Aesthetics of Knowledge Maps Essay Example for Free

Aesthetics of Knowledge Maps Essay If â€Å"a picture is worth a thousand words†, what is the worth of each word? Does the value of the aesthetic decrease through this transition? The human brain is trained to believe that there is a word to describe aesthetic, being able to put a label or description on all of this information. Why must we even classify a photo’s meaning through the written language? Visual information cannot be fully described through language or non-visual semiotic systems, because it is irreducible. Information is an artistic and aesthetic concept; to understand our world we must include the notion of information and how we as humans can make a representation of the world in our minds. Visual artifacts contain information. We store information visually, we analyze information through a visual means, and we understand information better when it is represented visually. The word ‘tree’ represents a tree as an aesthetic, an encompassing notion versus a specific image of a singular tree. There is a broader spectrum for understanding when something is visual. Depending of what language you speak, the framework of our semantic foundation, the meaning of a word varies drastically. People that speak different languages all see something in a photograph or painting and could tell you what it is they see, but the differences in our semantic thinking, language of words classifying information, will make it different. When a human is in early development stages as a child, the first initial way to communicate for them is visual information. Before children learn to read and write they draw, watch television, look at picture books. Then they are given teachings of communicating visuals to word. During the Paleolithic Period, 40,000–8,000 BCE, nomadic people painted in caves as a wondrous early way of communication, sharing information with others. An incredible example is the Hall of Bulls in the Lasceux Caves located in France in 15,000 BCE. These humans could not read or write and yet the visual information they represented with these paintings is breathtaking. They didn’t need 1,000 words to describe what they saw until the information age. Stories throughout time have been told naturally with visual information. Information has a history, yet unlike regular history, it is unbound by Euclidian space. It is not a physical being that has but one description. However, now information is all put into word. Without an extensive vocabulary there is little chance you could ever be able to express notions as clearly as if you were to simply communicate with visuals. Reliance on visual’s word to form the structure of all of our communication means thinking; visualizing information and mapping thought processes. Knowledge deals with matter of facts; laws of nature and society deal with energy processes and determine knowledge and facts. Information is prior to laws and knowledge; information is structured, relational, stored and transmitted, aesthetic. Information is configurations, organization and formalization. Mapping concepts structures our knowledge and makes us able to generate hypotheses. The organization of thoughts and concepts in this way brings the opportunity of serendipitously learning.

Americas Involvement in the Soviet Afghan War Essay -- Iran War Ameri

America's Involvement in the Soviet Afghan War The worst case scenario for the United States in the late 70s and early 80s was the threat of the Soviet invasion of Iran and subsequent control of the Saudi Oil fields. The best that could be done to counter a possible Soviet invasion would have been the deployment of parts of the 82nd Airborne Division to the Zagros Mountains of Iran, which would take at least a week with reinforcements arriving much later. This was not acceptable to the Carter Administration, which decided on another course of action - to actively support the anti-Soviet Mujahideen â€Å"freedom - fighters† in Afghanistan and help protect the Middle Eastern oil fields. This American involvement in the Soviet Afghan war has led to the emergence of Al-Qaeda and the September 11th attacks. On December 24th 1979, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. On that day began a war which wreaked incredible havoc and destruction on Afghanistan for 10 long years. The Soviets stormed in with thousands of troops at the request of the troubled Afghan Communist regime. The Russians believed this be a neat surgical military operation. They were wrong.(Boggs) The only resistance to the Soviet invasion were men known as the "mujahideen" known to many as freedom fighters. They are multinational; some even from America, doing everything in their power to repeal the Soviet horde. The Soviet invasion frightened neighboring countries such as Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, so they unofficially allied with the United States. The U.S. provided the weaponry, training, etc., Saudi Arabia recruited the fighters (mujahideen) which were sometimes based in Pakistan. They all agreed on the need for armed resistance against the Soviets. The U.S. decided to tap the religious vein of the rebels, creating a z ealous religiously driven guerrilla organization; well armed and trained by CIA officers with the goal of returning Afghanistan to Islamic purity.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Mujahideen tactics were mostly composed of ambushes for Soviet convoys. They also implemented hit and run tactics against the Soviets.(Jalali, 20) The main battles were fought for convoys. Soviet forces were dependent on convoys for various reasons. Afghanistan had undeveloped industry making no possibility to manufacture spare parts in Afghanistan. Railways were nonexistent, so everything not airlifted was brought in through ... ...Lester Grau. Afghan Guerrilla Warfare. Fort Leavenworth: Foreign Military Studies   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Office, 2001.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Nyrop, Richard, and Donald Seekins. Afghanistan, a country study. Secretary of the Army, 1986. Raman, B. MUCH ADO ABOUT A MISSILE . South Asia Analysis Group. April 10 2005 . Ross, Kelley. Islam. April 26, 2005 . Silverstein , Ken . Stingers, Stingers, Who's Got the Stingers? . Global Security. April 10 2005 . Steinman, Joshua. "America must engage Osama Bin Laden."   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Chicago Maroon 06 Jan 2005. 03/04/05   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  http://maroon.uchicago.edu/viewpoints/articles/2005/01  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  /06/america_must_engage_.php . T-64 Tank. FAS. Ap 27 2005 .   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Tamarov, Vladislav. Afghanistan: Soviet Vietnam. San Fransisco: Mercury House, 1992. Terrorism: Questions and Answers. Council on Foreign Relations. April 07, 2005   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  . The Beast. Videocassette. Columbia Pictures, 1988. Tuninga, John The Umayyad Caliphate. Bartleby. Ap 23 2005 .   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Wolpert, Stanley. Roots of Confrontation in South Asia. New   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  York: Oxford University Press, 1982. Wuthnow, Robert . Islam. Encyclopedia of Politics and Religion. Ap 23, 2005 .

