The Electoral Landscape Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

The Electoral Landscape - Essay Example While it is nothing new for voters to want for a change in political leadership, the 2008 presidential election represented an important change in American politics. Barack Obama broke a major racial barrier for African-Americans by becoming the first black American president. Race is likely to be a much less important issue in the future than it has been in the past because Obama has proven that race is no longer an absolute barrier to electability. Obama was able to overcome racial prejudice and the disadvantages of being a little known senator by taking advantage of the growing influence of the Internet and social media. The 2008 election was the first presidential election in which communication through the Internet played a major role (NPR). Lastly, between 2004 and 2008 the economy became the dominant election issue over issues of national security and terrorism. While the Republican Party is generally seen as stronger on economic issues, the economic collapse in 2008 was blame d on the economic policies of Bush by a wide margin (Hagerty 1), and the War on Terror fell out of favor. Works Cited Hagerty, Barbara. â€Å"Exit polls link Obama victory to economic fears.† 4 Nov. 2008.

How Far Do You Agree That the 1867 Reform Act Was Sucessfulte Essay Example for Free

How Far Do You Agree That the 1867 Reform Act Was Sucessfulte Essay Additionally, the 1867 Reform Act also had a significant impact on the issues that were being addressed by politics. Whereas before, the aristocracy had basically decided what happened in the country, the act meant that issues were being brought to light that had never been discussed properly in public before. This was very important as it not only changed public but it also changed society too. Issues such as the legislation surrounding drinking, education and taxation were now being impacted on by the public actually expressing their feelings about them and this determined that the act had changed entirely how people viewed politics by shifting their focus from the individuals within politics to the actually political interests that they represented. For the first time, the act seemed to allow working-class people to feel indignant at how they were labelled uneducated within society and how they were blamed for society. It could be said that the Reform Acts most important outcome was encouraging people to now speak up for what they believe in and to create a true democracy by exposing the flaws of the current political system that had kept hidden a system of suppression underneath a pretence of democracy. On the other hand, this outcome can be seen once again to only be attributing more to the argument that the most important outcome of the 1867 Reform Act was that that it had on the political parties. Whilst it did change the people, it also meant that individuals like Gladstone and Disraeli had to develop stronger personalities, more influential public speaking and just generally a more recognisable persona to get attention off the people and this changed politics, starting to transform it to what we recognise today with politicians attending school fairs and opening museums to get positive publicity. Whilst all of these outcomes were extremely important at the time, perhaps the most long-term and recognisable of all of the outcomes was the effect that the 1867 Reform Act did have on the political system and in particular, on the Liberals and Conservatives parties. Source 7 supports this view by introducing us to the idea of the political machine. The source shows how the Reform Act of 1867 meant that the political parties had to actually properly compete and make, sometimes unrealistic promises, to appeal to voters. It shows how this means that electioneering, the way the parties portrayed themselves and presentation of issues became much more important as politics became national and rotated around moral issues. Indeed this view does have a lot of weight in an argument. The political parties now were having to tread a careful line and keep a balance between the conflict of alienating the people with revolutionary political ideas and immediate actions to secure themselves as the strongest political parties. This meant that the Liberals and the Conservatives had to become united and professional. This impact was important as it meant that the political loyalty was created that we can recognise in politics today. Previously, parties had split up and conflicted over issues but following the act, politicians were forced to admit that they had to remain loyal to their own political party in order to get any success within the political circumstances. This outcome is so significant as it created the strong link that still exists today between political parties and the voters. The two different parties had to go to what they saw as extreme lengths to secure voters loyalty and to encourage them to vote. This included the setting up of party clubs and trips to places such as the seaside as rewards for people who promised to vote for a certain political party. In a way, it shows how this outcome was significant in advancing political organisation and professionalism yet in other ways it just maintained the old influential schemes that politicians used but at last, they had to actually be clever to use these rather than to blatantly bribe and influence people. They could still influence people, just as they had done with the open ballots, but this time they had to do it with rewards and false promises. To a certain extent, this can still be seen to be happening in our political system today. In conclusion, there were many outcomes of the 1867 Reform Act and all of these were significant in their own way. The impact of these can be seen clearly by the fact that they have triggered features of our own political system today, such as strong political personalities for politicians and image-conscious newspapers and magazines. However, these all contributed to allowing the Liberals and the Conservatives parties to change and whilst individually they were significant impacts, the effect that they had on electorate always corresponded with an effect on the political parties. In this way, the most significant outcome of the 1867 Reform Act was the impact that it had on the Liberals and the Conservatives parties yet this would not have been significant or even have occurred independently of the impact that the act on the electorate themselves. This means that whilst we can identify an outcome of the act as the most important, it simply would not have had the effect that it did have without the other outcomes of the act, meaning that collectively they are important and making it extremely difficult to label the importance of the outcomes.

Character Analysis of Claudius from the Play Hamlet by Shakespeare Essa

Character Analysis of Claudius from the Play Hamlet by Shakespeare In the play, "Hamlet", Shakespeare needed to devize an evil character, a villain that is ambitious, and has the ability to scheme to get what he wants. The character would also have to contain some good qualities, such as kindness and contriteness. These good qualities make the character seem more human and thus, more believable. Claudius is this character. Shakespeare uses Claudius in his revenge theme in this play. Without the acts of Claudius, this theme just would not be. The entire play revolves around what Claudius has done, or will do. The evil traits of Claudius by far outweigh the good things he does. He is very ambitious, perhaps too ambitious. Claudius wanted to be king so badly, that he murdered his own brother to achieve his goal. This is how the revenge theme is weaved into the play. Hamlet, the dead king’s son learns of the act from a ghost, "A serpent stung me; so the whole ear of Denmark Is by a forged process of my death Rankly abused; but now that noble youth The serpent that did sting thy father’s life Now wears his crown." (Act I, Sc. V, Lines 42-46) Claudius not only wanted to be the king of Denmark, he also wanted the queen that came with it. In Act I Sc. II Lines 8-14, Claudius has just recently been crowned king and is addressing the court. He shows in his words how happy he is to be married to Gertrude, the Queen. "herefore our sometime sister, now our queen, The imperial jointress to this warlike state, Have we, as ‘twere with a defeated joy, With an auspicious, and dropping eye, With mirth in funeral, and with dirge in marriage, In equal scale weighing delight and dole, Taken to wife; ...." The ambition of Claudius lays the foundation for the theme of revenge. Without his need to be king and his willingness to do anything for it, the play would be completely different. This evil trait is, in part, what in the end kills Claudius. Claudius’ other evil trait, his scheming, also leads to his death. An example of one of Claudius’ many ‘plans’ was when he summoned Rozencrantz and Guildenstern to do some spying on Hamlet to find out what was ailing him. "Moreover that we much did long to see you, The need we have to use you did provoke Our hasty sending. Something hav... ...) was very wrong and he realises there is little that he can do to make things well.. " O, my offence is rank, it smells to heaven; It hath the primal eldest curse upon’t, A brothers murder! Pray can I not, Through inclination be as sharp as will. My stronger guilt defeats my stronger intent...." (Act III Sc. IV Lines 39-43) "My words fly up, my thoughts remain below; Words without thoughts never to heaven go." (Act III Sc. IV Lines 100-101) These traits give Claudius a human side and this plays into the author’s purpose by making the reader wonder if Hamlet is going to do the right thing by killing Claudius. It gives the reader second thoughts. Claudius was the villain in "Hamlet." He showed all the necessary characteristics of an evil character but Shakespeare put some "extra" into him. He did this be giving him somegood characteristics. What he had was a well blended character with the ability to be both a murderous bad guy to a kind hearted good guy. Shakespeare had Claudius fit well into the theme of revenge. It was all centred around him. With out him, It would have been a happy ending, or completely different.

