Ridleys Sea Turtle Essays - Sea Turtles, Lepidochelys,

Ridley's Sea Turtle Sea Turtles Each species of sea turtle is distinctive in appearance and behavior, all sea turtles have certain characteristics in common the shell consist of a carapace (upper part) and plastron (lower part), which are joined together by cartilage called a bridge. in most species with the exception of the leatherback scutes cover the carapace. Like all turtles sea turtles have no external ears, they hear best at low frequencies and their sense of smell is excellent. Though their vision underwater is good, on land they are nearsighted. Sea turtles spend most of their time underwater but must come up to breath. During routine activities sea turtles can dive for about three to five minutes. Sea turtles can sleep for several hours underwater, but their ability to hold their breath is shortened by high activity and stress. This is why sea turtles drown in shrimp nets and other gear in a short time. Adult sea turtles sleep near rocks or under ledges. Hatchlings and juveniles sleep on the surface with their front flippers pulled back over the carapace. Kemp's ridley sea turtle (Lepidochelys kempi) Charming Tortoise of Kemp Ridleys are the smallest of the sea turtles. The Kemp's ridley is slightly larger than the olive ridley, measuring 24 - 28 inches in carapace length and weighing 78 - 100 pounds when mature. An adult is olive green on top and yellowish in color on the bottom, with a large head and powerful jaws. The carapace is circular to heart shaped. Hatchlings are dark gray and about an inch and a half long. Kemp's ridleys were first discovered and described in 1880 by Samuel Garman. But until the 1940's was not recognized as a species and was often confused with the olive ridley and the loggerhead. Confusion continued through the 1950's with many biologist convinced that the ridleys sea turtle was a sterile hybrid of the green and the loggerhead turtles. No one could find nesting beaches or an egg-bearing female. In 1963 an old film was discovered, made in 1947 by Mexican engineer Andres Herrera that showed nesting ridleys. The film showed an estimated 40,000 Kemp's ridleys nesting on an isolated beach now called Rancho Nuevo in Tamaulipas, Mexico, 200 miles south of Texas. Ninety-five percent of the population comes to the 17 mile strip of beach. The other five percent nest at the adjacent beach in Veracruz. No other sea turtle species goes almost entirely to one nesting spot to breed. The arribada (Spanish for arrival) of Kemp's ridleys in Mexico occurs at irregular intervals between April and June. Arribadas may occur several times a season. Male and Females congregate to mate off the coast of the beaches using wind direction velocity , lunar cycles and water temperature to gather is a theory. Once mated females wait for ideal conditions to come ashore. Conditions generally are high wind and heavy surf. The high wind cools stressed females and hides traces of the nest from predators. Mass nesting is thought to be a predator swamping where females and hatchlings will die but many more will survive. Herrera's film is now being used as a base line to measure the rapid decline of Kemp's ridleys since 1947. forty thousand turtles declined to two thousand in 1966. In 1966 Mexican officials set up its first camp to monitor and protect turtles from egg takers. In 1977, Rancho Nuevo was declared a National Reserve by Mexico. Programs were developed to help protect turtles from poachers and predators. Now eggs are moved to protective enclosures to decrease the death to predators. Every year 50,000 hatchlings are released each year. Even with these programs nest counts in 1993 showed that there were only 400 nesting females. These small numbers result in broken up arribadas into small groups and solitary nestings. The remaining females lay fewer than 1000 nest each year. The range of Kemp's ridleys is limited for the most part to the gulf of Mexico where adult forge for crabs. their favorite is blue crabs that share the same habitat as shrimp. So ridleys sea turtle is often caught in shrimp ne

