Ecology

Definition

o Intuitive knowledge based, hunter gatherer societies

o Greek Philosopher Theophrastus: “balance of nature”

o Darwin: creationism cannot be right:

o Fossil record, extinctions, competition, selective pressures:

o “Struggle for existence” and  “descent with modification”

o Ernst Haeckel: coined the term Ecology

o from the Greek root “Oikos” meaning “home” or “place to live”

o same root as “economics or “management of household”

o Haeckel’s definition: “..ecology is the study of all of the complex interrelations referred to by Darwin as the conditions for the struggle for existence.”

Branches of modern Ecological Science:

· Organismal Ecology:

Distribution and Abundance of Organisms (Andrewartha, Krebs)

o Plant Ecology

o Plant Geographers late 1700’s

o Role of climate: similarities in plant communities

o Moisture, temperature, soil type

o Early US plant ecology focused on succession:

o development of plant communities, disturbance recovery

o Plant Physiology: limiting factors

· Animal Ecology

· Physiological Ecology: tolerance optima

· Behavioral Ecology: Sociobiology

· Population Genetics and Ecology

o Combination of Darwin’s “survival of the fittest” with Mendel’s inheritance mechanisms:

o Adaptation and Evolution- major themes in modern Ecology

o Population Genetics: Hardy and Weinberg

· Community Ecology

· Theoretical Ecology: mathematical models

Ecosystem Ecology; Systems Ecology:

Limnology origins

Structure and Function of Nature (Odum)

Flow of biomass and energy

Applied Ecology

· Conservation Biology

· Pollution Impacts

· Restoration Ecology

· Landscape Ecology

· Ecosystem Management

· Scientific Method:

· Reductionism vs. holism

· Emergent characteristics

· Hypothesis driven- testing knowledge

· Inductive Method: Descriptive/Observational Science “natural experiments” Natural History

· Deductive Method: Experimental Science

· statistical/quantitative analysis

· correlation vs. dependent/independent variables

· replication, controls

· Models: statistical, conceptual, simulation

· Tools of modern Ecology

· Observation-Censusing

· Molecular Biology-population genetics

· Biotechnology-Risk Assessment

· Physiology

· Histology

· Remote sensing

· Analytical Chemistry

· Taxonomy, phylogenetics

· Statistics

· Geology

· Paleontology

· Ethology

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Gabriel

Review:

The movie was great. But the ending was not pretty good cause I don’t like tragic endings. It makes me feel sad.

Summary:

Since the beginning of time, heaven and hell have fought over purgatory and the souls trapped inside it. Each side has sent seven warriors: Arc angels from heaven, Fallen angels from hell. They must assume human form to enter purgatory. Hell has attained control, transforming purgatory into a dark, seedy city. The last Arc, Gabriel (Andy Whitfield), endeavours to discover what has become of his comrades and to restore the Light.

Upon entering purgatory, Gabriel first visits the Arc angel Michael’s apartment, finding it abandoned. Meanwhile, four of the seven Fallen—Sammael (Dwaine Stevenson), AsmodeusBalan (Brendan Clearkin), and Baliel—gather and Sammael kills an insubordinate Baliel, so reducing the Fallen’s number from seven to six. While walking through the city, Gabriel receives a vision about the whereabouts of his comrade Uriel (Harry Pavlidis). However, the leader of the Fallen, Sammael, senses Gabriel’s presence and sends the Fallen Molloch (Goran D. Kleut) to kill him. Gabriel fights and kills Molloch, then proceeds to the city’s outskirts. He finds a dishevelled and alcoholic Uriel hiding in a rundown bus. Uriel explains that the Fallen can sense Arcs when they use their powers, and teaches Gabriel to conceal his bright blue angel eyes. He also reluctantly tells Gabriel what happened to some of the other five Arcs: Remiel was killed before Uriel arrived; and Amitiel (Samantha Noble), who now calls herself Jade, was defeated by Sammael, stripped of her wings, and forced to work as a prostitute; the whereabouts of Ithuriel (Matt Hylton Todd), Raphael (Jack Campbell), and Michael are uncertain, but Raphael is most likely hiding in the East Side of the city and it is thought that Sammael has killed Michael. (Michael Piccirilli),

Gabriel travels back to the city, and finds the brothel where Amitiel works. He also encounters Asmodeus, the Fallen who runs the brothel. Gabriel rescues Amitiel and kills the Fallen Balan who tries to rape her. He then heals her of the drugs she has been taking to dull the pain of her job. Amitiel takes Gabriel to the soup kitchen where the Arc angel Ithuriel hides. Initially angry at Ithuriel for abandoning his mission, Gabriel eventually shows him compassion and understanding. Ithuriel takes Gabriel to the abandoned tunnels beneath the soup kitchen where the gravely wounded Raphael dwells. Gabriel heals Raphael, expending much of his strength. After rebuking Gabriel, Raphael explains that Sammael draws his immense power from the other Fallen. Gabriel proposes to take out the remaining Fallen one by one, before finally facing Sammael. Raphael is unconvinced, as Sammael has already killed the stronger angel Michael.