Effects of Technology on Relationships

Yana Feldman Professor Ebersole Analytical Reading and Writing 0802 November 2, 2010 Advances in Communication and Intimate Relationships Instant digital and online communication of the modern world influences love and courtship in relationships. The generations of today allow their interpersonal relationships to be formed and shaped according to the technology that is offered. This is one of the many important matters that are influenced by technology. Technology is manipulating the world with positive and negative effects; it causes scientific advancement, it affects the economy, and importantly, it changes communication between people.This change can be seen in intimate relationships. To see how communication technology has changed love as a whole, one can observe how technology has changed different types, or stages, of intimate relationships. Three possible stages are an early dating stage at which flirting and courtship occur, a marital stage in which commitment is vital, and a long-distance relationship in which a couple is temporarily separated. These stages of relationships have changed in history and will continue to adjust according to society and, of course, technology. Communication has continuously been evolving ever since language existed.Language gives the distinctive ability for the evolution of human society. Language starts at the basis of spoken words; information is conveyed through conversation aloud or written in forms of letters. Efficient communication has involved written messages even in the earliest of civilizations. Since 522 BC written messages were sent between people in the Persian Empire. For a message to travel 2000 miles, it would take 10 days for a man on a horse at a speed of 200 miles per day; clearly, there were no other options or methods to send a message such a long distance.Until much more recent centuries, the only way to speed up the transferring of a message was to speed up the messenger himself. In the 11th century messages were sent slightly faster using pigeons (Gascoigne 1). As a next big step in the 15th century, the new technology of printing was invented. It spreads so quickly that every European country soon uses this new invention. The invention of the telescope in the 17th century allows for optical signals to be sent across a longer distance (Gascoigne 1).The application of electricity to enable communication did not come until much later in the form of the static electrical telegraph in the 18th century. Another long time passed post-telegraph telecommunications technologies before the speaking telephone would be invented (Winston 28). But by the time that Queen Victoria had ended her reign in 1901, the telegraph also left its greatest days behind (Standage 1). Distant signaling by voice appeared only 2 centuries ago—a very recent advancement considering how long communication has existed (Winston 33).The telephone was invented in the late 19th century—within 20 years , 2 million telephones existed in the United States. â€Å"During Queen Victoria’s reign, a new communications technology was developed that allowed people to communicate almost instantly across great distances, in effect shrinking the world faster and further than ever before. A worldwide communications network whose cables spanned continents and oceans, it revolutionized business practice, gave rise to new forms of crime, and inundated its users with a deluge of information. Romances blossomed over the wires† (Standage 1).Finally, the 20th century brought the inventions of the radio, television, and internet into human society; another influential invention was the famous cellular phones. These inventions spread to all parts of the world generously and quickly. With internet abilities, electronic mail became an option, and soon a preference over post mail. Instant messaging, text-messaging, and video chatting are all continuing to spread. Additionally, the convergenc e of internet and cellular devices can currently allow web access anytime and anywhere (â€Å"Internet† 1).The modern day communication options are incomparable to the early civilizations’ options. Modern communication capabilities cannot even be compared to the communication 200 years ago; so much has changed. Intimacy and loving relationships have always had certain steps and stages along the way. Dating and marriage are often regarded as popular topics of discussion. One can picture ladies gossiping and journalists commenting on what women should do, on what men should do, or how both parties should act in certain situations.However, love and intimacy are also sometimes observed in a more general and objective sense. The relationships of today can be compared with each other as well as compared to equal relationship settings of the past. Early developing intimate relationships today is a very open and general topic as compared to what it once used to be. â€Å"Cour tship no longer occupies a vital place in American culture. The term itself seems quaint and outdated† (Cere 4). Some researchers believe that the traditions of courtship eroded in the 20th century.They also believe that courtship’s end caused the destabilizing of marriage in recent years (Cere 4). Research shows that a device such as a cell phone and the text messaging that it offers substitutes face-to-face communication and is killing relationships. This is vital in an early developing relationship because communication in this stage can either cause the progress or downfall of the whole relationship. Interestingly, researchers have found that the reason men and women spend so much time on the Internet is because of the easy communication management and the environmental control that is offered.Particularly for the early stages of developing relationships, internet communication and other technological forms do not have any benefits (Kasallis). While research shows t hat text messages can be endearing and sweet for couples to interact and communicate, men and women may develop opposite opinions about the issue of text messaging. It seems that because text messaging (along with some other new technology) is so new, ground rules have not yet been established in the etiquette of the text message, and so for this reason these new technologies have had such pressure on early dating and flirting relationships (Pressner 1).In addition to the effects of text messaging and online communication to already developed intimate relationships, there is the whole issue of relationships that have been created in cyber ways. Social networks, such as Twitter and Facebook, offer the communication between old and new acquaintances. Yet today’s technology does not nearly end there; in addition to such online social locations for communication, couples and singles are offered with online dating services, such as Match. com and eHarmony.Such online services (now also accessible on cellular devices ever since the Cell and Internet convergence) are lacking reality and are artificial. Yet this does not stop men and women. In fact, the disconnectedness often attracts their attention and is tempting and addicting. Another stage of relationships is marriage. The marital stage is considered the most committed and based on emotional attachment. In this stage, the couple is considered dedicated and can be referred to as family members; the couple can also bear children. Research shows that marriage, partially due to the previous dating stage, has also changed in recent times.In the past, the â€Å"courtship† dating stage set clear ground for marriage as a next step. Since early dating is affected in modern day, marriage is not regarded as the next conceivable step. Also with technology changes, divorce laws have changed, allowing marriages to end with no faults, and opening more options to couples. â€Å"Many of the essential features of lo ve as courtship — the longing for permanence, the desire to donate the self to another — must, in the economists’ story of courtship, be either submerged into contract theory or dismissed altogether as irrational† (Cere 10).The effects of online communication and text messaging on marriage are observed as well; with both positive and negative effects. Noticeably, a little free time along with the internet is possibly harmful and damaging to a married couple. With services on the internet such as dating, social networks, and pornography, a dedicated husband or wife could get carried away. Such services are easily accessed, easy to use, and emotionally easy to handle because no work is required to be put in as with a husband or a wife.Nevertheless, other researchers say that marriage has been made easier in recent years due to the interconnectedness. A husband or wife can always send an email, make a phone call, or even easier—send a text message to o ne another. With this ability, there appears yet another aspect: married couples do not experience the love and desire for each other when not together (Sahlstein 1). A simple phone call can eliminate any feelings the couple has of missing one another or of desire for the other. With such quick digital communication today there is less of this excitement as in previous years.A third type of a relationship is a long-distance relationship. A simple example of such a couple is when the husband must leave for the military for long periods of time. In the internet age today, this long distance relationship is aided by such programs like Skype. A couple can not only send quick e-mails, it can talk on the phone, send instant messages, and video chat. This is somewhat of a revolution in comparison to relationships even a hundred years ago. Long distance relationships have had problems in all cultures and times.Since beginning of history, long distance relationships was a matter that was avo ided at all costs. Yet in today’s world, technology has definitely benefited this form of intimate relationship, allowing a couple to stay in touch in numerous ways. Most interestingly, studies show that in such a relationship, being together and being apart mutually allow and constrain on another in multiple ways (Sahlstein 1). Modern society is enhancing and providing this ability for long-distance romantic partners to feel connected and still be separated at the same time.The technology, particularly for communication enhancement, has changed probably the most in recent years causing changes and adjustments in all areas. Relationships and interpersonal communication is just one area that is currently affected, and it is not yet clear if it for the ultimate better or the eventual downfall of intimacy between men and women. In dating, marriage, and long-distance relationships, the effects of communication technology are currently observable. However, new technology is being developed and new standards are being set; and so, one may only wonder where intimate relationships will end up next. New problems may arise, as they always do in time; yet with such an instinctive and desired emotion of love, humans and their relationships will have the ability to prevail.Works Cited Cere, Dan. â€Å"The Experts’ Story of Courtship. † Institute for American Values. 2000. 01 November 2010. . Gascoigne, Bamber. â€Å"History of Communication† HistoryWorld. 2001. 01 November 2010. . Kasallis, Theresa. â€Å"Text messaging affects student relationships. † Universe. 5 Jul 2006. 01 November 2010. . Perlman, Daniel. Intimate Relationships. Toronto: McGraw-Hill Humanities Social, 2008. Pressner, Amanda. Can love blossom in a text message? † USA Today. 29 January 2006. 01 November 2010. . Sahlstein, Erin M. â€Å"Relating at a distance: Negotiating being together and being apart in long-distance relationships. † Journal of Social and Personal Relationships. 2010. 01 November 2010. . Standage, Tom. The Victorian Internet. New York: Walker Publishing, 2000. Winston, Brian. Media technology and society: a history: from the telegraph to the Internet. New York: Taylor and Francis e-Library, 2003. â€Å"Internet. † Encyclop? dia Britannica. 2010. Encyclop? dia Britannica Online. 01 Nov. 2010 .

Discuss Research Into the Nature of Relationships in Different Cultures Essay

Relationships Discuss research into the nature of relationships in different cultures. (9 marks + 16 marks) In Western Cultures, it has been found that relationships are voluntary, temporary and focus on the needs of the individual as due to the predominantly urban settings in which we live in, we are able to (on a daily basis) interact with a large number of people. Western cultures therefore appear to be characterised by a high degree of choice in personal relationships and a greater ‘pool’ of potential relationships. Non-western cultures however, have less choice about whom they interact with on a daily basis, meaning that interaction with strangers are rare and relationships are frequently tied to other factors, such as family or economic resources. In societies with reduced mobility, (predominantly non-western cultures) arranged marriages are common as love is expected to grow due to the fact that it is not seen as necessary for marriage. Arranged marriages seem to work well and make good sense as divorce rates are low and Epstein (2002) found that perhaps about half of them report that they have fallen in love with each other. Myers et al. , (2005) studied individuals in India living in arranged marriages and found no differences in marital satisfaction in comparison to individuals in non-arranged marriages in the US. This is also supported by Gupta and Singh (1982) who studied 100 degree-educated couples living in India, 50 of who had chosen their partners and 50 of who had their marriages arranged for them. The couples were asked to indicate how much they liked/loved their partners and it was found that love and liking was high in love marriages but decreased whereas love increased in arranged marriages and after 10 years exceeded love marriages. However, this study is difficult to generalise as it studies only a small sample and so cannot be generalised to the wider population. It therefore lacks validity. However, in some adapting cultures such as China, there has been a noticeable increase in ‘love matches’ as the Chinese are currently attempting to move away from traditional ‘arranged’ marriages. Instances in which parents dominate the process of partner choice in china have declined from 70% prior to 1949, to less than 10% in the 1990s. Xioahe and Whyte (1990) studied women in love marriages and found that they were more satisfied than those in arranged marriages. Western cultures are also seen as individualistic due to their focuses on individuals rather than groups, with individual happiness and pleasure seen as fundamentally important. On the other hand, non-western cultures are seen as collectivist cultures as people are encouraged to be interdependent rather than independent. Moghaddam et al. (1993) claim that the cultural attitudes of individualist cultures, are consistent with the formation of relationships that are based on freedom of choice, whereas collectivism leads to relationships that may have more to do with the concerns of family or group. Norms and rules act as guidelines for behaviour and influence how we act out any given relationship. One such norm that plays a key part in personal relationships is the norm of reciprocity. Ting-Toomey (1986) found that in individualist cultures, reciprocity in personal relationships tend to be voluntary. In collectivist cultures however, it is more obligatory. In such cultures, failure to return a favour is seen as a failure of one’s moral duty. In Japanese culture, for example, there are specific rules about gift-giving and reciprocating, whereas n such formal norms exist in Western cultures. Argyle et al. ’s cross-cultural comparison of relationship rules in different cultures did find support for some predictions but failed to support others. However, a problem with this research is that the list of rules was formulated in the UK and may have failed to include rules that are specific to a particular culture such as Japan. Research on cross-cultural differences in norms and rules is important to be able to conduct cross-cultural relationships successfully. Knowledge of the norms and rules underlying cross-cultural relationships is an important aspect of any attempt to understand and improve relations between different cultural groups within a host country. Finally, relationships are difficult to study scientifically. Laboratory experiments, through the manipulation of isolated variables, are seen as the most rigorous way of establishing cause and effect, and he best way of furthering our understanding of the processes involved in human relationships. However, as Hogg and Vaughan (2008) point out, people do bring their cultural ‘baggage’ into the laboratory. Although cultural background may be seen as a problematic extraneous variable to some researchers, it is clear that culture itself is an important variable that influences the relationship processes being studied.

