Ready to die free essay sample

Hip Hop artist Notorious B. I. G released his debut album Ready to Die under the Bad Boy Records label. This was marked as the first release on their label. Ready to Die made the Notorious B. I. G. A star and vaulted Sean Puffy Combs Bad Boy label Into the spotlight as well. Its recognized as one of the greatest hardcore rap albums ever recorded. The album reached quadruple platinum with infamous tracks Juicy, Big Poppa and One More Chance. In June of 1995, the single One More Chance debuted at number five in the pop singles chart, tying MichaelJacksons Scream / Childhood as the highest-debuting single of all time. Ready to Die continued to gain popularity throughout 1995, eventually selling two million copies. Producers who took part of the album were DC Premier, Easy Mo Bee, Puffy etc. The album cover is an infant with similarities of the artist sporting an afro. We will write a custom essay sample on Ready to die or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page B. I. G. Had been influenced by everyone from Cool G Rap to NNW, Too Short to Slick Rick. The concept behind it is the artists life from birth to death. This album cover is considered one of the best Hip Hop covers of all time. Its always easy to see elements f Biggie in his narrators and of his own experience in the details; everything is firmly rooted In reality, but plays Like scenes from a movie. His storytelling skills brought a huge impact to the future of rap music. He made the things that he said so clear and vivid. The stakes were raised, says Www-Tang founder and producer RAZZ. Before 8. 1. G. , you might put out anything, now you knew, okay, Its real out there, you goat come correct, cause this cat Is spending time on his salt. Even other producers and Macs knew that Biggie was very talented.SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS OF BIGGIE: Christopher Wallace, a. K. A. Biggie Smalls, was born in Brooklyn, New York, May 21, 1972. He was raised in the poor Brooklyn neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant as the son of a preschool teacher. Dropping out of high school at the age of seventeen, Biggie became a crack dealer, which he proclaimed was his only source of Income. Hustling was the way for a common young Black man trying to make a living in the ghetto. His career choices involved certain risks. However, a trip to North Carolina for a routine drug exchange ended being the soon-to-be MAC a nine-month stay behind bars.Once released, Biggie borrowed a friends four-track tape recorder and laid own some hip-hop tracks In a basement. The tapes were then passed around and played at local radio station In New York. Not extremely attractive, Wallace named dark skinned, and had a crook in his eye, yet he was a charmer. A young impresario and sometime producer by the name of Sean Combs (Daddy) heard Baggies early tapes. Impressed, Puffy went to sign Biggie to his new label, Bad Boy Records. Puffy and Biggie worked on the artists first album, and the Notorious B. I. G. Was born. Biggie was first heard on a remix of a Mary J. Bilge song and a track on the Whos the Man? 1991 soundtrack. After these successes, the album worked on earlier went through its final touches and was released in 1994, titled Ready to Die. The record was certified platinum quickly, and the Notorious B. I. G. Was named MAC of the Year at the 1995 Billboard Music Awards. After the quick success of the album, Biggie went back to get his friends, some who didnt even rhyme. He had several run-ins with the law, on charges that ranged from beatings, to drugs and to weapons, while all claimed that Biggie was a gentle person. INTRO: Just listen man, your mother giving you money Amiga?

TCE essays

TCE essays TCE is a nonflammable liquid it is colorless. It has a sweet odor and a sweet burning taste. TCE does not occur naturally in the environment. It is an artificial compound. It is produced synthetically from 1,2-dichloroethane. And stabilizers are added to the marketed product. It is used mainly as a solvent to remove greases from metal parts, it is also an ingredient in adhesives, typewriter correction fluid and spot and paint removers. 75-80% of TCE production is used for degreasing metals. Because of its good solvent properties it was formerly used in dry-cleaning facilities. It is also used to extract natural substances. An example would be in decaffeinated coffee or fruit juices. Skin contact with TCE can cause irritation and rashes on the skin. Drinking small amounts of TCE over a long period of time can cause liver and kidney damage, nervous system effects and impaired immune system function. Also during pregnancy it can impair fetal development. Drinking larger amounts can cause nausea, convulsions a coma and in some cases death. Breathing TCE for a long time can cause impaired heart function and coma or death. Breathing TCE for a short period of time can cause headaches, lung irritation, dizziness and difficulty concentrating. Some studies with mice have shown that high levels of TCE may cause liver or lung cancer. Also some studies of people exposed to TCE over long periods of time showed increased risk of cancer. These studies however, are inconclusive the cancer could have been caused by other things. You could be exposed by breathing air in from around the house contaminated by TCE vapors from the shower water. Also breathing in common household items such as, spot removers or correction fluid. Drinking, swimming or showering in water with TCE in it could have also exposed you. ...

