The Learn Tracker
...life-long learning: structured, organized, searchable...

My name is Edward Tanguay.
I have a Bachelors degree in Philosophy, a Masters in Education, and am currently working as a web developer in Berlin, Germany.

I watch over 200 college-level MOOC lectures per year in subjects such as history , psychology, science, religion, art, philosophy, and IT development in English, German, French, Spanish and Italian, and record my notes here.
Hundreds of free, self-paced university courses available:
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influential people of the past.
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Contact Me via E-Mail:
edward [at] tanguay.info

Learning Activity by Month:

The primary goal of this Learn Tracker project is to build a web site which serves as one place to record the notes of everything that I am learning from MOOC classes, to foreign languages, to useful code examples and technical how-to notes, so that I not only have an overview of what I have learned, but can search and recall these notes at any time.

The secondary goal of this Learn Tracker project is to work together with companies, universities, and MOOC providers to build software that allows employees, students, and learners to record what they are learning in an efficient way so that it serves not only as (1) a record of what they have learned, but also (2) a place for them to review and search what they have learned.

Since January 2013, I have watched and recorded notes on over 300 MOOC lectures from over 30 different courses in both English and French, and have watched and recorded notes and flashcards on over 50 foreign language videos in Italian, French and Spanish. (I am curently still adding notes I took from 2013 and plan to be caught up by the end of January 2014.

May 2015 Learn Certificate
Watched and took notes on 19 college lectures:
Learned 6 vocabulary words:
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Learned about 10 people:
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Corrected 18 misspelling:
decension, priveleged, illicited, cocain, aquiring, preferrable, receptical, Pelopenese, Meneleas, Agememnon, Mycenean, tarif, Mycenea, perjoritive, homogenaity, fantacist, Mycenean, Peloponesian
Recorded 196 Flashcards from MOOC lectures:
  • A tissue was developed (FRENCH)
                        
  • And suddenly we thought (FRENCH)
                        
  • He was put on standby (FRENCH)
                        
  • It took a year (FRENCH)
                        
  • a machine made to produce this fabric (FRENCH)
                        
  • and promote the interest of sponsors (FRENCH)
                        
  • desalinate water (FRENCH)
                        
  • is on the one hand (FRENCH)
                        
  • keep this expertise (FRENCH)
                        
  • shipyward (FRENCH)
                        
  • suddenly we said that we wanted to continue (FRENCH)
                        
  • that grows (FRENCH)
                        
  • the pride of the country (FRENCH)
                        
  • which unfortunately failed (FRENCH)
                        
  • with fiberglass (FRENCH)
                        
  • A little further up (SPANISH)
                        
  • A little further up we see a pink fountain (SPANISH)
                        
  • Above the hay wagon (SPANISH)
                        
  • Accustomed to seeing sculptures (SPANISH)
                        
  • Although he gone down in art history as a painter (SPANISH)
                        
  • Around the pool (SPANISH)
                        
  • As in this case (SPANISH)
                        
  • At his side (SPANISH)
                        
  • Behind the fortification, we see the threat of evil (SPANISH)
                        
  • Below we see a devil embracing a naked woman (SPANISH)
                        
  • By mimicking (SPANISH)
                        
  • Despite his fantasy, his characters are very believable (SPANISH)
                        
  • Further (SPANISH)
                        
  • Further down in the corner (SPANISH)
                        
  • He married a wealthy woman (SPANISH)
                        
  • He seems to be blaming the woman for something (SPANISH)
                        
  • He sensed that (SPANISH)
                        
  • I believe he achieved this (SPANISH)
                        
  • I've already mentioned the (SPANISH)
                        
  • In appreciation (SPANISH)
                        
  • In return he gave the church (SPANISH)
                        
  • In spite of this (SPANISH)
                        
  • In the lower right corner (SPANISH)
                        
  • Instead of wood, they appear in the flesh (SPANISH)
                        
  • It gives the impression that the boatman is headed there (SPANISH)
                        
