Franzjosef's Somewhat Unusual Giveaway (longish)

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franzjosef

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Franzjosef's Somewhat Unusual Giveaway (longish)

The good news is that my wife has unexpectedly given birth to a Kicksin (I got nailed in the face yesterday when I leaned over the incubator). The bad news is “unexpectedlyâ€, as in this future Guardian is seven weeks premature and is going to be spending a lot of time in neonatal ICU. My playing time is now going to go to zero, alas. So I’m going to have a giveaway (modest though it may be).

I have some medium-nice things, a few HR (at least one guaranteed self-found), some nice uniques, lots of mid-level gear. My Fishy, Patriarch ElmerGantry, is not badly loaded for MF. A few Torches, a few Gheeds, not a 1337 giveaway but a few nice things at any rate. I only keep one account anyway.

But my giveaway is geared towards people like me. People who think historically for a living are going to love this one. College history majors and history buffs will love it, as they will actually get to use their skills in the real world (HEH).

So…

I will be turning over my entire hoard to the person who scores the highest on the exam I’ve prepared. Rules are simple:

1) All usual rules regarding forum giveaways apply.
2) All submissions must be made by Friday, June 22 @noon Central Daylight Time. I DO NOT ACCEPT LATE WORK!
3) Responses must be in essay format. No in-game slang allowed (sry n00bz).
4) There will be three questions. All questions must be answered to the best of the writer’s abilities. You will record your answers via response to the thread; no PMSs, please.
5) All submissions must be in your own words. I’m a professional academic, and I know how to Google just as well as the next guy. You have been warned. Just ask the poor thing who tried to submit a plagiarized paper on me this last term (hint: student is now looking for a new school).
6) The winner will be the person who has the highest cumulative score. Each question is worth a maximum of twenty (20) pts. In the event of a tie, the highest post count will determine the winner.
7) Franzjosef will be the final and sole determinant of essay scores. It’s my class, and if you disagree with my assessments, go get your own advanced degree and do your own giveaway.
8) Giveaway will be awarded by mule-session. I’m keeping the account, and will play again someday. Any unclaimed/unwanted items will be randomly gifted to noobies in open games at a future date.
9) Complaining about the giveaway or snarking about the questions will result in automatic DQ from prize consideration, and you will be mooned.
10) In the event that no one responds, or that no one gets a minimum threshold score of 38, all items will be turned over to… well, one of the forum mods, they seem like nice people. They can then have their own giveaway as they see fit.

Now for any of you who are still interested, here are the questions.

QUESTION ONE: In what ways was Harry Truman a bad President? Be sure to cite specific examples and to include analysis (400 words max).

QUESTION TWO: Describe the long-term impact of television on American political life. Use at least three examples, including details and analysis (more are OK). (600 words max)

QUESTION THREE: Compare and contrast the current occupation of Iraq with the occupation of the South after the Civil War. Highlight the similarities and the differences.

I can’t really stop you from open-booking it, but remember what I said about plagiarism. Citations OK.

Whee!!!!!

--OH YEAH: if you are on my /f list already and meet the forum criteria, you get 8 pts added bonus.
 
Do we have to use outside sources or can we just use our brain? If I can find the time, I may try this out just for fun but I doubt I can do a lot of research (page limit?).

Congratulations on the new child and sorry for the difficult circumstances. Also, if you want, one of us here could simply keep an eye on your accounts and keep your characters and gear from expiring. Of course, that would mean there would be no reason for a giveaway but it could make things easier if/when you decide to come back after things have calmed down.
 
Congrats on the kicksin baby, make sure to buy him or her some nice gore riders when he or she is older. As for the giveaway, I just finished the year of school so I will leave the essays to people who like to write.
 
First of all congratz on the baby! I might throw me into this (I'm good at bull****ting long texts :grin:) but where do you play? USEast? USWest? Europe? Cuz if you don't play Europe it's no use for me to participate :smiley:

And indeed, if you feel like having no time, get a good friend to keep an eye on your accounts so they won't expire, and you're settled if you ever decide to return.
 
Congratulations with the new brood, sorry to hear about the ICU, but luck be with you.
Also, BEST GIVEAWAY IDEA EVER. I probably won't participate as i enjoy gathering my own gear, but i absolutely LOVE the concept.
 
This pretty much rules out non-Americans. Unless you have some special US history or politicalstudy as background. I know for sure that I couldn't write more than 3 or 4 sentences in total with these subjects.
But since this a charity-action I can't really complain about this :). Furthermore you probably have a degree in this subject so it's natural that you can grade the answers on this issue best. Good luck to the participants and to you good luck with the kicksin.
 
franzjosef said:
QUESTION ONE: In what ways was Harry Truman a bad President? Be sure to cite specific examples and to include analysis (400 words max).

