“Country Lovers” by Nadine Gordimer and “Veronica” by Adewale Maja Pearce Essay

Explore the ways in which relationships are shaped and influenced by traditional cultural expectations in the short stories you have studied. Relationships – platonic and intimate – are sometimes built from cultural expectations; but to what extent are people willing to go to uphold those traditions? I will discuss two short stories â€Å"Country Lovers† by Nadine Gordimer and â€Å"Veronica† by Adewale Maja Pearce, in which both focus on close relationships which are condemned from the start due to strict and uncompromising cultural expectations. Cultural influences are portrayed strongly by the non-British writers; one is set in an unnamed African village, and the other Apartheid South Africa. Both stories tragically show the destructive effect on relationships, when a tenacious fixation with tradition causes them to be obeyed beyond the point of humaneness, and everything else – including love – is disregarded. In â€Å"Country Lovers† the protagonists Paulus (heir to wealthy farming business) and Thebedi (a black farm worker) form an inter-racial relationship in the period of Apartheid rule in South Africa. During Apartheid the divide between blacks and whites was immense. Skin colour determined every aspect of social life. Whilst the affluent whites had their own well-equipped facilities, living in large houses and having well-paid jobs, blacks had to manage with a much lower standard of life. â€Å"Apartheid laws prohibited most social contact between races† (Microsoft Encarta 2006) and inter-racial sex and marriage were strongly opposed by law making it virtually impossible for a blossoming relationship such as Paulus’ and Thebedi’s to progress. They stood at two different sides of the track, whilst Paulus was son of a rich farmer, Thebedi worked on his farm. The contrast between them is great; and so their economic and social differences would be deeply frowned upon. An instance of the contrast, is the scene after Paulus and Thebedi met at the riverbed it says â€Å"and each returned home with the dark – she to her mother’s hut, he to the farmhouse†. A hut in comparison to a house proves the extent of Apartheid and the blacks living conditions. Njabulo, also a slave labourer would have lived here, and he had feelings for Thebedi. Njabulo’s relationship with Thebedi is also dictated by the expectations of a black man in that time, and also his limitations because of it. For example, Paulus returned from school, and brought Thebedi gifts, because he could afford to, although â€Å"Njabulo said he wished he could have bought her a belt and earrings† (line 35). He couldn’t display his love for her, because he didn’t have the means. When Njabulo made arrangements to marry her, he couldn’t offer her parents the customary cow that should have been given in place of Thebedi. This also shows that the customs of the blacks could not be taken under consideration whilst segregation that was going on. Also, when the â€Å"very light† (line 114) baby was being born it simply states â€Å"Njabulo made no complaint†. The preceding sentences had been very long and descriptive with many clauses, but this contrasting short simple one gives it importance and could show that he didn’t care, but could also show that he couldn’t do anything about it and so just accepted it. Despite the fact that it had been proven that Thebedi had had an intercourse with a white man, Njabulo maybe couldn’t ask her about it because he was a second-class citizen and couldn’t do anything. Also, maybe he felt uncomfortable to question her in regards to the baby, because it wasn’t uncommon for white men to rape black women in those times. Cultural expectations forced Njabulo to keep quiet, and so it impacted negatively upon their relationship. There was no trust or compassion between them as he had â€Å"no complaint† when Thebedi had another man’s child. Despite Thebedi’s marriage, the love between Paulus and Thebedi seemed very pure. In line 1 of the story it sets the scene for what the whole story is based upon – â€Å"The farm children play together when they are small; but once the white children go away to school they soon don’t play together any more, even in the holidays†. It immediately drags us into the harshness of living under Apartheid. The entire tone of the narrator is cool and unemotional, perhaps to show the thoughts and feelings of the time. Most white people didn’t really care about the inequality during the Apartheid system, and so had no compassion towards the blacks or to what they were going through. The unemotional tone of the story could also reflect the harshness of the people that were for apartheid or unsympathetic towards the experiences of black people, as the writer Nadine Gordimer was a strong activist in the anti-apartheid movement. The opening line shows how there is no discrimination when the children are young, but as they get older they discover the divide, and so blacks begin to call whites â€Å"missus and baasie† and blacks drop further and further behind in schooling. The story uses country specific words to show that it is not set in England such as â€Å"koppies† – small hill in South Africa. The story sharply contrasts the everyday relationships between whites and blacks as they get older to say â€Å"The trouble was Paulus Esendyck did not seem to realise that Thebedi was now simply one of the crowd of farm children down at the kraal†. He goes against the norm and continues to entertain their relationship, rather than just stop his feelings for her. The language used here such as â€Å"the trouble† shows that it was a problem that Paulus could not just forget Thebedi. Even when he grew up and out of childhood and experienced the things of adulthood, it did not discourage his love for her. Although it was expected of Paulus to like these white girls as it suggests in the story â€Å"the sight of their dazzling bellies and thighs in the sunlight had never made him feel what he felt now†, â€Å"The head girl of the ‘sister’ school was said to have a crush on him he didn’t particularly like her† he had stronger feelings for Th ebedi. In the story, Paulus and Thebedi both go on a walk but unaware of each other but then meet whilst on the walk. This could symbolise that they each want to follow their own paths, but it leads back to one another, â€Å"they had not arranged this, it was an urge each followed independently†. They then go into deep conversation, and during this scene the writer uses lots of descriptive language and imagery to depict their surroundings, such as, â€Å"twisted and tugged at the roots of white stinkwood and Cape willow trees that loped out of the eroded earth around them† and â€Å"old, and eaten trees held in place by vigorous ones, wild asparagus brushing up between the trunks, and here and there prickly-pear cactus sunken-skinned and bristly†. This technique may have been used prolong Paulus and Thebedi’s scene of happiness and contentment with each other – â€Å"she laughed a lot†¦sharing her amusement with the cool shady earth†. Another view is that nature is the only thing around them, it is not discriminatory and doesn’t judge them allowing them to be happy. The turning point in the story is when Paulus and Thebedi have intercourse and it is a blissful time, it says â€Å"they were not afraid of one another†¦this time it was so lovely, so lovely he was surprised†. Although, due to the segregation of the time inter-racial relationships were forbidden (as they were illegal) and so their meetings had to be secret, for being found out would have incurred harsh punishments and being socially shunned. Paulus and Thebedi hide their love from others, specifically by making excuses for Thebedi’s gift â€Å"she told her father the missus had given these (gilt hoop earrings) as a reward for some work she had done†, and by sneaking in and out of the farmhouse â€Å"she had to get away before the house servants, who knew her, came in at dawn†. They both lead double lives. Paulus leaves for veterinary school and Thebedi marries Njabulo – the lives they â€Å"should† be leading if they stuck to the cultural expectations. Once the baby is born everything changes. The writer constantly refers to childhood, during the key scene when Paulus searches for Thebedi and their baby, â€Å"He drank a glass of fresh, still-warm milk in the childhood familiarity of his mother’s kitchen† and also â€Å"For the first time since he was a boy he came right in the kraal†. Children are usually associated with innocence and naivety, and so maybe this was used to contrast with the act of murder he will commit, or maybe to remind the readers of the relationship he had with Thebedi when he was younger. In lines 132-134, the long sentences used increase the suspense and tension for the reader, as they are eager to find out what happens next, whilst the writer rambles on about non-essential information. There is a change in Paulus as he no longer enters into long conversations with Thebedi; his language is short and clipped as he says â€Å"I want to see. Show me†. After Thebedi shows him his child, she uses an anecdote which corresponds to the situation, â€Å"the gang of children had trodden down a crop in their games or transgressed in some other way†¦and he the white one among them must intercede with the farmer†. This shows that the baby was the product of some â€Å"transgression† and the responsibility befell on him, Paulus to put it right. You can see that he felt some sorrow or regret as it says â€Å"he struggled for a moment with a grimace of tears, anger and self-pity†. The relationship between Paulus and Thebedi had been destroyed because of the cultural expectations, as it says â€Å"she could not put her hand to him†. Thebedi could not even console her young lover, as she had no idea how he would react, maybe in anger he could hurt her, and he was confused â€Å"I don’t know†¦ I feel like killing myself†. This was now no longer an intimate relationship although they shared a close moment, a chance to reconcile their love Paulus walked out, because the traditions had made it impossible for them to try and rekindle their affection for one another – â€Å"For a moment there was the feeling between them that used to come when they were alone down at the riverbed† Others opinions and views of Paulus are that the prospect of being prosecuted outweighed his love for Thebedi and his child. He had to reassure that she had never been near the farm house, and willing her to take it away and finally did the only thing he could to make sure he was not found out. The last line summarises the whole story, even though they continued a relationship from childhood it was doomed from the beginning due to the pressures and harshness of living in a segregated society, â€Å"It was a thing of our childhood, we don’t see each other any more. â€Å" Adewale Maja-Pearce depicts the tragic story ‘Veronica’ in which two members of a rural African village born and raised together, begin to lead very different lives on the ground of hampering cultural expectations. The narrator Okeke recollects his experiences in the village, and his platonic relationship with a fatalistic childhood friend Veronica. Set in the middle of the last century, views of the roles of men and women were rigid and unyielding. The story shows how African women of the time were subjected to constant pressure and mounting responsibilities which in turn leads to fatal consequences. In Afrcian society, men were traditional â€Å"breadwinners† and it was a woman’s role to do childrearing and house work. Veronica automatically adopted the responsibilities of her entire family as ‘since she was the eldest child†¦bringing up the other children had fallen on her’. The adjective â€Å"fallen† does not show the responsibility in a good light, as it suggests that a heavy burden has been dropped onto her. It also describes her family situation as she had to take on tasks stereotypically associated with men- such as â€Å"chopping firewood†, as well as taking on maternal roles such as catering for her siblings. Her father abuses her â€Å"listening to her scream†, and is described as a â€Å"brute†, and her mother described as â€Å"weak†. Maja-Pearce may have used the characters as allegory for the political views of the African country. Veronica is a symbol of the abused and mistreated citizens whilst her father symbolises the government and their indifference and apathy towards the citizens deprivation, and her mother could symbolise th e â€Å"weak† bystanders that can’t do anything due to their lack of means. This view also ties in with the fact that historically during this period a civil war would soon be in progress, and also that Maja-Pearce had written several stories that challenge the principles of African society. The relationship between Veronica and Okeke is told solely from Okeke’s point of view as he gives a background, until he talks of his leaving the village. The writer could have done this to show that Veronica’s situation was probably much worse than Okeke knew about, and so the reader would imagine terrible things would happen to her whilst Okeke heard â€Å"screams in the night†, and so empathise with her more. This technique could be seen as building tension and anticipation for when they meet, or to show that this crucial dialogue is a very important part of the story. A turning point in the story when Okeke and Veronica’s friendship is ended by Okeke’s plans to leave his home village and make a life for himself in the city, whilst Veronica refuses to abandon her family. The parting conversation shows just how much cultural tradition has been impressed on Veronica. When Okeke suggests that she leave the village, she replies â€Å"Me!†. This could be vewed as mock indignance, because she feels that Okeke is telling her to forget her set role in society, or it could be seen as genuine surprise at him suggesting that she should give up everything near to her. Okeke then asks for her reasons for staying and she says ‘I can’t just leave my family’.

