Katelynn

[1katejam1-blog]

Nuclear Savage Film Review

“Nuclear Savage “ is a documentary film by Adam Horowitz that examines the government's secret  bomb testing on the Marshall islands. The film was created to inform the viewer what the U.S. government has done to the island and people of Marshall island. As the film progresses, the viewer starts to feel angry towards the U.S. government and military because of how the U.S justifies the bombing of the island and then tries to cover up the islanders suffering side effects from the nuclear fallout by calling it “accidental human testing”.

The U.S. dropped 67 bombs on the Marshall island, not only was the island destroyed from the bomb dropping, but the bombs were also dropped on the islanders. U.S. scientists claimed that  the project was to study the nuclear fallout effects on people and how the fallout can be carried throughout the island. At the beginning of the film, it shows scientist telling the islanders that they want to use the island to do tests that will provide security for the U.S. What the islanders didn’t know was that they bombs would destroy their home land completely and they would be subjected to be human test subjects of radioactive fallout. Side effects the islanders suffered included  skin color deformities, birth deformities that ended in the baby dying within weeks of being born, and people dying at a young age due to cancer. Later on in the movie the scientists and government claimed that the islanders being contaminated by the radioactive fallout was ‘accidental’. Along with calling the islanders exposure to the fallout an “accident”, the government also deleted their classified information on the study of the radioactive fallout effects on the islanders.

“Nuclear Savage” is a terrifying reality of only what the U.S. has done to the Marshal islands. The Marshal islands are not the only place that the U.S has wronged in the name of scientific discovery for national security.  Ideas such as the birth defects and humans dying from cancer caused by the radiation were a bit repetitive throughout the film. The repetition made the film long and hard to pay attention to at times.  It accomplished the goal of making the viewer angry at the way the U.S covered up what they did to the Marshall island and islanders, instead of admitting their mistakes and paying for them. Stories from the islanders themselves, footage from before the bombing and pictures helped to accomplish the idea that the U.S completely destroyed the island and the islanders way of life. The part that will make the viewer the angriest, is when the U.S starts to deny what it has done to the people. The U.S denies that they dropped the bombs knowing that they Marshall islanders were on the island, the islanders were not evacuated from the island right away but left there and that the islanders were sent back to the island when it was still highly radioactive.  

The U.S. had doctors that were monitoring and checking up on the islanders as they did the nuclear bomb testing on the island. One of the other ways that the U.S tried to justify what they did to the islanders was to dehumanize them and say “they were the closer to the modern American than a lab rat”.  It all comes down to the U.S. knowing what they were doing to the Marshall islands and going ahead and doing it anyways, because they are the biggest and strongest.

Collectively the film was interesting, but the shorter one would be the better one to watch. The shorter film will have less repetition and the viewer won’t get bored and miss important information because they zoned out. Stories from the islanders themselves, footage from before the bombing and pictures helped the viewer understand what the Marshall islanders went through. The voice over got a little monotonous, but the film was helped from the voice over getting boring by having islanders tell their stories.

The U.S is not shown as a country that holds high ethics when it come to human lives in “Nuclear Nature”. Instead the U.S military and government are shown to hold many secrets about human testings on the Marshal islands and refuses to own up to them and pay for their actions. The Marshall islanders are the victims of human testing that the U.S refuses to own up to.  The film had some downs in the length, voice over, and repetition. The shorter version would be better to watch than the longer version being that some of the repetition would be cut out making it less boring for the viewer.

[1katejam1-blog]

Nuclear Savage film review

“Nuclear Savage “ is a documentary film by Adam Horowitz telling about the government's secret  bomb testing on the Marshall islands. The film was created to inform the watcher what the U.S. government has done to the island and people of Marshall island. As the film progresses, the watcher starts to feel angry towards the U.S. government and military because of how the U.S justifies the bombing of the island and then tries to cover up the islanders suffering side effects from the nuclear fallout by calling it “accidental human testing”.

The U.S. dropped 67 bombs on the Marshall island, not only was the island destroyed from the bomb dropping, but the bombs were also dropped on the islanders. U.S. scientists claimed that  the project was to study the nuclear fallout effects on people and how the fallout can be carried throughout the island. At the beginning of the film, it shows scientist telling the islanders that they want to use the island to do tests that will provide security for the U.S. What the islanders didn’t know was that they bombs would destroy their home land completely and they would be subjected to be human test subjects of radioactive fallout. Side effects the islanders suffered included  skin color deformities, birth deformities that ended in the baby dying within weeks of being born, and people dying at a young age due to cancer. Later on in the movie the scientists and government claimed that the islanders being contaminated by the radioactive fallout was ‘accidental’. Along with calling the islanders exposure to the fallout an “accident”, the government also deleted their classified information on the study of the radioactive fallout effects on the islanders.

“Nuclear Savage” is a terrifying reality of only what the U.S. has done to the Marshal islands. The Marshal islands are not the only place that the U.S has wronged in the name of scientific discovery for national security.  Ideas such as the birth defects and humans dying from cancer caused by the radiation were a bit repetitive throughout the film. It accomplished the goal of making the watcher angry at the way the U.S covered up what they did to the Marshall island and islanders, instead of admitting their mistakes and paying for them. The part that will make the watcher the angriest, is when the U.S starts to deny what it has done to the people. The U.S denies that they dropped the bombs knowing that they Marshall islanders were on the island, the islanders were not evacuated from the island right away but left there and that the islanders were sent back to the island when it was still highly radioactive.  