Essay on Transsexualism

Essay on Transsexualism Essay on Transsexualism This is a free sample essay on Transsexualism: In 1952, few Americans were familiar with the concept of transsexualism. It was difficult to understand or acknowledge that gender was not synonymous with sex; that is, most people believed that the anatomy with which a child was born would indisputably influence his or her behavior, disposition, career choices, tastes and sexual preferences in one of two ways: male, or female. It was in that year that Christine Jorgensen was born. Christine Jorgensen was in fact a pseudonym for a 26 year old ex-GI from the Bronx named George. Since childhood Jorgensen had been haunted by his place in the sexual binary system, pulled like a magnet to a female identity despite his male genitals. He had finally decided to seek sex-reassignment surgery, an operation that was not available in America but was crudely performed by some doctors in Denmark (Brown et. al). Eventually details of Jorgensens surgery were leaked to reporters and the Daily News screamed EX-GI BECOMES BLONDE BOMBSHELL one quiet morning in December, propelling America into a frenzy of shock, outrage, and curiosity. Some people even saw the fact and publicity of such an event as an important landmark in the destruction of all moral and societal good. What most Americans and other Western citizens didnt know was that a rich history of transsexualism, transgenderism and/or gender variation had been alive and celebrated in many Non-Western societies for innumerabl e years. The Two-Spirited people of the various American Indian tribes and pre-contact south- and central-Americans are arguably the most interesting example of unique transgenderal customs, beliefs, and societal significance. Two-Spirited people, first written about in Western literature in the late sixteenth-century, were called bardaja or berdaches by European missionaries (Trexler). These words indicated a receptive role in sodomy and derived from the Persian bardah prisoner or kept boy. Despite evidence that some berdaches did provide homo-sexual services for warriors in central American tribes and the apparent frequency with which they took same-sex lovers, these individuals played a primarily gender-based, rather than sexual, role. In some cases this gender role was functional, such as in the incidences of female-born children being raised as boys to facilitate a fathers hunting in the Inuit subsistence based economies. Similarly, in families whose children had all been born male, a child in present-day Colombia may have been given a female gender to fill the role of fathers servant or caretaker of a sick mother. Generally these individuals would retain their given-gender for the rest of their live s (Trexler). It is important to realize, however, that in most indigenous cultures, the child raised Two-Spirit was not simply raised in the opposite gender role, but as a combination of the two, as notes Roscoe in The Zuni Man-Woman: [A] male lhamana would take on roles that not only included male occupational status such as farmer, weaver, shaman and story-teller, but potter and housekeeper as well, which were female roles (126). On the other hand, the majority of research on Two-Spirited people has revealed a gender role that is more spiritual than functional. In stark contrast to Europeans, indigenous Americans did not generally view the existence of a third gender as an abnormal phenomenon, but instead as a unique blend of male and female that comes with a heightened spirituality. In quite a number of tribes, such as the Navajo, parents would recognize a child that was to become a man-woman or woman-man by the way he or she acted while very young (Goulet). In the cultures of the Plains and the Prairies, as well as in parts of California and the Northeast, the choice to become a Two-Spirit was preceded by a vision or a dream, which both explained and legitimized their choice to become a gender other than woman or man (Lang, 95). In still other cultures, for example the Canadian Dene-Tha, children are gendered according to a complex system of cross-sex reincarnation beliefs (Lang, 95). Often these reasons fo r gender variance are not exclusive, i.e., a male may express a predisposition for traditionally female chores while young and later experience a spiritual instruction to become a woman, or vice-versa. Regardless of the reason for gender variance among Two-Spirited people, their dual-genders are a natural part of the Native American cultural world view that emphasize[s] and appreciate[s] transformation and change (Lang, 93). Native Americans are expected to go through many changes in a lifetime. The Navajo Ndleehà ©Ãƒ ©, in fact, means someone who is in a constant process of change (Lang, 97). ______________ is a professional essay writing service which can provide high school, college and university students with 100% original custom written essays, research papers, term papers, dissertations, courseworks, homeworks, book reviews, book reports, lab reports, projects, presentations and other assignments of top quality. More than 700 professional Ph.D. and Master’s academic writers. Feel free to order a custom written essay on Transsexualism from our professional essay writing service.

World War I Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

World War I - Essay Example The first one was between Germany and Austria-Hungary, known as the Dual Alliance. It was followed by the Austro-Serbian Alliance of 1881. Similarly, there was the triple alliance of 1882, the triple entente and Anglo-Russian Entente of 1907, and Entente Cordiale between France and Britain (Tucker 4). Thus, it was impossible for any of these nations to stay away from war if any of their allies declared war. The next important reason was imperialism. The term imperialism means one country taking over another land or territory and imposing its own rule in the new land. The beginning of twentieth century saw the spread of British Empire into all continents. Similarly, France had considerable control over much of Africa. As industrialization set in, countries started aggressively looking for more markets to sell their products. As Germany entered the competition, there was increased rivalry and enmity. In addition, increased militarism also had its role. The term militarism means the inc reased importance given to military by governments. In fact, as a result of the European divide, nations were aggressively engaged in arms race. To illustrate, both France and Germany considerably increased their military size and rivalry rose over sea turf. In order to retain their dominance at sea, Britain introduced their battleship called ‘Dreadnought’. Germans followed suit by introducing their own battleships. In addition, Germany even prepared a plan to attack France through Belgium in case Russia attacked them. Thus, militarism played its role in starting World War I. Another important reason was the rising nationalism. Some examples of this rising feeling were the re-unification of Italy and Germany. While France was angry at the loss of territory to Germany, many areas of Serbia and Austria-Hungary were disturbed by different nationalist groups. In fact, the US was engaged in trade with most of the nations involved in the world war. However, there was higher t rade with Britain and France. Thus, at that time, the US had huge economic investment with both these nations. If they lost the war, they would not be able to pay back the debt, which meant a collapse of the US economy. Secondly, both the nations were purchasing arms from US on credit. So, it was necessary for the US to see that the nations were able to pay for it. Moreover, President wanted to make the world open to democracy. Thus, there arose the general idea that France and Britain were fighting against a threat to democracy. However, one of the most important reasons is the German use of submarine warfare and the sinking of the ship Lusitania killing more than hundred Americans. Furthermore, a telegram from the German foreign secretary to the German Ambassador to Mexico was intercepted, translated and sent to America by the British. The telegraph was meant to create an alliance between Germany and Mexico. Under Title 1, section 3 of the Espionage Act, one who makes false report s or false statements could be given even twenty years imprisonment if it was found that the same was done to interfere with the operation of the military. Secondly, under title 12, postmaster general got the legal power to declare a material as un-mailable if it urged treason, or forcible resistance of the law. That means freedom of speech was seriously hampered by this. Another very serious issue was the power given to the president to censor publication of material if found harmful for the nation or useful to the enemy. It all meant that right to speech was impaired by the act. The Seditions Act added a large number of more actions in the prohibited list. It was claimed that ‘