Voodoo :: Essays Papers

Voodoo It is often presumed that within a slave society everyone has the same deprived status as the "Other" for the colonial masters, but recent studies have begun to examine the power structures within the slave community itself. Herbert Klein, in African Slavery in Latin America and the Caribbean (1986), has pointed out that knowledge was an important granter of status in the slave community. Knowledge of African ways or customs, or even in some cases elite status transferred directly from Africa gave some slaves a leverage in their community in contrast with their official status. The same occurred with many of the male and female Africans who were part-time religious, health and witchcraft specialists, most of whom had a status inside the community completely unrecognised by the master class. The historian John Blassingame, in The Slave Community (1972), has said: Whatever his power, the master was a puny man compared to the supernatural. Often the most powerful and significant individual on the plantation was the conjurer. Voodoo is a syncretic system derived from deeply rooted Africanist beliefs and colonial French Catholicism. African-American religious systems and subcultures can be seen in Haiti, Jamaica, Trinidad, and other Antillean areas. In the Fon language spoken in Benin, vodun means an invisible force, terrible and mysterious, which can meddle in human affairs at any time. As a reaction to being torn violently from their roots, the slaves tried to resume their cultural and religious traditions. Ancestral spirits, forces called supernatural, were invoked and celebrated in secret, far from the master's eyes, yet in the shadow of the Church, as the worship of saints and the Catholic sacraments served as a screen and a support for African beliefs. The creation of a coherent belief system was extremely important in the development of a feeling of cohesion among the slaves which would provide them with a sense of self and community. The process of syncretization among the African religions helps to explain why those cults found it relatively easy to accept and integrate parts of Christian religious belief and practice into the local cult activity. Initially this integration was purely functional, providing a cover of legitimacy for religions that were severely proscribed. But after a few generations a real syncretism became part of the duality of beliefs of the slaves themselves, who soon found it possible to accommodate both religious systems. The conjurer in African-American culture is frequently referred to as a "two-headed doctor," a person of double wisdom who carries power as a result of his or her initiation into the mysteries of the spirit.

Stephen King, Christine – Text Analysis

Stephen King is perhaps the most widely known American writer of his generation, yet his distinctions include publishing as two authors at once: Beginning in 1966, he wrote novels that were published under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. When twelve, he began submitting stories for sale. At first ignored and then scorned by mainstream critics, by the late 1980’s his novels were reviewed regularly in The New York Times Book Review, with increasing favor. Beginning in 1987, most of his novels were main selections of the Book-of-the-Month Club, which in 1989 created the Stephen King Library, committed to keeping King’s novels â€Å"in print in hardcover. † King published more than one hundred short stories (including the collections Night Shift, 1978, Skeleton Crew, 1985, and Nightmares and Dreamscapes, 1993) and the eight novellas contained in Different Seasons (1982) and Four Past Midnight (1990). King has published numerous articles and a critical book, Danse Macabre (1981). King’s detractors attribute his success to the sensational appeal of his genre, whose main purpose, as King readily confesses, is to scare people. Like Edgar Allan Poe, King turned a degenerated genre — a matter of comic-book monsters and drive-in films—into a medium embodying the primary anxieties of his age. He is graphic, sentimental, and predictable. His humor is usually crude and campy. His dark fantasies, like all good popular fiction, allow readers to express within conventional frames of reference feelings and concepts they might not otherwise consider. is vision articulates universal fears and desires in terms peculiar to contemporary culture. King is â€Å"Master of Postliterate Prose,† as Paul Gray stated in 1982—writing that takes readers mentally to the films rather than making them imagine or think. On the other hand, King’s work provides the most genuine example of the storyteller’s art since Charles Dickens. He has retu rned to the novel some of the popular appeal it had in the nineteenth century and turned out a generation of readers who vastly prefer some books to their film adaptations. He encountered two lasting influences, the naturalist writers and contemporary American mythology. Stephen King may be known as a horror writer, but he calls himself a â€Å"brand name,† describing his style as â€Å"the