Mishasteier's Weblog

Creative Expression Reflection

mishasteier — Wed, 14 May 2008 20:20:38 +0000

Technique
In my project each of my 46 pictures is placed there with a purpose and each image flashes across the screen in correspondence with the narration. Several of my pictures have been altered in Adobe Photoshop either to add text or increase the impact of the image. In Photoshop I used the paint tool to superimpose a comic-style text bubble above the head of Stephen Hawking to bluntly get my message across. I also used the inspector tool in keynote to increase the opacity on certain images. I would then place the new images on top of pictures in a new slide to transform the image from the initial image to achieve a desired effect. I.E. the image of the Swiss countryside and the image of hell I placed on top of it to show hell being unleashed in the Swiss countryside. When thinking about how best to get people excited about quantum mechanics I turned to the kings of sensationalism, the narrators on the Discovery Channel. They consistently make the most boring of science sound dramatic using deep voices, cryptic wording, and dramatic, yet strangely seductive, growls at the end of each transition. I attempted to channel these anonymous voices when narrating my video and I think I did a halfway decent job.

Process
Honestly, the way I operate best is under the adrenaline rush only a deadline can provide so I only started working a couple days before the due date. Once I was in crisis mode I managed to get passionate about the documentary and it turned into genuine fun once my script was done and I got to start looking for pictures. The entire 48 hour period before the exhibition my concentration was focused like a laser beam and I refused to take a lunch or even use the bathroom. The concept of fair use made my artistic life so much easier as I got to use images to teach kids and the copyr®ight Nazi’s© at Disney® can’t stop me. The idea behind fair use is that a piece of intellectual property can be used if the intent is to educate or better the public in some way. If fair use did not exist I would have to spend hours trolling creative commons for images that loosely related to the idea I was trying to convey but in no way impacted it. I had my friend James by my side the entire time and each new slide I would turn to him and ask him “is that chill”, a nod meant carry on my wayward son and that was what I got most of the time.

Point Of View
For this video I really cut loose and tried to make exactly what I wanted to make. I feel like parts of me show up in the silly voiceover of Stephen Hawking and the melodramatic voiceover. When making the video I viewed myself as an ideological sledgehammer and saw it as my duty to attack the brains of the viewers until they believed what I wanted them to believe. I constantly mentioned the impending doom of the earth and used a black background so the images would be focused on by any who viewed the video. The Slayer song Reign in blood was used to convey a sense of mayhem and urgency and I did a little editing to make certain parts of the song sync up with the dramatic parts of the video I.E. the rainfall starting as the mention of what we would lose if the Large Hadron Collider exploded the planet.

Context and Connections
The inspiration for my documentary style, as I have said before, is the Discovery Channel and its pseudo-educational ilk. I believe that the people making those documentaries would like to actually focus on the information like a BBC style documentary but the way the American mind works they need to cram as many loud noises and exploding murders into each 23-minute documentary on beehives as possible if they want to compete with America’s Next Top Model. I wanted to dramatize the hard science and the issues behind the Large Hadron Collider so I used the deepest voice possible and recorded in an echo chamber to try to emulate the Discovery Channel narrators.
I specifically attempted to avoid looking like those millions of amateurish youtube videos where someone gets 40 pictures and then goes on iMovie and proceeds to make a film that is a series of 5-second clips pointlessly set to a Linkin Park or Marilyn Manson song. I tried to keep the picture on the screen just as long as possible and made sure the transitions were at an appropriate time in regards to my narration. Initially I was worried about making a powerpoint interesting but in Digital Design class our teacher showed us a video of a Powerpoint Stanford Professor Lawrence Lessing had done. Instead of just showing the powerpoint and awkwardly speaking about each slide he had a script that supplemented his powerpoint. So each slide synced up with a word or thought in his speech and I thought this was a great way to make a powerpoint interesting and attempted to utilize it.

Reflection
I was proud of the work I did on this project. I had fun doing it so I think that’s why it came out as well as it did. The ideas are expressed clearly and it was entertaining when compared to a lot of the other documentaries I saw. Part of the reason I thought it went over so well was the Slayer and the general atmosphere of urgency I employed when making my video. I liked how entranced people were when they watched mine and I think the reason the ideas really came across was I was excited about the information and I showed the parts of the information I thought were excited in my video. I wish I could have made it more professional because I feel my video was kind of amateurish. If we had had more time to work on it I would have called on of the leaders of the Large Hadron Collider Concern group who ok’d an interview on the telephone. I think this documentary impresses people who don’t know about the subject but it was a little weak on the actual scientific content and I feel like an accomplished scientist would be disgusted by my sensational retelling of scientific facts.

