Identify and fully describe the main developments Essay Example for Free

Identify and fully describe the main developments Essay 1. Identify and fully describe the main developments of Operating Systems, giving examples of their origins and use. Batch Operating Systems were an early operating system available, and were first introduced in the mid 50s. They were designed to make human manual work easier; humans were replicating identical jobs over and over again, hence in batch. A batch operating system keeps itself eventful; it does this by taking jobs from a batch queue, instead of waiting for people to submit jobs. The jobs are then processed one or more at a time under control of the operating system, however most jobs undertaken in this operating system would be single-task. These type of operating system were often left to work overnight, mainly because the jobs were batched the next job in the queue would be commenced as soon as the previous job had been completed, this way of processing would allow for a large work load to be automatically completed without the requirement to wait and tell the computer to do the next job. Real Time Operating Systems (RTOS) are often embedded, meaning a integral part of a system inside another device. They have very little user interface capability. Real time operating systems like their name implies, respond to an input immediately. Real time operating systems are capable of processing data so quickly that the results are available to influence the activity currently taking place. [Computer Science 5th Edition, CS French, Ashford Press Gosport, 1996] Real time operating systems guarantee a certain capability within a specified time constraint; these time constraints are usually very rigid. If the system does not conform to this time limit, the system ultimately fails. They are used for various purposes; a few of these are medical equipment, industrial control systems and car computers. Parallel Systems have more than one processor to carry out a single job. The systems often carry out one single job using the resources of both processors of the machine; however some systems will have a processor dedicated to a single task. These operations work in parallel (side by side) of one another. Distributed Systems act as an illusion to a user. A multiple number of nodes are set up on a network, to allow data access or device sharing. This allows for other users of different machines to access data on another machine on the network. For example at college a student logs on to the machine, the machine seems local to the user, the user observes the system as using its own local drives and devices. However these Drives and devices are setup on a client-server machine but appear to be local to the user. Time Sharing Operating Systems allow multi-tasking, the operating system shares a slice of the processor resources to designated programs and users logged on to the system. For example, it is not unusual for a home user to have a word processing package, internet browser and a multimedia package to be open at the same time. Microsoft Windows is a great example for allowing this. Personal Computer Operating Systems were brought about in the early 70s. However it wasnt until the 1980s that they became popular, and the focus of the operating system changed from the hardware aspect, to that of the user interface (how the user observes the operating system). Personal Computer Systems are simply operating systems that share the processors resources for single users tasks. The main concept behind personal computer operating systems is the user interface. The workings are important; however the main principal is that the user is entirely interactive with the system. These are perhaps the most difficult for designers to produce, as a very high level knowledge of user interface design is required. This is to allow users of any level to use the system comfortably. It allows for considerable power for a single user to run high-tech graphics and multimedia packages. These operating systems evolved in to very capable systems, allowing for heavy multi-tasking usage. Examples of Personal Computer operating systems are as follows: Microsoft Windows Linux Apple Macintosh MAC OS 2. Identify and fully describe the main purposes of an operating system. All components of the operating system are required to be covered, to clearly show an understanding of what each component does and how they fit into the overall system design. Process Management Process management is a way of tracking processes and managing them in such a way that there is enough processor resources to correctly function. Process is another word for a task that is to be performed by the computer. Along with a process is a set of information about the particular process. The information required to track these processes are stored in a data package called a Process Control Block (PCB). The process control block contains the following information about a process:   An identification number that uniquely identifies the process Owner ID An identification of the user/device who the process belongs to   Priority A number to represent its priority to the system   Status What its current state is. This is 1 of 3 states (Ready, Waiting, Running). Units of Processor Time Used   Resources waiting for for example paper for the printer.   Link to Another PCB   Registers the registers the process has contents in. Process ID 239845 Owner ID Chris. Oliver Priority 25 Status Waiting Units of Processor Time Used 264 Resource waiting for Disks [printer] Link to another PCB Next PCB in wait Queue Registers Contents of registers when process last stopped running An example of a PCB is shown below: this is for a print job A Processes state is diagrammatically shown below, this shows state transition and how it works. A process can be in one of five states; these five states are as follows: State Definition HOLD A processs state at the beginning, this is when the devices and memory allocation size is decided. READY this state is when the process has been allocated all the resources required and is ready for being operated on by the computer RUNNING This state is when the process is in the CPU WAITING This is when the process stops because of an input or output waiting to be completed. The process is removed from the processor and is allocated this state. It is given this state until the input or output is given the all clear. FINISHED This is when the process has been finished, and all the devices used by the process have been released ready for the next process. Deadlocks Deadlocks occur when a multiple number of processes fight for very little resources available from the processor. For example one process has been granted the allocation of the modem, however is waiting for a text file, but process two has the text file and is waiting for the modem. In this instance each process will not gather the resources required because they have been allocated to another process, this is where a deadlock occurs. Process Management in an operating system has the job to destroy one of the processes to allow for one of the processes to be put in the ready queue. Scheduling Scheduling is a method in the operating system that allows processes to enter the ready queue allowing them to then take execution. The strategies used to take these processes and allow them to be ready for execution are as follows:   Process the maximum amount of jobs.   