Usc Sosw 503 Assignment 1 Systems and Ecological Theory

SOWK 503 – Fall 2012 Assignment #1: Article Critique 9/26/12 Julie Emmer LCSW CAP Abstract The purpose of this paper is to critically critique and evaluate the study: Parenting a Child With a Disibility: The Role of Social Support for African American Parents, written by Jung – Hwa Ha, Jan S. Greenburg, & Marsha Mallick Seltzer. This paper will critically apply the Ecological Perspective and Systems Theory, to the social concern as it addressed in this study.This paper will accomplish this critique by assessing the hypothesis, evaluating the method of study, and critically discussing the results of the study in question by using the key concepts of the fore mentioned theories. Upon the completion of this paper, the reader will have a full understanding of the study, and how it may relate to field of Social Work using a Systems Theory perspective.Critique of: Parenting a Child With a Disability: The Role of Social Support for African American Parents Key Concepts of stud y The study Parenting a Child With a Disability: The Role of Social Support for African American Parents, was conducted as an expansion of the findings of previous studies. There have been a many studies that have examined the racial impact of the parents of disabled children; however, few have examined the influences that may affect an African American family raising a disabled child.Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine the following two areas of interest: (a) the impact of having a child with a disability on parents’ mental and physical health among urban-dwelling African Americans and (b) the extent to which positive and negative social interactions with family members other than the spouse moderate the impact of child’s disability on parental adaptation (Ha, Greenberg & Mailick Seltzer, 2010). The authors’ motivation for this study is to provide empirical evidence to assist professionals in addressing possible needs when, supplying social servi ces to this population or environment of lients. Important facts and concerns related to the social concern. The authors of this study referenced several previous studies that supported their theory of; family support from other than a spouse will attribute to wellbeing and equal homeostasis of the parent. Previous studies â€Å"suggest that extended families constitute a core social network for African Americans and provide important financial and instrumental support (Ellison,1990). Furthermore, support from kin is related to happiness and life satisfaction among African Americans (Ellison, 1990).In addition, it is also suggested in this study that negative entropy (interactions) or lack of supra system (extended family) involvement may impact the parent in a negative manner. The reasoning of the focus on African American parents, is to assess the influence of having a disable child, and how it may affect the negative energy that is already experienced in the family system by opp ression and discrimination. This study was conducted in urban areas in Milwaukee county Wisc. as a continuance of the Midlife in the United States Study (MIDUS; Brim, Ryff, & Kessler, 2004).The African American Milwaukee sample provided a unique opportunity to address within-racial group differences in the impact of having a child with a disability. (Ha, Greenberg & Mailick Seltzer, 2010). The sample group of the study was a group of 48 families with a disable child that is afflicted with one of the following disorders: autism, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, or intellectual disability, or was ever afflicted with a long-term serious mental health problem. The comparison group of 144 was families consisting of at least 1 child and no children in the family system have a disability. Theory ConceptsThe systems approach attempts to view the world in terms of irreducibly and integrated systems. It focuses attention on the whole, as well as on the complex interrelationships among its constituen t parts. The systems theory sees all of the aspects of a person and their environment as an individual system and an interrelated system. A social system is a special order of systems†¦ composed of persons or groups of persons who interact and influence each other’s behavior. â€Å"Within this order can be included persons families, organizations, communities, societies, and cultures† (Robbins, Chatterjee & Canda, 2011).The systems theory allows us to examine the focal system from a micro, meso, or macro perspective. Keeping all of the individual systems autonomous, while still being able to conceptualize the interrelatedness of the systems together. Similar to the systems theory, the ecological theory embraces many of the same concepts, but has narrowed the focus, so that it does not include such a broad view of the system. The Ecological theory is an adaptive, evolutionary view of human beings in constant exchange interchange with all elements of their environme nt (Germain & Gitterman, 1980, p. 5).The idea that person and the environment are inseparable and must be considered jointly, is primary assumption of this theory. The person and his or her environment form a unitary system in which each is dependent on the other and directly shapes each other. Application of theory and key concepts The sample of population of this study was derived from a population in the urban areas of Milwaukee. Even though this study did not disclose evidence concerning the ecosystem and the environment of the subjects, it would be fair to assume that they are victims of coercive and exploitive power.The reasoning for this assumption is the geographical location of this study, is known for having a high number of production plants and heavy pollution. The coercive power that is being afflicted is quantified in the study, with the fact, that the subjects do not reside in close proximity to any social services. This study was conducted to measure the affect of ra ising a child with a disability this environment. Further focus was placed on the effects of synergy from a supra system (family) on the focal system (parents), and the possible negative health effects derived from the lack of synergy.The results of this study were divided into two sections. The first section was to assess the effects having a child with a disability (sub system) has on the focal system. The negative energy from a sub system with a disability did have a negative effect on the focal system’s physical health, and homeostasis. The negative impact on the homeostasis of the focal system was attributed to physical impairments of the subjects. However, this was seen only in the older population that was studied and may have been caused by the rise in physical activities that is needed to care for a child with special needs and aging.This aspect supports the concept of adaptation of the focal system to achieve the goodness of fit in their habitat. The lack of mental health disorders in the focal system, may also indicate that entropy from resources in the environment or supra system, may cause the same amount of mental distress in the focal group as a whole. The second purpose of this study was to examine the effect of transactions between the supra system and the focal system. Specifically how the focal system’s homeostasis is affected by the exchange of positive, and negative energy, or entropy.The results of this study partially supported the hypothesis that positive energy transactions between the focal, and supra system is a predictor of the homeostasis of the focal system. The positive and negative mental affect is less when a system has positive energy transactions with the supra system, and in turn, leads to a balanced homeostasis and goodness of fit. In turn, the systems with entropy or negative energy transactions from the supra system are more likely to have reduced coping measures, and a reduced goodness of fit. Emerging patt erns.Examination of this study from a systems perspective did yield an emerging pattern. I was able to access the importance, and interrelatedness of a system. This study provided empirical evidence that systems are interconnected. The transaction of energy from a sub or a supra system will affect the homeostasis of the focal system. This effect may be positive or negative, but none the less, it will affect the focal system. This study also provided evidence that a system will adapt to its environment to achieve a goodness of fit and equal homeostasis.The systems theory was able to help me assess the interrelatedness of the study; however, it did also help me to recognize the limitations of study. One such limitation is narrow focus of the study. I believe for the study to be effective, the authors would have needed to address social concerns, coercive power, and exploitive power, which may be affecting the focal system as a whole. Compressive summery Upon completion of this study I did possess a new knowledge and enlightenment concerning the African American parents of disabled children.This study demonstrated the negative effect on homeostasis and physical health, that is derived from negative energy transactions with the supra and sub systems. However, I am still left with questions concerning the effectiveness of this study. This study was performed in a nondiverse community on a very small sample size. Therefore, I believe that further study is needed, with the focus group living in diverse communities and being subjected to different environmental influences.Furthermore, this target sample was limited to children with mental disabilities, and to effectively assess this subject, the sample must be expanded to include physical disabilities. This study was in an environment that may be oppressed and suffering from systematic discrimination. I was amazed to read that the persons with disabled children were not afflicted with more mental disorders than the pe rsons without disabled children. This aspect raises concern about the environment of the sample group. This study stated that this population is isolated from resources, and has a high unemployment rate as well.All of these factors will affect the wellbeing and homeostasis of a person. Therefore, I believe that further exploration is needed to assess the community stressors and influence on the overall wellbeing and homeostasis of the community. These influences should not be explored only for this study, but to also access need, and provide resources for this population. Resources Ha, J. , Greenberg, J. S. , & Mailick Seltzer, M. (2010). Parenting a child with a disability: The role of social support for african american parents. The Journal of Contemporary Social Services, 92(4), 405-411.Robbins, S. , Chatterjee, P. , & Canda, E. (2011). Contempory human behaivior thoery. (3rd ed. , p. 38). Sadddle River, NJ: Allyn & Bacon. Ellison, C. G. (1990). Family ties, Friendships, and Subj ective Well-Being among Black Americans. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 52(2), 298–310. Germain,C. B. & Gitterman, A. (1980) The Life Model of Social Work Practice. New York: Columbia University Press. Green, R. (1999) Ecological Perspective an eclectic theoretical framework for social work practice (2nd ed. , p. 259-308). New York: Aldine DeGruyyer

