Nuremburg Trial Movie

The part of the movie that I have reacted most strongly towards was the film of the prisoners of the concentration camps. They looked like walking skeletons. I had never seen anything like that before, and what made it worse was that these were images of what real people looked like. I was amazed that any of them were still alive. They were so thin that they scarcely looked human. I cannot believe that the soldiers at the concentration camps were able to do that to other people and still sleep at night. It was also terrible seeing the way to corpses were treated. The worst part was the faces. Each prisoner still had a recognizable, individual face. This made them appear more human, yet completely unnatural. Their heads were by far the largest part of their bodies, and their expressions were of pure torment. I think it is absolutely horrible that anyone had to be put through that ever, and this happened less than a century ago.

The Nazi leaders' arrogance is particularly upsetting. They made the orders that made people dwindle to these walking skeletons, yet they still all pleaded not guilty. I would have thought that at least one of the officers would have fessed up to what he did. However, there are also the countless German soldiers, some of whom were in the film, who were not punished for their crimes in the concentration camp. I don't know how one can claim that they were just following orders. It was obvious that what they were doing was wrong, yet very few stood up for the Jews.

Self-reflection

This class has been a very enjoyable experience for me. I feel like I performed rather well, and that took a lot of time. I remember the beginning of the year when I would stay up really late doing homework and projects while juggling a night class at Lycoming College. These are now some of my fondest memories of this school year, even though I was a stressed out wreck at the time. I feel like these sort of nights were some of my best lessons because I am sure that I will have plenty more nights just like those when I go off to college. Thanks to this class, I feel prepared for the workload.

One of the things I did well in this class was memorization of the material. When a history class is taught well, I have no problem learning the facts presented. I definitely had a fantastic teacher this year. A lot of the material covered in class is now a part of my base knowledge of the history of the world. I especially enjoy being able to watch Jeopardy and answer many of the history questions. I always think to myself, "I learned that in Maz's class."

This class has expanded my knowledge so much because it covered topics that none of my other history classes had covered. When thinking about this class I compare it specifically to a world history class I took in seventh grade. That class covered many ancient civilizations of the world. I remember enjoying that class as well. One thing that we learned in APEH that I have never really been exposed to before was how different countries affected each other throughout time. They interacted in more ways than just war, and this class showed me how European countries developed together over the last thousand years.

My one regret is that recently, I have let slight senior-itis set in. I know many of my peers would give me a funny look and tell me that I am still working rather hard, but approach of the end of the year makes it hard to focus. One problem I have is that I have so many extracurricular activities. However, from this I can gain the lesson of being more careful with my time and not committing to too many things in college. Don't worry though, I am really excited to be Albert Einstein for Meeting of the Minds, and I will try to blow you away. That probably won't really happen, but I will definitely have a lot of fun with it.

Israel vs. Palestine

In class today, when the historical facts as well as the demands of the Israelis and the Palestinians were made known to us, I can see how this could be a rather difficult issue to solve. This is not only because the fighting has been going on for thousands of years. It is also because both sides believe that they are in the right, and it is hard to decide who really is in the right.

One of the biggest pluses to the proposed plan of the Israelis is that they are willing to give up land if it will end the violence. However, I would not characterize Israelis as a bunch of pacifists because they have clearly done many horrible things to the Arabs. There is also of course the question of which land to give up, and what constitutes as a "fair" splitting of the area. For example, I am sure that Israel would not want to give up any large part of Golan Heights, the militarily superior area.

The main argument that I am picking up from the Palestinians is that they were a country first. Israel pretty much took them over, so there is no way to really say which part of the area Israel deserves to get. Palestinians believe that they do not deserve any land at all, and they want to kick Israel out. The Palestinians more belligerent popular opinion may seem off-putting to foreign countries, but who is to say that they are wrong in there beliefs? Israel seems to have just sprung up out of nowhere in the last century, effectively wiping Palestine from the face of the Earth (in a geographical sense).

Coheed and Cambria: Second Stage Turbine Blade

This is the album artwork for Coheed and Cambria's first full-length album, which was first released in 2002. This art might not have a lot to do with worldly events at the time, but it is definitely easier for me to understand. The dragonfly is actually a key part of the story behind Coheed and Cambria's five album concept series. Supposedly, they carry some sort of mutational virus.

While it would be impossible to know this without knowing the story, which only a bunch of obsessed Coheed fans know, the tale does make some interesting allusions to past history. The conflict is caused by a supreme Tri-Mage who destroyed the other 11, which may or may not be an arbitrary number, mages. He then used control of the media to gain the praise of the citizens of the whole galaxy because he ended the Mage Wars, which he had also started. This point in the story immediately reminded me of the way that Hitler, Stalin, and other dictators use the media to gain power.

Another reason I chose this art piece is because album art seems to be the most common form of artwork anymore. I realize it might not be quite as "artistic" as some of the abstract stuff that ruled the 20th century, but times are still changing. Art comes in all sorts of forms. For example, graffiti is now considered to be a form of artistic expression.

Andy Warhol: Campbell's Soup Cans

I think many people know about the connection between Andy Warhol and the Campbell Soup Company. This painting, depicting 32 different Campbell Soups, was painted in 1962, and it caused an uproar in the artistic community. At the time of this painting, abstract expressionism dominated the art scene. This painting upset other painters, who then "questioned" Warhol's "motives." I just think that the presence of an uproar is kind of funny because I can at least understand what this painting represents, unlike other art of the time. Of course, the artistic community makes up a very minor minority of the total population, so I am sure that most people did not care about how simple these paintings are. This shows that commercial companies prefer simplicity because they are trying to attract customers, who also prefer simplicity.

Hans Hofmann: Simplex Munditis

Simplex Munditis means something along the lines of "without ornamentation." What that has to do with this painting, which was painted in 1962, I have no idea. This is a work of Abstract Expressionism. Which seems to have many forms, though these are supposedly contributed to the tastes and techniques of the artists.

Hofmann was known to focus on color relationships and giving attention to apparent depth. Knowing this, the one thing that really stands out to me is the reddish purple shape in the center. It is difficult to see because right behind most of the shape is a red background. However it is easy to see where it mixes a little bit with the blue. The resulting effect of this shape, at least for me when I look at it, is that the purple shape is out in front of the rest of the painting, but it is still hard to see because of the colors. Whether this was the effect that Hofmann was going for or not, I don't know. However, it is hard to pick out one concrete interpretation for art like this.

Connection Across Time (Current Events)

One of the things I have heard over the years of listening to debates on global warming is that the temperature increase is a natural process. Some people claim that things such as animal waste and volcano eruptions result in the accumulation of greenhouse gases. This is only kind of true. It is true that volcanoes release greenhouse gases, along with all of the different kinds of gases that are in our atmosphere. These gases are needed to keep our planet at a relatively constant temperature. What industrial processes have done is made an excess of greenhouse gases.

This is easily understood when one considers the volcanic eruption in Iceland, which only occurred weeks ago. Yeah, sure that volcano spat out some of those nasty greenhouse gases, but overall, it actually reduced the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. It prevented many planes from polluting with their own emissions, saving many tons of gas from being dispersed.

We don't really know if the planet is supposed to warm up over time or not. One's thing is for sure though: we are doing it way too rapidly.