massive city in new york, popular tourist attraction and dream city for journalists, artists, and businessmen alike. home to broadway, times square, central park, and even the empire state building. new york city really has it all! (see: manhattan)

a type of piercing most commonly done in the cartilage of the ear where a circular piece connects two piercing holes

image, text, video, or other media created for comedic purposes and spread via the internet.

uncontrollable urge to take photos of one's self round the clock and posting the photos on social media more than six times a day.

(see: selfitis)

sherman was the head of a military school in louisiana when the civil war began. ohio-born, sherman rejected the south's offer of a command and enlisted in the union army. early in the war, he suffered from severe depression, considering himself a failure. sherman went on to become a relentless leader, and was grant's most trusted general.

thomas edison was the most famous inventor during the great age of invention. in his lifetime, he was granted 1,093 patents. his inventions included a telegraph that would send and receive messages simultaneously over the same line; a transmitter for bell's telephone; the phonograph; the incandescent light bulb; the mimeograph machine; waxed paper; and the basic system for making motion pictures.

working at his laboratory in menlo park, new jersey, edison worked long hours, slept little, talked to himself, and became lost in his work. in fact, on his wedding night, he forgot about his bride and went back to his lab to work out a problem.

mark twain was the pen name of samuel mclemens, a writer and humorist whose works helped create an american literary style. his novels, short stories, and memoirs dealt with politics, racism, and national identity. twain was raised in hannibal, missouri, and used the mississippi river of his youth as a setting in his two most famous novels, the adventures of tom sawyer and the adventures of huckleberry finn.

love people so much if you want to lose them.

a fried chicken fast food restaurant. its owner (gustavo fring) is so humble, meticulous, and works together with the employees. this place also welcomes student workers and overpays.

one of the two cities that could not be captured by alexander the great. imageimageimageimage

history of termessos

termessos is primarily known as the city that could not be conquered by the macedonian emperor and warlord, alexander the great. unfortunately, aside from the journals kept during alexander the great's military campaign in asia minor and a few surviving records from the roman empire era, there are few documents that could illuminate the history of termessos. it is still unknown when and by whom termessos was founded.

the city was first mentioned in history during alexander the great's siege. here are a few known facts about the city:

– despite the fact that termessos was a part of the roman empire, it had always been an autonomous city due to its remoteness.

– in 71 b.c, the roman senate unanimously voted for an act allowing termessos to be autonomous and make its own laws.

– the inhabitants of termessos called themselves the solym people, descending from the pamphylian greeks.

– a severe earthquake hit the city at a yet-undetermined date, destroying the aqueducts and cutting off the main water supply. subsequently, the solyms abandoned the city.

termessos hosts the tomb of alcetas who was one of the generals of alexander the great.

ad hominem is a type of argument where someone attacks or criticizes the person making an argument, rather than the argument itself. this is often done in an attempt to undermine the person's credibility or character, rather than focusing on the merits of their argument.

here are some examples of ad hominem:

"you can't trust what he says about politics because he's a convicted criminal."
"she can't be right about the environment because she works for a big oil company."
"he's just saying that because he's trying to be popular."
in each of these examples, the person making the argument is attacked or criticized, rather than the argument itself being discussed. this can be a logical fallacy because it doesn't address the substance of the argument and can be used to distract from a discussion of the issue at hand.

a failed state is a political entity that is unable to perform the basic functions of a sovereign government. this can include failing to provide security and basic services to its citizens, having an illegitimate or ineffective government, and being unable to control its territory. failed states can be a source of conflict, terrorism, and instability in the region.

there have been many failed states throughout history, including somalia, yugoslavia, and afghanistan. currently, some examples of failed states include south sudan, syria, and yemen.

thomas bernhard's life was marked by relentless misfortunes from the very beginning. born out of wedlock, he carried the stigma of "illegitimacy" in a society that cared deeply about such things. his mother never hid her contempt for him, and his childhood was overshadowed by a sense of rejection. physical illnesses repeatedly brought him to the brink of death, and a misdiagnosis by a doctor cost him his beloved grandfather—one of the few people he truly loved. although bernhard's parents were austrian, his mother, desperate to escape the social pressures of an illegitimate birth in austria, delivered him in a monastery in heerlen, in the netherlands. he was later raised by his grandparents back in austria.

