A survey of scientific responses to extinction at the present moment is fairly unambiguous, however. Paleontologist James Kirchner calculated in 2002 that extinction rates could more or less be statistically inferred from the fossil record, and uses this to quantify what he terms "evolutionary speed limits," which is to say the rate at which the Darwinian process of natural selection (which depends upon the effective extinction of species insofar as they will diversify and evolve into other species) to note that, in the current moment, the extinction rate proceeds so rapidly that "diversification rates are unlikely to accelerate enough to keep pace with it. Thus, widespread depletion of biodiversity would probably be permanent on multimillion-year timescales." (67). This emphasis on biodiversity, which is of course readily quantifiable by science, is ambiguous however, insofar as there is no ready way to predict the consequences of such a rapid decline in biodiversity.…...

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Works Cited

"African Rhino Poaching Crisis." Retrieved online:  http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/endangered_species/rhinoceros/african_rhinos/poaching_crisis_african_rhinos/ 

Barnosky, Anthony D. et al. "Approaching a state shift in Earth's biosphere." Nature 486 (2012): 52-8. Print.

Bradley, J. et al. "Biodiversity Loss and its Impact on Humanity." Nature 486 (2012): 59-67. Print.

Bowler, Peter. Charles Darwin: The Man and His Influence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996. Print.

Biology
Mammal: African Black hinoceros

eproductive Process: Females reproduce every 2-1/2 years

Five Physical Characteristics: Warm blooded; Gray skin; Eats trees and bushes; solitary; night feeders

eason for Endangerment: Poaching (mainly to collect the horn and use in Traditional Chinese Medicine)

Common Ecosystems/Geographic Area: Sub-Saharan Africa in areas with tree and bushes

Web site and picture: http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/black-rhinoceros/

Bird: California Condor

eproductive Process: Nesting in crevices; produce very few young (usually only one); takes 56 days to incubate egg; provide extensive care for young; young stays with parents a long time

Five Physical Characteristics: Ten-foot wing span; white to reddish colored head; cold-blooded; eats carrion of larger animals like deer;

easons for Endangerment: Habitat destruction; hunting

Common Ecosystems/Geographic Area: mountains with woods; scublands in California, Mexico, Arizona

Web site and picture: http://animal.discovery.com/guides/endangered/birds/california-condor.html

eptile: Komodo Dragon

eproductive Process: Mating season is June; Male chooses female for mating; female lays egg in nest; gestation for one month; cluster of a dozen or more (up to 30); eggs…...

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Reason for Endangerment: Overfishing (caviar)

Common Ecosystem: Salt water (Black and Caspian Seas)

Web site:  http://animal.discovery.com/guides/endangered/fish/russian-sturgeon.html

Scholastic: 1993
Curious young astronomers who ask, "what are stars made of?" And "Why do astronauts float in space?" will find answers here. A brief survey of the universe in a question and answers format.

Reading level: Ages 4-8

Paperback: 28 pages

ISBN: 0439465834

Tayleur, K. Excuses! Survive and Succeed by David Montimore Baxter. (Mankato, MN) Stone Arch Books: 2007

Young David Mortimore Baxter, who knows how to stay out of trouble, shares excuses for avoiding chores, bullies, homework, and vegetarian dinners. David experiences his fifteen minutes of fame and the impacts it has on his friends and family.

Reading level: 9-12

Paperback: 80 pages

ISBN: 1598892053

Williams, M. The Velveteen Rabbit. Square Fish: 2008.

By the time the velveteen rabbit is dirty, worn out, and about to be burned, he has almost given up hope of ever finding the magic of love. The original "Toy Story."

Reading level: Ages 4-8

Paperback: 48 pages

ISBN: 0312377509

Active learning projects for classrooms or libraries:

1) Read…...

Thus, many shipments go to another destination before the United States or Europe in order to throw law enforcement off of the trail. For cocaine coming out of Colombia, West Africa and Venezuela, home to rogue states and dictatorships, have become popular transit hubs.
The increased transportation of goods accompanying globalization has increased opportunities for maritime piracy. Organized crime is exploiting the increasingly dense international flow of commercial vessels. Maritime piracy consists not only of hijacking of goods, but also kidnapping of passengers for ransom. (UNODC, 2010, p. 11)

OC groups engaged in pirating do not often begin as OC groups. Pirates off the cost of Somalia started as local Somali fishermen who formed vigilante groups to protect their territorial waters. These armed ships eventually exceeded their mandate of mere protection and began to hijack commercial ships for goods. These activities have proved so profitable that these groups are now drifting…...

