Kinship and Kinship Terminologies

Kinship has traditionally been one of the key topics in social and cultural anthropology. There are two principal reasons for this: First, although not all human groups are constituted on the basis of kinship, all humans have kinship as individuals and are related to other individuals through it. Second, for the sorts of “tribal,” classless, economically unspecialized societies that anthropologists have mostly—though no longer exclusively—studied, kinship has appeared to be the main or even sole form of social organization. As a result, many theoretical approaches, especially the schools of functionalism and structuralism within social anthropology, have focused on how social groups are formed, how individuals are related to one another through kinship, and the mutual rights and duties they have as a result. Cultural anthropologists, by contrast, have chosen to focus more on the symbolic aspects of kinship, such as the meanings attached to being a particular sort of relative, as well as how symbols of and perspectives on personhood, the body, and gender inform kinship ideas and practices. In broad terms, this latter approach has predominated in America since around 1900 but has been reinvigorated periodically and become more influential in world anthropology, especially in the post-structuralist phase starting in the 1970s.

The domain of kinship can be divided into descent (that is, relations between generations), marriage, and siblingship, though there are not nearly as many studies on the last category as there are on the first two. Early work (especially from the functionalist school) tended to see kinship as a matter of descent only, which produced the phrase “kinship and marriage”; later work, starting with structuralism, has tended to include marriage within the overarching rubric of kinship, adding to it the notion of affinal alliance.

The descent theorists (anthropologists limit the term to consangineal relationships,that is,relationships based on ties of blood) include the British Social anthropologists.Their intellectual lineage starts from W.H.R.Rivers and goes through Radcliffe Brown,Evans Pritchard,Meyer Fortes,etc.

The alliance theorists on the other hand, emphasize that kinship includes not only consanguineal relationships but also affinal relationships,that is relationships based on marriage.The "alliance theorists" include anthropologists from America and France like Kroeber,Murdock,Scheider,Claude Levi-Strauss, Louis Dumont, etc.

The Descent theorists emphasize that kinship is a social or cultural recognized consanguineal relationship.The Alliance theorists define kinship as a totality of relationships governed by the rules of consanguinity and affinity.

Note: The relationships based on the consanguineal bond of birth are called descent and relationships based on the affinal bond of sex and marriage are called alliance.

Kinship terminologies :

Anthropologist Lewis Henry Morgan (1818–1881) performed the first survey of kinship terminologies in use around the world. He argued that kinship terminologies reflect different sets of distinctions. For example, most kinship terminologies distinguish between sexes (the difference between a brother and a sister) and between generations (the difference between a child and a parent). Moreover, he argued, kinship terminologies distinguish between relatives by blood and marriage (although recently some anthropologists have argued that many societies define kinship in terms other than blood).

Morgan had amassed a huge amount of data on kinship terminology, and using this he worked out a classification of kinship systems. Morgan assumed that human society had evolved through a series of stages from primitive savagery to civilization, and he saw kinship terminologies as reflecting these stages.

Primitive promiscuity, for example, is signalled by a Hawaiian type of kinship nomenclature. Morgan made two major criterial distinctions between kinds of kinship terms: classificatory terms (provides single term for several persons), which subsume a relatively large number of biological kin types, and descriptive terms (provides specific term for each relation), which subsume relatively small numbers of types - preferably having unique referents. He imposed this scheme on whole terminological systems. He then fitted the typological scheme to his evolutionary framework, where he said that "primitive systems were classificatory, whereas civilized systems were descriptive.Descriptive terminology, in contrast to classificatory terminology, maintains a separation between lineal and collateral kin; for example, mother and mother’s sister, although of the same generation and sex, are distinguished. Descriptive systems are typically found wherever the nuclear family operates as a relatively autonomous unit economically and socially; as a result, they are relatively rare in ethnographic literature.

