76 Matching Annotations
  1. Nov 2024
    1. "Although the Earth and moon orbit around one another, the gravitational effects of the moon on the Earth aren't simple, explained Miller. By following the moon closely, Lick researchers propelled scientific understanding of geologic processes on earth, including continental drift. 'At the time, a lot of people still didn't believe in continental drift,' noted Wampler. The experiment contributed a grand new chapter to a story that goes back thousands of years, noted Wampler. 'The moon has been used for a very long time in cosmology,' he said. 'The Greeks in 300 B.C. knew the distance to the moon with about 5 percent accuracy.' The moon figured prominently in the development of Isaac Newton's theory of gravity, as well as in Einstein's theories about cosmology." [Ref6: Lick Recollections 2009]

      "The Greeks in 300 B.C. knew the distance to the moon with about 5 percent accuracy."

      [Ref6: Lick Recollections 2009]

  2. Sep 2024
    1. but simply stresses the need to take religious forms of consciousness very seriously, as real agentic forces.

      ACTION Taking this as a good idea, it means Eirunomics uses a similar approach to ANCIENT WISDOM as a RELIGIO rather than a religion

  3. Aug 2024
    1. Interesting perspective as interpretation where Jack says at the moment the song says "Who made up words, who made up numbers? Who wrote the Bible, who wrote the Q'uran" it might not even be a call to reflect and think for yourself (although this is absolutely a recurring theme in the song) but maybe they are implying all the science traces back not to the West (Europe) but to the East (Egypt, Africa). This interpretation aligns with the album this song was produced in, which is about Africa.

  4. Jul 2024
    1. "And the rich get stitched up, when we get cut Man a heal dem broken bones in the bush with the wed mud" Rich are more advantaged than the mass middle class/poor. It's always the middle/lower classes who have to do the dirty work of the elites, it's because we gave our power away in the first place which is why we're treated like toy soldiers. this song is all about equality and self-empowerment in this aspect. Raises the importance of naturopathy science, how old and ancient herbal rememdies and medicinal practices are more advanced and provide better treatment than modern medicine. raises the issue of the supression of ancient medicinnal practices/herbs by corporate structures who just want to generate more income and improperly prescribe harmful substances/drugs to people. The EU is already banning natural herbs that cure all sorts of natural illnesses by natural/healthy means. "Can you read signs? can you read stars? Can you make peace? can you fight war? Can you milk cows, even though you drive cars? huh Can you survive, Against All Odds, Now?" reference to occult/esoteric wisdom - alchemism, astronomy/astrology, tarot reading. those questions are to make us self-reflect on what modern civilization and human beings can do compared to ancient civilizations and cultures. are we moving backwards or moving forwards towards progression mentally, spiritually, emnotionally and physically? are we surviving/beyond the need for survival.. or are we heading towards the path of self-destruction as a species?

      Is there truth in this regarding medicine? Can we get more out of nature than media and common knowledge portrays? I am not certain, nor is this an area of research for me; but the truth is that it is fascinating to think about.

      The larger point does make sense, too much people are focused on money for the sake of money. Money is supposed to be a means to an end; the end being the improvement of society; in the way things are currently set up.

    2. "Some of the smartest dummies Can't read the language of Egyptian mummies" points to the notion of paradoxes, dualism, where even the most knowledgeable, creative, innovative, intelligent and academic can't interpret or make sense of ancient wisdom, the pun "language of the Egyptian mummies" refers to the language of the spiritual - life after death wisdom. the divine, infinite and eternal.

      I will call the guy who gives a full theoretical analysis of this song, Mr. X.

      Well, I wonder where Mr. X got all his analysis from first of all. Is it his interpretation? Or what is his source for the meaning of the song?

      Is it therefore objectively true to the artist's intent or is it merely a (good) explanation that seeks to provoke thought?


      I don't know how accurate this claim is as I have not yet dived deeply into ancient knowledge and compare it to modern interpretations of it, but I do feel like this hits a nail... Either Mr. X does or the artists.

      It is quite logical that it is difficult to interpret ancient wisdom as wisdom often assumes the student or reader is familiar with common knowledge... However, what was common in ancient times might be rare currently, or even forgotten or used in different ways, making it very difficult to interpret and parse such texts without a high degree of mastery of background knowledge.

