My Home

We live in small flat. It is bright and airy. It has three rooms. It has small kitchen, a bathroom, and a latrine. It is pleasant. It is comfortable.
- flat, rooms, kitchen, bath-room, latrine, pleasant, comfortable, guests, neighbors, disturbances.
- bright and airy, our own corners, places for study, neat and clean, to put up with.
 

 We are four-Father, Mother, Sister and I. Sister and I have own corner in the house. They are our place for study. We keep them neat and clean.

Sometimes we have guests. Then there is trouble. We come in one another’s way. But we like the company of good guests. A small house is good. It can be kept in order easily. We have good neighbors. A child cries. A servant pounds spices. We can do nothing about them. We put up with them.

 I hope same think is with you'll always or sometime.I hope all will like this. 

Why We Remember Special Gifts

Receiving gifts is always very exciting. I think that all people like to receive presents from their relatives, friends, co-workers, etc. Personally, I am sure that a person does not remember all gifts he has received because it is impossible. However, I know that all people remember a few gifts that were special. Why people remember those special gifts?

First of all, I believe that people remember special gifts because they were from very close and dear people. For example, I remember my parents presented me a ring when I was sixteen years old. It was not an expensive ring but it was very valuable for me and when I left my home and moved to another city I often looked at that ring and felt like my parents were somewhere near me. I felt their support and understanding. It is like people who are close to us give their small parts of their sole with that gift. They want us to remember them and they want to make us happy. These gifts are very valuable for people of all countries and nationalities.

Another reason why people remember special gifts because they were exactly what people wanted to have for a long time, but for some reasons, for example, they just could not afford those things, they did not buy them. So, when they receive those things as gifts it makes them very happy and they remember those moments for a long time. When I was a child my mother could not buy me a bicycle because we did not have enough money at that time. So, when my grandfather bought me my first bicycle it was the happiest moment in my life. Moreover, he personally taught me how to ride and I spent all my spare time after that event cycling.

To sum up, I think that people remember special gifts because they presented with love

Why People Go To College

College is a place where people go to increase their knowledge, to prepare for a future career, to get a new experience, to meet new people. Of cause, different people have different reasons to attend college, but all of them want to change their life for better. In this essay I will give the basic reasons and explain why people go to college.

First of all, every person wants to improve his or her life. So, college is one of the places that helps one get more from his life, to meet more opportunities. Knowledge is a power that can be gotten through studding. After graduation people may get better job and completely change their career and life.

Second of all, people go to a college to get a new life experience, which is very important because students learn to take care of themselves. Many of them work during their college years and earn their first money. It is really great and exiting. They learn how to save money and keep house, how to arrange their time in order to get all things done etc.

Additionally, students learn how to co-operate and communicate with each other. Many of them have to live with a roommate. From the first sight, it may seem difficult to live with a completely strange person, but it helps one to be friendlier, more supportive and it helps you save some money.

In summary, I would like to add that graduation is one of the major goals people try to accomplish in their life, because after that many beautiful, exciting changes will happen. That changes will make a person proud of himself.

People attend college or university for many different reasons (for example, new experiences, career preparation, increased knowledge). Why do you think people attend college or university? Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

Children And TV

Some parents believe that watching television is bad for their children. So, they try to restrict their children from watching TV. However, other parents think that there is nothing bad in watching TV. Personally, I think that watching TV brings children only benefits unless they spend in front of TV set less then a couple of hours daily. For the following reasons, which I will mention bellow, I believe that television plays an essential role in child's development.

First of all, television helps a child to extent his or her range of interests. Children can find out many new things and make many exiting discoveries for themselves. In addition to these practical benefits television improves children's vocabulary, their memory and gives them the opportunity to gain more knowledge. I think it is very essential for a child. Of cause, someone can say that there are plenty of different recourses of information such as books and teachers. But, I think, in our modern world children must learn faster and use all contemporary technology in order to succeed.
 

Second of all, watching cognitive programs helps children to learn more about wild life, our environment and about the importance of preserving our forest and wild animals that live there.Scientists say that a child should not watch TV more then 40 minutes successively. For example, my mother always made us have a break after watching TV more then half an hour and let our eyes rest for several minutes before turning on the TV again. I think it is the best solution.

