Sunday, January 26, 2020

Development of the Digital Camera

Development of the Digital Camera Introduction. Throughout the ages humanity has always been fascinated by the possibility of capturing moments or in other words perpetuating moments of high significance and outstanding beauty. This provided the opportunity to share something that nobody else has seen or perceived. This idea has made a long way from canvas-paintings to using cameras. Cameras, in their turn have also experienced a rather fast evolution and nowadays everybody has a notion of what a digital camera is and the majority of people use digital cameras. 2. What is a digital camera? According to a standard definition a digital camera is opposed to a film or video camera, uses an electronic sensor to transform images and video into electronic data[1]. Years ago people used to possess two different devices in order to take pictures and to make video. The need to spare space and make it more comfortable for people to do both things with higher quality results catalyzed the creation of digital cameras. The multifunctionalism of digital cameras and the combination of several devices in one make it the best possible choice for a modern man. For years a digital camera has been unaffordable for many families, nevertheless, nowadays the great variety of digital cameras of different manufacturers and diverse prices make a digital camera a potential purchase of almost every single family. The formula: price + quality = satisfied customer used by the digital cameras manufacturers is especially reflected in the wide choice of cameras that offer t he best quality standards for the price-range they belong to. 3. How to choose a digital camera? The transition of digital photography from the privilege of rich people to an ordinary home appliance has caused some problems. That is the reason a modern man has a set of questions concerning digital cameras, especially the whats, whys and wheres of digital cameras. Nobody wants to make a miscalculation! The basic problem in choosing a digital camera is a guarantee that the device you are purchasing will grow old in couple of month due to a constant improvement and development of the sphere. The only factor that may delay this process of growing old is purchasing a device with the price twice or three times higher of the average market price for a digital camera at the moment. If a person chooses a digital camera there are several criterions of a great priority he needs to keep in mind: price of the device, the image resolution of the camera, the capacity of the memory card, presence of a LCD-display, the interface of the camera, its weight and size. The price of a digital camera d epends on its quality factors. The resolution of a digital camera, or in other words the size of a digital image is measured in pixels. Pixels in their turn are photosensitive elements. It is common knowledge, that the bigger is the amount of pixels indicated in the camera properties the better it is. Therefore, if a high-detailed photo is required, the usage of zoom on a digital camera with small resolution will not give the desired result. In this case a person choosing a digital camera needs to exactly know what it will be used for and to choose it according to its future destination. It is necessary to mention that the resolution of 640x480 is the lowest resolution any customer should be orientated to. It is the minimal resolution with witch the purchase of a digital camera still remains reasonable. The lens of the camera or the zoom properties mentioned above allows saving a lot on the price of the device but hits the quality of the pictures obtained. The memory card is a very important issue, too. It is much better to choose a better camera with a lesser memory capacity than an overage digital camera with a larger memory capacity. The presence of the LCD-display is no longer a wish it is a requirement for any digital camera. It allows to choose the future image, to anticipate it and to delete bad images and therefore to save space. 4. The advantages of digital camerasAlong with some advantages mentioned above there are more to digital cameras than that. It goes without saying that it is possible to examine and sort out the images, create a slide show, a digital photo album, create a presentation on your computer, a ordinary TV or a multimedia projector. A digital camera offers the ability of sending images for printing directly to the printer with a DPOF standard or throughout the USB without using the computer. The images from the digital cameras may be sent throughout the Internet. For instance, it is possible to send images to colleagues, friends or relatives using e-mail. In the era of the constant lack of time this advantages become issues of the highest priority. 5. Affordability and manufacturers There is a plenty of digital cameras for sale in the price-range from $300 to $9000 and more. What camera would become the best choice? An ordinary digital camera with the price around $300 is suitable for everyday usage. So do not expect any super possibilities from a camera like that. The variety of manufacturers is very wide. Nevertheless it is necessary to mention the most popular brands among the customers. They are: Sony, Canon and Nikon. And some others: Casio, Fuji, HP, Kodak, Konica, Olympus and Pentax. The most popular digital camera nowadays is Sony Cyber Shot DSC-P150. 6. Conclusion Digital cameras find more and more place in the lives of contemporary people. Due to the comfort and quality of making images they are rightfully displacing ordinary old cameras from the market. After all, this is very simple: take the picture you want, connect the digital camera to your computer and open the boundless elbowroom of its opportunities. You may immediately print the images or by means of special programs make the images brighter, add shrill and so on. The quality of the images is much better than on the film cameras. Smart Media Card or Compact Flash memory cards store the images and do not let them to get old. Digital cameras are the right choice of the new millennium.

