Y2K1 Essay Thesis Example For Students

Y2K1 Essay Thesis T h e Y e a r 2 0 0 0 P r o b l e m Argument for the statement The Year 2000 bug will have such extensive repercussions that families and individuals should begin planning now for the imminent chaos. The Ticking Bomb Introduction A serious problem called the Millennium Bug, and also known as the Year 2000 Problem and Y2K, is bringing a new century celebration into a daunting nightmare. In the 1860s and 1970s, when computer systems were first built, the computer hardware, especially information storage space, was at a premium. With an effort to minimise storage costs, numeric storage spaces were drained to the smallest possible data type. Ignoring the fact that software may be run in multiple centuries, programmers started conserving storage spaces by using two digits to specify a year, rather than four. Consequently, on January 1, 2000, unless the software is corrected, most software programs with date or time may malfunction or may not recognize the entries in the year fields 00 as the year as 1900 instead of 2000 . Year 2000 problem is not restricted only to the above exigency. 20 years ago, everybody understood that a leap year came every 4th year except for every 100th year. However, a piece of algorithm has been forgotten by most people a leap year does exist every 400 years. So, under the first two rules, year 2000 is not a leap year, but with the third rule, it actually is. Computing errors will also occur before Year 2000. Values such as 99 are sometimes used for special purposes not related to the date. The number 99 is used in some systems as an expiration date for data to be archived permanently so some computers may lose the data a year before 2000. Programmers and software developers were surprised to see some of their programs survive for only a few years but failed to anticipate the problems coming by the year 2000. It is sorrowful to find most programs are still in use or have been incorporated into successor systems. Because of the need for new applications to share data in a common format with existing systems, inheriting the six-digit date field that has become a standard over time. The disaster scenario envisaged is that a great number of computer systems around the world will make processing errors and will either crash or produce incorrect outputs . As a result financial institutions, businesses organisations, informational technology and even aeroplane radar communications will all then be in a welter of confusion. In military services, the system meltdown may also worsen the appropriate control of nuclear missiles in silos. It is a ticking time bomb destined to wreak havoc on millions of computer systems in every economy, both commercial and residential, and thus need everyones serious attention. However, the bug is likely to affect more staggeringly the business computers which imply an alarming economic problem. Many organisations have not yet started projects to examine the impact of the millennium bug on their systems. By applying The Standish Groups CHAOS research to Year 2000 projects, 73% of Y2K projects will fail according to the pace now taking. The biggest challenge for these companies is convincing top level management of the severity of the year 2000 problem and the amount of time, money and resources needed to fix it. On that account, to ensure this disaster is minimised, none of us should worm out of devoting resources in preventing the potential anarchy. It is a costly Task As simple as the problem sounds, the fix for the Millennium Bug will cost up to US$600 billion world-wide, according to estimates by the Gartner Group, a leading information technology consultancy. The software fixes are very time-consuming, requiring considerable effort to examine millions of lines of source code in order to locate problem date fields and correct them. The costs to apply the fixes will vary from company to company, but research has given the figure of approximately between US$0.50 to $2 per line of source code for modification, with these costs expected to escalate as much as 50 per cent for every year that projects are delayed. Unfortunately, this average excludes date conversions on military weapons systems software, which is expected to be significantly more expensive to convert, and the real figure should even be much larger. One of the first steps an organisation needs to take on the way to ensuring Year 2000 compliance is to determine what they have to be changed. The business will need to prepare an inventory of hardware and software utilised to allow assessment of