To sum up, I believe that television gives children and all people the opportunity to learn what can not be learn from books. Television and movies in particular allow people to feel the reality and see what they will most likely not be able to see in their lives. Personally, when I was a child I liked to watch cognitive programs about wild animals. Unfortunately, my family had only one TV, but
these programs were the only ones we all wanted to watch. So,
we gathered in our living room and watched them in complete silence and I always remember those moments with a smile on my face.

A Cap for Steve

When it comes to the word “family”, many different things come to mind, especially the bond between children and their parents.  For some, family comes to mind when they think of dinner every night together and how involved their parents are in their lives.  Someone else may think of family as people living together, and relying on each other within an economic relationship, but nothing more than that.  Although all families are different and unique, most have very similar conflicts along with comparable relationships.
 

In the short story A Cap for Steve, there is a father and son relationship that most people are familiar with.  Dave Diamond, the father, is a poor, quick-tempered man who knows the true value of money, and knows how to make every dollar count.  His son Steve is a shy twelve year old boy, who has a true passion for baseball.  Dave and Steve do not see eye to eye on many things, which puts a strain on their relationship.  Although Steve understands the importance of money, he can see past it.  Dave, however, is stricken by the power of money and power, and his pride is very important to him.  A Cap for Steve is a story of growth, and disappointment.  This story illustrates Steve’s first situation with major disillusion particularly dealing with his father.  Steve has a lot of hope and faith for his father, who ends up letting him down.  Both characters grow substantially throughout the story, along with the strength of their relationship.  In the short story, A Cap for Steve, Callaghan uses the story to show the power of money and pride, which opens our eyes to the disillusionment of a young boy, and leads to the growth of his father.

Throughout the story, the power of money and pride has a large effect on the protagonist Dave, and changes his behaviour whenever money is apparent.  Money is mentioned in the first sentence of the story, and is an important component throughout.  It is used in the beginning to develop the protagonist’s character, Dave Diamond.  A personality trait of his is that “he knows how to make every dollar count”.From the very beginning Callaghan clearly shows the importance of money to him.  Dave works hard for every nickel, and knows the true value of it.  He works very hard to make ends meet, and does not give himself many breaks.  Along with the value of money, Dave’s pride is also significant.  His pride is first hurt during his encounter with Mr. Hudson. Mr. Hudson is the father of the boy who bought Steve’s Phillies’ cap from someone else.  Steve accuses the boy of stealing his hat and demands that he return it.  Steve and Dave are then invited to meet Mr. Hudson so they can work everything out.  When Dave is introduced to Mr. Hudson, he is almost immediately intimidated by him.  Mr. Hudson is a powerful lawyer, who lives in the nice apartments across the park.  Although the dialogue between them is civil and friendly, Mr. Hudson has a demeaning undertone to much of what he says, and Dave is aware of it.  The word “shrewd” is used more than once to describe Mr. Hudson.  He took one look at Dave and knew that he was poor, and that he could buy the hat back from him.  Although Dave held is ground in the beginning, he could not refuse the twenty dollars.  He looked to his son for the decision of whether or not to take the money, but was blocked by the power of the money to see Steve’s true feelings.  Dave thought his son felt the same amazement and excitement when Mr. Hudson offered the twenty dollars.  He let the money get the best of him, and he chose the modest sum of money over his son’s happiness.  Although Dave saw both sides to every argument, in this story the option of more money prevailed and his pride was crucial to every decision made.

