The San Jose Tech Museum of Innovation :: Technology Tourism Galleries Essays

The San Jose Tech Museum of Innovation Living in the heart of Silicon Valley, technology plays a very important role in the everyday lives of the people who populate it. Large portions of this population are children. When we think of our children, we think about the future of this world. As a group, we believe that our job as a society is to introduce technology to children in an enlightening and fascinating manner. By doing this, we can inspire children to become innovators of technology and apply this to the future of technology. The San Jose Tech Museum of Innovation is a place that dedicates itself to introducing technology in a very attractive style. The 132,000 square foot facility houses four permanent themed galleries and over 250 exhibits (www.thetech.org/about/factsheet.cfm). The museum is also home to "The Spirit of American Innovation, an exhibit about the National Medal of Technology, the nation’s highest honor for technological innovation" (www.thetech.org/about/factsheet.cfm). Inside, everyone, whet her they are children or grandparents, everyone gets to participate in hands-on activities that teach and introduce them to a variety of activities ranging from the beginning steps of web-design, riding and designing an Olympic bobsled to participating in a virtual heart surgery. With all the wonders that exist in this museum, children have the opportunity to learn about technology in a variety of different forms and are able to "discover new insights into technology and the process of innovation through exploratory activities" (www.thetech.org/about/mission.cfm.). People of all ages engage in the exploration and experimentation of the technology that affects their everyday lives. Exploring the Tech Museum of Innovation and the activities it presents and offers to children, as well as others, helped us to better understand and learn of the positive ways in which technology is presented to our youth. In this report we first discuss our rationale and focus, describing the importance of the Tech Museum of Innovation and the connection it makes with the representation of technology, particularly for children. In the second part we identify the research question that we investigated. We then illustrate how we gathered and analyzed our data. Following this, we apply a number of course concepts to specific examples in order to answer our research question. Finally, we discuss how the implications of our analysis relate to communication and technology and how our findings support or do support what we have looked at in class.

Harriet Ann Jacobs Essay

In the autobiography, â€Å"Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl†, it tells the story of a female slave named Harriet Ann Jacobs. Losing her mother and father at such a young age, she experienced firsthand the account of a slave life. She deliberates in great detail the humiliation, sacrifice, and struggle specific to female slaves of the late nineteenth century. Though she understood the risks involved in publishing an account of her life, she moved forward with the idea and published her story under the pseudonym Linda Brent. Harriet Jacobs was born into slavery in 1813 in Edenton, North Carolina to Delilah and Elijah. While growing up she enjoyed a relatively cheerful life until she was six years old when her parents died. After the death of her parents, Harriet and her younger brother John were left to be raised by their grandmother, Molly Horniblow. Molly was an older woman who was well respected in the slave community, as well as by the slave owners. She was never mistreated, and she frequently baked goods for the people in her community. Harriet Jacobs gained the knowledge for all of her educational essentials from her first mistress, Margaret Horniblow. She taught Harriet how to read, write, and sew which gave her advantage over the rest of the slaves. It also would attract some unwanted attention. Margaret would later on will Harriet to her twelve year old niece whose father would subject Harriet to aggressive and unrelenting sexual harassment. Dr. Flint sexually harassed and physically abused the teenaged Harriet for as long as she was a servant in his household. Afraid that one day Dr. Flint would make his antics reality, she began to have an affair with a prominent white lawyer named Samuel Tredwell, whom she later on beared two children for. Instead of discouraging Flint, she enraged him. He then sent Harriet away to a life of hard labor on a plantation he owned, threatening to break in her young children as field hands, seeing that they legally belonged to him. She soon ran away from the plantation and spent seven years hiding in a tiny attic crawl space in her grandmother’s house. During those seven years she put to use the skills that her first mistress had taught her, and watched over her children through a small chink in the roof. Being cramped in the attic for so long, left her permanently physically disabled. In 1842, Harriet was finally able to escape to the north, and found work as a nanny in the household of a prominent abolitionist writer, Nathaniel Parker Willis. She later on is reunited with her children in New York, and farther down the line her employer purchases her freedom from Dr. Flint. While reading this autobiography you acquire a feeling that is very unusual. Most slaves that you hear about usually have harsh lives and are extremely unhappy, but in this particular case it was the complete opposite. Harriet’s life wasn’t hard not one bit. She was never mistreated because her father’s mistress found her to be very appealing, and she didn’t have to do any hard labor. But, she also wasn’t allowed her freedom which is what she anxiously longed for. That particular entity is what places everything into perspective. At the end of the day whether she liked it or not, she was still a slave. She could not walk away from her situation, she could not undertake everything that she wanted to do, and she definitely could not enjoy her life to the fullest because she belonged to someone, and that someone was a jealous, aggressive man named Dr. Flint. Harriet Jacobs insisted on telling her story honestly and completely, determined to make white Americans aware of the sexual victimization that slave women commonly faced and to dramatize the fact that they often had no choice but to surrender their virtue. Jacobs knew that her contemporaries would see her not as a virtuous woman but as a fallen one, yet she published the story anyway. She wanted to bring light to a situation that slave women faced every day. She was an incredibly strong woman for doing so, and by directly confronting the cruel realities that plagued African American women in the late nineteenth century, Harriet’s work occupies a significant place in African American literary tradition.

