Category Archives: Getting To Know/History

Getting To Know/History, Movies/TV/Theaters

The tale and tour of Annabelle

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By: Jooney Freddieson & Aalovely Lor

Image created by Starryai

In paranormal history, there are many haunted objects around the world, but Annabelle the doll is the most captivating worldwide. Her legend included real-life investigations, movies, and as of recently, public appearances.

Behind the movies of Annabelle lie a backstory rooted deeply into Ed and Lorraine Warren’s paranormal research.

Ed and Lorraine have investigated over 10,000 cases of paranormal activities and originally presented their findings in Catholic schools. Ed was a self-taught demonologist and Lorraine was a medium. Together, they founded the New England Society for Psychic Research (NESPR) in 1952.

Annabelle, originally an innocent Raggedy Ann doll, was gifted to a nursing student named Donna, by her mother in the 70s. Donna and her roommate started to mess with the doll, leaving it in different positions and even making it a tradition to scare each other.

However, their fun came to an end when they began noticing strange occurrences around her living area: the doll would change positions, move to different rooms, and leave notes behind, none of which Donna or her roommate had any knowledge of causing.

Donna and her roommate concluded that it was just their vivid imagination and dismissed the occurrences but questions started to arise when the doll’s movement became more pronounced—like shifting its arm entirely or relocating more often.

Donna, believing that she was targeted by demonic forces, flew to a renowned medium. They soon discovered that the doll was inhabited by the spirit of a young girl. Donna allowed the young girl to stay and even started to treat the doll like an actual child, often buying the doll clothes, toys, jewelry, and candy.

The haunting soon turned malevolent after attacking multiple times through paralyzations and scratches appearing over the chest.

After realizing the spirit was more than just an innocent child, Donna contacted Ed and Lorraine Warren—the paranormal investigators.

The Warren’s determined that the doll was in fact taken over by a demonic entity and its goal wasn’t to haunt people but to possess a human host.

They took Annabelle to their Occult Museum in Monroe, Connecticut, preventing further harm. She was placed in a glass case with warnings not to touch, and it quickly became one of the most dangerous items in their museum.

The story of Annabelle gained popularity after its feature in ‘The Conjuring’, leading it to have its own spin-off series that begins with ‘Annabelle’.

The movie versions featured a porcelain doll, but the real Annabelle is a soft stitched Raggedy Ann. Despite the difference in visuals, the legacy remains the same.

After Lorraine’s death, the museum closed, and Annabelle remained inside. But as of 2025, Annabelle has begun going on tour as part of the traveling exhibit called “Devil’s On The Run Tour”, visiting various cities throughout the U.S.

The tour began in May and is scheduled to be on tour throughout the summer, allowing horror movie enthusiasts to meet the real Annabelle.

According to NESPR, the Annabelle tour was created in response to those with questions and in hope of funding the museum.

The tour brought concern to religious figures saying they shouldn’t treat the doll like a “novelty”, stating that it was disrespectful to provoke the doll after knowing the risks. But organizers of the tour have claimed that all participants were careful and all events were handled with caution.

This tour brought attention to social media, especially Tik Tok and Instagram. Many videos and post made about the tour gained millions of views, with people sharing everything from selfies to behind the scenes.

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Getting To Know/History

How our preconceived notion affects us!

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By: Maeve Brady

Throughout our lives we may have heard of many notable experiments. With many notable experiments comes ones which were conducted very dangerously and are very controversial. Yet one that is still commonly debated and probably one of the most infamous psychology experiments is the Stanford Prison Experiment. In your life, you may have heard of this twisted experiment. And even if you haven’t, you may eventually. So, for those of you who would like a more in-depth explanation of the Stanford Prison Experiment and its procedures, stick around.

First of all we must understand what the Stanford Prison Experiment was even focused on studying; why it was even conducted. Dr. Phillip Zimbardo, a psychologist and professor at Stanford University which is located in Stanford, California, asked his students to examine what happens when someone is first imprisoned and the psychological effects of that. His students, as part of their independent study, came up with the intriguing idea of this sort of mock prison simulation.