Saturday, January 18, 2020

Essay on “Pike” by Ted Hughes

The poem â€Å"Pike† describes the fish of the same name and the poet's feelings about them, fishing and the brutality of some little ones he had as pets, which later grew out of control, â€Å"indeed they spare nobody†. The poem seems to be about nature, â€Å"ponds† and â€Å"lily pads†, but this is not a truly pastoral poem as it is not only about the beauty and innocence of nature; the tone is dark, â€Å"deep as England† and even terrifying, â€Å"the hair frozen on my head for what might move†. The structure of the poem seems regular; each verse has four lines.However, the line length, though at first it looks regular, is in fact irregular, ranging from five syllables to thirteen syllables. This difference adds to the uneasy tone of the poem, creating an aural sensation of something hiding within the longer lines, mirroring the way in which the â€Å"pike† lurks under the water ´s surface, â€Å"logged on last year ´s black leaves, watching upwards. The first two stanzas finish with a full stop, which creates the sensation of control control.This suggests that the poet has control of the dangerous fish, â€Å"killers from the egg†, at this stage, when the â€Å"pike† he describes are â€Å"three inches long, perfect†. However, by the fifth stanza, when the poet retells his anecdote about the â€Å"pike† â€Å"we kept behind glass†, at first there are â€Å"three†, then â€Å"suddenly there were two† and â€Å"finally one†, (as it has eaten the others), and this ruthless, cannibal fish, unlike any traditional pet, moves directly into the next stanza, â€Å"with a sag belly and the grin it was born with†.In this next stanza, the sixth, the poet warns the reader that the â€Å"pike† â€Å"spare nobody†. The fish ´s brutality is echoed by the poem ´s form at this point – the vicious â€Å"pike† has dominated the fish tank and now dominates the poem, refusing to follow the previous, neat form and escapes from one stanza to the next.Later in the poem the stanzas continue to run seamlessly into each other with enjambement, â€Å"dead in the willow-herb- one jammed past its gills down the other ´s gullet†, implying that the poet is losing control of the carnivorous fish and its â€Å"submarine delicacy and horror†. This is a rather long poem, with eleven stanzas, and the poet uses the extended description that runs throughout the whole poem, to emphasise the size of the â€Å"pike† â€Å"six pounds each, over two feet long† and their â€Å"old† age, thereby evoking his sense of being in awe of the fish ´s â€Å"submarine delicacy and horror†.This poem focuses on the â€Å"pike†, describing them in close detail, â€Å"green tigering the gold†, and only in the fifth person does the poet introduce the first person, â€Å"we†, (and in the eighth stanza, â€Å"I†). However, from the start, the poet ´s choice of language makes clear his feelings about the fish; he shows awe through the use of positive language such as â€Å"perfect†, and â€Å"gold† and â€Å"emerald†, which have connotations of precious wealth.He describes â€Å"pike† as â€Å"stunned by their own grandeur†, implying that he thinks the fish are self-aware and even arrogant, his use of the verb â€Å"stunned† here is almost personification, as if the poet thinks the fish can have the same self-awareness as a human. On the other hand, positive language such as â€Å"dance† and â€Å"grandeur† is juxtaposed against an underlying mood of darkness and evil, which enters the poem in its third line when the fish are presented as â€Å"killers from the egg† and â€Å"malevolent†.Therefore in the first three stanzas, the poet ´s attitude is contrasting, seeing both â€Å"d elicacy and horror† in the â€Å"pike†. However, in the fourth stanza the poet admits that â€Å"the jaws ´ hooked clamp and fangs† are â€Å"not to be changed at this date† and this marks a turning point in the poem, with the mood changing to wholly negative, and finally, fearful, with the simile â€Å"as a vice locks† and talking of â€Å"iron† â€Å"instrument† and, explicitly, â€Å"death†.By the ninth stanza the poet says directly that he is afraid, â€Å"I dared not cast†. He describes also â€Å"the hair frozen on my head† and the sensation of something â€Å"that rose slowly toward me, watching†, he presents this as a â€Å"dream†, but the experience conveyed to the reader is more of a nightmare. The poet ´s feeling of fear is highlighted by his description of â€Å"the dark pond† coupled with the repetition