Mr. Sakellarion's Weblog

When reading about the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, I realized that he had a pretty normal life. When his cousin died, he was furthered into the line of succession. He joined the military at one point to do some service and eventually went to visit the people in Sarajevo, a Austria-Hungarian province. I guess the Serbs wanted some feeling of nationalism, but I don’t believe that Franz Ferdinand did anything particular to anger them. I believe the war would’ve still played out if his assassination didn’t happen. It might’ve not played out the same, but tension was already rising throughout the entirety of Europe. It only takes on death or one event for the world war to begin. When WW1 started, the spider-web of European allied powers became involved, and this was the basis for such a devastating war.

The right page of All Quiet on the Western Front revealed what life was like when war wasn’t happening. The soldiers were resting in some places far from the action. Although this technically was supposed to be a peaceful time, it’s clear that these soldiers were still facing hardships in life like having to endure rations and scarce food. However, food was a symbol of humanity and a time for them to claim their sanity since it’s obvious that you can’t really eat in battle. Eating was like a way to reset. If I were to go into battle, I would most likely bring a picture of my family in order to have something to remember them by. In war, the fact that I would end so many lives would make me completely disregard the connection between a body and it’s own conscious.

I think Stubby has a heroic story. As a stray, Stubby bonded with soldiers of the 102nd Infantry Regiment, becoming their mascot. When the unit shipped out to France, Stubby went away on the transport ship. Once officially a war dog, Stubby served on the front lines, participating in 17 battles. He used his senses to warn his unit of gas attacks and incoming artillery shells. Stubby even caught a German spy. He also provided comfort to the wounded, Which I find so cute!

Connected to a few WordPress topics, what was with so many dogs in WW1? Why do we see them in the pictures during this time? Read this article to find out. What did you find as interesting or surprising? Your thoughts on what you found?

The dogs in ww1 were used as many things, including but not limited to:

Messenger dogs

dogs that hauled weapons around on carts

dogs that helped locate wounded soldiers

rat killing dogs

I think it is really sweet that they had the dogs, they built morale among the soldiers, however I worry that these dogs were in danger constantly, and they were probably malnourished because of the war. No one had enough money or resources to feed themselves, let alone a dog.

PYOT from AdBa: As we have learned in class, rats were a big deal in WW1 especially in the trenches. Read this article  and share your thoughts. Anything interesting? Surprising?

I found it interesting how big rats would get, it says that they could get to the shape of a cat. I know if I see a normal sized rat I’m freaked out, but if I saw a cat sized rat I’d literally have to leave. I also found it interesting that soldiers would casually live with them. I imagined all the diseases that a person could get from a rat. A couple units ago we learned that the black death was carried by rats. This probably relates to how the influenza spread so much the rat probably spread them throughout the miles long trenches. I found it disgusting that they would feed off of the dead soldiers flesh. This would actually be really upsetting if I had a relative in the war who was killed and couldn’t’ get a proper burial because a rat had already the person. I also found it interesting that soldiers would casually live with them

Take a look at this site’s collection of pics from WW1 – which images stand out to you and why?

Image 1 stoop out to me because of all the destruction of the land around the soldiers. This really stood out to me because, while I knew that war results in a lot of destruction in the and, I never really put a visual to how bad it was. In this image there were no fully standing trees, just big trunks, a lot of mus and wasteland for what looked to be miles. Like I said I am not necessarily shocked by it but having a picture to put to the destruction is actually rather moving.

Additionally image 21 stood out to me, as it was a little dog dressed as a German soldier. I thought this was interesting after doing the post about dogs involvement in the war, and while this little dog definitely was not on the battlefield it very well could have been an emotional support dog, or just a family pet. Either way it was adorable and connected to what I had read about with the dogs involvement in the war.

Lastly image 30 stood out to me as it was 6 soldiers carrying their friend on a stretcher through knee deep mud. This reminded me that while those soldiers were there to fight, and ultimately kill, that doesn’t mean they lost their morality. These people were still compassionate and had made connections to others on the fields with them. It speaks a great deal that these 6 soldiers were willing to all step off the battlefield to help their one friend even though there were millions killed or injured.

. World War I was a turning point for many women in various aspects of life. Employment opportunities expanded as women stepped into roles that were once occupied by men who went to fight. They worked in factories, on farms, and even in transport. This shift challenged traditional gender roles and showed that women could perform many of the same jobs as men. In sports, like football, women’s teams gained popularity as they played in matches to raise money. Politically, women’s contributions during the war helped accelerate the suffrage movement. Their work proved they were capable of handling responsibilities previously reserved for men, supporting the argument for equal voting rights. In many countries, women gained the right to vote shortly after the war ended. The war’s impact on women was profound, influencing employment, sports, and politics, and reshaping society’s views on women’s capabilities and rights.

Connected to a few WordPress topics, what was with so many dogs in WW1? Why do we see them in the pictures during this time? Read this article to find out. What did you find as interesting or surprising? Your thoughts on what you found?

Dogs had important jobs in WW1, for example many dogs were messengers, delivering their messages under a hail of fire. They also hauled machine guns and supply carts. The Imperial War Museums believes over 16 million total animals were in service during World War 1. They were also used as first aid animals, locating wounded soldiers. Something I thought was surprising was that they used the dogs as pest control for the rats in the trenches. I think these roles that dogs had show how smart and tough they are. It’s really impressive they could learn to do this stuff in such a short amount of time and then be able to go into the war and do what they had been taught. Overall, I think this act of giving dogs jobs was very smart and was an efficient way to use animals to their advantage.

PYOT from a peer: Check out this new article about a death tunnel from WWI that was just discovered in France. What do you find interesting? Is there anything that stood out to you?

This article really just shows how horrible war is. Like who ever came up with “hey we have a disagreement so lets send out a bunch of people and see who murders the most”? There were hundreds of soldiers that got trapped in this sealed off death tunnel, and they slowly suffocated to death for almost a week. Some committed suicide, others asked their comrades to kill them. It’s very creepy, especially since we know all of this because of the chilling journal entries that they left behind. Only three men survived this. This relates to what a video we watch in class, which talked about how war was changed from WW1, as people no longer viewed it as a heroic thing to do after this. It also makes sense that a lot of people had PTSD from this.

PYOT from AdBa: As we have learned in class, rats were a big deal in WW1 especially in the trenches. Read this article and share your thoughts. Anything interesting? Surprising?

I thought this was super gross, and overall I think it would be terrifying to be living in trenches with rats as big as cats or even small dogs. I mean obviously fighting the war is much more terrifying and the soldiers probably saw the rats as more of an annoyance in comparison but its still crazy. Also the rats must have decreased the living conditions a lot considering that they are the dead bodies, probably ate their food supplies, bring diseases in, and then they produce a crazy amount of offspring which doesn’t help at all. Overall it would just be really awful to have to deal with those

Check out this article on the “she-soldiers” of the 1st World War – what stands out from their stories, and why do you think they, and most any, info on “heroes” and “heroines” from WW1 is not well known:

Something I thought was really interesting and kinda relates to what we talked about in class was how one female fighter, Moreau, took up arms, but since she wasn’t technically a German soldier, she was seen as a murderer instead of a heroine (due to propaganda). It’s very interesting how thin the line is between a murder and a war hero. Another interesting way propaganda didn’t help out she-soldiers is how Russia used it to shame men into enlisting.

PYOT from a peer: Check out this new article about a death tunnel from WWI that was just discovered in France. What do you find interesting? Is there anything that stood out to you?

I found it very interesting that both German and French governments decided that it was better for them to ignore the death tunnel. I know it might cost money but I would want to know what the tunnel is and possibly help people identify more of their relatives. The article also said how the person who found the tunnel is not given the credit for discovering the tunnel because it was an illegal action and will influence more people to just dig up public places. Which I can agree with but that shouldn’t have to interfere with whether or not a person found a WW1 relic. I also found it weird that the tunnel wasn’t found until now, it is about a century old. How has no one ever found this especially since it’s a path that many dog walkers use, I know my dog likes to dig around how could not one dog dig this up over a hundred years. I also found it surprising what was inside of tunnel. During the war the Germans had a long trench with hundreds of soldiers and weapons that weren’t visible to the French army’s open eye which caused Germany to win lots of battles. After a while however the French finally found both entrances of the tunnels and blockaded both sides and blew up parts of tunnels producing even more explosions from the trenches weapons. One part I found very disturbing was that remaining people in the trench had no way out they either died of starvation, lack of oxygen, or had another soldier kill them. I know that deaths do happen over the course of war but this seems a little over the top that soldiers literally waited to die over the course of a couple days. Which now is miles of a mass grave.

So you now know the historical / family roots of my first, middle, and last names – tell us the history / genealogy of any part of your name??? Share what you know, or what you can find out…

My first and middle names both don’t have any history or anything like that, but when put together they do mean “beautiful life” which is pretty neat. I did some research on my last name and found that only 25 people in the world who share my last name, most in Massachusetts, but some in Virginia, South Carolina and a few in Pakistan. I thought this was super cool because I had no Idea that my name might have roots in Pakistan. I also am going to assume (as the article would not know) that all of us 25 are probably related by blood in some way, just considering how uncommon it is. This lined up with when I was looking into the first people recorded with my last name because one of the first people shares my Grandfathers first name, and it is a family name so it makes sense. I couldn’t really find much on the origins of the name but I know my family is Italian…

PYOT from a peer: Take a look at these links about technological innovations during the 1st World War – what stands out to you as interesting a/o surprising? 