Lies my teacher told me Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Lies my teacher told me - Essay Example Gone with the Wind focuses not on the hardships of slavery, but the injustices of the Union Army and Reconstruction. This is very misleading. Did the South face hardships at the hands of the Union Army? Of course they did, they lost the war. However slaves also faced injustices. In Gone with the Wind only one slave was whipped for not taking care of a hot horse (Mitchell 51). In Bullwhip days: The slaves remember: An oral history (Mellon 2002:39) a slave recounts numerous whippings with blood and blisters all over a slave’s back. This is what happened according to a witness. However all races of students would be uncomfortable with this image. That is why history has to be smoothed over for children. Is it right that teachers lie to students? No, it is not right. One human trait is to separate people, events, and history into a good and evil category. The truth is not all slaves were beaten by their white masters, but many were. Not all white people owned or even believed in s lavery, but many did. History needs to treat events as humanly as possible. That means judgment does not need to be passed, but history needs to be presented through facts not emotion. Slavery was not a clear cut issue. It is difficult, but needs to be addressed by all races. Bibliography Loewen, J. W. (1996). Lies my teacher told me. New York: Touchstone. Mellon, J. (2002).

Industrial Revolution in Britain Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Industrial Revolution in Britain - Essay Example England, having a profuse supply of laborers to mine coal and iron, meaning a good supply of industrial fuel, possessing colonies that serve as her sources of raw materials and as her markets, achieved a head start over its European equals in the phenomenon of Industrial Revolution. Most importantly, England's isolation kept her from wars bombarding other European countries, and allowed her to continue industrializing without disruption (Rempel). Industrial Revolution induced the widespread use of machineries for manufacturing. England went through the phenomenon beginning in18th Century. Soon, more things could be done quicker and labor costs became cheaper. The process changed England from an agrarian, handicraft economy into a machine-dominated manufacturing industry. This bought for England greater economic potentialities and urbanization. Urbanization as an effect of industrializing made England evidenced an increase in population, as well as the emergence of several new social classes (Rempel). An advent of factories in places where palpable resources of coal and other essential materials could be found was set up in the process of rapid industrializing and urbanizing. Concentration of work forces in these locations was then called for. Eventually, these areas were developed to great cities with established political centers. The problem was that these so called "factory" and "mining" towns became so crowded and swamped that no good living conditions were experienced. Sanitary provisions are found lacking, and diseases spread across these swamped areas. "The dreadful living conditions in these new towns can be attributed to lack of good bricks, absences of building codes, and the lack of machinery for public sanitation. Yet the more tenable cause was the fact that factory owners offered little regard to the laborers as they treat them as commodities and not as actually human beings with important needs" (Rempel). These towns then sprouted new categories of British social classes. Factory owners became the new bourgeoisie and the men, women and children became categorized as the new working class. The more alarming incident here was that women and child labor emerged prominently in this period. Yet, more and more people moved to these cities in search of the higher profits that was seem guaranteed in working for these industries. Unfortunately, the industry workers were not to become well-off despite having jobs. This is so because they play second fiddle to the sophisticated machines, and were often degraded to routine process laborers, working long hours yet receiving low compensations under quite inauspicious conditions (Rempel). Longer hours meant reduced leisure time even though their material consumption did not increased. It was apparent that the workers become concentrated on factories and mines, and less on agriculture, where half of the population was in a century earlier. Employment in agriculture as a percentage of the population declined rapidly. By 1850, only one in four British could be said to be working the land and as had been said, employment growth at this point in time took place mostly in traditional manufacturing service industries (Voth, 2003). Therefore, wage increases that would have been expected from

Important and application of data mining