“Only the Lover Sings” by Josef Pieper Essay

â€Å"Thoughts about Music†Ã¢â‚¬ Ã¢â‚¬ ¦music prompts the philosopher’s continued interest because it is by nature so close to the fundamentals of human existence† (Pieper 39). In the section, â€Å"Thoughts about Music,† from Josef Pieper’s Only the Lover Sings: Art and Contemplation, discusses music and the intriguing question, â€Å"What do we perceive when we listen to music?† (40). Pieper answers this question by quoting Schopenhauer, who claimed music, â€Å"does not speak of things but tells of weal and woe† (42). This makes sense because it relates to â€Å"man’s good,† and our yearning for perfect happiness. When listening to music certain emotions surface, as Plato stated, â€Å"Music imitates the impulses of the soul† (Pieper 45). Thus, to truly understand what we perceive when we listen to music, one must understand what is being expressed, and not simply â€Å"listen.† For many, music can be an â€Å"out of body experience,† something that truly reveal’s man and his meaning in life. Some may argue that music is simply â€Å"†¦a means of personal enchantment, of escapism†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Pieper 50). How one views and interprets music truly reveals one’s character, because, â€Å"music lays bare man’s inner existential condition,† (Pieper 50). In addition, Pieper continues to answer the question of what we perceive when we listen to music, by quoting other philosophers and the ideas of Western philosophical traditions. â€Å"To repeat: thus has the nature of music variously been understood in the Western philosophical tradition- as nonverbal articulation of weal and woe; as wordless expression of man’s intrinsic dynamism of self-realization, a process understood as man’s journey toward ethical personhood, as the manifestation of man’s will in all aspects, as love. This, for instance, is the meaning of Plato’s statement that ‘music imitates the impulses of the soul’, or as Aristotle puts it: music is similar to ethics and related to it. The same tradition continues in remarks by Kierkegaard, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche when they say that music ‘invariably is the expression of an immediacy as no interfering medium is involved’; or (Schopenhauer) that of all the arts it is music that represents the will itself; or (Nietzsche in his interpretation of Wagner) that music lets us hear â€Å"nature transformed into love†Ã¢â‚¬  (Pieper 44-45). The philosophy of music is something that can be interpreted differently by all. Pieper uses sufficient evidence to support the claim that music does in fact play an important role in man’s true character and how he views his life, and ultimately his existence. Reference: Only the Lover Sings: Art and Contemplation by Josef Pieper

From Acres of Diamonds essays

From Acres of Diamonds essays In Russell H. Conwells essay, From Acres of Diamonds, he talks about money being the root of everyones purpose to live. In order to support and argue Conwells ideas the principles from the proverbs on money can be looked at. Money is something that is generally accepted as a medium of exchange, a measure of value, wealth reckoned in terms of money, or a means of payment (according to the Encyclopedia Britannica. Money makes the world go round and ever person needs money in order to survive. In a short list of lessons, summarized by Greg Herrick, Ph.D. on the proverbs and the idea of money, there are eleven principles which the Bible states in relation to money. One quote taken from the bible is, Righteous people can have great riches that involve no trouble. The truer a person is the more money he can account because nothing is holding him back. The more honest a person is the more people trust that person and want to work under that person, which makes the honest man a rich and wealthy man. As Conwell states, The men who get rich may be the most honest men you find in the community. Both the Bible and Conwell state that money is at the reach of each and every person but never let that money become your love because The love of money is the root of all evil. Money does make people wealthy when it comes to materialistic items, which brings about power. Never take that money and become greedy for ones own well-being. Greed is one of the seven sins in the Bible; this always leads to problems for that greedy person in the end. As stated in the Bible, Do not charge exorbitant interest; justice will prevail. If a person worships money that person will end up with less friends, more family problems, and etc. Money can be a good or bad thing in ones life depending on what aspect a person looks at money. As Conwell argues, The man that wor...

News paper style article about strange happenings in an Italian village.

