Allegory of Spring

This painting by the Italian renaissance artist Sandro Botticelli, illustrates various mythological characters in a garden intended to portray the lush colors and growth of Spring. The exact history of the painting is not certain but it is probable that it was commissioned by one of the members of the medici family. Since 1919 it is on display at the Uffizi gallery in Florence, Italy.

A Viking Misunderstood

This business, needless to say, is a barbaric one. My name is Timothy Rasmussen son of Rasmus, although my fellow Viking companions refer to me as Timmy “the brute” Rasmussen. Vikings, that is the title bestowed upon my sea-fairing Scandinavian peoples. The name does imply a somewhat brutish and haughty type of character, not wrongly so, but personally I would have much preferred a slightly more euphemistic title such as possibly “The Daringly Tenacious Explorers of Eastern Lands That Had The Bad Luck of Already Being Inhabited”, but let’s be honest here, “Vikings” is just a way catchier marketing tool and has the good fortune of not containing as many syllables as the title I had previously suggested. Anyway, I can’t blame you; all that ruthless murdering and pillaging on our part can really get to one’s head, and despite me being a Viking myself, I can see where you simple European village folk are coming from, I feel for you. Especially if you’ve recently been victimized to one of our own interpretive torture creations…you know, like the one where we open up your torso and pull your lungs out over your ribs to make it look like some kind of birds’ wings (awkward cough) , yes well it’s all a tad melodramatic really… But I guess what I’m really trying to say is… that even I get tired of the lifestyle, the umpteenth bloody eagle becomes one too many, and all that pilfering just gets soooooo redundant to the point where it all becomes incessant you know what I mean? I wish I could say the same for my fellow savage pilferers, whom are always enthusiastic of a good raid. Sometimes I wonder how they manage to stay so amused, this always baffles me, and now that I think back, I can’t even recall a time when I ever enjoyed it. Even the social aspects of Viking-hood, is a routine challenge. Imagine having to constantly express yourself in only two sentiments using two types of grunts: the satisfied grunt, and the dissatisfied grunt. This “all brawn no brains” façade has become a pain to perpetually maintain. I might be what you call the black sheep in the clan, but I think I’m just severely misunderstood (although the two basically go hand-in-hand, don’t they?). I’m not saying I want to retire and become a florist or anything, I mean it's not that I’m totally ignoring that option, I just think that its genetically out of the question since I come from an entire family lineage that lacks a basic sense of color. Anyway, that’s besides the point, the point that I was trying to make was that I think I would much rather enjoy a slightly more mellow line of work.(sighs longingly) But you know, what can a lonesome Viking do these days except fantasize…

ten years of ground zero

I was young back then and living in Budapest, but I still remember everything from the location of the television, to the color of sunlight that poured into the window. I think I remember because of my mom, her reaction made me realize something was going on.

9/11 of 2001, a date, month, and year in time that when remembered, brings back unsettling thoughts of the mass tragedy that occurred on that day, the memories of which, have been forever seared into the minds of millions. It began with the shock that could only be described as paralyzing, then came the fear, fear for family, for friends, for loved ones. Back to the shock, but it's no longer paralyzing. Days, months, also years come to pass, and the aftermath, its despair, so detrimental that its effect dominates both the physical and psychological sides of the tragedy. Everyone working at their desk that day on the 101st-105th floors of the North Tower, died. this was only a fraction of the total losses and wounded that day and the days that came after. the economical damages also devastated thousands of families with hundreds of small businesses closed and 65,000 jobs lost or relocated. As a whole, the nations' perspective I believe has been blown out of proportion. Following the events of 9/11, America has subjected itself to a heightened sense of paranoia and mass suspicion of foreigners and even fellow citizens. This behavior is not entirely lacking in validity, but it becomes deficient when common geniality is sacrificed and a simple act of compassion becomes the last resort. But even though nothing positive came out of this almost historical landmark, thats not to say that the nation isn't recovering well. The Volume of Apartment sales has increased by 151% since 2003, resident population has more than doubled to 56,000 since 2001, and six new schools have opened there since 2009, but no matter what, the losses of 9/11 will always be properly memorialized.

The U.S. government launched a "War on Terror" campaign that has involved many other nations including the United Kingdom and other members of NATO. because of this international force dedicated to fighting terrorism, many terrorist attacks have successfully been prevented, the Taliban has also been brought down in Afghanistan, and infamous dictator Sadame houssain has also met his demise (not taking into account the controversy of the death sentence). Various missions such as these have allowed for things like civil rights and democracy to re-establish themselves in impoverished countries such as Afghanistan and Iraq, but none of this was achieved without sacrifices. Many brave soldiers have been separated from their families, some have never returned, also we can't forget the civilians that have perished as "collateral damage", and not to mention the financial dent put on the economy because of excess spending on military investments. So keeping in mind that to every good intention there's a pitfall, the question remains: where exactly does the balance fall? which outweighs the other? was it all worth-it?

The middle ages was the dividing line between the classic and early modern eras in history, so it would be technically accurate to refer to this period of time as the middle ages. With todays accumulated knowledge of the past some might argue that historical landmarks such as the Roman Empire, in all its brilliance, overshadowed the achievements of the middle ages. Thats not to say there weren't any to date. Many remarkable figures were conceived in this era, Fibonacci and Oresme shed their light on mathematics, Thomas aquinas made his contributions to philosophy which has influenced much of Western thought, the writings of Dante and Chaucer have even been preserved to the present day and are still widely studied. The stunning architecture of gothic cathedrals is also notable. It is understandable that some might refer to this age as "dark", this is probably the case because this era is renowned for some of its moral injustice and lack of groundbreaking progression in the sciences, but we must not forget that the middle ages had the unfortunate timing of taking place subsequent to the insightful and affluent existence of the Roman Empire. Really, the middle ages were a milestone that paved the way to an even more prosperous time: the Renaissance.