Important and application of data mining Important and application of Data Mining Abstract Today, people in business area gain a lot of profit as it can be increase year by year through consistent approach should be apply accordingly. Thus, performing data mining process can lead to utilize in assist to make decision making process within the organization. This paper elaborate in detail the level of importance and also the application the application of data mining which can be adopt for various fields depends on the objective, mission, goals and purpose of conducting the study within the organization. there are three main areas take as a example which are hotel, library and hotel to observe on how data mining works to these main field. Keywords: Data Mining, KDD Process, Decision Trees, Ant Colony Clustering Algorithm; Association Rules, Neural Network, Rough Set, 1.0 Introduction As we know, organization which conducts business transaction is keeps massive of document or data in a specific database for further retrieval. The data are combine from are a few departments that carried out different task and each of their function parallel with the mission and vision of organization. According (Imberman, 2001) the number of fields in large databases can approach magnitudes of 102 to 103. Therefore, it is necessary to make proper decision making or strategic planning using the existing data where these plays important role in order to ensure any action that are taken place does not given an impact especially bring loss to the organization. Other than that, data became obsolete when it keeps on changing and easily out dated as the user requirement shifting depends on factors such as trends, money, needs and so forth. One way to analyze data is using of data mining technique which enable to assist organization by emphasize several steps to produce the valuable output in short period of time compare with the traditional method which may involves more than one methodologies and it derive to longer of time to accomplish the investigation towards a portion of data. Thus, in the business area an action should be done quickly in order to compete with other competitors and to improve performance both in giving service and produce a high quality product. Moreover, process interpretation of the result involves group of people to inject some of the creativity and synthesis which can lead to the solutions on the problem or tasks. Obviously, data mining a lot assist in various fields with different purposes and depend on the objectives that want to achieve. The rest of this paper is organized as follows. Section 2 tells about definition of data mining. Section 3 determines the importance of data mining. Section 4 explains the application of data mining in various fields. Section 5 draws the conclusions. 2.0 Definition of Data Mining There are abroad definitions listed by a few researcher and academician according to their view and opinion based on the study they have done. Moreover, these will help to understand or giving an idea before discusses more in depth towards data mining technique. Basically, the main purpose use of data mining is to manipulate huge amount of data either existence or store in the databases by determine suitable variables which is contribute to the quality of prediction that will be use to solve problem. Define by Gargano Raggad, 1999. Data mining searches for hidden relationships, patterns, correlations, and interdependencies in large databases that traditional information gathering methods (e.g. report creation, pie and bar graph generation, user querying, decision support systems (DSSs), etc.) might overlook. Besides that, another author also agreed with opinion toward the data mining definition which is to seek hidden pattern, orientation and also trend. Through (Palace, 1996) added to the previous is: Data mining is the process of finding correlations or patterns among dozens of fields in large relational databases. Moreover, data mining also define as process to squeeze of knowledge or information using appropriate framework or model to analyze until produce an output that assist in fulfill the objective of the study. From Imberman, 2001: As knowledge extraction, information discovery, information harvesting, exploratory data analysis, data archeology, data pattern processing, and functional dependency analysis. The statement above agreed and adds that the framework or model that adopt definitely to expose the real circumstance. Define by Ma, Chou Yen, 2000: Data mining is the process of applying artificial intelligence techniques (such as advanced modeling and rule induction) to a large data set in order to determine patterns in the data. In the other hand, data mining is taken a few steps during analysis and this step is depending on the methodology that is chosen. Each of the methodology is not much differ from other methodology. Through Forcht Cochran, 1999: Data mining is an interactive process that involves assembling the data into a format conducive to analysis. Once the data are configured, they must be cleaned by checking for obvious errors or flaws (such as an item that is an extreme outlier) and simply removing them. 3.0 Important of Data Mining As discusses above, it can be seen that data mining will be beneficial a lot of party and multiple range of level in the organization as the model or framework that is apply can reduce time and cost. Then, the results allow the responsible knowledge worker to transform into the strategic value of information effectively by critically analyze the result. The process should be done carefully to avoid the useful variables or algorithm being removes or not be included in the extraction of reliable data. Data mining techniques will help in select a portion of data using appropriate tools to filter outliers and anomalies within the set of data. According to Gargano Raggad, 1999, there are a few others important of data mining consist of:  · To facilitate the explication of previously hidden information includes the capabilities to discover rules, classify, partition, associate and optimize. According to (Goebel Gruenwald, 1999) in order to seek the pattern of