The Importance of Women Soldiers in the Civil War Essay -- women involv

Women have been fighting in wars since the late eighteen-hundreds even though until around WWI they were not permitted to serve. Originally women involved in battle had few jobs such as becoming nurses, spies, etc. while the men fought for days on end. What would happen if the two worlds collided? Women would cross-dress to fight alongside the men. This was common along the war front as women wanted to accompany their husbands or other family in battle, and some wanted to be patriotic and serve for their country. These women put their lives on the line and played the part of a comrade in war, and people believed them until they were discovered and sometimes sent back home. Although women had small roles as nurses, those who took on the important role of secretly becoming soldiers in battle ultimately changed women’s roles in society. The decision to cross-dress wasn’t very easy for many women who joined the army, however for some they felt it was absolutely necessary. As a child, Sara Emma Edmonds received a book about a woman who dressed as a male pirate in the American Revolution. Soon Edmonds had found a hero in this character and later stated in her memoirs that â€Å"when [she] read where ‘Fanny’ cut off her brown hair and donned the blue jacket and stepped into the freedom and glorious independence of masculinity, [she] threw up [her] old straw hat and shouted.†(Tsui 7). She had been inspired from an early age and escaped to masculinity when she was fifteen with the help of her mother. From there she joined the Union army as Franklin Thompson and fought as she had intended. Another factor that influenced women and their decision to join the army was their husbands or other male family members. Loreta Janeta Valazquez succumbed to... ...Civil War. Guilford, CT: TwoDot, 2003. 23-35. Print. Tsui, Bonnie. "Sarah Emma Edmonds." She Went to the Field: Women Soldiers of the Civil War. Guilford, CT: TwoDot, 2003. 7-22. Print. "Women's Changing Roles during the Civil War." The Herald-Mail. N.p., 16 Sept. 2002. Web. 06 Mar. 2014. Wakeman, Sarah Rosetta. "July, 1863-December, 1863." An Uncommon Soldier: The Civil War Letters of Sarah Rosetta Wakeman, Alias Private Lyons Wakeman, 153rd Regiment, New York State Volunteers. Ed. Lauren M. Cook. Pasadena, MD: Minerva Center, 1994. 41-42. Print. Blanton, DeAnne, and Lauren M. Cook. "Means and Motivations." They Fought like Demons: Women Soldiers in the American Civil War. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 2002. 27-30. Print. "GENERAL SAMANTHA LEE A Tiger's Heart." General Samantha Lee. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Mar. 2014. .

