Tuesday, February 15, 2011

3, 2 ,1

  1. I learned about the inventions that were made during the revolution like the spinning jenny and cotton gin.
  2. I got a better understanding about communism.
  3. I also learned that the middle class came around during the revolution.
  1. One guy like Karl Marx's could come up with his own system of government and it would still be around today.
  2. How farmers lost there jobs fast due to larger farms.
  1. How come technology and new inventions only slowly develop over the years? Do you think it was possible to have all the stuff we have today back then? i believe so.

Communism

Communism is almost the opposite of capitalism which we have today. Instead of having different classes, and the harder worker getting paid more then the person who works less communism treats everyone just about equal. No one has a personal piece of property, they can own property but everyone else owns that property. Also you would get paid the same as anyone else working, no matter how much of a better job you do. It also is written out so sooner or later it can run without having a government behind it.China, North Korea are the bigger communist countries still around but there are some more.

Abolition of Slavery

William Wilberforce fought for abolition. He retired from parliament but still continued to fight against slavery. A new class came out of it who were more for cheap labor then slave labor and they gained power in parliament. So slavery ended. I think Wilberforce was right for what he did, slavery was a wrong thing and id rather have cheap labor then have slaves cause that's just wrong. They are people too so it's a good thing they won the fight.

Monday, February 14, 2011

Connection across time

The internet was a big invention during our time, and it has been growing ever since it came about. It wasn't made for the purpose it serves today, it originally was made by DARPA - the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. The main purpose was to share information on defense research between involved universities and defense research facilities. Now in today's world it serves a lot more purposes, you can watch a video, get music, watch movies, do buisness, catch up with friends, there is so much on the internet it's crazy. I believe this really changed the world on how we can interact and share cultures with each other.

Spinning Jenny

In 1764 a textile worker named James Hargreaves invented a spinning wheel. He named it after his daughter Jenny, hence the name "Spinning Jenny." The spinning Jenny allowed one spinner to work 8 threads at a time. That majorly improved the textiles that were produced. It was an invention that changed the industries.

The Flying Shuttle

Before the Industrial revolution came around, people were making textiles by hand, and that would take a long time. The flying shuttle changed all this. John Kay was the inventor of the flying shuttle. The flying shuttle was a little boat shaped piece of wood on wheels that sped back and forth which had yarn attached. It doubled the work a weaver could do in a day. It helped it so more textiles could be produced faster. Later on more inventions would improve on this one.

Crop Rotation

Back in the 18th century farmers would plant there crops and wait for them to grow and when they grew they would harvest them. When it came time to plant again they would plant the same crop in the same place. That was the problem, crops use the nutrients in the ground to help them grow, some crops will take different nutrients from the ground then others. If you plant the same crop in the same place all the time you will take out all the nutrients and kills the soil. This is where Crop Rotation came into play, in Crop rotation when you plant one crop one year and it uses some nutrients you plant a different crop in the same place to help replenish the nutrients taking from the ground and after that year you plant a different plant in that spot and so on until you get back to the plant you originally planted there, that helps keep the nutrients balanced and doesn't use up all of them. This "invention" helped the farmers be able to plant more and more crops and never have to worry about there soil.