Obdurodon - Facts and Figures

Obdurodon - Facts and Figures Name: Obdurodon (Greek for tough tooth); pronounced ob-DOOR-oh-don Habitat: Swamps of Australia and South America Historical Epoch: Miocene (23-5 million years ago) Size and Weight: About one foot long and a few pounds Diet: Insects and crustaceans Distinguishing Features: Broad, flat bill studded with teeth About Obdurodon The prehistoric platypus Obdurodon used to count as one of the exceptions to the rule that every modern creature had a plus-sized ancestor lurking millions of years back in its family tree: this monotreme (mammalian egg layer) was about the same size as its modern playtpus relatives, but its bill was comparably broad and flat and (heres the main difference) studded with teeth, which adult platypuses lack. Judging by this dental equipment, paleontologists believe Obdurodon made its living by digging with its bill into the soft silt near lakes and rivers and eating whatever crawly things lay exposed (such as insects, crustaceans and the occasional small fish). As ancient as it was, Obdurodon wasnt the first platypus ancestor to appear on the prehistoric scene; there were also the early Cretaceous Teinolophos and Steropodon. We say used to in the paragraph above because a new discovery has placed Obdurodon squarely in the megafauna mammal category: a three-foot-long species (diagnosed on the basis of a single tooth) that was recently discovered Down Under, in sediments dating from 15 million years ago. Besides its size, Obdurodon tharalkooschild was distinguished by its highly developed teeth, which it used to crush crawfish, crustaceans, small vertebrates including birds and lizards, and possibly even the occasional turtle!

Financial strategy Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Financial strategy - Coursework Example Since, the two world wars and lot of scientific inventions, risk has been defined in many ways. When we go to the bus stand for the bus, various degree of risk is involved having different severity of accidents. Sometime risks may be voluntary or some risks may be trivial while other may be fatal. It may be argued that since the birth of civilization only risks have been responsible for any major advancement. In ancient times, risk taking cavemen lived with abundance of food and risk averse starved to death. In terms of financial theories and practice the risk management is equating risks with hedging. Organizations prosper not by avoiding risks but by managing risks to their own advantage. Ancient trade across the continents flourished because of risk taking and management. The key reason for Europe’s prosperity is risk management. In 1921, Frank Knight summarized the difference between risk and uncertainty with an example. â€Å"Two individuals drawing from an urn of red an d black balls; the first individual is ignorant of the numbers of each color whereas the second individual is aware that there are three red balls for each black ball. The second individual estimates (correctly) the probability of drawing a red ball to be 75% but the first operates under the misperception† (Knight 1921). ... Risks provide opportunities for a good outcome out of a bad situation. If the reward outmatches the hazard of disaster, people are ready to take risks. If a firm is conscious of the risks it is undertaking, it is going to formulate strategies based on the decision. The Institute of International Finance (December 2009) has defined risk culture as â€Å"as the norms and traditions of behavior of individuals and of groups within an organization that determine the way in which they identify, understand, discuss, and act on the risks the organization confronts and the risks it takes† (2009). It is essential that the risks are challenged by the core group of decision makers with an objective to develop a spirit of nurturing buoyancy and inculcating an environment for continuous improvement, in line with the strategic aims of the organization. Business risk is related to political and social environment of a country. During the war on terror and US attack on Iraq, the air travel bec ame very risky and the insurance cost and cost of flying were many times higher than the previous prevailing rates. Similarly, in today’s world condition in Afghanistan is a threat for any kind of manufacturing business. Thus, no company would like to establish a factory in Afghanistan. Therefore, we observe that a lot of trading is going on these days in this region of the world. The uncertainty of terrorism has created a status of risk in almost the entire world for the last couple of decades, more appropriately since US invasion of Iraq. As a result of risk investment has moved out from this region. Despite the fact the countries in these regions are offering business incentives to the investors but in view of the high risk for capital and life,