As we know WW1 was a large time for several different large technological innovations for all around the world. Some examples of this is the innovation of the Poison Gas. Poison Gas was created in the middle of WW1 and was used to kill about 100,000 solders and it is was and is still seen as one of the most deadly weapons. The invention on poison gas was so bad it was actually banned from being used in war from then and this is called Geneva Protocol, in 1925 they banned the use of chemical and bacteriological weapons in war. For a certain type of weapon and the use of it to be banned in war really shows how bad the invention of poison gas truly was and how large of a threat it was. Another invention that was created was called Depth Charges. Depth charges were invented because the use of German U-boats against Allied ships. They sank millions of tons of cargo and killed tens of thousands of sailors and civilians, because of this the Allies had figure out a way to combat this problem. They then basically created an underwater bomb that could be lobbed from the deck of a ship using a catapult or chute and they named this the depth charge. The depth charge was a huge invention for the Allied forces because without them they would have lost much more resources and man power. Finally the invention of the tank was a very large part of WW1. Tanks nowadays are probably on the the first things that you think about devices for war and the world could be so much different if the invention of tanks very happened. In WW1 the tanks were so powerful because they made it easier for solders to invade and cross over different terrain so they could cover more ground in a shorter amount of time. Also, with heavy guns in the tank it was not only good for movement it was also good for being able to take down the other solders. Overall, I feel like these are the largest inventions in WW1 that are still used to this day.

Connected to a few WordPress topics, what was with so many dogs in WW1? Why do we see them in the pictures during this time? Read this article to find out. What did you find as interesting or surprising? Your thoughts on what you found?

I was surprised how many dogs were used during the war. There were over 2000 dogs in service on the western front. The dogs who served had so many jobs. They could deliver messages in the middle of battles, haul carts with supplies or machine guns, find wounded, deliver first aid kits to the wounded, or be rat dogs and hunt rats in the trenches. The dogs are trained to find wounded people, and they have first aid kits attached to them to help the people when they find them. The rats in the trenches were a big nuisance, so it’s pretty smart to use dogs to hunt them. It must be sad to work with dogs during the war too though, because it could be so easy for them to die by getting caught in gunfire, a bomb, or poison gas. The dogs that worked with the soldiers often provided support emotionally for them, and the soldiers liked the dogs. There is a picture of a dog in a mask being held up by a soldier in a gas mask. It is surrounded by other soldiers with gas masks, which I think means that the soldiers did love the dogs that worked with them.

So you now know the historical / family roots of my first, middle, and last names – tell us the history / genealogy of any part of your name??? Share what you know, or what you can find out…

My name Lily came from the flower. Flower names for girls became popular around the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, but specifically, the name Lily became popular in the 2000’s. My mom chose the name Lily for me because it’s her favorite flower. The name represents innocence and purity. Lily is also like the miniature version of Elizabeth which is my middle name, but I don’t think my parents were thinking about that when naming me. Elizabeth was the name of my great-grandmother. My last name Robinson is a very basic and common name. My first, middle and last names are all common, so I don’t have a very unique name at all.

Connected to a few WordPress topics, what was with so many dogs in WW1? Why do we see them in the pictures during this time? Read this article to find out. What did you find as interesting or surprising? Your thoughts on what you found?

I didn’t know that dogs served a variety of tasks in the World War. I knew that there were stray dogs in the area but I didn’t know how many tasks they performed. The things they did suurprised me like how they hauled machine guns, served as messengers, and hauled supply carts. This is so insane because all these jobs are so dangerous for dogs and I cant imagine how hard it must have been for them. Dogs also were trained to find dead soldier bodies based off scent, and if a soldier was injured they were trained to go to get help. This is so important and just teaches me how great of a rold they played for the war. to be honest I don’t think things would have gone the way they did.

Connected to a few WordPress topics, what was with so many dogs in WW1? Why do we see them in the pictures during this time? Read this article to find out. What did you find as interesting or surprising? Your thoughts on what you found?

Dogs in WW1 had a ton of uses and were used is so many different way it was almost crazy. Some of the uses for the dogs were that The French, among others, also used small dogs as rat catchers in the trenches. We all have heard about how terrible the rats were in the trenches so I feel like it is a super smart idea for the solders to train the dogs to kill as many rats as they can. Another use for dogs were how Stretcher-bearers ran out onto the battlefields to dress wounds and carry the wounded to aid stations, and French first aid dogs were to go onto battlefields and locate wounded soldiers. They were trained to either stay with the injured until human aid arrived or to bring back evidence of the wounded soldier. These to dogs helped thousands of solders and were a huge part of the medical core for WW1. One last use of dogs was that they hauled machine gun and supply carts. They also served as messengers, often delivering their missives under a hail of fire. This shows that in WW1 dogs were able to increase the speed that letters and general communication were able to get back to the government so they could make changes better and dogs increase the communication in WW1 by a lot of different ways. In WW1 I was surprised by the amount of work that dogs did and the impact that they had in the war. I was also wondering how the war would have been different without dogs. Even though this was also not in the article I was wondering if the solders ever used the dogs as support animals?

PYOT from AdBa: As we have learned in class, rats were a big deal in WW1 especially in the trenches. Read this article  and share your thoughts. Anything interesting? Surprising?

Something interesting I found after reading this article was that rats could grow up to the size of cats and that they were so big they could eat a wounded man if he couldn’t defend himself. I found this interesting but also very disturbing because just having to imagine that is very nasty and seems like it would be a major source of PTSD for the soldiers. Something else that surprised me was the fact that just one rat can produce 880 offspring in a year. This seems really crazy and if those offspring had more offspring there must have been so many rats everywhere. Something really disturbing I read was that at night the soldiers could hear the rats trying to rattle tins over for food. They also mentioned how the rats were “fearless” which shows the overpopulation of them and why they were so dominant. Overall, I would not want to experience trench warfare and it seems like something that would be very disturbing for most people and lead to PTSD later on in life.

During the Christmas Truce of 1914, amidst the horrors of World War l, there was a remarkable event known as the “soccer miracle.” It was a spontaneous ceasefire where soldiers from opposing sides laid down their weapons and came together to play a friendly game of soccer in the no mans land. The soldiers who were tired of constant fighting and loss of life, saw this as an opportunity to experience a moment of peace and humanity. They set aside their differences and engaged in a shared passion for the game. It was a remarkable display of unity and comradely in the midst of a brutal conflict.The Soccer Miracle serves as a powerful reminder of the inherent goodness within humanity. Despite being in the midst of war, the soldiers demonstrated compassion, empathy, and a desire for peace. It shows that even in the darkest times, people have the capacity to come together, set aside their differences, and choose acts of kindness and goodwill. This event highlights the resilience and strength of the human spirit. It shows that it is never too late to do the right thing and make a positive impact. The soldiers involved in the Soccer Miracle chose to prioritize their shared humanity over the divisions imposed by war. It serves as an example to the power of compassion and the potential for positive change, even in the most challenging circumstances. It is indeed tragic that the war continued and peace was short-lived. The solders experienced a glimpse of what life could be like without conflict, where they could interact as fellow human beings rather than enemies. The fact that the was persisted despite the brief moments of peace the devastating nature of the conflict. It highlights the complexities of war, the political and strategic factors that perpetuated it, and the immense toll it took on countless lives. I think that the Christmas Truce is a reminded of the uselessness of war and the longing for peace that exists within all of it us. It serves as a potential example of the importance of seeking peaceful resolutions and finding common ground, even in the most dire circumstances. In conclusion, the Soccer Miracle during World War l demonstrates the capacity for humanity to rise about conflict and embrace unity and peace. It reminds us of the inherent goodness within people and the potential for positive change even in times of despair.

PYOT from a peer: Take a look at these links about technological innovations during the 1st World War – what stands out to you as interesting a/o surprising? 

What was interesting to me was how I always envisioned most of these inventions and products as very recent things, such as Kleenexes, Pilates, zippers, and especially drones. These seem very modern, and not something that you would see in World War 1 in the early 1900s. This also applies to Blood banks and transfusions, because I thought that this kind of advanced medical practice was a much more modern thing.

With the trench coats, I don’t know why I didn’t make the connection before between the coats and the trench warfare that they were named after. They seem very practical for war. It also makes sense that daylight savings was invented during war time, as originally it was introduced to save more coal by having an extra hour of daylight. It doesn’t make sense to keep it now though, because we’re not at war and don’t need to ration coal anymore.

With the second link, all the technology really impressed me. Some things that I thought couldn’t have possibly been invented or used back then were actually used during the war, such as pilot less drones.

Revisit our class discussions in unit 12 around propaganda – pick any of the techniques we focused on, and provide modern-day examples of organized efforts to convince YOU to do (or not do) something

I found a link to a modern day version of propaganda https://www.etsy.com/listing/79012900/twitter-propaganda-poster-version-2

This photo is an example of bandwagon. The words that are used are trying to convince everyone to use Twitter. they are sort of peer pressuring people to tweet. The actual picture with the whale suggests that if more people tweet, the more help you are doing. They are trying to convince you that if everyone tweets, everything will be okay. Now every time someone tweets, they will think of that whale being saved by the little Birdy from Twitter.

