Truth in Literature Essay Example for Free

Truth in Literature Essay The truth provides different functions to different people. Truth to some people is simply boring so they choose to alter it as much as possible. This is also known as lying. Others try to run away from it, they simply cannot deal with reality. Some even go to the extreme by living their while life as a lie, while trying to deceive others. The truth in literature, as I perceive it, is something that only the reader can decide as being fact or fiction. There is neither right nor wrong to the information you obtain. The option is in your hands, and you are the one who should decide eventually if what you read or hear is fact, fiction, valuable, important, or useful for your future. Marta Martin may have omitted certain emotions or occurrences in order to appear stronger and more heroic to a reader. Richard Rodriguez lied to himself throughout his life in order to make himself believe he was better than his past. Finally, W. D. Snodgrass lied to everyone around him and even to himself, while chasing female students, in order to maintain an appearance of an upstanding professor. The story of Marta Martin can be very strange to some, but others can see her as a hero. Marta Martin was a pregnant woman who found herself caught in a terrible storm in the middle of Alaska. She was forced to survive on her own and there was no one else to help her. Marta kept a diary where she described how she managed to survive. In her diary she described a day when she killed a sea otter with an ax, peeled his skin, and ate his liver and heart. When you read her story you try to imagine a woman doing all that, but it gets harder when you realize that most pregnant women find even the smallest chores difficult. I tried to imagine a woman, but all I could invision was a man. What is even more interesting is that there was no emotion mentioned in the diary. There were no complaints, or pain, and she never mentioned the fact that she might be scared staying at the house all alone with her baby due very soon. She wrote about events that required emotional strength and physical characteristics not common to a young pregnant woman. Marta never once mentioned fear or apprehension that I feel even a man might feel in those circumstances. Many who read her story would be astonished to think that she accomplished all that alone. Many others will consider her a liar. In the beginning of her story she mentioned the reason as to why she choose to tell her story I can hardly write, but I must. For two reasons: first I am afraid I may never live to tell my story, and second, I must do something to keep my sanity. (martin,301) I believe she wrote the story not because she wanted to keep her sanity. Clearly she had plenty of work to do before the baby came, but she chose to write her story so that no one will forget her, so that everyone who will read this story sees her as a hero. A woman who did what would be impossible for most women out there. I dont know Marta Martin, though somewhere in my heart I believe that the truth is quite different. The truth is, that as a woman, she must have been scared and lonely. Im sure that she had many nights she found herself crying and praying for help. The truth, as I see it , is that there is no woman in this world who can kill an animal , get trapped in snow storm, live all by herself pregnant, and not mention a word of fear . However, it is not up to me to tell the truth. I’m simply the person who read it, and chooses to accept it, or interpret it differently. Marta Martin wanted to remain a hero. She wanted everyone to remember her as a hero. And with all that she did, that woman is a hero with or without mentioning a word or two of fear. The truth might be far different than what she chose to portray in her diary, but the fact is that she did survive, she did kill the sea otter and peel his skin, and she did have her baby. Thats the truth. What happened in between is her choice to tell us, and it is our responsibility to accept it or not. Richard Rodriguez altered the truth in a different way than Marta Martin and for a different purpose. Rodriguez was boy who wanted to be different from his middle class immigrant family. As a child Richard read as many books as he could, he used to always be the one to answer teacher’s questions and soon became smarter then his siblings and even his parents. His family couldnt really understand why he was so fascinated in reading books all the time and his brothers and sisters used to make fun of him. Even the other pupils in the class did not like him since he was the smart one. Later on, when it came time to choose a college, he chose the one far from home, far from his family. By then, he was embarrassed by his family’s lack of education and attempted to isolate himself as much as possible. In college he did very well and when he used to come back home he had nothing to share with his family. He thought that they would not understand anyhow, so why even bother. In the end the author wrote the truth about the typical school boy, in the end Rodriguez came to face the painful truth. He realized that in attempting to run from the past, run from his family, he lost something so profound and important that no matter how hard he would attempt to restore it, he would not succeed. He became more nostalgic for what was never really there, and for the thoughts of what might have been. Rodriguez was attempting to escape his family, but in doing so he faced the truth that in his heart he actually desired to be closer to his family. His goal was to become educated and felt that educated people were more admired. What he learned was all memorized; he did not learn intuition, creativity, interpretation, or how to solve complex problems. â€Å"Faithfully I wrote down all that they said. I memorized it:† I heard it all. But there was no way for any of it to mean very much to me. † (Rodriguez,670) W. D. Snodgrass lied to everyone around him and even to himself and reflects on this in a poem called â€Å"April inventory†, where an old man give the reader a glance of his life as a teacher. Through that window we discover information that some will consider as inappropriate, or even disturbing. His reality is far from been normal to me, yet he consider it as been of his everyday life. Through his poem, he demonstrates how he becomes older. He loose his hair at some point and also his teeth. At the same time he describe the way he sees the girls he is teaching . to him they are always young and slender and pinker every year. He also, creates a big scandal in our society, which he hides from the authorities. I have not learned there is a lie Love shall be blonder, slimmer, younger: That my equivocating eye Loves only by my bodies hunger That I have forced true to feel Or that the lovely world is real Eventually when I read the poem more carefully I discover that the truth is far more disturbing that just the way he sees himself comparison to the girls he is teaching. I realized that by saying† †¦love should be blonder slimmer younger â€Å" he implies that his goal is to sleep with the girls in his class. His only goal was sexual and not educational in purpose, and teaching was the last thing on his ‘to do list’. Therefore, he was lying and deceiving everyone into believing he was a teacher who was concerned about the education his students receive. While the awful truth is that he cared more about his looks and that fact that he is getting old and not the education. The truth is that he cared more to the fact that he can not sleep with them anymore for he is too old now. The truth as I see it in this poem is that he knows the truth but he choose to live a fantasy. â€Å"I have not learned how often I can win, can love, but choose to die. † (Snodgrass, 7) . He as an adult, authority figure knows very well the consequence to his actions. He is well aware of what he has done; he can part from right and wrong, yet he chooses a life of a lie. I feel he was also lying to himself to ignore that he was growing old; he was trying to convince himself he was still young and attractive by sleeping with younger girls. From these stories, and many others, truth can mean different things to different people. Truth can be very hard to deal with and is part of personal growth, as we see in Rodriguez’s story. Truth may be simply boring or make a person appear less heroic as in Marta Martin’s story. In other cases the truth is extremely exaggerated to the point when the author is living his whole life as a lie, as seen in the poem â€Å"April Inventory†. Truth, to me, is essentially the most important virtue in our life. But I won’t judge those who choose to change it for literature. I won’t point a finger and call them liars, for I might embellish the truth sometimes too.

