Surviving in the Wilderness Essay Example for Free

Surviving in the Wilderness Essay The risk taken when adventuring in the wilderness can be a fatal one if one is unprepared and lacking some basic tools and knowledge. There are three basic points when dealing with wilderness survival. The first being food then shelter then warmth. This paper is going to give details and insight into each of the three points. Food, as anyone would know, is vital to survival. Whenever planning to take an adventure, always pack enough food and water to avoid the stress and inconvenience of looking for sustenance. If one is caught in a situation where food is not readily available here are plenty of sources in the wilderness. Fish is a great food for a balanced diet and is available anywhere in the world, and a good thing to know is that all birds are able to be eaten. Sap from a poplar is sweet and can be eaten raw. If one is at an oceanic wilderness, all seaweed is edible. If one is stranded in the arctic, all vegetation is edible with the exception of mushrooms. Deer is probably the best meat to have in the, wilder- ness though it may be hard to hunt without the proper equipment. When hunting and eating remember fat is a very important part of survival. Blood gives one the nutrition ne need and it can be added into sups and other foods, and is easy to find on most evergreens. A good source of heat and energy is Spruce tea. Spruce tea is easy to make, all one need is spruce needles and hot water. When eating plants, it is 1 2 important to know what plants one are eating to avoid further discomfort. There are certain plants that can kill you within hours. Water is very important especially when in tropical or dry places. Be sure to bring plenty of containers to gather water in. A normal human can only go a few days without water in a dry or tropical place where sweating can lead to dehydration. When looking for drinking water, look for signs of animals (McNab 58). The tracks of animals means the water is relatively safe to drink. A good way to gather water during rain without the proper supplies is to tie a rag or shirt around a branch and let it absorb the water then drink from the shirt (McNab 62). If at sea it is important to remember that salt water does more bad than good so do not drink it. If in an arctic environment, do not eat snow it lowers ones body temperature and costs ones in the long run. Our intake of water should much exceed our output of water. This is important to remember to avoid ehydration. To keep healthy and avoid parasites, always boil water first, if possible. There are a few easy ways to catch animals to eat. A death pit is a large hole in the ground with large or small spears at the bottom. Covered with sticks and brush, it is a hard fall for any animal who crosses over. A great way to catch fish is to find a stream with fish and put rocks or a net in the stream so when the fish swim with the current they are trapped on one side by the rocks or net and the other side by the current. Fish hooks and spears are also easy to make and make fishing a lot easier. Theses are a few hints and pointers so finding and hunting food and water will not be as hard as one would think thought. Warmth is more vital in some places than others. Even though in tropical climates the nights can be very cold and any little thing can help survive. There are a few little 3 things that people can know and use when supplies are running low. Making fire is easy if you have the right supplies if not there are ways to do it. This is the most common way of making a fire with nothing but a knife and what one can find in the woods. First find a stick about a foot high and another stick a little longer. Use a shoe-lace or any thin vine to attach to the longer stick to make it look like a bow. Then try to find a small rock with a notch in the middle. Next find a flat piece of dry wood for the board. Carve a hole in the middle of the board using the knife, but not all the way through. Make the hole big enough to fit the end of the shorter stick into. Have a tray and a bundle of tinder ready to light and a pile of wood for the fire. First loop the string around the center of the first bow and place the shorter bow in the socket of the board. Put the rock on top of the stick and begin to turn the stick with the bow. Add pressure to the socket and speed ones bowing until one has begin to see smoke and ash. Stop and knock the embers into the tray. Then transfer ember into ones nest of kindling and hold the nest tightly and begin to blow until fire. Then place into pile of bigger tinder and continue adding fuel. There is a lot of fuel for fire in the woods. Obviously dry wood is plentiful in the woods most of the time. If in the arctic moss, roots and lichen are also sources of fuel. A general rule of thumb is when gathering wood for a fire gather what one think is enough then triple that. If in an oceanic environment, driftwood makes great fuel. When carrying frail tinder, use a bottle or wallet to keep it dry and safe. Unless one is building a fire to be seen don’t build it too big and waste fuel. Remember to build a fire on a log or rock and not just on plain earth. Patience is important when lighting a fire one may not get it on the first try. Do not waste energy and body heat making a fire in cold weather unless it is absolutely necessary. There are ways to keep warm using things other than fire. Feathers can be used to 4 insulate. Fur and skin can also act as isolation. Oil can be gathered from animal fat to be used as water repellant. When in a cold environment watch for frostnip it is the first sign of frostbite. Be sure to control you sweating because it leads to hypothermia. If these steps are taken you just may survive. The last thing to consider is a shelter. Many think a shelter is hard to make because of the lake of supplies one would have available if stranded in the wilderness. The truth is there are some very easy and effective ones that can be made with little or no supplies at all. When one stranded, first make a shelter because when it is dark it is too late. The easiest is a lean-to. It consists of one diagonal stick five to six feet ong resting on two smaller sticks maybe two and a half forming an A-frame. On this can be laid on palm branches or any kind of covering that can be found n that specific environment. Remember when choosing a spot for a shelter choose one clear of debris and as conspicuous as possible. Also be sure to not choose a place that in the event of a flood will fill with water. A tree shelter is ideal incase of swamp or wetlands. Avoid place where there could be falling rocks or snow. Evergreen boughs can be fashioned to make a mattress. Caves are ideal when trying to escape rain and wind (Angier 128). Make sure ou make a shelter close to where you can get food and water. The mail objective when finding a place to sleep is not comfort but survival. (Angier 135). When choosing a site try to stay away form bushes that will contain troublesome insects. Take advantage of natural made shelter to save precious time and energy. After a long hike or in the morning are not ideal time to make a shelter because fatigue clouds ones judgment. In a emergency keep in a car or boat to avoid the elements. Smaller shelters keep you warmer and take less time to build. If in a arctic environment don’t build snow houses or igloos 5 hey are too complicated architecturally . If in a area with sufficiently deep snow dig a hole to use as a shelter. Be sure to build the snow shelter at the right angle to avoid snow being blown in by the wind. These are some easy ways to build and get the best out of your shelter. If you remember some of the tips and instructions you will do a better job of not just surviving, but thriving in the wilderness. This is to prove that surviving in the wilderness is a lot easier than one might think. It is easier than you think. if you have some simple knowledge and most importantly the will to survive you just might survive the wilderness.

