Farrukh Ataev, a student (1998-2001) at the Troy State University, Troy, Alabama, USA.
The speeches made at the subject "Speech".
About Internet
1) Introduction. Many people and businesses in today's world spend most of their time online. Now imagine the colossal spider web covering the whole surface of the earth. This imaginary spider web is the visual picture of Internet. Once exposed you could easily get trapped in it, just like a fly caught in a spider web. Before our eyes, Internet is becoming integral part of our life.
Good morning, my name is Farrukh Ataev, senior student here in Troy State. Today I am going to talk about the structure of Internet. Everybody here is aware to some extent of the role and benefits of Internet for humankind. Indeed, Internet is a pinnacle of achievement in human civilization. As in many realms of life, its structure and planning are key factors for its existence and further development. When a person has knowledge of the structure and operation of Internet, he can easily and effectively interact with it. And today, after briefly talking about its history, I will describe the global and then the local structure of Internet.
2) Body. Internet also known as the net, information superhighway, or cyberspace, is a collection of networks, which enables fast communication. It is also a source of an enormous database. The term Internet was first used in 1982; however, its history goes back to the 1960s. Aimed at the research and development of national defense, US government created a program called ARPA (Advanced Research Project Agency) in 1969, which started as a small computer network between four universities. Eventually, other univeristes and organizations joined ARPA, and Internet has rapidly grown to tens of millions of computer systems all over the world. All the computers are connected by telephone lines, television cables, or satellite links, which assemble the Internet or interconnected networks.
3) Each computer connected to Internet has a unique IP (Internet Protocol) address, which identifies the computer in the net. An IP address is simply a 32-bit number with 4 decimals separated by 3 periods; [for example, the IP address of Troy State University is 198.179.130.112, which identifies the network and a host computer. So, in order to connect to any computer, one only needs to know its IP address.] A number of international organizations emerged throughout the evolution of Internet, each managing and developing different aspects of Internet. Among them, IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority), located at University of Southern California, is in charge of several Internet issues, which include IP addressing and domain name registration.
4) Domain name is simply an IP address converted into letters, which also identifies a computer on a network. Unlike IP addresses, domain names allow to create a database of computer networks. In other words, domain name system categorizes all IP addresses. Also, letters are easier for people to remember than numbers. For an analogy think of letters substituting telephone numbers. The Web site www.astalavista.com tells that IANA, residing on top of the hierarchy, provides IP addresses to the world. In fact, it distributes IP addresses to three regional registries; RIPE (Regional Internet Registry for Europe), located in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, is responsible for Europe, Middle East and parts of Asia and Africa, APNIC (Asian Pacific Network Information Center), located in Tokyo, Japan, responsible for Asia, ARIN (American Registry for Internet Numbers), located in Chantilly, VA, responsible for the rest area, including North and South America, the Caribbean, and the sub-Sahara Africa.
5) These three regional registries, in turn, distribute IP addresses to ISPs (Internet Service Providers) or large organizations within their region. And those ISPs provide smaller ISPs, companies, schools, etc. Thus, IP addresses move from the top of the organizational hierarchy to the bottom, ensuring IP addresses is neither duplicated nor wasted.
Many people think that Internet is the same as WWW (the World Wide Web). Actually, Internet is different from the Web, and much larger than the Web. According to the Web site of college of Dallas, the World Wide Web is a component of Internet, which spices it up by adding cutting-edge audio, video, graphics capabilities, animation, web-based application called applets, and interactive forms. It is the fastest growing area of Internet. Other components of Internet include FTP (File Transfer Protocol), Bulletin Boards and Newsgroups, IRC (Internet Relay Chat), Telnet (Remote Computer Access) and many others.
6)) Every country builds its own Internet backbone. In the US, currently there are thirteen interconnected NAPs (Network Access Points), which make up the major backbone of the country. NAPs are the largest Internet Service Providers in the US. They connect to other countries' backbone through undersea cables and satellites to make up the global Internet. The number of NAPs is growing since the Internet, financed by the government, became commercially operated.
7) Within the US, individuals and companies connect to ISPs, which connect to larger Regional Networks. Regional Networks, in turn, connect to Routers, which lastly connect to the country's thirteen main NAPs. Internet speed is important, when it transmits messages or retrieves requested data out of its pool. Similar to human blood vessels, certain amount of data flows at a different speed on Internet, depending on the bandwidth. According to Internet source www.andreas.com, home computers usually have maximum connection speed of 56Kbps via telephone modem, universities and businesses have T1 connection, for example, Troy State University has T1 connection, which is 45 times faster than telephone modem, and larger businesses have T3 connection, which is 1,300 times faster. NAPs and major backbones of the world countries have very high-speed fiber optic connection, which transmit the whole Library of Congress, comprised of more than 20 million books, in several minutes.
Conclusion. Summarize my speech, today, we have briefly viewed the history, the organization of Internet, the difference between Internet and WWW, and the role of international and domestic organizations in assigning IP addresses.
Thank you very much.
