Website for The History of Science Fiction book by Adam Roberts

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Chapter 9 - Empires of Tea: presentation

Empires of Tea Speech - Notes & Overview:

          Tea was available in Europe a few years before coffee and was used as a luxury and medical drink. There was much controversy on whether tea is good for a person and should be drunk. The Dutch doctor, Cornelius Bontekoe believed that the average person should consume tea every day or every hour. More specifically, a person should drink 10 cups a day, 50 cups if they were sick, and 200 cups at the most. A German doctor to the King of Denmark, Simon Pauli, thought that tea was poisonous from transporting it from China & quickens death. 

          Britain soon became the most tea-loving nation in Europe. At the beginning of 1700, almost no one in Britain drank tea, but by 1800, almost every one was drinking tea. At this time, prices of a pound of tea fell to 1/20 their original cost. This is because of the newly adopted practice of adulteration. Adulteration is the addition of ash, flowers, sawdust, & willow leaves or other items to a bag of tea. This allowed for more tea to be consumed than what imported. So much tea was produced in Europe at the time that everyone in every class could at least have 1-2 cups a day. 

          Out of the different flavors of tea during this era, black tea became more popular because it was more suited to survive longer voyages and was safer to drink because its adulterations were not poisonous like those of green tea. 

Oil in the Middle East: Map As History - history presentation

The Iranian Revolution: thoughts and reflections

          There were many aftershocks created from the Iranian Hostage Crisis. Even to begin with, the relations between Iran and the West had fallen apart due to the US's dislike for the Islamic Revolution. Cutting much of America's influence on exports of oil, the empowerment of the Islamic people in the Middle East and Iran was not beneficial to the West's need for black gold. The hostage crisis in Tehran cut a ravine of mistrust between Iran and the West. The Iranians accused the West for helping the pre-revolution governance of the country to regain its power. This mistrust of the West's actions leading to the crisis then lead the West to further dislike Iran. 

          A different aftershock created from the Islamic Revolution makes the culture of Iran more separated from the West. This change is the creation of women's dress code in the Middle East. I believe that when a religious or cultural society of people, such as certain majorities in Iran, is pushed back and forgotten during progress or minimized, then something like a change in dress code to preserve an non-outside influenced culture is completely understandable. I would sympathize with the choice to remain culturally different. 

USSR Final Assignment: The Soviet Union - A Dystopian Nightmare

5 Best things about socialism:

1. The soviet union encourages a high GDP

2. Socialism eliminates class struggles and wealth inequalities

3. Socialism ensures health care for everyone

4. Socialism ensures a high quality education for everyone

5. Socialism allows for an increase in productivity

5 Worst things about socialism:

1. Socialism deprives people of basic rights

2. Socialism violates people's privacy

3. Socialism relies on forced slave laborers

4. Socialism is inefficient because the central government owns all means of production

and distribution

5. Socialism benefits few at the expense of many

5 pieces of evidence against socialism:

1. Socialism deprived people of such basic rights such as rights to privacy, equality and

freedom of speech.

2. Soviet socialism led to the creation of a black market economy

3. So many people died in the forced labor camps, or were left without a family and place

to go

4. Soviet grain production was extremely low, which means agricultural instability

5. Estimates from the CIA and Khanin showing the national income were made

purposefully low to create the illusion of higher incomes than expected

5 words we looked up:

1. Blockheaded: Stupid, dull, intelligent

2. Artel: ​a cooperative association of craftsmen living and working together.

3. Consolidated: ​combine (a number of things) into a single more effective or coherent

whole.

4. Opportunism: ​the taking of opportunities as and when they arise, regardless of

planning or principle.

5. Procurement: ​the action of obtaining or procuring something.

The Middle East at the Beginning of the 20th Century: write-up

           When viewing the instructional video of the Middle East from The Map as History site, there were many facts being presented. The reader of the facts, in my opinion, did not speak quickly enough for me to follow his train of thought and link his ideas together. The lesson seemed to be lacking an overall goal of study and clear point, demonstrating the inability to connect it to class discussion. It was hard to understand, however there was a lot of information given about the evolution of different belief systems in the Middle East.

Ch. 19 - A Leader Tries to Shape a Master Race: thoughts and reflections

          In a time of economic depression and hurt national honor, the people of a nation are most likely to group together and seek a savior from the current situation. If not for the wounded economy and people, the Nazis Party would have never gained enough power to rule over the country of Germany. Adolfo Hitler was the leader of this party and had extreme unrivaled power over his fellow Germans. The man got what he wanted, and this included the systematic murder and mistreatment of the native Jews. To be able to carry out systematic murder of a people, Hitler believed and taught that the Jews  were responsible for the current depression in the country. He blamed them for their loss of the war and made them out to be below the non-Jews in Germany. They were not of the "master race" that would purge the land of all lower races. This is how he created reason for his massacre of the Jews in Germany under his new regime.  

          For many people, they either did not understand why they had lost their freedom to Hitler's regime or did not care. These people did nothing to stop Hitler and his rule. Others did not obey his authority and rose up because they understood the truth about their ruler, and did not like it. For all those who stood by and watched the Holocaust happen, Hitler was a fearsome and scary authoritarian figure, and because of his power, it was too dangerous do anything for the Jews. This type of overly powerful totalitarian figure in charge of the government would be needed for this type of slaughter to occur again. If people are too scared of rising up against a monarch, then there is nothing to stop that monarch from doing whatever they wish to their people.