Table of Contents

Great Courses: Constitutional Law - Eric Berger

Justiciability Grounds - “Doctrine of Standing” whether an issue can be resolved in the judiciary branch or should be decided elsewhere. It requires 3 components:

  • injury (evidence of being harmed)
  • causation (specifically by a practice/policy)
  • redressability (that a decision on the policy can actually remedy the harm)

Extremely influential Justice John Marshall presided over 2 important cases:

  • Marbury v. Madison - outgoing president Madison wanted to appoint a bunch of new judges before leaving office, but not all of their commissions were delivered
  • McCulloch v. Maryland - Racial segregation in schools was initially argued in court as an IRS/tax-originated issue in allen v wright, but the case lacked standing, and eventually became brown v board of education

Other famous cases (external research):

  • ??

Great Courses: Legislation and Regulation - Peter J. Smith

Statutory Interpretation

  • Common law: (torts, contract, property) What the legislators indented to prevent/do legally, what incidents prompted the law
  • Ordinance: specific phrasing of policy rules
  • Textualist/Literal - Definitions forming the basis of interpretations
  • Intentionalist (what did the legislator intend) canons of interpretation
  • Purposivist (what was the purpose of the legislation - includes things the legislators didn’t necessarily intend but follow through from the “purpose” of the legislation)

Role of Judge:

  • Pragmatic Interpretation - judges approach statutes same as judicial precedent in common law - read the statute sensibly to make it work, as a starting point and not an ending point
  • Conventional: “faithful agent” - judges should not exercise moral/policy judgements since they aren’t elected legislators

Legislation vs Regulation

Non-delegation: Congress can “delegate” enforcement of laws but only if it has clearly stated/concrete principles to abide by (“intelligible principle standard”)

Great World Religions: Hinduism - Mark W. Muesse

Origins of Hinduism:

  • confluence of organized indus valley civilization (possibly wiped out by flood) and aryan nomads (brought sanskrit) to produce the vedas
  • vedas were not widely read, gatekept by priest class

The Vedas

  • Parts of the Vedas:
    • rick veda (~2300-1200BCE) mantras (sacred words)
    • yajir veda - instruction for sacrifices
    • sama veda - melodies
    • atarda veda - spells/incantations/healing rituals
  • Vedic Ontology:
    • categories: nature, gods, human beings
    • cosmology: earthly, heavens/skies, gods
    • rita = harmony (etymology or right, rights, and rites)
  • Margas/Yogas - Pathways of spirituality for people with different personalities
    • karma marga - way of action
    • ganyana marga - way of wisdom
    • buddi marga - way of devotion
  • Goods of life in Hindu Life
    • dharma - duty
    • arta - wealth
    • kama - pleasure
    • moksha - end of cycle of death and rebirth - must abandon previous 3 to get this one

Later Developments & Other Texts

  • Upanishads (600 BCE) - doubting the good of vedic rituals. brahmin class gatekeeping of functionalist/practical purpose rituals / (aryan system) began to be doubted in effectiveness and sincerity/vanity
    • growing anxiety about death, exploration of the human soul, as opposed to practical concerns
    • becoming more metaphysical and spiritual the axial age karl jaspers - post-axial religion functions more for personal transformation rather than practical concerns
  • Bhagavad Gita (500-200 BCE) - krishna and arjuna
    • it doesn’t depict the end of the battle because it’s a metaphor for the self and internal struggle/battle of mind
    • there are no clear avenues of choice, our decisions must be made against an avenue of uncertainty
  • Gita Govindha (12th Century) - romantic text about Krishna & co

India and Islam

  • In 15th century muslim rulers ruled most of north india, but nowadays the majority of muslims in india reside in the south.
  • Sufism was more easily adopted in india, esp by lower castes, also because it’s more similar to bakti religion and used vernacular language, also increased social mobility
  • Mughal Emperor Akbar the Great in 16th century — esteemed by hindus as a benevolent ruler
  • Shah Jahan - Taj Majal in agra and red fort in delhi
  • Muhammad Ali Jinnah - president of muslim league drivng split with pakistan

Modern Movements / Branches of Hinduism

  • Bramu Samaj
    • Started by Bram Muham Roy - educated by muslims, intense dislike for british occupation
    • but then he worked for east india and gained an appreciation for the west, became a class traitor basically lmao
    • hinduism transformed by christian ideas
    • prefered upanishads, simple form of monotheism
    • liberal interpretation approach to scripture
  • Arya Samaj - founded by Swami Sarasvati
    • more fundamentalist
    • but also kind of egalitarianish too in a way
    • veda should be available for everyone to study
    • advocate for women tho
    • disliked popular hinduism, pooja, pilgrimage, superstitious
  • Mahatma Gandhi
    • making a new mode for Karma Marga - the political sphere

Ethics - Baruch Spinoza

List of Axioms / Definitions

Main ideas:

  • Substance Ontology - Substance is kind of like mass, it cannot be created or destroyed, it doesn’t have an origin and it exists outside of time. it only changes form, all the varieties of nature are epiphenomena of “substance”
  • Monism - as opposed to dualism (he’s not a materialist tho)
  • Conatus -
  • The Affects -
  • the immanent/plane of immanence (as opposed to transcendentalism/transcendental idealism), immanent realism
  • God/Nature -
  • Pantheism - God is in everything
  • Joyful passions/sad passions -
  • Political society as derived from power, rather than contract
  • Determinism/free will distinction

Great Courses: History of the Bible

  • jesus born 4BC, executed 30 AD
  • new testatement books written in greek in the 1st century AD
  • there were other books that weren’t included in the canon

  • gospels: (matthew, mark, luke (synoptic - telling same story)), john - earliest accounts of jesus’ life. not live witness accounts, likely taken from oral tradition

  • epistles: letters by Apostle Paul, how to deal with problems in new churches, in his time, very controversial and had opponent christians
  • paul: still keeps to jewish law, but jesus’ death obliterates the (original?) sin, allowing people to be in line with god - salvation comes not by law but by faith

  • there were fake paul letters. paul himself was egalitarian abt gender, but some fake letters were sexist (must be silent)

  • apocalypses: ancient genre of literature. often pseudonymously written as ancient prophet
  • the whore of babylon - the city built on 7 hills that rules the world and persecutes the christians. this is a vision of rome in the time of the prophets in their own day, not of the future

  • 666 is caesar nero (if you add up the letters in hebrew). he’s again talking about how the antichrist is the opponent of christ, he’s a roman emperor in their current time

  • transcription

  • the “let the one without sin cast the first stone” wasn’t originally part of the canon, was just written in the margins but later transcribed

  • meta
  • monotheism - in the ancient world, polytheism was the default common sense understanding of theology. the idea that there was only one god was ridiculous
  • textualism - in the ancient world, roman world, religion was never scriptural or doctrinal. it was ritualistic and cultural, there was no book or text to refer to. Christianity emphasized belief instead of religion of practice. Belief and knowledge were central in ways that previously didn’t exist
  • exclusivism - was virtually unknown. the multiple gods weren’t jealous of one another and were in an ontological harmony. one was not more right than another
  • proselytism - other religions didn’t have missionaries and didn’t try to spread
  • the possibility of orthodoxy and heresy presupposes the need for authority and power structures. after the death of jesus & co, scriptures became authority, but still many versions because scriptures are all different—early christianity was extremely diverse

Other views:

  • heretic marcian - believed that old and new testament god was simply different deity, new one coming to overtake the evil old one

Zhuangzi

mandala of 4 virtues of “chu??” philosophy

  • zhen - deep empathetic love
  • yi - sense of justice
  • li - ritual forms and manners, respect
  • qi - wisdom

confucius wasn’t concerned with the “tao that can be named”, only the applied tao that exists in human relationships

friday out to brunch cappuccino eggy benny i get cronuts with my henny

Great Courses: What Darwin Didn’t Know

Notch2 (in L??) - first mutation 10 million years ago duplicated the brain building gene incorrectly, and then 3 million years corrected the duplication with a correct copy, creating our big brains

chimps and other primates ALSO use wernicke’s area and broca’s area and the other two areas to communicate

fox p2 gene associated with language problems - differs by only 2 base pairs between humans and chimps

Colombian Bakery Script

  • different dialects: coastal, inner country, bogota (fancy)
  • “yeismo” - Yo like yeah instead of like jo, other is called jeismo?
  • “seseo” - s sound for c in intenciòn, instead of th like castillian
  • “vosear” - formal address is “vós” former colonial thing, - like saying “thou” - don’t really use this, generally use usted (esp with older ppl)
  • for diminutives, use “-co/ca” like gatico, gordica, pastelico, instead of “-to/ta”

Adjectives

  • crujente - crunchy/crispy
  • mantecoso - buttery
  • cremoso - creamy
  • tostado - toasted
  • sabroso - yummy/tasty
  • celestial - heavenly
  • sin grumos - smooth/not lumpy
  • robusto - hearty
  • mmm que rico - mmm delicious
  • azucar en polvo - powdered sugar
  • dulce - sweet
  • pegajoso - gooey/sticky
  • con huevos - with eggs
  • citrico - citrussy (sitrico)
  • ácido, amárgo, ácre - acidic, bitter, acrid
  • fresco - fresh
  • frito - fried
  • espònjoso - spongy
  • chimba - something great

Items

  • donùt - donut
  • galleta - cookie
  • postre - dessert
  • pastel - cake
  • pan - bread
  • tinto - shot of black coffee
  • bebidas - drinks
  • mecàto - junk food/candy/lollipops/sweets/snacks (depends on culture) - http://bogotastic.com/mecato-colombiano-colombian-snacks-mecato/