Sharing out processing time equally to users   Providing acceptable response times, this is in the form of not running intensive programs while users are logged on to the system. Keeping devices as busy as possible.   Attempting to gradually freeing up of processes, instead of crashing.   Avoid Deadlocking Scheduling is comprised of three sections: 1 Long Term Scheduling this is where processes are batched together, when the resources and space are free the process is then executed. This type of scheduling is used for jobs like heavy overnight print jobs. 2 Mid-Term Scheduling this is where a decision is made as to whether the processor is to busy for the amount of processes attempting to use it, the decision can be then fixed by terminating processes. When the system is free again the process can be re-executed. 3 Short Term Scheduling is a where the next process is selected from the ready queue; it uses algorithms to do this. Shortest burst time being the time spent running before the process will have to wait before an input or output operation. Shortest remaining time is the processes that have very little time left; this inevitably allows space for another process to execute. Priority scheduling a control that allow special circumstance processes to execute through the system quickly. Round robin limits the time a process is allowed to run before it is removed, it is then placed back in the ready queue. Memory Management Memory is an area in which data and instructions are stored. These operations must be managed by an operating system in order for the system to be stable and to run fluently. Memory management within an operating system must ensure that a process has enough memory to run, ensuring it does not go in to another processes slot as this causes corruption. This management is a way of protecting memory from becoming unstable. Memory management is also responsible for using the computers other memory sources effectively, to ensure programs run smoothly and effectively. This is handled by using virtual memory; using the hard disc drive as a temporary memory source for processes and data. This can benefit the user in various ways: The user is not rigidly restricted to space available. Using a large virtual memory space provides convenience for instances where large programs etc. are required to be stored in memory. Users are using less physical memory; therefore the system can handle more users on the system. High Speed Cache is a fast memory storage; cache predicts the data that the CPU may need next, it then retrieves it from RAM and places it in to the high speed cache, this speeds up system performance, as cache is a lot faster than RAM is in providing for the processor. The operating systems task is to control an even flow of the processes and decide where they should go practically, moving processes to the best location as the scheduler asks it to do so. This scheduler knows what process is next in line therefore can tell memory it is next and to move it to a suitable location for it to be quickly accessed. Paging Paging is a method used in operating systems to make a programs memory non-contiguous, in simple terms; allowing a program to be allocated to any memory location available. This is used when a bulk of data is bigger than the memory allocation it has been given; it firstly fills the memory allocation provided, and then stores the rest of the data in any space available in memory. This method of splitting the data is known as Fragmentation. This decreases system performance. Defragmentation To enhance the performance of the memory of a secondary storage medium, the operating system runs an operation called Defragmentation. Defragmentation is a process that sorts data in to a contiguous sequence. If a non-contiguous set of data is found, it will be relocated and stored as a whole. The image above is an illustration to show pictorially how a storage device could look in a data structure. As you can see fragmented files are scattered. If this data was attempted to be retrieved it would be slower feedback to the user as the data has been fragmented and would have to be found first. If data is to be found quickly and retrieved without a problem, the diagram below shows how a data structure should pictorially look. The image shows a contiguous data structure, with no fragmented files. This is the idea state for a system to be operated under. File and Disk Management TALK ABOUT HOW MEMORY IS STORED i. e. CONTIGIOUS Blocks of data are assigned in a complete row, using this method the files are simple to access. The space must be large enough to store all the data Files may become larger, therefore the space may be too small in the future, then it will need relocating (moved) This then causes fragmentation of the storage device. , NON CONTIGIOUS Files are recognised by operating systems and worked upon by using file extensions. A file consist of two parts, one being the unique name to the user, second being the file extension related to the program that runs that type of file. The operating system recognises exactly which program to open when the file is run. The way that files and data are managed, is critical to the performance of the computer and the security of the data. File management within an operating system provides a logical way for the user to observe there data, instead of having the complication of the physical implementation. Operating systems main job in this area is to ensure that data is stored and relocated correctly, as well as having the responsibility to process files, find space to store them, and to retrieve this data at any time. For example a . PDF file when run will be recognised by the operating system to be open in Adobe Acrobat Reader, providing the program is installed on the computer. An operating system can perform several different tasks towards files, they are as follows: Operation/Task Function Create finding space for it on storage medium, a new record made in directory Write Finds the file from directory and adds data to it. Read Finds the file then puts it in to memory and a read pointer is used to track where the next read place is to take place. In most operating systems however, a write pointer is held at this point, in-case the user intends to write to the file while reading Delete finds the file, then frees all space given to it, this is then erased from the computer Files are a collection of saved information that is stored on a type of storage medium for later retrieval. File attributes are the information related to the file, just like we have information related to ourselves, i. e. telephone number and home address. A files