tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-86721695909260888172024-03-13T16:17:58.202-04:00THE CONFESSING COWAN ATYPICAL COMPILATION OF INTELLECTUAL INVESTIGATIONSFitz ColinGeraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05228323428579909511noreply@blogger.comBlogger299125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8672169590926088817.post-33162619829044475432018-12-15T00:00:00.000-05:002018-12-15T00:00:03.082-05:00On Blackjack and Don Quixote<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AwA-H7-y_Ic/W3eC36iQnlI/AAAAAAAABVI/sfMwqW0BGhAOgbjRA_npn4jhIiGLf2wkQCLcBGAs/s1600/El-Quijote-Cervantes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="563" data-original-width="750" height="240" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AwA-H7-y_Ic/W3eC36iQnlI/AAAAAAAABVI/sfMwqW0BGhAOgbjRA_npn4jhIiGLf2wkQCLcBGAs/s320/El-Quijote-Cervantes.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="color: blue;">On Blackjack and Don Quixote:</span><span style="color: #cc0000;"> The Spanish author who conceived of <i>Don Quixote de la Mancha</i> (Miguel de Cervantes) way back in 1605 also wrote a variety of short stories. One such short story (<i>Riconete y Cortadillo</i>) involved a card game called <i>veinteuno</i> (Spanish 21), which is a blackjack variant. Unlike blackjack, however, Spanish 21 is played with a reduced set of cards (all 10s are removed). This variation actually increases the odds of staying below 21, and thus, it also slightly improves your chances of winning. For many poor (landless) Spanish peasants, playing <i>veinteuno</i> became a way of life. And since opportunities for social class mobility were quite limited some 400 years ago, sharpening one's card game skills was something that many young adult (males) did on a frequent basis. So when Don Quixote was not out attacking windmills on horseback, he just may have been sitting around playing <i>veinteuno</i> with a couple of pals.</span>Fitz ColinGeraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05228323428579909511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8672169590926088817.post-21006040591213114982018-11-15T00:00:00.000-05:002018-11-15T00:00:08.713-05:00On Henrietta Lacks and HeLa Cells<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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<span style="color: blue;">On Henrietta Lacks and HeLa Cells:</span><span style="color: #cc0000;"> In February of 1951, an African-American woman from rural Virginia (Henrietta Lacks) was dying of cervical cancer. Without her knowledge, doctors (cell biologists) took samples of her tumor cells to see if they would continue to grow or multiply outside of her body. Labeling them "HeLa" cells, these were the first cells used to create an "immortal line." Until the arrival of HeLa cells, doctors (cell biologists) had spent a majority their time trying to keep cells alive. With HeLa cells, however, they no longer had to worry about cellular reproduction, because these cells seemed to multiply indefinitely. What made "immortal" cell lines so valuable was that they could be used to generate an enormous amount of medical research. Unfortunately, the Lacks family was not made aware of of Henrietta's "immortality" until around 1975. And the taking of Henrietta's personal property for research purposes (without her consent) certainly raised a number of patient privacy concerns that still remain issues in healthcare to this day (HIPAA).</span></div>
Fitz ColinGeraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05228323428579909511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8672169590926088817.post-2322612600270116692018-10-15T00:00:00.000-04:002018-11-07T21:18:20.581-05:00On Nellie Bly and Her Mad-House<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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<span style="color: blue; text-align: left;">On Nellie Bly and Her Mad-House:</span><span style="color: #cc0000; text-align: left;"> Getting yourself committed to an insane asylum (on purpose) is no easy task. But as an investigative journalist, Nellie Bly had to get the scoop on what was happening at the Women's Lunatic Asylum on Roosevelt Island in New York City. The year was 1887, and Bly had recently left her job at the <i>Pittsburgh Dispatch</i> to work for Joseph Pulitzer's <i>New York World</i>. And as one of her first assignments, she went undercover to expose the dark underbelly of American lunatic asylums. Bly faked insanity while living at a women's boardinghouse. Having been examined by a psychiatrist, they committed her to the asylum. While there, she experienced the wretched conditions of asylum life firsthand. Many of the patients were actually sane immigrants, but they simply could not speak English. Clean clothes and edible food were hard to find, and torture (sitting on straight-back benches, wearing straight-jackets, etc.) seemed to be the only daily activity. The newspaper got Bly released after ten days, and she later published a book about her findings.</span></div>
Fitz ColinGeraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05228323428579909511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8672169590926088817.post-89352814478977154652018-09-15T00:00:00.002-04:002018-09-15T00:00:06.362-04:00On Abolition and Women's Rights (1840s/50s)<iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="340" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JJb63ogjOFA" width="450"></iframe><br />
