The Kalahari essays

The Kalahari essays The Kalahari: A Desert to be Preserved A desert is defined by Random House Websters Dictionary as an arid, sandy region capable of providing life for only a few specialized life forms. There are several different areas that fit this description; however, each of these vicinities present unique obstacles and fascinating knowledge and information within their sand. A particularly interesting desert covering approximately 450,000 square kilometers in Africa is called the Kalahari. It stretches over most of Botswana and throughout some parts of Namibia and South Africa. The simple fact that this region is considered a desert is not what the Kalahari is admired for. Besides being distinctive in its geographical features, the Kalahari houses a variety of animal species and actually provides a dwelling for a primitive human population (Allan/Warren 110). The Kalahari, which extends from the Orange River to the Congo, is the largest continuous stretch of sand in the world (Kalahari: Game Reserves in South, par. 1). Though it does receive a rainfall ranging from 6 to 20 inches a year, surface water in the area is extremely rare. Fortunately, the Kalahari Desert has pans, which allow seasonal rainfall to accumulate (Allan/Warren 110). Pans, or natural depressions in the ground, are located in other deserts as well. However, Botswana contains the greatest number in the world. The fact that pans are dominant in this country is vital to the maintenance of the Kalaharis plant and animal life. Pans are not only important due to their water accumulations; they are also considered necessary for a resource for food (Kalahari: Game Reserves in South, par. 8). The largest of these Pans are the Etosha Pan and the Makgadikgod Pan (Allan/Warren 110). It is near these sources of life where animals and humans are able to survive. The Kalah ari is also home to two Nati...