attributes are vital in order for the operating system to create a file structure system, it does this by using the attributes to sort the files in to some kind of order. For computer data files there are a set of minimum attributes related to them, they are as follows: Attribute Name Role Name an identifier to the user, in the form of a string of characters Type the type of file it is, this is important as different operating systems handle different types of files differently. Location Information held about where the file is stored, usually in the form of a path to it. e. g. C:\Documents and Settings\Chris\Assignment. doc. Size The size of the file (in bytes) e. g. 270kb. Protection Permissions to who can access the file. I. e. Read Only Date when the file was created, modified or accessed. Author the person the file was created and saved by. Directories Directories are a hierarchical way of separating these files; directories simply make it simpler for users to relocate the file at another time. The root is the top directory of a file system; the root is determined by the operating system. The root directory is usually the bootable device on a home computer system. Commonly C: Paths are a list of directories that the operating system goes through to find a run able file. For example: C:\windows\cdplayer. exe The operating system will go in to the root and then in to the directory Windows the file named cdplayer. exe will then be located and executed. Tree Structure are of a hierarchical nature, therefore the top level is the root of the directory and every other sub directory from which all other directories stem off. A Backslash is used to separate and indicate directories within directories (sub directories) Directories allow a method for the operating system to easy locate files. Volumes are a fixed amount of storage space allocated on a device. If a hard disc drive has two partitions set up, then it is said to have two volumes because it has two separate fixed storage spaces. Formatting a device in turn means to prepare it for read and write access. It does this by wiping all drive information that has been pre-set, it then tests each sector of the disc to ensure they are reliable enough for read and writing in and out of. File Allocation Techniques FAT (File Allocation Table) 32. Located on the storage device, basically holds the relevant information in a table, to find the data on the disk. its security does not measure up to that of NTFS and its filename size constraint is poor to that of NTFS. Searches from top to bottom when looking for a file. Contains the first block of each file on the disk, Requires a tremendous amount of space NTFS (New Technology File System) Used in Windows NT based operating systems Uses a similar table to that of FAT32 to keep track of file locations Looks at directory structure from the side to help speed up the location of files Uses Link Listed Allocation. Linked allocation creates inked lists using disk sectors as nodes. For example, if the sector size is 512 bytes, and it takes a 32 bit number to represent the next block address, then only 508 bytes can be used to store data (the other 4 bytes are used to locate the next file sector). This approach eliminates external fragmentation (since even the smallest block can now be used). Some problems with this approach are that seeking within a file is now difficult. For example, if were interested in the last 100 bytes of a 100mb file, we need to traverse all the sectors of the file (follow links) to get to the last 100 bytes. Another major issue is that we need to do a disk seek with every disk sector (unless disk sectors are contiguous). And yet another issue with this is that storing pointers on every disk sector uses up a lot of disk space. UNIX Used I-Nodes an indexed file allocation method. Its fast for small blocks of data and can accommodate extremely large volumes of data RAM Disk RAM disks are a temporary storage solution, data cannot be permanently saved, and data is lost on any type of system shut off. I. e. system reboots. A Random Access Memory disk is a segment of the main memory that is left for extra storage if required. This is otherwise known as a Virtual Drive. The main use for this area is that of performing operations to files, this is a better way of performing operations as the rate at which they can be performed on are that much higher than that of a physical drive. Size constraints are a major problem with RAM disks, as they are limited to that only of the RAM contained in the machine. For example in modern home computer systems 256mb of RAM is contained, therefore only 256megabyte of RAM disc can be used. 256mb in todays computing is very little in comparison to what users require. OS Services files, copy, delete, rename, view, find, backup Directories create, rename, list, delete Programming, Open, close, read, write, seek File allocation methods, FAT 32, NTFS, UNIX, Disk caching RAM disk Defragmentation I/O System Management DMA DMA takes control of the system by imitating the processor; it does this to enable itself to transfer data to and from the memory using the system bus. Buffering is required primarily because of the slow nature of I/O Device function. It is a way of smoothing out an I/O operation, Virtual Segmentation each process is divided in to slices (segments) non-resident Caching and Spooling of Input and output devices Drivers System Components ( CPU, RAM, System Bus, Local Buses, Device Controllers, Control Registers, Devices). IO response System (polling, interrupts, I/O, DMA Kernal Layers, Purpose, Device, Drivers, System calls Device Management Device management controls hardware resources; this includes the control over selection and operation of the devices used for input, output or storage. 2. Select an appropriate type of operating system for the following ICT needs, giving the choice of current operating systems [trade names]: a) Local council office department in charge of the collection, and distribution of council tax. b) A national car-rental agency, whose main computing centre is located in Sheffield, through which all of the daily transactions for the business are conducted. c) An electro-plating circuit board manufactures. d) A travelling company representative, who uses technology to keep in touch with his office. 3. Research and identify the different operating systems currently available for desktop computers. From your research and investigations of these operating systems you must critically evaluate them. This evaluation should clearly demonstrate your understanding of the differences found including and potential disadvantages. Bibliography http://www. cse. lehigh. edu/~glennb/um/book/c10os. htm http://dragon. acadiau. ca/~dbenoit/3713/slides/pdf/Week2. 1_History. pdf http://cne. gmu. edu/itcore/processes/Time. html http://www. netnam. vn/unescocourse/os/35. htm#3. 5. 3%20Virtual%20memory%20concept http://www. cs. aue. auc. dk/~akbar/ospdfiles/wschap7. PDF Books [Computer Science 5th Edition, CS French, Ashford Press Gosport, 1996].

