Author: Nichole McGee

Learning from the Past: Using the Stars as Gateways

This week lecture was very interesting. I could perfectly see the the correlation between the theme of the course and the topic of the lecture. The lecture was all about how scientists could tell things about past galaxies by using aspects of the new galaxy. Some things that were mentioned was the theory of distance and reach and also the black hole theory and quenching. All of these help to distinguish parts of the past environment.

 

The theory of distance is very interesting yet simple. It basically states that the further away an object is, the longer it will take for its light to reach. In the lecture, we referenced difference objects such as the moon sun and stars. The moon takes only one second for its light to hit earth because it’s relatively close. However, the sunlight takes at least 8 minutes to reach earth because it’s so hot that it is not as close to the earth as the moon. Yet, it takes about 4 years for the light of the star to reach earth because it’s farther out than the moon and  the sun.

 

The black hole theory is the theory that discusses star formation quenching. It is the idea that when two galaxies connect, they feed the black hole. This causes gas to heat up as well as being pushed back.This theory connects closely to quenching and explains the formation of different galaxies thus connecting it to the past by using modern speculation to determine why certain galaxies were formed the way that they were.

 

The lecturer also talked about Halo quenching. This is a particular way that the galaxy has been suppressed. It is done in a circular motion. Quenching is a way to look into the past to learn new things about different and older galaxies that we would otherwise not know much about. This connects more to the theme of the course as a way to look into and learn from the past that is present and modern day things such as looking at the aftermath of the quenching effects.

 

The galaxies and all the other mysteries of outer space are cool learning topics. What’s even cooler is to see how how they connect to the past. It’s easy to use modern galaxies to make predictions on what the past may have looked like. These predictions can be made by looking at things such as theories like the black hole theory and the distance theories or by looking at quenching which is connected to formation. All of these aspects give a look into the past by telling what these galaxies could of look like or been made of years ago. Hence, this lecture connected nicely with the theme of the course because it shows that when we look into present galaxies we could use them to see the past as well. The past is not that far from the future in most cases. This lecture was a perfect way to end the course.

 

Trophy Fishing: The Bad and the Good

Today’s lecture was very interesting. I really understood the point that the lecturer Loren McClenachan was attempting to make. While she spoke very passionately about her work, I took a lot of points from her focus on game fishing. Although there are both pros and cons, to game fishing, she gave a good lecture on how we should be mindful of doing such. Some of the pros was the the economy and travel to the area while the con was the dent that it was putting in marine life.

 

The first pro of big game fishing is the ability for it to boost the economy. One of the ways it boost the economy is with jobs. There are more fishers working. Also on land, there are people working to help with the fish that these fishers bring back or there are more waitresses needed to feed the hungry fishers at the local pub. In all of these small ways, big fishing is helping to increase the economy.

 

Traveling has also increased since the boom in fishing. When people catch big trophy fish, others see their game and want to fish in that area too. So, often, people travel miles to reach these often secluded fishing areas. Therefore, this brings money into the economy also in the form of tourism. Tourist stay at hotel and frequent the local places. Also, it brings awareness to that town. Someone who visited as a tourist and is very serious about there fishing craft would probably even pick up and move there which in terms help the population of this town.

 

However, there are obvious cons to big game fishing. One of those cons would be overfishing. It does not take much to deplete a population of fish over years. Therefore, this is a main concern of the fishing industry. However, the industry has accounted for this. In return, the government had put certain rules on fishing. For example, certain fish that you catch you have to throwback. It is because these fish are protected because they are of risk of becoming extinct. Therefore, in order to avoid certain fish from becoming extinct, they plan these rules.

 

The lecture from last class was very interesting. It taught me a lot about the fishing industry and also the pros and cons that come along with it.  I was mainly interested in these pros and cons. They range from helping increase employment and the tourist industry to the con of inflicting harm on the fish population from those who over fish. However, to combat this risk to the fishing industry, the government has introduced laws that fishers must abide by. One of these laws are throwing back certain fish that are on the verge of extinction if you so happen to catch one. With these measures in place, I believe that if done correctly then the fishing industry won’t have as big of a depletion on the environment then what we expect at the current moment.

