Judge First: Bite Last Essay -- social issues

Judge First: Bite Last The soccer ball hit the grassy field with a minor thump, while screams centered attention near the goalie’s post. The child’s puny hands showing little resistance to the canine incisors planted deep within his pierced left arm. The Pit Bull only winced his eyes to squeeze the blood laden arm beyond the shattering point. The Pit Bull’s head shaking as a crocodile with morning’s breakfast, forced his meal to lifelessness on the soiled grass. The child’s lame arm dropped, signaling the lost battle. Why do we have a maligned image of the Pit Bull? Pit Bulls strike fear in the hearts of their onlookers. Their body features look similar to that of a Rottwieler, with a blocky head, square body, and clamp-like jaws. Separated only by a leash, an unknown Pit Bull would terrify me. For example, imagine walking down the street and seeing a gentleman walking his Pit Bull. The jingle of dog tags grows louder, revealing a shadow that moves. Its cold stare, combined with unpredictability would bring me to swiftly move to the furthest sidewalk from them. The ability of that dog to bring my body an unexplainable mess is far from what I want to tango with. The carelessness of owners is our greatest source of danger with the Pit Bull. Picture a jogger embarking on his daily exercise. The last of daylight leaves as the sun disappears over the horizon. The man’s body tires as he pushes on down the nearby neighborhood block. Suddenly stopping with large sweat drop...

John Steinbeck Essay -- essays research papers

John Steinbeck was born on February 27, 1902 in Salinas, California, a farming community with of about 2500 people. He was the third of four children and the only son of John Ernst and Olive Hamiton Steinbeck. His sisters Beth and Esther were much older than John and he felt closest to Mary, the youngest. He spent his childhood and adolescence in the Salinas Valley, which he later called â€Å"the salad bowl of the nation.† John’s mother, Olive, was the daughter of Irish immigrants. She left her parents’ ranch to become a teacher. John remembered his mother as energetic and full of fun. He called his father, in contrast, â€Å"a singularly silent man.† Steinbeck’s father, also named John, worked as the treasurer of Monterey County. He had chosen a safe, practical course in life, in order to support his family.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  John enjoyed literature from an early age on. His mother read him the fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Robert Louis Stevenson, and the stories of King Arthur.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  John attended Salinas High School, an experience he generally disliked, but one bright spot in his high school carrer was his ninth grade English teacher, Miss Cupp. She admired the compositions he wrote and encouraged him to continue with his writing. Throughout high school, John spent most of his free time writing stories in his room.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  John graduated from HS in 1919 and then went to Stanford University. John wanted to study to be a writer, but his mother wanted him to be something practical, like a lawyer.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  While attending Stanford University, John Steinbeck decided that a degree was of no use to a writer. Instead, he studied the things that interested him and would help him progress as a writer. He studied literature, history, and classical Greek. He convinced university officials to let him learn human anatomy alongside the medical students. Dissecting cadavers would help him â€Å"know more about people†, he explained. Steinbeck’s creative writing teacher taught him to write stories that were â€Å"true.† She didn’t mean the events in the story had to have actually happened, but instead the story and characters must reflect real human feelings and conflicts.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  During his college years, Steinbeck worked at a number of different jobs to help pay for his educ... ...gories including physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, peace, and economics. The Prize is awarded to those who have made valuable contributions to the â€Å"good of humanity.†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Nobel Prize was the greatest honor of John Steinbeck’s life. His acceptance speech concluded with the observation that â€Å"St. John the Apostle may well be paraphrased: In the end is the Word, and the Word is Man--the Word is with Man.†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  After receiving the Prize, John began having heart problems and he was moved to his home in New York. John Steinbeck died peacefully on December 20, 1968, with Elaine lying at his side. He was 66 years old.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  As John Steinbeck experienced life in Ameria he recorded his observation, his enjoyment of life, and his belief in human goodness. Several of his works are now considered classics. His books differ in content and in form, â€Å"Of Mice and Men† is similar to a play and â€Å"The Sea of Cortez† is a scientific account. But Steinbeck wrote all of his books with a particular goal in mind. As he explained, â€Å"My whole work drive as been aimed at making people understand each other.†

New Wave of Internet Technology and the Effects on off-line Relationshi

