Einstein

Albert Einstein brought upon change in both the world of science and the world of today. He mentioned many controversial ideas, that at his time, were thought you be ridiculous. In my opinion, one of his best theories was about Space Time and the laws that the universe relies on. Einstein was able to prove that time was relative. Meaning that time doesn't operate the same way all over the universe. This of course was shocking to anyone who lived in his time. The idea that time was changing was very farfetched when we witness time moving at the same speed every day. But Einstein was in fact correct. Time could be beat. Time could almost literally be ignored. And if you were to do this, you would have to move faster than the speed of light. To better explain this, I'll use the most common form of explanation for this concept. Say that you have a twin brother or sister. An astronaut takes you onto a space ship, leaving your sibling behind. You then proceed to fly around the earth for 30 years as your twin sits around back on earth. When you land, something significant can be seen. Not only is your twin 30 years older but you have not aged. This concept was truly crazy, because not only would that make the trip seem instantaneous, but we ask the question: "What happens on the spaceship?" But of course we cannot achieve such a feat. We can barely fathom how much energy it would take to move the speed of light, mostly because light itself has no mass. So when you try to move mass that speed, you find yourself with a problem. Einstein not only determined the factors of light speed but also came up with an explanation for space. Picture the universe as a large trampoline. If you were to place a bowling ball (let's use this as the sun) in the center the trampoline, it would form an indentation. This indentation is what represents gravity. When you roll a small marble (let's use this as earth or some planet) across the trampoline, you'll find that it will roll towards the bowling ball. The proximity of the marble to the bowling ball is also taken into account, because the depth of the indentation is much deeper near the bowling ball than it is near the outskirts of the trampoline. It's this method that keeps our planets in orbit. It's this continuous falling that stops our planets from falling into the sun. But you still have adapt the trampoline model to the 3rd dimension, because we all realize that the universe isn't some flat piece of fabric. You must picture it like a sponge the pinches inward when a object has a large mass. And the sponge itself is just a force and not an object. These two theories that Einstein came up with are not only hugely important to where we are in science, but were the most horrific sounding things to the common people of his time.


For more on the twins and spaceship demonstration, go here.

Eugenics

Eugenics is the practice of selective breeding towards humans. It has a lot to do with the theory of natural selection. Society aims to protect the weak and underprivileged, and help keep them alive. Natural selection says that only the strongest and best survive, so by protecting the week, society is essentially going against the natural process, and keeping mankind from becoming stronger. Eugenics does the opposite, it aims to improve the gene pool by any means necessary. One example of eugenics in the 1900s was the holocaust. The Nazi felt that mankind must continue moving forward. The Nazi Germans wanted to be the strongest of the human race, and they wanted to rid the human race of any weakness. They began to identify any races that they felt were inferior, and exterminate them. They decided that the Jewish must be eliminated, so they began mercilessly murdering Jewish people. it was a ruthless genocide. They also began trying to breed perfect humans to enroll in their army. Strong healthy males would breed with strong healthy females in am attempt to create the ideal human being.

Freud- Id, Ego, Superego

In the video we learned about Freud and his ideas about our unconscious mind. He talked about how people wanted to kill their father because they were jealous of them because they really liked their mother. That is kind of gross to think about. Many people of that time agreed and were very disturbed by the thought of his ideas. He came up with the terms id, ego, and superego. Id is the "pleasure" part of our minds and is what we want. Ego is the "reality" part which thinks of the real world and takes into consideration the id perception and tries to figure out if it works. When thinking of reality, it considers the fact that other people have wants too and so you can't be selfish because that hurts others.. Finally, superego is the part that tries to balance the two and considers the moral parts of situations. In the movie, id was sort of seen as the red, and "evil" figure or part of your mind. It was thinking of the person's wants and would set everything else aside to achieve those wants. ID being red could be seen as a devil sort of figure. Ego was seen as the white, angelic character, considers the reality situation and it talks about what the person can do and what will hurt others. Id is selfish while ego is considerate of other and how the person's actions will effect his or hers surroundings. Superego tries to balance both of those. People sometimes think of the superego as your conscience. It tells you what is right or wrong. Consciences tend to hold onto the bad things that you do and they bug you until you fix them. The superego is what tries to balance what you want so you are satisfied but also at the same time making sure that other people are content. These were very obscure and unsettling ideas at the time, and given the father mother situation, still today they may upset people. Here is the video from Youtube that we watched in class if you would live to watch it.

Video

Sites:

http://allpsych.com/psychology101/ego.html

Class on Friday

Kodak Camera vs Paintings

"You press the button, we do the rest." Creator of Kodak cameras, George Eastman said this in 1888. Cameras were only available to professional photographers, but Eastman created a kodak film roll that can take about 100 exposures. This way, even regular people can take advantage of the camera and carry it around in their hands. The customer uses the kodak camera and returns it to the company to receive clear prints. 

