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.

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.

Statue of Liberty

The Statue of Liberty was shown on October 28th, 1886. The tower was a gift from France, originally named: "Liberty Enlightening the World". The statue stands at Liberty Island in New York. At the time, President Grover accepted this gift as a monument to celebrate 100 years of American Independence.

http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/History/hits?docNum=BT3401804032&tab=1&locID=menlo_schlib&origSearch=true&hdb=ALL&t=RK&s=1&r=d&items=0&secondary=true&o=&sortOrder=&n=10&l=dR&sgPhrase=true&c=1&tabMap=119&bucket=gal&SU=%22statue+of+Liberty%22

http://www.kakambourasfamily.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/StatueofLiberty1939WF2.jpg

Strayer 566-569

After reading about China and Europe's conflicts over Opium and the beginning of the first Opium War, I felt as though the entire situation could have been avoided.

Based on what I read, it was obvious that Britain took complete advantage of China after the Opium war. Britain, with its high ego because of their new military, decided to wage war against China. Soon after, China signed Britain's treaty which was completely in favor of Britain and allowed them to open numerous ports in China and impose tariffs on goods. The same thing happened after Britain won the second Opium War. It is clear that China let Europe push them around, taking control of the ports and allowing Europeans and other foreigners to live in China under their own laws. China, previously a very powerful nation, has fallen at the hands of Europe and their weakened government was the result of Imperialism. Why was China so feeble? Why did they let Europe and other nations such as France and Japan take advantage of them and control of areas of their country? Most likely, China underestimated Europe's newfound power, especially after the effects of the Industrial Revolution.

Edward Blyden

Edward Blyden was the most influential proponent of identifying the differences between Africana and European cultures. Some of his views consist of race and culture. He stated that each race is different, but that it had its own distinctive benefaction that it gave to the world and its population. For example, Africans had taken on a different approach of life compared to the Europeans. As the Europeans were so eager to get ahead in life by their materialistic and individualistic ideas, the Africans were happier being more spiritual and cooperative. Both of their missions were contrasted sharply because they were focused on two completely different things. Blyden figured this out and annonced his views to the world and people realized they could do the same things that the Europeans could just in a different manner. As a result, hundreds of thousands Africans contributed to World War I, where they were faced to coexist with the Europeans. People thanked Blyden for his intelligence and later on people began to called the Africans a "tribe" instead of a race because they felt it was a better word to describe them as.

The Wage Labor

Working for Europeans was always the way to obtain money in these economies. In order to get money, they had to do some manual labor at a very small price. This labor is called the wage labor. Money earned from a man doing the job himself. Some of this wage labor was brought to many different parts of Africa and Asia. It was populated the most in the continents because African and Asian people were known to look up to the "whites", also known as Europeans, and do whatever they were told. Some types of wage labor included plantations, mines, construction sites, and building homes. These labor sites were located in many countries in Africa. For example, Trinidad, Fiji, Malaysia, Ceylon, and South Africa had very many plantations where the Africans could work at. Some ideas of labor were moving extremely heavy sacks of tea into a drying house so they could be exported to different parts of the world. Mines were probably the largest area of wage labor because over the 19th century, they found 55% of the world's tin. As a result, the Africans and Asians got a lot better at what they did and finally began to get higher paying jobs and less hours on the job. However, they would never fully be as rich as the Europeans.

Citation: The Ways of the World by Robert W. Strayer

Colonializing in the 1800s

European Colonial Empires were very different than many of the other colonial empires in the nineteenth century. One of the very strongest differences was the race factor. There was something called "scientific racism" where they based racism off the studies of all different types of races. As a result, whites were the most dominant race and were seen as a higher being to the other races. The Africans called the white people "bwana" which means master in swahili, and the Europeans or "white" people called the africans "boy." Another difference was the seperation of the Africans from the Europeans. Most colonial empires didn't supply seperate homelands for the black and white people, so it brought them closer together as a whole. These new European colonial empires demanded to have separate homelands, educational systems, and even public facilities. Furthermore, European Colonial Empires were liked more than the original colonial empires and therefore, people adapted to their empires and that is how scientic racism began. It lasted until the end of the 19th century and was a horrible era for everyone.

Citation: The Ways of the World by Robert W. Strayer

Strayer 528-529

These next few blogs are a bit late but I'd still really appreciate your comments, thanks.