The Noulens Affair: An Ordeal of a Lifetime

As someone who is not an expert in history by any means, I have not heard of the Noulens Affair before. In addition, I am not too well aware of the Cold War and all of its implications. However, it was interesting to see how the Noulen Affair pretty much set off a string of events that altered the world as a whole but also the Cold War. But what was most interesting about the case was the drama that unfolded between husband and wife. From Hilaire’s arrest and all of the incriminating objects he had on them, him and his wife’s anonymous identity, and also their hasty release after originally being tried for death. The Noulens Affair was a never ending sequence of drama and mystery and seemed like an episode of a soap opera.

 

The Noulen Affair consisted of a series of events that begin with the arrests of the Noulens. The Noulens included Hilaire Noulens and his wife. They were members of the Communist Party. They were arrested in China. When arrested Hilaire Noulens, who real name is Yakov Rudnik, had very important documents on him. These documents consisted of an address book that led to  other affiliates. Agents were then able to find these affiliates and arrest them.

 

After Hilair and his wife was arrested. It was then discovered that they did not know they’re real identity. They continued to claim to be from different countries, however, every time that they claimed to be from a country, that said country would then come forward and deny that they ever resided their. Their true identity was not released until years after their release and death. This is when their son came forward and proclaimed that the identity of his parents were Yakov Rudnick and Tatyana Moiseenko.

 

After the arrest of Hilair and his wife there was so much incriminating evidence that it is no surprised that they were found guilty. They were then subsequently sentenced by the Chinese Government to death in prison. However, they would not even come close to facing this demise. They were soon sentenced to just life in prison. They were then released in August 1937. The quick release was due to the Japanese invading  China. They had other things to be concerned with rather than keeping tabs on him. Shortly after their release, they fled to the Soviet Union in July of 1939.

The Noulens Affair is a relative important part of the Cold War but is also a relatively unknown event. There is so little information known about the people involved which includes Hilaire Noulens and his wife as the main characters. It was a mystery fueled  event of the War. Their real identities were not known until years later, Hilaire was arrested with all of the evidence that they needed to incriminate him. In addition, after being tried to death by the Chinese death and later commuted to life, they were released early because of Japanese invading China.

Shaping the Future: The Way We See Art

From this lecture, Bell was way ahead of his time in the way he thought and how he put this thought to action. We can understand just how modern his process was by looking at how we learn today. The same practices that we use in classrooms or in general to be understand are similar to the classroom practices of Bell. It’s important to for us to see just how Bell and his classroom practices help to create the implications of a world after Bell.

Bell was very concise in how he devised his classroom practices. One of his main ideologies was showing an important part of learning. It all goes back to the way we learn. Some people are hands on while others are visual learnings. Bell classroom methods encouraged people to incorporate both ends of a spectrum. You can be taught by a model and in return, to show that you have learned, you are expected to draw what you know. When you draw or create a physical model, your brain starts to turn gears because you begin to envision this thing in your head and you try to replicate it. Therefore, visual arts is a learning process for both sides. Hence, this saturated learning process has a lot of influence on modern classrooms and has even taken a hold in the classrooms of Harvard University.

Harvard is world renowned for its highly competitive programs and classes, hence, it is a great achievement and accomplishment to have Harvard following the ideologies of Bell. In Harvard classrooms today, specifically in its medical program, they are initiating Bell’s ways of learning. Harvard encourages training in visual arts among their future doctors. That might translate to those scholars who are on a completely different track than the arts to take a class or two of studio art or something related to that manner. This is because visual learning has been found to build visual literacy. When you are remembering something in your brain in order to translate it into a drawing on paper you begin to differentiate between what’s important and what’s not important and you depict what is important in your drawing.

Bell was a genius who was way ahead of his time in terms of his work and ideologies. His work has help touch our modern world and has made us see the world differently. We need to be able to touch and draw and just visually interpret things. I believe that when we try to visually learn a concept we light up are brain a lot more than with other ways of learning. This is why Bell tactics has withstand time and are being used in highly collegiate settings such as Harvard University. Bell has truly shaped the way we learn and how we see learning and his concepts will continue to grow and thrive throughout many more years to come because it produces such a solid understanding across universal realms of study.

The Food Shortage

The lecture discussed the evolutionary path of living organisms and how those organisms are shaped by the interactions of the species with other species and also species of a different kind. Therefore, I will like to focus on this particular concept. In addition, I would like to show how the social amoeba follow this interesting path. One of the many changes that shape the amoeba is when there is a scarcity in food. When there is a food scarcity, the amoeba quickly changes to account for this.