Buddism: Political, Social and Economic Essay

Ancient China was a time of for religious influences. Belief systems dominated China from 500 B. C. E to 1000 B. C. E. The impact these beliefs left on the country were. A particular belief system, Buddhism impacted China profusely. This belief system impacted china in a number of various factors. The belief in Buddhism impacted China china’s culture through many political, social and economic stances. After defeating 100,500 men in violent warfare, Asoka felt great remorse. Despite the victory he was consumed with grief. Asoka found comfort in the teaching of Siddhartha Gautama and converted to Buddhism. After his conversion, he began to govern his kingdom under the teachings of Buddha. The laws and principles of non-violence, virtue and love where strictly enforced in the kingdom. Buddhism strongly reigned over Asoka’s political empire. With the belief system he was able to bring the kingdom from a state of warfare to peace the India has not seen since his reign. Because of his conversion to Buddhism, Asoka remains one of the greatest leaders of antiquity. One of the greatest impact religion can have is it’s social appeal. While India was being controlled by the Caste system, so were religions. Your social class also determined your religion. Buddhism was highly popular with the lower cast. The practices and rituals were affordable for those who could not afford. Because of Buddhism, Monks had homes in the monosaries. Buddhism greatly accommodated the people of low social status but that didn’t mean those of higher class could not practice it too. Soon after Buddhism had become so wide spread that Mahayana Buddhism became the Buddhism â€Å"for the masses† According to Buddha, the root of all evil is suffering. This is not the average economic principle. Siddhartha Gautama made this theory however when he abandoned his lavish life to find enlightenment. He witnessed much suffering and made a very impactful theory. After this great revelation, Buddha strived to base his economics of selflessness. His teaching thought that material wealth was not important. He insisted that obsessing over one’s self was the cause of suffering and the only way to be ended is through giving up your love and attachment for material possessions. After sometime the popularity of Buddhism died out. However, the impact it left on China from 500 B. C. E to 1000 B. C. E did not. The spread of Buddhism shaped China as a whole for many centuries to come. From 500 B. C. to 100 B. C. E, Buddhism impacted society’s structure in many aspects of history.

101.Should talking and texting on a cell phone without a hands-free Essay

101.Should talking and texting on a cell phone without a hands-free device while driving be illegal - Essay Example More alarmingly, recent years of the road safety issues are derived from the mismanagement of communication devices during driving. A careless and distracted driving practice associated with talking or text messaging while the vehicle governance is on the rise in every part of the world. More noticeably, use of handheld devices during driving is more dangerous than permissible levels of drunk driving because the former holds the preoccupation of the driver indulging in impulsive variations. Thousands of lives are lost and many more are left permanently disabled due to the negligence of drivers of public transportation particularly. At this wake, it is essential to make an over view of the impact of the culpable practice of careless driving and raise an alarm in the minds of people about the peril closely following it. Severe violations of driving ethics from drivers cause damage to life of people from utter carelessness. In an accident, the impact of the negligence of one drover is born by either party involved and usually, the lighter vehicle gets most of the reward of the evil. As Barrouquere (Sep 14, 2011) reports, in Kentucky, a tractor-trailer crash on a van claimed nine lives on the spot in Interstate 65 on 26th March, 2010 – the reason was that the truck driver had just made and outgoing call that lasted for a second when the truck hit the van. The Kentucky accident alerted the authorities which came forward with bills banning the use of hand held communication devices, especially mobile phones during driving. Presently, there are many regulations of the use of handheld devices while driving but most of them are limited to marginal amount of penalty that prove insufficient to curb this problem. The identified reasons for increasing car and truck accidents reveal the role of employers, parent and consignees who make frequent and unexpected calls to the drivers of both commercial and private vehicles. At the moment,

The movie Idiocracy Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Idiocracy - Movie Review Example Against his will, the Luke Wilson character is succeeding in life. His children will have much more opportunities than he does, and more than any of Dax's children. However, the premise feeds into our insecurity about the state of the world and a general feeling that things are going downhill. People have believed this since the beginning of time. This movie was probably shown because in it there is a connection between humour and thoughtfulness. Ideas are present along with the silly gags. This is a good way to illustrate that some comedy can be a social commentary on the way we live now. Mike Judge is a smart comedian who often make films that suggest society is empty or full of cultural waste. In this movie he is trying to show that the world is on the edge of a cliff and in the future will fall off of that cliff. But the whole time he makes us laugh. That makes the medicine go down much more easily. In the end, this movie does not really have a profound message. The idea that the world is going to be full of idiots five hundred years from now because of breeding practices is unlikely. There may be a lot of dumb people in the world today, but there are a lot of smart people. There will always be a place and a need for intelligence. Judge shows how intelligence is actually valued by the idiots. Perhaps intelligent people will be a smaller set of the population, but it is unlikely they will disappear entirely in the future. The movie is intended to be a comedy with an edge and that is what it is, nothing more.

Computer Models Comparison Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Computer Models Comparison - Essay Example In this respect, this paper provides a review (comparison) of three amongst the leading computer models that an organization can choose from, namely: HP Pavilion p7-1030, Velocity Micro Edge Z40, and Lenovo ThinkStation S20 (Adams, 2011). The three models are compared on the basis of their price, external features, internal features and performance. Subsequently, recommendations are made on the best model between the three for this organization to purchase. Pricing is a key element to be considered while purchasing a computer product. Retailing at $3,665, the Lenovo would be the costliest of the three models, followed by Velocity which goes for an approximate $1199. Going for $580, Pavilion is the cheapest of them all; about $2000 and $500 cheaper than Lenovo and Velocity respectively. Regarding the external features, Velocity has eight USB 2.0 ports. With that number, it falls short of Lenovo by four ports while beating Pavillion by two ports. On the upper part of the front panel, t he Pavilion further has multimedia card reader ports (MMC, XD, MS/Pro, SD and Compact Flash). At the back all the three have an Ethernet port, three audio jerks (audio-in, microphone in and audio-out) as well as a DVI video and VGA for connecting the desktop to an external display or monitor. They also come with a wired USB optical mouse and USB keyboard. The one notable downside about Velocity is that, unlike the other two, it may not come with a monitor (Adams, 2011). Internally, the Pavillion is loaded with a 1TB 7200rpm hard drive and a PCIe Mini card which delivers 802.11n Wi-Fi therefore negating the need for long Ethernet cables when connecting to the Web (Adams, 2011). It also has 8GB of DDR3 RAM which although more than sufficient, occupies the only two DIMM slots available, thereby leaving no room for expansion unless the user chooses to do so by removing one or both pre installed memory sticks. Similarly, the Velocity feature 1TB, 7200rpm hard drive, but does scale down o n the memory to provide 4GB of DDR3. Having a 500GB SATA 7200 rpm hard drive and 2GB of DDR3 RAM, Lenovo appears to scale down on two of the most essential internal features, but on the other hand, the model proceeds to compensates for this by providing ample space for two more memory sticks and two more internal hard drives. Of noteworthy, as far as internal features are concerned, the make comes with pre-installed software. In terms of operating system, all the three come with a pre installed Genuine Windows 7 Professional 64bit. Similarly, they all come with a pre installed starter version of Microsoft Office 2010. In terms of software, the only major difference between the three is that of the anti virus software pre installed in each of them. Whereas the pavilion features a 60-day trial of Norton Internet Security 2011, Lenovo comes with a 30-day trial McAffee Internet Security package. However, unlike Pavilion, Lenovo’s McAffee is merely made to lie on the hard drive un installed. This is seen as a good thing by many, because it saves organizations the steps of cleaning their PCs if they happen to use a different solution (Adams, 2011). Performance Regarding the performance, the ordinary office setting does not allow for computer games and gaming tests. And whereas it is

Moore's Law Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Moore's Law - Research Paper Example This is basically the same definition as the initial one, but using the phrase ‘more transistors’ is being more specific in the definition (Sami 23-29). As a self-fulfilling foresight and a target for industry Even though this rule was primarily created in the form of prophesy and observation, it became popular more widely, as it served as more as an objective for the whole industry. This forced both the departments of engineering and marketing of the manufacturers of semiconductors to put their attention on massive energy that aim for the specific rise in the power of processing that it was considered one or even more of their rivals would soon achieve. In this regard, we find that it can be perceived as a self-fulfilling foresight. The second law of Moore As the costs of the power of computer drops on the side of the consumers, the costs on the side of the manufacturers in fulfilling the rule of Moore goes in an opposite trend; production and costs of tests have gone u p considerably with each new invention of chips. The increasing costs of manufacturing are a critical consideration for the sustenance of the Moore’s rule. This had resulted in the establishment of the second law or Moore, known as the Rock’s law (Myslewski 2013). The law states that the semiconductor’s cost also rises significantly with time. ... Main facilitating factors and the future trends Several innovations by numerous engineers together with scientists have been considerable factors in the law of Moore’s sustenance since the start of the period of integrated circuit. While assembling a comprehensive list of such imperative contributions would be as interesting and attractive as it would be tough. The roadmaps of the industry of computer technology projects that the rule will continue being there for many chip generations to come. After the time of doubling that is used in the calculations, we find that this could imply that there will be up to about hundredfold rise in the count of transistor per chip in a decade. Nonetheless, the technology roadman of the industry of semiconductor uses a time of doubling of about three years for the microprocessors, resulting to a tenfold rise during the following decade. For instance, Intel, in 2005, was reported as claiming that the silicon chips’ downsizing with prope r economics would continue being there in the following decade, and also in the year 2008 as projecting the pattern all through to the year 2029. The law’s ultimate limit Gordon Moore, In April 2005, asserted that the rule cannot continue existing forever. He argued that the exponentials’ nature is that they are pushed out and a disaster eventually occurs. Moreover, he claimed that the transistors would ultimately attain the heights of minimization at the levels of atoms. When we look at the size of the transistors, we find that they are reaching that of which is a serious blockade, even though it will be two or even three generation chips before it reaches that far (Crothers 2013). However, that is as far as it has been able to be seen. Moore further stated that there are still

