Response To Americas Altered States Essays - Psychiatric Diagnosis

Response To Americas Altered States Response to America's Altered States Joshua Wolf Shenk raises numerous provocative arguments in this essay dealing with the culture of drugs in America. He rejects the easy answers to questions of drug abuse and searches for deeper philosophical meaning. His main thesis raises an interesting point: America is addicted to both illegal and legal drugs. Shenk then attempts to address questions relating to this point. Why are Americans so dependent on drugs? What makes a drug good or bad? Shenk arrives at no definite conclusions, but brings many difficult questions to the surface. Americans must identify the philosophical reasons of why we desire the effects drugs produce, in order to form a reasoned opinion on the drug problem of this country. It is difficult to react to a paper with so many different points, but overall, I agree that America is addicted to all kinds of drugs. I also think that this is a problem, which does not have any easy answers. The economy does have a lot to do with increasing our dependence on drugs. The questions at the bottom of this moral dilemma are not easily answered. Why do humans long for escape from themselves? Is it because of the lack of fulfillment modern society provides? Or is it part of human nature, independent of time or place? I don't have the answers to these questions, but I do believe that searching for this escape in drugs is wrong. Dependence on a chemical of any kind is detrimental to one's well being. That is why I steer clear of most drugs in any circumstances. They simply aren't worth destroying myself for the short-term benefits. Bibliography Joshua WOlf Schenk, Americas ALtered States Social Issues

Lesothosaurus - Facts and Figures

Lesothosaurus - Facts and Figures Name: Lesothosaurus (Greek for Lesotho lizard); pronounced leh-SO-tho-SORE-us Habitat: Plains and woodlands of Africa Historical Period: Early Jurassic (200-190 million years ago) Size and Weight: About six feet long and 10-20 pounds Diet: Plants Distinguishing Characteristics: Small size; large eyes; bipedal posture; inability to chew About Lesothosaurus Lesothosaurus dates from a murky time in geologic historythe early Jurassic periodwhen the first dinosaurs had just split into the two main dinosaur groups, saurischian (lizard-hipped) and ornithischian (bird-hipped) dinosaurs. Some paleontologists insist that the small, bipedal, plant-eating Lesothosaurus was a very early ornithopod dinosaur (which would place it firmly in the ornithischian camp), while others maintain that it predated this important split; yet a third camp proposes that Lesothaurus was a basal thyreophoran, the family of armored dinosaurs that includes stegosaurs and ankylosaurs. One thing we do know about Lesothosaurus is that it was a confirmed vegetarian; this dinosaurs narrow snout had a beak-like appearance on the end, equipped with about a dozen sharp teeth in front and many more leaf-like, grinding teeth in the back. Like all early dinosaurs, Lesothosaurus was unable to chew its food, and its long hind legs indicate that it was very fast, especially when being pursued by larger predators. However it winds up being classified, Lesothosaurus isnt the only ancestral dinosaur of the early Jurassic period that has continued to puzzle paleontologists. Lesothosaurus may or may not have been the same creature as Fabrosaurus (the remains of which were discovered much earlier, thus giving the name Fabrosaurus precedence if the two genera wind up being merged, or synonymized), and it may also have been ancestral to the equally obscure Xiaosaurus, yet another tiny, basal ornithopod native to Asia.