In this story, Steve is disillusioned with his father for the first time, and the young boy begins his maturation.  From the beginning Steve looked up to his father, and was terrified by the entire situation.  Dave knew that his son was counting on him, but in the end Dave shattered all the hope that Steve had.  Steve made it clear the importance of his cap, and from the beginning his father failed to see it.  After the Mr. Hudson incident, Steve told his father that he never wanted to be like him, which was when Dave truly understood the significance of what had just happened, and how much he hurt his son.  Many boys look to their father as somewhat of a hero, and, in Steve’s eyes, his father ruined his heroic reputation.  Another instance where Steve was faced with disillusion was again with Mr. Hudson.  In the beginning the author stated that Steve, “ought to know the value of money” because of how influenced he was by his father.  Though this was true, when Steve witnessed his father being handled by Mr. Hudson, he saw the true power of money, and how much more power Mr. Hudson had.  Steve saw the power of authority and was scared from the start.  He understood now that in many cases the best man does not necessarily win, but instead the wealthier man.  Steve’s character broke from innocence from both of these situations and substantially grew.  He went from a quiet, shy boy, to someone who could express his feelings and stand up to his father.  He felt great disappointment surrounding the Phillies’ cap, and Dave could not understand the importance of it to him.  

Dave thought all of the enchantment his son found through the cap was childish, and he did not understand his son’s true passion for it until the end.  The cap was priceless to Steve, not only because of where it came from, but what it meant.  With a cap comes authority, power and leadership, and Steve for the first time had these three things.  People in the neighbourhood looked at him differently, which was why part of him had been ripped out when his father sold the hat.  For twenty dollars he lost one of the most important things to him and he was struck with disappointment.  Things that may seem unimportant to some people are other people’s treasures, and Steve faced disillusion numerous times though this story over his Phillies’ cap.

Growth can happen at any age, and although Dave was a fully grown man with a job and family, his young son teaches him a lot throughout this story.  From the beginning, there was an apparent strain between Dave and Steve.  Steve looked to his father for help and understanding, but Dave did not realize this until then end.  Dave called his son childish, careless and was very irritated by his behaviour.  Dave did not have a proper understanding of his son until the end of the story which made their relationship grow.  Dave saw how much he hurt his son, and so he changed his approach.  He realized how much time he was missing out on with his son, so he went and apologized to him.  His apology led them to talk about spending more quality time, and ended the story on a good note.   The atmosphere went from dark to light, and there was finally some happiness in the story.  Along with the growth of their relationship, Dave also matured.  Some of the personality traits that were evident in the beginning of the story were much more hidden in the end.  Dave was seen as a jealous man from the very beginning.  It first began with the jealousy towards Mr. Condon, the Phillies’ baseball player.  He saw how his son worshiped Mr. Condon, and the wealth that he had, and Dave envied him. 

 Every father wants to be their son’s hero, and in this situation, Dave saw something different.  Dave was also jealous of Mr. Hudson, but in a different way.  He was envious of his power and wealth, but not the relationship he had with his son.  Steve taught his father at the end of the story that their relationship can mean more than anything else.  Steve opened his eyes to how blessed he is with his family, and that spending time with them is the most important thing.  Throughout the story, Dave sees Steve in many different lights, and in the end he sees how much he has grown.  Steve’s growth in turn helped Dave.  Dave considerably changes from the beginning of the story to the end, and Steve helps the growth process along.

In the short story, A Cap for Steve, Callaghan shows the impact of money and pride, the disenchantment that every child faces, and that growth can happen at any age.  From the beginning to end of the story, money is an evident theme.  Both Steve and Dave value money and struggle to make ends meet.  Steve is first faced with enchantment, and then has it stolen twice from him.  He and his father grow substantially from one another, and through the situation they went endured together.  Their relationship changes,and they grow closer than ever before.  This story shows the importance of a father in any child’s life, and exemplifies that money is not everything.  Sometimes children open the eyes of adults, and in A Cap for Steve, this is the exact case.  Callaghan uses the bond of family to tell a powerful story.  People all face some time of disenchantment with their parents, and can relate.

  

Dead Men's Path

"A Dead Man's Path" is a short story about a bright and ambitious headmaster named Obi who soon finds that his ignorance over the ancestry of his people can bring about the worst of fates. Tradition is the main theme of this story, as the purpose of the ancient path is discovered and the reactions from Obi and the villagers define the importance of tradition to everyone involved. As events progress, Obi ignores the culture that his own ancestors once followed, soon finding that the passion of a person's beliefs can overcome all obstacles- whether the headmaster wants that or not. It is because of these factors that "A Dead Man's Path" best illustrates the importance of respecting and remembering traditions that may seem odd and old-fashioned, but have lived long in the hearts of the people who follow them.

