Week 3 Task 1

1 The first academic journal article Stephen Stockwell has published was Kuranda Police Shooting in 1981.

Stockwell, S 1981, ‘Kuranda Police Shooting’, Legal Service Bulletin, vol. 6, pp. 48, viewed 12th August 2011, via HeinOnline Legal database.


2 Governor Slugwell appeared in the Flaming Carrot Comics, issues 7, 10 and 11.

Burden, B 1985, Flaming Carrot Comics, Renegade Press, viewed 12th August 2011, via Underground and Independant Comics database.


3 The lastest medical thinking on the dangers of mobile phones is that the exposure to radiation can cause cancer and more so brain tumours and other carcinogens.

 Mobile phones cause cancer: Brain Tumour survivors are speaking out about the dangers of mobile phone use [online]. Today Tonight (SEVEN NETWORK); Time: 18:40; Broadcast Date: Tuesday, 21st June 2011; Duration: 5 min., 10 sec

 
4 Leon is shocked.Scott, R 1982, Blade Runner, film, Warner Bros. Pictures, Burbank, California via American Film Scripts Online database. 

"...Leon looks shocked, surprised. But the needles in the computer barely move..."

5  “that a society given so much to the use of diagrams and to the maneuvering of objects in space . . . should at the same time develop means of communication which specialize not in sight but in sound”.

Soukup, P 2004, ‘Communication Research trends’, Centre for the Study of Communication and Culture, vol. 23, pp. 23. viewed 12th August 2011

Harsha & Xuanzang

The most interesting part about the readings would be the Harsha's kindom during the first half of the seventh century. Harsha temporarily restored the centralised imperial rule of the northern India by his strong military force. His army included of 20,000 cavalry, 50,000 infantry and 5000 war elephants. However, Harsha is a Buddhist with a reputation of piety. He looked kindly on other faiths as well as generously patronized scholars.

Harsha extended his influence to several Himalayan states and he also exchanged a serious of ambassies with Emperor Tang Taizong of China. One of the most famous ambassidor would be a Chinese pilrim named Xuanzang who travelled from the capital Changan through the Silk Road to north India. He brought back with him both Buddist texts and important information from India and the nations along the silk routes. His journy was later written into a fantacy story Journy to the West by Wu Chengen in Ming Dynasty.

The Caste System

One of the threats that the incursion of Islam posed to the Caste system is that Umma, the society created by Muslims, is a equal society where everyone are treated the same. Hindus of lower castes, adopte Islam in hoping to escape discriminination by converting into a faith that has equality of all the believers.

The most significant reson why the Caste system suvived the political, economic, and social changes of the post-classical era is because its adaption to change. For example, it adapted to the arrival of immigrants which helps them into Indian socity. The social positions of individuals can also be changed by the worker's guild such as the merchants who have the ecnomic power and influence.

Islam and Hinduism

The key difference between the religious traditions of Islam and Hinduism is that Hinduism made place for numerous gods and it is polytheistic while Islam theology is monotheistic.

Islamic society is called Umma where the group bond does not depend on blood but on faith in Allah. Believing in the same god is easier to unite people together. And that everyone in the group are treated equally.

Devotional cults became popular among devotees of Hinduism. Hinduism theology is to promise salvation. This help to shape the society into a system called the caste system where people are devided into different groups by their classes. They are not teated equally.

Week 2 Part 1

This is a video clip from the movie Lord of the Rings which shows how the beacon has being lit across thousands of miles from Gondor to Rohan to pass the information that Gondor is in danger.

In ancient times in China, the empire was usually attacked by nomads from other nations. The empireror then built the Great Wall from the capital to the boarders of his kingdom. There is a beacom tower every 5 miles on the Great Wall. It will raise smoke in the day time and light the fire at night to pass information. So if the boarders is being attacked, the emporer will soon be informed. The emperor can assemble his army and response quickly. Beacon towers is the fastest way to transfer information at that time. It acts like the 'telegraph' in the modern days.

NCT week1 Introduction

Hi everyone, my name is Yiwen Dai and you can call me Ian. This is my second semester at uni and I am also doing Film History and Research, World History，News and Politics and Intro to PR apart from this course. I am a guy with a great passion in history studies, especially ancient history. Learning history is the best way to avoid making the same mistakes again. My dream is to become an archeaologist one day.

I am also interested in the area of journalism. Journalists are themselves historians of the present. And the records they put together will, when used with critical discretion, furnish valuable sources for the scholar of the future who delves into the history of our times (Wilkerson, in Nafziger&Wilkerson 1949,p.11).

I play acoustic guitar. I like swimming and enjoy lots of ball games like cricket, golf, tennis... I found that bolgs are very useful tools in commuicating with a large audience in a short time. Through the study of this course I plan to keep writing bolgs regularly as my another hobby.

NCT week1 notes from the lecture

No man is an island. We all live in societies and that is why communication became so important. In ancient times, great speakers like Aristotle, delivered speeches to the audience to communicate his ideas. The weakness is that only a small group of people can receive the message and benefit from it. However, nowadays anything people write on their blogs can be viewed by almost everyone around the globe using the internet. What made it happen is the development of technologies.

Accoding to Shannon-Weaver mathematical model, messages sent by the speaker can be transmitted through different medium to the receiver which will then be converted into an effect that is heard by the listeners. For example, when we are using a mobile phone, human sound (analog data) with be converted into digital signals which will be sent out. The other phone picks up the signals and then transmmited into analog sound again. The mobile phones works as transmmtors and receivers at the same time.


Aknowlegments
Professor Stephen Stockwell
July 27，11   Lecture notes