One of the greatest picture-label combinations ever.
The link to the source of the picture is this http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4592556.stm (sorry, the link thing isn't working again).
Every civilization ever in history has only had a period of greatness (if it ever had one) if it was expanding some way. Every empire that ever existed could only keep its strength if it was increasing its strength.
Every ruler who ever ruled would have to advance something in order to stay successful.
All of these patterns of history can be traced back to natural selection and the beginnings of societies. Part of humanity's success lies in its continuing advancement. A society rarely remains stable. If it is not progressing, it's getting weaker. This situation happens because of constant competition.
When there are multiple societies in a particular area, they will compete. In order to succeed, each society has to grab on to every edge it has over the others. If one tribe can hunt down just a few more deer than the others', it starts a chain reaction. More food means more people, those can then be set to get more resouces, which means even more people.
However, in nearly all live there are standards. If another tribe gets another edge, the original tribe will lose its advantage. If it does not get that advantage back, it may eventually be overshadowed and then absorbed by others.
Take Europe for an example. During the Middle Ages the rate of advancement had slowed down somewhat. This changed after the extensive contact with the Muslims in the Crusades. This fueled an expansion of knowledge, which slowly worked to have expansion start at smaller levels. Villages became towns, towns became cities, and small domains became nations. All of these events helped to start the Rennaissance.
During the Rennaissance then, Europeans spread their influence farther across the globe with colonisation in the Americas, Africa, and the Indies. This expansion then probably pushed Europe through the Rennaissance into one of the most important times for Western Civilization, the Enlightenment Age.
Well, I'm back again, seems like I took a rather over-extended break. Either way...
Merry Christmas! (somewhat belated) and a happy whatever if you are celebrating anything else around this time
And also...
Happy New Year!!!
You could look back at 2005 and think "o *!#$" or you could just read this post to make you think for a bit
Throughout history societies, nations, and civilizations have been in a constant state of competition. Even if two were officially allies, there were undoubtably sectors where competition existed.
Because of this competition, nations around the world have developed very complex systems of trade and alliances.
For example, there were few times when countries near each other became allies without the presence of some other force. Take for example, the Greek city-states of Sparta and Athens. When the Persians invaded, they banded together, after the Persian threat was over, hostilities between them increased, eventually leading to the Peloponesian War.
Even in modern times, the supposed NATO alliance is not as strong as it used to be. When there was a Soviet Union, unifying forces between them were stronger than forces of competition. Survival comes above expansion.
Now NATO is simply idling along, there is no real reason for it to stay, at least for the moment.
In the same way, the movements to create a unified Europe. The EU is trying to ignore 1500 years of political and economic evolution in Europe. Over these years not only have the European countries firmly established their own cultures, but they have also become competitors. The only way to mold them together would be using something that threatens all of them. Otherwise, it will be almost impossible for human hands alone to turn former competitors into cooperating parts of a nation.
A common threat or cause has been binding former competitors together many times. In the American Revolution the British were in this role, later during the ratification of the Constitution, it was perhaps because they had a very imperialistic and colonial-minded world to face.
Some Updates
Here are some new things in the Historium network (yes, I’m turn it into a network of sites). First, if you look to the right you should see the “no rights reserved” sign. That just means everything in Historium is public domain, you can copy and use any or all of it any way you want to, without needing my permission.
Second, you might remember me announcing the creation of a podcast, after several weeks of idleness I’ve restarted it with a video from one of my games. You can go see it at http://scriptor.podomatic.com, the game is
For some future projects:
I am planning on finishing up the flash site to go along with this
Also, I am working out some more details for an idea to build a web-based library, if you’re interested in more details please say so in a comment.
That’s it for now, come back later for a real post.
Bill of Rights Day
I had almost forgotten but a timely comment by David of A Republic (arepublic.blogspot.com) reminded me soon enough for me to do a post. On this day, December 15, the First ten Amendments of the ’s Constitution were ratified. These ten are collectively called, The Bill of Rights. These days these rights seem to be collapsing all over the place, as governments on multiple levels forget about them and do what they please.
How are we supposed to continue to be an example of liberty and freedom when our rights of free speech, property, gun-ownership, and others are disappearing? How can it be, that the oath of every public federal official to uphold the Constitution seems to be just a few minutes of delay between them and power? How is it possible that people throughout this country are barely lifting a finger to put an end to this?
Because the Bill of Rights has been forgotten.
People think they are all smart when they say the Bill establishes our rights, if one asks for specifics they may vaguely recall things as “freedoms of speech, press, and religion” and maybe even some of those that relate to an accused person’s rights.
Strangely, if one looks at the state of the Bill of Rights today, even those vague ideas are not being upheld.
Forget the crusade against terrorism, how can we fight those who rule by fear when the American government rules by ignorance?
