SCI P1 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

SCI P1 - Essay Example Called also silicium† While Semi conductor is â€Å"Crystalline element (such as germanium or silicon) or compound (such as gallium arsenide or indium phosphide) that is between a conductor (such as a metal) and an insulator (such as glass) in its ability to conduct electric current. This ability can be selectively controlled by doping the material with an impurity (such as aluminum or boron) and/or by running another current through the material at a different axis. Semiconductors are used in making solid state electronic devices such as diodes, rectifiers, transistors, and integrated circuits (computer and memory chips).† This is according to BusinessDictionary.com. This has helped the revolution of computers in that the silicon base semi conductors has help in the manufacture of components used in the assembly of computer and other electronic devices that make our lives easier leading to Technology. The definition of Technology according Merriam (2012), Technology is â€Å"the use of science in industry, engineering, etc., to invent useful things or to solve problems or a machine, piece of equipment, method, etc., that is created by technology.† There are three kinds of technology construction technology, medical technology, and information technology. In Construction Technology, an example for Hydraform Brick and Block Machines has been discovered such as interlocking bricks which use less cement. It is an easier, cheaper, and less time consuming way of constructing bricks. In Medical Technology, machines and medicines have been invented or discovered to help save lives and make it easier for treatments. For example computed axial tomography (CAT) Scan machines in the past it was difficult to get images of internal organs when one had an accident but thanks to technology, it is easier to detect internal problems of an individual hence saving many lives. An example is when one has an accident, to detect whether they have internal bleeding; they use the CAT

Dante's Inferno Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Dante's Inferno - Essay Example Along the way, Virgil also corrects many of Dante's errors and mistakes, showing himself to be a true mentor figure. Overall, Virgil is understanding and accepting of Dante's errors. Dante is halfway through his life, and walking through a dark forest, when he comes to the entrance of hell. He is an imperfect man, who has made mistakes in life. He is bereft of his beloved, Beatrice, and wishes only to see her again. Such is the background to his quest through hell, purgatory, and heaven to find Beatrice, led much of the way by Virgil. Because these spectral places differ so much from the real world which Dante is used to, it is not surprising that he makes mistakes along the way. Dante, after all, is much like we are: he is thrown into a world he does not understand. One of Dante's biggest errors of judgement is not understanding the seriousness of what he sees. He is sympathetic to some of the sinners. In this he is naive about the order of the Inferno and the way of the world. Virg il is there to sort him out and show him the true seriousness of the sins committed by people such as the magicians and other sinners in latter circles of hell. When encountering the demons, Dante does not seem to be aware of how much danger they are in; not until, Virgil puts him on his back and takes him to safety does he understand. It makes sense that Dante has trouble comprehending the significance of the Inferno. He has just been dropped into a fantastical world and he has trouble accepting or understanding its consequence and the way it is ordered. To him, it must appear like a dream. Virgil is there to show him that he is mistake to believe this is simply an allegory or dream. It is very real. What happens in real life has consequences in the afterlife, Virgil is showing Dante. On those occasions when Dante cannot believe his eyes, Virgil is there to tell him, â€Å"Yes, son, what you see is real.† Their journey together is one of discovery and one of education. If Vi rgil did not correct Dante every once and awhile, the two figures would never get out of the Inferno. One of the severest rebukes that Dante receives from Virgil is in Canto XX. Dante again falls prey to pity for the magicians and fortune-tellers who claimed they could see they future. He sees them with their heads reversed, their bodies horribly mutilated. This is their punishment for violating the natural order of things: now they can only see backwards, where they have come from rather than where they are going. Virgil sharply rebukes Dante for his pity, saying that it is a sign of great pride to pity those who have been condemned by heaven's decree (Dante, 180). Not for the first time, does Dante learn to watch his mouth around Virgil. This error of judgement on the part of Dante is further explicated by the critic John Timpane: Pity dies at the gates of Inferno. Nor is this a failure of the Divine, a limit to the reach of God. This is the keeping of a promise, the fulfilment of damnation. Instead of LASCIATE OGNE SPERANZA, VOI CH’INTRATE, the lintel above the entrance could well read SEE WHAT HAPPENS? What happens is Judgement, and Judgement is equal to Justice. If you landed in Inferno, that’s because you should land there (Timpane). There times, such as when Virgil is tricked by Malaconda, that he too makes errors of judgement (Dante, 99). Still, perhaps it underlines the fact that Virgil is not a god, he was once a man like Dante too. They have more in common than might at first be evidence. Indeed, in some

