Computer Input and Output

Other data is originally recorded in a form that is acceptable to the computer L] Magnetic ink character recognition (MICE) C] Optical character recognition (OCCUR) This approach is called SOURCE DATA AUTOMATION third basic way to enter data into the computer is to key it into an online key driven device. CIA fourth option permits data input in audible form, using a voice recognition unit. Input Options Source data Key to tape Machine Computer readable data OCCUR docs MICE Keyboard Terminals MICE, OCCUR units Card, tape, disk Units Chain Nell Voice Recognition CPU Output offers similar options.Information or data can be recorded on a permanent medium, such as paper, microfilm, or punched cards, or the information can be displayed on a television like screen or resented audibly. OUTPUT options Chain Nell print information Termini al Display Plot Computer Output Microfilm Microfilm Microfilm Im printer Card punch Unit Punch Cards Viewer Channels and Control Snits The control unit conta ins the logic circuitry and storage needed for the control of multiple 1/0 devices. The channel contains the logic circuitry and storage needed to monitor several 1/0 device control units and provide pathways to and from the CPU.Role of Channels and Control Control Units High Speed Control unit Low Speed Jinni 1/0 Devices Channels and Control Units The transfer of data between the 1/0 unit, he control unit, and the channel is serial, or one byte at a time. When this operation is performed, the CPU can process other data in primary storage. The CHIP halts processing just long enough to enter the data from the channel. The interruption of the program in process is very brief because all of the bytes from the channel are transmitted to primary storage at once-?in parallel. The transfer of data from primary storage to an 1/0 unit works in the reverse sequence.Smaller computers have only one channel; larger systems have many. Importance of the channels: 0 Easy to overlook, but without th em CPU reference would be drastically reduced. C] The channel hardware and the operating system permit the multiprogramming that maximizes computer productivity. Without channels, there COUld be no time sharing or distributed processing, and batch processing would extremely slow and costly. SKYDIVER INPUT DEVICES Offline Skydiver Devices The most common input device was the keypunch machine. CLC The first key-to-tape and key-to-disk units used conventional magnetic tape reels and hard disks.Offline skydiver Machines Keypunch disk Punch Cards co Zion magnetic Tape Cassette Hard disk Floppy disk Reader Magnet ICC tape Cassette et ICC disk Floppy disk Magnetic tape cassette Contains 285 Ft. Of polyester. Data can be recorded at the density of 800 bytes per inch. Capacity: approximately 2000 punched cards. Floppy Disk Sizes: 5 1/4 inches and 8 inches in diameter. Capacity: 2000-8000 punched cards. KEYED MEDIA INPUT UNITS Card-reading and punching 0 Card reading speeds of 2000 per minute are not uncommon, but punching speeds are in the range of 100-250 per minute.C] Punched cards are used as turned around documents. Punched cards are also used to track materials as they flow through a plant or a distribution network. Floppy disk, Cassette, and Cartridge readers CLC Cassette, and Cartridge readers tapes are produced as a by-product of another operation Online skydiver devices TWO basic types of keyboard terminal: Displays output on a CRT C] Prints output on continuous paper form. Online skydiver devices CRT terminal- also called an ALPHANUMERIC DISPLAY TERMINAL and a VIDEO DISPLAY TERMINAL, is all – electronic, noiseless, and economical.C] Can display information very rapidly, filling the screen with characters much faster than the characters can be printed on the paper. Special features: CLC Color C] Reverse video 0 Blinking CLC Cursor L] Scrolling C] Paging C] Protected format Hard copy terminal – also known as TELEPROMPTER TERMINAL, is a terminal wi th paper output TWO basic categories of hardcopy terminal: C] Impact -? causes a print â€Å"hammer† to strike the paper to form the character Monomaniac – causes characters to be printed by means of some chemical or heat process, or by spraying the characters on the paper from an ink jet.

Columbia Capital Structure

Some other risk factors include substantial cyclical fluctuation, the effects of unseasonable weather conditions, and the popularity of the outdoor activities. In order to minimize the negative impacts on this business, the company started a series Of strategic initiatives, such as product innovation program, new multi-channel and multi-country direct-to-consumer platform, information management and their enhanced marketing efforts. All those improvement and implementation involve significant investment in SO&A expenses and its fixed cost.Thus it is essential to look back and evaluate their current capital structure and payout policies to exam whether the company would start on carrying debt or whether they have residual cash return to their investors. Despite Columbians regular dividend payouts and stock repurchases, they does not maintain a healthy cash and short-term investment balance. According to the financial data provided in Annual Report, the major financing needs include ca pital expenditures, working capital expenses, stock buybacks, and dividend payouts. In 201 1 , Columbia spent $78 million in capital expenditure and $92. Million in working capital investments; which was increased from $29 million and $78. 9 million from last year. Even though the company's net income increases over time, they have generated negative free cash flow for both fiscal year of 2011 and 2010 with around $14. 6 million and $53 million respectively. Currently, the company sales short-term investments to finance those capital expenditures which should not be a long term strategy as the company only has $2. 9 million short-term investments sitting on the balance sheet at the end of 2011.If the company maintains its profitability and its capital structure as the end of Fiscal year 2010, Columbia will have significant financial difficulties to meet capital expenditure requirement and will have emitted resources for distribution to investors in the form of a cash dividend and st ock repurchases with current payout rate. In conclusion, Columbia may need to seek additional funding. Even though, historically the company have limited their reliance on debt to finance their working capital, capital expenditures and investing activity requirements.We suggest that the company need to revise their capital structure policy by increasing debt to finance the business activities. Debt not only can provide coverage for any general costs and unforeseen expenses, it also serves as a tax shield allowing more capital to be available to investors. The assumption here is that the company can earn more in tax savings from borrowed funds than it pays in interest expenses and fees on these funds. As shown in Exhibit X, Columbians WAC hit a minimum of 6. 6% at 30% debt ratio, or debt to equity ratio of 0. 3. As the graph illustrates below, less than 30% debt or debt beyond 40% cause WAC to increase. Also, the PEPS and ROE increase compared to the current 100% equity model. In a b usiness, debt is a two-edged sword. Aggressive use of leverage increases the amount of financial resources available for growth, expansion, and payout for investors. But if Columbia adopts a highly leveraged capital structure policy, it may find its freedom of action restricted by its creditors and its profitability may hurt as a result of paying high interest expenses.It may also affect the company's profitability and liquidity when the business has trouble meeting Operating and debt liabilities during unfavorable economic conditions. Additionally, too much debt versus equity would potentially affects business' credit rating, which is the evaluation of a company's ability to repay principle and interest on debt obligations. Since the company do not have much experience on carrying debt on their lance sheet, we recommend the company to start the process slow.

Laughters

Laughters A wise man say, â€Å"A laugh is a smile that bursts. † A very good morning Madam Chairperson, honourable judges, distinguished time keeper, and members of the floor. Ladies and gentlemen, it is indeed and honour to be given the chance to stand here in front of you, the audience. My task today is to share with you about, â€Å"Laughters. † Parents of newborn babies learn quickly there are many different ways for a baby to cry. One type of cry means the baby is hungry, another says the child needs to be changed and yet another may mean it simply wants some attention.Though these cries may seem indistinguishable to an outsider, parents learn to respond with exactly what their child needs. Parents don't tend to put as much thought into what their child's laugh might mean, unless it sounds really weird and indicates an attack to the people surrounding. In fact, very few people think about differences in laughter at all. We often ask ourselves, why do we laugh? The answer may seem obvious: We laugh when we perceive something funny. But the obvious answer is not correct, at least most of the time.According to the expert Robert Provine; A PhD neurobiologist and Professor of Psychology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, most laughter is not in response to jokes or humor. Laughter isn't under our conscious control. Infants laugh almost from birth. In fact, people who are born blind and deaf still laugh. So we know it's not a learned behavior. Researcher also says that laughter may be just a simpler way to communicate and show agreement over certain matters.Laughter is a mechanism everyone has. It is part of the universal human vocabulary. All members of the human species understand it. Unlike English or Bahasa Malaysia or French, we don’t have to learn to speak it. We’re born with the capacity to laugh. Laughter is a message that we send to other people. We know this because we rarely laugh when we are alone, do we? La ughter is also specifically a social structure, something that connects humans with one another in a profound way.According to Provine’s findings, people are 30 percent more likely to laugh in a social setting that warrants it than when alone with humour-inducing media. That means that you're more likely to laugh with friends while watching a comedy together than when you're watching the same show or movie by yourself. Though there are many ways to laugh, from giggles to guffaws and from chuckles to cackles, it turns out that we humans laugh for many reasons, some of them are odd. So what are some of the different types and reasons for all the laughter?In first place, The Fake Laughter. This type of laughter comes in handy as a way to get along with others, that’s why sometimes we laugh at things that just aren’t funny, whether we’re with our boss, with our teachers or with our friends. Second, The Contagious Laughter. Imagine you're out for dinner with a group of friends. Someone tells a joke and gets one person laughing, which gets a second person laughing, and it continues to one another. Hence, a circle of laughter is created. Is catching laughter like catching a cold?It's very likely. Besides that, The Nervous Laughter. During times of anxiety, we often laugh in a subconscious attempt to reduce stress and calm down. Laughter lowers the levels of at least four hormones that are associated with stress, so after a good giggle you should be far less tense and anxious. However, nervous laughter usually just heightens the awkwardness of the situation. Let’s move on to The Belly Laughter. Belly laughter is considered as the most honest type of laughter.It may also be the hardest type to experience, because we have to find something truly hilarious before we'll let go with the kind of laughter that has us clutching our bellies and gasping for air. Next, The Silent Laughter. This happens when you laugh so hard no sound actually c omes out and sometimes, tears are coming out of your unsuspecting eyes . It’s like the laugh gets confused and forgets to come from the back of your throat. This laughter stays lodged inside of your brain and you hear it loudly in your head. Lastly, The Unappropriate Laughter.Fortunate because laughter is fun (and  good for your health  , remember? ). Misfortunate because this type of laughter could potentially offend someone else or ruin a particular mood. You've probably heard some motherly person say, â€Å"It isn't polite to laugh at others' expense. † Classic examples of this are to laugh while attending a person’s funeral, or maybe when someone farted, which is pretty funny, that you’re the only one who heard it or smelled it. If someone else hears your laughter they could be infected by it, because we all know that laughter is contagious.I’ve mentioned few ways of laughter; The Fake Laughter, The Contagious Laughter, The Nervous Laughter , The Belly Laughter, The Silent Laughter and lastly The Unappropriate Laughter. Ladies and gentlemen, which laughter do you prefer? This list of different types of laughter is not the end-all be-all, but it is pretty close. Even so, laughter takes on many different forms. As has been said, we`ve all heard the phrase â€Å"laughter  is the best medicine. † But what matters are when laughter is shared, it binds people together and increases happiness and intimacy. Thank you.