Then, when Zimbardo started to question and have the desire to further investigate social roles and situational power dynamics, especially in prison, he decided to initiate this experiment. Or, in other words, he wanted to better understand and further research how ordinary people who are considered healthy and mentally “normal” can shift mentally in a matter of a couple of days under a prison simulated environment. So, in a newspaper ad they created advertisements for college students who would be willing to partake in a simulated prison experiment.

For the originally intended two week long experiment, they would be paid around fifteen dollars per day. Initially, there were around seventy participants, but after a series of psychological and physical tests, it was narrowed down to twenty-four participants. Contrary to the belief that the guards and the prisoners were chosen based on their height and size differences, the determination of whether you were a prisoner or a guard was completely random to ensure there was no biases-well at least that we know of. 

Once the roles were chosen, the experiment began. In Stanford University’s basement, a simple yet pretty secure ”jail” was constructed. According to the Stanford Prison Experiment’s official  website redesigned by Jeff Breil, Scott Plous, and David Jensenius in 2015, “Our prison was constructed by boarding up each end of a corridor in the basement of Stanford’s Psychology Department building. That corridor was “The Yard” and was the only outside place where prisoners were allowed to walk, eat, or exercise, except to go to the toilet down the hallway (which prisoners did blindfolded so as not to know the way out of the prison).” This demonstrates that the prison was intricately designed yet also had this easily comprehensible layout. And to create prison cells, they took the doors off some laboratory rooms and replaced them with doors made of steel bars and cell numbers where the prisoners would be held. An intercom system was also installed in order to listen in on the prisoner’s conversations as well as make announcements.

To fully understand the proceedings of the Stanford Prison experiment, we must understand the way, and fact, of how humiliation spread throughout this experiment. The experiment was split into three groups: the institution-which was composed of Dr. Zimbardo, who deemed himself as the superintendent, an ex-convict who played the role of the prison consultant because of his past experiences in a prison, as well as other people who helped operate the experiment-the guards, and the prisoners.

At first Dr. Zimbardo asked the Palo Alto Police Department to arrest the prisoners at their homes, in order to instill this sense of embarrassment as all their neighbors watched in shock. Then, when they arrived at the Palo Alto Police Department station, they were blindfolded, put in a cell, and forced to ponder their fate. Once they were transferred to their make-shift jail in the basement of Stanford University, they were then stripped naked and deloused in order to prevent “them from contaminating their jail”. But in reality, this was a method of increasing the humiliation upon the prisoners. The prisoners were then forced to wear a smock and given a number to diminish their pride and take away from their individuality.

It was also important to understand that the guards were really given no training on how to be a guard. They were only given instructions to use any method, besides physical violence, to assert authority over the prisoners and make them comply. The guards then devised a set of rules which involved some effective methods to make the prisoners listen. One of them was counts. These counts were an effective way of not only familiarizing the prisoners with their numbers, but it was also an effective way of establishing that the guards had the authority in that situation and the prisoners could only be another number that was “forced” to comply with what the guards were telling them to do. This also took away from the prisoner’s individuality and established this sense that all they could do was comply with the perceived authority figures. The other method was a large amount of push-ups whenever someone spoke out and/or behaved in a “bad” way.

Although everything went smoothly the first day, a prison rebellion then broke out the morning of the second. The prisoners removed their stocking caps, ripped off their numbers, and barricaded themselves inside the cells by putting their beds against the door. Because of the rebellion, the morning-shift guards were infuriated. When the morning-shift guards arrived at the “jail”, they were upset and believed that the night-shift guards must have been too strict on the prisoners. But, how the guards handled it was shocking to many. At the beginning of the rebellion, the guards insisted that reinforcements be called in. The three guards who were on stand-by call at home came in and the night-shift guards voluntarily remained on duty to help support the morning shift. The guards then decided to use force to dispatch the rebellion caused by the prisoners. The guards then got a fire extinguisher and shot a stream of skin-chilling carbon dioxide at them. They  used this mechanism to stun the prisoners and force them away from the doors. Once the guards managed to dispatch the rebellion, a new problem arose.

