Art Blog- Quarter 4

Here are the pictures of the things that I have done:

Abstract
Facial features
Abstract Motion
Abstract Emotion
More Abstract 
Observation Landscape 

Throughout Q4 art I focused on abstract art the most. The resources that I used in order to create my pieces of artwork were oil pastels. These oils pastels helped in order for me to create a different texture and look than my usual drawings. The main technique that I used throughout this process was smudging the color once it was already on. Overall for this project, the main focus was not to only attempt to draw adeptly but to ensure that I added emotion and enjoyed drawing.



OBSERVATION LANDSCAPE:
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IMAG0556
The first picture here that I have done is an observation landscape. I took a picture of SLA and then decided to draw it from the perspective of which I saw it. I wanted to add a car in front of it to make it look more realistic. When adding the colors it was hard to make outlines. The oil pastels are thick and the blending was quite difficult, but overall I think that it came out looking well. When make the bricks, I attempted to give it more of a look by adding different colors of oil pastels and making marks with a pencil inside. This gave the picture more texture. 



FACIAL FEATURES/ABSTRACT: 
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IMAG0558
When doing this drawing I originally was looking for a picture of abstract when I came across a picture of a women. She was just regularly drawn. I decided to add a little bit of my own flare to it by making the face abstract and adding highlights into her hair. When doing this I made sure to make her face with multiple colors. I think this made it look better as I also included shading. Inside her lips, you can also see the details as it fades out. The most challenging portion of this drawing was the chin. When attempting to making the chin shading I colored too dark. After a while I decided to lighten it up with an eraser so that it would look a bit more natural.




MORE ABSTRACT:
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For this portion of abstract, I did two drawings. One of the drawings was sort of a fish mixed with a bird and other designs. The other drawing depicts a flower. The flower picture was really just me making colors blend and closing my eyes and pointing out the first three colors that I saw. These colors were blue, black and pink so I blended them together to make a cool picture. The fish/bird drawing started off with me just drawing swirls, from there I made strokes with the oil pastels and blending colors in what looked like can be a wing. 

ABSTRACT MOTION:
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IMAG0554
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IMAG0555
The two photos above of abstract motion were suppose to depict movement. I wanted to do something unique that made me feel like my head was spinning or reminded me of walking. So both of these drawings are mainly lines and oil pastel smudges that I made with my finger.In the first drawing I tried to make a flower type thing that add a tornado type feel coming out of it to add more emphasis by adding swirls and making finger nail marks. In the second drawing I also tried to make some things look like they were falling a bit. 


ABSTRACT EMOTION
Art = )
Art = )
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Screen Shot 2012-06-03 at 11.48.05 PM
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The four pictures in the painting above was suppose to depict abstract emotion. The purpose was to draw what I was feeling. Each picture depicted my moods the different days and how I felt. I focused on this because it was my main aspect of drawing. There was a lot of blending of the oil pastels in all the pictures, but the last. In the first picture I also made eraser marks in the red portion to make a different texture than I was used to. Overall, I feel like these pictures set the tone of my life lately. 

What If Project


https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1BxIf_3X29KF09bLDq-kJjaDehIlUIbPaXTICcpAJvWM

here is the link incase it doesn't show at the bottom





  • My point of Divergence was for George W. Bush to never become president.
2. Al Gore would become president and instead of everything going downhill things would get better. Like the war wouldn't last as long as it did.

3. I liked that we got to change something. I thought that trying to make all of the events exact and have them make sense most challenging.


4. I never knew that George W. Bush did cocaine or got arrested for drunk driving.

5. It can change if things get better or worst.

6. I could've also included a video or something digital.

7. I would start it a lot earlier.

La casa de perfecto para Judy Colon!

Esta casa está en Miami. Es muy grande, elegante y extravagante. Esta casa es perfecta para Judy Colón y su familia grande. Su familia grande necesita muchos dormitorios y baños. Está cerca de la ciudad también cerca de la playa, así que Miami es perfecto. También está cerca de tierra abierta porque le fascina jugar al tenis. Judy le gusta el tiempo en familia, así que va a construir una sala de cine y sala de juegos.  No esta lejos de la playa pero la casa tiene una piscina porque le encanta nadar y la familia también.