Factors Which Affect Peoples Travel Patterns Tourism Essay

Factors Which Affect Peoples Travel Patterns Tourism Essay This essay will discuss the extent to which the form and structure of the city, along with its transport network influences individual travel patterns. The different types of areas within metropolitan Perth will also be taken into consideration. Due to the fact that the size of a city correlates with its density, the densest cities tend to also be the largest cities, which will in turn mean that people living in such a city are expected to embark on longer commutes. According to Brindle, there is a small but significant relationship between residential density and car ownership: a large increase in residential density is associated with a small decrease in car ownership. It can also be deducted that the primary determinants of car ownership in a home include the size of the household, income, and the number of workers per household. Transit availability is also a significant factoring determining car ownership. (Brindle R 2003) Recent research shows that peoples travel behavior is related to certain characteristics of the built environment. This kind of travel behavior which includes trip-making frequency, distance and time travelled havebeen studied for a variety of land use patterns, street networks and streetscape design features. Table 1gives a synthesis of past research on urban form and travel behaviour relationship. Broadly, it can beobserved that studies related to urban form and travel patterns originate from diverse sources andencompass a variety of geographic scale and locations. To add to this diversity, many differentcharacteristics of urban form too have been examined in these studies and travel patterns have beenmeasured in a number of ways. This section brings together the urban form indicators used and results ofrecent studies concerning urban form and travel patterns.Travel patterns are a result of individual choice to pursue activity at another location, choice ofdestination, choice of mode, choice of route and time (Munshi, 2003). Thus travel is a function ofcharacteristics of the base location (origin of the travel) and the environment surrounding the baselocation. The surrounding environment to the base location has been studied in various terms, e.g.through distance to opportunities, like distance to city centre or sub centres. Distance to the city centrehas been studied in relation to travel distance and transport energy consumption by (Naess and Sandberg,1996; Stead and Marshall, 2001; Mogridge, 1985). Another indicator of the surrounding environment tothe base location is related to the mixing of land use as this is assumed to affect the physical separation ofactivities in the environment surrounding the base location and therefore is a determinant of travel Page 3 XIII Back to menu Retour ausommaire 3 demand. It has been mainly measured as the job ratio and has been studied in relation to journeyfrequency in (Ewing, 1995) as well as in relation to proportion of trips made by non-motorized modes in(Cervero, 1989). The proportion of residential to non residential use has also been studied in relation to atransport mode index in (Zhang and Guindon, 2006). An aggregate measure of land use mix (termed asdiversity) was examined by Cervero and Kockelman (1997), who report a link between land use mix andtotal non-work travel distance. The provision of local facilities and services may clearly reduce traveldistance and increase the proportion of short journeys capable of being travelled by non-motorizedmodes. Winter and Farthing (1997) reported that the provision of local facilities in new redevelopmentreduces average trip distances. Hanson (Hanson, 1982) reports similar findings, showing that theproximity to local facilities is positively associated with average distance taking into account averagesocio-economic characteristics of the trip maker. The type of neighbourhood at the base location is alsoknown to affect travel as reported in Cevero and Kockelman (1997). They found that neighbourhoodswith high proportion of four-way intersection and limited on-street parking abutting commercialestablishment tended to have an average less drive-alone travel for non-work purposes. Factors which affect peoples travel patterns Humans are naturally built to move around and travel. As soon as a person starts growing and has the strength, the person begins to go to various destinations and starts crawling around the house or running around, or walking to a friends house. As adults we frequently hurry to vehicles to go off somewhere. According to their age and other socio-demographic factors, people travel to various places by many modes. As it is though, the environment in which we currently live is planned for and traditionally suited to automobile travel. This narrow transportation planning vision compromises all of our travel decisions, but increasingly so for children and the caregivers who must provide them transportation to their important activities such as education and social events (Beauumont and Pianca 20023.2 Transportation Mode and Spatial Learning Although studies carried out by cognitive mapping researchers point to a connection between spatial learning, and travel patterns, not much can be concluded about the manner in which existing transportation infrastructures affect peoples travel patterns and route selection. Recent research suggests that transportation infrastructure and modal networks such as transit routes, sidewalks, local streets, bike lanes, freeway networks and roads does have an effects on the travel behavior and the development of cognitive maps.The hierarchical nature of both transportation networks and land use systems in an urbanenvironment can affect the cognitive mapping process. In general, the more significant aparticular pathway or landmark is to an individuals navigation, the more it will dominate thecognitive map (7). The hierarchies of pathways in a region, such as highway and freewaysegments dominating arterial and main roads, which in turn dominate local community andneighborhood street systems, contribute to the hierarchical organization of cognitive maps. Infact, individuals will recognize elements in the environment more quickly if primed by a cue Mondschein, Blumenberg, and Taylor6from the same portion of their regional hierarchy. Zannaras also found that the layout of a citysignificantly explained variations in the accuracy of wayfinding and location tasks (20). Sectorally-organized cities proved the more effective for remembering locations, whileconcentrically-organized cities made wayfinding and location tasks more difficult. Likewise,familiarity, or route learning, is clearly an important part of both route selection and modechoice because familiarity is dependent on repeated experience. Stern and Portugali highlighttwo aspects of route familiarity: [1] Familiarity with city structures, specific experience of a given locality in the city, and a general familiarity with the road hierarchy, signage, and traffic also affect peoples travel patterns. People who made use of different modes of transportation and travel tend to develop different degrees of familiarity with each transport system. This shows that individuals who use different transportation networks, will understand the same urban environment from differing perspectives. For example automobile users and transit users, will understand a given city in very different ways. Much of the scholarship on cognitive mapping has focused on drivers and the street andhighway network (22). This emphasis is likely due to the dominant role of automobiles as wellas the route flexibility associated with using the street network. Yet preliminary evidencesuggests that cognitive maps are differentially shaped by alternate transportation modes. Forexample, we know that individuals who rely on public transit or walking, on average, travelshorter distances and travel less frequently than those who travel by motor vehicle. Therefore,one can hypothesize that the scope of their spatial knowledge would be more limited anddifferently configured (by, for example, the network of transit routes) than those who rely onautomobiles and can travel longer distances at greater flexibility and speed. The quality and detail of spatial maps also may differ by mode. In a study of childrentraveling to school, active modes of travel, such as walking and biking, appear to contributemore to the development of spatial knowledge than passive modes of travel, such as beingchauffeured by an adult or riding in a school bus. Specifically, walking and cycling to schoolhave been found to increase knowledge of the environment in comparison to children who arebused (23). These results suggest that variation in transportation mode may result in verydifferent levels of functional accessibility for individuals from otherwise similar socioeconomicor cultural backgrounds. Finally, research also suggests that travel behavior is influenced by perceptions ofdistance which affect the decision to stay or goà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦the decision of where to goà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦[and] thedecision of which route to take (24). Cognition of environmental distance is influenced bypathway features, travel time, and travel effort which are substantially different depending ontravel mode (25). The characteristics of travel by transit, which include indeterminate waiting attransfer points and walking trips between services, may add to cognitive distance in a way thatauto travel does not.Drawing on a path-based theory of spatial learning, differences in cognitive mapsbetween socioeconomic groups may also be explained at least in part by the different travelpatterns of those groups. Certainly, adults in higher income households are more likely to havereliable access to automobiles. In contrast, over one quarter of low-income households do nothave automobiles and are transit dependent (26). But transit use is also