Australopithecus Afarensis :: essays papers

Australopithecus Afarensis The species A. afarensis is one of the better known australopithecines, with regards to the number of samples attributed to the species. From speculations about their close relatives, the gorilla and chimpanzee, A. afarensis’ probable social structure can be presumed. The species was named by Johanson and Taieb in 1973. This discovery of a skeleton lead to a heated debate over the validity of the species. The species eventually was accepted by most researchers as a new species of australopithecine and a likely candidate for a human ancestor. Australopithecus afarensis existed between 3.9 and 3.0 million years ago. The distinctive characteristics of A. afarensis were: a low forehead, a bony ridge over the eyes, a flat nose, no chin, more humanlike teeth, pelvis and leg bones resembled those of modern man. Females were smaller than males. Their sexual dimorphism was males:females; 1.5. A. afarensis was not as sexually dimorphic as gorillas, but more sexually dimorphic than humans or chimpanzees. A lot of scientists think that Australopithecus afarensis was partially adapted to climbing the trees, because the fingers and toe bones of the species were curved and longer than the ones of the modern human. A. afarensis is classified as an ape, not a human. It is a Hominid, which is an ape closely related to human beings. The first fossils of a skeleton were found at Hadar; a site in northeastern Ethiopia. The team named the skeleton â€Å"Lucy† after the Beatles song, â€Å"Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds.† In terms of overall body size, brain size and skull shape, "Lucy" resembles a chimpanzee. However, A. afarensis has some surprisingly human characteristics. For example, the way the hip joint and pelvis articulate indicates that "Lucy" walked upright like a human, not like a chimp. This means that upright posture and bi-pedalism preceded the development of what we would recognize as human beings and human intelligence. All non-human primates sleep in the trees at night. So, it would seem to be that A. afarensis slept in trees also. Their skeletal structure agrees with their arboreal lifestyle. â€Å"The large premolars of A. afarensis suggests they were frugivores, and the thick enamel on the teeth suggests they may have eaten nuts, grains, or hard fruit pies† (Boyd and Silk, p.

Intelligence Definition and Measurements Essay -- Intelligence

Psychologists have differed on the definition for intelligence and how to measure intelligence. In this paper the definition of intelligence and how it is measured will be discussed by comparing and contrasting the two intelligence tests and two achievement tests chosen from the Mental Measurement Yearbook. The intelligence tests chosen were the Primary Test of Nonverbal Intelligence (PTONI) and the Test of Memory and Learning, 2nd ed., (TOMAL-2) and the achievement tests chosen were the Basic Achievement Skills Inventory (BASI) and the Differential Ability Scales, 2nd ed. (DAS-II). The measures of the intelligence tests will be evaluated for reliability, validity, normative procedure, and bias, and then compared with the achievement tests. Definition of Intelligence According to Cohen and Swerdlik, (2010), â€Å"Intelligence is a multifaceted capacity that manifests itself in different ways across the life span but in general included the abilities and capacities to acquire and apply knowledge to reason effectively and logically, to exhibit sound judgment, to be perceptive, intuitive, mentally alert, and able to find the right words and thoughts with facility, and to be able to cope with and adjust to new situations and new types of problems† (p. 277). This definition is very broad but inclusive. Professionals in psychology have different definitions and personal biases that make a standard definition difficult. Some professionals believe intelligence is observable but others believe life experiences influence and develop intelligence and form information to deal with future situations. Various psychologists, behavioral specialists and lay people have different definitions or ideas of what intelligence is. A widely accepted defini... ...ogy.about.com/od/cognitivepsychology/p/intelligence.htm Cohen, R.J., Swerdlik, M.E. (2010). Psychological testing and assessment: An introduction to tests and measurement (7th ed.). New York: McGraw Hill. Ehrler, D. J., & McGhee, R. (2008). Primary Test of Nonverbal Intelligence. Retrieved from EBSCOhost. Elliott, C. (2007). Differential Ability Scales-Second Edition. Retrieved from EBSCOhost. Gredler, G. R. (1999). The twelfth mental measurements yearbook/The thirteenth mental measurements yearbook (Book). Psychology in the Schools, 36(1), 79. Retrieved from EBSCOhost. Net Industries and its Licensors. (2011). Racial Difference-Standarized Tests and Race. Retrieved from http://social.jrank.org/pages/529/Racial-Differences-Standardized-Tests-Race.html Reynolds, C. R., & Voress, J. (2007). Test of Memory and Learning, Second Edition. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

