A League of Their Own Essay Example for Free

A League of Their Own Essay The film begins with the commencement of the second world war and female baseball players are drafted into the All American Girls Baseball League, in the attempt to save the sport. With the induction of this league, the girls obtained the chance to show how women deserve an equal chance in sports, an opportunity to show their hard work and perseverance, and free themselves from the clutches of lower class life through success in the sport. The value of family was portrayed throughout the film and became a top priority for some of the players. In achieving a spot on a team the girls also had to conform to the rules and requirements that the owners of the league were demanding. To give this league the popularity it needed, the girls needed to work hard to be the leagues top players in every team. They all acquired the chance to go to training camps and try out for teams that would be placed into the league. The amount of work they displayed to get placed on the team showed that they wanted to earn the respect of the country and show that women could do more than just care for kids or be in charge of the kitchen. They worked extremely hard to show that women could play the sport as easily as men could. For example, this hardworking value was best portrayed by Kit, one of the individuals who played for the league. She got her sister to play because that was the only way they would take her and she did not want to stay on a farm for the rest of her life. Her persistent attitude helped her reach her goal and she became one of the top players of her time just like her sister. The family values are expressed greatly throughout the film by all the characters, but particularly by Dotti. Many of the women on the team had spouses in the army or back home. Dotti was the protagonist who was a girl with beauty and love of the sport like no other girl. What was different about her, besides being extremely skillful in the sport and never having a bad game, was that in her mind she was only playing while her husband was in the war. She loved the game, but her husband and family were always more important for her. The conflict between winning and her sister’s loyalty ended with her realizing that being friends with her sister was far more important than winning or playing in a baseball league. The women dealt with external conformity within the league because of the rules and regulations that the owners had placed on apparel and style of play. The women were required to wear a skirt outfit and makeup while they were playing. They were all forced to take etiquette classes and learn how to act like â€Å"ladies†. The women were upset with this because they had joined the league to play the sport they loved not to go out on the field and model for the fans. This movie was used to display that women were not inferior to men and to show how the game of baseball was used as more than publicity. The hard work and perseverance gave women in the united states a sense of hope and desire to succeed in a male dominated world.

How does H.G Wells build suspense in The Red Room? Essay -- English Li

How does H.G Wells build suspense in the red room? H.G. Wells "red room "is a pre-twentieth century suspense short story, which is a type of a Gothic story. I shall examine the various techniques that the writer has used to create and sustain suspense. For the first part of the essay I shall explain what a Gothic story is. A Gothic story is a type of romantic fiction that predominated in English literature in the last third of the 18th century, the setting to for which was usually a ruined Gothic, Castle or Abbey. The Gothic novel or Gothic romance, emphasised mystery and horror and was filled with ghost haunted rooms, underground passages and secret stairways. For this reason it is told the "red room" is a Gothic story, this could also explain how suspense in the "red room" was formed. Also if I look at the genre of the story, suspense is built at the beginning by H.G. Well's description of the man with the withered arm, the woman looking into the fire, the second old man and the description of the house: "Flags in the passage outside." "Door creaked on hinges." Also suspense is built by the description of the room, where the young man has to spend the night: "Steps up to it, were in a shadowy corner" This quote explains what the passage up to the "red room" was like. The mention of shadows in the description of the surroundings gives a feeling of evil, unfriendliness and dark unapproachable places. This also makes you feel on edge. In the structure of the story we constantly are made to be fearful of what we will find by the suggestive comment of the woman and the man with the withered arm. Some examples of the way the old woman and the man with the withered arm, second old man and ... ...nd brings tension back into the story. As the reader I know that the narrator is getting quite nervous: "A queer high note gets into his voice" These words were used to describe the darkness as candles were going out was so accurate. For example: "Like a ragged storm cloud sweeping out the stairs" Words used again to describe sudden darkness. The darkness became a: "Stifling embrace" too much for him to cope with. In my opinion H. G. Wells writes a very descriptive story. He manages throughout to convey a feeling of nervous tension and when he thinks that things are beginning to relax he introduces another unsettling point to the story. He keeps you on the edge of your seat and makes you wonder how the story will turn out. His use of descriptive words: "Deafens, darkens and overwhelms" makes the reader see this story in their minds my.

