The Beak Of The Finch :: essays research papers fc

The Bogus Logic of The Beak People who have served in the Armed Forces may be familiar with the expression, "If you can't dazzle then with your brilliance, baffle them with your baloney." The Beak of the Finch uses such laughable logic, it is remarkable that anyone would believe it. The book does such a terrible job of presenting a case for evolution and history, that the only logical conclusion is that the book's true intent is to disprove it.   Jonathan Weiner, The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994. ISBN 0679400036.   "It is never too late to give up our prejudices. No way of thinking or doing, however ancient, can be trusted without proof." --Thoreau, Walden This book claims to be about evolution, centered in the location made famous by Charles Darwin, the Galapagos Islands. I read this book on the recommendation of a good friend who knows I am interested in birds and thought I might get something out of it. Indeed, the few parts of the book actually about the Gouldian Finches of the Galapagos Islands are fascinating. The book records in detail some of the trials the Dr. Peter Grant family endured in studying these birds on a hot volcanic rock. However, the writers and editors of the book avoid simple logic and put a spin on history that is misleading. The facts and logic presented in The Beak of the Finch really make the book's author out to be a closet creationist.   It just so happened that at the same time I read this book, I was reading The Storm Petrel and the Owl of Athena by Louis Halle. Half of The Storm Petrel is on the bird life of the Shetland Islands, another isolated natural system. Halle, though an evolutionist, devotes a whole chapter on how the Shetlands and other islands conserve species. (Halle. 1970, 155ff.) Where species have changed their habits, it is most often due to adaptation to humanity. He compares the wild starlings, house sparrows, and rock doves found on the Shetlands with the more domesticated versions of these birds found on the continents--and to some degree even in the main village of the Shetlands. The island birds are more like their original wild forebears. I mention this now because it will come back to haunt us later.   Logical Fallacies By the first thirty or so pages I had found two logical fallacies and at least one historical inaccuracy in The Beak of the Finch.

Elements of Art Essay

Each work of art has elements of unity and elements of variety. Variety balances out unity and keeps things interesting. The center of interest or focal point is the place the artist draws your eyes first. Artists use balance in order to construct paintings. These elements of art such as unity, variety, focal point or area of interest and balance will be used to give you a better understanding. Examples from â€Å"Giorgio de Chirico† (The Mystery and Melancholy of a Street, 1914), â€Å"Pablo Picasso† (Seated Nude, 1909, Spanish), â€Å"Francisco de Goya† (Saturn Devouring His Children, 1819) and â€Å"Piet Mondrain† (Devotie, 1908) will be used merely as informational pieces to convey these elements of art. Some ways of creating unity might be to make everything in a painting a similar color, or a series of repeating shapes, or a consistent texture made with brush strokes. At times, variety coerces the eye to pay particular attention to that object. Variety occurs when an artist creates something that looks different from the rest of the artwork. For example, â€Å"Giorgio de Chirico†, (The Mystery and Melancholy of a street, 1914) depicts unity and variety with light/dark (cooler and warmer hues) various shapes and lines. Unity is depicted in the repletion of the square windows, directly above the repletion of archways alongside two buildings. Variety is depicted in the chosen colors and various shapes and lines. In â€Å"Chirico’s† oil canvas, variety is applied by the contrasting of warmer hues aside the cooler hues (light and dark) conveying both space/distance and receding/closeness. The unity and variety in this canvas is brought together through the repetition depicted on the two buildings, the warmer hues and light expressing depth and the cooler hues and dark expressing the closeness. These same principles of the elements of unity and variety, are depicted in â€Å"Picasso’s, Goya’s and Mondrain’s† Canvases. Artists emphasize certain parts of their artwork to stand out and grab your attention. This is called a focal point or area of interest. An artist applies a focal point or area of interest for the coercion of the viewer’s eyes. In â€Å"Picasso† (Seated Nude) the area of interest is establish with the choices of color. He has placed warmer hues (red, orange and yellow) throughout the body of a nude man sleeping. â€Å"Picass† emphasizes the man by a  focal point, using light to contrast the man’s shoulder, rib, chin and ear, thus attracting the eye to various cooler hues and forms. In â€Å"Francisco de Goya† (Saturn Devouring His Children) the coercion of the viewer is brought about with the contrasting colors. Here â€Å"Goys† has used dark (cooler) hues surrounding a man and his malice expression. Emphasizing the man are light (warmer) hues, thus depicting the devouring of the carcass of a woman. The devouring is emphasized by, blood (red hue) dripping down her arm from inside the man’s mouth. The viewer’s eyes are first coerced to the facial expression on the man’s face. These same principle of the element of the focal point or areas of interest, are depicted in both â€Å"Chirico’s† and â€Å"Mondrains’s† canvases. Balance is one of the elements of art, which is very important to artists and their work. By using balance to guide our attention around a work, artists give structure to our perception of it. Their are three different elements of balance an artist uses to construct their paintings. They are, (symmetrical balance), which means both sides of an imaginary line are the same, (asymmetrical balance), meaning each side of an imaginary line are different yet equal and (radial balance), meaning lines or shapes grow from a center point. However, in the reference pieces of, â€Å"Piet Mondrain† (Devotie) and Gorigio de Chirico† (The Mystery and Melancholy of a Street), â€Å"Pablo Picasso† (Seated Nude) and â€Å"Francisco de Goya† (Saturn Devouring His Children) an (asymmetrical) balance was used to construct these canvases. Both sides of this imaginary line are different yet equal, thus bringing together the other elements of art. Concluding, unity is the feeling that everything in the work of art works together and suggest that it belongs. Variety balances out unity and keeps things interesting. A focal point or areas of interest are used for the coercion of the viewer’s attention. Lastly, an important factor is balance. Artists use balance in order to construct a painting. All of the elements of art discussed here play an important role in designing of art. â€Å"Giorgio de Chirico† (The Mystery and Melancholy of a Street, 1914), â€Å"Pablo Picasso†Ã‚  (Seated Nude, 1909, Spanish), â€Å"Francisco de Goya† (Saturn Devouring His Children, 1819) and â€Å"Piet Mondrain† (Devotie, 1908) were used merely as informational pieces to convey these elements of art.

Influence Of Natural Selection Has On Rabbits - 1505 Words

The Influence and Effect Natural Selection Has On Rabbits Introduction Years ago Charles Darwin created the theory of natural selection. He attempted to explain how evolution worked, and his theory is now regarded as correct. Natural selection states that animals with traits that are better suited to their environment will survive and reproduce more. This would explain how evolution works. Groups of animals with the most beneficial traits survive and are able to reproduce. While the other group has difficulty surviving and would therefore reproduce less. The variation between that type of animal would come from a random mutation which turned out to be useful. An animal may get a mutation which is either beneficial or disadvantageous to the organism (1). As time progresses there are a larger amount of animals with the beneficial trait, while there is a lot less animals with the older trait. Natural selection correlates to the phrase â€Å"survival of the fittest† meaning that animals with beneficial traits will survive, while those without will di e (2). Theoretically, this could lead to an entire change of the population; leaving only the group that can survive easily and produce more offspring. The purpose of the lab executed was to see what would happen to the traits of rabbits over generations as alleles in the new rabbits change. In the lab there were two types of rabbits--furred rabbits and naked rabbits. Having fur was the dominant trait and no fur was the recessiveShow MoreRelatedGenetic Bottlenecks The Founder Effect Introduction The concept of evolution is sometimes1500 Words   |  6 Pagesallele frequencies over time. With the population being the smallest unit which can evolve. Any measurement smaller than this is classified as a basic mutation which occurs in all individuals. 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