The Battle of San Jacinto in the Texas Revolution

The Battle of San Jacinto in the Texas Revolution The Battle of San Jacinto on April 21, 1836, ​was the defining battle of the Texas Revolution. Mexican General Santa Anna had unwisely divided his force to mop up those Texans still in rebellion after the Battle of the Alamo and the Goliad Massacre. General Sam Houston, sensing Santa Annas mistake, engaged him on the shores of the San Jacinto River. The battle was a rout, as hundreds of Mexican soldiers were killed or captured. Santa Anna himself was captured and forced to sign a treaty, effectively ending the war. Rebellion in Texas Tensions had long been simmering between rebellious Texans and Mexico. Settlers from the USA had been coming to Texas (then a part of Mexico) for years, with the support of the Mexican government, but a number of factors made them unhappy and open war broke out at the Battle of Gonzales on October 2, 1835. Mexican President/General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna marched north with a massive army to put down the rebellion. He defeated the Texans at the legendary Battle of the Alamo on March 6, 1836. This was followed by the Goliad Massacre, in which some 350 rebellious Texan prisoners were executed. Santa Anna vs. Sam Houston After the Alamo and Goliad, panicked Texans fled east, fearing for their lives. Santa Anna believed that the Texans were beaten even though General Sam Houston still had an army of almost 900 in the field and more recruits came every day. Santa Anna chased the fleeing Texans, alienating many with his policies of driving off Anglo settlers and destroying their homesteads. Meanwhile, Houston kept one step ahead of Santa Anna. His critics called him a coward, but Houston felt he would only get one shot at defeating the much-larger Mexican army and preferred to pick the time and place for battle. Prelude to Battle In April of 1836, Santa Anna learned that Houston was moving east. He divided his army in three: one part went on a failed attempt to capture the provisional government, another remained to protect his supply lines, and the third, which he commanded himself, went after Houston and his army. When Houston learned what Santa Anna had done, he knew the time was right and turned to meet the Mexicans. Santa Anna set up camp on April 19, 1836, in a marshy area bordered by the San Jacinto River, Buffalo Bayou and a lake. Houston set up camp nearby. Sherman’s Charge On the afternoon of April 20, as the two armies continued to skirmish and size each other up, Sidney Sherman demanded that Houston send a cavalry charge to attack the Mexicans: Houston thought this foolish. Sherman rounded up about 60 horsemen and charged anyway. The Mexicans did not flinch and before long, the horsemen were trapped, forcing the rest of the Texan army to briefly attack to allow them to escape. This was typical of Houston’s command. As most of the men were volunteers, they did not have to take orders from anyone if they didn’t want to and often did things on their own. The Battle of San Jacinto On the following day, April 21, Santa Anna received some 500 reinforcements under the command of General Martà ­n Perfecto de Cos. When Houston didn’t attack at first light, Santa Anna assumed he would not attack that day and the Mexicans rested. The troops under Cos were particularly tired. The Texans wanted to fight and several junior officers tried to convince Houston to attack. Houston held a good defensive position and wanted to let Santa Anna attack first, but in the end, he was convinced of the wisdom of an attack. At about 3:30, the Texans began silently marching forward, trying to get as close as possible before opening fire. Total Defeat As soon as the Mexicans realized an attack was coming, Houston ordered the cannons to fire (he had two of them, called the â€Å"twin sisters†) and the cavalry and infantry to charge. The Mexicans were taken completely unawares. Many were asleep and almost none were in defensive position. The angry Texans swarmed into the enemy camp, shouting â€Å"Remember Goliad!† and â€Å"Remember the Alamo!† After about 20 minutes, all organized resistance failed. Panicked Mexicans tried to flee only to find themselves trapped by the river or bayou. Many of Santa Anna’s best officers fell early and loss of leadership made the rout even worse. The Final Toll The Texans, still enraged over the massacres at the Alamo and Goliad, showed little pity for the Mexicans. Many Mexicans tried to surrender, saying â€Å"me no La Bahà ­a (Goliad), me no Alamo,† but it was no use. The worst part of the slaughter was at the edges of the Bayou, where fleeing Mexicans found themselves cornered. The final toll for the Texans: nine dead and 30 wounded, including Sam Houston, who had been shot in the ankle. For the Mexicans: about 630 dead, 200 wounded and 730 captured, including Santa Anna himself, who was captured the next day as he tried to flee in civilian clothes. Legacy of the Battle of San Jacinto After the battle, many of the victorious Texans clamored for the execution of General Santa Anna. Houston wisely refrained. He correctly surmised that Santa Anna was worth much more alive than dead. There were still three large Mexican armies in Texas, under Generals Filisola, Urrea and Gaona: any one of them was large enough to potentially defeat Houston and his men. Houston and his officers spoke with Santa Anna for hours before deciding on a course of action. Santa Anna dictated orders to his generals: they were to leave Texas at once. He also signed documents recognizing the independence of Texas and ending the war. Somewhat amazingly, Santa Annas generals did as they were told and retreated out of Texas with their armies. Santa Anna somehow evaded execution and eventually made his way back to Mexico, where he would later resume the Presidency, go back on his word, and try more than once to re-take Texas. But every effort was doomed to failure. Texas was gone, soon to be followed by California, New Mexico, and much more Mexican territory. History lends events such as the independence of Texas a certain feeling of inevitability  as if it was always the destiny of Texas to become first independent and then a state in the USA. The reality was different. The Texans had just suffered two huge losses at the Alamo and Goliad and were on the run. Had Santa Anna not split his forces, Houstons army may well have been beaten by the Mexicans superior numbers. In addition, Santa Annas generals had the strength to defeat the Texans: had Santa Anna been executed, they likely would have kept fighting. In either case, history would be much different today. As it was, the Mexicans crushing defeat at the Battle of San Jacinto proved decisive for Texas. The Mexican army retreated, effectively ending the only realistic chance they ever had of re-taking Texas. Mexico would futilely try for years to reclaim Texas, only finally relinquishing any claim to it after the Mexican-American War. San Jacinto was Houstons finest hour. The glorious victory silenced his critics and gave him the invincible air of a war hero, which served him in good stead during his subsequent political career. His decisions were consistently proven wise. His reluctance to attack Santa Annas unified force and his refusal to let the captured dictator be executed are two good examples. For the Mexicans, San Jacinto was the start of a long national nightmare that would end with the loss of not only Texas  but also California, New Mexico, and much more. It was a humiliating defeat and for years. Mexican politicians made great plans to get Texas back, but deep down they knew it was gone. Santa Anna was disgraced  but would make yet another comeback in Mexican politics during the Pastry War against France in 1838-1839. Today, there is a monument at the San Jacinto battlefield, not far from the city of Houston. Resources and Further Reading Brands, H.W. Lone Star Nation: the Epic Story of the Battle for Texas Independence. New York: Anchor Books, 2004.

Engineering Ethics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Engineering Ethics - Essay Example An engineer’s job is rather complex as they have to not only learn about the technicalities of their subject but also be aware of the ethical issues that are inextricably intertwined with what they produce. The issue is not that straightforward as it may seem. Let us consider a hypothetical scenario where the manufacturer of a refrigerator discovers that if the humidity of the room where the refrigerator is kept exceeds a certain level, owing to faulty insulation, anybody touching the machine might experience electric shock that would, though not be fatal but surely would generate a stinging sensation that would last for at least ten minutes. It must also be mentioned that under normal conditions humidity would hardly ever reach levels that might be dangerous. Now what would the manufacturer do? Would they recall all those refrigerators that they feel might be faulty or would they simply keep quiet as humidity would hardly ever reach such dangerous levels? This is a question of engineering ethics and it acquires a special dimension as any decision to keep silent might harm customers while there will be considerable economic loss if all faulty units are recalled. Engineering ethics like ethics in general has intimate connection with the ethos and culture of the country to which the manufacturer belongs. A recent case in point is the recall of 6, 46,000 City and Fit/Jazz cars by Honda Motor Company for replacement of faulty window switches that might overheat when exposed to liquid resulting in a fire.