      It's even harder for certain ancient times where everything was rooted in oral tradition without writing. People back then could've been generally wise, but without texts to refer to as primary sources it is virtually impossible to make sense of it.

  5. Apr 2024
    1. Mueller, Hans-Friedrich. The Pagan World: Ancient Religions Before Christianity (Course Guide). 1st ed. The Great Courses: History - Civilization and Culture 2852. Chantilly, VA: The Teaching Company, 2020. https://www.amazon.com/Pagan-World-Ancient-Religions-Christianity/dp/B084YV1YYT/.<br /> @Mueller2020a

      and the Streaming video version (Hoopla):<br /> Pagan World: Ancient Religions before Christianity. Streaming Video. The Great Courses. Chantilly, VA, 2020. https://www.hoopladigital.com/television/pagan-world-ancient-religions-before-christianity-hans-friedrich-mueller/14601704.<br /> @Mueller2020

    1. Today, we explore whether memory still has a practical place in the world of big data and computing. As a science writer, Lynne has written 18 books including The Memory Code. Her research showed that without writing, people used the most extraordinary suite of memory techniques to memorise massive amounts of practical information. This explains the purpose of monuments like Stonehenge, the Nazca Lines and the statues of Easter Island. Her next book, Unlocking The Memory Code explains the most effective memory methods from around the world and throughout time. Lynne shows how these can be invaluable in modern world.

      I need to read this book. And re-review this video with a notecard handy. (I wonder if there's a way to use hypothes.is for notes on video/audio?)

  6. Feb 2024
    1. Praetor (/ˈpriːtər/ PREE-tər, .mw-parser-output .IPA-label-small{font-size:85%}.mw-parser-output .references .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .infobox .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .navbox .IPA-label-small{font-size:100%}Classical Latin: [ˈprae̯tɔr]), also pretor, was the title granted by the government of Ancient Rome to a man acting in one of two official capacities: (i) the commander of an army, and (ii) as an elected magistratus (magistrate), assigned to discharge various duties.
    1. The name of Capua comes from the Etruscan Capeva.[2] The meaning is 'City of Marshes'. Its foundation is attributed by Cato the Elder to the Etruscans, and the date given as about 260 years before it was "taken" by Rome

      Capua belonged to the Etruscans before Rome took it

    1. Novus homo or homo novus (lit. 'new man'; pl.: novi homines or homines novi) was the term in ancient Rome for a man who was the first in his family to serve in the Roman Senate or, more specifically, to be elected as consul.
  7. Jan 2024
    1. what kind of character type might he fit?

      Krishna is the incarnation of Vishnu. He's supposed to be the embodiment of a godlike character and hold many powerful qualities. He has many different character types he portrays in this story and is extremely accomplished. He urges the reader in a way to think about reincarnation which is obviously a big part of his character. "The place of the infinite spirit" (line 851) Krishna fits a representation of love, duty, honor and self control. Learning what type of character type Krishna is this early on is important to keep in mind as the story is read. If the reader doesn't understand the true depth of his character the story may not be as powerful. He shows many attributes of a fully developed character that knows the true power of who they are. In HIndu culture, a character like Krishna is all powerful but also shows a variety of character traits that make him a very admirable character.

  8. Dec 2023
    1. When the Keynesian settlement was nally put into eect, afterWorld War II, it was oered only to a relatively small slice of theworld’s population. As time went on, more and more people wantedin on the deal. Almost all of the popular movements of the periodfrom 1945 to 1975, even perhaps revolutionary movements, couldbe seen as demands for inclusion: demands for political equality thatassumed equality was meaningless without some level of economicsecurity. This was true not only of movements by minority groups inNorth Atlantic countries who had rst been left out of the deal—such as those for whom Dr. King spoke—but what were then called“national liberation” movements from Algeria to Chile, whichrepresented certain class fragments in what we now call the GlobalSouth, or, nally, and perhaps most dramatically, in the late 1960sand 1970s, feminism. At some point in the ’70s, things reached abreaking point. It would appear that capitalism, as a system, simplycannot extend such a deal to everyone

      How might this equate to the time at which Rome extended its citizen franchise to larger swaths of people and the attendant results which came about? particularly the shift towards an empire versus a republic?

      These seem to have been happening in the case of America with Donald Trump attempting to become a modern day Julius Caesar. To whom is Trump indebted?

