i want to learn about things. i always have, so tell me about what you enjoy learning. lets have some disscousion on it.
Printable View
i want to learn about things. i always have, so tell me about what you enjoy learning. lets have some disscousion on it.
I love learning about how and why societies evolve and change. How did they start, what made them advance, what made them fall or change?
I read a book once, Guns Germs and Steel by Jarod M. Diamond about this. His theory was that agriculture- and ultimately geography, terrain, plants and animals as they relate to agriculture- was the primary motivating force throughout human history. I found his ideas fascinating.
History is of great interest to me and so I find myself parked in front of the history channel all the time. Long before the movie 300 came out I learned of the heroic stand of 300 Spartans against 200k Persian soldiers and was amazed.
Say, how can I train 300 Spartans for my city? Do you think they'll hold against 90k archer invasions? ...oh that's right, nothing stands against archers :P
see i didnt know that. how does agreaculture change society??
well basically, in a nut shell, if you can't farm you spend all of your time hunting and gathering. Innovation, invention, change- these things never come because doing things the way your ancestors did ensures survival and doing things differently will likely result in the death of your whole tribe.
Once agriculture develops people are free to try new things- life is more forgiving. This becomes truer and truer the better crops, livestock and methods become. Our most primal need (beyond breathing at least :P) is food and with this need met we become free to experiment.
The book is a good deal more complex than that of course but after reading it I tend to believe Diamond's theories.
Yes, I have been exposed to Diamonds theories as well, and it was started by one of the New Guinea?, might be wrong island nation, people asking him why did "white people have so much stuff", might be slightly off... and he research, and wrote this book saying that because of pigs, cows, etc, and wheat, Europe rose to power, and because of the animals, they had the biological warfare tools needed to, unknowingly, set among the Americas, allowing conquest.
Also, We have ways to travels faster than the speed of light... mainly through lasers, and electricty, but no "matter" is actually "moving"
Forgive me but I beg to differ- lasers are light and thus they too travel at the speed of light. So far the idea of going faster than the speed of light is only a theory without a shred of evidence- though one can hope :)Quote:
Originally Posted by bob19991
I was watching a history channel show though and they showed how they'd discovered a way to slow and even stop light completely- now that's interesting- although they didn't have a practical application for this knowledge yet.
I would talk about religion and ancient cultures, their connection to each other and where most major religions spawned. However, religion is a non topic for the forums so I will share my knowledge of the Celtic culture and empire.
The Celts had a very advanced society for their time, to this day it still rivals most of the world. The Celtic empire ranged from England to Mongolia, from Russia to the Baltic sea and the Mediterranean. Their empire was based on trade, through trade they spread without much conflict and thrived without conflict until the Romans rose to power. They had actual roads made of wood that led to every trading area and most towns, this translates into paved roads of lumber. Their culture was steeped in art, religion and certain common beliefs towards mankind and nature. Their laws are what I found the most amazing for their time. Women were as equal as any man in their society, they had the right to own property, they had the right to say who they wanted to marry or even if they wanted a divorce. It was a belief among the Celts more than a law, that all elderly and all children were to be taken care of. Basically what most laws are trying to duplicate today to provide homes, food, care and safety for those two groups.
The Celt rule was not one of might. They had town/village leaders, like a town elder.They also had region leaders, what we would consider royalty. The town leaders took care of town affairs, the region leaders were like governors in the states. They met with the town leaders do discuss problems. Such as, if a town had a food shortage, what other area could bring food to help. The region leaders, would also meet to discuss trade, famine, where help was needed because of lawless raiding and things of such nature. Their culture more than anything is what the US tries to be, a Representative Republic.
Their downfall, they were rich. They had gold mines and a coin system using the gold. Some tribes of Celts were nomadic. Ceaser, used this as a way to conquer the Celts. A large group of Celts were migrating from Europe to Eurasia, keeping just outside of Romes territory in northern Italy. Ceaser used this opportunity to say the Celts were invading Roman territory, he marched his troops out and slaughtered a few thousand Celts. Men, women, children and elderly. He reported it as an invading army in order to be able to start a war with the Celts. This gave him the ability to march past Romes borders of Italy and take over Celt lands. His first targets were the Celt gold mines.