Law Enforcement Supervision Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Law Enforcement Supervision - Assignment Example Leadership and Organizational Culture Negative images and observations of people within the law enforcement organizations create an unpleasant working environment. In turn, this adversely influences organizational effectiveness, which is needed to counter crime, turmoil and other services. Society is deprived of quality and expected police services due to the unhealthy functioning of the police agencies. A prosperous, fostering working environment enables police agencies to focus on providing premium police services in a time of meager resources. Every police organization has its own unique sub-culture (Crank & Caldero, 2000). In spite of this, police organizations share certain characteristics, which make them similar due to shared experiences. All police agencies deem themselves to be paramilitary agencies, different from the mainstream community, who are required to be hyper-vigilant all around the clock (Gilmartin, 2002). Likewise, they experience tedium, are compelled to work wh ile others go on vacations, and most importantly they live through life and death experiences together. Consequently, they became bound together in an emotional culture. This culture also serves to glue supervisors to the people and agencies they serve in. Additionally, it delineates the Cop confidential conduct in relation to promotions; and the act of getting detached from one police subculture and being bound to another. John G. Serier has noted in his report, that a mutual experience amongst first-line police supervisors was ‘leaving the stock’ (Serier J. , 2003). Initially in their career, supervisors occupy the same position as line officers, working sidelong them. However, promotion to supervisor separates them from others they had worked with for years. Hence, acceptance by peers of a police officer is an integral and prized stage for them (Manning, 1989). Becoming a supervisor denotes the leave of an officer from his peer group. Additionally, it also signifies seeking acceptance of novel peers and upper level management of police agencies. Supervisory models Supervisors act as influential figures for other officers owing to various mechanisms. For instance, the command supervisory model focuses on the formal authority in the hands of supervisors. It advocates that adherence to bureaucratic standards and setting high performance standards can positively influence subordinates’ behavior (Allen & Maxfield, 1983). However, the downside is that the command model mitigates the task environment. As opposed to this, the bargaining supervisory model advocates mutual dependence of supervisors and officers. Officers need to seek small favors from supervisors such as favorable working schedules, partners, cases, departmental discipline, and the like factors. On the other hand, supervisors are dependent on subordinates’ productivity and maintain a low profile to keep out of problems. This reciprocity instead of the authoritative chain of command positively affects the behavior of subordinates. The impact of supervisors will be then equal to the benefits that will be provided to the subordinates. However, these benefits are restricted in public agencies like police organizations that are governed by civil service laws. Hence, it can be concluded that subordinates’ attitudes are modestly affected by the priorities of supervisors. Transactional leadership

Catholic religion Essay example -- essays research papers

CATHOLIC RELIGION To belong to the church one must accept as factually true the gospel of Jesus as handed down in tradition and as interpreted by the bishops in union with the pope. The most important thing in this divine tradition is the Bible, its text determined and disseminated by the church. The church, according to the Roman Catholic catechism, is the only Christian body that is â€Å"one, holy, catholic (universal)†. The doctrine of apostolic succession is one of the key parts of the Catholic faith. It says that the pope (the vicar of Christ) and the bishops have in varying degrees the spiritual authority Jesus assigned to his apostles. The voice of the pope, either alone or in conjunction with his bishops in council, is regarded as infallible when speaking on matters of faith and morals taught in common with the bishops. Many features of the traditional teaching (dogma) have been analyzed and restated, by the councils and by great theologians. The chief teachings of the Catholic church are: God's interest in individual human beings, who can enter into relations with God, the Trinity, the divinity of Jesus, the immortality of the soul of each human being, each one being accountable at death for his or her actions in life, with the award of heaven or hell, the resurrection of the Christ, the historicity of the Gospels and the divine commission of the church. In addition the Roman Catholic Church stresses that since the members, living and dead, share in each other's merits,...

