Reviewing the CIA

Today in Human Geo class we went over the correct answers for the CIA scavenger hunt we completed in class the last time we met. For the assignment, we were only allowed to use the CIA Factbook website. The scavenger hunt asked us questions like what is GDP? And what is the population of the world? Etc. The purpose of this assignment was so that we could begin to understand how to navigate that website for further use.

           At the end of class we were informed that the next time we meet, which will be tomorrow, we will watch a documentary called "God Grew Tired of Us".

 

CIA

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, U.S, 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? U.S

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? The value of all final goods and services produced within a nation in a given year.

14. What country has the highest GDP per capita in the world, and how much is it? Qatar 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. What is Net Migration Rate? the difference between the number of persons entering and leaving a country during a year per 1000 persons

24. Does the US have the highest Net Migration Rate in the world? No. US is #26

25. According to the Factbook, what is the current population of the entire planet? 7,095,217,980

Population and Settlment Part II

Today in human geo class we finished watching the power point we started on Monday on population and settlement. We learned about net migration rate, immigration, emigration, pull and push factors, and total fertility rate. Here are the notes I took on these topics:

Net Migration- The number of people entering a country subtracted by the number of people leaving that country.

Immigration- Coming into a country

Emigration- Leaving a country

Pull Factors- Things that would make someone want to come to a country. Examples:

· better economic opportunities

· better health services

· religious freedom

· political freedom

 

Push Factors- Things that would make someone want to leave the country they are in. Examples:

· civil war

· environmental degradation

· unemployment/ underemployment

·  religious/ ethnic persecution

 

Total Fertility Rate (TFR)- the average number of children born per woman.

 

            We also discussed immigrants and jobs in America. We were saying that a good majority of Americans don’t do the labor jobs to the best of their ability, which is why, a lot of the time, the foreigners (who work their butts off) end up getting the job in place of Americans.

 

Population and Migration 9/23/13

            In the beginning of human geo class, we spent about twenty minutes completing or tests, because that was about how long the fire drill lasted on Friday. Once everyone had finished, we began a new unit on population and migration. The class took notes on a power point we viewed. We only got about halfway through the power point and it covered terms like life expectancy, crude birth rate (CBR), crude death rate (CDR), and rate of natural increase (RNI).

Life expectancy- The average number of years to be lived by a group of people born in the same year.

Crude birth rate (CBR) - Number of births per 1000 of the population

Crude death rate (CDR) – Number of deaths per 1000 of the population.

Rate of natural increase (RNI) – Subtract the death rate from the birth rate and divide by ten.

            Our class will complete the power point the next time we meet which will be tomorrow.

Test 9/20/13

Today in human geo class we took our first test. There were ten multiple choice questions and three essays. After only a few minutes of beginning the test, The fire alarm sounded. We had to leave our test pages where they were and exit to the lower field. Thankfully, it was a nice day out. We had wasted a lot of test- time, so most of us did not finish. We will be given the amount of time used up by the fire drill to complete out tests on Monday. I got through all of the multiple choice questions, and I am about half way through my second essay. The time given to us on Monday will be plenty enough for me to finish.

I didn't think any of the test questions were terribly difficult to answer. Everything had been previously covered in class a few times over.

 

Presenation Day 9/18/13

Today in Human Geo class, each group presented their power points on globalization and its pros and cons. Once everyone had finished presenting, we started to discuss the upcoming test. We don't meet tomorrow, so they test will be on Friday. It will include ten or so multiple choice questions, and three brief response questions. Examples of topics that will be covered on the test are, a message to Garcia, Did You Know/ Shift Happens, infrastructure, developed and developing countries, globalization, and Greek terms like agora, arête, and Socrates. We were reminded that we will need a pencil to fill in the multiple choice questions.

A tool we can use to study is the first document we did in Google Drive. It was a paper on questions we expect to be on the test, and its answers. Some Q&A’s on my groups document are:

How did Socrates die?