How Big Data is Used in Retail Industry: Etsy

How Big Data is Used in Retail Industry: Etsy Big Data can be defined as the inability of traditional data architectures to efficiently handle the new datasets. Characteristics of Big Data that force new architectures are: 1. Volume: Size of dataset 2. Variety: Data from multiple sources 3. Velocity: Rate of flow 4. Variability: Change in other characteristics We all are aware of the 4 vs and they are considered as the core characteristics of Big Data. NIST perfectly explains these characteristics and further puts emphasis on needing a higher system architecture for higher performance. The system scaling is done using techniques called vertical and horizontal scaling. While researching definition of big data I realized most of the websites talk about the Vs of big data but none talk about how this is a full field but NIST explains us in detail about scaling and what it does. One thing to note is that this article was written in September of 2015 and since then a lot of things have changed and like any technology, big data is evolving and its definition and characteristics are evolving too. The four vs has evolved and are now there are seven vs which include [5] 5. Veracity: Refers to the completeness and accuracy of the data 6. Value: How much value does the data has 7. Visualization: The most important part where the processed data is presented so that readers can understand it. Big data has become a common name and it is being used in e-commerce for numerous ways. Big data is being used in e-commerce to give personalized buying experience to the customers. Using a customers browsing and buying habits to provide them with personalized recommendations can result in increased sales. We all aware of Amazon who provides their customers with Customers who bought this item also bought section which resulted in 30 percent increase in sales. Big data along with click-stream data can be used to monitor prices of products in real time and adjust the prices accordingly. Amazon uses different tools to monitor and adjust pricing of their own products accordingly. By this, they are making sure the customer gets the best price and no other competitor beats them with a lower price. Big data can also be used to send personalized offers which can be in form of emails or even pop-ups while they are trying to abandoned the cart. Etsy is an online e-commerce website which is a platform for selling handmade and vintage items. Most of the items they sell are handmade and made by individuals like you and me. Etsy was created back in 2005 in Brooklyn apartment by Rob Kalin, Chris Maguire and Haim Schoppik in their Brooklyn apartment [Citation]. Within two years Etsy had nearly 450,000 registered users and generated $26 million in annual sales. After that Etsy went through many changes in their structure and two of the creators left the company and then the hired Chad Dickerson, senior director of product at Yahoo to lead the company. Dickerson was hired as the chief technology officer and he took the company in an upward direction and was given the position of CEO later on. In 2013 Dickerson proposed tweaking its Terms of Service and allowed selling of manufactured goods which were not taken positively by other sellers but in the end, it helped the company and boosted their sales and revenue. According to Venture Beat in 2013 Etsy sales grew from $895 million to $1.34 billion. And in 2014 the numbers went up 43 percent to a total of $1.93 billion. In 2015 Etsy had more than 1.5 million active sellers and debuted it IPO. Chart is taken from Marketingcharts.com In 2014 Etsy was number eight on top ten shopping websites and this shows us how big and how much market they share and had about 22 million buyers [citation]. According to Chris Bohn a Senior Data Engineer at Etsy and according to him they want to use big data to understand more about their customers which include both sellers and buyers. They would like to provide a rich and smooth experience and their end goal is buyers find their products easier and sellers be able to reach the right buyers. According to Bohn, they want to use Big Data, To know how people are different in their shopping habits across the geography of the world. Lets first start with what type of data architecture Etsy used to use and what changes they made for been able to change with the time and to accommodate big data analysis. Initially, Etsy used to use monolithic Postgres database which consisted of listings, users, sellers, buyers, conversations and forums. As the company grew and their user database grew so they had to shard horizontally. The front end was