The rest is common knowledge about the fall of the Celts and how they were subjugated, also about Hadrian's wall being the last line of the Celt empire. However, the Germanic Celts also resisted the roman empire. They were the Anglo and the Saxon tribes that lived along the Rhine in Germany, these two tribes became what we now know as Vikings. These two tribes are also responsible for the first sacking of Rome.
Hmmmm, ok, I think I rambled long enough about this. Hope I was able to share that knowledge clearly enough without confusing anyone lol
and i think you did an excelent job of it!! Celtic haritige has always fasinated me. Thanks so much for that! i didnt know they were based on traid or had wooden roads.
I enjoying learning Asian history.
...... care to share some?? i dont know any
China is the longest lasting nation in history. They were also the longest reigning #1 super power of all time. I predict it will become #1 again and for a very long time. They invented many things that we still use today like modern style military weapons and tactics. They invented many of the supposed "modern" technology "discovered" by the western world.Quote:
Originally Posted by CandleLite
so when the romans came to conquer, the Celts were defeted becase... they were not a warfairing people to begin with? i'm gussing the Viking tribes escaped conquest because they were seafarers, and the Gemanic tribes were.... fiesty??Quote:
Originally Posted by abracax
sorry but i'm courious by nature and i like to learn new things
When the Romans came to conquer, the Celts had no real centralized authority, nor any military. It was basically any man or woman that can hold a weapon helped when needed. Where as the Romans had a military, with strategy and structure.Quote:
Originally Posted by CandleLite
The Germanic tribes were able to escape Rome rule because of the constant fighting. Basically Rome stopped in France (big surprise lol) and did not continue to venture north because the Germanic tribes constantly opposed the romans and fought them. However, Rome took many slaves from the Germanic tribes. That is the reason the Anglo's and the Saxon's invaded Rome. They were tired of their people being taken as slaves.
Edit: I forgot to add that by the time the Romans reached northern France, they were also stretched thin as far as the lands they could keep a hold on.
Think about this- if you have a light beam (laser) pointed at the moon, it creates a dot, right?
Then you quickly rotate it, dragging the point across the surface of the moon, and thanks to derivatives and the like, the speed of the dot across the moon, can be greater than the speed of light, but as it does no work, nor moves and particles faster than light speed, it does not violate the cosmic speed limit, same as by cascading current through plates, and having the magnetic charge generated spin in the circle, also how they can create electromagnetic "booms", like a sonic boom.
As vesuvan said, lasers are light, so they can't move faster than themselves. Electric current is the movement of charged electrons, which are matter, which cannot move faster than light.Quote:
Originally Posted by bob19991
One can move relatively faster than light, but not actually faster.
That's also completely wrong. The dot is not a solid object, it is the end of a beam. When you move the pointer away, the dot disappears because all of the light produced by the laser while pointed at the moon hits it and reflects. Meanwhile, different light comes out of the laser and goes somewhere else, creating a new dot.Quote:
Originally Posted by bob19991
Yes, but all motion, and thus all speed is relative, and the thing is was measuring was the dot, on the surface of the moon, traveling across the face of the moon, not the light, but yes, it is all relative.
You don't understand. The dot is not an object. The dot is the end of a constantly moving beam of light. The dot that you see is not the dot that you saw a nanosecond ago. That older dot is now bouncing off of whatever surface it was on and coming back to your eye. Do you understand now?Quote:
Originally Posted by bob19991
Yes, I understand it will never be the exact same, but the point is that if you treat it, and make an assumption to simplify it, since no object has exactly the same properties as the nanosecond before, or even 10^-35 seconds before, you have to make an assumption.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bob19991
I know the theory you are talking about as far as the speed of light. Although it has been shown as pure fantasy for several reasons. When you are on a train traveling at 60MPH and you get up to walk to the front of the train, you are not walking more than 60mph now. You do not travel faster than the train.
The moon itself does not travel faster than the speed of light, so if you were to drag a beam of light across it's surface, you would only being going as fast as the beam of light.
