absent

today i was absent from school

absent

i was out of school today

COWS AND WHEAT!

We continued onto part 6 of the video today. All the animals and crops in the Fertile Crescent spread out into different parts of the world, completely transforming people’s lives. We talked about how if to places share the same latitude then they share plants, animals, their length of day, and their growing resources. The last couple of things we talked about from the movie had to do with cattle and wheat; in the 16^th century people brought cows to the United States and currently there are about 100 million cattle in the United States. Wheat: the average American consumes about 20 million tons of wheat per year. One last thing we talked about was why the people of New Guinea didn't just have other animals other than pigs be brought to their island, we discussed this and came to the conclusion that they just couldn't because they lived in a rain forest and they couldn't just let cattle graze and walk around in a closed area, they would have to create an open space for them but the people of New Guinea couldn't just rip up all their trees and vegetation that may inhabit other animals and some of the trees also give them their food. That was all for today!

More on the video

We watched more of the video on James Diamond today! In today’s video we learned that before the industrial revolution people used a horse and plow and just basically depended on most of their animals. There are about two million species of animals in the world and out of all those there are only really fourteen of which we can use and domesticate: goats, sheep, pigs, cows, horses, donkeys, camels (Bactrian and Arabian), water buffalo  llamas, reindeer, yaks  mithans, and ball cattle. We have found that zebras are not able to be domesticated because of their on-edge nature. Also the people in the video talk about when they want to control a herd of animals they would look for the leader of the herd (usually a male) and try to gain control over that animal and then usually the other animals would do the same. Jared Diamond’s theory was that some areas were just lucky enough to have the right plants and animals to help them thrive. In South America there were llamas and in the Middle East and Europe the other 13 animals reside. Next in the video archaeologists had discovered a village named Guar that had people living it about 9,000 years ago and they found evidence that people had been able to build their homes out of a plaster made out of rhinestone that has to be heated up to 1,000 degrees to be able to use it like that, but after a while their crops failed to grow so they had to leave the area. New Guinea had never developed advanced technology because most of the time they were looking for ways to feed themselves. 

Jared Diamond's research

Today in human geography we continued to watch a video about Jared Diamond and the New Guineans. James Diamond talks about how all great civilizations have three things in common and they are: advanced technology, a large population (several dozen at least), and a well-organized work forced. People back then had to have one of two jobs; either they were a hunter or a gatherer- they shared their labor. Jared studied the have and have not’s; this was the idea of developed vs. undeveloped for example: if you knew a way to find food, get water, and stay healthy than you were a have, if you couldn't do any of these things you would be a have not. We also found out that Jared had to search through history back to a time when everyone was equal, like when everyone shared the same way of life. In Papua New Guinea people still hunt and gather, 13,000 years ago people in the Middle East lived this way, but the people had to rely more on gathering than hunting because hunting was unpredictable. The women did most of the gathering, in Papua New Guinea there is a tree called the Sago tree that the people process because in the center there is a pulp that they can harvest into dough that they can eat, but it isn't very nutritious. One Sago tree only holds about 70 pounds of the pulp and it usually takes three days to process, they also eat some cereal grasses that grow there like barley and wheat; wheat and barley was also native in the Middle East.  12,000 years ago there were ice age like conditions and there was a drought that lasted for 1,000 years. Next in the video we learned that there was a village called Drah and it was the oldest village, an archaeological dig was set up and they discovered a very well structured building, it was found to be a granary; this was a place where the villagers could store their crops without them getting dried out or collecting moisture and spoiling, this was the center of the village and it was also the first community.  The people located themselves near a water source and grew crops; these people where the first farmers and they learned how to control the flow of the food. After a while people began to learn different things and they had new jobs that they could do like weaving baskets, making clothes and making food; this is when civilization took off. Eventually people learned how to control plants (domestication) In China rice was grown, in America there was corn, squash, in Africa there was sorghum, millet, and yams. In the highlands of New Guinea they had what Jared Diamond called “Geographic luck” , but the crops there spoiled very quickly and most of their food didn’t have a high nutrition level so sometimes people would just eat giant spiders. At about 9,000 years ago people( mostly farmers) learned how to domesticate animals and use them to improve their society; goats and sheep were the first to be tamed and the people could milk the goats and use the sheep’s wool for clothing, with the help of animal domestication a good system was formed.  That was it from the video today!

