Thursday, January 30, 2020

Understanding contesting claims about the pork barrel issue Essay Example for Free

Understanding contesting claims about the pork barrel issue Essay The talk started with the historical background of Priority Development Assistance Fund. It was truly insightful as I have come to learn when and how it was created. It was surprising to know the total amount of the PDAF that legislators get. I don’t think it is very reasonable for them to get that high amount. I stand with those who are pro to the abolition of PDAF since I learned and came to realize that the role of the legislators are to make laws. Why would they need 200 Million to make laws, they definitely use the fund they get for their own benefits. It was also said in the talk that they get kickbacks to every project they would create or start. I dont know how they can live without conscience because of the millions of pesos they steal from the hard work earned money of ordinary Filipino citizens. If the money was properly used we would probably have a better life in our country now. There would be lesser people who experience poverty. If that money was properly used our country would have been more progressive. I am fuming mad for every political leaders who runs for position just to steal millions of money that is supposedly for the betterment of the citizens of our country and our country itself. The money would have been used to address many problems in health, housing, education, agriculture or even national security. It is sad that those type of leaders get elected because of many citizens of our country do not vote wisely or their vote was bought or there was a fraud in the elections. Those political leaders who seek to steal money from the hardworking citizens should be jailed and suffer for the consequence they did. The talk served as an awakening to us students to the reality of politics. The political leaders should do their jobs properly because the ones who suffer from their wrong doings are the ordinary citizens of our country because they don’t get and enjoy the benefits they should have received.

Wednesday, January 22, 2020

A Closer Look At Cryptography Essay -- Writing Cryptography History Pa

A Closer Look At Cryptography Ever since the earliest days of writing, people have had reasons to limit their information to a restricted group of people. Because of this, these people have had to develop ideas of making their information unable to be read by unwanted people. The general techniques used to hide the meaning of messages constitute the study known as cryptography. "Ciphers, in general fall into three major classifications: 1. Concealment Cipher, 2. Transposition Cipher, and 3. Substitution Cipher" (4). Cryptography protects information by altering its form, making it unreadable to unwanted people or groups of people. Cryptography, from the Greek kryptos, meaning hidden, and graphei, meaning to write. The origins of secret writing can be traced back nearly four millennia to the hieroglyphic writing system of the Egyptians. References to cryptography are also made in the bible. "One of the oldest known examples is the Spartan scytale: Plutarch tells how Lacedaemonian generals exchanged messages by winding narrow ribbons of parchment spirally around a cylindrical staff. The message was then inscribed on the parchment. When the ribbon was unwound, the writing could be read only by the person who had a cylinder of exactly the same size, upon which to rewind it, so that the letters would reappear in their normal order" (5). During the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, interest in cryptography was very high. It was the custom in those days for important people, such as Mary of Stuart, the Charles I and II, and the Georges, to have private ciphers. During the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries, cryptology played a major role in the military, especially in WWI and WWII, because the sec... ...rom the National Energy Supply to Fort Knox. This is a fairly similar situation to that of WWI and WWII, in that whoever has control of the other side’s information, is in control of the war. I also think the challenge of trying to break someone else’s codes, a game of sorts, is very interesting. Works Cited: 1. "History of the Enigma." Russell Schwager. 18 Nov. 1998. <www.ugrad.cs.jhu.edu/~russell/classes/enigma/history.html> (12/8/99). 2. "The History of the German Enigma." Lech Maziakowski. 4 Dec. 1997. <www.members.aol.com/nbrass/enigma.htm> (12/8/99). 3. "RSA (Rivest-Shamir-Adelman)." Fred Hazan and Frank Rundatz. 4 Dec. 1999. < http://www.whatis.com/rsa.htm> (12/ 10/99). 4. Gaines, Helen Fouche. Crytanalysis. New York: Dover, 1956. 5. Smith, Laurence Dwight. Cryptography. New York: Dover, 1955. 6. Peer Reviewer: Adam Fackler

