What is Power

Everyone dreams to have ultimate power, to reign over a kingdom, or be the absolute best at something… but one question remains… what is power? In this essay I will take a deep insight into that question, going back through the whole year in Humanities. Basically, in this year in Humanities power can be shown in the Industrial Revolution, American Revolution, and Imperialism.

First, I will talk about John D. Rockefeller. My Industrial Revolution project was focused on red barons, mainly John D. Rockefeller. John D. had so much power because o fall his wealth. In 1902, he was worth 200 million dollars. When someone has this much money, he is considered very powerful. Along with him, in modern day, Bill Gates is considered a very powerful man, mainly because of his wealth. During the industrial revolution, the rich people had a lot of power, because of the amount of capitalism

Secondly, the American Revolution clearly shows power. When the new Americans wanted their freedom, the stood against the British rule, which was the dominant power. It took a lot of work from the Americans, but then eventually got the command they wanted. They had to work to over through the King from Britain. An example of this we did in class was King Coyle. King Coyle had power over all of us because he had the ability to take away our basic necessities… and give us F’s. We had a fear of King Coyle because he was at a very high power. When someone has power, the people he is ruling over generally have a fear of him.

Lastly, Imperialism incorporated power a lot. The European countries went to Africa and starting claiming it because Europe was much more powerful than the developing countries in Africa. The European countries claimed the African countries because of the recourses and they wanted to spread their land. Since of how powerful Europe was at the time, it has the ability to go over to other countries and take control of them.

To conclude, power can be found everywhere, and in Humanities it is specifically in the IR, American Revolution, and Imperialism. Power is not always good, but has effected how we live today greatly.

Globalization Cartoon

This cartoon is talking about globalization. The main visual elements is a kid who doesn't want to do her homework, and an angry dad, telling the daughter to do it, instead of OUTSOURCING it. This is showing how that people outsource when they don't want to do work, and they want it to be done easier. It is using the example of a child because it is trying to represent what the companies are doing as child work. Instead of companies doing their own homework, they send it to other places to get it done cheaper and faster. The artist of this cartoon has a negative view on globalization because he uses a kid in it. This is also trying to show how kids are trying to do easier work, like globalization... showing how lazy America is. This relates to our study of globalazation because we learned that it is what companies do to get cheap and affordable labor, like what the little girl is trying to do. This cartoon is persuasive as it is... but maybe on the newspaper add some faint text about how bad globalization is or something along the lines of that.

UbD Feedback

There were many valuable lessons to be learned from UbD, but the three most important for me were, time management, organization, and precision. Time management was a key factor in getting the UbD project done. If you procrastinated a lot, there would be a price to pay. It was important that I spend equal time on each part of the project, but also made sure I knew when all the deadlines were. Without good management of time, it would be hard to complete the project. Time management also meant sacrifices. During the final few weeks of the project, I wouldn’t go to hang out with friends, or do stuff I normally would do, all in the sake of getting UbD done. The second thing I learned that was important to me was organization. It is important to not misplace things, even if you don’t think you need them. It is important to keep track of where you are in the process of the assignment. Using the calendar provided really helped. When you are going through the big hump near the end of the project, you have to have good organization. I laid out all my papers on the floor of my room, before I made it into an actual portfolio. Lastly, precision I learned precision. It helped me a lot that I read and re read each paper. UbD has taught me a lot of things.

Sameness Feedback

In The Giver Lois Lowry uses the word sameness a lot. Whenever the surroundings are described, Lois Lowry uses the word same or sameness to show it. The reason the word equality isn’t used is because people can be equal even if they don’t wear the same clothing. In sameness, they grow up the same, they wear the same things. If you’re equal, you can still dress differently and act differently depending on what type of person you are. Equality is when people are treated equal, and sameness is when people are the same in every way. In Animal Farm, equality is a more fitting word because it is describing more of a ruling then the way people act. Today, sameness doesn’t exist. There is no where in the world where there are people who are exactly the same in every way, there aren’t even people who are the same to the extent of The Giver. Lois Lowry uses language much more precious language because it really adds a lot to the story. Every time we read the word “sameness” we start to get a more bland feeling to the community. The word sameness really describes what life is like in the community.

Giver Feedback

The age that is considered adult in the book The Giver, is very different to the real world. In my opinion, the age that someone would become an adult is 18. At that age, a person would have enough responsibility to be able to live his/her life be their selves. To be an adult, you have to be able to manage your life and know how to sustain yourself without help from parents or guardians. At the age of twelve, like in The Giver, it isn’t a proper age to become an adult because they aren’t mature enough and they don’t know how to live without their parents. When someone is an adult, he or she has to be able to move out, away from their parents, start work, and make enough money for them to support themselves. The age of twelve is way too young for that.