<span style="color: blue;">On Abolition and Women's Rights (1840s/50s):</span><span style="color: #cc0000;"> In the 1840s, multiple social movements gained momentum in American politics. From abolition (of slavery) to nativism (anti-immigration) to suffrage (women's rights), many Americans in the 1840s (especially those of the emerging middle class) were becoming aware of the changing cultural attitudes in society at large. Undoubtedly, the primary catalyst for these changing attitudes was industrialization, as increasing numbers of people were able to obtain employment in the growing economy. By the late 1840s, two of these movements started to develop concurrently. Abolition and women's rights saw their first major overlap in July 1848 at the Seneca Falls Convention in Upstate New York. At the Convention, there were three competing visions that needed to be reconciled. One vision was that of Susan B. Anthony, who (representing white women) advocated for voting rights over ending slavery. Another vision included Sojourner Truth, who (representing free black women) pushed for both abolition and suffrage at the same time. The final vision involved the likes of Frederick Douglass, who (representing free black men) encouraged abolition over women's rights.</span>Fitz ColinGeraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05228323428579909511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8672169590926088817.post-61213016954042028372018-08-15T00:00:00.000-04:002018-08-15T00:00:05.443-04:00On Political Cartoons and the Anti-Imperialists<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-v9qsvNRMyIw/Wr_ktqed7sI/AAAAAAAABSA/1bqkPrcr58AUUvvd6BtXIas_hF7rJ2jSQCLcBGAs/s1600/McKinley_Destroys_Imperialism.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="969" data-original-width="900" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-v9qsvNRMyIw/Wr_ktqed7sI/AAAAAAAABSA/1bqkPrcr58AUUvvd6BtXIas_hF7rJ2jSQCLcBGAs/s320/McKinley_Destroys_Imperialism.jpg" width="297" /></a></div>
<span style="color: blue;">On Political Cartoons and the Anti-Imperialists:</span><span style="color: #cc0000;"> The above cartoon appeared in <i>Harper's Weekly</i> in September 1900. It depicts a fiery President McKinley firing a cannon into an effigy mocking him and the pageantry of imperialism. One October night in 1898, McKinley claimed to have been visited by God in a dream, Who told him to start building an American empire. The first step in that empire-building process would be war with Spain, which enabled the U.S. to acquire territories like Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. At the same time, however, there was a growing cohort of Americans who viewed these imperial acquisitions with disdain. Led in part by two Massachusetts Senators, George Boutwell and George Hoar, the Anti-Imperialist League actively opposed the McKinley/Roosevelt administrations in their attempts to expand America's power/reach around the world. The primary argument put forth by the anti-imperialists was that the U.S. got its start as a country thanks to anti-imperialism. Why did the country now want to take the same path as Britain or Spain? Imperial empires only seem to end in disaster.</span>Fitz ColinGeraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05228323428579909511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8672169590926088817.post-6462756708196551552018-07-15T00:00:00.000-04:002018-07-15T00:00:03.883-04:00On Instructional Scaffolding<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LD2jdusaMcE/WyHLyDfF9OI/AAAAAAAABUs/ZAearKtTTvwU5xCSINmHUnnNqcdwqMJxQCLcBGAs/s1600/Cycle_of_Scaffolding.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="720" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LD2jdusaMcE/WyHLyDfF9OI/AAAAAAAABUs/ZAearKtTTvwU5xCSINmHUnnNqcdwqMJxQCLcBGAs/s320/Cycle_of_Scaffolding.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="color: blue;">On Instructional Scaffolding:</span><span style="color: #cc0000;"> During the learning process, some students need extra support when accessing the curriculum. One of the teacher's primary goals should always be to make the curriculum as accessible as possible. Instructional scaffolding is one such strategy that teachers can employ to achieve this goal. At the start of each class, it behooves the teacher to set the tone for the period (usually by having students complete an opening task). Quick notes (bullet points) or sentence frames are some of the better ways to get students to respond. After a brief discussion of the opener, the teacher can move toward sequencing and/or guiding the lesson. This is generally marked by an activity (group work, pair-share, etc.). After giving instructions for the primary activity, the teacher's role ought to gradually dissipate as the class moves forward. This dissipation allows students to take charge of their learning, which is the main objective behind scaffolding. As the class nears its end, however, the teacher should step back in to synthesize leftover thoughts and reaffirm upcoming tasks.</span>Fitz ColinGeraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05228323428579909511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8672169590926088817.post-32671382427776793882018-06-15T00:00:00.001-04:002018-06-15T00:00:08.659-04:00On Henry Flagler and Florida's Atlantic Coast<iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="340" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VGOz6TVlZHY" width="450"></iframe><br />