Education - A Way To Wisdom Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Education - A Way To Wisdom - Research Paper Example Most of his quotes attract the attention of the reader towards the fact that more the man follows his heart, the more he opens to learning new things and in learning new things, he becomes an ideal human being. Some of Confucius’s quotes that give an idea about his opinion about education and the way he thought the human being should learn are discussed below.Quote 1â€Å"What does the heaven ever say? Yet the four seasons go round and find their impetus there, and the myriad creatures are born from it. What does heaven ever say† (Mou 114)? Reflection on this quote reveals that Confucius believed in education that teaches the students to make learning a natural process. In the above saying, he draws the reader’s attention towards the way the universe functions. Confucius’s students were worried about his silence and thought that if the master does not say anything, how will the students learn (Mou 114)? In response to this worry, Confucius said the above s tatement. What he meant was that when things are taught through silence, there comes a harmony in the society (Mou 114). What he meant was that the observation of the behavior and the rituals followed by the master imparts more knowledge to a human being than the words of the master and the words in the texts. Knowledge is made by man. Men who ‘experience’ certain things try to spread it through words. However, the knowledge can become wisdom only when students go beyond words and try to experience what is being taught.

Determination the Role of the US in War Research Paper

Determination the Role of the US in War - Research Paper Example It tends to be forgotten that war affects all people in a nation. Not just the soldiers who fight on the front lines or their families who must deal with their absences and deaths, but everyone living within that nation. In his speech, Charles Lindberg declared the importance of listening to the nation as a whole as it is the whole nation who is subjected to war and not just a few individuals. This opinion has altered the way that war is viewed. Instead of war being an act of simple revenge, fighting regardless of the outcome, war has become a game that we, as players on the same team, must win. To successfully win, we have to remember the entirety of our nation when we consider starting or entering the war. The position of the United States in war has led to a vital development in society, one in which every person’s opinions, through voting, are taken to heart and the majority wins. As Lindberg stated, â€Å"There is no better way to give comfort to an enemy than to divide the people of a nation over the issue of foreign war.†1 When a nation finds itself in its own battle with citizen pinned against citizen, they are only making themselves easier targets for their enemies. Should they enter a war with their own drama, they stand no chance at winning. When Lindberg gave his speech, he was providing the United States with one of the most effective methods of success that this nation can have when subjected to war: unity. This is why America boasts of its democracy, and it shows especially during times of war.  

Theories of the Disappearance of Quenn Hatshepsut Essay

Theories of the Disappearance of Quenn Hatshepsut - Essay Example They named him Tuthmosis II who was named heir. The reign of Queen Hatshepsut was one that was intriguing. There are many mysteries that surround her reign in power. It is suspected that her nephew, Thutmose the Third, overtook his inheritance when he was young to become a king. Further accomplishments of the queen were cut short by her disappearance under mysterious circumstances. This was after rising to power, and her nephew immediately took reign and control of the throne. It has been for long speculated that he assassinated her to take control of the throne. This paper is a brief summary of the theories that try to explain her mysterious disappearance. The Evil Stepmother Theory There are many speculations as to why her name was removed from all records. They range from a view that Thutmose III took her to be a wicked stepmother in the dynasty struggle between the two families. There is a tale of how the queen seized power; the resistance of Tuthmosis III to her reign is evident in the way he swiftly ordered the destruction of all of her monuments. The animosity between the two leaders was even present in some early papers that describe the excavations that were produced by the Exploration Society of Egypt in the 1890s. The theory of the wicked stepmother became more dominant in the writing of the queen’s history (Strouhal & Forman, 2006). ... This theory comes into play because of the fact that after Thutmose the Third came to power, he ordered any record of his aunt to be removed completely. He did not want anything to do with her, and this is despite the fact that during her reign, she had achieved many accomplishments that helped the Egyptian society to be successful and grow for many years (Egypt Exploration Society, 2001). The resentment that he had for her could have played a significant part in her disappearance. However, some people believe that he decided to silence everything about his aunt to protect the family’s name. Early scholars, however, believe that Thutmose III had her killed since she had refused to step down as pharaoh when he came of age (Egypt Exploration Society, 2001). Death by Natural Causes Many scholars have speculated that the queen aged and died of natural causes, and after her death, the natural selection of her successor took place, where Thutmose III took charge. The corpse of the q ueen was for many years hidden by Tuthmosis III and buried in secret. It was believed that there was nothing that was left of her body, apart from some fragments that were found in a canopic jar. Archeologists did, however, find a mummified body in the Valley of the Kings that was suspected to be the queen’s. This was later confirmed by a lot of evidence and DNA testing. Some scholars believe that she died of natural causes, and this explained why her liver and other internal body parts were found separate from the body and stored in a jar. Others believe that she died from an abscess after the removal of a tooth (Burgan, 2009). Protection of the Family Name Another accepted theory suggests that Tuthmosis III wanted to cover

Rights and Obligations of Spouses in Islamic Marriage Research Paper

Rights and Obligations of Spouses in Islamic Marriage - Research Paper Example Seeking to understand and evaluate the main rights and obligations of spouses in an Islamic marriage, the following aims to provide a thorough, yet critical overview of an important issue. With an emphasis on the important obligations facing both men and women as they pertain to marriage, this critical essay will utilize the research of Amina Wadud-Muhsin, in her groundbreaking piece Qur’an and Women, to understand the ways in which gender is framed through an Islamic lens. Following this, an overview of the issues studied will conclude with a critical overview of the important rights and obligations of spouses within Islam. The following section turns more thoroughly to the main rights and obligations with the institution of marriage within Islam (Chaudhry, 2001). Developed through the teachings of the late Prophet Mohammad and framed within the social context in which the doctrine developed, Islam has prescribed roles for both men and women within the Islamic faith. Islam invites all the Muslims to follow Islamic teachings in all spheres of their life for the deliverance of humanity. The Qu’ran is the sacred text of all Muslims which is revealed to Prophet Muhammad. Islamic teachings are best understood through both the Qu’ran and Hadith. Allah says in the Qu’ran, "And He does not speak out of caprice. It is not but a revelation revealed, taught him by one terrible in power. (Chapter-53: verses-3 to 5). Islam proclaims to do everything fi-sabilillah (for the sake of God). Islam also orders Muslims to visit and take care of sick persons. Furthermore, the relationship between husband and wife is seen as one of the most important social bonds which exist in society (Esposito, 2008). An Islamic marriage begins with the nikah, which is the matrimonial contract between husband and wife. The marriage can only be said to be Islamically sound if the prerequisites of nikah are fulfilled and entered into without duress.

CASE STUDY Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Case Study Example Consultant, while not very well versed with the issues in hospitality industry, was nevertheless of the view that if turnover is a recurring or chronic problem, one must tackle it differently. In this case, while turnover was recognized as consistent problem, recruitment remained the only solution. Gunter’s assumption that issue needed to be looked from different perspective was correct. Consultant’s advice inspired him to investigate turnover and ex employees who had left for better prospects. The resort was seen as major training institute by other resorts who thought of Green Mountain’s alumni employees as top performers. Hence, Gunter took new recruits as opportunity to get hard working and committed workers. The recruits as career building would be able to give excellent level of service and thereby, contribute to resort’s success. It was sound strategy because there will not be shortage of potential top performers as they would continue to wait for their enlistment in the resort. Recruits are motivated because working in the resort is good for career

Emotions Personal Statement Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Emotions - Personal Statement Example The incidence is when I was attending a school annual function. I really wanted to have a nice view of the entire programme. I was in the audience, sitting in the first row with a relaxed temperament. I am a down- to - earth person I enjoy dances and songs but never wanted to be a part of the show. Things were going smooth and I was totally involved in the function. I was applauding my friends, cheering them for their actions, encouraging them for their performance. It was really a fun and frolic time for me and I became the part of the function. The emotional turmoil came when I was asked by the master of the festival to be present on the stage. I got the shock of my life. I was in a real fix, freeze as ice and was spell bound. Could not understand anything but heard my heart beats and could feel the blood gushing into my body with a much faster pace. I could not make a single move. It was like the whole world is spinning around me and everybody is giving me a fleeting look! I gathered all my lost courage and started a move to the stage with an emotional pressure that was pushing and at the same time pulling me. A battle was going on inside me, what to do What should I say How it happened Why me only Cursing myself why I was making so much fuss, praying to God Uttering.. "Please help me God.