The story takes place in Africa, and Obi, the main character, had just received news that he would be running a school that had been in dire need of help within the region. Obi is a bright young individual, and both he and his wife act as representatives to a more modern way of viewing the world. Chinua Achebe further shows this fact very early in the story, on the third paragraph: "'We shall do our best,' she (Obi's wife) replied. 'We shall have such beautiful gardens and everything will be just modern and delightful.' They are energetic and spirited, especially Obi, who is ambitious enough to want to see that his new school will be the best that he can make it. It is not long before the new headmaster wants to make sure that the outside of the school is painstakingly beautiful for the inspector who was to come and look over the grounds. It is at that time that Obi comes across a scraggly individual who violates the grounds of the school by walking along a worn path that the school is a part of. Obi discovered from a teacher of the school just what the path was used for."It amazes me," said Obi to one of his teachers who had been three years in the school, "that you people allowed the villagers to make use of this footpath. It is simply incredible." He shook his head.

"The path," the teacher said apologetically, "appears to be very important to them. Although it is hardly used, it connects the village shrine with their place of burial." Obi would hear none of this nonsense, demanding that the path be blocked for fear of letting the inspector see random strangers who didn't belong on school property in the first place. In spite of the teacher's warnings of a possible uprising, Obi blocked the trail with large logs and whatever else he could find so that no one could go through that path again. The villagers refused to let the headmaster keep them from the path, sending forth a priest to spark some sense into Obi. The priest voiced the importance of that path to not only the villagers who used it, but the dead as well who walked among it. Our dead relatives depart by it and our ancestors visit us by it. But most important, it is the path of children coming in to be born.

 Obi only scoffed at the priest's words, explaining that "Dead men don't walk," disregarding his own ancestry for modern beliefs. The path was left blocked. Two days later however, a woman died within the village while trying to give birth to a child. The tribe took this as a literal sign that misfortune was coming to them because the path was closed. They became restless, for there was no way for the woman to rest in peace with the path blocked. Nor could her child have entered the world and walked the path to their mother. Seemingly overnight, the villagers tore down everything that covered the path, taking down the bushes, flowers, and even a few school buildings with them, and the next day the inspector saw nothing but a wreck, and a Headmaster who had thought only of himself and the modern methods he had stood for.

In regards to story elements used throughout the piece, it's easy to see that the narrator, though he does not actually take part in the story, sides with the villagers and their predicament from the tone he used in describing the pompous headmaster and his stern refusal to comply with the priest's request. Chinua Achebe writes, "Mr. Obi listened with a satisfied smile on his face. 'The whole purpose of our school,' he said finally, 'is to eradicate just such beliefs as that. Dead men do not require footpaths. The whole idea is just fantastic. Our duty is to teach your children to laugh at such ideas.' There were two main characters throughout the story that we read the most about: Obi, who can be considered as either a protagonist or antagonist given the side you join when reading the story - And the village priest who can be considered a parallel character to the headmaster's intentions. The key concept of the entire story however, was the path itself: A road to and from the grave for the dearly departed. That was the entire focus of the story and tied the characters together as they formed opinions and, in the village's case, rebelled against Obi's authority.

On that day of days, when all that Obi had striven for had ended up a wreck because of the people he had refused to listen to, Obi, or at least the reader, might learn and understand that modern technology can prove anything. It can prove that we cannot literally fly. It can prove how the earth was made and how we evolved. Yet not everyone believes science or technology. As in the story, the villagers were so superstitious about the blocking of the path, that they attacked the school and everything that blocked the path: "The beautiful hedges were torn up not just near the path but right round the school...flowers trampled...one of the school buildings torn down..." Science has theories, not facts, and though we live in the 20th century, no one can know about what will happen to them when they pass. We have religion to base our customs on, for it makes the person able to rely on something when all they see is a depthless hole. What happens when we die? Many cultures can answer that differently. The Hindus believe that there is a hierarchy of sorts, and that people are constantly reincarnated until they reach true Heaven. Certain Native American tribes believed that their ancestors were the stars themselves, a new one to be added to that dark blanket of sky whenever someone passed away. We have no knowledge of the unknown but the beliefs that our ancestors held before us, which is why traditions, customs, all of those 'old' beliefs can and will be important.