Another example is this photo https://e110fa19mbhp.home.blog/2019/12/04/taylor-swifts-diet-coke-advertisement/

This photo uses testimonial propaganda. By using such a famous person like Taylor Swift, Coke is getting a lot of attention. Even though I am sure Taylor has nothing to do with Coke, they use her fame to get attention from everyone. Also as you can see in the picture, they are saying that if you enter than you can get Taylor related prizes. This is just using her fame to Coke’s advantage.

What happened to the titanic on April 15th, 1912? Read this article all about the Titanic. Share your thoughts on any of the following questions. How was the creation of the Titanic a major event? How did the crash of the Titanic change ships we go on today and history? What are your thoughts on the rescuing of the people? What are your thoughts on all of the investigations? Did anything stand out to you?

I think that, even if the wreck of Titanic was something tragicto happen, i think the event was very important to show to the people and companys that you need to have good security systems and dont save money for that, because human lives cant be in game when you have trasportationd. I think that they could give more money and attention to the safety of the passengers.

Connected to a few WordPress topics, what was with so many dogs in WW1? Why do we see them in the pictures during this time? Read this article to find out. What did you find as interesting or surprising? Your thoughts on what you found?

I find it cool that they relied on dogs to do things for them. They can’t always be trustworthy and to trust them in war is on another level! Even though it’s sad, I think it is smart to have dogs do things for the soldiers that would potentially put them in danger. We would rather have a dog die than a soldier if you get what I mean. I find it funny that they had designated dogs to catch rats in the trenches. It is just weird to think about because that is something that would never happen now. I wonder why they chose dogs over cats for that job since cats are more known for chasing things like rats. Dogs were probably good to have around for the soldiers because they are under so much stress and dogs definitely helped reduce the stress and take their mind off war for a second. 

So you now know the historical / family roots of my first, middle, and last names – tell us the history / genealogy of any part of your name??? Share what you know, or what you can find out…

My dads side of the family used to live in Lithuania during the time of ww2. Our last name used to be Vaitkaitis but they were told that they had to change because it sounded too German. They ended up just shortening it to Vait until they moved into the US. When they moved to the US they changed it to what it is now, which is White! I’m technically only ⅛ Lithuanian, my dad is ¼, and my grandpa is ½. My moms side of the family is from Brazil. My great grandma grew up in Brazil but then ended up moving to the US to have my grandma (I call her Vovó because that is Brazilian for grandma). I have my great grandma’s first name as my middle name.  I am also ⅛ Brazilian! 

Check out this link (and many links within…) regarding how the 1st World War changed life for many women Great Britain 

I knew that women had to take the jobs of men after they left for the war, but it surprised me that they also started playing football to replace them men. It was encouraged to counter unhealthy factory conditions. What I wonder is how they did at first in the factories, as most women probably never had gotten any training for the types of jobs they took over. I also didn’t know, but it makes sense they also started to be heard more in politics. A famous suffragette started encouraging men to join armed forces.

Read about the truce the soccer game made for soldiers on Christmas… What did you find? Thoughts? How did it create a peaceful truce?

I never knew before that Adolf Hitler was there for the Christmas Day Truce. It’s pretty in character though that he refused to get out of the trenches and fraternize with the enemy. I think it must have been hard for the soldiers to go back to killing each other the next day, because they must have become friends with each other while they were talking and played soccer with each other. I also thought it was interesting how the article compared sports and war to each other, and it makes sense, because both are competitive, are directed by leaders, and require teamwork and discipline.

So you now know the historical / family roots of my first, middle, and last names – tell us the history / genealogy of any part of your name??? Share what you know, or what you can find out…

So I was told that my first name was from a college roommate named Mara, but my parents wanted to be different and decided to add a U in there. For all of my siblings middle names my parents named us after relatives, so my middle name is my grandmother’s maiden name. And then for my last name I was always told that Zirker meant “sugar” or “sugar-maker” in German (cause we’re german), but after doing someone research it’s actually “Zucker” that means sugar in German. Idk if it got changed somewhere along the line, or something like that.

Read about the truce the soccer game made for soldiers on Christmas… What did you find? Thoughts? How did it create a peaceful truce?***

I find it really interesting how everyon involved just emediatlyturned. One second they were trying to kill each other and then the next they are having a friendly game of soccer. Its funny how such a simple child’s game can bring people together in such horrible times. It wasn’t even a competitive game. There were no refs and no score they were all there to just let lose and have fun on Christmas. Although to some it was a peaceful truce, some people didn’t want to go. They were scared their commanders would punish or discipline them if they tried to make friends with the enemy. This soccer truce also brought into light that the enemy are also just people. They aren’t just some lifeless person trying to kill you, but rather a real human with feelings just like everyone else. This game recognized that at the end of the day, everyone is in some way similar to each other.

Connected to a few WordPress topics, what was with so many dogs in WW1? Why do we see them in the pictures during this time? Read this article to find out. What did you find as interesting or surprising? Your thoughts on what you found?

What I found the most interesting/surprising

• Dogs actually had a very important role in European armies during WW1, they would pull machine guns and supply carts, deliver messages to others, and even more.
  • I would never have expected that dogs had that big of a role during WW1 even though they are not humans. 
• There was more than 2000 dogs who were believed to help serve in the Western Front at one time and there was believed to be over 16 million total animals that helped to serve during WW1
  • That is just a huge number of animals that were said to be helping during WW1. If I had to guess how many animals helped I would never get 16 million. 
• Dogs would help and assist the wounded people. Like in France first aid dogs were selected carefully then trained over the span of months in order to help locate wounded soldiers and had training on if they would stay with the bonded person or try and bring back evidence of a wounded soldier. Most dogs even had a first aid kit on their backs to help the wounded.
  • It is just crazy to think about dogs having such an important role in a world war and people would trust them. I am not saying dogs can not be trusted but with all of the distractions that could be around that makes their job even harder. I personally love the idea of dogs helping people because I love dogs but I don’t exactly love the idea that dogs probably got killed in battle. 
• Small dogs were also used as rat catchers in trenches
  • This was more interesting than surprising to me because it was a really smart idea and is something dogs can easily do just by their natural instincts. 
• Dogs were used to help soldiers feel more at home
  • I just love this idea as dogs are great companions and during war feeling like you are at home can do a lot. I personally know that when I want to be calmer and just in a better mood I like to hang out with my dog.

Overall I think the idea of having dogs in the picture during WW1 was a good idea because of all of the things they could do to help and you did not have to pay them or really force them to do work. 

PYOT from a peer: Check out this video on how Stubby the dog became a Sargeant in WW1. What stands out as interesting or surprising? Do you think they should give more medals to dogs that helped during the war?

I think it is surprising to me that this dog not only was snuggled in to the army and survived world war 1 but he helped save many wounded soldiers and saved many lives and showed constant bravery during the entire war, he got so much medals for his work and is truly a amazing dog I think we should give medals to dogs in the war because many dogs can save the lives of people and are braver than many soldiers I think if soldiers can get medals, so can they.

Check out the links within this site’s collection of veterans’ stories from the 1st World War – what stories stand out to you and why? 

I think it’s great to see that these heroes from the WWI lived a long life, it’s traumatizing to have to experience a war and see friends and even parents die depending on the case, but at least these soldiers today are well recognized by the bravery of fighting in one of the biggest and most bloody wars that ever happened on history.

Take a look at this site’s collection of pics from WW1 – which images stand out to you and why?

A few images that stood out to me was the dog dressed as a German soldier. This was just very cute and funny because it had its own mini set of gear, and even a helmet. There was also a small fake gun laid in front of him. It also showed me that during this serious time they could still have fun and loved their pets. Another that stood out to me kkind of relates to the first one. It is the Unloading of the Pill Box demolishers. This one stood out to me because they are unloading these humongous shells that weighed 1,400 pounds and the craters from explosion created 15ft deep and 15 yards across. This wasnt the only part that stood out, it was mostly because there is a dog sitting on one that they are unloading. It was funny because they just had those animals roaming around them as they unload dangerous things, and the dog is just sitting calmly on the shell. The men are also unfased but smiling. The next one I found interesting was the Belgian Soldiers with their bicycles in France. This stood out to me because at first it looked like there was no seat for the humans and just a bike for the guns which is super weird, but its just the angle of the photo. I didn’t know if maybe that was their weird way of carrying it. But regardless, It was equally as weird that they rode bikes with guns right underneath them, almost supporting them as the body of the bike. Another image that stood out to me was the Unloading of a horse in Turkey. It caught my eye because they lifted the horse out of a boat and into the sky to drop them on the dock. This kind of made me sad because at that time they thought of them as “equipment” and not animals with feelings. I understand that they did need them as material for the war for transportation and they were important, but It is still kind of sad that the life of a horse was like that. Obviously they probably didn’t mind but it seemed like they might be confused. Another one that stood out was the one where German men and horses were equipped with masks as they passed through the contaminated woods of the poison gas. This was crazy that they even put masks on the horses, over their mouth and nose. It is cool how they thought of them enough to create something like that, but it really doesn’t do anything because its just a piece of fabric that the toxins can just pass through. It might have had some effect because they did use them so it must have served a small purpose. The next was when the British entered France in October 1918 after four years of German Occupation. This stood out because they looked so happy and relieved, like they were living again. They also have a child in the picture, a young boy who looks excited and is walking amoungst the troops. It is cool because it must have been a brother, cousin, or just a kid inspired by one of the soldiers.The one beneath this was a picture of a ship painted in Dazzle camouflage. At first I didn’t think this acted as a camouflage at all, because the design was actually bright and stood out with patterns. But its cooler than that and serves an interesting purpose because it made it difficult for enemies to estimate the range, speed, and heading of the ship to make it harder to target. Save the best for last. The last one stood out to me and really touched me because it was the picture of a German Dog hospital treating wounded dispatch dogs. This was so cool and sweet because these kind men during an extremely dangerous and hard time thought of these animals and were willing to help and heal them. It’s so sweet and nice of them to make time for extra priorities. It also showed that they had interest in other things.