driven by PHP. Ross Snyder, a senior software engineer said: The sites uptime was not that great and regular maintenance windows and site deploys often dissolved into outages. This all lead to Etsy creating a middleware which would help with scaling the website performance and at the same time the middleware would decrease the number of SQL calls. Etsy named this middleware Sprouter which they planned on making open-source and using it for a long time but after using it for while they decided to abandon it as it required DBAs to write stored procedures for nearly every piece of si te functionality and created a bureaucracy developers had to go through to get functionality made. It was never open-sourced and was rest to death. Then they moved from Postgres to sharded MySQL databases. According to Synder the reason they used MySQL at that time was Flickr is using it on an enormous scale. It scales horizontally, basically, to near infinity, and theres no single point of failure-its all master to master replication. During this process, Etsy decided to do some analytics and copied the data from SQL back to a Postgres server which they called a BI server but what they did not realize is that they went back to the original thing they wanted to go away from and it was all back to zero. They also realized that Postgres is not the best option for performing analytic queries and it was really hard to get a huge amount of data into the database. Here Etsy unknowingly faced the Volume characteristic of the big data. They again started their hunt for finding an appropriate replacement and came across HP Enterprise Vertica. One of the first reason they selected HPE Vertica is because it derives from Postgres and it has a Berkeley license which can enable Etsy to take it private and make changes to the code accordingly and do not have to republish it to the community. Using hp Vertica boosted the efficiency of their queries by running them 50x-1000x faster. With Vertica, there is unlimited scalability and this is a great feature for Etsy as they were a growing company. Vertica also stores 10x to 30x more data per server and also has compression. Etsy at start faced a problem with outages mentioned before and Vertica can guarantee maximum uptime and eliminate failures. It is also an open architecture with support for Hadoop, R and other range of BI tools. Etsy used a data replication tool to copy the data over to Vertica used Verticas open architecture feature to build their internal tools for doing analytics on the data. The big data problem here was to prepare their database to be able to do some analytic work and use the data they have been collecting. With Vertica, Etsy was able to quickly and efficiently analyze 30 terabytes of data. Bohn says that the greatest benefits are accessibility and speed and that use of the tool has spread to all departments. The fact that queries that previously took many days to run, now run in minutes, provides a dramatic example of the level of incr eased productivity gained company-wide. Apart from all the amazon functionality, Vertica was able to save Etsy $80,000 a month by switching from amazon cloud. By using Vertica Etsy did not have to hire any new people as Vertica uses a lot of similarity with Postgres and their developers already had experience with it. Velocity It is the measure of how fast the data coming in and for Etsy, it been top ten websites for shopping it was generating a massive number of clicks which needed to be stored. Etsy wanted to use this data to figure out where their customers are clicking and at what point they are leaving the website. Etsy took it to next step and used this clickstream data and joined it with their data to find details about the customer and what their buying history was in the past. This is how Etsy can get some value out of the clickstream data as it is the just path of click what a consumer goes through. The second type of data that Etsy has is the transactional data which includes order values, the category of sales, purchase frequency, the amount paid and shipping preferences. Variety Etsy had clickstream data, data about sellers, buyers, forums, messages and lot of different types and before they used to use Postgres which is not ideal for handling the variety of data. But with Vertica, they now can store any variety of data. Volume When we talk about volume we are talking about an insanely large amount of data and in our case, Etsy already had 30 TB of data which needed to be transferred and stored. By entering the world of big data, the employees were able to do much more than before with very little time. The first result of this whole change was all employees started using it as getting results was much better and way faster than a traditional database. It was not that they were getting different results but the time from entering the query and getting the output was shortened. By adding Vertica Etsy was then able to get information in real time right away. This feature was used by them when they introduced postage on their website where sellers can use postage service provided by Etsy to ship their products. The engineers wanted to