Comparing and contrasting India, China, and Indonesia music cultures Essay

Comparing and contrasting India, China, and Indonesia music cultures - Essay Example This "Comparing and contrasting India, China, and Indonesia music cultures" essay outlines the cultural differences between this countries. China has the longest standing history of its culture among all countries in the world; with archaeological evidence indicating that China is one of the foundations of mankind. Dating back to the 4th BC, the Chinese people began living together in large groups which resulted in the cultivation of land, domestication of animals, building of pit dwellings and emergence of pottery. Chinese cultural history is recorded according to the different dynasties that make up its culture as it is today. The Chinese people today show much pride in the Han culture which saw them make great scientific discoveries, most of which even the Western countries were not aware of. This culture is most renowned for the introduction of the art culture practiced in China today. The ancient Chinese music, which dates back to the 3rd millennium, was slow and solemn with lar ge orchestras heard in the background. The Chinese people value the single tone produced in their music more than they do the melody itself. Their musical instruments used are divided into eight groups depending on the materials they are made of. The musical notations used are all an indication of rhythm. Indian culture is attributed to the various religious groups that exist in India. The religions include Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism and Jainism. The ancient architectural monuments of India are a testament of the existence of these religions., all of which held different cultural beliefs and practices. The religions also introduced the traditional food of India from their different cuisines at that time. During the Stone Age period, early man in India began drawing animal figures and painting them in the caves he lived in. This has evolved to modern day art of painting where Indians decorate their front house porches. India is braded the land of many great philosophers, scho lars and thinkers due to its ancient literature. Indian language has evolved slowly, leading to the writing of many Indian plays and literature works. The characteristics of Indian music depend on the type of music being played; classical, folk, Lavani or the Rabindra Sangeet. The most frequent used instrument in all these musical types is the Sitar which resembles a guitar. They also use the table, a small drum that is played using the fingertips. The most unique characteristic is that every type of music has a spiritual or meditative connotation. Cultural background and musical characteristics of Indonesia Indonesia is known for its multiethnic and diverse religious nature. It is believed that the Indonesian culture is highly influenced by the Indian and Chinese cultures due to migration of the people during the ancient years. Indonesian culture id determined by the region that one is studying. For instance the North Sumatra and East Java are ethnically mixed while the South Sumat ra and South Kalimantan have similar art, dressing, social and political cultural affiliations. There are two distinct agricultural methods practiced in Indonesia; the permanent irrigated rice farming and the rotating swidden rice farming; both of which aim at farming of rice, the staple food in many parts of Indonesia. Due to the many ethnic groups in the island, there are many local languages but the Malay

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Fear, suffering, danger, pain, and torture. These are all of the feelings that an abused animal feels. Only five states have had law officials directly take action against animal abuse. These states being: Idaho, Hawaii, Kentucky, Mississippi and North Dakota. Animals are abused to their deaths everyday. These owners or abusers have no appreciation for human or animal life at all. The abusers have been lucky enough to get away, with such a serious and cruel crime. And only facing the minimum punishment, or sometimes no punishment at all. Animals have just as much rights to live a happy abuse free life just like many of us do. Animal abusers need to face harsher consequences, before it begins a problem out of hand. In the following essay you will be able to comprehend and realize how bad these abused animals feel everyday. One of the first steps in saving animals and  ­creating effective laws is understanding what animal cruelty really is. There are two types of cruelty: Passive cruelty and Active cruelty. Passive cruelty is when the abuse happens as a result of neglect. It might s...

