Year overview

This yea we have covered a lot of cool stuff, from the World Wars to the Cold War. My favorite part of this year was probably the movies, none of them were just boring documentaries, they were actually really good movies. 12 Years a Slave was one that stuck out to me alot, it was captivating the entire time. It also really gave me a new view of how horrible slavery was. I haven't watched Thirteen Days yet, but I am starting it right now, and I am pretty excited because I have heard it's amazing. Overall it was a pretty fun year!

Letter to 2216

Dear students of 2216,

What we know about climate change is that it is the increase of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere that is heating the planet and causing ice caps to melt and water to rise. The Earth is surrounded by a layer of greenhouse gasses, we need these gasses to keep us warm for the cold empty space around us

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But since 40% of the world’s power comes from coal which releases a large amount of carbon dioxide, all of which gets stuck in the Earth’s atmosphere, causing the global temperature to rise. This could soon be a very bad thing because Earth’s eco system and the life it supports is quite fragile, we are the perfect distance away from the sun, not to far or it would be a constant ice age, but not to close or we would all be bone kabobs. What is interesting though is that CO2 isn’t even that harmful, but when there is so, so much of it, the gas can be extremely damaging. CO2 is released from many different types of natural fuel sources such as coal, oil, and natural gas.

The Earth is basically like a person, it is not technically a living thing, but basically with all the life it supports, it is. So say Earth is watching a movie and they put a blanket over themselves, not because they’re cold, but it’s still no problem. Then Earth puts another blanket on, then a sweatshirt, then a wool coat and even more blankets. Well now Earth is really hot to the point where it is damaging their body, just like the gasses are damaging the planet.

As more and more pollution is being put into the air by humans, it causes the polar ice caps to melt. As the glaciers are melting it is causing things such as the water levels to rise, and more and more rainfall across the globe because as the melting ice is creating more water, more water is being evaporated into the sky. And by doing this it is putting more water into the water cycle which then causes more precipitation all across the globe. But maybe if we just clean up our act and use safer alternatives we can fix it, wrong, according to Susan Solomon even if we go completely green the Earth will not go back to it’s natural state  for over a thousand years. The bad thing for humans is that a thousand years to the planet is nothing, merely a blip in the history, but to humans, that could be the entirety of human existence.

As global warming gets worse, some experts have ongoing concerns about certain species of animals going extinct because of the Earth heating up. One example of this happening is the decline of the Adelie penguins on Antarctica, where the numbers of breeding pairs have fallen from 32,000 to 11,000 in 30 years due to the ice caps melting and due to the fact that because of this these animals have no other place to go, said Bill Fraser.

As the temperatures keep rising, especially during the summer, more and more harmful effects are happening, drought leads to fire, and floods lead to extreme water damage in many places. Since 1970, the amount of wildfires that have occurred have increased by 400 percent, and the amount of land burned has increased by 650 percent.

In an article on the site nature.org researchers predicted that due to all the harmful effects of climate change a quarter of the world’s species could be extinct by 2050. That is an extremely big number, we have already lost a mass of really cool animals to extinction due to climate change, but ¼ would be completely outrageous.

This is what we know and believe to be true about our planet and the crisis of climate change. We

may be wrong on some things but we do know for certain this is a big problem, who knows if there 

will even be anyone to read this in 2216 after all the things we are doing that damage the planet that 

we live on.


http://www.climatehotmap.org/global-warming-effects/water-supply.html- this source was used for the information on what all we use water for, and what global warming's effect will be on those uses.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99888903- this source was one of the best ones, it was the information on how global warming is irreversible, I found this very interesting and very useful.

https://www3.epa.gov/climatechange/science/causes.html- this source is basically an explanation of climate change and what effects it has

http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/aboutcc/cause/- this source was apparently taken down.

Climate concerns

“How will the availability of drinking water change as the climate changes?”

“How long can we sustain this amount of fossil fuel energy and have a livable climate?”

“Are the humans affecting the climate or is it just natural? Or a combination of both?”

“What will the long term effects of climate change be?”

“Are humans to blame for the drastic changes in the climate?”