problem areas. It is hard to address the potential for problems when no clear picture of the problem space is available. Documentation showing the processing steps being performed by the companys computer system in order to accomplish business functions needs to be available to ensure that all procedures are present and accounted for. There is no Silver Bullet The problem looks straightforward, all w e need is just to check each line of code, locate the two-digit date fields, expand them to four digit and test the correction. Unfortunately, these modifications are mostly manual labour not an automatic process. Software Dilemma Six-digit date fields are generally scattered throughout practically every level of computing, from operating systems to software applications and databases. Some dates have numeric representation, while other have alphanumeric representations. This adds to the complexity of the problem from a management and technical point of view. The bug contaminates a large area that nearly all of the program codes must be examined to ensure that correction is free from side-effects. A case in point, a typical medium size organisation, a state comptrollers office in United States, is predicted to spend US$5.6 million to $6.2 million to make the software conversion, that is, nearly a billion lines of code must be repaired. Furthermore, there are computing languages stil l in use today that only a handful of people are even aware of, let alone proficient enough to be called experts. Skills for some older, more obscure languages and systems will, more than likely, make the Y2K a more serious problem. Some uses of two digit dates may not be obvious. For example, the UK Driving Licence number encodes the holders date of birth using a two digit year code. Dates used in this nature will create Year 2000 problems without the obvious use of dates in the program. Some systems use dates fields for non-standard uses, such as special indicators and how your systems have abused the date field is something you can only find out by looking at every line of code, which is a huge costs in time and resources. With the variety of programming languages and platforms in use throughout that past three decades, and the multitude of uses for date fields, and the extensiveness of infected programming area, no single silver bullet could exist to correct the problem. Moreove r, the problem cannot be solved individually. Y2K is a universal problem which will bring a chain effect among industries and firms. No business is immune, every firm is affected either directly in its own operation, or indirectly, by the action or inaction of others. A Year 2000 compliant computer system may fail to process, produce error messages or generate incorrect data even if it receives contaminated programs or data from a third party that is not Year 2000 compliant. With all these issues involved, and with remaining time ever decreasing, management awareness must focus on these problems. The Hardware Dilemma If the computer hardware cannot handle dates past 31/12/99 then no software solution can fix it. Some applications request the system date directly from the hardware and cannot be trapped by the operating system, which obviates a software resolution. For instance, the PC hardware problem can be explained as follows. The standard PC computer system maintains two system d ates: one is in the CMOS Real Time Clock chip, a hardware component normally located on the machines motherboard that stores time, date and system information such as drive types; and the other one is in the operating system software, these two dates are represented differently, influencing one another. When the computer boots, it normally initialises its current date by reading the date in the CMOS Real Time Clock and converting it to days since January 1, 1980. The PC maintains its date as long as the system is running; the CMOS Real Time Clock hardware maintains its date whether the system is running or not, but it does not maintain the century. So, the standard flaw lurks in the CMOS Real Time Clock date when Year 2000 is reached as it reads an out-of-range date. Moreover, a few specific Basic Input/Output Systems cause behaviour other than the standard flaw. Importantly, the Award v4.50 series BIOS will not allow any date after 1999 and can not be corrected by any software. Dat es are integrated in computer hardware, from mainframe, mid-range machines, all the way down to network infrastructure. Date fields are used in some of the most basic computer functions such as calculating and sorting and will affect a large majority of