IHSS B 2021-22

  Cape Echols Mr. Roddy  IHSS 24 May 2022 Vanderbilt in the Gilded Age From the Gilded Age, arose some of America's most notorious business tycoons. Vanderbilt, a name still well-known due to its massive success in the railroad industry, gained its position from Cornelious Vanderbilt. Cornelious started his career by working for his father’s ferry business. By sixteen he was ready to start a business of his own. He borrowed $100 (about $3,000 today) from his parents to buy his own ship, a sailing vessel, named the Periauger. He ferried people from New York to Staten Island. he was able to compete with the competition by offering cheap fares. He invested the money he earned back into his business by buying more ships. As his business continue to grow she earned a reputation for being reliable and hard-working earning him the nickname “the Commodore”. His good reputation helped him secure a contract with the US government in 1812 during the war, supplying forts and ferrying sold...

  The article that I read was about the false perception that modern people have about life during medieval times. Due to the constant romanticization of medieval life in modern-day media, there has been an interesting desire by certain internet groups to return to the medieval way of life. Most believe that these were the “simpler days” when people worked much less and celebrated holidays more. A study done by a medieval economic historian at UC Davis found that the average English peasant worked 150 days a year in comparison to the average modern worker who works 250 days a year. With this information, it becomes clear why people want to return to these so-called “simpler times”. However, many scholars agree that medieval life is being oversimplified,  upon reevaluation, it was estimated that medieval peasants actually worked 300 days a year.  This is because actions such as milking the cows and tending the fields were daily tasks for the working class of this time rath...

  Jayla Balderas  Mr. Roddy  IHSS  16 May 2022                                                   What Did Medieval Peasants Know? A comment often thrown around is how much easier life was in medieval times. What sparked this specific article was a tweet made by a woman named Azie Dungey she said, “We give a lot more labor to increase someone else’s wealth than in times past. We generally work much longer hours. We have far fewer holidays and times of community festivity,” (Dungey).  This sparked a controversy, and brought up the question, what were things really like during the medieval times? It was stated everyone has a different variety of what they believed this era looked like in their head because it's ...

 Rachel Baker IHSS 5/16 Sand Shortage Crisis        I have previously heard about the world's sand shortage and coastal erosion, and chose to read the article "The World is Running Out of Sand" to gain more context on the issue. The article details the cause and current state of the sand shortage crisis. Sand is the most used global resource behind water, with humans consuming 50 metric tons annually. Coastal erosion and habitat destruction as we mine for sand has become a huge issue, with Earth simply unable to replace the sediment. Sand is so important because of its place as a key ingredient in construction, agriculture, manufacturing, land development, and electronics, not to mention small-scale everyday uses in sports, aquariums, zoos, etc. Until recently, sand use has been completely unregulated, although now some countries and industries are beginning to put down new restrictions on sand mining and usage. Suppliers have seen the opportunities this present...

 Gloria Morales Mr.Roddy Ihss May 16, 2022                                                                      Splitting a Cow               Click2Houston posted an article on May 9, 2022, about people using different methods to buy meat because of the increasing cost of meat. In this article there and interviews who inform the audience about why buying large cuts of beef specifically buying half a cow, which you would be given about 210 pounds of meat, or even a whole how, and how is beneficial to her. Additionally, you do not only get a grand amount of beef, but once your cow is butchered, you will get all the different cuts of meat in your cow. Buying a cow/sides, is, in the long run, could save i bit of money, about 1500 - 2000 dollars ...

 Alexander McGill  Charts Show Why our Food is not Ready for the Climate Crisis     Some people think that agriculture will change do to the climate crisis. Food production losses are already happening due to the climate.  In Asia, rice fields are being flooded with saltwater; cyclones have wiped out vanilla crops in Madagascar; in Central America higher temperatures ripen coffee too quickly; drought in sub–Saharan Africa is withering chickpea crops; and rising ocean acidity is killing oysters and scallops in American waters. A crop like wheat, which is the most consumed consumed grain, was effected by climate change. The prices for durum wheat went up by 90% after droughts and unexpected heatwaves in Canada. Coffee is also being greatly effected. When it’s too hot and dry, coffee ripens too quickly which makes the quality worse. It also can not be too wet or windy, so countries that get hurricanes can not grow it. Some of the ways that people save crops is...

