President Franklin D. Roosevelt :: Franklin D. Roosevelt

Franklin D. Roosevelt is proclaimed to be the first modern president of the United States. In fact, after a closer look, one could say FDR created the modern presidency. With his establishment of rhetoric as an important tool, he learned to speak directly to the American people, who then thought of him as a trustworthy person. FDR also established the United States' military base and put into motion many of the first steps towards alliances with other nations. His time in office also saw the addition of foreign policy as the executive office's job, as well as the creation of the Executive Office of the Presidency. All these additions in FDR's terms allowed him to define the executive's job, which helped to declare him the first modern president. One of FDR's strong points was rhetoric. He used it as an effective means during his terms to communicate with the American people. Previously, rhetoric held little importance for presidents, but after FDR and the beginning of the modern presidency rhetoric was an important element of the job. As Greenstein says, 'FDR [provided] a benchmark for his successors (22). He also changed the context in which speeches were given. When past presidents, such as Lincoln, gave speeches, they were to commemorate things, such as graveyards and memorials. When FDR began his presidency, he changed that. His speeches were not just to commemorate things, they were to inform the public, as well as explain things to them. For example, when FDR took office he began the practice of giving 'Fireside Chats,' which effectively used the new technology of the time. By speaking to the public over the radio, FDR established a bond with American people. He did this because of the way he spoke. Not only was FDR ca lm when talking about serious subjects, like the banking crisis, he was never condescending to the American people either. By treating the American people as equals, and referring to them as 'my friends,' FDR made the American people want to listen to him, and furthermore, believe what he said. Through this great use of rhetoric, FDR caused the public to calm down about the banking crisis, and also to give the banks another chance. Over the course of twelve years in office, FDR gave several Fireside Chats, which helped to boost the public's opinion of him. At the same time he was giving public speeches, he was also establishing a bond with the

Chronicles of Narnia

Chronicles of Narnia The Chronicles of Narnia research paper The Chronicle of Narnia is a very interesting book, it has a classic Good vs. Evil plot. In this story four brave children a saved land. The book and the movie did not have many differences except for some that were small. To begin the plot of the book, the story takes place during the Second World War in London. Their father was gone in the war and they were living with their mother, there city was getting bombed so they were forced to evacuate. Their mother sent them away to live with Professor Digory Kirke who lived on the country side. They were very bored on a rainy day in England and decided to play hiding go seek. Lucy who was the youngest child was the weakest emotionally and was many times rejected cause of her young age. While in the house playing the game she stumbled upon a room in the back of the house hidden and secluded, were she decided to go. Struggling to find a place to hide she came upon a wardrobe. While in the wardrobe she discovers that it was a portal to a snow covered forest. She was so amazed by her unexpected path into this hidden world, while searching a looking around this land she met a faun. He introduces himself as Mr. Tumnus who invites her home for some tea. Once in the house he began to talk to her, telling her about Narnia an how once it was a beautiful land until it was taken over by the evil White witch who covered the land in snow. After speaking with Mr. Tumnus on this, she had to return to her home, having spent hours in Narnia, to find that only a few minutes have passed in England. She finds her sibling an explains to them of her indifferent experience in a strange land called Narnia. She is unable to convince the others of her adventure as the wardrobe now appears merely as a wardrobe. Several weeks later another game of hide and seek is going on when Lucy and Edmund both hide in the wardrobe, and find that It leads to Narnia. This time in Narnia Edmund and Lucy both have different experiences. While in Narnia, Edmund fails to catch up with Lucy and encounters a pale lady on a sledge, after reviling her identity Edmund is unaware of her evil hold on the land of Narnia and that by using him she can gain acces to the other children an stop the prophecies from being fulfilled, but she wins him over with a few Turkish delights. After returning from Narnia this time Lucy has someone who can tell of their adventure but Edmund denies all things that happened in Narnia and the land itself. A few days later all four children scramble to avoid Mrs. Macready who is showing some visitors around the house. They hide in the wardrobe and find themselves in Narnia. Lucy guides them to Mr. Tumnus’s cave were they found that he had been arrested by the White Witch for having Lucy in his cave, they also ransacked the cave and destroyed all things. A pair of two talking beavers (Mr. and Mrs. Beaver) who shelter the children and recount an ancient prophecy that the witches power will fail when the two sons of Adam and two daughters of eve will fill the four thrones at Cair Parvel. The beavers reveal that the true king of Narnia is great Lion King named Aslant. Edmund, who is still caught up in the witches lies runs away to her castle still thinking she is honest with, while the other children go off in search for Aslant who is the only one at the time with guidance and a solution . When Edmund arrives at the White Witches’s castle she treats him badly when she finds out that he did not return with his siblings, which was the only reason she befriended Edmund. Meanwhile the children find aslant and speak with him the go off in search for their betraying brother. They save Edmund just as he is about to be killed. This presents a problem because although they saved him the witch has claim to all traitors, but aslant (who is the representative of good and purity), sacrifices himself in his place, for one who is pure can serve as a sacrifice in the place of one who is impure. Aslant is sacrificed, but comes back to life through a deeper magic. Afterwards the children wage war against the evil White Witch an her army in a classic Good vs. Evil fight. In the Final Battle the white which is destroyed by aslant and the prophecies are fulfilled. Then the children are then taken to the castle were they see that the people of Narnia have been freed from the evil witches bondage ,then the four children are then named the Kings and Queens of Narnia.. There were some differences in the book but the movie played out nicely although it exaggerated such things, the author’s purpose was not lost. Some differences about the book and movie were that in the movie the white witch froze the whole land of Narnia but in the book they were stone. Also in the last battle the movie portrayed the witch as the ultimate fighting machine who was unstoppable and killing everyone but in the book she didn’t come to the fight until the end an she only tried to kill Peter. Also at 1:45 movie time you see the beavers telling the children of the prophecy when in the book Aslant revealed this to them. Other than that the movie and the book had the same things in common the authors point was never really lost due to the fact that this author past years ago but his stories an legacy live on an were portrayed well in the movie. ?