• He was sentenced to die by drinking poison hemlock.

What is the Socratic Method?

• The Socratic Method was Socrates’ way of teaching. He would question people over and over and expect answers from them. He would get them to try to think of the overall picture and rethink their beliefs.

   

What does arete mean?

• Excellence

 

Y- Bell 9/17/13

Today in Human Geo, our class was shortened by about ten minutes due to an assembly earlier that day. During our time in class, we finished our discussion on globalization, and researched further about the minimum wages Nike factory workers are paid in Indonesia. We found that the minimum wage in Indonesia is about $4.00 a day. Even though that is extremely cheap, Nike factory owners still think it's too high. Through military threats, Nike was able to coerce these workers to sign a document that said they agreed to work for less than minimum wage. Unfortunately these results show that not much change has been made for factory workers since Jim Keady’s video was published.

Today we also continued working in groups to finish a power point on the pros and cons of globalization. We will present these power points to the class, and expect a test on what we have learned so far this year. (including a letter to Garcia, globalization, etc.)  

 

Nike Sucks 9/16/13

Today we watched a video describing the conditions in Nike sweat shops. The video starts off when Jim Keady refuses to endorse Nike products at the place he worked. He had recently researched the sweat shops and refused to promote such a thing. He ended up getting fired for attracting so much attention to the topic, and later decided he wanted to see the conditions for himself. He and Leslie Kretzu travel to Tangerang Indoneasia soon after.
When there, the conditions where they lived were as followed:
They earned only $1.25 a day.
They worked up to 17 hours a day 6-7 days a week.
The living spaces were extremely small with no A/C.
The streets were lined with open sewers.
There were rats and cockroaches found all over the apartments.
and
You shared the bathroom room with up to ten other families.
So as you can see, these living conditions are unhealthy and need immediate change. Unfortunately, every attempt for Jim and Leslie to speak to someone high up on the Nike scale, was turned down. Officials in Indonesia wouldn't even allow them to go inside the sweat shop.
Jim and Leslie's investigations didn't seem to solve much anything but they did attract a lot of attention. Hopefully, their work doesn't go in vain, and something changes for conditions in sweat shops not only in Indonesia, but all over the world. 

Pros and Cons of Globalization 9/13/13

Friday in Human Geo class we formed small groups and began a new research project in Google Drive. We were all instructed to look up the pros and cons of globalization. Before we all began working, we discussed which websites were considered legitimate. Wikipedia is a good for a lot of things, but shouldn't be the main website used for research. Wikipedia gives good sources to help you find other sites that are better for projects.

Every person in my group was assigned a different slide. Mine was on the cons of globalization. A con I talked about on my slide was the manufacturing of American products in other countries like China and India. When we make our products in places where there aren’t any labor laws, the workers get paid almost nothing, saving the company money. This may seem like a good thing, but it costs Americans millions of jobs.

Globalization Part II 9/11/13

Today in Human Geo class we continued our discussion from yesterday on globalization and how it effects America as well as other nations. An aspect of life that is greatly affected by globalization is language. Understanding more than one language is becoming more and more popular as globalization brings cultures into more direct contact and interconnect them. Interconnection was an important word in today’s discussion because it perfectly represented globalization.

Along with language, another thing we talked about today relating to globalization was United Nations. The U.N is when nations come together from all over the globe to try to talk their way out of disagreements peacefully. In other words, they try to make decisions before war and tragedies occur.  

            We also reflected on how life in America would be if it weren’t for globalization. Without trading, there would be no bananas, or other tropical fruits. We would also have to spend more money on American workers to manufacture clothing and other materials.

            Globalization is a part of everyday life even if we don’t always recognize it.

Globalization 9/10/13

Today in Human Geography class we talked about Globalization. I took a few notes on this topic:

· Globalization is often associated with "Americanization" or the exporting of American brands and consumer goods.