Tuesday, January 14, 2020

Evolutionary Psychology Essay

Just as in the past a brilliant scientist and researcher William Harvey was able to find the fact that it is the heart that is responsible for pumping blood through the human body, psychologists of today have been able to find out and to prove the fact that ‘cognition’ has a particular and specific structure. These psychologists are known as ‘evolutionary psychologists’, and it is this team of experts that have floated the theory that cognitive structure, like physiological structure, has followed, through the centuries, the all important process of natural selection. This was how it has been able to survive and engage in reproduction through the years. What exactly is evolutionary psychology? It is a science that focuses on discovering the evolved process of the nervous systems of human beings, bringing into focus the fact that the human brain is a completely organized structure, just like tissues in any living organism are fully organized. In other words, it is the opinion of evolutionary psychologists that the human brain is composed of several functional parts, made to facilitate the survival and the reproduction of that particular organism. Therefore, this can be taken to mean that the human brain is not an organ with one single function, but rather as an organism made up of a large number of fully functioning parts. In general, evolutionary psychologists refer to the functional components of organisms as ‘adaptations’, and this is the term applied to the functions of the human brain as well. (Hagen, Edward 2004) It is evident therefore that evolutionary psychology refers to a particular approach to psychology, which uses the accepted principles of evolutionary biology to research the design and the workings of the human mind. It can be described as an approach, or a way of thinking, which can be applied to any subject within it. (Cosmides, Leda, Tooby, John 1997) What are the primary activities of evolutionary psychologists? Charles Darwin had this to say, in the year 1859, â€Å"In the distant future, I see open fields for far more important researches. Psychology will be based on a new foundation, that of the necessary acquirement of each mental power and capacity by gradation. † Darwin had foreseen the advances that would be made in the field of psychology in the future, and the science of evolutionary psychology was one of his predictions that came true. As mentioned earlier, evolutionary perspectives on human psychology are a part of the larger theory of general selection, and this field has led to greater scientific advancements in areas like sociobiology and ethnobotany, among others. Evolutionary psychologists have to find answers to questions such as how, why and when did human consciousness evolve, are there any differences between the psychology of men and women, and if so, what are they? Are there any differences between the psychologies of various races and ethnicities? Are there are adaptive explanations for human behaviors such as aggressiveness, self destructiveness and so on? Is it true that human consciousness is evolving today, as it has been steadily over the past hundreds and thousands of years? Is it true that human intelligence is inherited, and is it at all in any way influenced by one’s environment? Can the theories of evolutionary psychology accurately describe and explain the reasons behind the common phobias among human beings? One must remember however that several sociologists, anthropologists and psychologists are completely wary of using and understanding the new evolutionary perspective on human brains and behaviors, perhaps because in their opinion, evolutionary psychologists tended to adapt theories from the animal world and apply them to humans, and also, tended to generalize the principles of evolution in a much too dramatic fashion. (Evolutionary Psychology 2003) these are the basic of evolutionary psychology theory: Darwin’s ‘descent with modification’ theory, Hamilton’s ‘inclusive fitness’ theory, Maynard Smith’s ‘game theory’, and Trivers’ ‘optimization’ theory. Take for example the theory of ‘inclusive fitness’. This is also referred to as ‘kin selection’, and therefore forms an important element of evolutionary psychology. Kin selection explains away the fact of altruism and philanthropy, by stating that all genes are invariably ‘selfish’, and that an individual is in reality nothing but a gene’s ‘survival machine’. Nevertheless, since a gene would automatically be passed on to the next generation, if the person who is carrying that gene survives in order to reproduce, or even if any of the several other relatives of the surviving individual survive and reproduce, thereby passing on the gene to the next generation. According to Maynard Smith, this may be the reason why a lapwing will fake being injured in order to lure a predatory hawk away from its offspring, thereby acting in an altruistic manner towards its young. This type of altruism may also benefit non-relatives, because it is an acknowledged fact that the members of the same