Practice Using Theory of Knowledge Extended Essay Topics

Practice Using Theory of Knowledge Extended Essay TopicsTheory of Knowledge Extended Essay topics are meant to make the student's essay more difficult. This is done by stating more than one idea or principle. For example, if the topic of the essay is 'the nature of God', then the essay may be divided into two parts, one about the relationship between a scientist and the astronomer, and another about the relationship between an astronomer and a professor of mathematics, from where the scientist claims that the existence of the cosmos is due to God.Or, to state it in simpler terms, the first part of the essay will discuss the relationship between a physicist and a theologian and the second part will be written about the relationship between a professor of mathematics and a scientist. However, if the student wishes to be able to respond to the second part, he must make a strong point and present one conclusion, rather than the usual three possible conclusions that the professor asks stu dents to choose from.Theories that are common in all societies are summarized in books such as those written by Aristotle, Locke, Hume, Kant, and Smith. The students may also ask the teacher for these texts. Theses may also be drawn from the works of modern thinkers like Nietzsche, Marx, Freud, and Postone.Since the scope of the broad topic is generally wider than what was mentioned above, more time is needed for the students to absorb all the information. They can use theories written in English that are accessible in their language. For example, the students can draw on sociology books written in English that will help them assimilate the theory of knowledge.This is done so that the students may come up with logical conclusions from the information they have acquired from the books. It will help the students to retain all the information given in the course. Thus, the students will learn the theory of knowledge, therefore they will be able to recognize the relevant ideas and conce pts. Other ways to use this theory are to answer the questions such as, 'what is truth?' The students can answer this question by stating that it is something that they do not know; therefore, it is an ethical value that they should practice. Likewise, they can answer this question by stating that they do not know anything; therefore, it is something that has already been proven in the course.This is because the students need to know the name of the author of the essay before they can know what they will write. In fact, the theory of knowledge is so important that it is usually written by the teacher in the form of a question; therefore, the students need to be taught the theory of knowledge by the teacher.It is, therefore, necessary for the students to be able to write essays such as these, which will help them cope with the practical needs in the course of the academic career. One thing that the students should be careful with is to avoid committing the fallacy of 'theory of ignor ance' which means to be ignorant of the truth.

