Sociology and Anthropology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Sociology and Anthropology - Essay Example Since most people know that smoking is hazardous to people’s health, just a limited number really understands what other social problems smoking can cause to both the people and the entire society. As stated, smoking results in death. According to the World Health Organization, smoking holds responsibility for every single death in five. Extent of Effects of Smoking as a Social Problem Apart from deaths, smoking extended illnesses such as cancer, respiratory and heart diseases among others. Facts maintain that continuous smoking can lead to cancer, which is a killer in both the contemporary United States and the world. Furthermore, smoking claims a higher percentage of heart diseases and respiratory illnesses in America. Smoking also causes liver cirrhosis, which, in turn, results in death if not treated early enough (McEachern, 2010). As people continue to wonder about the direct effects of smoking, research observations reveal that passive smoking, which is a common phenomen on among most Americans, causes lung cancer. Passive smoking is as endangering as it has links with cot death and asthma in children as well as glue gear (Barrett, 2009). Therefore, it is agreeable to say that smoking does not only affect whoever is smoking but also affects those around him. Additionally, contemporary United States, among other countries, is part of the largest producers of tobacco leafs. Tobacco planting results in deforestation as planters must clear the bushes before they replace them with tobacco trees (Gobo, 2004). This shows that the need for smoking leads to deforestation, which in the end results in lack of land for other agricultural purposes. Consequently, people suffer from poverty and other social problems due to tobacco plating in the contemporary United States. Further, the level of crime is on the increase in contemporary United States (Delamater & Myers, 2010). Criminal investigations record the habit of smoking among the youth as one of the most com mon motives of indulging in crime. This is because smoking among teenagers in contemporary United States goes hand in hand with other substance abuse. As a result, the need for more of these substances and lack of resources to acquire them among this generation accounts for their involvement in criminal activities (Barrett, 2009). Sociological Theory That Explains Smoking Interestingly, sociologists and other great thinkers tend to theorize almost everything. Through theorizing, they believe they can set forth better platforms where people can understand certain phenomena. The theory of structural functionalism explains smoking by aiding in establishing the factors that lead to smoking (McEachern, 2010). Additionally, it tries to expound on matters relevant to ways of stopping the habit of smoking. Sociologists in the criminal department have made the use of structural functionalism as a core element in trying to establish the type and amount of smokes, and the time consumed by smok ers. The theory of structural functionalism tries to provide empirical and modified range of type of cigarette that a particular person has been smoking (Evans, 2009). This symbolic dialect also encompasses the application of the theory of symbolic interactionalism which is a social psychological instrument used by sociologists in establishing the amount of smokes consumed by the subject. Essay Two The Nature-Nurture Debate The nature-nurture controversy has been and still is a

How themes from gospel songs and the songs themselves have repeatedly Essay

How themes from gospel songs and the songs themselves have repeatedly been used in a rhythm and blues context - Essay Example This led to repetition of gospel music in a rhythm and blues context. Blues music can be said to be that music that developed from a blue note. Blues emerged as a result of self expression of the African-American community members in the United States of America, from gospel music, work songs, chant songs, and rhymed songs mainly meant to describe desperate moods of the African-Americans. At that time, according to Charles (2004) black music was termed as inferior. Blues music never needed other accompaniments during performances but, after some time they accepted the use of rhythm groups and horns rather than just the gutter alone. The general format of blues music can be traced back to the African music format of chorus answer format. It was noted that bluesmen like Skip James, Charley Patton, and Georgia Tom Dorsey are known to gain influence from spiritual songs. Gospel music developed in the early 1930s where most of the artists started performing gospel music in churches. Music ians such as King, Ruth Brown and Ray Charles are the leaders on transformation of country blues to modern blues and the developments of music blues from Soul. They are also credited for the improvement of vocal techniques that are applicable in the today’s contemporary world. Blues music was accused and named as having a great relationship with the devil's works. Over the years, it was known to incite violence among the city dwellers in the urban areas. According to Charles (2004), the artists protect the view, and there is no difference between blues, and other form of music. In gospel music, they use Jesus and blues they use baby. Arnold Show presents the golden year of the R& B music. During this time, the blues musicians who played the music came from the same place. For instance, the Chicago blues, all the musicians came from Chicago. It is also noted that blues is blues and that the tune does not change that s why gospel themes have been repeated severally (Arnold, 199 6). Ruth Brown and Dinah Washington are recorded as the first female R&B artists to perform blues and rhythms in a church setting. They succeeded in their music but, faced numerous challenges from the white community. In the long run, they ended up performing on stage as white singers. Ruth and Andrew (1996) indicate that this fact led to the success of their music both among the blacks and whites. Charles (2004) noted that he has been popular R&B artist for a long of time from 1930 to 2004. He is a singer, pianist, arranger, saxophonist, and bandleader. He is known to develop gospel music fused with, melodies, singing styles, harmonic and rhythmic patterns of gospels and secular remix. These influenced several singers to follow his procedures of fusing secular music with gospel music. Jerry Wexler, another R&B artist is known to have his music pass through the period of race till the modern era, where his music is known to influence many teenagers in the society. It was evident tha t the problem of fussing gospel music and secular music was rampant and, it became difficult for blacks to sell their music to the whites. The whites concentrated on selling their popularly known music and, never had any interest in Negro music. The demand of negro music was mainly from black buyers, the reason why gospel music kept repeating itself in blues and rhythm contexts. With the improvement of blues music, the whites started buying black music and the market moved from

The motivation of Consumers to purchase luxury goods Research Paper

The motivation of Consumers to purchase luxury goods - Research Paper Example With the rapid growth of national economies in most of the world countries, the purchasing power of the people in the countries has also improved and luxury consumption has improved. The consumption of luxury goods by the consumers calls for guidance in most of the countries. The study will involve data collection, analysis and presentation of findings in the form of a discussion. Based on the rapid development of most of the country’s economy and the improvement of the purchasing power, the consumption of luxuries also has some development. In an example, in 2006, an estimated population of 320,000 Chinese consumers who spend their money on luxury products on an estimated 10% of all the global luxury brand sales (Arifoglu, 2012). After six years, the numbers of consumers went up by double or even triple (Hausman, 2000). The change made the number of consumers rise by a 10% making the Chinese consumers become the largest in the world. A report send by the world luxury association indicated that Chinese overseas luxury goods consumption during 2013 totaled to about $8.5 billion, the Chinese shopping on luxuries increased to 68.8 in 2011 (Hidayat and Diwasasri, 2013). Presently, there has been an understanding that the local indicators of consumer attitudes do not sufficiently to the different volitional, internally motivated, avoidance response tendencies in different consumption or acquire situations (Hausman, 2000). A general critique is that these attitude measures are based on the conceptualizations that are too narrowly focused (Hidayat and Diwasasri, 2013). One area of the criticism has indicated that the symbolic, hedonic, and the esthetic facets of consumption are not adequately shown in these conceptualizations and accordingly in the resultant operationalizations (Arifoglu, 2012. The body of literature that relates to luxury products crops up when another related literature from

