Daily Blog 1 Week 2

Konnor Drewen

1/31/011

Identify the 'Venus of Willendorf'. What does it suggest that the beginnings of art and the domestication of animals happen during the same period in human history?

            The Venus of Willendorf is a statue from about 21,000 to 22,000 BCE. As of 1990, following a revised analysis of the stratigraphy of its site, it has been estimated to have been carved 24,000–22,000 BCE. Very little is known about its origin, method of creation, or cultural significance. It was found in a site near Willendorf, a village in Lower Austria. It was discovered by archaeologist Josef Szombathy in 1908.  The purpose of the carving is subject to much speculation. The statue was not created with feet and does not stand on its own. It is thought to be a fertility statue due to its figure. The Venus comes from the god Venus although the statues pre-date the mythological god by millennia. "Venus of Willendorf" is part of the collection of the Naturhistorisches Museum in Vienna. Catherine McCoid and LeRoy McDermott hypothesize that the figurines may have been created as self-portraits. The only thing that I could find on the domestication of animals in relation to the Venus of Willendorf is that the domestication a animals was gradually getting better and a larger part of the Stone Age society.  

Daily Blog 4

Konnor Drewen

1/27/011

Will a "hypertext" world make us more accepting of cyclic history?

            Well, a hypertext is by definition- a special type of database system, invented by Ted Nelson in the 1960s, in which objects (text, pictures, music, programs, and so on) can be creatively linked to each other. (http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/H/hypertext.html) and cyclic history by definition is- a doctrine that all events occur in cycles that are more or less alike. It has two main forms, one that posits cosmic cycles and one that posits cycles only in human affairs.  (http://frank.mtsu.edu/~nboone/theoryhistory.pdf) So if people applied that to showing a cyclic timeline than yes I think it would make us more accepting of cyclic history. If we had a cyclic timeline in a hypertext world than on the timeline you could select a date the timeline and bring up more information on that event. That information could lead to other graphs and how that event was triggered and when. Then you could go to the next event and see how the first event triggered the second event. Then there could be information shown when selecting it and so on into the next events. This could make us more accepting of cyclic history because it would not just be two to five events circling around each other it would be able to show what caused the events and how they eventually lead back into each other. So if we did have a hypertext world and he used it in this fashion I think that it would make the world more accepting of cyclic history.

Daily Blog 3

Konnor Drewen

1/26/011

Don't our traditional forms of information communication, notably "the book" and especially "the textbook" contribute to our belief in linear history?

            Yes, that is true. In most textbooks they show history in a more linear fashion. Most of the history textbooks I have used through my life had a timeline of some sort. Also when-ever I had to do a project for history that involved either tracking a person through time or just researching the person I would have to make a timeline to show some of my research. In most books it describes history as a straight line that only goes two directions, forward and backward. It seems that because of this linear history is the most widely known for form of history. I would think that most kids around the country would say that they don’t even know what the other three forms of observing history are or even that there were three other forms of observing history. It is not only in books that we use a linear form of history. On television programs they most of the time use a linear form of observing history. When showing history it is worldly seen as a straight line past on the left present/future on the right. To test this I decided to ask my parents to see how they think history is represented and if they knew of other forms. As I thought my hypothesis was correct and both my parents thought of history as a straight line although my father did know of the other forms.

Daily Blog 2

Konnor Drewen

1/25/011

Is modern life "always" better than it was in the past?

            No, modern life is not always better than it was in the past. In some ways modern life is, but in others it is not. The ways it is better is that we have better health and a longer life expectancy. More people now have more money and there is not as large of a poor population as there was. Although these things are true that does not necessarily mean that modern life is always better. For instance we are at the end of the worst recession in history. Now during the recession people would have probably preferred that they lived in a time where there was no recession. Another thing is that in the past if you were thinking of better from an art stand point many people agree that art forms were better in the past. In the past there were artists like Shakespeare writing plays which was a huge turning point in history for drama and theater. For music many people agree that the music from the sixties through the eighties was the music that changed music. The Beatles as an example are to most people the band that changed music entirely. The sound of their music was able to change millions of people’s way of thinking. So to answer the original question: Is modern life "always" better than it was in the past, I would give a definite no because while now we have medical turning points making our physical lives better in the past they had intellectual turning points to make our emotional lives better. 

Daily Blog 1

Konnor Drewen

1/24/011

Does history progress?

           

            That is an interesting question that needs an interesting answer. History does progress there is really no way to deny that, but in what way. History could progress only forward and the way most people see it, but history could progress in a way that not many people think of. Mainly because if you think of history like I do and some others do also it could drive someone insane. I think of history as somewhat if a river. You see the whole river is there, it does not matter at what point you are on the river it is still ahead of you and behind you. I think that people are at all points of this river, to say it in another way all points in history exist at this very moment, but only to the people living in that point can tell. To them that is their point in the river and we are in the future. In the same way the future exists and to them we are in the past and it just goes on and on in the same way in both directions forward in history and backward in history. The reason that this is so hard to comprehend to most people is because this means that they exist now but they also exist in the same way two years ago and two years in the future. If you think of history the way not do you think of it as the river then is means that a person exists in a multitude of parallel universes and histories where, if they are say fifteen in this history, they could be ten in another or thirty in a different one. That is the way I see history and the way it progresses.    

Midterm Question 14

Konnor Drewen-Brenden Hutton

1.       Learn how to use the technology

2.       Teach others what they do not know

3.       Block game cites

4.       Block chat rooms and other im’s

5.       Have better repair system

6.       Give loaners to kids that need them

7.       Have a backup system or unit

8.       Keep extra chargers for borrow if computer dies in class

9.       Make sure to have backups

10.   Flash drives for loan or purchase

Midterm Question 13

The U.K. was the most developed country at that time in history. It passes during the industrial revolution. It drops during the Great Depression. China first enters the chart around 1906. We produce more CO2 because we are dependent on coal which is the dirtiest sorce of energy. That was during the start of WW 2 and Trinidad and Tobago were a place of massive industry for US engineering.