Weber vs. Marx Essay -- essays research papers

Weber destabilizes the relationship between base and superstructure that Marx had established. According to Weber, the concept of historical materialism is naà ¯ve and nonsense because superstructures are not mere reflections of the economic base. (â€Å"The Protestant Ethic† and â€Å"The Spirit of Capitalism (1904-5) Weber agrees that the economy is one of the most faithful forces in modern life. However there are other social and legal factors which exhibit power and thus influence society. These factors help define bureaucratic society or Weber’s concept of modern society which operates through the rational administration of labor. According to Weber, the condition of modern society is disenchantment, which, through rationalization (division of labor), worldly activity is no longer motivated by cultural or spiritual values (meaning) but is instead motivated by economic impulsion. Ironically though, Weber attributes religious aestheticism (meaning) to the root of rationalization, and once mechanism (capitalism) takes off on its own, that religious root is no longer needed to justify work. Thus, mechanized petrification emerges, leaving hardly any room for spontaneity, with a few exceptions.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In establishing a definition of modern society, Weber, unlike Marx, acknowledges that certain ideas can have great influence on material conditions. He suggests a more complex, dynamic relationship between economy and superstructure. Human activity is motivated by reasons other than just capitalist consumption. For example, many people act based on meaning, such as religious or spiritual. Values shape how people live. Weber accuses Marx of being an economic determinist for believing that the mode of production is the only force that moves the base. Weber believes that social and legal factors such as status, class, party, and the division of social honor from economic order in addition to the eco nomy influence modern society, which, according to Weber, is a bureaucracy organized through the rational administration of labor. Weber believes that human history has been the progressive rationalization of life (modernity). The increased rationalism (measuring/controlling the labor process, ie: assembly line) based on logic and calculations instead of traditions, heart, and feeling of modernity le... ... be used to promote one’s status. An influential politician, for example, has a lot of power not because he has money, but because his decisions impact society at large and play a very important role in governing the lives of others.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Weber notes that although bureaucratic rationalization has disenchanted the world and its endurance seems inevitable, the spirit has not been completely eradicated. Weber believes that as an advanced society we cannot escape the pattern of rational rules and laws. However, he allows for the arrival of prophets or charismatic people from time to time, those who exhibit good rational administration skills as well as heart and passion. While offering no clear solution, Weber leaves us with an optimistic hope fo r the future and inspiration, perhaps, to emulate those extraordinary leaders of our time.

The Poetics of Carol Muske and Joy Harjo :: Biography Biographies Essays

The Poetics of Carol Muske and Joy Harjo I began a study of autobiography and memoir writing several years ago. Recently I discovered two poets who believe that recording one’s place in history is integral to their art. Carol Muske and Joy Harjo are renowned poets who explore the intricacies of self in regards to cultural and historical place. Muske specifically addresses the poetics of women poets, while Harjo addresses the poetics of minority, specifically Native American, writers. Both poets emphasize the autobiographical nature of poetry. Muske and Harjo regard the self as integral to their art. In this representation of self, Muske and Harjo discuss the importance of truth-telling testimony and history in their poetics. Muske says, â€Å"†¦testimony exists to confront a world beyond the self and the drama of the self, even the world of silence—or the unanswerable†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Muske 16). Muske asks, â€Å"The question of self, for a woman poet†¦is continually vexing†¦what is a woman’s self?† (Muske 3). Women have historically had their self created for them by the patriarchal society in which they live, which leaves contemporary women wondering how to define a woman’s self at all. Even if they, as women, can create a self, how accurate is it? Muske muses on what is a truth telling self since a woman’s perception of truth is colored always by what the patriarchal society is telling her is truth. Muske says in her poem â€Å"A Private Matter†, â€Å"†¦there are the words, dialogue of people you once became or not†¦Ã¢â‚¬ . It is in these words that a woman finds herself, a poem of all the selves in a self, but not without a cost. In â€Å"Epith†, Muske muses: You forget yourself with each glittering pin, each chip off the old rock, each sip of the long toast to your famous independence, negotiated at such cost— and still refusing to fit. â€Å"The inclination to bear witness seems aligned with the missing self† (Muske 4). Women create the ‘missing’ self by telling their stories, not the stories that have been told to them by a male dominated society, but those stories that define that missing self. In so doing, Muske reiterates the statement James Olney makes when he says, â€Å"... even as the autobiographer fixes limits in the past, a new experiment in living, a new experience in consciousness ... and a new projection or metaphor of a new self is under way† (Olney).

