Heraldry

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Since most people could not read at the time they created heraldry used for a short saying.  Heraldry is the creation of the coat of arms. This involves the design, regulation, recording, and the use of the coat of arms.  If you are not familiar with what a coat of arms is, they resemble the heroic deeds, an honorable achievement, or is bound to a prominent position by the person they are designated for.  The grant of bearing arms is inherited and should be thought of as an armiger.  The armiger can inherit the coat of arms from the father only if they are the oldest son.  The younger sons inherit the arms but only specific parts.  The crown named “King’s heralds” has recorded grants by the representatives. Therefore, the house of the recordings is located at the College of Arms and the corporation of the thirteen members is broken into three groups.  These contain the Three Kings of Arms, Six Heralds, and the Four Pursuivants.  The college holds a wide variety of historical books including the works of Welsh, Scottish, English, and Irish know from North America. Their works are published by the Harleian Society by the college.

The studying for the science of the arms is of two topics that have been neglected as time has passed.  As Charles Fox says it has been deemed as “the shorthand of history” and the study of it can be thought of as studying a dead language. The heraldic portion of studying and writing has been successful since the time that the Book of St. Albans was written.  The book was composed of an uncontrollable amount of garbage about the subject of Armory.  However, the book Guillem which is ranked among the Bibliography writings says that those who find themselves to mock the Armory of the present day would find themselves creating error time and time again.  The book includes the displaying of arms and the laws which govern Armory by putting forth the opinions and ideas which were later accepted.  The studying of Armory is not just a science but is portrayed in our lives day by day without us even knowing it excised.

    The origins of heraldry are uncertain, but the kings claim it began between 1135 and 1155 A.D.  Although we are unsure of how it began the Ulster King of Arms, Sir Bernard Burke has created what he thought began it all.  He said, “The registry of its birth may be found in the archives of the Holy Wars.” (The leaders of this war are to be identified by their coat of arms.)  He continues “Its cradle was rocked by the soldiers of the Cross, (fighters in the name of Jesus) and its maturity was attained in the Chivalrous age of Feudalism.” Even though the main reason for heraldry was for the knowing and honoring of the noble warriors, it is also supposed to be something to brag about.  The people at the time used this to boast themselves without using their own words.  Most families designed a Coat of arms to show their heraldry.  They put their coats of arms on anything they could think of like shields and banners, (That is why they could be identified on the battlefield.) Heraldry is still to this day passed down by families and known as honorable in other countries.

Invisible Noises and The Ear

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Invisible Noises and The Ear

            There are four types of nonvisual senses, or as I like to call them, unseen senses.  These include hearing, taste, smell, and touch.  Out of these four, I will deal with hearing.  The first question would be, what is sound?  Well, a sound is a vibration in the air and when hit against the bones in your ear they create action potential sent to the brain forming a sound.  In more detail sound is made up of vibrations and they cause air particles to vibrate creating sound waves through the air.  Sound waves come in many different shapes.  The two ways to identify a sound wave is by the amplitude and the frequency.  Frequency is the volume of waves that pass a certain point at a given time frame.  High pitched sounds are the result of shorter waves moving in and out quickly and a fewer amount of slower waves creates a lower pitch.  The loudness of the sound is a result of the amplitude.  When there is a greater amplitude the sound is louder and the smaller is amplitude the softer the sound is.  For these vibrations to reach the brain so you know what the sound is and understand it.  They have to go through the ear.  Your ear has three areas, the external, middle, and inner ear.  The external and middle ear are only involved with hearing while the inner ear involves hearing and maintaining your equilibrium.  The main job for your outer ear is to catch sound waves and send them down to the inner ear.  Once the sound waves get to the eardrum they are passed around to amplify the sound waves so they are stronger when they enter the inner ear.  The sound waves have to be strong enough to move the liquid in the inner ear.  In the inner ear, the vibrations are turned into electrical impulses that the brain can identify.  The inner ear is also where the maintaining of your equilibrium happens.  Once the sound waves get through the inner ear they pass through the cochlear nerve up to the auditory pathway and lastly to the auditory cortex.

            Hearing can be used in everyday life.  It is and always will be used in everyday life.  When a person wakes up to the sound of birds chirping or the annoying sound of their alarm clock, the vibrations are being processed from the outer ear on to the auditory cortex without them even thinking about it.  As their day goes on and they are driving to work, they turn the radio on to catch the daily news or even listen to the latest pop song.  So many soundwaves are being processed into the brain without them even trying.  Their equilibrium is being maintained throughout the ear helping them realize what is up and what is down.  Without this, they would have no sense of direction.  The ears play so many roles in the everyday life of humans and even animals.

