Apples and Documentaries

The first thing we did in human geography today was review our answers for the questions using the CIA World Factbook. After many apples were thrown at the ones who got the questions incorrect (including myself, I still think it was way too early to say numbers!) we watched a video called “God Grew Tired of Us.” With Brad Pitt as one of the producers! The documentary was about how the African country Sudan was torn apart by civil war between the north and the south. This war was about religions. The Muslims in the north and the Christians in the south. They would burn down houses with people in them, rape women, and this resulted in killing over 2 million people! The war got so terrible everyone fled from their homes to find safety. Mostly men survived, and they traveled together in make-shift families and they soon got the nickname, “the lost boys.” The United Nations made a refugee camp, for them. When they had arrived there, most of the boys were just skin and bone. There is still a lot of the documentary to see and I look forward to see what will happen when some of the refugees are offered a chance to start a new life in America.

CIA World Factbook Q&As

Today in class we answered questions using the CIA World Fact Book!

1.What is the population of the United States?

316,668,567

2.What are the five largest countries in the world, by population?

China, India, United States, Indonesia, & Brazil.

           
3. What is the population of Pakistan?

193,238,868

4. What kind of government does the United States have?

Constitution-based federal republic; strong democratic tradition

5.  What is the unemployment rate in Zimbabwe?

95%

6.What is the largest country in the world by area?

Russia

7.  What country has the third greatest number of airports?

Mexico

8. What country has the greatest number of exports?

China

9.  What country exports more oil than any other?

Saudi Arabia

10. What country imports more oil than any other?

United States

11. What country has the second largest proved reserves of crude oil

in the world?

Venezuela

12. Can women serve in combat roles in China’s military?

Yes

13. What is GDP?

Gross Domestic Product

14. What country has the highest GDP per capita in the world, and how
much is it?
Quatar. $103,900

15. Is the US in the top ten for GDP per capita?

No

16.Most of the countries with the highest birth rates can be found in

what continent?

Africa

17. 11 of the top 12 countries with the highest number of deaths from

HIV/AIDS can be found in which continent?

Africa

18. What other country is in the top ten?

India

19. Where does the US rank in HIV/AIDS deaths?

18

20. Is the US #1 in number of cellular phones?

No

21. What percentage of the US is roman catholic?
23.9%

22. What percentage of mexico is roman catholic?
82.7%

23. NET Migrations rate: This entry includes the figure for the difference between the number of persons entering and leaving a country during the year per 1,000 persons (based on midyear population). An excess of persons entering the country is referred to as net immigration (e.g., 3.56 migrants/1,000 population); an excess of persons leaving the country as net emigration (e.g., -9.26 migrants/1,000 population). The net migration rate indicates the contribution of migration to the overall level of population change. The net migration rate does not distinguish between economic migrants, refugees, and other types of migrants nor does it distinguish between lawful migrants and undocumented migrants.

The CIA Knows All!

I learned in last mod today that the CIA knows basically everything in the world! They probably even know what I’m doing right this very second (if they really want to know I’m typing a blog post about my ninth grade human geo class!) So if the CIA is reading this I doubt they will learn something they already don’t know! We went to the Worldwide CIA Fact Book and looked up information involving the crude birth rate, the crude death rate, and population in different countries. I learned today the smallest populated country only has 48 people! I doubt everyone in America can say they know everyone in the United States! I wonder if I lived there if I could convince the 48 people to let me be president. Anyways, I also learned that China is the most populated country with India right on its tail. I can’t stop thinking how weird it is that I’m one in 7 billion people! We are all basically ants on one huge ant hill, each of us living our own lives. Like I said, mind-blowing! Tomorrow, we are going to dig even deeper into the topic of population and migration, and I look forward to whatever comes next.

Population Grows!

The population is growing immensely! Today, during first mod (which is probably the worst mod especially on a Monday when you rather be home sleeping) we talked about immigration, emigration, population, and a lot of other things. There are 7 billion people on this earth as I type. During the minute it took me to type all of this, about 250 babies were born! I would like to congratulate all the happy parents out there! Anyways, I was talking about the population growing. This rate will keep growing unless we have a Hunger Games (but let’s hope it doesn’t come to that!) We also talked about immigration and emigration. Immigration is the number of people going and entering another country perhaps for a better life. Emigration the number of is leaving a country. For this to happen there are push forces and pull forces. Push forces are things like civil wars, low employment, or religious/ethnic persecution. Pull forces are things like better economy, better health services, religious freedom, and political freedom. There is still a lot to learn about population and I look forward to discussing more about this topic.

Our First Test!

Today we had our very first human geography test! Overall, I think I did very well! Well, minus the fact I think I got the first question wrong. Is Wikipedia a primary source? I put true for that and i pray it's true! Isn’t that a great way to start off my first test? But either than that, I think I did great on my essays. Considering I love writing, I was able to write well thought out essays for each question. The hardest one was the question on infrastructure! I did as well as I could and hopefully I was correct. I am looking forward to finding out what we will learn about this semester. Now I’m sitting here in class trying to think of more words to put on my blog posts. Let’s see, this afternoon I have pottery club and I look forward to finishing my killer mug! Just thought I would let everyone know that! I hope everyone has a great weekend! 

