Saturday, December 6, 2008

Practice Final

Technology is driveing our lives without excuse, no body around the world can reject the technology, even if we do not like it, or cannot deal with it. Although the technology is very important for our lifestyles, online banking may be a greatest thing we can take as an example of technology. Online banking has many advantages, such as finding the best price since you are at home (Ball, 2008), and it safes your time, so you do not have to spend your time looking for financial operations. Nevertheless, online banking has many risks that push people to be curious about it. It might an easy way to steal your money, lose merchants, or doubled money in your bills.
First, in the Internet many people used their ability provisionally to steal the credit card numbers, and account numbers. "credit card companies lose about $I billion a year to credit card fraud” (Murlean, 2008, para.5). Hackers are standing behind this kind of crimes; they have several ways to mimic the site of real stores, or they pretend the owner of some single proprieties like cars, so some people fill in this trick, and lose their cards, and their money.
Second, many goods might be lost in the operation times; the company might really send the items, but the customer does not receive it, so one of them must pay the cost; moreover, some of these merchants come with different size or quality; so the consumer cannot return it back to the company. In some cases, companies might lose around $10 billion annually (Murllean, 2008).
Finally, in some online banking, you might pay more than you think; the bills of your financial operations might hold unbelievable numbers; one time AT&T company sent to me a $700 bill to my address, I tried with them several time; at least I bought $548 with non right, the problem came from the doubling of their bills, doubles in the a mounts and in the times; however, I quit my deal with them.
Some people argue that online shopping is" not only a time saver, but it allows you to get great deals when you compare prices of the same items from different online shops” (Robertson, 2006, para.1). This is a fact, but the risk of the online shopping is still dangerous of our money; also we do not find big gaps between price in the market and online price. Moreover, the items take several days to reach your home, but you can take it from the store once you pay the money.
In addition, some people argue that online shopping is quite safe (Ball, 2008); actually, I completely disagree, because the numbers show the opposite of this argument. “According to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, there were over 205,000 complaints of internet commerce related fraud reported in 2004, …, Forty-eight percent of those complaints were regarding Internet auctions, while 17 percent were related to sales of merchandise” (Robertson, 2006, para.2). Therefore, we cannot give validity of this argument, because we already knew many cases that destroyed this argument from the beginning.
In conclusion,if we want to use Internet for shopping, we must learn how to deal with the technology. Also we must take care about our secret information, because there are many thieves behind the screen, and we must care about our goods that may have lost their directions, and always count your bills very carefully, or if you need my advice; keep far away from online banking.

REFERENCE

Ball, G. (2008, April 15). Is using a credit-card for online purchases safe? Education Redefined. Retrieved May 5, 2008, from http://www.bsu.edu/security/article/0,1384,86674-5031-17009,00.html

Murlean, J. (2008, March12). Protect yourself. MSN Money. Retrieved May 5, 2008,from http://www.moneycentral.msn.com/content/savinganddebt/Finddealsonline/P36487.asp

Robertson, C. Stay safe while shopping online. Retrieved May 5, 2008 , from http://www.majon.com/articles/shopping_-_General/shopping_online_126.html

