Panama

It is absolutely impossible for me to teach a lesson about the Panama Canal without this awesome song going through my head. The band is Van Halen, the song "Panama."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-NshzYK9y0

Key things to remember about Panama:

1. it was once part of Columbia
2. the United States supported a takeover of the local government so they could get a favorable deal to dig the Panama Canal
3. the digging of the canal cost 30,000 lives and $600 million
4. the canal was dug through the Isthmus of Panama and connected the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans
   

Pashtuns vs. Imperialism

Learn more about the Pashtun people and their honor code, Pashtunwali. "ZAN, ZAR, ZAMEEN!"

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

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

"Pashtunwali is believed to have originated millennia ago during pagan times and has, in many ways, fused with (blended with) Islamic tradition"

This is how I get to work in the morning

http://www.flyingmachines.org/

Here is a website about flying machine attempts before the Wright Brothers came along. I'm having trouble finding any movies right now...

Here is a Youtube video of the Wright Brothers. The title says "first flight" but it is not. This is Flyer II or Flyer III. Look how high it gets, and look at the mechanism they created to help the plane take off.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-CvkEUSAO4

Tesla and Wireless Power videos

Here is a short bio-film on Nikola Tesla. It is mostly what we already learned, but you will see some more pictures of the man and his experiments.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gt8Y93k0pB0

This is what it would have been like to visit Tesla's labratory:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zi4kXgDBFhw&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iO7j5LKmd3I&feature=related

Here is a wireless electricity demonstration. If you click around on the "Related Videos" or search for "wireless electricity." You might find something else that is cool. If you do, post a link in the comments and I will put it on the main board.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIhPayFBE9c&feature=related

Tesla also wrote an autobiography called "My Inventions" I have read the first chapter (all the chapters are very short). Here is an excerpt talking about Tesla slipping on the ice and catching himself:

A short time ago I was returning to my hotel. It was a bitter cold night, the ground slippery, and no taxi to be had. Half a block behind me followed another man, evidently as anxious as myself to get under cover. Suddenly my legs went up in the air. At the same instant there was a flash in my brain. The nerves responded, the muscles contracted. I swung 180 degrees and landed on my hands. I resumed my walk as though nothing had happened when the stranger caught up with me. "How old are you?" he asked, surveying me critically. "Oh, about fifty-nine," I replied, "What of it?" "Well," said he, "I have seen a cat do this but never a man."

Weird guy. Chapter 1 is entitled "Early Life" and Chapter 2 is "Extraordinary Experiences." I hope to read the whole thing sometime soon. This biography is available for free on the internet.

biography link:

http://www.lucidcafe.com/library/96jul/teslaautobio.html

Also, there is a sweet American rock band that named themselves TESLA! Good for them, they must have listened to their history teacher when they were in school. Here is a link to one of their hits. It is called "Love Song." Songs like this are known as POWER BALLADS. A ballad is another word for a love song. Add in some electric guitar and awesomeness and it becomes a power ballad. These were very popular during the 1980s.

Love Song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aubjDJc07E