Assessment Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Assessment - Assignment Example The NAEP has ensured a variety of adjustments in schools since its inception. To increase its scope of application, the Congress has ensured that NAEP gains popularity by providing facilities required in ensuring that it is fully operational. The National Assessment tool is the preferred tool because of its universality since it can be used to compare methods of teaching alongside comparing performance in almost all parts of the world. NAEP as an assessment tool works under the principle of random selection. When it is used, students from various schools are randomly selected within each state to be part of the assessment. The assessments are often conducted in areas such as reading, science, arts and other disciplines in the United States since it is the region which uses the method mostly. NAEP has been widely used in the United States by the Education Department since 1969 (Jay 177). The major purpose of the assessment is to enable education policy makers, parents and the media to analyze students’ progress in various subjects so that deductions can be made to improve the education system or general classroom performance. During the assessment, not all the students are engaged in the process. Only selected students are chosen for participation to act as sample. The sample of students are picked from all public schools in the US and non public schools because the major aim is to enable all students demonstrate in depth knowledge and skills learnt by performing numerous scale scores. The National Assessment of Educational Progress is probably one of the best assessment tools in the world. It reports data results for the entire country hence enables the government compare results for the states against the results of the entire country. The trend of the results which is used nationally to compare academic progress of students between the ages 9 to about 17 are often reported at the state level rather than at school or individual level in order to avoid a situation where schools are competing for grades. One advantage of using this method as an assessment tool is that biasness is reduced because of the fact that random selection is used in assessment. The random selection ensures that no state school whether public or non public gain more advantage over the other. The results are not printed for the schools or individuals. This makes the assessment tool the best method and tool in conducting assessment since it avoids biasness and eliminates rivalry due to the fact that there is no competition involved (Ryan &Shepard 227). During the process of conducting the assessment, it is not just based on short and prolonged responses; rather, other methods used also include multi choice and oral method applications. The results of the assessment tool are compiled by the Education Department in states in the entire nation to compare the results of the students in both public and private schools. Such results are compiled using tables or scalab le vector graphics stored as slides in soft copy or printed in hard copy. Other than trying to compare results for each school within one academic year, it can be used to compare changes in performance of students from one year to the other. The results can be shown or reported using maps. After the release of the results, they can as well be used when doing analytical procedures that will help in improving the

Gender, Authority and Dissent in English Mystical Writers Essay Example for Free

Gender, Authority and Dissent in English Mystical Writers Essay The Book of Margery Kempe certainly provoked an intense amount of controversy, not least in the present but in her own time as well; a debate that centred on her position as a mystic. This position entailed having true knowledge of God, to work towards a union with him where they would essentially become one. Margery Kempe, at the very least views herself to be one of Gods vessels through which He can allow her to experience spiritual visions and feelings. It is in her book that Kempe conveys through words what she considered to be the most significant of these experiences, in order that those who read them would derive great comfort and solace. It is Kempes individual and brilliant adaptation of what was originally a discipline for cloistered elites1 that draws attention to her. Yet it is this individual voice, the style she uses, and her firm relationship with the market world that questions her experiences of higher contemplation. Certainly Kempe does not conform to the solitary life of a conventional mystic, much like Richard Rolles statement of running off into the woods, and at one point she is even sorrowful and grieving because she has no company. Yet she uses many of her interactions with others to confirm her position as a mystic. She visits the revered mystic Julian of Norwich to seek advice as to whether her visions were genuine or not (Chapter 18), and receives confirmation from Thomas Arundel, Archbishop of Canterbury. Essentially what it has been suggested that Kempe experiences is a higher level of contemplation positive