Planning

In my research, I plan to use About.com articles because they have a lot of information that is clear and understandable about a lot of topics. I also plan to use the links that I find on Wikipedia pages about my question. I will also use known news websites such as BBC because I know the information is accurate and it has a lot of helpful details that I may not find somewhere else.
It's not such a good idea to do a regular Google search rather than an advanced search because the regular search gives you very random websites about your topic that might not be relevant or true. When you use an advanced search, you get precise websites that have more information about what you're looking for and that are more useful to you.
It's better to get information from a book or online encyclopedia than finding a site through a research engine because you know that the information is true. When using a research engine, it's hard to be sure if the information is true.

Life on the Western Front

Dear family,

I could try to tell you that everything is fine, but truthfully it is not. I have been suffering here on the western front. Life in the trenches is harder than they talk about. I’m currently operating a machine gun, and I haven’t gotten a lot of sleep these past couple of days since many soldiers are injured and can’t take on their shifts. I miss you all so much. I have forgotten how it feels to have family around you since here all that surrounds me is constant death. My closest friend out here had become blind by poison gas that was sent by the Germans. When we were under attack, there was no one to help him find his way since everyone was busy with their posts. He was shot, and, after the attack, I tried to help him but he was too weak. I was very upset for weeks and it showed me the reality of my situation and that I could be close to death too. There is no space for those thoughts or feelings here, though. We’re constantly fighting for our lives.
I also haven’t been eating well lately with all the rats around. They poison our food. All the efforts back home to try to get us enough food are sometimes useless. They spread very quickly and are everywhere. Every now and then a stray dog may pass by, and we would capture it so that we can give it some of the food to check if it’s poisoned. A couple of my fellow soldiers had their feet amputated because they had trench foot. It’s very common in the trenches, but, thankfully, I haven’t had it. During my many years of training for this war, I could have never imagined how difficult it is. One of the smallest but most irritating issues is the lice. I have never been so itchy my entire life. And they spread so fast! Half of the soldiers in my trench got them within one week. The influenza has just reached us and many soldiers are catching it. Some only live for a couple of days once they have it. We have had to lock some soldiers up in the shelters so they don’t contaminate others. Our lives are among the last that have survived. I am afraid that I will be scarred for life after all the terrors that I have seen. I miss you all so much, you have not idea. If I could only be home for Christmas and celebrate with Aunt Sally’s delicious apple pie. The fighting has eased up a bit. There have been rumors going around the trenches that the war is close to an end. I pray for it to be true, and I am longing for the day we will be reunited.

Love,
your Thomas

Identifying and Analyzing Alternatives

1. An everyday problem in a teenager's life is going out alone with friends. This is part of growing up. It's a stepping stone to adulthood. To do this, they must gain their parents' trust.

2. The first solution that is usually proposed is to not go out. Parents might feel that it's dangerous to go out alone. They also might not trust their children when they are not supervised. Some parents don't even hear the children out. The second solution would be for a parent to come with the teenagers. This would be embarrassing, and they might not be comfortable.

3. If the children don't go out, then they will be safe but disappointed. By doing this, the children probably won't be trusted by their parents. If the parents come with the children, the children won't learn how to be independent and will probably also be disappointed.

4. I think that the teenager should gain the parents' trust. They could do this in small steps like babysitting younger siblings for example. Over time the parents will gain the teenager's trust and then they will be able to go out alone. The teenagers could also go out with a parent and show them that they are ready to go out alone by acting mature.

Freedom in Iran: Do they truely have a voice?

The people of Iran had wanted to overthrow the Shah and his dictatorship and bring democracy to their country. They had wanted change. Then, the clergymen had stood up offering to run the country they had always dreamt of. They asked the people of Iran if they wanted and Islamic republic or not. The people apparently chose the Islamic republic and it was established after the constitution was written. The clergymen then took their place. Based on the constitution, there always needed to be a supreme leader and so one was established. Little by little, they started to take the freedom away from people while taking advantage of their positions.

For many years the Presidential Elections had been going well. The preceding president of Iran, Mohammad Khatami, had supported the citizens of Iran and mostly ran a true democracy. After he was in office for two terms, it was time for the Presidential Elections. In Iran, there is a guardian council who determine who can be candidates for president. They have the power to dismiss the people they don’t approve of, and the people don’t think the same way as they do. This is a limiting factor in the voting process. The people of Iran can therefore only vote for the candidates that they guardian council liked and approved of.

The election day had been a complete mockery. The citizens had been voting for someone who was with the people and wanted to correct the laws. Seeing this, the supreme leader had dismissed everyone on his council and chose the president, giving the citizens the illusion that they had a voice. The election was then capped and, in a time too short for it to be possible that the votes were counted, the clergymen came to the conclusion that the president would be Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He was not who the people had been voting for. The people saw that there had been irregularities in the voting process. The government wouldn’t listen to the opposition and wouldn’t pay attention.

To this day, the clergymen have been eliminating (imprisoning) reporters, students, professors, thinkers, and journalists who have tried to surface the truth behind the head of the country. People are determined to fight without violence. What the Iranian people got, was worse than what they had.

