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The Evolution of Animation by AS

11/2/2022

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​It is 1937, the audience, some with tears streaming down their cheeks, is hushed as the seven dwarfs surround Snow White’s glass resting place with flowers. “Is this the end? It can’t be?” people whisper from seat to seat. Then when everyone is sure the Princess is truly gone, the prince arrives. He dismounts his horse, walks down the trail, kisses the motionless Princess, and she awakens. The theater roars with applause. The first full-length animated film is a success, and so is the work of 750 artists who created over two million drawings. For that final scene alone, 12 to 24 hand drawn water-colored transparent sheets were created to animate each second of those emotional last three minutes. Animation, the illusion of movement, has evolved from simple images flickering in candlelight cast on a blank wall to a unique method of communicating feelings and ideas through cartoons, short-films, and full-length movies with techniques involving 2-D animation, 3-D animation, and stop motion animation.
Throughout history, children have drawn a series of pictures, stacked them together one after another, then flipped the pages with their thumbs so the images appear to move. Animation is like those early flip books only; it involves millions of drawings to create the magic in a film like “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”. To completely recognize the evolution of animation, it is important to understand what the word means. Author Alyssa Maio identifies it as “A method of photographing successive drawings, models, or even puppets, to create an illusion of movement in a sequence” in her article “What is Animation? Definition and Types of Animation''. The movement and speed of those images is based on two things-the human eye and the brain. “Our eyes can only retain an image for approx. 1/10 of a second,” explains the author, “and when multiple images appear in fast succession, the brain blends them into a single moving image”.  Adding color to those images stimulates the brain to the point that an emotional effect is created in the viewer, but it all starts with the drawing. Steve Little in his video “The Animation Process from 1938” states that it is the “artists after much trial and error [create] several hundred rough drawings illustrating the high points of each story”. Each drawing must show a slight movement of the character so when speed is added to the sequence, every gesture, twinkle of the eye, or step taken tells the brain the character or object is moving. As with all things, animation had a beginning, and while some believe it began when man first painted on a cave wall, the time frame is not thousands of years but less than 150 years ago. 

Before the illusion of movement entranced theater goers in 1937 with the showing of Snow White, Christian Huygens, a 17th century Dutch Scientist, imagined that educating his students could be enhanced if he were able to project his images of the skeletal body on a screen. His device “was the earliest form of a slide projector . . . illuminated by candles” (Kelly). Huygens’s creation was the magic lantern. It used a mirror with a reflective surface that curved inward set-in front of a candle. The light reflected through an image painted on a glass slide and was shown on a screen. Huygens’ first pictures were “hand painted on glass slides. Initially, figures were rendered with black paint” (Kelly). With the candle as the light, the flame flickered and so did the image on the screen. That is why his device was also called “lantern fright” (Kelly). However, by the 18th century the magic lantern moved from education to entertainment. “Magic Lantern Shows”, as they were called, used something like an early overhead projector to cast images of silhouetted puppets moved by a puppeteer back and forth. The Magic Lantern shows may have been an illusion of movement, but the 19th century is where true animation began. 
Initially, audiences were drawn to the simple movement of figures flickering on the screen, but it wasn’t until 1832 that the first true animation device was created by Joseph Plateau. Using the persistence vision principle which is “an optical illusion where visual perception continues after the object itself has ceased to exist” (“Persistence of Vision | Dictionary of Important Terms in Animation ''), Plateau developed a spinning disc called a “Phénakisticope . . .[which] created a fluent illusion of motion” (Maio). The phenakistoscope was a disc with drawings of a figure in various positions centered around the middle A slit was made between each image, and the disc was then spun in front of a mirror using a spindle in the middle. As the user looked through the slits in the mirror’s reflection, the eye and brain worked together to see constant motion—the illusion of movement.

From that simple device, the evolution of animation continued to advance. In 1908, Emile Cohl, a French cartoonist, created an eighty second film. He drew seven hundred images of a stick man using various objects traced on an illuminated glass plate. In 1914, “Gertie the Dinosaur'' appeared as the first cartoon with a cute dinosaur as the main character. Then in 1928 when Disney created “Steamboat Willie ''. The success of that cartoon worked on Walt Disney to produce “the first ever full-length animated film. ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'’” (“History of Animation Timeline”). Before the 1930s, flat characters and backgrounds were drawn on cels and only moved from side to side, but when “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs' ' was created in 1937 characters had dimension and a movement not seen before. In the book, “Shadow of a Mouse '', the author, Donald Crafton identifies this time period in animation as “extraordinarily rapid” in the way animation looked and felt. The early history of animation is full of examples where cartoons, short films and full-length movies communicated feelings, ideas and laughs, but the best was yet to come when two-dimensional and three-dimensional animation were developed.
Earlier than three-dimensional (3-D) animation, artists drew images that were like a photograph. Each drawing in two-dimensional animation is displayed only by its width and height, which means there is no depth or thickness in 2-D. It is “the art of creating movement in a two-dimensional space. This includes characters, creatures, FX, and backgrounds” (Stefyn). Examples of 2-D films include “Beauty and the Beast” and “Pinocchio”.  However, that all changed when the computer met animation. In 1993, “Apple computer company produced a method for creating 3-D films, and in 1995 Toy Story was released as the first full-length 3-D film. The animation industry would never be the same” (“History of Animation Timeline”) 3-D animation is more complex because it creates a 3-dimensional image digitally, so the illusion of movement provides characters that are closer to real in appearance and action.

Subsequently, a 3-D animator builds the body from the bone structure to little details like hair and accessories. “In 3-D animated movies, the animator uses a program to move the character’s body parts around. They set their digital frames when all the parts of the character are in the right position. They do this for each frame, and the computer calculates the motion from each frame”(Maio). For example, in the movie “Finding Dory '' the character Hank is an octopus, but because in real life the octopus has no bones, they had to devise a new way to build an octopus and could only manage to give him seven arms. This required numerous joints to be included in the original animation until it could fluidly move within the animation. 3-D animation has made shows such as “Arcane” possible.“Arcane” is a combination of 3-D and 2-D animation which allows the animators to give the characters a more human appearance and movements. Whether the animation is in 2-D or 3-D, the creation of the computer opened the way for animation to evolve into what we view today, and the advancement even enhanced the way stop motion animation is created.

In the same way that the computer made 2-D and 3-D easier to create, it lessened the time needed to make stop motion films. Stop motion is one of the oldest forms of filmmaking. It is a frame-by-frame creation that can take up to eight to ten weeks just to make 60 to 90 seconds of  film. Each movement is physically adjusted to both the background and the character, and then a picture is taken. The next movement is adjusted, and another picture is taken. The film can take thousands of pictures which were arranged in sequence then filmed. “Stop motion encompasses Claymation, pixelation, object-motion, cutout animation, and more. But the basic mechanics are similar to the traditional style like a flipbook. However, instead of drawings, stop motion adjusts physical objects in each frame” (Maio). With the creation of the computer, stop motion took less time to create. No longer did stop motion rely on a camera to snap the picture. The computer was much faster and there was no need to develop all those photographs in a dark room. The computer took the picture and produced it on film in a lot less steps. Both “Wallace and Gromit” and “Chicken Run” were , and they took hundreds of hours and movements of the clay figures to obtain the motion. Other examples of stop motion films include “The Boxtrolls”, “Missing Link”, and “Kubo and the Two Strings”. The company responsible for these movies LAIKA uses stop motion to make all their movies. Stop motion is just another unique method of communicating the illusion of motion in films today.
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To summarize how animation, the illusion of movement, has evolved from simple images flickering in candlelight cast on a blank wall to a unique method of communicating feelings and ideas through cartoons, short-films, and full-length movies with techniques involving 2-D animation, 3-D animation, and stop motion animation, the journey took initiative, creativity, and action on the part of early dreamers like Christian Huygens, Emile Cohl, and Walt Disney. Their visions moved animation from simple flickering images on a wall for education to silhouetted puppet shows for entertainment to the 2-D, 3-D, and stop motion movies we see now. Will the combination of 2-D and 3-D animation in the series “Arcane” or the way it is used in the sequel to the movie “Avatar” make the audience whisper, “Is this the end?”. With animation, anything is possible.
 