 

Social amoeba are impacted rather easily depending on what is going on around them. One of these examples is when the food is not in abundance. In  a normal setting, the amoeba are a a single cell organism. However, under this time of distress, the amoeba changes into a multicellular organism. Under this change, the amoeba now consist of many individual cells. This is the first step of the amoeba to counter the shortage of food.

 

The next step in this change for the amoeba is for some of the cells to give up their relative function. They become non-reproductive cells. From there, they are mainly used just for support and they help transportation. They are able to transport the cells to a more prosperous part of the body. Hence, they end their search for food once they are transported to an area that has an adequate amount of food to support the cells.

 

After this whole process is undergone, the cells no longer need to be multicellular because they do not need to transport anymore cells because they are at a place with food . They realized that they have met their needs and no longer need to alter their genetic figuration for food, they begin to convert back to single cell organisms. This is done while they are in their new location. This is the finishing product of the social amoeba response to a shortage in food.

 

    The way the social amoeba reacts is a prime example of how they are changed by social interactions. The catalyst for the change undergone here is due to a lack of food. We then see how the cell goes from singular to multicellular. This is so it has the ability to transport to a area with more food available. After the amoeba completely change to meet their needs they see that their food need is satisfied and they then go back to multicellular cells. This is a clear indictication on how the amoeba are able to shift depending on their environment. They are highly sensitive to their surroundings and will respond to a need such as food in this case by adapting to find a suitable way to obtain more food. Social amoeba are not the only ones they can change their path, other organisms can also find a way to evolve in other meet certain needs or because other species interact with them in a way that may cause them to have to adapt to a different way of survival.

Societal Climate
I took a lot of new things from monday’s lecture about sex and its relationship to the environment. One of the things that I decided to focus on was the terms that were introduced in the lecture. The terms that I learned was humoral theory and climate theory. Humoral theory is described as the human form as a “porous envelope,” deeply vulnerable while climate theory is the idea that particular bodily arrangements and types, particular characters, and particular qualities were endemic to (and perhaps produced by) the relative heat or cool of different regions. I found both of these terms interesting but I want to look more closely into the climate theory and how it is exemplified in today’s society . I believe that the climate theory is most related to ideas such as cuffing season and hookup culture which are vernaculars produced from this generation.

The climate theory is most closely related to cuffing season. Cuffing season is the idea that people seek out relationships during the winter time more than the summer. The theory is based on the idea that during the winter you are in the house most of the time so you would like someone to be inside with. However, during the summer months, you are most likely to be outside enjoying the weather so you do not want to be in a relationship because it would constrict a lot of your freedom. I think that this connection between the climate and our willingness to be in a relationship is true and it makes me wonder how does global warming altering the climate also impact relationships or the lack thereof.

In addition to cuffing season, there is also a term called hookup culture. Hookup culture refers to places that breeds an environment that makes it socially acceptable to participate in platonic sex. A location that foster such as an environment is that of a college campus. With all of the options, academic commitments and freedom, one is less likely to be involved in a serious relationship. Therefore, geographically, hookup culture is a societal phenomenon that can be connected to the theory of climate also.

The two terms climate theory and humoral theory are closely related to each other. However, I want to focus my attention on that of the climate theory. I believe that the climate theory is the explanation for a lot of today’s societal phenomenons. Two of these aspects that I would like to speak of is that of hookup culture and cuffing season. Cuffing season relates mainly to the climate part of the theory as it is an idea that serious relationship begin during the cold season. While hookup culture is more connected to the geographical part of the theory as it is based off the idea that there are certain locations that helps cultivate an environment that encourages sexual relations without commitment. Climate theory expresses the scientific logic behind certain societal behaviors today such as hookup culture, cuffing season, and many others that are not mentioned .