In-depth analysis research paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

In-depth analysis - Research Paper Example However, there are concerns that his conservative media appearances are not desirable. This may have ethical implications to stakeholders and the public because they seem not to have adequate avenues to engage with their Governor. The second news item is titled â€Å"Super PAC cash plays big role in Nebraska Senate race.† This item illustrates political interplays that take place towards election of a state senator. It is agreeable that the position of Senator has some responsibilities; a fact that informs various stakeholders’ decision to support a certain candidate who they feel will perform his mandate effectively. However, financial support by various stakeholders may have ethical implications as the ultimate winner of the Senate elections may be tempted to make decisions based on the some of the wishes of his â€Å"supporters† which may not be in the interest of the other stakeholders. The third item is titled â€Å"New GOP super PAC aimed at attracting you th vote.† These items shows the desire of the Republicans to attract the youth vote as part of its agenda to address the high unemployment that has disillusioned the youths over the years (The Center for Public Integrity, 2012). ... The agency is non partisan and it is dedicated to producing investigative journalism on public concern issues. It operates in the political context which is conducive which enables it undertake its objectives effectively and with little or no political challenges at all. Internal agency leaders and political leaders have influenced the success of the agency in the following three ways. The first way is through the non-partisan approach that the internal agency leaders have adopted in the running of the agency’s activities which has enabled it to encounter minimal criticisms regarding partisanship. The second way is by operating its investigative journalism activities by putting the interest of the public first and adhering to integrity and honesty principles in its activities (The Center for Public Integrity, 2012). This has enabled it gain credibility from the public thus making it successful. The third way is through the political leaders; they have had faith on the agency a nd very few have raised pertinent concerns regarding the agency and its activities. Also, internal agency leaders have greatly influenced the success of the agency in the sense that the agency focuses on the abuses of power, duty dereliction by powerful private and public institutions thereby winning public support. Legal Decisions Ideally, the power that The Centre for Public Integrity has as an agency in enforcing the regulations they are asked to uphold is limited. Often, this agency together with others are commissioned by certain state agencies, private and public organizations to investigate integrity, governance, administrative, and accountability aspects in a particular State or

Change Management - individual Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Change Management - individual - Assignment Example Moreover, constant technological innovations and globalizations results in a constantly evolving business environment. Phenomena such as the mobile adaptability and the social media have created many revolutions in business and the resultant effects is the ever increasing desire for change, and hence change management. The perspectives of managing change held by major change agents studied in my group case study Change management in any organization or work place is one of the important areas that should be taken into account for the overall change in the mode of operations. Aside from the overall change management in any workplace, we came up with perspectives in our group case study on management of change that incorporates many factors and boils down many assumptions into a simple basic pattern of thoughts. These I believe would have some implications in the future of the organization. To begin with, for the change to be effected in any organization it should start with the person al change management of the leader or the manager before it is adopted by other employees in the organization. But it is of great importance that the perspective in change management and recognition of the others points of view are paramount for them also to adopt the assumptions of their leader (Elearn Limited (Great Britain) 2007). Secondly, according to Green (2007), it is always important to think the worthiness of the change enforcement before executing it. This is because most employees tend to be more effective when allowed to finish the tasks assigned in their own unique ways. However, this is not the case in many organizations. Many of them have laid down procedures where work has to be done according to the rules of the book. For instance, in the manufacturing line, there are processes that cannot be replaced by any other way apart from the laid down procedure. Therefore, this calls for caution before adopting change. Thirdly, it is of high importance as the manager to alw ays remember that change does not occur overnight. People differ in their management styles and therefore the differences are portrayed differently. Some managers when coping with change are more methodical while some managers can adapt at a notice of a moment. Therefore, managers need to evaluate themselves and find their own way of adapting to change (Pugh 2007). Finally, our personal assumption in the management of change involves the people directly affected in all stages of the change process. This calls for teamwork in any organization or work place because mandating an employee to change and failing to involve him/her in the process of change increases the probability that they will not change. An explanation of how these assumptions impacted upon the processes and outcomes of this organizational change initiative Technological growth has secondary effect of rising up the availability and hence knowledge accountability. Furthermore, information which is easily accessible has resulted in un-foreseen scrutiny from the media and the stakeholders. Pugh & Mayle (2009) observes â€Å"that the listening ears and the prying eyes makes the failed businesses uncomfortable and thwart their endeavors†. Furthermore, it increases high pressure on the struggling executives. With the environment of the business experiencing so many changes, the organizations should adapt and adjust to be comfortable with many upcoming changes as well. Therefore, management and adaptation ability to

Chinese Language Cinema Essay Example for Free

Chinese Language Cinema Essay During the 21st century China had been recognized to be one of the greatest distributors of movies throughout the world. China made a big influence when it comes to movie industry on different countries particularly on the American markets. Chinese movies had been widely appreciated by the United States. There are many Chinese actors and actresses who became famous in United States like Jackie Chan, a Chinese actor and director of action motion pictures who had become very famous because of his talent when it comes to acting, doing different creative stunts work, comic manners, and his talent in choreographing different fight sequences. When it comes to film industry and economic status, China was one of the top and biggest contributors throughout the world. China did not ceased in pursuing for success when it comes to movie and film industry. Their culture, state, as well as their different kinds of languages and beliefs became one of the primary reason why mainland China are having difficulties when it comes to producing and building up a great films that will satisfy the taste of different countries particularly the United States. On pursuing their goal in becoming one of the best and highest grosser of economy in the world, China did not waste any time to be able to create a big impact and influence to the American markets especially in the Hollywood (2000). Because of their efforts and patience in continuing their goal to be part of the top countries that are producing and importing top movies in the world, Chinese community became very successful in achieving their goal when it comes to movie industry. In the beginning of the 21st century, China also became very successful in their economic status as well as their entertainment film and Chinese cinemas (2002). All the trials and difficulties that they have encountered in the past few decades were quickly transformed to a successful and progressive country. Mainland China was also known as economic powerhouse because of their successful economic status when it comes to importing and exporting different products and films. Because of their success in economy, Mainland China surpassed other countries like France and Italy who are known to be one of the most successful countries in the world. Chinese cinema became a commodity for worldwide trade, electronics, clothing materials, and even precious and expensive metals. As a start of their successful and profitable business, film and movie industry became one of their major sources of capital and income. China became one of the most excellent importers of movies in the whole world especially in the United States (2003). In spite of China’s good production of movies, there are many criticism that been spreading about their entertainment. Negative and positive opinions as well as different comments were spreading to the public. Critics implied that some movies and films are seriously violating the culture as well as the beliefs of the Chinese community because of some unjust doings and immoral acts in the film. However other films that produce under Chinese films are making a big impact to the global society because the message of the film implies some important issues to the viewers. The Chinese filmmakers are now developing their movies and films so they can express the whole story as an art, and they have indicated a very resourceful material that can be reliable to the audience ideas as well as their point of views (2007). The Chinese filmmakers are very talented when it comes to creating good arrangements of auditory effects, different color effects, environmental forms, and cultural movements that can easily attract the viewers’ attention. In Chinese cinema, they considered their movies and films as an art, because of their aesthetic value and human works of beauty. The movies provided by the filmmakers are always related to their traditions, history, and also based on their social and political status in the society. They are giving some twist to the topic so the viewers or audience will be excited and satisfy from what they viewed.

