Untitled

[ryanvanderham-blog]

Nuclear Savage Film Review First Draft

The documentary “Nuclear Savage: The Islands of Secret Project 4.1” is a film that was directed by Adam Jonas Horowitz that uncovers the truth behind the nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands during the Cold War.  It took Horowitz five years to make this 86 minute documentary, which was cut down to just 55 minutes by PBS.  It was supposed to air on the PBS network on television, but at the last minute it was banned and was never played. I believe this documentary needs to be seen by the public because it provides hard evidence that the government has lied to the public and also the islanders of Marshal Island.  It raises the question in my head, what else could the government might be lying about?

This film is one of the most shocking and moving films I have ever seen due to the undeniable evidence Horowitz presents us.  The mediums he presents us with vary from stock footage, pictures, and footage he shot himself.  They all contribute to the horrifying evidence that the government used the people of the Marshal Islands as test subjects for nuclear exposure.  Horowitz gathers footage of interviews with the Marshal Island peoples in which they explain the affects the bomb ‘Bravo’ had on them.  There were accounts of one woman's babies looking like ‘a bundle of grapes’ and one that was born without bones as well as one coming out with an overly large head.  Accounts also include them being hosed down by a fire engine hose in efforts of washing the radiation off them.  The pictures and video displayed images of people who were directly affected by the bright light and wind that burned hotter than fire.  They were losing hair that could be literally pulled out of their scalps without effort, they were also losing their pigmentation in their skin.  There’s photos of American scientists examining these people, the earliest they starting examining people was two days after the bomb was dropped. This made it seem like the coordinators of the bomb dropping were waiting for the radiation to settle into the environment and the people.

Horowitz made endless efforts to attain information about the bombings.  Numerous phone calls were made, and he couldn't get anything although he new the information was there.  He had to get congressmen and senators involved to reveal information from different institutions he previously contacted, he knew they were hiding it. Some of the classified documents that he uncovered had been deleted by the government for reasons we can only imagine. There were countless photos of the islanders appearing as mugshots with their name and the name of the project, 4.1.  The government claimed the weather report stated that the wind was heading in the opposite direction of the island, but documents of the actual weather report on the day of March 1st, 1954 stated the wind was heading directly for the island.  When various government officials were asked about this all they had to say was there was a last second shift in the direction of the wind.  Horowitz traveled to many Department of Energy and Department of Defense meetings trying to interview people to possibly get their reasoning for what they did, but everyone didn't want to be interviewed with the camera on.  Another piece of substantial evidence was the titles of the documentation before and after the detonation.  Before, titles consisted of something like ‘Nuclear radiation testing on human subjects’, but after, they added the word ‘accidental’.  This implies that the government was planning on testing nuclear radiation on the people of the Marshal Islands all along.

The United States government already knew what radiation did to people because they sent scientists into Japan after the Nagasaki and Hiroshima bombings.  So if they knew, why would they test ‘Bravo’? Well the answer is they were showing the rest of the world, especially the Soviet Union, just how strong their bombs were and to not mess with them, it was a hidden threat.  

In comparison to the Nuremberg Trials, which was when Nazi doctors conducted tests on human subjects, there are no major differences between the two.  Consent of what the tests actually were, weren't accurate. The victims were given false information, or the scientists portrayed the outcomes to be positive and weren't clear about what would actually happen to the test subjects. The Nuremberg Trials were unethical experiments in the eyes of many people including the United States, but when the United States does something similar, it’s for our national security or for the sake of science and technology.  Doesn’t the U.S.’s point of view seem hypocritical and definitely biased?

I would seriously recommend this film to absolutely anybody.  It definitely raises questions about the United States government and what their doing behind closed doors.  If they're intentionally lying about ruining people's lives for generations to come, what else are they lying about right in front of our faces.  It almost makes other conspiracy theories seem more than likely true. As time goes on we're going to find out.  

[ryanvanderham-blog]

Final Research Paper

The conflict between the U.S. Navy performing practice sonar tests to detect enemy warships and the sudden whale strandings happening all over the world are being linked together with very strong ties. Every time there has been a kind of marine animal stranded on a beach in mass numbers, ranging from different kinds of whales from Cuvier’s Beaked Whales to Blainville’s Beaked Whales to Lemonheads or dolphins, the area was observed for possible culprits and was found to have naval exercises being practiced close to that beach.  It wasn’t just any naval exercise, but a sonar exercise to detect either enemy ships or to locate oil deposits under the sea bed. I couldn't help my mind wonder and ask, why is it these specific animals that are washing up on the shore and not others like sharks or reef fish? I'm going to dive into this question head first and find out what's behind it by analyzing the different bodily functions of these animals and how sonar is affecting them.

The one thing that I found in common with the animals that have been beached was, they all use a form of sonar to survive. The sonar that these animals use has been developed over thousands of years and has many functions such as: it helps them find food, a mate, it's a form of communication, and it detects predators. If this unique way of survival is tampered with in any way, these animals would not survive, and that's exactly what the sonar from U.S. naval ships has shown. When a sound that is “thousands of times more powerful than a jet engine fills their ears”(Lethal Sounds), it is lethal to the animals because it overpowers their sonar capabilities and it injures various organs like their brain, ears, and muscle. Some systems that produce this sound operate at 235 decibels, that’s louder than the loudest stadium in the world, and it can be heard 300 miles under water from the source.

The whales the sonar is affecting are all deep diving marine mammals. The noise disorients them so they don't know which way is up or which way is down. Their only option to get away from the sound is to dive deep as possible, which still doesn’t allow them to get away from the noise because it travels so far. This causes embolisms, hemorrhaging, and localized pressure on the nervous system. The noise is also believed to cause unusual dive patterns in the animals, which leads to death by “the bends,” this is when nitrogen bubbles form in the muscle and skin due to surfacing too fast after a dive. It has also been observed that the bubbles of nitrogen are reaching the organs as well, this is the most extreme case of the bends. It was believed at first that these animals were immune to the bends because they are marine animals unlike humans, but the one thing we have in common that makes this possible is, we both breathe air.  When they surface to fill their lungs, they breathe in the nitrogen that is present in the atmosphere, just like all air breathing animals. When this air is held for too long, the nitrogen starts to seep into the tissues which is toxic to all animals. The investigation into how sonar is killing whales disproved the hypothesis of how marine animals couldn’t suffer from the bends.  Scuba divers also face this problem, but it doesn't occur if you have the right training which you have to execute every single dive. Deep dives can also cause oxygen deprivation in blood vessels which causes strokes and kills brain cells, the supersaturation in cells can rupture cell walls as well. Another form of lethal injury involves hemorrhaging caused by acoustic resonance of the Low Frequency Active sonar signal in cranial and other airspaces such as lungs and swim bladders, rapid change in pressure can rupture membranes as well. Air breathing animals are vulnerable and hemorrhage in the lungs and ulceration of the gastrointestinal tract can occur.  Bleeding in the ears is most likely caused by the sound tampering with their fragile ears.  The reason why the sound isn't affecting other animals ears like it is for the whales and dolphins, is because their ears aren't as sensitive. Whale and dolphin ears are so sensitive due to their unique biosonar capabilities, which is being able to hear sound bounce of objects that surround them.  Bleeding in other parts of the body is likely due to a number of reasons including possible high pressure exposure from diving so deep and long. It could also be from the exposure to elements outside of the water when they are stranded on the beach.  

