Tag Archives: History

Is globalism hazardous to your health?

April 13, 2008 by aaron
“Globalism is a most vile institution that rapes weaker cultures of the world and homogenizes them into a single unit devoid of variety.” Agree? Disagree? Agree somewhat? While most would not agree with the statement, many agree with the sentiment. Opponents of globalism often see it as the forcing of a super-power’s culture onto other smaller cultures. Not to be blunt, but it isn’t. The spread of the most powerful culture to the rest of the word has been occurring for all of history.
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Medieval society was transformed by trade and “burgers.”

April 9, 2008 by aaron
In medieval societies, the most widespread result of the revival of trade and urban life was the slow decay of federalisms and its inherent lack of loyalty and the infighting it promoted. Because of the increase in the power of the kings, countrywide courts were established that allowed the spread of “real” justice rather than piecemeal justice handed out by the local Baron. Increases in trade allowed for the creation of a money economy which promoted both the urban life and trade with other countries which increased the flow of ideas into Europe.
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The Germans did not destroy the world’s greatest civilization.

April 12, 2008 by aaron
The Germanic tribes have been blamed for the collapse of the Roman Empire; however this is incorrect. For the most part the collapse of the Roman empire was not a collapse of an empire, but the slow integration of Germanic custom with Roman culture. This means the collapse of the Roman empire was a transfer of power from one ruling party to another. This transfer was neither peaceful nor quick, but it is the foundation of modern western society and Europe as we know it today.
Read More ⟶

Google Question and Answer: Religion in the Roman Empire

April 21, 2007 by aaron
Some people search search engines by using a few keywords, but others ask entire questions. This series of posts is dedicated to them. Over the next couple weeks I’m going to pick full questions from my logs and answer them. It is the least I could do. The first question in this series comes from an American using Windows and Internet Explorer, and they ask “What religion did the People of the Roman Empire follow?” Well I’m glad you asked that… um…let’s call you Fred… while your search landed on a very popular article entitled Causes and Effects of the Popularization of Christianity in the Roman Empire, I’m afraid that it won’t answer your question entirely.
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The Pale Blue Dot and the Human Condition.

April 9, 2007 by aaron

In February of 1990, Voyager 1 turned away from its primary mission and took a picture of the Earth from a distance of 6.4 billion kilometers (4 billion miles.) This picture featured the earth as a single small dot. A crumb on the surface of space, just lucky enough to rest inside one of many sunbeams many times its size. It demonstrated, graphically and irrefutably, what many people had believed for centuries: the earth is not special, and petty human conflicts were less important to the universe than an single ant’s life is to the earth.

Carl Sagan believed this wholeheartedly and this image inspired his book Pale Blue Dot. In response to this image he made the speech that is presented in the video in the next section. This video overlays Carl Sagan’s thoughts with images from movies that most people believe to represent themselves and their history. The power of the words combined with the visuals is stunning and well worth your time.

Read More ⟶

Diffusion as Evidenced Through the English Language

April 29, 2006 by aaron
I think this selection of words shows evidences the many ways words enter into the English vocabulary. Itinerary: Itinerary began as the word itinerarium from Latin which means “account of a journey”. Mouse: Mouse began as the Greek word m?s it the evolved over time to be (in chronological order) m?s in Latin, maus in German, m?s in Old English, then finally as mous in Middle English. This word is interesting for two reasons the first is that it has a rather long etymology and the second is that English first borrowed the word directly from Latin and then later borrowed it in a different form from the Germans.
Read More ⟶

Is globalism hazardous to your health?

April 13, 2008 by aaron
“Globalism is a most vile institution that rapes weaker cultures of the world and homogenizes them into a single unit devoid of variety.” Agree? Disagree? Agree somewhat? While most would not agree with the statement, many agree with the sentiment. Opponents of globalism often see it as the forcing of a super-power’s culture onto other smaller cultures. Not to be blunt, but it isn’t. The spread of the most powerful culture to the rest of the word has been occurring for all of history.
Read More ⟶

Medieval society was transformed by trade and “burgers.”

April 9, 2008 by aaron
In medieval societies, the most widespread result of the revival of trade and urban life was the slow decay of federalisms and its inherent lack of loyalty and the infighting it promoted. Because of the increase in the power of the kings, countrywide courts were established that allowed the spread of “real” justice rather than piecemeal justice handed out by the local Baron. Increases in trade allowed for the creation of a money economy which promoted both the urban life and trade with other countries which increased the flow of ideas into Europe.
Read More ⟶

The Germans did not destroy the world’s greatest civilization.

April 12, 2008 by aaron
The Germanic tribes have been blamed for the collapse of the Roman Empire; however this is incorrect. For the most part the collapse of the Roman empire was not a collapse of an empire, but the slow integration of Germanic custom with Roman culture. This means the collapse of the Roman empire was a transfer of power from one ruling party to another. This transfer was neither peaceful nor quick, but it is the foundation of modern western society and Europe as we know it today.
Read More ⟶

Google Question and Answer: Religion in the Roman Empire

April 21, 2007 by aaron
Some people search search engines by using a few keywords, but others ask entire questions. This series of posts is dedicated to them. Over the next couple weeks I’m going to pick full questions from my logs and answer them. It is the least I could do. The first question in this series comes from an American using Windows and Internet Explorer, and they ask “What religion did the People of the Roman Empire follow?” Well I’m glad you asked that… um…let’s call you Fred… while your search landed on a very popular article entitled Causes and Effects of the Popularization of Christianity in the Roman Empire, I’m afraid that it won’t answer your question entirely.
Read More ⟶

The Pale Blue Dot and the Human Condition.

April 9, 2007 by aaron

In February of 1990, Voyager 1 turned away from its primary mission and took a picture of the Earth from a distance of 6.4 billion kilometers (4 billion miles.) This picture featured the earth as a single small dot. A crumb on the surface of space, just lucky enough to rest inside one of many sunbeams many times its size. It demonstrated, graphically and irrefutably, what many people had believed for centuries: the earth is not special, and petty human conflicts were less important to the universe than an single ant’s life is to the earth.

Carl Sagan believed this wholeheartedly and this image inspired his book Pale Blue Dot. In response to this image he made the speech that is presented in the video in the next section. This video overlays Carl Sagan’s thoughts with images from movies that most people believe to represent themselves and their history. The power of the words combined with the visuals is stunning and well worth your time.

Read More ⟶

Diffusion as Evidenced Through the English Language

April 29, 2006 by aaron
I think this selection of words shows evidences the many ways words enter into the English vocabulary. Itinerary: Itinerary began as the word itinerarium from Latin which means “account of a journey”. Mouse: Mouse began as the Greek word m?s it the evolved over time to be (in chronological order) m?s in Latin, maus in German, m?s in Old English, then finally as mous in Middle English. This word is interesting for two reasons the first is that it has a rather long etymology and the second is that English first borrowed the word directly from Latin and then later borrowed it in a different form from the Germans.
Read More ⟶