Although the guards were able to calm the rebellion down, the fact that it took nine guards using clubs to do so, obviously made the guards nervous. Nine guards couldn’t be on duty all the time, so instead of using physical methods, the guards decided to use more physiological methods to control the prisoners and force them in line. So, the guards devised something known as the “privilege cell”. The three prisoners least involved in the rebellion were given special privileges, and they were given their uniforms and bed backs, as well as being able to brush their teeth. The prisoners who were least involved in the rebellion also got to eat a special meal in the presence of the prisoners who temporarily lost their eating privileges.

Throughout the experiment, several prisoners had to leave due to the torture of the experiment; for example, Prisoner #8612 had a mental breakdown and went into this fit of rage, and others were tortured to their breaking points.

There were also many other significant events that occurred along the way. For example, a new prisoner was added to play with the already established social groups, as well as a family visiting hour, and a priest visiting the “jail”. Yet throughout these interactions, no one spoke out, and instead of questioning the morals of the experiment, many only gave advice on how to make their “case” less severe and tried to work within the system to help them out.

After six days of this experiment, it had to be shut down. This shutdown occurred after Dr. Zimbardo snapped back into reality, and realized how cruel it was after someone had told him that what he was doing was too cruel. Although this experiment ended short, the conclusion has been relevant for years and years. The Stanford Prison Experiment concluded that individuals readily conform to social roles, especially when those roles are strongly stereotyped and involve power dynamics. And, contrary to Dr. Zimbardo’s statement claiming that this experiment proved that everyone has a little bit of evil and violence in them just awaiting to be released under pressure packed situations, many psychologists believe that it demonstrates that we act how we think we are supposed to act, and act to our preconceived notions. Also, due to the fact that the guards were given an initiative to assert authority over the prisoners, this may have influenced the way the guards acted too.

Thank you for following me along as I explained the Stanford Prison Experiment. Although I covered a ton of different aspects of it, there is still so much to discuss. I hope you have learned a lot about the Stanford Prison Experiment and its proceedings.

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Getting To Know/History

Pope Leo XIV

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By: Teagan Mack

Pope Leo XIV on the loggia after his election by: Edgar Beltrán / The Pillar via Wikimedia Commons

On Thursday May 8th, 2025, white smoke appeared from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel, signaling the end of the papal conclave and with it, the election of a new pope.

Pope Leo XIV, born Robert Francis Prevost, was born September 14th, 1955 in Chicago, Illinois. Pope Leo XIV has two older brothers, Louis and John. They all grew heavily in the Catholic faith, and the family attended St. Mary of the Assumption parish. The Prevost family “were known at bustling St. Mary’s as dedicated and devout musicians, altar boys, lectors and volunteers.”

Pope Leo XIV will be known for many firsts. He’s the first American-born pontiff and first Augustinian pope. He is also the first pope to root for the Chicago White Sox. Not only is Pope Leo the first American and Augustinian pope, he is also the first Peruvian pope. Even though he wasn’t born in Peru, he is a naturalized citizen, and spent 20 years there serving as Apostolic Administrator.

Pope Leo XIV became a friar of Order of Saint Augustine in 1977 and was ordained as a priest in 1982. He did missionary work in Peru in the 1980s and 1990s. He served as a parish pastor, diocesan official, seminary teacher, and administrator. From 2001 to 2013, he was elected prior general of the Order of Saint Augustine. From 2015 to 2023, he returned to Peru as Bishop of Chiclayo. In 2023, Pope Francis appointed him perfect of the Dicastery for Bishop and president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, and later made him a cardinal that same year.

Pope Leo XIV went to Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas – Angelicum in Rome, Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, and Villanova University in Pennsylvania. He graduated with his Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from Villanova University in 1977. In 1982, he graduated from C.T.U with a master’s degree in Divinity. In 1984 he graduated from Pontifical University with a Licentiate of Canon Law, and later graduated with a Doctor of Canon Law in 1987.