systems. If year fields are expanded to 4 digits, this will automatically give rise to the need for additional storage space. In due course, the original reasons for the introduction of 6 digit dates will resurface. Any computer application that accepts or displays dates on the screen or produces a report with date fields will need to be redesigned. On-line transaction databases will need to be converted and the new expanded database will need to be kept in sync with the old active database during the conversion process. In some cases there will be insufficient space available to accept or display additional data, forcing a major revision. If paper forms are used for input, these will also need to be redesigned. Screen, report and fo rm redesign appear to be a minor issue in the context of the Millennium Bug, but the design of screen and reports are important from a usability perspective, and the redesign process cannot be automated. Any changes to the way dates are handled in an organisation will need to be coupled with staff training to ensure that all staff are aware of any new standards. Other Dilemma Implied However, to ensure that the corrected work runs free of errors after January 1, 2000 midnight, testing of the changed code must be performed. There is no way around this. As testing is around 50% of all programming tasks, the actual programming tasks are just one small cog in the wheel used to resolve the Millennium Bug. With the rigidly fixed deadline, and the ever decreasing amount of time, this will require a large investment in resources, to ensure a smooth run from the development to production phases. Less seriously discussed in the Year 2000 issue by the public, as the Year 2000 deadline approach es and the time remaining for corrective work shrinks, companies may choose, or be forced into, outsourcing the resolution of their Millennium Bug to a Year 2000 service provider. The service provider would have to load a copy of the software onto its computer system to perform the bug fixes, and this raises the issue of software licensing. Many licences contain restrictions barring licensees from providing a copy of the software to any third party without the consent of the licenser, and this could present problems in the event of a dispute between vendor and client. Conclusion The year 2000 challenge is inescapable and omnipresent, affecting every businesses and individuals, regardless of age or platform. As discussed, there are many aspects of the Millennium Bug problem that are not immediately obvious, ranging from legal issues such as copyright and licensing, to issues of available resources and existing bugs. Carrying out a solution in any business involves careful planning in order to be successful. The four steps awareness, planning, implementation, and testing are crucial for a company to run successfully beyond the year 2000. Unlike most other IT projects there is a definite, fixed and immovable deadline for implementation. If there is not enough time to complete the programming and testing, or if unexpected delays occur, the deadline remains fixed and cannot be moved. Only if companies start corrective action soon enough and devote sufficient resources to the effort can minimise the effect of this universal nightmare. Table A Example of the Year 2000 Problem With Current Date Format (mm/dd/yy) Current Date Birth Date Calculated Age 06/19/99 06/19/59 40 06/19/00 06/19/59 59, 59, or Error Corrected to 8-Digit Date Format (mm/dd/yy) Current Date Birth Date Calculated Age 06/19/2000 16/19/1959 41 N.B. this requires that two dates be changed (both current date and birth date) Figure B Some Sources of Year 2000 Problem Computer Central Processing Unit8 H ardware Clock8 BIOS (Basic Input/ Output System)8 Network server Other Hardware8 Modem8 Added Printed Circuit Card8 Telephone Answering Machine8 Video Equipment Software8 Operating System8 Packaged Software8 In-house Code, Databases, Spreadsheets, etc. Embedded Chips8 Process Control Systems8 Fax Machines8 Video Cassette Recorder8 Heating, Ventilation and Air conditioning Control8 Internal Combustion Engine8 Automatic Camera8 Security System8 Fire Detection System8 Medical Equipment8 Time-keeping and Attendance Systems8 Bar-code Reader System Bibliography and References Journal References 0 Jerome T. Murray Marilyn J. Murray. The Year 2000 Computing Crisis. US: Mc-Graw Hill Companies (1996). 