Thursday, March 19, 2020

Aardvark Fast Facts

Aardvark Fast Facts Aardvarks (Orycteropus afer) are known by several common names including antbears and anteaters; they are native to sub-Saharan Africa. The name aardvark is Afrikaans  (a daughter language of Dutch) for earth pig. Despite these common names, aardvarks are not closely related to bears, pigs, or anteaters. Instead, they occupy their own distinct order: Tubulidentata. Fast Facts: Aardvark Scientific Name: Orycteropus aferCommon Names: Aardvark, antbear, anteater, Cape anteaters, earth pigBasic Animal Group: MammalSize: Up to 6.5 feet long, 2 feet at shoulder heightWeight: 110–175 poundsLifespan: 10 yearsDiet:  CarnivoreHabitat: Sub-saharan AfricaPopulation: Not quantifiedConservation Status: Least Concern Description Aardvarks are medium-sized mammals (weighing 110–175 pounds and up to 6.5 feet long) with a bulky body, arched back, medium-length legs, long ears (resembling those of a donkey), a long snout, and a thick tail. They have a sparse coat of coarse grayish brown fur covering their body. Aardvarks have four toes on their front feet and five toes on their rear feet. Each toe has a flat, sturdy nail that they use for digging burrows and tearing into insect nests in search of food. Aardvarks have very thick skin which provides them protection from insect bites and even the bites of predators. Their teeth lack enamel and, as a result, wear down and must regrow continuously- the teeth are tubular and hexagonal in cross-section. Aardvarks have small eyes and their retina only contains rods (this means they are color-blind). Like many nocturnal animals, aardvarks have a keen sense of smell and very good hearing. Their front claws are especially robust, enabling them to dig burrows and break open termite nests with ease. Their long, serpentine tongue (10–12 inches) is sticky and can gather up ants and termites with great efficiency. The classification of the aardvark was controversial at one time. Aardvarks were formerly classified in the same group as  armadillos, sloths, and anteaters. Today, genetic studies have shown that the aardvark is classified in the order called the Tubulidentata (tube-toothed), and the family Orycteropodidae: They are the only animal in either order or family. Shongololo90/Getty Images   Habitat and Range Aardvarks inhabit a variety of habitats including savannas, shrublands, grasslands, and woodlands. Although they once lived in Europe and Asia, today their range extends throughout most of sub-Saharan Africa, every ecosystem except marshes, deserts, and very rock terrains. Bridgena_Barnard/Getty Images   Diet and Behavior Aardvarks forage at night, covering extensive distances (as much as 6 miles per night) in search of food. To find food, they swing their noses from side to side over the ground, trying to detect their prey by scent. They feed almost exclusively on termites and ants and can consume up to 50,000 insects in a single night. They occasionally supplement their diet by feeding on other insects, plant material or the occasional small mammal. Solitary, nocturnal mammals, aardvarks spend the daylight hours safely tucked away inside their borrows and emerge to feed during the late afternoon or early evening. Aardvarks are extraordinarily fast diggers and can excavate a hole 2 feet deep in less than 30 seconds. The main predators of aardvarks include lions, leopards, and pythons. Aardvarks dig three types of burrows in their ranges: relatively shallow foraging burrows, larger temporary shelters to hide from predators and more complex burrows for permanent residence. They share their permanent residences with other creatures but not other aardvarks. Investigation of the residential burrows has shown that compared to the surrounding soil, soil inside the burrow is cooler (between 4 and 18 degrees F cooler depending on the time of day), and moister. The differences remained the same no matter how old the burrow was, leading researchers to name the aardvark an ecological engineer. Reproduction and Offspring Aardvarks reproduce sexually and form pairs only for a short time during the breeding season. Females give birth to one or rarely two cubs after a gestation period of 7–8 months. In northern Africa, Aardvarks give birth from October to November; in the south, from May and July. The young are born with their eyes open. The mother nurses the young until they are 3 months old when they start eating insects. They become independent of their mothers at six months and venture off to find their own territory. Aardvarks become sexually mature at two to three years of age and have lifespans in the wild of about 18 years. Evolutionary History Aardvarks are considered to be living fossils due to their ancient, highly conserved genetic make-up. Scientists believe that todays aardvarks represent one of the most ancient lineages among the placental mammals (Eutheria). Aardvarks are considered to be a primitive form of hoofed mammal, not because of any obvious similarities but instead due to subtle characteristics of their brain, teeth, and musculature. The closest living relatives to the aardvarks include  elephants, hyraxes,  dugongs, manatees, elephant shrews, golden moles, and tenrecs. Together, these mammals form a group known as the Afrotheria. Conservation Status Aardvarks once existed in Europe and Asia but are now only found in sub-Saharan Africa. Their populations are unknown but they are classified as Least Concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and not listed as threatened at all by the ECOS Environmental Conservation Online System. Major identified threats to the aardvark are habitat loss through agriculture, and human and trapping for bush meat. The skin, claws, and teeth are used to make bracelets, charms and curious and some medicinal purposes.  Ã‚   Sources Buss, Peter E., and Leith C. R. Meyer. Chapter 52: Tubulidentata (Aardvark). Fowlers Zoo and Wild Animal Medicine, Volume 8. Eds. Miller, R. Eric and Murray E. Fowler. St. Louis: W.B. Saunders, 2015. 514–16. Print.Gozdziewska-Harlajczuk, Karolina, Joanna Kleckowska-Nawrot, and Karolina Barszcz. Macroscopic and Microscopic Study of the Tongue of the Aardvark (Orycteropus Afer, Orycteropodidae). Tissue and Cell 54 (2018): 127–38. Print.Haussmann, Natalie S., et al. Ecosystem Engineering through Aardvark (Orycteropus Afer) Burrowing: Mechanisms and Effects. Ecological Engineering 118 (2018): 66–72. Print.Ratzloff, Elizabeth. Orycteropus afer (aardvark). Animal Diversity Web, 2011.  Taylor, W. A., P. A. Lindsey, and J. D. Skinner. The Feeding Ecology of the Aardvark Orycteropus Afer. Journal of Arid Environments 50.1 (2002): 135–52. Print.Taylor, A. and T. Lehmann. Orycteropus afer. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: e.T41504A21286437, 2015.

