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CONTENTS Page 3 WHAT WAS THE STONE AGE? Page 4 WHAT WAS THE WARSAW PACT? Page 6 WHAT WERE THE EGYPTIAN PYRAMIDS USED FOR?

Page 7 WHAT IS THE OECD?

Page 8 WHAT IS THE UN (UNITED NATIONS)?

Page 9 WHAT IS SURREALISM?

Page 11 WHAT IS THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT?

Page 12 WHAT CAUSES EROSION?

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WHAT WAS THE STONE AGE? The Stone Age refers to a

period of time in human prehistory, all the way back from the first primate tool making (Homo habilis), more than 2.6 million years ago to about 3500 BC, when metallurgy in the form of smelting copper ore was developed. The Stone Age is divided into three segments, the Paleolithic (literally: Old Stone Age), Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age), and Neolithic (New Stone Age).

The Paleolithic stretches from 2.6 million BC to about 20,000 or 10,000

years ago (varies by location), when the Mesolithic began. The Mesolithic is the period during the last Ice Age. Artifacts and fossil evidence from this period are scant. The Mesolithic gave way to the Neolithic with the development of agriculture around 8,000 BC. The Neolithic continued until the Bronze Age, which began around 3500 BC. (Again, this varies somewhat with location.)

As the name implies, the Stone Age refers to the time period in which man made its tools from stones, such as flint. "Man" is being used here in the broad sense of the genus Homo, means literally means "man," but not "modern man," associated with the species Homo sapiens. The Stone Age was participated in by at least nine species of the genus Homo: Homo habilis, Homo ergaster, Homorhodesiersis, Homo antecessor, Homo hedelbergensis, Homo erectus, Homo solcersis, Homo neanderthalensis, Homo sapiens. They lived in small tribes leading a hunter-gatherer lifestyle, until the very end of the Stone Age, when the so-called Neolithic revolution took place in the Fertile Crescent in modern-day Iraq.

Common Stone Age products included the mortar and pestle, arrowheads, spearheads, racloirs (stone scrapers), and most famously, hand-axes. Pottery came at the very end. Bone needles and straw textiles were also made. The oldest representative culture "industry" is known as the Oldowan, which was further refined in the Acheulean culture. After the basics of Stone Age tools were developed, very little refinements came for thousands of years after.

Things first began to change appreciably in the Upper Paleolithic, that is, the most recent part of the New Stone Age, which extended from about 40,000 years ago to 10,000 years ago, when remarkable changes happened in human culture. Advanced darts, harpoons, the fishhook, the oil lamp, rope, and the eyed needle all appeared during this period. Art was represented by Venus figurines, cave paintings, and petro glyphs.

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WHAT WAS THE WARSAW PACT? The Warsaw Pact is the

name given to an agreement between several Communist states of Europe. It is also known as the Warsaw Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance. The Warsaw Pact was established in 1955, in Poland. The Soviet Union initiated the Warsaw Pact in response to the formation of the North Atlantic Treaty

Organization (NATO), which in turn was formed in response to the perceived threat to European and North Atlantic nations by the Soviet Union. The Warsaw Pact was made available in Polish, Czech, German, Hungarian, Romanian, and Russian.

Originally, the members of the Warsaw Pact were the Soviet Union, Bulgaria, Albania, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Czechoslovakia. The German Democratic Republic joined in 1956, and Albania left the pact in 1961 after the Sino-Soviet split. The Warsaw Pact ultimately dissolved in 1991 as the Soviet Union dissolved and many of the Communist states which made up the pact moved to democratic systems.

The Warsaw Pact had two main duties, and two main branches. The Political Consultative Committee was responsible for non-military activities between the various nations that made up the pact. The Unified Command of Pact Armed Forces was responsible for the various troops under its auspices from the various nations that made up the pact. The Supreme Commander of the Unified Command was also the First Deputy Minister of Defense for the Soviet Union itself.

The basic idea of the Warsaw Pact was that the various nations who were signatories would come to one another’s aid, in case of aggression. There were fears among many of the members that Western nations, especially after the formation of NATO, might choose to invade or take military action against various Eastern Bloc states to try to topple their Communist governments.

The Warsaw Pact assuaged these fears somewhat by combining each nation’s military power into a much greater force. The Soviet Union also used the Warsaw Pact as a way to control its smaller allies, as it did when it swept into Czechoslovakia in 1968 with the assistance of other Warsaw Pact members to overthrow a government it said was showing Imperialistic tendencies, and therefore threatening other pact members.

