Music has the power to change lives Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Music has the power to change lives - Essay Example Music is about being sensitive to sounds †¦ about listening to sounds you’ve never heard before. These simple sentences speak volumes in terms of a philosophical background for modern music curricula. For ‘being sensitive to sounds’ read ‘being sensitive to what someone somewhere else in the world is saying through musical sound’ (Hurworth, 2003). Music surrounds our lives, we hear it on the radio, on television, from our car and home stereos. We come across it in the mellifluous tunes of a classical concert or in the devotional strains of a bhajan, the wedding band, or the reaper in the fields breaking into song to express the joy of life. Even warbling in the bathroom gives us a happy start to the day. Since time immemorial, music has infused a spark of the Divine in human beings. Stating the esoteric nature of music, Sufi saint and musician Hazrat Inayat Khan said: "The true harmony of music comes from the harmony of the soul. That music alone can be called real which comes from the harmony of the soul, its true source, and when it comes from there, it must appeal to all souls" (Sokhal, 1998). Many argue that music is not a natural kind. Indeed, following a conventional dictionary definition of music - "The art of combining sounds of voices or instruments to achieve beauty of form and expression of emotion" - it would be difficult to do so.

Death of a Salesman Essay Example for Free

Death of a Salesman Essay What techniques does Arthur Miller use to highlight the conflict between past and present in Death of a Salesman? How do these techniques also demonstrate his main themes? Death of a Salesman is set in a time when the capitalist system is changing. It is set in the late 1940s, not long after the Wall Street crash in 1929. Willy Loman is unable to adjust to these changes and therefore, there is conflict between the past, where his dreams were achievable, and the present, where he has fallen foul of the capitalist system and is no longer any use to the firm. These conflicts are personified in Willy, and Arthur Miller uses a number of techniques to highlight this. The techniques Miller uses represent Willys mind and they distinguish between past and present. These theatrical methods also help to demonstrate the main themes in Death of a Salesman. These theatrical methods include music, lighting, wall-lines, scenery, the use of leaves and also use of costumes. In my essay I plan to explain what each method conveys to the audience and show how Miller uses these methods effectively to highlight the conflicts. Music is used to highlight significant points and themes in the play. Also, the type of music sets the mood for a scene. It creates atmosphere and conveys to the audience the emotions of the characters. Also, silence can highlight a particular scene. The absence of music means that the audience focuses entirely on the conversation taking place. In Death of a Salesman, flute music is heard constantly throughout the duration of the play. It bridges the play, as it is heard both at the beginning and the end. The flute music evokes a faraway, idyllic world, representing the past. It also represents a contrast between Willy and his father. Willys father was a pioneer; he made flutes and sold his own products. Willy, on the other hand, has to sell other peoples goods to make a living. A good example of music being used to set the scene is at the beginning of the restaurant scene. The lights have blacked out signifying the end of the previous scene Suddenly rollicking music is heard. This is setting the mood of the scene for the audience. It shows that the atmosphere is happy and lively. This is to show the mood of the present time. It is a contrast to the past. By having rollicking music, Miller is highlighting this contrast. This links to the theme of Happy and shows more of an insight into his character. Happy has chosen this restaurant and it shows the kind of life he lives, and this is a contrast to Willy.

Medical Image Fusion Based on Joint Sparse Method

Medical Image Fusion Based on Joint Sparse Method I. INTRODUCTION From the identical scene number of images can be obtained concurrently by utilizing dissimilar sensors. Using the many sensors to identify the picture complete of scene from the obtained images is highly impossible. For this here using image fusion algorithm it will accept the mixing of multiple obtained images to produce number of useful complex image integrating the opposite information from the many sensors, yet, they are out of boundary and of dissimilar declaration. In medical diagnosis we will find the medical imaging. After completing the diagnosis the imaging movements are like magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT) it will gives dissimilar view in the same scene, which can be delay clinical decision making and the diagnostic process. For example MRI gives the perspectives of soft materials, while CT for bone structures evaluation. For accurate diagnosis this inspires the necessary for image fusion by combining the reciprocal information. Three problems to be notified while fusing the images [1] are: 1) the fused image should preserve all the important information needed for further processing. 2) Artifacts should not be introduced in fused image. 3) Noise and unimportant information should be suppressed. Several dissimilar Greedy approaches using the sparse representation of the signal this signal is presently possible [3], Sparse representation of signals is now possible utilizing many different Greedy approaches [3], including: 1. Matching Pursuit (MP) [3] 2. Orthogonal Matching Pursuit (OMP) [3], and 3.Stage wise Orthogonal Matching Pursuit (St OMP) [4]. These techniques are used to represent signals with the fewest number of non-zero coefficients. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) [5] is one of the powerful state-of-the-art image fusion approaches in terms of visual inspection and quantitative evaluation metrics. This fusion is carried out by integrating the principal components of images to be fused. Both PCA and Sparse fusion have specific advantages and disadvantages. PCA fusion will enhance the spatial quality but have dense nonzero entries that might represent uninformative features. Sparse fusion preserves important information but high spatial resolution is lacking. This paper proposes a new algorithm inspired by [6], which employs different fusion rules for common and innovative sparse comp onents of the source images. The proposed algorithm utilizes the advantages of both PCA and Sparse representation for fusing common and innovative features of the captured images. This algorithm also overcomes the disadvantages of both PCA and Sparse representation. In this paper, we demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed method by comparing its results with PCA and Sparse Fusion. II. SYSTEM DESIGN As discussed in the previous section, sparsest approximation is achieved through Greedy methods. In this section, we briefly explore the Orthogonal Matching Pursuit algorithm to achieve sparsest representation. These sparse coding algorithms are constructed based on the premise that Dictionary D of size nÃâ€"k is already known. For effective results, we use phase included DCT (Discrete Cosine Transform) dictionary [7] for our experiment. In this paper, we have customized OMP sparse coding algorithm for fusion purposes. The ultimate aim of OMP algorithm is to achieve best approximation. The mathematical formula for solving this constraint problem is given by: (1) (2) Where N is the number of non-zero coefficients. Equation 2 represents the definition for solving error constrained problem. Next atom to be added in this iterative framework is the atom which has highest correlation to the residual at each stage. Iteration is performed until it meets the stopping criterion. OMP is due to orthogonalization between atoms in the dictionary D and residual r. Pseudo Algorithm of OMP Given: Dictionary D, signal S, and error threshold à Ã‚ µ Initialize residual r0=S-Ds0, index set I0={} and main iteration is k = k+1 (initial k=0). Using the ideal solution à °Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ËœÃ‚ §Ãƒ °Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ- = à °Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ËœÃ¢â‚¬ËœÃƒ °Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ-à °Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ËœÃ¢â‚¬ ¡Ãƒ °Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ËœÃ… ¸Ãƒ °Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ËœÃ‹Å"−1/, Calculate the error (à °Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ-) = for all i. Update stage: Augmenting the index set à °Ã‚ Ã‚ Ã‚ ¼Ãƒ °Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ËœÃ‹Å" = à °Ã‚ Ã‚ Ã‚ ¼Ãƒ °Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ËœÃ‹Å"−1 ∠ª {à °Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ-0} (find i0 of (à °Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ-): ∀1 ≠¤ à °Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ- ≠¤ à °Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ËœÃ… ¡ and (à °Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ-0) ≠¤ (à °Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ-). Update the solution (à °Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ-0)+= à °Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ËœÃ‚ §Ãƒ °Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ- and residual. If stopping criterion is met, à °Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ËœÃ‚   = à °Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ËœÃ‚  Ãƒ °Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ËœÃ‹Å"; else, apply another iteration. III. PROPOSED SCHEME This work proposes a fusion method that employs PCA transformation and sparse transformation. An attempt is made to efficiently utilize the advantages of PCA and Sparse fusion scheme. The proposed fusion framework has been illustrated in Fig.1. Firstly, the common and innovative components are extracted from geometrically aligned multiple images of the same scene. Secondly, different fusion rules are adopted to fuse these coefficients. The algorithm is summarized as follows: 1) Registered multiple images in an ensemble have one common component and multiple innovative components. Innovative components contain the complementary information from different images of same scene 2) Innovative components of different images i are decomposed into sparse vectors s1,s2,s3,†¦si via orthogonal matching pursuit method described in Figure.1. Fig.1. Flow of Sparse PCA joint fusion algorithm 3) Combine the sparse coefficients of innovative components using PCA fusion rule, for which the covariance matrix s C of innovative images is calculated as follows, (3) Where s1,s2 are the sparse vectors of the innovative components. Find the Eigen sparse and normalized Eigen sparse vector of maximum Eigen value. Eigen vector will be used as weightings for innovative sparse vectors to be fused. 4) Fused PCA result Ip is reshaped into a block of 8Ãâ€"8 and each pixel position is the sum of several block values. Reconstructed image is obtained by dividing each pixel by number of addition operations performed at each pixel. 