Take a look at this site’s collection of pics from WW1 – which images stand out to you and why?

All of the photos stood out to me a little but these are the ones that stood out to me the most.

1. In the photo it just shows how destroyed land and their battlefield  became during WW 1. I knew that there was a lot of damage done to the woods and land but never realized that in some places there are just dead looking trees sticking out of the ground. It is just sad to see so much land get destroyed so much. 

7. In this photo there are a couple of Belgian soldiers on their bikes in Belgium. This photo stood out to me because I feel like it just shows how important having troops on some mode of transportation is. As long as they can fight and move, that is good.

10. In this photo there is a belgian soldier in what looks like a factory building ready to shoot out the window. This photo stood out to me because it just can show that soldiers were hiding out anywhere trying to take advantage of positioning to fight. The higher you are, the better viewpoint to see soldiers in trenches and the harder for someone to find you. 

11. This photo is of German soldiers celebrating Christmas despite being at war. This photo stood out to me because they still took the time to celebrate christmas. I feel like if you are at war you would not take the time to celebrate a holiday like christmas because getting what you want is “more important’ 

12. This is a photo of a battle at night with what looks like a lit up water fountain but I am assuming it is a photo of all of the gun shots. This photo stood out to me because it looks cool and unusual but also shows that even at night battle does not stop. 

18. This is a photo of a horse unloading in Turkey by getting “hung”. This photo stood out to me because I never realized that horses were used during battle. It makes sense but never clicked for me. 

20. This is a photo of British soldiers on motorcycles, which is another example of countries trying to get as many people on some type of transportation to be able to move quickly. This photo stood out to me because it looks like they are on a beach-like setting. 

21. This is a photo of a dog dressed as a German soldier. This photo is just cute and when I was the dog I just had to stop and look at it. 

22. In this photo soldiers are unloading huge 1400 lbs explosives. This photo stood out to me due to the sheer size of the explosives and the dog that is just chilling on it. I never realized how many dogs there were in battle. I would personally be terrified to be sitting on an explosive or even being near one. 

26. In this photo it is British soldiers in a trench. This did not specifically stand out to be but it connects to the 4/1 homework assignment just showing how the trenches were getting used. 

31. This is a photo of German soldiers practicing how to use a flamethrower. This did not necessarily stand out but it is interesting. If you are at war, is practiving with a flamethrower the best idea? Couldn’t you get killed easier if they know where you are?

34. In this photo there is a tank just rolling through a town and near a house. This stood out to me because there looks to be no damage to the area except that there is a tank rolling through it. 

39. This is a photo of a man riding 2 horses and all of them have gas masks. What stood out to me is that the horses also have gas masks. This makes me question how the masks are made for the horses and if they are made out of the same material as the ones for humans. 

40. In this photo there are German soldiers fleeing from a gas attack. This photo is just weird to look at seeing soldiers running from a fog. 

44. In this photo there a german dog hospital that is treating wounded from battle. This photo stood out to me due to care. It looks like they are putting in to helping them. Also I just love dogs so much so it stood out to me. 

Check out this link to the status / plans for  The National WW1 Memorial– what thoughts / impressions do you have, especially regarding why this memorial is so much later in the making / establishing in a city so full of war memorials… why so long for this one?

It can be many reasons why they took that long, they can have forgot to do, they could be lazy, but what matters is that now we have the Memorial of the WWI, but it still crazy to see that that memorial took so long to be made.

PYOT from a peer: Check out this new article about a death tunnel from WWI that was just discovered in France. What do you find interesting? Is there anything that stood out to you?

Its surprising to me that the bodies can still be recognized after all those years. I would have thought they decomposed but there were so many, it kind of makes sense that some may still be distinct with the bones. It is also cool how they still found remains of the items they used in bad condition, but could still be identified.

Take a look at this site’s collection of pics from WW1 – which images stand out to you and why?

The first photo shown, is a photo of five soldiers walking across a bridge with a bunch of broken trees. As I am looking at this photo, it just goes to show how much damage was done. Personally, all of these images are sad but it really puts it in perspective how bad it is and it is heartbreaking. The fact that that deep in the woods looks like that is devastating.

The next photo that stuck out to me was where the soldiers were holding back a crowd as they were trying to push through to a building it looks like. Its depicting people being held back by the police after the assassination of the archduke Francis Ferdinand and his wife Sophia. This is just a really sad image and it really just shows the violence that was going on. 

The last photo that stuck out was the photo where the German soldiers are all celebrating Christmas on a field. I think this is a beautiful image because it just goes to show that even with all of the war going on and the constant international issues, they are still making time to celebrate and find joy in things and it is really heartwarming to see that they were able to take some time to themselves and be happy and maybe forget about the war for a minute.

All of these photos were great and meaningful, these ones just stuck out to me the most.

Revisit our class discussions in unit 12 around propaganda – pick any of the techniques we focused on, and provide modern-day examples of organized efforts to convince YOU to do (or not do) something: find examples from (1) the US federal government, (2) a private organization, and/or (3) Nashoba that reflect use of a technique – include info on format / delivery of the message (and a link if applicable?), and how convincing (or not) it is; also consider and discuss if propaganda is always bad, or how sometimes it might be a good thing?  Answer any and all of the prev Qs as inspired

Testimonial Propaganda: There are many reasons that a famous person can show their political opinion or support a politician campaign like Personal opinion and interests like money from politicians, we can easily give examples like Leonardo DiCaprio and Samuel L. Jackson that supported Joe’s Biden campaign in 2020 or Kanye West that support Donald Trump, even if this is not so much effective on bringing new votes to the candidates, this can show some kind of credibility, and not only for politics, but also this type of propaganda is very effective for private company’s marketing, because personal opinions don’t affect that company’s as in politics.

what do you find interesting and/or surprising about Mata Hari?

It’s very interesting to see that she was a spy, considering that she was someone who slept with a lot of people and that is something very dangerous to do, but also Mata is good example that you shouldn’t trust in people that you don’t really know much about, especially if you are someone who has really important informations that can’t be revealed, because I’m pretty sure that if this officers and other people that made sex with him know that she was a spy, they wouldn’t even think to make sex.

PYOT from SM:  Check out this article on the cargo ship that hit the Francis Scott Key bridge on 3/26. Share your thoughts on how this event connects to our discussions of Industrial Revolutions and how/why our infrastructure might be a bit fragile in places??  Where do you see this issue going in the future?

My firsts thought is just how tragic this is. I’ve always wondered what would happen if a big bridge collapsed as I was crossing it, and like how the cars would all fall under the water, and crush us with the bridge. I know so many big bridges all over the world collapse all the time but still. It’s just wild how like my fears came true. I think that it relates to our talk about industry because all that material on that ship was crushed, not all of it but a ton. Also, people rely on the bridge to get to the other side, for food and water and other places like their home. I see this issue to be a huge deal in the future because it will take forever to find the missing people, recover the survivors, find the dead bodies in the water, and rebuild a 1.6 mile long bridge. It wont happen overnight and that’s a long time for people to be stuck on either side.

Spring is coming up soon! What do you think about the origins of early Easter? Is it what you expected?

Easter is a religious holiday celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is what I expected, however I was curious about where the other traditions came from, such as the Easter bunny and the egg hunts. It turns out the painted eggs became a thing because the church prohibited people in the 12th century to eat eggs during easter, but the chickens were still obviously laying eggs so they painted them. The Easter bunny doesn’t really have a backstory, it just emerged somewhere in the 17th century and has been a big part of American Easter culture ever since. Apparently in some other countries, they have other animals. Switzerland has a cuckoo, (like a chicken) and Westphalia has a fox. This was interesting to me, I never thought that there could be different animals other than the bunny.

PYOT from a peer: Take a look at more facts on Karl Marx. Are there any facts that you find surprising or interesting?

-Karl Marx was “The Father of Communism” and he lived a good life but was taken out of his country. Karl Marx started out at 19 to have the passion for writing. He tried to write a novel because he was a smart student, but while in this process he found his passion of philosophy, this meant he never finished his novel. Secondly he was a man to speak his mind, so he tried to run a Cologne Newspaper and he did quite well. He brought high sales, ideas and found himself in charge sometimes. But Marks newspaper was seen as very good to some, and a bit to much to others. The newspaper was requested to be taken down by the Russians. Lastly “Marx believed that humanity’s core conflict rages between the ruling class, or bourgeoisie, that controls the means of production such as factories, farms and mines, and the working class, or proletariat, which is forced to sell their labor”(article). He wasn’t a man who was afraid to take cash from the industrial class when needed.

What would your life be like if you were a child laborer in the Industrial Revolution? What are the negative impacts of being one?