There is no definite age for when an adult becomes un useful because it depends on what his job is. If a person is a basketball player, he will become useless at the age of 40 or so. If a person is a job like a doctor or a scientist, he will be useful for much longer. In The Giver, there is no age stated when a person becomes useless, but I would assume that it is about 60. The age of retirement really depends on the person, because some people would want to work longer than others.

My UbD Outline

Here is my outline for my work time in humanities…

Monday-Bilingual Brochure Work… Start editing HRP

Tuesday-Continue Editing of HRP

Wednesday-Editing Data Analysis

Thursday-Peer edit HRP in class… Star Editing Independent Investigation

Friday-Put final touches on DA, II, CE and go to 2^nd round of HRP edit

Feedback 24-28

The visual elements of this cartoon is the kid sitting at the table with his two parents. Normally families will chat about what they did at school or at work. The caption at the bottom says, "Well yes, we could read your blog... or you could just tell us about your day." The cartoon is talking about how much technology there is and how much sometimes it can be un-necessary. When technology stops verbal communication it has gone to far. The artist is using the blog to represent one thing but there is so much more that could happen. Walking could become out-dated, along with any other mode of communication. It shows how technology is effecting young kids and will make their lives a bit to easy. The cartoonist opinion that technology isn't all bad, but sometimes it ca be used to an excess. S/he probably knows a lot of people who are constantly blogging or on the phone. My evidence is that normal daily lives are going to start to change. Normally, the kid would just tell his parents what he did, but instead he is telling them to read his blog. This cartoon is ironic because we are posting it on our blog and also because the cite Coyle got it from was www.sandiegohomeBLOG.com. I think to make the cartoon more effective he could have had the sonn on the phone or on a laptop instead or something along the lines of that.

Feedback on Vonnegut's Quote

Vonnegut is right because computers have made things a bit TOO easy for humans. Instead of us evolving into better and smarter people, it is really the computers and the other inventions that are doing the "becoming.” Vonnegut says that people kind of start to un develop with all the new contraptions that make life easier. Vonnegut is also right when he says that you becoming what you should become is what you were born to work, not the computers job. Ludites don't like technology and they think that it is going to corrupt us one day, maybe Vonnegut is right with his stories when he talks about things going hay wire with to much technology. The question really is how advanced can technology get until it starts to hurt us. In some ways Vonnegut is wrong, from the view of Bill Gates or other owners of companies that make technologies, Kurt Vonnegut would be the devil. It all boils down to how much your willing to depend on technology because you never know if it is going to know when or if it is going to bite you in the behind.

Technology

Technology is things that are invented to make things better or easier to use. In this school there is a lot of technology, enough computers for every student, a projector for each teacher, a computer for every teacher and a lot more. This school also includes a lot of classes that use a lot of technology like Robotics and Video Pro and Web. Five technologies i need are...

Wii
iPod
Laptop
Cell Phone
TV

Five things that aren't important to me are...

Hair Dryers
PS3
Asimo
Rambaa
Electronic Toothbrush

Q3 Feedback

For the new quarter I am going to try and use my time wisely. Try to get UbD work done, go to tutorials more often, etc. I want to make sure that I manage my stress and to do my work and not postpone it. I have also I think met all my goals, kept up with AR and others. I also need to ask for help when I need help. If I don't understand somethings I need to ask teachers for help. A goal for high school is to make sure that I don't get left behind and also to ask former freshman how it is so I can have tips on how to work. I have kept up with my work and my grades, but I need to make sure that it is going to keep on going.

Oxymoron

Holy War is an oxymoron because there are not many wars that are provoked by religion. The Cold War, the World War I and World War II are not about religion, along with the Vietnam War. A reason I would say that Holy War isn't an oxymoron is because of 911. Osama attacked the USA because of a religious purpose. Darfur is another example of a "Holy War" because they are fighting for religious beliefs. I don't think that Holy War is an oxymoron is in all the cases. Holy War basically means that you will get appreciated for starting that war or the war that you wont get looked down upon for starting it. It is also true that most religions condemn violence, but it is also true that you should defend your religion. No matter how big or small the war, if people are religious, they will do anything to defend it.