Monday, March 2, 2020

How Oprah Winfrey Overcame Failure

How Oprah Winfrey Overcame Failure Imagine being born in rural 1950s Mississippi to an impoverished teenage mother. Imagine suffering abuse from the age of 9, then running away from home at 13, only to become pregnant at 14 and lose your first child. Now imagine you’re Oprah. Sound implausible? It’s actually true. Oprah was able to turn the tables on this disastrous upbringing, but it took guts and grit. She moved to Tennessee to live with her father, and began to excel in school. She did well in speech and debate. She even won a state beauty pageant. All while working part-time reading news for a local radio station until she could earn a scholarship to college at Tennessee State.In college, this wounded girl became a powerhouse of a woman. She majored in communications, and landed her first post-graduation job at a Nashville station. That turned into a bigger gig with an ABC affiliate in Baltimore. Soon after that, she was hired as a primetime news co-anchor, an incredible feat considering she was a yo ung, black woman in an era where old, white men made and enforced all the rules.There was a publicity campaign before her debut. The network wanted to broaden their viewership. Suddenly, Oprah Winfrey was thrust into the spotlight with high expectations. She was set up for failure. When the show failed, she was blamed- and not her old, white, male co-host. She was demoted to a writing and reporting gig, but was a slow writer and too caring for the kind of hard-nosed reporting required. (On one notable occasion, she was so moved by the plight of a family who had lost their things in a fire, that she donated some of her blankets and supplies to them, drawing flack from her boss.)Even Oprah herself looks back on these years as a failure. But she did not give up. Instead, she took stock of the situation, realized that, while she loved television, she preferred human interest stories to hard news. And while she loved hosting, she had to have significant chemistry with a co-host to make t hat relationship worthwhile.Eventually, all of this soul-searching paid off. She took a job co-hosting a show called People are Talking with Richard Sher. To anyone else, this would have been considered a step down. But Oprah made lemonade. The show was successful enough to run for five years, after which Oprah was recruited to host a morning talk show in Chicago. That show became a household name. And Oprah became an international sensation.What Oprah had was a unique combination of empathy, determination, and the ability to keep moving forward when all else had fallen apart. Her ability to excel in business while not being business-oriented is a marvel. Moral of the story? Have passion, believe in your dreams, believe in yourself even when no one else does, and keep going when hope is lost. Don’t be afraid to fail.Oprah Winfrey: A Profile in Failure

