What is Power?

Power has a variety of different aspects. This is because power can be shown in so many ways. All of these aspects play a significant role in determining how powerful someone or something is. Throughout time, many people and ideas have shown power in three main ways: control, influence, and fear.

The first aspect of globalization is fear. One way Stalin stayed in power as long as he did was because of how afraid people were of him. Many dictators stay in power because of how feared they are. In Africa during the times imperialism, the Europeans remained in power because of their physical strength (better guns and weapons) as well as the fear they maintained the the people that lived there. Even in the industrial revolution, Carnegie had power because too many people were afraid of him being such a tough competitor. As you can see, fear is a major part of what power means.

Another important aspect of power is influence. The British during the times of imperialism were very powerful because of how influential they were around the world. The United States is powerful because of how influential they are around the world too. They have a lot of financial power because of how important the dollar is in the stock market. During the cold war, the USSR and the USA had influence around the world. The USSR had influence on the communist countries while the United States had influence on the capitalist countries, particularly those in Western Europe. The final example, again, is how globalization influences how we live our lives. Its influence adds to how it controls our lives.

The final aspect of power is control. Many powerful people have shown this trait. In Africa, the Europeans had much control over the people there through imperialism. They showed this by forcing the local people into slavery and by forcing those people to provide them with resources. Another example from this year was Andrew Carnegie. He had power because of how much control he had over the steel industry in the United States. A third example of control that we learned about this year was Stalin. Along with other aspects of power, Stalin had an enormous amount of control over the Russian people through other aspects of power such as fear and influence. The final example of control that we have learned about this year is globalization. Globalization has an enormous amount of control over how we live our lives nowadays. Through globalization, we can now eat foods from around the world in just one place. The internet in particular has managed to control how we get information and how we communicate. As you can see, control has been a major aspect of power for hundreds of years.

Power has many meanings. Power can also be shown in a lot of ways. The three main aspects are control, influence, and fear. These are the aspects of power that have been shown for hundreds of years. Because of the number of ways it can be shown, there is no one meaning of power. However, it is these three things that really make up what power is.

Three most important things I learned in PoP

1) Time management. With a lot of parts of PoP going on at the same time, it was very important to manage my time well so that I didn't end up with only one thing done, the day before the other two are due. Time management was very important with the EO because we had no time to work on it in class and if we didn't start early on, we'd get flooded by the RP and DA and wouldn't have time for the EO. This will help me in high school and in college when I will have muliple projects and assignments going on at one time and I will have to use my time wisely in order to get them all done ontime.
2)Better organization. A few times during PoP, I nearly had a heart attack because I had lost important papers or even myUSB stick. I learned how important it is to organize my stuff so that I know where it is. Not having important papers or my USB stick was a big problem while doing my DA and RP. This will be very important later in life so that I don't speand hours wasting time trying to find stuff that should be kept in one place.
3) How to write a research paer. Even with the Africa RP, at the beginning of PoP, writing a research paer was still not something I had totally down. However, the extra in-class practice we had for our RP made writing it much easier. Knowing how to write a research paper will be very important in college because most of what we do will be tests, studying, and writing research papers.

Net effect of Globalization

There are many good things about globalizatio. For one thing, it has made communication and information more accesable than most people could have ever imagined. It has accelerated tech well. What globalization has done is that it has brought the world together. This helps everyone by making everything available to everyone. Thie internet, which has contributed to globalization, made information much more accesable. As it said in The world is flat, out sourcing and off shoring have made good jobs available for everyone, not just westerners. It has also brought cultures together and allows anyone to experiance a different culture. Before globalization, people had a hard time with people who are different. Now, everyone can work with eachother.
However, globalization has also brought problems. Many people are loosing there culture because all of the cultures are now so intertwined, that the result is a monoculture. Westerners are loosing there jobs to people across the world who will do the same job for a fraction of the western pay. Also, the poor people are still living in the dark ages and are getting even farther behind because globalization has just skippeed them and refuses to wait. However, I think that over all, globalization has been good. It has brought people together, made information more accesable, and has accelarated technology.

Picture from http://www.bangkoklogistics.com/images/Tutorial-On-Globalization-And-International-Business.jpg

Blogging

The main visual elements of this cartoon are the three people eating dinner at the table and the caption at the bottom of the cartoon. The issue in this cartoon is that technology is starting to do away with dinner table conversations. The artist's opinion is that there is still an older generation that doesn't want technology to completely take over and that the younger generations that have found away to use technology to get rid of every day aspects of life. The artist is probably on the "okay, this has kinda gone a bit too far now" side of technology. The caption in particular shows that the artist thinks this. They could use the blog but it's nice to have your son tell you. It is ironic that technology has removed an aspect of dinner table conversation that is very symbolic of what you say at the table which is the question, what did you do today? It is also ironic that we are blogging about a guy who is blogging. This relates to technology in the future because it shows how it can effect how you live your daily life and how technology has changed it.