    1. we need to understand this deep inheritance within us in order to to to understand our emotions our fears our behavior in 00:04:50 the 21st century
      • for: quote - deep inheritance of evolutionary adaptations

      • quote

        • we need to understand the deep inheritance within us in order to understand our emotions, our fears and our behaviors in the 21st century.
      • author: Yval Noah Harari
  9. Oct 2023
    1. Biblical Hebrew has an unusually small vocabulary clustered around an even smaller number of three-letter roots, most of them denoting concrete actions or things, and the Bible achieves its mimetic effects partly through the skillful repetition of these few vivid words.
  10. Aug 2023
  11. Mar 2023
    1. Dise, Jr., Robert L. “Ancient Empires Before Alexander: Course Guidebook.” The Teaching Company, 2009. https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/ancient-empires-before-alexander.

      annotation target: urn:x-pdf:1e4821a1d889703f671b666411312026 annotations: https://hypothes.is/users/chrisaldrich?q=urn%3Ax-pdf%3A1e4821a1d889703f671b666411312026

      Ancient Empires before Alexander. DVD. Vol. 3150 The Great Courses: History. Chantilly, VA: The Teaching Company, 2013.https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/ancient-empires-before-alexander.

  12. Jan 2023
    1. https://press.princeton.edu/series/ancient-wisdom-for-modern-readers

      This appears like Princeton University Press is publishing sections of someone's commonplace books as stand alone issues per heading where each chapter has a one or more selections (in the original language with new translations).

      This almost feels like a version of The Great Books of the Western World watered down for a modern audience?

    1. The slips constitute a thorough lexicographical compila-tion of about 15,000 attestations of almost 150 types of Greek prepositions, con-junctions and particles in Coptic, from virtually all Coptic dialects and types oftexts, arranged on the basis of a detailed analysis of their semantic and syntacticproperties.
    2. Since 2015 a digitalized card index of Greek functionwords in Coptic is available online (as part of the DDGCL)

      A digitized version of Gertrud Bauer's zettelkasten has been available online since 2015.

    1. What is Coptic?Coptic is the name of the last phase (ca. 300 CE - 1300 CE) of the longest-attested human language yet available to linguistic study, the Ancient Egyptian lan­guage. Closely connected to the Christian population of Egypt, Coptic is one of the most important languages of ancient Christian literature, alongside Greek, Latin and Syriac. A great deal of Biblical and early Christian literature was translated into Coptic for Egyptian consumption, while an autochthnous Coptic Christian literature flourished for centuries.
  13. Dec 2022
    1. Theonly surviving manuscripts that were actually made in the ancientworld (before around AD 500) are small fragments of papyri found ona rubbish tip in Egypt and some scrolls from the Villa of the Papyri atHerculaneum.*1

      Rubbish tip, places the author as speaking British English.

      Odd that she doesn't specifically reference the Cairo Geniza by name here.

      She's also dismissing the Dead Sea Scrolls.

      Are there other repositories of older texts missing here?

  14. Nov 2022
    1. Hancock's pseudoarchaeological theories are the basis of the Netflix series Ancient Apocalypse, which was released on 10 November 2022. At Netflix, Hancock's son Sean is "senior manager of unscripted originals".[31]
  15. Oct 2022
    1. The Greeks had elementary schools for the teaching of reading and arithmetic,and they had ephebic colleges—secondary schools to us—with end-of-termexaminations in geometry, grammar, music, and rhetoric.

      ephebic • \ih-FEE-bik\ • adjective. : of, relating to, or characteristic of a youth of ancient Greece or a young man.

    2. the word ‘school’ comes from the Greekschole and interestingly schole means leisure
  16. Sep 2022
  17. Jul 2022
    1. Vinzenz Brinkmann, Head of the Department of Antiquity at the Liebieghaus Sculpture Collection in Frankfurt am Main, said when he first started researching polychromy 40 years ago, "no one had interest in this for years, no one collected the clearly visible evidence. Except for me. I collected the evidence like a stamp collection."

      Ancient statuary wasn't white as we often see now in museums, but was brightly colored. Statuary that was outside would have been sun bleached over time as well as subject to other weathering to mute or entirely remove color.

      https://www.npr.org/2022/07/12/1109995973/we-know-greek-statues-werent-white-now-you-can-see-them-in-color

  18. Jun 2022
  19. May 2022
  20. Mar 2022
    1. https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-the-pagan-gods-that-still-exist-in-israeli-city-names-1.8924898?v=1647845941967

      Cities in Israel named after Semitic gods of the ancient Near East.

