My POD focuses on the suffragettes whom were females and people who proteste for the right to vote. This happened during the 1900s, but what if it happened a century earlier? What would've happened if all sexes were able to vote before the 1900s and how exactly did it effect not only the United States of America, but the world itself. And the following is the outcome of that .. 

Brought to you by 50 Minutes News, this documentary gives a brief history in the alternate version of the world, where computers are a highly debatable topic. Should they be used for fun, recreational games, or to protect this great nation?

German civil engineer Konrad Zuse, created a series of the worlds first programmable computers called the Z1, Z2, and Z3. His invention was critical in the world of computers. Possibly without his contribution he would have never built a programmable computer, delaying the current technological society we live in. The reason he even came to invent the computer was because he was working for Hitlers Nazi regime in Germany. He was experiencing with calculators, punch-tape computers, etc. and ended up making the Z series. In history, I have changed the fact that he ever worked for the Nazi regime at all. Before he was called up to service the party, he was working in aviation. Surely Konrad would have invented things that were beneficial to the progression of aviation in society. Because he was never called up to service, the programmable computers birth was delayed, also making personal computing in the later 20th century, a very controversial topic. In reality, by the 1960s people were already doing amazing things with the peripheral machines, and computers were also being used greatly for military. But this was because the idea of programming your own computer was commonplace. Without Konrad Zuse, the military were dominant and restricted certain civilian use of computers. We still see the companies like MITS, Apple, and Microsoft try to push the personal computer experience. When I mention the "computational revolution" I am talking about the fight between the military and commercial use of computers.

My point of divergence is during Paul Revere's midnight ride. There is a point in which he came across a couple of British officers on horseback and had to evade them. He really had managed to, but I changed it so they had actually caught him. As a result of this, the future I envisioned is the United States remaining a British territory and potentially being called British America. This came to be because Paul Revere was making the ride to warn Samuel Adams and John Hancock that the British were coming to arrest them due to their involvement in a potential rebellion. Since Paul Revere never reached his destination, I made it so Adams and Hancock got arrested. Adams was an avid leader when it came to the rebellion and Hancock was an rich and influential man (who was going to be elected to be President of the Continental Congress the month after he escaped arrest), so I made it so that when people heard about them being arrested (due to being exposed by a British spy, who had reported to British General Thomas Gage) they began to get suspicious of everyone and could not organize themselves enough to start a full-on rebellion.

I liked that this project called for a little bit of story-telling and gives a view as to how a butterfly effect can happen. I think the most challenging was making the story believable; there could be many loopholes of what could have happened instead of what you want to happen and you have to be sure to cover everything. The most interesting fact I uncovered was that Samuel Adams, John Hancock and Paul Revere (among others) were all a part of a group called the Mechanics who organized rebellions and plans to achieve freedom from the British and that there were really spies in their midst. In fact, the only reason why Adams and Hancock were to be arrested is because a spy discovered that they were powerful leaders who lead rebellious attacks and were a danger to British rule. The spy reported to General Thomas Gage, and he organized their arrest. 

The actions of individuals impact the historical record because a lot of history deals with a group of people and a leader or numerous leaders. Whether or not the people follow a leader affects the course of history and the side the people are on also affects history. If a leader didn't step forward to guide people, then the majority would probably be afraid to step forth and make a change. Systemic changes impact the historical record because systemic changes is what usually leads to a change in the people, in general. For example, one of the reasons colonists began to retaliate against the British is because they were being taxed quite obscenely and though they were being taxed, they weren't being represented properly. They didn't want the high taxes or want the Acts the British tried to pass that taxed them, though not directly (as the Stamp Act had), and so they started to fight against their rule and the colonies started to establish their own mini-governments. One decision could change everything in history, especially if the choices are worlds apart. One decision could impact how things are handled and what happens to certain people. The decision hold even more power if it is from a very influential person who is high on the social ladder. 

I think the project could be improved by giving us a set presentation style. I feel like I didn't really know where to go when it came to presenting the project and I wasn't entirely sure as to how long it should be or if I was adding things that weren't needed. If I had to do it over, I would read the history around the revolution (and that time period in general) because though I knew a lot about it, I wanted to go back and check everything and in the end, I actually had to alter my point of divergence and explain a lot of history that I didn't expect to explain.

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The point of divergence of my project was that G.M.B. Dobson, creator of the photoelectric spectrometer dies of influenza in May 1927. Through his invention, the world learned about the ozone layer, and the harmful affects that it has on humans. Media erupted with news about the ozone layer depletion, and what that meant for safety precautions. Things such as sun screen were invented to protect the UV rays from damaging our skin.


The world would be in an entire frenzy. The world eventually would die off from skin cancer. Research shows that skin cancer has a specific strand that can imbed itself into DNA, therefore passing it on to other generations. The vision was that anyone over the age of 50 definitely has skin cancer, because there was no sun screen, precautions, etc. taken to prevent these things from happening. That also means that all the generations below also have that strand of DNA. The life expectancy decreases, along with the population, and the world looks similar to the movie I Am Legend. The major difference is that, there are no zombies. The way that strand gets into DNA was one of the most interesting things I learned from this project.

The historical records of G.M.B. Dobson are very few. There are pictures, but very few quotes besides magazines. I had to rely on text book information and things such as that to gather extrapolations. This individual changed the system of life we know of today. Even though the ozone depletion didn't stop the world from continuing to destroy it, but at least everyone is aware of the concept of Going Green.