· Globalization is as old as civilization it's self. The silk road (established BCE) was made to trade with other nations. It is still in use today.

· Globalization spreads multiple religious beliefs beyond their area of origin

We also looked at a few images to help understand globalization. One picture we examined was a KFC and McDonalds in Japan. Another picture we looked at was a man in Kenya talking on a cell phone. This proves that secluded countries in Africa are still going through globalization. In order for him to be talking a phone, he would need cell phone service and an outlet to charge his phone with. Even some of the most secluded places are experiencing globalization.

 

Google Drive 9/9/13

Today in Human Geography class we discussed our new assignment. We were told to put ourselves in groups of three or four. Once we were in our groups, we talked about Gmail Drive and how we will use it for future assignments. Gmail Drive is a way for people to do group projects without everyone meeting up in one place. It's basically a word document that if you are connected to, you can view what other people are saying and add to it. The way you get connected is when one person creates the document, they add the e-mails of who they want joined. Our first assignment with Gmail Drive is to make a study guide for A Message to Garcia. In this study guide we should write questions we expect to be on the up- coming quiz and answer them correctly.  When completed, this document will be helpful to study.

 

Video on Technology 9/6/13

     Today in class we watched a video that demonstrated how small America is compared to other countries. Along with that, it also compared our population, the role of technology, and our jobs with other countries such as China and India. The video started out as a slide show and stated many unknown, interesting facts. I wrote down a few of them: By the time you're 38, the average American is estimated to have already had 12- 14 different jobs. In America, it is estimated that 1 in 4 workers have been with their job for less than a year.

     One reason a person may only stay with their job for a short period of time is that they are trying to expand their horizons and try new things. But the reality is, people get fired. I'm not saying it's expected for someone to do something wrong, but if you've been working in one place for a long time and collecting yearly raises, then at some point, you may be making twice as much as someone who just started.

            Some of the facts in this video you really had to think about. For example, it stated that we are currently preparing students for jobs that haven’t been invented yet. In other words, the economy is expanding and changing so rapidly we don’t even know what to expect in the next 4-10 years and I think that was the overall message from watching this video.

    

 

Socrates Part II 9/4/13

Today in Human Geography class we continued to discuss the trial and death of Socrates among other things. At Socrates' trial, if he would have said, "I'm sorry, I was wrong it will not happen again." he most likely would have been dropped of all charges. Instead of saying that, he said that Greece was like a big stupid horse that would not move, and he was the horse fly, whose job was to sting it until it moved again. Because of his sassy response, the jury gave him the option to either be punished to exile or to drink a poison called hemlock, which would kill him in under an hour. Socrates, being the proud man he was, chose to drink the deadly poison. We also discussed a famous painting literally called "the death of Socrates". The painting illustrated the moments before Socrates drank the poison which would end his life. Instead of looking frightened or upset, he looked strong and willing, while his peers crowd around him in despair.

Socrates 9/3/13

Today in class we went over our five point plan homework about how to insure a successful freshmen year at John Caroll which was assigned to us last Friday. We also discussed the multiple definitions we were supposed to blog about over the weekend. Agora is a gathering place in ancient Greece, The year 508 BC was when democracy was established in Athens when the people overcame their previous leader. We went over the Greek's ideas of excellence (otherwise known as arête) and went into great depth of the death of Socrates. Socrates was a Greek philosopher who was charged for questioning Greek's leaders and corrupting the youth. He was given the option to either drink a deadly poison called hemlock, or be punished to exile. He chose to die and turned down every opportunity that came is way to escape. Socrates would rather die than be known as a coward.

Greek Vocabulary

Agora- a gathering place in ancient Greece
Arete- excellence
Polis- a city in Greece
The year 508 BC- democracy was established in Athens
Socrates- He was a Greek philosopher. One of the founders of Western Philosophy
The death of Socrates- 399BC,
The Socratic method- similar to the scientific method, examination of good and justice