Saturday, February 15, 2020

Three elements of a poem Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Three elements of a poem - Term Paper Example Aside from the form, another appealing element of the poem is its theme which is about undying love. It aims to show that love goes beyond life. It is an everlasting devotion to one’s loved one. The universal theme of the sonnet is one of the reasons why it has gained literary acclaim. The major figure of speech used in the sonnet is anaphora or the repetition of a word or phrase. This theme is emphasized through the poet’s repetition of â€Å"I love thee† in several lines of the poem. Of the fourteen lines of the poem, the phrase â€Å"I love thee† appears in eight of the lines. The use of anaphora further reinforces the theme of the sonnet. Another figure of speech employed by Browning is the use of alliteration which is the repetition of consonant sounds. Example of these are in line 3, where the words â€Å"soul† and â€Å"sight† are used and in line 8, where the words â€Å"purely† and â€Å"Praise† were utilized. Lines seven and eight indicate the presence of similes, which is, â€Å"I love thee freely; as men strive for Right, I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise† (Clugston, 2010). The form, the theme and the figures of speech that one finds in the sonnet has made one appreciate this poem more. It inspires one to fall in love because of the joy that it brings. The sonnet gives one a yearning to learn to love and be loved in the way that is described by the poet. One is affected even after reading only the first two lines â€Å"How do I love thee, let me count the ways†. The first two lines impact on the reader is somehow that of irony. It leaves one into thinking whether one can really count the ways, much more, measure the extent of one’s love for another. It is ironic because at the end of the poem, one realizes that, the number of ways to show love is beyond counting because it an emotion that goes beyond one’s life. This poem is considered by one as very typical of an English

Sunday, February 2, 2020

Reflecting my English Understanding in a rhetoric concept Essay

Reflecting my English Understanding in a rhetoric concept - Essay Example vironment and subsequently form hypothetical reasoning about these occurrences. Within various societal spheres people usually have different meanings with regard to information presented in piece of writing which most interestingly the author had not included or intended in his/her material. Without denial, I have been a thinker, but my interaction and exposure to the English 102 class has further improved my skills to be used analytically in any literary material. My enthusiasm have been shaped more as I constantly look into ‘why’ aspect of an author’s point of view rather than mere focusing on author’s meaning as portrayed in any material. A consistent quest for knowledge has therefore created in me as I look for more intended purposes of any material by placing myself in the author’s world. ... Moving from the past form of basic literary writing, I have developed throughout the various paradigms of this course from writing and presenting simple facts to building a sustained paper argument that examines a variety of paper complexities and adequate paper organization which since then played a critical role opening up and expanding my mental faculties. My earlier wrings during the process of this course has so been influenced by environmental degradation and related concerns from wider societal perspective. During this earlier period I presented the concept of rhetoric writing as I analyzed paintings by Mathias Duwel and his intentional messages. I had played my big part of analysis in presenting Duwel’s bibliography and dedicated my entire discussions on Duwel’s theoretical standpoint and its implications for the wider society. As I advanced from this stage during my course work, I still chose to look at environmental degradation concerns. Quite familiar with th is approach, I used this as an opportunity to look at the various subject matter complexities as presented by another piece of writing this time focusing on a Hawaii’s economic ambitions and balance with the sustainable manageable of the delicate environment. While registering the improvement I have so far gained in this class, I objectively look at the needs for economic development and environmental demands as opposed to my earlier writing where I would stick to biased sided argument in a paper. It has also become very easy for me to locate numerous authoritative journals and refer from various books has also significantly sharpened my skills in research. In the final

Saturday, January 25, 2020

Solicitors in the 19th Century Essays -- Solicitor

The Middle Man: Solicitors in the 19 th Century â€Å"I have been, Eugene, upon the honourable roll of solicitors of the High Court of Chancery, and attorneys at Common Law . . .† --Charles Dickens, Our Mutual Friend The Profession * There were two branches of the legal profession - barristers, and attorneys and solicitors. Solicitors usually dealt with landed estates and attorneys advised parties in lawsuits. The two roles combined and the name â€Å"solicitor† was adopted (The Law Society). The attorney or solicitor was the general legal adviser and attended to all the paperwork and collected the evidence. He dealt with legal matters on behalf of his client such as the drawing up of wills, trust instruments, marriage contracts, and conveyances of land (Eurolegal Services). In Society * Beginning in the 19th century, the bar became a referral profession; members of the bar did not deal directly with members of the public but took their instructions only from solicitors (Eurolegal Services). * C. W. Brooks suggests that the â€Å"lower branch† (legal professions be...

