I don’t know enough about current events, so after changing my topic from historical things (the history of a place, or ancient cats),  I finally decided to learn about a current conflict I know nothing about.

• The Refugee Crisis
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• At this point in time, almost 9 million refugees have been displaced—6.5 million internally displaced refugees in Syria, and another 3 million throughout the Middle East and Europe. This is the greatest diaspora on the European continent since World War II.
• The Syrian Civil War began in March 2011, in part a result of/response to the Arab Spring, a series of political uprisings throughout the Middle East. The Arab Spring began with the Tunisian Revolution in December 2010. The ruling Presidents and governments of Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen were overthrown by the end of February 2012.

• So how did it start in Syria? Syria has been ruled by a dictatorship, the Al-Assad family, since the 1970s, and there was growing unrest and dissatisfaction with the quasi-dictatorship, especially with the Arab Spring.
• Then, in 2011 several young teenage boys, who had graffitied pro-revolutionary slogans on a school wall, were arrested and tortured. Their story sparked the anti-government protests. This is a picture of one of the boys, now living in Jordan:
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• Unlike other countries in the Arab Spring, when these protests started, President Bashar al-Assad refused to step down. Over the course of 2011 and 2012, the conflict escalated into civil war.
• There are a number of rebel groups involved, and the divisions are both regional and dogmatic. President al-Assad is Shia, Alawite sect, while the majority of the country and the opposition forces are Sunni.
  • Iran-based Hezbollah entered the war in 2013 in support of the Syrian Army.
  • ISIS also took advantage of the situation to enter the war and strengthen their power—they have gained control over large areas of both Syria and Iraq
  • Russia joined the war also in support of President al-Assad, and began an air campaign against opposition groups in September 2015 that’s been particularly brutal
  • The US, UK and French coalition, supporting the oppositions forces, also launched its own air strike in 2014 in an attempt to shut down ISIS. While the coalition supports the pro-democratic rebel forces, they have been afraid to do too much, in fear of inadvertently helping the pro-government forces. For example, they’ve been unwilling to provide anti-aircraft weaponry, which could really help with the Russian air strikes, for fear of allowing the weapons to fall into the hands of ISIS or other jihadist extremists.
• Obama was considering US involvement in Syria in August 2013, but ultimately decided against it. Many have accused him for not intervening in Syria at that time, before things escalated to the degree they’re at now.
• “The disappointment caused by the West’s inaction created a fertile recruiting ground for extremists, who told those who had lost their loved ones that they were their only hope” —Majed, a 26-year-old civil society activist (BBC)

• What began as an internal uprising has turned into an international war. Serious human rights violations have been committed—multiple massacres have occurred
• “By June 2013, the UN said 90,000 people had been killed in the conflict. By August 2015, that figure had climbed to 250,000, according to activists and the UN” (BBC). And this is in addition to the 9 million refugees.
• Many (most) of these refugees are suffering with psychological and health problems, which creates more problems for the countries that are taking them in.
• According to statistics in 2015, 95% of the refugees are in crowded, under-supplied camps in neighboring countries.
• Germany established an open door policy, and Merkel also faced critique for taking a too-lenient stance.

• Here’s a video that really breaks down the causes and beginnings, as well as the significant consequences, of the Syrian crisis:
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvOnXh3NN9w
• There have been some efforts for resolution: in 2014, the UN held peace talks, known as “Geneva II,” but they broke down after only two rounds. The UN then sought to establish a number of areas of ceasefire, “freeze-zones,” which was partially successful, in some areas.
• Most recently: “The US and Russia led efforts to get representatives of the government and the opposition to attend “proximity talks” in Geneva in January 2016 to discuss a Security Council-endorsed road map for peace, including a ceasefire and a transitional period ending with elections” (BBC).
• These talks are going on right now. The New York Times coverage reports that there is a lot of doubt surrounding these talks and the agreed-to ceasefire—whether groups will actually comply with the agreement in reality, or whether the ceasefires will actually make any difference. One recent ceasefire agreement didn’t apply to ISIS or Nusra Front, which made it doubtful whether it will be any more effective than previous ceasefires. From a New York Times article today (Feb 24^th), the Syrian Government and opposition groups did agree to a ceasefire, a pause in the war, but all groups involved—including the US and Russia, who led the agreement—are doubtful as to whether this “pause” in fighting will make any difference in the course of the war.