-Your life as a child laborer would be very busy. The main reason your would be working is so that you could be getting extra income for your family, but you wouldn’t be making all that much. Kids would get paid even less than adults which is why they were often hired over adults, along with being smaller which gave you the ability to do jobs adults couldn’t do. Long hours of work would be your daily routine and limited training would be taught so common injury’s of loosing limbs were not uncommon. There were similar jobs like “selling newspapers and sweeping the chimney” but it didn’t matter, the pay was never high. A negative impact is that you probably didn’t get to go to school (until 1852 in Massachusetts) so you wouldn’t be getting a good education.

What would your life be like if you were a child laborer in the Industrial Revolution? What are the negative impacts of being one?

It would be terrible, with long working hours and almost no pay. Because children were young, they did not know how to operate the heavy machinery and it was common for them to lose their limbs. I personally love operating big machines, I think it’s fun. But I don’t know about 19th century machines, they seem really dangerous so if I was a laborer in the industrial revolution I would definitely not enjoy it.

Not only is being a laborer dangerous, but you don’t get an education. While school isn’t very fun, it opens a lot of doors for different opportunities to go into different careers. When you work in a factory all day, you are kind of stuck there for the rest of your life, I imagine it’s hard to get out of there, especially with the low wages.

I think personally I have a fixed mindset. A fixed mindset is not a very good thing to have. A lot of the time I will say I cant do this, or I don’t want to do this. This is a very fixed mindset because I am saying I cant do something just because it is hard. To have a more opened mindset I will have to try and tell myself I can do this and will encourage myself to do things that are hard even if I don’t like to do it.

If I was a child laborer during the industrial revolution my life would have been incredibly challenging. Children during that time often worked long hours in some serious conditions. With very little pay and absolutely no access to education. The negative impacts of being a child laborer include physical and emotional harm, stunted growth, and limited opportunities for a better future, and also a loss of childhood.

PYOT from BA: Read this article on the proposed TikTok ban. What are your thoughts on the ban? Do you think it is a good or bad idea? Why do you feel as you do? 

I honestly don’t mind it, I’m not really on TikTok a lot, and I have seen a lot of videos of creators expressing how they don’t really mind as well. I personally like my privacy, and seeing as TikTok was declared a “National Security Threat” it’s probably smart to ban it.

The ban might be bad for a lot of people, however. For example, people who make their money from TikTok. And the people who are addicted to it. I’m guessing their probably just going to move to Instagram.

I thought China’s response to the bill being passed was really funny, the foreign ministry claimed that the bill they passed was an “act of bullying” and that just sounds really immature, especially coming from someone as official as the foreign minister.

What would your life be like if you were a child laborer in the Industrial Revolution? What are the negative impacts of being one?

If you were a child laborer you would be expected to work for 12-14 hours a day and get paid a very low wage. While having to work heavy machinery that has lots of moving parts which is why many children lost fingers and even limbs. Some children also had to work in places like coal mines inhaling dangerous chemicals and causing lung diseases at such a young age. This is very bad as the children are so young and shouldn’t have to be experiencing such things like this till they are older and have a better education on how to be safe. But if you think about why they did this it was to support their families which shows how little people were played back then. Also the article says “since they were smaller, could more easily fit between machines and into tighter spaces.” which shows how little concern they had for the children and just wanted the most production they could get out of them. Overall I think being a child laborer would be horrible and dangerous as you are putting yourself in a place with people who are more worried about trying to make money than your own safety.

As we are entering the 6th industrial revolution there is a lot of new technology. Check out the link, and express your thoughts about the technology you see and its implications.

Something that I found interesting was that AI is being used in most of the Manufacturing.  One of the things that stood out to me was that AI was being used in healthcare and surgeries. I think that could be very scary because just what if something goes wrong in your trusting a robot. Also something wrong with that is that there would no longer be positions or jobs for surgeon spots so those people wouldn’t be employed or learn about that stuff if a robot was just doing it. Something else I found interesting was that in agriculture people are trying to reuse as much Waste as possible and I think that’s good for the environment to use something that they usually throw away again and put it to a good use. Lastly, I think that The way people are thinking about education is cool and that also has to do with AI.  AI can customize learning for different people and different ways they learn so that could help people learn better and get a better understanding of things. but also AI could help people too much and basically do the work for them so it’s kind of like cheating and the person isn’t really learning anything so that could also be an issue.

The annual “World Happiness” report is out… America lost ground – but one group of Americans expressed greater levels of satisfaction than others; why do you think this was the case?  What contrasts the “happiest” nations from the US and why might most Americans be getting less “happy”? Share your thoughts on any of these Qs

I believe that Americans are becoming more & more unhappy because of technology. It was said that most of the people who had lower scores on their happiness ladder were younger than older adults. I think this is because people who are younger are able to better understand how technology works and because of this they’re spending more time using it. Due to  overuse of technology you will see altered relationships and a negative change in your mental health. 

So… follow me for a bit – You are the sole survivor of a horrible mid-Pacific blimp accident (stay with me on this one…) and you are falling out of the sky but can direct your faulty parachute towards only one of two islands – Marxist/Communist Island, and Social Darwinist Island (see where I’m going with this?) – tell me which one you would choose, and describe why: (ie why you think one of these two extreme views is least bad than the other – “lesser of two evils” kinda thing…) – feel free to get creative / descriptive with this, but keep focus on your arguments why one of those two systems would be preferable to the other 

If I was falling towards one of these two islands I would rather fall onto the Marxist/Communist island. I would want this because it directs distribution based on the needs of others, and if I fell there they would give me stuff because I didn’t have anything. There is also no social hierarchy so there isn’t a “poorer” side and a “wealthier” side. I guess im leaning towards this instead of Social Darwinist island because they believe in “survival of the fittest” so those who are more successful are higher class, and those who are not as fortunate are lower class. They also try to justify imperialism, racism, and social inequality which should NOT be justified by any means.

PYOT from a peer: Share your thoughts on some of Gandhi’s controversial and outdated opinions. Did you know about them before reading this article? What do you think this says about society? Do you think that Gandhi contributed enough “good” to overshadow the “bad?” (look for Sak response to this… and feel free to respond to that too…)

It’s really interesting to read about notable figures in history ’cause it gives more insight into their personalities and what their life was like besides their major accomplishments that we learn about in class. In this case, this was a bad thing, and kinda ruined the image of Gandhi for me. It said he did a bunch of weird and sexist things, and one time he had his niece sleep naked next to him so he could control his desires. Like what??? That’s so weird and gross and shows that he already had those pedo feelings for his niece if he had to control his urges. So now I have a bad image of him, even if he did help free India. This connects to the PYOT about presidents owning slaves. They were great people, but nobodies perfect and people in leadership position are gonna make mistakes and be imperfect.

As we are entering the 6th industrial revolution there is a lot of new technology. Check out the link, and express your thoughts about the technology you see and its implications. 

One of the biggest emerging technologies is probably AI. I think that this is a good and a bad thing. The reason I think it will be good is for learning. For school I use AI occasionally and I find it much easier to learn then having to look something up on google because for AI you don’t have to go through articles and websites to find what you want, instead it is just given to you. It is much more efficient than google. One reason I think AI is bad is that it could possibly take over our lives. As it advances, AI is becoming more intelligent and is starting to be able to do things that normal people do like have conversations and have personalities. This means that people could lose jobs which would make it harder for people to make money meaning there will be more homeless people and no one wants that! I think that AI is something that we should keep but I think there should be restrictions on what it can do. 

So… follow me for a bit – You are the sole survivor of a horrible mid-Pacific blimp accident (stay with me on this one…) and you are falling out of the sky but can direct your faulty parachute towards only one of two islands – Marxist/Communist Island, and Social Darwinist Island (see where I’m going with this?) – tell me which one you would choose, and describe why: (ie why you think one of these two extreme views is least bad than the other – “lesser of two evils” kinda thing…) – feel free to get creative / descriptive with this, but keep focus on your arguments why one of those two systems would be preferable to the other 

I would rather land on the Social Darwinist Island because I feel like if I was on the Communist Island, all of my hard work would have to be shared with others. Everybody would just want to benefit from others who actually do work because in the end, everybody is equal and the benefits from one person’s hard work would be shared equally. The people who are actually doing the hard work would not feel like doing anymore work because everyone gets the same outcome anyways so nobody would want to do any work. I just feel like this island would not do very well if nobody wanted to work. I would rather have it be fend for yourself because then all of my hard work just goes to me and not other people who didn’t work as hard. Also with this mindset, everybody strives to do better because that’s the only way to support yourself. You’ve got to work hard because no one else will do it for you. If everybody is focused on improving themselves, then their economy would work better than the Communist’s economy which would crash.

Voting for the next president is starting to happen! Do some research on the history of voting. Did anything surprise you? Did you expect some events to happen earlier / later?

This article was really surprising to me, as I didn’t know that challenges to voting are still being made even in the 21st century. According to the article there were problems with voting up until 2018, which is so much more recent than I was expecting. I did know about Women’s suffrage and Jim Crow laws that prevented women and African-Americans from voting, but I didn’t know that after it became legal for black citizens to vote, in the 1960s southern states began to place for barriers on voting. Relating to our Unit that were in right now, I thought it was interesting how both Russia and the United States had a “Bloody Sunday”.