If a camera can capture images perfectly, then what is the point of art? When new technology and advancements were made, there was a talk about how photography might take over the beauty of art. A photograph gives you an image of the real world, while art is all about color and interpretation in one artists mind. In the image above, you can see how the photograph is very dull but realistic. The painting seems to have a unique creativity that the artist chose himself. It has color and idea to it by changing its style. 

http://lcni.uoregon.edu/~mark/Marks_photos/stereo_pairs/Apollo_moon/as12-49-7318_AstroOptiMax_comparison.jpg

Monet, the Impressionists

Monet was an impressionist in the mid-late 1800s. HIs paintings include Sunrise, Water Lillies, The poppies, and many others. Unlike other painters of his time, the impressionists would paint what they saw around them instead of copying from old paintings at the Louvre. Monet charmed his way into getting food and clothing while living in Paris and he eventually moved to Giverny. There he lived with all of his children and his 2nd wifes children, making it so that about 10 kids were running around. Monet created a remarkable garden for himself. This is wear he painted Water LIllies which to this day remains one of his most famous paintings, and an extremely well known picture in itself. He has rows of flower with sunflowers next to hibiscus, making a very diverse and beautiful garden. The most beautiful part of the garden in my opinion is the Water LIllies. He has Japanese bridges and a stream runs around all of it. The famous boat in his pictures is still there as well. (picture from http://www.allmonet.com/1%20Water-Lily_Pond__1897-1899.jpg) Most people hated Monet's pictures because they thought they looked so sloppy. Monet did find various customers in France who bought his work and kept him afloat. Clearly with such a nice in Giverny his work was somewhat appreciated, but most of the other impressionists never got to that point in their life-time. During the begining of MOnet's career, after attending well-renown painting schools the majority of France rejected all of Monet's paintings and he was not chosen to display paintings in the major auctions, museums, and collection locations in France.

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.

Timeline Rap

Hey guys, I wrote a rap kind of version to remember the Timeline. I tried my best to make it all fit. Hope it helps.



The Ming became King,
And the Ottoman came to power,
Columbus then new world,
Start of Mughal Empire,

Flourishing Spanish Empire,
Shogunate of Tokugawa,
Now it’s the Qing,
The BEI’s on ya,

America had a revolution,
Forming our constitution,
A revolution in France,
The Haitians stuck it to them,

Reign of Terror,
Followed by the Cotton Gin,
The Napoleon,
And the Steam Engine,

Mexican Independence,
Latin American Revolutions,
Factory Act to Opium War,
Power Looms’ been perfected,

London Exhibition,
Unification of Germany,
United America,
Trans-Atlantic Telegraphy,

Marx writes the Capital,
The Railroad’s Completed,
Meiji Restoration,
Italy’s now as you see it,

There was the First Boer war,
The Berlin Conference in 84,
Paris’ World Exhibition,
Chicago Columbian Exposition,

Sino started a war,
With the Japanese,
America attacked Spain,
While the Spanish flees.

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.

Cinco de Mayo

Cinco de Mayo was a large momentum shifter during Mexico's attempt to repel the French from their country. France had created a colony out of Mexico, all so that the French could obtain many riches from the mines in Northwestern Mexico. Mexico had had enough and tried to kick the French out of their country, along with ceasing to pay interest to France. France was angered and tried to take over Mexico, and they started off very well. However, when they reached the Town of Puebla, they were defeated by the Mexican army, despite being more numerous and powerful than the Mexican army. The day would remembered from that point on as Cinco de Mayo.

Darwin: Origin of Species ( primary source)

Of the Origin of Species by mean of Natural Selection, Is a book that was published by Charles Darwin in Nov/24/1859. This book is centered around the idea of Natural selection, which is the idea that there will be a struggle to survive based on your physical characteristics. In other words, survival of the fittest. Darwin backs up this idea with his findings of biology on his trip to the Galapagos Islands. These ideas were considered crazy at the time, but because they weren't threatening to the church, and weren't too radical, they were accepted over time.

Ignacio Zaragoza

Ignacio Zaragoza was a catalyst for the Mexican nation after he defeated the French army on Cinco de Mayo. Zaragoza was born in the Mexican state of Tejas (now modern day Texas) on March 24, 1829. His family moved to Monterrey in 1844 where he entered the seminary. During the political unrest of the 1850’s, Zaragoza led a group of volunteers to fight against Santa Anna. He was successful and ended up defeating Santa Anna. When the French attacked under the control of Maximillion, he controlled the battles of Acultzingo and Puebla. He is most famous for his triumph over much more numerous and well equipped French army at the Battle of Puebla. That day would later be named Cinco de Mayo. Unfortunately, Zaragoza died a few years later of malaria.