Abstract There is a new place for exploration in regards to relationships; traditionally we meet people on the street, at bars or by other friends. However, since the vast expansion of Internet users, there have risen new ways of interacting and communicating with others. There are places on line that are specifically made to meet people in different context and environments. Some of these areas include instant message engines, chat rooms, and different other Internet based companies, which provide these services. Along with these new technological advances, as with many other things, there are negative outcomes. There has been research done on how these new ways of communication may cause turmoil to a relationships, through the idea of ~{!0~}Internet Infidelity,~{!1~} Internet infidelity is defined by Shaw, ~{!0~}as taking the sexual energy of any sort thoughts, feelings, and behaviors out side a committed sexual relationship in such a way that it damages the relationship, and then pretendin g that that this drain in energy will affect neither partner or the relationship as long as it remains undercover. (p. 29)~{!1~} Some individuals discount these acts of interactions on line as ~{!0~}non-real,~{!1~} therefore not constituting them as cheating; but through my research and my qualitative inquiries, I have found that ~{!0~}cyber cheating~{!1~} may and has caused dire consequences in relationships. Introduction There has always been a concern about cheating with in relationships. However, the risk seems to have increase with the advances of new technologies, such as the Internet and the services it provides in regards to meeting people. The Internet now offers many opportunities to meet people on-line through services such as on-line personal ads, chat rooms, and instant messenger systems. It is reported that, ~{!0~}national averages indicate that families have wholeheartedly adopted the computer and the Internet access into their homes in relatively short time. The exponential growth of Internet access at home raises questions regarding how Internet sexuality influences couples sexual relationship and sexual satisfaction~{!-~}(Gonya, 2004, p. 386)~{!1~} These new technologies have provided individuals in relationships the opportunity to venture in to a new way of what would be considered ~{!0~}internet infidelity.~{!1~} The reason people get trapped into ... ...relationships, when in a real physical relationship will damage the relationship that is that is not cybernetic. However, I suggest more research to be in this new area of infidelity, in order to give a stronger base to its substitutability. References and Works Cited M. Castro. 2005, May. 21. (Personal Interview, May 21, 2005) Gonya, J. 2004. Internet Sexuality: Clinical Implications for Couples. American Journal of Family Therapy. Vol. 32, Issue 5 P.375 Gwinnell, E., 1998. Online Seduction and Falling in Love with Strangers on the Internet. New York: Kodansha America, Inc. p. 88-121. Leiblum, S. R. 1997. Sex and the Net. Clinical Implications. Journal of Sex education and Therapy. 22. p. 21-27 Patton Q., Michael. Qualitative Research & Evaluation Methods 3rd Edition. California: Sage Publication Inc. p.215-225. Powell D.1995, Engendering Infidelity: Essentialist of Social Constructionist Readings of a Story Completion Task. Feminism and Psychology, p. 345-372. Shaw, J., 2001, Treatment Rational for Internet Infidelity. Journal of Sex Education and Therapy, 22, p. 29-34. Whitty, M. 2004, Cyber Cheating. Counseling and Psychotherapy Journal, Vol. 15 Issue 8, p.38.

Advances in Data Storage Technology

Advances in Data Storage Technology Contents I. Introduction3 II. Purpose of storage4 III. Hierarchy of storage6 A. Primary storage6 B. Secondary storage7 C. Tertiary storage7 D. Off-line storage8 IV. Characteristics of storage9 A. Volatility9 B. Mutability9 C. Accessibility10 D. Addressability10 E. Capacity11 F. Performance11 G. Energy use11 V. Fundamental storage technologies12 A. Semiconductor12 B. Magnetic12 C. Optical13 D. Paper14 E. Uncommon14 VI. Related technologies17 A. Network connectivity17 B. Robotic storage17 References19 I. INTRODUCTIONComputer data storage, often called storage or memory, refers to computer components and recording media that retain digital data used for computing for some interval of time. Computer data storage provides one of the core functions of the modern computer, that of information retention. It is one of the fundamental components of all modern computers, and coupled with a central processing unit (CPU, a processor), implements the basic compu ter model used since the 1940s. In contemporary usage, memory usually refers to a form of semiconductor storage known as random-access memory (RAM) and sometimes other forms of fast but temporary storage.Similarly, storage today more commonly refers to mass storage — optical discs, forms of magnetic storage like hard disk drives, and other types slower than RAM, but of a more permanent nature. Historically, memory and storage were respectively called main memory and secondary storage (or auxiliary storage). Auxiliary storage (or auxiliary memory units) was also used to represent memory which was not directly accessible by the CPU (secondary or tertiary storage). The terms internal memory and external memory are also used. II. Purpose of storageMany different forms of storage, based on various natural phenomena, have been invented. So far, no practical universal storage medium exists, and all forms of storage have some drawbacks. Therefore a computer system usually contains se