mysticism. This was the search for God through human imagery, which insists on the physical as a legitimate means of access to the spiritual.2 Certainly one of the standard patterns in mystical experience were the feelings of love between the mystic and God which is often described as fire, hence Rolles Incendium Amoris. Kempe notes that there was an unquenchable fire of love which burnt full sore in her soul, and that Christ had set her soul all on fire with love. Thus the intensity of her visions can not be brought into question as she certainly shares with [the tradition] a mystical sense of God at work in human experiences.3 These human experiences included her own body, as she suffers illness and indulgences in self-mutilation, wearing a haircloth, fasting and even biting her hand so violently that she has to be tied down. However, the visions that Kempe experiences, as mystics viewed them as gifts, are not a product of studious praying and meditating. In most ways what she conveys is an imitation of what many female European mystics experienced, like Bridget of Sweden and Dorothy of Montou or Catherine of Siena. She seeks justification for her mystical standing by linking herself closely to others and, though illiterate receives much of her inspiration from such mystical texts as Incendium Amoris, Stimulus Amoris, and Walter Hiltons Scale of Perfection. However, as Glasscoe has pointed out, her spiritual experiences were not an easy thing for Kempe to meditate on. Whereas Hilton focused on inner spiritual growth, Kempe can only explain her transcendence through what was familiar to her the body.4 She even says that sometimes, what she understood physically was to be understood spiritually. Thus, whereas her visions may at many points seem extreme and even distasteful it does not necessarily mean that she was experiencing anything less than what is considered mystical. What also inspires Kempe, whilst also bringing into question her status as a mystic is the fact that she was a woman who was firmly placed in the world. David Aers describes her as an independent businesswoman, who before her initial vision was active in the market economy, investing money, organising public work and employing men.5 Mysticism was overwhelmingly contemplative, and there was not much spoke about the active life, with the exception of Walter Hiltons positive description of the mixed life. However instead of accepting that she is too busy with worldly occupations that must be attended to6, like Hilton proposed, Kempe integrates the economic world into her mysticism. Shelia Delany proposed that in her work one is constantly aware of the cash nexus. 7 This is true in the sense that Kempe even strikes a deal with Jesus, in the sense that he becomes the mediator between Kempes social responsibilities as a wife and her desire to lead the spiritual life. Through Christs help she can lead the chaste life by buying off her husband, hence paying off all his debts (Chapter 11. p.60). Atkinson, commented that what Kempe creates is a God, who controlled the economy of salvation, [and] functioned as a great banker of a merchant prince.8 Also Kempes drive for more is also indicative of her market drive values, in the same sense that she sees that by giving charity to her fellow Christians she will receive in heaven double reward. This unusual market driven line of thought is not the only factor that distinguishes her from her predecessors. Her style of writing is different and her visions are certainly unique. She actively takes part in many of the experiences, using speech, as Carol Coulson has suggested to inject herself into the holy narrative,9 even at one point acting as the handmaiden to God, and as a replacement to the biblical figure Mary Magdalene. Her first vision is also very personal, and in some ways domesticated. Jesus is said to have appeared in the likeness of a manclad in a mantle of purple silk, sitting upon her bedside. The Incarnation is taken to the extreme, where her visions sometimes sit outside the historical moments of the Bible and become part of her own world. Despite distancing herself by calling herself the creature throughout the text many have accused her work of being self-absorbed I have told you before that you are a singular lover of God, and therefore you shall have a singular love in heaven, a singular reward and a singular honour. Certainly her relations with God are very personal, and in many ways conveyed in sexual terms, as when Christ says to her Daughter, you greatly desire to see me, and you may boldly, when you are in bed, take me to you as your wedded husband. However, again this great pomp and pride, is said to emerge from her experience as a female within an urban class which fostered within her a strong sense of class identity and self-value.10 A self-value that she never really agrees to give up, thus because she refuses to traditionally quieten the self, Kempe does not sit comfortably as a mystic. Similarly she never really abandons her desire for