5 Interesting Things

1) Madonna adopted a child from Malawi 3 years prior to today and she able to adopt the baby with no "adoption requirements." I thought it was interesting how now she has to go by the requirements, as if she was a normal person trying to adopt from Malawi.

2) I also found it interesting how the people of Malawi didn't want to give their baby to Madonna even though the baby would have an easier and better time growing up in the United States.

3) Another thing I found interesting was how Madonna was really stuck on getting a baby from Malawi and not any other African country.

4) Madonna as a multi-millionaire is building a $15 million dollar academy for girls and boys in Malawi. I found it interesting and sincere that Madonna would start an organization that costs her millions of dollars, to give these young kids education.

5) Madonna knew she was going to beat the adoption agency in Malawi because she is "white" which is why she followed through with the trial.

Current Event #2

On CNN.com, I found an article about Picasso selling his art for a record price of $106.5 million dollars. For one piece of art, it costs more than to buy a humongous mansion. Art nowadays are more expensive especially from famous artists because they are not alive anymore to make such marvelous art. This connects to the lack of art ambition in the 1900s in the United States. During the 1900s, the United States went through wars, the Great Depression, and assassinations of presidents. People at the time did not have the money to buy expensive art from around the world. Today, the economy is finally getting better than before, and more people are spending money on items that want rather than they need.


CNN. "Record price puts Picasso firmly into his Green Period." May 4, 2010. < http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/05/04/record-price-puts-picasso-firmly-into-his-green-period/?hpt=T3 > (accessed May 4, 2010)

Research Sources

Bibliography

An article about Madonna fights to Adopt a kid from Malawi

Fisher. "Madonna fights Malawi to Adopt Mercy". April 3, 2009. < http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/story?id=7249278&page=1 > (accessed April 29, 2010).

The poem about the White Man's Burden

Wikipedia. "The White Man's Burden". < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_White_Man's_Burden > (accessed April 29, 2010).

Angelina Jolie gets involved in Madonna's personal life

Mail Online. "Angelina Jolie attacks Madonna for "ilegal" adoption". January 7, 2007. < http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-427057/Angelina-Jolie-attacks-Madonna-illegal-adoption-baby-David.html > (accessed May 2, 2010).

Eliza Fabillar. "Analysis of White Man's Burden". March 31, 2006. < http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6609/ > (accessed May 2, 2010).

As a thank you, Madonna has given a lot of money to the people in Malawi

Raphael Tenthani. "Madonna BACK in Malawi". May 4, 2010. < http://www.huffingtonpost.c/2010/04/05/madonna-back-in-malawi_0_n_525063.html > (accessed May 3, 2010).

Weddings: Now vs. Before

During the years that Stalin was the leader of the Soviet Union, the wedding rituals were much different than how they are today. The family life played out in the Soviet Union as if marriage was just as important as two people holding hands in public. As of today, abortions and abolishing their own wedding rings were not frowned upon. It rather seemed weak to have such a strong family unit. Compared to the family life today, a lot has changed. I found this article which talked about the marriage between Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon. They discuss getting their wedding vows renewed every single year. Most marriages that last until death, only get theirs renewed once. They believe that, "if you're happy and in love, why not celebrate it?" As you can see, the importance of marriage has escalated tremendously and people are now wanting to embrace their love rather than hold it in and keep it private.


Article Source: http://www.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/Music/04/27/mariah.nick.wedding.vows.ppl/index.html

Mao and the Great Leap Forward

Mao started his "Great Leap Forward" with his motivation to surpass the United States of America. His mission was to create a socialist economy. This means he wanted to give more money to the people producing the crops in the fields. Everything Mao tried always seemed to fail and could never work the way he wanted too. The peasants in China were told to build backyard blastfurnaces to make iron and steel for tools. Instead of melting scraps of metal to make utensils and tools, the naive peasants used tools and utensils to melt into unusable amounts of metal. Another example, was the "Great Leap Forward" made the labors stop producing food and switch to making metal which ended up causing a shortage of food in the cities and farms. Basically the "Great Leap Forward" was not what it was supposed to be and actually failed miserably, which is why it should be called the Great Leap Backward.

http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/greatleap.htm

Who is responsible in a war crime?