Nichole McGee
17 March 2019
The Past of the Climate
The topic that I pulled from the discourse was the idea of climate change. Although climate change was relatively new both poems discussed its effects on the world. I looked into both Bishop and Blake writings. From their writings, I can see how both Blake and Bishop predicted the future of climate change. In reviewing both Blake’s work, “Auguries of Innocence” and Bishop’s the Sandpiper, I was able to conclude how both authors were able to articulate climate change although it was not developed as a term yet.
From looking at Bishop’s writing first, I saw many descriptions that concluded to the effects of climate change. In the poem, there’s a line that states “The roaring alongside he takes for granted,and that every so often the world is bound to shake”. I think that this describes an earthquake. Bishop is saying that the man notices the earthquake but sees it as something that is is just part of nature. He does not see it as something that is out of the ordinary. Therefore, just as many do today, he was taking for granted the negative surroundings of climate change as just an earthquake but that could obviously be on the bricks for something bigger. The world was living him clues that it was in danger, and he ignored those clues.
In the poem by Blake, he states that a dog starved at his Masters Gate predicts the ruin of the State. I think this goes to the world hunger epidemic. This is a direct effect of the climate change. This is because as the weather changes excruciatingly, crops began to fail and water begin to dry up. People can not eat. The saying “predicts the ruin of the state” means that starvation is the tell tell sign that something bad is bound to happen. Therefore, without even knowing what to call the future sinister disasters, Blake was speaking of the effects of climate change in his poem “Auguries of Innocence”.
Both poems were different in nature. However, they all spoke about similar things. These things were the negative effects of climate change. In the poem by Bishop, earthquakes were mentioned. In the poem by Blake, he spoke of world hunger. Both of these are the disasters of climate change. The most profound aspect from this is that climate change was not as spoke about or even a thing at that time as it is in modern times. Therefore, both poets were ahead of their time. Now in modern times, we can look back at the poems in their contents and see how they were impacted by climate change and how people turned their head to it. Hopefully, reading poems such as these would help to ignite a fire under people of today to help make a change before the world becomes progressively worse as climate change continues to shake the world as it did back in the days of Elizabeth Bishop and William Blake.

Dividing us by Blood: How Science Might Separate Us
Before this discussion, I didn’t quite understand the human genome project before this talk, but generally defined, it considered that all humans were equal when it came down to bloodwork. However, different studies throughout the year have attempted to show that different ethnicities have different blood. Studies such as the one done on Indian Blood, Henrietta Lacks, and the pharmaceutical company who directed their pill towards African American people have divided the human race even more.

A study done by scientist have concluded that Indians had a higher percent of B blood. This was a stark contrast from the genome project which argued that our blood is what made us equal. However, this finding disapproves this. Although it might be true, this might cause tension between Indians and their counterparts who also live in the area. One might have the opportunity to believe that one race is better than the next simply because their blood makeup is different. This will be the cause of much tension between the two.

The Henrietta Lacks story is very personal to me being a black woman. I believe that the way doctors went about collecting blood samples is what caused a big division. Also, at the time there was already high tensions between Blacks and Whites. So, for doctors to collect samples without even getting the verbal or written consent of Henrietta Lacks is devastating. Not to mention, her samples went on to do great things and become very profitable but Henrietta or her family never seen an ounce of this profit and were even in debt with her medical bills. The way the doctors took advantage of this poor, black woman was atrocious and shows just how the scientific work that revolves around blood attempted to separate us more.

Lastly, during the beginning of the presentation one of the first slides that was shown was of an advertisement for medicine. However, the advertisement was directed at African American people. The presenter made a comment saying something along the lines of the hearts of African Americans not being different than anyone else heart. I fully agree with this comment. Although, I believe that African Americans are more susceptible to different heart diseases because of the diet that most Blacks eat, I do not think that the underlying issue at hand is that the hearts of Blacks are just genetically different but that different outside forces such as diet might be causing a huge wear on the heart. When you make claims such as this, you are furthering diving Blacks from those of other races and might also be causing someone of a different race who have a heart problem to miss out on a medication that might actually be helpful for them because the pharmaceutical industry was only targeting African Americans.

With all the racial divide that we see today, I do not believe that we should go out of our way to find other ways of division. Therefore, my main concern from this presentation was how blood was playing an influence of separating us more. Aspects of this include the Henrietta Lacks story, the blood samples from Indians, and the pharmaceutical who promoted their medicine to a Black audience. Instead of going out of our way to find differences and ignite a divide, we should look at ways we are the same so that no one could ever feel the right to be superior because of their genetic makeup.