5) For fusing common component and fused innovative component, the fuse rule of weighted average scheme proposed by Burt et al. [2] is adopted. IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS In order to test the performance of the proposed joint fusion algorithm, we compared the quantitative and qualitative results with two state the of art methods. Qualitative measurement is done through visual inspection that considers sharpness and noise suppression. Since the proposed joint fusion uses both PCA and sparse domain, we use PCA, Sparse OMP fusion methods for comparison. For the evaluation, we adopted proposed joint strategy for Multi resolution, Multi focus and Multimode images and compared the results with existing algorithms. Our experiment is carried out with the assumption that the source images are registered already. Fig. 2, shows results of fusion for the case of multi focus images. Based on visual inspection, The Joint PCA Sparse algorithm performs the best since the resultant image contain more geometric structures while sparse fusion comes the second. Result of proposed method seems to contain sharp edges. Fig.3, illustrates results of fusion of mutli dosage image results based on three different fusion algorithms. Low dose image seems to suffer from patchiness. As it can be observed, visually, Joint Sparse result shows the details clearly than the Low dose image. Visually, joint fusion resultant seems to be better than other 2 methods. Increasing the dosage might reduce the noise but harm patients. Low dose images are prone to noise. Fusing low dose and medium dose image should suppress the noise and enhance the informative details for precise diagnosis. Fig.4, illustrates the results of applying two multi modal medical images to three image fusion algorithms. The medical images are MRI and CT image of same scene which have been registered already. CT image provides the information on bone structures and MRI image contains tissue information. Medical image fusion needs great accuracy as it’s used for diagnosis. Hence, multimodal image fusion would give sufficient details necessary for diagnosis. Based on the visual inspection, the Joint Sparse results contain more detail information. Results of PCA seem to have high spatial resolution but they are disappointing in terms of detailed information. Bone details are not visible in PCA resultant image. Sparse result is better but some artifacts are easily observed Reconstructing fused image through joint fusion algorithms seems to be more precise comparatively. In order to analyze the quality of the algorithms quantitatively, we consider 5 metrics: Mutual Information (MI), PSNR, Correlation, Entropy and Structural Similarity (SSIM) index. Mutual Information shows how much information has been transferred from source images to the resultant images. Entropy shows the amount of important details available in the image. PSNR is Peak Signal to Noise Ration which is used to measure the reconstruction quality of fused image. PSNR of the fused image If is calculated using the standard formula: (4) Where M is the maximum possible pixel value of the image and MSE is the Mean Square error. The SSIM [8] provides structural information of objects and measures the similarity between the two images. Experiment results are shown in Table.1. Tabulated result demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm over existing methods in terms of Qualitative and Quantitative methodologies. We can observe that the results of multimodal image fusion and multi focus image fusion utilizing our proposed fusion strategy outperforms PCA and Sparse fusion. The PCA by itself performs poorer results for all cases. Table 1 Performance Of Fusion Methods By The Quality Evaluation Metrics Image Type Fusion Stratergy PSNR(db) Mutual Information Entropy Correlation SSIM Multi focus Joint PCA Sparse 34.1742 2.1733 7.3656 0.9990 1.000 PCA 31.6321 2.0177 7.2607 0.9981 0.9999 OMP fusion 32.3392 2.0606 7.3654 0.9981 1.000 Multi dose Joint PCA Sparse 25.2115 0.7887 4.8643 0.9997 1 PCA 22.6994 0.7638 4.7905 0.9991 0.9997 OMP fusion 24.4680 0.7794 4.7937 0.9995 0.9998 Multimodal(MRICT) Joint PCA Sparse 26.4111 0.9634 6.7409 0.9403 .9977 PCA 20.8380 0.8096 6.5502 0.8690 .9919 OMP fusion 24.8056 0.9940 6.7376 0.8985 .9975 V. CONCLUSION Medical Image fusion plays an important role in clinical diagnosis. In this paper, a joint fusion modal is proposed based on sparse representation theory and PCA for multimodal and multi dose medical images. Visually and quantitatively, the experimental results show that the proposed method has effectively expressed the geometric structures and edges and has proved to perform better than PCA and OMP fusion. This modal can also be extended to fuse multiple source images from multi resolution, multiple spectral frequencies and multiple modalities. REFERENCES [1] S.G. Nikolov., P.R. Hill., D.R. Bull., C.N. Canagarajah.Wavelets for image fusion, A. Petrosian, F. Meyer (Eds.), Wavelets in Signal and Image Analysis, Computational Imaging and Vision Series, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, The Netherlands (2001). pp. 213–244. [2]P. Burt, R. Kolczynski, Enhanced image capture through fusion, Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Computer Vision, 1993, pp. 173-182. [3] L. Rebolloà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ Neira and D. Lowe, Optimized orthogonal matching pursuit approach, IEEE Signal Processing Letters, pp.137–140, 2002. [4] D. Donoho and Y. Tsaig, Sparse solutions of underdetermined linear equations by stagewise orthogonal matching pursuit, Stanford University, Tech. report 2006. [5] M. R.Metwalli, A. H. Nasr, O. S. Farag Allah, and S. El-Rabaie†Image fusion based on Principal Component Analysis and High-pass Filter†, Proceedings of the IEEE/ ICCES 2009 international Conference, DEC. 14-16, 2009, pp. 63-70. [6] H. Yin, S. Li,†Multimodal image fusion with joint sparsity model†, Opt Eng., 50(6), (2011). [7] Z. Sadeghipour, M. Babaie-Zadeh, and C. Jutten, An adaptive thresholding approach for image denoising using redundant representations, IEEE international workshop on Machine Learning for Signal Processing, 2009, pp. 1-6. [8] Zhou Wang, Alan C. Bovik, Hamid R. Sheikh and Eero P. Simoncelli, â€Å"Image Quality Assessment: From Error Visibility to Structural Similarity†, IEEE transactions on Image Processing, vol. 13, no. 4, April 2004.

