Class Reflection 5-5-2008

In tonight’s class we finished the rest of the movie, Fog of War.  I came in a little late and the next full scene I saw was in reference to the rule Believing and Seeing Are Both Wrong.  He then went on to tell a story about how the Americans thought that the Vietnamese attacked them, and that they had even found evidence of Vietnamese shells on the ship, which had been attacked.  Evidently, neither of these played out to be true, the attack actually occurred two days earlier.  I really didn’t understand this.  It doesn’t seem possible to me that you could make such a mistake, it seems as though if bombs and torpedoes are blasting your ship, you’d clearly be aware of such a situation.

 

Be Prepared to Reexamine Your Reasoning

In this he explained how no allies, not in Japan, Germany, or France, backed the United State in the decisions for war.  He then went onto explain, that when such facts are present, you have to reevaluate the reasons you are engaging in war and decide again whether the reasons are justifiable or not.  I thought his explanation made complete sense.  Allies are supposed to have your back, so to speak, in that they are willing to provide you support and defense in times of need.  If all your allies, or friends, are choosing not to support you for whatever reason, I think you have to go back and reconsider your position in the situation to determine whether what you are doing is actually the correct thing to do.

 

You Can’t Change Human Nature

He talked about how he was extremely proud of his accomplishments, but that he was extremely sorry for some of the mistakes he made in achieving them.  He said now he has the ability to look back on the things he’s done and the decisions he’s made with hindsight.  Unfortunately he didn’t have this ability at the time he was in office, and so he can’t help that he made mistakes, but that’s all a part of human nature part, and that you can’t change.

 

Post #4 Advertising Through the Years

Advertising and promotion is one of the most important aspects of business.  It allows customers to become familiar and aware of the different products in the market place.  In the 1950’s, ads were commonly geared towards acceptable gender roles of the era, where men typically dominated the blue-collar work force and the more conservative, house-appropriate women maintained the house.  In today’s business and advertising world, it’s not uncommon to see ads expressing sex and sports as the selling point of their product.  While some of the same tactics and strategies are still used today, advertising has changed dramatically over the years to keep up with the radical swing of public opinion. As public opinion has shifted from stereotypical to more liberating roles, like in the case for women, it has shifted from blue-collar to fashionable roles for men, and from celebrity to sports star idols, so did advertising.

 

More specifically, let’s examine some ads for televisions and how they have changed over time.  In the 1950’s televisions were advertised based on their cutting edge innovations and the spectacular pictures they provided, which even today we can see is a huge selling factor amongst major competitors in the television industry.  However, ads today use the appeal of everything from the sexiness of the most recognized celebrities and athletes, all the way to the other end of the extreme, in advertising they manufacture the most eco-friendly and environmentally safe television on the market.  While public opinion has experienced a night and day transformation, the one aspect that has remained the same over time, is that it’s still all about who can provide the clearest picture.  

 

Advertisements from 1950’s used images that portrayed women as being very conservative and proper.  Women were always dressed appropriately with some type of dress or long skirt, their hair done without a strand out of place, and their make up done to perfection.  Now we see ads using women in a completely different way.  In today’s ads they are the sexiest, most scantly clad women that society will permit.  The ads from the 1950’s also tended to use more earthly tones because they more appropriate for the time era.  Colors such as electric blue and florescent greens and yellows, which we see today in ads as a symbol of extreme clarity and contrast, were not even existent back in the 1950’s because they were have been far too extreme and radical.

 

While many things have changed in advertising, such as the use of women in regards to society, they still use many of the same techniques and strategies that they did more than 50 years ago.  In both ads we can clearly see the companies trying to create a specific image with their television.  They want you to perceive their television as the most exquisite, dynamic looking television on the market, because they offer the best technologies and latest innovations around.  Another common theme in television ads that was prevalent in the 50’s, and even today, was the use of sports.  They want consumers to believe that if they watch the big game on their television, they’ll not only get the best, clearest, and brightest picture available, but their television set can actually bring the game to life, right their in their home, so they don’t miss a second of the action!  

 

Examine at the television ads below and see how they’ve changed over the years.  From the conservative 1940’s and 1950’s, to the sexy and provocative ads of today, see how advertising has changed through the years.