Love You Forever Analysis

Love You Forever Book Analysis By: Matthew Strong Love You Forever is a classic heart-warming story by Robert Munsch built around a simple, but eternally meaningful commitment from a mother to a child to love him forever. Robert Munsch has become a world-renowned author of children’s books for his unique use of exaggerated expressions that produce sounds that are very appealing and fun for children. In Love You Forever Munsch uses words like â€Å"crazy† and â€Å"zoo† to add the effect of comedy but the overall theme of the story strikes chords that are much deeper than exaggerated expressions (Munsch np).Robert Munsch started Love you Forever as a song: â€Å"I’ll love you forever, I’ll like you for always, as long as I’m living my baby you’ll be† after he and his wife had two stillborn babies (Munsch, â€Å"The Books: Love You Forever†). However, the story surrounding the song was not developed until sometime later. Un derstanding where Munsch is coming from while writing Love You Forever really emphasizes the meaning of unconditional love that is so prevalent within the story, as well as, highlights the underling theme of gender stereotypes. The love that a parent has for their child is an unrestricted love that never wavers.Love You Forever presents the unconditional love that parents are expected to have for their children, despite all the mistakes they may make. In the story, when the boy pulled all the food out of the refrigerator and flushed his mothers watch down the toilet Munsch displays the mothers frustration with â€Å"this kid is driving me crazy† (Munsch np). Yet, despite the mothers obvious irritation she continually crawls into the boys room every night to pick him up and rock him back and forth while she sings â€Å" I’ll love you forever, I’ll like you for always, as long as I’m living my baby you’ll be† (Munsch np).In many cases this unc onditional parental love is the first and most important love a person will ever receive in their lifetime. In the future when developing relationships a person is able to recognize and respond to the love shown by others because of the understanding of love that was first introduced by their parents. As a person progresses from a child into an adult the understanding of the meaning of love helps them comprehend the importance of reciprocating love and compassion towards others.Munsch does a wonderful job of displaying the young boys progression through the different stages in life. And even though there is no initial indication that the boy reciprocates the love given to him by his mother when he was young. It becomes very clear that as an adult he understands the importance of reciprocating love when his mother becomes elderly and sick, and he returns the love she has unconditionally shown him by picking her up and rocking her back and forth while singing their song (Munsch np).Mu nsch shows how the reciprocation of love is crucial in allowing love to continue to exist when the man returns home to his newborn daughter and sings the same song that his mother sang to him (Munsch np). The original relationship developed by Munsch in Love You Forever is between the mother and son. Coincidently this relationship closely follows the stereotype predominately set in place by society. Society often sees women as more affectionate and nurturing than their counterpart gender, which widely leads to the assumption that women are naturally better suited for the process of raising a child.This stereotype is made obvious essentially through the entire story as neither Munsch nor the illustrator, Sheila McGraw; make any indication that the father of the boy is playing a substantial role with the mother in his upbringing. However, at the end of the story this stereotype is completely contrasted following the passing of the mother. When the boy, who is now a grown man and fathe r, returns home to his newborn daughter it is he who displays a nurturing and affectionate relationship between a father and his daughter.This role reversal developed by Munsch effectively casts aside the stereotype that women are better suited to raise a child, and demonstrates that affection and the ability to nurture are not qualities that are able to be defined by a persons gender. Munsch instead shows how these qualities are learned by a person and are displayed as they mature with age. Munsch effectively represents this progression though maturity when showing, the love the boy has for his mother is not absent during his childhood, but simply something he does not display as well as he does when he becomes an adult.Love You Forever is a wonderfully constructed story that can be enjoyed by adults and children of all ages. Although the comprehension of all the concepts within the story may not be extracted by the majority of the children, the tuneless song of â€Å" I’ll love you forever, I’ll like you for always, as long as I’m living my baby you’ll be† is fun for young children to sing along to (Munsch, â€Å"The Books: Love You Forever†). Munsch uses Love You Forever to address some very basic yet very powerful concepts.Love You Forever shows the existence of unconditional love and how important of a role the reciprocation of love plays in the development of future relationships. Furthermore, Munsch addresses the underling theme of stereotypes towards gender roles in the upbringing of a child by completely contrasting the stereotype, effectively displaying how irrelevant of a role gender plays in the ability to show affection and nurture a child. Instead it is shown that these qualities are learned by a person and are displayed as they mature with age.Love You Forever is known to raise a lot of emotion in its readers, but it is Love You Forever’s ability to connect readers to powerful heartfelt concepts t hat has ultimately made it a children’s book classic. Works Cited Munsch, Robert. Illus. Sheila McGraw. Love You Forever. Willowdale. Firefly Books Ltd. 1986. Print Munsch, Robert. The Books: Love You Forever. Official Robert Munsch Website. Barking Dogs Studios. n. d. n. d. 2012. Web. 12 October 2012