¡La casa tiene TODO!
  • Cuarto dormitorios (una cama, un armario, una tele, una cómoda, juegos de video)
  • Dos baños, una para adultos, una para niños, grande y limpio.
  • Una sala grande, ¡Perfecto para el tiempo en familia! Muy relajante.
  • ¡Una cocina grande! (estufa,horno,microonda,refrigerador y ventanas.)
  • Un comedor, Grande, de lujo, elegante.
  • El garaje, dos carros grande garaje.
  • Porche para familia BBQ
  • Jardín que tiene un montón de flores bonitas
  • “Mini Beach” para día usted no necesitar salir tu casa.
  • l

Los Derechos Humanos en Tiempos de Conflicto

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Screen Shot 2012-06-01 at 6.47.25 AM
Hola, nosotros somos los voces inocentes y el misión de el sitio de web es educar otros sobre el guerra civil en El Salvador. Nuestra proyecto explicaría como los derechos humanos que eran violado durante la guerra en El Salvador. Por favor, lea las páginas en el sitio de web y aprende sobre la lucha de la gente en El Salvador.

La Link: https://sites.google.com/a/scienceleadership.org/e4-u8-voces-inocentes-proyecto/home

Personas en grupo:

Ruben Burenstein
Gina Dukes
Chelsea Starks
Whitney Washington

Henninger, What If Benchmark

For this assignment, my point of divergence, was that during the Mexican American War, Ulysses S. Grant was killed in battle. This eventually led to the loss of the United Stats in the Civil War. This change drastically changes the history of America. As if this were true, here is a mock wikipedia page depicting the history of the new United States of America. 


Reflection:

For the fourth quarter benchmark for American History we had to choose a Point of Divergence(POD) in America and envision how the US would be different today due to this change. For my POD I chose to make Ulysses S. Grant die in the Mexican American War. This would eventually cause the Union to lose the Civil War because he could not be a leader in the war. Many changes occurred from this loss by the US; the Confederate states seceded, the United States completely cut itself from the outside world, offered no help in WWII, the axis powers won WWII, Germany gained control of all of Europe and North America, The US and CSA rebelled against the German power, and only became the US again in 2007. The United States in 2012 is a country rebuilding itself, reestablishing it's government and global reputation. It consists of 18 states and is not known for luxury. It is only similar to the real 2012 in that the citizens are free people. 

This project showed how important one event can be in history. The smallest change can affect so much. One man's death, in my scenario, changed an entire world's history. There were also small decisions that I envisioned for the project that I could have changed, and then a completely new America could have been created. Every decision made by someone could effect everyone else on the planet and no one has any idea what will happen. This project taught me a lot about why it's important to make the right decisions because it could affect everyone, everywhere. 

The project, in it's entirety, I am very happy with. The project guidelines allowed us to be very created and do almost anything we wanted with American history. I love the timeline I created in my project. I created a very different and dramatic story for America. There are only a few things I would change if given the chance. I would make it look more professional by keeping the design consistent through all on the pages and documents. I also would have added for detail to my historical events. Overall, though, I am very proud of my end product. 



__________________________________________________________________



We also had to create three fictional primary sources for the project. The sources are directly available through the document but for your convenience, these are the Direct links to the files. 