“What will people in the future think about our society today?”

“Who is to "blame" those who created climate issues, or those stood by?”


http://www.climatehotmap.org/global-warming-effects/water-supply.html

http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/aboutcc/cause/
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99888903

https://www3.epa.gov/climatechange/science/causes.html


So, how climate change works is we have earth, and then we have the atmosphere which is a big bubble around earth, this atmosphere is being filled with CO2 released from burning fossil fuels such as gasoline and coal, and with the massive amounts that we are burning we are actually altering the climate of the world. But maybe we can fix this right? Well, not really, we can cut back on the gasses and fumes, shrinking the amount of smog, but the mass of CO2 output is irreversible, or at least it is for over a thousand years, according to Susan Solomon, a top climate scientist. But no, humans are not 100 percent to blame for the rapid destruction of the environment, random natural changes happen because of solar activity and changes in earth's orbit and volcanic eruptions, but with humans cutting down all the trees that draw in the CO2, we are purely speeding up our own demise.

Climate Topic

In all of the categories the one that interested me most was the concerns, I would like to find out what the people's concerns were and why were they having these concerns. One of the most interesting questions in this section is the one about the cause, did humans cause the climate change, was it natural, or was it a combination? I don't know the answer to this right now but I would like to find out for myself, and also see what people of the time period found out.

Dam stuff

http://lifeafterpeople.wikia.com/wiki/Hoover_Dam

Hoover Dam is supposedly going to be one of the last remnants of human society, capable of surviving 10,000 years after humans, it will be one of the last intact human remains

In the early 20th century farmers wanted to move some water from the Colorado river to the communities developing in the Southwest. When this failed, the US Bureau of Reclamation had to step in.

At the time of it's completion it was the largest dam in the world

6 of the 7 states that would gain benefits from this dam were worried that the power would go mainly to California.

When the Great Depression hit, many workers came to the Las Vegas area and settled in the desert for a chance to work on the project

The tunnels were around 140 degrees and contained dust and carbon monoxide which lead to a strike, but work quickly got back on it's way

The project took 5 million barrels of concrete and 45 million tons of steel

if used differently all that concrete could have built a road from San Francisco to New York City

Lake Mead, created by the dam was the nations first national recreation area

Hoover Dam was actually the target of a German bombing in WWII



power for the southwestern regions of America was obviously a big step in making the dam,

Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover were the ones to authorize construction and provide funds for the project.

There were many natural challenges that needed to be tackled and many hippies may have not liked the dam due to some negative effects on the environment.

The dam made America's largest and first recreational area which was a large step in recreational areas and natural parks. It also made Lake Mead a very popular lake

This would NOT have been considered a good job, but in the Great Depression you were lucky to have a job so you'd take what you could get, 140 degree heat, carbon monoxide, and dust caused serious health issues for men working in the tunnels.

The community wanted the power but they were also worried all the power would go to California so 6 out of 7 of the states had to make sure they got power too

The Grand Coulee dam is a gravity dam constructed from 1933 to the early 1940s, it was for power and irrigation

Many dams and other things constructed in the 1930s and still very important, this means that they have by now gotten web pages and possibly even facebook pages due to their impact in society

The dam was going to be named Boulder dam since it was in Boulder canyon, but hoover played a large part in construction and funding, the name was very controversial because many felt that hoover caused the Great Depression.

This was a marvel at the time it was built, they weren't just thinking about the now when it was built, Hoover dam will be one of the last standing remnants of human society, it was not built for short time, it will last almost forever

Word Cloud

Speeches

The speeches were good, I enjoyed it more than a test, I'm not a fan of public speaking but it wasn't too bad. Overall it was fun.

No I don't think anyone really stood out, they were all good, but none were just fantastic.

Maybe practice the speech before performing a little more.

Radio technology

The radio in the 1930's was a common item found in nearly every household in America. So everyone knows how sound works, there are different vibrations with different wave lengths, in our voices, it's our vocal cords that make the vibrations, in radios electricity flows through an antenna making electrons move up and down. These waves then travel the speed of light to another antenna, then these electron vibrations are projected through the speaker. But wouldn't you hear all the waves? Well that is where the dials and knobs that tune you into a certain station. Different types of antennas make different types of waves, but most common are antennas that don't travel super far, and in that range, every station has their own frequency. That's why when you take a road-trip you might have to change the station as you go in and out of different station's ranges.


