Bill Gates Biography essays

Bill Gates Biography essays When you think of Bill Gates what comes to mind? A computer genius, the richest man in the world, a nerd. When I think of Bill he reminds me of Albert Einstein or even Thomas Edison because of what he did for mankind. William Henry Gates III was born on October 28, 1951. Gates was the first born to Mary and Bill Gates senior. Bill was a City attorney and his mother was a schoolteacher. Gates sister Kristi Anne was born in 1953. Throughout grade school, Gates did poorly in penmanship, citizenship, and other subjects he found trivial but got top grades in Science and Math. Toward the end of the elementary years, Gates started to have severe behavioral problems that worried his parents and teachers enough that Gates had to go to a psychiatrist. Gates wasnt making much progress with his psychiatrist so Gatess father believed that his problems could be fixed by going to a new school. So in the seventh grade Gates started to attend Lakeside a very strict, private school. When Gates was in the eighth grade Lakeside bought a Teletype machine from the Mothers Club. The machine was an ASR-33 Teletype with paper type connected over a phone line to a GE computer. Mastering the machine would become a contest among the students. Obtaining computer time would become a goal with his best friend, Paul Allen . Gates and Allen got together with two other people, ric weilan and Kent Evan, and these four people called themselves the Lakeside Programming group . This group found a business named Computer Center Corporation, C-Cubed, and this company would pay the group to look for bugs in the PDP-10 machine they had. Gates spent the next few years teaching himself FORTRAN, LISP, and PDP-10. C-cubed eventually went bankrupt and the group was forced to find another source of computer time. The group found a group in Portland that use the same PDP-10 machine that C-cubed used. Gates asked the company that if Lake...

The Deccan Plateau in Southern India

The Deccan Plateau in Southern India The Deccan Plateau is an extremely large plateau located in Southern India. The plateau covers a vast majority of the Southern and central parts of the country. The plateau extends over eight separate Indian states, covering a wide range of habitats, and it is one of the longer plateaus in the world. Deccan’s average elevation is around 2,000 feet. The word Deccan comes from the Sanskrit word of ‘Dakshina’, which means south. Location and Characteristics The Deccan Plateau is located in Southern India in-between two mountain ranges: the Western Ghats and the Eastern Ghats. Each rise from their respective coasts and eventually converge to produce a triangle-shaped tableland atop the plateau. The climate on some parts of the plateau, especially the Northern areas, is much drier than that of the nearby coastlands. These areas of the plateau are very arid, and do not see much rain for periods of time. Other areas of the plateau however are more tropical and have distinct, different wet and dry seasons. The river valley areas of the plateau tend to be densely populated, as there is ample access to water and the climate is conducive to living. On the other hand, the dry areas in-between the river valleys are often largely unsettled, as these areas can be too arid and dry. The plateau has three principal rivers: the Godavari, the Krishna, and the Kaveri. These rivers flow from the Western Ghats on the western side of the plateau eastward toward the Bay of Bengal, which is the largest bay in the world. History The history of the Deccan is largely obscure, but it is known to have been an area of conflict for much of its existence with dynasties fighting for control. From the Encyclopedia Britannica: â€Å"The Deccan’s early history is obscure. There is evidence of prehistoric human habitation; low rainfall must have made farming difficult until the introduction of irrigation. The plateau’s mineral wealth led many lowland rulers, including those of the Mauryan (4th–2nd century  bce) and Gupta (4th–6th centuryce) dynasties, to fight over it. From the 6th to the 13th century, the Chalukya, Rastrakuta , Later Chalukya , Hoysala , and Yadava families successively established regional kingdoms in the Deccan, but they were continually in conflict with neighboring states and recalcitrant feudatories. The later kingdoms also were subject to looting raids by the Muslim  Delhi sultanate, which eventually gained control of the area. In 1347 the Muslim BahmanÄ « dynasty established an independent kingdom in the Deccan. The five Muslim states that succeeded the BahmanÄ « and divided its territory joined forces in 1565 at the Battle of Talikota to defeat Vijayanagar, the Hindu empire to the south. For most of their reigns, however, the five successor states formed shifting patterns of alliances in an effort to keep any one state from dominating the area and, from 1656, to fend off incursions by the Mughal Empire to the north. During the Mughal decline in the 18th century, the Marathas, the nizam of   Hyderabad , and the Arcot nawab vied for control of the Deccan. Their rivalries, as well as conflicts over succession, led to the gradual absorption of the Deccan by the British. When India became independent in 1947, the princely state of Hyderabad resisted initially but joined the Indian union in 1948.† The Deccan Traps The northwestern area of the plateau consists of many separate lava flows and igneous rock structures known as the Deccan Traps. This area is one of the largest volcanic provinces in the world.