Some of the whales that have been stranded on beaches all over the world were able to be brought out to the ocean and were able to swim away.  Whether or not the whales were able to survive is a different question, my prediction is that they were not able to survive because of the injuries they sustained from the sonar.  Evidence of sonar hurting animals surfaced in 2000 when whales were beached in the Bahamas after a naval exercise.  Although the Navy first denied that it was the sonar that caused it, a government’s investigation revealed that it was infact what caused the strandings. The Navy also released a statement that said the sonar will harm marine mammals more than 10 million times during the next five years off the U.S. coast alone.  Multiple environmentalist groups are fighting against the Navy to do something about the sonar whether it would be to ban it or have the Navy practice in areas there are little to no marine life that can be affected by the sonar; or have the two forces come together and figure out places and times of the year where whales and other marine life will be absent. There have multiple lawsuits filed against the Navy that have been won by the environmentalists that restricted the use of sonar, but the Navy always comes back to the justice system and gets their way, practically repealing the rules and regulations.     

When analyzing the affects the sonar has had on whales and dolphins, one can discover the answer to my original question, why is it that whales and dolphins are washing up on the shore after naval sonar exercises and not other marine life like sharks or reef fish? The answer to this question can be found in the anatomy of these marine animals, the ability to echolocate.  Whales and dolphins have specially sensitive ears to hear sound they produce bounce of objects, the animals that aren't effected don't have biosonar, therefore their ears aren't as sensitive.  The sound produced by sonar is at least 1000x stronger to whales and dolphins due to their biosonar abilities, it’s even stronger when considering that sound travels farther underwater.  The result is unusual dive patterns leading to air bubbles in muscle, skin, and organs, and bleeding from eyes, ears, and the brain. The sound is believed to have effects on other animals but they're not near as severe, this includes temporary hearing loss.  The proposal was also validated by a statement that was released by the Navy.

The fight against the Navy has been continuous although some progress has been made recently. The restriction on the use of sonar has been declared, although these restrictions aren’t very dramatic but they will still help.  A federal judge in Honolulu has signed a deal between the Navy and environmental groups that is banning or restricting the use of mid frequency sonar.  Here are some key points about the deal: “The Navy cannot use sonar in a well-known habitat for beaked whales between Santa Catalina Island and San Nicolas Island, sonar is banned in a blue whale feeding area near San Diego, sonar and explosives training is banned on the eastern side of the Big Island in Hawaii, the number of major training exercises between Maui and the Big Island will be set, any injuries or deaths will be investigated by the National Marine Fisheries Service.” It is stated to bring down the deaths and injuries in marine wildlife, which is a step forward.  Also a Commander for the Navy said “the deal would not undermine the Navy’s key testing and training requirements”(US Navy Limits ‘whale-harming’ Sonar in Pacific - BBC News).  The sonar doesn't just affect whales and dolphins, it affects everything that surrounds it. Although the harm it's causing isn't so severe on other species, it still hurts them and I believe this could lead up to more die offs of other species, something needs to be done before it's too late.   

Sources

“US Navy Limits ‘whale-harming’ Sonar in Pacific - BBC News.” BBC News. N.p., 14 Sept. 2015. Web. 14 Oct. 2015.

“Lethal Sounds.” NRDC:. Natural Resources Defense Council, 10 June 2008. Web. 14 Oct. 2015.

Whiting, Candace Calloway. "How Navy Sonar Kills Whales and Dolphins."Candace Calloway Whiting. N.p., 08 Mar. 2012. Web. 28 Oct. 2015.

Horwitz, Joshua. War of the Whales: A True Story. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.

Reflection

My peer review was done by Derek Janetzky and he helped me address the flaws in my paper which was my grammar and usage, as well as my research. When I was first writing my paper I had so much information that was that jumbled in my brain, I just had to get it all on paper.  That’s exactly what I did in my first draft.  I noticed that all my words had meanings, they just weren't grammatically correct.  The flow of my piece wasn't the slightest bit immaculate, and it was confusing to myself when I read out loud, I could only imagine what it was like for my readers.  My main goal in my revision was to clear up my thoughts and make them more presentable so I wasn’t just throwing a bunch of information at you.  When I was making these revisions I observed just how flawed my speech was, by reading it out loud I was able to correct my grammatical errors and present the information in a way that could flow.  I also added more detail to help bring out what I was really trying to portray in this piece.  For example this sentence is from my first draft “Not just any naval exercise, but a sonar exercise.” as compared to the sentence in my second draft “It wasn’t just any naval exercise, but a sonar exercise to detect either enemy ships or to locate oil deposits under the sea bed.” The flow of the first one just isn’t quite right, but I added in some simple detail that really brought out the flow and expanded on what I was really trying to say.

The weekly assignments we had like the annotated bibliography and the précis, really helped me understand a subject we were studying a lot more.  My reasoning for this is because everyone has their own opinions on certain topics which are always biased whether we like it admit it or not.  The various articles that I explored brought other points of view and changed my perspective, it made me realize or think of things I would have not thought of otherwise. It also help me develop better research skills as I had to really search for specific answers or information I was looking for.  It also helped me search through different mediums and not just rely on google. Through the research I had done, not just for my research paper but everything, made me expand my knowledge in a way that’s less biased and more considerate of other people's knowledge and considerations. One thing that really made an impact on me was reading information about a topic, then discovering the bias of that piece, and then reading another piece that was contrary to that bias.  This opened up my mind to all perspectives, which had altered mine into a more knowledgeable interpretation.  This is going to be very useful as I progress not just in writing, but in life.   

[ryanvanderham-blog]

National Museum of Nuclear Science & History

The museum's approach to Nuclear Science and History comes from a very patriotic point of view. I say this because of the way they chose to depict the history of nuclear science.  They talked about why these objects on display were made and what their purpose was at the time, none of them talked about that all of the nuclear bombs and war devices were made to kill thousands of people. They were proud of how these man killing inventions were made and how they were used.  For example let's look at the World War II bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. After the bomb was dropped President Truman addressed the American people saying things like, “We are now prepared to obliterate more rapidly and completely every productive enterprise the Japanese have above ground in any city.”  He continues on saying that they will literally destroy everything the Japanese has.  This attitude towards the bombings was reflected in the other pieces of writing, considering the titles of the pieces like, “Japanese Surrender”, “Second Bomb”, you don't see anything like The Devastating Effects of the Bombs or anything of that sort.  It’s not just in the titles but also in the writing, there wasn't any description on how the bombs destroyed cities. It is depicted that the bomb was a positive thing that ended the war, and not a weapon that killed hundreds of thousands of people and forever bestowed toxic levels of radiation on a country. I use this example because it's a reflection of the museum in broad. They display these weapons of mass destruction as tokens of a patriarchy society and a sign of victory.  In reality these weapons have killed thousands of people, and from that perspective, it's nothing to be proud of.  Out of the whole museum there was only one wall that was dedicated to the people that the bomb had killed, and some of the effects it had.  The only con that was talked about in the different display boards was the possibility of a nuclear war breaking out.  When the United States was on top of the nuclear races war everything was good, but as soon as Russia and other countries began to develop their own nuclear weapons, everyone was fear stricken.  