1947

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24320368@N06/2467186220/

1953

 http://www.flickr.com/photos/24320368@N06/2466358817/in/photostream/

2004

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24320368@N06/2467186334/

2006

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24320368@N06/2466358929/

2007

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24320368@N06/2467186238/

Wikipedia Reflection

Initially I found it difficult to implement the research I had done and incorporate it into my post; five hundred words just seemed too few, considering the amount of research I had done and wanted to include.  After a short time, I got used to the format and became fairly adept at incorporating my findings, footnoting my sources, and creating internal links to the web page.  After publishing my entry, which was the “History” portion under “MRE” (Meal Ready-to-Eat), I noticed revisions to my publication in less than just 12 hours.  

 

The revisions, or editing that was done, wasn’t so much in correcting any significant grammar errors, or in the actual content of the information, but the editor made my publication one of the main headlines under the topic page.  One specific change that came to my attention was that the editor changed some of my word usage.  Initially I had used the world “soldier” through out the post, but they changed it to “servicemen”.  Although it’s rather insignificant, I noticed this almost immediately.  There was one other minor change I noticed almost directly after I made the publication.  In the assignment we were required to include a “Works Cited” tab.  I of course did this, but the moderator deleted my tab and simply incorporated my sources into the “Other References” section. 

 

Prior to my post there was just a bunch information about MRE, a few headings but nothing significant.  Someone edited this, and changed the previous format of the page, in which they took some of the information and added it to mine, making the “History” tab the first piece of significant content you see when you enter the page.  So now when you enter the page, one of the first things someone will see is the “History” section, which is the portion I constructed. I thought this was pretty neat, because when you first enter the page, you now see the portion that I contributed right up at the top of the page.  It really made feel like my contribution was extremely pertinent and important to the article.  So far, these are the only revisions that have been done to the page and it’s now been almost two weeks.

 

Overall, I really enjoyed working with Wikipedia.  In terms of learning, this was the first time I was actually assigned topics from Wikipedia to read instead of an actual textbook, novel, or something similar.  Being that I love my computer and love to be on it (maybe that’s because I have Mac though), I found it extremely easy and convenient to simply get onto Wikipedia and read the assigned topics.  I certainly appreciated this fact and found it far easier to complete the required readings.  I also found Wikipedia far more interesting than I think I would have a textbook or novel.  I actually took History 120 my freshmen year, and a lot of the learning was done through textbook readings and monotonous lectures, so the class discussions and Wikipedia aspect made this class really refreshing and interesting compared to my prior experience.  As far a publishing and contributing to Wikipedia, initially I thought it was going to be easy.  On the contrary, I was required to do a lot of thorough research because I had to include a lot of information in a small space, I had to be extremely concise and direct in my writing.  I also thought it was going to be boring and just not any fun at fall, but I really did enjoy doing the project from start to finish.  It really felt accomplishing to be able to contribute to something that so many people depend on, day in and day out, to seek information they need or want to know more about.  So, the fact that I may have been able to help someone out or contribute to their learning experience in some way, shape, or form, really felt satisfying to do and complete.

 

Class Reflection 4-21-2008

In tonight’s class we watched a movie titled, Fog of War.  It was narrated by a man , Robert McNamera, who was once a solider, use to be the Secretary of Defense for the United States, and has been to the brink of an all out catastrophic war and back.  The premise of the movie is all about teaching lessons regarding the engagements of war.  The rules were:

1.Empathize with the enemy

2.Rationality will save us-he explains how the decision to launch a nuclear war head depends on the words and thought of one human being.

3.

4.

5.Proportionality should be a guideline of war.

 

In class people expressed they felt the most surprising or shocking rules were the one about proportionality.  While I see their points, I really felt the one about rationality is especially true.  I hadn’t given much thought before, but it really is true that one human being basically holds our country in the palm of his hands.  If for whatever reason, maybe he wakes up one day and is mad at the world, he has the ability to launch an all out nuclear war with just a few words.  I think this fact is just mind blowing.  It really is scary how much power one man, or gal for that matter, has.  For example, if I were the President, I can see myself letting my ego or personal feelings get into the way of my job.  For example, if one country did something that I thought was absolutely despicable, I can see myself allowing my ego to get into the matter, and out of passion or instinct, I would order the launch of a nuclear war head.  And the fact of the matter is, he essentially has the power do something like that!