UbD RP Plan

Monday:
On Monday, my plan is to start getting notes onto note cards. My EO option uses almost the exact same information so I can use many of the same sources. For homework, I can finish up with the note cards so that I can start the outline itself by Tuesday.
Tuesday:
On Tuesday, I will put note cards together into outline. I can also use this time to find more note cards if I find holes in my research. I can finalize this for homework.
Wednesday:
On Wednesday, I will start thinking about transitions and how to turn the outline into my first rough draft. I will also use this time to finalize my DS rough draft. Some of the audio needs to be changed here. I will try to show Mr. Coyle the first draft and see how I can make it more "edutaining"
Thursday:
Thursday will be spent working on the rough draft of the RP.
Friday:
Whatever needs to be done for the RP.

Technology

Technology is the advancement of we know and can create. It is how we make things better. The five most important are microchip technology, vaccination technology, nuclear technology, genetically modified foods technology, and the making of new materials technology: plastic, alloys, glass, etc. The five least important are candle technology, epaulet tech., happy meal tech, PEZ dispenser tech, and hair curling technology. I think that the amount of technology we use at AES is just right. We are in the dark ages where everything is hand made and there are no electrical appliances at all and we aren't so advanced that everything we do, we do using computors. It would drive me crazy if computors completly ran my life. However, as I said in my luddite responce, I still think that compuors and electronics are quite important.

Luddites

I would have to agree with Vonnegut, at least in part. However I can't help but love that "damn fool computer". I can definitely imagine what a computer can become. One day, computers and techno machinery are going to run our life. The Euphio for example was able to create artificial happiness. What I find hard to imagine is life with out electronics. No more yahoo answers doing your math. No more spell check. There was a time when you had to do ALL of your homework without a computer or a calculator. A time when you had to walk to a library to get information when now, the internet can do the same thing. But even now, you have to find your own happiness. In the Euphio question, there was a machine to give you happiness. For machine to run your life means that you are then living less of it. Happiness, however, is one thing that should never been done by a machine. Happiness is one thing that you have to be alive to experience. No machine should ever experience happiness for you.

Goals: Fourth Edition

My first goal was to organize my papers a few minutes after class instead of putting them in a pile. Yaaaaaaaaaaah. Still kinda need to work on that goal. I still put my papers into a messy stack.

My second goal was to prepare for twenty minutes on my socratic seminars. However, we never really did any socratic seminars this quarter so again, I might have to keep this goal for next quarter.

My third goal was to finish my AR by February. I met this goal because I got more than the required amount and I finished my reading before February. However I actually took the test in the first week of March.

My first goal this quarter is to organize my papers a few minutes after class instead of putting them in a pile. This was my goal last quarter but I still need to work more on this goal.

My second goal is to prepare for twenty minutes on my socratic seminars. This is because I never had the opportunity to achieve this goal last quarter.

My third goal is to finish my Research Project before the day it is due to minimize the stress. I tend to hold things off until the last minute so finishing early on such a big project will help me for high school.

Oxymorons

Holy wars is an oxymoron because wars, by definition, are unholy. All major religions condemn killing but wars involve killing. Because wars involve killing, and killing is "unholy", wars would also be unholy. So for there to be a holy war kinda contradicts itself making it an oxymoron. So many wars now are fought over religion because all of the religions feel that theirs is best or the real one, or the "correct" one and that they should fight over which one is the best. However, in order to accomplish this, they are breaking the rules of their own religion. The excuse then is that once we fight and our religion wins, then there will be no need to fight and no need to break the rules. However if all religions feel this way, then the wars are never going to end because everyone must keep trying to prove that their religion is the best. This will then keep going around in an endless loop.

A World War, Could it Happen Again?

I think that in my lifetime, WWIII is a possibility. What is going to happen, I think, is that it is either going to start with a major terrorist attack and the war is going to be Western countries fighting against the middle east and a few dictatorships. The other possibility is that some dictatorship is going to get out of hand. Then there will be nuclear weapon threats. Eventually, someebody is going to do something stupid that is going to get the whole world blown to pieces.
For the middle eastern fighting, the outcome is just going to be a much bigger gulf war. Nothing too serious will happen except there will be a lot of countries fighting in a fairly small space. With the nuclear war, so many people are going to be angery with eachother that there will be alot of missiles flying around and a lot of side swiching. The basic teams will be Western Europe and America vs the dictatorships. China and Russia will be the big superpowers whose choice is allies will decide the war. Britain, France, USA, Russia and China will all be very tense with eachother. It is going to be a larger Cold War that gets much more serious and withh more countries involved. It is going to end when several nukes have been fired off and many borders will change. Also, the UN will be replaced by something more powerful and more global that will stop a nuclear war from happening again.