The Pope can speak several languages, English being his first. He can speak English, Spanish, Italian, French, and Portuguese and two important theological languages being Latin and German. This would put Pope Leo in the top 3 of most languages spoken through history by popes. First would be Pope John Paul II who was in papacy from 1978 to 2005, who spoke 12 different languages.

His choice of name was to honor Pope Leo XIII, who helped shape the church in the United States. He was known as one of the most influential popes in modern Catholic history, serving from 1878 to 1903. While there is no general rule for how popes pick their papal names, they are mostly picked based on personal and symbolic decisions, personal reflections, and the popes desired focus during papacy. For example, Pope John Paul I chose his name as a tribute to both Pope John XXIII and Pope Paul VI, then later Pope John Paul II picked his name in tribute to Pope John Paul I after he passed 33 days after elected Pope.

Getting To Know/History

The election of a new pope

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By: Maya Vossen-Nelson

A pope is the bishop of Rome in the Catholic religion. Catholicism took root after Jesus Christ’s death spreading across the world as his followers formed a “universal” church with a bishop of Rome holding supremacy.

The pope is seen as the successor of Saint Peter, the first apostle, and a leader in establishing the church while living out Jesus’s teachings. The pope makes decisions on faith and morality issues which are considered binding on all Catholics. Given the pope’s role in advocating on social issues, the pope holds importance on an international scale, not only as the leader of the world’s Catholic Church and as the head of the Vatican City but also as a major voice in global affairs.

After a pope dies or resigns, a new pope must be elected. The pope is chosen at the Vatican in private gatherings of cardinals called conclaves. The happenings inside the conclave are considered sacred and surrounded with secrecy. During the period of selection, all the cardinals residing in the Vatican are not permitted any contact with the outside world.

 As of May 16, 2025, there are 252 cardinals and 135 of whom are cardinal electors. The cardinal electors represent all seven continents and 71 countries. When selecting a new pope the cardinal electors consider factors such as their ability to unify the church and navigate modern challenges. The cardinals debate and vote for their preferred candidate until an individual gets a two thirds majority.

Once a candidate receives a two thirds majority vote, the dean of the College of Cardinals informs the prospective pope and asks him if he accepts the position. Once the new pope accepts, the ballots of the final round of voting are burned with chemicals producing the iconic white smoke that billows from the Sistine Chapel chimney and signals the election of a new pope. This is a very ceremonious moment for Catholics and people will begin to gather to await the announcement of the new pope’s identity.

Inside the Apostolic Palace, a document will be drawn up certifying the elected cardinal has agreed to become the new pope. The voting cardinals then approach the newly elected pope and make acts of homage and obedience. Finally, the pope is taken into the Room of Tears where he chooses his papal name and is dressed in papal vestments before appearing before the city of Rome on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica.

Getting To Know/History

The intriguing Minnesota Starvation Project

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By: Maeve Brady

Starvation is a very common part of suffering, impoverished countries, communities, and so on. When humans are faced with it, there could be numerous consequences. For example, terrible illnesses, continuous suffering, and in many cases, death. Throughout history, many have tried to prevent it, yet famine and the starvation of the human body is too vast and difficult to fully resolve. Yet that hasn’t stopped many from trying to find solutions for it and see the effects of starvation in general. This leads me to a very infamous psychology project conducted at the University of Minnesota, the Minnesota Starvation Project. Today, I will try my best to give an in depth explanation of what exactly it was and its findings.

To start off, we must know exactly what the project was and its background. Ancel Keys, the psychologist in charge of the University of Minnesota, was eager to take on a huge and impactful challenge of conducting an experiment based around the starvation of its subjects. This experiment had the goal of figuring out not only the physical effects of starvation on its participants, but also the psychological effects it may have. It also worked towards discovering at what point they could essentially be “rehabilitated” back into full health both mentally and physically. Along with Ancel Keys, Josef Brozek also joined in the conducting of the experiments in 1944, after he had newly joined the Minnesota lab in 1941. A couple years after Brozek had joined, in November 1944, thirty-six young men were chosen out of over two hundred to partake in the experiment. Like many experiments, there were requirements, especially for its participants. For the Minnesota Starvation Project, the young men had to be of good health, meaning they had to be a good weight- at least what was considered to be a good weight- and had to have pretty good health in general. Along with the fact that they had to take psychological tests to ensure they were “normal” and all on the same level. This made it so all the men were essentially on “an even playing field”, so when observing the changes in the men, they could find some consistency. After these thirty-six men were chosen out of the hundreds, they took up residence in the corridors of the University of Minnesota’s football stadium due to space requirements and other variables-to prevent getting in the way of the other students.