How does the view of modern media and literature vary to the biblical literature on the medical developments of Cloning?

This essay deals with the issues raised in the media by the rapid technological developments of cloning and in particular on the religious beliefs of the uniqueness of life. It will also touch upon the ethical and legal issues brought about through out the development of cloning. 1A clone is a group of genetically identical organisms. Identical twins are therefore a clone since both come form one fertilised egg that is divided into two genetically identical cells that then separate. In the process of mammalian cloning there are two processes. Nuclear Transfer is where the nucleus is removed from the unfertilised egg cell; this eliminates all its genetic information. The cell nucleus of the individual being cloned is introduced into the enucleated egg cell though cell fusion. If this is done in the right conditions, the egg cell then begins to divide and go through a process of foetal developments as if it had been fertilised normally. The other process is artificial twinning which is a process of splitting the embryo into two or more embryos. First an egg cell is fertilised by sperm, then left to grow into an embryo. The embryo is split into two or more embryos when it is still in the early stage of development. The split embryo are nurtured into new embryos, all genetically identical, then implanted into the surrogate mother to grow. This is not the same as nuclear transfer as the born animal has biological parents and is a clone of its brothers and sisters. Cloning of mammals has proven to be difficult and has only developed in the past few years through a long line of research. 3In 1997 came the most famous sheep of all Dolly who was cloned using a cell from an adult sheep. She represented a new departure because she was the first mammal to have been cloned using a nucleus taken from an adult sheep. She possessed a genetic code identical to that of her original parents. This breakthrough raised the possibility of cloning adult mammals rather than embryos. However it is not known yet whether nuclear transfer will be possible in the process of cloning humans. Most future cloning developments will not even concern the reproduction of humans but it will focus on using cloning to understand cell development, heredity and genetic structure. For example cloning research may contribute to disease treatment by allowing scientists to reprogram cells. Through research, skin cells could be reprogrammed into insulin producing cells in the pancreas. These skin cells would then be introduced into the pancreas of the diabetes patients, allowing them to produce insulin. 4However a number of other applications has been envisaged. It could be used in future research in which cloning may be beneficial, such as encouraging research into cloned tissues to work with the basic building blocks of life ‘the stem cells' and discovering how to reprogramme them in such away that they will develop into the tissue that is needed such as skin or heart muscle or nerve cells. These stem cells can be acquired from the foetus which has miscarried or been aborted. In order to obtain these stem cells which are genetically identical to the suffer, it is necessary to use the cloning technique, taking the nucleus of a cell from the affected person and putting it into a human egg, from which the nucleus has been removed. This is the creation of life; it is genetically identical to the person who is suffering. After just a few days of cell division, the stem cells would be removed from the embryo and then the embryo would be destroyed, this would give you a cell line which would never be human but would be used for producing identical tissue for a patient who needs a supply of cells or tissue for grafting, such as replacing heart muscle tissue which would offer hope for people with heart disease, or brain tissue which would help suffers of Alzheimer's. However many of these future applications of cloning involve the creation of embryo solely as a source of cells and destroying them. In an article by Roger Highfield science editor of The Daily Telegraph raises the ethical question, does the 100 cell early embryo that will be used in the stem cell research count as a person? That is the question at the heart of the debate. At one extreme, pro-life groups, the Catholic Church and some other religious organisations argue that the embryo becomes a human being as soon as an egg is fertilised, and should be accorded the same respect as a baby. However, as stated by Roger Highfield in the Sunday Telegraph 2002 the Christian tradition has not always granted this moral status to the early embryo. For many centuries it was believed that the human soul did not enter the embryo until 40 days after conception in the case of a man, and 90 days after conception in the case of a woman. This distinction only ended in 1869 when Pope Pius IX declared that women who had survived an abortion were to be excommunicated implying that a person was ‘ensouled' at conception. Highfield believes those at the other extreme of the debate claim that a very early embryo is no more than a collection of undifferentiated cells and deserves little more attention that any other isolated human cell or tissue. The fact that the embryo has the potential to become a person does not they say accord it the rights of a person. They also say the view that the embryo is a person from the moment of conception does not match most people's idea of human personal identity. The Warnock committee concluded that the early embryo has special status but not one that justifies its absolute protection. One of the arguments used by the modern media against developing embryonic stem cells is the same for