Hemingway’s Descriptive technique

The First World War wreaked more havoc and destruction than the world had ever seen before. All around them, people could only see death and devastation. The existing moral structure and value systems were coming crumbling down as men killed fellow men without so much as a second thought. This led to people questioning faith, religion, and the existence of God. They began to feel that if there really was a God, then surely he would stop the pain and suffering that man was facing at that time? A movement slowly began to sweep over Europe, where people began to re-think and question the very meaning of life. This school of thought came to be known as Existentialism. Very similar to Existentialism, was Modernism. The Modernists were people who revolted against the music, art and architecture of the times, and targeted mainly the classical and romantic strains of literature. They were people who were depressed and disillusioned by the militarism of the times, and challenged fundamental values such as progress and enlightenment. Like the Existentialists, they too did not believe in the existing set of rules and morals that governed society, and believed it was time for a change. Both of these concepts influenced Hemingway greatly, and we can see the effect of this influence clearly in his writing. The novel. â€Å"A Farewell to Arms† is narrated entirely from Frederick Henry's point of view. He has a very distinct way of describing things-short and crisp. Throughout the novel, though Henry is surrounded on all sides by death, destruction and the wreckage of war, never once do we see him dramatizing or romanticizing it. He has what one might call a â€Å"reporter's eye†-everything is portrayed as if being reported by a journalist, concentrating only on the concrete facts and nothing else. Hemingway does not give the reader the opportunity to pass moral judgement on any of the characters or situations, infact, Henry gives us a perfect 360 degree view of things, and the way in which he speaks of death and casualties with such practiced normalcy almost unsettles the reader. In this part of the novel, Hemingway also stresses on the differences that have grown between Rinaldi and Henry. Henry was injured and had to leave the front, which subsequently led to him spending time and falling deeply in love with Catherine. This episode in his life gave him the chance to change and grow as a person, he becomes more mature and very different from the Henry that we came to know at the beginning of the book. Rinaldi, on the other hand, remains the way he has always been, and seems to have grown embittered and hostile towards the war. â€Å"It is killing me,† he says. Of Henry he says, â€Å"you act like a married man,† almost accusing him of having changed. In this manner, Hemingway uses Rinaldi as a foil to bring out and emphasize the change and growth that has taken place in Henry. In Book Three of the novel, Henry and Catherine's romantic interlude has ended, and the focus shifts once more from love to war. It is once again Autumn, and â€Å"the trees were all bare and the roads were muddy;† Hemingway continues with his use of rain and water as a bad omen. Mud here also represents the unclarity and uncertainty of the times. Later, in chapter 28, mud acts as an antagonist of sorts, when the ambulances get stuck in it, and this leads to Henry shooting a fellow Italian officer. The contrast between the plains and the mountains, which Hemingway had established in earlier chapters, is laid out more explicitly here when Henry, while speaking to a driver named Gino, tells him that he does not believe that a war can be fought and won in the mountains. This establishes the mountains not only as a place of peace and tranquility, but also of refuge. Rain also seems to be ever-present during Book Three. In Chapter 27, it begins to pour, and this marks the beginning of the Italian retreat. By the evening, the rain turns to snow for a while, giving the men a glimmer of hope, only to start raining again. The reader is so tuned into the rain- death symbolism by now that when, over dinner, a driver known as Amyno says, â€Å"To-morrow maybe we drink rainwater,† we are left with a deep sense of foreboding and doom. Perhaps the most important bit of symbolism in the whole novel comes in Chapter 28 of Book Three. It is the climax of the novel, and the action is all downhill from then onwards. Here, Henry deserts the war at long last, it is something that has been in the pipeline for many a chapter. Chaos seems to be at large, as Henry witnesses Amyno being shot by a fellow Italian. As he says, â€Å"We are in more danger from Italians than from Germans.† Henry had never felt any duty or obligation to the Italian army, he always seemed to be isolated from the war, and so it seems as if all this time Hemingway was preparing us for this very moment. When Henry plunges headlong into the river, effectively abandoning the war, the reader is not shocked, and does not feel the urge to pass judgement of any sort, because he understands Henry's motives for desertion. His dive into the river is Hemingway's way of signaling a Re-Birth or Baptism of sorts, as when Henry comes out of the water, he is a changed man, who has made his own peace with the war. This is further exemplified when Henry says, â€Å"Anger was washed away in the river along with any obligation,† Also, while Henry is clutching on to the piece of timber and floating down the river, we notice that though the entire novel up until that point has been entirely in the first person (â€Å"I†), the narration now shifts for a brief moment, and Henry begins to use the words â€Å"you† and â€Å"we†. The result of this is that the reader feels much closer to Henry, and gets a chance to put himself in Henry's shoes. Its as if Hemingway wants us all to be Fredrick Henry, if only for a moment. At the end of Book Three, we see Henry traveling in a train car used to transport guns, and thinking quietly about what he has just done, and about his love for Catherine. Again, Hemingway uses the second-person narrative, as Henry justifies his desertion to himself by thinking, â€Å"You were out of it now, you had no more obligation.† Thus, Hemingway effectively utilizes these various descriptive techniques and employs them to peel away the layers of glory and honour that surround the war, instead showing us the honest, brutal face of war. The novel reaches its climax in Book Three, and we see descending action from here onwards.

