The Anthropocene has been defined as a new geologic era in which human impact on the planet, across all spheres, has taken on immense proportions. Humans are fundamentally reshaping the physical, chemical, biological, and atmospheric conditions and operations of the earth.
The famous samurai Toyotomi Hideyoshi, born a peasant, first unifies Japan under his rule and then launches a massive invasion of Korea that changed the course of history forever.
James Clavell's novel Shōgun was inspired by a line from his daughter's history textbook, "In 1600, an Englishman went to Japan and became a samurai."
Geography is such a lost field for many people. Even a minimally labeled purely political map like this tells you so much! Consider proximities and lines of latitude – keeping in mind that any flat map does not do justice to a spherical world.
"I, like many people, tend to ask questions of the places I visit, and relish most the ones that ask the most searching questions back of me."
"Socrates said that philosophy is a preparation for death. For everyone else, there’s travel."
Classic philosophical and religious traditions offer help for living a good human life. The problem is that they were, by and large, formulated during a historical age (sometimes called the Axial Age) when the conditions of human life were vastly different from what they are today. This is the central