Case for Investment: Space in USA

Case for Investment: Space in USA Sun Yudong Ever since the dawn of man, mankind has been gazing at the sky in wonder. Space, has always been a mysterious place, a place where the frontier of science and innovation are put to the test, a place where 99% of what we have yet to discover exists. In the present era, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (better known as NASA) and the NSF[1] are the forefronts of space exploration and scientific research in the USA and they have no doubt played a key role in many of Man’s greatest achievements. NASA could even take credit for mundane items such as quartz timing crystals and bar-code scanners. The Sad Situation Space is a difficult, dangerous but exciting $300 billion industry worldwide. However, despite space being the final frontier, with many against space exploration, NASA has only received 0.48% of the US Federal budget, only half a cent for every tax dollar. NASA is getting a pathetic amount of funding. In 2008, $700 billion[2] was spent by the US government to revive the economy, which was way more than the 50-year running budget of NASA. In 2013, US spent more than $3.45 trillion, with more than $600 billion going to defence, but with only $17.7 billion going to NASA, a tiny portion of worldwide spending on space. The allocation of funds is warped and there is just simply not enough funding going towards space exploration and scientific innovation, the seedling of hope, the future of the US economy. Over the past four decades, instead of NASA, we could have had at least six additional MIT’s. Consider all of the research that our single MIT has produced during that period, all of the students taught and leadership provided. For all the gains that NASA has made, its opportunity costs are far greater. Keith Yost, The Tech (MIT) Staff Columnist argument against NASA funding What is even more infuriating is that, even though the budget for NASA has been decreasing, the money saved were not put to good use. For example, US plans on spending more than $200 billion in the next decade to maintain nuclear weapons when they are almost useless. The one thing I convinced myself of after all these years of exposure to the use of nuclear weapons is that they were useless. They could not be used. Colin Powell, Former Secretary of State Figure 2 NASA Budget over the years. Retrieved August 31, 2014, from: http://www.penny4nasa.org/ However, NASA did get a substantial amount of funding and this increased steadily in its infancy and peaked in 1966 at slightly more than 4.4% of the Federal Budget, before plummeting to the current meagre 0.48%. Because of this, the campaign â€Å"penny4nasa† was launched in 2012 to fight for an increase in the budget for NASA, through advocating the economic, scientific and cultural value of NASA. With this as a trigger, the paper will look at the different factors that led to the establishment of NASA, the decline in the budget, and ultimately explore why we should invest in space, and space exploration. Why NASA was set up The roots of NASA could be traced back to October 4, 1957. On that day, the world’s first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, was launched. This surprise success of the Soviets in the midst of the Cold War horrified the US and triggered the Sputnik Crisis that became part of the bigger Space Race. US was afraid, afraid that the Soviets would become more technologically advanced, that the Soviets would fire a missile at US, that US will lose its place on the global arena. Out of the fear factor of Sputnik, many policies were put in place. The National Defense Education Act (NDEA) was passed by congress to increase educational standards to allow more people to become scientists and engineers. And on July 29 1958, the National Aeronautics and Space Act was signed, establishing NASA. It took over the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) and currently is the United States government agency that is responsible for civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research. With motivation from Sputnik 1, and large funding, many space programs were quickly developed and put into action. The Decline in Budget Throughout the Apollo Missions that ultimately aim to go to the Moon, NASA was very well funded, and all developments were extremely rapid. US was still in fierce competition with the Soviets. In 1969, the historic Apollo 11 mission put the first man on the Moon, and puts US in the lead ahead of the Soviets significantly. However, when US realised that the Soviets were not ready to go to the moon, the rate of progress in Space Exploration slowed. This was because, with the Soviets unable to catch up with US technological abilities and the Cold War becoming increasingly less intense, people were no longer as fearful of the Soviets as before, nobody was really interested in the STEM[3] fields anymore and those congressmen without NASA facilities in their state felt absolutely no reason why NASA should get so much funding as an increasing proportion of people want more welfare instead. As discussions went on the Congress, NASA naturally got increasingly less budget, resulting in the current situation. After all, congressmen work for the people, or they will lose their position in the next elections. However, I believe that they have failed to realise and consider the significance of NASA and space exploration on the culture and economics of the society. Significance of NASA and Space Exploration Social and Cultural Space is not a special interest, unlike what many people may think. Space exploration inspired a whole generation to dream about tomorrow, a tomorrow made possible by scientific innovations, in a time of turmoil. It provided a different kind of hope, a hope that our lives will change for the better. The homes of tomorrow, the transportation of tomorrow, all these ingrained in the many issues of magazines. Space frontiers, engineering frontiers were being breached almost weekly. Space influenced our culture, our zeitgeist. It galvanized the whole nation to want to work towards Tomorrow, influencing our creative minds, our culture. For example, almost every science fiction cartoon made in and after the 1960s had rockets with fins, fins of the V2 Rocket used in NASA missions. (Figure 3[4]) We saw space influences everywhere, even in Hollywood. Space exploration also inspired a whole generation of Scientists and Engineers as Innovation made the headlines. No