Steve Jobs was one of the great Americans — a self-made flower child who turned the world on its head through his hard work.

Born to students — including a Syrian studying abroad — and raised by adoptive parents, Steve Jobs was raised near San Francisco, near what would become Silicon Valley. Even as a child, he had an affinity for gadgets. A famous story has him bumming parts from William Hewlett of Hewlett-Packard for a pet electronics project — while he was in eighth grade.

Jobs made friends with Steve Wozniak, aka the Woz, in high school, bonding over the famous Cap’n Crunch phreak whistle. This was a whistle found in boxes of Cap’n Crunch cereal that hackers had discovered to play the exact frequency required to make free long-distance calls from pay phones.

Jobs briefly attended Reed College in Portland, known for its intellectual, far-left bent, but dropped out after a semester, staying for another year and a half to audit classes. He would later claim that a calligraphy class he took was instrumental in the inspiration for the Macintosh.

It was around this time that he traveled to India, a spiritual experience tied to his Buddhism. Although his hippie side would be downplayed as a part of his later image, a barefoot Steve Jobs was a common sight on the early Apple campus, and he’s known to have experimented with drugs at this point.

When he got back, he and Woz got into homebrew computing — putting together their own machines with other hobbyists. Remember that at this time, there was basically no home computing outside of the hobbyist scene. A couple of years later, after some false starts, they introduced the Apple II in 1977, and it exploded in popularity. Within a few years, the image of a computer lab filled with Apple IIs was commonplace, and the age of the personal computer had begun.

In 1979, Jobs and some engineers were invited to see the Xerox Alto, an experimental computer that cost around $20k and had a graphical interface — it could be manipulated with a mouse. This interface directly inspired the Macintosh, released in 1984 with an iconic commercial directed by Ridley Scott. (I’d like to mention that Xerox didn’t invent the mouse or GUI — these were first widely known to computer scientists following the “Mother of All Demoes” by Douglas Engelbart in 1968).

It was around this time that Jobs lured John Sculley to leave Pepsi and become the CEO of Apple with the famous line “Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water, or do you want a chance to change the world?” However, this was also the first step down the path to Jobs being stripped of his power by the board after poor sales, and his leaving the company in 1985.

While he was gone, he founded NeXT, a company whose software would later become Mac OS X. He also bought Pixar from George Lucas, and supported them for the four years it took to bring Toy Story to theaters.

In 1997, with Apple struggling with bad software, an incompetent CEO, and Windows 95, Steve Jobs was brought back. He brought together a number of friends he’d made in his time at NeXT, and wooed the famous British designer Jonathan Ive. A series of coups followed — the iMac, OS X, the iPod, the iPhone, and iPad. Although for most of you, these gadgets are commonplace, they definitely weren’t before Apple made them work. We’ve watched Apple put the Internet in everybody’s house, then music in everybody’s pocket, then the Internet in everybody’s pocket. They made technology sexy.

Steve Jobs was famous for being both the Good Steve and the Bad Steve. The Good Steve was a quirky friend, a caring manager, and a sushi aficionado. The Bad Steve would berate his workers, pushing them past their breaking point to make technology to a standard of perfection — nothing less would suffice, and Bad Steve didn’t care if he hurt somebody’s feelings on the way. Apple was run half like a commune and half like a cult, with techniques out of the spy playbook used to flush out moles and ensure that the Next Big Thing would remain a secret until the day it was revealed. And the result was a huge hype bubble before every Apple announcement, and an army of slavering cultists ready to buy or complain for hours about whatever It would be.

If he knew only one thing (and he didn’t), Steve Jobs knew people. He knew how to bring in geniuses to run his company and design products that people thought could never exist, he knew how to inspire greatness his employees and friends didn’t know they had in them, and more importantly, he and his company knew how to make technology that people could love. Since his return, Apple has been renowned for excellent support, for beautiful, Bauhaus-style design, and eventually, for being one of the most profitable companies on Earth.

In the mid-aughts, he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, which is one of the nastiest diseases there is — 99.some% fatal. Although he underwent surgery in 2004, announcing that he had a rare, curable form, the end was in sight. I’ve also lost somebody very close to me to this awful disease, and it was nothing short of a medical miracle that Jobs had another 7 years before he succumbed. It was very hard for me to watch this disease waste away one of my heroes.