cloning whole animals. As it could be argued that once scientists have done this there would be no stopping them from going on to develop a human clone. If once the first step is taken it might seem inevitable that the next step should follow. Therefore is it wrong to let the first step take place? As Mary Warnock suggests in her article on stem cell research from the Dialogue journal is our fear of genetic manipulation different in kind from other fears? Many fears of new discoveries have been fears of supposed risks. This was the case when people feared steam engines or internal combustion engine. And we have on whole become a risk averse society, we think of minimising risks as human nature. The issue poses the question of how cloning maybe beneficial as well as morally wrong. The people against cloning feel it is an affront to religious sensibilities; it seems like playing God and interfering with the natural process. There are other objections too like they are worried that cloning appears to be a powerful force that can be exploited to produce horrendous results like creating a population entirely the same. One of the main ethical concerns brought up by the media is the possibility of the psychological impact on the offspring. Would the human clone have a diminished sense of individuality? Perhaps human clones would think that they were genetically destined to the same fate as the person from whom their donor cells came. 7Ethical questions have been raised about how cloning could also control the children's genotypes, which could be practised in discriminatory ways. As the author Peter Paris expressed in the Ethics of Human Cloning that parents could use cloning as genetic manipulation along with other techniques to exercise the quality control over their children, or perhaps scientists may use it with racist intent a fear raised by Peter Paris,' Since Europeans, and euro Americans have never been able to affirm the value of the worlds darker races as equals, there is little reason to believe that their scientists would not seek to rid the world of some of its racial diversity by combining science of eugenic with that of human cloning,. From this there could be a reduction in genetic variability, for producing many clones runs the risk of creating a population entirely the same. The population would be susceptible to the same diseases and one disease could devastate the entire population. Too this lends support to old prejudices and it could also raise new ones which cut across existing social divisions. In the modern media supporters of cloning consider that with careful continuation of research, the technological benefits of cloning clearly outweigh the possible social consequences. In their minds, the final products of cloning, like farm animals and laboratory mice will not be the most important achievement. The applications of cloning the envision are not nightmarish and inhumane, but will improve the overall quality of science and life. Cloning will help to produce discoveries that will affect the study of genetics, cell development, human growth, and obstetrics. Also the people who argue in favour of cloning believe that much of the concerns are based on misunderstandings. They believe cloning in reality would produce what amounts to a delayed identical twin, several years or even decades younger than that person who is being cloned. Identical twins are separate individuals. They look different because of different preferences, clothing and hairstyle. They even have different moral values, academic achievements and tastes in music. As many identical twins through their lives develop unique identities of their own. Another misunderstanding is how genes influence an individual's development. Human beings do not inherit a fixed unchangeable genetic blueprint from their parents. Scientists believe it's an interaction between genes and the environment in which an individual grows up and lives including the environment in which the foetus is in the womb. 8One of the major reasons people fear cloning is based religious reasons on the notion that a clone is an imperfect imitation of the real thing, which causes some people to think that far from having the same soul as someone else a clone would have no soul at all. In the book Remaking Eden it was stated that the Irvine, California, rabbi Bernard King was seriously frightened by this idea when he asked, ‘Can the cloning process create a soul? Can scientists create the soul that would make a being ethical, moral, caring, loving, all the things we attribute humanity to? ‘. The Catholic Father Saunders suggested that, ‘Cloning would only produce humanoids or androids-soulless replicas of human beings that could be used as slaves. ‘ However there is nothing artificial about the cells used in cloning. They are alive all through the cloning process. The newly formed embryo can only develop inside the womb of a woman in the same way embryo and foetuses develop. Cloned children will be proper human beings thus the notion of soulless clone has no basis in reality. 