The Black Panther Party (originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense) was founded on October 15th, 1966 by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale. Its founding came as a reaction against the social and economic inequality plaguing the lives of black individuals in the U.S. Many African-Americans were still facing health problems, housing problems, and violence from law enforcement officials even after the Civil Rights legislation of the 1960s. Knowing this, both Newton and Seale created a new revolutionary organization that “adopted a socialist way of approaching issues within a community,”(PBS, Formation). They began 35 community development projects or “Survival Programs” (like free children’s breakfast, Liberation Schools, etc.), patrolled black neighborhoods as to protect black individuals from police violence, and outlined a Ten-Point Program that aimed to reverse the negative effects of capitalism and economic oppression.

[Huey Newton (right) and  Bobby Seale (left) at Black Panther Party headquarters in San Francisco]

It’s important to note, however, that the Black Panther Party did not really make their way onto the national scene until two major events in 1967. The first came on May 2nd, when twenty-nine armed Panthers disrupted a California State Legislature, protesting the Mulford Act, a gun control bill that would have made “carrying a loaded weapon within city limits a crime” (Jones, “The political repression…”). The Panthers claimed that this bill would interfere with their ability to patrol police in black neighborhoods. (Weapons were only used as a means of protection from retaliation). A few months later, on October 28th, tensions between the law enforcement an the BPs escalated, when a shoot out left a police officer dead and a wounded Huey Newton. Newton was soon charged with first degree murder, which eventually became a rallying point for the BPP.

Over the course of two years, the Panthers’ membership grew to over 2,000, with 32 chapters in 15 states and allies from abroad (Jones, “The political repression…”). This, of course, did not go unnoticed. The FBI, recognizing the group’s use of communist and socialist ideology, declared the Panthers an enemy of the government.  They were eventually considered to be the ‘number one threat to the security of the United States’ (Jones, “The political repression…”). The government even devoted some of COINTELPRO’s resources (the FBI’s Counterintelligence Program) to completely disembowel the organization by 1969. The campaign against the Panthers eventually came to its height during a five hour shoot out at their Southern California headquarters and an Illinois state police raid that left Chicago Panther leader, Fred Hampton, dead.

Works Cited:

“Black Panther Party”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2016. Web. 23 Feb. 2016 <http://www.britannica.com/topic/Black-Panther-Party>.

“Formation.” PBS, n.d. Web. 21 Feb. 2016. pbs.org/hueypnewton/actions/actions_formation.html

Jones, Charles E. “The political repression of the Black Panther Party 1966-1971: The case of the Oakland Bay area.” Journal of Black Studies 18.4 (1988): 415-434  www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/2784371.pdf?acceptTC=true

Photo:

http://diaspora.northwestern.edu/mbin/WebObjects/DiasporaX.woa/wa/displayArticle?atomid=697

Ever since I spent a few days lost in the tundra of Northern Alaska, I have been in love with topographical maps. I think they are incredibly beautiful, and I am fascinated by the way they depict the world so scientifically without looking like the landscape they represent. Maps of the wild and of the geo-political world fascinate me, and apparently they have fascinated the world for all of human history.

The human need to map the world we live in, to record and depict it, predates the written word (Clark 6). Fundamentally, mapping is about “the transfer of information from one form of presentation into a re-presentation of that information,” an effort that is both scientific and artistic (Pickles 75). Maps are not depictions of absolute fact; any two dimensional map is inherently inaccurate in terms of shape, distance, area, and/or direction, and cartographers’ choices on which information to sacrifice have effects beyond the page.

The technology of the 21^st century has improved the accuracy and detail of maps; in fact, we are more and more using photographs (think Google maps) rather than drawing or graphs to navigate the world. However, the methods of old are still used today as well. Triangulation, or using trigonometry to establish distances between objects, is still used by surveyors, especially in mountainous areas. Sonar, GIS, and satellite images have also been added to the arsenal of tools.

