Essay on Famous (or infamous) Financial Crises

If you are interested...

http://www.economist.com//news/essays/21600451-finance-not-merely-prone-crises-it-shaped-them-five-historical-crises-show-how-aspects-today-s-fina

PURITANS!

Considering that there is always a collective groan when the word "Puritan" is said in class or appears on a test, I've decided to briefly outline some of the fundamental beliefs in the Puritan religion. If you don't feel like reading the whole post, I've highlighted some of the key ideas, so you can just skim through and read those.

The Origins of Puritanism:

The roots of Puritanism lie in the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century (MEHAP knowledge coming back into play!) The Protestant Reformation- in which Luther and Calvin broke with the Catholic Church because it had strayed from its spiritual mission- took hold of much of Northern Europe, but not initially England. In the 1530s, King Henry VIII broke with the Catholic Church as well, yet this decision was based upon wanting political control, rather than theological differences. Henry split from the church because he wanted to control the great church holdings in England, appoint members of the church hierarchy, and, of course, have the power to annul his marriage. Yet because this break was not based off of theological differences, Henry did not change the the traditional Roman Catholic religious practices the Protestant Reformation centered around changing. This partial break with the church upset the true Protestants in England and came to be known as the "halfway reformation". The Protestants in England who sought full reformation in England and wanted the Church of England to be purified of Catholic practices came to be referred to as Puritans.

The Beliefs and Practices of Puritans:

The Puritans were inspired by the beliefs of Calvinism, which taught that individual salvation was subject to a divine plan rather than individual action- otherwise known as predestination. Puritans also lived lives of strict piety which involved prayer, righteous living, and hard work. Being diligent at one's calling- the Calvinist idea that everyone had calling to certain work on Earth that God intended them to do- was also fundamental to Puritanism.

Puritans also greatly valued community. It was believed that it was God's desire that community members care and look out for each other to ensure that the necessary work gets done and that nobody strays from the fundamental Puritan way of life. Any wrongdoing or sinfulness by an individual would result in punishment for the person, and shame for them and the rest of the community. Along with this, the Puritan approach to humanity was quite grim and dark. Puritans believed in the idea of original sin (coming from the story of Adam and Eve) and saw it as something that all humans had inherited and were contaminated by, making them incapable of being worthy in the eyes of God. The combination of the ideas of predestination and original sin led Puritans to have a strong faith in the necessity to live in strict accordance to the divine law in all parts of their lives, which enforced the beliefs in piety and moderation.


Hopefully the next time we see a question regarding Puritanism, we may have a better chance at answering it correctly!

Rachel Carson and the Environmental Movement

After watching the documentary about Rachel Carson and the Environmental Movement in class today, I read up a bit more about Rachel Carson and found that she did more for the movement and received greater acclaim than I had previously realized.  For this reason I decided to write this blog to tell just a bit more abut her life, achievements, and impact on environmentalism.

Receiving the honor of the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Jimmy Carter after she died, the conservationist Rachel Carson (1907-1964) was publicly recognized for her grass roots environmental work that led to the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.  The influential and sometimes controversial naturalist, Rachael Carson was born on a small farm in Pennsylvania in 1907, completed a masters in zoology, and worked as an aquatic biologist for the Bureau of Fisheries, later to become the Fish and Wildlife Service.  As a naturalist, her many publications, books, and documentary films centered on the ocean environment and on ocean history, from which she was awarded two honorary doctorates.  Interestingly, after selling the rights to what would become her Oscar awarded documentary, the scientific content was altered in such significantly untrue ways that Carson never sold film rights to her work again.  Three of her most acclaimed books are a trilogy that includes The Sea Around Us (on the N.Y. Best Seller list for 86 weeks), Under the Sea Wind, and The Edge of the Sea.  In the 1940s, Carson became a leading conversationalist, focusing on building public awareness of the dangers of pesticide overuse.  Her book Silent Spring, which forewarns a bleak future for the natural world, helped launch the environmental movement.  Carson brought to public attention the effects of synthetic pesticides, including DDT, that had largely been developed through military funding of science after World War II.  Through her efforts, grass roots organizations developed to oppose government spraying programs of pesticides that Carson made evident were cancer causing. The Silent Spring, impacted the social movement in the 1960s offering evidence of the effects of pollution on health and the environment, leading to the deep ecology and ecofeminism movements.  Her legacy that led to the formation of the Environmental Defense Fund, was her campaign against DDT use.  Importantly, as a result of Carson’s work in illuminating the conflict of interest of the same governmental agency being responsible for both the regulating of pesticides and the promoting of agriculture industry concerns, the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency was formed after her death.  Her opponents in the 21^st Century blame Carson for third world deaths attributed to anti-malarial spraying policies, for which Carson is not responsible through her efforts to ban DDT for U.S. agricultural use in the 1960s. Carson further left to the next generations’ parents an essay, A Sense of Wonder, that exhorts parents to infuse their children’s experiences with the influence and the wonder of the natural world.  

