Ghost Maps (P-111-188)

The third portion of the book from P-111 up p-188, boring and interesting to read at the same time. Just like the first reading assignment (p-1-55), the book continues to provides interesting and boring details at the same time. This portion of the reading starts of by describing the steps, which the British government took in an attempt to curb the outbreak of cholera. Instead of taking proper precautions, the British government instead decided to bleach the sidewalks and the streets in an effort to cover up the cholera problem it was facing. And, in this portion of the reading, we are introduced to a character named Edwin Chadwick, who is given credit for organizing peoples concept of modern government, and what role it should play. Chadwick, proposed a plan which stated that in order to clean up the cholera problems the city needed to get rid of the infected population, even if it meant poisoning an entire group of people. Chadwick’s plan, didn’t do much to help the situation, instead it made it worse, as the infection spread from a small portion within the city to the outside. Upon realizing the problem, the government finally implemented a better plan, which drastically improved the public health problem. Although the right choice was finally made, it look a long time to undo the damage which was already created. In the end, it goes to prove that when it comes to making important decisions, it is better to do some research than to make haste and quick decisions.

Ghost Map 1-55

The book Ghost maps in my opinion is a pretty interesting story. It is filled with interesting facts and details which i found pretty interesting to read. The book begins by giving a general description of London and how it became a city full of garbage. it also displayed how a wealthy industrialized nation in the 19th century could still have lots of poverty and health risks. The 1st chapter mainly talked about the unsanitary conditions in england and how cholera spread to to London. around the end of the chapter the book described how the baby had caught cholera and how it spread to the city water system, which i personally found to careless action in the mothers part.

The second chapter in the book talked about the mother and the baby both dying of what many people at that time suspected to be cholera. And soon after, many other deaths occurred as a result of the mothers carelessness. Cholera before arriving in London was mainly non existent in industrialized cities such as London. But with one case the epidemic spread like fire all around London. In the end,  Cholera decimated close to half of London’s population before the epidemic was brought to a halt by improvements in medicine and sanitary conditions.

Jekyll and Hyde transformation

The transformation picture shows/represents Jackal and Hyde sort of as one person. The artist of the picture does a good job in displaying jackle and Hyde as two people stuck inside one body. This certainty proves to be true, as the story progresses and the transformations occur/takes place. This story sort of reminds me of the movie The Nutty professor which was made during the 90’s. Originally when I had seen the video I had to idea that it was based off of the Dr. Jackal and Mr. Hyde story, but upon reading the story, it makes a lot of sense as the similarities between the story and the movie are apparent. In a way, I feel that this picture could perfectly convey the main plot of the story to someone who hasn’t read the story. But overall, I feel that this picture depicts/represents greatly what occurs in the group book.

Dr. Jackle and Mr hyde

In my opinion, Watching the 1932 film Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde sort of helped serve as a supplement to the book. However, as always in the movie, some of the details which were included in the book were left out in the movie. compared to the book, watching the movie I sort of felt that the movie left out the element of mystery which the reader is presented with in the book. Watching the movie i felt that the element of mystery was completely taken out of the movie. Another key difference in the portrayal of the story is the person’s character. In the book, the audience doesn’t know until the very end that  Jackle and hyde are the same person.  Instead throughout the entire movie, the audience knows/ is told that they are the same people. I felt that this the key difference between the book and the novel. In my opinion knowing that Dr. jacle and Mr. hyde are the same person sort of ruined the suspense of the story. But overall, it was an interesting movie to watch. In the end, in my opinion i felt that the version of the story presented in the book was much better than the one presented in the movie. As with any book which is turned into a movie, all the time key details which are presented in the book are left out of the movie, which in the end simplify it too much. The book in the end, end up telling a better and more entertaining story to the reader, as a result personally i would prefer the story told in the book to that which is presented in the movie.

Things worth writing about

watching the documentary The Magic of the White City during class on Thursday reminded me of the many interesting facts about the Chicago worlds fair. Originally I had seen the movie as an extra credit assignment in the fall semester, but watching it again, sort of refreshed my memory of of the little details which i missed while watching it for the 1st time. the fair had many interesting exhibits which represented many countries from around the world. of the many exhibits present, some of the things which i found interesting and worth writing about in the guided paper was :

the electrical building, which housed the huge dynamo’s of george westinghouse.

The ferris wheel which was originally designed in response to the Eifle tower in paris,

and the Midway Planisance – it is where all the main attractions of the fair was located.

as for the paper, as of right now, i have narrowed my choices down to choice 1 and 2, but so far i haven’t decided which one to actually write about. as of right now, i might be planning to focus on prompt 1, but within the next few days, i will have a better idea.