In spite of the Cold War and the rivalry between NATO nations and nations which were a part of the Warsaw Pact, there were many examples of mutual cooperation between the two. Both nations often deployed troops under the auspices of the United Nations, who would serve side by side with

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one another. The International Commission of Control and Supervision, for example, deployed both Canadian and Polish troops to Vietnam. In 2005 Poland released many classified documents from its Warsaw Pact days, which shed light on much of the strategy of the Warsaw Pact nations. Most surprising to many were the contingency plans of the Warsaw Pact nations in the case of a war with the Western powers.

The primary strategy was incredibly offensive, with plans laid out on how to deploy quickly and effectively into Western Europe to seize control, using nuclear force if necessary. Very few defensive plans were present, with the strategy relying on speed and efficiency to neutralize European powers.

In 1999 a number of former Warsaw Pact member nations, and the nations that have since replaced them, joined NATO. In 2004, even more nations joined. The membership of Bulgaria, Poland, Hungary, Estonia, Latvia, Romania, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and

Lithuania represents in many ways a closing of one of the last circles of the Cold War.

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WHAT WERE THE EGYPTIAN PYRAMIDS USED FOR?

The ancient Egyptians built pyramids as tombs for their Pharaohs, or kings. A Pharaoh would begin planning his tomb, or "house of eternity," as soon as he took the throne. This was because the Egyptian pyramids held many items in preparation for the afterlife. It was believed that the Pharaohs would need many of his belongings, as well as slaves, for the afterlife.

There are more than 100 Egyptian pyramids, each built for a different person. Most pyramids were actually pyramid complexes including a main pyramid surrounded by a courtyard, a nearby mortuary temple, and a small cult pyramid that was to house the king's soul. Some pyramids had nearby small pyramids or other kinds of tombs set aside for family members. In ancient Egypt, it was believed that death began a journey that brought the person to the next world of the afterlife. The king was mummified and the mummy kept inside the pyramid both for protection and for easier travel to the afterlife. His belongings were kept with him in the pyramid so that he might have access to them in the afterlife.

There was a specific reason for the shapes of the ancient Egyptian Pyramids. They believed that the Pharaoh ascended to heaven on the rays of the sun. The sun's rays, which a Pharaoh would use to climb to the afterlife, were symbolized by the shape of the pyramid. The pyramid shape could also have been a monument to Re, the Sun God, who was believed to have created all life.

The location of the pyramids was also important, since the pyramids needed to be located under the stars which were considered the most important. Most pyramids were built on the west bank of the Nile because the sun was thought to "die" in the west each night. The first of the Egyptian pyramids of ancient Egypt was built in 2611 B.C. for Pharaoh Djoser. This pyramid did not have smooth sides, but instead was comprised of six step-like levels. The "Bent Pyramid," the first pyramid without steps, was built approximately thirty years later. The angle of its sides was changed about halfway through construction, making the sides appear bent. This pyramid was not very tall.

About fifty years later, the largest of the pyramids at Giza was built. This pyramid was a true feat of engineering, built of about two million stone blocks, with each block weighing as much as fifteen tons. It took over 80 years to build all three pyramids located at Giza.

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WHAT IS THE OECD?

The Organization for Economic Development (OECD) was formed in 1961 as an expansion of the Organization for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC). The OEEC developed strategies for restructuring Europe after World War II. Conversely, the OECD expanded its reach and included not only European countries, but also Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Korea, and the United States.

The OECD's goals are to promote economic stability and democracy in its member countries and in developing countries. One of the main

methods that the OECD uses to analyze countries is collecting and publishing statistics on social and economic issues. These statistics are reviewed by governments and during OECD meetings to address how best to foster OECD goals. OECD counsels are comprised of representatives from member countries. These representatives draft recommendations or international agreements on various issues. For example, in 2006, the OECD made strong recommendations to countries to adopt anti-spam policies, encouraging nations to educate both the public and industries to reduce Internet spam. At the same meeting in 2006, the OECD debated and discussed the economic future and potential of China, not a member country, and recommended that China allow more foreign investment, which is frequently held up by Chinese laws. The OECD analysis of this issue suggests that more foreign investors would increase the economic growth of China, while fostering good relationships between China and other countries. Member countries of the OECD take these recommendations back to their governments, and often these recommendations influence foreign policy.

The OECD also has influence over the issue of sustainable development. The OECD looks for solutions that allow for current economic growth without negatively impacting the economic growth and survival of future generations. Through statistical analysis and discussion, the OECD can draft agreements, or at least strongly encourage corporate responsibility or high environmental standards and policies. It can also examine developing countries to see if they progress along sustainable lines. Education and recommendations can be offered to these countries, which if agreed upon, will further the aims of the OECD. Not all counsel from the OECD is accepted, and some counsel is harshly criticized. Recommendations and agreements are not binding to either member or nonmember countries. The OECD fails to find approval by governments opposing democracy and capitalism. Frequently, however, the OECD continues to recommend and exert pressure on governments they deem irresponsible in their policies. This can be an effective method for ultimately achieving the OECD’s aims.