of â€Å"darkness†. Essay on â€Å"Pike† by Ted Hughes The poem â€Å"Pike† describes the fish of the same name and the poet's feelings about them, fishing and the brutality of some little ones he had as pets, which later grew out of control, â€Å"indeed they spare nobody†. The poem seems to be about nature, â€Å"ponds† and â€Å"lily pads†, but this is not a truly pastoral poem as it is not only about the beauty and innocence of nature; the tone is dark, â€Å"deep as England† and even terrifying, â€Å"the hair frozen on my head for what might move†. The structure of the poem seems regular; each verse has four lines.However, the line length, though at first it looks regular, is in fact irregular, ranging from five syllables to thirteen syllables. This difference adds to the uneasy tone of the poem, creating an aural sensation of something hiding within the longer lines, mirroring the way in which the â€Å"pike† lurks under the water?s surface, â€Å"logged on last year?s black leaves , watching upwards. The first two stanzas finish with a full stop, which creates the sensation of control control.This suggests that the poet has control of the dangerous fish, â€Å"killers from the egg†, at this stage, when the â€Å"pike† he describes are â€Å"three inches long, perfect†. However, by the fifth stanza, when the poet retells his anecdote about the â€Å"pike† â€Å"we kept behind glass†, at first there are â€Å"three†, then â€Å"suddenly there were two† and â€Å"finally one†, (as it has eaten the others), and this ruthless, cannibal fish, unlike any traditional pet, moves directly into the next stanza, â€Å"with a sag belly and the grin it was born with†.In this next stanza, the sixth, the poet warns the reader that the â€Å"pike† â€Å"spare nobody†. The fish?s brutality is echoed by the poem?s form at this point – the vicious â€Å"pike† has dominated the fish tank an d now dominates the poem, refusing to follow the previous, neat form and escapes from one stanza to the next.Later in the poem the stanzas continue to run seamlessly into each other with enjambement, â€Å"dead in the willow-herb- one jammed past its gills down the other?s gullet†, implying that the poet is losing control of the carnivorous fish and its â€Å"submarine delicacy and horror†. This is a rather long poem, with eleven stanzas, and the poet uses the extended description that runs throughout the whole poem, to emphasise the size of the â€Å"pike† â€Å"six pounds each, over two feet long† and their â€Å"old† age, thereby evoking his sense of being in awe of the fish?s â€Å"submarine delicacy and horror†.This poem focuses on the â€Å"pike†, describing them in close detail, â€Å"green tigering the gold†, and only in the fifth person does the poet introduce the first person, â€Å"we†, (and in the eighth stan za, â€Å"I†). However, from the start, the poet?s choice of language makes clear his feelings about the fish; he shows awe through the use of positive language such as â€Å"perfect†, and â€Å"gold† and â€Å"emerald†, which have connotations of precious wealth.He describes â€Å"pike† as â€Å"stunned by their own grandeur†, implying that he thinks the fish are self-aware and even arrogant, his use of the verb â€Å"stunned† here is almost personification, as if the poet thinks the fish can have the same self-awareness as a human. On the other hand, positive language such as â€Å"dance† and â€Å"grandeur† is juxtaposed against an underlying mood of darkness and evil, which enters the poem in its third line when the fish are presented as â€Å"killers from the egg† and â€Å"malevolent†.Therefore in the first three stanzas, the poet?s attitude is contrasting, seeing both â€Å"delicacy and horror† in the â€Å"pike†. However, in the fourth stanza the poet admits that â€Å"the jaws? hooked clamp and fangs† are â€Å"not to be changed at this date† and this marks a turning point in the poem, with the mood changing to wholly negative, and finally, fearful, with the simile â€Å"as a vice locks† and talking of â€Å"iron† â€Å"instrument† and, explicitly, â€Å"death†.By the ninth stanza the poet says directly that he is afraid, â€Å"I dared not cast†. He describes also â€Å"the hair frozen on my head† and the sensation of something â€Å"that rose slowly toward me, watching†, he presents this as a â€Å"dream†, but the experience conveyed to the reader is more of a nightmare. The poet?s feeling of fear is highlighted by his description of â€Å"the dark pond† coupled with the repetition of â€Å"darkness†.