According to Dr. David Baker and Natasha Keramidas, psychologists who wrote an article about the Minnesota Starvation Project for the American Psychological Association, “The research protocol called for the men to lose 25 percent of their normal body weight. They spent the first three months of the study eating a normal diet of 3,200 calories a day, followed by six months of semi-starvation at 1,570 calories a day (divided between breakfast and lunch), then a restricted rehabilitation period of three months eating 2,000 to 3,200 calories a day, and finally an eight-week unrestricted rehabilitation period during which there were no limits on caloric intake.” This demonstrates that at the start they were required to intake the standard amount of calories just to observe their health and overall mood, yet as the months passed, they slowly started to decrease into this six month period of semi-starvation with the researchers only providing one thousand five hundred and seventy calories for the subjects. This is approximately around one thousand six hundred and thirty calories less than before.

After the six months of the monitored starvation, they switched initiatives into rehabilitation by giving them the standard amount of calories whilst also giving them an unrestricted limit on the weekends and some limits during the weekdays. During this semi-starvation period, the changes in these young men were drastic. Some of the drastic changes were that the men quickly lost weight and had a sickly appearance. Not only was there this significant decrease in weight, but also significant decreases in overall body temperature and heart rate. Also, not only were there physical effects on the men but also psychological effects such as an increased obsession. This obsession was with food. The lack of consumption made some of the men go crazy in a sense, with the constant fantasizing about food in this repetitive way. Along with more physical effects of irritability, depression, and fatigue. This especially proved to be arduous for some men, with three subjects breaking their diet and/or not meeting the weight loss requirements.

But, what may be the most notable about the experiment is the recovery process of the participants. Like I mentioned before, after the semi-starvation period, they started slowly reintroducing more calories into the subject’s life, but as they did so, there were some unexpected results. Many assumed that after introducing food back into the subjects’ lives, they may gain weight very quickly, but in fact it was the opposite of this. Instead of re-gaining all the weight back quickly, the participants actually gained weight even slower than the slowest time the researchers anticipated, along with the fact that many did not gain any weight at the start and in fact lost more. After monitoring the subjects for a while, the results that they found were that the subjects endured gastrointestinal issues, excessive hunger, and even some gaining more weight than before, although staying the same weight after some time into the rehabilitation. This further proved that the weight gain after starvation is an extremely arduous process that can have many different outcomes, although this is still being researched.

Like many experiments, there is a reason for conducting it, and in the case of the Minnesota Starvation Project, it is very complex. During WWII-when this experiment was conducted-many Americans had encountered Europeans being starved, especially in Germany. In Germany, due to Jews being deemed as evil scapegoats, they were placed in concentration camps, with Adolf Hitler, the dictator at the time, having the goal of killing them. And, one way to do this was starving them. So, at these camps all the Jews and other prisoners of war were terribly starved, which was obvious through their physical appearance and overall drowsy and irritable moods. After the United States discovery of this, a complex question arose. “How fast can one be rehabilitated from almost complete and/or complete starvation of the human body, and what psychological effects would that have?” So, in order to test this, many young men who weren’t serving in the military decided to sign up in hopes to help contribute to their country in some form, in this case, medical research. To be more specific, because these men who weren’t fighting in WWII may have been ashamed of not serving their country, many still wanted to help contribute to the war cause and thus signed up to help further medical research.

Thank you for following me along as I gave an in-depth explanation of what the Minnesota Starvation project was and its intentions. I hope you have gained a better understanding and possible interest in this subject!