Anne Frank Questions

Q #2
I think that if Anne Frank hadn't taken her diary, that our understanding would only be slightly different. Understanding of the war and of the holocaust is well documented and there are people here who are still alive who lived through them. One piece of info that Frank provides that is not well documented is what it is like for childeren and what it was like to have to go into hidding. This is what makes Frank's diary unique.

How to Make a War, WWII Style

Ingredients:
1 Meaningless document known as the treaty of Versailles
1 Incredibly ineffective League of Nations
1-Cup German Appeasement
5 Tbs of Fascism
6 ounces of chunky German aggression
Japanese Aggression to taste

Combine the Treaty of Versailles and the failed League of Nations and whip vigorously until well combined. This should leave you with Britain and France feeling quite guilty.

Next add the German appeasement. Keep on adding extra German appeasement until you have dough that is sticky, but not gooey. Be careful not to add too much as this process is hard to reverse.

Knead in fascism until you have a firm, yet workable piece of dough. The fascism and the appeasement should react when baked.

Fold in the chunks of German aggression. This will add texture and flavor to the war. Make sure you get a good brand, as this will be your war’s highlight.


Rub with Japanese aggression and bake until it is blood red.

Serve with death and destruction.

Serves 58 countries.

WWII Letter

April 24, 1945

Dearest Mother,

The war is terrible. Today, our brigade along with thousands of allied soldiers stormed the Sakishima airfields. We were backed up by British planes and ships that provided firepower. However these blasts make it impossible to move around or to see. They say that these blasts are helping us to destroy the enemy's heavy guns but they don't mother. They don't. Several times a day, friendly bombs and Japanese mortars blow our good men to pieces. I knew when I joined that I might die but that honor was more important. I didn't know what war was like then. Now I want only to come home, away from all of the death and destruction. Yesterday as we were landing at one of the islands when the Japanese kamakazis attacked. They sunk two of our ships and I coud hardly bare to see all of the poor men who were scrambling to escape from the sinking ships only to be killed by the kamakazi's bullets or to drown. Lator that day, we won an important piece of land in the hills where many mortars were located. But we payed for it in blood. All throughout the scorched and splintered tree bodies were strewn everywhere. The smell and the flies was enough that even Big Johny Thomason couldn't hold it in. At the end, we came across 5 young Jap soldiers who were trapped in one of the caves. Rather than living, and being captured, they decided to blow themselves up with hand grenades. Those Japs and their honor. That is the only thing I respect about them is how they love their country and value their honor. War is terrible mother. It really is.

Your Loving Son,
Howard A.

Animal Farm Critique

The movie of Animal Farm seemed to me like a fairly accurate representation of the book. Although it seemed a bit abridged and shortened, all of the main ideas were pretty well covered and there were only a few changes from the book. These changes included making Benjamin Boxers friend and making him seem more active and less cynical. In the book, Benjamin wasn't Boxer's friend, he never worked, and he was much more negative and cynical. Also, the end of the movie where the animals revolted was not shown in the book. However, if the book was to be an accurate representation of Russia in the twentieth century, and if it continued on a bit more, it would have shown something like that because something along those lines ended up happening in real life.

Although it covered most things well, it really lacked the slogans showed in Animal farm. Boxer's slogans, the sheep's slogan, and the lyrics that are important to the beasts of England are all missing. All of these are fairly important to the book. Blaming Snowball for everything and threatening the animals with Jones coming back which saves the the fat pigs' butts from being over-ruled was also missing from the movie. Alot of this could have been solved if the movie had more speaking. All in all, I think that this is a pretty good representation of the book though.

Whan Animal Farm Charector are You?

The animal I am most like is Snowball. I am like Snowball because I am could at thinking up good and effective ideas that will benefit others. Also, I'm not the kind of person to do anything to get my way. Also, it is not uncommon for others to take credit for my work. One thing however that I am good at but often get bested at is getting my ideas out. Also, getting people to support my ideas is also hard. The same things tended to happen to Snowpuff.

Tyranny, Injustice and Self-Determination.

Tyranny is when you abuse your power/authority.
Injustice is the unfair treatment of others.
Self determination is to do what you want without anyone else telling you what to do.