New American Flag
New York Times Article
Proclamation of Peace and Secession

Stewart-McDonald, Sabrina Quarter 4

This quarter I tried to explore different types of mediums and styles. Rather than sticking with what I usually do (pencil with shading); I tried to add more color in my drawings. I usually try to focus on figure and face drawings, but I also tried some other things, like graphics and cartoons.
I'm not too good at abstract, so for my first drawing, I tried drawing a ballerina. I usually try figure drawings to try to improve the proportions I use in my drawings and to try to develop my own technique when drawing clothing. 
I stuck with drawing ballerinas and attempted to display abstract motion. I tried to add some color to the drawing to display a mix of emotion and a type of path of movement. I first drew the piece in pencil, then colored the ballerina silhouettes with permanent marker.
I wanted to practice drawing features and shading on faces. The face I drew isn't proportionate; it was my way of practicing the way the features look (I feel like I am still terrible at drawing lips) and practicing the shading, particularly around the eye area.
I wanted to draw something different than what I usually do, so I tried to draw something that is like a graphic. I really wanted to draw a fountain pen, so I let that influence my drawing. It was mainly black, so I decided to add drops of red ink on the pen.
I wanted to do something colorful, so I drew the dark magician girl. I didn't want to use things that I had at my disposal, so I actually colored it using highlighters and pens.
I saw a picture like this online. There was more to it, but I've been wanting to draw an owl, it was only in black and white and I wanted to add a lot of color. I drew the owl by sight, then inked in the lines with sharpie and colored it in with colored pencils.
I was drawing a face, but I found that I could not draw eyes that I felt fit the face right, so I decided to make it kind of abstract by coloring the girl a strange color and adding a colorful background
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IMG_20120601_112235
Colorful Ballerina
Colorful Ballerina
Face
Face
RoseGraphic
RoseGraphic
ColorfulGirlMagician 1
ColorfulGirlMagician 1
Owl 1
Owl 1
AlienGirl
AlienGirl

History Q4BM 'What If?'

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This is a spin off of 'This day in History' made on History.com

In This alternative History, Christopher Columbus did not discover Puerto Rico, but John Cabot did. The Primary sources that we had to make are also above. 
My Point of Divergence was to have Christopher Columbus, the conquistador of Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, not be able to go on his voyage. During 1476 Christopher Columbus was almost killed during a shipwreck. But luckily he survived and went on to voyage towards the Caribbean, believing it to be a route to India. He sailed under the Spanish government, which lead to his findings being claimed as Spanish Territories.

One change made by one individual can change the lives of many. If Columbus hadn’t colonized Puerto Rico, then there would be no Spanish on the island of many skins.

I believed that if Columbus had not discovered the Caribbean Islands then others during the time would have. For example, it the alternate past I made, John Cabot, and English sailor, would have gone in a similar direction. John Cabot was the explorer that I had put toward finding Puerto Rico. This would lead to Puerto Rico being an English colonized settlement. Since Englishmen would have discovered Puerto Rico, the name that was given would have been in English and the main language learned would have been also been English. Some of the most significant points would have been Puerto Rico being named St. John’s Island after Saint John the Baptist. ­

My favorite part was researching and learning new facts that I didn’t know, such as John Cabot’s expeditions. Also I enjoyed creating Primary Source documents. The hardest part was finding Primary Sources about such old topics, many were websites announced that the documents had disappeared or been ruined.

The most interesting facts I researched were the reasoning behind why Puerto Rico wasn’t a state, and about the Spanish- American War. During the Spanish American war Puerto Rico was used as a military base for the Spanish and French. If Englishmen had colonized Puerto Rico it would have been used as a beneficial military base for America due to its position in-between North and South America. This would have lead to Puerto Rico being acknowledge at a higher priority rather than a territory of America, similar to the situation with Hawaii. In this alternate past, Puerto Rico or St John’s Island would have become a state because of recognition of its position during the war.

To improve this project I would have enjoyed turning this into a television interview. I could have asked questions about how Puerto Ricans thought that the change would have affected their land, and staged actors talking about the alternative past and future. I would have used both videos and shown how life would have been different for both cultures. 

Maddie Walls Q4 bmark

my point of divergence(pod) is when stonewall Jackson was supposed to die. i rewrote it that he didn't die but instead live to help change the out come of the civil war. This change would make the confederates win their independence and separate from the union states. stone wall would have helped win the civil war by leading a charge across union territorry to washington DC. they would have worn down union troops and help end the civil war.  going into this project i decided that picking this point in history would have a huge impact on where things would go from there. Because rewriting history to have stonewall live changes so much more then the size of a country it creates a whole new country and changes the way people developed and grew the country. 