  • It is called Charon crossing the Styx (SPANISH)
                        
  • It is certain that (SPANISH)
                        
  • It measured just ten centimeters (SPANISH)
                        
  • Judging by how rapidly (SPANISH)
                        
  • Let's look again at the whole picture (SPANISH)
                        
  • Look at it carefully (SPANISH)
                        
  • Look at this detail (SPANISH)
                        
  • Men were created free of sin (SPANISH)
                        
  • Several figures carved in wood (SPANISH)
                        
  • Sitting next to a cave (SPANISH)
                        
  • Still higher up (SPANISH)
                        
  • The capacity to reproduce Van der Weyden to the smallest detail is amazing (SPANISH)
                        
  • The explanation of this apparent contradiction (SPANISH)
                        
  • The folds in the clothing (SPANISH)
                        
  • The grass withers, the flower fades (SPANISH)
                        
  • The impact must have been very large (SPANISH)
                        
  • The latter was based on (SPANISH)
                        
  • The man's gaze suggests (SPANISH)
                        
  • The painters used to receive instructions (SPANISH)
                        
  • The painting was commissioned by (SPANISH)
                        
  • The subject of this scene (SPANISH)
                        
  • Their task was to turn these guidelines into images (SPANISH)
                        
  • These guilds were associations exclusively for men (SPANISH)
                        
  • They say that (SPANISH)
                        
  • Think of a painting as if it were a sentence (SPANISH)
                        
  • This does not mean that (SPANISH)
                        
  • This is another of about thirty paintings (SPANISH)
                        
  • This is due to the lowering of the cross (SPANISH)
                        
  • This light gives us something (SPANISH)
                        
  • This probably helped him sell his product (SPANISH)
                        
  • This type of careful contact between elements (SPANISH)
                        
  • We find in the intense flash of light (SPANISH)
                        
  • What Van der Weyden does here (SPANISH)
                        
  • When open (SPANISH)
                        
  • When the side flaps are closed (SPANISH)
                        
  • With the growth of the art market (SPANISH)
                        
  • a cart full of hay (SPANISH)
                        
  • a man looks out from behind a bush (SPANISH)
                        
  • a man of his time (SPANISH)
                        
  • a pig dressed as a nun (SPANISH)
                        
  • a sea inlet leads directly to a fortified tower (SPANISH)
                        
  • a story develops (SPANISH)
                        
  • a white ceramic pot (SPANISH)
                        
  • after him (SPANISH)
                        
  • after removing his nails (SPANISH)
                        
  • again with figures reminiscent of Bosch (SPANISH)
                        
  • almost actual size (SPANISH)
                        
  • almost touches the white cloth above it (SPANISH)
                        
  • an angel tries to draw the attention to the ferryman (SPANISH)
                        
  • an organ (SPANISH)
                        
  • and sought to create a new art (SPANISH)
                        
  • and yet his paintings are fun (SPANISH)
                        
  • are arranged in the picture (SPANISH)
                        
  • as a single body (SPANISH)
                        
  • as if we had discovered something (SPANISH)
                        
  • as if we saw them from there level (SPANISH)
                        
  • at an early date (SPANISH)
                        
  • at the top (SPANISH)
                        
  • barely visibil in the two upper corners (SPANISH)
                        
  • call attention to the pain of (SPANISH)
                        
  • came (SPANISH)
                        
  • can lead us to think that (SPANISH)
                        
  • compassion of a mother (SPANISH)
                        
  • composed of different parts (SPANISH)
                        
  • death (SPANISH)
                        
  • different words that serve different functions (SPANISH)
                        
  • earthly paradise (SPANISH)
                        
  • farthest away (SPANISH)
                        
  • fits with difficulty (SPANISH)
                        
  • for individuals (SPANISH)
                        
  • gave it cohesion (SPANISH)
                        
  • guide the activity of two couples (SPANISH)
                        
  • hair (SPANISH)
                        
  • has fainted (SPANISH)
                        
