After you've read Part III: From Food to Guns, Germs, & Steel, identify one point or issue with which you agree, disagree, or about which you would like to learn more. Use the SVHS databases or the Internet to find out more.
Your comment to this post should include the author, title, source, link or database title, and a summary of the source. In your summary, please explain why you choice this particular topic for further exploration.
Author(s): No listed author
ReplyDeleteTitle: The Heroic Theory of Invention
Source: Blogger
Link: http://bigbigbet.blogspot.com/2008/04/heroic-theory-of-invention.html
Summary:
The heroic theory of invention says that there are few individuals that are granted with geniusness and the ability and mindset to create breakthrough inventions for the Western societies, putting them above the others (though things are currently changing). Many investors that are aware of this theory do well in the market because of their obtained knowledge of global finance distribution.
I became interested in Diamond’s point concerning the traditional heroic theory of invention compared to his theory that necessity is the mother of invention. I made the decision to do more research on the traditional theory to become as informed about it as I am with Diamond’s theory, as he went into greater detail about his theory and its importance than the traditional heroic theory. Also, I would like to learn how this theory relates to modern times and circumstances like investments.
Authors: Edwin Jones, Jewel Hairston
ReplyDeleteTitle: Zoonotic Diseases of Cattle
Source: Virginia Cooperative Extension
Link: https://pubs.ext.vt.edu/400/400-460/400-460.html
Summary;
There are multiple diseases that can be transferred from cattle to humans. These include anthrax, brucellosis, cryptosporidiosis, dermatophilosis, Escherichia coli, giardiasis, leptospirosis, listeriosis, pseudocowpox, Q fever, rabies, ringworm, salmonellosis, tuberculosis, and vesicular stomatitis. In simpler terms, these diseases can cause death in worst cases. They can cause major problems and can spread quickly and easy. They best way to avoid them is to avoid any raw meat or unpasteurized milk.
Diamond talked about the importance that the diseases from cattle had on humans and how they developed into further diseases that may still plague humans today. This website explained in great detail about every disease and gave me a clear picture into what humans and cattle herders in the past dealt with and it has showed me how important these people were to the development of man.
Author: Gaëlle Courcoux
ReplyDeleteTitle: Malaria: how did it reach the Americas?
Source: IRD
Link: https://en.ird.fr/the-media-centre/scientific-newssheets/394-malaria-how-did-it-reach-the-americas
Summary: In chapter eleven, Diamond discusses the evolution of germs. He briefly talks about malaria spreading to the Americas by European ship traffic and emerging as a vulnerability to people in the tropical New World. I decided to research this topic because I felt that Diamond did not provide as much detail as I would have liked. What I found fascinating in this article was the fact that malaria colonized South America through two separate introduction routes. Biologists discovered one genetic group of malaria in the Northern part of Latin America and a different one further South. They were both more genetically similar to their African origin than they were to each other. This was because of the separate European powers colonizing South America. These two were the Spanish and Portuguese empires. Both imported their own slaves from Africa. This means that there were originally two separate groups of malaria in Africa and the infected Africans brought this disease to South America when they were transported on slave ships.
Author: Karen Carr
ReplyDeleteTitle: Bubonic Plague
Link:http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/science/medicine/plague.htm
Summay: The bubonic plague was one of the most notorious diseases during the Medieval Ages. The disease began in China and made its way to Europe by transportation of infected people and animals (many of which were rats.) The bubonic plague was very painful and caused a severe fever followed by large black swellings and sores. This helped give it another name, "The Black Death." People tried to heal themselves of the plague with magic and surgical operations.
While reading a description of the bubonic plague in Guns, Germs, and Steel, I read a fact that said the bubonic plague had killed a quarter of Europe's population over the span of six years starting in 1346 (Diamond 202). This interested me and I decided I would like to learn more about it. Today the bubonic plague can be treated with antibiotics, however, back then there was no treatment that could cure a person of the plague.
