Lamyaa's Blog

Is Google Making Us Stupid?

2009-04-28T21:44:00.000-07:00

Nicholas Carr says that he is not thinking the way he used to think. He says that he notices it the most when he reads; that immersing himself in a book or a lengthy article used to be easy, and that’s rarely the case anymore. He says his concentration often drifts away from what he’s reading, gets fidgety and starts looking for something else to do and that he has to force his brain back on the text. He also says that the deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle. Carr Nicollas noticed that for over a decade now he spends a lot of time online, searching and surfing. He says the Web has been a godsend to him as a writer.Carr believes the Net is lessening his capacity for concentration and contemplation, that his mind simply just takes in the information the way the Net has it. He says that once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski. He notices similar experiences with his friends and acquaintances. Most believe the more they use the Web, the more they have to fight to stay focused on long pieces of writing. Some think this phenomenon has occurred because since reading online has become more convenient, the way people read has not changed but maybe the way they think has changed.

A recently published study of online research concluded that it is clear that users are not reading online in the traditional sense; indeed there are signs that new forms of reading are emerging as users power browse horizontally through titles, contents pages and abstracts going for quick wins. It almost seems that they go online to avoid reading in the traditional sense. Maryanne Wolf, a developmental psychologist believes we may be weakening our capacity for the kind of deep reading that emerged when an earlier technology. That when we read online, we tend to become mere decoders of information. Our ability to interpret text, to make the rich mental connections that form when we read deeply and without distraction, remains largely disengaged. A British mathematician Alan Turing believes that the Internet, an immeasurably powerful computing system, is subsuming most of our other intellectual technologies. It’s becoming our map and our clock, our printing press and our typewriter, our calculator and our telephone, and our radio and TV. Carr says that the kind of deep reading that a sequence of printed pages promotes is valuable not just for the knowledge we acquire from the author’s words but for the intellectual vibrations those words set off within our own minds. Carr believes ultimately that as we come to rely on computers to mediate our understanding of the world, it is our own intelligence that flattens into artificial intelligence.

I agree with nicholas Carr, because internet makes everything easy and that' s why we get to forget about what we learned easily. Internet makes people not reading books anymore because they feel like it' s taking forever, and also boring. People can' t stand reading books anymore, because internet has the summary almost for every book. I also agree that info on the Web may lead to the lack of a persons ability to make mental connections to text and think deeply about what they are reading. With access to all kinds of sources online it is easy to find an article etc, skim it, form a understanding of it, then move on to the next article and do the same, only to forget it later because its so easy to obtain that there is no mental connections being made to the text. But Internet is a new technology, i think it' s the same as a book, it' s just shorter maybe or quiker to find a new information. I think everybody believes in new technology.

Does Abortion Prevent Crime?

2009-04-15T14:37:00.000-07:00

John Donohue and Steven Levitt wrote a paper about legalization of abortionin 1970s to reduce crime in the 1990s. The purpose of the study is to better understand the reasons for the sharp decline in crime during this decade, which, prior to their research, had largely eluded explanation.
The theoretical justification for their argument rests on two assumtions: 1)Legalized abortion leads to fewer "unwanted" babies being born, and 2) unwanted babies are more likely to suffer abuse and neglect and are therefore at an increased risk for criminal involvement later in life. At that point, the question merely becomes: Is the magnitude of the impact large or small?

Their preliminary research suggests that the effect of abortion legalization is large. According to their estimates, as much as one-half of the remarkable decline in crime in the 1990s may be attributable to the legalization of abortion. They based their conclusions on four separate data analyses.
First, they demonstrate that crime rates began to fall 18 years after the landmark Supreme Court decision Roe vs. Wade legalized abortion across the nation, just the point at which babies born under legalized abortion would be reaching the peak adolescent crime years. Steven levitt thinks this is the weakest of their data analyses. He says the world is a complicated place and it would be simplistic to believe that legalized abortion could overpower all other social determinants of crime. Second, they show that the five states that legalized abortion in 1970--three years before Roe vs. Wade--saw crime begin to decrease roughly three years earlier than the rest of the nation. But to him this is still far from conclusive. Third, they demonstrate that states with high abortion rates in the mid-1970s have had much greater crime decreases in the 1990s than states that had low abortion rates in the 1970s. And this is the evidence that really starts to convince him. Fourth, they show that the abortion-related drop in crime is occurring only for those who today are under the age of 25. According to Steven Levitt they can make no judgment as to whether legalized abortion is good or bad. In no way does their paper endorse abortion as a form of birth control. In no way does their paper suggest that the government should restrict any woman's right to bear children. Their paper actually has very little to say on such topics. He thinks the crux of the misinterpretation of their study is that critics of their work fail to see the distinction between identifying a relationship between social phenomena and endorsing such a relationship. To him it has been both fascinating and disturbing how the media have insisted on reporting this as a study about race, when race really is not an integral part of the story.