Tourism Development In India

Tourism Development In India Part 1: Tourism Development Before going deep into assignment there are some terms which we have to take into consideration. Terms are explained below- Tourism Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people who travel to and stay in places outside their usual environment for more than twenty-four (24) hours and not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes not related to the exercise of an activity remunerated from within the place visited. Tourist- Tourist is person who travels from his residential place to non-residential place for pleasure, business or personal reasons, the duration of the stay is not more than six month at non residential place of the traveler. What is rational development? Rational development usually relates to the circumstances that causes development to any destination or place. (Badjatia, 2008) Chosen destination? As per the expectation of the assignment India has been chosen as a destination for the same. Rational for tourism development in India Socio-economic development of areas Tourism conferred considerable socio-economic benefits to the: Community thereby uplifting the quality of life. It can further foster development even in areas where other economic activities would be difficult to sustain. Increasing employment opportunities Tourism industry generates employment directly and indirectly, for almost 13-14 million people. Employment opportunities should be at least double of the present level before the turn of the century. Developing domestic tourism especially for the budget category Domestic tourists form the bulk of world tourist traffic. In India also, facilities for domestic tourists will be improved and expanded particularly the budget category so as to ensure an affordable holiday for them effects of tourism on culture and the environment in India. Development of international tourism and optimization of foreign exchange earnings. International tourism contributes substantially to foreign exchange earnings and keeping in view the countrys requirements, tourism wail be so developed that foreign exchange earnings increase from Rs. 2440 crores to Rs. 10,000 crores by the end of the century (US $813 to 3,333 million @ Rs.30 per US S). Diversification of the tourism product While retaining the traditional image of cultural tourism that India enjoys, diversification of the tourism product would continue, particularly the field of leisure, adventure, convention and incentive tourism, thereby responding to the changing consumer needs. Increase in Indias share in world tourism Presently the foreign tourist arrivals in India constitute only about 0.4 per cent of the total foreign tourists movement all over the world. One of the objectives of the action plan would be to increase Indias share to 1 per cent within the next five years (unesdoc.unesco.org) Preservation of national heritage and environment Tourism would be developed in a manner that our cultural expression and heritage are presented in all its manifestations including support to arts and crafts. Preservation and enrichment of environment should also form an integral part of tourism development. Stakeholders Person, group, or organization that has direct or indirect stake in an organization because it can affect or be affected by the organizations actions, objectives, and policies. Key stakeholders in a business organization include creditors, customers, directors, employees, government (and its agencies), owners (shareholders), suppliers, unions, and the community from which the business draws its resources.( www.businessdictionary.com) Stakeholders in India Creditors Tourists Tourism organizations Government organizations Foreign currency Investors Stakeholders benefiting from tourism in India Getting capital to invest in development of tourist destination. Foreign currency In the country increases resulting into direct development. Generation of employment Better life style of the people in the home country. UNWTO technical manual: Collection of Tourism Expenditure Statistics (PDF). World Tourism Organization. 1995. p. 14. Badjatia, K. (2008). The Rational Development (2 ed.). Indore: A.K. Publishers. http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0012/001216/121600eo.pdf http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/stakeholder.html

Essay on the Defense of Walls in Mending Wall :: Mending Wall Essays

Opposing the Unthinking Defense of Walls in Mending Wall The speaker in "Mending Wall" questions his neighbor's stolid assumption that "good fences make good neighbors." Perhaps, what he objects to is not so much the sentiment itself as the unwillingness or inability of the other to think for himself, to "go beyond his father's saying." Just so; we must try to get beyond the apophthegm-like opening line of "Mending Wall," testing carefully for gradations of tone as we proceed. Is it the proverb-like authority of "something there is . . . " that makes it so natural to equate "something" with the speaker? Once this equation has been made, the reader joins the speaker in sympathizing with this mysterious "something" and hence in opposing the neighbor's unthinking defense of walls. Frost rings subtly drastic changes on the sound of a phrase like "good fences make good neighbors." By the time the poem ends, this line has acquired some of the pat stupidity of a slogan. Similar turns of the screw affect the opening line, when to it is added the darker phrase "that wants it down" and again when the speaker refuses to name the antiwall "something." "Elves" is the closest he gets, yet "It's not elves exactly, and I'd rather / He said it for himself." Elves may mean not willowy things out of Tolkien but darker forces of the wood, for the next image is one of darkness. The neighbor is viewed as subtly menacing, "an old-stone savage armed." Yet this man has been the one to defend boundaries. The apparently relaxed and leisurely pace of the poem has made us lower our own boundaries and forget who is on what side. At any rate, although the speaker's ironic evasiveness undermines any confident interpretation, Poirier is surely right when he makes the following point: . . . .it is not the neighbor . . . a man who can only dully repeat "good fences make good neighbors"-- . . .it is not he who initiates the fence-making. Rather it is the far more spirited, lively, and "mischievous" speaker of the poem. While admitting that they do not need the wall, it is he who each year "lets my neighbor know beyond the hill" that it is time to do the job anyway, and who will go out alone to fill the gaps made in the wall by hunters.