KapYong Battle April 1951 The Korean War Term Paper

KapYong Battle April 1951 The Korean War - Term Paper Example The battalion was not the regular army of Canada but it was sent by the Canada at relatively time of peace and its main intention was to perform the garrison duty. However, the Stone used his wartime expertise and provided training to his men and enabled them to contribute against the renewed Chinese offensive force. The Canadian battalion was then attached to the 27th British Commonwealth Infantry Brigade during which it remained engaged in different battles and skirmishes. These fights added to their confidence and they learnt to fight on the harsh and hilly terrain of Korea. They became part of the UN force and marched north in order to fight the Chinese force and North Koreans in order to remove from the South Korea. Though the Chinese were considerably greater in number as compared with the battalion but the Canadian battalion consisted of volunteers resisted and fought with them will their full potential and didn’t allowed the Chinese force to attain their war objective by overcoming the Canadian battalion. The training provided by Jim Stone and effective communication and coordination between the members of the battalion and their leaders resulted in their success in the battle. The following essay aims to examine the contribution of battalion in the war that did not had proper training and war equipment to fight against the Chinese force in the Kap’Yong battle but they succeeded to defeat the huge Chinese army. The basic objective of the essay is to examine the effectiveness of the decision of Canada not to use its regular army but to deploy the volunteers that proved to be the most effective and efficient war force sent by Canada throughout the Korean War. The battalion was equipped with some excellent attributes that allowed them to succeed against Canada. They overcame and adopted the circumstance of war and show dedicated commitment to their leader. The essay describes the initial strategies and war tactic employed by the Lieutenant Co lonel Jim Stone who struggled very hard and efficiently to accomplish his mission of defeating China and not to let it invade the city of Seoul. The decision of Canada to create special battalion for the war was a different but successful step. The battalion comprised of two third volunteers that take some unconventional moves in the war and bravely fights against the Chinese force. It has been unveiled that Canada decision of using volunteer force in the Kap’Yong battle was an important and successful war strategy that allowed the army to hold their position. Kap’Yong Battle – Historical Background The battle of Kap’Yong began on the 22nd of April and lasted till the 25th of April 1951. The Chinese People’s Liberation Army was fighting with the UN forces comprising of the forces sent by Australia, Canada and Britain. The Chinese soldiers were almost five to one UN force but the outnumbered UN force prevailed and Chinese forced had to take backward steps after the Kap’Yong battle. The Chinese were better than the UN force in many ways because they were well equipped with the war weapons and war training. They were also huge in numbers due to which it was expected that the Chinese would be able to successfully overcome the UN force at Kap’Yong but it was due to supportive contribution of the Canadian battalion that these Chinese were failed at this spot and Seoul was protected by the UN forces. The ground for the

Human Resource Management at Work Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 2

Human Resource Management at Work - Essay Example uum but the key here is that this area needs to work under a broader framework that links it to the strategy of the firm; external factors are found to be affecting it apart from the internal factors. The HRM takes into account all the individual and group related that is collective relations, a number of human resource practices, policies and process, activities pursued by the HR specialist, union’s role, developing some HR practices that will provide the organization with an edge, employee security or it can even work on incorporating some organizational change. These are some of the factors that can be worked upon and thus are designed in a manner to increase the performance of an organization by effective human resources management. Similarly as the case implies that Brendon Jones Inc. is a service providing company, and for this reason the employees are the key assets of the organization. The 200 employees found in working at 10 leisure outlets were working at the front line. They were basically responsible for bringing in the business. Dealing with the customers and maintaining the relationship was the best and most important factor for the organization like Brendon Jones. Looking at the today’s working environment Human Resource Management is much more important than ever. The functions of managing and developing people are seen critical to gain improvements in the performance of an organization. The same was the case in Brendon Jones; there were changes taking place, the company was bought by a corporate investment company. It was like a change in the ownership structure. Employees working with the original founder were somehow used to of the policies and procedures. But as its being mentioned in the case that there was no HR manager; it’s not the task of Finance and Administration director to handle issues that are related to human workforce. For this reason as to solve the challenges related to reducing the labor turnover and to maintaining

Albert Camus Essay Example for Free

Albert Camus Essay How Aschenbach and Meursault in Death in Venice and The Stranger respectively, are driven by mind initially then change to being driven by the heart as the result of a key event In both The Stranger and Death in Venice, the characters change as the book progresses. There is mainly one action that sparks this drastic change. In The Stranger, this action is the murder of Raymonds mistress brother, and in Death in Venice this critical moment occurs when Aschenbach has the sudden urge to travel. Aschenbach and Meursault are both characters that move from one extreme to the other. They begin as characters who make decisions based solely on what their mind tells them. As the novel develops, these characters move to the other extreme, which is making decisions based solely on what their heart tells them. This transition from extreme logical thinking to extreme emotional thinking is what leads to the downfall of both Aschenbach and Meursault. As the novel begins, Thomas Mann introduces Aschenbach as a fairly likable German writer. Initially the reader sees Aschenbach as a normal character anyone can relate to. He lives a very stable life, and has never traveled before. Aschenbach is a character who is extremely involved in his work and one who organizes his entire life based on how he can best achieve quality in his work. At this point in the novel Aschenbach makes all his decisions using his mind rather than his heart. While taking a stroll, Aschenbach sees a man with red hair as well as long teeth. It is this man that pushes his mind in to traveling. Aschenbach begins to change as soon as he sets his mind to travel. In his daydream regarding his adventure he envisions a landscape, a tropical swampy region under a vapor-laden sky, damp, luxuriant and uncanny; it was like the portrait of a primitive world of islands morasses and slit-laden rivers (pg 3, Mann). The symbol of Aschenbachs departure on this journey is the sign of the beginning of his decline. It is from this point on that Aschenbach transforms from being a normal man who makes logical decisions with is brain, to one that makes decisions with his heart. As Aschenbachs journey progresses, he notices many men with red hair and long white teeth like the one that inspired him to travel. This shows the constant rapid declining of Aschenbach. His first sight of Tadzio in the hotel marks the beginning of the extreme heart-driven Aschenbach. His description of Tadzio clearly portrays his obsession. With astonishment Aschenbach observed that the boy was perfectly beautiful. His face, pale and charmingly secretive with the honey-colored hair curling around it, with its straight-sloping nose, its lovely mouth and its expression of sweet and divine earnestness recalled Greek statues of the noblest period, and, along with its extremely pure perfection of form, it was of such unique personal charm that the onlooker thought he had never come across anything so felicitous either in nature or in art (pg 20, Mann). Once Aschenbach begins to follow Tadzios every step, the reader notices that Aschenbach is becoming more and more indulged in Tadzios life rather than his own. His head and his heart were drunk, and his steps followed the dictates of that dark god whose pleasure it is to trample mans reason and dignity underfoot. Even when Aschenbach learns of an epidemic, he realizes that if he dies along with Tadzio, they will be able to meet in heaven. Aschenbach loses total control of his mind and gives in to Venice, a city, half fairy tale and half tourist trap, in whose insalubrious air the arts once rankly and voluptuously blossomed, where composers have been inspired to lulling tones of somniferous eroticism. Even when given the opportunity to leave Venice and escape cholera, his love for Tadzio weighs him down. Aschenbach then has fantasies about everyone else dying, and him being left alone with Tadzio. Now it can be clearly seen that Aschenbachs passion is coming directly from the heart, and no thinking is being done on his part. This extreme obsession from Aschenbachs heart immediately leads to his downfall. He dies in his chair, and it is hours before anyone notices. Albert Camus introduces Meursault as a character people are quite taken aback by.

