Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down

This week I saw the movie Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down. This movie is about a mental patient, Ricky, who is released from the mental institution after being deemed "cured". Once he is released he wants to have a normal life with Marina, a girl he met when he escaped from the hospital one time. Marina is an actress and former porn star. Ricky finds Marina through a magazine announcing the start of her next film. Ricky sneaks into the studio where Marina is working on filming her new movie wearing a disguise. He tries to catch Marina’s attention but she dismisses him. Before he leaves the set Ricky steals Marina’s keys to her apartment. After the filming is done Ricky follows Marina to her apartment. At the apartment, Ricky rings the doorbell and Marina answers the door but Ricky shoves his way in making Marina scream for help. Ricky headbutts Marina to shut her up. Marina wakes up with tape on her mouth and her hands bound with rope. Ricky notices that Marina is awake and explains to her that he kidnapped her in hopes that she will fall in love with him and then get married and have children. Marina says that she will never love him but Ricky does not give up and keeps her bound. In pain, Marina persuades Ricky to takes her to the doctor to get pain meds. But Ricky does not leave her side at the doctor’s office so she cannot run away or get help. They can’t get the pain meds at the pharmacy so Ricky goes to get them from a drug dealer except rather than paying he attacks the drug dealer to get the pain meds and runs away. He comes back with the pain meds only to discover that Lola, Marina’s sister has visited the apartment and left a note. Becoming worried about being discovered Ricky moves Marina into her next-door neighbor’s apartment. Ricky then goes back to the street to get something when he is spotted by the drug dealer who he attacked and then gets brutally beaten by the drug dealer. Meanwhile Marina sees this as her only chance to escape and tries but then Ricky comes back all bloody and bruised and she doesn’t have the heart to leave him like that. She cleans him up and bandages his cuts and suddenly kisses him realizing she has fallen in love with him. They then decide to take a trip to Ricky’s village. When Ricky goes to steal a car for them Marina tells Ricky to tie her up so she won’t escape. Unfortunately, while Ricky is gone Lola comes back and sees Marina all tied up. She rescues her and Marina goes with Lola but later she realizes that she wants to go back to Ricky. Lola drives to Ricky’s hometown and see him there in the ruins of his family home. Then the three all climb back into the car and drive off singing together like a family. 

Germans in Iowa

We went to the Old Capital Museum for our second event with Ben.

Germans in Iowa is a very special group of people. They were among the first generation immigrations from Europe. And Iowa is always a home for these immigrants. Their settlements in Iowa made great contributions to this state in many criteria. They broke the stereotype that the Americans had on the Germans and they became a necessary part of state and marked in history.

First generation immigrants never fully mastered English. These Germans relied on the local newspaper a lot. They liked to rely on their national readership and there are couple long running German publications in Iowa. There were newspapers like the German Press, Iowa Banner, or the Slovan Americky.

Germans are also famous for their breweries. And there were lots of German breweries in Iowa City at that time. There are couple building still exist until today but most of them are just remembered in history. More and more started to enjoy the German breweries and it became one of the most popular thing to drink in this city.

German Americans were very suffering during World War I because most of the people think that they would act like spy to provide information to the European countries and help the opponent. People were very angry about them and they stopped every connection with German Americans. Germans have no right to speak German, to talk, to write, and their business were forced to close by violence.

       German Americans experience more respect and comfort during World War II. The suspicion of Germans in the United States mainly focused on people with German citizenship instead of American citizenship. The German Americans contributed a lot to the U.S. army as well. First of all, they know the language very well. They can help to translate valuable information and help the U.S. military know what their opponents wants and their moves. This information was very important for the U.S. Secondly, they know their home country very much as well, they are kind of like the live map for the army.

Germans are also very diverse in Iowa as well. They believed in different religions and their belief lead them to build different churches or temples according to their own wishes. They also have different living style or customs, so they settled down in different cities as well. But in all these cities, they all formed their own communities and they had a very happy life. They have their own club, they have their own association, they have their own community, and they have their own choir even. Their men’s choir were very famous and their German association provide a lot of help for the later immigrants and other refugees from other countries.

