animal cruelty Essays

animal cruelty Essays animal cruelty Essay animal cruelty Essay animal cruelty BY bibi345 Every year 1 billion animals are slaughtered by the leather industry, 100 million animals die in experiments and 4 million cats and dogs are euthanized. Hello everyone and Mr. Dion, today Im going to talk to you about Animal cruelty. When we hear the words Animal Cruelty, we immediately think of serious and physical harm that someone is doing to an animal right? But really, animal cruelty isnt Just physical harm. It generally falls into one of three categories: neglect, intentional or sexual abuse. Neglect is the failure to provide water, food, shelter and/or necessary care. Example: starvation; dehydration Intentional cruelty is involving physical harm to an animal or taking some form of action and sexual abuse is when the animal is being sexually molested by a human being. Okay, now that we saw the three types of animal cruelty, who here knows a bit about experimental animals? Experimental animal is when an animal is being tested for a variety of products, drugs or vaccines. In certain countries, the law specifies that a new drug has to be essentially tested on t least two different species of live mammal. Almost every medication in the market has been tested on animals. Animals have been used in the development of anesthetics to prevent human suffering during surgery! Mice and rats are forced to inhale toxic fumes, dogs are force-fed pesticides, and rabbits have corrosive chemicals rubbed onto their skin and eyes. Many of these tests are not even required by law. Over 100 million of them die in experiments and tests every year. Scientists estimate that 100 species go extinct every day! Thats about one species every 15 minutes. Now more and more people check their products before buying them to make sure they werent tested on animals first. I really love elephants. I think theyre so adorable and when I was doing my research, I found out that elephants who perform in circuses are often kept in chains for as long as 23 hours a day from the time they are babies. I personally think thats Just wrong. Former circus employees have reported seeing them beaten, whipped, poked with sharp objects and even burned to force them to learn their routines! Now all they can do is sit and wait in fear of the next terrifying and painful thing that will be performed on them. Now lets talk about fur coats. A fur coat is pretty cool and trendy hen? Its coming back to style and it looks really sophisticated. Well, to make one fox-fur coat it takes about eighteen red foxes. So next time you are buying one, make sure it isnt real fur. I couldnt believe it when I read that tens of thousands of wild and domesticated horses from the United States are cruelly slaughtered every year to be used for horse eat in Europe and Asia. Since the last horse slaughter plants in the U. S. were closed in 2007, thousands of horses have been shipped to Canada and Mexico for slaughter. If you ever think someone is hurting an animal please call the Ontario SPCA investigators at 1-888-0nt-SPCA. Here is how to recognize animal cruelty. Look for these common signs Wounds on the body. Extremely thin. Limping. Animals left in a car on a hot or cold day for long hours. Abandonment Swellings Thank you for listening !

Social vs. Societal

Social vs. Societal Social vs. Societal Social vs. Societal By Mark Nichol What’s the difference between social and societal? Not much, but enough that you may become the victim of social stigma if you ignore subtle societal signals. Societal is the pedantic alternative to social. They both mean â€Å"pertaining to society,† but as the latter word, first attested in the Middle Ages, was increasingly used in the modern era to refer to interpersonal contact rather than in the context of complex forces within human populations, societal appeared in the latter part of the nineteenth century as a more serious, scholarly alternative. It is mostly seen in such usage and is otherwise considered pretentious. Even now, social is more likely to appear in phrases referring to individuals, not groups, such as â€Å"social disposition,† â€Å"social engagement,† and â€Å"social life.† Societal, on the other hand, is employed in contexts like â€Å"societal pressure to conform,† though social still has the same import in usage such as â€Å"social institutions,† which refers to widespread traditions, not venues where people hang out. Standing phrases that include social also include â€Å"social climber,† referring to a person who tries to rise above his or her station in life; â€Å"social disease,† a euphemism for â€Å"venereal disease† (one spread through sexual contact), or any disease whose distribution is related to socioeconomic factors; and â€Å"social drinker,† which denotes a regular imbiber of alcoholic beverages whose indulgence is not considered excessive. The most ubiquitous such phrase of the last decade or so, however, is â€Å"social network(ing),† a case of an unfortunate usurpation of a useful term for a diluted sense: In most contexts, a social network is a virtual web of friends, acquaintances, and colleagues or professional contacts, enabled by recent technological innovations, that is widely seen as contributing to a more expansive yet much more superficial outlook on interpersonal communication and interaction than was prevalent in the past. (Yet the telephone, the telegram, and other once innovative devices were in their day similarly derided for weakening the social contract.) More provocative phrases are â€Å"social Darwinism,† the name for the theory that some social groups are biologically superior to others, and â€Å"social engineering,† which has two senses: large-scale manipulation or influencing of society, or deceptive collection of confidential personal information. The ancestor of both words is socius, Latin for â€Å"accomplice,† â€Å"ally,† or â€Å"companion.† Other terms that stem from this parentage include sociology, which primarily means â€Å"the study of aspects of large groups of people† the more far-reaching equivalent of psychology, which focuses on the behavior of individuals and socialite, a mildly pejorative term for a person with prominent status in society, usually as a result of abundant wealth. Antisocial, meanwhile, denotes behavior averse or hostile to society, and asocial refers to someone who avoids engaging in society. Socialism is a term coined in the mid-nineteenth century to apply to sometimes competing ideas of governance, often similar to and often confused with those of communism, in which the state controls production and distribution of goods and services. A related term is association, referring to networks of relationships. Interestingly, this term is the origin of a word for the globally popular sport known in most of the world as football (or a transliteration such as fussball or futbol) but in the United States called soccer: Originally, this game, to distinguish it from rugby football (now usually called simply rugby), was termed â€Å"association football.† Slang usage shortened this term to assoc and later soccer. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Misused Words category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:100 Whimsical WordsProved vs. ProvenMankind vs. Humankind