The oldest maps we know of (on clay blocks) were probably used to establish ownership of certain land areas (Clark 18). However, just as soon as we were mapping the earth, we began mapping the stars. Many surviving maps from centuries past were used by sailors, in conjunction with the stars, to follow trade routes. The undiscovered world was designated by images of sea serpents and other frightening creatures, with the inscription: “Here be dragons” (Casey 10). Other ancient maps were mostly artwork, adorned with elaborate pictures of gods and spirits, meant to depict the relationship between the realm of deities and the earth.

During the 2^nd century, the Greco-Egyptian Ptolemy (famous for his geocentric model of the universe- another map) established the convention of putting the equator in the center, and invented the concept of a prime meridian as well as longitudinal and latitudinal lines (Clark 38). Centuries later, Columbus used Ptolemy’s maps in an attempt to reach Asia by sea; the Greco-Egyptians only knew of Africa, Asia, and Europe.

The 16^th-17^th centuries are considered the “Age of Atlases” (Clark 116). The 1500s saw a rise in the use of pictoral representations of mountains and rivers, although altitude was not accurately scaled. In 1590, cartographer Gerardus Mercator published a book of maps depicting the god Atlas holding the world on the front cover, and the term “atlas” was born (Clark 106). By 1686, maps included wind patterns, and sailors began adjusting for the difference between true north and magnetic north (Clark 52).

However, maps are not just reflections of observations, attempts at mirroring the natural landscape; throughout history, maps have also been used as the source of truth. 16^th and 17^th century land disputes between France and England over North America were fueled by propaganda maps that showed differing divisions of the land (Clark 120). The borders we see between countries and states are man-made designations that we have imposed on the world and put our faith in. The famous Peters projection depicts the earth south-side up, challenging a convention started by Europeans who (naturally) placed Europe above other countries (we are just floating in space, and the magnetism of the planet switches so it truly is arbitrary).

Other maps reveal truths. For example, scientist John Snow famously mapped the spread of cholera and used his findings to theorize the existence of germs (Clark 66). Maps that move through time can show the spread of a civilization or a religion.

We also use maps to depict landscapes we will never see, reaching to the arms of the universe and to our inner beings. We send million-dollar probes to Venus and use sonar to penetrate the thick atmosphere and create a graph of the topology of its surface (Clark 100). We make maps of our own brains, trying to understand it as a space with divisions and specific functions. What Lord of the Rings or The Phantom Tollbooth fan hasn’t traced the paths of the characters through the maps on the inner book cover?

Our apparent obsession with mapping has bases in both pragmatism and the human desire for adventure. The maps of the tundra of northern Alaska, for example, were funded by the cold war military, showing details of topography and brush cover to use in the case of ground warfare. However, these lands were first scouted by the explorer Bob Marshall, who returned again and again to that land where the sun circles the sky in summer and never rises in winter for the sake of discovery. On the other end of the Earth, lives were lost in epic expeditions to the South Pole, in attempts to find the center and be the mapmakers. We are trying to map the ocean floor, perhaps for finding fossil fuels but also for the sake of discovery.

As we know more of the world, we reach farther away, searching for more of the unknown. We are looking at places we may never go, planets we may never see, and yet we try to understand the lines and edges, the curve of the land and the size of the oceans. The human race is on a never ending search for its dragons.

Works Cited

Casey, Edward S. Earth-mapping: Artists Reshaping Landscape. Minneapolis:     University of Minnesota Press, 1939. Print.

Clark, John O. E., ed. 100 Maps: The Science, Art and Politics of Cartography        Throughout History. New York: Sterling Publishing, 2005. Print.

Pickles, John. A History of Spaces: Cartographic Reason, Mapping and the Geo-coded     World. London: Routledge, 2004. Print.