<span style="color: blue;">On Henry Flagler and Florida's Atlantic Coast:</span><span style="color: #cc0000;"> As a co-founder of the Standard Oil Company in Ohio during the 1860s (along with John D. Rockefeller), Flagler later committed his substantial wealth into developing Florida's Atlantic coastline. He first visited the area around St. Augustine in the 1880s to help manage his first wife's illness. While there, Flagler saw Florida's enormous potential for growth given its plethora of natural resources. To facilitate such growth, Flagler started the Florida East Coast Railway, which originally ran from Jacksonville to Miami, but later continued on to Key West. By the time of Flager's death in 1913, his railroad's impact on Florida's Atlantic coastline was unmistakable. Resort towns and manufacturing communities from West Palm Beach to Fort Pierce to Melbourne began to sprout up along the railroad's route. Specific examples of Flagler's legacy on Floridian tourism include the Ponce de Leon Hotel (now Flagler College), the Breakers Hotel (Palm Beach), and the Royal Palm Hotel (Miami).</span>Fitz ColinGeraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05228323428579909511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8672169590926088817.post-28368469828619135952018-05-15T00:00:00.000-04:002018-05-16T10:58:10.179-04:00On Walter Reed and Yellow Fever<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: blue;">On Walter Reed and Yellow Fever:</span><span style="color: #cc0000;"> Born in Virginia 1851, Reed earned his first medical degree by age 18. He understood at an early age that treating patients for disease was important, but researching and finding the origins of particular diseases was supreme. After Reed joined the U.S. Army as a medical officer, he was named one of the first professors of bacteriology (which was an emerging clinical field at the time). When the Spanish-American War erupted in 1898, many soldiers started dying from yellow fever. There were two prevailing theories in the 1890s about how people became infected with yellow fever. One was that yellow fever transmitted through physical contact while the other was that mosquitoes carried the disease. Reed set up an experiment (in Cuba) to figure out how the disease spread. In two separate tents, Reed placed soldiers under different circumstances. One tent had bed-clothing from troops with yellow fever while the other had mosquitoes in it. Needless to say, the troops in the mosquito-laden tent came down with the disease while the others did not. It was a breakthrough in the field of virology, as blood had now become a primary culprit in the transfer of disease.</span></div>
Fitz ColinGeraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05228323428579909511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8672169590926088817.post-25602884494944485542018-04-15T00:00:00.000-04:002018-04-15T00:00:05.663-04:00On the Mau Mau Uprising<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: blue;">On the Mau Mau Uprising:</span><span style="color: #cc0000;"> From 1952 to 1960, groups of Kikuyu people known as the Mau Mau openly rebelled against British authorities in Colonial Kenya. As part of the larger decolonization process in Africa during the mid-twentieth century, the Mau Mau helped incite a significant shift in the power relations between European colonizers and their African subjects. Proximal causes of the Uprising were two-fold. First, the Kikuyu were becoming increasingly marginalized under the British. In an economic sense, this meant the Kikuyu were losing vast swaths of land to British settlers who wished to farm. Second, the British encouraged the Kikuyu to engage in wage labor (either on the farms or for the colonial railroads). And it was this kind of cultural chauvinism which led the Kikuyu peoples (Masai, Nandi, etc.) to start squatting on lands. As an open act of defiance, some of the Kikuyu (Mau Mau) began planning organized attacks against not only British soldiers, but also British settlers. These attacks blossomed into an outright rebellion by 1952, when the Colonial Governor (Evelyn Baring) declared a State of Emergency.</span>Fitz ColinGeraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05228323428579909511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8672169590926088817.post-33095785113506622722018-03-15T00:00:00.002-04:002018-03-15T00:00:01.445-04:00On Quebec's Quiet Revolution<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9qwoXo7Yjps/Wbx7MFMLsBI/AAAAAAAABO4/txTSBJt62dE2lkUkdVjSUnjc17b8WpwNwCLcBGAs/s1600/Rene_Levesque_-_election_1973_-_LAC_PA115039.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="258" data-original-width="386" height="213" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9qwoXo7Yjps/Wbx7MFMLsBI/AAAAAAAABO4/txTSBJt62dE2lkUkdVjSUnjc17b8WpwNwCLcBGAs/s320/Rene_Levesque_-_election_1973_-_LAC_PA115039.