Shortfin Mako Shark essays

Shortfin Mako Shark essays The shortfin mako shark is the fastest fish in the world. It is capable of attaining speeds of up to 60 mph. Its dark red iron-rich muscles on the side of the sharks body and especially on the tail enable the shark to swim at these speeds. The speed of the mako affects its physical characteristics, its eating habits, and its predators. The average size of the shortfin mako shark is from 10 to 12 feet and the largest size ever recorded was 18 feet. This fish weighs about 1,000 pounds. Its large heavy conico-cylindrical shaped body is colored in such a way that it blends into the openwater environment making them invisible to prey. Its back is a deep blue gray and its underparts are snow white. The snout of this shark is bluntly pointed; this helps the shark to speed through the water. Its first dorsal fin, which is short starts behind the pectoral fins. This is unusual compared to other sharks in the mako sharks family. The anal fin is tiny compared to the dorsal fin. The mako has long gill slits and strong caudal keels. The upper and lower lobes of the caudal fin are of almost equal length. The mako has large eyes and is considered one of the most beautiful common sharks. The mako shark is found worldwide in temperate and tropical seas. It is found from the Gulf of Maine to the equator and is most densely populated in the Gulf of Mexico. These sharks are pelagic, yet they are occasionally found inshore. They migrate seasonally about 1,550 miles. In the summertime, mako sharks stay relatively close to the shore, about 20 miles out. In the winter they migrate into substantially deeper waters. They do this so that they can be in water The Isurus oxyrinchus has a two year reproduction cycle. Though few have been seen mating, scientists believe that the male makos attack the females and force them to mate. They believe this ...

Lucid Dreams essays

Lucid Dreams essays Lucid dreamers report being able to freely remember the circumstances of waking life, to think clearly, and to act deliberately upon reflection, all while experiencing a dream world that seems vividly real (LaBerge, 1990). In lucid dreaming, people become conscious enough to realize what they are dreaming, and therefore can change the dream they are having. A theory widely accepted by many researchers, is That lucid dreams are not typical parts of the dreaming thought, but rather brief arousals (LaBerge, 1990). The researchers came up with the fact that the arousals were frequently happening during REM sleep and this became the platform for lucid dreams. In the late 1970s, evidence started showing up that lucid dreams occur during REM sleep. To test this hypothesis out, 4 scientists by the names of: LaBerge, Nagel, Dement and Zarcone got together and set up an experiment. In this experiment, the scientists had to use some sort of signal or response to determine the exact time the lucid dream was occurring. In the experiment, the scientists used five subjects and studied each from two to twenty nights, depending upon how long the scientists thought they needed. All in all, they studied the subjects a total of 34 nights and came up with a total of 35 lucid dreams from various stages of sleep. Of the 35 lucid dreams, 32 occurred du ring REM sleep, and the other three took place during other stages of the sleep cycle. A later analysis extending these data with two additional subjects and 20 more lucid dreams produced identical results (LaBerge, 1990). This led LaBerge and the three other scientists to believe that lucid dreaming usually occurs during REM sleep. Many other researchers were also studying lucid dreaming and the time of their occurrence. Two such researchers, named Keith Hearne and Alan Worsley, designed a study of lucid dreaming. In their experiment, the subject sp...

Angkor Civilization Timeline and Khmer Empire Kings

Angkor Civilization Timeline and Khmer Empire Kings The Khmer Empire (also called the Angkor Civilization) was a state level society which at its height controlled all of what today is Cambodia, and parts of Laos, Viet Nam and Thailand as well. The Khmer primary capital was at Angkor, which means Holy City in Sanskrit. Angkor city was (and is) a complex of residential areas, temples and water reservoirs located north of Tonle Sap (Great Lake) in northwest Cambodia. Chronology of Angkor Complex Hunter Gatherers ? to ca 3000-3600 BCEarly Farming 3000-3600 BC to 500 BC (Ban Non Wat, Ban Lum Khao)Iron Age 500 BC to AD 200-500Early Kingdoms AD 100-200 to AD 802 (Oc Eo, Funan State, Sambor Prei Kuk), Chenla stateClassic (or Angkorian period) AD 802-1327 (Angkor Wat, Angkor Borei, etc.)Post-Classic AD 1327-1863 (after establishment of Buddhism) The earliest settlement in the Angkor region was by complex hunter-gatherers, at least as early as 3600 BC. The earliest states in the region emerged during the first century AD, as identified through historic documentation of the Funan state. Written accounts suggest that state level activities such as taxation on luxuries, walled settlements, participation in extensive trading, and the presence of foreign dignitaries occurred at Funan by AD 250. It is likely that Funan was not the only operating polity in southeast Asia at the time, but it is currently the best documented. Read more about Funan State By ~500 AD, the region was occupied by several southeast Asian states, including Chenla, Dvarati, Champa, Keda, and Srivijaya. All these early states share the incorporation of legal, political and religious ideas from India, including the use of Sanskrit for the names of their rulers. Architecture and carvings of the period also reflect Indian styles, although scholars believe the formation of states began before close interaction with India. The classic period of Angkor is traditionally marked at AD 802, when Jayavarman II (born c~770, ruled 802-869) became ruler and subsequently united the previously independent and warring polities of the region. Read more about Angkor Civilization Khmer Empire Classic Period (AD 802-1327) The names of the rulers in the classic period, like those of the earlier states, are Sanskrit names. A focus on building temples in the greater Angkor region began in the 11th century AD, and they were built and decorated with Sanskrit texts which acted as both concrete evidence of royal legitimacy and as the archives for the ruling dynasty that built them. For example, the Mahuidharapura dynasty established itself by constructing a large tantric Buddhist-dominated temple complex at Phimai in Thailand between 1080 and 1107. Jayavarman Two of the most important rulers were both named Jayavarman - Jayavarman II and Jajavarman VII. The numbers after their names were assigned to them by modern scholars of the Angkor society, rather than by the rulers themselves. Jayavarman II (ruled 802-835) founded the Saiva dynasty in Angkor, and united the region through a series of conquest battles. He established relative calm in the region, and Saiavism remained the unifying power in Angkor for 250 years. Jayavarman VII (ruled 1182-1218) took power of the regime after a period of unrest, when Angkor was split into competing factions and suffered an incursion from Cham polity forces. He promulgated an ambitious building program, that doubled Angkors temple population within a generation. Jayavarman VII erected more sandstone buildings than all his predecessors combined, at the same time turning the royal sculpting workshops into a strategic asset. Among his temples are Angkor Thom, Prah Khan, Ta Prohm and Banteay Kdei. Jayavarman is also credited with bringing Buddhism to state prominence in Angkor: although the religion had appeared in the 7th century, it had been suppressed by earlier kings. Khmer Empire Classic Period King List Jayavarman II, ruled AD 802-869, capitals at Vyadharapura and Mount KulenJayavarman III, 869-877, HariharalayaIndravarman II, 877-889, Mount KulenYashovarman I, 889-900, AngkorHarshavarman I, 900-~923, AngkorIsanavarman II, ~923-928, AngkorJayavarman IV, 928-942, Angkor and Koh KerHarshavarman II, 942-944, Koh KerRajendravarman II, 944-968, Koh Ker and AngkorJayavarman V 968-1000, AngkorUdayadityavarman I, 1001-1002Suryavarman I, 1002-1049, AngkorUdayadityavarman II, 1050-1065, AngkorHarshavarman III, 1066-1080, AngkorJayavarman VI and Dharanindravarman I, 1080-?, AngkorSuryavarman II, 1113-1150, AngkorDharanindravarman I, 1150-1160, AngkorYasovarman II, 1160-~1166, AngkorJayavarman VII, 1182-1218, AngkorIndravarman II, 1218-1243, AngkorJayavarman VIII, 1270-1295, AngkorIndravarman III, 1295-1308, AngkorJayavarma Paramesvara 1327-Ang Jaya I or Trosak Phaem, ? Sources This timeline is a part of the About.com guide to Angkor Civilization, and the Dictionary of Archaeology. Chhay C. 2009. The Cambodian Royal Chronicle: A History at a Glance. New York: Vantage Press. Higham C. 2008. In: Pearsall DM, editor. Encyclopedia of Archaeology. New York: Academic Press. p 796-808. Sharrock PD. 2009. Garu a, Vajrapa i and religious change in Jayavarman VIIs Angkor. Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 40(01):111-151. Wolters OW. 1973. Jayavarman IIs military power: The Territorial foundation of the Angkor empire. The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland 1:21-30.