Images HERE and HERE

United States Imperialism: Helping Others or Benefiting from Them?

The introduction of imperialism in America led to a mad chase to intervene in other countries' affairs. It was a time of great power for the United States and, seeing all of their power, other countries turned to them for help.

There were many causes for imperialism in the United States in the late 1800s. The humanitarian reason was that many people such as doctors and missionaries believed they should spread law medicine, and Christianity to other countries. With the growing industry, they needed natural resources (rubber, petroleum) which were available in other countries. They also wanted to get involved with other international markets. The rise in nationalism was also a big factor. They believed they were superior to other countries, and they wanted to protect their interests. Another major cause for imperialism was military factors. America's growing navy needed bases for refueling. Their advances in military technology also put them ahead of other countries.

The first example of American Imperialism in the late 1800s was when a secretary of state had the president send 50,000 troops to the Mexican border to scare off the French's colonial virtues into Mexico when they put an emperor on the Mexican throne. The second instance was when Secretary of State Seward bought Alaska from Russia in 1867. He convinced the Senate that Alaska had many natural resources that could be useful to them. In 1867, Seward annexed the Midway Islands to use as refueling stations for the navy. In 1870, President Grant announced that he would protect the Caribbean Islands from transfer to a European power.

The most significant example of American Imperialism was America's interference with a Cuban rebellion against Spain. Cubans had forcefully asked for American help. When President McKinley sent a list of demands to Spain to find a peaceful solution, Spain refused to give Cuba its independence. This started the Spanish-American War which, after several battles, was ended when the US Navy sank all the Spanish ships. In the Treaty of Paris, the Spanish recognized Cuban independence, and Spain gave up the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Guam to the US for $20 million.

In 1899, the Philippines had expected to gain their independence after the war. When the United States refused to acknowledge their independence, a three-year war followed. They didn't gain their independence until 1946.

After the war, President McKinley installed a military government in Cuba to protect American business interests and to help restore economic stability. The Cubans felt betrayed and that the Americans were taking Spain's place. This ended after agreeing to the Platt Amendment.

Puerto Rico didn't become independent. The US maintained a military government there until 1900. In 1900, the Foraker Act was passed and a civil government was established in place of the military, but it was still controlled by the US. Over time more control and freedom was given to the Puerto Ricans. The US granted Puerto Ricans American citizenship and retained the power to appoint key officials, but the congress did not apply to them.

The United States annexed Hawaii at the request of Sanford B. Dole after he overthrew the queen. President McKinley didn't consider the wishes of the Hawaiian people. He annexed it to have a naval station to protect world trade.

A year after the annexation of Hawaii, the US acquired the harbor at Pago Pago in Samoa after some controversy.

The US bought a 10 mile-wide strip of land from Panama for $10 million to build the Panama Canal. In order to do make this purchase, President Roosevelt told them that if they didn't accept it, the US would not help the Panamanians in their revolution against Colombia. This part of the deal left Latin Americans with hatred towards the US. Under Roosevelt, US intervention in Latin America became common.

In 1905, Roosevelt meditated a peace agreement to the Russo-Japanese War. He helped keep trade in China open to all nations.

In 1913, President Wilson refused to recognize General Huerta and his illegal actions in Mexico even though all the US investments in Mexico were at stake.

The arguments for imperialism were that it would help economic growth by solving the overproduction and the problems that came with it. The international expansion of markets was also a big point. They wanted to help general defense and protect the markets by having refueling stations for the Navy. Also, they believed in the idea of manifest destiny and they felt it would help them become economically competitive to preserve the American Spirit.

The arguments against imperialism were that people in territories controlled by the US should be entitled to the same guarantees in th Constitution as Americans and it was said that imperialism threatened the nation's democratic foundations. Anti-imperialists argued that expansion involved too many costs and that laborers that would come to the US from the territories would take up the jobs of Americans. They also said that trade with these countries would hurt American Industries, and they saw racism at work in imperialism.

The United States intervened with other countries' affairs for their own benefit and used the excuse of helping them to make it acceptable. The positives did not outweigh the negatives. Even if some countries eventually gained their independence and others came to agreements, many people died in the process, and the US didn't always do what they said they would. Since the main reason for the interventions was for the US to succeed economically, it doesn't make it right for the countries to suffer from it, even if they would eventually be helped.

Images HERE and HERE

Globalization

Globalization is when countries all over the world connect. They connect their cultures, markets, and businesses making them interdependent. Some say that the connection is mainly economical. Globalization has greatly increased with the development of the internet and international travel. It has caused some countries to prosper and others to struggle.

Pros:

• It has increased opportunities for almost everyone.
  
• Economies have increased opportunities and competition.
• It makes people wealthier and allows more diverse lifestyles.
• For the rich, it has brought greater spending and rising living standards.
• It has increased international travel.
• Globalization helps information exchange between countries, helps us understand other cultures, and expanded the idea of democracies.
• Many countries change their government system due to globalization. When a country with an unsuccessful form of government learns about another country's successful form of government through globalization, they might chose to change.