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A Response to Greta Thunberg’s dramatic speech before the United Nations on September 23, 2019. by AS

9/26/2022

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Insufficient policies to address global heating, the failure of those policies to protect future generations from the effects of the earth’s increasing temperatures, and the anger of her generation over the lack of follow-through by the world’s governments were the central points of teenage climate activist, Greta Thunberg’s dramatic speech before the United Nations on September 23, 2019. The development of each point was built on the world’s commitment to reduce the earth’s temperature while contrasting the goal with reality and showing how the two build and interact with each other to create the eventual outcome of its failure, and the lack of protection it provides for future generations all of which correlate to the anger she expressed when she claimed “How dare you? You have stolen my dreams and my childhood.”
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In 2015, an international climate conference was held by the United Nations as part of their work to combat climate change. During that meeting, 196 countries agreed to a 10-year plan known as The Paris Agreement. The Agreement, which began in November of 2016, promised to reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere by 50 percent, which is, and to keep the global temperature from rising.  CO2 emissions in the atmosphere make the world warmer by trapping the heat from the earth. The Agreement was to keep the earth from getting no more than 1.5 C (35.6 F) warmer than it was between the years 1850-1900, the pre-industrial era, by cutting emissions in half. However, when Thunberg made her speech three years later, the temperature and the atmosphere’s CO2 had already increased worldwide. The lack of results to Thunberg meant the policies set in place were inadequate and wouldn’t produce the results needed to protect her generation and the generations of the future from global heating.

First, in order to build the central point that the policies set by the Paris Agreement were insufficient, Thunberg stated the goal of the plan and then contrasted it with the facts by identifying both the policy and the result.  She stated, “The popular idea of cutting out emissions in half in 10 years only gives us a 50% chance of staying below 1.5 C degrees” (Thunberg 1:56-2:02). The reason she gave for this failure was that the plan didn’t consider other factors besides emissions that added CO2 to the atmosphere. “Those numbers do not include tipping points, most feedback loops, additional warming hidden by toxic air pollution or the aspects of equity and climate justice” (Thunberg 2:12-2:24). Her statements were supported by the facts that in 2016 when the Agreement went into effect the CO2 level was 403.00 ppm (parts per million), but when Thunberg spoke in 2019 it was 409.92 ppm, and the temperature was 2 degrees F higher according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s global annual temperature report. While the facts used demonstrate the possible failure of the Paris Agreement, Thunberg builds on the failure of policies by showing how their insufficiencies will interact with generations yet to be born and fail to protect them from the effects of increased temperatures on earth due to the lack of funding and interest.

 Next, she draws attention to the budget established by Paris Agreement to meet their goal and uses it to add evidence to her point that the failure of those policies won’t provide protection from the effects of the earth’s increasing temperatures to future generations. The Agreement promised 100 billion dollars each year from industrial countries, but those countries do not appear to be living up to the agreement financially and by 2019 had only collected approximately 80 billion dollars according to the article “A $100 Billion Promise Holds the Paris Agreement Together. Now, It’s Coming Apart”.  Thunberg keys into that lack of funds to show how the insufficient policies of the Agreement and its funding build on each other and interact with future generations. “With today’s emission levels, that remaining CO2 budget will be entirely gone within less than eight and a half years” (Thunberg 2:52-2:57).

Then, Thunberg builds on her first two central points by drawing attention to today’s technologies and the lack of results to emphasize the interaction and impact on the generations yet to come.  She contends, “They also rely on my generation sucking hundreds of billions of tons of your CO2 out of the air with technologies that barely exist” (Thunberg 2:24-2:36). In reality, the slowness of technology to reduce the CO2 is a complex issue. The article, “Carbon Capture Technology Has Been Around for Decades — Here’s Why It Hasn’t Taken Off” makes the point that “It is cheaper to put the CO2 into the air than to take it out”. That simple fact is why Thunberg makes the accusation that  “There will not be any solutions or plans presented . . . today” (Thunberg 3:04-3:08). That statement demonstrates the emphasis of her speech builds upon the anger of her generation over the lack of follow-through by the world’s governments.

Consequently, the anger that Thunberg exhibits in her speech is a direct result of what she determines to be a failure of the Paris Agreement to effectively reduce global heating. It is apparent in her initial comments that, “Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction. And all you can talk about is money and fairytales of eternal economic growth” (Thunberg 0:43-0:54). Then by building and contrasting her charge with the goal and the results, she shows how they have interacted with her personal views and those that she believes are the same of her generation. She clenches her fists, clenches her jaw, leans forward in her chair, and tightens her muscles as she alleges, “The eyes of all future generations are upon you. And if you choose to fail us, I say we will never forgive you. We will not let you get away with this. Right here, right now is where we draw the line” (Thunberg 3:26-3:47).

In conclusion, Thunberg’s central points and claims that the insufficient policies to address global heating, the failure of those policies to protect future generations from the effects of the earth’s increasing temperatures, and the anger of her generation over the lack of follow-through by the world’s governments formed her dramatic speech before the United Nations on September 23, 2019. The development of each point was built on the world’s commitment to reduce the earth’s temperature while contrasting the goal with the reality of the outcome, and showing how the two build and interact with each other to create the eventual outcome of its failure, and the lack of protection it provides for future generations all of which correlate to the anger she expressed when she claimed “How dare you? You have stolen my dreams and my childhood.”

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The Lowest Animal by  Mark Twain Analysis by A.S.