worldly goods. She even admits in the first chapters that after her initial vision she refused to give up her worldly leisures, and still took delight in earthly things. This earthiness continues throughout the book. At one point she explains that she was embarrassed because she was not dressed as she would have liked to have been for lack of money, and wishing to go about unrecognised until she could arrange a loan she held a handkerchief in front of her face. This embarrassment does not hold well with the lower stage of mysticism in which the visionary is to dispel themselves of all earthly matters so that their soul is open to heaven. Her mysticism is driven to accumulate. She refuses to be content with the goods that God has sent her, whilst ever [desiring] more and more. From God she can attain spiritual status, whilst through her (fathers) social position she maintains earthly standing, thus she is caught between two (masculine) worlds. As David Aers has noted the market world never really receives rebuke in her mystical world, in fact it remains a natural part of it.11 Yet to see her as the victim of a capitalist society is, as Glasscoe maintains, to ignore her avowed purpose.12 Yet it is hard to ignore the element of hysteria in her work. She certainly experiences the traditional mystical dilemma that her visions will never be truly conveyed to those who stand outside it, that herself could never tell the grace that she felt, it was so heavenly, so high above her reason and her bodily witsthat she might never express it within her world like she felt it in her soul. However her Gift of Tears, in which she cries abundantly and violently, break quite brutally this silence of contemplation. It may be however that her loud screams and cries convey her devotion and justify her higher state. Certainly tradition showed that mystics thought of themselves as vehicles for suffering and their broken voices and lacerated bodies reflected the stress under which they laboured.13 Her crying brought attention to her being, even in her own time when crowds flocked to see her, becoming somewhat of a spectacle. These tears are almost a sign of her fertility in her contemplative life, and also justified in the Bible Psalm cxxvi, 5-6 says that they that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing Her tears therefore, although extreme and lead many throughout her work to rebuke her, are essentially a sign of grace demonstrating that the Incarnation for Kempe was an ever-present reality.14 Ursula Peters suggested that female mystics, through mysticism turned inward and [discovered] ways to describe their own experiences.15 In fact the role Kempe plays as a woman is very important to her whole mystical experience, and in some ways may even bring it into question. In her experiences with God she plays the wife, the mother, the sister and the daughter. When her husbands exclaims that she is no good wife it again demonstrates that Kempe struggled between two worlds, that of the spiritual and that of her family commitments. St Bernard once proclaimed that natural human feeling doesnt have to be suppressed but channelled into God, and in some ways this is exactly what Kempe achieves. By using the idea that she is a holy vessel she is able to assert herself as a woman in the highly competitive world quite drastically. She refuses to abandon her personality and quite forcefully, hence her adamant desire to be chaste, asserts who she is. The Church even attempted to denounce he r as a Lollard, which shows that she was a threatening (female) voice and the only way to quieten her was to denounce her as a heretic. Rather than being a mystical treatise, The Book of Margery Kempe is a narrative account, almost a story, or even an autobiography as many have stated it to be, in which she attempts to adopt the contemplative ideal of piety.16 In fact it is more than mysticism, it is the experiences of a woman trying to find her voice in a masculine social world, and the only way that she can achieve this is through having spiritual authority. Certainly her devotion can not be questioned, and she cant even predict herself when the intensity of Christs Passion will overwhelm her, be it sometime in the church, sometime in the street, sometime in the chamber, sometime in the field. Yet her extreme metaphors and use of language certainly bring into doubt her status as a mystic. As Susan Dickman has suggested prayers and visions certainly occupy the text, yet they are embedded in a larger structure17, namely how she was painfully drawn and steered, [her pilgrimage acting as a metaphor for her mystical journey] to enter the way of perfection. Certainly painfully is an apt description, leading many to criticise her as a charlatan, a terrible hysteric and even one who was possessed by the devil. Yet this account is from a very independent and highly spirited woman, who although struggled with her identity and sought the higher state to explore that larger structure of herself through God, was deeply devoted to her faith. In the end her piety was very ordinary, it is her style of conveyance however, the lack of the abstract vocabulary of Julian of Norwich, Rolle and the Cloud author18 that brings her status as a mystic into controversy. Bibliography Aers, David., Community Gender and Individual Identity in English Writing, 1360-1430 (London, 1988) Bancroft, A., The Luminous Vision: Six Medieval Mystics and their Teachings (London, 1982). Evans, Ruth and Johnson, Lesley (eds.)