Digital image processing

Digital image processing Vision is the most dynamic of all our senses since it provides us with a huge amount of information about what surrounds us. It is not surprising that an ancient Chinese proverb that quotes: â€Å"A picture is worth a thousand words† is still widely used. All this information is valuable for simple procedures (for example planning our everyday activities), but also for more complex processes as the development of our intelligence. At the level of social organization, images are also important as a means of transmitting information, and almost all of todays media are based on our vision. The huge amount of visual information and the need for its processing, lead scientists and technicians towards research in order to discover a means for digital image storage and processing using computers. This effort resulted in a new Information Engineering Industry called â€Å"Digital Image Processing and Analysis†. This industry began to grow fifteen years ago. However, it has show n a dynamic development, especially during the most recent years and it is considered a science and technology with a promising future and many potential. As the title indicates, Digital Image Processing is concentrated on digital images and their processing by a computer. Therefore, both the input and output of this process are digital images. Digital image processing can be used for various reasons: improvement of the quality of images, filtering of noise caused by transmission, compression of image information, image storage and digital transmission. On the other hand, digital image analysis deals with the description and recognition of the content of an image. This description is usually symbolic. Therefore, the input when it comes to digital image analysis, is a digital image and the output is a symbolic description. Image analysis principally tries to mimic human vision. Therefore, an identical term which is often used is â€Å"Computer Vision†. It has to be underlined that computer vision is a complex neuro-physiological mechanism driven by upper level knowledge (high level vision). The characteristics of this mechanism are not known and existing mathematical models are yet inadequately accurate. As a result, it is difficult to simulate high level vision by a computer. For this reason, the methods used for image analysis when it comes to machine vision and human vision vary significantly. Image analysis is easier in the case of applications where the environment, objects and lighting conditions are fixed. This is usually the case of a production process in industry. The branch of computer vision which is used in industry is called â€Å"Robotic Vision†. The analysis is much more difficult in applications where the environment is unknown and there is a large number of objects or the different objects are unclear or difficult to separate (for example in biomedical applications or in outdoor / natural scenes). In such applications, even exper ts find it difficult to recognize objects. For these reasons, it is still difficult to obtain a general image analysis system. Most existing systems are designed for specialized applications. OTHER RELATED RESEARCH AREAS Digital image processing and analysis are related to various other scientific areas because of their subject of research. Recently, there is a tendency, at least in terms of applications, for digital image processing to become an interdisciplinary industry. Some related research areas are: Digital Signal Processing Graphics Pattern Recognition Artificial Intelligence Telecommunications and Media Multimedia Systems We will examine the relation of each of these areas with digital image processing and image analysis independently, since the way they are related is not very clear. Digital Image Processing Vs Digital Signal Processing Every image can be described as a two-dimensional signal. Therefore, for the analysis and processing of digital images all the techniques of digital signal processing can be used. This area provides the theoretical and programming base for image processing. Digital Image Processing Vs Graphic Fundamentally, the subject of graphic is digital synthesis. Therefore, the input is a symbolic description and the output is a digital image. For this purpose a geometric modelling of the display object takes place, as well as a digital description of the lighting conditions and digital production of the objects illuminants in the assumed position of the camera. Digital Image Processing Vs Pattern Recognition Pattern recognition deals with the classification of an object to a class of models (class pattern). For example, trying to recognize whether a new object is a resistor, a capacitor, or an integrated circuit. For this purpose, an object has to be described using certain characteristics (features), mostly numbers (for example: diameter and area), and then it can be classified based on these characteristics. Digital Image Processing Vs Artificial Intelligence Artificial intelligence and image understanding are areas where a symbolic representation of an image is converted to another more complex representation or a representation more easily comprehensible to humans. Usually, techniques for representation of human knowledge (knowledge representation) and reasoning (inference) are used for this purpose. The analysis of a â€Å"scene† requires higher cognitive processes and that is why it is also known as high-level vision. On the other hand, image processing is more related to the lower levels of vision, that take place in the human eye and optic nerve and as a result it is also known as low level vision. Digital Image Processing Vs Telecommunications The field of telecommunications is related to digital image transmission in telecommunication networks that transmit voice and data. The resulting networks are called Integrated Services Digital Networks (ISDN). A key problem concerning image transmissions is the compression of the images content, since a colour image requires about 750 Kbytes for its description. The construction of special algorithms for coding and decoding is also required. Digital image processing is also directly connected to the HDTV (High Definition TV). Its basic aim is the compression of the vast amount of information and the improvement of the quality of images that are received. Digital Image Processing Vs New Generation Databases The new generation of databases includes image, signal (voice) and data storage. In this field, digital image processing deals with image coding and analysis by finding smart ways of recovery (retrieval) of images. DIFFERENT AREAS OF DIGITAL IMAGE PROCESSING Digital image processing includes several areas that are closely related. Some of those areas are mentioned below: Capture of the image Digital Filtering of the image Edge Detection Region Segmentation Shape Description Texture Analysis Motion Analysis Stereoscopy It is logical that the description of all these areas is not possible in a short presentation. However, the literature is so wide that several books would be needed in order to describe adequately the digital image processing. Moreover, image processing is a cognitive area that makes extensive use of specialized mathematical, which makes it difficult to be presented to an audience. For this reason the description of the area it is purely qualitative. Capture of the Image The first thing that has to be described is the capturing mechanism of the images. The most classic means of capturing an image is by a photographic camera and a film. However, this technique is not very useful in the field of digital image processing, since the captured image cannot be easily processed by computer. On the other hand, electronic capture is particularly interesting because the image can be digitized and then processed by a computer. For this reason, conventional electronic video cameras are widely used. Electronic video cameras scan the image and produce an electrical signal as an output. There are various camera technologies (for example Orthicon, Vidicon, CCD). The electric signal produced by the camera is then led to a frame grabber. During the process of digitalization, the analogue signal is converted to a digital signal using an A / D converter. Thus, the image is converted into a matrix of 256256 or 512512 points (spots). Each point is typically represented by 8 bits, i.e. 256 levels of brightness. However, a common technique in some fields (e.g. robotics) is a binary representation of images that uses only 1 bit / position. This representation is used in order to save memory and speed in the case of simple applications. In some other cases where the colour of an image is critical, colour cameras and three A / D converters are used. In this case the three primary RGB colours (red-green-blue) are saved with 38 bits / position. As a result, digital image processing has large memory requirements, even for black and white images. The digitized image is stored as a file on the computers local disk. To be able to see the image, we need to transfer it to a special RAM memory (image memory) connected to a monitor. Such monitors may be black and white or colour (RGB). Colour monitors are mostly used even in black and white applications because they have the ability to show â€Å"pseudocolours†. Finally, the image in any program of image pro cessing appears as a two-dimensional table (array) 256256 or 512512 which is â€Å"filled† by the computers local disk or by the image memory in which the image is stored. The process of capturing an image can cause the following distortions: Blurring Noise Geometric Distortions Therefore, before any application the correction of these distortions is essential. Geometric corrections are mostly needed where geometric information is important, e.g. stereoscopes, topography. The reduction of blurring is done through the process of recovery (restoration). The recovery process is particularly important in applications where there is movement, (e.g. a ‘scene of a road) because the motion introduces blurring. In most cases the filtering of the image is also very important in order to remove noise. This can be done by various linear or nonlinear filters. Usually, nonlinear filters are mostly used because they maintain the contrast of the edges, which is a very important factor for human vision. The overall image contrast can also be improved by special non-linear techniques (contrast enhancement). Edge Detection Another important process of image analysis is the recognition (tracing) of contours. There are many techniques that can be used for edge detection. The development of various edge detection techniques was imperative due to the important information about the objects used for identification, which can be found in the contours. The dual problem of edge recognition is the recognition of regions in an image. This problem is called image segmentation. Usually the different regions of an image are coloured with â€Å"pseudocolours†. Texture Analysis In several industrial applications the recognition (or analysis) of the texture is very important. An example of the importance of texture recognition in industrial applications is its use in recognition of different fabrics, or recognition of flaws in a cloth. Recognition of traffic is also a very important field of computer vision for many applications, e.g. traffic monitoring, automatic driving, recognition of moving objects, digital television, videoconferencing, telephone with image compression and broadcast animation. Is should be noticed, that recognition of traffic has large memory requirements for storage and real time processing. This can only be achieved through parallel image processing and use of special VLSI chips. Shape Description Another area of computer vision which is particularly useful in pattern recognition is the description of shape (shape representation). A shape is described either by its border, or by the area it covers. The edge of a shape can be described in different ways, e.g. Fourier descriptors, splines. The area of a shape can be described by methods of mathematical morphology, decomposition with simple shapes, etc. These methods are used either for the storage of a shape, or for its identification. Stereoscopes Many applications require measurement of depth. In this case stereoscopy with two cameras can be used. Stereoscopy is particularly useful in photogrammetry and robot movement in a three dimensional space.