The U.S. had doctors that were monitoring and checking up on the islanders as they did the nuclear bomb testing on the island. One of the other ways that the U.S tried to justify what they did to the islanders was to dehumanize them and say “they were the closer to the modern American than a lab rat”.  It all comes down to the U.S. knowing what they were doing to the Marshall islands and going ahead and doing it anyways, because they are the biggest and strongest.

The U.S is not shown as a country that holds high ethics when it come to human lives in “Nuclear Nature”. Instead the U.S military and government are shown to hold many secrets about human testings on the Marshal islands and refuses to own up to them and pay for their actions. The Marshall islanders are the victims of human testing that the U.S refuses to own up to.

[1katejam1-blog]

Literary analysis

Bees and whales are going extinct and being changed to fit into the wars that humans create. The effects on the militarization of dolphins have still yet to be seen, but can be assumed to happen because their nature is being changed just like the bees. Nature has a breaking point to where if the nature of the dolphins is changed past that breaking point their population is going to die off just like how the bees reached their breaking point.  People don’t talk about how to stop animals from being used wars, but are more likely to discuss how to keep animals safe in war. The nature of the bees and dolphins should not be altered to fit the needs of  modern war. In changing animal’s instinct and/or  physical features it is making them more likely to be able to survive in war. The effects of militarization of honeybees can be seen through the bee population dying off, like the bees, the dolphins are being militarized, but the effects are yet to be seen.

Bees have been used in war since the beginning of warfare. The war tactic of swarming the enemy came from how the bees will swarm an enemy that is attacking the hive. Bees have also been catapulted onto the enemy because bees swarm and sting when they feel threatened. In order to control a country, the enemy country would take over the bee population because then the food supply would be in the control of whoever had control over the bees. Bees are fighting a war against the change in their environment, physical changes and behavioral changes that humans have brought about.  In “Ecologies of Empire: On the New Uses of the Honeybee” Jake Kosek writes “This question demands attention to entangled histories of humans and bees and to current remakings of the modern honeybee. It also requires an epidemiology mindful of how human interests, fears, and desires have become part of the material form of the bee. This remaking is not just symbolic. The bee has experienced transformations to its exoskeleton, its nervous system, its digestive tract, and its collective social behavior. There are many sites (from federal laboratories to the backyards of beekeepers), as well as many pressures (from industrial agriculture to global climate changes), involved in the remaking of the bee.” The honeybee is being remade in order to survive in this world, but is no longer able to survive due to the changes that have occurred. One reason for the honey bee being remade is to be able to be used for military purposes, such as detecting landmines.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1548-1360.2010.01073.x/full

The picture above shows how bees are being trained to detect chemicals in land mines. The bees are stretching out their proboscis towards the chemical. When a bee successfully reacts to the chemical, it is rewarded with sugar water. The bee is being trained to look for mines rather than to go with it’s survival instinct and look for food. Bees genes are being altered so that they have a tougher outer shell so that they are less affected by the rising temperatures. Due to the changes in the bee, the population of bees have been in decline. scientists have called the declining bee population Colony Collapse Disorder and it is caused by a multiple of factors, but the main one would have to be the change in the behavior and physical appearance of the bee. The bee has reached it’s limit to where it is no longer capable to live in the world.

Like bees, dolphins are being trained to detect underwater mines. Dolphins, unlike bees though there is no known effects on the dolphin population. The dolphins nature are being trained to locate and then mark underwater mines, so that they can be disarmed before a ship gets blown up. $14 million is being given to the Navy to train dolphins to be trained to detect mines. Dolphins are being used because of their intelligence, trainability and speed in water. To detect underwater mines dolphins are being trained to detect mines by using their echolocation. The sound bounces of the mine and the dolphin finds where the mine is, goes and marks it with a locator devices and then will receive a reward such as a fish from the handler.

Bees and dolphins are trained to be used in war, but they are unaware of the effects that will happen if they don’t perform the tasks correct. If a soldier dies or a ship blows  because a  bee or dolphin didn’t do their task correctly, they are  not going to feel know that a person has died or even care.  

Dolphin’s and bees are being trained to be used directly in war, as whales are becoming innocent victims in the wars. Whales are dying off because of the rising sound levels in the ocean due to sonar usage to detect submarines. Whales are needing to either adapt all die of because of the raise in noise levels in the ocean. Since wars have been taken to the ocean, dolphins and whales have had to learn to adapt to ships and noise levels rising in the ocean. There is no other known safe way to detect mines rather than using bees and dolphins. Bees and dolphins are used because they are relatively safe because they won’t trip the mines when they locate they like a human would.  

The articles are similar in that they are focused on the effects of using animals in war and the change in the way the animal thinks and act. Like how the honey bee is trained to detect a mine and changes its dance so that it can receive sugar water as a reward. Bees and dolphins are being trained for military use, as whales are  being made victims by the rising noise levels. Whales, honeybees, and dolphins have to adapt to the new way of life brought about by the expansion of  war zones.

