market conditions. It was found that there was no better time to enter the Sri Lankan market due to the post war era development. Therefore SC was considered due to their strong presence in the market. Today after about three months from successfully forming the JV the company is going through a transition period. There aren’t any major changes to positions in the hierarchy but there are role changes and employees are finding it difficult to adapt to their new roles. Example: – The Managing Director (MD) of the company who was the owner of the company still is the MD how ever to day the person is a salaried employee. – The General Manager who was reporting directly to MD today has to report to the Board of directors where MD is just one out of the five directors. When examining the company culture towards conflict, the company culture and the value system which has been there for 35 years from the date of the establishment is now being changed. SC was established in 1979, as a small scale manufacture and a distributer of paint related ancillaries. By the time Nippon approached SC it had grown into the largest local player in the market where it was second only to the global giant Akzonobal by a 3% margin. It is evident that SC has been a one man show up to the time of the JV, the full value system and the operational procedures were laid down by the founder himself and not most of the managers found it enticing to be part of. Therefore the HR turnover was such that on average about six key resources left the company. In this back ground let’s see how the conflict and stress management function takes place within the organization. 3.0 CONFLICT AND CONFLICT MANAGEMENT 3.1 Conflict Management Styles Conflict can be defined as the process that begins when one party perceives that another party has negatively affected, or is about to negatively affect, something the first party cares about (Robbins S., Judge T. & Vohra N., 2011:441). It is that point in an ongoing activity when an interaction crosses over to become an interparty conflict. Conflict can be seen as good and bad with corresponding positive and negative outcomes where this would all depend on how one views conflict. There are three basics views of conflict. These are the Traditional view, the Interactionist view and Managed conflict view. The traditional view sees conflict as bad and something that must be eliminated through the use of authority. Poor communication, lack of openness and failure to respond to employee needs could be seen as few of the causes. The interactionist view is that conflict is desirable, necessary for high performance teams and should be encouraged. The contemporary view is that conflict is inevitable and it may be positive or negative but it must be managed to be beneficial. Nippon Lanka follows a more interactionist view where conflict is encouraged and the company is of the view that a perfectly cooperative, harmonious group would hinder dynamism, creativity and innovation where a minimal level of conflict is needed to prevent a lacklustre, uninterested attitude among the group. As mentioned earlier, not all conflicts are good, and this view only supports functional conflict. Functional conflict is a constructive form of conflict that supports the goals of the group and improves performance. The type of conflict at hand would distinguish a functional conflict from a dysfunctional conflict. Although these are distinct types of conflict, the occurrence of one type of conflict can lead to a conflict of another type taking place. For example, the process of costing has been kept confidential, and this has led to the tension between the sales team and the costing team. 3.2TYPES OF CONFLICT PRESENT IN NIPPON LANKA 3.2.1Relationship conflict Conflicts between two people are known as relationship conflicts. These conflicts arise as a result of miscommunication, disagreements or misunderstandings between people. One such situation at Nippon Lanka arose between the Brand Manager and the Marketing Manager. The Brand manager has been with the company for 5 years and has previously worked with two Heads of marketing. Once the new marketing manager was appointed, it was found that the latter was less experienced and was not willing to corporate with the Marketing Head. This triggered huge problems for the new comer. The management was aware of this, but wasn’t able to remove him from the position due to the valuable connections the customers. However, the Marketing Manager understood this inferiority complex of the Brand Manager. Having gone through the initial hardships the new marketing manager somehow managed to win the trust of the Brand manager. Now they are working harmoniously, directing all their efforts towards the benefit of the company. 3.2.2.Data Conflict This occurs when decisions are made without adequate information. At Nippon Lanka, the costing department works in isolation. They do not consult the sales and marketing team when arriving at the costs, so more often than not, the cost of the product is either too high, depriving them of valuable orders and potential growth, or at times its too low depriving the opportunity for the company to charge a premium price on an innovative product or to achieve efficiency through specialisation. 