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The construction of the Statue of Liberty

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Re: The construction of the Statue of Liberty

#3

Post by Einstalbert »

I was born a hundred years after this was gifted to America. When I was young, about the same time my elementary school class could have been covering the importance of France as it related to American Independence, pop culture had decided that making fun of French people was cool. I grew up instilled with the idea that they were lazy, smelly, 'weird' people who never helped in any major wars. My parents said nothing about them, so it was entirely what I consumed as a watcher of television.

That kind of disturbing falsehood wouldn't be changed in me until I was much older, post-911 freedom-fries even.

So when did that all change? Did the Greatest Generation come back from the war and stop thinking about its former allies? I always looked up to the Statue of Liberty, and I was surprised to hear it was a gift from France (certainly not something I heard the first time I saw it).

Re: The construction of the Statue of Liberty

#6

Post by Animats »

bhartzer wrote: post #2

I was just on Liberty Island and Ellis Island on Saturday. Everyone should have a chance to go there in person.

The tie between the two is quite modern. There's now a whole guilt trip associated with Ellis Island. This is because Ellis Island was a quality control point for immigrants - the ones who flunked the physical exam were sent back. The reject rate was 15%-20%. This is now viewed as a bad thing.

Re: The construction of the Statue of Liberty

#7

Post by dandelany »

Animats wrote: post #5

"Google Culture"? Nice, but will it last? Remember the book and newspaper scanning projects?

Yeah, the one which allowed me to track down one of the only existing records of the business owned by my great great grandfather[1]? What about it?

https://goo.gl/AE14BO

Re: The construction of the Statue of Liberty

#8

Post by Animats »

dandelany wrote: post #7
Animats wrote: post #5

"Google Culture"? Nice, but will it last? Remember the book and newspaper scanning projects?

Yeah, the one which allowed me to track down one of the only existing records of the business owned by my great great grandfather[1]? What about it? https://goo.gl/AE14BO

Google shut down the newspaper scanning operation in 2011, to "concentrate instead on newer projects that help the industry, such as Google One Pass"[1], a paywall system. Google One Pass failed and was canceled in 2012.

[1] http://searchengineland.com/google-shuts-down-ambitious-news...

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