5/25/2022

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The Lowest Animal


Mark Twain’s, “The Lowest Animal,” creates a cynical view of humankind (mankind used in the essay) when compared to animals through his use of satire, sarcasm, and irony to illustrate that human qualities are not those of animals, and that difference sometimes makes humankind lower than animals in his opinion.
Mark Twain was one of America’s great writers. He was known for his humoristic view of life in many of his greatest works such as the “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” Yet his view of humankind changes in this essay.  An article by Richard Nordquist states that “The severity of Mark Twain’s views on religious motivation was part of his increasing cynicism” when the author wrote “The Lowest Animal”.   The essay appears to be written, however, from personal observations or experiences that shaped his view. That is clearly seen by his definition of “Moral Sense” as the quality that allows humans to do wrong and opens the way for his satire.
Twain’s point of view creates an essay that is satirical in nature. It overlooks and exaggerates humankind to make various qualities unique to humans and not to animals to create his theory that humans are lower than animals. An example is found in the opening where Twain humbles humankind by drawing attention to specific traits. “I have been scientifically studying the traits and dispositions of the "lower animals" (so-called), and contrasting them with the traits and dispositions of man . . . this new and truer one to be named the Descent of Man from the Higher Animals”( Twain).  While the essay is an example of satire, Twain uses sarcasm to show his contempt for human traits. 
Twain’s sarcasm mocks humankind both in his imaginary experiments and by phrases such as “In truth, man is incurably foolish. Simple things which the other animals easily learn, he is incapable of learning” (Twain). One of his “experiments” uses sarcasm by illustrating that humans are never satisfied with what they have. He writes, “ . . . men who have accumulated more millions of money than they can ever use have shown a rabid hunger for more . . . I furnished a hundred different kinds of wild and tame animals the opportunity to accumulate vast stores of food, but none of them would do it . . . . These experiments convinced me that there is this difference between man and the higher animals: he is avaricious and miserly; they are not”. The use of sarcasm shows Twain’s contempt but it also puts a mirror to the trait I believe might be a plea for change. Sarcasm is not the only literary device used in this essay, Twain also makes use of irony.
“The Lowest Animal” is also an example of irony and one of Twain’s literary devices as a humorist. In this essay he uses it to show the complete significance of his words to make his point clear to the reader even if humans don’t realize it is one of their traits. To do this, he draws attention to the morality of humankind and demonstrates that it is a defect not an admirable quality. He writes “I find this Defect to be the Moral Sense. He is the only animal that has it. It is the secret of his degradation. It is the quality which enables him to do wrong. . . . It could never have been intended to perform any other. Without it, man could do no wrong. He would rise at once to the level of the Higher Animals”. Twain’s use of irony to show that humans, who in reality are higher than animals, are lower than animals is an effective literary device for this particular essay.
In conclusion, the examples cited for Mark Twain’s, “The Lowest Animal,” define his cynical point of view of humankind when compared to animals through his use of satire, sarcasm, and irony to illustrate that the qualities that make them human are not those of animals, and that difference sometimes makes humankind lower than animals in his opinion.





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An Evaluation of Senator Warren's Argument on Student Loan Debt by A.S.

4/13/2022

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PicturePhoto by Andre Hunter on Unsplash
On August 21, 2021, Massachusetts Senator, Elizabeth Warren, was interviewed on MSNBC regarding her stance on the ability of President Biden to cancel student debt which is a concern for the 43.4 million borrowers. An evaluation of Senator Elizabeth Warren’s claim during the interview that “The President has the authority to cancel student loan debt” demonstrates her use of inductive reasoning to further her personal opinion and claim with hypophora rhetoric, brief examples to describe the links between her ideas, persuasive and expository word choices, repeated words for emphasis in a critical and assertive tone with loaded questions, burden of proof and bandwagon fallacies.

To begin, it is important to identify Senator Warren’s claim. When asked a question based on  the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi’s statement that only Congress could cancel student debt, Warren emphatically answered, “The President has the authority to cancel student loan debt” (“Sen. Warren: Biden Canceling Student Loan ... - Youtube.com.” 08:16-08:19). She immediately justified her claim with the argument that previous presidents have done it. Her use, though, of previous presidential actions is a weak reason and offers no proof that in fact, President Biden has the authority and that the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, was wrong. Since a poll by CNBC published in December 2021 shows that “more than 60% of voters support some student loan debt forgiveness”, it can be assumed that this is a popular view. This makes her argument a bandwagon fallacy meaning that  “The flaw in this argument is that the popularity of an idea has absolutely no bearing on its validity” (“Your Logical Fallacy Is Bandwagon”). Senator Warren’s stance, without valid evidence to support her claim, becomes more of a personal opinion than a verifiable fact.

Furthermore, Senator Warren uses inductive reasoning to draw conclusions and combines it with a burden of proof fallacy. For example, her statement “The laws are very clear on this. What we need President Biden to do is pick up that authority and use it” (“Sen. Warren: Biden Canceling Student Loan ... - Youtube.com.” 08:39-008:47) her claim makes President Biden appear guilty of withholding the canceling of student debt when, in her words, he has the authority to do so. This is inductive reasoning because it sets up a no win situation for the President. It also creates a burden of proof fallacy in her logic because she doesn’t have to prove what laws she is talking about, instead she shifts the burden of proof to the president when she states that all he has to do is “pick up that authority and use it”.

In addition, the main link to her ideas and claims is that if one President, without consideration of the facts or situation that faced the previous presidents, did it, then the next one can too. To connect her argument that President Biden can cancel student debt to the previous presidents’ actions she uses the logic fallacy of the loaded question to support her claim. She asks “You know how I know that?” Then without allowing an answer or rebuttal, she answers it herself by stating, “Because President Obama did it. And because President Trump did it . . .”(“Sen. Warren: Biden Canceling Student Loan ... - Youtube.com.” 08:16-26). The loaded question fallacy is a way to deflect any answers that might deny her claim. Her use of this type of question, where the speaker asks and then answers it herself, is an example of hypophora, a rhetorical device, which in this case is used to emphasize her claim. An examination of Senator Warren’s links to her ideas are weak since they lack sufficient evidence to explain exactly what the previous presidents did and why.

Equally important to consider in evaluating Senator Warren’s claim, is to see how she justifies her position and her personal point of view with the words she chooses to use. Two phrases that she repeats to convince listeners that she is right are “economic justice” and “racial justice. The general view of economic justice is that the economy would be better if it was fairer, and that justice and the economy need to be on the same team to help people create better lives. By using the phrase “It is a matter of economic justice” ((“Sen. Warren: Biden Canceling Student Loan ... - Youtube.com.” 08:48-50), Warren is trying to convince listeners to believe that by not using his “power” to cancel student debt, the President is wrong and she is right. She uses an expository set of words to emphasize her claim. It’s the same reason she says “It is also a racial justice issue. African-Americans borrow more money. . . and have a harder time paying it off . . .” (“Sen. Warren: Biden Canceling Student Loan ... - Youtube.com.” 09:18-28). She is well aware that  in today’s climate these are persuasive words that intensify her claim because now it points a finger at President Biden as if he is holding African Americans back by not using his authority to cancel student loan debt.

Finally, both Senator Warren’s points of emphasis and tone are designed to draw her listeners into her argument and bring them to her conclusion. The main point of emphasis is “The President has the authority to cancel student loan debt” (“Sen. Warren: Biden Canceling Student Loan ... - Youtube.com.” 08:16-08:19). In her speech she uses the word “authority” four times, and bases her entire argument around that word. She also uses the two phrases, economic and racial justice, to drive her point home that her claim is well founded because the President has a moral obligation to cancel student debt. As for her tone, it is assertive, meaning clear and direct, and effective. Warren is an accomplished speaker and she measures her words to create the effect that she wants. For instance, she raises her pitch and leans her face forward into the camera when she asks her question “You know how I know that?”(“Sen. Warren: Biden Canceling Student Loan ... - Youtube.com.” 08:19-20). In contrast, she uses hand gestures to show she is counting each time she uses the previous presidents names as proof of her argument. She even pauses and repeats the word “cancel” several times. It is evident that Senator Warren’s assertive tone during this interview is designed to emphasize her points and add truth to her claim.

In conclusion, an evaluation of Senator Elizabeth Warren’s claim during the interview that “The President has the authority to cancel student loan debt” demonstrates her use of inductive reasoning to further her personal opinion and claim with hypophora rhetoric, brief examples to describe the links between her ideas, persuasive and expository word choices, repeated words for emphasis in a critical and assertive tone with loaded questions, burden of proof and bandwagon fallacie

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Why Space Exploration is Worth It! By A.S.

