Joshua's Blog

Part A: 1. Before doing any research, I predict the three most highly ranked presidents in US history will be: President Abraham Lincoln provided a way to create unity in the United States while progressing the moral values of the country. George Washington would likely be near the top of that list due to the work he put forward in creating the nation. Jefferson would also be considered a successful president after making the Louisiana perchance which vastly expanded US territory. and the worst might be, when evaluating by public opinion, are the most recent presidents due to the increasingly dividing political climate. Nixon is also remembered as one of the worst presidents due to his involvement in Water Gate. 2. According the the C-Span Survey  the presidents who are consistently in the top 4 are: Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Theodore Roosevelt. While there were no two presidents who went back a forth in the 4th and 5th slots as Theodore Roos

Bridge of Spies is a film about the 1960's spy exchange in which a Soviet spy, Rudolf Abel, was traded for an American pilot, Francis Gary Powers. The movie shows an important dynamic between two nations that had the highest tensions in modern history. The movie does a fantastic job of portraying the chaos and confusion of the political climate and gives the feeling of uncertainty which defined that era. This is the most important knowledge of the film is how it shows the importance of nationalism and dehumanization of the two nations. The film shows the irony in believing that our nations spies are heroes whereas spies from another country are evil. This help illustrate the feeling a dangerous political climate where every person is either an ally or an enemy. A scene which exemplifies this feeling is when Donovan goes to meet Mr.Vogel and is instead met with a Soviet ambassador. During the negotiation where the ambassador tells him that they are all just 'little men' tr

A large american breakfast which both references the 1960 american culture and a scene in the movie where Donovan orders 2 large breakfasts  Kofta which are Turkish meatballs. central berlin had a large amount of people with Turkish ethnicity in which the wall separated the culture down its center  Made by Herta Heuwer in 1949 made to combine the sectors of west Berlin. German sausage, american ketchup, and British curry powder.

An art Exhibit featuring paintings by Rudolf Abel A 1990 commemorative stamp of Abel  A 'Suicide dollar' given to U-2 Pilots  Panels of the Berlin Wall The hotline used by Donovan as the only direct connection between east and west berlin The evidence obtained from the search of Rudolf Abel's apartment which caused controversy of on lawful search and seizure A U-2 of the same model flown by Gary Powers Donovan's passport he used to cross between east and west Berlin

The invitations will be sent out to each person in the form of a passport with a note written on the inside telling the the time and place they will meet. the time is 5:30 to 8:52 February 10 because 5:30 is the time the deal was scheduled to take place and 8:52 is when exchange commenced. Each person will get a passport appropriate to them for example Donovan would receive an american passport as seen above. Whereas Vogel would receive a GDR passport with instructions saying "East Berlin/5:30-8:52...) Guest list: Donovan James Donovan was the protagonist of this film and considered in real life to be an american hero. Easing tensions between the east a west. This was short lived however as the Cuban missile crisis escalated tensions to an all time high. Abel Abel was, as the film states, the most hated man in america. His fierce loyalty to his country nearly lead him to his death and his court case challenged american values and criminal process with his court case bein

Office of the Historian (history.state.gov) U-2 Overflights and the Capture of Francis Gary Powers, 1960  - Information on crash, recovery, and trial of Francis Gary Powers Two coats of paint (twocoatsofpaint.com) Art and Film: Painter-Spy in Bridge of Spies - Information on Abel and his paintings Oyez (oyez.org) Abel vs. United States - information on the supreme court ruling of the Abel vs. US

The freedom riders were groups of college students from Washington D.C. and Nashville who brought the segregation and mistreatment of Americans in the south into national and international news. The movement was extremely successful in attaining national involvement in fixing the racial tension in the south. This movements success and importance has not always been given the recognition which it and its members deserve. My design for a Freedom Riders Memorial in the Montgomery fountain would have the fountain replaced by a grass field of the same dimensions with a 25 foot radius. A road would run through the center of the monument pointing North. A Scenicruiser bus, the same model as the bus in the Anniston riot, would be on the road facing south with its seats removed. The tires of the bus would be slashed just as they were in Anniston. The windows of the bus would be tented making it difficult to see in and out of the bus. However, the back widow of the buss would be shattered. Thi

1. Immigration in the 19th century was defined by its quantity. With immigration in modern america approaching that of the 19th century it is important to look at how these problems were addressed in then and improving upon the flaws of the earlier system. 2. My topic for immigration was the effect that immigration, specifically in the united states, has on a nations economy. I was not sure when I started researching this is immigration had a net gain or loss to the average American. I found it unexpected that my research pointed to the conclusion that immigration has very little effect on the U.S. economy and that of the average American. This was an option that I hadn't considered and was important to show that most problems do not have binary outcomes. 3. Among the several challenges that Americans faced was social tension and infrastructure. Attempting to have large numbers of ethnically diverse people living such close proximity to one another can lead to social tension. T

Oxford dictionary defines philanthropy as "The desire to promote welfare in others, expressed especially by the generous donation of money to good causes." Common examples of this are giving charitable donations and volunteering to help others. The Council on Foundations  clarifies the differences from philanthropy, which most commonly comes in the form of a private foundation, and a public charity. A public charity is a public funded and reactionary, charities give humanitarian aid to those who are immediately in need. A private foundation is supported by a small number of contributors. Because it is not funded by the public, private foundations are not pressured to use their funds to help with immediate problems by the public. Instead of being reactionary philanthropist attempt to solve specific problems in a society such as education and universal suffrage. In the mid to late 1800's several Americans created their fortune through the growing steel industry one of th

Progressive Era

A common argument that is used both in favor and against immigration is the economic impact of immigration. Through research I have found that while it is near impossible to definitively state whether immigrants in large quantities are helpful or harmful the united states economy, their effect in either direction does not have a substantial impact in most aspects of the economy. While there are significant differences in first generation immigrants and native residents their overall impact does not have significant effect on the average American. Arguably the most important is on population. Immigration in recent years has reached levels of the early 1900's except now most immigrants are from Asia and Latin america instead of Europe. According a US census survey, growth in american prime working age individuals is mostly contributed by immigrants having a ~ 2% growth in prime age immigrants with native citizens losing prime age population at ~ -0.5% growth. I was unable to find s

Opportunity Luck Hard Work Skill While all four of these factors are invaluable to achieving economic success opportunity is by far the most  important. This is because all three of the other factors are useless without opportunity. Hard work becomes meaningless without a somewhere to direct it, the same reasoning applies to skill. Luck and Opportunity can be looked at as the same. The more opportunity you have for success the more likely you are to achieve it. Luck reaches the same end but without the ability to control how many chances you have. Hard work and skill are also similar in the same way as luck and opportunity. Having either in excess fulfills the same need. However, Hard work is more valuable than skill for 2 reasons: without any hard work skill limits itself and, more importantly, hard work can generate opportunity which make hard work far more valuable. Quote source

The University of Chicago study 'Pro-social behavior in rats is modulated by social experience' experiments on how rats of different stains would behave when a rat was trapped with another rat having the ability to free the enclosed rat. The study found that how familiar the rats were with the strain was a greater factor in whether or not they would open the cage then self identity. In one experiment a rat was placed in foster with almost entirely rats of another strain. The rats were far more likely to help the strain of rats they were familiar with rather than rats of their own strain concluding self identity was not an important factor in the decisions of the rats. foster experiment