Images

https://soloswimmer.wordpress.com/2012/07/17/here-be-dragons/http://www.thecanyon.com/http://www.americansouthwest.net/topo-maps/north-kaibab-trail2.jpghttp://expositions.nlr.ru/eng/map_merkator/4.phphttp://www.stonegallery.info/graphics/17thmapgraphics/ml-0693.jpghttp://blogs.plos.org/publichealth/files/2013/03/John-Snows-cholera-map-of-009.jpghttp://laps.noaa.gov/albers/sos/venus/venus_shaded.jpghttp://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/lotr/images/7/72/Middleearthmap.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20100402045252http://www.nps.gov/gaar/planyourvisit/images/The-Gates-map-800×500.jpg

Hiccups (or Hiccoughs) are defined as two seemingly simultaneously involuntary contractions in the diaphragm and larynx, that causes the epiglottis to close causing the characteristic hic noise. That’s a whole lot of science to mean that something in your belly and your neck tense up causing a little flap in your throat to close. Let’s start with what happens in your belly. The diaphragm is a muscular dome that is found at the base of our breathing system.

Located at the bottom of our lungs it separates our lungs from the rest of internal organs. So when we breath in the muscle contracts, pushing down all the organs below, our stomach, liver, kidneys and all, so that our lungs can fully expand with air.

Next we have the contraction in the larynx. The larynx or voice box is found in our throat and contains the supraglottis, the vocal cords, the glottis, the subglottis and, most importantly for hiccups, the epiglottis.

The epiglottis is that little flap that’s red with blue in the center all the way at the top of the larynx. Now when we breathe in and out all that air has to travel past the open epiglottis to get into our lungs. When we swallow food, it snaps shut to keep it from getting down into the trachea (our breathing tube) and causing us to choke.

So what happens when we hiccup? Basically there is a spasm in the diaphragm. A spasm is when a muscle quickly tenses up without us using our brain to tell it to do so. So rather than normally contracting and relaxing as we breathe, suddenly it sharply contracts. At the same time in our throat, the epiglottis snaps shut and there isn’t even any food it needs to protect our lungs from! For just a moment we can’t breath, which causes us to make the hic sound of a hiccup, as the air gets stopped by the epiglottis as we try to breathe it in.

But why do we hiccup? Well the biological, sciencey explanation is our vagus nerve causes these contractions. Our nervous system controls EVERYTHING in our body. Many of them work to run our body, making it pump blood, breathe, digest food, without our having to even think about it. The vagus nerve connects our brain to our organs so that it can keep our heart at a constant rhythm, digest our food and keep our body breathing. Now the series of contractions happen when our vagus nerve gets stimulated, or tickled, in a certain way that it tells our diaphragm to contract and our epiglottis to close.

Now here is where we get to the tricky part. Scientists still have not discovered the reason why we hiccup. In fact, hiccuping, despite being found in animals as well as humans, serves no actual purpose. It is a completely useless function! Here are some possible causes:

• Drinking fizzy drinks
• Eating too quickly
• Eating too much, which puts pressure on the diaphragm
• Sudden changes in your environment’s temperature
• Eating hot or spicy food
• Drinking alcohol

But we still do not what it is about all of these different causes that sometimes do and don’t cause hiccups.

How do you get rid of hiccups? There are many different solutions, eating sugar or peanut butter, taking tiny sips of water, making yourself gag or, as the legend goes, scaring someone so they gasp and forget about their hiccups. None of them have proved to be the be all end all solution so keep exploring until you find out what works for you. That being said, if your hiccups last longer than 48 hours, you should go see a doctor!

Souces:

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/181573.php?page=2

What are hiccups, and how exactly can you get rid of them?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larynx

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thoracic_diaphragm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vagus_nerve

http://www.healthline.com/human-body-maps/vagus-nerve

Act 1: The Beginning

Pixar lamp video

(spoken over the video)
and then one morning
I woke up and felt alive.
my senses had opened
and suddenly, I felt happier.

Act 2: Upside Down

*at the same time

Act 3: Are you Happy?

*2 minutes of Pokemon card trading*

“Who changed cards?
Who kept the same?
Are you happy with what you have?”

To understand how memory works, lets start with the functions of different parts of the brain:

The prefrontal cortex processes short term memory, such as a sign on the highway or the room number of a hotel room.
The amygdala helps store conscious and unconscious emotions. It also stores emotional memories.
The hippocampus is used for transferring memories from short term to long term.

Now what is the difference between short term and long term memory anyway?