Have No Fear: Islamophobia in the 21st Century

Ramallah/New York (2004-2005) by Emily Jacir draws parallels
between life in the West Bank town of Ramallah and New York

Our group went to the second floor rotunda of the Old Capitol Museum to view the exibit Have No Fear: Islamophobia in the 21st Century which was curated by Rachel Winter and Evan McCarthy.

Those who choose to believe in the Islamic faith are commonly misunderstood individuals. Due to these misunderstandings Muslims are often subjected to fear, apprehension, and discrimination. Have No Fear: Islamophobia in the 21st Century attempted to alleviate some of those misunderstandings by showcasing various facets of the lives of different kinds of Muslims. The showcase included a timeline of brief Islamic history, artwork and literary quotes by Muslim artists and scholars and children, and photographs of ordinary people in a crisis-stricken Syria.

Art from the street artist Banksy is featured in this display

One of the goals of the exibit is to erase fear of Muslims through contemporary art. The pieces in the exibit each cover various conflicts such as how the Middle East is demonized by Western media and the Israel Palestine conflict. The variety of topics and mediums that are used make this exibit very interested and very relatable to a variety of audiences. I was pleasantly surprised to see some of the works of Banksy featured here. From photos and drawings to poetry, there is something for everyone to see in this small exibit. If you have a few minutes, stop in, enjoy the artwork, and reflect on it. This exibit will be on display until December 31st so there is still some time to check it out if you haven't already!

Hawkeyes in Space: UI Physics, Past and Present

<Ashley>

 On November 15th my group and I went to the "Hawkeyes in Space" exhibit. This exhibit was located in the Old Capitol Building. It was really interesting. We saw many historic pictures and objects. The whole exhibit was dedicated to objects in space. I thought it was really cool how this exhibit was displayed. There were many real props that people used in the past. I think most people do not know much about space because it isn’t something we think about in our daily lives.

I learned that there are many objects in space besides just planets, starts and the sun. Space is filled with microscopic particles that are constantly interacting with each other. Most of the discoveries about space were found only 65 years ago. I learned a lot about the sun. The sun lies in the middle of the solar system. It is the largest object in space containing 99% of the solar system mass. It is so large that over one hundred earths could fit inside the sun!

The sun was formed 4.6 billion years ago. Scientists believe that the sun was made from a large cloud of gas and dust also known as the solar nebula. The sun has several layers it is not just one giant hollow ball floating in space. The innermost layer is called the core. This is the deepest part of the sun. The core only makes up 2 percent of the suns volume but yet it makes up for half the weight of the sun. This means that the core is little in size compared to the rest of the layers but it is really heavy. The radiative zone comes after the core. Light from the core gets inserted into this zone but it takes a million years for a single photon to pass through the zone. This is because this zone is a thick layer. Next is the convection zone. This zone reaches up to the sun’s surface. This layer is filled with tons of convection cells. There are two types of convection cells, granulation cells and supergranulation cells. You would assume that because these are cells that they would be small but they are actually really large. Granulation cells are six hundred miles wide and supergranulation cells are twenty thousand miles wide!

            The light that we see from the sun comes from the photosphere. This is the lowest level of the suns atmosphere. The temperature of the photosphere is about 11,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The sun is made up of hydrogen and helium. It also contains oxygen, carbon, neon, nitrogen, magnesium, iron and silicon but in smaller amounts. The sun also contains sunspots. These dark spots on the surface of the sun. These spots tend to be cooler than the suns temperature. Sunspots happen because a magnetic field lines are emerging from the suns inner core. When there is more magnetic activity there are more sunspots. It just depends how much magnetic activity is going on. Coronal mass ejections also occur. They are the largest explosions of magnetic field and plasma from the sun’s corona. Coronal mass ejections have a big impact on Earth’s magnetosphere. They cause changes in space weather and also cause bright auroras. These ejections are created from very highly twisted magnetic field structures on the sun. Solar flares happen when magnetic energy that has been built up in the sun’s atmosphere is released. This causes a fast intense change in brightness. During a solar flare, contents from the surface of the sun is released into the solar system.

