Allites Blog Spot

Is Cyber Warfare a Serious Threat?

2018-05-27T04:14:00.000-07:00

Twenty first century being the post-industrial knowledge era where information is greatly valued, begs the question: is our information in safe hands? Created in 1969, the Internet continues to rise in its popularity to an extent where its incumbency is almost a subject of dependence for prosaic lives. Huge organizations and even governments use the Internet as a means of communication. Henceforth, extremely confidential and high priority commands run through wires as binary making it extremely theft prone. Cyberspace is the place harboring various computer network communications and a virtual world synopsis where cyber-weapon as a development of the era plays a vital role in constituting a virtual war - the cyber-war. Nations and various organizations have hence been taking part in cyber warfare, developing their capabilities for both defensive and offensive purposes. Cyber warfare is greatly driven by motives classified into military, civil, political and research bills. The ways in which cyber warfare allows the attacker to fulfill its purpose is analogous to real life methods such as espionage, sabotage and propaganda. Cyber warfare continues to emerge as an extremely serious threat due to the recent cyber-attacks carried out by various nations across the globe; not only has the United Nations recognized cyber warfare to be a threat to world peace, but the technological products that surround us have also been deemed to be involved in it however despite it being argued that a cyber-war is very improbable coupled with the hype being largely made by tech firms in order for them to make huge profits.

Moustache

2014-01-21T04:55:00.006-08:00

Moustache. What comes to the mind when you hear this word? Facial hairs on the upper lip or an attribute of the gender male. Whatsoever it has been in possession of many important personalities like Hitler, Hulk hogan and many Viceroys. No doubt the style has evolved and today there you see a variety among the Moustache on Faces. Beliefs differ among Religions and visions on whether to keep it, trim it or simply remove it.

Summary of At Hiruharama

2013-04-25T04:34:00.001-07:00

Tanner, Mr. Tanner’s grandfather was an orphan in Stamford, Lincolnshire before he was sent to New Zealand as a servant. There he met Kitty, Mr. Tanner’s grandmother, who was also a servant. They got married, and moved further up north to buy some land and carve out a living. They settled in a quiet piece of countryside called “Hiruharama” and after two years, Kitty told Tanner that she was expecting a child. After consulting with the doctor and getting his assurances and a prescription of medicine, Tanner borrows two racing pigeons from a man named Parrish, in order to contact the doctor in an emergency. However, on the day that Kitty does go into labor, their neighbor, Brinkman, comes around for dinner. Tanner quickly sends off a message to the doctor using the racing-pigeons and begins to help his wife while Brinkman continues to complain about the lack of food. The doctor arrives as soon as Tanner delivered the baby. As the doctor deals with the afterbirth, he realizes that it was a smaller twin and gives it to Tanner. It turns out that the second twin would be the more successful of the two, starting a career in law and hence bringing lawyers into the Tanner family. After that experience, Tanner hung up a tin sign on the wall: “Throw Nothing Away”, just to remind the family how important that philosophy was, especially to them.

Biography of Penelope Fitzgerald

2013-04-25T04:30:00.002-07:00

Penelope Knox Fitzgerald (1916-2000) was born into a bookish family in Lincoln, England. Her father, E.V. Knox, edited Punch magazine from 1932-1949. (Punch is a British satire weekly started in 1841. It coined the term “cartoon” in the modern sense.) Her uncle wrote detective fiction. Her aunt was also a prolific and popular novelist. Penelope’s mother Christina studied English at Somerville College, Oxford, not long after it opened for women. Penelope went to Somerville herself in 1935 and did brilliantly. She co-edited the student newspaper and graduated with a first. After graduation, she worked for the BBC and wrote film reviews for Punch. Her biographer, Hermione Lee, says Penelope had “all the makings of someone who was going to start publishing books in her 30s.” But she didn’t. At 25, she married Desmond Fitzgerald, a former officer with the Irish Guards. She had three children and settled into domestic life. But as Hermione Lee points out, it would be too simplistic to conclude “marriage stopped her writing.”Instead, she incubated every facet of her life and transmuted it into fiction decades later.