Descriptive Terminologies

Classificatory Terminologies

Armed with these different terms, Morgan identified six basic patterns of  kinship terminologies: 

Hawaiian kinship: the most classificatory; only distinguishes between sex and generation.
Sudanese kinship: the most descriptive; no two relatives share the same term.
Eskimo: has both classificatory and descriptive terms; in addition to sex and generation, also distinguishes between lineal relatives (those related directly by a line of descent) and collateral relatives (those related by blood, but not directly in the line of descent). Lineal relatives have highly descriptive terms, collateral relatives have highly classificatory terms.
Iroquois: has both classificatory and descriptive terms; in addition to sex and generation, also distinguishes between siblings of opposite sexes in the parental generation. Siblings of the same sex class as blood relatives, but siblings of the opposite sex count as relatives by marriage. Thus, one calls one's mother's sister "mother", and one's father's brother "father"; however, one refers to one's mother's brother as "father-in-law", and to one's father's sister as "mother-in-law".
Crow: like Iroquois, but further distinguishes between mother's side and father's side. Relatives on the mother's side of the family have more descriptive terms, and relatives on the father's side have more classificatory terms.
Omaha: like Iroquois, but further distinguishes between mother's side and father's side. Relatives on the mother's side of the family have more classificatory terms, and relatives on the father's side have more descriptive terms.

Some languages, such as Bengali, Telugu, Tamil, Sinhalese, Chinese (see Chinese kinship), Japanese, Korean, Cambodian, Vietnamese, Hungarian, Bulgarian and Nepalese add another dimension to some relations: relative age. Rather than one term for "brother", there exist, for example, different words for "older brother" and "younger brother".

The Placebo Effect

A placebo is anything that seems to be a "real" medical treatment -- but isn't. It could be a pill, a shot, or some other type of "fake" treatment. What all placebos have in common is that they do not contain an active substance meant to affect health.It can also be defined as "a substance or procedure… that is objectively without specific activity for the condition being treated".

How Are Placebos Used ?

Researchers use placebos during studies to help them understand what effect a new drug or some other treatment might have on a particular condition.Common placebos include inert tablets, vehicle infusions, sham surgery and other procedures based on false information.

For instance, some people in a study might be given a new drug to lower cholesterol. Others would get a placebo. None of the people in the study will know if they got the real treatment or the placebo.

Researchers then compare the effects of the drug and the placebo on the people in the study. That way, they can determine the effectiveness of the new drug and check for side effects.

What Is the Placebo Effect?

Sometimes a person can have a response to a placebo. The response can be positive or negative. For instance, the person's symptoms may improve. Or the person may have what appears to be side effects from the treatment. These responses are known as the "placebo effect."

There are some conditions in which a placebo can produce results even when people know they are taking a placebo. Studies show that placebos can have an effect on conditions such as:

Depression
Pain
Sleep disorders
Irritable bowel syndrome
Menopause

In one study involving asthma, people using a placebo inhaler did no better on breathing tests than sitting and doing nothing. But when researchers asked for people's perception of how they felt, the placebo inhaler was reported as being as effective as medicine in providing relief.

How Does the Placebo Effect Work?

Research on the placebo effect has focused on the relationship of mind and body. One of the most common theories is that the placebo effect is due to a person's expectations. If a person expects a pill to do something, then it's possible that the body's own chemistry can cause effects similar to what a medication might have caused.

For instance, in one study, people were given a placebo and told it was a stimulant. After taking the pill, their pulse rate sped up, their blood pressure increased, and their reaction speeds improved. When people were given the same pill and told it was to help them get to sleep, they experienced the opposite effects.

Experts also say that there is a relationship between how strongly a person expects to have results and whether or not results occur. The stronger the feeling, the more likely it is that a person will experience positive effects. There may be a profound effect due to the interaction between a patient and health care provider.

Positive thoughts can set off the release of healing hormones and neurotransmitters -- such as dopamine, nitric oxide, and endorphins -- into the bloodstream. The effects of these chemicals can be powerful : Nitric oxide can increase blood flow to the organs, for instance, and endorphins can act like nature's morphine, dulling pain.

Can negative thoughts have the opposite effect?

Yes. In some cases, negative thinking is the cause of the "nocebo effect" -- in which patients feel worse after learning that a treatment may have negative side effects. In fact, in one study, asthmatics who inhaled a harmless solution that they had been told contained irritating allergens started wheezing. What's more, the researchers found that the subjects' bronchi actually constricted as a result. Our body's natural self-repair systems can't work properly if we're chronically stressed or pessimistic. They're more effective when the relaxation response is dominant.

Certain mind/body activities can ease a variety of symptoms and help heal our body.By consciously cultivating optimism ,exploring the good side of events and people around us and reaffirming our own positive traits, actions and aspirations we can positively direct the power of the mind to make the body cure itself of whatever ailments it happens to be suffering from.Such is the power of the mind.This was pointed out quite eloquently by the author, Adam Smith (pseudonym) in his book, Power of Mind (1975).

