1) The war helped transform the U.S. from the essentially isolationist nation it had been throughout the 19th century into the interventionist quasi-empire it would become in the 20th century. One could say the S-A War was the US’s first step on the road to global dominance.

2) The role of the media in shaping world events. Just Google William Randolph Hearst and Spanish American War, and you’ll have plenty of stuff.

What are some websites to learn about Japanese culture?

In addition to whaling, another issue is Hague Convention.

More than 90% of child custody after divorce is taken by mother in Japan because there is strong value that "Mothers should raise children". There is little concept of joint custody.

Many Japanese mothers have "abducted" (That’s how Western nations call it) their children to Japan after having a divorce with a foreign husband. But Japanese government have never joined or tried to join Hague Convention until recently.

Many Western nations have pressured Japan to join Hague Convention for years. Japanese government finally announced this spring that they are willing to join. But there’s been little progress since then.

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

If not, you could try doing it with just a bit of beef or chicken stock. Boil the hell out of it for a long time before you make the plates so that anything in it already gets killed. You should test if you’re making them properly by putting them in an incubator for a couple days and checking that nothing grows on them.

What is the relationship between popular culture and our ‘real’ lives? Ground your discussion in a case study of online communities/virtual worlds, reality television or celebrity.

There is no relationship because the popular culture is false, there is nothing real about it. It gives people a false sense of reality. Not everyone is going to be famous and not everyone is going to be rich before they’re 30 years old. People look at these people on TV that A) most of them are fake and just playing a role and B) most of them are unhappy but all we see are the good parts of their lives but never the parts of them crying behind closed doors and wishing they were never famous.

I find much greater joy in doing my own thing, listening to good music not what’s catchy or cool. I also find greater joy in my individualism.

We need to take a stand against idiotic things.. like Twilight and Basketball Wives.

Thanks so much!

copy from ancient cultures and traditions. when our black friends start looking at their roots. it brought into our lands a plethora of such activities.

But I’m sure they got that from an earlier culture.

Whenever people from 2 cultures meet, exchanging of ideas is inevitable and will lead to both people being changed. This shouldn’t be seen as a bad thing. After all, our current cultures are all the result of this intermingling process that has been going for 1000s of years.