Mexicans and Discrimination Essay Example for Free

Mexicans and Discrimination Essay Wetback, spic and beaner are a few of the words people use when talking about a Mexican. Mexican Americans have been the victim of discrimination throughout the history of the United States. Mexicans have a very big stereotype against them. One of the main reasons that they are discriminated against is because of their illegal immigration into the United States. Like many other groups Mexicans immigrated to the United States in search of a better life. Many Mexicans are left with no choice but to come to the U. S illegally because of the cost and obstacles that one has to go through to become a citizen. Because many Mexicans come to the U. S. illegally they are often forced to work physically demanding jobs for less money. Mexican Americans have a long history of experiencing nativism and racism which has resulted in a number of discriminatory conditions and consequences such as, social and geographical segregation, employment discrimination, patterns of abuse at the hands of law enforcement officials, vigilante murder and justice, substandard education, electoral fraud, exclusion from petit and grand juries, forced dislocations from their neighborhoods, voter intimidation, and language discrimination. (Galaviz 2007) Mexicans work under the secondary sector of the Dual labor market. The secondary Dual Labor market has low incomes, little job security, and little training. There are also no rewards apart from wages. Mexicans are forced to work for very low wages either because, as non-citizens, they lack options, or because they may realistically perceive themselves as best off here, even at very cheap wages, than they were back home. (Aponte 1990) For example, many companies offer very poor working conditions and minimum wage because they know that illegal immigrants have no choice but to accept these conditions because of their status. After the United States victory in the Mexican-American War in 1848 a forced treaty was signed. The treaty was known as Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. This treaty required Mexico to give up over half its land to the United States in exchange for 15 million dollars. Land given up by Mexico included California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo also guaranteed that Mexican citizens living in surrendered lands would be able to keep property rights and would be given United States citizenship if they remained in surrendered lands for at least one year. However, the property rights of Mexicans were ignored by the United States government and local officials. Mexicans were slowly forced from lands which their families had held for generations in many cases. Many organizations, businesses, and homeowners associations had official policies to exclude Mexican Americans. In many areas across the Southwest, Mexican Americans lived in separate residential areas, due to laws and real estate company policies. This group of laws and policies, known as redlining, lasted until the 1950s, and fall under the concept of official segregation. In many other instances, it was more of a general social understanding among Anglos that Mexicans should be excluded. For instance, signs with the phrase No Dogs or Mexicans were posted in small businesses and public pools throughout the Southwest well into the 1960s. Mexicans were also restricted from being jurors, even if the case involved a Mexican. Schools also discriminated against Mexican children and eventually Mexicans were made to open their own schools. Though times have changed Mexicans are still discriminated against because of the stereotype they are associated with. Many believe that all Mexicans come over here illegally and do not deserve the same rights as citizens do. Even now people believe that Mexicans should be sent back to Mexico and an example of that is Phoenix, Arizona and its Immigration Law.

The Snows of Kilimanjaro Essay example -- essays research papers

It is my claim that Ernest Hemingway’s piece, â€Å"The Snows of Kilimanjaro† is most effective at showing how trivial life can be as it regards to what people think is needed to be successful in life for three main reasons. The reasons are that people put too much time into achieving unrealistic goals, people get too involved in obtaining their goals and do not appreciate what they have, and people have the wrong idea about success and can not obtain true success with the wrong vision of what it is. Some people put too much time into achieving their unrealistic goals, and never realize them and then end up wasting most of their life and lively hood in search of their personal success. Those same people also never stop to appreciate what they have in their lives, when all they were trying to obtain could have been in front of them and all they ever wanted. Most goals that people believe make them successful do not, many people have the wrong idea of what success is and when someone dies this is the only time they will realize what actual success is. Hemingway’s story begins with Harry and his wife on Kilimanjaro arguing over many petty things. Harry had gotten into an accident and scraped his leg while they were on their hunting trip. The wound got infected, even though Harry put some medication on it, the wound soon started to become gangrene. He is lying on a cot for the whole story while he continues to bicker with his wife. Many Vultures are around and Harry makes comments on how they must smell the leg, and that is what attracts them to him. Harry has many recollections of events through out his life, he referred to them as the topics he wished he would have written about. Through all of Harry’ recollections of his life he wonders where all his time went. He starts to think about how he has wasted he life and talent with the â€Å"enemy†; money, rich women, and soft living all symbolizing the forces of corruption. The story ends with Harry getting â€Å"rescued† by men in a plane that had landed near them, which the reader soon finds out it was just Harry’s dream as he actually dies. His wife is awoken by a hyena that had fallen off a cliff that was making a human-like cry. When she goes to check on Harry, she finds that he has stopped breathing, and the hyena continues to make the sound that had waken her ... ...e â€Å"good life†, and has painful memories that he will overcome to be rewarded. Harry does share many characteristics with Hemingway’s other characters but he is different in that his profession does not take the form of deep sea fishing or war or bullfighting but of writing. He is also different in that he is rewarded "in the other world." All the other Hemingway heroes must be and are "rewarded" here in whatever private or public form the reward may take. Hemingway’s piece clearly shows how trivial life can be in regards to what is thought to be needed to be successful. The reasons are that people put too much time into achieving unrealistic goals, people get too involved in obtaining their goals and do not appreciate what they have, and people have the wrong idea about success and can not obtain true success with the wrong vision of what it is. Harry clearly illustrates all of those points and the reader can learn from his â€Å"mistakes†. One should have a clear, realistic image of success before they waste their time and effort to obtain it. Success can only be obtain and kept in this world, it can not go with someone when they die.