Facial Recognition Biometrics Essay

Traditional personal identification and authentication methods always have the danger of being stolen, duplicated or forgotten. Hence, biometrics was introduced as an identification and authentication technology, where physical features would be used for recognizing a person. This technology uses many features for unique identification like fingerprints, face, irises and voice. Fingerprints are by far the most popular techniques used for i8dentification, because of their traditional use in forensics. However, face recognition is considered to be the more direct, friendly and convenient method for identification as compared to fingerprint identification. This has made face recognition system as the second most widely used biometric technology after fingerprinting with a projected revenue of $429 million in 2007, according to Raicu & Strandburg (2005). This growth in the use of this technology is attributed to the sharp rise in the number of digital cameras and camcorders and inconsequence surveillance cameras. The purpose of this paper is to analyze this technology, explain its basic principle, look into the limitations of the technology and the research work being done in this field. Face Recognition Face recognition consists of two steps: face detection and location; features extraction and face recognition. Figure below shows a flowchart of the face recognition system: Fig -1 Flow chart of a basic face recognition system (Zhang, 2000) Face Detection and Location – This step checks if the given image or image sequence includes faces. It yes, then it locates the position of the faces and segments each face from the background Features extraction and face recognition – This step checks the various features that distinguish different individuals. It figures whether the people in the image are the given person or if he / she are in the database. Needless to say, the face recognition system depends upon the input of the system. The importance of the input and picture background is explained by Zhang (2000) by giving the following example. The picture taken during log in on a system and passing custom are controlled. That is to say the background is uniform for the images or image sequences. The pose, orientation etc is also known and well controlled. This makes the process of face recognition is accurate and faster. However, in case of an input environment which is universal for all situations, there might be number of faces and also a complex background. The location of the face and its size is not known, the illumination on the different faces in a picture is different and their expressions might be different too. In such cases, the face detection and location is difficult. Face recognition can be made difficult due to different expressions, orientations and age, making the process of feature extraction and face recognition all the more difficult (Zhang, 2000) One important parameter in the evaluation of a face-processing system is the performance evaluation. The basic measurement parameters are the same as that for pattern recognition system FA i. e. false acceptance or false positive and FR i. e. false rejection or false negative. As in case of a pattern recognition system, an ideal face-recognition system should have very low scores of FA and FR, but a practical system usually makes trade-offs between these two factors. History of Face Processing Systems Development According to Zhao & Chellappa (2006), the earliest work on face recognition can be traced to the early 1950s in psychology and 1960s in engineering literature. However, the research on automatic machine recognition of faces started in 1970s after the work of Kanade and Kelly. For over 30 years extensive research has been conducted on various aspects of face recognition by humans and machines. During early and mid 1970s typical pattern-classification techniques using measured attribute of features for instance the distances between important points in faces or profiles were used. In 1980s, the work in this field remained largely dormant. The interest in this field was renewed in 1990s due to an increase in commercial opportunities, availability of real-time hardware and emergence of surveillance related applications. During this time the research was focused on how to make the face-recognition systems fully automatic by tackling various underlying problems like localization of a face in a given image or a video clip and extraction of features such as eyes, mouth etc (Zhao & Chellappa, 2006) Applications of Face processing The applications of face processing vary, leading to different features extraction and face recognition. For instance, one application is the face verification, which means that the person is who he claims to be. This is used in places like banks for identity confirmation. Another application is to check if the person exists in the database and if yes than which one. This is known as face recognition and used in surveillance systems in offices. A variation of this is when we wish to have a list of candidates with a specific set of specified features. This is used in the police department (Zhang, 2000) The table below gives some applications of face processing including detection and tracking, recognition of identity and expressions, and also personalized realistic rendering (Zhao & Chellappa, 2006).