3.2.3Interest Conflict Conflicts of interest mainly deal with psychological issues, where an individual or organisation behaves in a certain manner, with the aim of meeting a particular interest which is not shared by everyone else. The JV with the Japanese company was not disclosed or made public, even though doing so would have been acting in the best interests of the company. The MD did not like the idea of publicising the 60:40 JV that was taking place, as it would be viewed as a takeover. However, the rest of the company felt that some amount of public awareness would have positively impacted the company’s future performance. Another example would be when the HR department wanted to minimise the over time cost they imposed a rule where all sales vehicle needs to be back at the HO by 5 pm. As an example what the Sales representatives would do is when they need to deliver goods up to Negombo, covering Wattala, Ja-ela, Seeduwa and Negombo. They would turn back from Seeduwa at 3.30 pm in order to make it back to office by 5 pm, without covering their full distance to Negombo. What followed was a delay in the delivery and travelling additional mileage, having to revisit incomplete routes taking the same path. 3.2.4 Structural Conflict Structural conflict arises from unclear and undefined roles and reporting lines. The R&D and the production manger are directly reporting to the MD. The other managers report to the GM, where the GM reports to the MD. Currently when a sales representative needs to develop a sample for a particular customer, the sales representative will not have the adequate support since the request from the sales rep will not be taken seriously from the R&D manager and the GM cannot question them for not doing it right. Only 10 out of 1 samples are successful and yet the R&D manager has managed to survive, distracting the control and supervisory system of the top management since there is no clear reporting structure. 3.2.5 Value Conflict A value conflict comes about when two people or groups have dissenting views on morality–that basic understanding of what is naturally right or wrong. As mentioned earlier, the cost manager considered himself and his department superior than the other departments, with the notion that the information handled need not be disclosed to anyone else. At present, the cost manager is in prison, facing charges of fraud. Although the environment helped the person to carry out fraud, this is a clear example of conflicting values. 3.3 THE CONFLICT PROCESS Figure 1: The Conflict Process (Source: Robbins S., Judge T. & Vohra N., 2005:444) 3.3.1Stage I: Potential opposition or incompatibility The first stage talks about the conditions that are needed for conflict to arise. They may not directly lead to conflict, but they need to be present for conflict to surface. They can be referred to as the causes of conflict and can be condensed into three general categories, namely communications, structure and personal variables. Communication, either too much or too little information passed between members can result in potential opportunities for conflict to arise. At Nippon Lanka, the manner in which the costing of the products is carried out is not communicated to the members in the other dept and this has been the initiating factor for conflict to set in. Structure includes several variables such as size, degree of specialization in the tasks assigned to the group members, role clarity, member-goal compatibility, leadership styles, reward systems, and the degree of dependence among groups. The sales and promotions manager at Nippon Paints follow an aggressive, predator style of leadership where excuses were not tolerated and was only interested in the achievement of results and targets. An example would be, the samples taken from the production team that is used for sales and promotion does not meet the required standards of quality where 9 out of 10 samples would fail. Same time, the Sales and promotions manager would also be very demanding of the sales representatives in terms of getting the desired targets. In some cases, employees have resigned due this demanding nature. Personal variables are mainly due to differences in personal traits of individuals. Diverse issues such as prejudice and disagreements over one’s contribution to the group, as well as the rewards one deserves. For example, at Nippon Paints, the General Manager is prepared to hire new trainees at Rs. 15,000/=, whereas the Sales and Promotions Manager feels that the market rate of Rs. 30,000/= should be paid to them. The low salaries have deterred attracting the talented individuals and therefore not achieving the fullest potential. 3.3.2Stage II: Cognition and Personalization If the conditions mentioned in stage I negatively affect something one party cares about, then the potential for opposition or incompatibility surfaces in the second stage. One or both parties must be aware and perceive that these conditions exist. However, just because it is perceived does not make the conflict personalized. It may not have an effect on either or both parties. The conflict has to be felt, for individuals become emotionally involved, leading to anxiety, tension, frustration or hostility. 3.3.3Stage III: Intentions Intentions get in the way of people’s perceptions and emotions and act as decisions for them to react the way they do to the situation at hand. They are important, as one has to make inferences of the other party’s intentions to know and understand the reason behind that party’s behavior and to respond accordingly. Conflicts tend to escalate at this point merely because of the wrong inferences being made. Sometimes a behavior might erroneously reflect the person’s intentions. Two dimensions are used, namely cooperativeness (the degree to which one party attempts to satisfy the other party’s concerns) and assertiveness (the degree to which one party attempt to satisfy his or her own concerns) to identify five conflict handling intentions. This has been attached to Appendix 1 with the styles explained. 3.3.4Stage IV: Behavior This stage includes actions, statements and reactions made by the conflicting parties. Intentions of each party are implemented through these behaviors and can be seen as a dynamic process of interaction. Conflicts usually start slow; characterized by indirect rather subtle forms of tension and escalate as the tension builds. At this latter stage things could become highly destructive where such conflicts are almost always dysfunctional. 