Bullfrog Essay Essays

Bullfrog Essay Essays Bullfrog Essay Essay Bullfrog Essay Essay Rana Catesbeiana (Bullfrog) Essay I was amazed to find out just how ancient frogs are. For 190 million years, the ancestors of modern frogs have roamed the earth, looking much the same as they do today. This means that at one time when there was a huge dinosaur eating a plant, there could have been some type of frog down by its feet. About 3,800 species of frogs and toads have developed since the dinosaur days. The secret to their success is their amazing adaptability. Frogs have evolved to live in a large variety of climates. They can be found just about anywhere there is fresh water- on all continents except Antarctica. Though they thrive in warm, moist tropical climates, frogs also live in deserts and high on 15,000-foot mountain slopes. They can be so adaptable because they are cold blooded, which means that their body temperature can change along with the temperature around them. When temperatures drop, some frogs dig burrows underground or in the mud at the bottom of ponds. They hibernate in these burrows until spring, perfectly still and scarcely breathing. A frog’s skin also plays a big role in their survival. It is through their skin that they both drink and breathe. Frogs dont swallow water; they get all the moisture they need through their skin, which must stay moist. If it dries out, oxygen cant pass easily through it and the frog can suffocate. Frog skin secretes mucus that helps keep it moist. Even so, their skin tends to dry out easily, which is why they usually stay near bodies of water. About once a week, frogs shed their skin. The process begins with the frog doing a lot of twisting, bending, and stretching to loosen the old skin. Then the frog pulls the skin over its head like a sweater and usually eats it. Two other parts of the frog have helped it to survive all these years as well. First, the hind legs of the frog, which enable some frogs to jump twenty times their body length. This would allow them to quickly get away from any predators. A frogs two front legs have four toes each, while the back legs have five toes each. Most aquatic frogs have webbed back feet to help them swim, another way to get away from an enemy. Frogs that live on land tend to have shorter legs for walking and climbing, but are still able to swim in water. The other part of the body that help them survive so long are their big, bulging eyes, as they are able to see in all directions. Frogs large eyes see a wide range of colors and also see well in dim light. This not only increases their chances of surviving a predator, but also decreases the ability of their prey to get away. Since they have such big eyes, they are able to see their own prey and target them for food. It has been found that when a frog sticks out its tongue to catch an insect or other food source, it briefly closes its eyes. The frog must therefore, know exactly where its target is, and aim, before the tongue leaves the mouth. The positioning of the eyes, on top of the head, allows a frog to sit in the water with only its eyes and nose above the surface, so they do not have to leave the water for food. Frogs eat almost any live prey they can find, including insects, snails, spiders, and worms, or small fish. Their tongue is long and sticky and takes less than a second to roll out, stick to prey, and roll back into the frogs mouth. Their mating call is sometimes called an advertisement call. It is made by the male in the water and which helps the females to identify with her species. Each species has a different type of mating call. This is difficult to decipher around a pond of noisy frogs. When they mate, the male frog climbs onto females back, grasping her with his front legs. As the female lays her eggs, usually into water the male release sperm that fertilizes them. There may be anywhere from one to hundreds or thousands of soft, jelly-covered eggs. The eggs hatch within three to twenty five days, and few will survive the difficult trip to adulthood. Among most frogs, a tadpole will hatch and spend the next few years growing into a frog. The changes begin when the hind legs sprout. Soon after, lungs develop and the front legs appear. Meanwhile, the tail gradually shrinks. Just before becoming a frog, the tadpoles gills disappear. The tiny froglet emerges from the water with just a stump of a tail, which soon disappears. The observations that I took did little justice to the complexity of Rana Catesbeiana, the bullfrog. Frogs have been living on this Earth for millions of years and have perfected their lifestyle throughout that time. The amazement of these creatures is that they can survive well in nature, but can also be house pets for children to play with and learn from. There are myths that have surrounded frogs and superstitions that have risen over the years. One that comes to mind is that if you kiss a frog, you will get a wart. Like many superstitions and legends, no one knows for sure where that one came from, but watching these little amphibians, I highly doubt that they could do any harm.

Proper Use of The Semicolon

Proper Use of The Semicolon Proper Use of The Semicolon Proper Use of The Semicolon By Mark Nichol Pity the poor semicolon so often misunderstood, so seldom asked to dance because he is seen as stiff, formal, and pretentious. But he’s such a practical, useful fellow whose talents should be appreciated that I would like to reintroduce him to you. A semicolon has two primary functions, exemplified in two labels attached to it: It is said to be the equivalent of a weak period and a strong comma. Think of the two as distinct dance steps. In its weak-period mode, the semicolon stands in for a period when an independent clause could appear as a separate sentence but is so closely related to the previous independent clause that the semicolon is inserted to signal that relationship: â€Å"An investigator files and locates court documents; librarians file claims for missing serials and locate requested information.† As a stand-in for a strong comma, it separates items in a list when one or more items in that list are themselves lists: â€Å"The apple figures prominently in Christian and Islamic belief; Greek, Nordic, and Celtic legends; and folklore throughout the Western world.† It serves that function, too, when one or more list items otherwise include a comma: â€Å"Astrology’s origins can also be traced to several other locations and cultures, including Egypt, which developed sophisticated timekeeping and calendar science; Greece, where Ptolemy authored influential astrological and astronomical texts; and Rome, where many of the most learned men including two emperors were astrologers who wrote laws and counseled citizens based on the stars.† That said, though semicolons are underutilized in the first role, they are overused in the second they’re underappreciated for their facility with one dance step and are too often called on to demonstrate the other dance step when the dance is not appropriate. Here are some solutions for balancing out the semicolon’s dance card: 1. â€Å"More than 900 million people still lacked access to clean drinking water in 2010; and 2.6 billion did not have adequate sanitation.† An independent clause following a weak-period semicolon should not begin with a conjunction; they are redundant to each other. Often, the conjunction is preferable: â€Å"More than 900 million people still lacked access to clean drinking water in 2010, and 2.6 billion did not have adequate sanitation.† (This usage, common in the past, is frequently seen in classic literature, but it’s fallen out of favor.) 2. â€Å"Part of the company’s responsibility is to show others their responsibility; to help other water users see that small changes can save a lot of water.† If a thought does not constitute an independent clause, use a comma (or, for greater emphasis, perhaps an em dash), not a weak-period semicolon: â€Å"Part of the company’s responsibility is to show others their responsibility, to help other water users see that small changes can save a lot of water.† (Again, easily found in older works, but no longer considered proper usage.) 3. â€Å"That is true, however, the increasing conflicts over water for energy involve the vast amounts power generation makes unavailable for people and aquatic ecosystems.† Here is a weak-period construction complicated by the presence of the conjunctive adverb however, which requires a comma after it. The one before it should be a weak-period semicolon: â€Å"That is true; however, the increasing conflicts over water for energy involve the vast amounts power generation makes unavailable for people and aquatic ecosystems.† 4. â€Å"Residents had to slash their water use by a third, farmers by nearly half.† Here’s a similar problem. The phrase â€Å"farmers by nearly half† is an incorrectly punctuated abridgement of the potential independent clause â€Å"farmers had to slash their water use by nearly half.† The elided repetition of the phrase â€Å"had to slash their water use† is signaled by a comma in its place, and the two independent clauses are stitched together by a weak-period semicolon: â€Å"Residents had to slash their water use by a third; farmers, by nearly half.† 5. â€Å"He also uses a Geiger counter, which measures radiation; motion detectors; barometric pressure monitors; and thermometers.† This sentence is grammatically correct as is, but so many semicolons in a short sentence make it look cluttered. Reconstruct the sentence to eliminate the need for the strong-comma semicolons: â€Å"He also uses a Geiger counter, which measures radiation, plus motion detectors, barometric pressure monitors, and thermometers.† 6. â€Å"Our services can identify sites that infringe on brand name, content, or trademarks; misuse a brand name or image; or disparage a brand.† Here’s another solution for the correct-but-excessive strong-comma semicolon when only one item in a list is itself a list, if it’s logical to do so, move that item to the end of the sentence: â€Å"Our services can identify sites that disparage a brand, misuse a brand name or image, or infringe on brand name, content, or trademarks.† 7. â€Å"Follow-up studies are needed to improve our understanding of whether influences on decision making carry through to patterns of actual disclosure; whether involvement in counseling affects outcomes; and whether access to professional assistance at the time of planned disclosure is helpful.† Semicolons are not required to separate items in a list just because one or more items is lengthy, especially in this sentence, in which the repetition of whether clearly signals the beginning of each list item. Replace the strong-comma semicolons with authentic commas: â€Å"Follow-up studies are needed to improve our understanding of whether influences on decision making carry through to patterns of actual disclosure, whether involvement in counseling affects outcomes, and whether access to professional assistance at the time of planned disclosure is helpful.† Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Punctuation category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:7 Classes and Types of PhrasesHow to Punctuate with â€Å"However†Grammar Review #1: Particles and Phrasal Verbs