Hate Crimes: Matthew Shepard Essay

Wyoming, October 7th 1998. Aaron Kriefels is cycling in a remote rural area when he sees what at first he believes to be a scarecrow tied to a fence. He looks closer and sees not a scarecrow, but a young man badly beaten and close to death. The victims name was Matthew Shepard. On Dec. 1st 1976, Matthew Shepard was born in Casper, Wyoming. He attended elementary school in the states, but after his first year in high school his family moved to Saudi Arabia. He then attended the American School in Switzerland where he was elected as a peer mediator. His friends and peers felt comfortable talking to him and he was someone you came to when you needed advice. He was described by his father as â€Å"an optimistic and accepting young man who had a special gift of relating to almost everyone. He was the type of person who was very approachable and always looked to new challenges. Matthew had a great passion for equality and always stood up for the acceptance of people’s differences. â€Å"[1] In February 1995, during a high school trip to Morocco, Matthew was beaten, robbed, and raped, causing him to withdraw from school. According to his mother, from then on he was prone to experiencing panic attacks and depression. Although this time in his life was extremely difficult, Shepard still graduated in May then attended Catawba College in North Carolina and Casper College in Wyoming, before settling in Denver. Shepard became a first-year political science major at the University of Wyoming in Laramie, and was chosen as the student representative for the Wyoming Environmental Council. Shortly after midnight, on October 7th, 1998 Shepard met two men (Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson) at the Fireside Lounge. He was offered a ride home, but shortly after leaving they robbed, pistol-whipped and tortured him, tying him to a fence leaving him to die. Matthew was left in the freezing cold suffering from his injuries before slipping into a coma. In total, it took 18 hours before he was found and rushed to the hospital. Upon arrival it became apparent that his injuries were too severe and the doctors couldn’t operate. On October 12th, Matthew Shepard died of his injuries, never having woken up from his coma. During the trial, McKinney tried to justify his actions by originally pleading that he and Henderson were driven to temporary insanity by alleged sexual advances by Shepard. I believe this is one of the key factors in understanding why people do what they do when it comes to homosexually based hate crimes. When men ‘check out’ or ‘hit on’ women they believe it is there right. The right to gaze upon a woman’s body is something they genuinely believe is a man’s right. There is no female equivalent to a man’s gaze. It is something that is seen as powerful and socially intimidating, and when the two men in the bar noticed Shepard looking at them it made them believe they were being hit on as if they were women. Both Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson felt they needed to defend not only their masculinity but their heterosexuality. This is very important because, later on in the trial when McKinney states that while in the car Matthew made an apparent sexual advance toward him, instead of backing away McKinney begins hitting Shepard. After feeling like he had been emasculated back at the bar, I bet he was just looking for an excuse to exert power over Matt. Whether he had in fact made sexual advances toward Aaron isn’t the point, the point is that McKinney chose to defend his heterosexuality by literally beating the life out of him and showing him that he had the power. Both McKinney and Henderson were of slight build, but with Matthew being even smaller and only reaching 5’1 it only solidified in the minds of the two men their power of the homosexual man. What happens next is what changed this from a triggered â€Å"Gay Panic Defense† (which is, in my opinion a completely bogus and ridiculous excuse for those who can’t control their fists) to a hate crime and a murder. After severely beating Shepard in the moving truck, Henderson tied him to the fence. Their decision to tie his body up for everyone to see is part of their intensions to make it a public display of what they believe should be private. In an interview for the Laramie Project (a play based on the events of Matthew’s death), McKinney’s girlfriend tells writers about why the two men really decided to invite Matt into their car. After being disgusted at the thought of being hit on by a gay man they go to the bathroom where they plan to put on a gay pretense in order to lead Shepard into their vehicle and rob him. They wanted him to be punished for â€Å"coming onto straight people. † By lifting his body in midair and tethering him to the fence they were aware that someone would find him that way. They didn’t hide or trash or burry the body, they made it a spectacle. But in doing this, you can deduce that this murder wasn’t fully about Matthew Shepard. He was a trigger, he was someone they could take advantage of. They used his body to show not only to Matthew himself, but to Laramie and the surrounding community that they were defending their ‘manhood. ’ And in one of the most brutal ways you can imagine. Hate crimes towards people who are a different sexual orientation then others are more common than people think. There are a lot of organizations that try to help stop these hate crimes but I think that these situations should be in the news more often. People need to be more aware about what they say and what they do because you never know who could be listening. It could be your children who will take what you say as the truth. It could be someone walking near you or even in the same room and be deeply offended by what you say. You never know who you could offend, be it a friend, a co-worker or even a family member. People need to watch what they say because you never know who will be listening. Hate crimes must be stopped and it will take people to take action against it in order to make the world a better place.