What surprised me was how the first traffic signal was invented in 1923. This is surprising because the first automobiles were made in the late 1800s. So I thought that the roads were already established or organized. I wonder how the road was maneuvered if people were going to different places and there were not yield signs or even go signs, there must have been a lot of crashes.

Capitalism is about private ownership and the free market where businesses and property are privately owned, and altered based on competition in the market. While, socialism emphasizes collective ownership and the idea that resources should be distributed based on each person’s needs. I think that a mix of both would be good. For example, a society where no one is necessarily struggling and all have basic needs and those that need more help are helped. But it also wouldn’t be exactly fair to take hard earned riches from people who built their way up.

The annual “World Happiness” report is out… America lost ground – but one group of Americans expressed greater levels of satisfaction than others; why do you think this was the case? What contrasts the “happiest” nations from the US and why might most Americans be getting less “happy”? Share your thoughts on any of these Q

When reading this article I can’t say I was shocked at all that the adolescents and young adults were the least happy. I think this is definitely due to a lot of pressure regarding schooling (middle high and college) and for those in their late 20’s to early 30’s just in general trying to figure life and family out. I also feel like there is a lot of pressure on people our age not just with getting good grades and going to a good college, but also a lot of social and political pressures too. As the article said younger people are more aware than ever of the climate change crisis, and how it will affect our generation and our children’s generation which can be incredibly stressful to feel the pressure of reversing that on our shoulders. I guess the impending feeling of doom for our planet just isn’t that comforting.

Another big influence to this I would have to say is social media and technology. Generations before ours, like out parents didn’t grow up with phones, TikTok, or more public social standard like us. There are hundreds of studies that say that using scrolling on social media or just using technology excessively is really really bad for our mental and physical health. platforms like tiktok have introduces a new level of social expectations, false information, and standards people our age have to deal with, in which nobody before us really ever had to worry about. Obviously there were always some social standards and what was considered ‘cool’ but I just think it has never really been like this before.

Im not going to say americs is the only one with this problem because it really does happen all around the world, but I just think that it could be affecting america more

Imperialism is the practice of extending a nation’s power and influence through colonization, use of military force, etc. Imperialism can lead to the erosion of cultural identities. When an imperial power forces its own rule on a smaller nation, it does so with little care for the existing traditions and social structures. This can result in the suppression of local languages, customs, and ways of life. The impact of cultural loss is bad as it takes away the unique heritage and history that define a people and a nation. It loses unique perspectives and knowledge. Second, imperialism is often degrading to the people within the colonized nations. Its by asserting superiority, The imperial powers view themselves as more civilized or advanced, justifying their actions as helpful because they believe they are “better” than them examples are in the “white mans burden”. This is dehumanizing and can lead to a widespread discrimination and exploitation. To conclude, I believe that imperialism is generally unfair and inhumane.

Check out more information on the fashion of Queen Marie Antoinette. Is there anything that you find interesting, or anything that surprises you?

I think Marie Antoinette’s fashion choice is very… interesting. But I suppose as a queen like herself, it would be fun to have your own style that stands out. I thought it was interesting how some new recent lines in fashion have taken inspiration from her. With the very tall wigs, sculptural hoop skirts over trouser-inspired corsets, and the pastel colors it was all very unique. I think she really made a big impact if we still talk about and take inspiration from her style even 3 centuries later. I think it’s important to note how she wouldn’t have made such a huge foot-print in history if it weren’t for all of the money she had to spend on stuff like fashion. She loved to drown herself in luxuries like jewelry, wigs, and gowns for fun.

The older generation may be happier due to the fact that they have more life experience. As an older individual, you’ve most likely experienced a lot more of life, the bad, sad, happy, and meaningful experiences. Those experiences build character and mindsets, they can make or break you. They also influence the choices and decisions people make along with their mindset. The older generation may be happier because of more stability, and the fact that they know what ever happens, good or bad will pass. They’ve most likely learned how to handle their emotions and difficult people best to them. While the younger generations minds are being filled with social media as they watch videos they won’t remember minutes later. On social media, they’re exposed to so much information that they may not be ready for, it could scare them and make them worry about things they shouldn’t that could even possibly be misinformation.

PYOT from BA: Read this article on the proposed TikTok ban. What are your thoughts on the ban? Do you think it is a good or bad idea? Why do you feel as you do? 

I think the ban will be more of a bad thing than a good thing. Many people use Tik Tok as a way to express themselves and reach a widespread community. If Tik Tok gets banned it almost seems like a step backwards in time were people aren’t as connected. Some people also make their living off of Tik Tok without it people would have to start over. Although I think there is a simple solution that could fix the problem. If a company in the US maybe even the US government bought Tik Tok it would no longer be controlled by China.

What would your life be like if you were a child laborer in the Industrial Revolution? What are the negative impacts of being one?

Life as a child laborer means you didn’t go to school. Instead you worked in mines, factories, and other dangerous jobs that adults do because younger children can squeeze into smaller spaces, and do more things with their size. The working conditions were extremely dangerous, as you can imagine, because they worked grueling long hours, and in dangerous machinery. It was common for a child to lose a finger, or a limb because you didn’t get trained on how to use the machines. Kids who worked in coal mines developed lung diseases and get sick from the toxic chemicals they have to handle. Those are all negative impacts, and they 100% rule out the good impacts. Basically, the only thing that’s going for the kids from doing this is to pay for their family. They don’t get to use it for education, at least, the vast majority did not. Overall, life as a child laborer was tiring, dangerous, and abusive.

PYOT from SM: From the in-class discussion about growth mindset and fixed mindset, consider the following questions. Would you say you have more of a fixed mindset or a growth mindset? Why? If you have more of a fixed mindset what can you do to have more of an open/growth mindset?

I personally would say that I have a growth mindset. I tend to set high goals for myself and work really hard to achieve them. For example, I am really passionate about soccer, so I do everything in my power to get better and be well prepared for the season in the fall to perform my best. I like to see my results, so setting goals just helps me get there rather than working at nothing. Also, I am very hard on myself at school and am always pushing myself to do better on tests and exams, as well as all of my other work. I feel that I am open to critiquing as well. For example, if a coach is telling me a change, I work my hardest to apply it to improve performance. When a teacher gives me tips on how to do better in class, I take advantage of that as well as any other opportunities that I am given. If you have a fixed mindset, the best thing that I can suggest to open your mindset is to just think of what you could do, and imagine how that would make you feel. I think that the end result is so worth the effort!

Read this article on the proposed TikTok ban. What are your thoughts on the ban? Do you think it is a good or bad idea? Why do you feel as you do? 

I dont like the idea because i think liberty is one of most important principles of life, so for economy and so for civil liberties, the gov shouldnt say what social media you can acess, and they shouldnt prohibit the company to act on the US because is making bad for some people, because if someone is getting addicted to TikTok or other Social Media, that problem is from the person, not the company and also if this Social Media is disrespecting the users privacy, than the users most protest about it or just stop using it

PYOT from ZM / AO / SM: Take a look at this link  and the differences between Catholic and Orthodox Easter/ what are some things you noticed? additional link on Greek/Orthodox Easter for more info … ALSO, with Easter coming up, where did Easter egg hunts come from? What caused them to start happening? Take a look at these amazing easter eggs from around the world. Which one is the most interesting? What one do you like the most? For what egg was technology the most important? For what egg was technology not that important? Share your thoughts on this, or any of the previous prompts:

I am responding to where Easter egg hunting came from, and the amazing Easter egg prompts.

To start, I did not expect the origins of Easter egg hunting to come from Germany of all places. I found it interesting that it dates back to the 16th century where men used to hide them for children and women to find, and people believed one day a woman found an empty tomb, which lead to the story of resurrection. Another thing that I wonder if why we use eggs and rabbits, when rabbits don’t lay eggs, they give birth. And I guess chicks and chickens are also well known to be a cute Easter animal but the bunny is the main one, because of the whole Easter bunny thing.

Moving on to the amazing Easter eggs from around the world, I found multiple to be very interesting. I thought the Easter eggs in Greece were weird because at first it looked like tomato’s around bread, but they are just died blood red to resemble eternal life after death. They were also called Paschalino Avgo. Another one that I thought was really interesting was the eggs in Germany, called Osterei eggs. Instead of hiding them to find, they put them all on a single tree and overflow it with eggs. My favorite egg is the ones in Slovenia because they are delicate and simple. Instead of dying them they clean out the inside and carve the shell and they are called Vekonocne vajicko.

PYOT from AO (and Sak…) We have been talking about robots in class. What are your thoughts on the development? Does this scare you? Why / Why not? How about thoughts on this?? Is this cool?

My opinion before reading these articles is that robots are a bad idea. I think that technology is great the way it is now, and if we advance it too far it might be irreversible. We started out developing things to make life easier because the tech we made did things we couldn’t do or things that was dangerous or hard for us to do, but now we make things because we are lazy and want everything to be done for us. I think its completely unessecary to create robots to do easy everyday jobs for humans, because eventually when they can do everything, how will we make money? Will we need school anymore because they can tell us everything we need to know? It makes me think maybe we shouldn’t develop robots that can think for themselves because if they are smarter,, and we program them to have higher knowledge, then they could absolutely dominate us and take over the world. I know it sounds stupid but I feel like that’s the road we are headed down with robots. So yes. It scares me. When I looked at the robot dog article, my first thought wasn’t to be afraid, but with the description that it patrols New York city, it sounds much worse. My brother goes to school at Fenn and they actually have one of those in the tech room to study and observe. I don’t really understand why police are making robot police dogs in replacement of a real dog, and I understand it may have more knowledge and ability than a real dog, but again, its a replacement. Overall I think that the technology development is getting dangerously close to being too good for use to stop. Eventually.

