Population Pyramid

Today in class we talked and learned about the population pyramid. The population pyramid is basically a way of predicting or estimating whether the future population will increase or decrease based on measuring the current population a certain way. The way that this pyramid can give you an accurate depiction of future populations is by breaking the current one into three categories. The first is pre-child bearing years, the second is child bearing years, and the third is post-child bearing years.  This is very efficient. For example, over time Japan's population is going to decrease, we know this because right now a large percent of their population is aged fifty or over. This can work for any country is how we learn about the future of people. The pyramid does not give any information about life expectancy, birth rates, or death rates and can be altered by industrialization, natural disasters and, the education of many more women but it is how we know where countries are headed.

CIA Fact book

In class today we devoted more time to learning more about the world through the CIA World Fact book. Most of the facts that we learned about were pretty unfortunate and sad. For example, Africa is  the worst when it comes to the HIV virus because pretty much all of the top countries with the worst HIV cases are in Africa. Another one of the worst percentages that is high in Africa is the infant mortality rate. African countries occupy the top numbers in this category too. A less sad category is the net migration rate in Syria, for every 1000 people in Syria, about 113 people are leaving for safety, probably because of the war and extremist groups that are taking over the corrupted country.
The complete opposite is happening to Syria's neighbor country, Lebanon they are gaining tons of people because of Syria. For every 1000 about 83 are from somewhere else. I hope all these countries recover.

9/25/14

Today in class we started off by watching Mr. Schick lay down a sick verse against Cody and got right into reviewing our Unit 1 tests. I got mine back and was overall pleased with it and the grade was good. We started off by going over the short answer questions and talked about the correct answer and if you didn't have a right answer you could ask questions. We got into globalization with some questions and learned that John Carroll was one of the first schools to have an exchange program. Also, when Russian students could be transferred Mr. Schick told us that when one went back there was a riot and one of the students got on top of the tank used to stop the right with his JC sweatshirt on gave us some publicity because the riot was televised. We continued to talk about the short answers and then the essay questions where we talked about Socrates and his trial and death. Socrates barely put up any defense and did not regret anything, he didn't even want to escape because he respected Athenian Democracy and it's what the people wanted. Along the way we found out Mr. Schick has a time machine and once he hooks it up we can go back to Ancient Greece and say hi to Socrates.

CIA Knows Everything

Today in class we talked about the ever-growing population and how the number of people on this planet is getting bigger along with birth rates, death rates, and the RNI which is the rate of natural increase. It gives us the annual natural growth rate in percentage form for a country or region. Another thing that keeps growing is the life expectancy of people in places all over the world. In 2013 the life expectancy for people in the United States was 76 for men and 81 for men but now in 2014 the life expectancy for men is 77 and for women it is 81.94. Migration rates have changes as well. In 2013 the net migration rate in Mexico was -3.11 per 1000 people which means out of 1000 people this is the estimate of how many left the country, but now it is only -1.64. Times are changing and Mexico is becoming more stable which means people want to stay. All of these information was off of the CIA World Fact book which contains all the information you could want to know about a country. I learned that the smallest country in the world was the Pitcairn Islands with a total population of 48 also the country with the lowest net migration rate is Syria with about 114 people leaving for every 1000 which isn't a surprise considering everything that's going on.

Test Day

Today we took our first Human Geography test. Before we started we couldn't help but have a discussion about whether Mr. Schick's shirt was pink or salmon. It was obviously salmon and once that was decided we were given instructions and told that we were able to use our blogs which without it I had no idea whether or not I would have been able to even finish my test. I had studied somewhat the night before and hoped that everything I looked at in my notes would actually be on the test, but even if it wasn't I had my blog which I knew would really help me. I got through the first part and finished the short answer sections with 20 minutes left in class and then I believed I was done which I really wasn't. I flipped over the page and saw 2 short essay questions and I knew I had to write as fast as I could to get in done while still making the writing as nice as I could which really wasn't easy. By the end of class my hand was killing me because I couldn't pick up my pencil and I finally got both done with no idea whether or not they were good enough. I finished my fourth test of day and hopefully did good on this test.

Globalization 9/12/14

Today in class we discussed globalization and "Americanization". Globalization is the connection or interconnectedness of different parts of the world. Globalization results in the expansion of international cultural, economic, and political activities. As people, ideas, knowledge, and goods move more easily around the globe, the experiences of people around the world become more similar. "Americanization" is basically globalization but focused on just America. All the globalization that has been going on for years has had just a huge impact on the world as a whole. For example, the overall life expectancy in Japan has decreased because of this. Japan used to be very health conscious and prepared healthy and delicious meals to sit around a table and eat with your family, but now fast food has taken over and there is barley of this anymore. In class, we were shown a series of pictures and asked how they demonstrated globalization I was surprised to see some of them. A man from the Maasai tribe in Kenya was using a cell phone! To use a cell phone you need service, electricity for a charger, to order it or buy it from a location, etc. This tribe somewhere in Kenya was being influenced by the world and now he can talk to people or consumers.  I have no idea if globalization is a huge problem or it s just helping the world but it is definitely not going to stop.

9/11 Class Discussion

Today in class we talked more about the Did You Know? video and went over our answers that we posted for last blog. We went over the facts again and had such long discussions on them. For example, we went over the fact that if you are one in a million there are 1300 million people just like you. The class expanded on this and talked about how overpopulated the world actually is. The discussion got into some very strange places like genetically engineered diseases crafted by the government to lower population or the random stones in Georgia with guidelines on how to live that  had nothing to do with anything. Our class discussions get into some weird places but the whole point is that our world is constantly changing and the more people, the more ways we discover to make  technology more sophisticated. It is becoming more and more advanced everyday as we discover new ways to make it smaller and smarter to the point were eventually we could use microchips in our head as the next iPhone. Another crazy fact we went over was if Facebook was a country it would be the third in the world which is insane considering its a website. We live in such a fast world were any information is available at the touch of a finger. I have no idea what a company like Apple or Microsoft will come up with next.

