Rice Essays - Rice, Oryza Sativa, Paddy Field, Glutinous Rice

Rice Rice is the main food for about one-third to one-half of the world's population. A mature rice plant is usually two to six feet tall. In the beginning, one shoot appears. It is followed by one, two, or more offshoots developing. There are at least five or six hollow joints for each stalk, and a leaf for each joint. The leaf of the rice plant is long, pointed, flat, and stiff. The highest join of the rice plant is called the panicle. The rice grains develop from the panicles. (Jodon, 300) Rice is classified in the grass family Gramineae. Its genus is Oryza and species O. sativa. It is commonly cultivated for food in Asia. Some varieties of rice include red rice, glutinous rice, and wild rice. (Jodon, 303) The kernel within the grain contains most of the vitamins and minerals (298). The kernel contains thiamine, niacin, and riboflavin (299). Rice has many enemies that destroy a majority of the rice crops. The larvae of moth, stem borers, live in the stems of the rice plants. Some insects suck the plant juices or chew the leaves. Birds, such as bobolink, Java sparrow, or paddybird, would eat the seeds or grains. Disease causing factors such as fungi, roundworms, viruses, and bacteria also destroy the rice plants. Blast disease is caused by fungi which causes the panicles containing the grains to break. (Jodon, 300) There are various types of rice grown all over the world. A majority of rice grown is cultivated rice. When rice is grown with water standing on the fields, it is called lowland, wet, or irrigated rice. Rice plants grown in certain parts of Asia, South America, and Africa are called upland, hill, or dry rice because they are raised on elevated lands that cannot be flooded, but with plentiful rainfall. Wild rice is grown along lake shores of Canada and the Great Lakes. It is usually eaten by people in India. Scented rice is the most expensive because is has long grains and tastes like popcorn when cooked. Glutinous rice is waxy rice consumed by Asians. It is cooked to a sticky paste and is used for cakes and confections. (Jodon, 299) Rice was thought to have originated in southeast Asia when Alexander the Great invaded India in 326 B. C(Jodon, 303). Further research revealed that rice was cultivated around or at the Yangtze River in China, around 4000 to 11,500 years ago. One archaeologist, Toyama, surveyed data on 125 samples of rice grains, plant remains, husks, and other factors from numerous sites along the length of the Yangtze River. He reported that the oldest samples. . . are clustered along the middle Yangtze in Hubei and Hunan provinces. Samples from the upper and lower portions of the Yangtze River were found to be younger, around 4,000 to 10,000 years old. This pattern. . .suggests that rice cultivation originated in the middle Yangtze and spread from there. Archaeologists see more than a decade of excavation of the Yangtze River and nearby sites to confirm that the Yangtze River is where rice was first cultivated. (Normille, 309) The Greeks learned of rice when Alexander the Great invaded India around 326 B. C. Spain was introduced to rice when it was conquered by the Moors during the 700's A.D. Spain then introduced rice to Italy, around the 1400's. The Spanish also introduced rice to the West Indies and South America, around the 1600's. Rice was introduced to the United States when a Madagascar ship docked in the Charleston, South Carolina harbor. The ship captain presented the governor with a sack of seed rice. It was then grown in states south of the Ohio River and east of Mississippi. (Jodon, 303) Rice is usually grown in lowland fields divided by dirt walls (Jodon, 300) A majority of the rice crops are grown with water standing on the fields (Jodon, 299). On level land, these paddies and dirt walls are built in wavy or straight lines. On hill-like land, they follow the slopes and form paddies that rise like steps. The dirt walls are used to hold in water for the fields. (300) Cultivation of the rice plant requires controlling the water supply and weeding the