I researched more when I got home about who is responsible in war crimes and why more people should feel bad for the actions that they pursue in a crime. War crimes were happening all over the world during World War II and many followers of the Nazi Party took place in the killing of the Jews. We read a document written in the point of view of one of the Nazi commanders. He states that he was in great pain seeing these children and men suffering and having to be burned alive and dying in the gas chambers. If he felt any sympathy towards them, he would be killed as well. Back to the idea of who is responsible for the war crime, I would say that anyone who lets or does the duty of killing is considered responsible. It doesn't matter if you didn't help with the actual killing, but if you witnessed the scene you are held responsible. The Nazi commander did not think he was responsible for anything since he just gave the order to have someone kill the Jews, but in reality he could have stopped this and it wouldn't have been a war crime anymore.

Causes of World War II

World War II was a war not started by numerous countries at the beginning. I believe the war was started when Germany invaded Poland and gradually captured and took away all of the Jews. Because of that, Britain and France were immediately forced to help Poland since they were "assigned" to be allies with Poland. I actually believe that World War II started because of what happened to Germany in the Treaty of Versailles. They got the least amount of good things happen to them and weren't well off in the 1920s just like how every other country involved in World War I was. Since Germany did not get all of these nice things, their government was corrupt and didn't have any money to import or export goods. As Hitler arose as the new leader, he put the blame on anyone who wasn't part of the Aryan race. He mainly scapegoated the Jewish people and since most of the Jews at the time lived in Poland; that was why they attacked that country first. In the end, I would 100% blame Hitler and his clan for starting World War II.

Is Japan Totalitarian?

Just like all of the other countries outside the United States, Japan was hit hard by the Great Depression because of the foreign trade between America and Japan. At the time, Japan did not have just one person, like an emperor, in charge of everyone. So instead they had a small group of military leaders who basically took over the government. The definition of Totalitarianism is a type of government that has full control of all of the citizens lives. An example of how Japan was indeed ran that way was the government arrested critics, imposed censorship, and employed a secret police force to hunt down and punish enemies of the state. In addition to arresting critics, imposing censorship, and a secret police, the so called government planned to also strengthen Japan in any way that they could. Their final decision for succession was making an overseas empire in the country of Manchuria, which used to be the home of the Manchus. Having a empire across seas made it easier to get raw materials such as coal and oil. Usually when a country invades another country someone condemns, the League of Nations was disapproving of the idea, but let them do it as they pleased. In addition, Japan had a Totalitarian government was because they honestly had nothing else to choose from. People had lost their homes, money, everything and so when there was some sign of hope for a government the people gave it a shot which is how and why Totalitarianism worked after World War 1.






Citation: http://fresno.k12.ca.us/divdept/sscience/history/totalitarianism.htm

Extra Credit Blog

The role of government in my opinion goes as this; the rich basically pay for the basic needs of the poor. The families that have a low income are taxed less and therefore are not paying the government as much as say, Menlo families. I agree that if people don't pay taxes the economy will fail because the money will not being passed around, yet I do believe (like Cy said in class) that we should be spending money for things that WE want. I do not think that the rich people or families with a high income should be paying for the health of lower class citizens. If they wanted a better job and more money, they should have worked harder in school and gained knowledge while they could. Just like everyone says, Knowledge is Power.

Italy vs All Other Nations

Italy was a very interesting country to focus on while studying World War I. They switched sides during the first couple months of the war which benefited them very much since they ended up on the side with the most "winnings". First off, they waited a while to join the war because they wanted to make sure that the chose the right side. In the Treaty of London Britain had offered Italy large sections of territory in the Adriatic Sea region. Such an offer was too tempting for Italy to refuse. Britain and France wanted Italy to join in on their side so that a new front could open up to the south of the Western Front. In the end, Italy didn't even get half of what the Treaty said and got the least of the good things that all the other countries received.

