Invasion Of The Zebra Mussels Essays - Dreissenidae,

Invasion Of The Zebra Mussels Invasion of the Zebra Mussels There has been an incursion into the sovereign territory of the United States of America. The Zebra mussel, an animal much akin to the clam, has colonized nearly every hard surface in the Great Lakes area, and many rivers and streams attached to them. These invaders arrived on ships from England, pumped out through the ballast. Zebra mussels are from a different environment (England), thus they are classified as an exotic species. These pesky animals threaten the entire Great Lakes ecosystem. The invasion has created many problems for the local ecosystem. First of all, Zebra mussels take the food for which native species already compete. Each mussel consumes about a liter of different types of plankton. Small fish lose their food, and their numbers dwindle. Big fish no longer have small fish to eat, and the entire food chain is disrupted. Now that the natives don't have enough food to go around, mortality rates are going up and they are starting to die out. Another problem they've created is clogging on industrial units. They reproduce en mass and attach themselves to anything they find, including docks, boat ramps, and waste pipes. All the industries in the area now have to worry about scraping these mini-invaders off. Yet another problem they've created is contaminated drinking water. The intake pipes in Lake Michigan and elsewhere are covered with mussels. Without being removed, they contaminate water and move on to clog up city pipes. Still another problem is their co lonization of rock reefs. With the mussels being several inches deep in places, their waste is poisoning the area and fish that would normally lay their eggs there must look elsewhere for nesting areas. Now natality is down and mortality is up. A final problem they cause is damage to property. By latching onto boats and other floating objects, they can and will damage them. They cause innumerable problems, so now the question has become one of prevention and removal. Several methods are being used to attempt to prevent the mussels from establishing themselves, and to try to reverse the problem. One method being tried is protective coatings on surfaces, such as paints containing TBT or copper have been tried. The problem with this is the paints often erode aluminum and other materials, and some are even illegal. Another method is heat. Zebra mussels are extremely sensitive to heat. They have a 100% mortality rate after 5 hours at 90?, or after only 15 minutes at 104?. The problem with this method is simply the fact that it is hard to apply. A final approach that has been tried is the application of chlorine. The chlorine works well in wells and bilges, but cannot be applied to lakes or streams due to its nature of being toxic to living things. The mussel's history in England is no help, for they have native predators there, diving ducks for example, that help control them. Populations of ducks like these European ducks in the Great Lakes are small , so our situation is quite different from theirs. Some method must be developed to combat these invaders; they are out competing all the native species. They are such a good competitor in the Great Lakes community because they have no natural predators. Nothing eats them! Combined with the fact that they can exist nearly anywhere, this lets them breed and breed and not worry about anything other than breeding and eating, while local populations must concern themselves with escaping predators, finding food, finding shelter, and many other bothers simply to survive. Overall, the Zebra mussels are bad for the Great Lakes biological community. Countless ill effects have been listed, and a single benefit has yet to be listed. They impact everything in the food chain with their negative effects. They eat the bottom of the local food chain, and the top has nothing to eat. They coat everything conceivable. They take up habitats, forcing local populations to look for new territories. Unless this incursion is fought back, the Zebra mussel may well be the cause of the destruction of large sections of the local ecosystem. Nothing nature has produced has the capability to