veral kinds of storage, each with an individual purpose. A digital computer represents data using the binary numeral system. Text, numbers, pictures, audio, and nearly any other form of information can be converted into a string of bits, or binary digits, each of which has a value of 1 or 0. The most common unit of storage is the byte, equal to 8 bits.A piece of information can be handled by any computer whose storage space is large enough to accommodate the binary representation of the piece of information, or simply data. For example, using eight million bits, or about one megabyte, a typical computer could store a short novel. Traditionally the most important part of every computer is the central processing unit (CPU, or simply a processor), because it actually operates on data, performs any calculations, and controls all the other components. Without a significant amount of memory, a computer would merely be able to perform fixed operations and immediately output the result.It w ould have to be reconfigured to change its behavior. This is acceptable for devices such as desk calculators or simple digital signal processors. Von Neumann machines differ in that they have a memory in which they store their operating instructions and data. Such computers are more versatile in that they do not need to have their hardware reconfigured for each new program, but can simply be reprogrammed with new in-memory instructions; they also tend to be simpler to design, in that a relatively simple processor may keep state between successive computations to build up complex procedural results.Most modern computers are von Neumann machines. In practice, almost all computers use a variety of memory types, organized in a storage hierarchy around the CPU, as a trade-off between performance and cost. Generally, the lower a storage is in the hierarchy, the lesser its bandwidth and the greater its access latency is from the CPU. This traditional division of storage to primary, seconda ry, tertiary and off-line storage is also guided by cost per bit. III. Hierarchy of storage A. Primary storage: Primary storage (or main memory or internal memory), often referred to simply as memory, is the only one directly accessible to the CPU.The CPU continuously reads instructions stored there and executes them as required. Any data actively operated on is also stored there in uniform manner. Historically, early computers used delay lines, Williams’s tubes, or rotating magnetic drums as primary storage. By 1954, those unreliable methods were mostly replaced by magnetic core memory. Core memory remained dominant until the 1970s, when advances in integrated circuit technology allowed semiconductor memory to become economically competitive. This led to modern random-access memory (RAM).It is small-sized, light, but quite expensive at the same time. (The particular types of RAM used for primary storage are also volatile, i. e. they lose the information when not powered). As the RAM types used for primary storage are volatile (cleared at start up), a computer containing only such storage would not have a source to read instructions from, in order to start the computer. Hence, non-volatile primary storage containing a small startup program (BIOS) is used to bootstrap the computer, that is, to read a larger program from non-volatile secondary storage to RAM and start to execute it.A non-volatile technology used for this purpose is called ROM (Read-only memory). Recently, primary storage and secondary storage in some uses refer to what was historically called, respectively, secondary storage and tertiary storage. B. Secondary storage: Secondary storage (or external memory) differs from primary storage in that it is not directly accessible by the CPU. The computer usually uses its input/output channels to access secondary storage and transfers the desired data using intermediate area in primary storage. Secondary storage does not lose the data when the dev ice is powered down—it is non-volatile.Consequently, modern computer systems typically have two orders of magnitude more secondary storage than primary storage and data is kept for a longer time there. In modern computers, hard disk drives are usually used as secondary storage. Rotating optical storage devices, such as CD and DVD drives, have longer access times. Some other examples of secondary storage technologies are: flash memory (e. g. USB flash drives or keys), floppy disks, magnetic tape, paper tape, punched cards, standalone RAM disks, and Iomega Zip drives. C. Tertiary storage: Tertiary storage or tertiary memory provides a third level of storage.Typically it involves a robotic mechanism which will mount (insert) and dismount removable mass storage media into storage device according to the system's demands; this data is often copied to secondary storage before use. It is primarily used for archival of rarely accessed information since it is much slower than secondar y storage (e. g. 5–60 seconds vs. 1-10 milliseconds). This is primarily useful for extraordinarily large data stores, accessed without human operators. Typical examples include tape libraries and optical jukeboxes. D. Off-line storage:Off-line storage is computer data storage on a medium or a device that is not under the control of a processing unit. The medium is recorded, usually in a secondary or tertiary storage device, and then physically removed or disconnected. It must be inserted or connected by a human operator before a computer can access it again. Unlike tertiary