literary equivalent of a Big Mac and a large fries from McDonald’s. † His fast-food version of the â€Å"plain style† may smell of commercialism, but that may make him the contemporary American storyteller without peer. From the beginning, his dark parables spoke to the anxieties of the late twentieth century. King’s fictions begin with premises accepted by middle Americans of the television generation, opening in suburban or small-town America—Derry, Maine, or Libertyville, Pennsylvania—and have the familiarity of the house next door and the 7-Eleven store. The characters have the trusted two-dimensional reality of kitsch: they originate in cliches such as the high school â€Å"nerd† or the wise child. From such premises, they move cinematically through an atmosphere resonant with a popular mythology. King applies naturalistic methods to an environment created by popular culture. This reality, already mediated, is translated easily into preternatural terms, taking on a nightmarish quality. King’s imagination is above all archetypal: His â€Å"pop† familiarity and his campy humor draw on the collective unconscious. As with his fiction, his sources are the classic horror films of the 1930’s, inherited by the 1950’s pulp and film industries. He hints at their derivations from the gothic novel, classical myth, Brothers Grimm folktales, and the oral tradition in general. In an anxious era both skeptical of and hungry for myth, horror is fundamentally reassuring and cathartic; the tale-teller combines roles of physician and priest into the witch doctor as â€Å"sin eater,† who assumes the guilt and fear of his culture. Christine †¢ In Christine, the setting is Libertyville, Pennsylvania, during the late 1970’s. The monster is the American Dream as embodied in the automobile. King gives Christine all the attributes of a fairy tale for â€Å"postliterate† adolescents. Christine is another fractured â€Å"Cinderella† story, Carrie for boys. Arnie Cunningham, a nearsighted, acne-scarred loser, falls â€Å"in love with† a car, a passionate (red and white) Plymouth Fury, â€Å"one of the long ones with the big fins,† that he names Christine. An automotive godmother, she brings Arnie, in fairy-tale succession, freedom, success, power, and love: a home away from overprotective parents, a cure for acne, hit-andrun revenge on bullies, and a beautiful girl, Leigh Cabot. Soon, however, the familiar triangle emerges, of boy, girl, and car, and Christine is revealed as a femme fatale—driven by the spirit of her former owner, a malcontent named Roland LeBay. Christine is the medium for his death wish on the world, for his all-devouring, â€Å"everlasting Fury. † LeBay’s aggression possesses Arnie, who reverts into an older, tougher self, then into the â€Å"mythic teenaged hood† that King has called the prototype of 1950’s werewolf films, and finally into â€Å"some ancient carrion eater,† or primal self. As automotive monster, Christine comes from a variety of sources, including the folk tradition of the â€Å"death car† and a venerable techno-horror premise, as seen in King’s â€Å"Trucks† and Maximum Overdrive. King’s main focus, however, is the mobile youth culture that has come down from the 1950’s by way of advertising, popular songs, film, and national pastimes. Christine is the car as a projection of the cultural self, Anima for the modern American Adam. To Arnie’s late 1970’s-style imagination, the Plymouth Fury, in 1958 a mid-priced family car, is an American Dream. Her sweeping, befinned chassis and engine re-create a fantasy of the golden age of the automobile: the horizonless future imagined as an expanding network of superhighways and unlimited fuel. Christine recovers for Arnie a prelapsarian vitality and manifest destiny. Christine’s odometer runs backward and she regenerates parts. The immortality she offers, however—and by implication, the American Dream—is really arrested development in the form of a Happy Days rerun and by way of her radio, which sticks on the golden oldies station. Indeed, Christine is a recapitulatory rock musical framed fatalistically in sections titled â€Å"Teenage Car-Songs,† â€Å"Teenage Love-Songs,†and â€Å"Teenage Death-Songs. † Fragments of rock-and-roll songs introduce each chapter. Christine’s burden, an undead 1950’s youth culture, means that most of Arnie’s travels are in and out of time, a deadly nostalgia trip. As Douglas Winter explains, Christine reenacts â€Å"the death,† during the 1970’s, â€Å"of the American romance with the automobile. † The epilogue from four years later presents the fairy-tale consolation in a burnedout monotone. Arnie and his parents are buried, Christine is scrap metal, and the true Americans, Leigh and Dennis, are survivors, but Dennis, the â€Å"knight of Darnell’s Garage,† does not woo â€Å"the lady fair†; he is a limping, lackluster junior high teacher, and they have drifted apart, grown old in their prime. Dennis narrates the story in order to file it away, all the while perceiving himself and his peers in terms of icons from the late 1950’s. In his nightmares, Christine appears wearing a black