WHAT IS FEMINISM AND HOW MIGHT IT INFORM POLITICAL ANALYSIS Essay

WHAT IS FEMINISM AND HOW MIGHT IT INFORM POLITICAL ANALYSIS - Essay Example Having identified and adopted as basic, the need for a greater recognition of the woman, certain grey areas still exist among feminist. Issues like roots of inequality, best approach to attain equality, the criterion or criteria to serve as basis for evaluating gender related issues, probably all of these differences emanate from increasing pressures for women to be aligned to traditions which may have originated as a result of the male dominated society. A particular school of thought with liberal inclinations believe that both sexes should be considered as equals socially, socio-politically and economically, without regards to whatever differences there might be when physiological analyses are made. The elimination of a society where certain groups dominate as elites is the driving force behind certain radical feminists. Still there are the modern feminists whose primary concern is centered on the right of women on the integrity and autonomy of their bodies as pertaining reproducti ve health rights that incorporates abortion rights, contraceptives use right maternity cares etc; rights of women at workplace that entails the right to maternity leave and equal pay; the right to be protected from violence within and outside a domestic relationship such as wife battering, sexual harassment and rape, ultimately encompassing all other kinds of discriminations that arise as a result of gender differences. With feminism, the advocates, through grass root mobilization intend to cross boundaries that are based on social status, race culture and religion, with the definition of an effective feminist movement as one that deals with issues which are universally recognized as detrimental to the women folk consisting of rape, prostitution and incest while at the same time addressing issues which may not be obtainable everywhere at the same time like Bureaucracies that seeks to impede the advancement of women beyond certain levels in the corporate world, as it obtains in the w est, female "circumcision" otherwise known as female genital mutilation observable in parts of Africa, and the middle-east. Feminists also abhor the scenario where women are viewed primarily as sexual objects neither do they appreciate patriarchy (2) and oppression against women (3) the core of the different kinds of feminism that obtained today is, the general well being of the women that takes into consideration their rights, interests and every other issue as it relates to them. The different feminist types have advanced different ideologies. Egalitarian and protectionist distinctions in feminism has been postulated by certain feminist who argue that while equality of both male and female gender is the primary pursuit of egalitarian feminism, the use of legal means to shield women against abuses such as masculinist (4) employment and divorce laws. Yet there are other schools of thought among feminist with a more radical approach who believe there is no clear cut distinction in fe minism and argue that without a legal framework in the first place egalitarian feminism would fail considering that it would need the law for a successful campaign. Within the radical feminist, advocates of separatism have also been observed whose major campaign thrust is the complete separation of human beings in the society based on gender differences. The definition and classification of a human being along gender lines is seen by yet another class of feminist as constructions of the society.