Deities of Sexuality and Fertility Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Deities of Sexuality and Fertility - Essay Example She was meant to titillate and goad men to fight each other over her beauty. A certain element of carnal and sexual lust is associated with her and her sculpture shows her bare-chested, playing and fondling her breasts. Among her stories and practices was the prostitution ritual practiced in her temples. In the Roman temple on Acrocorinth, intercourse with the high priestess, after paying the required offerings, was the accepted method of worshipping Aphrodite (Walter, 1985). Demeter on the other hand nourished earth and called the earth mother or the Goddess of life, fertility and grain. She is portrayed as demure, mother like figure, fully clothed and with a staff in hand. Demeter has given corn and barley to mankind and the skill to till the land and make ti fertile. There is no symbolism of carnality or sexuality but only that of fertility and give rise to life. She has been portrayed with images of harvest, flowers and of life. She was the enemy of Aethon the famine god and put him in the stomach of Erysichthon. Demeter however was not demure but had a number of husbands such as Zeus from whom she obtained Persephone; Poseidon from whom she got Despoina and Arion and many others (Walter, 1985). Persephone was the daughter of Demeter and Zeus and was the consort of Hades.

IMRAD Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

IMRAD - Essay Example Additionally, researchers have come up with three approaches that lead to employee’s empowerment. These include feministic theory, structural empowerment and psychological empowerment (Jeannette and Roland, 2009). Based on the fact that nurses are not included in the oppressed group, this study covers structural and psychological empowerment theories as theoretical framework. Aim of the research based on four key hypotheses The aim of this research was to investigate the relationship between structural empowerment as well as psychological empowerment and innovative behavior. This was undertaken using four hypotheses as indicated below. Hypothesis 1(H1): There is a positive relationship between innovative behavior by nurses and structural empowerment. Hypothesis 2(H2): There exist positive correlation between innovative behavior by nurses and psychological empowerment. Hypothesis 3(H3): Through psychological empowerment, structural empowerment leads to more innovation by nurses . Hypothesis 4(H4): The extent to which the psychological empowerment leads to innovative behavior is significantly influenced by structural empowerment. ... To ensure that adequate information was collected to come up with a proper analysis, this study collected data from the months of February and March 2007. This was followed by dividing the questionnaire that consisted of 58 items into four major categories. These included structural empowerment, innovative behavior, demographic data and psychological empowerment. To enhance the response from the interviewers, the research adopted various techniques that included cover letter, stamped envelops, follow-ups, in-house newsletters and book tokens. Confidentiality and ethics during the research were upheld by emulating the guidance of the ethics committee and the use of code numbers. By the use of the SPSS Version 12.0 the data was analyzed. This entailed the use of Q-Q plots also referred top as normal probability plots to identify whether the distribution was normal. According to the t Test that was conducted on the data collected, Jeannette and Roland, 2009 study indicated that 6.2% of the missing values differed statistically significant from the average obtained from the innovative behavior. The notable method that this study used to identify the relationship between variables was the bivariate tests of correlation. In the same way, a regression analyses and a one-way analyses of variance were conducted to test the hypothesis. Results The studies indicated that 92.6% of the respondents were female within the age of 41-44 years and those who were married with children. Additionally, 75% of the respondents indicated that they had worked in more than 5 years or more in the hospitals. By the use of the clinical specialty as one of the categories, 37.6% of the respondents had

Rhetoric Essay Essay Example for Free

Rhetoric Essay Essay Rhetoric devices make persuasive writing very effective and more interesting to read. Studying rhetoric devices in English class, I have learned how to use and see these in effective writing. While some may argue that persuasive writing is not strengthen by rhetoric devices but by evidence, I certainly believe that rhetoric devices connect and deliver very strong persuasive writing to an audience. Rhetoric devices, mainly ethos, logos, and pathos, make persuasive writing very effective because they support and strengthen the arguments. Ethos is the art of connecting or appealing to an audience ethically. Both Martin Luther King Jr. and Barbara Jordon are well known and have many supporters; therefore they are very credible, and many people would listen. Hundreds of people come to the speech and thousands more listen to it afterwards; these events, due to the size of the audience, draw more and more supporters. Being well known is very important because it gives a foundation and support to build on. Using facts, logos are very strengthening because it shows how some goals can be achieved. Barbara Jordon use of logos is one of the major reasons why the speech is. A perfect example of this is Barbara Jordon’s All Together Now speech. Being very truthful, Jordon is able to strengthen her argument and appeal to her supports. She shows that democrats have made mistakes and how racial segregation affected her life. She also is able to show that equality, regardless of gender, race, religion, or economic position, is necessary and how is transforms the country as a whole. Martin Luther King, although not as much a Jordon, uses logos to define his speech. Bringing a different view, he is able to convey how life would be better without the segregation. He tells about the dreams he has and says that it is possible to gain. Logos show the facts; however, it is not the strongest element when it comes to persuasion. The most effective of the rhetoric devices, pathos connects deeply to the audience by using emotional characteristics. Because it shows that the speaker knows and experiences what the audience does, pathos gives a very important reason on why the audience should support the speaker. Unlike Barbara Jordon, Martin Luther King uses pathos very efficiently throughout his speech, I Have a Dream. Civil rights activist, MLKJ gives the speech to increase the support for equality. Being segregated against and viewed upon as different, King is easily able to connect to his audience, who are also segregated against and viewed differently. In his dreams, King  tells about his children, however speaking as a whole community, he emotionally expresses that not only his children, but also the children of the audience should be able â€Å"live in a world where they are not judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character†. Using repletion, King shows confidence and how everything he talks about is possible. that Barbara Jordon also uses this technique by asking question and showing, like the audience, she does not know the answer to everything. She also shows this by showing the audience the effects of a national community, where everyone is equal. To sum up, rhetoric devices are crucial elements when it comes to persuasive writing. Ethos, logos, and pathos are examples of rhetoric devices that support and strengthen the arguments being made. Martin Luther King Jr. and Barbara Jordon both use rhetoric devices and are able to create very strong and effective speeches and bring more supports f or their cause.