Short term memory lasts about 15 to 30 seconds and is supported by regular brain activity in the prefrontal cortex.
Long term memory actually has a physical presence in the brain, stored in the prefrontal cortex so that it can be accessed later.

There are two categories of long term memory:
Implicit– remembered habits and skills
Explicit- things that we are actively trying to remember. There are two types of explicit memories: episodic memories (things that happened to you) and semantic memories (general knowledge)

How does the brain actually store these long term memories?

a process called encoding. The hippocampus links all relevant information together into one memory by connecting neurons so that signals can pass from one to the other. Basically, it’ll connect elements of one event into single episode or memory so you don’t have separate memories of how that event smelled, looked etc. It also decides what information is important to keep in the long term memory. Priorities include memories with strong emotional components and memories rehearsed repeatedly in short term memory (which is how you retain the information you study, for example).

Once a new memory is formed, the neurons with that memory stay in the hippocampus for a while before moving further in the cortex. Long term memories are stored based on the strong component of that memory–for example, a spoken memory will probably be stored near the language centers. You can also have memories stored in multiple places.

Why are some memories stronger than others?

Whenever you think about a memory, you make that memory stronger in your mind. By reactivating the memory, you can cause the memory to be stored again in different part of your brain, literally increasing it’s “rent space” in your brain. Due to this factor, memories are always being changed and updated, so you won’t remember your memories as you did the day before (if you’re thinking about them).

If our memories changes, how can we be sure that we remember them correctly?

The answer is that we can’t be sure. Because our memories can evolve as we think about them, it’s very easy for them to change based on our thoughts. Studies have shown that many innocent people confess to crimes they did not commit because of a false memory that was implanted in their head. These people have no reason to confess–in fact, they have much more reason to lie; and yet, they are still convinced they committed a crime. As our memories are subject to change, they are by nature unreliable.

Sight

video here

Smell &Taste
*I presented them in class together so I have rerecorded it in the same manner*

Video here
*in the cup is melted plastic*

Touch

    *all aboard the party express*

Hearing

Sight, Hearing, Touch (together)

The Federalist Papers, originally known as “The Federalist” were a series of eighty-five essays written between October 1787 and August 1788 that argued in support of the newly drafted U.S. Constitution. The essays were written by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison, all under the pseudonym “Publius”. The pseudonym, chosen in honor of Publius Valerius Publicola, was picked by Hamilton, as Publius was essential to the founding of the Roman Republic. Hamilton felt that this would hopefully parallel the importance of the Federalist Papers in the ratification of the Constitution. The essays were published in a series of newspapers, The Independent Journal, The New York Packet,  and The Daily Advertiser and all were published anonymously. It wasn’t until Hamilton’s death in a duel with Aaron Burr that he was revealed as one of the authors. It is widely believed that Hamilton wrote fifty-one of the essays, Jay wrote five and Madison wrote twenty-nine. Jay was going to contribute more, but fell ill after writing four (numbers 2-5) and so didn’t write another essay until number sixty-four.  Madison disputed these numbers, claiming he had written more than his twenty-nine, but none of the authors ever released a breakdown of authorship, so the exact who wrote what is still up for debate, and will never be known for sure. Only seventy-seven of the essays were originally published, and the other eight were added in later when the collection was published. 

Hamilton masterminded the Federalist Papers as a way of garnering support for the Constitution. All three authors of the Federalist Papers were strong nationalists, hoping to increase public support for the new Constitution, which was written to replace the old Articles of Confederation, and it had to be passed by nine of the thirteen states. The Federalist Papers were written to counteract opposition that the Constitution would create a large, tyrannical central government that would infringe on state’s liberties. They instead argued that the proposed government as outlined by the Constitution would keep the Union from falling apart and would give the federal government the ability to act with authority in the national interest. They pushed the idea of checks and balances, outlining how the Constitution’s clear outline of defined powers of the government would be the best way to protect the individual rights of each state.

While it is not fully clear how much of an impact the Federalist Papers had on the public at the time (although, the Constitution was obviously ratified), they have since been compiled and are widely studied in conjunction with the Constitution as a great analysis and interpretation for the founding principles of the United States.

References