I definitely agree with Stven Levitt, because as he said in this world we can not make any judgement whether legalized abortion is good or bad. I do believe that abortion is bad because God made as and he is the only who can make any judgement about our lifes. But abortion should be legalized not because it decreases crimes but because in some cases it should be. Also in some points Steven Levitt could give more of his opinion about why he thinks abortion should be or shouldn' t be legalized so the readers could be able to give him better feedback.

Mothers Killing Their Newborns

2009-04-01T13:33:00.000-07:00

Why they kill their newborns? By Steven Pinker, we should try to understand the reasons why they do this. According to him killing a baby is immoral can understand why without forgiving, also its motives are not always moral. Humans invest most care in babies out of all nammals, and mothers are the ones who choose how much energy to invest in babies based on what they have. And according to Pinker poor young unmaried isolated women are more likely to kill their kids. Also even mothers who kill their newborns have feeling, in HG cultures, babies aren' t considered people at births. He gives some examples by comaparing the penalities in different contries. For example, in USA and Britain no women spent more that a night in jail. But in Europe, their laws prescribed less- sever penalities for neonaticide that for adult homocides. He also copmpares AbortionRights, Birth Control, IUD and Lame Fethuses. He also compared the difference between animals world as they were born ready, and humans world as we have to be nutured into the personhood. In the end he said, we need a "Crispinageration of person hood". Mother hood is natural instinctive- Every living has the right to live-neonnates could become mothers.

Bruce Chapman was talking about Pinker' s Essay. He says that Pinker is twisting evidence by saying that neonative isn' t immoral, and that he didn' make it clear enought that neonaticide is wrong. But actually Bruce Champman didn' t understand what Pinker said, he didn' t really read good enought all the details and examples he gave.

I definitly agree with Steven Pinker. He was so clear by all the examples and compaires he gave the readers. He gave us a biological explanation about neonaticide-why mothers kill their newborns.

LIFE CAN BE ENJOYABLE

2009-01-28T15:03:00.000-08:00

The meaning of our lives, the purpose, and the dreams both dashed and realized, and the expectations forced upon us by others. In other words how do you translate what life is? Translation means to explain in simple terms. What is it supposed to be about? There are different answers for different people at different times in their lives. A person's lifetime is filled with self-examination. Why am I here? What am I doing? Is this as good as it gets? You have a beginning. You're in the middle, and your story hasn't ended yet.If one would recognize the greatest things we have in life, they would not be asking this question. These great things are faith, hope, and love. Faith is the one that can keep one from asking questions. If God wanted us to know something, then we would know it. We all know that life is tuff and can be too complicated some times and even sometimes we ask ourselves a lot of questions that only time that will have the answers for them. But life can be enjoyable by too many ways. For example, tell the truth, set goals or even write them down, protect your reputation, read a lot and get as much educationh as you can, use good taste and common dcency, make a difference in the world

Everyone should ask themselves, What can I do to make a difference in the world? There are many ways, even daily, to make a positive difference in the life of someone else. It could be something sensational like finding the cure for cancer, but it might be something more common, but none the less important, like teaching or helping a child. If a person can combine his talents and interests in making a difference, the effect can be magnified. And the most important thing is you've got to believe. The only thing that really matters is faith expressing itself as love. Galatians Belief in a higher power changes a person’s whole perspective on life for many reasons. One of which is because a believer recognizes that God knows everything we do. Studies show that people with strong faith have happier and more content lives.

WHAT I BELIEVE

2009-01-28T14:29:00.000-08:00

I believe that people are different in too many ways, but that does not mean we are not supposed to respect each other.

I believe that in society today many people do not dream big. They give up on their dreams for several reasons, the nation s economy is bad, or they just believe that they cannot do it.

I believe that life is tuff but it can be enjoyable.

I believe that happiness is something we create.

I believe that knowledge is what allows us advance to a better life.

I believe that justice is not always fair.

I believe that governement is very necessary because it helps keep a society stable and running smoothly. It keeps the citizens happy and satisfied and fixes the problems a society may have. Without a government, the country, school, business, anything!, would fall apart because there was no one to lead them.