high among adults inlow-income households with automobiles since oftentimes there are too few vehicles toaccommodate the number of household drivers. In addition to the well documented role that cognitive maps play in explainingwayfinding and route choice, we hypothesize that travel by different modes in more or lesstransit- and pedestrian-friendly areas systematically manifests in individuals cognitive mapsstructured more by transit networks (i.e. transit lines, stations, and stops) than by the arterials,Mondschein, Blumenberg, and Taylor7collectors, and local streets that make up urban street networks. In other words, a modallyspecific wayfinding experience significantly and systematically influences the formation ofcognitive maps. And these maps, in turn, influence trip generation, trip distribution, and modechoice The impact of differences in socio-demographics on personal travel behavior Individuals generate extremely complex travel-activity patterns as they participate in daily activities at different times and in different locations many researchers have conceptualized this observed behavior patterns as the outcome of choices made within constraints. The preferred activity choices utility maximization is employed. Maintenance of an individuals schedule is the key service, this helps activities to be scheduled, the individuals all have an agenda and all negotiate with other individuals to schedule social activities more especially negotiating about participants, location and time. Individuals update their state after participating in an activity and this depends on their satisfaction with their activity and no doubt individuals will come across new people as a result of this activities Another important service happens to be the maintenance of a personal network because just as their activities are influenced by their social network, their network in turn is influenced by their activity participation; individuals may visit or learn about new locations, they will also keep track of these locations they are familiar with, they will likely share them with others which is a form of influence Interaction design: interaction between agents are an important component of agent- based applications. Agents have agenda, interact and negotiate with others to schedule social activities and it includes participants, locations and time, agents interactionx have several components, the negotiation set ( the possible proposal) strategies, a rule to determine that the interaction is complete (Wooldridge, 2002) Fatima et, al (2002) explains three methods for dealing with issues in multi-issue negotiation: all issues discussed together, issues discussed separately or issues discussed one after the other. It has been shown that proposing complete deals at each step is computationally more complex because it has such advantage as pareto optimality (Fatima et al 2006). For the negotiation set, list of activity pattern has been developed including the activity purpose and location as well as indication of which acquaintances are likely to be involved and when interacting with colleagues likely during the week while weekend is for family visit In the model, it is difficult to decide issues independently eg the activity is likely to determine time, location etc and the order they should be discussed, should the activity or the location be decided first? However the choices sets for certain issues are decided independently. The protocol proceeds as follows the host proposes an activity to one or more of its acquaintances eg time and location could be there the respondent gives possible days and time they will be available, the host adjust the time to make it convenient for many to be available the respondent suggest location, the host creates intersection amongst those received, the host creates list bof potential activities, the respondent ranks them the host determinesa best activity based on every ones ranking and informs respondent of the details The effects of urban form and structure on personal travel behavior The relationship between city structure and travel behavior has been extensively researched by urban economists, geographers, and city planners. There has been a steady increase in the rate of car ownership and use in the twentieth century. There also seems to have been a steady decline in the use of transit and other modes, and the decentralization of both population and employment. Trends in travel and land use have complimented and re-enforced one another: growingcar ownership generated demand for highways, development of the highway systemchanged accessibility patterns, and population and jobs responded to these new patternsof accessibility (Jackson, 1986; Muller, 1981, 1995). By 1990, the suburbs of USmetropolitan areas were home to about 62 percent of the metropolitan population and 52percent of the jobs. At the same time, per capita car ownership and travel have reachedall-time highs (Pisarksy, 1996). 1 This section is drawn from Giuliano, 2000.2 See reviews by Giuliano, 1995; Anas, Arnott, and Small, 1998; Pickrell, 1999. From a broad perspective, city form, structure, land use and transportation trends are quite closely related. However, the historical record does not necessarily provideuseful evidence for understanding land use and transportation at a single point in time,and the empirical research on relationships between daily travel and land usecharacteristics is far less clear. Metropolitan Size and DensityExtensive research has been conducted on the relationship between metropolitandensity and modal split, commute trip length and total automobile travel. Newman andKenworthy (1989a, 1989b, 1998) conducted comparative studies of per capita gasolineconsumption and metropolitan densities. A comparison of cities around the worldyielded a non-linear relationship of increasing per capita gasoline consumption withdeclining density. Their work has been extensively criticized, primarily because percapita fuel consumption is an indirect measure of auto travel and because they fail toaccount for many other factors which affect automobile use, such as the employment rateor household size (Gordon and Richardson, 1989; Gomez-Ibaņ ez, 1991). Pushkarev and Zupan (1977) documented a positive relationship betweenpopulation density and transit use, using data from 105 urbanized areas for 1960 and1970. Gordon, Richardson, and Jun (1991) found that cities with higher average densitieshave longer automobile commute times than those with lower average densities. Notingthat density is a measure of concentration, the authors conclude that shorter commutesindicate greater efficiency of low density urban form: decentralization of both populationand jobs allows people to economize to a greater extent in selecting their job and housinglocations. The effects of various transport networks and service patterns on personal travel behavior. The personal travel environment can be described in terms of such dimensions as à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Location à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Access to the central-place system of the region (Christaller, 1933) à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Access to work, shopping and leisure facilities à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Provision of infrastructure facilities à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Public transport supply à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Settlement structure and density à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Topographybut also in terms of certain configurations, such as suburban structures, urban blocks or de-tached house-settlements. As an outcome of this differentiation and of the functional separa-tion in general, the individual environments offer different opportunities with regards towork, shopping or leisure activities.This paper analyses the interactions between these spatial dimensions, the individual charac-teristics of the travellers and the observed travel behaviour. The Personal Travel behavior of various individuals is affected by transportation network and service pattern in a city. This personal travel behavior which includes both the short-term and long-term travel choices of individuals in the city constitutes some central elements like car ownership and season tickets for public transportation, as well as destination, mode, activity and choice of location. Going by recent research and literature, there hasnt been any consensus reached about the effects of city spatial structure on personal travel behavior. Generally, there are differeing opinions about thsis. Some studies suggest that the impact of transportation network and service pattern on personal travel behavior is rather small (Bagley and Moktharian, 2000; Schimek, 1996;Petersen and Schallabà ¶ck, 1995; Downs, 1992; Schmiedel, 1984). Some other studies lean towards the conclusion that at least some variables are dependent on the transportation network, spatial structure and service pattern obtainable in the city. (Ewing andCervero, 2001; Newman and Kenworthy, 1999; Wiederin, 1997; Holz-Rau, 1990; Sammer etal., 1990). Travel behavior is also affected by accessibility of facilities. this also goes to show the efforts of the surrounding residential area on individual travel behavior. If a person is able to reach a range of facilities within walking distance, then the probability of a locally oriented travel behavior with smaller distances will increase, as well as increased number of walking trips The reason for this contradiction is not a basic difference in the assumptions accepted, butrather the selected spatial variables and the approaches used. