Dogfights

Dogfights in The Great War fell under many probabilistic situations. For example, many of the planes dog fighters flew at the time were practically made of fossil wood. In other words, they blew up in a couple of shots of another plane or AA guns. Flying planes was also its own task, with mediocre controls and horribly dangerous safety measures, as well as problems with getting good pilots that could fly without stalling out. For instance, some of the first planes were built with car doors, making it very challenging to get out when your plane while it was careening into the ground. Another problem faced by dog fighters was parachute trouble, as parachutes were still crudely fashioned and often didn't deploy.

The Great War casualties

The great war showed many casualties throughout. The war is known as one of the greatest technological advances of all time, mainly because of the increase in deadly weapons invented during the time. For example, in the clip, it shows a closeup as some of the artillery strike cannons, soldiers using light machine guns, and pictures of battleships used in the great war. Because the great war was based solely around trench warfare, and strike cannons with a high ground position had the ability to break in trenched positions, they became popular fast. Also, disease was a big problem for the soldiers in the trenches, being stuck in hazardous environments, living close to many other soldiers for such a long period of time is dangerous, as disease would spread and thrive.  The great war also turned up the most deaths of its time because it was the first war that involved so many countries around the world.

Call of duty debate

     

     I believe games like Call of Duty should be allowed to exist because they provide information about the war they are set in, give the player a feel to the characters feelings, which are based on true soldiers dairies and blogs during the war, and show the true horrors that wars provide. War games have minor flaws that detain them from being entirely accurate. However, they provide major insight into the wars in a fun, safe environment. 

     War games teach players quite a lot about the war they are set in. They place you, the player, in major battles throughout the war and give strategic positions and war tactics used during the war. Some games allow you to play both sides of an ongoing war, and get a real understanding of how each side felt during the major battles.

     War games also give an insight of the soldiers feelings during the war. For example, if your side is losing a battle, you'll see the sad soldiers and occasionally soldiers committing suicide to show the harshness of the situation. Being able to re-spawn is not always the case, as some war games will give you different scenarios depending on if you die or live during a mission. For instance, in a mission that you fail, you're sent to a separate level rather than one that you win, where you're being yelled at by your commander before proceeding. These moments give players a strong connection to the soldiers, more than what a book or a picture can tell.

     War games most importantly show the true horrors soldiers face at war, such as suicides, genocide, friendly fire, assassinations, death of friends, and innocent people dieing at the hands of crossfire or cruelty. An example being the picture shown at the top of the page, thousands of innocent people at an airport dieing to terrorist cruelty. The horrible sights displayed in this games is what shows the true authenticity of the games, the feelings conveyed by the characters and their actions make one truly believe they are part of the war.

Workers rights my foot.

It's Tuesday. Unusually cold out this morning, feels nice. Hasn't rained in 2 weeks. The last few days at camp haven't gone well. The white men have been withholding most of the food for themselves, it's becoming too hard for us West Indians. Robert died last Wednesday for trying to steal some food for his son. Poor man was whipped to death. Last Friday big freight derailed half way down the track, slid down the hill into camp adjacent ours. Rebeca's hut got slammed in, deaths in the hundreds. Most of the overseers aren't even recording it, and leaving their town's work for us.
Wednesday, wife's not doing well, she got a mosquito bite, high fever, probably malaria, the kids aren't taking it well. We asked the doctor to help, nothing we could do. Asked a local witchdoctor, trying some ballistic medicine. Jerry got in trouble for dropping a cart, no food for 2 days. The man won't make it that long.
Thursday, medicine not working, doctor says it made her worse, she won't be alive for much longer. Don't what i will do. Jerry begged the overseers to give him a week without food for enough to feed his kids, he was denied, and whipped. The man is losing his mind, told me he was plotting suicide if his kids don't make it.
at least 5 days since last entry. Lost track of days, Status : lost hope, Jerry has commit suicide, wife is dead, my kids are losing hope, i'm pretty sure i am too. Our camps running out of food, so they cut our food, i can't afford to feed myself, gave it all to my sons.
Day... The end. It's dark, I don't know what happened. Everyone outside is dead. Woke up from some screaming about a mud slide. I'm the only one alive in my camp, buried under mud, a broken arm and 2 broken legs. No hope for survival. Goodbye, world.