Math Reflection

mishasteier — Wed, 14 May 2008 17:38:02 +0000

Math: My lost mistress
My torrid love affair with math began in the summer of 1995. I was a Fresh-Faced blonde 4 year old whos academic parents had decided I was wise enough beyond my years to skip a mandatory year of pre-school and begin kindergarten early. My stomach turned on itself as I entered my elementary school library and was paralyzed by the towering piles of books and figures of my peers concerned parents worrying over what was to be the first placement test in a series of impersonal occurances that would define their childrens lives. I was ushered to a white cubicle in the back of the room where a rotund woman with a ratty blonde ponytail clutched a stack of white flashcards and hungrily smiled as I approached. I sat on a miniature day-glo colored chair as the woman proceeded to ask me a series of seemingly unrelated questions along the lines which square is bigger and if Johnny has 4 apples and you take 2 away what does he have left? The 3 hours seemed to fly by as these little puzzles opened themselves up to me and I was later informed that I was more than qualified to proceed to supposed intellectual haven that was kindergarten.
Kindergarten was a blur of fingerpainting and misspelling the word cat but in 1st grade my intellect blossomed thanks to the caring and patient help of my first grade teacher Ms. Miyamasu. Ms. Miyamasu had all the grace and class of the Venus de Milo and a stoic manner that could calm the streets of Mogadishu. My vague interest in math erupted in recesses spent doing extra credit math problems and free time reading textbooks. I hungrily devoured roman numerals and quickly tired of remainders knowing there were greater ways to think of division. I spent hours with Ms. Miyamasu doing long division problems and she managed to wrangle a copy of the 6th graders math workbook. The seemingly endless flow of new information captivated me as math represented a world where everything fell into place but nothing was too simple. My fascination held strong throughout elemtary school helped along by a string of teachers only too willing to help and guide.
Middle school was a turning point in my math career as the darker side of mathematics reared its ugly head. My middle school pre-algebra teacher was a heinous reminder of the problems with tenure. She had been situated at our school for decades and was much less passionate about teaching as she was about having her gaggle of favorite students sit in front of the class and demonstrate their nice penmanship on the board. She valued brown noses and red ink. Repetitive drills about the multiplication table and math themed acronyms were the norm and little math was actually taught. I remember the breaking point was when I received a barely passing grade on one of my tests because of “illegitability” despite my correct answers. I could take no more and blew up at her in front of the entire class. She did not appreciate my loud admonishments reagarding the pertinence of handwriting to numbers and the rest of my middle school career was spent in the back of the class doodling and nurturing a profound distrust of the system that had resulted in this injustice. Math, I concluded, was a dated practice set in stone and not open to imagination or feeling.
In high school the IMP program was much more in tune with what I would have needed in middle school but it was unfortunately too late. Math education should focus more on the process aynd reasons behind math and less on multiplication tables and proofs. IMP does this by breaking down huge problems like the unit problem into a series of understandable exercises and making the entire process digestible. We are taught, not only the way to do the problem, but the process behind the way to do the problem. All my math teachers in CAT have been totally nurturing and stay hours after school where as my previous teachers left immediately at 3:15 because the job was done and the union was strong.
While, I know this to no longer be the case I can not shake the negative connotations math has aquired. Certain aspects of popular culture like the movie Pi and books on Fermat’s Enigma have shown me math can be exciting and beautiful but not for me. I can not forget the three years of horrible teaching I received on the subject and the way I was forced over and over again to do repetitive tasks left me with a sort of mental carpal tunnel syndrome in my math brain. Children should be allowed to flourish and go at their own paces. One of the major flaws in our education system is the strict adherence to the standardized test and the manner in which real earning is undermined by programs like No Child Left Behind which stress regurgitation and not actual knowledge. I feel like the teachers I had ruined what could have been a lifelong love. I will always look back fondly on my recesses spent flipping through the 6th graders textbooks, feeling as though I had been let in on some huge secret but I will never again be able to look at a group of numbers and feel good about it.

Multimedia:Eureka Reflection

mishasteier — Wed, 14 May 2008 17:30:36 +0000

www.es-cat.org/~msteir

Artist Statement for Eureka Website
When making my website I kept in mind the exact idea I wanted to get across. My project was on the risks surrounding the upcoming activation of the Large Hadron Collider an event, like all things apocalyptic, which has captured the public imagination. I wanted people to consider these risks against the chorus of voices in the physics community telling us we have nothing to fear. While I too believe that the LHC prevents no serious risk to humanity I believe that the doubts are valid and being too lightly tossed aside by the scientists who are building the LHC. As the capturing of public opinion is a propaganda war I wanted to present a website that would scare anyone who saw it into thinking twice about the LHC. On my website everything I have to say is set in white against a black backdrop so as to catch the eye and I condense my points into a sentence or two with an available link to further information. The links are all fully functional and set in white against the darkest part of whatever page they are on, and often times they are the only text on the page itself.
All of the color in my website is either black or close to black because black is often associated with death, destruction, chaos, mystery, ill-fortune, and evil. I don’t exactly know why, maybe it’s an evolutionary development that prevented homo erectus from wandering into the black of night and getting mauled by panthers. But, I digress you came here for art reflections not developmental psychology. The intent of my website is to add to the atmosphere of general fear surrounding the LHC so as to sensationalize the risks and generate a discussion. The constant use of black and all its negative connotations is intended to produce a visceral reaction in the viewer.
Much in the same vein as mentioned above all images were selected to evoke fear and despair as all of my images are apocalyptic in nature. I used an image of Ragnarok, the Norse end of days, in the background of my video page. An image of a dead skeleton of a city adorns my front page and nuclear explosions are the buttons. My bibliography page contains a black hole that is supposed to remind the viewer of the one I warn of in my video. My page, while perhaps not tactfully executed, serves its purpose to add to the general atmosphere of fear I’m trying to cast on this discussion. There is overwhelming denial in the scientific community that there is any risk and since I can’t generate discussion logically I designed my page to force a discussion.

English Reflection

mishasteier — Wed, 14 May 2008 16:26:50 +0000

Warning:The following reflection contains gratuitous amounts of Schmalzt and excessive Cheese, those with weak constitutions or some semblance of tact are not advised to read this essay please immediately put this paper down and find the nearest Calvin and Hobbes anthology.