According to Achebe's "Dead Man's Path", modern society should never destroy the basis of a person's beliefs. That is what Obi had done, with his smart response to the village priest, "'...Our duty is to teach your children to laugh at such idea."' It would be like saying to a Christian that there is no god, that praying is nonsense and the bible is just a story someone decided to create on an exceptionally boring day. The importance of a person's culture goes beyond just a person, connecting a society of believers to work towards a common purpose and a common goal. A German philosopher named Friedrich Nietzsche stated that he wanted his readers to open up and accept nature as it is in all its manifold appearances. In order to be able to interpret nature it is mandatory to imagine. In Achebe's story, it was to free the path so that those who died could rest and peace and the tradition of those villagers continue on, longer than Obi will ever live. Remembering and cherishing tradition is a key point of "Dead Man's Path", in which tradition and the beliefs of a group of people would always conquer against those who wish to thwart them.

 

Arrow of God

 Arrow of God is a 1964 novel by Chinua Achebe. It is Achebe's third novel following Things Fall Apart and No Longer at Ease. These three books are sometimes called The African Trilogy. The novel centers around Ezeulu, the chief priest of several Nigerian villages, who confronts colonial powers and Christian missionaries in the 1920s.

The novel is set amongst the villages of the Igbo people in Nigeria. Ezeulu is the chief priest of the god Ulu, worshiped by the six villages of Umuaro. The book begins with Ezeulu and Umuaro getting in a battle with a nearby village, Okperi. The conflict is abruptly resolved when T.K. Winter bottom, the British colonial overseer, intervenes.After the conflict, a Christian missionary, John Good country, arrives in Umuaro. Goodcountry began to tell the villages tales of Nigerians in the Niger Delta who abandoned (and battled) their traditional "bad customs," in favor of Christianity, stirring resentment from his traditional community.

Ezeulu is called away from his village by Winter bottom, and he is invited to become a part of the colonial administration, a policy known as indirect rule. Ezeulu refuses to be a "white man's chief" and is thrown in prison. In Umuaro, the people cannot harvest the yams until Ezeulu has called the New Yam Feast to give thanks to Ulu. When Ezeulu returns from prison, he refuses to call the feast despite being implored by other important men in the village to make a compromise. Ezeulu reasons to the people and to himself that it is not his will but Ulu's; Ezeulu believes himself to be half spirit and half man. The yams begin to rot in the field, and a famine ensues for which the village blames Ezeulu. Seeing this as an opportunity, John Good country proposes that the village offer thanks to the Christian god instead so that they may harvest what remains of their crops with "immunity".

Many of the villagers have already lost their faith in Ezeulu. One of Ezeulu's sons dies during a traditional ceremony, and the village interprets this as a sign that Ulu has abandoned their priest. Rather than face another famine, the village converts to Christianity.

The title "Arrow of God" refers to Ezeulu's image of himself as an arrow in the bow of his god                                    

The Value of Science

From time to time people suggest to me that scientists ought to give more consideration to social problems - especially that they should be more responsible in considering the impact of science on society.  It seems to be generally believed that if the scientists would only look at these very difficult social problems and not spend so much time fooling with less vital scientific ones, great success would come of it.
    
     I believe that a scientist looking at nonscientific problems is just as dumb as the next guy - and when he talks about a nonscientific matter, he sounds as naive as anyone untrained in the matter.  Since the question of the value of science is not a scientific subject, this talk is dedicated to proving my point - by example.
     
The first way in which science is of value is familiar to everyone.  It is that scientific knowledge enables us to do all kinds of things and to make all kinds of things.  Of course if we make good things, it is not only to the credit of science; it is also to the credit of the moral choice which led us to good work.  Scientific knowledge is an enabling power to do either good or bad - but it does not carry instructions on how to use it.  Such power has evident value - even though the power may be negated by what one does with it.
   