      Jerusalem was likely originally Ir Shalem ('The City of Shalem') because the central shrine was dedicated to the Canaanite god Shalem, aka Salem, the personification of the Evening Star.

      Shahar, the twin brother of Shalem, was the personification of the Morning Star and was presumably the tutelary god of Zareth-Shahar. This town is in modern day central Jordan and was mentioned in Joshua 13:19.

      While the original Zareth-Shahar didn't survive into modernity, another town dedicated to the same god may have existed on the southern shore of the Sea of Galilee at a site known by the Arabic name for the morning star. A kibbutz named Ayelet HaShachar was built there after 1915. Ayelet HaShachar is a poetic biblical term for the Morning Star (Psalms 22:1).

      Jericho may have taken it's name from the tutelary god Yareakh, the moon god.

      Similarly the site Beit Yarekh may attest to that moon god being worshiped there as well.

      The sun god Shemesh may have created the eponymous names for cities Beth-Shemesh ('House of Shemesh', Joshua 15:10), En-Shemesh ('Spring of Shemesh", Joshua 15:7), and Ir-Shemesh ('City of Shemesh", Joshua 19:41). The modern day city Beit Shemesh was established in 1950 at a site with the Arabic place name 'Ain Shems which was believed to be the site of the ancient city Beth-Shemesh.

      The storm god Baal is the root of cities including Kiryat Baal (Joshua 18:14), Baal Perazim (II Samuel 5:17), Gur Baal (II Chronicles 26:7), Baal-Gad (Joshua 11:17), Baal-Hermon (Judges 3:3), and Baal-Hazor (II Samuel 13:23). There are also cities Baal-Peor (Numbers 23:28) and Ball Shalishah (II Kings 4:42).

      Canaanite god El was the tutelary god of the town Bethel mentioned frequently in the Old Testament including in Genesis 12:8. The Palestinian town Beitin is thought to be the site of the ancient Bethel. Beit El, an Israeli settlement, was created near it in 1977.

      Dagon was the namesake of Beth Dagon (Joshua 15:41). It continued until 1948 when the Palestinian town Bayt Dajan was depopulated leading up to the Israeli War of Independence. The site is now an Israeli town called Beit Dagan.

      Reshef, an ancient Semitic god from Elba and later identified with Apollo lent his name to the todays Arsuf, which is also known as Apollonia. During the Persian period, the Phoenicians had named a town there for Reshef.

      Horon, possibly a desert god with power over animals and snakes, is the inspiration of Beth Horon (I Chronicles 7:24). A modern settlement Beit Horon was founded in 1977.

    2. This was a very ancient god already worshiped extensively in Ebla (southwest of Aleppo) in the 23rd century BCE. He was later adopted by the Philistines as a national god.

      Dagon was a god worshiped in Ebla (southwest of Aleppo) in the 23rd century BCE and was later adopted by the Philistines.

    3. In ancient times, it was common for towns to be named for the town’s main shrine and the tutelary deity worshipped therein. Thus many of the towns and cities mentioned in the Bible, even those said to have been home to Israelites, have the names of foreign gods embedded in them.
    1. Legends of a storm god such as Ba’al defeating the sea are very common in the Ancient Near East.

      Storm gods like Baal are commonly seen defeating the sea in legends in the ancient Near East.


      Link this to mention of Rahab in Job 26:12.

    1. Who were the world’s first astronomers? The answer typicallyincludes scientists such as Galileo, Nicolaus Copernicus, or ancientcivilisations that gave birth to what we consider Western science,such as Sumer in Mesopotamia.

      Given the predominantly non-literate civilizations that comprised the ancient Near East, I've been wondering about how they may have actually been closer to Indigenous cultures than they are to more modern, literate Western culture.

      Perhaps he shouldn't dismiss them so readily here, but rather tie them more directly into his broader thesis.

  21. Feb 2022
    1. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/an-ancient-greek-astronomical-calculation-machine-reveals-new-secrets/

      Overview and history of the Antikythera mechanism and the current state of research surrounding it.

      Antikythera mechanism found in diving expedition in 1900 by Elias Stadiatis. It was later dated between 60 and 70 BCE, but evidence suggests it may have been made around 205 BCE.