What can we learn about American history and the American experience Essay

What can we learn about American history and the American experience through an in-depth study of the jazz tradition - Essay Example The touch and feel of jazz is purely from an African origin because the mellow feeling was as a result of suffering African slaves underwent in settlement schemes (Whyton 17-21). Thus, an in-depth study of jazz tradition is imperative in giving insight into American history and experience. Thus, they came up with the concept of jazz music as a technique of communicating their sorrows and tribulations they underwent as slaves (Rinzler 3). Jazz music has a blues quality that is a characteristic of soft and mellow voices that further express the feelings of Africans during the slavery period. The slaves would not air their grievances to their masters and so the only way to expel their bitterness was through music and in this case jazz music. In addition, this genre of music is often accompanied by instruments whenever it is performed. The African tradition induced a certain culture into jazz such that an instrument being played would be done in an individual’s expression without following any particular order or rules (Rinzler 7). The Harmony in jazz music is a culture borrowed from Europeans. Additionally, the music has a chorus that is played on a piano, which accompanies tunes. Despite the African tradition having their musical instruments, those used in the performance of jazz music trace their origin in Europe and they include trumpets, saxophones, and pianos among many others. Thus, it is evident this genre of music developed as a result of the integration of two different cultures that had varied backgrounds (Larson 79). Despite the long history often attached to jazz music, it is believed the genre first originated from New Orleans in America, which is a coastal city located in Western America that was a major transient port during the ancient times where ships carrying slaves from Africa and the rest of the world docked. For this reason, the city provided an environment for people from various ethnical