Farmer Jones was tyrannous and abused his power over the animals. He gave them very little food, worked them too hard, and showed injustice to the animals by mistreating them. The animals showed self-determination to overthrow Farmer Jones because they wanted to overthrow for their own reasons and not anyone else's.

World War One Poem

We left our families, sad and crying.

We marched until they were out of sight.
We marched to serve our country,
And weren’t going down without a fight.

We made our homes, in the deep dark trenches,

The walls were slick with blood.
With enemy shells bombarding us,
And the constant fear of mud.

When it was our turn, to go over the top
When zero hour came,
Many died in no man’s land.
This war was not a game.

And as we charged the enemy lines,
Their gunners maintained their fire.
Our brave, brave men were dropping like flies.
Our situation was dire.

And yet somehow I crossed the stretch.

And so did many others too.
We had avoided bullets, bombs and gas,
We finally came through.

http://bp0.blogger.com/_bN7Qs9GU4QM/RxzeATC93QI/AAAAAAAAAA0/Zc6WSnevCcs
/s320/Trenches11.bmp

http://pics.rubylane.com/graphics/shops/curioshop/coll473.1N.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/55/Going_over_the_top_01.jpg

http://www.dur.ac.uk/4schools/FWW2/Images/advancesml.jpg

http://www.greatwardifferent.com/Great_War/Trench_Raids/War%20Illustrated%20-%20Trench%20Raid%20008.jpg

Joining the Army

As an American, I will never have compulsary military service. However, there draft might still aply in times of war. However, if I am not forced to join the military, I would probably join the military some where not on the front lines is if it's the end of the line for America. At that point however, the draft would probably take me any way. If I as forced to join the army, I would probably be part of a technology department and not a position that would require me to carry a gun more than half my weight. I just do not have the body required to be crawling on the ground holding a gun bigger than me. I wouldn't survive training either. I just don't think I'm mean enough to kill someone with a gun. Maybe hireing the troops needed to kill someone, but probably not killing them myself. I also value my life too much. If the US had manditory military service, I would join because I had to, not because I wanted to.

WWI Cartoon

This political cartoon shows how crazy and chaotic WWI was and how many factions were making deals behind their friend's backs. I think that the cartoon would have made more sense if the words and labels were clearer. It is about how many alliances were in the war. I think that the author's opinion was that wit so many friends and so many allies, somehow every one should be both friends and enemies and therefore be a lot of chaos. People have more than to arms so that tey can offer alliances with more people. The artist could have labled more to give the reader a better idea about what is going on. This relates to the great powers game because of how many alliances were made and how often you enemies became your friends and how your friends usually became you enemies.

Great Powers Game Debrief

In the great powers game, my country was the United States of America. While building my democratic empire, I felt very powerful because I started off fairly powerful. That feeling kind of went away when I was stabbed in the back. It came back after the great war because I was one of the only survivors. The countries with an advantage at the start of the game were the U.S.A., the U.K., and Russia. The U.S. and U.K. started with 4 buying power and a decent military and Russia started with a good amount of buying power and a very good military. I think I was one of the more powerful countries at the beginning but halfway through until the end of the game I was very weak. In the long run, armies were the most important because if you had the strongest army, you could acquire alot of buying from other countries through war. I think I did best at getting richer quicker. I did this by joining battles that I had nothing to do with in order to get a share of the loot. Next time, I would NOT betray a powerful country and then join a back stabber nd get betrayed. Because you can beak treaties whenever you want, and because nobody liked me, my alliances were not very good. Three things I learned about conflict is that it is not very fun to loose a war, do not trust anyone because anyone can betray you, and that wars usually are not a good way to make allies.

Goals- 3rd edition

I think that this quarter,I met my goals fairly well. My three goals were to study for tests, spend more time on my homework, and finally to prepare more for socratic seminars. I met my goal to study more for tests because I remembered to study my notes for about ten minutes a day. I think that I definitely achieved my goal of preparing more for oral assignments such as the oration and the mock trial because I had spent a lot of time preparing for them. The oration I spent over an hour preparing for which was more than my goal. Finally, my goal to spend more time on my homework was acomplished fairly well because I spent a very long time preparing the powerpoint and the Africa Research Project. Part of this goal was to not make careless mistakes and in the ARP, most mistakes were not careless.

First goal: I am going to try to organize my papers for a few minutes after class instead of putting them into a pile.
Second goal: I am going to prepare for at least 20 minutes preparing for socratic seminars because I think that more preparations could help back up my ideas. I think that because there were no socratic seminars this quarter, I could work on it a bit more.
Third goal: I am going to try to finish my AR before February so that I will have more time on UbD.