My Journal

After giving a short speech in class (USSO 10100), here's my reflection.

It began with the Germans splitting atoms. Otto Hahn won 1944 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for Nuclear Fission (1938 discovery).

Some would say the purpose of such discovery is for energy, which can be used for good and bad. I beg to differ. Hahns only saw it as a challenge, nothing more.

Hahn's work has been inspired throughout by an invincible desire to solve the problems which he has encountered. Unlike Prometheus, who gave fire to Man, he has never dreamed of giving Man control over atomic energy. - source: NobelPrize.org

One might argue that they just do not wish to make Hahn responsible for the deaths from atomic bombs. That is a poor argument, because it is not only a weak assumption, it also attempts to discredit Hahn in some way, nothing more than slander.

I learned that for some reason (they lack critical thinking and only accept general consensus available at the time), many do not recognize or admit that Japan's technological rise is largely attributed to them having no burden on military budget, that burden is taken by the U.S. The response in class I got was generally: "but military and technology are kind of the same thing". I would say this is the Millennials problem I'm facing - unable to distinguish missiles and war jets from robots and engines. One only has to do with destruction and the other do not necessarily. Unless, they want to make the point (which I wouldn't be surprised at this point with millennials) that missiles and war jets can be used for non-destructive good (now this is where they would be confused of between space rockets and weaponry...bottom line it means they fail to understand the economy of all these).

I'm a bit relived that at least someone has some sense:
"because of the US defense treaty with Japan where Japanese armies were forcibly demobilized, officially disbanded, and rearmament disallowed, much of their defense fell to the US. Because of this, they saved a fortune on defense spending and were able to channel their best and brightest (and their wealthiest) into constant expansion of the Japanese economy and nation building. " - AsiaExpert

After the USSO 10100 class, I have to do this.

There are more than I could list, so I'm only listing those whom I have a least some general knowledge about:

Mario Puzo, the one who wrote The Godfather.

Al Nagler, TeleVue founder

Woody Allen, actor, writer (but very liberal), interviewed Billy Graham once - see youtube.

Henry Kissinger, politician during Nixon & Deng XiaoPing's time.

Edward G. Robinson, actor who played Dathan in The Ten Commandments.

Jonas Salk, cured polio, refused patent.

Ira Gershwin, George Gershwin(Rhapsody in Blue)'s brother.

Julian Schwinger, Nobel Prize winner in Physics.

Robert Hofstadter, Nobel Prize winner in Physics.

Bernard Baruch, CUNY Baruch College named after him.

Judd Hirsch, Famous actor who plays lots of Jewish roles.

Robert E. Kahn, Invented the TCPIP (internet)

Ed Koch, Former NYC Major

Professor: Johnnie Wilder

This class is probably the best I've ever taken. One shouldn't fail this class unless one does not really want to go to school at all. And by fail I mean less than A.

The topic for this class is so wide I will not enter much content in this thread, but spread them else where:

The Mexican War, The First Atomic War, LBJ, etc.