3.3.5Stage V: Outcomes Behavior would lead to outcomes, where some are functional in that the conflict results in an improvement in the group’s performance or it may also be dysfunctional in that it hinders group performance. Functional conflict can be beneficial for the company as it provides a medium through which problems can be aired and tensions released. This improves the quality of decisions, stimulates creativity and innovation, encourages interest and curiosity among group members and it forces and environment of self-evaluation and change. Some companies discourage conflict as they prefer â€Å"yes-men†, loyal to the higher ups to the point of never questioning company actions. As for dysfunctional conflict it would reduce group effectiveness and group cohesiveness. At the extreme, conflict can bring group functioning to a halt and potentially threaten the group’s survival. Refer Appendix II for the example of a conflict Process at Nippon paints. 3.3 NEGOTIATING AND BARGAINING Before the organisation starts negotiating they should be aware of the nature of the conflict. There is a certain process that needs to be followed in negotiation. Negotiation is by definition the management of crossed demands, where each one of us expresses requests hoping the other will try to fulfil them (Lempereur, A. 2012). As it is said â€Å"Everything is negotiation in life†, so every party involved in the process would like to take the best out of it. 3.3.1 Bargaining Strategies There are two bargaining strategies that could be discussed. Distributive bargaining and integrative bargaining. In the current context what is more obvious is integrative bargaining which makes both the parties involved satisfied creating a win-win situation. An example for this was when a sales representative requests for a personal vehicle they need to achieve a certain level of sales targets. If they maintain the sales targets for a sustainable period they will be given a personal vehicle. But by any chance if they do not keep up to the said targets their salaries will be reduced in accordance with the cost of maintaining the vehicle by the company. Through a situation like this, what is created is a long term positive relationship for the company. As a company, they increase the sales levels and the employees will also be satisfied as their needs are also met. 3.3.2 Negotiation Process Negotiation can happen in 5 steps; these are preparation and planning, definition and ground rules, clarification and justification, bargaining and problem solving and closure and implementation. Some do not have a positive ending or a closure. But negotiations that have an effect for the organisation will go through a process. An example of this would be when the company needs to host certain function in hotels they would negotiate with them for the best bargain. As they have cost constraints, there are certain limitations and getting the best bargain with the best outcome would be the perfect scenario. Before the start of the negotiation with the relevant hoteliers the in-charge person will prepare the list of things that need to be discussed. These would be the pricing, menu items, additional services that are required and assess what the other party goals and prepare well for them. In this instance a budget per person would be Rs. 3,000. But the relevant hotels cost was higher. Then the menus for these relevant amounts will be compared. In the Sri Lankan context rather than a 4 or 5 course meal, action stations with koththu and hoppers have a vibrant feeling and also cost less. So in the negotiation table the other alternatives will be put across. Since information is all gathered, the representative will develop a strategy. The person will also determine the Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement (BATNA). So here the BATNA will be to get cost per person at Rs. 3,000 having action stations with cocktail menu. The person will determine when and where to have the appointment. The ideal place would be at hotel premises because then the ambiance where service capacity can also be viewed. The meeting would be planned in the best time where both parties are not strained with other commitments and can concentrate for a best outcome. Once the initial stance is made then there will be further clarifications and explanations. Then both parties will try to come up with concessions in order to make a decision. Once both parties are satisfied they will formalize the agreement. In this process Nippon Lanka representatives will stress on the fact that if one event is made a success; then the hotel is winning a long term corporate client. This enhances their business. 3.3.3 Third Party Negotiation This is crucial for Nippon Lanka as they deal with lot of suppliers and customers. Advertising is a crucial part for this organisation and dealing with media is important to get a good advertising deal. Earlier they were dealing with the television and radio stations by themselves and it was quite strenuous. Getting a good deal that is worth their money was tough and time consuming, having deal with different organisations, so they decided to obtain third party involvement. The outcome was to get a consultant to act on media buying for the organisation. A consultant is a skilled and impartial third party who attempts to facilitate problem solving through communication and analysis (Robbins S., Judge T. & Vohra N., 2011:457). They are there to improve the current status and to get a win-win solution for both parties. When Nippon started using a third party advertising firm to do media buying, they were able to get good deals from media as they have a high bargaining power. 