data, a few methodologies are use in clarify the vagueness as well as to identifying the relation among one variables and other variables within the databases whereas the outcome will guide in making decision or to forecast the impact when the action were take into consideration. The chosen of methodologies should be determined in a proper way suit with the rules and condition towards the data which is to be analyzed. The methodologies include: Statistical Methods: focused mainly on testing of preconceived hypotheses and on fitting models to data. Case-Based Reasoning (CBR): technology that tries to solve a given problem by making direct use of past experiences and solutions. Neural Networks: formed from large numbers of simulated neurons, connected to each other in a manner similar to brain neurons which enables the network to learn. Decision Trees: each non-terminal node represents a test or decision on the considered data item and can also be interpreted as a special form of a rule set, characterized by their hierarchical organization of rules. Rule Induction: Rules state a statistical correlation between the occurrences of certain attributes in a data item, or between certain data items in a data set. Bayesian Belief Networks: graphical representations of probability distributions derived from co-occurrence counts in the set of data items. Genetic algorithms / Evolutionary Programming: formulate hypotheses about dependencies between variables, in the form of association rules or some other internal formalism. Fuzzy Sets: constitute a powerful approach to deal not only with incomplete, noisy or imprecise data, but may also be helpful in developing uncertain models of the data that provide smarter and smoother performance than traditional systems. Rough Sets: rough sets are a mathematical concept dealing with uncertainty in data and used as a stand-alone solution or combined with other methods such as rule induction, classification, or clustering methods  · The ability to seamlessly automate and embed some of mundane, repetitive, tedious decision steps not requiring continuous human intervention. Several steps are taken in processes or analyzes on selected data where the process involves of filtering, transforming, testing, modeling, visualization and documented the result or store accordingly in the databases or data warehouse. Each of the steps functions differently and has responsibility in carries out the process with the purpose to easier and produce the high quality of assumption by automate generate towards specific conditions. For example, data warehouse also keep previous analysis and this allow eliminating the redundant output at certain steps. Through Ma, Chou Yen, 2000, they stress the characteristics of data mining define how it assist to reach the end process of analyzing. It comprises: Data pattern determination: Data-access languages or data-manipulation languages (DMLs) identify the specific data that users want to pull into the program for processing or display. It also enables users to input query specifications. Therefore, users simply select the desired information from the menus, and the system builds the SQL command automatically. Formatting capability: It generates raw data formats, tabular, spreadsheet form, multidimensional-display and visualization. Content analysis capability: Data mining also has a strong content analysis capability that enables the user to process the specifications written by the end-users. Synthesis capability: Data mining allows data synthesis to be timely executed.  · Simultaneously reducing cost and potential error encountered in the decision making process. Basically, data mining can minimize the error of forecasting by following the steps of selected methodology in well manner to avoid delaying in making decision where this situation will giving big impact for the business area. Therefore, it must be careful in handling the data throughout the steps involves whereby the strategic plan should take into consideration includes of the objectives to done the analysis, the amount of data, the variables, the relationship between variables, test adopted, and so forth. Moreover, if there is need to discuss with the professional towards the study conducted and it should be included in the planning part. In the context of organization, usually a unit or group of people are given responsible to carries this duty to discover the hidden pattern for another department. Hence, the continuously meeting should be done between the professional and researchers to ensure the end result fulfill their requirement as well as to improve the performance of work er, department and organization. In term of reducing a cost, compare to the traditional research which take time in acquiring the data from respondents and it depend on the methodologies that are use and the number of sampling. If the questionnaire method, it can be done quickly and less time consuming but if the interviewing method is adopted, it surely take time and researcher have to meets the respondent more than one time, if there is an ambiguity or the answers not meet with the requirement. For certain study, the sampling are involves from the different location which require the researcher to travel in order to gain the genuine opinion from them and this will cost a lot involves of accommodation, food, flight ticket and so forth. For data mining, it uses the existence of data (for example, data of customer transaction, data of student registration, data of patient undergo the operation process and so on) that keep in data warehouse which mostly reduce cost in aspect of acquiring data. Other than that, researc her take first action by search for the study in the data warehouse when the objective being determine at the beginning of study because previous study are store in the data warehouse. If it is found tally, a few step will be skip or easily decided towards the data and it prove that data mining can reducing the cost as well as time. Refer to Gargano Raggad, 1999, data mining also derive long term benefit which the cost incurred due to the development, implementation, and maintenance of such systems by a wide margin. 