      Functions

      One of the primary purposes of the device was to predict the positions of the planets along the ecliptic, the plane of the solar system.

      The device was also used to track the positions of the sun and moon. This included the moon's phase, position and age (the number of days from a new moon). It also included the predictions of eclipses.

      Used to track the motions of the 5 known planets including 289 synodic cycles in 462 years for Venus and 427 synodic cycles in 442 years for Saturn.

      Risings and settings of stars indexed to a zodiac dial

      Definitions

      metonic cycle, a 19-year period over which 235 moon phases recur; named after Greek astronomer Meton, but discovered much earlier by the Babylonians. The Greeks refined it to a 76 year period.

      saros cycle, the 223 month lunar cycle which was used by the Babylonians to predict eclipses. A dial on the Antikythera mechanism was used to predict the dates of the solar and lunar eclipses using this cycle.

      synodic events: conjunctions with the sun and its stationary points

      People

      Archimedes - potentially the designer of an early version of the Antikythera mechanism

      Elias Stadiatis - diver who discovered the Antikythera mechanism

      Albert Rehm - German philologist who the numbers 19, 76 and 223 inscribed on fragments of the device in the early 1900s

      Derek J. de Solla Price, published Gears from the Greeks in 1974. Identified the gear train and developed a complete model of the gearing.

      Michael Wright - 3D x-ray study in 1990 using linear tomography; identified tooth counts of the gears and understood the upper dial on the back of the device

      Tony Freeth - author of article and researcher whose made recent discoveries.

    2. the customary cosmological order of the celestial bodies—moon, Mercury, Venus, sun, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn

      In antiquity, the customary cosmological order of the celestial bodies was: moon, Mercury, Venus, sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.

    3. Eventually we found a process, developed by philosopher Parmenides of Elea (sixth to fifth century B.C.E.) and reported by Plato (fifth to fourth century B.C.E.), for combining known period relations to get better ones.

      Parmenides of Elea developed a process reported by Plato for combining the known period relations of planets to get better ones.

  22. Jan 2022
    1. The study of cognitive development suffers from a deep theoretical tension – one with ancient philosophical roots.

      This could've been a good place to allow liberal arts folx some point of entry. Alas.

  23. Nov 2021
    1. Homer’s Greek is an amalgam of dialects from various regions and eras. It includes words and grammatical forms that were already puzzling Athenians in the fifth century B.C., when students had to read Homer in school.

      The Greek in Homer is an amalgamation of dialects which is an indicator that the works were aggregated from many sources and turned into a final finished work.

  24. Jul 2021
    1. Father Time

      Father Time symbolized the inevitable passage of time. The origin of it is not clear, but can be trace back to ancient Greeks and Romans. Explanation

  25. Sep 2020
    1. Tetzcotzingo

      Context Texcotzingo was located next to the capital city of Texcoco, served as the imperial summer gardens, and was resplendent with all the royal paraphernalia of the time, including the imperial and courtesan residences; it also had a genuinely exceptional water supply. However, Tetzcotzingo must also be seen as a sacred/hedonistic space, an agricultural space, a kind of political statement or emblem, a space for performance, and land works. Texcotzingo was created and designed by Nezahualcóyotl in the 15th century. These imperial gardens were used to collect and display specimens of plants and animals for an exhaustive understanding of the entire Aztec Empire and the cultivation of medicinal plants. It was conceived as a place for sensual indulgence and as a recreation of paradise. Dedicated to Tláloc, the god of rain, these gardens were designed and built with sculptures depicting Aztec mythology, including the celebration of sacred numbers. Texcotzingo was the outstanding achievement in the brilliant career in the landscape architecture of one of the Aztec empire’s most powerful kings, Nezahualcoyotl. Texcotzingo was not just a botanical garden, but it was the family dynasty’s own sacred and recreational retreat, their columbarium for ancestral remains and living map of their domain. This imposing hill overlooking the city and imperial capital, Texcoco, was also a triumph of hydrological engineering which brought water from the adjacent lower slopes of Mount Tlaloc, “the holiest mountain of pagan Mexico,” via a massive aqueduct and then sent it downslope, flowing through channels and pools, cascading in waterfalls over the king’s extensive gardens and highlighting the sculptures gracing them. Finally, the water-fed the terraced farm fields that bordered the lower edge of the royal pleasure park. (Evans n.d.) The Aztecs have a divided sympathy of their culture because of the relationship with their bloody sacrificial rites. Even though a lot of many botanical gardens landscape design based on a format made by the Aztecs and many of species were nurtured by them. The eastern side of the hill was dominated by two major features: an aqueduct terminus and its receiving pond. This landscape got several features that represent not only a technical side but also several philosophical statements. Evans, Susan Toby. The Garden of the Aztec Philosopher-King. Pennsylvania: PennState College of Liberal Arts, n.d. Evans, Susan Toby. Aztec royal pleasure parks: conspicuous consumption and elite status rivalry. Pennsylvania: PennState College of Liberal Arts, n.d.