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Bibliography

Lyman, M.D. & Potter, G.W. (2007). Organized Crime. New York: Prentice Hall

Abadinsky, H. (2010). Organized crime. Belmont, Calif: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning.

Mallory, S.L. (2007). Understanding organized crime. Sudbury, Mass: Jones and Bartlett.

Kaplan, D.E., & Dubro, A. (2003). Yakuza: Japan's criminal underworld. Berkeley: University of California Press.

The film is also more delicate in spirit and gentle, as befits a pure fantasy rather than a fantastic satire. Instead of rolling and careening about crushing evil people like the aunts and destroying things in its wake like James' former house, the cinematic peach is soon taken aloft by beautiful seagulls on gossamer webs. The film, although satirical like the book in its exposure of grown-up's bad behavior and the triumph of children, contains such moments to soften some of the blows of its humor.
Another important element of the film not contained in the book is the way that James' parents have died. In the book, this is told in an off-hand, funny, and cruel manner -- they are devoured by a rhinoceros who has escaped from the London zoo. In the film, the viewers actually see James' life before he has to move in with his aunts,…...

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Works Cited

Dahl, Roald. James and the Giant Peach. New York: Puffin, 2000.

James and the Giant Peach." Directed by Harry Selick. 1996.

Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science by Charles Wheelan
Biographical Sketch of Author

Charles Wheelan, author of Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science, is not a traditional economics expert, in that his background education goes beyond economics. He has an MPA from Princeton University and a PhD in public policy from the Harris School at the University of Chicago's School of Public Policy in 1998. He has focused his attention on economics and its impact on public policy and politics. He currently works as a senior lecturer at the Harris School. He is widely known as the author of Yahoo! feature on economics. He has worked at the Midwest correspondent for The Economist. He has also worked as a finance correspondent for WBEZ Chicago Public adio, an adjunct lecturer at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, and as the director of policy and communications for Chicago Metropolis 2020. Wheelan is best known…...

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References

Wheelan, C. (2010). Naked economics: undressing the dismal science. New York: W.W.

Norton Company and Inc.

A secondary objective of the study will be to identify common trends in the theatre of the absurd outside the works of Harold Pinter, and to place Pinter's works in the context of the larger theatrical movement. An examination of other playwrights associated with the theatre of the absurd, as well as scholarship and criticism concerning this genre of theatre, will be used to create and explore this context within the study. Pinter's influence on the theatre of the absurd as well as the influence that the larger movement had on Pinter will also be examined.

Methodology

The study will be composed of five chapters, beginning with a discussion of the elements of Aristotelian drama. Titled, "Introduction: Aristotelian Theatre," this chapter will begin with a discussion of the elements of theatre as described in Aristotle's Poetics, followed by a cursory examination of the dramatic and theatrical conventions this work led to over…...

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Bibliography

Albee, Edward. Three Plays. New York: Coward McCann, 1960.

Albee, Edward. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? New York: Penguin, 2005.

Aristotle. Poetics. trans. Malcolm Heath. New York: Penguin, 1997.

Brustein, Robert. "The Absurd and the Ridiculous." New Republic, Vol. 146, Issue 12, p30-31.

humans as a concept.
The arguments in favor of the uniqueness of humans

Tool use.

Language, culture, and symbolic production.

Thinking about the future and other behaviors.

The arguments against the uniqueness of humans/tool use, language, culture, and cognition in other animals.

Apes and dolphins.

hales.

Elephants.

The arguments in favor of the uniqueness of humans.

Tool use -- Munger and Shaw.

Language and culture -- Munger, Shaw, & Shipman.

Thinking about the future -- Munger.

Non-reproductive heterosexual intercourse -- Sapolsky.

"The animal connection" -- Shaw & Shipman.

Tool use increases human hunting capability and understanding of animals.

Symbolic behavior/representation of animals.

Domestication of animals.

Argument against the uniqueness of humans: tool use and culture in apes and dolphins.