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="color: blue;">On Quebec's Quiet Revolution:</span><span style="color: #cc0000;"> In the 1960s and 1970s, the Province of Quebec underwent a series of trans-formative sociopolitical changes. For one thing, the Parti Quebecois (PQ) gained serious traction in provincial politics, which made the prospects of a sovereign, independent Quebec a distinct possibility. As part of this sovereignist instinct, political leaders like Jean Lesage and Rene Levesque (pictured above) wanted the Province to have more direct control over industries like education and healthcare. Prior to the 1960s, much of those two industries were heavily influenced by the Roman Catholic Church. Two other major initiatives of the Quiet Revolution involved areas such as civil service and utilities. With civil service, politicians pushed for a provincial-wide pension system for public employees. And as for utilities, politicians sought energy independence with the increased development of Hydro-Quebec, which generates electricity for the entire Province.</span>Fitz ColinGeraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05228323428579909511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8672169590926088817.post-5702496304936010342018-02-15T00:00:00.000-05:002018-02-17T12:24:58.657-05:00On Cell Theory<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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<span style="color: blue;">On Cell Theory:</span><span style="color: #cc0000;"> After modern compound microscopes became available in Europe during the 1600s, scientists used them to study everyday objects like shoes, teeth, plants, and wood. One such scientist, Anton van Leeuwenhoek from Holland, started as a lens grinder who was able to invent his own microscope. Another such scientist, Robert Hooke from England, began to document what he observed in a book titled <i>Micrographia</i> (1665), which contained a series of drawings and sketches that popularized the emerging science of microscopy. And even though these early microscopes could only magnify objects up to 300 times, these scientists were fascinated by what they saw. Yet it was not until the 1800s that anything tangible regarding "cell theory" became codified. In fact, it's usually two German scientists (Schwann & Schleiden) who are credited with formulating the basic pillars of cell theory (the idea that cells are the fundamental units of life). However, Hooke named them "cells," because they reminded him of where monks went to pray and sleep.</span></div>
Fitz ColinGeraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05228323428579909511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8672169590926088817.post-66535871634003965942018-01-15T00:00:00.000-05:002018-01-15T00:00:50.041-05:001970s New York City = Rock Bottom<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: blue;">1970s New York City = Rock Bottom:</span><span style="color: #cc0000;"> On the verge of financial collapse, NYC in the 1970s was not a place that you wanted to be. Known for its high crime rates, high suicide rates, widespread rat infestations, graffiti-plagued public transit, and political corruption, NYC had reached a low-point in its urban history. Facing bankruptcy, the city was able to secure a series of federal loans topping $3.5 billion. However, these loans came with strict stipulations such as drastically cutting municipal services, including buses, subways, libraries, and police/fire stations. Even NYC's teachers' union, headed by Albert Shanker, had to fork over as much as $150 million from its pension fund to keep the city afloat. Yet aside from financial problems, NYC had also garnered negative press in the 1970s for a variety of other reasons. Perhaps the most infamous was the police department's corruption scandal, which saw detective Frank Serpico testify about the need for vast reforms within the NYPD. Such reforms involved subjects like officer accountability, internal affairs investigations, and confidential informants.</span>Fitz ColinGeraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05228323428579909511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8672169590926088817.post-85071409013134095582017-12-15T00:00:00.000-05:002017-12-15T00:00:15.651-05:00On Thomas Nast's Political Cartoons<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-F6NKJF8jLqY/WfHZQHWwT2I/AAAAAAAABQA/nj3plhno5UsJ1poTyN_xfKgNESbxQqNSgCLcBGAs/s1600/boss-tweed-corruption.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1003" data-original-width="1024" height="313" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-F6NKJF8jLqY/WfHZQHWwT2I/AAAAAAAABQA/nj3plhno5UsJ1poTyN_xfKgNESbxQqNSgCLcBGAs/s320/boss-tweed-corruption.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="color: blue;">On Thomas Nast's Political Cartoons:</span><span style="color: #cc0000;"> In mid-19th-century America, when literacy rates of the general public were not particularly high, Nast's abilities as a cartoonist had a powerful effect on people. One of his first jobs after art school (as a teenager) was to illustrate news stories for a popular magazine (<i>Harper's Weekly</i>). It was clear at an early age that Nast had a knack for drawing. But when a friend encouraged him to caricature evil-doers (especially in the world of politics), it pushed Nast to create the modern political cartoon. And while residing in New York City during the age of Boss Tweed and corruption at Tammany Hall, he incessantly lampooned politicians for their unjust ways (embezzlement). It's stated that between the 1860s and 1880s, Nast's political cartoons even had a profound impact on presidential elections. Perhaps the two most lasting images of Nast were the Democratic donkey and the Republican elephant, which became the symbols for each political party.