Twitter

The country of Hawaii was ruled by Queen Lili'oukalani from 1863 until 1893.  On the year 1893, her throne was overthrown in a passive takeover by a small group of Americans. The Queen gave up her thrown in order to avoid bloodshed, but protested in hopes to gain her country back. What would it be like if she had a Twitter account over the few days in which her country was overthrown?
Madame Aloha
Great day everyone! I heard the big barbecue south of Honolulu was giving everyone a free meal, you should go check it out! ;)
Jan 14, 1893 3:32PM
Madame Aloha
Today i heard rumors of some men out to take over our beautiful country and use it for political power... :( what do u guys think about this?
Jan 14, 1893 7:26 PM
Madame Aloha
The United states has asked for negotiations today. boriiiiing! -_-. however there is a cool breeze and nice weather out today!
Jan 15, 1893 11:01 AM
Madame Aloha
Boring negotiating yesterday, no strong turnouts, the rumors have seemed to die down too! today feels like a great day.
Jan 16, 1893 1:09 PM
Madame Aloha
American warship parked on the coast, no worries everyone, they are just here for some extended negotiating in person. :(
Jan 16, 1893 5:53 PM
Madame Aloha
The Americans threatened us with war today. I'm giving up my position in power to keep this country peaceful. I am in need of support for my protest against these savage actions.
Jan 17, 1893 3:03 PM
Madame Aloha
The protest is strong! Keep up hope! :) but the america's wont listen, our country is confirmed to be annexed into the united states. i got many letters considered we fight for our rights. please don't send these letters, I would rather lose our country rather than disrupt our peaceful society. good night everyone.
Jan 17, 1893 11:59 PM

Yellow Journalism

"The Swine Flu Pandemic! What can YOU do?" Quoted from a newspaper article in April 2009. This classic piece of yellow journalism manifests like a man with a good hand in poker throws all his chips in on the second bet. "The Swine Flu Pandemic", anyone could tell you these words are absolutely ridiculously exaggerated. This article makes the swine flu look like the black plague, when the disease only killed about 11,000 people, and the black plague killed over 70,000,000! The article pertains to the Spanish-American war because it blows the story out of proportion in order to rally people of their country into a patriotic mood, one needed to win a war. How do you get support for the swine flu? you tell everyone it's much worse than it truly is, and wait for the concerned people to start following suit.

School of Americas

The article involving this topic is what i refer to as a bias load of one sided information. The article only mentions one side of what the school causes and adds no information on their goals, how often they are achieved, their justification for what they do, etc. So i looked at some other articles alike this and guess what i found? The same things again. I had to look through three pages to find an article that even mentioned what the School of America's aims to achieve! Now while i agree the country could find stronger ways to spend its tax dollars and the School of America's has many flaws, i believe they deserve a fighting chance and a mention of their side in these ridiculously bias articles. The School of America's is out to protect the US and citizens of other countries in dire need. The S.O.A. overthrows strong governments to avoid countries becoming too strong with insane dictators mistreating citizens of their country and possibly threatening the U.S. The S.O.A. is an organization to protect us from conflicts like the ones in Iraq, where we ended up losing over five thousand troops. Now that i have made my point about the aims and goals of the S.O.A. My reasoning for support on shutting them down is their goals are flawed. Sending people of a country to overthrow it with US military tactics is mainly used to resolve dictatorship problems in countries. The problem is giving foreign people military tactics to overthrow a government means they are strong enough to rule that government, which simply cycles the same problem, and we're forced to send another group to infiltrate the country in order to get that person out of power. The S.O.A. also carries with them another problem. After a leader is taken out of a country, how does its people react? Take for instance when president John F. Kennedy was assassinated. How did the US react? Thats right, the country became a yellow journalism filled chaotic mess. These are my reasons against the S.O.A. and their flaws acts of "service".

Discuss why you agree or disagree with the blogging assessment system used in this course. Your opinion will not affect your grade. You will be assessed on how you formulate your argument.