special programmes were needed to attract them. There is a cultural presence of these activities. From 1968 to 1972, there has been a sharp significant increase in the number of students pursuing education and career in these fields. (Figure 4[5]) With the Space program, heroes were made. Space exploration is a force acting on the education pipeline and inspired a whole generation to join the scientific community. Space exploration also had a direct impact on the cultural asset of the human race. When we looked back from the moon, we rediscovered Earth with a whole new perspective, without borders, without conflicts. We saw earth as nature intended it, we saw earth as a whole. It is possible to see that Earthrise (Figure 5[6]) marked the tipping point, the moment when the sense of the space age flipped from what it meant for space to what it means for Earth Robert Poole, Earthrise: How Man First Saw the Earth It inspired us to take time off amidst the war to start thinking about Earth and nature. This is what sparked off a series of events: Figure 6 Timeline of Space Missions with happening events All these would not have happened so quickly without space exploration, without us looking back at earth to realise that earth is a home that is worth protecting. Economic Beyond culture, space exploration has also brought about economic benefits. Satellites, GPS, intercontinental communication, the Internet. All of these has been directly or indirectly influenced by space exploration, and has had a huge impact on our lives as man. By breaching space and engineering frontiers, there were innovations, spin-offs. Space exploration and engineering drives innovation, the fuel for our capitalist economies. In fact, the satellites that we use to transmit TV signals, to transmit Internet packets, to communicate globally, could only have been brought about by government-initiated space exploration. This is because space is expensive and has incalculable risks, and it is a venture only a government could have successfully led. In fact, innovation drives the economy so much so that one of the main messages of Robert Solow’s[7] work has been that a large proportion of the economy is driven by technological advancement. Conclusion As goes the health of space faring ambition, so too goes the emotional, spiritual intellectual, creative, economic ambitions of a nation Neil deGrasse Tyson, 2012 In conclusion, space exploration is not a special interest group, and its significance is far and outreaching. With NASA being the frontier of space exploration, more funding should to be given to the agency, not as a handout, but as an investment that is able to penetrate our culture and transcend generations to reach greater heights. References Belleflamme, P. (2012, September 25). How to make innovation drive economic growth? Retrieved September 6, 2014, from http://www.ipdigit.eu/2012/09/how-to-make-innovation-drive-economic-growth/ Bilstein, R. E. (1996). From NACA to NASA. In NASA SP-4206, Stages to Saturn: A Technological History of the Apollo/Saturn Launch Vehicles (pp. 32–33). NASA. Retrieved from http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4206/ch2.htm#32 Burrows, W. E. (1998). This New Ocean: The Story of the First Space Age. New York: Random House. Retrieved from http://www.amazon.ca/This-New-Ocean-Story-First/dp/0679445218/ref=sr_1_1?s=booksie=UTF8qid=1280690435sr=1-1#reader_0679445218 Demographic Trends: Undergraduate and Graduate Education. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.princeton.edu/~ota/disk2/1985/8507/850705.PDF Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson: Launch Keynote: 28th National Space Symposium. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLzKjxglNyEfeature=youtube_gdata_player Hunt, T. C. (2013, December 16). National Defense Education Act (NDEA). In Encyclopà ¦dia Britannica. Retrieved from http://global.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/404717/National-Defense-Education-Act-NDEA Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Nuclear Weapons (HBO). (2014). Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Y1ya-yF35gfeature=youtube_gdata_player NASA. (2005). The National Aeronautics and Space Act. Retrieved September 3, 2014, from http://www.nasa.gov/offices/ogc/about/space_act1.html National Science Foundation. (n.d.). Retrieved September 5, 2014, from http://www.allgov.com/departments/independent-agencies/national-science-foundation?agencyid=7341 Neil deGrasse Tyson We Stopped Dreaming (Episode 1). (2012). Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbIZU8cQWXcfeature=youtube_gdata_player Office of Management and Budget. (n.d.-a). Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2013. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington 2010. Retrieved from http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/budget/fy2013/assets/budget.pdf Office of Management and Budget. (n.d.-b). Retrieved September 4, 2014, from http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb OMB-President Obama’s 2013 Budget-Summary Table. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/budget/fy2013/assets/tables.pdf Penny4NASA | Penny4NASA is a nonprofit striving to increase NASA’s funding to 1% by encouraging popular support for NASA through education and outreach. (n.d.). Retrieved September 8, 2014, from http://www.penny4nasa.org/ Photo 17 of 58, Apollo 11. (2009, June 4). Retrieved September 3, 2014, from http://imageevent.com/afap/spaceandscience/apollo11;jsessionid=hmk1oipnb3.camel_s?p=16c=4n=1m=-1w=2s=0z=1y=2 Rosenberg, J. (n.d.). President John F. Kennedy Gives Man on the Moon Speech. Retrieved September 19, 2014, from http://history1900s.about.com/od/1960s/a/jfkmoon.htm Space Race. (2014, September 17). In Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Space_Raceoldid=625983337 Special Message to Congress on Urgent National Needs. (1961). Washington, D.C. Retrieved from http://www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/xzw1gaeeTES6khED14P1Iw.aspx Sputnik crisis. (2014, September 14). In Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sputnik_crisisoldid=622755710 Temple-Raston, D. (2008, October 3). Bush Signs $700 Billion Financial Bailout Bill. National Public Radio. Retrieved from http://www-cdn.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95336601 V-2 rocket. (2014, September 19). In Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=V-2_rocketoldid=626151508 We Stopped Dreaming (Episode 2) A New Perspective. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFO2usVjfQcfeature=youtube_gdata_player Wilford, J. N. (2009, July 14). On Hand for Space History, as Superpowers Spar. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/14/science/space/14mission.html Yost, K. (2010, April 9). Should we cut NASA funding? The Tech, p. 6. 1 [1] The National Science Foundation (NSF) is a United States government agency set up to support fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. The National Institutes of Health is the medical counterpart of NSP. [2] Amount of money spent on Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, to bailout the U.S. financial system [3] Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics [4] (Clockwise) MundodelPene, Start einer V2 [Photograph] (1943), Retrieved September 3, 2014, from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_141-1880,_Peenemà ¼nde,_Start_einer_V2.jpg, [Rocket Cartoon Image], Retrieved September 3, 2014, from: http://www.clipartbest.com/clipart-aiqenRx6T, 1956 GM Firebird II [Photograph] (n.d.), Retrieved September 3, 2014, from: http://www.carbodydesign.com/archive/2010/06/top-ten-concept-cars-of-the-fifties/ [5] Doctorate Degrees in Science and Engineering by Field and by Year, 1958-83. Retrieved September 15, 2014, from https://www.princeton.edu/~ota/disk2/1985/8507/850705.PDF [6] Figure 5 NASA / Bill Anders (1968) Earthrise over the moon [Photograph], Retrieved September 03, 2014, from: http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/alsj/a410/AS8-14-2383HR.jpg [7] Nobel Prize Laureate in Economics in 1987

Themes in Ancient Textsâ€Applicable from Past to Present Essay

The ancient texts studied in any western civilization course obviously have relevance to today’s society either through the values they themselves possess or the works that they inspired; however, not all of the values presented in these works are still relevant in the modern world. The Tanakh, Sophocles’ Antigone, and Plato’s Apology are not exceptions to this rule. Each of these works has central ideas that are incredibly applicable to our modern culture and ideas that are less than appropriate in the twenty-first century. Across cultures and religions, perhaps one of the most recognizable passages from the Tanakh is the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1-14). Here, God gives Moses ten laws, which are to govern the Israelites. While this passage may seem relevant because many people, especially those of the Jewish and Christian faiths, still observe these laws, it is relevant to today’s society for an entirely different reason. These Ten Commandments are one of the first sets of written laws and today, countries all over the world still have sets of written laws to govern themselves. More guidelines and laws are presented in Exodus 20:22-23:33 that cover topics that range from slavery to the murder of other people and all of these laws together were â€Å"a remarkably humane and ‘egalitarian’ body of social legislation† (Trulove 34). For any society to function properly, whether past or present, it is crucial that there is some set of universal guidelines guiding the people and organizations that the aforementioned society consists of. Another characteristic element of many of the books of the Tanakh is the long lists of family lineages. For example, the entirety of the fifth chapter of Genesis, 32 verses in all, is a â€Å"record ... ...me† (34). Additionally, Socrates comments on the corruption that stems those who use emotional tactics or appeals related to their family to try and escape harsh punishments for criminal charges (36-37). Obviously, with fraudulent charges and defenses riddled with emotional appeals, the judicial system in Athens during Socrates’ time was less than ideal. In America, the legal system obviously is more regulated than this; however, keeping past corrupt judicial systems in mind can help keep that negative aspect of Athenian life out of our own lives. As demonstrated, many of the early works of western civilization are still applicable in today’s society. Although some of the ideas in these ancient texts have had relevance throughout time and are still applicable today while others have no place in current times, there is much to learn from the works of the past.

What Life Is :: essays research papers

Life is very funny. Many people think of it as a game that must be played to the end or some may think of it as a journey in search of something. I’m one of those that think of it as†¦. neither. I think of it as a gift. This gift that God has bestowed upon us. This gift in which WE have total control. We control where we go, what we do, whom we talk to, and what we feel. The one flaw in this gift is that others and ourselves can turn this gift, †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦into a punishment. God gave us this gift for a reason. A reason which some of us must all find out ourselves. Is it to gain something, to feel something, or to just live? We all NEED something. Buddhists believe in reaching a stage in our lives called nirvana, the state at which a soul desires nothing. To me, it is impossible to not want ONE thing, throughout your life. Things that we want do not have to be material objects such as money, clothing, or anything like that. Certain souls want or need one thing. When souls never receive this ONE thing, they are destroyed and go throughout their lives feeling punished and lifeless. Why would God give us this gift if he knew that we would get this feeling? So that we could feel so punished? I myself don’t know the answer to this mystery. I know one thing though. I know that everyone NEEDS this one thing to have a complete life. This one thing is love. Love, an emotion that cannot be defined by any dictionary or human being. Few even know what this emotion means or how it feels. This emotion has its many weaknesses. I often wish God didn’t make it so. Sometimes those who give out love often don’t receive that love back, which makes one feel, well, distraught. Especially if that one soul NEEDS that love back from another. It may be a family member, a friend, or a soul, which you feel, spiritually connected to. Everyone needs love. Without it, there is no point in life. What will your ultimate goal in life be? To gain riches? To become powerful? No, God didn’t put us here for that. When we die riches and power wont matter. I think God must have felt something, somehow, somewhere, and felt like sharing it with us.