Project Management Unit 7 - Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Project Management Unit 7 - Assignment - Essay Example In the transportation stage, he will need information on the status of the transportation of the machines. The freighters will give this information. They will use phones and emails to communicate between them. The vendor will also communicate to the company on his progress on acquiring the machines the company requires for the installation of the system. This will be done by use of emails and personal communication with the head of the installation project with back up documents in hard copy. The engineers will need to keep in touch with the technicians in London and Baumholder. They will require information on the progress on the installations the technicians make on an hourly basis. The engineers and technicians will use teleconferencing to communicate. This will enable the engineers to communicate on small details that would not be possible with other methods of communication. They will also require the feedbacks from the testers on a daily basis during the testing stage. The engineers will provide questioners to the testers to complete. This will be done online through the use of electronic mails and phone calls. The engineers should also report on the progress of the installments to the company management through presentations and reports. They should make updates to the implementation team on a weekly basis to give the company enough time to address any emerging issue. The engineers should make the updates in hardcopy as well as in person with the head of the company’s department in charge. They will require instructions from the engineers. The technicians will also provide a detailed report on the system they assemble. The report should include all the information necessary to addressing future breakdowns or changes in the system. The report should be in hard copy, and they should deliver it to the company’s data department for storage. The department shall ensure that the purchases the vendor makes are in line with the specifications the

A Comparison of Mac OSX Tiger and Microsoft Windows Vista Essay Example for Free

A Comparison of Mac OSX Tiger and Microsoft Windows Vista Essay Introduction: Microsofts Windows and Apples Mac OSX are one of the most prominent Operating Systems in the world. Both have millions of Active users and are considered as major rivals. Both Operating systems have their specific advantages as well as some disadvantages. Both operating systems have evolved throughout the time in a specific manner and has managed to create their own identity. This paper will compare the latest releases of both software giants i.e. â€Å"Microsoft Windows Vista† and â€Å"Mac OSX Tiger†. A Comparison of Microsoft Windows Vista and Mac OSX Tiger: Mac OSX Tiger 10.4x is the latest release of the OSX series of operating systems released by Apple Corps. This version was released in spring 2005. Like its predecessors Tigers foundation is laid on the Unix Kernel â€Å"Darwin†. The Unix foundation has made Tiger more secure and reliable than its non Unix rivals like Microsofts Windows. There are no known Viruses, Worms or Spywares which can force Tiger to compromise . Vistas predecessor Windows XP has been under attack by the hackers and viruses since its release for the first time which compelled Microsoft to fix the loopholes in the form of service packs. That why its successor Vista has been developed with security in mind. Though Vista seems to be more secure than XP or other earlier Windows releases but it has not achieved 100% immunity against viruses and worms. Apple has maintained a policy of releasing new versions roughly after every 18 months. Due to this approach the changes and innovations made in the new versions were not that prominent to confuse the users. On the contrary Microsoft has not released any new version after the release of Windows XP in 2001. Thus the change in Vista is more dramatic than change in Tiger. Speaking about the GUI and its features Tiger and Vista share many similarities. Because Tiger is a couple of years older than Vista seems to draw many features and ideas from Tiger. Some notable similarities are in icons. Vista has also change the names of â€Å"My Documents† and â€Å"My Computer† folder to â€Å"Documents† and â€Å"Computer† same as in Tiger. The term Vista Aero Interface is very similar to Tigers Aqua interface in terminology. The buttons and other interface details have the same shiny round look as in Tiger. Tigers most amazing feature is its spotlight search technology which is borrowed by Vista in such a way that even the search button is identical to it, only the magnifying glass turns on the opposite side. But along these similarities Vista is more advanced and sophisticated than Tiger in a number of ways. Vista provides a more sophisticated file previewing technology not found in Tiger. It can even preview text files. Moreover Vistas folder give the preview of the files located inside them a feature not found in Tiger. Moreover Vista can scale icons and previews up to 128 by 128 pixels. Regarding file management and searching Vista and Tiger share many similarities. Vistas new file searching technologies are very similar to Tigers spotlight technology, but Vista goes further ahead and provides the facility of adding meta data in Internet Explorer directly. Vista provides multiple fields for searching and adding meta data a feature not available in Tiger. Vista has also borrowed the idea of Tigers smart folders renaming them as virtual folders. But Vista has also developed some advanced file management features not found in Tiger. Vista provides a new backup system which record changes in the backed up files time to time and save them in a protected folder. Vista has also developed a feature available in Mac OSX since its earlier times. OSX has the ability to create any document in PDF. Vista on the other hand has given support to change any document in Metro an universal XML document format. Regarding networking Vista is far more superior than Tiger. This is basically because Vista is more compatible to Microsoft servers than Tiger. Vista has also provided the facility to connect to a project on the network and send presentations to it. Vista is also introducing Ipv6 protocol, a feature which is available in OSX since Panther. Vista also has a better support for RSS feeds, Weblogs etc. Media Center is a feature which can certainly be called the pride of Microsoft in the world of Desktops and operating systems. Because neither Tiger nor any other competitor such accomplished media center facitlities as provided by Microsoft. The feature first introduced in Windows XP Media Center edition has shown further enhancements and innovations in this regard. Conclusion: Though Vista is a major innovative change for Windows users many new features introduced in Vista are not that new in the world of desktops. Tiger and some other operating systems have introduced them a couple of years ago. But Vista has gone further beyond. There are many features and advances in Vista which are not found in any operating system currently. Security is the key problem thats why Vista provides more sophisticated security features than Tiger. Vista also has the advantage of the largest number of software support which Tiger doesnt. But Tiger has support of open source softwares thanks to its Unix foundation. One can conclude that each operating system is superior to its rival in some characteristics and lacks some features found in the other. References James Fallows (2006), Microsoft Reboots: A Preview of the New Versions of Windows and Office, The Atlantic Monthly. Volume: 298. Issue: 5 The Atlantic Monthly Magazine J.V. Bolkan (2005), Facing the Future: Computer Hardware Is Getting a New Set of Standards. Find out How They Will Affect Your Future Purchases, Learning Leading with Technology. Volume: 33. Issue: 3, International Society for Technology in Education. Royal Van Horn (2006), The Perfect Computer and Web Browser Updates, Phi Delta Kappan. Volume: 88. Issue: 1. Publication Year: 2006. Page Number: 7, Phi Delta Kappa, Inc

Re-offender puts lives at risk Essay Example for Free

Re-offender puts lives at risk Essay Ex-convict Mr. Jones was held in custody yesterday for the bribery of 2 local children, Jack and Jill Bramcote. The pair of children aged no less than 12 were bribed with a pack of sweets to climb up the green hill formally known as the death trap to collect a pale of water. The 2 children unaware of the great danger accepted the offer to consequently risk their lives. Whilst on their voyage up the death trap to the derelict well Jack passed out from exhaustion and dehydration, falling 40 meters to the ground. Unfortunately Jill came plummeting after trying to save her be-loved brother. When questioned all Mr Jones had to say was, stupid naive kids! But of cause we all no Mr. Jones is very used to the you have a right to remain silent, anything you do say may be held against you in court concept as this isnt his first time in trouble with the police now is it Mr Jones?! Mr Jones is due to be in court next week for a number of charges, one of which aiding and betting. Haunted Happenings Two local 9 year old children Jack and Jill Morris were found in a critical state at the bottom of the green hill on Saturday evening. Its thought that the 2 children were planning on climbing the hill to prove their belief that the derelict well is not haunted and is not the home of bloody Mary. A girl from the childrens school explains the myths,well for generations people that have lived in the village of Nottingham have known that the well at the top of the green hill is haunted and that it is the home of the bloody Mary, a vicious women, who can poses anyone with evil spirits, and marks all victims with a Greek symbol Trails found on the green hill have been identified as Jack and Jills, the trails were found going up the hill, but none were found coming down it, there is no evidence that Jack and Jill ever came down the hill, yet they both ended up at the bottom of it. Doctors have stated that the cause of the pairs injury was not due to a trip or a fall. Symbols forensics found on the wall of the well have also been found on Jack and Jill on their left shoulder. After an intense 2 days historians reported that the symbol means let the curse be upon the persons whom are marked and that it is Greek terminology. Both children are in intensive care and have not yet awoken. Police hope to question the pair when they regain consciousness and have said that until then they cannot comment on the evidence until done so. The green hill and well have both been cordoned off until more evidence has been gathered on the happenings of the 22nd January. Killer construction On Tuesday 23rd October 2008 police found 2 children in a critical state at the bottom of a hill in Nottingham. Its believed that the children (not named for security reasons) were roaming the town in their holidays and decided to get a drink from a well positioned on the summit of the hill. Prints have been found on the well matching the childrens and so prove they got to the well, but after having a drink the pair had a water fight and in frantic running, rushing, ducking and diving the eldest out of the two came stumbling down the hill after falling over a piece of timber. All alone the younger sibling was left startled and shocked, and came running down after her brother only to fall over a scaffolding pole left behind after construction work. The pair was airlifted to the nearest hospital and received urgent medical care. Police investigating found the construction company, Gilford Try to blame due to the state the company left the hill in after aborting a major plan to build a mega-home on the land. The company should by law put up signs, posters and gates with warning and danger written in bold that can be clearly seen, however the company didnt have any signs or anything to indicate danger. Seen as the company failed to follow the rules, they have been fined à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½300,000. The mother of the children gave us her view, I think its pathetic, a big company like that would risk lives and their reputation just because they cant be bothered to put up a few signs! There is no excuse for putting someones life at risk and thats just what they did to both of my children putting them through a lot of pain and suffering. It seems they left behind a death trap only to start building another one Susan Miles the mother of the children have begun the process of suing the company and will have a minimum settlement of à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½400,000. Step up or fall down On Monday of last week celebrities Jack Johnson and Jill Hepp were both emitted to hospital with several broken bones after a terrible accident filming choreography for their upcoming movie step up two, the streets. Jack was said to have tripped over whilst lifting Jill, sending the pair flying down the Hollywood hill. First aiders on standby immediately treated the stars while waiting for a helicopter to airlift them both to the nearest private hospital. In a statement the producers of step up two, the streets announced that the films launch date has been postponed until November.