Did You Know?

What was your initial reaction to what you saw -  My initial reaction to some of the facts in that video were just made me shock and I didn't want to believe them. For example, if you one in a million in China, there are 13,000 people just like you. This comes as a complete surprise because it shows how over-populated the world actually is if there are that many people who could live your life for you. Also, China is about to be the number one English speaking country in the world. I thought they made a mistake because I know in the United States all we speak is English and no way most of the population in China can speak it fluently but that's the exact reason why they learn it, English is the language of business.

How are these changes manifesting themselves in your personal life - Some of these changes are manifesting themselves in my personal life in many ways. For example, one fact says that the most in-demand jobs it 2010 didn't exist in 2004 this makes sense because so much has changed since then. The iPhone, no imagined that in 2004 and now almost everyone has them and because of this, jobs are created to work at making and designing the iPhone that always has to change and adapt because we are constantly making smaller circuitry or discovering new ways to interact.

How much of a role does technology play in your life - Technology plays a huge role in my life just like almost every other kid my age. Whether it's connecting to the world/friends or even doing homework which I am doing right now from my laptop. I use it everyday and probably will continue as our world only grows more reliant on technology every day.

Ancient Greece

     Ancient Greece was easily one of the greatest civilizations of it's time. It developed the first ever democracy, paved the way for modern science and mathematics, and was home to some of the best thinkers and philosophers the world has ever seen. Among them was Socrates who was a teacher and a thinker. He is credited as one of the founders of western philosophy and eventually died for his work. He opened not only Athens but the world's eyes to great things and said himself the quote, "The unexamined life is not worth living." He was ruled guilty for not recognizing the gods and corrupting the youth and was sentenced death by Hemlock (forced suicide) and even when his students offered him a way to sneak him out that would have worked and no one would find him, he declined because it was what the people wanted and he supported the democracy system but no matter what his work will never be forgotten and by some he is considered a hero.
     Ancient Greece also, in a way had much more active people in politics and people who weren't afraid to voice their opinion like in the agora. If you didn't participate in politics or were a more private person in Ancient Greece you were basically an idiot because that's actually what it meant back then. Now, today in the United States only about 50% of the population votes for president and that's men and women combined! In Ancient Greece it was just men and they were doing a lot better job then we are. That's were this idea of civic responsibility, which in a nutshell is the people having an obligation to vote even if they don't want to or feel like it, comes into play which is a core element of a democratic society and Ancient Greece definitely had it. This idea of democracy where the people rule was unheard of up until then and it was and still is working out today and not just in Greece back in the old days. So yes, in all I guess Ancient Greece was pretty important.                                                                             

Better Definitions

Today in class we went over the definitions we had to define for homework last night and learned that  they are actually more interesting and had a deeper definition that a orginally thought. For example, an agora wasn't just the townsquare or marketplace, it was also where they voted and had discussions on topics and things that were happening. Athens in Greece established the first democracy and had the idea that people should rule which was probably pretty smart considering that democracy and a government for the people still exits today and not just in Greece. Also, Socrates wasn't some old guy who thought different from everyone else but he was a teacher and a philosopher and was even prosecuted for thinking that maybe the sun wasn't a god riding his chariot across the sky, along with other things that the gods maybe didn't control. He got in trouble for teaching these ideas which were unheard of and made people beleive in science. All the words we learned and events we learned about aren't just articles on the internet. Ancient Greece actually seems pretty important.

Ancient Greek Definitions

Agora -  An Agora in ancient Greece was a marketplace or the open place in town where people gathered (Google definition)    

Arete - Arete in it's basic sense means "excellence of any kind" (Wikipedia)

Polis - A Polis was an ancient Greek city-state (Google definition)

The Year 508 BC - Athenian democracy in the city of Athens was established under Cleisthene following the tyranny of Hippias (greece-athens.com)

Sorates - Socrates was a classical Greek philosopher credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy (Google biography)

The Death of Socrates -  Socrates was found guilty of corrupting the youth and refusing to recognize the gods recognized by the state. He was found guilty by a vote of 280 to 220 and drinking a cup of poison hemlock was his penalty (forced suicide) (eyewitnesstohistory.com)

 The Socratic Method -  a form of inquiry and discussion between individuals, based on asking and answering questions to stimulate critical thinking and to illuminate ideas. (Google definition)

When Those Silly Ancient Greeks Called You an Idiot - An idiot in ancient Greece meant that you were a private person or someone who was not interested in politics. (omgfacts.com)

 

A Message to Garcia

Today, in human geography class I didn't really get to do anything. I came in late to class today because I had an orthodontist appointment, but when I did come in I learned how to set up a gadget on my blog to get places, sort of like a shortcut. So when I came in I got help from Parker to set up my gadget. You had to go to your blog, design, layout, add a gadget, and then I set up a link to get to the piece of writing that we have been working on which is A Message to Garcia which is about  President McKinley who needed to get a message to a man named Garcia in Cuba during the Spanish-American War but no one knew where he was and telegrams weren't available so what were they to do? People knew of a man who could do it named Rowan and he did it without question so a man observed Rowan's actions and realized how nobody in that time acted like Rowan and was lazy so he wrote a strongly worded article to the newspaper to get his voice across and spread his opinion. This is what I know of A Message to Garcia but for the guy who wrote the article in my opinion you cant just stop people from being lazy.