The Legend of Pulau Ubin near Singapore :: Urban Legends Ghost Stories

The Legend of Pulau Ubin The story I chose to consider was about one of the small islands that surround Singapore, Pulau Ubin. This is a small island whose main industries are mining and tourism, including trails for biking and hiking. The island has an interesting past, and as a result it now has many legends and myths revolving around it. During the occupation of the Singapore by the Japanese, it was said to be where they had brought soldiers to be tortured. That is a significant reason why people believe it’s haunted. The person from whom I heard the story is one of the students who lives across the hall from me on the 7th floor in La Plata. His family comes from India, but he lived in many places since birth, one of them being Singapore, and now his family lives in New Jersey. Also, he is nineteen years old. I collected the story on the afternoon of October 14th, it was right after we had all finished classes. When I asked the storyteller if he knew any ghost stories or urban legends and myths, he first attempted to respond with, â€Å"Casper†, but I told him no I need real things you have heard. After that he jumped right into the story from Singapore about Pulau Ubin: Ok, when I lived in Singapore, its an island and there were all these surrounding islands, and one was Pulau Ubin. Like it’s not ghetto, but not with fancy resorts. People would go there for hiking and biking, stuff like that. Before, there used to be animals, like tigers, but now there aren’t any. So you would hear about every year, no every two years like you hear of a family disappearing while they went there for hiking, the whole family. They would send search parties and stuff out, and later they would find pieces of meat, like human meat. They’ve searched the island many times for any signs of animals, but they never found any. Pulau Ubin is the site of many supernatural activities from what I gathered, ranging from ghost sightings, to hunts for spiritual burial grounds and graves. Singapore is a place with a great deal of concentrated wealth. Along with this is a massive wealth gap, which often leads to many interesting beliefs and ideas. The way the person I interviewed, told the story with such seriousness that I could tell he believed it.

Digital and Analog TV Essay

On February 17, 2009, the Congress of the United States mandates the full shift to digital television transmission. The law is perceived to bring several benefits to the US viewing public. Broadcast frequency bands will be available mainly for public safety purposes, for example, police and fire department concerns. Remaining portions of the old TV broadcast spectrum can be offered for technologically advanced applications such as wireless broadband. The use of digital-capable television sets allows American viewers more choices of what programs to watch, since digital broadcasts can accommodate so much more programs (Federal Communications Commission, 2008). The law is not expected to be received openly by the television viewing public, 100 percent. Since it leaves them no choice but to convert millions of TV sets from analog to digital and give up the true fidelity that analog audio signals offer. This paper aims to point out the differences of digital and analog TV. By doing so, advantages and disadvantages of each can be compared and the individual viewer can make a better choice. Robert Silva (2008) lists differences between analog TV and Digital TV. He says these these differences lie mainly in the manner of transmitting broadcasts, signal content within a bandwidth in the broadcast spectrum, and the ability to broadcast in widescreen (16Ãâ€"9) format. Transmission Analog television transmission is based on and started after World War II with black and white broadcasts. It complied with the US analog TV standard known as NTSC. After several years, color broadcasting was introduced and accommodated under the NTSC system. The video is transmitted through the AM radio band while audio is transmitted through the FM band. The reception quality depends on the distance from the television station transmitters and obstacles in between. The farther away from the transmission station the TV reception is more prone to ghosting and other video disturbances. Although analog transmission can accommodate all the technicalities of high fidelity reception, the assigned bandwidth to a television channel restricts and limits broadcast quality. Digital TV is based on modern digital technology. It was designed for BW and color broadcasts as well as audio. It handles information in the same manner as computers: on (with a binary value of â€Å"1†) or off (with a binary value of â€Å"0†). Digital broadcasts allow viewers to see uniform reception quality regardless of the distance from the transmitter. Either the digital television receives the broadcast or the TV screen remains blank (it does not receive anything at all). Signal Content Digital TV broadcasts can accommodate complete video, audio, and other information signals within the same bandwidth. Furthermore, digital television can accommodate advances in technology like High Definition (HDTV) signals. In contrast, analog TV broadcast can only send limited traditional video signals. Format The development of wide screen format programming allows the broadcast of the 16Ãâ€"9 format. Today, widescreen LCD television are getting more popular; but still expensive. It offers the advantage of portraying on the TV screen wide footages of events without the camera lens distortion caused by distances. Furthermore, the widescreen image occupies the whole digital television screen. On the other hand, analog television sets will show widescreen images with portions on top and below blacked out. The widescreen format may not be important to the regular TV viewer. For millions of television watchers, the old analog screen is good enough. Conclusion Paul Wotel (2008) gives an objective assessment of the advantages and disadvantages of both digital and analog television. Some people may opt for the old traditional analog equipment such as phones while others prefer the cordless digital phones. If you want sound fidelity, he recommends the old phones. For more advanced applications, such as the PABX systems, he recommends a digital system. The same reasoning may be applied to television sets. However, the present situation requires new priorities which did not exist before. Today, there is much concern on security and priority is given to police and fire department communications. By requiring television stations to convert to digital transmission, most of the broadcast bandwidth can be assigned to security applications. The advantages of digital television allow the viewing public to benefit from the information age we find ourselves in. Digital television can also take advantage of the internet which has become part of the lives of many, particularly the young generation. Considering the continuing evolution in information and entertainment technology we just have to follow the trend – out with old, in with the new.

Post Liberal Era Essay - 1559 Words

The Post Liberal Era begins with the presidency of Ronald Reagan. Although Ronald Reagan was one of the most popular president in United States history, the years he served were not beloved by many. One example of this was Reverend Jerry Falwell. Reverend Falwell believed that â€Å"our grand old flag from going down the drain.† according to the Reverend Jerry Falwell, Moral Majority Fundraising Letter. He was against homosexual people and the distribution of pornography and R/X rated movies. He seemed to believe that the sex and violence they contained were bad for America as a whole. Lastly, he brought up the controversial subject of abortion, believing it to be synonymous with murder. Something extremely chilling that was shown in the†¦show more content†¦Another huge, relevant problem that began budding under the presidency of Ronald Reagan was mass incarceration. Incarceration rates rose quickly during his term but skyrocketed when President Bill Clinton passed the â€Å"Crime Bill† according to the sources. The post-war period revealed huge rises in the number of people imprisoned. From a mere 338,029 in 1970, the figures rose to a shocking 2,042,479 in 2001 according to the information supplied by Dr. Barrett. In the document Why Mass Incarceration Matters by Heather Ann Thompson, it states that â€Å"Between 1970 and 2010 more people were incarcerated in the United States than were imprisoned in any other country.† What was not surprising was the fact that African Americans once again were the ones who were the most unfortunate, recording the highest imprisonment rate among all races and sexes. The numbers before the 1960s do not even compare to the numbers following. For example, numbers taken from the document show that 35 years before the 1960s, the number of American people imprisoned had increased by 52,249 people. However, the 35 years after, the same group had increased by a drastic 1,266,2435. Even with the massive numbers documented in statistics of the numbers of American citizens incarcerated, historians have ignored this integral piece of the post-war period and failed to recognize its impact. For example, mass incarceration had a direct effect on how thriving American urban centers became full of povertyShow MoreRelatedThe Issue Of Canada Legalized Same Sex Marriage941 Words   |  4 Pages one of the most liberal countries in the world. In theory, Canada should have achieved a status where gay identities and activities are extensively accepted, which, in Ghaziani’s words, is an era of post-gay (Ghaziani, 2011). According to Warner, the term post-gay refers to defining oneself by more than his or her sexuality, detaching gayness with struggle, and embracing sexually diverse company (Warner, 1999). 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