Radio vid

Radios

BJ USH Speech

Ben Justice

US History

Era Speech

The changing American culture was trying to hang onto it’s traditional values, but with so many new inventions and views it was struggling to maintain popularity. Technology, the new definition of women, conflicts of cultures, religious fundamentalism, and nativism were all defining aspects of American civilization. In the new wave of inventions and the stability after WWI America was truly defined as an economic power of the world. The rising popularity of automobiles and forms of communication brought new jobs and a new way for americans to go about their daily lives. For women going about their daily lives, a drastic change  was happening. Women could now hold jobs in many professional industries and although they were confined to more feminine industries they were still escaping the stay-at-home life. This new change in even the smallest of areas in american civilization caused some unrest between the more classic view of america and the new ways that were being defined by the changing world. This conflict was also reflected in the religious community. Modernists and fundamentalists started to branch away from each other as new views came into play with the evolving civilization. Fundamentalists had the view that everything should stay the same and there was no need for change. But modernists were open to change and believed it was possible to maintain your faith and evolve with the culture. Nativists also had a more traditional view, in their eyes America needed to keep its population pure and keep immigration low or even nonexistent. Along with this nativist view came the Klan, who not only hated African-Americans, but also began to shift its focus to Catholics, Jews and immigrants. The success of the Klan reflected that the American culture was changing but still retained many of its old, traditional views. All of these factors have many things in common, not only are they some of the most important factors in the changing culture, but they all truly shape the American culture and it’s citizens. From the traditional aspects such as religious fundamentalism and the Nativists, to the newer additions such as professional women and the wave of new inventions, America was in one of it’s most defining era’s. Old views were challenged, and new ones were flooding in to take the weaker traditions spot as a major factor in American civilization.

Andrew's Mini-Book review

Average Family that is Somewhat Average in a 1920's American society by Andrew Johnson is a compelling story about a 1920's family that is way out of the norm, the dad is progressive, and the mom is a working woman, the kids even go on to higher education, it is quite a nice read, but don't read it in the morning because it might just make you fall asleep, very good for before bed though!

Mini-Book Review

Professional Women and the "Flapper", by Madison Smith is an intriguing story about professional women, their struggle in the professional world, how it affects their marriage and children. It also talks about the life of a flapper and many commonalities in the 1920s

Mini-Book

This is a book I made about the 1920's it includes slang words and facts about religious tensions of the times.

WWI Posters

Propaganda is like advertisements it either like has a team or someones face or their website or something, it tries to get you to remember something

Prop Define

information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view.


Posters

In the first poster the word YOU is big bold and colorful, this poster tries to make you feel guilty and alone, on one side there is just one person and they don't look very happy, but on the other side, they don't look happy, but there are a lot of them, it makes you feel like you have a duty and you aren't doing it if you don't enlist

In the next poster it compares even the most measly of jobs, such as screwing bolts in, seem heroic and important, like plunging a bayonet into the heart of the enemy, it makes you want to do your job well because it is important

In the last poster it is trying to get people to make socks for the army, this one isn't very effective I don't think but it does make you feel as if you are directly helping the soldiers and America win the war

Most of these poster are targeted at just your average Joe, just doing his thing and bam, look at that poster, well now I gotta enlist, or do my job well, or knit some socks because America needs me.

Everyone uses advertising and propaganda, why can't the government?

Well not many people just straight up want to go out and die in vain, but if you make it about your homeland, America the beautiful well then there's something worth fighting for and that's what the government wanted to do, they wanted to convince people that they should do something to help their country.