Isolation And The Individual I :: essays research papers fc

Nothing is more apparent in the genre of satire than the ridicule of the vices and immoralities of society. This focussing on the defects of society as a whole doubles as a function of this genre of literature and a framework within the plot or theme of the novel or story. The satirist emphasizes the ugly ramifications of society, but to do so the satirist needs a vehicle for the observation of society’s actions and effects as a whole. This society is often represented as a microcosm or series of microcosms along a journey and the vehicle for the observation of the presented society is an individual located on the outside. To ensure that the individual is fully isolated from society and thus capable of objectively observing the follies of the world, the individual is given characteristics of a distinctive identity. The concept of an individual may be summarized in a statement made by Rick Hoyle: â€Å"The human self is a self-organizing, interactive system of thoughts, feelin gs, and motives that characterizes an individual. The self is reflexive and dynamic in nature: responsive yet stable† (Hoyle 2). Therefore, the outsider must be an individual, fully capable of organizing his or her thoughts and emotions and the consequences of each upon the self and the world. Logically proceeding the definition of the individual outside of society is the definition of society; a term that â€Å"can be used to designate the specifically relational system of interaction among individuals and collectivities† (Sanford 219). By positioning the polarities of individual and society in a conflict of values the satirist has created an effective method for criticizing society. The major trends the satirist may attribute to the individuals separated from society are the inability to integrate themselves into society, a certain degree of naivetà ©, and have definite flaws. These trends are apparent in the protagonists of the satiric novels: Mark Twain’s Hu ckleberry Finn Joseph Heller’s Catch 22 and Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Mark Twain’s satirical novel Huckleberry Finn has a main protagonist that is a precocious boy named Huckleberry Finn. Huck Finn’s initiation into society and society’s values is at Miss Watson and the widow’s home after his father’s death presents the civilized part of the society that Huck has not been exposed to before. It aggregates Huck’s education both as an individual and as a part of society up to the time when he sets out on a raft to Jackson’s Island; and his acceptance of Jim begins his exclusion from society.