The history of mankind Essays

The history of mankind Essays The history of mankind Paper The history of mankind Paper Throughout the history of mankind the term â€Å"good health† has carried a different meaning depending on the time and culture that one is studying. For example, because of the advances in medicine and technology, the life span of an individual has almost doubled since the days of the dark ages. But, even in today’s society the term â€Å"good health† does not carry a blanket definition for all in th is day and age. One nation’s healthcare system may be a major priority while another’s may be given less concern. I believe that in our own country â€Å"good health† has been warped and distorted in its meaning. As a person sits and relaxes in front of the television, a bombardment of commercial and info-mercials attack the viewer, telling him that the present state of his body weight is unacceptable. Images of hard bodied men and women flash on the screen every few second in an attempt to coax the viewer into purchasing a diet plan or exercise regime in order to achieve the â€Å"perfect† body. â€Å"The idea that peace, joy, and well-being come from outside ourselves is reinforced in so many different ways in our culture† (Ornish 144). But, can a good healthier body be attained from a wonder drug being hawked at two in the morning? I believe not. Good health begins in the mind. Once a person can look at his body with a complacent mind, then he can analyze which direction to take to improve his health, that is, if improvement is really necessary. Only after one finds peace with the decision made can that person begin the journey to better physical health. And more likely than not, a change in lifestyle will have more effect than any pill or weight set. Another way this nation has been seduced into a warped view of good health would be the paper thin super models that pop out in almost every magazine or television ad we see. I believe this assault to be far more dangerous than the muscle bound men and women that push diet plans and heavy machines. This attack has taken many more victim in its pursuit to present the ideal figure. Many teenage girls have fallen for this trap and allowed their weight to drop well below medically acceptably levels. Whether by starving, binging and purging, or abusing diet pills and laxatives, many of these blinded teens have done severe damage to their internal organs, all this in pursuit of what they believe to be the socially acceptable figure. Again all this finds its way back to whether or not their minds are in a proper state of good mental health. It is an extremely difficult road to travel in order to correct the damage done to the body when it is abused with such radical methods of diet control. Many times professional help is required to set the wrongs to right. But, good health just doesn’t limit itself to the physical body. As you may have noticed from the previous examples, the mind plays an extremely important role in the person’s health. The old saying, â€Å"Garbage in. Garbage out†, has for the most part always been used as a reference to what we eat, but it can also apply the mind. If a person allows himself to be tricked into a quick-fix to the perfect body, then what state is his mind in. And, what will his mind tell his body to do in order to accomplish what it believes is right in terms of dieting. In other words, â€Å"Garbage in† = believes socially driven definition of the perfect body which lead to â€Å"Garbage out† = reacts by implementing a dangerous diet or faulty work out regime. As I stated earlier, the mind plays an extremely important role In a person’s health. A person’s beliefs, experiences, and education lead to a thought process that paves the way to a happy and content life or a meaningless and usually unhappy life, which in turn strongly mirrors itself into the physical body. But, when â€Å"you do the right thing, when you start living in a way that’s consistent with your values, your heart my began to heal† (Ornish 167). As a whole, we need to work at strengthening our minds and stop looking for guidelines to our appearance from the media or a faulty peer group. The image they present can be severely warped and at times tragically fatal. We need to care for the mind first, and the body will follow. â€Å"The more inner peace we experience, the more we can enjoy life as it unfolds before us† (Ornish 145). Bibliography : Ornish, Dean, M. D. Love and Survival: The Scientific Basis For The Healing Power Of Intimacy. New York: HarperCollins, 1998

Group-Work Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Group-Work - Essay Example After the experiment was over, members of Group A and Group B were asked to reflect upon their experiences and share them with the rest of the class. On one hand, members of Group A said that factors that helped them win the contest included friendship among the group members, assignment of roles and responsibilities to one another with mutual consensus, mutual respect and harmony among the group members, and good use of time because of lack of conflicts. On the other hand, members of Group B said that factors that obstructed their way to success included but were not limited to lack of understanding of the group members, interpersonal conflicts because of differences of views and opinions, and the waste of time because of assignment of roles to incompetent group members. Members of Group B were further asked to suggest ways to improve the effectiveness of their group since they had had a bad experience working as a group. They said that it is very important for the group members to take some time at the start to understand one another's strengths and weaknesses in general and those related to the task assigned in particular. This might not apparently seem a very good idea since it is a little time-consuming and exposes the weaknesses of the group members along with their strengths, but it saves a lot of time and energy in the long-run that is otherwise wasted when the weaknesses show up at the eleventh hour. The process can be as simple as conducting a meeting on day one.