R.P . Peregrine Falcon

Most people around the world like peregrine falcon, including me; “The peregrine falcon is a bird of prey. Adults have blue –gray wings, dark brown backs, buff colored underside and white faces with black tear stripe on their cheeks” (Peregrine Falcon, n.d. para. 1). These wonderful birds have an amazing shape, which grabs all people to look at them. There are more than 1650 breeding pairs in the United States and Canada (Peregrine Falcon, n.d.). The peregrine lived in the past in the cliffs or high mountain; however, they changed their habitats after World War II, when they were going to be extinct. Recently, you can find the peregrine in urban areas, big cities where there are metropolitan bridges or skyscrapers. Peregrines replaced their habitat because they faced the risk of death by industrial chemicals. However, this is not their only big problem. Falcons have many enemies, whether they know it or do not know it that contributed to driving them to disappear.
There are three kinds of enemies that threaten the falcon’s lives; natural risks, which contributed and killed and destroyed many species, human activities, that still changed our environment and threatened our biodiversity, and predator’s animals, which destroyed the falcon’s eggs before they hatched, or eta small chicks before they can fly. These innocent birds cannot face all of these risks alone; they need some of our assistance to protect them and protect our biodiversity.
First, natural risks that are caused by changing climate lead many species to replace their habitats. Global warming, which changes the world weather, forces the falcons to migrate to other places they have not used before; in some places, global warming changes the bird’s habitats, so they may adapt to change their population. "Some of them left the desert or cliffs, and replaced them with high buildings or bridges in the cities (Lem, 2008, para.12). In addition, some “use other unconventional nest sites such as old Common Raven nests on electric pylons, Osprey and cormorant nests on channel buoys, abandoned Bald Eagle nests along the Pacific Coast, an emergent dead tree snag in California, and special towers in salt marshes. Recently they have even extended their nesting range to such an unexpected location as Cuba” (White, 2002, para.4).
Also, huge storms usually bloom in the desert more than in the cities, so they have found the cities safer to live in. The heavy rains also might destroy their nesting, or kill small chicks; however, the greatest effect is from the wildfire which burned thousands of hectares in California and in other states, and we know there are hundreds of species live in these areas, but they might killed or escape far away to survive.
There is many scientists efforts to watch falcons population growing; however, biologist Byron Crow in Western Montana, who is concerned about the peregrine falcon, monitored by his camera the mother falcon, who laid four eggs in her nest, and after they hatched and the chick moved, she destroyed and ate the small birds. This event is very strange behaves! Mr. Crow and other researchers found a few flame chemicals, which generally used on wildfires (Struckman, 2008). All of these disasters influence the falcon’s nests and populations, and make their lives under risk. We should offer good places to the peregrine falcons; these birds, like any animals need rapid intervention, and we can collect their eggs, and use high technology to hatch them before regular times. People have much experience with birds in falconries, so we can learn about small falcons in clean environment; then we can release them in new places where there are no wildfires, or strong disasters.
The second problem is human activities such as industrial firms, which use large amounts of chemicals. According to Marla Cone (2008, para.1) in her article, “California’s peregrine, once driven to the edge of extinction by the pesticide DDT, now is contaminated with record-high levels of other toxic chemicals that may threaten them again.” While the industrial chemicals are necessary for our high quality protection, it is still a principal resource to harm all organisms’ lives. Furthermore, some people who admire pigeons cause many problems of peregrines; they might shoot the falcon or poison them. “Gunners, game wardens, and pigeon fanciers shot adult falcons, which were viewed as vermin” (Beans and Niles, 2003, para 90). Governments and environmentalists can manage a plan to breed falcons far away from the cities; urban falcons have many problems in the urban area like pollution, and with other bird’s owners, so it is appropriate to find another clear environment to breed falcons.
Another risk for peregrine falcons, that nests near the beaches comes from people’s movement near the coasts; falcons “nest in coastal marshes disturbance by boats; jet skis, or curious people, construction near falcon nests located on buildings or bridges during the breading season may cause abandonment” (Beans and Niles, 2003, para.5). We cannot prevent people from using the shore for their interests, but we can transfer the falcons to unobtrusive place near the coast; we have a large space of pure coast in the United States. As they did in the 1970s, they can make new boxes in the area near the sea, instead of old ones in the cities, which is going to be another risk that threatens small hawks.
Another threat comes from dangerous people who called falconers; they usually hunt falcons or take their eggs to hunt other birds or small animals. We know there are many people who desire to hunt the falcons! Generally, people do that for many reasons; for instance, they use them to hunt other birds, or sell them to the people, who are able to teach them in the falconry; this trade is common in the Arab Gulf countries, especially in Saudi Arabia, and we are not surprised of that, if we know the cost of peregrine falcon might be set from $15,000 to $70,000 (Parfitt, 2005). People try many ways to catch it alive; sometimes, that put prey into nets, then the falcon lands in the net and may be stuck in it. Some people in the Arab Gulf take this kind of hunting as a habit, and some of them use it as a sport. However, they might hurt the falcons, or force it to leave the country, and this is immoral and illegal in most countries including Saudi Arabia.