., Feminist Readings in Middle English Literature: The Wife of Bath and All Her Sect (London, 1994) Klapisch-Zuber, C (ed.)., Silences of the Middle-Ages (London 1992),447 Glasscoe, Marion (ed.)., The Medieval Mystical Tradition (Exeter, 1980) http://www.anamchara.com/mystics/kempe.htm http://www.ccel.org/h/hilton/ladder/ladder-PART_I.html http://www.sterling.holycross.edu/departments/visarts/projects/kempe/index.html Knowles, D., The English Mystical Tradition London (London, 1961) Meale, Carol. M., (ed.)., Women and Literature in Britain 1150-1500 (Cambridge, 1993) 1 C. Klapisch-Zuber, Silences of the Middle Ages (London 1992),160 2 J.Long., Mysticism and hysteria: the histories of Margery Kempe and Anna O, in Feminist Readings in Middle English Literature, ed. R.Evans et al. (London, 1994),100 3 M. Glasscoe, English Medieval Mystics: Games of Faith (London, 1993),268. 4 M. Glasscoe, English Medieval Mystics: Games of Faith (London, 1993), 268. 5 D. Aers, Community, Gender and Individual Identity English Writing 1360-1430 (London, 1988), 112. 6 http://www.ccel.org/h/hilton/ladder/ladder-PART_I.html 7 J.Long., Mysticism and hysteria: the histories of Margery Kempe and Anna O, in Feminist Readings in Middle English Literature, ed. R.Evans et al. (London, 1994), 87-111 8 D. Aers, Community, Gender and Individual Identity English Writing 1360-1430 (London, 1988), 106 9 http://www.anamchara.com/mystics/kempe.html 10 D. Aers, Community, Gender and Individual Identity English Writing 1360-1430 (London, 1988),115. 11 Ibid. 12 M. Glasscoe, English Medieval Mystics: Games of Faith (London, 1993), 275. 13 C. Klapisch-Zuber, Silences of the Middle Ages (London 1992),446 14 M. Glasscoe, English Medieval Mystics: Games of Faith (London, 1993), 276. 15 C. Klapisch-Zuber, Silences of the Middle Ages (London 1992),447 16 http://www.anamchara.com/mystics/kempe.htm 17 S. Dickman., Margery Kempe and The English Devotional Tradition, in The Medieval Mystical Tradition, ed. M. Glasscoe (Exeter, 1980), 156-172 18 M. Glasscoe, English Medieval Mystics: Games of Faith (London, 1993), 272.

Mega Farms :: essays research papers

Mega Farms Effects On Water Water pollution has been an increasing problem over the last few years. Pollution itself is when a substance or energy is introduced into the soil, air, or water in a concentrate. Pollution comes in many forms; agricultural, urban runoff, industrial, sedimentary, animal wastes, and leeching from landfills/septic systems just to name a few. These pollutants are very detrimental to the environment. Whether they are alone or combined with another form of pollution they are very harmful. Over the last hundred years the problems with pollution have been increasing with time. This is due to both the increase in human population, and the increases in technology we have made as a society. If we plan on having our resources here for many years to come we are going to have to make some drastic changes in the way we treat the earth, and these changes will have to start with our pollutants. (Jones,1993,pp.4-15)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Agricultural pollution is a very big contributor to water pollution. Problems we see with agriculture are applications of fertilizers, insecticides, and pesticides. We have made vast improvements in the types of chemicals we are using, as to how environmentally friendly they are. In 1985 the amount of fertilizer added to America’s fields was 11.5 million tons. Not only do these chemicals leech in to the soil, but they are also swept off the soils by rain and wind. When these fertilizers reach the water there is a sudden boom in plant growth. When the plants die, bacteria that need oxygen to live eat their bodies. This starts to deplete the amount of oxygen in the water for other fish and animals to live and breath, and they end up dying. Besides the chemical contamination on the farm there are major problems with animal wastes. (Jones,1993,pp.39-60)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Over the last 30 or so years there has been an increased demand for food. Foods like pork, chicken, turkey, and beef. With the demand for meats, there is also an increased demand for grains to feed these animals. So more land is needed to grow the feed, less space is available for the feedlots. More and more of these feedlots have been popping up over the landscape. And the amounts of animals crammed into the small spaces are also increasing. There can be as few as 50 to as many as 7 million in a single confinement.