The bees and the whales are facing extinction. The bees are affected on the raise in temperature due to climate change, genetic changes to harden their outer shell, the training to change their instincts to detect land mines instead of looking for food, and the scarcity of food sources. Whales are facing extinction because of the raising temperature of the ocean due to climate change, plastic pollution in the ocean and the raising of noise levels in the ocean due to Navy sonar testing. With bees and whales facing extinction it is easy to say that the dolphins will soon be facing extinction.

Information on the declining bee and whale population is well known as the dolphins are not yet facing extinction, but soon in the future they will be. Bees and whales have been pushed to the point in which they can no longer adapt and are dying off. The dolphin is the next victim, but it doesn’t stand alone other animals that are being used for military purposes are going to be dying off.

To decide whether or not bees and dolphins should be used in war, alternatives would have to be presented. People aren’t going to stop fighting wars, so there will have to be an alternative to using bees and dolphins to detect mines. The issue of human lives over animals lives will have to be decided upon, and in most cases human lives will always trump animal lives.

 Survival in the new changing temperature, noise levels, and behaviors means that the animals have to evolve or die off because it is no longer able to survive. If the whale doesn’t evolve to fit into the noisy ocean it is going to die off.  Honeybees might have reached their limit to how much a human can alter their genes and the bee still be able to live. The question that still remains is is it fair to change and use honey bees and dolphins in war, and  how far can we change their nature until their population reaches the breaking point and die off?

Anthony, Sebastian. “Honeybees Trained to Sniff out Land Mines, Might Replace Sniffer Dogs in Airports | ExtremeTech.” ExtremeTech. Http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/156259-honeybees-trained-to-sniff-out-land-mines-might-replace-sniffer-dogs-in-airports, 2013. Web. 30 Sept. 2015.

Bienaimé, Pierre. “The US Navy’s Combat Dolphins Are Serious Military Assets.” Business Insider. Business Insider, Inc, 12 Mar. 2015. Web. 21 Oct. 2015.

Bale, Rachael. “Everything You Wanted to Know about the Bee Die-off.” Reveal.Https://www.revealnews.org/article/everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-the-bee-die-off/, 20 Feb. 2015. Web. 30 Sept. 2015.

Kosek, Jake. "ECOLOGIES OF EMPIRE: On the New Uses of the Honeybee." Web. 7 Nov. 2015.

Reflection

Writing as a Social Act:

Writing to bring awareness to an environmental, social or ethical  issue that needs to be addressed to bring about a change.

In my paper I address the issue of militarizing bees to the point in which they are dying off and how this can relate to the later effects that dolphins will suffer. The effects that militarization have on dolphins have yet to be seen but can be inferred based on the effect it has on bees.

Research:

Gathering of information to support an idea. Information from another person's writing  that is built upon or supports the main argument of a paper.

I researched the militarization of bees and dolphins and the effects that the military has on whales.

Luis Amezcua suggested in my peer review that I should be less general in the sense of using the words bees, dolphins and whales instead of using the term animals, or what kind of changes that are happening. He suggested that I should add the photo of the bees being trained to be useful for military purposes.

[1katejam1-blog]

Literary Analysis Draft

Animals are going extinct and being changed to fit into the wars that humans create. People don’t talk about how to stop animals from being used wars, but are more likely to discuss how to keep animals safe in war. In changing animal’s instinct and/or  physical features it is making them more likely to be able to survive in war. The effects of militarization of honeybees can be seen through the bee population dying off, like the bees, the dolphins are being militarized, but the effects are yet to be seen.

Dolphin’s and bees are being trained to be used directly in war as whales are becoming innocent victims in the wars. Dolphins and bees are being trained to detect mines, so that soldiers can disarm them and not get blown up. Whales are dying off because of the sonar usage to detect submarines. Bees genes are being altered so that they have a tougher outer shell, as dolphins and whales are needing to learn to adapt to new norms in the ocean such a sonar noise and explosives meant to explode enemy ships.

Bees have been used since the beginning of war to swarm enemies. Since people have learned to sail the ocean whales and dolphins habitat have been at risk. Since wars have been taken to the ocean, dolphins and whales have had to learn to adapt to ships and noise levels rising in the ocean.

The author doesn’t focus on the fact that animals are saving people’s lives in detecting mines, instead the author focuses on the fact that animals are being trained to perform tasks against their instincts. Negative effects to the animals are the main focus of the articles, not the positive effects of what they are helping to solve. There is no praise for the good that the animals have accomplished, but rather how characteristics of animals are changed even though they can’t give consent to these changes.

The articles are similar in that they are focused on the effects of using animals in war and the change in the way the animal thinks and act. Like how the honey bee is trained to detect a mine and changes its dance so that it can receive sugar water as a reward. Bees and dolphins are being trained for military use, as whales are  being made victims by the rising noise levels. Whales, honeybees, and dolphins have to adapt to the new way of life brought about by the expansion of  war zones.

