Biology 2 (plant and society) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Biology 2 (plant and society) - Essay Example Sago palm flowers after 12-15 years and rarely produces fertile seeds. Vegetative propagation takes a long time and involves a lengthy process. Therefore, it is unreliable in meeting the dietary needs of the worlds growing population. Traditional agriculture is seasonal and ensures that sources of starch are planted and harvested all seasons. In this regard, starch requirement can be met by traditional means of agriculture (Wickens, 2001). This does not make the extraction of starch from sago palm an easier alternative to traditional agriculture. Sago palm flourishes in wet conditions. Fresh water swamps are the natural habitat for the plant. In dry conditions, the plant would not do well. Some of the world’s populations live in arid or semi arid conditions. Therefore, if sago palm was to be their primary source of starch, people would experience starch deficiencies. Traditional sources of starch such as sorghum do well in dry conditions. These plants rich in starch but are no t cultivated in such areas could be produced by irrigation and made available through trade (Elevitch, 2006). It would be difficult to argue that producing starch from sago palm is an easy task. The process of obtaining starch is tasking and challenging. Chopping down the plant is dangerous because the plant has thorns that are almost one inch in length. Starch is obtained from the pith. Scraping the plant is an energy consuming task and starch can only be obtained through the use hand- made tools. This makes the task even harder. It is then soaked to separate the starch from the non-starch part of the pith. The Salient parts are then dried and carried using bags. Men only chop down the tree, whereas women process the plant to produce the end product. This raises the question of gender inequality. It would be unfair to let women do difficult chores, yet they are fending for the same families. Traditional agriculture ensured that both men and women participated in the production proc ess of food. The work done did not favor one gender over the other. The amount of energy employed in producing sago starch is intensive. It could be used in other economic activities. Traditional agriculture ensured an even distribution of energy. This ensured that tasks were lighter and time conscious. This ensured that other economic activities did not stall (Elevitch, 2006). The means of cooking the sago starch prove to be also hectic. The starch powder is mixed with water to make a sticky dough It is pushed into a single section of a green bamboo. When the freshly cut green bamboo is almost full it is covered with green leaves. This means off cooking is not friendly to the environment. Needless to say, it involves cutting down of bamboo plants, which is a form of deforestation. Cooked sago starch has no taste hence its palatability comes into question. Majority of the world population would not enjoy this meal. This would prove it inappropriate as a reliable source of starch. Tr aditional agriculture produced meals that are easy to prepare and are palatable (Brown, 2007). Sago palm starch is almost a pure carbohydrate. It contains little traces of proteins, minerals and vitamins. It would not be an ideal source of nutrients. Other sources of starch also supply human beings with other nutritional value. For example, maize contains proteins, fatty acids, minerals, vitamins and dietary fiber. It makes up