The History Of International Cybersecurity Politics Essay

The History Of International Cybersecurity Politics Essay The United States, England, and Continental Europe have very different approaches to cybersecurity. The United States and United Kingdom conceive of cyber primarily as a national security problem to be handled by the military- which in turn sees the Internet as a fifth domain of war to be dominated. The rest of the European Union, however, sees cyber threats mostly as an irritant for commerce and individual privacy that should be dealt with by civilian authorities working in combination with private enterprise. Additionally, while the United States can have a single policy, even though its one implemented by many different federal departments, the European Union is made up of twenty-seven nations with their own laws, notions, and philosophical differences over how to approach cyber issues. Finally, there is NATO, where a unified transatlantic cyber vision must be reconciled and arranged in a coherent manner among twenty-eight allies through a cumbersome bureaucratic process. To make sense of these conflicting visions, this essay reviews cyber attacks against NATO members, attempts to outline the challenges of developing a transatlantic vision for cyber policy, and highlights some of the fundamental differences among NATO members. It is helpful to remember that although the Internet is so ensconced in most of our lives that it is hard to envision living without it, the first modern Web browser didnt debut until 1993 and broadband access has only become widespread over the last decade. As a result, senior government and military leaders did not grow up with the Internet and are gradually having to adapt to emerging cyber realities. Franklin Kramer, who worked as assistant secretary of defense under President Bill Clinton, draws a comparison with the Great Fire of London, he notes that it nearly destroyed the city in 1666 because an advance in living conditions- wooden houses for many- was not matched by security measures. There were no firefighting technologies, no firefighting processes, and no resources devoted to fire fighting. This was still true more than two centuries later with the Great Chicago Fire. Despite our slow learning curve, in the modern world, while fire may strike, it is not the city-devourin g scourge that it once was. Through government regulations that established building codes and through volunteer and government-run fire departments, a protective-response was established over the centuries.  [1]   Former Deputy Secretary of Defense William J. Lynn III uses a more aggressive analogy: The first military aircraft was bought, I think, in 1908, somewhere around there. So were in about 1928, he said. Weve kind of seen some à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ biplanes shoot at each other over France, he added. But we havent really seen kind of what a true cyberconflict is going to look like.  [2]   Currently, European policymakers seem to treat cybersecurity more along fire-prevention lines rather than as biplanes over France. And framing is critical when thinking about cyber issues. As Kramer observes, Ask the wrong question, and you generally will get the wrong answer. And cyber- and what to do about cyber conflict- is an arena where there is generally no agreement on what is the question, certainly no agreement on what are the answers, and evolving so fast that questions are transmuted and affect and change the validity of answers that have been given. He argues that the lack of agreement over the nature of the problem, lack of coherent regulation and authority mechanisms, and conflict between connectivity and security together make cyber a wicked problem not easily susceptible to resolution.  [3]   Lynn manages to frame the issue in military and security terms but fully acknowledges that the reality is quite blurred and that no clear lines exist in this new domain. I mean, clearly if you take down significant portions of our economy we would probably consider that an attack. But an intrusion stealing data, on the other hand, probably isnt an attack. And there are [an] enormous number of steps in between those two.  [4]   Lynn goes on to say, one of the challenges facing Pentagon strategists is deciding at what threshold do you consider something an attackà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ I think the policy community both inside and outside the government is wrestling with that, and I dont think weve wrestled it to the ground yet. In other words, it is difficult to know whether the house is on fire or biplanes are shooting at each other.  [5]   Correspondingly tricky, defense officials say, is how to pinpoint who is doing the attacking. This raises further complications that are clearly at the heart of the Pentagons mission. At the Council on Foreign Relations Lynn summarized the issue If you dont know who to attribute an attack to, you cant retaliate against that attack, As a result, you cant deter through punishment, you cant deter by retaliating against the attack. He discussed the complexities that make cyberwar so different from, say, nuclear missiles, which of course come with a return address.  [6]   The cyber threat is very much a part of our current reality. Over the last several years several NATO members and partners, including the United States, have been targeted by severe cyber attacks. Estonia What is commonly believed to be the first known case of one state targeting another by cyber-warfare began on April 27, 2007, when a massive denial-of-service attack was launched by Russia against Estonia over a dispute involving a statue. The attack crippled websites of government ministries, political parties, newspapers, banks, and companies.  [7]  The attack was nicknamed Web War One and it caused a resonation within transatlantic national security circles.  [8]   The German newspaper Deutsche Welle wrote that Estonia is particularly vulnerable to cyber attacks because it is one of the most wired countries in the world. Nearly everyone in Estonia conducts banking and other daily activities on line. So when the cyber attack occurred, it nearly shut Estonia down.  [9]  Then-EU Information Society and Media commissioner Viviane Reding called the attacks a wakeup call, commenting that if people do not understand the urgency now, they never will. Her reaction was to incorporate a response into an EU-wide law on identity theft over the Internet.  [10]  Additionally, NATO did establish a Cyber Center of Excellence in Tallinn, which will be discussed later in the essay. Georgia While not a NATO member, Georgia is a NATO partner, and the April 2008 Bucharest Summit declared that it will become a member at some unspecified time in the future, a promise reiterated at the November 2010 Lisbon Summit.  [11]  Weeks before the August 2008 Russian land invasion and air attack, Georgia was subject to an extensive, coordinated cyber attack. American experts estimated that the attacks against Georgias Internet infrastructure began as early as July 20, with coordinated barrages of millions of requests- known as distributed denial of service, or DDOS, attacks- that overloaded and effectively shut down Georgian servers.  [12]  The pressure was intensified during the early days of the war, effectively shutting down critical communications in Georgia. After defacing Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvilis web site and integrating a slideshow portraying Saakashvili as Hitler, coming up with identical images of both Saakashvili and Hitlers public appearances, the site remained under a sustained DDoS attack. Writing as the attacks were under way, security consultant Dancho Danchev believed it smells like a three letter intelligence agencys propaganda arm has managed to somehow supply the creative for the defacement of Georgia Presidents official web site, thereby forgetting a simple rule of engagement in such a conflict- risk forwarding the responsibility of the attack to each and every Russian or Russian supporter that ever attacked Georgian sites using publicly obtainable DDOS attack tools in a coordinated fashion.  [13]  Bill Woodcock, the research director at Packet Clearing House, a California-based nonprofit group that tracks Internet security trends, noted that the attacks represented a landmark: the first use of a cyber a ttack in conjunction with an armed military invasion.  [14]   The nature of cyber attacks is such that, two and a half years later, there is still no definitive answer on who caused the attack. They certainly emanated from Russia, but the precise role of Moscows military and intelligence services remains unclear. Given that the cyber attacks preceded and accompanied conventional military attacks, there appears to be a link to the Russian government. A March 2009 report by Greylogic concluded Russias Foreign Military Intelligence agency (the GRU) and Federal Security Service (the FSB), rather than patriotic hackers, were likely to have played a key role in coordinating and organizing the attacks. They added, The available evidence supports a strong likelihood of GRU/ FSB planning and direction at a high level while relying on Nashi intermediaries and the phenomenon of crowd-sourcing to obfuscate their involvement and implement their strategy.  [15]   United States In a 2010 essay for Foreign Affairs, Lynn revealed that in 2008, the US Department of Defense suffered a significant compromise of its classified military computer networks. It began when an infected flash drive was inserted into a US military laptop at a base in the Middle East. The flash drives malicious computer code, placed there by a foreign intelligence agency, uploaded itself onto a network run by the US Central Command. That code spread undetected on both classified and unclassified systems, establishing what amounted to a digital beachhead, from which data could be transferred to servers under foreign control.  [16]   The upshot is that adversaries have acquired thousands of files from US networks and from the networks of US allies and industry partners, including weapons blueprints, operational plans, and surveillance data.  [17]   Lynn classified this attack as the most significant breach of US military computers ever and stated that it served as an important wake-up call.  [18]  He acknowledged that to that point, we did not think our classified networks could be penetrated.  [19]  The result of this new awareness was Operation Buckshot Yankee, a fourteen-month program that rid US systems of the agent.btz worm and helped lead to a major reorganization of the armed forces information defenses, including the creation of the militarys new Cyber Command.  [20]   United Kingdom In a speech at the 2011 Munich Security Conference, British foreign secretary William Hague revealed that a series of cyber attacks on his country took place the previous year. He noted that in late December a spoofed email purporting to be from the White House was sent to a large number of international recipients who were directed to click on a link that then downloaded a variant of ZEUS. The UK Government was targeted in this attack and a large number of emails bypassed some of our filters.  [21]   Additionally, sometime in 2010 the national security interests of the UK were targeted in a deliberate attack on our defense industry. A malicious file posing as a report on a nuclear Trident missile was sent to a defense contractor by someone masquerading as an employee of another defense contractor. Good protective security meant that the email was detected and blocked, but its purpose was undoubtedly to steal information relating to our most sensitive defense projects.  [22]   Finally, in February 2011, three of my staff were sent an email, apparently from a British colleague outside the FCO, working on their region. The email claimed to be about a forthcoming visit to the region and looked quite innocent. In fact it was from a hostile state intelligence agency and contained computer code embedded in the attached document that would have attacked their machine. Luckily, our systems identified it and stopped it from ever reaching my staff.  [23]  Still, the prevalence and sophistication of these attacks are a principal reason why cybersecurity and cyber-crime were listed as two of the top five priorities in the UKs National Security Strategy.  [24]   Given the interconnectivity of the Internet, Hague argued that more comprehensive international collaboration is vital, noting that, while cyber security is on the agendas of some 30 multilateral organizations, from the UN to the OSCE and the G8, the problem is that much of this debate is fragmented and lacks focus. He continued, We believe there is a need for a more comprehensive, structured dialogue to begin to build consensus among like-minded countries and to lay the basis for agreement on a set of standards on how countries should act in cyberspace.  [25]   US- European Attitudinal Differences We begin to be able to discern a pattern: The United States and the United Kingdom take cyber security very seriously and view it primarily through the lens of national security. The EU and most Western European members of NATO see it primarily as a national infrastructure problem. In the run-up to the November 2010 Lisbon NATO Summit, Pentagon officials were pressing very firmly to incorporate a concept of active cyber defense into the revised NATO Strategic Concept. Lynn argued that the Cold War concepts of shared warning apply in the 21st century to cyber security. Just as our air defenses, our missile defenses have been linked so too do our cyber defenses need to be linked as well. However, this notion was firmly rejected by the Europeans, with the French particularly adamant.  [26]   USCYBERCOM A July 2010 Economist story proclaimed: After land, sea, air and space, warfare has entered the fifth domain: cyberspace.  [27]  It noted that President Obama had declared the digital infrastructure a strategic national asset and had appointed Howard Schmidt, the former head of security at Microsoft, as the first cybersecurity tsar. Peter Coates notes that the air force had actually anticipated this move in December 2005, declaring cyber a fifth domain when it changed its mission statement to To fly and fight in air, space, and cyberspace. In November of the following year, it redesignated the 8th Air Force to become Air Force Cyberspace Command.  [28]   In May 2010 the Defense Department launched a new subunified command, United States Cyber Command, with Gen. Keith Alexander dual-hatted as its chief while continuing on as director of the National Security Agency. CYBERCOM is charged with the responsibility to direct the operations and defense of specified Department of Defense information networks and prepare to, and when directed, conduct full spectrum military cyberspace operations in order to enable actions in all domains, ensure US/ Allied freedom of action in cyberspace and deny the same to our adversaries.  [29]   As the scale of cyberwarfares threat to US national security and the US economy has come into view, the Pentagon has built layered and robust defenses around military networks and inaugurated the new US Cyber Command to integrate cyber-defense operations across the military. The Pentagon is now working with the Department of Homeland Security to protect government networks and critical infrastructure and with the United States closest allies to expand these defenses internationally. An enormous amount of foundational work remains, but the US government has begun putting in place various initiatives to defend the United States in the digital age.  [30]  Even with stepped-up vigilance and resources, Lynn admits, adversaries have acquired thousands of files from US networks and from the networks of US allies and industry partners, including weapons blueprints, operational plans, and surveillance data.  [31]   The cyber policy of the United States is rapidly evolving, with major developments under way even as I write this essay. The White House issued a new International Strategy for Cyberspace in May 2011. While not by any means moving away from a defense-oriented posture- indeed, it generated breathless commentary by declaring the right to meet cyber attacks with a kinetic response- it sought to bring commercial, individual, diplomatic, and other interests into the equation. This was followed by a new Department of Defense cyber strategy in July 2011, which built on Lynns Foreign Affairs essay. European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA) While CYBERCOM is the most powerful and well-funded US cyber agency, the lead EU cyber agency is ENISA, the European Network and Information Security Agency. Whereas CYBERCOM is run by a general with an intelligence background, ENISA is run by a physics professor with long experience in the IT sector, including the energy industry, insurance company engineering, aviation, defense, and space industry.  [32]  The agencys mission is to develop a culture of Network and Information Security for the benefit of citizens, consumers, business and public sector organizations in the European Union.  [33]   In December 2010 ENISA released a report identifying what it sees as the top security risks and opportunities of smartphone use and gives security advice for businesses, consumers and governments. The agency considers spyware, poor data cleansing when recycling phones, accidental data leakage, and unauthorized premium-rate phone calls and SMSs as the top risks.  [34]  New regulations are proposed that would see the perpetrators of cyber attacks and the producers of related and malicious software prosecuted, and criminal sanctions increased to a maximum two-year sentence. European countries would also be obliged to respond quickly to requests for help when cyber attacks are perpetrated, and new pan-European criminal offences will be created for the illegal interception of information systems. Home affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrà ¶m added that criminalizing the creation and selling of malicious software and improving European police cooperation would help Europe step up our efforts against cybercrime. ENISAs new mandate will let the agency organize pan-European cybersecurity exercises, public- private network resilience partnerships, and risk assessment and awareness campaigns. ENISAs funding will also be boosted, and its management board will get a stronger supervisory role. ENISAs mandate is also to be extended by five years to 2017. The new directive will also supersede a 2005 council framework decision on cybercrime because that previous regulation did not focus sufficiently on evolving threats- in particular, large-scale simultaneous attacks against information systems, such as Stuxnet, and the increasing criminal use of botnets. Stuxnet was recently used to attack Irans nuclear power infrastructure, and a single botnet, Rustock, is estimated to be responsible for two-fifths of the worlds spam.  [35]   Additionally, EU states are constrained by Directive 95/ 46/ EC, better known as the Data Protection Directive, which provides enormous protection for any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person. Compare this to the USA Patriot Act, which gives enormous leeway to US law enforcement and intelligence agencies to access electronic data held by US companies in order to investigate and deter terrorist activities. In June 2011 Gordon Frazer, managing director of Microsoft UK, set off a firestorm when he declared that European customer data stored on cloud computing services by companies with a US presence cannot be guaranteed the protections afforded under the Data Protection Directive, setting off a demand from some EU lawmakers to resolve this issue.  [36]   Germany In late February 2011 Germanys outgoing minister of the interior, Thomas de Maizià ¨re, unveiled the countrys Nationale Cyber-Sicherheitsstrategie (National Cyber Security Strategy).  [37]  To American eyes, the fact that it was the interior ministry, not the defense ministry, issuing the strategy is striking. It was no accident: this is by no means a defense document. The documents introduction notes that in Germany all players of social and economic life use the possibilities provided by cyberspace. As part of an increasingly interconnected world, the state, critical infrastructures, businesses and citizens in Germany depend on the reliable functioning of information and communication technology and the Internet. Among the threats listed: Malfunctioning IT products and components, the break-down of information infrastructures or serious cyber attacks may have a considerable negative impact on the performance of technology, businesses and the administration and hence on Germanys social lifelines. Contrast this with Lynns analogy of biplanes over France, and his pondering at what threshold do you consider something an attack? German security scholar Thomas Rid laments that the strategy is coming a bit late and that Germanys thinking lags that of the United States and the United Kingdom. Beyond that, he notes that the two agencies created to manage cyber issues are woefully understaffed and tasked with myriad responsibilities related tangentially at best to cyber security. And, according to a cyber kodex established in the new strategy, German interests in data security à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ would be pursued in international organizations such as the UN, the OSCE, the European Council, the OECD, and NATO- in that order.  [38]   United Kingdom as Outlier As is frequently the case on matters of international security, the United Kingdom is much more in line with its American cousin than its neighbors on the Continent. In an October 12, 2010, speech at Londons International Institute for Strategic Studies, Iain Lobban, director of GCHQ (the UKs National Security Agency analogue, responsible for signals intelligence) noted that his country combines the intelligence and information assurance missions in a single agency, an arrangement shared by only a few other countries, most notably the US. It gives us a richer view of vulnerabilities and threats than those who consider them purely from the point of view of defense.  [39]   He confessed to constant barrages of spam, worms, theft of intellectual property on a massive scale, some of it not just sensitive to the commercial enterprises in question but of national security concern too, and all manner of other attacks that have caused significant disruption to Government systems. Consequently, his government was looking to significantly increase its investment in the cyber realm even at a time when the global recession was forcing significant austerity in other departments, including in more traditional military assets.  [40]   Thomas Rid notes the sheer breadth of Lobbans focus: Cyber encompasses, for instance, more and more online government services (read: steadily increasing vulnerability); critical national infrastructure, publicly or privately run; online crime in all its facets; espionage (both industrial and governmental), and such things as the proper norms of behavior for responsible states.  [41]   The implications are vast, as Lobban hints and Rid explicates: partnerships of a new kind are needed to deal with cyber threats and risks. International partnerships, with like-minded countries that need to establish and maintain appropriate norms of behavior in crisis situations- and intersectoral partnerships, between government agencies and industry, especially the high-tech sector.  [42]   In his Munich Security Conference speech, Hague noted that we rely on computer networks for the water in our taps, the electricity in our kitchens, the sat navs in our cars, the running of trains, the storing of our medical records, the availability of food in our supermarkets and the flow of money into high street cash machines. Further, Many government services are now delivered via the internet, as is education in many classrooms. In the UK, 70 percent of younger internet users bank online and two thirds of all adults shop on the internet.  [43]   Given the new awareness of vulnerabilities and the degree of dependence, then, the United Kingdoms new National Security Strategy ranks cyber attack and cyber crime in our top five highest priority risks. This is not lip service. At the same time that the British military is suffering such severe cutbacks that the Royal Navy is reduced to sharing a single aircraft carrier with France, the current budget provided  £ 650 million of new funding for a national cyber-security program, which will improve our capabilities in cyber-space and pull together government efforts. As part of that effort, Hague said, We have established a new Ministerial Group on cyber security which I chair. And we have boosted the UKs cyber capabilities with the establishment of a new Defense Cyber Operations Group, incorporating cyber security into the mainstream of our defense planning and operation.  [44]   NATO Responses After months of study and debate the 2010 NATO Summit in Lisbon issued a new strategic concept on November 19, 2010. In it, cyber issues were officially recognized for the first time as a core alliance mission. Recognizing that cyber attacks are becoming more frequent, more organized and more costly in the damage that they inflict, NATO pledged to develop further our ability to prevent, detect, defend against and recover from cyber-attacks, including by using the NATO planning process to enhance and coordinate national cyber-defense capabilities, bringing all NATO bodies under centralized cyber protection, and better integrating NATO cyber awareness, warning and response with member nations.  [45]   This was followed in June 2011 by a revised NATO policy on cyber defense and a parallel cyber defense action plan. Combined, they offer a coordinated approach to cyber defense across the Alliance with a focus on preventing cyber threats and building resilience. Additionally, all NATO structures will be brought under centralized protection.  [46]   What practical actions will flow from these policy statements remains unclear, especially in an era of radically declining budgets. But they give an overview of what it terms NATOs principle cyber defense activities.  [47]   Coordinating and Advising on Cyber Defense The cyber-defense policy was implemented by NATOs political, military, and technical