Factor Language Model Programming

Factor Language Model Programming Language Model Language model helps a speech recognizer figure out how likely a word sequence is, independent of acoustics. There is a linguistic and statistical approach to calculate the probability. The linguistic technique tries to understand the syntactic and semantic structure of a language and derive the probabilities of word sequences using this knowledge. The challenge here is to have proper co occurrence statistics of the unit of recognition. The approach in use evaluates a huge text corpus in a statistical way and word transitions. Current language models make no use of the syntactic properties of natural language but rather use very simple statistics such as word co-occurrences. Recent results show that incorporating syntactic constraints in a statistical language model reduces the word error rate on a conventional dictation task by 10% [M.S.Salam, 2009]. Proposed Language Model The approach proposed here uses factored language model which incorporates the morphological knowledge. Factored language models have recently been proposed for incorporating morphological knowledge in the modeling lexicon. As suffix and compound words are the cause of the growth of the vocabulary, a logical idea is to split the words into shorter units. The language model proposed in this research is based on morphology. A morphological analyser obtains and verifies the internal structure of a given complete word form [Rosenfield, 2000]. Building a morphological analyser for highly inflecting, agglutinative languages is a challenging task. It is very difficult to build a high performance analyser for such languages. The main idea here is to divide a given word form into a stem and single suffix. Morphology plays a much greater role in Telugu. An inflected Telugu word starts with a stem and may have suffix(s) added to the right according to complex rules of saMdhi. This research proposes a new data structure based on Inverted Index and an efficient algorithm for accessing its elements. Few researchers have used tries for efficient retrieval from dictionary, earlier. This research work is different from earlier work in two ways: a) variation to the structure of trie b) the method of identifying and combining inflections. Modified Trie Structure A trie is a tree based data structure for storing strings in order to support fast pattern matching. A trie T represents the strings of set S of n strings with paths from root to the external node of T. Fig 5.1: Original Trie Structure The trie considered here is different from standard trie in two ways: 1) A standard trie does not allow a word to be prefix of another, but the proposed trie structure allows a word to be prefix of another word. The node structure and search algorithm also is given according to this new property. 2) Each word in a standard trie ends at an external node, where as in the modified trie a word may end at either an external node, or the internal node. Irrespective of whether the word ends at internal node or external node, the node stores the index of the associated word in the occurrence list. The node structure is changed such that, each node of the trie is represented by a triplet C,R,Ind>. C represents character stored at that node. R represents whether the concatenation of characters from root till that node forms a meaningful stem word. Its value is 1, if characters from root node to that node form a stem, 0 otherwise. Ind represents index of the occurrence list. Its value depends on the value of R. Its value is -1 (negative 1), if R=0, indicating it is not a valid stem. So no index of occurrence list matches with it. If R=1, its value is index of occurrence list of associated stem. Fig 5.2: Modified Trie Structure Advantages relative to binary search tree: The following are the main advantages of tries overbinary search trees(BSTs): Looking up keys is faster. Looking up a key of lengthmtakes worst caseO(m) time. A BST performs O(log(n)) comparisons of keys, wherenis the number of elements in the tree, because lookups depend on the depth of the tree, which is logarithmic in the number of keys if the tree is balanced. Hence in the worst case, a BST takes O(mlogn) time. Moreover, in the worst case log(n) will approachm. Also, the simple operations tries use during lookup, such as array indexing using a character, are fast on real machines. Tries can require less space when they contain a large number of short strings, because the keys are not stored explicitly and nodes are shared between keys with common initial subsequences. Tries facilitatinglongest-prefix matching, helping to find the key sharing the longest possible prefix of characters all unique. Corpus structure of proposed Language Model The corpus consists of the following modules: Stem word dictionary This accommodates all the stems of the language. Stem word dictionary is implemented as an Inverted Index for better efficiency. The Inverted index will have the following two data structures in it: 1) Occurrence list: It is an array of pairs, 2) Stem trie: consisting of stem words Occurrence list is constructed based on the grammar of the language, where each entry of the list contains the pair (ii) Inflection Dictionary This dictionary contains the list of all possible inflections of the Telugu language. Each entry of Stem word dictionary lists the indexes of this dictionary to indicate which all inflections are possible with that stem. The proposed corpus structure helps in reducing the corpus size drastically. Every stem word may have number of inflections possible. If the inflected words are stored as it is, then corpus size would be m*n, where m is number of stem words and n is number of inflections. Instead of storing all the inflected words, the proposed corpus structure stores stem words and inflections separately, and handles the inflected words through morphology. Hence the corpus size required is for m stem words and n inflections i.e., m+n. Thus there is a great reduction in the corpus size. For a corpus of 1000 stem words and 10 inflections, the required corpus size is 1000+10=1010, which otherwise would have required 1000*10=10000. Fig 5.3 : Corpus structure of proposed Language Model Textual Word Segmentation using Proposed Language Model The proposed language model is used to develop a textual word segmenter. A word segmenter is used to divide the given inflected word into a stem and single inflection. This is required as the corpus stores stems and inflections separately. Input the word segmenter is an Inflected word. Syllabifier takes this word and divides the word into syllables and identifies if the letter is a vowel or a consonant. After applying the rules syllabified form of the input will be obtained. Once the process of syllabification is done, this will be taken up by the analyzer. Analyzer separates the stem and inflection part of the given word. This stem word will be validated by comparing it with the stem words present in stem dictionary. If the stem word is present, then the inflection of the input word will be compared with the inflections present in inflection dictionary of the given stem word. If both the inflections get matched then it will directly displays the output otherwise it takes the appropriate inflection(s) through comparison and then displays. Syllabification is the separation of the words into syllables, where syllables are considered as phonological building blocks of words. It is dividing the word in the way of our pronunciation. The separation is marked by hyphen. In the morphological analyzer, the main objective is to divide the given word into root word and the inflection. For this, we divide the given input word into syllables and we compare the syllables with the root words and inflections to get the root word and appropriate inflection. Fig 5.4: Block diagram of Word Segmentr for text Steps for word segmentation Receiving the inflected word as an input from the user. Syllabify the input Analyze the input and validating the stem word. Identify the appropriate inflection for the given stem word by comparing the inflection of given word with the inflections present in inflection dictionary of the stem word. Displaying the appropriate inflected word. For example, considering the word â€Å"nAnnagariki† (à  Ã‚ °Ã‚ ¨Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã‚ ¾Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã‚ ¨Ãƒ  Ã‚ ±Ã‚ Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã‚ ¨Ãƒ  Ã‚ °-à  Ã‚ °Ã‚ ¾Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã‚ °Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã‚ ¿Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã¢â‚¬ ¢Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã‚ ¿) meaning â€Å"to father†, the input is given the user in Roman transliteration format. This input is basically divided into lexemes as: Now, the array is processed which gives the type of lexeme by applying the rules of syllabification one by one. Applying Rule 1: â€Å" No two vowels come together in Telugu literature.† The given user input does not have two vowels together. Hence this rule is satisfied by the given user input. The output after applying this rule is same as above. If the rule is not satisfied, an error message is displayed that the given input is incorrect. Now the array is: c – v – c – c – v – c – v – c – v – c – v Applying Rule 2: â€Å" Initial and final consonants in a word go with the first and last vowel respectively.† Telugu literature rarely has the words which end up with a consonant. Mostly all the Telugu words end with a vowel. So this rule does not mean the consonant that ends up with the string, but it means the last consonant in string. The application of this rule2 changes the array as following: c – v – c – c– v – c – v – c – v – c – v cv – c – c – v – c – v – c – v – cv This generated output is further processed by applying the other rules. Applying Rule 3: â€Å" VCV: The C goes with the right vowel.† The string wherever has the form of VCV, then this rule is applied by dividing it as V – CV. In the above rule the consonant is combined with the vowel, but here in this rule the consonant is combined with the right vowel and separated from the left vowel. To the output generated by the application of rule2, this rule is applied and the output will be as: cv – c – c – v – c – v – c – v – cv cv – c – c – v – cv – cv – cv This output is not yet completely syllabified, one more rule is to be applied which finishes the syllabification of the given user input word. Applying Rule 4: â€Å" Two or more Cs between Vs First C goes to the left and the rest to right.† It is the string which is in the form of VCCC*V, then according to this rule it is split as VC – CC*V. In the above output VCCV in the string can be syllabified as VC – CV. Then the output becomes: cv – c – c – v – cv – cv – cv cvc– cv – cv – cv – cv Now this output is converted to the respective consonants and vowels. Thus giving the complete syllabified form of the given user input. nAn – na –cA – ri – ku cvc – cv – cv – cv – cv Hence, for the given user input, â€Å"nAnnagAriki†, the generated syllabified form is, â€Å"nAn – na – gA – ri – ki†. Fig 5.5: Word Segmenter showing an inflected word without change in stem form Fig 5.6: Word Segmenter showing an inflected word with a change in stem form SCIL Speech Corrector for Indian Languages In inflectional language every word consists of one or several morphemes into which the word can be segmented. The approach used here aims at reducing the above mentioned problem of having a very huge corpus for good recognition accuracy. It exploits the characteristic of Telugu language that every word consists of one or several morphemes into which the word can be segmented. SCIL is a procedure To deal with complex word forms applied after recognition Using which misrecognized words are corrected Architecture of SCIL The design of Speech Corrector for Indian Languages, consists of the Syllable Identifier, Phone Sequence Generator, Word Segmenter, and Morpho- Syntactic Analyzer modules. Input speech is decoded by a normal ASR system which gives the identified word as a string. The sequence of phones would be the input to the Word Segmenter module which matches the phonetized input with the root words stored in dictionary module, and generates a possible set of root words. Morpho-Syntactic Analyzer compares the inflection part of the signal with the possible inflections list from the database and gives correct inflection. This will be given to Morph Analyzer to apply morpho-syntactic rules of the language and gives the correct inflected word. Fig 5.7: Block diagram of SCIL i) Syllable Identifier Syllable identifier marks the rough boundaries of the syllables and labels them. At this stage , we get list of syllables separated with hyphen. The user input is syllabified and this would be the input to the next module. E.g. dE-vA-la-yA-ku ii) Phone Sequence Generator As the words in the dictionary are stored at phone level transcription, this module generates the phone sequences from the syllables. E.g. d-E-v-A-l-a-y-A-k-u iii) Word Segmentor This module compares the phonetized input from starting with the root words stored in dictionary module and lists the possible set of root words. The possible root word is dEvAlayamu. iv) Dictionary Dictionary contains stems and inflections separately. It does not store inflected words as it is very difficult, if not impossible, to cover all inflected words of the language. The database consists of 2 dictionaries: Stem Dictionary Inflection Dictionary Stem dictionary contains the stem words of the language, signal information for that stem which includes the duration and location of that utterance and list of indices of inflection dictionary which are possible with that stem word. Inflection Dictionary contains the inflections of the language, signal information for that inflection which includes the duration and location of that utterance. Both the dictionaries are implemented using trie structure in order to reduce the search space. v) Morpho Syntactic Analyzer This module compares the inflection part of the signal with the possible inflections list from the database and gives correct inflection. This will be given to Morph Analyzer to apply morpho-syntactic rules of the language and gives the correct inflected word. Post Recognition Procedure Capture the utterance, an isolated inflected word. Get its syllabified form. Generate phone sequence from the syllabified word. Compare the phone sequences with stem words in the dictionary and identify the stem. Segment the word into stem and inflection. Get the list of possible inflections. Compare the inflection signals possible with that stem one by one and apply morpho-syntactic rules of the language to combine stem and inflection. Display the inflected word. Using the rules the possible set of root words are combined with possible set of inflections and the obtained results are compared with the given user input and the nearest possible root word and inflection are displayed if the given input is correct. If the given input is not correct then the inflection part of the given input word is compared with the inflections of that particular root word and identifies the nearest possible inflection and combines the root word with those identified inflections, applies sandhi rules and displays the output. When there is more than one root word or more than one inflection has minimum edit distance then the model will display all the possible options. User can choose the correct one from that. For example, when the given word is pustakaMdO (à  Ã‚ °Ã‚ ªÃƒ  Ã‚ ±Ã‚ Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã‚ ¸Ãƒ  Ã‚ ±Ã‚ Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã‚ ¤Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã¢â‚¬ ¢Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ  Ã‚ ±Ã¢â‚¬ ¹), the inflections tO making it pustakaMtO (à  Ã‚ °Ã‚ ªÃƒ  Ã‚ ±Ã‚ Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã‚ ¸Ãƒ  Ã‚ ±Ã‚  à  Ã‚ °Ã‚ ¤Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã¢â‚¬ ¢Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã‚ ¤Ãƒ  Ã‚ ±Ã¢â‚¬ ¹) meaning ‘with the book’ and lO making it pustakaMlO (à  Ã‚ °Ã‚ ªÃƒ  Ã‚ ±Ã‚ Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã‚ ¸Ãƒ  Ã‚ ±Ã‚ Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã‚ ¤Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã¢â‚¬ ¢Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã‚ ²Ãƒ  Ã‚ ±Ã¢â‚¬ ¹) meaning ‘in the book’) mis are possible. Present work will list both the words and user is given the option. We are working on improving this by selecting the appropriate word based on the context. SCIL Algorithm W=Utterance.wav Syl[]=SyllableIdentifier(W) Phone[]=phonetizer(Syl[]) Stem=getStem(Syl[]) Infl[]=getInflections(Stem) While (not exactMatch) word=MorphAnalyzer(stem,inflMatch) display word Stop Working of SCIL Once possible root words identified the given word is segmented into two parts, first being the root word and second part inflection. Now the inflection part is compared in the reverse direction for a match in the inflection dictionary. It will consider only the inflections that are mentioned against the possible root words, thus reducing the search space and making the algorithm faster. For example consider â€Å"nAnnagariki† (à  Ã‚ °Ã‚ ¨Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã‚ ¾Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã‚ ¨Ãƒ  Ã‚ ±Ã‚ Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã‚ ¨Ãƒ  Ã‚ °-à  Ã‚ °Ã‚ ¾Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã‚ °Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã‚ ¿Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã¢â‚¬ ¢Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã‚ ¿) meaning â€Å"to father†, is misrecognized as nAn-na-cA-ri-ku (à  Ã‚ °Ã‚ ¨Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã‚ ¾Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã‚ ¨Ãƒ  Ã‚ ±Ã‚ Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã‚ ¨Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã… ¡Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã‚ ¾Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã‚ °Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã‚ ¿Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã¢â‚¬ ¢Ãƒ  Ã‚ ±Ã‚ ) then SCIL is applied and will correct the recognition error as follows: The output from ASR is nAn-na-cA-ri-ku. The phone sequence generator will generate the phone sequence as n-A-n-n-a-c-A-r-i-k-u. Now, match it with the set of root words stored in dictionary module. This process will identify the possible set of root words from the Stem dictionary as follows: Once possible root words identified the given word is segmented into two parts, first being the root word and second part inflection. Now the inflection part is compared for a match in the inflection dictionary. It will consider only the inflections that are mentioned against the possible root words, thus reducing the search space and making the algorithm faster. Possible set of inflections in inflections dictionary After getting the possible set of root words and possible set of inflections they are combined with the help of SaMdhi formation rules. Here in this example cA-ri-ku is compared with the inflections of the root word nAnna After comparing it identifies gAriki as the nearest possible inflection and combines the root word with the inflection and displays the output as â€Å"nAnnagAriki†. Conclusions Language model proposed in this work results in reduction in corpus size by using factored approach. The search process is fastened by use of trie based structure. A change to standard trie is proposed. A post recognition procedure SCIL, is designed which uses the proposed language model and corrects the words misrecognized at inflections. The approach is tested using 1500 speech samples. These samples consist of 100 distinct words , each word repeated 3 times and recorded by 5 speakers in the age group 18-50. It is implemented as a speaker dependent system. An average model is built from the three utterances of each word for each speaker. Each speaker is given a unique ID, using which average model of that speaker is used for testing.