QUESTION TWO: Describe the long-term impact of television on American political life. Use at least three examples, including details and analysis (more are OK). (600 words max)

QUESTION THREE: Compare and contrast the current occupation of Iraq with the occupation of the South after the Civil War. Highlight the similarities and the differences.
Click to expand...

1. he was too wussy to fit in as a leader of huge country

2. politicans started watching oprah, dr phil and simple life.. even lesser amount of crap ruins everything that they worked for in past

3. well.. i have no clue about this but i can try! foregian people didnt left the contry cause they had many things to gain from that territory. iraq has oil safrica diamonds etc. and invaders werent americans if i recall right :jig:


as you might note im not even going to try. sad to see ppl quit but atleast you got a good reason to. :wave: :wave:



 
First, apologies to non-US residents. You are still more than eligible to participate, but you are at a disadvantage. If it makes you feel any better, know that a great many Americans probably can't formulate cogent responses, either.

Second, this is East Softcore Ladder. Apologies to the Asia enthusiasts.

Third, I am having family members rush us 1337 items like Hwannin's Highchair and the like. The Gore Riders will have to wait. :)

Fourth, you can use outside sources, but remember that fine line between inspiration and plagiarism. When in doubt, do some kind of citation. Ex: Some historians thought Truman was underrated (cf. David McCullough's biography). [Remember, I'm asking why Truman was a bad president, not an underrated one; this was just an example]
 
congrats on the baby dude seems everyones leaving these days i play on europe so no need for me to participate try and get all the hwainns real world set items so you can get the peaceful sleep aura full set bonus. good luck dude.
 
Sounds like a fun way to get some decent items. Count me in. I'm at work right now so when i get off i'll have you some answers to your questions.

btw, congrats on your newborn. I just had one a month ago and it has been great. My brother's wife had her baby last week two months early so i know how you feel slightly. The only good thing about it was my brother got to come home from Iraq for a couple of weeks to spend time with him even though he is in the NICU also.
 
First off, congratulations on your little Kicksin, looks like she is packing a mighty Dragon Talon there. :)

Luckily, I have done well in both AP American History and AP Government, so let me see how well I still remember it (I'm about to enter college, I took APAH two years ago, and AP Gov this past year...)

"QUESTION ONE: In what ways was Harry Truman a bad President? Be sure to cite specific examples and to include analysis (400 words max)."

While I disagree that he was a bad President per sé, I will still outline them:

Truman had huge shoes to fill. The ghost of Franklin Delano Roosevelt still haunted the Oval Office. The nation was finishing World War II, which meant some radical changes had to be made to American life. While Truman managed to accomplish many great things during his Presidency, such as the conversion of a wartime economy to a peacetime economy with relative ease, he was not particularly adept at handling issues pertaining to military and foreign policy.

In terms of military policy, perhaps his largest problem was the way he ended World War II. Intelligence had shown that Japan was close to surrendering, close enough to not warrant the use of nuclear weapons. However, he chose to end it by dropping two bombs, one on Hiroshima and one on Nagasaki. Though this was partly a display of power towards the USSR, where relations were turning sour, there were most definitely other ways to handle the issue and to end World War II with a little less bang, I would guess.

Foreign policy did not fare much better. The USSR had detonated an atomic bomb of their own, and China had just fallen to the Communists. There was, in effect, a need for a new foreign policy. What came out was NSC-68, the Truman Doctrine, and the beginning of the Cold War (while one could argue that Woodrow Wilson started the Cold War, the Russia-US conflict did not really emerge until after World War II). The policy of containment was set by the Truman Doctrine, and NSC-68 essentially asserted United States hegemony, promising the required provisions to ensure the hegemony would remain. This obviously escalated and peaked with the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Bay of Pigs in 1961. However, the new foreign policy generated most possibly the worst aspect of American culture - the military-industrial complex.

The foreign policy set by the Truman administration essentially allowed the development of the military-industrial complex by requiring United States hegemony, at virtually any cost. While Eisenhower tried to curb this in slightly - and warn the public of this industry with his Farewell Address, it did not do enough to curb the most powerful (with a large amount of lobbying power) in the nation today.

(387)

"QUESTION TWO: Describe the long-term impact of television on American political life. Use at least three examples, including details and analysis (more are OK). (600 words max)"

The television simply changed the face of American politics. Whereas before, a candidate was moreover selected based on elements such as their moral character and political beliefs, the television allowed candidates to de-emphasize those attributes while simply campaigning on good looks. This is finely outlined in the 1960 Debates, between Kennedy and Nixon. While most agreed that Nixon was probably the better debater, Kennedy won, most likely because he produced a more "fitting" image than Nixon did. This goes to show how the presence of the television affected the nature of politics - looks over policy.