Etymology Case Essay

The word horticulture is modeled after agriculture, and comes from the Latin hortus â€Å"garden† and cultÃ… «ra â€Å"cultivation†, from cultus, the perfect passive participle of the verb colÃ…  â€Å"I cultivate†.Hortus is cognate with the native English word yard (in the meaning of land associated with a building) and also the borrowed word garden. Understanding horticulture Horticulture is a term that evokes images of plants, gardening, and people working in the horticultural industries. For the public, and policy makers, the term is not completely understood nor is its impact on human activities been fully appreciated. Horticulture impacts widely on human activities, more than its popular understanding as merely â€Å"gardening† would indicate. It needs to be recognized as a matrix of inter-relating areas that overlap, with complex inter-relationships. A wider and more accurate definition will communicate effectively the importance of plants, their cultivation and their use for sustainable human existence. The popular â€Å"gardening activity† sense fails to convey the important role that horticulture plays in the lives of individuals, communities and human societies as a whole. Describing its impact on the physiological, psychological and social activities of people is key to expanding our understanding; however â€Å"the cultivation of a garden, orchard, or nursery† and â€Å"the cultivation of flowers, fruits, vegetables, or ornamental plants† as well as â€Å"the science and art of cultivating such plants† will suffice to sketch the outline of a short description. Expanded the traditional understanding of horticulture beyond â€Å"garden† cultivation. Turkey (1962) gave an overview of those involved in the field of horticulture, in stating that there are those who are concerned with the science or biological side, those concerned with the business side and finally those who are concerned with the home or art side, which enjoy plants simply for the satisfaction they get from them. Primarily it is an art, but it is intimately connected with science at every point. Relf highlighted the fact that, in limiting the definition of horticulture severely limits an understanding of what horticulture means in terms of human well-being. Relf provided a comprehensive definition of horticulture as; the art and science of plants resulting in the development of minds and emotions of individuals, the enrichment and health of communities, and the integration of the â€Å"garden† in the breadth of modern civilization. In addition, Half acre and Barden (1979), Janick and Goldman (2003). Further extended the scope of horticulture when they agreed that the origins of horticulture are intimately associated with the history of humanity and that horticulture encompasses all life and bridges the gap between science, art and human beings. This broader vision of horticulture embraces plants, including the multitude of products and activities (oxygen, food, medicine, clothing, shelter, celebration or remembrance) essential for human survival; and people, whose active and passive involvement with â€Å"the garden† brings about benefits to them as individuals and to the communities and cultures they encompass Greenhouse effect A representation of the exchanges of energy between the source (the Sun), the Earth’s surface, the Earth’s atmosphere, and the ultimate sink outer space. The ability of the atmosphere to capture and recycle energy emitted by the Earth surface is the defining characteristic of the greenhouse effect. The greenhouse effect is a process by which thermal radiation from a planetary surface is absorbed by atmospheric greenhouse gases, and is re-radiated in all directions. Since part of this re-radiation is back towards the surface and the lower atmosphere, it results in an elevation of the average surface temperature above what it would be in the absence of the gases. Solar radiation at the frequencies of visible light largely passes through the atmosphere to warm the planetary surface, which then emits this energy at the lower frequencies of infrared thermal radiation. Infrared radiation is absorbed by greenhouse gases, which in turn re-radiate much of the energy to the surface and lower atmosphere. The mechanism is named after the effect of solar radiation passing through glass and warming a greenhouse, but the way it retains heat is fundamentally different as a greenhouse works by reducing airflow, isolating the warm air inside the structure so that heat is not lost by convection. If an ideal thermally conductive blackbody was the same distance from the Sun as the Earth is, it would have a temperature of about 5.3  °C. However, since the Earth reflects about 30% of the incoming sunlight, the planet’s effective temperature (the temperature of a blackbody that would emit the same amount of radiation) is about −18  °C,[7][8] about 33 °C below the actual surface temperature of about 14  °C.