My question for you all is:  Considering what Rachel Carson did to promote her environmental beliefs in the mid 20^th century, what do we need to do now, fifty years later, to help our planet?  How has the situation gotten better?  How has it gotten worse?

Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Carson
              http://www.rachelcarson.org/

Major Changes to U.S. Territory Over The Years

Today in class we looked at a bunch of maps of the United States and talked about what occurrences had triggered each one.  We also tried to guess, based on our understanding of the time, approximately what year each map was from.  After finding that I myself as some of the people around me were having some difficulty doing this, I thought it would be useful to write a more formal blog about a few of the bigger events that changed the shape of the United States.

On July 4^th 1776, United States congress declared the Declaration of Independence and independence from Britain.  It was on this date that the United Colonies of the British Empire became the United States of America.  At this time in the late 18^th century, central North America was dominated by France, the west and south were controlled by Spain, and in the east had just sprung forth a new country.

When in 1803 Napoleon Bonaparte decided that he needed cash for his army, he sold the Louisiana territory to President Thomas Jefferson.  This sale, or rather steal for the Americans, is one of the greatest land deals of all time.  Jefferson was able to take advantage of Napoleon’s desperate need for money and thus buy the expansive piece of land for such a low price.

The Missouri Compromise of 1820 was a Congressional effort to abate the sectional and political rivalries that were brought about with Missouri’s request to be admitted to the union as a state that permitted slavery.  At the time, the U.S. was composed of 22 states, half of which were slave, and the other half of which were free.  In an effort to maintain equality between slave and free states, the compromise prohibited slavery in the former Louisiana territory north of the 36°30° line except for the area within the proposed state of Missouri.

By 1946 there had arisen a great dispute between the United States and Mexico regarding the boarder between the two countries.  Mexico had never recognized Texas as a separate territory while the United States wanted Texas to be a part of the U.S.  As a result of the war, the two countries decided on the Rio Grande as the boundary between Texas and Mexico.  The United States also acquired what would be known as California, Nevada, Utah, and part of Arizona.

In 1812 Arizona joined as the 48^th state in the union.  Continental United states now looked geographically and politically as it does now.  With the exception of Alaska and Hawaii, which would both join the union in 1959, the U.S.A. was in a sense, completed.

What do you guys think are some of the biggest land ordinances that are important to know for the AP test?

Sources:  American Pageant textbook

               http://www.history.com/topics/louisiana-purchase

Bob's WWII Story: Part 2

Here are some notes from the second half of my conversation with Bob:

• "It never leaves you"
• went to the VA recently and was told he had PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder)
• back in the war that wasn't something people were diagnosed with
• "Patton slapped those two soldiers because they said they had it"
• more information on this incident here: http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/on-this-day/July-August-08/On-this-Day--General-Patton-Shocks-Public-by-Slapping-Crying-Soldier.html 
• "You're constantly thinking of those things"
• When the men got back there were medals and parades
• "We couldn't care less about that. We just wanted to survive, and you have to fight to survive"
• quite a few deserters (people who just took off/ran away)
• Bob stayed in England 14 months total
• was in the hospital for a while
• got weekend passes and went up to London to have fun (and meet girls)
• War ended in Europe
• came back to US (got a 30 day leave)
• Bob was going to get shipped off to fight in the war in the Pacific
• got sent to Camp Stoneman in CA
• was given all the necessary vaccinations for the Pacific- got all geared up and ready to go when the atomic bomb was dropped
• prevented troops from having to go back into the war
• "We were about to go, and then the atom bomb dropped, and that did it. And I said, 'Boy, thank god Harry Truman'"
• "Normandy would have been nothing compared to Japan"
• expected 500,000 casualties just on the invasion
• Beginning in 1946: went to Camp Beale in Marysville (air force base)
• got discharged there
• Came to California with a company called Presco Food Seasonings (manufactured spices/food seasonings)
• bought a small company out
• promoted to vice president and general manager
• received a Legion of Honor 
• saw Patton once
• gave a speech to everyone before the invasion
• troops assembled at a soccer stadium
• came out of the car with motorcycles and pistols
• "I can't repeat what he said. He was a very profane man"
• Eisenhower "constantly got Patton out of hot water"
• Patton had a big mouth and said things he never should have said
• very feared, but effective general
• Structure of the army
• everything in WWII was triangular
• 3 regiments in a division
• 3 divisions in a corps 
• 3 corps in an army
• 3 battalions in a regiment...and so on
• tanks had their own division
• Bob was in the 90th division in the 3rd army
• all the medics carried morphine
• men called medics "doc"
• "There were sometimes they told a guy...'Hey doc, am I gonna make it?' and he said 'Yeah, yeah you're gonna make it'...and his whole stomach's gone, and the doc would say to them 'give them two or three more morphine....and they'd kill them with morphine"
• WWII veterans are going about 700 a day
• Final thoughts on the war:
• "It was quite an adventure and I'm glad I did it. I'd probably do it again"
• "In WWII the entire country is behind the war effort"
• rationing
• kids gathered tin foil and tires
• "That war had to be won. I mean, that was a vile regime. One of the worst on the face of the earth ever- the Nazi Germans"
• "The way [Hitler and the Nazis] did that was camps, and methodically like a machine. The teeth, the glasses, the hair- it was unbelievable"
• Bob's division liberated one of the camps

We'll be there in Ukraine...later.

On April 21st, our government declared that it will act in days against Russia if it doesn't ease the tensions building up in Ukraine.

I don't know about you, but the whole "in days" thing smacks a bit like the "with all deliberate speed" clause in the Brown vs Board of Education to me.  I mean, Russia invaded Ukraine a long while back, and we've done nothing to help out the Ukrainians.  Clearly we're not ready to butt heads with Russia yet.  How many days are we going to allow Russia to increase world tensions before we come up with a clear ultimatum?  Insofar, this declaration hasn't been backed by NATO or the UN, so again the US is trying to take matters in its own hands.  Historically, US intervention has mostly tarnished our image; going it alone isn't usually a positive thing.

But at least the government is reacting to this threat, but in my opinion, not quick enough.  Even if the government did pull its finger out and intervene, it would be another dedication that the US would be stuck and invested to.  All in all, I believe that the nations of the world need to sit down and talk things over as soon as possible.

After Ever After

I came across this video and thought this was a really funny and creative way to express political views on certain (somewhat) current events…I’ve provided the link to the video and analyzed some of the lyrics…enjoy!

After Ever After Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diU70KshcjA&feature=kp

AFTER EVER AFTER - LYRICS


         Song by: Paint

If you've ever wondered why


Disney's tales all end in lies


Here's what happened after all their dreams came true



Ariel


I loved being princess down in -- this beautiful ocean blue


But mermaids are going missing -- they end up in someone's stew


So just try to put yourself in -- to somebody else's gills


You're killing my ecosystem -- with fishing and oil spills


Thank you BP, thank you BP


The British are killing, oil is spilling


Now I can't see... MY EYES!


Chinamen feast on Flounder's fins


Plus the Japanese killed all my whale friends


Oceans are browning, I think I'm drowning


Thanks to BP


YOU SUCK!