Teacher and Confucius Essay Example for Free

Teacher and Confucius Essay What kind of person was Confucius in everyday life? Focus on the following: his clothing and diet, his possessions, his pastimes, the company he kept, and anything else that is relevant. In everyday life Confucius was a relaxed and cheerful man who was constantly in search of new knowledge. He studied the Chinese Classics mainly focusing on the Books of Odes, History and Rites. In his spare time, however, he liked to relax in his manor. He was very picky with the people he chose to keep around. They had to love strategy and the possible success you could get from it. He taught culture, conduct, conscientiousness and good faith and was also picky about who he let in to his school. They had to be modest and willing to listen because he didn’t repeat lessons. He loved music. He would sing in the company of those who were singing. When passing through Ch’I he heard their music and said, â€Å"I did not imagine that music had reached such perfection. † (Confucius 35). This having been said he also traveled with his students and neglected his family duty. Once when his son saw him in passing and Confucius asked him if he had â€Å"Studied the Odes? † (Confucius 102) His son said no so Confucius told him that he would have nothing to use in conversation. So his son left determined to study the book of Odes. On a different day his son saw him again and a similar thing happened only this time Confucius asked about the Rules of Ceremony. The result was exactly the same as the first time. This goes to prove that those who can teach don’t always put their own teachings in to practice. Why is Volume One, Book Two entitled â€Å"Concerning Government† but barely mentions government? Hint: the contents of Book Seven may assist you in answering this question. You can’t teach someone how to run a government but you can teach them how to be a better person in hope that they will be able to better govern the country. One must correct themselves before they try to correct others. This is exactly why Volume One, Book Two says little about government and a lot on how to be a better person. Confucius said â€Å"If a man put himself aright, what difficulty will he have in the public service; but if he cannot put himself aright, how is he going to put others right? † (Confucius 75) This saying is basically saying one must correct themself first and others later, but if one can’t correct themself then they have no right to attempt at correcting others. In some senses Confucius was a very straight forward man and in others he was just plain confusing. This was one of the areas that he was straight forward with his teaching. It was very important to him that one knew how to act. Despite his reputation as a charismatic teacher, Confucius makes no claim to originality—in fact, it is hard to discern exactly what his teachings are. Why is this the case? He himself did not claim to be a teacher at all. It was his disciples who made him so. He had people who followed him and listened to what he said and this was enough to make him a teacher, whether what he was saying was original or not made no difference. What mattered was that he had a group of students who were willing to listen to what he said and put it into practice. His teachings, however, were hard to understand. This was because he didn’t want just anyone to be able to follow and understand what he was saying. They had to be smart and make an effort to understand. This was also because sometimes he just spoke in riddles and didn’t give a simple answer. When he did this it would seem that what he was saying was completely unrelated to the question asked, but in some roundabout way it was actually the answer to the question all along. His students just had to think it over a lot before they understood. Confucius himself had no desire to be a teacher but because so many people liked his teachings, it just sort of happened that way. What contrasts does Confucius present with the religious figures of ancient Egypt, India, Mesopotamia, China, etc.? Does he strike you as a particularly â€Å"religious† figure? Why or why not? In contrast to the religions of the ancient world Confucianism is more about teaching someone how to live justly. Confucius teaches his students to respect their family and honor their ancestors not about the gods and the afterlife; this is probably the biggest difference. He teaches about what it means to live in this life and how one should go about doing so. In the religions of ancient Egypt, India and Mesopotamia there has always been a priest like figure who would perform religious and sacrificial ceremonies. This figure also had the task of letting everyone know about their religion and how to follow it properly. Sometimes these religious leaders were the head of their country/city/empire and if they weren’t, the leaders had almost always practiced the same or a very similar religion. Confucius was neither the king nor a particularly important person in society (or at least that’s what I gathered from the Confucius Analects). He was just an ordinary man who just so happened to know what he was talking about and how to teach others how to properly live their lives. One could do this by honoring their ancestors and by living a virtuous life. In these other religions, however, there has always been some form of afterlife, be it cheerful or gloomy, and most of these ancient civilizations buried their dead (especially those who were important) with luxury items for them to take to the afterlife. Confucius never taught about the afterlife though. Once a student of his asked about death and Confucius replied, â€Å"Not yet understanding life, how can you understand death? ’ (Confucius 61). Confucius does not seem like a religious figure at all. In fact, there is some debate about whether or not Confucianism can actually be considered a religion. What Confucius taught was how to live a moral life as a human being. He taught that one should study the Chinese Classics and follow a few basic rules of life. This is why he does not seem like a religious figure or to have been a religious man.

