technoJazz

(Just using this for a history thing)

9.  John D. Rockefeller-  John Davidson Rockefeller was born in Richford, New York in 1839.  In 1862 Rockefeller heard that Samuel Andrews had developed a better and cheaper way of refining crude petroleum. Rockefeller sold his original business and invested it in a new company he set up with Andrews called Standard Oil.  Rockefeller negotiated an exclusive deal with the railway company where he guaranteed sixty car-loads a day. In return the transport prices were reduced to 35 cents and $1.30. The cost of his oil was reduced and his sales increased dramatically.  By 1890 Rockefeller’s had swollen into an immense monopoly which could fix its own prices and terms of business because it had no competitors. In 1896 Rockefeller was worth about $200 million.  President Theodore Roosevelt, who had been elected on a program that included reducing the power of large corporations, attempted to use the Sherman Anti-Trust Act to deal with Rockefeller’s monopoly of the oil industry. This was largely ineffective and it was not until 1911 that the Supreme Court dissolved the Standard Oil monopoly.

10.  Standard Oil Trust-  The Standard Oil Trust was formed in 1863 by John D. Rockefeller. He built up the company through 1868 to become the largest oil refinery firm in the world. In 1870, the company was renamed Standard Oil Company, after which Rockefeller decided to buy up all the other competition and form them into one large company.  The company faced legal issues in 1890 following passage of the Sherman Antitrust Act. That also brought unwanted attention to the company by Ida M. Tarbell, a McClure’s Magazine reporter, who began an investigation. Following publication of her report, the Standard Oil Company was forced to break up into separate state companies — the “Seven Sisters” — each with its own board of directors.

11.  Ida Tarbell-  Originally from Pennsylvania, Ida Tarbell was an editor for the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle, then decided to go to Paris where she supported herself by writing for American magazines. In 1894, Ida Tarbell was hired by McClure’s Magazine. She published some of her articles as books: biographies of Napoleon, Madame Roland and Abraham Lincoln.  da Tarbell is best known for the two volume work, originally articles for McClure’s, on John D. Rockefeller and his oil interests: The History of the Standard Oil Company, published 1904. The exposé resulted in federal action and eventually in the breakup of the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey under the 1911 Sherman Anti-Trust Act.

12.  Philanthropist-  A philanthropist refers to a person who gives large amounts of money to charitable causes.  Often the term is used to refer to millionaires, such as big businessman.  John D. Rockefeller is an example of a notable philanthropist.

13.  Adam Smith-  Smith was a Scottish moral philosopher and a pioneer of political economics.  His most famous written work is “Wealth of Nations”.  It is an account of economics at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, as well as a rhetorical piece written for the generally educated individual of the 18th century - advocating a free market economy as more productive and more beneficial to society.  Adam Smith is considered one of the first major proponents of the free market system as the solution for American economic advancement.

14.  Herbert Spencer-  The Victorian biologist and early social philosopher Herbert Spencer was a great rival of Charles Darwin’s. His theory of evolution preceded Darwin’s own, but was soon overshadowed because of the absence of an effective theory of natural selection - although it was Spencer, and not Darwin, who popularized the term “evolution” itself and coined the now-ubiquitous phrase, “survival of the fittest”. Although no longer influential in biology, his extension of his theory of evolution to psychology and sociology remains important.  His “Social Darwinism” was particularly influential on early evolutionary economists such as Thorstein Veblen, but, more contemporaneously, it was adopted with gusto by American apologists such as William Graham Sumner and Simon Nelson Patten.

15.  Thomas A. Edison-  The first great invention developed by Edison in Menlo Park was the tin foil phonograph. Thomas Edison’s greatest challenge was the development of a practical incandescent, electric light. Contrary to popular belief, he didn’t “invent” the lightbulb, but rather he improved upon a 50-year-old idea. In 1879, using lower current electricity, a small carbonized filament, and an improved vacuum inside the globe, he was able to produce a reliable, long-lasting source of light. The idea of electric lighting was not new, and a number of people had worked on, and even developed forms of electric lighting. But up to that time, nothing had been developed that was remotely practical for home use. Edison’s eventual achievement was inventing not just an incandescent electric light, but also an electric lighting system that contained all the elements necessary to make the incandescent light practical, safe, and economical. After one and a half years of work, success was achieved when an incandescent lamp with a filament of carbonized sewing thread burned for thirteen and a half hours.

16.  Eugene V. Debs-  Demonstrating a change in his organizational philosophy, Debs in 1893 became president of the American Railway Union, the first effective industrial union in the United States. The ARU made its mark in 1894 with a successful strike against the Great Northern Railway, when not a wheel moved on the railway for 18 days, until the company finally granted the union’s demands. On May 11th, 1894 the Pullman boycott and strike in Chicago began, and on July 23rd Debs and the leaders of the ARU were jailed for defying a federal injunction to return to work. In May 1895 Debs and the leaders of the ARU found themselves back in jail, but this time it was for contempt of court in connection with the Pullman strike. While in detention, Debs read widely and was deeply impressed by the writings of Karl Marx. His sentence was finished in November of that year. He emerged from prison convinced that the plight of the worker was most accurately viewed as a class struggle.  Debs supported William Jennings Bryan in the Election of 1896, but turned to socialism the following year. He was a founder of the Social Democratic Party, and later the Socialist Party of America. Debs was the Socialist presidential nominee in 1900, when he ran poorly, and 1904, when he had ran a much stronger campaign.

Welcome Back tumblr

I’m Back….

Hand Me Up

July 5, 2009 Urban Word of the Day

Where the young generation in a family adopts and purchases new technology product at a fast rate, and old versions (that are in working order but are not up to current standards) of that technology product are given to the parents or older generations of family. 

Commonly occurs multiple times on commodity technology gadgets, leaving your parents with many gadgets to play with. 

Called ‘hand me up’ in contrast to ‘hand me down’.Computers: having purchased a new computer to replace my ‘slow’ computer, I have given it to my grandpa to use. Thus the computer is a ‘hand me up’.

They say deaths happen in 3s

And Billie makes 4. So who are the next 2? My guesses are Ted kennedy and Madonna.

I wonder

if Michael Jackson’s death means that the Beatles will be on iTunes.  Hmmmm…

Michael Jackson died!