Curious Mammal

Historiography Over Time Military history Military history is a humanities discipline within the scope of general historical recording of armed conflict in the history of humanity, and its impact on the societies, their cultures, economies and changing intra and international relationships. A conflict may range from a melee between two tribal groups to conflicts between national militaries, and a world war of coalitions affecting the majority of the global human population. Military historians record and analyse the events of military history, the product of which forms an important part of how societies and their leaders formulate future plans and policies for societal development. Numismatics - Numismatics is the study or collection of currency, including coins, tokens, paper money, and related objects. While numismatists are often characterized as students or collectors of coins, the discipline also includes a much larger study of payment media used to resolve debts and the ex...

What are great way to sum up the overall purpose of education today. In his sign-off directly after this Jon Stewart talks about how the end of the show isn't some final point in the dialogue, but rather a pause. A pause to celebrate his contribution to the conversation, but also the point being it never ends. This idea of all of this as being a conversation is one that needs to be stressed, as Stewart says: "Teach the controversy." Certainty is not conducive to dialogue.

Below I would like to outline the steps and sequence that I believe lends itself to students entering into the academic conversation. (working draft) Analyzing Systems When analyzing systems students are able to see conceptual models for what they are: limited in their scope and usefulness. Students can create and determine the characteristics of different systems. They can see how increasing or decreasing levels of complexity lend to a system being more or less useful. They can see the benefit of system analysis in terms of seeing between the lines, being introduced to bias, selective observation, interpretation, and (t)ruth. Students can see how conceptual models in our world are used. Students can see how words are also conceptual models. ... Usefulness/Characteristics of Systems A system is only as good as it is useful. To determine the usefulness of a system one must both analyze the purpose of a system and its characteristics. No system is perfect and the imperfectnes...

Jack Hitt's a Bunch of Amateurs To analyze the American character one must take into account the narratives of our country, specifically the three metanarratives that it is based on. In Hitt's analysis of our national character he finds an endless list of examples stretching back to our early Vaudevillian days of americans striking out, trying to get-rich-quick, seemingly fearless in the face of overwhelming odds. I believe that piggy-backing onto the narratives of scientific progress, manifest destiny, and modernization one can easily get caught up in them. Cherry-picking evidence of those who have succeeded, painting a picture of our collective desire to innovate is troublesome. Simply put, I can create the opposite narrative quite easily. Many people in the USA have little to no interest in innovation, modernization, or the like. Quite the opposite. This place is much more than a collective bunch of amateurs but rather it includes them into the fold o...

I would like to highlight two observations from my early reading of Great Gatsby. One, in terms of writing style, I notice that Fitzgerald uses descriptive writing to set the mood, tone, and further action. If the curtains are flowing as Tom and Daisy enter the room and stop flowing when they close the door, they comment on it. This is done in such a fluid way that one doesn't skip a beat with the action. (I would say it is also a nice way to tell a story.) Second, in terms of content, the book starts of with the admission and advice from Nicks's father that: "a sense of fundamental decencies is parceled out unequally at birth." This can be taken two ways as I see it. One, some people are bad, some are good. This interpretation simply states a fact without any cause or reason. For most, this satisfies them.  I like this second definition and interpretation, though both are related. In the second interpretation, it lends to the idea that the reason some peopl...