Jared Diamond's research

Today in human geography we continued to watch a video about Jared Diamond and the New Guineans. James Diamond talks about how all great civilizations have three things in common and they are: advanced technology, a large population (several dozen at least), and a well-organized work forced. People back then had to have one of two jobs; either they were a hunter or a gatherer- they shared their labor. Jared studied the have and have not’s; this was the idea of developed vs. undeveloped for example: if you knew a way to find food, get water, and stay healthy than you were a have, if you couldn't do any of these things you would be a have not. We also found out that Jared had to search through history back to a time when everyone was equal, like when everyone shared the same way of life. In Papua New Guinea people still hunt and gather, 13,000 years ago people in the Middle East lived this way, but the people had to rely more on gathering than hunting because hunting was unpredictable. The women did most of the gathering, in Papua New Guinea there is a tree called the Sago tree that the people process because in the center there is a pulp that they can harvest into dough that they can eat, but it isn't very nutritious. One Sago tree only holds about 70 pounds of the pulp and it usually takes three days to process, they also eat some cereal grasses that grow there like barley and wheat; wheat and barley was also native in the Middle East.  12,000 years ago there were ice age like conditions and there was a drought that lasted for 1,000 years. Next in the video we learned that there was a village called Drah and it was the oldest village, an archaeological dig was set up and they discovered a very well structured building, it was found to be a granary; this was a place where the villagers could store their crops without them getting dried out or collecting moisture and spoiling, this was the center of the village and it was also the first community.  The people located themselves near a water source and grew crops; these people where the first farmers and they learned how to control the flow of the food. After a while people began to learn different things and they had new jobs that they could do like weaving baskets, making clothes and making food; this is when civilization took off. Eventually people learned how to control plants (domestication) In China rice was grown, in America there was corn, squash, in Africa there was sorghum, millet, and yams. In the highlands of New Guinea they had what Jared Diamond called “Geographic luck” , but the crops there spoiled very quickly and most of their food didn’t have a high nutrition level so sometimes people would just eat giant spiders. At about 9,000 years ago people( mostly farmers) learned how to domesticate animals and use them to improve their society; goats and sheep were the first to be tamed and the people could milk the goats and use the sheep’s wool for clothing, with the help of animal domestication a good system was formed.  That was it from the video today!

James Diamond and his world famous book!

Jared Diamond was born on December 10^th 1937 and he was born in Boston Massachusetts into a Jewish family.  He is a professor at U.C.L.A and he teaches Geography. Jared is also an author, an ornithologist (the studying of birds), and he is also an anthropologist (the study of cultures). As an author he won the Pulitzer prize for his book Guns, germs, and steel. He is now married with twins and he has always been interested in birds so he went out to Papua New Guinea Island to do some more research and while he was there he discovered that unlike our modern civilization, the people of Papua New Guinea do not have a developed civilization at all really. James Diamond’s theory was- why did some civilizations advance and why others didn't  some people like the people in Papua New Guinea, still live the way people did 13,000 years ago.

One of his most famous books is Guns, Germs, and Steel. This book tries to explain how the Eurasians were able to conquer so many places; this book also explains why guns, germs, and steel were a main factor in their victories. In this book James talks about how important the locations were for these conquerors because if they found a place where there was no sickness they would be ok, also if they found a place where crops could be grown and there were animals for them they would thrive, becoming stronger and stronger. Eventually these people would become more civilized, making weapons, farming and using other natural resources making them highly evolved.  

Presentation time!!

Today in Human Geography we presented our projects. While we were watching other groups present their presentations we had to grade them on how we thought their power points were. I learned a lot of interesting things from others power points like I had an idea that a lot of stuff was made in China and foreign countries but I had no idea how much was being made. I also learned while preparing our project that there are a lot of safety measures that the United States has that China does not really care about all that much. There are also very bad working conditions in the factories of China and a lot of the workers there get sick and spread disease. One other thing that was so awful to learn was that Chinese factories put more led into their products than there should be and this could threaten someone’s life, watching how much led you put into a product is a key factor in manufacturing things but all they really want to do is make money.

Some visitors!

Today in Human Geography we continued to work on our projects. My group that I am working in had finished the research part of the project yesterday so today we finished things up by creating a small poster. This assignment will be one hundred points and each group will be grading other groups’ projects after they are done presenting them tomorrow. The past two days I forgot to mention that we have had some very special visitors from Japan. About 100 students came to shadow at our school for a week to see how we do things and if they would like to do an exchange program and possibly come back next year and stay with a host family and continue to learn more English and go to school at John Carroll for a while. This is very exciting for all of us and we hope that they will be joining us at school again!

the project!

Today in human geography we worked on a project that has to do with Chinese and American products. We had to split up into groups and pick whether or not we were going to be supporting America or China. The group that I worked in supported America and we did our project on the product of shoes and why you should buy them from American companies instead of Chinese companies. In our power point we talked about how the factories in China do not use caution with safety and sometimes put harsh chemicals into their products, making it less safe for the buyer. The working conditions are also bad inside the Chinese factories and workers are not paid as well as they would be in America.  Today my group finished pretty much all of our project and tomorrow we will be making a poster in class.

Some important terms!