News paper style article about strange happenings in an Italian village. The gate at the entrance to Canneto Di Caronia, Italy has come off its hinges and swings in the wind as cats wander into homes abandoned after a series of mystery fires.Canneto di Caronia has been taken over by an endless flow of scientists, engineers, police and even a few "ghostbusters" searching for clues to the recent spontaneous combustion of everything from microwave ovens to a car. The fires started in mid-January and have claimed home appliances and fuse boxes in about half of the 20 odd houses. After a brief respite last month, the flames have flared up again almost daily even though electricity to the village was cut off long ago."We're working in the dark. We don't have a single lead so far," said Pedro Spinnato, mayor of the trio of Caronia towns. "Every time some new scientist comes to town they arrive thinking the whole thing has been invented or that they're going to solve the mystery in two minutes.Panorama di CaroniaThey've all been wrong."The 39 inhabitants of the t own halfway between Palermo and Messina were evacuated after the regional government declared a state of emergency in Canneto, which occupies a single street nestled between a railway line and the sea. "I've seen an air conditioner burst into flames and burn down in 30 seconds. These are not normal events, but I think we're going to have to start looking for a different kind of help," said Antonio Pezzino, whose house was first hit.From the start, Gabriele Amorth, one of the Catholic Church's top exorcists suspected the devil was at work. "I've seen things like this before," he told Il Messaggero daily. "Demons occupy a house and appear in electrical goods," he said urging the parish priest to take action. The local priest, Don...

Health Care Ethics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Health Care Ethics - Essay Example Relativism has taken root in the current world society in the sense that an individual is free to commit a wrong deed and easily get away with it. This is as long as he or she can justify his/her actions (Hinderer, chap. 4). A typical example of this scenario is social tolerance towards acts that were strongly condemned in the past. Incidences of social tolerance include homosexuality, the lenient judicial system, pornography, adultery and even fornication. Ethical relativism on the other hand refutes the existence of moral absolutes. It dictates neither morally wrong nor morally right deeds do exist. This theory finds it easier to link the right and wrong deeds to social norms. According to Hinderer (Chapter 4), relativism does not qualify as a basis of professional practice and as an ethical theory. Ethical relativism undermines the influence of morality as a unifying factor in the society. Ethical relativism does not hold the account of an absolute right or wrong. A right or a wro ng can only be established by use of logic, observation, preferences, emotions, experiences and relevant rules. Most cultures if not all perceive vices such as cheating, lying, murder and stealing as evils of the society thus wrong. Whenever an individual goes against such laws then he or she is punished. Moral absolutes such as the Ten Commandments (Christianity) have no changed since (Hinderer, chap. 4). It is interesting to note that none of them depends on social norms yet they are still true. This is to say that laid down rules and doctrines of the various religions find fault in ethical relativism. This theory has also been faulted because considers the right, wrong and the truth as relative. It does not make sense to conclude that certain things are right on the basis of a school of thought by a group of people. A typical example of this scenario was the slave trade where by as much as it was acceptable in the past, the world today does not entertain it. In general, relativis m does not provide for absolute ethics. Ethical relativism on the other hand undermines the existence of God according to the various religious systems in the world (Wear, Bono and McEvoy, 10). It should also be understood that this theory is faulted simply because ethical standards and norms keep changing with time. Relativism becomes false on the basis of an individual’s affiliation to a particular religious system. Personally, it is false since it does not recognize absolute ethical values. On the contrary it is true that many people accept this theory simply because it is not as strict as long as an individual or a group of people can justify a deed, then it is right. This theory offers a comfort zone that is relatively free of condemnation thus an ever increasing following. According to Hinderer (chap. 5), speciesism can be defined as a discriminative gesture by human beings against other species. It can also be defined as the act of putting human beings under privileges and advantages as opposed to animals. As a result, different species have different rights and values. Peter Singer’s arguments, with respect to whether our treatment of animals is speciesist or not, is valid. The fact that animals too share similar moral status with human means that they should be treated right without discrimination. Cruelty spans from factory farming all the way to laboratory tests carried out using animals.

Attachment Theory Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Attachment Theory - Essay Example Children with attachment disorders suffer hardships in relating with others and cannot deal, effectively, with their emotions. There exists a wide variety of attachment issues depending on how disturbed a child is emotionally. These include conduct, attention deficit hypersensitivity, bipolar disorders among others. Circumstances surrounding the causes of attachment issues, at times, are unavoidable. However, the child is too young to comprehend that which may be happening and the reasons behind it. To the child, it may seem like nobody cares and thusly lose trust in others. Symptoms of attachment disorder include avoiding physical affection, anger, lack of remorse, enjoy being in control, and withdrawal. Provision of relevant education on how to deal with attachment-disordered children should be considered. This primarily targets parents with attachment-disordered children as an essential step towards reversing its effects. New parenting skills are impacted to help in healing the maltreatment experienced during the child’s early life, assisting them secure attachments with their current caregivers. In addition, this creates a foundation of new trust, which is necessary for successful relationships in all aspects of life. Research has indicated that attachment parenting requires one to understand the concepts of regulation dysregulation, which refer to the physical and emotional state of the child (ATTACh, 2008). While in a regulated environment, children can learn at their best since, they have a flexible experience and can manage a range of emotions without being overwhelmed. In addition, the child becomes more receptive, calm and can process thoughts and feelings. It is also critical that parents maintain a position that reflects the notion of being wiser and more mature that the child. It is essential that the parent assist the child in making sense of an