In addition, before the television, many politicians had a sense of privacy that allowed them to develop a "persona" that usually went beyond the ordinary. The best example of this is Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The lack of television allowed him to cultivate a sort of "immortal"-esque image, that he would, in a sense, never die - though he was stricken with polio (some did not even know his disease existed), he was a strong man that could handle any job. However, as most historians know, this wasn't really the case. His polio prevented him from doing many of a person's normal functions, and his often overworking led him to many illnesses that further crippled him until his death in 1945.

Now, however, with the television, the people have become more "intimate" with their Presidents. They at least think that they understand our Presidents more than they used to - which is true, in many cases, such as when Bill Clinton announced in 1991 (if my memory serves me) that he wore briefs, not boxers. However, it also gives us a false view of our politicians today - Gerald Ford is typically seen as the clumsiest president for his trip at the White House, though, in fact, he was most likely the most athletic, for he played football in college.

Lastly, the television has cultivated a sense of "endless campaigning" in politics today. Campaign ads frequently show themselves on televisions today, inundating systems during election season. It is rare to not see the newest footage of Barack Obama or John McCain on your nightly news - publicity is the new equivalent of campaigning. However, this has created some issues - aren't our officials supposed to be doing their job in Washington, fashioning laws appropriate for the people, or is "endless campaigning" their new job?

(399)

"QUESTION THREE: Compare and contrast the current occupation of Iraq with the occupation of the South after the Civil War. Highlight the similarities and the differences." <<<< This is a toughie! I know my answer for it is kinda bad. And relatively short.

The main similarity between the occupation of Iraq and the occupation of the South after the Civil War is their aim - reconstruction. Both aim(ed) to reconstruct their societies. The North attempted to remodel Southern society after their own, by passing the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, while also imposing a bevy of restrictions and required reparations. These, however, turned out to be relatively ineffective, due to the use of the "separate and equal" clause infamous for its role in the Plessy v. Ferguson case in 1898. In Iraq, something similar is occuring, with the United States forcing their system of government (democracy) onto the original government (dictatorship, some could say theocracy).

They are both indeed similar in that their methods aren't/didn't work very well. Reconstruction died with the election of Hayes in 1876, which allowed Southern society to resume its normal workings. The application of democracy in Iraq is not working well either, with a near civil war occupying the land. In addition, the religion of many there, Muslim, is not entirely compatible with democracy as other religions might be

They do differ, however, the most obvious reason being different time and place. However, down beneath that, there is a major distinction. The occupation of the South was an attempt to change their civil society - to change the way they believed things (e.g. racial equality), to change their institutions. However, the occupation of Iraq is moreover an attempt to place an existing model on a civil society without trying to modify it.

(284)

I just wanted to try it!

Thanks and congratulations again!

*kidsmokin

P.S. when you say citing do you want like MLA format? and 8 points for those on your /f list is a 40% curve! that's crazy! just saying.
 
congratulations with the baby. i wish you and your family good luck. its sad to see someone quit diablo but if you ever come back this is the place to announce it:laugh:
 
"QUESTION ONE: In what ways was Harry Truman a bad President? Be sure to cite specific examples and to include analysis (400 words max)."

Bad is an entirely subjective term... what is bad to one person could be the best thing ever to another person. As such I'm curious as to how you plan on grading that question. Simply on whether you agree with them or not? Or perhaps on how well formulated the answer is, regardless of your personal opinions.

Regardless, an interesting way to give your things away. Good luck to all those whom attempt.
 
1) Perhaps for "bad" we should read "ineffective". That might make things easier.

2) I have some serious disagreements with kid's first answer, but it is nonetheless strongly argued and will be scored accordingly.

3) I don't care what format you use, but if I smell something fishy and I use my powers of investigation to find out that you quoted someone without attribution (or stole so much of an original idea as to be there anyway), I'm going to summon the Fanatic Convicted Souls.

Bonus aura of peaceful slumber. :D I fervently hope so.
 
*reads flurry of posts* Sweet Mary McGillicudy!!!! They done gone and scheduled a ladder reset!!!!!!!!

Under the circumstances, I am prepared to declare Kidsmokin the winner (with a combined score of 50) unless someone else really has a yen to write three essays to get items that will become non-ladder as of the 25th. I'd like to get the xfering done ASAP (schedule permitting-- remember why I was doing this in the first place) so I can say goodbye to all my characters and make room for the new ones.

Kid, send me a private message here so we can set up.

I should probably thank Blizzard, I've been wanting a reset for ages now and at least I did get to play with some high-end HR towards the end --but it sure puts a kink in this contest.
 
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