Irish Emigration to New York City Essay examples -- American History

Irish Emigration to New York City The Potato Famine - How, Why, and When the Famine Started Many historians equate the Irish immigration to America with the potato famine of the 1840s, but is is clear that a considerable number of Irish had made their way to Great Britain’s colonies on the North American mainland before 1800. For example, many Irish families came and settled the colonies in the early 1600s. Harbors and towns were named after settlers. Some of these settlers even became Royal governors; one example is Sir Thomas Dongan, who became governor of the colony of New York in 1682. Some other examples of early settlers: in 1670, Charleston, South Carolina was settled by Irish and English emigrants. Sullivan's Island in the Charleston Harbor was named after Captain Florence O'Sullivan who had commanded one of the settler's ships. In 1683, Salem County, New Jersey was settled by Irish immigrants from Tipperary. In 1710, the Blue Ridge region of Virginia was settled by three families from the north of Ireland. In 1762, the house of John Marshall at Moun t Pleasant, near King's College (later Columbia) was the site of the first recorded celebration of St. Patrick's Day in New York City. In 1768, the Wesley Chapel in New York City was established by Irish Methodists. This was the first Methodist Church in America. At the beginning of the 19th century, agriculture was Ireland’s dominant industry. The English prohibited the Irish from practicing their Catholic faith. The English stripped a number of wealthy Catholics of their wealth, their positions, and their homes, which left them paupers. Moreover, no Irish Catholic was allowed to own land, vote, hold office, receive an education, own a gun, or eve... ... Social Experience in the American City, 1760-1900. New York: Cambridge Press, 1989. Byrne, Stephen. Irish Immigration to the United States. New York: Arno Press, 1969. Ernst, Robert. Immigrant Life in New York City, 1825-1863. New York: King's Crown Press, 1949. Ewen, Elizabeth. Immigrant Women in the Land of Dollars. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1985. Pencak, William, Selma Berrol, and Randall Miller. Immigration to New York. Philadephia: Balch Institute Press, 1991. Potter, George W. To the Golden Door; the Story of the Irish in Ireland and America. Boston: Little, Brown, 1960. Stansell, Christine. City of Women. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1982. [1] Robert Ernst, Immigrant Life in New York City, 1825-1863 (New York: King's Crown Press, 1949) [2] Ernst, Immigrant Life, 59. [3] Ernst, Immigrant Life, 67.

Emotions & Brody Essay

Brody (2001) defines â€Å"emotions as motivational systems with physiological, behavioral, experiential, and cognitive components† (p. 15). The author adds that â€Å"emotions have a positive or negative valence and also vary in intensity or arousal levels, from mild to strong† (p. 15). Emotional expression indicates outward manifestation on an individual’s face, while emotional experience is a state of feeling that only the individual knows it (Brody, 2001). Emotional expression may either play a role as a self-communicative function or may reflect the behavioral and physiological arousal together with the emotional experience (Brody, 2001). Expression of feelings may help an individual to determine the characteristic of an emotional experience (Brody, 2001). Factors that influence facial expression rely on the individual who expresses the emotion, the individual who perceives the emotion, the message expressed in each channel, and previous experience (Ekman & Sullivan, 1991). Facial feedback pertains to patterned proprioceptive feedback coming from the muscle activity in the face or from integrated expressions in the face (Ekman & Sullivan, 1991). According to Ekman and Sullivan (1991), the facial feedback hypothesis is an important determining factor of the experience of emotion. The authors add that the facial feedback hypothesis contends that an individual can utilize information from his or her own facial behavior to figure out what he or she feels. The facial feedback hypothesis also claims that the expression of emotion causes autonomic, hormonal, and behavioral alterations that initiate the experience of the emotion (Brody, 2001). Facial expressions are being utilized by individuals as clues as to what emotions they are experiencing or in making judgments concerning their attitudes (Brody, 2001). A positive facial expression show more positive reactions such as understanding instead of anger, than those individuals who are showing angry facial expressions (Brody, 2001). Emotional experience happens when unforeseen changes in personally significant goals are realized (Stein, Hernandez, & Trabasso, 2008). The situation that surrounds an emotion starts when a precipitating event happens and warns an individual to some type of alterations in a personally significant goal (Stein, Hernandez, & Trabasso, 2008). An emotional episode is defined as a â€Å"sequence of events that includes the precipitating event; appraisals of the change in the status of a goal; the physiological and neurophysiological reactions that occur in relation to the change; the emotional reaction itself; and subsequent appraisal, planning, and behavior sequences carried out to cope with the impact of the goal change† (Stein, Hernandez, & Trabasso, 2008, p. 575). An emotional response of an individual should continue to be expressed or experienced if new meaning is realized from discovering a repeated event in order for the event to be connected to new information not previously accessed (Stein, Hernandez, & Trabasso, 2008). Appraisal theory contends that emotions rely on understanding the adaptational relevance or personal significance of a situation (Parkinson, 2001). Appraisal is influenced by several factors such as perceptual, sensory-motor, and cognitive processes (Parkinson, 2001). Furthermore, appraisal processes are believed to happen between input and output in a cognitive system of an individual (Parkinson, 2001). They are influenced by an ongoing dialogue, in which interpersonally distributed cognition was used to achieve emotional conclusions (Parkinson, 2001). When an individual describes his or her experience based on a given emotion, he or she has a tendency to manifest distinctive patterns of appraisal corresponding to the given emotion (Parkinson, 2001). This means that an individual’s everyday emotional representations are linked with relatively consistent attributes of appraisal profiles (Parkinson, 2001). References Brody, L. (2001). Gender, emotion, and the family. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Ekman, P. & O’Sullivan, M. (1991). Facial expression: Methods, means, and moues. In R. S. Feldman & B. Rime (Eds. ), Fundamentals of nonverbal behavior (pp. 163-199). Cambridge University Press. Parkinson, B. (2001). Putting appraisal in context. In K. R. Scherer, A. Schorr, & T. Johnstone (Eds. ), In Appraisal processes in emotion: Theory, methods, research (pp. 173-186). USA: Oxford University Press. Stein, N. L. , Hernandez, M. W. , & Trabasso, T. (2008). In M. Lewis, J. M. Haviland-Jones, L. F. Barrett (Eds. ), Handbook of emotions (pp. 574-586). United Kingdom: Guilford Press.