Education's Effect on Colonial Era's Changing Identity

What came with colonial rule was racism, exposure to European culture, and economic & social disputes, which led to a massive identity crisis to all living in the Colonial Era. Various aspects of everyday life included social status, the location in which one lived, etc; however the most vital factoring portion for the majority’s transforming identity was Western education.

“To previously illiterate people, the knowledge of reading and writing of any kind often suggested an almost magical power. Within the colonial setting, it could mean an escape from some of the most onerous obligations of living under European control, such as forced labor.” (Page 607, Ways of the World) The introduction of education opened doors to an abundance of those who were now provided with the opportunity to do something productive with their life. The ability to obtain better paying jobs such as government bureaucracies, mission organizations, or working for business firms. Education also “provided social mobility and elite status within their own communities and an opportunity to achieve, or at least approach, equality with whites in racially defined societies.” (Page 607, Ways of the World) Along with adopting the rapidly spreading fashion of engaging in education, people were also adopting European culture. They began “dressing in European clothes, speaking French or English, building European-style houses, getting married in long white dresses, and otherwise emulating European ways.” (page 607, Ways of the World)

Along with the immediate change that the exposure and acceptance of education brought, it also conveyed long term change. “Western-educated people organized a variety of reform societies, which sought a renewed Indian culture that was free of idolatry, child marriages, caste, and discrimination against women, while drawing inspirations from the class texts of Hinduism.” (Page 608, Ways of the World) This portrayed the involvement of education into society would result in great progress for those living in the Colonial Era. Subjects such as mathematics, natural philosophy, chemistry, anatomy, and other useful sciences were included into curriculum taught by European gentlemen to Indian natives. Although this raised the caliber of the everyday individual, the benefits of education failed to reach the regions of equality amongst blacks and whites. For the most part, Europeans rejected the idea of treating those of other races as equals, and the common misconception of the well educated was that their cultures were “primitive, backward, uncivilized, or savage.” (page 609, Ways of the World)

As one can see, the advancement of education and its spread throughout the Colonial Era caused both positive and negative effects to be thrust upon those experiencing this change. In the long run, my personal thoughts on the matter are that education did nothing but good for this time period, and I feel as though the majority would agree with me. Yes, those of higher caliber may have magnified discrimination more severely, however the controversy regarding equality amongst races can be brought up in nearly any circumstance. Education is not to blame for the prejudice feelings of those well educated, and instead acted as a wake up call to the world, allowing them to erase oblivion and naivety from their vocabularies and make something of themselves.

Bomb Vessels

In the early expeditions to Antarctica, explorers were required to use Bomb Vessels to break through the ice. They were the only ships with hulls strong enough to withstand the great force.

James Clark Ross

James Clark Ross was an explorer. He led an expedition around Antarctica where he charted much of the coastline.

Lord Mayo, Indian Cotton Trade

Lord Mayo was born in 1822 and died in 1872. England, after the American Civil War, began to rely heavily on India for their raw cotton. Lord Mayo invested alot of money in proper irrigation for cotton plants and railways to get the cotton to Britain quickly. ALthough he was not able to often be in Parliment to loby for India cotton, James Mangles who was a member of parliment representing an area right outside London did loby for Indian Cotton. In fact his son Ross Donelly Mangles later became the chairman of the East India Company. Lord Mayo sadly was murdered in 1872 by a Muslim convict, while he was inspecting a prison. He left India in a surplus and made way for more cotton to be grown and transported. Before Lord Mayo, the main problem with India Cotton is that it just couldnt live up to the American standard. India didnt have proper labor techniques, it had monsoon seasons that would kill the cotton plant, it did not have proper irrigation, the soil did not remain fertile for even a growing season, and they had terrible transportation. Lord Mayo fixed many of these problems.

Steam Engine

The steam train was a huge innovation for land travel. It took the same steam engine that helped revolutionize river travel, and used it on land. Richard Trevithick and George Stephenson invented the first steam train in 1803, with help from the funding of Samuel Homfray. It made its first journey in 1804 traveling nine miles with seventy passengers, and hauling ten tons of cargo, in just under two hours. The reason that this was so significant was that the only was to transport goods across land, before the steam train, was either by foot, by stage coach, or by wagon train. The steam engine provided a easier and faster way to transport things, replacing horse and man power.

