Machiavelli

In the reading pertaining to Machiavelli I put myself in the prince's shoes and imagined my self reading this letter from his point of view. I think I would have been infuriated by this letter because Machiavelli had been exiled and now he send me letter on pretty much how I can be a better prince. The message also sent across would be that I don't have what it takes to be a good prince. In a sence Machiavelli gets the last words in and it's kind of like a slap to the face. From my point though, I really liked the letter. It seems clever that Machiavelli sent this letter and it never directly says that the prince is a bad prince. At the same time it seems like a helpful letter to the prince, but I think we know the intentions behind letters like this. I think he wanted the prince to know that he wasn't the best a prince could be.

The plague

The plague kind of reminded me of the movie "The Happening". People just dying out of thin air. After while they were able to figure out where the plague came from. I think its amazing how pre agricultural populations were constantly in contact with chronic and parasitic diseases and actually have very low death rates due to these diseases. Without a host the parasite will die. It not until agricultural periods that we see infectious diseases come into the human populations. Partly because these populations were the first to pastoralize and come into contact with herds. So when the plague had made its impact, I belive the disease' had so many hosts that there was no need to not completley deprive the body. Its mentioned that there were less deaths when the plague came around again. It think it has to do with natural selection and how our bodies cause mutations to accomodate fighting the virus. Did you know that 10% of the European population is immune to HIV, due to the human leukocyte antigent (HLA)

Wikipedia Assignment #2: Vikings

1. 6,852 words

2. Search Term: Vikings, Article Title: Viking

3. Disambigutation: History, Organizations, Ships, Aerospace, Military, Film/Music and Sports

4. Discussion had suggestions to make the article better. It also had questions, and some people gave some extra intresting topics about the vikings not on the article.

5. Changes: 5063, 1st change date:02/06/2002, Last change date:10/12/2008

6. External links: 6

7. References: 5

8. No topic for further reading

This article discused the origin of the term "viking". It also discusses some of the famous viking through history and how they had their influence on the colonization of Europe as well as other territories, including a temporary stay in New Foundland, Canada. This article seems pretty dry and didn't have much for interesting facts. The only real intresting fact had to do with the viking wearing horned helmets, which the article states would actually make it cumbersome to wear during battle, so the viking did not actually wear horned helmets. I wouldn't recommend this article because if you read our assignments you'll get most of the important information from there and not the article.

Vikings just hanging around

I found it amusing how the Vikings worked. They were obviously a pretty tough group, even in defeat it looks like they still stuck around. Pretty much its like letting the bully hang around as long as he's doing his own thing and not bothering you, why push the limit. It amazing how many territories they were able to occupy, once again even if it wasn't an area conquered by Vikings it was still inhabited by them and they still lived the way they wanted to, not the way the original inhabitants lived. Thats a pretty intimidating group to have that much power.

Theogeny out the window

One of my favorite topics is Mythology. I hardly take the time to ever think about the transition from Pagan beliefs to Christianity. So after reading this section it's kind of wierd to see religious leaders trying to claim power in Rome. When I hear about Leo I claiming that Peter was chief of all apostles making the bishop of Rome the head of all bishops, its crazy to think that those claims weren't even considered before the fall of the Roman Empire. In Virgils Aenied, Aeneis' line is supposed to end with the founding of Rome, Romulus is supposedly the actual founder of Rome. I couldn't imagine having my beliefs at one period in my life, then rewriting the histories to make room for a whole other set of beliefs. Going from (for Romans)Jupiter(zeus) to God.

Muslims and War

I'm not really one who likes to discuss religion because I feel its a conversation that can lead to disrepectful judgements of others just because of opposing points of views. I will say that since were are in the middle of a war I think the Muslim religion is crap, not due to the fact of how it was created but for just 1 of their beliefs. Everyone is entitled to their own ideas and beliefs, but I say its crap because if someone else doesn't see their point of view then the answer is to wage war against the opposition and destroy them. I know that all religions have a history of wars behind them but within modern times religions have supressed war like ideas and use media or propaganda against other religons, at least slander is verbal not physical. It's too bad the Muslims have to go about their faith using violence and force.