Diction in Disillusionment of Ten O Clock :: Ten O Clock Essays

Diction in Disillusionment of Ten O' Clock  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     What do you dream about? Do you dream of exciting adventures and think of colorful worlds? Wallace Stevens claims that sailors are the ones scattered throughout society who dream of these things. The author implies that this is his message through denotation, connotation, and his use of negative versus positive diction.    The denotation in Stevens' poem displays his weariness of society's dull approach to life. When he begins talking about how, The houses are haunted by white night-gowns. None are green, or purple with green rings, he's complaining about how people in society dream of normal un-imaginative things. But, to dream of baboons and periwinkles, is what we should strive to dream of. These things are what the drifters, like a sailor, dream of. He uses the sailor image to convey the individual in society who doesn't live the normal life. He could have replaced this image with a number of other names referring to a non-traditional lifestyle, but only chose the sailor to represent all of those individual people scattered throughout the crowd who, under all the stereotypes, really are full of great ideas and hold what would contribute a great deal to the normal, white night-gowns, image of society.    Throughout Stevens' poem, he uses connotation to get his point across to the reader. When he speaks of people, With socks of lace and beaded ceintures, he is describing the physical appearance of normal, dull, people of society who are the ones who dream of boring, black and white images. He contrasts this with the sailor's shabby appearance, drunk and asleep in his boots, but also dreaming of catching, tigers in red weather. This contrast sends his message with a strong, clear impression to the reader. He covers his opinion on the outward and inward appearance of both roles in society, proving his point that the outcast members of a community are the ones who actually are living the colorful, enriched lifestyle.    By using both negative and positive words, Stevens is able to make the distinction between the two conflicting roles in society once again. When the author explains how, none of them [the ordinary people in society] are strange, with socks of lace and beaded ceintures, he is using the word strange as a negative way to describe the conforming people in the world.