Honor in Othello and Hamlet Essay

Being one of the central themes in Othello and Hamlet, honor is used in very strange ways by Shakespeare. He has a way of showing how his characters can be very honorable or have a lack there of. He displays how honor is interwoven with personal integrity and how acts of attempting to keep a reputation can be confused with the acts of personal integrity. Lastly, he also displays how honor relates to the foresight seen by his characters. Honor can be connected to almost any actions made by any of the characters in these plays. He really keeps the readers/viewers guessing at what the motivations are for all of his characters. I will take a look into these motivations and explain my thoughts on such things. In these plays, honor is very important to the characters. It is a driving force, of sorts, for much of what the characters do. Along with that, judgments made about certain characters, by other characters, are almost always based on honor. In Othello specifically, honor connects almost all of the actions and judgments throughout the play. Honor seems to be one of the main reasons Desdemona fell in love with Othello. Being much older and having so many military accomplishments sent Othello into an honorable light in Desdemona’s eyes. To me, that seems to be the sole reason she fell in love with him, in the first place. His own character influenced her love thereafter, but initially, I believe it was solely his honor. Cassio is also attracted to this quality in Othello. His platonic love for Othello is based around how honorable Othello has been in his life, prior to the end of the play. In Iago’s eyes, however, Othello’s honor means nothing. He cannot comprehend why Othello got the job he has, while he is stuck in the same position. Iago gives the impression that Othello’s honor is almost a negative thing in his eyes. Despite Iago’s negative views, every judgment about Othello is based on how honorable he is. His behavior prior to the end of the play shows this honor as well. In opposition to the honorable basis of thoughts about Othello, many characters choose less honorary behavior and are viewed dishonorably by other characters. Iago is a prime example of this. Not only do you see the lack of honor in quite literally everything Iago does, but you witness these negative thoughts about him as well. From Othello, you hear the sarcastically said â€Å"honest Iago†, and from Emilia, you hear many a complaint. Iago’s dishonorable behavior even produces dishonorable behavior from Emilia. She makes it seem like she constantly cheats on Iago, because of his neglectfulness. Dishonorable behavior is just followed by more dishonorable behavior, in Shakespeare. This could not be more true when it comes to Hamlet. The entire play is based around the central occupation of greediness and revenge. The play starts off with the fact that King Hamlet has died. Right away, when Hamlet talks to the ghost of his deceased father, we find out that he was killed by his brother Claudius. This one event (not to belittle it) sparks a string of dishonorable behavior from Hamlet, who was once considered to be a very honorable intelligent young prince. Hamlet’s cunning, yet destructive, behavior however, could be argued as honorable, to a point, by some. His actions are based on the need for justice, which most people have within themselves. They are done in order to avenge his father’s death and make right in the world. This could be argued to be a noble and honorable cause. It could be, but I don’t think it would necessarily carry much weight. Sure, the cause behind his actions are great, but the way he goes about achieving that cause loses much, if not all, validity. He tries to make right, but in the process of it all, he hurts Ophelia, which causes her to commit suicide, he mistakenly kills Polonius (with little or no remorse), and his actions lead to the death of almost all other characters. Hamlet should, of course, not be blamed entirely for these incidences. Obviously Claudius should bare more burden when it comes to all of these deaths. In means of applying this theme of dishonorable behavior being followed by more of the same: you could also argue that if Claudius had not killed his brother, than Hamlet may have never become as dishonorable as he became. He was, after all, in school, away from the kingdom. Presumably, Hamlet could have married Ophelia and led an honorable life as king after the natural death of his parents. ————- When it comes to Shakespeare’s characters, there seems to be something missing: Integrity. While characters may have some personal integrity within themselves, there doesn’t seem to be many that are driven by what is right, rather than driven for their own gains. Want of personal integrity lags far behind the want of reputation in these plays. There’s an abundance of instances where characters act with integrity, but few show this integrity throughout an entire play. A good example is Michael Cassio. For the first part of the play, to me, he seemed to have a lot of integrity. Despite his dispute after drinking, he felt terrible about it, and he wanted to make it up to Othello. It sounded like all he wanted was forgiveness from his good friend. That made him have a lot of integrity in my eyes. But in the end, he’s seen visiting the prostitute and leading her along, for the fun of it. Last of all, foresight in Shakespeare appears to be a quality with positives and negatives. The two largest forms of foresight in these two plays would have to be that of Hamlet and that of Iago. In terms of Hamlet: forgetting the terrible acts of violence and vulgarity that he committed in the spur of the moment, Hamlet’s foresight, when it came to Claudius, was very honorable. His use of foresight was to avenge his father’s death and to find justice in the world. Anything Hamlet did that was dishonorable had nothing to do with foresight; it had to do with his impulsiveness. In the other spectrum of things, Iago’s foresight is unquestionably dishonorable. His ability to perceive how people will react and what they will do in the future, while revered by Shakespeare the world over, is one of the most dishonorable instances in Shakespeare. His manipulation of people is only means of pitting them against each other in order to help himself in the future. After reading these plays, it is hard to decide whether or not honor can still be legitimately given to any character. In my eyes, Hamlet, Cassio, Iago, and Othello have all lost real honor. Sure, aside from Iago, the others have done honorable things, but I don’t think I could attribute any of them honor fully. The only characters I would consider giving that to would be Desdemona (for trying to save Othello at the end of the play) and possibly Horatio (for helping Hamlet discover find out about Claudius and choosing to not die in order to tell his friends story). I don’t think I could do that however, because these acts of honor do not serve entirely large parts of the plays. Honor is apparently a fickle thing. It will come and go in Shakespeare’s world. His plays make it very clear that he doesn’t believe many people can be truly honorable. Every once in a while he will convince us that one of his characters has this quality through and through, but he then snags that away from us. I’m convinced that, in these two plays, there is no truly honorable character. Some come close at moments, but spoils are constantly brought.