vanity plate inscribed with a skull and the words, â€Å"ROCK AND ROLL WILL NEVER DIE. From Dennis’s haunted perspective, Christine simultaneously examines and is a symptom of a cultural phenomenon: a new American gothic species of anachronism or deja vu, which continued after Christine’s publication in films such as Back to the Future (1985), Peggy Sue Got Married (1986), and Blue Velvet (1986). The 1980’s and the 1950’s blur into a seam less illusion, the nightmare side of which is the prospect of living an infinite replay. The subtext of King’s adolescent fairy tale is another coming of age, from the opposite end and the broader perspective of American culture. Written by a fortyish King in the final years of the twentieth century, Christine diagnoses a cultural midlife crisis and marks a turning point in King’s career, a critical examination of mass culture. The dual time frame reflects his awareness of a dual audience, of writing for adolescents who look back to a mythical 1950’s and also for his own generation as it relives its undead youth culture in its children. The baby boomers, King explains, â€Å"were obsessive† about childhood. â€Å"We went on playing for a long time, almost feverishly. I write for that buried child in us, but I’m writing for the grown-up too. I want grownups to look at the child long enough to be able to give him up. The child should be buried. † â€Å"sometimes ownership can become possession† The story is set in a middle-class suburb of Pittsburg, in 1978. Dennis Guilder and Arnie Cunningham vie for the attentions of the new girl in town, Leigh Cabot. But when Christine, a 1958 Plymouth Fury, enters the picture, the course of action changes drastically. As Leigh neatly observes, â€Å"cars are girls†. Arnie’s love affair with Christine turns from a love song to a death song. As soon as he sees her he wants her. Her name is Christine, she is 1958 Plymouth Fury, and Arnold Cunningham has fallen head over heels in love with her. Arnold's best friend Dennis Guilder is not quite so impressed by the rusting rolling iron with the custom paint job. Dennis looks at the cracked windscreen and the damaged bodywork, the flat tyre and torn upholstery, and his heart sinks even before he notices the pool of oil underneath the car. Arnie might as well be looking at a different car though. He sees something else. Maybe a little of what the car once was, and perhaps a little of what it could be if the work was put in. He is a man in love and first loves can often become all consuming things. There is nothing that Dennis can do to stop Arnie from buying Christine and in the end he goes along with his life-long friend. He lends him some money towards a deposit on the car and even takes him to pick the car up, the next day, after work. Sometimes the company a person keeps can have an effect on them and almost from that very first meeting between Arnie and Christine Dennis can see changes in his best friend. Some of them good, like the fact that his acne seems to be miraculously clearing up. The other changes though, are not so positive in nature. Arnie's whole attitude takes a turn for the worse and he develops an uncharacteristic mean streak. All of his life Arnie has been the guy who was targeted by the bullies of this world, but when Buddy Repperton takes a jack handle to one of Christine's lights the worm not only turns, but turns on Repperton leaving him with a bloody nose and a score to settle. As I clocked up the chapters in Christine I watched Arnie's relationship with his parents and with his friend Dennis start to fall apart; and his relationship with the beautiful Leigh Cabot form and then fail. It was all because of the car and from the very first chapter, as a reader, I was aware that there was something not quite right about that Plymouth Fury. Christine is just a little under 600 pages long. It is written in memoir form and is split into the three parts. Part one, Dennis Teenage Car Songs, is written in the first person and from Dennis' point of View. In part two, Arnie Teenage Love songs, Dennis is still telling the story, but it is now written in the third person because all of the events in that part of the book occurred while Dennis was lying in a hospital bed and does not concern things that he experienced first-hand. For part three, of the book, Christine Teenage Death Songs, the story returns to the first person perspective because Dennis is on his crutches and out and about, all be it at a bit of a hobble. A nice touch to Christine is that every chapter opens up with a few lines from a different song that involves cars, which is probably why the three parts of the book are named the way that they are. I enjoyed Christine. King brings all of the characters to life for his readers and it was easy for me to look at Arnie's mother, for instance, through both Arnie and Dennis' eyes and think: what a bitch! But it was just as easy for me to look through the mother's eyes and feel the pain and fear as she watched her family being torn apart. The characters seem real and the unreal situations feel real.