Weighing the Aggravating and Mitigating Factors

When deciding the sentencing for a defendant who has been found guilty, jurors and the judge in most states are asked to weigh the aggravating and mitigating circumstances of the case. The weighing of aggravating and mitigating factors is most often used in connection with the penalty phase of capital murder cases, when the jury is deciding the life or death of the defendant, but the same principle applies to many different cases, such as driving under the influence cases. Aggravating Factors Aggravating factors are any relevant circumstances, supported by the evidence presented during the trial, that makes the harshest penalty appropriate, in the judgment of the jurors or judge. Mitigating Factors Mitigating factors are any evidence presented regarding the defendants character or the circumstances of the crime, which would cause a juror or judge to vote for a lesser sentence. The Weighing of Aggravating and Mitigating Factors Each state has its own laws regarding how jurors are instructed to weigh aggravating and mitigating circumstances. In California, for example, these are the aggravating and mitigating factors a jury can consider: The circumstances of the crime and the existence of special circumstances. Example: A jury might consider the special circumstances of a defendant that was charged with driving while intoxicated on the day that he received divorce papers and was fired from a company where he had been employed for 25 years and he had no previous criminal record. The presence or absence of violent criminal activity by the defendant. Example: The defendant broke into a home and the family inside the home woke up. The teenager in the family attacked the defendant, and instead of attacking back the defendant calmed the teen down and led him to his parents for reassurance, and then he left their home. The presence or absence of any prior felony convictions. Example: A defendant found guilty of shoplifting an expensive television might be given a lesser sentence if he had no criminal record. Whether the crime was committed while the defendant was under the influence of extreme mental or emotional disorder. Example: A woman was found guilty of assault after attacking a stranger, however, it was discovered that she was on new medication for depression which had a possible side effect of patients exhibiting unexplained and unprovoked violent behavior. Whether the victim was a participant in the defendants homicidal conduct or consented to the killing. Example: The victim hired the defendant to blow up his house for the insurance premiums, but he failed to leave the house at the time the two agreed on. When the bomb exploded the victim was inside the house, resulting in his death.   Whether the crime was committed under circumstances which the defendant reasonably believed to be a moral justification or extenuation for his conduct. Example: A defendant guilty of stealing a specific drug from a drugstore, but could prove that he did it because he needed it to save his childs life and could not afford to buy the medicine. Whether the defendant acted under extreme duress or under the substantial domination of another person. Example: A woman found guilty of child abuse suffered years of extreme abuse from her dominating husband and did not immediately report him for abusing their child. Whether at the time of the crime the capacity of the defendant to appreciate the criminality of his conduct or to conform his conduct to the requirements of the law was impaired as a result of mental disease or defect, or the affects of intoxication. Example: It would likely be a mitigating factor if the defendant suffered from dementia. The age of the defendant at the time of the crime. Example: A woman found guilty of severely injuring people when, in the 1970s as an act of political protest, she (who was 16 years old at the time) and others set off a bomb in an office building that they believed was empty. She was never caught but turned herself in for the crime in 2015. For the past 40 years, she was law abiding, had married and was the mother of three children, and was active in her community and in her church. Whether the defendant was an accomplice to the crime and their participation was relatively minor. Example: A defendant was found guilty of being an accomplice in a breaking and entering case after it was learned that he mentioned to the co-defendants that the people who owned the home were away on vacation. He did not participate in actually breaking into the home. Any other circumstance which extenuates the gravity of the crime even though it is not a legal excuse for the crime. Example: A male teen, 16 years old, shot and killed his abusive step-father after finding him in the act of sexually molesting his 9-year-old sister. Not All Circumstances are Mitigating A good defense attorney will use all relevant facts, no matter how minor, that could help the defendant during the sentencing phase of the trial. It is up to a jury or judge to decide which facts to consider before deciding on the sentence. However, there are some circumstances that do not warrant consideration. For example, one jury might reject a lawyer presenting the mitigating factor that a college student found guilty of multiple charges of  date rape would not be able to finish college if he went to prison. Or, for example, that a man found guilty of murder would have a hard time in prison because of his small size. Those are circumstances, but ones that the defendants should have considered before committing the crimes. Unanimous Decision In death penalty cases, each juror individually and/or the judge must weigh the circumstances and decide whether the defendant is sentenced to death or life in prison. In order to sentence a defendant to death, a jury must return a unanimous decision. The jury does not have to return a unanimous decision to recommend life in prison. If any one juror votes against the death penalty, the jury must return a recommendation for the lesser sentence.