  • have to adapt to the market (SPANISH)
                        
  • he criticizes the world through humor (SPANISH)
                        
  • he removes a thorn that has been nailed to the paw of a lion (SPANISH)
                        
  • he would create his paintings (SPANISH)
                        
  • hear we encounter Christ (SPANISH)
                        
  • hell is dark (SPANISH)
                        
  • hiring new assistants (SPANISH)
                        
  • his gaze skyward (SPANISH)
                        
  • his work in this area in fluenced the picture we are seeing (SPANISH)
                        
  • how to get it (SPANISH)
                        
  • in the vicinity of (SPANISH)
                        
  • inherited these ideas from his ancestors (SPANISH)
                        
  • it comes close to what the public was accustomed to seeing (SPANISH)
                        
  • it is enough to make us think that what we see is real (SPANISH)
                        
  • it is not a mere summary (SPANISH)
                        
  • it led to an increase in production (SPANISH)
                        
  • it reminds us that we are in the Renaissance (SPANISH)
                        
  • it seems to tell us (SPANISH)
                        
  • it will soon be broken (SPANISH)
                        
  • lies in the importance it attaches to the landscape (SPANISH)
                        
  • look at the landscape stretching to the horizon (SPANISH)
                        
  • looking at us with an ironic attitude (SPANISH)
                        
  • makes us perceive the two figures (SPANISH)
                        
  • many activities of the figures are cheerful (SPANISH)
                        
  • may be a self-portrait (SPANISH)
                        
  • merely in the background (SPANISH)
                        
  • one feels that the artist has enjoyed painting them (SPANISH)
                        
  • one of the toes (SPANISH)
                        
  • one of them has his legs between the spokes of a carriage (SPANISH)
                        
  • one seems to echo the other (SPANISH)
                        
  • or even pubic hair that can be seen above the cloth covering it (SPANISH)
                        
  • originating in Italy (SPANISH)
                        
  • perhaps it is the artist (SPANISH)
                        
  • remind us that evil and the devil are omnipresent (SPANISH)
                        
  • reminds us (SPANISH)
                        
  • reminiscent of Christ (SPANISH)
                        
  • reminiscent of polychrome wooden alters (SPANISH)
                        
  • serves as a link between the two figures (SPANISH)
                        
  • similarity (SPANISH)
                        
  • sinful behavior (SPANISH)
                        
  • that brings us to the logic of painting (SPANISH)
                        
  • that had been stolen from him (SPANISH)
                        
  • that occurred (SPANISH)
                        
  • that seems to face the choice between two paths (SPANISH)
                        
  • that they are at the mercy of their passions (SPANISH)
                        
  • that was exported from this city (SPANISH)
                        
  • that we find in the Book of Isaiah (SPANISH)
                        
  • that we see above the horizon (SPANISH)
                        
  • the artist had to paint the light convincingly (SPANISH)
                        
  • the blood flowing from the wounds has just changed direction (SPANISH)
                        
  • the branch of the humanities (SPANISH)
                        
  • the consequences of sin and evil (SPANISH)
                        
  • the folds in the fabric (SPANISH)
                        
  • the legs (SPANISH)
                        
  • the moment when Christ (SPANISH)
                        
  • the painters had resolved (SPANISH)
                        
  • the painting was purchased (SPANISH)
                        
  • the size of their workshops (SPANISH)
                        
  • the stubble on the face of Jesus (SPANISH)
                        
  • their complex images (SPANISH)
                        
  • there is a paradox (SPANISH)
                        
  • these figures seem to us stunningly realistic (SPANISH)
                        
  • to be installed in a church (SPANISH)
                        
  • to guide their passions and lust (SPANISH)
                        
  • tools of torture (SPANISH)
                        
  • traits (SPANISH)
                        
  • tries to plant in our mind (SPANISH)
                        
  • we not only find danger and threat, but also hope (SPANISH)
                        
  • we stop curiously (SPANISH)
                        