Threat to the Fishes.

2013-04-21T08:13:00.000-07:00

The rate at which the fishes are threatened.

Inland fish farming and marine fishing both are a huge source of income and employment for the people mostly the fishing communities. Now there are two types of people who do fishing. One is subsistence and the other one is commercial. People who fall into the category of the subsistence fishing do not go into the deep seas they just catch some fish with hand woven nets using a wooden boat for their family usage and the one that is left is sold in the market as a source of income. No such pollution is caused by this type of fishing but the Commercial fishing does threaten the fish. The main reason the greed of money takes over and the fishermen catches too many fish with the least concern that they have to reproduce and the reproduction rate already is too low just because the destroying of breeding places and pollution (plastic bags).

Summary and Analysis of The Sandpiper by Ahdaf Soueif

2013-04-17T05:41:00.004-07:00

Background/Setting

The setting is the resort town of Alexandria though the city is only mentioned. Action, such as it is, is limited to a beach house or a residence close to a beach. The background to the story to the story is the failing marriage of the European narrator and her Egyptian husband. The story covers just couple of hours of a summer afternoon.

Characters/Characterization

The narrator is caught between two cultures, her husband has drifted from her, yet she is passive though unhappy. There are touches of the neurotic in her. She is in Egypt for summer, Alexandria in fact, but the rest of the time she lives in her “northern land”. But being in familiar environment does not seem to ease things. Her passivity is surprising. She walks without disturbing the sand on the path. Though she has been married for eight years and has come to Alexandria for that many years, she has not learned the language and feels ill at ease. To be sure there is much conflict in the two vastly differing cultures. Women in upper class families did no work in Egypt but she is used to being independent in her country. There is a hint of the husband straying – “On that swirl of amazed and wounded anger when, knowing him as I did, I first sensed that he was pulling away from me, I should have gone”. She is now waiting only for her daughter Lucy to “grow away from me”. Lucy was born in Egypt and is at home there. The narrator senses that Lucy’s need for her is lessening and soon she will be able to make a break.

Biography of Adhaf Soueif

2013-04-17T05:36:00.001-07:00

Novelist Ahdaf Soueif was born in Cairo and educated in Egypt and England, where she studied for a Ph.D. at the University of Lancaster. She is the author of two collections of short stories, Aisha (1983) and Sandpiper (1996), and two novels. In the Eye of the Sun, about a young Egyptian woman's life in Egypt and England, where she goes to study as a postgraduate, set against key events in the history of modern Egypt, was published in 1992. The Map of Love (1999), is the story of a love affair between an Englishwoman and an Egyptian nationalist set in Cairo in 1900, as secrets are uncovered by the woman's great-granddaughter, herself in love with an Egyptian musician living in New York. The Map of Love was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for Fiction.

In 2004, her book of essays, Mezzaterra, was published. Her most recent work is Cairo: My City, Our Revolution (2012), a personal account of the 2011 Egyptian Revolution. Ahdaf Soueif lives in London and Cairo. She writes regularly for The Guardian and is a key political commentator on Egypt and Palestine. She is the founder of the Palestine Festival of Literature, Pal Fest..

VGA board

2013-04-13T11:23:00.001-07:00

A VGA board is a video card for a computer that supports the VGA format. It processes the information sent to it and sends video signals to the monitor via a VGA connector. A VGA board processes the information it receives from a computer and sends it to the monitor in five separate signals. Three signals contain discrete information for the levels for red, green and blue, the primary video colors. Two more signals contain horizontal and vertical synchronization information. The color signals illuminate pixels on the monitor by mixing levels of the three to create any single color. The synchronization signals ensure the correct pixels get illuminated a the correct time. VGA offers the highest quality screen presentation of all analog formats.

