Progress Classwork

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-16444966

http://www.visualnews.com/2012/01/17/scary-accurate-predictions-from-over-110-years-ago/

http://weburbanist.com/2013/05/08/future-past-7-wonders-predicted-100-years-ago/

After doing much research on predictions of the future made one hundred years ago, I found out a lot of interesting information. The predictions made consisted of things like tubes that would shoot hot meals and clothing to homes, flying taxis, the extinction of insects and letters in the alphabet, and also things involving the evolution of humans. In my opinion, the majority of theses predictions seemed to be a "wish list" for those in the past. Many of them such as fishing for seagulls under water and aviary police seemed a bit bizarre, however, some predictions did come true. One of these were being able to talk to humans and not be in the same place but being able to see them. This is what we call FaceTime in todays time period. Also, more accurate predictions include wireless telephones, tanks, the rising height of Americans, pre prepared meals, and much more. There were also many patterns throughout these articles. The most recognizable pattern between each article was that most of the predictions had to do with technological advances. Also, advances in our everyday life such as food and transportation. In the future I see more technological advancement. I believe that we do have some control over the future. There are some things that we cannot control but there are many that we can. The role we play in the future is how to positively advance it and by doing all we can to make it better.

Eddie Aikau Documentary

     The filmmakers named this documentary Hawaiian, The Legend of Eddie Aikau because they wanted him to be recognized as a Hawaiian because a big part of his story was his Hawaiian heritage and culture and how it shaped him. The topic or subject of this film was Eddie Aikau, the focus of this film was the Hawaiian identity and surfing career of Eddie Aikau, and the angle or argument that the film was trying to get across was that Eddie Aikau was the kind of man who believed in keeping Hawaiian culture alive and also believed in protecting the lives around him before protecting his own. I also believe that the film was mainly trying to get across that Eddie Aikau was a man of great honor. Because this film was made as part of ESPN's programming, i think that they filmmakers tried to really put emphasis on the popular Hawaiian sport. This is why they had a lot of facts about the surfing competitions and tied it into how they effected Eddie. If this film was made on a more history based program, I feel that the filmmakers would have put more of a emphasis on Hawaiian culture as a whole rather than just surfing competitions.

"How do you Analyze a Political Cartoon"?

     After looking at a guide about analyzing political cartoons, i was familiar with most of the strategies. The ones that I already knew were to look for symbolism, exaggeration, and labeling. The few that I was not aware of included looking for analogy and irony. Going forward, my strategy for viewing political cartoons will remain fairly the same, however, with a few moderations. I will first look at the big picture and then look at the smaller less noticeable things that the author puts in the cartoon. I will then ask questions such as why the author put this there and the importance of each thing. By observing different things, I feel that my analysis will be much stronger.


My Cartoon Analysis:

This first cartoon was made to show the author's viewpoints on how he felt about the Filipinos gaining independence. The characters are carrying American flags but are clothing that indicates that they are cuban or from the Philippines. I think that they are carrying American flags because America gained independence on the same day and the author wanted to draw attention to the irony of that. This is because this cartoon questions the idea of celebrating the same day as America because sharing a national holiday isn't really independent.


This cartoon is to represent the Philippine conflict. In this picture I see a Filipino running away from Uncle Sam with a gun in his hand and Uncle Sam chasing him with no weapon in hand. And in the back of the picture is a group of Europeans observing the chase. This picture shows the Americans trying to gain control over them while the Europeans are looking over their shoulder.


This cartoon is also about the Philippine conflict. The picture shows Uncle Sam welcoming foreign guests into the Philippines after America gained control. The author labels the gates as the Philippines but has Uncle Sam welcoming people as if it were an American thing and not a Filipino thing.

Phrenology Research

Provenance: the place of origin or earliest known history of something.

Today in class we were presented with an "artifact". Our teacher wanted each of us to observe it and then research our observations in order to find information about the artifact and its origin. The artifact was a bust that had the word phrenology on it. My task was to just record the way my group was researching but I learned a lot just by listening to them.. They researched keywords that were written on the bust such as L.N. Fowler and phrenology, and the different things written on the bottom of the bust in order to find out its place of origin. After researching, we found out that phrenology is a study used in earlier times of the brain. After understanding the definition, my group continued their research by looking up things about the author, L.N. Fowler. While during this research they came across a lot of ads which caused them to speculate if this "artifact" was an actual antique or if it was just a recreation. They eventually learned that it was in fact a recreation of an object used earlier in history by scientist on order to find out more about the brain. Something interesting about the bust was how it was divided. It was divided by using words such as "selfishness" and "love" and other words similar to emotions. Because of this, my group started to wonder why they believed this practice and if this was still practiced today. They found out that it might be possible that it is still practiced in the world but the closest thing the phrenology that is used to day is the study of psychology. This is where my group ended their research.  Because I got to observe, I learned a lot about how many students research in order to find something and the importance of paying close attention to details.