Fat Man (Dropped on Nagasaki)

Little Boy (Dropped on Hiroshima)

The military applications are depicted as positive, because in their eyes everything that they did, there was a reason behind it.  They didn't just go off bombing people for the fun of it, but each event had a certain purpose.  In those purposes, according to them, were ones that were a necessity and had to be done to achieve what was achieved, like the surrender of Japan. It was stated that the dropping of the bombs saved many lives that the war would have taken, and the war would have killed more people than the bomb actually did.  My question to this statement is, would the war have killed about 340,000 people? Because that's how many people it was estimated that the bombs killed.  I believe that the ratio of people that could have been  possibly killed in the war, would be less than the bombs actually killed in real life, especially considering that Japan was on the verge of surrendering anyways.

A Fallout Shelter

I think a visitor of this museum walks away with a point of view that is very biased.  This bias is a very patriotic one that makes you think of past nuclear war events a positive thing. When in reality bombs like the ones dropped on the Japanese can fall under the line of being considered genocide. These types of views are not presented anywhere in the museum, so they rarely cross the normal visitor's mind that wants to learn about nuclear history.  The visitor is subconsciously trained to think of America as the greatest country in the world, current day, past, and future. How America is viewed across the world is almost the opposite of this bias, but it’s not the people of America's fault for thinking how they think, they were programmed to think in this way through certain forms of media like the museum I have attended on October 30th 2015.

[ryanvanderham-blog]

Literature Analysis

What I found most interesting about the articles I compiled is the physical harm that the sonar is inducing on the whales. When you think of sound you don't really think that it can kill or injure you, but that’s whats happening to whales across the oceans.  A sound that is harmless to human ears can injure another animals ears, and not just injure them but cause them enough harm it kills them.  These articles all contain a particular tone in the writing, this tone consists of an urgency, that the problem we face today could possibly endanger the species and something needs to be done about it. They all also depict the Navy as an institution that is doing harm to the oceans and that their practices are inhumane. I do agree with the articles but to a certain extent.  The Navy is obviously harming animals that inhabit the ocean, but I think that if they can switch up their practices to a completely harmless matter, they can continue to ensure the security of the United States of America.  The security of America seems to be their major topic of defense, which is a good argument, but when you're killing animals in the process, theres nothing right about it.

I’m not exactly sure what you mean by different players, but in the aspect of the people that wrote the articles, the similarities I see in all of them is their expression of how serious this problem is.  Also the agency in the tone of their writing; it’s expressing that this is a serious problem that needs to be resolved or the consequences will be devastating.  Building off this, if the Navy continues to kill whales through sonar exercises, it will throw off the whole balance of the ecosystem. Every animal plays an important role in the ecosystem no matter how big or small they are, and if one species is tampered with it, there will be a chain reaction leading to greater effects involving more species.

We live in a time that there is constant conflict. The issue between National security and the environment is an on going problem that seems to keep reoccurring. I believe that the Navy is messing with something that might create greater issues than national security, ecosystem imbalances.  This wont just effect the Untied States but it will effect the workings of the ocean as a whole, if the ocean is thrown out of proportion then the entire world will go down with it.  The location, the ocean, is central to this issue because it’s where the conflict is taking place.  It’s also one of the most important elements in this conflict, and it is in possible danger of being completely changed.  

These articles aren't just research that is being recited to you, it is a call for help because  of the importance of the topic and also the amount of media coverage it gets isn't a lot, so the people involved are trying to get the word out to help.  After reading these articles it makes you feel like something needs to be done to save the whales that can also be beneficial to the Navy.  They appeal to your emotions in very subtile ways that makes you feel bad for the whales and you need to help.  These articles bias are very clear, they side with the whales depicting them as helpless magnificent creatures that are own government is hurting.  For the opposition, they depict the Navy as killing these animals and their doing more harm than good with their Naval exercises.  They also make them out to be almost arrogant and naive about the harm they are causing on the oceans inhabitants.

The major idea that all these article are inducting is the damage that the Navy is committing against our own ecosystem, and they are getting away with it.  Although they all steer off into different directions like the physical harm the sonar is having on whales, the current situation with the conflict, facts about sonar, and why the issue is important.  All the authors dress these articles with the same general tone, one that has a sense of urgency and helplessness because environmental activist are going up against the worlds biggest Navy.

I disagree with the image that these articles are giving the Navy, we wouldn't have what we have in this country without the workings of our government. They are not a bad entity in this world, but I do think the things they are doing are unethical and can be changed.  They can be changed in the sense that the Navy can change their exercises in a way that won’t hurt the whales.  This would have to include the team up of environmentalists with the Navy to figure out what spots in the world has little to no marine life that can be harmed by the sonar, and find out what times of year are the animals are least existent.  Or maybe even try to improve the sonar technology to a frequency low enough it won’t harm any life in the sea. I’m wondering about exactly the kinds of animals the sonar is effecting, not just effecting to the point of killing, but the article say that they experience temporary hearing loss during exercises and I want to know what species exactly. Also why is the sonar effecting Cuvier's and Blainville’s whales the most? I know that other whales like orcas have been observed to have trouble with the sonar, but why is the majority of whale beachings involve these two particular whales?

[ryanvanderham-blog]

Précis #5

Tyler Wall, author of “Legal Terror and the police dog” explains in his article that the police dog is ‘a potent technology of state power’ and that the power the police dog gives the state, which is a robust olfactory sense and a way to capture criminals, could and is easily being abused without punishment.  To support his claim, he uses quotes of police dog victims that explain the physical and psychological damage the attack has bestowed upon them, and compares dog teeth to the force of law and sovereign power, stating the legal terror the dog brings is mainly targeting the lower class.  He wrote this article in order to reveal the tangible ways state power haunts social and psychic space.  

[ryanvanderham-blog]

Annotated Bibliography #6

"The Dogs of the Navy SEALs | Navy SEALs." Navy SEALs. Navy Seals, 04 Apr. 2013. Web. 28 Oct. 2015.

When Barack Obama held a meeting with the navy seals to create a plan to kill Osama Bin Laden, the only navy seal name that was released was a Malinois Belgian Shepherd dog, Cairo. The Malinois breed is similar to German shepherds but smaller and more compact, with an adult male weighing in the 60 pound range.  German Shepherds are still used by the military, but the Malinois is used by the Navy Seals because it is more study and weighs a bit less.  This makes these dogs better for parachute jumps and rappelling operations, they can jump with their handlers as well as solo.  The dogs have With a sense of smell 40 times greater than a human’s, the dogs are trained to detect and identify both explosive material and hostile or hiding humans. Dogs are equipped with cameras so they can go into certain danger zones, letting humans enter in after them.  On the Bin Laden mission Cairo’s feet were most likely to hit the floor first, he was equipped with very flexible body armor and also “doggels”.  The goggles are equipped with night vision and infrared imaging that could allow him to see human heat through walls.  The U.S. has had 2,800 dogs deployed around the world and 600 in Iraq and Afghanistan.

We talked about dogs and the war on terror, crime, and drugs, also how their power might be being abused.  This article looks at some of the positive sides that dogs are used for in the Navy Seals. I believe it is a good article that talks about the good that dogs are doing, and they are doing some amazing things for the military.  This article is good for some facts about the current uses of dogs in the Seals.