Jasmine


Hey, I'm OK, but I'm slightly scared


My husband's a mark for the War on Terror


Aladdin was taken by the CIA


We're not Taliban


You've got the wrong man


In Guantanamo Bay


Prince Ali, where could he be, drowning in wawa


Interrogation from the nation of the "free"


Bin Laden's taken the fall


We're not trained pilots at all


Jafar went crazy and no one put up a fuss


We're for freedom, Genie can vouch for us


Bush was crazy, Obama's lazy, al-Qaeda's not in this country


Set free my Prince Ali



Belle


A horror! A horror! A horror, a horror, a horror!*

This town's gone wild since I married Adam**

They think I'm going straight to hell


But the charges laid on me


Of bestiality


Could wind up getting me thrown in a cell


No, I'm overrun by mad men


I hear they plan to burn me at the stake


They legit believe I'm Satan


And now I hear that PETA's gonna take my beast away



Pocahontas


After John Smith traveled back to England


I helped my people cultivate the fields


More English, French, and Spaniards came to visit


And they greeted us with guns and germs and steel


They forced us into unknown lands of exile


They pillaged, raped, and left us all for dead


So now I'm far more liberal with a weapon


When I separate their bodies from their heads
(Wait – what?!)

Have you ever held the entrails of an English guy?


Or bit the beating hearts of Spanish men?


Can you shoot an arrow in some French guy's eyeball?


Can you paint with the red colors in these men


I can murder if I please


Cause I'm dying of disease


I can paint with the red colors in these men



Thanks to BP


Where's Prince Ali?


Bestiality


I've got STDs

(Wa wa, wa wa wa wa) [Disney theme song]

*Censored for educational purposes

**the Beast

Analysis:

“Thank you BP” - A reference to British Petroleum, an English oil company responsible for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010, which is considered the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry. After the Deepwater Horizon oil rig sank to the sea floor, an oil gusher continued to flow for 87 days before it was finally capped, resulting in the expulsion of an estimated 4.9 million barrels of oil. Some reports indicate that the well continues to leak.

“Chinamen feast on Flounder’s fins” – China accounts for one third of the world’s reported fish production, and it’s reported harvest (in ponds, lakes, and tanks)  in 2005 was more than 10 times that of the second place nation – 32.4 million tons to India’s 2.8 million tons. IChina’s wild fish catch (from rivers, lakes, and the sea) was 17.1 million tonnes in 2005, compared to the U.S.’s reported 4.9 million tonnes. (1 tonne = 1,000 kg = 2,204.6 lbs)

“Japanese killed all my whale friends” – A reference to the Japanese whaling industry, which began in the 12^th century and is still going on today. Currently, Japanese whaling is conducted by the Institute of Cetacean Research under the title of ‘scientific whale hunts’, after which the whale meat acquired from these hunts is sold in shops and restaurants. These hunts are a source of conflict between pro- and anti-whaling organizations today, and some consider the Japanese research program to be a thinly disguised commercial whaling operation.

“Guantanamo Bay” -  Referencing the Guantanamo Bay detention camp that is a U.S. military prison located in a naval base in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. It was initially set up in 2002 to detain, interrogate, and prosecute dangerous prisoners for war crimes. Detainees captured in the “War on Terror” (terrorism) were transported to the prison, many of them from Afghanistan and later Iraq. In 2009, President Obama signed an order to suspend proceedings for 120 days and shut down the facility for that year. Later in 2011, he signed the Defense Authorization Bill, which placed restrictions on the transfer of prisoners to the mainland or other foreign countries, impeding the closure of the facility. As of March 2014, 154 detainees remain at Guantanamo. (“Drowning in wawa” refers to waterboarding, an interrogation tactic used by the “nation of the free”, aka the United States.)

Both Belle and Pocahontas’s sections are pretty obvious…if you really need an explanation go to these links:

Belle: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beastiality

Pocahontas: Covered in the AP reviews, or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_Americans_in_the_United_States

Bob's WWII Story: Part 1

Recently, my family and I talked to an awesome WWII Veteran named Bob Kenyon, who gave us an overview of his time fighting in the war. Throughout this week, I will be posting the links to the actual recording of the interview, as well as a summary of some of the key points. The interview lasted about an hour, so I will break it up to make it more manageable.