<Chanel>

The Students at the University of Iowa are studying the aurora borealis. The aurora borealis is also known as the northern lights. The aurora occurs near the South Pole. The flow of electrons and ions streaming from the surface of the sun is how the aurora gets energy. When the particles interact with the Earth’s magnetic field, energy is built up and then released. This happens when there is high latitude also known as the auroral oval. Electrons collide with atoms of nitrogen and oxygen in the atmosphere then some atoms emit some of this energy as visible light being the aurora. They use electron and ion detectors that measure the energy and direction that the electrons and ions have as they go into the atmosphere. In order to deliver their detectors to various places above aurora they use sounding rockets. The sounding rockets they use get their name from the nautical term “to sound” or record measurements. The rocket has two major parts, the engine and the payload. The engine is solid fuel rocket motors and the payload contains the instruments. The rockets also come in a variety sizes, some even have four stages like the Black Brant XII. The entire flight takes about ten to fifteen minutes but that is enough time for it to collect a lot of information which is sent by telemetry back to Earth. They normally launch the rockets from Poker Flat, Alaska the only high latitude auroral zone rocket launching facility in the United States. Other times they launch from Andoya Norway as well. During the Great Geomagnetic Storm of August 28- September 2, 1859 the New York Times reported that it was possible to read at night by the auroral light alone in the New England area. If a similar event was to take place today, it would cause widespread damage to modern technologies including satellites, power systems, and telecommunications. This threat has generated an interest in space weather forecasting. Earth is not the only planet with aurora. They have been observed on Jupiter and Saturn as well.

<Alexis>

The planets within our solar system are one complex but very interesting galaxy. The solar system has been around for 4.5 billion years, consisting of eight of the most complex planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. During our visit to the Old Capital basement, we learned many interesting facts and concepts about our solar system. Some important information was about our lovely planet, Jupiter. Jupiter is the largest planet within this system, the fifth planet from the sun and is widely known for its giant red spot. This giant red spot has been described as storm, like a hurricane storm. The color of the red spot is red and brown, and three times the size of Earth. This planet, unlike Earth, is mostly made up of hydrogen and helium. Jupiter is one of the planets that spins the fastest on its axis, for example it takes this planet under 10 hours to spin completely upon its axis (compared to Earth that takes 365 day).

During our visit to the space center in the Old Capital, we learned that several missions were sent by NASA to orbit Jupiter, but that the only successful mission to orbit Jupiter was Galileo. Gallieo is the first spacecraft that orbited Jupiter successful but orbiting completely around Jupiter with no trouble. This spacecraft was launched in October of 1989 from NASA. Space Shuttle Atlantis, and it arrived to Jupiter on December of 1995. This spacecraft discovered that Jupiter has about 63 moons, one of the moons being the largest within out solar system, Ganymede. This spacecraft also found that Jupiter has 3 rings wrapped around it. The first ring is flattened, the second one is similar to a cloud, and the third ring is transparent. Galileo also sent a probe towards Jupiter while orbiting this plan in order to distinguish the accurate measurements of the atmosphere, by measuring the water and chemicals within this planet. Although Galileo was a successful mission, it was destroyed on September 21, 2003. This is because NASA was trying to prevent any contamination to the moons.

Event 2: The History of German Iowans

We went to the Old Capitol Museum to a Keyes Gallery for Arts, Humanities, and Sciences. This gallery was focused on German Iowa. It was widely ranged on topics such as what German Iowans went through when the U.S. declared war on Germany, but other things as well such as German involvement in Iowa City breweries and their life/impact.