  I learned a way of expressing this common human problem on a trip to Honolulu.  In a Buddhist temple there, the man in charge explained a little bit about the Buddhist religion for tourists, and then ended his talk by telling them he had something to say to them that they would never forget - and I have never forgotten it.  It was a proverb of the Buddhist religion:

    Another value of science is the fun called intellectual enjoyment which some people get from reading and learning and thinking about it, and which others get from working in it.  This is an important point, one which is not considered enough by those who tell us it is our social responsibility to reflect on the impact of science on society.

    
 Is this mere personal enjoyment of value to society as a whole? No! But it is also a responsibility to consider the aim of society itself.  Is it to arrange matters so that people can enjoy things?  If so, then the enjoyment of science is as important as anything else.

   

The ballad of birmingham

September 15, 1963, was not a typical Sunday in Birmingham, Alabama; it was a day of devastation. Sunday school had just ended at the Seventeenth Street Baptist Church when nineteen sticks of dynamite, stashed under a stairwell, exploded. Twenty-two of the black congregations adults and children, although injured, survived the bombing. Four little girls, Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley, did not. The bombing was a horrific reminder of the dangers of the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s

A young girl asks her mother for permission to attend a freedom march in downtown Birmingham with her friends. Her mother, fearing violence, refuses to let her go and suggests that the child go to church instead. After she leaves, the mother is relieved that the child is in a safe place; then, she hears the bomb explode and rushes out to make sure her child is ok. She goes to the site of the church, which is now a pile of broken glass and bricks, and searches through the debris. She isn’t able to find her child, but she does find her little girls shoe.

Dudley Randall's Ballad of Birmingham gives a poetic account of the bombing of a Birmingham church in 1963. The poem was written in ballad form to convey the mood of the mother to her daughter. The author also gives a graphic account of what the 1960's were like. Irony played a part also in the ballad showing the church as the warzone and the freedom march as the safer place to be.
Writing the poem in ballad form gave a sense of mood to each paragraph. The poem starts out with an eager little girl wanting to march for freedom. The mother explains how treacherous the march could become showing her fear for her daughters life. The mood swings back and forth until finally the mother's fear overcomes the child's desire and the child is sent to church where it will be safe. The tempo seems to pick up in the last couple of paragraphs to emphasize the mothers distraught on hearing the explosion and finding her child's shoe.
The poem also focuses on what life was like in the sixties. It tells of black freedom marches in the South how they effected one family. It told of how our peace officers reacted to marches with clubs, hoses, guns, and jail. They were fierce and wild and a black child would be no match for them. The mother refused to let her child march in the wild streets of Birmingham and sent her to the safest place that no harm would become of her daughter.

Going to church in the ghetto in Birmingham was probably the safest place a mother could send her child. But this is where the irony takes place. The irony makes the church the warzone and place of destruction while the march was the safest place to be. The child was depicted as combed hair, freshly bathed, with white gloves, and white shoes, which is also ironic. The mother had sent an angel dressed in white to a firestorm from hell called church. The mother was completely sure that her daughter was safe until she heard the explosion.

The bombing of that church in 1963 could not have been depicted any better by the Birmingham Post. The ballad's tone changed with every paragraph that seemed to capture the true feelings of the characters. The sixties were a time of turmoil and change, which the author captured with guns, jail, explosions, and freedom marches. The ironic turnabout of the church being the battleground and the march being the safest place to be also shows how the sixties played an important role of where we are today.

Forest and River

Forest

Our National Forest System and the American Forests are losing over one million acres a year to fire, drought, disease, and other causes both natural and man made Current reforestation efforts simply cannot compensate for these losses. The American Indian Foundation has developed a mass reforestation project to help overcome these . terrible losses and return Americas Forest Ecosystems to their natural splendor. As you read  through the site you will find the true facts about the importance of Americas Forest System and  it's effects on our Climate. Plus, how you can join  us in restoring our Forests to their  natural splendorOur National Forest System and the American Forests are losing over one million acres a year to fire, drought, disease, and other causes both natural and man made Current reforestation efforts simply cannot compensate for these losses. The American Indian Foundation
has developed a mass reforestation project to help overcome these . terrible losses and return Americas Forest Ecosystems to their natural splendor. As you read  through the site you will find the true facts about the importance of Americas Forest System and  it's effects on our Climate. Plus, how you can join  us in restoring our Forests to their  natural splendor