Zoe’s Tale PART I Chapter Ten

There were two messages on my PDA after dinner that evening. The first was from Gretchen. â€Å"That Magdy character tracked me down and asked me out on a date,† it read. â€Å"I guess he likes girls who mock the crap out of him. I told him okay. Because he is kind of cute. Don't wait up.† This made me smile. The second was from Enzo, who had somehow managed to get my PDA's address; I suspect Gretchen might have had something to do with that. It was titled â€Å"A Poem to the Girl I Just Met, Specifically a Haiku, the Title of Which Is Now Substantially Longer Than the Poem Itself, Oh, the Irony,† and it read: Her name is Zoe Smile like a summer breeze Please don't have me cubed. I laughed out loud at that one. Babar looked up at me and thumped his tail hopefully; I think he was thinking all this happiness would result in more food for him. I gave him a slice of leftover bacon. So I guess he was right about that. Smart dog, Babar. After the Magellan departed from Phoenix Station, the colony leaders found out about the near-rumble in the common area, because I told them about it over dinner. John and Jane sort of looked at each other significantly and then changed the subject to something else. I guessed the problem of integrating ten completely different sets of people with ten completely different cultures had already come up in their discussions, and now they were getting the underage version of it as well. I figured that they would find a way to deal with it, but I really wasn't prepared for their solution. â€Å"Dodgeball,† I said to Dad, over breakfast. â€Å"You're going to have all us kids play dodgeball.† â€Å"Not all of you,† Dad said. â€Å"Just the ones of you who would otherwise be picking stupid and pointless fights out of boredom.† He was nibbling on some coffee cake; Babar was standing by on crumb patrol. Jane and Savitri were out taking care of business; they were the brains of this particular setup. â€Å"You don't like dodgeball?† he asked. â€Å"I like it just fine,† I said. â€Å"I'm just not sure why you think it's an answer to this problem.† Dad set down his coffee cake, brushed off his hands, and started ticking off points with his fingers. â€Å"One, we have the equipment and it fits the space. We can't very well play football or cricket on the Magellan. Two, it's a team sport, so we can get big groups of kids involved. Three, it's not complicated, so we don't have to spend much time laying out the ground rules to everyone. Four, it's athletic and will give you guys a way to burn off some of your energy. Five, it's just violent enough to appeal to those idiot boys you were talking about yesterday, but not so violent that someone's actually going to get hurt.† â€Å"Any more points?† I asked. â€Å"No,† Dad said. â€Å"I've run out of fingers.† He picked up his coffee cake again. â€Å"It's just going to be that the boys are going to make teams with their friends,† I said. â€Å"So you'll still have the problem of kids from one world staying with their own.† â€Å"I would agree with this, if not for the fact that I'm not a complete idiot,† Dad said, â€Å"and neither is Jane. We have a plan for this.† The plan: Everyone who signed up to play was assigned to a team, rather than allowed to pick their own team. And I don't think the teams were entirely randomly assigned; when Gretchen and I looked over the team lists, Gretchen noted that almost none of the teams had more than one player from the same world; even Enzo and Magdy were put on different teams. The only kids who were on the same â€Å"team† were the Kyotoans; as Colonial Mennonites they avoided playing in competitive sports, so they asked to be the referees instead. Gretchen and I didn't sign up for any teams; we appointed ourselves league managers and no one called us on it; apparently word of the intense mockery we laid on a wild pack of teenage boys had gotten around and we were feared and awed equally. â€Å"That makes me feel pretty,† Gretchen said, once such a thing was told to her by one of her friends from Erie. We were watching the first game of the series, with the Leopards playing against the Mighty Red Balls, presumably named after the game equipment. I don't think I approved of the team name, myself. â€Å"Speaking of which, how was your date last night?† I asked. â€Å"It was a little grabby,† Gretchen said. â€Å"You want me to have Hickory and Dickory talk to him?† I asked. â€Å"No, it was manageable,† Gretchen said. â€Å"And besides which, your alien friends creep me out. No offense.† â€Å"None taken,† I said. â€Å"They really are nice.† â€Å"They're your bodyguards,† Gretchen said. â€Å"They're not supposed to be nice. They're supposed to scare the pee out of people. And they do. I'm just glad they don't follow you around all the time. No one would ever come talk to us.† In fact, I hadn't seen either Hickory or Dickory since the day before and our conversation about touring the Obin planets. I wondered if I had managed to hurt their feelings. I was going to have to check in on them to see how they were. â€Å"Hey, your boyfriend just picked off one of the Leopards,† Gretchen said. She pointed at Enzo, who was playing in the game. â€Å"He's not my boyfriend, any more than Magdy is yours,† I said. â€Å"Is he as grabby as Magdy is?† Gretchen asked. â€Å"What a question,† I said. â€Å"How dare you ask. I'm madly offended.† â€Å"That's a yes, then,† Gretchen said. â€Å"No, it's not,† I said. â€Å"He's been perfectly nice. He even sent me a poem.† â€Å"He did not,† Gretchen said. I showed it to her on my PDA. She handed it back. â€Å"You get the poetry writer. I get the grabber. It's really not fair. You want to trade?† â€Å"Not a chance,† I said. â€Å"But he not's my boyfriend.† Gretchen nodded out to Enzo. â€Å"Have you asked him about that?