I believe that death. There is no avoiding it.

I believe that God is only one.

I believe that science doesn t make you a freak.

What I learned From English 111

2008-12-11T08:53:00.000-08:00

Before I came to TCC's English 111 course I thought I understood how to write fairly well. My thoughts quickly went from "I know how to write" to "Yikes, I don't know how to write." The important thing is that my writing ability has improved since taking English 111. I have learned about the mechanics of grammar too. I have always been an avid reader and I believe that because I can read and comprehend so well that surely I should be able to write fairly well. Now I find myself critiquing (with what limited knowledge I have about grammar and sentence structure) what I am reading rather than just reading it for it's content. I am fascinated by mystery writer's ability to develop and make interesting an idea. My favorite mystery writer is Patricia Cornwell. I can't fully identify why I like her writing so much except to say that she keeps interest high during the length of the book. I also like that she has a strong female lead character in her books. Although I won't be using the lessons learned from English 111 too much in my career because it doesn't demand too much writing I will benefit from it in other ways. English 111 has helped me organize my thoughts and ideas better both on paper and in my head, and has enabled me to be clearer about what it is I am trying to express when writing. Since my grammar has improved I am better able to write a properly constructed sentence, placing commas and the like in their appropriate places. If I decide to take more academic courses I feel well prepared to meet the instructors demands and criteria regarding research and essay type papers.

Following are two annotated writings that I have chosen from all of the assignments given in English 111. The first is titled I am beacuse essay. It is a paper on a contrast of a personal experience.
The second annotated writing is entitled "A Transgendered Life". It is from an assignment in which we had to write a paper based on a conversation with someone. It is about a friend of mine who considers themselves transgendered and what transgendered means to them: What is male? What is female? Can one live somewhere in the middle? Can this middle ground, often referred to as trangendered be defined, or is it so subjective it will be impossible to assign a definition. The word hasn't landed in the dictionary yet. But from the word itself it is clear that it is about crossing the boundaries of gender. Zay a friend of mine who considers themselves trangendered, says it is hard to describe what exactly transgendered means. It has more do with what is inside one that what is reflected on the outside. Zay was born female but doesn't feel comfortable in her given body. She feels more male emotionally, physically and spiritually than she does female. She presents herself in more of a typical male fashion, both in dress and personal grooming. She may even go on to become a male through surgery and or hormones. Zay says she is not entirely sure what she will decide on. One gets the feeling that the words that Zay has used to describe herself are at best inadequate, as if using them limits her soul somehow. One thing Zay did make apparent is that living the word transgendered means transcending the boundaries that society has erected to separate the characteristics, behaviors, attitudes, dress, appearance and affectations of the male and female sexes. As Zay says, living a transgendered life widens the circle that limits our sexual and emotional selves

I have several bits of advise for future English 111 students. They are: go to the writing center often to get help with grammar, organizational methods, and the mechanics of english, prepare to devote at least 13 hours a week just to your english assignments, get familiar with the college's word processor programs and computers, be especially nice to the people in the computer lab, don't expect the instructor to cut you a break because you're in a blue collar technical job that doesn't require too many writing skills, pay attention, follow formats and guidelines, don't use pencil, go over with someone in the writing center or the instructor the errors in your paper after they have been graded to correct them and hopefully learn how not to repeat them, get the practice sheets (from the Writing Center) on areas of grammar or mechanics you are weak in before you take the English 111 course. Get on the Web to become familiar with how it works. Pay attention, have fun learning how to write, and don't be late to class. That's about it. Good luck.

Generation NeXT Comes to College.

2008-12-11T08:38:00.000-08:00

It is clear that measurement and monitoring will be a key element in the management of future network infrastructures, both at the level of network equipment and also in the overall distributed control of the large scale Internet infrastructure. In the future, interoperability of monitoring and data collection capabilities can provide the support basis of seamless end-to-end network and service composition and operation across multiple operators and business domains. During the last five years important research initiatives emerged worldwide to tackle problems of Internet monitoring and data collection. In FP6 the EU ICT programme started several successful Internet measurement and monitoring efforts to boost European leadership within this emerging area. These projects already passed the proof of the concept stage and now key applications in future network management can be developed on their basis.
This project is aimed at integrating existing measurement and monitoring infrastructures towards a common and open pan European platform. This will be achieved through harmonisation of individual components, definition of common data format, development of unified interface, to provide the flexibility to the design of future Internet applications. On the other hand, the project will allow semantic representation and retrieval of measurement and monitoring information. Additionally the project will develop and demonstrate a set of tools and applications for next generation networks taking advantage from the integrated approach