Cultural Diversity in the Healthcare Field

Cultural Diversity in the Healthcare field The Many Faces of Healthcare Cultural Diversity in the Healthcare Field Carl Hooks Rasmussen College Author Note This research is being submitted on September 16, 2010, for Vicky Philips English class at Rasmussen College by Carl Hooks Cultural diversity in the medical field is, at times, greatly hindered because of religious beliefs, language barriers, and the hierarchies of diverse cultures and these have the propensity to affect the continuity of care for the patients. â€Å"Every person has different aspects that constitute their identities, according to how they see themselves†¦.This means that seeing an individual in terms of their identity can be unproductive. † (Weaver, 2009). Nursing personnel, in particular, have to take into consideration any and all cultural differences between the patient and the nursing staff. These differences vary in as many ways as there are different ethnic groups in any particular area. Religio us beliefs can hinder the nursing care of patients. There are many different religious beliefs in as many different religions. The religious belief most common in the United States, of course, is the Jehovah Witness who refuses transfusions.This religion has a strong belief in preserving the soul before the body. Other religions have other beliefs that we may not understand, but need to respect and try to work around to care for the patient. â€Å"If people believe it is God who confers both health and illness, it may be very difficult to get them to take their medication or change their behavior†¦. they would see no point worrying about high blood pressure or bacteria when moral behavior is the key to good health. † (Galanti, 2001). This kind of belief will impede the medical staff and their approach to a medical cure.Whenever possible, staff should attempt of incorporate both religious beliefs and medicine to care for the patient. For the most part (miracles do happen) , religious beliefs can delay the care and health of the patient, and leaves the health professionals with a huge dilemma about what to do, and greatly delays the healing process. To understand how religion plays a role in the care given to the patient is to give better care for our patients. Consequently, the vast majority of people do believe in some sort of religion, whether it is God or some other higher power. Cultural factors stemming from religious beliefs and practices can have an intense impact on health. † (Abdoul and Abdoul, 2010). There may come a time when the medical staff has to provide a towel (prayer matt) and a quiet place to pray to a culture that does not consider the common hospital chapel an appropriate place to pray.In some religious, â€Å"It is commonly believed that illness is sent from God as retribution for sins since God is viewed as the afflicter as well as healer. † (Abdoul and Abloul,2010). Food also plays a big part in some religions whi ch go beyond the traditional Jewish mother’s chicken soup. †¦. it is important to know that religious beliefs and practices can influence food choice, as there may be individuals within a group that observe strict dietary requirements. † (Black, 2010). All religious back grounds should be taken into consideration and, whenever possible, be provided for, and this will aid in promoting effective health care. Language barriers pose great difficulties when communicating with patients. It is imperative that both patient and nursing staff understand exactly what is being said. For this reason an appropriate trained or certified interpreter should be utilized whenever possible.Health care workers are experiencing more language difficulties than ever before. â€Å"Fully 54 million Americans†¦. roughly 20 percent of the population†¦. do not speak English at home. † (Armand and Hubbard,2010). With the exception of California, Texas, and Florida, which have o ver 43 percent of the population, that are classified LEP (limited English proficient). The interpreter should be trained to interpret on the patients behalf. Family members, at times, can be of great assistance, but then HIPPA comes into play.The patient may not want a particular family member to know about their health problems. The language barrier does inhibit sufficient care, and this should be addressed with the utmost of care and consideration for both the medical staff and patient. Insuring