Class Reflection 4-14-2008

In contrast to last week’s class, tonight the class was rather timid and didn’t talk a lot.  Although there were the occasional few that always seem to contribute, I know that I for one, didn’t have a whole lot to add to the conversation and did really effectively participate.  At one point professor pulled up a picture of two and and asked the class if they could discern which of the men was Chinese and which one was Japanese.  At some stages it seemed to bring the class to laughter because there was one student, who I believe is Japanese (actually it really bad because I don’t remember exactly) and he knew right away which one was Japanese and which was Chinese.  There were also a couple of other students who could tell, one was a man with an Asian wife and the other was a kid who who seemed to have some oriental background and he too spotted them out right away.  I felt like raising my hand a couple of times and expressing my thoughts, but figured I had better keep my comments to myself because I wasn’t sure whether I was basing my thoughts and judgments as stereotypes.  And being as though the last couple classes have kind of been on stereotypes and stuff, and especially the blog post, I felt tonight would have been a particularly bad time to make such remarks especially if someone perceived them as being based on stereotypes.  I believe that may have been the reason for my lack of contribution on the large scale as well, for some reason, I always pulled out back making any statements because again I didn’t want to make any comments that might have offended anyone even though I wouldn’t have meant to at all.  I know professor says don’t be afraid to say something wrong, but I think he means that in the context of being correct and incorrect on the facts of a topic, and in this case I didn’t wan to say something wrong that might potentially rub someone the wrong way.  Before these past few classes though, I would have openly commented on the topics brought up in class, but since discussing them in the class it has kind of made me think before I act.

Class Reflection 4-7-2008

This class we talked a lot about advertisements and some of the techniques they used, or that we thought they used, to attract consumers.  A lot of people contributed their ideas and I think this was one of the most active classes we’ve had this semester;  I’m not sure why that is, but maybe people felt the most comfortable with this topic because of it’s relevancy today.  For me, I felt extremely comfortable with the topic because a lot of my studies during my years at Mason have been related to consumers, consumer spending habits, and all the different types of marketing that have been used in the past, and more so the techniques that companies and organization use today.  At one point in the class professor asked what what we thought created consumer culture?  Is it the consumers or is it the companies.  A couple students said it was the consumers, but I think the general consensus was that it was the companies.  I personally think it’s the consumers.  Without the different types of consumers, these companies wouldn’t have anyone to target or focus their marketing strategies on.  Because consumers do have a vast number of preferences and abilities, the companies do the research to locate these specific trends, and then create a pro forma on how to go about reaching out to these different types of consumers.  I actually wanted to ask this questions to one of my business 498 teachers to get his opinion.  He’s a business consultant for Booz Allen Hamilton who has a undergraduate from from Columbia and a masters from Harvard relating to business strategies.  I think his perspective on this will be very interesting.

Blog Post #3: The Menace Alien

This pictures is supposed to illustrate the Irish as a

savage and antagonistic group of people. 

 

Which one of these gentlemen is the highly acclaimed Irish native,

who was the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature? 

 

The answer to the above question is ALL of them.  Each of those men won the the Nobel Prize in Literature.  It may be surprising, but the Irish were actually once viewed as incapable of being “American” and perceived as animalistic in nature.

 

 

Alien Menace- Have Stereotypes Changed?

 

According to the Alien Menace module Catholic Irish began immigrating to the United States in the 1850’s.  Vast populations of Irish, whom were then perceived as ape-like and not having the ability to ever become “American”, presented a danger to the predominantly protestant nation because of the animalistic nature.  There was actually a study completed in regards to facial structures (physiognomy) that used the shape of the face bones to determine ones intelligence and character.  The Irish were thought to be at the bottom of the evolution cycle, due to the sharpness of their bone structure, and therefore deemed them as animalistic, cruel and cowardly, but most importantly not white.  You might be interested to know that those same features, distinct jaw lines and sharp cheek bones, are the standard in today’s modeling world, and without them you can’t even get a page in a magazine.  In today’s world a good majority of these stereotypes regarding the Irish have disappeared, and some even consider them a “hyper-white.”

