I have learned a lot in my time in Tracey Penny Lights pre-confederation Canadian history class, and I think that the best way to summerize it is to say “Never take something at face value, always look for the secrets in things.”. This is what Tracey really taught us to do, of course she also taught us about the Beothuk, The Chilcotin War, slavery in Canada and its eventual downfall, and about the three different sieges of Quebec City, but what she really taught us is to never take things for what they are, always look for the biases, the lies, or the hidden truths. She taught us how to think creatively, how to read between the lines in historical documents and research papers. Perhaps most important of all she has taught us what it means to be Canadian, from the dark and dirty stuff most would rather forget, to the great and shining stuff that makes us want thank whatever deity you may or not believe in that you were born were you were born or for the journey that brought you to Canada. Just saying thanks will never be enough, but its the best that I can do, so Here’s to you Tracey, thanks.
Category: Reflections on the present
Nations of the Future
Asgardia: The First Space Nation
When you hear someone say Asgardia, you probably think about the mythical home of the gods from Norse mythology, or maybe you think of the Marvel Comics Asgard, home of Thor. What you probably don’t think of is a new concept that is rapidly turning into a reality. That concept is of a nation based in space, the territory of this nation will be at least one satellite, set to launch next year. While the “territory” is in space, the citizens will be on earth residing in their current countries of residence. Anyone who wishes to be a citizen of Asgardia can be a citizen, even minors (with parental approval), and project leader Igor Ashurbeyli has said that “When the number of those applications goes above 100,000 we can officially apply to the UN for the status of state”, at the time of writing this essay Asgardia has over 500,000 Citizens, including myself. Now you may think “how can it be a nation it doesn’t even have any government”, and you would be right, Asgardia currently has no government, but Asgardia is only a little over a month old, and the founding father, the above mentioned Igor Ashurbeyli, has stated that he will appoint twelve ministers to oversee the building and development of Asgardia until elections can be held, currently set to be held in 2017. Ashurbeyli has also said that he wishes Asgardia to be an opening for discussion on regulations for space, of which there are none at the present time. Another thing that the founding father wishes Asgardia to be, is a shield for all of humanity from any extra planetary threats, those can range from space junk to asteroids, but at this point Ashurbeyli does not know when such a shield can be built and implemented.
Bibliography
will you become a citizen of asgardia the first nation state in space. (2016, October 12). Retrieved from the guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/oct/12/will-you-become-a-citizen-of-asgardia-the-first-nation-state-in-space
Learning is hard
Learning is hard, that’s no mistake, no pain no gain and all that, but learning something that is not all clear cut facts, something were you have to do a lot of research and spend a long time piecing pieces of a puzzle together, all for one paper. There are few other disciplines like like history, some aspects of science like physics were until something is proven nothing can be considered fact, for example. Einsteins Theory of Relativity, while many hold this theory to be true and fact, understandably so, It is one of the more scientificly and mathematically sound, it is not. We will probably have to wait a long time, maybe even outside of our lifetimes for his theory to be proven true or not
While this may not be strictly history, I still think that its going down in the history books as an important part
Trump and an uncertain future
I am not sure what you feel about the recent election, but I know that we are heading into a future where it is going to be very hard to predict some of the outcomes of recent events. I don’t know if this is going to be a good four-eight years, I don’t know if good or bad will happen. What I do know is that this presidential election and Trumps term as president are going to be one for the history books, I know that even though I didn’t think that he would be my first choice[1], we now have to live with it for at least the next four years and hope to whatever deity you may or may not pray to that Donald J. Trump, will be a good president. Now on to the science part of this physics essay. Trump has stated in tweets that he believes climate change is a plot by the Chinese to weaken American manufacturing. This is not true, everyone but Donald Trump knows this. While we do not know if he has changed his stance on that because in his speech at an oil industry conference in North Dakota. He ignored it for the most part, he talked about guns, rising crime in cities, he even talked about The Wall (you know what one I’m talking about), but he left climate change alone. Something we do know is that he ahs talked about dismantling Obama’s climate policies, and he has even said that he wishes to cancel the Paris climate agreements (the one where every country on earth pledged to find ways to combat climate change). His reasoning behind this, he doesn’t want foreign bureaucrats deciding how America should use its energy. Which would be a viable concern, except that’s not how the agreement works, it works by every country submitting their own plan and then everybody helping everybody to enact them. All in all if Trump sticks to his guns, then it could be a very bleak future for all of us. Which is why we all have to hope that either he gets some better advisers or start changing his policies regardless.
[1] I want to point out that while I said Trump wouldn’t be my first pick, doesn’t mean Clinton was either. In my opinion there were no good candidates.