Internet researchers face many daunting challenges, including keeping up with the conditions of ever changing operational environments, privacy concerns, legal complications, and resource access. One of the most fundamental problems remains access to current operational data on Internet infrastructure. For many projects the relevant datasets simply do not exist, and researchers must go through a laborious process of securing permission and deploying measurement infrastructure before they can begin to study a problem. For others, the necessary data may exist and even be available. Unfortunately, if word-of-mouth has insufﬁciently propagated the information about the data ownership and access procedures, researchers may waste time and effort creating a new dataset, use a dataset inappropriate for a given research problem, or possibly even abandon the research.
In addition, the dearth of centralized knowledge about the few datasets that are known to exist in the community leads researchers to use these datasets well past their window of representativeness. Correspondingly, lack of awareness of datasets limits longitudinal study of network conditions, since comparable datasets that span months or years are difﬁcult to find. While the resource, legal, and privacy concerns limiting new Internet data collection efforts remain largely intractable, significant research could be promoted through more widespread use of existing data.

Washington DC.

2008-12-11T08:30:00.000-08:00

I’ve never seen so many suits in one place, declared a friend visiting from Ohio, as we surveyed the packed metro train to Washington for empty seats several summers ago. Suited, booted and stiletto’d locals stood out from the casually dressed, fanny-pack-and-camera-toting tourists. It is the humble suit that gives the visitor to Washington a sense of the city’s enterprise the production, not of automobiles or food products or pharmaceuticals, but of laws, decisions, policies, and, not to forget, a scandal or ten. From a distance, the city is unimpressive. None of the usual landmarks that define large American cities demarcate Washington from its surroundings. There are no shiny skyscrapers signalling the start of its business district or massive steel bridges heralding the approach of its borders. You would have to look really hard to find the smokestacks on top of factories at the edge of town.

What is recognizable of the city from miles away, appropriately enough, is the dome of the US Capitol which houses Congress and the Washington Monument, the needle in local parlance, erected in memory of the nation’s first president. Up close, the city is compelling. Pierre Charles L’Enfant’s plan for the capital (of this vast empire), as he referred to the US two centuries ago, was nothing short of genius. The land he was allocated on the banks of the Potomac alternated between marshy bogs, heavily wooded wilderness and farmland, with a few hilly patches thrown in. What he envisioned was a neatly organized city with broad, tree-lined avenues, parks and grand buildings and monuments befitting the ideals of a new nation. Amid strife and delays—typical of the way Washington does business even now it took nearly a century for an approximation of his blueprint to come to life in stone, marble and concreteIn an election year such as this one, Washington and the way it does business are in sharper focus than usual.

Washington insider is bandied about as an insult as presidential candidates criss-cross the country, claiming the mantle of the outsider who will save the country from the clutches of the special interests that control Washington What transpires once the outsider gets in is anybody’s guess, but until the dust settles on fourth November and a victor emerges bloodied and bruised from the ever-lengthening campaign season voters are bombarded with missives, ads, debates, media interviews and stump speeches purporting to lay bare the machinations of Congress and the White House. These four-yearly rituals merely scratch the surface—or so it seems in the face of the number of scandals and leaks that erupt with alarming frequency in this city. The leaking of Central Intelligence Agency operative Valerie Plame’s identity to the press was one of the latest, but the big daddy of them all is still Watergate. Named after the Watergate Complex—a striking edifice that houses a hotel, shops, offices and luxury apartments—the fiasco brought down a president and has the unparalleled distinction of helping name successive scandals . Numerous paths lead into Washington from all directions, but my favourite is via the Arlington Memorial Bridge. With the majestic Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument at its top, the marble façade of the Kennedy Center and the spires of Georgetown University to its left and the entrance into Arlington Cemetery at its foot, the expansive bridge transports you into town in style. As you follow the winding road at the top of the bridge, the vast treasure trove of cultural and political history that is Constitution Avenue begs to be explored. The must-see list the National Gallery of Art, the National Museums of American History and Natural History, the National Archives, the Smithsonian Museums (home of the ever popular Air and Space Museum), not to mention the White House and the Capitol lis so long that days could blend into weeks in trying to do justice to all that is available in this small corner of Washington.
Washington DC is a very lovely place to visit. it s one of the best palces i have visited in my life.