Survival in the new changing situations means that the animals have to evolve or die off because it is no longer able to survive. If the whale doesn’t evolve to fit into the noisy ocean it is going to die off.  Honeybees might have reached their limit to how much a human can alter their genes and the bee still be able to live. The question that still remains is how far can we change an animal’s nature until it starts to completely die off?

[1katejam1-blog]

The National Museum of Nuclear Science and History Review

The National Museum of Nuclear Science and History is patriotic towards America’s creation of the nuclear warfare through the creation of the atomic bombs. Throughout the museum there was information on poster and plaques highlighting all the good things America did, and hiding in the background was what America did wrong during the war. Information on the repercussions that were brought about by the creation of nuclear weapons were limited if any were given, as America being the first one to create and use a nuclear bomb along with win the war was highlighted.

When walking through the museum, there are signs with information that is curved to justify what America did during World War II. There is a poster of Uncle Sam that reads “Jap.. you’re next! BUY EXTRA BONDS”. This is one of the many propaganda posters that are against the Japanese and supporting American soldiers by buying bonds. The word Jap is a derogatory term used in World War II against the Japanese. This show the hatred towards Japan and the idolization of America during the war.

There are two information posters that state how the Japanese soldiers had bombed pearl harbor, put American soldiers through the Bataan death march, raided China and rapped Chinese citizens in the rape of Nanking giving Justification for America to put an end to Imperial japan by bombing them. At the bottom of one poster, there is information on the American brutality to the Japanese-American people. Stating that Americans forced innocent Japanese-Americans into Japanese internment camps just a little better than Nazi concentration camps. Japan was made out to be this terrible country with brutal soldiers, and this served to make America look like it was the hero in stopping Japan, even at the cost of thousands of Japanese citizens lives.

Fat Man and Little Boy models were on display in the back after all the reasons that led up to the bombing of Japan. Stopping Imperial Japan with the two atomic bombs and taking Japan’s military away, is something Americans are taught to be proud of. The museum highlights the fact that Oppenheimer,  Einstein along with other scientists that worked on the bomb were Jews. During World War II, America was in a race against Germany to be the first to invent an atomic bomb. It was never mentioned that in the creating of the atomic bomb, nuclear warfare was created and more people now will die from one single strike than ever before.

A model of a fallout shelter was created to show where people would hide if a country such as Germany or Japan were to drop a nuclear bomb. In the model there was a 1940 TV that was playing “Bert the Turtle Civil Defense Film”, which is a propaganda film on how civilians should seek shelter in case of nuclear bombing. This is kind of ironic, because America never warned Japan of the dropping of the atomic bomb. This showed how America knew how bad an attack with a nuclear weapon could be, and still dropped the bomb on Japan to “save lives in the long run”.

The National Museum of Nuclear Science and History can be described by the quote from an anonymous author that states, “history is written by the victors; the losers, well, the whole thing was their fault in the first place”. America was shown to be this great hero with little to no flaws and Japan and Germany were  shown as terrible countries that needed to be brought down. The patriotic idea that America can do no wrong is  shown throughout the museum's exhibitions.

[1katejam1-blog]

War of the Whales Final Book Review

When people think of whales, they think of strong independent animals that don’t need to be protected from human actions, such as climate change or even the noise levels of the ocean being risen due to ships and sonars. In Joshua Horwitz book “War of the Whales” , whales are being threatened by naval sonar testing in the ocean. Horwitz tells the story of whales washing up on shore and dying off from the point of view of Ken Balcomb.

Balcomb is a marine biologist who lives in the Bahamas and is surprised one day when there are whales washing up on shore. Navy sonar testing has caused the whales swimming to shore to escape the noise. Earlier sonar signal testings in Greece, had similar effects with whales swimming ashore because they are trying to get away from the sonar sounds. Even with the knowledge of whales dying off due to sonar signals, the navy still continues to run tests and use sonar signals. The navy starts of by denying any connection to the whales swimming ashore and sonar testing. In order to get evidence that the whales were being affected by sonars, Balcomb went to Darlene Ketten a forensic pathologist. “Ketten pointed at red lines in both ears. ‘Look what we have here: the pattern of hemorrhaged blood is almost identical bilaterally…. But this bilateral hemorrhage is a clear sign that the ears were traumatized before the whale hit the beach’” (3341). The damage done to the whale’s ears showed that the whales were swimming to shore because of the sonar noise.  Balcomb along with environmental lawyer Joel Renolds, take the navy to court in an attempt to save the whales from sonar uses. The Supreme Court ruled that the navy could still use sonars for training to detect and detecting submarines; they didn’t have to turn them off due whales being in the area, because military preparedness trumps environmental issues. “By the end of the negotiations, the Navy agreed to a schedule for filing comprehensive Environmental Impact Statements for all its training ranges. The office of Naval research agreed to earmark $14.75 million over the course of the next three years for research in key beaked whales and other whale habitats in sonar training areas, on methods to improve whale detection, and on effects of sonar-induced stress on marine mammals” (5828). The navy got to continue sonar testing, but balcomb got what he wanted in that now the navy was doing research on the effects sonars have on whales and other marine life. “The president couldn’t issue the Navy a Waiver that exempted it from the law,... But the president sure as hell could order the fleet to obey the law” (5849), Balcomb wanted the president to force the Navy to abide by the laws that put  limits on sonar testing.