Human Nature and Social values Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Human Nature and Social values - Essay Example - Custom represents the experiences of men of earlier times as to what they supposed useful and harmful - but the sense for custom (morality) applies, not to these experiences as such, but to the age, the sanctity, the indiscussability of the custom. And so this feeling is a hindrance to the acquisition of new experiences and the correction of customs: that is to say, morality is a hindrance to the development of new and better customs: it makes stupid†.(from Nietzsches Daybreak, s.19, R.J. Hollingdale transl.) 4. The crisis of family values. It is the phenomenon that spreads all over the world. The proof for this is the resolution of the World Family Congress in Prague that was held in 1997 and continues in Geneva in 1999. Here the family crisis was discussed. It is worth mentioning that family crisis is reflected on many spheres of life of any society. Family is the main social institute and guarantee for the moral values. It is a fact that many countries experienced Cultural Revolution, materialism and sexual revolution that caused the discrimination of some aesthetic morals. Then the hedonistic societies were formed. As a result such society gets extramarital relationships, abortions, and unwed mothers. (Smith, 1990) There is a tendency that many young people pay more attention to their work now and they are not family-oriented. Nevertheless it is very difficult to judge as it was mentioned above. Probably now, when people have a special way of life and have firm goals they will be more successful and will not have any historical mistakes in future. (Reamer, 1999) â€Å"What is new, however, is always evil, being that which wants to conquer and overthrow the old boundary markers and the old pieties; and only what is old is good. The good men are in all ages those who dig the old thoughts, digging deep and getting them to bear fruit - the farmers of the spirit. But eventually all land is depleted, and the ploughshare of evil must come

Disscuss odyssey Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Disscuss odyssey - Essay Example 27). Several examples of father/son relationships are provided, including those of Odysseus and Telemachus, Laertes and Odysseus, Poseidon and Polyphemus, Nestor and Pisistratus, and Eupithes and Antinous. Through these relationships, Homer portrays the idea of continuity between generations as traits of the fathers are carried forward and reflected or as they are rejected and refused in the sons. By tracing the relationships between fathers and sons as they relate to Odysseus and Telemachus and each other, Homer shows not only how the strength of family can overcome seemingly insurmountable outcomes, but also how the continuity of traits and characteristics between generations can help a family succeed or bring it to ruin. Odysseus and Telemachus have an absent relationship despite the fact that they are father and son, yet the traits of the father can still be recognized in the activities and thoughts of the son. Because Odysseus embodies the values of hospitality, good manners, loyalty, intelligence and patience, the reader should be able to see these traits in his son. However, having not had his father’s influence, Telemachus instead demonstrates an inability to manage his houseguests and an awkwardness in cultured manners when he arrives in Pylos at the beginning of the tale, aspects of his character that take the goddess Athena by surprise when she decides to send him on a hero’s quest. â€Å"Although the goddess is at once impressed by Telemachus’ physical resemblance to his famous father, his insecurity is such that he is even unsure of his own identity and never refers to his father by name† (Clarke, 1967, p. 32). His contacts with first Nestor and then Menelaus pr ovide him with the examples he needs of a healthy father/son relationship as well as the example these leaders set in being a â€Å"father figure† to their

Public Education is Killing the Creativity Essay - 3

Public Education is Killing the Creativity - Essay Example The main objective of developing an education system was not to nurture the talent and skills in people but rather to equip them with certain skills that would help bring up a pool of knowledgeable personnel to act as the labor force in the industries that were booming at the time. This ideology did not change even when the industrial era was over; since education kept on being passed like a culture and the old ideologies became perpetual through the time to the present as the same principles can be seen applicable to date (Robinson, 2011). Therefore, the idea of people being different with variable skills was not taken into consideration as a whole, because the educational idea focused only on developing academicians and not artists. It is at this juncture that interpersonal skills and talents that are embedded in various personalities were killed and buried as the educational system had no place for them. In essence, if one was not doing well in formal education he/she was readily regarded as a good for nothing as they would not provide any material well to the skilled workforce that was in need at the time (Robinson, 2011). However, these principles have slightly changed over time to incorporate co-curriculum activities among the courses offered in the formal education syllabus but the art related subjects have little or no significance when it comes to the overall grading of the students. For instance, students who are good in subjects like mathematics and the sciences but poor in art and music are regarded brilliant and intelligent as opposed to those who are good in arts but weak in core subjects hence often regarding them as academic failures. Therefore, the ideal of over-emphasizing certain subjects over the others kills the morale of those that are good in the areas that are not strongly emphasized in the academic programme (Robinson, 2011).

Mobile Phones Marketing Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Mobile Phones Marketing - Case Study Example As wireless technologies evolve the coming mobile revolution will bring dramatic and fundamental changes to the world. This revolution has already begun and is gaining momentum. The revolution will impact numerous facets of our daily lives and the way business is conducted and will provide important data in real time to assist decision makers exert great influence on communications between businesses and their customers and transform the way we live our lives. The challenges facing mobile services, such as changes in business strategies, investment risk, limitations in mobile devices, networking problems, infrastructure constraints, security concerns, and user distrust in mobile applications and these provoke the researcher's issues such as killer applications, usability, user interfaces, mobile access to databases, and agent technologies. To remain competitive, mobile-device vendors, developers, and network operators must provide end users with a rich and satisfying experience. Mark eting have a great role in promoting wider and broader concept of IT business. Now we should see what are Apple iPhone and RIM Blackberry Smart Phones and what all concepts and business models have been used by both. Data is mainly collected through secondary sources. Collection of information is called a data. Data is of two types. They are primary data and secondary data. Primary data are those which are collected a fresh and for the first time and thus happen to be original in character. Secondary data are those which have already been collected by someone else and which have already been passed through statistical process. Secondary data may be published or unpublished data .For this particular study secondary data used is "Market led strategic change" of Prof. Nigel F. Piercy, which is used as marketing tool and its concept. Secondary data is used for preparing company profile, and previous reports. Apple iPhone and RIM Blackberry: With all of the millions of iPhones already used by highly satisfied users including many corporate executives Apple has been pushed to add features to the iPhone to make it easier for IT staff to manage and integrate into the existing systems. This will enable iPhone users to gain access to server updates pushed from Exchange as they are updated on the server, rather than requested by the client at regular intervals like a typical email program. "When Apple announced that the iPhone would incorporate Exchange support through ActiveSync, they specifically pointed out some shortcomings of RIM's server-based system." (Kim 2008). Apple also highlighted the thousand of existing web-based applications that already work on the iPhone. One major challenge Apple faces in bumping the iPhone up to 3G is that it will require more battery power to operate and the iPhone already has significantly shorter battery life than comparing with other phones. So the company will need to improve the device's battery life but for the current users frequently need to recharge their battery every day. "Apple has given technology managers their iPhone wish list in full in an effort to make its phone more business friendly. The mission: Lure enough enterprises to the iPhone so Apple can hit its 10 million unit goal by the end of 2008." (Dignan 2008). Apple IPhone is the multimedia mobile phone, which enable internet connectivity with touch screen, virtual keyboard, camera phone and portable media player (ipod) along

Explain how and why dunkin donuts conducts marketing resarch. Be Essay

Explain how and why dunkin donuts conducts marketing resarch. Be Specific. Describe what type of resarch is Dunkin Donut doing primary or seconday. Why - Essay Example Due to this research the organization started locating itself near homes as well as business areas and they even opened their business in large stores such as Wal-Mart. This depicts that Dunking Donuts is involved in conducting mainly primary research. Primary research is that research that is conducted by the researcher themselves and this form of research has not been conducted before. This form of research is conducted by the organization in order to identify what the customers want. It is very essential for an organization to first identify the needs and wants of the customers and then develop their products and services in compliance with those needs and wants (Kotler 98). This is because customers always want to purchase those goods and services that satisfy their needs and wants. If an organization develops goods and services without conducting research, it is most likely to fail. This is because such an organizations offering may not attract customers and the offerings they h ave developed would not be

Mobile Phones Marketing Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Mobile Phones Marketing - Case Study Example As wireless technologies evolve the coming mobile revolution will bring dramatic and fundamental changes to the world. This revolution has already begun and is gaining momentum. The revolution will impact numerous facets of our daily lives and the way business is conducted and will provide important data in real time to assist decision makers exert great influence on communications between businesses and their customers and transform the way we live our lives. The challenges facing mobile services, such as changes in business strategies, investment risk, limitations in mobile devices, networking problems, infrastructure constraints, security concerns, and user distrust in mobile applications and these provoke the researcher's issues such as killer applications, usability, user interfaces, mobile access to databases, and agent technologies. To remain competitive, mobile-device vendors, developers, and network operators must provide end users with a rich and satisfying experience. Mark eting have a great role in promoting wider and broader concept of IT business. Now we should see what are Apple iPhone and RIM Blackberry Smart Phones and what all concepts and business models have been used by both. Data is mainly collected through secondary sources. Collection of information is called a data. Data is of two types. They are primary data and secondary data. Primary data are those which are collected a fresh and for the first time and thus happen to be original in character. Secondary data are those which have already been collected by someone else and which have already been passed through statistical process. Secondary data may be published or unpublished data .For this particular study secondary data used is "Market led strategic change" of Prof. Nigel F. Piercy, which is used as marketing tool and its concept. Secondary data is used for preparing company profile, and previous reports. Apple iPhone and RIM Blackberry: With all of the millions of iPhones already used by highly satisfied users including many corporate executives Apple has been pushed to add features to the iPhone to make it easier for IT staff to manage and integrate into the existing systems. This will enable iPhone users to gain access to server updates pushed from Exchange as they are updated on the server, rather than requested by the client at regular intervals like a typical email program. "When Apple announced that the iPhone would incorporate Exchange support through ActiveSync, they specifically pointed out some shortcomings of RIM's server-based system." (Kim 2008). Apple also highlighted the thousand of existing web-based applications that already work on the iPhone. One major challenge Apple faces in bumping the iPhone up to 3G is that it will require more battery power to operate and the iPhone already has significantly shorter battery life than comparing with other phones. So the company will need to improve the device's battery life but for the current users frequently need to recharge their battery every day. "Apple has given technology managers their iPhone wish list in full in an effort to make its phone more business friendly. The mission: Lure enough enterprises to the iPhone so Apple can hit its 10 million unit goal by the end of 2008." (Dignan 2008). Apple IPhone is the multimedia mobile phone, which enable internet connectivity with touch screen, virtual keyboard, camera phone and portable media player (ipod) along