Multiple Choice

1) Porgressivism began as a(n)...

a) movement within communities, cities, and states
b) riot that lead to a movement
c) African-American movement that soon spread to everyone
d) amendment passed by the government
e) way to move illegal goods through cities

2) Among the first people to articulate the new spirit of reform were...

a) Poor Jewish-American immigrants
b) crusading journalists
c) African-Americans
d) senators
e) The top 1% of the nation

3) The prominence of women in reform movements is...

a) very low
b) one of the most striking features of progressivism
c) one of the most resented features of progressivism
d) basically the entirety of progressivism
e) the most important aspect of progressivism

Living Essay about Progressivism

Today we did this rad exercise where we were a paragraph, and it was cool because we combined all of our research into one

Conclusion+Thesis:

One of the major aspects of the progressive era was how the government began to make regulations and laws to make a better quality of life. Going from something as big as to prohibition all the way to something as small as the radio the government provided safety and better expectations for all. From the crimes created by gangs to the Black Sox Scandal to the inventions of radios, people wanted there to be a higher standards for society and for this to happen the government had to be involved by creating laws/regulations to insure that the standard was reached.  

Progressivism: Perspectives in Print

Two Factions in Fracas was a newspaper article in the Aberdeen Daily News that started about Frank Herbert, who was believed to be killed by gang members. It goes on when members of a gang wait outside the police station, armed, ready to take down some arrested rival leaders. It’s crazy to think how devoted they are to their gangs, but it is basically their family, they were all mostly poor Jewish-Americans.

In the next section, two famous gangsters line up, Al Capone and Tony Lombardo, against their rival gang, the North Side Gang. The lead detective told a group of about 100 officers to kill any known gang leaders, on sight. O’Conner, the lead detective, said “beat them down if the murmured and kill them without mercy if they showed armed resistance.” The Chicago police department even had cars with machine guns, to match the power of the mafias.

Just on a side note, when we did research on the 1880s-1920s in the past I did it on organized crime and found that Monk Eastman, leader of the Eastman Gang, served in WWI starting at 42, he came back to the states in 1919 and had his citizenship renewed for his honorable service in the war. From reading this newspaper I didn’t find a ton that surprised me because I had basically already researched this before, but I did get to look more into Al Capone and Luciano’s time which I have interest in.

All of this new violence and such really started with the Whyos and then just grew and grew, mostly because of the development of cities and of course prohibition. Prohibition basically gave gangs a foothold, these poor Jewish-Americans all lived in ghettos together and crime was their way to make a living. The gangs of the early 20th century were fascinating because although obviously crime wasn’t new, they made all new kinds of crime popular. Some of mobs, gangs, and mafia’s biggest sources of income were murder-for-hire, and bootlegging. To clearly link this to Progressivism, the rise of cities, the banning of alcohol, and the rise in poverty in big cities, all product of progressivism, were just a melting pot, waiting to spit out gangsters and mob bosses.

The idea of Social Darwinism also comes into play here, these poor Jewish-Americans were the prey, then some turned into the predators, fight or flight and the gangsters chose to fight and then eventually when their organizations grew they began to find ways to come out on top. Making fake money, selling alcohol, and even murdering for money, all ways the gangsters got ahead, sure it might not have been legal or moral, but it did work.

3rd Quarter Reflection

The Eddie Aikau movie was really awesome, I really liked that kind of documentary, also analyzing the political cartoon was fun, but my favorite thing we've done so far was looking at things in the 1880s-1920s, I liked that we had the freedom to choose our topic. I looked at crime in that time period and was fascinated with what I found I would love to do more projects where we look at a certain time period, but we get to choose what topic we research. The reading questions weren't to bad but I wish we had more than one night to work on them because they often take me a long time.

Progress

Ben Justice

Progress

1. Progress is evolving form a state you were at in the past, progress is vital for every species, civilization, and nation.

2. The 1890s to the 1920s are known in the US as the progressive era, this is because it was a period of widespread social activism and political reform. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_Era)

3. There were many problems such as multiple city problems, labor issues, extreme 

monopolies on the market, women's rights, corruption, and wealth distribution.

4. They basically were trying to fix all the things listed above, they were basically hardcore liberals, you can see a direct connection between them and the liberals of today

5. Social welfare was one of their top priorities, then comes economic reform and a more efficient economy, lastly they wanted society to be better as people, they wanted people to be better people.