at eleven years old, bernhard was sent to a boarding school in salzburg, where he studied music aesthetics, violin, and voice. by the late 1940s, he developed the severe lung disease that would haunt him for the rest of his life. during a two-year stay at the grafenhof sanatorium, he suffered devastating losses: first his grandfather, the single most important person in his life, and then his mother a year later. by the time he left the sanatorium, he was a budding young journalist, forced early on to grapple with grief and existential questions.

bernhard's first significant published work was a poetry collection, auf der erde und in der hölle (on earth and in hell), released in 1957. however, his true literary breakthrough came in the spring of 1963 with his first novel, frost (freeze), which quickly garnered critical acclaim. at the time, bernhard was living with his aunt in vienna, making ends meet by taking on construction jobs—digging trenches, driving trucks—and steadily forging his unique literary identity. frost earned him the bremen literature prize, which opened new doors.

with the prize money and additional support from his publisher, bernhard bought a farmhouse in upper austria. he spent most of his life there in isolation, venturing abroad frequently but always returning to this rural retreat. yet he never severed his ties to vienna. he regularly traveled back and forth between the countryside and the city, unable to settle comfortably in either place. whenever he grew weary of rural life, he fled to vienna, and as soon as vienna lost its appeal, he hurried back to his farmhouse. when neither option satisfied him—something that happened often—he escaped beyond austria's borders altogether. in fact, he wrote most of his books during these restless journeys.

in an interview, bernhard explained that every one of his books was created in different places—vienna, brussels, somewhere in yugoslavia, poland. he never had a dedicated writing desk and preferred working in noisy environments. construction cranes, bustling crowds, blaring streetcars, even laundries and butcher shops—none of these disturbed him. he found it stimulating to write where he didn't speak the local language, calling it an "encouraging" factor.

bernhard's fame soon spread beyond austria and germany. he was met with great enthusiasm in many parts of continental europe, especially in italy, spain, and france, where his works were quickly translated. his influence was also immense in russia and across the former soviet republics, earning him recognition in slavic literary circles.

over his lifetime, bernhard was astoundingly prolific: nine major novels, five long stories, four volumes of short stories, two volumes of shorter prose pieces, a five-volume autobiography, eighteen plays, several shorter dramas, three volumes of poetry, and countless interviews. he even had many unpublished works that rivaled in quantity those he had already released.

this vast output brought bernhard numerous awards. he received the julius campe prize in 1964, the bremen literature prize in 1965, austria's national prize and the anton wildgans prize in 1968, the georg büchner prize from the german academy for language and literature in 1970, the franz theodor csokor prize and the adolf grimme prize in 1972, and the hanover theater prize and prix seguier in 1974. in 1976, he earned the austrian economists' association literature prize. twice nominated for the nobel prize in literature by the german pen club, he never won, but he famously declared that he would have gladly accepted it—only so he could then turn it down.

bernhard died in 1989 at the age of 57, finally meeting the end he had contemplated so deeply and woven so thoroughly into his books.

the controversy of legacy and identity

two days before he died, bernhard left a will that was as controversial as his life's work. he explicitly banned the performance, publication, or public reading of any work he had published or left behind within austria's recognized borders for as long as his copyrights remained valid. he wanted no involvement with the austrian state, a system whose moral rejection of him began the moment he was born. this ban reflected his lifelong defiance, not only against the austrian government but also against all forms of cultural complacency.

a revolutionary literary style

bernhard's writing stands as a rebellion against the traditional novel in both form and content. readers sense something missing: no conventional story, no grand finale. he dismantles standard narrative structures, refusing to break his work into paragraphs or chapters. everything is presented as one continuous block, resisting logical categorization. his narrative world can begin anywhere and end everywhere, allowing the reader to open the book at any point without losing the thread—because, strictly speaking, there is no linear thread. his works lack the usual "plot" we expect from novels; they exist in a state of suspended action.

this approach leaves the story perpetually "open." you cannot easily summarize a bernhard narrative to someone else because it resists any neat reconstruction. his works might feel repetitive or monotonous at first glance, but this "monotony" actually reveals an intricate landscape of subtle differences for those patient enough to look closely. in describing this effect, bernhard himself used a brilliant metaphor: staring at a white wall long enough reveals that it's neither blank nor uniform. with time—and a certain loneliness as your companion—you begin to notice cracks, indentations, tiny movements, and insects. the wall, like his texts, becomes alive with detail.