Summarize Ibn Khaldun Essays - Sunni Islam, Madhhab, Mujaddid

Summarize Ibn Khaldun Essays - Sunni Islam, Madhhab, Mujaddid Alexandra Tolhurst Ibn Khalduns narrative on the history of Islamic law is one that paints the history as almost an intricate depiction of natural selection: one that started with many schools and religious scholars, but with passing time, rising dynasties and caliphs, and majority opinions, was reduced to four main schools of legal thought. Before we reach this reduction in the history, we first must talk about the rise of jurisprudence and the main ideas behind Islamic law. The beginning of Islamic law can be traced to the Koran and the Sunna, which is where the laws of Islam are derived from. The original laws are derived from texts written in Arabic, which becomes important in the more recent history of Islamic law when many less scholars know Arabic. While the Koran cannot be disputed, the traditions, or Sunna, vary widely because of the reliability of the transmitters, but originally, the only differences in opinion that occurred in Muslim society were due to the need to know exactly what to reference in new cases that Muhammad himself was not there to give an answer for. This is what gave birth to the first jurists (though they were called readers at first) and marked the real beginning of Islamic law. Men who were deeply versed in the Koran and its ambiguity were the first to give legal decisions since they had learned from Muhammad himself or from His companions, which deemed them worthy. They were the ones called readers, who were by technical t erms the first jurists, and were rare by the fact that they were literate. Each playing a role in the rise of the schools of legal thought were the differences in opinion between the first religious scholars, the first ideas of the jurists, and mainly the rise of cities and literacy. With the rise of jurists and religious scholars came the add-on of the two less accepted approaches to jurisprudence: the use of opinion and analogy, highly used by the Iraqis, and the use of traditions, highly used by Hijazis. The first schools to form were the Iraqis, centered around Abu Hanifah; Hijazis, centered around Malik; Zahirites, centered around Dawud; and the Alids and Kharijites. Of these, the Hijazis and Malik was most followed, as Malik was a distinguished scholar in the religious law world at the time because he thought the practice of the Medinese was evidence for law, therefore he added a source of law. Following Malik, ShafiI founded another school combining Hijazi and Iraqi schools of thought, who was then followed by Hanbal, then by Hanifah. Eventually, all schools that didnt represent the use of opinion and analogy or tradition were abandoned, leaving the four main schools of legal thought recognized in the Muslim world: Hanbals school, Hanifahs school, ShafiIs school, and Maliks school. Hanbals school of legal thought is mostly concentrated in Syria after a clash with Shii in Baghdad, and is known for the knowledge of the Sunna and the traditions. Hanifahs school is wide-spread through India, China, and non-Arab countries. Maliks school was prominent in Egypt until the ShiI dynasty brought the return of a more orthodox law to Egypt, which eventually brought ShafiIs school to be the dominating school in Egypt, which is where most of the followers of the school are. After the fall of the Malikites in Egypt, the school was narrowly restricted to Maghribis and Spaniards, where their paths would not cross with ShafiIs or Iraqis. While silently flourishing in these areas, Maliks school developed three separate schools within, one of which (Iraqi) was previously followed in Egypt, but later on, the three schools merged. Its important to recognize that the science of jurisprudence, especially the need for it, is a relatively new concept and is very important in religious law. The need wasnt apparent until multiple generations after Muhammad when there was no longer a clear way to decide which transmitters of tradition were reliable, which was necessary to derive laws from evidence. The first scholar to write on this was Shafii. After ShafiI, Hanafite jurists wrote works to verify rules and perfect the technique of jurisprudence. The differences in the opinions of the four schools led to the first debates.