Franz Kalfa's Metamorphosis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Franz Kalfa's Metamorphosis - Essay Example Although the family continues to care for him, providing him with food and water and cleaning his room once a day, Gregor becomes more and more detached from them, eventually finding it difficult to keep track of what has been happening around him. His room becomes dirtier, his family becomes less attentive and he becomes less concerned with their welfare in connection with his own. As his sister and mother move his personal furniture out of his room, he leaves the room with a mind toward helping his sister, but is instead attacked by his father, becoming wounded in the process when an apple thrown at him becomes lodged in his back. Rather than tending to his wounds, the family locks him back in his room again where the apple is able to fester for months. The room becomes the general receptacle of household debris before Gregor’s final attempt to reconnect with his family results in such harsh and complete rejection that he simply crawls back in his room and dies. Through the story, Kafka uses the concept of work to highlight some of the problems of the human condition. It can be argued that Gregor’s transformation is a literal indication of his feelings of separation from humanity, including from the members of his own family, as can be seen in from the very beginning of the story. Despite waking up to find himself in the form of a bug, Gregor’s primary concern remains to get to work in order to continue supporting the family who has been dependent upon him for the past five years. As he reflects upon his position, he reveals the level of disconnectedness that has already occurred between himself and his family, indeed the rest of humanity, since he took a job as a traveling salesman: â€Å"And apart from business itself, this plague of traveling: the anxieties of changing trains, the irregular, inferior meals, the ever changing faces, never to be seen again, people with whom one has no chance to be friendly† (13). Even in his own home, he

Interpreting different cultures Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

Interpreting different cultures - Essay Example meaning of this statement is that the differences that people living a certain place have makes them unique in their various ways, similar to those living in another place. When people come together they can exchange this ideas, thus learn how to treasure and value each other. According to Louis Dumont, the oneness that has to exist in the different human societies does not often require reducing the diversity to that of unity. The people living in a certain place or culture need to have a common language, which plays an essential role towards passing that culture from one generation to another. One of the things that can be critical towards ensuring the success of the different human cultures is developing an effective understanding of these cultures. This understanding is important since it helps in the preservation of those cultures for other people to learn from them. In this regard, the society needs to created special institutions in which people’s cultural differences can be understood effectively. This paper examines the importance of the differences existing in human cultures focusing on ways of understanding these cultures in the most effective way. It focuses on the views and perspectives provided by Richard Shweder’s and Geertz’s views in their â€Å"Culture Theory† and â€Å"The Interpretation of Culture† respectively. Culture, as an independent term has often been given different meanings. To some people, culture can be described as the appreciation of the different art, food, literature and music among others (Gannon & Rajnandini,  2010). To biologists and other researchers in this field; it simply means a colony of microorganisms and other kinds of bacteria that grow in a special kind of nutrient medium specially kept in a Petri dish in the laboratory. For behavioral scientists and anthropologists, culture is interpreted as the broad range of various learned human actions and other behavioral patterns. In this regard, culture is taken to