National Brands vs. Private Labels Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

National Brands vs. Private Labels - Term Paper Example Private brands, however, have a great economic value for both the retailer and the customer. They do create customer loyalty that eventually contributes to referrals and effective word of mouth to other customers and thus higher sales for the retailer. In addition, private labels give retailers sole ownership of the product. The retailer will come up with innovative ideas related to pricing and quantity and thus suiting the preferences of the customer (Horowitz, 2000). The main disadvantage of nation-manufacturer brand emanates from the high cost that may discourage some consumers and limit profitability while low unit profit margin that may compromise quality to consumers and motivation among retailers is the major disadvantage of private-label brands. It is quite difficult to determine whether the own-labeled brands are equal in pricing and quantity to national labeled brands. Hence, the customers may be exploited without their knowledge. Unlike the store brands, national brands spend exorbitant amounts of resources in advertising across a wider region and the burden of the cost falls on the customer because of the expenses incurred (Aaker, 1991; Horowitz,

Poland Springs Advertisement Campaign Failure Essay Example for Free

Poland Springs Advertisement Campaign Failure Essay Poland Spring’s recent advertisement puts its viewers in a serene natural environment; a nice sunny day overlooking a crystal clear spring on a green field. In the center of this field is a giant plastic bottle, one that is â€Å"environmentally friendly.† The bottle is praised and pointed out for using â€Å"less plastic,† â€Å"less paper,† and the very important â€Å"dye-free cap.† The bottle is called the â€Å"Eco-Shaped bottle† and is designed to have less impact on the earth. The entire scene is under the giant caption that tells of how Poland Spring is doing â€Å"less† to the environment. The company is selling water in a disposable plastic bottle yet the advertisement seems to be trying to convince people that by consuming their disposable product they are some how helping the environment; that because they drink Poland Spring water they are doing â€Å"less to the environment. This advertising strategy however is not uncommon. According to Julia B. Corbett â€Å" ‘green advertising’ has focused on ads that promote environmental sensitivity toward†¦ a corporate image of environmental sensitivity† (Corbett 148). The recent ad campaign may seen to be about Poland Spring’s new â€Å"Eco-Shaped† bottle, but it is really about diverting attention from the pollution the bottle generates to instead creating a pro-environmental view of the company and its product. The Eco-Shaped bottle by Poland Spring is marketed with a few selling points the company points out directly in their advertisement. The bottle uses â€Å"30% less plastic†, â€Å"less paper† and a â€Å"dye-free cap†. These improvements are  better for the environment then the original bottle used by Poland Spring. However the problem lies in the fact that the product is still harmful to the environment. Last time I checked less of a bad thing is still a bad thing. According a recent article by Hope Molinaro, the California Department of Conservation (CDOC) stated, â€Å"in California, more than a billion plastic water bottles wind up in the trash each year† and that total is only the amount of bottles in the state of California (Molinaro, 64). The total amount equates to 3 million empty water bottles per day disposed of in just one state (Molinaro, 64). That large amount of plastic has many detrimental effects to the environment. The materials used to make the bottles consist of a tremendous amount of resources and are difficult to dispose of if not recycled. There is an overwhelming amount of evidence to make the claim that a good portion of the plastic bottle waste generated in the United States is produced by the Poland Spring Company. Not only is the plastic filling our landfills, but there is evidence that the water bottle company is polluting its own town. According to a 2008 study of pollution demographics of Androscoggin County in Maine, where Poland Spring’s headquarters is located, the particulate matter is 62% higher there than the United States average (Unknown). It’s also 61% higher then the state of Maine’s average particulate matter found (Unknown). Particulate matter is a complex mixture of extremely small particles and liquid droplets. Particle pollution is made up of a number of components, including acids (such as nitrates and sulfates), organic chemicals, metals, and soil or dust particles. Poland Spring’s advertisement does not show any of this particulate matter when depicting how green and lush the springs it gets its water from are. One aspect of the Poland Spring’s advertisement that I find different and contradictory to traditional green thinking is that in the ad the plastic Poland Spring water bottle, is shown in nature. Normally when a plastic water bottle is found laying in a field or any natural setting for that matter, it is viewed upon as pollution. In this ad the bottle is sitting in nature and is supposed to be appealing to the human eye. The bottle is shown in a way that it blends into the natural setting and tries to convince people that it almost belongs there, in the midst of nature; that the  unnatural belongs with the natural. It is easy to relate the bottle as being positive to the environment however as it blends in with the incredible sunrise in the background on a beautiful day with a clear sky. The bottle is featured sitting in a field where the growth of the field is doing outstanding and there is not one dead or even one imperfectly grown plant. The land is doing so well it is almost portrayed as being happy and at peace with a giant, unnatural, plastic water bottle sticking out of it. This scene does not just occur in the ad however as pollution is a huge issue when there is a â€Å"disposable† factor to the product. A second contradiction in the ad is that Poland Spring is a water bottle company whose ad features more lush, green field then the body of water in which their product comes from. The ad is trying to make the product fall into the American consumers mind as a green product hence the green field is more affective then a view of the lake or spring containing the water Poland Spring is selling. Poland Spring is really trying to hammer in the point that it’s product is green and eco-friendly, and the more green in the picture the more green the consumer sees. Contradiction number three this ad uses is the slogan that titles it. In the current green revolution sweeping across America the constant theme is doing more for the environment. Under Poland Springs fancy, flower-laden font reads the words â€Å"doing less†. This is a clear indication that Poland Spring is not being beneficial to the environment by saying they are â€Å"doing less† harm to the planet we live on. Over the serene sunset, over laying the clear blue sky, and lush green field, lies an admission of pollution and guilt by the company. Poland Spring’s methods however are not so uncommon in today’s advertising market. Many advertising campaigns are seen now featuring nature in one way or another and one of the more common ways to do this is through and advertisements backdrop. According to Julia B. Corbett, â€Å"Using nature merely as a backdrop whether in the form of wild animals, mountain vistas or sparkling rivers-is the most common use of the natural world in advertisements.† (Corbett 150) So when Poland Spring sets it’s water bottle in the green field, with little purple flowers swaying in the wind, the peaceful sunset over looking the bluest clear sky the world has to offer,  followed by beautiful green hills rolling off to the distance there is a purpose to it. The purpose according to Julia could be that the company is trying to promote a â€Å"corporate image of environmental responsibility.†(Corbett 148) This is very well one if not the main initiative of the advertisement and it is even so less of an advertisement as it is a rebuttal. Recently, as our country starts to become more â€Å"green† and environmentally aware, there has been some recent campaigns against the consumption of bottled water. One major campaign against bottled water has been â€Å"Think outside the bottle†. Even the mayor of Miami, Manny Diaz along with a dozen or so mayors, is calling on municipal governments to phase out bottled-water purchases in a resolution to be presented at the U.S. Mayors Conference (Barnes). Poland Spring is trying to distract the average consumer from believing the hype that the bottle are bad for the environment and tries to prove that they are doing something about it. Poland Spring’s advertisement is focusing on green aspects of its product and is trying to make the company appear to have a green initiative, however the Poland Spring’s target audience is not the hardcore environmentalist. Any person who puts some research into what they buy and cares about the environment is going to know that consumption of disposable plastic water bottles is not going to help the environment. The ad however does target the average consumer who does sort of care about the environment but does not research into what they consume. A consumer might see the recent anti-water bottle campaigns and generate a negative view of the disposable, plastic water bottles that Poland Spring sells. That is why Poland Spring’s ad was created in the first place, to turn the average consumer’s view of the water bottle and the Poland Spring Company from a negative one to a positive one. In times of environmental awareness that the United States is currently facing, many unenvironmentally friendly companies are finding it harder and harder to promote sales for their products. Poland Spring is no different in that respect but tries a different approach that is gaining in popularity, green advertising. Poland Spring uses nature to show a pristine and beautiful backdrop for their hazardous product. The ad is focusing on deterring the public’s view of Poland Spring from environmentally damaging  to environmentally caring. As shady and undermining the ad is to not only the people but the earth its self, the ad creates a pro-environmental image of a company that does not practice what is preaches. Works Cited Barnes, Tayler. Anti Bottled Water Campaign Enlists Mayors to Cause. Corporate Accountability International. Miami Herald. Web. 07 Nov. 2011. http://www.stopcorporateabuse.org/MiamiHeraldTOTB. Corbett, Julia B. †Faint†Green: Advertising and the Natural World.† Communicating Nature: How We Create and Understand Environmental Messages. Island, 2005. Web. Molinaro, Hope. Plastic Water Bottles Go to Waste, Says Calif. Conservation Agency. Plastics Engineering 59.7 (2003): 64-. ProQuest Research Library. Web. 7 Nov. 2011. Unknown. Poland Spring Pollution Indexes. Raw data. Androscoggin County. CLRSreach.com

Speech Enhancement And De Nosing By Wavelet Thresholding And Transform Ii Computer Science Essay