  • where the red sleave (SPANISH)
                        
  • which belong to different planes (SPANISH)
                        
  • which is the larger picture (SPANISH)
                        
  • which manages to reach the black cloth (SPANISH)
                        
  • which seeks that which each artist (SPANISH)
                        
  • who is playing a strange trumpet (SPANISH)
                        
  • who lies with his arms crossed (SPANISH)
                        
  • who took it to Spain when she retired (SPANISH)
                        
  • who transferred the souls of the dead (SPANISH)
                        
  • wide (SPANISH)
                        
  • with a long beard (SPANISH)
                        
  • with great care (SPANISH)
                        
  • would not fit in the picture (SPANISH)
                        
Friday, May 1, 2015
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
THE ANCIENT GREEKS, Wesleyan University
•
Cyrus II of Persia [SIGH-rus] (576–530 BC)
•
conquered Croesus [KREE-sus] and took over Lydia
•
530 BC killed in battle
•
Magi {MAY-jigh] took over for a short time
•
6th century BC followers of Zoroastrianism... view all notes
Vocabulary:
corslet, n. a piece of defensive armor covering the body ⇒ "In Ancient Greek armies, the hoplite wore a bronze corslet or known as the thorax to protect his upper body."
People:
Miltiedes (550-489 BC)
Known for his role in the Battle of Marathon, as well as for his tragic downfall afterwards
  • was elected to serve as one of the ten generals for the Battle of Marathon
  • credited with devising the tactics that defeated the Persians in the Battle of Marathon
  • Miltiades was firm in insisting that the Persians be fought immediately, as a siege of Athens would have led to its destruction
  • Miltiades had his men march to the end of the Persian archer range, called the "beaten zone", then break out in a run straight at the Persian army, which was decisive in defeating the Persians
  • in 489 BCE, Miltiades led an Athenian expedition of seventy ships against the Greek-inhabited islands that were deemed to have supported the Persians
  • attack Paros but failed to take it
  • suffered a grievous leg wound during the campaign and became incapacitated
  • his failure prompted an outcry on his return to Athens, enabling his political rivals to exploit his fall from grace
  • charged with treason, he was sentenced to death, but sent to prison
  • he was sent to prison where he died, probably of gangrene from his wound
Saturday, May 2, 2015
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
THE BIBLE'S PREHISTORY, PURPOSE, AND POLITICAL FUTURE, Emory University
•
John Bright
•
A History of Israel (1959)
•
chapters
•
Age of the Patriarchs
•
Exodus and Conquest... view all notes
Monday, May 4, 2015
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
HISTORY OF ROCK, 1970-PRESENT, University of Rochester
•
Blaxploitation films
•
an important step in film making for African American actors, writers and producers
•
if you look at the history of film leading up to the early 1970s
•
you will see that while there were in fact black actors who were featured in films
•
they didn't have the exposure or important and central roles that the white actors had... view all notes
Vocabulary:
falsetto, n. a method of voice production used by male singers, especially tenors, to sing notes higher than their normal range ⇒ "All of these songs featured Curtis Mayfield's lead vocal which he sang mostly in falsetto."
Tuesday, May 5, 2015
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
DEVENIR ENTREPRENEUR DU CHANGEMENT, HEC Paris
•
Corentin de Chatelperron
•
ingénieur généraliste
•
il a commencé avec un copain à vouloir monter une boîte d'écotourisme
•
le project n'a pas marché
•
on voulait développer un concept d'écotourisme... view all notes
Wednesday, May 6, 2015
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
DESCUBRIENDO LA PINTURA EUROPEA DE 1400 A 1800, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid
•
Rogier Van der Weyden
•
nació en Tournai, en Bélgica
•
trabajó allí y en Bruselas
•
fue muy valorado ya en vida
•
realizó su obra entre las décadas de 1430 y 1460... view all notes
People:
Rogier van der Weyden (1400-1464)
Fue un pintor flamenco, en 1435 fue nombrado pintor de la ciudad de Bruselas
  • existe documentación sobre contratos o recibos de pago que permitan asignarle con entera certeza ninguna obra
  • el estaba capaz de crear apariencia de vida gracias a la extraordinaria minuciosidad con que aborda los detalles menudos, como las lágrimas que escurren por las mejillas, la sombra de las barbas o los bordados de un tejido