Gabriel fights and kills the Fallen Ahriman (Kevin Copeland), then returns to Michael’s apartment where he sketches a picture of Amitiel. In retaliation to Ahriman’s death, the Fallen Lilith (Erika Heynatz) kills Uriel, Asmodeus kills Ithuriel, and Sammael kills Raphael. Driven mad by anger, Gabriel’s eyes turn bright brown, the colour of the Fallen. He returns to the brothel and viciously kills Asmodeus. Amitiel comforts Gabriel and they make love. Gabriel then travels to a nightclub and kills Lilith, injecting her with several full vials of Ahriman’s drugs. Gabriel chases Sammael to the nightclub’s rooftop.

Sammael refuses to fight Gabriel, instead asking him to listen to what he has to say. He explains how he despises being an angel, a being created entirely to serve others. He sees purgatory as a chance to take control of his own destiny, and asks Gabriel to join him. Refusing his offer, Gabriel unwillingly realises that Sammael is actually the Arc angel Michael, his closest friend. Apparently, Michael had killed the Fallen Sammael and assumed Sammael’s identity. The two angels fight, but because Gabriel has used up so much of his strength helping the other Arcs, Michael has the advantage. Michael ultimately impales Gabriel’s chest with a metal pipe. Gabriel admits that during his time as a human he has felt rage and anger, but he has also felt other positive emotions that Michael hasn’t. Gabriel embraces Michael, which drives the metal pipe through Michael’s chest, and tells Michael that he forgives him. Both angels collapse. Michael uses the last of his strength to heal Gabriel’s wound, then dies. Light returns to purgatory.

Kneeling in front of Michael’s dead body, Gabriel shouts at God asking Him whether this is what He wanted. The healed Gabriel moves to the edge of the rooftop, and muses that he needs to understand why all this happened. He outstretches his arms, and lets himself fall. His final words are, “Forgive me.” A post-credits scene shows Gabriel, (wearing different clothing, minus tattoo and has the eyes of a Fallen), joining Jade and smiling.

Nancy Drew

Review:
The story was pretty amazing. I am fan of series of books of Nancy Drew. It was great. The actors were so great. Good movie!

Summary:

Nancy Drew (Emma Roberts) and her father (Tate Donovan) move from River Heights for a few months and rent a house in Los Angeles which Nancy herself has chosen, due to it being the home of a murdered movie star, Dehlia Draycott (Laura Harring). Draycott died mysteriously following an extended disappearance. which was featured in the tabloids. Despite the mystery, Nancy’s father has forbidden her from further sleuthing and encourages her to focus on high school and being normal.

Due to her talent, intelligence and straight forward, honest personality, Nancy cannot fit in at school, so she reverts to solving mysteries. She traces Dehlia Draycott’s disappearance to having had a child and giving it up for adoption in privacy. She learns that Jane Brighton (Rachael Leigh Cook), a single mother, is Draycott’s true daughter and beneficiary of a will that has since disappeared. She receives a threatening phone call telling her to get off the case, but contacts her father’s business associate, Dashiel Biedermeyer (Barry Bostwick), who is the lawyer of the Draycott estate.

Meanwhile, Nancy’s friend, Ned, shows up in town, along with Nancy’s blue car, saying he’s visiting for a while. Inga and Trish, two girls who think they are fashion gurus, find Ned “cute”. Inga starts to stalk Ned everywhere and tries flirting with him. Inga is also Corky’s sister. Corky is one of Nancy’s new friends who also has a crush on her, and has some tense moments with Ned, since it is quite obvious that Ned has a crush on Nancy. With Inga and Trish, they go to a restaurant, and as they walk out, Nancy finds a bomb in her car. She throws it into a sewer, and it explodes as she leaves, and Ned rushes to her side.

Jane arrives on Nancy’s doorstep to tell her that her child has been taken away from her. She knows that none of the charges of misconduct are true, and reveals that, after Nancy left, a man showed up on her doorstep to threaten her. Nancy demands that her father take up Jane’s case; he agrees, and Jane stays with them. While they are watching a movie Dehlia Draycott starred in, Nancy realizes that she must have hidden her revised will in a prop from one of her movies. As soon as she tracks down its location and recovers the will, she is kidnapped by the villain’s henchmen, who have tracked her using her cell phone’s GPS, which was given from “her father”, but was actually given from the henchmen.

