WWI poetry

I decided to read "Dead Cow Farm" by Robert Graves. I picked this poem in particular because I thought it was just a very interesting and unusual name for a poem. In the poem it describes a cow as the creator of Adam and Eve. I thought this was particularly interesting because that is not how I have always pictured the creation of Adam and Eve. At the end it says "the old cow's dead." I think when he says this he means that the off spring of the cow's creation are all dead like many of the men who died in WWI.

Resources used for Great White Fleet postcards

http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq42-3.htm
http://www.greatwhitefleet.info/Milton_Willard.html
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85066387/1907-07-28/ed-1/seq-5/;words=fleet+white+great?date1=1907&rows=20&searchType=basic&state=California&date2=1909&proxtext=Great+White+Fleet&y=21&x=22&dateFilterType=yearRange&index=0

Great White Fleet

I've been doing my research here. I have learned that the fleet traveled 12,455 miles in 14 months across the world. There were 16 giant battle ships all painted white (that's why its called the "Great White Fleet") that set sail from Hampton Roads, VA. The fleet made 20 stops around the world before ending back up at the very same port they left from.

Research on other peoples articles

In looking at my classmates blog posts, I learned that an increased interest art led to companies wanted to make their logos look fancier. I thought this was interesting because I did not previously know that big corporate companies had that much interest in what their logo looked like. I also learned that Francis Ouimet was one of the very few golfers to win the US open as an amateur. He also did not make any money from playing golf and worked at a sporting goods store to make his cash. I learned that Teddy Roosevelt was a major factor in keeping the game of football around. He changed the rules so that it would be safer and therefor more likable to fans.

New York Subway System

In class the past few weeks we have been learning all about the beginnings of consumerism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Because of this growth there was also a growing number of people that moved to cities to be closer to their jobs and stores. As the cities got larger so did the need for people to get around the now bigger cities. So, public transportation was born. There were buses and taxis but nothing was more effective or popular than the subway. New York's two finest creations are its cheese cake and the subway. The subway was an effective way to get people around the city without taking up any real estate space.

When the subway was first brought up in New York the initial purpose was to bring people from their homes outside of Manhattan to the businesses they worked in and the other way around. It was very difficult to get consensus on where they would put the rail road lines in because no businesses or families wanted their homes or offices to be effected by the digging process that was required to build the subway. The courts in New York also shut down the first proposed routs because they believed that the tracks should extend further north than previously suggested. The "Elm Street Rout" was finally accepted in 1897 by both the court and the people of New York. This rout went along the General Post-Office, City Hall, and the Brooklyn Bridge.

The Interborough Rapid Transport Co. (IRT) began construction on the subway as soon as possible. In the original plans they had decided on putting in sixty-three different stations where the trains would take on and let off passengers. By 1904 the IRT had put down about thirty-one miles of underground tracks. These tracks went from City Hall to Kingsbridge terminal in Manhattan. When the IRT planed where they would put all of their stations they decided that they would put all of the stations under intersections of streets which I thought was very interesting because I thought they had just put stations where ever they had wanted to honestly.

If you were wondering how all of these subways were powered in the late 19th century and early 20th century I have the answer. The IRT built a very large warehouse-looking building called the "Power House". This building was capable of producing over 100,000 horsepower when it was being operated at a normal rate. At the time, this building was capable of producing way more power than any other electrical plant ever built. The "Power House" really did live up to its name because it powered the New York Subways up until the 1960s.

The New York Subway was not only an extremely amazing engineering accomplishment, it is still today the most popular way of getting around New York. There is an incredible amount of people that use this beautiful accomplishment every day and do not even realize that the tunnels that they are speeding through have been there for a little over one hundred years. It is amazing to think what the engineers of the time were able to accomplish with such little technology compared to what we have today.

Pictures found here

(tunnels in process of being built)

(map of Manhattan routs)

(map of routs)

(map of how deep they dug)

(Map of routs)

(Map of routs taken)

(Power House engines)

"Research Project"

For this project i have decided to research the New York subway system. I am researching how and why they decided to build this. From what i have gathered they wanted to go underground with the trains because it took up much less valuable real estate from the fast growing city of New York.

Christmas Spending

In today's economy out of all the holidays Christmas is the one that that trumps them all when it comes to consumer spending. In 2010 there was $584.3 billion spent on Christmas decorations and gifts in the month of December leading up to Christmas Eve. On Christmas Eve alone 23 million people were out shopping for last minute gifts. These statistics show that our economy is definitely one that is based heavily on consumption. With out this or economy would definitely fall apart.