A Guide to the History of Mongooses

Mongooses are members of the Herpestidae family, and they are small carnivorous mammals with 34 separate species found in about 20 genera. As adults, they range in size from 1-6 kilograms (2 to 13 pounds) in weight, and their body lengths range between 23-75 centimeters (9 to 30 inches). They are primarily African in origin, although one genus is widespread throughout Asia and southern Europe, and several genera are found only on Madagascar. Recent research on domestication issues (in the English language academic press, anyway), has principally focused on the Egyptian or white-tailed mongoose (Herpestes ichneumon). The Egyptian mongoose (H. ichneumon) is a medium-sized mongoose, adults weighing about 2-4 kg (4-8 lb.), with a slender body, about 50-60 cm (9-24 in) long, and a tail about 45-60 cm (20-24 in) long. The fur is grizzled gray, with a markedly darker head and lower limbs. It has small, rounded ears, a pointed muzzle, and a tasseled tail. The mongoose has a generalized diet that includes small to medium-sized invertebrates such as rabbits, rodents, birds, and reptiles, and they have no objections to eating the carrion of larger mammals. Its modern distribution is all over Africa, in the Levant from the Sinai peninsula to southern Turkey and in Europe in the southwestern part of the Iberian peninsula. Mongooses and Human Beings The earliest Egyptian mongoose found at archaeological sites occupied by humans or our ancestors is at Laetoli, in Tanzania. H. ichneumon remains have also been recovered at several South African Middle Stone Age sites such as Klasies River, Nelson Bay, and Elandsfontein. In the Levant, it has been recovered from Natufian (12,500-10,200 BP) sites of el-Wad and Mount Carmel. In Africa, H. ichneumon has been identified in Holocene sites and in the early Neolithic site of Nabta Playa (11-9,000 cal BP) in Egypt. Other mongooses, specifically the Indian gray mongoose, H. edwardsi, are known from Chalcolithic sites in India (2600-1500 BC). A small H. edwardsii was recovered from the Harrappan civilization site of Lothal, ca 2300-1750 BC; mongooses appear in sculptures and associated with specific deities in both Indian and Egyptian cultures. None of these appearances necessarily represent domesticate animals. Domesticated Mongooses In fact, mongooses dont seem to have ever been domesticated in the true sense of the word. They dont require feeding: like cats, they are hunters and can get their own dinners. Like cats, they can mate with their wild cousins; like cats, given the opportunity, mongooses will return to the wild. There are no physical changes in mongooses over time which suggest some domestication process at work. But, also like cats, Egyptian mongooses can make great pets  if you catch them at an early age; and, also like cats, they are good at keeping the vermin down to a minimum: a useful trait for humans to exploit. The relationship between mongooses and people seems to have taken at least a step towards domestication in the New Kingdom of Egypt (1539-1075 BC). New Kingdom mummies of Egyptian mongooses were found at the 20th dynasty site of Bubastis, and in Roman