Economic problems in the USSR after the Second World War Essay Example for Free

Economic problems in the USSR after the Second World War Essay Neither Stalin, Khrushchev or Brezhnev successfully addressed fundamental economic problems which increasingly dogged the USSR after the Second World War How far do you agree with this statement? After the war, the USSR was destroyed both physically and economically. The challenge for Stalin therefore was to attempt to rebuild the USSR, particularly focusing on industry and the economy in order to ensure that Russia would remain a world superpower. By the end of Brezhnevs era however, the situation was very different. The country had undergone a period of stagnation whereby the economy had failed to improve and grow over his period in power. This was due to his lack of willingness to implement new policies in preference of a period of stability. I would suggest that although Brezhnev achieved very little, changes were implemented under both Stalin and Khrushchev. However, these changes were often not always overly successful. Stalin did attempt to address the economic damage that the war had caused and therefore try to rebuild the economy. One way in which he did this was to alter the systems in place already in order to tackle the new problems faced. For example, he addressed the growing complexity of the economy by creating more economic ministries. Further than this at the end of 1947, he adapted Gosplan in order to make it more focused on the economy and therefore limited the State Planning Commission to only planning (therefore transferring its previous responsibilities to arrange the necessary supplies elsewhere). He also adapted where investment was distributed to after the war such as early investment after the war went to regions which had been occupied by the Germans (for example, Donets Region). Stalin also created new policies in order to boost the economy and increase production, in the form of the fourth year plan. This was successful in the way that it effectively produced large amounts of raw materials such as coal (149 million tons in 1945 to 261 million tons in 1950) and oil (19 million tons in 1945 to 40 million tons in 1950). He used shorter term targets for individual enterprises to meet. P Kenez said even if we take into consideration the exaggerations built into soviet statistics, it is still indisputable that the Stalinist methods worked, and that the speed of reconstruction was impressive. Overall the USSR managed to produce a 75% increase on the production of 1940 which shows its extensive success and therefore disagrees with the statement that as a leader he failed to address the economic problems faced. Although it can be suggested that Khrushchev faced less of challenge than Stalin, he still introduced new economic policies which had wide spreading effects. An example of this is introducing the minimum wage in 1956 which guaranteed the workers an increased standard of living and prevented exploitation. Foreign trade hugely increased under Khrushchev due to his extended relationship with the west. Two thirds of the foreign trade was with Comecon countries in Eastern Europe which was also beneficial for communist relationships. Unlike under Stalin, Khrushchev successfully addressed the poor living standards and increased these considerably. Although they were still backwards in comparison to other western countries, for example in 1964, only 5 in 1,000 citizens owned a car; his policies combined with the recovery of the USSR since 1945 did mean improvements were made. Working conditions also improved with shorter working hours, more holidays, better pensions and other social benefits. Khrushchev is often blamed for his failings in agriculture (as addressed below) but John Keep suggests that he at least kept peasant affairs at the centre of attention for an entire decade. No other ruler had ever done so, or would do so. This is evidence that Khrushchev did address some of the problems that the USSR were facing at the time. Filtzer also stated that that these reforms were based on the assumption that agriculture would receive many more resources than he would obtain due to them being diverted to other sectors of the economy. Arguably then Khrushchev did attempt to address these issues. Brezhnevs time in power is often described as an economic stagnation due to the failure in economic growth at this time. However, he did introduce a limited number of new policies which had equally limited successes. He successfully addressed that Khrushchevs destructive agricultural policies should be reversed, for example in September 1965 Khrushchevs sovnarkhoz reforms of 1957 were ended. He did successfully increase foreign trade though, for example exporting oil and gold natural resources from Siberia and the period of dà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½tente led to the high priority of western technologies being imported. Although the Stalinist economic reforms successfully improved output there are also criticisms that can be raised as evidence that Stalin failed to address the economic problems. The fourth year plan is accused to have been inflexible as it focused on heavy industry rather than light consumer goods. These items were what the country really needed after it had been damaged by the war but instead industry was based on government priorities. Further than this, the emphasis was put on quantity rather than quality and therefore many of the goods produced were not of the highest quality. For example, in order for factory workers to reach their targets, they would produce more pairs of shoes of small sizes as this was quicker and had smaller production costs. Stalin also introduced a currency reform which was generally unsuccessful. It made life difficult for the workers as it reduced how much money was in circulation and therefore consumer products such as clothes and shoes were even scarcer than during the war. Due to the reform the black market became more active which increased corruption and crime. It is also suggested that Stalins economic policy was less successful towards the end of his time in power. The fifth five year plan should have begun in 1951, yet it was not drafted and approved until October 1952. Perhaps Stalins significant failure within economic policy was in agriculture. Despite the huge interruption of the war in production, Stalin did not focus on this policy area. Instead the peasants were treated badly and the amount of state procured grain increased to 60-70% of the harvested grain produced. Investment into agriculture also failed to be addressed. These problems lead to food shortages which further increased the problems of the black markets. Alex Nove suggests that Stalins final years were ill judged interventions of authority, excessive centralisation of decisions, insufficient investment and lack of adequate incentives. Khrushchev introduced many new reforms to try to improve industry which were fairly unsuccessful. The Sovnarkhoz reforms ended up causing another layer of bureaucracy and just formed an alternative competition (between regions rather that industry). The black market also grew under Khrushchev as it intervened to satisfy repressed demand. Arguably Khrushchevs biggest failures were within agriculture however. He insisted upon forming his own policies without any experts advice and then pushed them through bureaucracy rather than trialling them out to see if they would be successful. An obvious example of this is the Virgin Lands Campaign whereby land that was not suitable for crop growth was used for extra agricultural land. Although it did enjoy initial success the weather conditions soon destroyed any crops that had grown and the campaign had to be abandoned. Many of Khrushchevs failures are attributed to him personally, especially the lack of effective planning of the reforms and the confusion which sometimes arose. Therefore he can be partly personally blamed for the failures to address the economic problems faced by the USSR. The failures seen within Brezhnevs era are not so much destructive but rather a period of stagnation whereby the economy failed to improve. Evidence of this is found in the NMP (net material product) fell from 10.2% in 1950 to 3.6% in the 1980s. It has been suggested that the leadership didnt have an accurate view of economic performance as they were not educated well in economics and GOSPLAN was inefficient at reporting findings. An example is one of the top producing factories did not in fact exist when GOSPLAN attempted to give them an award for production. In fact the factory was run on the black market. Brezhnevs defence costs also affected the economy adversely. By 1980 the USSR was spending more on defence than the USA even though their economy was about one third of the size! Perhaps his largest failure was not to address the problems with the centralised planning system where many of the economic problems initially sprung from. Under Stalin this was successful but by this time the economy had become far too complex to be centralised. Industry also failed to modernise. For example, using the policy of storming was used whereby old equipment was run non-stop until the end of the plan which damaged equipment and wasted resources. Thompson suggests that in structural terms, soviet planners by 1980 had arguably created the worlds largest and most advanced nineteenth-century economy. In conclusion, the extent to the leaders successfully addressed the economic problems in Russia was variable under the different personalities. Stalin arguably faced the biggest challenge and due to the fact he did manage to increase production to such a large extent suggests he was the most successful. Although Khrushchev did not solve all of the problems faced, and his agricultural policies caused more harm than good, he did attempt to address the problems that the USSR were facing. On the other hand, Brezhnevs rule did not show any improvement, and further than this he did not show any attempts to improve the problems. For this reason Brezhnev can be suggested to be the least successful.