Freedom Of Expression - Our First Amendment Rights Are Threatened Essay

What is art? Can it be defined in any single painting, or sculpture? Is it even something that can be seen, or does it have to be experienced? The term "art" is so vague that it can be applied to almost anything, really. Mostly, however, art should be that which frees our imagination. It connects our conscious with our subconscious, putting into a visual form what we feel and think. It allows us to explore our inner self and fill that urge to understand our minds and our universe. Art helps us to see beyond the ordinary, to see what is in our hearts without being blinded by reality. When an artist creates a painting, it is not to create a picture; it is to create a feeling or mood. The purpose is to convey an emotion, and, it is hoped, to make the viewer experience that same emotion. The painting is really just the final result. Picasso once said "†¦the thing that counts, in painting, is the intention of the artist†¦What counts is what one wants to do, and n ot what one does†¦ In the end what was important is the intention one had." So, what happens when artists are judged only on their final result, with no consideration to the purpose of their artwork? Censorship happens. That's right, every day in America, "Land of the Free", another artist falls victim to The Censor. Everyday, despite rights guaranteed by the constitution, people are being oppressed-by school officials, librarians, committee chairpersons, and even by those in government positions. It's time everyone, everywhere, stood up for Freedom of Expression, and put and end to censorship. In September of this year, the Brooklyn Museum of Art planned an exhibit of British artwork entitled "Sensation: Young British Artists from the Saatchi Collection", the controversial art exhibit which, on it's world tour, has been shown in Germany and England. The exhibit, as well as the majority of other artwork on display in the museum, was to be funded by the National Endowment for the Arts. The NEA is a government agency that grants federal money to artists and organizations in an attempt to serve the public good by "nurturing the expression of human creativity, supporting the cultivation of community spirit, and fostering the recognition and appreciation of the excellence and diversity of our nation's artistic accomplishments". The organization was prepared to ... ...tation of New York City as a world-class center of art and culture. "The entire arts community should be grateful to Director Arnold Lehman and the BMA's Board of Directors for standing firm on the right of artists and museum-goers to make their own decisions without interference from the government," said Joan Bertin, Executive Director of the National Coalition Against Censorship. "If the city chooses to fund the arts, it simply cannot pick and choose what art is 'offensive' and what is not." In addition, "That judgment varies so widely and is so subjective that, if it were the test, publicly funded art institutions would likely have little of interest to offer beyond the most inoffensive and conventional art," Michelle Coffy, Program Director of the National Campaign for Freedom of Expression, says. It is not appropriate to censor something based solely on a failure to understand and a personal dislike. In this case, the mayor and other critics may simply be revealing their own misinterpretation of the varied cultural and artistic traditions on which artists draw, having obviously misunderstood the whole point of art in the first place-expression.

Why I Have Chosen the Teaching Profession Essay -- essays papers

Why I Have Chosen the Teaching Profession When I think of becoming a teacher I would like to imagine or hope that I would be â€Å"turning the key† for a student of mine to become something great. I have been soul searching for many years now to have a better understanding of what I am suppose to do in my life. I have worked in so many jobs in so many areas but nothing was fulfilling my life with any amount of meaning. I found myself not wanting to go back the next day or wishing I were somewhere else. Well I guess everyone does that is what I would tell myself. Until a couple years ago when I was working and living in Las Vegas. It was there that I finally realized what I had been searching for in my life. I was spending a lot of time with a co-worker who had children in the school system. I vividly remember hearing her children say â€Å"the teacher’s don’t care.† This was shocking for a child who was in the fourth grade to be saying to me. I guess because I had a great experience in school with wonderful caring teachers. My memories of school are a little blurred with age but I do remember looking up to them as role models. Especially, my eighth grade English teacher who was the first person who ever told me that I was a beautiful writer. She encouraged me to continue to learn as much as I could about becoming a good writer. I still see her from time to time and she asks if I am still writing. I always say yes, but the last time I saw her, I got the chance to te...

How Upholding Ethical Values Helps an Organisation

HOW UPHOLDING ETHICAL VALUES HELPS AN ORGANIZATION THAT USES INFORMATION SYSTEMS? INTRODUCTION In order to understand the role of ethical values and the related ethical codes of conduct with regard to information systems in organization performance, there is need to put the, whole affair in a broad context as to the rise of ethical issues and dilemmas in the management of systems for organizational performance and development.Information systems has been defined as â€Å"a set of interrelated components that collect, process, store, retrieve and distribute data or/information in an organization referred to above facilitates decision making and control in an organization† The data or information referred to above facilitates decision making and control in an organisation and hence being crucial to organizational management and performance.It can therefore be said that the system of managing the collection, processing, storage, retrieval and distribution of data and information is what is termed as Management Information Systems. Infact Management Information Systems is about the relationship between management and the operations of an organization. When you think about this assertion, three things stand out; How IT or information systems improves the management of an organization How IT or information systems helps in the improvement of organizational performance How IT contributes to organizational developmentThe fact of the matter is that the rapid growth of Information Technology and hence the use of information system has contributed significantly to organizational management, improvement in organizational performance and organizational development in general. The rapid advancement in IT has led to creation of INTERNET and the rise of the DIGITAL FIRM. While significant achievements in social progress have been recorded, at the same time, it has led to social costs for other users, and the rise of computer crimes.Infect the rapid advancement of IT and the attendant use of information systems has created ethical issues and this is due to the following; I. T changes the distribution of decision making rights, power and other resources. For example IT makes it possible for millions of people to download video files weakening the exclusive rights of movie studios to control distribution for their own profit. IT creates new opportunities to commit crimes. For example e-mail creates conditions for extensive â€Å"Phishing† or online con games designed to defraud ordinary citizens.In this era if IT and the expansion of computer usage, ethical values for good management information system can be looked at in relation to the following ethical moral dimensions. Information rights and obligation – this is about ourselves as human beings and organizations Property rights and obligation – this is the protection of intellectual property rights Accountability and control – this pertains to who will be held accountab le in case harm is done. Systems quality – standards of data and systems quality.Quality of life – this is in connection with in the preservation of values and culture WHAT IS ETHICS Ethics refers to the principle of right and wrong which people use to make choices to guide their behavior and actions in the operations for organizational performance It is necessary here to reflect on some key technological trends which have led to ethical issues in information systems; Computing power doubles every 18 months. Almost everything is computerized. The over dependence on computers us giving rise to errors.As computer usage increases its use if being abused Rapidly declining data storage costs. Modern computer techniques have led to the creation of multiple databases. Software’s have become cheap and this led to some people to store phonographic material. Data making advances – the use of high speed search engines has led to things like harking. It has led to va luated access to information and hence interfering with people’s privacy and the confidentiality of organizational information and data is at stake. Advances in networking including the INTERNET – This has led to increased computer crime.Thus, as we witness increased technological advancement and the increased use of information systems, concern must be put on the attendant rise of computer crime and other ethical issues, ethical concerns and dilemmas in this era of globalization. Therefore organizations using information systems must concern themselves with the need to put in place ethical codes of conduct and enforce them with emphasis on inculcating into the minds of their employees the use of ethical values in their day to day work for the proposer management of their organizations and managementHOW THE USE OF ETHICAL VALUES CAN HELP AN ORGANISATION WHICH IS USING INFORMATION SYSTEMS Upholding ethical values in an organization using information systems is of benefi t to both within and outside stakeholders. That is To outside stakeholders, the organization gives assurance to its clients of security and confidentiality of their data. Hence the integrity of the organization is reaffirmed. Ethical values are used to assure people of fair and free judgment thus transparency in operation. Ethical values emphasize law and order which affect the behavior of employees in a desired direction.For example workers of an ethical upright organization would not spend working time moonlighting since they are aware of illegality involved in using organization resources for private work. Ethics controls dilemmas. For example it is not certain if software fits in intellectual property law since it is a code created by mathematical texts (Severson 1997 p. 33). Hence in such incidences the law would work best with morality. Ethics is used for consistent decision making at all levels of management in the organization because everyone would be aware of what is accep ted or not.For example someone from an ethically upright organization was asked to steal funds using the electronic fund transfer would immediately say no because he or she would know is wrong without putting too much thought on the benefits of stealing. Through upholding ethical values, trust among employees is established since they are assured of confidentiality. This in turn brings a sense of belonging and commitment to the organization. By ensuring ethical values, the security is made certain since the organization ensures that the hacking is illegal and punishable especially in incidences of uncertainty.Fair presentation ensures honesty and fairness in the market to avoid law suits despite the pressure to succeed. This encourages whistle blowing in order to avoid negative publicity that may tarnish the image of the organization in the public eye. For† example it is unethical for an organization to bribe a worker from a competitor company to be their informer on the compe titor’s plans. Ethical values act as a driving force to achieving organization goals and objectives thus increasing productivity.That is ethics provides basic guidelines on which behavior is more likely to achieve the best results in the wrong run instead of mixing wrong and right. An organization upholding ethical values controls misuse of organization resources. For example if the organization considers download if internet material like movies, music for personal gain as un ethical, then its workers may not do that and this would minimize wastage of internet data. Upholding ethical values would create a conducive working environment which would create team work and sense of belonging for the workers.This reduces chances of corruption and malice as everyone would look out for each other from bottom to top and top to bottom. This also reduces supervision of workers thus providing opportunities for innovation. For example in an ethically upright organization, the manager may enjoy leave away from work without worrying about decline of profits in his absence. REFERENCES C. A Raiborn&D. PayneCorporate codes of conduct: A collective conscience and continuum. Journal of Business ethics. 9:879-889, 1990.

