Thursday, January 28, 2010

Is 'Change" a Good Thing or a Bad Thing



I think change is usually a good thing but sometimes it can be bad. The world has changed in many ways and overall it is all good. Change isn’t always for the better though. Sometimes friends might change in a bad way and sometimes people change so much that you don’t even recognize who they are. Also we change as people and usually we become better when we change. I used to be a baby but now I’m not and I am happy that I am not a baby. I am happy I have changed and became older. Overall I think change is a good thing.
The rise of agriculture was a huge and effective change in the world. It really helped us live better and easier. As Jared Diamond says “The origin of agriculture triggered a long train of economic, political, and technological developments, which began there and spread outward.” He means that since agriculture was spreading and becoming better the way that the people lived became better. The rise of agriculture was in Southwest Asia’s Fertile Crescent. Because if this rise people were able to settle in one place and not have to move around to catch their food. This gave them time to grow food, get more technology, and build a civilization. Once they build a civilization they can get organized labor, organized business, organized law, and also organized religion. This was a huge step to a greater world. This is a great example of good change. Without this change we would still not have a civilization and we would be moving around following our food. This would make us very stupid people because we would not be able to go to a school or have a home and it would be hard to keep track of your family.
People change a lot in their life time also. Usually this could be a good thing but sometimes it could be a bad thing. People change in many ways. Their physical features change. They start to look older and more mature. Also the way they act can change. People mature which is usually a good thing. They start o act different. But sometimes this can be a bad thing and make them lose all their friends. But most of the time it is a good thing and it may cause you to get more friends or just completely change your friends. We also change what we like and what we are into. This could make us become better people. For example I had a friend who I didn’t see for a very long time. The one day I saw them and I couldn’t even recognize him. I had no idea who it was because they looked different and sounded completely different. But after a while I was able to understand who it was.
Places can also change over time. Everybody knows about the store Wawa and everybody loves it. That place has also really changed over time and in a very good way. It opened in 1964 and it looked like a very old place and didn’t have as many products. It didn’t sell coffee and sandwiches till the mid 1970s. I couldn’t even imagine a Wawa without its coffee and sandwiches. They are so good. Then in 1982 they remodeled their check out and after that when people bought their food it became a lot faster. Then in 1994 they built a much larger Wawa which also had a bigger parking lot so more cars could park. This really helped benefit the store because they could hold more products and more people could come which would get them more money. In 1996 they started putting Wawa’s with gas stations which brought a lot more customers to them. In 1999 they added touch screens for when you order your sandwiches or something else and this helped speed up the ordering process. All of these were huge changes in the progress of Wawa. This is a big reason why change is really good. Could you imagine going to a Wawa that was small, had no gas, no sandwiches and coffee, and where it took a really long time to order. You would not want to go there anymore.
Also when kid’s ages change the school they go to also change. When I was a little girl I went to preschool and kindergarten. Then I became six years old I started to go to elementary school. I thought that was a bad change because I liked kindergarten better than elementary school. But it didn’t end there. After that my age changed again and I went to middle school. I thought this was a good change because I liked middle school a lot better since I got more freedom and was able to do more things with my friends. Then I changed to a fourteen year old and went to high school. This has probably been the greatest change in my life because I enjoy high school better than any other year in my life. If we didn’t change I would still be stuck in preschool.
All of these reasons prove why change is a very good thing. Some people might thing change is a bad thing but hopefully after reading all these examples they will realize that change is actually a very good thing and something that everyone has to go through in their lives. The rise of agriculture was a very good thing because now we have civilized areas and don’t have to follow our food and this way we have technology and a lot of other benefits. Also people change and that is usually a good thing. Stores and other places like Wawa have changed a lot over the years and that is good because if they never changed and still looked old and had not much technology then people would not want to go there. And also kids changing their age and going to different kinds of school is a good change because you don’t want to be stuck in the same school your whole life. Change is definitely a good thing.

Sources:
Diamond, Jared. "Location, Location, Location:The First Farmers." UNL. Web. 29 Jan. 2010. http://www.unl.edu/rhames/courses/orig_agri_tur.html

"Milestones." Wawa. Web. 29 Jan. 2010. http://www.wawa.com/wawaweb/timeline.aspx
Picture from:
"Mennonite farm." Commons.wikimedia. June 2007. Web. 29 Jan. 2010. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mennonite_Farm.jpg

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Venus of Willendorf


The "Venus of Willendorf" is a statuette that is of a human women. It was discovered in 1908 by the archaeologist Joseph Szombathy. It was found in the lower part of Austria. This statuette was made somewhere around 25,000BC. This statuette is 11 centimeters in height and 4 centimeters in width. It is a pretty small statuette. It looks like a very fat women. It has a very big stomach and butt. You can't see her face because it is covered with a braided pattern that is probably her hair. The feet appear to be broken off. The reason she is fat may be that in the stone age that ate a lot of bone and marrow. Some think that since the statuette is detailed that maybe there was a model for this which would mean that people in the stone age actually looked like that. The "Venus of Willendorf" was sculpted from yellowish limestone. This statuette tells us a lot about the stone age but things are still not definite.

"The Venus of Willendorf." Visual-arts-cork. Web. 26 Jan. 2010. .
Witcombe, Christopher. "The Venus of Willendorf." Witcombe. Web. 26 Jan. 2010. .

What Is History?


