Digital Fortress Chapter 4

The crypto door beeped once, waking Susan from her depressing reverie. The door had rotated past its fully open position and would be closed again in five seconds, having made a complete 360-degree rotation. Susan gathered her thoughts and stepped through the opening. A computer made note of her entry. Although she had practically lived in Crypto since its completion three years ago, the sight of it still amazed her. The main room was an enormous circular chamber that rose five stories. Its transparent, domed ceiling towered 120 feet at its central peak. The Plexiglas cupola was embedded with a polycarbonate mesh-a protective web capable of withstanding a two-megaton blast. The screen filtered the sunlight into delicate lacework across the walls. Tiny particles of dust drifted upward in wide unsuspecting spirals-captives of the dome's powerful deionizing system. The room's sloping sides arched broadly at the top and then became almost vertical as they approached eye level. Then they became subtly translucent and graduated to an opaque black as they reached the floor-a shimmering expanse of polished black tile that shone with an eerie luster, giving one the unsettling sensation that the floor was transparent. Black ice. Pushing through the center of the floor like the tip of a colossal torpedo was the machine for which the dome had been built. Its sleek black contour arched twenty-three feet in the air before plunging back into the floor below. Curved and smooth, it was as if an enormous killer whale had been frozen mid breach in a frigid sea. This was TRANSLTR, the single most expensive piece of computing equipment in the world-a machine the NSA swore did not exist. Like an iceberg, the machine hid 90 percent of its mass and power deep beneath the surface. Its secret was locked in a ceramic silo that went six stories straight down-a rocketlike hull surrounded by a winding maze of catwalks, cables, and hissing exhaust from the freon cooling system. The power generators at the bottom droned in a perpetual low-frequency hum that gave the acoustics in Crypto a dead, ghostlike quality. TRANSLTR, like all great technological advancements, had been a child of necessity. During the 1980s, the NSA witnessed a revolution in telecommunications that would change the world of intelligence reconnaissance forever-public access to the Internet. More specifically, the arrival of E-mail. Criminals, terrorists, and spies had grown tired of having their phones tapped and immediately embraced this new means of global communication. E-mail had the security of conventional mail and the speed of the telephone. Since the transfers traveled through underground fiber-optic lines and were never transmitted into the airwaves, they were entirely intercept-proof-at least that was the perception. In reality, intercepting E-mail as it zipped across the Internet was child's play for the NSA's techno-gurus. The Internet was not the new home computer revelation that most believed. It had been created by the Department of Defense three decades earlier-an enormous network of computers designed to provide secure government communication in the event of nuclear war. The eyes and ears of the NSA were old Internet pros. People conducting illegal business via E-mail quickly learned their secrets were not as private as they'd thought. The FBI, DEA, IRS, and other U.S. law enforcement agencies-aided by the NSA's staff of wily hackers-enjoyed a tidal wave of arrests and convictions. Of course, when the computer users of the world found out the U.S. government had open access to their E-mail communications, a cry of outrage went up. Even pen pals, using E-mail for nothing more than recreational correspondence, found the lack of privacy unsettling. Across the globe, entrepreneurial programmers began working on a way to keep E-mail more secure. They quickly found one and public-key encryption was born. Public-key encryption was a concept as simple as it was brilliant. It consisted of easy-to-use, home-computer software that scrambled personal E-mail messages in such a way that they were totally unreadable. A user could write a letter and run it through the encryption software, and the text would come out the other side looking like random nonsense-totally illegible-a code. Anyone intercepting the transmission found only an unreadable garble on the screen. The only way to unscramble the message was to enter the sender's â€Å"pass-key†-a secret series of characters that functioned much like a PIN number at an automatic teller. The pass-keys were generally quite long and complex; they carried all the information necessary to instruct the encryption algorithm exactly what mathematical operations to follow tore-create the original message. A user could now send E-mail in confidence. Even if the transmission was intercepted, only those who were given the key could ever decipher it. The NSA felt the crunch immediately. The codes they were facing were no longer simple substitution ciphers crackable with pencil and graph paper-they were computer-generated hash functions that employed chaos theory and multiple symbolic alphabets to scramble messages into seemingly hopeless randomness. At first, the pass-keys being used were short enough for the NSA's computers to â€Å"guess.† If a desired pass-key had ten digits, a computer was programmed to try every possibility between 0000000000 and 9999999999. Sooner or later the computer hit the correct sequence. This method of trial-and-error guessing was known as â€Å"brute force attack.† It was time-consuming but mathematically guaranteed to work. As the world got wise to the power of brute-force code-breaking, the pass-keys started getting longer and longer. The computer time needed to â€Å"guess† the correct key grew from weeks to months and finally to years. By the 1990s, pass-keys were over fifty characters long and employed the full 256-character ASCII alphabet of letters, numbers, and symbols. The number of different possibilities was in the neighborhood of 10120-ten with 120 zeros after it. Correctly guessing a pass-key was as mathematically unlikely as choosing the correct grain of sand from a three-mile beach. It was estimated that a successful brute-force attack on a standard sixty-four-bit key would take the NSA's fastest computer-the top-secret Cray/Josephson II-over nineteen years to break. By the time the computer guessed the key and broke the code, the contents of the message would be irrelevant. Caught in a virtual intelligence blackout, the NSA passed a top-secret directive that was endorsed by the President of the United States. Buoyed by federal funds and a carte blanche to do whatever was necessary to solve the problem, the NSA set out to build the impossible: the world's first universal code-breaking machine. Despite the opinion of many engineers that the newly proposed code-breaking computer was impossible to build, the NSA lived by its motto: Everything is possible. The impossible just takes longer. Five years, half a million man-hours, and $1.9 billion later, the NSA proved it once again. The last of the three million, stamp-size processors was hand-soldered in place, the final internal programming was finished, and the ceramic shell was welded shut. TRANSLTR had been born. Although the secret internal workings of TRANSLTR were the product of many minds and were not fully understood by any one individual, its basic principle was simple: Many hands make light work. Its three million processors would all work in parallel-counting upward at blinding speed, trying every new permutation as they went. The hope was that even codes with unthinkably colossal pass-keys would not be safe from TRANSLTR's tenacity. This multibillion-dollar masterpiece would use the power of parallel processing as well as some highly classified advances in clear text assessment to guess pass-keys and break codes. It would derive its power not only from its staggering number of processors but also from new advances in quantum computing-an emerging technology that allowed information to be stored as quantum-mechanical states rather than solely as binary data. The moment of truth came on a blustery Thursday morning in October. The first live test. Despite uncertainty about how fast the machine would be, there was one thing on which the engineers agreed-if the processors all functioned in parallel, TRANSLTR would be powerful. The question was how powerful. The answer came twelve minutes later. There was a stunned silence from the handful in attendance when the printout sprang to life and delivered the cleartext-the broken code. TRANSLTR had just located a sixty-four-character key in a little over ten minutes, almost a million times faster than the two decades it would have taken the NSA's second-fastest computer. Led by the deputy director of operations, Commander Trevor J. Strathmore, the NSA's Office of Production had triumphed. TRANSLTR was a success. In the interest of keeping their success a secret, Commander Strathmore immediately leaked information that the project had been a complete failure. All the activity in the Crypto wing was supposedly an attempt to salvage their $2 billion fiasco. Only the NSA elite knew the truth-TRANSLTR was cracking hundreds of codes every day. With word on the street that computer-encrypted codes were entirely unbreakable-even by the all-powerful NSA-the secrets poured in. Drug lords, terrorists, and embezzlers alike-weary of having their cellular phone transmissions intercepted-were turning to the exciting new medium of encrypted E-mail for instantaneous global communications. Never again would they have to face a grand jury and hear their own voice rolling off tape, proof of some long-forgotten cellular phone conversation plucked from the air by an NSA satellite. Intelligence gathering had never been easier. Codes intercepted by the NSA entered TRANSLTR as totally illegible ciphers and were spit out minutes later as perfectly readable cleartext. No more secrets. To make their charade of incompetence complete, the NSA lobbied fiercely against all new computer encryption software, insisting it crippled them and made it impossible for lawmakers to catch and prosecute the criminals. Civil rights groups rejoiced, insisting the NSA shouldn't be reading their mail anyway. Encryption software kept rolling off the presses. The NSA had lost the battle-exactly as it had planned. The entire electronic global community had been fooled†¦ or so it seemed.