Furthermore, in the United Kingdom, Mark Foster (2008, para.5) wrote, “ According to the charity's Bird crime report, there were 1,190 reported incident relating to wild birds last year, an increase of more than 50 percent on the previous year's total of 726,” and one of these crimes are shooting; actually I don’t know why they are shooting the falcons. The governments should punish people who are trying to hunt falcons or who shoot them just for fun, or another fake reason, and they should regulate hunting operations if that is necessary.
Because the falcon considered a great hunter, some people established falcon’s trade, so the number of his price has risen very high; as a result, some people attend to collect the eggs and small chicks from the nests, and then breed them in a falconry, after it become adults, they teach them how to hunt; after that sell them to the hunters. However, they may use illegal ways like smuggling the falcons; for example “in Mongolia, the birds are trapped, drugged and wrapped in cloth. They are then crammed into suitcases and put on trains and aircraft, or smuggled on foot through the borders” (Prafitt, 2005, para. 4) This is a bad method to sell peregrines, Governments must track these smugglers and give them harsher punishment.
Finally, some small animals such as raccoons or other species, usually attack the falcon’s nests, or their chicks. Some of these animals destroyed the falcon’s eggs before they hatched; in the Peregrine Falcon, success story
(n.d., para.6) the author states, “Predators such as raccoons and great-horned owls occasionally take eggs or chicks from the nests.” The result is that the numbers of falcons are declining. The place of falcons should be secure and safe; small chicks cannot defend themselves from raccoons or owls, and this factor contributed to the famous immigration of falcons to the urban areas, where there are no more owls or raccoons (Peregrine Falcon, Wildlife in Connecticut, n.d)
If we breed falcons in the new place, we should protect them by keeping these dangerous animals far away from the falcon’s nesting. However, we can breed animals’ that can scare owls, such as crocodiles, or the raccoons, and create the right atmosphere for them to be able to adapt to these conditions; at the same time they can expel these harmful animals.
Some people argue that they want to use industrial chemicals, because it is necessary for our industrial economy; however, though argument seems good on one side, and if we do not have another choice, we can agree with this argument, the United States and other countries have quit using some of these dangerous chemicals, and replaced them with other safe ones. In addition, if that is necessary we can reduce our use to the reasonable amounts without affecting our lives. Other people claim they want to protect their pigeons or other kinds of birds that were threatened or killed by peregrine falcons. As the author of American Peregrine Falcon (n.d., para. 6) states, “The increasing population of peregrines has presented new risks to other endangered or sensitive birds such as California Least terns and Marbled Murrelets.”
Therefore, they might shoot the falcon or poison them. Moreover, “Gunners, game wardens, and pigeon fanciers shot adult falcons, which were viewed as vermin” ( Beans and Niles, L.2003. para.1).We cannot treat the risk with another risk; we can transfer falcons to another place where people do not have properties, and we have experience that the United States used do that in the past. The government of the United States began to protect them and their nests; they used a hacking technique, which depend on transfer small falcons into boxes on cliffs or tall buildings; these boxes are supposed to protect chicks from bad weather and dangerous predators (The Peregrine Falcon, n.d.).
There are many falconers, who earned thousands of dollars from falcon’s hunt demanding the governments allowed them to hunt and trade in falcons. In the hunts, they use two ways; in one of them they takes the falcon eggs and breed it in the falconry; after they hatched, they train them to catch prey. Otherwise, they catch adult falcons by putting the prey in the net to attract falcons to fall in the nets, and then capture the falcons.“Falconers prized these birds for their excellent hunting ability and often took chicks from nests to be trained in the ancient art of falconry” (Peregrine Falcon, n.d. para7). After this dramatic describing of hunts, we refuse these ways, because they are illegal and lead to overhunting that threatens the extinction of hawks; on the other hand, it forces the falcons to migrate from places frequented by falconries to other places probably more dangerous.
Some countries like Saudi Arabia prevent falcon hunting, because it endangers birds, but Saudi hunters travel to the Sahara or to Africa to bring falcons! All countries must regulate this frantic race before the falcon is extinct forever. In addition, they must organize the ways of hunting because some people use strange tricks to catch the falcons. In Mongolia, hunters put pigeons in plastic; when the falcons try to take the pigeon, he gets trapped in the plastic. “The pigeons often escape, leaving the falcons entangled in plastic to die slowly” (Parfitt, 2005, pare9). Governments can manage this matter by regulating the time and the number of birds, which they can use for hunting or international participation sports. However, they must keep the number for hunting under natural average.
In conclusion, diversity is very important to keep natural stability. Every kind of species must be protects by local rules and global agreements; we can keep our environment full of kinds of species that give our life wonderful shape; we can protect falcons against his enemies, terrible disasters, and dangerous human operations that affect the lives of birds, animals, and human beings.
In addition, we can protect small falcons and eggs from raccoons attacking by moving one of them to another place, or breeding other animals like alligators, that can make raccoons think twice before they attack the falcon’s nests.