History is a very important part of our lives. It tells us more about the past and we learn more cultures. There are four types of history: linear history, cyclic history, Hegel history, and vortex history. Linear history is like a timeline giving the dates and what happened during that time period. Cyclic history is a theory that dictates that the major forces that motivate human actions return in a cycle. Hegel history is thesis= antithesis= synthesis. Vortex history is cyclical behavior. How something becomes big and the goes small. These are all valuable to history.
I think that the most valuable type of history is the linear history. I like this one because it puts the history all in order which makes it easy to understand. It goes in a timeline and a timeline has dates and tells you what happened during that date or time period. When you look at a timeline it is almost like a schedule of the past. Everything is in order with a date and it gives information on what happened. It is very easy to follow because it is just a straight line with dates on it. When something important happened on that day they draw a line and put the information there so you can see when it happened, what happened before it, and what happened after it. Usually the timeline is a category. Like there might be a separate timeline all about one subject. For example there is a timeline all about Roman history. The first year is 753BC and it says mythical founding of Rome by Romulus and Remus. The last year is 1453AD and it says Byzantine empire defeated by Ottoman Turks. Between these two years are a lot of different years and different things that happened on those days. Also there can be a timeline about someone's life. It usually will start with the day they were born and end with the day they died. I think this is the easiest way to look at history. Everything is just put out right in front of me and all I have to do is read them.
One man Karl Marx said that linear history is a two dimensional linear chain of events. He thought that since history was linear and predictable he thought he was able to predict what will happen. He thought that all the stages of history would eventually come together and make a perfect end and there will be no more change after that. He thought that capitalism will end and communism will succeed. This way every one will have the same everything and he thinks that this would be perfect. In one way he could be going somewhere with him thinking that he can predict the future. Because everything goes in time order we can look at how the timeline of the world has gotten better. Technology has gotten better, we have found out more things about mankind. and we have improved our ways of living. All these things will get better because you can't lose the technology we have. For example since the light bulb was invented after that more types of lights were invented and improved. There is no way that that invention will just go away because we all know about it. It can only be changed and improved.
Linear history is the series of events going in order. There are different stages of history and they all follow each other. This is why you can easily use timelines to show linear history. Because when everything goes in order it is easy to lay out with dates and time periods. Linear history does not go back and forth and it does not repeat itself. It just all goes in order. A timeline will start with a date and end with a date. Everything in between will bring the two points together and tell you what happened and how you got from the first date to the second date. It goes in order. It doesn't repeat dates or time periods because in realuty that is impossible. Years can not repeat themsleves which means dates and time periods can not repeat themleslves. And we will never go back into something like the stone age because the Earth has matured and we have found out more technology and in the Stone Age they had no technology like we do. The only thing that can happen from here is ther future and we can't go down from here. We won't lose any technology we have. The only thing that will happen is that we will improve technology and get more inventions that can help humankind.
I think this theory works best for many reasons. First of all timelines are the easiest way to read history and find out what you need to know. They are much easier than reading a whole summary or essay or book. All you have to do is figure out what you are searching for and you can easily find a timeline on that topic. Then if you need a specific date you can easily find it almost like a calender. When you see the captions over the dates in tells you exactly what happens and it goes right to the point. It doesn't go into a lot of detail and it saves lot of time. And if you do need a lot of detail once you find it one the timeline you can go look for an article on it and it will be easier to find because you know a little bit about it and you will know when it happened. This is the easiest way for me to look at history and it makes the most sense. The man Karl Marx had a good point how history goes in time sequence. But he's a bit crazy for thinking he could predict how the world will end. I think it will go on and keep changing and not just end in communism. Also I don't think communism would be perfect I like having diversity and different classes. It would be bad if you were rich and lived in communism because you have to go down to everyone else's level. Linear history makes the most sense because it says that everything happens in order and in stages. It makes a lot of sense because the world does not repeat time periods. For example the year 1567 will not happen again and not repeat itself. So history has to go in order. Linear history is a simple an easy way to describe history and I think it is the best type of history.


sources:

A detailed Summary of Karl Marx's theory of history." Direct essays. Web. 27 Jan. 2010. . http://www.directessays.com/viewpaper/36534.html



"Timeline." Answers. Web. 27 Jan. 2010. http://www.answers.com/topic/timeline

"Timeline of Roman History." History link 102. Web. 27 Jan. 2010. http://historylink102.com/Rome/roman-time-line.htm

picture from:
"One and Other Plinth timeline." Flickr. Web. 27 Jan. 2010. . http://www.flickr.com/photos/meg/3698746028/

Monday, January 25, 2010

The Significance of Megaliths

Megaliths are memorials that were made of large stones that was part of prehistoric structure. Groups of people would make these memorials in northwestern Europe. These memorials were usually for people who die, kind of like a grave. This was significant because it helped us find more about the peoples history and what it was like back then. Sometimes there were belongings buried with them which helped us see how they lived back then. They had rituals for these which gave them something to do sometimes. this was a new type of technology they made which really helped them.

Significance of the Rise of Agriculture

The rise of agriculture is very important. It helped the farmers settle down in more areas and not be on the move as often. This way they could plant their food there and not have to leave to go find more food. It would be there for them. Then they would have a population that grew. Since they didn't have to be chasing their food all the time they had time to think of other things. This also helped them think of more technology that can help them live and grow. The technology that they learned helps make their life a lot easier and the things they do become more effective. If they didn't have a rise in agriculture then they would still be running after food and not be able to create a civilization anywhere and settle down. From the rise of agriculture they were able to domesticate animals. This made the animals be able to help them in many ways and make everything more efficient. 2

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Hegelian Theory

Event1. john strongest kid in class. Doesn't tie his shoes+ event2. john picks on group of kids bullying them. Event 3. john chases the kids but slips out of his shoe

  1. Event 1. john sprains his ankle + event 2. john gets jumped on the way home from school. Event 3=They steal his iPod because he could not get up and run away.
  2. Event 1 John goes to the store+ event 2 John buys an iPod= event 3 John has no money for food.