As time progresses the significance of dates and months fades with our memories. No one remembers June-August 1986 but anyone who was 17 at the time remembers their last summer of high school. Intervals in our lives are often marked by whatever job, lover, or passion we had at the time. People will always say “oh, back when I was dating Laurie” or “dude you remember, when I was hella into macrame” but in the realm of human experience dates and times are mere abstracts. The timeline of my life is not dotted with jobs, affairs, or even seasons. The way I remember events is in their relationship to the book I am reading at the time. Books have always been the inspiration for the way I lead my life and always seem to reflect who I am at the time.
It all started back when I was reading the Hungry Caterpillar. I voraciously devoured that book like the titular caterpillar devoured that delicious salami. The bright colors captivated my feeble little child brain and I identified with the hunger this young caterpillar experienced in today’s modern urban society. I also connected with the message that a compulsive overeater could become a beautiful butterfly. I read that book time and time and time again and I can’t fully explain why. While most memories from the single digit days are a hazy blur entire sentences from my favorite book at the age of three are deeply ingrained in my psyche. Something about the crisp, surreal nature of literature appealed to me in a way children’s television could not. Instead of being told exactly what to think we got to fill in our own blanks. Sure we know the watermelon is eaten but it is up to us to picture how. Does the caterpillar drip? Are there seeds everywhere? Does Big MAMA caterpillar beast on her son for his messy habits? It was up to me decide and that RULED!
As a terminally lazy individual having my parents read to me was one of the biggest thrills my five year old self could get. Every night as bedtime rolled around my parents could be SURE that the ear piercing screech of a flustered five year old would ensue if I was not entertained. Goodnight Moon, Babar, Superfudge anything designed to annoy a parent was permanently situated next to my bed. This habit shamefully continued into the fourth grade when I decided that Goosebumps were something only I could understand. I honestly blame my parents constant reading to me for all the guff I got in elementary school. The animated, interactive reading environment they introduced to my bedside bled into the way I went about school and in a rigid, archaic society like Hawaii public schools, where politeness is an honest to god grade, this resulted in some angry middle aged women. My gutsy heroes who fought weird skeletons and shrunken heads all day inspired some sassy backtalk and subsequently poor grades. But, as a well read 3rd grader, I KNEW I WAS SMARTER so I continued to abuse my reading skills until middle school, when my point of pride became my biggest shame.
As is the case with most non-athletic males middle school was not the proudest point in my life. Puberty hit me like an awkward semi and my voice began crackling like the zits on my face. After 6 months of trying to be a cool kid who didn’t read and talking about sports and girls all day I understood this just wasn’t working for me. I began to play magic cards and read the accompanying mandatory science-fiction and fantasy-fiction that all dateless nerds are subject to. I read through the complete canon of Tolkien and Orson Scott Card as well as a series of fantasy novels centered around the Magic Card universe. These lofty realms of valiant heroes and pure evil presented a pleasant alternative to Kawananakoa Middle School. Where in these fantasy novels valor, intelligence, and morality were rewarded, the popular kids in middle school were the barely literate jocks who beat and teased the retarded kids. Literature provided a haven from the sad truths of middle school. In an idiocracy like the school I attended I was forced to hide my love for literature and what had once been a point of pride became a shameful, private endeavor similar to ones all pubescent boys participate in but the mention of which has no place in a graduation portfolio certified reflection.
My experiences in middle school left me with a general opposition to intelligence and the dorkyness associated with literature. I began to get into such classic teenage endeavors as punk rock and staying out past curfew. My grades began to slip and the usual teenage calamity ensued. It’s not as though I’ve defeated these demons to this day but I had a literary experience that changed the nature of my angst. One day I was staring at the many bookshelves that adorn my parents respective dwellings and I noticed the simple title of Fight Club set against a rather dystopian cover. I had heard some good things about the movie and the idea of organized violence is a fetish of mine so I decided to give it a shot. I sat down and 8 hours later I was staring at the blank page that concludes every novel. I was simply stunned. 200 Pages of clear, brutal, and in no way dorky writing had expressed everything I felt but nothing I thought about. This seemingly normal man ,Palahniuk, had created a picture of hate and rage and answers and truths that I could never expect someone to express. I learned to embrace my cynicism and disgust as Palahniuk did. I learned that the angst I was harboring could be honed and crafted into something beautiful. Books once again dominated my life and I have never looked back. Now I can’t remember what month or year I was breaking up with Jackie or Molly but I know which Bukowski book accompanied which day. So I owe me, the good and the bad, to the thoughts and images countless individuals have decided to stain compressed wood pulp with.
Since that time whenever I find an author to be interesting the time in which I read their book is tainted with that authors thoughts and feelings. While reading the novel Graceland for my literary analysis essay I sympathized with the protagonists sense of drowning in his urban society. It was the time of college essays and acceptance letters and I felt crushed by society in a similar, albeit infinitely less dramatic, way. Being forced to analyze the book and all the authors motives changed my understanding of the novel itself. Where as previously I thought Abani was just complaining about slums I realized he was saying redemption can come in urban society. My understanding of this novel handily coincided with my acceptance into UCSC and I once again identified with Elvis who got to escape Lagos. The journey of Elvis so closely mirrored my own that when I think about the time a quick flash of me in Lagos registers before I can stop myself.

WLE Project

mishasteier — Wed, 14 May 2008 01:16:43 +0000

wle

Spanish Civil War and Religion

mishasteier — Wed, 14 May 2008 01:06:33 +0000

The Ideology of War
It was a hot Friday in Calvary when the Roman’s passed their judgment and drove stakes through the wrists of Jesus Christ. He may have been the first man to die for the beliefs regarding what was later to be known as Christianity, but he wasn’t to be the last. The Romans were to execute many more. The crusades left thousands dead, the inquisition played factions against each other, and the middle Ages were rife with executions The Armenian Genocide, Yugoslavia, and Sudan. Christianity was a cause and provided motivation in of all these conflicts and massacres. The combatants in these conflict’s believed they were fighting for their god or against a false one and certainty these beliefs promote in themselves lead to conflicts that would otherwise have not been fought so fervently, if at all. This paper is intended to demonstrate how the American Civil War and Spanish Civil War were deeply affected by the combatant’s beliefs regarding Christianity.
Many reasons have long been given for the schism between the north and the south that caused The American Civil War. People have claimed industrialization vs. agrarianism, Pro-Slavery vs. Abolitionism, The election of Lincoln but though religion played a huge part in the division of the USA, little attention has been paid to it. In the year 1861 the United States of America was the most Christian nation in the whole world and a nation deeply divided (Genovese 4). In 1837 the Presbyterian Church split into the Old School and New School mostly along north and south lines. The conflict arose over the refusal to appoint a slaveholder as a Bishop (Genovese 6). The split highlighted a large division among many Protestants along Northern and Southern lines over how the bible should best be interpreted.
Though the north had liberalized much since the time of the puritans they still hung on to the puritan concept of the holy city on the hill (Fredrickson 10). The city on the hill refers to John Winthrop’s famous speech in which he claimed that Christian society is like a city on a hill and as such people were always watching them. He went on to claim that with the whole world watching a Christian society would need to provide a strong example for all others. The people of the north believed in a good Christian Society and that such a place would yield a millennium and a path to heaven. They favored a more liberal interpretation of the bible, valuing the message over exact literal interpretation. While the bible never explicitly banned slavery many in the north believed the institution clashed with the nature and message of “Christ’s Love”. Many of the clergy and churchgoing populace in the north believed that while slavery was around there was no chance for a second coming of Jesus Christ. (Fredrickson 3-14)
The south maintained a system steeped in the belief of personal salvation and focused less on the ills of a society than on the ills of an individual. The clergy favored a more literal interpretation of the bible and as such believed slavery to be perfectly acceptable since the bible never explicitly stated otherwise. (Brown 4-6) Many in the south claimed that there were many religious reasons for the acceptability of slavery. Some southerners argued on the grounds that the bible never said slavery was a sin or forbidden. There were some who believed that the slaves were too stupid to comprehend their salvation and the white man was saving him through forced complacency and conversion. There was also a prevailing belief that an end to slavery would reign in a new era of materialism and greed the likes of which would surely be a triumph for Satan. (Brown)
There were many arguments for and against slavery in the United States of America at the time. Many in the north compared the slavery in the United States of America to the slavery of Egypt. (Fredrickson 3) Some argued that there was a need for the salvation of blacks and said that as long as a man was enslaved he could not control his own destiny therefore he could not control his dedication to god and the need could not be satisfied. (Fredrickson 4) There was also a peculiar application of divine right that mandated that Lincoln had been placed there by god through the will of the people and to rebel against him meant to rebel against god. (Fredrickson 6.)
Southerners also used the infamous Ham argument. In the bible Ham was the third child of Noah. The story goes that one day Noah became drunk and fell asleep naked in his tent. He proceeded to tell his brothers who dutifully covered their father with a blanket all the while averting their eyes. When Noah was told what had happened he uttered the immortal words “Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.” Genesis 9:25. Cannan was to be the biblical father of all black races and many would later use this small part in the bible to justify the enslavement of all black peoples and racism.
Due to the immense size of the United States of America’s Christian base it is no surprise that in their respective communities the local clergy eagerness to jump on the sectional bandwagon proved to be invaluable to both the Union and the CSA as it agitated their bases. Each side believed that theirs was a holy war and they we’re imbued with a divine strength and mission to accomplish for God. As one pro-slavery minister put it:
“ The parties involved in this conflict are not merely abolitionists and slaveholders, they are atheists, Jacobeans, red republicans, and agnostics on one side and the friends of order and regulated freedom on the other. In one word, the world is the battleground Christianity and Atheism the combatants and the progress of humanity is at stake.”(Fredrickson 4)
The desire for victory was fueled by the belief that those participating in the war were part of a battle much larger than themselves. An abolitionist summed up consensus best when he said:

“As I view the contest it is no less than a contest for the advancement of the kingdom of heaven or the kingdom of Satan.”(Genovese 1)
The use of Christianity as a propaganda tool allowed the priests and pastors of both side to cast this war as a battle between good and evil and when soldiers believe they are on the side of good warring with evil they are more willing to fight.

The Military press of each side frequently invoked Christianity to comfort the dying and religious revivals were a common sight in the camps of both the north and south. (Brown 6) The most popular of southern religious paper the RSA frequently hailed the soldiers of the CSA as crusaders and claimed that “ The war for freedom in the Confederacy is more than just a contest for civil liberties it is a war for religion, it is a war against infidels, it is a war by gods chosen nation for gods plan for the universe.”(Berends 13)
To demonstrate the North’s religious convictions I ask you to look no further than the ubiquitous Battle Hymn of the Republic. The famous song was sung by many a union soldier and is rife with references to the divinity of the Union army and its purpose as a tool of god’s wrath against the serpent of the south.

“Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord:
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword:
His truth is marching on.”
I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of steel:
“As ye deal with my contemners, so with you my grace shall deal;
Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with His heel,
Since God is marching on.”

The constitution of the Confederate States of America was highly similar to that of the United States of America and even copied the bill of rights and 2 other existing amendments verbatim and added them to their constitution. There was a change to allow Negro slaves and some minor technical changes such as capitalization. One of the few changes was the addition of the phrase “invoking the favor and guidance of Almighty God” to the preamble. This shows that the similarities between the union and the CSA were many and the differences were few, one of theme being religion. This departure from the original constitution highlights how the ideological differences between the two sides helped spur this conflict.
Even the Leaders of both sides made pleas to religion and attempted to appease god. Both Lincoln and Davis fasted regularly and proclaimed thanksgiving a day of God. (Paludan 4) General Stonewall Jackson claimed after a victory “ I have been but the unworthy instrument whom it pleased god to use in accomplishing his purposes. (Source 4) The invocations of God by the leaders of the conflict show how well faith motivated the soldiers and aggravated the conflict. The chorus of voices, both big and small, invoking the bible and Christianity in defense of their respective causes proves that their religions beliefs influenced both the decision to go to war and the severity with which it was fought.
The Spanish civil war was one of the deadliest civil wars in European history and left many scar’s which have yet to heal and possibly never will. With over one million dead including many priests and civilians and about 150,000 executions it may surprise people that such a brutal war was fought by people claiming to be crusaders for a Christian Civilization against the “liberators of peasant thought and life”(Broue 158). The elections of 1936 boiled down to a race between the popular front, a coalition of communists, socialists, people in favor of the autonomy of The Basque country and Catalonia, liberals, and mainstream republicans, and the national front, a coalition of Carlists, Nationalists, Fascists, Monarchists, and business and landowners. The popular front incorporated peoples from mostly leftist ideologies and right wing communists. It had stronger support in the more industrial parts of Spain and had the full support of all unions. The National front appealed more to the Landowners and Upper class but received a lot of its support from Spain’s many Catholics. The Carlist’s supported the return of the descendants of Carl to the Spanish throne. The popular front received much support for its strong stance against Communism. The anarchists voted to abstain from the election however later sided with the popular front. The popular front won with 34% of the vote. (http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk)
On July 17, 1936 a coalition of Nationalist Generals lead a military coup that would soon become the Spanish civil war. The army forces were split evenly down the middle and three fourths of the generals joined the nationalist side. The ensuing war would prove to be a precursor to WWII pitting fascists and their supporters against non-fascists and the first use of aerial bombardment on civilian populations. (Wikipedia)
There were many reasons for the rebellion but the ones that seemed to drum up the most popular support came from the anti-clerical stance of the Popular Front and their supporters. Remember that Spain had been a stronghold of Catholicism for centuries. It was the home to the infamous Spanish Inquisition, the vicious pogroms against Muslims and Jews, and had been governed and made powerful by the notoriously religious king Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. In the months leading up to the rebellion the popular front installed as their leader Miguel Anza, a man who famously remarked “all the churches in Spain are not worth a single republican life.”
There were many on the side of the popular front that saw the Catholic Church as an enemy of the people and the pope as an autocratic head of an insidious empire of ignorance dedicated to exploiting the Spanish people. (Beevor 184) This sentiment was not completely surprising for the Second Republic that these various left-wingers had fought for had been consistently stifled for 100 years by various catholic monarchs and catholic backed resistance. (Brenan 11-32) Spanish Liberals had burned over 160 churches in the months leading up to this conflict. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_civil_war) After the start of the rebellion the republic became noted for the massacres of priests and destructions of religious buildings. This lead the Catholic Church to support the Autocratic Franco despite his repeated slaughtering of anyone he deemed opposition and the bombing of the staunchly Catholic town of Guernica. The Catholic churches support further fueled the republican’s distaste for them, which in turn further fueled the nationalist’s distaste for the republic. (Broue 43)
The Falange, Spanish for Phalanx, party was the predominant Fascist party in Spain and their manifesto contained the following article.