René Descartes - The Discourse on the Method

René Descartes(1596 –1650) interest in method was shared by many sixteenth and seventeenth century scientists, mathematicians and philosophers. One source of this interest in method was ancient mathematics. The thirteen books of Euclid's Elements was a model of knowledge and deductive method. But how had all this been achieved? Archimedes had made many remarkable discoveries. How had he come to make these discoveries? The method in which the results were presented (sometimes called the method of synthesis) was clearly not the method by which these results were discovered. So, the search was on for the method used by the ancient mathematicians to make their discoveries (the method of analysis). Descartes is clearly convinced that the discovery of the proper method is the key to scientific advance. 

His analytic method of thinking focused attention on the problem of how we know (epistemology), which has occupied philosophers ever since.He became dissatisfied with the unsystematic methods utilized by the previous authorities in science, since he concluded they had not "produced anything which was not in dispute and consequently doubtful" . The only exception to this was in the field of mathematics which he believed was built on a "solid foundation" . Medieval science, on the other hand, was largely based on authorities from the past rather than observations in the present, therefore Descartes decided to conduct a personal plan of investigation. But, for Descartes, even his personal observation of the "book of nature"  was not sufficiently beyond doubt because of his concern about the "deception of the senses." After consideration of all the previous methods of inquiry Descartes decided that there must be a better way; and in his Discourse on Method he wrote, "I eventually reached the decision to study my own self, and choose the right path" 

Descartes aspired to rebuild a new system of truth.He believed that he could then use his new method of reasoning to build on such a first principle, ultimately leading to the unification of all knowledge. He calls into question everything that he thinks he has learned through his senses but rests his whole system on the one truth that he cannot doubt, namely, the reality of his own mind and the radical difference between the mental and the physical aspects of the world.

A summary of "Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting the Reason, and Seeking Truth in the Sciences".

1.All people possess “good sense,” the ability to distinguish truth from fiction. Therefore, it is not a lack of ability that obstructs people but their failure to follow the correct path of thought. The use of a method can elevate an average mind above the rest, and Descartes considered himself a typical thinker improved by the use of his method. Descartes benefited from a superior education, but he believed that book learning also clouded his mind. After leaving school, he set off traveling to learn from “the great book of the world” with an unclouded mind. He comes to the conclusion that all people have a “natural light” that can be obscured by education and that it is as important to study oneself as it is to study the world.

2.He considers that the science he learned as a boy is likely flawed because it consists of the ideas of many different men from various eras. Keeping in mind what he has learned of logic, geometry, and algebra, he sets down the following rules: 

- The first rule was never to accept anything as true unless I recognized it to be evidently such: that is, carefully to avoid precipitation and prejudgment, and to include nothing in my conclusions unless it presented itself so clearly and distinctly to my mind that there was no occasion to doubt it.

- The second was to divide each of the difficulties which I encountered into as many parts as possible, and as might be required for an easier solution.

- The third was to think in an orderly fashion, beginning with the things which were simplest and easiest to understand, and gradually and by degrees reaching toward more complex knowledge, even treating as though ordered materials which were not necessarily so.

- The last was always to make enumerations so complete, and reviews so general, that I would be certain that nothing was omitted.

In short, his method required (1) to never believe anything unless he can prove it himself; (2) to reduce every problem to its simplest parts (breaking a problem down into parts); (3) to always be orderly in his thoughts and proceed from the simplest part to the most difficult - deducing one conclusion from another; (4) to always, when solving a problem, create a long chain of reasoning and leave nothing out. He immediately finds this method effective in solving problems that he had found too difficult before.

3.Descartes puts forth a provisional moral code to live by while rethinking his views:

(1) to obey the rules and customs of his country and his religion and never take an extreme opinion;

(2) to be decisive and stick with his decisions, even if some doubts linger;

(3) to try to change himself, not the world; and

(4) to examine all the professions in the world and try to figure out what the best one is. Not surprising, Descartes determines that reasoning and searching for the truth is extremely important and useful. For many years after his revelation, Descartes traveled widely and gained a reputation for wisdom, then retired to examine his thoughts in solitude.

