Bubonic Plague vs. Today

After studying and looking over the facts on the Black Plague, the notion of a 3rd of the population dying off started to widen my eyes. Would humanity with its increased intellect and complex technology be able to handle a wide spread endemic that could potentially kill every third person you saw? After looking carefully at modern times, I solidly believe that another "Black Plague" could potentially lead to the doom of mankind. With the constant death and with what would probably turn out to be our stagnant stubbornness to solve the endemic, society would drive itself into the ground. Is it possible that the saying "ignorance is bliss" applied to the medieval people of Europe, Asia, and Africa? Sure! With solid and unshakeable loyalty to religion, perhaps the idea that it was God and not a large virus that infected and killed nearly 50% of everyone you knew that keep the idea of man alive. Naturally, during the Plague chaos reigned supreme and social and political structure collapsed. Yet again, with reference to today, could the our times survive that AND the bid for political power afterwards? Leaders firing off WOMD, disease, starvation, chaos, and ultimately....death. Could this be end of mankind? I don't see why not!

Democratic Primary

First off, I am a Democratic, whom is trying to decide which candidate is the best Presidential candidate. Both Clinton and O'Bama would be breaking either United States racial or sexist barriers. However, is it truly that important to constantly go back to the fact that O'Bama may have once been mixed up in the drug scene, or that his middle name is Hussein? I am no fan of going off without first consulting the facts, but are these questions relevant? And is it possible that the only reason that Clinton won was that she cried, which I personally disagree with; it was the women of the US. These facts need to be sifted and shifted.

Development and Interaction of Cultures; Reflection

Through-out the beginning of AP World, a main focus has been the development and interaction of cultures, especially religion. From Egyptian beliefs up through Buddhism and Confucianism, a complex looking-glass is our point of view. From the Shang Dynasty and Egyptian, along with other monotheistic religions, we have looked for the source of belief and its impact on others and history in general. Complex burials and veneration of ancestors was a common event in earlier peoples. Then as society developed and people started to look at the catastrophies in life and the power of nature, gods developed as the chief source of power. This struck me as very strange and almost sacriligous that religion and the gods can be viewed as a pacifier to the people of earth. It is an uncomfortable position in which to be standing, yet a much more enlightened one. Then we progressed into the great Asian belief systems of Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucianism, Daoism, and Legalism. In such a diverse and yet similiar water, each belief system developed in its own way and took on different roles. Religions and philosophies alike, they started to focus more on the person of worship. I saw this with the knowledge of today's religious standpoint, one not so dominated by religious acts, but very much so neverless, and saw the power that such systems held. It is a historic wonder, this development of religion.