storage, it cannot be accessed without human interaction. In modern personal computers, most secondary and tertiary storage media are also used for off-line storage. Optical discs and flash memory devices are most popular, and to much lesser extent removable hard disk drives.In enterprise uses, magnetic tape is predominant. Older examples are floppy disks, Zip disks, or punched cards. IV. Characteristics o f storage Storage technologies at all levels of the storage hierarchy can be differentiated by evaluating certain core characteristics as well as measuring characteristics specific to a particular implementation. These core characteristics are volatility, mutability, accessibility, and addressability. For any particular implementation of any storage technology, the characteristics worth measuring are capacity and performance. A. Volatility:Non-volatile memory will retain the stored information even if it is not constantly supplied with electric power. It is suitable for long-term storage of information. Nowadays used for most of secondary, tertiary, and off-line storage. In 1950s and 1960s, it was also used for primary storage, in the form of magnetic core memory. Volatile memory requires constant power to maintain the stored information. The fastest memory technologies of today are volatile ones (not a universal rule). Since primary storage is required to be very fast, it predomina ntly uses volatile memory.B. Mutability: Read/write storage or mutable storage allows information to be overwritten at any time. A computer without some amount of read/write storage for primary storage purposes would be useless for many tasks. Modern computers typically use read/write storage also for secondary storage. Read only storage retains the information stored at the time of manufacture, and write once storage (Write Once Read Many) allows the information to be written only once at some point after manufacture. These are called immutable storage.Immutable storage is used for tertiary and off-line storage. Examples include CD-ROM and CD-R. C. Accessibility: Random access any location in storage can be accessed at any moment in approximately the same amount of time. Such characteristic is well suited for primary and secondary storage. Sequential access the accessing of pieces of information will be in a serial order, one after the other; therefore the time to access a particul ar piece of information depends upon which piece of information was last accessed. Such characteristic is typical of off-line storage. D. Addressability:Location-addressable each individually accessible unit of information in storage is selected with its numerical memory address. In modern computers, location-addressable storage usually limits to primary storage, accessed internally by computer programs, since location-addressability is very efficient, but burdensome for humans. The underlying device is still location-addressable, but the operating system of a computer provides the file system abstraction to make the operation more understandable. In modern computers, secondary, tertiary and off-line storage use file systems. E.Capacity: Raw capacity the total amount of stored information that a storage device or medium can hold. It is expressed as a quantity of bits or bytes (e. g. 10. 4 megabytes). Memory storage density the compactness of stored information. It is the storage cap acity of a medium divided with a unit of length, area or volume (e. g. 1. 2 megabytes per square inch). F. Performance: Latency the time it takes to access a particular location in storage. The relevant unit of measurement is typically nanosecond for primary storage, millisecond for secondary storage, and second for tertiary storage.It may make sense to separate read latency and write latency, and in case of sequential access storage, minimum, maximum and average latency. G. Energy use: Storage devices that reduce fan usage, automatically shut-down during inactivity, and low power hard drives can reduce energy consumption 90 percent. 2. 5 inch hard disk drives often consume less power than larger ones. Low capacity solid-state drives have no moving parts and consume less power than hard disks. Also, memory may use more power than hard disks. V. Fundamental storage technologiesAs of 2008, the most commonly used data storage technologies are semiconductor, magnetic, and optical, while paper still sees some limited usage. Some other fundamental storage technologies have also been used in the past or are proposed for development. A. Semiconductor: Semiconductor memory uses semiconductor-based integrated circuits to store information. A semiconductor memory chip may contain millions of tiny transistors or capacitors. Volatile and non-volatile forms of semiconductor memory exist. In modern computers, primary storage almost exclusively consists of dynamic volatile semiconductor memory or dynamic random access memory.Since the turn of the century, a type of non-volatile semiconductor memory known as flash memory has steadily gained share as off-line storage for home computers. Non-volatile semiconductor memory is also used for secondary storage in various advanced electronic devices and specialized computers. B. Magnetic: Magnetic storage uses different patterns of magnetization on a magnetically coated surface to store information. Magnetic storage is non-volatile. T he information is accessed using one or more read/write heads which may contain one or more recording transducers.A read/write head only covers a part of