Master And Commander

overall, i found the movie to be very interesting to watch. Watching the movie a second time around gave me a better understanding of the plot. Originally I had seen the movie when it came out in 2004, at that time, i had thought of the movie to be a bit on the boring side. Watching the movie a second time gave me a better understanding of the plot, and the events which took place in the movie. The movie takes place during the Napoleonic wars between the nations of England and France. The two main characters were Jack, the Captain and Steven the doctor. Initially the movie begins with Jack’s ship being attacked by the superior French ship which almost nearly anhiliates the entire crew of the English ship. In an effort to get revenge, jack gets his ship repaired in a foreign land and sets out to look for the the French ship. In the process of their sailing,  they come to the Galapagos islands, where they discover millions of new species which they had no idea about. while they are at the islands, they rediscover the French ship and chase after it, and a huge naval battle occurs, in the end, Jack and his crew ends up coming out on top as they are able to conquer the superior French vessel. Overall i was able to understand the context of the movie more as i watched it a second time.

Industrial Revolution in Victorian England

The short seven minute clip on the industrial revolution in Victoria england depicted, the hardships the middle class had to go through during the industrial revolution. Although the industrial revolution made England  very rich as a nation, it left the working middle class poorer than ever. In order to support the entire family, everyone including the children had to go and work in the cotton mills . Children under ten were given some of the most dangerous jobs, as they had to go and retrieve small objects from underneath running machinery. Elizabeth Gascoll one of queen Victoria’s sisters was the 1st person to  shed light on the “industrial misery” experience by those that worked in the industrial facilities.Elizabeth Gascoll depicted the  anguish of the middle class in england  in the novel  Mary Burton: A Tale of Manchester life. The book accurately depicted the struggles of the middle class, and brought it to the public attention. Mrs. Gascoll believed that honest, graphic social reporting could make a difference in society. Although originally conditions in england were despicable, overtime, improvements in living conditions occurred due to the collective efforts by pregessives reformers such as Elizabeth Gascoll.

Years of Rice and salt Book VII

Book seven in the years of Rice and Salt, tells the story of the industrial revolution which takes place all around India.  In the beginning of the story, the reader is given a bit of background as to set the context of the story. In the story, the reader learns that the long reigning Mogul empire was overthrown and a new empire was established. The new empire focused on technological and industrial innovations, which lead to some significant discoveries. And, as a result of these discoveries the Indian empire had a superior navy, superior air power in hot air balloons, fire-powered ships, coal industries, and a shipping industry.  These innovations gave the Indian empire a considerable amount of advantage over the weak Ottoman Empire; and as a result, the Ottoman Empire is easily broken and conquered without facing much resistance. Upon the conquest of the Ottoman Empire, the sultan flees with his guards and his advisor’s leaving the gold and the reaches behind. Although all of his close advisor’s leave with the sultan, Ismael the sultan’s leading physical stays behind, and he helps in the expansion of medical science. The leader of the Indian empire imagines a world where “everyone everywhere is free of all empires”. And the Indian empire works as sort of as a buffer between the two old world power of the time, the Chinese and the Muslims.  But in the end, their efforts prove to be futile, when insurgency within china escalates and draws the whole known world into war.

Years of Rice and Salt Book V

Book V is the story of Busho, a former Japaneses Samurai. He used to live in one of the small islands of japan, but he was forced to leave once his homeland was invaded by the Muslims. The book begins with him in the Americas living with one of the local native America tribes after they had rescued him from the Sioux tribe, who were slowly killing him when they were ambushed. After living with the locale’s for a while, bush is nominated to be the chief of the eight nation of native Americans, which he gladly accepts. Upon being accepted as the chief, he reveals more of his background to the general audience and the reader. Here the reader learns, that people from his home world attempted to set up a new homeland in the America’s only to be invaded by the Chinese. After his speech, he proposes building a stronger alliance with the other local native Americans and to build up the defense of the nation, in anticipation of the eventual invasion by the outsiders.

overall, this was an easy reading to do, but at the same time it was very confusing to read. In book IV,  we read about the alchemist, and the scientific revolution taking place in the Muslim empire, in present day Uzbekistan. but this book begins starts in the America’s, and later on we learn of the invasion of Japan, which wasn’t mentioned in the story beforehand at all. The story continuously jumps from one story to another through out the book, and this in the end makes the book difficult to read.

Years of rice and salt book IV

Book IV talked about the scientific revolution which takes place in modern day Uzbekistan. The book starts with Bahram an alchemist providing a fake demonstration on how to turn regular metals into gold. While reading the beginning of the book, i felt it was connected to Newton’s background, as he himself spent a significant amount of time attempting to turn metal into gold without success. Althought bahram thought he was sucessful in conning the khan, in the end of the demonstration he ended up getting caught. He was originally sentenced to death, but he was later on pardoned, and his punishment was lowered to having his hand cut off. After his punishment, bahram became very depressed, but he sort of recovered from this eventually and he gave up alchamy. Instead of doing alchamy, bahram took up scientific experiments in which he attempted to prove various things.  Which led to the discovery of many new scientific theories which they had from before. Overall i found book 4 to be sort of boring to read. It started out alright, but in the middle, i ended up getting bored with all the scientific details which were involved of which i already knew from my past experiences. but hopefully the other books might turn out to be more interesting than book for.