Author: Jack Kilmon
ReplyDeleteTitle: The History of Writing
Source: Historian
Link: http://www.historian.net/hxwrite.htm
Summary: In chapter twelve, Diamond discussed the beginnings of writing in civilizations in thorough detail. However, I was curious as to how writing developed among the individuals, such as the evolution of symbols and script. This website explained that writing began as pictures that represent what the word actually was. For example, a drawing of a hand was used to symbolize the word “hand”. Picture writing was used in many regions for a span of time, and eventually, these pictures turned into “glyphs”, which was well-known in Egypt. The Egyptians also designed symbols that represented the individual sounds in words, which led to the development of letters, and later, script. This knowledge helped me better understand Diamond's analysis of the spread of writing in civilizations.
Author: Roger Burks
ReplyDeleteTitle: Shining a Light on Africa's Kleptocracies
Source: Mercy Corps
Link: http://www.mercycorps.org/articles/shining-light-africas-kleptocracies
Summary: Before "From Egalitarianism to Kleptocracy", I had never before heard of the word "Kleptocracy". I find government and government organization very interesting. I wanted to further explore how a Kleptocracy was defined, and find real-word examples, such as the ones in Africa, where a majority of them are concentrated. Massive wealth is accumulated by leaders of Kleptocracies, often at the expense of their people. Many such leaders serve for an extensive time, using much of it to exploit their country's wealth, either through their resource production or simply stealing it from the starving masses. Gnassingbe Eyadema of Togo ruled as a dictator for 38 years, in which he siphoned off wealth from Togo's phosphate mines, achieving a personal wealth in the billions. Sani Abacha took advantage of his oil rich nation of Nigeria, stealing nearly $500 million from the Nigerian people. Of course, these corrupt leaders do not get indicted because they control the rule of law, the police, and media. In some cases (or not) they might hold notoriously one-sided elections. Obama's recent Africa trip to his native homeland of Kenya highlighted such corruption. Having been to the east African country of Ethiopia myself, I am equally aware of such deprivation. Billions, at the expense of millions.
Very interesting! I'm looking forward to you sharing your experiences when we get to our unit on Sub-Saharan Africa.
DeleteAuthor:N/A
ReplyDeleteTitle: White House Offers Plan to Fight Illiteracy in Africa
Link: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5251340
Summary:
"In Africa, 42 million children do not have access to primary schooling — and 60 percent of those kids are girls." I found these staggering statistics to be very surprising because it means that illiteracy is extremely common in Africa, and is therefore a major setback for them. As a result, the African Education Initiative, a program looking to provide education for African children has put forth funds accumulating to over $600 million to build learning facilities and hire educators. The high illiteracy rate in Africa limits productivity throughout the continent because in the modern world, reading and writing are practically necessary for survival and success. Even in less developed parts of the world, this is a deciding factor that separates those who are intelligent and want to learn from more primitive people who tend to find less success in our time.
Explanation of article:
In chapter 12, Diamond talks about literacy and how it affected the success of different societies in our past. Literacy allowed for intelligent European explorers to learn when they were abroad, and create maps, diagrams, and signs to communicate with each other. Although it may not be clear as day, intelligence and the ability to communicate properly with one another was a key factor in wars that gave the smarter side a large advantage. With advanced tactics and synchronized cooperation, smaller, less resourceful armies were able to annihilate armies of larger numbers. Therefore, I found this article to be a relevant source to compare to the development of past societies and how they developed communication.
Title: Smallpox Disease Overview
ReplyDeleteLink: http://www.bt.cdc.gov/agent/smallpox/overview/disease-facts.asp
Summary: This is an informative writing piece that talks about the Smallpox disease. It talks about the disease, and what it looks like should someone catch it and also where it came from, the populations of humans thousands of years ago. There is also a chart that displays signs of smallpox and how long the disease lasts. This relates to part 3 because in it Diamond discusses the history of diseases that decimated populations long. I chose this as my topic because studying diseases that in the past or continue to pose tremendous threats to our society has always interested me.
Author: Tim Donnelly
ReplyDeleteTitle: 9 Brilliant Inventions Made by Mistake
Link: http://www.inc.com/tim-donnelly/brilliant-failures/9-inventions-made-by-mistake.html
Summary: Throughout history every living person has made a mistake. Some mistakes actually turn out to be extremely useful, for example penicillin was created by a man leaving his dishes out while he was on vacation; or plastic, which was made by a man accidently turning on his stove while two ingredients were mixed together on top. I agree with Diamond that lots of inventions in the world were just people making mistakes that turned out to end up good. I chose this article because it accurately describes just how many modern things, that are extremely common and useful to humans, we found by tinkering around or making mistakes.