A. Tool use and cultural transmission in apes -- Joyce and Munger

B. Tool use and cultural transmission in dolphins - Retica

IV. Argument against the uniqueness of humans: language and cultural diversity in whales and elephants.

A. hale language -- Khamsi

B. hale cultural diversity -- Keim

C. The breakdown of elephant culture…...

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Works Cited

Binns, Corey. "Case Closed: Apes Got Culture." Live Science. 28 Feb 2006. Web. 16 Jun 2011.

.

Harmon, Katherine. "Monkey see; Monkey regret." Scientific American. 14 May 2009. Web. 16

Jun 2011. .

ecause is easily shaped, these above-mentioned items were made to form by a skilled craftsman's hammer and by casting; gold was engraved and embossed; gold was used in granule form for decorative purposes; gold was pounded into thin sheets for "covering furniture, wooden coffins… for plating copper and silver and for cutting into thin strips to make wire" (Lukas, 264).
Lukas explains that he measured several specimens of sheet gold (actually gold foil) and those items varied from 0.17 mm to 0.54 mm in thickness; he also measured the leaf gold and it ran from 0.01 mm to 0.09 mm. These measures clearly show the talent of ancient Egyptian craftsmen, who were using tools that compared with today's technological sophistication were quite crude, and yet showed remarkable skill in producing what they did.

Ancient Egyptians -- men and women -- loved jewelry, according to professor Eric Cline from George Washington University…...

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Bibliography

Cline, Eric H., and Rubalcaba, Jill. 2005, The Ancient Egyptian World. Oxford University Press: New York.

Corti, Christopher, and Holliday, Richard, 2009, Gold: Science and Applications. CRC Press: Boca Raton, FL.

History-World.org. 2008, 'International World History Project / The Scythians', retrieved August 5, 2011, from http://history-world.org/scythians.htm.

Holmes, Frank. 2011, 'Jewelry drives up demand for gold', The Christian Science Monitor, Retrieved August 5, 2011, from  http://www.csmonitor.com .

Extra-Credit Questions
Questions on Readings

There are different kinds of peril that a person can find himself (in this case) in, and Macready and Macon Detornay find themselves embedded in several of them, in large measure because of their own actions, including their own attitudes about the position that they hold in the world in which they spend their lives. Detornay is more clearly culpable for the problems in which he finds himself because these are dangers into which he places himself. Lacking what he perceives to be an authentic life, he casts off the superficial markers of the community in which he has been raised and to which his life has accommodated him, he pretends that he can live a more authentic life by becoming what he sees as an urban black. Not only does this place him at occasional physical risk but on a consistent basis in moral and psychological…...

Archaeology
Although named after La Gravette in the Dordogne in France, the Gravettian culture was largely focused in Central Europe (Lysianassa). The Gravettian culture probably migrated there from the Middle East, Anatolia, and the Balkans ("History of Europe" 2). The Gravettian culture is generally believed to be a subset of the larger group called the Aurignacian, and portable items like figurines and tools figured prominently among the people. Their frequent and large-scale migratory patterns show that portable figurines like the Venus of Dolni Vestonice were important objects to the Gravettian culture.

In general, the Gravettian culture "represents subsistence innovations, burial customs, landscape organization, the beginnings of art, projectile technology and other non-utilitarian elements of human behavior, (Lysianassa). In addition to small ceramic objects like the Venus of Dolni Vestonice, the Gravettian people produced cave paintings and other decorative arts. Lienard notes that the Gravettian people were "seriously producing art objects," which had…...

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Works Cited

De Laet, Sigfried J. History of Humanity: Prehistory and the Beginnings of Civilization. Taylor & Francis, 1994.

Haynes, Gary. The Early Settlement of North America. Cambridge University Press, 2002.

"History of Europe." Wikimedia Foundation. Retrieved online: http://books.google.com/books?id=Kiug84qYTaYC&pg=PA2&dq=gravettian+culture&hl=en&sa=X&ei=nDuHT7akBI-s8QTms9S0CA&ved=0CEUQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=gravettian%20culture&f=false

Lienard, John H. "The Dolni Vestonice Ceramics." Engines of Our Ingenuity. Retrieved online:  http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi359.htm

Art History ime ravel
Our first stop will be the eighteenth century, where we will investigate Neoclassical painting. We will be visiting Sir Joshua Reynolds, as he works on his 1770 oil on canvas "Portrait of a Black Man" -- and we will be asking if the heroic structure of the painting is meant to contain some sort of ideological message, for example asserting the humanity of his subject against the evils of slavery (which was then still common). We should also find out if indeed the portrait is of Dr. Samuel Johnson's servant Francis Barber, as Johnson's progressive attitude in opposing slavery (and his generous treatment of Barber, to whom he left his estate) might explain why this figure is treated heroically in the painting. hen we will visit Jacques-Louis David, as he works on his stark 1793 Neoclassical oil on canvas depiction of "he Death of Marat." We will…...