  • el rompe los límites entre lo real y lo esculpido al situar con frecuencia a sus figuras en espacios inverosímiles o irreales y agobiantes, con escalas contrarias a la lógica, y sin embargo intensamente emotivos y de gran fuerza estética por la armonía de sus líneas
Friday, May 8, 2015
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
CHINESE THOUGHT: ANCIENT WISDOM MEETS MODERN SCIENCE, University of British Columbia
•
Confucius on learning
•
xue [shee-AY-ah]
•
often translated as "study"
•
better translation is "learning"
•
just as process of ritual gives us a language for acting, allows us to behave like cultured human being... view all notes
Saturday, May 9, 2015
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
GREEKS AT WAR: HOMER AT TROY, Colgate University
•
the Greeks have left us extraordinary testimony about war
•
they were as bellicose as any people who ever lived
•
they were also highly literate
•
and some of their greatest writers wrote about war
•
Wilfred Owen (1893-1918)... view all notes
People:
Wilfred Owen (1893-1918)
English poet and soldier and one of the leading poets of the First World War who wrote shocking, realistic war poetry on the horrors of trenches and gas warfare
  • in October 1915, he enlisted in the Artists' Rifles Officers' Training Corps
  • he held his troops in contempt for their loutish behaviour, and in a letter to his mother described his company as "expressionless lumps"
  • in battle, he was blown into the air by a trench mortar, and spent several days lying out next to what he thought was the remains of a fellow officer
  • in the hospital, he met Siegfried Sassoon, an encounter that was to transform Owen's life
  • in July 1918, Owen returned to active service in France
  • at the end of August 1918, Owen returned to the front line
  • Owen was killed in action on 4 November 1918 during the crossing of the Sambre–Oise Canal, exactly one week before the signing of the Armistice
  • he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant the day after his death and was awarded the Military Cross for courage and leadership in battle
  • among his best-known works are "Dulce et Decorum est", "Insensibility", "Anthem for Doomed Youth", "Futility" and "Strange Meeting"
Sunday, May 10, 2015
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
MAGIC IN THE MIDDLE AGES, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
•
the end of the Roman world
•
the beginning of the Late Antiquity
•
dismantling of previous structures
•
Roman, Judeo-Christian, and Germanic cultures merged
•
the magic practiced in these cultures merged as well, producing new combinations of magic practices... view all notes
Tuesday, May 12, 2015
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
A HISTORY OF THE WORLD SINCE 1300, Princeton University
•
the French Revolution changed the nature of imperial rivalry
•
now total wars were fought over the very existence of the colonies within empires
•
Goya and many other painters
•
wars are now between peoples for peoples
•
bodies were now sites for political conflict... view all notes
Thursday, May 14, 2015
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
DESCUBRIENDO LA PINTURA EUROPEA DE 1400 A 1800, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid
•
Hieronymus Bosch [high-RON-i-mos]
•
en España se conoce como El Bosco
•
trabajó a finales del siglo XV
•
principios del XVI
•
un artista muy original... view all notes
People:
Hieronymus Bosch (1450-1516)
An Early Netherlandish painter, work is known for its fantastic imagery, detailed landscapes and illustrations of moral and religious concepts and narratives especially his macabre and nightmarish depictions of hell
  • within his lifetime his work was collected in the Netherlands, Austria, and Spain, and widely copied
  • he spent most of his life in the town of 's-Hertogenbosch, though his roots are from Aachen, Germany
  • his paintings have been difficult to translate from a modern point of view, attempts to associate instances of modern sexual imagery with fringe sects or the occult have largely failed
  • today he is seen as a hugely individualistic painter with deep insight into man's desires and deepest fears
  • his most acclaimed and outstanding work is The Garden of Earthly Delights in the Museo del Prado, Madrid
Sunday, May 17, 2015
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
UNDERSTANDING EINSTEIN: THE SPECIAL THEORY OF RELATIVITY, Stanford University
•
in 1905, Einstein, a 26-year-old patent clerk, wrote five papers which changed how humanity views reality
•
completely unexpected
•
he certainly was a good physics student but up to this point had done nothing extraordinary
•
the five papers
•
1. March 1905: light quantum... view all notes