4.Descartes offers proofs of the existence of the soul and of God. Contemplating the nature of dreams and the unreliability of the senses, he becomes aware of his own process of thinking and realizes it is proof of his existence: I think, therefore I am ( Cogito ergo sum - A philosophical proof of existence based on the fact that someone capable of any form of thought necessarily exists).Descartes concluded, if he doubted, then something or someone must be doing the doubting, therefore the very fact that he doubted proved his existence. "The simple meaning of the phrase is that if one is skeptical of existence, that is in and of itself proof that he does exist." He also concludes that the soul is separate from the body based on the unreliability of the senses as compared with pure reason. His own doubts lead him to believe that he is imperfect, yet his ability to conceive of perfection indicates that something perfect must exist outside of him—namely, God.

5.Descartes considers the fact that animals have many of the same organs as humans yet lack powers of speech or reason. He takes this difference to be evidence of humankind’s “rational soul.” He considers the mysterious connection of the soul to the body and concludes that the soul is different and separate from body. Therefore it must not die when the body dies. Because he cannot conceive of a way that the soul could perish or be killed, he is forced to conclude that the soul is immortal.

Gist :

• Nothing is more fairly distributed than common sense: no one thinks he needs more of it than he already has.
• It is not enough to have a good mind. The main thing is to use it well.
• The greatest minds are capable of the greatest vices as well as of the greatest virtues and those who travel very slowly may yet make far greater progress, provided they keep always to the straight road, than those who, while they run, forsake it.
• Never accept a thing as true until you knew it as such without a single doubt.
• Divide each difficulty into as many parts as is feasible and necessary to resolve it.
• Make enumerations so complete, and reviews so comprehensive, that one should be certain of omitting nothing.
• Each problem one solves becomes a rule, which serves afterwards to solve other problems.
• I think, therefore I am -- I think therefore I exist.

Electromagnetic Spectrum

                                               
The electromagnetic (EM) spectrum is the range of all types of EM radiation.It is a continuum of all electromagnetic waves arranged according to frequency and wavelength. The sun, earth, and other bodies radiate electromagnetic energy of varying wavelengths. Electromagnetic energy passes through space at the speed of light in the form of sinusoidal waves.The wavelength is the distance from wave-crest to wave-crest.

Light (or radiation) is made up of vibrating waves of electrical and magnetic fields. This is where the term electromagnetic radiation comes from. Electromagnetic radiation travels in waves which have different wavelengths, energies and frequencies.

When we look at the world around us we are seeing visible light waves (or visible radiation). However, there are many other forms of radiation that we cannot see with our eyes. These types include gamma rays, x-rays, ultraviolet, infrared, microwaves and radio waves.Light is a particular type of electromagnetic radiation that can be seen and sensed by the human eye, but this energy exists at a wide range of wavelengths. The micron is the basic unit for measuring the wavelength of electromagnetic waves. The spectrum of waves is divided into sections based on wavelength. The shortest waves are gamma rays, which have wavelengths of 10e-6 microns or less. The longest waves are radio waves, which have wavelengths of many kilometers. The range of visible consists of the narrow portion of the spectrum, from 0.4 microns (blue) to 0.7 microns (red).

The Earth's atmosphere stops most types of electromagnetic radiation from space from reaching Earth's surface. The above illustration shows how far into the atmosphere different parts of the EM spectrum can go before being absorbed. Only portions of radio and visible light reach the surface.Most electromagnetic radiation from space is unable to reach the surface of the Earth. Radio frequencies, visible light and some ultraviolet light makes it to sea level. Astronomers can observe some infrared wavelengths by putting telescopes on mountain tops. Balloon experiments can reach 35 km above the surface and can operate for months. Rocket flights can take instruments all the way above the Earth's atmosphere, but only for a few minutes before they fall back to Earth.

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Electromagnetic Spectrum - Introduction

Gamma Waves

X-Ray Waves 

Ultraviolet Waves 

Visible Light Waves

Infrared Waves

Microwaves

Radio Waves

The Nature and Properties of Light

Scientific Laws / Properties / Terms / Theories

Plato's Five Stages of Government

Plato was a philosopher in Classical Greece. He wrote a book entitled The Republic in which he explains  his philosophy on subjects ranging from education to government. Plato constructed a model by which he proposed all governments evolve. He called it the Five Stages of Government.'The Republic' of Plato establishes a solid formation of the five types of government discovered by Socrates, Glaucon, and Adeimentus. In 'The Republic' there is detailed discussion of five different kinds of government (and, by analogy, five different kinds of person), ranked in order from best to worst:The five types begin with aristocracy, timocracy, oligarchy, democracy, and then ending with tyranny-anarchy. 

