Ambrosia Software Web Board: A taste test - Ambrosia Software Web Board

Pufer, on Jul 4 2007, 06:24 AM, said:

Preferred Physics myself, although Chem was a close second. Absolutely hated biology. But my teacher was a bastard.

vecoriwen, on Jul 4 2007, 06:26 AM, said:

Geography < History

I'm a huge History geek though...

Lektor, on Jul 4 2007, 12:53 PM, said:

Oh yeah...Physics was awesome. I had an awesome teacher. But, my Bio teacher was a bastard, too. I was "you in the back" until the second semester. I like Biology and Physics because they are readily applicable to everyday things. While you may argue that Chem is as well, it is on a much more microscopic level.

I'm a History buff, too. Actually, I just got back from Turkey (most awesome country ever, by the way) and everywhere you look there was history. Everywhere. We went to all these ancient Roman ruins and cities (such as Ephesus...visually orgasmic).

However, history wouldn't exist without Geography. Every event has a place. And that place help mold the event, and it's outcome.

While I see your point, I'd argue that history defines a place more than a place defines history. Not saying the place doesn't have an effect, i'm saying history's effect is greater.

I agree with Lek on this one

It's the logical thing to do

Well a port city isn't going to be there if there's no port. And the important people of that city aren't going to be there, thus changing history. A single mountain, river, etc can change the outcome of a battle, and thence, an entire war.

The fact is, there wouldn't be History without Geography.

Don't get me wrong, I agree with you that history defines a place....But a place also defines history. A single Geographical element can change the entire thing.

And yes, History changes Geography (ie, the diversion of water, etc). But think about this: What if the Mediterranean was unable to support, I don't know, say olive trees...would things still be the same today? No.

Point taken, but you can fall ass-backwards into a good geographic location and a huge number of people have done so over the years. I mean, just look at the counterexample to that, Pella is in a s### location in a crummy, poor area of the lower goat territory up from the Chalcidice, yet was the seat of the Macedonian Empire. An unimaginable number of people had lived in the general area (and still live there today) and had never accomplished anything with their geographic situation, yet Philip and Alexander managed to put together what was one of the greatest empires in history starting from there, mostly because they happened to be Philip and Alexander. In fact, Alexander never made out worth a damn when it came to geographical features with their associated strategies and invariably got all screwed up, however he always won because he simply had better forces.

Indeed, all of Greece, the birthplace of western civilization, is now and has always been an extraordinarily poor and terrible place to find oneself. Granted, their location had something to do with what they did, but it's the Greeks who made Greek history, not the fact that they lived in Greece.

-Pufer

This post has been edited by Pufer: 04 July 2007 - 11:27 PM