Madhani, Aamer. "Dogs Take a Lead Role in Iraq's Terror War." USA Today. USA Today, 22 Mar. 2010. Web. 29 Oct. 2015.

Mangy dogs roam the streets of Iraq, so the Iraqi people aren't really fond of them.  But when you live in a world where bombs are hidden everywhere they might come to use, which is what Iraq is figuring out.  They plan to add 1,000 K-9’s consisting of German Shepherds, Malinois, and Golden Retrievers in just five years, this isn't a lot considering theres 29 million people living there. Before, instead of using dogs Iraq's Interior Ministry invested tens of millions of dollars in the ADE-651, a British-manufactured bomb detection device that is ubiquitous at checkpoints throughout the country.  The vast majority of dogs that are being used in iraqi airports are foreign owned, over time Iraq plans on replacing those dogs with their own. At first there was concern for how many police officers were willing to train dogs but in the end they had 60 volunteers to fill 25 spots. All 25 dogs graduated from the program and they planned to add 120 dogs by the end of the year.

This article is a good source for foreign involvement for using the dog as a police force. I did find it strange that the U.S. military is involved in Iraqi training of dogs, but I think there looking it at the perspective of protecting citizens than from a war standpoint. I think it's a good thing that they are doing this, but I feel like eventually they Iraqi could use the dogs against us.  So basically we're training dogs to go up against us.

Whitehead, Tom. "Sniffer Dogs Offend Muslims." Express. N.p., 27 June 2008. Web. 29 Oct. 2015.

Sniffer dogs have become a problem in Britain with Muslim people saying that it is against their religion to come in contact with the animals. In the muslim faith dogs are deemed as “unclean”, saying that if they come in contact with them they have to under a cleaning ritual. Restricting the dogs would be very bad in the sense that they couldn't do their job anymore.  British Transport Police said they would still use dogs but be more “culturally sensitive”. Tory MP Philip Davies said: “As far as I am concerned, everyone should be treated equally in the face of the law and we cannot have people of different religious groups laying the law down. I hope the police will go about their business as they would do normally.”  Chairman of the Islamic Human Rights Com­mission said that dogs touching bags would be an issue and dogs should be able to check bags with making contact. The British intended to enhance their stop and search abilities by with the use of X-ray screening and the use of more sniffer dogs. There have been other problems with the muslim faith and security.  Body scans are used to look at the body and what's on it, Muslim women had a problem with this saying that it defeats the whole purpose of covering up in the first place. 

This is a good article in the sense that it addresses the problems of sniffer dogs and religion.  I believe in the means of security, religion doesn't really count because that could be a cover up for something else that they could be carrying. Although I do see their side of the story, it could easily be used as an excuse to bypass security. There’s always conflict with state institutions and religion, this is a good example of that, but I don’t think religion should have a say when deciding the safety of other people.  

[ryanvanderham-blog]

Polar Bears at the Rio Grande Zoo

Polar bears live in the northernmost part of North America, Europe, and Asia and inhabit pack ice while eating preferably ringed and bearded seals, living up to 30 years in the wild. Polar bears are carnivores and only eat meat, as opposed to other bears which are omnivores eating both plants and meat.  Their scientific name Ursus maritimus literally means sea bear.  They have physical features which lead them to be considered marine animals, this includes webbed paws that make them outstanding swimmers.  Their paws measure up to almost a foot across, this allows them to distribute their weight on ice and snow so they don’t slip or break through the ice.  They can swim up to six miles per hour and have been known to swim up to 60 miles without a rest.  They can open and close their nostrils making it possible to dive underwater when necessary.  Their blubber serves many purposes such as maintaining their 98.6 degree body temperature in sub zero arctic weather.  It also serves as a flotation device to the bigger bears, and for females it serves to fed her through her time in the den with her pups who also survive of her blubber in the womb.  She must gain at least 440 pounds to help her survive over an eight month period spent in the den.  In December or January her pups are born and she waits three months to break out of her den.  When she does this, the cubs stay with her for up to three years or until they can maintain themselves. As many as 60% of cubs fail to make it past their first year due to predators and the long swim they may have to take because of the melting ice caps from global warming.  Polar bears have hollow transparent hair that conducts ultraviolet rays to keep them warm.  They have black skin under their coat that absorbs as much heat as they can from the sun and keeps the heat they already have insulated. Polar bears are an endangered species due to climate change melting the ice they live on.  They use the Arctic ice to hunt for seals and other marine animals, but they can't do this if its melting.  This is causing polar bears and their pups to swim overwhelming distances to reach ice, and the outcome isn't good, bears are drowning more and more every year.  You can help this cause by reducing your carbon footprint.    

The bears appeared to be very lethargic in the hot sun of Albuquerque.  I believe that the weather they’re exposed to isn't good to be in considering the environment they're supposed to be in. I observed this in other exhibits, the animals really had nothing to do besides sit there and sleep. Although they claim to be provided with “enrichment” as in given barrels and balls to play with, the bears did not seem interested in those items for as long as I observed them.  Though I’m sure at some points during the day they are entertained with this “enrichment”.  The bear's fur also had a tint of green to it.  I conducted research as to why this is, and it's because of the presence of algae not on the fur but inside the hollow tube of each strand of hair.  Overall the bears seemed unsatisfied with their life at the zoo and I don't blame them.

The construct of the exhibit itself is thoroughly thought out and constructed well to the environment they're supposed to live in, besides the ice, which is impossible to have in New Mexico. The ocean aspect of the exhibit is played by a 14 foot deep pool that stretches out in an estimated 20 feet.  Waterfalls occupy the pool to oxygenate the water and imitate possible conditions in the wild. This is also accompanied by a 20 foot water slide for the bears entertainment.  The land aspect of the exhibition imitates ice and the bears have a place where they can lay out in the sun if need be.  There's multiple places that they can climb including to get to their relaxation spot.  There's also a zone behind what the public can view to give the bears privacy which also contains a feeding area.  The most important aspect of their exhibit is an air-conditioned ice cave where they can enjoy the cool air, which is similar to conditions back home. These bears have been provided with a well designed cage, although it doesn’t compare to anything like the wild.     

References

Lewin, Ralph A., and Philip T. Robinson. "The Greening of Polar Bears in Zoos." Nature.com. Nature Publishing Group, n.d. Web. 27 Oct. 2015.

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War of the Whales Book Review

The “War of the Whales” written by Joshua Horwitz, depicts the true story conflict between the Navy’s use of sonar and the effect it is having on life in the ocean. Particularly two species of whales, Cuvier’s beaked whales and Blainville's beaked whales. The story follows two courageous men who worked together to fight back against the world's biggest Navy; a marine scientist by the name of Ken Balcomb and a lawyer, Joel Reynolds.  Joshua has a very deep understanding as well as a passion for this subject because throughout the book he takes you on a journey. He analyzes the political, historical, environmental, and legal struggles that all fall within the connections of Navy sonar and whale strandings.