swazi :: essays papers

swazi The Swazi of Swaziland Introduction Swazi’s are said to belong to the Nguni people who lived in central Africa and migrated to southern Africa. They speak the Siswati language , a language earlier spoken by the Nguni group of the Bantu family. They seem to have settle in Swaziland around five hundred years ago. They were then ruled by the British from the mid 19th century to mid 20th century. Swaziland is a monarchy and is ruled by King Mswati III. Social Organization The social organization in the Swazi’s is like any other African tribe. The homestead is the economic and domestic unit of the family. It is headed by the Umnumza or headman who is in charge of the family which includes his wives and children. Sons will bring there wives to the homestead and setup home within it while the daughters move to their in-laws. The occupants who reside in the homestead can also be distant relatives or non dependents. Therefore the number of people for whom the headman is responsible economically ,legally and by ritual may vary according his status and wealth. A wealthy headman may have many wives therefore he has a large number of people he is responsible for. The headman usually would subdivide the large homestead in order to gain access to larger tracts of cultivable land or divide quarrelsome wives . The homestead is planned according to the relationships between its inhabitants . Usually in the center of the homestead is the cattle pen and grain storage units, which are underground flask shaped pits. Women are not allowed access to theses places. The living quarters are grouped in a semicircle with the indlunkuku ( great hut) which is home to the most important woman in the homestead , the mother of the headman. If she is dead then a substitute mother is appointed. On the sides are the quarters of the wives ,each with her own sleeping ,cooking and storage huts and enclosed with a reed fence for protection against `wind . The ranking of wives is not rigid but it depends on the headman and his preference of wives. the clear demarkation of the wives huts and the fact that each of them own their own garden land and cattle does not erase the fact that the headman’s mother’s house is supreme.

Ethics of end of life care Essay

Ethics often play a big role in end of life care in terminally ill people, such as the case of Hassan Rasouli, a man who was left with brain damage following surgery. Doctors determined that the man had no quality of life and that they had intended to remove him from life support measures that were necessary to keep him alive. His family quickly objected stating that they wanted him to remain on life support as in there Muslim religion it was imperative to preserve life. Doctors insisted that he should be removed, as there were no signs of life without artificial means, that the facial movements his family thought to be Mr. Rasouli smiling at them were just involuntary movements. The doctors feel that keeping the man on life support is inhumane verses letting him pass peacefully. The doctors have taken the case to the courts. This is an issues that is very common in todays times, with multiple factors playing a part from old age to terminal diseases, many people enact advance directives requarding their end of life care removing the debate of what their wishes were. The courts sided with the family and allowed the man to remain on artificial life support. An evaluation by a neurologist with the University of Western Ontario’s Brain and Mind Institute, found that Mr. Rasouli did in fact have some neurological function and therefor he was declared minimally conscious and not in a persistive vegetative state, however there is not a large difference in the two.

A Formal Analysis of Statue of Liberty by Andy Warhol

A Formal Analysis of Statue of Liberty by Andy Warhol Andy Warhol created his painting Statue of Liberty in 1962. The painting’s subject is, obviously, the Statue of Liberty, repeated twelve times in a 4 by 3 matrix. The painting belongs to the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; however it is being auctioned on November 14th at Christie’s in New York. It is rather large at 80 by 61 inches. To be able to see the entirety of the painting, one must stand back several feet. The image that appears twelve times in the painting is the Statue of Liberty facing forward from her legs up.One can see most of the statue, including the torch, and the horizon behind her. The painting is composed mostly of a cool blue. In addition to the blue, a vibrant red is included, creating a contrast in the painting. Strangely enough, the painting is not centered, but rather aligned to the right, leaving a lot of unused space on the left. The repetition of the statue forms a harmony of sorts, but the individual coloring creates a small separation. The original image of the statue appears that it was not painted, though it contrast between the ocean and the sky makes it seem like the picture might have been altered.The sky in the background matches the color of the linen. The image shows the statue dead center with the ocean filling two thirds of it and the sky filling the other third. In a majority of the rectangles there is a splotch of darker blue than what is used on the statue that covers the statue’s torch and torch, keeping one from seeing everything completely. Only two of the images include red paint, excluding the images on the far right that are cut off. The grid of the images creates six or seven implied lines.There is also an implied line from the bottom of the left side of the statue to the tip of the torch. There is a line created along the horizon of the dark ocean and the bland sky. There are contrasted lines within the ocean to show wave s or motion using the linen as the background color. The face of the statue varies in visibility between each square. It varies between visible, somewhat visible, and not visible between the images. The appearance changes from square to square. Together, the squares show harmony since the statue is fixed in place. The variation occurs with the splotch on the statue’s face.It seems to move, or disappear, from the top left to the bottom right square, giving the painting its variation. The splotch that covers Lady Liberty’s face can possibly emphasize the face or the torch she holds. The important matter is possibly the face that she is, or isn’t, covered, though it is in an inconsistent way to induce speculation of the artwork. Symmetry has been used to show uniformity or order. Since the painting is aligned to the right it doesn’t show uniformity in that aspect. The image, on the other hand, is very uniform. The entirety of the painting expresses almost an ordered chaos.The squares show strange, jagged shapes that are indistinguishable across the painting. Each one of them is much lighter than the color in the square. The shapes are presented as shadows, and from square to square it seems as though they are moving as they would through a film strip. Even though the Statue of Liberty is enormous, it's seems to be shrunken in this artwork. The shrunken statue is then multiplied by twelve and fluidly placed on the linen canvas. The movement of the blue splotch and the white shadow overlay gives a sort of flow across the piece.The repetition of the image in the squares could possible represent the variety of ways that America is perceived by people. The variation of color and the distortion of the face/torch by the blue splotch could represent the different experiences of people in the country. The blank area on the left of the piece depicts the abundance of opportunity in America. The repetition of the same picture, on the other hand, c ould show a generic form of America, but with the variation of color could represent that it could differ with some very small details. The painting is somewhat ambiguous in this way, but is great nonetheless.