† I looked over to Enzo, who sure enough was sneaking looks my way while moving around the dodgeball field. He saw I was looking his way, smiled over at me and nodded, and as he was doing that he got nailed righteously hard in the ear by the dodgeball and went down with a thump. I burst out laughing. â€Å"Oh, nice,† Gretchen said. â€Å"Laughing at your boyfriend's pain.† â€Å"I know! I'm so bad!† I said, and just about toppled over. â€Å"You don't deserve him,† Gretchen said, sourly. â€Å"You don't deserve his poem. Give them both to me.† â€Å"Not a chance,† I said, and then looked up and saw Enzo there in front of me. I reflexively put my hand over my mouth. â€Å"Too late,† he said. Which of course made me laugh even more. â€Å"She's mocking your pain,† Gretchen said, to Enzo. â€Å"Mocking it, you hear me.† â€Å"Oh, God, I'm so sorry,† I said, between laughs, and before I thought about what I was doing gave Enzo a hug. â€Å"She's trying to distract you from her evil,† Gretchen warned. â€Å"It's working,† Enzo said. â€Å"Oh, fine,† Gretchen said. â€Å"See if I warn you about her evil ways after this.† She very dramatically focused back on the game, only occasionally glancing over and grinning at me. I unhugged from Enzo. â€Å"I'm not actually evil,† I said. â€Å"No, just amused at the pain of others,† Enzo said. â€Å"You walked off the court,† I said. â€Å"It can't have hurt that much.† â€Å"There's pain you can't see,† Enzo said. â€Å"Existential pain.† â€Å"Oh, boy,† I said. â€Å"If you're having existential pain from dodgeball, you're really just doing it wrong.† â€Å"I don't think you appreciate the philosophical subtleties of the sport,† Enzo said. I started giggling again. â€Å"Stop it,† Enzo said mildly. â€Å"I'm being serious here.† â€Å"I so hope you're not,† I said, and giggled some more. â€Å"You want to get lunch?† â€Å"Love to,† Enzo said. â€Å"Just give me a minute to extract this dodgeball from my Eustachian tube.† It was the first time I had ever heard anyone use the phrase â€Å"Eustachian tube† in common conversation. I think I may have fallen a little bit in love with him right there. â€Å"I haven't seen the two of you around much today,† I said to Hickory and Dickory, in their quarters. â€Å"We are aware that we make many of your fellow colonists uncomfortable,† Hickory said. It and Dickory sat on stools that were designed to accommodate their body shape; otherwise their quarters were bare. The Obin may have gained consciousness and even recently tried their hand at storytelling, but the mysteries of interior decoration still clearly eluded them. â€Å"It was decided it would be best for us to stay out of the way.† â€Å"Decided by whom?† I asked. â€Å"By Major Perry,† Hickory said, and then, before I could open my mouth, â€Å"and we agree.† â€Å"You two are going to be living with us,† I said. â€Å"With all of us. People need to get used to you.† â€Å"We agree, and they will have time,† Hickory said. â€Å"But for now we think it's better to give your people time to get used to each other.† I opened my mouth to respond, but then Hickory said, â€Å"Do you not benefit from our absence at the moment?† I remembered Gretchen's comment earlier in the day about how the other teens would never come up to us if Hickory and Dickory were always hanging around, and felt a little bit ashamed. â€Å"I don't want you to think I don't want you around,† I said. â€Å"We do not believe that,† Hickory said. â€Å"Please do not think that. When we are on Roanoke we will resume our roles. People will be more accepting of us because they will have had time to know you.† â€Å"I still don't want you to think you have to stay in here because of me,† I said. â€Å"It would drive me crazy to be cooped up in here for a week.† â€Å"It is not difficult for us,† Hickory said. â€Å"We disconnect our consciousnesses until we need them again. Time flies by that way.† â€Å"That was very close to a joke,† I said. â€Å"If you say so,† Hickory said. I smiled. â€Å"Still, if that's the only reason you stay in here – â€Å" â€Å"I did not say it was the only reason,† Hickory said, interrupting me, which it almost never did. â€Å"We are also spending this time preparing.† â€Å"For life on Roanoke?† I asked. â€Å"Yes,† Hickory said. â€Å"And how we will be of best service to you when we are there.† â€Å"I think by just doing what you do,† I said. â€Å"Possibly,† Hickory said. â€Å"We think you might be underestimating how much different Roanoke will be from your life before, and what our responsibilities will be to you.† â€Å"I know it's going to be different,† I said. â€Å"I know it's going to be harder in a lot of ways.† â€Å"We are glad to hear that,† Hickory said. â€Å"It will be.† â€Å"Enough so that you're spending all this time planning?† I asked. â€Å"Yes,† Hickory said. I waited a second to hear if anything else was coming after that, but there wasn't. â€Å"Is there anything you want me to do?† I asked Hickory. â€Å"To help you?† Hickory took a second to respond. I watched it to see what I could sense from it; after this many years, I was pretty good at reading its moods. Nothing seemed unusual or out of place. It was just Hickory. â€Å"No,† Hickory said, finally. â€Å"We would have you do what you are doing. Meeting new people. Becoming friends with them. Enjoying your time now. When we arrive at Roanoke we do not expect you will have as much time for enjoyment.† â€Å"But you're missing out on all my fun,† I said. â€Å"You're usually there to record it.† â€Å"This one time you can get along without us,† Hickory said. Another near joke. I smiled again and gave them both a hug just as my PDA vibrated to life. It was Gretchen. â€Å"Your boyfriend really sucks at dodgeball,† she said. â€Å"He just took a hit square on his nose. He says to tell you the pain isn't nearly as enjoyable if you're not around to laugh at it. So come on down and ease the poor boy's pain. Or add to it. Either works.†