How to Read and Convert Dates in Old Documents

How to Read and Convert Dates in Old Documents Dates are a very important part of historical and genealogical research, but they also arent always as they appear. For most of us, the Gregorian calendar in common use today is all we encounter in modern records. Eventually, however, as we work back in time, or delve into religious or ethnic records, it is common to encounter other calendars and dates with which we arent familiar. These calendars can complicate the recording of dates in our family tree, unless we can accurately convert and record the calendar dates into a standard format, so that there is no further confusion. Julian vs. Gregorian Calendar The calendar in common use today, known as the Gregorian calendar, was created in 1582 to replace the previously used Julian calendar. The Julian calendar, established in 46 B.C. by Julius Caesar, had twelve months, with three years of 365 days, followed by a fourth year of 366 days. Even with the extra day added every fourth year, the Julian calendar was still slightly longer than the solar year (by about eleven minutes per year), so by the time the year 1500 rolled around, the calendar was ten days out of sync with the sun. To remedy the deficiencies in the Julian calendar, Pope Gregory XIII replaced the Julian calendar with the Gregorian calendar (named after himself) in 1582. The new Gregorian calendar dropped ten days from the month of October for the first year only, to get back in sync with the solar cycle. It also retained the leap year every four years, except century years not divisible by 400 (to keep the accumulation problem from recurring). Of primary importance to genealogists, is that the Gregorian calendar was not adopted by many protestant countries until much later than 1592 (meaning they also had to drop a varying number of days to get back in sync). Great Britain and her colonies adopted the Gregorian, or new style calendar in 1752. Some countries, such as China, did not adopt the calendar until the 1900s. For each country in which we research, it is important to know on what date the Gregorian calendar came into effect. The distinction between the Julian and Gregorian calendar becomes important for genealogists in cases where a person was born while the Julian calendar was in effect and died after the Gregorian calendar was adopted. In such cases it is very important to record dates exactly as you found them, or to make a note when a date has been adjusted for the change in calendar. Some people choose to indicate both dates - known as old style and new style. Double Dating Before the adoption of the Gregorian calendar, most countries celebrated the new year on March 25th (the date known as the Annunciation of Mary). The Gregorian calendar changed this date to January 1st (a date associated with the Circumcision of Christ). Because of this change in the start of the new year, some early records used a special dating technique, known as double dating, to mark dates which fell between January 1 and March 25. A date such as 12 Feb 1746/7 would indicate the end of 1746 (Jan 1 – March 24) in the old style and the early part of 1747 in the new style. Genealogists generally record these double dates exactly as found to avoid possible misinterpretation.   Next Special Dates Archaic Date Terms Julian vs. Gregorian Calendars Feast Days Other Special Dating Terms Archaic terms are common in older records, and dates dont escape this usage. The term instant, for example, (e.g. in the 8th instant refers to the 8th of this month). A corresponding term, ultimo, refers to the previous month (e.g. the 16th ultimo means the 16th of last month). Examples of other archaic usage you may encounter include Tuesday last, referring to the most recent Tuesday, and Thursday next, meaning the next Thursday to occur. Quaker-Style Dates Quakers typically did not use the names of the months or days of the week because most of these names were derived from pagan gods (e.g. Thursday came from â€Å"Thor’s Day†). Instead, they recorded dates using numbers to describe the day of the week and month of the year: [blockquote shadeno]7th da 3rd mo 1733 Converting these dates can be especially tricky because the Gregorian calendar change must be taken into account. The first month in 1751, for example, was March, while the first month in 1753 was January. When in doubt, always transcribe the date exactly as written in the original document. Other Calendars to Consider When researching in France, or in countries under French control, between 1793 and 1805, youll probably encounter some strange looking dates, with funny-sounding months and references to the year of the Republic. These dates reference the French Republican Calendar, also commonly referred to as the French Revolutionary calendar. There are many charts and tools available to help you convert those dates back into standard Gregorian dates. Other calendars you may encounter in your research include the Hebrew calendar, the Islamic calendar and the Chinese calendar. Date Recording for Accurate Family Histories Different parts of the world record dates differently. Most countries write out a date as month-day-year, while in the United States the day is commonly written before the month. This makes little difference when the dates are written out, as in the above examples, but when you run across a date written 7/12/1969 it is hard to know whether it refers to July 12th or December 7th. To avoid confusion in family histories, it is standard convention to use the day-month-year format (23 July 1815) for all genealogical data, with the year written out in full to avoid confusion about which century it refers to (1815, 1915 or 2015?). Months are generally written out in full, or using standard three-letter abbreviations. When in doubt about a date, it is generally best to record it exactly as written in the original source and include any interpretation in square brackets.

