Views on the Effects of the Advent of Agriculture
4,000 BC:
Today, I awoke when the sun was just over the treetops. It was wonderful to be
able to sleep in again. Our last hunt was so successful, we've had enough meat to feed the entire tribe for three days, now, and we feel that it will suffice until tomorrow, when we'll go out again. The big game is everywhere, lately. Later on this afternoon, I plan on taking our tribe's oldest son out into the wilderness to help him with his spear-throwing technique. I slept with one of the women of our tribe last night. My cousin will lay with her tonight, and her sister has asked me to lay with her . For some reason, the rythm of the furs seems to be most passionate just before a hunt. Perhaps it's the beat of the drums of the Ceremony of the Hunt; the dancing of the bon-fire flames; the voices of men and women shouting the invocations of the Bison-gods, again thanking them for the sucess of the last hunt. We praise them for the abundance they provide. So tomorrow, we will again set out to find another herd of large game which will hopefully feed us for another three or four days. We follow the game. No two more than four or five nights are ever spent in the same place. It is the dynamic nature of our people. If we stay too long in one place, the Earth will not provide for us. We must move on. Nothing is more refreshing than seeing the dawn in an entirely new surrounding (except, perhaps, not seeing the dawn at all, because the previous evening was so good).
1,500 BC:
I killed my brother yesterday. He fornicated with my woman. I came home from
my days work, harvesting the potatoes, and found him mounting her in my own house. It
was my right to take his life. The rest of the village was pleased with my actions. I was protecting my possessions. When I first caught the two of them, I called two of my cousins to help detain my brother. That evening, we held a meeting with the chief and all the wise men of the village. It was decreed that I was to take his life in full view of the whole village. The only time such things are allowed is during the Fertility Dances which take place only once a year, and whose time is dictated by the chief.
``In criminal law, confession evidence is a prosecutor’s most potent weapon’’ (Kassin, 1997)—“the ‘queen of proofs’ in the law” (Brooks, 2000). Regardless of when in the legal process they occur, statements of confession often provide the most incriminating form of evidence and have been shown to significantly increase the rate of conviction. Legal scholars even argue that a defendant’s confession may be the sole piece of evidence considered during a trial and often guides jurors’ perception of the case (McCormick, 1972). The admission of a false confession can be the deciding point between a suspect’s freedom and their death sentence. To this end, research and analysis of the false confessions-filled Norfolk Four case reveals the drastic and controversial measures that the prosecuting team will take to provoke a confession, be it true or false.
After reading McKibben and Hurst’s articles in the book Food Matters, both authors present arguments on “industrial farming”, and although Hurst provides a realistic sense on farming, McKibben’s suggestions should be what we think about.
One night he sprang from sleep with a start, eager-eyed, nostrils quivering and scenting, his mane bristling in recurrent waves. From the forest came the call(or one note of it, for the call was many noted), distinct and definite as never before—a long-drawn howl, like, yet unlike, any noise made by husky dog. And he knew it, in the old familiar way, as for as sound heard before. He sprang through the sleeping camp and in swift silence dashed through the woods. As he drew closer to the cry
A typical day begins with me waking up in my family's hut, a hut that I had a big hand in building. It is made of adobe bricks and I sealed it with a straw and mud mixture. My hut houses my wife and my child. My wife usually stays in our home to take care of my child and tend to the housework. While my wife works in our hut, I join the other men of our tribe to work in our village on the farming and occasionally hunting. Lately there are fewer animals around, but I look forward to hunting because I get the chance to use the hides of the animals to make new clothing.
In the adversarial justice system, when the offender admits to the criminal act, there is no further controversy and the case promptly proceeds to sentencing. Physical evidence and victim or witness statements may often be overlooked and not considered. The confession is considered unequivocal evidence of guilt and a conviction is ensured. Indeed, the interrogation process’ sole purpose is to obtain a confession. Zimbardo (1967) estimated that “of those criminal cases that are solved, more than 80% are solved by a confession.” (Conti, 1999) Without the confession, convictions may be reduced significantly. So why does a person falsely confess to a crime if the likelihood of a conviction is eminent? A false confession to any crime is self-destructive and counterintuitive.
In this novel A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway, Hemingway brings about the evolution of Frederick Henry being converted into a code hero in realistic ways.