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Spatial structure: For example, some investigations concluding space- independence of travel behaviour characterise the spatial structure of areas only bythe number of inhabitants a variable known to have little explanatory power inother investigations, either. According to other studies the accessibility of facilities is one of the most important spatial variables (Kitamura, Akiyama, Yamamoto andGolob, 2001; Handy and Niemeier, 1997; Simma, 2000). à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Approaches used: The question, whether the analyses are conducted at an aggregate or disaggregate level, has influence on the results. Mostly, the results at an aggregatelevel are more conclusive than the results at a disaggregate level. One reason for thisis that other factors influencing travel behaviour are normally not included in aggre-gate models. But especially these factors can be very important, as disaggregatemodels have shown (Bagley and Moktharian, 2000; Simma 2000).The remainder of the paper is organised as follows: First, the study area and the computationof accessibility measures is described followed by a description of the data source used forthe analysis. Then the modelling approach Structural Equation Modelling is briefly out-lined. The core of the paper is the discussion of disaggregate person-level models for twomain trip purposes (shopping and working). The results are summarised and interpreted in thediscussion. Based on this recommendations are given. 2. Study area: Upper Austria The general focus of the study the interactions between the spatial structure, personal char-acteristics and travel behaviour cannot be investigated without a specific spatial frame. Inthis case, the Austrian province (Land) Oberà ¶sterreich was selected for two main reasons. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Availability of suitable travel survey data: The provincial government of Up-per Austria conducted a very detailed and quantitatively rich travel survey in1992, whose data was available for the study. Additional spatial variables foreach municipality were added. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Small Austria: Upper Austria can be regarded as a scale model of Austria.All regional types which can be found in Austria also can be found in UpperAustria a big agglomeration from an Austrian perspective, alpine regions, in-dustrial areas and less developed rural regions. Page 5 2.1 General description Upper Austria is one of the nine Austrian provinces. It is located west of Vienna, east of Mu-nich and south of Prague. It has a size of 12000 km ² and about 1.3 million inhabitants. At avery general level Upper Austria can be divided into three parts into the Bà ¶hmische Massivin the north of Upper Austria, the Alpenvorland in the centre of the province and the Alps inthe south.The northern part of Upper Austria is disadvantaged in several ways. This area is neither wellsuited for agriculture nor for tourism. Additionally the border to the Czech Republic wasclosed for the five decades of the Cold War. As a result, the opportunities for industrial de-velopment after World War II were limited. The situation is different in the other parts of Up-per Austria. The Alpenvorland is the centre of agriculture and industry, including a number oflarge scale factory complexes in the main cities. Half of the population lives in the Alpen-vorland, and 13 of the 15 largest towns are situated here. The Alps, especially the Salzkam-mergut with its lakes and the skiing areas, are dependent on tourism, including second-homeownership.Upper Austria consists of 15 districts, three cities with district status (Linz, Steyr and Wels)and 445 incorporated municipalities. The respective district capitals are both centres of thelocal administration, as well as of shopping and industrial location for their area. Linz is thecapital of the province and by far its largest city. The 445 municipalities are very different intheir spatial, socio-demographic and economic characteristics. The provinces overall struc-ture can be characterised as follows (see Table 1 for a more detailed description of the spatialattributes). à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Distribution of the inhabitants: 26% of the municipalities have less than 1000inhabitants, 40% of the municipalities have between 1000 and 2000 inhabitantsand further 18% of the municipalities have between 2000 and 3000 inhabitants.Only one municipality has more than 100000 inhabitants Linz. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Location of the municipalities: The location of a municipality can be describedby two distance-variables the distance to the relevant district capital and thedistance to Linz. For the districts along the border to the Land Salzburg, Salz-burg is the relevant main centre for employment and shopping. The distance toSalzburg replaces the distance to Linz for all municipalities, where more resi-dents recorded trips to Salzburg than to Linz. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Number of accessible facilities: The number of accessible facilities is a meas-ure for the supply of activity opportunities for a particular household. It is high,if a household can reach a shop, a supermarket, a bank, a post-office, a kinder- Page 6 garten, school, a pharmacy and a doctor in walking-distance (ten minutes). Itequals zero, if the household cannot reach any facility within this time. In everymunicipality there are at least some households which cannot reach any facilitywithin a reasonable walking distance. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Share of working women: Between 25 and 50% of the women in a municipal-ity are working. This variable is used in the models, because it characterises theimportance of the traditional nuclear family and the sex-specific division of la-bour within the municipalities. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Commuting: Because workplaces are mainly concentrated in Linz and the dis-trict capitals, people in the small villages often have to commute. In some mu-nicipalities more than 80% of the working adults are commuters. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Share of farms: In some communities, the agriculture is still dominant indicat-ing a relatively low state of development. The importance of the agriculture maynot only be shown by its share of employees, but also by the share of farmsamong all buildings. The latter variable is especially interesting because manyfarms are run by farmers on a part-time basis.Table 1Descriptive statistics for the municipalities of Upper Austria (445 municipalities) MeanStandarddeviationMinimumMaximumNumber of inhabitants308110530245208727Distance to district capital1710059Distance to Linz (Salzburg)46210143Number of reachable facilities (mu-nicipality level)2.61.407.2Number of reachable facilities(household)3.93.208Share of farms1912069Share of commuters62111584Share of working women3642550 These figures are calculated for each single municipality without considering the neighbour-ing municipalities and their attributes. Statements across municipal borders can be made byapplying accessibility-measures. Page 7 2.2 Accessibility measures There is a wide range of possible definitions for the term accessibility, such as the potentialof opportunities for interaction, the ease of spatial interaction or the attractiveness of anode in a network taking into Travel is derived from activities that involve people participating in things such as school, work, sport, shopping, social events leisure. Activities that is non-discretionary such as work and school can be explained in part by the travelers socio-demographic characteristics and generalized travel cost (Hackney and Marchal, 2007). Other things not easily predictable are long term decisions such as moving to a particular town, participating in other activities etc, the reported purpose for a large number of trips are social and leisure ranging from 25 to 40% for various countries (Axhausen 2006). Interest people in activities participation is as well driven by our changing use of information communication technology, the need for physically visiting places is drastically reduced by the use of internet for activities such as banking, shopping and participating in online communication or conversation and in overall, it affects peoples travel behaviors. People could change their activity schedules and their transport plans on the fly as a result of receiving information via a mobile phone whilst traveling or participating in an activity outside the home. A graphic representation of individuals and their relationship could be seen in social network, if these social networks are well understood it will lead to a better prediction of social activity schedules and forecast of travel patterns and demand for urban facilities more especially those that have to do with social and leisure activities. The understanding of these social networks comes in handy in influencing the urban design of residential areas and public spaces in order to encourage participation in social leisure activities in local communities. Trip destination is determined by the members of ones social network because that is where the social activities go towards. Mc Pherson et, al. (2001) defined homophile as principle that contact between similar people occurs at a higher rate than among dissimilar people, some of the attributes used as similar measures includes age, social class, occupation, abilities etc. distance plays a key role in the maintenance of relationships. McPherson et al (2001) claim that the most basic source of homophily is space because according to him we are more likely to have contact with those who are closer to us in geographic distance than those who are distant. People influence each other by providing information or observing behavior eg a friend tells you about a barbing saloon and you wish to go get a haircut there. Other factors that indirectly influence travel behaviors includes moving closer to ones workplace, family or choice of vehicle. Greater proportion of travel has to do with social/leisure purposes; there is every need to understand the reason behind these. Agent based modeling is commonly used for applications where the behavior and intentions of heterogeneous individuals as