Mathematics

I've been wanting to get back to mathematics, since it's so important in many other areas. This includes subjects of mathematical foundations, arithmetic, algebra, analysis, geometry, and statistics.

I've also begun taking a look at what i call food-related or agricultural occupations. These include foraging, agriculture, forestry, hunting, fishing, herding, processing, and preparation.

I've also finished making notes on miscellateous classes of artifacts, which finished the matierial culture review for now. I will pick this up again before too long.

In family studies, I've finished an initial look at marriage.

In education, I'm taking a look at learning, which, for lack of better organization, I'm dividing as observation, mimicry, reading, experiment, and theorization. This is a somewhat tentative division and may vary as I gather more information.

In corporations, I've taken a look at BP, British Petroleum.

Under social change, I'm starting to look at major processes. These are roughly grouped as the agricultural revolution, civilization or agrarianism, westernization, and industrialization. These are very broad categories and involve many others.

In cities, I'm taking a look at Western cities first.

I've also started a review of Peoples of the world, so that I can take my analysis a little deepter.
I've also begun taking a look at what I call Central Asian peoples, which include Tibetan, Mongol, Siberian, and Inner Asian peoples, until I have a better categorization of them.

In history, I have been taking a look at the 23rd century, which included the Akkadian empire which followed the Sumerians. The Late 3rd Century BC includes much of early Roman history; think Hannibal and Archimedes. 1941-1945 includes the bulk of World War II.

Science and anthropology

It is said that science is a human endeavor. It is not conducted in isolation, but connunication and interaction among scientists is a vital part of it. This subject is in part better known as the sociology of science. Social psychology, interactions, social norms, and the behavior and types of scientific groups are valuable here. Demography is less useful, but parts of human ecology, particularly the effects of human activity on nature, is an important area of study and appears in various textbooks on science. Physical anthropology is rather less useful. The particular location on the earth is not particularly fundamental. I will identify particular groups in the future.

In physics, I've begun looking at advanced gravitation, which includes two principal areas: nonspherical bodies, and nonrigid bodues. These are commected to major areas of classical mechanics.

In the area of chemical change, I've finished a firt look at thermochamistry.

In planetary astronomy, I've made space to look at the terrestrial planets.

In organism biology, I'm starting to look at development, which includes embryology, life cycle, and adaptation to the environment.

Studies of the human body are also progressing with the circulatory system; the heart, blood vessels, blood, and circulation.

an important area of psychology is consciousness, which I consider to include unconsciousness (such a sleep), altered consciousness (such as drug-induced or trance-like states), and waking consciousness.

For biography, I have included space for Charles Darwin.

I've also begun to review the scientific basis of anthropology. Accounts of inhabitants of other worlds, either in or out of this sular system, are not yet in the realm of science. Since people live on the land, Geology is easier to apply than the areas of the hydrosphere. The air, weather and climate have major effects on people and society. This varies according to specific location, and the history of the earth, especially the Cenozoic Era, overlaps with various areas of anthroplogy. Molecular biology and cell biology are less useful than the biology of organisms, but ecology and the history of life on earth also overlap with areas of anthropology.

Personal studies using science

I've reached a point in the development of physical geography where I need to include more mapping of the earth, so far at a very large and crude scale, so I'll be working through that for a little while

In the biology of organisms, I've finished a preliminary look at form. I've also come back around to take a closer look at evolution.

I've also begun to take a closer look at how personal studies depend on science. The human body and psychology both make use of classical mechanics and gravitation, optics and possibly other parts of electromagnetism, classical and nonequilibriutm thermodynamics, and a little subatomic, atomic, molecular and bulk matter physics. They are concerned with elements, compounds, and mixtures (in increasing order of importance), and some details of quantities of substances, chemical thermodynamics, reaction rates and types are also important. Knowledge of the planets is more likely to be applicable than that of the stars. Understanding of the minerals, rocks, rock formations, processes, and landforms of the earth; oceans, glaciers, groundwater, and fresh water; atmospheric composition, weather, and climate; terrestrial physical geography, and the Cenozoic Era of geological history can all be connected. Molecules and molecular processes; cell anatomy, functions, and types are connected. Multicellularity, Anatomy and physiology, form, life cycle and development, behavior, and types of organisms, especially comparisons of people and other living things, are also important. There are also some connections with populations, communities, evolution, biomes, and biogeography, and some with the history of life on earth.