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Getting To Know/History

History of Minnesota State Fair

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By Grace Wright

In 1854 the Minnesota Agricultural Society was founded and their goal was to help promote Minnesota agriculture. The first state fair was held in Minneapolis, 1858. For a while they didn’t have a set place; they would rotate from Red Wing, St. Paul, Rochester and a few more towns.  Between 1870-1880 they worked to have a permanent spot for the fair. They finally found a spot when Ramsey County donated a 210 acre plot of land. It has now grown into 322 acres of land.

During the early days of the fair it was mainly agricultural attractions and competitions. This followed the theme of which the state fair was started for. Now, while agriculture is still a big part of the fair, it has now changed, with more food and rides for people to enjoy.

In 1966 the Fairchild gopher became the new official mascot of the Minnesota State Fair. His name is from Henry S. Fairchild, the man who said the fair should be put on the Ramsey county plot.  His nephew, named Fairborn, later joined him in 1983.

The fair has been held almost every year since it was started but there has been a few years it hasn’t been. 1861-1862 because of the Civil War and the Dakota War, 1893 because of a conflict with an exposition show, 1945-1946 because of the U.S. restrictions with travel during World War II and also due to the polio epidemic. The most recent one was in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Some popular buildings are the 4-H buildings, which is where many youth come to show animals. The cattle barn is where you can see many different kinds of cows, there are versions of these for many more animals. The DNR is a log cabin-like building which has held the DNR during the state fair since 1934. The food building is many people’s favorite building because it has many different food stalls. The most well known one is the grandstand. The grandstand has many different levels with food and shopping on the second and third floors and showing rooms on the bottom floor. It is also where many concerts are seen in the two weeks.

The state fair sees 2 million people a year and employs over 2,000 staff members during the summer. The livestock is a big part of the Minnesota Fair. It brings more than 8,000 competitors, 20,000 animals and prizes can add up to 1.6 million in total.

I have been going to the state fair for many years now and I have also worked at a booth during the two weeks that the state fair has been open. Some of my favorite parts are the food. I always get Sweet Martha’s, which are very famous chocolate chip cookies, I also always get the turkey leg and lemonade. I would recommend going to the state fair if you ever get a chance there is something for everyone there. It is open for the 2025 season, August 21-September 1. 

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Getting To Know/History, Science/Nature

The cruel inter-workings of psychology!

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By: Maeve Brady

Psychology, it’s an amazing study of human behavior and cognitive functions, and, within this wide branch, there is so much to discover. That brings me to today’s topic, psychology experiments. More specifically speaking, notable psychology experiments. Now, you may have heard of popular experiments such as the Stanford Prison experiment and/or the Milgram experiment, which was an experiment with the intention of questioning people’s ability to adhere to an authority figure under who they assume to be someone in power. But, besides the most renowned ones, how about the ones barely anybody talks about? Are they considered notable or worthy? Today I will be explaining a very complex and appalling experiment, also known as the MK-ULTRA Project. I will try my best to explain all aspects of it and how it is notable to psychology.

First of all, what even was the MK-ULTRA Project? Well, the MK-ULTRA Project was a very bizarre experiment and the horrors of it run deep throughout history. The project was developed by the Central Intelligence Agency, also commonly known as the CIA. The CIA was a federal service tasked with enhancing national security through analyses of intelligence. Or in other words, the main foreign intelligence service of the United States. To be more specific, this experiment was primarily run by a chemist named Sidney Gottlieb, although Allen Dulles, the head of the CIA, agreed to let the procedures go through. This experiment was primarily based around the experimentation on humans and how they react.

This experiment had horrid intentions. In fact, the primary intentions of this experiment was to develop procedures, drugs, and/or some type of methods that would be capable of weakening an individual’s ability to resist, which would result in easier confessions due to this sort of “brainwashing” so that during an interrogation, they could easily get people to confess. It was a project just overall based around psychological torture on its participants. In order to figure this sort of “truth serum” out, experimenters would inject participants with drugs, usually this drug would be lysergic acid diethylamide, also known in the abbreviated form as LSD. They had hopes to discover at what point humans would break and essentially lose control of their cognitive abilities to adhere to authority figures. The ones that were experimented on varied from place to place.