period Dendereh and Abydos. In his Natural History written in the first century AD, Pliny the elder reported on a mongoose he saw in Egypt. It was almost certainly the expansion of the Islamic civilization that brought the Egyptian mongoose into southwestern Iberian peninsula, likely during the Umayyad dynasty (AD 661-750). Archaeological evidence indicates that prior to the eighth century AD, no mongooses were to be found in Europe more recently than the Pliocene. Early Specimens of Egyptian Mongoose in Europe One nearly complete H. ichneumon was found in the Cave of Nerja, Portugal. Nerja has several millennia of occupations, including an Islamic period occupation. The skull was recovered from the Las Fantasmas room in 1959, and although the cultural deposits in this room date to the latter Chalcolithic, AMS radiocarbon dates indicate that the animal went into the cave between the 6th and 8th centuries (885-40 RCYBP) and was trapped. An earlier discovery was four bones (cranium, pelvis and two complete right ulnae) recovered from the Muge Mesolithic period shell middens of central Portugal. Although Muge itself is securely dated to between 8000 AD 7600 cal BP, the mongoose bones themselves date to 780-970 cal AD, indicating that it too burrowed into early deposits where it died. Both of these discoveries support the intimation that Egyptian mongooses were brought into southwestern Iberia during the expansion of the Islamic civilization of the 6th-8th centuries AD, likely the Ummayad emirate of Cordoba, 756-929 AD. Sources Detry C, Bicho N, Fernandes H, and Fernandes C. 2011.  The Emirate of Cà ³rdoba (756–929 AD) and the introduction of the Egyptian mongoose (Herpestes ichneumon) in Iberia: the remains from Muge, Portugal.  Journal of Archaeological Science  38(12):3518-3523.Encyclopedia of Life.  Herpestes. Accessed January 22, 2012Gaubert P, Machordom A, Morales A, Là ³pez-Bao JV, Veron G, Amin M, Barros T,  Basuony  M, Djagoun CAMS, San EDL et al. 2011.  Comparative phylogeography of two African carnivorans presumably introduced into Europe: disentangling natural versus human-mediated dispersal across the Strait of Gibraltar.  Journal of Biogeography  38(2):341-358.Palomares F, and Delibes M. 1993.  Social organization in the Egyptian mongoose: group size, spatial behaviour and inter-individual contacts in adults.  Animal Behaviour  45(5):917-925.Myers, P. 2000. Herpestidae (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed January 22, 2012 http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich. edu/site/accounts/information/Herpestidae.html.Riquelme-Cantala JA, Simà ³n-Vallejo MD, Palmqvist P, and Cortà ©s-Sà ¡nchez M. 2008.  The oldest mongoose of Europe.  Journal of Archaeological Science 35(9):2471-2473.Ritchie EG, and Johnson CN. 2009.  Predator interactions, mesopredator release and biodiversity conservation.  Ecology Letters 12(9):982-998.Sarmento P, Cruz J, Eira C, and Fonseca C. 2011.  Modeling the occupancy of sympatric carnivorans in a Mediterranean ecosystem.  European Journal of Wildlife Research  57(1):119-131.van der Geer, A. 2008  Animals in Stone: Indian mammals sculptured through time.  Brill: Leiden.