Union Victory of the Civil War Essay Example for Free

Union Victory of the Civil War Essay Even before the Civil War actually started, the North had already enjoyed two distinct advantages over the South. Although it also benefited from some excellent strategic decisions as the war progressed, those two pre-war factors ultimately spelled defeat for the army of the secessionists from the south. The first of these advantages was the North’s edge in population. While the southern states only had a combined population of 9 million people (including their slaves), the population of the north was 22 million (including some emancipated slaves). That ratio of 2. 44:1 later proved decisive since the North possessed the capacity of raising and fielding more fighting men to sustain its war effort (Murphy, 2008). The second factor was the difference in their economic thrusts. Whereas the North concentrated on industry and commerce to boost its economy, the South relied on an agricultural economy. In other words, the North had industrial plants while the South could only boast of its farms. The superiority of the North’s economic development became apparent when the war dragged on. It was able to convert its factories to war materials production to support its army in the field while the South had to rely on its foreign trading partners for the replenishment of its war chest. Now, since the North had a stronger navy than the South, it was able to rule the seas and managed to organize an effective blockade, thereby preventing the South from procuring war supplies from other countries. The effect was a weakened southern army due to a depleted supply. These were the two primary reasons that gave rise to the observation that the South was doomed from the start (Murphy, 2008). Some observers believed that these advantages which the North enjoyed at the outset were initially offset by two factors which worked in favor of the South. The first was the fact that the Confederate Army was commanded by better military leaders. Before the Civil War broke out, majority of the finest and more senior commanders in the United States military came from the South. This was because of a southern culture which prized a military career for their men. Because of this culture, it had been customary for rich families to send their sons to the West Point Military Academy which was located in the North and start their career in the military. As soon as the secession was announced by the southern states, many of them resigned from their posts to serve with the Confederate Army. Some of these officers were Generals Robert E. Lee, Thomas â€Å"Stonewall† Jackson, Albert Sidney Johnston, James Longstreet, P. G. T. Beauregard, and Joseph E. Johnston. Most of them held more senior ranks in the United States Army compared to majority of the officers who remained with the Union Army of the North (EDSITEment, n. d. ). The second advantage of the South, according to observers, was the theater of operations and the character of the war itself. Since the Union Army invaded the South, the war was fought on southern territory. This means that the Confederate soldiers had the advantage of knowing the terrain better than the enemy who had to fight in unknown territory. It follows, therefore, that the soldiers of the Confederacy were more mobile and flexible. There was also the fact that for the Southerners, the war was defensive in character. War strategists believe that victory is easily achieved in a defensive war since the defenders have only to defend their ground and wear the invaders down. The North had the more difficult task of occupying the South and forcing them to surrender (EDSITEment, n. d. ). In addition, the Confederate soldiers were more passionate and more desperate for victory. They were defending their soil, their institutions, and most of all, their families. Someone said that When you believe that you are defending your wife and children from invaders, you care more about your cause than those who are simply being paid a wage to go fight for a cause that does not influence their lives as directly. This made a significant difference on the battlefield (Murphy, 2008). The soldiers of the Confederate Army, therefore, enjoyed a higher morale on top of their superiority as far as mastery of the topography of the areas where the war was fought was concerned. Unfortunately, these were not enough for them to win a protracted war. In fact their â€Å"home court† advantage was believed to have worked against them as the war progressed. For every successful thrust on the part of the Union soldiers which resulted to the capture of a piece of Southern territory, the adverse effect on the morale of Confederate soldiers had been substantial. This was particularly apparent when the Union Army succeeded in capturing an area situated between the Mississippi River and the Appalachian Mountains and when the Confederate Army was effectively cut off from their important industrial and agricultural resources as a result of successful campaigns waged by the Union Army in the central and western regions of Tennessee (EDSITEment, n. d. ). The South was likewise believed to have acted based on a false assumption which contributed greatly to their defeat. This false assumption was echoed by South Carolina Senator James Henry Hammond in 1858 when he said that the South was in such a valued station that no country would even think of declaring war against it. Specifically, he declared that â€Å"The world was so dependent on cotton that Southerners could coerce any foreign country into coming to their aid merely by threatening not to sell it† (EDSITEment, n. d. ). Indeed, if Great Britain, who was a major consumer of the South’s cotton, sided with the Confederacy, the war could have ended differently. The South was so confident in their hold of the world cotton market that when the blockade was declared by Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, who was then acting as President of the Confederacy, did not do anything about it. He was certain that when the countries in Europe would be starved of cotton, they would voluntarily send their navies to destroy the blockade set up by the North, declaring war against the Union in the process. Unfortunately, this was not what happened. Instead, the European countries merely turned to Egypt and India for their cotton requirements, dealing a hard blow to the economy of the South (Newton, Poulter, Simon, Symonds, and Woodworth, 2005). In the end, the great military commanders of the Confederate Army could not do anything with a depleted army and were forced to surrender. The destruction of the economy of the South proved to be the most decisive factor in the Civil War (Murphy, 2008). References EDSITEment. (n. d. ). On the Eve of War: North vs. South. Retrieved April 28, 2008 from http://edsitement. neh. gov/printable_lesson_plan. asp? id=745 Murphy, A. (2008). Strengths Weaknesses of the North and South During the Civil War. Retrieved April 28, 2008 from http://www. associatedcontent. com/article/532303/strengths_weaknesses_of_the_north and. html Newton, S. H. , Poulter, K. , Simon, J. Y. , Symonds, C. L. , and Woodworth, S. E. (2005).