Nancy soon escapes and recovers the will, but gets into a car crash and must go to the emergency room. Her father, along with Biedermeyer, arrives and demands to know what is going on. She admits she has been sleuthing and explains that she has found Draycott’s true will. Biedermeyer offers them a ride home so he can sign a business deal with Carson Drew. Nancy realizes that he is the one who was disinherited by Dehlia’s will, that he is “Z”, who was Dehlia Draycott’s supposed love, and jumps from the car. Biedermeyer catches her and threatens to “squeeze it out of her”, but Nancy first asks him a question. Biedermeyer answers back saying that Dehlia went a bit crazy after her reappearance. He also said that he was not the father of Jane, it was Leshing. Biedermeyer then demands the will. “It’s right here,” Nancy says, and then kicks him and runs off. Biedermeyer and his henchmen corner her and are about to kill her when the groundskeeper, Leshing (Marshall Bell), knocks them unconscious. The will is restored to its rightful owner. Jane is able to get back her daughter and converts the Draycott mansion into a home for single mothers, and the Drews return to River Heights. Back at River Heights, Nancy is sad that the mystery is over, though she denies it. Ned is found outside, applying a convertible top to the blue car. The two share a special moment and he kisses her. Then Nancy receives a phone call from Scottland, telling her they have a case for her to solve. It has something to do with “The Loch Ness Monster” and “Stolen Diamonds.”

Enchanted

Giselle (Amy Adams) lives in the blissful animated world of Andalasia, where animals are talkative companions and musical interludes punctuate every interaction. She dreams of her true love and builds a statue to represent him from her dream with the help of her chipmunk friend Pip and other forest animals. As she sings about true love’s kiss (in a song aptly titled “True Love’s Kiss”), Prince Edward (James Marsden), a handsome and good-hearted, but somewhat dimwitted and egotistical, prince, hears her voice in the forest and rescues her from a troll. Giselle and Edward get engaged to be married the next day but her fate takes a turn for the worse on her wedding day when his stepmother, the villainous Queen Narissa (Susan Sarandon), throws her through a magic portal to “a place where there are no happily ever afters” in order to keep her stepson single and thus remain queen.

Giselle’s plunge into darkness lands her in the live-action world of modern day New York City, where she meets Robert Philip (Patrick Dempsey), a divorced lawyer who takes her into his apartment despite believing that she is crazy and worrying about the safety of his young daughter Morgan (Rachel Covey). The next morning, he becomes angry when he and his daughter find Giselle has called rats and other vermin to clean their apartment and that she has constructed a dress using material cut from his curtains. Nancy (Idina Menzel), Robert’s soon-to-be-fiancée, walks in to find Giselle on top of Robert after Giselle had just tripped and accidentally landed on him. Giselle is dressed only in a towel, having just got out of the shower, and Nancy leaves assuming the worst. Robert goes to his office with Giselle, who starts crying after finding out that one of Robert’s clients is getting a divorce, thus bringing everybody down and causing Robert’s boss to reprimand him. Robert takes Giselle outside the building to Central Park.

At the end of his patience, Robert decides to leave Giselle, but rejoins her after seeing her give the money he gave her to an old woman. During their walk through Central Park, Giselle questions Robert on how he displays his affection for Nancy and spontaneously starts the musical production number “That’s How You Know” with everyone in the park performing with her. Giselle sends Nancy an apology on Robert’s behalf, along with tickets to the King’s and Queen’s Ball. Charmed, Nancy accepts. Meanwhile, Queen Narissa’s henchman Nathaniel (Timothy Spall) follows Edward and Pip, who have journeyed to New York to save Giselle. They stop at a motel, where Nathaniel questions himself and his relationship with Narissa after watching a soap opera. He sneaks out to give Giselle a poisoned apple, while Pip, unable to speak in this world, has a frustrating time alerting the Prince of the minion’s intentions. Nathaniel tries twice to poison Giselle, only to be stopped by Pip, and Narissa becomes infuriated.

As Giselle stays another night in Robert’s apartment, Robert tells her he will help her because he does not believe Edward will show up. She becomes aggravated and then giddy when she discovers that she is experiencing anger for the first time. They both stare at each other for a moment and realize they are falling in love. Edward finds Giselle the next morning and, at her insistence, they go on a date around New York. She suggests that they go to the King’s and Queen’s Ball that evening while Edward gets her to agree to return with him to Andalasia right after the ball. Giselle and Edward arrive at the ball and greet Nancy and Robert. After Nancy and Edward pair off to dance to the song “So Close“, Giselle dances with Robert. As Robert softly sings the lyrics to her, Giselle realizes that Robert is her true love. Nancy decides to cut in. Giselle and Edward leave for Andalasia but as she waits for Edward, Giselle is visibly upset.