3/22/2022

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Fifty three years ago, the whole world waited breathlessly until they heard Neil Armstrong transmit loud and clear “Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.” Apollo 11 made that  successful lunar landing on July 24, 1969. Since that day, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has led the United States in space exploration to discover the wonders of our planet, the solar system, and the universe. Yet, some argue that exploration is too costly, too risky for astronauts, and there is a possibility of bringing back an unknown bacteria that would endanger the entire earth. Anyone advocating against space exploration should stop because the benefits of space exploration outweigh the cost, the risk to astronauts is less than walking across the street, the possibility of a space disease coming to earth is just as great as an astronaut taking one into space, and the numerous commercial and scientific advances are all why space exploration is worth it.
    One reason space exploration opponents should stop justifying their objections is the comparable cost factor. In contrast to the argument that space exploration is too expensive, the reality is that cost is a factor in everything the government does, and it is no different with space exploration. However, the money spent is not just for the thrill of a few astronauts riding a fast rocket into the unknown. Someone has to plan, design, and build that rocket with all the equipment necessary to send it there in the first place. According to an article, “Why Space Exploration is Always Worthwhile” published on the Planetary Society’s website, an organization led by Bill Nye that explains scientific information to the public, “Public opinion research has shown that people estimate NASA to take up as much as a quarter of the U.S. federal budget, but in fact, NASA’s budget only represents about 0.5% of the total federal budget and the proportion is even smaller for other spacefaring nations.” In 2020, NASA spent $22.7 Billion dollars according to an article in Investopedia by Stephen Simpson as compared to the $56.9 Billion Americans spent on video games and equipment reported by Nex Gen Personal Finance’s blog by Mason Butts. It’s true that NASA’s budget doesn’t count for all monies spent, private companies do it too. In fact, American astrophysicist, planetary scientist, author, and science communicator, Neil deGrasse Tyson stated that “Three quarters of all money spent on space today is for commercial products, for industries that use GPS, for weather satellites, for communication satellites, DirecTV”, (“Why Are We Going into Space” 00:43-00:52).  Obviously, space exploration opponents should stop voicing their complaints about the money spent because the cost of space is not expensive when the advances in technology, consumer products, science and even medicines are considered.
    Another reason that challengers to space exploration should stop their opposition is the proportionate risk factor. A Scientific American blog titled “Do We Really Need to Send Humans into Space?” acknowledges that astronauts’ lives are at risk. “People venturing into space are fragile: They require a continuous supply of oxygen, water, food and shelter. They must endure long intervals of weightlessness. Their physical capabilities remain constant across generations. And their loss, when it occurs, casts a pall over our would-be joy of identifying with their exploration” (Goldsmith, Rees). In comparison, the lives of all explorers are at risk whether in space or on earth. For example, just like today’s astronauts understand the risk, the early explorers to America knew that too. They had to travel across an uncharted ocean in leaky rat-infested ships with limited provisions to a land they only hoped would be there. However, their sacrifices discovered a new world and here we are today. NASA estimates that there is a 4 percent chance of death when you look at the number of people who went into space and the number that died. That is a lot less than the 17 percent of pedestrians (here on Earth) who died in traffic accidents (“Pedestrian Safety”). Yes, there is risk, but the  “Capabilities developed and knowledge gathered from space exploration contribute to ongoing efforts to understand the threat to Earth posed by asteroids, and to devise means for protecting the planet” (“Benefits Stemming From Space Exploration-NASA”). Astronauts know the risk, and they accept it just like those explorers looking for North America across 4,000 miles of open ocean in the 15th century. It was worth it to the early explorers and according to Christa McAuliffe, teacher and astronaut, who lost her life aboard the Shuttle Challenger, “Space is for everybody. That’s our new frontier out there, and it’s everybody’s business to know about space.” Obviously, space exploration naysayers should recognize that risk and exploration go hand in hand and stop using the possible hazard as an argument against discovering what is beyond our atmosphere.
    Those who dispute space exploration because of the possibility of an unknown bacteria entering the Earth should consider the scientific preparation factors. Even if astronauts think space is worth the possible danger, it is not logical to think that unknown microbes or bacteria don’t even exist in space. We have them on Earth so other planets must have their own too. A leading astrobiologist and cosmologist, Paul Davies even “warned that viruses may not only be found on Earth, but might occur – should life exist – elsewhere in the universe.” Yet, it seems that the bacteria our astronauts take with them from Earth into space, the moon, or even Mars would be just as dangerous to that planet as bacteria that came from that planet to us on earth. No one wants to risk bringing back something contagious to the earth and scientists are always on guard and taking precautions. For example, scientists are using laboratories in space to find how to stop and or treat diseases on earth by finding “A protein that causes disease and a medicine that suppresses it” according to a NASA editor, Michael Johnson. In addition, there  is always a possibility of some unknown bacteria entering our atmosphere from space by a meteor. And, you have to agree that astronauts could possibly bring something back, but there are so many things being found out through our scientific experiments in space to prolong life, to cut diseases, and to find cures that the benefits far outweigh the  “possibility” of bringing a deadly bacteria back to earth far outweighs (Johnson). Surely, space exploration skeptics must recognize that while it is possible that a contagion could come to earth, the reward of finding causes and cures for diseases that already plague Earth far outweighs the risk.
    A third critique of people advocating against space exploration is that there are few results that help life on Earth. That is definitely not true. The amount of technological advances and the consumer products that have been developed are too numerous to explain in this essay. For example, just a few of the items and technology that have advanced and benefited everyday life on Earth from space exploration include the “cameras in Smartphones, invisible braces, Lasik cochlear implants, memory foam, portable cordless vacuums” (Vishal). In addition, “Space exploration has contributed to many diverse aspects of everyday life, from solar panels to implantable heart monitors, from cancer therapy to light‐ weight materials, and from water‐purification systems to improved computing systems and to a global search‐and‐rescue system” (“Benefits Stemming from Space Exploration-NASA”).  Added to all of that are the wonders we have learned about the solar system, the universe, and just how small Earth is in comparison to the galaxies upon galaxies. Then there is the monitoring that is constantly on the watch for asteroids that might hit Earth. “Capabilities developed and knowledge gathered from space exploration contribute to ongoing efforts to understand the threat to Earth posed by asteroids, and to devise means for protecting the planet” (“Benefits Stemming from Space Exploration-NASA”). All of these advances come from space exploration. Clearly, people who are critical of space exploration should stop, because the results of  numerous technological advances are well documented and one in particular, the cell phone, makes communication easier than using two cups and a string.
    In the final analysis, the argument that space exploration is too costly, too risky for astronauts, opens the possibility of bringing back an unknown bacteria that would endanger the entire earth has some merit and concerns that should be considered. On the whole, however, anyone advocating against space exploration should stop, because the benefits of space exploration outweigh the cost, the risk to astronauts is less than walking across the street, the possibility of a space disease coming to earth is just as great as an astronaut taking one into space, and the numerous commercial and scientific advances including the added protection from asteroids and a renewed understanding of the universe is worth it.