REFERENC

American Peregrine Falcon (falcon peregrinous anatum). Texas Parks and Wildlife (n.d.). Retrieved November 2, 2008 from http://www.tpwd.state.tx .us/ huntwild/ wild/species/ amperegrine/

Barfitt, T. (2005, March 26). Smuggled trade threatens falcons with extinction. Telegraph.co.uk.news. Retrieved November 29, 2008, from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/mongolia/1486550/

Beans, E B, Niles, L (2003). Endangered and threatened wildlife of New Jersey, Rutgers University. Retrieved November 29, 2008, from http:// books.google.com/books?id= Aihurc8pfokc8pg =

Clayton, W., Clum, N., Cade, J., and Hunt, G. (n.d.). Peregrine Falcon, Falconied issue no. 660. Retrieved October 25, 2008, from http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna/species/660/articles/introduction

Cone, M. (2008, May 9). A new toxic threat to bird of prey; The state’s peregrine falcons, once victims of DDT, again face a deadly contaminant: flame retardants. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved October 16, 2008, from Lexis Nexis database.

Lem, S. (2008, August 18). Lord of the sky; 4 decades after DDT ban, the peregrine falcon is off the endangered list, The Toronto Sun, page 10. Retrieved October 16, from Lexis Nexis database.

Peregrine Falcon, a success story. (n. d.).Chesapeake Bay Field Office, U.S. Fish & Wildlife science. Retrieved October 27, 2008, from http://www.fws.gov/chesapeakebay/peregr.htm

Peregrine Falcon, (n.d.). Defenders of Wildlife. Retrieved October 25, 2008, from http://defenders.org/wildlife and habitat/wildlife/peregrine/falc.

Peregrine Falcon, Wildlife in Connecticut. (n.d). Retrieved November 29, from http://books.google.com/books?id=AihUrC8PfOkC&pg=PA91&lpg=PA91&dq=threaten+of+falcon&source=web&ots=m685gzfCFR&sig=XJjEqThSvCrNKMcGGLAJdyV1hWs&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=7&ct=result#PPA90,M

Struckman, R. (2008, May 23). Odd falcon behavior maybe linked to chemicals used to fight wildfires, New West. Net .Retrieved November 29, 2008, fromhttp://www.newwest.net/topic/article/odd_falcon_behavior_may_be_linked_to_chemicals_in_fire_retardant/C41/L41/

White, C. M., Clum, J. N, Tom, J. Cade, T.J and Hunt,W.G. (2002). Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus), The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole, Ed.). Ithaca: Cornell Lab of Ornithology; Retrieved from the Birds of North America Online: Retrieved 12/1/2008, from http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna/species/66 doi:10.2173/bna.660

Thursday, December 4, 2008

R.P.

ABSTRACT

The topic of this paper is the peregrine falcon. It argues about how we can protect these rare birds, which have a bad experience with extinction, there are three ways to protect them; we can learn how it faced its old problems, and how much they affects their lives, what the personal solutions are we can present to protect peregrine falcon, and what the governments can do to solve these problems out side of our borders.

