Springing Forward

Daylight Saving Time is coming up again. On Sunday, April 2, at two o'clock in the morning, the clock will spring forward one hour. The purpose of Daylight Saving is to take an hour of daylight away from the morning and transfer it to an hour longer of daylight in the evening. This conserves energy as families will not have to turn on their electrical lights for an additional hour as there will be more sunlight.

The concept of Daylight Saving was introduced by Benjamin Franklin in 1784, while he was a minister to France. He published his idea in an essay titled, "An Economical Project for Diminishing the Cost of Light." His idea was not mentioned again until 1907, when an Englishman, William Willet, proposed the idea.

Daylight Saving was put into place in 1918 for the last years of World War I to help conserve money and energy. However, no one seemed to like the idea and the law was repealed. After this, some areas of America continued to use the Daylight Saving technique while other areas abandoned the idea. Obviously, this caused too much confusion and as a result of this, The Uniform Time Act of 1966 was put into place. This law announced that in April, the clock would spring forward one hour and in October the clock would fall back one hour so that no time would actually be lost.

The Facts About St. Patrick

The personage of St. Patrick is well known throughout the world, and yet the details of his story are not completely clear. Patrick grew up in Britain as the son of a deacon. However, when he was only 17 years old, he was captured by the Irish who attacked his village and was taken back as a slave to Ireland. He was placed in the position of shepard where he spent most of his time by himself. It was at this time that he began to return to his father's faith and he became a devout Christian.

Patrick had to endure six years of slavery in Ireland, however he was able to escape. He had a vision which he claimed was from God saying that he was to leave and find a ship that would take him back to Britain. He was able to return to Britain where he studied Christianity more fully but then he returned to Ireland to spread Christianity.

Chocolate, What Would Women Do Without It?!

I have always wondered, who was the incredibly intelligent person to first create chocolate? The first people were actually the ancient cultures from Central America, such as the Aztecs and Mayans. Chocolate is made from grounded cacao seeds, but it was first used by the ancient Central America civilizations to make a spicy, frothy drink. This drink actually played an important role in religious and social affairs. When the Spanish conquistadors invaded Central America, they brought the seeds back with them and spread them throughout Spain. Chocolate at this time was very bitter, but the Spanish added cinnamon and sugar to make it sweet.

The Scoop on the Scopes Trial

The Scopes Trial took place in Dayton, Tennessee, in 1925. The trial was soon known as the "monkey trial" as John Scopes was brought to court for teaching evolution in the public classroom. In reality he was a football coach and math teacher, but he had substituted in a biology class for a short time. He did not know very much of evolution or necessarily believe in it himself, but was following the current curriculum. However, several citizens from Dayton were hoping to set up a trial that would bring publicity to their small town. Scopes was the best candidate for a good controversy, the argument between Christianity and evolution in education.

The Dayton citizens certainly got the publicity that they wanted. The well known attorney, Clarence Darrow, came in the defense of Scopes. William Jennings Bryan, the attorney who had ran three times for the presidency, came for the prosecution. Seemingly countless numbers of reporters came to report on the trial and updates were heard on the radio. Publicity reached all the way to Europe and Australia.

The trial turned out to be more for show rather for an actual offence. Scopes was not kept as a prisoner or treated any differently. He did not even have to give an account for his actions during the trial as he did not know very much about evolution and was not actually guilty of teaching evolution in his classes. He was more of a vessel for a "show trial" than a true criminal.

Inherit The Wind was a movie based on the trial, but it brought a very different perspective to the story. The creators of the movie were obviously atheists as the evolutionists were shown as the sensible people and the Christians were shown as silly men and women who only knew how to sing songs and read out of the Bible. William Jennings Bryan, known as Harrison Brady in the movie, is portrayed as a man who only knows the Bible, and yet he does not really understand the Bible. He will accept anything as long as it says it in the Bible, but he does not dig deeper into ideas to understand why it says it in the Bible. He has no desire to read The Origin of Species and knows nothing about it, and yet he is proclaiming that it is wrong and should not be taught. He seems to not really know what he believes in, so he is afraid to think and look into other ideas because he might lead himself astray. Darrow on the other hand, known as Henry Drummond in the movie, is intelligent, knowing both sides of the story and valuing the capacity to think.