The book starts off the adventure by throwing you into the first scene that had sparked the sonar and whale controversy.  On March 21st, 2000, a whale was discovered to have been beached on the Bahamas.  What was particularly strange about this beaching was that it was a Cuvier’s Beaked Whale; a whale that is not seen very much, even in the water.  The stranding happened on Ken Balcomb’s back yard who happened to be a marine scientist. He was with volunteers who he was going to take out that day for research, but instead they helped the whale and soon discovered there was multiple beachings that happened that day.  He was able to save some whales, but others had conditions that were too severe to save. He was able to document the strandings which later wanted to be shown as evidence in a legal case against the Navy. What follows is the process of scientists who were trying to figure out the cause of the strandings and how to prevent them in the future.  

The book is broken down into three important parts: historical context, the environmental aspect of the use of Navy sonar, as well as the political or legal issues that the strandings have led up to. The explanation of the upbringing of leading scientist Ken Balcomb and his military background gives him credibility and controversy for his work in the marine department. This is displayed by showing personal aspects of his life. The sacrifices he has made  have contributed to the knowledge of whales and his passion for the work he has done; conflicting with the relationships he was involved in.

Horwitz takes a non-linear approach to the construction of the book stating different events at different times. He states historical events that contributed to the knowledge of whales, and how the technology of sonar came to be.  This can be confusing at times although it upholds the element of suspense.  We are also introduced to multiple Naval officers, marine scientists, and lawyers; the main focus is bestowed upon a Lawyer by the name of Joel Reynolds. This man is an attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Department, who fights the Navy in multiple lawsuits which leads all the way up to the Supreme Court. The noticeable trend in the work these two men have done is that the Navy seems almost arrogant or naive to the health of the ocean and its inhabitants.  Eventually the Navy is forced to draft an Environmental Impact report that states the current health of the ocean.  

Joshua provides pictures of scientists and whales to appeal to the visual aspect of people's interpretations of the book. They appeal to the reader’s emotions by putting you at the scene of the strandings, this provides a nice break from the text and it contributes to the credibility of the exhilarating true story.  “War of the Whales” unfurls as investigative journalism that exposes the truth behind mass whale strandings. It gives you an inside look at information that was held from the public, for obvious reasons.  It reveals the conflict of the national security’s disregard for the oceans environment. The book unfolds as a tale of scientific and legal expeditions that contribute to the efforts of saving the giantly majestic creatures that lurk and rule the ocean, but can this small group of courageous people fulfil this undaunting task?  Take the journey through the deep blue, and discover what it's like to be a scientist during these controversial times.  

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Précis #4

“A Mind in the Water” written by D. Graham Burnett published in Orion Magazine, depicts the history of dolphin research in the life workings of scientist John Cunningham Lilly and how the dolphin transformed from a menace in old times to a cute, friendly, and intelligent aquatic animal. The author forms his article in a biography type style of Dr. Lilly and his experiments of giving dolphins LSD, the invention of the sensory deprivation tank (also using LSD with it), and the thought that dolphins could be used for military purposes, which all contributed to the modern thought of the dolphin, the Cold War Brain Sciences, Military Bioacoustics, and Hollywood. Burnett wrote this article in order to provide reasoning for the thought behind using dolphins in the military and to unveil the truth behind modern thinking of the aquatic animals. 

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Annotated Bibliography #5

Houghton, Gerard A. "John Lilly." The Guardian. N.p., 5 Oct. 2001. Web. 21 Oct. 2015.

John Lilly died in Malibu from a heart attack at age 86.  He was born into a catholic family in Minnesota.  At 16 he wrote an intricate essay in which the prompt was, "How can the mind render itself sufficiently objective to study itself?" This sparked a career that would take over later in his life, which mostly was spent being an explorer of consciousness.  After earning his degree as a medical doctor, he spent time “applying his inventive technical skills to high-priority air force research.”  One of his philosophy principles was that “My body is my laboratory”, so he never performed experiments on people that he wouldn't perform on himself. He then went on to study living brains in which he allowed himself to stimulate a monkey brain without any major trauma. An experiment was carried out, wondering what happened if the brain was receiving no stimuli.  A tank was created that contained salt water and heated to body temperature, the brain reacted in an unexpected way producing “colourful images, memories, waking dreams and unusual levels of consciousness, even including a sense of contact with other intelligent ‘Beings’.”  He wondered whether the flotation could be beneficial to other consciousnesses which led him to marine mammals.  They wondered if the cetacean brain contained a mind, which led to the findings of language in dolphins and logic capacities.  This experiment led Lilly to study dolphin-human communication for the rest of his life, he then conducted many experiments using LSD on both himself and the marine mammals. He retired in Hawaii 1992 and spent his time traveling and argued against whaling.

This resource is good to if you want to know what John Lilly did in his life and how he was brought up to perform many experiments on dolphins. It doesn't really talk about specific experiments, but just his life in a whole and what he studied and why.  This a is a good resource about John Cunningham Lilly, but not about his particular experiments.

Floorwalker, Mike. "The Scientist Who Gave LSD To Dolphins." KnowledgeNuts. N.p., 6 Sept. 2013. Web. 21 Oct. 2015.

John Lilly had two job “occupations” if that's what you want call them.  He was a neuroscientist, which his work was considered controversial, he also liked to call himself a “psychonaut”. He experimented heavily with psychedelic drugs to explore consciousness and the self.  He invented the ECG, electrocorticograph, which presents brain activity on a graph but that was only one invention he created.  In 1954 he invented the sensory deprivation tank, which was used in many of his experiments.  He combined his two “passions” into one experiment when he took LSD and entered the sensory deprivation tank, one can only imagine what was experienced then.  He started working with dolphins in the late 50’s, and comprised an experiment that consisted of a female assistant that lived in a partially flooded house with a dolphin.  The point was to try and teach the dolphin english to achieve an inter-species communication which failed miserably when the dolphin developed a sexual attraction to the woman.  He admitted to giving dolphins LSD and that they experienced “wonderful trips”, they swam away from their sonar, floated along the surface of the water, and floated oddly at that. He inspired some films, while modern day scientists try to forget about what he did.

This paper is good for facts about Dr. Lilly like he did in fact give dolphins LSD and he invented the sensory deprivation tank as well as the electrocorticograph.  It also gives the broadest possible summary of one of his experiments.  Though the article doesn't elaborate on anything that he did in great detail, I do not think it's great for a research paper but good for people who want to know what he did in broad.   

Rosenbaum, Sophia. "'I Had a Sexual Relationship with a Dolphin'" New York Post. New York Post, 10 June 2014. Web. 22 Oct. 2015.

Peter the dolphin was six years old when he fell in love with his human trainer, Margaret Howe. The plan was for her to spend 10 weeks with Peter and try to teach him english words, the dolphin however had different plans on his mind. Peter was at the peak age that he was sexually coming of age, which wasn't useful in trying to teach him english words.  “Howe and Peter did everything together — eating, sleeping, bathing and playing — as part of a NASA experiment that aimed to teach Peter to speak through his blowhole.” Howe had a desk that was hung from the ceiling as well as a mattress that was protected by a shower curtain.  Peter liked to spray it with water to get attention from Howe.  Peter would make sounds that sounded like the words Margaret was saying although he couldn't produce an “M” sound.  She admitted on a documentary “That relationship of having to be together sort of turned into really enjoying being together, and wanting to be together, and missing him when he wasn’t there”.  She pleased the dolphin and said that for him it was sexual, but for her it was “sensuous perhaps”. After the experiment finished Peter was sent back to Lilly’s lab in Miami, and his health was slowly declining. A few weeks after that, he committed suicide and his diagnosis was that he died from a broken heart.