 

As times have changed, so have the perceptions of ethnically diverse cultures.  For example, many people once thought that natives of Mexico were lazy and non-family oriented.  This view has drastically changed.  In today’s world, especially in the United States and the manual labor industry, many employers find it ideal to hire employees of Mexican descent.  Many employers find them to work as hard, and in most cases harder, than workers from the native country.  They find that they can even pay them at a lesser rate and still get the same amount of work accomplished.  The perceptions of the Irish have changed as well.

 

While many still categorize them as antagonists and fighters, they seemed to have jumped into a couple other categories as well.  While in the past the German’s were though to be the beer hall hungry group, it’s very common in today’s world for the Irish to be found in the same category; after all they seem have a Holiday named after them, in which the basic theme is to drink as much as you possibly can.  Many people even dye their beverages green in spirit of the Irish and their illustrious St. Patrick’s Day holiday.  One major change, arguably the most notable, is the perception of their Irish and their intellectual inabilities.  Not only can you find professors of Irish descent in some of the world’s most renowned universities such as Harvard, Oxford and New York University, but there’s even a university in the United States that’s named after the Irish, in the University of Notre Dame.  More commonly referred to as ND, the school of the Fighting Irish (I wonder where they get their school mascot theme from?) is known to offer some of the nation’s best and most reputable undergraduate and graduate degrees in the country!  As another testament to their supreme knowledge, intellectual, and scholastic abilities, three Irish have been awarded the most prestigious prize in the world, the Nobel Prize in Literature!  William Butler Yeats, George Bernard Shaw, Sam Beckett, Seamus Heaney, whom are all natives of Ireland, all were recipients of the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Works Cited

“Nobel Prize in Literature.” Wikipedia. 4 Apr. 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Prize_in_Literature>.

 

O’malley, Michael. “Alien Menace.” Exploring U.S. History. George Mason University. 6 Apr. 2008 <http://chnm.gmu.edu/exploring/images/stir.jpg>.

 

“Nobel Prize Recipients.” Irish Literary Geniuses. 5 Apr. 2008 <http://www.angelfire.com/journal/irishpens/>.

 

 

 

Class Reflection-Week of 3/31/08

Tonight’s class brought up a very interesting and seemingly controversial topic, or question rather.  The question was what does it mean to be “American.”  There’s so many things that people attribute to why they are American, or what they think it means to be American.  I guess to me American means being born here.  Living here.  Being raised here.  I mentioned something about looking the part too, but not many students seemed to agree with me in that regard, and while I can see why they may disagree with me, I still think there something to say about people actually looking American.  However, according to Wikipedia American is defined as:

 

1.A person or attribute of the Americas, the lands and regions of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere.  

2.A person or attribute of the United States of America.

3.A person or attribute of the indigenous peoples of the Americas.

 

I never really thought or even contemplated the second reason, according to Wikipedia, as being American, but I suppose we did steal the term.  Apparently we (we being the people in the United States) aren’t the only people who consider themselves American.  People in other countries too refer to themselves as being American; this was actually a first for be, because before tonight I was not aware of this fact.  It really is a great question though what it specifically means to be “American.”  I guess in the end there is no particular answer that will satisfy all criteria, or everyone.  All I know is I consider myself American and I am proud to say so.