Case1

CASE 1 1. Explain the difference between the three types of server virtualization using the first video. 1) Virtualization: virtualization uses a special kind of software called a hypervisor. The hypervisor interacts directly with the physical server's CPU and disk space. It serves as a platform for the virtual servers' operating systems. The hypervisor keeps each virtual server completely independent and unaware of the other virtual servers running on the physical machine.Each guest server runs on its own OS — even have one guest running on Linux and another on Windows. The hypervisor monitors the physical server's resources. As virtual servers run applications, the hypervisor relays resources from the physical machine to the appropriate virtual server. Hypervisors have their own processing needs, which mean that the physical server must reserve some processing power and resources to run the hypervisor application. This can impact overall server performance and slow down appl ications. ) Para-virtualization: Para-virtualization approach is a little different. Unlike the full virtualization technique, the guest servers in a Para-virtualization system are aware of one another. A Para-virtualization hypervisor doesn't need as much processing power to manage the guest operating systems, because each OS is already aware of the demands the other operating systems are placing on the physical server. The entire system works together as a cohesive unit. 3) OS-level virtualization: OS-level virtualization approach doesn't use a hypervisor at all.Instead, the virtualization capability is part of the host OS, which performs all the functions of a fully virtualized hypervisor. The biggest limitation of this approach is that all the guest servers must run the same OS. Each virtual server remains independent from all the others, but you can't mix and match operating systems among them. Because all the guest operating systems must be the same, this is called a homogeneo us environment. 2. Why is virtualization important to a company like Hudson’s Bay Company? How did that factor into their decision to partner with IBM?For this company, they have lots of contact directly with their customer that they need to have great efficiency to serve their customer and did a right statistic and accurate record to establish their information system to see how to make them better. Virtualization can help them realize the capacity, delivered as promise and decline the timing when they are planning. For example, they want to create an image that once might take an hour, but after, it takes only in minutes. It helps them save time that adds more efficiency for them.About their decision to partner with IBM, IBM led to industry that they believe it will be an innovation and useful for their company operating to cooperate with them and it will also benefit in both of them. 3. What kind of companies are likely to use a storage area network (SAN)? The company whic h has massive information to flow in and out will likely to use SAN that’s because it will protect the information from the suddenly down of computer, and company still can use the information they want on the Cloud. A storage area network (SAN) is a dedicated network that provides access to consolidated, block level data storage.SANs are primarily used to make storage devices, such as disk arrays, tape libraries, and optical jukeboxes, accessible to servers so that the devices appear like locally attached devices to the operating system. A SAN typically has its own network of storage devices that are generally not accessible through the local area network by other devices. The cost and complexity of SANs dropped in the early 2000s to levels allowing wider adoption across both enterprise and small to medium sized business environments. A SAN does not provide file abstraction, only block-level operations.However, file systems built on top of SANs do provide file-level access, and are known as SAN file systems or shared disk file systems. 4. Can you think of any risks involved in virtualization? Although, virtualization emphasize the efficiency of minimize the risk that they enhance the security by centralized IT management, easily update service packs& patches and easily restore servers. Once, it was really damage and lost any control, it might be totally break down, because such as all of the desktop are manage by one central sever.If the information are hike it once, it would happened at the same way because centralize all the things in one place, and it would be the risk that we have think about it. 5. Explain why virtualization is considered a â€Å"green† technology. Virtualization can improve the percentage of resources using, increase the flexibility of IT, decrease the system’s operation time, help to cut down the human resources to manage and achieve the function of environment protecting of saving energy and reduce carbon dioxide. Green technology, also called environment technology, is an application of environment science to sustain the natural environment and to reduce the negative effects from human activities. Sustainable development is the core goal of green technology. Because virtualization let many companies to reduce the wasting of hardware and the environment impact from those companies. So we think virtualization is such a kind of green technology.