well interactions between individuals is required. Lists of attributes have been presented by Bonabeau (2002) and Macaland North (2006) that systems should possess in order for agent based modeling to be considered include; relationship form and dissolve, agents have dynamic relationship with other agents, agents have a spatial component to their behaviors and interactions . These are complex relationships and interactions between individuals and the individuals situated ness in an urban environment, each agent will have some level of satisfaction and will derive utility from sharing objectives, if along the line they are not satisfied with this current situation, then they will try to change it. The same applies to their involvement in the community, it depends on their needs The environment has a network representation derived from the actual road network. These links contain attributes for the actual distance and ideas of travel times for different modes. Nodes exist at a point in space and mostly contain location that represent where joint activities take place or can be undertaken; there are different types of location and each type has a set of attributes, the major distinction between private and public residence (eg museums, parks, restaurants, gyms etc) they have opening hours Personal social network defines each persons acquaintances, each pair has a type of relationship (eg friend, work etc) and can also tell how long they have seen each other, this model also contain neighborhood, here groups are formal and informal clubs that the individual is a member of eg special interest clubs, sports club etc, here the individual is effectively connected to many people, some connections may remain as friends even when the individual has left the club, t

Case for Investment: Space in USA

Case for Investment: Space in USA Sun Yudong Ever since the dawn of man, mankind has been gazing at the sky in wonder. Space, has always been a mysterious place, a place where the frontier of science and innovation are put to the test, a place where 99% of what we have yet to discover exists. In the present era, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (better known as NASA) and the NSF[1] are the forefronts of space exploration and scientific research in the USA and they have no doubt played a key role in many of Man’s greatest achievements. NASA could even take credit for mundane items such as quartz timing crystals and bar-code scanners. The Sad Situation Space is a difficult, dangerous but exciting $300 billion industry worldwide. However, despite space being the final frontier, with many against space exploration, NASA has only received 0.48% of the US Federal budget, only half a cent for every tax dollar. NASA is getting a pathetic amount of funding. In 2008, $700 billion[2] was spent by the US government to revive the economy, which was way more than the 50-year running budget of NASA. In 2013, US spent more than $3.45 trillion, with more than $600 billion going to defence, but with only $17.7 billion going to NASA, a tiny portion of worldwide spending on space. The allocation of funds is warped and there is just simply not enough funding going towards space exploration and scientific innovation, the seedling of hope, the future of the US economy. Over the past four decades, instead of NASA, we could have had at least six additional MIT’s. Consider all of the research that our single MIT has produced during that period, all of the students taught and leadership provided. For all the gains that NASA has made, its opportunity costs are far greater. Keith Yost, The Tech (MIT) Staff Columnist argument against NASA funding What is even more infuriating is that, even though the budget for NASA has been decreasing, the money saved were not put to good use. For example, US plans on spending more than $200 billion in the next decade to maintain nuclear weapons when they are almost useless. The one thing I convinced myself of after all these years of exposure to the use of nuclear weapons is that they were useless. They could not be used. Colin Powell, Former Secretary of State Figure 2 NASA Budget over the years. Retrieved August 31, 2014, from: http://www.penny4nasa.org/ However, NASA did get a substantial amount of funding and this increased steadily in its infancy and peaked in 1966 at slightly more than 4.4% of the Federal Budget, before plummeting to the current meagre 0.48%. Because of this, the campaign â€Å"penny4nasa† was launched in 2012 to fight for an increase in the budget for NASA, through advocating the economic, scientific and cultural value of NASA. With this as a trigger, the paper will look at the different factors that led to the establishment of NASA, the decline in the budget, and ultimately explore why we should invest in space, and space exploration. Why NASA was set up The roots of NASA could be traced back to October 4, 1957. On that day, the world’s first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, was launched. This surprise success of the Soviets in the midst of the Cold War horrified the US and triggered the Sputnik Crisis that became part of the bigger Space Race. US was afraid, afraid that the Soviets would become more technologically advanced, that the Soviets would fire a missile at US, that US will lose its place on the global arena. Out of the fear factor of Sputnik, many policies were put in place. The National Defense Education Act (NDEA) was passed by congress to increase educational standards to allow more people to become scientists and engineers. And on July 29 1958, the National Aeronautics and Space Act was signed, establishing NASA. It took over the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) and currently is the United States government agency that is responsible for civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research. With motivation from Sputnik 1, and large funding, many space programs were quickly developed and put into action. The Decline in Budget Throughout the Apollo Missions that ultimately aim to go to the Moon, NASA was very well funded, and all developments were extremely rapid. US was still in fierce competition with the Soviets. In 1969, the historic Apollo 11 mission put the first man on the Moon, and puts US in the lead ahead of the Soviets significantly. However, when US realised that the Soviets were not ready to go to the moon, the rate of progress in Space Exploration slowed. This was because, with the Soviets unable to catch up with US technological abilities and the Cold War becoming increasingly less intense, people were no longer as fearful of the Soviets as before, nobody was really interested in the STEM[3] fields anymore and those congressmen without NASA facilities in their state felt absolutely no reason why NASA should get so much funding as an increasing proportion of people want more welfare instead. As discussions went on the Congress, NASA naturally got increasingly less budget, resulting in the current situation. After all, congressmen work for the people, or they will lose their position in the next elections. However, I believe that they have failed to realise and consider the significance of NASA and space exploration on the culture and economics of the society. Significance of NASA and Space Exploration Social and Cultural Space is not a special interest, unlike what many people may think. Space exploration inspired a whole generation to dream about tomorrow, a tomorrow made possible by scientific innovations, in a time of turmoil. It provided a different kind of hope, a hope that our lives will change for the better. The homes of tomorrow, the transportation of tomorrow, all these ingrained in the many issues of magazines. Space frontiers, engineering frontiers were being breached almost weekly. Space influenced our culture, our zeitgeist. It galvanized the whole nation to want to work towards Tomorrow, influencing our creative minds, our culture. For example, almost every science fiction cartoon made in and after the 1960s had rockets with fins, fins of the V2 Rocket used in NASA missions. (Figure 3[4]) We saw space influences everywhere, even in Hollywood. Space exploration also inspired a whole generation of Scientists and Engineers as Innovation made the headlines. No special programmes were needed to attract them. There is a cultural presence of these activities. From 1968 to 1972, there has been a sharp significant increase in the number of students pursuing education and career in these fields. (Figure 4[5]) With the Space program, heroes were made. Space exploration is a force acting on the education pipeline and inspired a whole generation to join the scientific community. Space exploration also had a direct impact on the cultural asset of the human race. When we looked back from the moon, we rediscovered Earth with a whole new perspective, without borders, without conflicts. We saw earth as nature intended it, we saw earth as a whole. It is possible to see that Earthrise (Figure 5[6]) marked the tipping point, the moment when the sense of the space age flipped from what it meant for space to what it means for Earth Robert Poole, Earthrise: How Man First Saw the Earth It inspired us to take time off amidst the war to start thinking about Earth and nature. This is what sparked off a series of events: Figure 6 Timeline of Space Missions with happening events All these would not have happened so quickly without space exploration, without us looking back at earth to realise that earth is a home that is worth protecting. Economic Beyond culture, space exploration has also brought about economic benefits. Satellites, GPS, intercontinental communication, the Internet. All of these has been directly or indirectly influenced by space exploration, and has had a huge impact on our lives as man. By breaching space and engineering frontiers, there were innovations, spin-offs. Space exploration and engineering drives innovation, the fuel for our capitalist economies. In fact, the satellites that we use to transmit TV signals, to