keep an eye on this feature and know how it is performing in real time which was made possible using Vertica. All the departments were able to use this functionality and the people from finance department said, Wow, I can run these financial reports that used to take days in literally seconds.. Within very short time Etsy had 200 Vertica accounts and had a total of 750 employees which shows us how much popular this new change was. One of the surprises which Etsy faced according to Chris Bohn is that when they installed Vertica they thought only their analysts would use but it was so easy and so popular that they had to buy more licenses for their users. Vertica was being used for many other ways such as for their internal dashboards, running financial reports and for testing too. The result of this project resulted in total revenue of $119 million for the first half of 2015, up 44% on the same period in 2014. The number of active buyers grew to 21.7 million and the number of active users grew to 1.5 million. Etsy is the go-to place for unique products and gifts. None of this would have been possible without their keen embracing of Big Data and analytics. This project was successful as not only it led to increase in revenue but it also led to change in companys culture. Generally, the change in culture leads to change in technology but at Etsy, the technology changed the way people did their job. According to Bohn This is technology that has driven the culture. Its really changed the way people do their job at Etsy. It really has been impactful. After this project, Etsy realized that they were spending too much on AWS and they can save that money by buying their own servers. Bohn said Wait a minute. This is crazy. We could actually buy our own servers. This is commodity hardware that this can run on, and we can run this in our own data center. We will get the data in faster because there are bigger pipes. Thats what Etsy did by creating Estydoop which has 200 plus nodes and they ended up saving a lot of money and it would not have been possible if they did not do the big data project. Another thing which Etsy realized is that the market was changing and now smartphones were becoming common and been used for e-commerce. Etsy was able to use big data to figure out what each customer on their smartphone doing on their website and used that data to find crossover points and to change things accordingly. By this way, Etsy was moving along with the developing technology and not been left behind. Citation [1] 5 Benefits of Big Data for E-Commerce Companies and Shoppers. SmartData Collective. Accessed March 25, 2017. http://www.smartdatacollective.com/seanmallonbizdaquk/410001/5-benefits-big-data-e-commerce-companies-and-shoppers. [2] A brief history of Etsy, from 2005 Brooklyn launch to 2015 IPO. VentureBeat. March 05, 2015. Accessed March 25, 2017. http://venturebeat.com/2015/03/05/a-brief-history-of-etsy-from-2005-brooklyn-launch-to-2015-ipo/. [3] Akter, Shahriar, and Samuel Fosso Wamba. Big data analytics in E-commerce: a systematic review and agenda for future research. SpringerLink. March 16, 2016. Accessed March 25, 2017. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12525-016-0219-0. [4] April 8, 2014 by MarketingCharts staff. Top 10 Shopping and Classifieds Websites #8211; March 2014. MarketingCharts. April 08, 2014. Accessed March 25, 2017. http://www.marketingcharts.com/updates/top-10-shopping-and-classifieds-websites-march-2014-41856/. [5] Big Datas Role in Etsys Product Development. InfoQ. Accessed March 25, 2017. https://www.infoq.com/interviews/big-data-etsy-product-development. [6] How Etsy Uses Big Data for eCommerce to Put Buyers and Sellers in the Best Light. BriefingsDirect Transcripts. Accessed March 25, 2017. http://www.briefingsdirecttranscriptsblogs.com/2016/04/how-etsy-uses-big-data-for-ecommerce-to.html. [7] Sean Gallagher Oct 3, 2011 1:59 pm UTC. When clever goes wrong: how Etsy overcame poor architectural choices. Ars Technica. October 03, 2011. [8] Accessed March 25, 2017. https://arstechnica.com/business/2011/10/when-clever-goes-wrong-how-etsy-overcame-poor-architectural-choices/. [9] The biggest surprise Etsy encountered when applying HP Vertica to search | #HPBigData2014. SiliconANGLE. August 13, 2014. Accessed March 25, 2017. [10] http://siliconangle.com/blog/2014/08/13/the-biggest-surprise-etsy-encountered-when-applying-hp-vertica-to-search-hpbigdata2014/. [11]The biggest surprise Etsy encountered when applying HP Vertica to search | #HPBigData2014. SiliconANGLE. August 13, 2014. Accessed March 25, 2017. http://siliconangle.com/blog/2014/08/13/the-biggest-surprise-etsy-encountered-when-applying-hp-vertica-to-search-hpbigdata2014/. [12] Vertica Advanced Analytics Offerings. Vertica Big Data SQL Analytics Platform Free Software Trials | Hewlett Packard Enterprise. Accessed March 25, 2017. http://www8.hp.com/us/en/software-solutions/advanced-sql-big-data-analytics/try-now.html. [13] What does Etsys architecture look like today? High Scalability -. High Scalability. Accessed March 25, 2017. http://highscalability.com/blog/2016/3/23/what-does-etsys-architecture-look-like-today.html.