This article is very interesting in the sense that it's unexpected that a thing like this is possible, but at the same time it's interesting.  This source might be good for a paper about an overview of the experiment but I believe that some of the ideas can be left out for obvious reasons.  For elaboration on the experiment other sources would be recommended, perhaps the documentary “The Girl Who Talked to Dolphins”.     

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War of the Whales Book Review Draft #1

The “War of the Whales” written by Joshua Horwitz, depicts the true story conflict between the Navy’s use of sonar and the effect it is having on life in the ocean particularly two species of whales, Cuvier’s beaked whales and Blainville's beaked whales. The story follows two courageous men who worked together to fight back against the world's biggest Navy; a marine scientist by the name of Ken Balcomb and a lawyer, Joel Reynolds.  Joshua has a very deep understanding as well as a passion for this subject because throughout the book he takes you on a journey that analysis the political, historical, environmental, and legal struggles that all fall within the connections of Navy sonar and whale strandings. The book starts off the adventure by throwing you into the first scene that had sparked the sonar and whale controversy.  On March 21st, 2000, a whale was discovered to have been beached on the Bahamas.  What was particularly strange about this beaching was that it was a Cuvier’s Beaked Whale, a whale that is not scene very much, even in the water.  The stranding happened on Ken Balcomb’s back yard who happened to be a marine scientist. He was with volunteers who he was going to take out that day for research, but instead they helped the whale and soon discovered there was multiple beachings that happened that day.  He was able to save some whales while others conditions were too severe to save, he was able to document the standings which later wanted to be shown as evidence in a legal case against the Navy. What follows is the process of scientists who were trying to figure out the cause of the strandings and how to prevent them in the future.  

The book is broken down into three important subjects, historical context of not just scientists that are involved but also the involvement of the military with marine life, the environmental aspect of the use of Navy sonar, as well as the political or legal issues that the strandings have led up to.  The explanation of the upbringing of leading scientist Ken Balcomb and his military background gives him the credibility and controversy for his work in the marine department which is displayed by showing personal aspects of his life. This includes the sacrifices he's made to have contributed as much as he did to the knowledge of whales and that his passion for the work he’s done was conflicting with the relationships he was involved in.  

Horwitz takes a non-linear approach to the construction of the book stating different events at different times and also throwing in historical events it took to acquire knowledge of whales, and how the technology of sonar came to be.  This can be confusing at times although it throws in the element of suspense as well.  Were also introduced to multiple Naval officers, marine scientists, and lawyers but the main focus is bestowed upon a Lawyer by the name of Joel Reynolds. This man is an attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Department, who fights the Navy in multiple lawsuits which leads all the way up to the Supreme Court. The noticeable trend in the work these two men have done is that the Navy seems almost arrogant or naive to the health of the Ocean and its inhabitants; they are eventually forced to draft an Environmental Impact report.  

Joshua provides pictures of scientists and whales to appeal to the visual aspect of people's understanding as well as to put you at the scene of the strandings, this provides a nice break from the text and it contributes to the credibility of the exhilarating true story. The book unfolds as a tale of the scientific and legal expeditions that have unfolded to save the whales.

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Annotated Bibliography #4

"Lethal Sounds." NRDC:. Natural Resources Defense Council, 10 June 2008. Web. 14 Oct. 2015.

Sonar produced by animals like dolphins and whales is what helps them survive.  It has many purposes such as finding food, a mate, and even friends.  If these animals did not have sonar they would die, no questions asked.  When a sound that is “thousands of times more powerful than a jet engine fills their ears,” it is very lethal to the animals because it overpowers their sonar as well as inure their organs like the brain and ears.  Some systems that produce this sound, operate at 235 decibels which can be heard 300 miles under water from the source.  Evidence of this technology hurting animals surfaced in 200 when whales were beached in the bahamas after a naval exercise.  Although the Navy first denied that it was the sonar that caused it, a government's investigation revealed that its what caused the strandings.  The noise is believed to cause unusual dive patterns in the animals, which leds to death by “the bends,” this is when nitrogen bubbles form in the muscle in skin due to surfacing too fast after a dive.  Scientists are worried about the effects it is having on other marine life, which is causing species to panic and flee.  “Even the Navy estimates that increased sonar training will significantly harm marine mammals more than 10 million times during the next five years off the U.S. coast alone.” The NRDC is working to regulate sonar use and protect animals that are affected by it.

This article is a short but concise piece of writing, and it really sums up the the controversy about the Navy using sonar as well as other companies using it to map out areas to drill for oil. They also provide a short video that explains the situation and why it's important, which can be helpful to people who are more visual learners.  It can be a good reference for research papers but it doesn't provide enough information to only use that single source.   

"US Navy Limits 'whale-harming' Sonar in Pacific - BBC News." BBC News. N.p., 14 Sept. 2015. Web. 14 Oct. 2015.

Just recently he restriction on use of sonar has been declared, although the restrictions aren't very dramatic they will still help.  A federal judge in Honolulu has signed a deal between the Navy and environmental groups that is banning or restricting the use of mid frequency sonar.  Here are some key points about the deal: “The Navy cannot use sonar in a well-known habitat for beaked whales between Santa Catalina Island and San Nicolas Island, Sonar is banned in a blue whale feeding area near San Diego, Sonar and explosives training is banned on the eastern side of the Big Island in Hawaii, The number of major training exercises between Maui and the Big Island will be set, Any injuries or deaths will be investigated by the National Marine Fisheries Service.” It is stated to bring down the deaths and injuries in marine wildlife, which is a step forward.  Also a Commander for the Navy said “the deal would not undermine the Navy's key testing and training requirements.” 

This article is a good reference on the current situation between the Navy and Environmentalist groups, because it implies that this is still an ongoing problem that is slowly getting resolved.  Progress is being made, although in my opinion this is definitely not enough restriction to save the animals.  I believe that a lot more restriction can be made on the use of sonar so that it will affect almost no animals while still ensuring that the Navy gets real circumstantial training to protect this country. 

Bienaimé, Pierre. "The US Navy's Combat Dolphins Are Serious Military Assets." Business Insider. Business Insider, Inc, 12 Mar. 2015. Web. 14 Oct. 2015.

The only really known animal to help out the military is a dog, but that's not the case anymore.  They are incorporating dolphins into serving military services.  They’ve already made a lot of progress training them to detect underwater mines and flagging the presence of enemy swimmers for harbor defense.  The program “in San Diego, California trains 85 dolphins and 50 sea lions, according to SPAWAR spokesman Jim Fallin.”  The program is reported to have 14 million dollars in funding and the program started in 1960 while they were studying a dolphin to develope faster torpedos.  The program turned around to make dolphins part of the military after they discovered that they have sonar. Dolphins have already been used in war, during the vietnam war they were used to guard an Army ammunition pier in Vietnam's Cam Ranh Bay.  Also "’to protect the Third Fleet flagship anchored in Manama Harbor’ in Bahrain,” during the Iran-Iraq war.  They were also used to provide security for the Republican National Convention of 1996 when the summer olympics got bombed in Atlanta.  “Dolphins returned to the Persian Gulf in 2003, to clear mines ahead of coalition vessels during the US-led invasion of Iraq.”  Speculation of the uses the military were bestowing on the dolphins were very controversial, some of these include tracking killing divers and planting bombs on ships, although they were used to track underwater mines.  Russia tried to train dolphins as well but it turned out as a failure, so they sold them to Ukraine who then sold them to Iran.  The navy has been able to maintain a high survival rate, which is between 95-97, and at one point they had a 100 percent survival rate for a year and a half.  It is believed they animals will be replaced one day by technologies, but until that day animals will continuously used.