I invision that the way things are in 2012 if stonewall would have helped win the civil war would have been a lot different. first of all the united states of america wouldn't exist. there would be two separate countries one owned by the north one by the south. the civil rights union would have never happened in the south because the slaves wouldn't have been released until cost would have out weighed the need which i predict would have been in the early 1900's. people who werent white would probably be treated very poorly and many laws will be made against them. there would also me a more in state government in the south then we are used to now.

i wish i would have put more time into this project i feel like if i worked on it a little bit longer it could have been a really goo product. it was interesting thinking about how such little a change could make such a big impact. i really liked the idea of this project it really makes your brain have to think harder about a certain event. i feel like it leaves you wondering what if things had been alittle bit different what would we be like today. i feel like the most challenging part of this project was thinking about which event you could change to make the impact that you wanted 

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/11544820/what%20if%20project%20-%20Medium%201.m4v

What If....the Lend-Lease Act: J. Pullins, U.S. History Edition

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Screen Shot 2012-06-04 at 12.26.20 PM
In 1941, the 77th United States Congress proposed an act entitled the Lend-Lease Act, which allowed the government to supply weapons and general support to the Allied nations of World War II. By the end of that year, America was attacked and the same members of Congress who proposed this bill swiftly declared war. With the current knowledge of World War II's influence in both American and global history, one must wonder what would happen if this act was never passed.


Click here for the final website.


REFLECTION:

  For this project, my point of divergence occurs in March of 1941, when the Lend-Lease Act is not signed into law. Subsequently, due to the U.S. Neutrality Acts signed years earlier, the United States sees no need to enter into WWII, which allows Germany to continue on its path of European domination, and Japan, Germany's ally, on its path of dominating the Asian contient and many of the Pacific Island territories. The rise of global power by Germany prompts it to become a major world power, which causes strife amongst the U.S. and Germany, and two nations often battle for the title of the singular global superpower. 

There are many things about this project that I enjoyed. Mostly, I enjoyed the very basis of it, which is the ability to change history. I am a firm believer in the butterfly effect, which is a theory that states that even the smallest decisions, such as what plant a butterfly may choose to land on, can cause the greatest long-term effects and effectively change the trajectory of history. With this knowledge, I knew I wanted to make a very small change, something that to many, may not seem too significant to do much of anything. However, I would show how after the course of many decades, that small change resulted in a massive shift of history. 

To reference Isaac Newton, every action has an equal and opposite reaction. While this is generally considered to be a law within the world of physics, this is something that can be applied to life as well. All of our lives are plagued with decisions, and the importance of the choices of those decisions are often not realized. I believe every person, no matter their social importance or relevance, has the ability to change the course of national and world history with one decision.

Today's Impact by Malik Tlili Q4 Bm

*What if the Wright brothers received a toy boat rather than a penaud helicopter as boys.*

  • My Point of Divergence (POD) comes from sources providing the initial interest of flight by the Wright brothers. The interest has came to the wright brothers when they were just boys. I did more research on this topic and found out it was due to a penaud toy that they received as children. I decided to change the penaud helicopter to a toy boat and analyze how this might effect the future. 
  • I envisioned the Wright brothers becoming more interested in floating devices that transport people across large bodies of water. From this interest the boys will discover the "Shoes that walk on water" theory by leonardo Da Vinci. They will make this theory into reality and the invention will be beneficial to modern day. 
  • I enjoyed creating primary sources. Throughout this whole year we have been collecting primary sources from the internet and it is interesting to create our own for once. This was a relief and enjoyable task for me to complete. 
  • The most interesting piece of evidence that i investigated must be leonardo's shoes that walk on water. I found this as a strikingly ridiculous idea but yet possible. I then decided to create a point of divergence involving the shoes rather than exterminating the invention of planes. 
  • Technology is a huge component of history. As technology progresses there are new ways to settle on land as well as protect our land. In this specific POD our 2 individuals have taken the concept of walking on water and used it to help guard the nation's borders. 
  • Our 2 individuals have taken the concept of walking on water and spread the invention all over the world. This means the invention by these 2 men have been manufactured and distributed in large numbers. This contribution leads to a systemic change that benifits our nations military. 
  • I believe one individual's decision can greatly effect history's landscape. As one person makes one decision, others then view the future in a parallel perspective. If this decision were to be slightly different. Every other perspective will change as well. For example the wright brothers were influenced by the penaud helicopter and Da Vinci's perspective of flying. If Leonardo Da Vinci did not have these ideas, the wright brothers will never come across the possibility of flight. 
  • This project can certainly be improved in the effect aspect. If i were to have more time i would create more primary courses that are more modern. For example the tragic events such as september 11th or pearl harbor will never have taken place. This will then change the way we view our nation's security. 
  • If i were to do this project all over i would jump straight to Da Vinci's view of flight and erase it from history. Even though my final product does not revolve around Da Vinci's view of flight, i believe it will still be further investigated by someone other than the Wright brothers.