Crim 101 Notes #1

* What is criminology? A social science studying crime and related phenomenon such as law making, criminal behavior, victimization and punishment Discipline of criminology is a recent development Most ideas and concepts we now have about crime and criminals emerged over last 2 or 3 centuries Modern criminology is multi-disciplinary (inter-disciplinary) Influenced by sociology, psychology, and biologyThe fascination with crime Crime is popular topic for newspapers, TV shows , books and movies There is little relationship between crime news and actual amount of crimes Media focus primarily on violent crimes, even though such crimes forms only smart part of all criminal activity Appears as though police solve more crimes and arrest more cirminals than they do in reality The appeal of crime stories and crime newsCrime related stories are often dramatic and lurid Deal with moral questions of good vs evil Criminals appear in stories as insane or dangerous psychopaths Stories happen in shor t time span- between newscasts or newspaper editions Easy for the public to understand Felson’s 10 fallacies about crime Book 1. the dramatic Fallacy o keep ratings high, media seek strange/violent incidents to report/create dramas around murder makes up less than 1% of all crime, yet from watching TV or reading the papers, it seems like a commonplace events seems that most murders are well-planned, grisly affairs, or they happen solely by random chance in fact, most murders start as arguments that escalate into violence most crimes are relatively minor property crimes 2. the cops and courts fallacy police work made to look more dangerous and challenging than it actually is increased policing found to be of limited value ost crimes are not reported, most of crimes that are reported are not solved by police very few elaborate court trials (charges dropped, plea bargaining, guilty plea) 3. the â€Å"not-me† fallacy most people think they could never (or would never) comm it a crime however, many people have shoplifted, smoked marijuana, driven when they’re impaired, or gone joy-riding in a car most people violate at least some laws sometimes, even though they may not get caught or end up with a criminal record 4. the innocent youth fallacy endency to view younger people as being â€Å"pure† or â€Å"innocent† in reality, teen years are the most active years for criminal activity majority of crimes committed by younger offenders younger offenders often are more dangerous than older offenders 5. the ingenuity fallacy tendency to think criminals are more clever than they really are in reality, lightweight, high value items have made crime even more simple most criminals take little planning, little skill, and almost no time to commit 6. the organized crime fallacy endency to view crime as more organized and conspiratorial than it really is most criminals act quickly, avoid contact with co-offenders, and don’t do a lot of wor k or planning dealing with â€Å"organized† criminals makes what law enforcement officials are doing seem more important and sophisticated than its really is 7. the juvenile gang fallacy juvenile gangs nowhere near as sinister as the media and law officials make them out to be loosely structured lots of so-called â€Å"members† just hanging out on the periphery crime that such â€Å"gangs† engage in is â€Å"petty† and disorganized 8. he welfare state fallacy wrong to blame crime on unemployment and poverty no evidence to show that government hand-outs or government programs do anything to decease crime when the economy improves, or when government hand-outs increase, statistics show that crime goes up too 9. the agenda fallacy many individuals and groups blame crime on declining morality; say that a healthy does of moral and religious values is what criminals and society really needs most criminals already know right from wrong, and simply choose to igno re it, especially when they’re not being observed 10. he whatever-you-think fallacy wrong to think that some crime is â€Å"subjective, and is only regarded as crime because of labeling, media attention or influence of interest groups laws are actually quite similar across different countries and different social systems criminologists who talk about negative effects of labeling and how moral problems are turned into â€Å"crime-control problems† are misguided and side-stepping their responsibility to help solve the crime problem crime myths and realities * * * myth| * reality| Most criminals are dangerous and clever| * Most criminals resemble their victims| * Most criminals are pathological individuals who kill at random| * Most crimes are routine, mundane and often trivial| * Police investigators are clever and effective| * Most crimes are not detected, or not reported, most go unsolved| * Most crimes are violent| * Only a small portion of crime is violent| * The el derly are more likely to be victimized| * Young, low SES males are more likely to be victimized| * Victimization are rates going up| * Victimization rates are going down| onceptualizations of crime crime as a legal