If I had to do this project over again, I would change the way I presented the radio show. I liked how it looked for the website, but if I had the help/resources I needed, I would have recorded a live radio show, and made it feel more real. However, I already had a listening piece, and I thought the audio+video approach would go better for the website. Overall, I enjoyed creating my final product. I wish I could have shown more pictures of "present day", but I didn't want to take too much from previous movies or clips to express that. I would rather the viewer have the option to picture a world so small that everyone knows each other.

https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1BxIf_3X29KF09bLDq-kJjaDehIlUIbPaXTICcpAJvWM

here is the link incase it doesn't show at the bottom

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  My point of Divergence was for George W. Bush to never become president.

2. Al Gore would become president and instead of everything going downhill things would get better. Like the war wouldn't last as long as it did.

3. I liked that we got to change something. I thought that trying to make all of the events exact and have them make sense most challenging.

4. I never knew that George W. Bush did cocaine or got arrested for drunk driving.

5. It can change if things get better or worst.

6. I could've also included a video or something digital.

7. I would start it a lot earlier.

Primary Sources

First Link

Second Link

Third Link

The point of divergence  was when Ronald Reagan was nearly assassinated on March 30th, 1981. He was shot in the lung right outside of the Washington DC Hilton hotel by John Hinkley. I changed this event and made the shot fatal (in the original event was inches away from his heart) and Reagan dies after surgery. The future I imagined was a bright one, Reagan ruined America's economy because of his famous "Reaganimics" plan that only benefited cooperations( the rich). I believed that George H W Bush wouldn't have choose the same plan, but would have just raised taxes. In the future since George W Bush is never elected we don't go to war with Iraq, which only helped our economy. For 2012 the economy is stable and prosperous. The education system is incredible because America did have a surplus of money to give towards education.The only problem in America is the amount of homeless families that has continuously grew because funding for welfare is modicum and very selective. 

I enjoyed learning about the Reagan policies because I didn't realize his presidency was so pivotal in American history. He changed a lot about the economy and foreign relationships. I thought the most challenging part was deciding how to present the project because their was just so many ways to do it. I also thought just thinking about a different future was difficult. I thought that researching how each individual event and person affected another event that would ultimately change the future was extremely interesting. 

I felt that any change will effect the future , even if it is just a small impact or huge. For example if  the systematic change was that "Reaganomics" never happened, our economy would not end up in debt. I felt the same way about individual change because as I showed in my benchmark with the absents of Reagan our future was completely different. Well one decision can change everything, for example Bush made the decision to fight a war, which hurt our economy. If Bush would have made a different decision than perhaps Americas finanical situation would be completely different.

I thought that if i had a timeline in my project that would help with describing the future. I tried to include some of the history in my magazine like I would specify which president helped that event happen. The timeline would have just added that extra bit of understanding. If i had to do my project over again I would have done way more research and started it earlier, not to say I didn't spend hours just reading about the history, but I also feel like I missed some important events. If I would have started just a week earlier then I would have had more time to do research and create the best project. 

Time Magazine benchmark.

Source 1 and 2 click here

Source 3 click here.

In 1733, German-American printer named John Peter Zenger accepted an offer from James Alexander to publish his editorials criticizing New York's governor at the time. Alexander founded the New York Weekly Journal and published the first issue in November of 1733. The Governor being criticized went by the name William Cosby. Cosby attempted to have the publication shut down several times with the court's help, but eventually put out a 50 pound reward to the person that could identify the authors of the editorials and order Zenger's papers to be burned publicly. With the help of his attorney general Cosby issued a warrant for Zenger's arrest. Zenger spent 8 months in jail. Cosby attempted to select jurors himself, but that was dismissed and twelve townspeople were picked. 

The trial began in August of 1735 on the terms that the paper was producing "seditious libel". It was true that Andrew Hamilton, of Philadelphia, Zenger's lawyer had no law to support his idea that the truth could be defensive for a libel charge. The trial could be said to have been the most famous 'jury nullification' in history, which means a jury has the power to serve  verdict of 'not guilty' because the disagree with the current law rather than actually believe the person is not guilty. Needless to say, the jury did not make a judgement on the existing law or the facts, but what they thought of the law itself. This is thought to be the building blocks for Free Press in the Bill of Rights.

My point of divergence is that the jury does rule a guilty verdict and the existing British law is not challenged. 

I liked being able to pick something I was interested in. I had the freedom to choose  a topic that conceded my because I am a journalist. The whole project was interesting in that way, but the jury nullification is what I find interesting. As well as the fact that Zenger was just the publisher when we never wrote a single word. He did not set out to be a champion of free speech, but simply a printer doing his thing. 

The individuals in this situation seem to make the impact but it is really the individuals joining together as the jury and as the public in a print protest of the power they disagreed with. Free Press is a systemic change. If this was the only thing to be changed, I believe someone or some people would have eventually made free press happen but countless other things would have been affected in the mean time. 

The resonating changed I thought about was elections. If press were not able to use their privilege of reporting facts, even when unpleasant the results of many elections could have changed. 

If this project could have been improved it would have been to find more sources. It was very difficult to locate primary sources from the 1730's. Honestly, if I had more evidence I could have used more. 

If I could do it over, I would have done even more. I like the idea of the magazine, but there isn't much content. Because I am a journalist I didn't like feeling as if the project was only half done with a single photo, article and cartoon. ​