Works Cited List
Amadeo, Kimberly. “How $1 Spent on NASA Adds $8 to the Economy.” The Balance, The Balance, 20 Jan. 2022, https://www.thebalance.com/nasa-budget-current-funding-and-history-3306321. 
Benefits Stemming from Space Exploration - NASA. https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/files/Benefits-Stemming-from-Space-Exploration-2013-TAGGED.pdf.
Berger, Eric. “Report Finds That US Accounts for More than Half of Global Space Spending.” – Ars Technica, Ars Technica, 6 Jan. 2022, https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/01/report-finds-that-us-accounts-for-more-than-half-of-global-space-spending/?amp=1. 
Butts, Mason. “Ngpf Blog.” QoD: How Much Money Did Americans Spend on Video Games in 2020? - Blog, https://www.ngpf.org/blog/question-of-the-day/question-of-the-day-how-much-money-did-americans-spend-on-video-games-in-2020/#:~:text=%22Spending%20on%20video%20games%20set,percent%20increase%20compared%20to%202019. 
Carr, Belinda. “Is Space Exploration a Waste of Money? - Youtube.” Youtube, 13 Feb. 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3GycoUxRQ4. 
Davis, Nicola. “Viruses May Exist 'Elsewhere in the Universe', Warns Scientists.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 6 Sept. 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/sep/06/viruses-may-exist-elsewhere-in-the-universe-warns-scientist. 
Foust, Jeff. “Weighing the Risks of Human Spaceflight.” The Space Review: Weighing the Risks of Human Spaceflight (Page 2), https://www.thespacereview.com/article/36/2.
Goldsmith, Donald, and Martin Rees. “Do We Really Need to Send Humans into Space?” Scientific American Blog Network, Scientific American, 6 Mar. 2020, https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/do-we-really-need-to-send-humans-into-space/.
Johnson, Michael. “Finding the Keys in Space to Treat Diseases on Earth.” NASA, NASA, 6 Mar. 2019, https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/news/b4h-3rd/eds-space-research-to-treat-earth-diseases. 
Lichtenstein, Drew. “Bad Things about Space Exploration.” Sciencing, 2 Mar. 2019, https://sciencing.com/bad-things-space-exploration-8523069.html.
“Majority of Americans Believe Space Exploration Remains Essential.” Pew Research Center Science & Society, Pew Research Center, 19 Aug. 2021, https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2018/06/06/majority-of-americans-believe-it-is-essential-that-the-u-s-remain-a-global-leader-in-space/. 
Neil DeGrasse Tyson: Why Are We Going into Space ... - Youtube. Dubai Future Talks, 27 Apr. 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOnuLXh20uE. 
“Pedestrian Safety.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 6 Mar. 2020, https://www.cdc.gov/transportationsafety/pedestrian_safety/index.html. 
Simpson, Stephen D. “The Reality of Investing in Space Exploration.” Investopedia, Investopedia, 21 Sept. 2021, https://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0712/the-reality-of-investing-in-space-exploration.aspx.
Stone, Kevin R., and Orthopedic surgeon. “Top Five Reasons to Avoid Space Travel.” The Stone Clinic: World-Class Orthopedic Surgery & Rehabilitation, 5 May 2020, https://www.stoneclinic.com/blog/top-five-reasons-avoid-space-travel.
Thakur, Vishal. “What Are Some Common Things We Use That Have Come from Space Tech?” Science ABC, Science ABC, 16 Jan. 2022, https://www.scienceabc.com/nature/universe/what-are-some-common-things-we-use-that-have-come-from-space-tech.html. 
“Why Space Exploration Is Always Worthwhile.” The Planetary Society, https://www.planetary.org/articles/space-exploration-is-always-worthwhile#:~:text=Spending%20on%20space%20supports%20highly,the%20world's%20most%20pressing%20problems. 


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Black History Month: Harriet Tubman by AS

3/2/2022

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                                           “We Out”

One woman I’ve admired ever since I was little is the great Harriet Tubman. She was born into slavery during approximately 1820. (the actual date is unknown because slaves birthdates weren’t recorded) She fled slavery in 1849 with a desire to free other slaves, even though it would put her life in danger. She was called the Moses of the Underground Railroad as she crossed the lines of freedom thirteen times to free more than 70 slaves through the underground railroad to Canada. Each time they crossed the line she screamed “We out!”

Harriet Tubman was not only an advocate for freedom, she was also a spy for the union army during the Civil War. For her efforts to end slavery during the war, she was the first black women to join the military. Her reports on troop placements and supply shipments by the confederate army helped the union end the war and free the slaves. I admire her for her courage, bravery, and selflessness on behalf of all the slaves of that time. She was really an amazing woman.



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Analysis of Whitman's "A Child Said What Is Grass" by AS

12/17/2021

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PicturePhoto by Adonyi-Gabor/Unsplash
Walt Whitman’s poem, “A Child Said, What is Grass”, uses figurative, connotative and technical words and phrases such as a flag, death, uncut hair, and a child to refine the meanings of key terms such as grass and the phrase, “the smallest sprout shows there is really no death” throughout the poem. Whitman writes in a free-form style that follows his thoughts as he tries to answer a child’s question through phrases such as “I guess” and “It may be” which contribute to the overall structure and meaning that becomes more of a prayer or chant than a poem as it delivers an aesthetic impact on the beauty that lies in the connection between life and death as well as racial equality.

The very beginning of Whitman’s poem starts with the title question “A Child said, What is the grass?” Whitman makes it clear that he has no idea how to answer the question at the start,  and that begins his examination of the possibilities as they float through his mind. His words create a picture of grass. It’s not just a green carpet nature laid over the soil, but something much more. It knows no boundaries, it has a beginning, and it’s a never-ending story of both nature and the life cycle. All of this is written free-form, which contributes to the overall structure and meaning  through his choice of words that help the reader to imagine grass from different perspectives. Every word and phrase that Whitman chooses to use not only adds to the aesthetic impact, but are refined to create the answer to the meaning of grass, not for the child who asked, but for Whitman himself.

In his use of figurative words, the poet drew on specific words that invoked different meanings to the word grass. Each metaphor, connotative, and technical word Whitman chose refines the connection of grass to nature and the cycle of life. He specifically uses imagery, symbolism, metaphors, and personification. He chooses words such as: “flag” (Whitman 3) which is a symbol of war, pride, a feeling , or a country; a “handkerchief” (Whitman 4) which is used to cover the mouth in a dust storm or even a loaf of bread on a kitchen counter;  and “a child” (Whitman 7) which represents youth, inexperience, or a newness. All of these words make an image in the reader’s mind and are included to create that picture through metaphors and symbolism. Another part of figurative language Whitman uses to develop his idea of grass is personification. Grass as a child is personification giving the object human qualities such as innocence, youth, and growth. A connotative example is his use of “uncut hair” (Whitman 12). Grass is not uncut hair in the literal sense but it does create an image of the nature of grass which continues to grow unless cut. Not all of Whitman’s chosen words are figurative or connotative, some are also technical, or true, such as his choice of “to die” (Whitman 32) and “Hieroglyphic” (Whitman 8). Alone, the two words truly mean the end of life and a type of lettering, but he uses them symbolically within a phrase to provide a different meaning. Whitman was a poet, and the words he selected throughout this poem add another dimension to the word “grass”, and portray it as much more than the green vegetation that grows on lawns. 

In the same way Whitman chooses specific words, he combines them to craft phrases that help identify grass by refining the alternative meaning. For example, “The beautiful uncut hair of graves” (Whitman 12) and “The smallest sprout shows there is really no death” (Whitman 28) both provide a new effect to his word choices as he defines it as more than just another type of vegetation. They show that it is also part of the cycle of life, people die and their bodies feed the grass, the grass starts as a small sprout and grows into a blade. In one of the more important uses of a phrase to make the reader stop and think, Whitman emphasizes that grass grows everywhere, and knows nothing of racism. He says it is “Growing among black folks as among white” (Whitman 10). Grass is not racial, and explaining it this way makes the reader understand that people shouldn’t be either. Racism separates people, and since Whitman wrote this after the Civil War, his comparison of how grass knows no boundaries, or no racism, seemed right for then and now. It’s not just the poet’s figurative words and phrases that help develop the answer to the child’s question, but it is also the way he structures his poem.