Chapters' summaries Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Chapters' summaries - Essay Example Mixed language tools can deliver the desired results and also cause hurt that will take time to heal. The leader has to deal with these standard tools with caution. The intentions of the leader may be right; but it needs to be told at the right time. One important point incidentally. The listeners mostly have estimate of the merit of the personality conveying the message to them. For example, a politician speaking on the subject of the current state of the economy may not command the same respect with the audience as compared to a reputed management consultant’s views on the subject. The audience has a pre-conceived notion that the former is playing to the gallery and he may state quite the opposite, in front of another audience. The combination of the language tools employed by the leader may produce tangible effects on some; with others it may be quite contradictory. This is the limitations with the mixed messages; they may outweigh the advantages they score. The audience is intelligent enough to understand whether the leader’s message comes out of his convictions or he is trying to outsmart the audience with clever use of the mixed messages and he is doing it quite deliberately. Blessed are those who have perfected the art of gifted communication. To an extent this ability is inborn but there is much scope for cultivating this quality. One needs to do framing in advance for the possible situations of interactions during the course of the day. A verbatim account of such dealing is impossibility as new situations crop up and new solutions will have to be found. If one has the spontaneous answer for an expected question it is perfect; but if one has the appropriate answer for the unexpected question, that leader is a genius. For example a cashier at the bank, may have some routine questions from the customer, like, ‘At

How did the French Revolution inspire Romanticism and why Essay

How did the French Revolution inspire Romanticism and why - Essay Example Romanticism, therefore, turned to an assessment of imperialism and materialism of an industrial community. Although the French revolution enabled romanticism to gain popularity, it turned romantics against it. The French revolution in an immense way influenced the era of romanticism and most of it in a positive way. The French revolution significantly inspired interest in the portrayal of modern-day events, although there was evidence of detailed paintings that were done before the revolution (Mosse, 1989). The French revolution was inspired by the enlightenment era which led to a period of anticipation and optimism. Artists in France chose to represent their happenings in highly detailed forms of art. Their leader Napoleon demanded that their achievements should be displayed in detailed pictures. Napoleon wanted everything to be remembered and, therefore, pictures would do the representation better. Paintings that also represented individual suffering were represented in â€Å"The Raft of the Medusa.† rudiments of romanticism can be establish in art, music and literature and other forms of writings (Mosse,1989). Napoleons invasions can be attributed to dispersal of reforms across Europe. The Romantic Movement also helped shape the political movements such as the French revolution, and it was also shaped by the revolution. Both played a significant part in the creation of nationalism among the citizens. The romantics were ready to end the terrible reign and would do everything possible to improve the society. The French revolution helped cultivate the idea that rebuilding of the society was achievable. The revolution built on the Enlightenment plan of advancement that society could improve. The romantics, therefore, began embracing their history and displayed it in the form of art and music. The revolution inspired them and they started looking at their ancestral origins as a source of inspiration. The romantics during those times were focused on ending the reign of terror. It seems that they had the same vision as the people of France who wanted to break away from the monarchy. Romanticism developed to being a philosophy, which could not match the power that the French revolution had (Friedrich). The French revolution brought about the change that the romantic philosophers so much desired. Before the French revolution, the romantics lived in an oppressive society with no or little freedom. The romantics wanted a strong group to intervene and help them attain a stable government and a strong sense of individuality. Their society was particularly divided, and they could not write anything that was not acceptable. This made them desire so much for freedom. The rise of the French revolution, therefore, enabled people to be capable of putting across their feelings in whichever way they wished. The French revolution had a significant impact on the European lifestyle in the nineteenth century. A significant wave of emotion was spread thr oughout the society. The French revolution introduced new laws for the citizens. It also resulted in change, in both literature and art (Doyle). Romanticism is largely responsible for shaping the world to a better place to live. The French revolution was the climax of the romantic philosophy. The revolution provided with problems, which acted as a basis for the romantic literature and art. The French revol