I agree with the blogging assessment system in your class. The blog posts give students extra grades to fall back on, provide extra review and study time, and are a good addition to your teaching methods.
     First of all, the blogs posts are the only work you provide in this class, so there is no complaints on it adding too much to your workload. Also, the blogs posts allow for "Night-before-test-studying-". Why is this helpful? Because many students have trouble on studying, or finding what they need to study, and these blogs posts are review tools are can do at home, and look over at any time because we don't need to hand them in. They also have no due date during the week, so someone can wait till the night before the test to get some extra review before a test the next day. The weekly article also brings student applications to your work. The blog posts ask for small excerpts on topics we reviewed, and the weekly article allows the student to apply their own opinion over the topic. The weekly article also gives students something to research, because generally they cover one of the more important topics of our lesson, giving a key indicator for us to search for. However, i do believe the weekly article is too long, because six hundred words may be a standard amount, some topics have less than six hundred word answers and are generally just filled in with useless information so students can get good grades. So i believe each weekly article should have a set number of words depending on the amount able to write on from a general perspective.
     The blogs posts are also your only workload besides tests and quizzes, so if some very good student bombs one test before quarters end, what would he or she have to fall back on? We need the blog posts for extra grades in case we screw up one morning or missed an important lecture before a quiz. The weekly article also brings student applications to your work. The weekly article is a good grade because it requires some research, or some strong opinionated thinking on a subject. It's also worth the weight of ten blog posts, which adds a little more weight to our homework grade encouraging students to do their work for the grade. The weight of the article i feel is correct, as it falls under a one to ten scaling. Any more weight added to the weekly article and i feel it'd make the blog posts something nobody would do because they weren't worth the points in comparison, and any less, i would feel obligated to write less, and would make it harder for me to grade my own work before posting it.
     The blog posts also go together well with your teaching style. You teach in interesting prezi lectures and fun eventful debates and/or activities. While this way of teaching is the best and gets students to be outgoing, written work is needed for some students to remember things and or study, so the blog posts add a work flow to optimize your teaching. Your teaching is also based much around listening and interact, but little involving notes in comparison, so the blogs and article are good for giving students something to write down, giving them study materials and helping in the singling out of the most important parts of a topic.
    Those are the reasons i feel the blogging assessment system is a good system for your class.
    

Was your learning different when blogging, as compared to writing just pen and paper? Explain

Yes, the biggest learning difference is i can read what i wrote, blogging also gives me easy internet access to search up a topic to get a little extra information before analyzing a question. The blogs also make it easier to do because i am always on my computer anyway, and i'm a fast typer compared to a very slow, writer with wrist cramping syndrome.

Which blogging topic was your favorite from first quarter?

My favorite blog topic from the first quarter was on Thoreau's quote "That government is best which governs least" because it pertains a lot to society today and countries around the world today, and has so much meaning and things to discuss for such a small quote.

Factory workers often created music that servd as a form of protest and a way to get them through the long hours of the workday. After reading the lyrics from the "Song of the Shirt", describe what life must have been like for these textile factory workers

The work in the factories is dead end, repetitive, dangerous work. The workers seemed suicidal, the lyrics portrays the workers as starving men and women who pray to god simply for bread that is "So dear" as if it was a much wanted car or house, not a necessity to human life.

Explore the primary doc photographs from the Ellis Island website. (You may have to register.) After exploring the photographs, discuss what feelings and experiences immigrants coming to the United States at the turn of the century must have been feeling.

I believe immigrants coming to the United States felt many mixed feelings during the different portions of the journey and lifestyle in the "New world". Before leaving from the countries they came from, (mainly those in poverty) felt very exited to come to what sounded to be paradise, and a fresh start if you will. However, the boat ride was trying for the ones that lived throughout the entire trip. But to the survivors of the journey that arrived at Ellis Island, at the time of arrival it would feel like a paradise, not only to be off a horrible smelly boat and onto land, but to see the statue of liberty and beautiful area around it. But just as they sigh the greatest of sighs of relief, they are either denied passage, and would be forced to go back home, or are accepted, and see their "paradise" of New York city at the time. So i believe the immigrants had up and downs on feelings of the US when moving to the United States.