Click Here for "Created Primary Sources". 


Rugeiatu Bah "What If" HistoryBMK


            Overall project was what if the Judge that was judging the case died and another judge took his place. In 2012, American citizen realize things were getting old and the segregation wasn't what the Amendments stated. It was time when it was difficult for me to get my thoughts on paper. I really liked the fact that I had to think hard to accomplish this project because when I think about things, I started to understand the point of it and why it’s important.


Some interesting facts I came across was when most African Americans students had to walk 7-10 miles just to get to school they are being forced to attend. Each individual changed history, even though there were some illegal things happening, some people were happy the way African American was being treated. Also it seem like most Whites was okay with the way things were "separated but equal".

 I was confused through out the entire process of putting it together and every time I asked someone they would tell me they are confused too. Show examples more of how things should look like and set up work time with you for help.

I would change the time, I wish I had more time, it not even that I didn't use my time wisely but some people just learn differently from others. This project was one of the project that I really needed help with because things just wasn't clicking correctly, but as days went by, I figure out ways and researched more about unclear things and got it done.


 Click here to view my project.

Matt Ferry - What if...

 Check out my website!

Point of divergence - What if the Wright Brothers were never inspired by Otto Lilienthal? I chose this as my point of divergence, as Lilienthal inspired the Wright Brothers to create their flyers with persistence, always building on what went wrong before.

The Wright Brothers not creating the airplane means that technology would not have advanced as it did, meaning planes that could carry heavy bombs would not have been created, meaning the Cold War would have never began from the dropping of the atomic bombs. This would have changed the flow of the United States political system, as Lee Harvey Oswald would have never have been a Marxist, meaning JFK would not have died for his opposing views. All of the Kennedys would have been elected till the 1988 election, when Bush Senior would win. The Gulf War would have still occurred, as would 9/11, as planes would have surely been developed by then. If the airplane were not to have been invented, there would have been politically peace during the era of the Cold War.

I enjoyed this project. Taking an event and manipulating it, altering history was awesome, and reminded me of the butterfly effect; showing that with one small change in history can completely rewrite the world. This was also the most challenging part for me, as it was difficult for me to find a specific event to focus on; I had a ton of ideas that I really wanted to work on, but I felt like this would have given a fairly interesting future. The Wright Brothers being so moved by Lilienthal's pioneering to create their own experiments I found was particularly interesting, as it shows just how much someone can inspire another.

This showed me that the actions of a single human being can directly curve history as we know it. By taking out something, you're taking out someone who could have contributed to something larger, inspired someone else, or helped others create a network that would later inspire. Individuals make changes and cause progression, as apparent by this project. These individuals can also cause systematic changes, causing new ideas to flourish that can lead a movement or a group. These systems influence individuals, such as Lee Harvey Oswald, who following the Marxist philosophy killed JFK, causing a changed caused by an individual, with change brought to that individual by a system.