Now, the majority of Gottlieb’s experiments were funded at universities and research centers, and others were conducted in American prisons and detention centers around the world. Typically, the ones being experimented on were people such as soldiers and most commonly prisoners. Prisoners were typically more popular because they were willing to operate in exchange for extra recreation time and were operated on. But, what makes this even more horrific is that many of the subjects had no idea they were going to get experimented on, and were unsuspecting people. And, adding on that fact, they tended to prey on the most vulnerable of people.

This experiment went on for a long duration of time, starting around November 18, 1953 and it was officially halted in around 1963 to 1973. This halt was due to the discovery by the CIA Inspector General staff of what was truly going on. Along with the discoveries of how dangerous and just morally wrong it was, as the subjects were given psychoactive drugs and other toxic chemicals.

Now, this experiment stemmed not only from new fascinations, but it also stemmed from fear and a continuation of the Nazi lead experiments through the duration of World War II. In 1933, Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany, and with his Nazi party helping him to suppress opinions and political enemies, he created a dictatorship. Due to previous hate of Jews along with Hitler using the Jews as scapegoats for Germany’s misfortunes after World War I, many Jews were persecuted. Eventually, this led to Jews being sent to concentration camps in an effort to exterminate them. During the 1940s, Nazi scientists worked in the concentration camps, which were usually filled to the brim with Jewish people, along with other camps containing the Roma people and other prisoners of war. In these camps, along with the starvation and other cruelties they brought to victims’ lives, they also did interrogation experiments.

To really give you a picture of how unethical some of these experiments were, we must discuss Operation Midnight Climax. Operation Midnight Climax was a notorious LSD experiment conducted by the CIA. In 1955, George White oversaw this experiment by first decorating a room to look homey and unsuspecting, then he let everything play out. Paid people would lure unsuspecting people to the scene and then they would be drugged by LSD as George White watched behind a two way mirror. 

Now, the results of the experiment are hard to find. This is because in the 1970s, most of the evidence for the experiment was destroyed. Along with the fact that this experiment was kept secret for most of it due to the fear of peoples’ criticisms.  Although there are similar experiments to this such as the Stargate Project, this project also focused on the study of psychic phenomena. Though similar to the MK-ULTRA Project, its results were dismissed and only proved that the methods were harmful, and killed many. 

Thank you so much for following me along as I explain this intriguing experiment to you! I hope you also found this experiment intriguing and brought you a valuable critical thinking experiment!

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Getting To Know/History

Gates: A legacy of giving

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By: Teagan Mack

Photo from Google Earth

When most people hear the name Bill Gates, they think of Microsoft, billions of dollars, and tech innovation. But more recently Gates and his former wife, Melinda French Gates, have been recognized for something completely different: Giving away their money, and not just a little bit. They’ve committed to giving away the vast majority of it with the time they have left.

Together, they founded the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which focuses on solving global problems that affect millions. Their work goes from improving healthcare in the world’s poorest countries, to funding public education here in the U.S. Their foundation has grown into one of the world’s most influential charitable organizations.

Interestingly, Bill and Melinda Gates have made it clear that their children won’t inherit the majority of their wealth. Gates said that he wants his kids to have the freedom to follow their own paths, all while not being handed a vast sum of money. He believes giving them a small portion will be suitable for them to live comfortably while motivating them to work hard, find their purpose, and contribute to society as they please. He says the rest should go toward helping those who don’t have the same advantages.

One of their top priorities is global health. The foundation supports efforts to fight diseases like malaria and HIV, deliver life-saving vaccines, and enhance healthcare systems in places where medical help is hard to come by. Their goal for healthcare is to make long lasting changes that help communities become healthier and more self-sufficient.

In the U.S., the foundation is heavily invested in education, maily public schools. They fund programs that strive to improve graduation rates, increase access to college, and support students from underserved communities. For Gates, education is a key to unlocking opportunities and reducing inequality.