Biography of Morris Lurie

2013-03-17T23:31:00.001-07:00

Morris Lurie (born 30 October 1938) is an Australian writer of comic novels, short stories, essays, plays, and children's books. His work focuses on the comic mishaps of Jewish-Australian men (often writers) of Lurie's generation, who are invariably jazz fans. Lurie was born in Melbourne, Australia, to Arie and Esther Lurie. His first novel was the comic Rappaport (Hodder and Stoughton, 1966) and focused with a day in the life of a young Melbourne antique dealer and his immature friend Friedlander. The characters, transplanted to London, were further chronicled in Rappaport's Revenge (1973). Lurie's self-exile from Australia to Europe, the UK and Northern Africa provides much of the material for his fiction. His second novel was The London Jungle Adventures of Charlie Hope (Hodder and Stoughton, 1968). Flying Home (1978) was named by the National Book Council as one of the ten best Australian books of the decade. Subsequent novels are Seven Books for Grossman (1983), really a novella parodying the styles of various authors; and Madness (1991), about a writer dealing with a mentally unstable girlfriend. Lurie is best known for his short stories. He recently wrote an instructional guide When and How to Write Short Stories and What They Are (2000). He has been published in many prestigious magazines including The New Yorker, The Virginia Quarterly, Punch, The Times, The Telegraph Magazine, Transatlantic Review, Island, Meanjin, Overland, Quadrant and Westerly. A co-worker and friend of Peter Carey, he wrote an early critical review of Carey's first book in Nation Review, November 29, 1974. In November 2006 he was given the Patrick White Award for under-recognised, lifetime achievement in literature

What is a pen?

2013-03-16T23:34:00.000-07:00

A pen is a writing implement used to apply ink to a surface, usually paper, for writing or drawing. Historically, reed pens, quill pens, and dip pens were used, with a nib dipped in the ink. Ruling pens allow precise adjustment of line width, and still find a few specialized uses, but technical pens such as the Rapidograph are more commonly used. Modern types also include ballpoint, rollerball, fountain, and felt or ceramic tip pens.

Neelum Valley of Pakistan.

2013-02-16T09:18:00.002-08:00

Neelum Valley is situated at the North & North-East of Muzaffarabad Azad Kashmir, running parallel to Kaghan Valley. The two valleys are only separated by snow-covered peaks, some over 4000m above sea level. Excellent scenic beauty, panoramic views, towering hills on both sides of the noisy Neelum river, lush green forests, enchanting streams and attractive surroundings make the valley a dream come true.

Tabla

2013-02-16T09:13:00.002-08:00

Tabla is a pair of drums. It consists of of a small right hand drum called dayan and a larger metal one called bayan. The tabla has an interesting construction. The dayan (right hand drum) is almost always made of wood. The diameter at the membrane may run from just under five inches to over six inches. The bayan (left hand drum) may be made of iron, aluminium, copper, steel, or clay; yet brass with a nickel or chrome plate is the most common material. Undoubtedly the most striking characteristic of the tabla is the large black spot on each of the playing surfaces. These black spots are a mixture of gum, soot, and iron filings. Their function is to create the bell-like timbre that is characteristic of the instrument. Although the origin of tabla is somewhat obscure, it is generally belived that it evolved from the barrel shaped drum called pakhawaj. This was about three hundred years ago.

What is a Forest?

2013-02-16T09:09:00.004-08:00

The forest is a complex ecosystem consisting mainly of trees that buffer the earth and support a myriad of life forms. The trees help create a special environment which, in turn, affects the kinds of animals and plants that can exist in the forest. Trees are an important component of the environment. They clean the air, cool it on hot days, conserve heat at night, and act as excellent sound absorbers. Plants provide a protective canopy that lessens the impact of raindrops on the soil, thereby reducing soil erosion. The layer of leaves that fall around the tree prevents runoff and allows the water to percolate into the soil. Roots help to hold the soil in place. Dead plants decompose to form humus, organic matter that holds the water and provides nutrients to the soil. Plants provide habitat to different types of organisms. Birds build their nests on the branches of trees, animals and birds live in the hollows, insects and other organisms live in various parts of the plant. They produce large quantities of oxygen and take in carbon dioxide. Transpiration from the forests affects the relative humidity and precipitation in a place.