In studies of human body systems, I'm taking a closer look at the cardiovascular system, respiratory system, digestive system, excretory system, and lymphatic system. In the area of pschology, I've worked through a classification of motor activity, and in biography, I have a couple of notes on Albert Einstein.

In areas of culture, I've moved from linguistics to writing, and here I'm considering three major types; Ideographic, syllabic, and alphabetic writing. I've also started a track on literature. This includes oral tradition, forms of literature, classifications, and works. At the same time, I've finished up the graphics section. Also, I've started on occupations, and I think there are several classification schemes to choose from: Food related, clothing related, building-related, transportation-related, communication-related, industrial, and service-related occupations.

In Education, I've started a topic on learning. I don't really have enough information to classify this, so this is likely to be rearranged fairly often. In corporations, I've expanded a little note on Wal-Mart; which Fortune lists on top of the global 500.

In social change, I'v finished up a classification of processes of change, and I'm starting another cycle of looking at communities, which I'm going to have to group the same way I do peoples. And, speaking of peoples, I've funished a brief look at the oriental peoples.

In History, I've started a look at the mid-20th century, from 1941 to 1960.

Social structure and change

I've finished the introduction to integumentary systems (skin and membranes). At the same time, this completes the section on structural systems of the human body.

I have some notes on the life of Louis Pasteur added.

Progress in various areas of culture is showing up. I have completed a beginning outline of linguistics, a beginning outline for philosophy, and n outline of customs.

I've also picked up education, for a closer look at this important section, and I'm going to start making notes on major companies and corporations.

I also took the opportunity to review the Social structure and change section. As I've mentioned before, I have this divided into social structure, types, and social changes. These aren't really connected strongly to the sciences; I give a little more weight to psychology and particular people as leaders of change, and to anthropology for working out the mechanics of it. Culture is such an important part of social structure and change that it has to be involved, as do the social institutions. Specific communities can be examples, and to some extend this has to be developed by examining specific peoples. The history of social structure and change and its study is another perspective I will have to look at when I have more information.

I've also finally finished my initial survey of scandinavian peoples, which at the same time completes a look at western civilization, but this is such an important area that it will be starting again soon.

In history, I've finished a section on the early-mid 20th century, from the aftermath of World War I to the beginnings of World War II.

In beginning another cycle of development, I'm taking a closer look at how the personal studies are applied in science. There are various necessities and characteristics of the human body that make certain areas of science and nature difficult to examine. For instance, many chemicals are toxic, we cannot breathe in outer space or underwater, and we are too big to see microbes easily. There are other limitations on what we can sense and manipulate, as just one aspect of psychilogy. I am working on making a list of prominent scientists, selected from among prominent world figures, but I'm trying to stay aware of its limitations.

Within physics, I am looking at acceleration and related quantities within particle mechanics. This includes one, two, and three-dimensional cases, and the connection to velocity. I've also finished up an initial look at simple Newtonian gravitation.

History and more

Within Anthropology, particularly Demography, I've started to make space for the basic demographic processes; birth, aging, death, and migration.

Within economics, I finished a preliminary look at types fo economic systems, and I also finished a basic review of religion.

I also have a note on the city of London.

I finished a review of the highest level of history. This does not depend too heavily on the physical and natural sciences, except for methods of dating. The area that is sometimes called "big history" attempts to connect the history of nature to human history, but I have a little bit of distaste for this approach.
Studies of the human body and psychology are at rather too low a level to be useful in history, but the biography list is a very useful tool for examining who was important when. Many of the processes that drive history, such as population growth, climate change, and the growth of socially influential groups, can be studied using means of anthropology. The use of language, literature, concepts, and philosophy, various occupations, motion pictures, and the use of artifacts in archeological reconstructions of history are all important aids. The use of family studies in history is comparatively neglected except at the level of ruling families. Educational and academic endeavors, and economic history is less often used than political history, and religious approaches are also often neglected. Investigation of social structure and change, specific communities, and peoples of the world are also necessary in investigation of history. I may have mentioned these aids earlier, but these illustrate the connections of the many other areas of knowledge to history.