 Sophia O'Heron Mr. Roddy  IHSS 16 May 2022 The Rio Grande Ran Dry This article talks about how the Rio Grande is and has been a hugely impactful river to both communities of people and animals. It has helped sustain life for unique species that call it home and has created spectacular canyons in its time flowing. In the past, there have been instances where parts of the river have gone dry. However, these were only temporary set backs and have never lasted too long. But this spring, the reasons that 75 miles of it have run dry don't seem as reversible. Dean David is a person who has spent a substantial amount of time researching and studying The Rio Grande. His input is that there are two main causes for so much of the Rio Grande's water to have run low. Climate change has caused the most severe drought that the west has seen in over 1000 years, which definitely impacted the river a lot and likely played a big role in the stop of the water flow. The second reason is, sadly...

The beef prices have been skyrocketing, and are up 20% as of now. Amy was tired of paying outrageous prices for beef, and its poor quality. Instead, she started buying a whole, or half of a cow. Doing this saves about $1,500-$2,000 a year, and the quality of meat is significantly better. They will do specialty cuts, packaging, and flash freeze for no charge. Half a cow $1400, to $1700, but it will last a while if kept frozen, and the quality will be much better. In half a cow you get around 230 pounds of meat, some being prime cuts, ribeye, t-bone sirloin, etc. The increase of beef prices results from, a lack of workers, supply chain issues, drought in cattle farms, and the acceleration of demand from customers.  In the US we consume on average 27.3 billion pounds of beef, and each person consumes around 67 pounds. Beef is a staple in American culture, but it's also terrible for the environment. The decrease in consumption of beef could be for a multitude of reasons, one being en...

 Sienna Kissack Mr. Roddy IHSS May 16, 2022 Rio Grande Runs Dry     In the article, The Rio Grande goes dry in Big Bend , it talks about how the Rio Grande river has gone dry, but it isn't the first time it has happened. Many people find it abnormal for the Rio Grande river to go dry. Some people can see the river being low in the winter due to climate changes and human infrastructure. The human infrastructure makes it worse because of all the roads and buildings causing it to make the river dry out. In the article, it states that these past two decades were the driest in the American West and the mega drought has been affecting Rio Grande the most. Another reason is human impacts, which is said to have a long history. Due to the no longer free flowing water, plumbing has been more difficult and people would have to extract water for themselves. It is said that there is not even a little bit of water to keep it a river, and lately the Rio Grande river has been running dry...

Everest Leo Mr. Roddy IHSS 16 May 2022 Why Our Food is Not Ready for Climate Change     I read an article that talked about climate change and its current and possible effects on our food supply. I am quite informed on climate change so none of the extremely alarming data was too surprising, but that doesn't make it less important. One of the main points the article talked about was how little diversity we have in terms of staple crops. Of course, it makes more sense to have less diversity for the sake of easier mass production, but this is very dangerous, as if there were to be just one event that wiped out a sizeable portion of the global wheat supply, it would have devastating effects. It also happens to be that a lot of the crops we consume are picky with their environment, take coffee, for example, it is widely consumed around the world on a daily basis, Yet there are only two species. Adding on to that, the species used the most is the Arabica species and that is the pic...

https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/environment/a39880899/earth-is-running-out-of-sand/ I read a Popular Mechanics article called "Earth Is Running Out of Sand ... Which Is, You Know, Pretty Concerning" which is linked above. It covers first the importance of sand to the global economy and especially the construction industry. As the second most used resource behind only water and is a key part of industrial development and is used in buildings and roads everywhere and will continue to be used at an ever-increasing rate as Africa and India continue to industrialize.  Not only will the global demand for sand continue to increase but the current demand for sand has already caused the creation of a mafia-run black market for sand.  This pretty much came as a complete surprise to me because not only had I not really considered sand a finite resource before this but also I had just never thought about really how much sand exists in our everyday lives from the glass in our...