Today we discussed four important terms:

Capitalism- An economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit. (America)

Communism- (classless; state owned/Gov.) a theory or system of social organization based on the holding of all property in common, actual ownership being ascribed to the community  as a whole or to the state.( China)

Free enterprise- an economic and political doctrine holding that a capitalist economy can regulate itself in a freely competitive market through the relationship of supply and demand with a minimum of governmental intervention and regulation.

Free market- an economic system in which prices and wages are determined by unrestricted competition between businesses, without government regulation or fear  of monopolies.

We also talked about how in America there are a lot of poor people but a very high number of rich people. Also We were talking about how a baseball player makes millions of dollars a year but a teacher doesn’t even make anything close to that and teachers better the world by helping people learn and baseball players don’t really do anything but play a sport and have people come and watch them.

Cites:

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/free+market?s=t

China!

Today in human geography we started our class off by reviewing what we watched yesterday in the movie. We learned the following: Most of the cars being made in China are for American companies. When the Chinese want to buy a car they save up their cash to buy it, they do not use a credit card for it. Chinese car making factories have to be watched to make sure they aren't cutting corners on safety precautions in order to make more profit. There was a man that was being interviewed and he was making 28 dollars when working for an American man and when he changed jobs to work for a Chinese man he only would make 15 dollars an hour instead of 28. They also mentioned one of the biggest auto part industries which is Wanxiang, Chinese auto part industries will soon become the largest. The last thing we talked about was that China is the biggest producer and consumer of steel and that the Pittsburgh Steelers got their name because Pittsburgh was a steel State.

the other part of the movie!

Today in human geography we watched some more of the movie. In the part that we watched today they mostly talked about cars. China puts 25,000 cars on the road a day, but the people living in China do not really know how to use them yet. There are about 400 traffic accidents a day because there are so many people trying to drive in an overcrowded road, most of the people are just learning how to drive but they are not teenagers, they are probably in their mid-30s, and before cars about four years ago the people of China were using bikes to travel to where they needed to go. The city Jin Ch’ing is one of the fastest growing cities in the world. A lot of the people living here are poor and a lot need jobs, so there is a ton of manual labor for them in order to make money, like people build bridges, roads, highways, and tunnels but they only get a few dollars a day. 

People's republic of capitalism!

We have been watching a movie called “People’s republic of Capitalism” and we have been taking notes on the movie. I will just talk a little bit about the notes I have taken. People in China believe that girls should not be as well educated as boys, this was what one woman being interviewed was talking about, also she talks about how she makes all of the money in her family; she harvests lotus roots and she carries about 120 pounds worth of them to the market to sell by herself and she, along with the other people who do this only get about 3 American dollars for them. She gets about ten dollars a week and that comes to about 570 dollars a year. Half of this money goes to her child’s education and the other half goes to other necessities for her family.  The next person to be interviewed is Dr. Jung, he works in China and his family lives in America. He is currently searching for a cure for aids and some of his work has moved onto human trials, he works for NIH. Dr. Jung’s children go to high school in America and he has a house there also, he wanted his children to grow up in a non-communist place. Also he has his own lab in China and he does this because everything is cheaper than in America, he has a better deal in China than in America.  We also talked a little about how there a lot of interdependence is going between China and America. 

sick

i was absent again today but feeling much better i am coming in tomorrow

sick

i was also absent from school today

sick

today I was absent from class.

The test and paper!

Today in human geography we took a test.  The test was based on the lessons we have had on political geography. We learned about leaders and the countries that they rule, and some interesting facts about them and also their contributions to their country. The layout of the test was: on the front there was a matching of the leaders to their country, and on the back there were maps and pictures and some other facts that you had to match with the leaders.  Also today we handed in our papers that were written over the weekend. The papers had to be double spaced and at least 500 words or more, we had to write about the relationship between two countries with America. After we took the test, we just had some free time to do what we wanted for the rest of the class, we could study or just talk to our friends. 

War

Today in human geography we talked about recent events such as the war going on between Israel and Palestine.  Palestine started shooting rockets at Israel because they hate each other. Then we watched a video on how badly the civilians are affected by this war, many people have died from the bombs hitting their homes. The new leader of China is XI Jinping and Hu Jintao is out.  We also talked about the test that we have to take Monday; this test will be on the world leaders and some facts about them and what countries they run.  

Papers!

Today we talked about the paper we will be writing. The paper must be at least 500 words and you have to talk about two different countries and how they interact with America and if you want to you can add how they act with each other. The paper will be due this Monday and we are allowed to write the paper with a partner if we would prefer to. Another thing we talked about besides the paper was that Texas wants to secede from the union. This was the first that I had heard of it, we also talked about if the people of Texas voted on it they wouldn't break away from us because a lot of people want to come to America and be Americans, so who wouldn't want to be a part of that. Also they would have to spend a lot of money on other things that they already have now with us.