that the patient fully understands what is being done to them is of great importance. As patients, they have the right to understand what is being done and why. Informed consent must be given; the patient should be able to repeat what they have been informed of before the procedure is done. Currently â€Å"only 33 percent of U.S. hospitals have quality improvement efforts underway to improve the quality of their language access programs. † (Armand and Hubbard, 2010). The goal of th e interpreter is to assure that the LEP patient has no doubts or concerns and totally understands what is going to happen, why, and any options they may have. Understanding the hierarchy of the family is imperative in understanding the functions of the family unit. With some familiarity with the different cultures in a given community, a medical professional will be able to ascertain who the head of the household is.The head of the household differs from culture to culture, as such, â€Å"misunderstandings which include but are not limited to the involvement of the male in all aspects of health care for his wife and children; the assimilation of children into all aspects of life; female humility; the subordinate status of women; and the strong emphasis on traditional female role. (Abdoul and Abdoul, 2010). By defining who the head of the household is and giving them the respect they deserve will be paramount in a speedy recovery for the patient.As the head of the household is ident ified, it is very important that they are included in all of the decisions made on behalf of the patient. If and when the controlling person is not readily available, all efforts should be exercised to contact that person. In rare life threatening conditions should medical personnel proceed without that persons consent, the head of the household should be given adequate time to discuss procedures with the patient should they require this. His/her decision should be respected when they decide what is appropriate for their family member.Given the most pertinent information and options, the family can then make an informed decision and the respect of the hierarchy of the family has not been compromised. All diversities should be taken into consideration when caring for a patient. By understanding what importance the patient puts on their culture, the medical staff can better serve the patient. â€Å"Hospitals can be a source of stress and frustration for patients and their families, s ince they are most vulnerable when they are there and are placed at the mercy of values and beliefs not of their own. † (Galanti, 2001).Making a patient aware that medical staff understands and will do all that is possible to adhere to their cultural differences can only aid in providing the best health care possible. A care plan is always done for patients when they are admitted to the hospital. While formulating a care plan, the nurse should always consider and provide for the cultural differences of the individual. The care plan should be reviewed by all staff that participates in the care of the patient. The care plan should be discussed with the patient and family to assure that all aspects of their cultural practices have been addressed.If this is not done, then the patient’s outcome can be greatly hampered. Cultural diversity in the medical field, at times, can be greatly hindered because of religious beliefs, language barriers, and the hierarchy of diverse cultu res, and these have the propensity to affect the continuity of care for the patient. All aspects need to be considered to assure that the most efficient care be given on behalf of the patient.References ABOUL-ENEIN, B. , & AHOUL-ENEIN, F. (2010). THE CULTURAL GAP DELIVERING HEALTH CARE SERVICES TO ARAB AMERICAN POPULATIONS IN THE UNITED STATES. Journal of Cultural Diversity, 17(1), 20-23. Retrieved from Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition database Armada, A. , & Hubbard, M. (2010). Diversity in Healthcare: Time to Get REAL!. Frontiers of Health Services Management, 26(3), 3-17. Retrieved from EBSCO MegaFILE database. Black, P. (2010). Cultural and religious beliefs in stoma care nursing. British Journal of Healthcare Assistants, 4(4), 184-188. Retrieved from CINAHL Plus with Full Text database. Weaver, D. (2009). Respect the diversity and difference of individuals. Nursing & Residential Care, 11(12), 590-593. Retrieved from CINAHL Plus with Full Text database.