Exchange of letters Essay

This book is about the exchange of letters between two ladies named Urbana and Felisa; and through these letters Fr. Modesto de Castro made known the desirable behavior that everyone-young and old, women and men-should observe in dealing with other people well. It is thought by many that the ideal conduct described in this book should be emulated by Filipinos and should not be cause for embarrasment even in these days. Filipinos do not need an Emily Post to teach them good manners because we already have Father de Castro who left behind golden rules which Filipinos ought to follow not only then but even now and in the time to come. In these times when our societies are dominated by new patterns of behavior and when even laws governing the home have changed and been swept away by the winds buffeting our shores brought about by Western values, now, more than at any other time, there is a need to return to the past periodically. This is not to strip ourselves bare of new ways which we have donned in entering into new relation- ships, but to see mirrored in the waters glimpses of a beautiful and glorious past. What we experienced is inscribed in the book of life thus: ‘Those who fail to look back at the past/will never arrive at their destination. â€Å") (Those of you who are mothers who have the duty to teach your chil- dren those great truths announced in the Sacred Scripture, you shouldstrive to fulfill these weighty responsibilities for which you have to account before God. ) (The knowledge that teaches a person how to deal with his/her neighbor comes from love of one’s neighbor; love of neighbor comes from love of God. Thus, one who loves God knows how to deal with his/her neighbor well, and anyone who does not know should strive to learn, because this knowledge springs from good action which God delights in. Those who know how to deal with their neighbor possess good man- ners, for they are careful that their action, behavior, and speech are within certain boundaries pleasing to God and to their fellowmen. Thus, this knowledge is a precious gem to a woman, honor to a gen- tleman, ornament to a young man, beauty and loveliness associated with good behavior that captures the heart. But if you neglect your responsibilities, allow them to grow lacking in guidance, stripped of good manners, and forced to account for them- selves before God, and when the time comes for them to live their lives, and you see only bad harvest, woe to you; you will be blamed because you have been neglectful parents. ) (The name ‘Urbana† connotes good manners. In her letters to her sis- ter Felisa, a young woman, a child, a married couple, a young man can learn some lessons to suit their various conditions. From Felisa a young woman can learn how to avoid dangers to her purity; and Felisa’s proper behavior can guide anyone who wants to preserve her goodness and modesty. ) (And if from the examples I proferred, you mothers would deign to pick up some lessons, internalize and observe them, and I witness how your children have profited from your labor to make the lessons bear fruit, can you guess what I will say? I will say that I have come across good fortune, for I am like the sower and the seeds I scattered fell on good soil. Before you say anything, reflect on it first, and follow St. Augustine’s advice, that any utterance must be measured, and weighed by the mind. Be careful, for an evil word once spoken can never be taken back again. When speaking, avoid gesticulating excessively, speak quietly so as not to shatter the listener’s eardrums; neither is it proper to speak too deliberately because a person who is too full of himself, apart from having little credibility, becomes a butt of joke and a source of irrita- tion to the listener. When the hand, the face or the clothes become dirty, clean up first before going to school. . . . When talking to another, avoid showing timidity, speak forthrightly, do not speak with too much sweetness or affectation, do not scratch, or scrub the hand nor wet the finger with saliva to scrub . . . . Do not give half-eaten or dirty food to another. ) (Even a strong body weakens, gets sick and even though still young, it ages prematurely and dies due to excessive drinking. The most san- guine color fades, and the face becomes pale, . The agility of youth, the excitement of middle life, the splendor of beauty wither away; all these wine makes a mockery of. ) (In time, after numerous dalliances, her honor is shattered, her fami- ly’s reputation is tarnished while the townsfolk tattle, but the most painful is the loss of the souls of these unfortunate women, and the many people who sinned because of these women’s bad examples. Who will God blame for these