Hispanic American Diversity Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Hispanic American Diversity - Research Paper Example Among the major Hispanic groups, Mexican Americans take the major portion. The other groups, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Central or South American, and others have relevant influence in America. These Hispanic or Latino groups, that constitute a major portion among the population of America, are not well considered in the land. This research paper takes a study on Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Cuban, and central/south Americans and analyses the linguistic, political, social, economic, religious and familial problems of these groups in America. Mexicans: Mexicans are the largest group among the Latino Americans. They contribute about one third of all Hispanic groups: â€Å"as of 2002, about 23 percent of Mexican Americans are English dominant, 26 percent are bilingual, and 51 percent are Spanish dominant† (Schaefer, 2006, p. 241). It indicates that Mexicans in America use a different language other than what is commonly spoken in America. Many times the Mexicans are denied of their heritag e towards their language- Spanish. The people who speak Spanish are considered to be less able before those who speak English. This language handicap is there among the people of Mexican Americans. The author, Schaefer in the same book makes out the distinction of Mexicans in terms of language. The students who speak Spanish were separated from the other students and bilingual education started with the hope of changing their native language towards English. The main objective of bilingual education turned to teach English as second language (ESL) among the Spanish spoken students of America in a way paved way for discouraging Spanish and establishing the supremacy of English. This language barrier affected the Mexicans in other aspects like political, social, religious and economic spheres. In the political realm many Hispanic members are considered to be non citizens and are denied to vote. Jamieson et al. observe that â€Å"at the time of the 2000 presidential election, 39 perce nt of Hispanics of voting age were non-citizens compared with only 22 percent of White non-Hispanics† (Schaefer, 2006, p. 245). This indicates that many of the Hispanic groups are not accepted in America. They are cut off at many levels. Even though much disparity is there, the political notion and involvement of Mexicans in it are on the move. If the American political scenario is watched carefully it can be understood that Democrats have gained much benefits from the Hispanic groups. It was evident in the election 2000. Schaefer says that in the election 2000, George W. Bush gained only 35 percent of their votes whereas Al Gore could gain 62 percent of the Hispanic vote. Most of the Mexicans are Roman Catholics and they consider much priority for religion whereas in America they face the language problems in religion too. The Mass in America is enacted mostly in English and these groups are denied to get actively involve with the Holy Mass. In the matters with economic too t he Hispanic Americans face hardships. Knowledge of English is considered to be a pre requisite for economic growth. In considering the economic levels of the Mexicans it can be stated that the economic level of Hispanic or Latino people are much lower than that of the non-Hispanic people. As the author states: â€Å"over the last twenty years, the proportion of Latinos in poverty has been two or three times that of non-Hispanic Whites†

Personal and Organizational Ethics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Personal and Organizational Ethics - Essay Example Therefore utilitarianism in developing morals seeks to develop an account of moral evaluation and moral direction that expands it. Ferrell & Fraedrich (2010) argues that relativism perspective indicates that ethical behavior is derived from the experiences of individual groups and individuals. Therefore, relativists view themselves or the people around their areas, as their basis for defining ethical standards. These are the guiding principles behind developing morals and ethics that form the personal ethics, which have to be exercised on a personal basis and have to be exhibited in private and in any organization. Personal Morals and ethics Largely, my personal values are more shaped by having a good interaction with others. The values that I hold include viewing each and every one as important and having a purpose either in private life or in the organization. Through these values, I have learned to listen to others with keen interests and offer due diligence to their perspectives. Each and every one has a point of view that can be important, and which if followed would offer a better understanding or aid in performing better in a certain perspective. Through these values, I have managed to relate well with others, and earn respect, honor and many leadership positions that I have excellently found myself in. These have put me in a better place to lead a larger setting such as an organization. Through these values, I have always developed an elaborate code of ethics that have aided in achieving good relations with people. As argued above, the principle of utilitarianism requires that one has to increase the good of action to others or promote the benefit that a certain action has to present. This in addition indicates that we have to abide within strong professional and individual ethics that are related. Velasquez (2008) argues that ethics are the rules in which one has to operate. It is through morals that are derived in my values that the rules of action in ethics are derived and have enabled me to cope harmoniously both on private platform and in an organization setting. Ethics are based on morals in that as Velasquez (2008) argues morals are standards of individual that regard what is good or bad , and in the principle of utilitarianism, a good act has to be advocated, leading to being morally upright and hence ethical in practice. The personal mission is always to act ethically and uphold my esteem in private and in an organization level and value the importance and purpose of others whom we have to have close contact in official and unofficial basis. The vision is to be helpful and create value to the lives of others in the organization through my strategic operations or interaction. This is the roadmap through which I have to achieve the overall growth and development on personal basis and in the organization. Organization’s mission statement The mission of the company is â€Å"to sustain commercial success as a global ma rketing company of branded casual apparel. We must balance goals of superior profitability and return on investment, leadership market positions and superior products and service. We will conduct our business this way and demonstrate leadership in satisfying our responsibilities to our communities and to society. Our work environment will be safe and productive and characterized by fair

Role of government in East Asian miracle Research Paper

Role of government in East Asian miracle - Research Paper Example This paper discusses the economic boom which we see in East Asian countries. Despite a few ups and downs close to the end of the century, it is an example of regional development beyond anything. The rapid and well paced development that came in the last 40 years started off largely based on development and manufacturing of simple products like toys and apparel but then keeping up the pace of development reached to the development of automobiles and robots. With mass production and integration of technology and the products marketed towards the major European and American markets, the principal factors that have proven to be the major advantages are low cost of labor, growth in production quality and experience, competitive currency exchange rates in the region and compared to other global currencies and integration of latest technology in the production processes. A clear example of such development is clearly evident from the progress of china which became one of the leading produc ers of products that are completing with some of the most popular brands in the world. Japan which was entirely devastated due to the Second World War did not come out of its chaotic situation automatically; instead, the entire fabric of the country was integrated into one agenda that was of massive development. Unlike most of the westerns countries, the major player in the development of most of the East Asian countries remains the government. Each government played a pivotal role in the formulation of policy and national agenda of economic development that resulted in the miracle to happen. The fact cannot be denied that the global economic changes also played their role in the rapid progress of this region but not completely responsible for it. An independent study conducted by the World Bank on the progress of East Asian tigers, the â€Å"The East Asian Miracle† remarks that: Fundamentally sound development policy was a major ingredient in achieving rapid growth: macro ma nagement, saving promotion policies, education, agricultural productivity, . . . But these fundamental policies do not tell the whole story. Government intervened, targeting selected industries, promoting exports, low interest rates, protecting certain industries, . . . rapid growth has at times benefited from careful policy intervention. (1996: 5) The governments have the control and the ability or forming broad based policies that can be applied on a vast scale with a mission of developing standard policies and delivery of the services. With rapidly changing and uncertain global economics, the macroeconomics of the regions is