[ The mechanism that produces this difference between the actual surface temperature and the effective temperature is due to the atmosphere and is known as the greenhouse effect. Earth’s natural greenhouse effect makes life as we know it possible. However, human activities, primarily the burning of fossil fuels and clearing of forests, have intensified the natural greenhouse effect, causing global warming. MODERN ELECTRONICS Home appliance Numerous appliances are found in the kitchen. Home appliances are electrical/mechanical machines which accomplish some household functions, such as cooking or cleaning. Home appliances can be classified into: * Major appliances, or White goods * Small appliances, or Brown goods * Consumer electronics, or Shiny goods This division is also noticeable in the service area of these kinds of products. Brown goods usually require high technical knowledge and skills (which get more complex with time, such as going from a soldering iron to a hot-air soldering station), while white goods need more practical skills and â€Å"brute force† to manipulate the devices and heavy tools required to repair them. Electric blanket In the US the electric blanket is a blanket with an integrated electrical heating device usually placed above the top bed sheet. In the UK and Commonwealth, electric blanket commonly refers to an electric mattress pad, which is placed below the bottom bed sheet. Electric blankets usually have a control unit which adjusts the amount of heat the blanket produces. Blankets for larger sized beds often have separate controls for each side of the bed. The electric blanket may be used to pre-heat the bed before use or to keep the occupant warm while in bed. Modern electric blankets have carbon fibre wires. These blankets usually work on 24 volts instead of the 110/240 volts. Therefore, they are advertised as being a safer, more efficient and more comfortable alternative. Zhangjiajie, China : The Bailong Elevator is the world’s largest exterior elevator. At over 1,000 feet tall, this elevator looms high midway up a cliff overlooking a valley far below. Moreover, the elevator is mostly glass, affording passengers a dizzying view to the depths below. There is some concern, however, about the elevator’s long-term impact on the surrounding natural environment. Yangtze, China :The Three Gorges Dam has drawn fire from people around the world for its role in raising water levels and displacing millions of Chinese residents in the area. As a work of engineering, however, it is unparalleled. It will be the largest hydroelectric dam in the world, 600 feet high and holding 1.4 trillion cubic feet of water behind 100 million cubic feet of concrete. This engineering wonder will also eventually provide as much as 10% of China’s vast power needs. Technology By the mid 20th century, humans had achieved a mastery of technology sufficient to leave the atmosphere of the Earth for the first time and explore space. Technology is the making, modification, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems, methods of organization, in order to solve a problem, improve a preexisting solution to a problem, achieve a goal or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, modifications, arrangements and procedures. Technologies significantly affect human as well as other animal species’ ability to control and adapt to their natural environments. The word technology comes from Greek Ï„Î µÃâ€¡ÃŽ ½ÃŽ ¿ÃŽ »ÃŽ ¿ÃŽ ³ÃŽ ¯ÃŽ ± (technologà ­a); from Ï„Î ­Ãâ€¡ÃŽ ½ÃŽ · (tà ©chnÄ“), meaning â€Å"art, skill, craft†, and -ÃŽ »ÃŽ ¿ÃŽ ³ÃŽ ¯ÃŽ ± meaning â€Å"study of-â€Å".[1] The term can either be applied generally or to specific areas: examples include construction technology, medical technology, and information technology. The human species’ use of technology began with the conversion of natural resources into simple tools. The prehistorical discovery of the ability to control fire increased the available sources of food and the invention of the wheel helped humans in travelling in and controlling their environment. Recent technological developments, including the printing press, the telephone, and the Internet, have lessened physical barriers to communication and allowed humans to interact freely on a global scale. However, not all technology has been used for peaceful purposes; the development of weapo ns of ever-increasing destructive power has progressed throughout history, from clubs to nuclear weapons.