Horwitz use of telling the story through Balcomb’s point of view makes the reader want to fight for the whales. The reader sees that Balcomb is fighting a never ending battle when he realizes that “.. you never truly win a conservation battle-you just win the right to fight another day”  (5842), but Balcomb doesn’t quit making the him out to be the hero of the whales. The fact that Balcomb goes to court and fights all the way through the book for the whales makes the book not about some environmental protection extremist, but about the reality that whales do need help to continue to survive. The fact that whales will be going extinct if something is not done to save them, makes “War of the Whales” less of an environmental extremist book and more of a book about a change that needs to happen for whales to survive. The book has a lot of  past information on the people’s lives that could be either shorter or not even given because it distracts from the main point of the book.

“War of the Whales” shows the fragile relationship between humans and animals. The sad reality that the navy and the government will put national security before the rise of environmental issues that threatens even more not only human but animal lives also. No animals life should be determined based on the safety and security of another. “War of the Whales” is an eye opening book on the relationship that whales, the navy, and every living thing have. “War of the Whales” is an intriguing story of the world we all share and how one person or group of people can destroy or save the world we all live in.

[1katejam1-blog]

Literary Analysis Worksheet

1.Which do you find most interesting about the articles? Why? Do they have anything in common that is significant?

I find the most interesting thing about the articles is that they are not topics most people address that needs to be changed. Animals are going extinct and being changed to fit into the wars that humans create. People don't talk about how to stop animals from being used in violent situations such as wars and police work, people are more likely to discuss how many people not animals have been killed in a war.

2.Consider the different players and what they contribute to the narrative. Describe the similarities and differences.

Dolphin's and bees are being trained to be used directly in war as whales are becoming innocent victims in the wars. Dolphins and bees are being trained to detect mines, so that soldiers can disarm them and not get blow up by them. Whales are dying off because of the sonar usage to detect submarines. Bees genes are being altered so that they have a tougher outer shell, as dolphins and whales are needing to learn to adapt to new norms in the ocean such a sonar noise and explosives meant to explode enemy ships.

3.Consider the different settings (both time and place). How might the locations and histories be central to these issues?

Bees have been used since the beginning of war to swarm enemies. Since people have learned to sail the ocean whales and dolphins habitat have been at risk. Since wars have been taken to the ocean, dolphins and whales have had to learn to adapt to ships and noise levels rising in the ocean.

4.Consider the language and tone of the different texts. How does the way a story is told change your reading? In other words, how does the author reveal his/her bias or objectivity?

The author doesn't focus on the fact that animals are saving people's lives in detecting mines, instead the author focuses on the fact that animals are being trained to perform tasks against their instincts. Negative effects to the animals are the main focus of the articles, not the positive effects of what they are helping to solve. There is no praise for the good that the animals have accomplished, but rather how characteristics of animals are changed even though they can't give consent to these changes. 

5.Which major themes, ideas, and/or concepts are similar across the articles? How do the authors address them similarly and differently?

The articles are similar in that they are focused on the effects of using animals in war and the change in the way the animal thinks and act. Like how the honey bee is trained to detect a mine and changes its dance so that it can receive sugar water as a reward. Bees and dolphins are being trained for military use as whales are reacting to the noise emitted from sonar testing and are made victims. Whales, honey bees, and dolphins have each adapted to the new way of life brought about by the expansion of  war zones.  

6.What questions are you still left with?  Consider issues that still confuse you or something that you disagree with. Identify three questions/concerns.

Like the bee, are dolphins being genetically changed to fit the navy's needs or are they just mental changes?

Whales will have to physically evolve to be able to survive the noise levels going up in the ocean , are they going to be able to survive this strain on their survival or go extinct?

Have bees hit their limit to being able to be changed to fit in this world and are all going to die off? If this happens to bee, what will be the effects on other animals such as the dolphin?

[1katejam1-blog]

K9 police unit

In Tyler Wall’s “Legal terror and the police dog”, he writes about how the police dogs are used to keep the bourgeois order, such as keeping the minorities in the lower class by labeling most of them as criminals when they do minor offences. Wall explains how out of the 272 people recorded being bitten by police dogs, eighty percent were racial minorities and only four people of that 272 were actually armed; the use of dogs to segregate people  have been used in the past to enforce Jim Crow, scare Jews in Nazi concentration camps and to hunt down indigenous people for Columbus. Tyler Wall wrote  “Legal terror and the police dog” in order to inform people that segregation has now taken the form of keeping minorities from rising in power by the use of police dogs. 

[1katejam1-blog]

Dogs in the Police Force

Lin, Doris. "Police Dogs and Search and Rescue Dogs." About.com News & Issues. 2015. Web. 29 Oct. 2015.

The use of dogs in police work is very controversial. When talking about dogs usage in the police force, their protection in the situation is more discussed than rather or not they should be used. Dogs can sniff out bombs and drugs, capture criminals that have escaped on foot, and can be sent into tight or dangerous situations that humans can’t.  On the downside, dogs can be killed or injured without ever giving consent like a human can. Dogs are brutally trained when they are trained for police work.