Peacock

2013-02-16T09:07:00.001-08:00

Peacocks are large, colorful pheasants (typically blue and green) known for their iridescent tails. These tail feathers, or coverts, spread out in a distinctive train that is more than 60 percent of the bird’s total body length and boast colorful "eye" markings of blue, gold, red, and other hues. The large train is used in mating rituals and courtship displays. It can be arched into a magnificent fan that reaches across the bird's back and touches the ground on either side. Females are believed to choose their mates according to the size, color, and quality of these outrageous feather trains.

DUCK

2013-02-16T09:03:00.001-08:00

A duck is a waterbird in the family Anatidae. Numerous species are encompassed within this family, including the domesticated ducks, which are descended from wild mallard ducks. Ducks can be found in many regions of the world, in both salt and freshwater environments, and they are a common feature of the barnyard, as well, thanks to their gentle dispositions, tasty eggs, and flavorful flesh. Several features can be used to distinguish ducks from other waterbirds. Ducks have muscular bodies built for diving and dredging, with short legs and webbed feet which allow them to navigate a watery environment. Ducks also have distinctive broad, flat bills, which they use to root through aquatic grasses and mud to snap up various prey along with plant materials. On the water, ducks often look quite graceful, as their bodies are well-adapted to swimming and diving. On land, however, ducks look rather ungainly, thanks to the fact that their legs are set far back on their bodies, causing them to have a waddling gait. Ducks are also capable of flight, except when they are molting, and some duck species make long annual migrations to mate and raise young.

Biography of Ted Hughes

2013-02-16T08:51:00.002-08:00

One of the giants of 20th century British poetry, Ted Hughes was born in Mytholmroyd, Yorkshire in 1930. After serving as in the Royal Air Force, Hughes attended Cambridge, where he studied archeology and anthropology, taking a special interest in myths and legends. In 1956 he met and married the American poet Sylvia Plath, who encouraged him to submit his manuscript to a first book contest run by The Poetry Center. Awarded first prize by judges Marianne Moore, W.H. Auden, and Stephen Spender, The Hawk in the Rain (1957) secured Hughes’s reputation as a poet of international stature. According to poet and critic Robert B. Shaw, “Hughes’s poetry signaled a dramatic departure from the prevailing modes of the period. The stereotypical poem of the time was determined not to risk too much: politely domestic in its subject matter, understated and mildly ironic in style. By contrast, Hughes marshaled a language of nearly Shakespearean resonance to explore themes which were mythic and elemental.” Hughes’s long career included unprecedented best-selling volumes such as Lupercal (1960), Crow (1970), Selected Poems 1957-1981 (1982), and The Birthday Letters (1998), as well as many beloved children’s books, includingThe Iron Man (1968). With Seamus Heaney, he edited the popular anthologies The Rattle Bag (1982) and The School Bag (1997). Named executor of Plath’s literary estate, he edited several volumes of her work. Hughes also translated works from Classical authors, including Ovid and Aeschylus. An incredibly prolific poet, translator, editor, and children’s book author, Hughes was appointed Poet Laureate in 1984, a post he held until his death. Among his many awards, he was appointed to the Order of Merit, one of Britain’s highest honors.

Summary of The Rain horse by Ted Hughes

2013-02-16T08:48:00.000-08:00

The short story “The Rain Horse” by Ted Hughes is a story that leaves the reader questioning whether or not these events happened to “The Dude”. After twelve years he returns to the land where he grew up. But twelve years is a long time and no doubt the land has changed as well as him. Because he didn’t want to be viewed as a trespasser by the farmer he traveled the main road. As he’s walking through the mud and rain he spots a black horse. The horse runs strangely over the ridge and disappears. The Dude stares blankly at the barren ridge for awhile then decides to seek some kind of shelter from the rain for awhile. He found a nice spot under some small trees and as he sat there he couldn’t get the picture of the horse out of his head. Then The Dude glances over to the ridge where the horse had disappeared and sure enough it was standing there, staring him down, watching him. He noted that a normal horse would have its head down and eyes drooped. Then the horse charged him and immediately The Dude jumped up and ran as fast as he could. He dove over some brush and tripped, but the horse had disappeared again. Now he had a clear path to the farm, which was just over the hill.

