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After my junior in high school, I went on a cruise over the summer with my family and one of the stops that we made was in the Cayman Islands. This area is famous for beautiful blue water, white sandy beaches, and really adorable sea turtles. The biggest and most diverse population of sea turtles resides on and around the Cayman Islands. When I got there, I was more focused on getting to the beach as fast as possible, but of course my mom had to go see the sea turtle hatchery and farm near the beach first. It sounded boring compared to the beach but I humored my mother and joined her. As soon as we got there and I saw the huge pools filled with hundred upon hundreds of baby green sea turtles; I was in love. We got to hold adolescents because the babies were just too sensitive, and as soon as I was holding that turtle, I knew exactly what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I talked to the biologists there and found out how grave of a situation sea turtles were actually in. From then on, I planned to work with sea turtles and help save these beautiful creatures. I am still very passionate about them and this passion has pointed me down the path that I am on today, one towards marine biology. The more that I learn about sea turtles, the more that I fall in love with them. The downside is that as I learn more about them, I also learn more about the problems that face them, unfortunately there are many.
Due to the development of previously wild areas, trapping, and a lack of empathy on the part of humans, every known species of sea turtle have been pushed onto the endangered list and toward extinction. Although the majority of humans never even think about sea turtles, there are numerous groups and organizations that work to save the sea turtle. Mature sea turtles do not have any predators in the animal kingdom. Their problem over the past hundred or so years has been solely due to humans. There are eight species of sea turtle and humans have managed to cause the numbers of all of them to dwindle to record low numbers. At the rate that turtle populations are falling, these organisms will be driven to extinction within the next fifty years. One of the eight species of sea turtle that is disappearing is the Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle. They are the smallest specie of marine turtle, averaging a mere 15 t0 30 inches in length. Aside from being the most miniscule of the eight, the Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle is also the most threatened. Their natural habitat ranges from the western coast of Mexico to the southern part of Louisiana and the largest threat that these turtles face is that of the nets of shrimpers in the area. Sea turtles get caught in their nets and when they are pulled in they are injured and thrown back in the water, which leads to the death of many. In 1993, 336 dead turtles washed up on the shore of northern Mexico and 247 of them were Kemp’s Ridleys. 300 out of the 336 bore the signs of being crushed in the nets of either fishermen or shrimpers (Prest). There are multiple organizations that have set out to save sea turtles, however there is one focused on the Kemp’s Ridley and it is known by the acronym H.E.A.R.T., this stands for Help Endangered Animals-Kemp’s Ridley Turtles (Gaskill). The Kemp’s Ridley, however, is only one of the species that is having quite a bit of trouble. The Green sea turtle is another of the eight known species and its numbers are being reduced almost as quickly as the smaller Kemp’s Ridley. Green Turtles’ habitat ranges from sea grass beds in the southeastern U.S. all the way down to the eastern coast of South America. Green Sea Turtles have an advantage in open water in that they are the fastest swimmers out of the marine turtles. They have been recorded to reach speeds of twenty-two miles per hour or 19.1 knots (Sterling). There are more myths about the green sea turtle than any of the other species. They are symbols of longevity and wisdom in Mexican culture due to the fact that no one knows precisely how long their life cycle is, however, it is speculated to be well over one hundred years (Vintinner). As tragic as it is for the Green Sea Turtle, their eggs are used in Mexican recipes and rituals. An example of such a ritual is the Mexican Macho Ritual and it consists of tearing the egg open (they have soft shells), pouring the egg into a shot glass along with tobacco sauce, and throwing it back in one swallow in front of as many people as possible. Another myth that is hurting the Green Sea Turtle is that if one consumes a turtle egg, the surviving eggs will become more fertile. They believe that since the turtles lay between one hundred and two hundred eggs at a time, taking and eating a few will help instead of hurt the population. The male Green Sea Turtle is known for its fertility and because of this, the bony tissue of the turtle’s penis is dried and ground into a fine powder to be mixed with rum to promote male virility. Loss of habitat, poaching, and nets are problems that face all sea turtles, but a unique disease is posing the greatest threat to the Green Sea Turtle. This disease is called fibropapillomas and it is horribly disfiguring. It causes large tumors to grow on the limbs and head of the turtles, which eventually cause them to die. The first recorded case was all the way back in 1930 and until about ten years ago, there had only been a handful of reported cases. This all