  26. Jul 2020
  27. Dec 2019
    1. tragic poetry of Greece

      Shelley probably means the great fifth-century Greek tragedies, such as Sophocles' Antigone, Oedipus the King and others.

    2. Theseus

      Theseus was the mythical king and founder-hero of Athens. Plutarch's Life of Theseus makes use of varying accounts of the death of the Minotaur, Theseus' escape, and the love of Ariadne for Theseus.

    3. Solon

      Solon (c.  638 – c.  558 BC) was an Athenian poet, statesman, and lawmaker. In Plutarch's telling, he is particularly notable for his efforts to legislate against political, economic, and moral decline in pre-Socratic Athens.

    4. I shall kill no albatross,

      This expression is a reference to Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem "Rime of the Ancient Mariner," in which the Mariner inexplicably slays an albatross. The allusion may imply that Walton will play the role of Coleridge's Wedding Guest instead: he will listen to Victor's long, obsessive story that will ultimately be a confession of guilt, like the Ancient Mariner' tale. Since the poem was not published until September 1798, this reference also places the "17--" date of these letters as the summer of 1799. On the poem's role in the novel, see Beth Lau, "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Frankenstein," in Samuel Taylor Coleridge and the Sciences of Life, ed. Nicholas Roe (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001): 207-23.

    5. The Greeks wept for joy when they beheld the Mediterranean from the hills of Asia, and hailed with rapture the boundary of their toils

      Victor refers to the Greeks' long retreat from Armenia in Xenophon's Anabasis: "And when all had reached the summit [having made it], then indeed they fell to embracing one another, and generals and captains as well, with tears in their eyes" (4.7).

    6. Lycurgus

      Lycurgus (c. 820 BC) was the legendary reformer of Sparta. He established the military-oriented reformation of Spartan society, and promoted the three Spartan virtues: equality (among citizens, at least), austerity, and military fitness.

    7. Greece had not been enslaved

      In ancient Greece it was common practice to enslave entire populations of a conquered nation. Greece was conquered by the Romans in 146 CE.

    1. say a few words of consolation; he could only express his heartfelt sympathy. “Poor William!” said he, “dear lovely child, 59he now sleeps with his angel mother! Who that had seen him bright and joyous in his young beauty, but must weep over his untimely loss! To die so miserably; to feel the murderer’s grasp! How much more a murderer, that could destroy such radiant innocence! Poor little fellow! one only consolation have we; his friends mourn and weep, but he is at rest. The pang is over, his sufferings are at an end for ever. A sod covers his gentle form, and he knows no pain. He can no longer be a subject for pity; we must reserve that for his miserable survivors.”

      In 1831, Clerval's words emotionally underscore the abhorrent nature of the crime. This outcry replaces a more philosophical reference in 1818 to the "maxims of the Stoics."

  28. Jun 2019
    1. rhythms in the uptake of the glucose analog 2-deoxyglucose (2-DG) precede the development of a functional TTFL

      This could be interesting as well. Metabolic issues run through chronic illness. As do circadian dysfunctions, diabetes susceptibility,

    2. the fact that they likely evolved to counteract oxidative stress,

      There it is. What we would expect for an ancient system.

  29. May 2019
    1. Artistic finds include stone tablets carved with images (such as a birdman) as well as evidence of sophisticated copper working, including jewelry and headdresses.

      Interestingly other megalithic cultures have artistic renderings of a "birdman" as well, including the Incan, Mayan, and Egyptian cultures.