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WHAT IS THE UN (UNITED NATIONS)? The United Nations (UN) was formed on 24

October 1945. Fifty-one countries came together with the sole purpose of promoting peace throughout the world through mutual cooperation. Today, almost every nation in the world is a member of the United Nations, for a total of 191 members.

The United Nations charter details the guidelines that every member must abide by. It is a

treaty that sets out the rules and obligations of member nations. The UN charter delineates four main purposes: to maintain international peace and security, to develop friendly co-operation between countries, to solve international problems and respect all human rights, and to serve as a focal point for all peaceful national activities.

Although the United Nations cannot make laws and is not a governing

power, it provides guidelines in order to prevent conflict between nations. It also develops rules in order to help achieve peaceful conclusions to problems affecting the world. The United Nations view is that, no matter how small or poor a nation is, it still has a voice and a say in the development of the world.

The campaigns of the United Nations are concerned with all aspects of world peace and international harmony. They help fight against drug trafficking and terrorist attacks. They have led campaigns to assist refugees and to provide vital food production and humanitarian aid to third world countries. Campaigns for the fight against AIDS and world-wide disarmament are two of their highest priorities.

The United Nations holds regular meetings to discuss the world's most

urgent problems. Each member of the UN has a vote on each topic. At the meetings, they decide and vote on subjects such as the world's international peace. Members of the UN also debate major security problems throughout the world. Other topics may include deciding on new members to be admitted to the United Nations. Although voting is the main form of decision, the UN prefers all agreements to be made by consensus.

There are six main divisions of the United Nations: the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the Trustee Council, and the Secretariat. The International Court of Justice, also known as the World Court, is the main legal branch of the UN. It makes decisions and judgments on conflicts between countries. The United Nations is a global organization with the assets and funds to make huge changes throughout the world. In 2005, 3 billion US dollars (USD) was committed to help the fight against AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. Another 4.5 billion USD was administered to help developing countries with their environmental problems.

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WHAT IS SURREALISM? Surrealism is an artistic

movement and philosophy that first gained popularity in the 1920s. Initially, surrealism was an offshoot of Dadaism, which posited that traditional art should be replaced with anything "anti-art" and triumphed the ridiculous, the absurd, and a basic disregard for form. Andre Breton was the initial proponent of surrealism in literature and the visual arts. Much of his emphasis was on

accessing the unconscious, as viewed by psychiatrist Sigmund Freud. Surrealism was a reaction to the philosophy of rationalism, which many felt had caused, through the Industrial Revolution, the disaster of World War I.

Surrealism, as envisioned by Breton, would discard the conscious production of art and would instead rely on the unconscious for inspiration in art. Breton and other surrealist philosophers and artists believed that art as access to the unconscious was more "real" or "true" than rationalist art works. Automatic drawing and writing, in which the artist holds a pencil and tries to clear away the thoughts of the conscious mind, then simply allow the pencil to flow, was considered the closest approach to the unconscious. Surrealists following Breton practiced the Automatism form of Surrealist art.

Veristic surrealists split from Automatism primarily by defining the unconscious as envisioned by psychiatrist Carl Jung. They strongly believed that surrealism could best express the unconscious by attention to and study of artistic form. Veristic work hoped to communicate deeper thoughts by looking at the metaphoric significance of the work and how it related to the universal unconscious.

The universal unconscious was Jung's theory that all people possess an innate knowledge and understanding of images. Such images are universal in nature, and recur in most literature and art. By looking into the image, Veristic surrealism hoped to gain access to and understand unconscious thoughts and behaviors. Writer and Professor Joseph Campbell later did significant work on this topic, exploring the commonalities among different mythic structures and recurring symbols in myths.

Picasso was a practitioner of the Automatism form of surrealism. His work lets go of traditional artistic practices and results in a more primary form of art. Much of his work is based in his concept that children's ingenuity can provide essential access to the unconscious.

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Salvador Dalí is more of the Veristic school of surrealism. His work juxtaposes contrary or anachronistic images and derives more directly from Dadaism. Dalí very much believed that art should be studied and mastered, and that expression of the unconscious would spring from metaphor.

Most writers who practiced surrealism were French and primarily wrote poetry. However, the "stream of consciousness" style of writing, in works like Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf and Ulysses by James Joyce, are surrealist in nature, though Woolf and Joyce were not specifically surrealists. The Irish poet W.B. Yeats also advocated the use of automatic writing to further access the unconscious. Yeats' interest in this matter predates surrealism.

Dalí lent his artistic skills not only to painting but to film as well. In the Hitchcock film Spellbound, Dalí was responsible for the art direction and design of a dream sequence. It is considered by many to be one of the best examples of surrealism in film.