• Bob went to Bordentown military school in New Jersey for 4 years
• went straight from Bordentown to the army
• played football for Bordentown
• General Bonesteel ("quite a name for a general") called him into him down to be on the main post football team (January of 1944)
• 90th Divison
• went overseas to England- had no idea what to expect
• 18 day terrible, rough trip
• 5,000 men on one ship- people stacked 5 high in bunks, throwing up
• old rust bucket ship
• moved to South Hampton, had no idea where they were going, but knew something was coming
• every morning they packed everything up and took a 5 mile hike, and one day they never came back
• marched down to ships (Susan B. Anthony was one of the ships- sunk)
• still had no idea where they were going
• crossed to France on the Normandy Coast to Utah Beach (D-Day invasion)
• none of the men on his boat had been in combat before
• "the sight of the ships was amazing, 5,000 ships"
• had to go down from the Liberty ship to the landing craft (Higgens boats) by platoon
• windy and rough
• "If you fall in you're gone- you can't stop for anybody"
• Utah beach is very wide, landed at 10 in the morning
• hit the beach and ran up to the foliage without
• men were in complete shock
• "Who wants to see somebody killed in front of you. I mean, not just killed, blown to pieces"
• ran into something they had no preparation for called hedgerows in Normandy
• impenetrable
• couldn't see through them
• underestimating the hedgerows was one of the biggest mistakes in the invasion
• took hundreds and thousands of aerial photographs, and figured they were thin hedgerows that you could go right through"
• not even a tank could penetrate the hedgerows
• supposed to get to new location (Perrier) in 5 days, but it ended up taking 2 months
• At this time, Bob was 19 and a staff sergeant
• fighting the German paratroopers
• extremely good troops that had been there for 4 years
• "the Germans knew every terrain feature, every crossroad was zeroed in with artillery"
• "after a month, most everybody who had came in originally had been killed or wounded"
• replacements came in which was difficult, because they were just kids straight out of high school who were terrified
• "It's hard to describe it, I mean, the paralyzing fear"
• "You didn't know their names. (referring to what they told the newbies) Keep your mouths shut, do what the guy on the right and left does and don't smoke at night, don't talk at night...if they made it for a week, well, maybe they're going to be okay. So, it was pretty brutal for them."
• "I think every fighting, whether it was then or WWI or whatever, it's the toughest thing that a human being can do."
• they were always on the offense, since the Germans were dug in, so they had to expose themselves to fire
• "We only had 9 field grade officers who made it all the way through, and that's from major and above"
• the average lieutenant in Normandy lasted about 2 weeks
• the motto was "Follow me"
• learned to lead from in front
• example Bob was told: "Take a piece of spaghetti that's wet and get behind it and try to push it. Get in front and pull it, and you're ready to go"
• Bob got hit when crossing a hedgerow
• Battle for Perrier started on July 24, and he got hit on the 26th in one of the outskirts
• artillery spotter picked them up- there was no foxholes or cover to hide in
• "I was just looking to survive"
• he was hit in the right trapezius with shrapnel
• "When I got hit, the first thing you think you're gonna die"
• only one medic in the platoon, so Bob got up to find help elsewhere
• walked to a farmhouse and got basic first aid to stop the bleeding
• put him in an ambulance and took him to get an operation
• woke up in a hospital plane going back to England
• had nothing- they took his watch and ring
• got operated on again back in England
• "The doctor said, 'Is your father Doctor Kenyon?' and I said, 'Yes sir he is' he said 'Well we can operate, but if this doesn't turn out blame him, because he taught me everything I know in medical school'"
• One of Bob's father's patients back home was the assistant Secretary of War, and he told his father that he could keep Bob out of harm's way.
• his father refused, saying that if he interfered Bob would be upset
• "I don't think he told my mother about that"
• Bob was asked if he wanted to join a new unit that was being formed
• he agreed, not knowing what kind of unit it was
• found out that they needed people to train new infantry in only 2 weeks
• Bob ended up being one of the trainers in England, instead of having to go back and fight

Link to recording:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4jeI_CkmO_4RzlwTG1ycV9TQXNmYnkwRzdNZXM1aHd0YThV/edit?usp=sharing

The best parts to listen are from 0:58 - 6:30 and 9:40 to the end (this should take out the sections of my mom fawning over Bob's dog). Enjoy!