12 Years A Slave

       The book, "12 Years a Slave" is much like the trickery of modern day slavery. Soloman Northup is the narrator. It is based off his real life experiences of being a free man living in New York with his wife and children, to having his life completely flipped upside down by slave corporation. Northup describes the torturous ways of slave owners treat their slaves, including dozens of floggings, limited food, and unrealistically high expectations.
       When Soloman is first captured, he is completely taken off guard. Two nicely dressed men from the circus promised him the job, urging him to drop everything and come. The people were polite and cunning, and he believed he was doing his family a quick favor. After accepting a tainted drink in Washington D.C. and blacking out, Solomon woke up in chains.  He had been sold by the two gentlemen to a filthy dealer in the slave trade. He fought for his liberty, proving to them that he was an American with equality rights. But nothing could make the men budge, Soloman was there and that was that. What Soloman didn't realize was that this was only the beginning, this was heaven compared what he would be experiencing in the years to come. The cunning of the three men in illegally kidnapping a free black citizen resulted in financial profit for themselves, but a journey to hell for Solomon.
      Along his journey, a very relatable and painful incident  he witness was see a mother separated from her child. She was screaming and beseeching to the slave owners to let her son come with her wherever she went. Yet again, the men would not budge. Her son was left there alone, and you could hear the woman for minutes after the train had left.
       At one of r plantations he was at, Soloman escaped. Though dogs were chasing him and men were on horseback, he got away. He walked for miles on end, in scorching heat and no food. When he got to a plantation owner, Mr. ford, who he could also trust, he rested. Mr. Ford directed him to a plantation run by Epps. As it turned out, he was even worse, and an alcoholic as well. He scourged his slaves for practically anything. And when he came home drunk, he was brutally wild bad nonsensical.
        Over his many years, he watched a strikingly beautiful young slave woman, Patsie, stripped naked, pinned to the ground with stakes, and whipped mercilessly, with everyone watching, for walking to a neighbor’s farm to get a scrap of soap. He saw individual slaves weigh a personal harvest of picked cotton at the end of a 14 hour day, and if it was one ounce under on the scale—cruel whippings.
          The end of the book is very poignant, for Soloman does return home. He sees his family, his children so much older and stronger. His daughter is married and has a son in which she named after her father. Soloman tried to sue the men that kidnapped him, but didn't accomplish it. However, he helped many slaves escape from their plantations, becoming a major abolitionist.

Alfred Hitchcock "The Birds"

                                                            The Birds Phenomenon
            In 1963, Alfred Hitchcock released a horrifying, bone-chilling thriller called "The Birds." To this day, this indelible classic is watched by people, leaving them shaken and disturbed. "The Birds" was Hitchcock's first film with Universal Studios. The movie won a plethora of awards, including an Oscar at the Academy Awards in 1964 and an Edgar Award at the Edgar Allan Poe Awards in 1964.
             The movie takes place in San Francisco and holds a five day period, first day being Friday. The humorous, fun fact about the film is in the beginning of the movie, the protagonist of "The Birds", walks into a Pet Store, Alfred Hitchcock himself is walking out of the doors, being pulled by a two terriers. And the best part about that is those dogs were his own in real life, named Geoffrey and Stanley. The two main characters in the film are Melanie Daniels and Mitch Brenner. Melanie is a very wealthy, spoiled socialite who can get her way in anything. met Brenner, on the other hand, is more low-key and genuine, and is buying love birds for his sister and mother. They meet in the pet shop and Brenner ends up bringing Melanie with him to his home just an hour out from San Francisco. When she gets to his town, she is attacked by a regular bird, not any sort of prey bird, which throws off everyone. However, nobody bothers to ponder on it, for there have been but few occasions where a seagull attacks a human. After that, more and more bird offenses are happening. Birds are crashing into windows, violating people and property, over-crowding on school grounds and lines. Schools are releasing their students so they can be protected at home. Homeowners nail wood boards to their houses so birds cannot get through. The climax of the film is when birds are flooding the town chaotically. People take refuge at any place they can get. Melanie, the star, hides in a phone booth and has to frantically wait for the bird swarm to pass. Annie, Mitch's sister, dies. The famous last scene, Melanie goes to the attic to see what the racket is and opens the door to see dozens of birds have torn through the roof and are flying senselessly in the room. Melanie is badly injured and the family races her to the nearest hospital, ending the movie is a frantic halt.
         
