matejevichhumangeo

Monday, January 31, 2011

daily 1

Identify the 'Venus of Willendorf'. What does it suggest that the beginnings of art and the domestication of animals happen during the same period in human history?

The Venus of Willendorf is a small statue of a woman. This statue was made somewhere around the time of 21,000 b.c.e. It was found in 1908 in Austria where it was carved out of a kind of limestone which is not local to this area. The statue has been interpreted as a fertility symbol, or for good luck to be fertile.

This statue suggests that back in the time this was made that there was sculpting for art and not just tools and such. It also suggests that they made objects like these for good luck or prayer. I believe that the people of this community had at one time or another made this piece and pray to it during a time of infertility. The infertility could range from not having children to field crops not producing.

During the time when the creating of this statue early man was also starting to domesticate animals such as the dog. Dogs originally came to early man’s settlements because dogs and wolves are pack animals, and humans make sufficient pack substitutes. Also lone wolves likely followed their noses into human settlements for food; some waited along the outskirts of the town and feasted on the human’s scraps. This was noticed by the humans and they wanted to use the dogs, or wolves to their advantage on hunts and such.

Friday, January 28, 2011

Will a "hypertext" world make us more accepting of cyclic history?

I believe that a hypertext world will make us believe more in a cyclic form of history. Because hypertext is online and refers you to things related to your part of history It may end up in a cyclical form. Say you do a search for the USA, articles for the start of the USA will come up but also recent history will come up. The starting history will refer you to other parts of history and those articles will refer you to others. This shows history can be cyclical because the articles can send you to the same article in a cycle.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Is modern life "always" better than it was in the past?

I believe that the present is not always better than the past. In some cases it is far worse. Many things like war, depressions, natural disasters and epidemics can cause the quality of life to be worse than before.

One example is World War I (WWI) or First World War centered in Europe and began in the summer of 1914 and ended in 1918. More than nine of the 70 million soldiers from Europe were killed in combat during this time. Before the war people went about their business like normal, but during the war people have to give up their jobs to either go fight or work in factories for the army. In these factories women made bullets, bombs, planes, tanks and ships. The iconic image “Rosie the Riveter” showed how many women had to work in factories.

Another example is the great depression. The great depression caused many people to get second and third jobs just to feed themselves. This is far worse than before the depression when America was a thriving country.

A third example is SARS a disease that baffled scientist when they could not find a cure. Most of China was affected and had the immediate reaction of being completely afraid of germs. They walked around with doctors masks on and some even wore rubber gloves. This disease didn’t just stay in china it spread across the whole world.

In conclusion the present isn’t always “better” than the past because of major events like war, depressions, natural disasters and epidemics.

Hegelian dialectic

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Is an elephant really "better" than a mammoth?

First I will talk about elephants, where they come from and their history. Elephants are the largest living species of land mammals. There are three species of elephants; the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant and the Asian elephant. All elephants are the decedents of mammoths however evolution has had a very visible effect on them. The elephants no longer need their hair anymore since they aren’t living in an ice age anymore.

Elephants are pregnant for about 22 months the longest period of all land animals. A normal baby elephant weighs about 260lbs. and can live on an average to be about 70. The oldest elephant ever recorded was 82 years old. One main point about elephants is that they are very large some even weighing over 20,000 pounds. Also the elephants have long tusks and a trunk with which they use to eat. Elephants have been hunted for their ivory tusks for ages and have become endangered in some parts of the world.

Now onto mammoths! Mammoths often had long curved tusks just like todays elephants do. However, mammoths had a covering of fur because they lived a long time ago during the ice ages. The most recently alive mammoth was from around 4,500 years ago. But the earliest ones date back to almost 5 million years ago. Most mammoths were easily about a meter taller than the largest elephant ever recorded. The average mammoth size is 16 feet tall. Their tusks can grow to be up to 11 feet long.

I have decided that although the mammoth is much cooler and larger than the elephant that the elephant is “better” because it is still around and living today.

History does progress and the mammoth evolving into an elephant is a great example of progression. The mammoth slowly lost hair and progressivly became a virtually hairless animal

Friday, January 21, 2011

14

Sam and Brian

1. Research countries that do not have the same opportunities as us.
2. Create a gap minder to help other people understand the information.
3. Present the gap minder to the whole school at an assembly.
4. Create a search engine website and every time someone searches it donates a dollar to our country.
5. We start a foreign exchange program to get student to come here.
6. We send our student there to experience there life.
7. Start a donation to raise money to fight poverty our country.
8. Start a text a text to “our country” where whenever someone texts a numer Verizon donates a dollar.
9. We can fund their technology programs in schools.
10. We can donate laptops.

number 11