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Paola Valencia Professor Nanda English 102 13 February 2013 Literary Analysis of â€Å"Soldier’s Home† Inspired by his days of service in the Ambulance Corps during the First World War, Hemingway utilizes his experience to tell the story of a soldier’s struggle to get back home both physically and mentally in his short story â€Å"Soldier’s Home†. Hemingway captivates his readers in a tale of a soldier’s (Harold Krebs) late return home from World War I. Upon his return, Krebs discovers that the life he once knew changed. In fact, his life had changed so drastically that upon his return, Krebs’ life no longer fit in its former place. Ernest Hemingway is often noted for writing stories that seem flat and lifeless but his unadorned prose style nevertheless manages to be extremely suggestive and effective in its plainness. Hemingway manages to give depth to his writing and give it hidden meaning. Hemingway gives his readers the responsibility of interpreting and making a personal connection through a gloomy tone and ironic setting to the story as they g et farther and farther into Krebs' world of despair and the emotions that he is struggling with; allowing readers to go on a more personal journey along with Krebs in discovering his new post war society and the role that he plays in it. The title itself exemplifies Hemingway talents in giving depth and suggestive symbolism to plain text. The title â€Å"Soldier’s Home† implies a hint of foreshadowing to the story. Rather than sounding like a statement to assure the reader that the soldier is happy to be home, Hemingway’s title suggests more of a question: where is this soldier’s home? Did he ever make it home? Does he even have a home to come back to? The title of this short story also sets up t... ...uth about it. Krebs feel nauseas and uncomfortable when lying about his experience. Bound by lies, Krebs forgets his brave and heroic deeds at war. That is the reason Krebs develops a bitter sense towards the war and distaste for everything that has happened to him. By placing his character Krebs back at home after the war, Hemingway is able to set up the post war tone of despair and nostalgia to shows Krebs’ unhappiness of being home from war and difficulty adjusting to society. Krebs is caught somewhere in the mix of his former life, his life in the military, and his new life at home. The â€Å"Soldier's Home† illustrates the misfortune and struggles that of a soldier return home. Hemingway gives his readers the tools in order to interpret the story and make it a more personal connection. He captivates his audience as they are somehow able to relate to this tragedy.