          This movie was such a success, Hitchcock received $3.3 millions dollars. A behind the scenes task the director had to do to attract birds was put meat and anchovies all over the ground and area. A lot of the scenes were done with puppets. However, the final scene was real. It took Hitchcock a week to film right and he insisted on using live, trained gulls to attack Melanie. On the final day of shooting, Melanie got stabbed in the eye and immediately started crying. The craziest thing about this 1950's film, that you do not see in the majority of films, even to this day, is there was no music score; all the background sounds were birdcalls and noises from an electron proto-synthesizer called a  trautonium. Overall, Alfred Hitchcock had a huge success with this film, managing to disconcert his viewers timelessly.


Sources
http://news.moviefone.com/2013/03/25/the-birds-alfred-hitchcock-25-things-you-didnt-know/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056869/awards
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056869/plotsummary


Movie Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrN_U830_Gc

Earth Day

     The movie, "Fierce Green Fire" is about the beautiful world and the environmental movement that is so greatly needed to save the earth. In the movie, they discuss the plans for the dams and how hey have effected the world. Builders want to put dams into thr Grand Canyon, but there is a lot of protest against it. Scientists also say that chemicals are expanding across the world and that a huge cause of whales dying is the chemicals. To preserve the whales lives, groups of people have gone on marches and protested. A non-violent act that environmentalist did to save save trees was rap themselves around tress so forest service men could not cut down the trees. In 1988, it was officially claimed that the green house gasses are a major role in carbon dioxide build up and pollution. In the 1930's, the biggest whale killing field was in Antarctica. But in 1982, the anti-whaling campaign was created to prevent future whales deaths. Whales numbers went from 275,000 to less than 5,000. This is a good example of why the world needs to become a green machine and save the planet.
        A major concern for whales is that if they die off the entire food chain gets messed up. Whales are AT&T he very top of the food change and make a huge difference in how everything else below them live and function. Whales are one of the biggest animals in the world. They can be lengths up to a football field and weigh as much as 200 tons, which is equivalent to 33 elephants. A cool fact about whales is hey are warm blooded, like humans, and to keep hem warm living in the ocean, they have thick skin fat called blubber.
         Another endangered animal is the leatherback sea turtle. They are the only turtle that has a soft leathery back, hence it's name. They are he largest turtle of the ocean. It can stay under water incredible amounts of time, and converts sea salt water to fresh water. Leatherbacks swim deep in the sea most their life, but come to shore to lay their eggs. They are very smart, advanced animals. The unfortunate thing is jellyfish are their pride and joy. With plastic waste drifting through the sea, many leatherbacks are dying, mistaking the plastic for jellyfish. This exceptional animal is a perfect motivator for people blasé about not littering/recycling. If people see what their ways are killing, they will realize how much they need to shape up and save the earth and all it's creatures!


http://www.worldwildlife.org/species/whale

http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/permanent-exhibitions/biodiversity-and-environmental-halls/hall-of-biodiversity/promos/for-educators/endangered-leatherback-sea-turtle

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13-1

What was the goal for Roosevelt after the war?  What were Soviet goals about Germany?
-that the victory over the Axis and the newly created UN would lead to more peaceful world. Soviets wanted to keep Germany weak and that soviet was in control of countries between Germany and soviet union

What did FDR think was 'key' to world peace?
- president felt the key was economic growth

What was 'declaration of liberated europe, and how successful was it?'
-it asserted the rights of all people to choose the form of government they will live upon. It led to the cold war because it increased tension between US and Soviet Union mad issues were not solved thoroughly. 

How was Germany to be controlled?
-Truman let them maintain their factories spans work to build back up economy, and had the pay back for war debts by trade and goods rather than cash 

What was Truman's view about how to deal with USSR?
-stand up to him, rather than appeasement

What is a satellite nation?
-

What is an 'iron curtain'
-the political and military barrier that isolated soviet-controlled countries of Eastern Europe after WWII 

12-2

*Nimitz-commander of ther United States Navy in the Pacific, planned operations against Japanese navy, wanted to use the aircraft carriers against japan
*MacArthur- commander of the Philippines station for America, had Filipinos and Americans entreat to Bataan peninsula when attached by Japanese, 3 months later going to Australia under FDR's word
*Bataan- the peninsula where the American and Filipinos retreated to, surrendering about 4 months later after Pearl Harbor, 78,000 soldiers forced to walk 65 miles
*Doolittle raid- commander of the mission to bomb japan, 16 plains flew to Tokyo and dropped bombs on it 
*Coral Sea-America intercepted the Japanese attempt to attack New Guinea, japan sunk Lexington and damaged the Yorktown ship drastically, but US won battle
*Midway-japan attacked Midway june 4, 1942, but was intercepted by antiaircraft fire and many planes shot down too. Second round burning aircraft and/sinking Japanese
Afrika Korps- German forces in the German area, commanded by General Erwin Rommel
Erwin Rommel- commander of the Afrika Corps, nickname Desert Fox, brilliant leader
El Alamein-battle General Rommel had to retreat from
Patton- General of American forces captured Casablanca city
Casablanca- city captured by General George Patton
Kassarine Pass- Americans outnumbered and outfought by the Germans, 7,000 casualties, 200 tanks were lost
Convoy System-a system in which. Enchant ships travel with naval vessels for protection
Stalingrad- city that controlled the Volga River and major railroad junction, Germans wanted to capture city to stop Russia and Ukraine from getting trade and sources  