Emily Dickinson Essay

Emily Dickinson’s poem â€Å"I like the look of Agony† focuses people’s attention on great suffering and death. I personally find it to be cold and extremely cruel yet naturally truthful. Contrary to what it may seem, liking the look of agony is not a sadistic manner. It artistically implies how people respond to emotional sufferings and heartache. The poem itself shows the dramatic device of literature, which could be one way of showing her uniqueness and weirdness entertaining herself to go beyond the social norm. The author puts the sentence â€Å"I like the look of agony† at the beginning not because she likes looking to people who is in agony but rather, she is just having the intense interest of the way we absorb emotional sufferings, pain and the agony especially when death of a love one occurs. And it is so surprising to the reader to read the first line being so direct with extreme cruelty. Different emotions occurs and may be expressed inappropriately when we come to realize that death is unavoidable. Some people tend to control their emotions and try to have a full power on them. They feel comfortable out of it. It is called defense mechanism. Refer to the second line, which I personally believe that it is the heart of the poem, â€Å"Because I know it’s true. † She must have gotten a lot of untrue looks and hated them because she was a painfully shy and homely woman. We can speculate that the untrue looks are looks of interest or even attraction to her: looks of friendship, admiration and love. She doesn’t trust all those things, only the agony of dying, â€Å"Homely Anguish† -the personification of love. We know that most people often fear death, whereas we should be aware of the fact that everyone of us will come to an end and death is close to us. Suffering does not have to be associated with fear. We have to perceive that death is an event and it’s happening to everyone of us. We just have to stand and be prepared to face it. Agony is somewhat like having a cancer. How an excruciating pain of someone who is suffering from severe cancer feels like. This is the moment were we can be genuinely honest on how we truly feels. We don’t assume or pretend, but just live the moment and don’t even know how to gain control of it. None of us can deceive the physical appearance to go along an agony. In my view, death is something that we have to be prepared. It is unstoppable and beyond anyone’s control. We just have to accept that each one of us is uncertain when coming to an end. Lastly, I agree with what the author has trying to tell us, to be ready to face the last pace of life death. Analyzing this poem of Dickinson is one way of seeing the positive look of agony and death, which is to express the deepest emotions on a highly emotional incident involving the lost of someone.