4.0 WORK STRESS & STRESS MANAGEMENT Stress is a dynamic condition in which an individual is confronted with an opportunity, demand, or resource related to what the individual desires and for which the outcome is perceived to be both uncertain and important (Robbins, Judge & Vohrs, 554). Most of the time stress is discussed in the negative contest but this is not true at all times. Stress can be taken into the system as an advantage. In the current organisation stress factor is not talked openly even though people are put under stress levels it is not considered as value adding option for the organisation. In the organisation currently what is seen is the challenge stresses but sometimes these same factors do become hindrance stressors for the employees. 4.1 Sources of stress The main sources of stress in the organisation comes from environmental and organisation factors. When it comes to environmental factors; the three types of uncertainties are economic, political and technological. These play a minimal role compared to organisational and personal factors. In considering environment factors; the workers are stressed on the technological aspect. Research and development team is always under pressure in getting a new product development before their competitors. Organisation heads are concerned about the Political uncertainty. Whenever a new rule or regulation is passed by government with regard to the consumer protection or protecting environment this takes a toll in the organisation activities. They must be aware of the new laws and how to tackle them, this adds a lot of strain in the management as they need to alter or change certain decisions according to political scenarios. Change in economic policies and recessions or booms in the economic cycle create stress on the organisation. Current economic down turn have made a toll in the sales teams as consumers are spending less and government projects have considerably reduced. At the same time government is not paying their debt and collections have become harder. Organisational factors are the ones that are created by the organisation which creates stress on employees. Task demands such as collecting debts in 90 days have a strain on the employee. This increases the job pressure. Role demands relate to pressure that occurs due to the job role. Managers and above have high role related pressures compared to subordinates due to the heavy work load which needs to be performed in less time. Most employees complain that they are given more work than they can handle and it stresses them out a lot. At the same time many complain the targets given are not practical. There is a minimal level of interpersonal demands where other employees are not supportive. Personal factors which increase stress are different to every individual. But this does create a hindrance in the organisation performance. All or some of these factors create a high turnover or absenteeism, reduction in productivity and decrease in job satisfaction. Sadly Nippon Lanka has not recognised the importance of stress management in order to curb it or cure it. The main organisational stress come comes from the current management change, this is because the task and role demands have changed and employees need to adjust to the new roles. Personal factors too trigger stress level of the employees. 4.2 Managing Stress at Nippon Lanka Pvt Ltd Based on the study, it is visible that Nippon Lanka uses stress as a positive motivator, but at some points it goes out of hand where it depletes the collaboration and coordination amongst the teams and also inter department. Based on the job roles, the department heads can think of the stress levels which can be imposed on the team members to get results and to meet targets. However the stress levels should be correctly managed so that it motivates results and not deplete and impede the team building and performance drive within the teams. As it is observed, some amount of stress comes from the non-alignment of the reporting lines. Therefore the suggestion is to relook at the reporting lines so that stress does not occur due to incorrect alignment of the business structure which has a negative impact and which creates unnecessary types of stress within teams. Together with the Job role enrichment, reporting lines should also be re-aligned so that the company will only be left with stress which causes the company to perform and not to impede. 5.0 CONCLUSION In conclusion conflict, negotiation and stress are all visible in Nippon Paint. Conflict is unavoidable at the organisation due to the dealings they have among the departments and the third parties. To overcome conflict certain understanding among employees and stakeholders must be implemented. It can be seen that conflict, negotiation and stress are interlinked with each other on some level. Organisational conflict styles may shape an organisation’s social environment, affecting the level of ongoing conflict and thus the level of stress among employees. Nippon Lanka to a great extent follows an integrative style of conflict management which leads to lower task conflict, reducing relationship conflict, which reduces stress. However, there are many instances where the management has not come up with a solution to the conflict at hand, where they are not willing to step in and the employees are left to resolve the matter, which at most times remains unresolved. The recommended improvements with regard to this has been discussed in Section 3.4. It is important that with the JV taking place, the new management plays an active role in resolving these long running issues so that the organisation and its performance does not get affected. The current JV could also trigger new conflicts and stress levels within the organisation where it is crucial that these issues are identified and resolved. The new management must take this opportunity to place greater prominence of recognizing the on-going stress levels within the organisation and deal with them appropriately. Improved management of conflict, negotiations and stress would benefit the individuals and the organisation in terms of high performing, content, dedicated employees who deliver results.