Operation Paperclip

Operation Paperclip was opposed by many and favored by many. Originally, the project was called Operation Overcast, but the name was changed to Operation Paperclip for all the paperwork and paperclips used in the process. Operation Paperclip was an undercover thing where American military services extricated German scientists among World War II times to America. There were many clandestine documents dealt with in this process, and even to this day, there are some documents that no one can see or know about except for the official Operation Paperclip group. It was developed by the Office of of Strategic Services(OSS), but changed hands to Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency later on. A plus for this secret plan was the Germans wanted to stop the advancing Red Army, and had motivation to help Americans even more. The German scientists mostly helped the American troops with their smart Nazi rocket technology, chemical weaponry and medicine. 

The big test for the Germans to pass and be able to come over was whether or not they had ever made an oath or been involved in any Nazi Party activities. One man, Werner Von Braun, proved to America that he was never involved with the Nazi Party by showing to them his pass card that he was a colonial for the SS. The Joint company sometimes were willing to twist that law for some scientists that they felt were crucial to their(America's) project. Braun was an incredibly intelligent and advanced scientists, and his work and ideas led to the landing of the moon in 1969. Eventually Werner Von Braun became the UNited States Government Scientist! Roughly 500 scientists and the families were brought over to America. They were brought to either White Sands Proving Ground, New Mexico, Fort Bliss, Texas and Huntsville. These productions of the work stations led to the foundation of NASA and the US ICBM program in time. He craziest and in a way scariest part about the Operation Paperclip is there is information about the scientists, transfers, etc., that remains classified still.

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/operation_paperclip.html

http://www.operationpaperclip.info/

Depression Outline

I Intro
During the Great Depression, 1929-1939, America's entire life had taken a turn onto bumpy, unstable road. The Depression was a time where farming went from a surplus of crops to scarce produce.  Jobs went from an abundance of opportunities to very limited job offerings. President Roosevelt did his best to end the Depression, with his New Deals, broker states and safety nets. Being stuck in the middle of it, though, seemed near to impossible for the country to ever recover.
II Causes (The causes of the great depression were over speculation, government policy, and unstable economy.)

A overspeculation

B Govt Policy

C Unstable Econ

1 uneven prosperity-

2 overproduction-

3 worker issues / farm issues

III Effects

A Poverty- state of  being very poor, effected many families in the nation drastically

B Society- effected the society by decreasing jobs and increasing poverty

C World-effected the trade exports and imports because less food and merchandise being produced

IV Solutions

A Hoover- Elected president in the midst of the Great Depression, was beat by FDR in 1932

1 Volunteerism

2 Public Works- building roads, buildings, schools, etc all across the nation

3 Hawley Smoot- June 1930, raised average tariff rate o the biggest level in US history, decreased trade

4 RFC-Reconstruction Finance Corporation, makes loans to banks, railroads, and agricultural institutions, fails and economy collapses more so

B Roosevelt-

1 new deal

a alphabet soup

            example- SEC-securities and exchange commission, US governmental agency that monitors trading in securities and company takeovers

            example- NRA- National Recovery Act, factories kept firing people, so they tried to get businesses to keep their workers and stay in business

            example- HOLC- home owners loan corporation, loans to keep their houses during the depression.

            example- CCC- civilian conservation core, bunch of young men, had workers  planting trees

b Criticism?

2 2nd new deal

a spending more money than had

b sit-down strike

c not enough security for retired people

V Criticicism

B Political Criticism (ex. Came from both the left wing and right wing)

A Conservatives are traditional people who don't like change and felt the new deal was socialism in disguise

B Liberals (ex: criticized the new deal also. They....)

Ex: wasting money

ex: jobs were not consistent

VI Effectiveness

A Changes in US- broker state, safety net, fair labor standards act

B Unions

C Culture

VII Conclusion
After roughly ten strenuous years of the Great Depression, America had finally gotten out of it. President Roosevelt's many attempts and ideas to end the depression finally payed off. America was finally functioning back to normal, people were getting jobs again, and entrepreneurs were blooming in the cities. Farmers were producing crops again and there was not as much starvation and poverty around. Plus America had changes that still exist now to keep American's happy, such as safety nets, fair labor standards, and broker state. All in all, America, after many years of hardship that seemed impossible to recover from, America got back and became an even more advanced and awesome country!