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Looks like a good read. I was under the impression many of its works ended up ultimately in Baghdad, then spread across the Islamic world to places like Toledo where they were then translated.
Haha I love collegehumor, they have some good ones with John C Reilly (sp?) and others doing “drunken history” which I find relevant and FUNNY Look up the one on Nikola Tesla it's pretty good
I do not believe so. Some folks just aren't made out for college and are better off doing things that they excel at. I would encourage young people to consider it for their future however.High school on the other hand I believe everybody should attempt to complete, and at bare minimum finish grade 10.
I've been there dozens of times and have always been struck in awe at the grandeur of it. I heard legends that by the oyster bar (near the doors to 42nd St I believe) there is a certain spot where directly across (it goes down a ramp, levels out, then the ramp goes up again) a pin can be heard from across, a distance of at least 75 metres.
Well yes, I think that most every musical genre has influenced by another or other genres, and so I don't doubt that the blues was influenced by music in a variety of regions. But it has been my understanding that what we would identify as “the blues” grew up as a largely regional phenomenon in the South (I perhaps mistakenly was implicitly including Appalachia in this), and offshoots like Chicago Blues would probably be more recent derivations. When I think of “original” or “historical” blues, I think of scratchy recordings of a black man from Mississippi singing with a guitar, rather than the Stevie Ray Vaughn type of music from more recent years.
Maybe another thread can be started sometime in the future on music history which I think would be pretty interesting. Would you say in terms of inspiration it went something like: Jazz > Blues > Rockabilly or something to that effect? Rap I think came from probably funk and before that possibly motown (one of my personal favorites), although the latter two sound different I think I base that on the fact that motown allowed colored folk to perform whereas in the early 60's and prior it's my understanding that colored performers would have to use their cars as dressing rooms and enter from the back door.
Personally, I don't think I've read anything else he has written…his only work was Huckleberry Finn, and that was many years ago. Yet I know he is an important historical figure because he is frequently quoted, and his name pops up from time to time in places in history, which tells me that he was a popular figure in his own day.
Okay Phid – here's your reading list for the next twelve months – plenty of time to read these and other, more serious, stuff. Tom Sawyer, The Innocents Abroad, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Pudd'nhead Wilson, Following the Equator, The Prince and the Pauper It may be fiction, but I think that his works really help us understand that period of American history and society – besides, they're entertaining in their own right. My brother makes a rather convincing argument that nothing original (that was any good) has been written since Huck Finn.I think that one of the things that made Twain such an icon is not only his ability to capture the reader with accurate and “living” descriptions and characters, but his unrelenting stab at the popular culture of the time.
This is what I have been thinking. I think Twain, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Herman Melville are some of the greatest writers I have read. I have also heard that 'nothing good has been written since Huckleberry Finn' which may be an ambitious statement but it may be true. I suppose it's a matter of preference. His works were undoubtedly inspired greatly by the Mississippi where he grew up, as well as the issue of slavery (Twain was anti-slavery as far as I know, even though he supported the Confederate cause with his brother).People have made allegories to his use of language in Huckleberry Finn and how he wanted to write how the people spoke and not with the formality of British English and as a result it was banned in many libraries for its 'coarse language'.
I once heard the Civil War set the benchmark for European nations' navies prior to WWI. More specifically the use of ironclads which nations like Great Britain took the idea and made the dreadnoughts.Good read thanks 🙂
Jazz, not so much because of improvisation, but because it is the only genre of music that has crossed racial lines and united America in that way. (can you say the same about Rap today?)
I can agree with that but I don't think jazz was alone in this movement as a lot of early 1890's & 1900's ragtime music was written by blacks (most notably Scott Joplin) and whites (like Joseph Lamb) alike.
Benjamin Butler and Kirby Smith had an economic relationship that often isn't mentioned in the history books.
Thanks I'll look into that 🙂
I believe Robert E Lee was one of the greatest generals in history because he had the 'uncanny ability to read the mind of his opponent' (quoted from Ken Burns' The Civil War documentary) and was able to fight with an often vastly outnumbered army against the Union and was a great asset to the south.Also the south had tried very hard to pull in help from European nations and it's alleged that they were funded in great part by the Bank of England. They tried hard to pressure for outside help by burning bales of cotton (since they couldn't get it out of Louisiana due to Union blockade).
Yeah I have heard of many supposed UFO sightings as the allies moved into Berlin. The conspiracy types have come up with plenty of stories revolving around this and how Hitler supposedly escaped to Antarctica or something along those lines.However I lean more towards the fact that the Nazis devoted a lot of late-war energies to developing superior technology in a last ditch effort to win the war and it's possible that these may have been prototype jet fighters or advanced rocket technology.
I am interested in this.I can imagine muskets and cannons being used like in the movie The Patriot (not the best source but it's all I know right now haha). I also know that prior to this war the British went through their own civil war where Cromwell's soldiers would battle Charles' army using armies of mostly billmen/pikemen to ward off cavalry, musketeers to fire volleys at the opponent, and cavalry armed with sabers (I think). There was also artillery which Cromwell used to great effect in Ireland. I believe the British would have used something similar for their professional army after the war and it may have adapted up to and including the American revolutionary war but probably would have been very similar.Again in the Patriot one of the 'bad guys' is a dragoon commander and he burns down Mel Gibson's house, basically he would have been cavalry equipped with a pistol and possibly a saber.
Thomas Jefferson:The system of banking is a blot left in all our Constitutions, which, if not covered, will end in their destruction… I sincerely believe that banking institutions are more dangerous than standing armies; and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity… is but swindling futurity on a large scale.Couldn't help it… I am very interested in economics now (didn't know a thing about it 6 months ago and I've only scratched the surface lately)
Well I went to college for 5 years about 4 years ago for engineering and about half my classmates were over the age of 30, I was friendly with almost everybody there, and we would often go out for beer & wings with our instructors so I think it's safe to say we had a good rapport which really made a positive experience for me as well as for them. I am hoping my time spent in university will be as positive an experience.As far as on the individual level I think some young people are there for reasons that they value and want to succeed so even if from time to time they procrastinate on homework etc. they will still attend classes and try to do well. On the other hand there are lots of students (not necessarily bad people mind you) that chronically procrastinate and try and fluff through with other people's work and maybe they don't want to be there (maybe their parents expect them to do something they might not feel comfortable doing).As an instructor I don't have much experience other than teaching a few primers to traffic modeling software and CAD but I suppose that instructors have to be patient, adaptable, and at the same time have to have some rigidity (referring to somebody else that posted something about 'drawing a line in the sand' which I found very appropriate).
To my knowledge securing the aid of the French was critical in the war as Benjamin Franklin spent a long time there during the war trying to get the support of the king. I will have to look it up but I know the French eventually sent many troops, uniforms, and other supplies and they were stationed in Rhode Island (I think, or nearby).As for winning without them in my opinion I don't think Washington had the odds in his favor in the beginning where he tried to face the British in a European-style of battle and so he had to resort to guerilla tactics which was successful against the British and I can imagine it would be very unnerving to their generals. At this point I still believe Washington couldn't win the war but he could prolong it so long as he could keep his “ragtag” army held together until Franklin could get help from France.