Friday, January 17, 2020

Evaluate Stevenson’s depiction of the murder of Sir Danvers Carew Essay

Robert Louis Stevenson wrote the novel â€Å"The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.† The novel is set in the society of Victorian London and was written in 1886. The story tells of a middle-class respectable man, who’s profession as a scientist one day leads him to experiment with a potion in his laboratory. He does this due to the fact that he is living in a society where he is seen to be highly respectable and where individuals have only one personality, i.e. being good. This potion goes wrong, resulting in a personality splitting into two opposite directions, one being evil and the other being good, causing horrific situations and terrible events like murders. The scene in which Carew is murdered is a very important scene as it is a turning point in the novel. It is the first major crime that Hyde has committed, and so it makes the reader wonder whether the mystery is finally going to be revealed as he has committed a serious crime and there is no way that he can escape. In this scene, Stevenson utilizes a range of different devices and techniques to add efficacy to the scene and the novel. The scene starts off with a strong first sentence. Stevenson uses the first sentence to grab the reader’s attention and to make them want to read on and know what is actually going to happen that is so momentous. The reader gets the idea of momentous because Stevenson uses the words â€Å"London was startled,† this emphasises that this â€Å"crime of singular ferocity,† effected the whole of London, not just one or two people. Another purpose of this first sentence is to prepare the reader for what they are going to read next. This is efficacious as using words like â€Å"rendered† and â€Å"high position of the victim,† makes the reader feel that we know that something really really horrendous and dreadful is about to happen, which makes the reader want to definitely read on. The reader is also made to notice another one of Stevenson’s techniques as he helps the reader to see things from the house-maid’s point of view and through her eyes. The reader is able to become aware that the maid is looking out of the window, the maid is feeling very warm and affectionate as she is looking at Carew. The reader gets this impression as her exact words are â€Å"aged and beautiful† and â€Å"polite,† and â€Å"gentlemen.† But suddenly then comes in a totally opposite appearanced man, which after a few seconds of thought she realises is Hyde, who she has a â€Å"dislike† for. Also the reader had seen him step on the little girl earlier. The maid’s emotions then change from being calm to being nervous as she goes on to describe the scene and the devastating murder. The reader can see the change as Stevenson has moved from using words like â€Å"romantically,† to words like â€Å"flame of anger† and â€Å"fury.† The reader can feel these emotions which shows the start and the end of the scene being totally opposite to each other as it started off calm then gradually changed to nervousness and then finally into a lot of shock and terror; ending in the maid fainting, making the reader share the maid’s emotions and taking into consideration the shock the maid has suffered. The description of the murder is very clear and vivid. The way Stevenson has described the homicide, the reader is able to imagine and picture the ghastly killing. Stevenson uses strong and solid language to describe the details of the crime, for example the words â€Å"clubbed† and â€Å"flame of anger,† are used to indicate the anger inside Hyde. The reader is also made to notice that the murder was very vicious and ferocious, the words in the scene that implies this are â€Å"brandishing,† â€Å"trampling† and â€Å"underfoot.† There is also another contrast in the way Stevenson describes the meeting and then the murder. When Carew and Hyde first meet, Carew was speaking in a â€Å"polite† way and Hyde â€Å"answered never a word,† which gives the reader the perception that things were quiet and not much communication was going on. But then there is a huge transformation, and the air is full of anger and aggression, this makes the scene effective as the two contrasts are very different, making the reader question why. The first sentence prepares the reader for what has just happened in a diminutive way as we know that something significant is going to happen, but at the same time the reader is also stunned as they did not think that the event would be this massive and horrifying and are a little shocked. Stevenson describes both Carew and Hyde in different ways, as Carew has calm words and Hyde has angry and aggressive words. For example Carew is described as â€Å"beautiful,† â€Å"aged,† â€Å"innocent,† â€Å"polite,† â€Å"gentleman,† and has â€Å"old world kindness,† whereas Hyde is described as â€Å"ape-like,† â€Å"mad,† â€Å"frenzied,† â€Å"rude,† â€Å"disliked,† and also has a â€Å"ill-contained patience.† The way these two characters are described is effective because the reader can clearly see the contrast in the two personalities and can also visualize the way they are described by someone else i.e. being the maid. This is also another very powerful technique by Stevenson because the reader can see that Hyde is a total monster, so the murder was unreasonable and unjust as Carew was totally irreproachable and there was no legitimate reason for killing him. This technique is really suc cessful as it adds mystery to Hyde and makes the reader presume that Hyde is a bit unstable as he murdered a totally innocent mind, making the reader want to read on until the strange mystery is finally revealed. In this scene, Stevenson also uses symbolism helps to augment the scene. Carew was an MP, so his job was to try to keep the law intact and also maintain the standards and the strict and scrupulous rules of Victorian Society, which highlights the fact that he symbolizes the actual Victorian Society. Hyde was in a very negative state of mind and was very angry because at that time Jekyll was refusing and telling himself not to take the potion, which obviously affected Hyde. Therefore Hyde was actually angry at the rules of society. In addition, Hyde could have chosen to kill anyone but he chose someone who represented society and maintained the rules of society. As a result of murdering Carew and â€Å"shattering his bones,† Hyde was actually destroying society. Also this brought about the idea of id, ego and superego, which were written by Freud late on in 1900. The reader gets the picture of Carew being the superego or the conscience. Jekyll was the ego, the one that was reasoning and holding back and finally leaving Hyde with id, being the instinct, the one who does not think of the consequences of its actions. All these are symbolizing the three layers of personality. So, by killing the superego, the id was making the superego, the conscience quiet and totally silent so that it would not have been influencing the ego and also the id. This is also a bit like the story of Jack the Ripper. This symbolism is vital in the importance of the scene, as it gives the reader a new perspective of the murder; this also makes it very effective and makes the reader want to read further on. At the time of the Victorian Society, there were many new theories and ideas. For example Charles Darwin came up with the theory of evolution, which influences Stevenson as he describes Hyde as â€Å"ape-like.† Also there was a lot of interest in science. Stevenson was influenced by many people, and has used some of these theories and ideas in his novel. There was also a lot of contradiction in Victorian Society. People like Conan Doyle and Charles Dickens wrote novels based on the two sides to Victorian Society, i.e. the rich and the veneer of respectability compared to the poor and the criminals. This novel was also based on the theory of the â€Å"Doppelganger.† This extract of the novel adds a major turning point, which shows the reader what Hyde is like and how the society did not accept him. Stevenson wrote this scene very well as he describes the murder successfully and it has different contrasts in it making the reader want to read it and leaving them totally stunned throughout the whole scene. The novel â€Å"The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde,† was very successful as it has been around for many years and is still being enjoyed today and will be for many years yet to come.