Robert Frosts The Road Not Taken - The Significance of The Road Not Ta

The Significance of The Road Not Taken  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚      My father introduced me to "The Road Not Taken" when I was a young teenager because he figured that I was beginning a period of my life where I would be forced to make many important decisions, and he saw this poem as a source of guidance through those decisions. This poem carries truth and edification in its words. It forms a beautiful analogy of life and all its complications. After my father finished reciting the poem, I never gave a second thought that day to Robert Frost or his poetry. It was weeks, possibly months, before I resumed thought on "The Road Not Taken." It was not until one year ago that I actually read it. Nevertheless, I did remember that poem, and no matter how many times I put it aside to contemplate other things, it was always waiting for my return. Through all of my high school years, it tagged along beside me, reminding me that change is good, reminding me that risk is what life is all about. The first stanza of this poem introduces the concept of change and maturing. In the first line, the narrator is walking through a "yellow wood," indicating that it is most likely autumn. A nice descriptive detail, but is that all it is? Autumn is the season of change between summer and winter. That is the common definition, yet it can also mean a time of maturity or decline, and standing at a fork in the road of life, the author was prone to either of these. The process of maturing, however, is what is going to be enveloped in this poem. He is being forced to examine each road and make a mature decision about which one to take. He starts his decision-making process by looking down one road as far as he could. However, he could only see as far ... ...hat is what makes the difference. That is why this poem makes such a difference. It sends a powerful message of self-respect. It holds the power to influence a person not to be influenced. Is this a contradiction? Perhaps, but it is the truth. When I came to a fork in my road, I was influenced by this poem to believe in myself and take the road "less traveled by" (19). The analogy is that no life is a straight shot. Everyone faces a fork in the road and must make a decision, possibly an irreversible decision, and the only way to look back on a decision like that with a sigh of relief is to make the decision based on what you believe to be right. That may not be what society thinks is right, what your friends think is right, or even what your family thinks is right, but taking the path based on independent will is what makes "all the difference" (20).      

Population Explosion

Before the end of the year 2011 the world can expect the population to hit an historic accomplishment of reaching seven billion people. The birth of this seven billionth baby will happen sometime in â€Å"October or November† (Nagarajan). This baby will most likely be born in India due to India having the highest fertility rate of â€Å"fifty one babies every minute† (Nagarajan). So is this an accomplishment for humans beating nature by populating the Earth? Or on the other hand will humans soon have to come to grips with their careless actions of destroying all resources, killing thousands of other species and eventually see the end of the human race at the hands of overpopulation? According to the author of Population 7 Billion, Robert Kunzig, â€Å"people shouldn’t panic- at least not yet† (1). A fair and stable amount of people is needed to keep the human species from dying off. Overpopulation, though, could deplete or destroy Earth’s resources such as food, water, and eventually lead to the breakdown of the ecosystem. With these resources being affected by the human population, the resulting consequences of plagues, wars, and famines could cause one of the few times for the global population to decrease. A global plan of action is needed, but policies such as China’s one-child policy is not even going to be considered by the U. S and many other countries to lower their population. The populations of humans on planet Earth have to face the challenge of providing food, water, and face the accountability for ecosystem breakdown. One famous book, The Population Bomb, a best seller in 1968 written by Paul R. Ehrlich, warned about overpopulation and advocated immediate action to limit population growth. He predicted famines that would follow the revelation of the world but thanks to the â€Å"Green Revolution of the 1970s, an increase in the world harvest averted the famines predicted by Ehrlich† (Zeaman 63). Although disaster was averted â€Å"decades from now there will be likely two billion more mouths to feed, mostly in poor countries† (Kunzig 43). Producing enough food as populations grow is possible but doing so will exhaust finite resources, and especially water will be a challenge. If the world population, which is expected to be eight billion by 2025, continues to be so high, â€Å"forty eight countries containing three billion people will face water shortages† (Hinrichsen). We do have the technology to desalinate ocean water, but this process is several times the costs as getting fresh water. Areas suffering from shortages of water can increase their share of water by capturing rain water and storing it. Finding enough arable land that is not already being occupied by humans will have to be dealt with future populations. China feeds its billion- plus people on less than ten percent of Earth’s arable land† (Kunzig 56). At least space to put all these people is not one of the most pressing issues, as the â€Å"world population could fit in the size of Texas, if it were as densely populated as New York† (Kunzig 48). Though we might have just enough livable land for future populations and land for crops and livestock, plants and animals will have to find space off of what is not already being used by humans. Earth’s biodiversity and ecosystems are in jeopardy, â€Å"with two out of every three species to be in decline† (Hinrichsen). Trees provide habitats for more than â€Å"fifty percent of plants and animal species† (Zeaman 73). Forests lost range from â€Å"twenty percent to fifty percent† (Zeaman 73). In the fourteenth century Europe experienced one of the worst plagues in human history, the bubonic plague. The bubonic plague killed over â€Å"half of the people of western Europe† (Dawling). The development of better transportation routes between Asia and Europe, which allowed rats carrying infected fleas to reach European cities, coinciding with the overcrowding and unsanitary conditions within these cities created an ideal condition for the disease to spread. In Ehrlich’s The Population Bomb similar occurrences were supposed to happen but thanks to institutions like â€Å"the World Health Organization and UNICEF† (Kunzig 45), and also with the development of â€Å"penicillin and smallpox vaccines after World War II† (Kunzig 45), plagues which were expected to be some of the worst humans have experienced, were practically eliminated with the exception of the AIDs virus. Plagues are not as threatening as they were to older cultures as they are today, but wars threaten people of all cultures and time periods. Wars do not only come from â€Å"religious differences, political beliefs, and ambitious rulers, but also population pressures will play a big role in wars of the future† (Zeaman 37). A country with a swelling population might try to take land from a neighboring country, or an overpopulated country, overwhelmed by poverty and social problems, breaks out into internal problems. Psychologists that have studied animals discovered the more crowded animals are together, the more aggressive they are and more prone to attack one another. Could such a mechanism operate in humans as well? Another risk for future humans is the utbreak of famines. Agriculture created civilization, but could dependence put an entire civilization at risk? In undeveloped nations where population growth is the highest, crop failures due to drought, excessive rains, or soil erosion can cause people to starve. Scientist who studied the Earth’s core found evidence of an ancient drought that led them to predict â€Å"that one region of Equatorial East Africa will suffer a mega drought, possibly lasting decades, in the next fifty to one hundred years† (Zeaman 62). This would be a drought of un-parallel proportions that could deteriorate an already unstable region. For the human race to become stable to a degree that does not deplenish the Earth’s resources, while having a population large enough to live through any global catastrophes, is needed for continuing existence. Is a world controversial population control policy that mimics China’s coercive one-child policy the solution? In â€Å"1965 Chinese women were having six children, now it is down to around one and a half† (Kunzig 48). Though the Chinese will continue this policy, the answer for other nations, especially the United States is a clear no. A much less controversial and beneficial policy to not only the country of India but becoming a beneficial program to its people is voluntary sterilization. The procedures which are mostly done to women are being changed to be done on the male population. The scalpel vasectomy costs less and is easier on the man than a tubal ligation on a woman. In less than seven minutes, male patients are walking out of the clinics without even a Band- Aid. An incentive fee of a week’s wage for a laborer would be more acceptably viewed by the global population then having your child taken away from you, like in China. Another way to fight overpopulation in the world’s undeveloped nations where populations incur the most growth is fighting poverty that feeds the world population. Fighting poverty through better education or providing clean water and nutritious food is a step in the right direction. Karl Marx, a nineteenth century communist revolutionary, is another world doom prophesier like Ehrlich that believed â€Å"capitalism creates overpopulation† (Gee). Marx has a right to his own views but his predictions seem to show that capitalism is the problem of over population. The U. S and almost all of Europe is close to or under the world average population growth of one hundred and thirty three percent between 1960 and 2011. In fact the â€Å"less developed world will account for more than ninety five percent of the future population growth† (Kunzig 50-51). In a study on 41,554 households in India, small but growing groups of one-child families appeared due to â€Å"education costs for children attending public or private school. With emphasis these parents have to give their children better opportunities to be successful through a higher education† (Kunzig 36). Will humans become extinct at the hands of overpopulation? The death of the human race will likely not be because of over population. An asteroid or environmental disaster is a bigger threat and less controllable than overpopulation. A country like America will only be affected by â€Å"the population group of fifteen to twenty four being affected by unemployment† (Countries 9) due to the economy suffering from the retirement of so many people at once. Men before the world even hit a billion which happened around the 1800s, were predicting populations of twenty billion people and plagues that would put a dent in the growing global population. Men such as William Petty, a seventeenth century economist, and Thomas Malthus, an eighteen century priest and economist predicted such events that have not and will not occur. Even predictions from a more modern writer, Paul Ehrlich, did not calculate the innovations of the future to be able to adapt for an ever growing population. Population growth is on the decline but will take a generation before stability can be reached. Even just a little education on the issue can make a difference. If women were to have one less child now, then by 2050 that could have the difference of eight billion rather than ten and a half billion.