Nichole Mcgee
Presence of the Past
4 March 2018
The World’s Response to Danger

The talk Monday evening was a grim glance into our reality with pollution.The speaker brought up a lot of good points. However, the one point of the discussion that I would like to further evaluate is how we respond to pollution. Some of those responses were deliberate like the London Plane Tree. While other responses were just the effects of pollution taking its toll on society such as the asthma levels in Fresno, California. The trend between these two situations is how society attempts to make everything else adapt to the harm of pollution.

The speaker started with his years at Vassar College. He brought to our attention one of the famous trees that is centered in the college. The London Plane tree was developed in order to be adapted to climate change. With the toxic air slowly taking over, the government looked for ways to sustain nature while still sustaining the level of pollution. I thought it was also interesting to make this the center of the college. In a way, it is attempting to glorify how the world can modernize to deal with disaster. The tree can also symbolize an acceptance of the past history of Vassar as it was funded by big breweries that produced a lot of pollution.Although the concept of the tree is very interesting, but it comes to a certain point where we will no longer be able to make everything else around us learn to adapt but instead we will have to adapt our behavior.

Another situation is the toxic air levels effect on people. Fresno, California has the worst level of pollution. And to add to that, they also hold the top rank for amount of people with asthma. Do you think that has stopped big business from polluting so much? Do you think that they have slowed down intake at all? However, I can guarantee that instead they are expecting humans to adapt and prescribing varying types of medicine to combat the asthma. People even go so far as to wearing mask when they go out because the air is too bad. You should not be punished with lung problems from breathing the air from the world you live in. And you should not be expected to find a solution to deal with the problems that come with pollution, but the government should do more to protect us from the harsh toxins that surround us by cutting back on big production.

While it is great that the world is so advanced, it is also a scary downside to the power of technology. Soon, we will not know when enough is enough. We can not change our surroundings to constantly adapt to our destruction. One of the questions after the lecture was what can we do to help make a change. Although it start with making a small part with ourselves such as not littering and not participating in anything that may endanger animals, it is also starts with those in higher positions realizes that this world is not invincible and that you cannot always come back from our actions.

It’s a narrative that we see time and time again. A constant feud and distrust between natives and other non-native inhabitants and in general people of color.What’s seemingly alarming about this outrage is that it comes from people who have less entitlement to the country than those they are attempting to remove. The topic of the speech with its inclusion of “The MAGA Teen” and the treatment of Indian priests in Montana is a constant reminder of the disrespectful coexistence between natives and people of color with non-natives.
A few slides into the presentation we were introduced to “The MAGA Teen”. While the native tribe leader who is also a veteran beat his drums towards the crowd of mocking teens, this one particular teen, Nick Salmon,was captured smirking in his face. He later stated that the smirk was to let the tribe leader know that he was being peaceful. However, I believe many would agree that the smirk was done and a joking way and was taking light of the situation at hand. If he wanted to diffuse the situation and make the tribe leader feel at peace, then I believe he would have turned around and corrected his classmates that were causing the tension to begin with. Even though this moment was hard to stomach, life on the reservation showed an even more toxic coexistence.
The speaker was very fond of her childhood memories and was most proud of her relationship with many priest in the area. She also mentioned that there were White priest who resided in the town and the Indian and White priest had a somewhat good relationship. Yet, she recalled how the inhabitants of the towns would often want the White priest to perform certain task and would refuse Indian priest. Not only is the prejudice from the non natives ironic it’s also ironic that the prejudice was coming from people who were suppose to be Christians, but yet they were turning down another Christian because of their ethnicity. What is even more alarming is the implications of this tension on a larger scale.
During the first slide, the speaker showed us a picture that had the caption “Every American should vote”. However, in order to vote you had to have a street address which Indians who lived on the reservation did not have. Therefore, they could not participate in this right. It’s as if America is attempting to isolate people on the reservation into their own world and disassociate them from the democracy that everyone who lives here should be entitled to. In addition, it is extremely ironic that Native people are being left out of executive exercises on their own land.
The talk “Indians on the Reservation: Missionary Priests from India” was very informing. It made me create connections and one of them I saw was an extreme level of disrespect for Indians on the reservation. There is a clear divide and a living situation that could be best describe as a coexist. We need not to isolate the reservation as its own being. We should work hard to attempt to unite the reservations with the rest of the surrounding areas by at least letting them be able to vote. Once we can stop this progressive isolation that has involved from the way before the speaker’s childhood memories to now, I believe that there would be less disrespect and prejudice.