Job Interview Guide and Practice for ESL Students

In this extended job interviewing listening selection, youll hear the first few moments of a job interview. Before you listen, there are a few things you should note about standard job interview behavior, speaking forms used, and more. Breaking the Ice Youll notice a few questions in the beginning of the interview that concerns how the job applicant arrived and the weather. This is commonly referred to as breaking the ice. Breaking the ice is an important way to begin the job interview, but it shouldnt take too long. Generally, job interviewers will break the ice to help you feel comfortable. Make sure to give positive, but not too detailed answers to these ice breakers. Give short, positive answers to questions.Dont go into too much detail.Expect questions about the weather or how you arrived at the job interview.Its a good idea to make a pleasant comment yourself to break the ice. Keep it short, positive and simple. Referrals Sometimes, you may have found about a job opportunity through a referral. If this is the case, make sure to use the referral to your best advantage by mentioning it at the beginning of the interview. Mention the name of the referral at the beginning of the interview. Ideally, this should be done when asked about how you found the job opening.Provide the name of the referral, but dont go into too much detail about the relationship, unless asked.Give the name of the referral only once. Dont continue to repeat the name during the interview.Dont assume the job interviewer knows the person you are mentioning. Language Relating your job experience and how it relates to the specific job for which you are applying are the two most important tasks during any job interview. Make sure to use lots of descriptive verbs and adjectives to describe your responsibilities. For example, instead of the following job description: I talked to customers about their problems. A more descriptive phrase with better vocabulary might be: I counseled customers documenting their concerns, and coordinating our response to their individual needs. In the listening selection, you will hear the present perfect, present perfect continuous and present simple used because the person is speaking about his current projects. Take some time to prepare descriptive sentences concerning your responsibilities.Use a dictionary, or this handy job interview vocabulary page to improve your vocabulary selection.Make sure to connect your past experience to the position by using lots of present perfect.Quickly review appropriate job interviewing tenses for describing experiences. Now that youve reviewed some basic interviewing technique, open this link in a new window and listen a few times to the job interview listening selection. If you have difficulties understanding, go to the next page to see a transcription of the job interview. Interviewer (Ms Hanford): (opens door, shakes hands) Good morning†¦Job Applicant (Mr. Anderson): Good morning, Joe Anderson, its a pleasure to meet you Ms Hanford. Hanford: How do you do? Please take a seat. (Joe sits) Its quite the rainy day outside, isnt it?Anderson: Yes, luckily, you have a nice underground parking lot that helped me avoid the worst of it. I must say this is an impressive building. Hanford: Thank you, we like working here... Now, lets see. Youve come to interview for the position of e-commerce manager, havent you?Anderson: Yes, Peter Smith encouraged me to apply, and I think Id be ideal for the position. Hanford: Oh. Peter†¦ hes a great sysadmin, we like him a lot †¦ Lets go over your resume. Could you begin by telling me about your qualifications?Anderson: Certainly. Ive been working as the regional assistant director of marketing at Simpco Northwest for the past year. Hanford: And what did you do before that?Anderson: Before that, I was a Simpco local branch manager in Tacoma. Hanford: Well, I see you have done well at Simpco. Can you give me some more detail about your responsibilities as assistant director?Anderson: Yes, Ive been in charge of in-house personnel training for our Internet customer service reps over the past six months. Hanford: Can you tell me a little bit about what youve been doing in your training?Anderson: Weve been working on improving customer satisfaction through an innovative e-commerce solution which provides real-time chat service help to visitors to the site. Hanford: Interesting. Is there anything in particular you feel would be useful here at Sanders Co.?Anderson: I understand that you have been expanding your e-commerce to include social networking features. Hanford: Yes, thats correct.Anderson: I think that my experience in customer relations via the Internet in real-time puts me in the unique position of understanding what works and what doesnt. Hanford: Yes, that does sound useful. What difficulties and challenges do you think we might run into?Anderson: Well, I think well continue to see consumers spend more of the shopping dollars online. Ive been studying how sales directly relates to customer satisfaction with online services. Hanford: Would you mind giving me a bit more detail on that?Anderson: Sure ... if customers arent satisfied with the service they receive online, they wont come back. Its much easier to lose customers online. Thats why you need to make sure that you get it right the first time round. Hanford: I can see youve learnt quite a lot in the short time youve been working in e-commerce.Anderson: Yes, its an exciting field to be working in †¦