9Though the fundamental ethical concern is something for which Christian theology provides some insights. Neil Messer suggests that the act of cloning can go against many people's moral and religious beliefs. The bible is an important part of any Christian's life and it contains the teachings of God and his views on life. In genesis he talks of the creating of earth where on the fifth day: ‘God created man in his image: in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. Genesis 1v27. Human beings are made in the image of God. This bestows on them unique status in creation to treat them, not as manipulated, is to violate Gods given nature. Should we be going against him and creating humans to our specifications? Or is this what God would have wanted? Many strong Christians would disagree with pre-cloners saying that God made man and we should not be tampering with God and his creations, we are finite and limited creatures, we are mortals rather than God, and it is both foolish and self destructive for us to forget that. Whilst many would answer with arguments that if God had not wanted this then he would not have let humans progress so far, like genesis 11 we find human beings use there God given skill and ingenuity to try and reach up to heavens, to make a name for themselves in efforts to become like God ‘ Come let us build ourselves a city a tower that reaches the heavens, so that we may make a name for themselves and not be scattered over the face of the earth' Genesis 11v3. In this man is using Gods given ability to push back out limits to take some measure of control and authority over created order and share in Gods creative work. This was seen as an arrogant use of that skill and ingenuity to pretend that we have no limits, that we are Gods. However God has given us freewill and to exercise this freewill would mean consequently God cannot be held responsible. 10Also in Bioethics a primer for Christian Gilbert Milander believed Christians would also see cloning as a violation to the uniqueness of human life, which God has given to each person and to no one else. Christians are given their individualism uniqueness in the ritual of baptism. In baptism God sets his hand upon them calls them by name and thereby establishes their unique individual identity and destiny. Their uniqueness is not a personal achievement or power it is established in community with God when they realise that they can not directly control their destiny but when they admit that life is grounded and sustained by God. 11Nevertheless from the earliest time of human culture we have been co-creators with God. We have taken the things around us including our own bodies and brains and reorganized them into a number of different ways. We can ask ourselves the question is there anything that can be excluded from the touch of the human hand and the initiative of the human brain Even now we have discovered that life itself can be tampered with. Which shows us that we are co creators with God and we can shape life anyway we desire. 12Consequently can we Christians accept their positions as co-creators or would this be seen as blasphemy? Although the fact remains that humans have been given such power without the knowledge and understanding of God, which means the moral issue then becomes whether we will use our power responsibly. What wrong things might we create with the power of life? Will we be able to watch someone die knowing we are able to create replicas of them? Will we deny our human weakness and try and stop the process of aging by replacing aging parts of our body? Will we worship physical strength and create a society where only those people live and make false images of human life selected by our own preferences. The media has now made us aware that the possibility of cloning humans is only a few years away. Though Cloning has offered us an insight into the power of creation that humanity has done. A Christian could come to the analysis that humans are co creators with God, that we are ever moving closer to making babies rather than having babies. The media and religious organisations believe Cloning represents a test of human restraint wisdom and technological developments and in many ways identifies genetic engineering as one of the most moral problems of the 21st century. Epilogue The media provides us with information that the science of cloning continues to evolve at a rapid pace, and medical advancements based on this science will continue to provide new ethical and religious challenges. As Dr Michael West said on a radio4 Today programme when interviewed by John Humphry's ‘The Use of stem cell research for the relief of disease, Parkinson's, Cystic thybrosis will prove to be irresistible but not for human cloning, Literature Review I have many books written about the ethical debate surrounding cloning all of which are in the light of the recent developments of cloning and sets out the modern debate and the Medias views of cloning as well as the theological issues. The books seem quite useful all giving different viewpoints on the subject and they all seem to have been written quite recently as cloning is a new issue and first explored in March 1997 when Dolly the first cloned mammal was born. There are journals which consist of the moral debate of cloning hence I will be able to get hold of up to date information and the view ethicists in this area. The Ethics of Human Cloning Neil Messer 2001 With all the recent events and research of cloning this booklet sets out the debate of cloning it explains the technical terms clearly and draws out the theological issues and shows what Christians have to contribute to the discussion of Cloning. 2 Clone The Road to Dolly and The Path Ahead 1998 This book puts the science and ethics into context and discusses what part of cloning may play in the future of this medical research and human race. The book also considers the ethical dilemma that maybe used to clone human. Also the book touches on how news on scientific journals reach the popular media. 3. Remaking Eden Cloning and Beyond 1999 This book explores the science of embryology touching down on cloning and the new world of baby making , it explains what science can do and will be able to do. 4. Flesh of my flesh, the ethics of Human cloning This book contains a collection of articles from scientists, philosophers, bioethists and theologians debating whether cloning should be allowed , it also examines up to date laws on cloning and different legal points of views.