Afterthoughts on Material Civilization and Capitalism

Frenand Braudel’s â€Å"Afterthoughts on Material Civilization and Capitalism† offers very sharp insight on the birth and the growth of capitalism in the history of material civilization. His theory has been used as a theoretical tool explaining the globalization of modern capitalism. Yet, the value of his book is more than its utility in globalization studies. In this book, he criticizes the European point of view on the history of material civilization and extends his scope to non-European economy.Especially, he portrays economic history as a spontaneous, slowing evolution with long term equilibriums and disequilibriums, ignoring the history of economics as the successive transitions of big events such as the stages of slavery, feudalism, and capitalism. He thinks that the preindustrial economy is also characterized by the coexistence of inflexibility, inertia and slow motion. www. rpi. edu/~kime2/ehtm/myissues/braudel. htm Braudel notes that the exchanges from Europe across Siberia to China â€Å"formed a system of interdependence.† Moreover, â€Å"at the beginning of the sixteenth century, Russia's principal foreign market was Turkey† which Braudel also classifies as a separate â€Å"world-economy† â€Å"reminiscent of Russia. † Braudel terms the Turkish economy â€Å"a fortress,† but also a â€Å"source of wealth† and a â€Å"crossroads of trade, providing the Turkish Empire with the lifeblood that made it mighty. † The Turkish economy was not any more isolated from the rest of the world than the Russian economy: A long French report on the Levant trade confirms this impression: â€Å"[French] ships carry more goods to Constantinople than to all other ports in the Levant.The surplus funds are transferred to other ports by means of bills of exchange which the French merchants of Smyrna, Aleppo and [Port] Said provide for the Pashas. † Braudel then asserts that European trade in the Turkis h empire was minimal and â€Å"merely passed quickly through [because] money, the sinews of western trade, usually only made fleeting appearances in the Turkish Empire†: as part went to the sultan's treasury, part oiled the wheels of top-level trade, and â€Å"the rest drained away in massive quantities to the Indian Ocean.† In that case, Braudel should have asked what intermediary role the Turkish economy played between Europe and India. Then too, Braudel notes that caravan routes ran from Gibraltar to India and China â€Å"the whole movement-in-space which made up the Ottoman economy,† which â€Å"owed its suppleness and vigour to the tireless convoys which converged from every direction. † Far from having a self-contained â€Å"fortress† economy, then, the Ottoman empire drew its lifeblood from being a crossroads between other economies, none of which were independent of each other.Of course, the Turks tried to maintain their power, derive maxim um benefits from their intermediary position, and bar others from sharing in it as best they could. Turkish merchants, not content with their intermediary role at home, also â€Å"invaded Venice, Ferrara, Ancona, even Pesaro, Naples and the fairs of the Mezzogiorno† in Italy and â€Å"were soon found all over Europe, in Leipzig fairs, using the credit facilities provided by Amsterdam, and even in Russia or indeed Siberia as we have already seen. † The Turkish empire hardly sounds like a dosed economyBraudel calls Asia the â€Å"greatest of all world-economies,† which â€Å"taken as a whole, consisted of three gigantic world-economies,† Islam, India, and China. He even allows that â€Å"between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries, it is perhaps permissible to talk of a single world-economy embracing all three. † Toward the end of this period he observes that the center of this single economy became stabilized in the East Indies (beyond the bounda ries of these three economies) in a network of maritime traffic comparable to that of the Mediterranean or the Atlantic coasts of Europe.Of India he writes that for centuries it had been â€Å"subject to a money economy, partly through her links with the Mediterranean world. † Gold and silver were â€Å"the indispensable mechanisms which made the whole great machine function, from its peasant base to the summit of society and the business world. † Braudel suggests that the foundation of Europe's trade with India was the low wages of the â€Å"foreign proletariat† there, which produced the cheap exports exchanged for the inflow of precious metals to India.As â€Å"a historian of the Mediterranean,† Braudel declares himself â€Å"astonished,† to find that Red Sea trade in the late eighteenth century was still the same â€Å"vital channel† in the outflow of Spanish-American silver to India and beyond as in the sixteenth century. He might have n oted how American silver reached this economy not only via the Red Sea and the Levant, but also around the South African cape, and with the Manila galleons. Braudel did observe that the â€Å"influx of precious metal was vital to the movements of the most active sector of the Indian, and no doubt Chinese economy.† According to one historian, the â€Å"series of interconnected regional markets dispersed and overlapping around the globe† were really a â€Å"world market for silver. † Perhaps as much Spanish-American silver crossed the Pacific to Asia, where it competed with Japanese silver, as crossed the Atlantic. Like exchanges elsewhere, trade in the Far East was based on goods, precious metals and credit instruments. European merchants could apply to the moneylenders in Japan or in India . . . and to every local source of precious metals afforded them by the Far East trade.Thus they used Chinese gold . . . silver from Japanese mines . . . Japanese gold coins . . . Japanese copper exports . . . gold produced in Sumatra and Malacca . . . [and] the gold and silver coins which the Levant trade continued to pour into Arabia (especially Mocha), Persia and north-west India. . . . [The Dutch East India Company] even made use of the silver which the Acapulco galleon regularly brought to Manila. (Dennis O. Flynn, 1991). Temporary shortages of silver had an impact on Asia that may have helped bring down China's Ming dynasty.Prior to 1630, the inflow of silver from Spanish America and Japan promoted the monetization of the Chinese economy. The abrupt decline in silver production during the world recession after 1630 caused economic turmoil and bankrupted the Ming government, making it an easier prey to the Manchus in 1644. One scholar argues that it was no coincidence that the British monarchy was overthrown in 1640, and the Turkish government nearly fell at about the same time. (Jack A. Goldstone, 1991) Moreover, Braudel also finds a de facto globa l if not a world economy beyond the monetary sphere.