Golden Ocean Group Limted Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Golden Ocean Group Limted - Essay Example Golden Ocean deals with shipping of dry bulk. Primarily, this was the reason that the company demerged from Frontline Limited with the company’s key area of specialization being a spin-off of the dry bulk operations of Frontline Limited, the original company. By dry bulk, the company is in the business of shipping coal, iron ore, ingredients of steel or finished steel, gravel, sand, grain, or any other similar material. Using its own or chartered ships, Golden Ocean Limited delivers the dry bulk based upon the needs of its customers (Golden Ocean, 2010). Each year, the quantity of dry-bulk and customers increases in the shipping industry. Case in point, shipping companies registered a combined increment in shipment of iron ore imports, coal imports, grains, and steel products by more than 250million tons signifying growth (Golden Ocean, 2010). Indeed, these four examples of dry bulk products denote the operations of the company in the dry-bulk shipping industry.Golden Ocean st arted its operations with three vessels. However, the company’s operations have astronomically grown for the period it has been in operation and more so along the lines of its Capesize and Panamax vessels. On one hand, Capesize vessels are the largest vessels-in terms of capacity-operated by the company with the capacity to carry 110,000-190,000 tons of dead weight. In effect, there are a few seaports, in the world, that can accommodate these vessels due to the infrastructure required to accommodate vessels of this size.