0 Lowenstein R. The Year 2000 and the CEOs Big Secret. The Wall Street Journal (July 1996). Online References 0 Apple Computer, Inc. The Mac OS and the Year 2000: Approaching the New Millennium (1997). http://product.info.apple.com/pr/letters/1997/961210.pr.ltrs.macos2000.html 0 Dave Brandt. We lcome to the DOI Year 2000 Page (1997). http://www.doi.gov/oirm/oirm/y2mgt1.html 0 Don Sand. Year2000 The Clock Continues to Tick (1997). http://csn.uneb.edu/year2000/Year2000ClockContinuesTick.htm 0 Gary North. The Year 2000 Crisis (1998). http://mypage.direct.ca/r/rhomer/year.html 0 J.Bace. Offshore Resources for Year 2000 Project (1996). http://gartner3.gartnerweb.com/public/static/hotc/hc00060661.html 0 Mark Mayes. What is the Year 2000 Problem and How Does It Affect VB? (1998) http://www.class-solutions.com/whatis.htm 0 National Association of Insurance Commissioners. Tick-tock, tick tock(1997). http://www.naic.org/geninfo/news/gateway/gwmay97.htm 0 Patrick Janidlo. The Survival Guide for the Year 2000 (1997). http://www.themesh.com/feat28.html 0 Standish Group International, Inc. Year2000 A date Odyssey (1997). http://www.standishgroup.com/ad.html 0 The Tenagra Corporation. Y2K Press Clippings (1998). http://www.year2000.com/y2karticles.html 0 2K-Times. Year 2000 and the Com puter (1997). http://www.2k-times.com/y2knews.htm 0 Michael Gerner. Year 2000 Making Applications Date Intelligent (1997). http://www.2k-times.com/y2k-p005.htmBibliography: .u896ab016152e59e80414f04622729ab2 , .u896ab016152e59e80414f04622729ab2 .postImageUrl , .u896ab016152e59e80414f04622729ab2 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u896ab016152e59e80414f04622729ab2 , .u896ab016152e59e80414f04622729ab2:hover , .u896ab016152e59e80414f04622729ab2:visited , .u896ab016152e59e80414f04622729ab2:active { border:0!important; } .u896ab016152e59e80414f04622729ab2 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u896ab016152e59e80414f04622729ab2 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u896ab016152e59e80414f04622729ab2:active , .u896ab016152e59e80414f04622729ab2:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u896ab016152e59e80414f04622729ab2 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u896ab016152e59e80414f04622729ab2 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u896ab016152e59e80414f04622729ab2 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u896ab016152e59e80414f04622729ab2 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u896ab016152e59e80414f04622729ab2:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u896ab016152e59e80414f04622729ab2 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u896ab016152e59e80414f04622729ab2 .u896ab016152e59e80414f04622729ab2-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u896ab016152e59e80414f04622729ab2:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Alcohol Abuse Among Teenagers Essay We will write a custom essay on Y2K1 Thesis specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now

Ahmose Tempest Stela - Weather Report in Ancient Egypt

Ahmose Tempest Stela - Weather Report in Ancient Egypt The Ahmose Tempest Stele is a block of calcite with ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs carved into it. Dated to the early New Kingdom in Egypt, the block is a genre of art similar to political propaganda used by many rulers in many different societiesa decorated carving meant to extol the glorious and/or heroic deeds of a ruler. The Tempest Steles main purpose, so it seems, is to report on the efforts of Pharaoh Ahmose I to restore Egypt to its former glory after a cataclysmic disaster. However, what makes the Tempest Stele so interesting to us today, is that some scholars believe that the disaster described on the stone is the after-effects of the volcanic eruption of the Thera volcano, which decimated the Mediterranean island of Santorini and pretty much ended the Minoan culture. The tying of the story on the stone to the Santorini eruption is a crucial piece of evidence nailing down the still-debated dates of the rise of the New Kingdom and the Mediterranean Late Bronze Age in general. The Tempest Stone The Ahmose Tempest Stele was erected at Thebes by Ahmose, the founding pharaoh of the 18th dynasty of Egypt, who ruled between 1550-1525 BC (according to the so-called High Chronology) or between 1539-1514 BC (Low Chronology). Ahmose and his family, including his elder brother Kamose and their father Sequenenre, are credited with ending the rule of the mysterious Asiatic group called the Hyksos, and reuniting Upper (south) and Lower (north including the Nile delta) Egypt. Together they founded what would become the pinnacle of ancient Egyptian culture known as the New Kingdom. The stele is a calcite block that once stood over 1.8 meters tall (or about 6 feet). Eventually it was