Explain Different Sociological Approaches Essay

When it comes to defining what health is it can be difficult, people can have a positive outlook to define health or a negative, for example a positive definition of health could be- feeling well in many ways; feeling physically, intellectually, emotionally and socially well, etc. A negative definition of health could be that you are healthy so long as you don’t have a disease. As well as there being positive and negative approaches to health, there is also a holistic approach to health, holistic means ‘relates with a complete system rather than looking at individual parts’ (Webster, 2014) – so for example if one concept of our health is affected it will affect all the other parts in some way, the concepts are- spiritual health; physical health; environmental health; psychological health and sociological health. If somebody’s physical health is poor such as becoming ill with a disease like cancer it is thought to effect all other concepts of health for example the environmental health may become dirty and unclean as the individual is weak to be able to keep on top of tidying it up; the sociological health is effected as you will be socially seen as an ill person rather than a person; the spiritual health could be the individual may feel they are being punished by god or for something they have done and the psychological health will be effected as the individual will feel extremely depressed and though they are waiting for their death to come. The world health organisation, which founded in 1948 has the definition of health that health is ‘a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity’ (WHO, 2003). Finally, Mildred Baxter (1990) as both a positive definition of health, negative and functional – the positive definition regards health as feeling fit and well, the negative definition regards health as being free from pain and discomfort and the functional definition regards health in terms of being able to perform day to day tasks. There are four different social perspectives which have views on both health and ill-health, these social perspectives are functionalist; marxist; feminist and interactionist. The functionlists believe that for our society to be able to function  properly the individuals in society need to be healthy, and the idea of someone being ill is them having a form of social deviance. Talcott Parsons who is a functionlist has the view that when a person falls sick they become apart of ‘the sick role’ – this is when someone is sick they behave a certain way, such as not going to work, staying in bed, hot water bottles†¦ etc. Sick people in society are thought to have rights and responsibilies, we have the right to be able to be cared for and not go into work so we can rest our bodies and we have the responsibility to get ourselves better by going to visit the doctor, etc. The marxist view towards health and ill-health belives that the reason we have health and social care services in place such as the doctors is to serve the rich and the powerful in the society, the reason this is thought to serve the rich and powerful is to be able to get employers back to work so that no buisness is lost. The marxists have they theory that depending on the level of illness is related to the differences in social class, for example the poor are more likely to suffer from poor diets, etc. Feminists also have there own view towards health and ill-health , the femanists are more focused on the male domination in the medical field, such as why is it more money is not spent on the male contraceptive pill? There are thought to be less side effects however it is still up to woman to take it. There is an increasing number in woman who are suffering from mental health illness’ which is down to the reason that woman are expected to live as a certain poisition in society, such as the double day – this is where a woman is expected to go out to work to help provide for their family home and when the working day is over to come home and cook tea and care for the children, clean, etc. Finally, the interactionists say that if you are ill it all depends on if the individual is ill and wanting to admit that they are ill, as some people do not like to admit defeat and admit they’re ill whereas others will say they are ill when it is very minor. In conclusion there are all different views on what health is, and what ill health is†¦ as well as this we can see that depending on the individual and there beliefs and views on being ill depends on how they will accept the change.

Obesity Literature Review - 1597 Words

Obesity Literature review I. Introduction Obesity is a medical condition in which excess body fat has accumulated to the extent that it may have an adverse affect on health, leading to reduced life expectancy. Child obesity has been increasing dramatically and it has become one of the most common chronic conditions for youngsters and its accompanied by several psychological effects. As for the children it might lead to being isolated and having peer problems and sense of discrimination from non obese children. Moreover, studies show that the percentage of obese children differs from country to another; as in the united states it has been estimated that the percentage of obese children and teenagers is between 20 and 27%, while in†¦show more content†¦2 articles were primary sources but partially relevant: Viner, Hainess, Taylor, Head, Boy, stansfeld (2006) investigated the opinion of weight, emotional well being among a range of body mass index BMI in a sample of early adolescence. Tanofsky, Faden, Yanovski, Wilfley, Denis, jack (2005) explored the relationship of dieting, binge eating, and overweight among children. 1 article was excluded because it was in Spanish language. These remaining 5 articles were included in the literature review: (Hesketh, Wake, Waters, 2004; Allen, Byrne, Blair, Davis, 2006; Sung, Yu, So, Lam, Hau, 2005; Erermis, Serpil, Cetin, Nurcan, Tamar, Burkusoglu, Akdeiz, Goksen, 2004; Gibson, Lisa, Byrne, Blair, Davis, Jacoby, 2008). III. Results The studies were grouped in two groups the first groups has the first, second and fifth study (Hesketh, Wake, Waters, 2004; Allen, Byrne, Blair, Davis, 2006; Gibson, Byrne, Blair, Davis, Jacoby, 2008); where these studies were conducted inside Australia. The second group has the third and the fourth studies: (Sung, Yu, So, Lam, Hau, 2005; Erermis, Serpil, Cetin, Nurcan, Tamar, Burkusoglu, Akdeiz, Goksen, 2004), these studies were conducted outside Australia. The study of (Hesketh, Wake, Waters, 2004); which is in the first group, aimed to examine whether obese children experience lower self esteem than non obeseShow MoreRelatedLiterature Review on Childhood Obesity Essay1850 Words   |  8 PagesLiterature Review on Childhood Obesity By: Obesity is a growing problem among U.S. children. In 1994, one in five children between the ages of 6 and 17 was overweight. This is double the rate of 30 years ago (National Center for Health Statistics, 1999). This adverse trend has potentially profound effects on childrens health, including their long-term health. The terms obese and overweight often are used interchangeably. 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