Friday, January 10, 2020

Aquinas vs. Augustine on Their Varying Views of Women

St Thomas Aquinas and St Augustine of Hippo are considered to be two of the greatest Christian theologians in the history of Christianity. Both of these men are apart of the same organization, the Church. Just by this fact it would be easy to assume that they agree on all major issues of the day but this is not the case. They have completely differing views with respect to women in secular and religious life corresponding with the idea of original sin, human sexuality, and social roles. Even in the modern Catholic Church they are still regarded as two of the most important doctors of the church despite their different teachings on key important aspects of leading a Christian life. This shows the variability within the institution of the Catholic Church and some degrees of disagreement within a major faith organization. St Augustine of Hippo termed the idea of original sin. Nowhere in the history of the church had any such concept been taught. He was a man who lived a life of sin and promiscuity until he had an extreme conversion. After this conversion he needed a way to justify all his bad decisions. He did so by terming original sin as the first sin made by Eve that doomed all of mankind for the rest of days. Augustine blames Eve for all the bad experiences in his life, even for all the bad decisions that he has made. He uses original sin and reveals the idea in such a way that no one has to take responsibility for his or her actions because it is innate in us to be bad. Original sin gives people an ‘easy out’ to excuse all previous bad behavior. Never before had the term ‘original sin’ been placed on the sin’s of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Augustine’s example of an ideal woman, his mother, is even faulted by this original sin caused by Eve. â€Å"†¦the torments which she suffered were proof that she had inherited the legacy of Eve, seeking in sorrow what with sorrow she had brought into the world† (Confessions, 101). It is as if woman cannot help but be lesser than man. Even his mother, who he has a high regard for, is as good as she can be—for a woman, â€Å"It is not of her gifts that I shall speak, but of the gifts you gave to her† (Confessions, 192). Original sin is possessed by all humankind and cannot be avoided, this makes it easy for people to remain blameless for sins they have committed. St Thomas Aquinas did not believe in the idea of original sin. He believed that you make choices in life and that original sin was a way to get out of taking responsibility for all the actions that you make, â€Å"†¦so original sin is not the sin of this person except insofar as this person receives his nature from his first parent† (The Summa, 44). He notices that in Genesis that man and woman are created by God before sin and by this interpretation it would be impossible for original sin to exist if it is inherent in mankind. â€Å"What is natural to man was neither taken away nor added to him by sin† (The Summa, 40). Inadvertently by stating this, he is not blaming women for the fall of man. He didn’t believe that woman should be blamed for every evil thing in the world. In fact, he agues that woman was made to perfect man and that without her he would not be whole and able to procreate. †¦it was necessary for woman to be made as a ‘helpmate’ to man† (The Summa, 37). Woman is not condemned to be below man. Aquinas does not explicitly state this however; he does omit mentioning woman as separate from man in his section of the order among man and other things. He states, â€Å"Those of superior intellect are the natural rulers while those who are less intelligent but have stronger bodies s eem to be made by nature to serve†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (The Summa, 11). He is not gender specific. In fact, one could read into this that most men are to be the servants because they have a stronger physique for working. Aquinas is much more for the idea of actual sin where †¦Ã¢â‚¬ the sin that is the result of [the action of] the soul upon the parts of the body†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (The Summa, 44). This means that each person’s sin is based upon the choices that they make in their life, not from something that is passed down from the original man. In a different aspect, Augustine believes that human sexuality is dirty. His writing is in favor of rejecting his own sexual nature to live a life away from woman altogether. In his writing he always uses negative language to talk about sexuality. He writes about a dream. He sees Continence and she says to him a quote from the Psalms â€Å"Close your ears to the unclean whispers of your body, so that it may be mortified. It tells you of things that delight you, but not such things as the law of the Lord your God has to tell† (Confessions, 176). These sexual temptations are impure, and disordered. He has to turn away from all things sexual. Through all his giving in to temptation in life he pulls a 180-degree turn once he converts and believes that he should never be with another woman again. He runs away from the general population and hides away in a monastery for the rest of his life. He changes from not being able to wait two years for a wife to have sex, to giving up sex forever. He feels like he had been greedy in the first part of his life and that the latter part should be given up to God. â€Å"†¦no bodily pleasure, however great it might be and whatever earthly light might shed luster upon it, was worthy of comparison†¦beside the happiness of the life of the saints† (Confessions, 197). Aquinas believes that human sexuality is innocent. He argues against the popular belief that woman is a ‘ misbegotten man’ by stating that â€Å"†¦woman is not something misbegotten but intended by nature to be directed to the work of procreation† (The Summa, 38). He goes on to say in that paragraph that because God is the creator of all things, and he created male and female, it is obvious that God intended for man and woman to exist with each other equally in nature. Human sexuality is necessary for procreation. Sin does not define whether or not human nature would procreate. â€Å"What is natural to man was neither taken away nor added to him by sin† (The Summa, 40). Sex is not a dirty act, quite the contrary; it is a perfection of God’s creation. â€Å"†¦by nature there is a union of the male and female for the purpose of procreation† (The Summa, 40). If the human race had never sinned and the world was in complete innocence we would still have the need to procreate and sex would be the necessary means to such. â€Å"In the state of innocence, however, reproduction would have taken place without lust† (The Summa, 40). Augustine had ideas for woman’s social roles as well. He had his mother as an example of an ideal woman and described how the ideal woman would be. Woman should behave a certain way. There is no circumstance where a woman would be over a man in any situation. He uses the example of his mother who he praises as possessing â€Å"†¦modesty and temperance†¦obey[ing] her parents†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Confessions, 194) as well as serving her husband as her lord (Confessions, 194). With her husband she â€Å"†¦knew better than to say or do anything to resist him when he was angry (Confessions, 195) and encouraged other women to â€Å"†¦not defy their masters† (Confessions, 195), in speaking about spousal relationships. In other words, woman should know their place and serve their husband without regard for self. He believed that the man was always to be placed first in every situation and that all women should be like his mother. Service should be a woman’s strong suit and it seems that Augustine believed that in this woman would be fulfilled. Aquinas believed that woman had worth and uses reason to prove this. Throughout his writings he uses non-gendered terms to describe most things, which is a sign to the reader that he believes in equality amongst men and women. He does say that woman was not made to be subjective to man in that she is a slave to him. He points out the two different meanings of subjection. The one kind is a product of the result of sin. The other kind is â€Å"†¦that of the household or the citizen in which the superior makes us of his subjects for their benefit or good† (The Summa, 38). He further specifies this to women when he says â€Å"woman is naturally subject to man in this kind of subjection because by nature man possesses more discernment of the reason† (The Summa, 38). In this, he is stating that there is a natural order to things. Not that woman is below the man in equality, but that there is simply a difference. This introduces the idea, separate but equal in a way. Man and woman are different, but also man and man are different. There are many cases in existence where a leader is needed to take charge. This is not because the one man is highly superior to all other men or that all other men should be slaves to the one, but that someone is needed to be a leader; â€Å"†¦someone can have dominion over another person as a free man, when he directs him to his own good or to the good of the community† (The Summa, 39). He also introduces an idea that if a woman is raped, she has committed no sin. Previously, when a woman was raped she was unworthy of marriage and was termed ‘dirty’. Aquinas finds worth in woman, and introduces the voice of reason in non-gendered terms in order to have his philosophies available to both man and woman. In their writings, St. Thomas Aquinas and St Augustine of Hippo have presented significantly differing views on women and the roles that they should have in the world. These three areas are some of the most important aspects of leading a good Christian life. Even today, these two men are regarded as doctors of the church and their ideals and philosophies are taught, with little regard for the fact that some of the things they teach are completely opposite of each other. Through these varying ideas about original sin, human sexuality, and social roles of man and woman they have set the stage for diversity within the Catholic Church.