Police Brutality And Racial Profiling - 1902 Words

Police brutality refers to the intentional utilization of vituperations or extortionate force directed towards a country s citizens by the police force. This extortionate force may be physical or in form of psychological dauntingness. Police brutality is highly evident in many countries all over the world especially in the news where such cases are reported. It is optically discerned as a form of police malfeasance which involves sexual abuse, police corruption, erroneous apprehends, racial profiling, and political repression. These forms of police brutality are mainly directed towards the vulnerably susceptible groups such as the poor, the impuissant and the elderly. Most of these police brutality actions are always linked to racism. Many countries have sanctioned their police force to utilize force in apprehending the suspects and withal in forfending themselves. They are however supposed to utilize plausible amounts of force in controlling any situation and in accomplishing their goals. Police brutality always contravenes the suspect s constitutional rights and it should be ceased. This paper is going to discuss the police brutality; tolerance of police brutality in the society and ending police brutality (Socyberty.com, 2010). Racial discrimination contributes to police brutality in the society. Some of the police brutalities actions are perceived in terms of racial profiling. This term (racial profiling) refers to the situation whereby a member of certain a race isShow MoreRelatedPolice Brutality And Racial Profiling1343 Words   |  6 PagesThe use of police brutality and racial profiling is an unfortunate part of today’s society that needs to be addressed. Blacks are being stopped and searched by police officers in greater numbers compared to other races, and sometimes these situations escalate into violence. In the essay Blue On Black Violence: Freddie Gray, Baltimore, South Africa, the Quietism of Africana Christian Theology, author Darryl Scriven, a Philosophy professor at Florida AM University, reports that, â€Å"CNN reported thatRead MorePolice Brutality And Racial Profiling Essay2484 Words   |  10 PagesPolice Brutality and Racial Profiling Police Brutality is defined as the use of excessive force by police officers when they encounter civilians. Police officers are defined as people who are responsible for the prevention of crime. Brutality is defined as, â€Å"savage, physical violence.† Police brutality has been alive and well for many years, but a majority of the cases had been recently. Dating back to the times of the Civil Rights Movement and even before, minorities have been treated with littleRead MorePolice Brutality And Racial Profiling1868 Words   |  8 Pagesoften these days. Police Brutality and racial profiling. As a white male, someone who is a criminal justice major in hopes of eventually becoming some type of law enforcement for my career later in life, you may ask why I even care about this issue since it isn’t necessarily affecting my life directly. My response is simple, I am tired of seeing the hashtags behind these deaths and one death from police brutality is already too many. Everyone sees the subject of police brutality as something thatRead MoreThe Conflict Of Police Brutality And Racial Profiling858 Words   |  4 Pagesprominent conflict of African American males and police officials in Western nations, focusing directly on the American South. In the late 1920’s African Americans in the U.S.A, were hopeful that their struggle against racism was nearing a successful conclusion with the start of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People). For many years, especially for people not of colour, racism, racial discrimination and police brutality were â€Å"hidden† from the mainstream media. ThoughRead MorePolice Brutality Based On Racial Profiling1682 Words   |  7 Pagesothers; violence and brutality against innocent citizens is the key to getting the job done. For years, minorities have fallen victim to police brutality based on racial profiling, stereotypes and other unjustifiable reasons that has cost severa l innocent lives. The involvement of officers in police brutality against minority social groups causes tainted and negative views on policing and their overall duty to protect, when they are ultimately the aggressors in this case. Police brutality is a violent incidentRead MorePolice Brutality Of African Americans1405 Words   |  6 Pagesyears police brutality towards African Americans has increased. This violence has resulted in riots across the United States. The August 2014 death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri many Americans, some who are former Civil Rights activists, have spoken out against police brutality. Black Lives Matter states that the movement’s goal is to bring justice to the present unjust police killings of African Americans. Looking at prior cases of brutality and its connection to racial profiling, suchRead MorePolice Brutality Racism1340 Words   |  6 PagesPolice brutality in America has been known to put fear in the lives of many Americans. Although police brutality is played out across all avenues of the media and many people see this happening, it yet does not change the fact that racism still exists in the justice system of America. People in positions of power yet have not done anything to rectify the situation and this has lead to the rise of â€Å"Black Lives Matter† movement. Numerous opportunities have been presented to officials to speak up aboutRead MorePolice Brutality1519 Words   |  7 Pagespeople have endured violence in many different ways. Today, police officers use deadly, excessive force that leads to inexcusable assaults, beatings and shootings. This demonstrates the governmentÐ ¢s role in initiating and prolonging racial suppression and provides the explanation for police brutality to become a federal crime(Black Radical Congress, 3). In history, racist violence, police brutality, has been used to suppress the racial blacks and to preserve power and privileges for the white raceRead MoreB lack Lives Matter Is An International Activist Movement1693 Words   |  7 Pagescorrelates to many topics such as police brutality, racial profiling, racism, segregation, discrimination etc. â€Å"Racial Profiling† refers to the discriminatory practice by law enforcement officials that targets individuals on suspicion of crime based on an individual s race, ethnicity, religion or national origin (â€Å"Racial Profiling: Definition†). Although this topic affects a wide array of communities it still pertains to citizens of color.Citizens rely on the police to protect them from any harm orRead MorePolice Brutality1314 Words   |  6 Pages Police brutality Those of the minority community have been subjected, for many decades, to violence by those in law enforcement in the United States. This type of violence is a direct depiction of police brutality, which often leads to death. Police brutality has been an issue for many years, and it remains a major concern for those of the minority community. Over the past five centuries, black people have endured violence in many different ways. Today, police officers use deadly, excessive force