Black Death Cause and Effect Essay Example for Free

Black Death Cause and Effect Essay The Bubonic Plague or the Black Death has been in the history books since the medieval times. This deadly disease has claimed nearly 1. 5 million lives in Europe (Gottfried). The Black Death hit Europe in October of 1347 and quickly spread through most of Europe by the end of 1349 and continued on to Scandinavia and Russia in the 1350s. Not only did the plague effect the European population by killing one-third to two-thirds (Gottfried), it also hurt the social and economic structures of every European society. How it spread The Black Death actually first appeared in the Himalayan region around 1250 AD. There are several theories as to how the disease made its way to Europe. One theory is that since the plague is transmitted from a bite of a flea, that fleas that lived on marmots that were indigenous to the region were the original transporters (Clay,1). The first recorded appearance of the plague in Europe was at Messina, Sicily in October of 1347. It was believed to have arrived on trading ships that came from the Black Sea, past Constantinople and through the Mediterranean (Gottfried). This route was used to bring import items such as silks and porcelain, which were carried overland to the Black Sea from as far away as China (Gottfried). No one know the exact point of origin of the Black Death but what most scholars will agree with is that the disease reach Europe by rodents. The reason given was due to the climatic shifts in the area which caused a shortage of food. The disease ridden rodents’ migration put them in contact with human populations, thus, putting humans in contact with the disease carrying fleas. So many people were impacted because most people lived in very crammed and tight spaces. This also made waste disposal an issue, which caused people to just tip their waste out the window of their home, bringing the rats. Because everyone was so close, the fleas could easily infect hundreds of people in one day, so no one was safe (Gottfried). The people that did manage to escape death was due to the fact that their immune systems being able to withstand the plague (Gottfried). Types of Plague What killed so many wasn’t due to just one type of plague going around; The disease that devastated Europe was caused by three different types of plague: bubonic, pneumonic, and septicemic. All three are bacterial infections caused by Yersinia pestis (Gottfried). The most common form was the bubonic plague. Fleas that lived on the plague-infected rats spread the bubonic plague (Gottfried). After 6 days people who were infected with this strain would develop flu-like symptoms and blood pressure drops, heartbeats faster, and a sudden fever erupts, accompanied by chills, weakness, and headache. Next, a black pus filled bump surrounded by an inflamed red ring shows up at the place that was bitten (Gottfried). The lymph node would begin to swell with pus. When the enlarged lymph nodes would burst they would also emit dark colored blood and pus. This is how the name Black Death came to be coined (Vunguyen). A second type of plague was that of pneumonic. This plague could spread with a sneeze and could quickly jump from person to person and though it was less common than the bubonic form, but more deadly. This form was contracted through breathing in a mutated, airborne strain of the bacteria. The infected person would experience fluid building up in the lungs. This very unfortunate circumstance would, in turn, cause suffocation of the infected individual. This particular form of the bacteria would cause death within a short time span, usually two or three days (Boeckl). The third type of plague was speticemic plague. Though it was the least common out of the three, it was the deadliest. Septicemic plague was carried in the blood and was contracted only through blood-to-blood contact. The person infected with this type would develop a high fever but they would not develop many outward symptoms that they had contracted the plague. The individuals who were infected with this final strain of the bacterium were usually dead within 24 hours. Almost all who contracted either the pneumonic or septicemic plague died from the infection (Boeckl). Causes of the Black Death The causes of the Black Death – the flea, the rat, and the bacillus Yersinia pestis– have been labeled the â€Å"unholy trinity† (Boeckl). The flea is able to live in environmental conditions of about 74 ° Fahrenheit and 60% humidity (Ibid). Before the Black Death reached Europe, they were experiencing those same types of weather conditions. The rat flea, Xenopsylla cheopis and the human flea, Pulex irritans, are both capable of transmitting plague (Boeckl). Sometimes, an infected flea cannot ingest blood because Yersinia pestis obstructs its digestive tract. The blockage causes a flea to regurgitate into a bitten host rather than ingest the host’s blood, thereby infecting the host with plague (Boeckl). Unable to eat, the famished flea will bite with more frequency, accelerating the spread of plague. A flea can be carrying Yersinia pestis without it blocking the flea’s digestive tract, in which case the flea does not transmit plague when it bites a host. Also, Yersinia pestis can only enter a victim through a bite, as the bacilli cannot pass through intact skin (Gottfried). Social Changes The disease took a major toll on the population of Europe but as it wiped out communities it also caused changes in the social structure of European society. Europe was run by a feudal system (Vunguyen). As death took its toll, people started to question the way of life. When the Black Death swept over Europe and wiped out a third of its population, it also dismantled Feudalism. The feudal system was structured like a pyramid with the King being at the top and having complete control. The King owned everything; he had the power to decide who he would lease the land to. If he did allow a citizen to lease part of his land, before doing so they had to swear to an oath of loyalty (Vunguyen). People who did rent the King’s land were called Baron/Baronesses (Vunguyen). The leased land was called a manor, and the Barons were often called the ‘Lord of the Manor’ (Vunguyen). They were allowed to establish their own system of justice, mint their own money and set their own taxes. The Barons had to serve on the royal council, pay rent and provide the King with Knights for military service when he demanded it in return for the land they had been given (Vunguyen). When the King and his court travelled around the country, the Barons also had to provide lodging and food. The Barons kept as much of their land as they desired, then divided the rest among their Knights (Vunguyen). Knights were given land by the Baron in return for military service when demanded, and to protect the manor. The Knights kept as much of the land as they wished for their own personal use, and distributed the rest of it to serfs – although they weren’t as rich as the Barons, Knights were quite wealthy (). Serfs were given land by Knights in exchange for free labor, food and services whenever it was desired. They had no rights and weren’t allowed to leave the Manor. They had to ask their Lord’s permission before they could marry, and were often mistreated and poor (). The serfs or peasants were a key group in the population so when they started to die off, everything went downhill. The serfs served everyone on the pyramid and now Barons were willing to pay higher wages and offer extra benefits (Vunguyen). All their life they had lived off the serfs’ hard work, and were willing to pay them to stay on the manor to continue slaving for them. When the serfs died, the foundation on which feudalism relied upon was broken. The pyramid of power broke, and everything was a mess. Serfs left to find high wages due to the labor shortages. The land that had usually been the primary source of wealth was now worthless (Vunguyen). Entire estates were deserted as families fell to the plague and died, or fled in a vain attempt to escape its fury, were there for the taking (Vunguyen). As Europe evolved away from relying on land as the main source of prosperity, a rising middle-class claimed more and more wealth and prestige, as the once-noble began to quickly lose both (Vunguyen). The end of Feudalism had started and progressed each day as the plague claimed more lives. As the days went on people wondered, if they needed to change the way they lived or worshipped God. Many found that if they continued to live and worship as they had for centuries, the plague was not being pacified (Clay). This caused many people to abandon the way of life that they were accustomed to and chose a life that contrasted with social norms. A large group of people, desperate