broken into pieces and used as fill in the Third Pylon of the Karnak Temple of Amenhotep IV, that pylon known to have been erected in 1384 BC. The pieces were found found, reconstructed and translated by Belgian archaeologist Claude Vandersleyen [born 1927]. Vandersleyen published a partial translation and interpretation in 1967, the first of several translations. The text of the Ahmose Tempest Stele is in Egyptian hieroglyphic script, inscribed into both sides of the stele. The front side was also painted with red horizontal lines and incised hieroglyphs highlighted in blue pigment, although the reverse side is unpainted. There are 18 lines of text on the front and 21 on the back. Above each text is a lunette, a half-moon shape filled with dual images of the king and fertility symbols. The Text The text begins with a standard string of titles for Ahmose I, including a reference to his divine appointment by the god Ra. Ahmose was residing in the town of Sedjefatawy, so reads the stone, and he traveled south to Thebes, to visit Karnak. After his visit, he returned south and while he was traveling away from Thebes, a tremendous storm blew up, with devastating effects throughout the entire country. The storm is said to have lasted for several days, with bellowing noises louder than the cataracts at Elephantine, torrential rainstorms, and an intense darkness, so dark that not even a torch could relieve it. The driving rains damaged chapels and temples and washed houses, construction debris, and corpses into the Nile where they are described as bobbing like papyrus boats. Theres also a reference to both sides of the Nile being stripped bare of clothing, a reference that has lots of interpretations. The most extensive section of the stele describes the kings actions to remedy the destruction, to restablish the Two Lands of Egypt and provide the flooded territories with silver, gold, oil and cloth. When he finally arrives in Thebes, Ahmose is told that the tomb chambers and monuments have been damaged and some have collapsed. He orders that the people restore the monuments, shore up the chambers, replace the contents of the shrines and double the wages of the personnel, in order to return the land to its former state. And so it is completed. The Controversy Controversies among the scholarly community focus on the translations, the meaning of the storm, and the date of the events described on the stele. Some scholars are certain the storm refers to the after-effects of the Santorini eruption. Others believe that the description is literary hyperbole, propaganda to glorify the pharaoh and his works. Others still interpret its meaning as metaphorical, referring to a storm of Hyksos warriors and the great battles that occurred to chase them out of lower Egypt. To these scholars, the storm is interpreted as a metaphor for Ahmose restoring order from the social and political chaos of the second Intermediate period, when the Hyksos ruled the north end of Egypt. The most recent translation, from Ritner and colleagues in 2014, points out that although there are a handful of texts referring to Hyksos as a metaphorical storm, the Tempest Stele is the only one that includes clear descriptions of meteorological anomalies including rain storms and floods. Ahmose himself, of course, believed the storm was the result of the great displeasure of the gods for his leaving Thebes: his rightful location for the rule over both Upper and Lower Egypt. Sources This article is a part of the About.com guide to Ancient Egypt  and the Dictionary of Archaeology. Bietak M. 2014. Radiocarbon and the date of the Thera eruption. Antiquity 88(339):277-282. Foster KP, Ritner RK, and Foster BR. 1996. Texts, Storms, and the Thera Eruption. Journal of Near Eastern Studies 55(1):1-14. Manning SW, Hà ¶flmayer F, Moeller N, Dee MW, Bronk Ramsey C, Fleitmann D, Higham T, Kutschera W, and Wild EM. 2014. Dating the Thera (Santorini) eruption: archaeological and scientific evidence supporting a high chronology. Antiquity 88(342):1164-1179. Popko L. 2013. Late Second Intermediate Period to Early New Kingdom. In: Wendrich W, Dieleman J, Frood E, and Grajetzki W, editors. UCLA Encyclopedia of Egtypology. Los Angeles: UCLA. Ritner RK, and Moeller N. 2014. The Ahmose ‘Tempest Stela’, Thera and Comparative Chronology. Journal of Near Eastern Studies 73(1):1-19. Schneider T. 2010. A theophany of Seth-Baal in the Tempest Stele. Ägypten und Levante / Egypt and the Levant 20:405-409. Wiener MH, and Allen JP. 1998. Separate Lives: The Ahmose Tempest Stela and the Theran Eruption. Journal of Near Eastern Studies 57(1):1-28.

