Steppe

“Gilgamesh was weeping bitterly for Enkidu, his friend, as he roamed the steppe: ‘Shall I not die too? Am I not like Enkidu?’” (72). Gilgamesh was a tyrant and horrible King. But here we see a glimpse of what it was like for him to truly grieve over his best friend. No matter how bad of a king he was, he was still the king…

There is a weapon that can strike many hundreds of miles from its launching point. It has devastating accuracy, with an error margin for stationary targets measured in tens of feet. It was this weapon-- plentiful, cheap, and reliable-- that may have brought about a new epoch of naval warfare. Surely the weapon of reference is the cruise missile-- precise, long ranged, and paradigm shifting in naval combat. However, while all those statements do apply to the cruise missile, they also apply to…

It can be noted that the geopolitical theories of Halford J. Mackinder influenced Karl Haushofer’s investigations of Mackinder’s “heartland” theory and other studies that Nazi Germany would later employ in their political campaign from the 1930’s until 1945. Mackinder’s “heartland” theory suggests that parts of eastern Europe and Asia make up for a continental piece of land known as the “heartland”, which after examination and study, Mackinder was convinced that it provided that most national…

Shortly after the collapse of the Tang Dynasty, a new empire known as the Song Dynasty unified and implemented a new government that ruled the Chinese empire for roughly three centuries. At the time when the Song Dynasty took over, they faced a major challenge regarding the old aristocracy. Adler & Pouwels (2017) stated that the previous aristocracy provided a substantial amount of skilled men who were recruited to perform duties in the government properties. However, they were brutally…

Prisoners of Geography: Western Europe and Russia Although technology is increasingly advancing and shaping the way our world works, the bottom line for the human geography of a region is its physical geography. Prisoners of Geography, a book written by Tim Marshall, takes this idea and further applies it to the various regions of the world. The book discusses the diverse environmental features in the world’s regions and their impacts, which can both resemble and differ from impacts in other…

Vegetation changes broadly from “ subtropical semi desert and thorn steppe formation in the northwest, to tropical rainforests in the Himalayas”, (Wilkes, Eriksson, Yun, Xu Jianchu, & Shrestha, 2009). Within the greater Himalaya region, climate change is already noticeable due to the glacier reduction, which poses a threat…

“Gilgamesh, wherefore do you wander? The eternal life you are seeking, you shall not find. When the gods created mankind, they established death for mankind and withheld eternal life for themselves. As for you, Gilgamesh, let your stomach be full, always be happy, night and day. Make every day a delight, night and day play and dance, your clothes should be clean”. This quote has many ways that explain it, but I interpret as Siduri is explaining to Gilgamesh how we view life. Within time God put…

Forest Service, 2005). “Introduced into the United States in 1828 as an herbal remedy and an ornamental,” Meadow Hawkweed is another species native to Europe (MSU, 2009). Butter and Eggs were established in the United States as “an ornamental from the steppes of Europe and Asia in the 1700s,” (MN DNR, 2017). Since then, these species have seem to become no longer appealing, and after escaping from people’s gardens, they have been left to grow and become a nuisance not only to humans, but to…

Aristotle was a Greek philosopher as well as an apprentice of Plato. He founded a school and studied many different things. One of the things he studied was poetry, or as he referred to it, Poetics. Aristotle’s Poetics consists of a list of principles which he believes makes up “good” literature. These principles include plot, character, thought, diction, melody, and spectacle. Aristotle felt that in order for a piece to be considered “good” literature it must include those things, but was…

Although the Tang Dynasty was remembered for its militaristic strengths, political structure, economic stability, and overall power, it was clear that the Tang dynasty had many other positive outcomes such as changing ideals and opportunities for women of this era. The fall of the Sui Dynasty in 618 C.E resulted in an obvious decline in harsh conditions and limited privileges for women and led to the changes that took place in the Tang Dynasty from 618-907 C.E. These changes are what allowed the…