My Strengths And Weaknesses Of My Writing - 977 Words

Have you ever cleaned out your closet and found many items you never knew you owned? That is the way English 101 felt to me. I learned important skills and techniques that I will maintain even though the course is over. I will be constantly improving what I have learned—meaning I will work to carry about my strengths and eliminate my remaining weaknesses. English 101 has helped me grow as a reader, a writer, and most importantly a person. My writing has progressed during the term by becoming more specific and sophisticated on an analytic level. I have learned to closely observe what I am reading or researching; this helping to improve the credibility in my writing. When the grades were passed back for the first minor writing, I was highly dissatisfied with the grade I received. In high school, I always got excellent grades on my papers; making it hard for me to accept the challenge that was now presented in front of me. After sitting down and figuring out my mistakes, I realized I was an extremely general writer. I forgot to include multiple details that were necessary for the readers understanding—as it was difficult for me to analyze writing from another perspective. My first minor writing paper was titled â€Å"A healthy Friendship† and it explained a paradigm shift that involved one of my current best friends. This was my weakest writing by far. After I revised the paper and still did not receive my ideal grade, I knew I would have to work incredibly hard in this collegeShow MoreRelatedMy Strengths And Weaknesses Of Writing823 Words   |  4 Pagesaware of writing errors such as grammar, spelling, punctuation and avoid plagiarism. Masters level writing is different than other forms of writing and students must be able to address to an academic audience. APA formatting is also necessary for all assignments whether writing papers or submitting power point presentations. I will provide a summary of all feedback received from my instructor in Weeks one, two, and four from my individual assignments. I will present my strengths and weaknesses in writingRead MoreMy Strengths And Weaknesses Of Writing926 Words   |  4 Pageschild with no skill in writing what-so-ever. I could not format a sentence, let alone a paper, to save my life. Writing was a whole new world, both frightening and exciting. There were so many possibilities I had yet to see and a great many things I had to learn. My strengths and weaknesses in writing have changed drastically since I began my high school English classes. In regards to the analysis essay assigned to my class regarding John Steinbeck’s â€Å"The Pearl,† my strengths contributed highly toRead MoreWhat Are The Strengths And Weaknesses Of My Writing1370 Words   |  6 PagesConsidering my essay and rubric there are some strengths and weaknesses. In my essay, i felt like the setting of my story was good as well as the body of the essay. What i mean by this is by my choice of words, variety of verbs, format, and how easy it is to read. The overall quality of my writing in my opinion was the best part. I feel like the details I used really gave my paper character. Details such as how I used to write on a lot of the things I owned, how in the sixth and seventh grade I wroteRead MoreStrengths and Weaknesses Essay844 Words   |  4 PagesStrengths and Weaknesses Throughout the Mid-SEE I have written reflections on my writing and participated in group activities. I have received comments back from my peers and suggestions to help with revising my paper. With the help of my professor, Professor Church and my classmates, I was able to comprehend their suggestions to me to make my essay better and by revising my classmate’s essays, I was able to point out mistakes that I might have made in my essay, which made myself go back to myRead MoreFootball Reflection Paper773 Words   |  4 Pagesfootball player. I started 2 seasons ago, and am on my third. As with anything, I have strengths and weaknesses when playing football. But I have to work with these if I want to be a good football player. My experience with football also can relate to ELA and my strengths and weaknesses there. I started football because I felt I would be good at it. I was good in some aspects, but some I was bad in. An aspect I was good in was my physical strength. I go to a weight room in Marlboro called H.I.T. trainingRead MoreEntering The Class, English Comp914 Words   |  4 PagesGarth had told us, that I was going to have many weaknesses while writing my papers, but I would also have many strengths from what I had learned in the past about writing. In August, our first day in the college class, Mrs. Garth talked with the class about what this semester was going to be like. She spoke to us as college students and not little children. She told us that Comp. was all about writing. As a class, we knew there would be more writing than we were use to, but the very first paper thatRead MoreStrengths And Weaknesses Of Reading Essay958 Words   |  4 PagesMy Path A persons strength was always his weakness. When it comes to reading and writing, I have many strengths and weaknesses. My past writing and reading experiences have made me into the writer/reader that I today. Strengths help me excel in my read/write, but the weaknesses do bring me in a stump at times. When writing an essay, you can have a very high vocabulary, but not have the best of grammar. The good thing about weaknesses is that they can be worked on to be made into a strength. ManyRead MoreGraduation Speech On The State Exams1460 Words   |  6 PagesThroughout the 15 years of my academic career, academic writing has become a much larger part of the curriculum. The writing assignments have gone from simple, one- line sentences describing a picture to a simple, 3- paragraph persuasive essay on the state exams in high school; all the way to a 25 page comprehensive research essay during my freshman year at East Stroudsburg University. As the years and assignments progressed, I de veloped a set of writing weakness and strengths that still shape the wayRead MoreMy Strengths and Weaknesses806 Words   |  4 PagesMy Strengths and weaknesses Everyone has must have some strengths and weaknesses. Some people know how to handle their weaknesses in the right way. Others keep hiding their own weaknesses and they do not want any help. I am one of the person whom has been keeping my weaknesses inside and hiding all the time. I realized that I need to change by getting help and overcome my fear because my weakness has been bothering me and keeping me away from my success. The strengths are the talents and the hobbiesRead MoreMy Strengths And Weaknesses Of An Effective Student988 Words   |  4 Pagesand use their current strengths and weaknesses to create a game plan that will help them be an effective student. Personally, I think this is a great tool because it helped me identify what my strengths are. Since I identified more strengths than weaknesses I saw this self-assessment as a motivation tool. In this lesson, I learned that there can be patterns to your strengths and your weaknesses (Bethel University, 2014). This ess ay will go over what my strengths and weaknesses were, after taking