            If the people and scientists in today’s society had no knowledge of how the ear worked and what its purpose was, many people could get injured or even worse.  With the knowledge that we have on the ear and how it works, we know the weaknesses of it and are more knowledgeable about protecting it.  Due to our knowledge we know about the functions of the ear, how sound waves travel across them, why we hear different frequencies of sounds, perceiving sounds, and locating sounds.  Without this, someone could seriously mess up the way they walk and even how humans evolve.  Knowing about the functions of the ear only helps the way humans evolve and our abilities to learn more.

Can video games take over your life?

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The theory of video game addiction has not fully been scientifically proved.  Even though we know video game addiction is real, it has not been proved as a recognized diagnosed disorder.  Video games have become more and more popular since the very first video game, a game of table tennis, also known as “pong,” invented by Willy Higinbotham in 1958.  Little did Higinbotham know, he started a movement that would change history!  Since 1958 millions of games have been invented.  Slowly getting better in strategy, graphics, and skill testing ability.  The very first game was played on an Oscilloscope.  Now you see today games are played on the consoles, Play station 4, Xbox One, Wii U, and, of course, the PC.

            Discussing video game addiction is very controversial.  Some people you could say get very addicted to them and others on use as an enjoyable activity during free time.  As we know video games are for all ages so anyone can get addicted.  With the increasing complexity of video games, they have become more appealing, using the newest technology, and more likely to be taken right off the store’s shelves.  Some studies show that a small percentage of gamers would skip going out to be with friends, even watch TV, just to play a video game they just bought.

            There have been many cases of people murdering and injuring others over video games.  For instance, back in 2005, a man by the name of Qui Chengwei stabbed one of his friends until he died.  The reason for this was caused by the friend selling one of Chengwei’s virtual swords on eBay for 7,200 yuan, 738 dollars in America.  The man was not given a death sentence, but he was awarded a sentence of life imprisonment.  So instead of killing online, he was killing offline too. So is this enough evidence that video games can take over your life? Yes, but that does not mean it will be for all gamers. 

Any addiction can be a bad thing.  Whether it be drug addiction, alcohol, food, TV, and even video games.  You can take any activity and make it an addiction.  If you have been drinking coffee every morning for the past twenty years, you have an addiction.  Like Chengwei’s story, things like this have occurred since the beginning of video games.  But the crazy ones like this all started in 1993 when the first adventure game with multiplayer experience.  MUDs, invented by Roy Trubshaw and Richard Bartle, stood for Multi-user dungeons.  The game’s plot made it very addicting and made players want to come back and defeat dungeons and bosses.  Most games now are based on the same idea as the very first games but are based on different times and different worlds.  That’s it! Video games are addictive, so you think. 

            The high intensity of thinking and processing in video games is very healthy for the brain.  “Your mother was wrong.  Video games aren’t bad for you.  They’re making your life better.” Says Drew Guarini.  Many academic studies show that playing video games could lead to psychological, mental, and even physical advantages.  Drew also says “Mario is like steroids for your brain!”  What he means is that whenever you begin to play these games you develop motor skills in the hands and hand to eye coordination.  Along with that, German researchers asked a few adults to play a game, Super Mario 64, for a short period in a matter of two months.  After doing this the researchers took an MRI of their brains.  The amount of gaming and processing created a rise in the gray matter of the brain, the prefrontal cortex, and the cerebrum.  It also created a memory formation, planning, and also fine motor skills.

            After all of this, we as a society still don’t know whether it is a major problem or not.  We know that it is not a recognized diagnosed disorder but some people can get addicted and go crazy over certain things.  People have a choice to let something control them and the ones like Qui Chengwei let it control them.  The idea of video games taking over our lives is still not proven and one day it will be fully researched.  Video games can be either a healthy or unhealthy addiction just like any other addiction.

(S1) “Video Game Addiction.” – Internet Gaming Addiction. CRC Health Group, n.d. Web. 30 Mar. 2016. http://www.video-game-addiction.org/

(S2) Kudler, Amanda, AK. “Timeline: Video Games.” Infoplease. Infoplease, 2000. Web. 30 Mar. 2016  http://www.infoplease.com/spot/gamestimeline1.html

(S3) Guarini, Drew. “9 Ways Video Games Can Actually Be Good For You.” The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 7 Nov. 2013. Web. 30 Mar. 2016. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/07/video-games-good-for-us_n_4164723.html

(S4) Vitelli, Romeo, RV. “Are Video Games Addictive?” Psychology Today. Psychologytoday, 19 Aug. 2013. Web. 30 Mar. 2016. https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/media-spotlight/201308/are-video-games-addictive

(S5) Bartle, Richard. “Summary MUD History.” MUD History, Who Invented MUD’s, How MUD’s Were Invented. Living Internet, 2015. Web. 30 Mar. 2016. http://www.livinginternet.com/d/di_major.htm