In contrast to poems that have a rhyming structure, Whitman’s poem is more like a man thinking about a question a child raises that he doesn’t know how to answer. The overall structure is in free verse. The definition per Literary Devices of free verse is: “A literary device that . . . is free from limitations of regular meter or rhythm, and does not rhyme with fixed forms. In this way, the poet can give his own shape to a poem however he or she desires.” The phrases Whitman contributes to the overall structure are like a chant that repeats it over and over with word phrases such as “I guess. . .” (Whitman 3,4,7,8), “And it means. . .” (Whitman 9),  “And it may be. . .” (Whitman 14-16), and also “And now it seems to me . . .” (Whitman 12). These phrases are connected to other ideas or notions so they continue his stream of thought shared in free verse. The structure he uses adds meaning because the poet shares his feelings and his emotions with phrases such as “I wish I could translate the hints….” (Whitman 23). The use of emotion and symbols within the structure of free verse creates an aesthetic impact,  and they also help the reader to see that grass is not only artistically beautiful but can stand for something else. 

In conclusion, Walt Whitman’s poem, “A Child Said, What is Grass”, uses figurative, connotative. and technical words and phrases such as a flag, death, uncut hair, and a child to refine the meanings of key terms such as grass and the phrase, “the smallest sprout shows there is really no death” throughout the poem. He  writes in a free-form style that follows his thoughts as he tries to answer a child’s question by using phrases such as “I guess” and “It may be” which contribute to the overall structure and meaning as more of a prayer or chant while it delivers an aesthetic impact on the beauty that lies in the connection between life and death as well as racial equality. It is Whitman’s way of saying that death and life may have a different meaning than most people think, and that meaning may be in the lack of boundaries found in the vegetation known as grass.


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Human Intervention Helps Protect the Pacific Flyway by A.S.

11/22/2021

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When Fall’s leaves turn yellow, orange, and red, it’s time to look to the skies as waves of birds pass overhead. Seabirds, geese, ducks, swans, crows, songbirds, and sandhill cranes are joining hundreds of species traveling south to breeding grounds and wintering habitats along the Pacific Flyway. The Pacific Flyway extends 4,000 miles from Alaska to South America and provides the essential food, water, and rest for the long journey. In a video created by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the importance of understanding what the birds need is the  “. . . first step to understand is . . .what factors and threats that they're experiencing throughout the annual cycle”  (“Voices of the Pacific Flyway - Youtube.” 5:10-5:27). Migration survival depends on available resources and the factors and threats that threaten those resources. However, without help those resources will disappear and so will the birds. Human intervention helps protect the Pacific Flyway for the thousands of migrating birds so they can survive the loss of habitat from agriculture expansion, the severe drought in the West, the lack of food, and the effects of the increased temperature, lack of water, and severe weather conditions because of climate change.
      One way humans can help protect the Pacific Flyway is to understand that during the spring and fall, numerous songbirds, and almost all waterfowl, migrate because of changing weather conditions and to find food. An article by the Audubon Society found that  “The birds of the Pacific Flyway depend on a diverse chain of habitats, from Arctic tundra and northwestern rainforest to tropical beaches and mangroves” (“Pacific Flyway”). While most of the flights occur at night, the birds need food and places to rest during the day, and while they rest they actually benefit people.  A study by the US Fish and Wildlife agency on waterfowl stated that, “Migratory birds provide ecosystem benefits that include pest control, pollination of plants and serve as food sources for other wildlife” (“U.S. Fish Wildlife Service Waterfowl” ). Migration along the flyway helps both the birds and humans, yet without the support of concerned humans migration habitats will disappear and so will the birds and the benefits they bring to people.
     However, before humans can help, it’s important to understand how agriculture and grazing are damaging habitats. According to U.S Fish and Wildlife, industrial agriculture takes up one- third of the earth’s surface, and the chemicals used to protect plants from pests make the streams and fields no longer habitable for migrating birds. A study completed by the Center for Biological Diversity concluded that “ . . . farming focused on livestock production is driving the extinction crisis [of birds] by eating up habitat wildlife need to survive.” Researchers also found that by 2050 agriculture expansion will be “... on pace to destroy more than 1.2 million square miles of natural habitat, an area roughly the size of India.” The loss of natural habitat is responsible for the disappearance of over three billion birds in North America since 1970 (“Flyways”). The graph below shows how the decline in drier habitats such as grasslands, forests, and shrub-steppes are declining, but some help also comes from the hands of caring organizations such as the Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge. The Refuge plants alfalfa, corn, barley, clover, ryegrass, and orchard grass in their fields for migrating birds and then allows grazing after the birds leave. The plantings provide habitat for geese and numerous species of migrating birds. Intervention, though, is also needed when drought threatens migration habitat. 
    In the same way that people are becoming aware that expanding agriculture and farming threatens habitat for migrating birds, the lack of water or a severe drought is recognized for its impact on habitats for both migrating waterfowl and species that prefer drier ground. It also impacts humans, and in some areas it has become a  balancing act between water for people and water for birds. It’s no secret that the western United States is currently experiencing a deep drought. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) map at the end of the paragraph shows the severity of drought in the west on August 3, 2021. The lack of rain and hotter temperatures decreases the amount of water available for migrating birds in lakes, wetlands, and streams. It also causes the use of water for irrigation to be cut off as it was recently done in Oregon’s Klamath Valley. With no water for fields, there was no water for birds. The same thing is happening throughout the flyway. Even California’s Sacramento Valley has seen habitat loss due to drought according to US Fish and Wildlife. It found, “... reduced seasonal flooding of wetlands and farm fields threatens a globally important stopover site for tens of thousands of migratory shorebirds in California's Sacramento Valley” (“U.S. Fish Wildlife Service Waterfowl - FWS.”). Without water, habitat is lost and so is the rich food source that migrating birds rely on for their journey. Washington’s Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge manages the effects of drought through the use of dikes, flooded fields, and a lake. The Carty Lake fills with water from the Columbia River during the spring when the river rises from melting snow packs, and provides spring and summer habitat. Lake levels lower in the summer months but rarely evaporates. Human intervention clears debris and repairs dikes to make sure flood water continues to enter the lake. This action saves wetland habitat from the effect of drought, but a lack of water in other areas means a scarce food supply for the rest of their journey south.
    Not only can humans intervene to save essential  habitat and water as vital resources for migration, but they can impact food sources for birds as well. Just like bears that gorge themselves on anything they find to eat to increase their body fat in preparation for their hibernation, birds that travel 4,000 miles need to eat to fatten up too. The book “The Pacific Flyway: Waterbird Migration from the Arctic to Tierra Del Fuego”, makes this comparison:  “Like professional athletes, long-distance migrates undergo highly sophisticated preparations to maximize strength and endurance. A key issue . . . is balancing fat stores against flight efficiency” (Hammerson, 26). These fat stores come from the refueling the birds find at their stopovers. Unfortunately, food supplies are not always available. The article “Refuge No More: Migratory Birds Face Drought, Disease and Death on the Pacific Flyway” uses the  rice fields in the Sacramento Valley as an example of how a food supply can be affected by nature but helped by humans.  The fields supply migrating waterfowl with “. . . . about half of their diet in the fall and winter from the decomposing rice stalks after harvest”. Yet, the lack of rain meant that rice farmers couldn’t flood their fields to decompose the stalks, so less food was available for the birds. Recognizing the impact on migration, The Central Valley Improvement Project Act of 1992, assured a supply of water to California's Central Valley to protect and manage wetlands. The managed area is like a farm, but instead of providing animals food it provides migrating birds food. Human intervention has made a difference in the Central Valley, but can it help with climate change and the impact it has on birds.
     Notably, habitat, drought, and food are all needed by migrating birds, but climate change is the real threat and only humans can make a difference. The article “Pacific Flyway” by The Audubon Society says, “Rising temperatures and shifting weather patterns affect birds' ability to find food and reproduce, which over time impacts local populations, and ultimately continent-wide populations, too.” Besides the rise in temperature and lack of normal rains that damage habitat, the sudden weather changes brought on by climate change can affect migration too. The navigational ability of migrating birds is affected by weather changes by forcing them to take a different route or to avoid an area altogether. While flying with the wind at their backs might seem like a good thing, strong head wind from the direction they are heading can ground them. Humans can help if they reduce their use of fossil fuels, quit burning down forests, and reduce carbon dioxide emissions. 
     In conclusion, humans have taken action to preserve wetlands by making sure water is available to support wetlands like the Central Valley Improvement Project Act. They have also planted fields of corn, ryegrass, and alfalfa while building dikes and creating a lake to support migrations of thousands of birds like Washington’s Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge. Migration survival depends on these available resources which makes it extremely important that people help reduce the factors that threaten those resources. The birds can’t do it, but people can, and their intervention is important to protect the Pacific Flyway for the thousands of migrating birds so they can survive the loss of habitat from agriculture expansion, the severe drought in the West, the lack of food, and the effects of the increased temperature, lack of water, and severe weather conditions because of climate change. Their continuing efforts will allow us the ability to watch waves of migrating birds fly overhead for generations to come.