construct crime as a violation of social norms debate between the consensus vs. and conflict models the legal construct model Sacco and Kennedy say the dominant way of thinking about crime is in legal terms Crime is conceptualized relative to the concept of law- crime is breaking the law Because committing criminal act amounts to breaking the law, it is subject to prosecution and punishment The four main components a.Actus Reus: a real event, in which somebody has committed or failed to commit an act b. Men Rea: criminal intent; you must have the intent to commit the act c. No legal defense or justification d. Must be contrary to a provision of criminal law Crime as normative violation pictures Mala in Se Mala in se: â€Å"something bad or evil in itself† Laws that criminalize acts most societies and cultures agree are inherently wrong, e. g. , murder and incest Mala ProhibitaMala prohibita: something that is deemed to be wrong or criminal only because it is prohibited Acts where there might be considerable disagreement from society to society re: their legality Concensus vs. conflicy * consensus| * conflict| * Society as a functional organism| * Society and social transformation rooted in social conflict| * Norms/expectations based on shared values/interests| * Society not organic or natural. But forced upon us| * Those who are different (e. g. ,criminals) are deemed to be abnormal| * Society/laws based on values and interests of those with the power|

Leo Szilard Biography, Role in Creation of Atomic Bomb

Leo Szilard (1898-1964) was a Hungarian-born American physicist and inventor who played a key role in the development of the atomic bomb. Though he vocally opposed using the bomb in war, Szilard felt it was important to perfect the super-weapon before Nazi Germany. In 1933, Szilard developed the idea of the nuclear chain reaction, and in 1934, he joined with Enrico Fermi in patenting the world’s first working nuclear reactor. He also wrote the letter signed by Albert Einstein in 1939 that convinced U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt of the need for the Manhattan Project to build the atomic bomb. After the bomb had been successfully tested, on July 16, 1945, he signed a petition asking President Harry Truman not to use it on Japan. Truman, however, never received it. Fast Facts: Leo Szilard Full Name: Leo Szilard (born as Leo Spitz)Known For: Groundbreaking nuclear physicistBorn: February 11, 1898, in Budapest, HungaryDied: May 30, 1964, in La Jolla, CaliforniaParents: Louis Spitz and Tekla VidorSpouse: Dr. Gertrud (Trude) Weiss (m. 1951)Education: Budapest Technical University, Technical University of Berlin, Humboldt University of BerlinKey Accomplishments: Nuclear chain reaction. Manhattan Project atomic bomb scientist.Awards: Atoms for Peace Award (1959). Albert Einstein Award (1960). Humanist of the Year (1960). Early Life Leo Szilard was born Leo Spitz on February 11, 1898, in Budapest, Hungary. A year later, his Jewish parents, civil engineer Louis Spitz and Tekla Vidor, changed the family’s surname from the German â€Å"Spitz† to the Hungarian â€Å"Szilard.† Even during high school, Szilard showed an aptitude for physics and mathematics, winning a national prize for mathematics in 1916, the year he graduated. In September 1916, he attended Palatine Joseph Technical University in Budapest as an engineering student, but joined the Austro-Hungarian Army in 1917 at the height of World War I. Portrait of Professor of Biophysics, Institute of Radiobiology and Biophysics, at the University of Chicago Dr Leo Szilard (1898 - 1964), Chicago, Illinois, 1957. PhotoQuest / Getty Images Education and Early Research Forced to return to Budapest to recover from the dreaded Spanish Influenza of 1918, Szilard never saw battle. After the war, he briefly returned to school in Budapest, but transferred to the Technische Hochschule in Charlottenburg, Germany, in 1920. He soon changed schools and majors, studying physics at the Humboldt University of Berlin, where he attended the lectures of no less than Albert Einstein, Max Planck, and Max von Laue. After earning his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Berlin in 1922, Szilard worked as von Laue’s research assistant at the Institute for Theoretical Physics, where he collaborated with Einstein on a home refrigerator based on their revolutionary Einstein-Szilard pump. In 1927, Szilard was hired as an instructor at the University of Berlin. It was there that he published his paper â€Å"On the Decrease of Entropy in a Thermodynamic System by the Intervention of Intelligent Beings,† which would become the basis for his later work on the second law of thermodynamics. The Nuclear Chain Reaction Faced with the threat of the Nazi Party’s anti-Semitic policy and harsh treatment of Jewish academics, Szilard left Germany in 1933. After living briefly in Vienna, he arrived in London in 1934. While experimenting with chain reactions at London’s St. Bartholomews Hospital, he discovered a method of separating the radioactive isotopes of iodine. This research led to Szilard being