â€Å"Long-term control of the European world-economy evidently called for the capture of its long-distance trade, and therefore of American and Asian products. † Braudel wrote: Who could fail to be surprised that wheat grown at the Cape, in South Africa, was shipped to Amsterdam? . . . Or that sugar from China, Bengal, sometimes Siam, and, after 1637, Java, was alternately in demand or out of it in Amsterdam, depending on whether the price could compete in Europe with that of sugar from Brazil or the West Indies? When the market in the mother country was closed, sugar from the warehouses in Batavia was offered for sale in Persia, Surat, or Japan.Nothing better demonstrates how Holland in the Golden Age was already living on a world scale, engaged in a process of constant partition and exploitation of the globe. . . . One world-economy (Asia) . . . [and] another (Europe) . . . were constantly acting on one another, like two unequally laden trays on a scale: it only took an extra weight on one side to throw the whole construction out of balance. Few historians have tried to determine whether and how cycles coincided across the supposed boundaries of these economies, yet such evidence could reveal much about whether they formed a single world economy.Braudel himself offers only a few indications of simultaneity across the boundaries of his world-economies. He devotes a special section to conjunctures, considers fifty-year cycles, as well as others that are twice as long and more; of these he writes â€Å"four successive secular cycles can be identified, as far as Europe is concerned. † On the one hand Braudel claims that â€Å"the world-economy is the greatest possible vibrating surface. . . . It is the world-economy at all events which creates the uniformity of prices over a huge area, as an arterial system distributes blood throughout a living organism.† Yet, on the other hand, Braudel ob serves that â€Å"the influence of the world-economy centered in Europe must very soon have exceeded even the most ambitious frontiers ever attributed to it. . . . The really curious thing is that the rhythms of the European conjuncture transcend the strict boundaries of their own world-economy. † Furthermore, â€Å"Prices in Muscovy, in so far as they are known, lined up with those of the West in the sixteenth century, probably by the intermediary of American bullion, which here as elsewhere acted as a ‘transmission belt'.† Similarly, Ottoman prices followed the European pattern for the same reasons. Braudel then demonstrated how such exchange transcended the economic boundaries he describes since the system extends throughout the global economy. Indeed, he observes â€Å"knock-on effects† as far away as Macao, even beyond the Manila galleon route. He also remarks that â€Å"historians (Wallerstein included) have tended to underestimate this type of exch ange. † Yet, Braudel underestimates this exchange as well.After reproducing a graph of the yearly fluctuations of Russia's exports and its wade balance between 1742 and 1785, he only observes â€Å"two short lived drops in the [trade balance] surplus, in 1772 and 1782, probably as a result of arms purchases. † The graph also shows a third big drop in 1762-63. All three coincide with a sharp drop on the graph of Russian exports, whatever may have happened to imports of arms or anything else. These three short periods occurred in Russia in the same years as three world economic recessions, which Braudel discusses at some length in another chapter without making the connection.In still another chapter, Braudel reproduces a graph of Britain's trade balance with its North American colonies between 1745 and 1776 that shows sharp declines in British imports, and lesser declines of exports in the same years, 1761-63 and 1772-73. But again Braudel does not look for connections b etween these recessions. This omission is curious since about the first of these recessions he writes that â€Å"with the currency shortage, the crisis spread, leaving a trail of bankruptcies; it reached not only Amsterdam but Berlin, Hamburg, Altona, Bremen, Leipzig, Stockholm and hit hard in London.† Regarding the next recession Braudel observes catastrophic harvests in all of Europe in 1771-72 and famine conditions in Norway and Germany. According to Braudel â€Å"capitalism did not wait for the sixteenth century to make its appearance. We may therefore agree with Marx, who wrote (though he later went back on this) that European capitalism – indeed he even says capitalist production – began in thirteenth-century Italy. . . . I do not share Immanuel Wallerstein's fascination with the sixteenth century† as the time the world capitalist system emerged in Europe.Braudel is â€Å"inclined to see the European world-economy as having taken shape very early o n. † Indeed he observes â€Å"European expansion from the eleventh century† when it was â€Å"suddenly covered with towns – more than 3,000 in Germany alone. † â€Å"This age marked Europe's true Renaissance. † Furthermore, â€Å"the merchant cities of the Middle Ages all strained to make profits and were shaped by the strain. † Braudel concludes that â€Å"contemporary capitalism has invented nothing. . . . By at least the twelfth century . . . everything seems to have been there in embryo . . .bills of exchange, credit, minted coins, banks, forward selling, public finance, loans, capitalism, colonialism – as well as social disturbances, a sophisticated labour force, class struggles, social oppression, political atrocities. † Braudel also doubts that capitalism was invented in twelfth- or thirteenth-century Venice. â€Å"Genoa seems always to have been, in every age, the capitalist dry par excellence. † Several other Ita lian cities also had capitalist activities earlier than Venice. In all of them, â€Å"money was constantly being invested and reinvested,† and â€Å"ships were capitalist enterprises virtually from the start.