My assessment: Just like the honey bee, dogs are being transformed to do the work of man against man war fare. This is causing dogs to be trained to hurt people and to be vicious animals. Nature should not be tampered with by humans, and that includes the nature of dogs.

"Police Canines in History." Dogs for Law Enforcement. 2013. Web. 29 Oct. 2015.

Dogs are used in the police force for years. Dogs are used for detecting illegal drugs, explosives, tracking fugitives, finding missing people along with other tasks. The most common type of dog used in the police force is German Shepherd. German Shepherds are used because of their strength, intelligence, teach ability, and obedience.

My assessment: Dogs should be used to detect and find people not to hunt people down and basically eat them. Dogs should not be used to strike fear into people.

"So You Want to Be a K9 Handler?" PoliceOne. 2000. Web. 28 Oct. 2015

Not only are the dogs being trained on how to act and think, but also their handlers. Handlers have to be able to make decisions on the fly. They must be able to show restraint in stressful situations. The K9 team is to search and locate suspects or evidence along with  gaining public support with public demonstrations.

My assessment: No animal should  be used to do the work that humans have created. Not only are the dogs trained to act different, their handlers are also. It is not just dogs that are changed by the police force, humans are too.

[1katejam1-blog]

A Mind in the Water

Graham Burnett’s “A Mind in the Water” is about the reshaping of the dolphin’s nature and how people think about dolphins so that they can be trained for military purposes such as detecting underwater mines and to be trained for entertainment like at Sea World. John Lilly discovered the dolphins “intelligence” and wanted to figure out how to train dolphins for military purposes and how dolphins talked to each other; Lilly did  experiments to how dolphins think using LSD experiment, Cold War brain science and information from bio-acoustics and Hollywood mythologist. Burnett wrote “A Mind in the Water” in order to explain how dolphins nature has been reshaped by the training for military and entertainment purposes and people have grown to  love dolphins because of the experiments done to understand the dolphin.  

[1katejam1-blog]

Dolphins

Bearzi, Maddalena. "Debunking Captivity: 3 Reasons Not to Keep Dolphins in a Tank." National Geographic Blogs. 8 Apr. 2014. Web. 21 Oct. 2015.

Dolphins need to be social is a reason why it is so bad for them to be kept in captivity. In the wild dolphins are able to play, bond, imitate, lar, and transfer information from each other, as in captivity they are not able to be social. To be able to be social, dolphins need expansive spaces, so that they can breed, raise their young and intact with each other. Dolphins have emotions and in captivity they are distressed and not social.

My assessment: Dolphins need other dolphins to live a happy healthy life, and they won’t get the ability to be social in captivity. To make dolphins social they need to be in there natural habitat and not in some swimming pool.

Bienaimé, Pierre. "The US Navy's Combat Dolphins Are Serious Military Assets." Business Insider. Business Insider, Inc, 12 Mar. 2015. Web. 21 Oct. 2015.

The navy has a $14 million contract to train dolphins to be used for detecting mines and enemy swimmers. Dolphins are being used because of their intelligence, trainability and speed in water. The navy has not been able to come up with something that is better to use for detecting mines other than the dolphin sonar.

My assessment: The navy should be monitored on how the training effects the overall nature of the dolphin. It could be dangerous to alter any animal’s behavior. Dolphins should be treated with care and respect and should not be killed because they are trained spies.

Chang, Elizabeth. "Should You Swim With This Dolphin?" Washington Post. The Washington Post, 2006. Web. 21 Oct. 2015.

Swimming with wild dolphins disrupts dolphins sleeping patterns making them unable to catch fish and avoid predators. In 1972, the Marine Mammal Protection Act banned any human action that disrupts the natural behavior patterns of dolphins. It is illegal to swim with wild dolphins and is unsafe for both the human and the dolphin.My assessment: People should not swim with wild dolphins being that it is hurting them. Wild animals should be kept wild and should have very limited human contact. Dolphins are not only being subjected to behavior changes in captivity but also in the wild due to humans wanting to have contact with them.

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War of the Whales book Review

With the new invention of technology, animal populations have been dropping and some species population has completely gone extinct. Joshua Horwitz book “War of the Whales” tells of the effect of navy sonar testing on whales. Horwitz tells the story of whales washing up on shore and dying off from the main character, Ken Balcomb, point of view.

Balcomb is a marine biologist who lives in the  Bahamas and is surprised on day when there are whales washing up on shore. The reason for the whales swimming to shore is because they are trying to swim away from the sonar signals. The navy's sonar signals are disrupting the whales and are causing them to swim ashore to get away from them.

Sonar signals have been shown to have disrupted whales in the past along the coast of Greece. Even with the knowledge of whales dying off due to sonar signals, the navy still continues to run tests and use sonar signals.

Balcomb along with environmental lawyer Joel Renolds, take the navy to court in an attempt to save the whales from sonar uses. In the end the navy can still use sonars for testing, but are limited to where they can use them.