Explaining patterns and trends in health Essay

There are many ways to measure patterns of ill health; these include mortality, morbidity, health events, disease incidence, disease prevalence and health surveillance. These are; Morbidity Rates is how many individuals suffer from the disease at a given time. Mortality Rates is how many individuals die from suffering from the disease and health events individuals being aware of health issues such as the NHS providing information about the main concern. Disease incidence is the chance of the individual being diagnosed. Disease Prevalence is how the proportion of the population is suffering from the disease. Health Surveillance identifies early signs of ill health and way to prevent and protect. There are many social groups which can influence an individual’s health and lifestyle both positively and negatively. These are; Gender which is just whether you are male or female. Age which is how old an individual is when the data is recorded. Social Class which is not meant to still be around as we are supposed to live in a classless society were the class of people does not matter. Risk Behaviour which is certain forms of behaviour which are shown to be associated with increased susceptibility to a certain disease of ill-health. Ethnicity which is the state of belonging to a certain social group that has a common national or cultural tradition. Locality which is the position or site of something. The classifications of social classes are the five class scheme Register Generals Social Class (RGSC) WHICH IS: I – Professional Occupational, II – Managerial and Technical Occupational, III – Skilled Occupational, Manual (M) and Non-Manual (N). IV – Partly –skilled Occupational and V – Unskilled Occupational. NS-SEC stands for the National Statistics Socio-Economic Classification which is: 1 – senior professionals/senior managers, 2 – Associate professionals/Junior managers, 3 – Other administrative and clerical workers, 4- Own account non-professional and 5- Supervisors, technicians and related workers. 6 – Intermediate workers, 7- other workers and 8 – never worked/other inactive. In 1980 the black report was then published. It had been commissioned  approximately 30 years after the founding of the NHS and provided a commentary about how the UK had done in providing for the health of its population. The report concluded that there was a poorer health experience for the lower occupational groups at all stages in life. These were; Gender -Men and women in occupation class V had two and a half times higher chance of dying before reaching the retirement age than those in occupational class I. – At birth and during the first month of life the risk of death in families of unskilled workers was double that of professional families. – Boys in class V had a ten times greater chance of dying from fire, falls or frowning than those in class I – The difference between the health of men and woman indicated that the risk of death for men in each social class was almost twice that for women. – Difference in the health experiences of different ra cial ethnic groups are also identified. Age Health inequality exists in our society and even though they affect different areas they are interlinked. Acheson (1998) said ‘health inequalities affects the whole society and can be identified from foetus to old age’ Locality From the black report I can see that were you live can affect your chances for getting an illness or disease. We find that death rates for CHD for those born I the Indian sub-continent were 38% higher for men and 45% higher for women than rates within the UK. Social Groups The health gap between rich and poor in the UK has widened since 1980 and class is the main core of inequalities wherever they are identified. They found that the scientific evidence supports a socio-economic explanation of health inequalities which are caused by factors such as income, education, employment, environment and lifestyle. The report made three key recommendations to the government. These are; – All policies are likely to have an impact on health should be evaluated in terms of their impact on health inequalities. – A high priority should be given to the health of families with children. – Further steps should be taken to reduce income inequalities and improve the living standards of poor households. Risks of Behaviour Consistent death rates in Europe have reached their lowest point in the entire history of human society. The twentieth century has witnessed a dramatic drop in the rate of infectious disease, as well as the introduction of therapies fo r its treatment. Common causes of death which have greatly weakened, such as TB and diphtheria were often linked to poverty and material deprivation.  Ethnicity One of the most important dimensions of inequality in contemporary Britain is race. Immigrants to this country from the so-called new Commonwealth, whose ethnic identity is clearly visible in the colour of their skin, are known to experience greater difficulty in finding work and adequate housing. The different patterns and trends that I have found within my own research about alcohol related deaths links with ageing, Ethnicity, Risks of behaviour, Locality, Gender and social groups. Gender and Ageing Males aged 30 and over are significantly more likely than females to die of alcohol related causes over 66% of all alcohol related deaths in the UK (in 2011 were among males). Males aged 30 and over were significantly more likely than females o die from alcohol-related causes. For both sexes, the number of alcohol0related deaths increased sharply from the 25-29 year old age group, increasing to 838 for males and 411 for females aged 55 to 59. After this age, the number of alcohol-related deaths began to reduce steadily for males across each age group reducing to 92 for those ages 85 and over. The decline across age groups was more gradual in females, dropping to 81 in the 85 and over age group. 45-49year old men have died from alcohol related death by 32,000 but from females it goes to 14,000. Locality Data for Scotland and Northern Ireland are published separately. Between 2007 and 2010 male alcohol-related death rates were significantly higher in wales than in England. A three year decline in male death rates in wales means this difference is no longer significant. The table shows drinking habits by region in 2012 show people above the age of 16 who consumes alcohol weekly such as in the north east people who drink up to 3-4 units are 46% compared to North West who drink up to 3-4 units are 42%. Social Groups The table shows drinking habits in pregnancy in 2012. Women who are pregnant have consumed alcohol in the last week is 10% compared to women who are not pregnant and unsure are 53%. Ethnicity This table shows drinking habits by ethnicity in 2012 for people who have drank alcohol within the last week is 58% and the people who have drank alcohol five or more occasions last week is 11%.

Building a Field House Essay

Thank you for taking the time to read this letter. My name is Sinclair Cunningham and I am entering my sophomore year at Kishwaukee College. We have met several times before, as I am a member of our women’s basketball team. You were a part of my official visit to Kishwaukee and I have also seen you at several athletic events and banquets, supporting not only my team, but also our department. I am very grateful for all of your support. I am writing to you to share my idea and proposal for building a new athletic field house at Kishwaukee College. The current gym situation is very nice but does not meet the needs of our growing department. We are also very limited for space, and our locker rooms are falling apart. Building a field house would allow for Kishwaukee to improve on many areas include storage, facility, time management, and recruitment. It would also benefit the school by allowing teams to host tournaments and fundraisers and may help raise money for the building. I would like to be able to propose funding for our project and begin a formal process with you and the board. I know you are very busy but I would be honored to sit down and discuss the potential pros and cons to the project and gain some of your ideas. I know there are some obstacles to the project, and I would like to meet with you and tackle them together. I would like to begin raising money by early fall and will have a completed formal proposal to you before the August board meeting. I know how much you support the athletic department and all of our student-athletes. I believe with your help we can build this new facility which will benefit the school in many different ways. It will help with enrollment of future student-athletes, attract more NCAA schools on campus, and can also raise money for the school by hosting various sporting events. It will be a beautiful facility which other schools will want to be a part of and will respect Kishwaukee for. I appreciate your time and am looking forward to sitting down with you in the next two weeks to discuss the different areas of this new idea as I begin this proposal. Like I said, I will have a formal proposal for you to take to the board for your August meeting and hope to begin the funding and the project in the early fall. I look forward to meeting with you soon.