Two Lives Between Schools Professor Ramos Blog

Two Lives Between Schools My story began when I was enrolled in a Catholic grade school, or private school, at the age of five. At that point, I was a part of a huge flock of students that consisted of different two races and ethnicities that were present in different class grades. I noticed that as I started experiencing diversity in during my years in Kindergarten and first grade. In Kindergarten, I sat with different students who come from different races and ethnicities. There were some students that were of Hispanic descent, some were of Caucasian descent, a couple of African-American students, and there were a couple of students that were of Filipino descent. This was the case until everything changed for me in the middle of my year in first grade. At that time, I was being bullied by this one kid that was in the same class I was in and he made me look like I had behavioral problems in front of the teachers. Even worse, my first grade teacher and the principal thought I was the problem child even though I was not at fault. I remember the words of the principal that made my parents switch me to a different school. Those words of that principal that was said to my parents were, â€Å"I think your son has autism.† Since that happened, my parents were offended by that notion and later proved to them that I did not have behavioral problems. In the end, they switched me to a Christian grade school where I later experienced different side of diversity. As my six year-old self began my first time in a Christian grade school, I soon adapted with the fresh, and friendlier faces of students and teachers. It was then that understood my pain   from my time in private school. For about six years, I was with the same students I met since the middle of my first grade since I began my education in a Christian grade school who were in the same class I was in. Moreover, I even met new students that became new additions to our classes and became friends with them. The diversity among my classmates was a little different from my classmates from private school. My class was a mix of mostly Caucasian students, a couple of African-American students, some students that were of Hispanic descent, and some students that were of Asian descent - specifically Filipino and Korean. Aside from the diversity in my school being based on race, color, and ethnicity, the only predicament in the diversity of that school was religion. In other words, my Catholic faith conflicted with their Christian faith. As a matter of fact, I thought my religious faith was the same as a Christian faith even though both were different. At one point, they noticed a side of my Catholic faith when I had ashes on my forehead. That day when that happened was Ash Wednesday. Some of them asked me, â€Å"Joseph. What is that on your forehead?† I told them, â€Å"Today is Ash Wednesday. I had to get my ashes.† Since that moment, I started to notice the differences between the Catholic and Christian faiths. To some, they were confused about what kind of religion I worshipped.   All was well until in the middle of my sixth grade year. At that time, I had a discrepancy with my teacher over some unintended joke my eleven-year-old self made. Since that incident, my parents thought that my teacher was at fault and later moved me back to private grade school. At that point, I thought to myself: it’s just gonna be like private school again. When I began private school, I was now eleven years old - one month before turning twelve years old - and I started my life in private school again. I was along with a different group of faces that I have never seen or met in my class. The class was mostly of Hispanic descent, some were Filipino, and, interestingly, there was one Native American girl whom I later developed a crush on before the end of my year in sixth grade. Since then, I got along with my class and my teachers very well. There were some jokes in bad taste, but I made resolutions with my classmates and we got along very well. For that friendship I had with that one girl I had a crush on, we were good friends. But the ease of friendships in private grade school was more complicated when we were in high school.  I was fourteen years old when I started my first year in a Catholic high school. The sense of diversity in race, ethnicity, and religion was and felt the same as I adapted along with the classmates in the same year I’m in. But as the years passed by until the end of my high school years, some of the friendships I’ve had with some students just died down. That was mostly because of the fact that there were more interesting faces that stood out to my classmates from private grade school. The only friendships I’ve had during my time in high school grew from a few people who were in the second private grade school I went to and from some students who came from different high schools and were friendly with me. Since then, I was with the true friends I knew in my grade level until the end of my senior year. I was eighteen when I graduated from high school and, since then, most of the classmates I was acquainted with and the true friends I knew were off to different colleges or off doing their own thing. For twelve years, my journey in religious education has been quite a ride. From principals being insensitive to my churlish self, to experiencing what it feels like to be in a different faith in a public Christian school, and to being with different faces after switching back to private school, I had gone through a wild ride during my religious education. What I liked the most out of this was having a close friendship with that one girl I had a crush on during my sixth and seventh grade years. Moreover, I also liked the fact that my perspective of diversity has been broadened from the students and teachers I’ve meet in the schools I went to. On the contrary, what I did not like the most was that principal in the first private school I went to seeing me as a problem child. But as time passed by, I later learned and concluded that diversity yields good and bad results. Specifically, I would make friendships with different people because of the different faiths, interests, cultur es, and other background factors that I share or differentiate. Furthermore, I learned and experienced the friendships I made with people of different races and ethnicities because of the interests that the people and I share, differentiate, or favor between one another.  