Effective Crisis Communication Crisis to Opportunity

Question: Discuss about the Effective Crisis Communication for Crisis to Opportunity. Answer: Introduction: The effective leadership skills help in developing and structuring the organisational behaviour and values. The leaders are the major responsible people of structuring the organisational culture and accomplishing the business goals (Hackman and Johnson 2013). The following communicational factors are needed to be taken into considerations. Each of the members of a group needs to take equal participation. The efficient leaders accordingly require establishing the proper communicational process and interact about the different priorities (Men and Stacks 2014). The efficient leaders need to communicate about the emerging issues or conflicts that may affect the internal functionalities. It is the major responsibility of the leaders to communicate with the group members and make them aware of the organisational values and morale. The leaders establish the communicational flexibility among the people from diverse background. With the help of frequent group meetings and discussions, the communication process is strengthened. The leaders need to discuss about the innovative process that helps in developing the professional and personal attributes of the employees (Ulmer, Sellnow and Seeger 2013). Moreover, the leaders develop the effective interpersonal skills through establishing the proper communicational process. The leaders need to communicate about the business ethics. The effective group discussion helps the group members to be knowledgeable about the business ethics that are needed to be maintained. The leaders take the responsibilities to communicate about the workplace etiquettes that help in shaping the values and morale. Maintaining the communication transparency is necessary to generate the sense of reliability among the associated (Stevens 2014). When the leaders are maintaining the proper communications with the employees, it helps in motivating and making them comfortable to perform in a better way. The efficient leaders undertake the proper form of communication transparency to eliminate the emerging conflicts within the organisational scenario. Therefore, it can be considered that the efficient leaders need to undertake the proper communication process for shaping the values and group roles. The written explanation in this resource is highlighting the importance of message clarity in establishing the proper communication. The introduction is accurately explaining the subject matter briefly. The discussion part begins with the explanation of the underlying concept. Explanation is quite helpful to derive intact knowledge about the necessity of message clarity. However, it is needed to explain more on how the leaders apply the method of message clarity. Apart from this limitation, the overall context is understandable. In addition to this, the concept is highlighting the key points of the subject matter, which is described in this report. The resource is reflecting the insightful ideas about the necessities of effective body language for communicating with the organisational associates. The introductory part is missing in this resource. It starts with the general description, which can be considered as the limitation of the study. However, the discussion presents the uses of the non-verbal communications in the historic ages. The examples are properly described in the resource. The description is highlighting the method of recognising the body languages. The use of numeric data is clarifying the concept more specifically. However, the study does not present the use of the proper body language in the organisational context. Apart from this, the presentation of the sequential steps of using such type of communication is quite remarkable. Utilisation of the complex words may sometimes confuse the readers. However, overall, it is an intact paper of providing the enriched knowledge about non-verbal communication. References Hackman, M.Z. and Johnson, C.E., 2013.Leadership: A communication perspective. Waveland Press. Ulmer, R.R., Sellnow, T.L. and Seeger, M.W., 2013.Effective crisis communication: Moving from crisis to opportunity. Sage Publications. Men, L.R. and Stacks, D., 2014. The effects of authentic leadership on strategic internal communication and employee-organization relationships.Journal of Public Relations Research,26(4), pp.301-324. Stevens, L., 2014. Improving Teamwork, Staffing Adequacy, and Transparency to Reach High Reliability.Nurse Leader,12(6), pp.53-58.