In Antiquity, I've started a closer look at the late 3rd millennium BC, and I'm going to have to do the summary when I've finished taking this look.

Moving on to the next cycle, I'm reasonably pleased the way I've been able to keep various tracks moving forward so that I'm not concentrating excessively on one end of my knowledge base. This has been a big problem before.

Within science, I'm reasonably pleased with how things are going. I have study tracks going on all the basic physical sciences, but I will be putting increasing emphasis on the Earth sciences and Biology.

Within particle kinematics, I've finished my review of velocity-related quantities.
I'm also beginning to look more closely at electrodnamics (electric current, that is), with current definition, EMF (electromotive force), resistance and related quantities, DC circuits, and AC circuits, all of which I've studied before, but need a better review so I can use them.

I'm also looking at Molecular physics, with areas of chemical bonding, structure of molecules, and molecular behavior. This area has a substantial overlap with chemistry, and a lot of the information on it will be coming from chemistry texts, rather than physics.

In Earth science, I'm looking at oceanography, including seawater, waves, tides, and currents. This isn't exactly analogoues to geology, although I would make it so if I could.
In accordance with the intension of expanding my coverage of this area, I'm also starting a physical geography track so I can start considering the earth science of specific places.

And, in Biology, I've finished preparations for studies of communities, to be picked up again later.

Main block elements, hydrosphere

Within Physics, specifically electromagnetism, I've finished up for now with the electrostatics section.
I've also done as much as I'm doing right now on atomic physics, but will come back to this section later.
I decided to go ahead and do a little more detail on what I'm calling the main block elements; the Boron group, the Carbon group, the Nitrogen group, the Oxygen group, and the halogens.
In earth science, after finally getting through geology, I'm taking a closer look at the hydrosphere. Here I have four major divisions; Oceans, Ice and glaciers, groundwater, and freshwater.

Moving on from science, I have also somewhat expanded the basic sketch of Isaac Newton.

Sociology revisited

As I continue looking into the family, marriage is an important topic, which is really far more extensive that the brief hint I have suggests. Until I have better information, this includes topics of courtship and mate selection, Marital relations, forms of marriage, and marriage termination.

I've also done a significant expansion of my notes on the topic of sociology, which includes social structure and change, communities, and peoples of the world.
This subject depends rather indirectly on the sciences. These are considered to form the basis of other components of society. Likewise, studies of the human body and psychology are considered largely through other areas. Biography will be rather more important. Sociology depends quite heavily on areas I call anthropology, because these are cultural universals that are found in every society. Social foundations, on demography, human ecology, physical anthropology, and particular groups. I may have mentioned that although traditionally, anthropology deals with the study of entire peoples, most notably those at a pre-industrial level of technology, while sociology is considered to deal more with modern, westernized, urbanized peoples, I view this as an unfortunage choice. There is substantial overlap between the two, and it works better for me to divide the subjects differently.
The areas of culture, which include language, customs, arts, and technology as examples, are important in the study of sociology, and families, education, economics, government, and religion are also sufficiently universal to include.
A thorough study of human society would include and duplicate nearly all of history, so I am trying to restrict this connection to major developments in the study of sociology. These can be traced largely to the classical and medieval greeks and through modern times.

For particular communities, I have a brief sketch for Rio de Janeiro.

In continuation of my look at Asiatic peoples, I am making more room for Oriental peoples, which I consider to be Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, although with more information this could be redivided.

In antiquity, I have completed a review of the early 3rd millennium BC, which emphasises the peoples of Egypt and Sumer.

Integument, Galileo, and demography.

In study of the human body systems, I'm considering what's called the integumentary system; which consists of the skin and internal membranes.

Also, I have a little more space for information on the life of Galileo Galilei.

Within anthropolgoy, I have begun reexamining demography, including basic processes, population structure, and projection of population growth and decline.

Other areas are in progress.

Science progress

I finished up a brief section on the alkali group of elements, which may have been a little ahead of where I want to go with them. I will be continuing with expanding other groups of elements; the main block group, the transition metal group, and the inner transition metal group.