to point their fingers at someone, alleged and accused many different ‘groups’ which included ‘witches,’ lepers and Jews (Clay). In central Europe, the flagellants convincingly charged the Jews. On a tragic day in Strasbourg alone, over 8,000 Jews were killed for being the target of vain suspicions (). This quote shows just how the mind of Europeans changed: Many were uncertain about the cause of this great mortality. In some places, they believed that the Jews had poisoned the worlds, and so they killed them. In some other areas, that it was a deformity of the poor, so they chased them out; in others, that it was the nobles, and so they [the nobles] hesitated to go out into the world. Finally, it reached the point where guards were posted in cities and towns, and they permitted no one to enter, unless he was well known. And if they found anyone with powders or unguents, they made him swallow them, fearing that these might be poisons (Clay, 2-3)†. Someone who survived the plague wrote â€Å"Everyone appeared to be rich because they had survived and regained value in life. Now, no one knows how to put their life back in order(Clay, 3). No one knew how to put their life back together after the plague hit. When all the chaos died down and order was restored, the society was much different than what it once was. The disease did not discriminate; it killed people from all different social classes. The peasants now saw that everyone was made up of the same flesh, even though who once ruled over them. This epiphany led the serfs see the inequality of the system and they saw it as unfair and unjust (Clay, 3). Because of all the affliction and misery there was much lawbreaking and because most of the law enforcers had also been hit by the plague there was not much that was done about it (Clay, 3). † This quote shows just how their mentality was changing. Lawbreakers could not be stopped especially by the lords and so once peasants realized all ties could be broken, they gained a new level of freedom (Clay, 4). Peasants and lord relationships were not the only thing that changed; individuals in the same social circle were forced to interact with one another differently. As a result of so many deaths, women were now being served by male servants and it did not matter if they were of noble birth or not. Men serving women was something taboo and unheard of before the plague, but the disease made that change. Noble women had to a find a different lifestyle under normal circumstances, these women would have been dishonored and shunned but this was not the case. Economic Effects All the death that fell upon Europe created a major labor shortage. It was a dominos affect, if the plague hit an area or manor in the summer, there wouldn’t be enough serfs to harvest the crops in the fall. If it hit in the winter, there wasn’t enough workers to plant new crops in the spring (â€Å"The Black Death, 1348†). So inevitably there wasn’t any one left on farm and maintain the land. The one’s who did withstand the plague, moved else-where for better wages (â€Å"The Black Death, 1348†). Not only did it affect the farms, it hurt businesses or building projects. Cathedral that usually were beautiful and performed weekly services were left eerily empty with no priests to conduct services. The barons did not have enough knights and serfs to cater to them and so many manors were abandoned. When someone dies normally, there would be a service and immediately be buried, well that didn’t happen during the Black Death era. No one was left to bury the dead. Citizens, lower and middle classes were scared, they stayed in the homes believing they would be safe. The shelter did not stop the disease from entering and since they were poor they did not get the care and attention they needed and most of them died (â€Å"The Black Death, 1348†). Instead of suffering, many decided to take their own lives and committed suicide in the street; others died in their homes but only found because their neighbors smelled the decaying body. Dead bodies were everywhere on every corner and in every home that wasn’t abandoned (â€Å"The Black Death, 1348†). â€Å"Most of them were treated in the same manner by the survivors, who were more concerned to get rid of their rotting bodies than moved by charity towards the dead. With the aid of porters, if they could get them, they carried the bodies out of the houses and laid them at the door; where every morning quantities of the dead might be seen. They then were laid on biers or, as these were often lacking, on tables† (â€Å"The Black Death, 1348†). Bodies upon bodies were brought to the church every day and almost every hour so it was impossible to give them a proper burial especially since they wanted to bury each person in the family grave, according to the old custom (â€Å"The Black Death, 1348†). â€Å"Although the cemeteries were full they were forced to dig huge trenches, where they buried the bodies by hundreds. Here they stowed them away like bales in the hold of a ship and covered them with a little earth, until the whole trench was full† (â€Å"The Black Death, 1348†). Cultural Effects The plague not only affected humans it also impacted the arts. In the Medieval period, people had concentrated mainly on the Church, God, and personal salvation. The plague was evident in paintings, sculptures, and architecture, everything was centered on death. The arrival of plague â€Å"harkened in a new darker era of painting. Paintings were overflowing with tortured souls, death, dying, fire and brimstone† (â€Å"The Effect of Black Death on Art and Artists in the Medieval Period†). Thousands of painters, craftsmen, patrons of the arts died during the plague. The disease tore a hole in the heart of the cultural world. The effects of the plague were lasting, bringing a somber darkness to visual art, literature, and music (â€Å"The Effect of Black Death on Art and Artists in the Medieval Period†). Writers and painters imaginations became dark and gloomy. The unknowing survival created a atmosphere of gloom and doom influencing artist to move away from optimistic themes and turn to images of Hell, Satan and the Grim Reaper (â€Å"The Effect of Black Death on Art and Artists in the Medieval Period†). Many painters simply gave up art with the idea that it was hopeless to try and create beauty in a hellish world. The Decameron by Boccaccio, a collection of medieval tales and folklore is the most famous literary work that came from that time period (â€Å"The Black Death†). The collection is set in the Italian countryside where aristocrats, fleeing the Plague as it ravages Florence, are stranded without their usual entertainments. To pass the time, they tell each other stories, from which Boccaccio harvested a rich storehouse of traditional narrative. The Decameron eventually became the foundation for many other Renaissance works, including several of Shakespeares plays (â€Å"The Black Death†). Positive Consequences It’s hard to find positive in so much death but the plague actually helped in a few ways. First being manpower, because of the shortages, manpower had so much more value. Peasants weren’t readily available in large numbers so the ones still alive found themselves in high demand (â€Å"The Black Death†). The ones who had all the power, kings and dukes, now found themselves bargaining with laborers over working conditions, and also the lower class were able to demand better pay for their services (â€Å"The Black Death†). Also, serfdom was terminated, so those peasants that were slaves and tied to the land were no longer obligated to farm and serve. And one other positive result of the bubonic plague was the development of medicine as a science in the West. Islamic doctors had advocating general cleanliness and the value of studying anatomy but Western healers prior to the black death were still using practices like the theory of humors (â€Å"The Black Death†). But when Plague wiped out nearly all the doctors of Europe, because the doctors had to attend to the dying and because of this were exposed at a higher rate to the more virulent pneumonic form of Plague. With so many doctors dying, it created a change in both personnel and precept (â€Å"The Black Death†). Strangely, western medicine owes much to plague. Conclusion The Black Death started in 1347 and continued for a full five years, this devastating plague spread throughout Europe, leaving more than twenty million people dead. The consequences to Europe were profound. Besides immeasurable death, traditional medieval society broke, the economies were fractured, and art and literature took a turn from light to dark. Though it spread throughout Europe, the Black Death was world-shattering and shows how even the smallest of things, the microbial world, can at times steer the course of human civilization.