The real-time transport protocol

The real-time transport protocol Abstract This paper describes the Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP) with the emphasis on the securities, confidentiality and authenticity. This system takes a media file as input, encrypt it and create a message digest on the encrypted data then transmit it to the user. On the other side the receiver again calculate digest and compare it with the received one, if match occurs then decrypt and play it in the real time player. In current specification of RFC1889, only the confidentiality is described and authenticity is left for lower layer protocols. This work made experiment both on authenticity and confidentiality. For authenticity MD5, SHA-1 and SHA-2 hash algorithms can be used and for confidentiality AES-128 and Triple DES cryptographic algorithms can be used. In fact, SHA-2 is better than other hash algorithms in terms of security but SHA-1 is better than SHA-2 in terms of time efficiency. On the other hand, AES-128 is better than Triple DES in terms of time efficiency and security. So SHA-1and AES-128 is chosen for authenticity and confidentiality respectively for the security of RTP. The experiment is performed on J2SDK1.5. Keywords: Real-time transport protocol; Transport control protocol; Cryptographic algorithm; Hash algorithm. 1. Introduction: In recent days Computer and Internet has become essential part of human life and people demanding more and more access and use data over the Internet in Real-time with efficient secure manner. A new protocol Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP) and its associated Protocols helping people to use data over the Internet in their real-time applications. In this paper, the analyses of the securities of RTP, an approach to modify RTP for authenticity are presented. Also the position of RTP in Computer Network Layers, its usage scenario and the importance of time consideration to transmit streams using RTP are discussed and shown their analytical results. RTP is intended to be malleable to provide the information required by a particular application and will often be integrated into the application processing rather than being implemented as a separate layer. RTP is a modular protocol. The usage of RTP for a specific purpose requires an application area specific RTP profile. RTP profiles are used for refining the basic RTP protocol to suit for a particular application area. RTP profiles define how and by which formats data is encapsulated to RTP packets. RFC 1889 defines basic fields for the transportation of real time data. It also defines Real-time Transport Control Protocol (RTCP), whose purpose is to provide feedback on transmission quality, information about pa rticipants of RTP session, and enable minimal session control services. RTP is an application level protocol that is intended for delivery of delay sensitive content, such as audio and video, through different networks. The purpose of RTP is to facilitate delivery, monitoring, reconstruction, mixing and synchronization of data streams. RTP provides end-to-end network transport functions suitable for applications transmitting real-time data. RTP is a protocol framework that is deliberately not complete. RTP dose not provide quality of service means that it has no flow control, no error control, no acknowledgement and no mechanism to request retransmission. It does not do so because if a missing packet is retransmitted then it might happen that the retransmitted packet reach to the user too late to use which may hamper real-time use of streams. If some packets are lost during transmission (it is very common for Real-time protocols) then the lost packets are generated by interpolation rather than retransmission. However to improve performance of RTP another protocol; Real-time Transport Control Protocol is used with RTP. It handles feedback on delay, jitter, bandwidth, congestion, and other network properties. RTCP also handles inter stream synchronization. The problem is that different streams may use different clocks, with different granularities and different drift rates. RTCP can be used to keep them in synchronization. RTCP is also supports the use of RTP level translators and mixers. The paper is organized as follows. In section 2, RTP use scenarios are discussed. In section 3, position of RTP in computer network is discussed. In section 4, time consideration in RTP is discussed. In section 5, RTP packet format, its data transfer protocol and Real-time Transport control Protocol (RTCP) is discussed. Section 6 details the hash and cryptographic algorithms for RTP security while section 7 shows the result and performance analysis. Lastly, section 8 points out the conclusion inferred from the work. 2. RTP use scenarios: The following sections describe some aspects of the use of RTP. The examples are chosen to illustrate the basic operation of applications using RTP. In these examples, RTP is carried on top of IP and UDP and follows the conventions established by the profile for audio and video specified in the companion Internet-Draft draft-ietf-avt-profile. 2.1 Simple multicast audio conference: A working group of the IETF meets to discuss the latest protocol draft, using the IP multicast services of the Internet for voice communications. Through some allocation mechanism the working group chair obtains a multicast group address and pair of ports. One port is used for audio data, and the other is used for control (RTCP) packets. This address and port information is distributed to the intended participants. If privacy is desired, the data and control packets may be encrypted, in which case an encryption key must also be generated and distributed. The exact details of these allocation and distribution mechanisms are beyond the scope of RTP. The audio conferencing application used by each conference participant sends audio data in small chunks of, say, 20 ms duration. Each chunk of audio data is preceded by an RTP header; RTP header and data jointly form a UDP packet. The RTP header indicates what type of audio encoding (such as PCM, ADPCM or LPC) is contained in each packet so that senders can change the encoding during a conference, for example, to accommodate a new participant that is connected through a low-bandwidth link or react to indications of network congestion. The Internet, like other packet networks, occasionally loses and reorders packets and delays them by variable amounts of time. To cope with these impairments, the RTP header contains timing information and a sequence number that allow the receivers to reconstruct the timing produced by the source, so that in this example, chunks of audio are contiguously played out the speaker every 20 ms. This timing reconstruction is performed separately for each source of RTP packets in the conference. The sequence number can also be used by the receiver to estimate how many packets are being lost. Since members of the working group join and leave during the conference, it is useful to know who is participating at any moment and how well they are receiving the audio data. For that purpose, each instan ces of the audio application in the conference periodically multicasts a reception report plus the name of its user on the RTCP (control) port. The reception report indicates how well the current speaker is being received and may be used to control adaptive encoding. In addition to the user name, other identifying information may also be included subject to control bandwidth limits. A site sends the RTCP BYE packet when it leaves the conference. 2.2 Audio and Video Conference: If both audio and video media are used in a conference, they are transmitted as separate RTP sessions RTCP packets are transmitted for each medium using two different UDP port pairs and/or multicast addresses. There is no direct coupling at the RTP level between the audio and video sessions, except that a user participating in both sessions should use the same distinguished (canonical) name in the RTCP packets for both so that the sessions can be associated. One motivation for this separation is to allow some participants in the conference to receive only one medium if they choose. Despite the separation, synchronized playback of a sources audio and video can be achieved using timing information carried in RTCP packets for both sessions 2.3 Mixers and translators: So far, it is assumed that all sites want to receive media data in the same format. However, this may not always be appropriate. Consider the case where participants in one area are connected through a low-speed link to the majority of the conference participants who enjoy high-speed network access. Instead of forcing everyone to use a lower-bandwidth, reduced-quality audio encoding, an RTP-level relay called a mixer may be placed near the low-bandwidth area. This mixer resynchronizes incoming audio packets to reconstruct the constant 20 ms spacing generated by the sender, mixes these reconstructed audio streams into a single stream, translates the audio encoding to a lower-bandwidth one and forwards the lower-bandwidth packet stream across the low-speed link. These packets might be unicast to a single recipient or multicast on a different address to multiple recipients. The RTP header includes a means for mixers to identify the sources that contributed to a mixed packet so that corr ect talker indication can be provided at the receivers. Some of the intended participants in the audio conference may be connected with high bandwidth links but might not be directly reachable via IP multicast. For example, they might be behind an application-level firewall that will not let any IP packets pass. For these sites, mixing may not be necessary; in which case another type of RTP-level relay called a translator may be used. Two translators are installed, one on either side of the firewall, with the outside one funneling all multicast packets received through a secure connection to the translator inside the firewall. The translator inside the firewall sends them again as multicast packets to a multicast group restricted to the sites internal network. Mixers and translators may be designed for a variety of purposes. An example is a video mixer that scales the images of individual people in separate video streams and composites them into one video stream to simulate a group scene. Other examples of translation include the connection of a group of hosts speaking only IP/UDP to a group of hosts that understand only ST-II, or the packet-by-packet encoding translation of video streams from individual sources without resynchronization or mixing. 