Vocabulary:
heuristic technique, n. any approach to problem solving, learning, or discovery that employs a practical methodology not guaranteed to be optimal or perfect, but sufficient for the immediate goals, where finding an optimal solution is impossible or impractical ⇒ "Einstein called his Light Quantum Paper a heuristic proposal because it treated light as a particle even though understanding light in terms of waves had been established 100 years previously when Thomas Young set forth the modern wave theory of light."
Monday, May 18, 2015
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
A HISTORY OF THE WORLD SINCE 1300, Princeton University
•
with kings and queens no longer seen as the custodians of sovereignty
•
who is going to protect these human rights?
•
how would societies protect these rights?
•
it was the nation which was the new place in which sovereignty was being invested
•
the nation would protect the rights of the citizens of the nation... view all notes
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
REASON AND PERSUASION THROUGH PLATO'S DIALOGUES, National University of Singapore
•
Symposium (Συμπόσιον)
•
a Greek drinking party
•
Plato's Symposium is about giving speeches
•
Alcibiades [al-si-BIGH-i-deez]
•
last famous member of his mother's aristocratic family, the Alcmaeonidae [Ἀλκμαιωνίδαι]... view all notes
Wednesday, May 20, 2015
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
DESCUBRIENDO LA PINTURA EUROPEA DE 1400 A 1800, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid
•
Patinir
•
nació en el sur de Bélgica
•
trabajó la mayor parte de su vida en Amberes, desde 1515 hasta 1524
•
Amberes era una de las principales ciudades de Europa
•
sobre todo por su actividad comercial... view all notes
People:
Joachim Patinir (1480-1524)
A Flemish Northern Renaissance history and landscape painter inventor of the world landscape (Weltlandschaft) painting showing an imaginary panoramic landscape seen from an elevated viewpoint that includes mountains and lowlands, water, and buildings
  • worked in Antwerp, one of the major European commercial cities of the day
  • a friend of Albrecht Dürer who attended his second wedding and called him "der gute Landschaftmaler"
  • the first Flemish painter to regard himself primarily as a landscape
  • Patinir would often let his landscapes dwarf his figures, which were frequently painted by other artists, a specialization that was common at the time in the Low Countries
  • his and the works of Hieronymous Bosch were particularly large
Monday, May 25, 2015
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
LETTERS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL, Harvard University
•
slavery and freedom
•
1 Corinthians 6:20
•
"You were bought with a price"
•
1 Corinthians 7:17, 21-24
•
"For he who was called in the Lord as a slave is a freedperson of the Lord. Likewise s/he who was free when called is a slave of Christ. You were bought with a price, do not become slaves of humans."... view all notes
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
GREEKS AT WAR: HOMER AT TROY, Colgate University
•
the Trojan War
•
if it was fought, was the first great encounter between East and West
•
the origin of the divide between us and the others
•
a divide which continues to play itself out today in the context of Middle Eastern politics
•
the Trojan War reminds us that the divide has always been there... view all notes
Vocabulary:
patera, n. a shallow ceramic or metal libation bowl used for the ritual pouring of a liquid as an offering to a god, often having a bulbous indentation in the center underside to facilitate holding it, and typically having no handles, and no feet ⇒ "A statue of Augustus has a toga pulled over his right shoulder which indicated he was offering a sacrifice, his right arm was probably holding a patera."
course, n. a continuous layer of building material, such as brick or tile, on a wall or roof of a building ⇒ "The circuit wall of Troy which enclosed the houses was built of masonry four to five meters thick and more than six meters high, the top part which was probably another three meters in height, was built of mud brick, that was the way the Ancients built circuit walls, stone at the lower courses, mud brick on the upper."
People:
Heinrich Schliemann (1822-1890)
German businessman, who, after making his fortune in America, became an archaeological excavator of Hisarlik, now presumed to be the site of Troy who promoted the belief that the Iliad was based on history
  • an incurable romantic and a hard-headed businessman
  • he had colossal energy and a phenomenal memory
  • he made his first fortune in Sacramento during the California Gold Rush and eventually acquired United States citizenship