Aristocracy

In this form of government, the head of state is a king who is also a philosopher, a wise and just man who has a balanced soul and an experienced world view. This philosopher-king does not rule alone, but has three classes or categories of people below him, the ones that make up the remainder of his aristocratic state. The king is supported by the auxiliary class or the soldier class of people whose job it is to enforce law and order, and protect the state from military aggressors. The third class of people are the worker class, who have the right to produce goods and services and trade in them, own property and have the rights of citizens.

According to Plato, the aristocratic system of government is the highest form that man can attain as individuals living in a collective environment. Plato outlines the philosopher-king as a man who has been given the best education, his wisdom is tempered by worldly experience and he has a soul of gold, he rules by the virtue of his merit and ability and because he has transcended the bonds of petty politics. The second class of auxiliaries, or soldiers are also men of high learning and have souls of silver, while the working class have souls of iron, they work hard to provide for themselves and the nation. Plato is of the opinion that such aristocratic system works as a benevolent government, seeking out the traits of these different classes of people, and educating and training them in a way which is suitable for their future positions in life.

An aristocratic person is one whose rational, spirited, and appetitive souls work together properly. Such governments and people are the most genuine examples of true justice at the social and personal levels.

Timocracy

The second form of government described by Plato is the timocratic form, this is a notch below the high idealistic form of aristocracy and comes into existence chiefly due to the failure of the government to develop individuals who have souls of gold. This degeneration gives rise to a leader who has the ideals of an aristocrat but is also aware of the nature of power he has inherited. Plato theorizes that the Timocratic man is the son of the aristocratic philosopher king, having the education and learning of his father, but wanting to expand his power by way of war and conquest. It is a form of government in which ambition for honor, power and military glory motivates the rulers.

The ruling class and its auxiliaries in a timocracy are men of inferior nature, because they hold the values of honor and victory to be greater than the philosophical truths that govern life. The timocratic man will lead his armies in battle and conquer foreign lands, bringing back spoils of war to enrich his own empire. However, he is not by nature barbaric and respects his elders, the citizens of his country and takes measures to better their lives in whatever way he can.

A timocratic person is therefore someone who is more concerned with belligerently defending personal honor than with wisely choosing what is truly best.

Oligarchy

The oligarchic form of government is a further degeneration of the timocratic form. Here society is divided into two distinct classes, the rich and the poor. The rich have the reigns of administration in their hands and the poor are the ruled class. Although the aristocratic form of government as described by Plato expressly forbids the king from owning property (his needs are satisfied by the voluntary contributions of his people) the kings in a timocracy and oligarchy are allowed to do so. They accumulate wealth and spend it, often in excess, leading to a dependence on monetary policy and increase in the demand of wealth in the general population. The laws are therefore changed to enable only the ruling class to hold great wealth, thereby guaranteeing their supremacy over the worker class. This is how a timocracy turns into an oligarchy, where riches are concentrated in the hands of a few.

The rich men will consolidate power and wealth leaving the poor desperate for social emancipation, causing them to rebel against the oligarchs.
Also, the threat from foreign aggressors may be greater, as the governing class, due to their far lesser numbers will be unable to amass a huge army, they will be reluctant to arm the oppressed working class too, fearing a revolt.

By analogy, an oligarchic personality is someone whose every thought and action is devoted to the self-indulgent goal of amassing greater wealth.

Democracy

Plato relegates the democratic form of government near the bottom of his list. This is the further degeneration of oligarchy as the working class, pushed to the brink of poverty rebel against the oligarchs and establish a government based solely on the principle of freedom. Freedom is the only good worth having in a democracy and people do what they want, even breaking the law if they have the opportunity. According to Plato, this is akin to anarchy, where there are little if any laws governing men. The democratic man is therefore a free spirit, spending as he wills, running after his desires, and having no set goal or focus in life.

The parallel case of a democratic person is someone who is utterly controlled by desires, acknowledging no bounds of taste or virtue in the perpetual effort to achieve the momentary satisfaction that pleasure provides.