PYOT from BA: Read this article on the proposed TikTok ban. What are your thoughts on the ban? Do you think it is a good or bad idea? Why do you feel as you do?

I don’t really watch the news but I have glanced over while my parents were watching and this was all over the news so I overheard some things about this bill. Personally I don’t use TikTok but instead I would use sites like Instagram if I were to watch reels so this ban would not affect me on a personal level. I do know that a lot of people do watch TikTok and it is a very popular app but I feel that if all you do on this app is watch videos I feel that they should not really have a say in what the U.S. governments does with the app because nowadays their are so many different apps that could be used. The only people that should have a slight say in what happens to TikTok is the creators where they use TikTok as a form of income. But at the same time as I said before there are so many other apps where they can put their platform out into other apps so it should not affect these creators a crazy amount in their income. I feel like this Ban is also a good idea because its not going to affect the U.S. too much and a lot of different people say that because TikTok was created by the Chinese and it is believed that the Chinese is stealing the data and information of the users from the U.S. and since the U.S. and China are not really friends this is seen as a bad thing for the U.S.

PYOT from a peer: Take a look at more facts on Karl Marx. Are there any facts that you find surprising or interesting?

He is called the father of Communism. There was also the book Animal Farm that was made by his ideas. He was a writer, at the age of 19 he wrote a novel. He ran a newspaper. He tried to run another newspaper.

PYOT from KE: Read about the working conditions of mill girls in Lowell, as well as the accidents and negligence that occurred. What stands out to you as interesting a/o surprising?

What stood out to me/was surprising

• Despite females being some of the hardest working employees in the mill and factories they were also the most exploited.
  • I would feel like if they were exploited into doing this then why did they work so hard? Like was there a really harsh punishment if they did not work hard?
• The conditions and how long they would work is really similar to child laborers. With 12 hours days and working in very dangerous situations
  • This does sort of make sense because they are both forced to do this job and to work. 
• Despite all of the poor building structure, dangerous machinery and crowded rooms with many accidents they worked at their own risk
  • This does not make total sense but does at the same time and is interesting. They are forced to do this job so then they can help provide and they are “willing’ to work. It makes sense that they are at their own risk because if they get injured the mill does not want to have to pay for what happened. Also wouldn’t the mill/factory want to seem better than it is by saying they have some amount of protection to the people working there?
• Mill owners were widely known to ignore horrible conditions and overcrowding of mills.
  • I would feel like mill owners would at least try to make the conditions a little bit better because people started to realize that all mills are a bad place and the conditions were really bad. If they want the most people working then improving the conditions and realizing some of the issues would probably benefit everyone. 
• The mills often would not report the full amount of tragedies
  • This one is very interesting but makes a lot of sense. If they want the place to look safer and that people do not get severely injured often than not reporting all of the fatalities would do that.

PYOT from SM: From the in-class discussion about growth mindset and fixed mindset consider the following questions: Would you say you have more of a fixed mindset or a growth mindset? Why? If you have more of a fixed mindset what can you do to have more of an open/growth mindset?

I would definitely say that I have more of a fixed mindset which can be an issue sometimes. I think that doing sports and school makes my fixed mindset worse because I always say in my head  “I can’t win/ do this” I also say in my head “I will never get better/be able to do this” which is very problematic because when I say it I actually do not get better or win. But when I say ‘I can do this” I will actually do better. It is just insane to see how much your mindset affects what you can do. I just doubt myself too much. I can definitely get more of a growth mindset if I try and think about what my thoughts do. I can also believe in myself more. 

PYOT from AO: Out of all the technology that you use, what do you think is the most important and effective one? What would be different about your lifestyle and routine if you didn’t have it? Why?

I was gonna say my phone, as I use it a lot throughout my day, but if I think back to when I didn’t have a phone there honestly wasn’t much of a difference except being able to contact my friends. I feel like there are a lot more important technologies, like air conditioning and heat. If we didn’t have that it would be hard to live in the North east during the winter and it would be hard to live in the south west during the summer. Besides that, I think the most important technology is the internet, as it makes it so I can do school work and look up questions and communicate with other people. If I didn’t have all of the world’s information at my fingertips through the internet then I wouldn’t know as much. It would also be a lot harder to do research and find pictures for school projects.

 the in-class discussion about growth mindset and fixed mindset consider the following questions: Would you say you have more of a fixed mindset or a growth mindset? Why? If you have more of a fixed mindset what can you do to have more of an open/growth mindset?

I think I am a more growth mindset to be honest, because I like to learn new things about economics, politics and other things in a general, I like to be challenged most time when is not something almost impossible to do, I try to make new friends and also I like to help the others when they’re having difficulty with some work, but also I have a fixed mindset sometimes, because sometimes I like to be more in the “comfort” zone when people try to make drastic changes that can be irreversible, but I’m trying to improve that and understand more if that changes can be good or bad for that specific situation.

PYOT from SM: From the in-class discussion about growth mindset and fixed mindset consider the following questions: Would you say you have more of a fixed mindset or a growth mindset? Why? If you have more of a fixed mindset what can you do to have more of an open/growth mindset?

I would say I have more of a fixed mindset just because of my sports and school. I could just be saying this but I think that a lot of kids put a lot of pressure on themselves these days because of social media. We see people doing things better than us for example getting better grades or winning something which makes you feel like you have to be just like them and be as good or even better than them at what they are doing. Some things I do to get me out of my fixed mindset is catching myself saying things like “i can’t” and changing it to something more positive like “I can’t do this yet…”. Also not comparing yourself to others because just because they are doing something doesn’t mean you should be doing it too. 

PYOT from a peer: Check out this article about the Willow Project. What are your thoughts about this huge controversy? Who does it benefit / who does it hurt? What actions should / could be taken by us people?

After reading about this I think that this idea of taking so much oil out of the ground and burning it into our environment would be really bad as today we already use so much fuel and the fossil fuels are very bad for our environment. This project would benefit the state and federal governments but would also create thousands of jobs in industries like transportation and logistics. There are many pros to this project but one of the biggest cons and things that would cause the most harm to us is the pollution. With all this new oil coming out of the ground, we will burn as we use it for fuel, heat, electricity, and many other things, putting toxic fossils fuels into the air and killing our environment. This will worsen global climate change. The project is expected to produce 600 million barrels of oil which will create greenhouse gases, float into the atmosphere, and hold heat warming the global environment. Some actions that we could take to try and prevent this from happening is to send a letter to the Biden Administration expressing how you want them to implement policies like this project to prevent exploiting public lands in the future.

PYOT from MZ: What would your life be like if you were a child laborer in the Industrial Revolution? What are the negative impacts of being one?

I think that my life would be not awesome sauce. I would have to wake up early not have a heatry and nutritous breakfast, and then get in the factory. The place is also not up to safe and health regulations so i can lose a toe or any body part. I bet that the lunches wont be good so most people will get hangry and brawls might start. After the long and gruesome hours I would go home and sleep. I think that its bad for people because they cant live a full childhood and it is dangerous.

PYOT from ZM / AO: Take a look at this link  and the differences between Catholic and Orthodox Easter/ what are some things you noticed? additional link on Greek/Orthodox Easter for more info 

Catholic Easter and Orthodox Easter differences- 

• Orthodox Easter is normally celebrated later than Christian easter due to the way the churches calculate the holiday with two different calendars.
  • Chrisitans
    •  celebrate the resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday or the 40th day of Lent. Which is started on Ash wednesday every year and lasts 40 days. 
    • They follow the Julian calendar for easter. This calendar was established in 45 B.C. by Julius Caesar and is based on the solar system and the earth’s revolutions. 
    • Decorate eggs to symbolize a new life have a joyful church services followed by family meals and gatherings with meals like ham, hot bread, and spring veggies

• Orthodox
  • celebrate Easter as the passover or the eternal passover from the life from earth heaven. Similar to Catholic Easter it is celebrated on the 40th day of the great lent. But Orthodox Easter follows the Jewish passover. 
  • Their easter takes place between April 4th and May 8th following the first full moon after pass over. Also it will always fall after the Jewish passover. 
  • Decorate eggs to symbolize a new life, have joyful church services followed by family meals and gatherings, and a candle light procession. Their meals have things like red dyed hard boiled and most of the things found at a christian easter gathering. 

Overall Catholic and Orthodox Easter – 

It is surprising overall to see how many days leading up to Easter have a special significance to catholics like Maundy Thursday or Good Friday. They both have some type of lent and easter happened on the 40th day. What surprised me is one of the reasons they happen on different days is the calendar they follow and the creation of the Gregorian Calendar. It is interesting how what they do is very similar but different at the same time. Like they both have some type of service and gatherings after but the days are different. I feel like at some point the day for Easter will be the same.  