3. Position of RTP in computer network: As a consequence it is decided to put RTP in user space but should run over User Datagram Protocol (UDP, it is connectionless transport protocol). RTP operates as follows. The multimedia (streams) application consists of multiple audio, video, text and possibly other streams. These are fed into the RTP library, which is in user space along with the application. This library then multiplexes the streams and encodes those RTP packers, which it then stuffs into a socket. At the other end of socket (in the operating system kernel), UDP packets are generated and embedded in IP packets. If computer is on an Ethernet, the IP packets are then put in Ethernet frames for transmission. The protocol stack for this situation is shown in Figure 1. Since RTP runs in user space not in OS kernel and in the Ethernet it packed by UDP, then IP and then Ethernet, so it is difficult which layer RTP is in. But it is linked to application program and it is generic, application independent protocol that just provides transport facilities, so it is a transport protocol that is implemented in the application layer. The packet nesting is shown in Figure 2. The main goal of RTP is to make the transmitting streams real-time applicable. On the other hand if security is provided to the transmitting streams, then some extra time is needed to encrypt the streams or to make signature such as making digest from entire movie or audio files. So in concern of time, security is added with some overheads to the RTP. The goal of this paper is to choose algorithms and procedures that make RTP reliable in term of time and security. 4. Time consideration in RTP: Let a video or audio file over the Internet in real-time is intended to access, then here the most important parameter is bandwidth of the Network. And the next important parameters are minimum clip size and its duration as well as processors speed of both server and client. At first let it be assumed that files are accessing without security consideration. Then let review the following mathematical calculations for audio or video clip to access in real-time. One second file clip size = oneSecFileSize bits, Time duration of each clip = cSec seconds, Upload Transmission rate = uRate bits per second, Download Transmission rate = dRate bits per second, Time to upload, tUpload = oneSecFileSize *cSec/uRate, Time to download, tDownload = oneSecFileSize If the time to upload or download a clip is more than the time to play a clip, the player will wait and the receiver will see a break, i.e. max (tUpload, tDownload) >cSec. For the continuous playing of clips, the following condition must be true: Max (1/uRate, 1/dRate) > 1/ oneSecFileSize Min (uRate, dRate) > oneSecFileSize According to the equation, the waiting time between clips at the receiver does not depend on clip size. The only variable that matters for a continuous playback is the size of a one-second file and that the provided upload and download rates meet the above condition. Lag time between playing and capturing is: cSec + tupload + tdownload From the above equation, the maximum lag with no break in the feed is 3*cSec and the minimum lag is cSec. To get the clip as close to real time as possible, cSec should be reduced. Next, apply the above analysis to the following cases: 4.1 Both sender and receiver have a low bandwidth modem connection: Lets assume the uRate = dRate = 20K bits/sec. In this case, the one-second file size should be less than 20Kbits. If the clip size is 10 seconds, the maximum playback lag will be 30 seconds. It is observed that the minimum file size for transmitting a one-second video (with no audio) is 8Kbits using H263 encoding and 12896 pixels video size. It is also observed a minimum file size with the video and an 8-bit mono audio with an 8000Hz-sampling rate to be 80Kbits. 4.2 Either the sender or the receiver has a low bandwidth connection: Lets assume that the lower rate is 20Kbits/sec and the other rate is much higher. In this case the one-second file size should be less than 20Kbits, but the maximum playback lag is about 20 seconds if the clip size is 10 seconds. 4.3 Both sender and receiver have high bandwidth: It is noted here that the one-second-clip size may vary from the format to format of the file, that is, how the file is encoded. For example the one-second-clip size of MP3 is less than in WAV file. But the important point here is that when cryptographic algorithms are applied in the clip then an extra time is added to the processing of clip with each side. So if applied strong encryption algorithms to the clip then extra more time is needed to both sides and upload or download time will be affected and time lag between them will also be changed. So real time access of data is also affected. Therefore, providing security in RTP the considered parameters are bandwidth of the network, file format of clips, upload and download of the clip, processor and memory speed and applying cryptographic and hash algorithms. 5. RTP packet format and data transfer protocol: RTP packet formats and its Data Transfer Protocol is as follows: 5.1 RTP fixed header files: Whenever data are transferred with RTP, it always add a fixed header with the payload. The RTP header has the following format shown in figure 4: The first twelve octets are present in every RTP packet, while the list of CSRC identifiers is present only when inserted by a mixer. Version (V) is 2 bits wide. This field identifies the version of RTP. The version defined by this specification is two (2). Padding (P) is 1 bit wide. If the padding bit is set, the packet contains one or more additional padding octets at the end which are not part of the payload. The last octet of the padding contains a count of how many padding octets should be ignored. Padding may be needed by some encryption algorithms with fixed block sizes or for carrying several RTP packets in a lower-layer protocol data unit. Extension (X) is 1 bit wide. If the extension bit is set, the fixed header is followed by exactly one header extension. CSRC Count (CC) is 4 bits wide. The CSRC count contains the number of CSRC identifiers that follow the fixed header. Marker (M) is 1 bit wide. The interpretation of the marker is defined by a profile. It is intended to al low significant events such as frame boundaries to be marked in the packet stream. A profile may define additional marker bits or specify that there is no marker bit by changing the number of bits in the payload type field. Payload type (PT) is 7 bits wide. This field identifies the format of the RTP payload and determines its interpretation by the application. A profile specifies a default static mapping of payload type codes to payload formats. Additional payload type codes may be defined dynamically through non-RTP means. An initial set of default mappings for audio and video is specified in the companion profile Internet-Draft draft-ietf-avt-profile, and may be extended in future editions of the Assigned Numbers RFC [9]. An RTP sender emits a single RTP payload type at any given time; this field is not intended for multiplexing separate media streams. Sequence number is 16 bits wide. The sequence number increments by one for each RTP data packet sent, and may be used by the rece iver to detect packet loss and to restore packet sequence. The initial value of the sequence number is random (unpredictable) to make known-plaintext attacks on encryption more difficult, even if the source itself does not encrypt, because the packets may flow through a translator that does. Time stamp is 32 bits wide. The timestamp reflects the sampling instant of the first octet in the RTP data packet. The sampling instant must be derived from a clock that increments monotonically and linearly in time to allow synchronization and jitter calculations. The resolution of the clock must be sufficient for the desired synchronization accuracy and for measuring packet arrival jitter (one tick per video frame is typically not sufficient). The clock frequency is dependent on the format of data carried as payload and is specified statically in the profile or payload format specification that defines the format, or may be specified dynamically for payload formats defined through non-RTP mean s. If RTP packets are generated periodically, the nominal sampling instant as determined from the sampling clock is to be used, not a reading of the system clock. As an example, for fixed-rate audio the timestamp clock would likely increment by one for each sampling period. If an audio application reads the blocks covering 160 sampling periods from the input device, the timestamp would be increased by 160 for each such block, regardless of whether the block is transmitted in a packet or dropped as silent. The initial value of the timestamp is random, as for the sequence number. Several consecutive RTP packets may have equal timestamps if they are (logically) generated at once, e.g., belong to the same video frame. Consecutive RTP packets may contain timestamps that are not monotonic if the data is not transmitted in the order it was sampled, as in the case of MPEG interpolated video frames. SSRC is 32 bits wide. The SSRC field identifies the synchronization source. This identifier i s chosen randomly, with the intent that no two synchronization sources within the same RTP session will have the same SSRC identifier although the probability of multiple sources choosing the same identifier is low, all RTP implementations must be prepared to detect and resolve collisions. If a source changes its source transport address, it must also choose a new SSRC identifier to avoid being interpreted as a looped source. The CSRC list contains 0 to15 items, 32 bits each. The CSRC list identifies the contributing sources for the payload contained in this packet. The number of identifiers is given by the CC field. If there are more than 15 contributing sources, only 15 may be identified. CSRC identifiers are inserted by mixers, using the SSRC identifiers of contributing sources. For example, for audio packets the SSRC identifiers of all sources that were mixed together to create a packet is listed, allowing correct talker indication at the receiver. 