Stephanie Kwolek

Kevlar is awesome. Thus, the women who invented Kevlar, is also awesome! Who'd a thunk that a stuff that lab technicians usually threw out, later was developed into Kevlar!! Nice right?!! So here is a brief look at why Kevlar is awesome:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevlar

So many uses! Isn't that great?! So Kwolek, during her time at DuPont, was able to isolate the substance, and although according to some sources she wasn't responsible for developing a lot of the uses of Kevlar, she is credited with making the discovery that the substance is extremely resilient. And any women who helps develop something that keeps America's troops safe on the front lines, deserves and award in my book. Thank you Stephanie Kwolek.

Marie Curie

Physics is awesome. Just saying. The new accelerator in Europe, imo, is an amazing accomplishment, and morons thinking it will create a black hole and suck up the earth are completely wrong. I can't wait to see what kind of data they can get from it. That being said, the turn of the 20th century was an amazing time in physics. After the first industrial revolution, technology had begun its exponential climb towards the HD scoiety we have today. Essentially the same thing happened in physics. We began to discover the whole microscopic world around us, radiation, atoms, protons, all that good stuff that very few people enjoy studying in school. And Marie Curie's contributions to the evolution of physics are amazing.

She helped discover 2 new elements, Polonium, and Radium. Polonium is useless, but Radium is commonly used as a source of neutrons for physics experiments. Both of the elements are extremely heavy, and radioactive, which lead to several lawsuits involving Radium. So it is sort of sad to say that both of the elements she found were, well, sort of useless, but none the less!! At the time, her new discoveries helped map the periodic table of elements, and increased our understanding of radiation, isotopes, and how these phenomena exist all around us in nature.

According to our Wiki-experts, her largest contribution to the scientific community was not the discovery of these two elements, rather her discovery that the more of these elements you collected, the greater the radiation. This helped prove that the radiation was coming from the atoms themselves, and that it was based on quantity, and not some random reaction that they were unable to examine. Apparently she also found out that thorium was radioactive, and for those of you interested in alternate nuclear fuel sources, I would recommend watching this video, otherwise known as the future of nuclear power:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWUeBSoEnRk

Continuing on, she would be awarded a Nobel prize, the first women to receive one, and then a second Nobel prize, and she is still the only women to have ever received 2 Nobel prizes. \o/ physics!

Lady Gaga

So, I just finished talking about one music icon, now I am going to talk about another, Lady Gaga, or the so called Madonna of the 21st century. Do I agree with that statement? I think so. She was the first person to ever get a combined 1 billion online music videos, which is pretty ridiculous, which also happens to be the word that perfectly describes her videos. Utterly ridiculous, but maybe in this day and age we would call that original. Am I old fashioned?

Anyway, she has some pretty good songs, and she enjoys wearing outrageous cloths, which isn't necessarily new to the industry, but she has definitely taken it to the next level. To talk about her impacts on the world, maybe she hasn't HELPED too many people, but perhaps she has begun to have the same effect that Madonna did at the same time in her career. Looking at her career, her first album came out in 2008. That was...2 years ago. That, to me, is honestly ridiculous. That someone can go from absolutely unknown, to her status in 2 years is insane. Of course the internet is the catalyst for that, but still. In my opinion, her songs find an often simple theme (well I guess like most songs) and connects them with the audience in a very smooth manner. I feel like we will be hearing her name for a very long time.

Madonna

Oh snaps. It's Madonna. Shes crazy, wild, and has a couple of songs I like. Actually not really. She is pretty famous, but I never really liked her music all that much. Her song, Hung Up, totally stole the melody from the Abba song - gimme gimme gimme. Actually while just browsing around I came across this site:

http://www.aishamusic.com/lawsuit_many_artists_madonna_stole_from.htm:

Which actually has some pretty funny stuff. The "iconic pictures" section is pretty funny, considering most of the pictures are of women who "had a major influence on her." Maybe they had a little more influence on her, as in she just sort of took the same pictures, with a little bit different lighting and an updated outfit. That being copying other peoples work happens so often in the music and entertainment industry that it doesn't even matter. Someone gets sued every so often, but the results of the case are rarely publicized. So she has definitely had an impact on the world, but she couldn't have done it alone.

Coco Chanel

So Coco had a major impact on the...fashion industry. Okay so maybe her influence through fashion helped women become more independent, but I still think fashion is a bit...of a stretch when talking about women who changed the world. She is definitely famous, and everyone knows her name, but did she really do all that much? I dunno.

I want to talk about her time in Paris during wwII though. Apparently she stayed the entire time in a hotel, reportedly having an affair with a German. A lot of people seemed upset at this etc, but I really think what she did was a logical, rational choice. When your country is invaded, occupied, and ruined by a foreign country, people will be willing to do anything to survive. Given the circumstances I feel like she cannot be held accountable for her actions. It was a war, a world war, I mean come on, some people have obviously taken what she did out of context.