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Invention

Flu# 7 Invention

Invention

Do we still need new inventions? Recently, every thing is under our control by one click. In the internet, you can bring anything while you are taking a cup of tea in your warm bed. Most global trade runs by computer. Relationships among people changed from letters or telegraph to life messengers, chat rooms, Facebook, and many others. Rich people have high technology in their houses, starting from access technology system to servant robot. Every day in the military, agriculture, Irrigation, and education, or you can add in all fields of knowledge, inventors surprised the world by incredible inventions. Do we need more? I think we keep encouraging those people to continue their fantastic jobs; however, we need some inventions in our relationship, we need some people who create a new language, a new dialogs among people rather them violence, conflict and terrorism.

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Mohammed
Flu# 6
Vacations

All people I guess are waiting for a long holiday. It is a great time to relax. Many people work hard whether they work or study. People who have children in school are waiting for a few days of holiday to join their children to enjoy a vacation. For me, I like to travel. Most of my vacations spent in Egypt. This is because not only my wife is from Egypt, but also because it is very nice place I have seen. In Cairo, the capital of Egypt, the people approach you with their good smile, and high respect. If you know Arabic or if you find someone to talk in the English language, you will be a lucky man. They have ways to simplify everything, and that is what you want in your vacation. Actually, a few of them might ask you for some money; however, they have several ways to get it with your big smile. The city was a historical city, because it was built before around 1000 years ago. In addition, you can find new regions beside the old one. In Cairo, tourists usually visit many places. The most important place you can visit is the pyramids. The pyramids were built 4000 years ago by pharaoh’s civilization. In Cairo, there are many amazing things such as the Nile River, the longest river in the world; also, it has an underground train, they call it Metro, which can take you along the crowded capital city in few minutes. When I drove out of Cairo, particularly on the Alarish road, I saw an amazing road; we found a tunnel under the sea that was several miles long. It was dangerous when we crossed with my family under the sea in that tunnel by our car; while we reached the middle of the tunnel, we observed some water inside the tunnel, but no way, we have to complete the road to the end, because the traffic blocked the second one, so we had to wait for the other cars to move. I encourage all people to visit Cairo; it is a wonderful place.
Mohammed
Fe# 5

Election
It is the first time I have seen an election in the United States. In Saudi Arabia, we do not have election to choose our president, because we are applying the Royal System. Three years ago, we started in Saudi Arabia to vote in municipal councils and chambers of commerce, and other civil matters. So it is not big surprise when we see the election here. However, the important thing that I observed here, widespread media coverage, and the professionalism which conducted by CNN channel, which tempted me and my family to watch this matter to the end. My family and I surrounded my laptop, my small daughter yelled Obama, Obama, and all of us want Obama to win. My wife and her neighbors standing out of their apartments talked about who is winning. In my side, I could not close my eyes; in seconds the number of voters maybe changed, and I did not want to lose this historic moment. In the end, they declared Obama the next president of the United States! What a big historical moments! All my family, each of my neighbors yelled in one voice, my small daughter the most happy person. I do not distinguish our happiness. Is this because Obama has Islamic assets, or we have seen liberty back to America. However, direct event and information technology that are given another taste of the election.

Monday, November 24, 2008

Happy remined

When I was child, I did many things to stay happy. Actually, I was very lucky because I had many neighbors, who shared my interested childhood. Every day, after we finished our school, we gathered near my house. Some times, we played soccer; speared ourselves as two groups. In fact, we did not have real playground. However, we put some big stones as goal. Furthermore, we pretended as real players. Some of old neighbors might took our balls, and let us very sad. In the day after, we bring other ball, and complete our games. Some times we called other friends to make match with them. In that’s time, we cannot offered real cup, so we created it from glasses, or plastic. After any groups won, they take the cup as a good reward they had ever seen! If we were not interested in soccer, we had many games to play. However, one of them involve putting seven small stones on top of each, and kick it by small ball, the team who kick the ball run away; another team tries to bring the pall and hit the other players before they return the stones as it are. It is very interesting game. In that’s time children more energy than these days. Today, our children setting near the electronic games. They do not using their bodies, only one part of their bodies is work. I think this is bad way to spend their times. I hope we can create new games that help our children to unloading their physical energy. Maybe after several years, they memorize a happy times.