“War of the Whales” shows the fragile relationship between humans and animals. The navy puts national security before the lives of the whales. Human activities ,such as sonar uses, cause animals like the whales to die off and become extinct. No animals life should be determined based on the safety and security of another. “War of the Whales” is an eye opening book on the relationship that whales and the navy have. The navy has a negative impact on whales and is causing many unnecessary whale deaths.

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Sonars against whales

"Lethal Sounds." NRDC:. 2008. Web. 14 Oct. 2015. <http://www.nrdc.org/wildlife/marine/sonar.asp>.

Whales, along with other mammals in the ocean, use their hearing for finding food, friends, mates and navigation. The use of sonars in the ocean is causing whales to bleed around the brain, ears and in other tissues along with also bubbles appearing in organs. Some sonar signals can reach a sound level of more than 235 decibels and can be as low as about 140 decibels. With sonar noise levels being so high in the ocean it becomes life threatening to whales along with other mammals.

My Assessment: The ocean is home to whales and humans should not go and pollute the ocean with sound. Killing whales to use sonar is wrong. Whales should not be killed so that the navy can use sonar systems to detect enemies.

"Navy to Expand Sonar Testing despite Resistance from Environmentalists." Fox News. FOX News Network, 15 Dec. 2013. Web. 14 Oct. 2015.

The navy plans to increase sonar testing over the course of the next five years.  Sonar sounds cause marine animals, like whales, to swim to shallow water to escape the noise and then wash ashore. Scientists studied some beaked whales that would stop feeding when they heard a recording of the military sonar. Environmentalists have suggested that the navy should have safe zones for whales where there is no high-intensity sonar activity so whales can eat, breed, and navigate safely and so that the whale population isn’t dying off so rapidly.

My assessment: There should be safe zones for whales especially since the navy is doing more sonar testing. The whale population could possibly be restored with the creation of safe zones. Sonar activity ends up killing marine mammals and the navy wants to do more and will end up killing more whales and marine mammals.

 Walia, Arjun. "U.S. Navy Killing Thousands of Whales & Dolphins With Sonar & Weapons Testing." CollectiveEvolution RSS. 2014. Web. 14 Oct. 2015. <http://www.collective-evolution.com/2014/02/03/u-s-navy-to-blow-up-whales-dolphins-other-marine-mammals-please-take-action-now/>.

Not only has plastic waste for humans that got into the ocean and whales have eaten been killing whales, but also the the naval use of sonar testing and detonation of explosive weapons. The need for security has given military the power to do just about anything without anyone ever knowing or being held responsible.  It is not only the navy that uses dangerous blast noises in the ocean, but also companies that are looking for gas and oil offshore.

My assessment: Whales need to be saved from not only the navy’s testings of sonars and weapons but also the money hungry oil industry. With the help from the navy, oil and gas companies and the plastic pollution that is in the ocean whales will all be killed off in a few years time. Whales dying off is not on the shoulders of just one person or group of people, but is on the shoulders of everyone that lives on the earth. The whales will not be saved from going extinct unless everyone pitches in to save them.  

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Central Features Review

  Central Features is a small art gallery that has only two artist’s work on display.The main theme of the artwork at Central Features, is the human effect on the surrounding environment; whether it be damage like forest fires or the way nuclear power plants destroy the environment. Nina Montenegro’s artwork collection titled “Regeneration” and Abbey Hepner’s “Control Room” photograph collection were on display.

Nina Montenegro: “Against Forgetting”

Nina Montenegro’s art pieces titled “Regeneration” are on the destruction forest fires brings to nature. Montenegro’s “Against Forgetting” piece is a “fingerprint” of tree rings before and after a fire. The rings before the fire are tight together and the rings after the fire are separated and looks as if the rings can be pulled apart. Like the tree rings, once nature is destroyed there is no putting it back together.

Nina Montenegro:  “Pioneers, Newberry Hill Clearcut I, II, III”

“Pioneers, Newberry Hill Clearcut I, II, III” is a three part series on the plant that are the first to regrow after a fire. The series is white leaf outlines on a blue paint background. Pioneer plants are the first to start the restoration process after a fire. The series shows that no matter how much nature is restored it will never return to it’s original state. What was destroyed in the fire will never be the same as before the fire.

Abbey Hepner: “Towers” Abbey Hepner’s photography collection called “Control Room” is on the building of a nuclear power plant in Georgia. The photograph “Towers” is of two tan cylindrical power plants with steam coming from the top of them. Nuclear power plants are not only destructive to the land by the pollution they let off, but are also destructive to the landscape beauty. Landscape is destroyed being that nuclear power plants are not pretty to look at and they take up land to be built.

Abbey Hepner: “House with a View”

The “House with a View” photograph shows a white town house with a white cylinder tower with steam coming from the top in the background. There are dead trees in front and by the nuclear power plant, showing the effect that the pollution has on nature by the dying of off trees.

Central Features gallery displays artwork on the human destruction in the environment. Forest fires are destructive to nature in a way that what is done can never be undone. Nuclear power plants pollute the environment and destroys landscape in being built. Artists like Nina Montenegro and Abbey Hepner, are able to display their artwork on environmental issues at Central Features.   