5.2 Multiplexing RTP sessions: For efficient protocol processing, the number of multiplexing points should be minimized. In RTP, multiplexing is provided by the destination transport address (network address and port number), which defines an RTP session. For example, in a teleconference composed of audio and video media encoded separately, each medium should be carried in a separate RTP session with its own destination transport address. It is not intended that the audio and video be carried in a single RTP session and demultiplexed based on the payload type or SSRC fields. Interleaving packets with different payload types but using the same SSRC would introduce several problems: If one payload type were switched during a session, there would be no general means to identify which of the old values the new one replaced. An SSRC is defined to identify a single timing and sequence number space. Interleaving multiple payload types would require different timing spaces if the media clock rates differ and would require different sequence number spaces to tell which payload type suffered packet loss. The RTCP sender and receiver reports can only describe one timing and sequence number space per SSRC and do not carry a payload type field. An RTP mixer would not be able to combine interleaved streams of compatible media into one stream. Carrying multiple media in one RTP session precludes: the use of different network paths or network resource allocations if appropriate; reception of a subset of the media if desired, for example just audio if video would exceed the available bandwidth; and receiver implementations that use separate processes for the different media, whereas using separate RTP sessions permits either single- or multiple-process implementations. Using a different SSRC for each medium but sending them in the same RTP session would avoid the first three problems but not the last two. 5.3 Profile-Specific modifications to the RTP header: The existing RTP data packet header is believed to be complete for the set of functions required in common across all the application classes that RTP might support. However, in keeping with the ALF design principle, the header may be tailored through modifications or additions defined in a profile specification while still allowing profile-independent monitoring and recording tools to function. The marker bit and payload type field carry profile-specific information, but they are allocated in the fixed header since many applications are expected to need them and might otherwise have to add another 32-bit word just to hold them. The octet containing these fields may be redefined by a profile to suit different requirements, for example with a more or fewer marker bits. If there are any marker bits, one should be located in the most significant bit of the octet since profile-independent monitors may be able to observe a correlation between packet loss patterns and the marker bit. Addit ional information that is required for a particular payload format, such as a video encoding, should be carried in the payload section of the packet. This might be in a header that is always present at the start of the payload section, or might be indicated by a reserved value in the data pattern. If a particular class of applications needs additional functionality independent of payload format, the profile under which those applications operate should define additional fixed fields to follow immediately after the SSRC field of the existing fixed header. Those applications will be able to quickly and directly access the additional fields while profile-independent monitors or recorders can still process the RTP packets by interpreting only the first twelve octets. If it turns out that additional functionality is needed in common across all profiles, then a new version of RTP should be defined to make a permanent change to the fixed header. 5.4 RTP header extension: An extension mechanism is provided to allow individual implementation to experiment with new payload-format-independent functions that require additional information to be carried in the RTP data packet header. This mechanism is designed so that the header extension may be ignored by other interoperating implementations that have not been extended. Note that this header extension is intended only for limited use. Most potential uses of this mechanism would be done better another way, using the methods described in the previous section. For example, a profile-specific extension to the fixed header is less expensive to process because it is not conditional nor in a variable location. Additional information is required for a particular payload format should not use this header extension but should be carried in the payload section of the packet. If the X bit in the RTP header is one, a variable-length header extension is appended to the RTP header, following the CSRC list if present. Th e RTP header extension is shown in figure 5: The header extension contains a 16-bit length field that counts the number of 32-bit words in the extension, excluding the four-octet extension header (therefore zero is a valid length). Only a single extension may be appended to the RTP data header. To allow multiple interoperating implementations to each experiment independently with different header extensions, or to allow a particular implementation to experiment with more than one type of header extension, the first 16 bits of the header extension are left open for distinguishing identifiers or parameters. The format of these 16 bits is to be defined by the profile specification under which the implementations are operating. This RTP specification does not define any header extensions itself. 5.5 Real-time Transport Control Protocol (RTCP): RTCP is a coordination protocol of RTP. It provides some tasks to increase the performance of RTP. The RTP control protocol (RTCP) is based on the periodic transmission of control packets to all participants in the session, using the same distribution mechanism as the data packets. The underlying protocol must provide multiplexing of the data and control packets, for example using separate port numbers with UDP. RTCP performs four functions: The primary function is to provide feedback on the quality of the data distribution. This is an integral part of the RTPs role as a transport protocol and is related to the flow and congestion control functions of other transport protocols. The feedback may be directly useful for control of adaptive encodings, but experiments with IP multicasting have shown that it is also critical to get feedback from the receivers to diagnose faults in the distribution. Sending reception feedback reports to all participants allows one who is observing problems to evaluate whether those problems are local or global. With a distribution mechanism like IP multicast, it is also possible for an entity such as a network service provider who is not otherwise involved in the session to receive the feedback information and act as a third-party monitor to diagnose network problems. This feedback function is performed by the RTCP sender and receiver reports. RTCP carries a persistent transport-level identifier for an RTP source called the canonical name or CNAME. Since the SSRC identifier may change if a conflict is discovered or a program is restarted, receivers require the CNAME to keep track of each participant. Receivers also require the CNAME to associate multiple data streams from a given participant in a set of related RTP sessions, for example to synchronize audio and video. The first two functions require that all participants send RTCP packets; therefore the rate must be controlled in order for RTP to scale up to a large number of participants. By having each participant send its control packets to all the others, each can independently observe the number of participants. This number is used to calculate the rate at which the packets are sent. A fourth, optional function is to convey minimal session control information, for example participant identification to be displayed in the user interface. This is most likely to be useful in loosely controlled sessions where participants enter and leave without membership control or parameter negotiation. RTCP serves as a convenient channel to reach all the participants, but it is not necessarily expected to support all the control communication requirements of an application. A higher-level session control protocol, which is beyond the scope of this document, may be needed. Functions (i)-(iii) are mandatory when RTP is used in the IP multicast environment, and are recommended for all environments. RTP application designers are advised to avoid mechanisms that can only work in unicast mode and will not scale to larger numbers. 5.6 RTCP transmission interval: RTP is designed to allow an application to scale automatically over session sizes ranging from a few participants to thousands. For example, in an audio conference the data traffic is inherently self-limiting because only one or two people will speak at a time, so with multicast distribution the data rate on any given link remains relatively constant independent of the number of participants. However, the control traffic is not self-limiting. If the reception reports from each participant were sent at a constant rate, the control traffic would grow linearly with the number of participants. Therefore, the rate must be scaled down. For each session, it is assumed that the data traffic is subject to an aggregate limit called the session bandwidth to be divided among the participants. This bandwidth might be reserved and the limit enforced by the network, or it might just be a reasonable share. The session bandwidth may be chosen based or some cost or a priori knowledge of the available network bandwidth for the session. It is somewhat independent of the media encoding, but the encoding choice may be limited by the session bandwidth. The session bandwidth parameter is expected to be supplied by a session management application when it invokes a media application, but media applications may also set a default based on the single-sender data bandwidth for the encoding selected for the session. The application may also enforce bandwidth limits based on multicast scope rules or other criteria. Bandwidth calculations for control and data traffic include lower- layer transport and network protocols (e.g., UDP and IP) since that are what the resource reservation system would need to know. The application can also be expected to know which of these protocols are in use. Link level headers a