  • he spoke and wrote in over a dozen languages, using them as in his career as a businessman in the importing trade
  • he claimed that it took him six weeks to learn a language and wrote his diary in the language of whatever country he happened to be in
  • by the end of his life, he could converse in English, French, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, Swedish, Polish, Italian, Greek, Latin, Russian, Arabic, and Turkish as well as German
  • but he was also a first-rate fantasist, he couldn't stop making things up which includes the accounts of his excavations
  • he became utterly obsessed by Homer's legends and determined to prove that the Trojan War actually happened
  • he lived the dream and even divorced his first wife to marry a Greek girl Sophia with whom he had two children whom he named Agamemnon and Andromache
  • he used his amassed fortune to finance archeological digs at a time when archeology was in its infancy
  • he became, in effect, the father of the study of prehistoric Greece
  • today, regarding our historical knowledge of the Trojan War, we are still in the grip of Schliemann's obsessive and fanatical vision, someone who who both made important discoveries as well as misinterpreted much his data, and in the view of many scholars, did so deliberately
Friday, May 29, 2015
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
ALEXANDER THE GREAT, Wellesley College
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Athenians in second half of the 5th century BC
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recapture the Aegean Islands from the Persians
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push the Persians away from the coast of Asia Minor
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450 BC peace signed
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gave Greek cities on coast of Asia Minor the right to follow their own laws... view all notes
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
MAKING SENSE OF NEWS, University of Hong Kong
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why care about news
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some news stories directly affect our lives
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numerous people taking to the street in your community
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a deadly disease that breaks out
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the unemployment rate reaching a record high... view all notes
Vocabulary:
aspis, n. a type of round shield worn by ancient Greek soldiers, usually made of wood with a metal rim ⇒ "For centuries, to settle interstate disputes largely over land, Greek city states had armed and equipped themselves with helmets, breast plates, greaves, and carried a spear as their offensive weapon, and also a shield, usually made of wood but with a metal rim called an aspis or hoplon."
People:
Epaminondas (418-362 BC)
Theban general and statesman of the 4th century BC who transformed the Ancient Greek city-state of Thebes, leading it out of Spartan subjugation into a preeminent position in Greek politics
  • broke Spartan military power with his victory at Leuctra and liberated the Messenian helots, a group of Peloponnesian Greeks who had been enslaved under Spartan rule for some 230 years
  • reshaped the political map of Greece, fragmented old alliances, created new ones, and supervised the construction of entire cities
  • also militarily influential, inventing and implementing several major battlefield tactics
  • had been praised in his time as an idealist and liberator, but now largely remembered for a decade of campaigning that sapped the strength of the great land powers of Greece and paved the way for the Macedonian conquest
  • has fallen into relative obscurity in modern times, as a mere twenty-seven years after his death, a recalcitrant Thebes was obliterated by Alexander the Great
Sunday, May 31, 2015
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
KEY CONSTITUTIONAL CONCEPTS AND SUPREME COURT CASES, University of Pennsylvania
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Penn Law has this goat as mascot
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based on Chinese legend that a goat would decide who was guilty
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Dollree Mapp (1923-2014)
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1957, police searched her house looking for someone
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she know she was protected to tell them no if they didn't have a warrant... view all notes
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