The pastor of the local church is portrayed as scaring people into the faith by sending all unbelievers to the lake of fire. He also does not seem to know what to do and always has to turn to God for help, portraying the idea that Christianity cripples a human being. The end of the movie does take an interesting turn as Drummond holds the Bible and The Origin of Species together and seems to be blending the two together. The viewer is left with the feeling that Christians are a hypocritical organization of people that do not even know what they believe in, but the thinking of Darwin and Christianity could combine to produce truth.

The movie and the actual event have many differences as they had different agendas. The movie had the purpose of representing Christianity as a foolish religion that ruins a human being. The real trial, on the other hand, had the purpose of bringing publicity and fame to a small town and have an American trial broadcasted around the world. I would have to say that both achieved their goals.

For pictures from the actual trial click here.

Who Came Up With This Idea?

H.R. Pufnstuf was a children's show which ran between 1960-1977. The producers were two men, Sid and Marty Krofft. The story was based on Jimmy, a young English boy, who would play by the river with his magic flute named "Freddie." Suddenly, a boat comes down the river and beckons Jimmy to come aboard. Jimmy climbs aboard, but then an evil witch, known as Witchiepoo, causes it to be an evil boat. Jimmy jumps out of the side to save himself from the witch and the evil boat and swims to Living Island. On this island, Jimmy was greeted by the mayor, R. H. Pufnstuf. This island is consistent with its name as everything is alive, from the plants to books and everything else you can imagine. In the different episodes, Jimmy continually is attempting to leave the island with the help of Pufnstuf, but the evil Witchiepoo foils their plans as she tries to steal the flute, Freddie. Sid and Marty Krofft also produced Bugaloos and Lidsville. The show is now known for expressing the culture of the sixties.

The Life of Stephen Crane

Since we are learning about the history of Stephen Crane in class, I figured I would write about it. Stephen Crane was born on November 1, 1871, in Newark, New Jersey. He was born, the youngest of fourteen children, to Jonathan Crane, a Methodist minister. Unfortunately, Jonathan Crane died only nine years after Stephen was born, leaving the fourteen children in the care of his wife who was now about fifty-four years old. While Stephen's father was still alive, Stephen took an interest in writing. He began writing at the age of eight and began submitting his work to the New York Tribune at the age of sixteen.

Stephen began his educational career at the Hudson River Institute, a prepatory school in Claverack, New York. In 1890, his mother died and he was left with no parents. In September of that year, he enrolled at Lafayette College to study mining engineering. However, he left before the end of the first semester, but enrolled at Syracuse University in January of 1891. He did not succeed at this college either as he spent most of his time playing Varsity baseball. He failed five out of his six classes, his one class that he passed being English Literature. He left the University without finishing his degree.

After his failure in college, Stephen moved to New York where he lived a Bohemian lifestyle. He lived a carefree life, not worrying about income but allowing himself to freely drink and wander from place to place within New York. He worked as a free-lance writer for a short time, writing ads and newsletters. At this time he began studying for his first novel. He went to the slums of New York and studied the lifestyles of the unfortunate people. The result of his research was his book, Maggie: A Girl of the Streets. The story was a realist novel based on a girl forced into prostitution which led to her suicide.

After writing his first novel, Stephen went around the world as a reporter for war. Based on his study he began working on his second novel, The Red Badge of Courage. This novel was a great success and caused Stephen to win a reputation in the literary world. After this success he continued writing short stories that revealed the poor conditions and lifestyles that many people have to endure. He was known for his sympathy of the less fortunate.

Stephen eventually returned to Cuba to study and report on the Spanish-American War. However, while he was in Cuba he developed malaria which worsened his case of tuberculosis. He returned to England due to his health problems but died in Badenweiler, Germany, on June 5, 1900. He died at the young age of twenty-eight.