Melinda has been a strong advocate for women’s rights. Through the foundation and her own enterprise, she helps contribute to projects that empower women and girls, whether it’s through education, healthcare, or economic support. She speaks out about the need to close gender gaps around the world.

After 20+ years in the Gates Foundation Melinda took a step down from Co-Chair to focus on her charity Pivotal Ventures and other charities. Melinda stated “The time is right for me to move forward into the next chapter of my philanthropy.”

In 2010, Bill and Melinda Gates joined forces with Warren Buffett to create “The Giving Pledge”, a public commitment by billionaires to give away at least half of their wealth. Gates went even further by saying he wants to donate nearly everything and eventually drop off the list of the world’s richest people entirely.

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Getting To Know/History

History of Earth Day

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By: Grace Wright

Over many decades Americans were using inefficient cars leading to major air pollution. Many Americans were oblivious to this because they were told it was the smell of success and major corporations didn’t want them to know about the environmental or health issues.

Changed started with Rachel Carson; she published a New York Times bestseller ‘Silent Spring’ in 1962. It helped raise awareness to the public about how damaged the environment is and how it’s going to start affecting the public’s health.

Senator Gaylord Nelson from Wisconsin, had always been concerned about the impacts that were happening to the environment. But it wasn’t until he and many others saw the effects of the oil spill in Santa Barbara, CA in 1969.

This started anti-war protests, and Senator Nelson wanted to use the energy of the protests to help even more of the public understand what was happening. The way he thought this would work best would be teach-ins on college campuses.

Nelson recruited Denis Hayes, a young activist, to help organize the different campus teach-ins. They chose April 22 because it was between finals and spring break to help get more students to come.

The first Earth Day was on April 22, 1970. Hayes was able to promote the event across the U.S. to 20 million Americans which was only 10% of the population at the time. They took to the streets to help show the impact of what 150 years of industrial growth had done to the environment.

After the first Earth Day was the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. They put through many environmental laws, started the Environmental Education Act and the Clean Water Act. Earth Day has now been happening for 55 years and over 1 billion people worldwide have participated in it.

What can do to help keep our environment clean and healthy? Don’t litter or if you see trash pick it up. Practice not letting the water run while brushing your teeth. You can donate to different organizations to help support the efforts too.  

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Getting To Know/History

History of the National Parks

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By: Grace Wright

Logo of the United States National Park Service

March 1, 1872 was the day Yellowstone National Park became officially approved by the U.S. congress. The founding of Yellowstone National Park helped start the wave of new parks in over 100 different nations and 1,200 parks.

After Yellowstone became a National Park there were many different monuments and new National Parks, but the issue was that depending on where it was located, it was managed by many different government departments; this made things complicated. The 3 departments involved were: the Department of the Interior, the War Department and the Forest Service of the Department of Agriculture.

On August 25, 1916 an act was signed by President Woodrow Wilson creating the National Park Service. It was a new department responsible for protecting the 35 parks and different monuments that the Department of the Interior was responsible for. It wasn’t until 1933, when an executive order transferred 56 monuments and military sites from the two other departments, that all of the National Parks fell under 1 department These steps have been most important to help build the National Park Systems we know today.

One person who was very important to these steps was Theodore Roosevelt. He was known as the “Conservation President”, he impacted the system well beyond his life. When he was president in 1901-1909 he doubled the number of parks known. He established 5 parks in his time, Crater Lake in Oregon, Wind Cave in South Dakota, Sully’s Hill in North Dakota, Mesa Verde in Colorado, and Platt in Oklahoma. Some of these are not here today but they have still made an impact.

The National Park system in the U.S. includes 400 areas that cover more than 84 million acres in the 50 states but also the District of Columbia, Guam, Virgin Islands and many more.

The National Parks still strive to meet the goals of protecting the diverse cultural and recreational resources, being an advocate and helping to preserve our natural world. The National Park Service employs more than 20,000 people and they care for 400+ National Parks and monuments. 

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