Title: 1918 Flu Pandemic
ReplyDeleteSource: History.com
Link: http://www.history.com/topics/1918-flu-pandemic
Summary: After reading about how diseases accumulated and were distributed, I wanted to further explore examples in history. Take the Spanish Influenza in 1918: Originating in Europe, it was able to spread rapidly with the development of steamships, ferrying among the many immigrants seeking refuge in the new world and next. Of course, once on land, it became highly contagious with it being concentrated in high density areas such as New York City. The flu tore out the very thread of society, to the bone. Schools, transportation, and religion were all effected. The public sector was seemingly overwhelmed. Much as Diamond explains in GGS, much of it was inevitable, the unavoidable fact of the gathering of high density, unsanitary conditions (GGS 205). The natural instinct of interaction was indeed comprised, in that anyone could be the liaison of deadly diseases. The standard example: In which diseases derived from Europe made their way across the oceans to infect and evolve in their new environments. It is but a perpetual lesson of history.
Well done!
DeleteAuthor: David Morens
ReplyDeleteTitle: Hantavirus Virus
Link: http://www.britannica.com/science/hantavirus#ref858905
Summary: Diamond talks about some of the many diseases that humans can contract from animals in which one of them is Korean hemorrhagic fever. Diamond states that this disease originated from the urine emitting from mice. I was intrigued to learn more about this disease such as when the disease first came to be. In this article, I learned that the disease first was discovered in the Korean War which lasted from 1950-1953. It came from the striped field mouse that lives in Asia and as well as in Eastern Europe. An interesting fact that I learned on this topic after researching was that the Korean hemorrhagic fever is deadly in ten to fifteen percent of cases in people.
Author: Robert Johnson
ReplyDeleteTitle:10 Incredible Weapons That Only America Has
Source: Business Insider
Link: http://www.businessinsider.com/american-battlefield-weapons-2011-4
Summary: Many weapons that the USA has developed have been taken by other countries and duplicated. There are weapons that only the USA has that gives it power over other countries. Some of these weapons are still in production, or are modified from their original version. There are descriptions of the following: MQ9 Reaper Drone, AA12 Atchisson Assault Shotgun, PHASR Rifle, The Taser Shockwave,The Black Knight, The Active Denial System, The Laser Avenger, MAARS Robot (Modular Advanced Armed Robotic System), XM2010 Enhanced Sniper Rifle, XM25 Individual Airburst Weapon System (IAWS).
Author: N/A
ReplyDeleteTitle: Superweapon of the Ancient World: A History of Chariots - Part I
Source: Ancient Origins
Link: http://www.ancient-origins.net/artifacts-ancient-technology/superweapon-ancient-world-history-chariots-part-i-003254
Summary:
In chapter 13 of Guns, Germs, and Steel, Diamond talks about various modern inventions and how they helped us as a society grow. That lead me to an article on Ancient Origins, about ancient weapons and their inventions. This article is about the history of the chariot, an ancient Egyptian weapon, which was used for moving around the battlefield as well as to provide a moving platform to shoot at enemies from.I chose this article because I am very interested in how the ancient societies of humans innovated new technologies in order to get an advantage over each other in the battlefield.
Authors: Schafer, Sarah; Guterl, Fred; Mooney, Paul; Seno, Alexandra A; Kuchment, Anna
ReplyDeleteTitle: HOW TO MAKE A VIRUS
Source: Newsweek (Atlantic Edition)
Link: http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?sid=07053b79-2b22-4be3-87bb-52ee82fa9ce4%40sessionmgr110&vid=17&hid=124&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=9580546&db=mfm
Summary:
In chapter 11, Diamond explains how epidemics and disease that effect people often come from being in close contact with certain animals. The article that I chose supports his analysis by providing several examples of how the unsanitary conditions and livestock in China create outbreaks in viruses that prove to be dangerous towards people. The article explained how in different parts of southern China, people live in close proximity to livestock. The livestock can also be found in restaurants, leading to unsanitary cooking conditions. One disease, SARS, is suspected to come from this unsanitary lifestyle. These epidemics support Diamond's findings n that people are more likely to catch a disease if they are too close to livestock.