The Origin of the Al-Qaeda

I never knew the origin of the Al-Qaeda, but the organization has an interesting history. The organization started in a defense of Afghanistan against the Soviet Union. Muslims from Afghanistan came together to protect their country and at first took on the name of mujahideen. By 1980, Osama Bin Laden became the primary benefactor and an influential leader for the organization.
After the Soviet Union left Afghanistan, Osama Bin Laden returned to Saudi Arabia and continued the Al-Qaeda as a service to help veterans from the Afghanistan wars. As the Iraq and Kuwait wars began in 1990, Bin Laden may have began organizing the mujahideen into the Al-Qaeda. He became very angry with the United States because they posted soldiers in Saudi Arabia. Due to this fact, Bin Laden began working against America. He established the Al-Qaeda away from Saudi Arabia as he was expelled for acting against the Saudi government. Bin Laden's headquarters were set up in Khartom, Sudan. Bin Laden began working against America by terrorizing U.S. troops in Somalia and many more terrorists acts followed that were suspected to be from the Al-Qaeda. As we now know, this was only the beginning of the terrorists attacks against America from the Al-Qaeda.

The Story of Saddam Hussein's Early Life

The story of Saddam Hussein's early life is a very interesting one. I believe that it explains partially why Saddam acts the way he does now. Hussein was born on April 28, 1937, outside of the small village of Tikrit in Iraq. The story of his childhood is a sad one as his father either died or left the family five months before his birth. Shortly after Saddam's father left the family his brother died of cancer and his mother was left by herself, still being pregnant with Saddam. Saddam's mother chose to name her son Saddam because of its meaning. The name Saddam means "one who comforts." However, one can say that he did not live up to his name as he brought more pain and suffering to his people rather than comfort.
Saddam's mother remarried later on in her life to a man named Ibrahim al-Hassarvn. Unfortunately, Saddam's new step father did not help his life to be any better. Ibrahim treated Saddam terribly, abusing him and forcing him to steal chickens and sheep to be resold. Saddam left home when he was ten years old and went to live with his uncle, Khayrallah Tulfah. His uncle lived in Baghdad and was a Sunni Muslim which was a new set of beliefs that Saddam was introduced to. Saddam said that he learned his most important lessons from his uncle, including the belief that he should never surrender to his enemy, no matter what his situation is. Saddam attended a secondary school of nationalistic views which affected his thinking and beliefs a great deal. At the age of twenty, Saddam excitedly signed himself into the pan-Arab Ba'ath Party under the influence of his uncle. Saddam was beginning to move into the world of adulthood still under the care and teaching of his uncle with the background of brutality, stealing, and not being loved and cared for as a usual child is.

The End of World War I

November 11, 1918 , World War I was finally over. It was at eleven o'clock, on the eleventh day of the eleventh month that Germany surrendered to the Allied Forces. The cease-fire treaty took place at Rethondes, France. The Germans were forced to surrender after the British forces created a strong blockade and the United States entered the war, joining the Allied Forces. The Germans were facing terrible loses in many battles, and many problems were arising in the counrty of Germany due to the war. At the beginning of the war the Germans had such high hopes and they believed that they would be able to win the war in 42 days. Other countries believed that this would be the war to end all wars, but they were quite mistaken as World War II followed soon after this. World War I lasted four years, starting in 1914, with the United States entering the war for the last year of fighting. After the armistice was signed, peace confrences were held in France and Woodrow Wilson made his speech concering his Fourteen Points to Congress. However, there were many problems left unresolved from World War I that lead to start of World War II only twenty years later.

The Story of Anastasia

I find that the Story of Anastasia and her family is very interesting, I just wonder if anyone from the family actually survived. Anastasia was born into a life of royalty as she was the daughter of the Tzar of Russia. She had three elder sisters and one brother in her family, she being the second youngest in her family. Unfortunately, Anastasia's brother was a hemophiliac and Anastasia's mother, Alix, was desperate to find any cure for her son. Alix was willing to try anything which drove her to accept the help of Rasputin, a man known for his evil deeds but also known for having mystic powers to heal sicknesses.
During this time Russia was engaged in World War World and Anastasia's father was having problems keeping control of the Russian people. Men and women from Petrograd and Moscow rioted against the Tzar causing a munity throughout Russia. On March 15, 1917, the Tzar was forced to relinquish his power over Russia and was held captive with his family at his winter castle. The final result of his captivity was that he and his family were brought into the basement of his castle and killed with machine guns.
The interesting twist to this story came when a young woman was found who called herself Anna Anderson. She was found on February 17, 1920, when she jumped off of a bridge in Berlin. She is now suspected to be Anastasia who survived the gun fire and bayonets and lives on today.
The information contained in this article was found at Anastasia and Anna Anderson.

Checking Things Out

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