Public Health Communication Quit Smoking

Public Health Communication Quit Smoking Smoking is considered to be one of the most burning problems of modern society. Cigarettes kill so many people each year that it turns out to be very difficult to present concrete numbers concerning how many Americans die because of smoking. People know a lot about the risk of dying because of lung cancer, caused by smoking, however, they still continue smoking and do not pay attention to really useful information and warnings. To my mind, observing the effects of smoking by means of pictures should help to evaluate how dangerous smoking could be and what should be done to prevent deaths because of smoking.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Public Health Communication: Quit Smoking specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Picture #1 The approaches, I choose to evaluate the problem of smoking, present a clear picture of smoking and its effects on people. A smoldering cigarette (Picture # 1) does not present certain danger; and even when a person smokes (Picture # 2), people do not feel any fear or loathing. However, when we see an embryo with a cigarette (Picture # 3) and comprehend how smoking is dangerous to unborn children, some terrible emotions appear, and smoking does not seem so simple and harmless. This is why the only thing people should do is to quit smoking and start smiling (Picture # 4). Picture #2 A smoker promotes own life’s end; this person does not have a face or even gender (Picture # 2). Smoking is dangerous to people and deprives them from a chance to live long and happy. The tone of my message by means of these photos is not about fear, but about the reality that is around people. It is about smoking as something integral to this life, as something that has a certain impact even on not yet born people. This is why, in order to prevent a disaster, we should quit smoking, become healthy, and start smiling. These photos create a kind of emotional imagery that demonstrates how infl uential smoking can be. Picture #3 The audience for these photos may be rather different: teenagers, who find smoking not dangerous; mothers, who should care about their future and current children; old people, who should serve as good examples and promote young people to drop this terrible habit. In fact, these pictures can be interesting and useful to everyone from different places, who are just interested in making this world healthier and safer. Smoking is a disaster, and people should be ready to fight against it.Advertising Looking for essay on health medicine? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Picture #4 The Pictures # 2 and 4 are taken from the Internet; the Picture # 3 is from one scientific web-article that tells how smoking is dangerous to kinds. The Picture # 1 is taken from a local campaign. The person, who smokes this cigarette, does not want to be recognized, because he is not proud of what he is doing and thinks how to drop this bad habit soon.

Kant and Singer Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Kant and Singer - Essay Example It does not dictate equal treatment of all interests, in the belief that different interests guarantee different treatment (Singer 26). Human beings, therefore, give significant interests priority over minor interests. Apart from justifying different treatment for different interests, this principle calls for different treatment of the same interest where diminishing marginal utility is a factor. This philosophy of Singer requires the concept of impartiality while comparing interests. Singer asserts that a person’s interests must always be weighed according to the person’s existing properties. The major interests in human beings are those that satisfy the basic need for food and shelter, develop one’s abilities, avoid pain, and enjoy warm personal relationships and those that allow a person to pursue his or her project without interference. These major interests entitle a person to equal consideration in the capacity of happiness and suffering. Singer’s approach favors a model of life where he measures the minor interest from their wrongness of frustrating the goals of life. Singer argues that eating of animals and using them for scientific research is morally indefensible (Singer 48). From his perspective, like human beings, animals have interests and are, therefore, sentient. More so, since animals have interests, they are entitled to moral consi deration. Every genuine interest should be treated with the same weight, regardless of whether it is an animal or human being. He describes eating animals as an unnecessary imposition of pain and suffering upon animals. Human beings satisfy their dietary preferences by inflicting such pain on animals, but beyond that, no good comes of it. This gets based on the fact that even heavy consumption of meat poses serious health dangers to human beings. Singer views the use of animals in a scientific experiment as a morally defensible act in the fact that it produces knowledge and in particular medical research. Since medical research produces cures for diseases, there are more goods to be balanced against the pain and suffering of animals. This benefit is much better than the human satisfaction obtained from meat consumption. Singer’s view is based on moral reasoning based on a cost-benefit analysis. Singer’s view on euthanasia and abortion are consistent with his general et hical principles. Singer categorizes euthanasia into non-voluntary, voluntary and involuntary. Singer only consents to voluntary euthanasia in the fact that there are no other interests to be weighed against the interest of a person. In Singer’s view, abortion is wrong in that it is the killing of an innocent human life. This argument is deductively valid in that a fetus becomes a human being from the point of conception (Singer 98). Although Singer finds this argument flawed from the fact that child development is a gradual process, the validity still lies in the fact that life as a journey starts at the point where life begins; conception. Singer states that the arguments for or against abortion should be based on a utilitarian perspective. This perspective compares the interests of a woman against the interest of the fetus. He believes that any interest sought to be gained or avoided; despite all the harm or benefits caused corresponds directly to a person’s satisfa ction or frustration. He argues that, at around eighteen weeks, a fetus has no ability to experience sensations like satisfaction or frustration which is a prerequisite to having any interests (Singer 63). Therefore, from a utilitarian perspective, nothing can be weighed against a woman’s interest to have an abortion. As a result, abortion is morally permissible. Immanuel Kant