Science Research Paper :: essays research papers

Corrosion and rubbing alcohol vs. corrosion and hydrogen peroxide â€Å"Are brass, lead, iron, and aluminum more likely to corrode in solutions of rubbing alcohol or hydrogen peroxide?† a. Definition-corrosion, rust, oxidation Corrosion is the atmospheric oxidation of metals. Rusting is essentially a process of oxidation in which iron combines with water and oxygen to form rust. Rust is the reddish-brown crust that forms on the surface of iron. Rust, a chemical compound, is a hydrated ferric oxide Fe2O3 ·nH2O, where n is usually 11/2. The chemical mechanism of rusting is not fully known, but is thought to involve oxidation of metallic iron to ferrous ion, (Fe++) and reaction of the ferrous ion with oxygen and water to form rust. This reaction is catalyzed by water, acids, and metals (e.g., copper and tin) below iron in the electromotive series. Because iron is so widely used, e.g., in building construction and in tools, its protection against rusting is important. Although metals (e.g., aluminum, chromium, and zinc) above iron in the electromotive series corrode more readily than iron, their oxides form a tenuous coating that protects the metal from further attack. Rust is brittle and flakes off the surface of the iron, continually exposing a fresh surf ace. Rusting can be prevented by excluding air and water from the iron surface, e.g., by painting, oiling, or greasing, or by plating the iron with a protective coating of another metal. Metals used for plating include chromium, nickel, tin, and zinc. Zinc plating is called galvanizing. (www.encyclopedia.com/articles:2000). Many alloys of iron are resistant to corrosion. Stainless steels are alloys of iron with such metals as chromium and nickel; they do not corrode because the added metals help form a hard, adherent oxide coating that resists further attack. The iron hulls of ships can be protected against rusting by attaching magnesium strips to the underside of the vessel. An electric current is generated, with the magnesium and iron acting as electrodes and seawater acting as the electrolyte. Because magnesium is above iron in the electromotive series, it serves as a "sacrificial anode and is oxidized in preference to the iron. This is called cathodic protection, since the iron serves as the cathode and thus escapes oxidation. This method is also used to protect the pipes of electric generating plants where saltwater is used as a coolant.) (www.encyclopedia.com/articles:2000). The involvement of water accounts for the fact that rusting occurs much more rapidly in moist conditions as compared to a dry environment such as a desert.