granted the first patent for a method of creating a nuclear chain reaction in 1936. As war with Germany grew more likely, his patent was entrusted to the British Admiralty to ensure its secrecy. Szilard continued his research at Oxford University, where he intensified his efforts to warn Enrico Fermi of the dangers to humanity of using nuclear chain reactions to create weapons of war rather than to generate energy. The Manhattan Project   In January 1938, with the impending war in Europe threatening his work, if not his very life, Szilard immigrated to the United States, where he continued his research in nuclear chain reactions while teaching at New York’s Columbia University. When news reached America in 1939 that German physicists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann had discovered nuclear fission—the trigger of an atomic explosion—Szilard and several of his fellow physicists convinced Albert Einstein to sign a letter to President Roosevelt explaining the devastating destructive force of an atomic bomb. With Nazi Germany now on the verge of taking over Europe, Szilard, Fermi, and their associates feared what could happen to America if Germany built a working bomb first. Convinced by the Einstein–Szilard letter, Roosevelt ordered the creation of the Manhattan Project, a famed collaboration of outstanding U.S., British, and Canadian scientists dedicated to harnessing nuclear energy for military uses. As a member of the Manhattan Project from 1942 to 1945, Szilard worked as the chief physicist alongside Fermi at the University of Chicago, where they built the world’s first working nuclear reactor. This breakthrough led to the first successful test of an atomic bomb on July 16, 1945, at White Sands, New Mexico. Shaken by the destructive force of the weapon he had helped to create, Szilard decided to dedicate the rest of his life to nuclear safety, arms control, and the prevention of further development of nuclear energy for military purposes. After World War II, Szilard became fascinated by molecular biology and the groundbreaking research being done by Jonas Salk in developing the polio vaccine, eventually helping found the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. During the Cold War, he continued to call for international atomic arms control, the advancement of peaceful uses of nuclear energy, and better U.S. relations with the Soviet Union. Szilard received the Atoms for Peace Award in 1959, and was named Humanist of the Year by the American Humanist Association, and given the Albert Einstein Award in 1960. In 1962, he founded the Council for a Livable World, an organization dedicated to delivering â€Å"the sweet  voice of reason† about nuclear weapons to Congress, the White House, and the American public. The Voice of the Dolphins In 1961, Szilard published a collection of his own short stories, â€Å"The Voice of the Dolphins,† in which he predicts moral and political issues to be triggered by the proliferation of atomic weapons in the year 1985. The title refers to a group of Russian and American scientists who in translating the language of dolphins found that their intelligence and wisdom exceeded that of humans. In another story, â€Å"My Trial as a War Criminal,† Szilard presents a revealing, though fantasized, view of himself standing trial for war crimes against humanity after the United States had unconditionally surrendered to the Soviet Union, after losing a war in which the U.S.S.R. had unleashed a devastating germ warfare program. Personal Life Szilard married physician Dr. Gertrud (Trude) Weiss on October 13, 1951, in New York City. The couple had no known surviving children. Before his marriage to Dr. Weiss, Szilard had been an unmarried life partner of Berlin opera singer Gerda Philipsborn during the 1920s and 1930s. Cancer and Death After being diagnosed with bladder cancer in 1960, Szilard underwent radiation therapy at New York’s Memorial Sloan-Kettering Hospital, using a cobalt 60 treatment regimen Szilard himself had designed. After a second round of treatment in 1962, Szilard was declared cancer-free. The Szilard-designed cobalt therapy is still used for the treatment of many inoperable cancers. During his final years, Szilard served as a fellow at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California, which he had helped to found in 1963. In April 1964, Szilard and Dr. Weiss moved to a La Jolla hotel bungalow, where he died of heart attack in his sleep on May 30, 1964, at age 66. Today, a portion of his ashes is buried in Lakeview Cemetery, Ithaca, New York, alongside those of his wife. Sources and Further Reference Lanoutte, William. Genius in the Shadows: A Biography of Leo Szilard, the Man Behind the Bomb. University of Chicago Press (1992). ISBN-10: 0226468887Leo Szilard (1898-1964). Jewish Virtual LibraryLeo Szilard Papers, 1898-1998. University of California San Diego (1998)Leo Szilard: European Refugee, Manhattan Project Veteran, Scientist. Atomic Heritage Foundation.Jogalekar, Ashutosh. Why the World Needs More Leo Szilards. Scientific American (February 18, 2014).