Listen to the Beatles track titled, "Rocky Raccoon" off of their White Album. Dicuss how the Beatles portray the wild west through song? Is their piece accurate

The Beatles portray the wild west as something a bit less of what you would see in a general movie. While the words they use would seem a bit too stereotypical and feel like a movie, the story gives a much more realistic setting of the wild west. I believe the song is more accurate than not to the wild west, because of the way it expresses the conflict and how Rocky attempts to resolve it. He goes through such basic, barbaric, and "wild" if you will steps in which to solve his problem. Problem occurs. Find problem. Kill problem with a gun. If in doubt use religion as something to fall back on. The simplistic ways of getting needs and solving problems were what gave the wild west its name, and what made it so dangerous. The way the characters are portrayed is also fairly realistic for the time. Such as the doctor, smelling of gin, simply lies Rocky down and wraps the bullet wound.

Create a "Six Word Story" for the tale of a family making the journey West.

White at dawn. Red by dusk.

Why was Abraham Lincoln's concern more focused on preserving the Union, rather than slavery?

Abraham Lincoln's concern did not focus on slavery because he knew if he had made any opinion on slavery he'd either lose many of his followers, or be unable to convince the South to revoke their succession.
If say Lincoln stood up and mentioned his hatred for slavery, the South would have more reason to succeed because they were already succeeding on the grounds of their rights being taken away, why come back when the man with whom is running the North government is planning to revoke more of your rights?
Now the other side, if Lincoln had come to a podium and mentioned his love for slavery, he may have gained some relations with the South, he may lose many of his own Northern followers as well as the chance he may be impeached for this belief.
That is why Lincoln concerned the preservation of the Union rather than the conflict of slavery.

"That government is best which governs least"

I believe Thoreau means the less control the government has, or the more power to the people, generally, the better the overall country and government will work. I believe he is right to an extent, that communist and dictated countries have serious problems because the government controls too much, and the country doesn't show the face of its people, but the face of its leader. However, i believe too little control is a problem as well, some countries such as many in Africa have no government at all, which raises problems of the other extreme. Such as no law enforcement or regulations that protect people enough to allow them to have their power in their country.

Does history matter?

Does history matter? A question that is asked by many, claiming "Why do we need to know what has already happened when we can plan for the future?" This question has a simple answer, because to the future, we need to know history, if we don't know a mistake that happened in the future, we won't know not to make it in the present. Take for instance, Adolf Hitler and his betrayal attack on Russia. If he had known the outcome of Napoleon's attack on Russia and interpreted the outcome of his attack, he would be in an entirely different situation. So yes, history is important, it is a set of knowledge needed for any society to move forward as a group and embrace changes rather than live in the past and repeat the same problems over and over again.

What effect did Reconstruction have on former slaves? Were they better off after Reconstruction than they were before the Civil War?

     Reconstruction had little effect on the life of a former slave. Former slaves would be unable to get any job other than the work that they did as slaves, and this work would be contracted unfairly towards the former slave, as well as would charge them some of the income they made just to use the tools they needed to work. Some slaves were worse off during reconstruction than in slavery, as they would go through intense poverty and be unable to feed themselves or at any rate their families.
     However, reconstruction did have good effects on some former slaves. Any of the slaves that managed to get a good job or worked hard enough to be able to feed your family had a better life than being a slave. A slave that managed to get a good job can feed their families and live in a good home, or even possibly move to the North. A slave that worked hard enough on a low income job would have the ability to feed their family and live in a similar home to one they had as a slave, without the physical abuse or in some cases, the 24/7 work hours.
     The reconstruction was good for some former slaves and in fewer cases worse for others. The reconstruction    overall was a better trade for the slaves overall in my opinion, as many slaves were better off if only slightly, as well as the reconstruction leads to race equality in the future.

     I believe the South should have been granted amnesty. I believe this because sending the South to jail or giving them fines would cause one if not all of three major problems.
     The first problem would be the South simply starting a second civil war, and everyone knows that will only cause a loop of awful fighting and aggression and increase the death count like nobody has ever seen. The second problem would leave the North and the South in a permanent hatred of each other, causing many problems in the political and social classes of our country. The third major problem that not granting the South amnesty would cause is fines so heavy that the South would be confined to poverty and forced to illegally use slavery and other cruel methods just to generate enough money to live on, recreating the South as it was before the Civil War.
     Moreover, not granting the South amnesty would cause major problems throughout the country, leaving permanent damage between the people of both sides.