</span>Fitz ColinGeraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05228323428579909511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8672169590926088817.post-44182919633552912122017-11-15T00:00:00.000-05:002020-06-30T01:59:42.782-04:00On Dorothea Dix and Mental Asylums<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_TpF41cjvTw/XvrUwcoErKI/AAAAAAAABag/YPFa8CmMbvM9V-GzNixRF77Ftq6utYD2QCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/CF96DE2A-9459-4D77-BCE6-935FD60BBE75.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_TpF41cjvTw/XvrUwcoErKI/AAAAAAAABag/YPFa8CmMbvM9V-GzNixRF77Ftq6utYD2QCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/CF96DE2A-9459-4D77-BCE6-935FD60BBE75.jpeg" /></a></div>
<span style="color: blue;">On Dorothea Dix and Mental Asylums:</span><span style="color: #cc0000;"> As one of the earliest advocates for the mentally ill, Dorothea Dix spent much of her life helping to establish America's first generation of state hospitals. Having grown up in the 1810s in Worcester, Massachusetts, Dix extensively lobbied the state to open one of these hospitals in her city. Designed to care for the mentally unstable, these hospitals would operate in a very different manner than prisons. In fact, Dix made a point of going into prisons and identifying those who were mentally unfit for incarceration. She took them back to state hospitals because she believed there was a big difference between common criminals and those who suffered from debilitating mental afflictions. Criminalizing or socially isolating these individuals only made their mental illness worse. Unfortunately, Dix herself suffered from some serious bouts of depression at times, but she persisted in her attempts at "lunacy reform" (which originated in England).</span>Fitz ColinGeraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05228323428579909511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8672169590926088817.post-4142699306552423192017-10-15T00:00:00.000-04:002017-10-15T00:00:01.551-04:00On the French and Indian War<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1cSBPoX5AVw/Wan--Pt7jPI/AAAAAAAABOQ/ki1e0bd-9r8p3W96Jf1p1OrJFbXoqIXIQCLcBGAs/s1600/f-and-i.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="745" height="228" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1cSBPoX5AVw/Wan--Pt7jPI/AAAAAAAABOQ/ki1e0bd-9r8p3W96Jf1p1OrJFbXoqIXIQCLcBGAs/s320/f-and-i.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="color: blue;">On the French and Indian War:</span><span style="color: #cc0000;"> From 1754 to 1763, Britain and France fought for land in North America. Each country had substantial colonial interests (in the "New World") alongside Spain. Britain's lands were primarily coastal with ports extending from what is now Maine down to Georgia. New France's territory included interior lands stretching from Quebec, Canada, past the Great Lakes, and down to the Mississippi Valley. For the most part, British colonists were farmers, which meant they required vast swaths of (cleared) land in order to subsist. On the other hand, French colonists mostly consisted of hunters (fur trappers & traders). Thus, the French colonial lifestyle was more in line with how local Indians were living, including the Iroquois, Mohawk, and Seneca. When violence first erupted between the British and French in Western Pennsylvania, it was only natural for Indians to join the French. In fact, certain British officials like General Edward Braddock were notorious for referring to Indians as "savages," which made British-Indian collaboration (during the war) all but impossible.</span>Fitz ColinGeraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05228323428579909511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8672169590926088817.post-30353794795300716382017-09-15T00:00:00.000-04:002017-09-15T21:19:27.545-04:00On the Prospects of Digital Currency<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-02QhE-uDL8M/WYE0nxUqwjI/AAAAAAAABNw/NIV-HeUwSVs3yegXuOKTTQj2ec-1LcYUQCLcBGAs/s1600/Bitcoin_paper.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="390" data-original-width="729" height="171" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-02QhE-uDL8M/WYE0nxUqwjI/AAAAAAAABNw/NIV-HeUwSVs3yegXuOKTTQj2ec-1LcYUQCLcBGAs/s320/Bitcoin_paper.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="color: blue;">On the Prospects of Digital Currency:</span><span style="color: #cc0000;"> As a virtual form of money, digital currency (or electronic capital) has the potential to upend the global marketplace. Blockchain technology, which consists of a digital ledger for financial/online transactions, can be used to bypass traditional tracking mechanisms of paper money. When a central bank prints paper money for a particular country, it inflates the value of that money in an attempt to manipulate supply. With digital currency, however, pre-designated limits (or caps) to the money supply have already been written into their software codes. Thus, the chances of these digital assets experiencing hyper-inflation have essentially been reduced to nil. Perhaps the three most popular digital currencies today are Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin. All of which benefit from the peer-to-peer anonymity (or lack of traceability) offered by blockchain technology.