This article is a very good source for a research paper on the militarization of dolphins.  It doesn't just provide the current information on how the military is using dolphins but also a history of how the idea came to be and how it evolved.  Also how the military has been rumored to use them, as well as some actual use like detecting underwater mines. They provide sources or people for almost all of the information they give, which can give you other sources to information. This article is well written and structured, so I recommend it to anybody who wants to learn about how the military is using dolphins to aid their interests.  

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516 ARTS

I approached the glass doorway and windows. Above in grey letters wrote “516 ARTS.”  I opened the door to a very quiet space that had stairs running up the wall to the right and in front of me in a short distance was a piece of work that depicted a forest.  I headed up the stairs and a lady greeted me in a polite manner, “How are you?” after I answered she continued on, “If there's anything I can help you with let me know.” I ascended the wooden steps which made a noise every time I took a step towards the gallery.  I had no idea what to expect of the art that I was about to observe.  I imagined the art to be intricate pictures with amazing detail or maybe sculptures that were very cautiously crafted. As I reached the last step I noticed a bunch of artwork that ranged from paintings, to pictures, video, and strange objects that seemed to be portraying different point of views of the world.  I observed a pedestal that was placed five feet in front of me, my mind started to wonder.  I was literally looking at a potato with a perfume atomizer that was stuck directly on top of it.  I didn’t know what to think so I decided to read the description of the piece.  I discovered that the piece was a symbol of human desire in the sense that it takes a common inexpensive item, the potato, and an object of luxury, the atomizer, and puts the two together.  This represents the human need or desire to fulfill our feelings of things that make our life “better.” In other words if we don’t have the money or resources to accomplish something we call “luxury” than we will make up an alternative, therefore the potato perfume.  After grasping this concept, realizing that luxury is just something that we have made up in our mind and it’s essentially just material that makes us feel better about ourselves; the piece made me feel salty about what the world has came to or what is it coming to. On the other hand I really praise the simplicity of “Fragrance of 2009” and the concept that it represents.

I picked my eyes up after dissecting the potato and another display immediately caught my attention. I walked over to it and with every step I took, it seemed to shift the floor as a creaking filled the white walls.  What laid in front of me looked like a small pillow that had a shiny dark bronze papery texture, there was turquoise fabric wrapped around it in the shape of a bikini bottom.  To the side of the fabric was revealing a white tan line, it was obvious that this object represented a human who was sun tanned.  My overall thought about this was that, the piece itself looks like it was constructed in a small amount of time and not a lot of effort was put forth into comprising it.  I was disappointed in a sense, but what the piece was there for and why it was made, made it more than just paper and fabric.  The piece was interesting and I was curious as to how it would relate to the “Knew Normal” theme of the museum.  It represented the sun-tan obsessed culture of the 1980’s and the health risks of it in the 21st century including risks from beach culture, junk food, global warming, and drought.  These are problems that are current to the world today and are on going problem so much so that they have became the “new normal” of our culture.  We are just now experiencing the impacts these aspects of life are having on the world and the people.  For “Bronzed”, the main point is that the sun-tan obsessed culture in the 80’s is now feeling the effects the obsession had on people with the bodily harm it was causing like skin cancer.  This concept goes hand in hand with other problems we are faced with today like the impacts of junk food, and global warming.

Overall the exhibition was good in the sense of the concepts these art pieces depicted. I didn’t like how some displays looked like there was no effort put into the material aspect of the work.  The notion that they represented was spectacular, although the actual representation that went along with these ideas was weak.  Not every display was like this but the majority of them were.  This kind of art style may be what art has came to today, and it can be considered the “new normal” hence the name of the exhibition “Knew Normal.”  Comprising the name, Knew Normal, and the artwork that went along with it, it is identifying (Knew), what the world has came to call the norms (Normal) of society.    

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Précis #3

Jake Kosek, author of “Ecologies of Empire: On the new uses of the honey bee,” explains in his essay that the honeybee is being used as a military technology, and a tactile tool which is transforming the honeybee’s social behavior as well as their physical appearance.  Kosek uses information from interviews of scientists at Los Alamos National Labs and his own knowledge of bee keeping to determine how honeybee’s are helping the military and how our actions are making the bee more vulnerable.  Kosek wrote this essay to identify how the military is working with bees in order to provide people with an understanding of how we can use them for purposes other than pollination, wax, and honey to benefit the United States and to examine possible ways that we are contributing to colony collapse. 

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Annotated Bibliography #3

Layton, Julia. "How Can You Train Honeybees to Sniff for Bombs?"HowStuffWorks. HowStuffWorks.com, n.d. Web. 30 Sept. 2015.

Julia ends her introduction paragraph with a question that sets up the rest of her essay,  So how do you train them to respond to TNT the way they respond to pollen? She references training bees like training dogs, in a similar sense to Pavlov's dog experiment with the bell.  The bees would be exposed to vaporized explosive ingredients and right after be awarded with sugar water.  It only would take a couple exposures for the bees to develope an association with the materials and the sweet water.  They trained the bees to be able to detect dynamite, C-4, and liquid bombs.  Their smell can detect just a few parts per million and this would make bees useful in places that are targeted by terrorists which would include airports, subways, war zones,  or even roadway checkpoints.  It was easy to see when the bees detected materials because they would swarm, but in large areas it was hard to find the bees.  So radio transmitters were used to detect where the bees were swarming.

This article is a good resource for a paper on how bees are being trained to detect explosive material and what they can be used for.  I like how this author doesn’t just say for military use but she reveals in what areas they could be used. Bees could not only advance military technology but act as a safeguard for them as well and the American people.  The reference of other animals or experiments is useful, it lets us know that this way of thinking about animals is not a new way to exploit their potential.

Kirksey, Eben, Craig Schuetze, and Nick Shapiro. "Swarm." The Multispecies Salon. N.p., 28 Feb. 2014. Web. 30 Sept. 2015.

The swarm is a new form of radical politics.  Pentagon strategies are being changed in hopes of forming a new more efficient way of fighting the taliban in the middle east.  The works of Jake Kosek are widely studied in the field of using honey bees as a military tool. The military is replacing their air to land battle techniques with those of the swarming of the honey bee. “Military understandings of the swarm are not solely metaphoric,” according to Kosek, “but make possible new assemblages of people and animals, new forms of social relations, and new technologies.”  The study is forming new forms of social relations and not just providing an example for the military. A single person can operate a central drone which will then communicate to other drones that are solely being operated by signals the central drone is giving off. The tactic has already been proved to work when in 2009 the first attack was made on the taliban, it was successful.