Face Recognition Technology Essay

Facial recognition technology refers to a computer driven application that automatically identifies an individual from his or her digital image by a comparison of particular facial features in a facial database and in a live image (Vacca, 2007: 95).   The technology creates a template of people’s facial configurations, such as the lengths of their noses, and the angles of their jaws.   It thereby functions like the other biometric technologies (e.g. iris scanning) that use biological features for the purposes of recognition. According to Visionics, a manufacturer of face recognition technology, the technology is capable of finding human faces â€Å"anywhere in the field of view and at any distance, and it can continuously track them and crop them out of the scene, matching the face against a watch list (Kautzer, 2002).† Undoubtedly, these features of face recognition technology make it an attractive option for law enforcement agencies – always trying to catch criminals and keep an eye on suspects.   But, is there more to face recognition technology than meets the eye? Description and Uses of Facial Recognition Technology It is natural brain technology that allows humans to recognize fellow human beings.   According to Bruce & Young (1986) there are â€Å"face recognition units† in the brains of human beings (361).   Face recognition involves matching â€Å"the products of structural encoding,† that is, facial features that are spotted by the eye with â€Å"previously stored structural codes (Bruce & Young: 361).†Ã‚   Vacca writes that there are three areas of the face that are â€Å"primary targets† in face recognition because they do not typically change (95). These parts of the face include upper sections of a person’s eye sockets, the part of the face surrounding one’s cheekbones, and the sides of the human mouth.   Regardless of whether the human brain also considers these parts of the face most crucial to facial recognition, Vacca explains three different techniques used in man-made face recognition technology, namely, eigenface systems, eigenfeature systems, and thermal imaging.   Eigenface image systems capture facial images and change them to â€Å"light and dark areas (Vacca: 95).† In eigenfeature systems, certain features of the face, for example, the eyes and the mouth, are picked out and distances are measured between these features.   Thermal imaging systems, on the other hand, take thermal images of the human face, focusing on the pattern of blood vessels (Vacca). Even though iris scanning and other kinds of biometric technologies are known to be far more accurate than face recognition technology, it is believed that the latter would be more widely accepted because it is least intrusive.   This technology does not require users to push, click, or insert anything into the system, despite the fact that it takes many experts to create eigenface, eigenfeature or thermal imaging systems.   Moreover, companies using the face recognition technology do not require the installation of anything except a new software application. The cameras already in place as well as pictures of their employees on file are enough for companies that use this technology.   Hence, face recognition technology is cheaper for organizations than iris scanning, for instance, which requires reading setups.   According to Frances Zelazney, who works as the director of corporate communication at Visionics – a leading developer of biometrics – yet another advantage of facial recognition technology as compared to other biometric technologies is that â€Å"facial recognition provides for inherent human backup because we naturally recognize one another†¦ If the system goes down, someone can pull out an ID with a picture as backup, something you can’t do with fingerprint devices (Rutherford, 2001).† Unsurprisingly, facial recognition technology is known as the fastest growing biometric technology in our day.   Law enforcement agencies and the military have been successfully using the technology for many years without the public being aware of it.   In the year 1988, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (Lakewood Division) began using composite sketches of suspects, as well as video images, in order to conduct searches on a database of digital facial shots. The department also has a photo database of sex offenders and plans to find suspects on this database.   Then there is the Gang Reporting Evaluation Tracking system that can be searched with the use of photos of suspects in order for law enforcement to circumvent false identification cards as well as information that has been presented by gang members (Jarvis). Other applications of face recognition technology in the area of criminal investigation include the Integrated Law Enforcement Face-Identification System which incorporates a unique three dimensional composite technology to identify angled-view face shots more easily.   The system is meant to be very helpful in the correct identification of uncooperative suspects in addition to subjects that have been caught from a distance using video surveillance cameras. Furthermore, Britain is known to use at least two hundred thousand video cameras for surveillance.   Many of these cameras are being installed with the facial recognition technology today.   Typically these systems use computers to monitor cameras that are looking for recognized criminals.   As soon as the system is seen to identify a known criminal, the police are called (Jarvis). There are numerous United States embassies around the world that are already using the face recognition technology to keep criminals from entering the country.   The Israel-Palestine border control is similarly using the technology to reduce crime across the border (Jarvis). IQ Biometrix, established in 2001, was a company providing help to thousands of law enforcement agencies around the world with the FACES â„ ¢, a groundbreaking software tool allowing users to create and recreate billions of face shots, as well as encode, catalogue and transmit them.   The technology incorporated a facial composite tool that the FBI and the CIA also used.   The United States Department of Defense, the U.S. Navy, and various local as well as state police agencies had similarly opted for this groundbreaking system of facial recognition (â€Å"IQ Biometrix,† 2004). Given the importance of putting a name to a face in law enforcement, whether it is to solve crimes, protect the public, or to ensure security in jails, face recognition technology is proving itself to be of tremendous value.   Sheriff Everett Rice with the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office in Florida employs the Viisage face recognition technology to â€Å"positively identify and verify individuals (â€Å"Facial Recognition in Action,† 2007).†Ã‚   Some of these individuals have been recently arrested while others are about to be released.   The face recognition technology is also of use with people that visit the courthouse.   So far, application of the technology has been successful, and users of the technology believe that it would have a greater impact on crime control in the years to come (â€Å"Facial Recognition in Action†).   The following is a detailed account of the case being considered: Over time, the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office, like other law enforcement agencies, found itself faced with cumbersome booking, release and criminal investigation processes.   A prominent problem was a lack of timely information, which often allowed suspects to get away with providing false identification, hampering law enforcement or sidetracking investigations.   However the sheriff’s office found facial recognition to be an invaluable tool in providing quick and accurate identity information.   Facial recognition technology has allowed the sheriff’s office to quickly access important identity information and retrieve records, thus allowing officers to correctly identify even uncooperative suspects and to conduct more efficient investigations. In 2000, the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office received a grant from the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) at the U.S. Department of Justice.   The goal of the funding was to demonstrate the use of facial recognition technology for Florida law enforcement. Under the leadership of Lt. James Main acting as project director, the sheriff’s office decided to look beyond the traditional investigative uses of face recognition and to focus on how the quick, non-intrusive technology could be used to enhance operations at the jail. By initially focusing on the booking facility where mugshot images are collected, Main believed he could create processing efficiencies by using the existing images to build a facial recognition database.   The database would then serve as the foundation for identity solutions within Pinellas County, and throughout the state (â€Å"Facial Recognition in Action†). Application of face recognition technology by the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office is a model for other agencies involved in criminal investigation.   The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office has applied the new technology in other ways as well.   As an example, the Sheriff’s Office has expanded use of the technology to its patrol cars to allow street deputies to identify those individuals that have been stopped and are unable to produce identification.   There are workstations in the Pinellas Country where investigators may use face recognition technology to compare images that have been acquired in investigations. This system allows for search of at least two million images within ten seconds.   What is more, this browser based system is available in the cars of deputies that patrol the streets of the Pinellas County (â€Å"Facial Recognition in Action†).   Report on the use of face recognition technology for law enforcement in the Pinellas County continues thus: As envisioned by the Department of Justice grant, the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office has partnered with other state and local agencies in Florida to maximize the effectiveness of the system.   Agencies participating in the project include the Florida Department of Corrections, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), seven Florida Regional Terrorism Task Forces, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office and Miami-Dade, Broward, Leon and Duval counties.