All Quite On The Western Front Essays - English-language Films

All Quite On The Western Front All Quiet on the Western Front shows the change in attitudes of the men before and during the war. This novel is able to portray the overwhelming effects and power war has to deteriorate the human spirit. Starting out leaving you're home and family pr d and ready to fight for you country, to ending up tired and scarred both physically and mentally beyond description. *At the beginning of the novel nationalist feelings are present through pride of Paul and the rest of the boys. However at the end of the war it is apparent how pointless war really is. *All Quiet on the Western Front is a novel that greatly helps in the understanding the effects war. The novel best shows the attitudes of the soldiers before the war and during the war. Before the war there are high morals and growing nationalist feel gs. During the war however, the soldiers discover the trauma of war. They discover that it is a waste of time and their hopes and dreams of their life fly further and further away. The remains of Paul Baumer's company had moved behind the German front l es for a short rest at the beginning of the novel. After Behm became Paul's first dead schoolmate, Paul viewed the older generation bitterly, particularly Kantorek, the teacher who convinced Paul and his classmates to join the military. " While they tau t that duty to one's country is the greatest thing, we already that death-throes are stronger.... And we saw that there was nothing of their world left. We were all at once terribly alone; and alone we must see it through."(P. 13) Paul felt completely etrayed. " We will make ourselves comfortable and sleep, and eat as much as we can stuff into our bellies, and drink and smoke so that hours are not wasted. Life is short." (P 139) Views of death and becoming more comfortable with their destiny in the r became more apparent throughout the novel. Paul loses faith in the war in each passing day. * Through out the novel it was evident that the war scarred the soldiers permanently mentally. Everyone was scared to go to war when it started. Young recruits were first sent because the veterans knew they were going to come back dead. "When we run t again, although I am very excited, I suddenly think: "where's Himmelstoss?" Quickly I jump back into the dug-out and find him with a small scratch lying in a corner pretending to be wounded." (P 131) Even the big men like Himmelstoss are scared to go ght. "He is in a panic; he is new to it too. But it makes me mad that the young recruits should be out there and he here." (P 131) The soldiers were being crushed and seeing things get destroyed, but because they had detached themselves they thought t y were able to handle it. " We believe in such things no longer, we believe in war."(P.88) That was Paul's motto. Although, as time went on he began to realize something wasn't right. He tried to replace these feelings with pleasure, so he spent the ight at the French girls' house. After he just felt worse and unfulfilled. "...we are crude and sorrowful and superficial-- I believe we are lost."(P123) When Paul realizes that we are all brothers, true mental struggle is seen. " Comrade, I did not ant to kill you...Why do they never tell us you are poor devils like us... and that you have the same fear of death...If we could just throw away these riffles and this uniform you could be my brother..." ( P. 223-224). The apparent change in views on e war has become extremely apparent. *In a war there is obviously apparent physical scars. As seen throughout the entire book, the destruction of war is great, on not only lives and property, but also on the human spirit. The young men in this book and of those of the times were subjec to physical torment. Eyes were blinded from such sights as, limbs being blown off, blood flowing everywhere, and innocent men dying in agony. When soldiers take shelter in the graveyard, bombs explode all around them; the living hide in coffins and th dead are thrown from their graves. The destructive power is so great that even the fundamental differences between life and death become blurred. *All Quiet on the Western Front is a novel that portrayed

