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The rubix cube is a very popular toy. Though calling it a toy would be doing it a disservice. It has weaved it's way into pop culture in a way so rarely done. It is one of the only things you can learn in a few days that everyone else is convinced only masterminds can figure out. Though this is the case for the rubix cube. Not only that but it has had tons of spin offs and models. So many in fact that there are tons of official events for speedcubers around the world. Though before I ramble too much let's break down this phenomenon 

 While you may be disappointed to find out that the one person you know who can solve a rubix cube found out how to online but don't be! Almost no one figured it out for themselves. Anyone who has the mental capacity of a middle schooler can figure it out with enough time spent trying to understand the tutorials. I can speak from experience as I learned how to in middle school as well taught a friend who wanted to learn. That's the key. You just have to want to learn.

While it may seem all the same, there are a few different methods to choose from. At first you learn a beginner's method. After that you have a few choices. The most popular is CFOP. The difference between them is that CFOP takes a average of 50 moves while beginners method takes about 120. Though for beginners you need to learn seven algorithms. For full CFOP you need around 80 if you do F2l intuitively. If not it is well over 100. 

Not only does the rubix cube exist, but there are many variants. For instance the 2x2. The traditional rubix cube is a 3x3. Mass produced you can go from 2x2 al the way to 13x13. That is the number of layers there are. Not to mention all the other ones. The mirror cube for instance shape shifts in a way that is hard to get your head around. Combine that with megaminxs and Square ones and it is madness.

Now you might be wondering the history of the rubix cube. Well the website ThoughtCo.com could not have said it better,

 "Ernö Rubik is the one to praise or to blame, depending on how mad the Rubik's Cube has driven you. Born on July 13, 1944 in Budapest, Hungary, Rubik combined the divergent talents of his parents (his father was an engineer who designed gliders and his mother was an artist and a poetess) to become both a sculptor and an architect.

Fascinated with the concept of space, Rubik spent his free time — while working as a professor at the Academy of Applied Arts and Design in Budapest — designing puzzles that would open his students' minds to new ways of thinking about three-dimensional geometry.

In the spring of 1974, just shy of his 30th birthday, Rubik envisioned a small cube, with each side constructed of moveable squares. By the fall of 1974, his friends had helped him create the first wooden model of his idea.

At first, Rubik just enjoyed watching how the squares moved as he turned one section and then another. However, when he attempted to put the colors back again, he ran into difficulty. Oddly entranced by the challenge, Rubik spent a month turning the cube this way and that way until he finally realigned the colors.

When he handed other people the cube and they too had the same fascinated reaction, he realized he might have a toy puzzle on his hands that could really be worth some money"

This just about covers every aspect of the cube. It is a very mind boggling thing. Why don't you go watch some tutorials and see how long until you give up.

For my prompt, Digit said I could write a historical fiction. So I wrote a story about a Roman debtor sold into slavery. 

    “Put it all on the yellow one,” I said, pointing at a yellow colored fighting rooster. The dealer gave me a questioning look, collected all of my gold, and poured it onto the center of the table. The rest of the people around the table handed in their bets, each one attempting to gamble their way out of poverty. This bet was my last chance at a normal life. Over the years I had thrown my life away, borrowing money from the wrong people just to satisfy my gambling addiction. Eventually I bit off more than I could chew, and was unable to pay back the money I borrowed. If I didn’t win this bet then the creditors would hunt me down and make me pay, if not with money then with my life. After all of the money had been collected into the center of the table, the dealer whistled and the fighting animals’ cages were opened.

    Both roosters screeched and attacked each other. The yellow one swiped a toe at the other rooster’s eye, but was tripped while it’s balance was off center. The second rooster, the one I didn’t bet on, hopped over to the fallen yellow rooster and pecked its eye out, squirting blood onto the floor. The rooster continued to attack, tearing off the yellow one’s feathers and drawing more blood. For another 30 seconds or so, this process continued until the yellow rooster let out one final screech of pain, passing into the afterlife.

    “Futuo,” I muttered under my breath, pushing away the chair I sat in a speed walking away from the gambling den. Noticing my attempted escape, debt collector mercenaries chased after me, grabbing me by the shoulders and throwing me down onto the down. I spat at their feet and shuffled backwards on my hands.