everything in bernhard's writing is intentionally crafted and exaggerated. he believed that only through exaggeration could we truly understand how bad reality can be. this overemphasis serves as a form of aesthetic stance: to make something understandable, he insisted, you must present it in an extreme form.

repetition is a core technique in bernhard's work. he tells essentially the same story in every novel—though always in new ways—and then repeatedly revisits phrases, sentences, and descriptions. he frequently employs narrators who restate what the main character has told them. the narrator's voice often risks losing its own identity in the overwhelming presence of the protagonist's worldview. each bernhard novel reads like a monologue, delivered through a proxy, anchored in the same philosophical undercurrent: the inescapable tension between individual existence and a world that feels impossibly hostile.

bernhard's protagonists live secluded, often in remote rural places that serve as both prison and refuge. they flee the city's horrors only to discover that the countryside offers no relief. he despised the notion that pastoral settings or small towns were inherently wholesome or redemptive. for bernhard, nature was "rotten," rural life even more corrupt and depressing than the city. there is no safe haven—no place is free of human folly and decay.

this relentless negativity might seem bleak, but it's central to his vision. for bernhard, the only true escape from the world's misery is death. to live means to suffer, to endure crushing loneliness, and to fail to communicate one's inner torment. it's no surprise that one of his most famous public statements—delivered when he received a national literary prize in austria—was simply that when you consider death, everything else becomes absurd.

imagine a guy who looked at the entire history of philosophy, religion, and morality and basically said, "yeah, we got it wrong." that is nietzsche. he is the philosopher who did not just think outside the box. he stomped on the box, set it on fire, and said we need to build a whole new way of thinking from scratch. born in 1844 in germany, nietzsche was a professor of classical philology before he became a full-time thinker and writer. he was not exactly popular while he was alive, but after he died, his ideas lit a fire across modern thought.

nietzsche is important because he called out the foundations of western civilization. he said things like "god is dead," which is not really about religion fading, but about the collapse of old values that used to give people meaning. once those old certainties are gone, we are left in a world where we have to create our own meaning. that is terrifying but also freeing. nietzsche wanted people to stop being followers and start becoming what he called the "übermensch" or the "overman," someone who creates their own values and lives boldly without crutches like traditional religion or herd mentality.

his style was wild. he did not write boring academic papers. he wrote books that felt like a mix of poetry, prophecy, and a punch in the face. no long arguments full of careful logic. just fierce, brilliant, sometimes chaotic writing that made you either want to fight him or follow him. books like "thus spoke zarathustra," "beyond good and evil," and "the birth of tragedy" are not easy reads but they hit hard. zarathustra especially is written like a strange new bible where the main character is trying to teach humans to grow up and own their existence.

one of nietzsche's big ideas is the "will to power," the force inside living things to grow, expand, assert themselves, and overcome challenges. it is not just about survival. it is about thriving and pushing boundaries. another huge idea is "eternal recurrence," the thought that life might repeat itself infinitely, so you should live as if every moment would happen again and again forever. it is a mind-bender, but it was nietzsche's way of forcing you to think about how deeply you value your own life.

an interesting detail is that nietzsche wrote his most famous works while battling intense health problems, loneliness, and the growing signs of a mental breakdown. in 1889, he completely collapsed in turin after seeing a horse being whipped. he spent the last years of his life in a state of insanity while his sister took control of his works and messed with them to fit her political views, which caused a lot of confusion later on about what nietzsche actually believed.

despite all the myth-making, nietzsche was not a hater of life. he loved life, but he thought loving life meant being brutally honest about it. no sugarcoating, no fairy tales, just the raw, terrifying beauty of existence. that is why he is one of the biggest names in existentialism, even though that term came after him. without nietzsche, there is no sartre, no camus, no modern rebellion against easy answers.

in short, nietzsche asked the scariest and most exciting question. if all the old rules are gone, what are you going to do with your freedom.

the guy who looked at the world and said, "it's all one big rigged game." architect of world-systems theory. saw capitalism not as a phase, but as the global plot twist we're still stuck in.