luka's notes

Separate Pages

• C#
• (biological) viruses
• space

• smaller remarks

Japan

- Sengoku Jidai (Warring States period) (15th - 16th centuries): the ruling Ashikaga shogunate (central unified government) lost its authority over the regional warlords who then began to find among themselves

History

- "Ancient" is generally synonymous with "antiquity", beginning in recorded human history and ending around the fall of the Western Roman Empire ~500AD. - Prehistory is all time prior to written records - Sumerian cuneiform ended this period - stone age: 4,000 - 2,000 BC - bronze age: 3300 - 1200 BC - iron age: ? - recorded history more or less beginning with the Bronze Age - bronze: alloy consisting mainly of copper and some tin and sometimes some other stuff

Ancient China

- Warring States period: ~475BC up until China unified under Qin - China was united for the first time under the Qin Dynasty, accomplished in 221 BC. - Qin Shi Huang was the first emperor - widely disliked for his autocratic rule Notable Projects: - Great Wall - estimates place 1 million people working on the Great Wall at its height of production, 1/5 the total population - oversaw northern border, worked on by many different rulers - Grand Canal - created under the Siu dynasty

Ancient Rome

Emperor Claudius (10BC - 54 AD) - married his niece Agrippina the Younger - had a limp, stuttered and had slight deafness due to a sickness at young age - he was ostracized by his family because of these disabilities but at the same time was likely spared because of them in the purge that saw many of the nobility dead. - following this, he was declared emperor by the Praetorian Guard - he was a competent administrator, restoring finances and embarking on new infrastructure projects - likely murdered by his wife in a ploy to ensure her son from another marriage would become emperor Emperor Nero (37 AD - 68 AD) - orchestrated the death of his mother as he did not want to share power - by all accounts a tyrannical, self-indulgent emperor - when the senator Vindex rebelled Nero was declared a public enemy and condemned to death. Nero would take his life shortly after fleeing Rome. He lived to 30. Emperor Trajan - very popular due to his building projects and success in military campaigns - the Roman empire was at the height of its size and wealth at his death - There was a lot of slave labor used in building projects Notable Projects: - The aqueducts - Colosseum - Pantheon - largest free-standing dome for 18 centuries after - the distinctive - Baths of Caracalla

Western Philosophy

Major branches of philosophy - epistemology, ethics, logic, metaphysics - metaphysics examines the general concepts of reality, existence, objects, properties Inductive reasoning - various methods of reasoning where broader generalizations or principles are derived from a body of observations Deductive reasoning - moving through a logically sound sequence to arrive at a conclusion - "all men are mortal" -> "Socrates is a man" -> "Socrates is mortal" - mathematical induction is actually a type of deductive reasoning Figures Francis Bacon (1561 - 1626) - English philosopher and statesman who served as Lord Chancellor of England under King James I - "father of empiricism" - Wrote about scientific reform/methodology, moral philosophy and theology and juridical works where he proposed reforms to English law Thomas Hobbes (1588 - 1679) - most famous for Leviathan which expounds an influential formulation of social contract theory Baruch Spinoza (1632 - 1677) John Locke (1632 - 1704) - English philosopher and physician - one of the most influential thinkers of the European Enlightenment along with Francis Bacon David Hume (1711 - 1776) - Rejected the existence of innate ideas - argued that inductive reasoning and causality can't be justified rationally but are adoptions made out of custom and mental habit. Immanuel Kant (1724 - 1804) - wrote the critique of pure reason as a counter to skepticism, in particular Hume's formulation of it Hegel (1770 - 1831) Auguste Comte (1798 - 1857) - formulated the doctine of positivism Søren Kierkegaard (1813 - 1855) - widely considered the first existentialist philosopher - he gave priority to concrete human reality over abstract thinking Marx (1818 - 1883) Nietzsche (1844 - 1900) Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889 - 1951) - logic, philosophy of math, mind, language Jean-Paul Sartre (1905 - 1980) - Key figure in existentialism and phenomenology Saul Kripke (1940 - 2022) - analytic philosopher and logician Ideas Pyrrhonism Epicureanism Stoicism Analytic Philosophy - Ludwig Wittgenstein, Bertrand Russell, Gottlob Frege, G. E. Moore, Saul Kripke - characterised by clarity and rigor in statements and usage of formal logic and mathematics Empiricism - Key figures: Francis Bacon, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, George Berkeley, David Hume - Bacon first advocated for empiricism (in England) in 1620, although it seems he approached it from more of an applied perspective compared to later philosophers - Later in the 17th century Hobbes and Spinoza contributed as an empiricist and rationalist, respectively. - In the 18th century David Hume and George Berkeley came to prominence as well (both empiricists) - formal distinction between rationalism and empiricism was not made until Kant sought to merge the two views around 1780 Rationalism - Descartes, Baruch Spinoza, Gottfried Leibniz, Nicolas Malebranche - holds that knowledge comes from reasoning in the mind - "innate ideas" Skepticism - a family of views that question the possibility of knowledge, rejecting even the basics of "common sense" Positivism - holds that all genuine knowledge is either true by definition or "positive" (a posteriori facts). Other means of knowing such as intuition, introspection or religious faith are rejected or considered meaningless - modern positivism was first articulated by Auguste Comte Metaphysical naturalism - the worldview that the only things that exist are the substances studied by the natural sciences Length of Philosophical Texts (highly informal copy/paste from Project Gutenberg) Leviathan (Hobbes) - 220K Critique of Pure Reason (Kant) - 212K An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding (Locke) - 492K (?)