Against Anti †Social Activities Essay

Antisocial behaviour: the construction of a crime Now the New Labour government has revealed its ‘respect’ agenda, the problem of ‘antisocial behaviour’ has moved to the forefront of political debate. But what is it? by Stuart Waiton ‘Antisocial: opposed to the principles on which society is constituted.’ (Oxford English Dictionary, 1885). ‘Antisocial: contrary to the laws and customs of society; causing annoyance and disapproval in others: children’s antisocial behaviour.’ (Oxford English Dictionary, 1989). ‘Antisocial behaviour’ is used as a catch-all term to describe anything from noisy neighbours and graffiti to kids hanging out on the street. Indeed, it appears that almost any kind of unpleasant behaviour is now categorised as antisocial, with the behaviour of children and young people most often labelled as such (1). This expresses a growing perception that the ‘laws and customs of society’ are being undermined by rowdy youngsters. Yet the term ‘antisocial behaviour’ was rarely used until the 1990s. Throughout the 1980s a couple of articles a year were printed in the UK discussing antisocial behaviour, whereas in January 2004 alone ther e were over 1,000 such articles (2). Not even the most pessimistic social critic would suggest a parallel increase in problem behaviour. Indeed, in recent years there has been a slight fall in actual vandalism, for example, against a dramatic increase in newspaper mentions of antisocial behaviour (3). When looking at the issue of antisocial behaviour, the starting point for most commentators is to accept that the problem exists and to then work out why people are more antisocial today. The ‘collapse of communities’ is often seen as a key influence in the rise of antisocial behaviour, with young people growing up without positive role models and a framework within which to develop into sociable adults. This idea of the loss of a sense of community – or indeed of ‘society’ – rings true. We are indeed more atomised and individuated today, and there are fewer common bonds that hold people together and give them a ‘social identity’. It is less clear, however, that this necessarily means people are increasingly out of control, antisocial and on the road to criminality. Alternatively you could argue that this fragmentation of communities and of social values has helped foment a ‘culture of fear’ (4) – a culture that elevates what were previously understood as petty problems into socially significant ones. This essay examines the construction of the social problem of antisocial behaviour, by focusing, not on the behaviour of young people, but on the role of the political elite. It may be understandable for a tenants’ association or local councillor to be engaged by the issue of noisy neighbours and rowdy children – but for the prime minister to prioritise this issue as one of his main concerns for the future of the nation seems rather strange. What is it that has put ‘antisocial behaviour’ so high up on the political agenda? Constructing crime as a social problem When introducing laws against antisocial behaviour, curfews, and new crime initiatives, the New Labour government invariably asserts that these are in response to the concerns of the public. While there is undoubtedly a high level of public anxiety about crime and about the various problems and irritations now described as antisocial behaviour, this anxiety is clearly shaped by the concerns of the political elite. It is also worth noting that when the government highlights particular ‘social problems’ as being significant for society, it puts other issues and outlooks on the back burner. The elevation of crime and, more recently, antisocial behaviour, into a political issue has helped both to reinforce the significance given to this kind of behaviour and to frame the way social problems are understood. By defining antisocial behaviour as a major social problem, the political elite has, over the past decade, helped to generate a spiralling preoccupation with the petty behaviour of young people. At no time in history has the issue of crime as a social problem in and of itself been so central to all of the political parties in the UK – and yet, there has been a significant statistical fall in crime itself. The key difference between the moral panics over crime and social disorder in the past and anxiety about crime and disorder today is that this anxiety has now been institutionalised by the political elite. Up until the 1970s the political elite, as distinct from individual politicians and the media, generally challenged or dismissed the panics associated with youth crime and subsequently held in check the effects they had. In opposing certain calls for more laws and regulations on society, more reactionary ways of understanding these problems were often rejected and the insti tutionalisation of measures that help create new norms were equally opposed. For example, while the moral panic that arose in the media around the Mods and Rockers in the 1960s has been widely discussed thanks to Stanley Cohen’s famous study Folk Devils and Moral Panics, first published in 1972 (5), these concerns were marginal to politicians, and never became an organising principle of political life. More recently, however, the political elite has panicked and legislated on the strength of extreme one-off events, like for example the Dunblane shootings in 1996, which resulted in the banning of handguns, or the killing of Victoria Climbie in 2000, which led to legislation requiring schools to organise around child protection. An important consequence of the institutionalisation of anxiety is that in contrast to the intermittent moral panics of the past, panics are now an almost permanent feature of society. And whereas moral panics – particularly before the 1990s – were generated within a traditional conservative moral framework, today i t is the new ‘amoral’ absolute of safety within which they tend to develop. Politicising crime The politicisation of crime can be dated back to the 1970s, with the 1970 Conservative government being the first to identify itself explicitly as the party of law and order. As crime developed as a political issue through the 1970s, however, it was fiercely contested. When Conservatives shouted ‘law and order’, the left would reject the idea that crime was increasing or was a social problem in and of itself, pointing instead to the social problems thought to underlie it. Significant sections of the left, influenced in part by radical criminologists in the USA, challenged the ‘panics’ – as they saw them – promoted by the so-called New Right. They questioned the official statistics on crime, challenging the ‘labelling’ of deviants by ‘agents of social control’, and attacked the moral and political basis of these panics (6). Thus, the idea that crime was a broader ‘social problem’ remained contested. Crime b ecame a political issue at a time when there was an increase in serious political and social conflicts, following the more consensual political framework of the postwar period. Unemployment and strikes increased, as did the number of political demonstrations, and the conflict in Ireland erupted. In contrast to the current concern about crime and antisocial behaviour, which emerged in the 1990s, the New Right under Margaret Thatcher promoted crime as a problem very much within a traditional ideological framework. In 1988, Alan Phipps described the Tory approach to crime like this: ‘Firstly, it became conflated with a number of other issues whose connection was continually reinforced in the public mind – permissiveness, youth cultures, demonstrations, public disorders, black immigration, student unrest, and trade union militancy. Secondly, crime – by now a metaphorical term invoking the decline of social stability and decent values – was presented as only one aspect of a bitter harvest for which Labour’s brand of social democracy and welfarism was responsible.’ (7) As part of a political challenge to Labourism in the 1970s and 80s, Conservative prime minister Margaret Thatcher developed an authoritarian approach to the ‘enemy with in’, which attributed greater political significance to criminality than its effects on victims. Despite an increase in the financial support to the Victim Support schemes in the late 1980s, victims of crime were themselves often used politically, ‘paraded’ by Conservative politicians and by sections of the media as symbols of disorder, not as the central focus of law and order policy or rhetoric itself. Sociologist Joel Best describes a process of typification, whereby an often extreme example of crime is used to define a more general perceived problem (8). The ‘typical’ criminals of the 1970s and 1980s were the violent trade union militant and the young black mugger. Traditional British values and individual freedoms were contrasted to the collectivist, promiscuous values of the ‘enemy within’ (9). Even burglars were understood as being part of the ‘something for nothing society’. Here the ‘criminal’, whether the trade union member, the mugger or the burglar, far from being a victim of circumstance, was an enemy of the state, and, importantly, the damage being done was not primarily to the victim of crime but to the moral values of society as a whole. ‘Social control’ and ‘public order’ were promoted within both a political and moral framework in which the deviant in question was likewise understood to have certain political or moral traits that needed to be confronted. Where the petty criminal acts of children were mentioned, the target was not simply this behaviour itself, nor the impact it had on individuals, but rather the ‘soft liberal’ moral values – held by teachers and social workers – that it was argued were undermining British Victorian values of discipline and hard work. In keeping with this, Thatcher saw the responsibility for cutting crime not simply as that of the government or police, but also of the public, who, it was argued, should take action to defend themselves. Go directly to jail ‘The demand for law and order, which at first sight appears to attempt a restoration of moral standards, actually acknowledges and acquiesces in their collapse. Law and order comes to be seen as the only effective deterrent in a society that no longer knows the difference between right and wrong.’ (Christopher Lasch, Haven in a Heartless World, 1977.) American sociologist Christopher Lasch identified key developments in the USA in the 1970s. In the UK, while an increasing emphasis on law and order reflected a certain weakening of the political elite’s grip on society, crime had been understood in largely ideological and political terms. Thatcher used the issue of crime in the battle against Labourism and welfarism. By the early 1990s, however, things were changing fast. John Major’s desperate and ultimately failed attempt to revitalise the political dynamic of the Conservatives with his ‘Back to Basics’ campaign in 1993 demonstrated the Toriesà ¢â‚¬â„¢ inability to develop a political direction that engaged both the elite and the electorate, and it was at this point that the politics of crime took on a new, less ideological, but even more authoritarian character. The issue of ‘persistent young offenders’ became a political issue and a recognised ‘social problem’ in 1992 and exploded as an issue of concern in 1993. The ‘violent trade union militant’ was now replaced by this ‘persistent young offender’ as the ‘typical’ criminal, and, as then home secretary Michael Howard explained, ‘self-centred†¦young hoodlums’ would ‘no longer be able to use age’ as a way of hiding from the law (10). It is important to note that under Thatcher, despite the ‘most consistent, vitriolic and vindictive affront to justice and welfare’ in general, the criminal justice approach to young people developed under principles that resulted in ‘diversion, decriminalisation and decarceration in policy and practice with children in trouble’ (11). Despite the tough rhetoric with regard to adult crime, the Thatcher administration maintained a pragmatic and even progressive policy towards young offenders. Under John Major this all changed. The enemy within became ‘minors rather than the miners’ (12). With the end of the contestation between right and left, and the resulting decline in the ideological politicisation of crime, the direct control and regulation of the population substantially increased, and between 1993 and 1995 there was a 25 per cent increase in the number of people imprisoned (13). Politically-based authoritarianism was replaced by a more reactive ‘apolitical’ authoritarianism which was directed less at the politics and moral values of the organised labour movement and other enemies within, than at the more psychologically-framed behaviour of individuals. ‘Antisocial behaviour’ now began to be recognised as a significant ‘social problem’ around which new laws and institutional practices could be developed. Following Lasch, it appears that by 1993 law and order had come to be seen as the only effective resource for a political elite that no longer knew the difference between right and wrong. Rather than using the fight against crime in an effort to shape the moral and political outlook of adults in society, the Conservative government increasingly opted simply to lock people up, thus acknowledging and acquiescing in its own political and moral collapse. Cultures of crime As part of the growing preoccupation with the ‘underclass’, the floundering Major government also attacked what he described as a ‘yob culture’. This identification of an alien, criminal culture had developed in the late 1980s, as crime panics began to move away from concerns with the organised working class and shifted on to the behaviour of ‘hooligans’ and ‘lager louts’. The criminalisation of the working class, by the early 1990s, was framed not in political terms, but increasingly as an attack on the imagined ‘cultures’ of alien groups. These aliens were no longer black outsiders or militants, but white, working class, and young, who could be found not on demonstrations but in pubs and estates across the UK. The door was now open for an attack on the personal behaviour and habits of anyone seen to be acting in an ‘antisocial’ manner. The idea of there being alternative ‘cultures’, expressed by conservative thinkers at this time, implied that significant sections of the public were no longer open to civilising influences. However, and somewhat ironically, within criminological theory, this idea of impenetrable cultures had developed from radicals themselves back in the 1970s. Stanley Cohen and the cultural studies groups of the Birmingham Centre had been the first to identify youth cultures and deviant subcultures as specific types of people existing within a ‘different life-world’. At a time of greater political radicalism, these groups were credited with positive ‘difference’. With the decline of radical thought these imagined cultures were rediscovered in the 1990s, but this time were seen as increasingly problematic (14). In reality, the growing preoccupation with ‘cultures’ – for example the discovery of a ‘knife culture’ in 1992 – was a reflection of a loss of belief in politics as a way of understanding and resolving wider social problems. With the loss of ideologically based politics on the right and the left, reflected in the r ise of New Labour, the problem of crime became increasingly understood as a problem of and for individuals. New Labour, New Social Problems ‘What my constituents see as politics has changed out of all recognition during the 20 years or so since I first became their Member of Parliament. From a traditional fare of social security complaints, housing transfers, unfair dismissals, as well as job losses, constituents now more often than not ask what can be done to stop their lives being made a misery by the unacceptable behaviour of some neighbours, or more commonly, their neighbours’ children. The Labour MP Frank Field, in his book Neighbours from Hell: The Politics of Behaviour (2003), explained how politics had become a matter of regulating behaviour. Field neglected to ask himself whether poor housing and a lack of opportunities are no longer problems, or whether his constituents have simply lost faith in politicians’ ability to do anything about them. Similarly, Field ignored the role the Labour Party itself played in reducing politics to questions of noisy neighbours and rowdy youngsters, and the wa y in which New Labour in the 1990s helped to repose ‘traditional’ social concerns around issues of crime and disorder. A more fragmented and atomised public was undoubtedly subject to a ‘culture of fear’, but the role of New Labour was central to the promotion of concerns related to antisocial behaviour. Under Tony Blair, crime became a central issue for the Labour Party, especially after Blair’s celebrated ‘tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime’ speech in 1994. This ended any major political opposition to the recently reposed ‘social problem’ of crime. A key ‘right’ for New Labour now became the ‘right’ to be, and to feel, safe. By 1997 the New Labour manifesto was strikingly confrontational around the issues of crime and antisocial behaviour. As the Guardian newspaper noted in April of that year: ‘There are areas where Neil Kinnock’s manifesto barely ventured. In 1992, crime, for instance, rated five paragraphs and mainly concentrated on improving street lighting. Now law and order rates two pages with the n ow familiar â€Å"zero tolerance† strategies and child curfews fighting for room next to pledges to early legislation for a post-Dunblane ban on all handguns. Such policies seemed unthinkable five years ago. However, in this case, Blair’s â€Å"radicalism† – with its social authoritarian tinge – may play better with the centre rather than the Left.’ Freed from the politics of welfarism and the labour movement, New Labour in the early 1990s reoriented its approach to the politics of crime, not only accepting that crime was a key social problem in and of itself, but also in expanding it to include the non-criminal antisocial behaviour of ‘neighbours from hell’ and ‘antisocial youth’. With the prioritisation of crime and antisocial behaviour came a focus upon the emotional reaction of victims, reflected in the concern with the fear of crime. ‘Tackling the epidemic of crime and disorder’ was now a ‘top priority for Labour in government’ and ‘securing people’s physical security and freeing them from the fear of crime and disorder’ was described as the ‘greatest liberty government c an guarantee’ (15). Liberty was transformed from the active freedom of individuals, to the protection given to them by government and the police. In contrast to the social and economic framework within which crime had been largely understood by the ‘active’ labour movement in the 1980s, New Labour now addressed the problems of crime and disorder with reference to a more passive, disorganised and fragmented public. As the government took a more direct approach to tackling crime in its own terms, so the issue expanded to consume problems that previously had been understood in more political terms. Accordingly, social, economic and political solutions were replaced by attempts to regulate the behaviour of both criminals and antisocial neighbours and children. Imprisonment, antisocial behaviour orders and more intense forms of behaviour management of parents and children increasingly became the political solution offered by New Labour to these problems. Engaged by safety The term ‘community safety’ did not exist until the late 1980s, but has subsequently become a core strategic category around which local authorities and national government have developed community-based policies. Community safety is not about crime as such, but is more broadly about the fear of crime and of petty antisocial acts, especially committed by young people, and thought to undermine communities’ sense of security. Here the loss of ‘community’ that has been generated by such major social shifts as the defeat of the old Labour movement and the weakening of the postwar institutional welfare framework has been reinterpreted as a problem of mischievous children creating fear across society. An important watershed in the organisation of society around the issues of safety was then shadow home secretary Jack Straw’s notorious attack in 1995 on the ‘aggressive begging of winos, addicts and squeegee merchants’ (16). Only a year ea rlier, Straw had accused John Major of ‘climbing into the gutter alongside the unfortunate beggars’ when the prime minister had made seemingly similar comments (17). There was an important difference, however. Major and his chancellor Kenneth Clarke had attacked beggars as dole scroungers – ‘beggars in designer jeans’ who receive benefits and ‘think it is perfectly acceptable to add to their income by begging’. Still understanding crime through the political prism of welfarism, Clarke saw begging as a criminal act that defrauded the benefit system. In his later attack on beggars, Jack Straw redefined the issue. For Straw the problem was not the crime of begging or the political or economic problem of benefit fraud, but the disorderly and intimidating behaviour of the aggressive beggar, which was understood to increase the fear of crime and help to undermine society’s sense of wellbeing (18). Jack Straw believed that the Tories had failed to understand the significance of street disorder as a cause of the fear of crime, the ‘loutish behaviour and incivility’ that made the streets ‘uncomfor table, especially for women and black and Asian people’ (19). The issue for New Labour was not the political question of benefit fraud, but the emotional sense of security of a newly discovered vulnerable public. By the time the election year of 1997 came around the soon to be prime minister, Tony Blair, had elaborated on the typical beggar. This was not a man quietly scrounging money off the public, but the often drunken ‘in your face’ lout who would, ‘push people against a wall and demand money effectively with menace’ (20). No figures for the rise in bullying beggars were given, but Tony Blair noted that he himself sometimes felt frightened when he dropped his children off at King’s Cross in London – a notorious area for ‘winos’, prostitutes and ‘aggressive beggars’. Straw, using a well-worn feminist slogan, demanded that we ‘reclaim the streets’ – streets that had been ‘brutalised’ by beggars and graffiti vandals. The radical creation of victimhood Because much of this rhetoric of intimidation, abuse and the collapse of communities has its origins in the radical school of criminology, Labour politicians felt able to employ it without embarrassment. In the late 1980s, left-wing and feminist criminologists had a significant influence on Labour-run inner-city councils, carrying out victim surveys, and sitting on a number of council boards particularly within the Greater London Council. Developing out of the radical framework of the early 1970s, a number of such criminologists had become disillusioned with the fight for political and social change and, rather than challenging the focus on crime as an expression of class prejudice as they once might have, increasingly identified crime as a major issue, particularly for the poor, women and blacks who were now conceived of as ‘victims’ of crime. Instead of identifying with and engaging its constituency in terms of politics and public matters, the left sought a new relatio nship with the poor and oppressed based on their private fears and their sense of powerlessness. Identifying fear as a major factor in the disaggregation of these communities, the so-called ‘left realists’ noted that it was not only crime but the non-criminal harassment of women and petty antisocial behaviour of young people that was the main cause of this fear among victimised groups (21). The identification of harassed victims of antisocial behaviour rose proportionately with the declining belief in the possibility of radical social change. As the ‘active’ potential of the working class to ‘do’ something about the New Right declined, Jock Young and other realists uncovered the vulnerable ‘done to’ poor. Discussing the shift in Labour councils from radicalism to realism, Young noted that: ‘The recent history of radical criminology in Britain has involved a rising influence of feminist and anti-racist ideas and an encasement of left-wing Labour administrations in the majority of the inner-city Town Halls. An initial ultra -leftism has been tempered and often transformed by a prevalent realism in the wake of the third consecutive defeat of the Labour Party on the national level and severe defeats with regards to â€Å"rate capping† in terms of local politics. The need to encompass issues which had a widespread support among the electorate, rather than indulge in marginal or â€Å"gesture† politics included the attempt to recapture the issue of law and order from the right.’ (22) Indeed, crime and the fear of it became so central to Young’s understanding of the conditions of the working class that, on finding that young men’s fear of crime was low – despite their being the main victims of crime – he argued that they had a false consciousness. Rather than trying to allay women’s fears about the slim chance of serious crime happening to them, Young asked whether it ‘would not be more advisable to attempt to raise the fear of crime of young men rather than to lower that of other parts of the public?’. For the first time, it was safety that began to frame the relationship between the local authority and the public, expressing a shift from a social welfare model of that relationship to one of protection. The significance of the left realists and feminists at this time is that they were the first people systematically to redefine large sections of the working class as ‘victims’, and thus helped to reorient Labour local authorities towards a relationship of protection to the public at the expense of the newly targeted antisocial youth. It is this sense of the public as fundamentally vulnerable, coupled with the disengagement of the Labour Party from its once active constituency within the working class and the subsequent sense of society being out of control, that has informed the development of New Labour’s antisocial behaviour initiatives. Issues related to inner-city menace, crime and what was now labelled antisocial behaviour, which had been identified as social problems by conservative thinkers periodically for over a century, now engaged the Labour Party. Increasingly for New Labour, having abandoned extensive socioeconomic intervention, the problem of the disaggregation of communities and the subsequent culture of fear that grew out of the 1980s was identified as a problem of crime, disorder and more particularly the antisocial behaviour of young people. The Hamilton Curfew and the politics of fear The development of the politics of antisocial behaviour was accelerated in 1997 when the first ‘curfew’ in the UK was set up in a number of housing estates in Hamilton in the west of Scotland. Introduced by a Labour council, this was a multi-agency initiative involving the notoriously ‘zero tolerance’ Strathclyde Police and the council’s social work department. The curfew that followed was officially called the Child Safety Initiative. This community safety approach reflected a number of the