How to Crush Google Analytics Spam in 2017 - CoSchedule

How to Crush Google Analytics Spam in 2017 Google Analytics is the most popular freemium web analytics service in the world and it is estimated that today over 50 million websites  across hundreds of countries  use the tool. Google Analytics today is nearly twelve years old and has come in several different shapes and sizes over the years adding ever increasing levels of insight. The unrivaled level of data and tracking that it offers today means that if you don’t have it installed on your website youre missing out on such crucial statistics as: What user demographics are visiting your site How they are reaching your site What pages on your site are performing well or badly †¦ and much more! What webmaster in their right mind wouldn’t want access to such crucial data that can help them grow their business for free? None, of course. But what happens when you skew the data with spam? What happens when the statistics that you thought were giving you such in-depth insights into user None, of course. But what happens when you skew the data with spam? What happens when the statistics that you thought were giving you such in-depth insights into user behavior on your website are actually bogus? Well, it completely devalues the data and renders it almost useless, especially if you’re a smaller brand with much less website traffic than a huge company. Whether you are a small business owner conducting landing page A/B tests or part of a large company and need to present data to your boss, analytics spam can cause you a mighty headache. But don’t fear! This article will fully explain each type of spam that may affect your Google Analytics profile and exactly how you can remove it to prevent spam from ruining your data in the future. Before We Continue: Get Two Free Google Analytics Bonus Guides + 5 Custom Reports Google Analytics can be complicated enough without worrying about spam. Once youve filtered out all the junk from your account, learn how to leverage it for success with these free resources: Five Questions About Your Site Google Analytdics Can Answer: Learn how Google Analytics can help you better understand your sites performance. Write Smarter Content With Google Analytics: Learn how to write content your audience wants, backed by real data. Best Times Google Analytics Custom Reports: Get pre-built one-click dashboards to help you identify the best times to post on social media, send email, and more.How to Crush Google Analytics Spam in 2017How Does Analytics Spam Work Why Would Anyone Bother? There are several types of spam that affect  Google Analytics but by far and away the most popular is referral spam, sometimes referred to as ghost spam, as often it never actually reaches the affected website. Apart from the contamination of statistics, luckily this spam technique never actually harms the affected sites. Referral spam is the process that spammers use where they utilize web spiders or bots to send one or more fake hits to a Google Analytics account (a hit can take the form of anything from a page view to a transaction). The spammers will target thousands of websites per day, presumably at random, so don’t be lead to believe that you or your agency has committed an SEO crime which has plagued you with this problem! In some cases, advanced spammers can make bots read your Google Analytics script that is embedded on your web page. They will then extract your unique Property ID, add it to their database and continually spam your site, making it look like they have sent huge amounts of referral traffic to your site and putting them top of your referral list in Google Analytics. Sneaky. "Okay, I get it so far, but why would anyone bother to create Google Analytics spam?" I hear you ask. Well, apart from the pure fun of it, there are a number of reasons people are doing this: Generate traffic of their own. Arguably the main reason for referral/ghost spam. Not only are spammers inflating and blemishing your traffic stats, they are also increasing their own through people’s natural curiosity to click their links and it’s reported that they are in fact increasing sales  with this tactic. Whether they redirect the link to a site where they are selling physical products or services or simply taking you to sites covered in ads, the additional traffic is profitable Get commission.  Affiliates often get commission through increasing traffic statistics and this is an easy way for corrupt sites to do so Propaganda. Believe it or not, some users are even creating referral spam to spread their own personal political beliefs and propaganda. The most notorious case being the pro-Trump spam spread by Russian spammer Vitaly Popov. 4. Black Hat SEOs. There have been rumors in some cases where SEO’s or marketing agencies have used referral spam as a way of bloating their own client's traffic statistics to give a false impression of success. 5. Harvesting emails. The spammers will then sell the email addresses to 3rd parties who can use them for bulk email campaigns. 6. Spreading malware. There’s nothing spammers like more than causing havoc for the sake of it. Could spammers be trying to spread malware in your #Google #Analytics account? Find out (and fight...Now we’ve established what exactly Analytics spam is, why anyone bothers to create it, and how harmful it can be for your Google Analytics account and business, let’s talk about how we can prevent it. Recommended Reading: Using Google Analytics to Write Smarter Content Know the Different Types of Google Analytics Spam Out There ( How to Prevent Them) Google Analytics spam comes in different shapes and forms. Here are some common varieties to be aware of. Referral Spam Referral Spam is the main method here and one we’ve touched on already. It started a few years ago with the main culprits being sites such as "semalt" and "buttons-for-websites" and now it’s rare to see an analytics account that doesn’t have "abc.xyz", "free-traffic.xyz" or "ilovevitaly.com" as a referrer. How can you stop it? One of the first suggestions that surfaced on forums, social media and SEO news sites was blocking the related URL’s through your .htaccess file  in the root directory of your domain. How to Block Spam Bots in .htacess This method involves copy and pasting a bunch of code into your site and can be dangerous when done incorrectly as the .htaccess file is extremely important and defines how your server behaves. Entering the code incorrectly can take down the whole site so exercise this technique with extreme caution. If you do feel skilled enough at having a go at this method then check out this handy guide on blocking spam bots in .htaccess. Although in a lot of cases this works, as mentioned previously, most of the bots now do not even visit the website rendering blocking their URL in your .htaccess useless. It’s also extremely time-consuming to block all the URL’s, especially as there are new ones seemingly popping up every day. There must be a better solution†¦ Recommended Reading: How to Boost Traffic With 34 SEO Tips You Need to Know (+ Free Kit) Filtering Spam Bots with Custom Filters in Google Analytics Utilizing Custom Filters was the most effective workaround to the Google Analytics referral spam problem for a long while and it’s still a handy solution to know. It’s a much easier method to implement than blocking spam domains through .htaccess and you don’t need any coding skill. The only potential hazard here is filtering the wrong set of data and further polluting your data by entering the correct filter string. Follow the guide below and you won’t have any problems: Step 1: Head over to your Google Analytics profile and click Acquisition All Traffic Referrals: Step 2: Sort Referral Traffic by Bounce Rate: And make sure that you’ve set the timeframe to at least a couple of months: A zero or 100% bounce rate, with at least 20 sessions is a strong indicator that the referrer domain is spammy. If you’re unsure the domain you’re looking at is, in fact, spammy and you want to make sure you’re not excluding legitimate traffic sources, then you can check them against our trusted Ultimate Referral List  (a 128 domain strong list of referral spammers). Step 3: What to do if you can't find the domain? If you can’t find the domain in our list or other user-generated ‘Referral Spam Domain Lists’ that you can find online, such as ... https://github.com/piwik/referrer-spam-blacklist https://referrerspamblocker.com/blacklist https://perishablepress.com/4g-ultimate-referrer-blacklist/ ... then consider search the site’s domain on Google or social media to see what others are saying about it. Remember to err on the side of caution and not visit the potentially spammy sites as we already know they can be malicious and full of viruses. Step 4: Now that you have collated your final list of spammy referring domains we can then block them using ‘Custom Filters’. Head over to your Google Analytics profile and hit the ‘Admin’ tab. Then under the View  column, you will want to click the Filters button: Once you’ve navigated to the ‘Filters’ page click the big red Add Filter button: Step 5: Once you’re on the Edit Filter page you can enter the name that you’d like to call the filter. In the example below I have simply labeled them ‘Spam Referrers’ but you may wish to make this more descriptive or specific, especially if you have a lot of spam sites that you are wishing to filter out. Select the Custom Filter Type and check the Exclude option from the options below. Under Filter Field, you will want to select ‘Campaign Source’. Next, you’ll want to add in the Filter Pattern as you see it in the example below. ‘example.com|example2.com|example3.com’  etc. The pipe symbol ‘|’ is used as an "or" operator meaning that the filter ‘example.com’ or  example2.com or  example3.com will be excluded. However, Don't end the filter pattern with a pipe, as Google themselves warn that this â€Å"will exclude ALL referral sources†. Remember that you can only add in around ten or so spam referring domains as there is a 255 character limit for each filter. To get around this simply add in more filters until you’ve blocked all of the desired domains. Need to filter out spam bots in #Google #Analytics? Here's how:Referral Exclusion List The final method of blocking spam referral domains in Google Analytics that we’re going to look at is called the ‘Referral Exclusion List’ method and is the first solution that Google themselves have created for excluding rogue domains. The first thing that needs mentioning about this method is that it only works if you’re using the newer Universal Analytics rather than Classic Google Analytics. When Google released this new feature within Universal Analytics they highlighted two common uses for it: Third Party Referrals.  Especially payment processors. After you have added a payment processor into your Referral Exclusion List, when a user leaves your site to the payment processor then returns to your site following a purchase, the processor won’t show as the referring domain. A great example of this is if you use PayPal and you constantly see that as a referring source. Add PayPal as a referral exclusion and this will no longer skew the data. Self-Referrals. If you have several subdomains that a user may jump back and forth from you can add your own site into the exclusion list to prevent artificially inflating traffic data. Your site is automatically added to this when you set up your Analytics property so needs no implementation. However,  Google make no mention  of using this technique to block spam and some will argue that there is a reason behind this! Google states: â€Å"When you exclude a referral source, traffic that arrives to your site from the excluded domain doesn’t trigger a new session.