The Alamo :: essays research papers

To understand the real battle, one must appreciate its strategic context in the Texas Revolution.qv In December 1835 a Federalist army of Texan (or Texian,qv as they were called) immigrants, American volunteers, and their Tejanoqv allies had captured the town from a Centralist force during the siege of Bexar.qv With that victory, a majority of the Texan volunteers of the "Army of the People" left service and returned to their families. Nevertheless, many officials of the provisional governmentqv feared the Centralists would mount a spring offensive. Two main roads led into Texas from the Mexican interior. The first was the Atascosito Road,qv which stretched from Matamoros on the Rio Grande northward through San Patricio, Goliad, Victoria, and finally into the heart of Austin's colony. The second was the Old San Antonio Road,qv a camino real that crossed the Rio Grande at Paso de Francia (the San Antonio Crossingqv) and wound northeastward through San Antonio de Bà ©xar, B astrop, Nacogdoches, San Augustine, and across the Sabine River into Louisiana. Two forts blocked these approaches into Texas: Presidio La Bahà ­a (Nuestra Seà ±ora de Loreto Presidio) at Goliad and the Alamo at San Antonio. Each installation functioned as a frontier picket guard, ready to alert the Texas settlements of an enemy advance. James Clinton Neillqv received command of the Bexar garrison. Some ninety miles to the southeast, James Walker Fannin, Jr.,qv subsequently took command at Goliad. Most Texan settlers had returned to the comforts of home and hearth. Consequently, newly arrived American volunteers-some of whom counted their time in Texas by the week-constituted a majority of the troops at Goliad and Bexar. Both Neill and Fannin determined to stall the Centralists on the frontier. Still, they labored under no delusions. Without speedy reinforcements, neither the Alamo nor Presidio La Bahà ­a could long withstand a siege. At Bexar were some twenty-one artillery pieces of various caliber. Because of his artillery experience and his regular army commission, Neill was a logical choice to command. Throughout January he did his best to fortify the mission fort on the outskirts of town. Maj. Green B. Jameson,qv chief engineer at the Alamo, installed most of the cannons on the walls. Jameson boasted to Gen. Sam Houstonqv that if the Centralists stormed the Alamo, the defenders could "whip 10 to 1 with our artillery." Such predictions proved excessively optimistic. Far from the bulk of Texas settlements, the Bexar garrison suffered from a lack of even basic provender.

Summary and Response Essay Essay

How often do we actually use cursive writing these days? And if we don’t write incursive, should we continue to teach our children how to? This is one of the biggest questions in our education system today. Many states are eliminating this practice, while others are trying to preserve this slowing fading art. Dr. Vi Supon, tells us is in the article, Cursive Writing: Are It’s Last Days approaching?, â€Å"Indicators are that technological advances and state mandated tests, in addition to other variables, are forcing cursive writing to become a casualty of the American educational landscape.† Some people believe that the historical aspect of cursive writing is one we need to preserve. Before typewriters and computers, everything had to be hand written. It wasn’t just a form of communication in the past; many saw it as an indicator to a person’s level of education. In the past penmanship was a separate grade on report cards and students had to spend 45 minutes everyday on handwriting. Today, students might get 10 – 15 minutes a few days a week for handwriting instruction, if any. (Carpenter, 2007). Teachers today are spending more time on keyboarding skills and are teaching it at a much younger age than before. Another concern that is addressed in this debate is students who have learning disabilities and students that use English as a second language. It is harder for these students to read and write, so teachers tend to have the students use print or block form. The block form helps to better enable translations, helps with comprehension and concept attainments. When they understand what they are reading, they are better able to communicate effectively. It also helps the students focus on their compositions and not worry about their handwriting, which leads to a more logical thought process and the mechanical components are more likely in place. The block form also makes reading and assessing students work easier for the teachers to grade. And with them spending less time on deciphering writing, they are able to spend less time on grading and more time teaching. Teachers today have more content to teach and need to concentrate on the requirements for the state  tests. After reading this article I asked myself the same questions I first asked you. Having school-age children myself, I realized how much school has changed since I myself was in school. I was always taught when composing a paper to first put all your thoughts on paper and then compose into a rough draft and then final draft. All of these were always suppose to be in cursive writing. After we had our written final and the teacher looked at it, we had to type out our papers, either on a typewriter or on the computer. I always struggled with this due to the fact that I have awful handwriting. But my kids don’t seem to have any issue because their writings are done on the computer the first time and they don’t have the anxiety of how their handwriting looks. Having recently returned to school myself, I have found that a lot of the teaching methods have changed. And even though it is an adjustment, it is more practical. Thinking back I realized how much extra work I did by writing and then rewriting, followed by typing. And if I wouldn’t have spent quite so much time on trying to get my paper to look nicer, maybe I would have gotten a better grade on the report for the mechanics of the paper. Without I doubt, this debate will likely continue for quite some time. The historical, practical and essential aspects still raise many questions in today’s society. With our youth becoming more technolically advanced, we will more than likely continue to see other changes to our education system. Unfortunately, there will be other casualties of our changing educational landscape. But only time will tell what the outcomes will be. References Carpenter, C. Cursive Writing: Are It’s Last Days Approaching? Supon, Vi Cursive Writing: Are It’s Last Days Approaching?