Notes for our First Test on Friday!

Today, in class, we went over everything we needed to know for our test on Friday! The test consists of 10 multiple choice questions on everything from Socrates to globalization! We will also have three short essay questions. One of them is, “From the famous quote of Socrates ‘The unexamined life is not worth living’ how do you relate to that in your life?” I already have a few ideas about what I will say for that question! But I’m not going to tell just yet. We also presented our Power Points in class today. Well, my group didn’t because we didn’t exactly finish ours due to the fact my computer decided to hate me Monday morning! Three groups presented theirs and I was able to jot down some good notes from each PowerPoint. I wrote about how globalization started with the Silk Road thousands of years ago. But today the core of globalization is technology. Technology has advanced so much I could easily get on Skype and video call my friend from Italy! Intercommunications (a six-syllable word) allows us to connect to every corner of the earth! It’s crazy how much globalization has advanced since the Silk Road. I also jotted down some bad things about globalization. Like how major corporations take advantage of the poor people in developing countries by paying them low wages. Another big thing is that Americans are losing their jobs because other people in other countries will do their job for a cheaper price. I feel confident with all the notes I took today and I’m prepared for the test Friday!  

Has Justice Been Served to Nike Sweatshop Workers?

Yesterday my blog was about Nike’s sweatshops in the 2000s. The question is, did Nike change its ways in the past decade? We looked at a website in class today about how Nike made the pay $4.00 a day instead of $1.25. That seems like an improvement, right? WRONG! Nike decided to use the military to scare the workers into having the payment of $3.70 a day, because if people in Indonesia sign on that they accept its okay to lose an extra thirty cents, the law will approve this act. Sadly, Indonesia doesn’t have minimum wage laws like America. Nike stoops so low so that men and women loose an extra thirty cents. No big deal, right? WRONG AGAIN! Nike saves $50,000 a day because they take thirty cents away from the hard workers that create their product. It disgusts me that they pay sports stars millions of dollars to wear their logo, and meanwhile in some country there are families struggling to provide a good life for their loved ones every day. The scales of justice seems awfully unfair and I hope that one day that the sweatshop workers of Nike get their justice.

Nike "Just Don't Do It!"

I realized today that the world can be really unfair. Around 1998 it was put out there that Nike, sportswear, had been mistreating their factory workers in sweatshops. They would use buff scary people to keep them in their place so they wouldn’t protest about the horrible wages of $1.25 a day! In Indonesia, the living conditions are horrible due to the fact they barely have any money to support themselves and their families. Imagine living in a small concrete “house” you called home, and then you go outside and have to walk through the sewage covered streets to get back to your job where you works hours upon hours. This video upset me such when they had the part where golfer Tiger Woods by wearing Nike sportswear, makes the equivalent money a second that’s enough to buy someone a house in Indonesia. How is it just because a man is an excellent golfer that he’s basically swimming in money, and a man in Indonesia has to struggle to make enough money for his family to live another day. The children in Indonesia never have the chance to get education, because their families can’t afford the price of school. How can this world grow if the children of tomorrow can’t get a proper education to help the world grow and develop? There has to be a change about this soon or there won’t be any hope for humanity left!

Fact: Wikipedia is a Great Source for Information about Literally Everything!

Today in human geography we began making a PowerPoint project with our groups about globalization on Google Documents. We learned the Wikipedia is an excellent and reliable source for finding information on basically anything. We were all able to look up “globalization” on Wikipedia and we found tons and tons of results! On the globalization page on Wikipedia the sources of where they found this information was listed and it was very helpful. All this information allowed us to find many pros and cons about globalization. My group and I split up the tasks to do during the globalization project. One person looked up the cons, another looked up the pros, and the last person looked up pictures and designs for our PowerPoint on globalization. We got pretty far and it was very successful but we still have a lot to do. This weekend I’m going to make sure I add more to the PowerPoint so that Monday my group isn’t overwhelmed with work. 

What Really Struck Me Today

Inter-globalization started long ago. It began when the Silk Road was made to connect the traders. China sold silk, Greece sold olives and olive oil, Egyptians created makeup, and many other things. This was the start of connecting all different forms of life together. At some point in class we came across the topic of North Korea and that really hit me. It’s so sad to know that these human beings are being cut off from the rest of the world and being controlled by a dictatorship. The worst part is they don’t even realize their prisoner. I can’t imagine how I would feel if I lived there, maybe I act like a brainwashed zombie and never realize this was wrong, or maybe I would be too scared to fight back even if I did know the ugly truth. But I do know one thing, I would fight for my freedom even if it did mean a brutal end for myself. People can’t be held captive and pretend like nothing is wrong, you have to stand up and fight for you and your freedom. I wish there was something I could do to save the people of North Korea from such a terrible prison that was once there home. Who knows, maybe one day the people of North Korea will take a stand and fight what’s right.