Stylistic Analysis of the Poem “Meeting at Night”

The Love Song of Hair Dyal Rudyard Kipling Alone upon the housetops to the North I turn and watch the lightnings in the sky– The glamour of thy footsteps in the North. Come back to me, Beloved, or I die. Below my feet the still bazar is laid– Far, far below the weary camels lie– The camels and the captives of thy raid. Come back to me, Beloved, or I die! My father's wife is old and harsh with years, And drudge of all my father's house am I– My bread is sorrow and my drink is tears. Come back to me, Beloved, or I die!Stylistic Analysis of the Poem â€Å"Meeting at night† â€Å"Meeting at Night† Robert Browning The gray sea and the long black land; And the yellow half-moon large and row; And the startled little waves that leap In fiery ringlets from their sleep, As I gain the cove with pushing prow, And quench its speed I’ the slushy sand. Then a mile of warm sea-scented beach; Three fields to cross till a farm appears; A tap at the pane , the quick sharp scratch And blue spurt of a lighted match, And a voice less loud, thro’ its joys and fears,Than the two hearts beating each to each! ]  Ã‚  The Theme of the Poem This poem written by Robert Browning is a poem of love that describes clearly the man’s sailing on the sea to the bay on the beautiful night to go to the girl she loves and meets her at night. In here, it is said that the readers can feel the excitement and happiness of the couples on their meeting at night. It is very clear at the end of the poem that the woman is somehow nervous and afraid while waiting for the man she loves.But, upon hearing the man’s tap on the window pane, she is very happy and relieved to see him, which only shows how deep their love and missing is. ]  Ã‚  Linguistic Analysis of the Poem by  Liu Yueqin Liu Yueqin has presented five linguistic presentation of the poem. Here is the following linguistic analysis he had in this poem of Robert Browning: a. Phono logical features 1. End rhyme The rhyme scheme is, in the first stanza – abccba, in the second -dedded. There are five end rhymes as follow: a. [  ? nd]  land, sand; b. [? ]row, prow; c. [I:p]leap, sleep; d, [I:t ]beach, scratch, match, each; e, [i? s]appears, fears 2. Alliteration long-land in line 1;the-that in line 3; fiery- from in line 4; pushing-prow in line 5; speed-slushy-sand in line 6; sea-scented in line 7; to-till and field-farm in line8; less-loud in line 11; than-the and two-to in line 12. 3. Repetition And the  repeats 3 times in the poem, and there are totally 8  and  in the poem. The repetition shows that the man is making long-time effort step by step to meet the woman, his lover.However, the effort is worthy since the man loves the woman and expects fiercely to see her, no matter it’s at night or at day. The refrain occurs at the close of a stanza, where it helps to establish meter, influence the mood of love, and add emphasis. With the usa ge of end rhyme, alliteration and repetition, the poem creates aesthetic pleasure and shows the feeling of the couple. b. Graphical features The description of the scene on the sea and on the bay and about the meeting is vivid, elaborate and attracting.Through the different angles of vision (the gray sea,  the long black land, the yellow half-moon, etc. ), auditognosis (two hearts beating, etc), olfaction (scented), the readers can just feel like being in the situation, and appreciating the charming of meeting at night. c. Lexical features The poem is relatively brief; consist of simple specific concrete words, mainly adjectives and nouns, just like casual and gentle narration between lovers or dramatic monologue.There are 4 adjective words about color; they are  gray, black, yellow and blue, to make the scene at night vivid to the readers. The readers can clearly know that the meeting is at night. The beautiful scene symbolizes the wonderful mood of the couple. In line 6, words of  speed, slushy, sand  have alliteration [s] for imitate the sound of the prow decreasing its speed and gently scrapping in the bay. d. Syntactic features All the sentences in the poem are statement just like dramatic monologue, what the author is very famous with.Many short sentences are linked into long sentences with devices of coordination with the usage of  and. There are totally 5 lines beginning with  and. Coordination gives clauses equal syntactic status, and establish peaceful mood. It seems that the man has met the woman at night many times, and gets very familiar with the process. e. Semantic features In first stanza, the author uses  startled  and  fiery  instead of  surprising  and  hot. The personification gives human form or feelings to the waves and ringlets, inanimate objects to show that the man’s feeling is startled and fiery.In second stanza,  tap, scratch  and  spurt  are gentler, lovelier, and shorter in time thanknock, s crape, and spring. These words can vividly to describe the feeling of the couple. The man arrives at just outside of the house, and taps the glass with the love in his heart. When he is waiting for the appearance of the woman, he is very nervous and upset. The woman is also nervous and upset. After hearing the tap, she lights a match to lights the place and feels happy and fears to meet her lover.