Citation: http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/italy_and_world_war_one.htm

Analysis and Background

A War Nurses's Diary takes place in the Belgian Military Hospital that were staffed by English surgeons and nurses. The environment of these military hospitals consisted of lots of expensive and high tech (for this century) machinery with millions of wounded soldiers, marines, and even nurses. “I am resolved to put all my strength at the service of my adopted country, since I cannot do anything for my unfortunate native country just now...” --letter from Marie Curie to Paul Langevin, January 1, 1915. Madama Curie was the founder of the "petite Curie" which was new and improved van vehicle that carried X-rays to the Front. These vans were operated by the Red Cross Foundation, which became a huge organization due to World War I. The X-ray system was the most interesting and necessary department in the entire hospital. Madame Curie was one of the first to discover radium. She woke up every morning around 5 am to start taking X-rays of the people in terrible pain. The summer rain made them put upp tents and covers for the machines and other hospital items. Some activities the patients enjoyed included, three times a week band playing, beds and mattresses were brought out in the shade of the trees, while officers and soldiers visited their wounded friends. "Meals were served outside to them, and the staff had a long table under the trees where they took our meals." Round at the back were the huts where they had entertainments. Many different people were involved in enlightening the patients faces and making them feel as strong as possible.

The larger significance of this snippet of a nurse's diary talks about the suffering of the soldiers and that their living conditions were nothing compared to what we have today in our hospitals. The staff inside the hospitals focused on keeping the soldiers who were wounded or sickness to express a positive attitude even though it was probably the last thing on their minds. Lastly, Madama Curie, the nurses in the hospitals, etc all were a huge impact on the technological advancement during World War I.




The picture above shows some of the nurses and doctors in the war and how little amount there are compared to now. The person in the black uniform and who seems more unique than the others is Madame Curie and she is famous for discovering radium.

The Military Hospital

A very interesting and necessary branch of our work was the X-Ray Department. We had possessed an X-Ray room ever since we had been at Hoogestadt, but it now sprang suddenly into fame, being reorganized by no less a person than the renowned Madame Curie, who discovered radium! For two or three weeks she lived with us, sharing our daily life, sitting next to us at meals, the most unassuming and gentlest of women. Her daughter was with us too, and stayed there all that summer after her mother left to aid other hospitals. They brought their own motor-ambulance which held the dynamo which worked the X-Ray apparatus. Madame Curie used to rise about five A. M., and have an early breakfast. As I was on night duty, it was my delight to set a table out in the garden and serve her breakfast myself. Often as we sat drinking a cup of coffee she would chat with me, taking a keen interest in all our work.

Website Citation: "Chapter XV a Military Hospital." A War Nurse's Diary. Sketches from a Belgian
Field Hospital. (1918) Part Three. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Jan. 2010.
.

Picture Citation: We were now in the Belgian Military Hospital. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Jan. 2010.
.

Extra Credit Blog

Europe's industrialized militarism was one of the major factors in the cause of World War I. The vast new advancement in warfare made Europe's soldiers hungry for a higher reputation in their community. They even wore their uniforms in public to show the people in their city who shows the most pride and have people look at them with high importance. Each countries military become more and more advanced and each country planned when they were going to attack. As all of them were so incentive to attack first because of their brilliant surprises, more than 10 million soldiers died in World War I. Over 20 million wounded. The reason for these horrible numbers is because of the new military technology that both sides of the war so gladly used. Some brutal weapons that were used were submarines, tanks, airplanes, poison gas, machine guns, and barbed wire. All of these weapons had never been seen or used before in any type of war before this. Because these weapons were so massive and destructing, there was an extremely abundant amount of them. Furthermore, the anticipation of wanting to attack on other countries made a huge impact on the reason World War I started.