</span>Fitz ColinGeraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05228323428579909511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8672169590926088817.post-5936306844986315512017-08-15T00:00:00.000-04:002017-09-01T21:30:59.831-04:00On McMansions and Suburban Sprawl<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mNoDHBt7CmU/WV2AFC7KteI/AAAAAAAABNE/-s33NhVqjrQOuDv3PWN4zAsZ7R3QIduPwCLcBGAs/s1600/mcmansion.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="850" height="188" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mNoDHBt7CmU/WV2AFC7KteI/AAAAAAAABNE/-s33NhVqjrQOuDv3PWN4zAsZ7R3QIduPwCLcBGAs/s320/mcmansion.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: blue;">On McMansions & Suburban Sprawl: </span><span style="color: #cc0000;">In a word</span><span style="color: #cc0000;">, a "McMansion" is an unnecessarily over-sized house. That means, it contains over 3,000 square feet of space, and is generally plopped on a half-acre lot (of land). At bottom, McMansions seem to embody the notion of "space for space's sake" (which contributes to sprawl) instead of traditional architecture's preference for durability and usefulness. Part of the reasoning behind the explosion in popularity for this style of American residential architecture was the shift from seeing the house as a practical family-raising space to a liquid financial asset. This paradigm shift in thinking among Americans largely occurred during the 1980s, when the federal government deregulated a variety of industries (including banking and housing). In short, most McMansions tend to disregard basic design principles (balance, symmetry, etc.), and that makes them prime examples of poor architecture. (Photo credit: Kate Wagner)</span></div>
Fitz ColinGeraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05228323428579909511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8672169590926088817.post-71462337760192045952017-07-15T00:00:00.000-04:002017-07-15T00:00:13.371-04:00On Parochial Education<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kzmMVI3yWks/WJYxHsKPiHI/AAAAAAAABJI/-H7I4UdpGpgJ_Ri06B7TQRgwS4KlWA-4gCLcB/s1600/sths.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kzmMVI3yWks/WJYxHsKPiHI/AAAAAAAABJI/-H7I4UdpGpgJ_Ri06B7TQRgwS4KlWA-4gCLcB/s320/sths.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="color: blue;">On Parochial Education:</span><span style="color: #cc0000;"> Perhaps the biggest actor in parochial (religious) education is the Catholic Church. As the largest operator of non-governmental (private) schools in the world, the Church seeks to evangelize its mission by incorporating religion as a core component of K-12 curricula. Following Martin Luther's "95 Theses" (1517) and Henry VIII's creation of the "Church of England" (1534), there was a strong drive among Counter-Reformationists like Ignatius of Loyola to establish Catholic schools. With Anti-Catholicism surging in Northern Europe during the 1500s, Catholic orders (such as the Jesuits) sought to preserve the Church's customs/rituals through education. Traditionally, Catholic schools operated as single-sex institutions, but a push toward co-education in recent decades has become the norm. And this push has ultimately kept many Catholic schools afloat, as the cost of (private) education continues to rise around the world.</span>Fitz ColinGeraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05228323428579909511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8672169590926088817.post-70347105032207452212017-06-15T00:00:00.000-04:002017-06-15T00:00:21.715-04:00On the Gombe Chimpanzee War<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TfNb_z_xDq4/WRi1MR6pffI/AAAAAAAABLc/eQGf_r4c0Nc72IzorPgRuEReWXTACW21QCLcB/s1600/chimp.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TfNb_z_xDq4/WRi1MR6pffI/AAAAAAAABLc/eQGf_r4c0Nc72IzorPgRuEReWXTACW21QCLcB/s320/chimp.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: blue;">On the Gombe Chimpanzee War:</span><span style="color: #cc0000;"> In the mid-1970s, an outbreak of war-like violence between two distinct communities (or groups) of chimpanzees occurred in the Gombe Stream National Park (GSNP). Located in Western Tanzania, along the shores of Lake Tanganyika, the GSNP covers only 20 square miles. Despite being the smallest national park in Tanzania, it's perhaps the most famous because of Jane Goodall's research efforts there. In total, she spent over 30 years conducting observations of chimp behavior in the GSNP. When Goodall's memoir emerged in 1990, it depicted the Gombe Chimpanzee War from a firsthand perspective. Critics of Goodall pounced on her insistence that the Gombe chimps actually had a "war." In fact, many of these critics believed she was anthropomorphizing the chimps to an extreme degree. How could chimpanzees have a human-like war? Did they use guns, planes, and tanks? No, but they did have sticks, fists, and rocks. Plus, many chimps were even known to use rape as a weapon of intimidation.</span></div>
