Response to Niall

To his first question, "Is it possible to delete these apps?" It sounds to me that he is implying that we can  delete these apps. Based on his presentation, I feel like it is possible but it would take a a great amount of time to delete any of the apps. But  I think app number 6, work ethic, may be the easiest to "delete" because people, especially Americans, are lazy.  That leads to the second part of his question, "Is the West deleting its apps?"  I think that the West is probably deleting app number 6.  However, the other apps seem like they can't be deleted as easily because they're important parts of every society.  The reason why it is may seem like they are "deleting" these apps is probably because the other countries are slowly getting closer. When I say they are slowly getting closer, I mean that I think that all the countries are in a race.  They're all running to try to beat each other to the end.  At the beginning and right now, the West seemed like it was running fast and strong and it was ahead of the others, but the countries that were last in the beginning of the race are making a strong comeback and the West is unaware.  So, I'm trying to say is that the other five apps are harder to delete but once the other countries get them downloaded and get a hold of them, they're going to be better than the West and back to race analogy, the West is probably going to lose if it doesn't update its apps.  

To his second question, "does the sequencing matter?"  I don't think the sequencing matters.  Maybe the way they're downloaded matters, but maybe not when they are downloaded.  I guess Africa could get it wrong, I don't want to make a conjecture(Vocab word! And..this is going to show how oblivious I am to the world), but I don't really know what is exactly happening there, I should probably get to some form of news.  But if Niall is asking this question, I'm assuming he or other people think Africa is going to get it wrong. I guess if these apps are forcibly downloaded and misused then a country could "get it wrong."

To his third question, "Can China do without App number 3?"  No, China needs app number 3 because it protects an incentive.  People need an incentive for everything.  Property has always been a motivator for people because they just always want to own.  It's human nature to want stuff and to own it.  If people didn't want to own things, other people, businesses, to be honest, anything, there wouldn't be competition or a consumer society.(that doesn't mean that I think competition or consumer society needs to be downloaded first.)  Property rights ensure that the people's property is protected.  If China doesn't download that app, then people won't feel like they need to care about anything.  Like John Locke, I think selfish motives(they aren't bad, selfish just has a negative connotation) drive everything and without property rights, China would be missing that drive. 

Fucan's Relationship with Christianity

Fucan is pretty personal and wishes he never converted to Christianity.  He believes he wasted so much of his valuable for nothing because he never got anything out of it. He refers to it as the religion of the "barbarians" or the Europeans because they were seen as uncivilized to most of the world.  Fucan also refers to Buddhism as the "Great Holy True Law," which shows that he is convinced that Christianity is full of lies. He includes Confucian learning to emphasize the point that Christianity offers little truth and one must adhere to Confucian learning instead.  For this time period in Japan, Buddhism and Confucianism could be followed together while Christianity tells them they can only pick it.  Fucan focuses on the "native learning" that some Japanese people turned to so they could preserve traditional Japanese beliefs and culture.  Fucan includes the militaristic aspects of Christian followers.  He repeatedly says they destroy places and includes places that had been swamped by missionaries and military trying to overthrow countries.  

Ships, Slaves, Crew Members..the Battle

The crews of slave ships took great measures to ensure that maximum profits from their business of transporting human cargoes.  The ships themselves were overcrowded and people received little personal space to none.  The slaves were squished together so that the ship would hold the maximum number of people.  The crews gave the slaves food so that they wouldn't die of starvation.  If a slave refused to eat, they would go to great pains to get him to eat.  They would force-feed the slaves so they would not be losing profit.  If they refused to eat food, they would get punished so they wouldn't do it again. Along with the force-feeding and punishments, the ships had nets to prevent slaves form jumping off.  The crew also watched the slaves carefully to make sure they didn't attempt to escape  and if they did they would get punished.  Some of the slaves were chained as well to prevent them from escaping or committing suicide in a different way.  Basically, the crews of slave ships used many ways to make sure they didn't lose any bodies. 

Africa Map: Trade and Kingdoms

DBQ?

I think the essay was interesting.  It definitely was a little harder than I thought but easier than the other essays.  I found it most challenging to think of stuff to say for the points of view.  Organizing the essay went well.  

Promotional Videos

I would assess the videos on information and engagement with the audience.  I think the information is the most important part of the video because false information would be lying and misleading.  The way the information is conveyed is also really important.  If the video isn't able to keep the viewer's attention, the information is useless.  The audience should be intrigued and they shouldn't get bored. I can't really think of anything that isn't really that important other than effects.  Those make the video interesting though so it kind of relates to how the information is portrayed.  But with that, I think Tj and Manas did the best because they weren't boring and they were convincing.  

They're Pretty Eurocentric..#textbooks

I personally really liked the reading and I think his argument is convincing.  In a way, I'm not surprised or appalled by how he admitted how eurocentric history is presented to students in this country.  I think that's mostly because of how I grew up. I've always wondered why there was focus on European history and why almost all of my teachers were so outwardly..proud of it (that's the best word I can think of right now.)  I think I just liked his argument because it's kind my perspective on how history was always presented to me, so my reaction to this was that it was a good argument. 
I think Bentley and Ziegler do what Loewen says most history textbooks do, but they don't fluff it up like the examples in his argument.  Bentley and Ziegler pretty much assumed the reader has already heard about Christopher Columbus and they don't really reiterate his famous story.  They do say that his voyages had "momentous consequences" which is pretty accurate but vague.  In a way, they kind of try to side step stereotypical history textbooks but they aren't that much better than most authors.