Groves and the Atomic Bomb :: Essays Papers

Groves and the Atomic Bomb â€Å"Desire is the key to motivation, but it’s determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal - a commitment to excellence - that will enable you to attain the success you seek,† said Mario Andretti, a famous racecar driver (FamousQuotes.com). When taking on a project or job, people must have a strong mind and heart to achieve their goal. People may face many obstacles, but leaders can find ways to rise above them with determination. In the end, those dedicated will succeed and accomplish their goals. With determination, General Groves managed to greatly aid the development of the atomic bomb. Leslie R. Groves was in charge of the Manhattan Project and authorized sites to be found for the production of the atomic bomb, which had to match his criteria. A site had to reach certain criteria in order for it to be made into a facility in helping to produce the atomic bomb. Part of Groves’ criteria was that a site had to be twenty miles from any town made up of a thousand people or more (Goldberg, Atomic 50). The reason a site had to be away from a large town was in case of an accident at the facility. Groves also said, â€Å"No main highway or railroad should be closer than 10 miles to the nearest pile or separation plant† (Groves 71). This criterion was important because no one should be able to get close to the site and wonder why it was being built. Altogether, specific criteria had to be met to protect the security of the atomic bomb project and to protect the people that lived around the area. Even though finding a perfect location site seemed dif ficult, Groves knew that it was possible to find a site that matched the specifications for an atomic bomb production site. Groves and his administration found land in Tennessee that matched the specific criteria. Groves acquired Oak Ridge, â€Å"59000 acres of Appalachian semiwilderness along the Clinch River in eastern Tennessee [†¦] for the Manhattan Engineer District as one of his first official acts† (Rhodes 486). This land was large enough to house a facility and was an acceptable distance away from other towns.

540 Week 5 Questions Essay

How does labeling cause deviance? What is the difference between primary and secondary deviance?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   According to the labeling theory that was developed and popularized by Howard S. Becker in conjunction with Frank Tannenbaum, the behavior of society to categorize persons into specific groups based on society’s perceptions about such people leads to deviance. As per this theory, society invents, selects, and manipulates the convictions that negatively view certain behaviors before placing the supposedly deviant people into such categories. The deviant person is thus regarded as being ethically inferior. Afterwards, deviants internalize such society-ascribed identities before ultimately beginning to act as per a certain label (Stark, 2007). Deviants then assume unexpected behaviors in a bid to obey the rules of the assigned label.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Primary deviance is evident when deviance demonstrates itself before society categorizes such behavior as constituting deviance. In addition, it is the deviance that is placed onto an individual via the acts of reporting or confession. Conversely, secondary deviance exhibits itself after one has committed a societal wrong, has attracted societal reaction by being categorized as a deviant, and has internalized the deviance. The deviant then adopts the behavior that made them to be classified as deviants. What are some examples of master status not in the text? What are traits associated with them? How do those assumed traits affect our perceptions of people with that status?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Some illustrations of master statuses include being unemployed, ethnicity, religion, and education. These master statuses have certain traits that are usually associated with them (Macionis, 2005). For instance, the unemployed master status has the common traits of always being in need of money, demonstrating anxiety, and being unhappy. Conversely, the ethnicity orientation master status is characterized by a shared heritage, common language, shared culture, as well as a shared ancestry. On the other hand, the education master status has the characteristics of being knowledgeable, having critical and analytical skills, and being free of common biases found among uneducated persons. In contrast, the religion master status has the traits of common beliefs, common deities, as well as shared religious practices.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The aforementioned traits lead society into having specific views about people depicting such statuses. For example, the characteristic of being knowledgeable among people with the education master status makes society to have respect for such people. Conversely, the needy trait among those exhibiting the master status of being unemployed makes society to view such people as being more likely to trouble society while begging for alms. What are decision-making types used by rational choice theory? How do these decisions apply to crime?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Two of the major decision-making types in rational choice theory include indifference and strict preference. These preference types have relationships with crime, whereby criminals apply them with regard to whether or not to engage in criminal behavior (Fernandez-Huerga, 2008). For example, in relation to strict preference, whereby a person demonstrates a preference for B to A, a criminal has the absolute choice of either committing a crime or not. The offender thus makes a clear choice to either commit an offense or desist from doing so. On the other hand, regarding the indifference type of preference, a criminal engages in unacceptable behavior not out of their own free and unbridled will, but rather as a result of prevailing circumstances. Since the offender does not demonstrate a clear inclination towards a certain action (of either enraging in lawbreaking acts or refraining from such an action), they do not prefer like one option or t he other. References Fernandez-Huerga (2008.) The economic behavior of human beings: The institutionalist post-Keynesian model. Journal of Economic Issues, 42, 3: 23-8. Macionis, J. J. (2005). Sociology, 10th Ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education. Stark, R. (2007).  Sociology: Biological theories of deviance (Tenth edition). Belmont, CA. Thomson Wadsworth.