Speech Enhancement And De Nosing By Wavelet Thresholding And Transform Ii Computer Science Essay In this project the experimenter will seek to design and implement techniques in order to denoise a noisy audio signal using the MATLAB software and its functions, a literature review will be done and summarized to give details of the contribution to the area of study. Different techniques that have been used in the audio and speech processing procedure will be analyzed and studied. The implementation will be done using MATLAB version 7.0. Introduction The Fourier analysis of a signal can be used as a very powerful tool; it can perform the functions of obtaining the frequency component and the amplitude component of signals. The Fourier analysis can be used to analyze components of stationary signals, these are signals that repeat, signals that are composed of sine and cosine components, but in terms of analyzing non stationary signals, these are signals that have no repetition in the region that is sampled, the Fourier transform is not very efficient. Wavelet transform on the other hand allows for these signals to be analyzed. The basic concept behind wavelets is that a signal can be analyzed by splicing it into different components and then these components are studied individually. In terms of their frequency and time, in terms of Fourier analysis the signal is analyzed in terms of its sine and cosine components but when a wavelet approach is adapted then the analysis is different, the wavelet algorithm employes a process and an alyzed the data on different scales and resolution as compared to Fourier analysis. In using the wavelet analysis, a type of wavelet, referred to as being the mother wavelet is used as the main wavelet type for analysis; analysis is then performed from the mother wavelet that is of higher frequency. From the Fourier analysis the frequency analysis of the signal is done with a simplified form of the mother wavelet, from the wavelet components that are achieved via this process further analysis can be done on these coefficients. Haar wavelet types are very compact and this is one of their defining features, its compact ability, as the interval gets so large it then starts to vanish, but the Haar wavelets have a major limiting factor they are not continuously differentiable. In the analysis of a given signal the time domain component can be used in the analysis of the frequency component of that signal, this concept is the Fourier transform, where a signal component is translated to th e frequency domain from a time domain function, the analysis of the signal for its frequency component can now be done, and based of Fourier analysis this is possible because this analysis incorporates the cosine and sine of the frequency. Based on the Fourier transform a finite set of sampled points are analyzed this results in the discrete Fourier transforms, these sample points are typical to what the original signal looks like, to gather the approximate function of a sample, and the gathering of the integral, by the implementation of the discrete Fourier transforms. This is realized by the use of a matrix, the matrix contains an order of the total amount of points of sample,  the problem encountered worsens as the number of samples are increased. If there is uniform spacing between the samples then it is possible to factor in the Fourier matrix into the, multiplication of a few matrices, the results of this can be subjected to a vector of an order of the form m log m operation s, the result of this know as the Fast Fourier Transform. Both Fourier transforms mentioned above are linear transforms. The transpose of the FFT and the DWT is what is referred to as the inverse transform matrix and they can be cosine and sine, but in the wavelet domain more complex mother wavelet functions are formed. The domain of analysis in the Fourier transforms are the sine and cosine, but as it regards to wavelets there exist a more complex domain function called wavelets, mother wavelets are formed. The functions are localized functions, and are set in the frequency domain, can be seen in the power spectra. This proves useful in finding the frequency and power distribution. Based on the fact that wavelet transforms are transforms that are localized as compared to Fourier functions that are not, the Fourier function being mentioned are the sine and cosine, this feature of wavelet makes it a useful candidate in the purpose of this research, this feature of wavelets makes oper ations using wavelets transform sparse and this is useful when used for noise removal. A major advantage of using wavelets is that the windows vary. A major application of this is to realize the portions and signals that are not continuous having short wavelet functions is a good practice to overcome this, but to obtain more in depth analysis having longer functions are best. A practice that is utilized is having basis functions that are of short high frequency and basis functions that are of long low frequency (A. Graps, 1995-2004), point to note Is that unlike Fourier analysis that have a limited basis function sine and cosine wavelets have unlimited set of basis functions . This is a very important feature as it allows wavelet to identify information from a signal that can be hidden by other time frequency methods, namely Fourier analysis. Wavelets consist of different families within each family of wavelet there exist different subclasses that are differentiated based on the coefficients that are decomposed and their levels of iteration, wavelets are mostly classified based on their number of coefficients, that is also referred to as their vanishing moments, a mathematical relationship relates both. Fig above showing examples of wavelets (N. Rao 2001) One of the most helpful and defining features of using wavelets is that the experimenter has control over the wavelet coefficients for a wavelet type. Families of wavelets were developed that proved to be very efficient in the representation of polynomial behavior the simplest of these is the Haar wavelet. The coefficients can be thought of as being filters; these are then placed in a transformation matrix and applied to a raw data vector. The different coefficients are ordered with patterns that work as a smoothing filter and another pattern whose function is to realize the detail information of the data (D. Aerts and I. Daubechies 1979). The coefficient matrix for the wavelet analysis is then applied in a hierarchical algorithm, based on its arrangement odd rows contain the different coefficients, the coefficients will be acting as filters that perform smoothing and the rows that are even will have the coefficients of the wavelets that contains the details from the analysis, it is to the full length data the matrix is first applied, it is then smoothed and disseminated by half after this process the step is repeated with the matrix., where more smoothing takes place and the different coefficients are halved, this process is repeated several times until the data that remains is smoothed, what this process actually does is to bring out the highest resolutions from that data source and data smoothing is also performed. In the removal of noise from data wavelet applications have proved very efficient and successful, as can be seen in work done by David Donoho, the process of noise removal is called wavelet shrinkage and thresholding. When data is decomposed using wavelets, actually filters are used as averaging filters while the other produce details, some of the coefficients will relate to some details of the data set and if a given detailed is small, it can then be removed from the data set without affecting any major feature as it relates to the data. The basi c idea of thresholding is setting coefficients that are at a particular threshold or less than a particular threshold to zero, these coefficients are then later used in an inverse wavelet transform to reconstruct the data set (S. Cai and K. Li, 2010) Literature Review The work done by Student Nikhil Rao (2001) was reviewed, according to the work that was done a completely new algorithm was developed that focused on the compression of speech signals, based on techniques for discrete wavelet transforms. The MATLAB software version 6 was used in order to simulate and implement the codes. The steps that were taken to achieve the compression are listed below; Choose wavelet function Select decomposition level Input speech signal Divide speech signal into frames Decompose each frame Calculate thresholds Truncate coefficients Encode zero-valued coefficients Quantize and bit encode Transmit data frame Parts of extract above taken from said work by Nikhil Rao (2001). Based on the experiment that was conducted the Haar and Daubechies wavelets were utilized in the speech coding and synthesis the functions that were used that are a function of the MATLAB suite are as follows; dwt, wavedec, waverec, and idwt, they were used in computing the wavelet transforms Nikhil Rao (2001). The wavedec function performs the task of signal decomposition, and the waverec function reconstructs the signal from its coefficients. The idwt function functions in the capacity of the inverse transform on the signal of interest and all these functions can be found in the MATLAB software. The speech file that was analyzed was divided up into frames of 20 ms, which is 160 samples per frame and then each frame was decomposed and compressed, the file format utilized was .OD files, because of the length of the files there were able to be decomposed without being divided up into frames. The global and by-level thre sholding was used in the experiment, the main aim of the global thresholding is the maintenance of the coefficients that are the largest, this not being dependent on the size of the decomposition tree for the wavelet transform. Using the level thresholding the approximate coefficients are kept at the decomposition level, during the process two bytes are used to encode the zero values. The function of the very first byte is the specification of the starting points of zeros and the other byte tracks successive zeros. The work done by Qiang Fu and Eric A. Wan (2003) was also reviewed; there work was the enhancement of speech based on wavelet de-nosing framework. In their approach to their objective, the noisy speech signal was first processed using a spectral subtraction method; the aim of this involves the removal of noise from the signal of study before the application of the wavelet transform. The traditional approach was then done where the wavelet transforms are utilized in the decomposition of the speech into different levels, thresholding estimation is then on the different levels , however in this project a modified version on the Ephraim/Malah suppression rule was utilized for the thresholdign estimates. To finally enhance the speech signal the inverse wavelet transform was utilized. It was shown the pre processing of the speech signal removed small levels of noise but at the same time the distortion of the original speech signal was minimized, a generalized spectral subtraction algorithm was used to accomplish the task above this algorithm was proposed by Bai and Wan. The wavelets transform for this approach utilized using wavelet packet decomposition, for this process a six stage tree structure decomposition approach was taken this was done using a 16-tap FIR filter, this is derived from the Daubechies wavelet, for a speech signal of 8khz the decomposition that was achieved resulted in 18 levels. The estimation method that was used to calculate the threshold levels were of a new type, the experiments took into account the noise deviation for the different levels, and each different time frame . An altered version of the Ephraim/Malah rule for suppression was used to achieve soft thresholdeing. The re-synthesis of the signal was done using the inverse perceptual wavelet transform and this is the very last stage. Work done by S.Manikandan, entitled (2006) focused on the reduction of noise that is present in a wireless signal that is received using special adaptive techniques. The signal of interest in the study was corrupted by white noise. The time frequency dependent threshold approach was taken to estimate the threshold level, in this project both the hard and soft thresholding techniques were utilized in the de-noising process. As with the hard thresholding coefficient below a certain values are scaled, in the project a universal threshold was used for the Gaussian noise that was added the error criterion that was used was under 3 mean squared, based on the experiments that were done it was found out that this approximation is not very efficient when it comes to speech, this is mainly because of poor relations amongst the quality and the existence to the correlated noise. A new thresholding technique was implemented in this technique the standard deviation of the noise was first estimated of the different levels and time frames. For a signal the threshold is calculated and is also calculated for the different sub-band and their related time frame. The soft thresholding was also implemented, with a modified Ephraim/Malah suppression rule, as seen before in the other works that were done in this are. Based on their results obtained, there was an unnatural voice pattern and to overcome this, a new technique based on modification from Ephraim and Mala is implemented. Procedure The procedure that undertaken involved doing several voice recording and reading the file using the wavread function because the file was done in a .wav format The length to be analyzed was decided, for the my project the entire length of the signal was analyzed The uncorrupted signal power and signal to noise ratio (SNR) was calculated using different MATLAB functions Additive White Gausian Noise (AWGN) was then added to the original recorded, making the uncorrupted signal now corrupted The average power of the signal corrupted by noise and also the signal to noise ratio (SNR) was then calculated Signal analysis then followed, the procedure involved in the signal analysis included: The wavedec function in MATLAB was used in the decomposition of the signal. The detail coefficients and approximated coefficients were then extracted and plots made to show the different levels of decomposition The different levels of coefficient were then analyzed and compared, making detailed analysis that the decomposition resulted in After decomposition of the different levels de-nosing took place this was done with the ddencmp function in MATLAB, The actual de-nosing process was then undertaken using wdencmp function in MATLAB, plot comparison was made to compare the noise corrupted signal and the de-noised signal The average power and SNR of the de-noised signal was done and comparison made between it and the original and the de-noised signal. Implementation/Discussion The first part of the project consisted of doing a recording in MATLAB, a recording was done of my own voice and the default sample rate was used were Fs = 11025, codes were used to do recordings in MATLAB and different variables were altered and specified based on the codes used, the m file that is submitted with this project gives all the codes that were utilized for the project, the recordings were done for 9 seconds the wavplay function was then used to replay the recording that was done until a desired recording was obtained after the recording was done a wavwrite function was then used to store the data that was previously recorded into a wav file. The data that was written into a wav file was originally stored in variable y and then given the name recording1. A plot was then made to show