Christmas town to Christmas land

Flag:


Anthem:


National History:

Halloween town was at the top of the world. Everyone knew about Halloween town; they had the best exported items, they had the money to buy anything in the world they wanted, and they even had possession of 4 different holidays (countries). Christmas town was a branch off from Halloween town, they were more peaceful and respectful rather than Halloween town. They didn't like fighting, but they were very patriotic and nationalistic. Over the course of 100 years, Halloween town became very needy and greedy. They started taking things from Christmas town and Easter town more than usual. They never asked or told the towns what they were taking, they would just TAKE. Christmas town was getting tired of being the nice one and decided the rebel. Even though it was going against their way to break the peace, they were being treated unfairly and they did not like that more than anything. Christmas town finally won after a long hard battle and was could finally become their own nation. As a part of their emancipation, they called themselves Christmas land. A new nation deserves a new name. I compared this "becoming a nation" to how USA broke off from Britain. They didn't like how the British were taxing them, so they decided to rebel. Both cases the weaker nation was treated unfairly and in order to be your own nation, you have to govern yourself.

Alliances and Connections

Elle, Kaitlin and I decided to make our nation named Christmas Tree Land. It is in the North Pole so therefore we decided to be allies with Europe, Canada, and Russia. We are very open to new cultures or different people. We have our own traditions but we are open to new options and suggestions because we try to have open views. Europe had part of the Ottoman rule which was very strong for a long time. Europe also had the rising Scandinavian Countries which were very strong and had powerful nationalism. We also have powerful nationalism and we take pride in what we do. We would be alliances with Canada because they are a big country and Russia is as well. The North Pole being relatively empty and weak needs those bigger nations and countries to help us when we need protection.

Panamanian National Anthem

I chose to do the Panamanian National Anthem for many different reasons. My dad's mom, also known as my grandmother, was born and raised in Panama until she was old enough to go to college. The song name is called "Himno Istemño" (Isthmus Hymn) and it was sung in the orginal Spanish language. The Anthem was first performed in 1903 by citizens singing in the streets of their new country, but the anthem was not fully adopted until 1925. The Anthem defines the nation because as I read in the English Translation, it connects to the agriculture that the country of Panama contains. For example, "In the happy field of union." is part of a verse in the anthem. Even vaguely, "happy field" can relate to the fields in Panama. Another example would be "On your flower-covered soil,..." "Of this fertile land of Columbus." These lines of the anthem really shows that Panama has great land to harvest crops and raise cattle. Just how the Anthem defines Panama as more of a farming land and growing fruits and vegetables, it also is a way to encourage people to farm and harvest crops. If their National Anthem refers to these attributes so many times, why wouldnt people want to show some nation pride and start farming?

Comparing Old Japan to New Japan

We looked at a movie today, the first things that caught my eye about how they westernized were the buildings arising in the city they were traveling in. Stores were started making profit off their goods and people were beginning to get more sophisticated jobs. When we saw the scene of the Generals coming to see the Emperor, it switched back to the old Japan. Everyone had to bow before you entered the room, you weren't allowed to wear shoes, and there was still a translator for the Emperor. However, after that scene, it showed the Generals helping the Japanese learn how to shoot a gun and be able to fight in a battle. All of these examples relate to Japan westerinizing. I personally believe that every single country should have westerinized the earliest they could because every country that did became 50 times better (exaggeration) while the countries, like China, either stayed where they were or even became less advanced and people didn't think China was the center of the world any more.