Service Oriented Software Engineering Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Service Oriented Software Engineering - Article Example The platforms based on Component Based Development, such as CORBA, Java Beans, and.NET, are such standards for developing complex Web-based systems. The increasing interest in web based services has made the industry to provide platform-independent software resources (W3C, 2004). The Internet, can be used as a provider of different kinds of services. Using Web services, organisations are now able to expose their main and the most important business processes on the Internet as a collection of services. The main issue is not about using web services as a new technology but in how best to make use of web service technology and therefore how to integrate them properly. We need to apply well-defined engineering approaches to ensure we will not end up with an accumulation of unusable services (which might be functional in theory). The goal is to collaborate and coordinate between components that provide these services. Service Oriented Software Engineering (SOSE) is the approach used for this purpose. The first and main concept in Service Oriented Software Engineering is â€Å"service†. The service is the descriptor of an agreement between provider of the service and its consumer. It is a reusable functionality and it is contractually defined. Service Orientation focuses on how services are described in a way to help finding appropriate services at run time dynamically. Service orientation is based on the idea that a service requester is not necessarily in need of one particular provider. Service providers can be changed with each other as long as they follow the contract imposed by the description of the service. The main assumption in Service Orientation is the availability of services dynamically. The service registry is the entity in between the requesters and providers. It contains a set of service descriptions and their related providers. It helps with service publication, removal, and discovery. Service composition represents the way to use a set of

BIET 336 (Individual recommendation report) Essay

BIET 336 (Individual recommendation report) - Essay Example This report entails discussions on the methods that criminals use during car theft; with two recommendations on mitigating the incident. Stealing cars has only negative effects in USA; and criminals employ various stealing methods. The Carjacking practice entails taking vehicles through force. Carjacking is very serious because the car owners are mostly assaulted. Carjacking entails criminals driving away the vehicle, after forcing the passengers or operators from the car. Automotive theft also involves fraudulent theft. This entails the unlawful acquisition of cars from the owner or seller, by fraudulent funds transfer. Most automobiles acquired through this unlawful method are immediately resold thereafter (Lesikar 346). The table below illustrates automobile theft increasing statistics in the USA. Criminals use various equipments during car theft. Weapons like firearms or knife are mostly applied during carjacking incidences. The weapons are used to break car windows or threaten the car owner. Spare wires and screw drivers are used for connecting the ignition and the power source during car theft. This power connection enables the criminals to drive away the vehicles. In the 2012 and 2013 analysis of car theft figures by the National Automobile Club; there are cities with decreased car theft rates (Los Angeles, and San Diego). This has been made possible through regular police patrols in the cities. Police on patrol are responsible for conducting random checks on vehicles. Other cities have significant increase in car theft rates (New York and Dallas). This is attributed to increased fraudulent car theft in affected cities. The criminals acquire the cars through unlawful methods. There are significant differences between increased and decreased car theft rates. This is because the two sets of affected cities employ different strategies in curbing the car theft practice; cities which employ effective strategies like

Railway Security of the Acela Express between Washington DC and Essay

Railway Security of the Acela Express between Washington DC and Boston, USA - Essay Example The USA 9/11 commission has emphasized on the need to have increased efforts of minimizing loopholes and instances of enemy attacks to secure public places through increased funding for security operations and enhanced legislative initiatives. The 9/11 commission noted that â€Å"opportunities to do harm are as great, or greater, in maritime or surface transportation.