Islam in UK Essay

I am going to write about â€Å"Islam†. In this topic, I’ll describe Islamic values, Islamic traditions, the meaning of Islam and other things, which are related to Islam. I am writing this to inform Muslims about Islamic culture and values. I have chosen this topic to advise and persuade them to follow the right ways of Islam. The reason to choose this topic is that in Pakistan there are many people who call themselves Muslims, but in reality, they don’t fulfil the duties of Islam. They don’t understand what Islam is. They don’t know how to treat their children, how to teach them Islamic principles. My aim is to inform Muslims about the true meaning of Islam. I’ll get the information from the internet, my family, my teachers and my personal points of view. I am a Muslim therefore I have lots of information about my topic. I’ll tell you about God, belief, sects of Islam, prophets and other information. The people, who call themselves Muslims, they consider that they belong to a Muslim family so they are also Muslims, but it is wrong. They don’t know their religion’s facts. For being a Muslim, they should know their religion’s reality. There are also some people who think that they have recited the creed, so they would be called Muslims, but this is not reality. Muslims are those people who have firm belief in their heart and soul, on Islam, Allah, His angels, His messengers, His books and His revelations. You should believe in the judgement day, and fate and destiny. Muslims believe in only One God, the same God that Jews and Christians believe in. For a Muslim, the life of the prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is the perfect example. A Muslim is that person, who follows the principles and the acts of the prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), these principles and acts are called ‘Sunnah’. For being a Muslim, the first thing that you should know about Islam is its meaning. Islam is the Arabic word, which simply means peace and purity. Islam connotes submission, surrender, and obedience. As a religion, Islam stands for complete submission and obedience to Allah and therefore it is called ‘Islam’. Anyone who has firm belief in Islam and surrenders himself to Allah is called a Muslim. Islam is not a new religion. It is in essence the same message and guidance which Allah revealed to all His previous messengers. The message which was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), is Islam in its comprehensive, complete and final form. Islam is the religion, which was given to Adam, the first man, and the first prophet of Allah, and it was the religion of all the prophets sent by Allah to humankind. The name of God’s religion Islam was not decided upon by later generations of man. It was chosen by Allah Himself and clearly mentioned in His final revelation to man. In the final book of divine revelation, the Koran, Allah states the following: â€Å"This day I have perfected your religion for you, completed My favour upon you, and have chosen Islam for you as your religion†. (Soorah Al-Maa’idah 5:3) After having faith in Allah, a Muslim worships God to seek His will. The five pillars of Islam are core beliefs that shape a Muslim’s thought, deed, and society. A Muslim who fulfils the five Pillars of Islam, remains in the faith of Islam, and sincerely repents of his sins, will make it to paradise. One of these pillars is the ‘Shahada’, which is the Islamic proclamation that â€Å"there is no true God except Allah, and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah†. This is the declaration that Allah is the one and only true God, that Allah alone is worthy of worship and the sovereign lord who does what he wills with whoever he wills. It means that all of His rules and laws found in the Koran are to be followed. Muhammad is the true and greatest prophet of God and recognition of Muhammad as the Prophet of God is required. It was through Muhammad that God conveyed the last and final revelation. I have seen some Muslims who just recite the Islamic proclamation but do not care about acting upon other pillars. The second pillar is prayer, which involves confession of sins, which begins with the purification of the body and ends with the purification of the soul. Prayer is performed five times a day. The first prayer is at dawn and the last at sunset. The names of the prayers, which are essential to pray, are Fajr, Dhuhr, Asr, Maghrib, Isha. There are also some prayers, which are not obligatory to pray. As a Muslim, I perform these prayers, but unfortunately not regularly. The third pillar is ‘fasting’, which is an act of worship where the faithful follower denies his own needs and seeks Allah. Usually, this fasting entails no drinking, eating, or having sexual relations during the daylight hours for the entire month of Ramadan. The month of Ramadan is the month of fasting in Islam. I must keep fast myself in the month of Ramadan, but sometimes I keep fast in other days instead of Ramadan. The fourth pillar of Islam is giving alms to poor people, disabled people, orphans and widows. Charity is the biggest source of asking forgiveness for our sins. Whenever I have something to give someone, I give alms to needy people. The fifth pillar is the pilgrimage to Mecca, which has been ordered to everyone to do it at least one