Week of 3-24-08

Well for those of you who noticed, which I am sure not many of you mainly because you did probably because you don’t even know who I am, I missed class this past week.  The reason being is that I had to go home (home for me is in Indiana) because I had an interview for a potential job; it’s just another reminder how freakishly close graduation is approaching and I will be inevitably forced into the real world.  No more depending on mom and dad; that’s means no more car insurance under their names, no more health insurance provided by them, and most importantly, no more of that hotel-like hospitality that only your mom can provide for you.  siiiiiiiigh…  At any rate, I returned home this weekend for an interview for a potential job after I graduate.  All in all, I think it went pretty well and I walked away from it feeling confident and in control.  I felt I answered and responded to all the questions extremely concisely and methodically; it’s always good to research potential interviewing questions that employers may ask in you pertaining to your respective field.  The other key to an interview is first impressions; you have to make sure you are dressed professionally.  You don’t want to dress too flashy, as if you’re attending the golden globes, but you want make them remember you.  The other integral part of the interviewing process is your resume and cover letter.  I remember a CEO once told me that if you wouldn’t be willing to frame and hang your resume on a wall, then it’s not good enough to present to the company you wish to get a job at, and I really think this is true.  Resumes and cover letters are essentially a representation of you.  If they’re sloppy and visually not pleasing to look at, then most likely you are too.  So it always good to have a well polished and well written resume, because after all, your resume and cover letter are also the likely reasons you got the interview in the first place.  As for me, I guess I just have to wait and see and hope they contact sooner rather that later.  Oh, always, ALWAYS send out a letter of thanks.  Regardless of what happens and how things turn out, it’s always in your best interest to take the time to send them a letter letting them know you appreciated them taking the time and presenting you with the opportunity.  

Annotated Bibliography 3-24-08

History 120:  Annotated Bibliography

Books:

Kutz, Gregory. Investigation : Military Meals, Ready to Eat Sold on EBay. Washington D.C.: U.S. Government Accountability Office, 2006.

I found this book in the library at Fenwick.  I’m not sure exactly how it will be beneficial right, but it was one of the only books I found regarding Meals-Ready-To Eat.  From what I have read so far it talks in large part about some of the MRE’s that are available to civilian consumers today.

 Sommers, Richard. Military History Research Collection. Carlisle Barracks:U.S. Army Military History Research Collection, 1972.

This book too was found in Fenwick’s stacks.  I did a publish date and topic search and found this historic collection’s book.  It was published around the time when MRE’s were first introduced and has some brief information on the formation and characteristics of MRE’s.

 

External Websites:

“Full Moister Pouches-Meals Ready to Eat.” Long Life Food Depot. 28 Mar.2008 <http://www.longlifefood.com/>.

This is a great website.  LLFD is a government-contracted company that produces MRE’s for today’s soldiers on the field.  It gives great information about how they started producing them and how demands and characteristics have changed since their inception. Everything from menu changes to the technology needed to warm these bad boys up, they do it all.

“MRE History.”MRE Info. 28 Sept. 2007. 27 Mar.2008 <http://www.mreinfo.com/us/mre/mre-history.html>.

I found this website through a google search.  It’s probably one of the best pieces of information I have found so far.  It goes into great detail about when, why, and how the MRE’s came into existence.  It’s a website solely dedicated to the Meal-Ready-To-Eat. From everything from pictures to ingredients this website seems to have it all.

 

Wikipedia Articles

“The Evolution of the MRE.” Whole Latte Love. 28 Mar. 2008  <http://www.wholelattelove.com/articles/evolution_of_mre.cfm>.

This website talks about the evolution of the MRE.  It references back to the 1800’s and progresses to what has become of the MRE today.  I think this will be useful because it talks about President Jackson who first initiated soldier rations  and talks about what we have today in the MRE.

“Flameless Ration Heater.” Wikipedia. 9 Mar. 2008. 27 Mar. 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flameless_ration_heater>.

This talks about the innovation behind warming up the MRE’s.  It’s a really interesting technology called Flameless Ration Heater(FRH) that uses exothermic chemical reactions to generate an intense, flameless source of heat.  That has been the technology for about the past fifteen years, and I am not sure whether it has changed or not.  So more research should indicate whether this method is still currently in use or outdated.

 “Meal, Ready-to-Eat.” Wikipedia. 25 Mar. 2008. 27 Mar. 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MRE>.

This article provides a brief introduction as to what the MRE is and where it has come from.  It will be helpful because it provides a starting point for a lot of potential topics I can research.  It’s also interesting because it list about forty of the current available MRE that soldiers are consuming today.

 “Rochester Institute of Technology.” Wikipedia. 29 Mar. 2008. 28 Mar. 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rochester_Institute_of_Technology>.

The Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) is responsible for developing the technology used to heat up MRE’s known as FRH.  They developed this technology and it was actually added as an MRE component in May of 1990.  I am not sure when they actually started developing this technology, but does say they are accredited with its development.