† This paper will explore risk assessment and management for the Railway transport industry in the United States particularly the Acela Express railroad services. Under risk assessment, it will try to explain on the criticality, vulnerability, and possibility of threat of attack while risk management will include measures of risk mitigation based on security loopholes or weaknesses identified. The nature of terrorist attacks experienced in different parts of the world have seemed to target places where people congregate for different reasons including commerce, worship, work among others. The enemies of common good have intention to kill and destroy either as a way of retaliation or to seek recognition of their power by their so called opponents. Some of the points where attacks have been witnessed include places of passenger transport like airports, railway stations, bus stops among others. There have also been attacks en route through means such as hijackings, bombings, armed attack, sabotage, arson, unconventional attacks, kidnapping, barricade or hostage. They have used weapons like explosives, fire or firebomb, firearms, chemical agents and radiological agents and threats. Vulnerability and criticality of a rail system to an attack should be assessed based on assumptions about the sort of attack and the magnitude of the impact including loss of life, casualties, econ omic disruptions, destruction of the environment etc. The threat level should be the sort of information to be acquired which may range from low, moderate, substantial, severe to critical, the

King Lear Character Analysis Essay English Literature Essay

King Lear Character Analysis Essay English Literature Essay Edgar is arguably one of the plays most pitiful characters, by the end of the play he is probably the character who ends up with the most wits. Edgar proves he is adaptable to the changing situations around him by making four different persona changes throughout King Lear. He started as a simpleminded victim of Edmund, but then he changed to a poverty stricken beggar, then an ordinary peasant, then a chivalrous champion challenging Edmund, and lastly the wiser, peaceful version of Edgar. Edgar is also the religious voice in the play. In the beginning of King Lear, Edgar would be clothed in some of the nicest garments because he`s the son of the Earl of Gloucester. Edgar was oblivious to the fact that his illegitimate brother had a plan ruing to oust their father from power. When Edmund told him to run away for a short period of time because Gloucester was mad at him, the simpleminded Edgar did not think twice and listened to his brother. After learning of his death warrant issued by his father Gloucester, Edgar realizes that the only way to stay alive is to take on his first of four persona transformations. When he makes his decision to become a Bedlam Beggar, he says Poor Turlygod! Poor Tom! Thats something yet! Edgar I nothing am (2.3.20-1). Edgar realizes that if he does not change himself to Poor Tom he will not survive. Edgar is wise for doing so because Gloucester has all the guards in the country looking for him (2.3.4). As he becomes a beggar, he is stripping himself of everything, his title, his clothes, and his personality. This goes along with one of the main themes of nothing in King Lear. Edgar starts conversing with Lear, his Fool, and Kent, whom are about to enter the hovel. Lear has already stated that he thinks that Edgar is a philosopher. While Gloucester is trying to bring Lear out of the storm, But Lear tells him Ill talk a word with this same learned Theban (3.4.150). Edgar is being spoken highly of by Lear, a Learned Theban is a learned Greek or scholar. In Shakespeares days, Greeks were associated with wisdom and education, especially in Philosophy. Edgar is the religious voice and can be seen as an optimistic voice throughout King Lear. Several times, Edgar spoke of the relationship between man and god. He believes in good will triumph evil; he is also able to see above luck, and believe in a higher plan. Edgar is Gloucesters saviour in the play. Without Edgar, Gloucester would have died sooner than he did with Edgar. As a result of everything that has happened to Edgar, he becomes much wiser and is able to show his compassion. Edgar has been hopelessly optimistic throughout King Lear. Even after seeing his father blinded, Edgar is being hopeful in thinking that it is only the worst if we believe it is, and nothing gets better if it is no believe to be the worst (4.1.26-7). He has some reason, else he could not beg. I th last nights storm I such a fellow saw, Which made me think a man a worm. My son Came then into my mind, and yet my mind Was then scarce friends with him. I have heard more since (4.1.31-7). After Gloucester is physically blinded, he was finally able to comprehend that Edmund, not Edgar was the one who had betrayed him. Even though, Edgar could hear Gloucester yearning for him, Edgar did not reveal himself to Gloucester. This is possibly one of the biggest mysteries in King Lear. Edgar may not have revealed himself to Gloucester as a form of torture because he was the one that issued the death warrant. It can also be looked at in the form of Edgar blinding Gloucester However, the reason may be that it was too overwhelming for Edgar to see Gloucester (his father who has always been strong) so broken and helpless. Any Father could not possibly ask his son to lead him to a cliff so he can jump to