changed a decade ago when cases began to appear left and right. It is believed that this sudden increase in diseased animals is correlated with an increase in the pollution of their habitats. According to Dr. Alonso Aguirre, vice president for Conservation Medicine at Wildlife Trust and a renowned expert on fibropapillomatosis, “We’ve observed that green turtles are the species most affected by FP, and we sometimes see that nine out of ten turtles in an area have tumors, which is extremely discouraging from a conservation viewpoint.” Dr. Aguirre works to capture effected turtles and send them to institutions such as the Hidden Harbor Turtle Hospital where they investigate and search for a cure to this horrible disease. This is a threat to the Green Sea Turtle caused by humans, albeit indirectly. A different specie of marine turtle, called the Hawksbill, is being hunted down in huge numbers by humans simply because they are beautiful creatures. Japan is notoriously the largest poacher of Hawksbill due to its huge market for Hawksbill shell products. Between August 1, 1991 and December 31, 1992, 7.5 tons of Hawksbill shells were brought into Japan. This equates to an enormous number of turtles because each individual turtle only yields two to four pounds of shell (Fitzgerald). Not only are they being poached in huge numbers, their habitats are disappearing extremely rapidly because of the destruction and death of coral reefs. Marine biologists in Hawaii agree that Hawksbills are only a natural disaster away from being wiped out there. This is relevant because Hawaii is the only nesting site left in the United States (Gaskill). The Leatherback sea turtle is the largest specie of marine turtle. It spends the most time in open water and because of its great size it is able to do this. They can range from 1,000 to 2,000 pounds as mature adults. Yet these enormous creatures face their biggest threat from debris floating in the open sea. The ingestion of even small pieces of plastic can lead to extensive problems for leatherback sea turtles. These pieces of plastic can cause death for these turtles by rupturing or blocking their intestinal tract. Even the effects of the toxic compounds contained in the plastics can harm the turtle. The worst part about this is that it can impact the next generation by flooding the bodies of pregnant sea turtles with toxins, which carries over to the embryonic offspring. A sample of 101 leatherback sea turtles was conducted in 2008 and found by a process known as lavaging, or better known as stomach pumping, that 1.9 percent of the turtles had ingested a potentially lethal amount of debris. This was disturbing in itself, but when the feces of the turtles were analyzed it got worse. The researchers found that 19 percent of the turtles had actually ingested a lethal amount but they did not see it because it had already passed to the gastrointestinal tract, where it was too late (Schuyler). Aside from debris consumption, leatherbacks face another problem, and it is already affecting future generations of these magnificent creatures. Leatherbacks have a hatch rate of about fifty percent worldwide, which is the lowest success rate among sea turtles, but a comprehensive study of 694 clutches laid by 207 leatherback sea turtles showed that this percentage is dropping even further due to environmental causes such as changes in temperature and pH of precipitation around nesting sites (Rafferty). The majority of conservation efforts are by privately funded organizations and activists, but that is not to say that various governments around the world are not making efforts as well. The Endangered Species Act contains a clause under which all eight species of marine turtle are protected. The U.S. Department of Commerce has also introduced a law that any country sending shrimp into the United States must cut back the deaths of sea turtles significantly or face a hefty fine. Environmentalists have also been pushing shrimpers to use devices called Turtle Exclusion Devices, or TED’s for short.
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The scene in the movie in which the Joker has his conversation with Harvey Dent is shot in a slightly different fashion than the rest of the film. The camera work is more raw and grainy and focuses on just the two men and their conversation. The audio during the scene goes quiet except for the voices and the occasional siren to emphasize how important the exchange of words really was. The Joker says, “ I’m just a dog chasing cars, I wouldn’t know what to do if I actually…caught one of them. I just…DO things. The police have plans, the mob has plans, they’re schemers. I try to show the schemers how pathetic their attempts to control things really are. “ While he claims to try to prove the futility of plans, the reality is that he has been out-planning everyone all along. He planned to switch the locations of Harvey and his girlfriend so that Harvey was spared and she died. He planned to steal and burn half of the mob’s money. Another thing that some people do not notice about the scene itself is that when the Joker puts a gun in Harvey’s hand and puts it to his own head, his finger was holding the hammer back so that whatever Dent chose to do, nothing would happen. This is one example of how the Joker appeared to just “do” something and in actuality it was carefully planned out and executed to a tee. The way that the Joker put it was that an apparent lack of a plan can become the most effective plan of all.