Fitz ColinGeraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05228323428579909511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8672169590926088817.post-34286447426549435412017-05-15T00:00:00.000-04:002017-05-15T00:00:00.528-04:00On Casino Design and Compulsive Gambling<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pXGmipEF16I/WMoF2DxZCuI/AAAAAAAABJw/1eLo260OcUI1vkPxYD5s6bRbaFY2CUhaQCLcB/s1600/casino.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="189" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pXGmipEF16I/WMoF2DxZCuI/AAAAAAAABJw/1eLo260OcUI1vkPxYD5s6bRbaFY2CUhaQCLcB/s320/casino.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="color: blue;">On Casino Design and Compulsive Gambling:</span><span style="color: #cc0000;"> There's a unified purpose behind the lack of wall clocks and windows at casinos: confusion. That unique purpose only gets extended when you factor in the wacky carpets, hard-to-find bathrooms, and free drinks. What casino designers hope to achieve is a genuine lack of awareness among gamblers to the point where all they focus on is gambling. In effect, neither time nor basic human functions should matter when it comes to betting money. Yet if you do manage to find the bathrooms, casinos usually maintain top-notch facilities. Needless to say, compulsive gambling becomes a distinct psychological problem when considering the numerous factors working against the gambler. But aside from all of the casino's purposeful distractions, compulsive gamblers often go to extreme lengths just to recoup any kind of losses. Unfortunately, it tends to morph into a downward spiral that never ends well.</span>Fitz ColinGeraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05228323428579909511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8672169590926088817.post-38305126185131778502017-04-15T00:00:00.000-04:002017-04-15T00:00:02.171-04:00On the Samaritan Woman at the Well<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-L3sMiGBsLIc/WM9GT8JcUWI/AAAAAAAABKM/ob5w2oun1Ug2eqTODJ7Na1X-Dv_djs3bgCLcB/s1600/samaritan-woman.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="245" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-L3sMiGBsLIc/WM9GT8JcUWI/AAAAAAAABKM/ob5w2oun1Ug2eqTODJ7Na1X-Dv_djs3bgCLcB/s320/samaritan-woman.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: blue;">On the Samaritan Woman at the Well:</span><span style="color: #cc0000;"> Not too many people today, at least in the First World, obtain their water from a well or a cistern. Two-thousand years ago, however, it was quite common. For the most part, people would go to the well at either sunrise or sunset. Yet in this Gospel of John story, Jesus encounters the Samaritan woman at the well around noon. This peculiar fact indicates that she may not have been a highly respected individual in Samaria. What's more is that she's said to have had five husbands. Perhaps it's this reason alone why the Samaritan woman has been shunned by the local community. Whatever the case may be, the idea that Jesus (a Jewish man) sought out this Samaritan woman for a spiritual conversation (involving water as a metaphor for eternal life) shows how diplomatic He could be. And diplomacy was always important between Judea and Samaria, especially since the Jews and Samaritans tended to view each other with disdain.</span></div>
Fitz ColinGeraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05228323428579909511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8672169590926088817.post-59822585730586007562017-03-15T00:00:00.001-04:002018-02-10T17:00:58.155-05:00On the Prospects of Cancer Immunotherapy<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-htW7bkGSAn4/WHutm1KsEoI/AAAAAAAABIU/HWPmiCg9MR4y_nK_MmKpPJPvbCAFnkO0wCLcB/s1600/Dendritic_cell_therapy.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-htW7bkGSAn4/WHutm1KsEoI/AAAAAAAABIU/HWPmiCg9MR4y_nK_MmKpPJPvbCAFnkO0wCLcB/s320/Dendritic_cell_therapy.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="color: blue;">On the Prospects of Cancer Immunotherapy:</span><span style="color: #cc0000;"> Essentially, immunotherapy entails the use of a person's immune system in treating cancer. There are both active and passive forms of immunotherapy. Active immunotherapies mostly involve the extraction of immune cells from a patient's blood (or tumor) to be genetically modified, incubated, and returned to the patient with the intention of targeting a specific cancer. Unfortunately, many active immunotherapies are still in varying phases of development at a number biopharmaceutical companies around the world. In fact, one of the only FDA-approved active immunotherapies is a drug called Provenge, which targets prostate cancer. Regarding passive immunotherapies, however, the use of monoclonal antibodies (or MABs) are the main focus. And they are largely designed to supplement the body's response to the active immunotherapies.</span>Fitz ColinGeraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05228323428579909511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8672169590926088817.post-3556366707504738012017-02-15T00:00:00.000-05:002017-02-15T00:00:26.801-05:00On the Origins of Black History Month<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RsgzQeizJ9E/WHrfmgN8dwI/AAAAAAAABHk/DVlIrhaVFuw1AvUY6e6cCSY27HFlxFpIACLcB/s1600/CGWoodson.