“25. Our Movement integrates the Catholic spirit, which has been traditionally glorious and predominant in Spain, into the reconstruction of the nation. Church and State will come to an agreement on the areas of their respective powers.”
This shows how the defense of and belief in Catholocism was one of the prime motivators for one of the biggest agitators in the conflict, so much so that it was included in the party manifesto.
The Catholic Church was strongly pro-Franco and this support bolstered his popularity with the Catholics of the world. Several incidents highlight the direct support the church gave Franco and his regime. In a speech given On September 14, 1936 the pope compared the Fascist’s “Christian Heroism” to the “Savage Barbarism” of the Republic. The speech had been submitted to Franco for approval prior to it’s being given. (94 Preston) In a move speech reminiscent of speeches given during the American Civil War, the bishop of Salamanca gave a speech using Saint Augustine’s famous metaphor and claimed that the Nationalists were the kingdom of god and the Republicans were the kingdom of men. (232 Preston) The direct support of the Catholic Church motivated the deeply Catholic Spanish to support Franco and his regime, thusly prolonging the conflict and eventually granting him victory.
Alejandro Lerrox was one of the founding members of the Spanish Radical party and pre revolution had much power in the Cortes (the Spanish equivalent of parliament or legislative branch of the United States of Americas government). He was staunchly anti-clerical and gave a speech to his supporters that follows “Young Barbarians of Today. Sack the civilization of this decadent country. Destroy its temples, finish off their gods, tear the veils from its novices and raise them to their mothers.” One of the most powerful members of the Cortes was clearly disgusted by religion and viewed it as something to be fought. Speech like this drummed up support amongst those dominated by the church and was later used as propaganda against the Republicans. The popular front also played host to many Communist parties. It is not difficult to deduce that they were anti-religious. It was the founder of Communism itself that once claimed, ”religion was the opiate of the masses.” The Prime Minister, Miguel Anza, wrote in his diary that his two biggest drives were his “hostility towards the church and desire to strengthen the army.
It is clear that the fighters in all sides of these conflicts were motivated by what they saw as an affront to or by religion. A century before Martin Luther King few white Northerners in the US were willing to die for black peoples freedom or the inclusion of the south in the United States of America and no one would die for slavery so there must have been some other factor motivating the willingness to die. History has shown that most people will only die for themselves, their freedom, or their god and seeing as how no white man’s freedom was at stake and only rich white men’s interests were in jeopardy that only leaves god as the motivation behind the hundreds of thousand’s of poor white Americans who fought and died in that war.
If the Republicans had not been so thoroughly anti-Catholic then there would not have been anywhere near as much support for Franco. The Republican’s rhetoric and assault on churches motivated many poor, Spanish Catholics to support Franco’s rebellion when they otherwise would have not. The propaganda also motivated the Pope himself to condemn the Republicans and support Franco. In a deeply Catholic nation like Spain the Pope’s blessing is tantamount to the word of god and the Pope’s support gave Franco a solid moral base to commit war crimes and extrajudicial executions as the “Christian Hero” that he was.
What is it about Christianity that makes so many willing to fight and die when they otherwise would not? Perhaps it is the idea that God is a moral absolute in a world so full of them. Faith gives people something to fight and die for even when it’s against their own interests. A poor union solider can feel like a holy warrior and die knowing he’s going to heaven, but why kill for it when the bible commands thou not to? Similar to the concept of Jihad, Christianity provides a quick ticket to heaven if you die for God. Religion provides a bulwark against difficult questions by telling you God is always there and to not worry because he knows the answer. The concept of faith is inherently illogical as it tells you to believe instead of question. When such a concept is central to a religious person’s thinking perhaps logic becomes less important and subsequently doubt. When told that you are to fight for god and faith tells you not to doubt then perhaps this is why religion motivates so many conflicts. One will sacrifice his own well being for the sake of god and not think twice because of faith.
The interesting correlation between these two wars are the ideological similarities between the North and the Republicans and the South and the Fascists. Both Franco and Lee spearheaded a movement that favored a stricter interpretation of the bible and in turn had stricter ways of thinking and acting as demonstrated by their support of fascism and slavery. Both the North and the Republicans either took the message of the bible, as opposed to the literal wording, or eschewed it in favor of a liberal view on life as demonstrated by their opposition to slavery or dedication to democracy. Both the north and the republicans are the more noble combatants in the wars and their liberality correlates with their goals. The Northerners were out to protect the slaves and the republicans were fighting for freedom, while the south were out to keep slaves and the Fascists were out to crush minorities. The more liberal ideologies lead to more liberal, and just enterprises while the stricter ideologies lead to, stricter ways of living and more cruel enterprises. The strict ideologies of Christianity started these conflicts and the stricter interpreters were the cruelest.

High Dive Unit Problem

mishasteier — Wed, 14 May 2008 00:51:08 +0000

Problem Statement

The High Dive Unit problem is about the official CAT-NIVAL(clever) and our large Ferris-Wheel. A diving man who wants to jump from the Ferris Wheel into a moving pool under him. Our task is to alert the diver to the proper time to be dropped or jump and if we fail in this task the man plummets to his death and CAT is shut down because of gross negligence. The question the High Dive problem is asking is us is: After how many seconds should the diving man who’s name is Andre jump so that he jumps into the pool? See Final Page for Diagram.