Cold War Simulation

In this simulation I think that there was no real winner when it came to the super powers USSR and USA although USSR made more allies than USA and established a lot of allies in Southern America which would be good in the further war. Along with USSR and USA there were other nations... Asia, Latin America, and Africa. Africa and Europe came together to win 115 points. I don't think that it is fair to count the points from the other nations because later they would be exploited. It is harder because the two super powers where trying to by from them, the other nations didn't have to worry about buying others. The other 3 people were selling their countries and I dont think that you can count that as doing something good for your country. In our class, USSR was able to buy a lot of the central American countries and we made really good deals. Since USA started with 75 points, and USSR started with 65... and USA ended with 110, and USSR ended with 100 it was an even fight between the two because we both gained 35 points. I think that it was a tie between the two super powers, and for the lesser nations it was a win by Africa, although I don't think that you can count that as win because they were selling, not buying.

VC Feedback

One thing to remember about VC is to always know what you’re going to say. To start you have to make sure that you are connected to the right camera and also that your microphone works. If you are using a background, you have to constantly use the auto-set key in order to make the background look good. You don’t want to change the background to much in your presentation, and also, to many graphics coming in and out can get distracting. The main purpose of adding pictures is to add the audience’s understanding of the topic. There is no reason to have too long of an introduction in the begging of your performance, just a quick song and the title of your presentation is really good. It is also good if you have to spread production out between two days to try to wear the same thing both days. It won’t make sence in the end if you suddenly change shirts every time you go on. And also… DON’T WEAR GREEN, the V-Screen wont pick it up and then you will just look like a floating head… that’s not good. Basically, once you are done with your part of the production and you have added all the necessary graphics, export it out for it to be latter made into one master project. Some of the cool things about the project was VC. VC is a really cool program and has a lot of cool features that can make the project look really cool. Also, actually just seeing yourself up there is pretty cool. Some of the bad things about it is having to auto-set key a lot. It gets annoying because you have to do it almost every five minutes and when you just don’t get you lines right it gets very annoying to have to start over. I liked this project a lot though, it might have been one of my favorites, especially because I have done VC before.

Movie Post

I didn’t like this movie much. They messed with the book a lot. Who is this Jessie person? In the book, there was no mention of a dog named Jessie. I think that Jessie is meant to represent Benjamin because Benjamin is really smart, but instead of not telling anyone about the problems going on, in the movie, Jessie tries to spread it out to everyone. Another change was the actual song. I was upset that there was no Beast of England. At the end of Old Major’s speech, instead of dieing a few days later, he gets shot after his speech. There were a lot of unnecessary scenes with Mr. Jones in his farm. After the animals got there farms back, the humans tried to tap the farm and listen in. Napoleon also brought in a TV to brain wash the animals. In the movie there was no Clover, and there was also a statue built for Napoleon. Instead of a storm knocking down the windmill, Jones actually blows up the windmill. Also, Napoleon made a lot of movies about Pravda. Instead of Moses being near the beginning of the book and talking about Sugar Candy Island, he first talks when Boxer dies. Along with the death of boxer, in the book, him being taking do the glue factory was much more discreet. Instead of playing Ace of Spades in the end of the movie, the just give a toast, and they also give all animals freedom. All the animals leave for a while and when they come back, Napoleon is dead and the far is ruined and Jessie has more kids and she sees a new family coming into run the farm. In the book, none of this happens; the movie has more of a happy ending. I like the book a lot better, because they over exaggerate a lot in the book about how cruel Napoleon is and some of the animation is really bad and annoying.

Script

Holocaust Script (Intro and Conflict)

Hi, this is Asim Lal reporting live from CNN in New Delhi. Today we are looking back at the tragic event in the 20^th century, an event that caused nearly six million deaths. The Holocaust. We will take a deep look into the event, seeing what really took place in one of the most recognizable attacks of racism. The Holocaust is a term used often to describe the attack of millions of Jews during World War II as a deliberate attack by Adolf Hitler. Not only were the Jews killed, along with the death of Jews, the Nazi Germans attacked Romas, Soviets, Gay Men, Prisoners of War, and Priests. Lets take a closer look into the causes and effects with Sabei Aung.

Thanks Sabei, Now lets take a deeper insight into the actual conflict that went on. If Jews were captured, they were then taken into camps sometimes called concentration camps where they would be held. Some people would be used as guinea pigs as very dangerous tests were done on them. One of the most notorious doctors was Dr. Josef Mengele. His experiments included placing subjects in pressure chambers, testing drugs on them, freezing them, attempting to change eye color by injecting chemicals into children's eyes, and various amputations and other brutal surgeries. Along with taking Jews and Romas, they also took the “unpure” people who were either mentally or physically challenged and held them in camps also. We have a quote from Hitler when he gained his power in 1993.