Reported for spam.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sephiroth X
At least I didn't use the completely wrong problem of the falling ladder, since if you ignore the fact that it cannot accelerate faster than ~9.8 m/s^2, it can break light speed when it is infindecimally close to hitting the ground. The reality is that it pulls away from the building.
Hi Edu
Well, I don't know what the reaction will be.. but according to Lawrence G. McDonald, a former VP of the Lehman Brothers, he says that between the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act and the low interest rate post-9/11, we can blame these, and the governments refusal to bail out the Lehman brothers, to the current economic crisis.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bob19991
grabing this train of thought ^Quote:
Originally Posted by bob19991
But I’m afraid I need you to dumb it down for me. Are you talking about the phenomenon of being able to write your name with a lit sparkler if you wave it around fast enough??? Sorry to dumb it down so far but if I’m going to contribute to theatrical discussion I kind of need the gist if it
@Candle, in a round about, really abstract way...
but the quotes you put up are not, the ladder paradox is a basic Calculus related rates problem, and what it shows is that a ladder, falling down the side of the house, since the bottom is moving out at a constant speed, will, mere nanoseconds, actually less, should break the speed of light, but in reality, it just moves away from the wall
so i'm wrong and right?? i'm trying to follow the laser on the moon with the speed of light thing. i recently learnd that my tv is producing a beter picture then my eyes, well anyones eyes but espicaly mine, can prosses. explain to me how we know the eye cant keep up with the tv and why. if you know. if not nvm
Quote:
Originally Posted by CandleLite
I don't think the better picture bit is a matter of science, I think it's a matter of opinion. The amount of cones on your cornea as yet cannot be reproduced in pixels. So I think that is more opinion than fact. Besides that, your eyes are connected to your brain which deciphers the images you see. The human brain is the most powerful computer known to man. If you take every computer on the face of the earth, the human brain can still process 100 times more information per second and holds far more memory.
so my tv isnt better then me. thats good i was developing a complex.
while i'm wating on my math phisics questions to be answered can we go back to the Celts. they just fasinate me to no end. if i read your discription correctly, the Celts and the Vikings were oraginal one people. Norse mythiology is something i'm currintly studying and it has something endering that roman/ greek mythology lacks in my humbel oppnion. Becase the Norse Gods are mortal they are allowed mortal flaws, but are expected to strive against them. and it is the death of honor amongest them that leads to their downfall. Not only are these wonderfull (if fictional) people striveing against the trolls (srry i forget the name of that race...J something i thnk) but against their own natural desires and inclanations. Zeus never reignd him self in or felt guilt for breaking his word...
srry i lost my train of thought there is a 6yr old jumping on me
Speaking of ancient Deities...
I'm inclined to agree with CandleLite that Norse mythology is better but there are two wonderful pieces of Greek Mythology I have to mention.
One is the Odyssey which I already posted about in the historic figure section.
The other is the existence of Athena. Everyone remembers Ares as the god of war but few think of Athena as the goddess of war. While those inclined to bloodshed followed Ares as their god many hated him as nothing more than a destroyer. He was seen as a detested figure by many who hated watching cities burn and women be raped. But Athena- she was like the goddess of defensive war. She was the one people prayed to when they were under attack. Zeus himself recognized his eldest daughter for this trait by having her carry his impenetrable shield, the Aegis, as his shield maiden. In war Athena was known not as a brutal killer but as the cunning foe. The crafty adversary who will win the day for brains rather than brawn.
A woman known for defeating the god of war. A woman known for her intelligence and wisdom. A woman known for beauty and honor. A woman so inspiring that the greatest Greek city, Athens, was named for her and lived by her example- train your body and mind to be the best you can be. Athena is probably as close as I come to naming my own personal deity.
My favorite subject is spirituality.
Religion aside, I think spirituality is something we all have and can relate to. During my studies and experiences I wrote part of a book I wanted to someday get out to help others on their paths. Also science and math have a lot of do with spirituality. You sit there through your algebra class or worse yet trig, and learn these rules yet you don't know how to apply them to life? All math can be applied to life, with simple concepts being a lot more clear to see. (Btw I'm no mathematician and I hate math, but even I can see and try to relate them to life).