Salinity

Problems arise in the world due to salinity, as when the salt gets on to the top of the soil†¦.. it causes disaster to the plants and trees. Salt comes in many forms in the natural environment—calcium, magnesium, carbonate, sodium chloride, bicarbonate, and sulphate. Many landscapes are naturally saline, but secondary salinity isn’t so natural, occurring when salts from deep within the earth are dissolved and deposited into soil and water as a result of human activity. This can happen in one of two ways: Dryland salinity – from removal of deep-rooted plantsIn dry regions, deeply-rooted perennial plants, such as shrubs, trees, and grasses, play an important role in regulating groundwater levels. As water is applied to the soil, the plants drink it up and breath it out through a process called evapotranspiration. This ensures that the water table levels stay relatively stable. But this balance is thrown into chaos when farmers clear the land to gain more space for grazing animals and cultivating food crops. In doing so, they remove the deep-rooted plants and replace them with shallow-rooted annual crops.These plants do not take up as much water as once-plentiful native plants, and as a result, more water remains in the soil. Over time—up to 30 years—water accumulates in the land, causing the water table to rise. As it does so, it passes through layers of salt and dissolving the deposits that have existed in the land for centuries. The shallow-rooted plants can’t keep up with the rising water levels, which results in rising salt deposits in ever-increasing concentrations in topsoil. Irrigation salinity – from overirrigationMuch like dryland salinity, irrigation salinity results in a rising water table that brings deep deposits of salt upwards through soil layers. But instead of being caused by land clearing, it results from increased irrigation. As water soaks into the soil, it adds to existing water, raising t he water table, bringing salt along for the ride. During periods of irrigation, the water table will lower again, but salt will remain in surface soil, increasing the salt concentration with each irrigation cycle. What impact does it have? Contamination of ecosystems with excess saltBoth dryland and irrigation salinity result in similar environmental challenges: * Groundwater used for human consumption as well as agricultural and industrial applications becomes saline, making it unusable * Wetlands and bushland ecosystems are damaged, resulting in declines in wildlife biodiversity * Salt damages houses, pipelines, railways, buildings, roads, and water supply systems What has been done about it? Many conservation and regeneration options available There are many possible steps a community can take to prevent and/or reverse salinity: Identify areas where potential for biodiversity loss is significant due to salinity, setting targets to protect and bring back sensitive species * Protec ting key native vegetation species from being cleared and promoting reintroduction of these species in areas affected by salinity * Limit over-irrigation and the construction of dams in sensitive areas, such as wetlands and watercourses * Promote environmentally-sound property management planning * Educate farmers and the public about the risks of increasing salinity * Construct both surface and sub-surface drainage systems to prevent salinity that results from rising water levelsIs this action working? Reversing soil salinity a slow process – prevention is easier Progress in preventing and reversing the effects of salinization is slow and painstaking. Research is beginning to identify ways farmers can continue to cultivate their crops without increasing soil salinity. Planting salt tolerant, deep-rooted plants throughout agricultural lands in one way to see improvements, but like most solutions, it can be costly and requires by-in from farmers and communities alike. Further education of key stakeholders in communities at risk of salinization is required. Why is this? Effects of soil salinity take many years to appearIt can take up to 30 years for communities to begin to feel the effects of increasing salinity, making reversal of the problem equally time-consuming. It also requires significant funding. The Australian government, for instance, pledged to spend nearly $8 million on salinization remediation plans to 2008. Should it continue? On one side, there are those who are against Without remediation of soil salinity, great problems lie ahead Without long-sighted solutions, the problem of salinity, including loss of agricultural land, devastation of ecosystems, and the costs associated with damaged property, will continue to increase. In the US, it is estimated that 10 million hectares of land is lost to salinity every year. The challenge is equally serious in Australia.Environmentalists have been drawing attention to this growing crisis for years, an d only after seeing the effects of salinity are individuals and governments coming to terms with the magnitude of the problem. Failure to address salinity could result in widespread crop failures and even more devastating loss of biodiversity. Should it continue? On the other side, there are those who are all for it Hydro advocates oppose There are many who prefer to turn a blind eye to the problem of salinity, especially those with a vested interest in the industries responsible for the consequences. Salinity can increase in the presence of dams and other water reservoirs, making salinity an acceptable cost to advocates of large-scale hydro projects.The damming of the Colorado River, which flows into Mexico, has caused significant increases in the brackish (i. e. saline) quality of the water. Reversing these problems so that those down river can be supplied with high-quality water has been expensive for the US, resulting in costs upwards of several hundred million dollars every yea r. Farmers’ struggles Equally challenging is working with farmers who see the very long-range problem of salinity as minor compared to the desire to see short-term financial gains through over-irrigation of crops. Small and large-scale farmers alike struggle with the reality of spending money to prevent a problem that may not occur for decades.