Essay on Why Do We Need Good Writing Skills

Since ancient times when a man had learned to write some signs and letters, the art of writing became a powerful tool in people’s hands. One can hardly believe that with the help of a pen and a sheet of paper, or, if taking into consideration modern technical progress, with the help of computer and laptop with Office Package installed, very high goals can be attained. To start with, let us take the period of life when most of us are taught to write and later keep on developing these skills – the period when we attend school. Obviously, writing wonderful papers is not only a ticket to better grades at any educational institution, but also a perfect way out of the situation where one does not know the exact answer on the question he/she should write about. As a result, writing about everything and at the same time about nothing in particular in a very sophisticated manner can help a student out of trouble. Moreover, it seems impossible to achieve greater academic level without deep understanding of writing proficiency. Furthermore, after finishing studies, young people, as a rule, need to be employed. Undoubtedly, this is a moment where writing cover letter and resume in a perfect way reveals all the career opportunities for you and opens the doors of the most influential companies in the world in front of you. What is more, good writing skills are most appreciated not only by employers, but also in many cases where application form shall be filled in, for instance, different contests or applying for education abroad. In fact, you make a positive impression beforehand just with your writing skills alone. It is worth mentioning the fact that business world, including all business operations and procedures, requires high level of writing as well. Namely, the communication with clients in written form shall be accomplished without any mistake, because in this situation one mistake spoils the reputation of the whole company and undermines trust in it – if so little attention has been paid to punctuation, how would be the client treated? Â  Additionally, if the customer is not satisfied with any product or service, the best way to get refund or make vendor take some actions would be to write a professional letter of complaint, not even calling or coming to the office. Indeed, writing is one of the cheapest hobbies (only pen and paper needed) where one can develop and express his/her imagination as well as his/her creativity. Similarly, it seems to be the perfect way to improve one’s persuasive skills and negotiate more effectively, achieving a purpose and the desirable audience. Also, many people do writing for living, being very professional in this sphere. Altogether these proofs of writing skills’ importance help to specify the main aim of being proficient in writing – to come into contact with the reader and achieve the goal of writing, avoiding misinformation that can produce ineffective communication. All in all, having good writing skills is essential in both professional and personal lives.