Get a Look at Some Giant Mammals of the Cenozoic Era

Get a Look at Some Giant Mammals of the Cenozoic Era The word megafauna means giant animals. Though dinosaurs of the Mesozoic Era were nothing if not megafauna, this word is more often applied to the giant mammals (and, to a lesser extent, the giant birds, and lizards) that lived anywhere from 40 million to 2,000 years ago. More to the point, giant prehistoric animals that can claim more modestly sized descendants- such as the giant beaver and the giant ground sloth- are more likely to be placed under the megafauna umbrella than unclassifiable, plus-sized beasts like Chalicotherium or Moropus. Its also important to remember that mammals didnt succeed the dinosaurs- they lived right alongside the tyrannosaurs, sauropods, and hadrosaurs of the Mesozoic Era, albeit in tiny packages (most Mesozoic mammals were about the size of mice, but a few were comparable to giant house cats). It wasnt until about 10 or 15 million years after the dinosaurs went extinct that these mammals started evolving into giant sizes, a process that continued (with intermittent extinctions, false starts, and dead ends) well into the last Ice Age. The Giant Mammals of the Eocene, Oligocene, and Miocene Epochs The Eocene epoch, from 56 to 34 million years ago, witnessed the first plus-sized herbivorous mammals. The success of Coryphodon, a half-ton plant-eater with a tiny, dinosaur-sized brain, can be inferred by its wide distribution across early Eocene North America and Eurasia. But the megafauna of the Eocene epoch really hit its stride with the larger Uintatherium and Arsinoitherium, the first of a series of -therium (Greek for beast) mammals that vaguely resembled crosses between rhinoceroses and hippopotamuses. The Eocene also gestated the first prehistoric horses, whales, and elephants. Wherever you find large, slow-witted plant-eaters, youll also find the carnivores that help keep their population in check. In the Eocene, this role was filled by the large, vaguely canine creatures called mesonychids (Greek for middle claw). The wolf-sized Mesonyx and Hyaenodon are often considered ancestral to dogs (even though it occupied a different branch of mammalian evolution), but the king of the mesonychids was the gigantic Andrewsarchus, at 13 feet long and weighing one ton, the largest terrestrial carnivorous mammal that ever lived. Andrewsarchus was rivaled in size only by Sarkastodon- yes, thats its real name- and the much later Megistotherium. The basic pattern established during the Eocene epoch- large, dumb, herbivorous mammals preyed on by smaller but brainier carnivores- persisted into the Oligocene and Miocene, 33 to 5 million years ago. The cast of characters was a bit stranger, featuring such brontotheres (thunder beasts) as the gigantic, hippo-like Brontotherium and Embolotherium, as well as difficult-to-classify monsters like Indricotherium, which looked (and probably behaved) like a cross between a horse, a gorilla, and a rhinoceros. The largest non-dinosaur land animal that ever lived, Indricotherium (also known as Paraceratherium) weighed between 15 to 33 tons, making adults pretty much immune to predation by contemporary saber-toothed cats. The Megafauna of the Pliocene and Pleistocene Epochs Giant mammals like Indricotherium and Uintatherium havent resonated with the public as much as the more familiar megafauna of the Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs. This is where we encounter fascinating beasts like Castoroides (giant beaver) and Coelodonta (woolly rhino), not to mention mammoths, mastodons, the giant cattle ancestor known as the auroch, the giant deer Megaloceros, the cave bear, and the biggest saber-toothed cat of them all, Smilodon. Why did these animals grow to such comical sizes? Perhaps a better question to ask is why their descendants are so tiny- after all, svelte beavers, sloths, and cats are a relatively recent development. It may have something to do with the prehistoric climate or a strange equilibrium that prevailed between predators and prey. No discussion of prehistoric megafauna would be complete without a digression about South America and Australia, island continents that incubated their own strange array of huge mammals (until about three million years ago, South America was completely cut off from North America). South America was the home of the three-ton Megatherium (giant ground sloth), as well as such bizarre beasts as Glyptodon (a prehistoric armadillo the size of a Volkswagen Bug) and Macrauchenia, which can best be described as a horse crossed with a camel crossed with an elephant. Australia, millions of years ago as today, had the strangest assortment of giant wildlife on the planet, including Diprotodon (giant wombat), Procoptodon (giant short-faced kangaroo) and Thylacoleo (marsupial lion), as well as nonmammalian megafauna like Bullockornis (better known as the demon-duck of doom), the giant turtle Meiolania, and the giant monitor lizard Megalania (the largest land-dwelling reptile since the extinction of the dinosaurs). The Extinction of the Giant Mammals Although elephants, rhinoceroses, and assorted large mammals are still with us today, most of the worlds megafauna died off anywhere from 50,000 to 2,000 years ago, an extended demise known as the Quaternary extinction event. Scientists point to two main culprits: first, the global plunge in temperatures caused by the last Ice Age, in which many large animals starved to death (herbivores from lack of their usual plants, carnivores from lack of herbivores), and second, the rise of the most dangerous mammals of them all- humans. Its still unclear to what extent the woolly mammoths, giant sloths, and other mammals of the late Pleistocene epoch succumbed to hunting by early humans- this is easier to picture in isolated environments like Australia than across the whole extent of Eurasia. Some experts have been accused of overstating the effects of human hunting, while others (perhaps with a view to endangered animals today) have been charged with undercounting the number of mastodons the average Stone Age tribe could bludgeon to death. Pending further evidence, we may never know for sure.