The given information is:
- The radius of the Ferris wheel is 50 feet
- The center of the Ferris wheel is 65 feet of the ground
- The wheel makes one complete turn every 40 seconds
- The wheel turns counter-clockwise
- The pool starts 240 feet to the left of the center
- The pool travels at 15 feet per second
- The water level of the pool is 8 feet above the ground
- The platform the diving man is standing on is at the 3 o’clock positions when the pool starts to move

There are a few things we have to find first:
- Andre’s height above the ground at any point on the wheel
- Andre’s horizontal position the wheel (x-coordinate)
- The speed at which the wheel turns, (its angular speed)
- The speed at which the pool travels
- Andre’s falling speed, (the rate of gravity)

The basic things that we need to understand to solve the Unit problem:
- Basic knowledge about trigonometry
- How you can find angles and sides in triangles
- Basic algebraic calculations
- How to use that tricky calculator
- Basic knowledge about physics and gravity
- Graphs
- Sine and Cosine and their relations to the unit problem

I solved the problem first so Instead of outlining the Plan I will just tell you what I did. After a lot of wasted time I was getting flustered and then I remembered the really long formula we were given
-240+15(W+√[sin(9W)50]+57/16) = 50[cos(9W)]. I then struggled with how to use this but someone told me to graph it and graph it I did. After 20 minutes of trying to get the parenthesis right I got it and I got a graph 2 lines intersecting at a certain point and I knew those points meant the time we should drop Andre (x) to have him fall at the point where the cart was (Y). This was the Answer and I checked the answer and knew it was right.

Work
Trigonometry Intro
The Ferris Wheel can be seen as a circle. Imagine a triangle is placed in the circle. All lines drawn from the center will be the length of the radius so we can construct a triangle knowing two sides. Knowing two sides we can determine the sin or cosine of the circle. Sin and Cosine are the ratio of two sides of a given right triangles. Cosine and sine help you with that because:

Cos = A/H and Sin=O/H

Adjacent is A, Opposite is O and Hypotenuse is H. The Hypotenuse is always opposed to the right angle of the triangle.

The equation for Andre’s height at any given time on the wheel:

65 + [50sin(9T)] = H

65 is the height of Ferris wheel at the center. 50 is the radius and 9t is the angular speed. We take the sine of 9T because sine gives us the height. The Ferris Wheel moves at a rate of 9 degrees a second. T is how long the wheel has been moving and H stands for the height. The Wheel is moving at 9 degrees a second. We know that the wheel makes one complete turn every 40 sec. A complete turn is 360 degrees. 360 / 40 = 9. That makes 9 degrees per second.

The equation for Andre’s horizontal position at any given time on the wheel:

50*[cos(9T)] = X

X is the horizontal position and that is what we want to find. 50 is the radius of the wheel and 9T is the angular speed. We use the cosine of 9T to find the horizontal position at any given time.

The carts horizontal position at any given time:
We know that the cart starts at x= -240 and it goes with 15 feet/sec.
x= -240+(15*T)
We can find out any x position of the cart at any time.

Andre’s falling time at any given height:

T = √H/16

T is the time Andre is falling. I divide the height by 16 and square root that to get the time. 32 feet/sec. is the gravity, which means it is the speed of any object falling. The rate of a falling object in a vacuum is 32/fps2 and if we use the commutative property that can be expressed as such.

The moment when Andre should dive:

-240+15(W+√[sin(9W)50]+57/16) = 50[cos(9W)]

-240 is the starting position of the cart if the ferris wheel was graphed like the unit circle. The center would be (0,0) and the cart would be 240 feet to the left.
15=Cart Speed
W=Time since start
F=Drop time
This all=Andre’s position

Answer
Y=1= ((W+√[sin(9W)50]+57)/16)) = 50[cos(9W)]
X=12.28 y=-17.54

I entered the above equation into a calculator to see the graph that would result. The resulting sine function represented Andre’s height and the Y represented the movement of the cart. The x and y points are the intersections of the two lines and they are the point where Andre should be dropped to X is the time we should drop Andre and Y is the position the cart will be at when he is dropped. To confirm this we did as follows.

57+50sin(9t)=H

57+(50sin(9 x 12.28)= 104.04

Falling time =square root of H/16
Falling time = square root of 104.04/16
T=2.55

Falling time+start time=Time till Andre hits ground
12.28+2.55=14.83

Cart position=-240+15(t)
-240+15(14.83)=-17.54

So if we drop Andre at 12.28 seconds he will hit the cart at -17.54 or 17.54 feet to the left of the Ferris wheel.

Reflection
Solving this problem was deceptively simple. I was used to having to work very hard on our unit problems so I assumed there was more to it than just entering the equation we worked in the calculator and finding the intersection on the graph. I spent a good hour or two finding the height of Andre at given points and seeing where the cart was at that point and thinking about how minor changes in placement would effect the way Andre falls. I was flustered and complained to my friends who told me that I was freaking out and all I needed to do was enter the equation we found on the final classwork (-240+15(W+√[sin(9W)50]+57/16) = 50[cos(9W)) in the graphing section of the calculator and the rest would fall into place.
I entered the equation in the calculator and the intersection of the graph was x=12.28 y=-17.54. Once again I thought this was too easy so I found the time it would take for Andre to fall to the cart, using the equation for falling time T = √H/16, and entered the time it takes for him after start to reach the cart. The time checked out with the cart movement equation and I realized that I had solved the problem 30 minutes previous. Then I was happy because I lucked out and needed to do that anyway so I did all my work because of my own ignorance. Go Irony!
I tried to solve the problem first and wrote the problem statement afterwards so my thinking was very trial and error. I definitely utilized the help of Jasmine Kamaraiotis to understand why I used the equation we graphed with and why our answer was right. The majority of the work on this problem was done in the series of classworks leading up to this problem so all I needed to do was piece the work we had done together.
If the period of the Ferris wheel was faster Andre would need to be dropped much sooner so our formulas would change. For example if the Ferris wheel period (the time it takes to make a complete revolution) went from 40 to 20 then the formulas involving time would change as well. Where as ((W+√[sin(9W)50]+57)/16)) = 50[cos(9W)] it would now be ((W+√[sin(18W)50]+57)/16)) = 50[cos(18W)] because the 9 represents the degrees per second Andre moves. If the time doubled then he would move twice as fast so the amount of degrees he covered in a second would double as well. This would also effect the point where the two intersect because if you dropped Andre at 6.14 seconds the cart would not be below him yet. With the new period you would have to drop him at 16.86 seconds and he would land in the pool 27.6 feet to the right of the center of the Ferris Wheel.
If a child was caught on a paddle of one of those old-timey riverboats that run on the Mississippi and the Mississippi river is now so polluted that only a robotic rescue boat may save him. The rescue boat malfunctions and can only go back and forth on a linear path. You must tell the child when to jump so he doesn’t hit the vile Mississippi and become a fish-man mutant.