After reading this section (and after completing the unit :O), it's pretty accurate to say that the most important things that came from the industrial revolution are the technologies created such as the spinning jenny, power loom, steam engine and cotton gin as well as factory systems that were brought into play. Unfortunately, these machines only benefitted factory owners, allowing them to produce more and make more profit. However, the actual laborers were had a much harder lifestyle and made very little money in comparison to factory owners. This is why many families had to send their children off to work in order to make as much money to support them as possible.

Present industrial feats occur all the time with the advancement in technology. However, it is never and probably will never be on the same scale as the Industrial Revolution was in Britain. This is because at that point in time, one invention after another surfaced, modernizing the country and world. Unfortunately, another industrial revolution will most likely not occur unless some sort of futuristic/alien (foreign) technology is created or discovered.

596-597

In the reading I found that Europeans were very ignorant in the ways that they treated the Africans and Indians. They felt that just because the Africans seemed native, they must be treated as lesser people. They wouldn't even allow the educated ones have any authority. I feel that if I were in the position of either the Indians or the Africans, I would be greatly offended because I don't necessarily need the knowledge the Europeans have to offer. I wouldn't even need to learn the languages that they speak. Just because their skin is a different color doesn't mean that the IQs will be different. There were even controversies over the idea that a well educated Indian man should have the right to be the judge of a white man's case. It's extremely racist and belittling of any other race on this earth. I almost wish that the Africans and Europeans could switch places for a second to show how everything is subjective in this scenario.

Feedback on Cy's Marx Smith handout

Cy, I strongly agree with your point about how the rich people used the poor people because there wages were so small that they could not provide for themselves or their families. The people had to suffer through the beginning of the Industrial Revelation. I know if i owned a factory or business i would at least try to up the wages so that my workers we able to survive. It would benefit my business because the customers would be more loyal. However i strongly disagree with you on your point about how the Industrial revolution was a horrible part in the american history because, it really did benefit everyone is one way or another. Even though the factory owners and wealthy people were benefited first eventually the poor people were benefited and their wages increased drastically. I believe that the Industrial Revolution was an excellent time and help with the inventions in a huge way because without these inventions todays world would not be the same.

Outcomes of the Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution brought a lot of wealth to mainly Great Britain, and Germany, but it brought it to few people in the higher classes, and to the majority of the population it brought nothing. The section of people that did benefit from the industrial revolution were the Aristocrats, and the middle class people. These of course were only 30 percent of these nations people. The rest, 70 percent of the people, were laborers. They were the screwed ones. These people had really bad working conditions, and really low salaries. They had a lot of illnesses because there living conditions were not sanitary, so they were living a really tough life. Because of this, I feel as if the industrial revolution was really unsuccessful. 

I think that Smith sort of helped create this machine that Marx hated, so I don't think that he helped the people that much. He did help the overall economy, but the majority of the people were still miserable. I thought that Marx's ideas were really good. It is crazy how a person in those times could stop looking at the great and new technologies, and take the time to instead look at how the people were being treated. His huge idea about how everyone should be equal in politics must have been outrageous in those times, but it is one that is really good. 

Welcome to Manchester

Hello, my name is Lola Johanson and I have just moved to Manchester. I am 20 years old and I have left my extremely wealthy family in France to come here and start a new life. I had one child, a baby girl, who sadly did not make it here alive. My husband disappeared immediately after Layla was born. I am here on my own, ready to make a living for myself. Word in France was that Britain is home of all of the latest and greatest inventions, and they have a textile industry with 52 million pounds of cotton. With railroads criss-crossing and factories steaming, Manchester is just the place I have been looking for.

Living in the countryside of France was dreadful. The estate where I usually stayed in was big enough to house the French army and a few more, and everywhere I looked there was some maid just waiting for me to ask them for something. I never saw any of my multiple mothers and my father was always off taking care of some business related need. My 16 siblings were always at parties or gambling or out spending our father’s money in the most absurd ways imaginable. I needed to get out of there before I turned into one of them, which I promised myself I would not let happen.

Richard, my first love and once husband, was always in full support of my plans I had for the future. We were going to have a family, get married, and start a school system in the local town near my estate. However, once I got pregnant with Layla, everything seemed to go downhill. Arguments were the only conversations we had, and I began seeing less and less of him. Then Layla was born, on October 7^th, and Richard was gone. No one ever saw him again. After that tragedy I knew I had to get out of that town, away from everything that reminded me of him and our future plans we had together. I took what I could fit into a knapsack and headed south with Layla. However due to the fact that she was was born premature, she did not make it even a week. Having lost both my husband and a child, I continued on my voyage to Manchester. Upon my arrival, I can only hope to turn my life around.