4.0 The application of Data Mining Nowadays, data mining is widely use especially to those organization that focuses on consumer orientation. For example, retail, financial, communication, and marketing organizations (Palace, 1996). Besides it, healthcare area also gain benefit by apply the data mining into the daily operations. These various of field shows each of the organization carries different transaction where all of details keep in the databases which enables to perform analysis for multiple purpose likes to increase revenue, gain more customer, improve customer satisfaction and others. Moreover, again through (Palace, 1996) the existence data allow to determine relationships among internal factor consists price, product positioning or staff skills and external factor consists economic indicators, competition and customer demographic. Hence, there three examples of data minings application in different areas which are hotel sector, library scope and also hospital with the goals to reduce or eliminate the weakness by address it using the result that is interpret in well manner to assist in making decision for the best solutions. The examples are as follows:  · A data mining approach to developing the profiles of hotel customers. A study conduct by Min, Min Ahmed Emam, 2002 with the objective to target some of the valued customers for special treatment based on their anticipated future profitability to the hotel. There are a few questions regarding to the customer profiling: Which customers are likely to return to the same hotel as repeat guests? Which customers are at greatest risk of defecting to other competing hotels? Which service attributes are more important to which customers? How to segment the customer population into profitable or unprofitable customers? Which segment of the customers best fits the current service capacities of the hotels? The researchers adopt decision trees for analyzing the data from the abroad method of data mining methodology because the ability to generate appropriate rules using visualization and simplicity. There are three steps having to follows in this process and it includes: Data collection: the process of select data that suit with objective from the previous survey. Moreover, remove the unwanted data from databases by filtering out the excel file. Data formatting: the process of converted all data in the spreadsheet to Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS) for the purpose of classification accuracy. Rules induction: the process of selection of algorithms to building decision trees which is C5.0 to generate sets of rules that bring important clues in order for hotel manager to take further action. As the result, the researcher found that if-then rules as a useful in formulating a customer retention strategy with a predictive ranging from 80.9 per cent to 93.7 per cent whereas a predictive accuracy reflect to the rules conditions that affect by times (percentage).  · Using data mining technology to provide a recommendation service in the digital library. A study conducted by Chen Chen, 2006 with the purpose to provide recommendation system architecture to promote digital library service in electronic libraries. There are abroad of digital publication format likes audio, video, picture, etc. thus, it lead difficulties in analyzing or defining the keyword and content in order to gain information from the user to improve the service in the digital libraries. In the methodology section, there are two data mining models selected which consist o Ant Colony Clustering Algorithm; This model is capable to find the shortest path or reduce time to find the best output fit with the problem that existence in the organizations. Each of the steps has different function to enable they too see the relation among the variables It takes a few steps which are: Step 0: parameters and initialize pheromone trails. Step 1: Each ant constructs its solution Step 2: Calculate the scores of all solutions Step 3: Update the pheromone trails. Step 4: If the best solution has not been changed after some predefined iterations, terminate the algorithm; otherwise go to step 2. o Association rules to discover the hidden pattern. This model enables to find co-purchase items and assist in uncovered relationship algorithms in form of association rules. There are two main steps as follows: Step 1: Find all large item sets Step 2; use the large items set generated in the first step to generate all the effective association rules. As the results, these two models encounter more than one solutions and enable to gain a lot of recommendation that can be manipulate into various problem that exists in conducting digital libraries as well as to promote the usage in multiple level of user using the appropriate mechanism and providing suitable services.  · Using KDD process to forecast the duration of surgery. A study conducted by Combas, Meskens Vandamme, 2007 with the aim is to identify classes of surgery likely to take different lengths of time according to the patients profile as well as to allow the use of the operating theatre to be better scheduled. There are many issues arise in this field that lead to the study. For example, an endoscopy unit use of endoscopy tube (shared resources) during the surgery. However their availability is limited because it takes 30-45min to clean and sterilize each one. The scheduling of endoscopies (and all other operating theatre procedures) must obviously take into account the availability of these different resources. The researchers adopt Knowledge Discovery in Databases (KDD) process to analyze this massive data from the databases. The step as follows: Step 1: data preparation which the selected data must be fulfill of requirement includes secondary diagnoses, Previous active history and system affected. Step 2: data cleaning where filter data by concerning surgical procedures that had been performed at least 40 times (at least 20 times for combinations involving both surgery and specific surgeons). Step 3: data mining which to decide appropriate method to test on the portion of data which it involves rough set and neural network. Step 4: validation by comparison consist process of interpretation by comparing the result from two methods that perform data analysis in order to observe the rate of good classification. Then, researcher added up another three steps in order to fit with the objective that is proposed and to produce the best outcomes to forecast the durations of surgery. It consists of: o Step 5: Measuring the impact of predicting the duration of surgery on planning which in this step the duration of surgery supplied by the prediction models (empirical laws, rule-based laws, etc.) based on information stored in the database is used to feed a series of algorithms and heuristics for planning purposes o Step 6: Simulation involves the present time will allow to simulate the activity of the different theatre suites in terms of the operating sequence determined by planning methods on the two scenarios which are operating data and patients profile o Step 7: validation selection of the best model where the results supplied by the simulation model should enable to assess the quality of scheduling on the basis of a series of performance indicators likes the length of time for which the operating theatres are not in use, the number of potential additional hours, and errors in predicting the duration of surgery. As the results, researchers are not particularly satisfactory. The main problem seems to be the choice of variable grouping, which might possibly have an effect on prediction quality. 5.0 Conclusion As a conclusion, data mining can be consider as an effective and efficient way to discover or to transform the invisible to visible data that retrieve from databases which have capabilities to store huge amount of data by using the right tools in assist or enable to analyze, synthesis and manipulate the content of data for various purposes and often depend on the main businesses that carries out to define the target. From the discussion above, it can be seen that there are a lot of advantages when perform data mining especially in the business area which allow the organization to predict the trends, customer requirement, the relationship and so forth as early preparation can be identify in order to seek another or a few others way to ensure that organization can still operate their daily operation after determine that organization not agree towards the result have been gain. In order to produce the end result that satisfying the organization and minimize the error as it successfully implement the information in order to perform business transaction. The key variables should be assign in well manner meet or suitable with the objective that propose in conducting the study because it have to repeat the procedures when found the errors as the decision making process could not been done according to the timeline. 6.0 References Chen, Chia-Chen Chen, An-Pin. (2006 ). Using data mining technology to provide a recommendation service in the digital library. The Electronic Library. 25(6): 711-734. Combas, C., Meskens, N Vandamme, J. P. (2007). Using a KDD process to forecast the duration of surgery. International Journal of Production Economics. 112: 279-293. Forcht., Karen A. Cochran, Kevin. (1999). Using data mining and datawarehousing techniques. Industrial Management Data Systems. 99(5), 189-196. Gargano., Michael L. Raggad, Bel G. (1999). Data mining a powerful information creating tool. OCLC Systems Services. 15(2), 81-90. Goebel, Michael Gruenwald, Le. (1999). A survey of data mining and knowledge discovery software tools. ACM SIGKDD Explorations Newsletter. 1: 20 33. Imberman, Susan P. (2001) Effective Use of the KDD Process and Data Mining for Computer Performance Professionals. in International Computer Measurement Group Conference. Anaheim: USA, 611-620. Ma, Catherine, Chou, David C. .Yen, David C. (2000). Data warehousing, technology assessment and management. Industrial Management Data Systems. 100(3), 125-135. Min, Hokey., Min, Hyesung Ahmed Emam. (2002). A data mining approach to developing the profiles of hotel customers. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management. 14(6): 274-285. Palace, Bill. (1996, Spring). Data Mining: What is Data Mining? retrieved March 2, 2010, from: http://www.anderson.ucla.edu/faculty/jason.frand/teacher/technologies/palace/datamining.htm

