Diverse Subjects.

  

The modern world as we know it wouldn't be as it is without the usage of machines. Any machine deals with mathematics from geometry to calculus. A machine deals with a physical system or device that uses power to apply forces and control movement to perform an action. Many machines use artificial devices like engines and motors. There are natural biological macromolecules like molecular machines too. Machines can be driven by animals and people. Some people power machines by natural forces like wind and water. Some people use chemical, thermal, or electrical power to drive machines too. Computers and sensors have many machines that plan movement, develop performance, and use other means as part of mechanical systems. Back in the day, people talked about the major simple machines of lever, wheel and axle, pulley, inclined plane, wedge, and screw. These simple machines use mechanical advantage or leverage to multiple forces so actions can be efficient. Simple machines use a single applied force to do work against a single load force. Simple machines can be used to make complicated machines like wheels, levers, and pulleys are used in the mechanism of a bicycle. In our modern times, modern machines represent complex systems that deal with structural elements, mechanisms, and control components. Modern machines deal with airplanes, trains, automobiles, boats, airplanes, appliances, farm machinery, factory automation systems, robots, etc. Engineers and scholars use mathematical formulas in utilizing devices and machines and organize principles to create the best ways to make inventions efficient. 

 

The history of Toronto has a long history. Toronto experienced glacial ice throughout the Last Glacial Period, with the glacial ice retreating from the area during the Late Glacial warming period from ca. 13,000 B.C. After the Last Glacial Period, Toronto's waterfront shifted with the growth. There was the contraction of glacial Lake Iroquois. The area witnessed its first human settlers in ca. 9,000 - 8,500 B.C. These settlers traveled large distances in family-sized bands, and sustained themselves on caribou, mammoths, mastodons, and smaller animals in the tundra and Boreal Forest. Many of their archaeological remains lie in present-day Lake Ontario, with the historic coastline of Lake Iroquois situated 20 km. (or 12 miles) south of Toronto during this period. As the climate warmed in 6,000 B.C., the environment of Toronto shifted from a subarctic to a temperate continental climate. The Toronto waterfront also changed dramatically during this period, with erosion from the Scarborough Bluffs accumulating, and rising water levels from Lake Ontario creating a peninsula that would later become the Toronto Islands. First Nations fishing camps were established in the waterways of Toronto as early as 1000 B.C. By 500 AD., there were about 5000 people who lived in each other three major rivers of Toronto (Don, Humber, and Rouge River). As the climate warmed in 6,000 B.C., the environment of Toronto shifted from a subarctic to a temperate continental climate. The Toronto waterfront also changed dramatically during this period, with erosion from the Scarborough Bluffs accumulating, and rising water levels from Lake Ontario creating a peninsula that would later become the Toronto Islands. By 600 A.D., there were new crops in the region like corn, sunflowers, and tobacco. 

The introduction of these crops saw large societal shifts in the area; including a change in diet, and the formation of semi-permanent villages, to farm these crops. Many people from semi-permanent villages moved out during parts of the year to hunt, fish, and gather other goods to supplement their farming. In about 900 A.D. there was the earliest known Iroquoian semi-permanent settlement of this nature. Iroquoian villages during this period were located on high, fortified grounds, with access to wetlands and waterways to facilitate hunting, fishing, trade, and military operations. Their villages typically stood in place for around 10 to 20 years, before the inhabitants relocated to a new site. Typically, these villages would cycle through many sites but return to the same areas repeatedly. This lessened the impact on surrounding flora and fauna, allowing hunting and agriculture to be utilized sustainably. Several Iroquoian villages dating back to the 1200s have been excavated in Toronto, including an ossuary in Scarborough. From the 1300s to the 1500s, the Iroquoian inhabitants of the area migrated north of Toronto, joining the developing Huron-Wendat Confederacy. During this period, the Huron-Wendat Confederacy used Toronto as a hinterland for hunting, with the Toronto Passage continuing to see use as a north–south route. The northeast portion of Toronto also held two 14th-century Iroquoian burial mounds, known today as Taber Hill. 

Although Europeans did not visit Southern Ontario in the 16th century, European goods had begun to make their way into the region as early as the late-1500s. During the 17th century, nearly half of Southern Ontario's First Nations population was wiped out as a result of the transmission of communicable diseases between Europeans and First Nations groups. The population loss, along with the desire to secure furs for trade, saw the Haudenosaunee Confederacy to the south invade the area and attack the Huron-Wendat Confederacy. The Haudenosaunee ultimately defeated the Huron-Wendat in the mid-1600s, and the Huron-Wendat fled as refugees, were killed or were forcibly adopted into the Haudenosaunee. After the Haudenosaunee secured the region, they established several settlements on the north shore of Lake Ontario. The Seneca (one of the five Haudenosaunee nations), established two settlements in present-day Toronto, Teiaiagon, near the Humber River, and Ganatsekwyagon near the Rouge River. The two communities provided the Haudenosaunee control of the north–south passage in Toronto. Roman Catholic missionaries visited the two settlements in the 1660s and 1670s. The two Seneca settlements were abandoned by 1687.