Liam Ross

My family and I moved to Manchester recently after running from what is now Turkey over conflicts with the government. I dont want to bore you with this story about my troubles in the past and my family have decided to put those years behind us. My name is Liam Ross and I like to call myself an inventor. I have had numerous inventions that I have been trying to sell over the past couple years all across the world but have yet to make any true income. My other job is a tailor, but this is just so I can get so money to provide for my children. There names are Jasper, Sarah, and Hazel. There are a handful especially for a single parent. My wife died right after Hazel was born by Romanian bandits. It was a tragic events and I have tried to find a women to fill the void my children have had in the past 3 years, but no one has stuck. This is another reason I have moved to the city, to find some one that can take care of my family while I invent and am at work to clean the house, etc. I am very excited about this move to Manchester, mainly because of the increased population, increasing my chance to sell my inventions and make so real money. Also I feel many of my inventions will be very useful to city-folk like this machine that I call the typewriter. You can write out all of your letters in this machine and it prints it onto parchment. I am very close to making this invention available to the public and I think it will be very popular. Enough about me because I want to talk about my children. Jasper is my only boy so he is the only one to go to school. He is learning to become an apprentice for a gunsmith, and hopes that he can one day learn how to make high powered guns that the armies can use. Sarah is a maid for the gentry even though she is only 12 and I am hoping I can marry her fairly soon. Lastly, Hazel is only 3 but no one can watch after, so I have to take her to work with my because I cannot afford a sitter to watch over her. I am sure once I find a wife, she can do this for me. Well that is all, and I am very excited to see how my life turns out in Manchester.

Manchester-Story

Hi, my name is John and I'm a farmer living in the countryside. I am 35 years old. I have a wife, Angela, who is 25 and we have a child on the way. The reason for our relocation to Manchester is our baby. Although I make a decent amount of profit through farming, it is starting to become very expensive, especially when owning a combine. If we decide to have more children, I will have to find a job that offers more money. This way I can support a large family. This can only be achieved by moving to a big city, such as Manchester. Although I have not found a job their yet, I know there will be plenty because I have many other friends in the city who tell me about opportunities. If we choose to permanently settle in Manchester, once I have a steady income, I will provide my children with tutors. This way I can give my children an opportunity that I never had. With a proper education, they will have no problems finding a job, and supporting a family. I want my children to exceed my own success as much as possible. However, I take pride in being "middle-class." It gives me a sense of modesty-being able to not extend myself too much, but also not be labeled as impoverished.

Middle Class

My name is Marie and me and my family just moved into Manchester a few months ago. I am 29 years old and Francois, my husband, decided to move to move to Manchester and as the women of the household I came as well. We decided to move to Manchester because the countryside was not as it used to be, and my husband had heard that the cities were thriving. The countryside was becoming less suitable for people of our status, land was for farming and we are not farmers. My husband had an education so we decided to move to Manchester to see what it would hold for us. After a couple months of figuring out where to live Francois decided to move to Manchester. Francois works at the bank now, he had a great education allowing us to prosper here in Manchester and as a result we are known as the "middle class". We are neither rich by inheritance nor are we labor workers, my husband is a respectable man who can support me and our children. Because my husband has money, we decided to get my daughter, Annelise, a governess. She is very bright for a 5 year old, we believe that its important to teach a child the basis at least if not more. Jacques our little 3 year old boy, when he gets older will receive a private tutor that way he may build a family of his own and support them as we have done. Annelise will be taught how to manage a household as I have and when she grows older I will teach her personally on how to run the house and be a perfect wife, it is our duty as mother and wives. Right now me and Francois are making sure are children may become respectable people in society. Along with this I make sure that the house is running in order, and everything is impeccable for my husband.

Cotton Gin

In the reading it briefly mentioned the Cotton Gin as one of the major inventions of the industrial revolution.

