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!

Week 9 - The Plague

Why did people believe that sound would drive away the plague? I mean, I can see the connection they made between the stench of the dead bodies and getting sick. But the only viable reason that I can think of for ringing church bells and firing cannons is that that were told it would drive away the sickness and it was purely to make people feel better.

Week 8 - Crop Rotation

I half wonder if song "Oats, Peas, Beans, and Barley Grow" is from the time when England started using peas and beans in thier crop rotation. Its interesting that the tequnique of dividing the field into three is still used today, although in most fields animals don't really graze on the fallow anymore.

Wikipedia Assignment

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_Ages
1. How long is the article? (cut and paste text into word processor and do a word count)
Aprx. 7615 words
2. What was the search term you used and what is the exact article title?
I searched for “Midieval” actual title is “Middle Ages”
3. Look at the Disambiguation link and say what you find there.
Midieval (1 & 2): Total War are computer strategy games, and there are two songs called Midieval.
4. Look at the page Discussion and say briefly what you find there.
From reading the discussion, it seems to me like people take issue with a few statements, but most of it seems correct.
5. Look at the History of the page. How many changes have there been? When was the date of the first change? Last change?
Last Revision: 21:05, 19 October 2008
First Revision: 07:21, 3 October 2003
Number of Edits: 5927
6. How many external links are provided?
13
7. How many references?
1
8. How many entries under Further Reading?
21


I'm not sure if I would recommend this article. It contains alot of information (, however the fact that it only has one reference bothers me a little. Especially considering how many edits the article has had. I suppose I might recommend it, but I would also recommend checking all of the infomation before believing it.

Week 7 - Pope Gregory I

Pope Gregory I seemed like he was a very sensible, well rounded leader. There have been very few leaders in all of history (particularly in recent years) that not only meant well, but were competent enough to actually accomplish something. To me, it seems like Gregory truly cared about the people of Rome, and not upping his own power. That is very rare in people who actually end up getting that kind of power. It's great that he's also known for his writings and music. I wonder if they still use his Book of Pasotral Care. However, I don’t know what the Gregorian chant is, I’m guessing it’s a church thing…

Week 6 - The "Fall" of Rome

I must admit, I’d never heard the fall of Rome compared to a glacier, but I suppose it fits well enough. When I think of the fall of the Roman Empire, I always remember being told they collapsed because they spread themselves so thin. In my mind I always pictured a rubber band, stretching and stretching until finally one day it snapped. This is the picture all of my past teachers have painted for me, but that really isn’t the way it happened. I find it kind of (a little bit) funny that everyone always thinks of this huge event of it collapsing, when no one can actually name the exact date it happened. It seems like the conquerors taking the names of the local population seems a lot more common you would think.

I have always hated the part of history when Christians start taking over, any religion really, but Christianity seems like it’s the least tolerant (this is probably because it’s the one you always hear about the most in history books).

Week 5 - Ischomachus's Wife

I find it interesting that the reading makes the wife of Ischomachus sound like a perfectly reasonable woman, and yet when I read the first footnote she sounded like a manipulative pain in the neck. In a lot of the things I’ve read, the women do things like have sex with and/or bear children for family members or random (powerful) strangers they just met. Was this normal behavior for the time or is it just that the women who act out get all the attention?

Driving out her daughter and having a son with her son-in-law are not the kind of actions I would imagine coming from the girl I had in my head. Ischomachus painted a picture of a caring, intelligent, and efficient woman.

Week 4 - Punic Wars

To me, it seems like the First of the Punic wars was nothing more than, for lack of a better term, a cock fight. The Carthaginians went in so the Romans had to go in. The Romans won because they had a bigger fleet, so the Carthaginians had to send in a larger fleet. Which caused the Romans to send in more, causing the Carthaginians to send in more. And so on, and so forth. To say that niether side knew how to withdraw just proves that this fight was purely for their ego. I found the outcome of the first war strange. The Romans had no “direct interests” in Sicily, but in the end of the war, they got it.

The second war was purely revenge. You would have thought the Romans would have learned that going to war with Hannibal was a bad idea, even if they did win in the end of the second war too. I don’t really understand how he won the Battle of Cannae… If he was almost surrounded, how was his army suddenly surrounding the Romans?

Week 3 - Greek Slavery

I find it rather interesting how the treatment of slaves in early Rome develops and changes. I think that in some ways, it kind of relates to the work force today. Not in the sense that workers now are slaves, but that workers for large employers face a much less personal job.

In a large company, you get x number of vacation hours, x number of sick hours, etc. In a small company, its more like you just make sure you call ahead and get someone to replace you. In comparison, on a large estate, you get this much grain in the winter, clothes every two years, and so on. On a small estate, if your clothes were worn out, you got new ones. (I’m assuming this is what it was like, the reading just said they were treated better and more personally…)

Wikipedia Assignment

Women in Ancient Rome http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_Ancient_Rome

It seemed to me like Women in Ancient Rome missed some very important points and, after reading the discussion, I realized others had come to this conclusion as well. One of the links given was an article on female naming conventions in ancient Rome, this is something that I think should have been included in the article.

1. How long is the article? (cut and paste text into word processor and do a word count)
The article is approximately 1,390 words long.

2. What was the search term you used and what is the exact article title?
I searched for “ancient women”, the article's actual title is “Women in Ancient Rome”.

3. Look at the Disambiguation link and say what you find there.
There wasn't a disambiguation link.

4. Look at the page Discussion and say briefly what you find there.
This article didn't have alot of discussion, but most people seemed to agree that the article missed some important topics, was inaccurate or "overstated", and lacked sources.

5. Look at the History of the page. How many changes have there been? When was the date of the first change? Last change?
There have been 268 edits since the article was first written. The first edit was September 1st, 2003. The most recent edit was August 12th, 2008.

6. How many external links are provided?
There were four external links, although only three of them were technically links, the fourth was a reference to an article in a magazine.

7. How many references?
There were three references.

8. How many entries under Further Reading?
There isn’t a further reading section, but there is a “See Also” section. There are three “See Also” links.

I would not recommend Women in Ancient Rome. While it has some links to some interesting information, the article itself lacks substance. When I was reading it, it felt like the author was a high school student who skimmed a history book or spark notes then wrote paper for their class.