Thursday, January 2, 2020

Shelmes And Watson Comparison - 725 Words

The stories of Sherlock Holmes provide us with two fictional characters that are virtually polar opposites: Holmes and Watson. Holmes is the observant, deceptive, know-it-all detective, and Watson is his somewhat unobservant, quiet, and intelligent assistant. Many may discover that one of the two are somewhat relatable. In my case, that relatable character would be Watson. Therefore, my personality and actions are more similar to Watson’s than they are to Holmes’s. I am more like Watson considering as I am a loyal companion, I have emotions, and I accept that I do not know everything. One way that I am similar to Watson is that I have been a loyal comrade to several people. The prime example of this would be his submissive actions in†¦show more content†¦This reveals that Watson has been absorbed in his marriage, which is an union full of emotion and care, while Holmes does drugs and sits in his office chasing down criminals. I myself am rather sensitive and fe el many different emotions. I also put people before profession when I left school early to visit my father and grandmother (at different times) when they were in the hospital. Their lives are more important.To put family over profession is to put love over greed, and I believe that I do that well. Watson, like me, does not become upset when reminded that there are many concepts that he does not know or observe. He is reminded of this by Holmes in The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle. â€Å"‘I can see nothing,’ said I, handing it back to my friend. ‘On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, however, to reason from what you see. You are too timid in drawing inferences.’ ‘Then pray, tell me, what is it that you can infer from this hat?† (Doyle 2).This shows Watson being reminded that he is not all-knowing and not lashing out. He takes it, knowing it is true. Although I am a terrible perfectionist, I understand that I am far from perfect and all-knowing. I, too, am well aware of my own ignorance and the ignorance of humankind