sins but the negligent parents? ) (First, the couple must be alike in class and character. Second, love must exist. Third, love must be in moderation. Fourth, they should trust each other. Fifth, the woman must not be much richer than the man. Sixth, the couple must be of the same age, or almost the same age. Seventh, the woman’s beauty must not be extraordinary. Eighth, both must be peace-loving and despise sinful merrymaking. Ninth, neither must be fond of incessant gambling. Tenth, they should neither be miserly nor prodigal. Eleventh, both should be industrious and despise laziness. Twelfth, both should avoid ostentatious display. Thirteenth, both should possess inner strength and endurance. ) Walking in a studied manner is not appropriate, nor is provocatively swaying the hips nor coyly glancing at a young man proper, because a woman will be faulted for breach of decorum. ) (When a young woman, through the way she walks, acts and uses her eyes, displays anything that runs counter to proper behavior, she in effect is inviting a man to treat her scornfully. ) (The world is a place of suffering, where pain comes from the parent, the spouse and child, and from other members of the family. If a woman’s threshold of suffering is low, marriage will offer no fulfillment. ) (If you, Felisa, can endure the pain, embrace the heavy cross invari- ably placed on the shoulders of a married woman, I say accept this weighty burden. if you strive . . . to follow the path of goodness and holiness that are a woman’s treasures, and which Solomon searched for and that the Holy Spirit praised, then 1 say to you, accept the sac- rament of matrimony. )

Ann Pudeator (Victim of the Salem Witch Trials)

We don’t know Ann Pudeator’s birth name or date, but she was probably born in the 1620s, still in England. She had lived in Falmouth, Maine. Her first husband was Thomas Greenslade. They had five children; he died in 1674. She married Jacob Pudeator in 1676, the year after his wife died. She had originally been hired as a nurse to his wife; her  trouble with alcohol refers to her as an â€Å"alcoholic†, but this is anachronistic. Jacob Pudeator died in 1682. He was relatively wealthy, leaving her somewhat comfortable. She lived in Salem Town. Ann Pudeator and the Salem Witch Trials She was accused mostly by Mary Warren, but also by Anne Putnam Jr., John Best Sr., John Best Jr. and Samuel Pickworth. Her son had testified as an accuser against George Burrough’s trial May 9 and 10, and Ann was arrested on May 12, the same day as Alice Parker was also arrested. She was examined on May 12. She was held until her second examination on July 2. She petitioned the court saying that the evidence against her in court â€Å"were all of them altogether false untrue†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Among the charges were the usual one of forcing Mary Warren to sign the Devil’s book, possession of witchcraft objects which she claimed were grease for soap-making, and using witchcraft to cause the death of her second husband’s wife, whom she had been nursing, and then the death of her second husband himself. She was indicted on September 7 and on September 9, she was tried, convicted and sentenced to hang, as were Mary Bradbury,  Martha Corey,  Mary Easty, Dorcas Hoar and Alice Parker. On September 22, Ann Pudeator, Martha Corey  (whose husband had been pressed to death on September 19), Mary Easty, Alice Parker, Mary Parker, Wilmott Redd, Margaret Scott and Samuel Wardwell were hanged for witchcraft; the Rev. Nicholas Noyes called them â€Å"eight firebrands of hell.†Ã‚   It was the last executions in the Salem witch craze of 1692. Ann Pudeator After the Trials In 1711, when the province’s legislature restored all rights to those who had been accused in the trials, including a number of those executed (thus re-establishing property rights for their heirs), Ann Pudeator was not among those named. In 1957, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts legally exonerated the remaining accused in the trials; Ann Pudeator was named explicitly.  Bridget Bishop, Susannah Martin, Alice Parker, Wilmott Redd and Margaret Scott were included implicitly. Motives Her occupation as a nurse and midwife may have been a motivation for others to charge her with witchcraft. She was also a well-off widow, and there may have been property issues involved, though that is not documented explicitly. It’s interesting that, though she had descendants, no family members participated in the suit leading to the 1710/11 reversal of convictions of others who had been executed. Ann Pudeator in  Fiction Ann Pudeator does not appear as a named character in either The Crucible (Arthur Miller’s play) or the 2014 television series, Salem.