When you get up each morning and look outside your window looking out at the beautiful
It is 5:30am on opening morning of deer hunting season and my alarm explodes into a racket that would wake an army. I roll out of bed and rub the sleep from my eyes. I only slept six hours last night because my family and I were preparing for the hunt, getting the guns ready, laying out a clothes-man, everything. As I throw some pants on, the smell of fresh pancakes wakes me up. It is at this time I realize the season is upon us. Since January I have been waiting for this day to come, today begins the annual nine day season that brings our family together each November.
The Holocaust is often considered one of the darkest and most heinous periods in modern history, however there are numerous accounts of heroism and selfless charity to emerge from the ashes. Despite the Nazi regime’s stranglehold on European affairs during a large part of the second world war, their radical and racially charged agenda was not universally accepted amongst German citizens and Nazi officials. The fear of strict punishment at the hands of the SS squashed popular outcry over the atrocities, but it did not stop the heroic acts of a few compassionate and unassuming individuals. One such hero is Oskar Schindler, a German industrialist who spearheaded an effort to protect his Jewish factory workers from the uncertain fate of the the Jewish ghettos and concentration camps. When asked about his motives Schindler reported, "I just couldn't stand by and see people destroyed. I did what I could, what I had to do, what my conscience told me I must do" (Schindler). Though Schindler was himself a registered member of the Nazi party he would would ultimately be responsible for saving the lives of some twelve hundred Jews by wars end. However, the original twelve hundred are merely a portion of Schindler’s lasting impact and the real significance is in the “nearly 7,000 living descendants of Schindlerjuden (Schindler’s Jews)” (Sandweiss). Thus, Schindler’s legacy was cemented in his defiance and in his preservation of future generations of Jews around the world.
Transpiration is the loss of water vapour from the leaves of plants; a process that begins when water is carried from the roots of a plant to small pores on the underside of leaves, where the majority of it is changed to water vapour and released into the atmosphere (United States Geological Survey (USGS), 2014). Transpiration has three major roles in the life of a plant. The first is to transport water and other essential minerals around the plant. Plants use xylem vessels, which are vertically elongated vessels with lignified walls, to transport water and dissolved minerals from the roots to the leaves, where they can be used for photosynthesis and cell growth (Roberts, King, 1987). Phloem vessels transport carbohydrates, created during photosynthesis, from the leaves to the rest of the plant to be used in growth (Whiting, 2010). Plants also use transpiration as an evaporative cooling system. This is possible because the process of evaporation is an endothermic reaction; it requires energy to break the hydrogen bonds between liquid water molecules, changing them to free water molecules, or, water vapour. This energy is taken from the leaf in the form of heat, which, in turn, cools the plant (Plant and Soil Sciences, 2014). Transpiration also helps to keep the plant stiff and upright. As water leaves the plant, via evaporation, more is brought up through the roots, maintaining a constant amount of water in the plant pushing against the cell walls; this is known as turgor pressure (Whiting, 2010).
The greenhouse gases are those that absorb the Earths radiation and thus contribute to the greenhouse effect, but water is also a major absorber of energy. Where there is an increase in the concentration of greenhouse gases (as with CO2 due to the burning of fossil fuels) this results in an enhanced greenhouse effect - which is of concern as it could lead to climate change (i.e. global warming).
It was a calm, overcast day, and I found myself resting at the side of a large oak tree, admiring the beauty of the woods that surrounded me.
It was a beautiful day like any other with the clear blue sky and the
Agriculture is quite possibly the most important advancement and discovery that humanity has made. It produces the one thing that we need the most: food. It has been around since 9500 BC, and can be the oldest sign of mankind’s acumen and the development and evolving of our minds and creations. Agriculture has been mastered throughout hundreds of years and is one of our most important resources on Earth, along with water and fossil fuels. Although the older farming methods from ancient times seem somewhat mediocre and barbaric, they were very ingenious and advanced for that time period. Over thousands of years, we have improved the way agriculture is used, how land is cultivated, the various techniques of farming and irrigation, and the tools and mechanics used. Numerous things that we see as aboriginal today, such as using a hand plow, were extremely contemporary in ancient times, and played key roles in the development of man and society, since quick labor was not abundant before this time. We are now extremely advanced in agriculture and irrigation and the tools used to farm and grow and harvest crops. We have learned from our past and ancestors how to grow and evolve in our methods and have advanced forward greatly.
It was one of those days where you’re glad to be awake early in the morning, before the afternoon gets scorching hot. The feeling of the cool breeze gently caressing your arms and legs is always something to look forward to, and many people would be swayed into taking a nice walk outside under the trees.