This exhibit focused on Germans in Iowa and the many aspects of that. They focused one part on the crisis for Germans in Iowa during the war. There was propaganda everywhere meant to be anti-German and an eye was always kept out for “German-American spies.” These German-Americans suffered a ton because of this. Neighbors listened to their calls, checked their mail, and basically watched their every move. And if there was anything suspicious going or they would be reported. Iowans who failed to show their support for the war were called “slackers” and would usually get their houses and businesses painted yellow. Some were even assaulted in public. German Iowans were denounced for singing songs in German, public and private conversations, and worshiping in German. Schools in Davenport and Spirit Lake even burned German books.

German Americans were very suffering during World War I because most of the people think that they would act like spy to provide information to the European countries and help the opponent. People were very angry about them and they stopped every connection with German Americans. Germans have no right to speak German, to talk, to write, and their business were forced to close by violence.

            German Americans experience more respect and comfort during World War II. The suspicion of Germans in the United States mainly focused on people with German citizenship instead of American citizenship. The German Americans contributed a lot to the U.S. army as well. First of all, they know the language very well. They can help to translate valuable information and help the U.S. military know what their opponents wants and their moves. This information was very important for the U.S. Secondly, they know their home country very much as well, they are kind of like the live map for the army

Switching gears, this exhibit also focused an area on Iowa City Breweries. They were made not only to be profitable, but also to help quench the residents’ thirst. Being an agricultural state, breweries were able to thrive here. By 1878, over 130 breweries thrived statewide. This industry created jobs and that led the legislature to modify the state’s first prohibition law to permit the manufacture of beer, wine, and cider made from Iowan-grown fruit and grain in 1856. For German Iowans beer was a big part of family outings and other activities.

 

Germans are also famous for their breweries. And there were lots of German breweries in Iowa City at that time. There are couple building still exist until today but most of them are just remembered in history. More and more started to enjoy the German breweries and it became one of the most popular thing to drink in this city.

Germans in Iowa is a very special group of people. They were among the first generation immigrations from Europe. And Iowa is always a home for these immigrants. Their settlements in Iowa made great contributions to this state in many criteria. They broke the stereotype that the Americans had on the Germans and they became a necessary part of state and marked in history.

First generation immigrants never fully mastered English. These Germans relied on the local newspaper a lot. They liked to rely on their national readership and there are couple long running German publications in Iowa. There were newspapers like the German Press, Iowa Banner, or the Slovan Americky.

 

.

Germans are also very diverse in Iowa as well. They believed in different religions and their belief lead them to build different churches or temples according to their own wishes. They also have different living style or customs, so they settled down in different cities as well. But in all these cities, they all formed their own communities and they had a very happy life. They have their own club, they have their own association, they have their own community, and they have their own choir even. Their men’s choir were very famous and their German association provide a lot of help for the later immigrants and other refugees from other countries.

Event 2: Serious Funny Movie

This story is about how Papa finally find Ivan, her ex-lover who abandoned her. She saved his life and refused when Ivan ask for make up. Papa is a fantastic female character, I love this movie. But unfortunately, I can't find this movie again. Anyone knows the name of this movie?

Event 2: Internationalization and the Geopolitics of Higher Education

I went to a different event with my group members, so I write a separate blog about it. I went to "Internationalization and the Geopolitics of Higher Education" on Thursday, Nov 16, in the Old Capital. It was a presentation about the higher education. The speaker was a senior female professor from Ireland, the director of Higher Education Policy Research Unit. She looked old but actually energetic. She used specific examples and data to explain the development and status of higher education in different places. And she also stated the benefits and reasons of having higher education. I didn't totally get her points but many other audiences asked questions and she answered all of them kindly. 

The Books that made Shakespeare

During Thanksgiving break, I visited an exhibit called
"The Books that made Shakespeare."
It was located at the first floor of the Main Library, and was a small one compared to the other exhibits I had visited before.

Inside the exhibit, there were the books which had influenced Shakespeare's writing, such as the books where he learned his reading and writing skills, books where his works were preserved, and books where his reputation was shaped and his textual afterlives were reshaped.


Below is a picture of me in the exhibit. As it was Thanksgiving break, I was the only one inside.

If wanting to know about more information about the exhibit, go to the URL posted below.

http://shakespeare.lib.uiowa.edu/exhibit/