History Reflection

mishasteier — Wed, 14 May 2008 00:38:06 +0000

From as far back as I can remember history has taught me that something is wrong. Maybe it has something to do with my rabidly socialist parents or growing up in Hawaii an island so steeped in the rape and domination of natives that so commonly pervades history that there are native groups still attempting to secede from the union. From an early age each of histories great injustices stuck in my mind as a contrary to the wonderful image of humanity that is so forcefully ingrained in our heads. I’ve always had a vague distrust in the human race and most of my life and history have reinforced that. Don’t get me wrong I love humans, they’re my favorite species, but I can’t trust them as far as I can throw them and History backs me up on this. Humans are generally barbaric in their nature and our lofty ideas of humanity are regularly contradicted by our actions and history because of the brutal and inhuman nature of most of our actions.
As a child when we were told of the heroism of Lincoln when he freed the slaves I would always wonder why they needed to be free in the first place. It always felt as though the things in our collective past that we were taught to be proud of were merely the fixing of mistakes we had made before. Hurrah! we defeated the Nazis. Why were they around in the first place? Hurrah! the union was reunited. Why did they want to leave and why couldn’t we just let them? Hurrah! Apartheid was reversed. Why did it take so long and why did it exist in the first place? As is often the case in tradition minded public schools I was never privy to the answers I wanted. While they annoyed me slightly, as a child, these injustices were abstracts and while I might ponder for a second the latest episode of Dragon Ball Z quickly squelched any wonder. As can be expected with most children, my world never extended past myself and my immediate social circle. For me history was just a fascinating story with crazy characters but of no more importance than any of the fictional stories I loved as well. I was obsessed with the exploits of Cesar and Alexander the Great just as much as I was with those of Batman or the Thundercats. My view of myself in society was pretty high at the time because with my limited world view I was the world, more or less.
This all began to change with the maturity and horror of puberty. As the conflict in Iraq was growing so was I and, while I can’t say this was my awakening, the barrage of news stories reminded me of something that had been long dormant. The aerial bombings left untold numbers of Iraqi’s dead and, to me, the motives for this war remained murky at best. Article after article telling of more dead or wounded and entire city blocks became entangled in my naivety like gnats in a spiders web thrashing in vain until their collective weight brought the entire thing down. The straw that broke the camels back was a simple word in bold, tucked away in the international section of the Honolulu Advertiser. Some non-profit had done a survey and estimated 80,000 Iraqi people had died since the commencement of the war. Not too discernible from the statements made by the talking heads on CNN or the headlines in the NY Times save for one key difference. They used the word people. The magnitude of this statement weighed heavy in my gut as I realized what those numbers meant. Each one of those people was a person just like me or my brother or my mom. I could just as easily been one of those numbers, glossed over by thousands a day as they rushed to check the box scores. All of those people would not get to do everything I do daily, no dogs to walk, no naps to take, no moms to hug, nothing. My stunted world view had been busted wide open and I suddenly felt a whole lot less important.
The lament soon turned to rage as the pages of history revealed more and more to me. It seemed as though brutality and injustice were human traditions as time honored as marriage or clothing. From Masada to Belgrade, Ghengis to Amin. Thousands of years to learn from our mistakes yet nothing seemed to change. Why were people so stupid? Was it really that hard just not murder people instead of diplomatically resolving huge issues? It felt like humans were no better than animals and my human nature paper this year validated these feelings. Before I did this paper I thought my hypothesis was more philosophical than factual but I began to find study after study confirming my belief that humans were animals and it turned out they could be trained to sit just as well as my dog was. The outlook was more negative than I had initially thought. While abstracts like morals and ethics seemed malleable I thought bedrocks like senses and instinct were safe but in researching my paper I found evidence to the contrary. The Asch conformity experiments were a study in which a test subject was placed in a room with 7 actors they thought were also test subjects. The subjects were shown two lines on a board and asked to identify the longer one. The actors would always raise their hand and falsely identify the shorter line as the longer one. The results were shocking, 33% of the time the test subject would erroneously identify the shorter one as the longer one and 70% of the subjects exhibited “extreme discomfort”. When something as definite as what you see with your own eyes can be effected by a roomful of peers imagine how morals and ethics can be effected by an entire society. Doing this paper confirmed my belief that history had so clearly demonstrated, humans are not so human.
My world view is not so angsty and hopeless as I am making it out to be and another paper I had to do for this school helped reinforce that belief. I believe that despite our capacity for evil humans can, and one day will, fight for the right reasons instead of wrong. In my civil war paper I studied the Spanish and American civil wars. In both wars I found soldiers willing to fight and die for humanity. I found union soldiers and prayers that saw the war in an extremely enlightened manner for a society that took a century to recognize the humanity of the people these soldiers were willing to die for. In the republicans I found heroes who fought for fraternity, liberty, and justice despite certain death. The underarmed republicans fought on despite international isolation and an enemy supplied by all the fascist forces of Europe. The Abraham Lincoln brigades who traversed the Atlantic to fight tyranny and die on foreign soil. The egalitarian utopias of Catalonia where, for a brief period, humanity shined through. Despite our murky past and generally barbaric nature humans have the capacity for heroism and honor. I saw no difference between the Republicans and the Thundercats that so captivated me in my youth.
The big difference between me and my heroes is I don’t know who to fight. The Republicans had Franco, the Thundercats Mum-raa, but which ultimate evil can I challenge. That isn’t to say that humanity has in any way slain our demons, they are as strong as ever, they are just so deeply entrenched one can not focus their efforts. Evil has learned how to hide itself better and make itself seem less evil. Instead of colonialists we have the world bank and NAFTA, instead of segregation we have ghettoization and the standardized test, and instead of the Confederacy the neo-cons. I feel rudderless when I want to fight the injustices I see because they’re all hurricaines or aids, demons we can not simply shoot at. I plan on doing whatever a single individual can by joining the peace corps after college but that is as much middle-class guilt as it is a desire to help people. If one day an obvious foe presents itself I will be the first one to pick up my sword but until that day I will complain loudly and use only paper bags.