the surface so that the head or medium or both must be moved relative to another in order to access data. In modern computers, magnetic storage will take these forms:  ¦ Magnetic disk  ¦ Floppy disk, used for off-line storage  ¦ Hard disk drive, used for secondary storage  ¦ Magnetic tape data storage, used for tertiary and off-line storage In early computers, magnetic storage was also used for primary storage in a form of magnetic drum, or core memory, core rope memory, thin-film memory, twister memory or bubble memory.Also unlike today, magnetic tape was often used for secondary storage. C. Optical: Optical storage, the typical optical disc, stores information in deformities on the surface of a circular disc and reads this information by illuminating the surface with a laser diode and observing the reflection. Optical dis c storage is non-volatile. The deformities may be permanent (read only media), formed once (write once media) or reversible (recordable or read/write media). The following forms are currently in common use. CD, CD-ROM, DVD, BD-ROM: Read only storage, used for mass distribution of digital information (music, video, computer programs)  ¦ CD-R, DVD-R, DVD+R, BD-R: Write once storage, used for tertiary and off-line storage  ¦ CD-RW, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, DVD-RAM, BD-RE: Slow write, fast read storage, used for tertiary and off-line storage  ¦ Ultra Density Optical or UDO is similar in capacity to BD-R or BD-RE and is slow write, fast read storage used for tertiary and off-line storage Magneto-optical disc storage is optical disc storage where the magnetic state on a ferromagnetic surface stores information.The information is read optically and written by combining magnetic and optical methods. Magneto-optical disc storage is non-volatile, sequential access, slow write, fast read storage used for tertiary and off-line storage. D. Paper: Paper data storage, typically in the form of paper tape or punched cards, has long been used to store information for automatic processing, particularly before general-purpose computers existed. Information was recorded by punching holes into the paper or cardboard medium and was read mechanically (or later optically) to determine whether a particular location on the medium was solid or contained a hole.A few technologies allow people to make marks on paper that are easily read by machine—these are widely used for tabulating votes and grading standardized tests. Barcodes made it possible for any object that was to be sold or transported to have some computer readable information securely attached to it. E. Uncommon: Vacuum tube memory, a William’s tube used a cathode ray tube, and a Selectron tube used a large vacuum tube to store information. These primary storage devices were short-lived in the market, since Williams tube was unreliable and Selectron tube was expensive.Electro-acoustic memory also known as delay line memory used sound waves in a substance such as mercury to store information. Delay line memory was dynamic volatile, cycle sequential read/write storage, and was used for primary storage. Optical tape is a medium for optical storage generally consisting of a long and narrow strip of plastic onto which patterns can be written and from which the patterns can be read back. It shares some technologies with cinema film stock and optical discs, but is compatible with neither.The motivation behind developing this technology was the possibility of far greater storage capacities than either magnetic tape or optical discs. Phase-change memory uses different mechanical phases of Phase Change Material to store information in an X-Y addressable matrix, and reads the information by observing the varying electrical resistance of the material. Phase-change memory would be non-volatile, random acces s read/write storage, and might be used for primary, secondary and off-line storage. Most rewritable and many write once optical disks already use phase change material to store information.Holographic data storage stores information optically inside crystals or photopolymers. Holographic storage can utilize the whole volume of the storage medium, unlike optical disc storage which is limited to a small number of surface layers. Holographic storage would be non-volatile, sequential access, and either write once or read/write storage. It might be used for secondary and off-line storage. See Holographic Versatile Disc (HVD). Molecular memory stores information in polymer that can store electric charge. Molecular memory might be especially suited for primary storage.The theoretical storage capacity of molecular memory is 10 terabits per square inch. Data storage tag (DST), also sometimes known as an archival tag is a data logger that uses sensors to record data at predetermined interval s. Data storage tags usually have a large memory size and a long lifetime. Most archival tags are supported by batteries that allow the tag to record positions for several years. Alternatively some tags are solar powered and allow the scientist to set their own interval; this then allows data to be recorded for significantly longer than battery-only powered tags.Information repository is an easy way to deploy secondary tier of data storage that can comprise multiple, networked data storage technologies running on diverse operating systems, where data that no longer needs to be in primary storage is protected, classified according to captured metadata, processed, de-duplicated, and then purged, automatically, based