Finished Slaughterhouse-Five for English class.
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Friday, February 17, 2012
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Life
Life starts with a breath. From the
day we arrive on the planet and blinking step into the sun until a final shaky
breath heralds the end, life is the name of the game.
Or does life start with two gametes meeting? A more conservative
view maintains that yes; a human life exists from conceptions. Controversy over
this assertion is central to the modern arguments over abortions morality and
legality. Such a proposition has interesting legal ramifications. Murder is
legally defined as “the killing of a human being
by a sane person, with intent”2. If a fetus is a human life, then
abortion is murder. If not, then it is a medical procedure an individual may
settle on after assessment of their circumstances.
For some forms of life, such considerations
aren’t even part of the picture. It may be merely a matter of splitting the
cytoplasm and divvying us the organelles. In fact, in the eyes of science life
is anything that grows and changes, consumes and produces byproducts, responds
to the world and gives rise to progeny. Black
and white as that delineation may sound, it is surrounded by an ideological
gray zone. Bacteria, nothing like the familiar fur and feathers we think of as
life, none the less fulfill all of these requirements. Viruses perpetuate using a genetic storage
system coded in the same language as our own, but being unable to
self-replicate they are barred from the land of the living.
The lines drawn between virus and bacteria may one day evolve into
a more complex painting of life’s confines. New horizons in the defining of
life loom in the modern age. The birth of advanced artificial intelligence,
though irrelevant by the biological standard, has the potential to demand new
distinctions. Already programs come much closer to resembling life as we
commonly think of it than any amoeba. The space age has drawn the once radical
concept of extraterrestrial life into the realm of academic credence. It is possible
that such life would present itself in a much different form than the one which
we earthlings (humanoid and amoeba alike) enjoy.
What is Life, .5EssayDraft
Discussion of theory, AP Chemistry
What is Life, .5EssayDraft
Impressionism of the London parliament building which I am recreating in french class.
Political Cartoons
“Vote as you shot” was a morally
poignant political slogan used in Ulysses S. Grant’s 1868 presidential campaign.
Aimed at veterans of the recently concluded Civil War, it urged them to reflect
in their ballots the values they had shot and killed for in the war by voting
republican. The appeal is backed up in the image above with cheering soldiers,
waving stars n’ stripes and an olive branch adorned Lady Liberty in the foreground.
The inscription of Grant’s name on the canon proudly highlights his role in the
North’s military success.
It is from the precarious position of
a circus trapeze that this pointed statement on the Grant administration is
made. Grant is shown in a patriotic leotard, weighed down by his clowns of
cabinet members and subordinates. He had been greatly hampered by the
corruption of his clingers-on, and his administration continually humiliated by
a string of their scandals.
A wounded elephant, symbolic of the
Republican Party, occupies the foreground with the olive branches of the Civil
War’s end upon its head. Behind, a tombstone displaying the name Tiger marks
the resting place of the Democratic Party. The cartoon effectively shows the
battered state of the union that emerged from the great sectional conflict. As
the dust settled on the Civil War, one Party emerged broken, the other not at
all; that the pain and hardship of the era touched both factions is well displayed.
A towering
figure stands over the scene, portly and top hat wearing in the likeness of
famous capitalists of the time. It is a personification of holding companies, a
manifest of the unrestrained capitalism that characterized the gilded age.
These entities existed then as they do now, to control shares of other
companies. Shown dwarfing a trio of famed bandits with “billions of loot” under
each arm, this depiction of holding companies points an accusing finger at
their massive gains. Next to the ‘modern’ colossus of questionable wealth
accumulation, the towering criminals of old were mere “pikers” (makers of small
bets, stingy or cautious people).
In this
depiction, the barrel of gilded age politics is shown held together with
nothing but various rings of fraud and conspiracy. The Tammany ring was a
political machine which held huge power in New York. The Whiskey ring had been
siphoning millions in sidestepped alcohol taxes since Lincoln’s presidency, but
was not exposed until 1875. Sundry others represented more instances of the pervasive
intrigue that characterized the pseudo-golden age of the post-antebellum U.S.
Uncle Sam’s investigation yields only more condemnable instances, including the
deceptive sale of the depleted Emma Silver Mine to the British and the under
handed dealings of William W. Belknap and his Indian Ring in there supply of
the Native Americans.
Cornelius
Vanderbilt, railroad tycoon and one of the richest men in American history, is
identifiable here by the ornate V on the pillow at his feet. He was one of the
“big five” persons of wealth and power in his day. He is surrounded by leisure
books, tassels and plush adornments of his rail car. Weather because it is
unnoticed or unimportant, he ignores the train wreck just beyond his window. It
was in these people that the popular ethic of Social Darwinism was best
exemplified. The Idea that the more fit rose naturally to prominence and should
not be interfered with was used to justify strictly lasses faire policies.
The perspective dangers of runaway
capitalism (especially consolidation of railroad companies) and the public’s
blindness to it are addressed in the drawing. Ordinary Americans, the common
people, the regular partisans are shown lying passively and obliviously under
the tracks of “consolidation train”. The approach of the amalgamated railroad
companies and the extortion, bribery, usurpation and oppression brought with it
is overlooked. The warnings of the small farmers who were often hurt by the allocation
of their lands to railroad development and the company’s monopolies on shipping
were ignored.
The Tammany Ring, more formally known
as the Society of St. Tammany, Tammany Hall or the Columbian Order, was a super
power of New York politics. It was named after a Native American leader of the
Lenape and originated as a club using many native words and customs. As a democratic party political machine it controlled
the vote from 1854 to 1931, most notably by garnering the loyalty if immigrants.
There assistance in finding residence and employment, providing emergency food
and money, and creating helpful public works and programs truly benefited many
immigrants. While under the jurisdiction of William M. “Boss” Tweed, however,
Tammany Hall became a platform for political corruption and graft. Money
readily found its way into the pockets of Tweed and his appointees, and as the
image shows, little more than vigorous finger pointing resulted.
Partially finished assignment on Gilded Age cartoons.
Le Musee d'industrie et sciences.
Which I am drawing for French Class.
Report on Recombinant Spider silk. Or the start of one.
Happy Valentines Day!
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