To me, Steve Jobs symbolizes the American dream. He built an empire from his skill and his vision. Everything he and Apple ever had, they earned. I’d like to conclude by showing a video of Jobs introducing the Macintosh. Remember that for most people at this point, the idea of interacting with a computer graphically was completely unknown. Watch how crazy this crowd goes, and look at how boyish and nervous Steve himself is — this is one of those magical moments in computer history.

You can read the full New York Times Article Here

The “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy prohibits the military from asking about the sexual orientation of service members but bans those who are openly gay. Under the 1993 policy, service men and women who acknowledge being gay or are discovered engaging in homosexual activity, even in the privacy of their own homes off base, are subject to discharge.

lots of articles out there on this today. There is, of course the possibility this will be overturned, or something else will happen, but it’s an exciting step forward anyway!

Ayn

During the day, Maureen Minard stands in front of the students’ desks teaching history at Burke.  When not at Burke, she’s on the other side of the desk, working on her PhD in 20th Century Cultural Studies at GMU.  On top of that, she obeys the laws of higher ed natural selection – and manages to publish – so as to not perish in the scholarly world.  Maureen recently published a paper that takes on the myth and reality of Ayn Rand, one of 20th Century America’s most mythic and intriguing women (sorta like the Lady Gaga of mid-20th century letters).

In 1991, the Book-of-the-Month Club conducted a survey asking people what book had most influenced their lives. The Bible ranked number one and Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged was number two.  Her books have annually sold 100′s of thousands of copies for decades.  In 2009, over 500,000 copies of Atlas Shrugged were sold.  Despite Rand’s popularity and impact, no one had written a scholarly biography of

Maureen

her life until Anne C. Hoffman’s Ayn Rand and the World She Made came out earlier this year.

You can check out Maureen’s thoughtful review of Heller’s book in the journal Politics and Culture this summer by clicking here. FN 1.

1.  “Reconstructing Ayn Rand” Politics and Culture 4.2 (Summer, 2010) Reviewed Anne C.
Hellar’s Ayn Rand and the World She Made.

Maureen’s other published work includes:

Baken, Gordon Morris and Brenda Farrington. Women Who Kill Men: California Courts, Gender, and the Press. The Journal of Popular Culture, Vol 43. 3, June 2010.

Rich, Charlotte J. Transcending the New Woman: Multiethnic Narratives in the Progressive Era.
Journal of Popular Culture, Vol 43.1, February 2010.

[correct bibliography formatting provided by Burke's AP History teacher]

Nice Couple

The Annual Fourth of July Palisades Parade demonstrates that independence has less to do with where you are than where you’re going and how you travel there!

American Folkswagon

Imperial Road

Cherry Red White & Blue

Mustang on Wheels

Mustangs & Wheels

Young Pioneers

March of the 17-76 Trombones

Bolivia Says Happy Independence Day!

Lot’s more Independence Day photos at BurkePix.

“Trained as an architect, Tucker rekindled his childhood interest in LEGO® bricks and began experimenting with LEGO as a medium for his art in 2003. The result of his vision—15 buildings from around the world made entirely from LEGO bricks—will be the centerpiece of the exhibition LEGO® Architecture: Towering Ambition.”

Go Check out this pretty freekin cool exhibition at the National Building Museum, running now through Sept. 5, 2011 (yea, you have a lot of time)

More Info on this Exhibition here

Seeing the lower 9th ward – with some new construction from Habitat for Humanity and the Make it Right Project, but also many houses still in a state of destruction, surrounded by empty lot after empty lot. Experiencing the current state of the bayou, and learning about the costal erosion and the danger the city of New Orleans faces because of it.

Dana Brozost-Kelleher and Iman Abdul-Ali playing in the school yard with students.

Remember playing at recess with students of Mcdonogh 42, a charter school in the Treme area who’s students were all affected by Katrina in one way or another, and building them a rooftop garden to enjoy.

As all of the students experienced through group work, it’s difficult to even think about losing your family, your most treasured possessions, and the house you grew up in. Looking around at the destruction and emptiness that still exists in the city is the reason we’re here, and the reason we need to keep coming back, and keep contributing as much time as we can, to help rebuild a city rich with culture, diversity, and history.

the BURKE 2010 NOLA team leaning up against a newly cemented levee wall in the Lower 9th Ward.

Check this out…..

WAMU Report on Burke and Abolition Day

Pictures on Flickr about the Day