Tyranny

The last and the worst form of government is the tyrannical form, where all power is with one man, a leader who rises from the chaos of democracy, thirsting for power but not having the wisdom or learning to use it wisely. He will merely take advantage of the lawlessness to seize power and rule with an iron fist, often unjustly, and the populace will fear and loathe him but remain helpless. The tyrant will spend his time wasting the vast volume of his ill-gotten wealth, living under constant threat of assassination or rebellion.

A tyrranic person, then, must be one whose entire life is focussed upon the satisfaction of a single desire at the expense of everything else that truly matters. Governments and people of this last variety are most perfectly unjust, even though they may appear to be well-organized and effective.

Division of House

In parliamentary procedure, a division of the assembly (also division of the house or simply division) is a voting method in which the members of the assembly take a rising vote (stand up) or go to different parts of the chamber, literally dividing into groups indicating a vote in favour of or in opposition to a motion on the floor.

It is one of the forms in which the decision of the House is ascertained. Normally, when a motion is put to the House members for and against it indicate their opinion by saying "Aye" or "No" from their seats. The Chair goes by the voices and declares that the motion is either accepted or negatived by the House. If a member challenges the decision, the Chair orders that the lobbies be cleared. Then the division bell is rung and an entire network of bells installed in the various parts and rooms in Parliament House and Parliament House Annexe rings continuously for three and a half minutes. Members and Ministers rush to the Chamber from all sides. After the bell stops, all the doors to the Chamber are closed and nobody can enter or leave the Chamber till the division is over. Then the Chair puts the question for second time and declares whether in its opinion the "Ayes" or the "Noes", have it. If the opinion so declared is again challenged, the Chair asks the votes to be recorded by operating the Automatic Vote Recording Equipment. 

This was the method used to decide motions in the Roman Senate (and was occasionally used in democratic Athens).

Divisions

There are three methods of holding a Division:

(i) by operating the Automatic Vote Recorder,
(ii) by distributing ‘Ayes’ and ‘Noes’ slips in the House, and
(iii) by members going into the Lobbies.

However, the method of recording of votes in Lobbies has become obsolete ever since the installation of Automatic Vote Recording machine. This procedure has not been used for the last two decades.

A few days after the constitution of new Lok Sabha, seats in the House which are the same as the Division numbers are allotted to all members. It is imperative that members besides speaking from the seats allotted to them also record votes therefrom at a Division, which reflects the correct position in respect of the voting results arrived at.

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The Story of Computer

Since ancient times, people have had ways to deal with data and numbers. Computing hardware has evolved from simple devices to aid calculation, to mechanical calculators, punched card data processing and then to modern stored-program computers.Devices have been used to aid computation for thousands of years, mostly using one-to-one correspondence with fingers. The earliest counting device was probably a form of tally stick. The abacus was early used for arithmetic tasks. What we now call the Roman abacus was used in Babylonia as early as 2400 BC. Since then, many other forms of reckoning boards or tables have been invented.

As trade and tax system grew in complexity, people saw that faster, more reliable and exact tools were needed for doing math and keeping records.

Scottish mathematician and physicist John Napier discovered that the multiplication and division of numbers could be performed by the addition and subtraction, respectively, of the logarithms of those numbers. While producing the first logarithmic tables, Napier needed to perform many tedious multiplications. It was at this point that he designed his 'Napier's bones', an abacus-like device that greatly simplified calculations that involved multiplication and division.

Mechanical calculators - In the mid-1600's, Blaise Pascal and his father, who was a tax officer himself, were working on  taxes for the French government in Paris.  The two spent hours figuring and re-figuring taxes that each citizen owed.  Young Blaise decided in 1642 to build an adding and subtraction machine that could aide in such a tedious and time consuming process.  Blaise Pascal started some pioneering work on calculating machines and after three years of effort and 50 prototypes he invented the mechanical calculator. He built twenty of these machines (called Pascal's Calculator or Pascaline) in the following ten years. The machine Blaise made had a set of eight gears that worked together much like an odometer keeps track of a car's mileage.  His machine encountered many of problems.  For one, it was always breaking down.  Second, the machine was slow and extremely costly.  And third, people were afraid to use the machine thinking it might replace their jobs.  Pascal later became famous for math and philosophy, but he is still remember for his role in computer technology.  In his honor, there is a computer language named Pascal.

Around 1820, Charles Xavier Thomas de Colmar created the first successful, mass-produced mechanical calculator, the Thomas Arithmometer, that could add, subtract, multiply, and divide.It was mainly based on Leibniz' work. Mechanical calculators remained in use until the 1970s.