Narissa suddenly appears as the old hag and offers Giselle an apple that she says will make her forget the whole experience. Giselle takes a bite and collapses on the floor. Narissa then attempts to take her away, boarding the elevator with her, to die of the poison, but Edward stops her at the last second, blocking the closing doors with his sword. Narissa claims Giselle fainted as Robert and Nancy run to her aid. A remorseful Nathaniel appears and confesses to all that she was poisoned with his help. Narissa attempts to bewitch Edward, but Nathaniel restrains her. He reveals that if the spell is not broken before it is midnight, Giselle will die. Robert remembers true love’s kiss and Edward tries to revive Giselle with it, but it doesn’t work. He is alarmed, for Giselle’s sake, but then realizes that Robert might be her true love, and asks him to try the kiss. He hesitates at first, as he has only known her for a few days and does not know how he could be her true love, but at Nancy’s encouragement, he kisses her. Giselle awakens and embraces Robert, but Narissa uses the distracting moment to break free. She transforms into a dragon, declaring that she is going to kill them all. She plans to start with Giselle but Robert intervenes and is promptly seized. Narissa snatches Robert and lures Giselle to the top of the building. Giselle chases Narissa up the building, wielding Edward’s sword, as Edward releases Pip to help her. With help from Pip, the dragon falls from the roof, and Giselle uses the sword to stop Robert from falling to his death. Narissa tries to transform back into a human, but crashes onto a rooftop before she can complete the spell and dissolves into glitter on the pavement. Giselle and Robert still almost fall off, but manage to catch themselves at the last second, and they kiss on the roof. Nancy leaves with Edward to Andalasia and they get married. Robert and Giselle open up a boutique, where they are assisted by both humans and animals. Both Nathaniel and Pip become successful authors in the modern world and Andalasia respectively. The last scene shows Giselle, Robert and Morgan playing together and living happily ever after as a family.

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enchanted_(film)

For me, there is!…continuation…

I remember the first policy paper that entitled “Is there a Philippine Public Administration?” that we made. That question lingers on me. It is, somehow, question to myself. But when our instructors in the subject of Introduction to Public Administration told us that there is no Philippine Public Administration? Yes. Our instructors is somehow right because that is her opinion. There is really no Philippine Public Administration because she said that Philippine doesn’t have the qualities and we are jut relying in American public administration. She’s right on that matter. But if you think of it, there is a Philippine Public Administration somehow. Because we do have our own government that governs people who is considered as the public and public administration is the action in the government. In Reyes’ paper, it tackled about that we only use the references of American Public administration. In all of the thing that should be a reference are from it. Also the ideas, thoughts, experiences, and practices were done in America. It is unfair to have this situation. Although, it help us managing the government or some field where there is public administration, it’s difficult to apply it to ourselves for our government and the milieu that we have grown up is very different from them. Using it as references may help us somehow but it is good to have our own.

Only a Residue?…continuation.

I also don’t believe that Public Administration is just a residue of Political Science. if it is only a residue, why is it Public Administration is much broader that political science? Why is it Political Science defined as it literal meaning that just rely on word in it? Political Science has been defined as its origin. But when it comes to the word Public Administration, you will be in a deep thinking. You will also connect it to the other private administration or what we called business administration then into politics. Why politics? Of course politics in it. For politics is a part of public administration. And like Nigro and Nigro described that public administration, as a part of political process. and White stated in his writings that it (public administration) composite of all laws regulations, practices and so much more. Now, Public Administration is not only a residue of political science but it is a form part of each other.

Defining "Public Administration"…a continuation.

Defining Public Administration is very difficult. So there will always be contradictions of ideas just to define it. But what makes me more interested in reading the article, was when Reyes included the idea of Mosher. I just realized then that being in the field of public administration is only a choice. He’s right when he said that it is best not to defined for more it is an area of interest than a discipline, more focus than a separate science. He is right because it’s not really an exact figure or exact thing that you have to learn it forcibly but it is a figure that you are the one should mold it for it is your interest. It’s your choice that you choose. And it’s not really a paper that you will read to know what is all about it.However, it a practicing course where you’ll also learn things and developed it as years passed by. I know exact science can also be changed but as it will stay as it is unlike of the public administration where you developed it but the things you’ve known or read will be changed for you will have your opinion or on your own views.

Public Administration: Theoretical Propositions of Different Personalities

Public Administration is a very broad field. There’s a lot of view of many individuals. From being a residue of Political Science, said by Danilo R. Reyes, it become a very broad definition by connecting it to the other broad categories and studies. As it may seem, Danilo R. Reyes has elaborated the said topic and write this paper for a review in all writings. He tackled the views of many personalities that have been known for their writings in the field of Public Administration. There are ideas of the authors that contrary to each other. But what makes them similar is that they are experienced in the said topic.

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