Summary of The Destructors, Graham Greene

2013-01-30T07:49:00.001-08:00

“The Destructors” is about a group of teenage boys who call themselves the Wormsley Common gang, after the area where they live. They meet every day in a parking lot near a part of town that was bombed during World War II. Almost everything in this area is destroyed although one house stands with minimal damage. This house is owned by Mr. Thomas (whom the boys call Old Misery), an old man who lives alone. One day, the gang’s leader, Blackie, suggests that they spend the day sneaking free bus rides. T. (whose full name is Trevor) has another idea. He has been inside Mr. Thomas’s house and suggests that the boys take advantage of the old man’s upcoming two-day absence to demolish the house from the inside. T. becomes the gang’s new leader. When the boys meet at the appointed time the next morning, T. has already organized his directions for the boys to demolish the house. By the end of the day, the house is in shambles: the floors are torn up, the fixtures are smashed, the electrical cords are all cut, and doors are destroyed. After everyone but Blackie has left, T. shows him “something special,” Mr. Thomas’s savings of seventy one-pound notes. T. explains that he and Blackie will burn the notes one at a time to celebrate. After they are finished, they go home. The next day, the boys meet again at the house to complete the destruction. They take out the staircase, demolish the inner layers of wall, knock down the floors (it is a multi-story house), and flood what is left. Before they are finished, one of the boys runs in and announces that Mr. Thomas is on his way home. Mr. Thomas was not expected until the next morning, so T. locks him in the outhouse until morning. Not wanting to physically hurt the old man, the boys give him a blanket and food. The next morning, a driver starts up his truck, and as he pulls out of the parking lot adjacent to the house, he hears crashing. At first he is confused, but then he realizes that his truck was tied to a support beam of the gutted house, bringing it down. The driver lets Mr. Thomas out of the outhouse, and although the old man is devastated, the driver cannot stop laughing. He explains that it is not personal, but he thinks it is funny.

Biography of Graham Greene

2013-01-30T07:42:00.001-08:00

Graham Greene was born on October 2, 1904, in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, in England. He was one of six children born to Charles Henry Greene, headmaster of Berkhamsted School, and Marion R. Greene, whose first cousin was the famed writer Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894). He did not enjoy his childhood, and often skipped classes in order to avoid the constant bullying by his fellow classmates. At one point Greene even ran away from home.

When Greene began suffering from mental and emotional problems, his parents sent him to London for psychotherapy (the treatment of a mentally or emotionally disturbed person through verbal communication) by a student of the famous Sigmund Freud (1856–1939). While he was living there, Greene developed his love for literature and began to write poetry. Writers Ezra Pound (1885–1972) and Gertrude Stein (1874–1946) became lifelong mentors (teachers) to him before he returned to high school.

Daman-e-Koh

2013-01-15T23:02:00.001-08:00

Daman-e-Koh is a viewing point and hill top garden north of Islamabad and located in the middle of the Margalla Hills. Its name is a conjunction of Urdu & Persian words: Daman, which means center and Koh, which means hill. Daman-e-Koh therefore meaning center of the hill. It is about 2400ft from sea level and almost 500ft from the city of Islamabad. It is a popular destination for the residents as well as the visitors to the capital. Daman-e-Koh is a midpoint for tourists on their way to the higher view point Pir Sohawa which is located at the top of Margalla Hills at an elevation of about 3600ft. There is a plan to construct a chairlift from Daman-e-Koh to Pir Sohawa. Monkeys are a common sight during winter. Cheetahs are frequently reported to descend from higher hills of Murree during snowfall.