An Analysis of Andrew Sullivans Let Gays Marry :: Let Gays Marry Andrew Sullivan

"Let Gays Marry" is an article written by Andrew Sullivan arguing that homosexuals should be given the right to be legally married in the United States. In this essay, Sullivan argues that homosexuals have just as much right to marry as heterosexual couples. Sullivan argues that throughout US history that the definition of marriage has been altered several times to accommodate changing times, and that it is time to recognize gay's right to marry. Throughout the article, Sullivan uses several sources to back up his argument, but also makes several comments to weaken his argument. To add to Sullivan?s credibility, he is an editor of The New Republic, which was established in 1914 with a mission to provide its readers with an intelligent, stimulating and rigorous examination of American politics, foreign policy and culture, the author of several books, including Virtually Normal: An Argument about Homosexuality, as well as having been published in several news magazines including Newsweek. Sullivan?s article is an inductive argument directed at persuading and perhaps even educating all people on why gay marriage should be allowed in the United States. Throughout the essay, Sullivan uses multiple techniques, including Pathos, Ethos, Logos, and even Mythos to squarely support his argument, all of which help to aid in the credibility of the topic. Sullivan?s argument, while generally successful, has some weak points. The argument is generally written in a very relaxed manner, which may or may not discredit the argument. People looking to argue against Sullivan?s article may view the relaxed format as a sign of lack of knowledge or support of the argument. On the other hand, being composed in accessible language readily understood by the general population, and not perceived as accessibly intellectual may help this argument appeal to a broader population. Having been published in Newsweek Magazine on June 3, 1996, Sullivan?s article seems to be credible. Newsweek is a credible news source, and generally publishes credible materials. Despite having been published in Newsweek, this argument is biased when in the first sentence Sullivan identifies himself as a homosexual. ?For the first time in Supreme Court history, gay men and women were seen not as some powerful lobby trying to subvert America, but as the people we truly are?? When Sullivan uses the term we, he is identifying that he himself is a homosexual, and therefore I must assume that he is arguing from a homosexual point of view, and not an unbiased point of view.

Legalizing Marijuana in the United States

I. Introduction Marijuana has been one of the most researched drugs in the history of pharmacology, and there is still considerable disagreement about its short-term and long-term effects. It was made an illicit drug in the United States, and many states have established harsh penalties for those convicted of possession of even small amounts. In the recent years, there has been a move toward decriminalization of marijuana (Bock, 2000). Marijuana is the name given in the United States to the drug produced from the hemp plant Cannabis sativa. The use of cannabis derivatives under such names as hashish, charas, bhang, and ganja is widespread throughout the world. The most active ingredient of the plant derivative is tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). The potency of this chemical is indicated by the fact that the average street sample of marijuana contains less than .5% THC (Weisheit, 1992). Some samples are considerably higher in THC content; thus, effects from the drug vary according to its quality, meaning its THC content.   The flowering parts of the plant contain the greatest amounts of THC (Goode, Pp. 567-575). These are usually dried and smoked, but they may be made into a drink somewhat like tea or blended into various cooking recipes. Somehow, marijuana has been used for some medications but it is not a valid ground to legalize it because it has negative effects to human bodies. Moreover, marijuana is still illegal in most places. Under federal law a person can be sentenced to up to one year in jail or a $5000 fine, or both, for simple possession of marijuana. Every year about 400,000 people are arrested for possession; about 80 percent are under age 26. II. Background A. Why should it be legalized? I personally agree that marijuana should be legalized because it is being used as legal medical therapy for several conditions. Careful studies have shown that it is effective in treating severe nausea in cancer patient undergoing chemotherapy. Older patients seem to respond less well than younger patients and complain more about side-effects, including feeling â€Å"stoned.† Researchers are continuing studies of marijuana’s possible usefulness in reducing pressure within the eye in glaucoma and in treating muscle spasticity (Earleywine, 2002). Most people use marijuana for the altered states it produces. These states are a little easier to control than those produced by other hallucinogenic drugs, unless the dosage is very high. At low to moderate dosages, hallucinations are not present. Instead, the person typically reports of calmness, increased sensory awareness, changes in space and time, and increased appetite, often with a craving for sweets. In addition, marijuana has been used for thousands of years, both as a medicine and for its intoxicating effects. In the form of tablets, marijuana is frequently prescribed to relieve the nausea and vomiting that often accompany chemotherapy. Moreover, most people use marijuana for the altered states it produces (Kreit, 2003).   