Obama and Romney 2012 campaigns Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Obama and Romney 2012 campaigns - Assignment Example The author states that using social media to gain attention of the general public is similar to knocking at the doors of the voters. He states that a speech that President Obama conducted in the region of Romnesia was well advertised on social media outlets including Twitter and Facebook and due to this the video of the speech was able to gain more than 0.5 million views. Furthermore, the author states that mostly after the end of the elections those who are with the losing side end up losing their appearance in the eyes of the public. But social media has helped such individuals including Richard Grenell remain relevant even after the elections. The third lesson that the author learned through the Presidential social media campaigns of 2012 was that on the internet political news regarding events and other political stories spread at a very fast pace and people are thirsty to talk politics over the internet. Furthermore, social media marketing has even benefited the candidates of third party. This is because even after the elections the candidate of the Libertarian party can continue to gain attention of the general public and remain engaged with them. The fifth point that the author noted is that it is very difficult to measure which of the political party or the candidate has an upper hand in social media at the time of the campaign. The author states that various metrics used to measure victory on social media have failed. For example, if the number of followers is taken into account to measure victory then the individual making the analysis misses the sentiments and other factors involved. Another important point to note is that social media has the ability to spread any mistakes made by the candidate during the campaign at a very fast pace. These mistakes are highlighted in quite a sarcastic manner. The seventh learning outcome of the campaigns was that the use of GIF images during debates that were used by

Gun Control Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Gun Control - Essay Example He went past the crowd, straight to the senator’s table and he shot her point blanc in the head before anyone could comprehend the situation. After Giffords was shot, Loghner continued with the violence and opened fire at the people present. In the next 15 seconds, six people were kiled while thirteen lay wounded. The killing spree stopped only when Loughner stopped to re-load his weapon and some brave bystanders overpowered him and kept him pinned to the ground till the police arrived. This is the latest incidence in gun-related violence that has revived the gun control debate in the United States (Huffington Post 2011; Doeden 2012). Gun control has been a debatable issue in the United States of America and has sparked many controversies with many people upholding the significance of stricter gun control laws whereas others advocate the permission to lenient gun laws. Loughner had been in trouble with the law many times in the past. He was a troubled student and many of his f riends and neighbours described him as mentally unstable. How is it that despite a criminial backgorund and dubious mental health was he able to legally obtain a firearm? Gun control is a complex issue in the United States. Incidences like this have taken place in the United States either in schools, in homes and on the street. ... Everyone is of the opinion that when wrong people get hold of guns, tragedies happen. Those in favor of gun control say that more guns mean more gun-related deaths. The best way to stop gun violence is to make it more difficult for people to get guns in the first place. Those in favor of gun rights have a simple counter argument- â€Å"guns don’t kill people, people kill people†. They argue that people need to more educated and then allowed to keep and use their guns. The real question here is how to identify those who are dependable enough to use their guns responsibly from those who may end up being dangerous with guns? (Doeden 2012). When President Regan was shot in 1981, the bullet landed in his lung and he recovered from it soon. However, his press secretary Jim Brady was not so lucky and a bullet ended up in his head paralyzing him for life. (Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence: Jim Brady). The shooter was John Hinkley Jr. who had bought the revolver used for s hooting at a pawnshop in Dallas, Texas using false information. After the shooting of her husband, Jim Brady’s wife Sarah became an active advocate for gun control saying that if Hinkley had been subjected to a background check, his criminal history would have been detected and this tragedy could have been avoided. Sarah Brady became the Chair of the board of Handgun Control Inc. (HCI) and in 1987 introduced the Brady act in U.S. Congress. Once the Brady law was passed HCI was renamed to the Brady Centre for Gun Control and it is still actively working on getting guns off the streets (Brady and McLoughlin 2002). According to information from the Brady Centre, up to 3042 young children and adolescents lose their lives owing to gunfire in the Unites States. This figure