The  National Forest Resources for the United States cover 191 Million Acres.+/- In the last ten years we have been losing over one million  acres of Forests each year to
Fire, Drought and other natural causes. The total yearly acreage replanted for the entire country is 2 ½ million acres, Only 6% of thaat going to our National Forests, leaving a 850,000 acre deficit each year and our National Forests in an ever increasing state of decline. We have a self contained a mobile laboratory which gives us the ability to go to each donor or Survivor tree where it grows. Each tree will be given a GPS ID and in addition to donor tissue collected, soil samples taken and a leaf tissue analysis performed.  This Data will be carefully indexed and stored in our tissue data bank creating a valuable research tool for many years to come.


Our Survivor Tree Project is a product of Science to which our foundation brings 300 years of Forest Wisdom accumulated through our American Indian Heritage. The Science Tells us what Nature Should Do … Our Forest Wisdom tells us what Nature Will Do. Our Project will Collect the tissue, grow the embryos and produce the Seed. It Will Then Go to the Forest Service. The Forest Service will then choose the species mix the seed and plant it. Nature will  re- create the Forest Ecosystem ..........
 

River

The ecosystem of a river is the river viewed as a system operating in its natural environment, and includes biotic (living) interactions amongst plants, animals and micro-organisms, as well as abiotic (nonliving) physical and chemical interactions.River ecosystems are prime examples of lotic ecosystems. Lotic refers to flowing water, from the Latin lotus, to wash. Lotic waters range from springs only a few centimeters wide to major rivers kilometers in width.[3] Much of this article applies to logic ecosystems in general, including related lotic systems such as streams and springs. Lotic ecosystems can be contrasted with lentic ecosystems, which involve relatively still terrestrial waters such as lakes and ponds. Together, these two fields form the more general study area of freshwater or aquatic ecology.river is a river with a deep, slow-moving channel flowing through forested swamps or wetlands. As vegetation decays, tannins leach into the water, making a transparent, acidic water that is darkly stained, resembling tea or coffee. Most major  rivers are in the Amazon River system and the Southern United States. The term is used in fluvial studies, geology, geography, ecology, and biology. Not all dark rivers are in that technical sense. Some rivers in temperate regions, which drain or flow through areas of dark black loam, are simply black on account of soil color; these rivers are black mud rivers. There are also black mud estuaries.

 rivers are lower in nutrients than whitewater rivers and have ionic concentrations higher than rainwater. The unique conditions lead to flora and fauna that differs from that in whitewater. Where black water and whitewater combines is attractive to a
diverse group of organisms.

waters are more acidic, resulting in an aluminum concentration greater than that of the more neutral white waters. The major difference is the concentrations of sodium, magnesium, calcium and potassium; these are very low in black waters. This has ecological implications. Some animals need more calcium than is available, so for example, snails, which need much calcium to build shells, are not abundant in  The lack of dissolved ions in black waters results in a low conductivity, similar to that of rainwater.

The Rightful Inheritors of the Earth

Well, recently I came across an article in The Caravan, on the olive ridleys. The article was on the conservation efforts made by a group of people, on the beaches of Tamil, where these turtles come together as group for the Arribada (That is the females return to the shores they were hatched and lumber onshore,sometimes in the thousands,to nest.). What is worrying is that, the population of the olive Ridleys, that are considered to be one of the abundant turtle species, is decreasing substantially. The reasons are numerous. Changing habitats , stealing eggs, nesting females slaughtered for their skin and meat and the list goes on.

When I became the owner of a Tiny little piece of this wide earth, I firmly belived that my future was secure. It was a tow-acre plot with coconut palms and an old house that could be renovated.Those were the days when the price of coconuts was spiraling, I  savored the thought of the palms laden with coconuts. It was a happy existence...But then arrived the interlopers,Trespassing, Flouting the legally of the ownership documents. Violating the fence at the boundary. Defying the sentry, my dog shan.