 

Mysteries are being revealed constantly. Recently, I found out about a person named Ameerah Salhah Ahmad (b. 1979) who appears to be my maternal 6th cousin as we share the same ancestors as Winifred Woodson-Bozeman (b. 1791) and Burwell Williams, who are my 6th great grandparents. To start, it is time to go backwards chronologically. Ameerah Salah Ahmad has a child named Ramiz. Ameerah Ahmad lives in Massachusetts (like many of my maternal and paternal distant cousins live) and her parents are Nadir S. Ahmad (b. 1979) and Hadiyah Sabreen Ahmad (b. 1953). Her family are black Muslim Americans as Ameerah Ahmad follows Islam too. My 5th cousin Hadiyah Sabreen Ahmad was born on March 1953, and her parents are George Washington Artis (1925-1994) and Julia Mae Newsome (1929-2005). Ameerah's siblings are her brother Salih Ahmad and her sister Balayla Ahmad. The African American Artis family was from Southampton County originally. Many of them moved to Sussex County, Virginia (which is near Suffolk, Virginia). From Sussex County, the Artis family traveled all over America like Petersburg, Virginia, Richmond, Virginia, New York City, and beyond. George Washington Artis and Julia Mae Newsome had the following children: Frances Artis Reed (b. 1949), George Carol Artis (1950-1989), Hadiyah Sabreen Ahmad (b. 1953), Veronic Eliane Artis Clifford (b. 1954), Rose Marie Artis Gupton (b. 1956), Larry Darnell Artis (b. 1958), Doris Jean Artis (b. 1960), Vera Annette Artis (b. 1963), and Sophia Lorraine Artis (b. 1966). The parents of George Washington Artis (1925-1994) or my 4th cousin were William Artis (1894-1956) and Sallie Greene (b. 1900). William Artis's parents were William W. Artis (b. 1862) and Rebecca Mylick (b. 1863). William W. Artis's parents were William Artis and my 1st cousin Indiana Bozeman Crocker (1831-1896). This is proven by many sources. One is the 1880 United Federal Federal Census Document showing William W. Artis being 17 and the son of William Artis and Indiana Artis citing his siblings of Washington Artis, Ben Artis, Clara J. Artis, and George Artis. Also, the Virginia U.S. Marriage Registers document (1853-1935) citied William Walter Artis being married to Rebecca Mylick citing his parents as William and Indiana. 

Indiana Bozeman Crocker's parents were Thomas Crocker (1810-1877) and Pasty Williams Crocker (1810-1870). Patsy Williams Crocker's parents were again my 6th grandparents of Winifred Woodson Crocker (b. 1791) and Burwell Williams. Winifred's daughter was Mary Woodson-Williams (1811-1870). Mary Woodson-Williams's daughter was my 4th great grandmother Milly Woodson-Bozeman (1830-1910), and Milly Woodson-Bozeman's daughter was my 3rd great grandmother Susanna Field Hurst-Turner (1862-1949), who was a descendant of the Nottoway Native American people of Southampton County, Virginia. She married Rev. James Thompson Claud to have many children like my 2nd great grandfather Arthur Boss Claud (1891-1974). Arthur Boss Claud's daughter was my great-grandmother Ella Mae Claud (1913-1991). Ella Mae Claud's son was my grandfather Robert, and then Robert and Fannie had my mother. After my mother and my father, I was born. 

One of the greatest artists and educators was Lois Mailou Jones. She was a courageous teacher, scholar, and activist. Many people don't know about the unsung artist of Lois Mailou Jones. She was raised in Boston, Massachusetts. Her working-class parents raised her with many legitimate values of hard work, resiliency, and education. She designed many textiles for many New York firms after graduating from Boston's School of Museum of Fine Arts. Lois Mailou Jones lived a life of diversity and being multifaceted. Jones founded the art department at Palmer, she coached basketball, taught folk dancing, and played the piano for Sunday religious services. Howard University (one of the many great Historically Black Colleges and Universities) recruited her in Washington, D.C. to join its art department. For a time, she created children's books that inspired the minds of human beings. Jones never gave up her quest for learning wisdom and teaching people the world over about the beauty of art in general. Later, she trained many future African American artist legends who are Elizabeth Catlett, Sylvia Snowden, and David Driskell. She studied art in Paris and studied diverse African art for years. She loved her Haitian graphic designer husband Louis Vergniaud Pierre-Noel (they married in 1953). At the end of the day, Lois Mailou Jones remains an icon whose powerful contributions have positively changed the world in enumerable ways. 

By Timothy