In 1801, Joseph-Marie Jacquard developed a loom in which the pattern being woven was controlled by punched cards.

The next big step for computers arrived in the 1830's when Charles Babbage decided to build a machine to help him complete and print mathematical tables.  Babbage was a mathematician who taught at Cambridge University in England.  He began planning his calculating machine calling it the Analytical Engine.  The idea for this machine was amazingly like the computer we know today.  It was to read a program from punched cards, figure and store the answers to different problems, and print the answer on paper.  Babbage died before he could complete the machine.  However because of his remarkable ideas and work, Babbage is know as the Father of Computers.

The next huge step for computers came when Herman Hollerith entered a contest given by the U.S. Census Bureau.  The contest was to see who could build a machine that would count and record information faster.  Hollerith, a young man working for the Bureau built a machine called the Tabulating Machine that read and sorted data from punched cards.  The holes punched in the cards matched each person's answers to questions.  For example, married, single, and divorces were answers on the cards.In the late 1880s, Herman Hollerith invented data storage on punched cards that could then be read by a machine.   The Tabulator read the punched cards as they passed over tiny brushes.  Each time a brush found a hole, it completed an electrical circuit.  This caused special counting dials to increase the data for that answer.

Thanks to Hollerith's machine, instead of taking seven and a half years to count the census information it only took three years, even with 13 million more people since the last census.  Happy with his success, Hollerith formed the Tabulating Machine Company in 1896.  The company later was sold in 1911.  And in 1912 his company became the International Business Machines Corporation, better know today as IBM.

The era of modern computing began with a flurry of development before and during World War II. Most digital computers built in this period were electromechanical - electric switches drove mechanical relays to perform the calculation. These devices had a low operating speed and were eventually superseded by much faster all-electric computers, originally using vacuum tubes.

In 1936 British mathematician Alan Turing proposed the idea of a machine that could process equations without human direction. The machine (now known as a Turing machine) resembled an automatic typewriter that used symbols for math and logic instead of letters. Turing's machine was the theoretical precursor to the modern digital computer.

The first all electronic computer was the ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer).  ENIAC was a general purpose digital computer built in 1946 by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly.  The ENIAC contained over 18,000 vacuum tubes. In twenty seconds, ENIAC could do a math problem that would have taken 40 hours for one person to finish. The ENIAC was built the time of World War II had as its first job to calculate the feasibility of a design for the hydrogen bomb.The ENIAC was 100 feet long and 10 feet tall.Many of ENIAC's first tasks were for military purposes, such as calculating ballistic firing tables and designing atomic weapons. Since ENIAC was initially not a stored program machine, it had to be reprogrammed for each task.

A more modern type computer began with John von Neumann's development of software written in binary code.  It was von Neumann who began the practice of storing data and instructions in binary code and initiated the use of memory to store data, as well as programs.  A computer called the EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable Computer) was built using binary code in 1950.  Before the EDVAC, computers like the ENIAC could do only one task then they had to be rewired to perform a different task or program.  The EDVAC's concept of storing different programs on punched cards instead of rewiring computers led to the computers that we know today.

Transistor computers - The bipolar transistor was invented in 1947. From 1955 onwards transistors replaced vacuum tubes in computer designs, giving rise to the "second generation" of computers. Compared to vacuum tubes, transistors have many advantages: they are smaller, and require less power than vacuum tubes, so give off less heat. Silicon junction transistors were much more reliable than vacuum tubes and had longer, indefinite, service life. Transistorized computers could contain tens of thousands of binary logic circuits in a relatively compact space.

The next great advance in computing power came with the advent of the integrated circuit (the Chip). The first practical ICs were invented by Jack Kilby at Texas Instruments and Robert Noyce at Fairchild Semiconductor.Kilby described his new device as “a body of semiconductor material wherein all the components of the electronic circuit are completely integrated.”

Noyce also came up with his own idea of an integrated circuit half a year later than Kilby.His chip solved many practical problems that Kilby's had not. Produced at Fairchild Semiconductor, it was made of silicon, whereas Kilby's chip was made of germanium.

This new development heralded an explosion in the commercial and personal use of computers and led to the invention of the microprocessor. While the subject of exactly which device was the first microprocessor is contentious, partly due to lack of agreement on the exact definition of the term "microprocessor", it is largely undisputed that the first single-chip microprocessor was the Intel 4004, designed and realized by Ted Hoff, Federico Faggin, and Stanley Mazor at Intel.