Looking back on this project I really enjoyed it. Thought, if I were to have done it again, I would have chosen a different topic. I was particularly interested with two topics; How history would be different if the atomic bombs dropped on Japan failed. The other being what if the Cuban Missile Crisis was not stopped in time. I would certainly like to do one of these topics, and maybe even a way to combine both of them...
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Screen Shot 2012-06-01 at 11.27.06 AM

What if? Benchmark and Sources amillatt

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Screen Shot 2012-06-04 at 1.06.51 PM

The point of divergence  was when Ronald Reagan was nearly assassinated on March 30th, 1981. He was shot in the lung right outside of the Washington DC Hilton hotel by John Hinkley. I changed this event and made the shot fatal (in the original event was inches away from his heart) and Reagan dies after surgery. The future I imagined was a bright one, Reagan ruined America's economy because of his famous "Reaganimics" plan that only benefited cooperations( the rich). I believed that George H W Bush wouldn't have choose the same plan, but would have just raised taxes. In the future since George W Bush is never elected we don't go to war with Iraq, which only helped our economy. For 2012 the economy is stable and prosperous. The education system is incredible because America did have a surplus of money to give towards education.The only problem in America is the amount of homeless families that has continuously grew because funding for welfare is modicum and very selective. 

I enjoyed learning about the Reagan policies because I didn't realize his presidency was so pivotal in American history. He changed a lot about the economy and foreign relationships. I thought the most challenging part was deciding how to present the project because their was just so many ways to do it. I also thought just thinking about a different future was difficult. I thought that researching how each individual event and person affected another event that would ultimately change the future was extremely interesting. 

I felt that any change will effect the future , even if it is just a small impact or huge. For example if  the systematic change was that "Reaganomics" never happened, our economy would not end up in debt. I felt the same way about individual change because as I showed in my benchmark with the absents of Reagan our future was completely different. Well one decision can change everything, for example Bush made the decision to fight a war, which hurt our economy. If Bush would have made a different decision than perhaps Americas finanical situation would be completely different.

I thought that if i had a timeline in my project that would help with describing the future. I tried to include some of the history in my magazine like I would specify which president helped that event happen. The timeline would have just added that extra bit of understanding. If i had to do my project over again I would have done way more research and started it earlier, not to say I didn't spend hours just reading about the history, but I also feel like I missed some important events. If I would have started just a week earlier then I would have had more time to do research and create the best project. 

Time Magazine benchmark.

Source 1 and 2 click here

Source 3 click here.

Allison Patterson - What if history Benchmark; What if Abe Lincoln passed away when he was nine?

My project was suppose to be a chapter from an alternative history textbook for young children.  My point of divergence is that Abe Lincoln passed away when his mother fell ill from milk poisoning. Lincoln could have easily fell ill as well and thus passed away with his mother. As a result of Lincoln dying the nation would have accepted the ideas of Stephan Douglas. Douglas believed that each state should be able to choose if they want slavery or not. Without Lincoln to debate this idea with Douglas the nation would have accepted this idea. In 2012, the nation be free for the most with only Georgia, Alabama, and Louisiana still permitting slaves. However, the nation will be very strict about the conditions the slaves may be kept in. I enjoyed this project because I was able to see how Lincoln's one action, holding the Lincoln-Douglas debates, changed the world. Stephan Douglas made a good argument for why America should follow him but, Lincoln made a better argument back. If you removed Lincoln, Douglas' argument would have stood. I wish this project would have been longer. I felt rushed to make my product and my product suffered.  I felt like we focused a lot on the yellow paper and planning and not actually working. I also think that if we are working on planning we need to plan how we want to present it.

Corruption & Censorship Blog #3

This whole project has been both interesting to do and fun to learn things that I didn’t really know before. I made this video to bring awareness to people who don’t know about this topic or who don’t care about it. Here is the petition that I would like everyone to sign if they are against corruption and unjust censorship in the world. Here's my survey results if you haven't seen it yet and my bibliography.

 

After getting enough signatures I want to go and send it to someone like the mayor or even the state representative to show them that some people do care about what happens. So thanks for tuning in to my blog posts and hopefully a change can happen sooner or later. Until then try to make a change of your own and figure out ways to be heard and seen.

What If? History Benchmark: Changing Free Press

In 1733, German-American printer named John Peter Zenger accepted an offer from James Alexander to publish his editorials criticizing New York's governor at the time. Alexander founded the New York Weekly Journal and published the first issue in November of 1733. The Governor being criticized went by the name William Cosby. Cosby attempted to have the publication shut down several times with the court's help, but eventually put out a 50 pound reward to the person that could identify the authors of the editorials and order Zenger's papers to be burned publicly. With the help of his attorney general Cosby issued a warrant for Zenger's arrest. Zenger spent 8 months in jail. Cosby attempted to select jurors himself, but that was dismissed and twelve townspeople were picked. 