These states are a little easier to control than those produced by other hallucinogenic drugs, unless the dosage is very high. At low to moderate dosages, hallucinations are not present. Instead, the person typically reports of calmness, increased sensory awareness, changes in space and time, and increased appetite, often with a craving for sweets. Many researchers too have concluded that smoking marijuana is no more dangerous, and perhaps even less so, than smoking cigarettes or using alcohol (Nadelmann, 2004). B. Pros and Cons Many perceptual and emotional effects follow marijuana smoking. Sensory experience may become more intense; smells are richer, textures feel more sensuous, objects are seen as more beautiful, sounds are more brilliant, and ideas flow more freely, although they may be disjointed. The person may experience an emotional high in which he or she feels joyful, tranquil, and happy. The effects of marijuana, however, are like those of other drugs; they very much depend on the person and the setting. Taken in a pleasant, relaxed social situation, marijuana can be quite unpleasant (Earleywine, pp. 123-156). Also, people who are naturally paranoid, suspicious, or aggressive may become more so under the influence of marijuana; the calm, better-adjusted users are more apt to experience a euphoric high. Its non-medical use, however, is illegal in the United States and most other countries. The penalties for possessing or using marijuana are, in many states, as severe as those imposed for the possession or use of much more potent drugs (Goode, 2000). Many argue that marijuana is no more harmful than cigarettes and liquor and should be legalized. The growing consensus of research on marijuana would suggest that it is not a safe drug. Indeed, it is doubtful whether any drug taken frequently by choice is advisable. The issue, though, is frequency of use. The literature on chronic users of marijuana—that is, people who use it a lot and over a long period of time—suggests rather strongly that there are serious deficits in some cognitive abilities such as memory. In addition, heavier users experience some undesirable personality changes, problems with sleep, deficits in psychomotor abilities such as driving, and changes in motivational levels that produce apathy and a lack of striving for achievement (Schlosser, 1994). Finally, there are a number of factors that influence the effect of a particular drug. There are factors associated with the drug, including its purity and the method of its purity and the method of its administration. Subject variables that are important include body weight, metabolic rate, whether or not the person has eaten, general state of health, and previous experience with the drug. In trying to predict how any one person will react to a drug, these factors, and many others, must be taken into account. But there is another important variable that plays a major role in drug reactions, and too often its effects are overlooked (Souder, 1998). That variable is the user’s expectation of the drug’s effect. Research has shown that the experience many drug users will have is not just a result of the physiological and biochemical changes produced by the drug, but also depends on how they think they are supposed to respond, or how they see others around them responding. These factors must also be considered when evaluating the reasons for altered states of consciousness through drug use. a.) Respiratory effects: Because marijuana smoke is deeply inhaled, retained in the lungs, and contains many of the same harmful ingredients as tobacco smoke, users show signs of impaired lung functioning when compared to nonusers. Like tobacco smoke, marijuana smoke contains carcinogenic agents, but since many pot smokers also tobacco, it has been hard to isolate marijuana’s impact on lung cancer. At this point, the evidence is merely suggestive (Earleywine, 2002). b.) Immune system:   Animal studies have suggested that marijuana can dampen the body’s resistance to disease, but no studies have been done to confirm or refute this danger in human beings (Earleywine, 2002). c.) Mental effects: While there is no evidence that marijuana causes the brain to shrink, it can lead to amotivational syndrome, which researchers define as a mental dulling, emotional blunting, and loss of drive and goal-directedness (Earleywine, 2002). III. Conclusion In conclusion, in the last decade marijuana dealing has become a multibillion-dollar business, ranking right behind General Motors and Exxon. Throughout the world, marijuana seems to be the fourth most popular mind-altering drug, following caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol. However, marijuana use seems to be on the decline nationally, especially among young people in high school and college. At low moderate doses, marijuana acts somewhat like alcohol and some tranquilizers, and like alcohol, the drug takes effects within minutes. Unlike alcohol, marijuana at low doses does not dull sensation but may cause slight alterations in perception, so that it is unsafe to drive a car for as long as 4 to 6 hours after a single joint. After the thorough studies, I therefore conclude that marijuana should be legalized because it has positive effects if properly used. On the other hand, the use of marijuana should be case to case basis and should only be used for medications. 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