Spanish Essay

mishasteier — Wed, 14 May 2008 00:33:19 +0000

La religión es una fuerza negativa en el mundo y causa mas problemas en el mundo que resuelve. Por la historia del mundo la religión ha causado muchas luchas entre grupos de religiones diferente. Las Diferencias entre creencias a veces dirigía la gente a luchar. Los Religiones permiten muchas sociedades oprimen y encarcelen la gente que son diferentes. La naturaleza irracional de la religión hace los seguidores de la religión irracionales porque el concepto de fe es un concepto que enseña no preguntar la religión. Cuando las personas son irracionales van a luchar entonces la religión es un fuerza negativa en el mundo.
En Islam hay un concepto que a veces se llama el sexto pilar de Islam. Es el concepto de Jihad o lucha sagrada. Muchos musulmanes no interpretan Jihad permitir violencia pero hay un movimiento grande que cree que no solo Jihad permite violencia contra no-musulmanes, es el deber de todos los musulmanes con el intento de convertir. No hay excusa por retórica como forma de violencia contra la gente que no cree en la retórica. Fe en la Jihad es irracional y la violencia la Jihad causa es un resultado de la naturaleza irracional de la religión. El concepto de Jihad era la justificación por muchos asesinatos y un sistema de creencias como eso no es una fuerza positiva en el mundo.
Por toda la historia del mundo la cuidad de Jerusalem era una causa de muchos guerras y asesinatos porque muchas religiones creen que es la ciudad sagrada. De los anos 1095-1291 el papa empieza guerras que se llaman “cruzadas” a tomar Jerusalem de los musulmanes. Aproximadamente 9 millónes de personas perecen en la guerras. Ambos grupos invocan el mismo dios en la lucha contra todos otros. 9 millónes de personas perecieron por una “cuidad sagrada” por libros escritos hace muchos anos. Si los luchadores fueran racionales no moririan por las guerras irracionales. Cualquier sistema de creencias que es responsable por 9 millónes muertes no es una fuerza positiva en el mundo.
Ahora en Israel hay muchas luchas sobre Israel. En 1947 Israel fue dado a los Judíos porque la Torah, el libro sagrado por los Judíos, dice que Israel pertenece a los Judios. Sin embargo, hay muchos musulmanes en Israel en 1947. Los Judíos y el UNO expulsaron a muchos musulmanes y empiezan una guerra que es responsable por muchas muertes y odio contra los grupos. Si la religión de los judios no dijera que Israel pertenece a los Judíos entonces los Judíos habrian podido vivir en otro lugar donde no había gente viviendo ahí. Porque los Judíos irracionalmente creen en un sistema de creencias que no es probado muchos muertes y mucho odio fue creado. La idea por Israel es ilógico e Israel existe porque un libro mas, mas aintiguo. Un sistema responsable por todos estas cosas es una fuerza negativa en el mundo.
El hecho de que de la mayoria de la gente en el mundo tiene la misma religión como sus padres revele no es una opción es dado. Porque las religiones no son probadas la creencia en las religiones no es racional. Creer ciegamente en un sistema no es racional; es muy ignorante y la ignorancia no es un fuerza positiva en el mundo. Si creyeras en cosas irracionales creerías en mentiras.

Spanish Reflection

mishasteier — Wed, 14 May 2008 00:30:01 +0000

Every time I try to speak Spanish I feel like I’m on a hamster wheel. I keep trying and trying but at some point I have to stop and the wheel stops moving. I can start again but every Tuesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday the wheel stops moving and I’m back in the same place. The sea of English I spend all but 5.5 hours a week in drowns any Spanish I learn and all I can do is dredge the sea of any conjugated corpses before finals week. I know comprehension is but a cliche journey of finding myself in another country away but it bothers me that I need to do that instead of just having Spanish every day or even being taught it as a child. The way language is taught in this country is just a maddening demonstration of our xenophobia and selfishness as a nation. I find myself jealous of the dutch-THE DUTCH FOR CHRISTSAKE! because they speak four languages and don’t have to think twice about it because they drill it into the child’s head when it’s ready to understand a new languages. For some reason the American education system starts teaching kids as high school starts, right when puberty crystallizes the brain turning it into a close minded, angst ball. Children are too naive to hate but, as I’m sure you’ve noticed teaching people like James for the past three years, teenagers have no problem despising the things they don’t understand. One day I will learn Spanish but no thanks to this country.
As the second most spoken language in America and the native tongue of over 500 million people, being able to speak Spanish would be super handy. My experiences with Spanish started in 2005 when I sat down in Ms. Raeff’s class, nervous that all these children raised in California would be hispanohablante goddesses. My fears were quickly allayed as I realized no one else knew how to pronounce anything that wasn’t on a menu. I was excited to be taking my first foreign language course as I had never had the privalege in Hawaii. A few months of not retaining anything taught me the language center of the brain just wasn’t meant to function in that capacity. As my dad had told me years before but I never wanted to listen, it’s impossible to learn a language when you aren’t surrounded by it. The only time I ever felt even remotely confident in my Spanish was the night before finals, when I would cram my brain with conjugations and keep them for a week or so. Eventually they would leak out as English remained my primary language and I think it will stay that way until I spend a summer in Madrid, commonly known as Spain’s L.A.
The beauty of the Dutch education system is that the children are bombarded with language every day of the week while we American kids have it every other day. Most weeks I have a four day gap between Thursday Spanish and Monday Spanish where Mickey Mouse and MTV destroy whatever linguistic knowledge I might otherwise retain. I have managed to retain most of what I am taught but it generally hides in my subconscious and only presents itself as an I KNEW THAT moment whenever I don’t know a word. The structure is logical enough that instead of having to memorize a bunch of verb structures and conjugations I just have to memorize a bunch of rules and pronunciations. The rational nature of the language makes it easy enough to learn and Ms. Raeff is smart enough to know how to teach us in a way that we latently retain at least half of what we are taught, an impressive result given the unrelenting assault of text messages and bright colors our modern teenage brains must endure. I know once I’m in a position where I can’t forget the language every day I’ll get it in a few months.
I’m excited for the day I’m finally fluent in Spanish and am able to lord it over someone. I feel it coming on. The other day I had my first dream in Spanish and I can sometimes eavesdrop as I ride the bus through the Mission. I hope one day I can watch understand that one CRAZY gameshow on Telemundo and pretentiously order my burrittos in Spanish.