species will help take care of the youngsters of the species, even if they are not related in any way. The reason why this happens may be because of the fact that the evolved mechanism may not be sufficiently complex to make fine discriminations of this kind. This may be why some people like to take care of pets, while some do not. The people who do have pets are in fact allowing their caretaking mechanism to be exploited. Evolutionary psychology has also been applied into another important are: aggression of the human being. It is an accepted fact that sexual rivalry often leads to blatant aggression, and most violent deaths are caused by man killing another man, or man killing a woman in the name of sexual tension and rivalry. In such a case, violence may be taken to refer to be just one strategy in the plethora of male coercive tools, coercion being the direct result of sexual proprietorship and possessiveness. Men who allow themselves to be cuckolded would then be considered losers of the zero-sum evolutionary game that human beings play in their desire to make sure that their genes get into the next generation. Men use violence as a tool to stop and prevent their mates from sexually engaging with other men, because although maternity is always a given, paternity may not be proven. It is this same principle that works in the case of step-children and their adoptive fathers. These fathers have no interest in their step children, because they are not carrying their genes onto the next generation, and supporting another man’s child may mean that this man is working in opposition to his evolutionary interests. History can prove to man that in general, step fathers indulge in greater violence and aggression towards their step children than towards their biological children, the primary reason being that of ensuring that his genes are carried forward, and not another man’s. (Evolutionary Psychology 1998) According to evolutionary psychologists, there is a lack of fit between the current environment and the adaptation of the brain. In their opinion, if the brain is an adaptation, then there could be no doubt that at some time back in time, there existed some sort of selection for brain mechanisms, which in effect transformed information about environment and its conditions, into human behaviors that could adapt and change in accordance with the requirements of the situation and environment. Selection, however took place because of the manner in which they responded to the environment at the time in which they were selected. Therefore, this theory can be taken to imply that because environmental conditions are different today, the information that is input to the brain is different as well, and as a direct consequence, the brain may respond by generating behavior that may not be adaptive to the new conditions in which it finds itself. Failure to adapt may occur in two ways: either the brain could continue to produce the same older behavior under the newer conditions given, or the brain could produce new behavior that responded to the new information coming in, and the behavior could fail to be of the adaptive sort. This is in fact a rather common behavioral pattern, and when conditions change, the response becomes different from what the designers intended, like for example, as demonstrated by sophisticated computer programs, designed to perform a variety of complicated tasks, are also programmed to produce adaptive outputs as a direct response to certain key commands. At the same time, a new input could confuse the computer and prompt it into giving a completely nonsensical and non-adaptive output in response. In human beings, as evolutionary psychologists theorize, there is in place an evolved behavioral predisposition to make sure that reproductive success is always at its highest level, but this conflates the theory that the human brain was designed through a process of selection, as mentioned earlier. (Buller J David n. d)

Monday, January 6, 2020

Cultural And Social Aspects Of Health - 2777 Words

Domestic Violence Margarita Gonzalez HHPS 5365.01 Cultural and Social Aspects of Health Dr. Ledingham April 9, 2015 Introduction Domestic violence, also known as spousal abuse or intimate partner violence, occurs when an individual, in a relationship, victimizes their partner. The abuse comes in physical and mental states, in which the abuser uses shame, guilt, intimidation, humiliation, isolation, blame, fear, stalking, sex, or strength for control. This abuse can lead to the victim’s self worth is destroyed, becomes depressed and anxious, feels helpless and alone, and can become suicidal. An abuser, using physical abuse, will direct their blows to parts of the body that won’t show. After the abuse takes place, the abuser will feel guilt of getting caught rather than the guilt they should have hitting their partner followed by excuses and blaming their partner for the abuse. Psychological abuse can lead to emotional trauma, gastrointestinal disorders, and complications in pregnancy. 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