Greek/Orthodox Easter – 

• Easter is the biggest holiday of the year for Greeks
• They will fast and do prayers leading up to easter and they make sure to have elaborate traditions
• The preperation they have for easter starts on Great Lent like for Orthodox Catholics and Christians. 
• Many people will take of Holy saturday due to its importance and there will be a service just before midnight where the whole church does dark and after midnight the lights go back on. They will also sing hymns
• Easter Sunday early meal is where the Greeks break their fast and have eggs that are dyed red and there will be no pastel colors at the table, sort of similar to orthodox easter but not so much to christian easter. 
• They will also eat roasted lamb as the traditional choices they have with greek easter bread. 

I am really surprised that Easter is the biggest day of the year for Greek orthodox. Like why not Chrisitan and this really makes me wonder what made Easter be so much more significant. I honestly want to go to an easter or a greek orthodox because it sounds like fun and would be a good learning moment. Everything they do seems worth it because in the end they get to have a big celebration and eat food. I really want to try their food as foods from places around the world interest me a lot. 

_______

ALSO, with Easter coming up, where did Easter egg hunts come from? What caused them to start happening? Your thoughts on this, or any of the previous

 Where did Easter egg hunts come from? 

Due to pre- christian societies having the association of eggs to spring, a new life and the shell is a metaphor for the tomb of Jesus. Also eggs are a big part of the celebration of easter anyways. Edward I purchased 450 eggs to be decorated with colors and gold leafs then distributed to households which is very interesting and is probably the main reason easter egg hunts are associated with easter. Also when a protestant reformer Martin Luther organized an egg hunt men would hide eggs for women and children to find again symbolizing the resurrection of Jesus

My thoughts 

It is really cool to see people like Martin Luther and others start a tradition of finding easter eggs and then sparking the idea to make it a real tradition that many people do around the world nowadays. I also find it very interesting that so many people started to catch onto decorating easter eggs and having chocolate easter eggs as a gift. 

Take a look at some of the early 20th-century inventions. Did anything stand out to you or surprise you? Why?

For me it’s not necessarily surprising but I think it’s interesting to see that the technology not only made advances on sectors like industry , automobiles and gadgets, but also technology made some simple things that made our life more easier, comfortable and happy overtime like the bra for women, teddy bear for kids, bluepoint pen to not use ink and many other little things that make a life’s better and more comfortable.

Harriet Tubman Day is on March 10th. Do some extra research on a female abolitionist, Harriet Tubman. What did you find?

I find it really interesting that Harriet was one of 8 children, also, the fact that her name at birth was Arminta Ross (nicknamed Minty). Her mother, Harriet was enslaved and even though her father wasn’t, her and her siblings were all forced into slavery because of their mom. I find their old rules on like slavery kinda random. Like it makes me wonder how and when they decided that if a woman is a slave, all of her children should be, even if the father isn’t. Her whole abolitionist mindset started when she was running errands at a store and witnessed another girl trying to escape and in this moment, she refused to assist this person’s enslaver in capturing this woman. I find that really cool that that is the moment it kinda clicked for her that that is what she was passionate about. I also find it insane that she had narcolepsy and seizures causing her lots of physical pain. That is kind of crazy how we can figure out now what exactly was hurting this woman. Harriet met her husband, John Tubman, when she was sent to work with her father at timber fields. She married at 22 and changed her name to Harriet, like her mother. From there, she went to escape to Pennsylvania and found other abolitionists like herself along the way. They used the Underground Railroad in order to escape, and like some think, it is not an actual train track. I think her story is very inspirational because even though she had disabilities slowing her down, she still got what she needed to do, done.

During class, we discussed what type of economy America has. Add onto the discussion, give more examples of what type of economy America has. Why do you think this?

America gives not only a more capitalist economy, but also a more capitalist society were if you wanna be successful, you had to achieve the most part of it by your own, but there’s also some socialists characteristics on America’s economy like the public schools and other types of services like Police and Firemen, and also is interesting to see the polarization of economy’s view between Democrats and Republicans with Democrats being more in favor of Socialism and Republicans preferring much more the Capitalism, and also is interesting to see that most part of the American Continent there’s this Polarization between Capitalism and Socialism like Brazil, Argentina, Colombia and Mexico.

PYOT from a peer: Check out this link on The 7 Most Dangerous Technology Trends, and share thoughts on what technology sounds useful and improves everyday life, and what could really be easily used to harm us. Which of the 7 was surprising to you, which was predictable, and why? 

1. Drone Swarms

I think that this is actually very smart as it is like swarming insects and can help overwhelm the sensory of their enemies in order to get an advantage. When in war anything you can do to weaking your enemy is helpful. But they can also be used to find where people are if there are cameras attached to them. Another benefit of this technology is the fact that they can be programmed to do certain things which probably would have the greatest effects possible. I think that this is very smart and a good technological invention but probably has many flaws and doubts so I do not think it is going to quickly grow populations around the world. Also people might get their hands on these and misuse them which already happened.  This technological invention does not surprise me a lot because over the years drones have become more popular for many different reasons like for videos or even drown firework shows, 

2. Spying Smart Home Devices

I don’t think that this is the best thing ever because now all of the data that companies have gotten from you talking with your phone around or alexa, what you search, what you watch and every single thing you do is now getting tracked and companies are selling their data about it. Which is very scary and at some point will harm us. Literally everything we do is getting watched or listened to in some way. Even though companies say that they are keeping your data  “private” are they really?

3. Facial Recognition

This can be used as a good thing and a bad thing for sure. Like being able to unlock your phone from facial recognition or tracking down people who did bad things from a camera catching it and recognizing their face is a good thing that facial recognition does. It can monitor streets and catch people jaywalking or making sure they are wearing a facial covering.  But it can be used as a bad thing as people can be found guilty of things they did not do. But this can happen for anything. This one has a good purpose and is a good technological invention in my opinion

4. AI Cloning

AI cloning is cool to think about but also very scary.  Thinking about you talking to your phone and it can create a snippet of what sounds like you talking is freeky. The fact that AI can take like 10 photos or videos of you and it is able to create a clone of you that looks realistic and be a really cool thing and a scary thing that could be misused very quickly. Like people taking a few photos of celebrities off of google, saving them and then putting them into a program that can clone people. Then making the ‘celebrity’ that is a clone say or do something, send it to a random person and then make them believe that it was an actual celebrity. It is not totally AI closing but a few weeks ago someone used some AI tool and made it look like the magic kingdom was on fire making many people freak out. I would say it makes it easy to harm you and does not benefit us greatly. 

5. Ransomware, AI and Bot-enabled Blackmailing and Hacking

This does not benefit us and is going to harm us because as technology advances, so do hackers, and criminals. AI is making it so this can be done even more efficiently and can do things like sending fake emails or tricking people to donate money to them. There has to be more people trying to stop things because it is getting worse and worse everyday. This is definitely one of the downsides of AI and technology. 

6. Smart Dust

This is really cool and is going to benefit us in my opinion. Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), are the size of a grain of salt and can be used in healthcare. “Also called motes, this smart dust has a plethora of positive uses in healthcare, security, and more, but would be frightening to control if used for evil pursuits.” Even though it can have bad things with it the intentions are positive and I think it can be very cool and helpful to society. 

7. Fake News Bots

This is just bad and is going to hurt society. It is a Ai system that can write fake news articles to make people think whatever is said is true and then just cause a lot of other issues. Due to the fiction that is told it is missus all of the time and tries to hurt other businesses. 

RANKINGS OF WHAT ONES ARE THE MOST USEFUL,  IMPROVES EVERYDAY LIFE, WHAT ONES COULD EASILY HARM US, WHAT ONE WAS THE MOST SURPRISING, WHAT ONE WAS LEAST SURPRISING AND WHAT ONE WAS PREDICTABLE.

1. Drone Swarms

• Surprising
• Useful

2. Spying Smart Home Devices

• could easily harm us
• not surprising

3. Facial Recognition

• useful
• could harm us

4. AI Cloning

• could easily harm us
• cool

5. Ransomware, AI and Bot-enabled Blackmailing and Hacking

• could easily harm us
• not surprising

6. Smart Dust

• useful
• surprising
• could harm us

7. Fake News Bots

• harmful
• somewhat surprising
• does not make life better or easier

A common theme is that if it is a bad thing with technology it is not as surprising because it is just something that will happen. Also for any technology it can be used in a good or bad way but is scary how so many things can be used in a bad intention or way.

Compare Socialism and Capitalism. Why is one “better” than the other? Explain.

I think that Capitalism is better and cooler, because America is a capitalist country and America I would say is pretty successful. When I hear the word capitalist I think of the mobile game capitalist empire in which I was a quintillionare, which also makes me think of money and more money the better. All of the sayings about money cant make you happy are wrong, because they have never had a little kid hat with a propeller on it and a overly sized swirly lollipop. If they did they would be jumping with joy.

PYOT from AO: Out of all the technology that you use, what do you think is the most important and effective one? What would be different about your lifestyle and routine if you didn’t have it? Why?

I would have to say that my phone is the most important source of technology in my life. It is the main source I use to communicate with my friends and family so without that I feel like I wouldn’t have much of a social life except for the times I am physically with people. I find that the only way I can really keep in touch with my friends is through my phone because I don’t see them a lot during school and I have a busy life outside of school too so it’s hard to find time to catch up and hang out with friends. However I am able to keep up with them on social media so we don’t grow apart. This is similar to my family because a lot of them live very far away and I am lucky to see them 3 times a year but it is nice to be able to stay in touch with them and keep up with their life. What I am trying to say is that I think I would feel very disconnected from society and friends/family if I didn’t have a phone.