Fuuuuutureeeeee

A German chocolate factory predicted in the year 2000 we would have crazy things such as flying machines, more like wing-suits that jet-packs, consisting basically of wings, movable houses, flying machines that according to the drawing are small personal blimps, personal submarines, there is also one where the people are wearing balloons so that they could walk on water. Many other crazy things such as roofed cities, moving sidewalks, and weather changing machines. Another article states there will be robot barbers, flying firemen, deep sea divers... riding seahorses, big ones, opposite fishing, you are underwater, fishing for birds, fish races, something that looks like school mind control, and an underwater bus powered by a whale. Then another source says there will be voice/video calling, nailed it, a radium fireplace.

Almost all of these are good, happy hopeful things, a couple of the predictions were kind of close, but the only spot on one was really the voice/video calling, but some were close such as moving sidewalks, we have them, they just aren't common except in airports, and they predicted lots of flying, not really in the right way but flying was right. As for what are the most common predictions, flying and underwater things seemed very prominent.

I think in the future we will have holograms, and eventually personal jet-packs, I also think drones will play a large part in society as well as automated cars, I think we will have people on Mars, I'm sure there won't be like a civilization but yeah. I think virtual reality might be a good bit bigger part in entertainment. I also think China might start a war with the US.

I mean we have all the control over what comes around, fish aren't going to make the jet-packs, but I think we are going to make a lot of things animated, so we have control over what is invented, but we are making things we don't have to control because we are lazy. As for individuals we have less control because with all the automation of our lives. But I also don't know if there will be much more of a future for the human race at least, I think Yellowstone is going to explode and 99% of the worlds population will die. so yea, then either the human race will die out due to lack of food or disease or something might knock the human race out, but I think if at least 100,000 people survive then humanity might not die out completely, but I think due to everything shutting down the world will go into another ice age.

How do you analyze a political cartoon

1. I knew that they would usually make it pretty simple, but at the same time hide some little pieces of symbolism in there. I learned that they usually use simple objects to illustrate large ideas, also things will often be exaggerated to show emphasis.

2. Guide-  When looking at political cartoons, with or without the guide, I will make sure to see all the words, but to look past just the words and to relate them to the picture so that it can all conect and make a clear statement.

3. 

4. In the first cartoon it shows the ugly fat queen watching over her sugar, and Uncle Sam by the little worker, it makes the queen seem like the bad guy and Uncle Sam look like the hero. In the second a US ship is sending a Spaniard back to Spain, they are behind Cuba, protecting it from Spain. Finally in the third cartoon, Uncle Sam is fighting the coward McKinley who is preying on innocent victims

Sources:

http://www.pbs.org/crucible/cartoons.html

http://etc.usf.edu/clipart/galleries/307-political-cartoons/5

Aikau

Ben Justice

Hawaiian: The Legend of Eddie Aikau

I think the filmmakers specifically got the two main parts into the title, Hawaii and Eddie, by doing this they already tell you what the movie is about, it's about Eddie and his ways in the Hawaiian culture. The angle of the film seemed to me about more of Hawaii, but because it is ESPN making it, there has to be some sports aspect in it, it does a really good job of combining surfing with the deep spiritual connection between the natives and the ocean. If another company had made this documentary I think it would be more about Hawaii than Eddie, it would be about the traditions of Hawaiians and of course they would put somethings about Eddie in their, but that would not be the main focus.

Roosevelt, Strong, and many other imperialists had a large impact on naval strategies and ideals. They thought of new ways to fight and expand territory and control. The oceans are the high ground of the world, if you control the oceans, you control the world. The topic/ focus would be naval strategies and how they evolved around the Spanish-American War. The angle would be to show the power of sea-power and argue that it is very important to an imperialistic nation. 

Phrenology

My group researched a lot about the people involved in the study and the basics and origin of the study of phrenology. I learned that anything can be a primary source, it all depends on the question you're asking.

Provenance: the place of origin or earliest known history of something.

This particular skull could be a primary source if you are researching replicas of phrenology skulls, but it would only be a secondary source if you are researching the original skulls made in the 1880s