time in your life. That pilgrimage purifies your soul from all sins as the water cleans the dirtiness. If you perform the five pillars, but do not remain in the faith, you will not be saved. Islam has a number of special occasions of celebration. These occasions are observed with devotion to seek the pleasure of Allah. There is no concept of festival only for pleasure. The festivals are the occasions of thanksgiving, joy and happiness. The two major occasions in Islam in each year are Eid-ul-Fitr and Eid-ul-Adha. I also celebrate these occasions. I enjoy them a lot. Eid-ul-Fitr is observed at the end of the month of Ramadan. On this day, after a month of fasting, Muslims express their joy and happiness by offering a congregational prayer. This day is generally observed as a holiday in Muslim countries. Eid-ul-Adha begins on the 10th of Dhu’l Hijjah and continues until the 12th day of the month. It is celebrated to commemorate the Prophet Abraham’s readiness to sacrifice his son Ishmael on the command of Allah. This occasion of great importance comes every year during the days of the pilgrimage of Mecca and is observed by offering congregational prayer, as i n Eid-ul-Fitr. Some other occasions to observe and celebrate include Lailat-ul-Qadr (Night of power), Lailat-ul-Miraj (Night of the Ascent), the beginning of Hijrah, and the dates for Islamic battles, the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and Ashurah (10th of Muharram). Islamic festivals are observed according to the Islamic calendar, which is based on Lunar months. The Lunar year is shorter than the solar year by about 10 days. Festival dates are determined by the sighting of the moon. Unfortunately, there is not a single Islamic calendar, which has been accepted by Muslims all over the world. I do not celebrate all of these occasions, but I try my best to celebrate all of these festivals. Nowadays in many Muslim countries, most of people lay stress on celebrating non Islamic festivals instead of Islamic like Basant (festival of flying kites), Holli (festival of playing with colours and music) and Christmas. Some people think that â€Å"a perfect Muslim† is simply one who is correct in the observance of the ritual prayer, the fasting, the charity, and the pilgrimage to Mecca. This is not the fact. If you are not humble, pious and truly God-fearing instead of performing ritual prayers, then you are not a real Muslim. A Muslim should be truthful, honest, and moderate in everything, loving, optimistic, hopeful and sincere. You should take special care to keep away yourself from all the shameful and sinful things God has forbidden. The main forbidden acts in Islam are refusing from the oneness of Allah, testifying false testimonies, murdering people and making money by taking interest on loans. Allah has also forbidden us from taking other’s money unjustly especially money of orphans and needy people. Islam has prohibited us from slandering chaste and pure women, and having sexual relationships outside marriage. The other things, which are not allowed to do in Islam, are drinking alcohol, gambling, stealing, swearing, lying, eating pork and committing suicide. Islam makes faith and religion the basis of the entire human society and the most important for the system of its relationships. The Islamic concept of nationhood is not based on language, colour or region kinship. The Islamic community is a society of faith. Anyone who believes in the Islamic religion and its beliefs is an undeniable part of this nation whatever his race, colour, language or place of birth. I accept it that all human beings are equal. Social responsibilities have lots of importance in a Muslim’s life. The base of Islamic teachings about social responsibilities has been built on kindness and consideration of others. The responsibilities and rights of different relationships are defined in Islam. Islam also lays emphasis on specific acts of kindness. In a widening circle of relationship, our first obligation is to our immediate family which includes parents, husband or wife and children, then to other relatives, neighbours, friends and acquaintances, orphans and widows, the needy of the community, our fellow Muslims, all our fellow human beings and animals. Respect and care for parents is very much stressed in the Islamic teaching and is a very important part of a Muslim’s expression of faith. Islam says that you should be kind to your parents, whether if they reach their old age in their lifetime. You should not say to them a word of contempt nor repel them, but address them in terms of honour. Your mother has more right on you than your father, because she gives you birth after facing many problems. Mother has three times higher level than father, therefore it is said that the paradise lies under the feet of your mother. You should obey your mother’s command whether that command is right or wrong. There is only one command of your mother, which has been prohibited to obey, and that command is refusing from the uniqueness of Allah. I respect my parents very much, especially my mother, because I know that I have to give answer to my Allah, on the Day of Judgment. On that day, children will be called referring to their mother’s names. As parents, you have some jobs towards your children. Your first aim towards your child is to teach him