Works Cited List
“Flyways.” U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service - Department of the Interior, USFWS, 5 Feb. 2020, https://www.fws.gov/birds/management/flyways.php.
Hammerson, Geoffrey A., et al. The Pacific Flyway: Waterbird Migration from the Arctic to Tierra Del Fuego. Sasquatch Books, 2020.
Hubbart, Sarah. “Climate Change, Migratory Birds, and the Future of America's Flyways.” NEEF, 30 July 2021, https://www.neefusa.org/nature/plants-and-animals/climate-change-migratory-birds-and-future-america-s-flyways. 
“Impact of Habitat Loss on Species.” WWF, WWF, https://wwf.panda.org/discover/our_focus/wildlife_practice/problems/habitat_loss_degradation/. 
“Pacific Flyway.” Audubon, National Audubon Society, 28 Sept. 2021, https://www.audubon.org/content/pacific-flyway.
“Refuge No More: Migratory Birds Face Drought, Disease and Death on the Pacific Flyway.” The Good Men Project, 18 Aug. 2021, https://goodmenproject.com/featured-content/refuge-no-more-migratory-birds-face-drought-disease-and-death-on-the-pacific-flyway/. 
“U.S. Fish Wildlife Service Waterfowl - FWS.” USFW, USFW, 20 Aug. 2021, https://www.fws.gov/migratorybirds/pdf/surveys-and-data/Population-status/Waterfowl/WaterfowlPopulationStatusReport20.pdf.
“Voices of the Pacific Flyway - Youtube.” You Tube, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, 15 Jan. 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_CqIJbZx4I.







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An Analysis of  Sabina Murray's Balboa by A. S.

10/6/2021

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PicturePhoto by Dan Stark on Unsplash
Two themes of “Balboa”, a short story by Sabina Murray, are that a person’s history can create a larger-than-life ego and that absolute power corrupts. Both themes develop through Balboa’s journey from pig farmer to Spanish explorer, interact as his ego elevates him into a God feared by the Indians of Columbia, and build on one another to create a complex account of how his unlimited power is corrupted as he viciously takes lives without remorse.
This is a  brief summary of Murray’s short story about the Spanish explorer, Balboa. Wanting to claim the  South Sea, or the Pacific Ocean off Columbia in South America, for Spain, Balboa is trudging up a mountain side. As he climbs, he remembers how he went from a pig farmer in deep debt who stowed away aboard a ship to a powerful man known as a god to the native tribes. His desire for power led him to overthrow the governor and set the native tribes against each other. His relationship with the tribes is founded on fear as they have seen him send his war dogs to tear apart chiefs, warriors, women, and children. He knows that the governor he overthrew is on his way back to Columbia to imprison him for his rebellion, so he hopes that all will be forgiven if he claims the ocean for Spain.
The theme about Balboa’s ego, or his self-image, shows the progression of Balboa’s personality from a lowly pig farmer to an explorer. To get away from his gambling debts he stows away on a ship bound for South America. When discovered, as Murray says, “wrapped in a sail” the crew led by Enciso takes pity on him and puts him to work as a member of the crew. His self-image changes as he gains credibility with Enciso and goes with him to Darien on the New World’s east coast. It is here that his personality evolves. Knowing that the Spaniards believe the Indians are merciless, Balboa recognizes the way to conquer the tribes is to spread disagreement among them. He is no longer “escaping his creditors . . .” but since his reputation has spread, he now thinks of “himself as a lion” (Murray; 114, 22).
The second theme used by Murray is that unlimited, or even absolute, power corrupts. This is demonstrated when Balboa begins to think her is stronger than the governor. To Balboa, Governor Enciso, is a weak man and an even weaker governor. He wants the power that Enciso has, so he “. . . organized the rebellion, supplanted the governor” and justifies it in his mind as “all of this done with great efficiency and intelligence” (Murray, lines 78-79). Once Enciso is put on a ship back to Spain, Balboa creates terror to the point that they “think of him as a God” (Murray; 141).
The two themes interact when Balboa excuses his action of overthrowing the governor by thinking, “How could Balboa not act? Enciso did not understand the Indians as Balboa did” (Murray, line 129-130). His ego has reached a point where he now feels that he can turn the Indians on each other, and the reader begins to see how power corrupts. Siding with one tribe, he begins a war using great mastiffs and wolfhounds as Spanish war dogs. “The blood from his great war machine made the rivers flow red with his name” (Murray;137-138) He continues to show his ego driven power until as Murray puts it, “Balboa is loved by no one and feared by all. He has invented an unequaled terror” (Murray; 140-141). The interaction between his ego and the power he acquired is evident in the cruelty he uses to defeat those he considers opponents.
 Balboa’s absolute power increases his ego and the two build on one another to the point that he not only thinks it is his duty to kill the Indians for Spain, but he believes it is God’s will. For example, when a monk criticizes him for all the killing, he tells himself “What did the monk understand . . . He said that he was in the New World to bring the Indians to God. So, the monk converts the Indians, and Balboa to God sends them on to God. They work together” (Murray; 163-165).  Since Balboa’s ego increased as his power increased, they built on one another to the point that he felt no remorse in the lives he claimed. To him, it was a sense of duty to quickly kill them and send them on to their gods.
In conclusion, ego and absolute power corrupts are the themes of “Balboa”, a short story by Sabina Murray. Both themes develop through Balboa’s journey from pig farmer to Spanish explorer, interact as his ego elevates him into a God feared by the Indians of Columbia, and build on one another to create a complex account of how his unlimited power is corrupted by his self-image as a lion when he viciously takes lives without remorse. In the end, he knew “his cruelty will be recorded along with whatever he discovers,” and it cost him his life. (Murray; 151-152).