This article is a solid reference in the sense that it provides information about why the military is using the swarm as a method of war and how it is being achieved.  The author also refers to Jake Kosek, who is doing is own work not only how the military is using bees but how the effect of the military use is affecting the bee not just psychologically but physically.  I believe he sums up Jake’s section about drones in his essay Ecologies of Empire.  He provides a new angle that it’s a not just a tactic, but a theme.

Lee, Erica. "Bee Killers." Berkeley University. Berkeley University, 27 Dec. 2014. Web. 30 Sept. 2015.

Erica Lee stresses the importance of bees in one simple statement.  The bees bring in two hundred billion dollars in crop production annually.  Jake Kosek works for Berkeley University in California, and wondered what was happening to the world pollinators, “The university and department soon provided support for Kosek to create his own entomological laboratory on the rooftop of his offices at Berkeley. As Kosek grew increasingly immersed in the debates over whether pesticides, diseases, or loss of habitat had endangered the bees, he began to wonder: how did the bee become so vulnerable in the first place?” He then discovered that the military was using them to track radioactive chemicals, so could it have been possible that the bees were bring back these chemicals to the hive thus poisoning it? Since 2006 the military has deployed over 400 hives around military bases and that researchers have built a mutant bee that serves the purpose of humans and not what bees were meant to do.  This wasn’t the first time that have been remade.  They were remade to serve the purposes of pollinators and after that happened the bees “hibernation cycle shifted, their color changed, and their lifespan shortened.”  Partly the answer to Kosek’s question is that you have to understand the politics that went into making the modern bee to understand how it has been remade over time.

I believe that this would be a good paper to read before reading Jake’s article because it gives a background on not only himself, but how Jake has came to ask the question about what is making bees so vulnerable.  It also gives you an idea of what his article is going to be about just so you don’t go in reading blind sided.  I believe that it makes Jake more of a human who has interests rather than just someone who is writing a paper about bees.   

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Précis #2

In his article, Nuclear Natures, Jake Kosek explains that Los Alamos National Labs (LANL) has had a negative and potentially life threatening impact on not only the physical nature of Northern New Mexico, but the psychological nature as well.  He supports his chapter by explaining how the lab has effected surrounding cities as he drives through them as well as interviewing residents and scientists that have worked at the lab, and how the radioactive material is remaking nature, animals and vegetation alike.  Mr. Kosek wrote his article in order to inform people about the negative effect that LANL has bestowed on Northern New Mexico.

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Annotated Bibliography #2

Banskota, Rohini. "SRIC: Voices from the Earth - 2008." SRIC: Voices from the Earth - 2008. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Sept. 2015.

Los Alamos National Labs brings in lots of revenue for the town of Los Alamos.  It has an annual federal budget of 2 billion dollars while also sitting on 52 square miles. The article states that LANL has been dumping toxic wastes on-site since the 1940’s and hasn't really stopped.  This is threatening much of our water including underground wells and streams that run by LANL.  They’ve already contaminated groundwater in the San Ildelfonso Pueblo, which has become a serious threat to the people of the Pueblo.  J. Gilbert Sanchez was the Pueblo's former governor and he developed the lands environmental protection, economic development and cultural preservation offices as well as the tribe’s land use plan. “ Yet in 2003, the lab proudly announced that Los Alamos scientists have restored the U.S. ability to make nuclear weapons through the production of the first nuclear weapons pit in 14 years (paragraph 6).  A project was started to sample all of the surrounding environment by testing groundwater, soil (dust), and other biological materials were collected from homes, farms, parks, local businesses, and roadsides.  The results came back frightening and these sample contained Strontium-90, Plutonium, and Uranium isotopes.  “For example, a soil sample from an area next to the parking lot of the Los Alamos Inn was more than 200 times the state standard (paragraph 9).  The lab has been fined multiple times but they're all still under negotiation.

I think this article is a very useful source because it provides specific information about the Pueblo that has been effected.  It also states what is at risk in New Mexico and if something is not done about how LANL is running the facility we will be in trouble.  If you are looking for specific statistics, this article also provides that as well so it doesn't leave you pondering about what the actual numbers are. The statements made about the testing of objects off of site are very useful because I believe that's one of the main questions people have about where the nuclear wastes are spreading.

Matlock, Staci. "TRINITY: 70 YEARS LATER ‘Los Alamos Will Never Be Clean’." Santa Fe New Mexican. N.p., 13 July 2015. Web. 22 Sept. 2015.

Canyons around Los Alamos ave become a dumping site for not only radioactive material, but for unwanted items the lab scientists did not want; things like cars and major appliances. In the mid 1940’s more than 30 million gallons of treated and nontreated liquid were dumped in a canyon that is known as Acid Canyon.  The canyon has gone under three clean up missions and there are still radioactive materials that still remain seeped into the dirt and rocks.  There are canyons and places around the United States that exist like Acid Canyon and there have been efforts made to clean them up but still so much radiation exists. Such sites like Area G, “At Los Alamos, lab workers dumped waste in trenches and pits, including those at Area G, a 63-acre dumpsite that opened in 1957. This includes thousands of cubic feet of low-level and mixed transuranic waste such as old lab coats, tools and other debris.”  In 2014 the lab made efforts to clean 3,706 cubic meters of waste and move them to Carlsbad, but the plan was held up due to a barrel cracking. Not only is the clean up expensive but the effects radiation has had on workers is expensive.  More than 107,141 families have been given more than 11.6 billion dollars as a whole and just for Los Alamos 4,900 workers have received 566 million dollars.   

This paper would be good source for a research paper on both specific facts about Los Alamos and in the United States.  It’s main focus is Los ALamos stating the specific canyon, Acid Canyon, has been repeatedly cleaned up but there continuously still is radiation.  This canyon is important because it’s not just some desolate canyon in New Mexico but hikers, mountain bikers, and children explore and play in this canyon. I like how this article tells us specific numbers about the radiation like how much money has been put into cleaning it up and how much radiation has actually been dumped there.

 "Environmental Remediation Program Completes Legacy Mercury Cleanup near Smith's Marketplace." LANL Newsroom. N.p., 01 May 2015. Web. 23 Sept. 2015.

A clean up attempt is going to be pursued to clean up part of the U.S. Department of Energy property, which is south of the local Smith’s.  “We are committed to reducing the Laboratory’s historical footprint and intend to continue to make progress on environmental legacy cleanup,” said Christine Gelles, acting manager of DOE’s Environmental Management Los Alamos Field Office. This job is going to be in collaboration with TerranearPMC.  They are going to use a spider excavator and put the contaminated soil into waste bags and then be taken to waste storage, then to a licensed disposal facility. After the excavation, tests will be ran to see if they can detect more radiation.  

This article shows that the lab and the Department of Energy are trying to make efforts to clean the site up and not just leave it alone until they are forced to do something. It’s not just an idea but the plan most likely has already happening considering that the article was written May 1st, 2015.  This also shows that there can possibly be more land to use for economical development that could bring in more revenue for the city even though they already lead New Mexico is highest paid employees per capita.  This article can possibly used as a closing paragraph or idea in an essay about the radiation the labs have bestowed on New Mexico and how today they’re actually making an effort to clean up contaminated sites.