trends identified above. Rather than tackling crime as such, the initiative was supposed to tackle the broader, non-criminal problem of antisocial behaviour, in order to keep the community free from crime and also, significantly, free from the fear of crime (23). The rights of people in the community promoted by this initiative were not understood in terms of a libertarian notion of individual freedoms, nor within a welfarist conception of the right to jobs and se rvices. Rather it was ‘the right to be safe’ and the ‘right to a quiet life’ that Labour councillors promoted. Without a collective framework within which to address social problems, and concomitantly without a more robust sense of the active individual, a relationship of protection was posited between the local authority and the communities in question. Talk of ‘rights and responsibilities’ implied the right of vulnerable individuals to be and feel safe, not by being active in their own community but rather by either keeping their children off the streets, or by phoning the police whenever they felt insecure. Advocates of the Child Safety Initiative identified all sections of the community as being at risk – children were at risk simply by being unsupervised; adults were at risk from teenagers who hung about the streets; and young people were at risk from their peers, who could, by involving one another in drink, drugs and crime, ‘set patterns’ for the rest of their lives, as the head of the social work department argued. Even those teenagers involved in anti social and criminal activities were understood as an ‘at risk’ group – the ‘juvenile delinquents’ of the past were thus recast as ‘vulnerable teenagers’ who needed protection from each other. The centrality of the concern with victims of crime, which has developed since the Hamilton curfew was first introduced, is reflected within the curfew itself. In effect all sections of the public were understood to be either victims or vulnerable, potential victims of their neighbours and of local young people. The legitimacy of the police and the local authority was based not on a wider ideological, political or moral platform, but simply on their ability to protect these victims. The politics of antisocial behaviour lacks any clear ideological or moral framework, and therefore it has no obvious constituency. In fact, the basis of the Child Safety Initiative was the weakness of community. Rather than being derived from a politically engaged public, the authority of the council and the police was assumed, or ‘borrowed’, from that public in the guise of individual victims. Accordingly, the police in Hamilton constantly felt under pressure to show that the potential victi ms they were protecting – especially the young people who were subject to the curfew – supported what they were doing. Of course, nobody has a monopoly on borrowed authority. A number of children’s charities similarly took it upon themselves to speak for the children, arguing that the curfew infringed their ‘rights’ and coming up with alternative surveys showing that young people opposed the use of curfews. There was little effort to make a substantial political case against the curfew, however. In fact, ‘child-friendly’ groups and individuals tended to endorse the presentation of young people and children as fundamentally vulnerable potential victims, and some opposed the curfew only on the basis that children would be forced back into the home where they were even more likely to be abused. Just as Blair was put on the defensive over his attack on aggressive begging by charities campaigning for the rights of the victimised homeless, so the curfew exposed the authorities to charges of ‘harassing’ or ‘bullying’ young people. Since the curfew w as justified precisely on the basis of protecting young people from these things, the charge was all the more damaging. This was more than a tricky PR issue: it demonstrated a fundamental problem with the politics of antisocial behaviour. In presenting the public as vulnerable and in need of protection, the state transformed the basis of its own authority from democratic representation to a more precarious quasi-paternalism; in effect it became a victim protection agency. The very social atomisation and lack of political cohesion that underlies the politics of antisocial behaviour means that the authority of the state is constantly in question, despite the fact that its assumptions about the vulnerability of the public are widely shared. As such, the Hamilton curfew gave concrete expression to the attempt to re-engage a fragmented public around the issue of safety, and the difficulties this throws up. Criminalising mischief In contrast to the pragmatic approach of past political elites to the issue of crime and occasional panics about delinquent youth, the current elite has come to see crime, the fear of crime and antisocial behaviour as major ‘social problems’. With the emergence of New Labour in the 1990s any major political opposition to the issue of crime as a key social problem has disappeared and its centrality to political debate and public discourse was established. Under New Labour, however, the concerns being addressed and the ‘social problems’ being defined are less to do with crime and criminals than with annoying children and noisy neighbours. These petty irritations of everyday life have been relabelled ‘antisocial behaviour’, something which is understood to be undermining both individuals’ and society’s sense of well being. At its most ridiculous extreme what we are witnessing is the criminalisation of mischief (24). Basil Curley, Manc hester council’s housing executive, told the Guardian: ‘Yes, we used to bang on doors when we were young. But there used to be badger-baiting once, too. It’s different now, isn’t it? Things are moving on; people want to live differently.’ (25) This casual comparison of children playing ‘knocky door neighbour’ with the brutality of badger-baiting tells us nothing about young people, but indicates that what has changed is the adult world with an inflated sense of vulnerability driving all antisocial behaviour initiatives. For New Labour the problem of the disaggregation of communities and the subsequent culture of fear that grew out of the 1980s was located within politics as a problem of crime and disorder. Devoid of a sense of social progress, in the 1990s it was the political elites – both right and left – who became the driving force for reinterpreting social problems within a framework of community safety. Lacking any coherent political direction, the government has both reacted to and reinforced panics about crime and disorder, institutionalising practices and initiatives based upon society’s sense of fear and anxiety. In an attempt both to regulate society and to reengage the public, over the past eight years New Labour has subsequently encouraged communities to participate in and organise around a raft of safety initiatives. Despite the fall in the official crime statistics society’s sense of insecurity has remained endemic and no ‘sense of community’ has been re-established, much to the government’s frustration. However, rather than recognising that constructing a society around the issue of safety has only helped to further the public’s sense of insecurity, New Labour is becoming ever more reactive and developing more and more policies to regulate a growing range of ‘antisocial’ activities and forms of behaviour. By thrashing around for solutions to the ‘politics of behaviour’ in this way, the government is helping to fuel the spiral of fear and alienation across society. Rather than validating the more robust active side of our character, validation is given to the most passive self-doubting aspects of our personality. Communities and a society that is more at ease with itself would expect men and women of character to resolve problems of everyday life themselves, and would equally condemn those who constantly deferred to the authorities as being antisocial. Today, however, we are all being encouraged to act in an antisocial manner and demand antisocial behaviour orders on our neighbours and their children. Rather than looking someone in the eye and resolving the incivilities we often face, we can increasingly rely on the CCTV cameras to do this, or alternatively look to the community wardens, the neighbourhood police and the antisocial task force to resolve these problems for us. We are told to act responsibly, but are expected to call on others to be responsible for dealing with noisy neighbours or rowdy children. As this approach develops a new public mood is being created, a mood based on the notion of ‘safety first’ where an increasing number of people and problems become the concern of the police and local authorities. This weakened sense of individuals is a reflection of the political elite itself, which lacks the moral force and political direction that could help develop a sense of community. Ultimately, it is the crisis of politics that is the basis for the preoccupation with curtain-twitching issues – the product of an antisocial elite, which is ultimately creating a society in its own image.