Practice makes Perfect Essay -- Essays Papers

Practice makes Perfect As I look back on my schooling I can’t believe how many papers I’ve written throughout my life. Naturally as I’ve grown up, my writing has developed from learning how to write sentences all the way up to the pages of essays that consist of deeper criteria. I know for a fact that I’m a better writer now than I was before. College writing is more challenging and I’ve had to learn how to adjust to it. Over the semester we have written papers that have helped me develop my skills. Before we did the first two papers of the class, I really didn’t know much about paraphrase and summary. I wasn’t sure how long it would take me to learn these skills, but I soon realized that it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Ultimately, I think t...

Ignorance In Your High School Principal; My Trip To His Office :: essays research papers

I walked into his office. The look on his face was distasteful. He made me feel inferior to him. Not the way you should feel around your high school principal. I didn’t feel welcome, or even accepted. His beady eyes burned holes in my skin. I sat. He gazed into my tired eyes, and he asked me the following, "What’s going on?" How am I supposed to respond to this sort of question? If I say "nothing," it’s a given that there is something. However, if I try to speak with him about anything, it will be like talking to a brick wall. Authority figures never have any compassion. They care only about the person that rules them. In this case it would be the superintendent. I reply with a comment which is very versatile, "Not much, and yourself?" He gives me a look of disappointment. The kind of look you get when your parents find out you’ve been skipping school for the whole first semester. He turns his back to me. I hate it when they do that. They always think you are going to be sitting there waiting for them to turn around. Like you think they are the most important person in the world. I don’t do that though, I just admire all the hoaky pictures and quotes on his white walls. Yeah, if he actually believed in all these sayings he wouldn’t be working here, I think. Suddenly, I feel my ears begin to burn. I try to do a play by play in my head of what I am going to say to him. I don’t know why I do that, it never helps. I always end up shooting off my mouth, and getting into trouble. He turns back around and informs me that I was absent this past Friday. LIKE I don’t know. He tells me I have to serve seven hours of detention. "Excuse me, Mr. Principal, Sir..." I begin. Only to be cut off with another, "I don’t want to hear it." I shut my mouth and let him ramble on. I have a lot of better things to do with my time, I think to myself. Listening to people you really don’t care to listen to is quite boring. So, I let my mind wander. I think of how many runs I could be snowboarding down at this very moment.

Who Knows What Evil Lurks in the Hearts of Marooned Choir Boys? :: essays research papers fc

The Lord of the Flies by William Golding is considered to be one of the most influential and often controversial pieces of literature from the 1950's. Published in the midst of the Cold War, this novel was perhaps a fulfillment of whatever prophecy convinced Golding to abandon the sciences at the Oxford College where his father taught in favor of studying the English language and literature in greater depth. Work in the independent theaters of â€Å"very, very far-off-Broadway theater,† Royal Navy during wartime, and even the English educational system, were all in preparation for his masterpiece to come in 1954. Dissatisfied with wars between nations and within the school system, Golding made profound statements through the book. Success would finally accompany Lord of the Flies when, in 1959, it was published in the United States. Something about this book struck America – and the rest of the world – as frightening and truthful, insightful and dangerous, abhor rent and appealing. Why would a novel about a group of shipwrecked schoolboys on a deserted island, fighting for survival against the forces of nature, instantly become a classroom standard? So easily this plot line could have dissolved into the trash of 1950's pulp fiction, yet it easily maintained the dignity and importance of the great literature Golding held in high esteem. The forces of nature at work against the school boys of The Lord of the Flies were not just those brought in with the wind and the rain and hiding beneath the dense brush of the forest; the real forces of nature at work for these children was the darkness within their own hearts and the fear that accompanies it. This book is an examination of the inherent evil that is human nature, and the fear that controls every human's actions. Golding was able to convey this darkness and fear through his mastery of the English language; the vivid and visual writing style, execution of allusion and metaphor through charact ers and story elements, and portrayals of major plot events create a book that is not only readable, but also an important journey into the nature of every human.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Lord of the Flies is a book that reads at a fast pace but remains in the mind for careful consideration. Not dissimilar from the works of James Barrie (Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, Peter and Wendy), this complex story has the air of the children's adventure book.

The Outsiers Essay Test

â€Å"The Outsiders† – Essay test The â€Å"Outsiders† by S. E. Hinton has three main themes, innocence, misunderstanding, and loneliness. In chapter eight, Johnny states, â€Å" Sixteen years on the streets and you can learn a lot. But all the wrong things, not the things you want to learn. † This quote is saying that you learn how to live a rough life you learn to fight and fend for yourself. When living on the streets; you usually don't get a traditional education like learning how to do math or play a sport.The Outsiders shows the importance of preserving the hope, open-mindedness, and appreciation of beauty that are characteristic of childhood. Primarily through the character of Dallas (Dally Winston) the novel also shows how easily experience can harden people and cause them to lose these youthful traits. It also shows the tragic results of this process. dally’s rough Childhood has made him tough and fearsome, and he seems not to care about an ything. But Dally has a soft spot too—his love for Johnny.Johnny represents the hope that Dally has lost, and Dally strives to protect Johnny from the forces that threaten to pull him into the cycle of violence that has enveloped Dally. When Johnny and Dally die, an acknowledgment of the death of any hope in his life. Johnny’s dying words, â€Å"stay gold,† also touch on this theme by referencing the Robert Frost poem â€Å"Nothing Gold Can Stay. † While the poem’s message—that all beautiful things Never stay—forces the two boys to realize that they can’t hide from the realities of growing up.Both the Socs and the greasers sacrifice their individuality to the styles and sentiments of their groups. Greasers, for example, wear their hair long and oiled, and share a common hostility toward the Socs. at the start of the novel, Ponyboy is a dedicated greaser even though he knows that certain aspects of his personality make him diffe rent from the rest of the gang (he likes movies, books and is still in school). He also feels that he is misunderstood because of these stereotypes. â€Å"Greasers will still be greasers and Socs will still be Socs.Sometimes I think it’s the ones in the middle that are really the lucky stiffs. † â€Å" It wasn’t fair for the Socs to have everything. We were as good as they are; it wasn’t are fault we were Greasers. † The gang provides him with too great of a sense of safety and strength to even consider life outside of it. But the events surrounding Bob’s death cause Ponyboy to think more deeply about who he wants to be, and his conversations with Johnny, Cherry, and Randy lead him to reflect on the path his life is taking.He begins to question the reasons for conflict between Socs and greasers, and he thinks hard about the decision to participate in the rumble. Ponyboy’s willingness to enter friendships with Socs signals the developm ent of a distinct personal identity, one that includes association with the greasers but excludes total devotion to the greaser way of life. Darry encourages Ponyboy to pursue a life beyond gang membership, and the deaths of Johnny and Dally inspire the expression of his individual point of view in the English essay he writes.By the end of the novel, Ponyboy has committed himself to a life that will, at least in part, encourage other boys to find their own paths and voices, outside of the gang identity. During the book one character Johnny Cade is only descried as one thing, lonely. His farther is an alcoholic that constantly beating him and his mother ignores him. â€Å"I prefer getting beaten by my dad, at least he knows I’m there. By the time he’s in the hospital he is so upset he refuses to see his mom. â€Å" my parents probably don’t care were I am. † Johnny is always known for being abused by his parents and sleeping in the lot, but its only his f riends that keep him from feeling completely invisible. The â€Å"Outsiders† by S. E. Hinton has three main themes, innocence, misunderstanding, and loneliness. Darry, Ponyboy and Johnny express these themes splendidly, showing their courage and heroism.