I like to learn this and apply it to every day mundane life. I think with a little bit of clarity on the inside we can all gain some really good insight on what to do with our lives and model it into our own success.
Here's an example of the book I'm working on writing:
Bad Heart, Good Heart
Though the mind can hesitate and change on a daily basis, the heart can take a long time to change. And some hearts never do change. It is based on the person’s will. It will only change from certain strong life changing events, or many subtle events, whether it be spiritual or physical. Usually at the result of an imbalance within the two sides of a person. For example: Mandy is very much a realist. She has not dabbled too much in religion, nor does she have much faith in spirituality. Joe, on the other hand witnesses day-to-day miracles and is a very devout priest. One day, both Mandy and Joe receive a vision of Mother Mary smiling beside the crucified statue of her son. Well, while Joe’s heart may change from this experience as he is enlightened from this spiritual experience, Mandy’s heart is apt to change much more dramatically, as she as felt this moment for the very first time.
And this is where a person must take heed in this fact. You must be cautious on the things you involve yourself in, and what you open yourself to, for if your heart would change into something you don’t want it to, it will impact everything that you are. Your whole life will become something else.
A tainted heart will generate equally tainted energy, and remember, the mind can only shape what it has to work with. Like a sculpture of a dark demon, it is very difficult for the mind to chisel it into that of a luminescent angel without ruining the work completely. But also know this fact and always remember it. Take this note with you and never, ever forget it. No matter what, nobody can take your heart. Nobody can change it. Nobody can reach inside of you and manipulate your heart unless you let them. Only you can choose to change it or have it changed. Want to know why at many times it is family that hurts you the most? It is simply because you open your heart more to them then a perfect stranger. Mandy could have totally looked away from the vision, thinking she was merely hallucinating. And maybe because of her completely secular lifestyle, not even the vision could affect her. It is her choice. As it always is and will be.
Something to Work on.
Want to know the secret to knowing your heart? Take a few days or possibly a week to simply listen to your feelings and follow them. Do not think, do not hesitate, but just go along according to how you feel. If you feel bored and you want to take a trip do so. If midway on the trip you feel you rather go shopping in your town, turn around and do so. If you go to your favorite music store and find out that you’d rather eat, then leave and do so. Do not try to be efficient. And Don’t worry about looking like a bumbling idiot. Allow only the most minimal of rules to barricade your free flowing Spirit in. (If your heart wants you to burn down the block in a reign of fire, I’d start to worry about the kind of person you are).
Make sure you pick a day where you are free of obligations, so you can disregard the “what you have to dos” and simply go along with “what you want to do.” This will start to align yourself with your feelings. At first, depending on how much you have listened to your heart, you will probably be quite confused as your emotions will bounce around like water molecules in a boiling pot. It is the result of you not listening to yourself as much as you should and so the barriers you have put on your emotions in the past is trying its best to control your heart. But don’t fret, it is a good sign when they bounce so much like they do, for it means you are finally taking the first step to following your heart.
And think of the water molecules or more so a bouncing ball (The red textured one we all played in kickball). The harder that ball hits the wall the harder it bounces back. One of the most basic fundamental rules of Physics states, for every action, there is an opposite and equal reaction. So if you’ve spent your life controlling your feelings and forcing yourself to be happy, the obvious person you will start to become is a very sad one. So let you emotions take you on a Spiritual journey, you will find out that when you are free, you will see a lot clearer what lies in that mysterious Spiritual part that we call the heart.
Yes, the Vikings were Celts before they were Vikings. The Viking culture developed shortly after the fall of the Celtic empire and the rise of the Romans. So it is very likely that it was a subculture in the Germanic tribes and the rise of the romans just gave rise to that subculture.Quote:
Originally Posted by CandleLite
Little tidbit to take notice of; Look up old Germanic runes, the Hebrew alphabet, the Phoenician alphabet, and try to figure out how far the Celts roamed before Rome came along.
Candle, here are two lists that might interest you.