The trial began in August of 1735 on the terms that the paper was producing "seditious libel". It was true that Andrew Hamilton, of Philadelphia, Zenger's lawyer had no law to support his idea that the truth could be defensive for a libel charge. The trial could be said to have been the most famous 'jury nullification' in history, which means a jury has the power to serve  verdict of 'not guilty' because the disagree with the current law rather than actually believe the person is not guilty. Needless to say, the jury did not make a judgement on the existing law or the facts, but what they thought of the law itself. This is thought to be the building blocks for Free Press in the Bill of Rights.


My point of divergence is that the jury does rule a guilty verdict and the existing British law is not challenged. 


I liked being able to pick something I was interested in. I had the freedom to choose  a topic that conceded my because I am a journalist. The whole project was interesting in that way, but the jury nullification is what I find interesting. As well as the fact that Zenger was just the publisher when we never wrote a single word. He did not set out to be a champion of free speech, but simply a printer doing his thing. 


The individuals in this situation seem to make the impact but it is really the individuals joining together as the jury and as the public in a print protest of the power they disagreed with. Free Press is a systemic change. If this was the only thing to be changed, I believe someone or some people would have eventually made free press happen but countless other things would have been affected in the mean time. 


The resonating changed I thought about was elections. If press were not able to use their privilege of reporting facts, even when unpleasant the results of many elections could have changed. 


If this project could have been improved it would have been to find more sources. It was very difficult to locate primary sources from the 1730's. Honestly, if I had more evidence I could have used more. 


If I could do it over, I would have done even more. I like the idea of the magazine, but there isn't much content. Because I am a journalist I didn't like feeling as if the project was only half done with a single photo, article and cartoon. ​

"What If" Benchmark

Video diary by a girl in 2012.



My point of divergence in the US is that Rachel Carson, the biologist whose book, Silent Spring helped push forward the environmental protection effort, and combated the use of a dangerous pesticide DDT, instead never switched her major. From my research, I found that that Carson had originally planned to have an English, but later on switched to biology. Without Carson being the voice against the environmental impact of DDT, I envisioned the future to have all of the results of the use of DDT- but ten-fold. There were 3 major things that I decided would come about from the excessive use of DDT: 1. Malaria would be eradicated. When looking for DDT sources I came across several sources that ask the same question that I pose. Apparently, those sources spoke of a Malaria free world if the pesticide had continued to be in use. I saw a graph that showed a very sharp decline of deaths of malaria, but then an even sharper increase after the brief decline. I concluded that Malaria is directly affected, so Malaria would have to be gone in the world DDT is still used. My second major thing: the prices of fish are sky rocketed. My third major impact is also within my second. The fact that fish prices are so ridiculously high is because their aquatic habits are contaminated with runoff containing DDT. That is explained when the character I portray say that she can't even swim in the ocean. The result from the contaminated water is that the majority of the fish have died off, making them endangered. Yet they are still for sale (greediness of humans anyone?). 

Those were important details in my portrait of the future. I can say that I wish I had made my video journals look more...personal. I wanted them to look plain and seem almost impromptu, because I was supposed to be a random spewing of thoughts. Hence the reason why I didn't add things like transitions and stuff. I wish I could have given my character a more personality of my own- I hope remnants of myself didn't shine through too much. So I think if I were to do it again, I would make a person dramatically different from myself.