† He further notes that â€Å"It is tempting too to give Antwerp the credit for the first steps in industrial capitalism, which was dearly developing here and in other thriving towns of the Low Countries† in the sixteenth century. Moreover, the term â€Å"capitalism† also seems to apply at the most macro-economic level, for â€Å"if today's cycles do in fact have some resemblance to those of the past . . . there is certain continuity between ancient regime and modern economies: rules similar to those governing our present experience may have operated in the past. â€Å"Braudel, however, also cast doubt on the idea that capitalism was invented in Western Europe and then exported to Asia: Everywhere from Egypt to Japan, we shall find genuine capitalis ts, wholesalers, rentiers of trade, and their thousands of auxiliaries, commission agents, brokers, money-changers, and bankers. As for the techniques, possibilities or guarantees of exchange, any of these groups of merchants would stand comparisons with its western equivalents. Braudel avers that â€Å"the rest of the world . . . went through economic experiences resembling those of Europe.† On the other hand, referring to North and West Africa before the Europeans arrived, he writes that â€Å"once more we can observe the profound identity of action between Islam's imperialism and that of the West. † Braudel wants to â€Å"challenge the traditional image† that describes Asiatic traders as â€Å"high-class peddlars. † Moreover, after Braudel writes of Asians taking turns in a monotonous repetition for a thousand years of shifts in economic dominance, he concludes that: â€Å"For all the changes, however, history followed essentially the same course. â⠂¬  If we asked what changes in or after 1500 as per Wallerstein, the answer would be not much.Braudel quotes a contemporary French sea captain writing from the Ganges River in India: â€Å"The high quality of merchandise made here . . . attracts and always will attract a great number of traders who send vessels to every part of the Indies from the Red Sea to China. Here one can see the assembly of nations of Europe and Asia . . . reach perfect agreement or perfect disunity, depending on the self-interest which alone is their guide. † No Europeans, including their Portuguese vanguard, added anything of their own, only the money they derived from the conquest of America.A standard work on Asian trade notes that â€Å"the Portuguese colonial regime, then, did not introduce a single new element into the commerce of southern Asia. . . . The Portuguese colonial regime, built upon war, coercion, and violence, did not at any point signify a stage of ‘higher development' econ omically for Asian trade. The traditional commercial structure continued to exist. † Even Wallerstein recognizes â€Å"an uncomfortable blurring of the distinctiveness of the patterns of the European medieval and modern world†: Many of these [previous] historical systems had what we might call proto-capitalist elements.That is, there often was extensive commodity production. There existed producers and traders who sought profit. There was investment of capital. There was wage-labor. There was Weltanschauungen consonant with capitalism. . . . â€Å"Proto-capitalism† was so widespread one might consider it to be a constitutive element of all the redistributive/tributary world-empires the world has known. . . . For they did have the money and energy at their disposition, and we have seen in the modern world how powerful these weapons can be.Wallerstein's proto-capitalism also negates the uniqueness of his â€Å"modern-world-capitalist-system. † He even acknow ledges â€Å"All the empirical work of the past 50 years on these other systems has tended to reveal that they had much more extensive commodification than previously suspected. † (Wallerstein, 586-87, 613, 575) Thus, Europe's incursion into Asia after 1500 succeeded only after about three centuries, when Ottoman, Moghul, and Qing rule was weakened for other reasons. In the global economy, these and other economies competed with each other until Europe won.Historians should concede that there was no dramatic, or even gradual, change to a capitalist economy, and certainly none beginning in Europe in the sixteenth century. In conclusion it is useful to cite an Indian historian who writes that â€Å"the ceaseless quest of modern historians looking for the ‘origins' and roots of capitalism is not much better than the alchemist's search for the philosopher's stone that transforms base metal into gold. † It is better for historians to abandon the chimera of a uniquely capitalist mode of production emerging in western Europe.It is far more accurate and important to recognize that the fall of the East preceded the rise of the West, and even that is only true if we date the rise of the West after 1800. The West and the East were only parts of a single, age-old, world economic system, within which all of these changes took place, then and now. The historian Leopold von Ranke is known for having pleaded for writing history â€Å"as it really was,† but he also wrote that there is no history but world history. (Andre Gunder Frank, 1994) Reference: Gunder Frank, 1994. The World Economic System in Asia before European Hegemony; The Historian, Vol.56 Dennis O. Flynn, 1991. â€Å"Comparing the Tokugawa Shogunate with Hapsburg Spain: Two Silver-based Empires in a Global Setting,† in The Political Economy of Merchant Empires: State Power and World Trade, 1350-1750, ed. James D. Tracy (Cambridge), 332-359. Jack A. Goldstone, 1991. Revolutions and Rebellions in the Early Modern World (Berkeley); William S. Atwell, â€Å"Some Observations on the ‘Seventeenth Century Crisis' in China and Japan,† Journal of Asian Studies 45, no. 2 Wallerstein, â€Å"The West, Capitalism, and the Modern World-System,† 586-87, 613, 575.