Being a Solomon Islander

I sit with my brothers and my cousins, watching our mothers stomp out the dance, their hips swaying and the dust kicked up by their bare feet settling in their hair. My mother seems to have been dancing for hours, her soft hair is covered in a fine layer of dirt, and her smile flashes every so often in my direction. The drums and pipes carry the light tone through the air and I clap with my brothers and cousins in beat with the motions of the dance, laughing and singing.Caught up in my own traditions, I can almost forget the voice of the missionary teacher who follows me each day as I join my older brothers in their daily journey to and from the waterside. I watch as they sail away from the shoreline, the long canoe gliding across the water. They can escape the confusing words of this colorless man who wears too many cloths and wonders still why he is hot. This man follows me and my friends as we trap lizards or play other boyish games, trying to dodge him and his talks of being burn ed in a volcano forever.My brothers tell me to ignore him, as they have. The missionary is not the threat, it is the kings who will take our homes and the food we eat. I hear my auntie telling my mother that morning as they prepared the pig for the feast later that evening, that the missionary plans to open a school and make me and my friends be students. My auntie told my mother, that my uncle feared they would teach us to be colorless too. For now though, we are away from the eyes of the missionary.My cousin says that he hides in his hut and prays for us to be thrown into a volcano when we dance. If only he could see my mother smiling and throwing her arms above her head. He does not look at us though, instead he follows and speaks of fire and his father, scaring my sisters and little brother. He scares me too but I will soon be a man, I am almost 9 already, I cannot show my fear. I will learn to laugh as my mother or walk away unhearing like my brothers and father.

Dichotomus key gram postive bacteria coccus Lab Report

Dichotomus key gram postive bacteria coccus - Lab Report Example However, so is the gram-(+) Streptococcus and Enterococcus. In fact, they are collectively known as the gram-(+) cocci. Thus, to differentiate them, we use the catalase test, which determines whether an organism is able to convert the toxic hydrogen peroxide into water and oxygen. Of the four main gram-(+) cocci genera, only Staphylococcus and Micrococcus are catalase-(+). We then try to grow it on Mannitol Salt Agar. The genus of Micrococcus is unable to use mannitol for food, and thus will not grow on MSA medium. On the other hand, Staphylococcus is able to grow on MSA because they can oxidize mannitol. Finally, we try to determine whether the unknown is S. aureus or S. epidermidis by growing it on blood agar. Since it did not cause hemolysis, then the organism is S. epidermidis, because S. aureus is a known alpha-hemolytic organism. http://www.mesacc.edu/~aleid84161/personalhomepage/Flow%20Charts.pdf, n.