In 1804 the first passenger car was invented, and shortly after that the Stockton and Darlington Railroad Company was the first to carry both passengers and goods on a regular schedule. They used an improved version of the steam train made by Stephenson which was able to pull six loaded coal carts, 4 cargo carts, and 21 passenger carts over nine miles in just one hour. Then in 1863, after much railroad advancement, the transcontinental railroad was built. For six years the United States slaved over completing the railroad line connecting Sacramento, California with Omaha, Nebraska. Finally in 1869 the railroad was completed. People could now travel more than halfway across the country aboard one train. The 1848 gold rush contributed a lot to the desire to travel west, and the railroad made it easy to do that. Before that transcontinental Railroad, it took travelers over four months to make the journey, because they were making in horse powered wagon trains. The Transcontinental Railroad made the journey possible in only a few days, just a fraction of what is was before.

The Steam Train was a huge advancement, because now mass amounts of goods and passengers could be quickly transported long distances. Instead of loading up caravans of horses and wagons and mules with hundreds of pounds of goods, people now had a far faster, safer, and more reliable way to do it. On trains. People also now had a much faster and reliable form of transportation for themselves. And not to mention, much more comfortable. They now had the ability to travel 2000 miles in just a few days. At the time, this was unheard of. And that is why the steam train and railroad were so revolutionary.

Steamboat

Robert Fulton's steamboat The Clermont

The first steamboat was invented in the late 1700s, but no effective models were invented until 1807. Before 1807, steamboats traveled only 2 mph and were far too expensive to operate and maintain. in 1807, Robert Fulton built the Clermont, the first successful steamboat. It made a journey from New York City to Albany in 32 hours, a new record. It average 5 miles per hour, up and downstream. It would make the trip once every four days, transporting up to 100 passengers and cargo. After the Clermont, steamboats became very popular, and different forms of boats were created. One example is the showboat, which was a steam powered boat with boat with various forms of entertainment aboard. Theaters, saloons, galleries, and ballrooms were available for people when showboats came to town. They were traveling entertainment. One more form of boat that became popular was the packet boat. It was a boat purely made for transportation. Anything from people, to cargo. They were flat, deck boat, primarily used to transport large amounts of crops and goods up and down rivers, but had some room for people aboard. Steamboats had a great effect on the industrial revolution, improving river transportation and trade, along with helping the growing industries and factories distribute their goods.

The Eiffel Tower

Bergdoll, Barry. The Eiffel Tower. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2003.

I am using The Eiffel Tower book for background information that will assist my intro paragraphs and help me get a better understanding of the topic i am doing (eiffel tower). Also there is a chapter in the book about the building process of the eiffel tower, this will help me when i relate the eiffel tower to the scientific revolution. This book is very useful in the research process of this essay.

Tesla

Nikola Tesla was born into a serbian family in the Austrian Empire in 1856. He was fairly educated and decided from an early age that he would become an electrical engineer. He lived a life of crazy inventions, and with the constant need to improve on his work. He has been called the mad scientist of our times, and no one can compare to his lack of rationality. He always put himself in the middle of danger, mostly because he knew he would leave unharmed. Although the Tesla Coil was one of the most renown inventions Nikola had, he went on to make households electrical by streaming long wires through the structure of a mansion, and leading all the power lines to a steam engine generator that would lay outside the home. It was very likely that there would be problems with this set up, and in many cases there were. He even set fire to a mansion when the electrical wires sparked. Beyond all of this, Tesla made a name for himself, and even today, he never ceases to amaze.

Research Blog, King Cotton and his Retainers, WOodman

“In ’63 and ’64, New Orleans could boast of more cotton factors than cotton. The principal business was in the hands of merchants from the north, who had established themselves in the city soon after its occupation by northern forces. Nearly all coton sent to the market was from plantations leased by northern men, or from purchases made of planters by the northern speculators. The patronage naturally fell into the hands of the new possessors of the soil, and left the old merchants to pine in solitude. The old factors, most of them southern men, who could boast of ten or twenty years’s experience, saw their business pass into the hands of men whose arrival in New Orleans was subsequenmt to that of gernal butler.” Camp-fire and Cotton-field: southern adventure in the time of war(New York 1865). This is an article about how the SOuth lost their cotton production to the NOrth at the end of the Civil War. AFter decades of plantations and cotton production, Northerners came into New Orleans and took over the production. Since the south was in so much debt, when NOrtherners came with a lot of money they easily bought out their southern competition. They would take the SOuth's land in return for paying their mass amount of debt, in this way the SOuth lost their debt but also their main source of income. Their plans of dealig cotton directly to Europe were shattered now that they didnt even have cotton production anymore. Keep in mind that this article seems to paint a positive picture of the SOUth loosing cotton production because it a New York article from the time when the North was winning the Civil War.