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In “Ecologies of Empire: On the New Uses of the Honeybee”, Jake Kosek writes about how humans have been remaking bees, so that the bees can be used to detect the chemicals in plastic explosives, nuclear weapons and land mines; however due to the remaking of bee, the bees have been made vulnerable and have been dying of at rapid rates. Kosek explains that bees not only have been used to pollinate plants, but have been used in war; to be useful in war scientists have remade bees physically by hardening their outer skeleton and to associate explosive chemicals with food; and as a result have shorter life spans and the hives have been disrupted. In order to explain the human bee relationship, Kosek explains how bees have been used to pollinate the worlds crops and how the bees sense of smell and the war tactic of swarming the enemy have been used in human warfare, and how the human use of bees in war is a contributing factor to the colony collapse disorder in honeybees.  

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Bees in War and Death

My assessment: Bees can be used as a good way .to detect bombs, but what are the effects the training is having on the bees. Nature is something that humans should not be tampering with, because it sometimes has an everlasting effect.

Anthony, Sebastian. "Honeybees Trained to Sniff out Land Mines, Might Replace Sniffer Dogs in Airports | ExtremeTech." ExtremeTech. Http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/156259-honeybees-trained-to-sniff-out-land-mines-might-replace-sniffer-dogs-in-airports, 2013. Web. 30 Sept. 2015.

Mines from war times have not entirely been cleanup, leading to people being blown up by tripping a mine. Bees have been studied as a  safe and reliable way to find the mines that were not deactivated. The way that scientist trained the bees to find the mines is by classical conditioning. In classical conditioning the bees, scientist mixed a small amount of TNT with sugar water, so that the bees associate the TNT with a source of food.

My assessment: In conditioning the bees, the TNT might have a poisonous effect on the bees causing them to die off. The dying off of the bees might be happening due to the bees associating the TNT with food and consuming enough to kill the bee.  

 Bale, Rachael. "Everything You Wanted to Know about the Bee Die-off." Reveal. Https://www.revealnews.org/article/everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-the-bee-die-off/, 20 Feb. 2015. Web. 30 Sept. 2015.

Beekeepers have reported that 30 percent of the bees have died off in their hives, thus making for the loss of 10 million beehives. Scientist call the dying off of bees colony collapse disorder and have said that colony collapse disorder is caused by parasites, pathogens, poor nutrition and pesticides. Parasites, such as mites, attack the bee and weaken the bees immune system and leave punctures in the skeleton of the bee that  pathogens can enter. Since farmers are only planting one type of crop, it is harder for bees to get the nutrition that they need because they are only getting one type of pollen not a variety. Pesticides are used to kill off insects that are harmful to the plants, but are also killing off the bees by the pollen being contaminated.

My assessment: Colony collapse disorder is a big issue being that bees pollinate a bunch of the world’s food supply and   without insects we would all die. Humans have made bees venerable by the use of pesticides that are poisoning bees. No matter how much we try to change the bee to be resistant to pesticides, we will never be able to change the fact that they need a variety of pollen to be properly nourished; or that there is a rise in the mite population that is killing the bees.

Hediger, Ryan. "Animals and War." Google Books. 2013. Web. 30 Sept. 2015. <https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=zTcyAQAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA29&dq=militarization of honeybees&ots=iZCxnSjxlD&sig=zbxlLwDpjskFMg67BJgkPHl9MkY#v=onepage&q&f=false>.

The best way to destroy a population is to control their food source, bees are the easiest way to control a food source. In destroying the bee population in a country, the agriculture output and the government's way of  feeding the population is cut off. Another way of using bees in war would be to train them to react to chemical agents such as those in a bomb. Bees are the best way to detect bombs being that they take in chemical scents from the air, soil, water and plants in the area. The fact that bees take in the chemical scents in any state like liquid, solid and gas.

My assessment: Bees are used in more than one way in war. Bees are used to kill off a population  by taking away the populations agriculture. In training bees to react to the scent of chemical, bees can save lives.

Vergano, Dan. "Honeybees Join the Bomb Squad - USATODAY.com." Honeybees Join the Bomb Squad - USATODAY.com. Http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/tech/science/2006-11-26-bees-bomb-sniffing_x.htm, 26 Nov. 2006. Web. 30 Sept. 2015.

Bees are being trained to detect bombs, by being rewarded with sugar water when they are exposed to the scent of the bombs and identify the bomb correctly. Bees and wasps are “nature’s native soldiers”,  being that they rely on smell for survival, they make the best bomb detectors.  The behavior of the bees will change when there is a presence of toxic airborne chemicals in the air. When exposed to TNT, the bees will first detect it with their antennae and then they will flick their proboscises

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LANL waste Precis

Jake Kosek in his essay “Nuclear Natures: In the Shadows of the City on the Hill” describes how Los Alamos National Labs have helped the economy in New Mexico and the surrounding cities by employing people, but the land around New Mexico is being contaminated with lab waste. To support his claim, Kosek, explains how LANL has taken over tribal land to make dump sites for chemical and radioactive waste and how cows from ranches and animals killed on the road have had their insides taken out and studied at LANL. Kosek states that only 5.5% of the annual budget goes to the clean up of lab waste, Kosek states this in order convey the message that the lab waste is no being clean up as safely as it should be and is polluting the land, animals and the people that live here.