Columbine Book Report (1-100)

Columbine by Dave Cullen (pages 1-100) I. Summary Columbine High School (CHS) is a suburban public school located in Jefferson County, Colorado. Frank DeAngelis, a middle aged man who had previously coached football and baseball for sixteen years at Columbine, was the principal of the close-knit high school. He was loved by his students and admired by his staff for his ability to address his students as mature adults. The student body looked up to him and appreciated his truthfulness and lack of sugarcoating when serious topics were being discussed.Three days before prom an assembly was called to strengthen the awareness of the dangers of driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Instead of just lecturing the students Mr. DeAngelis used his own life experiences to teach and guide the students along the safe paths that still allowed for occasional goofing off. The author, Dave Cullen, then jerks the focus of the book to the teenage boys who would later kill twelve students, one teacher, and severely wound twenty-three of their peers.Eric Harris and Dlyan Klebold were the typical high school students, albeit they had some distinctive quirks that set them aside from the rest of their peers. Eric Harris was a psychopath; this fact allowed him to commit a terrible crime without feeling empathy or remorse for his victims. However, on the outside he was anything but antisocial (or criminal). Eric smoke, drank, dated—all within a close circle of friends. Yet, he was excellent at manipulation. His lies were so finely tuned that even his ex-military father suspected nothing. Eric received a slew of A’s from his teachers; every single one of them considered him a â€Å"good kid†.No one ever suspected that anything as devastating or horrifying could erupt from such a well-rounded kid from a nice family. This is why Dave Cullen’s description of Dylan Klebold who â€Å"tried extremely hard to emulate Eric† was not mistaken. Although Dylan was considerably smarter than Eric, Eric seemed to have a hold on Dylan’s authentically shy demeanor. Dylan, being more self-conscious, latched onto Eric’s strong personality that radiated confidence. Moreover, Dylan was suicidally depressed, which left him vulnerable to Eric’s manipulative ways. II. AnalysisUnderstanding who the perpetrators were behind the Columbine shooting continues to be the most compelling theme dictated throughout the entirety of the first one hundred pages of Dave Cullen’s masterpiece Columbine. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were both unbelievably smart teens who had shared an impossible friendship held together by a mutual dislike of society. Although sharing this bond, by no means were they alike—which is why their association with each other astounds investigators to this day. Neither of the boys came from broken families or had diagnosed issues that could have raised a red flag to anyone paying close enough attent ion.Eric had a small police record for blowing up illegal fireworks, but that was the extent of his â€Å"criminal† records. Dylan was even less on the (philosophical) radar. He was naturally quiet, yet more aware of his surroundings. If Dylan had not known Eric, it is guaranteed that the damage he did would only be to himself. Dylan never would have taken the lives of other people if he had succeeded in taking his own life first. This is thoroughly discussed by the author for a significant amount of each chapter. Eric’s initial influence on Dylan drastically increases when they start making plans for the massacre.The now copious amounts of time the boys spent together deepened the influence they had on each other, but Dylan seemed overwhelmed throughout the entirety of the author’s writing. Dylan’s clothing style, taste in music, taste in girls, and his general interests appeared to mirror Eric’s as progression through the hundred page section was made. Dylan inevitably lost what little he had of his individuality. III. Personal Opinion I am thoroughly enjoying Dave Cullen’s Columbine. This book took ten years to write; I completely understand why he waited and appreciate the time he took to methodically research the Columbine Massacre.The way Cullen embeds his research into a fast paced storyline is flawless and it continues to inspire me to learn and use the same technique. By clearly writing â€Å"But nothing separated the boys’ personalities like a run-in with authority. Dylan would be hyperventilating, Eric calmly calculating. Eric’s cool head steered them clear of most trouble†¦Ã¢â‚¬ , Cullen clearly illustrates subtle personality differences in a way that also depicts what kind of lives they led. I'm not saying that run-ins with the police happened frequently (it’s actually quite on the contrary), however the clarity is refreshing.A reader can move along without tripping over words t hat are weakly juxtaposed together. One aspect of Dave Cullen’s writing intrigues me more than anything. The way he smoothly transitions between the past and present allows for careful plot lines to thoroughly develop into an interesting piece of careful, intelligent research that includes incredible diction. In a passage on page nineteen Cullen writes â€Å"Most nights included an open-mike period, where you could watch an aging drunk strum ‘Stairway to Heaven,’ segue into the Gilligan’s Island theme, and forget the words. , Cullen’s dry tone brings humor to the carefully written sentence. IV. Quote Response â€Å"Eric was always a dreamer, but he liked them ugly: bleak and morose, yet boring as hell. He saw beauty in the void. Eric dreamed of a world where nothing ever happened. A world where the rest of us had been removed†¦. Anger turned inwards equals depression. Dylan Klebold was not a man of action. He was conscripted by a boy who was. † (page 45) This quote accurately describes each of the boys’ personalities in a simple yet dignified way.Analyzing the boys themselves becomes easier when you have a glimpse into their psyche. Part of Cullen’s research actually included reading journals written by Eric and Dylan, so theories that are drawn or compiled by Cullen are that much more reliable. Although these are still opinions there is hard evidence that this quote developed from, which is why it is the most important quote within the first one hundred pages. Knowledge that Eric was considered â€Å"a dreamer† is particularly helpful to the reader.Habitually being in your own world (head) leads to some level of development of an antisocial demeanor, however Eric was anything but antisocial. This is an interesting variable that further complicates the question of Why?. Conversely, Dylan was shy and not as confident. Cullen does not state this in the quote specifically. When Cullen writes Dyla n â€Å"was conscripted by a boy who was†, the interpretation is partly left to the reader’s understanding of the phrase â€Å"a boy who was†. Dylan was just there; no purpose or goal, he just was†¦.