Aside from that, from this project I've realized the immense impact that little events have on our world. It makes me think of all of the world's great and evil leaders- how much things would be different if these people took different roads in life. I'm aware that we would would live in an entirely different world. I also realize that our world is the way it is because of the same people stayed tenacious and never let go of the vision that they had in mind. Mind you, that can be good or bad. Though regardless, it teaches the ever-repetitive lesson, "never give up", which mostly lives up to the praise that it receives.                                               

What if? History Benchmark


IMG_1994
I fully enjoyed working on this 4th quarter "What If?" benchmark. I have always been interested in immigration, and so I chose to focus on immigration. My Point of Divergence was Manifest Destiny. I changed historical events that had occurred in the year 1845; the Annexation of Texas. I killed the 11th president of the United States: James K. Polk. I did this by making James Brown Clay, son of Henry Clay assassin, causing events like the Annexation of Texas, the Mexican American War, and the Mexican cession to occur. I envisioned the result of this change would decrease the importance of immigration today. Mexicans would not be entering the U.S.A., suffering from poverty and corruption. Their lands would have been filled with abounding goods and no troublesome would exist today.
What I enjoyed about this project was that we had the chance to select a historical event as we wished, rather than being given what to do. Each individual was able to produce a product of their creativity. Oddly enough, I did not find this project to be challenging. I thought that I would have difficulties in comprehending the historical concept of it, but all went well. If I didn't understand something fully, I would simply watch a documentary or search it thoroughly and then add he information onto my final product. The most interesting event that I investigated was the Mexican American War. When I watched the documentary "Mexican American War" on the History channel what caught my attention was this quote:"If he bullied Mexico enough, Mexico would give up their lands." It's crazy to me to see how America supported Polk's decisions of war.

Decisions lead to more decisions, as do problems. A decision within a decision-decision inception! A historical event leads to more historical events. A decision in history is done accordingly to the finalized first decision. For Instance, in James K. Polk's presidential campaign, he makes promises and ends up keeping his promises like his promise to annex Texas, but that results in the Mexican American War. Yes, decisions in history are very influential indeed. Systemic decisions impact historical records by giving a result accordingly to the decisions that are made. I believe this project could be improved if the project was assigned earlier in the quarter. This project is very time consuming and with Summer kicking in, it's difficult to put on my thinking cap- at least for me it is. If I had the power to do this project over again, I would have worked on the project day by day, rather than all at once. I crammed in doing my research, when there was no reason for it if I worked on it week by week. I just felt that I wouldn't comprehend that a part of me said that I had to research everything thoroughly and not miss anything; it made me research many things all at once.


What If History Benchmark!

In my project, my point of divergence  is that Germany did not have to pay for all of them war crimes after World War I. The article 231 of the Treaty of Versailles had never been written and an alternative article: article 239 had been passed in its place.  After my DOV, Hitler never took over Germany because Germany didn't go into the Economic turmoil they went through. The Communist Nation of Germany had taken over, and Joseph Stalin from Russia had become that ruthless dictator of Europe. World War II had never began and the Cold War was amplified. Since World War II never happened and Germany didn't split, a lot of Germany's scientists didn't come to the US. This lead to the USSR winning the Cold War and the United States handling the Cuban Missile Crisis wrong; which ultimately lead the nuclear destruction! Ultimately, I enjoyed this project because of the broad topics we could pick from. The one thing I especially enjoyed about the project is the freedom of what I wanted to happen after my DOV. I really enjoyed researching about Joseph Stalin and how ruthless, and an overal bad leader he was. I feel like Hitler extremely impacted the future and how it changed. I could improve this project by making the transitions a lot more fluent and crisp, maybe with a little bit more time I could of done that.

English Journal 46

What did it feel like to be stuck in the corner, simulating what the Jews in night felt?

 

It felt extremely crowded. Not only this, but we would also have to sleep in conditions like that. It would be inhumane, and we would have spent the entire day like that.

 

In the book, they spent days there. In the 30 seconds that we did it, everyone was already uncomfortable. Not only this, but we felt violated. It’s inhuman to do that to someone.

 

History Journal 11

“If I were personally to define religion, I would say that it is a bandage that man has invented to protect a soul made bloody by circumstances.” ~Theodore Dreiser, 1941

 

“Religion is the sign of the oppressed creature, the sentiment of a heartless world, and the soul of soul-less conditions. It is the opium of the people.” ~Karl Marx, 1884

 

1.     The first quote is very interesting, it talks about the fact that religion forgives and it lets you do so much more than what is necessary.

2.     The quote by Karl Marx used the word Opium, which was also mentioned in Animal Farm, by George Orwell.