It is never easy to judge a person, even with all of the facts in place. And so we often leave it to history to make the final judgments. But history rarely gets things right. Although the science of history is all about facts, the modern conception of history is rarely accurate. The perception of past events is so tainted by centuries old propaganda that it can be difficult to discern the truth from our society’s own, colored interpretations. Fortunately, true historians never give up the search from the truth, and are now challenging the long held beliefs of pub quiz experts and so called ‘folk’ history. New evidence is continually dispelling our common misconceptions about legendary figures and painting them in new lights. I say let history judge these people no longer, but let us judge them on the facts instead.
If you believe that nature is dull, think again. Our world is home to some incredible creatures and its history is filled with some truly awesome beasts. Animals of immense size or minute complexity, brutal killing machines and efficient biological machines, all have had their chance to compete here for the title of nature’s greatest creation.
The Death Penalty has existed long before 2500 BC, when Hammurabi was the first to create written law. Before that time, it’s likely that if a person committed a capital crime, such as murder or theft, they were executed to maintain harmony in the community and to bring solace to those who knew the victim. What defines a capital punishment offense varies per culture, such as horse-stealing being a capital offense in the 1800’s American West, and some of these offenses even define the culture itself.
In countries, provinces, or states where it’s still legal, the death penalty will always be a controversial issue. Be it a religious debate, a legal debate, or a moral debate, the question surrounding the death penalty always returns to the core issue of a government’s right to kill a person for committing a capital offense under its laws. However, the law can be anything its host government wants it to be, as was the case with Nazi Germany, or the law, governed by imperfect humans, can make mistakes that will cost a person their life.
Throughout history, the majority of wars have been fought not through simple expansionism but when two nations both claim to have rights over a certain region. Often the question of whose claim is most justified is extremely complicated and can only be resolved through open conflict.
Defining the borders between countries has been a problem since the dawn of time. With inaccurate maps, leaders used to rely on geographical features, such as mountain ranges and rivers, to draw such boundaries but in the absence of these it could be difficult to tell what land belongs to whom. Even now, with accurate mapping, the same questions arise. In fact, accurate maps often only serve to make nations more particular when it comes to land disputes.
War. What is it good for? Well, in many cases, absolutely nothing.
Of course sometimes war is a necessity and can be a very effective political tool. The Second World War, for example, was entirely justified (at least from the allied perspective) and was successful in stopping what would have been decades, if not centuries, of Nazi oppression. It also resulted in great political and scientific advances like the U.N and the atomic bomb. Throughout history, however, wars have been fought over the silliest things and have resulted in nothing but pain and misery. Here are our top 10 most pointless wars. Feel free to disagree and get all het-up over your sense of national pride.
Medieval Europe was a chaotic society of feudal and warring kingdoms. This was a time of constant political upheaval and continual, seemingly futile warfare, during which entire kingdoms rose and fell in the blink of an eye. The disorganized nature of the medieval period made it possible for powerful families to gain lands, titles and subjects with whatever resources were available to them and for no reason other than greedy expansionism. It seems that anyone and everyone above the lowly rank of peasant was out to grab power for themselves and create their own personal empire, no matter how small. Maintaining these kingdoms, however, was a much more difficult task than forming them. The politic of the day meant that an entire kingdom could be destroyed or conquered with the event of one death, through accident or assassination, or one cleverly orchestrated marriage.
In case anyone hasn’t told you yet, unfortunately, you’re going to die, and so am I. Maybe I’ll run a red light and my teeny Hyundai gets smashed by a Peterbilt, or maybe I try to squeeze just one more plug into that too-full electrical outlet and wind up a crispy critter. Then again, I could just simply go to sleep after writing this article and stop breathing, or my girlfriend’s second-hand smoke could’ve developed an inoperable lung tumor I’m not yet aware I have.
The term
republic simply means a system of government with no hereditary leader, or monarch at its head, usually pertaining to a nation state with such a government in place. Republics may be organized as a federal system or as a centralized government and may be controlled by large-scale democracy, as with most modern governments, or by a smaller, elite group, as with earlier class based democracies. The one requirement is that no one person commands the nation, rather a portion of, if not all of its citizens.
These days, with computers, Playstation 3, X Box and other new, high tech game platforms, computer and video games are more realistic than ever. Three dimensional graphics, unprecedented game play and a lot of other fancy features have meant that gaming is no longer for kids. It’s a grown up favorite too. The trouble is, unlike when we were kids, looking at the pixels of our favorites, new generation games are super realistic. And where gore and war were more an idea in our favorites, they are now real enough to warrant age restrictions on some new game titles.