the wave format of the speech file recorded. Fig 1 Fig1 Plot above showing original recording without any noise corruption According to fig1 the maximum amplitude of the signal is +0.5 and the minimum amplitude being -0.3 from observation with the naked eye it can be seen that most of the information in the speech signal is confined between the amplitude +0.15 -0.15. The power of the speech signal was then calculated in MATLAB using a periodogram spectrum this produces an estimate of the spectral density of the signal and is computed from the finite length digital sequence using the Fast Fourier Transform (The MathWorks 1984-2010) the window parameter that was used was the Hamming window, the window function is some function that is zero outside some chosen interval. The hamming window is a typical window function and is applied typically by a point by point multiplication to the input of the fast fourier transform, this controls the adjacent levels of spectral artifacts which would appear in the magnitude of the fast fourier transform results, for a case where the input frequencies do not correspond with the bin center. Convolution that occurs within the frequency domain can be considered as windowing this is basically the same as performing multiplication within the time domain, the result of this multiplication is that any samples outside a fr equency will affect the overall amplitude of that frequency. Fig2 Fig2 plot showing periodogram spectral analysis of original recording From the spectral analysis it was calculated that the power of the signal is 0.0011 watt After the signal was analyzed noise was added to the signal, the noise that was added was additive gaussian white noise (AWGN), and this is a random signal that contains a flat power spectral density (Wikipedia, 2010). At a given center frequency additional white noise will contain equal power at a fixed bandwidth; the term white is used to mean that the frequency spectrum is continuous and is also uniform for the entire frequency band. In the project additive is used to simply mean that this impairment to the original signal is corrupting the speech; The MATLAB code that was used to add the noise to the recording can be seen in the m file. For the very first recording the power in the signal was set to 1 watt and the SNR set to 80, the applied code was set to signal z, which is a copy of the original recording y, below is the plot showing the analysis of the noise corrupted recording. Fig3 Fig3 plot showing the original recording corrupted by noise Based on observation of the plot above it can be estimated that information in the original recording is masked by the additive white noise to the signal, this would have a negative effect as the clean information would be masked out by the noise, a process known as aliasing. Because the amplitude of the additive noise is greater than the amplitude of the recording it causes distortion observation of the graph shows the amplitude of the corrupted signal is greater than the original recording. The noise power of the corrupted signal was calculated buy the division of the signal power and the signal to noise ratio, the noise power calculated from the first recording is 1.37e-005. The noise power of the corrupted signal is 1.37e-005; the spectrum peridodogram was then used to calculate the average power of the corrupted signal , based on the MATLAB calculations the power was calculated to be 0.0033 watt Fig4 Fig4 plot showing periodogram spectral analysis of corrupted signal From analysis of the plot above it can be seen that the frequency of the corrupted signal spans a wider band, the original recording spectral frequency analysis showed a value of -20Hz as compared to the corrupted signal showed a value of 30Hz this increase in the corrupted signal is attributed to the noise added and this masked out the original recording again as before the process of aliasing. It was seen that the average power of the corrupted was greater than the original signal, the increase in power can be attributed to the additive noise added to the signal this caused the increase in power of the signal. The signal to noise ratio (SNR) of the corrupted signal was calculate from the formula corrupted power/noise power , and the corrupted SNR was found to be 240 as compared to 472.72 of the de-noised, the decrease in signal to noise ratio can be attributed to the additive noise this resulted in the level of noise to the level of clean recording to be greater this is the basis for the decreased SNR in the corrupted signal, the increase in the SNR in the clean signal will be discussed further in the discussion. The reason there was a reduce in the SNR in the corrupted signal is because the level of noise to clean signal is greater and this is basis of signal to noise comparison, it is used to measure how much a signal is corrupted by noise and the lower this ratio is, the more corrupted a signal will be. The calculation method that was used to calculate this ratio is Where the different signal and noise power were calculated from MATLAB as seen above The analysis of the signal then commenced a .wav file was then created for the corrupted signal using the MATLAB command wavwrite, with Fs being the sample frequency, N being the corrupted file and the name being noise recording, a file x1 that was going to be analysed was created using the MATLAB command wavread. Wavelet multilevel decomposition was then performed on the signal x1 using the MATLAB command wavedec, this function performs the wavelet decomposition of the signal, the decomposition is a multilevel one dimensional decomposition, and discrete wavelet transform (DWT) is using pyramid algorithms, during the decomposition the signal is passed through a high pass and a low pass filter. The output of the low pass is further passed through a high pass and a low pass filter and this process continues (The MathWorks 1994-2010) based on the specification of the programmer, a linear time invariant filter, this being a filter that passes high frequencies and attenuates frequency that are below a threshold called the cut off frequency, the rate of attenuation is specified by the designer. While on the other hand the opposite to the high pass filter, is the low pass filter this filter will only pass low frequency signals but attenuates signal that contain a higher frequency than the cut off. Ba sed on the decomposition procedure above the process was done 8 times, and at each level of decomposition the actual signal is down sampled by a factor of 2. The high pass output at each stage represents the actual wavelet transformed data; these are called the detailed coefficients (The MathWorks 1994-2010). Fig 5 Fig 5 above levels decomposition (The MathWorks 1994-2010) Block C above contains the decomposition vectors and Block L contains the bookkeeping vector, based on the representation above a signal X of a specific length is decomposed into coefficients, the first part of the decomposition produces 2 sets of coefficients the approximate coefficient cA1 and the detailed coefficient cD1, to get the approximate coefficient the signal x is convolved with low pass filter and to get the detailed coefficient signal x is convolved with a high pass filer. The second stage is similar only this time the signal that will be sampled is cA1 as compared to x before with the signal further being sampled through high and low pass filter again to produce approximate and detailed coefficients respectively hence the signal is down sampled and the factor of down sampling is two The algorithm above (The MathWorks 1994-2010) represents the first level decomposition that was done in MATLAB, the original signal x(t) is decomposed into approximate and detailed coefficient, the algorithm above represents the signal being passed through a low pass filter where the detail coefficients are extracted to give D2(t)+D1(t) this analysis is passed through a single stage filter bank further analysis through the filter bank will produce greater stages of detailed coefficients as can be seen with the algorithm below (The MathWorks 1994-2010). The coefficients,  cAm(k)  and  cDm(k)  form  m = 1,2,3  can be calculated by iterating or cascading the single stage filter bank to obtain a multiple stage filter bank(The MathWorks 1994-2010). Fig6 Fig6 showing graphical representation of multilevel decomposition (The MathWorks 1994-2010) At each level it is observed the signal is down sampled and the sampling factor is 2. At d8 obeservation shows that the signal is down sampled by 2^8 i.e. 60,000/2^8. All this is done for better frequency resolution. Lower frequencies are  present  at all time; I am mostly concerned with higher frequencies which contains the actual data. I have used daubechies wavelet type 4 (db4), the daubechies wavelet are defined by computing the running averages and differences via scalar products with scaling signals and wavelets(M.I. Mahmoud, M. I. M. Dessouky, S. Deyab, and F. H. Elfouly, 2007) For this type of wavelet there exist a balance frequency response but the phase response is non linear. The Daubechies wavelet types uses windows that overlap in order to ensure that the coefficients of higher frequencies will show any changes in their high frequency, based on these properties the Daubechies wavelet types proves to be an efficient tool in the de-nosing and compression of audio signals.  For the Daubechies D4 transform, this transform has 4 wavelet types and scaling coefficient functions, these coefficient functions are shown below The different steps that are involved in the wavelet transforms, will utilize different scaling functions, to the signal of interest if the data being analyzed contains a value of N, the scaling function that will be applied will be applied to calculate N/2 smoothed values. The smoothed values are stored in the lower half of the N element input vector for the ordered wavelet transform. The wavelet function coefficient values are g0  = h3 g1  = -h2 g2  = h1 g3  = -h0 The different scaling function and wavelet function are calculated using the inner product of the coefficients and the four different data values. The equations are shown below (Ian Kaplan, July 2001); The repetition of the of the steps of the wavelet transforms was then used in the calculation of the function value of the wavelet and the scaling function value, for each repetition there is an increase by two in the index and when this occurs a different wavelet and scaling function is produced. Fig 7 Diagram above showing the steps involved in forward transform (The MathWorks 1994-2010) The diagram above illustrates steps in the forward transform, based on observation of the diagram it can be seen that the data is divided up into different elements, these separate elements are even and the first elements are stored to the even array and the second half of the elements are stored in the odd array. In reality this is folded into a single function even though the diagram above goes against this, the diagrams shows two normalized steps. The input signal in the algorithm above (Ian Kaplan, July 2001) is then broken down into what are called wavelets. One of the most significant benefits of use of wavelet transforms is the fact that it contains a window that varies, to identify signal not continuous having base functions that are short is most desirable. But in order to obtain detailed frequency analysis it is better to have long basis function. A good way to achieve this compromise is having a short high frequency functions and also long low frequency ones(Swathi Nibhanupudi, 2003) Wavelet analysis contains an infinite basis functions, this allows wavelet transforms and analyisis with the ability realize cases that can not be easily realized by other time frequency methods, namely Fourier transforms. MATLAB codes are then used to extract the detailed coefficients, the m file shows these codes, the detailed coefficients that are Daubechies orthogonal type wavelets D2-D20are often used. The numbers of coefficients are represented by the index number, for the different wavelets they contain vanishing moments that are identical to the halve of the coefficients. This can be seen using the orthogonal types where D2 contain only one moment and D4 two moments and so on, the vanishing moment of the wavelets refers to its ability to represent the information in a signal or the polynomial behavior. The D2 type that contains only one moment will encode polynomial of one coefficient easily that are of constant signal component. The D4 type will encode polynomial of two coefficients, the D6 will encode coefficient of three polynomial and so on. The scaling and wavelet function have to be normalized and this normalization factor is a factor  Ã‚  . The coefficients for the wavelet are derived by the reverse of the order of the scaling function coefficients and then by reversing the sign of the second one (D4 wavelet = {-0.1830125, -0.3169874, 1.1830128, -0.6830128}) mathematically, this looks like   where  k  is the coefficient index,  b  is a wavelet coefficient and  c  a scaling function coefficient.  N  is the wavelet index, ie 4 for D4 (M. Bahoura, J. Bouat. 2009) Fig 7 Plot of fig 7 showing approximated coefficient of the level 8 decomposition Fig 8 Plot of fig 8 showing detailed coefficient of the level 1 decomposition Fig 9 Plot of fig 9 showing approximated coefficient of the level 3 decomposition Fig 10 Plot of fig 10 showing approximated coefficient of the level 5 decomposition Fig 11 Plot of fig 11, showing comparison of the different levels of decomposition Fig12 Plot fig12 showing the details of all the levels of the coefficients; The next step in the de-nosing process is the actual removal of the noise after the coefficients have been realized and calculated the MATLAB functions that are used in the de-noising functions are the ddencmp and the wdencmp function This process actually removes noise by a process called thresholding, De-noising, the task of removing or suppressing uninformative noise from signals is an important part of many signal or image processing applications. Wavelets are common tools in the field of signal processing. The popularity of wavelets in de-nosingis largely due to the computationally efficient algorithms as well as to the sparsity of the wavelet representation of data. By sparsity I mean that majority of the wavelet coefficients have very small magnitudes whereas only a small subset of coefficients have large magnitudes. I may informally state that this small subset contains the interesting informative part of the signal, whereas the rest of the coefficients describe noise and can be discarded to give a noise-free reconstruction. The best known wavelet de-noising methods are thresholding approaches, see e.g. In hard thresholding all the coefficients with greater magnitudes as compared to the threshold are retained unmodified this is because they comprise the informative part of data, while the rest of the coefficients are considered to represent noise and set to zero. However, it is reasonable to assume that coefficients are not purely either noise or informative but mixtures of those. To cope with this soft thresholding approaches have been proposed, in the process of soft thresholding coefficients that are smaller than the threshold are made zero, however the coefficients that are kept are made smaller towards zero by an amount of the threshold value in order to decrease the effect of noise assumed to corrupt all the wavelet coefficients. In my project I have chosen to do a eight level decomposition before applying the de-nosing algorithm, the decomposition levels of the different eight levels are obtained, because the signal of in