I also find the quote: "There have been several Duchesses of Westminster. There is only one Chanel." to be utterly ridiculous.

Angela Merkel

So I chose to present on Angela Merkel because in my opinion, as well as Forbes' opinion, she is indeed the most powerful women in the world right now. The EU is going through a financial crisis, however Germany's economy is doing well, thanks to Merkel. That being said, the expectations that fall upon her to lead the EU out of the economic recession, as well as save Greece require nothing short of a miracle to achieve, however I believe she will be able to do it. Her calm and methodical approach to policy has allowed her to reach final decisions that always seem correct, according to one economic writer.

I think it is very important to look at the fact that she was raised in East Germany, because in that kind of society, having a strong opinion, being outspoken or rash, could have potentially be deadly. Thus she was raised to keep her emotions in line, and developed a sort of poker face that in politics is also key to policy making. As for her background in physics, I think it is refreshing to see someone in political power with a background in science, rather than politics or business. I feel like her thought process is more logical and systematical, than someone who has spent their whole lives in politics. It also gives her a more vivid view on power sources, because apparently in Germany they rely on Russian power as their main source, and at the same time are attempting to move away from nuclear power, which I personally disagree with (the nuclear power part). But she has 3 years left as chancellor, it will be interesting to see what she does, considering how fast the world changes these days.

Dewi Sukarno

I got a 10/10 on the quiz!! YAY \o/

Soo...Dewi Sukarno. An interesting case I think. She has certainly...been around the world a couple of times. I guess I will start her....younger years? So being 19, working as a hostess, meeting the leader of Indonesia, and marrying him. I gotta say that is a little bit ridiculous. Certainly something I would not expect a Japanese person to do, especially considering the fact that he was what...57 at the time? That is only a little bit creepy. Apparently he had some deep pockets or something, because as soon as he croaked she went off to have fun around the world.

Maybe she didn't have too much fun while she was traveling the world, apparently she worked for an organization called UNEP to help work on environmental issues. What exactly her capacity was though....I guess we don't really know. Hopefully she was doing something worthwhile for the environment, but assuming her age was late 20's to early 30's I can't imagine she played a very large role.

Her connections with North Korea however are extremely interesting. It is very surprising that she is able to enter the country, donate food, and maintain that sort of relationship. I would assume that because she is of Japanese descent, she would be barred from entering the country, guess I got that wrong. I wonder why she decided to donate food to North Korea though...

Apparently she also runs her own company now, I would assume that company is in Tokyo where she now lives as an outspoken celebrity, also something that is looked down upon in Japanese society. Apparently she has been in several court cases, flamed a couple of other celebrities, and enjoys stirring up the ant hill every once in awhile, which is pretty funny considering how taboo some of that stuff is in Japanese society.

But what has she actually changed, or done? She has been involved with humanitarian aid, and has worked with organizations to help the environment, but it seems like the majority of her fame comes from her antics, rather than her work.

Lena Maria

Well, I watched the video, read the biography, looked up some of her information, looked at her photos, and I think I'm ready to make a blog entry about Lena Maria.

I honestly cannot imagine how tough childhood must have been. Being born the way she was, there must have been many days where there didn't seem any point to living, but obviously she had the integrity and perseverance to push through it, but not only to just survive, she has actually gone on to do so many great things. Spending time to tour the world, singing and inspiring people, showing them how even someone with her
'disabilities' can still succeed truly is amazing.

I thought that some of her artwork was amazing as well, she obviously has an artistic mind, and the ability to convey her thoughts and feelings through her work. Her voice is also beautiful, and I am happy to hear that she is touring around the world (but not next year actually lol) and allowing people to listen to her voice live. She is an inspiration to women and the people of Sweden, and to the disabled people of the entire world.

With luck maybe in her life time, technology will be developed that would give her her arms back. That would be a miracle.

Simone de Beauvoir + Han Bi-ya

So today in class we learned about 2 women, Simone and Han. I guess I will start with Han.

After she traveled for 7 years in the middle part of her life, it appears as though her travels have inspired her to work with refugees and try to help people. She worked with an organization called World Vision, which is a christian organization working to alleviate poverty in the world, but other then that she hasn't really changed that much in terms of the world. In terms of South Korea though, in class Jieun said that she was probably the most famous women in South Korea, so I would say that rather than her ability to change the world and help people, her influence and inspiration for South Korea is important. Hopefully in the future, she can continue to inspire young South Koreans, and show them that service and helping other people can really help change the world.

We also learned about French writer Simone De Beauvoir. She appears to have had a rather difficult childhood, at least according to our friends over at wikipedia. I think it was very strange that she distinguished herself as an atheist, as my image of France at the time was that everyone was extremely religious, but maybe that is what pushed her over the edge.