400 Million Years of Shark Evolution

If you went back in time and looked at the first, unremarkable prehistoric sharks of the Ordovician period--about 420 million years ago--you might never guess that their descendants would become such dominant creatures, holding their own against vicious marine reptiles like pliosaurs and mosasaurs and going on to become the apex predators of the worlds oceans. Today, few creatures in the world inspire as much fear as the Great White Shark, the closest nature has come to a pure killing machine--if you exclude Megalodon, which was 10 times bigger. Before discussing shark evolution, though, its important to define what we mean by shark. Technically, sharks are a suborder of fish whose skeletons are made out of cartilage rather than bone; sharks are also distinguished by their streamlined, hydrodynamic shapes, sharp teeth, and sandpaper-like skin. Frustratingly for paleontologists, skeletons made of cartilage dont persist in the fossil record nearly as well as skeletons made of bone--which is why so many prehistoric sharks are known primarily (if not exclusively) by their fossilized teeth. The First Sharks We dont have much in the way of direct evidence, except for a handful of fossilized scales, but the first sharks are believed to have evolved during the Ordovician period, about 420 million years ago (to put this into perspective, the first tetrapods didnt crawl up out of the sea until 400 million years ago). The most important genus that has left significant fossil evidence is the difficult-to-pronounce Cladoselache, numerous specimens of which have been found in the American midwest. As you might expect in such an early shark, Cladoselache was fairly small, and it had some odd, non-shark-like characteristics--such as a paucity of scales (except for small areas around its mouth and eyes) and a complete lack of claspers, the sexual organ by which male sharks attach themselves (and transfer sperm to) the females. After Cladoselache, the most important prehistoric sharks of ancient times were Stethacanthus, Orthacanthus, and Xenacanthus. Stethacanthus measured only six feet from snout to tail but already boasted the full array  of shark features: scales, sharp teeth, a distinctive fin structure, and a sleek, hydrodynamic build. What set this genus apart were the bizarre, ironing-board-like structures atop the backs of males, which were probably somehow used during mating. The equally ancient Stethacanthus and Orthacanthus were both fresh-water sharks, distinguished by their small size, eel-like bodies, and odd spikes protruding from the tops of their heads (which may have delivered jabs of poison to bothersome predators). The Sharks of the Mesozoic Era Considering how common they were during the preceding geologic periods, sharks kept a relatively low profile during most of the Mesozoic Era,  because of intense competition from marine  reptiles like ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs. By far the most successful genus was Hybodus, which was built for survival: this prehistoric shark had two types of teeth, sharp ones for eating fish and flat ones for grinding mollusks, as well as a sharp blade jutting out of its dorsal fin to keep other predators at bay. The cartilaginous skeleton of Hybodus was unusually tough and calcified, explaining this sharks persistence both in the fossil record and in the worlds oceans, which it prowled from the Triassic to the early Cretaceous periods. Prehistoric sharks really came into their own during the middle Cretaceous period, about 100 million years ago. Both Cretoxyrhina (about 25 feet long) and Squalicorax (about 15 feet long) would be recognizable as true sharks by a modern observer; in fact, theres direct tooth-mark evidence that Squalicorax preyed on dinosaurs that blundered into its habitat. Perhaps the most surprising shark from the Cretaceous period is the recently discovered Ptychodus, a 30-foot-long monster whose numerous, flat teeth were adapted to grinding up tiny mollusks, rather than large fish or aquatic reptiles. After the Mesozoic After the dinosaurs (and their aquatic cousins) went extinct 65 million years ago, prehistoric sharks were free to complete their slow evolution into the remorseless killing machines we know today. Frustratingly, the fossil evidence for the sharks of the Miocene epoch (for example) consists almost exclusively of teeth--thousands and thousands of teeth, so many that you can buy yourself one on the open market for a fairly modest price. The Great White-sized Otodus, for example, is known almost exclusively by its teeth, from which paleontologists have reconstructed this fearsome, 30-foot-long shark. By far the most famous prehistoric shark of the Cenozoic Era  was Megalodon, adult specimens of which measured 70 feet from head to tail and weighed as much as 50 tons. Megalodon was a true apex predator of the worlds oceans, feasting on everything from whales, dolphins, and seals to giant fish and (presumably) equally giant squids; for a few million years, it may even have preyed on the equally ginormous whale Leviathan. No one knows why this monster went extinct about two million years ago; the most likely candidates include climate change and the resulting disappearance of its usual prey.