Was Abraham Lincoln Really a Wrestler

Abraham Lincoln is revered for his political skills and his abilities as a writer and public speaker. Yet he also was respected for physical feats, such as his early skill wielding an ax. And when he began to rise in politics in the late 1850s, stories circulated that Lincoln had been a very capable wrestler in his youth. Following his death, the wrestling stories continued to circulate. Whats the truth? Was Abraham Lincoln really a wrestler? The answer is yes.   Lincoln was known for being a very good wrestler in his youth in New Salem, Illinois. And that reputation was brought up  by political supporters and even one notable  opponent. And a particular wrestling match against a local bully in a small Illinois settlement became a beloved part of Lincoln lore. Of course, Lincolns wrestling exploits were nothing like the flamboyant professional wrestling we know  today. And it wasnt  even like the organized athletics of high school or college wrestling. Lincolns  grappling amounted to frontier feats of strength witnessed by a handful of townspeople. But his wrestling skills still became the stuff of political legend. Lincolns Wrestling Past Surfaced In Politics In the 19th century, it was important for a politician to demonstrate bravery and vitality, and that naturally applied to Abraham Lincoln. Political campaign mentions of Lincoln as a capable wrestler first seem to have surfaced during the 1858 debates  that were part of the campaign for a U.S. Senate seat in Illinois. Surprisingly, it was Lincolns perennial opponent, Stephen Douglas, who brought it up. Douglas, at the first Lincoln-Douglas Debate in Ottawa, Illinois on August 21, 1858, referred to Lincolns longstanding reputation as a wrestler in what the New York Times called an amusing passage. Douglas mentioned having known Lincoln for decades, adding, He could beat any of the boys at wrestling. Only after dispensing such lighthearted praise did Douglas get around to savaging Lincoln, labeling him an Abolitionist Black Republican. Lincoln lost that election, but two years later, when he had been nominated as the young Republican Partys candidate for president, the wrestling mentions came up again. During the 1860 presidential campaign, some newspapers reprinted the comments Douglas had made about Lincolns wrestling skill. And the reputation as an athletic lad who had engaged in wrestling was spread by Lincoln supporters. John Locke Scripps, a Chicago newspaperman, wrote a campaign biography of Lincoln which was quickly published as a book for distribution during the 1860 campaign. It is believed Lincoln reviewed the manuscript and made corrections and deletions, and he apparently approved of the following passage: It is scarcely necessary to add that he also greatly excelled in all those homely feats of strength, agility, and endurance  practiced by frontier people in his sphere of life. In wrestling, jumping, running, throwing the maul and pitching the crow-bar, he always stood first among those of his own age. The campaign stories of 1860 planted a seed. After his death, the legend of Lincoln as a great wrestler took hold, and the story of a particular wrestling match held decades earlier became a standard part of the Lincoln legend. Challenged to Wrestle the Local Bully The story behind the legendary wrestling match is that Lincoln, while in his early 20s, had settled in the frontier village of New Salem, Illinois. He worked in a general store, though he was mostly concentrating on reading and educating himself. Lincolns employer, a storekeeper named Denton Offutt, would boast about the strength of Lincoln, who stood six feet four inches tall. As a result of Offutts boasting, Lincoln was challenged to fight Jack Armstrong, a local bully who was the leader of a group of mischief makers known as the Clarys Grove Boys. Armstrong and his friends were known for mean-spirited pranks, such as forcing new arrivals in the community into a barrel, nailing the lid on, and rolling the barrel down a hill. The Match With Jack Armstrong A resident of New Salem, recalling the event decades later, said the townspeople tried to get Lincoln to tussle and scuffle with Armstrong. Lincoln at first refused, but finally agreed to a wrestling match that would start off with side holds. The object was to throw the other man. A crowd gathered in front of Offuts store, with the locals wagering on the outcome. After the obligatory handshake, the two young men struggled against each other for a time, neither one being able to find an advantage. Finally, according to a version of the story repeated in countless Lincoln biographies, Armstrong tried to foul Lincoln by tripping him. Enraged by the dirty tactics, Lincoln grabbed Armstrong by the neck and, extending his long arms, shook him like a rag. When it appeared Lincoln would win the match, Armstrongs cohorts in the Clarys Grove Boys began to approach. Lincoln, according to one version of the story, stood with his back to the wall of the general store and announced that he would fight each man individually, but not all of them at once. Jack Armstrong brought an end to the affair, declaring that Lincoln had bested him fairly and was the best feller that ever broke into this settlement. The two opponents shook hands  and were friends from that point onward. Wrestling  Became Part of the Lincoln Legend In the years following Lincolns assassination, William Herndon, Lincolns former law partner in Springfield, Illinois, devoted a lot of time to preserving Lincolns legacy. Herndon corresponded with a number of people who claimed to have witnessed the wrestling match in front of Offutts store in New Salem. The eyewitness accounts tended to be contradictory, and there are several variations of the story. The general outline, however, is always the same: Lincoln was a reluctant participant goaded into the wrestling matchHe faced an opponent who tried to cheatAnd he stood up to a gang of bullies. And those elements of the story became part of American folklore.