She wrote a lot about philosophy, and I have to admit I am not really into philosophy unless it deals with the entire human race, which I'm not even exactly sure that could be called philosophy, more like my own theory on human evolution. I will sum up my theory, which may appear grim, but I don't think humans will get off this rock unless a couple of drastic things happen. It is also beautiful weather, I really don't think it is that hot...

Eleanor Roosevelt

After reading several articles and websites focused on Eleanor Roosevelt, it is easy to tell that she was an amazing women, who truly had a significant impact on the world. Not only serving as the eyes and ears of the president during his tenure, but forging her own international path at the UN. On different websites even, there were common words that were used to describe her, such as boundless amounts of energy, her resolve, and her ability to relate to the common man. This final point is what I would like to discuss.

For a women in her position, with no higher education background and no corporate backing, she was remarkably pristine in my opinion. I think this is really one of the key reasons why she was able to accomplish some of the daunting tasks placed before her. As most of the websites say, she was so able to communicate what the common man wanted, needed, had to have in order to flourish, that she was able to implement those needs into her work, which resulted in new benefits for all of man. Obviously the culmination of her work was Universal Declaration, but this could not have been done better by anyone else. She had the insight and wisdom to see what exactly needed to be done, and how to do it, in order to make the declaration become a reality.

These abilities of hers were obviously honed as she traveled the United States, being the eyes and ears for the president, but the fact that she had no been corrupted whatsoever by corporations or greed was really what made her stand apart.

I would also like to discuss one of her quotes. "What you don't do can be a destructive force." I definitely agree with the quote, and I think it pretty much means the same thing as "Evil triumphs when good men do nothing." Now obviously her quote might suit women a little bit more because it doesn't have the 'men' thrown in there, but I think what she is really trying to say is that results require action, and that sitting by and doing nothing can be just as destructive as actively destroying something.

This relates to a story we talked about earlier in the class about the hummingbird, who could only drop a small amount of water on a large fire, but was still able to make a difference. Rather than encouraging one to make the effort to act, her quote more or less warns about the potential danger of doing nothing.

Butet

So yesterday we learned about a women from Indonesia, her nickname was Butet. The majority of her work has focused on working with the indigenous people of Indonesia. I found her story pretty interesting because to be honest I have never learned about this subject at all, and really know nothing about it. I know that these type of people still exist around the world, and logically big business would do everything they could to take their land, but to learn about a more specific area and tribe was pretty interesting.

As for the specific work she has done as well as her impact, I feel like I didn't get the whole picture, but it seemed as though she was making progress, especially with the children. I think this is very important because using children as a method to access another culture is something that has been done traditionally throughout history, at least when making peaceful contact, something which has not been done traditionally throughout history in my opinion. Hopefully through her work, she will be able to help preserve these tribes and cultures that are so important to Indonesian culture. That being said however, I honestly don't know where these people and cultures will fit in the future. The native Americans in the states have all but been assimilated into American culture, and (although I am not well informed) I doubt there are many tribes still in existence.

However losing touch with our past would be a fatal error for man. We must know where we came from, our origins and our roots, if we want to evolve not only as a civilization, but as a people. In a time when several parts of the world stand on the verge of war, I think it would be wise for those in power to stand back and look at the larger picture, look at the past, and what previous wars have done to the earth and to its people. There will always be something we can learn from the past.

Shirin Ebadi

I'll start this entry with Shirin Ebadi. I find her story to be incredibly interesting, as well as the story of Iran. I had no idea that Iran was such a progressive nation in the 60's and 70's, allowing women to take high positions such as judges and such. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but I had always just assumed that they followed the stereotypical American's idea of laws in the middle east, which tend to be very harsh on women. So hearing that Iran actually was making steps towards becoming a democratic nation of equality was very surprising, compared to what the country is today.

That being said, I think the majority of westerners believe that Islam and democracy cannot work in the same country, but Shirin Ebadi embodies the vision and hope that it really is possible. What she has said, and what I believe to be true as well, is that democracy must be born in a country from within its people. America's decision to invade Iraq may have helped the people in the short term, but if the people of a nation are not ready for democracy, the system is simply not going to work. Democracy (and its ideals) need to be embraced by the people so that they realize then that they are free, that they have control of their government, and that all the people of the country are equal.

Now that last little line in there, 'people of the country are equal' is very important to me because my idea of democracy is more than just a system of government, but it also contains basic human rights, equality, and the means for a country to make itself better. Shirin Ebadi believe in the Iranian people. She believes that they are fed up with the current political system in the country, and hopes that they can move down the path towards becoming a democratic nation, but the main key to this hope is that it happens within the country.

