Week 15 - Scientific Revolution

I really like how Steven Kreis compares our current world view to the midevial world view and I can see exactly what he's talking about. The way he describes it reminds me of the Aztecs and how they felt they needed to make sacrafices to the Sun God just so that the sun would come up every morning (I know I'm going way further back than he's describing, but the way he describes it, the "miracles" and that God is the one that makes sure the miracles kept happening, just reminded me so much of this). Where as now, our view is provable concepts. We have mathmatic calculations that prove gravity, we have explained why the sun comes up every morning.

Week 14 - Poor Law

I'm not 100% sure I'm understanding the reading correctly. So correct me if I'm wrong, but this is the what I took it to mean: basically, they're going to help the people who are unable to work and the people who want to but can't find work, but the people who outright refuse to work on are thier one. Did I get that right?

Anyway, assuming I've got it right, I completely aggree with this. The people who don't want to work not only take money away from the people who really need help, but they also make the general public more distrustful of everyone who asks for help (including those who need it).

Week 13

It almost seems to me like the problems the kings were having with parliament in a way are similar to the problems the President has with congress. They’re in it for their own person gain. Congress are influenced more by party lines and lobbyists than they are by what people want (in my opinion). Parliament was really only in it to protect their own power. They wanted to rule the country, not assist the king in ruling.

Wikipedia Assignment

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

This article covers the life of Elizabeth I. It touches a little bit of everything, it even mentions who her teachers were and how long for. The main information it focuses on is her succession to the throne and what she did once she got there.

1. How long is the article? (cut and paste text into word processor and do a word count)
Aprx. 7,461 words

2. What was the search term you used and what is the exact article title?
I searched for “Elizabeth I”, the articles name is “Elizabeth I”.

3. Look at the Disambiguation link and say what you find there.
Queen Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I (TV Series)
Elisabeth I of Bohemia
Elizabeth I of Russia
Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom (First Queen Elizabeth of Scotland)
RMS Queen Elizabeth (first of series of steam ships)

4. Look at the page Discussion and say briefly what you find there.
There’s quite a bit of discussion on this article. Mainly its just people explaining why they took something out or chained something.

5. Look at the History of the page. How many changes have there been? When was the date of the first change? Last change?


6. How many external links are provided?
Technically only 4, but the last link provides 7 different volumes (so in actuality, 10 are given)

7. How many references?
34

8. How many entries under Further Reading?
5

I think I would recommend this article to someone. It has plenty of citations, and seems to at least touch on just about everything you could possible want to know about Elizabeth I. I think it glazes over her childhood a bit quickly in order to get to the more interesting parts, but I think it still does a good job of covering the necessary information.

Week 12 - 30 Years War

Yet another religious war, although this one ended up being like the World War 1 of Europe. I find it interesting how something so localized can escalate to involve everyone. What started as religious tension slowly evolved because of greed. Treating and truces never really fix problems, they cover them up so people can live for a bit. But it always ends up being a matter of when the treaty falls apart, not if. Such was the case with the Peace of Augsburg. It took it a few decades, but it broke down because people didn’t want to give up power the treaty said they had to.

Week 11

I font Petrach’s letter very interesting and I must admit that I kind of agree with him. I thought when people became members of the church they gave up all of the pleasures in life so they could focus their life entirely on god or something like that. Although I’m not sure what the “worthless parchments” were, were they money or something?

I also found the point Knox made about the misconception people usually have about the average age at death during the time very interesting. I’ve never heard that before and never really thought about it. I just took it on everyone else’s word that everyone died around the age 35 and that was that, but now that I think about it, it makes very little sense.

100 Years War, 116 Years of Fighting

Its shocking the level some people will go to just for power. Fighting for 116 years over the throne of France, you would think at one point one of them would just realize it’s not going to happen and just give up. We’ve been in Iraq for less than 10 years and our economy is shot and our government is so far in debt because of it that its ridiculous. Imagine what 116 years would do!