    “Ha! He is but a child. A wee little babe,” the mercenaries sneered. They kicked me in the back and tied my arms behind me. Grabbing my shoulders, they pulled me up and began to lead me into urban Ariminum. At first I was confused as to where they were taking me, was I heading to my execution or a simple meeting? This questioning ended as soon we reached our destination. A slave cart. As a result of my outstanding debts, I was going to forced into slavery to pay back the creditors. This truly was the end of my normal life. The mercenaries patted me down, removing each and every possible valuable off of my body before throwing me onto the back of the cart. I let out a loud groan, and a few nearby children spared a glance at me: the poor slave, wondering if they would ever end up in my position. I twisted my body, sitting with my back against a crate a grain, and found myself face to face with another slave. He looked weathered and aged, as if he had been on the market for a long time, passed from owner to owner. He spared me a sympathetic smile, and a whip cracked, spurring the cart horses into motion. The cart began to roll along steadily, bumping up and down on every small pebble in the road. Exhausted and stressed from this horrible day, I slumped over and fell into a deep sleep.

    I awoke at dawn to the sound of a sailor yelling. I could smell the ocean salt in the air and realized where I was. I was at a dock, to be put onto a ship set for Rome. I was pulled out of the cart and pushed towards a large ship docked in the port. I stared at it for a second and wondered what types of challenges I would face in my new life as a slave. Only the Fates knew what laid ahead in my future, and I could only hope that I had their favor.

Rivalries between nations and peoples have always happened and most likely will never cease to happen. While rivalries get stronger, others fizzle out and die, and some flicker on and off as time moves on. Even the oldest paintings on cave walls showed groups of people that came together through out time. These paintings were handprints that showed different times of being pressed into the wall. If there were communities like this than the odds are that they also had communities that they feared and those they controlled. One of the more remarkable rivalries to date would be the Persians and the Greeks, but all these conflicts had heroes that get lost here and there. Several wars between these nations and together they were called the Greco-Persian Wars or just the Persian Wars. Among these wars were a multitude of generals.  

This famous war happened between 492BC to 449BC. Mind you this was not just one war but a series of wars between the Greeks and the Persians. For this forty-three-year gap there were two moments that were very rough for the Greeks, both were hard since the Persian empire was at its peak power. The first invasion begins in 490 BC, with what becomes known as the battle of Marathon. A Persian army consisting of twenty-five thousand men landed on the Plain of Marathon led by Darius. When the Athenians found out about this invasion, they went to Sparta to ask for help to defend against such a force, but the Spartans declined due to another religious festival. This festival would help make a hero out of a few of the generals. With only ten generals and eleven thousand men, they were able to attack the men still on the beach while the Persian cavalry was away. The charge was led by one of the ten generals named Miltiades. He feared the Persian cavalry and knew any chance of winning against such a force would be a battle without the cavalry engaging. When the cavalry boarded the Persian ships and sailed away, Miltiades attacked. He led the charge across a mile stretch and fought against the Persians. Casualties were light for the Greeks but more costly for the Persians. All together the Greeks lost 192 and the Persians lost 6400 plus seven ships. After this engagement the Persians retreated.

Miltiades knew enough of the Persian to help decide how to best handle them and therefore his vote on how to deal with the invaders allowed four generals to give their command to him. He knew the Persians well because in 513BC Darius defeated Miltiades and ended up receiving the position as vassal to the Persian Empire. Here he learned how they operated and how Darius thought. Along with his newfound power, Miltiades was able to help a revolt but was found out in 495BC leading him to flee to Athens. Once back home, he was charged with tyranny, but these were dismissed as just simple lies spread by the Persians and his family was given back their power and status as upper-class Athenians.

After this swift and great victory Miltiades took seventy ships to the islands around Greece to conquer and subdue all the ones that had sided and aided Persia. Sadly, however, he was not very successful. Upon returning to Athens his political rivals known as the Alcmaeonids exploited him and was charged with treason and imprisoned. The leg wound got infected with gangrene and all this previous victories before and after the Battle of Marathon were forgotten. However, while in prison he died due to a leg wound that they would not treat.

This general’s body was buried in a tomb at Marathon. He was placed alongside all his deceased brothers who laid down their lives for that of free Greece.

It’s Rubik's, not rubix.

It's actually 3x3. That's what speedcubers call it anyway