There are some rumors that the only reason the Iranian people have not already risen against the current government is because they do not have a leader to unite them, and some articles have said that Shirin Ebadi would be the perfect person to do this. I think it would be possible for her to unite the people and overthrow the government if she had foreign aid, but therein lies the problem that once any foreign country is involved, the people feel like they aren't changing the country for themselves, someone else is changing it for them. That being said I think Shirin Ebadi has the knowledge of the laws and legislature to be able to create a set of laws, that balance democracy and Islam, and improve the standard of life for all Iranians.

Rachel Carson

Rachel Carson devoted her life to the environment, and though at times this didn't seem rewarding, she was able to save cities and towns from destroying the natural habitats that surrounded them. I was lucky enough to have a teacher in high school who was very aware about the environment, and he showed my class a longer video about Rachel Carson, so this is not the first time I have heard about her.

The fable portrays a rather apocalyptic scenario where the use of pesticides and man made chemicals has completely destroyed a small town, and like the book says this level of devastation never occurred, humans definitely have the potential to destroy this planet. I especially thought the comment about the atomic bomb was very interesting. Last month I had the opportunity to go down to Hiroshima and see the A-bomb dome, pictures, and talk to a survivor. It really is incredible to think about what humans are capable of doing when unchecked. To think that we are on such a small and fragile planet, and yet we do such terrible things to each other really is unbelievable.

As a fan of science I believe that science does improve our lives, but only when implemented correctly. In the movie, she talks about how the chemicals were used in world war 2, and how chemistry had indeed improved economic conditions, and indeed World War 2 was the first war where more men died in combat than from disease, however (like she says) these chemicals were never tested for widespread use. The use of non-tested products and such is extremely dangerous, and should never be done. Pfizer used an untested drug (Trovan) in a village in Nigeria in 1996, and since then has fought a battle with activist groups as well as groups from Nigeria over it's use. Whether or not the deaths of the patients resulted directly from the use of the drug remains to be seen, however it is obvious that corporations still test and use drugs/chemicals that can have negative impacts on life.

Corporations foregoing natural and environmental risks for profit is not unique to the chemical and pharmaceutical industry. Banana farms in Costa Rica have been cited for using pesticides which have had a negative impact on the surrounding environment. Dove's farms for palm oil in Indonesia have destroyed the country's natural forests, and although the situation has created controversy, deforestation is still a common practice that is most certainly having negative impacts on the earth.

Another very interesting part of the video was when she was talking about how the federal government has moved to create legislation against the pesticides, and she specifically said "it thrills me." I found this very surprising, and it makes me wonder if the same thing could happen today. So many politicians have allied themselves with different industries, different corporations and such that I wonder if the same situation could ever happen again, where the men in power, the federal government, actually has the will and courage to stop the greedy corporations. I think there is still a sliver of hope, but the light is waning.

Finally, I think she provides a perfect example of what science is, and what science should be. The line between pure science, and science for commercial use is too thin these days, with programs such as NASA and other pure science expenditures taking a back seat to other problems in America. Without pure science, man cannot hope to solve the problems that we will surely encounter such as overpopulation, power problems, more environmental problems. Only science and research can hope to combat the problems in the future, not commercial corporations that only seek profits. Silent Spring and Rachel Carson are the perfect example of this.

Wangari Maathai - The Hummingbird

Wangari Maathai and the hummingbird. How exactly does this apply to my life?

The simplest explanation would be voting. People often say that a single vote doesn't matter, that what they think doesn't matter, that they are too insignificant. Of course one vote among millions may seem insignificant, but as long as someone has the ability to vote, they should exercise it. In this sense the fire to me would represent American politics, and I honestly think that would be a good description. One does feel helpless watching discussions about laws that will affect the nation, people's jobs, and international relations.

The story also applies to really any situation where something terrible is happening, and there are observers who either refuse to do anything, or feel too insignificant to act. Obviously this situation applies to Wangari Maathai and Kenya where the hummingbird symbolizes her, and the economic and environmental problems are the fire. Other applicable situations might be found in Haiti right now, where the country has been devastated by the recent earthquake, and people feel that even 10-20 dollars in aid would not make a difference.

Africa itself has many countries that are divided by war and facing economic and environmental problems that may be symbolized by the fire. Aids affects so many in Africa, and yet so little is done about it. Oil and other natural resources cause either wars for control of the resources, or foreign companies to come and drain the land of it's resource, without little care for the environment or the people it will affect.

In terms of what people can do to be a hummingbird, as previously mentioned, vote. It takes only a small portion of time, and makes a difference. Community service is also another easy to way to become a hummingbird. In Columbus Ohio, there are many ways to get involved with community service, however getting people to show up is extremely difficult. The simplest way, is most likely to donate money to an organization that actually does good in the world.