Benefits Of Genetically Modified Foods - 2708 Words

Autumn Gwinn UPLOAD TO TURNITIN!!!!!! English 4 Pd. 3 27 April 2015 Research Paper Genetically Modifying Foods Genetic engineering is a relatively new thing in early stages of development (Cummins 1). Genetically engineering something is done by altering or disrupting the genetic makeup. Some examples are microorganisms, plants, fish, trees, humans, and other animals (Cummins 1). Gene engineers move, get rid of, and add genetic material to something. There is even human genes and animal genes added to the DNA of other animals and plants, creating unimaginable life forms (Cummins 1). The products that are genetically modified currently are soybeans and soy oil, corn, potatoes, squash, canola oil, cottonseed oil, papaya,†¦show more content†¦For example, a synthetic pesticide called DDT was produced in..?. It turned out to harm animals. It built up and stayed in fish, and it thinned the shells of birds that ate the fish. The most common birds were the bald eagles and ospreys. Another development was chlorofluorocarbons that were used in refrigerants, propell ants, and the cleaning solvents. It turned out that they went up into the atmosphere and destroyed the ozone that protects humans from the sun’s radiation. The use of these developments were reduced significantly and DDT was banned (Union of Concerned Scientists 1). For the first time in the world, scientists are now the creators of new life (Cummins 1). This is a bad thing. Genetically modified foods are threatening to human health, animals, and the environment.----Thesis First, genetically modified foods are threatening to human health. The biotech industry says that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) states that genetically modified foods are safe for humans to consume. This is not true. Documents from the FDA released by a lawsuit stated that genetically modified foods are not really safe. They can cause all kinds of health issues. These documents also revealed that scientists tried to tell the FDA that they are not safe, but the FDA did not listen. Calgene developed the first genetically modified crop. They developed the FlavrSavr tomato and they had research to go along with it. Their data showed that lab rats had to be force fed.