transmit Internet packets, to communicate globally, could only have been brought about by government-initiated space exploration. This is because space is expensive and has incalculable risks, and it is a venture only a government could have successfully led. In fact, innovation drives the economy so much so that one of the main messages of Robert Solow’s[7] work has been that a large proportion of the economy is driven by technological advancement. Conclusion As goes the health of space faring ambition, so too goes the emotional, spiritual intellectual, creative, economic ambitions of a nation Neil deGrasse Tyson, 2012 In conclusion, space exploration is not a special interest group, and its significance is far and outreaching. With NASA being the frontier of space exploration, more funding should to be given to the agency, not as a handout, but as an investment that is able to penetrate our culture and transcend generations to reach greater heights. References Belleflamme, P. (2012, September 25). How to make innovation drive economic growth? Retrieved September 6, 2014, from http://www.ipdigit.eu/2012/09/how-to-make-innovation-drive-economic-growth/ Bilstein, R. E. (1996). From NACA to NASA. In NASA SP-4206, Stages to Saturn: A Technological History of the Apollo/Saturn Launch Vehicles (pp. 32–33). NASA. Retrieved from http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4206/ch2.htm#32 Burrows, W. E. (1998). This New Ocean: The Story of the First Space Age. New York: Random House. Retrieved from http://www.amazon.ca/This-New-Ocean-Story-First/dp/0679445218/ref=sr_1_1?s=booksie=UTF8qid=1280690435sr=1-1#reader_0679445218 Demographic Trends: Undergraduate and Graduate Education. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.princeton.edu/~ota/disk2/1985/8507/850705.PDF Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson: Launch Keynote: 28th National Space Symposium. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLzKjxglNyEfeature=youtube_gdata_player Hunt, T. C. (2013, December 16). National Defense Education Act (NDEA). In Encyclopà ¦dia Britannica. Retrieved from http://global.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/404717/National-Defense-Education-Act-NDEA Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Nuclear Weapons (HBO). (2014). Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Y1ya-yF35gfeature=youtube_gdata_player NASA. (2005). The National Aeronautics and Space Act. Retrieved September 3, 2014, from http://www.nasa.gov/offices/ogc/about/space_act1.html National Science Foundation. (n.d.). Retrieved September 5, 2014, from http://www.allgov.com/departments/independent-agencies/national-science-foundation?agencyid=7341 Neil deGrasse Tyson We Stopped Dreaming (Episode 1). (2012). Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbIZU8cQWXcfeature=youtube_gdata_player Office of Management and Budget. (n.d.-a). Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2013. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington 2010. Retrieved from http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/budget/fy2013/assets/budget.pdf Office of Management and Budget. (n.d.-b). Retrieved September 4, 2014, from http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb OMB-President Obama’s 2013 Budget-Summary Table. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/budget/fy2013/assets/tables.pdf Penny4NASA | Penny4NASA is a nonprofit striving to increase NASA’s funding to 1% by encouraging popular support for NASA through education and outreach. (n.d.). Retrieved September 8, 2014, from http://www.penny4nasa.org/ Photo 17 of 58, Apollo 11. (2009, June 4). Retrieved September 3, 2014, from http://imageevent.com/afap/spaceandscience/apollo11;jsessionid=hmk1oipnb3.camel_s?p=16c=4n=1m=-1w=2s=0z=1y=2 Rosenberg, J. (n.d.). President John F. Kennedy Gives Man on the Moon Speech. Retrieved September 19, 2014, from http://history1900s.about.com/od/1960s/a/jfkmoon.htm Space Race. (2014, September 17). In Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Space_Raceoldid=625983337 Special Message to Congress on Urgent National Needs. (1961). Washington, D.C. Retrieved from http://www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/xzw1gaeeTES6khED14P1Iw.aspx Sputnik crisis. (2014, September 14). In Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sputnik_crisisoldid=622755710 Temple-Raston, D. (2008, October 3). Bush Signs $700 Billion Financial Bailout Bill. National Public Radio. Retrieved from http://www-cdn.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95336601 V-2 rocket. (2014, September 19). In Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=V-2_rocketoldid=626151508 We Stopped Dreaming (Episode 2) A New Perspective. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFO2usVjfQcfeature=youtube_gdata_player Wilford, J. N. (2009, July 14). On Hand for Space History, as Superpowers Spar. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/14/science/space/14mission.html Yost, K. (2010, April 9). Should we cut NASA funding? The Tech, p. 6. 1 [1] The National Science Foundation (NSF) is a United States government agency set up to support fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. The National Institutes of Health is the medical counterpart of NSP. [2] Amount of money spent on Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, to bailout the U.S. financial system [3] Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics [4] (Clockwise) MundodelPene, Start einer V2 [Photograph] (1943), Retrieved September 3, 2014, from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_141-1880,_Peenemà ¼nde,_Start_einer_V2.jpg, [Rocket Cartoon Image], Retrieved September 3, 2014, from: http://www.clipartbest.com/clipart-aiqenRx6T, 1956 GM Firebird II [Photograph] (n.d.), Retrieved September 3, 2014, from: http://www.carbodydesign.com/archive/2010/06/top-ten-concept-cars-of-the-fifties/ [5] Doctorate Degrees in Science and Engineering by Field and by Year, 1958-83. Retrieved September 15, 2014, from https://www.princeton.edu/~ota/disk2/1985/8507/850705.PDF [6] Figure 5 NASA / Bill Anders (1968) Earthrise over the moon [Photograph], Retrieved September 03, 2014, from: http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/alsj/a410/AS8-14-2383HR.jpg [7] Nobel Prize Laureate in Economics in 1987

Essay --

Abortion. Don’t Do It Women get abortions all over the world, and there are several reason why they get them. What they don’t know is that they’re hurting themselves. They’re hurting another human being. Scientist did a study and it shows that the fetus can feel pain while being aborted. A women should not get an abortion, because they are killing a being that didn’t ask to be here,the fetus can feel pain , it can cause post traumatic stress disorder, and other bodily issues. The fetus that is being aborted had no choice on whether or not it wanted to be here or not. Since it’s not right to murder someone outside of the womb, how is murdering an infant, a person inside the womb any different? The fact of the matter is it’s not. Abortion is murder that goes unnoticed by the law. It takes away a defenseless life that probably could’ve been a great asset to the world. Alot of people don’t know that the fetus can feel pain. Some doctors tell the patient that the fetus can’t feel anything.Truth is the fetus can feel every bit of it, and getting an abortion causes a violent a...

The Internet: Few Rules and No Ethics Essay -- The Wild Wild West, 201

Laws regulate what we do in our everyday life. These rules, however can not keep up with technology. Laws existing to regulate the internet are few and difficult to enforce. A crackdown on internet misuse has begun with the creation of filtering software and the prosecutions of internet offenders. Issues such as child pornography and seducing children over the internet, the downloading and manipulation of copyrighted files and images, and the sharing or accessing of people’s private and personal information are just some of the ethical challenges we face in cyberspace. According to Maxwell Taylor and Ethel Quayle in â€Å"Child Pornography: An Internet Crime†, individuals who are involved in the world of internet child pornography are escaping from their real world lives. The two authors interviewed 13 different convicted offenders in order to understand what happens in this fantasy world and why so many are being lured in (victims, as well as offenders). Through their many conversations they discovered that there is a kind of community created over the internet. One where adult males (and a few adult females) collect and trade pictures of kids and teenagers (of all ages, sometimes including babies) who are posing nude or even involved in any sexual act with an adult. Most of these images are used for personal sexual gratification. There are some who use them like money to get more of these kinds of images, and like money in the physical world, the more you have the higher you are in status. The internet makes their interest readily available, giving them access to this kind of information in massive amounts and in seconds. This underground world becomes an addiction, and often leads to interaction w... ...ng doing, that there is harm being caused, and that they are responsible for their actions is, in my opinion, the first step that needs to be taken to solve this ethical dilemma. Works Cited Taylor, Maxwell and Ethel Quayle. Child Pornography: An Internet Crime. New York: Brunner & Routledge, 2003. Williamson, Larry and Eric Pierson. The Rhetoric of Hate on the Internet: HatePorn’s Challenge to Modern Media Ethics. Journal of Mass Media Ethics. Volume 18, pp.256-267. Tompkins, Paula S. Truth, Trust, and Telepresence. Journal of Mass Media Ethics. Volume 18, pp.194-212. Kitross, Michael John and A. David Gordon. The Academy and Cyberspace Ethics. Journal of Mass Media Ethics. Volume 18, pp. 286-307. Nissenbaum, Helen. Hackers and the Contested Ontology of Cyberspace. New Media and Society. April 2004 volume 16, pp. 195-217.