Battle of Wake Island
Most people will know the significance of the date December 7. Even if they don’t at first, they probably will after you mention World War II, and maybe the mention of
Most people, however, do not know what happened just 4 days later, on December 11, today. Most people wouldn’t know that on today’s date, in 1941,
As the victorious Japanese main fleet was sailing home after the Pearl Harbor attack it sent a detachment to take the strategically important
Equipped with 6 5-inch shore guns, the marines fought a battle with the Imperial Japanese ships off-shore. The remaining 4 Marine Air Corps planes also did their part. The day ended with the guns sinking the destroyer Hayate and the aircraft sending another one, the Kisaragi, below the waves. Practically all the other ships were damaged,
For the first time the Americans had something to boost their morale. Not only was this their 1st victory, but also the Hayate was the 1st Japanese ship to be sunk in the war. It was also the 1st and only time in the entire war that an amphibious invasion was turned back by shore guns. Wake proved a Godsend in a time when the disaster at
The victory did not stay so, the Japanese now decided to send more ships in the directions of Wake, including two carriers. From then until December 23, the island was under a constant siege, being attacked by Japanese planes night and day.
Eventually the Japanese launched a second invasion, this time with 1,500 marines. The fighting was fierce and bloody lasted the whole night and the next morning. Eventually however the marines could not continue fighting, and surrendered.
An American attempt to retake the island was turned back, and Wake was never recaptured until after the official Japanese surrender. All the military personnel were taken prisoner and shipped to Japanese prisoner camps. The civilian contractors stayed behind to do forced labor.
Still, the value of Wake being the site of the first American victory in the most major war in the 20th
Writng and the Rise of Cities
Writing began as scribes started to abbreviate and standardize pictures they were drawing at first. Eventually these abbreviations were ordered into a syllabic-oriented written language where each symbol usually stood for a syllable. Eventually in some civilizations this turned into an alphabet where each character represented a specific sound.
A written system probably developed along with the rise of large urban centers and more extensive trade. Cities exist because the people inside them are dependent on each other and those in rural areas to live and prosper. Therefore, every city has a huge amount of information moving through it. This information allows each person to know what they need to know to perform their tasks.
If information was carried using only pictures, or worse speech, then obviously mistakes and misinterpretations will happen. An alphabet and a literate population can support a much larger volume of data to be shuffled around. Therefore a society with a written language and at least a partly literate population has a much better chance of growing and rising to power.
Notice that it is after the rise of the first cities that complete civilizations emerge. Also, all of those civilizations have some form of written language, whether it uses a syllabic form or an alphabet. Another boost that writing had was the ability for knowledge to be passed down the generations as long as the material it is written on stays intact.
Before writing people had to remember all the knowledge in a society, after writing it was possible to simply find the tablet/papyrus scroll/slate/etc. and read it. Not only did this exponentially increase the amount of knowledge a society can store, it also furthered specialization since people could now just study the writings related to a particular subject.
Basically, simply because it allowed that further specialization, writing found another way to increase urbanization. Basically, two of the biggest necessities for urban life are writing and literacy.
To the 2nd person who commented on my last post
Bill Gates is earning so much money because he started from the ground-up pursuing a high-risk industry that could have failed and made him dirt-poor at any time. People can get what they earn after they have done a task. Gates simply took a monstrous risk and succeeded. Those who work for him for the most part did not participate in this risk, there is no way it would be fair if they got as much money as Gates.
Farmers get money by selling their produce. If they don’t make enough money, they might try figuring out why food isn’t getting to certain places instead of yelling for more subsidies.
“The man that works three jobs…” excellent example of invoking a person’s fears while not using reasoning. Ever wonder why he can’t get a job that pays enough? Maybe he goofed off during high school or college, and he couldn’t find someone that was willing to hire/recruit him.
My main message, all you people that blame the evil capitalist monstrosity for all their economic troubles, just remember that capitalism means you are responsible for your own success, or your own failure.
Update: Yes, so the American Indians did not "own" property, but as Geobandy (geobandy.blogspot.com) pointed out, they still paid for the land by using fees (read the 3rd comment on the post below for the rest of his good counter-argument), also, they American Indians may have "lived in peace with nature" (forget the vicious inter-tribal wars and driving buffalo herds over cliffs before the introduction of horses), there is a good, clear-cut and easy way to determine which society was superior:
The Europeans won in the end.
Private property allows for divisions of land, goods, and money, which allows more organization. Organization is a crucial tool for providing a good base for a society to support a larger population.
The main template problems have been fixed, links, (and of course, the almighty Google Ads) are back up. Finally, now I can concentrate more on just redesigning things and updating.
Private Property
To many people (especially hippies) private property is a concept created by rich people to keep other people down. For them, everything should be shared by all. What this idea ignores is the fact that, unless you steal something, everything that is your property consists of things you have earned in some way.
In specialized societies, the participation of everyone is needed to maintain and advance the level of technology and overall development we are at. In return, we get compensated in some way. In most places this is done with money. People then go out and do things with that money. Because the things they buy are paid for by the money they earn, they earn what they buy.
If you own a piece of land that you maintain and watch, all using legal ways, that land is rightfully yours. Now, if there was no private property, nobody would need any permission to use that land. A bunch of people may decide to hold a concert on the land, which will end up destroying everything you worked for.
You own what you earn.
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