General Questions/dialogue:

  • hola, buenas (dias), como esta usted?
  • es usted colombiano/a?
  • de que parte del pais? (which part of the country)
  • mi amiga es colombiana, ella me dijo que deberia venir aqui (my friend is colombian, she told me to come here)
  • lo siento, todavia no hablo muy bien espanol, que boleta (sorry, i don’t speak spanish well, how embarrassing)
  • gracias, pero no, es que no me gusta (thanks but no, it’s because i don’t like it, use variations)
  • usted es muy amable (you’re very kind)
  • que chèvere está la panaderia (how cool is this bakery) lmfao

Phrases about food:

  • cual es el pan mas tradicional?
  • me gusta pan con queso, con chocolate, con fruta
  • porfi (instead of por favor)
  • quiero un postre, un postrico
  • quiero algo cremoso
  • quiero probar una bebida tipica de colombia (i want to try a typical colombian drink)
  • tradicional colombiano
  • que es el especial del dia

Colombian expressions:

  • tengo un filo - i’m starving (lit. “i have a knife(in my stomach)”)
  • que hubo (ko-ubo)- what’s up/howdy
  • parcero (parce) - partner
  • vaina - a thing/jawn - don’t use for food
  • del putas - Fuckin Awesome (lit. “from the whores”) - don’t actually use!!! lmfao
  • chèvere - great/cool/awesome
  • que boleta - embarrassing/cringe (if i mess up) (specifically a bogota expression)
  • bacàno - cool person
  • daña parche - buzz kill
  • tragado - to be in love - estoy tragada con estos buñelos
  • da me una fria / pola - give me a cold one (beer)
  • enguayabado/a - hung over

New Expression Idea: frijoles frios!! instead of “cool beans” B-)

Rap / Music Recs

Andrew’s recs:

Victoria’s Recs:

Ivy:

  • con todo el mundo - khruangbin

Ukrainian Rappers:

  • https://youtu.be/_Hrp7vykaGQ

Italian Phrases

Pronunciation

  • “c” followed by i or e is “ch”
  • “ch” is pronounched K
  • sc - “sh”
  • “z” in the middle of a word is “ts”, start is “zz”
  • glia (ля)
  • Tu(you), lui lei (he/she)

MBF

  • contains - contiene
  • orzo coltivato,
  • farina de orzo maltato
  • sono alergica a …
  • Gluten / Dairy / Fish – Glutine / Lattecini / Pesce
  • Phrases:
    • inside - cosace dentro il pane?
    • voglio mangiare pane ma sono alergica a orzo
    • non posso mangiare el pane perche sono alergica a orzo
    • c’è l’orzo nel pane? - is there barley in the bread?
    • c’è una lista degli ingredienti?
    • posso vedere la lista degli ingredienti?

Basic phrases - No, Si, - Per favore, gracie, - you’re welcome - prego, scuzi (sorry), permeso(excuse me), mi dispiace (I’m sorry), - perché - because/why - man/men - uomo/uomini - woman/women - donna/donne

  • Greetings:
    • buon giorno, buona sera, buona notte, ciao(both hi and bye)
    • arrivederci (goodbye)
    • my name is - mi chiamo Masha
    • what’s your name - come si chiama
    • how are you - come sta (bene, gracia)
    • pleased to meet you - piacere (piacere di conocere ti)
    • cheers - “salute”
  • Speaking:
    • parla inglese, parlare(to speak),
    • capire(to understand), non capisco (don’t understand)
  • Paying
    • il conto per favore - can I get the bill please
    • pay by card - posso pagare con la carta
    • mia madre è fuori (my mom is out)
  • Eating
    • cosa vuoi mangiare - what do you want to eat
    • due gusti per favore (for 2 scoops of ice cream)
    • Che cosa ci consiglia? - what do you recommend
    • no me piace - i don’t like this
    • vuogliare - to want/desire something
  • General/Wayfinding
    • Where’s the bathroom? – Dov’è il bagno?
    • parlame di cuesto (tell me about this thing)

Numbers

  • zero, uno, due, tre, cuatro, cinque, sei, sette, otto, nove,
  • dieci, undici, dodici, tredici, cuatordici, quindici, sedici, diciassette, diciaotto, dicianove,
  • venti, ventiuno, ventire, venticuatro,
  • trenta, cuaranta, cinquanta,
  • cento (100), mille (1000)

Food

  • beef - manzo
  • cheese - formaggio
  • chicken - pollo
  • panini - panino (not plural!)
  • tomato - pomodoro
  • potato - patata
  • sauce - salsa di pomodoro,
  • bread - pane

Dining

  • antipasto
  • Primo (first course)
  • secundo - second course
  • dessert - dolci
  • more water - piu acqua per favore
  • troppo salato - too much salt
  • please bring a - forchetta (fork), coltello(knife), cucchiaio(spoon), tovagliolo (napkin)

Fabio - get in touch with him