Within chemical thermodynamics, I have started an outline of thermochemistry. This includes dealing with four major quantities of interest; enthalpy, entropy, Helmholtz Free Energy, and Gibbs free energy. The third of these is little discussed in most introductory chemistry texts, but since it was mentioned in one of mine, I include it for the sake of completeness.

In Astronomy, I am taking a closer look at the terrestrial planets; Mercury, Venus, the Earth, and Mars.

In geology, I have finally fihished a section on interior geology, which wraps up the section for now.

Social change

I can think of several different ways to approach social changes. There is innovation; the creation of something new. There is adoption; the persuasion of other people to make the change. There is adaptation; changing something that already exists, and there is extinction; when something that was part of a society ceases to exist. These can probably be better described by application to particular changes.

I have an entry for Dacca, Bangladesh.

I've done another level of outline for South Asia. I had a little bit of difficulty deciding which to consider next, but that's settled now.

In history, I've moved into the 3rd century BC: The hellenistic Kingdoms and the increasing prominence of the Roman Republic, and will be sketching out major events for more detailed study later.

One of my readers criticized the Psychology section of the SKB. Now that I take a look at it, it isn't quite as bad as I feared, but I have progresses a little further. However, I will admit that it is incomplete almost to the point of being misleading.

Families, logic, and psychology

I've begun expanding the families section. In my view, this is quite possibly the least-well known and most underestimated of the various institutions of society.

This does not depend too heavily on natural science. There are family-like organizations in the animal kingdom, but animals and animal behavior, while they may serve for comparative purposes and illuminate certain aspects of human behavior, they are not good models for the human family.
Rather, human families are based on the peculiarites of the human body and human psychology and development. All people originate in families of some kind, but some have more prominent connections to their families than others.
The study of families depends heavily on social foundations, on demography, on human ecology (as in, how to feed the children), on physical anthropology, and human geography, as well as connections with groups of all types.
The structure of the family depends on cultural elements such as language and literature, customs such as where members live and how they work, and on posessions
At least tentatively, I have divided the subject into marriage; children and parenting, kinship, and particular familes.
Families are influenced by and in turn influence education and educational institutions, economics, government, and religion.
In many ways, they are the most numerous but least visible components of social structure, social types, and change, and of particular communities. There is some variation among the peoples of the world, but for the most part, I am focusing on the family in Western civilization.
The history of families will require considerably more time and space than I have here, and families have changed since early times. The prehistorical roots of families are poorly known or understood. They did occupy a much more important role in most ancient peoples than we have much experience with. Other institutions became more prominent in classical and medieval times. In the modern period, particularly in the last two centuries, there is evidence that the family structure of society has been greatly weakened. Certainly, there is less attention given to it by modern scholars than there has been to government and ecnomics.

A reader recently proposed a logical dual, which I interpreted as a request for a duel (There is such a thing as a dual in logic, and it has no discernable resemblance to a duel). Unfortunately, we reached no agreement on the rules to govern it. I proposed that we must agree on certain axioms and rules to determine which logical arguments before anything could be proven, the reader proposed that nothing can be proven at all. I suggested that observations of fact cannot be proven, and indeed, the things that can be proven are comparatively unimportant, so that's almost correct. I also said that things can be proven in mathematics that are much more difficult in philosophy, for several reasons, such as the greater number of axiomatic-type statements, the presence of uncertain statements that classical logic can't handle, imprecision of the language, the comparative weakness of methods of philosophical proof, and so on. So far, there has been no reply. I would have enjoyed a good logical duel.
But this prompted me to take a look for the first time in a while at the logic blogs I have linked, and I found a comment on Lumpy Pea Coat that's quite relevant to my interests. I have managed to work out the fundamentals of the 4-valued logic the person who inspired the comment on "Modal and Many Valued Logic" wants to do, but I haven't developed it beyond the basics. What he wants to do can be done, but having hacked a trail through that underbrush and done battle with the logical beasties that infest it, I can testify that it's likely to be a _lot_ easier to follow my lead than to make it work himself. It has to be based on concepts from the 3-valued version I discussed back in May which no one is yet paying any attention to. The logicians are correct, up to a point: It's not possible to do 4-valued logic in a way that's compatible with the non-classical systems they are accustomed to.

There have also been a few comments on my Sapience Knowledge Base, which will be worth mentioning here, but not today.