Though surrealism gradually waned in interest and was replaced by the artistic philosophy of modernism, one does not have to look far to see surrealist examples in modern art and film. Miyazaki's 2005 film Howl's Moving Castle places ridiculous and anachronistic images in front of background drawings of very realistic early 19th century English towns. Many children in primary grades are taught self-portraiture relying specifically on portraits by Picasso. In literature, magical realism in works by authors like Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Salman Rushdie contain surrealist elements.

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WHAT IS THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT? The butterfly effect is a term used in Chaos Theory to describe how tiny

variations can affect giant systems, and complex systems, like weather patterns. The term butterfly effect was applied in Chaos Theory to suggest that the wing movements of a butterfly might have significant repercussions on wind strength and movements throughout the weather systems of the world, and theoretically, could cause tornadoes halfway around the world.

What the butterfly effect seems to posit, is that the prediction of the behavior of any large system is virtually impossible unless one could account for all tiny factors, which might have a minute effect on the system. Thus large systems like weather remain impossible to predict because there are too many unknown variables to count.

The term "butterfly effect" is attributed to Edward Norton Lorenz, a mathematician and meteorologist, who was one of the first proponents of Chaos Theory. Though he had been working on the theory for some ten years, with the principal question as to whether a seagulls’ wing movements changes the weather, he changed to the more poetic butterfly in 1973. A speech he delivered was titled, “Does the Flap of a Butterfly’s Wings in Brazil Set off aTornado in Texas.” Actually, fellow scientist, Philip Merilees created the title. Lorenz had failed to provide a title for his speech.

The concept of small variations producing the butterfly effect actually predates science and finds its home in science fiction. Writers like Ray Bradbury were particularly interested in the types of problems that might occur if one traveled back in time, trailing anachronisms. Could small actions taken in the past dramatically affect the future? Fictional treatments of the butterfly effect as applies to time travel are numerous. Many cite the 2005 Butterfly Effect film as a good example of the possible negative changes that small behaviors in the past could have on the future, if one could time travel. Actually, a better and more critically accepted treatment of this concept is the 2000 film Frequency. In the film a father and son communicate over time through radio waves and attempt to change the past for the good.

In human behavior, one can certainly see how small changes could render behavior, or another complex system, extremely unpredictable. Small actions or experiences stored in the unconscious mind, could certainly affect a person’s behavior in unexpected ways. One looks at teen suicide for example, where no instance of previous depression has occurred. Loved ones are often left wondering what the many small factors were that precipitated a suicide. Further, people often agonize about the small details they did not see as possible factors for an unexpected suicide.

However, there are plenty of ways that such a behavior would be unanswerable according to the butterfly effect. Minute actions and experiences dating from childhood stored in the unconscious mind are not accessible when a person has died, and they may be hard to access without hypnosis or therapy when a person is living.

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WHAT CAUSES EROSION? Erosion is a continual process, and

it can be caused naturally or through artificial means. While many people associate erosion with negative things like land slides and poor soil conditions, it is an important part of the geologic processes which make the Earth what it is. As soil and rock are slowly worn down, they cycle through the Earth's crust and the general environment, causing a constantly shifting and varied surface.

One of the most powerful causes of erosion is water. Water is sometimes called the universal solvent, because it is so effective at dissolving and changing things. Rain and runoff contribute to erosion, as do glaciers, snow, and ice. Ice can be particularly insidious, because it will literally rip rock and soil apart as it expands and contracts. Many seashores distribute spectacular examples of water erosion, in the form of huge terraces of rocks slowly worn away by the ocean.

Tectonic movement can also contribute to erosion, as can the wind. Wind transports materials from one place to another, and in extremely windy locations it can contribute a powerful scouring force to the process of erosion. Materials also naturally tend to slide down a slope, in a process called mass wasting. This downward pull is what causes mountains to slowly melt into hills and plains, and it is constantly happening, although not always in the spectacular form of a landslide.

Humans can also bring about erosion, usually through poor land management. Overgrazing, for example, is a serious cause of erosion. Cows in particular are known for causing serious problems, especially along river banks. Areas which have been heavily grazed for centuries show clear signs of erosion and soil exhaustion due to the demands made on the soil. Deforestation can also cause erosion, since it strips the protective surface plants and trees from the soil. The soil is no longer held in by roots and plant matter, so it slides away in rainy periods.

Once of the most famous instances of erosion is the Dust Bowl. The Dust Bowl was caused partially through human means, like farming the soil to exhaustion, and also through weather patterns. The end result, however, was a loss of an extremely valuable layer of top soil in many parts of North America. Modern farming techniques are remarkably similar to the techniques which increased the severity of the Dust Bowl in the 1930s, and this is an issue of some concern to environmentalists.