What are the dansgers of stereotyping people Essay

What are the dansgers of stereotyping people - Essay Example Stereotyping infers a considerable amount of information about individuals beyond their apparent superficial qualities and generates expectations about their expected behavior in various situations. Stereotypes are frequently based around common aspects of a particular group including profession and occupation, sex, religious beliefs and practices, age, race and ethnicity, dressing, speech and body shape (Macrae, Stangor & Hewstone 8). There are dangers associated with stereotyping such as promoting discrimination and bias because stereotypes lack accuracy, applying stereotypes broadly such that individual characteristics are overlooked, making serious misjudgments about people and distorting the view of a particular group and consequently damaging relationships. One danger of stereotyping is that it takes on universal meaning, being applied to all members of a particular group. If this occurs with lack of accuracy, stereotyping not only becomes damaging, but also affects the way those who are thought to belong to the particular group being stereotyped are talked about and treated. It is apparent that how a group of people is seen influences in part how they are treated. Stereotypes may come to be the accepted way of thinking about members of a particular group, with no acknowledgement of diverse individual characteristics. Stereotyping can result in misunderstandings, which, if not challenged, can severely damage relationships among different groups. An example of this is the race riots and violence of 1980s (Brunsch 9).Stereotyping results in discrimination and persecution of the oppressed groups. For instance, the stereotyping of Asian Americans has led to denial of their civil rights and even homicide such as the killing of Chinese American Vincent Chin by individuals who thought he was a Japanese American (Brunsch 10). Moreover,

Obesity in Children Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Obesity in Children - Research Paper Example As the discussion stresses  morbidly obese children also suffer from emotional distress as a result they develop profuse eating habits and feel delighted if they get all the eatables they wish for, thereby developing a tendency to eat constantly and still remain dissatisfied even after consuming a large full meal. It is observed that children consume junk food items and snacks, containing high proportion of fat, salt and sugar contributing to the obesity. The most favorite food items for kids of present epoch are ice creams, soda pop, hamburgers, cheeseburgers, pizza, French fries made of potatoes rich in starch, milk shakes containing excessive sugar, chips, and candy bars. These food items are devoid of fibers and are rich in fats and cholesterol. Instead of consuming raw vegetables and fruits children of the present era like to opt for juice with sugar, as fibers are being strained out from these juices they are devoid of providing nutrition that could act as roughage.  This p aper discusses that  the life style and schedule also paves the way for bad eating habits. Working parents get little time for their children to train them for developing good eating habits. Parents leave little time for attending the kids and discussing with them their issues and concerns, their likes and dislikes.  Working mother seldom gets time to cook food for their kids and thereby forcing the kids to opt for the readymade food stuff available in the market.

Operation Management - Maritime, Oil Spills Research Paper

Operation Management - Maritime, Oil Spills - Research Paper Example Discussion Oil spillage has extreme negative impacts on the environment in terms of pollution. This affects the communities that heavily depend on water for their lively hoods and their survival. The most directly affected by oil spills are the marine plants and animals because they live in the same environment that spillage takes place. Spillage can be as a result of oil seeping from the underwater reservoir, accidents of ships carrying oil and also from land sources. The sea animals are subject to both indirect and direct repercussions of oil spillage. According to Neff (2002), some of the direct effects include; inhalation problems, which commonly affect whales, dolphins and sea turtles. These animals require oxygen for their survival. They animals usually come to the water surface constantly to inhale oxygen. The inhalation of dangerous materials can cause irritation, pneumonia or inflammation of their respiratory organs. Negative impacts can also be felt on their digestion mecha nisms where these animals are unable to either digest or absorb food. Human beings are also directly affected by oil spills. When oil spills, it creates a vapor in the air which is as a result of evaporation of oil in the air since oil is a semi –volatile product. ... Oil spill also affects mangrove trees whose rate of growth tends to be slow when their prop roots are covered with oil (Burger, 1994). Oil spillage has posed a very significant challenge on fisheries which also acts as a food reservoir. Oil spills has affected the genetics of some fish which has affected their egg bearing. Oil spillage may also lead to extinction of certain types of fish in the sea in the near future which may lead to the closure of fisheries if several types of fish become extinct in the sea. Oil spills may cause loss of color on fish and lead to their loss of weight the reasons that may cause fishing to be closed for some time because this fish will be unfit for human consumption thereby causing food shortage (Neff, 2002). Boats and other sea vessels are prone to destruction because of running on viscous and thick layers of oil which have resulted from oil leaked from pipes in the underwater. Some thick oil globules present in the water due to oil spillage may be s ucked in the boat’s systems, which definitely affect the functioning of the boat due to the fact that all systems draw water into the boat near the surface. For it to function well, a very strategic cleanup process is used to disperse and manage the mess. Many ships, boats and other sea vessels may tend to avoid their travelling schedules until the oil spillages under control thus causing congestion of traffic and goods to be transported (Burger, 1994). Trade may also be adversely affected by oil spillage due to various factors. One of factors may be due to interruption of transportation lines where boats and other marine vessels may fail to operate due to oil