What is a White Tiger?

2013-01-15T22:55:00.001-08:00

White tigers are very popular with pseudo sanctuaries, breeders and exhibitors as they tend to bring in more visitors and more money. White tigers are a sub-species of Bengal tigers and not albino or their own species like many people think. White tigers occur after breeding two Bengal tigers with a recessive gene that controls coat color. It has been said the entire captive white tiger population originated from one single white tiger and has been inbred ever since. In order to retain this recessive gene zoos and breeders must continually breed father to daughter and father to granddaughter and so on. This inbreeding has caused many genetic problems with tigers such as cleft palates, scoliosis of the spine, mental impairments and cross eyes. Many of the cubs that are born either in zoos or by breeders have to be ‘disposed’ of because they are malformed at birth. White Bengal tigers have also been crossed with Siberian tigers to produce a larger specimen which in turn causes even more genetic problems. For years breeders and exhibitors have been using the excuse that white tigers are an endangered species so they need to keep breeding them. This is a false statement. Breeders of white tigers do not contribute to any species survival plan; they are breeding for money. In reality, not only does the breeding of white tigers compound the problem by giving the general public a completely incorrect image of these powerful wild predators, in addition it has caused a giant surplus of regular golden colored tigers in the private sector across the world because most litters still have several orange tigers. Out of a litter of cubs, the breeders will pick the white cubs that bring in a lot more money on the market and euthanize, inhumanely destroy or neglect the cubs that do not meet the color requirement.

Nathiagali

2013-01-15T22:51:00.001-08:00

Nathia Gali or Nathiagali (Pashto: نتھیا گلی‎, Urdu: نتھیا گلی‎) is a mountain resort town or hill station in Hazara, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. It is a part of the Galyat range, where several hill-stations are situated , closely connected to each other, and with their names mostly ending in 'Galli'. Nathiagali is known for its scenic beauty, hiking tracks and pleasant weather, which is much cooler than the rest of the Galyat due to it being at a greater altitude. It is situated 34 kilometers at one hour's drive away from both Murree and Abbottabad, lying midway between these two places. The drive time from Islamabad is usually about two hours, unless there is a lot of traffic.

History of Tea

2013-01-15T22:46:00.004-08:00

History of Tea

Drinking tea plays such a central part in our lives, it is such a universal phenomenon with millions of people the world over enjoying their tea on a daily basis, that it’s hard to imagine a world without tea and yet while the Eastern world has been using tea for more than 4500 years, for most of this time tea was unknown in the Western world. Tea was only introduced into the West a relatively recent 400 years ago. Discovered in China, tea has exerted a profound influence on societies and cultures throughout the world so that there are unique ceremonies in various cultures and most parts of the world have social etiquettes concerning the preparation and drinking of tea as well as social customs regarding how, when and where to drink it. Many myths, legends, poems and proverbs surround tea and maintain its mystique. Tea has always accompanied and even influenced the unfolding of key historical events as well as maintaining a presence whenever economic, technological or cultural developments to k place. Today tea enjoys an unparalleled and enduring popularity. The story of tea is truly intertwined with the story of Mankind.

Men and Machines

2013-01-10T07:59:00.001-08:00

One great defect of our civilization is that it does not know what to do with its knowledge. Science has given man super power which we don't use properly. We are unable to manage our machines. Machines are intentionally made to be man's servant but in reality it has mastered all of us. We all find it difficult to work or play without machine which can be said we are addicted to them. Nowadays people spent half or most of their day in front of computers, gaming consoles and other various gadgets. A time will come when they will come and rule us altogether just like the way we rule the animals.

What is Philosophy?

2013-01-10T07:41:00.002-08:00

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Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with reality, existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational argument. The word "philosophy" comes from the Greek φιλοσοφία (philosophia), which literally means "love of wisdom". In more casual speech the "philosophy" of a particular person can refer to the beliefs held by that person.