  30. Jan 2019
  31. Nov 2017
    1. Now, on to my third problem: I think Angus Maddison may be doing things wrong. I realize this is a rather presumptuous thing to say, but I think it's true. Specifically, the assumption that GDP before 1700 was proportional to agricultural productivity seems to me not to be a good one. The reason is that even in a non-industrial society, there is a potentially huge source of GDP increases: trade. Remember, in a world where output is mostly in the form of commodities (i.e. no increasing returns to scale), the old Ricardian theory of trade makes a lot of sense. Stable ancient empires that could act as free trade zones were probably capable of dramatically increasing their per capita GDP beyond the base provided by the productivity of their land. This is the finding of Ian Morris in Why the West Rules For Now. He constructs a "social development index" that includes things like urbanization and military capabilities, and probably correlates with an ancient region's per capita GDP (it is hard to build cities and make war without producing stuff). He finds dramatic changes in this social development index over the course of the Roman Empire; at its height, Rome seems to have been extremely rich, but a couple centuries earlier or later it was desperately poor. Morris corroborates this index with data on shipwrecks, lead poisoning, and other things that would tend to correlate with output. Basically, Rome saw huge fluctuations in per capita GDP. But it is unlikely that Rome's agricultural productivity changed much over this time. Instead, what probably happened was the rise and fall of cross-Mediterranean trade. If trade could make Rome dramatically richer, and its absence could make Rome dramatically poorer, then Maddison's data set is wrong. Just because most people in 100 AD were farmers does not mean that most people were subsistence farmers. And frankly, I'm not sure how people use Maddison's data set without noticing this fact.

      Trading is very important. The West advantage over China in the past.

  32. Sep 2017
    1. The tender age at which this part of education commences, generaly about the tenth year, would weigh heavily with parents in sending their sons to a school so distant as the Central establishment would be from most of them

      The University set out a goal for the parents of young boys to begin their studies of the ancient languages at the year of age ten. This is an extremely young age, considering that the boys would be going to college eight years later. The minds of the young boys seem to be too young to be able to grasp this form of art. This correlates to my Engagement, Art Inside/Out, by focusing on the art aspect. Latin, Greek, and Hebrew are forms of art in the language aspect. This piece of art is powerful and intriguing; however, it may be too complex for the minds of ten year olds who are still trying to develop.

  33. Jul 2017
    1. The ancient mode of production

      The main structure of ancient modes of production splits people into masters and slaves.

    2. n the ancient, feudal and capitalist modes -there are just two classes that matter. These are the class that owns the means of production -it is their property -and the class that does not own it.

      This defines what separates people in different classes. In the Ancient modes of production, classes are separated by owning property.

  34. Jun 2017
  35. Feb 2017
    1. Ms. Cabral, the archaeologist who has spent years studying Rego Grande, said that evidence of large settlements remains elusive, in contrast with other sites in the Amazon like Kuhikugu, at the headwaters of the Xingu River, where researchers have drawn parallels to the legends surrounding the mythical Lost City of Z, long an irresistible lure for explorers and adventurers.

      Learning about these "lost places" is so cool!

    1. “A lot of people have the idea that the Amazon forests are pristine forests, never touched by humans, and that’s obviously not the case.”

      Interesting to think about this.

  36. Feb 2016
    1. How did animals help create the world? • How were the earth, sun, and moon formed? • Who created human beings? 0 How did Coyote influence the world?

      1) The animals were there for humans when they needed help. 2) They were created by the mother and father. 3) Human beings were created by the mother and father.

    2. How were human beings created? • Where did they obtain their knowledge, and how did they provide for themselves?

      1) Human beings were created by birth from mother and father.

      2) The father passed on his offspring and that his how they gained knowledge.

  37. Jan 2016
    1. Now like all the surpassing beings the Earth-mother and the Sky-father were changeable, even as smoke in the wind; transmutable at thought, manifesting themselves in any form at will, like as dancers may by mask-making.

      It is amazing how descriptive the world was made. The way things are being described in this document make me think of how peaceful this world was made to be. How come it could not be like this anymore?

    2. The boy that remained in the lodge grew very rapidly, and soon was able to make himself bows and arrows and to go out to hunt in the vicinity. Finally, for several days he returned home without his bow and arrows. At last he was asked why he had to have a new bow and arrows every morning

      The boy had to teach himself how to use things. When we grow up we do not rely on our parents as much, we have to explore the world on our own.

  38. Sep 2013
    1. Now good birth in a race or a state means that its members are indigenous or ancient: that its earliest leaders were distinguished men, and that from them have sprung many who were distinguished for qualities that we admire.

      Does this still apply today?