Discuss the reforms of Solon and Cleisthenes . what were the problems Essay

Discuss the reforms of Solon and Cleisthenes . what were the problems in Athenian society that made reform necessary how did th - Essay Example Additionally, Solon divided society into four classes—each of which were based on wealth. The two highest classes were allowed to serve on the Areopagus, which was the highest council of Athens. The third class were permitted to serve on elected councils, and the lowest class was able to take part in the assembly, which brought affairs to the elected council. On the other hand, Cleisthenes developed a constitution in order to make Athens a democracy. Cleisthenes is commonly referred to the founder of democracy in Athens for this very reason. This constitution was loosely based on the ideas of Solon, but Cleisthenes expanded on them. As part of the new constitution, all men aged 18 years and older were registered as Athenian citizens and became members of their village. This was a significant step in the evolution of Athenian society because these new citizens were each allowed to vote, thus giving them power over elected officials. At that time women were not considered citize ns of Athenian society, and because of this they did not have any voting powers. The council that was established worked as the chief arm of the government and had full executive and administrative power. Any citizen aged over 30 was qualified to be part of this council. Each year the members of the council were picked at random. The Assembly had the power to veto any of the council’s decisions.

Cit Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Cit - Research Paper Example Vint Cerf was a program Manager at DARPA, which is the United States Department of Defense Project Agency. At DARPA, Cerf actually introduced the idea of TCP/IP. TCP/IP is a protocol that is widely used. At that time, Cerf continued to developed many programs that were deemed as necessary for the cultivation of the internet itself. It is quite clear that Cerf is a very accomplished individual in many facets. First and foremost, Cerf was a very accomplished at his position of DARPA. Furthermore, Cerf has also received number of honorary degrees, including high-level doctorates, from the  University of the Balearic Islands,   Switzerland,  Capitol College,  Yale University and Gettysburg Colleges to name a few. During the year of 2005, he has served as vice president and chief Internet pioneer for Google. In this particular role, he is responsible for identifying new enabling technologies that GOOGLE was creating at that time such as drive, maps, images, etc. On February 7, 200 6, Cerf took a more proactive role as he testified before the  U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation's hearing on  network neutrality. This was due to the fact that network convergence was becoming a huge Speaking as Google's Chief Internet Evangelist, Cerf noted that nearly half of all consumers lacked meaningful choice in broadband providers. The recent major involvement of Cerf consisted of him to be in the same cabinet as Obama as US first CTO alongside of Obama. A huge accomplishment indeed, Cerf continues to pave the way the way for the modern day internet. The latest project that Vint Cerf is working on is a monumental task undoubtedly. It consists of building a backbone in the universe. This project consists of creating an IP backbone in the universe, especially Mars. This new standard will be able the NASA to conduct communication within planets. This project is the most interesting project that Cerf has been involved with because it involves ce lestial motion. Without a doubt, Vint Cerf has earned his spot in the history books as one of the most prominent figures. Without his trial and experimentation to create the internet, the technology evolution would have never been initiated. The idea of internet was an idea that was in thoughts of many engineers, but only through the guidance of Cerf that it actually became a reality. Throughout history, Radia Perlman is known as the mother of the internet. One of the most accomplished females in the history of technology, Radia has earned herself a spot in the history books. Most notorious for her innovation of Spanning Tree Protocol, Radia solidified her spot. Her innovation of STP is essential because STP ensures that a network remains configured in any event to ensure that data is delivered whenever a user or machine calls for it. The concept was adopted as an IEEE standard for bridge technology and remains in place to this day. Moreover Perlman also developed algorithms to make link state protocols such as IS-IS and OSPF efficient and scalable. One cannot truly understand the innovation of STP without understanding Perlman’s breakthrough. When the evolving technologies of Internet came into play, the topology of network contained many flaws. One of the biggest flaws was the constant loop that Ethernet had to go through. Perlman’s understanding of networks and her model of STP ensured that a loop-free broadcast of LAN. The prime function of