The Medieval Period

• In short, "medieval" armor started as a chainmail dress and gradually covered more of the body in plate as technological advancements in crafting were made, until they were made obsolete with the widespread adoptions of firearms.
• Cuirass - piece of armor that covers the torso
• Ecranche - small shield placed on the upper left of a knight's torso and the target in jousting.
• Besagew - small protective disk that protects a knight's armpit.
• Bevor - a piece of plate armor that protects the neck. It sweeps up from the collar as a solid piece.
• Surcoat - a rectangular covering worn over armor (typically chainmail).
• Tabard - comparable to a surcoat but open-sided (rather than just holes for the arms) and shorter, ending around the middle thigh.
• Hauberk - a chainmail tunic
• Helmet types:
• • Armet/Close Helmet - Visually the prototypical knight helm. Although visually very similar the distinction between the two is made by how they open to be taken on and off.
  • Great Helm/Pot Helm/Bucket Helm - Iconic helmet of the High Middle ages, arising in the late twelfth century in the Crusades and remaining in use until the fourteenth.
  • Frog-mouth helm - A type of great helm typically used for jousting. It developed out of the original great helm.
  • Nasal helmet - a very simple helmet mostly characterisized by the central strip that extends down over the nose (hence the name).
  • Kettle hat
  • Sallet
  • Hounskull
  • Bascinet

Insects

• Homology - similarity in genes or phenotypic structures due to shared ancestry.
• Crabs have ten legs - four pairs used for locomotion and the last set are their claws.
• Horseshoe crabs are not actually crabs. They are more closely related to arachnids.
• The only animals capable of flight (as opposed to gliding) are insects, bats and birds.
• • For bats and birds their wings are adapted limbs, but insects have distinct structures separate from their legs.
• Insects always have 6 legs, and if they have wings there are 2 additional sets of outgrowths from their body. Their bodies are composed of a head, thorax and abdomen. Most insects have antennae.
• • In certain insects the second set of wings have been reduced to small structures called halteres that aid in aerial manuvering.
  • The first set of wings in beetles are called elytra and serve as protective coverings for their more delicate second set of wings. When a beetle takes flight the elytra flip up and out of the way, sometimes providing additional steering.
• The circulatory system in insects is generally a design where the organs are washed in fluids directly in an internal cavity, compared to the vascular system of vertebrates. Insect wings however have veins along these lines which provide both structure and nutrients along the membranes. The insect equivalent of blood is called hemolymph.
• Insect antennae can have a variety of sensing properties such as olfaction, touch, humidity and temperature, sound and wind speed and direction.
• Caterpillars have 6 "true" legs as they are insects as well as a varying number (though typically 5) of pairs of prolegs, which have tiny hook-like structures called crochets. These provide stability and prevent it from falling off surfaces such as leaves as it eats.
• • Caterpillar true legs are the first 3 pairs on their bodies.

European Corporate Activity in the Asias 1600-1800

• The United East India Company (as translated from Dutch: Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie - VOC), better known as the Dutch East India Company was a chartered corporation and one of the first joint-stock companies in the world. It was granted a 21-year monopoly for trade activities in Asia. It was founded in 1602 and dissolved in 1799.
• • A corporation is an entity treated as a legal person, with rights and the ability to sue and be sued. This explains its name, which derives from the same latin origin as corpus.
  • A charter is given by a monarch or similar authoritative institution which grants an entity rights (often exclusive) for trade, exploration or colonization (or some combination of any or all of the three) in some region.
• The VOC was granted extreme powers by the Dutch government, including the ability to wage war, imprison and execute convicts, create treaties and colonies and mint money. Effectively, it acted as an extension of the government in Asia.
• The English East India Company (abbreviated as EIC) was established 2 years earlier than the VOC for very similar purposes. These two corporations had much in common, including their aforementioned goals, both being royally chartered, both wielding enormous power to the point that each was effectively an imperial nation, both being among the first joint-stock ventures, and both maintaining massive private militias and waging war.
• • A militia is a military force raised from a country's civil population.
• The EIC had an army of 260,000 soldiers at its peak, twice the size of the British army. It was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874.
• In the later years of the VOC, declining fortunes in trade and the continually undermining presence of corruption (which apparently was particularly bad in the VOC even among corporatoins) eventually lead to its dissolution, its assets being handed over to an arm of the Dutch government.
• It was not uncommon for corporations to directly fight each other over resources. One such interaction between the EIC and VOC was the Battle of Chinsurah/Battle of Biderra/Battle of Hoogly in 1759. This was an engagement in India where the Dutch sought to displace British influence in Bengal. However, the VOC suffered a decisive defeat. The battle was a significant setback in the VOC's attempts to gain control in Bengal, and overall would be characteristic of the VOC's declining fortunes.
• • Mir Jafar, the ruler in Bengal at the time, had secretly entreated with the VOC, asking them to bring Dutch troops in to help displace the British. In the intervening time however, he had been forced to ask for British forces to help with threats on his northern border, however. This resulted in escalating tensions. Robert Clive, a key figure in managing the British presence in Bengal, saw the circumstances as posing a real military threat. Clive sent for assistance from an Admiral that was patrolling the coast, but the ship was intercepted by the Dutch. The two fleets engaged following a Dutch rejection of Clive's request for the seizures to be returned.
  • Afterwards, Mir Jafar was overthrown by Clive. Along with the results of the Battle of Plassey, the British hold on Bengal was decisively reaffirmed.