on data service level objectives and requirements. In information repositories, data storage resources are virtualized as composite storage sets and operate as a federated environment.Information repositories were developed to mitigate problems arising from data proliferat ion and eliminate the need for separately deployed data storage solutions because of the concurrent deployment of diverse storage technologies running diverse operating systems. They feature centralized management for all deployed data storage resources. They are self-contained, support heterogeneous storage resources, support resource management to add, maintain, recycle, and terminate media, track of off-line media, and operate autonomously. VI. Related technologies A. Network connectivity:A secondary or tertiary storage may connect to a computer utilizing computer networks. This concept does not pertain to the primary storage, which is shared between multiple processors in a much lesser degree. Direct-attached storage (DAS) is a traditional mass storage that does not use any network. This is still a most popular approach. This term was coined lately, together with NAS and SAN. Network-attached storage (NAS) is mass storage attached to a computer which another computer can access at file level over a local area network, a private wide area network, or in the case of online file storage, over the Internet.NAS is commonly associated with the NFS and CIFS/SMB protocols. Storage area network (SAN) is a specialized network that provides other computers with storage capacity. The crucial difference between NAS and SAN is the former presents and manages file systems to client computers, whilst the latter provides access at block-addressing (raw) level, leaving it to attaching systems to manage data or file systems within the provided capacity. SAN is commonly associated with Fiber Channel networks. B. Robotic storage:Large quantities of individual magnetic tapes and optical or magneto-optical discs may be stored in robotic tertiary storage devices. In tape storage field they are known as tape libraries, and in optical storage field optical jukeboxes, or optical disk libraries per analogy. Smallest forms of either technology containing just one drive device are refe rred to as autoloaders or auto changers. Robotic-access storage devices may have a number of slots, each holding individual media, and usually one or more picking robots that traverse the slots and load media to built-in drives. The arrangement of the slots and picking devices affects erformance.Important characteristics of such storage are possible expansion options: adding slots, modules, drives, robots. Tape libraries may have from 10 to more than 100,000 slots, and provide terabytes or petabytes of near-line information. Optical jukeboxes are somewhat smaller solutions, up to 1,000 slots. Robotic storage is used for backups, and for high-capacity archives in imaging, medical, and video industries. Hierarchical storage management is a most known archiving strategy of automatically migrating long-unused files from fast hard disk storage to libraries or jukeboxes. If the files are needed, they are retrieved back to disk.References J. S. Vitter, Algorithms and Data Structures for Ex ternal Memory. Series on Foundations and Trends in Theoretical Computer Science, now Publishers, Hanover, MA, 2008, ISBN 978-1-60198-106-6. National Communications System (1996). Federal Standard 1037C – Telecommunications: Glossary of Telecommunication Terms. Super Talent's 2. 5†³ IDE Flash hard drive – The Tech Report – Page 13. (http://techreport. com/articles. x/10334/13)

Karma Upon Death by Scrabble Essay

Karma. What is karma? Is it a part of life? Is it what helps us make decisions? Or is it the balance of life and everyone living in it? In Charlie Fish’s story Death By Scrabble karma is the main theme. This fictional story is about a husband and his wife playing Scrabble, a game in which players earn points for the words made by them with available letters. The story narrates how the words in the game reflect the practical life of the players. In every story there are literary devices used to help develop the theme of the story. In this story the terms imagery, the use of foreshadowing, and mostly irony. By the end of this essay readers will realise how all the use of these literary terms helped develop the theme of karma in Charlie Fish’s Death By Scrabble. Imagery in Death By Scrabble I shown a lot and helps conquer the theme behind the story, karma. â€Å"I’m 42 years old, it’s a blistering hot Sunday afternoon and all I can think of to do with my wife is play Scrabble† (page 1)this is giving the readers an imagery upon the of the setting in which the husband and wife are upon. While starting there’s the obvious feel and imagination of the image of the married couple sitting and playing the game at a season of heat and anguish. Playing the game, the couple begins to play in a way against each other with intention to win, the imagery is seen upon when his wives â€Å"smug expression as she rearranges her letters. Clack, clack clack. † (page1) The husband is as well in a race to win the game, as seen by him hoping â€Å"she has lousy letters† and even finding it â€Å"remarkably Tilo 2 satisfying† when his wife â€Å"gets a static shock off the air conditioning unit. † Each player is against the other while being able to outstandingly give immense imagery to the readers even the inner feelings such as the husband feeling â€Å"a terrible