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The time machine will stop next in the later nineteenth century, when we will investigate some Impressionist painting. Our first stop will be in London in 1875, to interrogate the American painter James Abbott McNeill Whistler about his oil on canvas study "Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket." We will want to interrogate him about the lawsuit that he filed against the art critic John Ruskin, who accused him of "flinging a pot of paint in the public's face" with this daring painting. We will also interrogate Whistler as to whether he would consider the painting to be Impressionist or not -- it seems like he may have considered it to be straightforward realism (fading fireworks in the night sky do look like this painting) but chose the obscure subject to illustrate a Wildean idea of art for art's sake. We will then move to Claude Monet's garden at Giverny, where we will attempt to catch him completing his 1897-8 "Nympheas" (one of his famous paintings of water lilies, now in the LA County Museum of Art). Monet is a textbook Impressionist painter, but we will interrogate him as to whether his problems with his own eyesight (he developed cataracts) had any influence on his signature style.

In the first half of the twentieth century, we will investigate Surrealism. We will locate Meret Oppenheim in 1936, as she completes her notorious "Object" -- frequently known as "the fur teacup" or "the furry breakfast." Oppenheim's work is perhaps the most memorable example of Surrealism in sculpture -- but we can ask her if the dream-like associations of the piece (is it intended to be strongly vaginal? does it relate to her status as a woman artist?) were intentional on her part, or whether she was merely giving free rein to her subconscious as Surrealists frequently attempted. Then we will find Salvador Dali in 1954, as he completes his large and disturbing oil on canvas painting "Young Virgin Auto-Sodomized By The Horns Of Her Own Chastity." We can interrogate Dali as to the meaning of the symbolism of the painting: why would the chastity of a virgin take the form of a rhinoceros horn about to penetrate her own anus? Is Dali suggesting that sexual repression is self-destructive?

Finally in the latter half of the

ut neophytes should not attempt to do this. Halved coconuts can be dried in one of two ways. The first is by letting them dry by the heat of the sun, which takes a longer time. The other and faster way is by heating them. A bamboo house or shack without walls is built at about 3 feet above the ground. It has only a roof and a floor. The halved coconuts are piled on the floor. Some coconut husks are piled beneath the shack but not too close to burn the shack. A torch is used to set fire on these piled coconut husks but they are monitored carefully. More fire is set if it turns low. The halved coconuts turn brown and separate from the shells when ready for scooping. Just enough heat from medium to low is used to avoid burning. When the fruits at the…...

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Albert, Jose Ramon G. How Important is Agriculture in the Economy? National

Statistical Coordination Board: Philippine Statistics Authority, 2013. Retrieved on May 1, 2014 from  http://www.nscb.gov.ph/beyondthenumbers/2013/04122013_jrga_agri.asp 

Baas, Stephen and Ramasamy, Selvaraju. Coconut Leaf Pruning in Bicol Region,

Philippines. Technologies and Practices for Small Agricultural Producers, 2013.

However, those that study ancient history would not be the only ones that would be interested in this information. Those that study culture, communication, and interaction would also be interested in this type of information and description, since much of the information found in this context can help provide valuable information as to how people interacted with one another in older times, and whether their methods of cultural interaction have changed with the times or remained virtually the same in the face of technology and other issues.
3. hat is the main concern of the author in this passage?

The author's main concern is that those that read the passage understand what the Periplus is and the different ports that had been visited. Also important to the author is what these ports have to offer, since various ports have different items that they can offer to traders. Knowing how to get…...

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Works Cited

Erythraei, Maris, (1989). Ed. Lionel Casson. The Periplus. Princeton University Press: 59-61.

Periplus. (2005). Wikipedia.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Periplus .