Islamic values. You should treat your children with love and kindness. You should get them good education. You are responsible for their spiritual and moral amendment. You should fulfil all their needs. You should not torture them, because the person, who does not love children, is not one of the Muslims. The prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said, â€Å"children are the flowers of Allah’s garden†. I also like children very much, because they are very innocent and cute. They are far away from tyranny and sins. As a husband, you have some duties and responsibilities towards your wife. You should give your wife her dowry in its entirety, and co-habit with her in a good way, take care of her and teach her matters of her religion. You should guard her in her religion and dignity, and protect her secrets, honour her family and her friends. I have seen many Muslim husbands in Pakistan and England who don’t respect their wives and their family and relatives. They torture their wives like an animal if their wives are barren or do not bring many expensive things in their dowry. As a wife, you have some duties and responsibilities towards your husband. Your duty is the good organization of your home. The house is your kingdom and you are its princess. You should protect your husband’s property and children, and should be honest and truthful to him. You should respect your husband and his family and relatives. In my family, some of my relatives are very obedient to their husbands and look after their children in the absence of their husbands. My mother is also one of them. For being a Muslim, you also have some obligations towards your other relatives such as aunts, uncles, nephews, nieces, cousins, brothers, sisters, mother-in-law, father-in-law and others. You should help them in their needs whether that help is financial, emotional or social. You should speak to them very softly and respect them. According to the statement of the prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), you are not a Muslim, if you know that your neighbours are hungry and you eat whole heartedly. If your neighbours are not safe from your injurious conduct, you do not believe in Islam. A teacher has a great position in Islam. A teacher is called a spiritual father, because he is responsible for a sensible and educated society. It is your duty to respect your teacher as you respect and take care about your parents. I have never talked to my teachers harshly, because I have lots of respect in my heart for all of my relatives. According to the Koran and Sunnah, as a Muslim, you have to discharge your moral responsibility not only to your parents, children, relatives and neighbours, but also to the entire humankind, animals and trees and plants. Hunting of birds and animals for the sake of game is not permitted. Similarly, cutting trees and plants which yield fruit is forbidden unless there is a very serious need for it. Thus, on the basic moral characteristics, Islam builds a higher system of morality by virtue of which humankind can realize its greatest potential. Islam purifies the soul from selfishness, tyranny, shamelessness and indiscipline. In Islam, it is said that all individuals become responsible and accountable for their behaviour at the age of puberty. At that time, the Islamic teachings about modest dress apply to any person whether that person is male or female. Nothing should be seen of you except your face, feet and hands when you reach your age of puberty. Therefore, at this age, it is expected from you to adopt more modest styles of dress that do not expose too much. As a Muslim, I also act upon these teachings of Islam. According to Sunnah, all Muslim marriages should be simple and far away from false showing of wealth. Nowadays Muslims spend lots of money on marriages which is their waste of money. I have attended many marriages in which people use their money incorrectly. As a Muslim, you can give your money to the needy persons for the sake of Allah instead of wasting your money on unnecessary customs. I can conclude from this piece of writing that what I have set out to do, I have achieved it. My aim was to tell Muslims about the true meaning of Islam. I have not been completely successful in achieving my aim, because I had decided to write about Islamic months, Islamic education and Islamic miracles, but I could not include them in my piece of writing because of the word limit. It was not too difficult to do the research, because I got most of information from the internet and from my personal experience. I could not find suitable books for my topic, therefore I searched on the internet. I really enjoyed doing the extended writing, because I have learnt lots of things about Islam. I have learned lots of vocabulary. I have found out how to write a long essay and how to join paragraphs to each other. By finding information, I have found out that Islam is the second largest religion in the world. According to the estimation, the range of Muslims is from 0.7 to 1.2 billion worldwide. Bibliography: The Koran http://www.islamonline.net/english/introducingislam/index.shtml (9.02.05) http://www.hammoude.com/Islam.html (20.3.05) http://islam.about.com (28.03.05) http://www.carm.org/islam/faith_five_pillars.htm (28.03.05) http://www.religioustolerance.org/islam.htm (6.04.05)