† But, this doesn’t mean that the visit has been completely removed from your Analytics data. In some cases, it has been reported  that Google Analytics merely attributes the source of the visit differently, from a referral to ‘direct’ traffic. It has removed the referral spam attribution but the data can still be ruined. Again, exercise with caution! Recommended Reading: The Best Advice on How to Grow Your Blog Traffic By 1,044% In 1 Year With all that in mind, here’s how to access the Referral Exclusion List and block single domains: Step 1: Head over to the Admin tab in your Google Analytics account then click Tracking Info within the Property column: Step 2: Under the ‘Tracking Info’ dropdown select ‘Referral Exclusion List’ ...then click the ‘+ ADD REFERRAL EXCLUSION’ button. Step 3: Simply add in the domains that you wish to exclude from your referral traffic. One downside to this technique is that you can’t add domains in bulk which is another reason that the filter method (mentioned previously) may be more efficient. Language Spam The Future of Spam Just when we thought we had it all figured, along came a brand new brand of spam ready to pollute our beautiful Analytics data once more! Towards the back end of 2016, a new wave of Analytics spam hit many accounts, Language Spam. Ever notice sentences similar to this in your Language Report on Analytics? How about these: o-o-8-o-o.com search shell is much better than google! Vitaly rules google ☆*:ï ½ ¡Ã£â€šÅ"ï ¾Å¸Ã¯ ½ ¥*ãÆ' ½(^á ´â€"^)ï ¾â€°*ï ½ ¥Ã£â€šÅ"ï ¾Å¸Ã¯ ½ ¡:*☆  ¯_(ãÆ'„)_/ ¯(à ²  Ã§â€ºÅ Ã  ²  )(à ² ¥Ã¢â‚¬ ¿Ã  ² ¥)(ʘ†¿ÃŠËœ)áÆ'Å¡(à ²  _à ²  Ã¡Æ'Å¡)( Í ¡Ã‚ ° ÍÅ"Êâ€" Í ¡Ã‚ °)ãÆ' ½(ï ¾Å¸Ãâ€Ã¯ ¾Å¸)ï ¾â€°ÃŠâ€¢ÃŒ «Ã ¡ÃŠâ€Ã¡ ¶Ëœ á µâ€™Ã¡ ´ ¥Ã¡ µâ€™Ã¡ ¶â€¦(=^ ^=)oO The Language Spam problem was combined with yet more referral spam and often saw sites such as  brateg.xyz, begalka.xyz, bukleteg.xyz etc. in your data. Eventually, the referral spam was managing to use legitimate websites such as reddit.com, twitter.com  Ã‚  thenextweb.com to disguise itself. According to reports, research has shown that this is not too dissimilar to the standard referral spam we saw previously in how it works which means that it’s easy enough to block. Once the Language Spam has been recorded there is no way to permanently remove it from your historical data but you can filter it to report accurate historical statistics. You can also utilize the same methods to block Language Spam as you can with Referral Spam as we explain in detail further up the page. Has your site been hit by Language Spam? Here's what to do about it.Here’s how you can utilize Custom Segments to view accurate historical data even after you’ve been inflicted with Language Spam: Step 1: On report view in your Google Analytics account click ‘+ Add Segment’ at the top of the page ... ... then click the big, red ‘+New Segment’ button. Step 2: Staying on the ‘Demographics’ tab that you default to, give your new Segment a simple, easy to identify name: Step 3: Next up, you want to select ‘does not match regex’ from the drop down tab next to ‘Language’ and enter the following expression and then hit save: .{15,}|s[^s]*s|.|,|!|/ The filter above excludes any traffic where the language name contains 15+ characters as most, .com,.co.uk, .fr for example, don’t go over that limit yet the Language Spam names often do. It also excludes symbols which are invalid for use in the language field, such as commas, exclamations marks and speech marks, that are used to construct these spammy domain names. Once saved, you can now look back at data in your Google Analytics account over any period of time and analyze non-infiltrated stats. Lovely! Google Analytics spam is not a new thing and has been frustrating website owners and marketers alike for quite a while now. Whilst, with these techniques, you can block most of the spam coming through, there will no doubt be something else affecting your account somewhere along the line. Keep an eye out for any suspicious looking websites and the methods in this article may just be able to still help you.

Treatment of a soft tissue ankle injury Grade 1 and Grade 2 Essay

Treatment of a soft tissue ankle injury Grade 1 and Grade 2 - Essay Example Assessment of the injury is the determining factor for the intervention, which is applied in the treatment and management of the ankle injury. Many soft tissue injuries are commonly treated through simple interventions without surgery. Surgery is not indicated except to correct the most severe injuries. Soft injuries involve different range of tissue injuries from ankle tissue sprains to muscular and tendon injuries. The treatment of these injuries commonly involves interventions aimed at restoring full range of functionality to these tissues. The fundamental symptoms of these injuries include swelling, pain and stiffness, which commonly result in limited mobility. Epidemiology of the condition has indicated that these common issues can easily result in chronic disabilities. Soft tissue injuries commonly refer to trauma in various muscles, tendons, and ligaments located in a range of structures. These injuries commonly result from strains, sprains or excessive use of a body part, common to athletes, whose activities create soft-tissue risk factors for injuries in the legs specifically. The basic symptoms of these injuries include extreme pain, swelling and inflammation stressing affected tissues to the detriment of normal function. The PRICE principle is the intervention that is applied immediately following the injury. This principle is an acronym referring to the management procedures applied for soft tissue injury. The intervention usually begins immediately following the injury before hospitalisation and diagnosis of the severity of the sustained injury. Protection: This is performed to ensure the individual does not sustain further damage upon the injured area. Often, this involves a cast or brace that restricts whatever motion or position is most likely to exacerbate the injury while supporting the healing process. Ice: After sustaining an injury, ice is a necessity for the reduction of swelling and pain within the first 72 hours following