There are many reasons civilizations have laws. The most basic reason would be so that they can keep order in their society. If there were no laws, there would be chaos and confusion, people would kill each other, or do things that would negatively harm themselves and those around them. For example, there is a law against drinking and driving. If there wasn't, people would shamelessly drive while they were drunk. Not only would they be crashing into other cars, but they would also run over and kill innocent pedestrians. If there wasn't a law that stated that you must have a permit in order to have a gun, people could just stroll over to a shop that sells guns, buy one, and then randomly start shooting anyone that walks by. I think you get my point...laws keep order in a civilization.
In humanities class today we also talked about "The Code of Hammurabi". For those of you who don't know, Hammurabi was the ruler of Babylon, and eventually formed the Babylonian Empire. "The Code of Hammurabi" was made in order for Hammurabi to keep order in his empire, yet some may argue that his laws were too extreme and severe. I would agree with that, yet I think he has reasons for why it was so. Before I explain my opinion, I would like to give you some examples of some of his "harsh" rules. The first one would be that if a boy struck his father, the son's arm would be severed off. Another example would be, If someone fails to meet a claim for debt, and sell himself, his wife, his son, and daughter for money or give them away to forced labor: they shall work for three years in the house of the man who bought them, or the proprietor, and in the fourth year they shall be set free.
I think that Hammurabi made the laws so severe because he wanted to make sure that no one would commit the crimes, or make such huge mistakes. If the punishment was very brutal, people wouldn't want to face the consequences, and would think twice before committing the crimes. If the punishment for murder was a 300 ringgit fine, like speed tickets, rich people could just go around killing people. If the punishment is death, less people would be murderers!
I guess Hammurabi even had his reasons!
"I am excessively diverted." - Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Connect-Extend-Challenge Part 2!!!
This is an extension to my previous post, 'Connect-Extend-Challenge'. I would like to expand my thinking. As you saw below, I was wondering how we evolved all the way from 10000 years ago, where there was barely any technology, to now, where most people would have trouble surviving without it.
How did this evolution occur? After doing a project on Homo erectus, I guess it is safe to conclude that as time has past, mistakes would happen and a new things would be discovered. For example, look at fire. It is technically a form of technology. Homo erectus confronted natural fires and would have noticed its warmth. He would have possibly preserved it and stayed close to it when he was cold. He would also use fire to cook meat and keep away any predators.
Overtime the human brain has evolved and become somewhat more sophisticated. When this happened we received more advanced technology. For example, Thomas Edison creating the light bulb. In the future technology will advance even more and more and more...and more.
Now, is the advancement of technology making a positive, or negative impact? Well, I guess it depends on the way you look at it. For me, the fact that we now have things like light, cars, computers, air conditioning, etc., is helping develop the world in a positive way. Imagine life without these things. I know that for most people life would be much more difficult.
There are also times where I think that technology is making a negative impact. For instance, since there is technology like game boys and PSP's, we have actually created new diseases like diabetes type two. It is caused because we are not as healthy as the past generation.We sit at home and watch T.V. to pass the time, whereas our parents and grandparents would go outside and play tag for fun (as kids). Another negative impact is that we are literally destroying our environment. When you think about it, before technology we weren't really using up so many natural resources. Now our continents will literally be under water, just because people don't take the time to do simple things like turning the air conditioning and lights off before they leave a room. Don't get me wrong though, I know I would have a loooot of trouble surviving without technology.
That is my point of view anyways.
Thanks for listening!
How did this evolution occur? After doing a project on Homo erectus, I guess it is safe to conclude that as time has past, mistakes would happen and a new things would be discovered. For example, look at fire. It is technically a form of technology. Homo erectus confronted natural fires and would have noticed its warmth. He would have possibly preserved it and stayed close to it when he was cold. He would also use fire to cook meat and keep away any predators.
Overtime the human brain has evolved and become somewhat more sophisticated. When this happened we received more advanced technology. For example, Thomas Edison creating the light bulb. In the future technology will advance even more and more and more...and more.
Now, is the advancement of technology making a positive, or negative impact? Well, I guess it depends on the way you look at it. For me, the fact that we now have things like light, cars, computers, air conditioning, etc., is helping develop the world in a positive way. Imagine life without these things. I know that for most people life would be much more difficult.
There are also times where I think that technology is making a negative impact. For instance, since there is technology like game boys and PSP's, we have actually created new diseases like diabetes type two. It is caused because we are not as healthy as the past generation.We sit at home and watch T.V. to pass the time, whereas our parents and grandparents would go outside and play tag for fun (as kids). Another negative impact is that we are literally destroying our environment. When you think about it, before technology we weren't really using up so many natural resources. Now our continents will literally be under water, just because people don't take the time to do simple things like turning the air conditioning and lights off before they leave a room. Don't get me wrong though, I know I would have a loooot of trouble surviving without technology.
That is my point of view anyways.
Thanks for listening!
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Connect-Extend-Challenge
Today in class, we did an activity where Mr.McQueen gave us a piece of paper that had three columns, based on the movie 'Guns, Germs, and Steel.
The first column was about making connections with what we saw in the movie, and what we already knew about the world. For my answer, I basically wrote things similar to the post below. My connections were that, since places like Europe had better crops, they were more advanced than places like Papa New Guinea (Papa New Guinea's crops were not as nutritious). My other connection was that the America's have good livestock and crops, because it was shipped over from Europe. The only live stock that Papa New Guinea really had were pigs.
The second section was about what made us expand our thinking. I wrote that since Papa New Guinea did not have very nutritious crops, they would not be able to take care of their people very well. If the people weren't able to be healthy, they would not be able to be as productive as different places around the world.
The last section was about what questions we still had. The movie was very informative, so I only had one main question. I asked about how technology transformed and evolved from 10,000 years ago, where the most sophisticated technology was a plow, to today, where we have sooooooo much technology everywhere.
The first column was about making connections with what we saw in the movie, and what we already knew about the world. For my answer, I basically wrote things similar to the post below. My connections were that, since places like Europe had better crops, they were more advanced than places like Papa New Guinea (Papa New Guinea's crops were not as nutritious). My other connection was that the America's have good livestock and crops, because it was shipped over from Europe. The only live stock that Papa New Guinea really had were pigs.
The second section was about what made us expand our thinking. I wrote that since Papa New Guinea did not have very nutritious crops, they would not be able to take care of their people very well. If the people weren't able to be healthy, they would not be able to be as productive as different places around the world.
The last section was about what questions we still had. The movie was very informative, so I only had one main question. I asked about how technology transformed and evolved from 10,000 years ago, where the most sophisticated technology was a plow, to today, where we have sooooooo much technology everywhere.
Monday, December 1, 2008
Geography's Impact on Advancement of Society
Today in class I watched a movie that is based on a book called Guns, Germs, and Steel. This Movie talked mainly about Papa New Guinea and its history, as well as other places around the world. During the movie we had to take notes on interesting things in the movie, then at the end we gave a title to our notes. My name was the title of this post, Geography's Impact on Advancement of Society. I gave it this name, because throughout the movie the narrator talked about the crops and land of Papa New Guinea. They made connections with the crops, and the advancement of civilization today. When they compared the crops of Papa New Guinea to Europe and the America's, Europe and the America's crops were more nutritious and better. Then, when you compared the advancement of technology in New Guinea and Europe and the America's, Europe and the America's were more advanced. Therefore, the geography of the land obviously contributed to different areas to be more advanced. You also needed more food to feed specialist and take care of them. Food takes up a lot of time and money, and it is difficult for a developing country like Papa New Guinea to fit the requirerments of an advanced society.
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