Academic Jungle More Musings On Technical

How correct is Niall Ferguson in saying that the main reason why North America, and not South America, gave birth to a new rich superpower, was the difference between British influenced and Spanish influenced societal systems?

Read Jared Diamond’s Guns Germs and Steel. He explains the ethno-botanical reasons why certain cultures thrived and others struggled. I can’t remember his musing exactly on North and South America, but apart from rubber and coffee and beef in Argentina, most of South America was difficult to make money from. You either had jungle or you had the Andes running the entire spine of the continent, both making travel and trade difficult and places impassable.The US thrived on cotton plantations, the navigable Mississippi and Missouri allowed trade to flow and large parts of the continent were capable of being given over to agriculture. Thereafter British law, and land laws in particular may have given people the confidence that having made a stake in the continent they would be allowed to hold onto it. The same would later apply to laws on copyright and intellectual property- as well as laws to this present day relating to information security.

What are some great books composed of poetic musings?

For me it's Midnight's children by Salman Rushdie, Rushdie uses it so naturally that you can not distinguish between verse and prose. Some of the examples from the book are :-1) “but if small things go ,will large thing be close behind ? “ (If Winter comes, can spring be far behind)2) My finger has become a fountain: red liquid spurts out to the rhythm of fountain.3) Moreover the prophecy by Ramram “There will be two heads but you will see only one - there will be knees and nose - a nose and knees. ... Newspaper praises him, two mothers raise him! Bicyclists love him - but crowds will shove him! Sisters will weep, cobra will creep ... Spittoons will brain him - doctors will drain him - jungle will claim him - wizards reclaim him! Soldiers will try him - tyrants will fry him "There are many more examples, the book is full of poetic glimpses of Rusdhie.

What gimmicky songs were popular in the 1970s?

The Chakachas, "Jungle Fever" hit #8 in the United States with a song that was mostly Latin funk with heavy breathing on top.  Even if this song predates you, you may remember it from its appearance on the soundtrack of Boogie Nights.If you want ragtime piano, a vocal duet that's half gravel and half falsetto, and repetitive lyrics, then there's the Pipkins, "Gimme Dat Ding." It was a Top Ten hit in both the US and the UK in 1970.In 1976, songwriter Larry Groce got a Top Ten hit in the United States by spoofing the 1970s organic food craze with "Junk Food Junkie."Middle of the Road's "Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep" never got any traction in the United States, but in 1971, it was a massive #1 hit in the UK and several European countries, most likely because of its contentless but ridiculously catchy lyrics.  It is one of only less than 40 singles in the entire world that have sold more than 10 million copies.  Middle of the Road tried to have some follow-up hits with songs of similar lyrical profundity, such as "Tweedle Dee Dum," but they could never recapture the success of their most famous song.Plastic Bertrand's "Ca Plane Pour Moi" was one of the most commercially successful songs of early 70s New Wave, but in addition to the Beach Boys style "ooo wee oohs" inserted liberally into the song, I'm told that the French lyrics are complete gibberish.Walter Murphy & the Big Apple Band got all the way to #1 in the United States with "A Fifth of Beethoven," a disco version of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.One of the worst Top 40 songs ever released is Think, "Once You Understand," which hit #23 on the charts in 1971.  Its misguided musings on the Generation Gap were laughably dated since the day it was originally released.

"Until the lion learns how to write every story will glorify the hunter" what does the above mentioned saying/quote mean?

Until the oppressed or hunted learns to articulate its story , the narrative of the oppressor or hunter will remain dominant. Just think if all the literature on the Israel-Palestine conflict was written by Zionists? The world might have only a single perspective on this war perceiving the Palestinians as fanatical Muslims in contrast to Israel an oasis of capitalist democracy in the middle east.  What if African Americans and their allies didn't tell their story using literature? We wouldn't have an entire canon of lit upon which to dwell on the darker side of the American dream. Would we know about the forced sterilization of Black women in the 90s or think about the LA riots as anything more than hooliganism? Would we care for the Asian-Americans whose shops were destroyed amongst others? Oppression is multifarious.What if former colonies did not write about colonisation and its implications on the present day?  Without the insight of the oppressed, we might never understand a conflict comprehensively and perpetuate the same cycle of oppression. Writing unlike otther mediums allows the oppressed to put forward an argument or account for an experience at length and in great detail (not always). This is not to say that other mediums are not as effective. I am sure the proverb might all so refer to 'making art', oration, and worker revolution to. The pen however is the traditional analogue to the gun. Without a dialogue, how can we understand?