Dionysus :: essays research papers fc

Dionysus Winter squalls are drained out of the sky. The violet season of flowering spring smiles. The black earth glitters under green lawns. Swelling plants pop open with tiny petals. Meadows laugh and suck the morning dew, while the rose unfolds. The shepherd in the hills happily blows the top notes of his pipe. The gathered gloats over his white kids. Sailors race across the thrashing waves. Their canvas full of the harmless breeze. Drinkers acclaim the grape-giver Dionysus, capping their hair with flowering ivy. (Bernard).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Dionysus, in Greek mythology is a god of wine and vegetation, who showed mortals how to cultivate grapevines and make wine. â€Å"He was good and gentle to those who honored him, but he brought madness and destruction upon those who spurned him or the orgiastic rituals of his cult† (Wendell 23)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The yearly rites in honor of the resurrection of Dionysus gradually evolved into the structured form of the Greek drama, and important festivals were held in honor of the god, during which great dramatic competitions were conducted. The most important festival, the Greater Dionysia, was held in Athens for five days each spring. It was for this celebration that the Greek dramatists Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides wrote their great tragedies. Also, after the 5th century BC, Dionysus was known to the Greeks as Bacchus.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Dionysus is the son of Zeus and Semele. He is the only god to have a mortal parent. The birth of Dionysus began when Zeus came to Semele in the night, invisible, felt only as a divine presence. Semele was pleased to be a lover of a god, even though she did not know which one. Word soon got around and Hera quickly assumed who was responsible. Hera went to Semele in disguise and convinced her that she should see her lover as he really was. When Zeus visited her again, she made him promise to grant her one wish. She went so far as to make him swear on the River Syx that he would grant her request. Zeus, was madly in love and agreed. She then asked him to show her his true form. Zeus, was unhappy, and knew what would happen, but having sworn he had no choice. He appeared in his true form and Semel was instantly burn to a crisp by the sight of his glory. Zeus did manage to rescue Dionysus, and stitched him into his thigh to hold him until he was ready to be born.

Murderball: Disability and Attitudes Paraplegic People

[pic][pic] Murderball [pic][pic] Abstract I strongly believe the size of your success is measured by the strength of your desire. In the 2005 documentary film (Murderball) directors Henry Rubin and Dana Shapiro documented people’s life experience with Paraplegia. Paraplegia is an impairment that diminishes the sensory and motor function of the lower half of your body. Henry and Dana were able to capture some of the attitudes Paraplegic people have for themselves and what others perceive for them which most of the time was incorrect. Paraplegic people seem to never let their impairment encompass them and control there life which I find very empowering. Instead, they use strength to achieve what they desire and for many of them in the film that was to become wheelchair rugby gold medalists in the Paralympics. During the time period that we watched the film one Paraplegic person stood out from all the rest, Mark Zupan. Zupan became Paraplegic when he fell asleep in his best friend’s truck after a party, when his best friend Igoe was driving home later that night he got into a car accident unaware that Zupan was in the car. Zupan was thrown out of the truck bed and into a canal were he held on a branch for 14 hrs. Zupan was ask during the film by a reporter if he could turn the clock back to that day of the accident would he have changed the outcome, he replied with â€Å" No, My injury has led me to opportunities and experiences and friendships I would never have had before† . One opportunity that presented itself was wheelchair rugby were he was a member of the bronze medal-winning U. S. team in 2004. But it wasn’t just rugby and his extreme accident that made him stand out, it was his attitude of himself and his fellow Paraplegics. Zupan and many members of his USA Rugby team view themselves as normal people. For instance, in one part of the movie they played a prank on an Olympian worker. By phoning down to the hotel lobby that they needed help lifting a box but in all reality the box had the player bobby in it to scare the worker. Through out the movie, Paraplegics seem to be humorous and passive aggressive towards un-respectful people that don’t understand there condition. But they also feel that it is necessary for people to be educated about the impairment so they develop Spread Phenomenon. Spread Phenomenon occurs when we tend to associate one disability like mental impairment with a person who has physical disability . Zupan doesn’t like the fact that people think Special Olympics is the same as Paralympics, this is considered a Spread Phenomenon. Zupan and USA team also don’t like many stigmas’ that are associated with Paraplegic conditions. For Instance, Scott Hogsett who is one of the members for the USA team describes a situation when a family friend was wondering why Scott was outside enjoying himself; this was a stigma about him. The family friend made the assumption that Scott in no way shape or form is able bodied but in all reality is capable of many things which includes going out side. Even with all the discriminated Fallacies towards Paraplegics, they don’t let people’s assumptions bother them in fact all of the people in the documentary live a happy and family oriented life. Joe Scoares coach of the Canada Paraplegic Rugby team, has a son and wife that he loves very much and enjoys being around during and before games. The Teams themselves also conveys family, because each team member has a special connection with each other. In the movie there is one scene were they are all playing cards with each other talking about women and past experiences they had with each other that embodies what a families all about. Overall, this movie helped me change my perspective on people with disabilities and impairments. By allowing me to throw away my preconceived notions about people and try to understand people for who they are and not what they have. Reference: Page Rubin, H. (Director) & Shapiro, D (Director). (2005). Murderball [documentary]. United States: Paramont.