Before the invention of the cotton gin, cotton farming was a very tedious job requiring lots of man power. After picking the cotton, hundreds of workers had to separate the seeds from the cotton and make sure that the cotton was completely "clean" of seeds before it could be traded and sold. This process took hours and small amounts of cotton were produced per day. Cotton therefor wasn't a valuable crop because of the amount of effort needed to produce it, and the small produced. Then the cotton gin was invented by Eli Whitney in 1793. It was a machine that would separate the seeds from the cotton for the people. Now, instead of producing a few pounds of clean cotton per day, the cotton gin could produce fifty pounds. The value of cotton sky rocketed. It went from a nearly valueless crop, to one of the cash crops of the U.S. It even began to compete with tobacco at one point. The invention also made it so that many less people were needed, along with less labor, but the output of the crop was much higher. The people who didn't have to clean the cotton any more headed to cities and factories. This is why the cotton gin was such a huge invention, and played such a huge part in the Industrial Revolution and development of the United States.

fertilizer

Although fertilizer has been in use for thousands of years, the common form of chemical fertilizer was created in the 1800s. The original fertilizer that is still used today in animal manuer. Ancient farmers found that by spreading manuer from their farm animals their plants would grow brigger and faster, thus the invention of fertilizer. Then inn the 1700s scientists like Francis Baco discovered and recommended adding saltpeter to plants to healthen them. The first chemical fertilizer was created by mixing fish bones with sulfuric acid. After World War I the fertilizer industry boomed making it easier for farmers to grow their plants and feeding the agricultural revolution. Sulfur, POtassium, and Phosphorus are common elements that today are used in fertilizer bags. 

Electricity

The first history of electricity can be traced back all the way to the Egyptian times, in the form of electric fish. Egyptian texts referred to them as "Thunderer of the Nile" as they were the "protector" of the other fish. These fish can also be traced back to the Greeks and Romans, as there were reports of the catfish and torpedo rays delivering a numbing electric shock.

Electricity was a mere curiosity that scientists someday hoped that they may be able to study and research, until the seventeenth century. English physician William Gilbert did a close study of electricity by rubbing amber together which showed the Loadstone effect. Further work was done by others following this, one of the others being Benjamin Franklin. He even sold his own possessions to fund money for his research. Franklin attached a key to the bottom of a wet kite, and flew the kite in a heavy thunderstorm. Sparks went from the key to the back of his hand, which proved that electricity was very much in nature.

Luis Galvani proved that with bioelectricity, electricity was the medium that the nerve cells used to send signals to the muscle. Batteries were invented later on, which were a much more reliable source than the electrostatic machines that were previously used. Electricity use turned from a mere curiosity into a large source of requirement in our society today. All of this was found from here.

The Telegraph and Telephone

In 1832 Samuel F. B. Morse came up with the idea of an electromechanical telegraph. In 1837 the idea was revised by Leonard Gale into a working mechanical form. Then the telegraph was going to be demonstrated, but they tried underground cables and then the idea of telegraph poles came about and that worked a lot better than the

underground cables did. The first commercial telegraph line was finished in 1846, and it was set up to go from Washington DC to New York.

As you can see from the ideas above, the telephone evolved from the telegraph a little later. From the ideas above they had already learned that telegraph poles worked a lot better than underground, and as you can see today, we have telephone poles which probably originated from the inspiration of the telegraph poles.

The invention of the telegraph was very important because it was an advancement in technology and it allowed people to communicate with each other easier and faster than before.

(above is Samuel F. B. Morse, the original inventor)

Here are pictures of some telegraphs

Robin Currie "History of the Telegraph" http://historywired.si.edu/detail.cfm?ID=324 (accessed October 29, 2009).

Pictures from...

http://www.textually.org/textually/archives/archives/images/set2/telegraph1.jpg

http://de.academic.ru/pictures/dewiki/115/samuel_morse.jpg

http://cache.eb.com/eb/image?id=91542&rendTypeId=4

Cotton Gin

The Cottin Gin was one of the most powerful tools during the Industrial Revolution. First off, the cotton gin was a machine that quickly and efficiently seperated the seeds from the cotton. Not only was it at a very fast pace, but that it was a machine. This meaning, ALL of the seeds were picked out from the cotton since machines never fail to do its job. In addition, to having a machine picking the seeds out of cotton, the cotton gin made cotton so much less expensive since it was quicker and easier to make. As a result, more people could pay for cotton and it soon became a main product used for clothing. The Cotton Gin was not the only big revolutionary machinery made, it was definitely one of the more important revolutions happening during the Industrial Revolution.