Once I really am in power, my first and foremost task will be the annihilation of the Jews. As soon as I have the power to do so, I will have gallows built in rows—at the Marienplatz in Munich, for example—as many as traffic allows. Then the Jews will be hanged indiscriminately, and they will remain hanging until they stink; they will hang there as long as the principles of hygiene permit. As soon as they have been untied, the next batch will be strung up, and so on down the line, until the last Jew in Munich has been exterminated. Other cities will follow suit, precisely in this fashion, until all Germany has been completely cleansed of Jews.

That’s all for me today, see you later Delhi, and for now, take it away Harriet.

Who am I in Animal Farm?

I am Old Major because I am a natural born leader. I have the voice to compel people and I am well respected. I always want the best for my people and I know all about my compadres. (Orwell Pg. 4) If I talk most people will listen. I have the ability to rile up emotions and get people to realize what is happening. Old Major stands up for what he believes and is not afraid to say it. Old Major is the most wise of everyone, and is the leader of the whole farm. Major is very persuasive and likes to air his opinions. Besides the fact that I am not dead, I am just like Old Major. (Orwell Pg. 9)

Feedback Feb. 4

In both India and USA there is no mandatory army. There are good reasons in America for why they would not need mandatory military. America is a very advance country and has a lot of troops already, making people join the army would be a waste. In India, there is no real need for an extra army. There is no big war going on in India. Not to be selfish but the conditions would have to be very extreme for me to join the army. To join the army it is useless if you are really week and if you do not have the proper build and ability. If you do not fit the expectations and you are forced to join, you wont do well, and if they was a war, you would die. The army is only for strong people. I wouldn't fit in the army. In countries like Singapore I see how they might need people to join the army because it is a very low populated state. Being forced to do the army is useless.

The King is Dead

The King is dead! I think we have a good example of how the colonist live, because there where weird taxes and unjust acts. We had taxes on denim, sport shoes, mouth equipment, and jewelry, compared to the taxes they had there. The quartering act, stamp act, tea act, etc. Mr. Coyle was a tyrant, he treated us unfair and used his power to take advantage of us. Mr Coyle also took away our rights, by taxing us a lot and stealing our belongings and demanding taxes for them. We all wanted to rebel and start a revolution so that we go be treated fair and that is self-determination. Instead of us actually going through with the rebellion and refusing to pay taxes, the King actually resigned, unlike in the American Revolution. Mr Coyle was our King George III, he had complete control of us and threatent us a lot. He said that if we didnt pay for paper on our assignment, he wouldn't grade it. Like "NY says no" King revoked some of the taxes as time game, like the agenda tax. But he kept most of the taxes, and if you refused to pay, he would take something of yours and charge even more for it. We had a mini "Sons of Liberty" which only really had one person, Lucas. Like the Sons of Liberty, Lucas fought to get freedom and ended up on the treason list. If you didnt have enough money to pay, you would have to move to Georgia. Georgia was the place where you moved to pay a debt. The board filled up fast, and a lot of people where stuck there because of the King being unjust. It was hard to get money with all the taxes in the class, because there was only one way to make money. I have a good feel about how hard it was to live in the 13 Colonies with someone charging you for everything you did.
http://www.britishbattles.com/images/king-george-iii.jpg

Where is the 43rd War held

The 43rd war is based in El Salvador because in the "Nations of the World Atlas" It ways that El Salvador was torn by civil war. The main religion is Roman Catholic (Wikipedia), like in the book, when the villagers died, it says that they put a cross on the grave. The cross is a Catholic sign, and the main language is Spanish. They speak Spanish a lot in the book. (43rd War). It says that there is a lot of guerilla warfare in El Salvador which agrees with the book because they use it a lot. Altacal was the ruler of El Salvador a while ago and that is maybe why Moeri choose to name a volcano by. I think that Moeri decided not to tell the location because it is not true and also he didnt want to make any one upset about their government. I think that people would have gotten mad if he said any specific country.



moeri, louis. the 43rd war. NY: Hougton miflin, 1989. "Atlacatl."
"Atlacatl." Wkipedia. 2007. Wikipedia. 28 Jan 2008 .

DoI

When it is time to break away, you need to explain why you are doing it. It’s needed that everyone is treated equally and they have undeniable right, life, liberty, and happiness. The government is a people. When someone is not given those rights and things are getting really bad, it is that person’s duty to change that government in hope to make sure that the new government creates a place where people are safe and happy. King George has been so bad; it is our duty to change what he has done wrong.