Love at First Sight Essay Example for Free

Love at First Sight Essay Love at first sight is a common trope in Western literature, in which a person, character, or speaker feels romantic attraction for a stranger on the first sight of them. Described by poets and critics from the Greek world on, it has become one of the most powerful tropes in Western fiction. In the classical world, the phenomenon of love at first sight was understood within the context of a more general conception of passionate love, a kind of madness or, as the Greeks put it, theia mania (madness from the gods). [1] This love passion was described through an elaborate metaphoric and mythological psychological schema involving loves arrows or love darts, the source of which was often given as the mythological Eros or Cupid,[2] sometimes by other mythological deities (such as Rumor[3]). At times, the source of the arrows was said to be the image of the beautiful love object itself. If these arrows arrived at the lovers eyes, they would then travel to and pierce his or her heart, overwhelming them with desire and longing (love sickness). The image of the arrows wound was sometimes used to create oxymorons and rhetorical antithesis. Love at first sight was explained as a sudden and immediate beguiling of the lover through the action of these processes, and is illustrated in numerous Greek and Roman works. In Ovids Metamorphoses, Narcissus becomes immediately spellbound and charmed by his own (unbeknownst to him) image. In Achilles Tatiuss Leucippe and Clitophon, the lover Clitophon thus describes his own experience of the phenomenon: As soon as I had seen her, I was lost. For Beautys wound is sharper than any weapons, and it runs through the eyes down to the soul. It is through the eye that loves wound passes, and I now became a prey to a host of emotions[4]Love at first sight was not, however, the only mode of entering into passionate love in classical texts; at times the passion could occur after the initial meeting or could precede the first glimpse. Another classical interpretation of the phenomenon of love at first sight is found in Platos Symposium in Aristophanes description of the separation of primitive double-creatures into modern men and women and their subsequent search for their missing half: when [a lover] is fortunate enough to meet his other half, they are both so intoxicated with affection, with friendship, and with love, that they cannot bear to let each other out of sight for a single instant.[5]

Study Skills Essay -- essays research papers

STUDY SKILL SHOULD BE TAUGHT IN ELMENTARY SCHOOL The reason that most people High School don’t have good study skills is because they were not taught proper study habits in Elementary School, where this should be taught. To achieve good grades in high school a person must be disciplined in their study habits. Once a person reaches high school these habits must be ingrained into the personality of the young person so that they are second nature or it is to late. Part of the Elementary school teaching there must be a course that teaches children as young as grade 1 or 2 how to do homework. This has to include how to break down a project into manageable pieces so that a child will know how to meet deadlines for major projects once they reach middle school and they are expected to hand work in on time without help from the teachers. To achieve this the following lessons must be taught. How to take notes in class. Taking accurate note is a major responsibility for people and without proper notes homework can and is a challenge. Here are a few simple steps to note taking. 1.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Go to class prepared. This means having all the materials that you will need to participate in the class fully. Having pencils sharpened and enough paper to take all the notes that are needed. Nothing will hurt you more than having to stop and find more paper or pencil/pen in the middle of a lecture because once you have found what you are looking for the lecture has moved on and you have lost your concentration, or you have missed some of the points being lectured on. 2.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Avoid distractions. By this I mean - no eating, drinking or talking. You are there to take notes and that should be the only thing you are doing. 3.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Class Discussions. These are often more helpful than the lecture them self. When the class is discussing the subject ask questions and get clear answers because often the teacher is talking so fast that you will miss a point or two in the class discussions will be the time to clarify anything in the lecture that you didn’t understand in the lecture. 4.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Pick out key word phrases. Then the teacher says things like â€Å" the main point is †¦Ã¢â‚¬  or â€Å" to summarize†¦.† These are the main points to write down don’t miss them. Also if something is repeated... ...ld. Write this down and ask the teacher for help organizing your projects. 7.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  ELEMINATE ALL DISTRACTIONS. This means the TV off, No talking on the Phone no Load music, even send your little brother and sister out of the room if they don’t have homework too. 8.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Good health. Part of getting good study skills is to be healthy. Get the proper amount of sleep of your age and eat three good meals a day. The brain works better when it has been fed. 9.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Finally, take breaks from homework when you need to. Stretch, get something to munch on, or have a drink. When you feel yourself getting frustrated this is a sign you need a break. Once you are stuck on a problem for a few minutes take a break for a minute or so and go back to it, this will help you refocus on the problem and give you a better prospective on it. If these simple study skills were taught to young children in elementary school, teachers in high school will have less trouble getting their students to do their homework. I know if I would have been taught how to study maybe my homework would get done and handed in on time.