British vs Dutch

In class today I found out numerous differences between the British and the Dutch. The British were so much more advanced and powerful compared to the Dutch or so it seems since Britain won all the wars between them two. The Dutch never had a very early "Golden Age" so their army wasn't as well equipped as the British when it came to fighting in 1899.
The Dutch started to settle in South Africa at first because there was very nice land to farm with. Instead of calling themselves the Dutch, they were named the Boers and spoke Afrikan. The British heard there was gold, rubber, diamonds, etc in the southern part of South Africa. Those materials in the 1890s were considered very valuable and it was rare. The Dutch gave them the land they had been settling on so they found land more towards the middle of South Africa. However, the resources they had been looking for were located near the "Boers." Hence the name of the war was called the Boer War. In the end, British took over and the "Boers" were transported to another part of the country.

Tests

Why take a test? What is the purpose of a test? How do you study? Can you learn something during a test?

I personally think, taking a test, from a student's perspective is to accumulate all of the already known facts and connections you should have learned over the past weeks, into one day where you show off to your teacher. I also think it helps the teacher too. It shows how well she has taught her students, for example, if everyone fails, then you know she isn't doing a good well explaining the basics. On the other hand, if everybody does decent or well, it gives the teacher a pat on the back for being a good teacher. In addition, I think the purpose of the test isn't just to study your butt off and try and do well. Your brain is setup that, if you memorize something over and over again, it will eventually be locked in your memory for good. Tests are a good way to mentally prepare your brain for the future to come. They make us remember important details we wouldn't have remembered if we had not been forced to study.

I study really well either alone taking practice questions and examples. But what I have recentely figured out, is that I can really remember something when I talk to someone about the topic. Either on the phone or in person, or even to myself, when I say something outloud I am more inclined to remembering what I said rather than just writing it down on a notecard.

Lastly, I believe that tests are mostly given because that is how the SAT is setup. It is a test. It tests your knowledge in a format that most teachers at Menlo School format their own tests. You may think that tests are just given so the teacher can you give you a grade in the class, but they are much more than that.

Primary Source in 1851

As I was looking through the New York Times, I spotted an article from way back in October of 1851. I clicked onto the link and I found an article talking about who and what inventions had been brought to the Great Exhibition of 1851. I obviously knew a couple of them brought since we learned about so many in the Industrial Revolution unit. Some inventions that were at the fair that I knew was the Cotton Gin. We all know who and what the Cotton Gin was and so I found it very interesting that it was being showed off at the Crystal Palace. Another one we all know is the Reaping Machine. I remember reading about the reaper and how it saved men from working all day in the fields. Also, inside this primary source were a list of awards that these inventors got for their amazing invention. Some catagories of awards were, Council Medals, Prize Medals, Honorable Mention, and the Money Award. Each award was given to numerous amounts of people, since everybody was split into their own "Class." Each class was filled with the almost the same invention. For example, "Class II" was all food related items that were being showed off. There was maple sugar, soft wheat, flour, etc. Some "Classes" had only one item included in it because that meant that invention was unique and there was nothing else that closely resembled to it. An example of that would be the Mechanical Reclining Chair. It was a very interesting and unexpected find from W. Ragan. This primary source really made me think about how little our world was before the Industrial Revolution. I cant even think about being alive, without a place to stay, having my parents be gone all day and then once they come home all they want to do is sleep, or have none or little food set at my table. I am grateful for the fact that I do have those things, and if it wasn't for all these intelligent thinkers, the world would not be like it is today. Furthermore, primary sources are a good source of data because they teach you a lot about what was happening exactly in the time you are talking/researching about. I find it hard to read a secondary or even third source about the Industrial Revolution because you really don't know what it was all about unless you were actually there.

Attached is just a small snipit of what the article looks like, since the full article is too big to be posted.

Crystal Palace

The Great Exhibition of 1851 took place in the beautiful Crystal Palace, which located at the time, was in the heart of London. People from all over the world came to either show off their invention or come to look at all the prized possessions. The Crystal Palace held more than 12,800 square feet for all of the famous inventors to show off their masterpiece. In addition, the Crystal Palace was later used for numerous more events than just the first world fair ever to be done.

Citation of picture- http://www.ursusbooks.com/thumbnail.php?img=./itemimages/123543a.jpg&maxwidth=700