Obedience and Disobedience in A Few Good Man Essay -- Psychology

â€Å"In the heart of nation’s capital, in a courthouse of the U.S government, one man will stop at nothing to keep his honor, and one will stop at nothing to find the truth.† This tagline helps to sum up the tone of the film A Few Good Men. Two soldiers caught in the middle of right and wrong will keep there hope and loyalty high as they wish for the best. Will the instigator of it all be pressured through his own anger to reveal the truth? Rob Reiner presents Col. Nathan R. Jessep as having an exaggerated self opinion while using his power for evil, based on dispositional factors. Lt. Daniel Kaffee uses his Harvard law education to represent two Marines who are being charged for murder in the movie A Few Good Men. Lt. Cdr. JoAnne Galloway and Lt. Sam Weinberg assist Kaffee on his investigation, thought to be a Code Red, a form of abusive peer discipline. While conversing with Jessep and his two senior officers in Cuba, Kaffee becomes suspicious about certain information given. In the end, Kaffee is triumphant over the case by proving Jessep’s guilt. Stanley Milgram, a Yale psychologist, introduces his opinion on obedience in his article, â€Å"The Perils of Obedience,† while discussing the background to his experiment. An experimenter ordered the unaware teacher to give the learner agonizing shocks, not knowing that the learner was not truly hooked up to the voltage. The experimenter’s goal was to make sure that the teacher followed all orders, even if that meant supposedly harming the learner. Surprisingly, more people obeyed the experim enter rather than following the instinct to help the learner. Likewise, Erich Fromm, a psychoanalyst and philosopher, claims that obedience and disobedience both can have good and bad consequences. From... ...of two marines, to perform a code red on Santiago, the learner. Although no harm was intended, the life of an ailing soldier was brutally taken due to the respect of an order. From Fromm’s outlook on the situation, obedience may sometimes be right, but unfortunately might lead to an unwanted outcome, similar to the circumstances portrayed in A Few Good Men. A person with hateful and self conceited characteristics is someone that most people don’t want to be around. This can impact society by causing less appreciation among people. Works Cited A Few Good Men. Dir. Rob Reiner. Perf. Jack Nicholson, Tom Cruise, and Demi Moore. Columbia Pictures, 1992. Film. Fromm, Erich. â€Å"Disobedience as a Psychological and Moral Problem† Writing and Reading for ACP Composition. Ed. Thomas E. Leahy and Christine R. Farris. New York, New York: Pearson, 2009. 258-263. Print.

How does Sushi reflect Japanese culture? Essay

Japanese people show great pride in their heritage and they use their food as a form of expression in order to show their cultural heritage. The Japanese focus on the small things in their cuisine that helps make such a large impact in the quality of the food. The country takes pride in their food and uses it for various symbolic reasons. Sushi and pride both have a large correlation in Japanese culture. Their attention to detail is also used as an advantage in order to show people all around the world as to why they are known for their wonderful cuisine. Sushi is pivotal in showing the identity of the Japanese people. Various factors play a role in sushi, such as; the geographical location of the country, the country’s history, its own culture, the aesthetics of the cuisine, and the global economy as a whole. The geographical location is a large reason as to why the country uses sushi in such a large amount of its fine cuisine. The country is largely surrounded by water and their main export also happens to be fish. Japan takes advantage of its geographical location by using its surroundings, the ocean, to the fullest. The geographical location of Japan also highly contributes to the countries own economy. Their main exports are agriculture and fish. Their rice fields and the use of the seaside help Japan’s economy tremendously. The country always manages to have a great harvest for their rice fields which increases the overall value of the rice, thus increasing the economy. Not only does this mean that the economy increases, but for the rice that they do hold on to, has excellent quality and will be applied to their cuisine. Applying better than average quality rice into their cuisine will also increase tourism to the country. Japan’s quality of food is known throughout the entire world and helps represent the Japanese culture as a whole. The history of Japanese cuisine also plays a large role in Japanese identity. The countries fish has a high value in the world market and are constantly able to receive fresh fish from their waters. The countries history has always consisted of sushi. Earlier ancestors use to dislike the taste of only the fish and wanted something to add onto the fish, thus  adding rice. This is very similar in how other various countries use bread as a way to help combat their meals as well. Throughout the country’s history, sushi began to appear in the west. As more sushi began to appear in other countries, the higher the demand became. As a result of high demand, tourism significantly increased and so did the export of fish. Other countries began to implement fish into their own cuisines and Japanese identity/culture began to spread all over the world. The late 20th century saw sushi gaining in popularity all over the world. The culture of the Japanese helped introduce sushi into Japan. Their religious affiliations, which were Buddhism, prevented them from eating meant. They saw animals as sacred beings with souls just like them. As a result, they refused to kill animals. The Japanese viewed fish as an alternative method because they were not allowed to harm other animals dude to their religious affiliation. Not only did fish become the staple of Japanese identity, so did rice. Rice has been around since the beginning of Japanese culture and still remains a staple of Japanese identity to this day. The combination of the two most consumed food in Japan led to sushi, which quickly spread to western countries. To this day Japanese identity/culture has a lot to do with the introduction of sushi in its history. The aesthetics of sushi also plays a large role in Japanese identity. No other countries have been able to create the quality of food as the Japanese do. The quality of the fish and the simplicity of the presentation of the product are like no other. The quality of ingredients plays a large role in their food, as it takes days to weeks in order to properly marinate their fish. The cooks refuse to distribute the food until they believe it is presentable in their eyes. The beauty of the presentation helps bring a unique style to sushi. The various colors, shapes, and texture help bring a unique element. The overall presentation of sushi is just beautiful, something that is hard to mimic. The overall eating experience of Japanese cuisine is a relaxed, almost spiritual experience, something that very few cultures have. Sushi overall is a true art. The presentation, taste, and experience as a whole help bring sushi to life, something that cannot be  replicated. Sushi today is the foundation of Japanese culture/identity and will always exist in the Japanese lifestyle. Sushi is not only a major export, but also something that the Japanese take great pride in. Japanese people show great pride in their heritage and they use their food as a form of expression in order to show their cultural heritage. It represents symbolism in the Japanese lifestyle and will continue to flourish in the future. Work Cited Allison, Anne 1991 Japanese Mothers and Bentos: The Lunch Box as Ideological State Apparatus. Anthropological Quarterly 64(4):195-208. Bestor, Theodore C. 2001. Supply-Side Sushi: Commodity, Market, and the Global City. American Anthropologist Volume 103 (1): 76-95. Jstor, www.jstor.org, November 22, 2010. Bestor (2001) Supply-Side Sushi Commodity Market and the Global City Bestor, Theodore C. 2005 How Sushi Went Global. In Cultural politics of Food and Eating; A Reader, edited by James L. Watson and Melissa L. Caldwell, pp.13-20. Blackwell, Oxford. Bestor, Theodore C. 2006 Kaiten –zushi and Konbini: Japanese Food Culture in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. In Fast Food/Slow Food: The Cultural Economy of the Global Food System, edited by Richard R. Wilk, pp.115-130. Altamira Press, Maryland. Casal, U. A. 1957 The Five Sacred Festivals of Ancient Japan: their symbolism and historical development. Sophia University, Tokyo Ceccarini, Rossella 2010 Food Studies and Sociology: A Review Focusing on Japan. AGLOS: Journal of Area-Based Global Studies 1:1-17. Durrenberger, E. Paul and Gà ­sli Pà ¡lsson 1987 Ownership at Sea: Fishing Territories and Access to Sea Resources. American Ethnologist. 14(3):508-522. Jstor 1993 Rice as self: Japanese identities through time. http://books.google.com/ accessed November 20. 2010. Goldburg, Rebecca and Rosamond Naylor 2005 Future Seascapes, Fishing, and Fish Farming. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. 3(1):21-28. Jstor, http://jstor.org 1983 Microbiology of Oriental Fermented Foods. http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/pdf/10.1146/annurev.mi.37.100183.003043 accessed November 21 Kasulis, Thomas P. 1995 Sushi, Science, and Spirituality: Modern Japanese Philosophy and Its Views of Western Science. Philosophy East and West Volume 45(2): 227-248. Jstor. www.Jstor.org, November 22, 2010. Kegan, Paul 2001The History and Culture of Japanese food. New York. Routledge. Kegan, Paul. Loveday, Leo, and Satomi, Chiba 1998 Partaking with the Divine and Symbolizing the Societal: The Semiotics of Japanese Food and Drink. Semiotica 56(1-2):115-132. Google Scholar, http://scholar.google.com Magnuson, John J.; Carl Safina and Michael P. Sissenwine 2001 Whose Fish Are They Anyway?. Science. 293(5533):1267-1268. Jstor, http://jstor.org/ Mansfield, Becky