Wednesday, January 8, 2020

Free Will An Illusion - 1324 Words

Jenna Santos PHL 150 Dr. Caery Evangelist 23 April 2015 Free Will: an Illusion Casual determinism put simply, is the theory that all things happen for a particular reason and everything is predetermined. It is the idea all the events in one’s life can be explained, and each event has a particular reason for being. If everything is predetermined, then this therefore suggests that the future is fixed which further suggests that we can possibly predict the behavior of things. The theory of determinism ultimately suggests that we don’t the capacity to have free will because all future events are destined to occur, and furthermore we do not posses the knowledge to figure out whether it can be proved true or false (Hoefer). There has been three positions that have developed concerning the theory of causal determinism: hard determinist, compatibilist or soft determinist, and compatibilist. In this essay I will explain why I think the strongest position of the free will debate is that of the hard determinists and clarify the object ion that moral responsibility goes out the door if we don’t have free will by addressing the two big misconceptions that are associated with determinists: first that determinism is an ethical system, and secondly that contrary to common belief determinists do believe in the concept of cause and effect. I will also begin by explaining my position and why I believe that the position of the indeterminist does not hold water as an argument and the thirdShow MoreRelatedDoes Free Will Exist Or Is It All An Illusion?905 Words   |  4 PagesDoes free will exist or is it all an illusion? This question has always bothered people since the ancient time and now it bothers us more than ever. The increase of humankind comprehension in subjects like physics, neuroscience, social science and more; made this question unfathomable. 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