Censorship in Literature Essay

The works of J.D. Salinger, Harper Lee, and John Steinbeck are recognized as classic literature masterpieces that have been read by young students across the nation. Books such as the Catcher in the Rye, To Kill a Mockingbird, Of Mice and Men, and many more have all been banned from schools at one point since being published (Top). The banning of books in schools is considered as censorship. There has been much controversy concerning the offensiveness of the profanity, racial comments, and sexual content these books are said to have. You would expect that readers nowadays be used to these types of elements in the books they read, but many school administrators still continue to censor specific books in hopes of keeping their students away from bad influences. To Kill a Mockingbird, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, and Huckleberry Finn have all been challenged since the 1970’s because of the racial comments made throughout the books. The Catcher in the Rye, The Diary of Anne Frank, and The Red Pony are just a few examples of books that have been challenged because the sexual content these books contain (Censored). If one were to read one of these books nowadays, it would be because a teacher had assigned the book to the student as a reading assignment. Would a teacher demand his students to read the first one hundred pages of a book if they thought the book had vulgar language and disturbing sexual content in it? It is understandable why a school would forbid its students to read books with adult content in it in the early to mid 1900’s because of the sensitive subjects the authors were writing about. Racist language was offensive to all races. The sexual content exhibited by the author in his books was offensive to the people that consider that the sexuality of a person is to remain clean and pure. Now in the 21st century, sensitive subjects such as racism, sexuality and even profanity are the least bit of a readers worries. Our opinions on what should be censored in literature have changed since the 20th century. The reasons for censorship in literature have expanded from racism and profanity to religion and witchcraft as the years have passed. Bless me, Ultima by Rodulfo Anaya, and the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling have been banned because it is said that these modern books promote witchcraft, which is beyond offensive to many religions (Banned). In our current generation, all people worry about is how books will harm our religion and way of living. Racism and profanity is not much of a worry because most of our society has grown past racism and has grown used to the fact that profanity is something we encounter everyday. So, why are some of the most popular classic novels still banned from some schools across the nation? It is believe that although our society has matured in the past century, schools still have some sort of policy which states that â€Å"books must be age appropriate and related to [the] school curriculum† (Coatney). Many schools believe that buy censoring literature they are preventing kids from being exposed to adult content, but in reality, what schools believe that specific books should be rated â€Å"R† are really rated â€Å"PG-13† to the minds of their students. Although schools and parents support the idea of censoring books because of their adult content, they do not realize that rather than protecting them, they are keeping them away from what can be valuable lessons. Books such as To Kill a Mockingbird and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn can contribute to the lesson that racism was never fair to begin with. By reading The Catcher in the Rye, the youth can learn that there is more to life than just violence and sex. Students can truly learn from the books that have been censored throughout these many years because â€Å"high school students are evolving and learning to formulate their own opinions in life†, regardless of the amount of vulgar language, sexual content, and violence that is in the books they choose to read (Censorship). However, there should be limits to how much adult and offensive content there is in books. For example Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf is a book that encourages racism and violence while other books only promote the importance of goodness by exposing the bad. Books such as that are the type of books that can do some harm to the youth of our society. Also, there are some books in present day that should be censored because of their sexual content. Fifty Shades of Grey, written by E.L. James is, for example, too outspoken for the young readers of today. The sexual content in The Catcher in the Rye would be considered to be nothing compared to the work of E.L. James. Although every book cannot be kept away from each student, the books that are labeled as too explicit should at least be the ones to be banned from schools. Censorship has played a large role in literature ever since authors have experimented with the types of stories they can create by using different types of adult content to get their lesson across. Many classic literatures that have been taught in schools for many years have been censored many times since the first time they were published, but people still find a way to make a positive lesson out of those books regardless of the content demonstrated by the author of the book. It is possible that one day books will not need to be censored because of how exposed our future generations will be due to what is exhibited out in the real world for everyday people to see. Works Cited â€Å"Banned & Challenged Books.† Good Reads. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Jan. 2013. â€Å"CENSORED BOOKS IN THE USA.† Bulletin 43 over Censored Books in the USA. Office for Intellectual Freedom, n.d. Web. 19 Jan. 2013. â€Å"Censorship: The Negative Effects Parents Don’t Know About.† Yahoo! Contributor Network. N.p., 11 May 2009. Web. 21 Jan. 2013. Coatney, Sharon. â€Å"Banned Books: A School Librarian’s Perspective.† Time.com. N.p., 22 Sept. 2000. Web. 20 Jan. 2013. â€Å"Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books: 2000-2009.† American Library Association. N.p., n.d. Web.18 Jan. 2013.

People’s Attitude Towards Abortion in Australia

People’s attitude towards abortion in Australia Abstract: The hypothesis, â€Å"It is apparent that in Australia people are not supportive of abortion. † would be tested in the report. The aim of it was to reveal the current views of people in Australia towards abortion, under the circumstances of different age and cultural background. A questionnaire about justified reasons, legalization and values on abortion was constructed and the target group would be 20 international students and 20 local Australians. The international students were mainly Chinese, and a few from South-East Asia. Though most participants did not have a really strong stance of supporting abortion or not, when there were further questions about Pro-choice behaviour and legalization of abortion, it was discovered that participants were actually in respect of freedom of choice, and agreed that abortion should be legalized. Therefore it could be said that comparing the 2 sides, participants were rather supportive to abortion. Based on the results, extended researches covering a larger target group which could mostly represent different cultural groups could be conducted to test whether abortion was really generally acceptable or not or could it be legalized under all cases. Introduction Abortion had been a controversial issue for hundreds of years, discussions and debates were always held to argue whether it should or should not be declared legal. This issue was crucial at all time because the attitude towards it were mainly influenced by various important values of life like morality, human rights and freedom of choice, adding that they were the key factors to determine whether it should be declared legal. â€Å"Abortion can be defined as the expulsion or removal of an embryo or foetus from the uterus of the pregnant mother† (Blade, 2008). It could be divided into two types. First, the â€Å"spontaneous abortion† occurs when the mother’s body ejects the foetus due to different reasons, usually natural ones (without human effort). This report focused on another type of abortion, â€Å"induced abortion†. This was what people usually mean when they use the word abortion. In other words, it was the â€Å"termination of pregnancy†. After the Federation in 1901, abortion was handled by the British Offences Against the Person Act of 1861. In the act, abortion was illegal , no matter under what circumstances. However, since then, abortion would be legal in some cases under the law. For instance, Natasha,(1998), suggested that under the McGuire ruling (1986) in Queensland, abortion could only be legalized when the mother was in threat that abortion could preserve her life or health. Another case that abortion could be legalized was that if the newborn baby would die immediately or within a short period. For the current legislation about it in Queensland under the Queensland Criminal Code, the viewpoint remained similar that the court would prohibit abortion unless the mothers life or health is in danger. Though, it did not reveal any response on the change of attitudes of people towards abortion. The aim of the report was to reveal the current views of people in Australia towards abortion, under the circumstances of different age and cultural background(international students versus local Australians). It appeared that nowadays more and more people were supportive to abortion. This view would be supported by the results from survey and then a discussion part of it would be included and at last the conclusion and recommendation would be formulated. Methodology: Questionnaires about the attitudes of abortion of people were used to collect data for the report. A qualitative methodology was used. The reason for choosing it was because the report focused more on depth, rather than quantity. According to the Family Health International (2005), a qualitative research provided information about the â€Å"human† side of an issue, which was often contradictory. It could also interpret the complex reality or create a better understanding to a specific situation and the implications of the qualitative data. Another important point was that it could help identify intangible factors (age, gender, nationality, religion, etc) in the report. These factors were the keys that influence a person’s attitude toward the issue. The emphasis of the questionnaire was to understand participant’s standpoints for or against abortion, therefore 10 out of 14 questions were about their opinion, the rest were 3 attribute questions and 1 knowledge question. The total number of participants was 40. There were altogether 20 international students studying in Australia and 20 local Australians completed the questionnaire. Among the participants, 23 of them were female and 17 were male. In the student group, 2 of them were under or below 18 and 18 were at the age of 19 to 30. Among the local Australians, 6 of them were between 31-45 and another 14 were 45 or above. A point to note was that for the international students, 15 of them were Chinese. To make sure the information would be kept secret, no questions were about identity or other private information. The questionnaires were given out in two ways. The first way was to distribute them at school and at homes, and another way was to distribute them through the internet. Participants were quite interested to the questionnaire as they thought that it was a controversial issue. However in the process, participants found confused with the last open-ended question about the relationship between culture, age and abortion as it was not required to state reasons but lines were given. Moreover, due to a lack of time in completing the questionnaire, i. e. in 5 or 10 minutes, the data collected might be distorted. Results: The purpose of the questionnaire was to find out the attitudes of people in Australia towards abortion. Questions were divided into 3 main categories: justified reasons for abortion, legalization of abortion and viewpoints and value towards abortion. For the justified reasons for abortion, a total of 8 choices were given to participants and they could choose more than one answers, including: 1. psychological reasons e. g. resisting abrupt change of life 2. economic reasons e. g. financial burden of raising children 3. unwanted babies e. g. pregnant in mistake 4. caused by rapes 5. unready for responsibility 6. as problems with relationship or wants to avoid single parenthood 7. mother has health problems 8. has already all the children she wanted or all children are grown From the questionnaire, participants thought that the most justified reasons for abortion were â€Å"economic reasons† and â€Å"pregnancies caused by rapes†, both of them make 62. 5% of the total. The next would be â€Å"unready for responsibility† (35%), â€Å"unwanted babies† (32. 5%), à ¢â‚¬Å"mother has health problems† (30%), â€Å"problem for relationship or wants to avoid single parenthood† (22. 5%), â€Å"psychological reasons† (12. %) and the least justified reason would be â€Å"has already children she wanted or all children are grown† (10%). For another category, legalization of abortion, there was an open-ended question asking the participants about one pros and cons of abortion. For the pros, there were several main ideas. First, people thought that after legalization of abortion, risks could be reduced as people no longer find doctors with no license to abort. Secondly, it would a respect to freedom of choice of people. Thirdly, there would be fewer children grown up in an unstable environment. For the cons, people also got similar ideas, for instance, abortion was against the respect of life, i. e. killing innocent life. Also, people could be more irresponsible as they could abort legally. For the last category, viewpoints and values towards abortion, 6 questions were raised. Majorities believed that abortion was becoming common nowadays (25% strongly agree, 50% agree). For the question about whether the people’s views towards abortion was changing, bigger part of them agree with the statement (20%strongly agree, 40% agree) buy quite a number of people maintained neutral (32. %). For the question â€Å" it is inhuman and should be banned†, the 2 sides were almost balanced (5% strongly agree, 32. 5% agree versus 7. 5%strongly disagree and 37. 5% disagree), about 17. 5% people chose to be neutral. In the question of freedom of choice, it was quite one-sided that it should be highly respected (40% for both strongly agree or agree, adding up to 80%). Asking about if it was acceptable in all cases, disagreement (20% strongly disagree, 42. 5% disagree) was more than agreement (32. 5% agree). Though, quite a lot of people thought that they would have different views upon abortion in different cases (35% strongly agree, 32. 5% agree). For the last open-ended question about the relationship between age, culture and views towards abortion, the main ideas of the participants were that aged people, i. e. age group of 45 or above, would be more conservative and therefore have a negative view upon abortion. Moreover, they thought that people with different culture, particularly â€Å"westerners† in the Chinese’s eyes, would be more open and accept the idea of abortion. Discussion and conclusion: The aim of the report was to reveal the current views of people in Australia towards abortion, under the circumstances of different age and cultural background (international students versus local Australians). From the results, we could see that many participants did not have a really strong stance of supporting abortion or not, only a few do. For instance, about 70% of the participants agreed that they would have different views upon abortion in different cases. The most â€Å"justified† cases would be pregnancies by rapes and economic reasons (It was logical that according to Thomson Reuters (2009), an income group of US$39,100 – $65,800 would need a total of $170,460 a year to raise up a children form 0 to 17 year old). Yet, there were enough data to test the hypothesis. There were data supporting the hypothesis. From the results, participants who did not fully support abortion were mainly female or Chinese, whom thought that abortion was inhuman and should be banned. The number made up 32. 5% of the total participants. The reason behind was that female themselves would have real experiences in giving birth so they would have deeper thoughts than male. For Chinese participants, they were young but at the same time they were also deeply influenced by a traditional style of education. The curriculum focused on teaching people to have right values stated by the Confucius and other great figures. According to Vivien (2006), the vice president for education at the Asia Society, china should move away from the traditional forms of practices and adopt a broader curriculum to achieve the goal of becoming a real modern society. Despite there were data supporting the hypothesis, it was in a small proportion. We could find more data that was contrary to it. It also proved that people at older ages might not be conservative. Participants, mostly Australians (mostly aged 45 or above), were rather Pro-Choice. It was because of the trend of abortion. It was becoming more and more common. According to a table drawn by Wm Robert Johnson (2008), the abortion percentage rose from 15. 6% in 1984 to 21. 5% in 2006 in Australia. It might also be because of the cultural background. Comparing to country like China, westernized countries emphasized more on freedom of people. From the results, there were 32. 5% of the total participants who thought abortion was acceptable at all cases. Most importantly, over 80% of them agreed that people should respect the mother’s decision. The data was supported by a report by Monash University (2002). It included a survey on AES voters and candidates (about 2000 people are surveyed a year) about their attitudes towards abortion, from 1987 to 2001. The percentage of people choosing the criteria â€Å" Woman should be able to obtain an abortion readily when they want one† rose from 38% to 59% from 1987 to 2001. On the other hand, the percentage of people choosing the criteria â€Å"abortion should not be allowed under any circumstances† dropped from 6% to 3% in that period. Another evidence was that when participants were asked about whether abortion should be legalized, 65% of them thought that it should be legalized. From the above, we could understand the current views of people in Australia towards abortion, at different ages and cultural background. Though people did not have a strong stance of supporting abortion or not, we could find more evidence showing that people were actually more Pro-Choice than Pro-Life, in other words they would be more supportive to abortion, especially in recent years where abortion was more commonly found. Recommendations: Concerning the implications of the report findings, it was quite obvious that more people in Australia were actually supportive to abortion, based on their Pro-Choice attitude and the agreement of legalizing abortion. The scale and the target groups of the report were small that might distort the real opinion throughout the country. However, based on the report findings, extended researches could be done in examining whether abortion was generally acceptable or not and the possibility to further legalize abortion, as participants of the questionnaire could already clearly state some pros and cons of legalizing abortion. The research should cover a larger target group as Australia was rather multi-cultural. People in different culture could have their views in according to the religion, which was also important in this issue and not discussed in this report. To conclude, though the report did not represent most age and cultural groups in Australia, it could be the basis of further research in testing whether legalizing abortion was possible. References: Blade 2001, â€Å"Should abortion be legalized in Queensland, Australia? †, Available at http://www. bladesplace. id. au/abortion-law-queensland. html C. Natasha 1998, â€Å"Abortion law in Australia†, Law and Bills Digest Group Family Health International 2005, â€Å"Qualitative Research Methods: A Data Collector’s Field Guide†, p. 1-2 â€Å"People and Place† 2004, Monash University, vol 12, no. 4 , p. 25 S. Vivien, E. Owens 2006, â€Å"Education Abroad: The China Syndrome†, Edutopia magazine Thomson Reuters 2009, â€Å"The cost of raising children†, available at: http://moneycentral. msn. com/articles/family/kids/tlkidscost. asp Wm. Robert Johnson 2008, â€Å"Historical abortion statistics† available at: http://www. johnstonsarchive. net/policy/abortion/australia/ab-aust-qld. html