John Edwards Essay

On the eve of Super Tuesday, there is one notable figure that is absent on the Democratic Ticket: John Edwards. To the dismay of some and to the delight of others, John Edwards recently dropped out of the Presidential Race. Edwards also ran in 2004 and was placed on the ticket with John Kerry who together, was narrowly beaten by George Bush and Dick Cheney that year. John Edwards did, during his run, attract a wide array of people who, never before, were interested in politics. There are many who believe that politicians who will only say what they believe will get them elected. John Edwards has been one of the few candidates who says what he believes and when he feels that he was on the wrong side of history, is quick to apologize for that vote. Some pundits would call that pandering but those who know John Edwards and those who have voted for him in the past and were planning on doing it again in the future, know the reality of the situation to be otherwise. It would then behoove those who find the democratic process in America fascinating and an example of the greatest example of representative democracy in the world, to explore one of the most successful candidates in modern American political history, who never became president but who had the voice of millions of Americans. John Edwards was born on June 10, 1953 in South Carolina. Upon entering college at Clemson University, Edwards was the first in his family to enroll in college. Edwards made the most of his time in college where he graduated with high honors and left Clemson with a degree in textile technology. It was also at this time where Edwards met and married Elizabeth Anania and together, had four children. Edwards has always had a close bond with his family and through his wife, Elizabeth, has found the strength to begin a life as a politician. Elizabeth Edwards, upon revealing that her cancer has come back and is indeed terminal, has become an inspiration to millions who admire her courage and/or have cancer themselves or have been affected by the deadly disease. They have not kept their struggle private but have instead voiced their experiences with the rest of the country. Focusing on Edwards’ career in the public forum: It first began in 1978 when Edwards became a lawyer at the law office of Dearborn & Ewing. It soon became obvious that Edwards had a real talent for the law profession and soon was winning some of the highest settlements for his clients in North Carolina History which totaled more than $70 million. The most notable case occurred in 1997 when Edwards took the case of a family whose young daughter had been disemboweled by a pool company who failed, after being warned of the dangers, of placing protective covers on the highly powerful suctions which are used to keep the pool water clean. The family was awarded a $25 million settlement. (Pear, 2008 pg. 18) Edwards, the family said, was selected to be their lawyer, because he had accepted less than the standard 33% legal fee of the judgment if the family lost the case or the settlement was small. The case served as a stepping stone for Edwards as it eventually prompted him to seek political office. Edwards won election to the U. S. Senate in 1998 as a Democrat in a state that was once known as a strong hold for the Republican Party. Edwards helped to break that mold and would remain a senator from 1998 until 2005 when he would eventually vacate his seat to seek the presidential nomination from his party. During his time in the Senate, Edwards sponsored 203 bills. (Krugman, 2008 pg. 6) It was here that Edwards’ voting record was established and his beliefs on some of the most pressing and important issues of the day, were set in motion. Due to the fact that John Edwards dropped out of the race before â€Å"Super Tuesday† he does not have campaign headquarters in Illinois. The main site of his campaign headquarters was in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. During his campaign, his main form of advertisement was divided between radio ads, television ads and on the internet. With regard to the Internet, ads were placed on his own personal website: www. johnedwards. com, online ads could also be found on websites such as www. myspace. com and www. youtube. com as well as with what has become known as â€Å"blogs† or online editorials from both his staff, supporters and those within the general community who supported John Edwards and believed that he would be the best choice for the country’s next president. All of the above mentioned were concentrated on the mediums that people that lived in the primary states, were going to see it as it would have been fiscally unwise to advertise in Washington State, when any candidate first needed to have a favorable showing in the Iowa caucus or the New Hampshire primary for example. One of the most important issues facing America today, and which is brought up in every campaign and promises to remain a controversial issue, is the war in Iraq. Edwards, like Hillary Clinton, voted for the Iraq War Resolution, only to reverse their opinions. Edwards stated in October 2002, after 9/11 and before the war in Iraq began: â€Å"Almost no one disagrees with these basic facts: that Saddam Hussein is a tyrant and a menace; that he has weapons of mass destruction and that he is doing everything in his power to get nuclear weapons; that he has supported terrorists; that he is a grave threat to the region, to vital allies like Israel, and to the United States; and that he is thwarting the will of the international community and undermining the United Nations’ credibility. † (Washington Post, 2008 pg. ) Two years later, Edwards defended his vote by stating: â€Å"I would have voted for the resolution knowing what I know today, because it was the right thing to do to give the president the authority to confront Saddam Hussein†¦ I think Saddam Hussein was a very serious threat. I stand by that, and that’s why [John Kerry and I] stand behind our vote on the resolution. † (Washington Post, 2008 pg. 2) It has been an issue that he later apologized as he officially changed` his mind on the issue. This has been viewed as weakness and pandering to some but has shown the human side of Edwards and humility. Many voters today are stating that the economy, to them, is the most important issue. This is understandable as many economists believe that a recession is coming, if she is not already here. Edwards advocated the rolling back of President Bush’s tax cuts which the Democrats perceived to be economic measures that are used only to benefit the rich. However, Edwards was in support of the President’s recent stimulus package which involves over $150 billion in rebate checks. The belief being that people will quickly place the money back into the economy which as an s results will help to avoid a further downward spiral of the economy. However, Edwards has differed from the president in the fact that he has called for the stimulus package to include rebates for the unemployed and uninsured; a wider range of individuals and people who, Edwards believes, deserves a larger share of the economic stimulus rebates. In the area of health care, Edwards has advocated that America follow the lead of Europe through the socialization of medicine. Edwards stated: â€Å"One of the reasons that I want to be President of the United States, is to make sure that every woman and every person in America, gets the same kind of things we have. John Edwards was commenting on this in reaction to the news that his wife’s cancer has come back with a redoubled vigor. Others who do not have the same financial abilities as the affluent Edwards family, can expect far inferior treatment. John Edwards seeks to change this. However, Edwards is careful to advocate universal health care and wants to show the difference between universal health care which most Americans want as opposed to socialism, which most people do not want. John Edwards has pledged to raise taxes $200 billion in order to pay for the program. Such sentiments raise a great deal of fear with those who believe in capitalism; the economic and social system that has given so much to America. If the aforementioned scare tactic were true, then one might have a credible reason for their objection. â€Å"There would be free choice of health care providers under a single payer universal health care system, unlike our current managed care system in which people are forced to see providers on the insurer’s panel to obtain medical benefits. Also, in regard to governmental involvement in universal health care, such fears are without merit. Taxes, fees and benefits would be decided by the insurer which would be under the control of a diverse board representing consumers, providers, business and government†¦ ‘The system would be run by a public trust, not the government. † (Krugman, 2008 pg. 3) John Edwards, like most Democrats, were critical of President Bush’s 2002 No Child Left Behind Act from its inception. Edwards agreed that the public school system is in deep trouble but states that NCLB does not go far enough â€Å"They didn’t fund the mandates that they put on the schools all over this country. That’s one of the reasons 800 teachers have been laid off in Cleveland. 1/3 of our public schools are failing under the Bush administration. Half of African-Americans are dropping out of high school. Half of Hispanic-American is dropping out of high school. We have a clear plan to improve our public schools that starts with getting our best teachers into the schools where we need them the most by creating incentives for them to go there. † (Washington Post, 2008 pg. 7) Increased funding and a greater concentration on the reasons why students are failing instead of relying mostly on tests. That has been the emphasis of John Edwards’ view on education. John Edwards voted for the Patriot Act and had been rather hawkish at first, in Democratic terms, about the defense of the nation in this post 9/11 world. Edwards has been instrumental in the passage of The Biological and Chemical Weapons Preparedness Act. The bill, introduced by John Edwards with Chuck Hagel (`R-NE`), establishes a coordinated national plan for responding to biological and chemical weapons attacks and directs states to develop plans for dealing with such attacks. Edwards has also been hailed as a friend of the environment who has pushed for a greater government role in pursuing the reduction of emissions from some of the country’s biggest factories. The League of Conversation Voters has stated about Edwards: â€Å"An excellent choice that sends a clear message about the need for change and renewed optimism in our nation’s leadership for conservation, public health, and other issues important to the American people, â€Å"Yet another strong environmental leader [on] the Democratic presidential ticket,† (Griscom, 2008 www. rist. org) This stance has helped Edwards to gain support from a wide array of the political spectrum and has resembled the Democratic Party’s renewed interest in the environment. During the 2008 Presidential Campaign, the Edwards camp raised more than $34 million and has spent $36 on campaigning, ads in Iowa and New Hampshire. He has ranked third behind Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in campaig ning finance and has ranked third in the polls as well. Unfortunately, there has been for some time in American politics, a direct correlation between the amount of money raised and the votes that a particular candidate, whether Republican or Democrat can acquire. This has been the case for John Edwards who for the time being, has dropped out of the 2008 Presidential Campaign but who could emerge as a Vice Presidential Candidate as he did in 2004.

A study of the characters Odysseus and Poseidon as depicted in Homers Odyssey

A study of the characters Odysseus and Poseidon as depicted in Homer's Odyssey After the events of the Trojan War, Odysseus and his men headed back home to Ithaca. En route, they unknowingly stopped at the island of the Cyclopes to gather supplies for their long journey home. Unfortunately, the inhabitants of the island were not very friendly – particularly one Cyclops named Polyphemus. In an attempt to hide from the other giants, Odysseus and his men hid in Polyphemus’s cave. Polyphemus then trapped the men inside with a massive boulder blocking the only way in and out. One by one, Polyphemus ate Odysseus’s crew. Odysseus, keeping a level head, came up with a plan to escape. Odysseus had some undiluted wine on his person, and cleverly offered it to Polyphemus without telling him how strong the wine was. Polyphemus eagerly took the wine, became drunk, and promptly fell asleep. Odysseus and his remaining men heated a wooden stake in a fire, and proceeded to blind Polyphemus’s one eye. After howling in pain, the men hid under the giant’s sheep, where they could not be felt and eaten. The next morning, when Polyphemus let his sheep out to graze, Odysseus and his men snuck out underneath the sheep’s wooly bellies, and escaped to their ship. Polyphemus realized that the men had escaped after Odysseus was already at sea. Polyphemus threw a (poorly-aimed) boulder at the ship, and called out to his father Poseidon for vengeance. Poseidon, in his rage, destroyed Odysseus’s ship, as well as his entire crew, over a ten-year journey back to Ithaca. Odysseus only survived becaus e he had Athena’s favor and protection. Odysseus’s Argument: Odysseus was acting out of self-defense. As captain and king, he had a duty to protect himself and his men at all costs. He used his wits to escape a life-threatening situation. He also did not know that Polyphemus was son of Poseidon. Regardless of who Polyphemus was, Odysseus did not kill him, despite the threat against Odysseus and his crew; it would have been just as easy to kill him while drunk or asleep. Poseidon, being a god, acts out of extreme emotion, and decides that the injury of his son warrants mass-murder. Odysseus thought rationally and spared the man-eating Polyphemus; Poseidon acted irrationally, and eradicated Odysseus’s crew. Poseidon could have been more merciful and wiped out Odysseus and his crew quickly. Instead Poseidon extended Odysseus’s punishment and caused him to suffer as he watched his entire crew die over the course of ten years. Furthermore, this extended journey caused turmoil in Odysseus’s Kingdom of Ithaca. When Odysseus left for Troy, his son, Telemachus, was too young to take the throne. This left Penelope running the entire country. While Odysseus was gone, suitors came to court Penelope, raiding his palace while they were there. Since there was no proof that Odysseus survived the Trojan War, the suitors constantly pressured Penelope to remarry. She did not want to, instead stalling the suitors until Odysseus returned because she believed that he was still alive. Poseidon’s Argument: Before Poseidon did anything to Odysseus, he had to get his idea approved by Zeus, king of the gods. Furthermore, Odysseus was in Poseidon’s domain, the ocean, for most of his journey, which puts Odysseus in a precarious position already. Poseidon’s intended target was Odysseus; the rest of the crew was collateral damage, but also emotionally hurt Odysseus. Odysseus knew he was in the domain of a deity that could wreck him on every level; he had plenty of opportunities to brace himself in case things went wrong. Poseidon, as a deity, demands more respect than a typical human. In Poseidon’s mind, this special treatment extends to his son. Injuring his son Polyphemus was considered a personal insult. Unknown to Odysseus, he had divine protection from Athena – a rival deity to Poseidon. Therefore, Poseidon already did not like Odysseus; stabbing Polyphemus in the eye just added to Poseidon’s hatred. Poseidon did not harm Odysseus, but made him suffer, just like his son, by killing his men slowly. Let the punishment fit the crime. Moreover, there are times when Odysseus was not only selfish, but genuinely irreverent. While Penelope was upholding her marriage vows, Odysseus had an affair with Circe, a sorceress who had turned his men into pigs while he had his fling. He also deliberately went past the island of the Sirens, just because he wanted to hear their song for himself. Finally, he allowed his men to eat sacred cattle of the god Helios for a week. This one act condemned his entire fleet, ship and men, to destruction. Zeus struck the ship with lightning, forcing Odysseus to swim to an island and live with a Calypso, a sea nymph, for seven years. The rest of his men drowned. This shows that Odysseus did not always respect the gods, and acted selfishly whenever it suited him.