rage build up inside†¦ some inner poison slowly spreading.. and when it gets to my fingertips I am going to jump out of my chair and†¦ start hitting her again and again and again. † It’s obvious that he’s feeling angry and wants to win badly to annoy her or maybe to get a good feeling out of it. Imagery makes the story fulfill with life and integrity into being believed and seen in the reader’s imagination and perspective. Another literary is deviced used in this story is foreshadowing. In the story we realise right away that the husband hate towards his wife, and wants to get rid of her as soon as possible. This foreshadows that there is a possibility of death in the story. As the story goes on the husband realizes all of the words he puts down on the scrabble board are coming true. â€Å"Waiting to fly. Stupid. I opened my eyes, and theres a fly. An insect, buzzing around above the scrabble board, surfing the thermals from the tepid cup of tea. That proves nothing. † (page 4) This is another example of foreshadowing because the  author hints to the reader that the Scrabble Board is jinxed, and that the next words that the husband and wife put down on the board will become reality. Lastly another Foreshadowing moment happens when she plays the word â€Å"caution†. This foreshadows a warning of something bad to come. We now see how foreshadowing plays a huge role connecting to the theme of the story. Oh the irony! The last literary term irony is used from top to bottom in this story. This quote is when the narrator/main character starts realize that everything being put down on the Scrabble Board is  happening in real life. â€Å"She plays sweatier†¦ i’m getting sweatier† This is when the reader may notice the overall irony in the story when the words come to life and are completed. â€Å"I don’t believe it- it can’t be Tilo 3 a coincidence. The letters made it happen. I played the word explodes†¦ and the air conditioning unit exploded† (page 3) with this mindset of the husband he reveals the irony and the reality in the story for the reader. A big part of irony in the story is how his cousin â€Å"Harold swallowed a bee when he was nine, his throat swelled up and he died. †Then towards the end of the story he chokes on a â€Å"b† just like his cousin and dies. The greatest irony in the story is the fact that throughout the whole time the husband is playing scrabble trying to figure out which words he can spell out to kill his wife, but what he doesn’t know is that his wife is playing the same game. And ironically she ends up winning. Irony in this story best illustrates Karma. Finally the use of these literary terms helped create the theme of this story. The suspense kept the reader wanting to know what will happen to the wife.  will he kill her? Foreshadowing in this story is also another huge part in showing karma, when he realizes every word he puts down becomes a reality, and his wife playing and plays the word â€Å"caution† to warn him. Lastly the greatest literary device used to help create the theme of karma is irony. It is very ironic how the husbands cousin dies from choking on a bee and he ends up choking on a B, also the fact that the husband is trying to kill his wife, but once again ironically she ends up killing him. These are the ingredients in this story that helped develop the theme of karma.

The Catastrophe of Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant

On April 26 1986, the reactor Unit 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was not working properly. When workers tried to fix this problem in reactor 4 by shutting down the its power regulating system and its emergency safety systems, this caused the most serious and dangerous accident in the history of nuclear power generation. The Chernobyl accident released large amounts of radioactive materials into in the atmosphere, which were carried by air currents. Soon after this catastrophe, these radioactive materials were spread by the wind over many countries, which polluted their atmosphere. The release of radioactivity had a deadly effect on people's health and the environment; thus, before building such a plant, safety and emergency procedures must be guaranteed. The radioactive materials, which have been released from the accident, affected people's health for several years. The Russian government admitted the release of radioactivity, when the Swedish monitoring stations reported abnormal high levels of wind transported radioactivity as clarified by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The government had to evacuate many areas and declare it as a † Forbidden zone † to protect people from radioactivity. Initially the accident caused the death of 32 people(B. Hummer,Nils â€Å"Chernobyl the accident† – http//:bcf. usc. edu/meshkati/chernobyl. html). The radioactive materials released from this accident are 200 times as much radioactivity as the Hiroshima and Nagasaki explosions (Dahl,Birgitta â€Å"The Chornobyl Nuclear Disaster† http//:scf. usc. edu/~melan). Its human death losses and the amount of the radiation released into the environment, raised a large number of problems not only for the treatment of severely exposed persons, but also The decisions that had to be taken considering the population. Thus, the number of people who were suffering from cancer was increasing and the number of thyroid cancers among children also increased in the most affected area: Belarus, Ukraine and Russia (Encyclopedia of Britannica online). Indeed, for several