Cons:

• Certain groups of people who don't have the means to compete under the pressure of the globalized economy will be unsuccessful and fail.
• It is said that international markets could cause misery (in the form of poverty and unemployment).
• Critics say that while some countries gain money, other developing countries are suffering. (In the last decade, the income of the poorest people has dropped significantly)
• Companies move their production lines to low-wage countries and the people that were working for them lose their jobs.
• Some people are concerned that these large, trans-national companies are becoming more powerful the democratically-elected governments.
• Others are concerned that with all the craze for making money quickly, people are forgetting about the environment and harming it.

Image Here

ChorsAlj Presents the Virtual Textbook!

Dear Mr. Buffet,

Many people have always wanted to revolutionize the learning experience. With our company, ChorsAlj Books, and product, The Virtual Textbook, we will be able to achieve this. We will make learning fun and interesting. Our company will purchase all the basic segments needed to make the product. We will set up offices, have factories and mines, and have a sufficient workforce. Through ChorsAlj Books, children will love to learn.

Our Product is the Virtual Textbook. It is thin and about the size of the screen of a computer. It has a special touch screen that won’t tire or harm your eyes after looking at it after a long time. It enables you to take notes (text, video, or audio notes) as you read and link them to parts of the textbook. The screen will show pages of the textbook that you can flip through and that will have links to videos. It will also have a built in dictionary that will allow you to look up words directly. It is lightweight and has many different textbooks in it so you only have to carry one thing. The textbooks come in a variety of languages. This product will prevent students from forgetting their textbooks and it will make learning interesting and fun.

We will bring together all of ChorsAlj’s competitors into one company that will change regular textbooks into virtual ones. We will buy the other companies and offer the owners a percentage of our profit. We will also keep the employees and pay them the same amount that they had been earning before. The companies that we will buy will be Houghton Mifflin, HarperCollins, Prentice-Hall, and Little Brown. We will have offices and stores spread across the U.S. as well as several in foreign countries. In the countries where our stores are not available, we will ship the product.

The main offices (including publishing offices) will be located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. We will need to buy the research institution that will find and develop the technology needed for the Virtual Textbook which will be located in Cambridge. We will also employ professors who are certified to write textbooks. There will be several professors who will write for every subject and they will be located at our offices. We will then need to buy mines to get the metal from that will be located in the U.S.. We will also buy metal factories that will be located in China because the expenses there are low. This factory will manufacture the metal needed for the device including the wires. A quartz mine is needed to be purchased in Arkansas as well as a quartz manufacturing factory that will also be located in Arkansas to make glass for the touch screen. There will also be another factory that will make all the inside parts of the device and a factory that will put all the pieces together to make the final product. These factories will be located in China too. We will then need to create and own a shipping company for ground transportation and several ships that will transport the products across the Atlantic Ocean.

There must be a plan as to where we will get our energy from. The offices in the U.S. will get their energy from municipal energy providers. The factories and mines in the U.S. will get their energy from wind turbines in a wind farm that we will own for this purpose. The factories in China will be located next to a dam that we will build to have energy.

We will get our raw materials from the mines that we will have purchased.

Many different kinds of laborers are needed in the company. In China, the payment will a little bit above minimum wage. In the factories, we will need machine operators, regular laborers, technicians, shipping and receiving workers, and managers. For the research institution we need designers, engineers, and technicians. For the offices we need secretaries, editors, publishers and the professors that will write the books, office-workers, a legal department, marketing department, accounting department, Human Resources, etc. For the mines we will need machinery operators, miners, one or two geologists, and a general manager. For the transportation we need drivers and ship crews. The Human Resources at our offices will determine the payment plans and healthcare plans for our personnel.

We must follow any regulations that are put forward by the government. We will offer to donate all old paper textbooks to public schools if they don’t have money to purchase the Virtual Textbook. The legal department in our offices will contact government agencies that pertains to our business and acquire all policies, rules and regulations about our company’s activities. Our company will put ourselves in line with these regulations.

In order to make a profit, we will publicize our product a lot so there will be a worldwide demand for this revolutionary product. Our product will meet the needs of the public so they will generate this demand for it. Once some schools start using it and see how good it is, many others will want it, and over time it will become mandatory and replace textbooks. It will also give you a good reputation, Mr. Buffet, since it is environmentally friendly and that we are going to send all the textbooks to public schools worldwide. Since it is lightweight and prevents back problems, a lot of people will want to buy it. Take an MP3 player for example. You don’t have to carry a hundred CDs with you. You would just have this small device. MP3 players were also sold very quickly, just as we have predicted for our Virtual textbook.

Now that I’m a millionaire, I will like to donate a generous amount of money to help the people in Haiti. After I have made a significant contribution to them, I would like to donate money to charity hospitals all over the world. I would also like to donate money to institutions that are looking for a cure for cancer and other diseases. I would then create a facility for endangered animals where they can be safe and be taken care of.

Images here, here, and here.