seeds essays

seeds essays Nature has a very special way of making new plants through tiny things called seeds. Seeds are very important to our lives, from these tiny beings the plants, that we need to survive, will grow. A seed is a ripened ovule of a plant, this is what produces new plants. The seed is a key part in the never ending cycle of reproduction. There are two kinds of seeds, To start off you have to know exactly what a seed is. A seed id the ripened ovule of a seed plant before it is germinated. There are many parts to a seed. The outside layer, which is called the testa, acts as protection for the small plant buried inside. The inside part of the seed is known as the endosperm. This can be split into two parts. These two parts are known as cotyledons or seed leaves. This provides nourishment for the plant when it first breaks out of its seed coat and before it has had time to establish its roots or make its own food. Buried deep inside is the tiny plant itself, this is known as the embryo or germ. Tho tiny now, this small thing will grow into a simple flower or a large tree. Attached to the cotyledons are two structures. During germination, beneath the cotyledons is the hypocotyle, the tip pf this is called the radical. The radical is the first to break out of the seed coat and the first true root of the plant. Below the cotyledons is the epicotyl, which produces the stem and leaves. Before you learn about the process of germination, you have to know just where the seed comes from and just how the process works. First the pollen from the anthers grip onto the stigma of the flower. The pollen tube grows down through the pistil, this pollen tube is the passage way for the small pollen grains. The pollen tube allows the pollen grains to reach the ovule inside the ovary. When the pollen grain unites with the egg cell the zygote is developed, this zygote is what ...

Definition of Assemblage - Art History Glossary

Definition of Assemblage - Art History Glossary (noun) - As one familiar with the word assembly might assume, assemblage is a form of sculpture comprised of found objects arranged in such a way that they create a piece. These objects can be anything organic or man-made. Scraps of wood, stones, old shoes, baked bean cans and a discarded baby buggy - or any of the other 84,000,000 items not here mentioned by name - all qualify for inclusion in an assemblage. Whatever catches the artists eye, and fits properly in the composition to make a unified whole, is fair game. The important thing to know about assemblage is that it is supposed to be three-dimensional and different from collage, which is supposed to be two-dimensional (though both are similarly eclectic in nature and composition). But! Theres a really fine, nearly invisible line between a bulky, multi-layered collage and an assemblage done in extremely shallow relief. In this large, grey area between assemb- and col-, the safest course is to take the artists word for it. Pronunciation: ah ·sem ·blahj Also Known As: construction, bricolage, collage (inaccurately), sculpture Examples: Lets save many thousands of words here and look at some pictures of assemblages done by different artists. Raoul Hausmann: Mechanical Head (Spirit of Our Age), ca. 1920Man Ray: , 1964 (replica of 1923 original)Louise Nevelson: , 1957Meret Oppenheim: , 1936Kurt Schwitters: Broad Schmurchel (Breite Schmurchel), 1924Joseph Cornell: Navigating the ImaginationRobert Rauschenberg: Combines (Exhibition Image Gallery)

Extra Credit Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Extra Credit Assignment - Essay Example People in Orlando began to believe the media reports randomly, although most of them were not entirely based on actual facts, this essay attempts to examine the background and effects of Casey Anthony trial in relation to Orlando. The disappearance and death of a girl child Caylee Anthony received high media attention and triggered off considerable legal debate in USA. Afterwards, the trial of Casey Anthony (mother of Caylee) attracted significant coverage in social, national, and international media. On 18th July, 2008, Cindy Anthony (grandmother of Caylee) reported that her granddaughter had gone missing. Almost five months later, Caylee’s skeleton was found in a jungle area in proximity to the family home. Subsequently, Casey Anthony was charged of having murdered her daughter and a rigorous trial began. The prosecution charged Casey of first degree murder and sought death penalty for her (Fuhrman, 3). However, the jury did not find Casey guilty for child abuse and murder. But it was held that she had given misleading information to the police in connection to the case. Hence, she was given a ruling of four years in prison and a total fine of $4000 was charged. Finally, she was released on 17th July , 2011 due to good behavior and the credit for the time already served. The case of Casey had profound effects on the international and national media and public opinion. Therefore, in Orlando area too, the trial had an effect that could be deeply felt. Could a mother murder her two and a half years old child? How can one murder a child in such a cruel way? How is the society at large responsible for what happened? The questions that loomed in the air were uneasy to answer. Quoting from Fuhrman (2), the developments can be explained in the following way: â€Å"This is the story of how the media create alternate realities that serve their quest for ratings, while the criminal investigation that might solve the case is all but derailed. The

Is it possible to find any common ground between different identities Research Proposal

Is it possible to find any common ground between different identities in Turkey via Rawls' theories - Research Proposal Example Introduction Conflict has always existed in society and it always will. It is an instance which is not directly a result or victim of any social phenomenon or occurrence, but rather a combination of factors over time. Theorists have come to believe that contributions to an engaged, politically aware form of multicultural theorizing may cast some light on political debate and public policy making. Not surprisingly, classical liberals such as Hayek (1976) insist that the contemporary liberal fixation on ‘the mirage of social justice’ leads them to ignore the way that freedom depends on a decentralized market based on private property, the overall results of which are unpredictable. Similarly, Robert Nozick (1974: 160ff) famously argued that attempts to ensure that market transactions conform to a specific pattern of holdings will involve constant interferences with individual freedom. No idealistic policy will address all of the needs of everyone, but instead will institut e the greater good for society. A utopian society is the society that accepts this fact. A nation whose people are in riotous turmoil, such as Turkey, challenges this truth; declaring human nature and human imperfections as unjust. Not only can human rights be violated, but also used to exploit or institute other agendas. John Rawls views human rights as being constructed by reasonable people living together in a society. Rawls presents a more compassionate view of human rights, one with the greatest degrees of individual liberty and equality, while maintaining these rights for all. The state should distribute everything, including benefits, equally; unless an unequal distribution would benefit the poorer classes. The work of John Rawls is absolutely central in terms of the nature of reason, equality, justice or pluralism. It inspired us to consider how his principles might actually enlighten political issues arising in contemporary liberal democratic societies. The values of a gove rning agency can contrast with the personal values of the people. In many instances, only the outcome can determine whether the decisions were the right ones. In some instances, none of the choices seem appropriate. Regardless of the size or impact of the conflict, ethical decisions challenge the best of us, and ‘the right thing to do’ may elude common logic. This paper will address cultural diversity in the Turkish society and the view of John Rawls’ view of justice as a political conception. 1.1 Multiculturalism Multiculturalism is one of the most controversial issues of social justice in liberal democracies. Government and financial entities consist of culture, environment, strategies, and traits. The level of Values are reflected in a country’s culture. The most changing attributes are culture and traits. Cultures, traits and environments deviate from time to time, but not so far as to lose their original attributes. According to Cheeseman, the followi ng standards should be implemented at all times (Cheeseman, 2010): Keep the peace and shape moral standards Promote social justice and maintain status quo Facilitate planning and orderly change Provide basis for compromise 90% Maximize individual freedom Minorities increasingly demand recognition and in some cases special rights and these demands are demands of justice. The line of