This article talks about how the Russian army which was supposed to be a global superpower is falling short even though multiple experts thought they had the lead over Ukraine. Russia was famous for its powerful military with futuristic and advanced tech, which gave them crazy good planes and tanks. However, according to the article, this is not how an army's power is meant to be measured. The Russian soldiers primarily were not trained very well making them very quick to abandon their posts and vehicles. meaning that even the greatest planes in the world are useless with nobody flying them. On the other side, Ukraine invested in a great air defense which caused Russian soldiers to invade more on foot with trucks and other things like trucks and tanks. Russia then failed to compensate for important factors such as fuel. This is very smaller than when France supposedly had the most capable machines but easily fell to Nazi Germany because even though their army was good on paper, it ...

The article I read was about the recent sand shortage that we are experiencing. it also talked about the importance of sand and why we need sand. in the article, it said that sand is important to us because we use it to make all sorts of construction materials like concrete and glass the two main ones. it also touched upon how this is happening because the consumption of sand is higher than the natural construction of sand. and that sand is created in the mountains and taken down to the beaches and oceans via rivers. the article lists multiple solutions to this problem like reusing old construction material and alternatives to using sand. overall I enjoyed reading this article. it was quick concise and had a very interesting topic. and it also shed some light on an issue that I have never heard of before.

 Alexandre Maciel Mr. Roddy IHSS 16 May 2022 Sportswashing       Sportswashing is the concept of world governments and businesses using their power and wealth in order to attract sports to their country. This includes things such as athletes, venues, or competitions. As American Winter Olympic champion stated, "Sports are an amazing way to bridge the gap and be a force of unity." Although sportswashing is getting very out of hand now adays, it isn't a new concept. In 416 BCE during the Athens - Sparta war, and Athenian politician named Alcibiades decided to pay for 4 chariot teams during the Olympics. Now keep in mind that the Olympics even back in the day were and expensive business, very similar to Formula 1. His teams finished, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. However, Athens during that time was incredibly poor, and had very few resources. But this scared other people and they thought that they came up with the solution that Athens must be perfectly fine. Nowadays, s...

During the gilded age, the most powerful influences obtained their success through schemes, bribes, abuse of power, and illegal activity. John D Rockefeller, for example, exploited his workers and paid unreasonable wages. In many ways we can see this in today's politicians, many of them using tax loopholes to pay less to the government, hoarding their own money. In politics, money is the most important aspect of success. This was demonstrated during the gilded age as well. Politicians like Donald Trump and companies like siemens would right off their money and get it tax-exempt. Abuse of power is also seen through bribes, whether it's hiring someone to get inside-word, or illegally digging up emails, this is apparent in the gilded and present age.  There are many similarities between now and the gilded age leading people to believe we have entered another  ‘golden age’, and maybe even another progressive era. The political polarization during the 1870s-1900s, was so strong i...

 As cities started to develop more there were many new unexpected problems. One of these problems is space. As cities are expanding the limits started running into rivers, mountains, and being too far away from the city. The solution to this problem is to go up instead of out. The first skyscraper was made in 1885 in Chicago as a home insurance building. It was 10 stories tall and made out of steel beams. The reason for the cheap construction was the Bessemer process which made it cheaper and easier to create strong and good steel. Skyscrapers became more popular with the invention of the elevator which took away the biggest con of skyscrapers which was going up against multiple flights of stairs. Skyscrapers directly increased the population in cities which boosted commerce, and provided a cheaper living space for poorer people to live in. These first skyscrapers were revolutionary because they influence other builders to build skyscrapers improving the function of the cities by m...

                                                                  Gilded Age Leaders     The Gilded Age was a period of time when America experienced an "economic boom". With the start of the Gilded Age came many new wealthy leaders of our country. Some of these leaders abused their power which influenced inequality among common people ( people who were not as rich as them) while others put their wealth and power to improve the future of our country. But being one of these wealthy Gilded Age leaders also came with the constant competition between each other for power and success. One leader who helped construct the Gilded Age was Andrew Carnegie. Andrew Carnegie was born in Scotland and later he and his family moved to America searching for better work opportunities. He was first hired...