Are McDonalds Taking over the World?

This afternoon we discussed globalization (the connection of different parts of the world. Globalization results in the expansion of international cultural, economic, and political activities.) We were able to use the example of McDonalds to get the idea across. McDonalds are basically on every corner! American fast food is spreading like wild fire through the world. There are McDonalds in India, Japan, China, England, Italy, and many other countries! Before we know it, McDonalds will cover the world! I hope it never gets to that point. You use to hear about how healthy the diet of the Chinese was and how their lifespan was so long, but ever since fast food industries invaded China, the life span is slowly decreasing. The world is changing, it always is, due to globalization. The big question is what will be the next big “Americanization?”

Monday Madness!

Today, in human geo it was my fellow classmate’s birthday! We sang happy birthday, awfully off-key, to John but we all got an A for effort! Then we moved on and started to talk about Google documents. On Google documents you can work on writing things with different people from all different places at the same time! We were informed that we would get in groups for today’s class. Sometimes I get nervous when we have to partner up because I hate being left out, and I’m always afraid that could happen to me. But I got into a group, so I was a happy camper! It took a while logging into Google Drive, but in the end I found out Google Documents is so cool! My group and I were able to work on our assignment together (literally)! We had to type up questions for a test we would be having sometime this month, and my group and I came up with a lot of good questions! I had a great time in class today learning something new and I got to meet new people! I would say today was very successful!

"Shift Happens"

The video we watched in class today really showed that “shift happens!” It’s crazy how things have changed so much! I choose three facts that stood out to me the most. One was that one out of six marriages meet online! Isn't that mad? Whatever happened to meeting people in person? Meeting someone online would be very creepy! On the show ‘Catfish’ on MTV, they unveil insane people who pretended to be a totally different person! I think people should get off their laptops and meet real people! The next fact is that if Facebook was a country it would be the third largest country in the world! It’s weird to think that Facebook was originally made by a college guy to use with his fellow-classmates and how it grew so much! Did anyone ever think that one social network could spread like wildfire! We’re all connected to people from every different hemispheres and the thought of that is really amazing! The last fact, that I personally love, is that 4,000 books are published every day! For a book addict, like me, that is probably the best fact ever! I love to read every sort of book and with 4,000 books getting published every day, the possibilities are endless! Today was a really eye-opening class and I can’t wait to see what we learn next!

I Dedicate This Post to UglyGrog4 and GizardBoy!

Human geography today was different, that’s for sure! We started talking about how ugly Socrates was but somehow we ended up talking about if people in Texas could marry their horse! It’s crazy how that happened! Socrates was a very wise man and he found deeper outlooks to certain things. We then started discussing same-sex marriage and our opinions about it. Socrates would have wanted our opinions to be supported by facts not just bluntly saying our opinions based on the people around us. Then suddenly a fellow-classmate brought up that in the state of Texas you can marry your horse. We soon got into a very long discussion about whether it was real or not. Thus we stumbled upon UglyGrog4 and GizardBoy! Although we never really found out the truth of whether eloping with a horse is legal, it was a fun class! To sum up the class, we heard Socrates’s greatest quote, “The unexamined life it not worth living.” This quote means you shouldn't just live a plain life, you should wake up every day and not fall into routines! Live your life to the fullest!

The Greeks' Impact

Today on September 3, 2013 in human geography we learned the deeper meaning of a few an ancient Greek terms. We first talked about the agora. It was not only a marketplace but it was also a place of speech and speaking your mind. An average merchant could step up onto a box of some sorts and preach his feelings about different things. It was sort of the beginning of freedom of speech! Next, we spoke about arête. Which basically was living up to your full potential. You shouldn't just do well enough to get by you should always strive to live up to your entire potential! After that, we discussed polis which is a city-state. Back in ancient Greece they cities were always having wars against one another. They wanted to be the greater city in the end. Last we talked about the year 508 BC. This was one of the biggest events that shaped our world. The Athenians overthrew their government. The Athenian democracy in Athens was created. All the citizens ruled together and voted on issues. This was the beginning of something incredible! Tomorrow we will learn about Socrates and I’m looking forward to seeing what impact he had on the world.

It's all Greek to Me (Literally!)

Over the weekend we had the assignment of becoming acquainted with a few ancient Greek terms.

Agora- An ancient Greek marketplace but also a place of meeting for political reasons. They would not only have councils, but this was also a place of culture!

Arete- the Greek term for trying your very best and using all of your potential.

Polis- Meaning either “city-state” or “citizenship”

508 BC- The Athenian democracy in the city of Athens was created. The war between Rome and Clusium. 

The war between Clusium and Arcia.

Socrates- A spiritual leader and Athenian philosopher who lived from 469/470 BC to 399 BC.

The Death of Socrates- He was forced to drink hemlock poison for “corrupting the minds of young Athens.”  

The Socratic Method- It was named after philosopher, Socrates. It’s the negative method of hypothesis elimination.

What the Greeks meant if they called you an idiot- They meant that you were “lacking skill”