years, babies were born deformed and thousands were suffering from illnesses and cancer (which takes 8 to 10 years to appear), scientists and doctors were alerted because after only four years thyroid cancer increased much more than their expectations and its growth was more quickly than they expected and its pattern was different from the patterns known till now (Specter,M. Willy â€Å"The Three Mile Island and Chernobyl nuclear power accidents† `The New York Times`, Sunday march 31,1996). All these factors have increased diseases among the people living in the exposed area and the workers involved in clearing the site after the accident. In my opinion, it is extremely difficult to imagine the psychological effects of Chernobyl accident on the people who experienced it. In addition, this emotional stress and other psychological factors are the main possible cause of people's illnesses after the accident and in the future. The radiation did not only affect people's health but it polluted the environment and the territories beside the reactor. The area beside Chernobyl was heavily polluted because 70% of the radioactive substances fell on it (Encyclopedia of Britannica online). As stated by Najmedin Meshkati, a nuclear scientist; â€Å"The most dangerous thing was the food pollution (cesium, strontium, plutonium and americium) in milk and meat products are with concentration several hundred times higher than pre accident levels and often above the permitted levels and it will not disappear before 300 years†. Although, people know that these regions are heavily polluted and that meat and milk products have accumulated high quantities of radioactive substances, more than 1. 8 million people are still living there (Specter,M. Willy â€Å"The Three Mile Island and Chernobyl nuclear power accidents† `The New York Times`, Sunday march 31,1996). They drink radioactive fluids, eat radioactive substance (cesium131) will stay in the food and liquids and will not disappear completely before 300 years†. The consequences of these substances will not be noticed but after many years and it will not only affect the present generation but also the future generation. To insure maximum safety, emergency systems should be guaranteed before building any nuclear power plant. Thus, authorities must not ignore the possibility of the occurrence of an accident. The failure of workers to identify the problem between the systems to insure safety, and their failure to cooperate with each other is unacceptable. Workers must be trained to deal with real emergency situations in order to respond fast and to control it. However, after Chernobyl, solutions to insure the safety of large-scale technological systems have fallen into the categories of management and cost control (B. Hummer,Nils â€Å"Chernobyl the accident† -http//:bcf. usc. edu/meshkati/chernobyl. html). The cost to clean up the mess caused by the nuclear power plants are much more expensive than to install a new emergency system. Thus, the cost to maintain safety is negligible compared to the cost, which they have to pay if an accident happened. Moreover, authorities must be strict concerning the regulations of nuclear power plants. Many improvements in radiation protection and emergency preparations have been made, possible by the Chernobyl experience (Encyclopedia of Britannica online). The lessons drawn from the Chernobyl accident are valuable: human's life is precious. Thus, human must learn from their mistakes and know how to prevent their happening especially if these mistakes may cost innocent people's lives. An accident such as the catastrophe of Chernobyl is a descrase for humanity, that's why we cannot afford such mistakes again. Because some mistakes are unforgiving.

What is Anthropocene?

The videos In the website â€Å"Welcome to the Anthropocentric,† discusses about Anthropocentric. Questions that I will answer are what Is Anthropocentric? Why Is It label that way? What are some patterns in the era that are exhibited? Along with why should we care about mass extinction? Anthropocentric is a new geological epoch dominated by humanity.The word â€Å"Anthropocentric† is given its name because human activity has polluted the sea, caused mass extinction of animals and plants, and changed the Earth's natural cycle. Some of the patterns that this era has exhibited re the changes in the Earth's life support system, such as changes within the environment. For example, temperatures and sea levels are changing due to global warming, level of greenhouse gases is rising, and changes In the global water systems Is through damming, extraction, arrogation, and climate change.Furthermore, population, production, and consumption have grown exponentially. We are moving m ore sentiment than natural erosion and rivers. Therefore, there Is a whole In the Ozone and this Is causing us to lose bloodlessly. We should be concern about the mass extinctions of organisms because without hem, we will not have any support for food supplies and the environment. Especially, the functioning of the ecosystem.However, I believe that this catastrophe has been going on for years, however some people have no idea where this will lead us to. We should do something about this and that carries with responsibility. We have the option to stop and act upon the current rate of extinction with measures that will prevent habitat loss, and with regulations and rules that will provide species the kind of safety net that humans have. Most importantly, we must adapt to change.