King George III did several things that were despotic. He cut off all of the trade with the rest of the world, imposed a lot of taxes on us without our approval. He deprived us of the right to a trial by jury, he refused our consent to law and has came overseas, messed up our coast, and killed many people.

We have made many attempts to change this way, but have always gotten the same answer, no. We have tried to warn the British soldiers of what they have done. They have also been deaf, and have not heard what we have been trying to say. These united colonies need to be independent and need to be rid of the British. With this declaration we pledge the to each other our lives, fortune, and honor.

Is TBAS Trustworthy?

To be a Slave is a trustworthy book because there are quotes by real people who went through these events. There is a lengthy bibliography (Lester 159-160). Also in the About the Author it says the Lester is a professor in black studies in the University of Massachusetts. He is a frequent contributor to news papers and is author of other highly acclaimed books, so he has a reputation of being a good and truthful author. One of his examples is the Library of Congress, which is a very good library. (Lester 36). To be a Slave has one six high class awards including a Newbery Honor Book and a New York Times Outstanding Book of the Year. If it wasn’t a trust worthy book we wouldn’t be reading it either. It won an ALA Notable Children’s Book. What I am trying to say is that if it wasn’t true we would be reading another book about slavery. Although he obviously didn’t experience the slave trade, he knows a lot about it. "...one of the most powerful documents to appear in children's literature." - School Library Journal. The book wouldn't be condemned for its great literature if it was all false. Since black studies is his occupation and his citations include the Library of Congress, my view is that To be a Slave is a very trustworthy book.

Lester, Julius. To be a Slave. New York: Scholastic, 1968.

GP Game

In the great powers game, I was partnered with Sabei and was Germany. From the start we focused on mainly building our army, which didn't turn out to be the best idea, as a lot of other teams focused on colonies and industries which looked to benefit them in the long run. I think that USA and France had an advantage at the beginning at the game and they made it obvious. I condemn France's idea to wait the first round, when a lot of countries were busy making "allies" they sat around and watched what was going to unfold. Conor kept a strong hold on his armies, and really helped the alliance that defeated Great Britain in the "great war." Compared to some of the weaker countries like Ottoman, we were a strong country, and they rushed towards us to make allies. In the long run, like I stated before, It is better to by colonies and industries, but you shouldn't overlook armies which are your only line of defense. Navies are useless because they are equivalent to half an army... too bad we had thirty of them. If I were to do something differently, I would have bought a lot more industries, we had 96 economic points compared to Russia's 2000 plus. With that much wealth you can by a lot of army to strengthen up your arsenal whenever an attack comes. We didn't do that, but instead focused on army, in the first few years we were the strongest country, but then that slowly changed. We made a mistake in the beginning, we made to many allies. We only had one trustworthy ally, Russia. Italy double crossed most of their allies by helping USA in the first war, surprising all of the GB friends. Karma struck and Italy paid the price. We also double crossed some of our "allies." In the great war, we didn't choose to part in it, leaving GB to fall. Although we didn't gain much, we didnt run the risk of loosing anything.
I learned that you really can't trust anyone, and even if it is on paper, it does't mean anything. Its a dog eat dog world, and its unfair. You should always expect to be attacked. I learned also that you should get colonies before bolstering up your army, because in the long run, the colonies will help a lot more. And also I learned that before you attack, you should talk over with your "allies" and see what way the will go, not enough help, not worth it. I think that the great powers game was a great way to start up the quarter because we have a really good example of what we are studying now.

Goals Feedback

I don't think that I met my goals this year very well. Although I continued improvement on my reading comprehension and got a good grade on AR, I failed on the aspect on paying attention and my grade suffered from it. On the big Africa research paper I struggled and got a C on it, which brought my grade down to an 84%. I needed to pay more attention to the writing, I think what I did was just try to rush through the piece to get it down, rather then carefully looking at it part by part to make sure that it flowed well. I think what I need to do next quarter is really work on my writing and set aside a good 30 minutes plus to look over the piece before I turn it in. Along with that I need to still set aside time to do my homework. Just because I do it, doesn't mean I understand it. Later in the year it will by key to fully comprehend all the homework I do because I know that it will benefit my a lot if we do another big project like this one. My goals for this quarter are to pay more attention to my work my setting time to double read my assignments and also to work on my actual writing, by looking over it and making sure that I haven't done any mistakes and make sure that it flows well. Also I want to continue with my reading comprehension which will also tie into me understanding homework, and also getting a good AR grade which could really help my great, because I need to big it up in Q3