They did not seem to care for anyone in the world, not even the government!The first arrivals were birds and butterflies. A wide variety of birds. A so many, many butterflies! Perched on the boughs of the trees and plants, the birds chirped. The   butterflies fluttered around in the courtyard, flashing their colors in the sunlight..We could not shoo off the chirping birds and the butterflies. But then came the crows... Their raucous cawing was more insufferable than the racket of other birds. Besides, they swooped down on the chicks.

They were followed by the hawks that perched on the coconut palms with the same intent. They kept watch and waited... Soon there were mongooses in the bamboo thicket. And foxes in the shrubbery patch near it, ready to pounce on the hens...

Even as I wondered what right these creatures had to be on my land, there emerged a fierce creature without hands or legs or wings, a cobra. It stood before me, dignified, majestic, its hood spread out as it asking me that what business I had on this patch.
I said, "You had better leave my two-acre land. Immediately."

But then, when could it go, Hadn't almost the whole of this earth been bought by man, bit by bit?My wife said, "The jackrabbit has ripened. But squirrels and crows are feasting on it. Brids and bats are eating up all the guavas. sapotass and graft mangoes."Almighty God, how unfortunate it is that rats have to be killed so that we can live. Can human beings not survive without destroying other creatures of the earth...?What we need is a scientific method, a novel idea that will make it possible for us to live without killing any creatures...

O Creator of rats, bear with us. They are going to be exterminated. Through treachery. The issue is the loss of nine hundred coconuts every month, the sole means of our livelihood. Forgive us, forgive us.After shopping for two hours, my wife returned home. Along with other items of purchase was a large tin of rat poison... The poison was mixed with bananas, rice, tapioca, and kept all over the place. Beneath the coconut palms as well.

In four days, Five hens, twelve squirrels, two hundred rats and cat disappeared behind the curtains of time forever.Dead rats rooted in the attic. Death was everywhere. The stench spread all over the house.

But tender coconuts continued to fall. A fortnight passed. The coconuts palms climbers then said, "The owls are the culprits. They peck at the tender coconuts."So, it goes without saying that the next few articles would be on few of the endangered species, and may be, on how we can do our bit, in redeeming the rights of the rightful inheritors of the earth.

I took a decision then. In no uncertain terms I said, "Bats are not the souls of our ancestors. But they are one among God's many creations. Let coconuts be destroyed. That doesn't matter. Let us be satisfied with what we get after they have taken their share. They certainly have a right to the coconuts. They too are part of Almighty's creation, as are the palms. Remember the ancient right that God bequeathed at the auspicious moment of creation- "all living belongs are the rightful inheritors of the earth.

Apple is good for health, see how?

The culprit, it was ultimately determined, was the antenna, which is wrapped in a band around the phone's edge to help create its slim form. Using what became known as the "death grip," (i.e. holding the phone at a certain spot) caused reception to suffer or cut out entirely.

"This settlement relates to a small number of customers who indicated that they experienced antenna or reception issues with their iPhone 4, and didn't want to take advantage of a free case from Apple when it was being offered in 2010," Apple told CNET in a written statement.

However, Ira Rothken, a lead attorney in the case, said more than 21 million iPhone 4 owners were eligible for the payout.

The free case offer lasted for three months. Apple had initially ignored the complaints, then dismissed them, then called a rare press conference at which then-CEO Steve Jobs announced the offer, while claiming the problem was just as bad on other companies' phones.

A bumper or other protective case on the phone eliminates, or at least greatly reduces, the problem. Apple's new iPhone 4S, released in October, has not shown a similar problem.

"We believe that the Apple iPhone 4 settlement is fair, adequate, and reasonable," Rothken told CNET. "We believe that it allows members of the class to choose, and they can get $15 of cash or a bumper, so we believe that type of choice is proportional to the circumstances."

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Under the settlement, eligible customers should get an e-mail from Apple some time in April. They'll then have 120 days to apply for the $15. A website, iPhone4Settlement.com, has been set up but had not yet been activated as of Monday morning.

by govindaraj