Bodybuilding.com
Bodybuilding.com is a widely known site that allows customers to browse and purchase a huge range of nutritional supplements. When you type it into Google, it is the first link that pops up and it looks extremely professional because it is a commercial site that tries to come off as the foremost online supplement retailer. When you click the link, it takes you to the homepage, which contains options to go to the supplement store, workout intstructionals, or their social media site which is aimed towards younger men who want to pursue bodybuilding. It is obviously published by Bodybuilding.com which makes sense. Instead of doing solely the general website, I went to one of the workouts that was posted on the site for further analysis. Most of the same things were true of the workout page as were about the general website. The workout was published by bodybuilding.com, but it was written by a world-renowned powerlifter which made it at least seem reliable. The perimeter of all of the pages contained within the site contained ads for different supplements that were also posted on the site for sale. The ads on the site made sense because they were exactly what people going to such a websitw would be looking for. The information on the site is listed from most to least recent, with the most recent being the most visible. When I visited the site, the most recent workout was posted 12 minutes before I got on so it was very current. One of the funniest commercials that I can remember is the Super Bowl commercial that came out a while ago for Doritos. A man came to take a little boy’s mother on a date and the little boy grabs him and tells him not to touch his Doritos, and not to touch his momma. This uses humor very effectively because the commercial is a year or two old and I still remember it.
A commercial that is a little bit older now, but still relevant, is the Sarah Mclachlan “save the animals” commercial. This hits us all straight in the feels by showing pictures of pitiful looking dogs and cats, and on top of that, In the Arms of the Angel plays in the background. The commercial has been around forever, but I still change the channel whenever I hear that song come on. Over the course of my first week at Wittenberg, I went through all kinds of changes and a few struggles. It was the first time that I was away from home for an extended time, football camp was grueling, and I was having some issues in my “love life”, if you could call it that. As I was having a hard time, I was also growing as a person, I could tell. I began to get a routine down and I stuck to it religiously. I organized my time from the minute I woke up until the time I laid my head down at the end. It was all written out on my desktop calendar for me to see every day. This was the first time that I had ever really had to learn to manage my own time and prioritize my activities. Before I arrived at Wittenberg, I had developed a bad habit of relying on other people for crucial things such as waking up in the morning. Every day before school, my mother would come in and wake me up on time. It was not until the summer before Wittenberg that I began to wake myself up with an alarm clock. It was different changing my habit, but after the summer, it was like second nature to set my alarm and wake up to it. After some time on my own, I learned to like the freedom that I had while simultaneously hating it. I knew that I could honestly do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted, but there was always the thought in the back of my mind that I HAD to stay on schedule, and that I HAD to get things done. One Monday night, I was feeling especially lethargic and all I wanted to do was play Call of Duty and pass out at three in the morning, but as soon as I started playing a game, something in the back of my mind nagged me until I moved to my desk and began studying for my Chemistry exam on Friday. I could not enjoy playing the game because I knew that there were more important things to do. Studying for a test at the end of the week was the last thing that I wanted to, but it was something that I knew needed to be done. It was a struggle for a little while, but I learned to motivate myself to do what needed to be done and just deal with the lack of “free time”.
Throughout high school, my room was a pig sty like most guys my age, and it generally did not bother me because I did not spend all that much time in my room. All that I really did in there was sleep. There was one instance where I had so many empty water bottles in my room that the floor was not visible. That all changed once I got to Witt. I now live, work, relax, sleep, and spend most of my time in one room. Due to the fact that the majority of my time is spent there, I now have an obsession with keeping it clean. When I was around nine or ten, my parents told me that eating after eight in the evening was bad for me. At the time I was a complete smart alec, not much has changed actually and this prompted me to do something just rebellious enough to be annoying as all get out. Almost every night at 8:03, I made a point of walking through the living room with any manner of snack. Sometimes it would just be a handful of cereal or a fruit snack, but other times I went all out and made a sandwich or a bowl of soup. It took a surprisingly long time for my parents to notice, but once they did, it got on their nerves pretty quickly simply because I was being rebellious by three minutes. I continued to do this for over a year and I kept escalating it in order to see just how far I could take it before I got in real trouble. One night, I actually made a whole box of Kraft macaroni and cheese after dinner just so I could carry it in front of them at 8:03. The final straw was my birthday the following year when I carried three-quarters of my birthday into my bedroom with me at 8:03. That was the night that they came into my room and told me that they were impressed at how long I kept at it, but it was time to stop such a childish thing. To this day, whenever I am at home, I still carry a snack with me at 8:03. They hate it and that is why I love it.
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