The preserved mythical founders and namesakes of some Germanic tribes:
* Angul — Angles (the Kings of Mercia, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, other Anglo-Saxon dynasties are derived from other descendants of Woden)
* Burgundus — Burgundians
* Cibidus — Cibidi
* Dan — Danes
* Francio — Franks
* Nór — Norwegians
* Gothus — Goths
* Ingve — Ynglings
* Irmin — Irminones
* Gambara — Lombards
* Seaxnēat — Saxons
* Valagothus — Valagoths
* Suiones — Suiones (Svear)
* Thüringer — Thuringii
Modern Germanic-speaking ethnic groups include:
* Dutch people
o Flemish people
o Afrikaners (mostly of Dutch ancestry, but also partly of German and French descent)
* Germans/German-speaking peoples
o Austrian Germans/Austrians
o Alamannic/German Swiss
o Federal Germans
o Volga Germans
o Baltic Germans
o South Tyroleans in the Italian Province of Bolzano-Bozen
o Alamannic/German Liechtensteiners
* Luxembourgers
* Frisian people
* Norse
o Danes
o Finland Swedes
o Norwegians
o Swedes
o Faroese people
o Icelanders
* English people
Edited: Candle, this is a list of all the Germanic tribes and some of their history. You will notice that they are all Celts at the time of Julius Ceaser. http://www.duerinck.com/tribes1.html
Thank you!! i'm going to enjoy looking into all that information :)
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?Quote:
Originally Posted by pedro159
you should look into mandelbrot set, julia sets and other fractals.
Or quantum mechanics on superstrings, D-branes, P-branes, the 10th dimension as well as compact dimensions.
Or perhaps how the standard economic theory fails to optimize gain in situations such as the prisoner's dilemma, and how the nash equilibrium is not always optimal.
k i love math, seroiusly i do! but i'm gonna need a tutor and a translator to cach up to you guys. somebody PM me the math i need to catch up from college algabra k?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacobia...nd_determinant
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagrange_multipliers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lie_algebra
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discrete_exterior_calculus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topological_graph_theory
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenstra...aff_conjecture
good subjects to start learning now, then :D
i'm in a giddy state of confusion be back later
weird new avatar, Candlelite
that makes the movie i saw about Arther make more sence. also thank you for the link i just finnish reading thru it and it explains why my Nordic anseters came accross the contanate the way they did. i got as far back a 6AD russia and lost the trail. sometimes as Clan Cheefs with difrent titals whos fathers or sons were Woodsmen, i didnt get that. but now i do and it makes them even cooler :)Quote:
Originally Posted by abracax
Agriculture is very intresting. It was what made the Egyptians so great. Egypt lies in a desert as we all, hopefully, know. It a fine source of water flowing through it, the Nile, it's one of the longest rivers and it is one of the very few that actually flow through a desert. Eyptians used irrigation from the Ocean and the Nile to their farms. At just about Alexander the Great's Time, Egypt was basically a giant farm. It is described from drawing and writings of that time. Alexander described it like that too. All the money he used for his campaigns were from alexandria an extremly rich city that had many "exotic" crops, at that time, so many of the the Greeks bought. Eqypt also had lots of Food to survive the constant droughts.
a thoght just occord to me if aggraculture played such a big role in devlpoing civalization. what role did local climat play in shapeing the lives and belifes of the people who lived in it?
take for example the people living in tropical climate reagons. their social structures apper to me to be based on male domanace, patrichiole (srry sp) sociaties where women are second class. while people who settled the harsher climets of the world realized early in there own development that all people need to be equal and need to pull their own weight in sociaty.
stop and correct me if i'm wrong
but it appers to me that the harsher the living conditions, the more equal and democratic the social structure was. conversly easy climets led to sloth, greed and oppression.
i dont think i'm making sence. i dont normaly when i "think out loud" anyway
Well, if you want one, of many answers to that question, read Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond, which analyzes how geographic luck determined which civilizations rose to power, and how the Europeans were able to conquer most of the known world, in one way (directly) or another (controlling all trade [Opium War ring a bell?])