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How Wolves Saved Yellowstone by A.S.

3/19/2021

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 Yellowstone National Park is home to one-half the world’s hydrothermal features, vibrant landscapes, mountain wildernesses, and according to a park brochure titled, “Wildlife,” it has “the largest concentration of mammals in the United States.” Yet, that wasn’t always the case. Before 1995, the park had one big problem-a vital predator had vanished. This absence for over 70 years resulted in extraordinary damage to the trees, the animals, and even the waterways. Something had to change, and scientists wondered if returning that predator to the park could be the answer. This is the story of why and how the reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone saved the park by creating dramatic changes in the ecosystem for animals, plants, and rivers. However, it is important to first understand why there were no wolves in Yellowstone. 

In the beginning, wolves were a major predator in America. According to conservationist and nature author, Judy Lehmberg, in her CBS article, “Nature Up Close; The Best Wolf Ever”, there were over “400,000 gray wolves” called the United States home when the Europeans first arrived. Yet, “but by 1930 that number was very close to zero, including in Yellowstone.” When the Yellowstone National Park Protection Act of 1872 was enacted, it offered some protection for the animals, plants, and rivers to keep the park’s “natural condition” (National Park Service). That natural condition included wolves. However, as history has shown, wolves were hunted, trapped, and shot. The decreasing number of wolves in the last 250 years proves that there was no protection for wolves. In fact, most people thought, “. . . fewer wolves meant more deer, elk and moose” (Lehman). While hunting wolves was allowed, the government’s approval was in the form of a bounty on wolves in 1914. The United States considered all wolves to be, “destructive to agriculture” (Dixon). Wolves didn’t have a chance. They continued to decline year after year until almost no wolves were left in the United States. As for Yellowstone, the last two wolves were shot in 1926. It wasn’t until 1973 that wolves took their place on the newly adopted Endangered Species Act, but the damage to the park’s ecosystem was already clear and a change was needed if the natural beauty of the park was to be saved. Something had to change. 

Nevertheless, knowing something is wrong and discovering exactly what it is are two different things. Mara Dolph, a conservationist biologist, in her article, “What Happens When the Top Predator Is Removed From an Ecosystem?” explains that, “Ecosystems are complex and diverse, with many levels and intricate relationships between organisms. Removing any level from an ecosystem disrupts a delicate balance that may have evolved over millions of years”. Park rangers and scientists observations in Yellowstone noticed that the number of foxes, badgers, beavers, songbirds, and moose were decreasing each year, which told them that the system of checks and balances in Yellowstone’s ecosystem didn’t add up. The damage was evident as explained in a video created by Everything Science:

     The deer and elk populations increased substantially resulting in over grazing      particularly of the Willows and other vegetarian important to soil and riverbank structure leading to heavy erosion as a top predator wolves were one of Yellowstone's linchpins holding together the delicate balance between predator and prey the removal in the early 20th century disrupted food webs and set up something called a trophic cascade the Wolves natural predators in this case the elk multiplied all while consuming increasing amounts of foliage this hurt the species that relied on that vegetation like the birds who nested in the trees and the beavers who use the Willows to create their dams and without the beaver dams hundreds of native fish species started to decline and as the fish declined so did the animals that fed on them like the foxes and bears but removing a single species a cascade of negative effects propagated outward throughout the ecosystem (“How the Wolves Saved Yellowstone” 00:59-01:47). 

However, even though there were other predators in Yellowstone, wolves were the major predator of elk, so  “. . .  the elk pushed the limits of Yellowstone's carrying capacity, and they didn't move around much in the winter-browsing heavily on young willow, aspen and cottonwood plants” according to Brodie Farquhar in his article, “Wolf Reintroduction Changes Ecosystem”. The deer and elk herds overgrazed the willow and aspen stands. The trees produced new sprouts, but “. . . most of these sprouts were consumed by elk, preventing recruitment of new saplings and trees” (Smith-Douglas 213). The decrease in trees meant a decrease in songbirds who nest and feed in the trees. It also affected the beaver populations who “. . . rely on tall, abundant willow stands for dam-building material and winter food caches” (Smith-Douglas 212) The absence of beavers “led to a number of hydrologic changes, including widening. . . of stream channels and a drop in the floodplain water table” (Smith-Douglas 213) Scientists determined, the only way to stop the damage was to bring back the top elk predator and reintroduce wolves to save the park. 

Consequently, wolves, not just any wolves, were reintroduced. “Biologists decided that the best wolves were ones that knew how to hunt Yellowstone prey . . . Thus, we have Canadian wolves in Yellowstone” (Halfpenny 11). When they were released, the wolves did what they were supposed to do and started hunting elk. “With elk on the move during the winter, willow stands recovered from intense browsing, and beaver rediscovered an abundant food source that hadn't been there earlier” (Farquhar). The beavers built new dams and the rivers began to recover. The video by Sustainable Human, “How Wolves Changed the Rivers,” described the dramatic effect when wolves started moving the elk as “The wolves changed the behavior of the rivers. They began to meander less, there was less erosion, the channels narrowed” (03:13-03:17). The absence of wolves damaged the park, but their reintroduction helped repair the damage.

In conclusion, the removal of wolves in the Yellowstone ecosystem caused severe problems when there was no predator to move the elk and lower the numbers in their herds. However, the reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone saved the park by creating dramatic changes in the ecosystem for animals, plants, and rivers. The lesson learned is best stated by Katharine Lackey, “. . . most ecologists say removing predators today would be a mistake. The way ecosystems put themselves back together after such a problem is still something scientists are trying to understand. The lesson is let’s not let things get as bad as they did with 70 years without wolves.”
 





Works Cited:

Dolph, Mara. “What Happens When the Top Predator Is Removed From an Ecosystem?” Education, Seattle PI, 21 Nov. 2017, education.seattlepi.com/happens-top-predator-removed-ecosystem-3496.html.

Farquhar, Brodie. “Wolf Reintroduction Changes Ecosystem.” My Yellowstone Park, My Yellowstone Park, 30 June 2020, www.yellowstonepark.com/things-to-do/wolf-reintroduction-changes-ecosystem.

“Gray Wolf.” National Parks Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, www.nps.gov/yell/learn/nature/wolves.htm.

“How Wolves Change Rivers - YouTube.” Sustainable Human.org, 13 Feb. 2014, www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSBL7Gk_9QU. 

Lackey, Katharine. “Yellowstone's Wolves Are Back, but They Haven't Restored the Park's Ecosystem. Here's Why.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 2018,www.usatoday.com/story/tech/science/2018/09/07/wolves-reintroduction-yellowstone-ecosystem/.

Lehmberg, Judy. “Nature up Close: The Best Wolf Ever.” CBS News, CBS Interactive, 21 Oct. 2018, www.cbsnews.com/news/nature-up-close-the-best-wolf-ever-yellowstone-national-park/.

Smith, Douglas W., and Gary Ferguson. Decade of the Wolf: Returning the Wild to Yellowstone, Lyons Press, 2012, pp. 212, 213, 215).

“Wildlife.” Yellowstone Wildlife, Yellowstone Media, 1999, www.yellowstonenationalpark.com/wildlife.htm.

“Yellowstone National Park Protection Act (1872).” National Parks Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, www.nps.gov/yell/learn/management/yellowstoneprotectionact1872.htm#:~:text=The%20United%20States%20Congress%20established,Park%20Protection%20Act%20into%20law.&text=AN%20ACT%20to%20set%20apart,River%20as%20a%20public%20park.
 







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