The Defeat That Won A Life Essay Example for Free

The Defeat That Won A Life Essay Throughout History man has suffered from many setbacks and even though these have slowed his progression it has never defeated him. In the fiction novel The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway the main character Santiago undergoes many challenges while fighting the big fish. Even though in the end Santiago lost the fish, he was never defeated. Throughout the novel The Old Man and the Sea Hemingway uses symbolism through Santiago, the marlin, and his nemesis, the sharks to contribute to his theme that â€Å"A man can be destroyed but not defeated. † Throughout the novel Santiago represents determination, bravery, patience, and the ideal everyman through his actions when dealing with obstacles. During Santiago’s fishing expedition the marlin represents the ultimate goal we must obtain. Lastly, the sharks represent our enemies in life and that no matter, what we cannot let them break our spirits. Santiago’s struggle with life shows his true character and that he is the ideal everyman. His struggle defines determination, patience, and bravery. Santiago first shows his inner character when he maintains his daily fishing even after eighty-four days of coming back empty handed. On the eighty-fourth day the old man comes in empty handed again, but something about him seems strange. When Santiago’s friend, Manolin, looks at him â€Å"everything about him was old except his eyes and they were they same color as the sea and were cheerful and undefeated†(10). Even though Santiago’s body might be starting to fail him his spirit has not. Santiago also represents the highly valued ability to have patience. After the big fish has been hooked and starts swimming at its steady rate out to sea Santiago realizes that this fish will not give up soon. As the sun starts to go down Santiago says softly, aloud â€Å"Fish, Ill stay with you until I am dead†(52). Santiago demonstrates patience here and that time cannot defeat him. Lastly, Santiago proves his bravery when he realizes that he is probably out matched. After one day of swimming below the surface the marlin jumps out of the water in an attempt to break the line. This will be the first time Santiago will be able to look at him. Once Santiago sees him during his breath taking jump Santiago is awed and panic stricken. Santiago has seen many great fish but, â€Å"Now alone, and out of sight of land, he was fast to  the biggest fish that he had ever seen and bigger than he had ever heard of†(63). He decides to stay with the fish and test his luck. Santiago shows that the big fishes size will not daunt him or let it scare him into defeat. Santiago will fight with all his might to capture this fish. All of these characteristics contribute to Santiago being the ideal everyman and the idealistic vision of man cannot be defeated. In every person’s life he or she encounters some very difficult obstacles and the rewards to them can be the ones they most highly prize, Santiago’s is the great fish. One of Santiago’s obstacles is his worn body and he pushes it hard. On the second day his left hand begins to cramp and eventually tightens into a form of claw. Santiago is disgusted and says, â€Å"What kind of a hand is that, cramp then if you want. Make yourself into a claw. It will do you no good†(58). Here Santiago is battling with his endurance. He knows his body is to old to catch the big fish but he won’t admit it or even acknowledge it because he knows that once he starts to believe it he will give up and the fish will have won. Another challenge Santiago is put through to obtain his goal is one in his mind. After Santiago first sees the fish he is dumb founded by its sheer beauty and then he realizes it is the biggest, strongest fish he has ever beheld. To succeed he must not let the size of the marlin break his mind set on catching it. After seeing the fish for the first time Santiago says to himself, â€Å"I must never let him learn his strength nor what he could do if he made his run†(63). Even though Santiago is up against the greatest fish he has ever seen he must keep his wits about him and not forget what he has learned his entire life about catching fish. No matter what Santiago cannot be defeated by the fish as long as he doesnt let the fish beat him mentally. After three long days of wrestling with the big fish Santiago finally succeeded. Once the fish went belly up he laid back and let the fish sit in the water by the boat for a bit. He then said to himself, â€Å"I am a tired old man. But I have killed this fish†(95). Santiago’s victory over the big fish proved that if a man kept his spirit strong the he could never be defeated no matter how strong or massive his opponent is. Santiago’s overcoming of his physical and physiological obstacles resulted in victory over the great fish and proving the statement that a man can be destroyed but not defeated. The worst way to loose is to give in to an enemy and let them break his or hers spirit. Santiago did exactly the opposite when dealing with the sharks. Once the huge fish was caught and killed Santiago started preparing to leave for home. He tied the fish to the side because it would sink the boat if he tried to bring it in and he hoisted the sail so that the winds could bring him in. No long after starting his long journey home the first shark came. When it first appeared Santiago was determined to not let his prize be ruined. He took out his harpoon and â€Å"he hit it with his blood mushed hands driving a harpoon with all his might†(102). Here Santiago shows that he will not let a shark beat him and take all his hard work away. If he can’t protect the fish he’s going to at least die trying. Even after his harpoon is lost Santiago doesnt stop fighting. He sees two more sharks coming and takes â€Å"up the oar with the knife lashed to it† to defend his prize. Santiago shows that he will go as far as it takes to keep himself from being defeated by lowly scavengers. In the end Santiago was beat and his prize destroyed but he was never truly defeated. As Santiago stumbles ashore and towards his shack he feels the pain of the long fishing trip in his muscles. As soon has he gets home his first and only priority is sleep. Santiago stumbles into bed and pulls the sheets over him. He closes his eyes and immediately falls asleep, â€Å"The old man was dreaming about lions†(127). The old man was never defeated. His body, the marlins strength, and the sharks predatorial attacks were no match for Santiago’s mind and his ability to overcome setbacks. Santiago’s dream about lions shows that this fishing trip was just another challenge life had thrown at him. Loosing the fish was only a small setback in Santiago’s life and minuscule in comparison to catching the fish itself. Throughout this novel Hemingway uses Santiago, the marlin, and the sharks as symbolism to contribute to his theme that â€Å"A man can be destroyed but not defeated.† Throughout the novel Santiago represented the ideal everyman through his actions which depicted determination, patience, and bravery. He showed the characteristics of a man who could leave any battle feeling undefeated and knowing that he gave it his all and didn’t back down. The marlin represented the ultimate goal we must achieve and how the fight to obtain it is the most strenuous one. In the end the sharks represented our  enemies and even if they take what we have earned earning the prize is more valued than the prize itself. Men are the most prize driven creatures and even though sometimes the prize is destroyed by others man has never let that defeat him.