About some religions
1) Introduction. Imagine a happy family of father, mother and a little son. In this family, parents strongly believe in Christian Science, which is one sect of Christianity. One day their son becomes ill and day-by-day he gets worse. Nevertheless, parents would not take him to a doctor, because htier religion prohibits having any medical exam and treatment. The son could not bear the illness and soon dies. There are many sad life stories similar to this one. And in total, there are 17 religious sects that oppose any kind of medical diagnosis and treatment.
Good morning, my name is Farrukh Ataev. And today I am going to persuade you that legal laws must limit certain religions, which do not allow medical treatment, especially when children are involved. Being aware of the issue can help us to find right solutions and in the end to better our lives. Today we will see how religion can improve your health, and then we will talk about those religious sects that oppose medical care, finally we will see how we can solve this issue.
2) Body. Researchers at Columbia University in New York city analyzed hundreds of studies examining the relationship between spiritual beliefs and health. And their research has shown the connection that claims people with strong religious beliefs tend to live healthier lives. Researchers say religious conduct may encourage people not to smoke or drink alcohol, avoid risky sexual behavior and bad eating habits, and provide a social network, which can help people deal with stress. Other research, conducted by National Institute for Health Care, found that religion was beneficial for both physical and psychological problems - including depression, hypertension, and heart disease - as well as overall quality of life. Over the years, the studies have shown that religius people are less depressed, have healthier immune systems, and deal with addictions better than the nonreligious. However, there are many religions in the world. And the question is can they all provide these apparent health benefits? The answer would be unfortunately no, that is, there are some religious sects, that oppose medical examination and treatment.
3) {Show transparency} Here is the list of those seventeen religious sects, which prohibit their believers to go through medical test and acquire appropriate treatment if necessary. Let's take a look at two real life cases of believers in Christian Science and Jehovah's Witnesses. By the way, today the latter one objects only to blood transfusions. "My husband and I were devout, lifelong Christian Scientists until 1977 when we lost our only son Matthew as a result of our religious beliefs", - confesses Rita Swan. As little Matthew lay with a raging fever, parents would not take him to a doctor. She says that the religion teaches that all disease is caused by sin. Only God can heal illnesses, because underlying cause of the disease remains a moral problem that God alone can solve.
4) Parents could not acquire any rational information about their child's condition without breaking church rules. But, also they were terrified that if a doctor would not be able to treat the disease, which was a mystery, then they could be deprived of help from both medical science and God. On the 12th day of illness, practitioner tells parents that Matthew might have a broken bone and the Christian Science church does not allow members to go to doctors to have bones set. Soon family finds out that their son has h-flu meningitis, which has been routinely treated with antibiotics since the 1940s and is vaccine-preventable today. Matthew lives a week longer in intensive care on a respirator and then dies. Immediately afterwards, parents leave the Christian Science church and form a national membership organization Children's Healthcare Is a Legal Duty, Inc (CHILD) that promotes the rights of children to medical care and opposes religion-related abuse and neglect of children.
5) The second case involves a 17 year-old girl, Jelena Godlevskaya, who was hit by a car on her way home from school in Riga, Latvia. She was taken to Riga's First Aid Hospital with multiple pelvic fractures, but doctors say her injuries were not fatal. Then why she dies? Jelena, as a Jehovah's Witness, refuses a blood transfusion at the hospital following her religious faith. Who is responsible for her death? Is it government, parents, or religious organization? It is very hard to judge when mature people act according to their beliefs. But, think about those children, who are unable to make rational decisions.
6) According to "The Humanist" magazine, pediatricians Seth M. Asser and Rita Swan conducted a study on child fatalities in faith-healing sects. They analyzed the deaths, which occurred between 1975 and 1995 of 200 US children, who were associated with 17 different religious sects that oppose medical care. The researchers could obtain sufficient documentation on 172 of those children to conclude that medical care was withheld on religious grounds. And 140 of those children would have had a 90 percent or better probability of survival if adequate medical care had been provided in a timely manner. Death is not the only consequence of religiously motivated medical neglect. Untold numbers of children, who grow up in homes with parents who have religious objections to medical care, have suffered needless fear and pain or have become permanently disabled. Thousands of children are not inoculated against contagious diseases because of their parent's religious objections.
7) The Christian Science church tells its practitioners and nurses not to report contagious diseases to their state authorities. As a result, theses contagious diseases can spread to those outside faith-healing sects. Although, the First Amendment of Bill of Right of US Constitution promises the freedom of religion for everyone, but it does not say that children should be deprived of preventive, therapeutic, or diagnostic health care. Right now, 47 states have religious exemptions from immunizations. 41 states have religious exemptions from child abuse and neglect charges.
8) Alabama, among many other states, has a religious defense to child endangerment, criminal abuse or neglect, and cruelty to children. According to "The Humanist" magazine, religious exemptions are unconstitutional violation of the rights of children, and they discriminate against a class of children, depriving them of their Fourteenth Amendment right to equal protection under the laws. To protect children from falling victims of these religious doctrines, the Congress must create laws to prohibit any kind of religious exemption and protect children's right for medical diagnosis and treatment. Children are not property, and their right to life and health should take precedence over their parent's right to practice religion.
Conclusion. Today, we have analyzed negative impact of some religious practices on our society that object medical care. We also looked at the ways to prevent children from becoming victims of such religions.
Thank you.