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="169" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RsgzQeizJ9E/WHrfmgN8dwI/AAAAAAAABHk/DVlIrhaVFuw1AvUY6e6cCSY27HFlxFpIACLcB/s320/CGWoodson.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="color: blue;">On the Origins of Black History Month:</span><span style="color: #cc0000;"> Dating back to the 1920s, Black History Month originally began as "Negro History Week." Carter G. Woodson, a black historian who was only the 2nd African American to graduate with a Ph.D. from Harvard (after W. E. B. Du Bois), first proposed the idea to coincide with the birthdays of President Lincoln (February 12th) and Frederick Douglass (February 14th). And because Douglass was one of the first African Americans to visit the White House (with Lincoln in 1862), the concept of "Negro History Week" made a great deal of socio-cultural sense. Although "Negro History Week" did not officially become Black History Month until the 1970s, its primary purpose remained the same. And that was to teach history through biography. In other words, school children (of all backgrounds) ought to be made aware of the special contributions that black Americans have made to U.S. History.</span>Fitz ColinGeraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05228323428579909511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8672169590926088817.post-23808712248894528972017-01-15T00:00:00.000-05:002017-06-05T23:36:21.672-04:00On Microaggression Theory<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ErbA7At2HdY/WHrI9kV44LI/AAAAAAAABHM/lU0j7Qax1cwERmZRjdJUhK67PN0uaoT8gCLcB/s1600/microagression.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="167" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ErbA7At2HdY/WHrI9kV44LI/AAAAAAAABHM/lU0j7Qax1cwERmZRjdJUhK67PN0uaoT8gCLcB/s320/microagression.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="color: blue;">On Microagression Theory:</span><span style="color: #cc0000;"> Perhaps this psychological theory amounts to nothing more than self-victimization, or perhaps it reveals some deeper truths about the basic super-culture that drives modern, Western capitalism. Originating in the 1970s, which was a decade that saw the Post-WWII block of American hegemony start to fracture (think Vietnam), it's a theory that ultimately gave rise to major sociopolitical concepts of the 1980s like "political correctness" and "identity politics." Nevertheless, microagressions can assume a wide variety of forms, as they encapsulate everything from casual comments about race, class, age, ability, or sex/gender to unconscious actions indicating a fear of "otherness." Examples of microagressions, which are similar to stereotypes, may include something like "what's up with your accent?" or "why are Asians so good at math?" These statements can be collectively considered indications of a dominant culture acting against perceived threats to its power. Yet like any theory involving power relations, if taken too far, pointing out microagressions can begin to limit free speech.</span>Fitz ColinGeraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05228323428579909511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8672169590926088817.post-90555465358009740062016-12-30T00:00:00.000-05:002020-06-30T02:02:44.628-04:00On the Stages of Grief<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Xpij5AE8UeY/XvrVYMZyqDI/AAAAAAAABao/pzcwk1ojJhMYbMCOnnFdPiCA7OatXctRACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/DD0DBB5D-BC27-407C-A51D-1F6D9418BFAF.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="400" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Xpij5AE8UeY/XvrVYMZyqDI/AAAAAAAABao/pzcwk1ojJhMYbMCOnnFdPiCA7OatXctRACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/DD0DBB5D-BC27-407C-A51D-1F6D9418BFAF.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="color: blue;">On the Stages of Grief:</span><span style="color: #cc0000;"> Developed by Swiss psychiatrist Elisabeth Kubler-Ross in 1969, the stages of grief consist of five basic levels. A popular way of describing these levels involves the acronym DABDA, which stands for denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Since Kubler-Ross spent time working with terminally ill patients, much of her early psychiatric research was published in her first book <i>On Death and Dying</i>. For the most part, she was motivated by the lack of medical school curricula that covered the topic of death (especially from the perspective of the mind). Thus, after a variety of patient interviews conducted at University of Chicago's medical school, Kubler-Ross was able to compile a series of lectures on how people come to "accept" death. Unfortunately, she regretted proposing each grief stage in a linear fashion. In other words, denial does not necessarily have to be the first grief symptom, and likewise, acceptance may not even be the last (as some people might never quite "accept" death as a reality). For absurdist philosophers like Albert Camus, questions of death can quickly become futile when one starts to question the actual amount of choices a person can make on a day-to-day basis.</span>Fitz ColinGeraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05228323428579909511noreply@blogger.com0