The progression in hardware representation of a bit of data:

• Vacuum Tubes (1950s) - one bit on the size of a thumb
• Transistors (1950s and 1960s) - one bit on the size of a fingernail
• Integrated Circuits (1960s and 70s) - thousands of bits on the size of a hand
• Silicon computer chips (1970s and on) - millions of bits on the size of a finger nail.

Note - The first successful high level programming language - FORTRAN Computer Programming Language - John Backus & IBM (1954)

Legislative Procedure in Rajya Sabha

National Mission on Oilseeds and Oil Palm (NMOOP)

• India’s vegetable oil economy is world’s fourth largest after USA, China & Brazil.
• The oilseed accounts for 13% of the Gross Cropped Area, 3% of the Gross National Product and 10% value of all agricultural commodities.
• This sector has recorded annual growth rate of area, production and yield @ 2.44%, 5.47% and 2.96% respectively during last decade (1999-2009).
• The diverse agro-ecological conditions in the country are favourable for growing 9 annual oilseed crops, which include 7 edible oilseeds (groundnut, rapeseed & mustard, soybean, sunflower, sesame, safflower and niger) and two non-edible oilseeds (castor and linseed).
• Oilseeds cultivation is undertaken across the country in about 27 million hectares mainly on marginal lands, of which 72% in confined to rainfed farming. India is one of the major oilseeds grower and importer of edible oils.
• A substantial portion of our requirement of edible oil is met through import of palm oil from Indonesia and Malaysia.
• Tree Borne Oilseeds (TBOs), like sal, mahua, simarouba, kokum, olive, karanja, jatropha, neem, jojoba, cheura, wild apricot, walnut, tung etc. are cultivated/grow in the country under different agro-climatic conditions in a scattered form in forest and non-forest areas as well as in waste land /deserts/hilly areas.

National Mission on Oilseeds and Oil Palm (NMOOP)

National Mission on Oilseeds and Oil Palm (NMOOP) envisages increase in production of vegetable oils sourced from oilseeds, oil palm and TBOs from 7.06 million tonnes (average of 2007-08 to 2011-12) to 9.51 million tonnes by the end of Twelfth Plan (2016-17).

The Mission is proposed to be implemented through three Mini Missions with specific target - Mini Mission on Oil Seeds,Mini Mission on Oil Palm,Mini Mission on Tree Borne Oil seeds.

The strategy to implement the proposed Mission will include increasing Seed Replacement Ratio (SRR).

Aims : - Increasing irrigation coverage under oil seeds from 26% to 36%.

- Diversification of area from low yielding cereals crops to oil seeds crops

- Inter-cropping of oil seeds with cereals/ pulses/ sugarcane

- Use of fallow land after paddy /potato cultivation

- Expansion of cultivation of Oil Palm & TBOs in watersheds and wastelands

- Enhancing procurement of oil seeds and collection & processing of TBOs

- Cost of the interventions proposed under the Mission will be in the ratio of 75:25 between the Central and the State Government

The oilseeds and oil palm development programme of  ISOPOM along with liability of ISOPOM and tree borne oilseeds development programme for the approved programme will be subsumed under the Mission.

MISSION STRUCTURE:

Executive Committee (EC): At the apex level, the Mission will be monitored by a high level Executive Committee (EC) Chaired by the Union Minister of Agriculture.EC will be the policy making body providing suitable directives and guidance to the Mission and reviewing the overall progress and development of the Mission. EC will lay down and also amend the operational guidelines regarding day to day operation of the Mission.

Standing Committee (SC): A Standing Committee will be constituted under the Chairmanship of Secretary (A&C) to oversee activities of the Mission and to approve the Annual Action Plans (AAP) of the states and implementing agencies under the Mission.

Mission Monitoring Committee (MMC): A Mission Monitoring Committee will be constituted under the Chairmanship of Joint Secretary (Oilseeds) DAC who will also be the Ex-Officio Mission Director of NMOOP, to oversee the monitoring activities of the three Mini Missions

A State Level Standing Committee will be constituted by the State Government under the Chairmanship of Agriculture Production Commissioner/Principal Secretary/Secretary (Agriculture)

The State Governments may have in place a sound mechanism for involvement of PRIs in the formulation, prioritization of activities & identification of beneficiaries at grass root level.