Opposing Viewpoints- Vegetarianism Essay

When it comes to viewpoints there will always be an opposing side. You must develop your strongly focused opinion with examples and/or reasons. In order for a reader to accept your side you must use clear, powerful, and direct language to really capture them. Express your opinion clearly, and then base it on factual, researched or first-hand information. Hard facts and first-hand experience are so convincing to readers. The way to convince your audience to accept your opinion is through the combination of ethos, logos, and pathos appeals. These appeals are required for successfully appealing to the average reader and getting your point across in the most effective way possible. The vegetarianism lifestyle can be adopted for many different reasons. Aside from the main decision of preventing the cruel treatment of animals, many people choose this lifestyle for health reasons. Winston Craig supports this reasoning in his essay â€Å"Plant-Based Diets Provide Many Health Benefits,† while Ben Kim argues that this kind of diet causes many health problems in â€Å"A Strict Vegetarian Diet Is Unhealthy for Most People.† Their opinions, supported by facts, makes each case convincing. The credibility of these writers and their sources make for a great ethos appeal. Both writers are creditable given that Craig is a professor of nutrition at Andrews University and Kim as a chiropractor having first-hand experience with once being a vegetarian. Craig refers to specific studies and scientific literature to rest his case. While Kim uses his personal experience with vegetarianism. Kim also spent time interviewing someone that was a part of an organization that promotes vegetarianism instead of capitalizing on hard facts. In this aspect Craig was definitely more convincing. As telling as first-hand experience is, when it comes to health each individual is different. Just because Kim experienced these health problems doesn’t necessarily mean every vegetarian will. Kim didn’t use statistics as proof and that really weakened his viewpoint. Another weaknesses in Kim’s argument is that the organization he spent time interviewing was more focused on the prevention of cruel animal treatment instead of human health. Kim should have added just a few statistics to strengthen his standpoint and ethos appeal. Both Craig and Kim use logos as their strongest persuasion device. Craig captures readers by presenting hard facts with percents and numbers. He states that the vegetarian life-style is consistently associated with lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels along with less obesity and heart disease. Craig also refers to studies that prove vegetarians have one-half the risk of cancer and have a 35-44 percent lower risk of overall mortality. This information triples as a logos, pathos, and ethos appeal. This shows Craig’s credibility, its completely logical, and it even gets to the readers emotions a little by making them think about their own diet and how the should improve it and lengthen their own lives by doing so. Craig presents more hard facts such as, â€Å"The total direct medical costs in the United States attributable to meat consumption were estimated to be $30-60 billion a year, based upon the higher prevalence of hypertension, heart disease, cancer, diabetes, gall stones, obesity and food-borne illness among omnivores compared with vegetarians†(Craig). That’s a good point that you wouldn’t necessarily think about. Kim states, â€Å"My experiences with my own body and in providing health care to many people over the years have led me to believe that a long term, strict vegetarian diet is likely to lead to the development of nutritional deficiencies and significant health problems for most people.† This sounds reasonable with protein as a necessity the lack of meat would have to have an effect on the human body. He is a chiropractor and maybe he has seen patients with significant health problems from their vegetarian diet, but he didn’t mention anything specific just that he has â€Å"had experience.† Craig mentions dry beans and lentils as great alternatives to meat that will prevent these nutrition deficiencies. Overall Kim’s use of logos appeal could use some work. Another devise they both use to strengthen their stance is pathos. The authors use this device to attract the readers emotions. Kim brings up the cruel treatment of animals raised for food. It is understandable that he was trying to get the readers emotions going here, but honestly it is quite off topic. His point was to inform his audience how vegetarianism is actually not the healthiest choice. He brings up another point that the long term affects are what you have to watch out for. That is a good example of  pathos, the readers don’t want to hear that their eating habits will seriously affect them in the long run. Craig’s use of pathos comes in when he mentioned that over two hundred studies have proved that vegetarians have one-half the risk of cancer. The topic of cancer always pulls on heart strings. Just about everyone knows someone that has been affected by cancer. Both authors mention some information that they know will get an emotion response out of their audience. While both authors discuss the same topic, their valid viewpoints differ. In the end, Craig more successfully convinced his readers to take his side on this issue. His hard facts and his credibility by far outshines that of Kim. Although Kim makes use of the persuasive appeals, overall his perspective isn’t completely clear or reasonable. All in all, Craig did an excellent job developing his strongly focused opinion through the use of pathos, logos, and ethos. Works Cited Craig, Winston. â€Å"Plant-Based Diets Provide Many Health Benefits.† Vegetarianism. Debra A. Miller. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2010. Current Controversies. Rpt. from â€Å"Health Benefits of Vegetarian Diets.† Vegetarianism and Vegetarian Nutrition, 2008. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 2 Oct. 2014. Kim, Ben. â€Å"A Strict Vegetarian Diet Is Unhealthy for Most People.† Vegetarianism. Debra A. Miller. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2010. Current Controversies. Rpt. from â€Å"Don’t Let Philosophy Become More Important Than What Works.† Chet Day’s Health & Beyond. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 2 Oct. 2014.

The concept of human nature focuses on the distinctive...

The concept of human nature focuses on the distinctive natural characteristics of humans, namely the ways we feel, think and act, regardless of external forces as well as influences. Within the study and discipline of Philosophy, this fundamental nature of humans and our existence is scrutinized. Philosophy involves a continuous search and lookout for an accurate understanding of the underlying traits of humankind that are deemed to be common among all humans. Starting with the ancient philosophers and ending with the contemporary thinkers, a bridge of suppositions that seemingly define human nature has been established, despite the fact that there are vital differences. Numerous conjectures and theories have been put forward by†¦show more content†¦Their disagreement revolves around the extent of the senses contribution to knowledge, which leads to an epistemological debate. Rationalists distrust the senses, however, in reality the senses are all we have and this is what Ka nt asserts. Kant makes it clear that both rationalists and empiricists disregard or rather miss the fact that the human mind is restricted and these limitations can be described as synthetic and a priori. According to Kant, every possible experience of ours is constrained and structured by synthetic a priori restrictions, specifically space, time and causality and since these limitations are present, we have to take it upon ourselves to differentiate between the phenomenal and noumenal – the apparent and the real world. Kant asserted that the human mind is an active organ and knowledge begins with experience, but as opposed to the belief of the empiricists, we do not merely experience the world, we understand experiences through processes of the mind and acquire knowledge from these processed experiences. Prior to Kant, the common belief was that knowledge must conform and be consistent with objects, however, Kant contended that objects must conform to knowledge, which is onc e again structured by synthetic a priori limitations of space, time and causality. The human mind is restricted to knowing only of appearances and never the real