his death, but Gloucester who is depressed and blind, asks Edgar who he thinks is just a beggar to do the task. Edgar does not refuse the task of leading his father to jump to his death; instead, he carries out a clever plan to fool his father into thinking that he survived the jump. Edgar describes to his father that they are at the top of the cliff with the waves hitting the bottom of the cliff, but they cannot be heard because Gloucesters other senses are dulling from the pain of having his eyes gouged out. Gloucester believes his son and when he goes to jump, he faints. When Gloucester comes back to his senses, Edgar has transformed himself again to a peasant to make his plan work. The Peasant Version of Edgar convinces Gloucester that some fiend convinced him to jump, not Poor Tom, so the gods pitied him and saved him (4.6.69-72). The Gloucester suicide scene as a whole showed that Edgar still cares about his Father even though he issued the death warrant. He realized if he had let Gloucester die then he would have no one left that cared about him. At the beginning of the final act, Edmund takes on yet another persona. Hes disguised in the uniform of a knight when he draws Albany aside and give him the letter that Oswald was carrying. Edgar states that he wants to challenge Edmund in a duel to the death (5.1.44). He then becomes a chivalrous champion after he wins the duel against his brother Edmund. Edgar has endured so much throughout King Lear; becoming nothing, and having to see his father die from two extremes of grief and joy. But once Edgar takes his knight helmet off, he changes for the last time. He goes back to being Edgar, but there is little to no similarities between his first and current persona. First of all, he is no longer simpleminded, the things that he has seen have made him wise. The weight of this sad time we must obey, speak what we feel, not what we ought to say. The oldest hath borne the most; we that are young shall never see so much nor live so long. (5.3.323-26). In that quote he was saying that nobody will ever go through as much as Lear did or live so long, so we have to learn from this experience (5.3.323-26). Edgar is arguably one of the play`s most wise and caring characters. Edgar is the religious voice in King Lear. He has proven that he is adaptable to the changing situations around him by taking on five different personas throughout King Lear.

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Jonathan Etra Professor Eric Blanchard International Politics 13 February 2014 Word Count: 1331 Shifting Paradigms: An Analysis of Conflict and Cooperation in International Politics When seeking to understand the central problems that actors face in international politics, there are no universal tools, including paradigms and levels of analysis, that unilaterally account for the global state of affairs. However, by utilizing these instruments, political scientists are able to analyze situations independently and account for context. Paradigms are statements of the underlying assumptions used by a school of analysis such as realism, liberalism and constructivism (Nye & Welch, 62). The models often explore levels of analysis, which include individual actors, states and the global system. Historically, when considering cooperation and conflict in the international arena, much emphasis has been placed on realist theory. However, it seems that a new age of technological innovation and rapid globalization has spawned new avenues for liberalism to triumph. This transition is best explained through the lens of constructivism. By exploring the varying applicability of t he paradigms presented, one gains a greater understanding of the ever-evolving international arena. First, it is important to consider the anarchic system of states, the current form of world politics. In the anarchical system, states are unboundedly independent and are neither obligated to, nor protected by international law (Doyle, 114). In what is often referred to as the Westphalian model, states are political entities that have territoriality and autonomy. Territoriality means that a state’s authority extends over a defined area. Autonomy infers that external act... ... However, the increasingly interdependent nature of the international system has substantially augmented international collaboration. While such cooperation cannot ensure peace, it certainly has made the cost of war much greater. Constructivism and liberalism, unlike the Hobbesian realist perspective, take mitigating institutions into account when analyzing world order. They reason that self-help theory does not dominate and contend that when a system is more social, laws, rules and norms play a greater role. Yet, there are still situations in which the channels of alleviation do not exist and the realist perspective still dominates. Ultimately, while no universal system of analysis exists, by reviewing conflict and cooperation through varying lenses, namely realism, liberalism and constructivism, one can gain a considerable understanding of international politics.